HASC NDAA Markup. Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), chair of the House Armed Services Committee, said the panel is scheduled to hold the markup of its version for the fiscal year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act on June 22. During his closing remarks at HASC’s annual “Member Day” hearing on April 28, Smith said his goal is to have the FY ‘23 NDAA markup considered on the House floor in July.
Commercial Sat Downlink.
The National Reconnaissance Office, which is increasingly purchasing commercial satellite imagery and sensing, is downlinking more of that data to Army and Navy tactical terminals in theater, Peter Muend, director of the agency’s Commercial Systems Program Office, said last week at the annual GEOINT Symposium near Denver. He credited both the commercial providers and the Army and Navy to create the architecture to receive the data and send it to “their edge.” NRO has been working with all of its commercial satellite providers, which includes electro-optic (EO), radar and radio frequency, on this rapid downlink effort.
…For Example. Muend says that one of the agency’s providers, BlackSky Technology, which provides EO imagery from its satellite constellation, took photos of activity off the coast of California and in “just a few minutes” sent the imagery via a direct downlink to a Navy vessel underway in the Pacific. “And so, I think that just serves as a great example of something that we’re working actively to operationalize and do more at scale as part of that enterprise architecture,” Muend said.
Thales, DRS in Deal. Thales last week said its U.S.-based Defense & Security, Inc. (TDSI) business has reached an agreement with Leonardo DRS to transfer full ownership of the companies’ Advanced Acoustic Concepts (AAC) joint venture to TDSI. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. DRS Sonar Systems, a joint venture between DRS and Thales, acquired AAC in 2011. AAC, based in Long Island, has more than 200 employees and had $80 million in sales in 2021. The company provides solutions in sonar and training to the U.S. Navy.
Dividend Boost. Raytheon Technologies last week increased its quarterly dividend by nearly 8 percent from 51 cents per share to 55 cents per share, payable in June. The increase is part of the company’s ongoing commitment to return at least $20 billion of capital to shareholders in the four years following the April 2020 merger between United Technologies Corp. and Raytheon.
SSN-796. HII launched the future USS New Jersey (SSN-796) Virginia-class attack submarine into the James River at its Newport News Shipbuilding division shipyard, the company said on April 28. The submarine was previously in a floating dry dock after being transferred from a construction facility in March. It has now been submerged and moved by tugboats to the shipyard submarine pier for final outfitting, testing and crew certification. The submarine is now about 92 percent complete, with construction starting in 2016.
DDG-1000 Test. The guided-missile destroyer USS Zumwalt (DDG-1000) conducted the first in-class live-fire missile exercise on April 14, the Navy said on April 27. During this exercise, the ship’s crew engaged live targets with the RIM 162D Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile Block 1 (ESSM) and Standard Missile (SM)-2 as part of the ship’s final air defense testing. “Demonstrating the capability of our combat suite and the lethality of our systems is critical to furthering the Zumwalt class. Zumwalt continues to make great strides and we are excited to continue to test her limits later this year,” Capt. Amy McInnis, Zumwalt’s commanding officer, said in a statement.
VCNO. The White House nominated Vice Adm. Lisa Franchetti to be the next Vice Chief of Naval Operations (VCNO), sending the nomination to the Senate on April 25. Franchetti currently serves as Director for Strategy, Plans and Policy (J-5) with the Joint Staff. She previously served as commander of U.S. Naval Forces Korea; commander of Carrier Strike Group 9 and 15; and commander of 6th Fleet, Naval Striking and Support Forces NATO, deputy commander of U.S. Naval Forces Europe, deputy commander of Naval Forces Africa, and Joint Force Maritime Component commander Europe. Franchetti has served in the J-5 role since October 2020. If confirmed, she will be the second woman to be the second highest ranking officer in the Navy after retired Vice Adm. Michelle Howard held the position from 2014 to 2017. If confirmed, Franchetti will become a four-star admiral.
Cyber Command. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin announced the president also nominated Rear Adm. (upper half) Craig Clapperton to become vice admiral and assigned as commander of Fleet Cyber Command and 10th Fleet. Clapperton currently serves as commander of the Combined Joint Task Force, Cyber, 10th Fleet.
GEM Motor Deal. Northrop Grumman during the second quarter expects to receive a roughly $2 billion order for its Graphite Epoxy Motor 63 solid rocket boosters from United Launch Alliance (ULA) in support of ULA’s recent contract with Amazon to launch broadband communications satellites into low-Earth orbit. Kathy Warden, Northrop Grumman’s top executive, disclosed the forthcoming order during the company’s first quarter financial results conference call last Thursday. In addition to ULA, Amazon also awarded launch contracts to Arianespace and Blue Origin for Project Kuiper. ULA also contracted with Aerojet Rocketdyne, which is providing its RL10 engine for ULA’s Vulcan Centaur Rocket in support of the Kuiper mission.
