Capitol Hill Week Ahead. The House and Senate take a break next week for the President’s Day holiday. Presumably, lawmakers will be pouring over the president’s budget request and will return ready to resume budget hearings and negotiations.
…Sequestration Repeal Bill. The top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), introduces the Relief from Sequestration Act of 2016 (H.R. 4512), which would repeal sequestration before it is reinstated in 2018. The nation needs to tackle the deficit, but the mandatory budget cuts instated by the Budget Control Act of 2011 is not an effective way to do so, Smith says in a statement. “The Bipartisan Budget Agreement signed into law last October began to address our budget challenges in a more balanced way, but the looming threat of sequestration continues to limit the ability of government to plan in the long term. With the threat of sequestration eliminated, Democrats and Republicans in Congress can finally come together and focus on crafting and implementing a stable and responsible budget that reflects our nation’s priorities without a looming budget threat.”
Coast Guard Law Signed. President Barack Obama has signed the Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2015 (H.R. 4188) into law, reauthorizing the service for two years. The bill authorizes $9.1 billion in each FY ’16 and FY ’17 and allows the service to use incremental funding for the acquisition of a future polar icebreaker, allowing it to spread the cost of a vessel over multiple fiscal years and thereby reducing its overall impact on the Coast Guard’s budget.
Afghanistan Waste. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) John F. Sopko, testified before the House Armed Service Committee subcommittee on oversight and investigations, to provide an update on U.S. funding of Afghan Security Forces. The outlook is inauspicious. Sopko notes that Congress has appropriated more than $68 billion towards building self-sufficient Afghan security forces, 61 percent of the $113 billion in U.S. reconstruction funding. Security remains the most critical component of U.S. efforts to rebuild Afghanistan, but “if recent developments are indicators of what is to come, we may not be on course to achieve and sustain for the long term the U.S. national security objectives in Afghanistan.” SIGAR has found many instances when U.S. funding dedicated to the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) was wasted, whether inefficiently spent on worthwhile endeavors or squandered on activities that delivered no apparent benefit. Afghans security forces also are found to whither and become ineffectual without direct U.S. support, he says.
Enemy or Ally. Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, the man responsible for Army forces in Europe and whose main job has become standing up to Russian aggression on the continent, is quoted by a German news service as saying that the U.S-led coalition against Islamic State (IS) militants in Iraq and Syria needs Russia’s cooperation to succeed. “Im Kampf gegen den IS brauchen wir Russland,” Hodges is quoted as saying by Tagesshau international news service. “In the struggle against IS, we need Russia.” Moscow is prosecuting an air campaign against IS on behalf of embattled Syrian dictator Bashar Assad and his regime. The country has struck IS targets, but has focused its bombing largely on moderate Syrian rebels with which the U.S. coalition is loosely allied. Hodges went on to say that IS is a threat to the entire region and that he would like to see Russia as a “partner” in the fight.
KC-46 F/A-18 Refueling. The Air Force and Boeing successfully refueled a F/A-18 Super Hornet in flight with a KC-46A on Feb. 10, according to a Boeing statement. The refueling is the aerial refueling tanker program’s first using the hose and drogue system. During the longer than four–hour flight, the tanker’s air refueling operator transferred fuel at an altitude of 20,000 feet. The hose and drogue transferred fuel at 400 gallons per minute while the boom transferred fuel at 1,200 gallons per minute. The KC-46A refueled a F-16 using the boom on Jan. 24.
Aegis BMD Contract. The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) awarded Lockheed Martin a $40 million contract modification to a previously awarded cost-plus-award-fee contract to exercise a pair of options, both worth $20 million. Lockheed Martin will provide support of advanced concept initiatives by the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) program office to identify technology for introduction into present and future Aegis BMD baselines and upgrades, according to a Defense Department statement. Work has an expected completion date of Oct. 27, 2019.
SES-9 Launch. SES targets a Feb. 24 launch date (with a backup day of the 25th) for its new satellite, SES-9, according to a company statement. Launch will take place on a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. SES says the satellite’s operational service date remains third quarter 2016. SES-9 will be positioned at 108.2 degrees East and will be co-located with SES-7. SES-9 was developed by Boeing.
Jeff Pino. Former Sikorsky President Jeff Pino was one of two people killed when a vintage military plane crashed in Maricopa, Ariz., on Feb. 5. Pino left Sikorsky in 2012 after a six-year stint.
