A fourth quarter surge in US federal spending? Not exactly:
“Yes, September of the federal fiscal year is the get-well month for sales, or at least that’s what many in the federal market like to believe. But the reality this year is quite different: while agencies are on track to finish spending their funds, the totals they will spend will be substantially less.”
The Financial Times reports a less-than-rosy outlook from the DSEI tradeshow in London in the video below:
Tianjin Myway International Trading Co. and Magforce International, from China and France respectively, were thrown out of the DSEI show “having been found with literature in breach of British law”, according to the event’s organizers. The offending material promoted electric shock weapons and leg restraints.
Lockheed Martin acquired Armor Group, a UK-based IT firm operating in non-defense markets, for undisclosed terms.
Today’s viral Op Ed is Vladimir Putin’s article on Syria: “My working and personal relationship with President Obama is marked by growing trust.” No comment.
President Obama’s speech on Syria last night opened with continued threats of strikes yet remained open to a diplomatic solution. The President then mixed concerns of regional spillover with reassurances that Assad is not a serious threat to its neighbors or the US. This nicely summarized the confusing, self-contradicting, everything-and-the-kitchen-sink handling that led even reliably leftist publications such as Slate or the New Republic to break ranks. If President Obama eventually asks for Congressional support for strikes, he’s looking less likely to get it by the day.
As wobbly and improvised as the Administration’s handling of Syria may be, US pressure did at least get out of the Assad regime the admission that it has chemical weapons. Getting them to acknowledge the obvious seems to count as progress.
US Secretary of State John Kerry’s off-the-cuffremark – meant to be rhetorical – that Bashar al-Assad could still avoid strikes by “[turning] over every bit of his weapons to the international community within the next week” was taken as a serious offer by the regime and its Russian backers. Or at least, as a serious opportunity to stall. Either way, this seems enough of a lifeline for the Obama administration that Senate majority leader Harry Reid decided to postpone a vote on authorizing the use of force against Syria.
Lighterage is about loading or unloading ships using lighters (barges) that can form a sort of ad-hoc ramp or shuttle from ships at anchor; they are often used when a port’s dockside is too shallow for the ship, or dockside berths are unavailable. These modules greatly expand landing options for well-equipped militaries, and may be versatile enough to be used in sea-based transfers as well. Even so, lighterage is one of those quiet enablers that rarely receives the attention it merits.
National Journal notes how America has been taking a sharp turn inward. That isolationist streak was already apparent in the US House of Representatives during debates about Libya in 2011. This dynamic can lead to otherwise unlikely alliances across the aisle which make whip counts less reliable than usual. Members of Congress are coming back from summer recess and what they’ve heard from most of their constituents is that they oppose getting involved in Syria. In short, the Obama administration is facing an uphill battle this week as it tries to convince Congress and the public that strikes on Syria are in the United States’ national interest.
Will lukewarm support from the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committees for a resolution [PDF] authorizing strikes against Syria translate into 60 votes in the US Senate as a whole? Then there’s the House, where some pro-defense lawmakers may try to tie a renewed effort to repeal sequestration to authorizing the use of force against Assad’s regime. Yesterday’s hearing at the House Foreign Affairs panel can be seen in the video below:
With debate over what to do with Syria at the top of the US Congress’ agenda, the FY2014 defense bill is likely to be further delayed. Its chances of getting through the Senate, let alone conference with the House, before the end of the month/fiscal year were already slim.
The USS Theodore Roosevelt [CVN 71] was built by Northrop Grumman’s Newport News sector. Commissioned on Oct 25/86, CVN 71 is expected to remain in service until 2036. As it approaches its mid-life stage, however, the wear begins to show. Instead of putting a ramp on its flight deck, buying it a nice red car, and pairing it with much younger ships, the US government has begun preparing for the refueling and complex overhaul (RCOH) of the carrier and its reactor plants.
The USS Theodore Roosevelt arrived at the Newport News shipyard in August 2009 to begin its RCOH, and Northrop Grumman has valued the planning phase alone at $558 million. So what exactly is a RCOH, and how expensive is it likely to get before all is said and done?
After hearing John Kerry and Chuck Hagel (see video below), the US Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee came up with a resolution [PDF] narrowing the scope of a possible military intervention against Syria by explicitly ruling out the presence of US troops “on the ground in Syria for the purpose of combat operations.” Kerry would still like the President to have that option, were Syria to “implode.” A similar hearing is scheduled today with the House foreign affairs panel at 12pm ET. House leadership is lined up behind the president, which does not necessarily mean the rank and file will follow.
India’s Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses published a column accusing the US of selective memory, and possibly double standard, on post-WWI use of chemical weapons. Some of the cited historical precedent is contentious.
Huntington Ingalls Industries will close its Gulfport Composite Center of Excellence by May 2014, acknowledging they had little choice after the Navy decided to use steel on Zumwalt destroyers.
AM General and Navistar are both filing GAO protests against USSOCOM’s award to General Dynamics for Ground Mobility Vehicle (GMV) 1.1, reports Defense News. Such protests are almost Standard Operating Procedure these days.
The US Navy’s Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) has conducted joint helicopter crash tests in cooperation with NASA and the FAA.
The Pentagon is backtracking from a milestone set 2 years ago by then-SecDef Leon Panetta that was meant to get the department closer to its deadline to finally be fully auditable by FY17.
After President Obama decided to seek Congressional authorization for strikes against Syria, his administration submitted a resolution whose language appears up for negotiation. Two Senate hearings (one of them classified) are scheduled tomorrow to bolster support for military action. A vote should take place next week when Congress reconvenes from recess. WaPo | Politico | NYT.
