The Insider

By John Liang
February 25, 2014 at 9:53 PM

Continuing to reduce Syria's chemical weapons stockpile, concentrating on the Defense Department's planning for major weather events like Super Storm Sandy and building up the Pentagon's cyberspace workforce are among the major challenges Eric Rosenbach expects to confront if the Senate confirms his nomination to become assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense.

According to Rosenbach's prepared remarks submitted before today's hearing:

If confirmed, my primary challenge and top priority would be to continue and improve the outstanding efforts the Department of Defense has devoted to protecting the homeland from a major terrorist attack. I would be particularly focused on preventing an attack using a weapon of mass destruction and on planning and preparing for the response to catastrophic incidents in the United States, including weapons of mass destruction (WMD).

One of the most pressing challenges that I would immediately face, if confirmed, once duties of OASD (GSA) are transferred to the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense, would be managing the Department's efforts to help eliminate Syria's chemical weapons.

I believe that DOD has a crucial role in planning for complex catastrophic incidents; thus, I would devote extensive attention to the Department’s preparations for catastrophes like Super Storm Sandy.

If confirmed, I would also devote special attention to the challenge of building the cyberspace workforce, growing DOD's operational capabilities, and continuing to rationalize the complex funding streams that support cyberspace initiatives.

By Jen Judson
February 21, 2014 at 8:14 PM

Brig. Gen. Michael Lundy will take over command of the Army Aviation Center of Excellence at Ft. Rucker, AL, next month as Maj. Gen. Kevin Mangum is slated to become the next Army Training and Doctrine Command deputy commander, according to a Feb. 20 service statement.

Lundy is the deputy commanding general at the Army Combined Arms Center at Ft. Leavenworth, KS.

Mangum is due for a third star with his promotion to TRADOC at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, VA. The change of command at Ft. Rucker is scheduled for March 20, according to the statement.

Mangum replaced Maj. Gen. Anthony Crutchfield, who left his post at Ft. Rucker to become chief of staff of U.S. Pacific Command at Camp H.M. Smith, HI, in the summer of 2012. Mangum previously served as the commanding general of the Army's Special Operations Aviation Command.

According to a Feb. 12 Defense Department announcement, Crutchfield will become the U.S. Pacific Command deputy commander and will be promoted to the rank of lieutenant general.

By John Liang
February 20, 2014 at 6:23 PM

The Marine Corps next month will participate in an international exercise in Norway to practice amphibious skills in the Arctic, according to a service statement:

Exercise Cold Response is a multilateral (16 Nations) invitational exercise focused on amphibious operations and cold weather training in support of the reinforcement of Norway, utilizing Marine Corps Prepositioning Program-Norway (MCPP-N) equipment. It will be held 10-21 March 2014.

Approximately 15,000 military personnel from the United States, Norway, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, The Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom and Northern Ireland are scheduled to participate, according to the statement:

US Marine Corps participation will be roughly 440 Marines including a Ground Combat Element exercising Marine Corps capabilities (amphibious planning and execution, cold weather operations, expeditionary operations and logistics), and a Logistics Combat Element exercising Reception, Staging, Onward movement and Integration Operations utilizing Marine Corps Prepositioning Program-Norway (MCPP-N) equipment.

Marine Corps equipment (vehicles, ammunition, generators, engineering, and sustainment) is prepositioned in six caves located in central Norway. Over 3,000 pieces of equipment will be withdrawn, exercised and returned to MCPP-N during the Exercise Cold Response.

By John Liang
February 19, 2014 at 9:51 PM

The Senate Armed Services readiness and management support subcommittee will hold a hearing next week on Pentagon information technology acquisition processes, according to a panel announcement released this afternoon.

On Feb. 26, the subcommittee will "receive testimony on Department of Defense information technology acquisition processes, business transformation, and management practices in review of the Defense Authorization Request for Fiscal Year 2015 and the Future Years Defense Program," the panel statement reads.

Witnesses include:

* Assistant Secretary of Defense for Acquisition Katrina McFarland;

* Pentagon acting Deputy Chief Management Officer Kevin Scheid;

* Pentagon Chief Information Officer Teresa Takai; and

* David Powner from the Government Accountability Office.

