Rapid Fire 2010-11-01: Rare Earth US Funding

• Breaking China’s monopoly: US DoD considers funding private US providers of rare earth metals used in high-tech weapons to break China’s near monopoly.

• London calling: UK, France expected to sign defense cooperation accord in London this week.

• US intelligence agencies’ spending reaches a record $80.1 billion in FY 2010.

Rapid Fire: 2010-10-29

• Raytheon, L-3 post higher than expected profits, despite cutback in defense programs.

• UK foreign security delivers to Parliament the first quarterly report on Afghanistan, noting that the Afghan National Security Forces are expected to number 260,000 by the end of 2010.

• Australian Department of Defense plans to invest A$1.6 billion in 48 force protection measures for troops in Afghanistan over the next three years; also, department releases redacted secret defense brief.

• Oops!: In a campaign flyer, a North Carolina state legislator uses a photo of reenactors in WWII-era German uniforms to tout his pro-US military stance.

• What happened to those nukes?: US military is looking into an incident in which the USAF lost communication for 45 minutes with 50 ICBMs siloed in the northern US.

• As a result of bankruptcy reorganization, Russia’s Energia Overseas Limited will take majority ownership of Sea Launch, which provides satellite launch services from its sea-based platform at the equator.

KC-135R Tanker’s Global Air Traffic Program Finished

KC-135R Stratotanker
(click to view larger)

The goal of the KC-135 Global Air Traffic Management program is to update the US aerial tanker fleet’s avionics. The last KC-135 was delivered in 1966, and civil aviation has seen considerable changes to navigation and safety avionics since then. In order to help the USA’s critical aerial tanker fleet run more smoothly, and give them the option of flying in civil airspace, updates were required.

That has spawned a number of sub-programs, from Pacer CRAG to the current Block 45 avionics effort.

• KC-135 GATM
  
• Contracts & Key Events, FY 2005 – Present
  
• Additional Readings
  

Rapid Fire: 2010-10-28

• ASPI analyst Mark Thomson discusses the underlying economic realities that may cripple western military power, and what that means for Australia.

• French Groupement des Industries de Construction et d’Activités Navales (GICAN) Chairman Jean-Marie Poimboeuf offers some thoughts of his own in the naval sphere.

• The Managing Director of BAE Australia offers some thoughts on that country’s defense industry, and the government’s Strategic Reform Program

• Australia may end up cutting its Armidale Class replacement corvette/OPV project.

• AeroVironment’s Global Observer High Altitude, Extreme Endurance UAV completes initial flight testing at Edwards AFB, CA.

• Russia presses for limits to troop and equipment levels in NATO’s new members.

• Iranian Cyber Army offers botnets for rent to cyber criminals, after hacking Twitter and Chinese search engine Baidu.

• RAF unit puts out fires in Afghanistan, literally.

• General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman post higher third-quarter profits and boost earnings guidance for year.

• Boeing agrees to pay $4 million to settle US Department of Justice lawsuit alleging company overcharged the USAF for B-1 bomber towed decoy system kits.

Syria Buying $1 billion in Russian Weapons

MiG-29SMT

In June 2007, Russian newspapers claimed that Russia had begun delivering 5 MiG-31E Foxhound aircraft to Syria, under a deal that was reportedly negotiated in autumn 2006. The Russian newspaper Kommersant added that:

“…a lot of MiG-29M/M2 jets was sold to Syria as well. They are being sold abroad for the first time and are similar in their technical specifications to the MiG-35 model Russia is now offering India. The total value of the contract for the MiG-31 and MiG-29M/M2 aircraft is estimated at $1 billion.”

The paper added that the deal was being financed by Iran as a back-door purchase. Russia sort-of denied the sale, but careful reading raised doubts. Continued reports over the last several years have kept this issue smoldering, even as a recent drought has left Syria struggling to feed many of its people. Now, in the wake of a state visit, come confirmations concerning some aspects of the Russia-Syria arms deal.

Rapid Fire 2010-10-27: Coast Guard Continuous Improvement

• USA reportedly prepping a $2 billion military aid package for Pakistan, even as Foreign Policy magazine openly wonders if there’s any way to fix the country, and India has concerns of its own. China’s Xinhua has its own slant.

• iCD Research: The Israeli defense sector is expected to grow at a 3% compound annual growth rate, reaching $15.8 billion by 2015; defense spending is expected to focus on procurement of missile defense systems, fighter aircraft, submarines and armored vehicles.

