Government Industry Archive

The Associated Press reports that Senator Carl Levin, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman, stated the FY10 Defense Budget will be cut back significantly. The ending of several major acquisition programs is expected. Not all of this will be a negative to the services if the cuts and funding is done appropriately. There will of course be fights in Congress to keep programs alive as they...

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The EADS led program to build a new transport for seven European companies continues to have its struggles. A few weeks ago the customers decided to extend a deadline where EADS would have to start paying back some of the money received for the A400M. Recently Germany and France discussed abandoning the program and now Reuters reports that comments by Tom Enders, the German head of Airbus,...

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Automotive News reports that as part of a $5 billion in aid from the Federal government to GM and Chrysler to help pay their suppliers a provision makes it possible for the companies to dump those parts manufacturers who have “sought faster payment” or “argued that the law allows them to break contracts”. Several of the bigger parts companies have been demanding that...

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The state of Texas, like a great deal of other ones, operates two funds to help companies move to the state with a goal of creating jobs. The Dallas Morning News writes that payments from the Texas Enterprise Fund to Countrywide and Washington Mutual are being criticized due to the companies recent troubles. Both companies signed deals a few years ago to received state money with the...

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The Federal government usually pays its contractors after a certain amount of work is done. For hardware deliveries there are progress payments as certain steps in the completion of the item are made. Companies bill for time and materials at the end of the month and get payed later. This means that once a contract is awarded there is a certain period of time where the contractor is working...

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The fledgling Iraqi Air Force is slowly being outfitted with a combination of Russian and U.S. equipment. So far it has purchased UH-1 and Mi-17 helicopters as well as some small fixed wing assets. Military & Aerospace Electronics reports that the U.S. Army awarded ARINC a contract to oversee the purchase and delivery of 22 Mi-17 aircraft to Iraq as well as avionics systems. This $80...

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Northrop Grumman released a press release today touting their systems in missile defense. This kind of effort costs almost nothing and is guaranteed to get the company some publicity and almost make it seem like a regular news article. Hosted at Fox Business the release is entitled “Northrop Grumman Urges Missile Defense Focus On Early Engagement, Strategic Flexibility” the...

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The Indian government withdrew a proposed contract for twenty-two attack helicopters. AFP reports that the three remaining offerors were unable to meet the requirements of the contract. Five companies originally bid on this with Bell and Boeing leaving last year. EADS, Kamov and Augusta Westland had continued. India’s armed forces have recently had a checkered history of trying to get...

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We had written a few months ago about two judges in Pennsylvania who had taken kickbacks from a company running a juvenile detention home to send kids there. Now USA Today writes that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has overturned most of the convictions from the time period in question. The story says that those whose convictions were erased were primarily “low-level offenders who...

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McClatchy writes about a failed attempt by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) to purchase three aircraft for surveillance missions. Because the funding for the aircraft originally came out of the “black” budget there are not a lot of details available on the original contract. It doesn’t help that the company involved, Schweizer, was purchased by Sikorsky after contract was...

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