Thursday, April 21, 2011

DTN News: U.S. Department of Defense Contracts Dated April 21, 2011

DTN News: U.S. Department of Defense Contracts Dated April 21, 2011
(NSI News Source Info) WASHINGTON - April 21, 2011: U.S. Department of Defense, Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs) Contracts issued April 21, 2011 are undermentioned;

NAVY

Raytheon Co., Space and Airborne Systems, Goleta, Calif., is being awarded an $84,763,767 modification to a previously awarded firm-fixed-price contract (N00019-09-C-0052) to exercise an option for the procurement of 87 full rate production Lot 13 AN/ALR-67(V)3 radar warning receivers for the U.S. Navy (77) and the government of Switzerland (10). In addition, this option provides for the procurement of weapons replaceable assemblies for the governments of Canada and Australia. The AN/ALR-67(V)3 enhances pilot situational awareness by providing accurate identification, lethality, and azimuth displays of hostile and friendly emitters. It also controls the electronic warfare data bus and interfaces with electronic warfare systems, the onboard radar, airborne mission computer, and the F/A-18 weapon systems. Work will be performed in Goleta, Calif. (41 percent); Lansdale, Pa. (18 percent); Forest, Miss. (12 percent); Chatsworth, Calif. (11 percent); San Diego, Calif. (10 percent); Sydney, Australia (4 percent); Milwaukie, Ore. (2 percent); and McKinney, Texas (2 percent). Work is expected to be completed in December 2013. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract combines purchase for the U.S. Navy ($72,099,001; 85 percent); and the governments of Switzerland ($9,359,600; 11 percent), Canada ($2,542,324; 3 percent), and Australia ($762,842; 1 percent) under the Foreign Military Sales Program. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., is the contracting activity.

Oceaneering International, Inc., Hanover, Md., is being awarded a maximum value $12,100,000 cost-plus-fixed-fee, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for the advanced mooring system to improve vehicle, personnel and container transfer during skin to skin mooring within the sea base through sea state three (threshold), sea state four (objective). The total cumulative face value of this contract is $12,100,000. The action will be incrementally funded with this initial obligation of $643,983. The contract will be incrementally funded over a period of 36 months. Work will be performed in Hanover, Md., and is expected to be completed April 2014. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured under Broad Agency Announcement 10-016, with four proposals received. The Office of Naval Research, Arlington, Va., is the contracting activity (N00014-11-D-0327 and task order 0001).

ARMY

Chrysler Group International, LLC, Auburn Hills, Mich., was awarded on Apr. 19 a $17,977,169 firm-fixed-price contract. The award will provide for the procurement of 530 Jeep J8 kits, completely knocked down, and one lot of contractor furnished spare parts all under Foreign Military Sales to Israel. Work will be performed in Romulus, Mich., with an estimated completion date of Apr. 18, 2012. A sole-source bid was solicited with one bid received. The U.S. Army TACOM LCMC, Contracting Center, Warren, Mich., is the contracting activity (W56HZV-11-C-0273).

General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products, Inc., Charlotte, N.C., was awarded on Apr. 19 a $7,647,765 fixed-price-incentive contract. The award will provide for the procurement of 15 joint service general lightweight standoff chemical agent detectors; 15 scanner transit cases; and 15 operator display unit transit cases. Work will be performed in Charlotte, N.C., with an estimated completion date of Nov. 21, 2011. One bid was solicited with one bid received. The U.S. Army Contracting Command, Edgewood Contracting Division, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., is the contracting activity (W911SR-08-D-0022).

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DTN News - PAKISTAN NEWS: Pakistan's ISI Spy Agency Has 'Militant Links' Says Adm Mike Mullen

DTN News - PAKISTAN NEWS: Pakistan's ISI Spy Agency Has 'Militant Links' Says Adm Mike Mullen
**Analysis - M Ilyas Khan BBC News Islamabad: The so-called Haqqani network is the most effective insurgent group operating in Afghanistan. Its leadership has been based in Pakistan's north-western Waziristan region since the late 1970s, and is believed to have maintained close contacts with the Pakistani security establishment. The network comprises fighters from south-eastern provinces of Afghanistan, and militant groups based in North and South Waziristan.
Pakistani military officials and defence analysts suggest that while the ISI did raise and fund Islamic militants during the 1980s and 1990s, they have since lost control over them.
(NSI News Source Info) - April 21, 2011:

The US military's top officer, Adm Mike Mullen, has accused Pakistan's spy agency of having links with militants targeting troops in Afghanistan.

