Air Force One Milestone. The Air Force has awarded a contract modification to Boeing to buy two commercial 747-8 planes that will be modified to replace the existing Air Force One aircraft. The purchase price was not disclosed. In 2019, Boeing will begin outfitting the new planes with a mission communications system, electrical power upgrades, a medical facility, an executive interior, a self-defense system and autonomous ground operations capabilities, the Air Force says. The aircraft are slated to be ready for presidential use in 2024.
Hill Break. Senators began their August recess Aug. 3, joining their House colleagues, who left Washington the previous week. When lawmakers return after Labor Day, they will try to finish their work on a host of measures, including the fiscal year 2018 defense authorization and appropriations bills. While the House has passed both defense bills, the Senate has not approved either one. Also, Congress must reach a deal to prevent the return of across-the-board budget cuts.
Space Staff. The Air Force, which announced in June that it would create a directorate to “integrate, normalize and elevate” space operations, says it now has in place an initial cadre of 43 people to get the new office up and running. The nomination process is ongoing for a three-star general who will lead the directorate as the deputy chief of staff for space operations. The selection of a senior civilian to serve as the assistant deputy chief of staff is to be announced later this month.
OPM Hacking Follow-up. A new Government Accountability Office report finds the Office of Personnel Management has not completed all required actions needed in response to a 2015 data breach involving the hacking of sensitive personal information for 21.5 million people. Of the 19 actions recommended by the Department of Homeland Security’s United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team, OPM has only completed 11, with four in progress and another four still needing improvement. The GAO says OPM has identified its high value assets storing the most attractive data to potential adversaries, but did not encrypt data on one of the systems system and has yet to encrypt transmitted data on another.
Army Secretary. The Army has a new acting secretary in Ryan McCarthy, who was confirmed by the Senate Thursday. Ryan McCarthy was appointed Aug. 3 as acting secretary of the Army, a role held since Jan. 20 by Robert Speer. McCarthy was confirmed as undersecretary of the Army, which is Speer’s actual title, and thereby replaced him as acting secretary. The Trump administration has nominated Mark Esper as its third choice as the service’s top civilian. McCarthy previously served in the 75th Ranger Regiment in Afghanistan, and has pledged to “work tirelessly to develop solutions to address the well-being of the men and women in uniform across the total force, their families and the civilian workforce.” McCarthy has worked as a congressional staff member, as an aide to then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and has spent the last six year working in the defense industry. Esper’s nomination is pending before the Senate. A confirmation hearing is not expected until September at the earliest.
DHS Confirmations. The Senate last Thursday evening unanimously confirmed several key appointments for positions at the Department of Homeland Security, including David Pekoske as the new administrator of the Transportation Security Administration and Claire Grady to be under secretary for Management. Also confirmed was David Glawe as the new under secretary for Intelligence. Susan Gordon was also confirmed unanimously as principal deputy director of National Intelligence, reporting to Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats.
…Top Job Still Open. With President Donald Trump’s surprise announcement a week ago firing Reince Priebus as his chief of staff and then filling the position with John Kelly, DHS is now being led in an acting capacity by Elaine Duke, who the president appointed as deputy secretary of Homeland Security. Duke is one of the names being mentioned by DHS observers as the next nominee to lead the department. Some of the others being mentioned include Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Rep. Pete King (R-N.Y.), a former chairman of the committee and current member, White House Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Adviser Tom Bossert, and Tom Homan, acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
New GD IT Chief. General Dynamics has appointed Amy Gilliland as the new president of its Information Technology business unit effective Sept. 1. Gilliland, who is currently deputy for Operations at GD IT, has previously led the company’s human resources and investor relations functions, and also served a staff vice president of Strategic Planning. Gilliland will succeed Daniel Johnson, who will continue in his role as executive vice president of the Information Systems and Technology Group, which oversees GD IT and GD Mission Systems.
Biometric Privacy Meetings. Officials with Customs and Border Protection last Tuesday met with representatives of the privacy community to discuss the agency’s emerging Biometric Exit program, which currently captures facial photos of all persons departing the U.S. on select international flights from five airports. When photo confirms a person is a U.S. citizen, that record is deleted shortly thereafter. Still, privacy groups have raised concerns of late about the exit program, which was called for by the 9/11 Commission and is mandated by Congress. “CBP has and will continue to engage our privacy office at every step in the process to add biometric to the departure process from the United States,” says John Wagner, deputy executive assistant commissioner for CBP’s Office of Field Operations.
Army Radios. Harris Corp. received a delivery order to supply its multi-channel Falcon III Handheld, Manpack & Small Form-Fit (HMS) Manpack radios to support two major Army test events. The Harris AN/PRC-158 multi-channel radio – both dismounted and mounted manpack configurations – is one of three radios the Army selected for evaluation during field-based risk reduction and operational test. The order also includes vehicle installation kits, ancillaries, training and field service representative support. The first radios are expected to be delivered in the spring of 2018. Harris’ HMS Manpack radio features a two-channel, software-defined architecture with integrated cross-banding. It includes SRW, SINCGARS and MUOS SATCOM waveforms, while maintaining backward interoperability with legacy waveforms. The software-defined architecture enables the addition of capabilities through software updates to respond to new and emerging threats. “The Army is partnering with Harris to modernize its communication capabilities to support the growing need for information on the battlefield,” says Brendan O’Connell, president of tactical communications at Harris Communication Systems.
