The U.S. Navy will down select between the two littoral combat ship (LCS) designs it has been considering for the past several years. The service is canceling the current LCS seaframe construction solicitation, and a new solicitation will be issued. The decision will be made in fiscal year 2010.

During the down select, one prime contractor and shipyard will be awarded a fixed-price incentive contract for as many as 10 ships. Two ships will be ordered during fiscal year 2010; options for additional vessels will extend through fiscal year 2014. The award winner also will provide combat systems for up to five additional ships that a second source will provide. Under the new acquisition strategy, the Navy will be allowed to open competition for a second source for the selected design beginning in 2012.

To date, two teams led by Lockheed Martin Corporation and General Dynamics Corporation have designed and built two different types of LCS seaframes. Cost has been identified as the Navy’s reason to cancel the current solicitation to acquire up to three LCS Flight 0+ ships during fiscal year 2010. In anticipation of constrained budgets, Navy officials say the current acquisition strategy could not continue. Both industry teams will be allowed to submit proposals under the new solicitation.

Ray Mabus, secretary of the Navy, states that the decision was made to increase competition and produce the ships at a more affordable price. “LCS is vital to our Navy’s future. It must succeed,” he says. According to Adm. Gary Roughead, USN, chief of naval operations, conducting the down select now will enable the Navy to build LCSs at a realistic cost without compromising critical warfighting capabilities.

The littoral combat ships are fast, agile vessels featuring a modular design. They have been designed to fulfill the requirements of multiple types of missions, from littoral irregular warfare to mine, antisubmarine and surface warfare. Original plans included the purchase of 55 ships. To date, the LCS 1, the USS Freedom, has been commissioned, the LCS 2, the USS Independence, is undergoing sea trials and LCS 3 and LCS 4 construction has begun. The Navy still intends to fulfill the plan to build 55 LCSs.

Gen. James N. Mattis, USMC, will step down as NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Transformation during a change-of-command ceremony on September 9. Taking over the reins is Gen. Stephane Abrial of the French air force. The ceremony will take place on the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower , Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia.

Gen. Abrial is the former chief of staff of the French air force. This is the first time in the organization’s 60-year history that a non-U.S. officer has been permanently assigned as one of NATO’s two Supreme Allied Commanders. Gen. Mattis will remain as the commander, U.S. Joint Forces Command.

The stars were in perfect alignment–or it was the perfect storm of open schedules? Call it what you will, but when technology assessors and warfighters meet for one week in one place, the results are the same: a mutual learning experience that will benefit warfighters on the front lines.

Members of USJFCOM’s Joint Systems Interoperability Center (JSIC) are hosting four members of the Pre-Commissioning Unit (PCU) Gravely, an under-construction guided missile destroyer, this week to gather warfighter input on some next-generation technology they are examining. This may seem like a no-brainer from a logical standpoint, but in reality, the current high-tempo operational environment makes this tough to accomplish.

With a little knowledge of schedules and a bit of coordination, however, PCU Gravely shipmates had the opportunity for some hands-on training at JSIC. This first-of-its-kind collaboration specifically involved the NGA’s Image Product Library (IPL) and the GCCS.

PCU Gravely personnel welcomed the opportunity to see and train on equipment that they will be using when the ship is in service. Commissioning is scheduled to occur in September 2010. OS2 Floyd Bussey, USN, particularly enjoyed the chance to familiarize himself with the imagery. All of the Gravely’s crew involved in the work with JSIC were enthralled with the prospect of “pushing buttons” on a capability that will eventually be fielded for use by U.S. CENTCOM.

Frank Hunt, also a JSIC staff member, emphasizes that the GCCS and IPL assessment is not yet complete. Initially, JSIC found system problems between the data request system and the GCCS. Now, they have identified an interoperability issue between the IPL and the GCCS.

Because it is preferable to find these glitches before capabilities are in the field, Hunt likes the idea of bringing warfighters into the JSIC. “Maybe something is more intuitive or we find something that doesn’t work. Two out of three times, we can work with [in this case] the NGA to address the issue and fix it on site. When intelligence analysts and targeteers are in the field, they must have this imagery fast and it must be accurate,” he states.

JSIC’s job is to identify interoperability discrepancies, not to fix them, Hunt emphasizes. JSIC staff member Nick O’Dawe explains that the work the organization conducts is equivalent to the Consumer Reports assessment of military equipment. Having user input in the form of real warfighters is a plus, he states.

