The Insider

The Defense Intelligence Agency recently published a new strategic plan outlining the way it will do its job over the next five years.

"The DIA 2012-2017 Strategy is to strengthen and unite the agency's core defense intelligence capabilities to best support warfighters and policymakers in an era of persistent international conflict and enduring U.S. fiscal challenges," the document states, adding: "The strategy's theme is One Mission - One Team - One Agency. One Mission, cleanly nested in all-source defense intelligence, is accomplished by One Team, operating as an integrated, agile, and results-oriented force within One Agency, performing as a critical member of the Defense Intelligence Enterprise and committed to excellence in defense of our Nation."

The agency plans to implement its strategy via four main principles, according to the document:

*    Work together as one team within an operational environment that fosters trust, unity of effort, diversity, integration and transparency, adaptability and mental agility, and close proximity to the customers of DIA's output.

*    Focus DIA on its mission-essential capabilities by pursuing efficiencies at every level, including centralized planning with decentralized implementation, aggressive and adaptive restructuring, and redirecting resources to priority mission areas.

*    Grow stronger by leading or joining U.S. whole-of-government efforts to leverage interagency information, expertise, and capabilities, while strengthening and forging stronger partnerships with academia, the private sector, and international partners.

*    Apply performance management to maximize individual, team, and organizational performance to ensure DIA services and products are timely and relevant to customer needs, and hold the workforce accountable for their actions and job performance based on measurable outcomes.

DIA plans to "fundamentally shift its intelligence operations mindset and business practices from focusing on the last war to preparing for the highly complex and uncertain future" in "tangible ways," according to the document. Further:

DIA's core mission resides in four intelligence competencies: all-source analysis; counterintelligence (CI); human intelligence (HUMINT), and measurement and signature intelligence (MASINT). Primarily focused on foreign military and defense-related matters, DIA will:

1.    Provide strategic warning and integrated risk assessment.

2.    Plan and direct defense intelligence activities for all-source analysis; collection management; intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance; HUMINT; CI; open source intelligence (OSINT); MASINT; technical collection; and international engagement.

3.    Collect information through HUMINT, CI, OSINT, MASINT, and technical means.

4.    Process and exploit information collected through HUMINT, CI, OSINT, MASINT, and technical means.

5.    Produce all-source intelligence analysis from all available collection means.

6.    Integrate and disseminate defense intelligence products and data.

The strategic plan acknowledges that "current and future adversaries will constantly adapt and seek new ways to challenge U.S. national security interests," and "calls for a more flexible, adaptive, and agile operational culture immersed in critical thinking. It further requires that DIA Officers thrive in an integrated and decentralized structure, embrace civilian-military integration and information sharing, be willing to accept risk, and foster proficiency to adapt operations based on a continuous assessment of the situation."

The August congressional recess hasn't stopped lawmakers from pressuring the Defense Department to continue developing the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, despite program delays and cost increases.

In an Aug. 31 letter to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) calls on Panetta to "fully commit to the expeditious fielding of the F-35 and forego procuring any additional 4th-generation fighter aircraft such as the F-18E/F which will be of limited to no value in any future threat scenario."

Yesterday, Inside the Pentagon reported that Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn had turned down a plea made by nine senators to reconsider the termination of the second engine for the JSF:

In an Aug. 23 letter, Lynn writes that continuing a competitive acquisition strategy for the fighter's engine does not make sense, even when taking into account General Electric and Rolls Royce's offer to "self-fund" more than $100 million of the development costs for their F136 engine, which the department terminated earlier this year.

Lynn's letter is a response to an Aug. 2 letter sent to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta by Sens. Jim Webb (D-VA), Rob Portman (R-OH), John Kerry (D-MA), Richard Lugar (R-IN), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Scott Brown (R-MA), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Dan Coats (R-IN) and Mark Warner (D-VA).

The senators asked Panetta to review the termination decision and to "take no action" on the disposition of government property acquired under the F136 development contract until the fiscal year 2012 defense authorization bill is "fully debated" and passed by the Congress. But Lynn notes that the Pentagon's Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation shop concluded that "the potential life-cycle cost savings from a competitive sourcing of engines does not provide a compelling business case for a second JSF engine."

"Given the austere fiscal environment and increasing pressure to cut future defense spending, it is difficult for the Department to justify making such an investment," Lynn writes.

The Pentagon remains unmoved by General Electric and Rolls Royce's proposal to "self-fund" further development of the F136 with more than $100 million of the contractors' own funds in FY-12. The department estimates that it would require $480 million in FY-12 to continue the development of the F136, Lynn notes.

