The Latest Word On Trends And Developments In Aerospace And Defense
Shift To Mayport. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus has announced that the homeport for first amphibious ready group (ARG) ship will be relocated to Naval Station Mayport in Florida. Mabus says the USS New York (LPD-21) amphibious transport dock ship will arrive in Mayport from its current homeport of Norfolk in the last quarter of 2013. The New York will be followed by the USS Iwo Jima (LHD-7) and USS Fort McHenry (LSD 43) in 2014, Mabus says. The relocations were not set to take place until 2015, but the Navy sped up the timeframe to help ensure the viability of the Mayport ship repair industrial base. “I am very pleased that the Navy is able to condense the time horizon for the arrival of the Mayport ARG,” Mabus says. “The move underscores just how important Jacksonville and Naval Station Mayport are to our national defense, and how committed we are to strategic dispersal on the East Coast,” he says.
Scandinavian F-35s. Norway has signed off the purchase of its first two Lockheed Martin-built F-35 Joint Strike Fighters. The Norwegian Defense Ministry says the decision to authorize the order came after extensive dialogue with the Pentagon intended to secure opportunities for Norwegian industry, including using the country’s Joint Strike Missile. The decision also marks the first time in three decades that the country has ordered new combat aircraft and represents the largest public procurement in Norway’s history. Norway expects to order the next two in 2016 and overall plans to purchase 52 JSFs. Norway was among the partner nations in developing the F-35, and Friday’s authorization is a bit of a boost for the F-35 program. Some countries are said to be delaying or scaling back their plans to buy F-35s because of cost overruns on the aircraft coupled with smaller defense budgets.
Privatized Screening. An airport in Florida is joining the small number of airports nationwide that have been granted permission to use a private screening workforce instead of federal screeners. The Transportation Security Administration has approved a request by Orlando Sanford International Airport to switch its all-federal passenger screening system to private security operations under federal supervision, says Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.), chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. Mica, a staunch advocate of having TSA allow more airports to opt out of using federal screeners, says Orlando Sanford had twice previously applied to opt-out but was denied “based on the agency’s fabricated and biased standard.” Orlando Sanford is a small airport located northeast of Orlando that handled nearly 1.2 million passengers in 2010. Currently, 16 airports are operating with private screeners.
Strategic Planning Nears End. SAIC is nearing the completion of its strategic plan and while the company isn’t divulging details J.M. Morgan aerospace and defense analyst Joseph Nadol believes “that shareholder friendly action is likely.” After meeting with the company’s senior management last week, Nadol says they “seem energized” and that John Jumper, SAIC’s new CEO, is “focused on aggressively moving past a difficult time for the company…and setting a new path.” Potential actions that Nadol believes may be forthcoming from SAIC include further realignment of the businesses, including moving toward a more efficient integration of the various business units that have been acquired over the years to improve internal synergies, splitting up the business and adding leverage to the balance sheet. Further acquisitions in the company’s strategic growth areas—ISR, cyber security, energy, logistics, and health—and says that management is interested in particularly in more than doubling the size of its two smallest businesses, energy and health.
Short time. Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I/D-Conn.) says time is “growing short” this year for the Senate to pass a cyber security bill and have time to then iron out differences with the House, which already this year has approved several bills related to cyber security. Lieberman expects the Senate to take up cyber security measures later this month or in July and warns that there is no time to spare in getting it done and then moving to negotiations with the House because after national elections in November Congress will “almost exclusively” be concerned with avoiding huge defense cuts due to looming budget sequestration, and various tax cut matters.
C-17 Accident. The Air Force’s Air Mobility Command finds that the Jan. 23 C-17A Globemaster III accident at Forward Operating Base Shank, Afghanistan, is due to pilot and co-pilot error, it says in a statement. The Accident Investigation Board, convened by AMC, finds that the pilot and co-pilot failed to identify that the landing distance required to stop safely exceeded the runway length and that failure to assess runway conditions for fixed wing operations at FOB Shank “substantially” contributed to the mishap. AMC estimates the cost to repair the C-17A is $69.4 million.
