Capitol Hill Week Ahead. The House comes back to Washington this week, and the question will be whether it can approve a budget resolution by the April 15 deadline. That prospect, former Hill staffers say, looks increasingly unlikely because the conservative Freedom Caucus opposes the mainline GOP budget proposal, in part because of additions to the budget as part of last year’s budget deal. On the defense front, officials from the Defense Department’s technology offices, including the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and Strategic Capabilities Office (SCO) will testify to the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday on the Pentagon’s Third Offset Strategy.
Aircraft Cyber Security. Massachusetts Sen. Edward Markey (D) on Thursday introduced a bill directing the Federal Aviation Administration to establish cyber security standards on commercial aircraft. The Cyber AIR Act also mandates that “all airlines disclose cyber attacks to the federal government,” Markey says. Last December Markey asked airlines and aircraft manufacturers about cyber security protections for their planes and computer systems. His office says the responses show that there haven’t been any successful intrusions into aircraft systems but that hacking attempts are common and testing is inconsistent and there is no uniform oversight. Markey’s bill was filed as an amendment to the FAA reauthorization bill that is being considered on the Senate floor.
Homeland Security Day. Building on its fledgling presence in Silicon Valley, the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology (S&T) branch and Customs and Border Protection will host a Homeland Security Day in the Valley on April 29 focused on opportunities to promote the safety of the traveling public and CBP Officers, as well as the security of the global supply chain. The event will bring together technology startups, investors, CBP leaders and stakeholders. “Steady growth in international trade and travel drives CBP to innovate the way we provide security and facilitate commerce across our borders,” says Kevin McAleenan, deputy commissioner of the agency. “We are excited to purse new partnerships in Silicon Valley as we seek more efficient and effective capabilities across our diverse operational environments.”
Opting Back. Montana Republican Sen. Steve Daines says that Bert Mooney Airport in Butte, Mont., wants out of a privatized security screening program for air travelers and a return to screening by Transportation Security Administration officers. However, he says that TSA’s initial response was that instead of providing screeners, the agency would reverse screen travelers upon their arrival in Salt Lake City, Utah. TSA says the airport has been approved to go back to TSA screening, noting it is the first airport to leave the Screening Partnership Program, which allows commercial airports to opt out of using federal screeners in favor of private sector screening companies.
Army Report Report. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley announces that the report on the report published by the National Commission on the Future of the Army will be delivered to Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter on April 15. The Army will detail which of the NCFA’s 63 recommendations it intends to enact and how to pay for them, Milley tells the Senate Armed Services Committee. “What we’ve done is a very rigorous study of the 63 recommendations. Right now, more or less 50 or so, we think are achievable at relatively little or no cost or we have started doing them,” he says. “There is one that we absolutely disagree with. There are nine or 10 other that do incur some significant cost.” The Army’s report on the NCFA report will be signed by Milley, acting Secretary Patrick Murphy, National Guard Bureau Chief Gen. Frank Grass, Lt. Gen. Tim Cadavy, chief of the Army National Guard and Army Reserve Chief Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Talley.
Handgun Hoopla. The Army’s current standard sidearm has had its day and is need of immediate replacement without navigating the Defense Department’s labyrinthine acquisition process, Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley says. He pledges to the Senate Armed Services Committee to speed a new handgun to the field using newly acquired acquisition authority. “It’s all good and we’re going to deliver and we’re going to make it right for the soldiers and the taxpayer and make sure we get a new handgun,” Milley says. “I do believe there is a requirement for a new handgun. I think the 9mm Beretta has run its course and it’s more expensive or buy new ones or to repair it than it is to actually purchase a new weapon.”
… Weeks, Not Years. The hoops the Army is required to jump through to acquire something so rudimentary as a pistol has been “frustrating” and takes “ridiculous amounts of time,” Milley says. “We’re ripping all that apart. And we’re going to make it better. Pretty soon, measured in weeks, not years, we’ll have some decisions. We will be moving forward and will be able to provide the joint force – all the services but we are lead for the handgun – with an acceptable quality handgun that’ll work and do what we need it to do in combat.”
… Wider Problem. Getting necessary equipment to the field in a reasonable timeframe is Milley’s aim. He “welcomes” and “embraces” the milestone B acquisition authority granted to service chiefs in the 2006 National Defense Authorization Act. “I think the proposals that are out there now on acquisition reform are absolutely moving in the right direction,” he says. “The pistol was just on example, but I’m bumping into these things all over the place in a wide variety of programs.”
