The Latest Word On Trends And Developments In Aerospace And Defense
Bombs Away. The sale of up to 900 GPS-guided munitions to Saudi Arabia is likely to move forward, though Congress continues to oversee the transaction through a number of classified briefings, Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-N.Y.), the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on the Middle East, said last week. According to Ackerman, the administration has answered most of the major questions members had about the restrictions and abilities of the Joint Direct Attack Munitions. The day before Congress reconvened, President Bush notified lawmakers about the sale, giving them 30 days to object before the sale of the weapons made by Boeingwould proceed. Rep. Tom Lantos (D-Calif.), the chairman of the full committee, does not intend to move motions that would block the sale, Ackerman said.
Shipbuilding Boost. Like last year, Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), the chairman of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee, said he is looking to add two additional ships to the budget above the eight requested by the president in his budget request last week. “We’re trying to figure out exactly what the mix is going to be,” Murtha told reporters last week. This week, top Pentagon, Marine Corps and Army leaders will testify before the HAC-D about their budgetary needs for fiscal year 2009.
Another Submarine. Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) continues to press for the administration to fund two submarines in its budget for the next fiscal year. The president’s request released last week includes a request for funding one, said the senator who represents the state where General Dynamics Electric Boatis located. “Concerning Connecticut, for the last several years, I have been battling with the administration to begin accelerating the production of submarines to two ships per year in order to both meet our military’s intelligence needs and safeguard America’s critical industrial base,” Dodd said in a statement. “Now, with the end in sight, the president is once again trying to move the goalposts. While I welcome the administration’s concession that we must finally begin building two ships per year soon, I believe we need to appropriately re-stock and modernize our undersea fleet more quickly.”
Role Call. Adm. Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he worries that if the roles and missions review requested by Congress is not done well, the individual services could turn against each other. “One of my charges to myself from a leadership perspective is to make sure that doesn’t happen,” Mullen told Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.), who leads HASC’s roles and missions panel. That panel is expected to release its first report this week.
Scouting For Payloads. The Army and Navy have both been looking at the payload capabilities of Northrop Grumman’s MQ-8B Fire Scout VTUAV, Mike Fuqua, Fire Scout business development manager, tells Defense Daily. “We’ve shot rockets off Fire Scout and that sort of proved the weapons case, the feasibility of launching weapons from a VTUAV,” he says. “And certainly the Navy and Army have expressed a strong interest in weaponization, particularly the Navy as they face the small swarming boat threat. Fire Scout could be a significant discriminator there.” The Army is interested in weapons, Fuqua adds. “We believe weapons, in the future, will become a routine part of Fire Scout’s payload capability.”
…Design. One of the great things about the architecture of Fire Scout is that it is a very modular architecture, Fuqua says. “You can put varying kinds of payloads on the aircraft, and depending on weight and where you put it, you can still realize a significant endurance on the aircraft.” Among the potential payloads Fire Scout could handle, beyond weapons, is SIGINT equipment, AIS for the Coast Guard and Navy, ESM, chem-bio detection systems, ASW systems, lightweight torpedoes, and lightweight sonobuoys, Fuqua adds. “Of course in every mission there is a data relay capability and they are looking at enhanced data and voice relay capability to make Fire Scout a real node in the sky.”
…A Sea Base Asset? Fire Scout also has the ability to carry and deliver some level of logistics support, medical supplies, or even advanced triage litters to the field, Fuqua says. Fire Scout could even maybe take small logistics supplies around to sea bases as the Navy matures its sea basing concept, he notes. “There is no limit to the imagination of what Fire Scout can do in the future,” Fuqua says. “On a program point of view, the Navy’s plan is to formally fund radar development in ’09 to add a maritime radar to Fire Scout and the plan in ’10 is to add weapons and AIS and a few other capabilities, so the Navy has a well laid out road map to spiral in these capabilities to the platform,” Doug Fronius, Navy Fire Scout program director, tells Defense Daily.
…In The Army? The Army is considering the feasibility of fielding Fire Scouts to the Army Evaluation Task Force to conduct developmental and system-level testing, as well as develop tactics, techniques and procedures and concepts of operation in the construct of the FCS Brigade Combat Team. This plan is still under development and will be briefed to Army leadership in FY ’08, an FCS spokesman tells Defense Daily.
Looking For Work? Collegegrad.com named NAVSEA a ‘Top Entry Level Employer” last month, the Navy reports. According to Collegegrad.com, entry level employers are increasing their hiring by 11.8 percent in 2008. Three hundred forty entry-level positions are expected to open at NAVSEA and its affiliated warfare centers in 2008, the Navy says. This is an increase from 200 new entry-level hires in 2007 according to Collegegrad.com. Fifty interns and 65 MBA graduates are also expected to be hired, the Navy adds. “New college graduates are a very important part of our workforce. They not only bring a ‘new’ perspective coupled with global knowledge of technology applications and communication tools, but also show a contagious enthusiasm, work energy and initiative,” says Tony Gibert, Recruiting Director for NAVSEA’s Warfare Centers.
