F910 Wielingen(click to view full) "Bulgaria Orders 4 Gowind-200 Frigates from DCNS" seemed to herald both a EUR 900 million order and a new shipbuilding center for DCNS. Despite promises of 100% industrial offsets to the Varna shipyard, and a price that was...
A330 MRTT withboom & drogues(click to view full) EADS Airbus' politically controversial "Power 8" restructuring plan is already planning to shift future production out of Europe, and a recent EADS announcement intensified that pressure with more downward pressure on...
Getting there?(click to view full) In June 2002 the Dutch House of Representatives approved the Netherlands' participation in the development phase of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, which will last until 2013. They joined as a Tier 2 country, one step below the USA...
MU90 Eurotorp(click to view full) In December 2005, "Beyond Armaris: Thales "Buys" Minority Stake in DCN" covered the government-prodded merger of Thales naval business with state-owned DCN, to create DCNS. That agreement excluded some naval items like electronics,...
Block III bow mods(click to view full) General Dynamics Electric Boat Corp. in Groton, CT received a not-to-exceed $270 million modification to previously awarded contract (N00024-03-C-2101) for long lead time material associated with steam and electric plant, main...
Bell OH-58D, Iraq(click to view full) "Can the US Army Afford Helicopter Modernization?" covered a CBO report addressing the USA's future helicopter procurement plans. Meanwhile, the existing fleet must still be maintained, lest rising maintenance costs eat into the...
Message received... Rockwell Collins, Inc. of Cedar Rapids, Iowa received a cost plus award fee, firm-fixed price, cost plus fixed fee and time and material contract modification for $27.5 million. The award will "rebaseline" system development and demonstration...
(click for report page) In November 2005, "UAV Market to Top $13.6B from 2006-2014" covered a Forecast International report. In September 2006, a Teal Group market study added R&D, maintenance, related sensors, et. al. to their total, and came up with a much higher...
RAH-66 Comanche(click to view full) The Defense Procurement Death Spiral. It's what happens when the costs of each successive generation of equipment rise faster than inflation, leading to smaller, longer production runs that inflate costs further and often force...