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    Lockheed's F-16 shows resilience as Oman is interested in buying more
    Erik
    By Erik,
      Lockheed's F-16 shows resilience as Oman is interested in buying more   By Bob Cox rcox@star-telegram.com   Lockheed Martin will someday build the last F-16 fighter jet at its Fort Worth plant, but that day is still years away.   Lockheed could be close to landing another foreign order for F-16s after the Defense Department notified Congress on Tuesday that the government of Oman requested permission to negotiate to buy 18 planes, weapons and other equipment worth about $3.5 billion.   It would be Oman's second F-16 purchase after taking delivery of the first of 12 in August 2005.   Just a year ago Lockheed's F-16 order backlog was down to about 80 planes, and production was slated to end in 2012. But late last year, Egypt and Morocco each ordered 24 planes, extending the production line another year.   "I think we're into 2013, and 18 F-16s for Oman would extend the line until summer of 2014," Lockheed spokesman Joe Stout said. The F-16 order backlog was 81 planes at the end of June.   The Oman deal still faces several hurdles. Congress has 30 days to veto the proposed sale. If that does not occur, the U.S. government would extend a formal offer to sell planes to Oman. Once that offer is accepted, Oman and Lockheed would negotiate terms of a sale.   The Block 50/52 model aircraft Lockheed is now building and delivering to most foreign customers is essentially on a par with the latest aircraft operated by the U.S. Air Force.   In addition to the 18 planes, at cost of $60 million each, Oman would purchase weapons systems, radars, navigation and other electronics systems. It would also get upgraded components for its 12 existing F-16s.   The Defense Security Cooperation Agency, which handles controlled weapons sales, said in its message to Congress that the proposed sale would not upset the military balance of power in the Middle East and would enable Oman to cooperate with U.S. and allied forces.   Lockheed delivered 31 F-16s last year. It is building about two a month, with 11 delivered in the first six months of 2010.   Teal Group aerospace analyst Richard Aboulafia said it's conceivable that F-16 production could extend beyond 2015 or well beyond if a couple of large deals are consummated.   "If you adjust [the price] for inflation, the F-16 is an incredibly good deal," he said.   Lockheed is pressing India to select the F-16 for an order of 126 multirole fighters the nation has been considering buying in a drawn-out procurement process. Taiwan would like to buy 66 new model F-16s, but both the Bush and Obama administrations have refused for fear of upsetting China.   Sales of the F-35 joint strike fighter were supposed to have sealed the fate of the F-16, but years of delays and soaring cost estimates could keep the F-16 production line going.   "The most interesting thing is Israel. Given the sticker shock they seem to be having about the F-35, they could decide to opt for a high-low mix of some F-35s and more F-16s," Aboulafia said.   He said Israel and other F-16 owners could decide to buy some additional jets over the next several years to replace their oldest planes.   Bob Cox, 817-390-7723               Star-Telegram

    Iran claims to have smuggled anti aircraft missile systems into country
    Erik
    By Erik,
      Iran claims to have smuggled anti aircraft missile systems into country   By Damien McElroy   Iran claimed it had smuggled four S-300 anti aircraft missile systems with a 90 mile range in defiance of United Nations sanction that prompted a Russian ban on selling the sophisticated defence system to Tehran.   US and British officials responded with delight when Moscow unexpectedly pulled out of a deal to sell the system to Iran after the UN passed sanctions including an arms embargo on the Islamic state in June. But Tehran now claims it received two S-300s from Belarus and two others from another unspecified source. If the news is confirmed, the threat posed by the system would be a serious deterent to military planners contemplating a strike on Iran's nuclear programme.   The S-300 is capable of shooting down aircraft, cruise missiles and ballistic missile warheads at ranges of more than 90 miles and at altitudes of about 90,000 feet. Alexander Lukashenko, the Belarusian dictator, forged close ties with Tehran, while Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who visited the ex-Soviet nation in 2007, has called the Belarusian leader one of his best friends.   Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Sunday the United States has drawn up the plan to prevent Iran getting nuclear weapons, but was "extremely concerned" about the consequences of an attack.       telegraph.co.uk

    5 Minute Delay Scuttles Chance at $40 Billion Air Force Deal
    Erik
    By Erik,
