Defense Procurement News

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The Army’s Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor System (JLENS) passed its Preliminary Design Review (PDR). See the press release here. This is a key step of the System Design and Development (SD&D) phase of the program. The next major step will be the Critical Design Review, and then lead into testing. The JLENS is a sensor suite and fire control system that uses an aerostat to carry the sensor.

The Saint Louis Post-Dispatch has a good article summarizing the protest process. See the story here. It stresses that the GAO will overturn only if they find that the acquiring agency did not apply their criteria correctly during the source selection process, and even if they uphold the protest, the most likely result will be a reopening of the competition. Of note, 29% of protests last year were upheld.

In my previous post I was quite incorrect as I thought Boeing would win the new JTRS AMF SD&D contract. It turns out that Lockheed Martin’s team did based on this newspaper story. The JTRS AMF had just passed a DAB and the work for the next phase was waiting to be awarded. I had made the assumption that Boeing would win it based on their earlier work on the system. The initial contract value is $766 M.

A great deal of contracts were announced today by DoD. See Defenselink.mil press release for more here. Highlights include a $50 M contract to General Atomics for the Air Force to buy 24 Predators and a $119 M contract to Raytheon for South Korean FMS of PATRIOT PAC-3.

Beginning in June 2009, travelers to the U.S. must present secure identification documents, such as passports.

Some call for more Chinooks to move troops and equipment in mountainous regions.

Defense contractor to run ads, pen op-eds explaining why it won lucrative contract for aerial refueling tankers.

MV-22 Osprey (click to view full) Every once in a while, a defense-related controversy becomes large enough to hit mainstream news outlets. Making the cover of TIME Magazine is often a good sign for...

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Contracts valued at $5 million or more are announced each business day at 5 p.m.

MOSCOW, March 31 (RIA Novosti) - The Irkutsk aircraft-manufacturing plant, a subsidiary of the Irkut corporation [RTS:IRKT], said on Monday it had del...

A flypast of the Red Arrows and four Typhoons will take place over the London Eye and the MOD's Main Building at 1300 hrs on Tuesday 1 April 2008 to m...

Boeing Delta IV The EELV program was designed to reduce the cost of government space launches through greater contractor competition, and modifiable rocket families whose system requirements...

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RAF to lease Airbus tankers from private AirTanker consortium; French Special Forces buy Elbit UAVs; U.K. picks CTA International gun for Warrior IFVs and FRES; Venezuela contracts Belarus for Air Defense system; Sweden to sell excess military equipment

Watching the PBS documentary about life on the USS Nimitz, it is easy to imagine that America's nuclear-powered super aircraft carriers are unsinkable. But no ship is unsinkable, and when it comes to aircraft carriers, a lot of the best naval warfare submarine, torpedo and ballistic missile designers in the world have worked long and hard for decades to come up with new ways to sink them.

Although warfare featuring tank armadas over vast territories is already a thing of the past, armor still remains the main striking force of modern armies.

UH-72As: MEDEVAC (click to view full) While the rest of EADS seems to be targeted for divestment and facing bottom line issues, Eurocopter continues to fly. Fresh off of major wins with...

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South African JAS-39D c. Gripen International (click to view full) As a neutral country with a long history of providing for its own defense against all comers, Sweden also has a long tradition of...

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When the US government orders a new development program for a weapon system there are a variety of steps that must be done to get to the point of awarding the contract. Congress through law and regulation strictly dictates how a system may be acquired. The process is supposed to be driven by requirements. The users specify the requirements and then the material developer gets a system that meets the requirements at a good price for the government.   Read the rest of this entry »

The Department of Defense ordered the six Indian C-130J aircraft from Lockheed Martin. See the article here. As in the case of most Foreign Military Sales (FMS) India just piggy-backed on the current production contract. This gives them the lowest price possible due to production quantities and stability. The total contract is worth over $1 B, but the aircraft part is about $600 M.

This article, is I hope, commentary and not a news story. Or perhaps it is one of those commentaries that masquerade as a news story. Yes, P&W lost the chance to build engines, but GE won. If Boeing had won the contract I doubt there would have been an article saying “GE loses contract.” As to how politicians could change this, that I still haven’t figured out, since the whole source selection process is supposed to be removed from such things.

FSTA Concept (click to view full) Back in March 2005, “British AirTanker Deal May Go Private” discussed the deal for a potential public-private partnership to buy, equip, and operate the...

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Head X-Ray (click to view full) Brain injuries have become a focus of study and controversy received during the current war. This is partly the result of improved detection and understanding of...

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C-17 over Hawaii (click to view full) The C-17 Globemaster III remains the backbone of US Air Mobility Command inter-theater transport efforts around the world, and its ability to operate from...

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HH-47 Concept (click to view full) Several DID articles have covered the $10-15 billion CSAR-X competition aimed at replacing the USAF’s HH-60G Pave Hawk combat search-and-rescue helicopters,...

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