Capitol Hill Week Ahead. Congress returns from Thanksgiving week recess with only a couple of weeks to hammer out an omnibus spending bill—which will include defense appropriations—before the current continuing resolution expires on Dec. 11. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Marine Corps Gen. Joseph Dunford travel to the Hill on Dec. 1 to testify in front of the HASC on the U.S. strategy for Iraq and Syria. Also that day, the SASC hears expert testimony on potential next steps for acquisition reform, and HASC holds a hearing on the efficiency of naval acquisition.
DHS SOC Delay. The Department of Homeland Security says it is delaying by more than a month the release of its solicitation for a potential $395 million contract to provide Security Operations Services (SOC) for its headquarters components. DHS says the solicitation is still under review by its Office of Procurement Operations Contract Review Board and won’t be issued until mid-Jan. 2016. The solicitation had been slated for release around Nov. 30. The SOC services will enable DHS to monitor, detect, analyze, mitigate and respond to cyber threats on its enterprise. 
sUAS Recommendations. A task force chartered by the Federal Aviation Administration to make recommendations on registering for the use of small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS), including those used for commercial purposes and model aircraft, suggests three main parts for a registration. The recommendations include filling out an electronic registration form, immediate receipt of an electronic certificate of registration and personal registration number for use on each sUAS owned by a person, and marking the registration number on all sUAS before they are operated in the National Air Space, says the final report of the task force.
Webb Telescope. NASA successfully installs the first of 18 flight mirrors onto the James Webb Space Telescope, beginning a critical piece of the observatory’s construction. An engineering team uses a robot arm to lift and lower the hexagonal-shaped segment that measures just over four feet, two inches, across and weighs approximately 88 pounds. After being pieced together, the 18 primary mirror segments will work together as one large roughly 21-foot mirror. Full installation is expected to be completed early next year. NASA targets launch for 2018. JWST, the successor to Hubble Space Telescope, will study every phase in history of our universe, including the cosmos’ first luminous glows and the formation of solar systems capable of supporting life on planets like Earth.
Carl Gustaf Order. Saab receives an order from the Austrian Armed Forces for Carl-Gustaf man-[portable shoulder-launched recoilless rifle system ammunition. The contract includes production and delivery for the ammunition, set to take place during the 2016-2017 period.
Chris Christie on Defense. At the Council on Foreign Relations last Tuesday, Republican presidential candidate and New Jersey governor Chris Christie skirts a question about whether he would deploy ground troops to Iraq and Syria to fight the Islamic State, also known as ISIS. “The fact is that this has to be done really carefully,” he says. “And that’s why I think working with NATO is not the only thing we need to do. I think we need to work with our Arab allies in the Middle East as well.” He is more bullish on a question about whether he would be willing to work with Russia to fight the Islamic State. “I don’t believe [Russian] President Vladimir Putin has any real interest in combating ISIS. His role in Syria is to prop up Assad,” Christie says, speaking of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Raytheon FAB-T. Raytheon begins low-rate initial production (LRIP) of communications terminals for the Family of Advanced Beyond Line of Sight Terminal (FAB-T) program after the Air Force approves milestone C, according to a company statement. The milestone C review marks the beginning of the production phase of the program. Raytheon will produce both airborne and ground vehicle terminal variants, deliver spares and provide training, installation and logistical support under an exercised contract option of the previously-awarded production program. FAB-T is a highly-secure satellite communications terminal that allows the president, senior military advisers and combatant commanders to receive and transmit voice, data, imagery and video around the world to support various military operations.
Virginia–Class Submarines. The Navy awards General Dynamics Electric Boat a $103 million contract modification to update the Virginia-class submarine design, drawings and data for each vessel during their construction and post shakedown availability. The modification brings the value of the contract, initially awarded in 2010, to $1.1 billion, the company says in a news release. The work also includes lead yard services necessary for submarine maintenance, as well as development studies and design efforts related to develop new technologies to be integrated in later hulls, including prototypes and engineering development models. Work is expected to be completed by April 2016 and will be mostly performed in Groton, Conn.
…More GD. Electric Boat also picks up a $47 million contract modification for submarine repairs. The company will conduct non-nuclear maintenance, modernization and repair of operational nuclear powered submarines, floating dry docks, support and service craft. Work is expected to be complete by December 2016.
L-3 Contract. The Navy awards L-3 Communications a $12 million contract modification to exercise an option for the Ocean Sensor Sub-System and Shore Electronics System installation in support of Undersea Warfare Training Range near Jacksonville, Fla. Work is expected to wrap up in May 2019.
Avoidable Accident. The Oct. 3 shelling of a Doctors Without Borders trauma hospital in the Afghan city of Kunduz was caused primarily by human error, Gen. John Campbell, commander of Operation Resolute Support, tells reporters on Wednesday during a teleconference from Kabul. Campbell says air crews and U.S. Special Operations Forces personnel mistakenly fired upon the hospital, killing 30 people, thinking it was a Taliban stronghold “several hundred meters away” that closely resembled the building from which U.S. ground troops were taking fire.
… Heavy Fighting. SOF personnel at the time of the incident had been in direct contact with Taliban forces for five consecutive days when they called in air support, Campbell says. Because of confusion in identifying the target building, the location of the hospital was not checked against a list of addresses designated as “do-not-strike” buildings. Authorization to fire was given anyway and the response was disproportionate to the threat, Campbell says. A U.S. C-130J gunship then opened up on the compound without properly identifying the target. The crew was unaware they were firing on a hospital, Campbell says. Personnel at various levels of the chain of command “did not take the appropriate efforts to verify that the facility was an appropriate military target,” he says. “U.S. forces would never intentionally strike a hospital or any other protective facility.”
… Accountability. Separate investigations of the incident have been conducted by Doctors Without Borders, Campbell’s staff and an independent United Nations team. Campbell says “individuals most closely associated with the incident have been suspended form their duties” and will be reprimanded accordingly including possible charges under the Uniformed Code of Military Justice. Campbell’s spokesman would not specify how many personnel had been relieved of duty, but says that the findings of the investigations had also been forwarded to SOCOM for appropriate action against its personnel involved in the accident. Campbell says U.S. forces would help Doctors Without Borders to rebuild the hospital and offered support to their mission in Afghanistan.