The Latest Word On Trends And Developments In Aerospace And Defense
Scolded. Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) sent a scathing letter to Marine Commandant Gen. James Conway last week saying that the process of rapidly addressing urgent needs from theater is “broken.” Additionally, Kennedy took the commandant to task for mischaracterizing a 2005 request for commercial versions of the current Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles as up-armored Humvees.
New Commission. Leaders of HASC appointed members of the Nuclear Posture Commission called for under last year’s defense authorization act. The commission is charged with assessing the role of nonproliferation programs and missile defenses in strategic policy and submitting recommendations to lawmakers and the president by Dec. 1. Former Defense Secretary William Perry will chair the commission. Other members including John Foster, director emeritus of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; Lee Hamilton, former congressman; Keith Payne, CEO and president of the National Institute for Public Policy; Ellen Williams, a physics professor at the University of Maryland and Harry Cartland, a former physicist at Lawrence Livermore and former Pentagon director of Defense Research and Engineering.
Gear Gauge. The process of equipping Iraqi security forces is “moving somewhat faster” than in the past but is still moving slowly, said Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) during a teleconference last week from Kuwait. Iraqi soldiers still need basic equipment like machine guns, trucks, mortars, ammunition and air support, he said, adding the U.S. should begin transferring some of its equipment from back-up units to the Iraqis. But Iraqis have also begun to benefit from the high price of oil and should be able to begin to purchase weapons themselves and stop using the lack of equipment as an excuse not to do more, he said.
MRAP Counting. The minutes of a Feb. 21 Joint Requirements Oversight Council (JROC) meeting–where it changed the rundown of Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles destined for the services–were published March 17, confirming the council dropped plans to buy 15,374 MRAPs. It opted for a range from just over 14,000 vehicles to just under 20,000, after upping the Army’s MRAP range and dropping the Marine Corps and Air Force’s tallies. The memo says the JROC recommended Pentagon acquisition czar John Young “consider the following prior to making further acquisition decisions: a. Receive Army preference for which production lines should remain open. b. Sustained production to make up for combat losses. C. Maintain the ability to rapidly regenerate production capacity if required.”
Waiting To See On C-5. The Defense Acquisition Board on March 14 considered allowing the Air Force’s C-5 Reliability Enhancement and Re-engining Program (RERP) to enter low-rate initial production, though the request still had not been given the green light as of last Thursday, Pentagon spokesman Chris Isleib says. Defense acquisition chief John Young has to decide whether to allow the pricey C-5 effort to enter into milestone C. Young last month recertified the C-5 RERP for continuation, which he had to do because of a cost breach. The latest acquisition plan calls for re-engining 52 B-model and C-model C-5s, and three of those 52 have already been modified. There are 111 aircraft in the C-5 fleet.
Preaching To The Choir. Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England says as the nation continues to battle terrorism, “this will be evermore an era of naval forces.” During a March 19 speech at the Navy League’s Sea Air Space conference in Washington, England says: “In the kind of fight we will likely be engaged in for the foreseeable future, ships like LPD-21, the New York, and the Littoral Combat Ships, LCS, and others, [with] their ability to project power forward in a lethal, integrated way, will be vitally important to our national interest. Being able to deploy quickly anywhere in the world at any time is exactly the kind of the force the nation needs today and will need in the future.”
Iraqi Air. The Iraqi air force has 59 aircraft today and will have roughly 100 by the end of the year, U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Robert Allardice, commander of the Coalition Air Force Training Team in Iraq, says March 17. Of the Iraqi aircraft, half will be helicopters and 12 will be Cessna 172 planes, he says. The Iraqis expect to soon receive five King Air intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft, and they are looking to increase their lift capability beyond three C-130Es they have today. Speaking to Pentagon reporters via teleconference, Allardice says he knows of no plans for Iraq to buy unmanned aerial vehicles.
Excalibur Drawn In Afghanistan. U.S. soldiers Feb. 25 fire a test 155mm GPS-guided Excalibur artillery round from an M777A2 lightweight howitzer in Kunar Province. Army News Service reports that during the firing, the GPS-guided Excalibur round received a grid coordinate to seek out and destroy a target using the Enhanced Portable Inductive Artillery Fuse Setter, which places the system on the tip of the round and sends a digital message with the coordinate the round must find. The test fire was considered a success when word came from the impact area the Excalibur found and destroyed the target at the provided grid coordinate. Both Excalibur and the M777A2 howitzer were developed at Picatinny Arsenal, N.J. Excalibur proved in Iraq, and now in Afghanistan, that cannon artillery can provide precision fires at extended ranges, service officials say.
Termination Agreed. Australia and Kaman mutually agree on the termination terms for the cancellation of the Seasprite helicopter program (Defense Daily, March 18). Some terms of the agreement are confidential, but project deliverables, including the helicopters, training equipment and spare parts will be returned to Kaman for sale on the open market. The Australian government and Kaman would share in any sale profits. Australia would receive at least 50 percent of any helicopter sales, with a guaranteed return from Kaman of $35.5 million. A further $26.9 million worth of spares will be kept to use on the Seahawk and Black Hawk helicopter fleets. Australia saves about $134 million that would otherwise have been spent on the Seasprite project, defense officials say.
