Budget Uncertainty. Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, said it is unclear how Congress will keep the government funded when the current continuing resolution (CR) runs out Dec. 8. “I don’t see how this ends,” Smith said Nov. 15 at a special operations policy forum. “Increasingly, there are people who are against a CR. Nobody wants a government shutdown. There aren’t appropriations bills that we can pass. Every single option for how this fiscal nightmare ends is politically impossible. So what happens? I don’t know. It’ll be interesting to watch.”
Budget Topline. Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said that when Congress reaches a fiscal year 2018 budget deal, the legislation is unlikely to exceed the Budget Control Act (BCA) cap for defense by the $85 billion proposed by the FY 2018 defense authorization conference report. But Reed, who spoke Nov. 15 at a special operations policy forum, expects part of the increase to become law. “It’s not a hollow authorization,” Reed said. “My sense is when we do come to an agreement, it probably won’t be plus-80, but it will certainly be much, much more than the BCA, indeed much more than the president’s budget proposals. It’ll be aspirational to get to the point we really need, but it will be significant.”
JPSS-1 Launch. The launch of the first Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS-1) is now scheduled for Nov. 18, according to the 30th Space Wing at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The weather satellite will lift off on a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta 2 rocket. The launch was previously slated for Nov. 15 but was postponed due to high winds.
Zuma Launch. SpaceX, which was planning to launch the mysterious Zuma spacecraft on a Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida Nov. 16, says it is has decided to “stand down” so it can “take a closer look at data from recent fairing testing for another customer.” A new launch date has not yet been announced. Northrop Grumman says it acquired the launch service for the U.S. government, but it declined to identify the specific agency or the spacecraft’s mission.
Anti-Missile Lasers. The Missile Defense Agency (MDA), which has awarded contracts to General Atomics and Lockheed Martin to develop concepts for anti-missile lasers on high-altitude unmanned aerial vehicles, plans to award a third such contract later this year, according to Air Force Lt. Gen. Samuel Greaves, MDA’s director.
That Clean Feeling. For the fifth straight fiscal year, the Department of Homeland Security has received a clean audit opinion on its financial statements. Acting DHS Secretary Elaine Duke said that in FY ’17 “DHS made meaningful progress on our long-standing property internal control material weakness, advancing to a less severe assessment—a significant deficiency.” The audit was performed by the accounting firm KPMG LLP under contract to the DHS Office of Inspector General. DHS is the only agency of the federal government required to get an opinion on its controls on financial reporting. “This clean opinion demonstrates our steadfast transparency and accountability to the American public,” Duke said.
Share Buybacks. Raytheon is increasing its share repurchase authorization by up to $2 billion for its common stock, which is an addition to its current buyback program that still had $900 million left at the end of the third quarter. The company is projecting strong operating cash flow for 2017 with similar levels in 2018.
Biometric Sea Trial. IDEMIA said it has completed the first phase of a trial with Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (RCL) and Customs and Border Protection that used face recognition technology to verify the identities of some passengers as they disembarked from their cruise ships at Cape Liberty Cruise Port in New Jersey in September. RCL is looking for faster ways for its customers to clear customs and CBP is looking for ways to help its stakeholders meet their business needs while strengthening security. IDEMIA, which was created earlier this year through the merger of Oberthur Technologies, a leader in embedded digital security technology, and the identity solutions business of Safran, provided its MorphoFace technology for the evaluations. In future phases of the evaluation, the plan is to scale up the use of the technology so that most, if not all, passengers departing the RCL cruise ships at the port have their identities verified using the cameras.
Election Security Report. After a five-month investigation, House Democrats in a new report said that the nation’s election infrastructure is vulnerable to potential cyber hacks and that the Department of Homeland Security and the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) need congressional support in helping state and local governments bolster the integrity of their elections systems. The task force, overseen by Reps. Bennie Thompson (Miss.) and Robert Brady (Pa.), ranking members of the Homeland Security and Administration Committees, respectively, said the EAC has been “a clearinghouse of information for state and local election officials” and helping DHS and state and local officials connect on ways to strengthen the cyber security of voting machines. The report said that Republicans in recent years have been trying to eliminate the agency.
