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Northrop Grumman, in partnership with EADS, will not offer a bid for the $35 billion KC-X tanker contract, citing a US Air Force request for proposal (RFP) it believes is weighted in favour of its competitor. "We reached this conclusion based on the structure of the source selection methodology defined in the RFP, which clearly favours Boeing's smaller refuelling tanker and does not provide adequate value recognition of the added capability of a larger tanker, precluding us from any competitive opportunity," says Wes Bush, CEO of Northrop Grumman. Additionally, Bush says that Northrop has decided not to protest the selection...

Boeing has unveiled today the 'NewGen Tanker', the aerial refueling aircraft being proposed for the U.S. Air Force KC-X tanker competition. According to Dennis Muilenburg, president and CEO of Boeing Defense, Space & Security, the Boeing NewGen Tanker will satisfy all mandatory Air Force requirements and offer an American-made tanker that will be capable, survivable, and combat-ready at the lowest cost to the taxpayer.

European defence giant EADS has dropped out of a nine-year, two-horse $40bn (£27bn) race to provide the US Air Force with a fleet of air tankers after accusing the American government of skewing the competition in rival Boeing's favour. EADS staff stand near a life-size scale display of the interior of the Airbus A400M military transport plane EADS and US partner Northrop-Grumman last night took the dramatic decision not to make a bid for the 179 plane contract after studying the latest terms drawn up by the US Department of Defence (DoD). The pairing, which actually won the contract in...

Pentagon Reports Document Continuing Lockheed-Martin Failures Under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), the CDI Straus Military Reform Project has obtained almost two years of monthly reports from the Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA) on Lockheed Martin’s production of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. The documents do not paint a pretty picture, explains Straus Military Reform Project Director Winslow Wheeler. The Defense Contract Management Agency’s (DCMA) most recent reports cover the months July through November 2009. The full reports are available below. Their major points, as summarized by Winslow Wheeler, are as follows: The F-35 assembly line at Forth Worth,...

The solid-state laser system from Northrop Grumman, that produced the most powerful beam ever from a continuous wave electric laser last year, is joining other pioneering speed-of-light weapons demonstrators for field tests at the Army's High Energy Laser System Test Facility (HELSTF), N.M. In cooperation with the U.S. Army's Space and Missile Defense Command/Army Forces Strategic Command, which operates the test range at White Sands Missile Range in southeastern New Mexico, BAE Systems has contracted with Northrop Grumman to relocate the Joint High Power Solid State Laser (JHPSSL) Phase 3 system from the company's laser factory in Redondo Beach, Calif.,...

UPDATE 1-Raytheon says bidding for India tank upgrade * Partnering Larsen & Toubro for 1,000 tank contract Stocks * Contract value seen at more than $100 mln (Adds detail) NEW DELHI, Feb 12 (Reuters) - Raytheon Co (RTN.N), the world's biggest missile maker, said on Friday it and partner Larsen & Toubro (LART.BO) have bid for the contract to upgrade 1,000 T-72 battle tanks in India. Defence ministry officials said India was looking to spend at least $100 million in upgrading the tanks, which India bought from Russia three decades ago. "The upgrade will increase the lethality of the T-72...

The Obama administration has given a $25 million federal contract for work in Afghanistan to a company owned by a prominent Democrat campaign contributor without considering any competitive bids!

Trijicon, the gunsight maker that has imprinted Bible verse numbers on its scopes, has announced that it will no longer imprint the verses on the sides of scopes intended for the U.S. military, and will also provide clients with the kits to remove the Bible verse numbers from existing scopes. An ABC News report earlier this week revealed that the Michigan-based company, which has a contract to provide up to 800,000 scopes to the U.S. military, prints references to New Testament chapters and verses in code next to the model numbers of its scopes. The scopes are used by the...

WASHINGTON: A US firm sought to quiet a controversy over coded Biblical references inscribed on gunsights used by US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, announcing it was providing kits to remove them. Muslim and religious freedom groups reacted angrily after it emerged this week that Trijicon has multi-million-dollar contracts to supply hundreds of thousands of the gunsights to the US military. Critics charged that the company was putting US troops in danger in Muslim-majority nations where US military presence is already bitterly resented.

