The Insider

By Sebastian Sprenger
April 25, 2012 at 6:08 PM

House authorizers are proposing to defund the Medium Extended Air Defense System, according to the panel's just-released mark of the fiscal year 2013 defense bill. The Obama administration had requested $400 million for the program as a last payment to finish development of the system.

The panelists' report included a message for co-developers Germany and Italy, where government leaders want the United States to continue funding the program for FY-13 in accordance with a trinational pact. “The committee urges the [Defense] Department to remind the representatives of Germany and Italy that only Congress can commit the United States to the expenditure of taxpayer funds,” lawmakers wrote.

By Dan Dupont
April 25, 2012 at 4:26 PM

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.

By Christopher J. Castelli
April 25, 2012 at 2:30 PM

Sens. Joseph Lieberman (I-CT), James Inhofe (R-OK), Susan Collins (R-ME) and John Cornyn (R-TX) are pressing not only the armed services but also the combatant commands to submit unfunded requirements lists to Congress for fiscal year 2013.

On April 23, the senators fired off letters to the service chiefs asking them to “reconsider” their decisions not to submit such lists, which have been routinely provided to Capitol Hill for years in response to requests from the ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee. But the senators are also casting a wider net in pursuit of the department's unfunded needs. The same day, the senators also sent requests for such lists to the combatant commanders, noting these generals and admirals have a “crucial role in translating national-level strategy into operations” within their areas of responsibility.

Inside the Pentagon first reported in March that the military's unfunded requirements lists could disappear amid the fiscal crunch facing the DOD and other government agencies. Last year, the unfunded requirements submitted by the department exceeded $1 billion.

And InsideDefense.com reported this month that a new consolidated list of combatant commanders’ priorities has been developed to shape the FY-14 budget process.

By John Liang
April 25, 2012 at 12:07 PM

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.

By John Liang
April 25, 2012 at 12:00 PM

A new Government Accountability Office report on urgent warfighter needs, released yesterday, recommends that the Pentagon "reduce the time spent on identifying and contracting for off-the-shelf solutions, devise methods for providing early funding to research laboratories and engineering centers, require that initiative decision memorandums be prepared for all initiatives, and require acquisition organizations to communicate with the Central Command and other combatant commands about plans for fielding capabilities."

GAO found that "opportunities exist to expedite development and fielding of joint capabilities," and that 26 out of 30 initiatives reviewed by the congressional watchdog agency "met, or expected to meet, the Department of Defense's (DOD) expectation for fielding a capability in response to joint urgent operational needs within 2 years."

That said, the report notes that "performance in meeting schedule estimates varied, and more than half of the initiatives experienced schedule delays."

By John Liang
April 24, 2012 at 5:50 PM

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.

By Thomas Duffy
April 24, 2012 at 5:45 PM

Frank Kendall, the Pentagon's top acquisition official, issued a memo last Thursday that updates the Defense Department's major automated information system oversight list. The memo lists the 42 programs that will be monitored and the 23 programs that had been included on the previous list that was published in 2007.

Click here to view the memo.

By John Liang
April 24, 2012 at 3:44 PM

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.

By John Liang
April 24, 2012 at 12:02 PM

The Pentagon has released an updated version of its joint doctrine on countering air and missile threats.

According to the March 23 document, which "provides doctrine for joint counterair operations and protection against air and missile threats across the range of military operations," the changes made since it was previously released in February 2007 include:

* Introduces and defines integrated air and missile defense in countering air and missile threats.

* Adds protection to the definition of counterair.

* Characterizes air and missile threats as air-breathing (aircraft and cruise missiles) and ballistic missiles.

* Provides considerations for operations that cross geographic combatant commander area of responsibility boundaries.

* Discusses the global perspective of ballistic missile defense.

* Defines the term air and missile defense.

* Defines global ballistic missile defense.

* Deletes the definition of theater missile.

* Adds appendix on global ballistic missile defense synchronization.

Additionally, the Pentagon recently released its joint doctrine On "Joint Electromagnetic Spectrum Management Operations."

