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ARTHUR on Bv206:
Fading away?
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Fire location radars are valuable in high-end wars against heavy artillery and rocket salvos, and in counter-insurgency conflicts where incoming mortars and simpler rockets are a frequent hazard. While artillery tracking systems have existed for decades, tracking very small, fast-moving projectiles is no easy task. False positives can be a problem during a high-end war in Germany’s Fulda Gap, but they become a bigger problem during counter-insurgency campaigns.

Canada has some radars of this type already, but their limitations were starting to chafe, and a new contract for counter-battery radars could be the result. A recent DSCA request adds impetus to that search – but will it come in time to make a difference?...

• Conundrums & Contenders
• Contracts & Key Events
  
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FRES-U finalists:
There can be… none?
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GD UK’s turret unveiled; $760M contract for ASCOD/FRES-SV development. (July 1/10)

Many of Britain’s army vehicles are old and worn, and the necessities of hard service on the battlefield are only accelerating that wear. The multi-billion pound “Future Rapid Effects System” (FRES) aims to recapitalize the core of Britain’s armored vehicle fleet over the next decade or more, filling many of the same medium armor roles as the Stryker Family of armored wheeled vehicles and/or the Future Combat Systems’ Manned Ground Vehicle family. Current estimates indicate a potential requirement for over 3,700 FRES vehicles, including utility and reconnaissance variants. Even so, one should be cautioned that actual numbers bought usually fall short of intended figures for early-stage defense programs.

The FRES program was spawned by the UK’s withdrawal from the German-Dutch-UK Boxer MRAV modular wheeled APC program, in order to develop a more deployable vehicle that fit Britain’s exact requirements. Those initial requirements were challenging, however, and experience in Iraq and Afghanistan led to decisions that changed a number of requirements. In the end, GD MOWAG’s Piranha V won the utility vehicle competition. FRES-U is not the end of the competition, however, or the contracts. In fact, FRES-U had the winning bidder’s preferred status revoked; that entire phase will now take a back seat to the FRS-SV scout version…

• FRES: The Program [updated]
• FRES: Contracts & Key Events [updated]
• Additional Readings
• Appendix 1 – The British Army’s Armored Vehicle Fleet, late 2006
• Appendix 2 – A New Procurement Approach: System House Challenges
• Appendix 3 – FRES: Key Challenges for the Contractors
• Appendix 4 – FRES Experiments: Electronic Architecture Contracts
• Appendix 5 – FRES Experiments: Vehicle-Related Contracts
  
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Yak-130
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More SU-30MKI-As for Algeria? (June 21/10)

A Feb 1/06 report noted that a $4 billion arms sale was brewing between Algeria and Russia involving fighter aircraft, tanks, and air defense systems, with the possibility of additional equipment. Those options came through in a high-level Russian delegation in Algeria has closed $7.5 billion worth of arms contracts. The Algerian package would be post-Soviet Russia’s largest ever single arms deal, and compares to annual Russian weapons exports to all customers of $5-6 billion per year in 2004 and 2005.

T-90 tank
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Reuters South Africa quoted Rosoboronexport chief Sergei Chemezov as saying that “Practically all types of arms which we have are included, anti-missile systems, aviation, sea and land technology.” The actual contents of that deal were murky, though DID offers triangulation among several sources to help sort out the confusion. The subsequent crash of Algeria’s MiG-29 deal, and its ripple effects, are also discussed.

• Detailing the Deal: The Algerian Package [updated]
• Structuring the Deal: Anatomy of a Euro Squeeze Play
• Contracts and Key Events [updated]
• Appendix A: Algeria’s Appetite for Advanced Arms
• Appendix B: Russia’s Arms Industry Woes
• Appendix C: Additional Readings
  
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June 9/10: Finmeccanica subsidiary SELEX Sistemi Integrati announces [PDF] a 5-year, EUR 238 million contract from the Italian Ministry of Defence’s Land Armaments General Directorate, for a digitized system known as Forza NEC (Network Enabled Capability). The contract covers the manufacture and integration of command posts in shelters and vehicles; communication, command and control devices for soldiers under the Soldato Futuro program; unmanned vehicles equipped with sensors; and systems offering full interoperability between the Italian armed forces and the forces of other countries. A test laboratory consisting of numerous military centers connected in a network will also be delivered.

SELEX Sistemi Integrati is the main supplier and system integrator, but they will work with a very broad alliance of Italian firms. Other Finmeccanica companies such as SELEX Communications, SELEX Galileo, Elsag Datamat, Oto Melara, AgustaWestland, and MBDA Italia are included. So are independent firms like Elettronica, Iveco, Engineering Ingegneria Informatica, the Iveco-Oto Melara consortium, and the Soldato Futuro consortium.

