NAVAIR Building on Unfunded Priority List

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 reflect opinions of the Leader’s owners or staff.

A catch in military construction funding will likely prevent Congress from granting much of the $5.7 billion DoD needs for 126 unfunded lab and testing construction projects. Projects must be 35% through planning and design stage to allow Congress to fund them, reports Defense News. On the priority list is NAVAIR’s $291 million building to accommodate more than 3,000 acquisition and headquarters personnel and “substantially improve acquisition and program management support” for Navy research and development efforts.

US revises its Cuba policy and eases restrictions on remittances and travel, reports Reuters. The United States has announced a series of steps to revise its policy toward Cuba, including easing some Trump-era restrictions on family remittances and travel to the island and sharply increasing the processing of US visas for Cubans. A statement from the US State Department said the measures were to “further support the Cuban people, providing them additional tools to pursue a life free from Cuban government oppression and to seek greater economic opportunities.” The measures, which were rolled out after a lengthy US government review, mark the most significant changes in the US approach to Havana since President Joe Biden took office in January 2021.

An underground drug-smuggling tunnel from Tijuana to Otay Mesa has been found on the US-Mexico border, reports Sky News. Investigators found the tunnel after turning up boxes of cocaine at a home in Mexico and during vehicle stops in California. Armed guards were discovered at a warehouse watching over the entrance, a small shaft with a ladder that descended into the tunnel. The passage, discovered last week, ran a third of a mile to Tijuana and was 4 feet wide.

A satellite photo shows a possible new Chinese nuclear submarine able to launch cruise missiles, reports Defense News. The submarine could be a new class or subtype of a nuclear-powered attack sub with a new stealthy propulsion system and launch tubes for cruise missiles. The satellite photo of the shipyard at Huludao in Liaoning province, northern China, which was provided to Defense News by Planet Labs, was taken May 3 and shows a submarine on a drydock.

India has halted its negotiations with Russia for its Ka-31 helicopter, reports Defense News. India has been negotiating since before 2016 with Russia to acquire 10 Kamov Ka-31 airborne early warning helicopters for $520 million. Uncertainties in financing and execution of orders prompted the Indian government to indefinitely suspended the negotiations with Rosoboronexport and original equipment manufacturer Russian Helicopters.

Several hundred US troops are heading back into Somalia to help combat growing al-Shabab terrorist forces there, reports Military Times.  The move reverses an order by President Donald Trump 18 months ago to remove all US military forces from the country over the objections of Pentagon officials. Before then, about 700 American troops had been stationed in the country, helping to train local forces in their fight against terrorist groups.

An Army two-star general is the first woman to take command of forces at the only permanent American military base in Africa, a milestone in the military’s 20-year mission in Djibouti, reports Stars and Stripes (Paywall). MAJ GEN Jami Shawley, a 1992 graduate of West Point, took over Saturday as head of Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa, replacing MAJ GEN William Zana.

Mali’s interim government on Monday said “Western-backed” military officers attempted a coup last week without providing details or evidence, reports Reuters. Tensions between Mali’s junta and the West are linked to its failure to hold promised elections in February and speedily restore civilian rule, as well as to its collaboration with Russian mercenaries.

The Navy has launched an Unmanned Surface Vessel Division to expedite the integration of unmanned systems, reports Navy Times. The unit will manage unmanned surface vessel experimentation for medium and large unmanned surface vessels like the Sea Hunter and the Sea Hawk, both of which will participate in anti-submarine warfare missions. The Pacific Fleet’s Naval Surface Force held a ceremony May 13 establishing the command at Naval Base San Diego.

Ukraine is now using Russia’s own tanks against them, reports Task & Purpose. Ukraine mechanics have been looking for any damaged piece of equipment in the city, including tanks pulled out from bogs. With the Ukrainian counteroffensive in Kharkiv successful, reported here by Al Jazeera, those repurposed tanks are being actively used against the army they were recovered from. The mechanics also look for any intelligence information left in the vehicles. Equipment too damaged to repair is stripped for parts, repaired tanks get fitted with new camouflage nets and undergo a test drive before being sent to the military.

 

 

Pentagon leadership has narrowed the potential nominees to become the next Space Force Chief of Space Operations to LT GEN John Shaw and LT GEN Stephen Whiting, with the decision now in the hands of the White House, reports Breaking Defense. Shaw currently serves as SPACECOM deputy commander and is considered future-oriented about the military’s role in space. Whiting, head of Space Force’s Space Operations Command, is more management focused. The first chief, GEN Jay Raymond will retire in the fall.

