The Latest Word On Trends And Developments In Aerospace And Defense
Unmanned Uptick. Sens. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and Jack Reed (D-R.I.) join Secretary Robert Gates last Wednesday in highlighting the importance of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). “We…need more intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets in Afghanistan, including unmanned aerial vehicles that are tailored to the unique requirements that the situation in Afghanistan presents,” Levin, the chairman of the SASC, says at his panel’s wide-ranging hearing with Gates. Reed also notes rotary-wing aircraft could help the situation in Afghanistan.
McCaskill Has Gavel. Pentagon watchdog Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) plans to keep a close eye on federal contracts as the chair of a new investigative subcommittee of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. “Last year we made major strides in contracting accountability by establishing the Wartime Contracting Commission, and while I look forward to those investigations, we all know that outrageous contracting abuses occur in every facet of government,” McCaskill says in announcing the new Ad Hoc Subcommittee on Contracting Oversight. Full committee Chairman Joe Lieberman (I/D-Conn.) says management of federal contracts “is one of the greatest operational challenges facing the federal government,” and that as a former auditor and prosecutor McCaskill has crucial investigative experience.
Obama In E-Ring. After visiting the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon for the first time last Wednesday, President Obama says one of his principal goals will be “to make sure that they have the resources and the support that they need to carry out the critical missions that keep our nation safe each and every day.” He pledges to ensure “the civilian side of the ledger” supports what the military is doing, saying: “We had for a long time put enormous pressure on our military to carry out a whole set of missions, sometimes not with the sort of strategic support and the use of all aspects of American power to make sure that they’re not carrying the full load. And that’s something that I spoke with the Chiefs about and that I intend to change as President of the United States.”
Persistent Fighter Gap. The Air Force has not implemented air sovereignty alert (ASA) operations to protect U.S. airspace, and it does not have an adequate plan to replace or extend the service life of aging fighter aircraft, the Government Accountability Office concluded in a report released last week. “For example, if aircraft are not replaced by 2020, 11 of the 18 current air sovereignty alert sites could be without aircraft,” the report concludes. “The Air Force has not developed plans to mitigate these challenges because it has been focused on other priorities.” The Air Force has 18 sites in the United States that conduct air sovereignty alert (ASA) operations.
On Shaky Ground. While both the Navy and the Air Force have taken steps to better prepare their personnel for hostile ground locations by providing enhanced combat skills training, neither of the services have yet developed a well-managed combat skills training program, the Government Accountability Office concluded in a report released last week. Combat training programs developed by each service established a mission statement and clear goals, according to GAO, but did not develop an implementation strategy with a timeline. Until such strategies are developed, the agency predicted, “wide divergences in the combat skills training provided to… personnel will continue.” Since 9/11, the Pentagon has been adapting to an expanded battlefield–one in which rear areas are no longer considered secure. As a result, both the Navy and the Air Force have instituted additional standardized combat skills training in such areas as land navigation, first aid, and weapons qualification. The Navy has developed and implemented the Expeditionary Combat Skills (ECS) course for select Navy Expeditionary Combat Command (NECC) personnel. To provide similar training to designated enlisted personnel, the Air Force began planning the Common Battlefield Airmen Training (CBAT) program. However, that program was canceled in August 2008.
Bomber Team. A Boeing-Lockheed Martin team is shaping up in the competition for the Air Force’s much-anticipated next generation bomber program, sources say. Boeing is the incumbent on the C-17 and B-52 programs. Northrop Grumman, which produces the B-2 bomber, is also expected to compete for the contract. The Air Force’s goal is for the new long-range bomber to enter service in 2018.
Safety In Numbers. Only about 100 F-22 Raptors will be operationally available at any given time if the size of the fleet is not expanded from the currently planned 183, Lockheed Martin officials say. “There’s a minimum number required to be effective in any operational engagement because, obviously, if you’re outnumbered, you still have to carry enough weapons and you still have to operate in multiple regions,” said Larry Lawson, Lockheed Martin’s executive vice president for the F-22 program. “Let’s say you buy only a very few airplanes, and these airplanes fly for 8,000 hours. You use them up and then you don’t have them for a full 30 years.” Lawson notes that the investment in a fighter platform is at least a three-decade decision. “That’s the problem with silver bullet forces,” he says. “You make this incredible investment that will be gone in a very short time because you’ll have them operating at such a high tempo. So there are a number of considerations when you’re trying to determine what is your minimum viable fleet.”