Troops To Stay. New Zealand March 18 says it has extended troop deployments in the Solomon Islands and the Sinai Peninsular. Defence Minister Phil Goff says, “New Zealand’s deployment of up to 50 Defence Force personnel to the Regional Assistance Mission in Solomon Islands (RAMSI) has been extended until March 2009. RAMSI’s military component provides security and support in the Solomon Islands. The New Zealand Defence Force has contributed to RAMSI since the mission inception in 2003. Extending the deployment is part of New Zealand’s ongoing commitment to assist the people of Solomon Islands. New Zealand also has 35 police officers in Solomon Islands, Goff says. The commitment of up to 26 NZDF personnel to the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO) based in the Sinai Peninsula has been extended for a further two years until April 1, 2010. New Zealand has participated in the MFO since its inception in 1982, and plays an important role in supporting the MFO’s task of ensuring peace on the border between Egypt and Israel, Goff says.
All HET Up. Oshkosh gets the nod from the Army to begin engineering and initial production of the next-generation of Heavy Equipment Transporters (HET). The upgrades will be delivered on six pilot vehicles for testing. A Phase II will involve production-verification testing of the HET A1, the company says March 20. Oshkosh currently supplies the Army with the M1070 HET, which with the M1000 trailer increases mobility and decreases wear on the Army’s M1 Abrams tank by hauling it over long distances. The Army developed a requirement to improve upon the performance of the tank’s transporter, and the HET A1 upgrade program will expand on the capabilities of the existing M1070 HET and is valued at more than $11 million. Earlier this month Oshkosh submitted a HET A1 Phase I proposal to the Tank-automotive and Armaments Command. After several analyses of alternatives, Oshkosh received the green light. The HET A1 program improves the power train including the engine, transmission, transfer case and electrical systems. It also will improve axles and wheels, have a new hood and in the cab improve seats, the dash panel, electrical, air conditioning and have additional support for future armor upgrades.
Buying Strategically. The Navy has put a great deal of time and effort into thinking about its future and how it can deliver on the maritime strategy, CNO Adm. Gary Roughead tells Defense Daily. “If we really believe that that is the best path ahead for our future, then those things that we buy we should be able to link to what I always refer to as the six capabilities. And I challenge folks that work for me that when they are working on a program they should be able to say ‘I can support this capability,” he says. “Ideally, I’d like to be able to say if I buy this thing I can support capabilities one through three, or whatever. But if they are saying I am going to buy this and I don’t know how it fits into the capabilities we are espousing, it tells me two things: One, we shouldn’t be buying it, and two, do we have a flaw in the strategy that needs to be examined?”
…Making It Fit. Take, for example, LCS, and the capabilities that the Navy has. Roughead says the ship needs to link to the six capabilities: forward deployed, global presence, deterrence, sea control, power projection, maritime security, and disaster relief and humanitarian assistance. “I can make the case that LCS supports a forward global presence, a lot of interaction with other navies, and operating forward, which is our operational concept. Sea control, most definitely. Maritime security, absolutely. Humanitarian assistance-disaster relief, [we can] get there fast with a pretty good payload. I can say LCS blankets that pretty well,” Roughead says. “Is it a deterrence platform? Probably tactically it could be, but strategically it doesn’t quite fit [in].”
Now Serving… Navy Secretary Donald Winter believes his efforts at acquisition reform will continue after he leaves office next January, when a new administration is sworn in. “I cannot imagine that whoever comes in next is not going to take this on, if for no other reason than Congress, I don’t think, is going to let them avoid it,” he tells Defense Daily. There are two potential issues, however, Winter adds. What will happen in transition? How long is it going to take for a service secretary to show up. The other question is what are the priorities? There is a whole series of priorities that run the gamut from highly political to industrial, he adds. “What I am trying to do, and, quite frankly, one of the reasons I have been so focused on engaging the uniformed personnel in the department is in the hopes of getting some of this thinking instilled directly into the services, and the civilian personnel, so that a lot of these thoughts carry over.”
…No Room For Politics. Winter is hoping his efforts won’t be subject to reevaluation just because the Navy winds up with a different secretary no matter what party that secretary may be representing. “Because most of what I am doing right now isn’t political in that regard. There is very little in the acquisition process that would be viewed as political,” he adds.
Scouting Report. Northrop Grumman is adding a radar to its company-owned MQ-8B Fire Scout. A non-developmental Telephonics RDR-1700B maritime surveillance and imaging radar will be incorporated onto the VTUAV. While the Navy has committed funds to develop a radar capability on Fire Scout, the lack of an integrated radar has kept the Coast Guard from developing an acquisition strategy for Fire Scout. The Navy is currently looking for a ship to use as a test platform for further tests of the MQ-8B.
…Interest. Last week at the annual Navy League Sea Air and Space expo, Michael Tangora, the Coast Guard’s deputy commandant for acquisition, told attendees the service has “signed a letter of interest in Fire Scout,” with the Navy. The recent Coast Guard Alternatives Analysis points to Fire Scout as the best candidate VTUAV platform for use on the National Security Cutter.