Marine special-operations veterans have formed Mozart Group to help train Ukrainians to fight. Since Russia’s invasion, in addition to international military, economic, and humanitarian aid, on-the-ground assistance has also arrived. Mozart Group, led by Andy Milburn, who retired in 2019 after 31 years in the US Marine Corps, seeks to increase Ukrainian military capability and protect citizens. Business Insider notes the group isn’t directly involved in the fighting and in compliance with the US Neutrality Act, described by JustSecurity.org. The law prohibits Americans from joining foreign militaries or launching their own wars against countries the US isn’t at war with.

Retired Army LT COL John Culp walks the streets of Kyiv wearing body armor and looking for unexploded ordnance left behind from Russian assaults on the city. Military Times reports the retired special forces officer and EOD tech is volunteering with the nonprofit Bomb Techs Without Borders, founded in 2018 “to prevent casualties caused by landmines, IEDs, and other explosive remnants of war.”

Sweden and Finland would bring NATO valuable military assets, including in the intelligence domain, reports Business Insider. The move toward the alliance by Sweden and Finland can be seen as a major rebuke of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who sent troops to Ukraine in February, purportedly in part due to concerns about the expansion of the NATO alliance.

Last November, 20% of all Finns wanted to join NATO, now, nearly 80% want to join, a dramatic shift after decades of neutrality following World War II. The Finnish ambassador to the US explains why Finland now wants to join NATO, reports Fox News. Finland’s Ambassador to the United States Mikko Hautala knows Vladimir Putin better than most diplomats. He has met him a dozen times, even in a sauna. He said the Russians should not be surprised that his country now wants to join NATO after Russia invaded Ukraine. He said he personally warned them in January this would happen if Russian troops crossed into Ukraine.

Turkey surprised its NATO allies last week by saying it would not view Sweden’s or Finland’s applications positively, mainly citing their history of hosting members of groups Ankara deems terrorists, reports Reuters.

Taliban authorities in Afghanistan dissolved five key departments of the former US-backed government, including the country’s Human Rights Commission, deeming them unnecessary in the face of a financial crunch, reports Reuters. Afghanistan faces a budget deficit of $501 million this financial year. Taliban authorities announced on Saturday their first annual national budget since taking over the war-torn country last August.

The Navy’s latest budget proposal will cut more than a thousand sailors from the sea service, reports USNI. The Navy should make its recruiting goals for active-duty sailors this year, Chief of Naval Operations ADM Mike Gilday told Congress, but expects challenges meeting those numbers in the future, especially in cyber areas.

The Army is building a “dashboard” to measure human performance, reports Army Times. The granular detail on how an individual soldier or groups of soldiers might perform has remained tantalizingly out of reach … until now. The Army’s Combat Capabilities Development Command has been at work on a kind of soldier/squad “dashboard” that would put all of that data in a usable form and at a leader’s fingertips.

Contracts:

Lockheed Martin Corp., Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co., Fort Worth, Texas, is awarded a $632,129,418 cost-plus-incentive-fee contract. This contract provides engineering, maintenance, logistics and material support to continue to develop, sustain and produce software builds, as well as carryout developmental flight tests in support of the F-35 Lightning II aircraft for the Air Force, Marine Corps, Navy, Foreign Military Sales customer, and non-U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) participants’ funds. This contract also provides unique sea trials on aircraft carriers for the government of the United Kingdom. Work will be performed in Fort Worth, Texas (81%); Orlando, Florida (7%); Linthicum, Maryland (3%); Nashua, New Hampshire (3%); San Diego, California (2%); El Segundo, California (2%); Samlesbury, United Kingdom (1%); Toronto, Canada (0.10%); and various locations within the continental U.S. (0.90%) and is expected to be completed in March 2024. Fiscal 2022 research, development, test and evaluation (Air Force) funds in the amount of $41,009,193; fiscal 2022 operation and maintenance (Air Force) funds in the amount of $40,103,104; fiscal 2022 operation and maintenance (Navy) funds in the amount of $40,103,104; fiscal 2022 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funds in the amount of $39,491,303; fiscal 2021 research, development, test and evaluation (Air Force) funds in the amount of $1,934,724; and non-US DoD participants funds in the amount of $41,085,051 will be obligated at the time of award, $80,206,208 of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured pursuant to 10 US Code 2304(c)(1). The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity (N0001922C0041).