DTN News: U.S. Department of Defense Contracts Dated March 5, 2014

DTN News: U.S. Department of Defense Contracts Dated March 5, 2014
Source: K. V. Seth - DTN News + U.S. DoD issued No. CR-041-14 March 5, 2014
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - March 5, 2014: U.S. Department of Defense, Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs) Contracts issued March 5, 2014 are undermentioned;

CONTRACTS

 

MISSILE DEFENSE AGENCY

 

Raytheon Missile Systems Co., Tucson, Ariz., is being awarded a not-to-exceed $350,178,300 sole-source modification to the undefinitized contract action announced Jan. 9, 2014. The modification will increase the quantity of Standard Missile-3 Block IB missile material and all up round build up procured from eight to 44.  The work will be performed in Tucson, Ariz., with an estimated completion date of September 2016.  Fiscal 2014 Defense wide procurement funds will be used to fund this effort.  The Missile Defense Agency, Dahlgren, Va., is the contracting activity (HQ0276-13-C-0001).

 

ARMY

 

Loyal Source Government Services*, Orlando, Fla. (W91YTZ-14-D-0003); Aliron International, Inc.*, Bethesda, Md. (W91YTZ-14-D-0004); Magnificus Corp.*, Washington, D.C. (W91YTZ-14-D-0005); Arora Group Inc.*, Gaithersburg, Md. (W91YTZ-14-D-0006); The Royster Group, Inc.*, Atlanta, Ga. (W91YTZ-14-D-0007); Protege Health Services*, Newington, Va., (W91YTZ-14-D-0008); Franklin Government Services*, Austin, Texas (W91YTZ-14-D-0009), were awarded a $381,000,000 firm-fixed-price, multi-year contract for nursing services for the Northern Regional Medical Command.  Funding and work performance locations will be determined with each order.  Estimated completion date is March 4, 2019.  Bids were solicited via the Internet with 28 received.  Army Medical Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity.

 

Colt Defense LLC, West Hartford, Conn. (W15QKN-14-D-0024), and Manroy USA, Spindale, N.C. (W15QKN-14-D-0025), were awarded a $54,491,305 firm-fixed-price contract for the M4 replacement barrel and front sight assembly (heavy variant) for the M4 Carbine Product Improvement Program.  The M4 replacement barrel will be combined with other weapon components to form a single modification work order kit to convert fielded M4 carbines to M4A1 carbines.  Funding and work location will be determined with each order.  Estimated completion date is Feb. 27, 2018.  Bids were solicited via the Internet with six received.  Army Contracting Command, Picatinny Arsenal, N.J., is the contracting activity.

 

BAE Systems Land and Armaments L.P., York, Pa., was awarded a $6,935,513 modification (P00006) to contract W56HZV-14-C-0002 for spare parts for self-propelled howitzers and eighteen ammunition carrier tracked vehicles.  Fiscal 2014 other procurement funds in the amount of $6,935,513 were obligated at the time of the award. Estimated completion date is Sept. 30, 2015.  Work will be performed in York, Pa.  Army Contracting Command, Warren, Mich. is the contracting activity.

 

DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY

 

Tullahoma Industries, LLC.,** Tullahoma, Tenn., has been awarded a maximum $25,482,000  modification (P00103) exercising the first option year on a one-year base contract (SPM1C1-13-D-1033) with four one-year option periods for various permethrin army combat uniform trousers.  This is a firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract.  Locations of performance are Tennessee, Alabama, and North Carolina with a March 12, 2015 performance completion date.  Using military service is Army.  Type of appropriation is fiscal year 2014 through fiscal year 2015 defense working capital funds.  The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pa.

 

*Small business

**Small In HUBZone Business

*Link for This article compiled by K. V. Seth + U.S. DoD issued No. CR-041-14 March 5, 2014 
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*Photograph: IPF (International Pool of Friends) + DTN News / otherwise source stated
*This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News Contact:dtnnews@ymail.com 
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DTN News - CHINA DEFENSE NEWS: China Announces Surge In Military Spending To Almost $132 Billion

DTN News - CHINA DEFENSE NEWS: China Announces Surge In Military Spending To Almost $132 Billion

*China continues years of double-digit rises in military spending to alarm of Asian nations and US

Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by K. V. Seth from reliable sources Telegraph UK
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - March 5, 2014: China has announced a 12 per cent increase on its military, already the largest in the world, sparking concerns among its Asian neighbours and the US.

