US Army Considers Multi-Year, $3 Billion Contract for Apache Helicopters

The US military is reportedly in talks with Boeing Defense, Space & Security over the terms of a $3.3 billion contract to purchase 275 AH-64E Apache helicopters. This comes a month after US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter approved the Army’s proposed multiyear procurement plan.

Col. Jeffrey Hager, the Apache program manager, told Inside Defense that a signed agreement can be expected by early 2017. The Senate and House versions of the fiscal 2017 National Defense Authorization Act have both been approved, but concerns over the cost efficiency of production and procurement programs has kept any bill from being passed.

The director of defense pricing for the Pentagon's acquisition directorate, Shay Assad, approved the Apache proposal. Assad told Politico in April that his years spent as an executive at Raytheon showed him how companies often overpay for multi-year defense contracts. As a result, Assad claims that he requires contractors to justify their prices, in an attempt to garner the most savings.

According to a fact sheet released by the House Armed Services Committee (HASC), if the Apache deal is approved it could potentially yield some $1 billion in savings over five years. The HASC recently voted for an additional $583 billion defense budget, which includes 25,000 reservists, 27,000 additional active-duty troops, an increase in the Navy’s shipbuilding budget, and the acquisition of new aircraft for the Navy. Defense News quotes US House Representative Adam Smith as saying, "This bill is based on a lot of hope in what will happen next April or May…While this is a good bill, it spends more than we have, and this is a problem we will have to wrestle with in this markup, on the floor and once we get to conference."

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Russia Deploys S-400 Systems to Russia, NATO Has Heart Attack

Our day job is to read about Russia-related stuff and then write about it. So imagine our surprise when we learned that "a NATO air chief says he's concerned by Russia's increasing deployment of surface-to-air missile systems in and around Europe." That's huge! Russia deployed the S-400 to Prague? When did this happen? And what is Russia hoping to gain by deploying surface-to-air systems into the heart of NATO-controlled Europe? We had so many questions in need of answers. Originally appeared at russia-insider. loading... In recent years, the Russian military has deployed S-300 and S-400 surface-to-air missile (SAM) systems not only within Russia and Kaliningrad, the Russian city in a territory between Poland and Lithuania, but Crimea and areas encircling the Ukraine, and even Latakia, Syria. A lot of redundant information here. Let's help our friends at Military.com: After editing out the decorative bullshit, we get: In recent years, ...

Trumpillary War Machine Is Bad News

I was fortunate enough to view a screening of the new Snowden movie Wednesday evening with some of the whistleblowers who have cameos in it and with its director Oliver Stone. I’m not allowed to review it until Saturday night, but it is a truly great movie and has the potential to be the most widely seen, heard, or read thing of any political decency or truth in the world this year. That’s not, however, why I’m glad I saw it. I’m glad I watched Snowden because it gave me an extra several hours of living on earth without having yet seen the NBC special on the Trumpillary war machine, in which first Hillary Clinton and then Donald Trump promised NBC they’d wage plenty of wars. Earlier, on Wednesday I had posted this on my Facebook page: Here are a few of my favorite facts that you will not learn tonight from NBC, Donald Trump, or Hillary Clinton: Nonviolent resistance is more effective than violence and its victories longer lasting. Peaceful spending or even tax cuts for working p...

Tom Hanks: ‘Self-Involved Gasbag’ Trump Will Never Be President

Tom Hanks is disheartened by America’s presidential election — but the Oscar-winning actor is particularly dismayed by Republican hopeful Donald Trump. Hanks was in Rome to accept the lifetime achievement award at the Rome Film Festival this week when he weighed in on U.S. politics with reporters ahead of the event, according to the Hollywood Reporter. “It strikes me as ‘crapfest 2016,’” the two-time Oscar-winning actor told reporters, according to THR. “Every four years the circus comes to town in the United States. Every four years we decide who’s going to be the leader. Sometimes we’re in an era when it seems that the country is at a crossroads. It’s always at some form of crossroads. Oftentimes there is a fever pitch of fear and anxiety. Sometimes it’s warranted, and other times it’s manufactured.” Despite the seemingly more-contentious-than-usual presidential race, Hanks said he has faith that the American people will make the right decision in November. “I think without a doub...

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