Border Resource Control. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson tells the United States Chamber of Commerce that the directors of two joint task forces he plans to stand up to bolster border security across the entire southern United States “will have the ability to control of resources” in their respective areas of responsibility “and do so in a more strategic way.” Johnson announced the task forces, one for the southwest land border and another for the southeast maritime regions, at a separate event earlier this month. He says the leaders of that the various agencies that have responsibilities for border and maritime security, such as the Coast Guard, Customs and Border Protection, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, only have “one person in common, that’s me. [There’s] nobody else in between in that chain of command and we need to fix that.”

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson. Photo: DHS
Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson. Photo: DHS

…Plug for Cyber Legislation. Johnson also tells the Chamber that he’s for getting a cyber bill or two passed by Congress this year. “I am hopeful that even in this lame duck session of Congress that Congress will pass one or more of the pending bills to enhance cyber security. There’s a lot of bipartisan support in Congress right now for cyber security.” The Obama administration has spent the past several years without success trying to get Congress to work on a comprehensive cyber security bill. However, the administration is now changing its tune and expressing a desire for Congress to pass any of the narrower cyber bills it is working on.

…Praise for Cyber C3 Program. Johnson says a cyber security coordination program that DHS began earlier this year that invites voluntary participation from the private sector to work on cyber risk management is having positive results. Johnson is “pleased” with the Critical Infrastructure Cyber Community–or C3–program, and says “We have, together, beat back a number of malicious attacks in the private sector.” He also says that while there are business that are “very sophisticated” in terms of their own cyber security, that’s not always true in the supply chain, where he wants companies to “encourage your suppliers to have better cyber hygiene.”

ORB-3. Orbital Sciences pushes back its expected ORB-3 Cargo Resupply Services (CRS) launch date until no earlier than Oct. 27 due to the impending arrival of Hurricane Gonzalo on the island of Bermuda, the company says on its website. Orbital warns the launch date could be moved later, depending on the impact of the storm on Bermuda’s essential infrastructure systems, such as power, transportation and communications. The Oct. 27 launch time at NASA’s Wallops Island Flight Facility on the eastern shore of Virginia is targeted for 6:44 pm EDT. CRS is a program to deliver cargo to the International Space Station (ISS). Orbital says ISS rendezvous with its Cygnus capsule is scheduled for Nov. 2 with departure from ISS on Dec. 3.

X-37B Lands. The Air Force’s X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV-3) lands Oct. 17 at Vandenberg AFB, Calif., after nearly two years in space, according to a service statement. This was the third Orbital Test Vehicle mission for the Air Force. Total time spent in orbit for the entire OTV program is 3.75 years. The X-37B, developed by Boeing, is an unmanned advanced re-entry spacecraft. The Air Force is preparing to launch the fourth X-37B mission from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., in 2015.

SBIRS Contract. Lockheed Martin awards Northrop Grumman a $422 million contract to produce sensor payloads for the fifth and sixth Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS) geosynchronous earth orbit (GEO) satellites, known as GEO-5 and GEO-6, according to a Northrop Grumman statement. SBIRS provides continuous early warning of ballistic missile launches and other tactical intelligence. Lockheed Martin is the SBIRS prime contractor, Northrop Grumman is the payload provider and Air Force Space Command (AFSPC) operates the system.

GPS IIF-7. The recently launched seventh Global Positioning System IIF (GPS IIF-7) satellite completes on-orbit checkout, according to prime contractor Boeing. Launched Aug. 1, GPS IIF-7 is the seventh of 12 GPS IIF series satellites now in service and meeting all mission requirements for the Air Force, which manages the program. The government-industry team completed the initial activation and checkout of Space Vehicle Number-68 (SVN-68), the formal designation for GPS IIF-7, in five days. The 50th Space Wing at Schriever AFB, Colo., which operates and manages the constellation, took control of the satellite Aug. 8. The satellite spacecraft was maneuvered to its final orbital location in early September and became fully operational on Sept. 17, signifying that it was providing accurate position, navigation and timing (PNT) data.

3DELRR Debrief. The Air Force debriefs Lockheed Martin after the contractor lost out on the long-awaited Three Dimensional Long-Range Radar (3DELRR) competition, Lockheed Martin spokeswoman Rashi Ratan says Oct. 16. Ratan didn’t say when the company was debriefed, only that Lockheed Martin was assessing the data provided by the Air Force. Along with Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman also lost out to Raytheon for the Air Force’s next generation ground-based C-band radar, which will help defend warfighters against emerging threats by detecting, identifying and tracking fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft, missiles and unmanned aircraft. Northrop Grumman spokesman Randy Belote says the company doesn’t comment on protest decisions or protest activities.

JSECST. The Air Force awards Textron Systems a $44 million, four-year, indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract to deliver a comprehensive AN/USM-670A Joint Service Electronic Combat Systems Tester (FSECST) service life extension program, according to a company statement. During that period, Textron Systems expects to upgrade most of more than 500 JSECST systems currently fielded with the Air Force, Army, Navy and 22 foreign military sale customers, while the IDIQ contract affords these customers the option to buy additional units as well.

Groups Urge Constrained Spending. A coalition of 24 organizations wrote to the House and Senate armed services committees to recommend several program cuts to keep spending levels at or the sequestration caps and save valuable resources in an era of budgetary constraint.” Among the suggestions were to authorize no more than the President’s robust budget request for the Overseas Contingency Operations fund, which the letter says Congress overfunds; fund no more than 34 F-34 Joint Strike Fighters, the number in the president’s budget request; buy only two Littoral Combat Ships as the House suggested, rather than the three the Senate favors; and include in the final compromise bill several policy provisions restricting spending that the House passed but were not included in the Senate bill.