Joint Strike Fighter. The Defense Department is not reexamining its plans to buy 2,443 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters over the life of the program, despite statements by incoming Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford to the contrary. “We’re not making any formal evaluation or revisit to those objectives at this particular moment in time, but as with all programs going forward into the FY 17 budget process, every program is going to be reviewed,” Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook says. In responses to written questions given to the Senate Armed Services Committee ahead of his July confirmation hearing, Dunford says the department is assessing whether the planned buy matched current and future requirements. “Given the evolving defense strategy and the latest Defense Planning Guidance, we are presently taking the newest strategic foundation and analyzing whether 2,443 aircraft is the correct number,” he says. “Until the analysis is complete, we need to pursue the current scheduled quantity buy to preclude creating an overall near-term tactical fighter shortfall.”
Command Change… Air Force Gen. Darren W. McDew takes the reins at U.S. Transportation Command (TRANSCOM) during an assumption of command ceremony Wednesday at Scott AFB, Ill. In the coming years, the command will face challenges including evolving security threats, contested space and cyber domains and fiscal uncertainty, he says. McDew also stresses the importance of the KC-46A tanker aircraft program, which has been subject to delays. “Our aerial refueling tanker aircraft is just getting older, and we must have the KC-46 on time,” he says. McDew is preceded by Gen. Paul Selva, who recently was confirmed as the new vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. 
…Sequestration Talk. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter took his budget message on the road, speaking about the perils of a continuing resolution during McDew’s ceremony. “If we can’t come together and pass a sensible budget, if we’re forced to operate under a continuing resolution or to endure another bout of sequestration, there will be real consequences. And TRANSCOM will feel them firsthand because when were forced to make irresponsible cuts, it’s readiness that suffers first,” he says. “When we’re forced to budget one year at a time, it’s investment in the future and modernization that gets sacrificed.”
Ohio Replacement Submarine. The Navy awards General Dynamics Electric Boat a $30.5 million modification to a previously awarded procurement for continued procurement of parts for the Ohio replacement submarine’s common missile compartment. The contract will purchase integrated tube and hull E-fixtures for the U.S. Navy and the United Kingdom. The work will be performed in Groton, Conn., and is scheduled for completion by February 2017.
Minehunting Sonar. The Naval Undersea Warfare Center and Raytheon are working together to boost the capabilities of the company’s AN/AQS-20A minehunting sonar, which will be deployed from the Littoral Combat Ship as part of its mine countermeasures mission package. Under a “work for a private” party agreement funded by Raytheon, the team will make improvements to the synthetic aperture sonar’s ability to take high and low resolution images of undersea mines, and then demonstrate the enhancements in lab- and sea-based tests, a Raytheon news release says. “Our goal is to build on the system’s proven performance and further the advantage that AN/AQS-20A provides to the Navy to safely detect and effectively identify these undersea threats,” says Kevin Peppe, vice president of Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems’ seapower capability systems.
B4UFLY. The Federal Aviation Administration on Friday releases a beta version of its new smartphone application B4UFLY for testing by p to 1,000 unmanned aircraft system (UAS) users. The app is mainly aimed at model aircraft users is designed to give them information about flight restrictions or requirements at their current or planned flight location, providing users tools they need to fly safely. The beta test is slated to run several months before the app is made available to the general public. The app is initially available for iOS devices but the FAA is working to ensure the final version will be compatible with Android devices as well.
Dividend Boost. Harris Corp. has increased its quarterly cash dividend by six percent from 47 cents per share to 50 cents, the 14th straight annual dividend increase. The new dividend rate is payable on Sept. 24.
M&A Outlook. The market for mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the aerospace and defense (A&D) industry is expected to remain active through at least 2016 for a number of reasons, including interest in companies with “enhanced technology,” multiple sole-source positions and proprietary products, Mesirow Financial Investment Banking says in their mid-year industry outlook for A&D. Demand is also expected to be buttressed by increased boardroom confidence given high share prices and profits, market liquidity, record backlogs at Airbus and Boeing, which positively impacts their supply chains, and shareholder demand for sales and earnings growth, the outlook says.
State, Federal Cyber Sharing. Current efforts to record cyber crimes and share related information effectively among state, local and federal governments are in need of improvement, writes Lt. Col. Raymond Guidetti, deputy Superintendent of Investigation for the New Jersey State Police on the United States Government’s Information Sharing Environment blog. He says there is not “uniform crime report code for ‘cyber-crime,’ adding that “We need to engage in common training, education, and terminology.” Guidetti also writes that information about IP addresses collected at one level of government or by different officers across the country isn’t being shared across different jurisdictions. He says the Association of State Criminal Investigative Agencies is making progress toward dealing with these shortcomings through collaborative efforts.
