Week in Review

Senate panel passes massive FY09 defense authorisation bill

Last Wednesday saw the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) vote unanimously to pass a Fiscal Year 2009 (FY09) budget authorising $612 billion in defense spending.

The SASC bill, which is expected to go before the full Senate for consideration as early as this week, increases from 3.4% to 3.9% the military pay raise requested by the Bush Administration and authorizes end-strength increases of 7,000 Army soldiers and 5,000 Marines.

While the spending measure does not include mandates for American withdrawal from Iraq, it does ban the US from investing more than $2 million in any Iraq reconstruction project. Further, the bill contains language that would prohibit private security contractors from performing security operations in combat zones or hazardous public areas in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Key elements of this important SASC mark include the provision of full requested funding for the Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS), the Air Force's KC-45A tanker aircraft, and support for the Navy's entire (8-ship) shipbuilding plan.

The SASC reduced requested funding for missile defence by some $411 million, and trimmed R&D and procurement funding for such programmes as the Navy's E-2D Advanced Hawkeye (-$165 million) and CG(X) cruiser (-$121 million); the Air Force's JASSM missile (-$80 million) and C-17 R&D , and the Army's Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter (-$75 million).

Marked for increases beyond the Bush Administration's budget request are programmes including the AEGIS BMD/SM-3 interceptor, the F-136 second-source engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the Advanced Extremely High Frequency Satellite and the Transformational Communications Satellite, and the Land Warrior Program.

This week, beginning on Wednesday, will see the various subpanels of the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) undertake mark-up of their parallel FY09 defense authorisation bill.

Bush Administration sends war supplemental request to Capitol Hill

While it is the Fiscal Year 2008 (FY08) defense budget supplemental that the White House wants to see the Congress act on quickly (or else government employee furloughs will be forthcoming!), Friday saw the Bush Administration send to the Congress a detailed request for $70 billion in FY09 supplemental funding for US operations in Iraq (OIF) and Afghanistan (OEF). The request includes $4 billion for the State Department and other international operations.

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) notes that the request, separate and apart from the FY09 base budget and in addition to the $108 billion FY08 supplemental request pending before the Congress, includes $45.1 billion to fund combat operations and allocates significant funding to Afghani ($3.7 billion) and Iraqi ($2 billion) security forces.

If approved by the Congress, OMB notes that key weapons-related expenditures funded in the FY09 supplemental will include:

• $3 billion to develop counter-improvised explosive device (IED) technologies and provide pre-deployment military training in methods to counter IEDs;

• $2.6 billion to transport and maintain Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles in theater; and

• $1.3 billion to fund acquisition of 28 additional Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and support systems.

GAO: DoD unprepared to pursue global strike force planning

Despite the centrality of global strike objectives to Department of Defense (DoD) future warfighting capabilities and despite recognition of need for a broad, holistic view of global strike development, the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) concluded last week that the Pentagon has not fully assessed the requirements or coordinated improvements for related enabling capabilities that are critical to the planning and execution of successful global strike operations and that the DoD has not coordinated its efforts and investments to improve these capabilities with potential offensive systems it intends to develop.

In a report issued last week, the GAO accordingly recommends that the Pentagon strengthen implementation of its global strike concept and provide a comprehensive investment approach for acquiring needed capabilities.

Programme briefs

• JASSM - A year ago, with its reliability hovering at 60%, the Pentagon threatening cancellation based on Nunn-McCurdy cost breaches, and the Air Force issuing a Request for Information on system alternatives, things looked bleak for the Air Force's new Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM). Last Friday, in the aftermath of a Reliability Enhancement Programme jointed funded by Lockheed Martin and the Air Force, came word that the Office of the Secretary of Defense had recertified and approved the continuation of the once-troubled programme.

  >KC-45A Tanker - The FY09 SASC bill approved last Wednesday provides the full amount of start-up funding requested for the KC-45A tanker, with SASC Ranking Member John Warner (R-Virginia) noting that any effort by Boeing supporters to eliminate tanker funding when the Senate takes up the bill this month "will be vigorously opposed."

• Littoral Combat Ship - Last week saw the General Dynamics /Austal team launch its LCS-2 (INDEPENDENCE) into the Mobile River in Alabama. INDEPENDENCE will be moored alongside the Austal USA facility while the activation and testing of combat and other onboard systems is completed. Sea trials are expected to commence in late 2008. In other LCS news, last week also saw the first test of the main propulsion diesel engines for Lockheed Martin's LCS 1 (FREEDOM).

• V-22 Osprey - Pentagon reporters last Friday got the first official reports from the field on the combat performance of the Marine Corps's new helicopter. Lt. Col. Paul Rock, Commander of Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 263 praised the performance and reliability of the controversial tiltrotor, telling reporters: "We did the full spectrum of what the aircraft was meant to do [and it was] satisfying to see how well it performed."

