The Latest Word On Trends And Developments In Aerospace And Defense
McCain’s Littoral. SASC Ranking Member John McCain (R-Ariz.) says Navy leaders made a “snap” decision late last year to change the acquisition strategy for the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), opting to buy both Austal USA and Lockheed Martin-Marinette Marine’s vessel instead of choosing one. McCain shares naval analyst Norman Polmar’s concern about the Navy’s stance that the existing competition had driven down costs for both designs. “That is a questionable claim in view of the more than doubling of the costs of prototypes of both designs, major problems in developing and producing their mission modules, and the increased cost of supporting a large number of both LCS configurations in the fleet,” the senator says at a March 8 hearing, telling Navy Secretary Ray Mabus: “I’ll be here for a few more years and we’ll see whether your decision was correct or not. Or whether Norman Polmar and I (were) correct when you made a snap decision…that all of a sudden we have to approve two different ship yards to do the job that for years you told the Congress and the American people that you were going to select one. This…enormously erodes the credibility of the Navy’s plans and programs, at least for this member.”
….Levin’s Take. SASC Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) notes that the revised LCS plan is projected to save the Navy $2.9 billion. “We will be monitoring closely to ensure that the department actually achieves these savings and gets costs under control in other acquisition programs,” he says. He adds: “We need to see more success stories such as the savings from the LCS program or the savings for more efficient production of the Virginia-class submarine or the savings from the F/A-18 multi-year procurement program if the Department of the Navy is going to make continued progress in building the size of the fleet.”
SASC Seats. Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) is the new ranking member of the SASC’s AirLand subcommittee, which has oversight of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter’s alternate engine, partially made by his homestate employer General Electric. Brown has been supportive of the F136 engine, which has a tenuous future in Congress and is opposed by SASC AirLand Chairman Joe Lieberman (I/D-Conn.), in whose state the F-35’s primary Pratt & Whitney engine is made. Other new SASC subcommittee leadership spots announced March 9 include: Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), ranking member of Strategic Forces; Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), chairwoman of Readiness; Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.), ranking member of Readiness; Sen. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.), chairwoman of Emerging Threats and Capabilities; and Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), ranking member of Emerging Threats and Capabilities.
Young V. Gates. HAC-D Chairman C.W. “Bill” Young (R-Fla.) rejects part of a proposed Pentagon money shift and chastises Defense Secretary Robert Gates in a March 9 letter. “I find it very troubling that you would suggest that my colleagues and I on the subcommittee are doing something that would ‘put American lives at risk,'” Young says. Gates on March 2 told the panel that every day Congress had not approved the programming request–to shift $1.2 billion for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) equipment–” the lives of our troops are at greater risk.” The Pentagon wants to take $863.5 million out of the Army Humvee account for ISR needs. The HAC-D says it can take $613.5 million out. Young says the Pentagon should submit another reprogramming for the $250 million, which he says should be used for upgrading Humvee survivability. While the Army has no plans to buy more Humvees, Young points to the Marine Corps’ interest in the vehicles.
Guardian Guard. Northrop Grumman, in partnership with the Air National Guard’s 190th Air Refueling Wing, has completed the first round of flight testing with the company’s Guardian System anti-missile technology onboard a KC-135 air refueling aircraft. ” The feedback from the flight test pilots has been overwhelmingly positive,” says Col. Keith Lang, commander of the 190th, based at Forbes Field Air National Guard Base, Topeka, Kan. An advanced laser-based missile protection system, the Guardian is designed to protect aircraft, crew and passengers from advanced man-portable air defense systems. It consists of a multi-band laser pointer/tracker and an ultraviolet missile warning sensor. The system is contained almost entirely in a single pod that mounts to the underside of the fuselage. The system operates by detecting launched missiles and then directing a non- visible, eye-safe laser to the seeker head of the incoming missile, disrupting its guidance signals.
End of The Line. The Air Force has accepted MQ-1 Predator tail number 268, the last manufactured for the service, in a ceremony March 3 at prime contractor General Atomics Aeronautical Systems’ flight ops facility. Col. James Beissner, chief of Air Combat Command’s irregular warfare division, accepted the aircraft on behalf of the Air Force. “This event marks a milestone in Air Force history given the path this aircraft took from conception to operational excellence,” says Beissner. Since its first flight in the summer of 1994, the MQ-1 has accumulated over 900,000 flight hours and maintained a fleet fully mission capable rate over 90 percent, according to the Air Force. The aircraft’s primary missions are close air support, air interdiction, and ISR.
