Front-pagers:

Defense Department Team Studying Space Launch Propulsion Options

The Air Force will be part of a Pentagon team studying alternate rocket propulsion solutions for both upper- and lower-stage space launch and the findings will be used to inform budget decisions beginning in fiscal year 2014, according to a service official.

Air Force Releases F-35A Training Draft Environmental Impact Statement

The Air Force today released a draft version of a report examining the environmental impact of establishing an F-35A training center at four locations, an important step in reaching a formal decision on the center's location by this summer.

FAB-T Competitive Fixed-Price Contracts Will Be Capped At $80 Million

The Air Force plans to award two competitive fixed-price contracts for the production of the restructured Family of Advanced Beyond Line-of-Sight Terminals program in fiscal year 2012 that will be capped at a value of $80 million each, according to service briefing slides from a Jan. 11 industry day.

Contractors Focus On CRH Requirements, Not Budget, at Industry Day

More than 40 companies interested in competing for the Air Force's Combat Rescue Helicopter procurement program attended a set of industry days last week, and the participants used the event to better understand the service's source-selection criteria and aircraft requirements rather than to gain insight into possible budget scenarios, according to two Air Force officials.

Three more news items of note:

DOD Kicks Off $79.9M Round Of Security Assistance Projects For European Nations

The Defense Department is kicking off the first batch of fiscal year 2012 security assistance programs drawn up with the State Department to train and equip foreign forces, funding eight efforts to bolster the capabilities of 12 European nations preparing to deploy personnel to Afghanistan to operate alongside U.S. troops, according to a Pentagon spokesman.

DBB Recommends Defense Secretary Push For IT Reform, Create Clear Strategy

To increase the efficiency of the Pentagon's information technology enterprise, the defense secretary must take a clear lead on the modernization effort and the organization must establish a clear strategy with specific milestones, deadlines and metrics, according to new recommendations from an influential advisory board.

FY-13 Budget Roll Out To Begin Next Week; 'Pretty Impressive' Reaction Expected

The Pentagon next week will reveal the major impacts of $487 billion in planned cuts over the next decade to weapon system investment plans, the Defense Department's No. 2 military official said today -- the first official confirmation that DOD plans to disclose highlights of its fiscal year 2013 budget proposal before the White House unveils the budget plan to Congress.

Just posted:

FY-13 Budget Roll Out To Begin Next Week, 'Pretty Impressive' Reaction Expected

The Pentagon next week will reveal the major impacts of $487 billion in planned cuts over the next decade to weapon system investment plans, the Defense Department's No. 2 military official said today -- the first official confirmation that DOD plans to disclose highlights of its fiscal year 2013 budget proposal before the White House unveils the budget plan to Congress.

"A week from now we'll start rolling something out," Adm. James Winnefeld, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said today of the planned Jan. 26 preview of how the Pentagon will cut $487 billion in FY-13 compared to DOD budget plans this time last year.

More to come.

Inside the Pentagon mines the new DOT&E report for this important news:

Report: Urgent Effort To Counter China's Anti-Ship Missile Needs Funding

Despite an urgent need to counter new Chinese weapons designed to sink maneuvering U.S. aircraft carriers, the Navy has not funded a surrogate missile required to test defenses against the unprecedented threat, warns a report from the Pentagon's top tester.

The report highlighting the funding gap comes weeks after the Pentagon unveiled a new strategy that underscores the need to overcome threats like this emerging capability to hit moving warships at sea.

The latest annual report from J. Michael Gilmore, the Defense Department's operational testing chief, warns that developing a threat-representative anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM) target for operational open-air trials has become an "immediate test-resource need" because China is fielding the DF-21D ASBM.

The new Chinese weapon "threatens U.S. and allied surface warships in the Western Pacific," Gilmore writes in the fiscal year 2011 report, released last week. DOD stated last summer in its report to Congress on China's military that the DF-21D is designed to attack large warships, including aircraft carriers, in that region.

Related:

Shaffer: Hypersonics Can Play Major Role Countering A2/AD Challenges

Weapons that can travel at five times the speed of sound are a major game-changer that could play a key role in the Pentagon's increased focus against adversaries engaging in anti-access, area-denial actions, the Pentagon's No. 2 research and engineering official said.

Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Al Shaffer said Tuesday that hypersonic weapons could help the department achieve one of its top research and engineering goals: preparing for an uncertain future.

"It provides an operational capability or it could that would be very difficult for an adversary to counter," Shaffer said at a Jan. 17 precision-strike conference.

More key details from the testers' report:

DOD Assessment Warns U.S. Military Unprepared For High-End Cyberwar

The U.S. military remains unprepared to continue operations and maintain network defenses in the event a sophisticated country like China wages war on American forces in cyberspace, according to a stark assessment from the Pentagon's operational testing chief.

Despite strong statements by President Obama, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey about the need to tackle national security challenges in the cyber domain, the Defense Department's posture for parrying cyber attacks has worsened in some ways over the last year despite small improvements in network defense, according to the latest annual report from J. Michael Gilmore, the Pentagon's director of operational test and evaluation.

