CVN-72 Carrier RCOH: Shall not Perish

Somewhere, over
the rainbow…

Nuclear reactors save a lot of diesel fuel on huge ships like aircraft carriers, but there’s a catch. Mid-way through the ship’s 50-year life, the nuclear reactor needs to be refueled. The resulting “Refueling and Complex OverHaul” (RCOH) is a long, complex, potentially hazardous, and very expensive process, which also includes widespread upgrades throughout the ship. Anyone who has ever done home renovations knows that the opportunity to make upgrades can be nearly irresistible in these situations. In truth, this stage in the carrier’s life is an excellent time for that kind of work.

The USS Abraham Lincoln [CVN 72] was built by Northrop Grumman’s Newport News sector. Commissioned on Nov 11/1989 and homeported in Everett, WA, CVN 72 is expected to remain in service until 2039. As it approaches its mid-life stage, however, its mid-life upgrade and reactor refueling likewise approaches. Its counterpart USS Carl Vinson [CVN 70] completed its RCOH at the end of 2009, and USS Theodore Roosevelt’s [CVN 71] is underway. CVN 72 will become the 6th American carrier to undergo this procedure.

Rapid Fire March 29, 2013: GAO Scoops DoD on State of Major Programs

• The US GAO’s most recent batch of defense reports is focused on acquisition, starting with their latest assessment of Selected Weapon Programs (the infamous SAR report itself has not been publicly released by the Pentagon yet), while a 2nd report finds some IT programs (known as MAIS) have high management turnover, and a 3rd report notes that the number of contracts competed by DoD has been decreasing, with just 37% of USAF contracts competed in FY12.

• According to the GAO the Pentagon’s portfolio has shrunk to an XXXXL size of $1.6 trillion across 86 programs, a decrease of 10 programs and $109B. R&D costs grew by 0.4% from the previous year, while procurement decreased by 3.8%, mostly because of program cancellations and restructurings. They lament the lack of a proper acquisition baseline for $130B+ of spending on BMDS, because of the way the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) was exempted from the usual constraints set by DFARS legislation. More granular SAR highlights will be featured in our program coverage in the days to come, and the reports are in our Google Drive.

Rapid Fire, March 28, 2013: NAVAIR FACE Standards

• US NAVAIR’s Air Combat Electronics office (PMA209) recently held an industry day on the Future Airborne Capability Environment (FACE). Here is the slidedeck [PDF] explaining that FACE is a standard of standards set to re-architect the acquisition of aircraft software systems.

• Ellen Lord, the recently-appointed CEO of Textron Systems, told Defense News that she’s not sure she has seen changes per se from Better Buying Power acquisition reform, save for more compliance-driven caution and rigor.

• Defense Update questions the motives and methodology of researchers quoted by Haaretz, who said that Iron Dome’s real interception rate was much lower than was self-reported by the Israel Defense Forces.

DoD Budget: Fiscal 2013-17 Highlights, Numbers & Unfolding Events

Latest updates[?]: In the anticlimax of the year, President Obama signs the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act (HR 933), which finally wraps up US defense funding legislation for fiscal year 2013.

On normal years the US Department of Defense goes through a complicated-enough process to establish and finalize its budget. But whereas FY 2012 offered a welcome return to normalcy after a very long continuing resolution, the budgeting cycle for fiscal year 2013 unfolded in an unproductive, fractious political environment.

As fiscal year 2012 came to a close Congress bought time with a continuing resolution. And as the new civil year started, Congress begrudgingly applied a short-term patch to avoid the fiscal cliff, while the President eventually signed a FY13 authorization bill containing language he had threatened to veto for months. By March 2013 everyone seemed to capitulate to wrap up appropriations for the rest of the year. But FY13 appropriations ended up including sequestration, an outcome that few had predicted since the Budget Control Act was passed in 2011. The FY14 budget cycle then started late, with only dim hope of a more reasonable outcome.

Rapid Fire March 27, 2013: Get Better at Better Buying Power

• The US Defense Acquisition University will host a workshop on (Better Buying Poker) Better Buying Power in Fort Belvoir, VA, on April 9. On the agenda: should cost, data rights, performance-based logistics.

• Australia’s phased withdrawal from Afghanistan will involve the closure of a base at Tarin Kowt and the return of about 1,000 troops by the end of 2013, out of a total of around 1,600. Press conference transcript | News Limited.