This morning, Inside the Air Force reports that JSF program officials recently began to train both pilots and maintainers using classroom and ground exercises as well as test site visits, paving the way for flight training expected to begin in the next two months:

The F-35 has not yet received its formal airworthiness certification from the Air Force Aeronautical Systems Center, a certification that comes with a military flight release, according to Marine Corps Col. Art Tomassetti, the vice commander of the 33rd Fighter Wing at Eglin Air Force Base, FL, the site of the F-35 training program. That license to fly is expected this month, Tomassetti wrote through an Eglin AFB spokeswoman in an Aug. 30 statement to Inside the Air Force.

Once that and other certifications are granted by the Defense Department over the next two months, pilots in training will be allowed to begin practice flights, Tomassetti said. Those are expected to begin in the fall. In the meantime, the two JSF aircraft that have been at at Eglin since July -- Air Force variants known as AF-8 and AF-9 -- are being used primarily for maintenance training.

"Small group tryouts for government maintenance training started in August," Tomassetti wrote. "A handful of maintainers focused on running through the course material needed to teach fuels and avionics. We are also completing installation in our new facilities, ensuring training, support equipment, Autonomic Logistic Information System (ALIS) and personnel are in place."

A State Department official briefed attendees of an international meeting in New York today called the "High Level Workshop Against Nuclear Tests -- From Here to 2015: Meeting the Targets of the NPT Action Plan."

During her briefing, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Arms Control, Verification and Compliance Marcie Ries had the following to say about the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, including tidbits about some upcoming studies due out soon:

The United States is committed to pursuing U.S. ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) and to its entry into force at the earliest possible date. Entry into force of the CTBT is an essential step toward the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons. While the United States abides by the core prohibition of the CTBT through our nuclear testing moratorium promulgated in 1992, the principal benefit of the Treaty -- that of constraining all states from testing -- still eludes us.

We have begun a deliberate and methodical process of engaging the U.S. Senate and the American public on the importance of the CTBT. Entry into force of the CTBT is an essential step toward the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons, a vision articulated by the President when he spoke in Prague in 2009. Our recent experience working with the U.S. Senate to gain ratification of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty – New START – with the Russian Federation has prepared us for what is expected to be an equally thorough and robust debate over the CTBT. We do not expect it will be easy or happen quickly, but we will work hard to make it happen.

The Administration commissioned a number of reports, including an updated National Intelligence Estimate and an independent National Academy of Sciences report to assess the ability of the United States to monitor compliance with the Treaty and the ability of the United States to maintain, in the absence of nuclear explosive testing, a safe, secure and effective nuclear arsenal so long as these weapons exist. A public version of the Academy’s report is expected to be released soon. These authoritative reports, together with others, will give the U.S. Senate a wealth of information to assist them in making a determination on the merits of ratification of the CTBT.

The Senate Armed Services Committee plans to hold a hearing to consider Pentagon acquisition chief Ashton Carter's nomination to become deputy defense secretary on Sept. 13, according to a panel statement issued this morning.

The hearing will be held at 9:30 a.m. in room 106 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building, the statement reads.

Carter has recently sought to dispel "understandable confusion" among Defense Department procurement officials about how and when to implement two policies central to the Obama administration's efforts to wring inefficiency and new savings from DOD's procurement process -- "should-cost" targets and  "affordability as a requirement."

In a two-page, Aug. 24 memo to DOD's acquisition community, Carter provides a brief tutorial on how -- particularly early in a program's life cycle -- to calibrate the two policies, both of which are designed to keep the focus on program costs. As InsideDefense.com reported last week:

"The two are compatible, but they must be balanced differently across the product life cycle," Carter writes. "The emphasis prior to milestone B [engineering and manufacturing development] should be on defining and achieving affordability targets. Past this point, the emphasis shifts to defining and achieving should-cost estimates."

The acquisition executive notes that these two policies "have come into conflict early in programs," particularly when affordability requirements are formulated to be in accord with service budget plans, yet when the program is not yet mature enough to clearly define should-cost estimates for future production.

Carter directs that during the early stages of product development, the priority should be on establishing affordability constraints. Should-cost policies, during that early phase, "should not keep us from making sound investments in product affordability," he directs.

