Difficulties with the first Marine Corps F-35B Joint Strike Fighter short-take-off, vertical-landing test aircraft have placed the variant 16 percent behind schedule in meeting test points so far this year, but there is "no doubt" the program will be able to catch up, Lt. Gen. George Trautman, deputy commandant for aviation, told Inside the Navy last week.
The Marine Corps will retire the CH-53D medium-lift helicopter at least two years earlier than planned due to the age of the aircraft and the savings that could come from not having to sustain it as the V-22 Osprey replaces it later this decade, Lt. Gen. George Trautman, deputy commandant for aviation, said last week.
The Medium Tactical Vehicle Replacement program can easily develop the technology needed to improve the truck's mileage by 15 to 20 percent, program officials say, but they are still unsure whether the efficiency initiative can compete for funds with hardware requirements.
The Navy is shifting funds away from a short-term solution using buoys to enable submarines to take in their surroundings before coming up to the surface, instead placing a higher premium on the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency's long-term Blue Laser communications system, according to a program official.
The Navy
released the final environmental impact statement last week proposing a move of
8,600 Marines and their 9,000 dependents from Okinawa, Japan, to new facilities
on the island of Guam. The proposed action would involve building
infrastructure to support the relocated Marines, as well as the construction of
a new deep-draft wharf with shoreside infrastructure improvements in Apra
Harbor to support visits by an aircraft carrier. However, Del. Madeleine
Bordallo (D-Guam) said at a House Armed Services Committee hearing last week
that she doubts the Navy will be able to secure the land it needs.
Nine months after Navy Secretary Ray Mabus announced five green energy goals for the service to meet in the next decade, a service official told Inside the Navy last week there has been progress on those goals and the service would start biofuels certification testing of a combat ship this fall.
The Navy is
setting requirements for a medium-range unmanned air system that will follow in
the footsteps of the Fire Scout and may be deployed by 2019, an official told Inside
the Navy on July 23.
The Navy took delivery of the first E-2D Advanced Hawkeye airborne early warning aircraft that will be used for training in preparation of the platform's operational evaluation in 2012, and the program hopes to equip it with in-flight refueling in the mid- to late-2010s, Capt. Shane Gahagan, the program manager, told Inside the Navy July 30.
The Navy's N2/N6 intelligence directorate is working on a strategy to cooperate with the Air Force on intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance processing, exploitation and dissemination, according to the head of the organization.
Boeing
subsidiary Insitu Inc. beat out three other companies for the Navy and Marine
Corps Small Tactical Unmanned Air System contract award last week, and program
manager Capt. J.R. Brown told Inside the Navy the service hopes to field
the system earlier than the scheduled fiscal year 2013 initial operational
capability.
The amphibious assault ship Green Bay (LPD-20) has had problems with engine contaminants and had to undergo extensive modifications this spring, a Navy official told lawmakers July 28.
With the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle, intended to replace the Assault Amphibious Vehicle, coming under fire from Pentagon top brass, there is some uncertainty about how the Marines will maintain their expeditionary capability if the EFV is canceled. If those events were to transpire, the AAV could undergo upgrades indefinitely if need be, according to a program official.
Cost baselines for four of the assets in the Coast Guard's ill-fated acquisition program -- including its largest planned buy, the Offshore Patrol Cutter -- have not been re-examined since the service took over the project from Integrated Coast Guard Systems three years ago, according to the Government Accountability Office.
The Pentagon
has commissioned a new Defense Science Board study to steer investment
decisions on intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance for
counterinsurgency operations.
The Pentagon and the Energy Department have forged a partnership through a new memorandum of understanding designed to push for clean energy technology coordination and to enhance national energy security.
The Defense
Business Board is recommending Defense Secretary Robert Gates eliminate U.S.
Joint Forces Command and the Pentagon's networking directorate, merge the Joint
Staff with Gates' office and implement a hiring freeze.
The Marine
Corps has launched its first-ever review of equipment accountability and
visibility in Afghanistan to uncover and fix problems that prevent military
leaders from accurately tracking the movement of Marine vehicles, weapons and
other assets throughout the country.
Del.
Madeleine Bordallo (D-Guam) doubts the Navy will be able to secure the land it
wants to relocate Marines from Okinawa to Guam, she said during a July 27 House
Armed Services Committee hearing on Japan.
The Defense
Department's big push for efficiencies will shape the costly SSBN(X) nuclear
ballistic missile submarine program and future blocks of the F-35 Joint Strike
Fighter, according to Pentagon industrial policy chief Brett Lambert.
The House
Appropriations defense subcommittee last week voted to include funding for the
F-35 Joint Strike Fighter alternate engine program, continuing the game of
chicken between Capitol Hill and the White House, which has threatened to veto
any legislation that includes money for the propulsion effort.
The Lockheed
Martin division that builds the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, which for years has
broken key Pentagon management rules, will be scrutinized again in March by
defense officials seeking improvement in the company's management score.
The
co-chairmen of a high-profile advisory panel, commissioned by Congress to
prepare an independent assessment of the latest Quadrennial Defense Review,
declined to wade into the debate between Congress and the Pentagon over the
need for a second Joint Strike Fighter engine but strongly endorsed competition
in situations where two potential suppliers would "get prices down."
A bipartisan
independent review of the Obama administration's 20-year blueprint for the
Defense Department calls for increasing the size of the Navy to a 346-ship
fleet and increasing the U.S. military's posture in the Western Pacific to
counter China's growing influence in the region, according to a report of the
Independent Quadrennial Defense Review Panel.
Defense
officials cannot track the total costs of the department's military equipment
for major defense programs, the Government Accountability Office wrote in its
second consecutive report lambasting the Pentagon's cost assessment abilities.
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