• US Coast Guard releases their v5.0 Blueprint for Continuous Improvement in acquisition and contracting.

• Iris Independent Research offers their KC-X competition white paper, “9 Secrets of the Tanker War.” One entirely unsurprising conclusion: KC-X is it; there will be no KC-Y and KC-Z as planned.

• Playing hardball: Sen. Jim Webb [D-VA] is holding up DoD civilian and flag officer nominations until he receives data related to the decision to close JFCOM in Norfolk, VA.

• Australian DSTO and Thales Australia working on a fiber optic towed array (FOTA) project to improve detection of submarines.

• Deja-vu all over again: Under a proposal being developed by NATO, the Russian military might be returning to Afghanistan for the first time since the Soviet army left the country in 1989.

• Never say die: Phase II of a $100 million Armed Forces Reserve Center at WWI-era Ellington Field in Houston is expected to be completed in January.

• HawkerBeechcraft laying off another 350 workers.

• US Army expects to save $100 million and improve email function integration by migrating 1.4 million unclassified email accounts to the DISA-managed Microsoft Exchange 2010 service.

• L-3 gets $92.4 million contract to provide the US Army with a battlefield anti-intrusion system (BAIS) [PDF], which is a sensor-based early warning system for small tactical units.

• Lockheed Martin snags $66 million in task orders to provide software for the Army’s Battle Command System.

Rapid Fire 2010-10-26: Is Defense Really Counter Cyclical?

• Octoberfast: Germany joins in European defense budget belt tightening.

• You say yes, I say no: Russia warms to idea of NATO missile defense shield, while South Korea says “no” to joint missile defense with US.

• Countering Counter-cyclical: Forbes article questions view that defense demand is counter-cyclical to the commercial business cycle.

E-10A: She’s Dead, Jim

E-10 M2CA Concept

Final settling up results in a government credit; Program details and history expanded. (Oct 22/10)

The future E-10A MC2 (Multi-sensor Command & Control) program was conceived as a fusion of Northrop Grumman’s advanced Multi-Platform Radar Technology Insertion Program (MP-RTIP) Wide-Area Surveillance (WAS) radar and Battle Management Command and Control (BMC2) mission suite into a modified passenger jet (likely a 767), creating a successor to both the E-3 AWACS air surveillance and E-8 JSTARS ground surveillance and SIGINT (signals intelligence) /communications relay planes. This multi-duty approach provides flexibility, but also invites potential shortages and overuse unless the system can be procured in sufficient numbers or supplemented with less expensive options (see “Brittle Swords: Low-Density, High-Demand Assets” [PDF] for a deeper discussion).

The entire program could easily have been worth $10 billion. On February 23/07, however, the firm received notice from the U.S. Air Force that the E-10A MC2 Weapon System Integration (WSI) program was being formally ended. So, what now for the E-10′s technology? And why is this still relevant in 2010?

• E-10′s Legacy
  
• Contracts and Key Events [NEW]
  

$12.4M for Electrical Grids at Afghan FOBs Salerno, Sharana

IAP World Services in Panama City, FL received a $12.4 million firm-fixed-price contract exercising the 2nd option year (3rd year of service) to operate and maintain the electrical power grids at Forward Operating Bases Salerno, north of Khowst and Sharana in Paktika Province, Afghanistan. The contracts will run until Oct 15/12. Bids were solicited via the Federal Business Opportunities website, with 5 bids received by the Defense Contract Management Agency at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan (W91B4N-07-C-0075).

Previous awards under this contract have not been publicly announced.

Rapid Fire 2010-10-25: Long Term Defense IT Spending Forecast

• French embrace: French President Sarkozy is warming to the idea of closer military procurement cooperation with the UK.

• Too shallow: HMS Astute nuclear attack submarine heads back to base after running aground off the Isle of Skye in northwest Scotland.

• Traffic jam: China has ability to reroute US military data traffic, according to a draft of the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission annual report.

• Research and Markets: Top 10 aerospace and defense firms are expected to see a 4.7% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) through 2014, down from 4.9% CAGR from 2005 to 2009.

• DoD spending on IT is forecast to drop 1.1% in current dollars over 10 years, according to a TechAmerica Foundation survey.

• Down to earth: EADS’s Astrium subsidiary agrees to take a 75.1% stake in ND SatCom, a German supplier of military and commercial satellite communication terminals, from SES ASTRA.