Assa d, in New Position, To Help Pentagon Get Best Deal

There will be a new negotiator at the table as the Pentagon and Lockheed Martin hammer out a pricing deal for the latest batch of F-35 Joint Strike Fighters.

Pentagon veteran Shay Assad has been named the U.S. Defense Department’s director of defense pricing. (File photo / U.S. Defense Department)

Shay Assad, the newly named director of defense pricing, will help the U.S. Defense Department buy weapons at a lower cost than official budget estimates. The creation of the new position is part of the Pentagon's quest to drive down the cost of weapons at a time when defense budgets are constricting.

"We simply intend to be much more professional, much more capable, when it gets to sitting at the table and negotiating the price on behalf of the taxpayers," Assad said during a June 2 briefing at the Pentagon.
The creation of the position is part of Pentagon acquisition executive Aston Carter's Better Buying Power initiative to buy more for less money. Part of that initiative is looking beyond program cost estimates and determining what a program should cost.
In his new role, Assad will help program managers hit these should-cost targets, which will be set at levels less than official budget estimates.
In addition, he will spend more time improving the contracting and pricing work forces in "improving their skills on what it is we pay on the goods and services we buy."
One of the major elements of this is to transform the Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA), Assad said. DCMA has hired 300 pricing analysts who will assist contract officers during negotiations for weapons, sustainment, services and other contracts. It will take 18 to 24 months to bring this work force up to speed, Assad said.
Officials are also creating an online system that will "enable our contracting officers to get insight into the financial aspects of the companies that we deal with in a real-time way," he said. The system, which already includes rate data, is being tested.
Currently, it could take contracting officers months or even a year to compile this type of data. Soon it will all be organized under one roof and should take minutes to retrieve.
"What we're really trying to do is have contracting officers push away from the table and say: 'I did very well by the taxpayers,' " Assad said.
Assad previously served as director, defense procurement and acquisition, a position he has held since 2006. Richard Ginman, Assad's former deputy, has assumed that position and is responsible for general acquisition and contract policy.
While Assad will conduct peer reviews for sole-source programs that cost more than $1 billion and selective deals above $500 million, Ginman will work on competitive programs.
Assad will be "intimately involved" supporting the acquisition of the F-35, the Pentagon's most expensive program. DoD converted the program to a fixed-price construct last year and has entered new negotiations for the fifth batch of production aircraft.
The F-35 negotiations will likely not wrap up until this fall, Assad said.

U.K. Army Fears Loss of Battlefield Mobility

LONDON - British soldiers will be walking to war if the Ministry of Defence fails to deliver a coherent equipment plan as part of its restructuring of the U.K. military later this decade, according to a senior Army officer.
Maj. Gen. Bill Moore, the MoD's director of battlespace maneuver and master general of the Ordnance, singled out the need to fund a planned upgrade of the Army's Warrior infantry fighting vehicle as vital to enabling the British military to maneuver in the post-2015 era.

"While support for operations [in Afghanistan] is the main effort, we need to deliver a coherent Future Force 2020. If we don't get this right and don't get the Warrior [capability sustainment program] funded and maintain the other things in our program, the Army will be walking to war from 2015," Moore told an audience of senior officers and industry executives at a June 2 conference on land warfare, hosted here by the Royal United Services Institute.
The MoD has been in negotiations with Lockheed Martin UK for months to update more than 300 Warriors with a new turret, gun, electronic architecture and better armored protection.
The future of the program has been wracked by uncertainties as a result of heavy defense budget cuts imposed by the British government over the next four years.
The general said there is an enduring need for the Warrior, and the current machine has reached the end of its tether with an obsolete gun, a power-to-weight ratio on operations that is near its limit and other failings. The update would allow Warrior to stay in service beyond 2040.
While Moore may have had his tongue in his cheek over the "walking to war" comment, he said that even if Britain manages to maintain all the programs in the budget, there would still be an issue of being able to maneuver properly in the 2015-20 time frame.
There is a clear budget gap across many of the key maneuver equipment plans post-2015, and he said armored vehicles, support helicopters, air transport, support vehicles, ISTAR and joint fires would all require more funding if Britain is going to develop the Future Force 2020 concept fully.
One bright spot, he said, is the progress on the new armored scout vehicle being developed by General Dynamics UK. The team developing the turret for the vehicle conducted its first live firing with the 40mm case telescoped cannon system integrated in mid-May.
Lockheed Martin is leading the team using a Rheinmetall Landsysteme-designed turret. The tests, conducted in Germany, involved firing 20 rounds. General Dynamics said the milestone was achieved five months ahead of schedule.
Moore said Britain also needs more helicopter lift capabilities, including additional Boeing Chinooks and upgraded Eurocopter Pumas.
AgustaWestland Merlin battlefield support helicopters are being transferred to the Royal Navy for commando operations.
Future Force 2020 is a planned transformation of the British military into a more adaptable, but smaller, expeditionary force by the end of the decade.
The transformation, part of the 2010 British government strategic defense and security review, is sparking increasing debate here on military requirements and how they will be funded post-2015, against what could be a backdrop of continuing economic uncertainty and budget pressure.

