The Insider

The Defense Department has officially killed the Joint Strike Fighter F136 alternate engine program, according to a DOD statement issued today:

The Department of Defense today notified the General Electric/Rolls Royce Fighter Engine Team (FET) and the Congress that the F136 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) engine contract has been terminated.

On March 24, 2011, Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Ashton Carter directed the F-35 JSF contracting officer to issue an order to the FET to stop work on the F136 development contract.  The stop work order ended the expenditure of $1 million per day on an extra engine that the DoD has assessed as unneeded and wasteful.  The stop work order was put in place pending final resolution of the extra engine’s future in Congressional action on the fiscal 2011 budget.

Subsequently, H.R. 1473, the Department of Defense and Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act for 2011 was passed by both houses of Congress and signed by the President on April 15, 2011.  H.R. 1473 contains no funding for the F136 engine.

Following this action, Carter directed the JSF Joint Program Office to cease all activity on the F136 development, and the JSF contracting officer determined to terminate the F136 contract.

The FET has been instructed to preserve and deliver government property. The Defense Contract Management Agency will assume responsibility for termination settlement.

As InsideDefense.com blogged this morning, however, GE isn't going down without a fight. And according to a company statement released in the wake of the DOD announcement:

While we are deeply disappointed by the DoD's "Notice of Termination," GE and Rolls-Royce remain committed to the F136 and the significant benefits it brings to the American taxpayer and our fighting men and women.

For 14 years, the F136 team has developed F136 technologies and engine prototypes at a cost of $3 billion to taxpayers.  They contain some of the world’s most advanced propulsion technologies. The intellectual property includes numerous patented technologies from both companies.

Over the coming weeks we will work with the US Government to comply with the Notice.  Throughout that process, GE and Rolls-Royce will take all necessary steps to ensure that the F136 assets and intellectual property are protected.

More than $200 million in F136 hardware is located in 17 facilities, including nine engines under various stages of assembly.

GE and Rolls-Royce will work closely with our Congressional supporters during the 2012 budget process in pursuit of incorporating the engine into the program, and preserving competition. We continue to be encouraged by the bi-partisan support for the engine on the merits of its performance and value. There is a significant willingness in Congress to revisit the F136 funding debate as the consequences of terminating the engine are being fully understood.

From a company personnel standpoint, the F136 termination notice has limited impact because of actions already underway at GE and Rolls-Royce.

Since the DoD “stop work” order in March, GE and Rolls-Royce has been in the process of realigning the GE Rolls-Royce Fighter Engine Team into a core technical team (about 100 people). The team is being sized in a manner consistent with overall JSF schedule slips.

The technical team seeks to protect, enhance, and advance the vital F136 propulsion technologies for JSF and future combat aircraft.

The F136 program has been called a “near model program” by the U.S. Senate.  The F136 engine has met or exceeded performance expectations and demonstrated significant advantages over the Pratt & Whitney engine.  The engine development has been under development since 1996 and is 80% complete with six development engines tested.

In addition to strong performance, the GE/RR F136 development program has been on or ahead of schedule.

Raytheon has delivered the first Standard Missile-6 production round to the Navy, the company announced this morning. According to a statement:

"Five years ago, Raytheon promised the U.S. Navy that SM-6 would be delivered in March 2011, and we delivered on that promise," said Frank Wyatt, vice president of Raytheon's Air and Missile Defense Systems product line. "Raytheon delivered the SM-6 to our customer and met cost expectations for system development and demonstration. Now the U.S. Navy has a missile that provides an umbrella of protection against the full spectrum of air threats."

SM-6 leverages the legacy Standard Missile airframe and propulsion elements while incorporating the advanced signal processing and guidance control capabilities of Raytheon's Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile.

"SM-6 is a remarkable missile because it combines the reliability of time-tested systems with all the latest advancements in missile technology," said Wyatt. "This missile can use both active and semiactive modes, giving the warfighter an enhanced ability to reach remote targets."

