The Insider

By Jason Sherman
July 15, 2009 at 5:00 AM

Ashton Carter, the Pentagon's acquisition executive, met with CEOs from more than a dozen defense firms to break bread last week, the Boston Globe reports today. His message: Let's get along, OK?

I am not a believer that industry is an enemy of the government. That's how we arm ourselves in this country. We don't have a government arms industry. We buy from private industry. We can't do it without industry. I just had dinner Thursday night with the CEOs of all the top 15 defense companies and I said that to them. I want to have an open, non-antagonistic relationship where we work together. If we can align our interests so I get done what I need to do for the warfighter and the taxpayer and you get done what you need for your business. We can't always do that, but we're not always headed in opposite directions either.

By John Liang
July 15, 2009 at 5:00 AM

Every year, minority lawmakers on the House Armed Services Committee ask the Defense Department to produce a list of programs that did not get full funding in the department's annual budget request. This year, however, Defense Secretary Robert Gates sought to shake up that long-standing budget ritual by asserting his prerogative, as Pentagon chief, to review any unfunded requirements lists the services might prepare before transmitting them to Congress.

The Cooperative Threat Reduction program co-managed by the Defense and Energy departments has not been included in past unfunded priorities lists, but at least one lawmaker would like to see it on the list.

At a House Armed Services Committee hearing today on threats from weapons of mass destruction, Rep. Jim Marshall (D-GA) asked Assistant Secretary of Defense for Global Strategic Affairs Michael Nacht what the CTR program could do with additional funds above and beyond what is vetted by DOD and DOE. Here's the ensuing exchange:

NACHT: I think additional funds could help, but . . . we've been very careful not to go to the committee or the Congress for requests for funds that we know we can't use effectively. . . . So we don't have a list, really, of unfunded priorities . . . but if you're urging us to do it, we could develop it.

MARSHALL: That would be great if you would develop it; we may not fund it, but it would be nice to know what additional steps -- where would you go from where you are right now.

NACHT: Sir, we'll follow up on that with ((DOE's National Nuclear Security Administration)).

By Sebastian Sprenger
July 15, 2009 at 5:00 AM

One and a half years after the Fiscal Year 2008 National Defense Authorization Act became law, defense officials today published an interim rule to implement a provision in the legislation limiting the use of lead system integrators in major weapon programs.

The concept of lead system integrators, or LSIs, has been under fire for some years because some lawmakers believe companies in these roles unduly benefit from being both the overseers and the executors of Defense Department programs.

As mandated in the legislation, today's rule covers two phases. Beginning with the enactment date of the legislation, Jan. 28, 2008, DOD is no longer allowed to use LSIs for systems that have progressed into the low-rate initial production stage. The defense secretary also must find that the use of an LSI is in department's best interest.

Beginning on Oct. 1, 2010, DOD officials may only award LSI-type contracts to companies performing lead system integrator "functions" for major programs before Jan. 28, 2008.

The issue of LSIs is also addressed in a provision of the FY-07 defense authorization legislation. It states that "no entity performing lead system integrator functions in the acquisition of a major system by the Department of Defense may have any direct financial interest in the development or construction of any individual system or element of any system of systems."

By Marcus Weisgerber
July 14, 2009 at 5:00 AM

A vote on Sen. John McCain's (R-AZ) amendment to the fiscal year 2010 defense authorization bill that would remove funding for F-22A purchases has been delayed until tomorrow, at the earliest.

Senate Armed Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-MI) had wanted the chamber to reach a verdict on the amendment by noon today; however, all votes have been suspended to accommodate those lawmakers attending the Major League Baseball All Star Game in St. Louis this evening.

McCain, the committee's ranking member, introduced the amendment during floor debate on the authorization bill yesterday. President Obama and Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen sent letters to Levin and McCain urging them to remove the Raptor procurement money from the bill.

The House and Senate Armed Services committees have passed authorization bills including money to purchase more of the fifth-generation fighters; Obama has threatened to veto any defense spending bill that includes money for more F-22As. (And the president will be in St. Louis tonight, too, throwing out the game's first pitch.)

Levin said he is trying to schedule a vote on McCain's amendment tomorrow.

By Marjorie Censer
July 14, 2009 at 5:00 AM

Oshkosh announced today that its win in the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected All-Terrain Vehicle competition will mean a significant boost in its employee count.

“Oshkosh is hiring between 300 and 500 employees for its defense facilities in Wisconsin and recalling 550 to 650 JLG employees, primarily in Pennsylvania for JLG Industries, Inc., an Oshkosh Corporation company,” a company announcement says.

