The Latest Word On Trends And Developments In Aerospace And Defense
Hail To The (Defense) Chief. President Obama hails Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ proposed defense-budget rejiggering during a speech on the economy last week. “Secretary Gates recently announced a courageous set of reforms that go right at the hundreds of billions of dollars, in waste and cost overruns, that have bloated our defense budget without making America safer,” Obama says during the April 14 address to Georgetown University. “We need to do more. But that proposal by Secretary Gates is right on target.”
Protest This. There was a “significant increase” in protests filed by defense industry shops challenging procurement actions by the Pentagon during a recent year, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) says in an April 9 report to the House and Senate armed services committees. A GAO review of such protests from fiscal year 2004 to FY ’08 suggested “a downward trend in the rate of DoD protest filings” for the first four years. However, in FY ’08 there was a “significant increase” in the number of Pentagon protests filed, the report says, adding: “a portion of this increase is tied to recent statutory expansions of GAO’s bid protest jurisdiction, and we expect that our expanded jurisdiction will continue to result in an increased level of (Pentagon) protest filings.”
Good Sub News. Connecticut lawmakers may be vexed by Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ April 6 call for ending production of the F-22 at 187 jets, but they also received good news from Gates: he wants to begin the replacement program for the Ohio-class ballistic-missile submarine next fiscal year. Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and Rep. Joe Courtney (D-Conn.) met with the Metal Trades Council and Marine Draftsmen’s Association about this bit of good news last week, Dodd alerts folks via the Web program Twitter. General Dynamics’ Electric Boat is in Courtney’s district. He and Dodd advocated for $8 million in funding secured over the past two years to support the design of the Ohio-class replacement sub.
Chilly Relations. The United States must develop a more robust Arctic policy as melting ice caps in the region make it more accessible to ships, Defense Secretary Robert Gates tells officers at the Naval War College, Newport, R.I., last week. Speaking on April 17, Gates said the new policy must be closely coordinated with Canada. The secretary says he plans to meet with his Canadian counterpart, National Defense Minister Peter MacKay, in the Canadian Arctic this summer to begin formulating a strategy. Gates adds that Russia’s “aggressive territorial claims” in the region have increased the urgency of the situation.
…Learning to Love the Drone. Gates also says the age of armed autonomous vehicles has finally begun. “When I was the deputy director of the [Central Intelligence Agency], I tried to interest the Pentagon–and particularly the Air Force–in developing and employing” unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), he says. “And because it didn’t have a pilot in it, there was no interest.” More recently, however, the department has deployed a “significant” number of UAVs to Iraq and Afghanistan, Gates notes. “We’re not going for the most elegant solution in the world, but one that works and one that we can get into the theater right away,” he adds. “Over the past year or so, the Air Force has really stepped up to the plate in terms of increasing these assets, as has the Army.”
…Sticking Up For State. Asked whether civilian agencies should do more to support U.S. efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, Gates says Congress must provide more regular funding for the State Department. “The problem is not a lack of will on the part of civilian agencies, it is a lack of capacity,” he says. “The question is whether this part of the government, which has been starved for resources for decades, will finally receive the resources that it needs.” He says the ranks of the U.S. Agency for International Development ought to be bolstered and the U.S. Information Agency reconstituted to its Cold War-era strength. “But despite all the rhetoric on Capitol Hill about the need to build civilian capacity, about the fact that the Department of Defense and soldiers were doing things that more properly and better could be done by civilian professionals–despite all that rhetoric–[the State Department budget] still ended up on a continuing resolution” in the government’s Fiscal Year 2009 budget, he says.
…Booty Patrol. Gates was also asked whether there will be a maritime solution to the piracy incidents off the coast of Somalia, or whether military operations within that country would be necessary to resolve the issue. “Part of the problem,” he says, “is the number of … [shipping] companies that are prepared to pay the ransom as part of the cost of doing business. Clearly, if they didn’t pay the ransoms, we would be in a stronger position.” A solution might be found in collaboration with local governments in the Horn of Africa, he adds, since many of the countries in the region have weak national governments. Ultimately, however, a coalition of countries–likely including Russia, China and others who regularly use the pirate-infested shipping lanes–will have to be formed in order to resolve the issue.
EMALS. The Navy has done some testing of the new catapult system using a full-scale half-length prototype, Capt. Randy Mahr, EMALS program manager, tells Defense Daily in a recent interview.. “It got the dead load up to 150 knots. I am confident the technology works; we just have to put all the pieces together.” Mahr adds there is no question the linear motors work. “There’s not even a question as to whether linear motors work on the scale we are working on,” he said. The questions really center on: “Our ability to build the system components and deliver them in the time we need to put them on the ship in accordance with the ship’s build [time],” Mahr notes.