The JSIC team would like to see more of this type of collaboration with warfighters in the future. To do that, however, schedules need to align again, as they did this time. The collaboration is mutually beneficial, but the question remains: Is the operational tempo so rigorous these days that important efforts such as these are nearly impossible?

Top Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) officials met with industry today to share their strategy and plans for the future. Lt. Gen. Carroll F. Pollett, USA, director, DISA told attendees at the Forecast to Industry Day that the agency is looking to the commercial sector to engage with DISA’s leaders and help shape the future. Although he is considering developments in the short term—four to five years—he is especially focused on where the military and the United States will be 10 years from now as he makes plans and fills current requirements.

Technology alone is not DISA’s primary concern, Gen. Pollett said. With a vision of “Leaders Enabling Information Dominance in Defense of our Nation,” the agency’s focus is on how to deliver capabilities to the warfighter more efficiently and effectively. Commanders aren’t concerned with how a capability is delivered, he pointed out, they just want the capability at their disposal when they need it. The difference in bringing command and control, infrastructure and information assurance to the edge in today’s environment is that the edge is everywhere in irregular warfare, he said. The general emphasized that he is not interested in proprietary solutions.

This strategy will require resources—both in funding and personnel, he noted. “You can have dreams and visions, but without resources, all you have are dreams and visions,” the general stated. Some of his concerns include retaining intellectual capital when the agency moves its headquarters from Arlington, Virginia, to Fort Meade, Maryland, as a result of the Base Realignment and Closure decision. To address this issue, DISA’s leaders are reviewing what skill sets are needed, which may result in retraining and shifting personnel, he explained.

The general has spoken with the combatant commanders of nearly all of the combatant commands and the leaders of each of the services to improve his understanding of their requirements. These meetings also contributed to an understanding of how DISA can leverage its relationship with the commercial sector. However, DISA is not making a to-do list as it has in the past. Instead, it is creating a living document that can be changed over time, he added.

“What will we do next?” he asked rhetorically. “That’s where my focus is. What am I doing so international coalitions, national-level leaders and warfighters have capabilities? How do we partner with industry to accomplish this?” He agreed that the partnership announced yesterday between the General Services Administration and DISA will result in greater efficiencies, improved processes, more capabilities to the warfighter, “and if we’re lucky, we’ll save some money in the process,” the general said.

In addition to DISA partnering with industry, Gen. Pollett said the agency also needs companies to partner with each other to develop enterprise solutions.

The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) and the General Services Administration (GSA) have entered into a partnership to streamline acquisition of commercial satellite communications (SATCOM) services. Announced yesterday, the agreement will lead to a hybrid of GSA’s multiple award schedules and indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (ID/IQ) contracts. Officials of both organizations are lauding this collaborative effort as “historic” and agree that the Future Commercial SATCOM Access contract will be worth $5 billion over a 10-year period. The partnership has been years in the making, GSA and DISA officials allowed.

During a media roundtable, officials from both agencies agreed that the partnership will offer benefits in a number of areas. It creates a common commercial SATCOM marketplace for all of their customers, including federal, state and local government organizations. By sharing contract replacement costs, it will save taxpayers millions of dollars, though officials did not share specific estimates of the savings. It also ensures that all government customers have access to technology that meets government information protection regulations.

DISA market research was used to determine the targeted service areas to be included under the partnership. The result was a focus on transponded capacity, which includes dedicated bandwidth on a commercial satellite in any commercially available frequency band; subscription services, which involves pre-existing, pre-engineered fixed satellite service (FSS) or mobile satellite service (MSS); and end-to end solutions such as bandwidth that can include FSS and MSS components as well as hybrid solutions of both.

The GSA’s Schedule 70 will be refreshed to accommodate the transponded capacity and subscription services, and ID/IQ contracts will be established for customized end-to-end solutions. The strength of the program is that there is a 20-year potential life cycle that features “on ramps” and “off ramps” so that companies that are not selected immediately can vie for the business at a later time, DISA and GSA officials agreed.

The Schedule 70 refresh announcement is planned for the first quarter of fiscal year 2010, and a draft ID/IQ request for proposals release is scheduled to take place during the second quarter of fiscal year 2010.

On the DISA side, this agreement allows for multiyear commercial SATCOM leases, although traditionally services have been procured using operations and maintenance funding, which covers a single year. However, if additional funding is granted, there is no limit to the length tasks can go on, including to the length of the contract. DISA will maintain its decentralized ordering authority from the U.S. Defense Department; the GSA is simply providing the vehicles.

