Please, Few Changes. Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff James Winnefeld says he expects changes to the Department of Defense’s fiscal year 2015 budget request, but he hopes they are “minimal.” “This is a 20-dimensional rubik’s cube…moving one part moves all other parts,” he says at the Bloomberg Government
Defense Symposium last week. Acknowledging that the as-is budget will be difficult to pass, he says if Congress eliminates the caps on military pay raises, then DoD will have to find other items to cut out of the budget. He says changes to military pay have been the hardest decisions for the Joint Chiefs to wrestle with. “Let’s face it: it’s hard to cut this much out of any budget and have people cheer you on,” he says.
New Website For FedRAMP. The General Services Administration’s (GSA) program for approving cloud providers to the federal government has received a website update. “We’ve cleaned up the content and organized it in a more customer-friendly way,” the program management office for the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) says in an email Friday. The website provides resources for agencies looking to move to the cloud, including which providers are certified and what cloud services they offer. The site is also where companies interested in becoming a federal cloud provider can begin the approval process and be paired with a third party auditor. The updated site can be found at cloud.cio.gov/fedramp. 
Carriers and Congress. With the Pentagon outlining some aspects of its fiscal 2015 budget proposal that will be revealed in full on Tuesday, the Navy is warning that if sequestration returns in 2016 it will be forced to retire the USS George Washington (CVN-73) aircraft carrier early, dropping the carrier fleet from 11 to 10. The Navy says it will need $6 billion to begin midlife refueling and overhauling the CVN-73 starting in 2016. Retiring the carrier would be inconsistent with congressional legislation requiring the Navy to keep the number at 11, and the notion doesn’t sit well with Rep. Randy Forbes (R-Va), the chairman of the seapower panel under the House Armed Services Committee. Forbes predicted such a move would also not be welcomed by the Navy either. “We are in a 15-carrier world and we’re an 11- carrier Navy. It’s absolutely ludicrous for us to think about going down to a 10-carrier navy in a 15-carrier world.”
New Program of Record. The Army chooses Saab’s Carl-Gustaf man-portable weapon system as a program of record, which will now become standard issue to light infantry units. The Carl-Gustaf has been in service with the Special Operations Forces for more than 20 years, designated the M3 Multi-role Anti-armor Anti-tank Weapon System (MAAWS). It will now fill a capability gap for units using disposable shoulder fired munitions. Jonas Hjelm, president, Saab North America, says: ‘The fact that the U.S. Army has now elected to designate Carl-Gustaf as a program of record, thereby enabling it to be broadly fielded to its light Infantry units speaks for itself. The Carl-Gustaf has repeatedly proven itself in the world’s most demanding environments as a versatile, powerful tool for the infantry soldier.’
Joins The Team. QinetiQ North America (QNA) says it joined an industry team in aviation sustainment, training and operations to offer innovative solutions for the Saudi Arabia Ministry of National Guard’s (MNG) Integrated Maintenance Support Services (IMSS) contract. The combined team under the leadership of Northrop Grumman consists of joint venture companies Vinnell Arabia and Northrop Grumman Aviation Arabia together with AAR Inc., DS2, a wholly owned subsidiary of PAE, and QNA. Potential QNA initiatives include performing maintenance, logistics and other air and ground vehicle training tasks. This new work, expected to be awarded in September 2014, will satisfy the National Guard’s requirement for Aviation Unit Maintenance (AVUM) and Aviation Intermediate Maintenance (AVIM) support services for 60 aircraft in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The fleet consists of 60 aircraft that includes UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters, AH-64D Block III Apache helicopters, and AH-6i Light Attack helicopters.
New Company. Bell Helicopter says it formed a registered company in Japan, Bell Helicopter Co., Ltd., to support the company’s efforts in the region. Richard Thornley assumes the role of managing director of Bell Helicopter in Japan. In this new position, he is responsible for marketing and sales and support activities within Japan as Bell continues to broaden its presence in this key global market. The new local office in Tokyo, Japan, will perform the sales and marketing efforts for new aircraft in the commercial and civil government sectors in Japan. Longer term, it will also be responsible for supporting Bell’s aftermarket support efforts including supporting the authorized Customer Service Facilities (CSFs) in Japan.
Sole Sourced Killing. Naval Air Systems Command says it intends to enter into sole source negotiations with BAE Systems on for the procurement of the Advanced Precision Kill Weapons System II (APKWS) and integration on the MH-60 Romeo and Sierra variant helicopters. BAE is the lead developer of the APKWS, which is a laser-guided missile, and defeated rivals Lockheed Martin and Raytheon for the original contract.
All About Costs. Acting Deputy Defense Secretary Christine Fox says that the decision to replace U-2s with Global Hawk Block 30 aircraft came down to last year’s costs rather than a larger pool of data, noting that the Global Hawk had been the more expensive of the two until last year’s decision to cut the program. “We’ve been, I think you know, back and forth on the U-2 and Global Hawk Block 30 decision,” she says at the American Enterprise Institute. “And I would say that it has always been a close call. When we looked at it this year, the operating and sustainment costs of the Global Hawk Block 30 have come down significantly, and the contractor–I don’t know, perhaps because we said last year we weren’t going to keep it–helped to be very aggressive to get those costs down, and we’re appreciative of that. Of course, the Air Force has been working very hard themselves…With those costs down, it make sense now to keep the Global Hawk Block 30.”
Bills Oppose Nuclear Modernization. Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) and Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) introduced companion bills this week to oppose spending on modernization efforts for the nuclear triad–entitled Reduce Expenditures in Nuclear Investments Now (REIN-IN) Act of 2014 and Smarter Approach to Nuclear Expenditures (SANE) Act, respectively. The bills would delay the ballistic missile sub program and trim its quantity from 12 to eight, delay the development of the Long-Range Strike Bomber and Future ICBM, reduce the size and scope of the B-61 Life Extension Program and cut the W-78 Life Extension Program altogether.
