NDAA Debate. Ahead of the House’s consideration next week of the fiscal year 2025 National Defense Authorization Act, Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) has called on Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to reject bringing up “poison pill riders” that could hinder bipartisan support for the defense policy bill. “I urge Speaker Johnson to reject all attempts to politicize and weaponize the committee-passed defense bill and honor the long-held bipartisan traditions of the House Armed Services Committee when he brings the NDAA to the House floor next week,” Smith, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said in a statement. Smith’s comments came after HASC advanced the NDAA out of committee with a bipartisan 57-1 vote, but as the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee advanced a spending bill that has received pushback from Democrats over GOP-proposed “harmful policy riders.”
TITAN. Sierra Nevada Corp. announced on June 4 that it’s part of Palantir’s team developing the Army’s Tactical Intelligence Targeting Access Node (TITAN) intelligence ground station and will provide its SNC TRAX software as well as hardware integration services and engineering support. SNC said its TRAX software “enables command and control, enhances situational awareness and shortens sensor-to-shooter timelines from hours to minutes for faster results on the battlefield. ”The SNC TRAX software solution hosts, translates and routes mission-critical tactical data information to and from disparate networks, providing the analytics and fusion of data required for near real-time decision making across multiple warfare domains,” the company said in a statement. Palantir beat out RTX in early March to continue developing TITAN and is currently working to build 10 prototypes for the next phase of the program.
Higgins To HASC. Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.) has been named to the House Armed Services Committee, filling a vacancy created by Rep. Mike Gallagher’s (R-Wis.) resignation from Congress in April. “I am honored to join the House Armed Services Committee. This is an important position for Louisiana’s military bases, personnel, and defense contractors,” Higgins said in a statement. “As an Army Veteran, I am eager to contribute to the committee and work with my colleagues to conduct oversight of our defense enterprise. We will fight for Louisiana priorities and ensure that our national security objectives are being carried out efficiently and effectively.” Higgins, who was represented Louisiana’s 3rd district since 2017, noted HASC’s oversight of Louisiana’s Barksdale Air Force Base, U.S. Army Joint Readiness Training Center and Fort Johnson, and Naval Air Station Reserve Base New Orleans. Higgins noted he will retain his other committee assignments, to include serving as the chair of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Border Security and Enforcement.
DoD CIO To Depart. DoD Chief Information Officer John Sherman will step down from his post at the end of June, the department has announced. Sherman has served as DoD CIO since the start of the Biden administration, first holding the position in acting capacity before being Senate confirmed in December 2021. During his tenure, Sherman led the transition from the embattled JEDI enterprise cloud computing program to the ongoing multi-vendor Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability effort and spearheaded the department’s push to embrace a “Zero Trust” security framework for its networks. “Mr. Sherman has been a steadfast advisor and an innovative leader who has helped the Department adopt and utilize modern information technology to keep our country safe. His technical expertise has proven invaluable in tackling a variety of digital challenges. His focus on mission readiness has ensured that each of the Services is equipped with both the capabilities and the digital workforce necessary for modern warfighting,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement. In his next role, Sherman will be Dean of the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University.
‘Too Early’ for Drone Corps. Gen. James Rainey, head of Army Futures Command, has said he believes it’s “too early” to think about establishing a separate drone branch within the service. Rainey is the latest senior Army official to push back on the House Armed Services Committee’s proposal in its version of the FY ‘25 NDAA to establish a Drone Corps, after Under Secretary Gabe Camarillo said it might be counterproductive to moving out on new UAS and counter-drone initiatives and Gen. Randy George, Army chief of staff, told lawmakers he doesn’t believe it “would be helpful.” “I don’t know that it’s going to warrant its own branch. And, certainly, I would say it’s too soon for that. The bigger thing is getting UAVs into our formations at echelon right now so we can train,” Rainey said during an AUSA and CSIS discussion on May 3.