New CNAS Project. The Center for a New American Security (CNAS) think tank is creating a major new project that will develop and articulate a positive vision for healthy collaboration between DoD and its partners from multiple industries. A high-level task force, co-chaired by former deputy defense secretary William Lynn and former NASA administrator Sean O’Keefe, provides guidance and thought leadership for the “Future Foundry: Forging New Industries for Defense” project. The task force draws together senior executives from a wide variety of sectors and will provide key insights into methods by which DoD can maintain its technological edge while also contributing to the success of its industry partners and generating positive externalities for the U.S. economy. A key focus for a study is research and development and how DoD can both revive and get the most from investment in R&D, according to a CNAS statement.
Air Domination Study. The Air Force released the results of a yearlong study focused on developing capability options to ensure joint force air superiority in 2030 and beyond. The Air Force finds the answer is parallel development of maturing technologies for sensors, mission systems, lethality and non-kinetic effects on appropriate time cycles. The next step is to pull technologies out of each of those parallel efforts when they are ready and developing prototypes, experimenting and gaining more knowledge to determine if the developments are what’s needed in the field. During a presentation at an Air Force Association (AFA) breakfast on April 7, Col. Alexus Grynkewich, the Air Superiority 2030 study lead, used cell phones as an example, comparing the current acquisition process to the way his team sees agile acquisition happening in the future in order to maintain air superiority.
SLS/Orion. Fifteen senators call for “strong” funding of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion spacecraft in an April 8 letter to the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Appropriation commerce, justice, science and related agencies subcommittee. The senators specifically call for enough funding to keep the first integrated SLS and Orion test flight on track for launch in 2018 and the first crewed flight on track for launch in 2021. The following senators sign the letter: Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), David Vitter (R-La.), Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Edward Markey (D-Mass.), Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Kirsten Gillebrand (D-N.Y.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Gary Peters (D-Mich.).
NSROC III. NASA awarded Orbital ATK a five-year contract potentially worth $200 million for the Sounding Rockets Operations Contract III (NSROC III) program, according to a company statement. The award is a one-year base contract with four one-year option periods. Orbital ATK won the original contract in a 2010 open competition and has served as the prime contractor on the program. Under the NSROC III program, Orbital ATK will plan, coordinate and carry out suborbital research rocket missions from both domestic and international locations. The company will also work with the NASA Sounding Rockets program to develop and implement additional capabilities.
Space Fence. General Dynamics completed the construction and walk-through of its 7,000 square foot radar receive array structure that is part of the Air Force’s Space Fence radar system, according to a company statement. With the array structure complete, the General Dynamics Space Fence team will carefully dismantle the 700,000 pound steel structure and ship it to Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands, for reassembly and integration into the Space Fence system. The structure stands 12 meters tall and is about the size of two regulation basketball courts placed side-by-side. It is designed to withstand earthquakes, hurricane-force winds and extremes in temperature and humidity while maintaining a consistent surface flatness that varies less than one millimeter from one end of the structure to the other and from side-to-side. Lockheed Martin is the prime contractor on Space Fence.
GPS III Phase 1. Northrop Grumman, Boeing and Lockheed Martin have submitted proposals for the Air Force’s Global Positioning System III (GPS III) Phase 1 acquisition program. Northrop Grumman says in a statement its proposal is based on a navigational payload prototype built and tested in 2015 and a heritage space vehicle. Lockheed Martin spokesman Chip Eschenfelder says the company’s design for GPS III is already in production and has retired most of the program’s risk thanks to the Air Force’s previous investment, the back-to-basics program and the company’s GPS III Nonflight Satellite Testbed. Boeing spokesman Addrian Brooks says the company submitted a bid, but declined to say what it offered. GPS III Phase 1 is for space vehicles 11 and beyond. Lockheed Martin is the incumbent from the earlier part of the program.
Space Superiority Contract. The Air Force on April 5 awarded Boeing a $275 million indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (ID/IQ) contract for research, engineering and program management to advance scientific and technical knowledge of ground-based space-superiority capabilities, according to a DoD statement. The three task orders are expected to be completed by Nov. 3, 2020. The contract is the result of a competitive acquisition with four offers received.
Heithold. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter nominated Air Force Lt. Gen. Bradley Heithold for assignment as principal deputy director of Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation (CAPE), according to a DoD statement. Heithold currently serves as commander of Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC). CAPE’s mission is to provide DoD with timely, insightful and unbiased analysis on resource allocation and cost estimation problems to deliver the optimum portfolio of military capabilities through efficient and effective use of each taxpayer dollar.
