Saturday, April 20, 2024
The Seattle Times is reporting Rep. Norman Dicks (D-WA), a big advocate of Boeing, is likely to succeed the late Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) as chairman of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee.
"He likely will succeed Murtha," George Behan, chief of staff for Dicks, told the newspaper.
When Murtha died this afternoon Dicks became the highest-ranking Democrat on the subcommittee.
More than one debt-ratings agency is pleasantly surprised by the effects of the Pentagon's fiscal year 2011 budget request on the defense industry's credit quality.
According to a Fitch Ratings statement released today:
The Department of Defense's (DOD) budget request for fiscal 2011 released Feb. 1, 2010, was more favorable than Fitch Ratings' expectations and contained no major surprises. The request and DOD spending levels continue to support the solid credit quality in the defense industry, which will likely remain the most stable industrial sector from a credit perspective for the next two years given the revenue visibility provided by both the fiscal 2010 budget and the fiscal 2011 request. Potential risks in fiscal 2011 from the Obama Administration's first full budget exercise and the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) did not materialize. The budget request contains modest top-line growth, but the growth rates have clearly slowed from the rates seen in the past nine years.
While the Office of Management and Budget's "forecasts for base defense spending beyond fiscal 2011 also show continued modest growth . . . Fitch believes these forecasts could be pressured by high federal budget deficits, which is the key risk for the defense sector," the statement continues.
Standard & Poor's thinks the defense industry's credit ratings should be fine, as well:
The aftermath of the global recession and the financial crisis have created a difficult operating environment for the commercial aerospace and business jet sectors, although industry conditions are beginning to stabilize with the improving economy, according to an industry economic and ratings outlook published today on RatingsDirect. The report, titled "U.S. Aerospace Continues To Feel The Pinch, But The Defense Sector Remains Steady," says Standard & Poor's Ratings Services believes the defense sector outlook appears stable, in contrast to commercial aerospace, as the former still benefits from high, fairly steady government spending.
President Obama has picked a slate of members of the Council of Governors, which was created Jan. 11 by executive order. The council will work with the defense secretary, the secretary of homeland security and other national security advisers on issues related to the National Guard, homeland defense, synchronization and integration of state and federal military activities in the United States, and civil support activities.
Government officials on the council include the defense secretary, the homeland security chief, the Coast Guard commandant, the chief of the National Guard Bureau and the head of U.S. Northern Command, among others.
Here's the list of governors released yesterday by the White House:
The Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity wants to push the envelope of biometrics technologies. In short, the intelligence community's counterpart to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is looking for technologies capable of identifying people from afar, and without them noticing.
"The IARPA Smart Collection Office is seeking innovative ideas and concepts for the advancement of standoff biometrics technologies," reads a Feb. 2 notice posted on the Federal Business Opportunities Web site. "IARPA's objective is to maintain a high degree of recognition accuracy (i.e. level of confidence associated with the match/non-match of biometric signatures derived from two distinct observations), while pushing the range of acquisition as far as possible and requiring minimal cooperation from the subject," it adds.
IARPA officials want to capture and recognize people's "unique human phenomenology," including anatomical, physiological, and behavioral characteristics, the notice reads.
Rep. Gene Taylor (D-MS), the chairman of the House Armed Services seapower and expeditionary forces subcommittee, fired a warning shot across the Pentagon’s bow today during a hearing on the Quadrennial Defense Review. After complaining about the dwindling size of the Navy’s fleet and the service’s plans to retire vessels that could stay in service longer, Taylor threatened to block those retirements.
According to the Navy’s new 30-year shipbuilding plan, the service intends to decommission 10 ships in fiscal year 2011 -- including three frigates that would be sold to foreign forces -- while building nine new ships.
Taylor warned the witnesses -- Vice Adm. Stephen Stanley, the Joint Staff’s director for force structure, resources, and assessment; Pentagon policy chief Michèle Flournoy; and Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation chief Christine Fox -- that the committee would write legislation barring the retirement of surface combatants unless each ship going out is matched by two new ships being built. Taylor noted he had already consulted with full committee Chairman Rep. Ike Skelton (D-MO) on the matter.
Almost one year ago, the fate of Manas Air Base -- a key air traffic hub for U.S. military flights into Afghanistan -- became uncertain after the Kyrgyz government threatened to cancel the agreement allowing the Pentagon access to the installation. But officials in Washington and Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan's capital, resolved their issues over the summer, and Manas Transit Center, as it is now called, is still humming.
So much so, in fact, that the base needs an upgrade.
Tucked away in the fiscal year 2011 defense budget request are $6 million to build a "hot cargo pad" at the installation. In military lingo, hot cargo is code for ammunition, explosives and other hazardous material. Because the loading and unloading is so dangerous, hot cargo pads must be built at a safe distance away from flight operations, according to the Army Corps of Engineers.
Cyber attacks against critical infrastructure now constitute the No. 1 threat to the nation, the top U.S. intelligence official said yesterday, in an annual assessment that bumped last year's most serious challenge -- the global economic crisis -- to the No. 2 slot.
Director of Central Intelligence Dennis Blair, in testimony to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence yesterday, said that while last year's fears of a global depress have been tempered by “unprecedented policy" responses by government and central banks -- which pumped cash into their economies -- risks of new economic challenges lurk as governments now decide how and when to withdraw stimulus measures.
