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Mission Success Starts with a CLEAR PICTURE
Maritime Surveillance Radar Systems
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TEL AVIV — A visit to the IsraelNavy’s high command center, thefirst ever by an international
media organization, validates theold truism that first impressionsare often deceiving.
Belying the stark simplicity ofthe cramped basement war roomknown here as Mishlei — a He-
brew acronym for Supreme Con-trol Post — is a sophisticatedsensor-fused command-and-con-
trol network that supports powerprojection, allows for interopera-
bility with air and land forces, andprovides a high-fidelity picture ofmaritime activity hundreds of
miles beyond Israeli borders.From here, through a handful of
screens and workstations, Israel’s
smallest service monitors themore than 90 percent of Israelicommerce that comes from the
sea and controls an operationaltheater many times larger than theIsraeli airspace and ground terri-
tory combined. Through an in-house-developed
C4 network, the Mishlei builds a
continuously fortified situationalpicture from stationary coastal
See ISRAEL NAVY, Page 6
Inside Israel Navy’s High Command Center
JACK GUEZ/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
High-Seas Intercept: Israeli naval commandos stand on the deck aboard the
Panamanian-flagged Klos-C as it is escorted into the southern Israeli port of Eilat by
Israeli warships on March 8, 2014, after it was intercepted by the Israeli Navy.
Fused DataFortifiesMaritime Control
By BARBARA OPALL-ROMEWASHINGTON — Boeing, which
along with partner Lockheed Mar-tin submitted the losing bid in thecompetition to build the US Air
Force’s new Long Range StrikeBomber, filed a protest Friday withthe Government Accountability
Office over the Defense Depart-ment awarding the contract to Nor-
throp Grumman on Oct. 27.The GAO now has 100 days to re-
view the protest and issue a ruling.
Boeing and Lockheed Martincalled the selection process for theLRS-B “fundamentally flawed” in a
joint statement. Specifically, theytake issue with the government’scost evaluation, saying it did not
properly reward the team’s propos-als to break the upward-spiralinghistorical cost curves of defense
acquisitions, and did not properlyevaluate the relative or compara-tive risk of Northrop Grumman’s
ability to perform, as the solicita-tion required.
Northrop Grumman, maker of
the stealth B-2 bomber, won theaward in part because of a project-ed cost per plane of $511 million in
2010 dollars, well below the Penta-gon’s cost cap of $550 million. Infiscal 2016 dollars, those figures
translate into $563 million and$606 million, respectively.
Randy Belote, Northrop Grum-
man’s vice president of strategiccommunications, said in a state-
ment that the company is “disap-
pointed” by the protest. The AirForce’s “thorough and disciplined
process” took into full account the
bids’ abilities to execute the pro-
Boeing ProtestsNorthrop’sLRS-B Contract
By ANDREW CLEVENGER and LARA SELIGMAN
See BOMBER PROTEST, Page 8
WASHINGTON — When the US de-
stroyer Lassen passed near a new-ly built artificial island on SubiReef in the South China Sea’s
Spratly Islands on Oct. 27, it wasalready being escorted by severalChinese Navy warships. The US
ship represented a challenge to
China’s attempt to create land anddeclare it and the surrounding
areas sovereign territory.
The Chinese naval ships, report-
ed a US Navy source, behaved pro-fessionally during the Lassen’stransit. “They shadowed the Las-
sen but stayed at a safe distance.”But several smaller vessels, de-
scribed by the source as merchant
ships or fishing vessels, were moreprovocative, crossing the Lassen’sbow and maneuvering around the
destroyer even as they kept theirdistance.
“There were Chinese merchant
vessels present that were not asdemure as the Chinese Navy,” the
US Navy source said Oct. 30. “One
came out of its anchorage in the is-
land and crossed the destroyer’s
See CHINA PROXIES, Page 6
China’s ‘Little Blue Men’ Take Navy’s Place in Disputes
By CHRISTOPHER P. CAVAS
US NAVY
Proxy Confrontation: A Chinese trawler
manned by maritime militia attempts to
interfere with the US intelligence ship
Impeccable in March 2009 in the South
China Sea.
EUROPE
Setting New PrioritiesBritain expects soon to release itsnew Strategic Defence and Secu-rity Review, along with a new
national security strategy. Page 4
18 Turkey: US footdragging irks officials.
NORTH AMERICA
Boost for Navy?Canada’s maritime industry ex-pects a financial lift with a with-
drawal from the F-35 program.Page 18
3 US: Lockheed completes Sikorsky buy.
ASIA & PACIFIC RIM
China Expands ReachBy deploying advanced fighter
aircraft to Woody Island in theSouth China Sea, Beijing broad-ens its ability to control and
intimidate. Page 24
INTERVIEW
Homaid Al ShemmariThe chairman ofEmirates DefenceIndustries Com-
pany discusses global defenseindustry trends, the changinggeopolitical landscape around the
UAE, and efforts to develop itsmilitary industry. Page 30
Note to ReadersThe next print issue of DefenseNews following this double issue
will publish Nov. 30. Follow thelatest news at DefenseNews.com.
MIDDLE EASTSECURITY 11
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November 9-16, 2015
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InBrief
WASHINGTON — Lockheed Martincompleted its $9 billion acquisition
of Sikorsky Aircraft on Friday, re-placing United Technologies as theAmerican helicopter maker’s par-
ent company. “Today we are proud to welcome
the Sikorsky team to Lockheed
Martin,” said Marillyn Hewson,Lockheed Martin chairman, presi-dent and CEO, in a prepared state-
ment. “Lockheed Martin andSikorsky share a legacy of innova-
tion and performance that hasshaped the history of aviation formore than a century.”
Lockheed Martin named DanSchultz, former vice president ofLockheed’s Ship & Aviation Sys-
tems segment, as president of Si-korsky. Sikorsky will be assignedto Lockheed Martin’s Mission Sys-
tems and Training business unit.In a recent interview with De-
fense News, Samir Mehta, presi-
dent of Sikorsky’s DefenseSystems & Services unit, said
while talks between the company
and its new owner were limited today-one integration while the salewas pending, the two companies
appear to be a good fit.“Lockheed’s a great company so
we’re excited about joining that
portfolio,” Mehta said. The two companies have already
worked on the presidential heli-
copter and naval programs, sothere is already an established re-lationship between the two com-
panies, he said. “I think it’s fair to say that they
are excited by some of the thingswe’re working on, and we’re excit-ed by some of the things they’re
working on,” he said. “I think it willbe a good fit. Once we’re part of thefamily they’ll have to make inde-
pendent judgments, but the feed-back we’re [receiving] across theboard has been pretty positive.”
Customers, both in the US andabroad, have asked whether Sikor-sky, maker of the Army’s iconic
Black Hawk helicopter, will retainits corporate identity, he said.
“Lockheed didn’t go and buy our
company and pay $9 billion to turnus into a department of Lockheed.Part of what they paid for was the
brand, the reputation, the historyand the legacy, all the things that
go with it. I don’t think they want todestroy value there, either,” hesaid.
Even under new ownership, thekey to success will be to focus onproviding customers with a com-
petitive advantage on the battle-field, Mehta said.
“If you keep that in mind and in-
novate technologies and prod-ucts,” he said, and keep them“aimed towards that singular ob-
jective of maintaining that compet-itive advantage on the battlefield,
you will win. Your ideas will win
out. Your technology will win out.”The deal, one of the largest de-
fense mergers in recent memory,
caused Pentagon acquisitionschief Frank Kendall to suggest that
congressional action may be nec-essary to give the US Defense De-partment the ability to disallow
certain deals deemed not to be inthe Pentagon’s best interest.
While not specifically criticizing
the Lockheed-Sikorsky deal, Ken-dall indicated that he was con-cerned by the trend toward few
prime platform contractors in thedefense industrial base. N
Staff writer Aaron Mehta contributed tothis report.
Lockheed CompletesSikorsky Acquisition
By ANDREW CLEVENGER
MC3 ANDRE RICHARD/US NAVY
Team Effort: Sikorsky and Lockheed Martin already cooperate in building the MH-60RSea Hawk helicopter for the US and allied navies, with Sikorsky handling the airframewhile Lockheed supplies the mission systems. Here, an MH-60R flies near the Aegisdestroyer Chung-Hoon.
Netherlands Sticks With Patriot The Netherlands has decided to
modernize its existing Raytheon-
made Patriot air and missile de-fense batteries instead of buying anew system like Lockheed Mar-
tin’s Medium Extended Air De-fense System.
The decision doesn’t help build
the momentum that Lockheed andMBDA Deutschland — who arejointly developing MEADS for Ger-
many — are hoping to gain for
MEADS among NATO countries.Instead of buying MEADS, an in-
dustry source said, the Dutch will
modernize their Patriot batteriesbetween 2017 and 2021, extending
the system’s life to at least 2040.The Dutch reasoned, according
to the source, that modernizing Pa-
triot would be better than waitingfor a system that likely won’t be
completed inside of 10 years.
The Dutch recently removed itsPatriot batteries from Turkey’sborder with Syria in order to mod-
ernize the systems. The US also re-moved its batteries.
Italy Wins US OK To Arm ReaperYears of frustrated waiting by
Italian Air Force officials finally
ended with US State Departmentapproval of arming Italy’s ReaperUAVs.
The deal, which must still be cer-tified by Congress, will make Italy
the second country after the UK to
be authorized by the US to arm itsReapers, and comes four years af-
ter Italy first requested permission
in 2011.The green light from the US in-
volves a $129.6 million deal, with
General Atomics acting as primecontractor, for weapons purchasesby Italy. The proposed sale in-
cludes 156 AGM-114R2 Hellfire IImissiles, 20 GBU-12 laser-guided
bombs, 30 GBU-38 Joint Direct At-
tack Munitions and other arma-ments.
Egypt Receives Delayed F-16sThe Egyptian Air Force has tak-
en delivery of the final four of 20
ex-US Air Force Block 52 F-16Dmultirole fighter jets in yet anothersign of thawing diplomatic and de-
fense relations between the na-tions.
The US halted delivery of the
jets, which were ordered in 2006,along with other key items underthe $1.3 billion annual US military
aid package to Egypt in July 2013
after the Army toppled the coun-try’s first democratically elected
president, Mohammed Morsi, in a
bloody coup that was led by cur-rent President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi.
In March of this year, US Presi-dent Barack Obama signed a de-cree to restore military aid to
Egypt. In July, eight F-16s were de-livered to Egypt; the last four air-
craft arrived Nov. 4.
NATO Chief: Counter RussiansNATO head Jens Stoltenberg
said the alliance must counter aRussian military build-up in theBaltic, Black Sea and eastern Med-
iterranean, which could give Mos-cow control of key areas in a crisis,Agence France-Presse reported.
He said the alliance must alsoconsider doing more to reassureeastern member states, which
have been unnerved by Russia’s in-tervention in Ukraine.
As ties with the West have deteri-
orated, Russia has boosted its mil-itary presence in its Kaliningrad
enclave, which sits west of and on
the blind-side of the Baltic states.Moscow also has deployed troops,aircraft and Navy ships to Syria.
Stoltenberg said Russia is gain-ing the ability to exercise controlover strategic points, and NATO
must ensure it can carry out itsmissions in this environment. N
FOR THE RECORD
n Tom Neil discusses his days as a WorldWar II wing commander in the Royal Air Forceduring the Battle of Britain.n Retired Capt. Max Duncan, US Navy,discusses submarine patrols and the spirit ofinnovation in the Pacific during World War II. n Commission Vice Chair Edwin Foun-
tain, US World War One Centennial Commis-sion, reviews commission efforts to build amemorial commemorating World War I.TV.DefenseNews.com
MOST POPULAR
On the WebLockheed Gets Nod for $5B JSF
Deal
With a preliminary agreement in hand, talksbetween Lockheed Martin and the Pentagonfor the Joint Strike Fighter Lot IX Joint Strikelow-rate initial production contract continue. DefenseNews.com
On VideoF-35 Fires Gun During Aerial Test
for First Time
For the first time, a US Air Force F-35 fighterjet has fired its internal gun from the air.DefenseNews.com
On TwitterRussian Militancy Drives Eastern
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4 DefenseNews November 9 - 16, 2015 www.defensenews.com
WorldNews
LONDON — Five years after Britain’s dire fi-nances triggered a Strategic Defence and Se-
curity Review (SDSR) that axed capabilities,force numbers, readiness and ambition, thegovernment gets to have another go at set-
ting out its military priorities in the next fewweeks when it wheels out the new version ofthe review.
A more capable intelligence, surveillanceand target-acquisition force, reversing cuts
to combat aircraft numbers, a decision onthe size of the F-35 fleet, a commitment tothe new Type 26 frigates, spending on inno-
vation, improving readiness levels andgreater international partnerships could beamong the themes the SDSR will address,
said analysts and others. The week starting Nov. 23 has been pen-
ciled in to release the SDSR, along with a
new national security strategy and a govern-ment-wide spending review.
The Ministry of Defence budget may effec-
tively be protected, but the departmentcould still be required to meet huge efficien-cy savings targets as part of the spending re-
view. While July’s unexpectedly positive five-
year defense-spending settlement has put
the MoD in a much better place, toughchoices remain for the government on prior-ities across a range of equipment, manpow-
er and other issues.It’s not just the budgetary situation that
has changed the standing of defense.
Analysts said the government now acceptsthat the rapidly changing geopolitical situa-tion posed by Russian aggression, develop-
ments in the Middle East and North Africa,and the growing pressures on homeland se-
curity require a revised approach.
One of the capability judgments the Brit-ish must make is whether Russia will be the
potential enemy against which it measures
its forces, said Ben Barry, senior fellow forland warfare at the International Institute ofStrategic Studies think tank in London.
“The UK has to decide whether Russiancombat capability is to be its benchmark,”he said. “If Britain is serious about contrib-
uting to NATO deterrence then the forces itsends to exercise in the alliances front-linestates need to be of sufficient quality to act
as a real deterrent. That has big implicationsfor armoured vehicle and other programs.”
The international dimension of SDSR will
likely be reflected by the British bolsteringdefense engagement and overseas partner-ships, analysts said.
“A new naval base is being built for the
Royal Navy in Bahrain and foreign secretaryPhilip Hammond said at the Manama Dia-
logue last week that Britain would shortlygo further and unveil a new Gulf strategy,”Barry said. “That may involve a more sus-
tained presence in the region with exer-cises, deployments and even some modestforward basing of forces.”
Alex Ashbourne Walmsley, of Ashbourne
Strategic Consulting, said there will likelybe more emphasis on international partner-
ships, as well.
“You can expect cooperation not just withour usual partners, France and the US, but
also with the Netherlands and Germany,”she said. “Look for announcements comingup on joint training, and cooperation in
counter terrorism and cyber.”While the likely contents of SDSR 2015 are
now known to only a select few politicians,
military officers and civil servants, therehave been several broad pointers as to whatit may contain.
Most prominently, Gen. Sir NicholasHoughton, the chief of the defense staff, out-lined some possible priorities during a Sep-
tember speech to the Chatham House think
tank. He picked out war-fighting resilience,boosting special forces, spending more on
innovation, increasing RAF combat num-bers, improving surveillance and targetingcapabilities, and resolving critical manpow-
er shortage challenges among the key issueson the SDSR agenda.
Houghton’s speech followed earlier state-
ments supporting raised ISTAR and specialforces spending by Prime Minister David
Cameron after the Conservative general
election win in May.Last month, Cameron preempted the
SDSR by announcing that the Royal Air
Force (RAF) was to buy more than 20 un-manned air vehicles to replace the 10 armedPredator machines presently deployed
against the Islamic State group in Iraq andSyria.
There’s also a hangar full of other capa-
bility issues that could be addressed, includ-ing committing to a new maritime patrolaircraft, improving cyber defense and offen-
sive capacity, extending the out-of-servicedate of the C-130J Hercules fleet and goingahead with a new mechanized infantry vehi-
cle for the British Army.
In terms of capital spending, the Navy willbe the main beneficiary with a renewedcommitment to the new nuclear deterrent,
the operation of the second aircraft and,possibly, the trailing of a future submarinecapability beyond the Astute hunter-killers
now entering service, Ashbourne-Walmsleysaid.
