The Latest Word On Trends And Developments In Aerospace And Defense
Hopping Hill. Congress is back in session this week, and the hearings on the Pentagon’s $525.4 billion FY ’13 budget request will be in full force. Highlights include the HASC’s Air Force posture hearing with Secretary Michael Donley and Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz tomorrow, and a Pentagon science and technology hearing with officials including Assistant Defense Secretary for Research and Engineering Zachary Lemnios Wednesday. The SAC-D is planning a hearing Wednesday with Army Secretary John McHugh and Chief of Staff Gen. Raymond Odierno. The HAC-D will hear on Thursday from Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert, and Marine Corps Gen. James Amos.
F-16 Fight. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) is keeping his hold on the nomination of Mark Lippert to be assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific security affairs, over concerns about Taiwan’s inability to buy F-16 fighter jets, Cornyn spokesman Drew Brandewie says last Friday. “Sen. Cornyn believes the White House must articulate a clear near-term course of action to address Taiwan’s looming fighter shortfall, something they have not yet done,” Brandewie says. Cornyn had written to Obama on Nov. 18 decrying the administration’s “de facto denial” of Taiwan’s request to buy 66 new F-16C/Ds, saying the Pacific nation needs more than the approved upgrades of F-16 A/Bs. Cornyn was not happy with a response letter from the administration, which he received Feb. 16, and as a result is delaying Lippert’s nomination-approval process in the Senate.
Local Impact. The Center for Security Policy (CSP), a hawkish Washington think tank, has created a website with more than 29,000 reports on the local impacts of Pentagon budget cuts. The center plans to update the Defense Breakdown Economic Impact Reports on the site–www.forthecommondefense.org–every month with new data as Congress debates the FY ’13 Pentagon budget proposal. “Local employers, citizens and communities will bear the brunt of these cuts,” says CSP President Frank Gaffney. “The Defense Breakdown Economic Impact Reports will allow them to prepare for this impact and to enlist their elected officials in mitigating it.” The reports are estimates of the potential state-wide economic impact of defense budget cuts on cities, counties, congressional districts, minority-owned businesses, veteran-owned businesses, and other small business categories. CSP estimates U.S. annual business losses could be greater than $30 billion under planned defense cuts, or more than $61 billion under larger cuts that could come through a so-called “sequestration” process.
Tanker Time. Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) notes Feb. 24 was the one-year anniversary of Boeing receiving the long-sought Air Force KC-46 tanker contract. “After last year’s long and hard-fought effort, I am proud to say the decision made by the Pentagon…has proven to be the best one for our military, our taxpayers and our nation’s aerospace workers,” she says. “And I am pleased to hear Boeing is meeting their commitments and plans to deliver the first 18 combat-ready tankers by 2017.” Obama told Boeing workers in Everett, Wash., two weeks ago: “This company is a great example of what American manufacturing can do in a way that nobody else in the world can do it.”
Electronic Fence RFP. Customs and Border protection expects to issue the Request for Proposal for the Integrated Fixed Tower (IFT) border surveillance systems on or about March 7. A fixed-price, single award contract is planned requiring the selected contractor to build, install and test an IFT system in each Border Patrol Area of Responsibility (AOR) no later than one year after contract award for the base quantity and no later than one year after exercising an option for additional AORs. The initial IFT deployment is slated for Nogales, Ariz., with options for five additional AORs within Arizona. IFT systems will consist of fixed-towers, each outfitted with a ground surveillance radar, day/night camera and related communications equipment that are linked to a particular Border Patrol station to improve situational awareness along portions of the southwest border.
Cyber A Real Threat. Michael Chertoff, former Homeland Security Secretary, says that despite a growing cyber threat, “you will find significant pockets of people who” say that it is “overblown” and that “it’s not that big of a problem.” Speaking at a recent forum hosted by George Washington University’s Homeland Security Policy Institute, he points to recent reports of telecommunications firm Nortel having had an advanced persistent threat on its networks for more than 10 years, “basically wholesale theft of its business information and data…going to another country” and the rise of Hacktivist groups as further examples that the cyber threat is getting worse. “I have to say at a time that we worry about whether we’re losing jobs and losing competitively in the globe, at a minimum we should insist on a fair fight, meaning we don’t get our stuff stolen from us,” says Chertoff, who now runs his own security consulting firm.
Royal F-35C Takes Flight. The first test flight of the carrier variant of the F-35 by a pilot from the United Kingdom took place last week. Royal Air Force Squadron Leader Jim Schofield flew the F-35C on Tuesday at Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland in what the U.S. Navy says was a key milestone in the international segment of the Joint Strike Fighter program. The United Kingdom is one of eight international partners in F-35. The U.K Defence Ministry originally planned on buying the U.S. Marine Corps variant F-35B, which features a short-takeoff and vertical- landing (STOVL) capability that suits smaller deck carriers. London decided to switch to the F-35C after the F-35B was placed on probation while experiencing developmental challenges. The F-35B was removed from probation in January.
CNO In Naples. Adm. Jonathan Greenert, the chief of naval operations, reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to the European and African regions during a speech to military personnel while visiting the U.S. naval installation in Naples, Italy, last week. Greenert says the rising number of ships operating in the Mediterranean Sea demonstrates the importance of the region. “This area will be as important as it always has been in our future maritime strategy,” he says. Greenert notes Europe is the only place where the Navy is shifting large surface combatants. The Department of Defense recently named the four DDG-51 Arleigh Burke-class destroyers that will be forward deployed to Rota, Spain in fiscal 2015 as part of the Obama’s administration’s missile defense plans for NATO.
