The Latest Word On Trends And Developments In Aerospace And Defense
Open SASC. A government watchdog group has launched the Open NDAA Campaign to try to compel the SASC to mark up the defense authorization bill in open sessions, rather than crafting the policy legislation behind closed doors as it did in past years. The campaign, launched by the nonpartisan Project on Government Oversight, sent letters to SASC members who have supported closed markups to reconsider their positions. It also wrote to members who supported opening the sessions and thanked them. The Open NDAA campaign is collecting signatures as part of its push for the SASC to open the markup of the FY ’13 defense bill and to post draft bills and amendments online before voting. “The NDAA is a bill that last year authorized more than $662 billion in spending–primarily for the Department of Defense,” the campaign says on its website. “It is one of the few bills that is passed annually, and therefore has become a magnet for pork and other proposals. There’s no good reason for SASC to mark up this bill in secret.”
Guard Offensive. The Air Force plans to respond “within days” to an alternate FY ’13 budget proposal adjutant generals crafted in coordination with the nation’s governors, service Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz says March 14. “This work is ongoing, and we’ve not yet reached a conclusion,” Air Force Secretary Michael Donley adds while testifying before the SAC-D. “But we recognize the need to do so in time to meet the appropriate congressional markups that are in front of us in the next couple of months.” The alternate budget follows a letter 49 governors sent Defense Secretary Leon Panetta decrying the administration’s FY ’13 budget proposal for trying to cut Air National Guard personnel and aircraft. All of the Guard adjutant generals also protested the Air Force funding request.
NASA Nudge. NASA should restart its flight research program and stop devoting most of its efforts to “small-scale” research, the National Academies’ private and nonprofit National Research Council says in a new report. It calls for the space agency to phase out lower-priority aeronautics activities and pick up to five programs “with the greatest potential.” The council maintains that because “flight research is a vital tool for aeronautics and has been neglected in recent years, NASA should ensure that each of these projects has a defined path to in-flight testing and that funding will be available to complete the in-flight research portion of the project in a timely manner.” Wesley Harris, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor and chair of the committee that wrote the report, notes NASA has made major contributions to aeronautics including helping create the unmanned aerial vehicle industry in the 1990s. “Unfortunately, there has been no flagship mission to inspire the next generation, and current small-scale research projects that don’t take flight do not attract much attention,” he says.
SASC’s Fighters. SASC Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and Ranking Member John McCain (R-Ariz.) continue to question Panetta’s decision to take the Marine Corps’ variant of the Joint Strike Fighter, the F-35B, off a probationary period one year early. “The fixes to the problems that caused (former Defense) Secretary (Robert) Gates to put the F-35B on probation in the first place have not completed testing,” Levin says at a March 15 hearing, arguing “it is too early to declare any victories.” McCain decries what he pegs to be $150 billion in overruns with the F-35 program. He slams Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Amos for not having precise figures on F-35 costs increases. McCain says 32 Block 4 F-35s are 50 percent complete and $500 million over their original estimated cost, and questions if that overrun will rise to $1 billion when the jets are finished.
Carrier Cost. McCain further laments the acquisition cost of the USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) aircraft carrier has increased more than $1 billion over the original estimate, a figure Navy Secretary Ray Mabus confirms. McCain says he will not allow the Navy to exceed a congressionally mandated cost cap of $600 billion with the carrier until he understands “why the Navy has been unable to control costs on this program.” Mabus says the carrier is “at least $1 billion” over the original estimate and adds he’s “certain” the Navy will ask Congress next year for permission to exceed the cost cap. The secretary says “it’s important to note what we’ve done to contain these costs,” including recovering incentive fees from contractor Huntington Ingalls Industries. “So whatever monies they get from now on will simply cover their costs,” he says. In addition, the Navy has capped the amounts it will pay some vendors for government-furnished equipment. Mabus adds: “The one thing that we are absolutely committed to…is that we will take the lessons learned here, we will have a firm price and we will not come back to…Congress to ask for raising the cost cap on the follow-on ship, the John F. Kennedy CVN-79.”
U.S. To Stay in Pacific. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta says March 9 at a media roundtable in Hawaii that the United States will “always” maintain a military presence in the Pacific for interests beyond the Korean Peninsula. “And we maintain those forces not only for-–to help in the protection of South Korea–but also as a force to indicate that the United States is going to always maintain a military presence in the Pacific because we believe this is an important area economically, militarily, strategically and in terms of the allies that we have in this region that are an important part of our Pacific family,” Panetta says.
