JLTV decision may be imminent

October 28, 2008 by Dagpotter · Comment
Filed under: Contract Awards, Department of Defense, U.S. Army, development program, logistics, production program 

The JLTV will be the next generation utility vehicle for the US armed forces. It will supplant the ubiquitous HUMVEE and will incorporate the lessons of the last seven years fighting. The Army had planned to announce that three teams won development contracts which over the next two plus years would lead to a prototype last week. Now the decision has been delayed for at least a few more days. The ultimate contract would be worth tens of billions of dollars as their would be thousands of the vehicles produced. Most of the major US defense contractors are part of one team or another with a variety of smaller companies as this is one of the largest procurement programs in sight.

See this story at WJACTV.com and another at Rueters for more on the program. Defensenews.com is reporting, here, that delays are due to concern about protests.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Navistar gets logistic vehicle contracts

September 20, 2008 by Dagpotter · Comment
Filed under: Contract Awards, Navistar, U.S. Army, logistics, production program 

Navistar was awarded two contracts by the Army to provide tactical support vehicles. These include one contract for tankers to carry fuel, oil and water. The vehicles are for use in Iraq and Afghanistan. Navistar has won several contracts to provide these kind of vehicles. One would have to assume that over the past seven years the Army has used a lot of these vehicles beyond what the originally intended. They will require either replacement or recapitalization, where they are rebuilt and retrofitted to be like a new one.

See the press release at MarketWatch.com.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

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.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Poorly written contract grounds UK CH-47

June 3, 2008 by Dagpotter · Comment
Filed under: Boeing, Contract Awards, England, Military Aviation, production program 

In 2001 the British military purchased 8 CH-47 Chinooks to support special operations. Unfortunately the contract did not buy access to the aircraft source code for the software. This meant that the UK military could not certify the aircraft for any but day operations. See a story here. This has meant that the aircraft have sat for seven years not being used. At one point the UK government planned to convert them to regular cargo CH-47 aircraft but used the money for other things in the end. Obviously a clause to allow access to the technical data would have driven up the price a bit, but it would have allowed the military to certify the aircraft for night and bad weather operations. As it is there has been little gained by buying these aircraft, at really no fault of Boeing.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,