ONR On EW. The Office of Naval Research says it’s improved manufacturing techniques for the second generation of the Navy’s Electronic Warfare System (EWS) is transitioning out of research and development and being applied to the program. ONR says the initiative will save $1 million per ship. The project was carried out under ONR’s Navy Manufacturing Technology, or Man Tech, program. Man Tech aims to improve manufacturing efficiencies by working with defense contractors and naval acquisition offices to enhance technological processes and equipment for building a product already in existence more rapidly and at a lower cost, ONR says. “Our investments often can transition a technology that improves capability that wouldn’t otherwise be affordable,” says John Carney, ManTech’s program director. ONR says Man Tech has helped save millions of dollars in the Surface Electronic Warfare Improvement Program (SEWIP), and the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and the Virginia-class (SSN-774) attack submarine programs.
FCC And Cyber Issues. FCC Commissioner Julius Genachowski calls on internet service providers to enact a number of specifications known as Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC) to shore up cyber security ranks on Wednesday at a forum hosted by the Bipartisan Policy Center in downtown Washington. DNSSEC enables the development of more secure internet application and transaction processing and can help protect users from redirection to fraudulent web sites and unintended addresses. “I urge all broadband providers to begin implementing DNSSEC as soon as possible,” Genachowski says. “Domain name fraud, internet protocol hijacking and botnets pose a significant threat to our economy and our digital society. They aren’t the only cyber threats we face, but experts agree they represent a very significant part of the problem.”
LM’s Milstar II. Lockheed Martin says in a Feb. 10 statement its second Milstar II military communications satellite has surpassed its 10-year design life of on-orbit service. Designated Milstar II Flight-5, the satellite is the second of three on-orbit Block II spacecraft that offers a full range of enhanced communication for the U.S. military. It is equipped with Ultra High Frequency and Low Data Rate Extremely High Frequency (EHF) payloads as well as a Medium Data Rate EHF payload that process data at speeds up to 1.5 megabits per second, according to a company statement. “The Milstar constellation has demonstrated exceptional reliability and capability, providing protected communications to the warfighter,” Lockheed Martin’s Vice President and General Manager for Global Communication Systems Kevin Bilger says in a statement.
Obama Taps McFarland. President Obama nominates Defense Acquisition University (DAU) President Katrina McFarland Feb. 13 to the new position of assistant secretary of defense for acquisition. Selected for DAU president in December 2010, McFarland’s responsibilities include overseeing the development and expansion of acquisition curriculum and learning opportunities as well as addressing the defense acquisition climate as required by Assistant Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Frank Kendall’s “Better Buying Power” initiatives. Before DAU, McFarland was director for acquisition for the Missile Defense Agency –a position she held since May 2006.
There’s An App For That. For the first time, there’s an App for the FY 2013 president’s budget—courtesy of the Government Printing Office (GPO). The App provides links to the summary tables, analysis, historical tables, and appendix. The free mobile web app works on major mobile devices, including iOS 4.3 and above, Android 2.2 and above, and Blackberry OS version 6.0 and above. Of course, you can also buy all those budget docs from GPO. Link to FY 2013 Budget app: http://m.gpo.gov/budget.
Aligning Toward SOF. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno visited Special Operations leadership last week to work out how the special operations forces and general purpose forces would work together in the future. Both realize that the two forces are “linked inextricably” after a decade at war. Odierno tells an audience at AUSA Winter in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., Friday that he thinks as the troops go through the Force Generation process, it’s likely troops will align to special operations for certain missions. Additionally, Odierno says the general purpose force and SOF agreed to go through Combat Training Center rotations together to work out a couple of concepts under discussion.
…For Joint Force 2020, Odierno says special operations forces will grow up to as many as 35,000 and continue to build relationships with general purpose forces where they can provide support, such as equipment–increasing aviation, and in missions–suppressing WMD proliferation and building partnership capacity. The “synergy significantly enhances capability,” Odierno says.
UK Reserves, Bigger Role. U.K. Chief of the General Staff Gen. Sir Peter Wall writes in The Times (UK) Friday on how the British Army responds to the vision for the reserve forces to play a more significant role in the future. A Whither Warfare conference last week was organized by General Dynamics U.K.’s Research Foundation. The conference created valuable input for the Army as it develops plans for the reserve. Conference attendees examined the issues to be addressed to enable the re-sizing of the regular Army to 82,000 by 2020 and the compensating increase in the Reserve, covering the effect on the Army and on its relationship with industry and the Ministry of Defence. Sandy Wilson, president and managing director of GDUK, says: “Learning about and understanding the Army’s views on these issues in an open forum helps us and the wider defence industry understand the future shape of defence. This week’s conference will have wide-reaching implications for industrial engagement in the future.”
New Locator Modules. The Army awards BAE Systems a $23 million contract for lightweight handheld laser target locator modules (LTLM). The TRIGR ™ target location system uses the latest technology so soldiers can identify target locations while on foot, during the day or at night and in low visibility conditions. Bill Ashe, LTLM program manager, says, “The system provides mission critical capability in a single, lightweight package, combining the functions of several pieces of equipment that today’s soldier carries in his or her pack.” Weighing less than 5.5 pounds, the system consists of an optic system, night vision camera, laser range finder, digital compass and GPS receiver. It can recognize targets more than four kilometers away in daylight, and 900 meters in the dark. In 2009, BAE won a $72 million contract for initial production of the LTLM systems. Initial fielding of the units is slated for this month.