New ViaSat Platform. ViaSat introduces the ViaSat-3 ultra-high capacity satellite platform comprised of three ViaSat-3 class satellites with state-of-the-art ground network infrastructure. Work is underway with the first two ViaSat-3 satellites, with ViaSat starting work on the satellite payloads and Boeing starting on the associated satellite bus platforms, expected for integration and delivery in 2019, according to a company statement. The first two satellites focus on the Americas and Europe, Middle East and Africa, respectively, with a third satellite system planned for the Asia Pacific region.
Segovia-IGC Protest… The Government Accountability Office (GAO) on Dec. 23 sustained Intelsat General’s (IGC) bid protest (B-412097.2) of a Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) contract awarded to Segovia, doing business as Inmarsat Government, for Navy commercial satellite communications (COMSATCOM) services. IGC challenges the agency’s evaluation of Segovia and claims that Segovia’s proposal fails to materially conform to the request for proposal (RFP).
…Protest. GAO recommends DISA review the RFP to assess whether it describes the Navy’s needs and, if it does, GAO recommends DISA reopen discussions with offerors to address the Navy’s interpretation of the RFP and allow them to submit revised proposals. If the RFP does not describe the Navy’s needs, GAO recommends the service amend the solicitation and obtain revised proposals. If an offeror other than Segovia is found to offer the best value, GAO recommends DISA terminate the award to Segovia. GAO also recommends the Navy reimburse IGC for costs associated with the filling and pursuing its protest, including reasonable attorney’s fees.
Naval Base IT Support. The U.S. Navy awards VSOLVIT LLC an almost $11 million firm-fixed-price modification for a previously awarded indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (ID/IQ) contract to provide information technology enterprise business systems support at Naval Base Ventura County. This is an exercise of option year three of the contract at the base’s Naval Facilities Information Technology Center. The total contract award is over $42 million, including this option. Work will be performed at Port Hueneme, Calif. (60 percent); San Diego, Calif. (27 percent); Washington, D.C. (7 percent); and Yokosuka, Japan (6 percent) with expected completion by February 2017. Task order funds are obligated as individual orders are issued, mainly using the fiscal 2016 operation and maintenance Navy budget. The contracting activity is the Naval Facilities Engineering and Expeditionary Warfare Center at Port Hueneme, Calif.
Greek P-3 SLEP. Lockheed Martin lands a $142 million foreign military sales deal to extend the service life of Greece’s P-3 Orion aircraft by 15,000 flight hours. The contract includes the reactivation of one P-3B, as well as the procurement of hardware kits for the upgrade and modernization of four other Orions. The award also includes funds for: phased depot maintenance, a Greek indigenous mission integration and management system, new avionics and other ancillary hardware and services
F-35 Contract. Lockheed Martin also picks up an $81 million cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for development of Block 4 Joint Strike Fighter capabilities, including enhancements and upgrades to reduce lifeycle costs and help the aircraft maintain its edge against current and future threats. Work will be performed in Fort Worth, Texas, and is expected to be competed in May 2017.
TEDAC Opening. Government officials on Tuesday will ceremoniously open the new Terrorist Explosive Device Analytical Center Laboratory Complex (TEDAC) at Redstone Arsenal in Alabama. TEDAC was conceived in response to the need to combat the global improvised explosive device (IED) threat and to date has received more than 75,000 IED submissions from over 50 countries. TEDAC conducts scientific and technical exploitation of IEDs, drives actionable intelligence based on device attributes and terrorist tactics, forecasts IED threats, and provides a centralized repository for IED-related material collected through strategic partnering.
BORDERSTAT. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson says that DHS is working with an “outside” group of “non-partisan experts” to develop metrics to measure border security. The department for years has struggled to convince Congress that it has the ability to measure the effectiveness of its border security efforts, which basically comes down catching people trying to enter the country illegally and knowing how many successfully entered the country illegally. Johnson says that the BORDERSTAT project will “develop a clear and comprehensive set of outcome metrics for measuring border security, apprehension rates, and inflow rates.”
BioWatch Hit. The Department of Homeland Security’s bio-threat early warning system, BioWatch, in 2015 affirmed its capability to detect biological agents when the system detected a strain of Tularemia in Denver. DHS officials tell a House panel that the subtype of Francisella tularensis, which is pathogenic to humans, “was not disseminated by an adversary” but “took place during a documented uptick in naturally occurring disease.” Kathryn Brinsfield, head of the Office of Health Affairs, and Reginald Brothers, chief of the Science & Technology Directorate, say “This shows that the BioWatch program is able to detect an airborne biological agent in the environment.”