Rapid Fire 2011-12-07: FYDP Not Sequestered

Dec 07, 2011 08:00 UTC by Defense Industry Daily staff
  • It’s not just the pending US FY13 President Budget that won’t reflect sequestration, the 5-year Future Years Defense Program (FYDP) projection won’t either, based on an Office of Management and Budget (OMB) document seen by Bloomberg. OMB states this is still “pre-decisional material” though, but this matches our expectation that budgets made of a relatively flat DoD baseline and a reduced OCO (i.e. war spending) line item are the mostly likely outcome in the next few years. But because of that cloud of uncertainty some firms plan to increase the share of their revenue coming from civilian customers.
  • The Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) sent a letter to US SecDef Leon Panetta to push back against the Pentagon’s attempt to shift more project risk on contractors. The latest F-35 contract negotiations are no doubt prominently in their mind.
  • US Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) is using predictive modeling to “compare manpower to flight rate [and recommend] employee workloads and tracks daily activity to proactively identify bottlenecks or constraints” on the CH-53K program.

  • The US DoD will host a public meeting in Washington DC on Jan. 12, 2012 on the use of open source software in its contracts. They want to assess risks such as potential copyright infringement liability or performance and warranty deficiencies that would leave contractors without recourse.

  • Raytheon bought Pikewerks Corporation, the latest of a long string of acquisitions in the cybersecurity realm.

  • SAIC’s Q3 shows a flat topline and an 8% revenue decrease in the defense sector because of “the termination of the U.S. Army Brigade Combat Team Modernization contract, the June 2011 completion and delivery of the CityTime system, and reduced activity on an infrastructure support services program for the Department of Defense (DoD).”

  • India’s state-controlled shipyard modernizations are behind in their modernization, and that’s hurting a number of programs. The private sector might be able to help, if India lets it.

  • A shortage of Eurofighters for training & certification exercises is delaying the handover of Britain’s 1st A330 Voyager aerial tanker.

  • The UK’s Department for Transport issues “Interim guidance to UK flagged shipping on the use of armed guards to defend against the threat of piracy in exceptional circumstances“. As armed guards continue to work, official resistance continues to weaken.

  • 2011 in review as seen by Australian Minister for Defence Materiel Jason Clare.

    • Categories: Australia & S. Pacific, Britain/U.K., Budgets, Daily Rapid Fire, Fighters & Attack, India, Industry & Trends, Issues - International, IT - General, Lobbying, Oceans - International, Security Contractor, Specialty Aircraft, Submarines, Surface Ships - Combat

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