Canada is eyeing a defence spending boost. Here’s where experts say extra cash should go - National | Globalnews.ca

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  January 27, 2020 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security

  Lockheed adds Dunford, former top US military officer, to board

  By: Aaron Mehta WASHINGTON — Lockheed Martin has added Joe Dunford, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to its board of directors, the company announced Friday. Dunford, the Marine general who retired out of service at the end of September 2019, will become the 12th member of Lockheed's board come Feb. 10 of this year. He will serve on the board's Classified Business and Security Committee as well as its Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee. "General Dunford's service to the nation at the highest levels of military leadership will bring valuable insight to our board," Marillyn Hewson, chairman, president and CEO of Lockheed Martin, said in a statement. "His experience in complex, global operations and risk management, including cybersecurity threats, is a tremendous asset and will enhance board oversight in key business areas." Lockheed Martin is the world's largest defense contractor, with $50.5 billion in defense revenue in fiscal 2018. The announcement may spur renewed calls by good government groups to close the so-called “revolving door” between the Pentagon and the defense industry, an issue that has taken on new life given the number of industry executives who have joined the defense department under President Donald Trump. That list is most prominently headlined by Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, a former Raytheon executive, and Pat Shanahan, a Boeing executive who was confirmed as deputy secretary of defense and then served six months as the acting secretary to start 2019 before departing the building. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a top nominee for the Democratic nomination for president, has called for a ban on defense primes hiring senior Pentagon officials and officers for four years after they leave retire. https://www.defensenews.com/industry/2020/01/25/lockheed-adds-dunford-former-top-us-military-officer-to-board

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  October 16, 2020 | International, Land

  Soldiers to evaluate new light tank prototypes

  Jen Judson WASHINGTON — The U.S. Army is preparing a soldier vehicle assessment of two different light tank prototypes for infantry brigade combat teams that will start in January 2021 at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. The assessment will run through June 2021, according to the service. BAE Systems and General Dynamics Land Systems were chosen in December 2018 to each build 12 prototypes of the Army's future mobile protected firepower, or MPF, vehicle identified in the service's ground combat vehicle strategy published in 2015. The service had found the capability one the service lacks. GDLS is building a vehicle that takes the United Kingdom's AJAX chassis and combines it with an M1 Abrams tank turret. BAE Systems' design is an updated M8 Buford armored gun system with new capabilities and components. “I just had my deep dive today on the SVA [soldier vehicle assessment] with the 82nd [Airborne],” Maj. Gen. Brian Cummings, the Army's program executive officer for ground combat systems, told Defense News in a recent interview. Work is ongoing to prepare ranges and roads for the arrival of the prototypes, he said. The MPF is going to be critical for the infantry because it provides infantry brigade combat teams with an organic capability to take care of impediments to forward progression such as gunfire from a machine gun nest or another enemy vehicle. The Army is expected to choose a winner in 2022. The first units will get MPF in fiscal 2025. The Army plans to initially build 26 vehicles, with an option to build 28 more and retrofit eight prototypes. GDLS told Defense News in an interview ahead of the Association of the U.S. Army's annual conference that it has delivered three vehicles to the Army. One is at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, going through characterization and mobility testing and preparing for firing. Another is at Yuma Proving Grounds, Arizona, undergoing desert testing and preparing for soldier training. Five more prototypes are in “some form of checkout, getting ready for their final inspection report to deliver to the government,” a GDLS spokesperson said, and the company is on track to deliver all of the vehicles this year. BAE is looking forward to the assessment because the two prototypes are so different from one another, said Jim Miller, the company's senior business development director for combat vehicles. The BAE's offering is smaller — fitting in between the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle and a Stryker in terms of size — while GDLS' vehicle is bigger, as it's based on the M1 Abrams chassis. The BAE's MPF prototype can be transported via a C-130 aircraft. Three can fit on a C-17 aircraft. And even though it is small, it has the survivability of BAE's Armored Multipurpose Vehicle, Miller said. The Army is requiring the vehicle be C-17 transportable. Soldier assessments for other recent competitions have weighed heavily into decisions, Miller added. “I think the soldier vehicle assessment is going to be really important,” he said. “Did we get this right? Now which one is closer to the mark?” https://www.defensenews.com/digital-show-dailies/ausa/2020/10/15/soldiers-to-evaluate-new-light-tank-prototypes/

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  September 30, 2019 | International, Aerospace, Naval

  BAE nets $2.7B for APKWS guidance units for rocket upgrades

  ByTauren Dyson Sept. 26 (UPI) -- BAE Systems was awarded a $2.7 billion contract by the Navy for Advanced Precision Kill Weapon Systems II upgrades, pushing the program into full-rate production. The contract, announced Wednesday, will procure WGU-59/B units to upgrade the current 2.75-inch rocket system to a semi-active laser-guided precision that support Navy, Army and Air Force. The award also includes foreign military sales for the governments of Australia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Netherlands, Jordan, Philippines, Tunisia and United Kingdom. The APKWS guidance kit converts an otherwise unguided 2.75-inch rocket into a weapon with semi-active laser-guided precision. The rocket is capable of being fired from more than 20 different fixed- and rotary-wing platforms. These platforms include the widely used AH-64D/E Apache, AH-1W/Z Super Cobra and Viper, and UH-60L/M Black Hawk helicopters, as well as the F-16 Fighting Falcon, A-10 Thunderbolt and AV-8B Harrier aircraft. According to BAE, APKWS rockets have over a 93 percent hit rate. In February, BAE won a previous contract for $225 million to provide the same APKWS upgrades for the Defense Department. Work on the new contract will be performed in New Hampshire and Texas, and is expected to be completed by December 2025. https://www.upi.com/Defense-News/2019/09/26/BAE-nets-27B-for-APKWS-guidance-units-for-rocket-upgrades