Schwartz Sequestration. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz is concerned sequestration and congressional budget uncertainty could be a cloud hanging over the service possibly beyond fiscal year 2013. “With the ongoing possibility of sequestration cutting the defense budget even further, and deeper, and with uncertain prospects for the passage of the (FY ’13) defense authorization act and federal budget, we, quite frankly, are looking at a prolonged season of uncertainty into FY ’13 and, perhaps, beyond,” Schwartz says last week at an Air Force Association breakfast in Arlington, Va. Schwartz’s remarks follow warnings from Capitol Hill that “serious” plans to ward off sequestration could take until November to develop. Many congressional observers expect Congress to wait until after the November presidential election to seriously work on an alternate plan to sequestration.
AN/APG-82(V)1 LRIP2. The F-15E’s radar modernization program, AN/APG-82(V)1, entered Low-Rate Initial Production 2 on May 30, the Air Force says in an email. AN/APG-82(V)1 is a Raytheon effort to leverage prior radar development programs on the F-15C and F/A-18E/F fighters to significantly reduce cost and integration risk, according to a Raytheon statement. The AN/APG-82(V)1 will replace the F-15E’s current APG-70 Mechanically Scanned Array radar.
GeoEye Expansion. GeoEye, a provider of satellite commercial imagery, is expanding its Tampa, Fla., office to support the “growing demand for its services across the U.S. military,” the company says in a statement. Tampa is also home to U.S. Special Operations (SOCOM) and Central Command (CENTCOM). GeoEye is one of two satellite imagery companies participating in EnhancedView, a 10-year, $7.3 billion program to provide the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) with satellite imagery. EnhancedView is expected to be hit with substantial budget cuts next year.
Lockheed Martin IT. The Air Force awards Lockheed Martin a $85.5 million fixed-price, incentive-fee contract for classified and unclassified information technology services in the Washington metropolitan area, the service says last week. Users include the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Joint Chiefs of Staff, National Military Command Center, Headquarters Air Force and other agencies who interact with the Defense Department. Work is to be complete by June 30, 2014.
New ISAF Commander. Army Lt. Gen. James Terry is now in command of the International Security Assistance Force Joint Command. Terry took over June 12 from Army Lt. Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti during a change of command ceremony held at the ISAF Joint Command headquarters in Kabul, Afghanistan. Terry will also serve as the deputy commanding general of U.S. Forces-Afghanistan. Terry most recently was the commander of V Corps based in Wiesbaden, Germany. “We left our comfortable homes and loved ones to become part of a team that will take the next steps in bringing lasting stability to Afghanistan,” Terry says. “Our success also secures our own nations by denying Afghanistan as a safe haven for terrorists. We will make a difference, at home, in this region and throughout the world.”
Proud Panetta. Celebrating the 237th Army Birthday last week, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta looked back and forward: “I am proud of the opportunity I had to serve in the ranks of the United States Army. I’ll always cherish those memories of Army life, and the honor I felt in being part of an extraordinary team. Panetta also lauded the decade of Army effort fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan: “And through it all, American soldiers stepped bravely forward, marched off towards the sound of the guns, and gave everything to provide for our security, to give all Americans a better, safer future. They have done everything this country has asked of them and more.”
Missile IMUs. Goodrich Corp., says it’s received a production order for its SilMU02 IMUs, from Thales. The IMUs will be used as the standard inertial measurement unit on Thales’ new Lightweight Multi-Role missile. The order covers more than 1,000 units with deliveries starting in late 2013. The IMU is small, lightweight and flexible, that is one-tenth the size of legacy IMUs the company says. Thales missile is a low cost, lightweight laser beam riding missile designed to launch from land, air and naval platforms. First, it’s expected to be on the U.K. Royal Navy AW159 Wildcat helicopter.
New Encryptor. General Dynamics C4 Systems says its new ProtecD@R PC encryptor secures data, imagery, video and other information stored on computer hard drives. The encryptor is now certified by NSA to protect information classified at the secret level and below, the new Suite B encryptor prevents unauthorized access to classified information if a computer is lost, stolen, or susceptible to insider threat. “Data at rest is data at risk,” says Chris Marzilli, president of General Dynamics C4 Systems. “Considering the high value of information stored on military and government computers, the ProtecD@R PC encryptor fills a potential gap in information security that can occur after sensitive data is downloaded from a network.”