Budget Watch. The Senate and House are in recess this week, but both chambers have made significant progress in moving defense spending bills this month. The House Appropriations Committee’s defense subcommittee on May 20 approved next year’s defense appropriations bill, adding no amendments during its markup. Only the Senate Appropriations Committee has yet to unveil its own bill, and its chairman Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) has been tight lipped regarding whether it will include an additional $38 billion for Overseas Contingency Operations to meet the spending levels in the president’s budget.
Homeland Bills Move On. The House Homeland Security Committee last week approved by voice vote 11 bills ranging from requiring the Department of Homeland Security to report on how small and medium unmanned aircraft systems could be used in an attack to a report on the ongoing headquarters’ consolidation project of the department. Some of the other bills approved include legislation requiring DHS to modernize and implement an Integrated Public Alert and Warning System, ensuring the department makes anthrax vaccines available to emergency responders, and reducing the duplication of information technology at the department.
Polish Navy. Poland plans on beefing up its navy after years of neglect, according to its minister of national defense and deputy prime minister. Tomasz Siemoniak says May 19 at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington that people once believed that Poland didn’t need a powerful navy due to the “small” size of the Baltic Sea. Siemoniak tells an audience via a translator that Poland has a plan for its navy post-2030, including its submarine force. Poland has been on a defense buying spree lately, buying Raytheon’s Patriot missile defense system and Airbus Group’s H225M Caracal helicopter. Siemoniak says he’s pleased with the progress of Poland’s defense purchases. “We’re trying to not waste more time,” he says.
XTAR MQ-4C Contract. Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) issues XTAR a $1.8 million, one-year, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (ID/IQ) contract with a one-year option to support testing of the MQ-4C Triton unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), according to a company statement. XTAR will supply space segment capacity on the XTAR-LANT North America spot beam on a daily basis as required by NAVAIR to meet its variable testing schedule. Due to the irregular schedule of the testing, the required volume of bandwidth will also vary. The MQ-4C Triton, developed by Northrop Grumman, is intended to provide real-time intelligence and reconnaissance in a maritime environment and support search and rescue missions. 
BAE Systems CIRCM. BAE successfully completes a key milestone, the technology development bridge program, in a competition for the Army’s Common Infrared Countermeasure (CIRCM) program, according to a company statement. The year-long, $12 million effort was funded by the Army to enable further development following the two-year CIRCM technology demonstration phase. BAE implements an action plan during this bridge program designed to ensure that the reliability performance the Army realized in its current missile warning system will also be realized on CIRCM. The Army, later this year, plans to award a 26 month contract for engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) and delivery of 21 CIRCM systems. Northrop Grumman is also competing for CIRCM.
Army Structure. The National Commission on the Future of the U.S. Army selects retired Army Maj. Gen. Raymond Carpenter as its executive director, according to an Army statement. Carpenter’s experience includes serving in the Army, Navy and Army National Guard for more than 44 years. His last military assignment was acting director of the Army National Guard, National Guard Bureau. The commission formed by the 2015 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) is undertaking a comprehensive study on the organizational structure of the Army. The findings of the panel will be presented to the president and congressional defense committees no later than Feb. 1.
Minuteman III Launch. The Air Force launches an unarmed Minuteman III ICBM from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., May 20 at 6:37 a.m. EDT during an operational test, according to Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC). Air Force spokeswoman Capt. Michele Rollins says in an email the flight was nominal and the ICBM’s test reentry vehicle, which contained a telemetry package used for operational testing, traveled approximately 4,200 miles to Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. All test launches verify the accuracy and reliability of the ICBM weapon system, providing valuable data to ensure a safe, secure and effective nuclear deterrent, according to the Air Force.
OSIA Solicitation. The Air Force releases a presolicitation notice for its Open System Acquisition Initiative (OSAI), formerly called PlugFest Plus, according to a notice posted on Federal Business Opportunities (FBO). The Air Force plans on describing its interest in establishing a Section 845 Other Transaction Authority (OTA), with an eligible entity or group of entities (other transaction lead authority), to include industry, academic, non-profit and not-for-profit partners, for research and development (R&D) efforts to support Air Force and customer requirements as related to information systems…
…OSIA. The Air Force anticipates establishing an OTA with a new or existing consortium that has significant non-traditional contractor participants. The goal of this consortium community is to research, develop, test, measure, demonstrate, integrate and deliver tools for the Air Force using open systems based command, control, communications and cyber, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C4ISR) information sharing information systems. These systems include: Distributed Common Ground Station (DCGS); Theater Battle Management Core Systems (TBMCS); Air Operations Center-Weapon System (AOC); Open Mission System (OMS); SecureView; Information Support Server Environment (ISSE) Guard; cybersecurity environments; Web Temporal Analysis System (WebTAS); Combined Information Data Network Exchange (CIDNE); Collaboration Gateway (CG) and other systems to be determined.
