Ukraine Supplemental. Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), chair of the Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee, said last Thursday he expects the Biden administration to initiate the process soon on a new supplemental funding measure to support Ukraine. “I think we can anticipate a supplemental sometime this next month on Ukraine from the administration,” Tester said during the Senate Appropriations Committee’s markup of several fiscal year 2024 spending bills, including the defense measure. Tester’s remark was in response to Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) noting the defense bill includes $300 million for Ukrainian initiatives while no set plan is in place for another Ukraine supplemental as the Senate heads out on its August recess. “We’re about to leave town and we haven’t come up with a plan to keep funding Ukraine. I hope when we get back, we’ll fix that,” Graham said.
LHX a Rocket Maker.
L3Harris Technologies last Friday morning completed its $4.7 billion acquisition of Aerojet Rocketdyne, making the company one of two rocket motor and engine suppliers to the aerospace and defense industry. Aerojet Rocketdyne will keep its brand name and become an L3Harris Technologies Company. Ross Niebergall, who led L3Harris’ integration office for the acquisition, is the new president of the rocket maker. Niebergall previously was chief technology officer of L3Harris for nearly four years and held the same position at Harris Corp. for two years. He was with Raytheon for more than eight years before joining Harris.
Amphib Minimums. A July 27 Office of Management and Budget Statement of Administration Policy on the Senate’s FY ‘24 defense authorization bill said it “strongly opposes” a section requiring adjusting scheduled maintenance and repair actions to maintain at least 24 amphibious warfare ships for deployment at any given time. The White House argued this would require DoD to maintain more than 77 percent of the 31-ship amphibious force, which would then require “delaying other necessary maintenance, modernization, and repair activities, resulting in fewer and less capable ships ready for operational tasking and severely limiting options to maintain and improve the force.”
…HDR-H Hardware. The White House also said it is concerned with a provision that limits repurposing hardware that was previously meant for the Homeland Defense Radar-Hawaii (HDR-H) until submitting a 2024 report. HDR-H was delayed indefinitely in 2019 in favor of other missile defense and sensor priorities. The administration said this provision is inconsistent with part of the FY ‘22 defense authorization act requiring the Missile Defense Agency to leverage existing programs to expedite development and deployment of the architecture over the next five years. MDA is currently using the HDR-H hardware “on a rent free, non-interference basis” to deploy Guam missile defense systems as early as possible. If this provision remains, the administration argued MDA would no longer be able to use this hardware “to reduce production lead time for equivalent hardware to support the Defense of Guam architecture,” resulting in $148 million more in costs and at least a 48-month schedule impact to the Guam missile defense architecture.
Recurring GMD Assessments. Air Force Lt. Gen, Gregory Guillot last week told senators during a confirmation hearing that he supports “recurring assessments” if a second Ground-based Midcourse Defense interceptor site on the East Coast is necessary to defend against missile threats. Currently DoD operates missile defense sites at Fort Greely, Alaska and Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., geared towards defending against a small number of North Korean missiles. Guillot was nominated to become the next commander of U.S. Northern Command and NORAD. An East Coast site has been considered to better defend against a potential Iranian ICBM threat, if it develops. He added these recurring assessments “would ensure that we keep pace with the adversaries…the number of threats that they have that might defeat the total number [of interceptors] that we have in our existing locations or if another rogue state develops the capability and can attack the homeland, that’s another reason I think that we should look at, reassess on a periodic basis to ensure that we can keep pace with that threat.”
F-35 Fixes/Upgrades. The Navy last week awarded Lockheed Martin a $489 million modification adding scope to procure various material modification kits, special test/tooling equipment, and support of retrofit and modification engineering efforts on F-35s to correct deficiencies and upgrade the aircraft. This includes upgrading the F-35s to Technology Refresh Three (TR-3) for the Air Force, Marine Corps, Navy, Foreign Military Sales customers and non-U.S. Department of Defense participants. F-35 program officials previously called the TR-3 the computer backbone for Block 4, which includes 88 unique features and 16 new weapons. TR-3 is powered by the L3Harris Technologies integrated core processor. Work under this modification will occur at Lockheed Martin’s Fort Worth, Texas facility and is expected to be finished by March 2028.
