F-35 Delay Would Mean Higher Dutch F-16 Costs
A delay in fielding Dutch F-35 Joint Strike Fighters would drive up costs to keep the country‘s F-16 fleet flying. Fielding the F-16 replacement in 2019 rather than 2016 would cost around €300 million...
Category: Merging & Acquisition
EU Targets Maintenance & Logistics for Savings
EU foreign ministers meeting on May 23 identified research and technology, procurement, maintenance, logistics, education and training as potential areas for pooling and sharing initiatives. The EU’s Military Committee compiled the findings, which are...
The distinction between “American” and “foreign” global companies is becoming irrelevant.
Broadening competition for US government contracts would save money – In most debates around the country’s looming fiscal crisis, “shared sacrifice” is the prevailing theme. But as policymakers consider the options on the table,...
Senators Ask For JSF Alternatives
After more than a decade of pursuing the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, members of the Senate Armed Services Committee are indicating that the Pentagon’s biggest weapon program might need an understudy. “It seems...
Army Equipping Afghans, Iraqis on Mi-17s
The U.S. Army is acquiring and sustaining Russian-built Mi-17 helicopters for Iraqi and Afghan forces so they can further stand up their respective militaries and enable more U.S. forces to return home, service officials...
DoD ‘Should-Cost’ and “Will-Cost” estimating strategy
The Pentagon will implement a new cost estimating strategy on 14 major acquisition programs in an attempt to make the weapons’ projected price tags more realistic and save money, according to a April 22...
Bulgaria to Spend 1 Billion € on Mil Equipment
Bulgarian Defense Minister Anyu Angelov has announced an ambitious military investment plan until 2020. Photo by BGNES Bulgaria plans to spend 2 billion Lev (1 BEuro) by 2020 to acquire military equipment that...
US DoD May Buy Weapons In Advance For Partner Nations
FMS sales of U.S. weapons to foreign nations is projected to exceed $46 billion in fiscal year 2011, which ends Sept. 30. Equipment includes Lockheed Martin [LMT] C-130Js transport planes, Boeing [BA] C-17 cargo...
Army Acquisition Evolves
hybrid approaches can afford the Army the opportunity to both fast-track a needed technology and also preserve the process of checks, balances and certifications typically associated with traditional acquisition practices. Maj. Gen. Mark Brown,...
IPR and Design Property: DoD ask for Full Ownership
As the Defense Department focuses on cost savings, it is putting new pressure on contractors to sell the design specifications and intellectual property associated with programs. Owning the data associated with a program helps...
Pentagon Issues Conflict Of Interest Rule For Contractors
The Pentagon last week issued a new rule on organizational conflicts of interests — or instances in which a company provides multiple services that could have conflicting interests, such as building a system and...
DoD Officials Preparing Smaller 2012 Budget
The Pentagon in February likely will send Congress a fiscal 2012 budget blueprint seeking about $15 billion less than the $678 billion sought for 2011 – and some Obama administration officials want even deeper...
Defense Contracting Cuts Might Be Much Smaller Than Predicted
Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn on Tuesday told Virginia lawmakers impending contracting cuts Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced last summer could be far smaller than many predicted, an aide to Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va.,...
New Corps’ Mission To Parry Cyberthreat
2,800 Navy intelligence, information warfare, information/network management, cryptologists and oceanography personnel on Oahu, and 176 received recognition yesterday for accomplishment in a relatively new cadre — the Information Dominance Corps. The group received prestigious...
Congress: OKs Dual-Source Warship Purchase
Congress cleared the Navy to split a roughly $10 billion purchase of the first 20 in a new class of coastal warships between teams led by Lockheed Martin Corp and Australia’s Austal Ltd, instead...
US and New Zealand Sign Memorandum to Strengthen Emergency Management Collaboration
The US has recently concluded similar agreements with Spain, Germany, France, Israel, Australia, the United Kingdom and Canada. (see also https://www.aofs.org/hs-bilateral-agreements-us/ ) – U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano and New Zealand Ambassador...
EU-US ministerial meeting on Justice and Home Affairs
The biannual EU–US ministerial meeting on justice and home affairs was held on 08-09 December in Washington. For Home Affairs issues, the European Commission was represented by Commissioner for Home Affairs Cecilia Malmström and...
Technical woes halt some Iran nuclear machines
Iran has been experiencing significant technical problems with equipment in its uranium enrichment drive and temporarily shut down some of its centrifuge machines, Western diplomats said on Tuesday. One senior diplomat said Iran acted...
Cyber war and cyber power. Issues for NATO doctrine.
For some time, terms prefixed with “cyber” have tended to become buzzwords in the international security debate. Cyberwar, cyber attacks and cyber threats were frequently mentioned in the discussions on NATO’s new Strategic Concept...
Boeing Offers New Surveillance Detection System
The system identifies when friendly forces are being monitored or targeted by cameras, binoculars, sniper scopes or other optical means The Boeing Company announced it has begun offering a Surveillance Detection System (SDS) capable...