Rapid Fire September 11, 2012: Corrosion Mitigation

Sep 11, 2012 10:30 UTC by Defense Industry Daily staff
  • With the US Congress back from recess this week, Senator John McCain [R-AZ] released selected quotes from the CEOs of the major primes pointing to the uncertainty and disruption associated with sequestration. Meanwhile the OMB is past its deadline on the report Congress mandated them to produce on the effect of sequestration on readiness.
  • The Pentagon told Congress back in May that corrosion costs the Department almost $21B a year, according to an assessment of that report by the GAO that otherwise finds it lacking. (The DoD FY13 corrosion report itself does not seem to be publicly available). The Senate Armed Services Committee voiced similar concerns earlier this year in its report 112-173.
  • The Partnership for Public Service nonprofit and the Washington Post published a fawning profile of Elliott Branch, the US Navy’s Deputy Assistant Secretary for acquisition. Pointing to LCS as a program where the Navy excelled in finding savings is, uh, bold.
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  • The Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA) updated its agency datasheet [PDF]. They currently employ 10,254 civilians and 562 military staff to manage 337,000 active contracts with 19,825 contractors.

  • The US District Court of the Western District of Texas sentenced a retired Army NCO and his wife for the theft of $2.7M via false requisitions with the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) Disposition Services spanning 5 years. Francisco Javier De La Maza and his wife Gabriela were arrested late last year and at the time found in ownership of 5 homes.

  • Diehl is working on an adaptation of AIM-9L Sidewinder missiles for ground attack roles, via a laser seeker. The AIM-9 LaGS offers an interesting option for converting stocks that have become much less useful for air-air roles, because of the newer AIM-9Ms/Xs. The question is whether its cost profile can find a niche above guided 70mm & 127mm rockets.

  • Diehl is also promoting its PILUM glide bomb as an AGM-154 JSOW competitor. But they need to get beyond prototypes and product map, and offer the assurance of a lead customer and full aircraft platform(s) integration.

  • Another acquisition from General Dynamics: they bought Open Kernel Labs, a provider of virtualization software that will help GD secure mobile devices.

  • Iraq’s Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has been busy consolidating power as soon as US troops left last year: The Guardian | Globe and Mail | NYT.

  • India’s decision in its maritime helicopter competition has been delayed to the end of the year following complaints from NHI that its competitor Sikorsky had not complied with qualitative requirements from the Indian Navy. The Navy disputes these claims.

    • Categories: Contracts - Awards, General Dynamics, India, Mergers & Acquisitions, Middle East - Other, People, Scandals & Investigations, USA

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