Rapid Fire August 14, 2012: CCL/USML Merger Plans

• At a panel hosted by the Center for the National Interest, Grover Norquist argued against any tax increases to sustain what he views as an excessively interventionist foreign policy. Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, got many Republican congressmen to sign a pledge not to raise taxes. Some – Lindsay Graham comes to mind – are getting cold feet now that sequestration’s effect on defense budgets is getting close, but Norquist argues they are few and isolated.

• This comes as observers are trying to read what Mitt Romney’s choice of Paul Ryan as his running mate means for defense budgets.

Rapid Fire August 13, 2012: Type 056 Shipyards

• The US military’s hardened high-bandwidth AEHF-2 satellite has reached geostationary orbit successfully, without drama. That doesn’t sound like much, but it’s a big relief. AEHF-1’s propulsion had major technical failures, forcing the biggest space engineering save since Apollo 13.

• Brazil receives its first 2 S-70B Seahawk naval helicopters, which will begin to replace its existing H-3 Sea King ASW fleet.

• German customs have seized MiG-29 and Tu-142 engines sent by Russia to Algeria and India, respectively.

AGM-158 JASSM Family Cruise Missiles: FY 2012 Orders

JASSM-ER from B-1B

The 2,000 pound AGM-158 JASSM (Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile) is intended to be a stealthy, inexpensive GPS/IIR (Global Positioning system/ Imaging InfraRed) guided cruise missile that lets American aircraft attack well-defended targets – without putting them in the crosshairs of new long-range surface to air missile systems. JASSM has experienced a rocky development history, due to long-standing reliability issues. In 2005 it was threatened with cancellation following a series of poor test results. The program went through 2007 on an ongoing roller coaster of ups and downs, and by May 2009 it appeared the program was facing cancellation once again.

A production hiatus did take place between Lot 7 and FY 2010’s Lot 8, but test results have allowed the USAF to move forward. FY 2012’s milestones include the Lot 10 order, certification on 2 new platforms, JASSM-ER certification, and another export request.

Rapid Fire August 10, 2012: Mechanic Mules for Marines

• Commander of US Fleet Forces Admiral J. C. Harvey, Jr. thinks that actions undertaken to reverse a trend [PDF] of degrading fleet readiness are starting to pay off. Challenges remain though, including Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD), a mission that is “complex and technically very demanding. This unique mission will increase the complexity of our ships and amplify the problems we are working to resolve today.”

• The US government and military are still struggling to figure out the legal framework that would allow cyberspace defensive actions outside of the Pentagon’s own networks.

• According to Japanese media relayed by the Taipei Times, the US is going to use its Guam-based RQ-4 Global Hawks to monitor Okinawa and the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands disputed by Japan and China.

Rapid Fire August 9, 2012: Agreeing to Disagree

• When you scrub the Pentagon’s budget hard enough, you find money that was not spent and can either be de-obligated, reallocated through rescissions, or has to be returned to the Treasury (in the case of expired accounts [PDF]). This happens on the margins of budgets but the sums involved still amount to billions of dollars.

• House Armed Services Committee member Roscoe Bartlett [R-MD] would like some of his Republican colleagues to tone it down on sequestration, though he agrees that cutting the budget indiscriminately would be “totally devastating.” Bartlett’s seat appears far from secure.

• The libertarian CATO think tank brought a macro perspective [PDF] to the sequestration debate. They refute the idea that reducing the defense budget would have a significant impact on the economy as a whole.

LPD-17 Reliability Issues Surface Again

“Need a tow?”

Problems with USS New York [LPD 21] reportedly have the US Navy scrutinizing every ship built in the class’ 2 shipyards. Unfortunately, it’s just the latest installment in a long string of basic workmanship issues. In March 2005, “Cost Overruns, Budget Uncertainties Hurting USN and Contractors” noted:

“With the help of a $50 million grant from the state of Louisiana, Northrop Grumman has modernized production at Avondale, and the company is now projecting completion of future amphibious ships at a much faster pace than in the past. Nevertheless, scathing Navy inspector general reviews that detailed shoddy construction and basic workmanship problems at Avondale are cause for legitimate concern in areas that will not be fixed by modernization alone.”

While some teething problems are common for first ships of a new class, The new San Antonio Class stands out for their number and severity. All in a ship whose costs rose from about $700 million when the program was sold, to over $1.7 billion – then stayed at that drastically elevated level through subsequent vessels.

Rapid Fire August 8, 2012: US Administration to Spell out Sequester

• President Obama signed the Sequestration Transparency Act (H.R. 5872), a bill that compels his administration to submit to Congress a detailed report on sequestration within the next 30 days.

• Pratt & Whitney Canada may have settled with the US Department of Justice after pleading guilty to violating the Arms Export Control Act, but the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee sent a letter to SecDef Panetta to urge him to consider barring the company from DoD contracts. On June 28 the Department of State already imposed a statutory debarment [PDF] on P&W Canada (not its parent UTC).

• Academi, the company formerly known as Blackwater then XE, settled charges of arms export and other firearms regulatory violations by agreeing to pay a $7.5M fine on top of a $42M settlement with the Department of State.

Rapid Fire August 7, 2012: MDA Management

• The White House picked Rear Admiral James Syring to replace Army Lieutenant General Patrick O’Reilly as the head of the Missile Defense Agency. A few weeks ago a report from the Pentagon’s inspector general described O’Reilly as an irascible manager, to put it mildly. Syring is currently Program Executive Officer for Integrated Warfare Systems and will be the first sailor to head MDA, pending Senate approval.

Rapid Fire August 6, 2012: Indian Offsets | AWOL ANA

• India’s Ministry of Defence announced last week that it was easing offset rules, confirming earlier reports that Transfer of technology (ToT) would be made eligible for offsets. The policy is effective since August 1 and a new office – the Defense Offset Management Wing (DOMW) – has been created to administer them. Perception of these changes by the industry seems cautiously positive so far.

• The high level of desertions in the Afghan National Army (ANA) continues to worry analysts about Afghanistan’s ability to remain somewhat stable after NATO troops leave. On Saturday their parliament voted out the defense and interior ministers. President Karzai is keeping them around in acting positions until he finds replacements, which based on his track record may take quite a while.

• The Centre for Defence Enterprise (CDE) with the British MoD is about to close its call for proposals for unmanned maritime system technology.

Rapid Fire, August 3, 2012: Chinese Planes and Ships

• Given the high number of Chinese military aircraft that have not been produced several years after first exhibiting models, Richard Fisher, Jr. from the International Assessment and Strategy Center thinks [PDF] the vaporware label is often – though not always – justified.

• China’s naval modernization [updated CRS report, PDF] seems to be more substantial and sustained.

• Then there’s the discrepancy between how you model the threat, and what the threat actually is. Bill Sweetman at AviationWeek as a good post about the colorful experience of USAF pilots who flew Russian fighters in the 80s: