New Leader. The incoming Secretary General of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, former Prime Minister of Norway, takes up his duties Wednesday Oct. 1. Outgoing NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said farewell Friday, while he officially ends his tenure on Sept. 30. During his last days as
Photo: NATO
Secretary General, Rasmussen visited West Point, noting the first NATO Secretary General was Dwight Eisenhower, a West Point grad. “The long gray line has stood firm,” he says. He also notes two of his staff and the current Ambassador to NATO are West Point Grads, as well. The first time Article 5 was invoked was not during the Cold War, but after 9/11. “All for one, and one for all,” he says. Concluding his remarks, Rasmussen says, “So study hard. Train well. And, most importantly, Beat Navy!”
UK Joins In. British Tornadoes and surveillance aircraft are helping with intelligence gathering and logistics as the U.K. joins the U.S. in the fight against ISIL. Prime Minister David Cameron rules out boots on the ground. But he tells Parliament Friday, “We are working closely with our allies to drive back, dismantle and ultimately destroy ISIL and what it stands for. We will defeat ISIL through a comprehensive and sustained counter-terrorism strategy.”
To the White House. The Center for a New American Security (CNAS) says the White House Names Senior Fellow and Middle East Security Program Director Colin Kahl Deputy Assistant to the President and National Security Adviser to Vice President Joe Biden. In that position, he will be a key foreign policy and security adviser to Biden. Kahl has served at CNAS since 2012. From February 2009 to December 2011, Kahl served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East.
Global Threat Sharing. The Departments of Homeland Security and Justice have announced the formation of a new foreign terrorist fighter program with the international police organization Interpol that involves sharing intelligence and best practices between 30 member countries to mitigate the threat of foreign fighters traveling to Iraq and Syria. The partnership includes Interpol Washington, which includes DHS and DoJ, and the White House National Security Council, and leverages Interpol’s “secure, encrypted communications system, its criminal and analytical databases and its system of advisory notices” to help prevent the international movement of foreign terrorist fighters “and interdict them at strategic entry points, where possible,” the departments say. The program includes a multinational database with information contributed by the participating countries.
New BPC Terror Report. The Bipartisan Policy Commission (BPC) has released a new report, Jihadist Terrorism and Other Unconventional Threats, that in a nutshell says the threat from al-Qaeda is diminishing although the organization and its allies are more diffuse than previously with al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula possibly the greatest threat to the homeland, the threat of a major attack from homegrown terrorists is limited, and that there are a number of foreign terrorist groups not affiliated with al-Qaeda such as the Islamic State, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Boko Haram.
…Potential Targets. The report says there are still potential targets for al-Qaeda attacks, including commercial aviation through bombing attacks on planes, shoulder fired missiles, and attacks on airports. Other targets include oil and energy infrastructure, tourists and hotels, and westerners through kidnapping tactics. Future threats include cyber, and chemical and biological weapons, the BPC says.
Shocking Test Dollars. The Navy has developed a new simulator shock machine designed to evaluate the impact of underwater blasts on sensitive electronic equipment that it says will save money. Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) says the Deck Simulator Shock Machine (DSSM) will save about $75,000 per test using the “mammoth” machine to evaluate state-of-the-art vibration-sensitive electronics cabinets. The cabinets weigh up to 1,500 pounds on shock isolation mounts. The machine sits on 22,000 pounds of steel and concrete and records the effects of simulated underwater explosions on electronics equipment, NAVSEA says. “After careful evaluation of expensive travel to the Virginia test site, shipping costs and time schedules, the determination was made that installing the DSSM was the most cost effective way for the Navy to perform heavy weight shock testing,” says Drew Napolitan, Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock Division environmental test labs technical manager. Naval engineers must certify the ability of ship electronic equipment to ensure it can withstand a shock force from an explosion or blast according to military specifications.
Maintenance Plans. The Navy has reached an important milestone in developing a comprehensive shipbuilding maintenance plan for all of their ships over their expected lives, according to NAVSEA. The Navy’s Surface Maintenance Engineering Planning Program (SURFMEPP) announced on Sept. 25 it had completed what it calls the Baseline Availability Work Package (BAWP)/Availability Work Package (AWP) process for all surface ships. NAVSEA says that complied with a “major milestone” in the Navy’s continued effort to improve surface ship maintenance, meaning all surface ships now have an outlined and technically rigorous and engineered maintenance oversight process that supports each ship reaching its service life.
