* The United Arab Emirates announced $1.4B worth of contracts with Oshkosh ($380M for 750 M-ATVs), General Atomics (near $200M for an unspecified quantity of unmanned Predator UAVs), and others. Talks about the purchase of defanged “Predator XPs” (XP for export, not Blue Screens of Death) had started two years ago. Decaffeinated coffee, low-fat bacon, unarmed UCAVs… Gulf News | Bloomberg | Reuters | Defense News.
* The elephant in the room is the UAE’s Rafale-Typhoon standoff: they are still talking to both vendors.
* Boeing teamed with 2 UAE firms to market and support ScanEagles and Integrators in the region.
* MBDA closed its first export deal for its self-financed SIMBAD-RC close range naval air defense system. Deliveries to equip patrol boats should start in 2015 but quantity, price, and country of destination are unknown. Press release | Shephard.
* Speaking of naval air defense, Chemring and Raytheon announced a partnership that will combine the former’s 12 x 130mm Centurion turret with a variety of missiles produced by the latter.
* Far away from the Middle East, Peru is reportedly looking at Gripen jets [in Swedish] and Eurofighters, though Madrid-based El Confidencial quoted [in Spanish] anonymous sources from the Spanish air force saying that Peru intended to “buy cheap and pay late.”
* India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told his British counterpart David Cameron that he had “very serious concerns regarding allegations about unethical means used in securing the 2010 contract for AgustaWestland helicopters” and asked for assistance from the UK in their investigation of the deal. Cameron was quick to point out that AgustaWestland’s parent company Finmeccanica is an Italian company.
* Ajai Shukla argues that the only way for India to clean up its procurement act is “a systematic and relentless indigenisation of defence equipment.” While he makes some good points about the string of import mishaps from the Indian MoD, it is quite a leap of faith to assert that local manufacturing will solve graft and delays.
