Brazil Picks IAI’s K-767 MMTT as its Next Aerial Tanker

Colombian K-767 MMTT

Brazil took long enough to modernize its future fighter fleet, and they’re waiting even longer to modernize another important air force capability. Their KC-137 Boeing 707 derivatives were built in the 1960s, and Brazil took delivery in 1986. In 2008, Brazil’s air force general staff (EMAER) launched the KC-X2 program to replace them – but the planes retired before a replacement contract was in place…

South Korea Buying GPS-Guided WCMD Cluster Bombs

WCMD Launched

In June 2012, the US DSCA announced South Korea’s formal request to buy up to 367 CBU-105D/B Wind Corrected Munition Dispenser (WCMD) Sensor Fuzed Weapons and associated parts, equipment, logistical support and training, for an estimated cost of up to $325 million.

South Korea has been moving to modernize its air force, from F-15K Slam Eagle fighter buys, to talk of modernizing its F-16 fleet, to the imminent introduction of its own FA-50 lightweight fighter, in partnership with Lockheed Martin. Its latest move would buy a formidable vehicle and boat-killing weapon that could be used from any of these fighters. So, what is a WCMD?

US Federal Government Hard at Work to Put the Criminal in “Criminal Incompetence”

• The US Veterans Health Administration’s Inspector General published an interim review [PDF] on the Phoenix Health Care System’s patient wait times, scheduling practices, and their effects on patient outcomes: “To date, our work has substantiated serious conditions at the Phoenix HCS.”

• Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) characterized the Inspector General’s report as “damning and outrageous… reveals potentially criminal behavior”. Removing veterans from treatment waiting lists in order to make performance statistics look good, and causing veteran deaths and suicides, certainly ought to qualify.

• In reaction to the report calls for the resignation of VA Secretary Eric Shinseki are growing louder and increasingly bipartisan. Shinseki’s own reaction to the IG’s report: I’m committed to restoring integrity.

• PJ Media looks in detail at the record and activities of Rahim Sabadia, “a South African-born, California-based defense contractor who has bankrolled the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)” who continued to pursue defense contracts through a new company after his security clearance was suspended in 2011. Last decade Sabtech Industries, headed by Sabadia then, received millions of dollars of contracts for computer parts for AEGIS ships.

• Incidentally it looks like facerolling is a legit data entry method among US Navy contract officers. Here is the verbatim of the requirement for a $7.7 million task order to Sabtech Industries, as per the official FPDS database:

“200512!459406!1700!N00178!NAVAL SURFACE WARFARE CENTER !N0017805D2027 !A!N! !Y! ! !20050926!20100925!131239295!131239295!131239295!N!SABTECH INDUSTRIES INC !23231 LA PALMA AVE !YORBA LINDA !CA!92887!86832!059!06!Yorba Linda !Orange !California!+000007731670!N!N!000007731670!AC57!RDTE/Weapons-Operational System Development !S1 !SERVICES !000 ! !334418!E! !3!B!S! ! !D!20100925!B! ! !A! !A!N!U!2!001!B! !Z!Y!Z! ! !N!B!N!N! ! !A! !A!A!000!A!B!N! ! ! ! !1700!N00178!0001! !”