He said Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) had a "long-standing relationship" with a militant group run by Afghan insurgent Jalaluddin Haqqani.

The comments came as he held talks in Islamabad on Wednesday. Pakistani officials are also in the US for talks.

Pakistan routinely rejects charges of collusion with militants.

The BBC's M Ilyas Khan in Islamabad says that US officials have in the past spoken anonymously or in circumspect terms about associations between the Pakistani establishment and insurgents.

But that with this blunt statement Adm Mullen has for the first time claimed a clear link between the two, our correspondent says.

"It's fairly well known that the ISI has a long-standing relationship with the Haqqani network," Adm Mullen told Pakistan's Dawn newspaper.

"Haqqani is supporting, funding, training fighters that are killing Americans and killing coalition partners. And I have a sacred obligation to do all I can to make sure that doesn't happen."

'Negative propaganda'

But a senior Pakistani intelligence official told the Reuters news agency that the accusation was unfounded.

"If he means we're providing them with protection, with help, that's not correct," the official, who wished to remain unnamed, told Reuters.

A statement from Gen Kayani, released after their meeting, rejected what it termed as "negative propaganda of Pakistan not doing enough".

But the statement also said that the strategic relationship between the countries was important for their mutual security.

On Thursday Pakistan's Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir is scheduled to hold talks with US State Department officials in Washington, in what is being billed as an effort to improve relations.

He said the spy agency's support of the network remained at the "core ... and the most difficult part of the relationship" and that he would take it up with Pakistan's army chief Gen Ashfaq Kayani.

US-Pakistan ties have struggled to recover following the row over CIA contractor Raymond Davis - who was arrested and later released after shooting dead two Pakistani men in Lahore. The case stoked anti-American feeling across Pakistan and led to angry demonstrations

Recent reports following a meeting between the heads of the countries' spy agencies in Washington, suggested that Pakistan had demanded certain restrictions to the CIA's activities in Pakistan.

Anti-US sentiment has also been exacerbated by US drone strikes targeting militants in the north-west of the country.

Drone anger

Anti-US protests over Koran burning - March 2011 Anti-US feeling across Pakistan has escalated in recent months

US drone attacks have escalated in north-west Pakistan since President Barack Obama took office. But they are hugely unpopular with the Pakistani public. Many militants, some of them senior, have been killed in the raids, but hundreds of civilians have also died.

The US does not routinely confirm it is conducting drone operations in Pakistan, but analysts say only American forces have the capacity to deploy such aircraft in the region.

Analysts believe that Haqqani's insurgent network has been based in Pakistan since 2001, and that the ISI still exerts considerable influence over it.

The group has been blamed for some of the deadliest attacks on foreign troops across the border in Afghanistan.

Though the Pakistani military has routinely rejected any ties with the militants operating in Afghanistan, many analysts believe collaboration between the two is an open secret, our correspondent says.

Indeed analysts argue that Pakistan has always maintained links with some militant groups in order to try to influence events in neighbouring Afghanistan..

The timing of these remarks, our correspondent adds, suggests that the US is stepping up pressure on Pakistan to relinquish any links with Afghan militants ahead of the US forces' impending withdrawal from Afghanistan.

More on This Story

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DTN News - U.S. DEFENSE NEWS: Review To Consider Consequences Of Budget Cuts‏

DTN News - U.S. DEFENSE NEWS: Review To Consider Consequences Of Budget Cuts‏
(NSI News Source Info)

WASHINGTON, April 21, 2011: Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said the comprehensive defense review he plans to launch soon will ensure any further defense budget cuts are based on a well-thought-out analysis of the consequences of decisions made.

Click photo for screen-resolution image Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Marine Corps Gen. James E. Cartwright hold a joint press conference at the Pentagon, April 21, 2011. DOD photo by R.D. Ward (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available.
"The worst of all possible worlds, in my view, is to give the entire Department of Defense a haircut that basically says 'Everybody is going to cut 'x' percent,'" Gates told reporters today during a Pentagon news briefing. "That is the way we got the 'hollow' military in the 1970s and the 1990s."

Gates said he does not know exactly how much of the additional $400 billion that President Barack Obama seeks to cut from national security program budgets between now and 2023 will come from DOD. The secretary said he's gratified that Obama has agreed to wait for the findings of a comprehensive DOD review before making specific budgetary decisions.

"I want to frame this so that options and consequences and risks are taken into account as budget decisions are made, first by the president, and then by the Congress," Gates said. "What I hope to do is frame this in a way that says, 'If you want to cut this number of dollars, here are the consequences for force structure. Here are your choices in terms of capabilities that will be reduced or investments that are not made. And here are the consequences of this.'"

