The Latest Word On Trends And Developments In Aerospace And Defense
SASC Scuffle On Lynn? The White House issued a waiver last Friday allowing deputy defense secretary nominee William Lynn to bypass President Obama’s executive order banning government appointees for two years from working for agencies they lobbied and participating in matters on which they lobbied. While SASC Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) welcomes word of the waiver, Ranking Member John McCain (R-Ariz.) says last Friday he is “disappointed.” “While I applaud the President’s action to implement new, more stringent ethical rules, I had hoped he would not find it necessary to waive them so soon,” McCain says. “Before I can determine whether to support his nomination as Deputy Secretary of Defense, I intend to ask him to clarify for the record what matters and decisions will require his recusal.” Levin says if Lynn is confirmed by the SASC and Senate the committee would insist he recuse himself for a year from decisions involving Raytheon unless permission is granted.
Stimulate DoD? Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) says there has been talk “about a military-equipment component” of the economic-stimulus bill, the House version of which could come to a floor vote this week. While many lawmakers and aides insist weapons programs will not be funded in the massive legislation, McConnell notes to a National Press Club audience last Friday that Harvard University economist Martin Feldstein has promoted the idea. “So that’s just another thought that everybody’s weighing as these two stimulus packages are put together,” McConnell says. “Well, I guess the House package has been put together. Ours has not yet. So there is some discussion about a military-equipment component of the stimulus package.”
SASC Seats. Committee reorganization continues on Capitol Hill, and the new SASC lineup for the 2009-2010 session was finalized last week. It has six new members: Sens. Roland Burris (D-Ill.), Mark Begich (D-Alaska), Mark Udall (D-Colo.), Kay Hagan (D-N.C.), Richard Burr (R-N.C.), and David Vitter (R-La.). The SASC’s new Democrat-to-Republican ratio is 15-to-11 this session, compared to 13-to-12 last session, when there were more Republicans in the Senate and House. The committee lost five members since last session: former senators Hilary Clinton (D-N.Y.) and John Warner (R-Va.), who voluntarily left the Senate; former senator Elizabeth Dole (R-N.C.), who lost her reelection bid, and Sens. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) and John Cornyn (R-Tex.), who no longer are assigned to the SASC. The new rundown of SASC subcommittee chairmen and ranking members had not been announced as of last Friday.
Approps Land. Senate leaders have left no doubt Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) will remain chairman of the Senate Appropriations Defense subcommittee this session, when he has become the chairman of the full panel as well. Yet the Republican members of the appropriations committee as of last Friday had not held their organizational meeting to decide the defense subcommittee’s ranking member. Senate Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) has served as the subcommittee’s lead Republican as well since former GOP Alaska senator Ted Stevens vacated the spot last July following his felony indictment. The date of the Republican appropriators’ organizational meeting was not known last Friday, a Cochran spokeswoman says.
…In the House. While a spokesman for the House Appropriations Defense (HAC-D) subcommittee initially said Democrats gained one seat and Republicans lost one spot on the panel since last session, in fact no GOP seats were lost, he says. Thus, the HAC-D gained a Republican member–Rep. Harold Rogers (R-Ky.)–to fill the seat vacated when Rep. David Hobson (R-Ohio) retired. As previously reported, because former HAC-D member Bud Cramer (D-Ala.) retired, the Democrats gained two new subcommittee members: Reps. Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.) and Carolyn Kilpatrick (D-Mich.). The Democrat-to-Republican ratio on the HAC-D is now 11-to-seven, compared to 10-to seven last session.
F-35 Test Fleet Expands. Lockheed Martin has completed the first F-35 Lightning short takeoff/vertical landing (STOVL) variant equipped with avionics, a milestone that will lead to the first avionics testing on board an F-35 aircraft. The aircraft left the factory on Jan. 21 and will undergo fuel system checks before it is delivered to the flight line by the end of the month. Its first flight is expected this summer, according to a Lockheed Martin press statement. Avionics are the on-board sensors that enable the aircraft to detect, locate, identify, track and target adversaries from long ranges; detect fast-moving incoming threats such as missiles; and receive and transmit large amounts of battle-space information through secure data links. The aircraft will carry the Northrop Grumman AN/APG-81 Active Electronically Scanned Array radar and Integrated Communications, Navigation and Identification suite, and the BAE Systems Electronic Warfare system. The Block 0.5 mission systems software, which incorporates more than half of the combat-ready Block 3 software, will drive the system. It will be updated with additional equipment and software through Block 3, the last block in the System Development and Demonstration program. The jet brings the F-35 test fleet to six aircraft. Earlier aircraft are validating F-35 subsystems and flying qualities while retiring technical risk.
