The Insider

By Gabe Starosta
March 29, 2013 at 4:22 PM

The Air Force's fifth Wideband Global SATCOM satellite will launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, FL, on May 8, service officials announced today -- four months later than originally scheduled. The launch will mark the first use of a Delta IV rocket since a flawed launch on Oct. 4, 2012, during which the Delta IV boosting a Global Positioning System IIF satellite into orbit suffered a fuel leak. That problematic launch, although ultimately successful, led the Air Force and the United Launch Alliance to conduct dual investigations and prompted the service to impose a launch freeze, pushing back WGS-5's blastoff date.

The Space and Missile Systems Center said in a press release today that the investigation "into the off-nominal performance on the Global Positioning System IIF-3 launch last October is still progressing. Final testing related to the investigation is under way. ULA, Pratt Whitney Rocketdyne, and the Air Force have been working closely on this investigation and have approved processing this mission toward the May 8 launch date."

Launch officials have planned investigation closure reviews in mid-April, the release states.

WGS-5 is already out of storage and was sent to Cape Canaveral early this month, Boeing announced on March 12. Boeing is the lead contractor on the the WGS constellation, as well as on all GPS IIF satellites.

By John Liang
March 29, 2013 at 3:51 PM

The Government Accountability Office is recommending that the Defense Department "identify, track, and consider the specific factors that affect competition when setting competition goals; develop guidance to apply lessons learned from past procurements to help achieve competition in the future; and collect reliable data on one-offer awards."

In a report issued yesterday, GAO further notes:

The Department of Defense's (DOD) competition rate for all contract obligations declined over the past five fiscal years, from 62.6 percent in fiscal year 2008 to 57.1 percent in fiscal year 2012. GAO also found that the competition rate in fiscal year 2012 varied by specific DOD component with the Air Force having the lowest at 37.1 percent and the Defense Logistics Agency the highest at 83.3 percent. The majority of the noncompetitive awards cited the availability of only one responsible source to meet the government's needs as the reason for using noncompetitive procedures.

A number of factors affect DOD's competition rate, but these factors are not always considered when setting DOD's annual competition goals. For example, reliance on an original equipment manufacturer throughout the life cycle of a program has been a long-standing challenge for DOD competition, and budget uncertainty can also hinder DOD's ability to compete. Noncompetitive purchases that DOD makes on behalf of foreign governments can also affect DOD's competition rate. DOD does not systematically consider these and other factors when setting its annual competition goals. For example, it sets competition goals for individual DOD components by simply adding two percentage points to the rate achieved in the previous year. Without identifying and tracking the specific factors affecting competition DOD cannot set meaningful goals for improving competition or accurately gauge its progress toward achieving them.

Many of the noncompetitive justifications GAO reviewed included the required elements as defined by the Federal Acquisition Regulation; however, the level of insight into the reasons for noncompetitive awards varied. For example, some justifications included clear descriptions of market environments where only one source was available to meet the government's needs or described planned actions that could help improve competition in the future. However, other justifications provided limited insight into the reasons for the noncompetitive award or did not fully describe actions that the agency could take to increase future competition. Without this information, DOD may be missing opportunities to gain a fuller understanding of why past acquisitions were not competitive and may be unable to apply those lessons to effectively facilitate competition for future acquisitions.

In 2010, DOD introduced a new requirement that applies to competitive awards that elicit only one offer (one-offer awards); however, the impact of the requirement is unknown because of unreliable data. To address the risk associated with one-offer awards, the requirement established rules that were intended to help ensure adequate solicitation time, ensure that contract requirements are not unnecessarily restrictive, and verify that offers received are fair and reasonable. However, GAO’s analysis of 35 one-offer awards determined that contracting officers had incorrectly coded 10 of these awards in the procurement database that DOD relies on to measure the impact of its new requirement. Six of the 10 awards were noncompetitive awards and the remaining 4 had received multiple offers. As a result, GAO determined that DOD's data cannot be used to accurately calculate the amount obligated on one-offer awards during fiscal year 2012. Without reliable data, DOD cannot accurately measure the impact of its new requirement.

View the full report.

By Christopher J. Castelli
March 28, 2013 at 9:04 PM

The Pentagon must cut $41 billion in fiscal year 2013 due to sequestration, not $46 billion as anticipated, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said today. The continuing resolution signed into law this week "did fix some of our urgent problems," Hagel told reporters. "In particular, it put some of the dollars back in the right accounts. We still don't have the flexibility that we had hoped to get. But having money in the right accounts is particularly important."

