Sean M. Gallagher

The Defense Information Systems Agency has historically faced the challenge of distributing information and supporting the systems that deliver it all over the world — serving customers in locations ranging from the Oval Office to Afghanistan’s Helmand province. During the past 10 years, DISA also has needed to find ways to provide more of those services faster and less expensively. So challenges are hardly new.

But a variety of new circumstances — many of them created by policy rather than technology — are rising to potentially disrupt DISA’s forward march: the potential loss of staff during a headquarters move scheduled for 2010, setbacks to a next-generation command and control (C2) program, and organizational friction arising from the creation of the Cyber Command.

DISA’s rebalancing act — Defense Systems.

The Defense Information Systems Agency isn’t just trying to increase efficiency with its technology base. The agency’s procurement team, led by DISA Component Acquisition Executive Tony Montemarano, is building a strategy based on avoiding the creation of new contracts.

“Given the statutory and regulatory boundaries, like water, we tend to take the path of least resistance,” Montemarano said Aug. 7 at DISA’s Forecast to Industry. “We will exploit existing contracts to the maximum extent possible.” He added that that wasn’t limited to DISA or Defense Department contracts and that DISA would use any federal contract to procure services.

DISA to rely on existing contracts — Defense Systems.

BAE has been awarded a $7.8 million contract (cost plice incentive fee) to produce up to three “compact low frequency active transmit systems”, replacement sensors for the Navy’s SURTASS towed sonar array systems.  These active sonar are used at low frequency to detect potential threats at long range that might not show up on passive surveillance because they are too quiet.  They can also be used for “ocean mapping”.

SURTASS is the mobile element of the Integrated Undersea Surveillance System, the follow-on to the SOSUS system made famous by Tom Clancy’s The Hunt for Red October . The SURTASS system is long-range sonar surveillance system, towed by T-AGOS ocean surveillance ships (like the one recently harrassed by Chinese sailors).

Lockheed Martin Maritime Systems and Sensors, Moorestown, N.J., is being awarded a not-to-exceed $49,600,000 fixed-price contract for the advanced procurement of long lead materials, non-recurring engineering and critical work center efforts in support of production of the DDG 113-related Aegis weapon system. The scope of the non-recurring engineering efforts shall include, but is not limited to, supplier/production line restart, critical work center efforts, and diminishing manufacturing support surveillance to allow for continuity of the Aegis supply base and original equipment manufacturer work centers.

The US Joint Forces Command has given a team led by Lockheed-Martin for a system called “Valiant Angel”, which basically applies current broadcasting video technology to manage the collection, dissemination, processing, and storage of  the massive quantities of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance  full-motion video produced by the wide range of sensors in the DOD’s inventory.  The contract is for $29 million.

According to Lockheed’s release, “Valiant Angel will deliver a number of new capabilities to the warfighter. The system will:

• Collect and store incoming video streams from a variety of sensors in a secure, networked database.
• Categorize and manage videos by keyword, geographic region or other items of interest. For instance, users looking for a red pickup truck on 10th Street can search Valiant Angel’s library for any video footage matching that description and in that location, or set up alerts to tell them when new clips are posted to the network.
• Fuse intelligence data from multiple sources into incoming video streams. For example, if two users are discussing a video over instant messenger, Valiant Angel will embed that chat history directly in the video stream, so other users can follow exactly what was discussed to glean important intelligence.”

via U.S. Joint Forces Command Awards Lockheed Martin Team $29 Million Contract for Advanced Video Intelligence System | Lockheed Martin.

Raytheon Co., McKinney, Texas, is being awarded a $44,289,514 firm-fixed-price job order for 62 each U.S. Navy H-60 helicopter configuration multi-spectral targeting units (MTSs). The MTSs will be installed on U.S. Navy UH-60R and UH-60S models to enhance their sensor capabilities. Work will be performed in McKinney, Texas, and is expected to be completed by November 2011. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The job order was awarded on a sole source basis. Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Ind. is the contracting activity (N00164-06-G-8555).

DRS Systems, Inc., Parsippany, N.J., is being awarded a $13,818,940 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, firm-fixed-price, performance-based contractfor a modernized integrated voice communications system for AEGIS cruisers and destroyers. This contract includes options which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of this contract to an estimated $59,161,146. Work will be performed in Johnstown, Pa., and is expected to be completed by September 2010. If all options are exercised, work could continue until September 2014. Contractfunds willnot expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract wascompetitively procured by full and open competition via the Federal Business Opportunities website, and the SPAWAR e-Commerce Central website, and threeoffers received. The Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Atlantic is the contracting activity (N65236-09-D-5190).

