The Latest Word on Trends And Developments In Aerospace And Defense
Sequestration Foe. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) is fighting the $600 billion in added long-term defense cuts that could start next year under the so-called sequestration process set in motion by the collapse of congressional budget talks last year. Cantor says on Jan. 23 he wants to prevent at least the first year of defense cuts, acknowledging enacting a plan now to prevent the full decade’s worth could be tricky. “I just think the defense of this country is a priority,” he tells reporters. He wants to replace the first year of defense cuts triggered by the sequester, which would total roughly $60 billion in 2013, with other savings in the federal budget. He says he recently spoke to military officials in the Middle East who are concerned about the impact of the sequestration cuts. HASC Chairman Howard “Buck” McKeon (R-Calif.) has crafted the Down Payment to Protect National Security Act, legislation that would reduce the federal workforce to fund a one-year reprieve from both defense and non-defense sequestration cuts.
Cartwright Move. Raytheon announces its board of directors has elected James Cartwright, the retired Marine Corps general who served as vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff until last year, to be one of its 10 directors. “General Cartwright’s deep understanding of defense and broad experience in military operations and matters of national security will be of great value to our Board,” Raytheon Chairman and CEO William Swanson says Jan. 27. Cartwright also holds the Harold Brown Chair in Defense Policy Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington. Cartwright was outspoken in his concerns about cybersecurity before retiring last August. Prior to service as vice chair of the Joint Chiefs, he commanded U.S. Strategic Command from 2004 to 2007.
Cyber Legislation. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) plans to bring comprehensive cyber security legislation to the floor for debate in the next few weeks, says Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I/D-Conn.), chairman of the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee. Lieberman says that he, along with Senators Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Tom Carper (D-Del.), are committed to bringing the bipartisan legislation to the floor. The release of the forthcoming bill is in keeping with statements made last fall by Reid that he plans to begin floor debate on the legislation early this year (Defense Daily, Nov. 18, 2011). Last year, Reid created working groups among senators whose committees have jurisdiction over cyber-related issues to hammer out comprehensive legislation.
Supply Chain Security Strategy. The White House last week unveiled the National Strategy for Global Supply Chain Security that articulates the government’s policy to strengthen the supply chain and protect economic prosperity through two goals: promote the efficient and secure movement of goods and foster a resilient supply chain. Under the first goal, the United States seeks to resolve threats early in the supply chain, improve verification and detection capabilities, enhance the security of infrastructure and conveyances, and developing mechanisms to facilitate low risk cargo and modernizing supply chain infrastructure. Under the second goal, the U.S. will promote trade resumption policies and practices, and use risk management principles to identify and protect key assets and infrastructure. The Departments of Homeland Security and State will lead a six-month engagement period with the international community to solicit feedback and recommendations for implementing the strategy. Within a year, another report will be issued on the status of the implementation efforts.
Stocks and Cuts. A defense industry analyst at Credit Suisse says Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Huntington Ingalls Industries are most likely to be affected by the Pentagon’s budget preview last week of which programs are facing spending reductions, termination or delays. The financial advising firm’s Robert Spingarn says the decision to slow production of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter will likely impact Lockheed Martin and contributors Northrop Grumman, United Technologies and BAE Systems. Northrop Grumman will also have to cope with the axing of the Block 30 variant of the Global Hawk UAV. HII could be hurt by some of the announced delays in some Navy shipbuilding, but that negative could be offset by the plan to keep an aircraft carrier on the books for fiscal 2013, he says. Overall, Spingarn concludes Boeing fared the best, followed by Raytheon and General Dynamics.
Marines Being Marines. The Navy and Marine Corps are set to launch their largest amphibious assault exercise on the East Coast in 10 years as the Marines want to highlight their roots after a decade of engaging in ground wars and counterinsurgency operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Exercise Bold Alligator is set to kick off Monday along the southeastern seaboard and run through Feb. 12. “Exercise Bold Alligator 2012 (BA12) will revitalize Navy and Marine Corps amphibious expeditionary tactics, techniques and procedures and reinvigorate its culture of conducting combined Navy and Marine Corps operations from the sea,” the commands for U.S. Fleet Forces and Marine Corps Forces say. The exercises will include three major events that include an amphibious assault at Camp Lejeune, N.C., an aerial assault from the sea into Fort Pickett, Va., and an amphibious raid on Fort Story, Va.
