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.
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.
An 8% increase in commercial aerospace original equipment sales and a 3% improvement in commercial aftermarket revenues helped Honeywell Aerospace mitigate the adverse effects of an 8% decline in defense and space sales in the second quarter. Despite a 1% decline in overall sales to $3 billion, Honeywell Aerospace posted a 4% year-on-year rise in operating income to $583 million and a 0.9 percentage point gain in segment margin to 19.5%.
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.
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.
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.)
TEL AVIV — Under a veil of secrecy, Israel test-fired a ballistic missile believed to be an improved version of the nuclear-capable Jericho III on July 12. Israeli defense sources say that the test was “highly successful.” The missile was launched from the missile test center at Palmachim Air Force base, south of Tel Aviv, into an unknown range westbound, and landed in the Mediterranean. The launch of the heavy missile was clearly visible throughout Israel’s southern Mediterranean coast.
