July 24, 2019 | International, Other Defence
By: Joe Gould and Leo Shane III
WASHINGTON — The Senate on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved Mark Esper to be the country's 27th defense secretary, ending a wait of more than 200 days for a permanent Pentagon leader.
Esper's relatively drama-free confirmation vote — 90-8 — stood in contrast to the seven months of uncertainty in the highest levels of the military's leadership.
After former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis was forced out of his post early on the first day of 2019, acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan helmed the department until he suddenly withdrew from consideration for the full-time job in June amid reports of domestic violence among his family members.
Esper, who until then had served as Army secretary for since late 2017, bounced between that job and the acting defense secretary job over the last five weeks. Lawmakers and military officials expressed concerns over the temporary, unclear leadership in recent months, especially as other top military posts were vacated.
Tuesday's vote ends the longest period the Defense Department has gone without a permanent, confirmed leader since it became a Cabinet-level agency.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said ahead of the vote Tuesday that Esper is “beyond qualified” for the top military job.
"His record of public service is beyond impressive,” McConnell said. “His commitment to serving our service members is beyond obvious. And the need for a Senate-confirmed secretary of defense is beyond urgent.”
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., offered similar praise.
“It's not very often we have someone that is enthusiastically supported by Republicans, by Democrats, and he is obviously the right person,” he said. “He has the trust of our president, the trust of our military, the trust of Congress and the country to keep our nation safe.”
The only sharp opposition to Esper's nomination came from Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Senate Armed Services Committee member and 2020 presidential hopeful, who grilled Esper over his ties to his former employer, Raytheon.
But since President Donald Trump announced Esper's nomination last month, Democrats and Republicans have mostly offered effusive praise for Esper as the right candidate for the job.
At Esper's confirmation hearing last week, Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., lauded Esper for hosting him and Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., for an unvarnished look at problematic Army housing in Virginia.
“That willingness to show personal accountability was very, very impressive,” Kaine said. “He's been proactive and he's been transparent. ... And I think those are trademarks of exceptional leadership.”
Work ahead
Esper, a West Point graduate and former Army lieutenant colonel, was vice president of government relations for Raytheon — the third-largest defense contractor in the United States — for seven years before becoming Army secretary. His most notable work leading the Army included a shake-up of the service's acquisitions portfolio.
He inherits a military charged with following the National Defense Strategy's focus on competition with Russia and China but still grappling with Iran tensions, politically charged troop deployments on America's southern border and pressure from Trump to exit Afghanistan.
The American Enterprise Institute's Rick Berger said the leadership vacuum after Mattis has left the Pentagon “adrift.” Esper would be wise to reset relationships with Capitol Hill and the press, who have both grumbled at a lack of engagement, he added.
“The department has never been more timid about telling its story to the public or to Capitol Hill, a legacy of Secretary Mattis and his caretaker successor,” Berger said.
Loren DeJong Schulman, a deputy director at the Center for a New American Security, said Esper's priorities will be to fill the department's widespread leadership vacancies, to dig into the fiscal 2021 budget process and to assert himself in decisions regarding tension with Iran.
"In doing so, he has the opportunity to reorient some troubling trends in the Pentagon, such as the growing absence of transparency with the press, Hill, and American people, and the dominance of the Joint Staff in what should be political-military policy debates," she said.
“Esper is also fighting a White House policy process driven by presidential tweet and instinct, without a responsible deliberate process. Like Mattis, Esper can insist on better cross-agency deliberation to develop policy ideas that support the president's objectives.”
Senators will move onto the next Pentagon leadership vacancy tomorrow when they hold a confirmation hearing for David Norquist to be deputy secretary of defense.
Trump has already nominated Ryan McCarthy to replace Esper as secretary of the Army.
