GMD Management Benefits. A top Missile Defense Agency (MDA) official said the agency’s change to break up the management structure for the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) missile defense system has already yielded utility. “We’re excited. We definitely have seen the benefits already. There’s a lot of work out there. And…I think we have the right pieces in place to give us the direct control over the pieces of the system, as well as to move forward with increased capability,” Laura DeSimone, Executive Director of the MDA said during the virtual Defense News
SMD Debrief event on Aug. 17. She said while the previous structure that had Boeing hold the previous development and sustainment contract for over 10 years was the right construct early in the GMD program it no longer fits when they want to increase capacity in the different segments. DeSimone said MDA wanted to be able to work directly with the subcontractors under the previous Boeing DSC construct as well as adding more competitive acquisition to the process. MDA split the previous DSC into a Boeing-won system integration, test, and readiness (SITR) contract, Northrop Grumman-won GMD Weapon System (GWS) program and three sole-source contracts for the current in-service fleet.
NII Cost Projections. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that it would cost Customs and Border Protection $982 million between 2024 and 2028 if the agency is required to use non-intrusive inspection (NII) systems to inspect 40 percent of passenger vehicles and 90 percent of commercial vehicle entering the U.S. The CBO estimate was produced in response to the Non-Intrusive Inspection Expansion Act (S. 1822), which would require CBP to meet the scanning targets by the end of fiscal year 2026 and to scan 10 percent of all vehicles exiting the U.S. by that time. The cost to procure and maintain the NII systems would be $434 million during the five-year period and it would cost $467 million to make various capital improvements before the systems could be installed. CBO also estimates that CBP would need an additional 70 NII systems to meet the bill’s requirements.
LCS-34. The Navy plans to commission the future Independence-variant Littoral Combat Ship USS Augusta (LCS-34) into the fleet on Sept. 30 during a ceremony at Eastport, Maine. Shipbuilder Austal USA delivered the ship to the Navy in May. Following commissioning, LCS-34 is set to sail to its homeport on San Diego. The Independence-variant LCSs are focused on fielding the Mine Countermeasures Mission Package (MCM MP).
Commercial GMTI? Santa Barbara, Calif.-based Umbra said that the U.S. Air Force’s AFWERX innovation arm has awarded the company a $1.25 million Small Business Innovation Research Phase II contract to develop and demonstrate space-based maritime and ground moving target indication (MMTI/GMTI). Jason Mallare, Umbra’s vice president of government programs and strategy, said in a statement that “with the end of the JSTARS program, Umbra understands the national imperative to develop a multi-domain replacement capability with a strong space-based element” and that “commercial space systems which can be developed and rapidly deployed offer a differentiated and robust method to contribute to this critical mission need.” Umbra said that it intends to collaborate with AFWERX, the wider Department of the Air Force, and the intelligence community on the project. One of the issues in the past has been the perceived lack of a commercial market for commercial GMTI.
ACC MOUT Training. CONEX boxes have a storied history in military supply shipments dating back to the Korean War. Now, Air Combat Command (ACC) is looking for a contractor to “add facades and realism to pre-existing CONEX containers” for the Military Operational Urban Terrain (MOUT) site at Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz., according to a business notice. “The contractor shall plan, design, develop, implement, configure, and install Eastern European facades on no less than one but no more than nine designated CONEX buildings.” ACC wants six buildings modeled after Eastern Europe design and three “modeled after Asian region (Thailand specific) architecture and building features,” according to the notice. The command said that “the CONEX buildings shall appear as though they exist in a war zone, including simulating damage from a combat environment such as simulated bullet holes, cracks, burn marks, and damage sustained from explosions or flying fragments.”
Hughes’ LEO Comms. EchoStar’s Hughes Network Systems was one of 16 companies awarded five-year commercial communications contracts last month by the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) and the U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command (SSC) under a Proliferated Low Earth Orbit (LEO) Satellite-Based Services program that may be worth $900 million, This week, Hughes said that its offering allows DoD to leverage the OneWeb and the EchoStar Lyra constellations for rapid communications. In June, the Pentagon and SpaceX made a deal that would fund SpaceX commercial Starlink terminals for use by Ukrainian forces in their battle to expel Russia after SpaceX CEO Elon Musk balked at continuing to provide the terminals for Ukraine on what he said was his own dime. The rush to pre-empt SpaceX in the commercial communications space for the U.S. military is now on. Rick Lober, the vice president and general manager of Hughes’ defense and government systems division, said in a Hughes statement that the company’s two offerings for DISA and SSC “will give the DoD cost-effective solutions and added reliability and resiliency in satellite communications across all domains.”