Rice to China. The White House announces National Security Adviser Susan Rice will visit Beijing, China from Aug. 28-29. Rice is to meet with senior country officials including State Councilor Yang Jiechi, to consult on various bilateral, regional, and global issues. Rice will underscore a commitment to building a more productive relationship between the U.S. and China while discussing places of difference n advance of Chinese President Xi’s visit to the United States in September.
Northrop Cyber VP. Northrop Grumman appoints Skip Magness as vice president for operations in cyber division of the company’s information systems sector. In the new position, Magness reports to Shawn Purvis, vice president and general manager of the cyber division. He has executive responsibility for the coordination, execution, and optimization of internal operations and resources to fulfill the division’s long-term and annual operating plan commitments. Magness’ previous job was director of network defense and intelligence operations for the cyber division.
Obama-Xi Cyber. President Obama will raise China’s conduct in cyberspace when Chinese President Xi Jinping visits Washington, D.C., White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest says Aug. 26. “Well, there’s no doubt that the President will certainly raise, as he has in every previous meeting with his Chinese counterpart, concerns about China’s behavior in cyberspace. Those concerns are well-chronicled and I’m confident will be the subject of discussion when the President meets with his counterpart,” Earnest says.
Stanford Highlights NJ Cyber. The Stanford Center for Internet and Society highlights New Jersey’s new or innovative cybersecurity strategies over other proactive states in a blog post. Few other states are doing as much or as quickly as New Jersey, the center says. This includes wide and transparent information sharing with non-law enforcement and the public; coordination and co-location of agencies at the New Jersey Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Cell (NJCCIC); the creation of a central coordinating position of Dave Weinstein as deputy director of the state Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness (OHSP) and first Cybersecurity Advisor; and proactive information sharing with financial institutions.
Wallops MLCC Contract. NASA awards Harkins Contracting a $5.6 million firm-fixed price contract for the construction of a new mission launch command center (MLCC) at Wallops Flight Facility, Va., according to an agency statement. The new 14,174 square foot facility will serve as the hub for interfacing with, and controlling, rockets, their payloads and associated launch pad support systems during flight operations at Wallops.
…More MLCC. NASA estimates the MLCC will be operational in fall 2016, agency spokesman Jeremy Eggers says in an email. Construction is scheduled to begin in the fall, he says, and the contractor has one year to complete the work. Eggers says eight bidders submitted offers for the MLCC deal. Scope of the work includes asphalt and concrete paving, construction of storm water structures, extension of communications and electrical ducts as well as connecting the facility to existing water, electric and sanitary systems. The launch command center currently in use was designed in the 1950s.
Raytheon NASA Contract. NASA awards Raytheon a contract extension with a potential value of $102 million to continue providing operations, maintenance and engineering services to NASA’s Neutral Buoyancy Lab (NBL) and Space Vehicle Mockup Facility (SVMF), according to a company statement. The contract is worth as much as four years. The NBL is the deep water pool astronauts use for spacewalk training. The SVMF hosts full-size mockups and simulators for the International Space Station (ISS), Orion capsule and commercial space modules. NASA uses both facilities to test scenarios and new equipment for human spaceflight.
RS-25 Tests Conclude. NASA completes the first developmental test series on the RS-25 engines that will power the Space Launch System, according to an agency statement. The test series wraps up Aug. 27 with a seventh hot fire test of a development RS-25. The test lasts a full-duration 535 seconds. NASA designs the hot fire test series to collect data on RS-25 performance, especially data that aids the development of a new engine controller, or brain, to monitor engine status and communicate programmed performance needs. Testing of RS-25 flight engines for the initial SLS missions begins at NASA Stennis Spaceflight Center, Miss., this fall.
Sub Hunters. Boeing wins a $1.5 million contract the manufacture and delivery of nine Navy full-rate production (FRP) Lot II P-8A aircraft, and four Royal Australian Air Force FRP Lot II P-8A aircraft. The award also provides for the procurement of long-lead parts for the manufacture of 20 P-8A FRP Lot III aircraft, of which 16 are for the Navy and four are for Australia.
Cyber Fail, Exec Exit. The departure Friday of Ashley Madison CEO Noel Biderman in the wake of a successful cyber attack against the company’s networks is a sign of the times when it comes to executive accountability for cyber security, says Emilio Iasiello, senior cyber intelligence analyst at Fidelis Cybersecurity. Iasiello says in a statement that risk management, including cyber risk management, is a CEO’s responsibility, if a company doesn’t put the right tools in place and ignores “repeated warnings to” do so, then “resulting breaches are their responsibility.” In the past 18 months or so, top executives at Target and Sony Pictures Entertainment resigned or were demoted following high profile cyber breaches or their company’s networks. Iasiello says any for institution that hosts data that must be “secured and protected,” there is a “”trend” that the “executive level is being held more accountable for the cyber security practices of their organizations.