Army continues investment in Excalibur

September 6, 2008 by Dagpotter · Comment
Filed under: Australia, Contract Awards, Raytheon, U.S. Army, production program 

The Excalibur is a 155 mm artillery round fired by the standard Army gun systems, both towed and self-propelled. When the program started in the Eighties the plan was to use laser guidance for terminal homing. Excalibur now uses GPS guidance, like the Joint Directed Air Munition (JDAM) used so successfully over the last seven years in Iraq and Afghanistan. The round also has extended range over older, more conventional ammunition. Raytheon was awarded a production contract for the US and Australia. The value is about $85 M.

The press release is at the Phoenix Business Journal.

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Congress, the media and the KC-45 award

March 9, 2008 by Dagpotter · Comment
Filed under: Boeing, Contract Awards, EADS, Northrop Grumman Corp., U.S. Air Force, commercial aviation, logistics, production program 

I made the mistake of watching Lou Dobbs on CNN this Saturday who had a rant about the KC-45 award to Northrop Grumman and EADS. The only guest he had on was the head of the machinist union from Boeing who was obviously not unbiased. He had no guest from DoD or Northrop to talk about the award. It was clear that Mr. Dobbs does not understand how DoD buys things. Here is the video from Mr. Dobbs blog on this issue. Read more

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