KLASS of Kuwait: Aerostats Extend their Reach

TCOM 32M

In December 2011, TCOM, LP in Columbia, MD received a $10.4 million firm-fixed-price contract for the Kuwait Low Altitude Surveillance System aerostat’s contractor engineering technical support (CETS). While the aerostat itself could be handled by commercial sale protocols, CETS operation and maintenance of the KLASS aerostat is considered to be a Foreign Military Sale item, in pursuit of a “mission essential asset for this sensitive region of the world.” Work will be performed in Kuwait (90%); Columbia, MD (5%); and Elizabeth City, NC (5%), and is expected to be complete by December 2013. Kuwait directed its agents at US Marine Corps Systems Command in Quantico, VA to sole-source this buy (M67854-12-C-2404).

These kinds of tethered lighter-than-air craft come in a range of sizes, and aerostats have become a global trend. Their ability to carry sensors aloft for weeks at a time greatly improves radar and/or optical surveillance systems’ field of view at near-zero per-hour deployment costs. This makes them especially effective at protecting military bases or key national infrastructure, but they’ve also been deployed to provide coverage over cities, border patrol, and coastal surveillance. Larger aerostats, like the TCOM 71s used in the USA’s JLENS system, can offer the kind of coverage that normally requires high-end AWACS aircraft.

Australia Orders Over $100M in LITENING Targeting Pods

HUG a Hornet today!

In 2008, the Northrop Grumman/ Rafael LITENING surveillance and targeting pod was chosen as the preferred surveillance and weapons targeting system for Australia’s upgraded F/A-18A/B Hornet fighter aircraft, in a contract worth more than $100 million. While the make was not disclosed in releases, DID was able to get confirmation that the order was for advanced model LITENING AT pods, that the effort is part of the Defence Procurement Office, Tactical Fighter Systems Program Office’s Hornet Upgrade (HUG) program, and that the project value quoted is the unclassified value and extends beyond the acquisition of the pods

Australia’s has been running the Tactical Fighter Systems Program Office’s Hornet Upgrade project for its 71 RAAF F/A-18 A/B Hornets, and assessed 3 systems.

• Australia’s Options
  
• Contracts & Key Events
  

Rapid Fire 2011-12-08: US, German Foreign Military Sales

• The US DSCA managed [PDF] $28.3 billion in Foreign Military Sales cases in FY 2011, and another $6.5 billion were made through Direct Commercial Sales, etc. Top 10 buyers were Afghanistan ($5.4 billion), Taiwan ($4.9 billion), India ($4.5 billion), Australia ($3.9 billion), Saudi Arabia ($3.5 billion), Iraq ($2.0 billion), the United Arab Emirates ($1.5 billion), Israel ($1.4 billion), Japan ($0.5 billion), and Sweden ($0.5 billion). Afghanistan is basically US donations, so it shouldn’t really count, but it’s an eye-opening figure.

• Another interesting turn of events in Afghanistan: the country has vast mineral resources (including copper and gold) that the US DOD and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) have helped map. The Afghan Mining minister has just opened a tender process to tap these deposits.