Budget Watch. The House passed its defense appropriations bill last week, and the Senate Appropriations committee marked up its own defense spending bill. But the Senate is still trudging through debate of the National Defense Authorization Bill after the GOP failed to attach the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act to it. The next round of NDAA votes will take place on Tuesday. If the upper chamber can wrap up the authorization act next week, it will move directly on to the defense appropriations bill, which Democratic leadership has said they will try to block.
…Carter, Dempsey on the Hill: With the defense bills through the House, HASC resumes public hearings. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will be on the Hill on Wednesday to testify on U.S. policy and strategy in the Middle East. Later that afternoon, a hearing on large naval sea combatants will occur, with testimony from Rear. Adm Victorino Mercado, the Navy’s director of assessment and Rear Adm. Peter Fanta, director of surface warfare.
…Conference Predictions: During a press conference last week, HASC Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) downplayed the differences between his defense authorization bill and the one authored by his counterpart in the Senate, John McCain (R-Ariz). “I don’t see a huge sticking point that will cause conference to be really difficult to conclude,” he tells reporters. One of the items on the table will be the lawmakers’ acquisition reform language, including McCain’s proposal to give the service chiefs more power over the weapons buying process. Thornberry signaled he would be open to adopting some of that language, saying, “As we were writing our bill I wasn’t quite confident in how that should work yet…but I want to look at what the Senate has done.”
…Crowdsourcing the Budget. The Center For Strategic and International Studies is crowdsourcing predictions about how the government will solve defense budget issues, with the majority of respondents so far predicting that Republicans and Democrats will fail to reach a deal, leaving the Defense Department operating on a continuing resolution. CSIS experts are split, with about half believing a Murray-Ryan 2.0-type compromise can be reached, and the others agreeing that a continuing resolution is more likely.
Orbital ATK Changes. Scott Lehr takes over as president of Orbital ATK’s flight systems group effective July 1, according to a company statement. Lehr replaces Ron Grabe, who continues in a senior advisory capacity with the group. Lehr has served as senior vice president and Grabe’s deputy since the completion of the merger between Orbital and ATK in February. Before the merger, Lehr served with ATK and a predecessor company for 31 years, most recently as general manager of ATK’s commercial and defense propulsion systems division. Orbital ATK’s flight systems group provides systems and products that span the space launch, strategic missile and missile defense and aerospace structures markets.
New USAF Range Czar. Air Force Col. Thomas Rock replaces Col. Janet Grondin as the Air Force’s chief of spacelift range and network systems, according to the service. Grondin retires May 29 after 22 years with the Air Force. 
Ball’s TEMPO. Ball Aerospace’s Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) instrument heads toward its critical design review (CDR) this month after a successful preliminary design review (PDR) and confirmation review, according to a company statement. Ball says it is now well into the fabrication of the instrument. TEMPO is an air quality sensor that will provide hourly monitoring of pollution across north America and is the first NASA early venture instrument mission with a UV-visible air quality spectrometer to be placed in geostationary orbit (GEO). Ball is building TEMPO under a firm-fixed price contract with NASA’s Langley Research Center. TEMPO is designed to make accurate observations of atmospheric pollution with high spatial and temporal resolution over North America, from Mexico City to the Canadian oil sands, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
Northrop Grumman LAIRCM. The Air Force awards a combined order of $111 million to a previously awarded firm-fixed-price contract to provide hardware and support for the Large Aircraft Infrared Countermeasure (LAIRCM) system, according to a company statement. Under the terms of the contract modification, Northrop Grumman delivers additional transmitters, missile warning sensors, processors, lasers, control interface units and supporting equipment to the Air Force and various customers around the globe through April 2017. LAIRCM automatically detects a missile launch, determines if it is a threat and activates a high-intensity, laser-based countermeasure system to track and defeat the missile.
SpaceX Pad Abort Payment. NASA approves a $30 million milestone payment to Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) following a recent successful pad abort test of its Crew Dragon spacecraft, according to a NASA statement. NASA approves the payment under its Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) agreement with the company. The successful test of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon launch escape capabilities demonstrates the spacecraft’s ability to save astronauts in the unlikely event of a life-threatening situation on the launch pad. SpaceX and Boeing last fall were selected to participate in the Commercial Crew program to eventually deliver astronauts to and from the International Space Station (ISS). Boeing spokesman Adam Morgan says the company is slated for a pad abort test in mid 2017.
New House SST Leadership. Rep. Brian Babin (R-Texas) becomes the new chairman of the House Space, Science and Technology (SST) space subcommittee, according to a committee statement. Babin takes over for Rep. Steven Palazzo (R-Miss.), who was appointed to the House Appropriations Committee (HAC) In March and, therefore, had to give up all of his former committee assignments on House Armed Services, Homeland Security and SST, according to Palazzo spokeswoman Jill Duckworth.
Lockheed Martin SBIRS. Lockheed Martin will modernize the Ari Force’s Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS) Geosynchronous Earth Orbiting spacecraft for the fifth and sixth satellites at no additional cost to the original $1.9 billion contract awarded in June 2014, according to a service statement. Lockheed Martin submits the proposal in December, recommending updating the current A2100 satellite with a modernized version that is functionally equivalent to the current SBIRS baseline. SBIRS is designed to provide global, persistent, infrared (IR) surveillance capabilities in four national security mission areas: missile warning, missile defense, technical intelligence and battlespace awareness.