Big Mover. The Air Force’s biggest airlifter, the C-5 Galaxy, is key to U.S. Transportation Command’s “multi-modal” effort to move Army helicopters to Afghanistan. The operation under way in Western Europe features two C-5B and two C-5M Super Galaxies and crew from the 436th Airlift Wing at Dover AFB, Del. The C-5s are airlifting approximately 3,300 tons of cargo–mainly Army helicopters that include the CH-47 Chinook, UH-60 Black Hawk and OH-58 Kiowa. In this operation, commercial ships carry equipment and helicopters for the Army’s 159th Combat Aviation Brigade to Western Europe, and from there C-5s carry the cargo to Afghanistan. At the same time, equipment and helicopters from the 101st Combat Aviation Brigade are flown back to Western Europe from Afghanistan and then reloaded on ships back to the United States. The C-5s are moving more than 170 helicopters in this operation.
Better Mousetrap. U.S. troops stationed around the globe will soon be able to assess real-time and future GPS accuracy, both where they are and where they’re going, with a new capability developed by the 2nd Space Operations Squadron’s Global Positioning System User Operations team. The new capability uses the Google Earth software application to display data supplied by the GPS ops center for troops on the ground in places like Afghanistan. “Right now, users must view slides and other similar forms of displays to extrapolate the scenario they are looking for, whereas this tool lays everything on one viewable screen, ” says Capt. Bryony Veater, the 2nd SOPS weapons and tactics flight commander. “It even displays the terrain warfighters will need to traverse during their operation.” The new capability also creates a one-stop shop for ground-force mission planners who are looking for different forms of GPS core data. “Until now, users would have to visit up to five or six different (secure) websites to obtain the GPS data they need,” Veater says. Jordan Scott, a former Army captain, conceived the idea after returning from a deployment in Afghanistan this past summer. Once he relayed the concept, the GPSOC team went about innovating and modifying software to make it compatible with Google Earth software. They began testing in preparation for product launch about a month ago, and the capability could be operational in a few weeks.
Stick Together. Defense Secretary Robert Gates made an emphatic plea for unity among NATO forces fighting in Afghanistan this week, saying any troop drawdowns being sought by those forces must be coordinated with their U.S. allies. During a speech last Friday at the alliance’s headquarters in Brussels, Belgum, Gates warned any autonomous effort by any of the NATO countries to pull their forces out of Afghanistran will “sacrifice the significant gains made to date” against insurgent forces. “Let me be clear. [An] uncoordinated national drawdowns would risk the gains made to date. Considerations about any drawdown of forces must be driven by security conditions and the ISAF commander’s operational needs, and not by mathematical calculation shaped by political concern, the defense secretary says.” U.S. troops are tentatively scheduled to begin deployling from Afganistan in July.
Tough Enough? How tough is the Navy’s new Littoral Combat Ship? Tough enough, according to Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead. The CNO defended the program during last week’s House Appropriations defense subcommittee hearing on the sea service’s fiscal year 2012 budget. During the hearing, panel member Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.) pressed Roughead on the ship’s durability, noting a DoD review of the program criticized the ship’s ability to perform in a “sustained…combat environment.” Noting the LCS was clearly not as durable as an Aegis-equipped destroyer, the LCS “possesses levels of survivability and redundancy that allow it to go into hostile environments,” according to the CNO. “LCS, in concert with the rest of the fleet, I believe is going to be a very key component of our ability to operate in the military.”
Down Time. As the Marine Corps plans their future for a post-Afghanistan world, the men and women who will carry out that plan will be able to do most of that`work stateside, according to Marine Commandant Gen. James Amos. Testifying before the House Approprations defense subcommittee last Wednesday, Amos says dwell time for Marines between deployments will be increased from the current one-to-two cycle to one-to-three. “We’re very comfortable in the combat environment being on a one-to-two dwell. Marines like that. We can continue to do that,” Amos says. “But when we leave sustained combat down the road and we enter this world of steady state security, engagement and all of that, we have built a force that will give us a one-to-three dwell. So, it will allow us the time at home with our families and to reconstitute the force.”
Perimeter Security. The Transportation Security Administration is working with the Homeland Security Institute to develop an assessment tool to better understand airport perimeter security vulnerabilities, John Sammon, assistant administrator for Transportation Sector Network Management, tells a House panel. The agency is also working with the institute to develop best practices for airports to implement to improve their perimeter security, he says. An initial assessment of the best practices is complete and the evaluation tool should be ready next month, he says. The GAO reported in September 2009 that TSA didn’t understand the nature of the problem related to perimeter security at airports and found that only 13 percent of airports had even done vulnerability assessments of their perimeter security. Sammon says that all too often he hears from airport security people that “‘If you’ve seen one airport, you’ve seen one airport.'” He says there is no reason that certain standards, processes and protocols can’t be used across airports for perimeter security.