The legislation reduces a shortfall in the operations budget, he said. "You also know that we came out better than we went in under the sequester, where it looks like our number is $41 billion now, versus the $46 [billion]," he said. "It gives us program authorities to start new programs . . . and military construction, which is significant."

Hagel also said the overseas contingency operations budget is about $7 billion higher than DOD had estimated, in part due to the cost of removing troops and equipment from Afghanistan.

"In the operation and maintenance account, we're going to be short, at least $22 billion for FY-13," he said. "We're going to have to deal with that reality, and that means we're going to have to prioritize and make some cuts and do what we got to do." DOD will slash base operating support, reduce training for nondeployed units and face furloughs, he said.

"I suspect overall the biggest issue that we're going to be dealing with and concern is the department's people and its mission, how these numbers are going to affect all that," Hagel added, citing DOD's new ongoing review of strategic choices and management.

"The uncomfortable truth is that . . . on Monday, we'll be halfway through the fiscal year and we'll be 80 percent spent in our operating funds," Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey said during the same briefing. "We don't yet have a satisfactory solution to that shortfall, and we're doing everything we can to stretch our readiness out. To do this, we will have to trade, at some level and to some degree, our future readiness for current operations. It will cost us more eventually in both money and time to recover in the years to come."

DOD will be trying to recover lost readiness and reshape the force concurrently. "We can do it, but that's the uncomfortable truth," Dempsey said. "We simply can't do this, though, without additional budget certainty in the outyears, time to absorb the reductions and flexibility."

That doesn't simply mean having the authority needed to transfer and reprogram funds, the general said. "I mean what I would describe as full flexibility," Dempsey added. "I'm talking about the unpopular but unavoidable institutional reforms that will be necessary. We can't afford excess equipment. We can't afford excess facilities. We have to reform how we buy weapons and services. We have to reduce redundancy. And we've got to change, at some level, our compensation structure.

"Without that kind of reform, we will lose the human capital, the important talented young men and women, and we'll lose combat capability," he continued. "But with that kind of reform, we have it within us to stay strong despite declining dollars and increasing risk. If our elected leaders can help us with full flexibility, our people will do the rest."

The FY-14 budget will be released April 10, Principal Deputy White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters today.

By John Liang
March 28, 2013 at 8:06 PM

President Obama plans to nominate Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove to become the new head of U.S. European Command and supreme allied commander of NATO, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced this afternoon.

Breedlove would replace Navy Adm. James Stavridis, who has held the post since 2009.

"We need to get that position filled," Hagel said during a Pentagon briefing today. "And I would say too that not only is he particularly well-qualified, but the job that Adm. Stavridis has done over there has been significant, and I think you've extended him a few times. So he needs a little relief one of these days. And I wanted to particularly recognize him, and it'll be more appropriate, and we will all recognize him in more detail as this unfolds."

Breedlove is head of U.S. Air Forces in Europe and Africa as well as Air Component Command based at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, according to his official bio.

By John Liang
March 28, 2013 at 3:25 PM

The Associated Press reported last night that the Pentagon plans to cut from 22 to 14 the number of unpaid furlough days civilian defense employees would have to take:

According to defense officials, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel made the decision Wednesday, as military service chiefs and defense leaders continued to work through the details, trying to prioritize how they will allocate the more than $10 billion that Congress, in an attempt to take some of the sting out of the across-the-board budget cuts, shifted to operations and maintenance accounts. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter ahead of the public announcement.

While some of the military services initially considered eliminating the furloughs altogether, senior leaders argued that since not all the services could do that, it would be better to treat all civilians across the defense department equally.

However, "it makes little sense" to furlough government employees like air traffic controllers and border patrol agents "while retaining employees who are AWOL, on standby, not performing official duties or sitting idle awaiting security clearances," according to Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Ranking Member Tom Coburn (R-OK).

In a March 27 letter to Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry, Coburn writes:

Employees of government contractors are also being paid to do nothing. Delays in the security clearance process have kept between 10 and 20 percent of all intelligence contractors sitting idle while they await clearance, according to a December 2011 study of the Intelligence and National Security Alliance. This process can take months even for already-cleared workers who are being re-cleared just for moving to a new agency. Under current arrangements, these employees are paid large salaries during the waiting periods, but are not given meaningful work.

By John Liang
March 27, 2013 at 3:58 PM

The Joint Staff this month released a "focus paper" on "Mission Command And Cross-Domain Synergy."

