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  January 24, 2020 | International, Security

  Huntington Ingalls Industries Awarded $954 Million Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Contract by U.S. GSA FEDSIM

  Newport News, Va., January 23, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Huntington Ingalls Industries (NYSE: HII) announced today that it has been awarded a General Services Administration One Acquisition Solution for Integrated Services (OASIS) task order to provide Persistent Multi-Role Operations (PMRO) support to the U.S. Air Force-Europe (USAFE) by the Federal Systems Integration and Management Center (FEDSIM). This task order will provide Contractor Owned-Contractor Operated (COCO) manned and unmanned airborne intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) in support of Air Force requirements in the European and African theaters of operation. The task order has a base period of one year with four option years and a potential value of $954 million. “Critical readiness of our defense intelligence enterprise demands unique expertise and advanced technology solutions,” said Garry Schwartz, president of Technical Solutions' Mission Driven Innovative Solutions group. “Over the last several years, HII has continued to expand its ISR support to the U.S. Air Force and other components of the Department of Defense. We are looking forward to continuing to advance the implementation of innovative ISR solutions for USAFE and across the DOD.” The Air Force directs global integrated ISR operations from forward-deployed locations worldwide, including locations throughout the six geographic combatant commands. Air Force ISR operations are conducted in multiple domains and across all phases of operations and environments. The timely integration and delivery of ISR information provides joint, defense, national, and coalition partners with actionable intelligence for the commander and warfighter. The objective of this task is to provide persistent, multi-role and cross-domain ISR capabilities that increase indications and warnings, enhance the U.S. security defense posture, enable the freedom of movement, increase partnership capacity and interoperability, and foster global security and stability throughout the European and African areas of responsibility. This is a continuation and expansion of work currently performed by HII, whose purpose is to deliver timely, accurate and relevant information to operational and strategic decision makers. This effort will provide PMRO for multiple DOD components, including Air Forces in Europe and Africa as well as other strategic and operational partners. About Huntington Ingalls Industries Huntington Ingalls Industries is America's largest military shipbuilding company and a provider of professional services to partners in government and industry. For more than a century, HII's Newport News and Ingalls shipbuilding divisions in Virginia and Mississippi have built more ships in more ship classes than any other U.S. naval shipbuilder. HII's Technical Solutions division provides a wide range of professional services through its Fleet Support, Mission Driven Innovative Solutions, Nuclear & Environmental, and Oil & Gas groups. Headquartered in Newport News, Virginia, HII employs more than 42,000 people operating both domestically and internationally. For more information, visit: HII on the web: www.huntingtoningalls.com HII on Facebook: www.facebook.com/HuntingtonIngallsIndustries HII on Twitter: twitter.com/hiindustries Statements in this release, as well as other statements we may make from time to time, other than statements of historical fact, constitute “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed in these statements. Factors that may cause such differences include: changes in government and customer priorities and requirements (including government budgetary constraints, shifts in defense spending, and changes in customer short-range and long-range plans); our ability to estimate our future contract costs and perform our contracts effectively; changes in procurement processes and government regulations and our ability to comply with such requirements; our ability to deliver our products and services at an affordable life cycle cost and compete within our markets; natural and environmental disasters and political instability; our ability to execute our strategic plan, including with respect to share repurchases, dividends, capital expenditures, and strategic acquisitions; adverse economic conditions in the United States and globally; changes in key estimates and assumptions regarding our pension and retiree health care costs; security threats, including cyber security threats, and related disruptions; and other risk factors discussed in our filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. There may be other risks and uncertainties that we are unable to predict at this time or that we currently do not expect to have a material adverse effect on our business, and we undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements. You should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements that we may make. CONTACT INFORMATION Beci Brenton HII Corporate Director of Public Affairs (202) 264-7143 Beci.Brenton@hii-co.com View source version on Huntington Ingalls Industries: https://newsroom.huntingtoningalls.com/releases/huntington-ingalls-industries-awarded-954-million-intelligence-surveillance-and-reconnaissance-contract-by-u-s-gsa-fedsim

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  February 12, 2021 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security

