The Insider

A Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II blasted through the sound barrier for the first time yesterday, according to a company official.

On its 69th test flight, Air Force Joint Strike Fighter test jet AA-1 flew above Mach 1 four separate times, logging about eight minutes at speeds around Mach 1.05, Lockheed's F-35 program General Manager Dan Crowley said during a telephone interview this morning. The jet carried two inert 1,000 pound bombs and two air-to-air missiles during the flight.

“These aircraft rely heavily on advanced flight controls to maintain their stability,” he said. “As you transition from sub-sonic to super sonic flight, the airflows around the aircraft change dynamically."

The supersonic flight test “allows us to validate the flight control laws, the air data, . . . the propulsion system ((and)) the computers that are continuously recalculating the aircraft's flight performance,” Crowley said.

The next test milestone will likely come before the end of November, when officials plan to open the weapons bay doors in flight, according to Crowley

The first short take-off vertical landing aircraft is slated to begin hover-pit tests in February 2009 and short take-off flight tests in May. The “official” vertical landing tests will take place at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, MD, Crowley noted.

The flight test came one day after the Defense Acquisition Board -- chaired by Pentagon acquisition executive John Young -- met to receive a briefing on the third installment of F-35 low-rate initial production, as InsideDefense.com reported today.

Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Eric Edelman says he will not be among the Bush administration officials sticking around for the transition at the Defense Department, but many DOD officials are willing if the Obama camp asks.

At a breakfast with reporters in Washington today, Edelman noted he will not stay beyond Jan. 20, 2009, when the next president is sworn into office. But he said numerous DOD officials said yes when Defense Secretary Robert Gates asked who would be willing and able to stay on for a while.

"A very high percentage of people have said . . . that if asked they would be willing to stay," Edelman said. "I think that's very encouraging." He did not cite specific names. Now it's up to the new team to decide whether to retain these officials, he said, noting it would also be understandable and appropriate if the new team wants to bring in its own people.

In September, InsideDefense.com spoke with Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England, who predicted “over 90 percent” of DOD political appointees would stay until at least Jan. 20.

“And a lot of people will stay beyond that if they are asked to, to make sure the transition goes properly, including myself,” England added. “I’ve said I’ll stay to make sure it works.”

Though the Associated Press reported last night that former Sen. Sam Nunn (D-GA) will "help shepherd" the incoming administration's Pentagon transition effort, Obama camp spokesman Nick Shapiro tells us that Nunn will not be the Defense Department transition team leader. Instead, Nunn will have an informal role.

Also, Stephanie Cutter, the chief spokeswoman for the Obama transition effort, issued a statement about the AP story, torpedoing both the Nunn talk and the suggestion that former Secretary of State Warren Christopher would aid transition efforts at the State Department.

"Senator Sam Nunn will play an informal senior adviser role throughout the defense transition process," she said. "His expertise and the respect he has earned will be invaluable to ensure a smooth transition. Secretary Christopher is deeply respected in the United States and throughout the international community. However, he is not playing a role in the transition process. There's a lot of disinformation out there. We're working hard to put the agency review teams together and expect they'll be announced this week and inside the agencies by the end of the week."

The Washington Post today looks somewhat skeptically at President-elect Obama's plans to "reverse years-long trends, including pork barrel spending by Congress, the tendency of government employees to leave to work for government contractors and a sharp rise in the use of no-bid contracts."

Obama "also wants to make federal buying systems more efficient," the Post writes, with the Pentagon an obvious target.

Contracting specialists, former federal procurement officials and trade group representatives said that to fulfill those promises, the Obama administration will have to summon the will to effect a huge cultural change inside the government to take procurement more seriously.

Government acquisitions programs have long been plagued by delays and cost increases, but experts say the problems have worsened in recent years as the size of the federal workforce has barely grown even as the amount of spending on services, technology and other goods more than doubled. The Clinton administration cut the number of procurement workers as part of an effort to trim red tape, and the Bush administration accelerated the trend with a philosophical commitment to outsourcing and small government.

An annual Government Accountability Office assessment of Defense Department weapons programs helps illustrate some of the problems. Planned commitments on systems rose from $790 billion in 2000 to $1.6 trillion in fiscal 2007, the report found. At the same time, the amount that programs exceeded cost estimates soared from $42 billion in 2000 to $295 billion last year. Average delays of the programs examined by the GAO increased from 16 months to 21 months.

"They're inheriting an almost broken procurement system" said Charles Tiefer, a contracting law professor at the University of Baltimore Law School. "During the last eight years, a lot of the critical oversight machinery was undercut or neglected."

Inside the Army this week has a good look at what to expect from the transition, according to former officials who suggested keeping a close eye on the new administration's plans for the size of the force and how it handles the Future Combat Systems program -- the Army's sweeping modernization effort.

Some, including former Army acquisition chief Paul Hoeper, suggested the next administration may have to choose between growing the force and improving equipment.

Despite the hard choices ahead, Arnold Punaro, a former Senate Armed Services Committee staffer, told ITA he expects the upcoming transition to be smooth.

“The Pentagon is more prepared than I’ve seen for transition,” he said, lauding the experience of the Defense Department's transition team and Obama's team.

“You’re not going to have any amateurs or rookies involved in this,” he said.

The transition may be even smoother if the current Pentagon acquisition executive sticks around -- which could happen, InsideDefense.com reported late last week. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has asked political appointees to consider staying in their posts until the Senate confirms their replacements to smooth the transition process. Whether John Young will be among those holdovers remains to be seen.

During a media roundtable on Oct. 30, John Young said he would stay in his post “((u))ntil they tell me to leave.”

Over on the Navy side, Inside the Navy reports today that service leaders are looking to the new Pentagon team -- and lawmakers -- for help:

On the eve of a new presidential administration, the Navy continues to conduct myriad missions at sea and ashore around the globe at a rate that is over-stressing portions of the force and requires continued support from the new administration and Congress, the sea service’s director of strategy and policy said in an interview last week.

“We’re pretty close to running at the margins,” Rear Adm. Robert Thomas said Nov. 4. “You can see where we’re overstressed in some areas in our steady-state posture and then you throw a contingency on it, now we’re cutting into bone.”

President-elect Barack Obama should pick a “confidential adviser” to help him fill science and technology-related jobs quickly, according to a recent report by the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering and the Institute of Medicine.

Before Obama’s inauguration, the adviser should help the incoming president “identify and recruit” candidates for key S&T appointments, according to a Nov. 5 National Academies statement.

After the inauguration, Obama should give the adviser the title of special assistant to the president for science and technology and nominate the person for job of Office of Science and Technology Policy director, reads the statement.

As President-elect Barack Obama prepares to take the helm, he should use the best available science and scientists to help manage the nation’s current and future issues, such as climate change, alternative energy, veterans' health, and the nation's infrastructure.

The report itself lists 80 high-level government positions deemed crucial for advising the new president on S&T matters, and it suggests ways of attracting qualified personnel for these jobs.