IFT Delay? Senate appropriators say in a report accompanying their version of the FY ’15 Homeland Security Appropriations bill that initial delivery of the first fixed border surveillance tower could be delayed until the end of FY ’14 or later due to a contract protest. Customs and Border Protection selected Israel’s Elbit Systems in late February for the $145 million Integrated Fixed Tower (IFT) program but Raytheon filed a protest with the GAO over the award, forcing work to be stopped. The Senate report says the protest was filed on March 31 although the GAO bid protest website page says it was lodged on May 12 with Aug. 20 as the due date for a decision. The appropriators say the program has already been delayed for more than three years.
No Hurry. If you want to work for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), you’ll have to cool your heels. Citing the federal Office of Personnel Management, a Senate report says on average it takes the department 146 days to hire an employee, 56 days above the government average. For law enforcement officers it takes longer and for non-law enforcement hires at the headquarters level its 106 days, says the report, which accompanies the Senate appropriators version of the FY ’15 spending bill for DHS. “Unless the department improves upon its lengthy hiring process, the best and brightest candidates will more than likely choose other federal agencies or opt for the private sector,” the report says.
…Especially at CBP and USSS. At Customs and Border Protection, the wait to land a job on average is 278 days, according to the Senate report. At a minimum, the appropriators want this average reduced to 120 days with the goal being to meet OPM’s 90-day standard. At the U.S. Secret Service, the average time to hire an employee is 327 days, the report says. Of CBP, the report says “It should not take as long to hire and train trade specialists or mission support personnel as it does a weapon-carrying, law enforcement officer or agent.”
Congress Returns. The Senate will return on Monday and the House on Tuesday, after a week off for July 4. The House has completed its work on defense bills but will consider the Department of Homeland Security Interoperable Communications Act on Tuesday. The Senate is still awaiting floor time for its defense authorization bill, and the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee is expected to mark up its bill in the next two weeks. Congress is in session for four more weeks before adjourning for August recess and gearing up for the fall midterm elections.
Kudos For Industry. U.K. Defense Secretary Philip Hammond tells more than 200 business leaders the defense industry sector should be proud of its work on the largest ship ever built for the Royal Navy. The HMS Queen Elizabeth aircraft
Photo: MoD
carrier is the biggest ship in Europe and the largest outside the U.S. fleet. “The engineers, designers, steel-cutters, welders, plumbers, electricians, software writers and the many other trades that are required to build complex warships, from Rosyth to Appledore, from the banks of the Clyde to the shores of the Solent; together they have demonstrated what a united Britain can accomplish,” Hammond says. The Queen christens the 65,000-ton ship—not with champagne, but a bottle of Islay malt whiskey, reflecting that the ship has been assembled in Scotland.
High Standard Certification. Northrop Grumman’s Lake Charles Maintenance and Modification Center receives AS9110 certification from Lloyd’s Register Quality Assurance Ltd. (LRQA). The certification confirms the facility’s ability to perform maintenance, repair and overhaul work to the aerospace industry’s highest standard. Lake Charles is Northrop Grumman’s U.S.-based center of excellence for heavy-wing aircraft sustainment. Northrop Grumman also has an AS9110-certified center of excellence in Australia. “For our global customers the significance of this certification is that our quality management system performs to a high standard for aviation maintenance, repair and overhaul, minimizing associated risks,” says Ruth Bishop, vice president, quality, safety and mission assurance, Northrop Grumman Technical Services.
Robotic Moves. The new production lines Boeing built with its own $170 million investment adds robots to the process, using Mototok tugs that move the Chinooks on the line from one station to the next. The electric tugs move automatically following an optical sensor in the floor, controlled by a tethered, handheld device. James Folmar, Boeing director of Operations for H-47 programs, says moving Chinooks from one production station to another used to take a day and a lot of jockeying around. Now it takes about 30 minutes.
…Improvements. Boeing has done away with printing out instructions to do a particular job while building a Chinook. Workers on the line now have that information on tablet computers they bring with them. Folmar says workers can pull up 3D versions of what they’re building; they can highlight a particular area they are working on and the tablet provides a clear picture to work from. Additionally, workers don’t bring their own tools. Tools are standardized and set up so everyone is using the same thing for the same job.
AMRAAM PSAS Deal. The Air Force June 30 awards Raytheon a $163 million fixed-price/fixed-price-incentive/cost-plus-incentive contract for Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Misisle (AMRAAM) program support and sustainment (PSAS), according to a Defense Department statement. PSAS provides sustaining engineering, program management, contractor logistics support and accomplishes the diminishing manufacturing sources and material shortage tasks of extending the life of the missile’s central processing unit, improving the guidance section and developing applicable test equipment. This contract is the result of a sole source acquisition and work is expected to be completed by Jan. 31, 2017.