The Insider

Looks like the Airborne Laser isn't the only diminished program House authorizers want the Missile Defense Agency to revive.

In their mark of the fiscal year 2013 defense authorization bill approved this afternoon, House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee members are striving to upgrade the Sea-based X-band radar's deployment capability. The subcommittee's portion of the bill includes the following brief language:

This section would require the Director, Missile Defense Agency to ensure that the sea-based X-band radar is maintained in a status such that the radar may be deployed in less than 14 days and for at least 60 days each year.

In February, Inside Missile Defense reported that the Pentagon had announced plans to downgrade SBX's operational status beginning in the third quarter of fiscal year 2013.  Further:

According to the Missile Defense Agency's FY-13 research, development, test and evaluation budget justification document, SBX "will be placed in a limited test support status, recallable to active operational status when indications and warnings indicate [a] need for enhanced discrimination."

Acting Pentagon acquisition chief Frank Kendall called SBX "a large X-band research development radar, primarily." He told reporters during a Feb. 13 press briefing that the radar system is "very expensive to keep and operate," and officials thought other systems could get similar results for less money. "It's largely an affordability issue where we have other sensors that can fill in the gap," he added.

Accordingly, MDA has recommended subtracting nearly $163 million from the program for FY-13, budgeting instead $9.7 million, according to the agency's justification document. That reduction "reflects a realignment of Department of Defense priorities," the document reads. Additionally, the agency has renamed the SBX project number from "MD46" to "MX46."

According to the White House Office of Management and Budget, "by maintaining the SBX radar as a test asset rather than terminating it, the administration saves at least $500 million over five years while also retaining the ability to recall it to an active, operational status if and when it is needed."

When the Obama administration sent its fiscal year 2010 defense budget request to Congress three years ago, it did not include money to continue development of the Airborne Laser program, citing costs, technological problems and a concern for the system's long-term operational role.

The Defense Department shipped the ABL -- a Boeing 747-400 cargo aircraft that carried a chemical laser and a production price tag of $1 billion to $1.5 billion per copy -- from the Missile Defense Agency to the office of the director of defense research and engineering.

Now the House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee, led by Chairman Rep. Michael Turner (R-OH), wants DOD to take another look at ABL and its possible use in a real-world event. In the subcommittee's mark of the FY-13 defense authorization bill, released today, the panel states:

The committee directs the Director, Missile Defense Agency to provide a report to the congressional defense committee by July 31, 2012, on the costs involved with returning the Airborne Laser aircraft to an operational readiness status to continue technology development and testing, and to be ready to deploy in an operational contingency, if needed, to respond to rapidly developing threats from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

When he went to Capitol Hill to defend the president's budget, then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates explained why he didn't think the ABL would work. In testimony before the strategic forces subcommittee -- chaired at the time by then-Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-CA) -- on May 13, 2009, Gates said:

For example, the operational concept of the Airborne Laser would have required that the aircraft orbit, let's say the target was Iran, would have required an orbit almost entirely within the borders of Iran. This is probably a little problematic.

At the same hearing, then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen said he felt the ABL "has been a flawed concept for years."

As for a possible North Korean scenario involving the ABL, the intelligence community told Congress earlier this year that's not very likely. Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Feb. 16, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said:

The Intelligence Community assesses Pyongyang views its nuclear capabilities as intended for deterrence, international prestige, and coercive diplomacy. We judge that North Korea would consider using nuclear weapons only under narrow circumstances. We also assess, albeit with low confidence, Pyongyang probably would not attempt to use nuclear weapons against U.S. forces or territory, unless it perceived its regime to be on the verge of military defeat and risked an irretrievable loss of control.

In the House Armed Services seapower and projection forces subcommittee's mark of the FY-13 defense budget, released today, panel members raise the issue of cracks in Navy ships -- and cite our own Inside the Navy for its reporting on the issue:

Items of Special Interest

Shipbuilding material comparison

In a recent article published in "Inside the Navy", it was reported that, “superstructure cracking in several classes of surface combatants is being addressed, but in some cases is proving costly”. The committee is aware that three materials have been used in the deckhouses of surface combatants: steel, aluminum, and most recently for the deckhouse of the DDG-1000 Zumwalt class, composite material.

The committee is also aware that there is a cost differential in both up-front procurement and production and in lifecycle maintenance cost for these materials.

The next opportunity that the Navy will have to influence a design will be with Flight III of the DDG-51 Arleigh Burke destroyers. The committee directs the Secretary of the Navy to provide a report to the congressional defense committees with delivery of the fiscal year 2014 budget request, comparing the estimated construction costs for a deckhouse made of each of the three materials, or even a possible hybrid of two or all three, and then compares the estimated lifecycle costs for the designed life of the ship.

Here's the top of the story the subcommittee is citing, published in the April 16 issue:

Naval Sea Systems Command is telling Congress that superstructure cracking in several classes of surface combatants is being addressed, but is in some cases proving costly.

Cracking problems on the CG-47 Ticonderoga-class cruisers "appears to be the most pervasive as it extends to all ships of the class," according to the March 5 document, "Report to Congress: Surface Combatant Topside Superstructure Cracking," which was recently reviewed by Inside the Navy.

In addition to facing fatigue cracks, "stress corrosion cracking is also pervasive and affects widespread areas of the superstructure." Four of the last five ships in the class also saw higher sensitization -- a process that changes the aluminum and makes it more susceptible to corrosion -- in a shorter period of time.

