The Latest Word On Trends And Developments In Aerospace And Defense
Hill Happenings. Congress will return to Washington this week, after a two-week recess, and hold a series of defense hearings. Highlights include a HASC Oversight and Investigations hearing Wednesday on the Navy’s 30-year shipbuilding plan and a SASC Seapower panel gathering Thursday on shipbuilding programs. Additional hearings by the HASC on members’ priorities for the FY ’13 defense authorization bill, nuclear forces, and Syria are planned, as are hearings by the SASC on science labs, Pentagon financial management, and the National Nuclear Security Administration. On the appropriations side, the SAC will convene Wednesday for a missile-defense hearing. HASC members also will be prepping to start marking up the authorization legislation next week. On April 26, the Military Personnel, Seapower and Projection Forces, Strategic Forces, and Emerging Threats and Capabilities subcommittees will hold their bill-writing sessions. The Tactical Air and Land Forces and the Readiness subpanels will mark up on April 27. Then, after a one-week break, the full HASC is planning to mark up the combined bill on May 9.
FFRDC Fracas. The Professional Services Council is blasting the Pentagon’s request for the power to award multi-year no-bid contacts to federally funded research and development centers (FFRDCs). The Pentagon’s fiscal year 2013 budget proposal would grant it such authority, and the HASC will consider the idea when it marks up its version of the policy-setting defense authorization bill in the coming week. “In an era when defense budgets are constrained, and with the possibility of sequestration looming to further reduce the deficit, it is no longer prudent to award contracts without meaningful competition, without appropriate transparency into cost or price, and without inspecting the justification for sole-source awards to FFRDCs,” Stan Soloway, the trade group’s president and CEO, says in a April 12 letter to HASC Chairman Howard “Buck” McKeon (R-Calif.) and Ranking Member Adam Smith (D-Wash.) “We believe it is time for there to be a competition for many of the services now assigned to FFRDCs and, as (President Barack Obama) said, to ‘open the contracting process’ and ‘maximize transparency and accountability.’”
Sequester Shuffle. “There is significant ambiguity” regarding the implementation of possible sequestration cuts to the Pentagon, David Berteau from the Center for Strategic and International Studies says April 11 at his think tank’s Global Security Forum. Under the Budget Control Act of 2011, if Congress does not stop a so-called sequestration process this year, planned defense spending will be cut by an additional $492 billion over the next decade, he says. Berteau says one of the “elements of ambiguity” has to do with the baseline from which the sequestration reductions would come. ”One reading says that’s going to be the FY ’13 budget request, or whatever Congress has appropriated by the time we get to January 2, 2013,” he tells the conference. “But another reading says it actually could be the budget caps that were set by the Budget Control Act, which is about $19 billion higher in fiscal year ’13 than the FY ’13 budget request. There’s a big difference between taking $52 billion out of DoD and $33 billion out of DoD.”
…Part 2. Berteau, CSIS’s senior vice president and director of its International Security Program, says a “second level of ambiguity” exists regarding how precisely the across-the-board sequestration cuts would be implemented. “A careful reading of the act uses the word account in some places,” he says. “It could be interpreted as, in fact, appropriation account.” He says “one would be inclined to agree with that” because the only actual account defined in the law is the military-personnel account, which the president could exempt from the sequestration cuts. Berteau says such an interpretation “would give the president substantially more flexibility in terms of implementation of sequestration, should he in fact so choose to do.” However, he says, “all indications today are that the Office of Management and Budget is exercising its expected prerogative of refining to the nth degree the implementation precision.” He adds: “I think, politically, that’s to be expected, because you want this to look as impossible to achieve as you can in order to encourage Congress to change it.”
Noise Reduction. The Office of Naval Research is exploring ways to reduce noise produced by supersonic jets to make life a little easier on aircraft carrier flight decks and for communities surrounding bases. “We’re funding the development of tools that we’ll need to help control jet noise in tactical aircraft,” said Brenda Henderson, ONR’s deputy manager for the Jet Noise Reduction project. ONR recently awarded $4 million to teams at Brigham Young University, California Institute of Technology, Cascade Technologies, Innovative Technology Applications Co., University of Illinois, University of Mississippi, Pennsylvania State University and Virginia Tech to to look at dampening the thundering sound of jet engines. “The noise problem falls into two categories: noise exposure on the flight deck and noise impact on the communities surrounding air bases,” Henderson says.