Pentagon spokesman Col. David Lapan declined to comment this morning on the substance of the recommendations of the Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan, which the panel previewed today in a Washington Post Op-Ed. The panel's report is due out this week, Lapan said, noting he had not yet seen it and he was unsure whether the panel provided a prepublication copy to the Pentagon. He said the department has been aware of contracting "deficiencies" and has been working to fix them.

The Air Force Research Laboratory's Munitions Directorate and Lockheed Martin have signed a five-year, cooperative research and development agreement to assess the viability of the company's cooled tri-mode seeker for integration onto Air Force weapon platforms, according to a Lockheed statement issued this morning:

"We will work closely with Lockheed Martin to leverage their mature seeker technology with some of our novel in-house targeting concepts. Our scientists are excited to begin incorporating these proven tri-mode seekers into data collects, algorithm developments and subsystem evaluations," said Buddy Goldsmith, chief of the U.S. Air Force's Weapon Seeker Sciences Branch and Seeker Phenomenology Evaluation and Research (SPEAR) facility.

Lockheed Martin and AFRL will work together over the next five years to thoroughly assess tri-mode weapon capabilities, emerging targeting concepts and guidance techniques.  Data and analysis from this effort will enable AFRL to develop a baseline for integrating seekers onto future U.S. Air Force weapon platforms intended to engage stationary and mobile targets in day, night and adverse weather conditions.

"We are pleased the U.S. Air Force is interested in further evaluating our tri-mode seeker and pushing it to its operational limits," said Frank St. John, vice president of tactical missiles in Lockheed Martin’s Missiles and Fire Control business. "We have continued developing and testing our seeker hardware and software for other customers and applications since the end of the Small Diameter Bomb II competition, and we look forward to demonstrating our mature seeker still offers superior effectiveness at the best value."

Lockheed Martin’s cooled tri-mode seeker is based on three combat-proven weapon systems: Javelin, LONGBOW and HELLFIRE. The first-generation tri-mode seeker was developed in 2001 for the Common Missile program; later generations were developed for the Small Diameter Bomb II and other weapon systems. The seeker, now in its fourth generation, has undergone thousands of hours of laboratory, tower and captive-carry tests and has been proven in dirty battlefield testing and in guided flight.

The tri-mode seeker combines a semi-active laser sensor, an imaging infrared (I2R) sensor and a millimeter-wave radar into a single seeker with a common aperture. The cooled I2R sensor provides passive detection and lock-on-before-launch from substantial standoff ranges, significantly increasing warfighter survivability. All three sensor modes run simultaneously and share information in flight, allowing warfighters to defeat moving and stationary targets on land, at sea, in adverse weather and in an obscured/countermeasure environment, with true fire-and-forget capability.

Lockheed Martin’s tri-mode seeker recently defeated a variety of countermeasures and obscurants in a series of challenging and realistic battlefield environments. Test results demonstrated all three sensor modes successfully communicated and worked collaboratively to effectively address and defeat each countermeasure and obscurant, targeting both moving and stationary targets.

The Pentagon earlier this month released an updated doctrine document on conducting joint operations. As Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Michael Mullen writes in the introduction to Joint Publication 3-0:

This revised edition of Joint Publication 3-0, Joint Operations, reflects the current guidance for conducting joint activities across the range of military operations and is the basis for U.S. participation in multinational operations where the United States has not ratified specific doctrine or procedures. This keystone publication forms the core of joint warfighting doctrine and establishes the framework for our forces' ability to fight as a joint team.

Often called the "linchpin" of the joint doctrine publication hierarchy, the overarching constructs and principles contained in this publication provide a common perspective from which to plan and execute joint operations independently or in cooperation with our multinational partners, other U.S. Government departments and agencies, and intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations.

As our Nation continues into the 21st century, the guidance in this publication will enable current and future leaders of the Armed Forces of the United States to design, plan, organize, train for, and execute worldwide missions as our forces transform to meet emerging challenges. To succeed, we need adaptive and thinking professionals who understand the capabilities their Service brings to joint operations; how to integrate those capabilities with those of the other Services and interorganizational partners to optimize the strength of unified action; and how to organize, employ, and sustain joint forces to provide national leaders with multiple options for addressing various security threats. Above all, we need professionals imbued with a sense of commitment and honor who will act decisively in the absence of specific guidance.

I challenge all commanders to ensure the widest distribution of this keystone joint publication and actively promote the use of all joint publications at every opportunity. I further challenge you to study and understand the guidance contained in this publication and teach these principles to your subordinates. Only then will we be able to fully exploit the remarkable military potential inherent in our joint teams.