SASC Chairman to be Chosen Tuesday. Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) told reporters on Capitol Hill that the next SASC chairman is expected to be chosen Tuesday and that he intends to seek the chair. Traditionally Senate leadership appoints the majority party member with the greatest seniority on the committee to be chairman; in this case, Inhofe. He has served as de facto leader since chairman Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) took medical leave in January. McCain, 81, died Aug. 25. Inhofe said the committee would likely not choose a new member until after the midterm elections.
McSally Gets the Nod. Rep. Martha McSally (R-Ariz.) won the Republican nomination Tuesday evening to run for Sen. Jeff Flake’s (R-Ariz) seat in the 2018 midterm elections. A retired Air Force colonel and former combat pilot, McSally was first elected to Congress in 2014. She will face Democratic nominee Rep. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) in November. Flake, who has served in Congress since 2000 and as a Senator since 2012, declined to run for re-election.
Turkish Arms Race. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told reporters at the Pentagon that Turkey has “a sovereign choice to make” as the country continues to consider procuring the Russian-made S-400 air defense system. NATO leaders have previously warned against the member-state buying the system, and lawmakers have threatened to curtail future sales of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter to Ankara should it go through with the sale. Mattis, who previously served as NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Transformation, said “Turkey bringing a Russian anti-aircraft, anti-missile system into a NATO country … yes, it does concern us, and we do not recommend that.”
Mattis Nixes Privatizing Wars. Mattis threw water on the idea of privatizing the U.S. troop presence in Afghanistan in his first on-camera press briefing since April. “When Americans put their nations credibility on the line, privatizing it is probably not a wise idea,” he said.
Air Force Seeking Hypersonic Weapons. The Air Force Thursday released a notice that it is seeking sources for hypersonic weapon rapid development, production and sustainment. The service could opt for a multiple-award, indefinite-delivery indefinite quantity contract vehicle, the FedBizOpps notice said. Responses are due by Oct. 1.
Cutter Boat Award. Metal Shark Boats has won a potential $20 million contract from the Coast Guard to provide it with small craft that will operate from at least some of its medium-endurance cutters. The Cutter Boat-Large will be fastened to davits aboard the cutters that deploy with it and will be used for a variety of missions within line-of-sight of the cutter throughout a spectrum of climate condition and in day and night operations. Metal Shark also builds the Coast Guard’s Response Boat Small, which operate close to shore for various missions.
New SAS Chief. Raytheon has appointed Roy Azevedo as president of its $6.4 billion Space and Airborne Systems (SAS) segment, succeeding Richard Yuse who is retiring at the end of this year. Azevedo, 57, who has been with SAS for nearly 30 years, took over the segment on Sept. 1. Previously, he led the Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Systems mission area within SAS. Yuse, who became president of SAS in 2010, has been with Raytheon since 1976.
CVN-79. Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Newport News Shipbuilding finished about half of the construction of the second Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carrier, the future USS John F. Kennedy (CVN-79) after installing one of the heaviest superlift parts, the aft section of the ship. Each superlift is made of 19 smaller pieces that includes outfitting equipment like grating, pumps, valves, electrical panels, and, lighting before the structure is hoisted into the dry dock to be joined to other sections. The company said using superlifts like this has allowed them to finish the work 14 months earlier than it was on CVN-78 and they plan to move CVN-79 from the dry dock to the outfitting berth three months ahead of schedule, in the fourth quarter of 2019.
Mine Detectors. On Aug. 21 the Office of Naval Research (ONR) awarded BAE Systems a $15 million contract for Single-system Multi-mission Airborne Detection to help personnel avoid mines. The award has options that, if exercised, will raise the value to $39 million. Reid Noguchi, Optical Electronic Warfare Systems program manager at BAE, told Defense Daily in a statement that the contract “is for the development and testing of a single-pass airborne mine-detection system that provides warfighters with the real-time data they need to safely maneuver ashore and conduct their missions.” At the time of award, $10 million in FY ’18 Navy research, development, test and evaluation funds was obligated and will not expire at the end of this fiscal year. ONR said the contract was competitively procured but could identify the number of bids because it is under a long-range broad agency announcement with proposals received over the entire year.
DARPA/Raytheon. DARPA said Aug. 28 it plans to award a sole source contract to Raytheon and its BBN Technologies subsidiary to perform work for phase 2 and 3 of the Rapid, Attack, Detection, Isolation, and Characterization System (RADICS) program. Raytheon and BBN were previously selected to develop a new aerial sensor during the first phase of RADICS. Under Phase 2 and 3, the team will conduct aerial field tests of the sensor it developed for the program. The RADICS sensor is intended to obtain situational awareness needed to enable a black start recovery of the electrical power grid during a large-scale cyber attack.
NATO Cyber Leader. Col. Jaak Tarien assumed command of NATO’s Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence (CCD COE) on Aug.30. Tarien succeeds Merle Maigre as the leader of NATO’s cyber center based in Tallinn, Estonia. “The demand for high-quality research, training and exercises based on most prominent trends in cyber is growing. My aim at CCDCOE is to continue the good work done, strengthen ties with the industry and to develop further practical deliverables for the militaries of our member nations,” Tarien said in a statement. CCD COE brings together cyber experts and researchers from 21 member nations and organizes the annual Locked Shields live-fire cyber defense exercise. Tarien previously served as commander of the Estonian Air Force for the last six years.