Defense Watch

Carrier Cuts. The heads of the HASC Seapower subcommittee want to know more about the Navy’s potential reduction of its carrier strike groups from 11 down to eight or nine. This budget-saving option was offered in the Strategic Choices and Management Review Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel described to reporters on July 31. “Let me be clear that we believe as a global, maritime power, it is critical that we retain a fleet of 11 nuclear-powered aircraft carriers (CVNs),” panel Chairman Randy Forbes (R-Va.) and Ranking Member Mike McIntyre (D-N.C.) write on Aug. 12 to Navy Secretary Ray Mabus. They ask Mabus to answer a series of questions intended to help “articulate the impact to the current defense strategy” if the number of CVNs drops to eight or nine. The questions include: “Given the range of options the Navy would have for reducing its CVN fleet to this level, how would you assess the impact to both the carrier shipbuilding and ship-maintenance industrial base?”

Chinese Connection.  Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and China’s Minister of National Defense Gen. Chang Wanquan will meet at the Pentagon on Monday, Aug. 19, a Pentagon spokesman tells reporters Aug. 16. The two leaders are expected to discuss matters including the two nations’ military-to-military relationship and cybersecurity, a senior defense official says, according to American Forces Press Service. They are expected to hold a press conference. The Chinese general also met on Aug. 16 with U.S. Pacific Command head Navy Adm. Samuel Locklear, and was expected to meet over the weekend with North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command leader Army Gen. Charles Jacoby, according to AFPS. Hagel has been invited to China, according to the report. 

Indianapolis for LCS. The Navy will name the 17th vessel of the Littoral Combat Ship program the USS Indianapolis, the Pentagon said Friday. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus selected the name. The future USS Indianapolis will be a Freedom variant of the LCS. The Navy’s program of record for the LCS program is 51. Three previous naval vessels have been designated after Indiana’s capital city. One of them was a Portland-class cruiser that served in the Pacific theater during World War II and was sunk by a Japanese torpedo in July 1945. Only 317 of the 1,196 sailors on the ship survived.

F-35 Lot 6. The Navy awards Lockheed Martin a not-to-exceed $852 million undefinitized modification to a previously awarded Low-Rate Initial Production (LRIP) Lot 6 Advanced Acquisition contract, according to a DoD statement. This modification provides for the procurement of special tooling and special test equipment for the Navy, Air Force and international partners, which DoD says is critical to preserving the current F-35 delivery schedules and meeting future production rates. The F-35 is developed by Lockheed Martin with subcontractors Northrop Grumman and BAE Systems.

SpaceX CCP. Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) completes orbit and entry review for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program (CCP), according to a company statement. During its preliminary design review, company engineers presented NASA representatives and aerospace industry experts detailed analyses of Dragon systems critical to keeping crews safe in orbit and during re-entry operations. SpaceX is one of three commercial space companies working under NASA’s Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) initiative to develop spaceflight capabilities that eventually could provide launch services to transport NASA astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) from U.S. soil.

SpaceX Grasshopper. SpaceX’s Grasshopper vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) reusable rocket prototype rises 250 meters with a 100 meter lateral maneuver in a recent divert test, the company says in a statement. This demonstrates the vehicle’s ability to perform more aggressive steering maneuvers than have been attempted in previous flights. Grasshopper is taller than a ten story building, the company said, which makes the control problem challenging. Diverts like the one performed are an important part of the trajectory in order to land the rocket precisely back at the launch site after re-entering from space at hypersonic velocity. Grasshopper rose 325 meters without a divert back in a July test.

Watching. Logos Technologies says its Kestrel wide-area persistent surveillance system has achieved 60,000 hours of successful operation in Afghanistan. Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) manages the program. Deployed on forward operating bases in Afghanistan since March 2012, Kestrel is the only 360-degree persistent surveillance system for aerostats (tethered blimps) capable of scanning a large area at once, 24 hours a day. This unique capability offers operators the advantages of heightened situational awareness, increased threat detection and real-time tracking capability.

Reducing the Threat. Oshkosh Corp.’s Defense division develops its TerraMax™ UGV technology to reduce troops’ exposure to threats and enable commanders to accomplish more with fewer resources. The technology was featured last week at the AUVSI Unmanned Systems 2013 show in Washington, D.C. “The TerraMax UGV technology already has demonstrated a high level of maturity as a means to deliver force protection and force multiplication to Warfighters operating in logistics-convoy missions,” says John Beck, chief unmanned systems engineer for Oshkosh Defense. “Integrating TerraMax UGV kits with counter-IED payloads onto platforms like the Oshkosh M-ATV can provide a safe and effective way for combat engineers to perform route-clearance operations.”

New Member. The United States congratulates Mexico on becoming the newest member of the Australia Group, an informal forum that seeks to prevent the proliferation of chemical and biological weapons. This highlights Mexico’s commitment to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, including by regulating the trade of sensitive goods and technologies. The Australia Group (AG) is an informal forum of countries which, through the harmonization of export controls, seeks to ensure that exports do not contribute to the development of chemical or biological weapons. Coordination of national export control measures assists Australia Group participants to fulfill their obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention and the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention to the fullest extent possible.

New Fellows. The Brookings Center for 21st Century Security and Intelligence (21CSI) welcomes Daniel Benjamin, former State Department Ambassador-at-Large and Coordinator for Counterterrorism, and Gary Samore, former White House Coordinator for Arms Control and the Weapons of Mass Destruction Terrorism as nonresident senior fellows. Benjamin will serve within 21CSI’s  Brookings Intelligence Project, while Samore will join the center’s Arms Control Initiative.

High Level Recognition. DynCorp International has been recognized by U.S. Veterans Magazine (USVM) as one of the nation’s Top Veteran-Friendly Companies and Top Supplier Diversity Programs in its 2013 “Best of the Best” evaluation. “We are humbled and honored to be recognized on not one, but two of U.S. Veterans Magazine’s ‘Best of the Best’ lists,” said Steve Gaffney, DynCorp International chairman and CEO. “Our commitment to veterans is unwavering and their experience as team members and business partners is invaluable to our business.” USVM polled hundreds of Fortune 1000 companies for this year’s annual review, an evaluation of employers, initiatives, government agencies and educational institutions. The lists were compiled through market research, independent research, diversity conference participation and survey responses that were performed by DiversityComm’s agents and/or affiliates. This year, more than 250 companies and institutions participated. 

Validated Performance. Raytheon’s new–production Patriot Air and Missile Defense System launches a PAC-3 missile to engage a tactical ballistic missile (TMB) target at White Sands Missile Range, N.M. The test was the culmination of two years of testing the complete system, proving system performance in all environments and against all threats. “With modernized Patriot and new customers coming on board, they (warfighters) can now also count on their cost of ownership to go down,” Sanjay Kapoor, vice president of Integrated Air and Missile Defense for Raytheon’s Integrated Defense Systems business. “In fact, the U.S. Army’s recent decision to extend the fielding of Patriot from 2040 to 2048 demonstrates its confidence in the system and it’s future.”