NDAA Markups: SASC released its markup schedule for the National Defense Authorization Act, days after the corresponding House committee approved its own version of the bill. The full committee markup–which runs May 13-15—will remain closed this year, as decided by a SASC vote. Subcommittees were allowed to choose whether to open their own markups. The Airland Subcommittee starts the process May 11 in a closed session. The Seapower and Strategic Forces subcommittees, which will mark up their portions of the bill on May 12 at 9:30a.m. and 11 a.m., respectively, also closed their sessions. Three subcommittees opted to open their markups. The Subcommittee on Readiness and Management Support will mark up their bill 2:00p.m. on May 12, with Emerging Threats and Capabilities following at 3:30p.m., and the Subcommittee on Personnel at 5:30p.m.
Simulator Upgrades. The Navy is reviewing bids to upgrade 20 MH-60R/S helicopter simulators and plans to announce a decision in July, according to Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR). The “technology refresh effort” for the ground-based training devices will address a host of items ranging from hardware and software obsolescence to aerodynamics, NAVAIR says. The simulators are located at Naval Air Station (NAS) North Island in California, NAS Jacksonville and NAS Mayport in Florida, and NAS Norfolk in Virginia. NAVAIR, which released a request for proposals for the effort in March 2014, declined to reveal the number and names of the bidders.
Tomahawk Upgrades. Raytheon is optimistic about two potential upgrades to the Navy’s Tomahawk cruise missile. Government funding to finish integrating the Joint Multi-Effects Warhead (JMEWS) into the long-range weapon could materialize in fiscal year 2017, the company says. Meanwhile, a successful test this quarter of a Raytheon-funded multi-mode seeker, which will be flown on a T-39 aircraft, would allow the new seeker to be delivered as early as 2019 as part of Tomahawk’s recertification and modernization program, the company says. JMEWS would allow the Navy to tailor a warhead’s effects to a particular mission, while the multi-mode seeker would allow the ship- and submarine-launched missile to hit moving targets on land and at sea.
CYBERCOM Support. The Defense Information Systems Agency on behalf of United States Cyber Command has issued a Request for Proposals for an Omnibus Contract that will consist of two indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contracts, one that is unrestricted and the other as a small business set aside. The potential value of the award is $475 million. Services provided under the contract will include mission support of Cyber Command and the Cyber National Mission Force. 
Praise for Aerostats. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson tells a Senate Appropriations panel that even though surveillance aerostats “are very costly to maintain,” they “are a wave of the future” for border security. “Our Border Patrol experts, when I ask them directly, what do you need? They tell me aerostats,” he tells the Homeland Security Subcommittee. He says that the Border Patrol also wants more mobile surveillance capabilities, and adds he supports the shift to more technology along the nation’s northern and southern borders to enhance situational awareness.
…Good on UAS. For the moment, DHS has what it needs in terms of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) for border security surveillance, Johnson says. He says he spoke with Deputy Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Kevin McAleenan on Tuesday and “Their view is that in terms of unmanned aerial systems we have at the moment what we need. What we do need are the people to man these things, to make them work. We’re a bit short there.” CBP currently operates Predator UAS systems for border and maritime surveillance missions.
Rifleman Winners: The Army awarded contracts to Thales Defense and Security Inc.and Harris Corp. for the Rifleman Radio program, it announced April 29. Both vendors will produce 50 radios, which will be tested in a lab and in operational demonstrations, according to an Army news release. Assuming both companies meet qualifications, they will compete against each other for orders, a strategy that the service hopes will lead to procuring radios with better capabilities–like lower weight, better battery power and faster processors–but lower prices. Fielding of the radios is slated for fiscal year 2017, and the Army is authorized to buy up to 171,933 units during full-rate production.
Blue Origin New Shepard… Blew Origin flies the first developmental test flight of its New Shepard space vehicle on April 29, company founder Jeff Bezos says in a statement. Blue Origin’s 110,000-pound thrust liquid hydrogen, liquid oxygen BE-3 engine powers the vehicle to its planned test altitude of 307,000 feet. Blue Origin wants New Shepard to be a reusable vehicle, as the company was unable to recover the propulsion module because it lost pressure in its hydraulic system on descent.
…More New Shepard. Blue Origin has been working for some time on an improved hydraulic system, Bezos says, and assembly of propulsion module serial numbers two and three are underway. Blue Origin continues to be “big fans” of the vertical takeoff, vertical landing (VTVL) architecture because it’s scalable to a very large size. Bezos says Blue Origin is already designing New Shepard’s sibling, Very Big Brother, an orbital launch vehicle that is many times New Shepard’s size and is powered by its 550,000-pound thrust liquefied natural gas, liquid oxygen BE-4 engine.
Raytheon SM-3 Block IB. The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) awards Raytheon a $559 million contract for an initial quantity of 44 Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) Block IB all-up rounds (AURs) and related activities, according to a April 30 Defense Department statement. The contract is a not-to-exceed sole-source undefinitized contract action, which contemplates a hybrid contract structure containing fixed-price incentive firm, firm-fixed-price and cost reimbursable contract line items. Raytheon will also provide the work required to produce and deliver the third stage rocket motor reliability growth/design enhancements. Upon definitization of the contract action, DoD intends to purchase additional missiles up to a quantity of 52 AURs.
