ABMS moves ahead with second round of contract awards. Adds 18 companies to 28 previously selected to compete for ABMS work. That sounds like a lot for just $3.3 billion over 5 years. If you spread that evenly, it’s $15 million per company per year. But there are also 28 different subsystems of ABMS, and the programs they touch will also probably chip in.
Silicon Valley tech start-up Anduril raises $200 million to create a software-driven Defense Dept. contractor. “… including Andreessen Horowitz and Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, increased Anduril’s valuation to nearly $2 billion… The federal spending database USASpending.gov shows roughly $28 million in contract awards for Anduril, a pittance for all but the smallest defense contractors.” That excludes classified contracts…
Spare us the F-35 Parts Mismanagement. “Program officials estimate there may be $18.63 billion or more worth of taxpayer-funded F-35 property around the world that is not properly accounted for.” Probably $135 billion or more has been spent already on the official F-35 acquisition, not including prototype program and sustainment. And then this: “Lockheed Martin employees directly purchased a Polaris GEM electric golf cart for $15,597.50 in 2015 and then billed the government for it even though they should have gone through GSA.”
Math problem: “You are working for the intelligence services in World War 2. A number of German tanks have been captured – with serial numbers 19, 40, 42 and 60.Assuming the numbers are assigned uniformly (no double numbering, no missed numbers) – how many tanks do the Germans have?”
Top US Air Force Officer praises Boeing CEO for fixes to aerial tanker. “The Air Force chief likened the situation to the early days of the C-17, the military’s large global transport aircraft. “In the beginning, it was a mess, and we almost lost that program a number of times, but nobody remembers that…”” I personally don’t like the fact that past failures become excuses for future failures. Like what the Air Force and Navy did to the F-16 and F-18 developments, screwing them up with misguided requirements and now everyone points to them to say the F-35 is doing fine.
Australia to sharply increase defence spending with focus on Indo-Pacific. “Australia will boost defence spending by 40% over the next 10 years.”
GM Defense wins Infantry Squad Vehicle production contract. Validates GM’s re-entry into defense. $214.3 million… “The contract covers the cost of the first 649 vehicles, with work to be completed by June 24, 2028. The service hopes to eventually procure 2,065 of the ISVs.”
SASC wants alternative GPS by 2023. “… DoD officials don’t want to undercut the costly GPS III program, designed to include improved anti-jam features.” Air FOrce chief scientist says those features are over-sold.
Thornberry talks acquisition reform in 2021 NDAA. “… some of Thornberry’s preferred provisions that target acquisitions and requirements processes made it into the chairman’s mark.” Why not *budget reform*? He still stands by the split of AT&L into USD(A&S) and USD(R&E), despite the obvious problems faced by Griffin in R&E leading to his exit. I’m agnostic, but think USD(R&E) needed to be given far more authority to match his responsibility. There was talk of giving R&E Milestone A, which was relatively insignificant and even that failed!
Northrop Grumman received $222 million contract to update aging missile-warning satellites. Interesting, considering DSP is already being replaced by SBIRS and Next-Gen OPIR is on its way. Here’s an example of defense primes getting huge awards to do “updates” because the original contract specific fixed requirements.
Air Force awards $5.25 million to accelerate quantum enabling technologies. To 23 small businesses! Somehow that worked out to 35 SBIR Phase I awards of $150K each. I think 10x that amount would’ve been appropriate. Shows how the real problem isn’t there could million dollar things, but $50+ million.
House NDAA presses DoD to get serious about sustainment costs. “… the House NDAA would require each of the military departments to appoint a full-time deputy assistant secretary focused exclusively on sustainment issues.” I don’t see this helping…
Here’s how the Space Force will be organized. The service space organizations from Army and Navy will also “funnel” into the Space Force’s new Space Systems Command.
Digital twins to enable 3D printing on battlefield. “I don’t want level-3 [MILSPEC] drawings anymore,” Jette said. “They were great in the ‘60s, but they’re not of any significant value to me today. What I want are the three-dimensional models that come with those.” Here’s a nice comparison: “In World War II, new models were tried out on the battlefield every three or four months.” And this: “The M-1 Abrams tank, for instance, has more than 2 tons of cable in it, “all tremendously expensive and all very, very structured.” Wow!
Army selects eight counter-drone systems for the joint force. Narrow counter-drone system from 40 down to 8. “This is really why the organization was stood up — to eliminate the redundancy that was being fielded.”
How COVID-19 has advanced the case for procurement reform. “We aren’t after a bit more transparency, we want a transformational change in the public marketplace.”
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