The Latest Word On Trends And Developments In Aerospace And Defense
Ready for a Fight. Army readiness shortfalls are worsening, HASC Chairman Rep. Ike Skelton (D-Mo.) and Rep. Solomon Ortiz (D-Texas) last week wrote a letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates. “This situation presents the Untied States with an alarming strategic risk to our national security that we believe must be addressed,” the lawmakers said in the Jan. 30 letter. They added that Gates offer a plan to mitigate strategic readiness risk during a hearing scheduled for Feb. 6. Gates and Adm. Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, are to testify before the HASC and SASC that day to defend the president’s budget.
Bomber Backer. Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, supports the Air Force’s interest in a new bomber, but last week called the 2018 timeline, “pretty optimistic.” He said he doesn’t quite understand notional Air Force plans for a subsonic bomber with a range and payload that are less than the current B- 52. “We need to get a new bomber in the mix, but I’m a little surprised to hear the description of what they might be thinking about,” Dorgan said, adding that he would continue to talk with Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Michael Moseley about the service’s plans.
Approps. Paul Joula has been named the new clerk for the House Appropriations defense subcommittee. Joule replaces David Morrison, who left the committee late last year to join the Podesta Group lobbying firm. Joula is a committee veteran, who has previously worked on accounts for the Central Intelligence Agency and the Army.
Homeland Offense. The Commission on the National Guard and Reserves, a blue-ribbon panel directed to study changes in the way the reserve forces are used, rolled out its final report Jan. 31, recommending the Defense Department plan and train for a major role in homeland catastrophes to support the Department of Homeland Security. The report also recommends that the National Guard and Reserve lead homeland disaster operations and that the Department ensure the Guard and Reserve are funded well enough to be properly trained and equipped.
Moving Forward. Workers at Northrop Grumman Ship System’s (NGSS) Ingalls shipyard in Pascagoula, Miss., have put Katrina behind them and are looking forward to a future of building ships for the Navy and Coast Guard, Phillip Teel, former president of NGSS, tells Defense Daily at last month’s christening of the USS Dewey (DDG-105). Teel turned over the reins of the new Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding to Mike Petters, who was head of the Newport News operations, on Jan. 28. “One thing we and the shipyard have decided, we put Katrina behind us. This ship and the ships we have delivered…this year and last, are a good example of what we are doing to put it behind us,” Teel says.
…Facing Up To The Challenges. Hurricane Katrina which ravaged the Gulf Coast in August 2005, heavily damaged not only the Pascagoula shipyard, but the entire community. For months following Katrina, the company struggled to bring workers back, make repairs to the yard, and get its shipbuilding operations back on track. “It’s been a difficult time, but we have some of the best people in the world and best shipbuilders in the world that brought this shipyard and this community back,” Teel adds. “The corporation has been with us all along, helped us to get the shipyard back, and now we have a better shipyard…one of the best military shipyards in the world today. We are really pleased about that, pleased to have a shipyard ready to build these kinds of ships.”
…Tough Times Still Ahead. “It is a difficult time for shipbuilding. We understand that. Our customers want ships when they need them at the price they need them, and whatever is in the way, it is our job to get it out of the way,” Teel says. “Frequently we have felt that we should have been given a little more consideration given we were behind schedule or things of that sort, but the facts of the matter are the country needs ships and I feel really great that this group of men and women down here didn’t whine about it, didn’t complain about it. We just went about getting ready to build these ships and now we are doing it.”
Praise From On High. The recovery effort at Northrop Grumman’s Ingalls shipyard was truly extraordinary, says Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen. He and his wife Deborah Mullen, who is the sponsor of the USS Dewey, toured the Navy’s latest Arleigh Burke-class destoyer the day before the Jan. 26 christening. “What really caught me was when my wife, who was the sponsor, walked around the ship for some two and a half hours. The pride in the workers in that shipyard…and you see this throughout our defense contractors…they are every bit as patriotic, every bit as caring, as mindful of the challenges we have, and they take great pride in producing the kinds of equipment they want our soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines to have, and that is evident in that shipyard,” Mullen says. “That shipyard is a national treasure. They boasted about that and they should. They have recovered incredibly and they are still producing great ships like Dewey.”
A Nuclear War? A storm cloud could be developing on the horizon as lawmakers in the House push for the Navy’s next cruiser to be nuclear powered. While the service looks to build the ship in the most affordable manner possible, likely a mod repeat of DDG-1000 that will probably not include nuclear power. Although CG(X), the Navy’s planned cruiser, will have more advanced radars and a different mission set, it will likely take advantage of the DDG-1000 hull design, some of the future combat ship’s automated systems, and DDG- 1000’s propulsion system–a gas turbine integrated electric plant. That won’t sit well with lawmakers who want the ship to be nuclear powered. “Congress has made the decision, first by the Seapower subcommittee team, then the full committee, and then in their conference report,” Rep. Gene Taylor (D-Miss.), chairman of the HASC Seapower and Expeditionary Warfare subcommittee, tells Defense Daily. “It says the next generation cruisers will be nuclear powered. We made that decision when oil was at $60 a barrel. Recently, it went to $100 a barrel. It made sense then, makes even more sense now.”
