USA
* One of Deputy Secretary of Defense Ashton B. Carter’s last acts involved an interim policy to replace the previous DoD Instruction 5000.02 acquisition guidelines supplement. The defense Acquisition Portal’s Program Management Community of Practice builds on that with Frank Kendall’s personal memo to everyone in the DoD Acquisition Workforce.
* The Washington Post reports that Camp Leatherneck has an empty $36 million complex that was built in 2010 for 4x as many HQ staff as are in country, against the recommendations of the top USMC commander. Maj. Gen. Peter Vangjel, who overrode that objection, is now the Army’s top inspector general tasked with ferreting out wasteful spending in the service. Memo to the Pentagon: Personnel is Policy.
* A bit of Republican turnover in the House Appropriations Committee. Rep. Mark Amodei (NV-02), Rep. Martha Roby (AL-02), and Rep. Chris Stewart (UT-02) have been added, following the resignations of Congressmen Rodney Alexander and Jo Bonner, and the death of Defense Subcommittee Chair C.W. Bill Young.
How much for that carrier in the window?
* DSI Magazine reports that Spain’s Principe de Asturias light carrier, which is being retired from the Navy for budgetary reasons, has an interested suitor: Angola. (article in French). Why does Angola want the carrier, could they actually operate it if bought, and is the report legit? Good questions. Guess we’ll see.
Behind closed doors
* Sue Cameron of the Telegraph reports on the UK’s latest inside knife-fights, including the number of defense-related ministers (6!?!), pay for program managers, and why the service chiefs are still hanging out in Whitehall.
* Booz | Allen | Hamilton has just released their “Top Financial Services Cyber Security Trends for 2014” report. Many of its concepts and points could apply equally to the defense industry.
* Lockheed Martin has just opened the doors on an interesting bit of R&D from their Advanced Technology Center (ATC): the lightest satellite cryocooler ever built, at just 11 ounces. That’s 1/3 as much as previous systems, and it’s expected to have a lifespan of at least 10 years.
How many shades of grey?
* Australia is changing the color it paints its Navy ships. Apparently, the Storm Grey color adopted in the 1950s is designed to deter detection under the Northern Hemisphere’s overcast skies. They’re switching to a regionally-compatible Haze Grey variant, based on polysiloxane paints with Near Infrared Reflecting Pigments (NIRR). As a bonus, the new paint will reduce external shipboard temperatures by up to 20 degrees Celsius.
Video: Meet your maker in a Martin Baker!
Meet your maker in a Martin-Baker, quips millogger XBRADTC, as he offers a quick briefing covering the evolution of the humble ejection seat, and an official video of F-35 ejection seats showing of key features, blasting off, and rocketing away. Hey, did you know they still use Gloster Meteor jets for testing? World War 2 Gloster Meters?!? Yup. The 2-seat Meteor T.7 WA638 and T.7 WL419 jets have in use since 1952. The “pilots” shown are mannequins, of course:
