Baltic Air Defense. In talks with the State Department over future U.S. foreign military aid, the Defense Department has “argued for pooled funding” for the three Baltic states, especially in such areas as air defense, says Rachel Ellehuus, the Pentagon’s principal director for European and NATO policy. “We’ve tried to look at them as three rather than individual nations and look at what they already have and what they might need,” says Ellehuus, who testified before the House Armed Service Committee’s oversight and investigations panel July 13. Air defense missile systems are among the systems the Baltic nations are looking at to deter an increasingly assertive Russia.
LCS-1 Goes To RIMPAC. The U.S. Navy’s first Littoral Combat Ship, the USS Freedom (LCS-1), left Naval Base San Diego July 9 to participate in the Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) 2016, the world’s largest international maritime exercise. Built by Lockheed Martin, Freedom will operate off the coast of Southern California and participate in mine interdiction training with several other vessels, the Navy says. RIMPAC involves 26 nations and takes place from June 30 to Aug. 4.
Weatherizing Shadow. The U.S. Army and Textron are close to completing development of weatherization upgrades for the Shadow unmanned aircraft, Army officials say. The improvements, which are designed to allow Shadow to fly in rain that is falling at a rate of up to 2 inches per hour, could be incorporated into aircraft that are in the fleet as well as those that are being retrofitted to the new V2 configuration at Textron’s plant in Hunt Valley, Md.
Submarine Cyber. The U.S. Navy recently worked with Raytheon of Manassas, Va., to conduct a “cyber vulnerability assessment” of the Virginia-class submarine’s information systems, says Rear Adm. Michael Jabaley, the service’s program executive officer for submarines. “The initial results look very good, but there are things that we learned and that we’ll go fix,” says Jabaley, who testified July 14 before the House Armed Services Committee’s seapower and projection forces panel.
F-35Bs At Exercise. U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) F-35B aircraft are participating for the first time in the Air Force’s Red Flag combat training exercise hosted on the Nevada Test and Training Range north of Las Vegas, Nev. Red Flag 16-3 includes a possible 1,900 targets, realistic threat systems, and an opposing enemy force for use in a simulated battlefield. The 414th Combat Training Squadron is responsible for executing the exercise. Over 115 aircraft are scheduled to depart Nellis Air Force Base twice a day, with aircraft remaining in the air for up to five hours. Red Flag 16-3 is occurring from July 11–29.
SDB II Flight Tests. The U.S. Air Force and Raytheon are starting flight testing the Small Diameter Bomb II (SDB II) in two additional modes, coordinate attack and laser illuminated attack. The coordinate attack mode has the SDB II use an on-board GPS system to attack fixed targets from close positions and standoff ranges of over 40 miles. The laser mode uses a semi-active laser to track and eliminate laser-illuminated targets. Development testing continues through the summer with additional planned normal, coordinated, and laser illuminated attack flight testing.
F-35B LiftSystems Contract. Rolls-Royce signed a $216 million production contract with F-35B engine producer Pratt & Whitney to provide 13 LiftSystems powered lift capability for the F-35B along with additional program labor, spares, and tooling. The agreement covers the next batch of Low Rate Initial Production (LRIP 9). Rolls-Royce expects an additional contract for LRIP 10 later this summer to cover deliveries through 2018. The LiftSystem allows the F-35B to perform short take-off and vertical landings (STOVL) as well as hover capability.
UK F-35B Support. Rolls-Royce and Pratt & Whitney signed a Memorandum of Understanding agreeing to work together to provide comprehensive technical support for the UK’s F-35B aircraft at the Royal Air Force Marham station. The companies will introduce a Performance-Based Logistics (PBL) approach to sustainment of the F-35Bs propulsion systems under the agreement. The agreement defines how the companies will collaborate and grow sustainment capabilities: Pratt & Whitney will focus on system-level performance of the F135 engines while Rolls-Royce will lead support for the LiftSystems technology as well as taking on some delegated support work for the F135. The companies are looking to duplicate this model for other F-35B customers.
Nertherlands ATPs. Lockheed Martin completed a rapid delivery of 14 Sniper Advanced Targeting Pods (ATP) to the Royal Netherlands Air Force (RNLAF), outfitting a squadron of F-16s. The company highlighted five of the 14 Sniper ATPs are delivered within 180 days of finalizing the contract. Initial training, spares, and support equipment are also provided in the delivery. The RNLAF first pikced Sniper ATPs to equip its F-16 fleet in 2015. The contract requirements include 29 ATPs, spares, support equipment, and sustainment, Deliveries are to be complete by the first quarter of 2017.