A Solid Floor. Navy Secretary Donald Winter tells reporters last month that the service’s plan to build a 313-ship fleet is a reflection of that balance of what the Navy can sustain with the production capabilities…within the affordability considerations, and what the needs are of the COCOMs. “In any business I have ever been involved in, if you do a resource unconstrained analysis, you will always wind up asking for more, whether it is money for R&D, money for facilities,” he says. “Take the affordability consideration out of it and the numbers just go sky high. Maintaining a process which factors in affordability is important to getting us to an achievable and realistic program.”
…More Than 55? While some in DoD say they would like to see the Navy eventually buy more than 55 LCS, Winter notes he has not seen anything that would suggest the number is going to be changed in the near future. “The shipbuilding plan is dependent upon three basic factors and really it represents a balance between those factors–what’s viewed as a need, what the industrial capacity can provide us, and what’s the affordability,” he says. “And somehow that balance has got to be achieved. If you are going to go ahead and adjust just one of those parameters you are going to have to adjust the other parameters.” If the Navy is going to go ahead and decide they want more, for whatever reason, of whatever type, then somehow the service is going to have to deal with the affordability considerations, Winter says. “That’s not something that’s just done based on a few guys just running around and doing an analysis of what it would be like if we had a few more of this ship or that ship.”
Foreign Affairs. “A lot of the countries that are buying or are interested in the [JSOW] C weapon are also expressing interest in C-1,” Phyllis McEnroe, Raytheon JSOW program director, tells Defense Daily. “We are working release issues for C-1. Currently it is released to only one country.”
Intelligent Move. Since 9/11 the Coast Guard has become a member of the Central Security Service at NSA, James Sloan, assistant commandant for Intelligence and Criminal Investigations, tells Defense Daily. “The Coast Guard has a cryptologic group based at Fort Meade and scattered all over the country, which works very closely with NSA.”
A United Plea. Members of Local 8888 of the United Steelworkers from Northrop Grumman’s Newport News shipyard are asking President Obama to fully fund the second half of the planned third DDG-1000. Getting that funding would demonstrate the administration’s dedication to new innovation, the union says. “America cannot afford to lose the forward momentum that the DDG-1000 program brings in advanced technologies. Nor can America afford to lose the skill base of our country’s shipbuilding industrial base,” says Alton Glass, president of Local 8888. “Your support for this program will ensure job security and stability for many years to come while providing increased protection for our men and women who sail the seas to protect global security and the sea-lanes of commerce.”
Taking Control. The Commander of U.S. 2nd Fleet, Vice Adm. Mel Williams, and members of his staff embarked USS Bataan (LHD-5), the designated 2nd Fleet flagship, Jan. 26 to test command and control of the USS Eisenhower (CVN-69) CSG during the final exercise before deployment. The embark took place while Bataan was pierside at Norfolk Naval Base, the Navy says. Earlier in the month, 2nd Fleet IT specialists set up a modular command and control system, the 2nd Fleet Demonstrator (2FD), onboard Bataan to facilitate communications and collaboration with the Eisenhower CSG and the 2nd Fleet Maritime Headquarters, the Navy adds.
…C&C. The 2FD is a Distributed Deployable Command Element (DDCE), which was jointly developed by Commander, U.S. 2nd Fleet and the Deployable Joint Command and Control (DJC2) Joint Program Office. The 2FD provides the afloat Joint Task Force (JTF) Commander a command and control capability at the Operational Level of War (OLW) that is able to rapidly deploy afloat, the Navy says. Under normal circumstances, without this DDCE type capability, it could take weeks to establish the structure and programs necessary for a flag staff to “set up shop” aboard a ship, says Capt. Jeff Link, 2nd Fleet’s Director for C4I, Networks and Information Assurance. “The 2FD allows the Joint Task Force Commander and his staff to embark a designated flagship and have mobile command and control capabilities that utilize systems identical to his Maritime Headquarters with only four days for notification and equipment installation.”
A New Investigative Team. Norfolk Naval Shipyard (NNSY) joins the Navy’s INSURV in conducting surface ship inspections, the Navy reports. NNSY Senior Engineer Steve Czarny estimated that NNSY’s Structural Systems Division will perform more than 12 ship inspections with INSURV during calendar year 2009. During a typical INSURV inspection, NNSY personnel inspect a pre-determined list of approximately 35 spaces including bilges, bulkheads, decks and tanks. The shipyard team emphasizes inspection of shell plating and the hull’s structural framing, but any deficiency is open for documenting on the report. NNSY personnel also remain onboard following the inspection to answer questions from ship’s personnel, the Navy says.