Howard Wheeldon, an analyst who spe-
cializes in air power, said he thought theSDSR would roll back some decisions madefive years ago to reduce fighter squadron
numbers. Two additional Typhoon squadrons made
up of Tranche 1 standard aircraft due to be
taken out of service in 2019 and, eventually,another F-35 squadron could be added tothe lineup, he said during a private briefing
of executives at a London law firm lastweek.
Defence Procurement Minister Philip
Dunne confirmed in Parliament Nov. 4 thatextending the lift of Tranche 1aircraft is part
of the SDSR deliberations.Wheeldon also said he expects to see the
RAF’s Sentry E-3 airborne early warning air-
craft fleet upgraded and retained in serviceuntil 2035 and the Sentinel battlefield sur-veillance platform continued until at least
2021, rather than being taken out of servicein 2019 as planned.
Ashbourne-Walmsley cautions, though,
that the SDSR may cover the capability is-sues but avoid the detail.
“I don’t think SDSR will be nearly as spe-
cific as people want,” she said. “The MoDwill be wanting to keep its options openrather than be precise about announce-
ments on kit or force numbers.“They have virtually no new money to
spend in the next two years, so why would
they box themselves in with detailed pro-curement announcements now?” she said.
One example of that is the decision about
whether or not to replace a maritime patrolaircraft (MPA) capability axed in 2010’sSDSR.
Sources say the government is unlikely togo much further than state a commitment tothe MPA requirement in the SDSR, rather
than go with the RAF’s preference to buy theBoeing P-8 or run a competition.
It’s not just military capabilities that are
likely to be on the review menu, either. In-dustrial capabilities will also be on the agen-
da.
Paul Everitt, CEO of the ADS Group de-fense and aerospace trade lobby, said thatthe message from industry has been about
the need to encourage research and devel-opment, the wider prosperity agenda, secu-rity of supply and sustaining key
capabilities.“I don’t know the detail of what they are
likely to say but innovation will be a key
theme, the prosperity agenda will be a keytheme and there will be some recognition ofthe economic and industrial contribution
made by the defense and security sectors,”he said. N
Email: achuter@defensenews.com.
MARCOS MORENO/AFP
New Capability: HMS Astute, one of the British Royal Navy’s new nuclear-powered submarines, lays at dock inGibraltar on its maiden call in March 2014.
Ahead of Latest Strategic Review,Britain Faces Tough Choices
By ANDREW CHUTER
6 DefenseNews November 9 - 16, 2015 www.defensenews.com
WORLD NEWS
sensors and onboard electronic, signals, op-tical and intelligence systems for operations
ranging from mere minutes to 48 hoursaway.
It was from here, underneath the Navy’s
administrative headquarters in the IsraelDefense Forces (IDF) compound in Tel Aviv,that Lt. Col. A., commander of the service’s
Maritime Control Group, spent 51days mon-itoring the beaches for enemy frogmen andcontrolling on behalf of upper-echelon brass
a third of all IDF artillery fired in the sum-
mer 2014 Gaza War.And it was here, from a setup smaller than
a typical municipal emergency response
center, that the same young officer man-aged the March 2014 capture of an Iranian
arms cache in international waters some
1,500 kilometers from Israel’s Red Sea port. “I sat here, next to the chief of staff of the
Navy and there sat the IDF chief of staff and
the defense minister. It was all managedfrom here,” the officer recalled of the high-
seas seizure of Klos C, a Russian-built, Mar-
shall Islands-owned, Panamanian flaggedweapons smuggling ship.
“Mishlei is the heart that manages and
controls all the activities of the Israel Navy.
We open it only in combat operations, spe-
cial missions or emergency situations ... andwe’re connected to all the other service and
territorial command centers feeding into
the pit,” the officer said, using the slang ref-erence for the IDF General Staff’s J3 opera-
tional center.He added, “In the Israel Navy, size doesn’t
matter. For us, it’s sufficient. And more im-
portantly, we know how to work in parallelto other posts.”
Col. G., commander of the Navy’s C4
Branch, noted that the central command-and-control network connecting all air-, sur-face-, undersea- and coastal-based sensors
and communications systems was devel-
oped at the service’s software developmentcenter in Haifa.
“We develop the capabilities exactly tai-
lored to our mission. Whether they’re on thecoast or on individual platforms, the entireIsrael Navy is connected by our in-house
systems,” the officer said. “And with thesupport of the IDF C4I branch, we’re con-
nected strategically with other services and
we’re becoming increasingly joined at thetactical levels.”
According to the Navy C4I chief, the ser-
vice is “a pioneer” in cyber defenses. “We’vemade huge efforts over many years to devel-
op cyber-secure capabilities, systems and
ISRAEL NAVYFrom Page 1
See ISRAEL NAVY, Page 8
bow but at a safe distance, and theLassen did not alter course as themerchant ship circled around.”
Fishing vessels in the area addedto shipping traffic in the immedi-ate area, the source said. But the
extra craft seem to have been pre-sent, the source noted, “becausethey anticipated the Lassen’s tran-
sit.”China has been known to use ci-
vilian ships as government prox-
ies, often to harass foreign vessels,and several analysts have beenscrutinizing current and recent in-
cidents to determine who’s onboard those mysterious vessels.
Andrew Erickson, an associate
professor at the US Naval War Col-lege and well-known authority onChinese naval and maritime af-
fairs, is pretty sure he knows. Hesuspects the Chinese naval militia,forces he’s dubbed “little blue
men” — a reference to the “littlegreen men” employed by Russia in
Crimea and the Ukraine to insinu-ate military forces into a regionwithout clear identification.
One clue, Erickson noted, is thatthere usually aren’t that many fish-ing vessels around Subi Reef.
“Actual numbers of fishing ves-sels regularly present in the Sprat-lys appear relatively low,” he
observed Nov. 2. “If you look at itrationally, it’s pretty clear the oper-ators of those fishing boats were
maritime militia, especially tohave done that maneuver” aroundthe destroyer’s bow.
“China is trying to use these gov-ernment-controlled fisherman be-low the radar to get the bonus
without the onus to support itsSouth China Sea claims,” Ericksonsaid. “It’s a phenomenon little-
known or understood in the US.“While Russia’s little green men
in Crimea are widely known, insuf-
ficient attention has been paid toChina’s little blue men in the SouthChina Sea,” he said. “It’s so differ-
ent from what the US does. Peoplearen’t familiar with it, it’s hard towrap their heads around it.”
At least a half dozen nations are
jockeying for territorial claims in
the western Pacific, including Chi-na, the Philippines, Vietnam,North and South Korea and Japan.
The most volatile region at the mo-ment is the South China Sea, a re-gion strewn with half-sunken or
submerged reefs that could be thekey to access energy sources, in-cluding oil and natural gas.
As the disputes have becomemore spirited, some nations, in-cluding China, have been employ-
ing coast guards and civilian shipsrather than naval units in poten-tially confrontational situations.
“As China is trying to show oppo-sition to these freedom of naviga-tion operations in the South China
Sea,” Erickson said, “we need to bemore attuned to the types of ves-sels and types of personnel they
may send there to create a morecomplex picture and even to pushback.”
Erickson and his associates havediscovered that militia have beeninvolved in numerous incidents,
including confrontations in March2009 when several Chinese fishing
vessels harassed the US intelli-gence ship Impeccable in theSouth China Sea.
“We have traced Chinese mari-time militia to direct involvementin the Impeccable incident,” Erick-
son said, “and in the HYSY 981 oilrig incident with Vietnam [whennumerous Vietnamese ships were
rammed by the Chinese, with atleast one sinking, in a three-and-a-half-month standoff in 2014], and
potentially with Chinese pressureon the Philippine resupply effort ofSecond Thomas Shoal” in March
2014, where the Philippines havestationed a grounded naval ship ona disputed shoal.
Erickson noted that at the timeof the Impeccable incident militiainvolvement was not widely dis-
cussed, but it has now been con-firmed by images and writtenevidence. Now, “we’re trying to get
ahead of the curve so that we canactually figure out who these traw-lers belong to that were spotted
near USS Lassen. I think it’s highlyunlikely that it was a coincidence.If you read Chinese maritime doc-
trine ... this is right out of the play-
book of typical techniques thatthey use and are designed for.”
Reports of the Lassen incident,Erickson observed, are “empiricalevidence matching up very closely
to what Chinese writings on themaritime militia say it’s designed
to be able to do, including obstruc-tion activities.”
The militia on board the ships
are often clearly identifiable.“They have uniforms — many if
not all of them have uniforms. We
have many photographs of themwith their uniforms,” he said. ThePLA Daily, a People’s Liberation
Army publication, even speaks tothis.
“ ‘Putting on camouflage [uni-
forms], they qualify as soldiers,’ ”
Erickson quoted. “ ‘Taking off thecamouflage, they become law-
abiding fishermen.’ ”“So China’s trying to have it two
ways here,” he noted. “Besides de-
ception and confusion, US and al-lied rules of engagement might bevery restrictive against fishermen.
“China is trying to use thesemaritime militia forces to put it in aposition that frustrates us in our
ability to respond.”Erickson and his associates have
tried to determine who is control-
ling the militia.
“The militia, often drawn fromlocal workers or demobilized
troops, are organized in a some-
what complex manner, reportinginitially to local People’s Armed
Forces Departments (PAFD).When activated, though, theycould report directly to naval au-
thorities,” Erickson said.“In peacetime their responsibil-
ities include supporting China’sNavy and Coast Guard. They al-ways answer to the People’s Liber-
ation Army through the PAFD. Butthey also report to whatever agen-cy they’re supporting at the time.”
While there are dozens of militia,several units stand out as frontlineelements, Erickson noted.
“The majority of maritime militiaare less elite, do more mundanetransport, crewing, repair, coastal
patrolling, and emergency re-sponse. But there is a small elitethat is better manned, trained and
equipped. They are developed tosupport those more advancedtypes of missions. Which include,
theoretically, some wartime capa-bilities.”
That the militia are an entity un-
to themselves, in addition to theNavy and Coast Guard, is only re-cently becoming apparent.
“This is not a type of force we un-derstand well enough,” Ericksonsaid. “They could conceivably
achieve some advantages throughelements of surprise and confu-sion. Then even if we know who
they are and what they’re doing we
might have great difficulty dealing
with them because of our rules ofengagement. China could go out ofits way to mis-portray some of
these personnel as random patri-otic fishermen, as vocal ‘residents’of these ‘islands’ in the Spratlys.
They’re very good at that kind ofpropaganda warfare.”
A greater awareness of the mili-
tia and their techniques, Ericksonsaid, could weaken their effective-ness.
“These forces have their greatestpower when they’re least known,least anticipated. The more we can
call them out to foresee their pres-ence and actions in advance, themore power we can take away
from them. These are forces withrather limited capabilities overall.And if they’re exposed as militia
that answer to the PLA chain ofcommand it can be seen in a differ-ent light.”
Erickson is trying to get theword out about the militia, andpublished an Internet piece Nov. 2
tying those forces to the Lassen’stransit.
The US and China, in an effort toreduce the possibility of violence,agreed earlier this year to the Code
for Unplanned Encounters at Sea(CUES). But the agreement onlycovers the Chinese Navy, not its
other maritime services.Erickson noted that while rela-
tions between the US and Chinese
navies might be cordial and pro-fessional, the Coast Guard and mi-litia are not bound by the same
constraints.“There’s a potential problem
whereby China’s Navy is bear-hug-
ging the US Navy to learn moreabout our best practices, talkingthe talk of a good cop, while the
bad cops — the Coast Guard andmaritime militia — are doing thedirty work in the East China Sea
and the South China Sea.“Our approach to China’s mari-
time forces and our interaction
with them is incomplete,” Erick-son said, “so long as two of thethree sea forces are running
around doing stuff that we consid-er very negative.” N
Email ccavas@defensenews.com.
CHINA PROXIESFrom Page 1
US NAVY
No Rules: Chinese trawlers manned by maritime militia stop in front of the US Navyintelligence ship Impeccable during confrontations in the South China Sea in March2009. While the Chinese and US Navies have worked to establish protocols forencounters at sea, no such rules govern relations with the Chinese maritime militia orCoast Guard.
8 DefenseNews November 9 - 16, 2015 www.defensenews.com
WORLD NEWS
gram on schedule and on budget,he said.
“Northrop Grumman offered an
approach that is inherently moreaffordable and based on demon-strated performance and capabili-
ties. Our record stands in contrastto that of other manufacturers’large aircraft programs of the last
decade,” Belote said. “As the onlycompany to ever design and build astealth bomber, we offered the best
solution for our nation’s security.We look forward to the GAO reaf-firming the Defense Department’s
decision so we can continue workon this critically vital program.”
US Air Force spokesman Maj.
Robert Leese said in a preparedstatement that the service looksforward to proceeding with the de-
velopment and fielding of theLRS-B once the protest is resolved.
“Although it is every competitor’s
right to file a protest, the Air Forceis confident that the source selec-
tion team followed a deliberate,disciplined and impartial processto determine the best value for the
warfighter and taxpayer,” he said.“The Air Force will fully supportthe GAO’s independent process.”
Byron Callan, a Capital AlphaPartners analyst, wrote in a note toinvestors that the protest did not
come as a surprise, and he wouldhave expected Northrop to protestif it had lost the competition.
Callan estimated a 15 percentprobability that the protest wouldbe successful.
“We absolutely believe that theAir Force assumed there wouldhave been a protest on the LRS-B
contract award,” he wrote. “Whilethere is the precedent of Boeingsuccessfully protesting the tanker
program to EADS and then win-ning the re-compete, this is a differ-ent acquisition team at the Air
Force.”Loren Thompson, a defense in-
dustry consultant and an analyst
with the Lexington Institute withstrong ties to Boeing and Lock-
heed, said the protesters feel thatthe US Air Force misapplied its se-lection criteria.
The price and the risk associatedwith the competing proposals wasnot adequately assessed,” he said.
The Air Force’s solicitation askedfor innovations that would breakthe cost curve, but did not correct-
ly give the Boeing team credit forthe savings that would follow itsnumerous innovations, he said.
“The Air Force didn’t take intoaccount the great disparity in capa-bilities between the two teams.
Cost was so decisive here that all ofthe superior capabilities that theBoeing team brought to the table
resulted in no net improvement inthe team score,” he said.
To enforce cost realism, the Air
Force looked at the history of theB-2 program, the last bomber plat-form developed by the US, which
was built by Northrop, he said.“The Air Force based its ‘should
cost,’ its estimate of the costs of the
development program, on histori-cal data that predated most of the
innovations they brought to thecompetition,” effectively exclud-ing any savings from technological
advances since the end of the B-2’sproduction run in 2000, he said.
The Boeing/Lockheed team bid
$11billion for engineering and man-ufacturing development (EMD),but the Air Force calculated EMD
at $21.4 billion, which shifts the riskfrom the contractor to the govern-ment, Thompson said.
Boeing has little to lose and much
to gain from a protest. The LRS-Baward could top $100 billion overthe life of the contract and will
mean decades of revenue for thewinner. Without LRS-B, Boeing’smilitary aircraft facility in St. Louis,
Missouri, could face extinction.But Boeing faces long odds. As a
recent annual report on the de-
fense acquisition system noted,only around 2 percent of defenseprotests were actually upheld in
2013, the last year data was avail-able. This rate is lower than theoverall federal rate for that year,
which was just under 4 percent.Additionally, the Air Force, clear-
ly eager to avoid a repeat of the dec-
ade-long tanker saga when aBoeing protest eventually reversedthe original award to Airbus, has
taken great pains to insulate theLRS-B award.
Service leadership tasked not
one but two independent cost esti-mators to evaluate the program, of-ficials revealed last week. Experts
also point to a recent Pentagon In-spector General audit of the LRS-B
acquisition process as evidence thecontract award is air tight.
In making the announcement,
Secretary Deborah Lee James
stressed that the selection processwas “deliberate and disciplined.”
“Award of this contract followeda deliberate and disciplined proc-ess, our team of professionals care-
fully considered the offerers’proposals in accordance with thesource selection criteria,” James
said. “The entire process was car-
ried out with a high level of trans-parency with our industry partnersand was scrutinized via DOD peer
reviews.”Despite the Air Force’s best ef-
forts, the protest could delay the
program and spark an ugly publicrelations battle, particularly givenBoeing’s clout on Capitol Hill.