      Delay Scuttles Chance at $40 Billion Air Force Deal   By Noah Shachtman   Somehow, against all odds, the already-surreal competition to build America’s next fleet of tanker planes just got sillier and more venal. A tiny, troubled aerospace firm and its Ukrainian partner have been disqualified from the bidding because they handed in their proposal five minutes too late. The companies, for their part, insist that their messenger had a few minutes to spare.   For at least a decade, the Defense Department has been trying to replace its creaky cadre of Eisenhower-era refueling aircraft — the planes that keep the entire American fleet flying. A combination of corruption, jingoism, political preening, lack of will and sheer incompetence has kept Washington from accomplishing what should have been a relatively straightforward task. (Compared to, say, fighter jets, these tankers are technically simple.)   In 2003, the Air Force gave Boeing a $20 billion deal to lease some tankers. But the contract award process turned out to be beyond-shady; the deal was canceled. In 2008, EADS and Northrop seemingly beat out Boeing in a fair fight, winning up to $40 billion in business. Then the Government Accountability Office ruled that the competition wasn’t so fair, after all.   The ongoing drama has been manna for journalists and publishers, as Nathan Hodge recently pointed out. Not only has the tanker saga included everything from back room deals to dramatic reversals to heated Congressional hearings to military officials going to the pokey. The two main competitors, Boeing and EADS, also indirectly subsidized with their advertisements and marketing just about every defense industry publication around.   Then, on July 2nd, just when the steel cage match between Boeing and EADS looked like it might be heading for some sort of final resolution, into the octagon stepped a third wrestler.   Tiny California firm U.S. Aerospace said it would enter the tanker throw-down by partnering up with Antonov, a Ukrainian plane-maker. Never mind the SEC report about regulators’ “substantial doubt about the [u.S. Aerospace's] ability to continue as a going concern.” Never mind that the tag team wasn’t sure which plane it would modify for tanker duty, even though bids were due just a week hence. Aviation analyst Richard Aboulafia called the whole thing “dumb beyond belief.”   U.S. Aerospace didn’t exactly work hard to disprove Aboulafia. A few days later, the company asked for an extra 60 days to submit its bid. (“Somewhere inside the Pentagon, a harried staffer has received an urgent, high-level tasker to check a thesaurus for appropriate and non-profane alternatives to the term “hell, no,” quipped Flight Global’s Stephen Trimble.)   The new team scrambled to get in its proposal on time, only to be rejected by the Air Force. So U.S. Aerospace turned to the Government Accountability Office for redress. After all, the GAO had already helped overturn the tanker deal once. Maybe they’d do it again.   According to Aviation Week ace Amy Butler, the company claims its messenger delivered the proposal to the gate of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio by 1:30 pm on July 9th. But the messenger had time to spare: The deadline was 2 p.m. that day. (What, you wouldn’t leave a contract worth tens of billions of dollars to the last half-hour, too?)   Anyway, Air Force guards allegedly denied the messenger access to the base. Then the guy got lost, once he was inside.   “By the time the papers reached their destination, the Air Force stamped the proposal as being received at 2:05,” Butler reports. Too late, in other words.   Air Force officials subsequently told a company representative that delays at installation gates are common (and they are — I’ve been subject to more than a few), and that the company should have anticipated this potential snag and planned appropriately.   But, the U.S. Aerospace argument is that Air Force personnel “intentionally delayed the messenger from delivering the proposal in order to create a pretext for refusing to consider it because they have political issues” with the principal supplier, Ukrainian state owned Antonov, according to the industry executive.   If this is proven to be true, it will bring the KC-X competition and the entire U.S. Air Force acquisition system to its knees after and already rough decade of missteps and scandals.       wired.com   Photo: USAF

    Tensions Rise As China Launches Show Of Force
    Erik
    By Erik,
    Tensions Rise As China Launches Show Of Force   by Louisa Lim   August 5, 2010 -- China's air force this week is conducting a five-day exercise involving scores of aircraft and 12,000 soldiers. Dubbed "Vanguard 2010," it is the latest sign of China flexing its muscles amid rising military tensions with the United States.   The strains — especially over operations in the South China Sea — represent a new area of dispute between China and the U.S.   China's military drills were once top secret, announced only after they were completed. But these days China's armed forces seem to want to broadcast its movements to the world.   This latest exercise is taking place in the central province of Henan and eastern province of Shandong, which abuts the Yellow Sea, and includes 100 military aircraft. It is the latest in a series of high-profile maneuvers, including naval exercises last week in the South China Sea, which were the largest of their kind.   