photo BAE

Sep 29th 2012 economist.com

MONEY, as Cicero observed more than two millennia ago, is the sinews of war. That is still true today. But lately, from the American point of view, things have got ridiculous. Guided missiles, in particular, are ludicrously expensive. A Tomahawk cruise missile costs about $1.5m, and even the Hellfire, an air-to-ground rocket that weighs a mere 50kg, is $115,000 a pop. In exchange for, say, an enemy tank, that is probably a fair price to pay. To knock out a pick-up truck crewed by a few lightly armed guerrillas, however, it seems a little expensive, and using its shoulder-fired cousin the Javelin ($147,000) to kill individual soldiers in foxholes, as is often the case in Afghanistan, is positively profligate. Clearly, something has to change. And changing it is.

An early sign of this change came in March, with the deployment in Afghanistan of the APKWS II (Advanced Precision Kill Weapons System) made by BAE Systems. The APKWS II is a smart version of the old-fashioned 70mm (2.75-inch) rocket, which has been used by America’s armed forces since 1948. It is also cheap, as guided missiles go, costing $28,000 a shot.

The APKWS II is loaded and fired in the same way (pictured above) as its unguided predecessors, from the same 19-round pods, making its use straightforward. The difference is that it can strike with an accuracy of one metre because it has been fitted with a laser-seeking head which follows a beam pointed at the target by the missile’s operators. This controls a set of fins that can steer the missile to its destination.

Standard practice with unguided 70mm missiles is to use as many as two pods’ worth (ie, 38 rockets, at $1,000 a round) to blanket a target. That means the APKWS II comes in at three-quarters of the cost per kill. It also means that many more targets can be attacked on a single mission.

Guide price

BAE is merely the first to market with this sort of device. ATK, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon are all close behind. Meanwhile, the American navy has been working on its own cheap guided missile, the Low-Cost Imaging Terminal Seeker (LCITS), which it tested successfully last year.

The LCITS is another upgraded 70mm weapon, but instead of laser guidance it picks out its targets by their heat signature. Because the operators do not need to keep pointing a laser at the target, they can fire several missiles in quick succession—a useful feature if a ship is being attacked by a swarm of boats.

Smaller precision weapons are useful, too, in circumstances where weight is a crucial factor. Shadow, a drone used by the American, Australian and Swedish armies, is too light to be able to carry Hellfires and is thus, at the moment, restricted to reconnaissance duties. But not for much longer. Shadows are now being armed with a small, still-classified guided missile. This follows the earlier success of arming Hunter drones with Viper Strike, a laser-guided glide bomb weighing 20kg originally developed by Northrop Grumman as an anti-tank weapon and now owned by MBDA. Viper Strike, along with Raytheon’s Griffin, a similar weapon, also arms the marines’ Harvest Hawk, an aerial gunship based on the Hercules transport aircraft. Viper Strike means these aircraft are capable of hitting a large number of targets with great precision from a distance of several kilometres.

The most determined effort to develop a small, cheap guided weapon, though, is the Forward Firing Miniature Munition (F2M2, or Spike missile), from the Naval Air Weapons Station in China Lake, California. Steve Felix, the F2M2’s project manager, wanted to make such a weapon for just $5,000, using off-the-shelf components. The result, which weighs less than 3kg and is the size of a baguette, is claimed to be the world’s smallest.

Spike has been tested successfully as a shoulder-launched missile, and also fired from drones. It has an ingenious optical-guidance system—a camera that can either lock on to an operator-designated object or can pick up a laser spot and home in on it. It has a range of 1,500 metres and, though the warhead is too small to damage a tank, it can destroy cars and other light targets far more cheaply than the alternatives.

Precision weapons have already changed warfare radically, even though they have sometimes raised the price of battle. Low-cost guided missiles, often carried on small drones rather than expensive piloted aircraft, will change it further still. When such missiles cost a thousand dollars rather than a million, no target will be too cheap to engage.

