The US Military’s International Airlift Contracts

Latest updates[?]: FY 2015 contracts - much smaller overall, and the core structure has changed.

Every year, US Air Mobility Command at Scott Air Force Base, IL issued a slew of indefinite-delivery/ indefinite-quantity, firm-fixed-price contracts for “International Airlift Services” to various commercial carriers. The way these awards work is that each contractor submits a bid, and the US military allocates award amounts according to each bid’s scope and competitiveness.

Stand-alone articles have covered FY 2006 ($2.29 billion), FY 2007 ($2.32 billion), and FY 2008 (over $3 billion) orders, which saw a steady ramp-up in both absolute dollar amounts, and participating firms. Orders remained high through 2010, which was a boon to a recession-ravaged air transport industry, but the ebbing of hostilities has seen FY 2011 – 2012 contract totals drop by over a third.

Direct Sting: Thales’ Small LMM / FASGW-L Missiles

LMMs on AW159

In early April 2011, Thales received an initial production contract for Lightweight Multi-role Missiles (LMM), to equip the UK’s next-generation AW159 Wildcat naval helicopters as their “Future Anti-Surface Guided Weapon – Light” (FASGW-L). The parties offer no details regarding contract costs, as they’re re-routing funding from an existing project, in order to finalize LMM development and produce the initial set of weapons. The casualty is believed to be Thales’ laser beam-riding, Mach 3.5 Starstreak portable anti-aircraft missile, which reportedly had some of its technology re-used in the less costly LMM.

The LMM will fill a size niche on helicopters and UAVs that sits somewhere below the popular 100 pound plus Lockheed Martin AGM-114 Hellfire missile. Its operational concept is similar to the Russian AT-16 Vikhr.

Australia and USA Collaborating on New Small-Ship Radars

Upgraded ANZAC concept
(click to enlarge)

In August 2005, Australia’s Ministry of Defence reported that Australia and the United States had joined forces by signing a joint agreement to develop active phased array radar technology in Australia. The hope was that it would kick-start a new Australian electronics and systems integration industry, based on S-band active array and X-band phased-array technology, sized for and applied to smaller ships like frigates and corvettes.

This technology is being developed by ACT electronics company CEA Technologies, and has become part of Australia’s ASMD project to make its ANZAC Class frigates survivable against supersonic cruise missiles. Other military and civil applications on land and sea are also possible, given the radar’s characteristics.

Israel’s Military Exports Down by 12% in 2013

• Israel’s defense exports dropped [Globes] by almost $1B to $6.5B in 2013. Still better than 2011, but lower than 2009-2010 too. For all the talk about Iron Dome, it’s not necessarily meeting requirements from other countries and has been sold [Arutz Sheva] to a single (unnamed) other country.

• Dutch F-16s [Bloomberg], Belgian F-16s [SMH], and Australian Super Hornets conducted their first strikes against ISIS in the past couple of days.

• ISIS issued [IBT] a how-to guide to shoot down attack helicopters. This had actually been a problem for the Americans before in Iraq, until the supply of Iranian MANPADS was choked off. This latest development is not surprising since ISIS includes some of the same people who were fighting back then.

• A suicide bombing [BBC] killed at least 47 people in Sanaa and Hadramawt as Yemen is falling apart.