T-ATS 7. The Navy planned to christen the future USNS Cherokee Nation (T-ATS 7) Navajo-class towing, salvage, and rescue ship during a ceremony on June 8 in Houma, La. This is the second ship in its class, which will replace the current Powhatan-class T-ATF fleet ocean tugs and Safeguard-class T-ARS rescue and salvage ships serving with U.S. Military Sealift Command. The Navajo-class will support missions like towing, rescue, salvage, diving, humanitarian assistance, oil spill response and wide-area search and surveillance operations. This ship class is being built by Bollinger Shipyards.
Aegis Ashore Poland. The Navy’s Navy’s Forward Deployed Regional Maintenance Center (FDRMC) completed the first depot-level maintenance availability for the Poland Aegis Ashore system in May, the service said on June 6. The service said this included “important modernizations” to ensure the site is prepared to meet all mission requirements. The FDRMC is responsible for the planned maintenance and modernization of the Poland site as well as emergent repairs.
PEO SSBN. Rear Adm. Todd Weeks relieved Rear Adm. Scott Pappano to become Program Executive Officer, Strategic Submarines (PEO SSBN) during a ceremony on June 5. During the ceremony, Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition Nickolas Guertin lauded Pappano’s record while providing him with the Legion of Merit at the ceremony. Guertin noted he established the submarine industrial base program within PEO SSBN and was the first PEO Columbia to provide flag-level leadership to the new SSBN program in 2019 and Pappano assumed PEO strategic submarines in 2021. Weeks previously served as PEO for Undersea Warfare Systems (UWS), which along with PEO Strategic Submarines is part of Navy Team Submarine along with PEO Attack Submarines and the AUKUS Integration and Acquisition Office.
B-52 Work. L3Harris said that the U.S. Air Force has awarded it a $34 million B-52 “Quad Crew” modernization contract to consolidate the electronic warfare officer and navigator on each Air Force Global Strike Command B-52 into one position. That move will leave each B-52 with a crew of four rather than the current set-up of five–two pilots, two navigators, and an electronic warfare officer. “The consolidation of the two crew positions will include moving the control and display unit panels to the navigator station,” L3Harris said. “The joint effort with the customer-led Crew Station Working Group will include a series of analysis – such as aircraft weight and balance, structural and electrical load analysis and thermal cooling – to identify any impact on the B-52 airframe and inform the modification kit design.”
Spaceport Expansion Support. A baker’s dozen of industry groups under the auspices of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce last week expressed their strong support for bipartisan legislation in the House and Senate that would allow space facilities to issue municipal revenue bonds to attract private investment to develop and expand spaceports and related facilities. The Secure U.S. Leadership in Space Act of 2024, was introduced in the Senate by Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.) and in the House by Neal Dunn (R-Mass.) and Salud Carbajal (D-Calif.), who are the recipients of the June 5 letter. The municipal bonds are tax-exempt and are typically used by communities obtain private investment for infrastructure projects such as airports, railways, and ports and waterways. “More private sector investment is necessary to support space-based industry in the U.S. to ensure that American firms can successfully compete with nations—especially China—that are pouring vast amounts of public funding into the next generation space race,” wrote the signees, which include the Aerospace Industries Association, Space Florida, the Colorado Air and Space Port, and others.
DIU, CDAO Tighten Bond. The Defense Department’s Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO) and the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) last week signed a memorandum of agreement codifying four areas of collaboration between the two organizations, to include scaling commercial AI into the DoD, accelerating autonomy development and fielding, experimenting with digital technologies for combined joint all-domain command and control, and collaborating on DoD-level policy and governance efforts to accelerate AI and autonomy development and fielding and digital technologies adoptions. “CDAO’s leadership in driving enterprise-level architecture, tools, and policy makes them an invaluable partner in DIU’s core mission of bringing commercial capability to the warfighter with the focus, speed, and scale required to deter major conflict,” DIU Director Doug Beck said in a statement. “This partnership will help us help our commercial partners to scale their impact fast.”
People News. General Dynamics last week said that Elizabeth Schmid has been appointed as senior vice president for government relations and communications. She has been the company’s vice president for government relations since 2018. Retired Army Lt. Gen. Scott Berrier has joined Booz Allen Hamilton as senior vice president of national security business. Berrier most recently served as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency.