HERCULES Order Provides a Lift for BAE’s York Plant

M88 & M1: Need a tow?

BAE’s armored vehicle plant in York, PA could really use a lifeline right now. In August 2013, it got a small piece of planned good news. The Pentagon announced a maximum $149.9 million firm-fixed price order for 49 HERCULES Armored Recovery Vehicles and 3 sets of spares, under a no option, multi-year contract managed by US Army TACOM (W56HZV-13-C-0358). The M88A2 has been the standard order for some time now, and represents an important advance for the Army…

Rapid Fire August 22, 2013: New Accusations of Chemical Attacks in Syria

• Syrian rebels accuse the government of having killed hundreds of civilians using chemical weapons near Damascus. Claims of chemical weapon use last year were muddled by attribution uncertainty. Russia continues to staunchly support Bashar al-Assad’s regime, which will get in the way of any effort to ramp up international involvement via the United Nations.

Rapid Fire August 21, 2013: No Friends in Syria

• US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dempsey explained in a letter to a congressman that opposition to the Assad regime in Syria is too fragmented and would not align with American interests, were they to prevail. In his opinion this weakens the case for military support from the US.

Rapid Fire August 20, 2013: Chimerica Cyber-Lying to Itself

• China’s military officials are not even pretending to be credible when they state that they “oppose of taking use of information and technology to conduct any kind of operation and hostility towards another party in the cyber domain”, but given recent revelations about the extent of the NSA’s activities, the Chinese have a point when they denounce double standards (implicitly, from the US) in such matters. The two countries are quite obviously both victim and perpetrator. What is this ongoing hypocrisy supposed to accomplish?

Rapid Fire August 19, 2013: What to Do with Egypt?

• The US Congress is split over what to do with military aid to Egypt, while the Obama administration is reviewing its options. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is floating the idea of a EU-wide arms embargo. By design in the European Union, nothing will happen without a fair amount of meetings.

Rapid Fire August 16, 2013: MRAPs Won’t Rock ROK

• After a 1-year test, the US’s 2nd Infantry Division (2ID) stationed in South Korea does not intend to use MRAPs that were previously used in Iraq or Afghanistan. This reduces the options for a shift of these vehicles from CENTCOM to PACOM, which is likely to affect retrograde scenarios and costs. Instead 2ID is getting Assault Breacher Vehicles (ABVs).

DARPA’s THz Electronics Program

THz flow

In 2009, the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) began awarding contracts for innovative research proposals under its Terahertz (THz) Electronics Program. Readers will probably be asking the same question that crossed our mind: “when can I expect this in my laptop?”

Chip frequency has stalled out as a measure of computing power, but DARPA has a long history of helping to fund computing breakthroughs – from that minor nuisance we call the Internet to modern work on Gallium Nitride (GaN) semiconductors, non-thermionic transistors, research into graphene circuits, and more. Now, their Terahertz (THz) Electronics program is looking for technologies to enable revolutionary advances in electronic devices and integrated circuits, allowing them to reach THz frequencies of at least a trillion cycles per second…

Rapid Fire August 15, 2013: Russia Finds NATO Afghan Exit Too Hastily Decided

• The status of the 18 crewmen trapped in INS Sindhurakshak is still not confirmed for sure, but Indian authorities have little hope that there are any survivors following the submarine’s explosion yesterday. An unnamed Russian official told the Interfax news agency that the possibility of a terror plot could not be excluded, as the explosion of the Russian-manufactured sub happened just before India’s independence day. Speculation no doubt…

Rapid Fire August 14, 2013: India’s Materiel Challenges Continue Unabated

• India’s problems with its Russian-made Kilo-class submarines continue: an explosion aboard INS Sindhurakshak sank the boat while docked in Mumbai. The status of the crew of 18 trapped onboard, and the cause of the explosion, remain unclear, though at least some of the crew are expected to have died. Firemen managed to contain the fire before it could damage as 2nd sub berthed right next to the one which exploded.

Rapid Fire August 13, 2013: Rockwell Colling to Purchase ARINC for $1.4B to Increase Commercial Exposure

• Rockwell Collins wants to buy ARINC [PDF] to increase their commercial revenue split to 54% of total sales, up from the current 50/50 split [PDF] with government sales.