Correction: This article has been updated. We misquoted the price of APKWS II as $18,000 in the previous version. Also, the system is manufactured purely by BAE, not by them in partnership with Northrop Grumman. Apologies.

October 3, 2012: Strategy Page

The U.S. has angered the French Air Force by reneging on a 2010 contract to upgrade the four French E-3F AWACS (Air Warning And Control System) aircraft. The agreed on price is $466 million and now the U.S. wants to tack on another $5 million so the promised technology can be degraded. This is all because some American bureaucrat decided that some of the upgrade technology was too sensitive for the French and had to be taken out of the upgrade. The French are being asked to pay for this change. The French are not happy. The U.S. insists such changes are allowed for these deals but are having a hard time convincing the French.

The upgrade will replace ancient (mainframe based) computers with PC type networked hardware. This will enable regular upgrades with new processors and data storage equipment. New software will introduce a Windows type interface, and joysticks. This is similar to an upgrade performed on American AWACS. French AWACS will remain able to closely cooperate with E-3 type AWACS used by other nations. The new American restrictions mainly involve new software.

E-3 AWACS development began in the late 1960s, and the first prototypes were flying in the late 1970s and it went into regular use in 1982. Flying far enough inside friendly territory to avoid enemy anti-aircraft missiles, the AWACS radar has a range of between 200 km (for small aircraft or cruise missiles flying close to the ground) to 600 km (for large aircraft flying at high altitude). The AWACS tracks several hundred friendly and enemy aircraft at once. The AWACS acts as an airborne command center for aircraft. Friendly planes are kept out of each other's' way (there has not been a friendly air-to-air collusion during since the 1991 Gulf war and the first major use of the E-3.) Enemy aircraft are spotted, identified and friendly interceptors assigned to take care of the threat. One or more AWACS is used to control an air operation and each can stay up eleven hours at a time, or up to 22 hours with refueling and extra crew on board to man the equipment. The AWACS functions as a combination radar platform and command center.

During its first wartime workout, during the 1991 Gulf war, the AWACS proved its worth, often in more ways than anticipated. The use of over a hundred tankers to refuel combat aircraft would not have been possible without the AWACS being there to efficiently link tankers and aircraft needing fuel. Forming up the Wild Weasels (electronic warfare aircraft), and coordinating their use with the bombers they escorted, was much easier using an AWACS. Just keeping track of who was who and going where would not have been possible without the AWACS. The communications equipment on board an AWACS allows information gathered by one AWACS to be quickly shared with other AWACS in the vicinity, other combat aircraft in the area as well as units at sea or on the ground. This function, which was eventually made to work, gave generals and admirals the goal of trying to link together all the sensor and communications of every ship, aircraft and ground unit in the area. But first, an AWACS for ground operations was needed.

The Gulf War experience was immediately put to use during the Afghanistan war, and insured that the bombers, and the aerial tankers that kept everyone flying, were always where they were needed. This was later repeated in the 2003 Iraq war. This sort of thing doesn't make the news, but without AWACS, a lot of those newsworthy bombs would have never made it to their targets.

PARIS, 2 oct 2012 marine-oceans.com (AFP)

Le groupe de construction navale DCNS et l'Américain VT Halter Marine ont signé un partenariat en vue de répondre à un appel d'offres pour le renouvellement d'une partie de la flotte de patrouilleurs hauturiers des gardes-côtes américains.

VT Halter Marine serait le maître d'oeuvre tandis que DCNS serait le sous-traitant en charge du design de la plateforme de ces patrouilleurs, indiquent les deux groupes dans un communiqué.

Aucun montant n'a été communiqué.

Il s'agit de répondre à un appel d'offres lancé le 25 septembre par les gardes-côtes américains en vue du renouvellement d'au moins 25 patrouilleurs hauturiers de leur flotte vieillissante, précise le communiqué.

October 1, 2012 by  Craig Hoyle – FG

London - Norway has taken delivery of a new C-130J tactical transport from Lockheed Martin, with the aircraft to replace an example that was destroyed in a fatal crash earlier this year.