F-35A Night Refuel. The Air Force completes the first night refueling in the history of Lockheed Martin’s F-35A program April 5 at Edwards AFB, Calif., according to a company statement. The AF-4, an F-35A conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) variant, rendezvoused with an Air Force KC-135 aerial refueling tanker and successfully received fuel through the F-35’s boom receptacle, according to a statement. The “sortie,” or training run, lasted more than three hours, according to a statement. The F-35A is the variant the Air Force is purchasing.
Final F-22. Lockheed Martin commemorates the delivery of the final F-22 Raptor stealth fighter jet during an official ceremony in Marietta, Ga., on May 2, according to a company statement. This Raptor, tail number 4195, will be based at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson near Anchorage, Alaska, it says. The F-22 has come under fire for a possible oxygen system malfunction that has caused hypoxia-like conditions in pilots. The Air Force announced March 30 it was convinced there is root cause to the problem, but doesn’t know what it is.
Boeing MOP. The Air Force awards Boeing April 12 a $98.8 million not-to-exceed cost-plus-incentive-fee and firm-fixed-priced contract to procure enhanced threat response redesign for the Massive Ordinance Penetrator, according to a Defense Department statement. Work is to be completed by March 30, 2014, and Eglin AFB, Fla., is the contracting activity, according to a statement.
NG Microwaves. Northrop Grumman recently celebrated the completion of its 2,000th microwave power module, according to a company statement. The company completed its 2,000th module in December, according to a company spokeswoman. Microwave power modules are integral components in radars, jammers and other military electronics that amplify radio frequency signals to high power, according to a statement. The power these modules generate allow systems like the ALQ-135 to defeat electronic threats with strong signals, according to a statement.
Bell Provides Support. Bell Helicopter will provide logistics support for 30 Bell 407 helicopters in service with the Iraqi army, under a more than $15 million contract through the U.S. Army. Bell will provide the support for 24 Bell 407s bought by Iraq through Foreign Military Sales, and six other Bell 407s purchased by the U.S. Army and supplied to the Iraqi Ministry of Defense. Bell will support aircraft used to train qualified Iraqi army aviation pilots to operate and maintain the helicopters, as well as rapidly accelerate the fielding and utilization of Iraqi Armed 407 Armed Scout Helicopters. “The government of Iraq is in the process of building its capabilities to provide security both internally and externally. These aircraft and their operational contribution to the security of Iraq is a result of the hard work and dedication of the entire team,” says Lt. Col. Courtney Cote, product manager for the Army’s Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter and of the Iraqi 407 program.
New Senior Adviser. QinetiQ North America says retired Lt. Gen. Rick Lynch will serve as senior adviser, Robotics and Warfighter Systems, for its Technology Solutions Group (TSG). In this role, Lynch will provide valuable expertise and strategic guidance to the company’s Unmanned Systems and Survivability business lines. After 34 years, Lynch recently retired from the Army as assistant chief of staff, Installation Management/Commanding General for the Pentagon’s Installation Management Command.
Supporting CENTCOM. General Dynamics Information Technology will support the 160th Signal Brigade under a five-year contract with a potential value of $64.5 million if all options are exercised. The 160th Signal Brigade provides the U.S. Central Command with the enterprise communications capabilities needed for missions throughout Southwest Asia and the United States. General Dynamics will carry out administrative, information assurance, cyber security and operations functions, as well as provide power and facilities engineering, logistics services and IT networking and transmission expertise to aid the 160th Signal Brigade as it provides theater-level communications for the U.S. Central Command. The work will be done in Kuwait, Qatar and Afghanistan.
Highest Award. James A. Baker III, former secretary of state, secretary of the treasury and White House chief of staff, will receive the 2012 George Catlett Marshall Medal, the highest award presented by the Association of the United States Army (AUSA). Awarded annually to an individual who has exhibited selfless service to the United States of America, the medal will be presented to Baker by the Association’s Council of Trustees to recognize his contributions to the United States as a cabinet member, presidential adviser and a strong supporter of national defense and the men and women of the armed forces. “As an exceptional patriot, who served his country during many of the world’s and our nation’s most volatile, challenging and complex times, Secretary Baker–with extraordinary and singular abilities, including uncommon dedication and diplomacy–is a true American icon who represents the best of public service and sacrifice to the nation,” AUSA President Gordon Sullivan says. The award will be presented Oct. 24, at the George Catlett Marshall Memorial Dinner, the final event of the three-day AUSA Annual Meeting and Exposition in Washington, D.C.