By Runyon Won’t Seek Reelection. Rep. Jon Runyan (R-N.J.), a member of the House Armed Services Committee, announced Nov. 7 he would not seek reelection next year. “Politics shouldn’t be a career and I never intended to make it one. While it has truly been an honor to serve the people of New
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Jersey’s 3rd Congressional District, at this stage in my life, and more importantly, the lives of my three children, spending time with them is my top priority,” he says in a statement. HASC chairman Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) adds, “Jon has been the tireless advocate and teammate for the men and women of Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst and our military…I will miss his friendship, humor and insight on our committee after this Congress but wish him and his family all the best as they get some much deserved time together back home in New Jersey."
Navy Responds To Nomination Hold. Two senators, Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) put a hold on the nomination of Jo Ann Rooney, who was nominated to be the under secretary of the Navy, and they made clear they would not lift the hold. Gillibrand calls Rooney’s stance on prosecuting sexual assaults in the military “prohibitive.” The Navy has not yet determined a way out of the situation, with top spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby saying only that "we are aware the hold on Dr. Rooney’s nomination is still in place. We look forward to working with the Senate in the confirmation process."
DoD Civilians Hit Hardest By Shutdown. Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, released the results of an Office of Management and Budget study she had requested on the impact of the federal government shutdown last month. The 27-page report goes through a slew of economic indicators and looks at a variety of government programs that were hurt. The workforce section analyzes the estimated furlough days by agency and found that, even though some DoD civilians were kept on the job at the beginning of the shutdown and most were brought back early thanks to the Pay Our Military Act, DoD still came out on top. The Department had 1.6 million employee furlough days during the shutdown–well above any other department, with Treasury having 985,000 and Agriculture having 737. “OMB’s report is proof-positive that shutdown, slamdown politics is the wrong way to govern our country,” Mikulski says. “This manufactured crisis damaged the economy, cost us jobs, and hurt middle class families. We now have the facts to prove it.”
Virgin Galactic NBC. Virgin Galactic reaches an agreement to have NBCUniversal broadcast its inaugural commercial spaceflight of SpaceShipTwo, according to a Virgin Galactic statement. Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson and his two children will be the first private passengers to travel into space. Virgin Galactic and NBC News’ Peacock Productions will chronicle the journey across NBCUniversal’s brands and platforms including MSNBC, CNBC, SYFY, the Weather Channel andNBCNews.com, culminating in a primetime special airing on NBC the night before the launch and a three-hour live event on “Today.” Variety magazine reports that the launch will take place in August. An NBC News spokeswoman would only say the launch is scheduled for 2014.
Global Hawk Contract. The Air Force awards Northrop Grumman a $114 million advance procurement contract in preparation to build three more RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and associated sensors, according to a company statement. The contract provides for advance procurement of long-lead items associated with three Block 30 aircraft, including three enhanced integrated sensor suites, three airborne signals intelligence payload (ASIP) and two ASIP retrofit kits to be installed on previously purchased aircraft. Work under this contract is expected to be completed in 2015.
More Joint STARS. The Air Force awards Northrop Grumman a $178 million contract to continue sustaining the service’s entire fleet of E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar Systems (Joint STARS) aircraft, according to a company statement. The contract is a continuation of Northrop Grumman’s Total System Support Reliability (TSSR) program, which was first awarded in 2000. Northrop Grumman is responsible for the logistics, engineering, training, mission support, supply chain and depot maintenance support of the Joint STARS fleet at Robins AFB, Ga., and forward operating bases overseas.
DynCorp Protest. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) denies a protest by DynCorp International over the Air Force awarding a contract to M1 Support Services for C-21 contractor logistics support (CLS). DynCorp asserts that the agency improperly failed to resolve an alleged procurement integrity issue and that the agency’s evaluation of M1’s proposal was unreasonable. GAO denies the alleged procurement integrity protest because after investigating the issue, the Air Force reasonably determined that by operation of a “savings provision” of the Procurement Integrity Act, no procurement integrity violation occurred. GAO also denies a protest that the Air Force unreasonably determined the awardee’s proposal to be technically acceptable because the evaluation was reasonable and consistent with the solicitation’s evaluation criteria.
Helms Nomination. Air Force Lt. Gen. Susan Helms applies for retirement, ending her candidacy to become vice commander of Air Force Space Command, according to Air Force spokesman Lt. Col. Allen Herritage. Helms is currently commander of the 14th Air Force. No timeframe has been developed for her departure. Helms was under fire for her role in overturning a sexual assault conviction.
Final Cyber Workshop Set. The National Institute of Standards and Technology will host its fifth and final workshop this week for stakeholders to discuss the Cyber Security Framework, a set of existing cyber security standards that is currently in preliminary form and that can be voluntarily adopted by owners and operators of the nation’s critical infrastructures to bolster their network security. The workshop will be held in at North Carolina State Univ. in Raleigh and will include a panel discussion on privacy and civil liberties. The final framework is scheduled to be released in February 2014.
Federal Data Portal. The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee has passed a bipartisan bill that would require standardized reporting of federal spending to be posted to a single website, “allowing citizens to track spending in their communities.” The Digital Accountability and Transparency Act (DATA) requires spending data to be posted to a single website to enable just about anyone to better follow the money. “Our bill would reform and significantly improve USASpending.govby strengthening federal financial transparency, empowering taxpayers to see how their money is spent, and providing a better tool for eliminating wasted, fraud and abuse, and I am pleased that today’s vote has brought it one step closer to passage,” says Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio). Portman, along with Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), co-sponsored the DATA Act. Companion legislation has also been introduced in the House by Reps. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Elijah Cummings (D-Md.).
