The Insider

Tom Arseneault, chief operating officer of BAE Systems' U.S. subsidiary, will become president of the company's electronic systems sector at the start of next year, the contractor said Monday.

Arseneault, who will retain his COO role, will take over for Dan Gobel, who is set to retire Dec. 31.

Arseneault was named chief operating officer earlier this year; he previously led the company's product sectors, which include both the electronics systems as well as the land and armaments businesses.

Following the Thanksgiving holiday break, the Senate Armed Services Committee will quickly get back into the swing of things with a hearing on Tuesday, Dec. 2.

Lawmakers will consider the nominations of Robert Scher to be assistant secretary of defense for strategy, plans and capabilities; Elissa Slotkin to be assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs; David Berteau to be assistant secretary of defense for logistics and materiel readiness; Alissa Starzak to be Army general counsel; and Navy Adm. Harry Harris to be the head of U.S. Pacific Command.

Retiring House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon (R-CA) today congratulated Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-TX) on receiving a recommendation from the House Republican Steering Committee that he take over as chairman of the panel.

Thornberry is vice chairman of the committee. Rep. Randy Forbes (R-VA) also sought the post.

“The Armed Services Committee will be in the most capable of hands with Chairman-select Thornberry, and so will our armed forces,” McKeon said in a statement. “My heartfelt congratulations to him as he moves into this rewarding -- and challenging -- job."

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has singled out autonomous systems as a key investment area in the Pentagon's new innovation initiative amid the Army's ongoing efforts to plumb industry for potential unmanned ground vehicle technologies.

Hagel's new Defense Innovation Initiative will include a Long-Range Research and Development Planning program that will help identify "breakthroughs" in the fields of robotics, autonomous systems, miniaturization, big data and advanced manufacturing like 3-D printing.

"We all know that DOD no longer has exclusive access to the most cutting-edge technology, or the ability to spur -- or control -- the development of new technologies the way we once did," Hagel said Saturday at the Reagan Defense Forum in Simi, Valley, CA.

"So we will actively seek proposals from the private sector, including from firms and academic institutions outside DOD's traditional orbit," he continued.

Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work will chair a new Advanced Capability and Deterrence Panel aimed at executing the initiative.

"The Defense Innovation Initiative will shape our programs, plans, and budgets," Hagel said. "As the initiative matures over time, I expect its impact on DOD's budget to scale up in tandem," he continued. "It will put new resources behind innovation but also account for today's fiscal realities by focusing on investments that will sharpen our military edge even as we contend with fewer resources."

Meanwhile, the Army is looking for technologies to create small, lightweight autonomous ground vehicles that can detect and defeat improvised explosive devices, explore and map underground tunnels, and detect and clear mines, according to a recent Federal Business Opportunities website announcement (Inside the Army, Nov. 17).

Maj. Gen. Robert Dyess, the Army's director of force development (G-8), said last month that the service is committed to getting autonomous vehicle technology off the ground.

"Once we have these requirements, they're still going to compete for funding within the realities of a shrinking defense budget, and we'll rely even more on our industry partners to leverage commercial technology development, and gradually introduce autonomy into units to gain soldier trust and confidence," Dyess said Nov. 4 at an Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International conference in Arlington,VA (ITA, Nov. 10).

The Army's newest operating concept -- "Win In A Complex World" -- also highlights the importance of autonomous ground vehicles.

"The Army clearly recognizes the enormous potential for increased autonomous behaviors in unmanned ground systems to become true team members augmenting our soldiers in the manned-unmanned team,” according to the new concept.

Inside the Navy recently reported on the Navy's acquisition chief describing steps the service is taking to minimize costs on the Virginia Payload Module as directed by the most recent appropriations act:

Sean Stackley, assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition, sent a report to the four defense committees on Sept. 14 outlining a cost containment strategy for the Block V VPM design. Inside the Navy reviewed the report.

"The act directs the Navy secretary to create a separate budget line item to enable additional congressional oversight and increase transparency into the costs of the VPM," the report reads.

The 2014 Appropriations Act provided $59.1 million for VPM development. If the Navy fails to submit a bi-annual report to Congress the agreement fences $20 million of that money.

Cost projections for non-recurring engineering are about $744 million in calendar year 2010 dollars, which is below the service's objective cost of $750 million. The current estimate for the VPM for the lead ship is about $423 million in CY-10 dollars, a figure that is below the $425 million objective cost. The $318 million cost of the VPM for follow-on ships is below the objective cost estimate of $325 million in CY-10 dollars.

We now have that report.

The Senate Appropriations Committee earlier today held a hearing on the U.S. government's efforts to fight the Ebola epidemic in West Africa.

Among the witnesses was Assistant Defense Secretary for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict Michael Lumpkin, who in his prepared testimony thanked lawmakers for approving the obligation of up to $750 million of the $1 billion reprogrammed from overseas contingency operations funding to the Pentagon's Overseas Humanitarian, Disaster, and Civic Aid Program, and outlined additional money he said the Defense Department needs to continue the fight:

This obligation authority has provided DoD the ability to deploy a joint task force to the region and rapidly undertake logistical, engineering, training, laboratory testing, and other support missions that are helping to turn the tide of this terrible epidemic.

I would also like to highlight the necessity and urgency of the resources sought by the President in his Emergency Appropriations Request for Ebola of last week. Of the $4.64 billion for immediate needs to combat this epidemic, the Department seeks $112 million that will provide immediate funding for Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) initiatives to develop technologies aimed at providing immediate, temporary immunity against Ebola while vaccines are developed. Additional initiatives are working to foster technologies to curtail the development timelines of these same vaccines.

DynCorp International's parent company on Monday reported that the contractor's sales in its most recent quarter plummeted nearly 30 percent to hit $540 million, a decline the company said was driven by the "continued drawdown of U.S. forces in Afghanistan and delays in new business awards."

The company reported a quarterly loss of $71.5 million, steeper than the $33.1 million it lost in the same three-month period a year earlier. DynCorp attributed the loss to revenue declines, impairment charges and a charge related to a contract dispute.

The greatest decline in revenue was in the company's DynLogistics segment, which the company said was a result of lower sales on a logistics program because of troops departing Afghanistan.