September 16, 2022 | International, Aerospace
The H125 will be produced in the H125 final assembly line located in Itajubá, Brazil at Helibras’ factory where the H225Ms for the Brazilian armed forces are also assembled
April 24, 2020 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security
AIR FORCE Dataminr Inc., New York, New York, has been awarded a firm-fixed-price contract for $258,661,096 for a commercially available license subscription that can leverage a variety of publicly available information sources, evaluate content to detect emerging events as they are developing and push alerts to users based on user-defined areas and topics of interest. The solution must be capable of distributing alerts in near real-time via email, web-based application and mobile platforms. The solution must be available commercially in the marketplace and able to scale to a Department of Defense enterprise capability and keep pace with developments and standards within the commercial industry sector. Work will be performed in New York and is expected to be complete by April 23, 2025. This award resulted after three firms were solicited and submitted bids. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $48,720,000 are being obligated at the time of the award. The Air Force District Washington, Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, is the contracting activity (FA7014-20-C-0016). Aviation Training Consulting LLC, Altus, Oklahoma, has been awarded a $7,281,483 firm-fixed-price modification (P00043) to previously-awarded contract FA8621-16-C-6339 for B-52 training system contractor logistics support and training system support center sustainment. The contract modification is for the third increment of the seven year basic contract. Work will be performed at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana; and Minot AFB, North Dakota, and is expected to be completed by Oct. 31, 2020. Air Force fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance funds will fund this effort. The total cumulative face value of the contract is $7,281,483. The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, is the contracting activity. NAVY Lockheed Martin Rotary and Mission Systems, Baltimore, Maryland, was awarded a $147,639,775 undefinitized contract action modification to previously-awarded contract N00024-20-C-5310 for the procurement of MK 41 Vertical Launching System (VLS) vertical launcher module electronic components. Work will be performed in Baltimore, Maryland (44%); Fort Walton Beach, Florida (39%); Waverly, Iowa (3%); Hampstead, Maryland (2%); Dover, Pennsylvania (2%); Chaska, Minnesota (1%); St. Peters, Missouri (1%); Wooddale, Illinois (1%); Plainview, New York (1%); Irvine, California (1%); Roebling, New Jersey (1%); Forest Hill, Maryland (1%); Millersville, Maryland (1%); Sterling Heights, Michigan (1%); and Red Lion, Pennsylvania (1%). This modification provides the electronic components for MK 41 VLS, which is installed onboard Navy surface combatants (CG-47 and DDG-51 class ships) and multiple allied Navy platforms. MK 41 VLS stores, selects, prepares and launches standard missiles, Tomahawk, Vertical Launch Anti-Submarine Rocket and Evolved Sea Sparrow missiles. Work is expected to be completed by March 2025. This contract combines purchases for the Navy (65%); and the governments of South Korea, Finland and Germany (35%) under the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program. Fiscal 2018 and 2019 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy); and FMS funding in the amount of $29,527,952 was obligated at the time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity. (Awarded April 17, 2020) Trijicon Inc.,* Wixom, Michigan, is awarded a $41,218,080 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for the remanufacture of Rifle Combat Optics (RCOs). This contract provides for the materials, labor, equipment, facilities and missing/repair parts necessary to inspect, diagnose, test and restore the RCOs. Work will be performed in Wixom, Michigan, and is expected to be completed by April 2025. This contract has a five-year ordering period with a maximum value of $41,218,080. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance (Marine Corps) in the amount of $8,160,000 will be obligated at the time of award for the first task order and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured in accordance with 10 U.S. Code 2304(c)(1) - only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements. The Marine Corps Logistics Command, Albany, Georgia, is the contracting activity (M67004-20-D-0003). Avian LLC,* Lexington Park, Maryland, is awarded a $13,342,932 modification (P00068) to exercise an option on a previously-awarded cost-plus-fixed-fee contract (N00421-17-C-0049) to provide support for the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division's Integrated System Evaluation Experimentation and Test Department. Work will be performed in Patuxent River, Maryland, and services will include flight test engineering, programmatic, administrative, design, execution, analysis, evaluation and reporting of tests and experiments of aircraft, unmanned air systems, weapons and weapons systems. Work is expected to be completed in April 2021. Fiscal 2020 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) in the amount of $3,783,077; fiscal 2019 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) in