China Denies Responsibility for Gmail Cyberattack

BEIJING - China said on June 1 it was "unacceptable" to blame it for a cyberspying campaign, which Google said had targeted the Gmail accounts of senior U.S. officials, journalists and Chinese activists.
The comments marked the latest salvo in a battle between the Chinese government and Google dating back to last year when the U.S. Internet giant revealed it had been the victim of a separate China-based cyberattack.

"To put all of the blame on China is unacceptable," foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei told reporters.
"The so-called statement that the Chinese government supports hacking attacks is a total fabrication... It has ulterior motives."
Google said June 1 it was hit by a cyberspying campaign that appeared to have originated in Jinan, capital of the eastern Chinese province of Shandong. The company did not specifically point the finger of blame at Chinese authorities.
"We recently uncovered a campaign to collect user passwords, likely through phishing," Google security team engineering director Eric Grosse said in a blog post.
"The goal of this effort seems to have been to monitor the contents of these users' emails, with the perpetrators apparently using stolen passwords to change peoples' forwarding and delegation settings," he said.
Those affected included senior US government officials, Chinese political activists, military personnel, journalists and officials in several Asian countries, mainly South Korea, Grosse said.
"Google detected and has disrupted this campaign to take users' passwords and monitor their emails," he said.
"We have notified victims and secured their accounts," he added. "In addition, we have notified relevant government authorities."
The "phishing" ruse used to trick Gmail users into revealing account names and passwords reportedly involved sending booby-trapped messages that appeared to come from legitimate associates, friends or organizations.
The White House is investigating the situation but has no reason to believe that Gmail accounts of senior government officials were hacked, an official told AFP.
Briefing reporters on a new White House strategy statement about cyber-security, the Pentagon on May 31 did not rule out a military response if the United States was hit by an online attack.
"A response to a cyber-incident or attack on the U.S. would not necessarily be a cyber response," Pentagon spokesman Colonel Dave Lapan said. Google said the California-based firm's systems and servers were not attacked.
There was no indication whether the Gmail spying campaign was related to the China-based cyberattack on Google that prompted the company early last year to stop bowing to Internet censors and reduce its presence in the country.
Google, whose motto is "Don't Be Evil," had initially threatened to close its Chinese operations altogether because of censorship and cyberattacks it said originated from China.
At that time, Beijing virulently denied any state involvement in the cyberattacks that Google said targeted email accounts of Chinese human rights activists and said such claims were "groundless."
Beijing tightly controls online content in a vast system dubbed the "Great Firewall of China," removing information it deems harmful such as pornography, violent content, and politically sensitive material.
Noting that China too had been a victim of cyberattacks, Hong said, "The Chinese government always disapproves of criminal activities including hacker activities and other activities that impair the Internet."
The spokesman added, "We punish these activities in accordance with law."

U.S., Romania in 'Complicated' F-16 Talks

BUCHAREST, Romania - The United States and Romania are in "very complicated" negotiations about the purchase of second-hand F-16 combat aircraft due to financing issues, the U.S. ambassador to Romania said June 2.
"This is a very complicated negotiation because at some point it requires a financial agreement," Ambassador Mark Gitenstein told a press conference.

"We are just not far enough to finalize that" at this stage, he added.
Romania announced in March 2010 it would purchase 24 F-16 aircraft currently used by the U.S. military for $1.3 billion in order to replace its ageing, Soviet-made MiG Lancer jets.
The announcement triggered criticism from European groups Eurofighter and Saab, which said authorities should have issued a call for tenders.
Then in June 2010, as Romania battled one of the worst recessions in Europe, then finance minister Sebastian Vladescu said the purchase represented 1 percent of GDP and "such an expense was downright impossible" at the moment.
Romania and the United States are close allies and agreed in May to deploy 24 missile interceptors on a military airbase in southern Romania in 2015 as part of the new U.S. defense shield

FBI Reviews Hacking of Officials' Gmail Accounts

The FBI is investigating a cyber attack that targeted hundreds of Google email accounts, including those belonging to senior U.S. government officials and military personnel.
Google believes the phishing scam, which tricked users into divulging personal information, was launched by hackers in Jinan, China, to monitor email content, Google announced in a June 1 blog post.

