The Insider

The Pentagon has announced a trio of potential foreign sales of military equipment and goods: $2 billion in fuel to Israel; $162 million for nine UH-60L Black Hawk helicopters to Colombia; and $152 million deal for technical support of Iraq's Mi-17 helicopters.

The stage appears to be set for who will compete for the right to continue developing the Pentagon's Ground-based Midcourse Defense system, with Lockheed Martin and Raytheon announcing this morning that the two companies had entered into a partnership to compete for the multibillion-dollar contract.

In May, the Missile Defense Agency released an amended and updated draft request for proposals for the contract that would re-open competition for its GMD "development and sustainment" effort. As Inside Missile Defense reported:

"The [Statement of Work] and Task Orders have changed considerably in format and work scope since release of the original" draft RFP in January, the agency states in a May 14 letter attached to the amended request.

According to the original Nov. 25, 2009, FedBizOpps notice, the contract, with a potential annual value of $600 million, would involve "future development; fielding; test; systems engineering, integration and configuration management; equipment manufacturing and refurbishment; training; and operations and sustainment support" for the GMD system and associated support facilities.

"The potential scope described in the previous announcement has been revised to include significant requirements beyond GMD operations and logistics support," the agency notice stated, adding that the contract number had been changed to reflect the new competition.

Boeing had been operating under the second of a series of six-month "bridge" contracts as the main contractor for the GMD program, with MDA never having signed the company to a final deal to complete the system's core elements.

In December 2008, the contract Boeing had been working under since 2001 became "too complex to administer effectively" and associated cost overruns had changed the program's technical content and schedule, MDA said in a statement issued earlier that year. The agency decided to end that contract on Dec. 31, 2008, and have Boeing signed to a new, so-called "core-completion contract," which took place in March.

MDA spokesman Richard Lehner told InsideDefense.com in a March e-mail that "the GMD Core Contract follow-on modification was signed on March 10, 2010, with an effective date the same. It was not a new contract and therefore it was not formally announced" as a new Defense Department contract award or on Federal Business Opportunities, he added.

In January, MDA decided to open its GMD effort up to other potential offerors, resulting in the draft RFP release.

According to a joint Lockheed-Raytheon statement released this morning:

Together, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon develop, produce and sustain leading interceptor weapon systems for missile defense.  As strategic partners for GMD Development and Sustainment, the companies will apply their proven experience to ensure the reliability and readiness of the GMD element of the Ballistic Missile Defense System, which defends our nation, deployed military forces, and friends and allies against a limited attack by intermediate- and long-range ballistic missiles.

"Lockheed Martin and Raytheon are continuing a successful track record of delivering on key missile defense programs," said Mathew J. Joyce, GMD vice president and program manager, Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company. "Lockheed Martin and Raytheon systems combined have achieved more than 50 intercepts in combat and testing – more than any other team." These systems include Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense including Standard Missile-3, Patriot and Patriot Advanced Capability-3, and GMD Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle.

"In addition to our highly successful Standard Missile-3 interceptor and our proven GMD Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle expertise, Raytheon brings important capabilities in manufacturing, mission assurance and readiness that will help to ensure a smooth transition in responding to the government's needs for this critical national system," said Frank Wyatt, Raytheon vice president of Air and Missile Defense Systems.

As a strategic partner to Lockheed Martin, Raytheon's role will span systems engineering, development, manufacturing, testing, training and operations and sustainment at all of the key GMD sites.  For this next phase in the GMD lifecycle, the Lockheed Martin-Raytheon team has the most experience, is the best qualified, and provides the greatest value to ensure our warfighters have a ready and capable interceptor weapon system.

In June, Boeing and Northrop Grumman announced their intention to partner up to compete for the contract:

"Boeing takes great pride in supporting the Missile Defense Agency on GMD, providing round-the-clock protection of the United States against attack by ballistic missiles, and we are pleased to join with Northrop Grumman in this competition for future development and support of this critical element of America's defense," said Greg Hyslop, vice president and general manager, Boeing Strategic Missile & Defense Systems. "This partnership offers MDA the most experienced and responsive team, ready to adapt GMD to future needs and requirements. At the same time, this proven team will continue to offer the warfighter an unmatched level of mission readiness, availability and support -- affordably and with the lowest risk."

. . . Boeing will build on its experience of supporting the MDA as prime contractor for the development, deployment, integration and testing of the GMD weapon system since 2001. The Boeing-led team currently operates and sustains the deployed weapon system while developing and testing innovative technologies to provide greater reliability and meet its customer's evolving needs and requirements.

Northrop Grumman is responsible for designing and deploying the command-and-control systems that form the backbone of the GMD ground system, known as GMD Fire Control/Communications (GFCC) products. GFCC products connect and orchestrate GMD components that launch and guide interceptors in flight. Northrop Grumman has developed and sustained ground-based missile systems for more than 50 years and has been prime contractor for the U.S. Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) weapon system since 1997. Northrop Grumman has been part of the Boeing GMD team for more than 10 years.

The European aerospace and defense industry's "main credit risks are likely to shift to defense from commercial in the next year," according to a new assessment by the Fitch credit-rating agency.