Beijing has for years been raising spending on the People's Liberation Army (PLA) in double-digit steps, reflecting its military ambitions as it asserts its new-found economic might and its claims in a series of territorial disputes with Japan and others.

"The appropriation for national defence is 808.23 billion yuan (£79 billion), up 12.2 percent," said a budget report prepared for the annual session of the National People's Congress (NPC), China's Communist-controlled parliament, which began on Wednesday.

"We will resolutely safeguard China's sovereignty, security and development interests," Premier Li Keqiang said at the opening session.

"We will safeguard the victory of World War II and the post-war international order, and will not allow anyone to reverse the course of history," he said - a phrase China often uses in relation to rival Japan.

Beijing would also "place war preparations on a regular footing" and "build China into a maritime power", Li added.

In comments ahead of the gathering, NPC spokeswoman Fu Ying sought to play down foreign worries about China's defence expenditure.

"Certain countries have been selling the idea of China as a major threat," she said. "Based on our history and experience, we believe that peace can only be maintained by strength."

This year's stated increase follows rises of 10.7 percent in 2013, 11.2 percent in 2012 and 12.7 percent in 2011.

Analysts believe China's actual military spending is significantly higher than publicised, with the Pentagon estimating it at between $135 billion and $215 billion in 2012.

The United States itself remains far ahead as the global leader in defence spending, with Washington approving a 2014 budget of $633 billion in December.

China devotes about three times as much as India to defence, and more than neighbours Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam combined.

Beijing's spending could match that of Washington by the 2030s, the International Institute for Strategic Studies said in February, but added that its capabilities, expertise and ability to project power would require several more years to catch up.

Nonetheless the increases have raised concerns in the US and Asia, particularly in Japan, with the two countries embroiled in an escalating row over East China Sea islands called Diaoyu in Chinese and Senkaku in Japanese.

After the latest figure was revealed, Japan expressed concern about Beijing's level of openness about the PLA.

"The transparency of China's defence policy and military capacity, or lack thereof, has become a matter of concern for the international community, including Japan," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters.

China's actions will both fuel the concern of its neighbours and encourage them to beef up their security cooperation with each other and the US, said Denny Roy, an expert on China's military at the East-West Center in Hawaii.

"This would add to the momentum of something that's already in motion," he told AFP.
In December, the cabinet of Japan's hawkish Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreed to spend 24.7 trillion yen (£144 billion) between 2014 and 2019 in a strategic military shift towards areas of the country facing China - a five per cent boost to the defence budget over five years.

China decried Japan's increase at the time as an issue of "great concern to neighbouring countries in Asia and the international community".

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*Link for This article compiled by K. V. Seth from reliable sources Telegraph UK
*Speaking Image - Creation of DTN News ~ Defense Technology News 
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DTN News - UKRAINE UNREST: Russia Test-Fires ICBM Amid Tension Over Ukraine

DTN News - UKRAINE UNREST: Russia Test-Fires ICBM Amid Tension Over Ukraine

Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by K. V. Seth from reliable sources Reuters
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - March 5, 2014: Russia said it had successfully test-fired an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) on Tuesday, with tensions running high over its military intervention in Ukraine's Crimea region.

A U.S. official said the United States had received proper notification from Russia ahead of the test and that the initial notification pre-dated the crisis in Crimea. The Russian Defence Ministry could not be reached for comment.

The Strategic Rocket Forces launched an RS-12M Topol missile from the southerly Astrakhan region and the dummy warhead hit its target at a proving ground in Kazakhstan, Defence Ministry spokesman Igor Yegorov told state-run news agency RIA.

The launch site, Kapustin Yar, is near the Volga River about 450 km (280 miles) east of the Ukrainian border. Kazakhstan, a Russian ally in a post-Soviet security grouping, is further to the east.