The March 20 document "provides doctrine for joint electromagnetic spectrum management operations organization, planning, preparation, execution, and assessment in support of joint operations." Specifically, it:

* Gives an Overview of Joint Electromagnetic Spectrum Management Operations

* Covers International Electromagnetic Spectrum Management

* Addresses National Defense Electromagnetic Spectrum Management

* Discusses Organizing for Joint Electromagnetic Spectrum Operations

* Explains Planning for Joint Electromagnetic Spectrum Operations

* Describes Conducting Joint Electromagnetic Spectrum Operations

* Provides Considerations for Multinational Operations.

By John Liang
April 24, 2012 at 12:00 PM

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.

By John Liang
April 23, 2012 at 5:24 PM

Looks like that Joint Strike Fighter hearing isn't the only one that won't happen this week. An email from Senate Armed Services Committee spokeswoman Tara Andringa issued this afternoon states that an emerging threats subcommittee hearing on fiscal year 2013 Defense and Energy department proliferation prevention programs, scheduled for tomorrow, has been canceled "and will be rescheduled later."

Among the witnesses for the now-canceled hearing were Assistant Secretary of Defense for Global Strategic Affairs Madelyn Creedon, Defense Threat Reduction Agency Director Kenneth Myers and National Nuclear Security Administration Deputy Administrator for Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation Anne Harrington.

A couple of related hearings did take place last week, though:

Senate 4/18/2012 Hearing On NNSA's Nuclear Weapons Lab Management

On April 18, 2012, the Senate Armed Services Committee held a hearing on the National Nuclear Security Administration's management of the country's nuclear weapons labs. Includes excerpts from the question-and-answer portion of the hearing as well as the prepared testimony of Charles McMillan, head of the Los Alamos National Laboratory; Paul Hommert, head of the Sandia National Laboratories; Penrose Albright, head of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; and Charles Shank and Kumar Patel, co-chairs of the "Committee to Review the Quality of the Management and of the Science and Engineering Research at the Department of Energy's National Security Laboratories-Phase 1."

House 4/17/2012 Hearing On FY-13 Atomic Defense Activities

On April 17, 2012, the House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee held a hearing on the Pentagon's fiscal year 2013 budget request for atomic energy defense activities and nuclear forces programs. Includes excerpts from the question-and-answer portion of the hearing as well as the opening statement of subcommittee Chairman Michael Turner (R-OH). Also includes the prepared testimony of Assistant Secretary of Defense for Global Strategic Affairs Madelyn Creedon; U.S. Strategic Command chief Gen. Robert Kehler; National Nuclear Security Administration chief Thomas D'Agostino; David Huizenga, Energy Department senior adviser for environmental management; and Peter Winokur, chairman of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board.

By John Liang
April 23, 2012 at 3:28 PM

At the Navy League's annual SeaAirSpace symposium last week, Navy Under Secretary Bob Work delivered a passionate defense of the Littoral Combat Ship, pushing back against critics who doubt the effectiveness of the ship and the wisdom of buying 55 of them. As Inside the Navy reports this morning:

"People who don't get the LCS don't understand what design we're going for," Work said April 18 during a panel on budget challenges. "We have to prove the LCS is a good platform. I know there are a lot of skeptics. But this ship is the right ship at the right time for the right fleet design, and this will be the best United States Navy battle force that history has ever seen."

Work said the critics are mistaken for comparing the fleet size of today with the fleet size in years past, saying that the "only question you ask yourself is, 'How many ships do we need to implement the national strategy of today?'"

He said the 600-ship Navy concept of the 1980s called for 138 anti-submarine warfare ships, and today's ASW threat "isn't as bad" as during that era, "so we have replaced those 138 ASW ships with 55 multipurpose vessels called the LCS." The 138 ships of a 1980s Navy would be able to provide 34 ships forward on a day-to-day basis, whereas 55 LCSs will be able to push 27 forward at any given time, Work added.