The report, released last week, warns that the information assurance posture observed during DOD's fiscal year 2011 military exercises "is not sufficient to prevent an advanced adversary from adversely affecting the missions that were being exercised." The report names no potential enemy. But DOD's 2011 report to Congress on China's military stated the Chinese are developing "integrated network electronic warfare" capabilities that use "electronic warfare, computer network operations and kinetic strikes to disrupt battlefield information systems that support an adversary's warfighting and power-projection capabilities."

Gilmore's office "observed modest improvements in certain areas of network defense, but there were also several areas in which prior progress has declined," he writes. "In general, information technology and personnel were not fully prepared to operate in realistic and contested cyberspace conditions," the report adds.

And the report itself, in case you missed it:

DOT&E 2011 Annual Report -- Navy Programs

DOT&E 2011 Annual Report -- Army Programs

DOT&E 2011 Annual Report -- Air Force Programs

DOT&E 2011 Annual Report -- Missile Defense Programs

DOT&E 2011 Annual Report -- Defense-Wide Programs

DOT&E 2011 Annual Report -- Introduction

Our latest:

Turkey's First F-35 Production Order Smaller Than Anticipated

Turkey this month announced plans to purchase just two Joint Strike Fighters in the program's seventh early production lot, two-thirds less than planned, according to Pentagon sources.

On Jan. 5, Turkey's Defense Industry Executive Committee authorized its under secretary for defense industry to proceed with negotiations to purchase the aircraft, a green light that signals Turkey's commitment to procure the stealthy fighter. The initial order is smaller than the six originally planned for the seventh low-rate initial production (LRIP) lot.

The announcement followed Turkey's decision to put its plans for 100 F-35 aircraft -- a potential $16 billion procurement -- on ice last March because Washington was withholding computer code for the aircraft Turkey desired. "Turkey's decision to buy two aircraft in LRIP 7 was a change to their original agreement, which estimated JSF air vehicle quantities," said a Pentagon official. "But total estimated quantities remains unchanged at 100."

Recent and related:

DOT&E: JSF On Course To Flunk Operational Effectiveness, Suitability

The Joint Strike Fighter program -- subjected by DOD leaders to a comprehensive technical review and restructured twice in the last two years in a bid to manage cost growth and development challenges -- is unlikely to meet two crucial operational criteria pivotal to future production decisions, according to the Pentagon's top weapons tester.

More from today's Inside the Pentagon:

DEAMS Receives Approval To Enter Engineering Development Phase

An Air Force general ledger program designed to help the service better manage its finances has been approved to enter its engineering and manufacturing development phase -- a major milestone that coincides with the Pentagon's top weapons tester releasing a report detailing problems with the program.

During a Jan. 10 Defense Acquisition Board meeting, Deputy Chief Management Officer Beth McGrath approved the Defense Enterprise Accounting and Management System, or DEAMS, to enter into milestone B, according to a Pentagon spokeswoman. McGrath serves as the milestone decision authority for the program.

But the program has contained "major system deficiencies" throughout its early operational assessment, which continue to accrue, according to the most recent annual report from the Pentagon's director of operational test and evaluation.

A quick story on LPD ships:

Mills: Navy Could Retire Two LPD Ships Early

The Navy might retire two of its amphibious ships due to budget constraints, Lt. Gen. Richard Mills, deputy commandant for combat development and integration, told reporters Wednesday.

And one more on ships:

Stackley: Navy Did Not Fund Worst-Case Estimate For CVN-78 Overrun

The Navy decided not to fund the worst-case $1.1 billion estimate for the cost overrun on the aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78), according to Navy acquisition executive Sean Stackley.

"We did not budget to the worst case," Stackley told reporters last week at the Surface Navy Association's annual conference, noting the department instead budgeted to the most likely estimate for the overrun. Bloomberg first reported last month that the worst-case estimate was $1.1 billion and the program manager's "most likely" estimate was $884.7 million.

Noted:

Carter Shutters NII, Transfers Acquisition-Related Duties To AT&L

The Pentagon has officially disestablished its networks and information integration directorate, transferring a majority of the functions to the chief information officer and acquisition-specific functions and resources to the department's procurement shop.

A Jan. 11 memo signed by Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter immediately shutters NII and directs the CIO to be "the department's primary authority for the policy and oversight of information resources management, to include matters related to information technology, network defense and network operations." It also states that the DOD CIO will continue to oversee the Defense Information Systems Agency director.

However, acquisition-specific functions and resources related to command, control, communications, non-intelligence space matters and major automated information systems will transfer from the DOD CIO to the acquisition shop "to ensure a more focused organization," Carter writes. And the DOD CIO will continue to oversee defense business systems "for which the primary purpose is to support information technology infrastructure or information assurance activities," Carter adds.

DOCUMENT ALERT:

DOD Memo On Disestablishment Of ASD(NII) Office

In a Jan. 11, 2012, memo, Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter disestablishes the assistant secretary of defense for networks and information integration office and transfers most of those responsibilities to the Pentagon's chief information officer.

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