SDA a ‘model’ that could shake up all space acquisition: Calvelli. (Breaking Defense) ““They are building small, they are doing things on two-year [cycles], and they are delivering capabilities faster. And I actually think that’s a model that we can take advantage of and actually push across the organization, across the other PEO.”… Therefore, Calvelli said, when SDA is integrated into the Space Force “in a couple of weeks,” there will be no “dramatic organizational changes” for the agency nor any changes to its current acquisition authorities.”
Is Space Force moving fast enough for its Rapid Capabilities Office? (Defense News) ““I need to have the processes in place for rapid fielding and acceptance of these things, and that’s not getting a lot of traction right now,” Space RCO Director Kelly Hammett… The Space RCO today manages 14 projects with the goal of transitioning them to operations within five years. Key to the office’s ability to move fast are its decision-making authorities and its status as a direct reporting unit to Chief of Space Operations Gen. Jay Raymond. The organization has no special exemptions from federal acquisition regulations, just independence and focused requirements.”
Congress must act on Small Biz Innovation Research reauthorization. (Defense News) Emily Murphy: “There are two reasons given for Congress’ failure to reauthorize the 40-year-old program: national security and so-called SBIR mills… Rather than trying to legislate a formula for how many times modern day inventors are allowed to fail, Congress should make it easier to fund the most meritorious R&D proposals. It can do so in two ways. First, Congress should encourage agencies to share the outcomes from past awards… Second, to promote new entrants to the R&D space, Congress should increase the use of open topics for early-stage SBIR awards.”
Defense budget reform panel at work after ‘organizational problems.’ (Defense News) “The congressionally mandated Commission on Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Execution Reform, has been quietly convening for more than five months, interviewing witnesses and hiring staff, according to its chairman, former Pentagon comptroller Bob Hale… “From the time the services begin their programming and planning process, with congressional review and contracting, it can take two to four years for an idea to go to contract,” Hale said. “That’s not going to work for high-tech stuff where technology can change in two to four months. Can we speed up the process? Are there ways to improve flexibility and execution?””
It took ‘couple of months’ to put US anti-radiation missiles on Ukrainian fighters, USAF reveals. (Breaking Defense) “It took only a “couple of months” for defense contractors to equip the Ukrainian air force’s Soviet-era MiG-29 and Su-27 fighters with American-made AGM-88 High Speed Radiation Missiles… On the battlefield, Russia is able to thwart the use of HARM missiles by turning off its radars. But that can benefit Ukraine as well… Over the course of the war, the Ukrainians have shot down at least 55 Russian aircraft, mostly using SA-10 and SA-11 surface to air missiles, Hecker said. If losses on the ground are counted, that number rises to more than 60 warplanes.”
DoD still has work to do on OTA transparency, watchdog says. (Fed Scoop) “The majority of OTAs in recent years went to consortia, GAO found, with $24 billion between fiscal 2019 and 2021, specifically for prototyping efforts to include the COVID-19 vaccine. Moreover, most of the 28 consortia awarded during this time were only managed by four organizations…“[T]he lack of centralized information-sharing puts the onus on contracting personnel to develop their own practices or rely on ad hoc outreach to others to identify key considerations for planning prior to the award of consortia-based OTAs,” according to the report.”
Motivated millennials set to replace baby boomers, defense execs say. (Defense News) ““We use to say, ‘The millennials are coming.’ The millennials are here,” said Frank St. John, chief operating officer at Lockheed Martin, the world’s largest defense company. “They represent the largest demographic in our workforce right now. They represent about 40% of our population.”… Americans have been quitting their jobs in droves, a trend some have dubbed the “Great Resignation.” Stein said that for the defense sector, it’s been more like a “Great Retirement” with the pandemic motivating baby boomers to exit the workforce early…Since 2017, the age of employees in the aerospace and defense sector has averaged around 47 years old, while employees 55 or older made up 26% of the workforce”
FCC denies SpaceX $900 million in Starlink funding. (Space.com) “The space launch services giant was recently rejected for nearly $900 million dollars in rural connectivity funding from the Wireline Competition Bureau… Simultaneously, SpaceX competitor Lynk received FCC approval(opens in new tab) Sept. 16 for its satellite-to-phone connection network, now only lacking a mobile phone service partner to bring the service. The news comes as SpaceX, seeking that same market, already announced a forthcoming partnership with T-Mobile in August even though it wasn’t approved by the FCC for that service yet.”
Decision superiority: Air Force picks 5 companies to develop ABMS digital. (Breaking Defense) “SAIC, L3 Harris, Leidos, Raytheon and Northrop Grumman each announced they were selected to be part of the ABMS Digital Infrastructure Consortium, led by the Air Force’s Rapid Capabilities Office… Meanwhile, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall announced today the service has created a new office in charge of overseeing acquisition for ABMS. Brig. Gen. Luke Cropsey will lead the new integrated program office for Command, Control, Communications and Battle Management (C3BM) and have.”
Siemens, 29 others added to Air Force’s $950 million JADC2 contract. (C4ISRNET) “The U.S. Air Force on Sept. 22 selected 30 more vendors to compete for work associated with Joint All-Domain Command and Control.”
Fighter radars have changed the nature of combat: A look forward and back. (Breaking Defense) “In the 2017-2018 timeframe, there was a change in the market where customers, both foreign and domestic, were looking for a low-cost attritable solution. Rather than making an iterative change to our current APG-79 and APG-82 AESA radars, the team started fresh. They developed a fire-control radar solution that was lightweight with low-power consumption, as well as being affordable. It’s designed for SWaP-constrained air platforms such as UAVs, rotary wing, and light attack.”
Army depot officials and vendors sentenced in bid-rigging scheme. (Army Times) “Two officials at a Texas Army depot and two vendors who sold items to the depot were sentenced Tuesday for their role in a bribery scheme involving artificial bids for the depot’s purchases… Scarbrough steered purchases toward the vendors in exchange for bribes that included antique-car modifications and donations to his volunteer fire department, according to court documents… By collecting fake bids from multiple vendors, Scarbrough ensured that the vendor he favored would win, while making it seem that the process was competitive… In return, Scarbrough solicited more than $300,000 in bribes from Harrison and Bishop, according to the Justice Department.”
Air Force discloses procurement fraud probe, provides few details. (Military Times) ““This investigation is still open and ongoing,” Card said. “Complex fraud investigations like this one generally take a very long time to conclude.” … Defense contracting fraud comes in many forms, from overbilling the Pentagon to providing counterfeit components to falsifying military housing paperwork. The Justice Department was publicly handling nearly 80 major defense fraud and bribery cases as of April, five of which involve the Air Force… From 2013 to 2017, the federal government recovered more than $6.6 billion from defense contracting fraud cases, according to the Government Accountability Office.”
Leave a Reply