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By: Leo Shane III WASHINGTON — Senators gave final approval to the annual defense authorization bill on Wednesday, sending the $717 billion budget package to the White House to become law in the next few weeks. The move marks the 58th consecutive year Congress has approved the military spending policy measure and the earliest that lawmakers have finished the work in 41 years. Typically, lawmakers labor until late fall before reaching agreement on the legislation. It sets the military pay raise at 2.6 percent starting next January, adds 15,600 more troops to services' overall end strength, and boosts aircraft and ship purchases above what the White House had requested. It also gives lawmakers a solid legislative victory to tout before voters in the lead-up to the November mid-term elections, and some parliamentary breathing room they hope can lead to progress on appropriations bills in the next few weeks. WASHINGTON — Senators gave final approval to the annual defense authorization bill on Wednesday, sending the $717 billion budget package to the White House to become law in the next few weeks. The move marks the 58th consecutive year Congress has approved the military spending policy measure and the earliest that lawmakers have finished the work in 41 years. Typically, lawmakers labor until late fall before reaching agreement on the legislation. It sets the military pay raise at 2.6 percent starting next January, adds 15,600 more troops to services' overall end strength, and boosts aircraft and ship purchases above what the White House had requested. It also gives lawmakers a solid legislative victory to tout before voters in the lead-up to the November mid-term elections, and some parliamentary breathing room they hope can lead to progress on appropriations bills in the next few weeks. Congress is giving the officer promotion system a massive overhaul The changes will have a far-reaching impact on military culture and change the incentives for how individual officers manage their careers. By: Leo Shane III A day earlier, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., announced that he had reached an agreement with Senate Democrats on bringing defense appropriations legislation to the Senate floor later this month, as part of a broader effort to wrap up fiscal 2019 military spending issues before the election. Full article: https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2018/08/01/congress-finalizes-defense-budget-authorization-months-ahead-of-schedule/

By: Ben Werner The Navy has exercised options adding several million dollars to the future guided-missile frigate (FFG(X)) conceptual design work being performed by five shipbuilders in contention for the final hull design. The Navy expects bids from the following shipbuilders – Austal USA, Huntington Ingalls Industries, General Dynamics Bath Iron Works, Lockheed Martin and Fincantieri Marinette Marine. A final request for proposal is expected in 2019, with the Navy planning to award a single source design and construction contract in 2020, according to the Navy. Ultimately, the Navy plans to build a fleet of 20 frigates Each company was awarded initial contracts of $15 million in February to start design work. The latest contract modification, announced Monday, sends between $6.4 million and $8 million in additional funding to each company to be used fleshing out their designs. “Each company is maturing their proposed ship design to meet the FFG(X) System Specification. The Conceptual Design effort will inform the final specifications that will be used for the Detail Design and Construction Request for Proposal that will deliver the required capability for FFG(X),” Alan Baribeau, a Naval Sea Systems Command spokesman, said in an email to USNI News. Each design for the future frigate competition is based on existing designs the shipbuilders are already producing. The Navy expects to spend between $800 million and $950 million on each hull, which will follow the Littoral Combat Ship. In terms of combat and communications systems, the Navy plans to use what is already deployed on LCS platforms. USNI News understands the new frigates will use the COMBATSS-21 Combat Management System, which uses software from the same common source library as the Aegis Combat System on large surface combatants. Missile systems for the frigate include the canister-launched over-the-horizon missile; the surface-to-surface Longbow Hellfire missile; the Mk53 Nulka decoy launching system and the Surface Electron Warfare Improvement Program (SEWIP) Block 2 program with SLQ-32(V)6. The ships would also require an unspecified number of vertical launch cells. The frigate design also is expected to include the SeaRAM anti-ship missile defense system and several undersea warfare tools. The complete list of companies awarded contract options on their respective contracts include: Austal USA LLC (Austal), Mobile, Alabama – $6,399,053; initial contract award – $14,999,969 General Dynamics Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine – $7,950,000; initial contract award – $14,950,000 Huntington Ingalls Inc., Pascagoula, Mississippi – $7,997,406; initial contract award – $14,999,924 Lockheed Martin Inc., Baltimore, Maryland – $6,972,741; initial contract award – $14,999,889 Marinette Marine Corp., doing business as Fincantieri Marinette Marine, Marinette, Wisconsin – $7,982,991 initial contract award – $14,994,626 https://news.usni.org/2018/07/31/35430

