Category: Defense Procurement

Pentagon Wants 50-Caliber Guided Bullets

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This is a stupid idea.

I understand the idea, that this will allow even longer ranger sniping, but this technology already exists in antitank guided missiles, out to at least 5000 meters.

If you replace the missile warhead with an inert one, it eliminates the collateral damage problem, and a 500 km/h 10 kilo missile hitting someone will make them even deader than a .50 cal round. It’s something like dropping a safe from a second story window on them.

This is just another hole in which the military dumps money so that generals can get cushy jobs after retirement.

US Orders IsraeliActive Protection Systems

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About 18 months ago, there was a minor scandal when the Pentagon eschewed the already tested and ready for deployment Israeli Trophy active protection system in favor of the Raytheon APS system.

Given what was happening in Iraq, it was concluded that someone was to close to US contractors, and too distant from troop needs.

The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren Division, has declared the system Technology Readiness Level 9, which means that it is ready for immediate deployment, and ordered a set.

USAF is Attempting to Create a Crisis and Cannibalize Itself to Get More F-22s

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There recently has been an F-15 crash following what appears to be a structural failure in an F-15. The USAF has responded with a service wide, and extensively publicised grounding of the aircraft across all deployments, including Afghanistan and Iraq.

While a grounding following this sort of crash is not uncommon, the breadth, and deliberate and massive press offensive associated with it is clearly part of the service’s strategy to get the F-22 production line extended.

When juxtaposed with the Air Force’s decision to cut 40,000 personnel, over 10% of active duty personnel, to free up money for continued F-22 production, it’s clear that the the priorities of of an independent air force as a service are likely to run counter to the defense needs of the nation.

The USAF is creating artificial crises and sacrificing its human capital for some not particularly useful bling in the form of the Raptor. It does not benefit the national defense, the country, or, in the long run, the United States Air Force.

The Raison d’etre of the independent USAF was strategic bombing with nuclear weapons, which has been obsolete since the late 1960s, and folding the service back into the US army would be of benefit to everyone, particularly the taxpayer, which does not need another 20 F-22s at $220 million each, literally worth its (empty) weight in gold.

UK Investigation of BAE-Saudi Bribes Back On

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About a year ago, Tony Blair canceled a serious fraud investigation of a very large arms deal between BAE Systems* and the House of Saud under threat of cancellation of the order, and now two NGOs have been given permission to investigate an investigation of this decision under the OECD’s Anti-Bribery Convention.

It’s pretty clear that bribery was involved, I believe that Prince Bandar got over a billion dollars in “consulting fees”, for example, and the House of Saud was quite clear that any investigation of kickbacks would result in the cancellation of the contract for multi-billion dollar purchase of Eurofighter Typhoons.

*Full disclosure, I worked at a BAE Systems facility as a contractor from June 2005 (about, depends on when the sale went through) through Decmeber 2006 as a contractor. I had no involvement with this deal however.

Yet Another Reason to Shut Down the USAF as an Independent Branch of the Service

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Yes, after experience in Iraq and Afghanistan prove that our latest line of jets, the F-22 and the F-36 have next to no utility relative to our existing aircraft, THE USAF is requesting another 20 F-22s to keep the production line open.

Unlike all the other services, the Air-Force exists to serve those other branches. The Navy controls the ocean, the marines do amphibious assault, the army holds the land, and Air Force engages in operations to make sure that the previous three can accomplish their goals as easily as possible.

An independent Air Force does not serve the national defense. Their priorities only match the defense needs of the country by accident.

David Frum and Facts Have Only a Passing Acquaintance

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David Frum, the Canadian former Bush speech writer whose phrase Axis of Evil is probably responsible for a thousand or so American deaths had an essay on Marketplace, yesterday, and while I expect right wingers to lie, this is the first time in my not so young (I’m 45) life that literally every word out of his mouth was not the truth.