Underway. The Coast Guard’s National Security Cutter (NSC), CGC Bertholf (WMSL-750), began builders trials Friday, Commandant Adm. Thad Allen tells attendees at a National Press Club luncheon Friday. Allen says he is looking forward to successful completion of this event and moving onto acceptance trials. The builders trials follows successful completion of machinery trials for the Bertholf. “We did the machinery trials before to mitigate risk before the builders trials,” he says. The CGC Waesche (WMSL-751), the second NSC, is 40 percent complete and expected to be launched this spring, Allen adds.
…FRC Update. The Coast Guard is currently reviewing bids for its Fast Response Cutter, a potential $596 million contract to build 12 of the ships. The Coast Guard is expecting to award a contract before the summer, Rear Adm. Gary Blore, assistant commandant for acquisition, says.
…Age Issues. Today’s Coast Guard is operating the oldest fleet of cutters and aircraft in the service’s history, Allen adds. “In fact, we decommissioned the cutter Storis (WMEC-38) last year after 64 years of service and will decommission CGC Acushnet (WMEC-167) next year as she reaches her 64th birthday,” he notes. “Recently the Acushnet suffered a major casualty to a propeller shaft and is out of service. The cutter Rush (WHEC-723) had to divert from a search and rescue case south of the Aleutian Islands [last] week because of a failure of hull plating. In civilian terms, that means taking on water.”
STOVL Agreement. The Navy and Marine Corps have an agreement that there will be no decision made on the F-35B Joint Strike Fighter’s carrier viability until the first squadron is active and both services have had the opportunity to put it aboard ship, Marine Gen. James Conway tells reporters at a Defense Writers Group breakfast earlier this month. Conway adds both services will experiment and do operational test and evaluation with the F-35B to determine whether STOVL squadrons can operate effectively in a carrier rotation. “We tend to think they will because we had similar discussion and experimentation when the Harrier was brought into the inventory,” he says. “In fact it was found they were a real complement to operations on deck because the Harrier can land and take off while the carrier is still going downwind to launch and recover.”
…Still The Same. Lawmakers’ desires to add a V-shaped hull to the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle, similar to the MRAP design, are not feasible, Conway notes. “We think we are where we need to be,” he says. “The fact is we have the vehicle.”
Iraq’s Best. Iraqi special forces are “astoundingly efficient,” and are the best unit in the Iraqi army, says a top DoD official. Not only is the unit multi-ethnic, but tremendously cohesive and very effective, says Michael Vickers, assistant secretary of defense for Special Operations/Low-Intensity Conflict and Interdependent Capabilities. The unit is a model of what the Iraqi army could become and Iraq should be very proud of them, he says. The unit’s biggest challenge is to protecting their identifies and families from retribution or threat.
Advancing Missile Defense. The Missile Defense Agency’s Advanced Technology Deputate is looking for proposals under its Missile Defense Science, Technology And Research (MSTAR) Program that sponsors fundamental, ballistic missile defense system research and development. The agency wants proposals in the areas of radars, laser and electroptical systems, integrated active/passive infrared sensor systems, computer science, math, physics, mechanical and aerospace engineering, and battle management.
Amazing Science. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is still going strong as it celebrates 50 years since its founding in response to the Soviet- launched Sputnik satellite. Director Tony Tether Feb. 7 described some of the agency’s achievements such as the Saturn rocket engine program that led the United States to the Moon, the ARPANET of the 1960s that led to the Internet, stealth planes, and robotics of the Grand Challenge race, which demonstrated that driverless vehicles can operate safely in traffic with other manned and unmanned vehicles. DARPA also leads the way to new materials such as the new metal beryllium, stronger than steel but lighter than aluminum, Tether says.
New Face. Northrop Grumman appoints Larry Dodgen as sector vice president and deputy general manager for the Mission Systems sector’s Missile Defense Division (MDD). Dodgen reports directly to Frank Moore, sector vice president and general manager of MDD, and will be headquartered in Huntsville, Ala., in the company’s Cummings Research Park complex. Dodgen joined Northrop Grumman in 2007 as vice president of strategy, missile systems area, after a 34-year Army career. Before retiring as a three-star, Dodgen served as commander Army Space and Missile Defense Command and Joint Functional Component Command/Integrated Missile Defense to U.S. Strategic Command.
Lighten Up. Soldiers have an improved M72A7 Light Anti-armor Weapon System or LAW weapon system that lightens their load and adds features to keep them safer on the battlefield, thanks to an Office of the Project Manager for Close Combat Systems team at Piccatinny Arsenal. The Army began fielding the new weapon, , last month in support of ongoing combat operations. The M72A7 is a lightweight, shoulder-launched, disposable munition meant to defeat lightly armored vehicles and other hard targets at close combat ranges. The approximately eight-pound LAW fires a 66mm high-explosive, anti-tank rocket. This critical operational need led to the Army Urgent Materiel Release of the M72A7 LAW in January.