Defense Technology International - March 2008 - (Page 18)

DISPATCHES GLOBAL NUMBERS CRUNCH Budget decisions reﬂect political uncertainty BILL SWEETMAN•WASHINGTON TEAM LCS T he Fiscal 2009 U.S. defense budget is indecisive. Midway between the last change of congressional leadership and the next change of administration, with uncertainty about the future of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and with a troubled economic picture, predicting the budget climate in the ﬁscal year that starts Oct. 1 is at best inexact. The result, to the frustration of many in Congress, is a budget of hedges and holds. For example: The budget continues to fund the Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) program, even though it has no clear direction. In November 2007, the Navy canceled the second example of General Dynamics’ LCS, based on an Australian-developed trimaran. This mirrored the earlier cancellation of Lockheed Martin’s second-of-class ship, a more conventional monohull. The immediate cause of the cancellation was that the cost of both designs escalated to the point where the LCS was too expensive for the Navy to buy at least eight ships a year. The Navy penalized the contractors, who blamed the Navy for design changes after work began. The Navy tried to negotiate lower prices for the second-of-class ships, but could not reach agreement with Lock- heed Martin and General Dynamics. The plan is to complete and test Lockheed Martin’s LCS-1 Freedom and GD’s LCS-2 Independence, and continue work on the plug-in mission modules. At the same time, the Navy will reﬁne design requirements, continue talking to the manufacturers, and fund two ships in Fiscal 2009. With testing under its belt, the Navy might be in a position to downselect to one design, making the deal more attractive to the winning bidder. Another Navy program in limbo is the Lockheed Martin VH-71A Marine One helicopter, the replacement for the presidential ﬂeet of VH-3 helicopters. It became clear in 2007 that the Increment 2 conﬁguration, designed for a range of requirements, including electromagnetic-pulse-hardened, high-data-rate communications, was not ready for scheduled production. The Navy issued a stop-work order late last year on the airframes, and in 2009 will transfer production money into R&D. The result is a research and development funding proﬁle that goes from $614 million in Fiscal 2007 to $225 million in the current year and $1.04 billion in Fiscal 2009. It’s probably fair to speculate that the VH-71A program fell victim to requirements compounding, the phenomenon USS Freedom is the ﬁrst Littoral Combat Ship. Cost overruns caused the Navy to cancel the second-of-class ship, and the program is being reassessed. that occurs when two or more requirements that may individually be attainable are not compatible except at high cost. In this case, the problem was apparently associated with providing the required communications, survivability features and accommodations in a medium-size helicopter, resulting in weight growth and the need to uprate the engines, transmission, tail rotor and tail assembly. On the Air Force side, the budget leaves open continued production of the F-22 and C-17. USAF has managed to squeeze continued procurement of the F-22 into the budget, alongside the F-35, but at a cost: the capabilities that allow the F-22 to realize its full potential have been delayed. For example, the ability to use the new Small Diameter Bomb (SDB) and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) in the upgraded version of the APG-77 radar is part of the Increment 3.1 design upgrade. But that is not due to ﬁnish tests until the ﬁrst half of Fiscal 2011, with retroﬁts continuing through Fiscal 2013. (Initial ﬂight tests of SAR modes on a BAC One-Eleven testbed AviationWeek.com/dti 18 DEFENSE TECHNOLOGY INTERNATIONAL MARCH 2008 http://www.aviationweek.com/dti

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Defense Technology International - March 2008 Contents Sweden Cancels SEP; Israel Launches Imaging Satellite; Geotextiles Secure Ammo Dump U.S. Navy Taps Neural Architecture Software to Assure Job Satisfaction Shrapnel-Like Pieces of Reactive Materials Increase Explosive Force of Bombs Technology is Rapidly Closing the Gap Between Sensors and Shooters Italian Army Program Aims to Develop a Fully Networked Land Force Political and Military Uncertainties Plague U.S. Defense Budget Democrats Put Pentagon on Notice Over Spending and Policy at DTAR Conference Russian Combat Vehicle Protects Tank Formations from Anti-Armor Weapons European Battlelabs Use Simulation to Verify Technologies and Stretch Defense Funds Malaysia Accelerates Fleet Modernization to meet Long-Term Goals U.S. Navy Says Composite Raiding Boat May Reduce Injuries From Wave Shocks Seeing Isn’t Believing When it Comes to Deciphering Funds for Secret Projects Advances in Sensors and Propulsion Make Torpedoes Ever More Lethal FAA is in No Rush to Approve Rules that Let UAVs Fly in Civil Airspace USS Truman Carrier Strike Group Patrols a Rough Neighborhood 24/7 U.S. says Sino-Russian Space Disarmament Plan is Riddled with Pitfalls Hyperspeed Projectile; “Sound Cloak” Hides Subs; Improving Nuclear Forensics Dutch Air Commodore Theo ten Haaf Analyzes the Impact of Rotary-Wing Operations One Soldier’s War is a Behind-the-Headlines Look at Russia’s Campaigns in Chechnya Black Budgets are Huge and Growing, and Often Conceal Amazing Failures

Defense Technology International - March 2008

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