Kendall Skeptical Giving Acquisition to Chiefs
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DoD’s top procurement officer is skeptical of Senate and House acquisition reform plans that increase power to the chiefs of the Army, Navy, Marines and Air Force. “[When] services have dominated decisions about the structure of a program… we’ve had some pretty big train wrecks,” Breaking Defense quotes Frank Kendall, Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition.
Military Times reports, the House defense authorization bill calls for a militarywide review of “force-structure plans and infrastructure inventory” that may be the precursor to a BRAC; and also reports House passage of veterans-themed measures with unanimous bipartisan support.
House Republicans released a nearly $579 billion DoD funding bill, circumventing budget caps with an $88 billion war fund. The bill follows a $612 billion National Defense Authorization Act, reports The Hill. The NDAA authorizes DoD programs as well as the State Department, military construction programs and veterans’ benefits.
Lockheed says problems with the F-35’s automated logistics system will not interfere with this summer’s delivery of the fighter jet to the Marines, reports Reuters.
Boeing, working on a UAV to demonstrate its technologies, expresses disappointment that the US Navy will re-examine its UCLASS requirements, reports Aviation Week. Boeing Phantom Works says its stratospheric UAV will carry solid-state lasers for high-altitude sensing, communications, and possibly missile defense, reports Flight Global.
Fighter aircraft and live-fire exercises involving more than 3,000 US and partner-nation troops in Morocco are described in a Military Times story on the 2015 African Lion exercise, the largest joint force exercise on the continent.
Vice Chief of Naval Operations, Adm. Michelle Howard, at the biennial International Maritime Defence Exhibition in Singapore, calls for China to explain the purpose of its large land reclamation project in the South China Sea, reports Breaking Defense.
The Washington Post reports on the aborted Marine rescue in December of a Jordanian fighter pilot whose F-16 went down in Syria.