The Pentagon on June 30 awarded Oshkosh a nearly $1.1 billion contract for 2,244 of the vehicles, intended for Afghanistan. However, a senior program official has said the military intends to increase the contract by the end of July to include the 3,000 more vehicles needed to meet its total requirement of 5,244 trucks.

All of the vehicles are expected to be complete by March 2010.

In today's statement, the company said the 300 to 500 new hires “will work in Oshkosh, WI, where there are four defense production facilities. The 550 to 650 JLG employee callbacks will be at JLG facilities primarily in Pennsylvania.”

By
July 13, 2009 at 5:00 AM

Historic health care reform will have to wait at least until the fall, according to House Energy & Commerce chair Henry Waxman.

By John Liang
July 13, 2009 at 5:00 AM

Don't forget about the industrial base.

So says the Aerospace Industries Association, in a report released today as the Defense Department puts together the 2009 Quadrennial Defense Review.

The report, "The Unseen Cost: Industrial Base Consequences of Defense Strategy Choices," states that a "significant gap has developed between DOD's view of industry as an always-ready supplier of military capabilities and how industry actually makes decisions on what capabilities to offer."

Consequently, the AIA paper offers six recommendations to make sure the defense industrial base is considered in DOD's strategic planning efforts:

Institutionalize defense industrial base considerations into strategic processes, such as the National Security Strategy, the National Defense Strategy and future QDRs.

Better account for defense industrial base considerations in the acquisition and planning, programming, budgeting and execution (PPBE) processes.

Restore the Secretary of Defense/industry CEO forum.

Continually assess the industrial base from a more strategic perspective.

Reinvigorate congressional oversight/review of defense industrial base issues.

Ensure that the military services and industry focus research and development on competitive design and development and efficient production.

As AIA Assistant Vice President for Defense Policy J.J. Gertler told reporters earlier today:

The department has to understand that if you're shutting off a capability . . . that you may want down the road, a certain decision -- and it can be a high-level strategy decision -- may make that capability go away or require a very lengthy re-start. And what this paper ultimately is . . . is a plea for rationality and consciousness in making those decisions with a full set of information.

By Sebastian Sprenger
July 13, 2009 at 5:00 AM

Officials at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency want to be able to spot nuclear materials from far away -- very far away.

In a July 10 request for information, agency officials said they are looking for technologies capable of detecting "special nuclear materials" at a distance of 5 kilometers or more.

The idea is to detect and locate "containerized" special nuclear material, either stationary or on the move, in "outdoor environments," the RFI reads.

"The overall time to detect need not necessarily occur in a short time frame; however the integration time for readout should be on the order of minutes (less than or equal to 10 min)," it adds.

By Sebastian Sprenger
July 9, 2009 at 5:00 AM

Vice Adm. Ann Rondeau will take over as the 13th president of the National Defense University tomorrow, according to an NDU statement. She will replace Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Frances Wilson, who is retiring after 36 years in uniform.

Rondeau's most recent assignment was deputy commander of U.S. Transportation Command.

Adm. Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will preside over the changeover ceremony, the statement reads.

By Kate Brannen
July 9, 2009 at 5:00 AM

Military officials and blogs have not always mixed well, but lately, there have been multiple examples of officers engaging with the Army's most senior leaders through service blogs.

The topics covered range from the trivial to the profound. For example, on June 17, a commenter on the U.S. Army Combined Arms Center Blog expressed his dismay that CAC coins were being made in China instead of the United States and asked what it would take to have them made here.

None other than Lt. Gen. William Caldwell, commander of the Combined Arms Center at Ft. Leavenworth, KS, responded to the reader's question.

"We did place our order for these coins with an American supplier who was the low bid," writes Caldwell. "How that supplier then subcontracts is a decision that they make. However, absolutely understand the point you are making and appreciate the feedback."

As for more weighty matters: In a July 6 post, Vice Chief of Staff of the Army Gen. Peter Chiarelli wrote a long essay on the future of Army training and, more specifically, the importance of the Mission Essential Task List.

"Today, a precise understanding of the true nature of the Mission Essential Task -- balanced against ‘full spectrum operations’ -- is more important than ever," writes Chiarelli.

The entry is prompting comments from civilians and officers alike. In response, Chiarelli writes, "Team -- great points that merit serious consideration. . . . Keep the conversation going. I'm learning from you every day."