Boeing and Lockheed will likelywage intense lobbying campaigns.Boeing is expected to tap the Mis-
souri delegation, including influen-tial Democratic Sen. ClaireMcCaskill and Republican Sen.
Roy Blunt, while Lockheed willlook to the Texas delegation, par-ticularly Fort Worth’s Republican
Rep. Kay Granger and HouseArmed Services Committee Chair-man Rep. William “Mac” Thornber-
ry, also a Republican.Before the announcement last
week and after a hearing on
streamlining defense acquisitions,Thornberry acknowledged con-cerns over a possible LSR-B pro-
test and the litigious nature ofacquisitions in general.
“It’s part of the way acquisitionculture has developed that everybid award has protests, and you’re
expected to protest — basicallywith no penalty,” he told reporters.“So, a number of members have
had ideas about improving that sit-uation, and it’s something that wewill continue to discuss.” N
Email: aclevenger@defensenews.com,
lseligman@defensenews.com.
BOMBER PROTESTFrom Page 1
NORTHROP GRUMMAN
A Big Deal: The huge contract to build the US Air Force’s next-generation Long Range
Strike-Bomber creates substantial competition for other budget priorities.
products that are not on the market today.” He credited technology and planning divi-
sions of the IDF’s C4I Branch — part of the
IDF General Staff — for a military-wide ef-fort to forge connectivity through satelliteand radio communications links, ever-in-
creasing bandwidth and storage so that allrelevant organizations enjoy common andpersistent situational awareness.
“We have very strong, almost full connec-
tivity with the ground forces and the IsraelAir Force,” said A., commander of the Mis-
sion Control Group, which operates the Mis-hlei war room. “We see the air picture inhere and they see our sea picture in their
command center. It’s the same with theground forces and the territorial com-
mands.”
In a recent visit, the officer demonstratedthe shared picture, where Israeli ground
forces patrolling or exercising around the
Gaza Strip were clearly visible and labeledon computer screens.
“We know where the jeep of the battalion
commander is on our systems. It allows us
to open up a corridor for them; to improvetheir situational awareness by providing an-
other angle and another dimension that theycan’t get from the ground or from [un-manned sensors] in the air. We speak the
same language and know how to engage tar-
gets together,” the officer said.
He added, “This is not a trivial achieve-ment.”
The officer noted that in Israel’s summer
2014 Protective Edge campaign in Gaza, da-ta coming into the Mishlei from a 19-year-oldfemale conscript first spotted Hamas frog-
men approaching Israel’s Zikim beach at thenorthern part of the strip. That data wastranslated into fire orders from the Mishlei.
“We detected them on our radars ... in theend, everyone participated in the firing thatdestroyed this terrorist infiltration threat.”
In the coming year, plans call for further
strengthening connectivity with the AirForce, where the Navy’s powerful, long-
range sensors at sea could provide anotherangle of visibility in detecting threats fromLebanon- or Syrian-launched gliders or
UAVs. “Our coordination is already tight, but the
plan is to solidify cooperation. They already
have an officer who is permanently herewith us. And starting in 2016, we’ll have a
Navy officer at the rank of captain or major
permanently with them,” he said.As for Mishlei’s monitoring of activity on
the high seas — where freedom of naviga-
tion is sacrosanct, yet must be carefully bal-
anced with Israel’s need for early warning ofpotential threats — the officer said the Navy
is constantly striving to broaden its aware-ness within its so-called economic waters.
“Today, because of our economic waters,
we’re building a much bigger, wider picture
westward of 100 miles and more. In many
cases, we start checking at 200 nauticalmiles, or about 48 hours before they reachour sovereign waters,” the officer said.
The Navy does this, he says, by its ownseapower projection presence, its use ofmaritime patrol aircraft and UAVs, sophisti-
cated analytical software, as well as tradi-tional monitoring means such as automatedinformation system transmissions.
“It’s congested here in the Middle East, soif a ship leaves from Cyprus, it’s less than200 miles or 48 hours. The same applies for
ships coming from Egypt, where ranges are
shorter.”According to the officer, the challenge is
to discriminate between innocent mer-chants and suspicious ships.
“Essentially everything that moves in our
maritime theater, we monitor. Our proce-dures are clear: About 48 hours prior, we get
all the data and check if everything is legiti-
mate. We check the people on the ship, theroute, where it came from and more. If there
are no anomalies, we establish contact
again about 100 miles out to validate all theprevious information and make sure noth-ing has changed.
“Then, at dozens of miles out, we check
again. If even one data point is not as re-corded, we will investigate. ... At the end of
the day, the sea is open to everyone. Thereare no fences and it’s hard to put sensors inthe depth of the sea. That’s why it’s so im-
portant to keep fortifying our maritime
awareness. We do that all here by fusing all
the information and building up the tacticalpicture,” the officer said.
On computer screens here in the Mishlei,
Israel’s maritime sector is clearly delineatedwith several lines followed by the dottedblue line representing Israel’s 12-nautical
mile territorial border. On the day of our vis-it, the commander was dealing with an os-tensible anomaly where a ship sailing from
Israel’s Mediterranean port of Ashdod wasbroadcasting its destination as Port Said,Egypt; yet was turning right, in the direction
of Cyprus.
With a click of a mouse, all the ship’s in-formation — its owner, its flag, its UN Inter-
national Maritime Organizationregistration, its history, its associations withother ships and all journeys taken and ports
visited — appeared on the screen. “Here’s a ship we called and talked to
twice already. If they didn’t supply logical
answers, we would have asked them to stopuntil we clarified the situation,” the com-
mander explained.
Ultimately, the Israel Navy contacted theship’s local agent, who explained to the ser-vice’s satisfaction that they changed the de-
livery order, yet forgot to change the
routing.
“In this case, everything checked out. It
was merely an event that hones our readi-ness,” the officer said. N
Email: bopallrome@defensenews.com.
ISRAEL NAVYFrom Page 6
11SPECIAL REPORT
INSIDE
YEMEN Saudi-led Operations in Final Phase 12
ISRAEL Startup Scours Seas for Threats 14
MIDDLE EASTSECURITY
November 9-16, 2015 www.defensenews.com
M ANAMA and DUBAI — Speaking at theInternational Institute of Strategic
Studies’ Manama Dialogue, Iraq’s min-ister of defense called for a counterterror-ism agreement to be signed between the
Gulf states, Iraq and Iran.
Defense Minister Khaled Al-Obaidi said
the agreement would be the cornerstone forthe Middle East’s future efforts to fight ter-
rorism.
“Building a defensive posture in the MiddleEast cannot happen passively. and we under-
stand that. But we also understand that there
is an opportunity to do that,” he said.This opportunity, Al-Obaidli continued, fo-
cuses on the defeat of extremists with the Is-
lamic State group in Iraq and Syria.“This can only happen with open commu-
nication between the militaries of the region
and their national institutions to develop
common strategic objectives, this has be-come a necessity and not a choice becausewe have to rip out the roots and not the
branches of terrorism,” he said.Obaidi called for a holistic approach to
tackle terrorism through combined exer-
cises, command-and-control centers, intelli-gence sharing, border and marinemanagement strategies as well as refugee
management and rebuilding areas liberatedfrom ISIS.
Al Obaidi’s comments came just as the Ira-
nian foreign minister and the Saudi foreignminister were pitted against each other dur-ing Syrian talks in Vienna.
Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir has
stated that all points were agreed upon ex-
Iraqi Leader Calls for GCC, Iran To Join Counterterror Pact
By AWAD MUSTAFA
CARLO ALLEGI/AFP
Syria Talks: USSecretary of State JohnKerry, left, and SaudiArabia's ForeignMinister Adel al-Jubeirchat upon arrival for anOct. 23 meeting todiscuss the Syrianconflict in Vienna.
See COUNTERTERROR PACT, Page 12
12 November 9 - 16, 2015 MIDDLE EAST SECURITY
MANAMA and DUBAI — Politicalleaders from the Saudi-led Arabcoalition say that operations in Ye-
men have entered their final stage.Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-
Jubeir and his Yemeni counterpart
expressed optimism last week atthe International Institute of Stra-tegic Studies’ (IISS) Manama Dia-
logue in Bahrain over thecoalition’s military operations.
“I would say, and I’m an optimist
by nature, that the Yemeni conflicthas entered its final stage,” Al-Ju-bier said in Manama. “We look for-
ward and hope for a stable nationand a prosperous Yemen.”
The United Arab Emirates, Qa-tar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Sudan, Jor-dan and Morocco have joined the
Saudi-led air campaign targetingHouthi militias since March.
In October, Sudan presented 500
special operations forces experi-enced in mountain warfare.
“The Houthis’ and former Presi-
dent Ali Abdullah Saleh have ac-cepted the UN Security Councilresolution 2216 and the re-opening
of Yemeni ports by coalition forceswere good signs that the countrywas ready to enter the resolution
phase of the conflict,” Al-Jubeirsaid. “Legitimate governmentforces are now in control of the
vast majority of Yemeni territory.There still remain some areas thatneed to be liberated, including
Sanaa, but the trend is moving inthe right direction.”
Al-Jubeir stressed that the
Houthis are welcome to join futurepeace talks, but said they shouldnot make up the bulk of repre-
sentatives.
“The Houthis and the Yemenishave every right to be part of theYemen political process, we have
said that from the very beginning.The only thing they cannot have isa privileged position because that
would distinguish them from otherYemenis, and that would not befair,” Al-Jubeir said.
On Nov. 2, the UAE armed forcesannounced a second batch of sol-diers are preparing to perform new
duties in Yemen as part of the co-alition. The General Command ofthe UAE Armed Forces said the ro-
tation of soldiers will see the firstbatch replaced by another as partof Operation Restoring Hope.
Despite the optimism expressedat the Manama Dialogue, senioranalysts said that the war in Yemen
seems far from over.“I believe that with the Houthis,
the story is yet to begin,” said Max-
im Shepovalenko from the Mos-cow-based Center for Analysis ofStrategies and Technologies
(CAST). “What we saw until lately
was barely a preface to it. “Houthis ... are operating basical-
ly within their native territory, or in
a wider context, the territory theycan exercise control of, i.e. theNorthern Yemen. They turned out
to be no less professional than theHezbollah and therefore would bea hard nut to crack in the mountain
environment. To say nothing aboutIran’s covert — and perhaps overt— assistance,” he said.
Shepovalenko added that the co-alition finds itself under significanttime pressure, since the Saudis
have already unsealed their cur-rency reserves. With the currenttempo and cost of operations, they
could run critically short of fundsin the next five years.
“On the contrary, the Houthis
could sustain long enough, as evi-denced by their belligerency since2004,” he said.
Shepovalenko said he considersthe declarations of Al-Jubeir andhis Yemeni counterpart as sort of a
self-cheering mantra or wishfulthinking.
Yemen affairs expert MareikeTransfeld from Berlin-based thinktank Stiftung Wissenschaft und
Politik echoed his assessment.“I think these statements are
grossly exaggerated,” she said.
“There seems to be somewhat of apush right now with military vehi-cles entering Taiz, Yemeni pilots
being trained and more foreigntroops from Sudan. But thereseems to be a lot of misinformation
by the GCC states on the front inMarib.
“I doubt the Saudis are as suc-
cessful here as they claim. Every-thing north of Taiz and Marib is stillcontrolled by the Houthis. I think
they are trying to improve theirbargaining position with thesestatements before the talks in No-
vember,” Transfeld added.If the talks fail and fighting con-
tinues, she said, it will be a great
challenge to gain control of Sanaa.According to Paul Sullivan, a
professor at the National Defense
University in Washington, total op-timism in this circumstance does
not seem solidified.“The underlying reasons behind
the conflict have not been re-
solved,” he said. “Until they are, Ye-men will remain unstable andunresolved. Winning one or even
100 battles tactically does not stra-tegically win a war. The most diffi-cult part of any war is what
happens after the guns are silent.The guns will be not be completelysilent any time soon.”
Sullivan added that once theguns are silent, Yemen as a post-conflict country needs to be devel-
oped with the creation of jobs andhope. Otherwise, he warns, thecountry will fall right back into
conflict. N
Email: amustafa@defensenews.com.
Saudi-Led Coalition Announces FinalPhase In Yemen Operations — ButAnalysts Disagree
By AWAD MUSTAFA
SALEH AL-OBEIDI/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Analysts Wary: A UAE Armed Forces vehicle of the Saudi-led coalition, supporting forces
loyal to Yemen’s Saudi-backed President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi, is seen at an oil
refinery in Yemen’s port city of Aden on Nov. 1.
MOHAMMED AL-SHAIKH/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Leaders Optimistic: Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir, right, shakes hands with
Yemeni Foreign Minister Riad Yassin during the International Institute for Strategic
Studies’ (IISS) Manama Dialogue in the Bahraini capital, Manama, on Oct. 31.
cept two.
“In Vienna, we have not been able to reachan agreement yet. We, however, have agreed
on how Syria should have a new constitution
based on Geneva [Convention] principles,amongst other points, but two points remain
in contention,” he said. “No agreement onthe timing of Assad’s departure and on whenforeign forces will leave Syria, especially the
Iranian forces and their proxies like Hezbol-lah, which we view as occupying forces,” headded.
Furthermore Al-Jubeir said in Manamathat with regard to ISIS fight in Syria andIraq, the “two white elephants” are “Bashar
Al-Assad and the reforms in Iraq”.
“So long as Bashar Al-Assad is in power he
will act as a magnet for extremists to joinISIS, and any attempt to go after ISIS in Syriawill be useless so long that Al-Assad is in
power,” he said. “As for Iraq once the reformare implemented the fertile ground for ISISin Iraq will no longer exist and it will be easi-
er to mobilize the country to destroy the ter-
rorist organisation.”Despite Saudi Arabia’s demands in Vienna,
former member of the Iranian National Se-
curity Council and nuclear negotiator Dr.Seyed Hossein Mousavian stated that Iran
and Saudi Arabia will be able to find a solu-tion.
“The Saudis’ first priority is Assad must go,
and the Iranian first priority is the terrorists
must go; here is the key difference. That’swhy Jubeir does not talk about the timeline
for terrorists’ departure from Syria,” he said.
“However, I believe that they will be able to
bridge the gap.”To secure the Middle East, Mousavian sug-
gested three paths Saudi Arabia and Iran can
take to overcome their differences.“The first is formal, official high-level talks
between foreign ministers and other senior
representatives of the respective govern-ments. Unfortunately, the Saudi governmentdoes not appear receptive of this option at
this stage,” he published in a recent op-ed.“Another alternative is for the two coun-
tries to engage in track one-and a-half or
track-two diplomacy — contacts betweenformer officials and prominent non-govern-ment figures and experts — to discuss a
package to build trust and move towards of-ficial dialogue. There have been some efforts
made on that front, but it is crucial that they
be significantly expanded,” Mousavian said.
The third way is for Saudi Arabia and Iran
to confidentially exchange special envoys.“These meetings would be strictly off the
record and allow for the two sides to engage
in high-level talks and more effectively hashout their differences. During the mid-1990s, Iengaged in precisely this type of diplomacy
with Saudi Arabia in my capacity as a seniordiplomat and advisor to then-president AliAkbar Hashemi Rafsanjani,” he said.
“I negotiated and agreed on a ‘peace package’ with then-Crown Prince Abdullahbin Abdulaziz, during that time. After four
nights of intense negotiations, we reachedagreements which paved the road for amica-ble relations between our countries that
would last until the mid-2000s,” Mousavianadded. N
Emal: amustafa@defensenews.com.
COUNTERTERROR PACTFrom Page 11
14 November 9 - 16, 2015 MIDDLE EAST SECURITY
TEL AVIV — A Tel Aviv startup com-pany is distinguishing itself in Isra-
el and with clients on fourcontinents by its ability to clearaway the clutter on loosely regulat-
ed, often fraudulent high seas.Using what it calls activity-based
intelligence, Windward, a five-
year-old maritime data and analyt-ics firm here, probes beyond theship-tracking services available on
today’s market to validate identi-ties of ocean-going vessels.