So, I’m sending them the following letter:

Subject: Re: No defense for Europe’s protectionism

In listening to Mr. Frum’s essay on defense procurement, the F-35, and the Eurofighter, I had a unique experience. This is the first time in my life in which I have heard a commentary where I know that literally every fact stated is incorrect. I am not suggesting that there is deliberate deception involved, but the only alternative is a complete ignorance of the subject involved.

Cases in point:
* The NATO allies will soon reach a crucial decision about their next-generation air-to-ground fighter plane. Two candidates have emerged as finalists: the US-UK-Dutch-Italian-Norwegian F-35, or an update of the Franco-German “Eurofighter.”

While the F-35 is intended to a large degree, perhaps primarily, for air to ground operations, the Eurofighter Typhoon is primarily an air defense fighter, though an air-to-ground capability is being developed for the plane in later tranches.

The Eurofighter is not a Franco-German endeavor. The French are not involved at all, having built the Dassault Rafale. The partner nations are the UK, Germany, Italy, and Spain. The F-35 is not a US-UK-Dutch-Italian-Norwegian project. Only the UK qualifies a very junior partner, and they have still not been given the information necessary to properly maintain the aircraft. The rest of the countries are simply customers.

* Just about everybody agrees that the F-35 is the better — and probably cheaper — plane.

When comparing the two aircraft, the Eurofighter is more agile, with a higher thrust to weight ratio and lower wing loading, and faster, it supercruises, and has a higher ceiling, much like the F-35’s big brother, the F-22, though the F-35 is stealthy, and the Eurofighter is not.

Additionally, the Typhoon can accommodate the Meteor, the long-range missile being developed in Europe, which has superior kinematics to the US AMRAAM, while the F-35, with its internal weapons stowage cannot.

Furthermore, the current prices are nearly the same, but you are comparing a design that is in production (Typhooon) with one that is still in development (F-35), and whose price is still escalating, so it to predict anything beyond parity in cost is simply wrong.

* It’s the plane that will be bought by the Israelis, who tend to be choosy about things bearing on national survival.

The Israelis will not be able to buy the Eurofighter, as political considerations of of the Typhoon’s sale to Saudi Arabia preclude this. Additionally, it will be purchased with significant US military aid, which requires that US equipment be purchased with these funds.

Additionally, the cancellation of significant defense purchases of French aircraft and British tanks in the 1960s, the Israelis do not feel that they can rely on the Europeans as a reliable source of supply.

* The Eurofighter is built on four separate assembly lines in four Western European nations. This redundancy creates more jobs, but at very high cost. High cost, in turn, reduces the number of aircraft the European allies can afford to purchase.

This applies to final assembly lines only , and it is, in fact not very costly. The evidence is in examining the F-16 program, the least expensive, and most numerious, of the previous generation of Western combat aircraft, where it has been assembled in the US, Korea, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Turkey.

I would note that given the facts to support his thesis are all wrong, his thesis itself is suspect.

As Atrios would put it, wanker of the day*.

*The “wanker” bit is not going in the letter.

Snark of the Day, Budget Edition

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It should be noted that some budget budget wonks have uncovered a line item for a weapon to attack Iran.(h/t Attytood)

It’s for a modification to the B2 Stealth bomber so that it can carry the 30,000 penetrating pound bomb

Tucked inside the White House’s $196 billion emergency funding request for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is an item that has some people wondering whether the administration is preparing for military action against Iran.

The item: $88 million to modify B-2 stealth bombers so they can carry a newly developed 30,000-pound bomb called the massive ordnance penetrator, or, in military-speak, the MOP.

The MOP is the the military’s largest conventional bomb, a super “bunker-buster” capable of destroying hardened targets deep underground. The one-line explanation for the request said it is in response to “an urgent operational need from theater commanders.”

Hey, well, I’m sure the federal government has lots of uses for super “bunker-buster” bombs, such as, um, uh, na….