Navy acquisition chief Sean Stackley gave a brief update of the LCS program during a Senate Armed Services seapower subcommittee hearing last week:

The history of the startup of this program is well known. I'm not going to re-plow that turf there. However, as I mentioned in my opening remarks, we have the first follow-on ships that -- one near complete; the LCS-3 up north is complete and her builder's trial is getting ready for acceptance trial to be delivered this spring. Near textbook -- it's going extremely well in terms of schedule, in terms of being on target, in terms of quality of construction. That's the result of not just plowing in the lessons learned from the lead ship, but the significant investment that was made by that shipyard to support this construction program. Separate but very similar on the Gulf Coast: Austal, which is nine to 12 months removed from the construction up north simply by the sequencing of the contracts -- again, plowing the lessons learned, investing in the facilities, accomplishing the training that needs to be accomplished for the workforce, cleaning up the design, and we're seeing the same rate of improvement on the Gulf Coast.

So both construction efforts north and south are quickly capturing lessons learned from the lead ships, making the investments necessary and on the production ramp that we need to see to support the 55-ship program. That's the construction side.

So we see stability. We see steady improvement. We see good cost returns on the front end of this dual-block buy strategy.

Now we have to be talking about mission packages. The mission package development efforts we have today, three-plus mission packages in development: mine countermeasures, anti-surface warfare and anti- submarine warfare. As well, we have a search and seize small module that we've put to work. These are developing -- they're conducting development testing to support their initial operational capability milestones in 2014 through 2016 time frame.

This spring, for example, we conducted the first shipboard demonstration of the mine countermeasure mission package onboard the Independence, working down at the Navy's warfare center in Panama City. It's the first time we brought all the elements that make up the first increment of the MCM package to the ship, operated with sailors. We learned some things, but we also demonstrated the ability to conduct these mission scenarios using the unmanned and remote operated vehicles that make up a large part of the LCS mission package.

So the development testing for the mission packages, in that case MCM separately, the antisurface warfare mission package, testing in effect -- we'll be outfitting the LCS 1 with the first increment of the anti-surface warfare mission package when it deploys next year to Singapore and then development of the ASW mission package all moving forward. So that effort lags the construction time frame by deliberation, so that the ships and mission packages are all IOC'ing in the middle of this decade.

The third important piece is fleet introduction. So we have one lead ship on the West Coast, LCS 1 and LCS 2 right now making its way to her home port in San Diego. So we're on the front end of fleet introduction at the same time. And as with any new ship class, we learn a lot. We also train up a sailor force that becomes proficient in this ship class.

So we're on the front end of this program. I don't spend too much time studying the reports that come from the press, other than to be aware of what information is out there and try to correct any misperceptions. But she's going well. We're learning a lot. We look forward to deploying LCS-1 next year and we've got a lot of work that we have to do to make sure that when she deploys, she is well supported and succeeds in all the mission areas that we assign to her.

When asked whether he saw any cost or technical problems of concern, Stackley responded: "I see cost under control. I think I've addressed that fairly well."

By Gabe Starosta
April 23, 2012 at 3:27 PM

Top Defense Department officials involved with the Joint Strike Fighter program will not be appearing on Capitol Hill this week after all.

A hearing of the Senate Armed Services airland subcommittee scheduled for Tuesday afternoon has been canceled; its witness list included Vice Adm. David Venlet, the F-35's program executive officer; Air Force Lt. Gen. Janet Wolfenbarger, the service's military deputy for acquisition; and Vice Adm. Walter Skinner, the Navy's principal military deputy for research, development and acquisition.

A notice on the committee website states that the hearing will be rescheduled at a later date, which has not yet been determined.

In other F-35 news, workers at Lockheed Martin's plant in Forth Worth, TX, where the Joint Strike Fighter is manufactured, have voted to go on strike. According to a report from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, union members rejected a company contract proposal yesterday that would have limited pensions and healthcare options, and the strike officially began at 12:01 a.m. today. It's unclear what effect the strike might have on F-35 assembly, but a drawn-out picket of the production line likely would delay JSF deliveries.

By Jordana Mishory
April 20, 2012 at 8:54 PM

The Pentagon's Hypersonic Technology Vehicle most likely broke up and crashed into the ocean during its second flight last year because of "unexpected aeroshell degradation" that activated the flight safety system, according to findings by an independent engineering review board released today.

The HTV-2 experienced a "series of shocks culminating in an anomaly, which prompted the autonomous flight safety system to use the vehicle's aerodynamic systems to make a controlled descent and splashdown into the ocean," states a press release from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. These shocks started about nine minutes into the Aug. 11, 2011, test flight.

