Saudi Shopping Spree: A Hardened, Networked National Guard

Latest updates[?]: SANG becomes 1st AH-6i armed scout helicopter customer, with an initial buy of 24.

LAV-25 in combat

The Saudi Arabian National Guard is receiving a lot of investment. In July 2006, the Saudis formally tabled a multi-billion dollar request to buy LAV wheeled APCs and related equipment for its National Guard. October 2010 added a slew of added requests, covering a wide range of transport, scout, and attack helicopters. Other contracts in between and since have involved missiles, communications, and training. It all adds up to a fairly comprehensive modernization.

Who is the SANG, and why are they a globally significant institution? A must-read article in the Tribune-Libanaise explains:

Germany Sells Israel Dolphin-II Subs

SSK Dolphin Class

In November 2005, reports surfaced that that Germany would sell Israel 2 AIP-equipped Dolphin submarines, to join its existing fleet of 3 conventional diesel-electric Dolphin Class boats. In 2006, the deal for 2 Dolphin AIP boats was finalized at a total of $1.27 billion, with the German government picking up 1/3 of the cost. The new boats are built at the Howaldtswerke-Deutche Werft AG (HDW) shipyard, in the Baltic Sea coastal city of Kiel, with deliveries originally scheduled to begin in 2010. Those have been delayed, and have not begun as of yet.

Reports that an additional sale may be in the offing have now been confirmed, but just absorbing these 3 new boats will be no small challenge for Israel’s “3rd service”…

DoD Pricing Director Will Soon Issue Guidance on “Reasonable” Pricing

• The Pentagon demands ‘fair prices’ [National Defense] from commercial vendors. Define “fair.” Director of Defense Pricing Shay D. Assad wants to pay market prices regardless of the cost of dealing with DoD’s burdensome contracting:

“If you have a market based price that can be substantiated through sales in the commercial marketplace, we pay what the market pays.”

• Meanwhile Pratt & Whitney halted F-35 engine deliveries, blaming its titanium supplier A&P Alloys for “conflicting documentation” on the origin of the material used in said engines. A&P finds the accusation “blatantly unfair.” If the Pentagon wants to be dealt with like a commercial client, maybe the should ask Congress to revisit legislation like the Specialty Metal clause [CRS PDF]?

• The Navy League of the United States issued a report [PDF] on America’s maritime industry that reads like a paean. What the document doesn’t address are issues of cost, shipyard productivity, or competitiveness – all of which imperil America’s future military strength as a sea power. “Thousands of towboats and barges” may well be “operating on the Mississippi and Ohio River systems”, but the truth is that US shipbuilding has been obliterated by Asian competitors for at least the past two decades. Such issues deserve better than high school essays.