The Latest Word On Trends And Developments In Aerospace And Defense
A Lott For EADS. Former Senate Majority Leader and Mississippi Republican Trent Lott has joined the board of EADS North America. The aerospace shop and partner Northrop Grumman are gearing up for another battle next year over the Air Force’s aerial refueling tanker contract. While tanker competitor Boeing has ample support in Congress, EADS’s new ties to Lott certainly won’t hurt. Lott served 19 years in the Senate and 16 years in the House. EADS reminds us in an Oct. 15 statement: “As Senate Majority Leader, Lott placed a high priority on meeting the needs of America’s warfighter,” including leading “the effort to increase procurement accounts when needed” and “supporting Secretaries of Defense regardless of political affiliation.” Lott retired last year and opened a lobbying shop this year with former Louisiana Democratic Senator John Breaux.
Four For Fighting. When President Bush signed the fiscal year 2009 defense authorization bill last week he said in a signing statement the executive branch may not heed four provisions that could “inhibit the President’s ability to carry out his constitutional obligations.” The sections would: create a Pentagon director of operational energy plans and programs; prohibit funds authorized by the bill from being used for controlling Iraq oil resources; require that the United States attempt to negotiate an agreement with Iraq for sharing costs of combined operations; and alter personnel authorities of the Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan. None of those procurement matters Bush objected to in the bill–such as the funding cut for missile defense and added monies for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter second-engine–ended up in the signing statement.
Halfway There. The Transportation Security Administration says it has met the initial congressional deadline of having 50 percent of all cargo screened for bombs before it is loaded on passenger planes in the United States four months early. All cargo bound for passenger planes in the U.S. must be screened for explosives by August 2010 under provisions of the 9/11 Act approved in 2007. TSA says it is currently screening all cargo on narrow body passenger planes and regional jets through the use of explosive detection systems, physical inspections, canines and other methods.
Rocket Science. Army acquisition chief Dean Popps will convene a meeting of top service officials to create on a way forward for the Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) program this week. The group will decide whether to allow program managers to delay production of the dual purpose improved conventional munition (DPICM) version of the munition, which carries a cluster bomb warhead, in favor of the GPS-guided unitary variant. “The DPICM is not very popular right now,” MLRS program manager Col. David Rice told reporters earlier this month at the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual conference in Washington. The guided version, however, has become the “weapon of choice in the urban fight,” according to Rice. Program managers have proposed delaying DPICM production until an alternative warhead that meets the new U.S. cluster munitions policy requirements can be produced. Senior Army leaders are expected to make a decision at the Oct. 22 meeting.
Goes With The Territory. The Pentagon will have to expand its base space in Afghanistan as it begins preparing to accommodate larger numbers of troops, an official said last week. “As we increase our forces in Afghanistan, it will clearly require growing our facilities in Afghanistan,” Defense Department spokesman Geoff Morrell told reporters during an Oct. 16 Pentagon briefing. “We need to have–in the case of our desire to put more intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance assets in country–we need more ramp space.” Morrell added that the expansion will not necessarily require “a growth into additional bases per se,” but existing facilities will certainly have to be expanded “to accommodate the flow of additional forces and the enablers and the equipment they require.”
LCS Tour. In the coming weeks the Navy is expected to release LCS-1’s tour schedule, as the ship departs the Great Lakes region for transit to Norfolk, Va. Freedom will be commissioned in Milwaukee, Wis., Nov. 8. After commissioning, Freedom is expected to make several stops, including a visit to Canada, as it transits the St. Lawrence Seaway, a Navy source says. There is also the possibility the ship could make a call at the Naval Academy.
Busy Time For LPDs. With LPD-17 deployed to the Middle East, and the USS New Orleans (LPD-18) readying for her deployment in January 2009, it’s becoming a busy time for the San Antonio-class amphibious warships. USS The Mesa Verde (LPD-19) is currently in Norfolk going through availability following shock trials. The USS Green Bay (LPD-20) will commission in Long Beach, Calif., in January ’09 and the San Diego (LPD-22) will be christened later in ’09, a Navy source tells Defense Daily.
