No More SCO? The House Armed Services Committee’s fiscal year 2019 defense authorization bill calls for a plan to eliminate or transfer the functions of the Defense Department’s Strategic Capabilities Office (SCO) to another entity. Proponents of the provision say the six-year-old SCO has shown how to acquire technology rapidly and that it is time to transfer those lessons to the services.
Space Force? President Donald Trump says his administration is “seriously thinking” about creating a space force, an idea he first publicly expressed interest in in mid-March. Speaking to the Army football team, which visited the White House May 1, Trump said the military might need a separate space branch “because we’re getting very big in space, both militarily and for other reasons.” The Department of Defense opposed a congressional proposal last year to create a space corps within the Air Force Department, but it is revisiting the idea as part of a broader, congressionally mandated review of options to ensure DoD is properly organized for space.
F-35 Canopies. The House Armed Services Committee wants the Air Force to study the pros and cons of adding a second source for the canopy transparencies that enclose the F-35 Lightning II’s cockpit. Language explaining the committee’s fiscal year 2019 defense authorization bill says the F-22 Raptor has already benefitted from such an approach. “The committee understands that the F-22 program uses a two-source acquisition strategy for canopy transparencies, and that competition from that acquisition strategy has resulted in a more secure supply chain, increased innovation, longer product service life, and lower operating costs,” the panel wrote.
Congress Returns. Lawmakers return to Capitol Hill the week of May 7-11 after a one-week break. Activities will include the House Armed Services Committee’s May 9 markup of the fiscal year 2019 defense authorization bill.
SASC Markups. The Senate Armed Services Committee plans to mark up its fiscal year 2019 defense authorization bill the week of May 21-25. Subcommittee markups will take place May 21 and 22. The full committee markup will begin May 23. All but the personnel subcommittee markup will take place in closed-door sessions.
Bridenstine Speaks. Jim Bridenstine, who was sworn in as NASA administrator in late April, is scheduled to be the opening keynote speaker May 9 at the Human to Mars Summit at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
Long Range UAS RFP. The Coast Guard’s Research and Development Center is seeking bids to conduct a technology demonstration of a long-range, ultra-long endurance unmanned aircraft system (UAS) and mission payload that could possibly be used to detect and track illegal drug and migrant activity in the transit zone. The Coast Guard hopes to select a contractor this September, leading to the demonstration next spring and summer, according to a May 3 Request for Proposals. The service is interested in adding surveillance assets in the Eastern Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea to better track illegal drug smugglers originating in Columbia as they head out to sea before traveling to Central America where the drugs are broken down into smaller shipments and trucked north into the U.S. Bids are due on June 5.
Face Recognition Pilots. Customs and Border Protection, which is working with airlines and airports to roll out facial recognition technology at airline departure gates to verify the departure of foreign nationals from the U.S. on international flights, this summer plans to pilot test the technology for pedestrian use at the border with Mexico. CBP will use the technology at some pedestrian checkpoints at two separate ports of entry on the southwest border for persons entering and exiting the U.S., agency officials said at the Connect:ID conference in Washington, D.C. last week. CBP is under a congressional mandate that stems from a 9/11 Commission recommendation to deploy biometric technology to record the entry and exit of foreign nationals traveling to and from the U.S. Fingerprint technology is currently used to track entries but the exit portion of the mandate has languished for about 15 years.
PE Head. The Secretary of the Navy and Chief of Naval Operation select Capt. Frederick Luchtman to be promoted to rear admiral (lower half) and assigned as head of the physiological episodes (PE) effort. Luchtman currently serves as executive assistant at U.S. Pacific Fleet. Luchtman is posed to succeed Rear Adm. Sara Joyner to head the Physiological Episode Action Team. In January the Navy assigned Joyner to be director of J1 in the Joint Staff (Defense Daily, Jan. 24).
MDR. The HASC is disappointed the administration did not finish the Missile Defense Review (MDR) before the NDAA FY ’19 NDAA markup begins this week, according to a panel staffer. The markup did have the benefit of drawing from the recently completed Nuclear Posture Review, but the MDR is not expected to be complete until the end of the month.
LCS-20. Austal USA plans to christen and launch the future Independence-variant Littoral Combat Ship USS Cincinnati (LCS-20) on May 5 at its shipyard in Mobile, Ala. LCS-20 will be the 10th of 15 Austal LCS ships under contract. Ship’s sponsor will be former Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker. Austal is currently building five LCSs in Mobile. The event is set to feature speeches by PEO for LCS Adm. John Neagley, deputy assistant Secretary of the Navy for ship programs Frederick Stefany, and Rep. Bradley Byrne (R-Ala.).
PEO U&W. Rear Adm. Brian Corey last week officially replaced Rear Adm. Mark Darrah to lead Program Executive Office for Unmanned Aviation and Strike Weapons (PEO U&W). Darrah is retiring from the Navy while Corey previously served as the commander of the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division in China Lake, Calif.
Raytheon NSM. Raytheon Chairman and CEO Thomas Kennedy said in a quarterly earnings call this week that the company expects an award on the Naval Strike Missile (NSM) for the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) and Future Frigate (FFG(X)) in the second quarter of the year and “significant more funds placed against it in the fiscal year 2019 budget to move forward with that program.” Kennedy said Raytheon is a “very good position there” with a system requiring minimum development to develop systems aside from small changes. The company “can go to production very quickly, which is something the United States Navy needs,” he added.