Panetta’s Chamber. The Senate plans to consider the nomination of CIA Director Leon Panetta to be defense secretary for two hours tomorrow afternoon. Under a unanimous-consent agreement the chamber reached June 16, the Senate will begin consideration at 2:15 p.m., and each party will receive one hour of debate. Panetta has a unanimous vote of support from the SASC. The Senate agreement dictating parameters of Panetta’s confirmation vote is tied in with rules for debating the nomination of Michael Simon to be a U.S. district judge in Oregon, which has been stalled. Panetta, former President Bill Clinton’s budget director and chief of staff, says he’ll consider having contractors pay more to develop systems and share in their cost overruns.
Missile Defense Defense. Outgoing Defense Secretary Robert Gates defends plans for the Phased Adaptive Approach (PAA) to European missile defense under questioning from Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) during a June 15 SAC hearing. At issue: a Defense Science Board report that says the Missile Defense Agency’s plans for an early-intercept capability, via the SM-3 Block IIB missile as part of the PAA, are not credible. “This is disturbing to some of us, since the MDA promised to develop by 2020 an early intercept capability for the SM-3 Block IIB was the central justification, as I understood it, to cancel the ‘third site’ in Europe (in the Czech Republic and Poland) and to kill the KEI (kinetic-energy interceptor) boost-phase defense program,” Shelby says. He asks if the Pentagon is reexamining plans for the PAA and if it will shift monies to the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system in the United States.
… Response. Gates maintains the Pentagon’s FY ’12 budget proposal would adequately fund the PAA and GMD ground-based interceptors, while also upgrading long-range radars and developing multiple kinds of ballistic-missile interception. He says the Pentagon is striking a “balance between the ground-based interceptor system and the money we are investing in that, plus the money that we are investing in the Phased Adaptive Approach,” which he says will yield a missile-defense capability several years earlier than would have been the case with the canceled “third site” in Europe. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Michael Mullen adds that developing a boost-phase intercept is “an extraordinarily difficult technical challenge.” He adds that even though the technology is proving difficult to make work, “it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t seek it.”
Nuke Nudge. Gates says he is “very concerned” about a roughly $1 billion cut the House is considering to nuclear-weapons modernization programs. “This modernization program was very carefully worked out between ourselves and the Department of Energy,” he tells the SAC. “The risks are to our own program in terms of being able to extend the life our weapons systems, to modernize them not in the sense of capability, but in terms of security and reliability. And this requires new construction.” He says many buildings at the Los Alamos National Lab date back to the Manhattan Project in the 1940s. “So this modernization project is, in my view, both from a security and a political standpoint really important,” Gates says. He adds that the promise of the nuclear-modernization work helped convince enough senators to back the New START arms-reduction agreement with Russia.
Counterfeit China. SASC leaders say the Chinese government is not cooperating in an investigation into counterfeit electronic parts in the Pentagon’s supply chain that the panel kicked off in March. “Our committee, on a bipartisan basis, talked to U.S. companies from defense contractors to component distributors, and they almost totally and exclusively point to China, specifically the city of Shenzhen in Guangdong province, as a source of counterfeit electronic parts,” SASC Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) tells reporters June 14. Yet Levin says the Chinese embassy and consulate will not issue travel visas to SASC staffers who want to travel to China to investigate, and the government wants the trip postponed. “If the electronic parts that go into our weapons systems are counterfeited, there’s every possibility that those counterfeits could cripple our ability to have those systems work in the fashion for which they were designed,” SASC Ranking Member John McCain (R-Ariz.) says.
Shore Focus. As the U.S. Navy and its international partners continue to look for solutions to the global piracy problem, Chief Of Naval Operations Adm, Gary Roughead says counterpiracy strategists need to look inland, rather than on the water, to solve the problem. Speaking at a maritime strategy symposium in Washington, Roughead says the key to breaking the backs of piracy gangs working off the shores of northern Africa and Southeast Asia is to disrupt their support operations based on shore. The focus on regional counterpiracy efforts should look to dismantle the land-based lines of communication that provide pirate gangs access to funding, weapons and other equipment needed to carry out attacks on merchant vessels. The strategy also requires a strong regional and local law enforcement forces to carry out those missions, he says. Short of that, military and private companies can flood the seas with patrol and security escort boats, and still not see any decrease in piracy attacks.
…Hybrid Solution. Even though the Navy has officially canceled its EP-X development program, the sea service is still looking for options to fill the gap left by the venerable EP-3 spy plane, Roughead says. Service officials are looking at a possible EP-8, a maritime version of the P-8 Poseidon, the Broad Area Maritime Surveillance unmanned aircraft or a “hybrid” of the two to be the next EP-X, according to the CNO. The Navy had been eyeing potential replacement options for the EP-3 since 2009, beginning with an Analysis of Alternatives (AoA) issued that year. However, the White House nixed the entire effort, known as EP-X, in its fiscal year 2011 defense budget proposal.
