LOCATIONS

14 Dec 06. Partnership for Peace (PfP): New Members. Senior representatives of Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia signed PfP Framework Documents at NATO HQ on 14 Dec 06.
Comment: A NATO Military Liaison Office is due to be opened in Belgrade on 18 Dec 06 by the NATO Deputy Secretary General and the Serbian Defence Minister. The Office is located in the Serbian MoD building complete with a multinational military staff of nine. Brigadier General Y Asset, French Army, is the Head of the Military Liaison Office.

19 Dec 06. Mesa City Council Monday night unanimously voted to amend its general plan to pave the way for a new subdivision near Williams Gateway Airport, while keeping Boeing Co. flight paths unchanged. The deal, struck Dec. 15 between the East Valley city and Pacific Proving LLC, allows the Phoenix developer to construct some 3,000 homes north of the proposed William Gateway Airport freeway and prohibits any residential projects south of the Williams Field Road alignment.

15 Dec 06. G3 Systems Ltd new £2m integration facility was officially opened by the Chief Executive of Defence Estates on Friday 15th December 2006. Vice Admiral Peter Dunt CB Chief Executive of Defence Estates unveiled a Portland Stone plaque to commemorate the event. The opening of the facility was also attended by G3 Systems Directors, staff and selected guests. Vice Admiral Dunt was secretary to Admiral Woodward and served as the Group Logistics Officer for the Falklands conflict on board HMS HERMES in 1982. G3 Systems new building at Osprey Quay is the integration facility for the company whose head office is in Royston, Hertfordshire. The new 21,000 square feet facility provides modern office space (6276 sq ft) and a large production and workshop facility (14,836 sq ft) a stones throw

JOB LOSSES AND STRIKES

15 Dec 06. The US Army is considering measures to force striking workers back to their jobs at a Goodyear Tire & Rubber plant in Kansas in the face of a looming shortage of tyres for Humvee trucks and other military equipment used in Iraq and Afghanistan. A strike involving 17,000 members of the United Steelworkers union has crippled 16 Goodyear plants in the US and Canada since October 5.
The main issues in dispute are the company’s plans to close a unionised plant in
Texas, and a proposal for workers to shoulder future increases in healthcare costs. An army spokeswoman said on Friday that “there’s not a shortage right now but there possibly will be one in the future”. According to Duncan Hunter, chairman of the House of Representatives armed services committee, the strike has cut output of Humvee tyres by about 35 per cent. Mr Hunter said the army was exploring a possible injunction under the Taft-Hartley Act to force the 200 Kansas workers back to their jobs. He proposed that they return under their current terms of employment, on the understanding that any settlement would be extended to them. Talks aimed at ending the strike will resume on Monday, the union said last night. Mr Hunter said that the army had stopped supplying tyres to units not related to the Central Command, which is responsible for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Tyres were also not being provided to army repair depots. While concern has centred on the Humvees, tyres are also critical to aircraft and other military equipment. (Source: FT.com)

Dec 06. Unconfirmed reports suggest that QinetiQ has terminated the contracts of all the top management of HVR Consultants including MD Peter Cook and Director Peter Bedwin.

PERSONNEL

MILITARY AND GOVERNMENT

15 Dec 06. Consultants: Employment by Government. The National Audit Office (NAO) published (15 Dec 06) a Report on Central Government’s use of Consultants. The NAO estimates that £2,800m was spent by the Public Sector on consultants in 2005/06, of which £1,800m was accounted for by Central Government. The MoD was the second highest spending Department, after
the Department