Handed over during a 27 September ceremony at Lockheed's Marietta production site in Georgia, USA, the airlifter - named Froya - restores the Royal Norwegian Air Force's Hercules inventory to four aircraft. Oslo also has an option for another example, included with an order placed in the wake of the 15 March accident. Five air force personnel died when their aircraft crashed near the summit of Kebnekaise mountain in Sweden while taking part in a NATO exercise.

The cause of the crash has still to be explained, although the aircraft's digital flight data recorder was recovered from the Rabots glacier on 14 August. The device's memory module "was relatively undamaged", according to the Swedish Accident Investigation Authority, which subsequently sent it to the UK for analysis, along with the cockpit voice recorder. The agency expects to complete its investigation before the end of this year.

The rapid availability of the replacement aircraft was made possible by the US Air Force, which agreed to divert one of its C-130J already in the advanced stages of production for use at Dyess AFB in Texas.

Oct 2, 2012ASDNews Source : BAE Systems PLC

BAE Systems has been awarded a multi-year $27.4 million contract to provide program management and technical support services to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of the Chief Financial Officer (OCFO).

BAE Systems’ team of experts will provide the OCFO with strategic analysis and planning, program and portfolio management, process management and governance, IT planning and coordination, and organizational change management and communications.

“We have been providing integral systems support and solutions to meet the OCFO’s evolving priorities for eight years,” said Paul Falkler, vice president and general manager at BAE Systems’ Intelligence & Security sector. “We are deeply gratified by the trust and confidence of our customer, and we look forward to continuing our partnership for years to come.”

BAE Systems’ Intelligence & Security sector provides cybersecurity, information technology and intelligence analysis services to the U.S. intelligence and defense communities.

Oct 1, 2012 ASDNews Source : Lockheed Martin Corporation

At ceremonies here yesterday, the Royal Norwegian Air Force formally accepted a C-130J Super Hercules for the aircraft that was tragically lost in March of this year.  Through strong cooperation between the Governments of the United States and Norway, a C-130J originally destined for Dyess Air Force Base, Texas, was redirected to become the replacement aircraft.  Tony Frese (left), C-130 Norwegian Program director discusses the J-model with Brigadier General Frode R Flølo (right), Chief of the Norwegian Defence Logistics Organisation - Air System Division, who accepted the aircraft.

28 September 2012, airforce-technology.com

BAE Systems has been selected by Raytheon to help develop the US Air Force's Dismount Detection Radar (DDR).

The radar is scheduled to be installed on the US Air Force's (USAF) fleet of MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

Under the contract, the company will manage the production of the system's radar command, control, processing, exploitation, dissemination, as well as mission planning modules.

David Logan, BAE Systems Technology Solutions vice president and general manager, said the company will work closely with partner Raytheon to quickly deliver the mission-enabling capability to the air force.

"Our Ground Moving Target Indicator's exploitation capability and integrated radar control technology enables the DDR to robustly find and track potential threats to warfighters, vehicles, and individuals in near real-time, day and night," Logan added.

USAF DDR project manager, lieutenant colonel Ed Byrne, said: "The dismount detection radar will help soldiers, intelligence analysts and commanders in the field make critical decisions."

The ground moving target indicator (GMTI) is a readily deployable, mission-ready software and will serve as the operator's control interface to the radar units.

Raytheon received a contract during the July 2012 Farnborough International Airshow for production and delivery of four DDRs along with ground control stations, for the USAF.

Mounted under the wings of the MQ-9 Reaper, the DDR will provide commanders with GMTI and synthetic aperture radar capability, which will prove critical during tracking of dismounted infantry troops.

The radar is intended to support the USAF's intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) missions by delivering accurate information about potential threats, such as vehicles and individuals in adverse weather conditions.

DDR systems are scheduled to be deployed onboard MQ-9 Reaper UAVs in late 2014.

A Royal Danish Air Force's F-16 MLU aircraft being

displayed at 2005 Radom Air Show.