The Internet giant said its internal systems were not affected and those targeted by the incident have been notified.
FBI spokeswoman Jenny Shearer said the agency is reviewing the matter. As with any cyber attack, incidents reported to the FBI are evaluated to determine if an investigation will be launched.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is working with Google and agencies to analyze malicious activity and mitigate risks, DHS spokesman Chris Ortman said.
Less than two weeks ago, hackers penetrated information systems networks at Lockheed Martin. The defense contractor said no customer, program or employee data was compromised during the attack, and DHS and the U.S. Defense Department are looking into the matter.
"Impact to DoD [from the Lockheed cyber attack] is minimal and we don't expect any adverse effect," said U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. April Cunningham, a Defense Department spokeswoman.

Air Giants

U.S. forces in Afghanistan get nervous when they have to reel down one of their tethered, video-camera-equipped aerostats for maintenance.
"They want it up as long as they can have it - that persistent surveillance stare," said Army Lt. Col. Robert Helms, who oversees work on the aerostats, called the Persistent Threat Detection System (PTDS).
Last year, the Army accepted 28 PTDS aerostats, adding to the nine it already owned. Now commanders want airships that stay up even longer, scan more terrain with radars and cameras, and serve as communications relays.
That means they'll have to be bigger.
The Army, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and their contractors are moving forward with imminent plans to inflate and fly giant airships that would set new aviation standards for size, endurance and presence. The airships would provide detailed pictures of battlefield conditions for combat troops who need the information immediately.
One, the Army's Long Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle (LEMV), could be in Afghanistan by the end of 2011. Others are being prepared for key tests.

Cracking the Stratosphere

In June or July, Lockheed Martin plans to test-fly its High Altitude Long Endurance Demonstrator (HALE-D) airship at the company's Mission Systems and Sensors division airship facility in Akron, Ohio. At 70 feet in diameter, the test airship will carry a 50-pound payload - a camera and a communications repeater - at an altitude of between 60,000 and 70,000 feet for 10 to 14 days. HALE-D is big, but it is a scaled-down version of the airship originally envisioned under the dormant High Altitude Airship program.
"This is very Wright Brothers-ish," said Eric Hofstatter, the program manager for another Lockheed airship effort, the Integrated Sensor is Structure (ISIS) airship project. Like HALE-D, ISIS is designed to fly extremely high, providing a wide-area view. "There are no stratospheric airships flying today, at all," Hofstatter said.
Lockheed Martin Skunk Works, the company's Advanced Development Programs Division, is developing ISIS for DARPA.
Developers and researchers want to use HALE-D to compare real performance to simulations conducted with models on the ground prior to launch and gather data on wind and air pressure. Though Hofstatter said HALE-D and ISIS are not directly linked, the results garnered from this summer's test flight could help develop ISIS in time for its projected 90-day flight test from Akron to Key West, Fla., beginning in April 2013.
"Once we validate all the technology required for the stratospheric airship, whether from HALE-D or ISIS, it [will provide] a laundry list of capabilities everybody can use - from communications nodes to electro-optical IR sensors," Hofstatter said.
During its test flight, the 500-foot-long ISIS demonstrator craft will stay on station at the same altitude range as HALE-D, carrying a smaller and more modest radar and communications package than developers plan to place on the final product. It will have a top cruise speed of just less than 100 feet per second - roughly twice as fast as the Goodyear blimp.
Plans call for the construction of a second ISIS airship, incorporating changes as determined by the test demonstrator, for use by the Air Force and U.S. Northern Command. Ultimately, ISIS will carry very large, dual-band active electronically scanned array radars, capable of detecting air-, water- or land-borne moving targets at ranges from 15.5 to 373 miles, detect and track ballistic missiles at ranges greater than 932 miles, and penetrate foliage at ranges up to 105.5 miles.
The second ISIS, with the complete ISR package and more powerful regenerative fuel-cell and electric propulsion, is projected for a 2018 deployment and should stay in operation for 10 years.
At the extremely cold temperatures in which it will operate, ISIS will employ state-of-the-art thermal control units built by ATK of Beltsville, Md., comparable to those the company has long built for satellites and spacecraft, but adapted for the airship platform. The units will be able to transport heat through the craft with passive systems, eschewing heavy and complex mechanical pumps and valves.
The inflated skin, or hull, of ISIS - made of an extremely strong composite of woven materials with the thickness of two sheets of paper - will serve as the radome for the radar, powerful enough and with sufficient aperture to provide detailed information to front-line troops.
"The only way to take advantage of high-resolution tracking and targeting is to increase apertures by orders of magnitude," Hofstatter said. "That provides insight as to why DARPA came up with ISIS." Beyond that, he said, details on the system are classified.