Lockheed Martin  announced this week that it has begun thermal vacuum testing of the first Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS) geosynchronous (GEO-1) satellite.  Being built for the U.S. Air Force,  SBIRS is intended to provide a constant global early warning for missile launches, based on the infrared profile of the a launch.

Conducted inside Lockheed Martin’s Dual Entry Large Thermal Altitude (DELTA) chamber, the test will verify spacecraft functionality and performance in a vacuum environment where the satellite is stressed at the extreme hot and cold temperatures it will experience in space. The extensive test is designed to validate the overall satellite design, quality and workmanship and survivability during space vehicle launching and on-orbit operations.

“The entire team has worked extremely hard throughout our rigorous process of risk reduction and subsystem and baseline testing leading up to this critical test,” said Dave Sheridan, Lockheed Martin’s SBIRS GEO program director. “We look forward to executing a disciplined and thorough test and delivering this revolutionary satellite that provides vastly improved surveillance capabilities for the warfighter.”

via New Missile Warning Satellite Built By Lockheed Martin Begins Major Environmental Test Phase | Lockheed Martin.

With John Garings elevation from Defense Information Systems Agency chief information officer to director of strategic planning, Bobbie Stempfley has stepped into the CIO role. While Garing focuses on long-term strategy and developing program objectives within DISAs budget, Stempfley has taken on what she calls the more finely defined role of managing the agencys ongoing information technology operations. Defense Systems contributing editor Sean Gallagher spoke with Stempfley about her role at DISA and the top challenges she faces.

via DISA aims for smooth operations across business lines — Defense Systems.

Navy Vice Adm. David J. Dorsett has been nominated for reappointment to the grade of vice admiral, and assignment as deputy chief of Naval Operations for Information Dominance, N2/N6, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations/Director of Naval Intelligence, at the Pentagon.  Dorsett currently serves in that role.

Dorsett’s official Navy bio can be found here.

Conservatives are piling on over the decision by the Obama administration to cancel plans to deploy a long-range missile defense system in eastern Europe, calling it everything from a “betrayal” of Poland to “appeasement” of Russia.   That, despite the fact that the move –which includes deploying a system that has already been demonstrated to work  (the Patriot missile system) for defense of Europe, and another  system that is much closer to being operational than the land-based option (the Aegis ABM system).

Additionally, the new plan calls for deploying a land-based version of the Aegis system, potentially in Poland and the Czech Republic, in 2015.

Ironically, the Aegis ABM system was already slotted for budget cuts.  It’s not even clear that the cancellation of the land-based system means that program’s revival,  The Navy recently contracted for SM-3s at a low manufacturing level–these are for short and medium range ballistic missiles, not the long-range.

Even Brent Scowcroft, George H. W. Bush’s national security advisor, has endorsed the decision. And the plan has the backing of  much of the Pentagon, and of the NATO alliance.  In fact, most of the conservative critics have pointed to commentary from the opposition parties in Poland and elsewhere, who are seizing on the decision for their own political gain.

Aegis ABM already has the backing — political, technical, and financial — of the US’s allies. Patriot offers Poland the “tripline” of US involvement in its defense.

The cancellation means that there will, in effect, be no ABM system designated for homeland defense.  The range of short- and medium- ballistic missiles from Iran isn’t a real threat to Europe–it’s more a threat to Israel.  The sea-based option is, in its current state, used best as a defense against attacks by North Korea.  But the symbolism of  ”Star Wars” and an America shielded from all manners of  attack, and the direct involvement of allies (i.e. Poland and the Czech Republic) in the US’s direct defense is what conservatives were clinging to, and the loss of that is the fuel to their outrage.

Then again, the real  reason that conservatives are probably screaming over this is the damage cancellation of the program — along with several other programs, such as the F-22 and the vehicles in the now-defunct Future Combat Systems program — will do to the defense industry.  BAE Systems has been particularly stung by the recent turn of fate for many programs, having integrator roles in the F-22 and on the FCS team (plus losing a medium tactical vehicle contract recently).  With Boeing, BAE, and Lockheed all facing a shrinking pool of programs to profit from, some neocons may be seeing their PACs’ contributions shrinking.