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  March 26, 2020 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security

  COVID-19 Relief Bill Adds $10.4B For DoD; OKs Extending Gens. Goldfein, Lengyel & Raymond

  By THERESA HITCHENS on March 25, 2020 at 3:22 PM WASHINGTON: Congress is likely to approve almost $9.4 billion for the Defense Department to use to attack COVID-19 — a sum that includes direct operations and maintenance funding to the services, the National Guard and reserves. There is an additional $1 billion in the bill that may be made available for contracting under the TRICARE health care program — bringing the entire package to $10.4 billion. The DoD funding is part of the $2 trillion relief deal being beaten out between the White House and Congress, that includes significant assistance to the defense industry. “The administration's thinking about how to use the military has evolved substantially from the supplemental proposal the administration submitted just last week,” notes Mark Cancian, a defense budget expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “In that proposal, DoD's funding consisted of an $8.3 billion transfer account. DoD would later decide where to put the money. In this bill, the amount has grown to $10.4 billion, and the destination accounts have been specified, though there is still a lot of uncertainty and slushy-ness.” According to the draft bill obtained by Breaking Defense, the biggest chunk goes to the Defense Health Program “to prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus, domestically or internationally.” The program is allocated $3.8 billion, of which $3.4 billion is for operations and maintenance; $415 million is for research, development, test and evaluation. The funds will remain available until Sept. 30, 2020. The TRICARE funds are provided in a separate section, but will be available until Sept. 30, 2021. The Defense Working Capital Fund — which allows DoD to make investments in things like depot maintenance, transportation, and supply management in the near term and recoup the costs through future year pricing deals — gets $1.5 billion. The bill would add $160 million in O&M funding to the Army budget; $360 million to the Navy; $90 million to the Marines; and $155 million to the Air Force. Defense wide O&M funds would be pumped up by $828 million. The Army National Guard is set to receive $187 million in O&M dollars and the Army Reserve is allocated $48 million; the Air National Guard would receive another $76 million. The Army and Air National Guards also would receive a plus up of $750 million and $480 million respectively in military personnel funds. Apart from new funds, the draft bill would allow President Donald Trump to extend the tenure of Air Force Chief Gen. David Goldfein, Space Force Chief Gen. Jay Raymond, and National Guard Bureau Chief Gen. Joseph Lengyel, among other military leaders set to retire — a move apparently made to avoid a change of hands during the current crisis. The extension can be for up to 270 days. Goldfein currently is set to retire in June. Raymond is doubled-hatted as chief of the Space Force and head of Space Command, but only for a year as mandated by the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act. Further, while DoD is given wide latitude to move the new money around to where it is needed, it specifically bans any funds being moved to fund Trump's southern border wall by preventing any transfer to DoD “drug interdiction or counter-drug activities.” Finally, Cancian noted that the language gives DoD “flexibility on contracts and contract decision authority.” The bill would allow DoD Secretary Mark Esper able to delegate authorities for emergency transactions at his discretion. https://breakingdefense.com/2020/03/covid-19-congress-likely-to-slate-9-4b-to-dod-for-response

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  October 30, 2020 | International, Naval