Arctic Operations. As the ice pack in the Arctic Ocean continues to melt and opens more water to shipping, fishing and cruise lines, the Coast Guard has little in the way to offer for arctic operations. The service doesn’t have the infrastructure and assets to respond quickly to mishaps such as oil spills and accidents requiring search and rescue missions, Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Bob Papp tells a House Homeland Security panel. The service has been doing a high latitude study and one finding is that it needs a seasonal air station in the Arctic, he says. Last summer, the Canadian Coast Guard was heavily criticized within its own country after a cruise ship and oil tanker ran aground in separate incidents yet it took days to respond in one case and two weeks in the other, Papp says. “In our case, we would not be able to respond, period,” Papp says.
…Arctic Competency. The Coast Guard has just two heavy icebreakers in its fleet, one of which is being decommissioned and the other to be recapitalized. The issue of being able to operate in the Arctic is more than just having the proper assets, Papp says. It also means being able to operate competently. But the trend here is negative. “We’re losing our competencies. Because the National Science Foundation has not been transferring the funding to use Coast Guard icebreakers, we’re starting to lose our expertise. We’re running out of people that have been involved up in the Arctic doing icebreaking…and that is a perishable skill. Fortunately, we still have a few people around that can do it.”
Pledge. Lockheed Martin pledges $10 million to sponsor the National Museum of the United States Army’s Education Pavilion, a unique, state-of-the-art interactive resource center that will feature science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) educational programs related to the company’s four product areas–water, air, land, and space. “Lockheed Martin’s $10 million is the largest pledge the Museum campaign has received to date, and we appreciate the company’s remarkable commitment,” says retired Maj. Gen. John Herrling, Campaign executive director, acknowledging the gift. “Lockheed Martin is proud to support the National Museum of the United States Army’s Education Pavilion,” says Bob Stevens, chairman and CEO, Lockheed Martin. “We believe this is an important investment to make in young people who may be considering a career in science, technology, engineering, or math.”
Annual Forum. The Joint Program Executive Office for the Joint Tactical Radio System (JPEO JTRS) sponsors its annual JTRS Science and Technology Forum (JSTeF) this week, March 15-17, on the campus of the University of California, San Diego, in La Jolla, Calif.; along with the Wireless Innovation Forum, the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology and the San Diego Chapter of the National Defense Industry Association. The March 16 keynote addresses will be given by Malcolm O’Neill, assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology, and by Howard Pace, acting Joint Program Executive Officer, who will discuss the importance of JTRS wireless communications and networking for the Defense Department; and the roles of industry and academia in developing future software defined radio capabilities.
New Advisory Board. Retired Army Gen. George Joulwan is a member of the new SolutionPoint International Inc., Advisory Board. The board is comprised of experienced and distinguished leaders drawn from the fields of business, law enforcement, the military, science, professional sports, and corporate governance. It is to provide the management team with insights and guidance and support the organization’s ability to deliver value to clients, operate with integrity and set the standard of excellence in the markets it serves. Bart Schwartz, chairman of SolutionPoint, says: “This enhances our ability to provide the integrated solutions our clients need in order to function securely, safely and with confidence in the face of a wide variety of challenges.”
Military Scholars. The Pat Tillman Foundation’s third annual Tillman Military Scholars application process is now open. The Tillman Military Scholars program provides educational scholarships for veterans, active servicemembers and their direct dependents–spouse and children. For specific details go to: http://www.pattillmanfoundation.org/tillman-military-scholars/apply/. All scholarships will be granted for the 2011/2012 academic year. The program covers direct study-related expenses such as tuition and books, as well as, other basic needs such as housing and childcare.
Clock Is Ticking. The biggest readiness challenge is time, service officials say at a HASC Readiness hearing last week. Army Lt. Gen. Daniel Bolger and Air Force Lt. Gen. Herbert Carlisle agreed time is vital–to have the time to prepare for “wherever we go next,” Carlisle tells Rep. Larry Kissel (D-N.C.).
New Council. Glevum Associates says it has created a Strategic Advisory Council (SAC) to help expand its global presence and deepen its established expertise in human terrain and socio-cultural understanding. Initial members of the SAC include retired Army Gen. William Wallace, who led TRADOC and Army V Corps during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Also on SAC is retired Lt. Gen. Dell Dailey, who helped shape U.S. international counterterrorism policy as the State Department’s Coordinator for Counterterrorism. Daily also direct SOCOM’s Center for Special Operations. Retired Marine Lt. Gen. John Sattler also joins the SAC. He was director for Strategic Plans and Policy for the Joint Chiefs of Staff between 2006 and 2008.