Australia boosts army equipment spend

U.S. Army modernization plan gets cuts
Washington (UPI) May 13, 2010 - U.S. House of Representatives appropriators are set to cut $891 million from a 2011 funding request for the U.S. Army's Brigade Combat Team Modernization program. The move comes after House members were said to be unimpressed with the program for which the Army has requested $1.6 billion to modernize and $682.7 million to procure equipment for two brigades. The Army Times reported that the House Armed Services air and land force subcommittee was set to authorize funds for the purchase of equipment for only one brigade. "Citing poor performance results, the committee cuts all $682.7 million in procurement funds in its markup," The Army Times reported. "That includes the $350.6 budgeted for the Non-Line of Sight Launch System program which as the committee notes, the Army is seeking to cancel."

The move comes as House defense appropriators warned the Army that its ambitious plans for a new ground combat vehicle could lead to soaring expenditures and delays. The warning suggested the Army may take an incremental approach to the ground combat vehicle program, which has become crucial for the Army after Defense Secretary Robert Gates last year scrapped plans for combat vehicles under the $160 billion Future Combat Systems plan. Members of Congress want the Army to focus first on the most critical technology, including vehicle and crew survivability, rather than trying to include multiple technologies at once such as non-lethal weapons and ability to defeat heavily armored vehicles at long ranges, The Hill newspaper reported. In line with cost-cutting measures, congressional sources said the Non-Line of Sight Launch System is the single most expensive part of the early infantry brigade combat team.

"Without it, Increment 1 equipment now consists of the Tactical and Urban attended Ground Sensors, the Class 1 Unmanned Aircraft System, the small Unmanned Ground Vehicle and the Network Integration Kit," Defense News reported. Boeing has been contracted by the U.S. Army for production of a low-rate initial production for the first brigade's set of equipment. Included in the funding cuts are $44.2 million for the Class I UAS, $29.8 million for the unattended ground senors, $176.5 million for network integration kits, $20.6 million for the small unmanned ground vehicle and $61.6 million for fielding support, reports said. Most importantly, though, the spending cuts are being prescribed because all the technologies -- the unmanned aerial vehicles, network integration kits and small unmanned vehicles -- have major performance flaws. Army officials said they had found fixes for the problems and were implementing them.

by Staff Writers
Canberra, Australia (UPI) May 13, 2010
Australia will boost spending on its 1,550 troops in Afghanistan by an extra $391 million up to the end of 2011, the defense ministry said.

The money, announced as part of the new defense budget, will be for increased fire power and improved rocket-detecting technology mostly for soldiers fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan's dangerous Oruzgan province.

The government's shopping list includes upgraded technology to clear roads of dangerous improvised explosive devices, better armor and increased firepower for Bushmaster vehicles, improved body armor for soldiers, new night vision equipment, additional explosives detection dogs and better capabilities for intelligence and reconnaissance work.

Defense Minister John Faulkner said the money is part of an $894 million increase to the overall $20.6 billion defense budget announced by the government. The rest of the $894 million will be spent on operations in Middle East, East Timor and the Solomon Islands.

By improving security in East Timor Australia could deploy an increasing number of reservists as has already happened in the Solomons mission, Faulkner said.

A major purchase will be a new counter rocket, artillery and mortar radar system to detect incoming rockets, artillery and mortars fired at the Australian base at Tarin Kowt, the small isolated capital of Oruzgan province in southern central Afghanistan.

C-RAM radar systems use target acquisition sensors to detect and track incoming shells. It is intended to be integrated with firing systems that react to the location of incoming ordnance and then fire outgoing shells along the same trajectory.

The U.S. Army selected Northrop Grumman Corp. in October 2004 as the prime contractor to develop a C-RAM system. It uses the AN/TPQ-36 Firefinder radar system produced by Northrop Grumman's Electronic Systems sector. Once a threat is detected, audio and visual alarms warn soldiers. A fire-control subsystem predicts the mortar's flight path, prioritizes targets, activates a warning system and provides cuing data to defeat the mortar round while still in the air.

C-RAM doesn't fire solid tungsten penetrators. Instead, self-destructing explosive bullets are used to reduce the risk of civilian and friendly-fire casualties.

U.S. and Canadian troops have also operated out of bases they set up in and around Tarin Kowt. It has a population of 10,000 and is noted for being one of the first areas in 2001 where local tribal chiefs rose up against the Taliban and with foreign military help drove them out of town and surrounding hills.

The increase in spending for troops was made possible in part by an ongoing major reform to improve defense procurement efficiencies and cuts in operating costs, Faulkner said.

This year's defense budget's 3 percent real growth is in line with past years. The $894 million in savings will start with around $3.6 million this year but rising to larger sums in the following years and topping out with around $527 million by 2017.

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