WGS-7 Launch. The Air Force successfully launches its seventh Wideband Global Satcom (WGS-7) satellite July 23 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., after a one day delay due to weather. Launch takes place on a Delta IV rocket provided by United Launch Alliance (ULA). Boeing develops WGS-7, the nation’s next-generation wideband satellite communications system supporting the Defense Department and international partners around the world.
A False Threat… Islamic extremists pose as great a threat to the United States as Russia, the nominee to become the next Marine Corps commandant says in his July 23 confirmation hearing. Gen. Robert Neller’s statement is an answer to a question from Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) on whether Neller agreed with current USMC Commandant Gen. Joseph Dunford that Russia is an existential threat to the United States. Manchin presses Neller to repeat the sentiments of a string of nominees for top U.S. military posts that Russia is rattling the saber and that relations between the two nations are “colder now than they were at the height of the Cold War.” 
…The Real Threat. Neller doesn’t take the bait, saying Russia is far more capable than groups like the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), but has no motive or desire to confront the U.S. “Right now, I don’t think they [Russia] want to fight us. I don’t think they want to kill Americans,” Neller says. “”I think violent extremists want to kill us, and their capability is not that great, but their intent is high. The fact that they have a message that seems to resonate around the world, not just in this country, but in other countries in the Western world, they concern me equally.”
Congress Watch… The House and Senate will continue trying to reconcile their versions of the National Defense Authorization Act this week, making it very unlikely that it can be considered on the floor before August recess starts.
…More Congress. The Senate Armed Services Committee nudges forward 559 military nominations to the Senate, including those of Marine Corps Gen. Joseph Dunford, who is slated to take over the post of Chairman of the Joint Chefs of Staff. Ai rForce Gen. Paul Selva, nominated to be Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and Air Force Gen. Darren McDew, nominated for commander of U.S. Transportation Command, also see their nominations move forward.
Navy Reshuffling. The Navy announces the nomination of Vice Adm. James F. Caldwell Jr. for director for Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program and promotion to admiral. As the head of the program, Caldwell will be responsible for the operation and command of all naval nuclear reactors as well as oversee the lifecycle of nuclear propulsion systems. If Caldwell is confirmed, he will take the place of Adm. John Richardson, who is slated to replace Adm. Jonathan Greenert as Chief of Naval Operations. Caldwell has been serving as the director of Navy Staff, N09B, since this March and was previously the service’s inspector general.
Submarine Support. The Navy awards Huntington Ingalls Industries a $106 million contract to provide engineering support submarines, special mission submersibles, submarine support facilities and related programs, with options that could push the total contract value up to $564 million. Under the deal, HII provides engineering, design, configuration management, integrated logistic support, database management, research and development, modernization and industrial support now through September 2019, a news release says. Jennifer Boykin, Newport News Shipbuilding’s vice president for engineering and design, says the company “look[s] forward to providing continued support to the operational readiness of our nation’s submarine force.”
Electronic Warfare. The Navy awards Lockheed Martin a $154 million contract to upgrade ship electronic warfare defenses against weapons like anti-ship missiles. The contract is for low-rate initial production (LRIP) of Block 2 of the service’s surface electronic warfare improvement program, known as SEWIP. Lockheed Marin will upgrade AN/SLQ-32 electronic warfare suites systems aboard aircraft carriers, cruisers, destroyers and other surface combatants with the capability to detect when enemies are tracking the ships. Other block upgrades are planned to the Navy’s defensive electronic warfare capabilities to incrementally add new technologies and functions. Lockheed Martin already is under an LRIP contract for 24 SEWIP systems, of which 10 have been delivered to the Navy.
Tactical Trucks… General Dynamics’ U.K. arm will provide in-service support through 2024 for the country’s SCOUT specialist vehicle (SV) under a new $600 million contract awarded the week of July 20. The company is also building a new tactical truck factory in South Wales to handle to work.The contract extends GD UK’s current contract for service support of the 589-vehicle fleet of SCOUT SVs from 2020 to 2024. It also includes a provision for spare parts and repairs.
… New Digs. In addition, the company is opening a new armored fighting vehicle (AFV) assembly, integration and testing (AIT) facility in South Wales. There it will build an additional 489 SCOUT vehicles. Another 100 SCOUTs will undergo assembly, integration and testing at GD’s European Land Systems’ facility in Seville, Spain. The vehicles are on schedule to be delivered to the British Army from 2017 through 2024. The facility should create an additional 250 jobs in South Wales, adding to the 2,650 jobs supported by the SCOUT SV program throughout the country.