Looking For Business. PEO Subs and PEO LMW hosted a conference for Hispanic-owned small businesses (HOSB) last week at California State University, Los Angeles. The conference also provided an unprecedented forum where HOSB owners could connect directly with senior Navy and industry leaders to learn, collaborate and explore ways that the Navy can benefit from the vast product and service offerings of the nation’s HOSBs, the Navy says. “The purpose of this conference is to develop partnerships so NAVSEA can better harness the power of small businesses in our efforts to keep our Navy number one in the world,” Vice Adm. Kevin McCoy, commander, NAVSEA Command, adds. “We’re very proud that during the past 10 years PEO SUBS has spent more than $1 billion in small business contracts,” says PEO SUBS Executive Director Jack Evans. Victor Gavin, Executive Director of PEO LMW, adds, “We need to embrace the small business partner and encourage them. At PEO LMW small business is big business.”
The 400. Northrop Grumman delivered its 400th fuselage section for the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet in January, the company reports. The fuselage “shipset,” measuring nearly 30 feet long and 18 feet high, consists of the aircraft’s center and aft fuselage sections, twin vertical tails and all associated subsystems. It was shipped earlier this month to Boeing’s F/A-18 production center in St. Louis, Mo., for final assembly and delivery to the Navy, says Northrop Grumman. Northrop Grumman has now delivered 1,879 shipsets for all models of the F/A-18, including the F/A-18A-D Hornet and now the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and EA-18G Growler.
Forget EBO. U.S. Joint Forces Commander Marine Gen. James Mattis says forget effects based operations for complex systems. “I don’t agree with it whatsoever. The dual- hatted Mattis, who is also NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Transformation, says at a recent Washington, D.C., panel that in his experience, “mechanistic approaches to war do not work…if you study quantum physics, if you study complex interactive systems you move one piece, it’s a kaleidoscopic. Everything shifts. Even thinking about the problem, shifts the problem around. The idea that you can anticipate and thwart that specific behavior…I think is silly.” Just look around the room, he said at the panel, consider the different reactions from the audience if someone jumped through the window. EBO is a “superb” idea for closed systems. “If I cut the fuel line on your car, it’s not going anywhere. But once you apply it to complex open systems where human will imagination courage are involved, forget it.”
Get Ready For Review. Construction is coming closer for the Army and Navy Joint High Speed Vessel (JHSV) program. “Construction on the first Joint High Speed Vessel will begin following a successful Production Readiness Review (PRR), currently scheduled for Fall 2009,” NAVSEA says. “The JHSV PRR will be a review of design maturity, availability of materials and components, and the shipbuilder’s ability to successfully start fabrication.”
Modernize. ATK will undertake some critical modernization projects at the Lake City, Mo., Army Ammunition Plant (LCAAP), Independence, Mo., under an additional $49 million from the Army Sustainment Command in Rock Island, Ill. Operating LCAAP since 2000, ATK has successfully partnered with the military to modernize the facility and expand the manufacturing capacity and capabilities of the plant. ATK is the largest supplier of ammunition to the U.S. military, producing a mix of 5.56mm, 7.62mm, .50-caliber, and 20mm cartridges. The company remains on track to deliver 1.4 billion rounds of ammunition in FY ’09. “Our proven capability in facility management and our commitment to Lean/Six Sigma disciplines provide innovative and cost-effective solutions to the Army as we modernize Lake City,” Mark DeYoung, president, ATK Armament Systems, says.
Armor Up. Oshkosh Defense will provide more than 1,700 additional armor B-kits for the Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck (HEMTT) under a $132 million delivery order from the Army’s Tank-automotive and Armaments Command. The B-kit armor is an add-on armor appliqué separate from the integral armor already installed on the Oshkosh HEMTTr A4. Oshkosh’s Palletized Load System (PLS) A1 shares a common cab with the HEMTT A4 and could use the armor kits once it is fielded.
Check It Out. Army Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training and Instrumentation (PEO STRI) hosts its 12th annual Capitol Hill Demonstration Tuesday and Thursday. Tomorrow, the displays will be available in the Dirksen Auditorium, G-50, from 9 a.m. until 6 p.m., and on Thursday in the Rayburn Foyer from 9 a.m. until 6 p.m. Among items members and staff can check out are the Laser Marksmanship Training System; The Intelligence Electronic Warfare Tactical Proficiency Trainer Human Intelligence Control Cell; The Medical Simulation Training Center; and The Construction Equipment Virtual Trainer Hydraulic Excavator Simulator.