According to the Joint Staff's doctrine publications website, the document was "written by the Deployable Training Division (DTD) of the Joint Staff J7 and published under the auspices of the Joint Staff J7. The paper helps inform both the joint warfighters and key functions within the J7, notably lessons learned, doctrine, education, and future joint force development."

The document's executive summary states:

The juxtaposing of mission command and cross-domain synergy has clear utility at theater-strategic and operational level for operating at the speed of the problem. Mission command is important in setting conditions for military subordinates. Cross-domain synergy leverages the capabilities of our many mission partners to increase overall effectiveness.

The DTD came up with three "major insights," according to the document:

1) Building trust and gaining shared understanding: Our joint commanders increasingly note the large number of mission partners that they must work with to build trust, share understanding, and achieve unified action. They also note how National and International leaders’ viewpoints and policies change as these decision-makers interact and learn. Building and maintaining trust, continuous dialogue, and gaining shared understanding with the many mission partners impose significant time demands on commanders and staffs at combatant commands and JTFs. This may be a markedly different experience for those whose previous experience was at the tactical level. However, it is this trust and shared understanding that enables empowerment, cross-domain synergy, and ultimately effectiveness.

2) Empowering subordinates to act: Today’s interconnected world is unpredictable and complex. The pace of change and speed of operations is accelerating. In response, commanders find they must share both operational context and their intent to successfully empower disciplined initiative in their subordinates.

3) Role of the support command relationship and the establishing authority: The need to leverage the many capabilities from other commanders and partners to achieve cross-domain synergy highlights the importance of the support command relationship, and requires increased effort by Establishing Authorities to prioritize, allocate resources, and synchronize actions in order to act at the speed of the problem. OSD and JS level direct involvement is essential to enabling agile, cross-combatant command synergy.

View the full report.

By John Liang
March 26, 2013 at 8:31 PM

President Obama has signed the fiscal year 2013 continuing resolution into law that funds activities for several government departments as well as an appropriations bill for the Pentagon through the end of September, according to a White House statement issued this afternoon.

View the final bill.

By John Liang
March 26, 2013 at 6:01 PM

The Congressional Research Service issued a report last week on China's naval modernization programs and the impact on the U.S. military.

The report -- originally obtained by Secrecy News -- states:

Decisions that Congress and the executive branch make regarding U.S. Navy programs for countering improved Chinese maritime military capabilities could affect the likelihood or possible outcome of a potential U.S.-Chinese military conflict in the Pacific over Taiwan or some other issue. Some observers consider such a conflict to be very unlikely, in part because of significant U.S.-Chinese economic linkages and the tremendous damage that such a conflict could cause on both sides. In the absence of such a conflict, however, the U.S.-Chinese military balance in the Pacific could nevertheless influence day-to-day choices made by other Pacific countries, including choices on whether to align their policies more closely with China or the United States. In this sense, decisions that Congress and the executive branch make regarding U.S. Navy programs for countering improved Chinese maritime military forces could influence the political evolution of the Pacific, which in turn could affect the ability of the United States to pursue goals relating to various policy issues, both in the Pacific and elsewhere. . . .

Potential oversight issues for Congress include the following: whether the U.S. Navy in coming years will be large enough to adequately counter improved Chinese maritime anti-access forces while also adequately performing other missions of interest to U.S. policymakers around the world; the Navy’s ability to counter Chinese ASBMs and submarines; and whether the Navy, in response to China's maritime anti-access capabilities, should shift over time to a more distributed fleet architecture.

View the full report

By John Liang
March 25, 2013 at 7:58 PM

House Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Adam Smith (D-WA) has appointed former Rep. John Spratt (D-SC) and former Deputy Energy Secretary T.J. Glauthier to serve on a congressionally established advisory panel to evaluate the governance of nuclear security programs. According to a statement issued this afternoon by Smith's office:

The panel, which is required by Section 3166 of the FY2013 National Defense Authorization Act, will provide a final report to Congress by February 2014 detailing recommendations on how to improve management and oversight of nuclear programs.

"I am pleased to nominate John Spratt and T.J. Glauthier to the Congressionally-mandated advisory panel to evaluate the governance of our nuclear security programs," said Ranking Member Smith. "Effective management and oversight of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s programs, including nuclear weapons stockpile, nuclear nonproliferation and naval reactors programs, underpin our national security."

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has faced serious challenges in the past decade.  Recently, significant cost increases on the order of billions of dollars and schedule slips have plagued nuclear weapons life extension programs and major construction programs, and an unprecedented security breach occurred at Y-12. NNSA's management, oversight and accountability problems must be fixed particularly as fiscal constraints increase.