U.S. Asserts Its Regional Interests   China's renewed military assertiveness comes after pointed comments by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last month at the ASEAN Regional Forum in Hanoi.   Clinton defended freedom of navigation in the South China Sea. She said the U.S. had a national interest in resolving claims on islands in the South China Sea, an area disputed by China, Taiwan Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and the Philippines.   It is the first time the United States has become involved in regional territorial tensions, and China's Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi reacted with fury.   Shi Yinhong, director of the Center for American Studies at People's University in Beijing, called Clinton's comments an "ambush."   "I don't think Washington made any serious pre-consultation or even [gave any] information to China, then suddenly launched this in Hanoi," Shi says. "I think that this strategic dispute is very unique and quite bad."   China had already been angered by joint war games between South Korea and the U.S. in the Sea of Japan, off the east coast of South Korea.   Actions, Reactions Following Sinking Of Ship   Those drills were aimed at North Korea following the sinking in March of the Cheonan, a South Korean warship. But China also felt threatened by the proximity of the exercises.   "What will Americans feel if the Chinese or Russian military travel across the ocean to hold exercises in the high seas not far from the coast of Florida, California or New York?" the China Daily asked in an editorial.   Now Beijing is issuing its own response with its recent military drills.   "What you see with the very rapid rise of China as a great naval power is the fact that China can flex its muscles a little bit more," says Ralf Emmers of Singapore's Nanyang Technological University and the author of a book about geopolitics and maritime territorial disputes in East Asia.   "We don't know to what extent China would use military force to impose its claims on the South China Sea. In fact, what we have seen since 1995 [is] a lot of restraint, a willingness to negotiate with various Southeast Asian countries and try come up with a code of conduct," Emmers says.   'Core National Interest'   No one knows how far China would go. In March, a senior Chinese official spoke for the first time of the South China Sea as a "core national interest," a category which formerly only encompassed Taiwan and Tibet.   Beijing's sovereignty claims over the South China Sea are not new, but it is clearly becoming more assertive. It has been exercising these claims by seizing Vietnamese fishing boats, detaining Vietnamese fishermen and pressuring western oil companies not to do business with Vietnam.   Now China's increased assertiveness is scaring the same Southeast Asian neighbors that Beijing has been wooing assiduously with loans and investment.   "A lot of Asian countries seem to be willing to join the hedging game against China, like Vietnam and Indonesia — both want to have some military cooperation with the U.S.," says Huang Jing, an expert in China and security issues of the National University of Singapore.   He says the latest developments could reflect a worrying trend.   "It seems to me that Chinese navy has outgrown China's strategic thinking. The strategic thinkers are lagging behind the naval expansion, which could be very, very dangerous," he says.   Lacking A Strategy?   China's navy and top generals don't "really have a thought-through strategy. They just behave according to capacity. There are very bad historical lessons — number one is Japan in the 1930s — but I think Chinese leaders should be more sophisticated than that," he says.   The escalation of tension is taking place at a time when military ties between the U.S. and China have been suspended. China cut military contacts in January in protest at arms sales to Taiwan.   "I don't think there's a real risk of open conflict in the South China Sea," Emmers says. "But misunderstandings and the risk of accidents should not be counted out. The Pentagon and the [Chinese military] will have to find channels of communication to prevent such misunderstandings from potentially escalating into diplomatic rows and then crises."   With this proliferation of war games, the heat is rising. And it could rise further. The South Korean navy is reportedly planning more war games in the Yellow Sea and monthly drills with the United States.   China's army-run daily newspaper is in a bellicose mood, warning that the army should "strengthen preparation for warfare."         NPR

    Tactical Air Defense Submits Proposal to Purchase Military Aircraft
    Erik
    By Erik,