DoD Budget. Pentagon spokesperson Dana White pointed out at a press conference that the government has been operating under a continuing resolution for 1,060 days. The current CR expires Dec. 8 and the Pentagon needs Congress “to pass a robust and predictable budget,” White said. “We need an F.Y. ’18 appropriations budget before December 8th. CRs are wasteful. They’re inefficient. They delay…maintenance and they increase anxiety in the industrial base, as well as in local communities. They have a negative impact on the economy, as well as local communities. It’s just a waste of money and we need to be able to plan in advance.”
… BCA Caps. White is equally hostile to the Budget Control Act of 2011 and the across-the-board 10 percent sequestration cuts it threatens. If allowed to trigger, sequester will slash $52 billion from the Defense Department’s fiscal 2018 budget. “Congress needs to lift sequestration as it’s currently structured,” she says. “As the secretary has said many times, no enemy has done more harm to combat readiness in the field…than sequestration. And it also can affect our partnerships, because our partners plan out their budgets to work with us. And so, if we have to cut back on exercises…that has impacts on interoperability and our ability to work together.”
Troop Numbers. Joint Staff Director Marine Lt. Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie clarified numbers of U.S. troops in various combat zones. The number of U.S. military personnel in Afghanistan has risen from 11,000 to 14,000 following a “force flow” into that country, he said. The actual number “might be a little above that, might be a little below that as we flex according to the mission,” McKenzie said. “With the additional forces that the commander has identified as needed and that the secretary and the president have approved, the new approximate number for Afghanistan is 14,000.”
… Anti-ISIS Fight. McKenzie described the troop numbers for Iraq and Syria as “approximate” but proceeded to give precise figures. There are 5,262 U.S. troops in Iraq, McKenzie said. Another 503 U.S. military personnel are operating in neighboring Syria. “We’re going to come back…and apply the same process to Iraq and Syria that we have to Afghanistan, begin to give you rounder numbers than what I’ve just given you right there,” McKenzie said, referring to a change in the method for counting troops presence in Afghanistan. “But those are the numbers that we’re working with today as you asked the question.”
…Somalia. Airstrikes against ISIS and other terrorist targets in Somalia have ticked up in recent weeks, highlighting the U.S. military presence in that East African nation. McKenzie said there are about 400 U.S. military personnel operating in Somalia.
Robot Radios. Persistent Systems–a leader in mobile network technology and developers of Wave Relay and the MPU5 radio–said they are part of Endeavor Robotics’ winning team for the Army’s Man-Transportable Robotic System Increment II (MTRS). The $100 million contract award has an option for an additional $58 million worth of deliverables to provide a fleet of up to 1,200 mid-sized unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) to the Army. Endeavor Robotics chose Persistent Systems to provide its onboard communications because the MPU5 provides the performance and feature set critical to the UGV’s mission and the Army’s success, the company said. The program was officially awarded to Endeavor Robotics by the Army’s Combat Support and Combat Service Support program office. Low-rate initial production (LRIP) should begin in the 2018-2019 timeframe.
Airlift Contract. Northrop Grumman was awarded a through-life support (TLS) contract for the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) C-27J Spartan Battlefield Airlifter fleet. The five-year base, 22-year rolling-wave, performance-based contract includes engineering and logistic services.The C-27J TLS program directly supports Northrop Grumman’s vision to develop Australian talent and capabilities in keeping with the Australian Defense Industry initiative, the company said.
Last GBI. Boeing and the Missile Defense Agency completed installing the 44th and final planned Ground-based Interceptor for the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system. The GBI was installed at the GMD missile field in Fort Greely, Alaska. The Defense Department has a requirement to increase the total number of installed GBIs by the end of 2017. The GBI is designed to destroy a ballistic missile headed to the U.S., particularly from North Korea.
HII Board. Philip Bilden, co-founding member of the HarbourVest Partners private equity firm, was elected to Huntington Ingalls Industries’ board of directors. Bilden was the Trump administration’s first nominee as Navy secretary before withdrawing himself from consideration a month after being announced due to problems separating himself from his business interests. Beyond his business leadership roles, Bilden serves on the Chief of Naval Operations executive panel, board of directors of the U.S. Naval Academy Foundation, and the board of trustees and executive committee as vice chairman of the Naval War College Foundation.