NSA Lawyer to NYU. Rajesh De, a former general counsel of the National Security Agency, is moving to the NYU School of Law’s Center on Law and Security as a distinguished fellow to help it expand its cybersecurity program. Randal Milch, former general counsel of Verizon Communications, is also joining the center. While general counsel, De was the NSA’s chief legal officer and a senior adviser to the director. Before working at the NSA, he was a staff secretary and deputy assistant to the president at the White House. Milch was recently the executive vice president and strategic policy adviser to Verizon’s chairman and CEO. Earlier, he was Verizon’s general counsel from 2008 to 2014.
Navy Appointments. The Project on Government Oversight last week raised concerns that the administration’s nominees for two top naval positions had violated laws banning federal officials from lobbying. Adm. John Richardson, the administration’s nominee for chief of naval operations, and Rear Adm. Joe Tofalo, potentially the service’s next commander Naval Submarine Forces, made comments last year encouraging attendees of the Naval Submarine League’s annual symposium to reach out to members of Congress and encourage them to fund the Ohio Replacement Submarine program, POGO stated. When asked earlier this week, McCain says he wasn’t ready to give an opinion on whether the allegations would complicate their confirmation.
Drone Report. The Center for a New American Security releases a report last week on drone proliferation. The world is becoming more saturated with unmanned drones, and there is little the United States can do to stop it, the report says. “While only a handful of countries will have the ability to operate stealth combat drones,” which are currently only in use by the United States, “many will have access to armed drones that can penetrate disputed regions or the sovereign territory of other nations,” it states. However, hobbyist drones might offer the biggest risk for overmatch as they become widely available and more technologically sophisticated.
Training Round Contract. Lockheed Martin receives a $24.2 million contract from the Navy for Enhanced Laser Guided Training Rounds (ELGTR), which pilots can use in training in place of Paveway II bombs. The rounds share the same flight characteristics, envelope and guidance system as Paveway bombs but at a less expensive price point, a Lockheed Martin news release states. This is the third ELGTR contract order for Lockheed Martin, and includes rounds, associated technical data and the refurbishhment of U.S. government shipping containers.ELGTR is compatible with the F/A-18, F-16, AV-8B and other international platforms. More than 140,000 units have been sold both domestically and internationally since Laser Guided Training Round production started in 1992.
Nomination Vote. The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee will hold a business meeting late Monday afternoon to consider the nomination of Peter Neffenger to be the administrator of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). No hiccups are expected in sending the nomination to the full Senate. Last month the Senate Commerce Committee voted in favor of Neffenger’s nomination to lead the transportation agency. Vice Adm. Neffenger, who is currently the vice commandant of the Coast Guard, tells the Homeland Security panel last week that if he’s confirmed, his top priority is to address findings of covert testing done by a Department of Homeland Security auditor that shows vulnerabilities in TSA screening equipment.
D.C. Office for Cyber Firm. Tanium, an eight-year old California-based cyber security firm that provides near-real time visibility and control over endpoints within enterprises, has opened a new office in Washington, D.C. The company, which counts 50 of the Fortune 100 companies as its customers, says its government footprint is growing rapidly, which is the reason for opening the Washington, D.C., office so that it can better serve and support federal customers.
HC-144A to B. The Coast Guard is upgrading its HC-144A Ocean Sentry medium-range maritime patrol aircraft by replacing the cockpit control and display unit, which is used in flight management. Once the technology refresh is done, the aircraft will be designated the HC-144B. As part of the upgrade project, the Coast Guard awarded Rockwell Collins a $12 million contract to cover the upgrade of two HC-144A aircraft, one for prototyping and the other for validation and verification. The Coast Guard has a fleet of HC-144 is built by Airbus Group. Once the new configuration is approved, the Coast Guard plans to upgrade the remaining aircraft with components supplied by Rockwell Collins.
Ground Vehicles What seemed like a drop-in-the-bucket contract award in early June signaled the beginning of a major Army ground vehicle competition. The service awarded BAE Systems Land and Armaments and General Dynamics Land Systems $28 million each to develop design concepts for the “Future Fighting Vehicle.” Both companies are expected to complete the initial design work by Nov. 28, 2016. FFV likely will replace the service’s Bradley Fighting Vehicles, made by BAE. The competition will have to overcome the ghosts of development programs past, like the now-defunct Ground Combat Vehicle and Future Combat Systems, both of which were summarily canceled after the service spent hundreds of millions of dollars chasing requirements that proved unaffordable is not unrealistic
A New Fleet … The awards come on the heels of comments made by outgoing Army Chief of Staff Gen. Raymond Odierno that the service soon would publish requirements not only for a new armored fighting vehicle, but for a light tank as well. FFV will join an ambitious list of vehicle modernization programs. The Army is well into a program to replace a portion of its Humvee fleet with the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV). It also has begun a competition to find a replacement for the M113 armored personnel carrier called the Armored Multipurpose Vehicle (AMPV).
Cyber Marines The Marine Corps is hard at work trying to make every rifleman understand that the digital world is as much a domain of warfare in the modern world as a defended beach was in World War II. An enemy cyber attack on a Marine Expeditionary Force’s communications can do as much harm as direct fire, Maj. Gen. Daniel O’Donohue says June 12, speaking to an AFCEA Luncheon in Northern Virginia. “The fundamental thing we have to get people in the Marine Corps to understand is cyber is a warfighting domain like any other,” he said.
Already behind…The U.S. is already behind in preparing expeditionary forces to deal with cyber attacks and dish digital destruction of their own, O’Donahue said. The best time to prepare for such contingencies is before they occur. Even in peacetime, there is a constant contest between the U.S. and potential enemies like China and Russia to control the cyber domain. “The balance is a little off right now,” he said. “If you get behind in the prep phase … by the time you’re moving, it’s too late.”