Keel laying. The Navy held a keel laying ceremony for the future USS Ralph Johnson (DDG-114), which will be an Arleigh Burke-class (DDG-51) destroyer. The ceremony took place at the Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) shipyard in Pascagoula, Miss. on Sept. 23. The ship is named for Marine Pfc. Ralph Henry Johnson, who posthumously received the Medal of Honor actions in the Vietnam War.
SSA U.K. U.S. Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM) signs a space situational awareness (SSA) data sharing agreement with the United Kingdom during a Combined Space Operators Principals’ meeting in Ottawa, Canada, according to a USSTRATCOM statement. The U.K. joins Canada, Japan, Australia, Italy, France and South Korea as nations to sign and participate in these agreements that promote safe space operations. USSTRATCOM’s Joint Space Operations Center (JSpOC) at Vandenberg AFB, Calif., gathers such data, which is used in launch support, satellite maneuver planning, support for on-orbit activities and on-orbit conjunction assessments.
NG’s SABR. Northrop Grumman successfully concludes all engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) design reviews for its AN/APG-83 Scalable Agile Beam Radar (SABR), according to a company statement. The completion of this review marks the acceptance of Northrop Grumman’s software design in support of the Taiwanese Air Force F-16 Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar upgrade program. SABR was competitively selected by Lockheed Martin for F-16 upgrade programs for the U.S. and Taiwanese air forces. Northrop Grumman says it is on track to deliver the first EMD radar hardware and software by the end of 2014.
Alion F-35 Award. The Air Force awards Alion Science and Technology Corp. a $50 million cost-plus-fixed-fee delivery order to a previously-awarded contract for the F-35 program, the service says Sept. 24. Alion will provide the application of materials, manufacturing and testing to increase supportability, survivability, producibility and affordability of the program. Alion will also develop, implement and enhance analytical capabilities necessary to evaluate system performance, perform root cause analyses and identify failure modes modified through the application of advanced material.
Exelis Eastern Range Award. The Air Force awards Exelis a $45 million fixed-price incentive-firm target, cost-plus-incentive-fee and firm-fixed-price contract for modernization of the command destruct system at the Eastern Range, according to a service statement. The contractor will provide positive control flight termination capability of a space launch vehicle on the Eastern Range necessary to meet range safety requirements. Work will be performed at Patrick AFB, Fla., Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., and Johnathan Dickinson Missile Tracking Annex, Fla., and is expected to be completed by February 2019. This award is sole-sourced.
SpaceX Texas. SpaceX on Sept. 22 celebrates the groundbreaking of its Boca Chica Beach, Texas, commercial launch site, bordering Mexico and the Gulf of Mexico. According to SpaceX, Texas state Sen. Eddie Luico said he worked with Gov. Rick Perry’s office to allocate up to $15 million in state funding for the site, contingent on SpaceX locating its spaceport in Texas. The company expects to perform commercial launches from the site. Company spokesman John Taylor says SpaceX expects construction to take two years.
Boeing TEMPO. The Air Force awards Boeing a six-month study contract to investigate hosting a scientific payload on a commercial satellite, according to a company statement. The Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) payload will measure atmospheric pollution for most of North America and would launch and orbit as a hosted payload on a future commercial satellite. Boeing is one of three companies selected for the TEMPO study contract, awarded under the larger Air Force Hosted Payload Solutions (HoPS) indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity (ID/IQ) contract awarded on July 10. The request for proposals (RFP) to host the payload is expected in late 2015.
NASA MAVEN. NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft, built by Lockheed Martin, successfully reaches orbit around Mars on Sept. 21, according to a company statement. Over the next six weeks, MAVEN will undergo a commissioning phase that includes placing the spacecraft into its final science orbit and deploying and testing its instruments. At the completion of this phase, MAVEN will begin its one Earth-year primary mission. MAVEN is the first dedicated mission to survey the upper atmosphere of Mars. Mission scientists seek to understand how the loss of atmospheric gas to space changed the Martian climate.
Battlefield Management Upgrades. Lockheed Martin won a $18 million contract to maintain the Marine Corps’ Virtualized Theater Battle Management Core Systems (TBMCS), which managers and monitors airborne platforms. The system will interface with joint and coalition battlefield management systems as well, and Lockheed Martin vice president of C4ISR Rob Smith says in a news release that his company’s upgrades will help provide a seamless flow of information to allow for rapid decision-making. “Lockheed Martin will ensure that TBMCS provides faster access to real-time operations information; better planning and collaboration tools; and enhanced situational awareness while dramatically reducing sustainment costs,” according to the news release.