Posted on 07/24/2004 4:13:11 AM PDT by jackmercer
This is an interesting little contract. It is a hobby of mine to monitor US Defense contracts every week as I tend to play the markets with this info.
I had assumed, as a big Jane's buff, that the Israeli military was pretty happy with their current stock of guided missles. However, upgrading to GPS vehicles for their warheads really caught my eye in light of the recent talk about Iranian reactors.
Second paragraph down on the link:
"McDonnell Douglas Corp., Saint Louis, Mo., is being awarded a $17,461,828 firm fixed price modification to provide for 840 Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) guided vehicles. The JDAM is a strap-on kit with inertial navigation system/global positioning system capability that provides the user with an improved aerial delivery capability for existing 500, 1000 and 2000-pound bombs. This effort supports foreign military sales to Israel. The locations of performance are McDonnell Douglas, Saint Louis, Mo., and Honeywell Inc., Minneapolis, Minn. This work will be complete by November 2005. The Air Armament Center, Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., is the contracting activity (F08635-02-C-0060, P00018)."
http://www.defenselink.mil/contracts/2004/ct20040722.html
That's terrific. Now I can't wait for them to put one "down the chimney"!! Semper Fidelis.
I thought McDonnell-Douglas was bought out by Boeing.
That caught my eye too. There is no McDonnell-Douglas Corporation.
Probably just the commercial side of the house. Don't know.
Could those be intended to counter whatever Syria may have?
21,000 a pop.....I guess thats a good deal(^)
Good catch. I find no remnants of MDC via Yahoo.
McDonnell-Douglas Corporation still exists...
The lawsuit on the A-12 program is still in litigation. When Boeing merged with McDonnell-Douglas the corporation was left separate until the suit between the government and MDouglas is settled.
Beoing/Douglas owns all the facilities. How is the (on-paper only) McDonnell Douglas Corp going to build anything?
I wish we could loan the IDF a few B-52s for as long as they needed them.
It is a good deal, the price has come way down in real dollars from the original $100k+
I'm not an expert in this area, but these don't seem to be big enough to take out Iran's nuclear capability. If they do this they are only going to get one shot at it and it better be good. I expect the Israelis have a bigger surprise in their arsenal.
Here's also this, from Jane's... ( http://www.janes.com/defence/news/jdw/jdw040719_1_n.shtml )
Massive bomb to MOP up deeply buried targets
By Michael Sirak JDW Staff Reporter
Washington, DC
The US Air Force plans to launch a project later this year to develop an experimental ultra-large 30,000lb (13,608kg) penetrating munition, according to service officials.
It will be optimised against hardened and deeply buried targets that existing air-delivered weapons cannot destroy, they say.
The Air Force Research Laboratory's Munitions Directorate at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, is leading the three-phase technology demonstration, known as the Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) programme. It builds on design studies that Boeing has conducted for the laboratory. Flight testing is envisaged around 2006.
Although the air force has no formal requirement for an ultra-large bomb, it has a concept for a 'Big BLU' family of massive-sized penetrator and blast munitions. The MOP demonstration will mature the technologies so that they are "on the shelf, ready to go" if a requirement emerges for a Big BLU penetrator, said Steven Butler, director of engineering at the Air Armament Center at Eglin. He told JDW that the MOP is "unlike anything" that the air force has ever built.
Interest in a big penetrating bomb is growing in some US defence circles, including the Defense Science Board (DSB), the senior policy advisory panel to the Secretary of Defense. It recommended in its February 2004 report on 'Future Strategic Strike Forces' that the Department of Defense "immediately undertake" a demonstration of a "bomber-delivered massive penetrator" weapon as part of a family of ultra-large bombs that would "improve conventional attack effectiveness against deep, expansive, underground tunnel facilities".
It's sort of like when Allied Signal bought Honeywell. Allied Signal took the name Honeywell and there is no Allied Signal anymore - in name at least.
Yes, but in this case the new Company name is Boeing/Douglas.
One troubling aspect of this JDAM contract: ISRAEL IS NOW THE SECOND LARGEST ARMS SUPPLIER TO CHINA.
Can you say "technology transfer"???? I'm an ardent supporter of Israel vs. the Palis, but I don't like the idea that Israel is using our contribution of over $1 billion in military aid each year and then resells the weapons or technology to our greatest enemy. Their sales could result in many combat deaths of our soldiers. This has to stop.
Actually, the corporation is called "The Boeing Company".
Surely the accounting rules are different for the federal stuff, so that's self-contained within the FSO. The world of federal contracting is Alice in Wornderland on steroids. Not evil, conspriatorial, or whatever. Just different, for often real historical reasons.
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