Northrop Grumman Corp. plans to move its headquarters to the Washington, D.C., area from Los Angeles, a historic departure from the aerospace and defense industry's birthplace in Southern California. The move will put Northrop's top executives near its biggest military and intelligence customers in the federal government, as well as Congress. "We are a global security company and when you look at where our largest customer base is located, it's in the Washington, D.C region," said Wesley Bush, Northrop's chief executive officer and president. Mr. Bush took over as chief executive from Ron Sugar on Jan. 1. The decision follows...

Blackwater Guards Tied to Secret Raids by the C.I.A. By JAMES RISEN and MARK MAZZETTI WASHINGTON — Private security guards from Blackwater Worldwide participated in some of the C.I.A.’s most sensitive activities — clandestine raids with agency officers against people suspected of being insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan and the transporting of detainees, according to former company employees and intelligence officials. The raids against suspects occurred on an almost nightly basis during the height of the Iraqi insurgency from 2004 to 2006, with Blackwater personnel playing central roles in what company insiders called “snatch and grab” operations, the former employees...

The Entry Control Points (ECP) into the International Zone (IZ) have been increasingly difficult to deal with. It is nothing that is intolerable. However, in an increasing basis Protective Security Detail (PSD) teams have been instructed to exit vehicles for search, download weapons and such. That is okay, because after all, Iraq, like it or not, is its own country and sets the ground rules. Well, a few days ago the antics were ratcheted up again. As a team was entering ECP4 (old CP12) the last vehicle of the motorcade was stopped, which is not uncommon. This time though, the...

RAY GUNSApplied Energetics Receives US Army Contract For Laser Guided Energy Laser Guided Energy (LGE) is a transformational weapon technology by which a controllable high voltage electric charge can be precisely guided by a laser through the atmosphere to induce a range of effects against a variety of targets. by Staff Writers Tucson AZ (SPX) Aug 21, 2009 Applied Energetics has announced it has been awarded a $3.1 million Contract from the U.S. Army's Research, Development and Engineering Command (U.S. Army RDECOM - Picatinny, NJ) for the continued development and advancement of the company's Laser Guided Energy(TM) (LGE) technology. Regarding...

Richard Ianieri, the defense contractor charged today with accepting $200,000 in kickbacks from a subcontractor, was president of a company that gave more money to Rep. John Murtha than any other lawmaker. That company, Coherent Systems International, received millions of dollars in earmarks from Murtha, and continued giving money to the Pennsylvania Democrat after Ianieri left Coherent and Argon ST bought it. The criminal complaint filed yesterday reportedly did not name the subcontractor, according to Roll Call. In total, the employees of Coherent, and employees and political action committees of Argon and its subsidiaries, have given $81,950 to Murtha's campaign...

Northrop Grumman has delivered its 400th fuselage section for the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, the U.S. Navy's combat-proven multi-role strike fighter. The fuselage "shipset," measuring nearly 30 feet long and 18 feet high, consists of the aircraft's center and aft fuselage sections, twin vertical tails and all associated subsystems. It was shipped earlier this month to The Boeing Company's F/A-18 production center in St. Louis, Mo., for final assembly and delivery to the Navy. As principal F/A-18E/F subcontractor to Boeing, Northrop Grumman is responsible for design and production of the entire center and aft fuselage as well as subsystems integration and...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Associated Press has learned that five Blackwater Worldwide security guards indicted in a deadly Iraqi shooting plan to surrender to the FBI on Monday in Salt Lake City. 1 of the men is from North Texas. A person close to the case described the decision on condition of anonymity because the indictment against the men remains sealed. The five guards are all military veterans charged in a 2007 shooting in Baghdad that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead. The shooting strained U.S. diplomacy and fueled anti-American sentiment abroad.

