The Latest Word On Trends And Developments In Aerospace And Defense
Stevens Still Standing. Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska)–the former Senate Appropriations Defense subcommittee ranking member who was indicted in July on seven felony counts tied to allegedly concealing gifts–handily won the GOP Senate primary last Tuesday, snagging 63 percent of the vote in his state. Now he has two big dates on his calendar: Sept. 22, the start of his federal court trial in Washington, D.C., and Nov. 4, the general election, where he will defend his long-held Senate seat against Democrat Mark Begich, the mayor of Anchorage who easily leads Stevens in polls by Ivan Moore Research and Rasmussen Reports. After winning his primary, Stevens declared the general election a “piece of cake,” the Associated Press reports.
Foreign Relations Dominoes. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is due for a shakeup. Its chairman, Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.), will leave to become vice president if Democrats win the White House in November. If Biden departs, and Democrats retain control of Congress, Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) would become chairman, but only if he relinquishes his Senate Banking Committee chairmanship. If Dodd passes, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) is next in line as chairman. On the committee’s GOP side, its second-ranking member, Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), is not seeking reelection this fall. And Ranking Member Sen. Dick Lugar (R-Ind.)–a fan of Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Biden–despite his party affiliation, is seen potentially having a future in an Obama administration. Obama will exit the Foreign Relations Committee if elected president, and other members are facing reelection battles, including Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.)–who happens to be the next-ranking Republican behind Hagel. Sources say a Dodd chairmanship would not bode well for the prospects of International Traffic in Arms Regulations reform.
Tanker Delegates. A vote for GOP presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is a vote against Boeing’s re-bid for the Air Force aerial refueling tanker contract, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D-Kan.) told Illinois delegates to the Democratic National Convention early last week, Crain’s Chicago Business reports. Sebelius’ state would get a huge economic shot in the arm if Chicago-based Boeing snags the contested contract initial won by a Northrop Grumman-European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company team. McCain, of course, blocked an earlier, flawed Boeing tanker lease plan. Sebelius told Crain’s the contest “really comes down to an American company and a foreign company,” and that Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) would not favor Boeing but would “level the playing field.” The Pentagon had not released the revised tanker solicitation as of last Friday afternoon.
MRAP Monitoring. Marine Commandant Gen. James Conway says an ongoing audit of the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles (MRAP) program will bode well for his service. Then-Department of Defense Inspector General (DoD IG) Claude Kicklighter said in March his office’s audit seeks to determine if the program office “is taking appropriate actions to accelerate vehicle delivery to users” and is reviewing the services’ MRAP and Humvee requirements. The Marine Corps requested the audit after a service employee alleged hundreds of troop deaths in Iraq would have been prevented if MRAPs were fielded faster after an urgent request from theater. “I think the IG is going to have some fairly positive things to say about our urgent-needs process,” Conway told reporters last Wednesday, adding “some (report) excerpts are starting to slip out a little bit.” An IG spokesman said it will be “a couple of months at least” until a draft report debuts.
Physical Fence. Customs and Border Protection has issued a stop work order to the Secure Border Initiative network (SBInet) technology prime contractor Boeing to give it time to work with the Department of Interior to go through the process of gaining access to land for the deployment of sensor equipped towers that will help keep watch over parts of the United States’ Southwest border. Moreover, CBP says the technology Boeing will deploy on the virtual watchtowers needs more integration testing. Meantime, CBP says it is looking at possibly transferring some funds that were planned to go to Boeing for the start of two technology deployments in FY ’08 to procuring and deploying physical fencing along the border with Mexico. CBP says the costs for fence construction are way up, due to higher costs in general for fuel, steel and other materials. Transferring funding will help keep the physical fencing deployment on track, the agency says.
…And Virtual Fence. CBP says that before the SBInet deployment of TUS-1 and AJO-1 begin, the program will focus on completing ongoing system-level integration testing as well as beginning formal system qualification testing, which includes the use of a field test facility in New Mexico similar to a border-like environment. TUS-1 and AJO-1 refer to two stretches of the U.S. border in Arizona. DHS had initially hoped that both of the deployments would receive conditional acceptance later this year.