Photo: courtesy of Przemyslaw BlueshadeIdzkiewicz.

28 September 2012 airforce-technology.com

Vision Systems International (VSI) has been awarded a contract to supply its Night Vision Cueing and Display-Aviator's Night Vision Imaging Systems (NVCD-ANVIS) to the Royal Danish Air Force's (RDAF).

The systems will be installed onto the RDAF's F-16A/B Fighting Falcon aircraft fleet.

The systems are intended to enhance the fighter's Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing System (JHMCS), improving its night-attack capability during both air-to-air and air-to-ground missions.

VSI president Phil King said the contract represents continuation of the 12-year-long strategic relationship between the company and the air force.

"NVCD-ANVIS answers an urgent operational requirement for international JHMCS users. Its ease of operation and straight-forward installation makes it a natural extension for current JHMCS users," King added.

NVCD/ANVIS enables the pilots to precisely cue weapons and sensors against enemy aircraft and ground targets during night time operations, by directly displaying the JHMCS targeting cues and aircraft performance parameters on the night vision goggles (NVGs) image.

The system has successfully demonstrated its capabilities during four flight tests, of which the first was conducted by the RDAF pilots in an F-16 MLU M5 configuration aircraft in July 2011.

The system reportedly provided tactical information and situational awareness to the pilots during 300 hours of flight operations during Unified Protector 2011, where the RDAF participated in the UN enforcement of the no fly zone in Libya.

A total of 77 F-16A/B fighters were purchased by Denmark in two major batches and two attrition replacement orders, and currently 30 aircraft are used for air defence, attack, training and reconnaissance missions.

30.09.2012 par P. CHAPLEAU Lignes de Défense

Dans ses notifications de contrats datées de vendredi, le Pentagone a officiellement annoncé que MITRE Corporation allait pouvoir moderniser les quatre AWACS français (voir la notification ci-dessous). Un article de DefenseNews du 24 faisait état de difficultés, retards et hausse de la facture (5 millions de dollards). Le projet, qui date de 2010, avait été mis en stand by par le Pentagone en mai dernier.

Désormais, les travaux vont pouvoir commencer et selon le marché attribué, ils seront finis au 30 septembre 2013.

La notification mérite un peu de décryptage. Le contrat français (dans le cadre d'une Foreign Military Sales) est noyé dans une liste de pays qui vont bénéficier du soutien de MITRE. Cette société va donc, pour le compte de Boeing, se charger de la modification des systèmes des AWACS tricolores. Pour accéder à un document de mars dernier, rédigé par Boeing, et qui explique le rôle de MITRE, cliquer ici.

The MITRE Corp., Bedford, Mass. (FA8702-13-C-0001), is being awarded a $420,448,108.00 cost reimbursable contract for systems engineering and integration support. The location of the performance is Bedford, Mass. Work is expected to be completed by Sept. 30, 2013. The contracting activity is AFLCMC/PZE, Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass. Contract involves Foreign Military Sales to Saudi Arabia, France, Iraq, Korea, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Jordan, Taiwan, Columbia,Turkey, Australia, Kyrgz Republic, Sweden, Poland, Germany, Hungary, Greece, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, Morocco, Finland, United Kindom and Japan.

WARSAW, September 28 (RIA Novosti)

Poland plans to spend $3 billion on multirole military helicopters for its armed forces in the near future, local paper Rzeczpospolita reported on Friday, with a new competition replacing an earlier tender.

The main candidates for the deal are America's Sikorsky offering its S-70 Blackhawk, Franco-German Eurocopter, NH-90 and AgustaWestland with its AW149.

"The armed forces want to buy 70 helicopters, and not 26 as planned previously. A tender wil be completed by the end of the year and a deal should be signed by May 2013," Deputy Defense Minister Valdemar Skrzypczak said.

An earlier tender announced on 29 March, set out a requirement for 16 tactical transports for the land forces, four anti-submarine warfare (ASW) and three maritime search and rescue (SAR) helicopters for the navy and three search and rescue examples for the air force, all using one type of helicopter.