GA To India. General Atomics plans to open an office in New Delhi, India by the end of 2016, the company says at the Farnborough International Air Show. The office will be the remotely piloted aircraft (RPA)-focused subsidiary, GA Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI). GA “recognizes the importance of India and looks forward to working more closely with the Indian Government from its new local office. The company plans to increase collaboration with India in the areas of maritime security and maritime domain awareness, which are key missions for the Indian Ministry of Defense and the Indian Navy,” the company says in a statement.
DISA Europe. Army. Col. Andrew McClelland took command of the Defense Information Systems Agency’s (DISA) European Field Command at a ceremony on July 8 in Stuttgart, Germany. McClelland succeeds Army Col. Jacqueline Brown. Brown served as DISA Europe commander for two years and next moves to the Pentagon to serve with the Army Chief Information Officer (CIO)/G6. McClelland previously served as chief of the Network Integration Division at the Brigade Modernization Command in Fort Bliss, Texas.
New Symantec President/COO. Michael Fey is appointed Symantec President and Chief Operating Officer (COO) upon the closing of the company’s acquisition of Blue Coat, Inc. Fey previously served as president and COO of Blue Coat since 2014 and earlier as executive vice president, chief technology officer, and general manager of corporate products for Intel Security. Fey will report to Symantec CEO-designate Greg Clark. “His initial focus will be on merging the go-to-market functions of the combined companies to take advantage of the tremendous cross-sell and upsell opportunity formed by the powerful combination of these two market leaders,” Dan Schulman, chairman of the Symantec Board of Directors, says in a statement.
Orbital CRS Mission. Orbital ATK targets no earlier than Aug. 22 for its Antares return to flight as part of a NASA Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) mission, according to a NASA statement. This mission, the sixth by Orbital ATK, will take place at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) on Wallops Island, Va. The Cygnus spacecraft will carry food and supplies to the International Space Station (ISS). Antares is being re-engined following a 2014 launch failure that put the rocket out of commission for just under two years.
SpaceX CRS Mission. Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) is ready for early Monday’s CRS mission at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. Weather reports show a 10 percent probability of violating weather for the 12:42 a.m. EDT launch time. This will be SpaceX’s ninth CRS mission delivering supplies and cargo to ISS. The company also is planning to attempt to land its Falcon 9 first stage on land. Previous landing attempts have taken place on its floating drone water barge. Monday’s CRS mission will feature the Boeing-built international docking adapter for ISS, which is important because the other one was lost in last summer’s SpaceX failure.
Chinook Deliveries. Boeing delivered three H-47 Chinooks to the Australian army 85 days after receiving the order, according to a company statement. The three aircraft had entered production for the U.S. Army, but since Australia and the U.S. operate the same configuration, Boeing says it was able to deliver the capability, with U.S. Army approval, earlier than originally planned. The deliveries increase Australia’s CH-47 fleet to 10.
Hughes HM300 Terminal. Hughes Network Systems completed successful operational demonstrations of its HM300 portable terminal, according to a company statement. Designed for military applications, the HM300 provides portable X-band communications and is developed in conjunction with Hugest team partners Airbus Defence and Space and Tampa Microwave. During December tests between a satellite earth station located in the United Kingdom and Fort Bragg, N.C., operating over Airbus’ Xebra service, the HM300 demonstrated beyond-line-of-sight (BLOS) capabilities with data rates up to 512 kbps symmetrically, transmitting voice, video and data. A second mission scenario demonstrated autonomous operation transmitting to, and from, a 4.0M GATR antenna located at Fort Bragg, providing voice over internet protocol (VoIP) and live video using an encoder.
SNC CRS-2. Sierra Nevada (SNC) completed ISS Integration Certification Milestone 1 for its Dream Chaser cargo system under NASA’s CRS-2 contract, according to a company statement. Under this milestone, NASA approved SNC’s complete program implementation plan for the design, development, test and evaluation of the Dream Chaser system. This includes plans and processes for meeting technical performance and CRS-2 integration schedules associated with execution of docking and berthing missions to ISS. SNC also plans to resume the next phase of flight testing for Dream Chaser later this year. SNC will make a minimum six cargo deliveries to and from the ISS between 2019 and 2024.