According to a Raytheon executive, the company is under a three-year, low-rate initial production contract to provide the first lot  of 29 missiles using fiscal year 2009 funds, 11 in FY-10 and 59 in FY-11. Full-rate production will begin in FY-12, the executive added.

Producing the SM-6 has not gone without its share of hitches however, as InsideDefense.com reported in January:

The Navy has resumed at-sea testing of the Standard Missile 6 (SM-6) system in Hawaii, hoping to verify engineering changes made following failures last summer, according to Navy officials and Pentagon documents.

Success in the at-sea testing is seen as essential to avoid a delay in plans to field the first operational systems in fiscal year 2011.

“Testing is currently under way at Pacific Missile Range Facility,” Chris Johnson, a spokesman for Naval Sea Systems Command, told InsideDefense.com.

Operational and developmental testing of the Raytheon-built SM-6 Extended Range Active Missile -- a $6.6 billion program that began low-rate production in August of 2009 -- was suspended last year following a series of mishaps, according to the Pentagon's top weapons tester. The testing being conducted includes missions at the range in Kauai, HI, that were put on hold after a series of firing attempts last summer were deemed deficient.

“The suspension of developmental/operational testing exhausted the schedule margins that existed in the SM-6 schedule,” Michael Gilmore, Pentagon director of operational test and evaluation, wrote in his office's recent assessment of the SM-6 program.

Members of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) held the pact's 25th Plenary Meeting in Buenos Aires this month "to review and evaluate its activities and to further intensify its efforts to prevent missile programmes and their proliferation," according to a State Department release issued this morning.

The 34-member MTCR includes the United States, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Ireland, Japan, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine and the United Kingdom.

Representatives met from April 11 to 15, according to the statement. Further:

MTCR partners discussed proliferation of weapons of mass destruction as well as their means of delivery that constitute a threat to international peace and security and reaffirmed the importance of addressing these challenges and the role the MTCR serves in this regard. MTCR guidelines and controls list constitute an international export control standard which is increasingly adhered to by non-members of the MTCR. Therefore, Partners agreed to redouble their efforts to encourage and assist, upon request, non-partners countries that are supportive of the objectives and purposes of the MTCR Regime, to contribute to the efforts of missile non proliferation.

Partners conducted extensive discussions on missile proliferation-related activities worldwide, to include developments in missile programs and their proliferation; procurement activities and techniques in support of such programs; rapid technological change; the role of intangible technology, brokering, and transshipment in facilitating proliferation; and key technology trends in proliferation missile programs. These discussions showed that additional export control efforts by MTCR countries could have an even greater impact. They also underlined the importance of addressing transit and transshipment issues and, in this context, the proliferation risk posed by countries with weak export controls.

Partners exchanged information on concerns about the ongoing missile programs in Middle East, Northeast Asia and South Asia, including Iran and North Korea, which could contribute to regional instability and supply missile proliferation activities elsewhere.

Partners noted the direct relevance of UN Security Council Resolutions, inter alia, 1874 and 1929, to MTCR export controls and expressed their determination to implement these resolutions and to exercise vigilance and prevent the transfer of any items, materials, goods and technology that could contribute to WMD missile programmes of proliferation concern, in accordance with their national legislation and consistent with international law.

Partners agreed to continue exchanging views on missile program developments.

Partners reaffirmed the critical importance of the MTCR’s ongoing technical work. They noted the rapid evolution of relevant technologies and the related need to take forward looking action to address these developments. They expressed their appreciation for the work of the Licensing and Enforcement Expert Meeting (LEEM), the Information Exchange Meeting (IEM) and the Technical Expert Meeting (TEM) in particular the decision adopted on amendments to the Equipment, Software and Technology Annex.

Over the past year, the outgoing MTCR Chair (Brazil) conducted outreach with Belarus, China, India, Kazakhstan, and Thailand. The incoming MTCR Chair (Argentina) intends to conduct further outreach, including with additional countries, in order to increase transparency about the Regime and promote its objectives. Partners expressed their willingness to continue extensive outreach by individual MTCR Partners to a wide range of countries. Non Partners activities in support of the objectives and purposes of the MTCR would also be welcome.