People News. BAE Systems, Inc., the U.S.-based subsidiary of Britain’s BAE Systems, has named Reggie Robinson to be its senior vice president for government relations, reporting to Tom Arseneault, president and CEO of the subsidiary. Robinson will also serve as a director on BAE Systems, Inc.’s board. Robinson has been with BAE Systems, Inc. since 2014 and most recently was vice president for executive branch and government relations. Previously, he served more than 20 years in the Air Force, retiring as a colonel. CACI International has appointed Stan Sloane to its board of directors. Sloane previously led SRA International, Comtech Telecommunications, Frequency Electronics, and Decision Sciences International. He also worked for General Electric Aerospace, Martin Marietta, and Lockheed Martin, holding various executive roles.
RTX Doing 5G. RTX last week said its BBN division is creating multi-hop mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) for the Defense Department that will allow forward deployed troops that have 5G equipment to communicate using existing communications infrastructure. RTX is developing The Opportunistic eXtemporarY 5G Encrypted Network under a potential $6.6 million contract with the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (R&E) with a goal to connect at least 20 pieces of user equipment and securely enabling the transmission of data at 100 megabits per second. “Access to a 5G MANET allows us to move from single-digit megabit per second individual data sharing for ground soldiers to 100 times more throughput, which will enable sharing more high-resolution video and imagery,” said Daniel Massel, program lead for the FutureG & 5G Office’s Operate Through team within the R&E office.
Lakota Upgrades. Airbus has received a $27.8 million contract from the Army to upgrade the mission equipment package on up to 50 of its UH-72A Lakota helicopters. The upgrades for the Army National Guard’s Lakota fleet will bolster capabilities “to conduct day and night operations by providing an advanced moving map, enhanced digital interfaces, new monitors, an airborne mission management system and other system improvements,” according to Airbus. “This award provides pilots with significantly increased functionality and capability to carry out today’s demanding missions, further enhancing the Lakota’s value as an ISR asset for the National Guard,” Scott Tumpak, vice president of Airbus U.S. Space and Defense’s military line of business, said in a statement.
More Trucks. Mack Defense said on Aug. 23 it has received a new order from the Army to deliver 135 more M917A3 Heavy Dump Trucks (HDT). The order for additional trucks, which are based on the commercial Mack Granite model, was placed under the seven-year, $296 million deal the Army awarded Mack Defense in May 2018. “With every additional order of a Mack HDT, the U.S. Armed Forces are reiterating their confidence in our product,” David Hartzell, president of Mack Defense, said in a statement. Mack Defense noted the Army had previously ordered 311 total HDTs prior to this new award.
Ukraine Aid Opposition. Republican presidential candidates Vivek Ramaswamy and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis affirmed their opposition to more weapons aid funding for Ukraine during the first GOP debate on Aug. 23 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. “I think this is disastrous that we are protecting against an invasion across somebody else’s border when we should use those same military resources to prevent the invasion of our own southern border here in the United States,” Ramaswamy said. DeSantis said he would call for European countries to “pull their weight” in assisting Ukraine against Russia’s invasion. “Right now, they’re not doing that enough. And I think our support should be contingent on them doing it,” DeSantis said.
Ukraine Aid Support. The candidates were asked their view on continuing security assistance for Ukraine as Congress is set to consider the next supplemental funding request with billions of dollars in more aid for Kyiv. The remaining candidates, including former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley, former Vice President Mike Pence and former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, cited continuing support for Ukraine as a key priority. “Anybody that thinks we can’t solve the problems here in the United States and be the leader of the free world has a pretty small view of the greatest nation on Earth. We can do both, Vivek. We’ve done both,” Pence said. “Vivek, if we do the giveaway that you want to give to Putin to give him his land, it’s not going to be too long before he rolls across a NATO border and, frankly, our men and women of our armed forces are going to have to go and fight him.”
…More Ukraine Aid Debate. Haley pushed back on Ramaswamy’s response, adding the entrepreneur has “no foreign policy experience and it shows.” “When you look at the situation with Russia and Ukraine, here you have a pro-American country that was invaded by a thug. So when you want to talk about what has been given to Ukraine, less than [3.5] percent of our defense budget has been given to Ukraine. If you look at the percentages per GDP, 11 European countries have given more than the U.S.,” Haley said. Ramaswamy retorted, “I wish you well in your future career on the boards of Lockheed [Martin] and Raytheon.” Haley noted she does not serve on the board of either company, while the former governor of South Carolina did serve on Boeing’s board but resigned from that role in 2020.