Ammo Plant. BAE Systems announced on July 27 it has teamed with Parsons Corp. as it pursues continuing on as the operating contractor of the Holston Army Ammunition Plant in Tennessee through 2035. “Our team is committed to modernizing the Holston Army Ammunition Plant and delivering safe, reliable products for our customers,” John Swift, vice president and general manager of BAE Systems Ordnance Systems, said in a statement. BAE Systems cited Parsons’ “engineering ability” as the Army looks to “expand the capabilities for explosives and propellant manufacturing” at the ammo plant. The company also noted that Parsons was recently selected by the Army Corps of Engineers to work on a new Explosive Decomposition Chamber facility at the Holston plant.
ACMC Nominee. President Joe Biden nominated Lt. Gen. Christopher Mahoney to be the next Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps on July 25, according to a congressional tracking website. Although the Defense Department and White House have not officially confirmed Mahoney’s nomination by publication time, the Marine Corps Commandant’s spokesman, Maj. Joshua Larson confirmed the nomination on X, which was formerly Twitter. Mahoney currently is Deputy Commandant for Programs and Resources. He previously served as Deputy Commander of Marine Forces Pacific, Director of Strategy and Plans at Headquarters Marine Corps, Deputy Commander, commanding general of United States Forces, Japan and as the Commanding General of 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing. If confirmed, Mahoney would succeed Lt. Gen. Eric Smith, who has been nominated to move from the ACMC to full commandant position, but is currently serving in an acting capacity due to Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) blanket hold on DoD positions in opposition to a policy allowing servicemembers to be reimbursed for any travel for abortion services.
Romania FMS. The State Department on July 27 approved a potential $120.5 million deal with Romania for Assault Amphibious Vehicles (AAVs.). Under the deal, Romania will receive 16 BAE Systems-built AAVs in the personnel variant, three in the command variant and two in the recovery variant. The deal also includes 16 .50 caliber heavy barrel machines, five 7.62mm M240B machine guns, MK-19 grenade launchers and thermal sighting systems. “This proposed sale will support the foreign policy and national security objectives of the United States by helping to improve the security of a [NATO] ally which is an important force for political and economic stability in Europe. It is vital to the U.S. national interest to assist Romania in developing and maintaining a strong and ready self-defense capability,” the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in a statement.
Thales Acquiring Imperva. France’s Thales last week said it has agreed to acquire the U.S.-based cybersecurity company Imperva for $3.6 billion, a deal that will help it grow in data security and enter the application security market. Imperva is a portfolio company of the private equity firm Thoma Bravo. Imperva had more than $500 million in sales the past year and has over 1,400 employes. One the transaction closes, which is expected in early 2024, Thales said its cybersecurity business will have more than $2.6 billion in annual sales.
LPD-26 SRA. BAE Systems’ San Diego Ship Repair facility on July 24 received a $38 million, sole-source contract action for the maintenance, modernization and repair of the USS John P. Murtha (LPD-26) transport dock ship during a fiscal 2024 Selected Restricted Availability. The department said this covers all labor, supervision, equipment, production, testing, facilities, and quality assurance “necessary to prepare for, and accomplish, the Chief of Naval Operations Availability for managing critical modernization, maintenance and repair programs.” The award includes options that, if exercised, would raise the total value to over $42 million. Work is expected to be finished by Sept. 2024, both with and without the options.
ESB-8. Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro on July 27 announced the future expeditionary sea base ship ESB-8 will be named the USNS Hector A. Cafferata Jr., after a medal of Honor recipient and Korean War veteran. The ESB ships are used for various operations like Expeditionary Transfer Dock ships, featuring a four spot flight deck, mission deck and hangar, and are designed around aviation facilities, berthing, equipment staging support and command and control assets.
Self-Screening Extension. Micro-X last week said it has received a $4.9 million contract extension from the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate to build and begin testing of a prototype integrated aviation security checkpoint self-screening station that will include a miniaturized computed tomography scanner for carry-on items. The award has the potential to be extended to $14 million over 40 months to include building and testing self-screening stations for live testing in U.S. airports with travelers. Micro-X’ solution passed a critical design review in June. The award was made under S&T’s Screening at Speed program.
FMD, Marand Team. Fairbanks Morse Defense (FMD) last week said it is teaming with Australia’s Marand Precision Engineering, providing FMD with a channel to provide products to the Royal Australian Navy and gives Maran access to FMD’s global customer base. “Our collaboration with Maran positions us to support the sale, design and manufacture of specialized components for the Royal Australian Navy’s future programs while also giving Marand access to our highly trained field service technicians and services centers,” George Whittier, FMD’s CEO, said in a statement. FMD manufactures diesel engines and other equipment for naval vessels, and provides related services. Marand manufactures products for the defense, aerospace, mining, rail, and energy industries.