BRAC BENEFITS: U.S. lawmakers looking to protect defense facilities in their districts and states may take little solace from a recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) audit on how the Pentagon measures excess base capacity. The reason: the Defense Department’s methods for estimating excess capacity outside of a congressionally authorized base realignment and closure (BRAC) process have limitations — in other words, the only way to know how much to cut is to start the surgery.
ARMY Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., Linthicum, Md., was awarded a $38,353,781 modification (P00029) to a previously awarded cost-plus-fixed-fee, option-filled contract (W15P7T-11-C-H267) for services in support of the vehicle and dismount exploitation radar system. The cumulative total face value of this contract is $178,122,493. The work will be performed in Afghanistan. Fiscal 2013 operations and maintenance funds are being obligated on this award. The Army Contracting Command, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., is the contracting activity.
The Littoral Combat Ship (LCS-1) USS Freedom’s ship service diesel generators (SSDG) continue to give the vessel fits, recently causing the LCS to lose propulsion briefly while heading out to participate in at-sea exercises off the coast of Singapore and forcing it to return to port, the U.S. Navy says.
By cutting into training and readiness funding, sequestration could force the U.S. Navy to be more selective about what missions its aircraft and ships can perform at any given time, says Adm. Jonathan Greenert, the chief of naval operations. “If you take an air wing, they do air-to-air, they do air-to-ground, they do a whole series of missions that the pilots are qualified to do, typically measured in how many cockpit hours you have in the air, how much you fly,” Greenert said July 19 during a media briefing.
Click here to view the pdf U.S. Army Procurement Funding Shifts:2013 Plan for Fiscal 2014 Compared to Actual 2014 Request (Winners) (Then-year dollars in millions) U.S.
U.S. and Chinese naval leaders continue to develop more channels for cooperation, says Adm. Jonathan Greenert, chief of naval operations. “With regard to China and our relations, I like the trend we’re on right now,” Greenert said July 19 during a media briefing. Some “tangible outcomes” are resulting from this cooperation, he says.
PAYING BILLS: House Republican leaders are trying to schedule consideration and passage of their appropriations panel’s version of fiscal 2014 spending for the Pentagon and related defense efforts before the sacred August recess. But since it could be the legislative vehicle of choice for some lawmakers’ hoped-for restrictions on going to war in Syria, or obliterating the National Security Agency surveillance programs making headlines, those leaders are arguing with members of their own caucus as much as Democrats.
India’s Insat-3D weather satellite is getting ready for liftoff on July 25 from Europe’s spaceport near Kourou in French Guiana. “The satellite has been installed on [an] Ariane 5 launcher for Arianespace’s heavy-lift mission and the final payload integration is under way,” a scientist at the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) says. The Indian spacecraft is integrated in the lower payload position for Ariane 5’s dual-launch mission, along with Europe’s Alphasat telecommunications platform.
As the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) and federal lawmakers both paint a bull’s-eye this week on the U.S. Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) program, service officials are trying to put the small combat ship in the best light.
Even as the U.S. Navy is spending a good part of this summer investing time and resources in rebuilding its forces abroad, the service also has to keep ships, people and equipment for missions closer to home. The Third Fleet area of operations conducts and supports maritime law enforcement, interdiction and security operations with the U.S. Coast Guard, similar to missions slated for the Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), which is making its deployment debut this summer in Singapore.
A private company plans to mount the first commercial mission to the Moon as a step toward a private lunar sample return flight around 2020. Moon Express, Inc., a strong contender in the $30 million Google Lunar X Prize competition, says it will mount a follow-on mission to the Moon’s South Pole in partnership with the International Lunar Observatory Association (ILOA), one of the piggyback customers for its X-Prize entry.
JAMMER PROTEST: BAE Systems filed a protest July 18 of the $279.4 million contract the U.S. Navy awarded Raytheon to develop the Next Generation Jammer (NGJ) pod to replace the ALQ-99 tactical jamming system now carried by the EA-18G Growler. NGJ is planned to become operational in 2020. A Northrop Grumman/ITT Exelis team also bid for and lost the program. The U.S. Government Accountability Office’s decision on the protest is due by Oct. 28.
U.S. partners and allies in the Asia-Pacific region are about to embark on a spending spree for military purchases and research and development (R&D), according to an Aviation Week Intelligence Network (AWIN) analysis of data provided by Avascent Analytics.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) aug. 11 - 15 — AAS/AIAA Astrodynamics Specialist Conference, Hilton Head, S.C. For more information go to www.aiaa.org/EventDetail.aspx?id=13178 aug. 11 - 15 — AIAA Aerospace Sciences, Flight Sciences and Information Systems Event, Boston, Mass. For more information go to www.aiaa.org/Boston2013
A United Launch Alliance Atlas V lifted off July 19, carrying the second of the U.S. Navy’s new narrowband communications satellites. Liftoff occurred at 9:00 a.m. EDT from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) satellite, made by Lockheed Martin, was lofted from an Atlas V 551, meaning it used a 5-meter fairing and five strap-on solid-rocket boosters. A 44-min. launch window opened at 8:48 a.m. EDT, but the launch was put on hold temporarily due to high upper-level winds.
ASPEN, Colo. — National Security Agency (NSA) Director Gen. Keith Alexander says the U.S. Intelligence community has “concrete proof” that terrorists are making changes in how they communicate, following the secret surveillance programs revealed by a rogue former NSA contractor.
Click here to view the pdf FOR SALE BY PRIVATE TREATY TURN KEY OFFERING COMPLETE LARGE CAPACITY STATE-OF-THE-ART DEFENSE/ AEROSPACE FACILITY Formerly of: TOWER AEROSPACE • DEFENSE • ENERGY • INDUSTRIAL $50 Million of Capital Expenditures Including 300,000± Sq. Ft. Mfg. Facility 20101 Hoover St., Detroit, MI 48205
To better cushion itself from the financial blow of sequestration, the U.S. Navy is officially seeking reprogramming authority from Congress to shift certain funds, and also plans to scrutinize its major contracts line by line looking for immediate savings, says Adm. Jonathan Greenert, chief of naval operations (CNO.)