ROME (Reuters) - The French government continues to support Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri's (FCT.MI) takeover of STX France, finance minister Bruno Le Maire said on Wednesday, but cautioned against hastening a related defense naval merger. Speaking in Rome after a meeting with the Italian government, he told journalists France had not changed its position on the deal, quelling concerns the takeover could be hampered by tenser relations between Paris and Italy's new anti-establishment government. However, he warned against hastening a merger between Fincantieri and French military shipyards operator Naval Group which has been seen as a possible follow-up to the takeover of STX. “It would not be wise” to discuss a defense merger now, Le Maire told reporters, stressing that this was not part of the deal reached in 2017. Under the terms of that agreement between France and Italy, Fincantieri bought a 50 percent share in STX, but it took effective control of the French shipyards thanks to a 12-year loan of a 1 percent stake by the French state, which is subject to review clauses. Relations between France and Italy have soured in recent weeks over spats on migrants and after the Italian government raised doubts on the TAV French-Italian rail link project which would connect Lyon and Turin. Le Maire said after his meeting on Wednesday with Italian Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio that Paris was still waiting for Italy's position on the project. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-stx-m-a-fincantieri-lemaire/frances-le-maire-confirms-backing-to-fincantieri-stx-shipyard-deal-idUSKBN1KM4E8

By Jack Corrigan A newly launched pilot program lets the agency's contracting experts help push deals over the finish line. Officials at the General Services Administration on Monday said a new pilot program will speed up the government's adoption of innovative technologies by helping companies in the Small Business Innovation Research program more quickly strike deals with federal agencies. Last week GSA launched a pilot that would open up Assisted Acquisition Services to agencies and vendors in the third and final phase of the SBIR program. Run by the Small Business Administration, SBIR is divided into three phases. The first and second phases focus primarily on research and development, and during the third, companies work to commercialize their products. Under the pilot, GSA would collaborate with both customer agencies and SBIR vendors to hammer out initial contracts. After the products become commercialized, GSA would work to make them more widely available across government. Most of the 13 agencies involved in SBIR don't have specialists dedicated to finalizing phase three contracts, and delegating that responsibility to GSA would enable speedier deals and make products more widely available, said Mark Lee, assistant commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service Office of Policy and Compliance. “Currently there isn't a shared services offering that provides assisted acquisition for SBIR contracts,” Lee said in a conversation with reporters. “[The pilot] would be setting up that capability across government.” While GSA will offer the additional services to all SBIR participants, Lee said he sees the program making a particular impact on the acquisition of cybersecurity and threat detection products, as well as emerging battlefield technologies. The pilot will be led by the GSA Assisted Acquisition Services' Great Lakes regional office and run through the end of fiscal 2019. Depending on the program's success, GSA will determine whether it can offer the service more broadly, said Senior Procurement Executive Jeff Koses. Koses told reporters the program originated after defense agencies approached GSA looking for ways to streamline the contracting process. The pilot comes as part of the administration's larger push to simplify acquisition policy, he said, while still including “a set of guardrails to make sure that we're innovative but with essential controls.” Koses added he hopes accelerating the contracting process would help attract more small businesses to the federal marketplace, which agencies have historically struggled to do. “I think this is a great example of us listening to our customer agencies, our industry partners and the Small Business Administration and [figuring out] where we can provide value in the federal marketplace,” said Lee. “We think this is an opportunity to inject innovation into the federal marketplace, help support commercialization of these unique solutions and ultimately help grow jobs.” https://www.nextgov.com/it-modernization/2018/07/how-gsa-helping-small-businesses-get-contracts-faster/150151/

by Beth Maundrill in London With final proposals submitted for the Canadian Surface Combatant (CSC) project, the Lockheed Martin-led Combat Ship Team is bullish about the prospects of another Type 26 win. Specifically the company has highlighted that with three Commonwealth and Five Eye member nations potentially operating the same vessel could bring great benefits ... https://www.shephardmedia.com/news/imps-news/five-eyes-ship-horizon/