Global Hawk And BAMS. The Navy is going to very actively work with the Air Force to be sure that wherever there is a common solution, common approach that could benefit both services, “we will explore those opportunities,” says Thomas Laux, DASN Air. Now that the GAO has turned down Lockheed Martin’s BAMS protest, the Navy is moving forward on the program. Laux notes there was some schedule slippage while the protest was under review. “They suffered pretty much a day-for-day slip while the protest period was being exercised, as you would expect. Now they are ramping up and getting the program going. We have some very, very real need for long-term, long dwell ISR that that platform needs to supply,” he adds. “We have been in dialogue with fleet users to let them know with the new schedule when the capability is going to get fielded.”
…A Needed Lift? For a few years now, lawmakers and AgustaWestland have been raising the issue of a medium-lift helicopter for the Navy, something that would fall between the CH-53K’s heavy lift capability and the MH-60S. “The missions that we have right now, that are currently within the [helicopter] master plan that the Navy has to proceed with, can all be handled by the [MH-]60S,” Laux says. “We have taken a good hard look at where the V-22 may or may not fit into the Navy. Right now it is still being analyzed how we might take advantage of the capabilities V-22 brings for long-range [lift] given a pretty substantial cargo carrying capability.”
…Other Platforms. “Where we sit right now, the Navy does not have any identified need for an additional medium lift aircraft. We will continue to take a look as the [CH-]53K makes progress and the V-22 that the Navy has right now is going into the Marine Corps. As we make a little bit more progress at that, we will take a look at seeing if there is a good fit with the Navy to take advantage of [the V-22] down the road as well,” Laux says.
One Step Closer. The Navy/Marine Corps STUAS TIER II was reviewed by the JROC on Sept. 18. The JROC approved the CDD (capabilities development document), but no formal memo has been issued as of yet, the Navy says.
Demanding The Best. “There is just an overwhelming need to continue to focus on [Mine Warfare] in a robust manner with both resources, financially and with personnel,” says Ann Sandel, PEO LMW. “That is an area that continues to demand our best and our brightest.” Many times MIW doesn’t get the resourcing because of other areas that require greater priority, which is completely understandable, she adds. “But the need and requirement don’t go away.” As a result the business base that the Navy turns to doesn’t have the production quantity because it doesn’t have anything but the Navy as a consumer, Sandel says. “[That] hurts them corporately in the sense that the workforce is affected, the production facilities are affected, the internal investment then possibly doesn’t go into that area because they can’t depend on us being a consistent consumer and procurer in those areas.”
…Focus. “So there is a technology requirement, as well as I believe, a consistent production base requirement that’s going to help us get that capability fielded,” Sandel says. That’s going to continue to be an area that PEO LMW will spend a lot of attention to, she adds.
New Job. Rear Adm. James Shannon last week took over command of the Naval Surface Warfare Center. Shannon relieved Rear Adm. Archer Macy, who will become director of the Joint Theater Air and Missile Defense Organization. Shannon’s acquisition assignments include service as major program manager of the Future Combat Systems Open Architecture program, project manager for the Naval Integrated Fire Control-Counter Air project, and director of Development, Test and Acceptance for the Evolved SeaSparrow Missile. He also served as the EA to the ASN RDA, as a communication systems analyst in support of the JROC, and as a tactics instructor for the Surface Warfare Officers School.
Back To Work. The USS San Francisco (SSN-711) returned to the water Oct. 10, 2008, after successfully undocking at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility (PSNS & IMF). The boat was undergoing extensive and first-of-a-kind repairs, a Navy source tells Defense Daily. “It was an engineering feat never accomplished before,” the source adds. The dry docking resulted from the submarine’s Jan. 8, 2005, collision with an undersea mountain. The challenging, one- of-a-kind project involved PSNS & IMF cutting over one million pounds of ex-USS Honolulu (SSN 718) forward Ballast Tanks/Sonar Sphere and attaching it to the San Francisco. The engineering and production teams proceeded to manipulate the mammoth structure with orchestrated precision. In some areas, the bow of this massive structure was moved to within one-sixteenth of an inch of the original structure, the Navy says.
