March 28, 2024

Morning Coffee: F-35C Passes Tailhook Tests

Morning Coffee is a robust blend of links to news around the internet concerning the Naval Air Station Patuxent River economic community. The opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of the Leader’s owners or staff.Morning Coffee logo

The Navy’s F-35C passes the initial tests of its tail hook, the part of the plane that makes traditional carrier landings possible, reports Breaking Defense. This Navy version of the F-35 is the most likely to be cut of the variants being built also for the Air Force and the Marines. The F-35 team accomplished 36 successful roll-in arrestment tests in January at Lakehurst.

It’s not perfect, but USNI News reports that the Navy can fit its UCLASS program into the budget constraints within the Fiscal Year 2014 National Defense Authorization Act. NAVAIR will have little difficultly in meeting the Congress’ direction to provide programmatic updates, said RADM Mat Winter, PEO  for unmanned aviation. Congress has imposed more oversight and set benchmarks to be met at fewer total UAVs than previously established.

Bloomberg News reports the White House is prepared to announce its nomination of Robert Work for the No.2 civilian slot at the Pentagon. Currently chief executive officer at the Center for a New American Security, Mr. Work served as Navy under secretary from 2009 – 2013 and for 27 years in the Marine Corps.

The White House is expected to announce more export reforms this week in an ongoing streamlining effort sought by US industry, reports Reuters. Already 13 of 21 categories on the US Munitions list including aircraft, explosives, gas turbine engines and missiles. Still to be tackled are areas involving encryption, cloud computing and cybersecurity.

DefSec Chuck Hagel says increasing ethical scandals in the military must be addressed immediately. Defense One reports the issue has become a permanent topic at his weekly meetings with top staffers.

Camp Ravenna, Ohio; Fort Custer, Michigan; Fort Drum, New York and Portsmouth SERE Training Area, Maine (Rangeley) were selected as sites to prepare environmental impact studies for selection as a potential additional missile defense site in the US, reports DefenseGov.
The think tanks know how to defeat China, but can’t get through Washington politics, reports DefenseOne.
Likening the DoD to IBM when the mammoth company faced  financial ruin in 1993, a new report from the Defense Business Board recommends the Pentagon take the same overarching steps toward recovery that saved IBM: Consolidate accounting systems, data centers and communications networks; eliminate excess management and back office personnel; streamline acquisition and customer delivery services. IBM reduced internal costs by 15 percent in four years, cutting $10 billion, and increased revenues by nearly twice that amount, reports Defence Talk.

DC Military.com reports, applications are now being accepted from rising high school seniors for the the US Naval Academy’s 2014 summer sessions which are designed to promote problem-solving skills using critical thinking, optimization, innovation, creativity and team work. NASS is a six-day program involving various 90-minute workshops. Applications are available online at www.usna.edu/admissions/nass. NASS session dates are: May 31 through June 5, June 7-12 and June 14-19.

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