How F-35 Went Off Track. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz says March 8 at a Credit Suisse conference in Arlington, Va., that the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program got off track because service officials believed they could get a “near perfect” plane right out-of-the-box. “(We thought) we could design an airplane that would be near perfect the first time it flew. I think we actually believed that and I think we demonstrated in a compelling way that it was foolishness,” Schwartz says. When designing, no matter how high tech, “you’re going to discover things you didn’t expect and that is particularly true with high performance aircraft. I’d say the single thing where we went off the track was believing the marketing, that we could produce an airplane that would be near perfect.”
Safe Space Award. The Society of Satellite Professionals International awards the Space Data Association (SDA) an award for “Innovation in Industry Collaboration on the Safe Use of Space,” according to a March 14 statement. The honor is for SDA’s efforts to “mitigate the risk of satellite operations.” SDA provides full conjunction assessment capability and is developing data-sharing in support of radio frequency interference (RFI) mitigation, according to a statement.
NG Radar Contract. The Air Force awards Northrop Grumman an $88 million firm fixed price contract for a Foreign Military Sales program, which will provide six AN/APG-68 (V) 9 radar systems for Thailand, 22 to Iraq and 15 to Oman for a total of 43 systems, according to the Defense Department. Work is expected to be completed March 31, 2015, according to DoD.
DynaCorp AF Deal. The Air Force awards DynaCorp International LLC a nearly $100 million contract for the Egyptian Personal Support Services Program (EPPSP), according to the Defense Department. The EPPSP will provide support services for DoD employees, contractor personnel and dependents stationed in Egypt permanently or on temporary duty status. These personnel support various Foreign Military Sales programs on behalf of the Egyptian military, according to DoD. This source selection will be the fourth contract to provide support services in Egypt contracted by the Air Force Security Assistance Center. Work is expected to be completed May 31, 2017, according to DoD.
Defending Europe. Adm. Jonathan Greenert, the Chief of Naval Operations, stands by the U.S. position of deploying ships to Europe to provide missile defense even though the fleet is already stretched. Greenert says during a Friday session with reporters that the Europeans are participating but don’t have the technological capabilities to set up their own missile shield. “They don’t yet have the full capability to search, track and engage,” Greenert tells the Defense Writers Group. Greenert says the United States has been working within NATO to fill in gaps and alliance members have been “forthcoming.” He cites Romania’s willingness to host a system, known as Aegis ashore, and Turkey’s agreement for the basing of a radar site. Greenert says deploying the ships for 10 years would be a “notional period” that will be examined. The Navy plans to station four Arleigh Burke-class (DDG-51) destroyers to Rota, Spain in 2015 as part of the Obama’s administration’s missile defense plans for NATO known as the European Phased Adaptive Approach (EPAA). The ships are equipped with the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense system that is the centerpiece of U.S. sea-based missile defense. The Obama strategy supplanted the Bush administration’s more controversial plan to base 10 long-range interceptors in Eastern Europe. But EPAA has done little to dampen Russian opposition to a U.S.-oriented missile shield on the continent.
DDG-112 set for delivery. The USS Michael Murphy (DDG-112) recently completed “super trials” and is ready for delivery to the fleet this spring. The ship is the last of the original plan to buy 62 Arleigh Burke-class (DDG-51) destroyers. Because so many of the ships have been procured, the Navy combines the builder’s and acceptance trials, which took place March 9 in the Atlantic. “The success of these trials after 62 ships underscores the value of the DDG-51 class and its continued importance to the 21st century surface fleet,” says Capt. Mark Vandroff, the program manager. General Dynamics Bath Iron Works built the ship. Lt. Michael Murphy was a Navy SEAL who posthumously received the Medal of Honor for his actions in Afghanistan. He was the first SEAL to receive the award since the Vietnam War, the Navy says.
San Diego heading to San Diego. The USS San Diego (LPD-22) is sailing to its namesake homeport in southern California after departing the Pascagoula, Miss., shipyard of Huntington Ingalls Industries last week. The San Diego is the sixth ship in the San Antonio-class (LPD-17) of amphibious transport dock ships. The LPD-22 is scheduled for commissioning on May 19 in San Diego and then will undergo a succession of sea trials to test the ship’s systems and to complete key certifications. That will include missile and gun combat systems qualification and exercising the ship’s detect-to-engage capability. Well deck certification and underway replenishment qualification will also be part of the steady progression toward deployment.
