The Washington Times looks at the size of the Pentagon’s civilian workforce which seems to move only in one direction.
The latest CrossTalk features a series of articles on how to get the speed that comes with agile software development while retaining a healthy level of stability over the long run.
The GAO’s latest reports on DoD logistics look at Item Unique Identification (IUID) implementation and inventory management. DOD manages more
than 4 million secondary items and had inventory worth $95.6B as of September 2010. The Pentagon aims to lower its on-order excess inventory to 6% of obligated on-order dollars by the end of FY14 and 4% in FY16.
Chinese Rear Adm. Zhang Zhaozhong said that Zumwalt ships are vulnerable to being zerged. Well, he didn’t make an actual reference to videogame swarming aliens, but that’s the gist of his position.
The Philippines, whose appeal for international arbitration of territorial disputes with China has been rejected by Chinese authorities, wants to develop a “minimum credible defense posture”, gets closer to the US.
”[I]t’s not only or principally China’s navy that been involved in incidents at sea, but in fact more often Chinese civilian and paramilitary agencies, whether they are fisheries, the oceanic administration, or any number of auxiliary actors. In some ways, confrontation with these groups can be more dangerous because civilian agencies probably have less discipline regarding rules of engagement than their military counterparts.”
Here are the PPT slides from the Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle (AMPV) Industry Day held by the US Army last week. The Defense Acquisition Board is expected to follow up on the future of this tentative MDAP by the end of the current fiscal year. There’s potentially about 3,000 new vehicles at stake at an Average Unit Manufacturing Cost in the $1M-$1.7M range with production starting between FY15 and FY17.
The latest Aircraft Survivability [PDF] examines past and present live fire testing programs, as well as their current application to the CH-53K acquisition program.
Northrop Grumman’s CEO Wes Bush would like Congress to ease restrictions on drone exports.
Lockheed Martin’s CEO Bob Stevens will retire and be replaced by current President and COO Christopher Kubasik effective January 1, 2013. Kubasik is an alumnus from the Defense Acquisition University.
US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta leaned on Brazil in support of Boeing’s F/A-18s for the ongoing F-X2 competition. Panetta discussed technology transfers with his counterpart Celso Amorim. Dassault is working the local cooperation angle too [in French].
The GAO studied how the fast capability procured via joint urgent operational needs ended up being fielded. Such fulfillment amounted to at least $76.9B for FY 2005-10 according to DoD. Some programs such as the the MRAP Recovery Vehicle tow truck were fielded within 6 months of validation, while several other initiatives were delayed beyond the targeted 2 years because of requirement or contracting issues. You would expect off-the-shelf solutions to, well, fly off the shelves, but while they do get fielded faster overall, delays early in the process reduced the difference with custom efforts. See chart at the bottom of this entry.
Northrop Grumman’s sales decreased by 8% to $6.2B in Q1 2012 vs. a year ago, a slight acceleration of the rate of sales decrease seen through 2011. Electronic Systems is the division that lost the least (-5%) and Technical Services the most (-10%). Among the factors explaining the decline in sales: low F/A-18 and F-35 deliveries from Boeing and Lockheed Martin respectively. The total backlog shrunk by $400M to $39.1B ($25B or 64% of which is funded) while new business awards amounted to $5.8B.
Defense contractors in Canada have gripes about “vaporware” DND competitions that cost them millions to bid for yet never materialize.
The US Department of Justice announced that ATK Launch Systems Inc. agreed to a $37M settlement to resolve allegations that ATK sold dangerous and defective illumination flares to the Army and the Air Force.
Machinists from Lockheed Martin in Fort Worth, TX, voted to go on strike on Sunday and have started picketing. Representatives of the International Association of Machinists union say they reject changes in retirement and healthcare benefits. In October last year Oshkosh faced a strike for about two weeks.
Cobham plc appointed [PDF] Robert (Bob) Murphy as its CEO, effective as of June 25. Murphy comes from BAE and previous worked at GE Aircraft Engines.
The US is considering extending joint operations with its allies to military space and cyberspace.
The Economist is giddy about the convergence of new materials, online collaboration, 3D printing and more effective robots leading to another manufacturing revolution. To see to what extent these combined trends will play out in the defense sector, one project to watch is DARPA’s Vehicleforge set in motion last year by a $4M award to Vanderbilt University. They recently posted a presolicitation for Component, Context, and Manufacturing Model Library 2 (C2M2L-2) or “the second round of domain-specific models needed to enable the design, verification, and fabrication of the chassis and survivability subsystems.” One significant constraint is DARPA’s goal of remaining within an open source model, while there might be valuable inputs out there that may remain out of reach for legal reasons (ITAR for instance).
David Van Buren left his position as chief of US Air Force acquisition to join L-3 as senior vice president of business strategy. Buren started his career as an Air Force officer in the seventies, then worked in the private sector for almost three decades, to return to the USAF in 2008.
The Pentagon released a report [PDF] on space export control policy after it reviewed, in cooperation with the Department of State, whether satellites and their components could be taken off the United States Munitions List (USML). They found that other countries have less restrictive rules and recommend loosening US legislation as well as giving more authority to the executive branch in such decisions. “Higher fences around fewer items” is how the Administration describes its policy. Early expressions of support or opposition in Congress seemed to follow party lines. Will this eventually make life easier for Thales Alenia?
The Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA) loves directed-energy weapons [PDF]. Cost asymmetry – imposed by or to the enemy – has a lot to with it:
