SASC Set. The SASC will mark up its version of the FY ’12 defense authorization bill this week, behind closed doors as usual. The full committee is expected to unveil the final bill at a press conference by the end of this week. The subcommittee markup schedule calls for the Airland, Strategic Forces, Seapower, Readiness and Management Support, and Personnel panels to craft their versions of the bill tomorrow. Then, the Emerging Threats and Capabilities subcommittee is slated to mark up Wednesday morning, before the full committee starts to meet about the combined bill Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. The SASC markup session could run as late as Friday, after which Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) is expected to brief reporters. The Republican-led House passed its version of the policy-setting legislation on May 26. The House bill includes language intended to help keep alive the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter’s second engine. The full HAC will mark up tomorrow its version of the FY ’12 budget-setting defense appropriations bill, which does not fund the alternate engine.
Gates Vs. NATO. Retiring Defense Secretary Robert Gates says June 10 that he sees a “dim if not dismal future” for NATO if member nations don’t work hard to prevent major cuts to their defense budgets, better allocate resources, and follow through on commitments to the transatlantic alliance. “I am the latest in a string of U.S. defense secretaries who have urged allies privately and publicly, often with exasperation, to meet agreed-upon NATO benchmarks for defense spending,” he says in Brussels. “However, fiscal, political and demographic realities make this unlikely to happen anytime soon, as even military stalwarts like the UK have been forced to ratchet back with major cuts to force structure. Today, just five of 28 allies–the U.S., UK, France, Greece, along with Albania–exceed the agreed 2 percent of (gross-domestic product) GDP spending on defense. Gates says “this situation is highly unlikely to change,” and thus the challenge today “is no longer the total level of defense spending by allies, but how these limited (and dwindling) resources are allocated and for what priorities.”
Panetta’s Hindsight. Leon Panetta, President Barack Obama’s nominee to replace Gates as defense secretary, says former President Bill Clinton’s administration may not have handled defense budget cuts the “best” way when he served in it as director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). During Panetta’s SASC confirmation hearing, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) quizzes the nominee on his role in reducing Pentagon procurement spending by 13.4 percent in FY ’94. “As director of OMB, obviously I was given the responsibility by the president to try to achieve significant savings as part of the economic plan that was adopted by the Congress that…reduced the deficit by almost $500 billion,” Panetta says June 9. “My responsibility as OMB director was to provide a number to the defense secretary and allow the defense secretary and those at the Defense Department to determine how best to try to achieve those savings. And I do understand that that was part of what they proposed. Looking at it in hindsight, it might not have been the best way to achieve those savings, but it was a decision that was made at the Defense Department.”
Panetta’s Strike. Panetta believes a conventional prompt global strike weapon “would be a valuable option for the president to have at his disposal.” The Pentagon’s 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review concluded that the United States will continue to experiment with prompt global strike prototypes, but no decisions have been made to field such a nascent capability. Panetta tells the SASC, in written responses to questions before his confirmation hearing, that such systems “could be useful in scenarios involving regional adversaries considering an attack using weapons of mass destruction or against high-priority non-state adversaries.” He adds they “may be the only systems available in situations where a fleeting, serious threat was located in a region not readily accessible by other means.”
Global Hawk Goals. Northrop Grumman says it has made improvements to the Block 30 RQ-4B Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle since Pentagon testers determined last year it was “not operationally effective” for conducting the near-continuous, persistent intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance for which it was intended. That assessment is in a May 2011 report from Pentagon Director of Operational Test and Evaluation J. Michael Gilmore. George Guerra, vice president for High Altitude Long Endurance programs for Northrop Grumman aerospace systems, tells Reuters his company has made improvements to the aircraft since tests were conducted late last year, including installing a new electrical generator. “Since then, we’ve incorporated some of those improvements and we saw that the system performed quite well over Japan and Libya,” he reportedly says, adding: “In the long run, the report should help us make the system that much more capable for the warfighter.”
Shoe Scanner. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is taking another look at shoe scanning technology that would enable travelers at airport check points to leave their shoes on as they go through the security lines. The agency has issued a Request for Proposals for a shoe scanning device capable of detecting threat objects–including a variety of military, commercial and homemade explosives or explosives devices–concealed in footwear. TSA wants to be able to use the shoe scanners without increasing Transportation Security Officer staffing levels and to grow overall operational throughput. The agency looked at a shoe scanner several years ago supplied by General Electric’s [GE] Homeland Protection business but decided the technology wasn’t ready.
Reforms Approved. NATO Defense Ministers approve reforms to make the alliance leaner, more flexible and better able to deal with future challenges. Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen says, “We have agreed to streamline the agencies which run individual NATO projects such as ground surveillance and strategic airlift.” This means agency structures will be simpler but remain effective, he says at meetings June 8. “We have agreed to re-shape NATO’s command structure, making it more efficient, more deployable and more compact.” Some headquarters will close, others move or change roles. The reforms are to make NATO more affordable and offer better value. “Above all, they will deliver an alliance which is more fit for the future, defending us against the threats of today and tomorrow,” he says.
Science Guy. The new science adviser to 1st Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Pendleton, Calif., descended a long way to the new job. In May, Joe Brus summited Mt. Everest, some 29,029 feet above the sea level base in California. Brus is a former Office of Naval Research (ONR) Tech Solutions member. ONR shared this info through its Armed With Science Web site.
