Armed Drones Risk “Perpetual War”
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A bipartisan report by former senior intelligence and military officials concludes, targeted killings using armed drones puts the US on a “slippery slope” into perpetual war and sets a precedent for other countries, reports The New York Times. The report urges the Obama administration to analyze if costs outweigh benefits and give a public accounting of militants and civilians killed in drone strikes. Critical of secrecy, the panel questions whether lethal drone strikes create terrorists even as killing them. Armed drones should not be “glorified nor demonized,” the report said, indicating civilian deaths from drone strikes as far fewer than from traditional combat aircraft. Drone operations don’t create a “PlayStation mentality”; the report postulates drone pilots are more susceptible to post-traumatic stress than pilots of manned aircraft. The former monitor their targets for long periods of time and watch the destruction on high-resolution displays.
Straight from NAS:Pax River, a deployment of up to the F-35Bs head to UK air shows in July to help shore-up Britain’s order and build an understanding of the stealthy fighter’s logistics requirements, reports Aviation Week. The F-35Bs will make their international debut, first at the Royal International Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford on July 11 and then at the Farnborough International Airshow, which opens on July 14. The fighters are also scheduled to conduct a flyby at the naming ceremony of the new HMS Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier. The F-35s are expected to refuel around 10-12 times each during their ocean crossing.
Some defense contractors hope Democrats keep control of the Senate, preventing Sen. John McCain from ascending to Chair of the Armed Services Committee, according to Politico. Many contractors feel Sen. McCain overly suspicious and thus unfairly targets companies that sell to the military. “I’m sure that many of them are very nervous,” said the senator. “If I were them, I would be.”
A newly unclassified Navy report found a malfunctioning target drone combined with judgment errors led to the November 2013 accident that injured two sailors aboard the USS Chancellorsville and breached the warship’s hull, reports U-T San Diego. Recomended is administrative action against the ship’s then-skipper, Captain Andrew Hesser, and three key crew members for failing to defend their ship against a BQM-74 target drone crash. The repairs cost the Navy an estimated $30 million and took the ship out of service.
The Navy wants a big data ecosystem, according to C4ISR & Networks. A recent FedBizOpps posting indicates the Office of Naval Research wants “white papers and full proposals . . . for advanced technology . . . towards a well-developed and robust naval big data ecosystem . . . for supporting naval warfighting applications.”
Partnerships on major programs will become the norm, Boeing’s CEO Chris Chadwick tells Defense News, a reaction to shrinking spending worldwide.
The Navy gave Northrop Grumman $63 million more for “post-demonstration” development of its X-47B carrier-based unmanned air vehicle, reports Flightglobal.
BAE Systems Technology Solutions & Services, Inc., Rockville, Maryland, is being awarded a $10,737,652 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for the design, development, integration, test and evaluation, installation, fielding, certification, maintenance and logistics support of the cooperative identification, non-cooperative target recognition, air traffic control equipment, systems and subsystems. These efforts are in support of the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division’s Identification Systems Division. Work will be performed in St. Inigoes, Maryland, and is expected to be completed in April 2015. Fiscal 2014 Navy working capital funds in the amount of $7,281,808 are being obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured pursuant to FAR 6.302-1. The Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity (N00421-14-C-0040).