  How Republicans might accept a smaller defense budget

  By: Joe Gould WASHINGTON ― California Republican Rep. Ken Calvert is willing to meet Democratic lawmakers partway in their reported plans to trim the defense budget: cut back on civilian employees, not equipment and modernization. “Like everything else in government, personnel is your biggest cost, and the civilian-to-uniform ratio ... is at an all-time high,” Calvert, the ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee's defense subpanel, said in an interview Wednesday. “Our inability to correct that trend is eating away at our military, our procurement, our readiness, all the above, and so we need to do this.” President Joe Biden is expected to release his federal budget plan in April, but battle lines are being drawn on Capitol Hill ahead of what is expected to be a tighter military budget than in recent years. While some key Republicans want to protect the military budget increases that came under then-President Donald Trump, or even build upon them, Calvert said he is open to “responsible reductions.” He is offering civilian cuts as an alternative to cutting end strength and weapons platforms. “Rather than reducing [personnel in] uniforms ― and I think there's some talk about doing that, especially in the Army ― we need to look at the civilian workforce, which is at the highest ratio to uniformed service members than it has ever been,” Calvert said. “If you're going to cut defense, are you going to cut procurement? People are arguing we need to build the Columbia-class submarine and Virginia-class submarine ― and I agree ― that we [keep the] Space Force, and [that] our satellite program is woefully behind ― and I agree. Where do you make your reductions when your overwhelming cost is personnel?” Under Calvert's bill, the Rebalance for an Effective Defense Uniform and Civilian Employees Act, or Reduce Act, a 15 percent cut to the civilian workforce overall and a cap for the Defense Department's Senior Executive Service at 1,000 employees would have to be in place by fiscal 2025 and remain through 2029. The defense secretary would be empowered to use voluntary-separation and early-retirement incentives toward the reduction. The legislation, which has been introduced several times before, was inspired by a 2015 study by the Defense Business Board that illustrated how the Department of Defense could save $125 billion over five years by slashing overhead. Still, the proposal to cut civilians would face new optics this year. As civilian voices were muted in favor of uniformed leaders under the Trump administration, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, a former general, committed under bipartisan pressure to “rebalance” Pentagon decision- and policy-making in favor of civilian leaders. It's also a different tact than that of the House Armed Services Committee's new top Republican, Rep. Mike Rogers, who plans to guard against cuts and would prefer a 3-5 percent increase in defense spending ― which Pentagon leaders say is required to carry out the 2018 National Defense Strategy. It's still early in the budgeting cycle, and the two may align. But in meantime, Calvert's approach offers something to fiscal conservatives, and it tracks with past efforts from Rogers' predecessor, former Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas. Even if Republicans can fend off a top-line cut or win an adjustment for inflation to keep shipbuilding and aircraft procurement on track, Calvert said he supports cutting the Defense Department's civilian workforce. “Hey, I hope Mike's right. I mean, he is a good friend, but I think he's a realist too,” Calvert said. “I worked with his predecessor on procurement reform, I'm trying to do some personnel reform, and we need those reforms on both sides.” For their part, Democrats swiftly rejected Calvert's legislation, making it one of the first skirmishes of the annual battle over the defense budget. The defense subpanel's new chairwoman, Rep. Betty McCollum, D-Minn., said she discussed the matter with Calvert and disagrees with him. “His proposal could lead to some of the most talented and committed DOD public servants losing their jobs,” McCollum said in a statement. “While we agree there is excess defense spending, my focus is on making smart investments that yield demonstrable outcomes by cutting waste and ending subsidies for outdated and unnecessary programs and facilities. In my view, the existing Department of Defense civilian workforce is mission critical to ensuring our national security.” The American Federation of Government Employees has historically opposed the bill, and a spokesman said funding and defense policy legislation passed last year prohibit civilian workforce cuts “without regard to impacts on readiness, lethality, military force structure, stress of the force, operational effectiveness and fully burdened costs.” With 768,000 federal employees working across all Defense Department components, the proposed cut amounts to 100,000 employees. Between 2015 and 2019, an average of just under 82,000 employees left DoD jobs each year. Calvert contends his 15 percent cut could be accomplished through attrition, not firings, and target “growth in middle management,” not the supply depots scattered around the country that have political backing. Previous cuts of civilian personnel have fueled increases in contracting costs ― and Calvert said he is open to cutting those too, in partnership with McCollum. “There would be discretion on the part of the people running the Pentagon; there are people you don't want to lose, they're in a special category, I get it,” Calvert said. “There are probably a lot of people you wouldn't miss, people up for retirement.” Democrats are more apt to take on nuclear modernization, which is projected to cost the Pentagon more than $240 billion in taxpayer dollars through 2028. In the balance is the contract for the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent, awarded to Northrop Grumman last year, to replace aging, land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles. Politico reports that progressive lawmakers and disarmament advocates are lobbying allies in the Biden administration for a pause in the GBSD program, while the Air Force and its allies in Congress, think tanks, and defense contractors are sharpening their arguments to preserve the program. Calvert acknowledged criticism of nuclear spending from House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith, D-Wash., but said big cuts to the nuclear triad lack the backing to succeed. (The panel rejected a funding cut for GBSD last year.) “I know Adam has been critical of that, but there's absolute support for redundancy of the deterrent within the Republican ranks, and so I don't see that going away. What I'm hearing so far out of the administration is that they feel the same way, so I don't think that's going to happen,” Calvert said. Austin and Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks have voiced support for nuclear modernization broadly but stopped short of pledging to uphold the current nuclear modernization strategy in its entirety. Nuclear modernization cutbacks would “weaken the United States,” Calvert argued. “We're not just thinking about Russia; we've got China, who's rapidly militarizing space, and their missile capability is improving. Obviously we've got countries like North Korea or Iran that are building their own missile capability, so we have to have a strong deterrent to make sure we are ready for any contingency.” Jessie Bur of Federal Times and Leo Shane III of Military Times contributed to this report. https://www.defensenews.com/congress/2021/02/11/how-republicans-might-accept-a-smaller-defense-budget/