Rapid Fire March 26, 2013: Handling and Costing the Logistics Flow Back from Afghanistan

• The UK-based Guardian quotes US Brigadier General Steve Shapiro, director of the Materiel Enterprise Integration and Retrograde Operations Center, as saying he’s been “hearing about $6B in transportation costs” out of Afghanistan. Given such high exit costs, there’s a strong incentive to leave as much low-value stuff in the country as possible. Out of a total of about 100,000 containers and 30,000 vehicles, it’s not worth shipping it all back.

• The flow of vehicles out of Afghanistan began last month. Picture a 25-container convoy on Pakistan’s roads! On the receiving end, the Army’s Surface Deployment and Distribution Command (SDDC) has started handling returning Stryker Brigade Combat Team vehicles and containers.

• Raytheon has announced a reorganization that among other things merges its Intelligence and Information Systems and Technical Services divisions, leading to a reduction of their workforce by about 200 people. Prime contractors have found for the last couple of years that their IT services were easier to be cut in the short term than multi-year armament contracts. Buzzword-compliant press release.

Rapid Fire March 25, 2013: Chinese Budget; Indian Ocean Ambitions

• Adam Liffa and Andrew Erickson try to shed some light on China’s military budget in China Quarterly. They’re saying the inflation-adjusted growth rate has been slowing down and converging with GDP growth, which itself has cooled down. This would amount to net growth in the 7%-8% range this year, based on Chinese inflation at about 3%-4%. However the current budget, done during the recent power transition in Beijing, may still prove to be an outlier.

• Of course any Western military would love to see its budget growth shrink to “just 8%” per year. Latest country to face another round of cuts: the UK. Treasury Budget 2013 [PDF] | FT | Guardian.

• Count Turkey’s Defense Industry Undersecretary among those who’d like to have more money. The country’s armament exports reached $1.2B last year while their defense budget has remained in a $13B-$15B/year range. Hürriyet Daily News.

• Probably too much has been made of China’s investments in a port in Gwadar, Pakistan. China has other options to gain access to the Indian ocean, from islands such Sri Lanka or the Seychelles, to Bangladesh and Myanmar. But these infrastructure investments and partnerships, Gwadar included, are far from a walk in the park. And even if China ends up developing these projects successfully, it would not necessarily mean that it is on a collision course with “resident power” [PDF] India. Friction between the two seems inevitable but there is also room for cooperation.

Saab’s Mysterious S-2000 AEW&C Customer? Saudi Arabia

S-2000 AEW&C

In early October 2010, Saab Group announced an SEK 4.5 billion (about $671.5 million) contract to supply its Saab 2000 airborne early warning and control system (AEW&C), which includes “a Saab 2000 aircraft” (singular), to an undisclosed customer. Later reports identified that customer as Saudi Arabia.

This announcement of a Saab 2000 ERIEYE airborne early warning and control system sale is another step toward Saab’s positioning goal as a leading global supplier of mid-tier AEW&C surveillance. As a bonus, Saudi sales also mean ongoing support contracts.

Rapid Fire March 22, 2013: DoD Furloughs Delayed

• The Pentagon has decided to delay the issuance of furloughs for its civilian employees by a couple of weeks.

• President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy made a surprisingly candid and lucid speech [PDF] at an event held by the European Defense Agency:

Beyond the fields of military training and maintenance, there are other areas where we are hardly at the beginning of defence cooperation: in particular, technological innovation (for our industrial base), and procurement (for investment and equipment). Here also, as an expert put it, “reluctance becomes unaffordable”. I understand in practice it is more complicated.”

Rapid Fire March 21, 2013: Towards US Budget Agreement?

• The US Senate passed HR 933 with a 73-26 roll call to fund DoD and the rest of the federal government until September 30, after considering a final batch of amendments. The bill goes back to the House today, and it looks like a done deal. Update: indeed, as the house clears the Senate’s amendments with a 318-109 roll call. This bakes in the sequester for the rest of the fiscal year, pending a presidential signature that will no doubt be expedited.

• The FY14 US President Budget coming next month will offer to postpone cuts to the 2019-23 FYDP, said acquisition chief Frank Kendall at an NDIA event.