By: Andrew C. Jarocki WASHINGTON ― When it comes to minesweeping at the 2018 Rim of the Pacific exercises, the top sonar for the job isn't located on any of the 46 ships and five subs sailing in the maneuvers. Instead, the Navy relies on dolphins. The highly-trained creatures “search for and mark the location of undersea mines” according to a description by the U.S. Navy Marine Mammal Program, which also deploys sea lions to recover suspicious objects at deep depths. The dolphins “possess the most sophisticated sonar known to science,” allowing them to find mines in any depth or light when mechanical equipment is often less reliable, the Navy says. That skill proves especially useful in crowded coastal waters or on murky sea floors. Navy RIMPAC footage released to the public shows dolphins, overseen by human trainers, finding practice mines and placing markers near them. Their reward? A steady stream of fish treats. https://www.navytimes.com/news/2018/07/27/navy-practices-with-key-anti-mine-asset-dolphins/

By: Andrew C. Jarocki WASHINGTON ― Potential funding woes and questions about the aggressive proposed timelines have cast doubts about the future of the Coast Guard's new heavy polar ice breaker. The Government Accountability Office is dubious the service's lone heavy polar icebreaker can make it to its proposed 2023 retirement date and questioned whether the Coast Guard's construction schedule was too optimistic. The Coast Guard is planing to replace the Polar Star with the new heavy icebreaker the same year, something GAO said may not be “realistic and feasible.” The watchdog noted the aging Polar Star could reach the end of its service life as soon as 2020, and the “highly optimistic” delivery date of the new vessel could be delayed and leave the service without a heavy polar icebreaker to defend strategic Arctic interests for several years. Vice Adm. Daniel Abel, deputy commandant for operations, recently told the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Subcommittee at a hearing that the Polar Star is “limping along, and nothing with a US flag could rescue her [in the Arctic] if something happened, putting our polar capabilities at risk." To further complicate matters, House appropriators are currently debating cutting $750 million in funding for the Coast Guard. Vice Adm. Michael McAllister, deputy commandant for mission support, said at the hearing that the entire program schedule is at risk if the appropriations cut is finalized but that he remained confident that the Coast Guard is “well-poised to award the detailed construction contract in fiscal year 2019” for the heavy polar ice breaker. https://www.defensenews.com/naval/2018/07/26/heavy-polar-icebreaker-questions-mount-for-coast-guard

Jon Grevatt, Bangkok BAE Systems is moving ahead with its programme to transform naval shipbuilding facilities in South Australia into a digital shipyard that will support the construction of the Royal Australian Navy's (RAN's) new Hunter-class frigates. The company was selected for the nine-ship frigate programme earlier in July – under the AUD35 billion (USD26 billion) Sea 5000 project – and will build the ships in collaboration with state-owned naval shipbuilder ASC from late 2020. The Hunter-class is a variant of BAE Systems' Type 26 frigate design, which the company is also building for the UK Royal Navy (RN). While contract negotiations are ongoing between BAE Systems and the Australian government to finalise the details of the Sea 5000 project, work to prepare Adelaide-based ASC's shipbuilding facilities is under way, with BAE Systems already committed to investing at least AUD100 million (USD74 million) to develop the proposed digital shipyard at which the ships will be built. Nigel Stewart, BAE Systems managing director for the Sea 5000 project, said the digital shipyard will be supported by an “unprecedented” transfer of intellectual property and technical data that will facilitate the development of local capability to both build and maintain the Hunter-class frigates over its 30-year life span. “The digital design of one of the world's most sophisticated ships will support the development of a continuous naval shipbuilding capability in Australia, ensuring that local industry can build the fleet of nine future frigates,” said Stewart. “The digital design will also ensure they can be upgraded and supported during their decades of service.” He added, “This is an unprecedented transfer of intellectual property that will also include all ship parts, materials, and systems used to build the Type 26 frigate. With this knowledge, Australian industry will gain the know-how needed to both build and optimise the ship over its life, potentially improving its flexibility and performance with bespoke local innovation and technology.” http://www.janes.com/article/81959/bae-systems-progresses-digital-shipyard-plan-for-australia

Dakota Wood SUMMARY America's military—engaged beyond capacity and in need of rebuilding—is at a crucial juncture. Its current “big-leap” approach to preparing for future conflict carries great risk in searching for revolutionary capabilities through force-wide commitments to major single-solution programs. The Heritage Foundation's Rebuilding America's Military Project (RAMP) recommends that the U.S. military instead adopt an iterative, experimentation-heavy approach that can achieve revolutionary outcomes at less risk through evolutionary improvements that build on each other until transformative tipping points are reached. Critical to this is a military culture that is immersed in the study of war and a force of sufficient capacity to prepare for the future while also handling current operational commitments. https://www.heritage.org/defense/report/rebuilding-americas-military-thinking-about-the-future