  Marine Hovercraft From Textron Flawed by Propeller Cracks

  By Anthony Capaccio The U.S. Navy accepted delivery this year from Textron Inc. of the first two in a new generation of hovercraft for the Marines despite “extensive propeller blade cracking” that will require a redesign, according to service officials and documents. The previously undisclosed problem was discovered during mid-2019 tests of the $5.7 billion program to build new air-cushion hovercraft to move Marines from ship to shore. Even with the cracks unresolved, the Navy awarded Textron a $386 million contract for 15 more hovercraft that Congress had approved for fiscal years 2017-2020. But ordering those vessels was held up pending resolution of other technical problems, including issues with the main gearbox, drive-train integration and lubrication system, navigation electronics and bearings. The first two deliveries, in February and August, were each three years late. Hovercraft “have always been important for supporting the Marine Corps' ability to land forces ashore, and in coming years they are to form part of the toolkit for implementing the Corps' new wartime island-hopping strategy for countering Chinese military forces in the Western Pacific,” Ronald O'Rourke, an analyst with the Congressional Research Service, said. Taking delivery of the first two hovercraft allowed the Navy to begin initial operator training and “to move into the post-delivery test and trials period as we identify long-term” solutions for vessels in production, Navy spokeswoman Colleen O'Rourke said in an email. She described the flaws as “micro-cracks” in the composite structure of the blades that don't pose a safety hazard or “an immediate impediment” to operations. “The program is the first major naval acquisition program in more than 15 years to be designed ‘in-house' by the Navy rather than by private industry,” according to a Navy fact sheet. Reinforced Blades O'Rourke said the Navy, Providence, Rhode Island-based Textron and subcontractor Dowty Propellers, a division of General Electric Co., conducted a study “to understand the underlying cause and mechanisms to improve propeller blade performance.” That led to a near-term plan to provide “reinforced blade sets that will deliver later this year” while production and post-delivery testing continue and “blade redesign efforts are underway,” she said. She added that the eventual solution for the 73 hovercraft, known as Ship to Shore Connectors, “is not anticipated to result in any significant program cost increases.” Scott Donnelly, Textron's chief executive officer, told analysts Thursday on an earnings call that the program is “steadily improving” and “we're starting to feel good about that.” He said the contractor has “started to get more craft deliveries, the production lines are starting to run better, we're starting to get supply parts coming in at the right time” so “that's a program that obviously is going to start to be a contributor to the profit in the rest of the businesses.” Textron rose 6.6% to $34.21 at 10:24 a.m, the most since July 30, after third-quarter earnings per share from continuing operations beat the average analyst estimate. Currently, 12 additional hovercraft are under construction in Slidell, Louisiana. The vessels will replace the aging Landing Craft Air Cushion vehicle that became operational in 1986. The Ship-to-Shore Connector is a “franchise program” for Textron's Marine & Land Systems division, “which could more than double in revenue over the coming years as production accelerates,” Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Douglas Rothacker said in an email. Textron reports third-quarter earnings Thursday. Procurement funding is projected to soar from $20 million the Navy requested for this fiscal year to almost $380 million by 2025, according to program documents. The Navy's fiscal 2021 Selected Acquisition Report, obtained by Bloomberg News, said initial “Builders Trial” testing in mid-2019 uncovered “technical concerns with the propeller blades.” This resulted in a decision to divide the subsequent formal acceptance test into two events -- “unloaded” and “loaded,” which simulated carrying a 74-ton M1 tank. “After the loaded builders test, craft inspection revealed extensive propeller blade cracking,” it said. “To avoid additional blade loss,” the first vessel's acceptance tests “were conducted unloaded.” https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-10-29/marines-combat-hovercraft-from-textron-have-cracked-propellers

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  September 13, 2019 | International, Aerospace

  Lockheed To Migrate F-35 Backbone To Cloud Architecture

  Lee Hudson and Steve Trimble Lockheed Martin intends to migrate its F-35 digital support backbone, the Autonomic Logistics Information System (ALIS), to a native-cloud architecture by year's end and field it in 2020. A joint government and industry team tested an early version of the new framework in both lab and flight test environments in May, company spokesman Mike Friedman said in a Sept. 11 statement to Aerospace DAILY. “By moving all ALIS applications to a cloud-native, open architecture, we can rapidly develop and test pieces of ALIS without having to load the entire system for each upgrade,” he said. “And instead of aggregating many fixes over a 12- to 18-month period into a single upgrade, the new approach allows developers to create, test, receive feedback and implement fixes every few weeks while reducing development and fielding costs.” The new construct still must be tested in an operational environment so that developers can garner user feedback to refine their approach. Separately, the newest ALIS software release, 3.1.1, is saving pilots an average of 35 min. in report generation and review. The new software release also is saving maintainers 40 min. each day in report generation and several hours weekly in managing fleet directive reports, he added. “This latest release leverages the development work Lockheed Martin completed in 2018 with its internal investment funding,” Friedman said. “In 2018, Lockheed Martin invested approximately $50 million in ALIS and will continue investing approximately $180 million through 2021 to modernize ALIS and enhance enterprise sustainment systems.” Extrapolated across the enterprise of more than 425 aircraft flying today, it will save more than 20,000 manhours annually. Lockheed Martin has invested in additional time saving and efficiency ALIS automations and is working with the government on implementation and fielding plans, Friedman said. https://aviationweek.com/defense/lockheed-migrate-f-35-backbone-cloud-architecture