      Tactical Air Defense Submits Proposal to Purchase Military Aircraft   CARSON CITY, Nev., Aug. 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Tactical Air Defense Services, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: TADF), an Aerospace/Defense Services contractor that offers air-combat training, aerial refueling, aircraft maintenance, disaster response services, and other Aerospace/Defense services to the United States and Foreign militaries and agencies, is pleased to announce that it has submitted a proposal for the purchase of 12 Dassault Mirage military aircraft to the government of a foreign allied country.   To support its air services growth strategy, post-acquisition of Tactical Air Support, Inc., ("Tac-Air"), TADF believes that the acquisition of the 12 Mirage military aircraft would better position the Company, together with Tac-Air, to capture the aerial services contracts that it is currently pursuing or evaluating with the U.S. and foreign-allied governments.   The Mirage aircraft that TADF is negotiating to purchase are advanced super-sonic fighter jets that are used by militaries around the world. To know more about Dassault Mirage aircraft, please go to www.dassault-aviation.com/en/defense.html.   Alexis C. Korybut, Chief Executive Officer of TADF, stated, "We believe the acquisition of a fleet of Mirage aircraft, in conjunction with the military aircraft currently owned by Tac-Air, would position TADF to capture a much larger portion of the rapidly growing business of supplying aerial services to the U.S. and foreign militaries."           PRNewswire

    Sikorsky Challenges Navy Plan
    Erik
    By Erik,
      Sikorsky Challenges Navy Plan To Buy Russian-Made Helicopters for Afghanistan   By EZRA R. SILK and ERIC GERSHON, esilk@courant.com -- 8:42 PM EDT, August 4, 2010     Sikorsky Aircraft has formally protested a Navy plan to buy the same Russian-made helicopters for military operations in Afghanistan that the Russians used there during the 1980s.   In a document filed with the federal government Tuesday, the Stratford-based helicopter company challenged the Navy's plan to acquire 21 additional Mi-17 helicopters built by Kazan Helicopters of Russia, which is affiliated with a Russian state corporation.   Sikorsky said it should be allowed to compete for the contract because there is an alternative — its own S-61 helicopter, developed in the late 1950s. Sikorsky said it had recently provided S-61 aircraft to the U.S. Department of State for use in Afghanistan.   The Navy intends to provide the helicopters for the Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan, which trains the Afghan National Army Air Corps, Sikorsky said.   The military already has been criticized by Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., and Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., for procuring the Russian helicopters for the war effort. U.S. Air Force officials responded last month, saying that almost all Afghan Air Corps pilots were trained to fly Russian helicopters, and that training an entire flight crew can take two to five years.   "The Mi-17 fits in directly with the experience of Afghan pilots' and mechanics' training," said Richard Aboulafia, a defense industry analyst with the Virginia-based Teal Group. "They need something simple, robust, maintainable — something basically that isn't built today, unless you're in Russia."   Sikorsky spokesman Paul Jackson says the company could provide the necessary training for Afghan pilots, but declined to provide an estimate for how long that would take.   According to the protest document, the Navy sought bids for the work on July 8, but specified that it wants Mi-17-variant helicopters and parts, which are built only by Kazan. The bids are due today.   Aboulafia characterized the dispute as a "race to the past."   "Its like saying we want to buy an obsolete Russian truck that was still built today and an American company saying we have all these leftover 1960s trucks that we can retrofit," he said. "If you want something that the Afghans can easily interface with as quickly as possible, then Mi-17s are the way to go. If you want U.S. industry to benefit from U.S. cash, you understand the Sikorsky argument."   Sikorsky said it wants "a full and open competition that is not unduly restrictive on the basis of a particular brand-name peculiar to just one manufacturer."   Sikorsky, a division of Hartford-based United Technologies Corp., filed its protest with the Government Accountability Office in Washington. The GAO's Bid Protest Forum will have 100 days to write a recommendation to the agencies involved.   "This is an unusual situation," said Ralph White, managing associate general counsel for procurement law at the GAO. "The Navy has specified that it wants a Russian helicopter. We haven't seen many instances of that kind of limitation and we'll wait and see what the Navy has to say."   Mark Wright, a Department of Defense spokesperson, declined to comment.   Dodd and U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3rd District, condemned previous Mi-17 procurements in a December 2009 open letter to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. Jackson declined to say whether Sikorsky had lobbied Dodd or Delauro, but that the company has voiced its "concerns with appropriate channels."   Dodd affirmed the Sikorsky protest in a statement Wednesday.   "I find it troubling that [the Department of Defense] would supply aircraft for our Afghan partners without holding a fair and open competition to include helicopters made right here in Connecticut by Connecticut workers," he said.                 CTnow

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