Morning Coffee: P-8A Enters Full-Rate Production

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.

Boeing will launch the first full-rate production lot for the  P-8A  with the Navy buy announced last week for 16 more of the maritime patrol and anti-submarine aircraft, reports Avionics Intelligence. This $2.4 billion order will bring the Navy’s fleet of the P-8 Poseidon to 53. Technews.org reports Boeing stock rose last week upon news of the purchase contract.

U-T San Diego features a Navy helicopter pilot transitioning into the Fire Scout, the Navy’s first generation of unmanned helicopters. From a rudder to a joy stick, reads the story. Like it or not, says the pilot, unmanned is the future and he wants to be in at the beginning.

The Hill reports SecDef Chuck Hagel defended the administration’s downsizing of the defense budget, but also pointed out, “…it isn’t me cutting the budget. It’s the Congress’s decision on sequestration,” he was quoted. “So it isn’t secretary of Defense or the president doing this. . . . Where are we making decisions and how do we make them? That’s the responsibility I have. But also the fiscal constraints that are being placed on the Pentagon to make very tough choices here are very significant.”

The administration’s 2015 defense budget will be released tomorrow, Tuesday, cutting the Army by more than 20 percent across five years, and drawing the ire of  Republicans who also criticized the administration’s departure from a “two-war strategy,” where the Pentagon would be able to fight two major wars at once, reports The Hill.

There is a back-up budget, reports Defense News, of choices DoD would make sequestration returns in 2016. Cuts would include retiring an aircraft carrier and six other Navy ships,  suspending Navy F-35 purchases by two years, and shrinking the Army further.

A Gallup Poll finds Americans split on whether too much or too little is spent on the military, but feelings on both sides are moderating with fewer extreme views than in prior years.

An F/A-18C, a US Marine jet crashed over the weekend in western Nevada during a training exercise. The initial report erroneously identified the jet as a Navy Hornet. Rescue teams had difficulty reaching the site due to weather and its remoteness. The pilot’s condition remained unknown, ABC News updated the report.

President Obama has asked the Pentagon to prepare for an orderly withdrawal of all US troops from Afghanistan by the end of the year, repeating his intention to do so to if Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai continues to delay signing the agreement to keep US troops in his country, reports CNN Security Clearance.

Russia and the US spar about the Ukraine, but there is little leverage to stop Russian President Vladimir Putin from using force to put down the uprisings, reports Politico.

The Chinese president renewed his call last week for his nation to become a cyber power, created a top-level commission to advance the effort and chaired the first meeting himself. Reporting on the announcement Defence Talk recounts reports of recent cyber espionage campaigns aimed at the US and traced to  China.

It’s Telework Week, anticipated to keep 100,000 federal employees home at least one day between March 3 – 7. This is the event’s fourth year and agencies are beginning to use the exercise as a way to test their systems at the office, for example, for disaster preparedness, reports FCW. Data collected during the four years indicates Telework is an important benefit for government workers.