March 28, 2024

DoD Report Critical of F-35’s Progress

Federal Defense Dollars

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Lockheed Martin defended the progress of its F-35, reports Stars and Stripes, after the head of the Pentagon’s testing office issued a critical report saying efforts to improve the joint strike fighter’s reliability are “stagnant.” Aviation Today says the report from the DoD director of operational test and evaluation reveals the fleet will not be ready to meet several of the readiness criteria until late 2018.

The US Navy is declining to make public the number and nature of disciplinary actions taken against crew members aboard the USS Fitzgerald and John S. McCain after 17 sailors were killed last year in two separate collisions, reports Navy Times. At the same time, uncertainty exists regarding the status of past disciplinary actions.

Central Florida is seeing local corporations join the push to get more women interested in the technology field, reports the Orlando Sentinel. High profile backers include Lockheed Martin, Electronics Arts, Harris Corp., and Tupperware. Local leaders there say they are seeing results in tech fields in Central Florida. For example, Harris Corp. officials say they have seen the percentage of women in their workforce rise from 19 to 32 percent in the last five years and University of Central Florida’s video game school also has seen an increase in women’s enrollment.

Towson University and the Maryland National Guard have signed a formal agreement to collaborate on a range of activities, reports The Baltimore Sun, including training in cybersecurity for guardsmen and students.

Sailors and civilians who work at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek in Virginia were asked to donate their used Christmas trees so they can help stabilize the base’s sand dunes, The Virginian-Pilot reports. “The dunes serve as a structure to protect not only our training beaches, but also our infrastructure such as our buildings,” said Sharon Waligora, environmental director for the base.

The Air Force is spending nearly $24 million to upgrade its Air Force One refrigerators for the first time since 1990, reports Air Force Times. There are five chillers and 26 climate-controlled compartments onboard the plane.

The Global Heat Map posted on the Internet that shows the whereabouts of people who use fitness devices also reveals highly sensitive information about the locations and activities of soldiers at US military bases, reports The Washington Post, in what appears to be a major security oversight. In war zones and deserts in countries such as Iraq and Syria, the heat map becomes almost entirely dark — except for scattered pinpricks of activity. Zooming in on those areas brings into focus the locations and outlines of known bases, presumably because American soldiers are using fitness trackers as they move around.

US Navy divers help NASA recover a mock-up capsule designed to simulate the size, shape, mass and center of gravity of an Orion crew module in the Pacific Ocean on Jan. 21, 2018. (Navy photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Abe McNatt)

NASA’s InSight — Interior Exploration Using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport — spacecraft mission, part of the NASA Discovery Program and led by the space agency’s Jet Propulsion Lab, just spread its wings for the first time, reports syfy.com. InSight was built at Lockheed Martin Space in Littleton, CO, for a pre-launch test before the launch window opens in May and it flies off to Mars later this year. Reports say it looks like a giant sci-fi insect.

The Trump administration is preparing to end support for the International Space Station program by 2025, according to a draft budget proposal reviewed by The Verge. Without the space station, American astronauts could be grounded for years with no destination in space until NASA develops new vehicles for deep space travel. NASA has been subjecting its Orion space capsule to a battery of tests designed to tell whether the spacecraft is ready to ferry humans into orbit and beyond, reports National Geographic. In a series of maneuvers last week, a team of NASA and Navy specialists successfully recovered the spaceship from the sea off the coast of San Diego, simulating what would happen when a deep-space mission splashed back to Earth.

The Army will release a new missile defense strategy this summer, reports Defense News, and the Pentagon is expected to release a missile defense review soon. Combined, the initiatives will guide the way the future air-and-missile defense force will operate.

The military has been developing war plans for North Korea for years, but a real-world fight with the nuclear-armed regime would not go down the way it’s being strategized, reports Military Times. “There’s plans out there that have been developed over the years,” Marine commandant Gen. Robert Neller said. “If it were to go down, I am not sure it’s going to go down the way we planned it. It never does.”

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