F-35 Contract. Lockheed Martin has been awarded a $5.6 billion contract to build 91 more F-35s for the U.S. military, the Defense Department announced late July 7. The 11th low-rate initial production contract will provide 53 F-35As to the Air Force, 24 F-35Bs to the Marine Corps and 14 F-35Cs to the Navy. A contract modification for the purchase of 50 jets by allies is expected later this month, the Pentagon said.
Nomination Hearings. The Senate Armed Services Committee plans to hold two nomination hearings when it returns from its Fourth of July recess. On July 11, the committee will hear from former Defense Business Board member Richard Spencer, President Donald Trump’s pick to be Navy secretary. Spencer’s appearance was postponed from late June due to Senate work on health-care legislation. On July 12, several more nominees will testify before the committee, including former Pentagon official David Trachtenberg, tapped to be principal deputy undersecretary of defense for policy; Goldman Sachs executive Owen West, to be assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low-intensity conflict, and Lockheed Martin executive Ryan McCarthy, to be Army undersecretary.
Defense Bill. The full House is expected to consider the fiscal year 2018 defense authorization bill (H.R. 2810) late in the week of July 10 to 14. House members have submitted hundreds of potential amendments to the House Rules Committee, which will sift through them and decide which can be debated on the House floor. Among them is an amendment by Rep. David Cicillene (D-R.I.) that would bar the sale of F-35 fighters to Turkey until the U.S. president certifies that Turkey is cooperating in the investigation of Turkish bodyguards who allegedly assaulted protesters in Washington, D.C., in May. The wide-ranging policy bill, which the House Armed Services Committee approved in late June, would set up a separate space corps within the Air Force Department. It also calls for developing a new fleet of space-based sensors for missile defense.
Space Council Uncertainty. Vice President Mike Pence’s recent speech about the newly revived National Space Council lays out “aspirational goals” that could aid U.S. space efforts, but it remains unclear how those goals will be achieved, according to Bill Ostrove, an aerospace/defense analyst at Forecast International. “I still am waiting for concrete details regarding how to achieve those goals,” Ostrove says. “Hopefully, as the council begins to meet at the end of the summer, some strategy will begin to be developed and revealed. Until we start to see actual actions, it’s hard to really assess those goals and policies.” Pence said in a July 6 speech at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida that the council will push for safer, cheaper and more accessible space travel, for sending astronauts to the moon, Mars and beyond, and for shoring up national security in space.
Comms Contracts. Harris Corp. and Motorola each received $461 million contracts from the Army to “upgrade and modernize existing land mobile radio system infrastructure, as well as replace systems with the latest technology.” An industry source explains the contracts are delivery orders awarded as part on ongoing indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity deal for companies to upgrade legacy communication equipment at Army installations across the Continental United States. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of July 6, 2022.
Polish Rockets. The Polish Armament Group selected Lockheed Martin for exclusive further negotiations to develop the Polish Homar program on the basis of the Lockheed Martin High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS). The partnership will develop in-country defense technology modernization through transfer of technology, domestic production and manufacturing and future modernization, according to a statement from Lockheed. The company produces HIMARS launchers for the U.S. Army, Marine Corps and international customers. The mobile platform delivers accurate, lethal, quick-strike munitions ranging from 15 to 300 kilometers.
Army Missile. The Army awarded Lockheed a $73.8 million contract for Phase 2 of the Long Range Precision Fires (LRPF) program. LRPF will provide the Army with next-generation, long-range precision fires with ranges up to 499 kilometers. The missile will be capable of striking time-sensitive and area targets in a variety of conditions. “Lockheed Martin has invested heavily in … our legacy of unrivaled performance and affordability on the combat-proven Tactical Missile System program to create the next generation long-range precision engagement weapon,” Scott Greene, vice president of precision fires for Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, says in a statement. “We intend to demonstrate to our Army customer that our LRPF solution will be the most cost-effective, precise and reliable munition to meet their future long-range engagement needs.” Phase 2 of the program includes technology maturation and risk reduction for the development of a prototype missile system. The prototype includes a launch pod missile container and a fully integrated surface-to-surface guided missile that will be compatible with the multiple launch rocket system M270A1 and M142 high mobility artillery rocket system (HIMARS) launchers. During the 36-month contract, Lockheed Martin will design, develop and fire multiple prototype missiles in anticipation of the engineering and manufacturing development phase of the program. The initial LRPF Phase 1 risk-reduction contract successfully completed in May 2017.
NCI Agency Head. The NATO Communications and Information (NCI) Agency named former senior U.S. Department of Defense official Kevin Scheid as its new general manager. Scheid is the first American to lead NATO’s tech and cyber organization, where he will be in charge of ensuring that all of the organization’s networks are secure and cyber resilient in the face of growing threats in the domain. “At the core of the NCI Agency are not just big programmes or technology. At its core are its people – a tremendous collection of talented men and women from your Nations, personnel who work together daily to preserve peace and project stability,” Scheid says in a statement.
Cyber Quest ‘18 – The Army Cyber of Center of Excellence (CCoE) will partner with the Intelligence Center of Excellence (ICoE) for its third annual Cyber Quest training exercise in 2018. Next year’s exercise will continue the trend of bringing in industry for hand-on demonstrations of the latest cyber capabilities, with a specific focus on analytics, advanced cyber sensors, defensive cyber operations mission planning, offensive cyber operations capabilities. Cyber Quest ‘18 will also expand on the 2017 event’s testing of electronic warfare tools, including sensors, jammers, and brigade and battalion CEMA management capabilities. ICoE will release a separate Request For Information from the usual order put out by CCoE prior to Cyber Quest, in order to distinguish between the contractual needs of the centers participating in the event.
Cyber Insecurity. A survey of expected attendees at the annual Black Hat USA cyber security conference in Las Vegas later this month suggests most information security professionals believe there will be a cyber breach of critical infrastructure in the United States within the next two years. It says 60 percent of respondents believe such a breach will occur and that only 26 percent think the federal government and “defense forces are equipped and trained to respond appropriately.” Almost 70 percent of respondents believe that state-sponsored hacking, including from China and Russia, “has made US enterprise data less secure.” The results show “a dark picture of tomorrow’s cyber defenses,” says the survey.
Engility Board. Engility Holdings says that former Pentagon acquisition official Katharina McFarland has been appointed to the company’s board of directors. She completed her 30-year career with the federal government in January, spending the final five years as assistant secretary of defense for Acquisition. McFarland also held acquisition duties with the Army and Missile Defense Agency, and spent two years as president of the Defense Acquisition Univ., which helps train the DoD acquisition workforce.
Shareholder Boost. Rockwell Collins says it is increasing its share repurchase authorization by $200 million, bringing the total authorization to $285 million. The additional buybacks are meant to offset dilution of shares associated with the recent acquisition of B/E Aerospace. Patrick Allen, the company’s chief financial officer, says “we expect to maintain a share repurchase program to offset dilution while we repay a significant portion of acquisition-related debt.”