…New Arresting Gear. Moving to EMALS on CVN-78 also presented the Navy the opportunity to change the aircraft arresting system that has been in use a long time, Mahr adds. The new system for stopping aircraft is moving from hydraulic rams, which are labor intensive and expensive to maintain, to an “integrated bunch of technology pieces that are out there in other systems already,” he says. “It gives us the capability to arrest higher weight aircraft as well as lower weight aircraft, which a lot of people forget [about]. When you bring lightweight UAVs on board, the current system will not function as well as when we get the Advanced Arresting Gear out there.”
…Flight Deck Changes. The Aircraft Data Management and Control System will fundamentally change the flight deck, Mahr says, from the way the Navy currently maintains it. “It’s an information system that gets rid of the Ouija board flight deck control,” he adds. “We are bringing (ADMAC) out at the same time. For the first time since the 1940s…1950s, we are fundamentally changing the three components of the aircraft carrier that are the purpose of the aircraft carrier: How the flight deck is managed, with ADMACs, the catapult off the front end, and the arresting gear off the back end.”
In The Clouds. Cloud computing presents a huge opportunity for the DoD, Robert Carey, Navy CIO, tells Defense Daily in a recent interview. “But when you talk about cloud computing you have to open up your aperture pretty wide to make it worthwhile. And then you have to decide and understand what of your applications and data you lift out of where it is today and plunk down into this cloud? You can’t leap into this without understanding the path ahead,” he adds. “Some people say cloud computing is just the deployment of thin clients, so all the information, applications and servers are back in some building somewhere, and I have my thin client. That works if you have the right connectivity, and you have tested it. I think we owe it to ourselves…we have to be really deliberate and wring this out so that when we do transition it doesn’t break anything.”
…A CANES Model? Although the CANES RFP was delayed several times before the Navy released it earlier this month, the service believes the effort to make a clear and understandable solicitation could make the CANES RFP a model for other similar efforts. The problem with acquisitions in the past has been “we didn’t define it really well and industry wondered what we wanted,” Carey adds. “They do their best at interpreting what they think we want, and if there is a match great but if there isn’t, then you have to work through it…” The Navy held five industry days for CANES, collecting more than 1,000 comments and questions about the program. “I think these interactions helped bring the expectation mismatch to a minimum. When we receive proposals we are going to see an answer that we already know about because we have already had this dialogue.”
…Adding CANES To Gate Review. The Navy is taking some lessons leaned from the CANES effort and incorporating them into the gate review acquisition process, Gary Federici, DASN C4I, tells Defense Daily. “We’ve asked the PEO (Chris Miller) to document his lessons learned and we are actually fielding them into this gate process as guidance,” Federici notes. “That’s the only program that has done that. The three to four pages he put together are being folded into the guidance for other programs that move through the gate process.”
Visiting Ventura. The Navy commissioned DDG-106, the USS Stockdale, Saturday at NSWC Port Hueneme, Calif. Stockdale is the 56th of 62 Arleigh Burke– class destroyers. Cmdr. Fred Kacher, of Oakton, Va., will become the first commanding officer of the ship and will lead the crew of 276 officers and enlisted personnel. The 9,200-ton Stockdale was built by General Dynamics Bath Iron Works.
Back To The Sea. USS San Francisco (SSN-711) began sea trials April 7, seven months after successfully undocking at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility (PSNS & IMF), following the submarine’s Jan. 8, 2005, collision with an undersea mountain, the Navy says. The challenging, one-of-a-kind project involved PSNS & IMF cutting more than one million pounds of ex-USS Honolulu (SSN-718) forward ballast tanks/sonar sphere and attaching it to the San Francisco.
It’s Alive. A NAVAIR and Northrop Grumman team designed and built three F-5F Franken-Tiger Adversary aircraft to meet an urgent fleet requirement, says NAVAIR. The F-5F Franken-Tiger was built using parts from a Navy two-seat F-5F Tiger II aircraft and from single-seat, former Swiss Air Force, F-5E aircraft. The four remaining Navy F-5F Tiger II’s were too costly to maintain, had very little service life left and needed to be retired, the Navy adds. One of the Navy F-5Fs was lost in a mid-air collision on June 13, 2008 so there were only three left to convert, NAVAIR adds. The first Franken-Tiger made its maiden flight on Nov. 25, 2008 and was delivered to Marine Fighter Squadron, Training 401 (VMFT-401) at Marine Corps Air Station, Yuma, Ariz., on Dec. 9, 2008. The second Franken-Tiger was delivered to Fighter Composite Squadron 111 (VFC-111) at NAS Key West, Fla., in Dec. 19, 2008 and the third is scheduled to be delivered to VFC-13 at NAS Fallon, Nev., in January 2010, the Navy says.
