March 29, 2024

Morning Coffee: DoD Spending Projections Improve

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 necessarily reflect those of the Leader’s owners or staff.Morning Coffee logo

The DoD’s five-year spending projections for its 63 major weapons programs look more positive than last year’s spending forecast, according to a detailed VisualDoD analysis presented in DefenseNews. However, Pentagon spending on its top unmanned aircraft programs is expected to decline from projections a year ago, but still grow at a 2.5 percent average annual rate. The Navy’s UCLASS program could boost drone spending although high development costs associated with new unmanned aircraft are “compelling several manufacturers to merely modify existing aircraft and subsystems.” Defense analyst Michael Blades said, “Large defense contractors like Boeing, Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin will likely acquire and/or partner with technologically advanced small busi­nesses to enhance their capa­bilities in the face of reducing market potential. These acquisitions will help firms widen their profit margins as well as compete in the nascent civil [unmanned aircraft] market.”

CNO Adm. Jonathan Greenert said last week that the Navy-Marine Corps team is united in accomplishing the mission to be where it matters, when it matters, reports dcmilitary.com. Interaction between the two services has never been better Adm. Greenert believes, “Forward presence is our mandate. By operating from forward locations, the Navy and Marine Corps provide President Barack Obama with options to deal promptly with global contingencies.”

As unmanned aircraft face increasingly dangerous and contested environments the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is working to develop systems that allow multiple drones to communicate with each other, reports USA Today. DARPA believes that “most of the current systems are not well matched to the needs of future conflicts,” which DARPA anticipates as “being much less permissive, very dynamic and characterized by a higher level of threats, contested electromagnetic spectrum and relocatable targets.”

The United Nations believes that climate change is already having broad effects on every continent and throughout the world’s oceans and warned that the problem was likely to grow substantially worse unless greenhouse emissions are brought under control, reports the New York Times. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change scientists concluded that the oceans are rising at a pace that threatens coastal communities. “Ice caps are melting, sea ice in the Arctic is collapsing, water supplies are coming under stress, heat waves and heavy rains are intensifying, coral reefs are dying, and fish and many other creatures are migrating toward the poles or in some cases going extinct.”

Pentagon officials are reviewing options to consolidate commissaries and exchanges, as well as have commissaries adopt an “exchange-like business model,” according to the Military Times. The Defense Department may ask Congress to allow commissaries to raise prices rather than sell groceries at cost and permit commissaries to sell generic products, rather than limiting the stores to selling name-brand goods.

The Pentagon has developed an acquisition model to provide contractors with a framework for a common ground control station (GCS) for unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) that will reduce costs and enhance technical capabilities, according to FCW. The “Open Business Model for Unmanned Aircraft Systems Ground Control Stations” is built on lessons learned from the Navy’s open architecture methods for submarine acquisition. The DoD states that spending cuts and IT advances provide an opportunity to rethink how it acquires, designs and builds unmanned systems.

House Democrats  asked the Government Accountability Office to investigate the causes of current federal employee low morale and provide ideas to improve it, reports the Washington Post. William R. Dougan, president of the National Federation of Federal Employees, said, “This GAO study is exactly what we need right now. There is little hope for the relentless political attacks on federal employees to stop without Congress fully understanding the impact these attacks have on federal employee morale.”

The Office of Naval Research (ONR) is investigating whether sailors and Marines dealing with unexpected challenges in the heat of battle can be trained to guess right more often than not, according to SEAPOWER Magazine. The ONR recently gathered together experts to synchronize their studies of intuition and translate the findings into real world military applications. Dr. Peter Squire, ONR program officer, said, “Ultimately, this is about sailors and Marines being able to harness their gut instincts in situations where they need to act quickly. But first, we have to understand what gives rise to this so-called ‘sixth sense.’ Can we model it? Is there a way to improve it through training?”

Engility Corp., Chantilly, Va., is being awarded a $36,550,954 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for systems engineering and technical services in support of the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division’s Software Engineering and Acquisition Management Division.  This contract includes systems integration and software development, platform simulation, integration and laboratory engineering, and software engineering.  These services are in support of the U.S. Navy and governments of Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Japan, Norway, Pakistan, South Korea, and Thailand.  Work will be performed in Patuxent River, Md., and is expected to be completed in January 2015.  The Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, Patuxent River, Md., is the contracting activity (N00421-14-C-0021).

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