To Build Or Not To Build. The DDG-1000 2004 JROC-approved Operational Requirements Document clearly states, “DDX will establish local air superiority using the SM-2 family of Surface to Air Missiles.” This capability is included in the requirements and design of the DDG-1000 today, a Raytheon spokesperson tells Defense Daily. Overall, at baseline configuration, the Zumwalt Dual Band Radar (DBR) has 37 percent better performance than a SPY-1 D in a blue water AAW environment and 50 percent better performance in a littoral environment, the spokesperson says. “Further, the Zumwalt radar suite is specifically designed for capability growth for the emerging BMD mission. This is achieved by simply ‘fully populating’ the array faces with additional electronics,” the spokesperson adds. “The most affordable and quickest path to upgrade to even more superior AAW and BMD is via the completion of the DDG-1000 TSCE-based mission equipment. Our estimate is that it would be about one-quarter the cost of upgrading the DDG-51 system and would result in 200+ percent more capability for BMD.”
…Standard Missiles. “As previously stated, Zumwalt mission equipment was designed to accommodate the SM-2 family of missiles and is therefore easily scalable to accommodate the SM-3 and SM-6,” the spokesperson notes. “Traditionally, [the Navy] funds the ships-side of a weapon for the ship-side of the interface and missile-side of the weapon for the missile-side of the interface. Confusion arises when interface changes to the S-2 family of missiles are attributed to the ship-side.” The missile interface changes required are known and “costed,” the spokesperson adds. “The cost to modify the missile for Zumwalt is approximately four times less than redesigning the DDG-51 radar, C2 and significant HM&E modifications which are represented in the modernization budgets.”
…Missile Integration. “The U.S. Navy-initiated technology study, TI-37, concluded in 2003/04 that the SM-6 could be integrated into the TSCE-based mission system at relatively low cost to either the ship system or the missile, due to the flexibility of the DDG-1000 open architecture,” the spokesperson says. “In February 2008, a detailed technical paper was presented showing a clear path to the integration of the SM-3 missile into DDG-1000 with only minor changes due to the open architecture flexibility built into the DDG-1000. All of this data was delivered to the [Navy] in a non-proprietary form per the requirements of the DDG-1000 program.”
An Anniversary To Forget. Last week marked the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina’s path of destruction along the Gulf Coast states. Now the area is bracing for Hurricane Gustav, which is expected to hit somewhere along the Louisiana coast. Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding’s Gulf Coast operations are taking steps to prepare for Gustav, a company spokeswoman tells Defense Daily. “[We] continue to monitor Tropical Storm Gustav as the storm approaches the Gulf of Mexico. The company follows a comprehensive process and multiple detailed procedures for storm preparation at each of our Gulf Coast facilities. Our shipbuilding professionals work very closely with our customers, the U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard, as well as local and state government agencies to ensure that our personnel are protected and that our facilities and each ship under construction is fully prepared for heavy weather. Furthermore, we have established multiple channels for constant communication to our employees, to our customers and to the community so that contact can be maintained throughout any heavy weather incident.”
More Issues For LPD Program. While the USS New Orleans (LPD-18) completed Final Contract Trials Aug. 11-15, the Navy says inspections and underway demonstrations noted the unsatisfactory performance of known issues on some key systems, the majority (85 percent) of deficiencies, or trial cards, were classified as “low priority” items, such as paint overspray, incorrect/missing color coding for piping systems and inoperative lights. “These deficiencies will be corrected through successive maintenance periods as the ship prepares for deployment. Upon completion, delivery, test, and inspection, each ship of the class has steadily improved and received fewer trial cards than previous ones,” a NAVSEA spokeswoman tells Defense Daily. “Similar to other shipbuilding programs, the LPD-17 class continues to improve and mature as lessons learned on early ships are rolled into follow-on ships and each successive ship completes the building process.” The Navy is working closely with Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding to incorporate lessons learned from the lead ship into follow-on ships while minimizing the amount of out of sequence work on each follow-on hull. “The Navy believes that LPD-18 is a capable asset, and that once these issues are corrected, the ship will meet fleet requirements,” the spokeswoman adds.
