Rapid Fire Oct. 18, 2013: Pentagon Back in Business, Slowly | France in Mali

Pentagon Back in Business

• US Senator Kelly Ayotte [R-NH] lifted her hold on Deborah Lee James’ nomination [PDF] as Air Force Secretary, which now looks ready to be confirmed by the Senate at the end of the month. Ayotte had blocked James’ nomination last month because the USAF was considering retiring its A-10s.

• The GAO denied [PDF] a protest filed by Grant Thornton, LLP challenging the source selection scheme chosen by the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) to help assess its audit readiness. DLA evaluated bidders through lowest-price, technically acceptable criteria and used an online reverse auction, mechanisms that the accounting firm thought unworthy of its highly complex services.

Rapid Fire Oct 17, 2013: US Government Schedules Next Round of Fireworks to Early 2014

Shutdown Shut Down

• Having failed to come up with a bill of their own yesterday, House Republicans were left with little choice but to capitulate to the very sort of Senate bill they were adamant to avoid. The Continuing Appropriations Act (HR 2775) first sailed through the Senate (81-18 roll call) then passed in the House with a 285-144 roll call (all Democrats in, 87 yeas and 144 nays on the Republican side, with a stenographer meltdown thrown in for good measure). President Obama then promptly signed it, putting an end to the crisis – for now. More in our comprehensive FY14 overview.

Rapid Fire Oct. 16, 2013: US Senate Bill May Include DoD Flexibility, While House Dithers

US Shutdown Watch

• House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner [R-OH] failed to rally Republicans to back what was supposed to be an alternative to the stopgap fiscal bill being discussed in the Senate. This weakens the hand of House GOP lawmakers objecting to the compromise about to emerge from the upper chamber. That bill may, or may not, include some appropriations flexibility for the Department of Defense, within the boundaries of sequestration. WSJ | LAT | Politico | NYT | Defense News | More from Def News.

• About 25% of workers are idled at Aerospace Testing Alliance in Tullahoma, TN.

Rapid Fire Oct. 15, 2013: Any US Senate Deal Will Have to Win Over House Too

Shutdown Watch

• US Senate leaders are saying they are close to reaching a deal to put an end to the government shutdown and raise the debt limit. This would get another round of talks started until early 2014, and would revisit sequestration constraints. The Senate still needs to finalize and pass a bill, then send it back to the House where the fate of a watered-down compromise remains uncertain at best. This puts pressure on Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to work out a deal palatable to House conservatives.

Britain Orders more STARStreak Anti-Aircraft Missiles

STARStreak

In 2009, Britain was looking to cut the number of STARStreak portable air defense missiles in stock, even as it signed a through-life support contract that would last until 2020-2021. In 2013, they changed course, buying another 200 missiles in order to deploy it beyond Britain’s regular forces and into reserve formations.

The new missile will be delivered by June 2014, and the buy is good news for Thales’ Belfast, Northern Ireland facility. The missile itself is somewhat unusual.

Israel, Offshore: More and Better Super Dvora Fast Boats?

Super Dvora Mk.III

Israel isn’t the first country that comes to mind when one thinks of naval exporters, but it has enjoyed success in one limited field: patrol craft. Its Dvora family, whose largest Mk.III boats are 90 feet long and just 70t, has been sold beyond Israel to Eritrea, Gambia, India, Paraguay, Slovenia, Sri Lanka, and Taiwan. Taiwan fitted its boats with missiles, but otherwise, the Dvoras have been a gunboat class.

Israel’s frigate plans are in limbo, but the country needs to move fast in order to protect its recently-discovered offshore natural gas fields against stated threats from Turkey and Syria. They’ve just ordered another 3 Super Dvora Mk.IIIs to that end, while IAI reconsiders the class’ status as a mere gunboat…

Rapid Fire Oct. 14, 2013: US Senate New Nexus of Shutdown ‘Negotiations’

Shutdown Watch

• Debate to sort out the US federal budget has moved from the House to the Senate. This seems to be bringing back sequestration on the agenda, which may be another point of contention rather than a catalyst for agreement.

Rapid Fire Oct. 11, 2013: US Debt Ceiling Talks: Don’t Call Them a ‘Negotiation’

US Sh-tdown Watch

• No deal, some talk between House Republicans and the Administration. Since defunding Obamacare was an obvious nonstarter, and even delaying part of its implementation didn’t pan out, Republicans are changing their angle. Talks, to the extent President Obama will admit to negotiating, are shifting to a broader discussion over government spending and the debt ceiling. Which is not necessarily good news per se for the defense sector, though in the end, “stop digging” might count as such.

• The U.S. Army Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training and Instrumentation (PEO STRI) is putting on hold its intent to recompete the Instrumentable-Multiple Integrated Laser Engagement System Tactical Vehicle System (I-MILES TVS, i.e. a training device used on a variety of vehicles). Cubic delivered the first such systems about a year ago. An industry day was supposed to happen about now, with an eventual $192M RFP for 16,000 kits. This is part of a broader effort [PDF] by Project Manager Training Devices to provide more realistic training conditions.

• The Association of the United States Army’s annual event intends to proceed, shutdown or not.

Pentagon Exit Costs

• US Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter will step down on December 4. It is fair to speculate that given Carter’s extensive institutional knowledge at the Pentagon, he’d rather have succeeded Leon Panetta as Secretary of Defense than remain in the #2 chair.

• Holding shipments of weapon systems to Egypt will cost the US government millions of dollars, though the State department recognizes they don’t have more specific numbers at the moment.

CACI buys cyber/SIGINT company

• CACI is buying Six3 Systems for $820M (a little less than 2 years worth of their revenue), pending regulatory approval. It’s a sizable acquisition since Six3 will add 1,600 people to CACI’s 15,000 employees. Nonetheless Loren Thompson advises private equity firms to be cautious.

Supporting Afghanistan

• Dmitry Gorenburg from the CNA research organization expects the US to disengage from Central Asia, as the odds of a security agreement with Afghanistan don’t look so good, but he argues it’s not necessarily a bad thing.

• As NATO forces in Afghanistan are transitioning to a support role, their missions increasingly look like the overwatch of an Afghan supply convoy in the video below:

Rapid Fire Oct. 10, 2013: Huge Offsets Lack Transparency from Buyers, Sellers

Offset Exposure

• The Financial Times and IHS Jane’s estimate that a dozen of the top prime defense contractors have a combined $75B worth of offset obligations, though there’s very little transparency around these deals. Lockheed Martin and Boeing lead the list, which is driven by large contracts in the Middle East and Asia. These offsets take sometimes surprising forms such as technical help provided to fisheries in Oman. More in the video below:

US Gov’t Shutdown Watch

• Attendance at defense trade shows, already down because of sequestration, is further depressed by the shutdown.

Rapid Fire Oct. 9, 2013: House Defense Faction Wants to Drop Obamacare Fight

US Budget, Or Lack Of

• House Armed Services Committee (HASC) Chairman Buck McKeon [R-CA] wants his party to recognize they’re not going to win the current fight over Obamacare, and go back to addressing sequestration cuts to defense. But if most House Republicans want to reign in the overall budget and roll back the Affordable Care Act as their primary targets, HASC members may be too isolated to exert much influence over the agenda, let alone the outcome of this season’s fiscal fight. The latest plan from the House GOP leadership is another supercommittee – since the one from 2011 worked out so well – but Democrats don’t seem inclined to participate.