BAE Systems balks at DoD IG findings

On Friday broke word through a Project on Government Oversight (POGO) Freedom of Information Act request that a March 2008 Department of Defense Inspector General (DoD IG) report had found that: "The advanced aviation and weapons technology for the JSF programme may have been compromised by unauthorised access at facilities and in computers at BAE Systems, and incomplete contractor oversight may have increased the risk of unintended or deliberate release of information to foreign competitors."

While citing no specific violations on the part of BAE Systems, the DoD IG report notes that: "DSS did not properly monitor BAE Systems' submission of its security reports and appropriately evaluate BAE Systems security. DSS was unable to verify whether BAE Systems submitted the required security audit reports for 2001 through 2003."The report further notes that DSS was deferential to BAE by refusing the US government access to information as required by a security agreement.

The BAE Systems response to the DoD IG report was quick and unequivocal. Said a company spokesman in response to DSD query:

• "The DoD IG explicitly found no instances of unauthorised access to classified or export control information on the JSF program. We strongly disagree with the IG's suggestion that nonetheless, such information may have been compromised in some unidentified way by unauthorised access at BAE Systems. There is no basis whatsoever for that conclusion."

• "BAE Systems takes very seriously their obligation to protect classified and export controlled information and has a compliance programme that reflects the highest of standards. BAE Systems has a long and proven track record of safeguarding sensitive information entrusted to it."

• "BAE Systems also strongly disagrees with the suggestion that we did not perform required audits and fully comply with our Special Security Agreement. That suggestion is simply false."

• "BAE Systems previously requested a meeting with the DoD IG to resolve what appears to us to be a misunderstanding of the underlying facts."

People & Places: Navy to get acquisition tsar

The White House announced last week that President Bush intends to nominate Sean Joseph Stackley to be Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition. Mr. Stackley currently serves as a Professional Staff Member on the Senate Armed Services Committee. Prior to this, he served as Programme Manager of the LPD 17 Class Program. Earlier in his career, he served as the Production Manager for the AEGIS Destroyer Program. Mr. Stackley received his bachelor's degree from the United States Naval Academy and his master's degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

OIF/OEF Human Toll

The Department of Defense (DoD) reports that, as of 2 May 2008, a total of 4,067 American servicemen (more than two a day) have died in Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) since fighting began on 19 March 2003. Eighteen were reported killed last week. Overall, 3,315 of the American casualties have been killed in action. 752 deaths have resulted from non-hostile activities.

CNN reports that, in addition to the American deaths, two Australians, 176 Brits, 13 Bulgarians, one Czech, seven Danes, two Dutch, two Estonians, one Fijan, one Hungarian, 33 Italians, one Kazakh, one Korean, three Latvians, 22 Poles, three Romanians, five Salvadorans, four Slovaks, 11 Spaniards, two Thai and 18 Ukrainians have also given their lives in support of OIF operations as of 2 May.

Iraqbodycount.net estimates that there have been between 83,336 and 90,897 Iraqi civilian deaths - roughly 45 per day -- since the commencement of OIF.

29,911 American troops have been wounded in OIF action as of 2 May. 16,567 of these returned to action within 72 hours, and 13,344 (more than seven a day since fighting began) were more seriously injured.

DoD reports that 490 US military personnel have been killed in Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) in Afghanistan as of 26 April. 295 of these deaths were the result of hostile activities. 195 were non-hostile/accidental. 426 of these 490 were killed "in and around Afghanistan" and 64 perished in other locations. No deaths were reported in the past week.

CNN reports that, in addition to the US deaths, five Australians (one last week), 94 Brits, 82 Canadians, two Czechs, 14 Danes, 16 Dutch, two Estonians, one Finn, 12 French, 22 Germans, eleven Italians, three Norwegians, three Poles, two Portuguese, six Romanians, one South Korean, 23 Spaniards, and two Swedes have also given their lives in support of OEF operations as 2 May.

1,937 US troops have been reported as wounded in OEF action as of 19 April. 756 of the wounded returned to action within 72 hours, and 1,181 were more seriously injured.

Verbatim

Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) Chairman Senator Carl Levin (D-Michigan), on 1 May, remarking on a provision in the Committee's Fiscal Year 2009 (FY09) Defense Authorisation Bill that limits US outlays for Iraqi reconstruction projects to $2 million:

"The American taxpayers are paying for too many things ... that the Iraqis ought to pay for out of their surplus. They export two million barrels of oil a day. That oil brings in about $120 a barrel. It is unconscionable, it is inexcusable, it makes no common sense for a country that has that kind of wealth and that kind of surplus in our banks and their banks to be sending us the tab."

White House Deputy Press Secretary Tony Fratto, 1 May: "It's important to remember that the Iraqis actually are spending a lot more on their reconstruction than maybe is commonly understood out there. In their most recent budget, they'll outspend the United States 10 to 1 on reconstruction. On major reconstruction, we're moving towards 100 percent of Iraqi funding. In fact, we are pretty much out of the business of very large reconstruction projects in Iraq. Those are being funded by the Iraqis."

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