Lots of discussion on the Predator/Reaper Class A post. And I take the point that the drones tend to crash on landing a lot and that that may be a major factor in the rate vice shootdowns. But Winslow remains undeterred:
Some interesting, and instructive, comments from some of those who reacted to your piece. While I cannot but think that a high, straight, level, slow, unable to react Predator/Reaper would be a boon to radar SAM exporters by giving them heretofore untold (and unprecedented) success, it would be interesting to see what portion of hostile fire kills are from what sources for drones, and — as one commenter implied — what the drone was doing and how high when it was shot down. I would love to see the data sources on that, plus the materials you used to make the statements you did. I say that not to challenge you, but simply to get the data. Sometimes there’s some extraordinary stuff lurking there. Sadly, in the blogging world, everyone seems to think they should shout out their opinions rather than showing their data and the documents backing them up.
As to backing up my assertion, above, implying the ineffectiveness of radar SAMs, I cite our GAO report on Desert Storm (attached and find it at http://www.gao.gov/archive/1997/ns97134.pdf). There, SAMs were the least effective Iraqi air defense system, and, no, that was not because the F-117s took them out (a myth; it didn’t happen); read the report.
I also appreciate the link from a commenter yesterday of the video of a MiG shooting down a Georgian drone. Or was it Taliban air force?
I’ll work more agressively to find out the cause of the high loss rate from USAF sources. If anyone else out there has some gouge on this, please let us know via the Tip Line.
Just now posting a story to Military.com on the death of one of the most influential defense lawmakers on Capitol Hill ever.
I’ve had my beefs with Rep. Jack Murtha in the past, but I truly am shocked and saddened by his death. He was a tireless advocate for Pentagon programs he believed in and forced them down a left-leaning Congress in years where defense spending was less than a priority. And despite our sometimes butting heads over the Haditha incident, he and his staff have always treated me with respect and professionalism.
We’ll slice and dice his record tomorrow, but today, let’s offer his family and staff our condolences and take a moment of silence to honor the decorated Vietnam vet and Marine officer/public servant.
The Air Force is asking Congress for $216 million in CY 2010 Overseas Contingency Operations funds to purchase 12 MQ-9 Reaper drones to replace Predators that have been lost in combat.
That seems like an awful lot of Predator/Reapers falling out of the sky for either mechanical or hostile fire reasons, and I’d be interested for DT readers to help track down the incidents if they’ve been reported. The loss rate brings up an interesting point about the entire idea of UAV use in highly sensitive strikes: better to lose 12 planes that cost about $12 million each (according to USAF budget materials, and that’s excluding support equipment) and are flown from a container outside Las Vegas than to lose almost a squadron of attack pilots and their planes in one year.
But I’m also worried about the idea that these downed MQ-9s are falling into enemy hands and could be reverse engineered for countermeasures, etc. We already heard of incidents where the bad guys are tapping into UAV comm links — God forbid they’re tinkering with the sensors and pinging the Norks or China on how to counteract them. Might be far fetched, but worth thinking about.
Here are the specs for the Reaper the USAF wants to buy:
The MQ-9 Reaper aircraft is a single-engine, turbo-prop remotely piloted aircraft designed to operate over-the-horizon at medium-to-high altitude for long endurance sorties. The aircraft is being designed primarily to prosecute critical emerging Time-Sensitive-Targets (TSTs) as a radar, EO/IR, and laser desginator-based attack asset with on-board hard-kill capability (hunter-killer) while performing Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance and Target Acquisition (ISR TA). In the hunter-killer role, the aircraft will employ fused multi-spectral sensors to automatically find, fix, and track ground targets (Automatic Target Cueing (ATC), Target Location Accuracy(TLA), Metric Sensor and other capabilities) and assess post-strike results.
Also, as if the JTAC/CCT community couldn’t get any more high speed, the Air Force is asking for $3.2 million to purchase 11 WASP micro air vehicles – those wicked little Aeorvironment throwable drones that peek over the next ridge. The Air Force says the drones will allow:
Battlefield Airmen to rapidly adapt to the dynamic war fighting environment of the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO). The system provides increased situational awareness in a combat environment, enables ground-based Battlefield Airmen to find and track time-critical targets, and provide bomb damage assessment and force protection for forward-deployed troops.
The Air Force looks as if it has punted the establishment of a COIN Wing (though we’ll see when the authorization process starts) based on its budget submission yesterday.