"Together, former Congressman Spratt and former Deputy Secretary of Energy will contribute decades of expertise to the important task of improving management and oversight of nuclear weapons and non-proliferation programs, including heath safety and security," continued Smith.

By John Liang
March 25, 2013 at 4:21 PM

Raytheon is restructuring its business groups, the company announced today.

The new structure will consist of four businesses, the company said in a statement:

Intelligence, Information and Services, resulting from the combination of the Intelligence and Information Systems and Raytheon Technical Services businesses; and the Integrated Defense Systems, Missile Systems, and Space and Airborne Systems businesses, each of which will be expanded by the realignment of the former Network Centric Systems business operations. This new structure will be effective April 1, 2013.

"Our new structure will help us enhance productivity, agility and affordability in a challenging defense and aerospace market environment," Raytheon CEO William Swanson said in the statement. "We will remain focused on success for our global customers while returning value to our shareholders."

Swanson also announced new roles for members of the company's leadership team, including:

Daniel J. Crowley has been named president, Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems (IDS), succeeding Kennedy. Headquartered in Tewksbury, Mass., IDS will now include two new product lines: C4I Systems and Air Traffic Management. The expanded business had annual external sales1 of approximately $6 billion in 2012.

Lynn A. Dugle has been named president of the newly-formed Raytheon Intelligence, Information and Services (IIS) business. John D. Harris II, formerly president of Raytheon Technical Services Company LLC (RTSC), has been named vice president and general manager of the new business, reporting to Dugle. IIS combines the operations of the former Intelligence and Information Systems business, based in Garland, Texas, and RTSC, based in Dulles, Va. The combined business had annual external sales1 of approximately $5.5 billion in 2012.

Dr. Taylor W. Lawrence continues to lead Raytheon's Missile Systems (RMS) business based in Tucson, Ariz. The expanded business will now include Combat & Sensing Systems, along with Raytheon UK. The combined business had annual external sales1 of approximately $6.5 billion in 2012.

Richard R. Yuse continues to lead Raytheon's Space and Airborne Systems (SAS) business based in El Segundo, Calif. The expanded business, with 2012 annual external sales1 of approximately $6 billion, will now include Integrated Communication Systems and Advanced Programs.

By Christopher J. Castelli
March 22, 2013 at 4:46 PM

The Defense Department today released its "Strategy for Homeland Defense and Defense Support of Civil Authorities," which lays out DOD's priorities for homeland defense and defense support of civil authorities through 2020, consistent with the National Security Strategy and the 2012 Defense Strategic Guidance, according to a DOD statement.

"It links with other DOD and national strategic documents related to missile defense, space, cyberspace, counterterrorism and the Western Hemisphere," the statement adds. "The strategy identifies two priority missions for the department in the homeland: defend U.S. territory from direct attack by state and non-state actors; and provide assistance to domestic civil authorities in the event of natural or manmade disasters, potentially in response to a very significant or catastrophic event." It calls for maintaining DOD capabilities to defend against conventional and emerging threats in the air and maritime domains, while "expanding cooperation with federal, state, and local partners to defeat asymmetric threats including, for example, homegrown violent extremists who may seek to use improvised explosive devices," the statement notes. The strategy also addresses DOD preparations for responding to man-made and natural disasters.

"The Department of Defense's contributions to the defense of our nation have evolved over the past decade and account for new threats and challenges. Lessons learned from events like Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy and collaboration with our interagency partners and State Governors have framed our current approach to DoD civil support activities," said Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Americas' Security Affairs Todd Rosenblum, in the statement. "This strategy emphasizes strengthening our partnerships with federal agencies like the Departments of Homeland Security and Justice, with state and local governments, with the private sector, and with our Canadian and Mexican neighbors not only for more comprehensive approaches to complex security challenges in the homeland, but also to create efficiencies through collaboration and joint action."

By Christopher J. Castelli
March 21, 2013 at 6:52 PM

The Defense Department has decided to delay the issuance of civilian employee furlough notices for approximately two weeks, Pentagon Press Secretary George Little said today in a statement.

"This delay will allow the department to carefully analyze the impact of pending continuing resolution legislation on the department's resources," he said. "We have not made any decisions on whether or not the total number of planned furlough days for fiscal [year] 2013 will change as a result of this delay. We believe the delay is a responsible step to take in order to assure our civilian employees that we do not take lightly the prospect of furloughs and the resulting decrease in employee pay."

By John Liang
March 20, 2013 at 9:04 PM

The Senate has approved its version of a continuing resolution to fund the government through the end of the current fiscal year by a 73-26 vote.