Cruising Along… Ground tests begin on the Eurofighter Typhoon’s ability to carry the Storm Shadow cruise missile. During the ground trials, an Italian instrumented production aircraft dubbed IPA2 and a U.K. Typhoon designated BS111 are fitted with two MBDA Storm Shadow cruise missiles. Both jets then undergo electromagnetic compatibility testing. The tests are in preparation of the missile’s formal flight trials aboard the Typhoon, scheduled to take place in the UK later this year. EMC testing ensures the integrity of the electrical systems onboard the aircraft and the missile. Following these tests, the missiles are prepared for flight by positioning a series of laser tracking points which will allow engineers to accurately analyze the trajectory of the weapon when released from the aircraft.
… Not A New Missile. The MBDA Storm Shadow is already in service with the Italian and U.K. Royal air forces, both of which fly them with Panavia Tornado jets. Italian aerospace and defense company Alenia Aermacchi leads the effort to integrate Storm Shadow onto Typhoon with the support of MBDA engineers and will be leading the U.K. based flight trials, supported by engineers from BAE Systems. A Storm Shadow is first released from an Italian Typhoon last year, according to Alenia. The upcoming UK-based trials will see the missile being released from Italian IPA2 aircraft in order to collect safe weapons separation trajectory data and to verify the correct release sequence of the missile.
EHF Terminal CDR. An industry team completes the critical design review (CDR) for the Low Cost Terminal’s (LCT) information assurance elements, according to a Northrop Grumman statement. Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin and TeleCommunications Systems (TCS) comprise the industry team. CDR completion clears the industry team to build hardware and software for the information assurance element or end cryptographic unit. The industry team plans to test the terminal with an Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) satellite by the end of 2015 and anticipates full certification in 2016. LCT is an initiative to develop an affordable terminal for protected EHF communications by leveraging existing commercial technologies and designs to minimize costs.
AFSPC Vice Commander. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter selects Air Force Maj. Gen. David Thompson as the next vice commander of Air Force Space Command (AFSPC), according to a service statement. Thompson is director of plans and policy for U.S. Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM), where he is directly responsible to USSTRATCOM chef Navy Adm. Cecil Haney for the development and implementation of policy and guidance; space and weapons employment concepts and policy and joint doctrine as they apply to the command and the executions of its missions. Thompson enters the Air Force in 1985 after graduating from the Air Force Academy.
MALD Decoy Airframe. Raytheon, Fokker and Dallara develop a lower-cost carbon fiber airframe for the Air Force’s Miniature Air Launched Decoy (MALD) by applying robotics and formula racing technologies, according to a Raytheon statement. The new composite design is included in this year’s Lot 7 production. MALD is a state-of-the-art, low-cost flight vehicle that is modular, air-launched and programmable with a range of approximately 500 nautical miles. MALD duplicates the combat flight profiles and signatures of U.S. and allied aircraft.
Dell DITCO Contract. The Defense Information Technology Contracting Organization (DITCO) in June awards the Collaboration Pathfinder through competition to Dell Federal Systems LP with a period of performance starting June 22, according to an Air Force statement. This pathfinder leverages a dedicated DoD Microsoft Office 365 cloud platform that includes significantly improved email, instant messaging, desktop voice/video communications, productive and user storage capabilities. The Collaboration Pathfinder demonstrates the ability to conduct a focused evaluation to ensure the successful integration of industry technologies with DoD systems and operations.
MDA SKA… The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) believes it will save money by hosting its Spacebased Kill Assessment (SKA) sensor network on commercial satellites, according to agency spokesman Rick Lehner. Lehner said July 22 in a traditional space program, DoD would have specified exacting requirements, many of which are specifically tailored for the military and can be expensive to satisfy. The SKA sensor network, he says, is in the unique position of being able to accommodate commercial practices, so the program is taking advantage of the billion-dollar investment industry has already made in its satellites and communications networks and completely sidestepped the costs.
…More SKA. The SKA payloads will be initially operated by the developer, the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) Applied Physics Lab (APL), Lehner says. However, MDA is planning for the future when operations of the SKA sensors will transition to the Missile Defense Integration and Operations Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. The transition date has not been established while specifics regarding the host, number of satellites and timeframe for hosting are not available, Lehner says.