NGA/NRO GEOINT. The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NDA) and the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) announced a joint activity to better leverage emerging commercial geospatial intelligence (GEOINT). The Commercial GEOINT Activity (CGA) allows both agencies to assess current capabilities and develop strategies to ensure the timely and successful integration of commercial innovations that will benefit NGA and NRO. The CGA will conduct joint assessments, recommend investment decisions and engage user communities. It will advise NGA and NRO on synchronizing joint acquisition activities for vendors that can provide both collection and analytic capabilities to benefit the agencies. The CGA will begin operations no later than Sept. 30.
Faster Screening Lanes. The installation of two new automated screening lanes at Atlanta’s Hartsfield Jackson Airport in May has gone so well that the Transportation Security Administration plants to roll out between 55 and 60 of these lanes this year at some of the largest airports in the country, Peter Neffenger, head of TSA, tells an audience at the Wilson Center. The two lanes in Atlanta are used for standard screening of passengers and have improved throughput between 30 and 40 percent, he says. The automated lanes include automatic bin returns, motorized conveyor belts, multiple divestment stations per lane, a diversion area for bags flagged for further screening, and RFID tags in bins to link a passenger to their carry-on bags.
Cyber Privacy Tech. The Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate has awarded three contracts totaling $3.7 million for research and development of privacy-enhancing technology that better defend personally identifying information and protect privacy in cyberspace. Yale Univ. is receiving $1.7 million for research to help protect the identity and location of individuals against malicious tracking and surveillance, Raytheon’s BBN Technologies unit is receiving $1.3 million on technology for performing multiple online searches simultaneously to facilitate information sharing while preserving privacy, and the International Computer Science Institute is getting $665,000 to develop technology that will detect privacy intrusions on mobile devices and alert the device owner to protect their private information.
Renovated Forensic Lab. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Wednesday will unveil a major renovation of its Homeland Security Investigations’ Forensic Laboratory, which the Department of Homeland Security says “is the premier resource for forensics, research, training, and law enforcement issues related to travel and identity documents in the United States. The lab also supports DHS other U.S. and foreign law enforcement agencies.
Behavior Detection. In response to a 2013 audit report, the Transportation Security Administration has updated and revised its strategic plan for its behavior detection program and incorporated new performance metrics but so far hasn’t “fully assessed” these metrics to determine their effectiveness, the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General says in a verification review of agency actions since the report. TSA’s Behavior Detection Officer program has been controversial due to the lack of metrics as to its effectiveness and the $1.5 billion spend on the program between FY ’07 and FY ’15. Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), ranking member on the House Homeland Security Committee, says the lack of “scientific validation of the effectiveness” of the behavior detection program shows that Congress must limit the program’s funding.
Guiding Principles. The Association of the U.S. Army releases a set of “guiding principles intended to renew a sense of American identity in the United States, ensure a safe and prosperous future for its citizens, and provide focus for America’s role in the world” produced by 29 defense and foreign policy experts it assembled. Called “America’s Purpose: 21st Century Principles to Revitalize the American Identity,” the paper is the result of an effort launched last year by then-AUSA President and retired Gen. Gordon Sullivan. Historians, academics, defense and foreign policy experts, former diplomats, retired generals, and high-ranking executive branch leaders gave their thoughts and opinions to the paper, which can be accessed at https://www.ausa.org/sites/default/files/publications/Americas_Purpose_071330Jul16_0.pdf.
… Modern Cavalry. AUSA also rolled out a study on the status of the Army’s cavalry – which now use helicopters instead of horses – titled “An Analysis of The Army’s Reconnaissance and Security Capability.” It argues that the Army’s current capabilities are inadequate for the service’s current slate of missions. The service must take a “deliberate approach to fixing these deficiencies.” The Army’s ever-expanding global mission requirements have stretched its reconnaissance and security capabilities too thin, the paper says. It also notes “critical failures” in other areas, including the way the Army trains, educates and assigns reconnaissance and security leaders, a lack of capability at the division and corps levels, and disjointed doctrine.
… Tanks Too. Another work published by AUSA’s Institute of Land Warfare titled “The Uncertain Role of the Tank in Modern War: Lessons from the Israeli Experience in Hybrid Warfare,” offers a case study of Israel’s use of the M1 Abrams tank in Operation Protective Edge, the 2014 operation launched in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. That short conflict demonstrates that the M1 can be used effectively against hybrid threats in urban environments, the paper suggests. It also offers reasons the U.S. Army should consider modernizing the M1 with active protection systems (APS) and improved munitions.