…Adding Power. Taylor was a guest at the USS Dewey christening last month at Northrop Grumman’s Ingalls shipyard in Pascagoula, Miss. He notes the need to operate advanced electronics systems, weapons, and even the future electromagentic rail gun will call for the increased power a nuclear system can deliver. “It makes no sense at all to have [an aircraft] carrier that can sail indefinitely if the ships that are protecting the carrier have to refuel every three to five days. So the next generation cruiser is going to be nuclear,” he adds. “In fact we are going to go back and look at [the Navy’s alternative fuels study] because the [large deck and amphibious ships] were right on the bubble at $60 a barrel. So now that $90 to $100 a barrel has become [the norm], we want to look at it again. The message I delivered to Mr. [Ron] Sugar, Mr. [Mike] Petters, and Mr. [Phillip] Teel is that that’s the future and we want this shipyard to be a vital part of that future.”
…Going Nuclear At Ingalls? Although nuclear power plants for the Navy’s fleet of aircraft carriers and submarines are built elsewhere and brought to Newport News shipyard for installation, Taylor notes the Ingalls shipyard was once nuclear certified and could build nuclear ships again. “We’d like to see Mr. Sugar and his team have this yard nuclear certified again.”
In ERM’s Way. Raytheon is on track to test fire its ERGM round at White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) on Feb. 5 and 7. The engineering tests will set the stage for shooting Reliability Growth Test Rounds, planned for September, when the company will be required to show at least a 60 percent performance threshold. ATK, which went to WSMR last month to test its BTERM, is still working the root cause analysis on the rocket motor. ATK successfully tested two unguided BTERMs, but a rocket motor failure on the first guided test led to a delay in further shots, an ATK spokeswoman says. No date has been set for a second shot. The company has received all the data on the first two rounds and the spokeswoman says the rounds met the test objectives.
…On The Lookout. The guided round that fell short did follow the intended flight path, the ATK spokeswoman says. “From the telemetry data we know where it is, but a decision was made not to retrieve it.” The lone guided round fell short of its intended target and landed in the White Sands National Monument. “The approved flight path of the round and its associated safety footprint included going over the national monument–we just did not meet the distance requirement because the rocket motor failed,” the spokeswoman says. ATK is now waiting for WSMR to send the second guided round back.
Rolling On And Off. NAVSEA last week awarded MacGregor USA Inc., a $19.5 million firm fixed-price contract for the detail design, fabrication, installation and documentation of a Test Article Vehicle Transfer System (TAVTS) to demonstrate the transfer of vehicles between a surrogate MPF(F) Mobile Landing Platform (MLP) ship and a side port platform on LMSR ship, the Navy says. The two primary components of TAVTS are a self-deploying ramp system that will be mounted to a surrogate MLP and a self-deploying sideport platform system that will be mounted to an existing LMSR ship. The Navy expects TAVTS to be delivered and begin testing in FY ’09.
On The T-AKE. General Dynamics’ NASSCO shipyard was awarded a $460 million Navy contract for the construction of a 10th T-AKE dry cargo-ammunition ship and to purchase long-lead construction materials for an 11th ship, the company says. NASSCO is already under contract to build the first nine ships of the class; the first four vessels are now in service. Under the contract, NASSCO receives full funding for T-AKE 10’s construction. Last July, NASSCO received a $100 million contract to purchase the long-lead materials for the ship. Construction of the ship is scheduled to begin in January ’09, with delivery to the Navy’s Military Sealift Command (MSC) in the fourth quarter of ’10.
Real Sim. Army aviation has new simulation strategies tied to new systems as well as a mobile simulation strategy, says Maj. Gen. Virgil Packett, commander, Army Aviation Warfighting Center and Fort Rucker. Moving simulations around to wherever there’s a concentration of soldiers getting ready to fly is very helpful, he says in a teleconference last week. Additionally, mobile sims are useful in theater where aviators need to keep up perishable skills, such as instrument flying, that they don’t use in combat. Sims have “unbelievable fidelity,” Packett says, allowing training for current skills and training groups of aviators at one time on collective skills. “We can bring in the same terrain we have in the Middle East and we can put that in your living room right now…it’s a great advantage for readiness,” Packett said.
…Match Resources. Army aviation has new aircraft systems on the way and on the production line. The challenge is how to integrate new systems into the fleet and balance that with the human dimension–pilots, maintainers and all those who keep Army Aviation flying. “We do it with a teaming effort,” Packett says, between programmers, acquisition and life cycle personnel and soldiers. It’s a continual effort, he says. “We have to very carefully ensure we have the resource question and the resource demands lined up to meet the expectations so our ability to anticipate requirements actually requires years of preparation,” Packett says. Everyone has to work together “to make sure that we have not only the best trained and equipped soldiers in the world, but to make sure that we can optimize that capability.”