Acquisition Report. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, applauded a new report from the Department of Defense on restructuring the defense acquisition system. “This report is an important step toward improving the defense acquisition system and implementing the significant reforms that Congress has enacted in the past two years,” he says in a prepared statement. “For too many years, the defense acquisition system has taken too long, cost too much, and produced too little, while America’s military technological advantage continues to erode. Congress has shown that we will not tolerate business as usual, with tens of billions of dollars wasted on weapons that deliver too late, or never deliver at all. We are embarking on a significant reorganization of the Pentagon’s acquisition structure, and today’s report is a step in the right direction.”
…Shout out to Shanahan. McCain says he is “reassured that Deputy Secretary Shanahan is personally involved in this process, and that he understands this reorganization is not an end in itself, but a necessary task to implement the broader reforms enacted in the” FY ’16 and FY ’17 defense authorization bills. “To be sure, many additional details still need to be finalized, and some of the plans described in this report will necessarily change based on further analysis and the input of incoming senior leaders. I look forward to continuing to work closely with the Department to implement congressional reforms and ensure a smooth transition to the new organization. Without ongoing reform and innovation, the Department of Defense cannot hope to maintain the technological advantages that underpin our nation’s military superiority.”
JLTV Order. The Army awarded Oshkosh Defense another order for the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) program including 748 vehicles and 2,359 installed and packaged kits. The order, valued at more than $195 million, is the fifth order for JLTVs since the contract was awarded in August 2015. The JLTV program is currently in Low Rate Initial Production and remains on-schedule, on-budget and is completing reliability and performance test activities as well as logistics supportability evaluations around the country. The program anticipates a Full Rate Production decision in fiscal 2019, with the first Army unit equipped by mid-fiscal 2019 and both Army and Marine Corps Initial Operating Capability in early fiscal 2020.
Space Factory. Lockheed Martin says it has begun building a $350-million satellite production plant near Denver that will be flexible enough to build satellites ranging from small to large. Located on the company’s Waterton Canyon campus, the 266,000-square-foot factory will house rapidly reconfigurable production lines and a full suite of test facilities. “That kind of size and versatility means we’ll be able to maximize economies of scale, and with all of our test chambers under one roof, we can streamline and speed production,” says Rick Ambrose, executive vice president of Lockheed Martin Space Systems.
Stumbling Satellite. The Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Flight 19 (DMSP F-19) satellite is expected to begin to tumble in late September, causing it to stop sending weather data to Earth after nearly three-and-a-half years of operational service, the Air Force says. Since February 2016, operators have not been able to control the satellite’s attitude due to a power failure in the spacecraft’s command-and-control system. The Air Force says the remainder of the DMSP constellation will able to support warfighter requirements. The Joint Space Operations Center will track DMSP F-19, which is expected to re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere in about 80 years.
Musk on Mars. At the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Adelaide, Australia, SpaceX founder Elon Musk will provide an update Sept. 29 on his company’s plans for settling Mars, according to conference organizers. At last year’s IAC, which took place in Mexico, Musk unveiled a plan to establish a colony on the Red Planet, and said he is aiming for a $200,000-a-person price tag for getting to Mars.
MV-22 CC-RAM. Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) awarded the Bell-Boeing Joint Project Office a $57 million modification to a previously awarded contract for non-recurring engineering and the retrofit of one MV-22 aircraft. This work is in support of the V-22 Command Configuration-Readiness and Modernization (CC-RAM) Program. CC-RAM is an aircraft readiness improvement initiative to modify MV-22 aircraft to a Block C common configuration, the Navy says.
P-3C FMS. The Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division awarded Lockheed Martin a $158.5 million modification for a previously award contract for Phase 2 mission system refresh efforts on eight P-3C aircraft for Germany under the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program. Mission system refresh efforts include upgrades to the mission computers, acoustic equipment, armament/ordnance systems, and displays and controls on the German P-3Cs. The work will provide for new mission and acoustic system avionics with several German-specific components to satisfy current and future NATO operational requirements, the Navy says. Work will be performed in Manching, Germany and Owego, N.Y.
DDG-82. The U.S. Navy awards BAE Systems a $33.6 million firm-fixed-price contract for Dry-Dock Selected Restricted Availability repair work onboard USS Lassen (DDG-82). The work includes structural and tank repairs, propulsion systems repairs, ventilations and auxiliary systems repairs, temporary services habitability preservations, structural preservations, ship alterations, and miscellaneous repairs. If options are exercised, the total contract value may raise to $34.67 million. Work will be performed in Jacksonville, Fla. and is expected to be finished by March 2018. The Navy notes the contract is competitively procured with three proposals solicited and one offer received under the indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) multiple award contract for ship repair, maintenance, and modernization.
AN/BYG-1. The Naval Sea Systems Command awarded General Dynamics a $37 million modification to a previously awarded contract to exercise option year eight for the AN/BYG-1 Tactical Control System Technology Insertion and Advanced Processing Build software modernization. Work is expected to be finished by July 2018. The AN/BYG-1 integrates various sensor inputs to provide a common picture and improve situational awareness for U.S. Navy and Royal Australian Navy submarines.
ASW Exercise. U.S., Japan, and New Zealand maritime patrol and reconnaissance aircraft have begun in a multinational anti-submarine warfare (ASW) exercise, GUAMEX 2017, off the coast of Guam from July 31 through Aug. 12. GUAMEX seeks to increase proficiency and interoperability between Asia-Pacific countries. The exercise will include about 40 operational scenarios and the opportunity for military to military exchange events on aircraft and vessels.