The Insider

The Defense and State departments just released a congressionally mandated report on export controls for satellites.

From the report's executive summary:

The Departments of Defense (DoD) and State (DoS) conducted this review and identified two satellite types, and related items, that are not purely defense-related and thus should not be designated as defense articles on the USML or controlled under the International Traffic In Arms Regulations (ITAR) administered by DoS. These satellites and related items do not contain technologies unique to the United States (U.S.) military industrial base nor are they critical to national security. In particular, the Departments believe the following items are more appropriately designated as dual-use items on the Commerce Control List (CCL) and controlled under the Export Administration Regulations (EAR):

* Communications satellites (COMSATs) that do not contain classified components;

* Remote sensing satellites with performance parameters below certain thresholds; and

* Systems, subsystems, parts and components associated with these satellites and with performance parameters below thresholds specified for items remaining on the USML.

To view the full report, click here.

UPDATE 1:28 p.m.: House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee Chairman Mike turner (R-OH) just released a statement on the report:

"I am glad that the Administration has finally submitted this long overdue report. I look forward to looking at how the report takes into account the vital mission of protecting U.S. space technology from diversion to the space, counter-space and ballistic missile programs of other nations.

"However, the Administration's request for blanket authority to relax our export control regime over thousands of space technologies would not make this country safer, or further our goals. For four years the State Department has dragged its feet on enforcing the current regime; specifically when it comes to companies the Department believes have illegally diverted our space technology to China. Asking for this authority, with those facts in mind, suggests a lack of seriousness about the Administration's commitment to protecting U.S. space technology."

The Navy will begin extending the service lives of the first two F/A-18 Hornets slated to reach 10,000 hours later this year, Capt. Francis Morley, F/A-18 program manager, said yesterday at the Navy League's annual SeaAirSpace symposium at National Harbor, MD.

The Navy has identified 150 legacy Hornets that the service will extend to 10,000 hours -- 4,000 hours beyond their original planned service lives -- in order to mitigate a projected strike fighter shortfall in the coming years.

"Those first two airplanes occur this year, and then we go from there and ramp up," Morley said.

The captain said the work, which will require retrofits and modifications on certain areas of the aircraft, are usually done in concert with normal depot periods.

The service life extension process for each aircraft should take about six to eight months, he said.

The Defense Venture Catalyst Initiative (DeVenCi) will hold a workshop in California in July or August to meet with companies interested in working with the Pentagon to discover emerging technologies for the Navy and Marine Corps.

In an April 16 Federal Business Opportunities notice, DeVenCi states it will meet with companies that normally do not do business with the Defense Department. The initiative is interested in six specific emerging technology areas, according to the notice: advanced materials; energy; sensors; imagery; data; and, advanced communication infrastructure.

This is how DeVenCi describes itself:

DeVenCI is a U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) activity whose dual goals are to speed DoD adoption of promising new commercial technologies and to encourage broader commercial support of the DoD supply chain. DeVenCI uses workshops to increase the visibility of DoD needs to commercial companies and technology area experts. It provides timely information to DoD users about emerging technical innovations and pilot opportunities. DeVenCI is a catalyst initiative that does not fund the development of new technologies or businesses. Instead, it focuses on knowledge brokering by encouraging and facilitating the sharing of information to speed adoption of emerging technology solutions to meet DoD user needs.

Acting Pentagon acquisition chief Frank Kendall has delegated the service secretaries the authority to grant certain waivers when implementing depot-level maintenance on weapon systems. In the fiscal year 2012 Defense Authorization Act, lawmakers made changes to statutory language concerning depot-level maintenance.

In an April 5 memo to the service secretaries, Kendall writes:

This delegation is effective immediately, will stay in effect as long as the relevant statutory language remains unmodified by subsequent enactments, and may be further redelegated to each Service's Acquisition Executive. The implementation guidance is provided in the attachment. The Department's position is that the appropriate use of waivers and the implementation guidance will enable depot maintenance activities to remain consistent with past practices.

One of those changes lawmakers made has to do with the refueling of nuclear aircraft carriers, according to Kendall's memo:

Language: Removed the exclusion for the refueling of nuclear aircraft carriers. In a separate amendment to 10 U.S.C § 2464 Core depot-level maintenance and repair capabilities, a waiver provision was created for these events.