It compares their patterns of be-
havior and past associations withother ships — even where theyloaded or didn’t load in specific
ports of call. By trolling for myriad bits of ob-
jective fact and fusing them into
what Windward co-founder andChief Executive Ami Daniel calls“a ship’s DNA,” the firm is able to
serve up “subjective conclusions”that help clients flag potential
threats as well as opportunities.Then Windward “dives deeper”
into building so-called unique IDs
and risk-modeling based on specif-ic client interests.
“We organize the data into layers
and in a way that becomes clear
what each vessel has done,” Daniel
said.“It brings them from a place of
being data rich but information
poor; from having a lot of frag-mented and often unreliable datato a place where they can start do-
ing what they should be doing,which is threat analysis,” he said.
A prerequisite to the information
culled from those “deep dives” ispersistent cleansing from clutterand fraud to validate the ship’s so-
called DNA.“Nobody knows who’s the real
owner of 75 percent of the world’s
vessels,” said Daniel. “The reasonis, for business reasons, they areregistered under various flags of
convenience by a lawyer who hasone share and nobody knowswho’s on top of him.
“So the tools of looking at databases or registries are great in the-ory, but not in practice.”
The same holds true, companyexecutives here say, for the Auto-
mated Information System (AIS),satellite-supported tracking sys-tem initiated in recent years by the
US Coast Guard and now requiredby ocean-going vessels and pas-senger ships.
“Ships go dark. And what you put
into your transmitter or what youreport does not necessarilymatch,” Daniel said. “People can
type in different IMO numbers[than those provided by the UN In-ternational Maritime Organiza-
tion], and they can changenumbers daily. So when you get
into the system, you often have noidea if the data you’re looking at istrue and authentic.”
Last year, the company pub-lished a report illustrating the mag-nitude of fraudulent behavior
associated with AIS transmissions. Using its proprietary programs
to analyze 200,000 vessels from
July 2012 to August 2014, the com-pany found that “AIS data has mas-sive vulnerabilities when used for
tracking ships, and that these vul-nerabilities are being increasinglyexploited by ships or interested
parties intent on concealing theiridentity, destination or activities.”
According to the report, vulner-
abilities come in several “flavors”— identity fraud, obscuring desti-nations, going “dark,” GPS ma-
nipulation and spoofing.“All share a single goal: distort-
ing the maritime picture and with it
the ability of decision-makers toact on valid, reliable data,” the re-port warned.
Specific findings from the reportshowed an increase in GPS ma-nipulation of 59 percent over the
past two years; that 55 percent of
ships misreport their actual port ofcall for the majority of their
voyage; that large cargo ships shut
off AIS transmissions 24 percentlonger than others; and that 19 per-
cent of the ships that “go dark” arerepeat offenders.
Although the report has not been
updated since last year, “We seethese trends continuing and shipsbecoming increasingly inventive in
what they do to conceal their iden-tities and avoid detection,” said Mi-chal Chafets, Windward’s head of
communications.To illustrate this point, Wind-
ward conducted an analysis spe-
cifically for Defense News, in
which the company employed “re-
verse engineering” of a knownarms smuggling incident to high-
light similarly suspicious behaviorby a ship that managed to evadedetection by law enforcement au-
thorities.Its baseline case was the Had-
dad, a 39-year-old, Bolivian-flagged cargo vessel that em-barked from Iskenderun, Turkey,
in early September. It was ulti-mately seized by Greek authoritiessouth of Crete with a cache of
some 5,000 shotguns and a halfmillion rounds of undocumentedammunition.
Using the route plied by the 66-meter Haddad, which sailed alongthe Turkish coast en route to Libya
before being stopped, Windwardcame up with a similar profile ofanother ship which, for a variety of
legal and proprietary reasons, itpreferred to call Vessel X.
Like the Haddad, Vessel X was
more than 30 years old and aroundthe same size, about 75 meters. Itleft the same Turkish port on Aug.
19 — less than a month prior toHaddad — bearing a flag of conve-nience, this one from the South Pa-
cific island of Vanuatu. A day later, Vessel X stopped in
an area near the Turkish shore
where there was no port or anyother reason to stop at that loca-tion, company analysts found.
“In all likelihood, this was a
rendezvous point with smaller,non transmitting vessels that prob-
ably loaded cargo onto the vessel.
Clearly, if the cargo was legal, thistype of loading would be done at
port,” Windward noted.It then continued west along Tur-
key’s coast for two days, stopping
again close to shore — in an areawhere there are no ports — for fivedays near the Greek island of Kar-
pathos.“Since ships are economic enti-
ties, spending five days near an is-
land with no port and no way forthe ship to reach shore is highlysuspect. This is likely the drop off
point for the cargo, possibly as an
entry point into Europe,” Wind-ward analysts noted.
Further, a search of Vessel X’spast behavior shows that in thepast four years, it never sailed
south of Crete, where conditionsare known to be much harsher inopen seas.
“This deviation from the ship’spattern of life is another significantrisk indicator,” analysts wrote.
On top of that, Vessel X shut offits transmission for eight hours,during which time AIS transmis-
sions indicated it covered a mere13 nautical miles. If it had been sail-ing at usual speed, it should have
taken only 1.5 hours to cover thesame distance, analysts noted.
“This means that there are 6.5
‘dark’ hours close to shore duringwhich time the ship was engagedin some activity. Again, we believe
this was likely a meeting place tounload cargo.”
Once Vessel X resumed trans-
missions, it “tried to cover itstracks,” Windward noted, sailing
north along the Crete shorelineand then reverting southwest to-ward Tunisia.
“This is what we call an uneco-nomical journey, because a shipshould always take the shortest
route between points A and B andthere were no extreme meteoro-logical conditions at the time that
might have explained this type ofdeviation.”
On Sept. 1, en route to Tunisia,
Vessel X again shut off transmis-sions for 22.5 hours, sailing a dis-tance that should have been
covered in less than three hours.“That leaves nearly 20 hours unac-counted for. The ship could easily
have conducted illegal activity dur-ing this time,” Windward sup-posed.
After a short port call in Tunisia,Vessel X set sail toward Malta andcontinued to Italy. According to
the firm’s “sources,” it was stoppedby authorities in September, but nosuspicious cargo was found.
“Had authorities stopped theship earlier in its journey, it could
have been caught in the act,” Cha-
fets said. “It’s just one illustrationof how Windward’s maritime in-
telligence solutions are bringing
real visibility, for the first time, tothe maritime domain, which re-mains a Wild West of sorts even in
2015.”Over the past few years, the pri-
vately owned firm has raised $17.3
million in funding. Its stakeholdersinclude a major investor from Swe-den, Hong Kong-based Horizon
Ventures, Israel’s Aleph CapitalVentures and, most recently, pri-vate investment from retired US
Army Gen. and former CIA Direc-tor David Petraeus. N
Email: bopallrome@defensenews.com.
Israeli Startup Scours the Seas for ThreatsBy BARBARA OPALL-ROME
MEIDAN BRAND/WINDWARD
Vessel Watch: A screen grab shows Windward's tracking of a suspicious vessel nearCrete.
Rugged computers& communication- Made in Sweden
www.aqeri.com
Aqeri - We make the impossible possible!
New Aqeri mini-series:rugged computers,routers and more- in mini format
16 DefenseNews November 9 - 16, 2015 www.defensenews.com
NORTHA AMERICA
WASHINGTON — Two powerful US lawmak-ers on defense say acquisition reform provi-
sions advancing as part of the 2016 defensepolicy bill are just the start of incrementalchanges they’re planning to make weapons
buying less wasteful and more agile. The ambitious efforts — spearheaded by
the chairmen of the House and Senate
armed services committees, Rep. William“Mac” Thornberry, and Sen. John McCain,respectively — mark the latest in a multi-
decade string of efforts by Congress and thePentagon to improve how weapons systemsare acquired. The stakes couldn’t be higher
as military-relevant commercial technol-ogies threaten to outpace a Pentagon whereit is widely acknowledged that weapon ac-
quisition programs often take much longer,cost more than promised and deliver fewer
quantities and capabilities than planned.The Pentagon invested $1.4 trillion to ac-
quire more than 78 major weapon systems
as of March. Over the prior year, 41programsin the portfolio lost buying power resultingin $5.3 billion in additional costs, the Gov-
ernment Accountability Office (GAO)found. Overall, it is not unusual for deliverytime and cost to be underestimated by 20 to
50 percent, the GAO reported on Oct. 27.“If you’re Ford and you build a Ford Tau-
rus that’s five years late, has a $50,000 stick-
er price, and it gets bad gas mileage — your
customer walks,” said Paul Francis, the
GAO’s managing director of acquisition andsourcing management. “In the Departmentof Defense, when you get a program started,
it’s a revenue stream. It’s not an expense. Soyou get a bigger budget share. … If it costs
too much, it takes longer, it underperforms,the customer’s still going to buy.”
Lawmakers would be taking on an acquisi-
tions culture resistant to reforms and fixes.Too few new programs are based on soundbusiness cases because the competitive
process rewards companies and officialswho over-promise a prospective weapon’sperformance and understate its likely cost
and schedule demands, Francis said. In amarket with a single buyer (the Pentagon),low volume and a limited number of major
sources, there are too few incentives to de-
liver a program on time and within cost.
When costs increase and delays grow, itweakens the defense dollar’s buying power,which means troops get less capability than
promised, weapons perform worse thanplanned and opportunity costs are unclear.
The 2016 NDAA was meant as the first step
in a multiyear effort to streamline this laby-rinthine acquisition system that’s deemedunfriendly to Silicon Valley and a hindrance
to Pentagon efforts to embrace cutting-edgetechnology.
“I believe we can’t have a 2,000-page bill
that fixes acquisition. We have to take it astep at a time,” Thornberry said. “I think wemade some good progress, good first steps
in the Fiscal Year 2016 National Defense Au-thorization Act, working on some of the ba-sics when it becomes law.”
After President Obama vetoed a previousversion in a larger dispute over the federal
budget, the House approved a new bill lastweek, teeing up a Senate vote.
The new NDAA bill’s key measure would
hand service chiefs and secretaries overallresponsibility for acquisition programswithin services — a shift away from the Of-
fice of the Undersecretary of Defense for Ac-quisition, Technology and Logistics, whichhas held milestone decision authority over
programs for roughly 30 years.Looking ahead, Thornberry and McCain
say they want to hold hearings to review the
1986 Goldwater-Nichols Act. The move
could amount to a re-examination of sweep-
ing defense legislation that created the mil-itary’s current chain of command, frompresident to defense secretary to combatant
commanders, bypassing the service chiefs.Thornberry said another target is decou-
pling technology development from product
development, which he called “invent-as-you-go” acquisitions. GAO highlighted thatit’s easier for the Pentagon to move imma-
ture technologies into weapon system pro-grams since they tend to attract biggerbudgets than science and tech projects.
HASC held a hearing on Oct. 27 with inputfrom Francis and other acquisition policyexperts about the Pentagon’s systemic prob-
lems and potential fixes. Andrew Hunter,former director of the Pentagon’s Joint Rap-id Acquisition Cell and now with the Center
for Strategic and International Studies, out-lined key elements for agile acquisitions:flexible funding; shortened lines of author-
ity; continuous communication between theacquisition community and the operationalcommunity; and focusing on ready, adapt-
able systems that can evolve over time.Institute for Defense Analyses President
David Chu said the Pentagon frequently sets
technical parameters that stretch physics,and then program managers and the ser-
vices are incentivized to keep the programsalive, whether or not they’re realistic. Herecommends the Pentagon build attainable
systems, especially in major platforms, plan-ning for longer-term block upgrades.
Joe Pasqua, of Business Executives for
National Security, suggested the Pentagoncould adopt a private-sector model: favorsmall, iterative evaluations versus “big
bang” acquisitions, and test concepts in in-
formation technology to buy as needed. N
Email: jgould@defensenews.com
US Defense Policy Bill 1st Step in LatestAcquisition Reform Efforts by Congress
By JOE GOULD
EVY MAGES / GETTY IMAGES
Leading the Charge: House Armed Services
Chairman Mac Thornberry spearheads the effort along
with Senate Armed Services Chairman John McCain.
ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md.— The US Army is reconfiguringthe tactical network nodes now on5-ton vehicles into a smaller pack-
age in order to fit onto Humvees,according to Lt. Col. LaMont Hall,the Warfighter Information Net-
work-Tactical product manager. The service is fielding its second
increment of WIN-T, taking a sys-
tem that could only provide con-nectivity at the halt and giving it an
on-the-move capability. The net-
work is connected via line-of-sightnodes spaced around a battlefieldalong with satellite connectivity.
But WIN-T, which requires a lotof moving parts on vehicles fromrouters to radio antennas to bring
the network to life on the move,can only fit on larger vehicles.
“Everyone wants a smaller ver-
sion of this that goes on a Humveeplatform and so we are developingthat now,” Hall said.
“The value of that is our early en-try forces like the 82nd, the 10thMountain and the 101st all want a
capability that they can bring in on
an aircraft or sling-load on a heli-copter,” he said. “It’s smaller, light-er and more easily deployed, and
that is what this capability willbring.”
The WIN-T nodes on Humvees
will provide basic communicationand networking equipment withline-of-sight and satellite commu-
nications both on the move and at
the halt.The plan is to test the smaller ver-
sion of WIN-T on a Humvee at theNetwork Integration Exercise inMay 2017 and then the Army will
start to field the new capability it’scalling the Tactical Communica-
tions Node Lite (TCN) and the Net-
work Operations and SecurityCenter Lite (NOSC).
The Army is building these
WIN-T vehicles now, having al-ready awarded the contract toGeneral Dynamics and passed
through the critical design review
phase, Hall said.The first low-rate production
quantities — one NOSC and eightTCNs, enough for an entire brigadecombat team — will be completed
in the next four to six months. As
the Army prepares to demonstratethe new WIN-T equipped Humveesat the spring Network Integration
Evaluation (NIE) in 2017, it will putthe systems through rigorous inter-nal testing, according to Hall.
The WIN-T program office alsohas worked to improve the net-work in other ways from usability
to reliability, Hall said. The numberone priority, he said, is reducingthe complexity of the system at ev-
ery level.
The Army partnered with Micro-soft over the last six months to de-
velop the Rapid Vehicle
Provisioning System (RVPS),which at a basic level means the
workload to configure one WIN-Tsystem is reduced drastically.
“Everything you see in these
racks, what is on a vehicle, routers,switches, servers, you’ve got dis-plays, satellite modems, radio an-
tennas and modems, and all of thatis on one vehicle,” Hall said. “To-day it takes a soldier hours and
hours and hours to be able to loadall the software, load all the config-urations, connect to the satellite,
stand up the line-of-sight network,
load eight servers, four routers,
two switches and a satellite mo-dem.”
Hall said with Microsoft the
Army has built a system where“we’ve connected everything to-
gether with a gigabit Ethernet con-
nection. A soldier with one laptopcan then plug into that vehicle andwith one button, he hits configure,
and everything is configured in the
background.”The new system was tested at
NIE 16.1 with 18 vehicles as a proofof concept and “it worked,” Hallsaid. At the next NIE in May 2016,
the Army plans to configure an en-
tire brigade combat team using the
system. If all goes well, the servicewill begin fielding the capability.
The process speeds up the time it
takes to set up WIN-T vehiclesfrom 24 hours to two hours. Con-figuring an entire brigade with 70-
plus vehicles can take four peopleand three weeks. Configuring anentire brigade with the new system
will take four days, Hall said.“I want every soldier to be able to
fix the network. I don’t need engi-
neers, I don’t want to have to havePhDs ... to fix the network.” N
Email: jjudson@defensenews.com
US Army Moving WIN-T Onto HumveesBY JEN JUDSON
ARMY PEO C3T
On the Move: The Army is building a smaller version of Warfighter Information
Network-Tactical nodes to fit on Humvees.
18 DefenseNews November 9 - 16, 2015 www.defensenews.com
EUROPE
ANKARA and WASHINGTON — As the
US continues to modify its strategyfor Syria, Turkish officials are rais-ing concerns that Washington is
moving too slowly to provide itsally with needed military goods.
Turkish officials are bristling at
what they see as delays in the de-livery of weapons and ammo need-ed to fight Kurdish militant groups.
