Election Not Pivotal to Defense Contractors

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.

The defense industry sees the coronavirus pandemic carrying greater uncertainty than the election outcome, especially for firms with commercial aviation businesses, reports Defense News. No matter who’s in the White House and despite projections of flat 2021 defense budgets, industry is confident in the Pentagon’s commitment to modernization. Wall Street seems skeptical, with pure-play defense firms down this year and lagging the stock market.

No matter the election outcome, the government contracting industry remains under a stopgap federal funding bill that expires Dec. 11, reports Washington Technology, no matter the administration, past precedence suggests another extended continuing resolution could go into March.

After Election Day, there are still military votes to be counted, reports The Washington Post, and whether they will all be counted is uncertain.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says that the US presidential election’s result will not impact Tehran’s policy toward Washington, reports Reuters. “Our policy towards the United States is clearly set and does not change with the movement of individuals. It does not matter to us who comes and goes,” Khamenei said in a speech carried live on state TV.

The resurgence of the group that made Trickbot revived concerns about ransomware against local elections offices, reports Business Insider. Microsoft and the US military’s Cyber Command had thought they’d taken disrupted Trickbot sufficiently to guarantee that. But the reappearance of a new strain of the malware suggestions it has re-calibrated and returned.

 

 

NASA’s Perseverance rover is halfway to Mars. It’s got a long way to go to cover its 292.5 million miles. Mars will be about 130 million miles away from Earth, reports NASA. Because Perseverance takes a curved trajectory, a transmission via the Deep Space Network takes about 2 minutes, 22 seconds to reach the spacecraft. Once on Mars, a transmission will take about 11.5 minutes to reach the rover.

This week is the 20th anniversary of the International Space Station, reports The New York Times. The project was pitched as post-Cold War space cooperation between the US and Russia, although for many its cost — well above $100 billion — made it a poster child of inefficient government megaprojects. In the past decade, however, the station has, somewhat unexpectedly, turned into the linchpin for spurring capitalism in space, potentially leading to new industries and the possibility that more people will head to orbit.

Deborah Birx, White House coronavirus adviser, pleads for “much more aggressive action” to face a new and deadly phase in the health crisis, reports The Washington Post.

US Army in Bavaria is limiting social gatherings to “flatten the second wave” of coronavirus, reports Stars & Stripes. Social gatherings are limited to two households and a maximum of 10 people under the new rules and will remain in force for 28 days, or two incubation cycles for the virus.

Retired US Navy chief Brooks Alonzo Parks fast-tracked invoices and provided inside information to Glenn Francis, aka “Fat Leonard,” for luxury hotel accommodations, travel expenses, and more — emailing at the time, “It feels good living like a king on an E-6, salary.” Parks, 48, was sentenced last week to 27 months in prison, another sailor caught in the bribery and kickback scandal costing the Navy roughly $35 million, reports Navy Times. Parks will also have to pay roughly $25,400 in restitution after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bribery.

Navy speeds up schedule on future carrier JFK with F-35C modifications, reports USNI News. The contract modification moves to a more traditional single-phase delivery, eliminating the previous pause for an installation of electronics and other modifications at a later time.

The Senate confirmed MAJ GEN Robert J. Skinner as the next head of the Defense Information Systems Agency, reports Air Force Magazine, as well as a promotion to lieutenant general. He will replace Navy VADM Nancy A. Norton as DISA director.

The missions range from assisting with cyber defense, working the polls, and standing-by in case of post-election civil unrest for the National Guard activated across the country to support the general election, reports Military Times