Navy Names New Unmanned Ship. The Defense Department on April 7 christened its new submarine-hunting unmanned ship, which will now start a two-year test program. The Sea Hunter prototype vessel, designed and developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and Leidos, was formerly known as the Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel (ACTUV). The department wants a highly autonomous ship that can go out to see for months at a time, traverse long distances, and look for submarines without needing much human guidance. Leidos began building the Sea Hunter in 2014 but tested its autonomy suite separately on a surrogate vessel, the company says in a news release. The prototype ship has a modular trimaran design to increase stability in poor weather, and is equipped with a sensor suite including sonar, electro-optical, and short- and long-range radars.
DDG-1000 Cost Growth. The DDG-1000 program’s price tag has increased by 3.7 percent, or about $450 million, about from fiscal years 2016 to 2017, the Congressional Research Service says in a March 10 report. CRS estimated the cost for the entire three-destroyer program at $12.74 billion. The first ship in the class, DDG-1000, recently wrapped up builders trials late last month and is slated for acceptance trials later the month and delivery in May. General Dynamics Bath Iron Works builds the vessel.
…More DDG-1000. According to Navy spokeswoman Capt. Thurraya Kent, the program is well below the Nunn-McCurdy threshold, which is triggered when a program grows by 15 percent above its approved baseline. With the current cost growth, the program is only 1 percent above the baseline that was approved in 2011. “The total procurement cost for DDG-1000 includes $3.8B for DDG-1000, $2.8B for DDG-1001, and $2.4B for DDG-1002. The balance of the procurement costs include $3.8B for Non-recurring Engineering (NRE) and $0.4B for post-delivery and outfitting, totaling $13.2B,” she said. “The request for additional funding is directly related to the delivery of DDG-1000 and estimates to complete DDG-1001 and -1002.”
Ship Repair Contract. BAE Systems picks up a $49 million contract for the USS McFaul (DDG-74) fiscal 2016 extended dry-docking selected availability, in which the company will conduct maintenance, repair and modernization of the ship. Options, if exercised, would increase the contract value to about $50 million.
Next Generation Jammer. The Navy awarded Boeing a $19 million cost reimbursement contract for preliminary work associated with integrating the Next Generation Jammer Pod onto the E/A-18G Growler. “This effort will ensure the development, preparation, and delivery of the aircraft modification design is suitable for the engineering and manufacturing development stage of the Next Generation Jammer Pod program,” the contract announcement states.
Atlantic Council Cyber Director. The Atlantic Council names Joshua Corman as the new director of the Cyber Statecraft Initiative within the Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security. Corman previously served as the CTO at Sonatype for two years, director of security intelligence for Akami Technologies, and research and strategy positions for The 451 Group and IBM Internet Security Systems. Corman also co-founded Rugged Software and “I Am The Cavalry” to encourage new digital security approaches. Corman’s deputy directive will be Beau Woods. Corman succeeds founding director Jason Healey, who remains at the initiative as a nonresident senior fellow.
NATO Cyber Center. The NATO Cooperative Cyber Defense Center of Excellence (CCDCOE) signed a cooperation agreement with the Baltic Defense College to support each other’s academic activities. The agreement focuses on supporting research activities, knowledge sharing, and academic exchange. “I believe that our cooperation agreement will be greatly beneficial for both institutions. It will help the Baltic Defence College better integrate the cyber component into our educational curricula, especially in relation to defence planning,” Maj. Gen. Vitalijus Vaikšnoras, Commandant of the Baltic Defence College, says in a statement. The college is an English-speaking professional military educational institution for operational and strategic level military and civilian leaders in the Baltic States.
AH-1Z Helicopters To Pakistan. The U.S. Navy awarded Bell Helicopter Textron a $170 million contract modification to a previously awarded firm-fixed prince contract for the manufacture and delivery of nine AH-1Z helicopters and auxiliary fuel kits for Pakistan under the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program. FMS funds of the full modification are awarded at award time, with none to expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Work is to be performed in Fort Worth, Texas (60 percent) and Amarillo, Texas (40 percent) with an expected completion time by September 2018. The contracting activity is the Naval Air Systems Command in Patuxent River, Md.
AF Cyber Contract. The U.S. Air Force awarded Cyber Defense Information Assurance a contract modification worth nearly $11.5 million for the Air Force Intranet Control weapon system and the Defense Department Joint Regional Security Stacks. The contractor is to provide the Air Force enterprise-level network management, optimized communications, and defensive measures at the Air Force Information Network gateways. The AF Intranet Control operates the Common User virtual private network mesh, which ties the components of the Air Force’s intranet together and protects Air Force network traffic through encryption as it traverses public infrastructure. Fiscal 2016 operation and maintenance funds of $11 million are obligated at award time. The work is to be performed at Maxwell-Gunter AFB, Ala., and has an expected completion date by July 8, 2017. The contracting activity is the 38th Contracting Squadron at Tinker AFB, Okla.