Leveraging SOTU. Hawker Beechcraft is trying to capitalize on President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address in its battle with the Air Force over having its bid excluded from the Light Air Support (LAS) program. The aircraft manufacturer says the Air Force’s decision to award the contract for 20 small planes to Sierra Nevada and Brazilian partner Embraer does “not align” with the president’s desire to maintain and increase manufacturing and highly skilled jobs in the United States. “The actions of the U.S. Air Force are in direct conflict with those objectives,” says the company. Hawker Beechcraft has filed a lawsuit with the Court of Federal Claims seeking to block the execution of the contract, prompting the Air Force to order Sierra Nevada to stop work until the dispute is resolved. The Air Force is procuring the planes on behalf of the Afghan government and selected Embraer’s A-29 Super Tucano over Hawker Beechcraft’s AT-6. Sierra Nevada says that the A-29s will be built in Jacksonville, Fla.
Financial Hit For Army Vehicle. The Army is moving $1.7 billion from the Ground Combat Vehicle program in the coming fiscal years, says service Chief of Staff Gen. Raymond Odierno. The reduction, noted as part of the DoD budget priorities released last week, comes because of a protest by SAIC of the Army’s award to teams led by General Dynamics and BAE Systems. The GAO denied the protest and is moving forward, Odierno says at a budget priority briefing Friday. The chief says the challenge meant the program moved out a year.
…Delaying Plan. The Army is delaying helicopter modernization by three to five years to meet the Defense Department’s investment choices for fiscal year 2013-2017, based on the strategic guidance, and the strategy that transitions from today’s wars to preparing for future challenges. “We have all the modernization in the program that we need,” Army Chief of Staff Gen. Raymond Odierno said in a Pentagon briefing Friday. “We’ve slowed it down a bit, but we’re very comfortable with that because of the reset that we’re doing with all our aviation assets as it comes out of the war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan. The aviation delay will be part of the information briefed to Congress this week on defense budget priorities, while specific program numbers and more detail will come with the release of the President’s budget Feb. 13. “We’re still doing reset, we still continue to modernize our fleet, but it’ll be at a bit of a slower pace and we’re fairly comfortable with that,” Odierno said.
…More BRAC Rounds. DoD is going to ask for two more BRAC rounds, Odierno says, though he’s not sure when that request will be made. More BRAC rounds won’t impact the Army that much, he said, “we’ve done most of it already,” so only small things are left to be done. It’s unlikely “big installations” will close,” he says, but then again, “we’ll see.”
Dollars For Strategy. DoD budget priorities released last week aim to to put funds behind efforts that follow the White House-released strategic guidance. As the services work to provide the Joint Force 2020, they can use the Joint Operational Access Concept as one framework to guide capability development, says Marine Lt. Gen. George Flynn, director of joint force development on the Joint Staff. “What we’re doing is identifying the challenges, identifying in general terms the capabilities so that we can get to where we think we need to be to be able operate at speed, to be able to integrate at lower levels and to be able to do that in a joint context,” he says in a recent briefing. The DoD budget priorities primer points to cyber, unmanned air systems and ISR among military capabilties needed for 2020.
Farewell From VCOS. Tomorrow, Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Chiarelli retires after almost 40 years in the service and three and a half as vice chief. He was invited to provide some thoughts on Army Chief Gen. Ray Odierno’s blog. Soldiers and working together were on his mind. “Over the past decade they have done an absolutely magnificent job fighting two wars in difficult and demanding environments.” Working together service wide has led to great progress and momentum that must be maintained, he wrote. “If we all continue to do our part–reach out–help connect individuals with the tremendous outpouring of support services and resources available to them we can help heal wounds, enable opportunity, and ultimately achieve a stronger, more capable Army for the future.”
Increase In USAF UAVs. The head of the Air Force expects to see an increase in the number of remotely-piloted aircraft over the next five years. In a briefing with reporters, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz says the service is at “somewhere over 250 remotely piloted aircraft today and that number will continue to increase through the five-year defense program.”