In addition to including appropriations bills for defense, military construction and veterans affairs -- as the House version of the legislation did which passed last week -- the Senate version "expands on the House bill, adding three domestic bills, including: Agriculture; Commerce, Justice, Science; and Homeland Security. In addition, the Senate added a number of critical provisions to enable the government to meet its mission-critical obligations," according to a Senate Appropriations Committee statement.

"Working across the aisle and across the dome, the Senate has come together to prevent a government shutdown," committee Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) said in the statement, adding: "I am so proud the Senate bill protects national security while meeting compelling human needs. It makes investments in human infrastructure like early childhood education. And it creates jobs today and jobs tomorrow by supporting research and innovation. I thank my Vice Chairman, Senator Shelby, for his support and hard work. I look forward to swift action in the House so we can focus on passing a budget, ending sequestration, and getting back to regular order."

Committee Vice Chairman Richard Shelby (R-AL) said in the statement that the vote was "an important step in breaking from crisis mode in Washington," adding: "Chairwoman Mikulski and I set out to prevent a government shutdown, provide flexibility for those implementing budget cuts, and produce a bill that both parties in both chambers can support. It is my hope that the tone we set in meeting these objectives for the current fiscal year will carry over to our work on subsequent appropriations bills. We must continue to work together to replace a last minute, shotgun approach to reducing spending with a deliberate, targeted process."

The bill now returns to the House for its consideration, according to the statement.

By John Liang
March 20, 2013 at 12:00 PM

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency announced yesterday that it plans to meet with prospective contractors on April 1 to hear their ideas for building more robust military wireless networks.

According to the agency's statement:

In areas lacking trustworthy communications infrastructure, deployed servicemembers rely on wireless devices to perform double duty: they not only provide access to the network; they are the network. Protocols for these networks require nodes to coordinate among themselves to manage resources, such as spectrum and power, and determine the best configurations to enable sharing of information. A problem with these protocols is that they implicitly trust all information shared about the security and operational state of each node, and the network as a whole. Consequently, inaccurate control or security information can quickly render the network unusable. This shortcoming could put productivity and mission success at risk as use of military wireless systems increases.

To help address these issues, DARPA has created the Wireless Network Defense program. The program aims to develop new protocols that enable military wireless networks to remain operational despite inadvertent misconfigurations or malicious compromise of individual nodes.

"Current security efforts focus on individual radios or nodes, rather than the network, so a single misconfigured or compromised radio could debilitate an entire network," said Wayne Phoel, DARPA program manager. "We need to change how we control wireless networks by developing a network-based solution for current and future systems that acknowledges there will be bad nodes and enables the network to operate around them."

A key objective of the program is to develop protocols that determine the viability and trustworthiness of neighboring nodes and automatically adapt the network to operate through problems. Similar to a neighborhood watch program -- where neighbors know each other and can identify suspicious or unusual behavior on their street -- the protocols must help identify unusual activity that may indicate a problem on the network.

Inspiration for addressing these challenges could come from economic and social networks.

"Credit card companies use various indicators for trying to determine if someone has stolen your credit card and is posing as you," Phoel said. "Unexpected purchase locations, amounts and other factors could raise an alert. Online social sites for buying and selling personal items use seller ratings to help you decide the trustworthiness of someone before you make a purchase. Similar concepts of reliability estimation and control methods could be applied to wireless military networks by calling out specific areas of the network that may have untrustworthy nodes."

Wireless Network Defense is specifically not a new waveform or radio program. Phoel seeks solutions that make existing and future wireless networks more robust and resilient to compromise, regardless of specific radio node hardware or software.

DARPA will host a Proposers' Day on April 1, 2013, in Arlington, Va. For details visit: http://go.usa.gov/2nuR

Phoel believes expertise in the following areas may likely contribute to the success of the program: military and commercial wireless network system design and operation, wireless network security protocols, distributed control theory, and economic and social networking structural analysis.

By Christopher J. Castelli
March 19, 2013 at 4:45 PM

The Defense Department has not yet determined when Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel will receive his first update on the strategy review launched last week, Pentagon Press Secretary George Little told reporters today. Hagel will receive regular updates on the effort, according to a March 15 memo that calls for the assessment to conclude in May. The review "really hasn't gotten going in earnest" yet, Little said. Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, who will play a leading role in the effort, has been traveling in Asia this week.

"This is not a wholesale revision of the strategy," Little said. Rather, the department is looking to determine "what budgetary choices we might have to make if sequestration becomes a protracted condition to be managed," he said.