GuardNet Modernization. AT&T announced on April 26 it has received a new deal, worth potentially $15 million over 11 years, to modernize GuardNet, the Army National Guard’s command and control network. DISA’s Defense Information Technology Contracting Organization awarded AT&T the task order through GSA’s Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions contracting vehicle. “We’re bringing the right solution at the right time to modernize GuardNet. These are critical networking services that can help the Army National Guard improve mission readiness and delivery,” Lance Spencer, client executive vice president for defense for AT&T’s public sector, said in a statement. Under the deal, AT&T said it’s tasked with delivering virtual private networking services for GuardNet. AT&T noted GuardNet “has grown into one of DoD’s largest, single-accredited networks, spanning 11 time zones and more than 124,000 users.”
New AI Official. The Pentagon on April 25 announced Craig Martell, the head of machine learning for Lyft, will serve as the department’s new chief digital and artificial intelligence officer (CDAO). In his role leading the CDAO office, which was stood up in February, Martell will serve as the Pentagon’s senior official for accelerating adoption of data, analytics, digital solutions and AI functions, according to the Pentagon. “With Craig’s appointment, we hope to see the department increase the speed at which we develop and field advances in AI, data analytics, and machine-learning technology. He brings cutting-edge industry experience to apply to our unique mission set,” Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks said in a statement. Before his current role at Lyft, Martell was head of machine learning at Dropbox and has also served as a tenured computer science professor at the Naval Postgraduate School.
SNC/Team Invictus. Bell said on April 26 it has signed a new teaming agreement with Sierra Nevada Corporation, which will include SNC joining its Team Invictus vying for the Army’s Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft program. More specifically, Bell said SNC would serve as the mission systems integrator for Bell’s work on the FARA Increment 1 program. “FARA will be a significant increase in the Army’s attack and reconnaissance mission capability,” Derek Hess, SNC’s vice president of business development, said in a statement. “SNC is committed to delivering the next-generation mission capabilities Army Aviation needs for the future fight. We are proud to join Team Invictus in the Army modernization effort.” Bell, offering its 360 Invictus platform, is competing against Sikorsky and its Raider X design for the Army’s FARA program, with first flight with the companies’ prototypes scheduled for 2023.
Sustainment Degrader. U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Eric Fick, the head of the F-35 Joint Program Office, said that the program has made significant progress on “its most significant sustainment degrader,” the power module for the Pratt & Whitney F135 engine. Last year, the F135 Heavy Maintenance Center at the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Complex at Tinker AFB reduced the power module repair turnaround time from 240 days to 122 days and delivered 51 power modules, 11 above the target, Fick said. The center is “on track” to deliver 60 power modules this year, and overall, domestic and international facilities are to deliver 122 power modules this year, an increase from the 76 delivered in 2021, thus “enabling us to accelerate our power module recovery by years, as nations increasingly rely on the F-35,” he said. Starting in 2020, the power modules began to see problems with their interior blades and to suffer serious breakdowns, thus requiring more repair time. The F135 has a 6 percent non mission capable (NMC) rate ceiling, and before 2020 the F135 NMC rates were near the one to two percent NMC ceilings for other engines.
…Far From Good. The F-35 program said the first 17 Operational Data Integrated Network (ODIN) Base Kits (OBKs) are in the field. The OBKs weigh 134 to 202 pounds, a fraction of the 891 pounds of the Autonomic Logistics System (ALIS) which has bedeviled the program since its inception two decades ago. “OSD, the military services, and the prime contractors have increasingly focused on sustainment, and that focus has yielded some improvements,” said Diana Maurer, the director of the defense capabilities and management team at the Government Accountability Office (GAO). “The [ODIN] servers are smaller and easier to deploy. The global supply chain is more responsive to user needs, and repair times for engine modules have improved significantly. However, the program’s own measures show how much additional progress is needed. F-35 sustainment is getting better, but it is far from good. The F-35 still is not flying as often as the services would like. Mission capable rates have declined over the last year, and full mission capable rates are far below service goals. The program is still not meeting more than half of its reliability and maintainability goals.” Of the 34 F-35 recommendations made by GAO since 2014, the F-35 program has fully implemented just 13. More than 450 F-35s are in the field with the U.S. Air Force, Marine Corps, and Navy.