By John Liang
February 18, 2014 at 8:54 PM

Orbital Sciences Corp.'s missile defense interceptor revenues increased $25 million during the fourth quarter of calendar year 2013, according to Garrett Pierce, the company's chief financial officer.

"We also completed two successful missile defense target launches in the month of December" 2013, he told Wall Street analysts during an earnings conference call last week, adding that Orbital delivered three missile defense interceptors and target vehicles during the fourth quarter of 2013.

Pierce said the company plans to deliver "three or four missile defense interceptor and target vehicle[s]" during the first quarter of 2014.

Overall, Orbital reported fourth-quarter 2013 revenues of $375.4 million, compared to $354.6 million in the same quarter of 2012. Fourth-quarter 2013 operating income was $30.5 million, compared to $31.3 million, in the fourth quarter of 2012, according to the company's earnings statement.

By John Liang
February 14, 2014 at 10:23 PM

Inside the Pentagon reported this week that defense officials had marginally improved their reporting on the past performance of contractors, calling into question whether the Pentagon will be able to reach a target set by the White House for fiscal year 2014, according to a Defense Department memo:

As of Jan. 3, the DOD as a whole had achieved a compliance rate of 82 percent, an increase of 2 percent compared with the third quarter of FY-13, Richard Ginman, the Pentagon's director of defense procurement and acquisition policy, wrote in the Jan. 9 document. The data reflects the number of contracts for which officials have entered companies' performance information into the Past Performance Information Retrieval System. The data is supposed to influence subsequent DOD source-selection decisions.

The White House Office of Federal Procurement Policy's compliance goal for DOD is 95 percent in FY-14, according to Ginman's memo. "I commend those agencies that are making great efforts to improve their compliance," he wrote.

Among the services, the Navy made the greatest strides in improving contractor-performance reporting, achieving an increase of 4 percent compared with the last quarter of FY-13. The service's latest compliance rate was 85 percent. The Army and the Air Force inched up their numbers by 1 percent, arriving at rates of 78 percent and 87 percent, respectively.

We now have that memo. Click here to view it.

By John Liang
February 13, 2014 at 8:51 PM

Senate lawmakers today released a Government Accountability Office report citing problems with how the intelligence community uses its civilian contractors.

The Jan. 29 report, an unclassified version of one completed last September, states:

Limitations in the intelligence community's (IC) inventory of contract personnel hinder the ability to determine the extent to which the eight civilian IC elements -- the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), and six components within the Departments of Energy, Homeland Security, Justice, State, and the Treasury -- use these personnel.

Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Tom Carper (D-DE) and Ranking Member Tom Coburn (R-OK), financial contracting and oversight subcommittee Chairwoman Claire McCaskill (D-MO) and Ranking Member Ron Johnson (R-WI), as well as Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), released the report.

In a statement, the senators said:

"The men and women who work at our nation's intelligence agencies, whether federal employee or contractor, are entrusted with analyzing and protecting our most sensitive information," said Chairman Carper. "Given the nature of their work and all that’s at stake, it's critical that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) is able to account for core intelligence contractors and provide that information to Congress so we know exactly who is managing our nation's secrets and why. I am troubled that today's Government Accountability Office (GAO) report suggests that the reporting standards set by ODNI are not consistent across the intelligence community and are not effective at providing accurate information on the civilian intelligence community contractors. ODNI needs to review its policies and make the necessary changes to ensure that it can account for its use of all contractors. I will work closely with my colleagues here in Congress and members of the intelligence community to ensure that these important reforms are made in a thoughtful and timely manner."

"In the wake Edward Snowden's damaging leaks of classified information, the intelligence community must demonstrate that it can rigorously vet, hire, manage, and oversee the contractor workforce it relies upon to help perform its mission," Senator Collins said. "Without reliable data on the number and type of contractors or the expenses associated with them, we cannot effectively determine the appropriate mix of government employees and contractors in the intelligence community, which is essential not only to protecting our national security, but also in ensuring the efficient use of taxpayers' dollars."

