Deputy Defense Secretary John Hamre has told Congress he intends to push for increased public/private competitions for depot maintenance workloads that are not necessary to sustain core capabilities.
MYP PUSH: House Appropriations Committee says there have been instances of the services seeking multiyear procurement contracting authority for a program, even though the current defense program does not contain enough fundng to actually execute the contract, in an effort to "leverage increased budget allocations" from the Office of the Secretary of Defense.
The U.S. Air Force is considering whether to launch a 30-month research effort into high speed munitions that would be able to penetrate hardened and deeply buried targets, but it is still unclear if the funding will hold up to award a contract late next fiscal year. The AF initially was planning a 60-month development program but cut that to 30 months because of a lack of resources, W. Evan Loose, the AF program manager, said in a telephone interview from Eglin AFB, Fla. The total program is expected to cost between $2 million and $3 million.
Lockheed Martin Management&Data Systems, based in King of Prussia, Penn., will negotiate a NASA contract for Advanced Air Transportation Technologies (AATT), the company announced Thursday. The task order contract carries a potential value of $45 million over five years - one base year plus four option years. The company will lead a team that will provide research and concept evaluation for AATT, a program to support modernization of the National Airspace System (NAS).
MADE IN RUSSIA: The Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland will free to choose whatever aircraft they want to meet their future air force modernization needs including buying Russian aircraft, says Brig. Gen. Robert Osterthaler, the Pentagon's deputy assistant secretary for European and NATO affairs. He warns, however, that the impression that Russian aircraft may be a lot cheaper could be off-base. To get those aircraft interoperable would require several avionics upgrades.
Kaman Corp., Bloomfield, Conn., will explore selling its Kaman Sciences Corp., a defense-related sciences subsidiary, the company announced Thursday. Kaman said the move is the result of consolidation in the defense sciences industry, which has left Kaman one of the smaller players in the sector. The company said it would be better for Kaman Sciences to join a larger company with the resources to support the subsidiary in the long term.
House and Senate Intelligence Committee members disagree on fiscal year 1998 funding levels for a number of large classified technical programs managed by the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), but they expect to resolve those differences in conference, sources told The DAILY. The intelligence committees are scheduled tentatively to go to conference the first week in September to reconcile the differences in their versions of the FY '98 intelligence authorization bill.
Active involvement of top Clinton Administration officials, including Secretary of Defense William Cohen, boosts the chances of B-2 bomber opponents preparing a House floor challenge tomorrow to a $331 million appropriation for eventual production of nine more of the stealth bombers, Ranking House National Security Committee Democrat Rep. Ronald Dellums (Calif.), said Friday.
IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER: The debate over whether NATO expansion is affordable really hides a disagreement over whether there is any value in expanding the alliance, Osterthaler says. "If you believe that it is in our security interest that NATO be enlarged then the costs are very manageable," he notes. However, "if you don't believe it's in our interest then you don't care how cheap it is." Osterthaler places himself in the former camp.
Trainer aircraft have been grounded following an unexplained engine stoppage July 23, the AF said Friday. An instructor safely landed the two-seat aircraft, used to screen pilot candidates. The AF has a total of 110 T-3As in inventory, all of which are based at Randolph AFB, Tex.
Two NASA field centers have awarded contracts totaling $17 million for architecture studies and lightweight mirror development work leading to the Next Generation Space Telescope, a proposed follow-on to the Hubble Space Telescope that will operate beyond Earth orbit. Goddard Space Flight Center, Md., picked TRW Space&Electronics Group, Redondo Beach, Calif., and Ball Aerospace&Technologies, Boulder, Colo., for 18-month conceptual system studies of the NGST. Each company received a $3.5 million contract for the work.
In an unusual step, the House Appropriations Committee said in its fiscal 1998 defense report that it "directs the Department of the Air Force to immediately award" the contract for the original Warfighter-1 program, a joint government-industry venture to provide hyperspectral imaging data at a reduced cost.