Afghanistan Bound

While ISIS would patrol the stratosphere for one long deployment, another large airship set for debut will provide comparable capabilities at lower altitudes and shorter durations, but with greater payload flexibility. Northrop Grumman's football-field-length LEMV will face its first inflation test in June. The goal is to deploy the airship to Afghanistan by December for an operational demonstration.
Once on station, it will fly at 20,000 feet and provide a continuous ISR presence for three weeks at a time. The LEMV will be a hybrid airship, combining the lift of helium with aerodynamic lift and control.
While larger airships carry a bigger wow factor, proponents of lighter-than-air surveillance insist that smaller craft like PTDS and its ilk are doing more than merely filling the breach until ISIS and LEMV enter service.
In fact, while Lockheed's Mission Systems and Sensors division is preparing HALE-D for inflation, the same group is working on an upgrade to PTDS, including installation of new L-3 Wescam MX-20 video cameras and Northrop Grumman STARLite radars. Ground control stations and gondolas will be upgraded, as well. The Defense Department awarded Lockheed the $85.3 million contract Feb. 25, with an anticipated completion date of Nov. 23.
Another company, Mav6 of Alexandria, Va., is working under a Defense Department contract to develop and deploy its Blue Devil 2 multisensor aerostats to Afghanistan by early next year.
Once on station, the aerostats will provide war fighters in Afghanistan with two tools they do not currently have, according to Dave Bither, the project's program manager. "One is the persistent stare and collection of data for long periods of time," Bither said. "The other is tailorable sensors, which the [Defense] department does not have now."
Once inflated, the aerostats are roughly 330 feet long and 62 feet high and will carry a payload of up to 2,500 pounds. Because the aerostats are not filled to high pressure, they can resist small-arms fire. And because they rely on what Bither refers to as tried-and-true aviation-grade engines and possess vertical-takeoff capability, they require neither extensive retraining for maintenance personnel nor long and smooth runways.
Still, experts wonder how practical they would be in a conflict against a foe with better capability to shoot them down.
This originally ran in C4ISR Journal.

India Commits to Help Afghan Security Forces

NEW DELHI - India pledged to help strengthen the capabilities of Afghanistan's security forces after a meeting between the defense ministers of both countries in New Delhi on June 1.
Indian Defence Minister A.K. Antony "conveyed the government of India's willingness to work with the Afghan government in building the capabilities of Afghan security forces," a statement said.

His Afghan counterpart Abdul Rahim Wardak is on a three-day visit to India accompanied by a seven-member team.
Afghan-Indian ties have raised hackles in Islamabad, where the Pakistani government and military establishment has long considered Afghanistan its own strategic asset to offset the perceived threat from India in the east.
India last month pledged $500 million in fresh aid to Afghanistan, raising New Delhi's contribution to $2 billion, to be spent mainly on development projects.
India's military assistance has so far been limited to training Afghanistan's security personnel and investing in small infrastructure projects.
Any greater involvement of Indian forces in Afghanistan would likely face objections from Pakistan, India's regional adversary.
President Hamid Karzai's government has stepped up training of Afghan troops ahead of the scheduled withdrawal of NATO troops by 2014 from the country, where the Islamist Taliban has waged an insurgency since 2001.
U.S.-led international troops are due to start handing over control of security in limited areas to Afghan forces in July.
Wardak said ahead of his talks with Antony that Kabul welcomed Indian security assistance.
"We will welcome any cooperation in the field of training and helping of Afghan national security forces so that they are able to secure and defend the country," he told reporters, according to PTI news agency.
"There is a very genuine interest in strengthening our relations in all sectors including defense," said Wardak, the first top Afghan official to visit India since Osama bin Laden was killed in Pakistan by U.S. troops on May 2.
After more than two decades without influence in Kabul, New Delhi swiftly established ties with Karzai's regime after the 2001 U.S.-led invasion deposed the Taliban, which was allied to Pakistani elements.