DoD Announces Innovation Institutes. The White House and Department of Defense announced two new manufacturing innovation institutes on Feb. 25, a Detroit-based Lightweight and Modern Metals Manufacturing Innovation (LM3I) group and a Chicago-based Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation (DDI) group. DoD will oversee the consortia, which are funded by $70 million each over five years in federal funds and more than $320 million combined in private-sector donations. The consortia aim to bridge the gap between applied research and product development by bringing government, industry and academia together. The LM3I group, led by EWI, will pursue goods such as lighter body armor for troops and aircraft with larger payloads. The DMDI group, led by UI Labs, seeks to enable interoperability across the supply chain and develop enhanced digital capabilities to design and test new products.
Manned Mars Mission Questioned. The House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology on Thursday held a hearing on a potential manned Mars fly-by mission by 2021 and whether NASA’s Space Launch System or Orion Multipurpose Crew Vehicle would help achieve that goal. Space subcommittee Ranking Member Donna Edwards (D-Md.) lamented that NASA hadn’t created a Mars mission roadmap yet, despite a requirement for one in last summer’s NASA reauthorization bill, to identify what risks there are, what technologies are needed and what intermediate destinations might make sense. Not all the witnesses seemed certain a manned mission to Mars was feasible, particularly given shrinking budgets. Lester Lyles, an aerospace consultant and retired Air Force general, says, “in my own opinion, the Inspiration Mars proposal is high-risk, poses significant challenges to the crew because of radiation and life support concerns, has unidentified cost, and is being proposed at a time that NASA’s budget is already over-constrained.”
F-35 South Korea. The F-35’s program executive officer expects South Korea to purchase the fifth-generation jet. F-35 PEO Air Force Lt. Gen. Christopher Bogdan says Feb. 25 the United States remains in conversations with South Korea, which late last year blew up its competition to buy a next-generation fighter and started fresh. Media reports in late September said South Korea rejected Boeing’s bid to supply 60 F-15E after Lockheed Martin’s F-35 and the Eurofighter consortium’s Typhoon were previously eliminated because they did not meet budget requirements. Bogdan also says Singapore remains interested in the F-35. Bogdan’s remarks come at a conference hosted by McAleese and Associates and Credit Suisse.
Disbrow Nomination. President Barack Obama Feb. 27 nominates Lisa Disbrow to become Air Force assistant secretary for financial management, according to the White House. Disbrow is currently vice director for force structure, resources and assessment, J-8, and is responsible for management of the directorate in developing future capabilities, conducting force structure and warfighting studies and evaluating Defense Department plans, programs and strategies for the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Disbrow is a member of the senior executive service and a retired Air Force reserve colonel. She would replace Jamie Morin, who is now DoD’s director of cost assessment and program evaluation (CAPE).
DigitalGlobe Spatial Energy… DigitalGlobe acquires Spatial Energy, a leading source of digital imagery and related services to the energy industry, according to a DigitalGlobe statement. Spatial Energy helps energy companies reduce the cost, time and effort associated with acquiring and analyzing complex geospatial information. Spatial Energy’s geospatial solutions enable its customers to more effectively manage their workflows throughout the exploration and production lifecycle. In the company’s fourth quarter earnings call, from which a transcript was produced on seekingalpha.com, DigitalGlobe CEO Jeff Tarr says he likes the acquisition because Spatial Energy will position the DigitalGlobe much closer to end customers in the important oil and gas vertical, which he called one of the very largest end markets for information. Tarr also says the acquisition will be accretive to the company’s diversified commercial growth and will help grow existing accounts by using DigitalGlobe analytics, emerging geospatial big data and other capabilities to deliver more value.
…DGI Financials. DigitalGlobe reports sales of $169.7 million in the fourth quarter, 35 percent higher than a year ago but $22 million below guidance it provided with its third quarter results. Tarr in the earnings call attributes the shortfall to international civil government business, which is concentrated in emerging markets and is largely project-based. He says civil government budgets were unexpectedly constrained due to macroeconomic and political factors, including a stronger U.S. dollar that rendered the company’s products more expensive in certain local currencies. DGI’s net income in the quarter was $15.1 million, down from $17.1 million, due largely to costs associated with integrating the GeoEye acquisition. For 2014, DGI expects sales to be between $630 million and $660 million. Tarr also says the company’s WorldView-3 satellite is scheduled for an August launch. Edward Jurkevics, principal of Chesapeake Analytics, tells Defense Daily “as long as the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA) budgets hold (editor’s note: NGA’s EnhancedView program is a big part of DigitalGlobe’s revenues), DigitalGlobe remains in a strong position, and the WorldView-3 satellite that is nearing completion is going to give them expanding collection capacity, stronger revenues, and a long-lived technical leadership position.” Chesapeake Analytics develops business growth strategies for companies in the spatial technology sector.
SpaceX EELV. The Air Force says it will count Space Exploration Technologies Corp.’s (SpaceX) Sept. 29 launch of its Falcon 9 v1.1 launch vehicle toward its Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) certification, the service says in a statement. SpaceX must meet rigorous certification requirements and perform at least three successful flights of a common launch vehicle configuration for the company to be considered for launching national security payloads. The company must also pass a number of technical reviews, audits, independent verification and validation of the launch vehicle’s ground systems and manufacturing processes. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center (AFSMC) says it is still assessing the company’s Falcon 9 v.1.1 launches from Dec. 3 and Jan. 6 for their applicability toward the certification requirements.