The Latest Word On Trends And Developments In Aerospace And Defense
CR Shuffle. Senate Democrats reportedly have been working on a seven-month continuing resolution (CR) for the remainder of fiscal year 2011 that contains reductions to the White House’s request larger than the $41 billion cut they previously posed. A House-passed full-year CR, which Senate leaders are rebuking, cuts Obama’s request by $100 billion. The measure, which the House passed Feb. 19, does not fund the F-35 alternate engine and says $145 million in it can be used to either shut down the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle program or continue with some development work. Meanwhile, Republicans controlling the House plan to bring to the floor this week a temporary CR funding the government for two weeks after the current resolution expires March 4. Released late last Friday, the CR calls for $4 billion in spending reductions. HAC Chairman Hal Rogers (R- Ky.) says this CR is intended to prevent a government shutdown in case the House and Senate can’t agree on a longer-term bill by March 4.
…To The Hill. Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn and Pentagon Comptroller Robert Hale are slated to testify before the Senate Appropriations Defense subcommittee tomorrow on “the impacts of a long-term continuing resolution on the Department of Defense and the Fiscal Year 2012 budget request,” the panel says. Hale has expressed concerns about both the House-passed year-long CR and any legislation that would continue funding the Pentagon for the rest of FY ’11 at FY ’10 levels.
Reprogram Pending. Lawmakers are rejecting aspects of a Jan. 31 reprogramming request from the Pentagon to move around $1.17 billion in its coffers to fund Joint Urgent Operational Needs identified by Army Gen. David Petraeus, the commander of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan. “General Petraeus believes that these actions are critical to the warfighting activities in Afghanistan and requests expedited approval,” the 13-page document signed by Pentagon comptroller Robert Hale says. “Secretary Gates has personally reviewed the substance of these actions and strongly supports approval of the reprogramming on an expedited basis.” Some of the proposed adjustments would help initiatives backed by the Secretary of Defense’s Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) Task Force.
…Details. Lawmakers are concerned with where the Pentagon wants to take the money from via the reprogramming. Reductions would be made to funds pegged for buying Army Humvees ($50.481 million) and the Navy’s variant of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter ($180 million), as well as advanced-procurement of C-130J aircraft ($15 million). The reprogramming would shift money to multiple ISR-related programs, as well as to buying 627 Humvees for the Air Force at a cost of $122 million. Congressional aides accused the Pentagon of targeting funding items for reductions in the reprogramming that it knew Congress would not approve.
Final Liftoff. ATK’s Reusable Solid Rocket Motors (RSRM) ignited last week, launching the Space Shuttle Discovery and its crew on their 11-day mission to the International Space Station (ISS). Since the inaugural flight of the space shuttle, 266 space shuttle solid rocket motors have been launched. The 149-foot-tall solid rocket boosters each produced more than 15 million horsepower, launching the shuttle to about 28 miles in altitude in just over two minutes. After the flight, the RSRMs were jettisoned from the orbiter and external tank by ATK’s 16 Booster Separation Motors. In addition, ATK supplied the titanium hydrazine propellant tanks for the space shuttle Auxiliary Power Unit.
Top Tester. Alan Norman, a veteran Lockheed Martin experimental test pilot, was recently named chief test pilot for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program. Norman replaces former F-35 Chief Test Pilot Jon Beesley, who retired Jan. 31. Before joining Lockheed Martin in 1999, Norman served in the Air Force for 23 years as a fighter pilot and test pilot. In 1999, he left active duty and became an experimental test pilot for Lockheed Martin on the F-22 program at Edwards AFB, Calif. Norman tested all aspects of the fighter’s flight regime while in the Combined Test Force. In addition to flight test and production work on the F-22, he performs production and test work on all models of the F-16. He is also Lockheed Martin’s Chief Pilot for the T-50 program. Norman has over 6,000 hours of flying time in more than 70 different aircraft. n
Collaborative Navigation. Northrop Grumman, in partnership with the University of Minnesota, has been selected to develop a collaborative navigation system under a U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory program. Collaborative navigation will allow aircraft to leverage information from onboard sensors in addition to shared data from other aircraft to achieve highly accurate navigation performance in all flight conditions, even in areas where global positioning system data is unavailable. Initially, the company and the university will develop algorithms that will enable the system to operate across multiple aircraft platforms. Future phases of the program will include the development of a real- time prototype collaborative navigation system and a flight test demonstration.