Among the large orders that areheld up is a February 2014 deal be-tween Sikorsky and Turkey’s gov-
ernment to co-produce 109 utilityhelicopters. Another is a request totransfer three Oliver Hazard Perry
frigates, two of them floatable andone for spare use, along with
a military trailer, to Turkish forces.An official from a state-con-
trolled Turkish defense company
said that other US-made equip-ment and systems Turkey hasasked the US to ship include com-
bat UAVs, smart military supplies,frigates and military trailers.
“Turkey has been requesting
armed drones over the past sevenyears and only at the beginning ofthe year signs of a positive re-
sponse started to emerge,” he said.“But those systems remain unde-
livered or approved.”
The question facing Turkish offi-cials: Are the goods being held updue to complicated regional poli-
tics, or are they just caught in theUS Foreign Military Sales (FMS)system’s inherent bureaucracy?
One Turkish government officialsaid delays stemmed from US bu-reaucracy rather than a major dis-
pute between allies. “It is true that we have in the last
few years placed requests for the
delivery of certain systems andequipment,” he said. “Sometimessuch delays are normal.” He would
not comment further.But another senior procurement
official did not deny or confirm any
US decision to hold shipments, cit-ing the matter’s “political nature.”
Politics certainly play a role inany FMS decision, and the compli-cated web between Turkey, Syria
and Kurdish forces fighting alongthe border of both countries hasnot helped. While Turkey views
groups like the Kurdistan Workers’Party (PKK) as terrorists and haslaunched a series of attacks on
them, some in Washington viewthe Kurds — of which there areseveral factions in Syria — as the
best hope for defeating IslamicState militants in Syria and Iraq.
Those politics come to play in
Congress, where there are indica-tions some members have held upTurkey’s buys for political reasons.
“Turkey is having a really hardtime on the Hill ... Its image as ademocratic ally often comes under
scrutiny,” said Soner Cagaptay, di-rector of the Washington Institutefor Near East Policy’s Turkish Re-
search Program. But, he warned, “I think Turkey
has an even more profound prob-
lem with the DoD across the river.”A series of rough interactions
since 2003’s Iraq invasion, particu-
larly after the Arab Spring upris-ings, has shredded the 60-yearrelationship between the Penta-
gon and Turkey’s military, he said.“While there is cooperation
flourishing versus ISIS, it’s notwhat it used to be,” he said. “Therewas always a deep, profound fond-
ness felt by the US military towardTurkey. That’s gone, and I don’tknow that will come back so long
as [the ruling party] AKP is the gov-ernment in Turkey.”
The most recent example of how
politics can interfere with Turkey’sweapons procurements was a $70million sale of Joint Direct Attack
Munitions (JDAM) kits to Turkey,cleared by the State Department
on Oct. 29. That clearance, whichwas on hold for more than 570
days, paves the way for Turkey toreplenish its weapon stocks in itsongoing strikes against the PKK.
A Turkish defense officialadmitted that Turkey’s stocks ofUS-made smart ammunition has
visibly diminished after serial air-strikes against Kurdish militantstrongholds in northern Iraq since
July 20, when the Kurds ended a2013 cease-fire.
Sen. Bob Corker, chairman of theSenate Foreign Relations Commit-tee, told Defense News “there
were a number of issues along theway” that needed to be dealt withbefore members of the committee
were OK with the agreement.Rachel Stohl of the Washington-
based Stimson Center says con-
cernsthat Turkey could use JDAMsagainst Kurdish forces likely
played into the sale’s holdup.
“The US has struggled with pro-viding weapons to Turkey for dec-
ades because of their record of useagainst groups they call terrorists
but that may provide strategic sup-port for US interests,” Stohl said.
Another issue, Corker indicated,
is Turkey’s dialogue about buying aChinese missile defense system.The US and its European allies
have raised concerns that it wouldcreate interoperability issues withother NATO partners and could
even create back-end access forBeijing into Western systems.
Cagaptay said the China missiledefense system decision had “ahuge” impact on Turkey’s relation-
ship with Western partners lately.“Turkey miscalculated NATO
and US reaction to that decision,”
he noted. Corker later noted that he met
with Turkey’s ambassador before
the JDAM deal moved, which hesaid “could have been” a factor inthe deal being pushed through. N
Joe Gould contributed from Washington.
Turkish Officials Wonder If andWhen US Will OK Weapons Exports
SEBASTIEN BOZON/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Still Waiting: Turkey and Sikorsky agreed in March 2014 on a co-production deal for 109
utility helicopters based on the US company’s S-70i — similar to this US Army Black
Hawk — but the US Foreign Military Sales deal is still pending.
By BURAK EGE BEKDIL and AARON MEHTA
VICTORIA, British Columbia — While Canadian
firms stand to lose business with the coun-try’s withdrawal from the F-35 program, its
maritime industry is expecting a potential
windfall from a change in defense priorities.Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has prom-
ised to put more money into Canada’s ailing
naval shipbuilding, including any savingsfrom a cheaper alternative to the F-35 fighterjet. Maritime industry officials said that
could mean more ships and more work.Trudeau promised the shift in defense pri-
orities during his recent election campaign
and before taking power on Nov. 4.
The prior Conservative Party governmentlaunched the National Shipbuilding Pro-
curement Strategy (NSPS) in 2011. That out-
lined an ambitious CAN $30 billion plan (US$23 billion) to construct new vessels for the
Royal Canadian Navy and Canadian CoastGuard. NSPS would see construction of 28major warships and 116 smaller vessels.
Former Prime Minister Stephen Harper –
defeated by Trudeau – dismissed the Liberalpromise to spend more on shipbuilding as
unnecessary, noting that his government
originally put enough funding into NSPS.But the shipbuilding strategy has been
dogged by concerns from industry. Defense
analysts, the Royal Canadian Navy and Audi-tor General Michael Ferguson have allwarned there is likely not enough money to
build all the needed vessels.Before the Conservative Party’s defeat,
Defence Minister Jason Kenney said the
NSPS plan – supposed to build up to 15 re-
placement ships for the Navy’s frigates anddestroyers – might only finance 11 vessels.
Trudeau hasn’t detailed how his govern-
ment will proceed with improvements to theshipbuilding program, but he has committed
initially to the construction of an additionalArctic Offshore Patrol Ship (AOPS).
“Canada is immensely lucky to have the
longest coastline in the world and Canadi-ans expect we give our Navy the propertools to protect that coastline,” he said.
The NSPS called for five AOPS. Trudeau’sgovernment would build a sixth. Maritimeindustry sources also suggest the Liberal
government could build another supplyship. The NSPS committed to building two,but the Navy originally wanted three.
Peter Cairns, president of the Shipbuilding
Association of Canada, said it is too early totell how many more ships could be pro-duced under the Liberal government or
whether its plan would ensure enough fund-ing for vessels already planned in the NSPS.
Cairns, however, said it was rare that a Ca-
nadian government would specifically make
promises during an election about ship-building and rebuilding the Navy.
“It’s very good news for both industry andthe Navy,” said Cairns, a retired vice admiraland former Navy commander. “At least it’s
an acknowledgment that the Navy has beenfacing significant challenges.”
In particular, there is concern about the
lack of funding for the Canadian SurfaceCombatant program, the replacement fleet
for the frigates and destroyers, he noted. In-
dustry will be closely watching what Tru-deau does with that program, Cairns added.
Trudeau said his government will ensure
the Navy “will once again be able to operate
as a blue water fleet and remain so.”Brian Carter, president of
Seaspan Shipyards in Vancouver – whichwill build the two supply ships starting nextyear – didn’t comment on whether a third
ship is expected to be built. But he wel-
comed the new government’s support.“What’s happening in the shipbuilding in-
dustry in Canada is truly great,” he said of
the NSPS. “To have government understandthe need to make that a success over thelong term and to have government support
that is another shot in the arm” for industry.Cairns, however, cautioned that even if the
new government contributes more funding,
it doesn’t mean construction will speed up.He noted that the last time Canada’s industry
built large warships was in the 1990s.
The Conservative government has facedcriticism for its naval shipbuilding plan. Noship under NSPS has yet been completed,
and only two have been started.In 2006, Harper promised a fleet of armed
Polar-class icebreakers, but that was scaled
back to one unarmed icebreaker yet to bebuilt. In 2007, he said up to eight AOPSwould be built by 2013. But that program fell
behind schedule, and the number to be builtdropped to five. The first AOPS will be readyby 2018, with the last delivered by 2022. The
Canadian Surface Combatants won’t bebuilt until after 2022. N
Email: dpugliese@defensenews.com.
Canadian Naval Industry Eyes Boost From F-35 PulloutBy DAVID PUGLIESE
NORTH AMERICA
20 DefenseNews November 9 - 16, 2015 www.defensenews.com
EUROPE
PARIS — France’s planned acquisi-
tion of four C-130 Hercules for €330million (US $361 million) hasfueled a debate between the armed
forces and procurement officialsover buying the US airlifter, whileAirbus scrambles to develop a
competing offer, defense execu-tives and analysts said.
Later this month, France expects
to receive a US letter of accep-tance setting out the price of four
Lockheed Martin C-130Js, a de-fense specialist said.
The financial details from the US
are eagerly awaited as the revisedmultiyear budget sets aside fundsfor the four C-130s, two of which
will be fitted for helicopter in-flightrefueling.
The office of the defense minis-
ter asked for an official letter of re-quest to be sent to the US as therewas concern over an unofficial
French estimate of US $800 millionfor four C-130Js and two years of
maintenance, the specialist said.The price of the C-130J is tightlyheld, so the US reply will help De-
fense Minister Jean-Yves Le Driandecide the procurement path byyear’s end.
Airlifters are a key asset, air chiefGen. André Lanata told the parlia-mentary defense committee.
“As to transport aircraft, this is asensitive capability as it is verymuch in demand in the field and
deserves close attention,” he saidon Oct. 7. “The C-130 fleet constitu-
tes an indispensable complement
to the A400M, particularly for mis-sions conducted by the specialforces.”
French authorities are studyingtwo options: buying older, second-hand aircraft or new planes from
the US, he said.That acquisition would modern-
ize the capability and deliver a
long-term solution as the servicewould fly the A400M as a “strate-gic” cargo lifter, and the C-130 for
“medium” loads, which would helpthe special forces, he said. “Thetwo fleets … would be comple-
mentary,” he said.The French forces asked for the
C-130s to support troops deployed
against insurgents across the sub-Saharan Sahel in Africa. That re-quest reflects a late delivery of the
A400M and its lack of helicopteraerial refueling in the present ver-sion.
A key mission for the specialforces is to fly helicopters for com-
bat search and rescue missions.Among the services there is con-
cern a split buy of two secondhand
C-130H and two new C-130J ver-sions of the Hercules would lead toa “micro fleet” of the latter, which
would be costly to maintain, a de-fense specialist said.
Buying secondhand planes saves
money in the short term, but thereare worries about the long-termmaintenance costs, an officer said.
A secondhand batch is beingconsidered as the €330 millionbudget is too low for four of the J
model, the specialist said. There isconcern among the services onwhy such a low figure was submit-
ted to the budget law, as that slowsdown acquisition of the newC-130J.
A slow and complex acquisitionof the Hercules is seen as helpingAirbus, which could compete with
its C-295 and A400M airlifters.The Direction Générale de l’Ar-
mement — the French defense
procurement agency — was un-available for comment.
Airbus is developing a refueling
kit for its C-295 medium transport,Miguel Angel Morell, head of engi-neering at Airbus Defence &
Space, told journalists on Oct. 27 inSeville. The kit also would fit onthe C-235 light transport, allowing
the planes to carry respectively 9and 6 tons of fuel.
The transport planes could refu-
el helicopters, turboprop aircraftand UAVs. Airbus aims to build anew control system for hose and
drogue, and update technologythat stems from the 1950s and1970s.
Airbus aims to be ready this yearto deploy in flight a hose anddrogue on the C-295. A ground test
bench has started for system vali-dation, with a hose installed.
Other work on the C-295 in-
cludes an extreme short take-offand landing under 500 meters, and
a new defensive aids suite using adirectional infrared countermea-sure against missile attacks.
Airbus is working to find a solu-tion to helicopter refueling on the
A400M, a contractual capability
which has generated technicalproblems, as the four powerful tur-boprop engines generate aerody-
namic risk for helicopters.Airbus is in advanced negotia-
tions on the A400M with nine pros-
pective clients, said AntonioRodriguez Barberan, head of mili-tary aircraft sales.
The French Air Force has 27Transall C-160s, which are nearingthe end of operational life, 14 Her-
cules and 27 CN-235s.Britain is considering extending
the operational life of the C130-Js,
and the strategic defense and secu-rity review soon to be releasedmay refer to the Hercules. N
Email: ptran@defensenews.com
Airbus Scrambles To CompeteAgainst French Plan To Buy 4 C-130s
By PIERRE TRAN
STAFF SGT. R.J. BIERMANN/US AIR FORCE
Heading for Exercises: About 150 US Army soldiers from the 173rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, Airborne, depart for exercises in
Estonia from Aviano Air Base, Italy, on two US Air Force C-130J Super Hercules in April 2014.
HELSINKI — The Nordic governments aremoving to cooperate against threats posed
by jihadist groups Islamic State and al-Qai-da.
National security and defense issues,
along with the potential adoption of com-mon platforms to bolster collective action,were explored at the Nordic Council of Min-
isters in Reykjavik on Oct. 27. The council serves as an inter-governmen-
tal body for political, economic and security
cooperation among the Nordic countries. The Reykjavik meeting took place as Nor-
dic countries adopt new initiatives to
strengthen their anti-terrorism and treasonlaws to deal with threats posed by citizens
and domiciled residents returning to the re-
gion as radicalized Islamic jihadists after
fighting with al-Qaida and ISIL.
The Nordic countries are determined touse collective strategies to improve defense
and security in the region, said Finnish
Prime Minister Juha Sipilä. Finland is set toassume the presidency of the Nordic Coun-cil of Ministers in 2016.
“Our joint objective is to build a secure androbust Nordic region within Europe. Togeth-er we can strengthen security in our own
area and bring greater weight to promotinginternational security,” Sipilä said.
Closer cooperation is expected to improve
channels between military and national se-curity services to share intelligence on po-tential terrorism threats and radicalized
groups. Nordic governments are closely watching
Danish plans to toughen its anti-terrorism
and nationality laws.
The Danish initiative comes in the face of a
perceived growing threat from radicalizedIslamic groups. Finland, Norway and Swe-
den are also planning to reinforce laws on
nationality, counter-terrorism and the fund-ing of extremist groups.
Denmark’s military intelligence and na-
tional security agencies, including the Dan-ish security and intelligence service PET,will receive greater funding and expanded
surveillance powers. The Danish government plans to intro-
duce legislative changes to severely punish
citizens or non-national residents who leavethe country to fight for foreign Islamic mil-itant groups such as ISIL and al-Qaida in Syr-
ia and Iraq. Such acts will be regarded astreasonable under new laws.
Under the new Danish “patriot” law pro-
posals, so-called “foreign fighters” would
face lifetime prison sentences for taking
part in armed conflict abroad, while thosewho radicalize or recruit “foreign fighters”in Denmark will receive jail terms of up to 16
years. “The starting point is that anyone who
lives in Denmark must be loyal to Denmark.
We should not accept that militant extremistgroups can succeed in recruiting foreign
fighters in Denmark,” said Danish Justice
Minister Søren Pind. The legislative changes, said Pind, will
punish those who choose extremism over
“loyalty” to Denmark.
“Anyone who chooses to fight under thebanner of extremism will need to know that
they will be closely monitored, and their ac-tions will have serious consequences upontheir return to Denmark,” Pind said.
Nordic States Push Joint Action Against Homeland ThreatsBy GERARD O’DWYER
See HOMELAND THREATS, Page 22
22 DefenseNews November 9 - 16, 2015 www.defensenews.com
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EUROPE
MOSCOW — A draft copy of Rus-sia’s 2016 federal budget showsthat its military spending will re-
main essentially flat next year,with a modest increase of 0.8 per-cent, while the majority of Russian
government spending is set forcuts amid an economic downturn.
Russian military spending has
been rising each year since an am-bitious 20 trillion ruble (US $700billion at the time) modernization
and rearmament program waslaunched in 2011. The program
kicked into high gear when expen-ditures jumped 26 percent over2014.