However, DARPA noted that the hypersonic glider "successfully demonstrated stable aerodynamically-controlled flight at speeds up to Mach 20 (twenty times the speed of sound) for nearly three minutes."

"The initial shockwave disturbances experienced during second flight, from which the vehicle was able to recover and continue controlled flight, exceeded by more than 100 times what the vehicle was designed to withstand," said DARPA Acting Director, Kaigham J. Gabriel in the release. "That's a major validation that we're advancing our understanding of aerodynamic control for hypersonic flight."

"Moving forward, the HTV-2 program will incorporate new knowledge gained to improve models for characterizing thermal uncertainties and heat-stress allowances for the vehicle's outer shell," the release states. "The remediation phase will involve further analysis and ground testing using flight data to validate new tools for this flight regime. The [board] findings and remediation phase efforts will inform policy, acquisition and operational decisions for future Conventional Prompt Global Strike initiatives."

Program manager Air Force Maj. Chris Schulz also noted that the greatest achievement was "that we successfully incorporated aerodynamic knowledge gained from the first flight into the second flight."

According to the release:

Based on state-of-the-art models, ground testing of high-temperature materials and understanding of thermal effects in other more well-known flight regimes, a gradual wearing away of the vehicle's skin as it reached stress tolerance limits was expected. However, larger than anticipated portions of the vehicle's skin peeled from the aerostructure. The resulting gaps created strong, impulsive shock waves around the vehicle as it travelled nearly 13,000 miles per hour, causing the vehicle to roll abruptly. Based on knowledge gained from the first flight in 2010 and incorporated into the second flight, the vehicle's aerodynamic stability allowed it to right itself successfully after several shockwave-induced rolls. Eventually, however, the severity of the continued disturbances finally exceeded the vehicle’s ability to recover.

According to Schulz, "HTV-2's first flight test corrected our models regarding aerodynamic design within this flight regime. We applied that data in flight test two, which ultimately led to stable aerodynamically controlled flight. Data collected during the second test flight revealed new knowledge about thermal-protective material properties and uncertainties for Mach 20 flight inside the atmosphere, which can now be used to adjust our assumptions based on actual flight data and modify our modeling and simulation to better characterize thermal uncertainties and determine how to assess integrated thermal systems."

Aerodynamic assumptions and extrapolations from known flight regimes proved inadequate when preparing for HTV-2 inaugural flight test. The data from second flight revealed that extrapolating from known flight regimes and relying solely on advanced thermal modeling and ground testing could not successfully predict the harsh realities of Mach 20 atmospheric flight.

"A group of nationally-recognized experts from government and academia came together to analyze the flight data and conduct extensive additional modeling and ground testing for this review," Schulz said. "The result of these findings is a profound advancement in understanding the areas we need to focus on to advance aerothermal structures for future hypersonic vehicles. Only actual flight data could have revealed this to us."

By Sebastian Sprenger
April 20, 2012 at 7:38 PM

House Republicans getting ready to mark up the fiscal year 2013 defense authorization bill signaled this afternoon that they are in no mood to go along with the Defense Department's budget proposal, which is supposed to begin the process of ramping down defense spending.

"The FY13 NDAA will reflect the higher defense funding in the House Budget over the President's request and make strategic investments to begin reconstituting a force eroded by war and lack of sustained investment in modernization," a statement from the majority on the House Armed Services Committee reads.

Mark-up proceedings begin next week, with the military personnel subcommittee starting things off at 10:30 a.m. next Wednesday, followed by the seapower and projection forces subpanel at noon, strategic forces at 1:30 p.m. and emerging threats and capabilities at 3:30.

Then on Thursday, the tactical air and land forces subcommittee marks up its portion at 9 a.m., followed by the readiness subcommittee at 10:30 a.m.

The full committee will meet to mark up the bill on May 9 at 10 a.m.

Twitter addicts can follow the mark-up proceedings via the hashtag #13NDAA.

Committee Chairman Buck McKeon (R-CA) will offer a preview of his party's main issues surrounding the authorization bill in a speech to the Hamilton Society on April 25 at 6 p.m., according to the statement.