A decision on the purchase will be signed by Defense Minister Tomasz Siemoniak at the end of October, after which technical consultations will take place with potential suppliers. Local production of the machines is likely to be one of the conditions of the tender, the paper says.

The deal could be Poland's largest ever military equpment buy after its 2003 purchase of American Lockheed F-16 fighters for 12 billion zloty ($3.08 billion).

Sep. 24, 2012 - By PIERRE TRAN  Defense News

PARIS — France is being asked to pay an extra $5 million on a $466 million contract after the Pentagon ordered Boeing to stop work to upgrade the French Air Force’s four airborne early warning aircraft, sources familiar with the situation said.

Although relatively small, about 1 percent of the program budget, the added cost and negotiations are grating on the nerves of French defense officials.

“There might be reduced capability because of the technical solution proposed,” a French official said. There may also be another technical change that would drive the cost higher, the official said.

“Program protection issues” over technology deemed too sensitive for export led U.S. Defense Department officials to issue an order in the domain of stop-work on the upgrade of the four French E-3F airborne warning and control system (AWACS) aircraft, a source briefed on the subject said.

DoD’s export procedure seems to have been slow on the program protection issues, but defense officials insist the client must pay.

If the changes are accepted, the upgrade is expected to start in the first half of 2013, a year late, the French official said. France is the first export client for midlife upgrade to the Block 40/45 standard, also being installed in the U.S. Air Force’s 32-strong AWACS fleet.

U.S. officials early this summer called for a due diligence study to see whether there was a technical risk on the export deal and asked Boeing to put a hold on the French upgrade, agreed to under a $466 million contract signed in 2010 under Foreign Military Sales (FMS) rules.

The total contract comprises $440 million and a $26 million reserve amount under the FMS regime. Boeing gets $324 million of the total amount, as prime contractor for the upgrade.

“The credibility of FMS is in play,” a second French official said. Cost increases are part of negotiations being held “in the framework of the contract,” the official said.

The Direction Générale de l’Armement procurement office, Boeing and a spokesman for the Defense Security Cooperation Agency either declined to comment or could not be reached as of press time.

A modernization of the French AWACS fleet is important for trans-Atlantic cooperation, French Air Force Gen. Jean-Paul Palomeros said Sept. 10.

The upgrade is vital for “interoperability,” he said. “We need to have the best-performing equipment possible.”

The Pentagon order to stop work led to Boeing incurring costs the company wants to recover from the client. Boeing had sent staff over to Paris to work on the equipment modernization and had to idle the personnel.

Most of the cost increase stems from the stop-work order.

On the due-diligence assessment, the U.S. side concluded “mostly no risk,” and small modifications were needed, limiting the engineering cost.

An administrative waiver or re-engineering were options to deal with the program-protection issues, with the former available if the re-engineering costs were too high.

The U.S. government is negotiating on behalf of France, as the midlife upgrade contract was signed under FMS rules, which put the deal on a government-to-government basis.

The French authorities spent $10 million in 2009 on a risk-reduction study that looked at the engineering and technological issues behind the upgrade. The program protection issues did not arise at the time.

With future upgrades, the AWACS planes could be linked up to Tiger attack helicopters to support a 360-degree strike force in joint operations, he said.

Robbin Laird, with consultancy ICSA, based here and in Washington, questioned whether it was fair for France to pay for the delay since it appeared the upgrade had been held up by a U.S. policy review.

The modernization of the planes and the ground system had been due to start in June at Le Bourget airport. Boeing is the prime contractor for the midlife upgrade, with Air France Industries acting as prime contractor at the depot level.

In a Feb. 3, 2010, statement, Boeing said it had been awarded a $324 million FMS contract, which would be the largest-ever upgrade for the French AWACS fleet.

The Block 40/45 standard updates the mission computing system and is intended to boost network-enabled operations, increase reliability and reduce life-cycle costs, Boeing said in the 2010 statement.

Under the contract, the French upgrade is due to be completed by the second quarter of 2015.

