NUCLEAR DYAD?: It may be time for the U.S. to reconsider its questionable insistence on three different nuclear delivery vehicles, the Cato Institute’s Christopher Preble tells a Capitol Hill audience April 30. Preble quoted former Chief of Naval Operations Arleigh Burke as saying, “You very seldom see a cowboy in the movies carrying three guns. Two is enough.” Preble, who has been funded by the Ploughshares Fund to study the history of the triad, says it’s time for lawmakers to start asking hard questions about the Obama administration’s nuclear weapons posture.
Saab says it will implement a far-reaching command-and-control upgrade to the Royal Thai Navy’s aircraft carrier to allow the system to be more interoperable with the country’s relatively new fleet of Gripen fighters and Saab 340 airborne early warning aircraft.
SINGAPORE — Last year’s devastating floods in Thailand and this year’s renewed fighting in the south by Muslim insurgents are starting to register in some of the country’s military procurements.
AIR FORCE ITT Corp., Clifton, N.J., is being awarded a $47,530,000 firm-fixed-price contract to procure 15 AN/ALQ-211(V); four airborne integrated defensive electronic warfare suites; and two sets of antenna couplers for support production. The effort is in support of the Royal Air Force Oman F-16 C/D model production aircraft. The location of the performance is Clifton, The work is to be completed by Dec. 31, 2014. WR-ALC/GRWKB, Robins AFB, Ga., is the contracting activity (FA8540-12-C-0014).
NEW DELHI — India plans to launch dedicated communication satellites for the Navy and Air Force between 2012 and 2014, Defense Minister A.K. Antony says. The naval satellite is planned to be launched in 2012-13, while the air force communication satellite is planned to be launched in 2013-14, Antony said in a written reply to a question in parliament on April 30.He also says that the tri-services defense communication network (DCN) is progressing as per India’s defense procurement procedures.
LONDON — Despite growing indications that the U.K. will reverse its decision to retire the Sentinel R1 ground-surveillance aircraft in 2015, the government says it will take its time in determining whether to retain the capability.
CAE is preparing to fly a prototype miniaturized magnetic anomaly detector (MAD) in an Aeronautics Dominator XP unmanned aircraft, anticipating use of autonomous platforms for anti-surface warfare (ASW). The Canadian company also sees potential civil uses of the sensor, which detects minute variations in the Earth’s magnetic field, for unmanned power- and pipeline-monitoring and mining-survey services.
Laser Detect Systems Ltd. (LDS), an Israeli company, is launching two laser-based scanners that reportedly detect all types of explosives, including liquids, in seconds. The LDS 5500D (see photo) is a tabletop device that uses a patented laser spectroscopy system and algorithms to detect explosives accurately and rapidly, the company says. The unit detects materials in liquid, powder or gel form, in sealed glass or plastic containers, or diluted with substances designed to mask their presence. It also detects explosive residue.
The NATO summit in Chicago on May 21-22 will be dominated by Afghanistan and the trans-atlantic relationship, but improving allied capabilities will also be an important topic of discussion.
As work proceeds on the first of the Royal Navy's two Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers, authorities at what will be their home port, HMNB Portsmouth, England, have approved a design for the Portsmouth Approach Channel, the body of water through which the 65,000-tonne (71,630-ton) ships will transit. The carriers will be the largest vessels ever docked at Portsmouth. As a result, based on a design developed by BMT Isis Ltd., the Royal Navy will dredge a new approach that is 30 ft. deeper than the current one. The draft of both ships is 36 ft.
The Australian Defense Material Organization (DMO) selected Supacat Ltd. of the U.K. as preferred bidder for a new family of special operations vehicles. Supacat received a contract to supply the Project Definition and Evaluation (PD&E) phase of the program—known as JP2097 Ph 1B (Redfin)—with the latest version of its HMT Extenda vehicle, which has been designed for use by special forces. On completion of the PD&E phase, the DMO is expected to acquire a fleet of vehicles under a separate contract.
The Pentagon plans to spend $250 million per year to find new ways of mining data, an investment that its top engineer, Zachary Lemnios, calls a “big bet on big data.” Of that amount, $60 million will go to military research projects.