But Russia’s economic crisis,spurred in part by Western eco-nomic sanctions following the an-
nexation of Crimea last year andthe collapse of global oil prices —which, in turn, cut the ruble’s value
by nearly half — appears to havethrown a wrench into procure-ment plans.
According to a draft 2016 military
budget, “the 2016 budget alloca-tion for national defense is
planned at 3.145 trillion rubles,” oraround 4 percent of Russia’s ex-pected gross domestic product
next year, the TASS news agencyreported.
Going into 2015, the State Duma
— Russia’s lower house of Parlia-ment — allocated about 3.3 trillionrubles for defense expenditures.
Economic realities this year laterforced a 5 percent reduction to justover 3.1 trillion rubles, which still
represented a 26 percent increase.If approved, next year’s budget
will see just 25.5 billion rubles, orless than 1 percent, added over2015.
With around two-thirds of Rus-sian military spending typically al-located for procurements under
the state rearmament program andthe value of the ruble contributingto inflation at home, it is not clear
that Russia will be able to continueits procurement programs asplanned.
In 2015, nearly 2 trillion rubles of
the budget was allocated to pro-curements. IHS analyst Craig Caf-
frey wrote in June that Russiawould need to begin hiking expen-
ditures by 10 percent each yearthrough 2020 to meet PresidentVladimir Putin’s spending targets.
“Since 2010, the budget has in-creased by an average of 20 per-cent a year,” Caffrey told Defense
News in response to follow-upquestions on Nov. 4, explainingthat without continuing this level
of growth, it will be difficult tofund modernization without sig-nificant cuts to operational spend-
ing.
While funding for the rearma-ment program may increase mar-
ginally over the next several years,the downturn in funding hikes may
force investment and procurementtargets to be pushed back into anupcoming procurement program
covering the period from 2016 to2025.
“So, what we may see when
the new 2016-2025 [modernizationprogram] is released is that somefunding is deferred and back-load-
ed into the 2020-2025 period,” Caf-frey concluded. N
Email: mbodner@defensenews.com
Russia’s ’16 DefenseSpending To StayEssentially Flat
By MATTHEW BODNER
SERGEI VENYAVSKY/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
War Preparation: Russian soldiers take part in the international military games “Masters
of Antiaircraft Battle - 2015” outside the southern Russian town of Yeisk on Aug. 8.
In its terror-risk assessment report, releasedin October, PET’s Center for Terror Analysis es-
timated that some 125 Danish citizens have leftDenmark as jihadist fighters to join ISIL sincemid-2012. The report acknowledged that the ac-
tual number “could be higher.” “We continue to believe that the conflict in
Syria/Iraq represents the most significant fac-
tor in the threat situation in Denmark,” said Sø-ren Jensen, the CTA’s director.
Sweden and Finland are also drafting legisla-
tion to ban their citizens and domiciled non-na-tionals from joining jihadist groups and fighting
in armed conflicts abroad.
Intelligence reports from Sweden’s nationalsecurity service Säpo estimate that about 300radicalized Islamic men and women have left
Sweden to join ISIL as jihadist fighters in Iraqand Syria since 2012.
“Compared to similar countries, a dispropor-
tionate number have traveled from Sweden,”said Säpo’s general director, Anders Thornberg.
Of the 300 radicalized Islamists who left Swe-
den, he said, some 40 were killed in variousISIL-led combat actions in the Middle Eastwhile an estimated 115 have returned to Swe-
den. The number still fighting with ISIL in Syriaand Iraq is estimated at 125.
Meanwhile, Sweden is extending its commit-
ment to train Kurdish soldiers in Iraq until the
end of 2016, part of the Swedish government’smulti-branch approach to counter ISIL in Swe-
den and support efforts to confront ISIL in Iraqand across the Middle East.
Sweden provided a NATO-style Operational
Mentoring and Liaison Team comprising 35 spe-cialist troops to back the Iraqi government’sfighter against ISIL in the summer.
The sudden influx of asylum-seeking refu-gees fleeing the war-torn Middle East is addinga significant new threat to Finnish security, said
Antti Pelttari, the head of Finland’s national se-
curity service.The main terrorism treat, said Pelttari, is po-
tentially linked to “individual asylum seekers”with connections to radicalized militantgroups.
The Finnish intelligence service estimatesthat of the 70 radicalized Islamist men andwomen who left Finland to join ISIL, some 50
have been killed while a further 20 have re-turned to Finland. N
Email: godwyer@defensenews.com
FRANCOIS GUILLOT/AFP
No to Islamic Violence: People gather on Feb. 22 in France to protest against terrorism, following attacks in Denmark
and mourning the 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians killed by the Islamic State group in Libya.
HOMELAND THREATSFrom Page 20
24 DefenseNews November 9 - 16, 2015 www.defensenews.com
ASIA & PACIFIC RIM
NEW DELHI — Under an offsets deal reached
by India and France regarding the acquisi-tion of 36 Rafale fighter jets, France hasagreed that it will fulfill its obligations only
within the aerospace arena and not partlythrough research and development pro-jects, an Indian Defence Ministry source
said. With a final agreement reached on offsets,
India and France are likely to sign a protocol
by the end of this month to buy 36 Rafalesand thereafter the price negotiations willfollow, leading to a final deal in the next four
to six months, the MoD source added.Ever since Indian Prime Minister Naren-
dra Modi announced in his April visit to Par-
is that India intended to buy 36 Rafales on agovernment-to-government (G2G) basis,
talks between India and France were stuckon the issue of offsets, with the French ini-tially not agreeing to discharge offsets at all.
India wants 50 percent of the total amountof the deal, estimated to be around $10 bil-
lion for 36 Rafales, including weaponry, tobe matched by offsets involving purchasesfrom the Indian aerospace sector, including
tie-ups and cooperation with domestic de-fense companies to boost India’s defenseproduction base.
The French wanted 20 percent of the off-sets to be discharged through R&D tie-upswith India’s Defence Research and Develop-
ment Organization (DRDO), but the MoD re-jected their request, the source added. Thelist of R&D projects in which the French had
evinced interest to participate is not known.But Dassault Chairman Eric Trappier said,
“We are working with the Indian authorities
on the offsets. Nothing has been decided.We are following the Make in India program.It’s going in the right direction. Talks are still
continuing.”The French Defense Ministry declined
comment. “The offset policy of 2012 allows offset ob-
ligations to be discharged through collabo-
ration with DRDO, subject to someconditions. However, offsets are best under-
taken through collaboration with industry,for direct impact on defense manufacturing.This may be the reason for the MoD’s posi-
tion,” said Vivek Rae, MoD’s former directorgeneral of procurement.
“It is not a good idea to discharge all off-
sets through DRDO.” “A G2G contract is a customized contract.
So the two countries can agree to a unique
set of terms of conditions, but these have tobe mutually acceptable. While doing so,
neither party can completely overlook thelaws, regulations, procedures and prece-dents,” said Amit Cowshish, MoD’s former
financial adviser.India typically allows companies to dis-
charge offset obligations through participa-tion in R&D projects, training, and the directpurchase of equipment and systems in des-
ignated areas from industry. The G2G deal on Rafale was a separate
deal to the 2007 request for proposal, which
has since been canceled. Under the 2007RFP, India was to procure 126 Rafales with108 being license-produced in India.
MoD’s top acquisition body, the DefenceAcquisition Council, on Sept. 1 gave the
go-ahead to the negotiation committee onpurchasing Rafale jets for the Indian AirForce. N
Email: vraghuvanshi@defensenews.com.
France, India, Agree toDetails on Rafale Offsets
By VIVEK RAGHUVANSHI
DASSAULT
Offsets Deal: France and India have reached agreement on how France will discharge its offset obligations in
the sale of 36 Rafales to India.
TAIWAN — China’s deployment ofthe more advanced J-11BH/BHS
fighter aircraft to Woody Island, re-vealed in photographs released viaonline Chinese-language media
websites in late October, under-scores how seriously the People’sLiberation Army Navy (PLAN) is
taking its claims to the South ChinaSea.
The placement of advanced
fighter aircraft on Woody Island,located in the Parcel archipelago,extends China’s fighter aircraft
reach an additional 360 kilometersinto the South China Sea from the
PLAN air base located on Hainan
Island.The new location could prove
troublesome for US surveillance
aircraft, such as the EP-3 Aries andthe P-8 Poseidon, that fly throughthe area on a regular basis. In 2001,
a collision between a Chinesefighter and EP-3 resulted in thedeath of a Chinese fighter pilot and
the forced landing of the EP-3 onHainan Island. In 2014, a Chinesefighter harassed a P-8 in the vicin-
ity of Woody Island, which fol-lowed with a strong verbal protestby the Pentagon.
Bonnie Glaser, director of theChina Power Project, Center forStrategic and International Stud-
ies, said the Chinese are demon-
strating to the US, other claimantsto the South China Sea and their
domestic audience that they intend
to protect their sovereignty.Farther south of Woody Island,
China is building air bases and port
facilities in the Spratly Islands.These include Subi Reef, MischiefReef and Fiery Cross. All three
have undergone significant land
reclamation efforts and expansionover the past two years.
“As China completes the facili-ties on its reclaimed features in theSpratlys, including air strips, hang-
ars and fuel storage tanks, it will be
able to base, or at least rotate on a
regular basis, fighters in the SouthChina Sea,” said Ian Storey, senior
fellow at the Institute of SoutheastAsian Studies, Singapore.
Some observers minimize the im-
portance of military facilities andoperational capabilities on China’svarious claimed features, rocks
and islands in the South China Sea,but Paul Giarra, president of Glob-al Strategies and Transformation,
disagrees.“Chinese military aircraft and
missile batteries spread through-
out the South China Sea serve a
number of important functions, all
to the disadvantage of the UnitedStates and our friends and allies[including Taiwan] who have a
stake in freedom of seas, the rule oflaw and their own territorialclaims,” he said.
Giarra said this strategy entailssix factors:n They fortify China’s maritime
approaches.n They militarize China’s politi-
cal claims, making it much more
difficult to challenge them legally.n They make it operationally
much more difficult to dislodge
China from these positions.n These individual military ca-
pabilities are part of a larger fixed
and mobile Chinese military net-
work, not only throughout theSouth China Sea, but on the Chi-
nese mainland.
n Military airfields throughoutthe South China Sea extend dra-
matically the operational range ofland-based military aircraft, whichcan recover on these fields, refuel
and swap crews in shuttle missionsthat change the military equationconsiderably.
n These maritime facilities pushout the limits of the military’s foot-print. This extends the boundaries
of China’s anti-access/area denial(A2/AD) envelope, and brings aconsiderably larger portion of Chi-
na’s maritime approaches under
the military’s firing arcs.
Taiwan-based Alexander Huang,chairman, Council on Strategic andWargaming Studies, said that it
might be too early to focus on mil-itary implications. Citing the prob-lems Taiwan’s Air Force faces with
the operational and seasonal de-ployment of fighter aircraft at Ma-gong Air Force Base, Penghu
Island, Huang said weather and thesalty sea air makes deployment onoff-shore islands difficult for ad-
vanced fighter aircraft.“If they intend to place J-11 on
Woody Island around the year, it
would be an ‘all-weather’ test to theairframe, parts and combat sys-tems onboard before I do military
implication analysis.”Glaser agrees. “My understand-
ing is that fighters are likely only to
be deployed for short time frames
in the Spratlys — the salty sea airwould cause havoc to the aircraft
over long periods.”
Giarra suggested that China's ac-tions in the South China Sea mirror
what the United States and its alliesin the region should be doing: “ex-panding operational perimeters,
distributing significant firepoweralong operational peripheries, andcombining the psychological and
legal elements of modern warfarein an integrated campaign.” N
Email: wminnick@defensenews.com.
China Expands Reach With Fighter Aircraft on Woody IslandBy WENDELL MINNICK
AFP PHOTO/CSIS ASIA MARITIME TRANSPARENCY INITIATIVE/DIGITALGLOBE
Chinese Expansion: This handout photo taken on April 2 shows a satellite image of a
general view of what is claimed to be an under-construction airstrip at the top end of
Fiery Cross Reef in the Spratly Islands in the disputed South China Sea.
26 DefenseNews November 9 - 16, 2015 R1 www.defensenews.com
BizWatch
DUNKESWELL, England — Walk into the
office of SC Group CEO Nick Ames,and one of the first things you spot onhis desk is a book about nuclear law.
It’s a reminder that the small Britishcompany known chiefly for buildingspecialist high-mobility vehicles for
the military is in the midst of a diversifi-cation push that could take it into nu-clear and other high-end engineering
activities.With the proposed £25 billion (US
$38.6 billion) Hinkley Point C nuclear
power station set to be built just a fewmiles from SC Group’s head office on aformer air base at Dunkeswell in south-
west England, Ames reckons the com-pany’s engineering capabilities put it in
a great position to secure productionwork if the scheme goes ahead.
Nuclear, including possible work at
the Atomic Weapons Establishment, isone of the sectors SC Group is pinningits hopes on to achieve more than dou-
ble its £25 million to £30 million annualrevenue (US $38.6 million to $46.3 mil-lion) over the next five years as it takes
its advanced engineering capabilitiesinto what it hopes will be new growthareas.
Previously known as SupaCat, thecompany underwent an identitychange and restructuring in September
to better reflect a business that alreadyhas interests across defense, renew-able energy, oil and gas, marine and
other sectors.“We will not be walking away from
our heartland, which is military vehi-
cles. What we were finding though isthat while SupaCat is a wonderfulname in defense it is completely un-
known outside the sector. For us to ad-
dress some of the non-defense areaswe needed a brand that gave us a bit of
headroom,” Ames said.
The result is the creation of fourbusinesses under the new SC Group
banner.Supacat remains the name of the mil-
itary vehicle business. SC Innovation
was created to provide engineering so-lutions for non-defense activities. Therecently acquired Blackhill Engineer-
ing fabrication and machining businessand a marine products business calledProteum complete its lineup for the
moment.Ames, a shareholder in the privately
held company, said the effort is about
getting the business a better balance to
even out the often feast-to-famine na-ture of defense contracts. At the mo-
ment, it’s probably more feast thanfamine for defense.
Many Supacat customers are special
forces, so deals are often done behindclosed doors, but some deals do get an-nounced. Norway said in May it had
signed a £23 million contract for the de-livery of HMT Extenda vehicles withan option to double the fleet. The high-
mobility vehicles have the virtue ofconverting from a 4x4 to 6x6 configura-tion depending on the role the military
user has for the machine at the time.The company also announced last
year it was supplying a similar vehicle
to the Australian special forces in a
AUD $105 million (US $75 million)deal.
SC Group’s biggest customer,
though, is the British Army, which pur-chased hundreds of the company’s
Jackal and Coyote vehicles to meeturgent operational requirements inAfghanistan. The machines were re-
tained by the military since the Britishwithdrawal last year.
“Defense is a great sector to be in,
particularly if you have product hittinga need, but it can be very lumpy so theopportunity to better balance the busi-
ness has always been important,”Ames said.
“You can diversify in defense but
when the UK government publishes its
Strategic Defence and Security Review
(SDSR) later this year and maybe takesmoney out of your sector it doesn’t doany harm to have other sectors in your
mix,” he said. “I’m not expecting SDSRto be a big story for us though.”
“The corporate graveyard of engi-
neering businesses in the UK is quitesubstantial,” Ames added. “I have nodesire to see SC Group added to that.
We need to make sure we are balanced,strong, investing in new products andtrying to equalize the turnover across
the businesses the best we can, he said.“We are convinced that the engineer-
ing talent and businesses we have in
the UK and Australia can be used infields other than defense. The launchand recovery system we developed for
the Royal National Lifeboat Institute isevidence of that,” he said.
“We have a vision of what the busi-
ness will look like in 2020 and that veryclearly articulates that we want to seethe other sectors grow up to the size of
our defense activities,” said the SCGroup boss.
“We also see growth in defense, as
well. There are opportunities in the UKwith the multi-role protected vehicle
(MRPV) program and beyond that themechanized infantry vehicle project.We will be interested to see how they
fare in SDSR,” he said. The SC Group boss said the company
has been doing some re-balancing in
defense with through-life support con-tracts, setting up defense operations inAustralia and looking at other sectors
like marine where they have donesome work on mechanized handlingsystems.