Milsat Sustainment Contract. The Air Force on May 21 awards Lockheed Martin a $736 million, sole-sourced, cost-plus-incentive-fee contract for roughly six months of satellite sustainment work. Lockheed Martin will provide sustainment of the Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF), Milstar and Defense Satellite Communications System III constellations. Work is expected to complete by Nov. 30, 2015.
King Stallion. Marine Corps Deputy Commandant Lt. Gen. Jon Davis says May 19 that the CH-53K King Stallion heavy lift helicopter is a top priority for the service. “We probably need the 53K more than about anything else,” Davis says. “It’s a fantastic airplane.”
Davis is confident that Sikorsky will get the huge CH-53K off the ground this year. The heavy-lift helicopter was in flight test when a crack was found in a quill-rod inside an auxiliary gear box. The rods and the gear box have been redesigned and beefed up to handle the enormous stresses they must withstand, Davis says. “I see nothing that would slow us down from making the IOC in 2019,” he says. “It’s actually a pretty vanilla IOC. It’s four airplanes. I’m very confident it is on track. They are being very pedantic about it.”
Included in the National Defense Authorization Act under consideration in Congress was enough funding for two system development and demonstration (SDD) aircraft needed for flight testing, which signifies lawmakers’ confidence that the program is on track, Davis says. Soon after IOC, the program will escalate to full-rate production, which will level off at about 28 aircraft per year. Davis says the Marine Corps “quite frankly can’t get it fast enough, but we want to get it the right way.
… Unmanned Systems. The Marine Corps is set to formally launch its first cadre of unmanned systems pilots with a specially designed insignia and ring that they will wear to signify their career path. Until now, Marine UAS pilots trained under Air Force instructors and received an Air Force ring upon graduation that the Marine Corps would not allow them to wear, says Davis.“I think that everything we do manned, we will do unmanned,” Davis says. “I’m not a proponent of ‘It’s only unmanned in the future.’ But I think you could say that every single mission set we do, we will find a way to get an unmanned capability to do that in the future.” Davis believes that any aircraft with fly-by-wire controls could and probably should eventually be made into an optionally manned platform.
Submarine Fleet. The Navy announced this week that Rear Adm Joseph Tofalo has been selected to take over as commander of Naval Submarine Forces, a job that would land him a promotion to vice admiral. Tofalo is currently the director of undersea warfare (N97). He formerly held at-sea assignments as the commanding officer of the USS Maine (SSBN-741) and commander of Submarine Squadron 3. In 2009, Tofalo took the position of Deputy Chief of Staff for Global Force Management and Joint Operations. In 2011, he became commander of Submarine Group 10.
New UAS Test Site Rules. The Federal Aviation Administration is giving the six national unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) test sites blanket authorizations to fly public unmanned aircraft throughout the National Airspace System at or below 200 feet as long as they stay out of restricted airspace and away from airports. The new Certificates of Authorization also allow the test sites to operate various types of small UAS, which weigh less than 55 pounds, a under a single authorization rather than the previous requirement of a new authorization for each type of UAS. The agency says the new rules will provide more opportunities for research and may help it integrate UAS into the nation’s airspace more quickly and easily.
TSA Nominee on Challenges. Coast Guard Vice Commandant Vice Adm. Peter Neffenger, the Obama administration’s nominee to be the next administrator of the Transportation Security Administration, says the “most pressing challenge” facing the agency is the persistent threat posed by terrorists who constantly adapt and have become “more decentralized, more diffuse, and more complex.” He tells the Senate Commerce Committee during his first confirmation hearing that “We should pay particular attention to the insider threat.”
…Retention, Customer Service. Neffenger says the second set of significant challenges are “retention, training and accountability” for the agency’s workforce as well as customer service, which comes down to “travelers who expect efficient and effective screening with minimal delay, and who deserve to be treated with respect.” He says he will pay close attention to the training and development of the agency’s workforce.
…The Right Tools. The prospective TSA chief says the third organizational challenge is making sure the agency continues to field the tools and equipment it needs to “address this persistent and adaptive threat, while envisioning longer term the investments necessary to recapitalize and modernize security of our nation’s transportation security system.” Neffenger also says he is committed to the risk-base, intelligence driven approach to security that former administrator John Pistole built into the agency. The committee is expected to mark-up the nomination next week. The Senate Homeland Security will also consider the nomination.