Savings are expected to be realized by both vendors and the government as a result of this partnership. Companies will be able to present their solutions to a single source through a single process, saving them overhead expenses. The government will be able to take advantage of the economies of scale. In bandwidth buys alone, savings of 10 percent to 15 percent could be realized, says Bruce T. Bennett, director of satellite communications, teleports and services, DISA.

A major disaster recovery exercise is concluding today in Washington D.C. The week long event was held by AT&T to test, evaluate, refine and improve how the company restores communications in the wake of a natural or manmade disaster. The network disaster recovery (NDR) exercise filled the capitol’s Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium with equipment trailers and personnel providing satellite and broadband fiber optic communications links. (more…)

The Defense Business Board task group created to review the National Security Personnel System (NSPS) will hold public meetings next week at the Hyatt-Arlington in Arlington, Virginia. The first is scheduled for June 25 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.; the second on June 26 from 9 a.m. to noon, resuming from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. The group will invite experts who have testified before Congress on the NSPS to the first event and will listen to select members of the public for additional information about previously submitted written comments at the second. The public can attend and provide comments until June 26, but those received after June 18 (that’s tomorrow!) may not arrive in time for consideration.

The U.S. Air Force’s venerable fleet of B-52 Stratofortress bombers is joining the network-centric force. They are being outfitted with the Combat Network Communications Technology (CONECT) system, which will provide the aircraft with enhanced situational awareness and mission flexibility. The CONECT modification involves the installation of a digital communications infrastructure into the B-52 that enables the aircraft to link to the Air Force’s digital communications network and contact command and control centers, ground forces and other platforms. The first aircraft to receive the equipment is undergoing fight tests. All 76 aircraft in the fleet will receive CONECT after the flight test program is complete.

The U.S. military and representatives from other government agencies are taking part in a war game this week to explore the Capstone Concept for Joint Operations (CCJO). The experiment comprises three conflict scenarios: one engaging another nation-state, the second involving a fragile state and the third against a globally networked non-state adversary.

Vice Adm. Robert S. Harward, USN, deputy commander, U.S. Joint Forces Command (JFCOM), and Rear Adm. Dan W. Davenport, USN, director, Joint Concept Development and Experimentation Directorate, JFCOM, discussed the event and answered questions during a media roundtable today. Because the experiment is only its third day, details were scarce; however, the two were candid about what the military hoped to gain from the war game.

The CCJO is viewed as the fundamental framework for operating in the future. Adm. Davenport explained that the goal of the experiment is to explore the CCJO and take a closer look at the joint forces that would be needed to employ the concept. The admirals revealed that results from the event will be shared with officials creating the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review and is likely to influence the review significantly.

Although the CCJO is designed to address what capabilities and techniques the joint force will likely need to face future conflicts, the war game, which is taking place in McLean, Virginia, includes capabilities from current programs of record or those predicted to be programs of record in the near future.

The three scenarios are being run simultaneously, without official interaction; however, Adm. Davenport allowed that a lot of discussion has been going on between the three groups. While they were partially scripted, Adm. Davenport noted that the red team had access to a considerable number of game-changing technologies to challenge the blue teams’ joint forces.

As Gen. James N. Mattis, USMC, commander, JFCOM, and NATO’s supreme allied commander transformation, explained at the recent Joint Warfighting Conference, the military is exploring what it will take to reorganize some of the troops and increase the number of small unit forces in the field. Adm. Harward emphasized that the experiment takes a serious look at how these units, which could consist of as little as one or two warfighters, would operate even if the communications network is brought down. He said this requires a thorough knowledge of the commander’s intent but more importantly adequate training of all warfighters. An increased focus on command and control also will address this issue, he said.

Although simulation has been used extensively to train military pilots, the question is whether warfighters operating on the ground have the same opportunities to train in simulations before going into battle. This is an area that must be examined, Adm. Harward said.

According to Adm. Davenport, a final report of the findings of the CCJO war game will be released to the public by the end of July.

Ion Tiger, an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) research program at the Naval Research Laboratory, is merging UAV technology and fuel cell systems that are more efficient and reduce noise. An Office of Naval Research-sponsored program, the Ion Tiger UAV tests a hydrogen-powered fuel cell design that has more endurance in flight distance and payload weight than battery-powered designs. The UAV also features a low heat signature and no emissions. Still in the testing phases, the aircraft’s flight trial this spring is expected to deliver results that exceed the duration of previous flights sevenfold: 24 hours with a five-pound payload.