Partners agreed to continue their individual and collective efforts to assist interested countries in implementing the missile-related export controls mandated under UN Security Council Resolution 1540, and to work with the 1540 Committee.

Partners also reviewed a number of key aspects of the internal functioning of the Regime, including issues related to future membership. Partners exchanged views on their overall approaches, interalia, membership evaluation. Individual applications for membership also were thoroughly discussed, with no consensus being reached on the admission of new members at this time. The membership issue will continue to be discussed.

Tired of reading lengthy, uninformative program strategies and systems engineering plans, Frank Kendall, the Pentagon's No. 2 acquisition official, has just issued new guidance that streamlines the templates for these key documents.

"The revised documents are intended to be shorter while providing the information necessary to support effective program planning and management decisions," he writes in an April 20 memo to the military departments and the defense agencies. The Defense Department has completely revamped the document formats to emphasize data and minimize descriptions, he notes. DOD also plans to issue new guidance on the format for life-cycle sustainment plans, which are now being separated from acquisition strategies. Further, the memo delegates to the services approval authority for other key documents such as corrosion prevention control plans.

It's official. The old website for DOD's industrial policy office has been changed to reflect its new status as the manufacturing and industrial base policy office (http://www.acq.osd.mil/mibp/).

As Inside the Pentagon reported in January:

The Pentagon is facing a slew of new reporting and planning requirements and a call to renew its focus on acquiring services and building up its workforce as part of a recently signed law designed to reform the Defense Department's acquisition system.

Dubbed the "IMPROVE Acquisition Act," the new law calls on the department to periodically assess the performance of the elements of its acquisition systems, strengthen its IT acquisition workforce and review internal acquisition guidelines and federal acquisition regulations. . . .

The law also creates a deputy assistant secretary of defense for manufacturing and industrial base policy to serve as the principal adviser on industrial base issues under the department's acquisition chief, and provides the position with a fund. The congressional source noted that historically there has been an official performing these duties, but the law creates the deputy assistant secretary of defense post.

And a message on the renamed website states:

To encourage industry's innovative response to the needs of our Service members, the 2011 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) has recommended a number of changes that will impact how the Department of Defense’s (DoD) Office of Industrial Policy is organized and funded.

First, the NDAA establishes the position of Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Manufacturing and Industrial Base Policy to reflect the expanded duties of the Industrial Policy office. The inclusion of "manufacturing" in the title ensures the linkage between "industry" and "manufacturing" is firmly established and effectively coordinated.

Reporting to the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics, the Office of Manufacturing and Industrial Base Policy will expand its current mission to include managing a new Industrial Base Fund used to:

*   support the monitoring and assessment of the industrial base

*   address critical issues in the industrial base related to urgent operational needs

*   support efforts to expand the industrial base

*   address supply chain vulnerabilities

Responsibility for the Defense Manufacturing Technology Program (ManTech) is also being moved into our new office. ManTech, whose mission is to develop technologies and processes that ensure the affordable and timely production and sustainment of defense systems, is currently overseen by the Directorate of Research in the office of the Director, Defense Research and Engineering.

To increase the Department's access to innovation and the benefits of competition, the 2011 NDAA also requires the Department to establish a program to expand the industrial base by identifying firms that are non-traditional suppliers. The program will include outreach regarding opportunities to obtain contracts and subcontracts to firms of all sizes in the vicinity of DoD installations. The program will also include an ongoing review of the industrial base, including the identification of markets of importance to the DoD in which firms that are not traditional suppliers can make a significant contribution.

It will be the Manufacturing and Industrial Base Policy Office’s mission to inject a new spirit of innovation into the Department to ensure our Service members are the beneficiaries of the best American industry can provide.