“Exit strategy missteps could set back the recovery, particularly if inflation or political pressures to consolidate budgets emerge before household consumption and private investment have begun to play a larger role in the recovery,” Blair said in his testimony.
The implications for defense budgets around the world?
The financial crisis has increased industrial country budget deficits and efforts to reduce those deficits are likely to constrain European and Japanese spending on foreign priorities -- such as supporting efforts to stabilize Afghanistan, assisting poorer countries in coping with climate change and reducing C02 emissions, and addressing humanitarian disasters -- and spending on their own military modernization and preparedness for much of this decade.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates today cautioned lawmakers against thinking the military's aircraft recapitalization plans should be based on the simple equation of replacing one plane with another. With the advent of unmanned aerial vehicles as a major form or air power, the one-to-one formula no longer applies, Gates told members of the House Armed Services Committee.
As a notional -- and arguably simplistic -- example, he said it takes eight Reaper drones to perform missions that once required 16 F-16s, while carrying the same amount of weaponry as the manned planes.
The Senate Armed Services Committee this morning interrupted a hearing with Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Michael Mullen because it had some pressing business -- a host of Defense Department nominations -- and a quorum.
According to the panel, the members approved the nomination of retired Lt. Gen. Malcolm O'Neill as assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology, as well as:
Douglas B. Wilson to be Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs;
Mary Sally Matiella to be Assistant Secretary of the Army for Financial Management and Comptroller;
Paul Luis Oostburg Sanz to be General Counsel of the Department of the Navy; and
Jackalyne Pfannenstiel to be Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Installations and Environment
The committee also approved 1,802 "pending military nominations in the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps. All nominations were immediately reported to the floor following the Committee’s action."
After the vote was held, Gates responded to committee Chairman Sen. Carl Levin's (D-MI) apology for the pause in his testimony by calling it a "most welcome" interruption.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates said this morning that the Air Force might not field its Next-Generation Bomber until the 2020s.
Gates made the comment in response to a question about the program posed by Sen. John Thune (R-SD) today during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the Pentagon’s fiscal year 2011 budget request.
The Air Force's budget proposal includes $200 million to “invest in critical technologies for a long-range strike platform or a family of systems,” Air Force Budget Director Maj. Gen. Alfred Flowers said during a briefing with reporters last week.
The 2005 Quadrennial Defense Review called for a new Air Force bomber by 2018. However, the 2010 QDR has prompted a new long-range strike study. The study will detail the bomber's requirements, such as manned or unmanned, Gates said.
Gates touted the existing bomber fleet as sufficient until a new aircraft enters service.
Maj. Gen. Kurt Stein late last week took over as commander of TACOM Life Cycle Management Command, succeeding Maj. Gen. Scott West.
According to a statement issued by the service, the ceremony was conducted by Army Materiel Command chief Gen. Ann Dunwoody and held at Selfridge Air National Guard Base.
Stein, the release adds, previously served in Iraq as a deputy chief of staff for the Combined Joint 1/4/8 directorate of Multi-National Force-Iraq.
West had served as TACOM's commander since April 2008 and retired after 33 years of service.
Though the White House's spending cap aimed at reducing the deficit does not apply to the Defense Department, President Obama noted this morning the Pentagon is not exempt from budget common sense or the need to look for savings. As an example, he cited the Air Force's C-17 program.
The Quadrennial Defense Review and DOD's fiscal year 2011 budget request call for terminating production of the Boeing planes. The cut will save $2.5 billion, Obama said. Congress has previously provided unrequested money for unnecessary C-17s, he lamented in a speech, adding, "It's waste, pure and simple."
Defense Secretary Robert Gates has previously argued the department needs no more C-17s. At a hearing last April, he told the Senate Appropriations Committee that the Air Force and U.S. Transportation Command believe the military has more than enough capacity for airlift over the next decade or so. He also cited a legislative prohibition on decommissioning C-5A cargo planes. “As we look at the capacity that we have with those 59 C-5As and we get more and more C-17s we just are continuing to build excess capacity,” Gates said.
Inside the Air Force recently reported the Air Force will ask Congress for permission to retire a number of its oldest C-5A aircraft when the service sends its FY-11 budget proposal to Capitol Hill.
Defense Secretary Gates, outlining the fiscal year 2011 defense budget request for reporters at the Pentagon, just served notice that he will "strongly" recommend the president veto any defense bill that includes funding for more C-17s or the Joint Strike Fighter alternate engine.
Pentagon officials plan to finish work on the congressionally mandated space posture review by June, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Michele Flournoy said today. The review is delayed because the Defense Department drill is wrapped up in work on a White House-level review of the national space policy, she said. Flournoy made her comments during a briefing on the Quadrennial Defense Review, released today. She said work was under way to "sequence" the two reviews, ensuring the Pentagon's review would build on the president's.
Defense officials need the $33 billion included 2010 supplemental request by Memorial Day, May 31, to keep operations on track, according to Defense Department Comptroller Robert Hale. The money is subject to congressional approval.
Depending on the rate of spending at the time, the military may be able to hold out only "a little bit longer" beyond the holiday, he told reporters at the Pentagon today.