Early Delivery. The Navy took delivery of the Pre Commissioning Unit (PCU) New Hampshire (SSN-778) from General Dynamics Electric Boat (GDEB) on Aug. 27, eight months early to its contract delivery date, the Navy says. New Hampshire completed construction in just 71 months. Negotiations are currently ongoing for the Block III contract, which the Navy plans to award in December 2008, the Navy adds. New Hampshire‘s delivery is the fourth of seven Virginia-class milestones planned for 2008. Earlier accomplishments include PCU New Mexico‘s (SSN-779) keel laying ceremony on April 12, North Carolina‘s May 3 commissioning, and New Hampshire‘s christening ceremony held at GDEB on June 21. GDEB will host PCU Missouri‘s (SSN-780) keel laying ceremony on Sept. 27 while New Mexico will be christened at Northrop Grumman on Dec. 13. In between those two events, the Navy will commission New Hampshire at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Kittery, Maine, on Oct. 25. This will mark the first time since 1996 that the Navy has commissioned two submarines of the same class in the same year, the Navy says.
How Precise? Australia’s Ultra Precision Centre is now open. Greg Combet, Parliamentary Secretary for Defence Procurement, officially opened Rosebank Engineering’s Ultra Precision Centre Aug. 29. The center is a leading edge metal engineering facility with the capability to support military platforms including the F-111, F/A-18 Hornet and AP-3C Orion aircraft, as well as helicopters and emerging capabilities such as the Global Hawk and other unmanned aerial vehicles. “Rosebank Engineering is an Australian-owned high technology small-to-medium enterprise that provides Defence with specialised services in fine mechanisms and precision hydraulics used in aircraft mechanical and structural components,” Combet says. The center can do sub-micron machining and finishing down to tolerances of approximately 1/300th of a human hair.
Some More Support. FLIR Systems says it been awarded a $11.1 million modification to a Performance Based Logistics support contract from the Army Space and Missile Defense Command in Huntsville, Ala. It provides for service, upgrades, and logistics support for certain Army and Marine programs. The total value of the contract has been increased to $71.6 million. Work under this contract will be performed over time as required to support the installed base of Star SAFIRE(R) III and THV-3000 systems in use under these programs.
Organizational Change. Australia restructures the army higher command and control. The Chief of Army, Lt. Gen. Ken Gillespie, says, “As operational tempo has increased over the past few years, the development and implementation of more effective and efficient structures and processes has become necessary. This ensures we continually improve our ability to achieve operational objectives.” The implementation of the army structures will be phased in over the next couple of years, with transition to the final structure planned for early 2011. Starting early in 2009, the Army will raise a Forces Command, which will be responsible for the conduct of individual and collective training for a large proportion of the army. At the same time, the 1st Division will assume a primary role as army mounting, assessment and certification authority for all individuals and conventional force elements deploying on operations.
Shadow Support. Textron’s AAI Corp. says it’s been chosen to support training for Army National Guard units operating the RQ-7B Shadow Tactical Unmanned Aircraft Systems (TUAS). The initial $11.9 million includes 25 high fidelity Shadow Crew Trainers (SCT) and interactive multimedia instruction. Including four option years, the contract has a total potential value of $31.1 million. AAI produces and supports a family of advanced tactical unmanned aircraft systems including Shadow systems flown by the Army, National Guard, and Marine Corps. Each Shadow Crew Trainer features two simulated One System Ground Control Stations, a role player, and a ground crew launch and recovery station controlled by an integrated instructor/operator station. AAI leads a team that includes L-3 Link Simulation and Training of Arlington, Texas; Engineering and Computer Simulations of Orlando, Fla.; MTS Technologies of Arlington, Va.; and CAE USA of Tampa, Fla.
It’s The Floor. The Aerospace Industries Association is calling on the new administration to consider defense spending at 4 percent of GDP. Fred Downey, AIA vice president, National Security, says, “We don’t view 4 percent as the ceiling. It’s a floor. The key here is adequate, predictable and stable [defense budget], and that’s what we don’t have right now.” Later this month, top AIA members are expected to meet with Democratic and Republican campaigns and discuss the organization’s new report “Defense Modernization: Today’s Choices for Tomorrow’s Readiness,” that offers specific recommendations and what the costs of failing to make certain choices.