In a recent investor presentation in London, Fitch analysts found that:

With overall defense budgets in Western Europe under pressure from the general high budget deficits of most countries, the companies most exposed to European defense spending may see their traditional revenue base shrinking in real terms. These companies may choose to pursue growth in many emerging markets, although export opportunities are becoming increasingly competitive and politicised as more and more developed markets-based defense companies chase a limited number of sizeable contracts in countries such as India and Brazil.

One of the main stumbling blocks to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's efforts to approve the ratification of the follow-on Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty has been committee Republicans' wish to view the negotiating record of the talks between U.S. and Russian officials that culminated earlier this year. As Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) said last month:

"There are so many things that we have not yet had permission to read," Kyl said, including the State Department's record of the negotiations between U.S. and Russian officials that concluded earlier this year. There are "still hundreds of questions that have not been answered from the administration. . . . Both the Armed Services Committee and the (Select) Intelligence Committee have more hearings and more work to do, even if the Foreign Relations Committee is ready to wind her up," he continued, adding: "And of course there's the resolution for ratification -- we have not even begun to consider the things that need to go into that.

"What thoughtful people need to do is to say, 'Slow down, you will have a better chance of getting the treaty through if you try to do it the right way," he continued. "If you try to run roughshod over those who have legitimate questions to ask, you try and jam it through and you don't take into account the things that we've raised here, then you are less likely to get it ratified than you are if you do it right,' even, I would suggest, if we get into the next Congress."

Looks like he and other treaty skeptics may have gotten their wish. In a letter sent to panel members by Chairman John Kerry (D-MA) this afternoon and first reported by Politico, Kerry writes:

Responding to requests from several senators, the Executive branch has now provided a thorough summary of the New START negotiating record regarding missile defense.

Kerry's letter also lists the other documents provided by the White House:

* On May 13, the treaty text, protocol, and annexes were submitted to the Senate, with a detailed article-by-article analysis of every provision.

* On May 13, the President also submitted a comprehensive plan for maintaining and modernizing the nuclear weapons complex.

* On June 30, the Intelligence Community submitted a National Intelligence Estimate assessing its ability to monitor compliance with the terms of the New START Treaty.

* On July 2, the State Department submitted a report assessing international compliance with arms control agreements, including Russia’s compliance with the original START Treaty.

* On July 12, the State Department submitted an analysis of the New START Treaty’s verifiability.

* Over the course of the last month, the Executive branch has responded to hundreds of questions for the record that members posed to Committee witnesses.

Kerry's letter states that committee members should be prepared to vote on approving the treaty on either Sept. 15 or Sept. 16.

A story in the July 5 issue of Inside the Army about Harris Corp.'s offering for the Joint Tactical Radio System program made quite a splash in industry circles. Harris' Steve Marschilok contacted us about the story recently, and his letter to the editor is now posted below the original article.

Marschilok also forwarded a copy of a 2007 memo from John Grimes, the Defense Department's former chief information officer, to support Harris' case.

Naturally, we will continue to follow the debate about the "JTRS approved" label.

The House Appropriations Committee generally follows the practice of not making public the nitty-gritty details of its defense subcommittee mark-ups -- beyond some overall numbers -- until after the full committee has considered and passed the spending bill.

That, however, doesn't stop individual subcommittee members from releasing certain details on their own. A case in point is subpanel member Steve Rothman (D-NJ), who in a statement released today shed some light on fiscal year 2011 funding for U.S.-Israeli missile defense efforts:

On July 27, 2010, the Appropriations Defense Subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives sent a strong message – to our allies and enemies alike – by appropriating more funds than ever before toward joint U.S.-Israel and Israeli missile defense programs. This is only the latest example that when it comes to defense, military, and intelligence cooperation, the relationship between the U.S. and Israel has never been stronger.

Chairman Norm Dicks, myself and all the members of the Defense Subcommittee understand how important it is to be at the cutting edge of anti-missile technology, both to safeguard our own citizens and troops, but also those citizens and troops of our allies and friends such as the people of the Jewish state of Israel.

Given the concern and attention that we are focusing now on every dollar we are expending on behalf of the U.S. taxpayer for all purposes, including the defense of the United States and its allies, it is a mark of the importance of these projects that they were all funded so robustly and fully by our Subcommittee.

The Appropriations Defense Subcommittee has just appropriated $217.7 million in funding for essential joint U.S.-Israel missile defense programs, which is an increase of $95.7 million in funds over the original request. I am proud that since 2007, the Appropriations Defense Subcommittee has allocated more than $750 million in federal funding for the Arrow and David’s Sling anti-missile systems. Including this year’s allocation of $205 million toward Israel’s Iron Dome program, the Subcommittee has allocated nearly one billion dollars toward these three missile defense systems over the past three years.

I thank President Barack Obama, Chairman of the Defense Subcommittee, Norm Dicks, and all my colleagues on the Subcommittee for their leadership and vision in providing this life-saving support. The growing proliferation and increasing deadliness of missiles around the world pose a direct threat to the U.S. and our allies, making funding missile defense systems vitally important for America’s national security.