BURLINGTON, Mass., Sept. 26 (UPI)

BAE Systems has been selected joined in the effort to develop the U.S. Air Force's Dismount Detection Radar system, which is to be fielded in 2014.

The Dismount Detection Radar system is a project led by Raytheon, which chose BAE for development of the system's radar command, control, processing, exploitation, dissemination and mission planning modules.

"Our Ground Moving Target Indicator's exploitation capability and integrated radar control technology enables the DDR to robustly find and track potential threats to warfighters, vehicles, and individuals in near real-time, day and night," said David Logan, vice president and general manager of Technology Solutions at BAE Systems.

"We look forward to working closely with our teammate Raytheon and the U.S. Air Force to quickly deliver this mission-enabling capability."

The Air Force says the system's deployable, mission-ready software will act as the operator interface with radar units.

"The dismount detection radar will help soldiers, intelligence analysts and commanders in the field make critical decisions," said Lt. Col. Ed Byrne, DDR project manager for the U.S. Air Force. "This innovative radar represents a true team effort between government and industry."

25 septembre 2012 – opex360.com

Voilà une affaire qui  donnera certainement du grain à moudre à ceux qui s’opposent aux achats d’armements “sur étagère”. En février 2010, la France avait signé un contrat avec Boeing dans le cadre du dispositif américain des Foreign Military Sales (FMS) afin de porter les 4 avions E3-F SDCA (Détection et commandement aéroportés, soit AWACS pour l’Otan) de l’armée de l’Air au standard Block 40/45.

“Cette modernisation, la plus importante effectuée à ce jour pour les AWACS français, va permettre à ces avions de disposer d’informations plus exploitables et d’une meilleure conscience de la situation” avait expliqué, à l’époque, un responsable de Boeing.

Il était donc prévu d’intégrer, à partir de 2012, de nouveaux équipements électroniques ainsi que des logiciels plus performants pour traiter les informations obtenues via le standard de liaison de données L16 et les radars. L’intégration de ces nouveaux matériels devait être effectuée par Boeing, dans les ateliers d’Air France Industrie situés au Bourget.

Pour rappel, les E3-F, développés à partir d’une cellule d’un Boeing 707, avaient été commandés par la France en 1987 auprès des Etats-Unis. Mis en service au début des années 1990, ils sont mis en oeuvre depuis la base aérienne 702 de Bourges-Avord par  l’Escadron de Détection et de Commandement Aéroporté (EDCA) 00.036 “Berry”.

Le coût de l’opération avait été estimé à 466 millions de dollars, dont 326 millions revenaient au constructeur américain chargé de la modernisation des E3-F, au sujet de laquelle personne n’avait rien trouvé à redire. Sauf jusqu’à récemment.

Comme, en effet, ce programme suppose la livraison de modules qu’il juge maintenant trop sensibles pour être exportés, le Pentagone s’est depuis ravisé, bloquant ainsi la modernisation des avions français, laquelle aurait dû commencer en juin dernier.

Cette décision contraint donc à modifier le projet initial, ce qui, selon Defense News, et en plus de causer des retards, pourrait limiter la portée de la modernisation des E3-F, ou encore faire augmenter les coûts.

D’ailleurs, quoi qu’il arrive, la France aura à payer un supplément de 5 millions de dollars, que le Pentagone refuse de prendre à sa charge, même s’il est directement responsable de cette situation. Une partie de cette somme correspond aux frais engagés par Boeing pour ses équipes présentes à Paris et qui sont maintenant au chômage technique.

L’estimant importante pour la “coopération transatlantique”, l’ancien chef d’état-major de l’armée de l’Air (CEMAA), le général Paloméros, désormais à la tête du Commandement Allié Transformation (SACT) de l’Otan, a déclaré, le 10 septembre, que cette modernisation des E3-F est “indispensable pour l’interopérabilité”.

NB : Contactée, la DGA n’a pour le moment pas répondu aux questions de Zone Militaire relatives à ce dossier.