Thanksgiving 2013

It’s that time of year again. For those of you celebrating American Thanksgiving, or who just want a feast, the US Defense Commissary Agency has some tips for cooking turkey, and some recipes. Yummly offers some options for your leftovers.

Our big recommendation: if you’re deep-frying your turkey, be safe. Hundreds of years ago, boiling oil was a weapon we would have covered. Treat it accordingly. Common tips include making 100% sure that adding the turkey to the oil will not cause an overflow or near-overflow. The turkey has displacement, and on top of that, oil will boil up a bit when the moisture of the turkey skin hits it. So test displacement first to figure out the fill line, then make sure the bird is fully thawed, and pat that bird dry inside and out. Fire Marshals also advise people to set up the fryer away from one’s house, on a flat, non-wooden surface, and have oil-rated fire extinguishers handy as you monitor the frying. Keep your home safe, and don’t forget to take precautions for yourself and your family, too.

DID offers thanks to all of our readers, and to all American and allied soldiers in uniform. We’ve added a few stories and updates for our international readers today, but won’t be publishing again until Monday.

US Army In Search of a Stronger, More Modern APC

Replacing M113 Armored Personnel Carriers

• The US Army released its finalized RFP to acquire Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicles (AMPV) to be used for a variety of support roles, from medical treatment and evacuation, to mission command and other functions. They expect EMD funding to peak in FY16 at $174M, followed by a low rate initial production phase in 3 options of between $244M and $505M each. Eventually close to 3,000 vehicles could be produced. After 5 decades of use, M113s have been found versatile but they lack power and protection, among the gaps to be filled with the APMV’s requirements.

Russia Buys Carrier-Capable MiG-29Ks

MiG-29K, parked

Even a small Russian buy of MiG fighters is significant news these days. At one time, if Russian fighters were being sold around the world, the default assumption was that they were Mikoyan Gurevich machines. Now, RAC MiG’s flagship product seems to be withering on the vine, and the firm has lost key competitions to produce Russia’s next-generation fighter and next-generation trainer. India has become MiG’s most important customer, and intends to operate their MiG-29 fleet until 2025 at least. The long term danger is that India may become the MiG-29 family’s sole significant user. Which would make them the maintenance base’s key support source, and the sole source for upgrade investments.

Fortunately for India, Russia is throwing its partner a lifeline of sorts. India had been the only buyer of the carrier-capable MiG-29K STOBAR (Short Take-Off, But Assisted Recovery), but Russia has reviewed its own needs. They decided that the MiG-29K had a long-term role in Russian naval aviation as well…

EADS Soon to Clarify Timing and Size of Looming Job Cuts

EADS: Bavarian Consolidation?

• A month ago EADS CEO Tom Enders started talking about coming redundancies. More recent reports in the German press have been mentioning up to 8,000 potential job cuts next year, as the group rebrands itself as Airbus and streamlines its defense business. Some jobs are expected to be moved to the Ottobrunn site near Munich, while Cassidian’s Unterschleißheim plant will reportedly be closed: Merkur | Süddeutsche Zeitung [both in German]. The group won’t release details before a works council scheduled on Dec. 9.

• Meanwhile Cassidian Optronics just opened a subsidiary in Brazil.

• General Atomics is likely to face job cuts in its UAV production workforce unless they land more, bigger foreign orders soon, or a budget materializes at the Marine Corps.
  

Karzai Wants to Get More Out of US-Afghan Security Deal

No Easy Exit from Afghanistan

• Afghanistan’s Loya Jirga council advised President Hamid Karzai to stop delaying the signature of a pending security agreement with the US. Karzai does not seem inclined to relent, despite threats from the Americans that they won’t leave troops after 2014 if the agreement is not inked by the end of 2013.

• Pakistani opponents of UAV strikes are actively impeding NATO’s supply flow in and out of Afghanistan through Pakistan.

Vacant Senior DoD Staffers, Industrial Decline: Does It Matter?

Unstaffed DoD

• Arnold Punaro, a retired USMC Maj. General and the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA)’s new chairman, made a list of vacant senior civilian positions at the Department of Defense, and it’s a pretty long one. Either these roles are needed, and you have to wonder why the Administration has in many cases not even nominated replacements. Or they’re not essential, and DoD should officially terminate these deputy and assistant secretary jobs.

US Diplomacy Trickles Down on Defense Options, Or Lack Thereof

Flip sides of the COIN

• Just hours after US Secretary of State John Kerry had announced a deal had been reached, Afghan President Hamid Karzai postponed the signing of a security agreement with the US until after next April’s elections. American officials were still recently hoping for a very rapid conclusion to these negotiations. Here’s the predecisional draft [PDF], and a letter [PDF] sent by President Obama to Karzai. Much is at stake.

• Former US general and Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry says COIN was a failure there. Military.com takes up the debate, and notes other points of view from McChrystal et. al. Petraeus himself takes up that side in his own Foreign Policy article.

• A report by the Chatham House think tank shares the blame for Britain’s military difficulties in Iraq and Afghanistan beyond just politicians, and recommends a more formal approach to policy:

“Although in theory the British model could be flexible and fast-acting, it brought incoherence, inconsistency and opacity. It was not resilient enough to deal with the extraordinary pressures of the Iraq and Afghanistan crises. It contributed to a continuing breakdown of trust between politicians and senior military officers, and disunity and division of purpose within the government.

The ad hoc British approach to political-military relations contrasts strongly with US practice, which is based on a mixture of a formal legal framework, a lively public and specialist debate, and the continuing exercise of civilian authority over the armed forces, including through the dismissal of senior officers.”

AMMROC to Maintain UAE’s Entire Air Fleet Under a PBL Contract

Performance-Based Logistics has become a way of life in Britain’s military, and has also been adopted for some programs in the USA, Canada, France, and other countries. Now, a $5.8 billion contract will add the UAE to that list, and support every aircraft and helicopter in the UAE’s armed forces: Air Force, Army, Navy, Special forces, and the Presidential Guard.

US DoD Phases In New Cyber Regulation for Contractors

Contractors Face New Regulatory Obligations

• Effective since last Monday, a Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) amendment applies to all new contracts that use or generate technical information and spells out new responsibilies for contractors tasked with “safeguarding unclassified controlled technical information.” Among other things, contractors now have to report cyber breaches to the government.

Pentagon Can’t Count, Commodifies Contracts

Pentagon: Creative Accounting; Commodity Buying; Program Crunch; Reform Pilgrimage

• DoD is infamous for being unable to pass an audit, a situation they’re supposed to remedy by 2017, though whether they will meet that deadline is doubtful. So how do they balance their books with the Treasury in the meantime? According to Reuters, with bogus entries in the books, known internally under a couple euphemisms such as “plugs”, that’s how.