Air Force budget officials said the so-called “light attack aircraft” would not have any significant funding until the 2012 submission, where the service will allot $172 million for the so-called COIN plane.
The Air Force did, however, take a step toward a COIN wing by ordering up 15 Light Mobility Aircraft to the tune of nearly $66 million. According to a submission to FedBizOpps, the LiMA must be able to carry a minimum of six pax and crew, operate from “austere landing surfaces” and carry a minimum of 1800 pounds with crew. The plane needs a loading door that can take litters and a 36 inch warehouse skid and have two pilot stations but be able to be flown by one pilot.
The Air Force is budgeting for these planes in FY 2011 only. And part of the idea behind the plane is to help train other air forces during counterinsurgency operations.
The Light Mobility Aircraft (LiMA) program will acquire Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) aircraft to satisfy the USAF light mobility mission requirement. These aircraft will be suitable for building partner capacity (BPC) especially in lesser developed partner nations (PN). This program supports irregular warfare efforts that help prepare PN to defend and govern themselves by demonstrating an airlift capability that is consistent with their needs for supporting infrastructure, performance, anticipated methods of employment, acquisition and sustainment costs, and multi-role/multi-mission capability.
You’ll remember that we reported the initial fielding of the XM320 side-loading H&K 40mm grenade launcher last summer. Well, a look at the current budget docs shows the Army is asking for $38 million to purchase over 9,000 of the guns both using regular procurement funds and so-called “overseas contingency operations” funds.
Documents show the Army has already budgeted for about 12,000 of the guns since 2009.
There’s also money in the budget for the XM26 modular shotgun, you’ll remember we gave this a whirl a few years ago and got (not much of) a real kick out of the idea. The Army bought about 5,000 of the shotguns in 2009, none in 2010, and is asking for 3,600 in 2011.
Anyone out there who’s used this system, ping us at the Tip Line or in the comments section and let us now how it works.
It’s with great sadness that I report to you that Pentagon Comptroller Robert Hale just said at his briefing that 2010 would be the last year that the Pentagon would buy the venerable High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle.
Budget documents released today show that the the Pentagon is devoting about $1 million to replace war losses of Humvees, but will buy none over and above the current numbers. The Pentagon budgeted for about 8,000 Humvees in FY 2010 to the tune of $1.3 billion.
We’ll likely get more info on how serious the Army is about the JLTV, the Humvee’s replacement, at the Army breakout in a few minutes. But it’s just gigantic that the newest budget zeros out funds for the Humvee. Since about 1985, the Humvee has served very well in a variety of roles both as its originally intended support vehicle role and as a no joke combat vehicle in Iraq and Afghanistan. About 100,000 have been produced in various configurations for the US military.
I’ve logged many hours in Humvees of various configurations and I had to good fortune to travel to Mishawaka, Ind., and South Bend, to see the production facility and drive the AM General test track in an uparmored Humvee. I’m psyched about the possibilities of the JLTV and feel that it’s high time we moved away from the Humvee, but I’ll look back with great affection at that cramped, dusty, bumpy, creaky, stinky, hot, bull-dog-tough truck.
UPDATE: Army budget officials Lt. Gen. Edgar Stanton said at the breakout that “we reached the end of the line with the Humvee a sooner than we expected.” Fewer losses in Iraq and Afghanistan and the introduction of the M-ATV makes for “fewer uses for the Humvee.”
I know this has been out for a day, but I got to admit I had no idea when I was trolling the booths at SHOT that this was going down. In fact, with so many attendees and so many vendors, it’s not surprising the rumors hadn’t even spread through the press by the end of the day.
According to FBI releases, the Justice Department arrested 22 execs from a variety of tactical and weapons products companies (both large and small) on Tuesday for allegedly agreeing to pay bribes to a fictional African government to outfit its presidential security detail. Twenty one of those execs were arrested Tuesday at SHOT in Vegas (guess they missed the Crye bash with Mini KISS)…
The FBI won’t say which companies the arrested execs work for, since the companies themselves are not alleged to have committed any crimes, a spokeswoman told Defense Tech/Military.com today. But she did point me to a list of the indictments where you can put two and two together and find out which companies are in the sting.
One of the alleged bribers is Patrick Caldwell (with alleged co-conspirator Stephen Giordanella), who was only 10 days ago named named CEO of Sunrise, Fla.-based Protective Products, a big time competitor to Point Blank for body armor contracts. PPA was the original winner of the Marine Corps MTV contract.