SC Group’s work with Tata Motors todevelop a light armored multipurposevehicle for the Indian military could
find its way to the UK to address theMRPV requirement, Ames said.
“It’s not a million miles away from
the MRVP and I think it could be a veryinteresting proposition,” he said.
Other opportunities for selling the
SupaCat range of vehicles exist inEurope, the Middle East, Australia andelsewhere, Ames said.
Getting the company’s recurring rev-
enues above the £60 million mark froma diversified business could have bene-
fits beyond just creating a healthy bal-
ance sheet.Ames said a larger, diversified busi-
ness will help cure one of the compa-ny’s biggest headaches in the exportmarket: the offset packages that are a
requirement of many deals. “Offset is a significant worry for us
and the ability to be able to address the
requirement from a wider group will behugely beneficial. Offset is top of thepile when it comes to the difficulties
the SME community has in exporting,”he said. “The financial risk is huge.” N
Email: achuter@defensenews.com.
SC Group Eyes Nuclear,Marine Opportunities
By ANDREW CHUTER
DAVE HUSBANDS/UK MINISTRY OF DEFENCE
Diversification Push: British Army Jackal
vehicles in transit in Afghanistan. The vehicle’s
maker, SC Group, is looking to expand into
nuclear and other high-end engineering
activities.
Thai Missile BuyThailand’s request to buy
16 Raytheon Evolved Sea-
sparrow Missiles (ESSM)from the US government has
been approved by the USState Department, the Pen-tagon’s Defense Security Co-
operation Agency said.The agency delivered the
required certification notify-
ing Congress of this possiblesale on Oct. 28. The $26.9million sale, which awaits
congressional approval, in-cludes the missiles and asso-ciated equipment, parts and
logistical support.In addition to Raytheon,
principal contractors in-
clude BAE Systems, Saaband Lockheed Martin.
SABRE StakeBAE Systems has taken a
20 percent stake in a British
company developing an air-breathing rocket engine ca-pable of powering aircraft at
speeds in excess of 4,500miles per hour.
Europe’s largest defense
contractor announced Nov.2 it was investing £20.6 mil-
lion (US $31.8 million) in the
Abingdon, England-basedcompany Reaction Engines.
The synergetic air-breath-
ing rocket engine, or SABREfor short, uses ground-breaking technology able to
propel an air vehicle at morethan Mach 5 in the atmos-phere before transitioning
into a rocket mode givingspaceflight at speeds up toorbital velocity, equivalent
to 25 times the speed ofsound. The technologywould allow an aircraft to
take off from a conventionalrunway, accelerate to Mach5 and then convert to rocket
mode taking the vehicle up
to orbital velocity.
IED Jammer AwardThe US Navy has awarded
Northrop Grumman a $95million contract for low-rateinitial production of the
Joint Counter Radio-Con-trolled Improvised Explo-
sive Device ElectronicWarfare (JCREW) Incre-ment 1 Block 1 (I1B1), the
US-based company said.The contract, awarded by
the US Naval Sea Systems
Command (NAVSEA), in-cludes options which, if ex-ercised, would bring the
total value to $213 million.Work is expected to be com-pleted by January 2017.
JCREW systems are soft-ware-programmable jam-mers that provide protec-
tion from device-triggeredimprovised explosive de-vices. Northrop developed
mounted, dismounted andfixed-site variants to protectvehicles, troops and perma-
nent structures for the Navyand the US Air Force.
Trainer DevelopmentMassachusetts-based Ap-
tima has been awarded a
$12.4 million contract to de-velop a weapons trainer for
the US Air Force’s Distrib-
uted Common Ground Sys-tem (DCGS), C4ISR &
Networks reported.
Aptima “will provide a vir-tual training environmentproviding simulated mission
training to DCGS sites, cov-ering geospatial intelligencefull-motion video, high
altitude imagery, syntheticaperture radar imagery,electro-optical imagery, and
infrared imagery,” accord-ing to the DoD contractannouncement. “The weap-
on system trainer will allowthe Air Force to transitionthe DCGS intelligence ana-
lysts’ crew and positional
RAYTHEON
A US sale of Evolved Seasparrow Missiles to Thailand is pending
congressional approval.
RANDOM NOTES
www.defensenews.com November 9 - 16, 2015 DefenseNews 27
Send product information and financial news to
randomnotes@defensenews.com.
training from on-the-jobtraining during ‘live mis-
sions’ to simulated missionscenario training.”
Engineering ServicesSAIC was awarded a
prime contract by the Space
and Naval Warfare SystemsCenter Pacific to continue toprovide engineering ser-
vices to the US Navy’s afloatand ashore assets, the US-based company said.
The three-year indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantitycontract is worth about $80
million. Work will be per-formed primarily in Norfolk,Virginia, and San Diego. Ad-
ditional work will be per-formed on US Navy shipsand shore sites globally.
Tactical Networks In-Ser-vice Engineering Activity isresponsible for the sustain-
ment of fielded systemsthrough end-of-life replace-ment, system upgrades, fol-
low-on or interrelatedsystem, distant support, on-
site repair, installations andsystem analysis.
Radar and Comms R&DThe Pentagon’s Defense
Advanced Research Pro-
jects Agency has awardedLeidos a prime contract toprovide research and devel-
opment in support of Phase2 for the Shared SpectrumAccess for Radar and Com-
munications program, theUS company said.
The contract has an 11-
month base period of perfor-mance, an 11-month option,and a total potential con-
tract value of about $14 mil-lion.
The program seeks to im-prove radar and communi-
cations capabilities throughspectrum sharing.
Vector HawkLockheed Martin was
awarded a $4.6 million con-
tract from the Pentagon’sCombating Terrorism Tech-nical Support Office for the
continued development of amaritime canister-launchedsmall unmanned aircraft
system (sUAS), the US-based company said.
Lockheed’s Vector Hawk
can reconfigure to matchspecific missions. LockheedMartin is working on a re-
configurable version of thecollapsible wing sUAS.
Vector Hawk is capable of
autonomous flight and land-ing. The system also incor-porates fail-safes to ensure
it can safely return to theuser or auto-land when nec-essary.
Engine ComponentsUS-based Pratt & Whitney
has awarded a contract toMulticut to manufacture
components for the F135 en-gine, the propulsion systemfor the fifth-generation F-35
aircraft.Multicut, a precision com-
ponent manufacturer locat-
ed in Vildjberg, Denmark,has signed a 10-year long-term procurement agree-
ment with Pratt & Whitney, aUnited Technologies com-pany. N
Send personnel news toonthemove@defensenews.com.
The head of Lockheed Mar-tin’s F-35 program, LorraineMartin, has been promotedto the new position of depu-
ty executive vice presidentfor mission systems andtraining, while her deputy,
Jeff Babione, will succeed her
as executive vice presidentand general manager of the
F-35 program, effective Jan.
1, Lockheed Martin said. Fred Ross, the vice presi-
dent for supply chain man-agement, will become thenew F-35 program deputy.
Cambridge, Massachu-setts-based Draper said it has
welcomed new board mem-bers — David Aronoff, a gen-eral partner at investment
firm Flybridge Capital Part-
ners, Boston and New York;Francis Kearney, a retired US
Army lieutenant general andpresident of Inside-Solu-tions-LLC consulting firm;
and national security con-sultant David Shedd, formerlydeputy and acting director
of the Defense Intelligence
Agency, chief of staff for thedirector of national intelli-
gence, and senior director
for intelligence programs atthe White House.
Robert Colwell, a consultantwho was director of themicrosystems technology
office at the Pentagon’s De-fense Advanced ResearchProjects Agency, joins the
not-for-profit research anddevelopment company’scorporation. N
ON THE MOVE
CalendarTO PLACE AN EVENT LISTING,CALL (703) 658-8365 OR EMAIL CALENDARAD@DEFENSENEWS.COM
DECEMBER
JANUARY
FEBRUARY
NOVEMBER
November 30 - December 4, 2015
I/TSEC 2015Orange County Convention CenterOrlando, FLwww.iitsec.org
I/ITSEC is the world's largest conferenceand display of training systems capabilitiesin the world. Over 500 exhibitors join topresent leading edge technology andinnovative concepts related to the Training,Modeling and Simulation industries for over14,000 visitors. Key government organiza-tions and key industry partners from acrossall training domains are present to include,transportation, health care, gaming, andeducation. The venue is host to numerouscollateral meetings and discussion oppor-tunities take advantage of the large numberof government and industry leadersbrought together in one venue. This repre-sents a huge offset to separate meetingsrequiring separate travel and logisticalsupport. In many cases, cross functionalmeetings between government, industryand academia would be impossible outsidethis venue.
December 9-10, 2015
NDIA MASTERING BUSINESSDEVELOPMENTSan Diego, CAwww.ndia.org/meetings/607A
January 19-21, 2016
27TH ANNUUAL SO/LICSYMPOSIUM & EXHIBITION Washington, DCwww.ndia.org/meetings/6880
November 16-18, 2015
NDIA 27TH ANNUAL INTERNATIONALINTEGRATED PROGRAMMANAGEMENT (IPM) WORKSHOPBethesda, MDwww.ndia.org/meetings/6IPM
December 1-2, 2015
NDIA INSIDER THREAT PROGRAMWashington, DCwww.ndia.org/meetings
February 3-4, 2016
NDIA HOW WASHINGTON WORKSReston, VAwww.ndia.org/meetings/643B
February 9-10, 2016
NDIA 2016 HUMAN SYSTEMSCONFERENCESpringfield, VAwww.ndia.org/meetings/6350
February 29-March 4, 2016
2016 PACIFIC OPERATIONALSCIENCES & TECHNOLOGYCONFERENCEHonolulu, HIwww.ndia.org/meeting/6540
December 8-10, 2015
GULF DEFENSE & AEROSPACEKuwait City, Kuwaitwww.GulfDefense.com
December 7-9, 2015
NDIA GLOBAL DEMILITARIZATIONSYMPOSIUMParsippany, NJwww.ndia.org/meetings/6580
This event continues to support US Department of Defense and Industry inglobal efforts directed at reducing thestockpile of excess and obsolete strategic,tactical, and conventional munitions.
28 DefenseNews November 9 - 16, 2015 www.defensenews.com
Commentary
DefenseNewswww.defensenews.com
EditorVago Muradianvmuradian@defensenews.com
Managing EditorDave Gustafsondgustafson@defensenews.com
Deputy Managing EditorGreg Couteaugcouteau@defensenews.com
European EditorAndrew Chuterachuter@defensenews.com
WASHINGTON STAFF WRITERS
Naval WarfareChristopher P. Cavasccavas@defensenews.com
IndustryAndrew Clevengeraclevenger@defensenews.com
CongressJoe Gouldjgould@defensenews.com
Land WarfareJen Judsonjjudson@defensenews.com
PentagonAaron Mehtaamehta@defensenews.com
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BUREAUS
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T he Obama administration’s decision to put as
many as 50 special operators in Syria hasrenewed the debate over whether America
needs more boots on the ground at a pivotal mo-
ment in a complex civil war.America and its allies have been accused of doing
too little as Europe faces the biggest migrant crisis
in a generation, forcing governments to accommo-date the exodus of endangered Syrian and Iraqicitizens even as they seek ways to stop it.
Russia, meanwhile, has directly involved itself inSyria and the talks to resolve it, just as its combatoperations have worsened the crisis.
US Defense Secretary Ash Carter endorsed thenew troop commitment after the recent US-backedraid that saved more than 70 Iraqi hostages facing
execution. Though the raid cost the life of Spec Opssoldier Master Sgt. Joshua Wheeler, Carter rightlysaid more such raids would be conducted to save
lives, pressure ISIS and gather intelligence.But although these 50 troops are billed as the first
“boots” in the war-torn country, US intelligenceofficers have been on the ground for years.
There’s always a need for ground forces, and
depending on the conflict, sometimes in large num-bers. Syria, however, shouldn’t be one of those USmissions. Rather, the administration must maintain
as small a ground footprint as possible and usemore precision air power to degrade and destroyISIS. To date, US leaders have failed to use air pow-
er to its full potential to smash a militaristic terrorcult that fights more like a conventional army thanan insurgent force. It is an enemy suited to be relent-
lessly attacked from the air.First, Washington must change its approach to the
conflict, which has delayed progress. Officials have
suggested that Washington could have used more airpower to stop ISIS as it advanced on Palmyra todestroy its ancient ruins, but was concerned doing
so would have helped Assad’s forces.
If the mission’s goal is to destroy ISIS, that aim
must be at the core of an integrated strategy. Thisambiguity is why America’s European and Araballies worry there is greater interest in appearing to
fight ISIS than actually doing so. America invitedeveryone to the party, offering coordination but noleadership. Washington must now lead.
Second, America must carefully consider thediffering agendas of those it invites into its coalition.At Washington’s prodding, Turkey finally joined and
decided against attacking ISIS, instead strikingKurdish forces that bravely and successfully battlethe extremists. Other coalition fissures must be
addressed, too, including that Saudi Arabia, Turkeyand Qatar oppose Russia’s involvement, whileEgypt, Jordan and the UAE lean toward Moscow’s
approach. Washington also must remain wary ofIran’s role in this conflict.
Carter rightly tapped one commander to oversee
this vital mission. Army Lt. Gen. Sean McFarland, aseasoned battlefield commander, knows the region,
its players and the conflict’s intricacies. But he mustempower his command’s airmen to more vigorouslyprosecute the anti-ISIS air campaign. The approach
has worked before and can work again. If more USground forces are needed, they must be sparinglydeployed. If foreign forces are better suited, they
must be properly trained and equipped for the job.The fight against ISIS — as against the Taliban or
al Qaida and its franchises — will be long, hard and
slow work that will get worse before getting better.Refugee camps can become breeding grounds forfuture radicals when people spend years there.
Washington must leverage its asymmetric andsustainable advantages, from air power to financialand diplomatic tools, and not handcuff them. If
troops are deemed necessary to stabilize Syria andIraq while also rooting out ISIS, then Americashould forge a truly regional coalition to do the job
without occupying another Arab country.
EDITORIAL
FIGHTING ISIS
Don’t Handcuff Air Power
n Email letters to defenseletters@defensenews.com. Please includephone number. Letters may be edited. Submissions to Defense Newsmay be published or distributed inprint, electronic or other forms.
Freedom of NavigationExcerpted from a speech by US Defense
Secretary Ash Carter, delivered Nov. 4at the ASEAN Defense Minister-Plusmeeting in Kuala Lumpur:
With each minister I met, Idiscussed a range of vital securityissues, including counterterror-
ism, cybersecurity, non-prolifer-ation, ISIL, search and rescue,
disaster response and concernsabout reclamation and militariza-tion in the South China Sea. I
noted that every speaker beforeme raised this issue. That issuealso played a great part in many
of my bilateral conversationswith fellow ministers here and allover the world.
I understand this is a difficultissue for many countries. I re-minded everyone that the United
States does not take sides inthese maritime disputes, but wedo take the side of peaceful reso-
lution under international law. Weurge all claimants to permanentlyhalt land reclamation, stop the
construction of new facilities andcease further militarization ofdisputed maritime features.
[Chinese] President Xi said inWashington that China is “com-
mitted to respecting and up-holding the freedom of navigationand overflight that countries
enjoy according to internationallaw.” He pledged that China doesnot intend to pursue militariza-
tion of outposts in the SouthChina Sea. This is a positive state-ment, but we all must mean what
we say.For decades the United States
has exercised its rights throughour freedom of navigation opera-tions. And I have said many times
before, the United States willcontinue to fly, sail and operatewherever international law per-
mits. Freedom of navigation andthe free flow of commerce arenot new concepts. They’re not
theoretical or aspirational goals.In this part of the world, thesewere rules that worked for dec-
ades to promote peace and pros-perity. N
SPEECH
WORD FOR WORD
“Lockheed didn’t go and buy our company andpay $9 billion to turn us into a department ofLockheed. Part of what they paid for was thebrand, the reputation, the history and the legacy,all the things that go with it." Samir MehtaPresident of Sikorsky’s Defense Systems & Services unit
www.defensenews.com R1 November 9 - 16, 2015 DefenseNews 29
S yrian President Basharal-Assad’s visit to Moscow
last month appears born ofthe confidence that no one woulddepose him in his absence.