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- Five Blackwater Worldwide security guards have been indicted and a sixth was negotiating a plea with prosecutors for a 2007 shooting that left 17 Iraqis dead and became an anti-American rallying cry for insurgents, people close to the case said Friday. ...Six guards have been under investigation since a convoy of heavily armed Blackwater contractors opened fire in a crowded Baghdad intersection on Sept. 16, 2007. Witnesses say the shooting was unprovoked but Blackwater, hired by the State Department to guard U.S. diplomats, says its guards were ambushed by insurgents while responding to a car bombing.

After calling some residents in his western Pennsylvania district "racist" and "rednecks," Democratic Rep. John P. Murtha seemed in jeopardy of losing his job last month - until his political friends in Congress and the defense industry came to the rescue. Soon after Mr. Murtha's poll numbers began slipping, money started pouring into his campaign coffers from Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, Rep. Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, now the incoming White House chief of staff, and dozens of other prominent Democrats. Mr. Murtha raised more than $1 million in the two weeks leading up to his successful Nov....

BAE to develop unmanned aircraft with British Defense Ministry14 Jul, 2008, 2127 hrs IST, AGENCIES FARNBOROUGH: BAE Systems PLC said on Monday it will develop an unmanned aircraft that can drop laser-guided bombs and fire missiles in a program jointly funded by Britain's Ministry of Defense. BAE announced the plans for the propeller-powered vehicle, known as Mantis, at the Farnborough International Airshow, outside London, and displayed a full-size model on the tarmac. The deal with the Defense Ministry, which covers the first phase of development and flight testing only, is designed to demonstrate the potential of a large unmanned aircraft...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers defied a White House veto threat on Wednesday and voted to bar CIA contractors from interrogating suspected terrorists, in the latest clash over detainee treatment in the U.S.-declared war on terrorism. The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives approved the provision in adopting a broad measure to authorize funding of U.S. intelligence agencies for the 2009 fiscal year. A related bill awaits action in the Senate. Passage of the multibillion dollar bill came on a voice vote, indicating broad assent, despite the White House veto threat issued earlier in the day. In addition to the contractor ban,...

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said yesterday that the Pentagon will hold a new, fast-tracked competition to replace the Air Force's aging fleet of aerial refueling tankers, a move that overturns the previous award of the contract to Northrop Grumman. The decision follows criticism of the selection process by the Government Accountability Office and underscores the sharp divisions over the contract. The deal to replace the Air Force's entire fleet could be worth up to $100 billion over the next two decades. Gates said he expects the Pentagon to choose a new winner by the end of the year. On...

FORT SAM HOUSTON - In his first public remarks since he and two other American hostages were freed in Colombia, a US defense contractor on Monday branded their captors as terrorists and praised the Colombian army for a daring rescue. Keith Stansell, one of three US defense contractors freed on July 2 after five years as a rebel-held hostage in Colombia, holds his twin 5-year-old sons at a news conference at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas, July 7, 2008. [Agencies] American defense contractor Marc Gonsalves appeared with fellow hostages Keith Stansell and Thomas Howes at a...

Loren Thompson, the well-regarded defense analyst with the Lexington Institute think tank, has taken heat from Boeing backers over his reports about the Air Force tanker decision. But in his latest report, Thompson echoes many of Boeing's concerns about the decision.

<p>WASHINGTON — Congressional investigators have granted Boeing's protest of a $35 billion Air Force tanker contract awarded to Northrop Grumman Corp. and Airbus parent European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co.</p>

Grieving Mothers Bond To Learn How Their Sons Died In Fallujah By ANDREA SIMAKIS   Danica Zovko on April 1, 2004, the day after learning her son Jerry was dead. (Photo courtesy of the Zovko Family)     Feb. 7, 2007Donna Zovko rubbed her thumb over the tiny, white enamel dove fastened to her lapel. A nun from Akron sent her the peace pin after Jerry was killed on a dusty road in Fallujah.Jerry.He was the reason she was here, sitting under the vaulted ceilings of a congressional hearing room, not in the cramped office of her body shop...