Russia conducts test launches of its ICBMs fairly frequently and often announces the results, a practice seen as intended to remind the West of Moscow's nuclear might and reassure Russians that President Vladimir Putin will protect them.

Russia and the United States signed the latest of a series of treaties restricting the numbers of ICBMs in 2010, but Moscow has indicated it will agree further cuts in the near future and is taking steps to upgrade its nuclear arsenal.

Putin has emphasised that Russia must maintain a strong nuclear deterrent, in part because of an anti-missile shield the United States is building in Europe which Moscow says could undermine its security.

The Defence Ministry said the test could help Russia improve its capability of foiling anti-missile shields, RIA reported.

Moscow says it is concerned U.S. interceptors could shoot down some of its ICBMs in flight, weakening its arsenal. The United States says the shield is meant to protect against threats from states such as Iran and poses no threat to Russia.

The 20-metre (60-foot) long RS-12M, known in NATO parlance as the SS-25 Sickle, was first put into service in 1985, six years before the collapse of the Soviet Union, and is designed to carry a nuclear warhead. Its range is 10,500 km (6,000 miles).

RT-2PM Topol - Intercontinental Ballistic Missile

At the time of the signing of the START I Treaty in 1991 the Soviet Union had deployed some 288 Topol missiles. Deployment continued, and at the end of 1996 a total of 360 Topol missiles were deployed.

The Topol missile was deployed at previously developed deployment sites. After the INF Treaty was signed in 1987 several SS-20 deployment sites were adapted to launch the Topol missiles. The United States expressed specific concerns during the INF treaty negotiations. When the SS-25 missile system was deployed in the field, with its missile inside the canister and mounted on the launcher, the US contended that the canister might conceal an RSD-10 Pioneer missile. This was of concern because unlike the single warhead of the RT-2PM Topol, the RSD-10 carried up to 3 warheads. A resolution was reached after the Soviet Union agreed to allow inspection parties to use radiation detection systems to measure fast neutron intensity flux emanating from the launch canister. A launch canister with a missile inside containing a single warhead, such as the RT-2PM Topol, emitted a different pattern of fast neutrons than did one with a missile having three warheads, such as the RSD-10.

Provisions of the SALT II agreement prohibited the deployment of more than one new missile (which became RT-23UTTh), it was officially declared by the Soviet Union that the RT-2PM Topol was developed to upgrade the silo based RT-2. The US government disputed this view, contending that the missile was clearly more than 5% larger and had twice the throw-weight as the RT-2 and therefore constituted a new missile system. Marshal Nikolai Ogarkov, Soviet Chief of General Staff cancelled the September 1, 1983 test flight of the RT-2PM Topol which was to be launched from Plesetsk (the launch site in northwest Russia used for test firing of solid fuel propellant ICBMs)- 24 minutes later to land in the Klyuchi target area on the Kamchatka Peninsula. The night of the scheduled launch was the night that Korean Air Lines Flight 007 intruded Soviet airspace over Kamchatka.

An RT-2PM Topol with two MIRVs may have been tested in 1991, and the missile was tested at least once with four MIRV warheads, but there has apparently been no further development of a multiple warhead version. This became a point of contention during the conclusion of the 1991 START negotiations, at which time the US pressed for a definition of "downloading" (removing warheads from missiles) that would complicate any Soviet attempt suddenly to deploy multiple warheads on the RT-2PM Topol.


Russia plans to reequip approximately 400 silos where obsolete UR-100, RT-2 and MR-UR-100 missiles are located. Under the START II Treaty, which never had and most likely will never have a binding effect, Russia would have been able to place 90 single-warhead solid fuel missiles in reequipped R-36 silos. In order to guard against a break-out scenario involving the rapid reconversion of R-36 silos on-site inspection became a very important aspect of START II verification.

(Additional reporting by Phil Stewart in Washington; Writing by Steve Gutterman; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

*Link for This article compiled by K. V. Seth from reliable sources Reuters
*Speaking Image - Creation of DTN News ~ Defense Technology News 
*Photograph: IPF (International Pool of Friends) + DTN News / otherwise source stated
*This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News Contact:dtnnews@ymail.com 
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