Ukraine, Iraq in $2.5 Bn Weapons Deal

BTR-4, IFV config.

In late 2009, reports surfaced that a $2.5 billion defense agreement between the Ukraine and the Iraqi Ministry of Defense could involve 420 of Khariv Morozov’s BTR-4 8×8 wheeled armored personnel carriers, 6 of Antonov ASTC/ Aviant’s AN-32B light military transport planes, and repair work on 2 of Iraq’s Mi-8T military helicopters. These contracts are a significant boost to the Ukraine’s defense exports, and make that country one of Iraq’s top defense suppliers.

Contracts were signed, and manufacturing is underway, but the process has had its hangups and issues. Including inspection issues that delayed Iraqi acceptance of the deal’s key platforms. Now, deliveries are underway.

Rapid Fire Oct, 10, 2012: Sequestration Will Spread Malaria

• Democrats from the House Appropriations Committee published their estimates of the consequences of sequestration not just on defense, but as DID recently half-jokingly predicted, with an increasingly broad scope and dire consequences. If the loss of 1 million 2 million jobs did not adequately frighten you, consider that the sequester also means “3 million fewer malaria treatments” and “more than 14,000 deaths from completely preventable illnesses.”

BAE, EADS Terminate Merger Talks

Rejected by governments

October. 10, 2012: EADS announces [PDF] that they and BAE have decided to terminate their merger discussions.

They confirm what had been widely discussed in the past month, with mounting pressure in recent days:

“it has become clear that the interests of the parties’ government stakeholders cannot be adequately reconciled with each other or with the objectives that BAE Systems and EADS established for the merger.”