Rapid Fire Oct. 2, 2012: Warned Not to WARN

“DOD anticipates no contract actions on or about 2 January, 2013, and […] any action to adjust funding levels on contracts as a result of sequestration would likely not occur for several months after 2 Jan.”

• Rear Admiral Randolph L. Mahr will be assigned as deputy director of the JSF program. He was last appointed Commander of NAWCAD(Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division) two years ago after having been in charge of NAVAIR PMA-251 Aircraft Launch and Recovery Equipment (ALRE).

• The US Army created a Fixed Wing Project Office about a year ago within its Program Executive Office (PEO) Aviation. That team is now in the early phase of defining the capabilities of a Fixed-Wing Utility Aircraft that could be used for intelligence, transport and other utility missions.

• After a reorganization memo issued in July, The JTRS PEO has now been replaced by the Joint Tactical Networking Center (JTNC) which will handle SRW, MUOS, Link-16, WNW et al. Other JTRS leftovers AMF, HMS, and MIDS are transitioned to the services.

• One may not readily associate the US Coast Guard with foreign military sales (FMS) and excess defense articles (EDA), but they are actually involved in a number of such contracts to dispose of older assets and assist US allies in procuring, say, response boats.

• Following the Wikileaks debacle, the Department of Defense said last July that it was drafting Directive 5200.LL to establish the Defense Security Enterprise (DSE), “an executive level governance structure aimed at creating strategic management of department investments in security resources.” The Inspector General followed up with an assessment [PDF] that found DoD “security policies often overlap, are fragmentary, or inconsistent.” Directive 5200.43 [PDF] is now fleshing DSE out.

• The Pentagon’s 2012 Defense Manufacturing Management Guide for Program Managers is out.

• 3M to acquire Ceradyne for about $860M.