Battlefield command systems are becoming the backbone of any modern land force…

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Looking a little dated
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Up to $43 million to AAI for e-CASS RF components. (April 29/10)

The Navy recently awarded an $83 million contract for e-CASS development, production and testing. The AN/USM-636(V) Consolidated Automated Support System (CASS) is the US Navy’s standard automatic test equipment family. It provides intermediate, depot and factory level support, both ashore and afloat, for testing all Navy electronics, from aircraft to ships and submarines.

CASS has been around since 1990, and it’s time for an upgrade. The Navy is planning to replace the existing 5 CASS mainframe systems with the next-generation electronic CASS (e-CASS) system. US Naval aviation currently uses 713 CASS stations for testing of aircraft electronics. CASS is also used at the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) and in 9 foreign countries…

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Army IBCS Concept
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Interim design review for IBCS completed. (April 26/10)

The US Army awarded a Northrop Grumman-led team a $577 million, 5-year, cost-plus-incentive-fee/ cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to develop the Integrated Air and Missile Defense Battle Command System (IBCS).

Northrop Grumman beat out a team led by Raytheon. The two teams competed in the preliminary design phase of the program.

IBCS is intended to transform the Army’s disparate air and missile defense systems — each with independent sensing, command-and-control and launching capabilities — into an integrated defense capability. The system will enable the Army to manages all of its air and missile defense systems from 1 command-and-control center.

Northrop Grumman’s winning IBCS design is based on a non-proprietary, open architecture approach…

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• Russia: No more gas-for-military base deals.

• China looks to strengthen its nuclear retaliatory capability.

• US House Armed Services Committee approves the IMPROVE Acquisition Act [pdf], which would reform the defense acquisition process.

• House Armed Services Air and Land Forces ranking member Rep. Bartlett [R-MD] expresses concern about the USAF’s plans for its force structure, especially Air National Guard C-130 plans.

• USAF unveils first HC-130J Super Hercules special forces search and rescue/ tanker aircraft. USAF | Lockheed Martin.

• Atlas V rocket launches with X-37 spaceplane on board.

• L-3 posts 11% rise in net income on slightly higher sales.

• Israel Military Industries completes Turkey’s $688 million M-60T “Sabra” tank upgrade project. Procurement relations are stable, though political ties remain strained. See IMI [PDF] | AvWeek Ares.

• How’s your Farsi? Video of Iran’s military exercises in Persian Gulf.

• Case to supply thousands of M400W skid steers and M400T compact track loaders to US Army for use in Afghanistan under $160 million contract.

Out with the old…
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JLTV portion will have 3 more competitors. (May 26/10)

LAND 121 – also known as Project Overlander – is the largest land project in Australia’s Defence Capability Plan. Overall, this is currently an A$3 billion (USD $2.65 billion) investment in the Australian Army to replace its fleet of Army trucks, four-wheel drives, trailers and modules for Army’s high readiness units. Australia’s “Hardened and Networked Army” meta-program needed to pay attention to these vehicles as well, given an existing fleet that was bought between 1959-1994. As Defence Minister Hill said in 2005:

“Our current fleet is ageing and is becoming more costly to maintain and upgrade. The vehicles will range from lightweight four-wheel drives to heavy trucks and prime movers with interchangeable modules to increase operational flexibility.”

• Overlander: The Program
• Contracts & Key Events [updated]
• Additional Readings [updated]
  
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AN/TPQ-36 Firefinder
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Filtration units ordered. (June 21/10)

Firefinder radars track the path of incoming shells, rockets, mortars, etc., and calculate the point they were fired from. They currently come in 2 versions. The TPQ-36 radar is specifically designed to counter medium range enemy weapon systems out to a range of 24 kilometers, while the TPQ-37 can locate longer-range systems, and even surface launched missiles, out to 50 kilometers. Michael Yon, embedded with 1-24 (“Deuce Four”) in Mosul, offered a first hand description of counter-battery radars’ effect on enemy tactics in 2005.

Better radar technologies offer a number of potential advantages for this role, including wider fields of view, less maintenance required, and fewer false positives. In September 2006, Lockheed Martin announced a $120 million contract win to provide the U.S. Army with 5 Enhanced AN/TPQ-36 radars, otherwise known as the EQ-36 Counterfire Target Acquisition Radar, to be delivered within 36 months. Despite the official name, this is a new radar system. Orders are beginning to accumulate, and deliveries have begun…

• The EQ-36 [updated]
• Contracts & Key Events [updated]
  
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CREW Duke V2 System

SRCTec in Syracuse, NY received a $94.4 million firm-fixed-price contract for the procurement of 3,239 urgently required Duke V2 systems.

The SRCTec CREW Duke system is a vehicle-mounted electronic jammer designed to prevent the remote detonation of land mines.

The CREW Duke V2 is the US Army version of the CREW 2.0 system, comparable to the Joint CREW (JCREW) 2...

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