Space Age. A Lockheed Martin/Northrop Grumman team last week announced a key design milestone that they said will “dramatically increase data transfer speeds” in the Air Force’s Transformational Satellite Communications System (TSAT) constellation. Known as SpaceWire, the new data “bus” technology provides on-orbit satellite internal communications for box-to-box and system-to-system data transfer that is equivalent to a local area network (LAN) in space. The team has matured this technology to the Preliminary Design Review level. The milestone defines the flexible and scalable architecture, physical and logical interfaces, and electrical design of the databus, which replaces the military standard databus known as Mil-Std-1553. A Lockheed Martin official said that SpaceWire “can transfer electronic data at least 80 times faster than current databus technology and introduces a highly reliable and robust distributed architecture routing system.” SpaceWire is a self-managing serial protocol that provides a high-speed low-power system while offering a flexible simple user interface and enhanced capabilities, according to the company. The Lockheed Martin/Northrop Grumman team and Boeing both have Risk Reduction and System Definition contracts for TSAT. The Air Force reopened competition for the production contract earlier this month.
Industry Investment. In the three years he has led the service, Navy Secretary Donald Winter has traveled the globe, toured international shipyards and worked to try to get U.S. shipbuilders to incorporate some of the foreign industry modernization efforts he has seen. Winter notes he has seen some improvements in how U.S. shipyards are modernizing. “Am I seeing signs? Yes. Am I seeing the full response? No,” Winter tells reporters during a briefing earlier this month. “There are examples of good things that are happening. Directionally, I am encouraged, but I don’t see quite the magnitude of the investment that I would hope.” That investment will partly have to come from further incentivization to ensure that industry continues to make those moves, he adds
…Recognition. “By the way, we have to make our moves as well. We have engaged in a series of actions to expand the competencies in the Navy to ensure Navy is truly a smart buyer,” Winter says. “And that runs the gamut of everything from enhancing our technical skills, competencies, systems engineering, and the like, enhanced cost estimation approaches, enhanced program management personnel…so we are working through all of those. I think we are making some progress.”
…Foreign Relations. Winter adds he is seeing engagement between U.S. shipyards and their foreign counterparts, both with the South Koreans and potentially with the Italians. Winter says he wants to see those efforts between U.S. and international yards remain here and not move off shore.
EX EXCOMM. The Navy is looking to restart the open architecture executive committee (OA EXCOMM) meetings that first began when Adm. Michael Mullen was CNO and Delores Etter was the ASN RDA. In the time since Mullen left to become Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Etter departed the Navy, the service has not held any additional OA EXCOMMs. “When you look at my calendar, you see EXCOMMs, they’re few but they are focused on what I consider to be the major issues that are ready for a top-level Navy decision,” CNO Adm. Gary Roughead tells Defense Daily at the annual SNA symposium. “The whole OA process is being worked I think quite ably by Rear Adm. Terry Benedict (PEO IWS). Vice Adm. Dave Architzel (principal deputy ASN RDA) is heavily involved. Vice Adm. Barry McCullough (Deputy CNO for Integration of Capabilities and Resources) is heavily involved and they are making decisions with regard to that.”
…All In The Name. “I’m informed of those, but when I call an EXCOMM it’s when we are going to make some decisions that fundamentally are going to affect the Navy,” Roughead adds. “OA will, but at the current stage we’re in, the leaders that we have in place are moving it along. I like the progress that I see. And if you were to put an EXCOMM onto every meeting that has been held on OA you’d see there are a lot of OA EXCOMMS. It’s just the moniker that I use. You know, for example, there was an EXCOMM for a returning carrier group deployment. I don’t need an EXCOMM for that. They can come in and brief me and I’m good to go, so I think it’s all in a name.”
New SWE CTO. The Navy’s Surface Warfare Enterprise (SWE) named Rear Adm. James Shannon its first Chief Technology Officer (CTO). Shannon will serve the Navy Enterprise group by supporting the mission of improving readiness in surface force warfighting technology. Shannon is also the Commander of the Naval Surface Warfare Center, the Navy says. “This is a logical step for the SWE to take. In my position, I have a responsibility to lead and manage the Navy workforce that develop, test and evaluate all surface ship systems,” Shannon says. “As chief technology officer, I am in the best position to advise the Surface Warfare Enterprise on technical matters of their concern.”
Into The Water. The New Mexico (SSN-779) was launched last week at Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding’s Newport News shipyard, the company reports. Shipbuilders used a transfer car system to move the 7,800-ton New Mexico out of a construction facility to a floating dry dock. Three days later, they submerged the floating dry dock and successfully launched New Mexico into the James River. Once in the water, tugboats moved New Mexico to the shipyard’s submarine pier where final outfitting and testing will take place. New Mexico is the sixth ship of the Virginia class. Construction began March 2004 and Northrop Grumman is scheduled to deliver New Mexico in August 2009, the company says.