Lasing Away. Boeing has been awarded a Navy contract valued at up to $163 million, with an initial task order of $6.9 million, to develop the Free Electron Laser (FEL) weapon system, which will transform naval warfare in the next decade by providing an ultra-precise, speed-of-light capability and unlimited magazine depth to defend ships against new, challenging threats such as hyper-velocity cruise missiles, the company reports. Under the task order, awarded April 13 by ONR, Boeing will complete the preliminary design of the electric-powered Free Electron Laser, the key step toward building a FEL prototype for realistic tests at sea. Boeing will partner with DoE laboratories, academia and industry partners to design the laser. FELs are capable of achieving the megawatt power the Navy requires for ship defense. They operate by passing a beam of high-energy electrons through a series of powerful magnetic fields, causing the intense emission of laser light, Boeing adds.
IA Contract For IPv6. AnviCom, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Command Information Inc., has been awarded a task order by DISA to support the development of Information Assurance (IA) guidance for Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) across the DoD enterprise, the company reports. The task order, awarded via the ENCORE II contract vehicle, are Multiple Award ID/IQ contracts that provide IT support to military agencies, DoD and other agencies within the federal government. The task order is for a period of one year with three, one-year options and has a potential life-cycle value of over $4.4 million, the company says. Command Information will support the DoD IPv6 Transition Office (DITO). This DISA office, supporting a DoD-level effort sponsored by the Assistant Secretary of Defense/Network Information and Integration (ASD/NII), is critical to coordinating coherent and timely IPv6 transition efforts across DoD, as well as developing common engineering solutions and implementation policy/guidelines enterprise-wide. Under the task order, Command Information will provide technical support to DITO including recommendations for security/IA matters, collaborating with NSA and DISA on development of the DoD IPv6 IA Guidance, and providing technical guidance for IPv6 implementation, Command Information adds.
PDR Success. The Army’s Future Combat Systems’ Common Controller is successful in its preliminary design review, which means the Army can start testing it later this year. The Common Controller, under development by Lockheed Martin, consolidates control of numerous systems into one integrated controller, simplifying logistics and empowering the soldier. Primarily, it controls the FCS Class I Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, the Multifunctional Utility/Logistics Equipment vehicle, the Small Unmanned Ground Vehicle, unattended ground sensors, and select ground vehicle functions and their respective payloads. The controller also provides situational awareness. “The Common Controller PDR marks the successful completion of the last of our individual platform and system reviews and clears the way for the FCS System-of-Systems PDR in May,” says Gregg Martin, Boeing vice president and FCS program manager.
New Boss Coming. The Army says Brig. Gen. Keith Walker will lead the Future Force Integration Directorate, Army Capabilities Integration Center, Army Training and Doctrine Command, Ft. Bliss, Texas. Walker would move from his current slot as commanding general, Iraqi Assistance Group, Operation Iraqi Freedom, Iraq. Walker would replace Maj. Gen. James Terry, who is moving on to command the 10th Mountain Div. and Ft. Drum.
New Log Trucks. Oshkosh Defense receives a more than $23 million delivery order from the Marine Corps System Command (MARCORSYSCOM) for more than 55 Logistics Vehicle System Replacements (LVSR). The delivery order includes delivery of 30 LVSR weapons mount kits. The LVSR variant produced under this delivery order will be the cargo truck. The delivery order was issued under a 2006 indefinite-delivery / indefinite-quantity contract with MARCORSYSCOM for up to 1,700 LVSRs.
More Guns. General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products says it will produce M2HB machine guns under a $28 million contract modification from the Army Tank Automotive Command (TACOM), Rock Island, Ill. This option modifies a 2007 contract, raising the total value to date to more than $100 million. Deliveries from this award will begin in December 2009. General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products gun systems senior program manager Dean Gagnon said: “Our M2’s accuracy, durability and versatility make it ideal for offensive and defensive operations. It’s a belt-fed, recoil-operated, air-cooled, crew-served weapon capable of right- or left-hand feed.”
Exercise Time. NATO will conduct exercises Cooperative Longbow 09-Cooperative Lancer 09 from May 6-June 1 in Georgia. The exercises aim to improve interoperability between NATO and partner countries, within the framework of Partnership for Peace, Mediterranean Dialogue and Istanbul Cooperation Initiative programs. Nineteen nations will participate. Cooperative Longbow 09 is a command post exercise focusing on training and exercising NATO staff skills and procedures, improving interoperability between NATO and partner nations for crisis response operations at the multinational brigade level. The exercise will be conducted in Tbilisi, Georgia, with approximately 1,300 personnel from NATO and partner countries. The scenario is based on a fictitious United Nations mandated, NATO-led crisis response operation. Cooperative Longbow 09 will be followed by a field training exercise, Cooperative Lancer 09, designed to provide basic training on peace support operations at the battalion level, and will take place from May 18- June 1.