Britain’s Next Search-and-Rescue Helicopters: Civilian Contractors

UK Sea King SAR

The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) and Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) provide a 24-hour military and civil helicopter Search and Rescue (SAR) service for the UK and local regions from 12 bases, typically at 15 minutes notice. A wide range of air and naval assets could be pressed into use in emergencies, but the core of Britain’s SAR services are provided by a combination of about 40 Royal Navy and Royal Air Force Mk.5 Sea Kings, and by a handful of civilian helicopters under contract to the MCA. These machines must cover 11,000 km of coastline, and 3.6 million square km of ocean.

There has been a global trend toward public-private partnerships to perform some Coast Guard and SAR functions, including Australia’s billion-dollar Coastwatch program. Now Great Britain is jumping into the fray with a related approach.

F-35 Lightning: The Joint Strike Fighter Program, 2012 – 2013

F-35B: off probation

The $382 billion F-35 Joint Strike fighter program may well be the largest single global defense program in history. This major multinational program is intended to produce an “affordably stealthy” multi-role fighter that will have 3 variants: the F-35A conventional version for the US Air Force et. al.; the F-35B Short Take-Off, Vertical Landing for the US Marines, British Royal Navy, et. al.; and the F-35C conventional carrier-launched version for the US Navy. The aircraft is named after Lockheed’s famous WW2 P-38 Lightning, and the Mach 2, stacked-engine English Electric (now BAE) Lightning jet. Lightning II system development partners included The USA & Britain (Tier 1), Italy and the Netherlands (Tier 2), and Australia, Canada, Denmark, Norway and Turkey (Tier 3), with Singapore and Israel as “Security Cooperation Partners,” and Japan as the 1st export customer.

The big question for Lockheed Martin is whether, and when, many of these partner countries will begin placing purchase orders. This updated article has expanded to feature more detail regarding the F-35 program, including contracts, sub-contracts, and notable events and reports during 2012-2013.

Rapid Fire March 26, 2013: Handling and Costing the Logistics Flow Back from Afghanistan

• The UK-based Guardian quotes US Brigadier General Steve Shapiro, director of the Materiel Enterprise Integration and Retrograde Operations Center, as saying he’s been “hearing about $6B in transportation costs” out of Afghanistan. Given such high exit costs, there’s a strong incentive to leave as much low-value stuff in the country as possible. Out of a total of about 100,000 containers and 30,000 vehicles, it’s not worth shipping it all back.

• The flow of vehicles out of Afghanistan began last month. Picture a 25-container convoy on Pakistan’s roads! On the receiving end, the Army’s Surface Deployment and Distribution Command (SDDC) has started handling returning Stryker Brigade Combat Team vehicles and containers.

• Raytheon has announced a reorganization that among other things merges its Intelligence and Information Systems and Technical Services divisions, leading to a reduction of their workforce by about 200 people. Prime contractors have found for the last couple of years that their IT services were easier to be cut in the short term than multi-year armament contracts. Buzzword-compliant press release.