Commercial MILSATCOM. The Air Force Space last week awarded two contracts totaling $788,000 for studying the feasibility of using minimally modified commercial satellite communication products and capabilities to meet future MILSATCOM requirements operating in military frequencies. The studies are to inform an upcoming Joint Space Communications Layer Materiel Solutions Analysis phase, expected to begin later this year. Hughes Network Systems and U.S. Space LLC were awarded the four- to six-month study contracts. They will complement ongoing Air Force studies to develop the Pentagon’s future SATCOM architecture.
Winners and Losers. Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Amos says the U.S. effort in Afghanistan, particularly in the southern part of the country, has given him “reasons for optimism” with four months to go before the troop withdrawal deadline in June. “I have stayed away from [saying] winning or losing, as much as I’d like to use that term,” Amos says at a Defense Writers Group breakfast on Feb. 18. “If we can train the Afghan Army and we can train the Afghan police, then they can provide security…that is what I mean by optimism.” In Helmand province, where the majority of the Marines are stationed, U.S. personnel have seen great progress in the Afghan Army, but not as much within the ranks of the Afghan police. Getting both forces on par with each other will be key to any successful withdrawal.
Non-Answer Answer. Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) put Air Force Secretary Michael Donley on the spot recently when the issue of the service’s tanker deal came up. During a terse back and forth at the service’s Feb. 17 hearing on its fiscal year 2012 budget request, Rogers asks point-blank whether the Air Force planned to issue an immediate stop work order on the tanker contract after the award was announced to prevent an industry protest. In response, Donley says the service will “modulate the [program]…depending on where we are in the process.” On Thursday, the Air Force awarded the multibillion tanker deal to Boeing. During the DoD press conference, no mention of a stop-work order was addressed. When asked if the Air Force plans to allow work to begin on the program before the window to file a protest closes, defense acquisition chief Ashton Carter says DoD was authorizing the deal and the “contract is signed, or will be very shortly.”
Not So Fast. The Marine Corps remains dedicated to using an “MRAP-like process” for its new amphibious vehicle, but are under no illusions that the new Amphibious Combat Vehicle will get to the field as fast as the MRAP, says service Commandant Gen,. James Amos. “We are pushing real hard. I am not going to admire this program,” he says during a Feb. 18 Defense Writers Group breakfast. However, “it will not be as fast as the MRAP” in terms of deliveries, he says, referring to the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicle. The service released its request for proposals for the ACV this month.
Future Effectiveness. A new era is coming with a change in chief of staff later this year, says Under Secretary of the Army Joseph Westphal at the AUSA winter symposium in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., last week. The current chief, Gen. George Casey, has been forcefully behind the idea of finding balance in the force. To keep the service healthy at the very minimum, soldiers should deploy for one year while spending two years at home, Westphal says. “We believe that is essential for our Army to be effective in the future.” Army leaders are working to build resiliency in the force for soldiers and their families–that’s the top priority, he says.
Homework. What will Army doctrine look like in 2015? TRADOC Commander Gen. Martin Dempsey has given Lt. Gen. Robert Caslen, commander of the Combined Arms Center, some homework. Take a look at doctrine in 2015, and take FM 3.0 Army Operations and find out what it would look like at say, 10 pages, not the current more than 100 pages. “Rather than reading a thick book, condense it down to the essential elements of what doctrine is, get it to no more than 10 pages,” Caslen says at the AUSA winter symposium. Caslen is going to reach out to students at the School of Advanced Military Studies (SAMS) to write the 10-page doctrine. A prototype will roll out in July, to see if it’s where the service wants to go.
Watching The Priorities. Funding by Continuing Resolution has not meant any critical Army need has gone unfulfilled, says Deputy Chief of Staff G8 Lt. Gen. Robert Lennox at the AUSA winter symposium in Florida on Feb. 24. He’s reviewed lists and impacts on programs to check. Allocating modernization resources under the CR gives “anything in theater” an automatic requirement, he says. ISR, for example, goes to the top. However, “almost every program is affected one way or another,” he said. “It’s hard to strategize (about money) to figure out what (FY)’12 would be when we don’t know what’s in (FY)’11.” n
New Framework. The Army Maneuver Center of Excellence is working a Tactical Small Unit requirements document, says Lt. Gen. Michael Vane, director of the Capabilities Integration Center at TRADOC. The idea is to be holistic, he says at the AUSA winter symposium on Feb. 24. What the service hasn’t been able to do is bring lots of good programs into an organizational construct, he says. Maj. Gen. Robert Brown, who commands the maneuver center, says the document should be ready by May, and looks at the total tactical small unit, not just at each piece separately, such as the soldier, the vehicle, or the network. It will take a more total system approach. The new document will help make incremental spending decisions and look for the biggest bang for the buck, says Lt. Gen. Robert Lenox, deputy chief of staff G8.