The U.S. Navy is under increasing pressure to execute its submarine programs well as the service tries to develop its ballistic-missile sub replacements and buy enough upgraded Virginia-class attack subs to maintain the fleet size it needs at a time when the Pentagon is watching every penny. In this environment, the Navy submarine community has to make sure its programs deliver as promised, says Adm. Kirkland Donald, director of Naval Reactors. 'Conservative engineering'
The Pentagon acknowledged this week that it created a new office in August “to integrate air and naval combat capabilities in support of emerging national security requirements,” although Defense Department officials have provided few concrete details on what exactly the new office will provide. “The priority is to develop air and naval forces that are integrated,” a Pentagon official said during a Nov. 9 briefing about the office. “There are three dimensions of change: institutional, conceptual and material.”
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center here is expanding the scope of its nuclear technology work to encompass the Obama administration’s shift away from the canceled Constellation back-to-the-Moon effort toward a more open-ended technology development portfolio.
The Senate this week freed contractors from a mandate that would have forced the government to hang on to 3% of their payments, a requirement that was intended as leverage to force tax cheats to pay the government. The initial bill was passed in 2006. For several years lawmakers pushed back the date of implementation to Jan. 1, 2012. On Nov. 10, the Senate unanimously repealed the law as part of a vote on the veterans jobs bill.
Click here to view the pdf Programs In Play: Sometimes The House Is Harsher($ In Thousands) Programs In Play: Sometimes The House Is Harsher ($ In Thousands) Description Request House Hdiff
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SINGAPORE — South Korea plans to order aerial refueling tankers and hopes the first one can be delivered in 2017. Son Hyeong-yeong, a spokesman at Korea’s Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA), told the Korea Times that it plans to have the procurement included in the 2013 fiscal budget. Assuming there are no unforeseen setbacks, he says the plan is to select a winner in October 2013 and sign a firm contract in early calendar year 2014.
The good news for the U.S. Air Force and Navy’s Amraam budget request is that Senate appropriators only cut it by about a third. The bad news is House appropriators wiped out almost all of it — and it could get worse. Midway through the regular markup process this year of the fiscal 2012 defense budget, Congress took a turn toward enforced fiscal austerity with the Budget Control Act (BCA). House appropriators had worked some of their annual spending bills before the act passed in August, but the Senate’s defense markup came a month after the act.
FT. BENNING, Ga. — For the first time, the U.S. Army has used a 3G wireless network to tie various smartphones, tablets, and radio systems to a multitude of sensors and unmanned ground and air assets, pushing information down to squad and fire team leaders. The effort is all about empowering the squad, something the service has been touting for some time now. The demonstration took place last week at the 7th annual Army Expeditionary Warrior Experiment (AEWE) at Ft. Benning, Ga.
PHOBOS-GRUNT: Hope is dimming for Russia’s Phobos-Grunt probe, which remains stranded in Earth orbit after an unknown failure prevented the ambitious sample-return mission from firing its engines and heading to Mars. “So far all efforts to communicate with the craft have been unsuccessful,” lead mission scientist Alexander Zakharov tells Reuters.
The looming Senate debate on the fiscal 2012 defense authorization bill is likely to include an emotional battle over whether to make the chairman of the National Guard Bureau a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and others plan to amend the bill with a provision that would elevate the commanding general of the nation’s reserve force. Guard advocates say they have gathered enough potential votes to allow the Guard chief to climb the military ranks.
GENOA, Italy — Finmeccanica has postponed until Nov. 14 the board meeting that will approve both the company’s results for the third quarter of this year, as well as the comprehensive industrial plan that will be at the core of CEO Giuseppe Orsi’s strategy to turn the fortunes of the aerospace and defense group.
NASA’s nuclear-powered Curiosity rover is perched atop an Atlas V rocket at Cape Canaveral AFS, Fla., and ready to head for Mars at the opening of its planetary launch window on Nov. 25, managers of the Mars Science Laboratory mission said Nov. 10. “MSL has been assembled, tested, encapsulated, and stacked on top of the Atlas, and is ready to go, 15 days to launch,” says Doug McCuistion, NASA’s Mars Exploration Program director. “It’s pretty incredible.”
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NASA’s J-2X upper-stage engine ran through a 500-sec. hot-fire test Nov. 9, achieving full duration for the terminated Ares I crew launch vehicle it was designed to power and passing a crucial hurdle for the heavy-lift Space Launch System (SLS) that will use it instead. “Based on a quick look, it performed exactly as we expected it to,” said Mike Kynard, SLS engines element manager at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, after the test at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. “If we find issues we’ll take care of it; first look, it ran great.”
The Pentagon Inspector General (IG) has again cited concerns over U.S. Army helicopter deals with Sikorsky Aircraft, calling for better cost controls and other contract modifications. Essentially, the IG says, the Army needs to change the way it buys certain items from Sikorsky and to seek a refund from the company. The IG identified similar contracting concerns in reports earlier this year about work done by Sikorsky for Army Aviation and Missile Life Cycle Management Command (Amcom) at Corpus Christi (Texas) Army Depot (CCAD).
The single largest intelligence gap in the fight against roadside bombs, which are responsible for 90% of allied casualties in Afghanistan, is uncovering how ammonium nitrate fuel makes its way from two legitimate manufacturing facilities in Pakistan across the western border into Afghanistan, says U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Michael Barbero, director of the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Office (Jieddo) at the Pentagon.
LONDON — Despite program setbacks at Airbus and Eurocopter, EADS is upping its financial guidance for the full year with stronger revenue and order bookings. The Airbus parent now projects gross order intake of around 1,500 units, with 1,372 already in the firm order book for the year. Deliveries should come in at 520-530 units.
HOUSTON — U.S. collaborators from the National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) say they gathered 4.5 million min. of data from the recently concluded Mars500 analog experiment in Moscow, which simulated an extended human mission to the red planet. The data include rest-activity patterns, performance and psychological responses of the six-member international crew to sleep loss, fatigue, stress, mood changes and interpersonal conflicts.
LONDON — Although much of the focus of Libya strike operations has been on platforms such as the Tornado GR4, Eurofighter Typhoon and Dassault Rafale fighters, one lesson emerging from the conflict is the need to have a low-cost aircraft to support such prolonged operations.
NEW DELHI — The cost of acquiring the winning aircraft for India’s Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) competition is no longer a secret — except to the public, for now.
U.S. House and Senate defense spending bills must bridge a wide gulf, with hundreds of budget lines and billions of dollars requiring resolution before the bill can become law. The differences aren’t just a matter of coming to an agreement on the size of reductions (See chart p. 4). In 18 instances in the research and procurement budgets, for example, one chamber handed down cuts while the other added funding. The Senate, which drafted its bill after Congress agreed to tough spending limits, provided fewer funding increases to programs that the House cut.