Family Affair. The Air Force awards General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems a $7.8 million contract to develop an Open System Architecture (OSA) common back-end digital processor for the entire family of Air Force radio frequency (RF) electronic devices, to include radars, SIGINT sensors, electronic-warfare and communication systems. General Dynamics will use open interface standards to develop modular, plug and play, multi-mission electronic back-end processors that leverage technologies developed under other OSA initiatives conducted by the Office of Naval Research. Back-end processors are used to analyze sensor signals, once they have been converted from analog to digital formats that have been collected by the RF devices. General Dynamics will provide a single family of processors capable of handling the digital processing needs of all Air Force RF systems. Because the General Dynamics open architecture eliminates the need for proprietary interfaces, the Air Force will benefit from competition from multiple vendors and able to take advantage of rapid technology upgrades as well as cost savings throughout the lifecycle of the processor.
Violating Obligations. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board of Governors adopts a resolution, co-sponsored by 14 nations, finding Syria in noncompliance with its international nuclear obligations. The report is a troubling update of Syria’s continued refusal to cooperate with the IAEA investigation and efforts to conceal the true purpose of the facility, which raise further serious concerns about Syria’s compliance with its international obligations, the U.S. State Department says. IAEA’s report finds troubling Syria’s demonstrated refusal to cooperate with the IAEA investigation and its attempts to construct a secret nuclear reactor with the assistance of North Korea. The IAEA report outlining the very likely construction of a covert nuclear reactor makes clear that Syria was violating its nonproliferation obligations, the U.S. government says in a statement.
Delivering Globemaster IIIs. Boeing delivers a second C-17 Globemaster III airlifter to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) air force and air defence Friday at the C-17 program’s final assembly facility in Long Beach. The company is contracted to deliver a total of six C-17s to its UAE customer–four this year and two in 2012. The C-17 is the only aircraft capable of performing all of the UAE’s airlift requirements–strategic and tactical, military and humanitarian, brigade airdrop and aeromedical evacuation–using either standard runways or short, austere airfields, the company says. It can transport large payloads across vast ranges without refueling and operate in extremely hot and cold climates. With a full payload of 170,000 pounds, a C-17 can fly 2,400 nautical miles and land in 3,000 feet or less. “We’re proud to say that UAE 02 is mission-ready,” says Rich Cutting, Boeing UAE C-17 program manager. “UAE 01, delivered just one month ago, has already logged several missions.
Technical Critique of European Missile Defense. Longtime missile defense critic Theodore Postol and fellow scientist Yousaf Butt were in Washington last week presenting their study entitled, “A Technical Basis for Russian Concerns over NATO Missile Defense.” They argue that subsequent stages that would be implemented within the new Phased Adaptive Approach (PAA) would put increasingly advanced versions of the Aegis SM-3 Interceptors in Poland would upset the nuclear “parity” achieved by the New START Treaty. The mobile nature of the PAA also leaves room for different configurations that Russian strategic advisers will take into account, they add. The experts suggest different cooperative measures, capping burn out rates on interceptors, and perhaps relocating the defense system to allay Russian fears.
Modular Space Vehicle (MSV) On Track. Northrop Grumman’s Space Program last week successfully completed a systems requirement review (SRR) under the MSV program for NASA. The next milestone in the project is a mission level systems requirement review, which will happen in early summer. Northrop Grumman was awarded the multi-mission modular bus development task order under the larger indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity, cost-plus fixed-fee multi award contract along with four other partners.
Fueling Up. A NASA-Northrop Grumman development team is looking to late 2012 to demonstrate the first aerial refueling between two Global Hawk UAVs, according to an official participating in the effort. The KQ-X program, sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, will use a Block 10 version of the UAV to refuel another Block 10 aircraft in midflight, Chris Naftel, Global Hawk program manager at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center, says. The NASA-owned aircraft will undergo software, sensor and electronic tests later this fall, in preparation for the aerial refueling demo, according to Naftel.
Common Station. The open architecture-based ground station system used to fly Global Hawks jointly-owned by NASA and Northrop Grumman, will be the basis for the next-gen military variant of the ground station being built for Air Force and Navy personnel. The OA approach being eyed for the new Global Hawk ground stations will allow service officials to use the same base station and tailor it to service-specific needs, Chris Naftel, Global Hawk program manager at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center, says. The flexible OA approach will also allow for new technology to be integrated into the ground system, without requiring sailors and airmen to requalify.
Euro Trip. Northrop Grumman officials plan to have a new Global Hawk variant, designed for the German military, take off for Europe sometime in mid-July, according to company officials. The Eurohawk variant is currently stationed at Edwards AFB, Calif., after platform construction was completed at the company’s facilities in Palmdale, Calif. The Eurohawk is the second Global Hawk effort being built for European allies. NATO is currently reviewing the company’s proposal for the NATO AGS program, which will use a Global Hawk to perform alliance-specific aerial surveillance operations.
TacSat Update. ATK and Air Force Space Command recently observed the two-year anniversary on-orbit for the Tactical Satellite-3 (TacSat-3), the company says. Originally designed for six months of operation with a one-year goal, the spacecraft successfully transitioned from experimental to operational status last year, ATK says. ATK, as the spacecraft bus prime contractor, provides the bus system to Goodrich and includes the onboard command and data handling system, solar arrays, spacecraft bus primary structure, and interfaces to the launch vehicle and payload. The spacecraft also features first generation modular bus technology designed to provide flexibility for future small satellite missions.