The Latest Word On Trends And Developments In Aerospace And Defense
Supplementing The Supp. HAC-D Chairman John Murtha (D-Pa.) says the upcoming war-funding supplemental spending bill for the remainder of FY ’09 will be larger than the Pentagon has proposed, and could end up costing at least $87 billion. “We’re trying to make as much room as we can in the regular (defense base) bill by putting as much as we can in (the) supplemental,” he says. “Because we know that we’re setting the stage for down the road when all these domestic programs are competing with the defense bill.” The White House has said the Pentagon will request a $75.5 billion supplemental, more than Defense Secretary Robert Gates’s previous $69.7 billion estimate. Murtha wants to add monies for the Air Force’s tanker to the bill, but says he’s not sure if Stryker vehicles and C-17 aircraft will be funded in it. The supplemental, for the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30, must pass “by May,” he says.
Littoral Motivations. What does HASC Seapower subcommittee Chairman Gene Taylor (D-Miss.) say to criticism that he’s proposed opening competition for the Navy’s rocky Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) beyond the two current competitors in order to help Northrop Grumman’s Ingalls shipyard in his district? “My shipyard has a 300 to 400 worker shortage right now,” he says. “My shipyard has more than sufficient workload right now.” He claims he simply is troubled about the high costs and delays with the first two littoral ships.
…Murtha In Littorals. Murtha isn’t on board with Taylor’s LCS idea, at least not yet. “I think that if we would do that we’d slow the program down,” Murtha says, quickly adding: “I haven’t talked to Gene (Taylor) about it, and I always confer with him when I’m talking shipbuilding. So I have to hear what he has to say.” Murtha has said he hopes problems are ironed out with the LCS program as soon as possible so that it can be used to help build the Navy’s fleet to 313 ships.
…Bonded Performance. Taylor says he and HASC Air Land Chairman Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii) plan to hold a hearing on a cost-controlling idea: requiring defense firms to take out performance bonds on new weapons systems they contract with the Pentagon to build. Such bonds would dictate the items are delivered on time and price, and if they are not, the bonded money would go to the government, Taylor says. “It’s done every day in state governments, it’s done every day in local governments…and I see no reason why it wouldn’t work at the national level,” he says.
Rocket Talk. The Army remains interested in acquiring a 2.75-inch precision air-to-ground rocket, Lt. Gen. James Pillsbury, the deputy commander of Army Materiel Command, says. “The Army definitely still sees a need for a guided 2.75,” Pillsbury tells a defense conference in Washington. Last fall, the Navy took over the lead on the Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System (APKWS) following the Army’s decision to terminate the program the year prior. The Army’s System Development and Demonstration contract for APKWS with BAE Systems was transferred from the Army to the Navy in September 2008. The Navy at that time agreed to accept all requirements, resources, and acquisition/contract management responsibilities for development and fielding of APKWS. APKWS turns a standard 2.75-inch unguided rocket to a smart, laser-guided weapon capable of engaging unarmored and lightly armored targets. By the end of 2007, the APKWS program had completed 14 demonstrations with two helicopter platforms involving three separate aircrews and various mission scenarios. BAE’s Nashua, N.H., facility plans to begin producing the rockets by the end of this year. Pillsbury says the Army remains interested in the rocket but could not say whether the service currently has plans to buy them.
International Opportunity. Australian companies will have the opportunity to do billions of dollars worth of business on the F-35 fighter jet program, the Lockheed Martin F-35 program manager for Australia says. “As the F-35 transitions into full-rate production, opportunities for Australian industry will increase, and they will endure throughout the life of the F-35 program,” Bob Price, F-35 program manager for Australia, says at an air show outside Sydney. “From the outset, Australian industry has participated in the program, and is now demonstrating its excellence in the components, systems and services it supplies.” Since 2003, Lockheed Martin has been developing an “industrial participation plan” that enables Australia and other international partners on the program to benefit from the thousands of F-35s expected to be sold worldwide. According to Price, the F-35 industrial participation plan “builds on existing industry capabilities and offers sustained growth in technology development, employment and profitability.” Price cites several Australian companies that have already been awarded contracts on the F-35 program. For example, Marand Precision Engineering won Systems Development and Demonstration-phase contracts for F-35 rate tooling, engine trailers and various engineering services. “These kinds of opportunities represent a unique and important entry into advanced manufacturing for Australian companies,” Price says. “Never before has there been a chance to provide components, services and systems to a fleet that is expected to grow to more than 3,000 aircraft.”
New Job For DoD Spokesman. Robert Hastings, the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, is taking a new job at Northrop Grumman. Hastings, who had been at the Pentagon for the past year, will be a vice president of communications at the company’s new Information Systems sector. Before coming to the Pentagon, Hastings worked as the vice president of communications for BAE Systems. His last day at the Pentagon was March 13 and he starts the new job at the end of the month.
Defense Stimulus. With all the talk of stimulus packages for the financial sector and the auto industry, some inside the Beltway are wondering why there hasn’t been an open discussion on a defense stimulus package. While the nation’s manufacturing sector has seen a decline over the past 10 to 15 years as companies relocate overseas, the defense sector has remained stable, Mike Petters, president of Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding, tells Defense Daily. “Because of security issues and the [buy] American provisions, the defense business has stayed relatively stable and, as a result, the percentage of our manufacturing has gone up,” he says. “Today, my business alone, we spend nearly $3 billion a year in the U.S., across the country, buying the equipment, parts and supplies we need to construct ships. It seems to me that a rapid way to stimulate the broad economy is to inject some capital into that supplier base.”
