The Defense Department announced Tuesday evening that Oshkosh has won a decision — the initial M-ATV contract — with the potential to reshape the Army and Marines for the next decade. Oshkosh won a deal worth $1 billion to build and support 2,244 M-ATVs, a little more than half of the recently pegged requirement.

UPDATED: With Comments By Respected Analyst Andrew Krepinevich
One of the niftier political and policy battles going on — whether to establish a National Defense Panel to watch over the QDR — took an interesting turn late last week when the Senate Armed Services Committee decided to leave out its draft defense bill language requiring such a panel. But a major supporter of an NDP, Mackenzie Eaglen of the Heritage Foundation, believes Congress is likely to include such language.

In the Army’s quest to develop a new armored combat vehicle in the wake of the fiasco that was the FCS program, Army Chief Gen. George Casey has vowed to start with a “clean sheet of paper.” He even went so far as to say the Army was considering a wheeled vehicle versus tracked as the basis for a future armored fleet. As it designs an FCS follow-on, the Army must decide whether it wants a replacement for the Abrams tank or a lightweight, rapidly deployable vehicle, because the requirements for the two are very different. It never did answer that question with FCS, which proved in part its undoing.

You are the commander of Strategic Command, charged with coming up with an implementation plan for the new cyber command within 60 days. But there’s going to be a new head of cyber command, a four-star just like you, and Lt. Gen. Keith Alexander has the Big Mo on his side. And Alexander is known as an almost crazily foxy guy who has rebuilt the NSA and will be largely dependent on folks from NSA for most of his capabilities. Air Force Gen. Kevin Chilton is known as one of the brainiest generals aroundHmmm. Who’s going to win this bureaucratic game will be great fun to watch.

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In a clear sign of how strong the F-22’s support is in the Senate Armed Services Committee, the panel’s leaders bowed to committee members and inserted language approving $1.7 billion in funding for another seven F-22 fighters in the 2010 defense authorization bill. Also, the panel approved language telling the Pentagon to consider an export version of the Raptor. It appears Sen. Saxby Chambliss led the charge for the increased Raptor numbers, continuing his strong advocacy for the program. (Of course, it’s hard to be sure since the markup is closed to the public.)

Rep. Jack Murtha, chairman of the House is digging to find $3.2 billion for 20 more Raptors to keep the F-22 line going and is closely watching the debate about an export version for Japan. He also expressed amazement that the Marine’s EFV has an aluminum underbody that woildn’t be much good against mines or IEDs. Murtha told this and much more to defense journalists yesterday. Read Christian’s take on the breakfast below

The Army is wrestling with how to best prepare for future wars with some arguing for a “bifurcated” force, specialized for different missions. Others say soldiers must be able to perform the full range of combat missions moving seamlessly between irregular warfare and high intensity conflict. According to a recently released TRADOC paper, building an Army that can operate in future complex hybrid wars will require some serious beefing up of the training scenarios at the combat training centers.

A retired Marine who also happens to be one of the most powerful defense lawmakers, Rep. Jack Murtha, has begun raising questions about the future of the Osprey MV-22 The chairman of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee told our own Christian Lowe this morning that he plans to go down to Camp Lejeune in the next few weeks to do a reality check. “That’s where I’m going to find out what the hell is happening,” the ever-blunt Murtha said. “The military tends to give you nothing but optimistic portrayals,” he added.

The Army’s flagship FCS modernization program was officially cancelled today with the stroke of a pen wielded by Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Ashton Carter. The $160 billion program was really cancelled back in April by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, but today’s acquisition defense memorandum makes it official. The ADM ends the Army’s troubled effort to field a family of manned ground vehicles under FCS but paves the way for a new vehicle program to launch by 2010.

The slugfest over the V-22 Osprey swung into round 10 or so today as Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-NY), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, called for a halt to V-22 production. The chairman said “it’s time to put the Osprey out of its misery,” adding that, “the dream of a viable high-speed, long-range, tilt-rotor aircraft has not been realized.”

To read the recent press on the F-22, it would appear that the Obama administration is considering unilateral disarmament that would leave the country’s air fleet gutted, inviting attacks from malicious opponents across the globe. Alarmists claim the strategic linchpin to American military might, without which the U.S. position in the world is otherwise suspect, is the F-22 air superiority fighter. The oddest thing about this whole debate is that it’s not about whether or not to develop and produce the admittedly impressive air-superiority fighter. That has already happened. The argument is that only by buying more F-22s will disaster be avoided.

Everyone knows the story by now about how the State Department asked Twitter to postpone an upgrade that would have taken the site down at a crucial moment during the Iranian election protests, surely the first time a 27-year-old at State could establish such an important policy precedent. Defense Tech’s Kevin Coleman (who also consults […]

Utter the term ITAR here at the Paris Show and both Europeans and Americans often cringe. The Europeans know it as the set of regulations that make it incredibly challenging for them to buy American weapon systems, no matter how close they are to the administration in charge. We look at how Europeans and other friends of the United States can ensure the Obama administration delivers on its repeated statements that it will work closely with allies.

The A400M, built by the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co. (EADS), will provide the world with a very impressive lift capability — when it can fly as a production model. Beset by technical problems, the plane isn’t quite there yet and is now scheduled for delivery in 2011. In the meantime, C-130J maker Lockheed Martin is willing to lease its C-130Js to those European countries who were counting on earlier delivery of the advanced cargo plane, their top salesman, Jim Grant, told me here at the Paris Air Show.

“It’s a big problem,” Defense Secretary Robert Gates said about Wednesday’s move by the House Armed Services Committee to continue production of the F-22 beyond the 187 fighters the Obama administration wants. In a late night vote, led by Republicans on the committee, the HASC voted 31 to 30 to add $369 million to the 2010 budget for advanced procurement of 12 additional F-22s.

One of the oddest looking drones on display at the Paris Air Show is a helicopter whose fuselage is not much bigger than a 1960s’ model Volkswagen Beetle – if that! – and with a propeller in the rear for additional forward thrust. The Xenon, based on the now rarely seen gyrocopter, was acquired from Celia Aviation of Poland for use by Selex Galileo as a Short Take-Off and Landing, Optionally Piloted Vehicle.

One topic has dominated conversations among the Americans at the Paris Air Show: the tanker program and just what Boeing really will do. Boeing offered a new designation for its tanker: the 7A7. While Boeing clearly intended this to demonstrate the company’s flexibility in responding to whatever requirements come forth from the Pentagon, several observers I spoke with after the press conference interpreted this as showing Boeing was more focused on offering the 777 since it appeared to mark a step away from the 767.