The Insider

Congressional Democrats' plans for contesting the upcoming defense budget plus a host of Air Force news highlight this Friday INSIDER Daily Digest.

A quick primer on how congressional Democrats plan to debate the upcoming defense budget:

Democrats signal they will stick to script in coming fiscal fight

Key Democrats on the House and Senate Armed Services committees acknowledge the military is facing serious readiness challenges after some unsettling testimony this week from top Pentagon officials, but the lawmakers are not prepared to cast aside their continued insistence that any increase in defense spending be matched with a boost in non-defense priorities.

Document: House, Senate hearings on the 'state of the military'

More news from those hearings:

Wilson backs nuclear priority, munitions investment at readiness hearing

Air Force Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Stephen Wilson argued the service's effort to modernize its nuclear assets tops the Air Force's other key procurement efforts going into fiscal year 2018 budget discussions, in an appearance before a Senate defense subcommittee Feb. 8.

Defense contractor news:

Contractors strike upbeat tone on spending in new administration

Contracting executives said this week they continue to expect bolstered government spending under a Trump administration, but at least one executive said it may take longer than expected.

More Air force news:

Air Force edits BACN support contract to extend one year, follow-on delayed

The Air Force recently awarded Northrop Grumman a contract modification worth up to $140 million to operate and sustain Battlefield Airborne Communication Node payloads, despite an original plan to give the company a four-year follow-on contract that will now be renegotiated.

Air Force advisory panel: No 'silver bullet' to defeat hypersonic, maneuvering weapon

An Air Force advisory panel commissioned to explore options for defending against hypersonic, maneuvering weapons, such as those China and Russia are flight testing, concluded no "silver bullets" are at hand -- or in the development pipeline -- to defeat this new class of threats, arguing the best defense may be a new offense: the U.S. military's own credible, hypersonic weapon.

F-35 JPO, Lockheed may speed up Block 3F simulator release schedule

The F-35 joint program office and Lockheed Martin are reviewing the program's schedule for releasing software Block 3F to its full mission simulators and may consider distributing the upgrade in two phases.

ACC studying MQ-9 service life to determine retirement time line

Air Force Air Combat Command is studying the MQ-9 Reaper's service life to shape its retirement time line, a spokeswoman said this week, but she declined to say whether the service may recapitalize the unmanned fleet as contractor General Atomics suggests.

Document: DOT&E's FY-16 annual report

Predator, Reaper programs to see updates including pod demo, GBU-54

The Air Force plans to award General Atomics a sole-source contract worth up to $20 million this month to update the MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper programs with six urgent mission-readiness initiatives, Inside the Air Force has learned.

AWACS final delivery date stable despite FOT&E delay

Follow-on testing and evaluation for the latest version of the E-3 Airborne Warning and Control System has been pushed back two years to fiscal year 2018, according to the Air Force.

Marine Corps infantry are getting 144 new lightweight supply trucks that carry up to 1,500 pounds of supplies to the field.

The trucks, known as Utility Task Vehicles, will be in the fleet by the end of February, which is six months after the initial contract award.

Marine Corps Special Operations Command previously purchased UTVs and the program executive office for land systems used the same contracting mechanism. This method allowed for quick delivery, service spokesman Manny Pacheco told Inside Defense Feb. 10.

The UTV is not replacing a piece of legacy equipment. Instead it is adding lift for the infantry battalions to carry ammunition, supplies or injured Marines.

"Measuring roughly 12 feet long, the commercially acquired diesel vehicle is modular, with back seats that convert into a small cargo bed," according to the service. "Thanks to its small size, the UTV fits inside MV-22 Ospreys and CH-53E helicopters for easy transport to remote locations and greater tactical support."

Inside the Navy reported in August that Congress approved a $9.5 million reprogramming action to buy UTVs as part of a new-start program.

The Air Force has stopped "accepting recruit/fill actions" for civilian jobs without a hiring freeze exemption approved by the Air Force secretary, effective Feb. 7, the service said Thursday.

"All requests for personnel action received by the Air Force Personnel Center by Feb. 7, 2017, will continue to be announced, and referral certificates will continue to be issued," the Air Force added, citing new procedures that support a Feb. 1 memo on freeze implementation.

President Trump implemented the hiring freeze for all executive departments and agencies Jan. 23 and directed the Office of Management and Budget and Office of Personnel Management to create a long-term plan by May to shrink the federal workforce. Military personnel are not affected.

Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work published the Feb. 1 memo describing which positions can be exempted from the freeze, as well as the process to do so. National security, public safety, and lawfully required exemptions are available, but the Pentagon cannot use contractors to do the jobs of civilian workers.

Lt. Gen. Gina Grosso, deputy chief of staff for manpower, personnel and services, said Feb. 1 the federal hiring freeze could cut the service's civilian workforce by 3 percent in the next four months.

Civilians account for 26 percent of the service's workforce, with nearly 180,000 positions filled, a 96 percent staffing rate, the Air Force said. The service projects more than 13,000 jobs could be vacated by June.

