Trump Signs FY ’19 DoD Bill Into Law. President Trump on Friday signed the FY’19 minibus bill that includes funding for the Departments of Defense, Education, Labor and Health and Human Services into law. The bill provides DoD with $716 billion in base and OCO funding. It marks the first time in nine years that the defense appropriations bill was signed into law before the end of the fiscal year.
Senate Approves New DoD Officials. Lisa Porter on Thursday was confirmed by the Senate to become the deputy undersecretary of defense for research and engineering by a vote of 98-1. Porter previously served as the associate administrator for aeronautics research at NASA, a founding director of the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity and most recently as executive vice president and director of In-Q-Tel Labs. She will report to Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Mike Griffin. Alan Shaffer was also confirmed by the Senate to become the deputy undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment by a voice vote. Shaffer previously served as the director of science and technology at the NATO Collaboration Support office and served in the Air Force for 27 years. He will report to Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Ellen Lord. The Senate also confirmed the appointments of Veronica Daigle, to be assistant secretary of defense for readiness and Robert McMahon to be assistant secretary of defense for sustainment.
Executive Announcements. Lockheed Martin has named Robert Mullins as its new senior vice president for Corporate Strategy and Business Development, succeeding Stephanie Mullins who has been appointed deputy executive vice president for the Rotary and Mission Systems segment. Mullins currently leads strategy and business development for Lockheed Martin’s Space segment. L3 Technologies has appointed Charles “CR” Davis as senior vice president of L3 International, overseeing the company’s international offices. Davis, a retired Air Force general, joined L3 in 2016 as senior vice president for Business and Strategic Development in what is now its ISR Systems segment.
Shareholder Returns. Lockheed Martin last week increased its shareholder dividend and its share repurchasing authority, rewarding shareholders from its strong cash generation. The company said its fourth quarter dividend will be $2.20 per share, 20 cents, or 10 percent, higher than last quarter. Lockheed Martin also added a potential $1 billion to its stock repurchase program, bringing the remaining authorization for future repurchases to about $3.7 billion. Lockheed Martin expects to generate at least $3.3 billion in operating cash this year.
DHS DNA Efforts. The Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology branch, under an award from the department’s Office of Biometric Identity Management (OBIM), is developing a prototype capability to store, match and share DNA. OBIM said there is interest from a number of DHS components and stakeholders in being able to do DNA matching, particularly for kinship analysis. With commercial rapid DNA capabilities now available commercially to allow field testing within 90 minutes, DHS is interested in adding DNA as a modality in its next-generation biometric identity management system, called the Homeland Advanced Recognition Technology (HART). S&T says it hopes to be able to test the DNA storage and matching capability in HART in 2020.
Identity Strategy. The Trump administration is close to completing its policy on identity, according to a senior administration official. Suzette Kent, the federal chief information officer, said at the annual Federal Identity Forum, that “identity management and access controls are foundational to our whole digital infrastructure.” Kent said industry is now providing feedback on the policy, adding that it has “received more comments than almost anything ever before. That actually shows how important and how central it is to a lot of the things that we’re doing.”
Exostar Deal. Exostar said it has acquired London-based Pirean Limited, which provides an identity-as-a-service platform that is used by customers globally in banking, financial services, government, energy, retail and telecommunications. Exostar, which offers cloud-based solutions in the aerospace, defense, live sciences and healthcare markets, said the deal expands its secure business capabilities. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.
CIWS. Raytheon won a $482 million contract for MK 15 Phalanx Close-in Weapon System (CIWS) upgrades and conversions, system overhauls , and related hardware for U.S. and international customers under Foreign Military Sales. CIWS is a fast-acting system that defends against low- and high-flying high-speed maneuvering anti-ship missiles that have not been destroyed by other defenses.
Poland Patriot. U.S. Army awarded Raytheon a $1.5 billion modification to a Foreign Military Sale (FMS) to Poland to produce a Patriot radar for the country. Raytheon said the contract will have Raytheon build and deliver four Patriot fire units for Poland under Phase I of Poland’s WISLA two-phase medium-range integrated air and missile defense procurement. In March Poland signed a letter of Offer and Acceptance to buy Raytheon’s Patriot missile defense system in a deal worth up to $4.75 billion.
SSN-790. The U.S. Navy accepted delivery of the Virginia-class submarine the future USS South Dakota (SSN-790) on Monday. The South Dakota, build by General Dynamics GD Electric Boat (GDEB), started construction in 2013 and is expected to be commissioned by early next year. SSN-790 is the 17th submarine in its class and seventh Block III Virginia-clsss boat. The Block III vessels have a redesigned bow with enhanced payload capacities that replaces 12 individual vertical launch tubes with two new Virginia Payload Tubes. Each new tube can launch up to six Tomahawk cruise missiles.
USS Indiana. The Navy plans to commission the latest fast attack submarine, the future USS Indiana (SSN-789) during a ceremony at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Sept. 29. SSN-789 is the 16th Virginia-class submarine and sixth Block III version. Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Newport News Shipbuilding started building the vessel in 2012.
More Fitz Repair. Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) awarded Huntington Ingalls Industries a $48.5 million modification for additional USS Fitzgerald (DDG-62) emergent repair and restoration. The Navy said this funding covers additional collision repairs plus maintenance and modernization of the destroyer. Work will occur at the company’s shipyard in Pascagoula, Miss., where DDG-62 is being repaired and is expected to be finished by May 2020.