“You’d use it on Natanz,” said John Pike of GlobalSecurity.org. “And you’d use it on a stealth bomber because you want it to be a surprise. And you put in an emergency funding request because you want to bomb quickly.”

There is no reason to put this in an emergency request unless you have a target, and you want to hit it soon.

BTW, two snaps up to Will Bunch for this comment, “I’ve long been in the camp that the Cheney-Bush administration isn’t really as incompetent as it looks, that most of the worst stuff they do is 100 percent intentional. Putting your air-attack plans in a budget bill, however, is actually pretty incompetent. Hopefully they’ll get rid of this before Hillary can enthusiastically vote for it.“

Now I have to clean off my screen.

Pot. Kettle Black

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It appears that Condoleeza Rice told Russian officials that she is concerned with weapons sales by the Russia to a number of countries.In an interview with ABC News, Secretary of State of Condoleezza Rice expressed concern about Russia’s increasing military assertiveness.

This from the woman representing the biggest arms dealer in history, not to mentionthe most gonzo* administration in US history.

*I mean this in a bad way, no association with Hunter S. Thompson is intended.

Top Air Force Procurement Official Dies in Apparent Suicide

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I don’t recall if I’ve written of this matter before, but while waiting for his white house clearance, Charles D. Riechers, was paid $13,400 a month by a private contractor, Commonwealth Research Institute, while he awaited clearance from the White House for his selection as principal deputy assistant secretary for acquisition. He was paid for no work at all, which sounds suspiciously like a birbe

The Commonwealth Research Institute and it’s Parent, Concurrent Technologies Corp. are tax exempt, but their primary business is defense contracting, which is odd.

This is freaky, and CRI and CTC are Jack Murtha’s best buddies, as Will Bunch notes. Frequently, Murhta’s press releases sounding as ife they were written by CTC PR flacks.

Mr. Bunch has repeatedly warned folks about Murtha, and it appears that this may be hitting the news shortly. Dead bodies have a way of getting journalists looking into things.

Russia Working on New Carrier Killers

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It’s interesting that Russia is dusting off a 30 year old missile design (the 3M-25 Meteorit, pics are at the end, the first picture is a testbed) that was canceled 30 years ago.

Part of this, when justaposed with the hypersonic testbed, is to show Russian capabilities, but I believe that there is a more direct market that they are addressing, a missile that can credibly threaten a US Carrier Battle Group, particularly the Carrier itself.

With a weight of over 10 tons, and speed and altitude in excess of mach 3 and 20,000 meters, even a few of these, if launched, could inflict serious damage on any ship out there.

Given technological advances, and the fact that a 4000km range would not be needed for attacking carrier battle groups off a country’s shores, I could see a derivative coming in at less than 5 tons.

Russia Rekindles High-speed Cruise Weapons Interest (Paid Subscription Required)
Aviation Week & Space Technology
10/08/2007, page 60

Douglas Barrie
London

Printed headline: Speed Metal

Russia dusted off and declassified an almost 30-year-old missile design for display—the 3M-25 Meteorit supersonic strategic cruise missile—at the recent Moscow air show (MAKS). But why present a program canceled in the early 1990s?

NPO Mashinostroenia’s Meteorit (Meteorite) program had been intended to develop a “universal” cruise missile for air, surface and submarine launch. The turbojet-powered weapon would cruise at 75,000 ft. beyond Mach 3.

…

On display as well at MAKS was a mock-up of the Central Aero-hydrodynamics Institute’s (TsAGI) GLL-AP-02 hypersonic “flying testbed” (shown). This is a notional Mach 6 air vehicle, to fly at 70,000 ft., powered by a Central Institute of Aviation Motors scramjet. TsAGI is looking at potential weapon applications of hypersonic air vehicles.

Here are the pics of the Meteorit


Missile Defense: Cut Twice, Measure Never???