In another blow to Boeing Co.'s battered defense business, the U.S. Air Force on Thursday tapped rival Lockheed Martin Corp. for a contract potentially worth more than $3.5 billion to build a new generation of global positioning satellites. Chicago-based Boeing, which has a huge workforce in Southern California, would have made the satellites in El Segundo. The loss of the contract, known as Global Positioning System IIIA, was Boeing's third high-profile defeat in as many months. The company lost a $35-billion contest to build aerial refueling tankers for the Air Force in February and a $3.74-billion award to build unmanned...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Lockheed Martin Corp. beat out Boeing Co. to win an Air Force contract worth up to $3.57 billion to build as many as 12 next-generation global positioning satellites, the Pentagon said Thursday. The deal is the first of three awards to supply a total of 32 satellites for the Pentagon's new GPS III system. As the manufacturer of the first block of satellites, Lockheed will be in a strong position to win the two follow-on contracts. Col. Dave Madden, commander of the Air Force's Global Positioning Systems Wing, said the Air Force hopes to work with the...

Final assembly starts on the first of Navy P-8A Poseidon planes that could be Renton's last 737s Although The Boeing Co. lost the competition to supply air-refueling tankers to the U.S. Air Force, it still has one major military aircraft development program in the works.Starting next year, it will deliver the first of what could be more than 100 737s, modified with bomb bay doors and weapon pylons under the wings, to the U.S. Navy. Over the next decade or more, the P-8A Poseidon will replace the aging fleet of prop-engine Lockheed Martin P-3 Orion planes that have been used...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The U.S. State Department's renewal of Blackwater's contract to provide security in Iraq "is bad news," an adviser to Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said. Blackwater guards shot and killed 17 people, including women and children, last September, prompting an outcry and protest from Iraqi officials. "This is bad news," al-Maliki adviser Sami al-Askari said. "I personally am not happy with this, especially because they have committed acts of aggression, killed Iraqis, and this has not been resolved yet positively for families of victims." About 25,000 private contractors from three companies protect diplomats, reconstruction workers and...

Members of the U.S. Air Force’s source selection group raised concerns about the performance of the EADS refueling boom design during the KC-X tanker competition, according to Mark McGraw, Boeing’s tanker executive. The Air Force officials were “speaking loudly” behind closed doors in meetings about their worries, and this information found during the discovery phase of Boeing’s protest of the award to Northrop Grumman/EADS is “very encouraging” support for the company’s protest, McGraw told reporters during an April 3 teleconference. [...] Air Force worries about the risk associated with EADS’ boom performance, however, weren’t included in the final assessment of...

The Department of Defense has awarded Bell Helicopter and partner The Boeing Co. a five-year, $10.4 billion contract to make 167 V-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft. The contract includes 26 CV-22 aircraft for the Air Force Special Operations Command and 141 MV-22 aircraft for the U.S. Marine Corps. The contract includes an option for additional aircraft. The fuselage for the V-22 is built by Boeing Rotorcraft Systems in Philadelphia. Bell builds components for the aircraft in Fort Worth and completes final assembly at its Military Aircraft Assembly Center in Amarillo. The V-22 is a tiltrotor aircraft with proprotors and engines installed...

WASHINGTON — The FBI says it has recovered the remains of two kidnapped U.S. contractors in Iraq. The agency identified the contractors Monday as Ronald Withrow and John Roy Young. Withrow worked for JPI Worldwide when he was kidnapped in January 2007. Young worked for Crescent Security Group when he was kidnapped in November 2006.

Speaking this morning, Hillary hits Obama for not ruling out continuing to use armed private contractors in Iraq. She wants to ban such contractors. Those contractors are protecting Iraqi government officials. But I guess I shouldn't be surprised, as Hillary once called for threatening to take away Iraqi lawmakers' security if they didn't reach a deal. And at least one Democrat didn't find that to be a wise move: Addressing Mrs. Clinton’s latest proposal to cap American troops and to threaten Iraqi leaders with cuts in funding, Mr. Biden lowered his voice and leaned in close over the table. “From...

