Friday, April 26, 2024
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Marjorie Censer was Inside Defense's editor until July 2021. She previously worked at the Washington Post and its local business publication Capital Business, covering defense industry reshaping, the increased scrutiny of contractors following the Edward Snowden case and the challenges of canceling military programs. From 2007 to 2010, she was managing editor of Inside the Army. She also previously worked as defense editor at POLITICO and as a staff writer at the Carroll County Times and the Princeton Packet. A Fairfax native, she graduated from Princeton University.
The Defense Acquisition Board review of the Army's modernization initiative, postponed last week, has been rescheduled for Oct. 16, the same day as the first ground combat vehicle industry day in Dearborn, MI, an Army official said today.
As Wisconsin lawmakers call for Defense Secretary Robert Gates to preserve the "integrity of the defense acquisition process" in the Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles competitive "rebuy" award, Oshkosh continues to express confidence that the Government Accountability Office will reject protests of the contract filed by losing competitors BAE Systems and Navistar.
The Pentagon today handed another contract to Oshkosh for Mine Resistant Ambush Protected All-Terrain Vehicles, this time providing a $408 million award for 923 of the blast-proof trucks designed to operate in Afghanistan's difficult terrain.
The Army chief of staff has approved the service's latest equipping strategy, describing the "ends, ways, and means the Army will use to achieve equipping balance by Fiscal Year 2011," according to a Sept. 29 memo from Lt. Gen. Stephen Speakes, deputy chief of staff for programs (G-8).
Australia and India have submitted letters of intent to participate in the next phase of the Army and Marine Corps' Joint Light Tactical Vehicle program, officials from the services said today.
The Army Requirements Oversight Council has approved the initial capabilities document for its ground combat vehicle effort, and the document will be sent to the Joint Requirements Oversight Council this week for final approval, according to senior service officials.
At the opening of the annual Association of the U.S. Army conference in Washington today, BAE Systems distributed green business cards with one word on the front: "FMTV," in big, block letters.
With the first seven Mine Resistant Ambush Protected All-Terrain Vehicles en route to Afghanistan, a Pentagon spokesman said yesterday DOD is "very confident" Oshkosh can meet the effort's aggressive production schedules.
Marking the first step toward a potentially significant increase in the number of Stryker Brigade Combat Teams, the Army chief of staff has approved converting a heavy brigade combat team to become the eighth SBCT, according to a notification provided to Congress.
President Obama today announced his intent to nominate Christine Fox as the Pentagon's new director of cost assessment and program evaluation.
The first iteration of the Army's new ground combat vehicle, the centerpiece of its multibillion-dollar modernization program, will be known as the Infantry Fighting Vehicle and introduced in 2017, according to a previously unreported document obtained by Inside the Army.
The first Mine Resistant Ambush Protected All-Terrain Vehicles have been deployed to Afghanistan, Marine Corps Systems Command announced yesterday.
The Pentagon, poised to spend more than $16 billion in fiscal years 2009 and 2010 to procure tactical wheeled vehicles, lacks a "unified, comprehensive, long-term TWV strategy," according to a new Government Accountability Office report.
Twenty-five Texas lawmakers led by Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) are calling for the Pentagon to provide a full briefing outlining its decision to award the Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles "rebuy" contract to Oshkosh.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates is reaffirming the Pentagon's opposition to buying additional F-22A aircraft and to funding the alternative engine program for the Joint Strike Fighter, telling Congress that the two issues would serve as grounds to veto the conference version of the fiscal year 2010 defense authorization bill.
Though many of the capabilities developed under the Army's Future Combat Systems program are needed, the program was cancelled earlier this year because it could not best meet warfighter needs, the top Pentagon acquisition officer told lawmakers earlier this month.
UPDATE: The post below, on analyst Loren Thompson's take on the Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles protest, has generated some reader feedback, spurring us to find out more explicitly about Thompson's relationship with BAE Systems.
In a supplemental protest filed with the Government Accountability Office last week, BAE Systems argues that the Army, in awarding the Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles contract to Oshkosh, failed to take into consideration the risks associated with Oshkosh's limited production facilities.
The Senate yesterday voted to confirm John McHugh as Army secretary and Joseph Westphal as under secretary, according to press reports.
One analyst is predicting the Government Accountability Office will soon overturn the recent award of the Army's Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles contract to Oshkosh.