…DATA Details. Some of the specific measures called for in the DATA Act include the expansion of the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act so that anyone can view the complete life-cycle of federal spending, including by agency and sub-agency, appropriation, program activity and object class. The bill also calls for the Treasury Department to set financial data standards for federal agencies so that data quality is improved. Another component of the bill seeks to make life easier for recipients of federal awards by requiring the White House Office of Management and Budget to review existing reporting requirements so that compliance costs can be reduced.
Long-Term Amphib Industrial Base. The Navy does want a new amphibious ship that would follow production of its current San Antonio-class of amphibious transport ships, Mike Petters, chief of shipbuilder Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) says on the company’s latest earnings call. The problem is how to keep the production line “hot” to transition between the class of LPD San Antonioships and the LX(R) class of ships that would be smaller, he says. He says the LX(R) can “look a lot like” the LPD vessels by taking advantage of the engineering and other work but the “timing of [the LX(R) is already too far out.” Petters notes that Congress has provided $260 million to help keep the amphibious ship industrial base going until a new vessel can be budgeted. But having a discussion now about keeping “a production line hot and be efficient and strategic about an amphibious program that supports the long-term interests of the country when we seem to be operating the country on a month-by-month basis” is difficult, he says.
New Energy Dept. Posts. The White House announced on Nov. 6 that it has nominated a new principal deputy administrator for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) as well as a new head for the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). Pending confirmation, Madelyn Creedon, currently Assistant Secretary of Defense for Global Strategic Affairs, will move to NNSA after two years in her post at DoD. Creedon has previously worked for the Senate Armed Forces Committee, NNSA, and the Department of Energy. Ellen D. Williams, who has been the Chief Scientist for BP since 2010, will become director at ARPA-E. She has served on the Physics faculty at the University of Maryland since 1991.
LCS System Testing. The Navy has completed a second round of testing the surface warfare mission package on the USS Fort Worth (LCS-3), the third Littoral Combat Ship. The testing took place at the Navy’s Point Mugu Range off the southern California coast last week and was to assess performance and recent upgrades as well as correct issues in previous testing. “Preliminary analyses of the results indicate that overall test objectives were achieved, and the ship and mission package operated as expected,” Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) says. The test involved demonstrating the ability to detect, track and simulate engagement of air and surface threats. The final exercise was a live-fire event for defending against several remotely operated attacking speed boats, NAVSEA says. The Initial Operational Test and Evaluation for the surface warfare mission package will be conducted in early 2014, and will be the final step in achieving initial operational capability. The surface warfare package is one of three swappable modular packages designed for the LCS class, along with anti-submarine warfare and mine countermeasures. All LCSs will have a fixed 57mm gun, and the surface warfare package adds two 30mm guns.
Awards For PEO Subs. The Navy’s Program Executive Office for submarines at NAVSEA has received two government awards for excellence in procurement. The research and development design contract team working on the Navy’s next class of ballistic missile subs to replace the Ohio class received the Department of Defense Government Savings award. NAVSEA said the Ohio replacement team was awarded for negotiating and signing a unique shipbuilding research and development design contract. The five-year, $2 billion contract included incentives tied directly to the contractor producing measurable cost-savings throughout the entire life of the program. The contract includes a special incentive fee pool of approximately $100 million tied to providing validated cost savings to the Navy. The Navy has been trying to drive down the cost on the Ohio-replacement program, which is expected to place a massive burden on the shipbuilding budget when it gets underway in the 2020s. The Department of Defense Myth-Busters Award was given to the surface ship torpedo defense team for fostering effective communication between government and industry during the acquisition process. “These two programs are great examples of what you can do when you put intelligent and motivated teams on a task," said Rear Adm. David Johnson, the PEO for subs.
Continued MEADS Opposition. Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) continues opposition to the successful Nov. 6 “graduation exercise” for MEADS at White Sands Missile Range, N.M. CAGW continues to state that the program could be eliminated without endangering national security. “From the perspective of U.S. taxpayers, it is difficult to understand the necessity of going forward with the test, especially since the Pentagon has no plans to purchase the system. It has been widely speculated that this test is simply a showpiece for the system contractor, Lockheed Martin, and the MEADS program allies, Germany and Italy, to shop for potential contributors to continue development and procurement of MEADS.” Poland shows interest in the program. CAGW says former Army acting acquisition chief Dean Popps has heavily criticized any further investment in MEADS, and claimed the test is “largely to assuage our partner nations hoping to fill the void left by the United States.”
New Honor. Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton Nov. 14 will receive the American Patriot Award presented by the National Defense University Foundation (NDU Foundation). Clinton was previously a senator from New York. The foundation says the American Patriot Award “annually recognizes leaders of extraordinary caliber who have strengthened America’s strategic interests and advanced global security.” Past honorees include: President George H.W. Bush, Robert Gates, Henry Kissinger, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and former Democratic Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), and retired Gen. Colin Powell.
More Airlift. AAR says U.S. Transportation Command exercised an approximately $156 million renewal option for airlift support in Afghanistan through Oct. 31, 2014. The TRANSCOM renewal extends AAR’s mission-critical U.S. military support under a contract awarded in September 2010. AAR will meet the requirements using 10 rotor-wing aircraft from its fleet. The U.S.-based defense contractor transports people, cargo and mail for DoD and NATO operations in Afghanistan. “We are proud of our role as the largest provider of airlift for the U.S. government and its allies in Afghanistan and to serve as an integral part of our nation’s logistics capability," says Randy Martinez, president and CEO of AAR Airlift Group.
NIE Reschedules Industry Day. The Army has again pushed back the planned NIE Industry Day and One-On-One Customer Feedback Sessions to Dec. 11 from Nov. 19 at Ft. Belvoir, Va. The goal remains the same, to keep the industrial base informed on the planning status of the upcoming NIEs and to conduct one-on-one small group industry feedback sessions.
