The Latest Word On Trends And Developments In Aerospace And Defense

Sequester Spotlight. Hill panels will scrutinize this week the Pentagon’s plans for sequestration, the $1.2 trillion in decade-long defense and non-defense cuts that will start March 1 absent congressional intervention. The Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) will hear Tuesday from Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey, Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, Pentagon Comptroller Robert Hale,  Army Chief of Staff Gen. Raymond Odierno, Vice Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mark Ferguson, Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Amos, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh, and National Guard Bureau Chief Gen. Frank Grass. Then Wednesday the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) will hold a hearing with most of the same officials, though Hale will not attend that day and Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert will testify instead of Ferguson. On Thursday the Senate Appropriations Committee will hold a hearing with Carter as well as White House Office of Management and Controller Danny Werfel, Homeland Security Secretary Janet  Napolitano, Education Secretary Arne Duncan, and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan. President Barack Obama also is expected to address sequestration during his State of the Union address Tuesday.

…White House Watch. Werfel joins Principal Deputy Director of the National Economic Council Jason Furman to detail the impacts of the sequestration cuts to White House reporters on Feb. 8. OMB calculates sequestration would cut defense programs by 8 percent, or 13 percent during the final seven months of fiscal year 2013. Werfel says there has been a lot of public discussion about the defense sequestration cuts, which he says would be “severe.” But, he says, “the impacts on our domestic priorities as a nation would be just as severe.” Those include the potential loss of at least 1,600 state and local jobs and the delay or reduction of thousands of National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation research initiatives. Furman notes sequestration “would also have broader and very negative consequences for the economy as a whole, ”potentially leading to the loss of “hundreds of thousands of jobs.” He notes the gross domestic product contracted in the fourth quarter, at least in part because of slower defense spending tied to fears about the pending sequester.

Hagel Hashing. SASC Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) says Republicans on the panel are demanding too much information from former GOP senator Chuck Hagel before they vote on his nomination to be defense secretary. Levin wanted to vote on Hagel’s nomination Feb. 7, a week after a confirmation hearing when GOP senators grilled Hagel–about matters including Israel, Iran, the Iraq War, and nuclear weapon–while many Democrats supported the nominee. SASC Ranking Member James Inhofe (R-Okla.) and 26 other Republican senators say in a Feb. 6 letter that Hagel must first share more financial-disclosure information. Levin responds, in a Feb. 8 letter, that the GOP group “appears to insist upon financial disclosure requirements that far exceed the standard practices of the Armed Services Committee and go far beyond the financial disclosure required of previous secretaries of defense.” Levin will hold a SASC vote on Hagel’s nomination “as soon as possible,” a panel spokeswoman says Feb. 8.

…Requirements. Levin says the SASC has a “well-defined set of financial disclosure and ethics requirements” for a Pentagon nominee–which require a financial-disclosure report defined by the Ethics in Government Act, a response to a questionnaire, and an ethics agreement. Levin says the 27 GOP senators want Hagel to disclose two “unprecedented” types of information: compensation over $5,000 he has received in the past five years, and any foreign funding received by private entities from which Hagel received compensation since leaving the Senate. Other Pentagon nominees have disclosed compensation greater than $5,000 during the previous two years. Also, Levin notes the SASC questionnaire Hagel completed asks if he had financial dealings with foreign governments or government-controlled entities over the previous decade, and the nominee replied “no.” Levin argues Hagel should not “be required to somehow ascertain whether certain entities with whom he has been employed may have received foreign contributions.”

House Cyber Bill Back. The sponsors of a cyber security information sharing bill that passed the House last year will reintroduce their legislation this Wednesday, they say. Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, and Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.), the ranking member, will give a joint speech on Wednesday afternoon at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the same day they reintroduce the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (H.R. 3523), which previously passed the chamber in April by a vote of 248-168. The bill allows the federal government to share classified cyber threat information t the private sector, provides liability protection for companies that protect their networks or share threat information, and allows the private sector to share information with the government on a voluntary basis with protections for privacy and civil liberties.

…EU Cyber Strategy. Meantime, the European Union last week introduced a cyber security strategy that if approved by the European Parliament would mandate minimum security standards for select critical industries within member countries. The strategy also calls for computer emergency response teams at the national level and would give law enforcement authorities tools to fight cyber crimes.

Border Control. Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), the new chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, this week will lay out his plan for gaining control of the nation’s borders, which he says is a “prerequisite to immigration reform.” Following the release of the Obama administration’s plan last month for immigration reform, McCaul says the administration isn’t focusing on border security. “The administration has made clear that unless we force it to take border security seriously, immigration reform would occur without the security component,” McCaul says. “Until we have operational control of our borders, we will continue to be vulnerable to terrorists, drug cartels and criminal aliens who enter the United States undetected.”