Finally, in a real display of open debate, the Army is utilizing wiki software, the same that Wikipedia uses, to update its doctrine, allowing anyone with an Army Knowledge Online account to edit selected manuals by submitting changes through the wiki system.

By John Liang
July 9, 2009 at 5:00 AM

Rep. Jim Langevin (D-RI) has been elected by his fellow House Armed Services Committee Democrats to chair the panel's strategic forces subcommittee, the full committee announced today.

Langevin replaces Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-CA), who resigned from the House late last month to become under secretary of state for arms control and international security.

Committee Chairman Ike Skelton said in a statement today that Langevin "has been a member of the House Armed Services Committee for many years, and also brings invaluable experience as a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. I am confident he will be an excellent chairman and make us proud as we work to protect Americans and preserve our national security."

The committee statement outlined how the vote took place:

Subcommittee chairmen were selected by the Caucus of the Committee pursuant to the Rules of the House Armed Services Committee and the Democratic Caucus. The full slate of subcommittee chairmen for the Committee will be submitted to the House Democratic Leadership for their consideration, and the new subcommittee chairman will assume his post immediately, pending no vote of disapproval by the House Democratic Caucus. The House Armed Services Committee Democratic Caucus also adopted a unanimous consent request to reaffirm the subcommittee selections of the entire Committee Democratic Caucus from earlier this year.

By Sebastian Sprenger
July 8, 2009 at 5:00 AM

Senate defense authorizers have opted to turn the Commercial and Foreign Entities (CFE) pilot program into a permanent affair. And House lawmakers, in their version of the fiscal year 2010 defense authorization legislation, have taken a similar step, which means the provision now has a very good chance of making it into the final bill.

The Senate's bill still has to pass the full chamber, where at least two big fights -- one over the F-22 production and one over the Joint Strike Fighter alternative engine -- are waiting.

The CFE program allows the defense secretary to share space object positioning information with private companies and foreign countries.

"This program, which also allows participants to supply data for their satellites to DOD, has proved to be very useful to all aspects of the space community," Senate Armed Services Committee members wrote in their report on the bill.

By Jason Sherman
July 7, 2009 at 5:00 AM

President Obama wrapped up a commencement address to the New Economic School in Moscow this morning by challenging graduates to take charge of their destinies, declaring the military industrial complex no longer has the power to unilaterally set agendas.

You get to decide what comes next. You get to choose where change will take us, because the future does not belong to those who gather armies on a field of battle or bury missiles in the ground; the future belongs to young people with an education and the imagination to create. That is the source of power in this century. And given all that has happened in your two decades on Earth, just imagine what you can create in the years to come.

The question is: Was he referring to Moscow only, or was he speaking to Washington as well?

By Jason Sherman
July 7, 2009 at 5:00 AM

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has appointed Lisa Disbrow vice director of the Joint Staff's directorate for force structure, resources and assessment (J-8), the Pentagon announced today, a post that traditionally plays a key role in a number of important Pentagon activities, including weapon system investment decisions and crafting the Quadrennial Defense Review.

Disbrow, who received a promotion to the Senior Executive Service with her new assignment, was previously director for force management, analysis and gaming in the J-8.

By Kate Brannen
July 6, 2009 at 5:00 AM

The Army is very proud of the Blue Ribbon Panel it hosted last month to solicit ideas for its new ground combat vehicle effort.

Speaking at a Pentagon briefing last week, Lt. Gen. Stephen Speakes, the Army’s deputy chief of staff for programs (G-8), said the panel "illustrates the holistic nature of this effort, and the commitment we all have to get it right, to get popular support and to seek a variety of views about how it is that we're proceeding."

In a fairly uncharacteristic move, the service has even created a Web site for the one-day event, which lists logistical information for the event itself, news coverage, supporting documents -- and now a fancy new video.

The video (with soundtrack!) is really more of a a photo slide show of the event's participants, including Speakes and other Army generals dressed down for the occasion. It's narrated by Brig. Gen. Michael Harrison, director of joint and futures in the Army's G-8.

The panel was "designed to be people, who are acting in their role as private citizens, to come together to give us their personal advice about what they think we ought to integrate into our designs for the future, with the focus on the ground combat vehicle," said Speakes.

"The view here is, this is the not the Army going off in isolation, but rather, the Army is a part of a group of interested citizens who all have their views about what the Army ought to do, and ought to have learned and ought to be integrating into its future designs," he added.

The panel's executive committee, made up of service officials, is set to meet July 16 to discuss the effort's findings.

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