The Latest Word On Trends And Developments In Aerospace And Defense
Lewis Leaving. Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.), a longtime defense appropriator, plans to retire at the end of his current term. In announcing his retirement on Jan. 12, he touts his work to boost defense spending when he chaired the House Appropriations Defense subcommittee from 1999 to 2005. “He was a primary supporter of visionary weapons systems like the Predator unmanned aerial vehicle and the Army’s more agile modern force,” his office says in a statement. “He was also a congressional leader in supporting the troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. And he has been one of the sharpest watchdogs insisting that the Pentagon perform adequate testing before rushing into expensive weapons systems like the F-22 fighter.”
No Sequester Plan. As the Pentagon unveils its new strategy guidance, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta continues to insist he is not planning “at all” for so-called sequestration cuts of $600 billion due to start next year if Congress can’t craft a deficit-cutting plan. Administration officials have maintained this stance since Congress failed to pass a deficit-trimming proposal late last year, a failure that the Budget Control Act of 2011 says triggers the sequestration cuts, which would bring Pentagon reductions near $1 trillion over the next decade. Panetta and President Barack Obama want Congress to craft a new plan this year that will prevent sequestration. “If we had to do over a trillion dollars in cuts in this department, I have to tell you that the strategy that we developed, we’d probably have to throw that out the window and start over,” Panetta tells National Public Radio’s Weekend Edition Jan. 8.
…Strategic Spending. Panetta touts on Jan. 13 the new defense strategy–which is intended to identify $487 billion in planned cuts to the Pentagon’s 10-year spending plans–noting it continues investing in key areas. “We’re going to invest in Special Operation Forces, we’re going to invest in new technologies like (intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance) ISR and space, and cyberspace capabilities,” he tells the Greater El Paso Chamber of Commerce, in Texas. “Cyber is one of the important tools for the future. In many ways, it could be the battlefield of the future and we’ve got to be ready to be engaged in that kind of battlefield.”
Inhofe Not In. SASC member Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) calls President Barack Obama’s new Pentagon strategy “a recipe for disaster” in a Jan. 11 op-ed in The Oklahoman newspaper. “While there are steps that can be taken by the Pentagon to reduce costs, Obama’s attempt to reduce deficit spending on the backs of our military is a dangerously irresponsible proposition, unduly increasing risk to our national security,” he says, taking issue with the shift away from being prepared to fight two simultaneous land wars. “These cuts mean the Pentagon will be forced to drastically cut personnel numbers and potentially cut programs such as the F-35 and the Littoral Combat Ship,” he adds. “It means delaying the next-generation ballistic missile submarine, terminating the next-generation bomber, and eliminating the entire ICBM leg of our nuclear triad.” He charges the proposed cuts and shift in strategy are “unprecedented, especially during a time of unrest.”
Romney’s Take. Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, after winning the New Hampshire GOP primary Jan. 10, charges Obama has adopted “an appeasement strategy” internationally. “He believes America’s role as leader in the world is a thing of the past,” Romney says. “I believe a strong America must, and will, lead the future. He doesn’t see the need for overwhelming American military superiority. I will insist on a military so powerful no one would think of challenging it. He chastises friends like Israel; I’ll stand with our friends. He apologizes for America; I will never apologize for the greatest nation in the history of the Earth.” Romney has called for halting defense cuts and setting the Pentagon budget at a floor of 4 percent of Gross Domestic Product.
Energy Potential. The Pentagon could generate 7,000 megawatts of solar energy, or the output of seven nuclear-power plants, on four California bases, according to an energy-potential study unveiled Feb. 13. The study, released by the Pentagon’s Office of Installations and Environment and conducted by a private consultancy, is part of the effort to develop distributed energy sources on military bases to save money and make them less dependent on the commercial electricity grid. The researchers looked at seven Pentagon installation in California’s Mojave and Colorado deserts, and two in the Nevada desert. They find 25,000 acres are “suitable” for solar development and another 100,000 acres are “likely” or “questionably” suitable. The study concludes the most economically viable acreage at Edwards AFB, Fort Irwin, China Lake, and Twentynine Palms.