"The lack of reliable data and long-term planning for core support contractors among our intelligence agencies has led to critical gaps in our capabilities and an overreliance on these contractors," said Sen. McCaskill, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Financial & Contracting Oversight. "This is a likely waste of taxpayer dollars and may be detrimental to our national security."

By Sebastian Sprenger
February 11, 2014 at 5:13 PM

Government and industry officials seeking to push a new technology through the military's rapid-acquisition bureaucracy might appreciate a new cheat sheet, issued by the Joint Rapid Acquisition Cell, outlining key milestones of the process.

The four-page information paper, issued on Jan. 31, summarizes new guidance stemming from the November 2013 update of the defense acquisition system, promulgated in the interim DOD instruction 5000.02. One of the goals is simplifying the approval process for valid rapid-fielding requirements. For example, the creation of milestone decision memoranda -- a ubiquitous action in military procurement -- should be streamlined in line with the urgent need in question, it states.

"An acceptable approved ADM may, again, as appropriate to the urgency of the need and the product being acquired, may simply be the approval signature of the [milestone decision authority] on a briefing slide/document," according to the information paper.

The document also notes that acquisition officials should use parallel, rather than sequential, processes for moving projects forward.

By John Liang
February 10, 2014 at 9:30 PM

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper is scheduled to testify Tuesday morning before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Clapper appeared before the Senate Select Intelligence Committee on Jan. 29. In his prepared testimony for that hearing, he said threats to U.S. space capabilities "will increase during 2014 and beyond as potential adversaries pursue disruptive and destructive counterspace capabilities."

By Olga Belogolova
February 7, 2014 at 5:48 PM

The White House is set to announce the nomination of Robert Work to be deputy defense secretary later today, according to Senate Armed Services Committee spokeswoman Tara Andringa.

The committee today sent out an announcement of a nomination hearing for next week, including Pentagon comptroller nominee Michael McCord as well as Robert Work as the nominee for the deputy defense secretary position, ahead of a White House nomination.

Work served as Navy under secretary from 2009 to 2013 and is a known advocate of the service's embattled Littoral Combat Ship program, which most recently faced the Pentagon axe under acting Deputy Defense Secretary Christine Fox.

Fox, following budget guidance from the Office of Management and Budget, issued a memo in early January proposing cutting the LCS fleet down to 32 ships, instead of the planned 52 ships.

UPDATE, 2:45 p.m.: Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel just made the nominations announcement during a Pentagon press briefing. Hagel also announced during the briefing that Air Force Gen. Paul Selva, the head of Air Mobility Command, has been nominated to take over as the chief of U.S. Transportation Command. If confirmed, he would replace retiring Air Force Gen. William Fraser.

By Lee Hudson
February 7, 2014 at 4:03 PM

In response to a January news report that the Obama administration was looking to cut 20 ships from the planned 52-ship Littoral Combat Ship fleet, two congressional supporters of LCS sent a letter to the president yesterday stating their concern.

Lawmakers called the reduced buy a "direct contradiction" to what Navy leaders have advocated for during visits to Capitol Hill. The letter was signed by Reps. Bradley Byrne (R-AL) and Reid Ribble (R-WI) who both have LCS-related work in their districts.

"We worry that the recommendation from the Acting Deputy Secretary of Defense to reduce the program by 20 ships is arbitrary in nature," the letter reads.

Cutting the ship buy without performing a thorough analysis of the service's strategic requirements is "akin to steering a rudderless ship," Byrne and Ribble said.

"If we slow or cut our production now, we will only increase costs to the program while doing nothing to fill the Navy's requirement for the vessels the LCS is set to replace," lawmakers wrote.

The plan to slash part of the Navy's LCS program was revealed in a Defense News report in January, which cited a Jan. 6 Pentagon memo calling for the fleet to be cut down to 32. The directive stemmed from budget guidance sent to the Pentagon from the Office of Management and Budget, which led to a memo from acting Deputy Defense Secretary Christine Fox that included the proposed LCS cut.

By Sebastian Sprenger
February 5, 2014 at 11:52 PM

Key Pentagon policy officials are slated to have their nomination hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Feb. 25, the panel announced today.

Senators will hear from Christine Wormuth, nominated to be under secretary of defense for policy; Brian McKeon, nominated to become Wormuth's principal deputy; David Shear, the prospective assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific security affairs; and Eric Rosenbach, nominated to be the assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense.