The top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee sent a letter to President Trump today urging him to provide lethal defensive weapons to Ukraine in its conflict with Russia.

"Last week, we witnessed a new escalation in violence in Ukraine along the line of contact between Ukrainian government forces and Russian-backed separatists," Rep. Adam Smith (WA) wrote. "Now is not the time to consider easing the sanctions levied on Russia or to back away from Ukraine. It is the time for the United States to stand firm."

Smith urged Trump to, at the very least, provide lethal defensive weapons to the Ukrainian military and to enforce current sanctions against Russia.

Smith also called on Trump to "do everything possible to peaceably resolve the ongoing conflict, starting with a strong signal to Russian President Vladimir Putin."

Trump has consistently praised Putin as a strong leader. Vice President Pence has also indicated that some of the sanctions on Russia could be lifted in the near future if Russia helps in the fight against terrorists.

Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014, annexing Crimea.

Earlier this month Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain (R-AZ) sent a letter to the president, urging him to maintain the current sanctions against Russia and provide Ukraine "the assistance they need and deserve."

"Failing to do so now not only risks Ukraine's sovereignty, but the further erosion of American credibility," McCain wrote.

The commander of the U.S. mission in Afghanistan told Senators today that coalition forces are in a "stalemate" with the Taliban, citing a shortage of troops and the Russian government's efforts to undermine U.S. operations.

"The Russian involvement, this year, has become more difficult," Army Gen. John Nicholson told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

"First, they have begun to publicly legitimize the Taliban," he continued. "This narrative that they promote is that the Taliban are fighting Islamic State and the Afghan government is not fighting Islamic State and that therefore there could be spillover of this group into the region. This is a false narrative."

Nicholson said the Afghan government, along with U.S. counterterrorism forces, are successfully fighting against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, reducing their territory in Afghanistan by two-thirds this year and killing their top 12 leaders.

The Taliban, however, controls 15 percent more territory than they did in 2015, Nicholson said.

Meanwhile, Nicholson said he had an adequate number of troops to execute the U.S. counterterrorism mission, but had a shortfall of "a few thousand" to train and assist the Afghan military. Additional troops could come from either U.S. forces or NATO allies, he said.

The United States had 8,400 troops in Afghanistan, along with 5,000 coalition troops from U.S. allies.

"Additional forces would enable us to thicken our advisory effort across the Afghan ministries and do more advising below the core level," Nicholson said. "I am currently in discussion with my chain of command."

Orbital ATK on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's acting director, claiming the agency is seeking "to create its own government-funded technology that will compete -- unfairly and illegally -- with Orbital ATK's privately developed commercial capability."

According to the complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Orbital ATK is seeking a permanent injunction that would prohibit further action on DARPA's Robotic Servicing of Geospatial Satellites program as well as a judgment that the project violates the National Space Policy and the Administrative Procedure Act.

Orbital ATK says in its lawsuit that it has long worked on in-space satellite servicing. It is developing the Mission Extension Vehicle, which it describes as a "satellite life extension service for Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO) satellites."

According to the lawsuit, ATK -- which merged its defense and aerospace groups with Orbital Sciences in 2015 -- was working with DARPA on an in-space satellite servicing demonstration in 2012. But in 2013, Orbital ATK claims, the program changed and became the RSGS initiative.

"DARPA's acquisition strategy is to develop RSGS, launch it, demonstrate it for less than a year, then hand RSGS off to a sole commercial provider, thereby providing a subsidy worth hundreds of millions of dollars to a single service provider in the commercial marketplace," Orbital ATK alleges in its complaint. "Thus, DARPA's RSGS program as conceived and presented, will in effect use substantial taxpayer funds to subsidize a single competitor with private commercial space companies in the industry, in direct violation of the National Space Policy."

In 2016, DARPA issued a solicitation for RSGS. On Feb. 6, according to the lawsuit, DARPA selected Space Systems/Loral, a subsidiary of Canadian firm MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates, for the program. However, that award is not listed among the Pentagon's Feb. 6 contract awards.

A DARPA spokesman said the agency cannot comment on pending legal action.

The news was first reported by the Washington Post.

The Marine Corps has 42 percent of its F/A-18 Hornet fleet ready to fly today including jets in its training and reserve squadrons and is 20 aircraft shy of making its flight-hour goal, according to the service's deputy commandant for aviation.

Lt. Gen. Jon Davis told reporters during a Feb. 8 Pentagon roundtable that the service still has a large of number of jets that cannot fly but the figure is improving. The service has 171 Hornets in its inventory and 72 jets are on the flight line, he said.

The service selected three legacy Hornet squadrons to transition to the Joint Strike Fighter instead of AV-8B Harrier units because of low numbers in F/A-18 readiness, Davis said.

Davis called the F-35 production ramp "anemic" and said numbers will continue to grow. The Marine Corps can accommodate delivery of 37 F-35s each year, he added.