Rapid Fire 2010-08-12: Naval Helos for India

* India’s comptroller and auditor general criticizes the Defense Ministry’s plans to build an army carbine factory in Amethi, northeast India, for poor site selection, defective planning, and hasty decision making. * Meanwhile, the Indian Navy is proceeding with a $1.5 billion tender to replace its Alouette-III derivative Chetak naval helicopters with 56 light naval utility helicopters. RFPs are expected to go out to existing supplier Kamov (Ka-28/Ka-27), and to Eurocopter, AgustaWestland, Sikorsky, and Bell Helicopter. HAL’s Dhruv could be a wild card. * SRA gets contract worth up to $100 million to support DoD medical research program. * US reportedly offering Pakistan RQ-7 Shadow and/or ScanEagle UAVs – but reportedly won’t provide armed MQ-1 Predators. * Saab Training snags $39 million USMC contract to supply ranges and facilities to provide live fire gunnery training for US Marines. * NIST tests new smartphone app that enables two-way translation of Afghan Pashto dialect and English for use by the US military in Afghanistan as part of DARPA’s TRANSTAC program. * Guns of August: While Sen. McCain backs the US beefing up Georgia’s air defenses, Russia is deploying S-300 air defense systems in Georgia’s breakaway region of Abkhazia. * Dos Vedanya: US […]