Rapid Fire Oct. 3, 2012: DoD Sequestered from Sequestration

Oct 03, 2012 10:25 UTC by Defense Industry Daily staff

• The Pentagon continues to pretend it is not planning for sequestration. Showing their newfound social media savvy, the Department even created a Facebook community for that.
• Congressional Republicans are apoplectic to have been outmaneuvered – at last for now – by the Administration on the use of WARN Act notifications – or lack thereof – by defense contractors in anticipation of sequestration. Some senators question the legality of the White House’s position, while others say they will block the payment of legal fees to contractors as envisioned by OMB. Stuck in the crossfire: defense contractor employees.
• BAE/EADS drama of the day:

Toulouse or München commercial aerospace HQ? At least there seems to be a consensus to base defense operations in London. The French government may fight hard on this one, as they have faced several humiliating plant closures in the automotive and steel sectors after having made assertive claims that they would jumpstart “industrial renewal.”

A new Deloitte report [PDF]: defense continues to shrink, as commercial aerospace is taking off. Who knew?

Pentagon directive DTM 09-007 [PDF] explains how to compare the full costs of military and DoD civilian manpower and contract support. It was first published in January 2010 and its 4th change since then was released yesterday. Last year various think tanks criticized that directive’s methodology.

AMMTIAC reviews alternatives [PDF] to hexavalent chromium (CrVI) for corrosion prevention. CrVI is a known carcinogen via inhalation whose use has been increasingly limited by regulation (most recently, a DFARS addition from May 2011), though it is not prohibited altogether. The conundrum is that no other material has yet been found to be as effective as CrVI in its many applications, from surface treatments to metal finishing and repairs. This is a though problem that many have tried to solve over the years, from the Army Research Laboratory [2005, PDF] to TARDEC [2010, PDF] to NAVAIR [2010, PDF].

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