Boeing AH-64, H-47 Contract. The Army awards Boeing a $247 million firm-fixed price, multi-year contract to overhaul, repair and recapitalize the AH-64 and H-47 airframe and weapons system, according to April 30 DoD statement. Bids were solicited via the internet with only one received. Work is estimated to complete on Oct. 31, 2019.
Pratt & Whitney F-35 Deal. The Navy awards Pratt & Whitney a $157 million fixed-price-incentive-firm target advance acquisition contract to procure long lead-time components, parts, materials and effort in support of 90 low-rate initial production (LRIP) Lot X F135 propulsion systems for the F-35, according to an April 30 DoD statement. These systems include 44 F135-PW-100 for the Air Force, nine F135-PW-600 for the Marine Corps and two F135-PW-100 for the Navy. This contract also provides for the procurement of 30 F135-PW-100 and five F135-PW-600 systems for international partners and Foreign Military Sales (FMS) customers. Pratt & Whitney is a division of United Technologies Corp.
NASA Authorization Bill. The House Science, Space and Technology (SST) Committee approves 19-15 a two-year NASA authorization bill covering 2016 and 2017, according to a committee statement. The bill largely mirrors that of the House-passed NASA authorization bill of 2015 that was not picked up in the Senate. The 2016 NASA authorization bill calls for an independent cost and schedule estimate for all activities associated with the development, test, demonstration and certification of commercial crew transportation systems. The bill says the President Barack Obama administration uses budgetary assumptions in planning for the Commercial Crew Program (CCP) that consistently assumes “significantly higher” funding levels than have been authorized and appropriated by Congress.
SBIRS GEO-6 Satellite. Lockheed Martin selected Northrop Grumman to provide the space inertial reference system for the U.S. Air Force’s sixth Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS) Geosynchronous Earth orbit (GEO) satellite. Lockheed Martin is the prime contractor for the project. Northrop Grumman is to provide its Scalable Space Inertial Reference Unit (Scalable SIRU) for sensor pointing/stabilization and altitude control on the SBIRS GEO-6. The company previously provided the Scalable SIRU for previous SBIRS GEO satellites.
C-130 Contracts. Lockheed Martin was awarded over $80 million in contracts from the U.S. Air Force for C-130 aircrew and maintenance training. The contracts include the delivery of a C-130J Air Mobility Command (AMC) weapon systems trainer and C-130 aircrew and task trainer at Yokota Air Base in Yokota, Japan; a KC-130J weapons systems trainer, spares, support equipment, and technical data; C-130 aircrew training system operations and maintenance services; and C-130J Training System Support Center services.
Advanced Engines Contract. The U.S. Air Force awarded Pratt & Whitney a $325,000 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for Versatile Affordable Advanced Turbine Engines (VAATE) III and beyond. VAATE is a joint government-industry program to develop technologies by the 2017 timeframe that will permit an order of magnitude increase in turbo-propulsion affordability over the year 2000 technology. Work will be performed in East Hatford, Conn. And is expected to be completed by April, 2023. This was a competitive acquisition with 34 offers.
Failed ISS Cargo. The Joint Functional Component Command for Space’s Joint Space Operation Center (JSpOC) at Vandenberg AFB, Calif., began tracking a failed Russia Progress resupply cargo craft meant for the International Space Station early April 29. JSpOC observed 44 pieces of debris in the vicinity of the vehicle as it rotated 360 degrees every five seconds. Russia has abandoned the $51 million resupply mission carrying nearly 3 tons of supplies due to technical problems after launch. Roscosmos, the Russian Federal Space Agency, said the spacecraft is set to burn up in the atmosphere within the next two weeks.
Intelligence CIO Retires. Al Tarasiuk, the Intelligence Community (IC) Chief Information Officer (CIO), retired on Tuesday. Tarasiuk was appointed in February 2011, tasked with reducing expenditures through IT efficiencies to balance expected cuts to the intelligence community. He developed the IC Information Technology Enterprise, a joint information environment based on cloud computing to improve how agencies share mission-critical data. “Al uniquely provided the balanced leadership needed to lead the community’s CIOs through this important transformational effort.” Clapper says. Tarasiuk previously served as the Director of the CIA’s Information Services Center and the CIO of the CIA.
House Cyber Bills To Senate. The two cybersecurity information sharing bills passed by the House last week were combined and sent to the Senate on Monday, according to the latest version of the bill. Listed under the House Intelligence Committee’s bill’s number, H.R. 1560, the legislation was made into two titles. Title 1 is the Protecting Cyber Networks Act (PCNA, originally H.R. 1560) and Title 2 is the National Cybersecurity Protection Advancement Act (NCPAA, originally H.R. 1731). The final bill includes amendments approved on the House floor, including a seven-year sunset provision. The Senate has still not taken up its own cyber bill from the Senate Intelligence Committee, the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015 (CISA, S. 754).
Lockheed Opens New Missile Defense Lab. Lockheed Martin opened a new laboratory in Silicon Valley for the development of next-generation seekers to help the Missile Defense Agency defend against complex missile threats. “The technology we will develop and demonstrate in this laboratory is important because a seeker is the on-board eyes for a missile defense interceptor, and it must perform with perfect ’20/20 vision’ in the final moments before interception,” Doug Graham, vice president of missile systems and advanced programs at Lockheed Martin, says in a statement.