the amount of $90,000; fiscal 2020 aircraft procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $1,549,886; fiscal 2019 aircraft procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $28,732; fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance (Navy) funds in the amount of $19,816; fiscal 2020 other procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $144,756; and Foreign Military Sales funds in the amount of $310,238 will be obligated at time of award, $254,572 of which will expire at the end of the fiscal year. The Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity. ARMY ECS Federal LLC, Fairfax, Virginia, was awarded an $83,099,372 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for to create combined artificial intelligence (AI)-platform prototypes enhance. Bids were solicited via the internet with one received. Work will be performed in Fairfax, Virginia, with an estimated completion date of March 26, 2023. Fiscal 2020 research, development, test, and evaluation, Army funds in the amount of $83,099,372 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Aberdeen, Maryland, is the contracting activity (W911QX-20-C-0023). Sherwood Aviation,* Opa Locka, Florida, was awarded an $18,636,740 firm-fixed-price contract for overhaul/repair of CH-47 gas turbine engines. Bids were solicited via the internet with three received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of April 23, 2025. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity (W58RGZ-20-D-0051). General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc., Poway, California, was awarded a $9,943,746 modification (P00044) to contract W58RGZ-19-C-0027 for continuation effort for the Gray Eagle Unmanned Aircraft System. Bids were solicited via the internet with one received. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance, Army funds in the amount of $9,943,746 were obligated at the time of the award. Work will be performed in Poway, California, with an estimated completion date of April 23, 2021. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity. Boyer Commercial Construction Inc.,* Columbia, South Carolina, was awarded an $8,686,240 firm-fixed-price contract for national cemetery expansion at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. Bids were solicited via the internet with seven received. Work will be performed in Columbia, South Carolina, with an estimated completion date of May 14, 2021. Fiscal 2020 Department of Veteran Affairs funds in the amount of $8,686,240 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Charleston, South Carolina, is the contracting activity (W912HP-20-C-2001). DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY Robertson Fuel Systems LLC, Tempe, Arizona, has been awarded a maximum $38,784,713 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery requirements contract for aircraft fuel tanks. This was a sole-source acquisition using justification 10 U.S. Code 2304 (c)(1), as stated in Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-1. This is a five-year contract with no option periods. Location of performance is Arizona, with an April 23, 2025, performance completion date. Using military service is Army. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2020 through 2025 Army working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Aviation, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama (SPRRA1-20-D-0034). *Small business https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Contracts/Contract/Article/2162978/source/GovDelivery/
December 2, 2019 | International, Aerospace
Bradley Perrett Japan says it wants international collaboration in developing its Future Fighter for the 2030s, but it wants to lead the project despite limited experience in fighter development. And it aims at a fighter much larger than any operated by a western European country ; the U.S. is not offering a possible joint project. That seems to leave only the choice of indigenous development, perhaps with help from a foreign technical partner. Nevertheless, participation in the UK's Tempest program may also be feasible. The Tempest project—which includes the Royal Air Force, BAE Systems, Rolls-Royce and MBDA—has a cooperation concept that leaves scope for Japan and other partners to use their own systems, weapons, propulsion and even airframes, says Air Commodore Daniel Storr, head of combat aircraft acquisition at the UK Defense Ministry. The model described by Storr gives Japan the flexibility to choose the size of its own fighter. Though evidently not an objective, this mix-and-match approach also creates an opportunity for Japan to continue to claim development leadership—but also to save money by sharing systems. The policy goal of running its own fighter program, stated in 2018, has looked like a big obstacle to Japan's participation in the Tempest or the Future Combat Air System (FCAS) project initiated by France and Germany. But if the Future Fighter shared only some features with Tempest, Japan could reasonably say it was leading its own program. BAE Systems promoted the Tempest program at the DSEI Japan exhibition held in Tokyo fromNov. 