Software Upgrades. Company officials have completed the avionics software development for the Navy’s unmanned carrier-based aircraft, that will carry the plane through initial carrier tests next year, according to Northrop Grumman officials. The completed software set to go on board the Unmanned Combat Air System Demonstrator (UCAS-D) will be the precursor to the avionics setup that will actually control the air vehicles during carrier trials at sea, which are set for 2013. That final avionics software is currently undergoing testing and should be complete by the end of this year. Air vehicle one will arrive at Naval Air Station Patuxent River this fall, to prepare for land-based carrier flight trials. Air vehicle two will follow shortly thereafter, once initial flight tests at Edwards AFB, Calif. are complete.
Mobile Device Security. The federal government hasn’t “been doing enough and we’re semi-late to the game” when it comes to improving cyber security related to mobile devices, says the government official responsible for leading cyber security coordination efforts at the federal level. To address this issue, the United States government has begun meeting with several senior executives of commercial vendors “to start looking together at how to address the issues of mobile vulnerabilities,” says Rear Adm. Mike Brown, director of cybersecurity coordination at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). So far, this has been carried out under the Enduring Security Framework, which is a partnership between the public and private sector. Mobile computing devices are a threat “vector” that needs to be addressed, he says.
…About Information Protection. Matt Stern, an executive with General Dynamics who is the program director for the DHS U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team (CERT), says the paramount concern is data protection. Stern, who was commander of the Army’s 2nd Information Operations Battalion and oversaw the service’s CERT, says that when he left the Army in 2008 and joined GD, he was “amazed” at how “securely” the company runs its networks and protects information. Protecting data is “the crux of it,” he says. Eventually everyone will realize that mobile “devices are going to be dirty” as will the “environment,” but what is critical is the ability to still operate and “protect what’s key, and that’s the data.”
Collaborative Study. The Defense Acquisition University (DAU) and the Institute for Defense and Business (IDB) sign a memorandum of understanding to collaborate on DoD weapon system product support and life cycle management, training, education, research and curriculum development. The June 15 agreement has goals such as to study trends in acquisition and sustainment logistics management across the entire weapon systems life cycle–from requirements generation to disposal–and present principles in a consistent and unified framework; and to promote applied research on challenges faced by the defense industry to incorporate best practices into life cycle management curricula.
Phantom Eye. Boeing’s Phantom Eye high altitude long endurance (HALE) unmanned airborne system completes 12 days of ground vibration and structural mode interaction tests this month at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards AFB, Calif. Phantom Eye is being prepped for its first flight later this summer. Phantom Eye has a 150-foot wingspan and is powered by two 2.3-liter, four-cylinder hydrogen engines that each provide 150 horsepower. It is designed to fly at 65,000 feet for up to four days.
Hello Senior Leaders. General Dynamics C4 Systems is delivering 300 rugged Sectéra® Edge™ Smartphones to the Air Force. For use by senior leadership at the air staff and major command levels, the Smartphones are part of a broader Air Force plan to integrate Secure Mobile Environment–Portable Electronic Devices (SME-PED) like the Sectéra Edge into its consolidated enterprise network. “The Sectéra Edge provides cyber security at the hip,” says Mike Guzelian, vice president of Secure Voice and Data Products for General Dynamics C4 Systems. The Sectéra Edge is the first SME-PED certified by the National Security Agency for classified voice and data, using wireless access to commercial WiFi and cellular networks that provide access to classified and unclassified government networks.
New And Old. The brand new high-tech and green Army Materiel Command headquarters opens with a tried and true ceremony–a ribbon cutting. Army Materiel Command chief Gen. Ann Dunwoody cut the ribbon at the new headquarters on Redstone Arsenal, Ala. AMC moved from Ft. Belvoir, Va. Dunwoody now leads the 70,000 strong AMC force of military and civilian personnel to ensure troops get what they need, when they need it and where they need it.
Home Site. The National Museum of the U.S. Army finds a home at a site on the North Post of Fort Belvoir, Va. The museum will open in June 2013. Army Secretary John McHugh approved the site last week on the service’s 236th birthday. “In presenting the Army’s storied 236-year history, this long-overdue facility will offer the American people a unique opportunity to connect with our soldiers and better understand and appreciate their many and glorious stories,” McHugh says. The museum will be privately funded through the non-profit Army Historical Foundation. Initial construction will include a multi-story, main museum building with exhibit halls, theater, Veterans’ Hall, food service and retail areas, administrative areas, an experiential learning center and a lobby with visitor reception area. The Army is currently the only service without a central museum.
Extension. The Obama administration has extended the deployment of 1,200 National Guard troops along the nation’s southwest border for another three months, that is until the end of September, to help maintain security in the region. The deployment began last August and the extension is meant to provide a security bridge as the Department of Homeland Security hires additional Border Patrol agents and purchases electronic sensors to improve security along the border with Mexico.