Interpretation/Guidance: The elimination of this exclusion could disrupt longstanding practice within the Navy to balance its workload across both public and private sectors in the most optimal way to generate the strongest possible "national" industrial base and execute workload in the most efficient manner practical. It is recognized that conducting maintenance and repair as an integral part of a nuclear carrier refueling event is in the best interest of the Department from an economic perspective and the cost to establish public sector capability for either the refueling requirement alone or the combined activity of refueling and maintenance and repair would be excessive. Further, establishing additional public sector capability to execute the nuclear carrier refueling mission, as well as the companion maintenance and repair activity, could alter the balance between public and private sector capabilities. This could also damage the longstanding, effective, and stable private sector capability, thereby damaging the industrial base and, in turn, threaten our ability to conduct essential maintenance in support of national security objectives.

The Navy should establish formal procedures to waive the requirements of 10 U.S.C. § 2464 and request a waiver under the provisions of 10 U.S.C. § 2466 specific to nuclear aircraft carrier refueling and maintenance and repair activity performed in conjunction with nuclear refueling consistent with the implications stated above.

NOTE: The Department's position is that the above implementation guidance and use of appropriate waivers enables depot maintenance activities to remain consistent with past practices.

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert has formally declined to submit an unfunded requirements list to Congress. The admiral relayed the service's decision in a brief April 5 letter to House Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Adam Smith (D-WA), who on Feb. 17 invited all the services and U.S. Special Operations Command to submit such lists.

"In my estimation, the Navy's FY-13 budget is balanced to requirements and aligns with the Department of Defense Strategy, Sustaining U.S. Global Leadership: Priorities for 21st Century Defense," Greenert writes. "We will promptly notify the Committee should we encounter pressing needs in the future." Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Amos recently sent a similar letter to Congress.

Inside the Pentagon first reported last month 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.

The Government Accountability Office this morning released a report on the Pentagon's inventory of contracted services, finding that "further actions" were "needed to improve accountability."

GAO further states:

The Department of Defense (DOD) made a number of changes to improve the utility of the fiscal year 2010 inventory, such as centrally preparing contract data to provide greater consistency among DOD components and increasing the level of detail on the services provided. DOD, however, continued to rely primarily on the Federal Procurement Data System-Next Generation (FPDS-NG) for the inventory for most defense components other than the Army. As such, DOD acknowledged a number of factors that limited the utility, accuracy, and completeness of the inventory data. For example, FPDS-NG does not identify more than one type of service purchased for each contract action, provide the number of contractor full-time equivalent personnel, or identify the requiring activity. As before, the Army used its Contractor Manpower Reporting Application to compile its fiscal year 2010 inventory. This system collects data reported by contractors on services performed at the contract line item level, including information on labor hours and the function and mission performed. DOD officials noted that the Army’s current process complies with legislative requirements. In January 2011, GAO recommended that DOD develop a plan with time frames and the necessary resources to facilitate its efforts to collect contractor manpower data and address other limitations in its approach to meeting inventory requirements. DOD concurred with these recommendations. In November 2011, DOD submitted to Congress a plan to collect contractor manpower data. DOD officials noted that developing a common data system to collect and house these data would be challenging given the different requirements from the military departments and components. Consequently, DOD does not expect to fully collect contractor manpower data until fiscal year 2016. DOD’s plan, however, does not establish milestones or specify how it will meet the legislative requirement to identify the requiring activity and the function and missions performed by the contractor.

Military departments' required reviews of their fiscal year 2009 inventories of contracted services were incomplete. Navy headquarters officials had no assurance that their commands conducted the required reviews, and GAO found no evidence at the commands it contacted that the required reviews were conducted. Army and Air Force inventory reviews identified 1,935 and 91 instances, respectively, in which contractors were performing inherently governmental functions, though this variation may reflect differences in the departments' approaches to conducting the reviews. In 8 of the 12 Army and Air Force cases GAO reviewed, contractors continued to perform functions the military departments identified as inherently governmental. The absence of guidance that provided for clear lines of responsibility for conducting, documenting, and addressing the results of the reviews contributed to these outcomes. Further, Army officials cited difficulty in hiring DOD civilians caused by DOD's decision to freeze civilian full-time equivalents at fiscal year 2010 levels. DOD issued guidance in December 2011 that will require the military departments and components to certify that they have conducted the required reviews. The guidance, however, does not clearly establish lines of accountability and responsibility within the military departments and defense components for conducting the inventory reviews and addressing instances where contractors are identified as performing inherently governmental functions.