Nano-Power Radio. Northrop Grumman and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign say they’ve created the first fully-functional, all-carbon nanotube transistor radio, demonstrating that carbon nanotubes can be used as high-speed transistors, while consuming only one-thousandth the power required by current transistor technology. John Przybysz, a senior consulting engineer at Northrop Grummanm, says, “Since carbon nanotube transistors use less power, the implications for battery operated radio frequency electronics is dramatic. Instead of a battery lasting two days, the same battery providing power to sensor systems built with carbon nanotube transistors may last up to two weeks.” John Rogers, founder professor of the Materials Science and Engineering department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, led the team that created the large carbon nanotube arrays. Funding was provided by the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy.
Army Space First. America’s first satellite–Explorer 1, the answer to the Soviet Sputnik, was an Army satellite, and the launch 50 years ago was celebrated Jan. 31 at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Ala. After two successful Soviet Sputnik satellites in October and November 1957, the Army at Redstone Arsenal was directed to use an Army- developed Jupiter-C missile to put an artificial Earth satellite in orbit by March 1958. On Jan. 31, 1958, just 84 days after receiving the mission, the Army Ballistic Missile Agency–the predecessor to today’s Army Aviation and Missile Life Cycle Management Command, with Maj. Gen. John Medaris commanding– launched the first U.S. satellite–Explorer I- -into orbit and touched off the nation’s space program. NASA did not go into operation until months later, Oct. 1, 1958. However, the Army team at Redstone Arsenal under Werner von Braun did not transfer to NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center until July 1, 1960.
Senior Leader Video. Live footage from a Shadow Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) was streamed to the cockpit of an Apache helicopter through Video from UAS for Interoperability Teaming Level II (VUIT-2), the Army says. The video was shown to the Army Aviation Senior Leaders Conference, at Ft. Rucker, Ala., last week. “This is a big step for manned-unmanned teaming,” Col. Derek Paquette, Apache project manager, says. For interoperability, the Apache PM has teamed with the UAS project manager and developed this capability using the One System Remote Video Terminal. With the OSRVT as the baseline interface, VUIT-2 is able to receive video from nearly all UAS in Iraq and Afghanistan. It also provides joint interoperability by giving Apache Longbows the ability to receive Air Force and Navy video from platforms such as the F-15, F-16, F-18 using Sniper or Lightning Pods. Currently, manned-unmanned teaming in Apaches relies on radio transmissions from the UAS operator. VUIT-2 capabilities will be fielded to theater by this summer and is approved for nine Longbow Apache battalions during fiscal years 2008 and ’09. From concept to fielding, VUIT-2 has been developed in less than a year.
Aid And Relief. CNO Adm. Gary Roughead sees no need to build ships specifically designed for the humanitarian and disaster relief missions the Navy outlined in its new maritime strategy. “I do not envision creating a humanitarian assistance ship. I just don’t think we need to do it. I don’t believe we have to do it, and I believe we don’t have the luxury to just go build another humanitarian assistance ship,” he tells Defense Daily. Roughead believes the service can do the relief and assistance efforts with other platforms in the Navy and Marine Corps inventory. “To me a LPD-17 is a great humanitarian assistance ship. We are finding the Swift HSV has been helpful in that regard. I don’t want to walk away from the warfighting requirements of LCS, but you walk in the mission bays of LCS-1 or -2 and you look around and your mind can go wild with the types of capability that that can bring,” Roughead says.
AMNS LRIP. Vice Adm. David Architzel, principal ASN RDA, authorized the Airborne Mine Neutralization System (AMNS) to enter into LRIP. The decision was made last week following a Milestone C Review. The decision gives a green light for the Navy to start procuring limited quantities to equip the fleet, the Navy says. AMNS is deployed from MH-60S helicopters to explosively neutralize unburied bottom and moored sea mines that are unsafe to counter using existing mine sweeping systems. The system is lowered into the water by the helicopter and is remotely operated. AMNS contains four AN/ASQ-235 expendable UUV neutralizers that can be remotely driven away from the main unit to identify and eliminate mines. In Fiscal Year 2008, the Navy plans to procure five AMNS units.
Show Me…For Sure. Navy Secretary Donald Winter last week named the next three Virginia-class submarines that will join the attack sub fleet: the USS Missouri (SSN-780), the USS California (SSN-781) and the USS Mississippi (SSN-782). The selection of Missouri honors the continuous support of the military by the people of the “Show Me State,” and its leaders; the selection of California, honors the thousands of men and women from the Golden State who serve in today’s armed forces, and the millions of California veterans and their families; and the selection of Mississippi is dedicated to the state’s longstanding tradition of shipbuilding in support of our nation’s defense. It also honors the indomitable spirit of the people of Mississippi who have made great strides in recovering from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, the Navy says.