New Leaders. The U.K. Ministry of Defence says Gen. Sir David Richards will become the next chief of the General Staff in August. Richards, commissioned into the Royal Artillery in 1971, is now Commander in Chief Land Forces, and will be promoted to the rank of general when he assumes his new job. Richards will be succeeded as Commander-in-Chief Land Forces by Lt. Gen. Peter Wall, of the Corps of Royal Engineers, who will be promoted to general when he takes up his new appointment.
…In The Air. Royal Air Force Air Marshal Stephen Dalton will become the next Chief of the Air Staff in the rank of Air Chief Marshal as of July 31, succeeding Sir Glenn Torpy, who is retiring. On the same day, Dalton also will be appointed as an Air Aide de Camp to the Queen. Additionally, the MoD announces that Air Marshal Christopher Moran will be promoted to Air Chief Marshal and become Commander-in-Chief Air Command and Air Aide-de-Camp to the Queen April 3, succeeding Sir Clive Loader.
…And At Sea. Adm. Sir Mark Stanhope will take over as First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff from Adm. Sir Jonathon Band July 21. Stanhope is currently serving as Commander- in-Chief Fleet, and the Allied Maritime Component Commander (Northwood). Vice Adm. Trevor Soar will be promoted to Admiral and appointed to take over from Stanhope June 10. Soar is now serving as chief of the Material Fleet, Defence Equipment and Support.
In Great Shape. New Zealand’s Defence Minister Phil Goff says the Defence Force is the best equipped it’s ever been, and the number of personnel are at the highest level in seven years. “The Defence Force has also moved from having obsolete equipment to acquiring state of the art equipment in areas such as Light Armoured Vehicles and Light Operational Vehicles for the Army and a new helicopter fleet for the Air Force,” Goff says in a recent statement. “This government has also injected $4 billion of capital into the Defence Force since 2002 to replace outdated equipment across the Navy, the Army and the Air Force. The Defence Force is now the best equipped it has ever been.” Among the equipment projects are: the Medium Range Anti-Armor Weapon; Multi-Role Vessel; Improvised Explosive Device Disposal (IEDD) Special Operations Capability, C-130 Life Extension, and the Joint Command and Control System.
The Clickin’ Life. Northrop Grumman and the Army Knowledge Online/Defense Knowledge Online (AKO/DKO) Program Office say they recently achieved a major milestone with the one- billionth logon to the AKO/DKO portal. AKO/DKO is a partnership between Northrop Grumman and the Army providing a single enterprise service portal, serving as the entry point for all Department of Defense and authorized users to access DoD and government intranets supporting operations, missions and critical support processes for forces worldwide. The milestone was reached on Sept. 29 by Chief Warrant Officer 3 Jon Cahill, a senior maintenance technician with the 116th Brigade Combat Team of the Idaho National Guard. In June 2000, there were 61,000 users. Now there are more than two million.
Blue Ribbon. Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), a senior member of SASC, Friday was named a “Champion of National Defense” by the Center for Security Policy (CSP). The designation comes as CSP releases its National Security Scorecard which ranks Members of the U.S. Congress based on their support for–or against–policies that support and sustain U.S. national defense. Inhofe had a perfect 100 percent national security rating. “…I believe we must remain vigilant in the Global War on Terror and provide our Joint forces the capabilities it needs to persist in its struggle for liberty and democracy,” Inhofe says in a statement. “Congress and this nation must remain committed to supporting our soldiers and ensure they are properly manned to be able to engage globally across the spectrum of conflict. We must also be committed to ensuring that when we send our troops into harm’s way, they will have the best training and equipment available.”
For Sale. Implant Sciences, a struggling small security company specializing in explosives detection, has hired an investment banking firm to review its strategic options, which typically means it’s for sale. Implant made the announcement after it released its FY ’08 financial results, which showed a loss of about $2.2 million for the year, slightly worse than FY ’07. Moreover, the company’s cash position is dire, with only $412,000 on hand versus $2.4 million in March. Implant says its ability to continue operating after Oct. 24, which is this Friday, depends on either refinancing its obligations or obtaining an extension on the redemption of preferred stock. It has had a number of research contracts with the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security and has sold hundreds of its handheld Quantum Sniffer explosives detector, but sales have typically been lumpy and hard to predict. Implant’s sampling method used in its detectors uses vortex technology to draw particles into its devices.