Retired Rear Adm. David Altwegg, the former Missile Defense Agency executive director, died last night, according to an internal email sent today by MDA Director Lt. Gen. Patrick O'Reilly:

It is with great sadness that I am notifying you that Dave Altwegg passed away last night.  Dave's life was a testament to patriotism, dedication, leadership, mentorship and compassionate caring who inspired all of those that had the great fortune to serve with and know him.  Dave's every action, every day, showed he truly cared for the men, women and mission of the US Navy, MDA, and our Nation.  For the 64 years he served our country proudly.  His legacy of dedication, commitment, loyalty, excellence, achievement and exuberance for life will endure with this Agency.  I know you share in grief and fond memories with his wife, daughter and grandchildren -- please keep them in your thoughts and prayers.

Dave's plan was for an interment at Arlington cemetery.  It will most likely be a month or two before the interment occurs - we will keep everyone informed on all funeral arrangements.

Altwegg, a 1952 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, retired from federal service last February, according to an MDA statement released at the time:

A member of the Senior Executive Service since 1987, he has been assigned to MDA since 2002. As the MDA Executive Director he is the highest ranking civilian within the Agency, providing oversight, leadership, direction and guidance to all MDA functional staff, ensuring the effective integration and organization of all MDA functions required to develop and sustain an effective Ballistic Missile Defense System program. He also serves as a key interface to the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Military Services and the Congress.

A retired Rear Admiral in the U.S. Navy, Mr. Altwegg was appointed to the Senior Executive Service on January 15, 1987. He served in various positions of increasing responsibility in the U.S. Navy, leading the development of complex combat systems, and culminating with his appointment as Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Theater Combat Systems. He reported to MDA in August 2002 and served as the Deputy for Program Integration and as the Deputy for Agency Operations before assuming his current position as MDA’s Executive Director. He is the senior advisor to the MDA Director on all issues relating to the Agency's policy and management activities, including responsibility for an approximate annual budget of more than $8 billion.

As a Naval Officer, his five command tours include USS MAHAN (DLG-11); USS HORNE (DLG-30); Naval Ship Weapon Systems Engineering Station, Port Hueneme, Calif.; Pacific Missile Test Center at Pt. Mugu, Calif. and Cruiser Destroyer Group TWO. After more than 38 years in uniform, Rear Admiral Altwegg retired from military service on November 1, 1985, having earned distinct honors including the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star Medal with Combat “V”, the Meritorious Service Medal, the Navy Commendation Medal, the National Defense Service Medal with one bronze star, the Korean Presidential Unit Citation, and the Vietnamese Naval Advisory Award, Second Class with rosette. He is also authorized to wear the China Service Medal, the Korean Service Medal with two stars, and the United Nations Service Medal.

In what was to be his final briefing on the agency's annual budget, Altwegg in February 2010 blasted the agency's defense contractors for an across-the-board failure to maintain quality control when building missile defense systems, Inside Missile Defense reported:

"I'm not going to name names today, but I'm going to tell you, we continue to be disappointed in the quality that we are receiving from our prime contractors and their subs," MDA Executive Director and retired Rear Adm. David Altwegg told reporters during a Feb. 1 briefing on his agency's fiscal year 2011 budget request. "Very, very disappointed."

Altwegg said it wasn't just quality design issues, "but more in quality of products delivered. Which then results in re-work, and then . . . because most of these contracts are cost contracts, it costs the taxpayer more."

While declining to specifically identify any firms, "I am excusing no one from this conversation," he said, adding: "We have problems with all of our primes."

Officials from the Government Accountability Office will visit the agency this month to discuss quality issues, the retired rear admiral said.

The root cause of the problem, according to Altwegg, stems from a "lack of attention to detail. Missilery is all about detail." He cited a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense System test in December where the target missile, which deployed in the air from a cargo aircraft via a drag chute, failed to ignite and plunged into the ocean.

"The failure review board disclosed a big-time quality problem" with that target system, Altwegg said.

When asked when the quality issues began to be problematic, he responded: "It's been a continuing effort in our programs."