It completes Vladimir Putin’scycle of Middle Eastern visitors:Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu, plus Recep TayyipErdogan of Turkey, a NATO part-
ner; Deputy
Crown PrinceMohammedbin Salman of
Saudi Arabia,a longtimeAmerican
partner; andAbdel Fattahel-Sisi, presi-
dent of Egypt,which has nothad Russian
interlocutorssince the YomKippur War.
After hismeeting with
Assad, Putin called Erdogan, King
Salman of Saudi Arabia, andel-Sisi, as well as King Abdullah IIof Jordan to update them.
It is unsurprising that Arableaders and Israel, traditionalAmerican allies, are listening
carefully to Putin. Even Afghani-stan and Pakistan are making
overtures to the Kremlin and
requesting military hardware.It behooves the American gov-
ernment to understand Russia’s
strategy — not to agree with it,not necessarily to cooperate withit or with him, but to understand
that there is logic behind it andit’s not altogether contrary toAmerican interests.
Strategy can be viewed fromeither end of the telescope; smallto large or large to small. Small to
large is to look at a problem andask, “How did that happen andwhat should we do about it?” The
benefit is that it produces dis-crete situations with which todeal. On the other hand, it tends
to lead to small, binary choices. President Obama had posited a
red line on Syrian use of chemical
weapons, perhaps in hopes ofdeterring Assad. But presentedwith evidence that Syria had
indeed used such weapons, thepresident retreated, saying Amer-ica’s choices were to do nothing
or to enter Syria’s civil war. In another instance, having
limited P5+1 negotiations with
Iran only to the nuclear issue, thepresident framed the choice to a
reluctant US Congress as binary:
Accept the document or go towar with Iran.
The problem of Syria is not
incidents of chemical warfareuse; it is war that has caused thecollapse of Syria and Iraq as
countries and allowed largeswaths of territory to lie ungov-erned and primed for ISIS. The
problem with Iran is not its nucle-ar program; it is Iran’s revolu-tionary ideology that informs its
35-year war against the UnitedStates and Israel.
Consider Russian strategy from
large to small. Vladimir Putin hastwo strategic goals:n To restore the 25 million
Russians who, as he told CharlieRose on 60 Minutes, woke up onemorning as former Soviet citizens
living in someone else’s country— Ukraine, the Baltics, etc. Hewants to reincorporate them, and
the territory on which they live,into Russia.
From this, Putin’s Europe pol-
icy becomes clear. Ukraine, Cri-mea, the 2008 Georgia war, cyberattacks on the Baltics, the drive
to control oil and gas resources inthe Middle East and Arabian Gulf
are all ways to squeeze Europe, to
punish Europe for bringing theformer Soviet colonies into theEU and/or NATO, and to make
the former colonies believe hemay forcibly restore the RussianEmpire.
n To deal a blow to Sunni jihad.Putin has no particular love forShiite Iran, Assad, Alawites or
Hezbollah. He and Netanyahu getalong pretty well. But Putin has apassionate hatred for Sunni jiha-
dists — particularly, but not onlyChechens, some of whom arefighting with ISIS and whom he
believes will return to Russia andrestart the wars that he so brutal-ly extinguished.
Saving the secular Assad regimeis essential, in his view, to keep-ing the lid on Sunni jihad.
Ah, you say, “But Russia isn’tstriking ISIS; it’s striking those‘other’ rebels in Syria.” True, but
from Putin’s point of view, that is
a small problem: “Should I drop abomb on ISIS today? Should I
drop a bomb on Jabhat al Nusra?” His concern is the large prob-
lem. “How do I hold the Syrian
state together until some endgame can be reached through
which Russia will keep its basesin western Syria?”
Putin is taking out the Sunnienemies of the Syrian state —sometimes rebels and sometimes
ISIS — and using the military tocreate conditions for a politicalsettlement that serves Russian
interests. That is, in fact, the essence of
political-military leadership.
FDR’s strategic goal was theunconditional surrender of NaziGermany, and he told Eisenhower
to go to Berlin to get it.That is not to compare Putin to
FDR, and several things could
ultimately derail Russia’s plans.Specifically, Russia cannot afforda long, drawn out war; it doesn’t
have enough troops for a large-scale ground campaign; the Rus-sian public is very opposed to
foreign military adventure; andfinally, indiscriminate bombingand shelling in Sunni Syria will,
indeed, breed more Chechen-likeSunni jihadists.
The recent phone call between
US Secretary of State John Kerryand Russian Foreign MinisterSergey Lavrov was not a coinci-
dence; Putin wants help. But tofind a cooperative mechanismthat serves American interests,
the US will first have to under-stand Putin’s bottom lines. N
Understanding Russian Strategy
By ShoshanaBryen, senior
director of The
Jewish Policy Center
and editor of
inFOCUS Magazine.
F aced with uncertain bud-
gets and demanding cus-tomers, defense executives
are pushing hard to drive cost-
effective technological improve-ments. With generous govern-ment-funded research and
development (R&D) now scarceand defensecustomers
calling forSilicon Valley-style technol-
ogy break-throughs,
Western de-
fense firmsare looking to
two sources of
external in-novation:commercial
firms andforeign de-
fense industrycounterparts.
While the
potential is clear, challengesabound — from differing busi-ness environments and clashing
corporate cultures to onerouscontracting and security rules.
To better understand the role
R&D-driven innovation will playin shaping the defense sector,Avascent surveyed more than 200
aerospace and defense exec-
utives. Our interlocutors were
unambiguous: Success in leverag-ing commercial or foreign-de-rived R&D for defense purposes
remains sporadic. Nevertheless,the defense sector is slowly butsurely signaling a sustained shift
in business processes.Ninety percent of our respon-
dents cited the vital importance
of R&D-driven technologicalinnovation for their home coun-try’s national security. It is a
sentiment that already registersamong potential adversaries.
China’s leadership, which for
decades counted on the sheermass of the People’s Liberation
Army, is now cutting personnel in
favor of technology investment.Stakeholders surveyed support-
ed the commercial and interna-
tional pathways to innovation,though more tentatively on the
latter. The survey noted the im-pressive impact of commercialtechnology on cyber and in-
formation technology, whileforeign defense industry counter-parts were seen as a source of
innovation across C4ISR, un-manned, training and simulation,weapons, and other technologies.
Despite much emphasis on therole commercial start-ups mayplay, industry observers placed
greater confidence in large, es-
tablished technology players.
This theme was magnified on theinternational front — nationalchampions, rather than new
entrants, were seen as the fore-front of tech innovation.
Does this reflect the limitations
of unproven technology, or a lackof awareness on the part of thedefense industry establishment?
And are established firms alwayslooking for the optimal outsidecontributions, for instance an
innovative or low-cost designapproach, rather than seeking to
replicate familiar subcontractor
roles?So if it is sold on commercial
and foreign-derived technology,
what is holding the defense in-dustry back? One challenge stoodout: 90 percent of those surveyed
said burdensome contractingrequirements are a major obsta-
cle. Real or perceived intellectualproperty restrictions companiesencounter were a close second.
Similarly, foreign content re-strictions driven by nationalsecurity concerns were the big-
gest obstacle to integrating inter-national R&D innovation.
Defense firms must not only
address these hurdles, they mustalso keep pace with innovationoutside their relatively insular
domestic national security com-
plex — no more so than in the
long self-sufficient US. Given asliding scale of capabilities,roughly 75 percent of firms were
convinced they could effectivelymonitor the commercial sectorfor new technologies, but confi-
dence eroded as respondentswere asked about their firms’ability to formally evaluate and
exploit emerging opportunities.The situation was even less
rosy when foreign-derived in-
novation was on the block; only athird of respondents were confi-
dent their organizations could
adapt and exploit technologyfrom abroad. This need not be a
permanent obstacle — most
defense-relevant innovation re-
portedly stems from Westerntrading partners such as the UK,
Japan, Germany and France.But what is the best way to
effectively leverage commercialor international technologicalinnovation? Interestingly, part-
nership and joint offerings werethe strongest contenders, fol-
lowed by IP acquisition or licens-
ing, and then mergers andacquisition (M&A) activity andjoint ventures (JVs). The survey
also revealed less appetite inrelative terms for JVs and M&A
activity in the international are-
na. Equally telling was the rela-
tively weak support for internal
investment to replicate the tech-nology in-house.
The defense sector needs to
make existing and non-traditionalR&D innovation go further. Firmswill have to undertake a number
of actions, including:n Effectively identifying and
vetting commercial and foreign
defense R&D.n Convincing potential part-
ners and their government end-
customers of the financial andtechnological wisdom of this
move.
n Integrating and exploitingthe most promising innovations
across the development lifecycle.
The defense sector has nochoice but to innovate. Custom-ers demand it. Adversary threats
require it. The question thatexecutives and policymakers
must consider is that when theyuncover the next compellingtechnology or process innovation
from abroad or in an unfamiliarmarket, what will they do aboutit? N
Industry Grapples With Emerging Tech Sources
By AleksandarJovovic, a principal
at Avascent, a
management
consultancy focused
on public sector
markets.
n Send your opinion pieces to
opinion@defensenews.com.
Submissions must be roughly 800
words long and are subject to editing
for space and clarity.
30 DefenseNews November 9 - 16, 2015 R1 www.defensenews.com
Interview
Q. How does EDIC view current global
defense industry trends?
A. Changing geopolitical and
security environments requirenew defense capabilities. Soarmed forces across the world
must adapt to new challengeswhile also facing budget re-straints from their governments.
The reality is that everyone wantsmore value from their defenseexpenditures.
In the case of the UAE, we canenhance value in four ways: lis-tening better and adapting to
clients’ needs, exploiting syn-ergies among defense industriesthat complement each other,
spreading know-how and ex-pertise, and transferring ad-vanced technology. These are the
principles by which EDIC is car-
rying forward its work to providebetter value to our principal
customer, the UAE armed forces.
Q. Is the rapidly changing geopolitical
landscape around the UAE driving for
more change and development in its
indigenous military industry? How?
A. As a strategic asset of the UAE
government, EDIC will continueto respond to the needs of our
primary customer, the UAEarmed forces, and will work to
keep them at a peak state of
readiness while also developing
industrial capabilities in the coun-try. In order to meet the future
needs of the armed forces, wemust further strengthen our busi-nesses by increasing the transfer
of advanced technology, capa-bilities and know-how. We look toachieve this by building on our
strong relationships with OEMs[original equipment manufactur-ers].
Q. Do you plan to make any announce-
ments at the Dubai Airshow?
A. EDIC is continuing to advancethe consolidation process, andwe are seeing steady progress
there. At the show, you will findAMMROC and GAL, our MRO
[maintenance, repair and over-
haul] providers; ADASI, our au-tonomous systems company; andTawazun Precision Industries, a
world-class manufacturing facil-ity in Abu Dhabi operating in thedefense, aerospace and oil and
gas business.
Q. The inception of the Emirates
Defence Industries Company came at a
time when many UAE defense compa-
nies started seeing the light and
supplying the armed forces. What were
the reasons and motivations behind
the establishment of EDIC?
A. Over the last two decades, the
UAE has built a robust and suc-cessful defense industry offering
a diverse range of products andservices across the air, land and
sea platforms. Very simply, the
time and conditions triggered theleadership to make the strategicdecision to bring these compa-
nies together under a commonplatform to position the industryfor the next phase of growth. As
a strategic asset of the UAE gov-ernment, this platform will helpto keep the UAE armed forces at
a peak state of readiness, whilealso developing industrial capa-bilities in the country.
This strategy is well-knownaround the world. The UAE joinsmany other emerging market
economies, such as South Korea,that have successfully consolidat-
ed companies under an integrat-ed platform.
As we integrate the companies
into the platform, we are workingto unlock synergies and increaseenterprise value through strategic
alignment with our principalclient, the UAE armed forces.Our long-term goal is to be recog-
nized as the region’s premierpartner for manufacturing, ser-vices and technology develop-
ment.
Q. How has EDIC developed over the
last 11 months?
A. Over the last year, we havebeen working through the com-
plex process of integrating arange of different companies.They came from three different
owners and many have jointventure partners, so this processis complex and takes time. Dur-
ing this process, we have beenfocused on maintaining the integ-rity and continuity of these busi-
nesses as they change owner, sothat service and quality levels aremaintained.
At the same time, we have been
exploring synergies between thecompanies, identifying additional
efficiency gains that can be real-
ized from the integration process.We have kept our eye on the
long-term goal of positioning theindustry for future growth, build-ing national capabilities and
generating new opportunities forUAE nationals.
When the transformation is
complete, EDIC will be a sub-stantial industrial services playerwith decades of homegrown
national defense industry experi-ence — and one of the largestcompanies in the Arabian Gulf
region, comprising 10,000 person-
nel employed in manufacturingand services across air, land andsea platforms.
Q. For years the UAE has been em-
barking on developing an indigenous
military industry and have partnered
with major global defense companies.
How well did the previous model of
business and technology transfer from
global defense partners fare out, and
how will EDIC enhance that?
A. The UAE has established astrong and globally respectednational defense industry over
the last two decades with thehelp of our international partners.EDIC is proud to carry on this
tradition. Working closely withour stakeholders and partners,we are building a new national
defense champion.We aim to develop existing
partnerships and identify new
commercial ventures, bringingnew products and services to theUAE. In essence, we are a hub
that can facilitate the UAE’srelationships with internationalOEMs, ensuring that our busi-
nesses and operations are strate-gically aligned with the needs ofGHQ [general headquarters]. Our
mandate is to increase the speed
of transfer of advanced technol-ogy, capabilities and know-how
to the UAE, and this is made
easier by being a larger entitywith more negotiating power.
Q. After acquiring a full plate of sub-
sidiaries in its inception stage, what is
EDIC’s next objective?
A. Our focus is on completing thelegal transfer of our companies
into EDIC by 2017, exploring
synergies between them. We areprogressively focusing more onoperating these companies, and
in some cases there will be fur-ther consolidation or mergersdepending on the individual com-
panies. All this takes time, andwe cannot lose sight of the needto maintain our high quality and
service levels during this period. Moving forward, we will also
work to promote innovation,
technology development, state-of-the-art manufacturing and humancapital development, specifically
growing the next generation ofEmirati engineers and projectmanagers.
Q. What does EDIC hope to get from
future partnerships with global de-
fense firms?
A. EDIC seeks to develop,strengthen and deepen relation-
ships with partners who, whilepursuing their own goals, will
work with us to meet our clients’
needs and increase value in theUAE beyond local assembly. This
last point, localization, is critical
to EDIC’s mission. We are fo-cused on localizing manufactur-ing, servicing, testing and core
elements of the supply chain. We seek future partnerships
that are mutually beneficial. We
hope to benefit from localization,knowledge transfer and capa-bility building, while our partners
will benefit from enhanced tech-nological resources and expertisefrom a centralized hub of world-
class products and services. N
By Awad Mustafa in Dubai.
HOMAID AL SHEMMARIChairman, Emirates DefenceIndustries Company
Emirates Defence Industries Company (EDIC) is an integratednational defense services and manufacturing business, providingfacilities, technology and support services for the UAE armed
forces. Established in December 2014, it has 16 subsidiaries under itsumbrella with assets worth more than US $860 million and 4,800 jobson its payroll.
EDIC’s companies include: Advanced Military Repair Overhaul Cen-tre (AMMROC), Abu Dhabi Autonomous Systems Investment (ADASI),Al Taif Technical Services, Bayanat for Mapping and Surveying Ser-
vices, Burkan Munitions Systems, C4 Advanced Solutions, CaracalInternational, Caracal Light Ammunition, Global Aerospace Logistics,
Horizon International Flight Academy, Naval Advanced Solutions,NIMR Automotive, Tawazun Dynamics, Tawazun Precision Industries,Secure Communications and Thales Advanced Solutions.
Homaid Abdulla Al Shemmari has served as the CEO of EDIC since2014. He is leading the strategic development of the aerospace industryin Abu Dhabi. Al Shemmari is a former chief executive of Aerospace &
Engineering Services at Mubadala Development Company, where hepreviously was a senior project manager and an associate director.
EDIC
Established: December 2014Assets: More than US $860millionSubsidiaries: 16Employees: 4,800Source: Defense News research
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