Australia Moving Out On New Submarines

20071207ran8095516_299159.JPGThe Australian government has planned an ambitious expansion of their armed forces. Several major defense contracts will be let in the next few years with a goal of local companies doing the work. The largest amongst these is to build new submarines for the Navy. The first step in this contract was taken last week with the award of a contract to The Rand Corporation of the United States to begin doing a study of Australia’s capability to build these submarines in the necessary quantity. There was no value given for the contract but the goal is to have the study done early next year.

Australia had built there last class of submarines, the Collins Class, at the ASC company’s yards. This company provides maintenance for the vessels as well. They are also the lead for a new class of destroyers being built by Australia. Earlier this year the government had expressed concern about ASC’s performance maintaining the existing submarine fleet and this contract is related to those beliefs.

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MRAP-ATV Contract Spills Over To SCHOTT North America

Oshkosh Defense was awarded the contract to build the new Mine Resistant Ambush Protected – All Terrain Vehicle (MRAP-ATV) earlier this year for use in the rougher terrain of Afghanistan. Under this contract several thousand vehicles will be built for use by the Army, Marine Corps and other services. As with any contract of this size there will be large orders placed with the necessary sub-contractors.

For example Plasan in Vermont will provide armor plate for the vehicles as they have for other MRAP and up-armored trucks and HUMVEES. Now SCHOTT North America located in Indiana announced that they have received a contract from Oshkosh to provide armored glass for the MRAP-ATV.

The contract will be require over a hundred more workers to be hired and the company to invest about $7 million in their plants. This contract illustrates how large defense contracts while seemingly being awarded to only one company spread across the U.S. and foriegn suppliers as parts and components are produced.

Michingan Economy Losing Defense Dollars As Well

Michigan is seeing its car based economy erode quickly with the bankruptcies of Chrysler and General Motors and now word is that the defense dollars flowing to the state are down as well. Crain’s Detroit Business is reporting that defense contracts fell by almost a third compared to the same period last year. One of the problems faced seems to be that the U.S. Defense Department is putting work out to bid but then not awarding the contracts. This may be due to a reassessment of needs by the new Administration, or just changing the timing of the work.

Michigan has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country with no real changes on the horizon that will turn that around. Defense dollars were offsetting some of the losses in civil industry and the state has aggressively gone after them. It is expected that in the next few years to be some major cuts to defense spending and this may exacerbate the problems the state is experiencing.

Britain May Delay New Carriers

There are rumblings that the two new aircraft carriers for the Royal Navy may be delayed. The contract to build them was signed last summer after some time of wrangling. Now The Daily Record is reporting that there may be delays to the initiation of the contract. This has raised fears that the two shipyards in Scotland doing the majority of the work will have to lay off staff. Read more

DoD awards RFID contract

The Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) for the DoD awarded an omnibus RFID contract to a team led by CDO. If all options are exercised the contract is worth over $75 M. The team of companies will provide Radio Frequency Identification Devices (RFID) for any US service or agency that would like to buy them through DLA. RFID is used mainly to track stores and equipment as they are moved from depot to the needed unit.

For more see the Dayton Daily News. An example as to how all defense contracts are local it is referred to as a “huge contract” by the paper.

JLTV very important to Oshkosh

Oshkosh Industries has struggled over the last 18 months with the downturn in the economy. The stock is down almost 75% since last September. The slowdown in the world economy, especially the construction industry, has hit the company hard. It has received several US defense contracts for heavy vehicles and MRAPs. It also is teamed with Northrop Grumman on the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) proposal for a new tactical vehicle for the US military. If its team wins that will be a lot of work replacing the ubiquitous HUMVEE used by all four of the US services. That would offset the struggles it has been having with its conventional business lines.

See The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinal article for more.

Six bids for India’s new advanced fighter

With the decision here to relax the off set provisions required for work on Indian defense contracts India received six new proposals for their new advanced fighter aircraft, the MMRCA. See a story here. Boeing, Lockheed Martin, EADS, MiG, SAAB and D’Assault submitted proposals. Aircraft from these companies are currently under evaluation with a decision to be made in the next several months.

Michigan economic development wars

As we have previously mentioned here and here Michigan has set up various entities to promote the state’s companies for defense contracts. According to this article though the head of the state organization is upset with one of the regional ones for not doing enough. The state hired a retired USMC general to run their organization and now he is raising a dispute over the efforts of one setup for the Western part of the state to the point where he wants to establish his own organization to do the work of the existing one. I guess when you are going out for Federal dollars no effort is wasted.

Global Warming favors Boeing

According to this article a Washington Democratic Congressman wants to introduce legislation that requires the DoD to evaluate the “green house gas” emissions when awarding defense contracts. If this had been done as part of the KC-45 award, then Boeing would have won as nominally the KC-767 emits less harmful gases then the larger A330. Read more

Support for Northrop Grumman and EADS

All defense contracts in many ways are somebody’ pork. These people like their pork. Here is an article supporting Northrop Grumman and EADS from West Virginia, where some jobs will come.

EADS goes South Asian for productivity software

March 12, 2008 by Matthew Potter · Comment
Filed under: Contract Awards, EADS, IT, Telelogic, production program 

EADS signed a $22 M contract with Telelogic to provide enterprise life cycle management software. The contract is for 5 years and covers maintenance as well as licensing. See the story here. While there is no direct discussion of using this to support their various defense contracts as well as their civil programs, it most likely will be deployed company wide and will support their growing number of defense programs.

Saab Delivers Camouflage Net Systems to the U.S. Department of Defense

STOCKHOLM, Sweden--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Regulatory News: Saab (STO:SAABB) has been awarded two production and delivery contracts with an order value of MUSD 18.4 (appr. MSEK 130) for Ultra Lightweight Camouflage Net Systems by the U.S. Department of Defense. In August Saab won two Department of Defense contracts to produce and deliver Ultra Lightweight Camouflage Net Systems (ULCANS) for use by the U.S. Army. Delivery of the systems will begin in December 2009 and continue through the summer of 2010

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Two Wales, U.K., Firms Secure U.S. Defense Contracts

CARDIFF, Wales, United Kingdom--(BUSINESS WIRE)--International Business Wales announced today that Wales, U.K., manufacturers have secured U.S. defense contracts on the heels of the country’s largest-ever international trade mission to America in June 2009. Another trade mission is coming to the Association of the United States Army annual meeting in October in Washington, D.C., three companies that were on the June mission. Contract announcements include: Aircraft maintenance manufacturer

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