The budget review "needs to be a process that is driven by the analysis," the secretary said, "and where it is about risk management with respect to future national security threats and challenges as well as missions that our elected officials decide we should not have to perform or can't perform any more because we don't have the resources."

Gates said he has had just one meeting to begin thinking about ways to conduct the review, and has not yet decided on an approach. One suggested approach, he said, would begin with the Quadrennial Defense Review and to consider the implications of scaling back or eliminating specific missions.

Marine Corps Gen. James E. Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the review will involve important strategic considerations about quantities and capabilities.

Cartwright said the review could challenge some long-held assumptions, such as the department's ability to fight two major theater conflicts simultaneously.

Some people believe that funding the Defense Department at the rate of inflation for the next 12 years could identify much of the cost savings that Obama seeks, Gates said. However, he noted, that approach wouldn't account for costs for health-care, fuel and critical big-ticket investments.

"We have some investments we have to make," the secretary said. "We have to buy the new [Air Force refueling] tanker. We have to replace some of the surface ships ...built during the Reagan years that will age out over that 12-year period...All elements of the [nuclear] Triad need to be modernized" -- bomber aircraft, land-based missiles and ballistic-missile submarines.

"You may have to make some choices there," Gates said. "I want to frame this so it is not a math exercise, but so people understand the strategic and national security consequences of the decisions that they are making."

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DTN News - BATTLE FOR LIBYA: Obama OKs Predator Strikes in Libya Confirmed By Defense Secretary Gates

DTN News - BATTLE FOR LIBYA: Obama OKs Predator Strikes in Libya Confirmed By Defense Secretary Gates
(NSI News Source Info)

WASHINGTON, April 21, 2011: President Barack Obama has approved the use of armed predator strikes in the international fight against Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi's regime, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said today.

Click photo for screen-resolution image Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates calls on a reporter for a question at the Pentagon, April 21, 2011. Gates and Marine Corps Gen. James E. Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, fielded questions dealing mainly with the situation in Libya and the defense budget. DOD photo by R.D. Ward (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available.
Gates and Marine Corps Gen. James E. Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, briefed reporters at the Pentagon.

"The president has said that where we have some unique capabilities, he is willing to use those," Gates said. "In fact, he has approved the use of armed predators [in Libya]."

Armed predators have been used in Libya "purely as [intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems] until today," Cartwright said.

Two unmanned armed predators capable of around-the-clock coverage are now in Libya, the general added. The first flights launched today but were cancelled because of bad weather.

The character of the fight in Libya has changed, Cartwright said. Gadhafi loyalists, he said, are digging in or "nestling up against crowded areas" to avoid being targeted by NATO aircraft.

The more-precise predators bring "their ability to get down lower and therefore, to be able to get better visibility, particularly on targets that have started to dig themselves into defensive positions," Cartwright said.

The aircraft are uniquely suited for urban areas where more traditional bombing can cause collateral damage, he added.

"This is a very limited capability," Gates said, adding that the president has been clear from the outset that the U.S. role would be specifically defined.

Obama structured the U.S. role in Libya as a limited one because "of all our friends and allies, we are the most-stretched military," Gates added.

"We have close to 100,000 troops in Afghanistan, we still have 50,000 troops in Iraq and we have 19 ships and 18,000 men and women in uniform still helping on Japan relief," the secretary said.

The president agreed to participate in the international effort against the Libyan government, Gates said, because "of the worry that Gadhafi could destabilize the fledgling revolutions in both Tunisia and Egypt ... and second to prevent a humanitarian disaster."

The president has been clear, the secretary said, "that the primary strike role has been turned over to our allies and our friends, and if we can make a modest contribution with these armed predators, we'll do it."

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DTN News - OSHKOSH DEFENSE NEWS: U.S. Army Awarded Contract Of MTV To Oshkosh

DTN News - OSHKOSH DEFENSE NEWS: U.S. Army Awarded Contract Of MTV To Oshkosh
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - April 21, 2011: In accordance to U.S. DoD contracts issued/notification dated April 20, 2011.
Oshkosh Corp., Oshkosh, Wis., was awarded on April 18 a $71,837,142 firm-fixed-price contract. The award will provide for the procurement of 417 different Medium Tactical Vehicles.
Work will be performed in Oshkosh, Wis., with an estimated completion date of March 31, 2012. The bid was solicited through the Internet with three bids received.
The U.S. Army TACOM LCMC, Warren, Mich., is the contracting activity (W56HZV-09-D-0159).
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