Democrats for Boeing The truth about the tanker deal. by Christian Lowe 03/24/2008, Volume 013, Issue 27 It was one of those insider deals that give the defense industry a bad name, conjuring up images of smoke-filled negotiations between the brass and corporate fat cats in plush leather chairs. By the time it was over, two fat cats were in jail, a top Pentagon official had been forced to resign, a corporate CEO had lost his job, and the reputation of an iconic company that had served American troops for decades had suffered irreparable damage. Then it turned out it...

<p>BAGHDAD _U.S. authorities in Baghdad have received five severed fingers belonging to four Americans and an Austrian who were taken hostage more than a year ago in Iraq , U.S. officials said Wednesday.</p> <p>The FBI is investigating the grisly development, and the families of the five kidnapped contractors have been notified, American officials said on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss the case publicly.</p>

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Boeing Co (BA.N: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Monday it would formally challenge a decision by the U.S. Air Force to award a $35 billion aerial tanker program to a team led by Northrop Grumman Corp (NOC.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and Europe's EADS (EAD.PA: Quote, Profile, Research). "This is an extraordinary step rarely taken by our company, and one we take very seriously," said Jim McNerney, Boeing chairman, president and chief executive officer, in a statement. Boeing said it would ask the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, to review the February 29 decision that...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Boeing Co (BA.N: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Monday it would formally challenge a decision by the U.S. Air Force to award a $35 billion aerial tanker program to a team led by Northrop Grumman Corp (NOC.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and Europe's EADS (EAD.PA: Quote, Profile, Research). "This is an extraordinary step rarely taken by our company, and one we take very seriously," said Jim McNerney, Boeing chairman, president and chief executive officer, in a statement. Boeing said it would ask the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, to review the February 29 decision that...

Dozens of U.S. troops in Iraq fell sick at bases using "unmonitored and potentially unsafe" water supplied by the military and a contractor once owned by Vice President Dick Cheney's former company, the Pentagon's internal watchdog says. A report obtained by The Associated Press said soldiers experienced skin abscesses, cellulitis, skin infections, diarrhea and other illnesses after using discolored, smelly water for personal hygiene and laundry at five U.S. military sites in Iraq. The Defense Department's inspector general's report, which could be released as early as Monday, found water quality problems between March 2004 and February 2006 at three sites...

A senior House Democrat has called for a wide-ranging federal investigation into Blackwater Worldwide, alleging that the private security contractor violated tax and labor laws by classifying its guards as independent contractors rather than company employees. Blackwater spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell said the charges are "completely without merit." "Blackwater's classification of its personnel is accurate, and Blackwater has always been forthcoming about this aspect of its business with its customer, the U.S. government," she said in an e-mailed statement on Monday. But Rep. Henry Waxman, who chairs the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, says Blackwater's claims on its business status...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Air Force made late changes to a $35 billion aerial refueling tanker program that doomed Boeing's (BA.N: Quote, Profile, Research) bid and guaranteed the winner would be Northrop Grumman (NOC.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and its European partner, EADS (EAD.PA: Quote, Profile, Research), a senior Democratic lawmaker said on Wednesday. "Had Boeing known... that the Air Force wanted more, it would have bid the 777," instead of the smaller 767 aircraft, Rep. Norman Dicks, a Washington state Democrat. At a House Appropriations defense subcommittee hearing called to examine last Friday's contract announcement, Dicks accused the Air...

Last week Northrop Grumman and European partner EADS confounded expectations by beating incumbent Boeing for the contract to build the Air Force's next-generation aerial refueling tanker. The initial contract will be for 179 modified wide-body jets, but eventually the entire fleet of 600 cold-war tankers will need to be replaced, making this one of the biggest marketing coups in defense-industry history. However, that is just the beginning of what Northrop Grumman has achieved, because Boeing didn't manage to beat Northrop in a single measure of merit. Here's how they were evaluated... 1. Mission capability. Arguably the most important factor, this...