F-22 ENGINE TESTING in preparation for first flight is continuing, with both engines on the first flight aircraft having been run at 100% power earlier this week. The Lockheed Martin/Boeing/Pratt&Whitney industry team hopes to complete afterburner testing this week and move into the last phase of engine runs.
The U.S. Air Force projection that it can build 339 F-22 fighters at a cost of $43.4 billion is risky, Pentagon Comptroller and Deputy Defense Secretary nominee John Hamre told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee yesterday. "The Air Force has expressed confidence that the F-22 production program can be executed for $43 billion for 339 aircraft," Hamre said, adding that he believes "there is some risk to that."
The U.S. Air Force plans to downselect between Pratt&Whitney and GenCorp's Aerojet later this year for the continued development and demonstration of hydrocarbon-fuel scramjet technology. P&W and Aerojet have been on contract for the first, 15-month phase of the program since 1995. The downselect is scheduled for December, Robert A. Mercier, the chief of the AF Wright Laboratory HyTech program, said in an interview last week.
TRW says the performance of its Battlefield Combat Identification System (BCIS) at a recent NATO demonstration boosted the system's chances of becoming the alliance's standard combat ID system. BCIS - built by TRW and Hughes - squared off in a six-week demonstration against systems from France, Germany and Britain in Munster, Germany. The systems were tested against NATO requirements. Test data will be used to support a NATO procurement recommendation by the end of the year, TRW said Monday.
Congressional action may be needed to help NASA manage three areas of its operation - International Space Station costs, budget carryover balances and excess capacity at test facilities - the General Accounting Office reported yesterday. Thomas Schulz, GAO's associate director for defense acquisition issues, told the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee that another eight NASA management areas will require routine, periodic oversight.
The following chart lists the status of U.S. military aircraft procurement programs after action by all of the congressional committees with jurisdiction over military spending. The Clinton Administration's fiscal year 1998 request is listed in the column at the left, followed by the positions of the House National Security Committee (HNSC), Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC), House Appropriations Committee (HAC) and Senate Appropriations Committee (SAC). Program Adminis. HNSC SASC HAC SAC
Additional consolidation in the defense industry will require ``close'' examination, the Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission told Congress yesterday, noting that the wave of post-Cold War mergers has advanced to the point where the "market power" gained by weapon suppliers may need to be limited. "I would say we have reached a point where any additional merger will have to be examined really close," FTC Chairman Robert Pitofsky told the Senate Judiciary antitrust subcommittee at its opening hearing on defense industry competition.
The House Appropriations Committee has shifted some Navy funds around to beef up ship self-defense after the Navy's fiscal 1998 budget failed to find funding for cooperative engagement capability, which former Defense Secretary William J. Perry has called "the most significant technological development since stealth."
The U.S. Air Force last week successfully demonstrated its ramjet technology intended to power missiles from Mach 2 to Mach 4, Robert Mercier, the Wright Laboratories chief of HyTech programs, said recently. After a series of component tests, Mercier said "we had the final test in that sequence [last Thursday] and it was completely successful."
TAIWAN is looking to buy 21 Bell Helicopter Textron AH-1W Super Cobra attack helicopters from the U.S. in a $479 million foreign military sale. Spares, repair parts and support are included in the arrangement. Taiwan will use the helicopters for military exercises and military preparedness, the Pentagon said late Thursday.
Acting in many cases without the knowledge of the Office of the Secretary of Defense or Congress, the Defense Dept. procurement community has been using funds provided for research, development, test and evaluation to initiate production contracts instead, the House Appropriations Committee charged in its fiscal 1998 defense funding report.
House Appropriations national security subcommittee Chairman Rep. C.W. (Bill) Young (R-Fla.) left the door open Tuesday to reconsidering the subcommittee's decision to terminate the Air Force's Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) in favor of the Navy's Standoff Land Attack Missile Expanded Response (SLAM-ER).
