About Defense Tech

Defense Tech examines the intersection of technology and defense from every angle and provides analysis on what’s ahead.

Tip Us Off

Tip for Defense Tech?

SEND IT!

It’s Confidential!

Categories

Archives

Archive for October 16th, 2008

DEVELOPING: Army Abandons Flexible Armor Search — For Now

Thursday, October 16th, 2008

dragon-skin-plate.jpg

The Army has postponed its attempt to find a flexible body armor system similar to Dragon Skin after determining that the technology hasn’t matured enough to be fielded to troops.

While working on a story that will be the lead headline on tomorrow morning’s Military​.com homepage, I queried PEO Soldier about the progress of ballistic tests on X-SAPI and F-SAPI armor submitted by manufacturers after the June 2007 solicitation asking for new armor concepts. As you all might remember, the Army postponed tests after I spoke with BGN Brown because manufacturers were short on materials (probably Dyneema/Spectra and B4C) and needed to do more testing of their own.

I then spoke with Murray Neal at an industry event several months later and he wondered where the testing stood as well, saying he’d submitted samples but heard nothing in reply. Brown had told me tests were supposed to start in March 2008.

Remember, the Army solicitation (which has been removed from their server but was described in a June 2007 posting) called for X-SAPI to defeat “future” AP threats — namely the M993 — and also asked for submission of “flexible” systems to be designated “F-SAPI?” This, in part, answered the mail after hearings in the House regarding the Dragon Skin tests by Army officials and the NBC program that broke it all wide open. These were supposed to be the “head-to-head” tests — or something loosely approximating that — Neal was asking for and lawmakers acquiesced to.

Well, the Army has deemed the technology too immature, telling me only E-SAPI and X-SAPI vendors qualified, including Ceradyne, BAE, Protective Group and Armacel, for the tests.

“An F-SAPI capability has not reached the level [of] technical maturity to protect Soldiers in combat,” PEO Soldier said.

Ooooh, really!? Wonder if Mr. Neal has anything to say about that? (And we’ll show you someone else who’d like to debate that point in our story tomorrow AM)…

– Christian

Posted in Body Armor Blues | 12 Comments »

Thursday, October 16th, 2008

This article first appeared in Aerospace Daily & Defense Report.

Delays continue for the U.S. Air Force’s $15 billion combat, search and rescue (CSAR-X) helicopter replacement program.

Contractors confirm that Air Force briefings scheduled for early October have been postponed as the service focuses more intently on its internal review of the troubled acquisition, which was slapped down twice by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) and is now the subject of a Pentagon Inspector General (IG) investigation.

GAO sustained two protests by CSAR-X competitors Lockheed Martin and Sikorsky against the Air Force’s original award to Boeing, saying the service failed to consider certain lifecycle costs in its decision.

In response, the Air Force apparently has sought input from professional logistic managers to review the CSAR-X lifecycle cost component, contractors have confirmed.

Just what the extra internal review will do to the CSAR-X contract award schedule is unclear. The program is scheduled for a Defense Acquisition Board (DAB) meeting in early December and the Air Force has maintained it hopes to make an award this fall.

“We do believe the CSAR-X contract will be awarded this year and our HH-47 proposal stands ready to meet the requirements,” Boeing spokeswoman Jenna McMullin said.

But the briefing postponements, added Air Force scrutiny and more intense focus on lifecycle costs have analysts and others familiar with the program doubting that any award can be made by year’s end.

Then there’s the IG report. Investigators are reviewing how and when the Air Force changed some CSAR-X requirements.

The Air Force had said it had to receive something from those investigators by mid-September. But sources say there’s likely to be no word for at least another month. And a scathing report, Air Force leaders acknowledge, could add even more delay.

In a July memo, Pentagon acquisition chief John Young emphasized the importance of considering program lifecycle costs when making acquisition decisions.

Read the rest of this story, get info on the Brits’ latest deployment to The Stan, see the war from Petraeus’s perspective and listen to the bark heard ’round the world with our friends from Aviation Week exclusively on Military​.com.

– Christian

Posted in Uncategorized | 6 Comments »