…A Far Reach. Injecting funds into the defense supplier base would reach the far parts of the country that support shipbuilding programs, Petters cites as an example. “You’d be building things that we know we need. We know we are going to need these ships, we know we are going to need these parts, we know we need this tooling,” he adds. “If you stimulate that, what you are going to do is accelerate a need we have anyway. At this point in time, pick your statistics, where jobs are being lost everyday, this is a way where you could inject some real stimulus into the economy. You are not trying to fix anybody’s balance sheet, you are not trying to balance somebody’s pension. You are actually going to put capital into the hands of people who are making things which creates jobs and then that has a local multiplier effect.”
…Left Behind? “It is striking to me there really hasn’t been any discussion of [a defense stimulus package],” Petters says. “I really don’t know what that means. The Pentagon is kind of reworking through their budget process now and everybody is watching to see what really is going to happen with defense in all of this transition. But certainly everybody is noticing. You try to stimulate the economy and you’re leaving a major portion of the economy out of the equation. That’s being noticed by everyone in the industry.”
Parting Words. With no fanfare, Navy Secretary Donald Winter slipped back into private life. He left Friday, after agreeing earlier in the year to stay on until March 13 or until the new administration found a replacement. For now, B.J. Penn, ASN for installations and environment, will become the interim Navy secretary. Although Winter is leaving before his replacement is nominated, he hopes to get the chance to meet his successor, he tells Defense Daily. “If I do have the opportunity to meet my successor, which I hope is the case, my comments would be much less going through this program and that program, and much more the general sense of guidance for him or her to spend some time…understand what this is all about. Take a look at how they can best help the Navy and Marine Corps and DoD.”
…Take The Time. People come into this position with different backgrounds and experiences. I think there’s no single way of doing it or providing maximum benefit. There are things I would recommend: ‘use your time, use your presence, be out there with the fleet, take the time to deal with sailors, the Marines and the families.’ But a lot of it really depends on the background of the individual who comes in here. This is not like a lot of other jobs you see in industry, where there are certain sets of things you need to and can in fact get done. This job is never dull.”
…Legacy. Winter says he’d like to be thought of as the secretary of the sailors and Marines. “I can say that I think I have consistently done what’s best for them. I hope first of all and most importantly that that proves to be correct. I also worry about other things, my fiduciary responsibilities to the taxpayers and things of that nature. But, in the end, it really does come down to what’s best for the sailors and Marines. Those people do what the nation asks them to do. They put their lives on the line. They truly make the sacrifices. If we don’t support them we can’t expect them to support us.”
Getting The Most Out Of Life. While the Navy is undertaking an effort to determine how best to ensure it gets the full service life out of its current fleet, officials are also looking how to make sure the service gets the full life out new ships. Rear Adm. James McManamon, deputy commander for surface warfare, SEA 21, Rear Adm. William Landay, PEO Ships, the service’s fleet support division and the LCS program office have been working for the last six months on teaming arrangement to flush that out, McManamon tells reporters. “We are operating under an ISP…three years from ship commissioning for LCS-1 and -2. During that time period, we are setting up the metrics and analysis of the cost to maintain those systems, because LCS…we haven’t done before. Some are legacy some are foreign [systems]…[it has a] small crew…how are we going to do that?”
…Current Plan. “Our intent is, in the first year, to work with industry…Lockheed Martin, to collect all the costs. I’ll have the metrics to better understand what is the maintenance we are doing. [The] second year, I will be doing analysis and preparation. I fully expect that we will do a Multi-Ship, Multi-Option (MSMO)-type contract to support LCS. Our strategy is to collect the information, analyze it, put out the RFI, then RFP, and then award it.” McManamon suspects there will be a number of companies interested in bidding on the work.
…Discussions. McManamon has had discussions with the LCS-1 shipbuilder. “They may be uniquely qualified to do it. Similar situation with General Dynamics.” And he has had at least two industry teams say they could do it. LCS also presents some unique challenges, he adds, such as how often will the ship get back to port and crew swapping. “I am setting up a framework so I can adjust depending on how that works,” McManamon says.
Shhh. Lt. Gen. John “Jeff” Kimmons joins ODNI as director of the intelligence staff. He served as the deputy chief of staff, G-2–the top intelligence officer on the Army staff. The director of the intelligence staff is the third ranking official within ODNI and oversees the staff to ensure the effective integration and coordination of policy and procedures across the Intelligence Community. Kimmons succeeds Lt. Gen. Ronald Burgess, who recently was appointed the 17th Director of DIA.
New Helos In Town. The D.C. National Guard unveiled its new UH-72A Lakota Light Utility Helicopter Friday in Washington. The guard is officially receiving three of a total of eight of the EADS North America-made helicopters, the first guard unit in the nation to receive the helicopters in the medical evacuation configuration. The new helicopters replace UH-1 Hueys, the Vietnam war era helicopters flown now by the 121st Medical Co. (Air Ambulance) at Davison Army Airfield, Ft. Belvoir, Va. “We are proud and excited to receive this awesome new aircraft,” Maj. Gen. Errol Schwartz, commanding general of the DC National Guard, says. “It enables us to do the missions that we need to be relevant in the 21st century.” The Army began fielding the UH-72 to National Guard and active-duty units last year. The D.C. Guard will receive three more helicopters next month and two more fielded in 2012 to the D.C. Guard’s 1-224th Security and Support Detachment also based at Davison. The 1-224th currently flies the OH-58.
A Century of Care. Walter Reed Army Medical Center April 27 kicks off a weeklong celebration in honor of the medical center’s 100 years of care for America’s service members and their families. The week of events culminates with a centennial ball May 1. Walter Reed Army Medical Center is the largest DoD military hospital serving the military community from the Washington area and around the world. It began as an 80-bed hospital. The center is named for Army Dr. Walter Reed, who in 1900 led the team confirming the theory that yellow fever is transmitted by mosquitoes.