Pentagon, Congress have trust issues, budget reform panel’s Lord says. (Defense News) From the GMU-DAU Conference: “Early work by a congressionally mandated budget reform commission has highlighted an “incredible lack of trust and communication” between the U.S. Department of Defense and Congress… The commission has been meeting quietly for more than six months and is on track to deliver an interim report on its findings in August 2023, with a final report due in March 2024. Lord said topics have included reprogramming thresholds and how to make special acquisition authorities more accessible.”
Contracting for Success. (DAU) DPC John Tenaglia: “In Fiscal Year 2021 (FY21), the DoD employed the CSO approach in 93 actions, leading to $1.85 billion in obligations under FAR contracts or Other Transaction (OT) agreements. Is it a “calculated risk” to employ CSOs? Perhaps so in that our acquisition professionals may be less familiar or less comfortable with the approach or concerned that the results may be challenged. But I encourage you to consider it as a viable alternative approach, particularly for requirements other than our most significant development and investment programs.”
New guidance from Space Force acquisition boss: The traditional ways must be reformed. (Space News) ““The traditional ways of doing space acquisition must be reformed in order to add speed to our acquisitions to meet our priorities,” Calvelli wrote in the memo.” The nine tenets, Calvelli said, are intended to help develop a new space acquisition philosophy:
- Build smaller satellites, smaller ground systems and minimize non-recurring engineering.
- Get the acquisition strategy correct. Have clear, specific, unambiguous statements of work, minimize and avoid government furnished equipment and avoid putting the government in the middle of multiple contracts as the integrator.
- Enable teamwork between contracting officers and program managers, and they preferably should be collocated.
- Award contracts with realistic cost and schedule targets to avoid low bids and buy-ins.
- Maintain stability in programs. Push back on year-to-year budget changes that drive rebaselining and slow down acquisitions. Avoid accepting new requirements after going on contract.
- Avoid over-classifying
- Deliver ground before launch
- Hold industry accountable for results
- Execute and deliver capabilities that work, on schedule and on cost.
Navy ‘scoping study’ to examine shipyard capacity, potential for new yard. (Breaking Defense) “… industry frequently asks the Navy about considerations for a new public shipyard. He also stressed that the scoping study was preliminary and there is no clear consensus in the service yet about whether another shipyard is even necessary, let alone whether it will be built.”
Air Force launches autonomy prime program in hunt for new tech. (Defense News) “The RFI said the Air Force plans to create “a purpose-built autonomy testing and development facility,” dubbed the AFWERX Proving Ground, which will let firms demonstrate, test and develop their technologies side-by-side with Air Force personnel… Meagher declined to detail Autonomy Prime’s budget, but said it operates within Agility Prime’s budget. He said the cost of individual programs could range from thousands of dollars to low millions.”
Australia’s school-bus sized smart underwater war-drones will travel completely flooded. (Interesting Engineering) “All XL-AUVs will “have a framework of aluminum covered with a lightweight skin that has gaps in it, and they will travel completely flooded,” David Goodrich, Anduril’s chief executive, told the newspaper… Every prototype will feature a wet hull, allowing water to flow freely through the AUVs… “They’ll have a common battery-powered propulsion system at the stern, a common navigation, and control system in the nose cone, and everything in between is for the payload.””
China: Lithium batteries may soon power world’s largest fleet of submarines. (Interesting Engineering) “Lithium-ion batteries could soon power China’s massive fleet of conventional submarines due to advancements in the nation’s globally dominant electric car industry, according to a study by China’s Navy… According to Wang’s team, lithium-battery-powered submarines would most likely adopt the iron phosphate strategy as China significantly relies on outside nations for the supply of nickel and cobalt.”
Bid protests decline for 4th consecutive year. (nextgov) “Fiscal 2022’s total is the fewest protests industry has filed since fiscal 2008—with 1,652 protests filed—and represents a nearly 40% decrease in annual protests filed compared to fiscal 2018’s recent high-water mark of 2,607… In the past, GAO officials have attributed enhanced debriefings and better communication overall between government and industry as factors in reducing big protest totals.”
Terran Orbital jumps after spacecraft builder raises $100 million from Lockheed Martin. (CNBC) “The company went public via a SPAC earlier this year and, like many space stocks, has been hit hard by the shifting risk environment in the market. CNBC previously reported that Terran was among the space SPAC stocks seeking capital, with several companies facing a cash crunch.”
OMFV race revs up: All 5 competitors bid to build Bradley replacement prototypes. (Breaking Defense) All designs are converging on:
- a tracked vehicle (rather than wheeled) with hybrid-electric drive, which both reduces demand on fuel supplies and allows stealthier “silent watch” and “silent maneuver” modes;
- an unmanned turret boasting a 50 mm autocannon (or a 30 mm with option to upgrade);
- a two-person crew — down from the Bradley’s three — assisted by extensive automation, plus passenger space for six infantry soldiers.
“The Rheinmetall and Hanwha vehicles are already on the market, so people know a lot about Lynx and Redback already; if those teams had all-new, as-yet unseen designs like GDLS and BAE, they might be just as guarded.”
Pentagon seeks additive manufacturing to spur hypersonic development. (C4ISRNET) “In a request for proposals issued Oct. 28, the department asked companies large and small, as well as academia, to submit prototype proposals for developing hypersonic components using additive manufacturing…“The science has proven it’s possible, but the practice is not widespread enough. GAMMA-H will encourage further adoption of groundbreaking technology.”
Ukraine suffered a comms outage when 1,300 SpaceX satellite units went offline over funding issues. (CNN) “The recent outage started on October 24 and was described by one person briefed on the situation as a “huge problem” for Ukraine’s military.”
- There are >25K terminals total. Many of them partially paid for by US, Polish, and UK govt. About 30% of monthly connectivity bill was paid too.
- Ukraine asked the UK to pay the $3.25M bill for the 1,300 terminals. UK said there were higher priorities for Ukraine’s own effort.
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