Top Scout. Who’s the Army’s top Cavalry Scout team? The inaugural Gainey Cup Competition March 1-5 at Ft. Benning will determine the top team after a five-day event. The scout teams will undergo tests of their physical fitness and mastery of Cavalry Scout skills to include day and night live fires, weapons familiarization, area reconnaissance, and observation post establishment. Physical challenges during the competition will include teams participating in multi-phased road marches, obstacle courses and the Army Reconnaissance Course’s “DisciplusValidus,” as well as a multi-event physical fitness test comprised of the Army’s standard physical fitness test along with pull-ups, dips, bench press, rope climb and tire flip. The competition honors Command Sgt. Maj. William “Joe” Gainey, the first senior enlisted adviser to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Gainey was selected to serve in the position on Oct. 1, 2005, and retired on April 25, 2008. Gainey will attend the competition. Three Army National Guard teams are among the 14 teams slated to compete.

New Executive. Northrop Grumman appoints Mary Petryszyn vice president, international, for the company’s Aerospace Systems sector. Petryszyn will work to build the Aerospace Systems sector’s international business and will be responsible for the development, expansion and growth of its business, programs and products worldwide. Petryszyn joins Northrop Grumman from Raytheon and has extensive defense industry experience. She has led crucial business areas including programs in chemical, biological and radiation detection, maritime surveillance and decision-support systems. Petryszyn earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical and computer engineering from Clarkson University and a master’s degree in computer engineering from Syracuse University. She also has completed advanced management programs, including the Executive Business Leadership Program at the University of Chicago and the Executive Marketing Program at Indiana University.

Ball’s Taylor. Ball Aerospace & Technology Corp.’s President and CEO David Taylor announces he’ll retire at the end of March, according to a company statement. Taylor has been president and CEO for more than a decade and has been with the company for 29 years. Current COO Robert Strain will replace Taylor. Strain, 56, joined Ball Aerospace in March. He has served as director of NASA’s Goddard Spaceflight Center and has held leadership roles at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab, Orbital Sciences and Fairchild Space and Defense.

XTAR Expansion. Commercial X-band satellite operator XTAR LLC retains the United Kingdom’s Mercury Swift Solutions as an authorized XTAR representative, according to an XTAR company statement. The move is to help XTAR reinforce its expanding business serving allied military forces worldwide, particularly in Africa and Asia where the company sees the fast growing demand. XTAR says this new international focus follows moves by the company to evolve its domestic market strategy and continue its expansion of U.S. government businesses. “U.S. and allied missions are beginning to shift focus beyond Iraq and Afghanistan and XTAR is adjusting its strategy accordingly,” XTAR Vice President of Global Sales and Marketing Andrew Ruszkowski says.

NG EPS CAPS. The Air Force awards Northrop Grumman a $148.3 million contract for its Enhanced Polar System (EPS) Control and Planning Segment (CAPS), according to a service statement. The EPS program will provide Extremely High Frequency- (EHF) protected satellite communications (SATCOM) capability for forces operating in the North Polar Region while CAPS is the primary means for commanding and receiving telemetry for the payloads. The base contract, awarded in November, is for 18 months.

Sea Launch Failure. Sea Launch continues to investigate the potential causes of a Feb. 1 launch failure, according to a company statement. Approximately 11 seconds into flight, the Zenit flight control system detected an exceeding of a pre-programmed roll limit and responded with activation of the on-board thrust termination sequence designed to ensure a safe outcome in the event of vehicle loss of control. In accordance with flight termination logic, RD-171M main engine thrust was terminated 20 seconds into flight, resulting in impact of the Zenit-3SL with the IS-27 spacecraft with the Pacific Ocean surface nearly four kilometers from the launch platform. Nobody was injured and no vessels were damaged in the incident. Sea Launch said it will focus its investigation on Zenit-3SL systems associated with thrust-vector control of the first stage engine.

Predator Radar. General Atomics has tested a prototype radar for its family of Predator unmanned aerial vehicles. The company says it successfully conducted a flight test of the Due Regard Radar (DRR), an air-to-air system for the sense and avoid architecture for the Predators. The company says the DRR provides a capability to detect other aircraft not already carrying transponders, and that the technology will be critical to the safe integration of UAVs over national airspace. “Detecting airborne vehicles not equipped with transponders will be key to safely integrating RPA (remotely piloted aircraft) into the National Airspace System,” says Frank Pace, the company president for aircraft systems. General Atomics says it internally funded the development of the DRR and installed it on a Predator B aircraft during the flight test that took place in December.

Vinson Ready To Go. The USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70) completed a six-month overhaul and maintenance availability this month and is readying to return to the fleet, the Navy says. The pier-side overhaul at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Wash.,was completed Feb. 3. The main focus of the work included upgrades to turbine generators, piping insulation improvements, condenser inspections and pump and motor replacements. It was the first major maintenance work on the 31-year old carrier since it completed a refueling over overhaul in 2009.