Battling Rust. Battelle researchers have come up with a smart coating that can reveal where corrosion is forming on metal even though one can’t see the degradation with the naked eye, the independent R&D center says. Ramanathan Lalgudi, a principal research scientist, and Barry McGraw, a program manager, created a smart coating derived from the functional nanomaterial that could be applied between a primer and topcoat and fluoresces once a corrosion product is generated from the metal, Battelle says. The DoD estimates that corrosion of its equipment costs $10 billion to $20 billion per year. If one can repair metal before it’s demonstrably compromised, the savings could be astronomical in terms of time, energy, material and money, Battelle adds.
New Chief. Barack Obama, immediately after he was sworn in as the 44th president of the United States, told millions of cheering admirers last Tuesday that America will work with other nations but not hesitate to defend itself. “We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense, and for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you,” Obama declared in his inaugural address. The White House soon afterward posted a defense plan on its web site that is nearly the same blueprint Obama’s transition team and campaign touted. Those earlier iterations of the defense rundown included the same or similar language on aircraft, shipbuilding, missile-defense, space, and cyberspace programs and policy.
Keep On Streaking. The Starstreak High Velocity Missile (HVM) system used by the U.K. army and Royal Marines gets a new lease life for the next 13 years under a close to $274 million contract with Thales UK. Starstreak is a close air defense system with an advanced laser-guided weapon which flies at more than three times the speed of sound. It is designed to counter threats from very-high-performance, low-flying aircraft and fast pop-up strikes by helicopter attacks. “This is an important contract with Thales UK as it ensures the availability of the High Velocity Missile, a crucial weapon system for the Armed Forces,” says Minister for Defence Equipment and Support, Quentin Davies. Rear Adm. Amjad Hussain, director general Weapons, Defence Equipment & Support, adds: “This support arrangement will reduce the cost of ownership of HVM while also providing the ability to transition from peacetime to planned or unplanned operations.”
Issues Resolved. Australia says its resolved long-standing commercial issues with Boeing over Project Air 5333 Vigilare. Greg Combet, Parliamentary Secretary for Defence Procurement, Jan. 23 announced that a Deed of Settlement, Release and Amendment has been signed with Boeing Australia programmer experienced commercial issues associated with delays and costs. Combet says key points of the deed include sharper commercial obligations between the parties for improved schedule and performance aspects, revised business rules to streamline future decision making, as well as providing for an incremental delivery regime for earlier capability acceptance by the Royal Australian Air Force and more efficient project execution by Boeing Australia. “Vigilare is a ($163 million) project to replace the ground based Air Defence Command & Control systems for the RAAF and will form a key component in the RAAF’s future Network Centric Warfare (NCW) capability,” Combet says.
…Improving Defense Acquisition. A new Australian initiative aims to improve complex defense project management, Combet adds. “Systems integration issues are a known cause of significant delays in major defence acquisitions and platform upgrades,” Minister for Defence Science and Personnel Warren Snowdon says. The new organization will be known as the Defence Systems Integration Technical Advisory (DSI – TA) and is a joint venture between the Defence Materiel Organisation (DMO) and the Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO). Combet says the new unit will monitor and assess integration risks, and provide advice to project teams and decision-makers. The unit’s work also will include examination of complex systems integration issues, performing systems engineering analysis and evaluating alternative capability solutions.
Coast Guard PBL Expands. Rockwell Collins signs a 10-year, $35 million extension to provide Performance Based Logistics (PBL) service and support for Coast Guard aircraft, including three new platforms: MH-60T, HC-130H/J, and HC-144A. The company already supports the HH-65 and HU-25. The new PBL contract with the Coast Guard expands Rockwell Collins’ support of their fleet from 112 aircraft to 213 aircraft. The fixed price per flight hour agreement provides guaranteed availability levels through spares management, logistical support, field service engineering, and component reliability improvements for Rockwell Collins’ comprehensive suite of displays, communication, surveillance, navigation, and pilot control systems.
Sweden Considers. Rockwell Collins, supporting a major demonstration being conducted by the Swedish Defence Material Administration (FMV), recently conducted a successful mobile, ad hoc networking demonstration of the Tactical Data Radio System (TDRS) Software Defined Radio (SDR). The demonstration is part of a program to provide SDRs to support the Swedish armed forces initiative to develop a Network Based Defense structure. The SDR system consists of modular, open architecture, hardware and software components, and hosts a customized, high-data rate, networked waveform. The new waveform will provide Swedish tactical forces with a wireless, mobile, ad hoc network capable of simultaneous voice, data and video communications. “Sweden is among the first European countries to procure deployable SDRs and begin testing,” Bruce King, vice president and general manager of Surface Solutions for Rockwell Collins, says.