On or about May 14, 2009, at the Mandarin Oriental meeting in Miami, CALDWELL and GIORDANELLA agreed to proceed with the Country A deal, after being told that in order’ to win the Country A business, Company A would need to add a 20% “commission” to the invoices it sent to VA-J in connection with the Phase One and Phase Two deals, half of which would be paid to Country A’s Minister of Defense and half of which would be kicked back in the form of a commission split between Individual I and VA-I as a fee for their corrupt services. CALDWELL and GIORDANELLA further agreed to proceed with the Phase One deal knowing that the purpose of the Phase One deal was to show Country A’s Minister of Defense that the Minister of Defense would personally receive a 10% “commission” on the deal.
Whoa…And the rest of the alleged conspirators are accused of doing almost exactly the same thing.
In another indictment, Israel “Wayne” Weisler, the CEO of US Cavalry, a huge supplier of uniforms, armor and other tactical gear is accused of doing basically the same thing Caldwell and Giordanella are accused of. In meeting at the Ritz in DC back in May, FBI agents posing as officials from African country “A” convinced Weisler and his colleague, Michael Sacks, to pay 20 percent kickbacks on an upwards of $15 million deal.
The list is long, and through some Google-ing, I found what I think are a couple of associations (thanks to Laura Rozen over at Politico for doing some digging as well) but let’s “energize the grid” and see if our astute readers can dig up some more (I’m adding the companies that I think are associated with the accused in BOLD)…
Some of them are small fry, trying to horn in on some of the lucrative arms and gear business. But some like Protective Products, US Cav and Smith and Wesson whould know better.
Daniel Alvirez, 32, and Lee Allen Tolleson, 25, the president and director of acquisitions and logistics at a company in Bull Shoals, Ark., that manufactures and sells law enforcement and military equipment (ALS Technologies)
Helmie Ashiblie, 44, the vice president and founder of a company in Woodbridge, Va., that supplies tactical bags and other security-related articles for law enforcement agencies and governments worldwide; (i-SHOT, Inc.)
Andrew Bigelow, 40, the managing partner and director of government programs for a Sarasota, Fla., company that sells machine guns, grenade launchers and other small arms and accessories; (GunSearch.com)
R. Patrick Caldwell, 61, and Stephen Gerard Giordanella, 50, the current and former chief executive officers of a Sunrise, Fla., company that designs and manufactures concealable and tactical body armor; (Protective Products)
Yochanan R. Cohen, aka Yochi Cohen, 47, the chief executive officer of a San Francisco company that manufactures security equipment, including body armor and ballistic plates; (HighCom Security)
Haim Geri, 50, the president of a North Miami Beach, Fla., company that serves as a sales agent for companies in the law enforcement and military products industries; (HighTech USA)
Amaro Goncalves, 49, the vice president of sales for a Springfield, Mass., company that designs and manufactures firearms, firearm safety/security products, rifles, firearms systems and accessories; (Smith and Wesson)
John Gregory Godsey, aka Greg Godsey, 37, and Mark Frederick Morales, 37, the owner and agent of a Decatur, Ga., company that sells ammunition and other law enforcement and military equipment;
Saul Mishkin, 38, the owner and chief executive officer of an Aventura, Fla., company that sells law enforcement and military equipment;
John M. Mushriqui, 28, and Jeana Mushriqui, 30, the director of international development and general counsel/U.S. manager of an Upper Darby, Penn., company that manufactures and exports bulletproof vests and other law enforcement and military equipment; (Mushriqui Consulting L.L.C.)