House Armed Services ranking member Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., may attempt to use the fiscal 2009 defense authorization bill to overturn Friday's Air Force decision to award a contract worth up to $40 billion to Northrop Grumman Corp. and EADS, the European consortium behind Airbus, for a new fleet of aerial refueling tankers. Hunter, a fierce "Buy America" advocate who has sharply criticized the contract, is weighing his legislative options, a spokesman for committee Republicans said Monday. Options may include attaching language to the authorization bill to strengthen laws governing the amount of foreign content in U.S. defense hardware, or a...

Aerospace and Defense Sector Braces for Potential Brain Drain As Cold War Workers Retire WASHINGTON (AP) -- The aerospace and defense sector is bracing for a potential brain drain over the next decade as a generation of Cold War scientists and engineers hits retirement age and not enough qualified young Americans seek to take their place. ADVERTISEMENT The problem -- almost 60 percent of U.S. aerospace workers in 2007 were 45 or older -- could affect national security and even close the door on commercial products that start out as military technology, industry officials said. While U.S. universities are awarding...

What could have been a done deal for the Boeing Co. five years ago came down to a two-horse race and finally a multibillion dollar loss for Everett on Friday in the sweepstakes to supply the Air Force with new jet refueling tankers. The Air Force's announcement that the $35 billion deal goes to Northrop-Grumman and Europe's Airbus parent, EADS, angered members of Washington's congressional delegation and raised the prospect of congressional hearings on the decision. "We are outraged that this decision taps European Airbus and its foreign workers to provide a tanker to our American military," six members...

The U.S. Air Force on Friday named Northrop Grumman Corp. and EADS North America to build its next-generation fleet of aerial refueling tankers, spurning a bid from rival Boeing Co. in a surprise decision that could launch a new era of jet production in Mobile. The Air Force made its choice after a fierce competition between the two teams for one of the single largest defense contracts in U.S. history. Estimated at up to $40 billion, the deal includes 179 planes to be delivered over the next 15 years. Boeing was regarded as a heavy favorite by defense analysts...

Northrop Grumman Corp. and the maker of Airbus planes won a multibillion-dollar Air Force contract to build 179 tankers used to refuel military aircraft mid-flight, a congressional staffer familiar with the award said Friday. The staffer, who learned of the award from a Northrop Grumman employee, spoke on condition of anonymity. The selection of Los Angeles-based Northrop Grumman and European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. comes as a surprise to Wall Street and major blow to Boeing Co.

The Air Force snubbed longtime partner Boeing and awarded a lucrative contract to Northrop and EADS, the European maker of the Airbus, to build a fleet of refueling aircraft. The decision stunned Boeing and elected officials in the Northwest, who immediately objected to the decision to reject the all-American option. However, officials claim that Boeing’s submission simply didn’t measure up — literally: Air Force officials offered few details about why they choose the Northrop-EADS team over Boeing since they have yet to debrief the two companies. But Air Force Gen. Arthur Lichte said the larger size was key. “More passengers,...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. Air Force decision awarding a $35 billion aircraft contract to a team including the European parent of Airbus landed like a bomb in Congress on Friday, drawing howls of protest from lawmakers aligned with the loser, America's Boeing Co. The Congressional delegation from the Seattle area said they were "outraged." Kansas Republican Rep. Todd Tiahrt vowed to seek a review of the decision "at the highest levels of the Pentagon and Congress" in hopes of reversing it. Boeing has big facilities in both Seattle and Wichita, which stood to gain from the long-term project...

Boeing has lost the long-awaited and lucrative Air Force refueling tanker contract to a competing bid based on an Airbus airplane, a respected and well-connected defense analyst close to the Air Force tanker deal said Friday. Loren Thompson, an analyst with the Lexington Institute, cited "100 percent reliable" government sources for his information.

WASHINGTON - ITT Federal Services International, a defense contractor hired to maintain battle gear for U.S. troops in Iraq, repeatedly failed to do the job right. Combat vehicles ITT declared as repaired and ready for action flunked inspections and had to be fixed again. (snip) The Army's ongoing arrangement with ITT, detailed in an audit from the Government Accountability Office, shows how captive the military has become to the private sector for overseas support. Even when contractors don't measure up, dismissing them may not be an option because of the heavy pace of operations. (snip) In ITT's case, there were...