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  April 24, 2018 | International, Naval

  3-D printer keeps F-35B flying during USS Wasp deployment

  MARINE CORPS AIR STATION IWAKUNI, Japan — State-of-the-art parts fabrication is keeping America's most advanced stealth fighter in the air during its first deployment aboard the USS Wasp. When a plastic bumper for a landing-gear door wore out this month on an F-35B Lightning II embarked on the amphibious assault ship, a 3-D printer was used to whip up a new one. The Iwakuni-based jet from Fighter Attack Squadron 121 later flew successfully with the new part, a Marine statement said. Called “additive manufacturing,” the process from Naval Air Systems Command allowed the Marines of Combat Logistics Battalion 31 to create the new bumper and get it approved for use within days, the statement said. Otherwise, they would have had to replace the entire door assembly, which is expensive and time consuming. “While afloat, our motto is ‘fix it forward,'” Chief Warrant Officer 2 Daniel Rodriguez, CLB-31's maintenance officer, said in the statement. “3-D printing is a great tool to make that happen.” The Navy said parts created using the 3-D printer are only a temporary fix, but it kept the jet from being grounded while waiting for a replacement from the United States. Lt. Col Richard Rusnok, commander of VMFA-121, lauded the use of the new technology. “Although our supply personnel and logisticians do an outstanding job getting us parts, being able to rapidly make our own parts is a huge advantage as it cuts down our footprint thus making us more agile in a shipboard or expeditionary environment,” he said in the statement. Marine Sgt. Adrian Willis, a computer and telephone technician who created the bumper, said he was thrilled to be involved in the process. “I think 3-D printing is definitely the future — it's absolutely the direction the Marine Corps needs to be going,” he said in the statement. The printer has been used multiple times during the patrol, the Navy said, including to create a lens cap for a camera on a small, unmanned ground vehicle used by an explosive ordnance disposal team. Templates for the parts will be uploaded to a Marine Corps-wide 3-D printing database to make them accessible to other units. bolinger.james@stripes.com Twitter: @bolingerj2004 https://www.stripes.com/news/3-d-printer-keeps-f-35b-flying-during-uss-wasp-deployment-1.522987