March 28, 2024

Young Veterans Elected to Congress

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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

Congress will include the largest ever class of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans next year, although the overall number of vet lawmakers continues to decline, reports Navy Times. At least 22 veterans of the current wars, six Democrats and at least 16 Republicans, won their races Tuesday. Committee assignments for the new veterans won’t be decided until late December, but many are likely to seek assignment on the Armed Services and Veterans Affairs’ committees.

The Shenyang J-31, China’s new stealth fighter, is making its debut next week and US military and industry officials believe it could eventually become more than a match for American stealth fighters, reports USNI News. The J-31 is China’s latest effort at developing a fifth-generation stealth fighter, equivalent in ability to Lockheed’s F-22 Raptor or F-35 Lighting II Joint Strike Fighter.

NAS: Pax River conducted an Active Shooter training scenario Oct. 29 to gauge reaction and response to a possible actual event, reports NAVAIR News. The event was the third of its kind in recent months. Notified of the exercise in advance, employees received instruction on how to react to active shooters by watching the “Run. Hide. Fight.” training video, which emphasizes appropriate responses to an active-shooter incident in an office environment.

CNO Adm. Jonathan Greenert believes that Navy readiness won’t fully recover from the effects of the 2013 sequester for another year, reports Breaking Defense. He also stated that if the Budget Control Act sequestration cuts return in full force for fiscal year 2016, the nation might lose two of its five remaining major shipyards.

Vets to Feds, an interagency program that provides on-the-job training to veterans and helps them transition to federal careers, will focus on science, technology, engineering and mathematics jobs in 2015, reports Government Executive. The program, a result of President Obama’s 2009 executive order directing federal agencies to hire more veterans, is launching the new STEM career track in February.

The Defense Health Agency wants to cut the number of Tricare regions from three to two, a cost-savings plan that would increase competition for the next round of Pentagon health care contracts, according to Military Times. The contract regions would change from the current configuration of North, South and West regions to just East and West regions.

DARPA funded research tested an unmanned aircraft with a prototype neuromorphic chip – a processor that essentially acts like a brain, learning and acting on its own, C4ISR&Networks reports.

International air forces ordering F-35 Joint Strike Fighters will be able to customize the mission data packages loaded onto their aircraft in a compromise that defense officials say preserves US security and allows allies a greater degree of customization of their fighters, according to USNI News.

Bruce Springsteen is one of 10 recipients of the first-ever award for those working to improve the lives of veterans and their families, according to USA Today. The Lincoln Awards were announced Tuesday by the Friars Club and its charitable arm, the Friars Foundation.

Lockheed Martin was awarded four big contracts in the past week including a $411.1 million modification contract for the repair and replenishment of government-owned F-35 fighters, including spare parts for the Navy, Marines, Air Force and international partners, reports Nasdaq. It was also awarded a $391.6 million contract to provide recurring sustainment support for delivered air systems for the F-35 program.

NAVAIR issued an RFI this week for radar and antenna solutions that provide the MQ-4C Triton unmanned aircraft with a “sense and avoid” (SAA) capability it needs to fly in unrestricted airspace with other aircraft, reports AINonline.

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