Rapid Fire 02-11-11: CVN Home: VA vs. FL | Greek Tragedy
Nov 02, 2011 09:35 EDTRelated Stories: Africa, Americas - USA, Asia - Central, Asia - China, Asia - India, Budgets, Contracts - Awards, Daily Rapid Fire, Europe - E.U., Forces - Naval, Issues - Political
- The USAF proposed the debarment of 3 contractors: Advanced C4 Solutions, Inc. (headquartered in FL), Superior Communications Solutions Inc. (GA), and Iron Bow Technologies (VA) because of a “history of failure to perform [or] unsatisfactory performance.” Washington Technology | WBJ.
- Count us among those disappointed that the Commission on Wartime Contracting’s records will remain sealed for 20 years.
- In case the DoD acquisition lifecycle gets you confused, yes a program can be in its Production & Deployment Phase and in its Operations & Support Phase at the same time. Procurement funds are channeled to the former while Operations & Maintenance (O&M) budgets line up with the latter. In practice the end of the acquisition lifecycle is less formally structured than earlier, milestone-constrained phases.
- Back in September Chairman of the House Armed Services Readiness Subcommittee J. Randy Forbes (R-VA) sent a letter [PDF] to Admiral Jonathan W. Greenert to argue in favor of maintaining all CVNs currently homeported in Forbes’ state. Greenert recently sent back his reply [PDF], and while he supports the strategic rationale behind moving a CVN to Mayport, FL, he leaves the door open to reconsidering based on budgetary concerns. Forbes had sent his letter on the day Greenert was appointed as the 30th Chief of Naval Operations. Last month several lawmakers from Florida asked Greenert to consider moving the date of the planned carrier move from FY19 to FY16. Expect them to fire back.
- US SecDef Leon Panetta gave a classified briefing to the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) yesterday, but its chairman Buck McKeon (R-CA) told reporters that “he [Panetta] wants to take 50% of the [$450B] cuts out of modernization,” i.e. weapons procurement, the other half coming from personnel. Forthcoming HASC hearings: FY12 Combat Aviation, US Nuclear Weapons Policy and Posture (both this afternoon); Institutionalizing Irregular Warfare Capabilities, and A Day Without Seapower and Projection Forces (both tomorrow).
- On a backdrop of sovereign debt crisis and Euro bailouts, yesterday the Greek government made sweeping changes at the top of its military.
- Recent Pentagon reports of interest: State of U.S.-India Security Cooperation, BRAC 2005 Implementation, Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction quarterly report [all PDFs].
- While the US is refocusing its attention to Asia/Pacific, China has dramatically ramped up its investments in Africa. The US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations just had an interesting hearing on this topic. Not a hotspot defense issue now, but of increasing geostrategic significance nonetheless.
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