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This is an interesting take on US Missile defense development. Basically, it appears that in order to show capability, even on tightly scripted tests, they rely on the capabilities of each subsystem as determined analytically, as opposed to testing, or just analyzing, the full up system.

This is faith-based missile defense:

To justify the deployment of untested technologies, officials at the Missile Defense Agency changed the fundamental epistemology of weapons procurement. In bureaucratic-speak, they ceased following a “knowledge-based” system and relied instead upon what they called a “capability-based” standard. In simple terms, it’s the difference between knowing that something works because you’ve tested it, and believing that something works because all the parts, when put together, should be capable of working. It’s the difference between test-driving a car before mass-producing it, and building one from a schematic but deciding not to turn the key for the first time until there’s an emergency. It’s the difference between the old carpenter’s advice of “measure twice, cut once,” and the new, Rumsfeldian directive: “Cut already.”

In the old knowledge-based days, procurement was based more or less on common sense: Contractors developed a weapons system that showed promise, gradually trying it out in more and more realistic situations. Once progress warranted it, the Pentagon took over and performed “realistic operational testing” under conditions that simulated battle — rain, heat, sandstorms. But now, under Rumsfeld’s “capability-based” standard, entire weapons systems can be built without bothering to see if they will work in the real world.

The depressing thing is that I favor some sort of ABM system for defense of the US, albeit my favored scheme is rather Strangelovian, or Telleresque.

I favor a system modeled on the SAFEGUARD system, which was operational for a few months in the 1970s. It uses nuclear tipped interceptors, which ameliorates most of the targeting and decoy issues.

Use of a Megaton range warhead in an exoatmospheric increases the miss distance, and it handles most of the problems with decoys, because everything is in the effect range. For terminal defense, you use something in the kiloton range with a neutron kill.

Obviously, this can’t work with tactical systems, since the authorization for use of nuclear weapons would have to come from the President, but for strategic defense of te country, it’s a better system that could be online sooner.

Behind Schedule and Over Budget, Lockheed Attemps to Sell Reduced Testing for JSF.

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LM is claiming that they can save money by “streamline” testing by using lessons from the F-22.

This is bulls*&%.

What they are really saying is that they are behind schedule and over budget, and that they are going to attempt to field these aircraft without proper testing in order to save money and time.

It is a request for a bailout, with shortcomings being fixed under a later cost plus contract.

Deputy SecDef Tells USAF to Pound Sand

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Good news, Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England has told the Air Force to Sod off.

The Airforce wanted to manage all UAVs that operated over 3500 feet. That’s right all of them, Army, Navy, Marines, etc.

They wanted to run the contracts, for basically anything larger than a hand launched short range system.

The army, quite logically said that the USAF does a piss-poor job supporting people on the ground. They just don’t give a damn, hence the inanity of the USAF drawing up its own counterinsurgency manual, which basically says, bomb everything that moves*.

While there are some economies gained from merging programs, Congress has pressured the DoD to merge USAF Predator and Army Warrior unmanned aerial system (UAS) programs for this reason, absent real duplication, and positive proof that the USAF if the ONLY service that can efficiently manage the system, any mergers should cut against the fly boys from Colorado Springs.

*Come to think of it, that’s pretty much their answer to everything.

Odd Ship Concepts

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The DSEI show had someinteresting naval displays from BAE.


This is an 8000 ton (supercarriers are 75,000+ton) destroyer with a rear flight deck for dispatching UAVs. I’d call it more of a UAV tender than a Carrier.


This is a submarine propelled by 8 pumpjets mounted in the tail. It does away with the reduction gear of a direct drive system. If I recall correctly, the Seawolf and Virginia class boats use a single screw/pump with electric drive for much the same reason.

Those gears are heavy, very precise, and hence expensive, and (if anything goes wrong) noisy.


This is a mockup of an air independent propulsion system for submarines. As opposed to using a fuel cell, they are using a diesel generator, which promises to be cheaper.