By Olga Belogolova
February 5, 2014 at 9:41 PM

Spurred by a number of recent revelations of misconduct in the Navy and Air Force nuclear force, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is directing two broad moral and ethical personnel reviews of the military, one co-chaired by the Joint Staff, to get to the root of the problem.

Defense Department Press Secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby told reporters at the Pentagon today that Hagel is "deeply troubled" by all of the allegations of cheating and misconduct as a potential symptom of a systemic problem. Kirby noted that Hagel sees this as a "growing problem" and broader than just the nuclear force.

"We don't fully know what we're grappling with here and how deep and serious it is," Kirby told reporters.

Hagel has asked that the work of one of the reviews be completed and recommendations be presented to him "within 60 days," Kirby said, noting that "he would certainly welcome the work sooner than that."

Retired Air Force Gen. Larry Welch, former Air Force chief of staff, and retired Adm. John Harvey, former U.S. Fleet Forces commander, will also be leading an independent review of the nuclear enterprise, Kirby added.

"They will offer their views on the quality and effectiveness of the action plan and will also provide their insights and recommendations on addressing any systemic problems in the nuclear force," he said.

By Lara Seligman
February 4, 2014 at 10:27 PM

Huntington Ingalls Industries' first big-deck, America-class amphibious assault ship completed acceptance trials off the coast of Pascagoula, MS, on Jan. 31.

During the trials, the Navy's Board of Inspection and Survey performed rigorous tests and evaluated all of the ship's major systems, according to a Navy statement released today, including combat, propulsion, communications, navigation, mission systems and aviation capabilities.

The ship is slated for delivery in the spring.

"The ship performed extremely well," said Capt. Chris Mercer, amphibious warfare program manager for the program executive office for ships. "There were no major deficiencies identified. This marks a tremendous achievement for any ship, made only more impressive by America's size, complexity and that the ship is the lead ship for the amphibious assault replacement program. We are very proud of this successful trial and look forward to America soon joining the fleet."

Inside the Navy reported on Jan. 27 that LHA-6 was undergoing acceptance trials that week:

The vessel successfully completed builder's trials in November and is expected to deliver to the Navy and the Marine Corps later in 2014, according to Capt. Chris Mercer, amphibious warfare program manager.

HII recently began construction on the second big-deck amphibious vessel, LHA-7 (Tripoli), Mercer said during a presentation at the Surface Navy Association's annual symposium in Arlington, VA on Jan. 15.

LHA-6 and LHA-7 were designed intentionally to be more aviation-centric than their predecessors, Mercer said, in order to utilize the speed and stealth capabilities of the Joint Strike Fighter and MV-22. However, LHA-6 has recently encountered problems coping with the heat generated by the JSF during vertical take-off and landing.

A March 2013 Government Accountability Office report estimated that the vessel would incur about $42.2 million in cost growth due to "post-delivery rework of the ship's deck" in order to deal with exhaust and downwash from the aircraft.

The Navy has so far identified about 14 different design changes to make to LHA-6 so the ship can better support JSF, Mercer said, including relocating antenna and adding covers to life rafts and refueling stations.

By Lee Hudson
February 4, 2014 at 4:29 PM

The Marine Corps will participate in the upcoming Exercise Cobra Gold 2014 in Thailand this month, according to a service statement.

This is an annual exercise developed by the U.S. and Thai militaries. The exercise is scheduled Feb. 11-21 and will consist of a command post exercise, humanitarian and civic assistance projects and a field training exercise.

"CG 14, in its 33rd iteration, is designed to advance regional security by exercising a robust multinational force from nations sharing common goals and security commitments in the Asia-Pacific region," the statement reads.

The command post exercise will combine service members from the United States, Thailand, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia and Malaysia in a multinational force team that responds to a simulated scenario.

The field training exercise will include forces from the United States, Thailand and South Korea to enhance interoperability and strengthen regional relationships.

Personnel from the United States, Thailand, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia and China will participate in humanitarian and civic assistance projects designed to improve the quality of life and infrastructure, as well as to share medical best practices, according to the statement.