"Costly repairs resulting in extended maintenance availabilities have been executed or are planned, subject to availability of funding," the report continues, noting that a CG-47 Superstructure Cracking Task Force has developed a repair plan that requires $4 million in spending from the Navy's research and development budget and another $270 million from the operations and maintenance budget to fix cracks and develop mitigation techniques and tools. Of that amount, $152 million would be spent between fiscal years 2013 and 2017.

This week marks the beginning of the quarterly earnings season for defense contractors.

United Technologies Corp.'s earnings per share during the first quarter of 2012 were up 24 percent from the same quarter last year, according to a company statement released yesterday.

Quarterly net sales for its Sikorsky helicopter segment were $1.3 billion, compared to nearly $1.6 billion the previous year, however. And UTC's Pratt & Whitney engine segment reported $3 billion in sales compared to nearly $2.9 billion the same quarter the year before, according to the company.

As for the top five U.S. defense contractors, Boeing, Northrop Grumman and General Dynamics are scheduled to release their earnings statements today; and Lockheed Martin and Raytheon on Thursday.

The House Appropriations Committee has determined the topline funding allocation for the fiscal year 2013 defense-spending bill, according to a just-released panel statement.

The defense subcommittee has been allocated $519.22 billion in "302(b)" spending for FY-13, out of a total $1.03 trillion budget allocation, the statement reads.

"The levels provided for each of the 12 Appropriations bills will continue to demonstrate how seriously this House takes its charge to rein in extraneous and unnecessary spending, encourage economic competitiveness and job growth, help strengthen the nation's infrastructure, and ensure a strong national security for the protection of all Americans," committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-KY) said in the statement.

"These allocations will allow us to move forward with the Appropriations process. We are committed to working together across the aisle and across both chambers to ensure continued funding for important government programs, projects, and services that the American people expect and deserve. Fulfilling this basic duty of Congress is our highest priority," Rogers added.

The Senate Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee today marked up its portion of the fiscal year 2013 spending bill, including $11.5 billion for the National Nuclear Security Administration.

That figure "is $511 million above fiscal year 2012, for national security activities," according to a just-released subcommittee statement, which adds: "The bill provides funding to accelerate efforts to secure all vulnerable nuclear materials by December 2013 and to modernize the nuclear weapons stockpile." This funding includes:

* $7.577 billion, which is $363 million above fiscal year 2012, for Weapons Activities to extend the life of three nuclear weapons systems, upgrade aging infrastructure, and invest in science, technology, and engineering activities,

* $2.459 billion, which is $163 million above fiscal year 2012, for Nuclear Nonproliferation to meet the four year goal to secure vulnerable nuclear materials and accelerate the conversion of reactors that still use weapons-grade uranium,

* $1.089 billion, which is $9 million above fiscal year 2012, for Naval Reactors to continue research and development of a new reactor for the Ohio-class submarine, and

* up to $150 million across the agency's accounts to fund a research, development, and demonstration project for domestic enrichment technologies.

The Senate Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee hearing scheduled for Wednesday on the Missile Defense Agency's fiscal year 2013 budget request will likely feature questions from subpanel members related to a Government Accountability Office report that came out last Friday. As the report's executive summary states:

In fiscal year 2011, the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) experienced mixed results in executing its development goals and Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS) tests. For the first time in 5 years, GAO found that all of the targets used in this year's tests were delivered and performed as expected. None of the programs GAO assessed were able to fully accomplish their asset delivery and capability goals for the year. Flight test failures, an anomaly, and delays disrupted the development of several components and models and simulations challenges remain. Flight test failures forced MDA to suspend or slow production of three out of four interceptors currently being manufactured while failure review boards investigated their test problems.

To meet the presidential 2002 direction to initially rapidly field and update missile defense capabilities as well as the 2009 announcement to deploy missile defenses in Europe, MDA has undertaken and continues to undertake highly concurrent acquisitions. Concurrency is broadly defined as the overlap between technology development and product development or between product development and production. While some concurrency is understandable, committing to product development before requirements are understood and technologies mature or committing to production and fielding before development is complete is a high-risk strategy that often results in performance shortfalls, unexpected cost increases, schedule delays, and test problems. It can also create pressure to keep producing to avoid work stoppages. In contrast, as shown in the notional graphic below, successful programs that deliver promised capabilities for the estimated cost and schedule use a disciplined knowledge-based approach.

High levels of concurrency were present in MDA's initial efforts and are present in current efforts, though the agency has begun emphasizing the need to follow knowledge-based development practices. During 2011, the Ground-based Midcourse Defense, the Aegis Standard Missile 3 Block IB, and the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense experienced significant ill effects from concurrency. For example, MDA's discovery of a design problem in a new variant of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense program's interceptors while production was underway increased costs, may require retrofit of fielded equipment, and delayed delivery. Flight test cost to confirm its capability has increased from $236 million to about $1 billion. Because MDA continues to employ concurrent strategies, it is likely that it will continue to experience these kinds of acquisition problems.

In addition to GAO Director of Acquisition and Sourcing Management Cristina Chaplain and MDA Director Lt. Gen. Patrick O'Reilly, additional witnesses scheduled for the hearing include Operational Test and Evaluation Director Michael Gilmore and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear and Missile Defense Policy Bradley Roberts.