David R. Painter, 56, and Lee M. Wares, 43, the chairman and director of a United Kingdom company that markets armored vehicles;
Pankesh Patel, 43, the managing director of a United Kingdom company that acts as sales agent for companies in the law enforcement and military products industries;
Ofer Paz, 50, the president and chief executive officer of an Israeli company that acts as sales agent for companies in the law enforcement and military products industries;
Jonathan M. Spiller, 58, the owner and president of a Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., company that markets and sells law enforcement and military equipment;
Israel Weisler, aka Wayne Weisler, 63, and Michael Sacks, 66, owners and co-chief executive officers of a Stearns, Ky., company that designs, manufactures and sells armor products, including body armor; (US Cavalry)
John Benson Wier III, 46, the president of a St. Petersburg, Fla., company that sells tactical and ballistic equipment. (SRT Supply)
[UPDATE: At the request of DT reader and commenter “Anon” I have posted a link to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act which the FBI alleges these suspects violated with their 20 percent kickback]
I’ll try to stay off my soapbox, but two points are worth mentioning. First, as noted by McNeal, is that the primary function of the federal government is to provide for the common defense — not health care, green initiatives (readers: please don’t try to combine global warming projections into security, as some are wont to do. It’s lame) and corporate bailouts. Second, and perhaps more importantly, is the fact that our powerful military exists to prevent a war as much as it exists to win a war. Si vis pacem, para bellum, if you will. One can argue that our strategic nuclear deterrent accomplishes this well enough, but I’m not convinced. I’d rather spend 5%-6% of our GDP on ensuring we never have to suffer through another WWI or WWII. One can argue Vietnam, Iraq, et al… but neither of those conflicts came close to the cost of the major theater level wars — both in lives and treasure lost. Back in the day, people ridiculed Reagan’s “Peace through strength.” When December 1991 rolled around, no one was laughing. –John Noonan
Remember Dick Cheney? No, not the vice president, the Secretary of Defense. Well, back in 1991 he cancelled the A-12 “Avenger II” program because of massive cost overruns. But JUST NOW the program was legally terminated. Here’s an excerpt from an article running at Military.com:
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has affirmed a judgment upholding the Navy’s termination for default of a contract with McDonnell Douglas and General Dynamics for the A-12 stealth attack aircraft. In 1988, the Navy awarded the $4.8 billion fixed-price contract for development of the A-12, which was to be a stealthy, carrier-based attack aircraft. The program encountered serious technical difficulties, and in 1991, after the Department of Defense refused to approve additional funding for the program; the Navy terminated the contract because it was substantially over budget and behind schedule. On appeal for the third time, the court of appeals on June 2, 2009 affirmed the 2007 judgment of Court of Federal Claims Judge Robert B. Hodges Jr., holding that the Navy had properly terminated the contract for default. Under the decision, the contractors are required to repay the government more than $1.35 billion in principal for funds advanced under the contract, plus interest accruing since 1991, for a total sum that currently approaches $2.8 billion.
Man, I’d hate to be working for McDonnell Douglas these days. Oh, wait …
When the Department of the Navy temporarily runs low on spending money, it can’t put routine carrier maintenance on a Visa card, nor take out a Citibank mortgage on a hospital ship to pay huge fleet fuel-oil invoices. It has to defer, or forego altogether, things really needed now. The USN is currently suffering a shortfall of almost $420 million in working cash for non-warfighting necessities for the remainder of fiscal year 2009. Defense analysts suggest that this problem, which isn’t entirely new or unique to the Navy, arose because the Pentagon doesn’t fully budget in advance for routine needs and predictable upkeep costs. Senator Jim Webb (D-VA), a former Secretary of the Navy, and President Obama are among those trying to change that.
In the meantime, ships not now in combat theaters are having cruising time cut back, and the air wings are facing reduced flying hours. While more training is going on in land-based simulators instead, this could lead to reduced readiness when the units deploy overseas — and it sends a visible, bad message to the warriors about who does or doesn’t support them.
Thousands of personnel transfers normally done in the summer months are being delayed into FY10 (which starts on October 1, 2009), when more money is expected to be available to cover moving expenses. This means parents with kids will have to relocate in the middle of the upcoming school year, which puts added domestic strains on everyone involved. Retention bonuses are being abruptly discontinued, at least for a while, in all but the most prized specialties. While Navy retention has been good lately due to unemployment in the private sector, those bonuses were counted on by many Sailors and dependents to help make ends meet. The USN has been striving to better support good home life, secure from unnecessary service-enforced disruptions. Now it seems like all involved are losing ground.
The Navy is also cutting back on or eliminating sending ships to yearly Fleet Weeks and harbor festivals along America’s three coasts. Given how hard the Navy worked to try to engage the public on the importance of seapower, during the recent “Conversation with America” program, the conspicuous absence of haze-gray vessels and aircraft this year in so many seaports is bound to erode the benefits of that engagement process. It also means that the general public will become yet more socially isolated from its Sailors, who normally pour ashore during Fleet Weeks to tour and shop and mingle, with positive local media coverage that this year will not happen.
These seem like good reasons for the Department of the Navy to stop relying on mid-year supplementals, whose prompt full approval by Congress is never assured, to pay for normal day-to-day expenditures. The hidden or soft costs of this practice are very real costs.
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