First MQ-4C Delivery. Northrop Grumman delivered the first operational MQ-4C Triton unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to the U.S. Navy at its Naval Base Ventura County Point Mugu facility. The company expects to deliver the second MQ-4C later in 2017. Ultimately, the company is expected to deliver 68 of the aircraft to the Navy. Point Mugu houses the maintenance detachment of Unmanned Patrol Squadron (VUP)-19. The maintainers there will prepare the first two operational Tritons for use in Guam, scheduled for 2018. VUP-19 is the service’s first unmanned patrol squadron and is based with pilots and operators at Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Fla.
LSD-46. The Naval Sea Systems Command awarded Britain’s BAE Systems a $140 million firm-fixed-price contract to execute the fiscal year 2018 16-month modernization period availability of the USS Tortuga (LSD-46) dock landing ship. This combines the maintenance, modernization, and repair of the Tortuga. The contract includes options that, if exercised, would raise the total value to nearly $184 million. Work will occur in Norfolk, Va., and is expected to be finished by May 2019.
Japan E-2D. Northrop Grumman completed the first flight of Japan’s E-2D Advanced Hawkeye at its Aircraft Integration Center of Excellence in St. Augustine, Fla. Japan chose the E-2D in 2014 for airborne early warning uses. Northrop Grumman started to build two aircraft in 2016, which are currently in the final phase of production.
Pacific Exercise. The U.S. Navy and Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) are conducting the 2017 Annual Exercise maritime field training exercise, which lasts until Nov. 26. Participating U.S. assets include the USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76) and its Carrier Air Wing CVW 5, Destroyer Squadron (DESRON) 15, the USS Stethem (DDG-63), USS Chafee (DDG-90), USS Mustin (DDG-89), and a maritime patrol and reconnaissance squadron. The exercise, which started Nov. 16, aims to increase the defensive readiness and interoperability of Japanese and U.S. forces by training in sea and air operations. It will take please off the coast of Okinawa after a week of ashore-based training.
CH-53K Engines. The Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) awarded General Electric a $143 million firm-fixed-price cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to procure 22 low-rate initial production (LRIP) Lot 1 and 2 turboshaft engines for the CH-53K King Stallion helicopter. The contract for T408-GE-400 turboshaft engines includes engine and programmatic, logistics, and peculiar support as well as spares. Work is expected to be finished by July 2021.
Range Support Aircraft. The U.S. Navy awarded Raytheon a $79.7 million contract to develop and integrate the Commercial Aircraft Based Instrumentation Telemetry System and the Airborne Command Transmitter System on the Gulfstream G550 airborne early warning aircraft. The G550 is meant to replace the service’s old telemetry test aircraft, which has been in service for about four decades. “It’s like replacing your old eight-track tapes with streaming digital music – there’s simply no comparison,” Todd Callahan, Raytheon vice president of naval and area mission defense, said in a statement. The aircraft will collect and process telemetry data from aircraft, missiles, UAVs, and ships. Raytheon will perform design, fabrication and aircraft integration for the telemetry system. Work is expected to be finished by February 2022.
CSRA/VA Records. The Department of Veteran Affairs awarded CSRA a three-year, $158 million deal to continue the effort to digitize over 7 million health records for veterans. The transition to digital records aims to to help the VA improve processing of claims, save taxpayer dollars and increase information flow. “This opportunity reaffirms CSRA’s ‘Think Next. Now.’ approach to helping our customers navigate to the digital age and save taxpayer dollars in the process. More important, this work has the potential to save lives by quickly providing doctors and administrators with key information to inform their decisions,” CSRA Vice President Kamal Narang said in a statement.
Army IT. The Army Regional Cyber Center – Continental United States (USARCC-C) had its acquisition plan for new IT support services approved on Nov. 15. USARCC-C is seeking cyber subject matter expertise and management of client computer systems and data processing facilities. Officials believe a request for proposals will be posted soon, and a decision will be made on whether USARCC-C will hold an industry day.