NASA EOSDIS Contract. NASA awards Raytheon a five-year contract worth as much as $240 million to continue its support of the Earth Observing Systems Data and Information System (EOSDIS), according to a company statement. EOSDIS is NASA’s portal for earth science data provided by both the civil space agency and upcoming international satellite missions. Raytheon continues to proactively make improvements that enable more integrated data access and data sets for science applications. Specific work includes software maintenance and enhancement, development of applications to process and visualize data and system and hardware evolution.
Centcom Cyber Planning Contractor. U.S. Central Command seeks a contractor to assist the Joint Cyber Center in theater planning synchronization and integrating cyber planning with theater level campaigns. “The contractor shall provide effective and responsive assistance to the Joint Cyber Planning Services strategic development, operational planning and execution operations,” the solicitation says. Contractor expertise includes full spectrum cyber operations-cyber security, cyber defense, cyber defense-response actions, counter cyber operations, offensive cyber operations, counter cyber intelligence, insider threat, and cyber intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance. The basic period of performance is one year with two additional one-year options with an option to extend services for up to six more months.
Former Cyber Official Consulting. The first assistant secretary for cybersecurity and communications at DHS joins McBee Strategies LLC as executive vice president. Greg Garcia is set to lead the firm’s cybersecurity policy advocacy, communications and coalition management practice, the firm says. Garcia is recently executive director for the Financial Services Sector Coordination Council and Bank of America’s first cybersecurity partnership executive. Wiley Rein LLP owns McBee and operates it as an independent subsidiary working on lobbying and strategic communications.
BSA Cyber Sharing Letter. The president of BSA urges the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015 (S.754) be brought up on the Senate for debate and passage. In a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Victoria Espinel writes “we believe it is now more important than ever to enact legislation to break down the legal barriers that currently discourage cyber threat information sharing between and among the public and private sectors.”
OPM’s E-QIP Back Up. OPM returns to service on July 23 the e-QIP system, a web-based platform to complete and submit background investigation forms. OPM suspends the system for nearly a month when the OPM hacks spur a security review, revealing serious flaws in the system. OPM implements security measures on e-QIP to protect submitted data. Changes include enhanced password protections, secured transmission of data within the application, and implementation of additional protections against external threats, OPM says. The multi-million scale hacks are not related to the e-QIP vulnerability, the agency says. While the system is down, the government returns to accepting paper copies of forms.
Small Scale Terror… Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson says the nation is “facing the prospect of smaller-scale” terror attacks like the type carried out this month in Chattanooga, Tenn., where a lone gunman killed five Marines. These attacks “are harder to detect day-to-day-to-day,” Johnson says at the annual Aspen Institute forum with senior government officials in Colorado. He also says that with more than 30,000 fighters and more seeking to join from other countries, the Islamic State remains a “longer-term phenomenon that t we see, and we’re very concerned about, which is why we’re taking the fight to them in addition to the basic homeland security concerns that we see day to day.
Iran Sponsorship Concerns… If the recent nuclear oversight agreement with Iran is ultimately put in place and Iran gets relief from sanctions, Johnson says it is a “concern” what may come of it regarding that country’s state-sponsored support of terrorism. However, he also say that “one thing that strikes me…we have, since 9/11, I believe, come a long way in the level of sophistication of our intelligence community, and their ability to…detect potential threats to our homeland from overseas, to the point where it’s very often an exercise between sorting out what’s real versus the noise.”
…’Decapitating’ the Budget. When it comes to immigration, Johnson says that the indicators DHS uses continue to show that illegal immigration into the United States is dropping and the department is focusing on deporting illegal aliens who are hardened criminals, not the ones that don’t commit any serious crimes “because we don’t have the resources to do that.” He adds that “So when my friends in Congress are here later this week, I hope someone will ask them how do you expect Homeland Security to do all the things that you want them to do if you are decapitating their budget?”
IT Commoditization. The federal information technology services business is becoming commoditized, which Raytheon knew it would be, which is why the company never got into this business, says Raytheon Chairman and CEO Thomas Kennedy. “Raytheon never went down the path of getting into fed IT business,” he says on the company’s second quarter earnings call. “I don’t know if you realize that,” he says following an analyst’s question about evaluating the cost structure for the company’s services business versus its hardware business.