18-20. Prospective FCAS prime contractors, such as Airbus, did not show their concept. Storr outlined the flexible model of cooperative development at an exhibition conference, but Japanese speakers at that event did not comment on the prospect of Japan joining Tempest. In a Nov. 1 interview with The Financial Times, newly appointed Defense Minister Taro Kono seemed to play down the possibility of participation in a European program, saying Japan should explore all possibilities but needed to maintain interoperability with U.S. forces. Storr addressed that point, emphasizing that working with the U.S. was a high priority for the UK too. Japan's alternative to international cooperation is developing a fighter by itself with the technical help of a foreign company. Lockheed Martin is supporting the Korea Aerospace Industries KF-X and BAE is helping the Turkish Aerospace Industries TF-X in such an arrangement. By working with Lockheed Martin, Boeing or Northrop Grumman, Tokyo would partially compensate the U.S. for its expenditures in defending Japan. But the U.S. would gain little from technical support fees, and Japan is already committed to buying 147 Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightnings as the aircraft to precede the Future Fighters. The defense ministry has asked for the development of the Future Fighter to be launched in the fiscal year beginning April 2020. It is not clear whether that means mobilizing resources to commence full-scale development or taking some lesser step to firm up the commitment to create the aircraft. For the past year, the government's policy has been to launch no later than March 2024. However, Japanese companies, especially fighter builder Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), are pushing for a launch as soon as possible. They want to transfer knowledge to young engineers from the older generation that developed Japan's last fighter, the MHI F-2, which the Future Fighter will replace. The UK does not want to commit to launching full-scale development of the Tempest before 2025, but its date for entry into service in 2035 meets Japan's objective, which is sometime in the 2030s. Meanwhile, the FCAS program is aiming at 2040. Sweden and Italy are cooperating with the UK during the current early stage of Tempest research, while Spain has joined France and Germany for FCAS work. Like Storr, BAE has stressed the advantages of partners taking only as much of the Tempest as they want. “There is a range of different partnership models that can be considered,” says Andy Latham, who is working on the program. “Japan has some great technology that any partner can benefit from. Their avionics industry is pretty effective.” The cooperation concept replaces the standard model, one in which partners spend years negotiating and compromising to define a design that all of them must accept. Instead, according to Storr, they can save time and money by agreeing to disagree—to the extent that each is willing to pay the extra cost of independent development and manufacturing of design elements. The Japanese defense ministry's studies point to a need for a very big fighter with an empty weight well above 20 metric tons (40,000 lb.), larger than the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor. Superior endurance and internal weapon capacity are the key factors behind this choice. No western European country has operated a fighter more than about two-thirds as big, but Storr said a large configuration for the Tempest cannot be ruled out. The mockup exhibited at the 2018 Farnborough International Airshow was bigger than the F-22. Still, the UK and other European partners might want a much smaller fighter; concept designs that have not been shown are not as big as the mockup. But the concept for cooperation would allow for Japan to devise its own airframe while, for example, using the same engine and some weapons, software and avionics as other partners. The architecture of the software is intended to be open, accepting different programs easily. Tempest researchers will consider which systems and capabilities will go into the fighter and which will be incorporated into the ammunition or an accompanying drone, which could be fully reusable or optionally expendable, Storr says. The FCAS program is taking a similar approach. The Tempest will need great capacity for generating electricity, he says, and the weapon bay should be regarded as a payload bay, perhaps for holding additional fuel that would extend endurance on surveillance missions. The Japanese finance ministry is insisting upon private investment in the Future Fighter program, in part to ensure contractors are fully incentivized to prevent failure. Contractors will be able to make money in civil programs from technology developed for the fighter, says the ministry, which is highly influential but does not have a final say. “Judging from past program examples, it is clear that the Future Fighter program would bring a risk of a budget overrun and schedule slippage, but would also benefit the private sector,” the finance ministry said in an October presentation to the Council on Fiscal Policy, an advisory body. “The government and private sector should invest funds and resources to build a failure-proof framework.” Noting that MHI used technology from the F-2 program in its development and manufacturing of the outer wing boxes of the Boeing 787, the ministry says contractors can expect to gain similar opportunities for civil applications of technology from the Future Fighter program—so they should invest in it. https://aviationweek.com/defense/japan-could-pick-and-choose-components-tempest