Next-Gen BioWatch RFP Slips. The Department of Homeland Security says that the release of the final Request for Proposals (RFP) for the next-generation system has shifted to the fourth quarter of the government’s fiscal year 2012 from the second quarter. As of early last fall, DHS had anticipated that the RFP would be issued in October 2011, but that was delayed several months to account for responses from industry to the draft RFP distributed by the department last August. Under the Generation-3 BioWatch effort, DHS seeks to obtain from industry an automated system that can collect air samples in urban environments for select biological threats such as anthrax and then analyze and disseminate the results to enable public health and safety authorities to respond quickly to a potential threat.
New TSA Security Tech (Acting) Chief. The Transportation Security Administration has appointed Kelly Hoggan to be the acting assistant administrator for the Security Capabilities Office (SCO). Hogan, who has been the regional director for the Office of Global Strategies at the agency’s office in Singapore, replaces Robin Kane, who abruptly resigned earlier this month. In an earlier assignment with TSA, Hoggan served as the deputy assistant administrator for the Office of Security Operations, responsible for the strategic and managerial operations for TSA at the nation’s airports. Hoggan will be supported by Susan Tashiro, who was appointed deputy assistant administrator for SCO in late February. Tashiro previously served as the Federal Security Director of Dulles International Airport near Washington, D.C. Tashiro also at one point worked in TSA’s Office of Security Technologies, the predecessor to SCO, as director for Program Planning and Management.
Keeping an Eye on TSA. Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.), who succeeded earlier this year in getting Congress to agree to lift restrictions the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has in place preventing airports from privatizing their security screener workforces, says he is putting the agency on notice to comply with the new law. Mica, who chairs the House Transportation Committee, along with Reps. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), wrote TSA Chief John Pistole last week to remind him of the need to implement the mandated reforms to the Screening Partnership Program, which is the name of the privatized screening program that is currently capped at the 16 participating airports. Mica also sent a separate letter to the nation’s airports to make sure they are aware of the congressional mandate to lift the cap. “The agency is too focused on personnel management on a massive scale, and not on setting the most effective security standards and analyzing intelligence,” Mica says.
Rapid Search. The Army buys BAE Systems’ commercial data management software, GPX Xplorer, to reduce the efforts required to rapidly search for and retrieve geospatial data from various legacy repositories. Under the contract, the Army’s Distributed Common Ground System-Army (DCGS-A) Enabled Common Ground Station will deploy 50 GXP Xplorer enterprise server licenses starting in mid-2012. Soldiers across multiple Army installations can easily locate current and historical data collections saved on share drives, servers and in personal files, which is vital to military users who rotate in-and-out of operating units. BAE says the software is a valuable resource for analysts, policy makers or users in the field who have a large repository of data, maps and imagery to manage.
…Tactical Vests. BAE Systems also wins a four-year Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) contract to produce tactical vests with soft body armor for service men and women. The vests hold hard-armor plates and soft-armor ballistic inserts, which provide soldiers with advanced protection. The Improved Outer Tactical Vests offer Soldiers lighter-weight equipment with advanced features and increased mobility in the field. The contract covers the production of Outer Tactical Vests and Improved Outer Tactical Vests, plus associated components. The company has received an initial $48 million in orders, which are expected to be completed by February 2013. The total value of the contract orders could reach approximately $267 million over the next four years.
Getting Ready. Navistar Defense LLC says it received an award to conduct the installation work associated with its January order to upgrade 2,717 International® MaxxPro® Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles with a new vehicle chassis. The $21 million contract is aimed at revitalizing existing defense assets for future missions. “We are focused on increasing the capabilities of our existing fleet with minimal impact to defense funding,” says Archie Massicotte, president, Navistar Defense. “The vehicle reset line we established for this installation work can also be utilized to restore older vehicles to like-new condition.” The retrofits will be conducted in West Point, Miss., and completed by the end of May.
Raven Support. AeroVironment Inc. receives a new $11 million cost-plus-fixed-fee sole source contract award March 1 for Army, Marine Corps and Foreign Military Sales contractor logistics support for Raven systems. The RQ-11B Raven UAS comprises a 4.2-pound, backpackable, hand-launched sensor platform that provides day and night, real-time video imagery wirelessly to a portable ground control station reconnaissance, surveillance and target acquisition in support of tactical units. “AeroVironment’s UAS logistics operation supports systems deployed worldwide to ensure a consistently high level of operational readiness,” says Tom Herring, senior vice president and general manager, Unmanned Aircraft Systems. The logistics support services are scheduled to be delivered through Feb. 28, 2013.