LPD Hull for LSD(X)? Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Ingalls shipyard is exploring the possibility of offering its LPD-17 (San Antonio-class) hull for the Navy’s next generation of landing dock ships to replace the current classes of LSDs, Ingalls Shipbuilding President Irwin Edenzon tells reporters. The Navy is still defining the requirements for the LSD(X) and the first of class is not expected to deliver until the middle of the next decade. “Our job is to let them know what we think we can do with the LPD hull and then try to align that with what the requirements are,” Edenzon says on the sidelines of the Surface Navy Association (SNA) last week. Edenzon says the shipbuilder’s confidence in offering the LPD hull “is a lot stronger than it was a few years ago,” when the LPD-17 class was beset with quality problems, design flaws, cost overruns and delays.
Back to the Seas? Marine Lt. Gen. Richard Mills, the deputy commandant for combat development and integration, sought to dispel the notion that that Marines had primarily become a counterinsurgency force over the last 10 years, and that with the end of war in Iraq and the mission in Afghanistan set to wind down, the service will return to its traditional amphibious and expeditionary role. “It’s probably the biggest urban myth that I know. We have never left the ships,” Mills says at SNA. Mills points to the Marines response to provide relief to the flooding in Pakistan and the catastrophic earthquakes in Haiti and Japan.
Navy Looks at Basing. The Navy is assessing the role of its bases to determine whether any should be closed, the vice chief of naval operations, Adm. Mark Ferguson, says. “We’re looking at that in concert with the other services,” Ferguson says at SNA. Ferguson says during the last round of Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC), decisions were made on assumptions about the number of ships and ship classes in the fleet. But in the current budget environment, some of the assumptions “may not reflect the reality.”
More Emphasis on Total Ownership Cost. Ferguson says the Navy needs to do more to take into account total ownership cost that includes manpower and training in the course of procuring a new system and how it will affect the budget for a program. “We think when you bring that together, that will be an incentive, and I think it’s a starting point,” Ferguson says at SNA.
Danish Helicopter Buy ‘This Month.’ A top Lockheed Martin executive expects the Danish defense department to whittle down its bidders for its Lynx helicopter program down to two “this month” and that the company will be one of the finalists. George Barton, Lockheed Martin vice president of business development, ship and aviation systems, says last week at the Surface Navy Association Symposium in Arlington, Va., he’s “very optimistic” Lockheed Martin will be a finalist with its MH-60R. The other competitor is AgustaWestland with its AW159. American EuroCopter was rumored to be a participant, but a company spokeswoman tells Defense Daily it would not be participating.
More Body Armor. BAE Systems says it will continue delivering side ballistic insert plates under a $15.8 million Army award. The plates, known as XSBI hard body armor, are worn on both sides of the torso. BAE first introduced the SAPI plate in 1998 and has produced more than one million hard body armor inserts, including XSBI and Enhanced SAPI, under multiple DoD contracts. Part of a previous contract, the award brings the total contract value to about $50.6 million
Final CROWS RFP. Army Program Manager for Soldier Weapons at Picatinny Arsenal, N.J., is issuing the final RFP for the next generation of the Common Remotely Operated Weapon Station (CROWS), W15QKN-11-R-F015. Kongsberg Protech Systems is the Army’s program of record for the system. Rune Johannessen, vice president of Business Development, North America for Kongsberg Protech Systems, says the RFP “clearly demonstrates the Army’s recognition of the value of the Common Remotely Operated Weapons Station and the commitment to providing soldiers with effective, reliable defense systems that protect the lives of our troops…We’re looking forward to moving onto this next phase of the CROWS program, and we’re confident that Kongsberg is well positioned for this exciting competition.”
New Director. John Nagl, president of the Center for a New American Security and retired Army lieutenant colonel, is now on the board of directors of VoicePlate.com, a Southern Calif.-based web development and hosting company. “VoicePlate.com is a unique forum and has the potential to change how people search for careers and communicate,” Nagl says. “We plan to work with the general workforce, active duty military members, veterans and military families to help them secure employment and work to reduce the overall unemployment rate.” VoicePlate will provide free accounts to active duty military personnel and military personnel transitioning to civilian life, giving them a platform to showcase their skills to potential employers: http://www.voiceplate.com.
New Landing Mat. Faun Trackway says the company won an order for its new UAV Aircraft Landing Mat from Australian Armed Forces. It’s the company’s first sale of the new UAV-specific landing mat unveiled in the United States in October. The first temporary UAV landing mat on the international market, the mat is designed to provide a smooth landing regardless of terrain for any size or weight UAV, and can be deployed by hand, the company says. For fast deceleration, the mats can be fitted with arrestor gear, typically found on aircraft carriers. The company’s new U.S. company offers the mats and other mobility solutions in America.