Defense Watch

Defense Daily, Sept 2, 2008

The Latest Word On Trends And Developments In Aerospace And Defense

Stevens Still Standing. Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska)--the former Senate Appropriations Defense subcommittee ranking member who was indicted in July on seven felony counts tied to allegedly concealing gifts--handily won the GOP Senate primary last Tuesday, snagging 63 percent of the vote in his state. Now he has two big dates on his calendar: Sept. 22, the start of his federal court trial in Washington, D.C., and Nov. 4, the general election, where he will defend his long-held Senate seat against Democrat Mark Begich, the mayor of Anchorage who easily leads Stevens in polls by Ivan Moore Research and Rasmussen Reports. After winning his primary, Stevens declared the general election a "piece of cake," the Associated Press reports.

Foreign Relations Dominoes. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is due for a shakeup. Its chairman, Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.), will leave to become vice president if Democrats win the White House in November. If Biden departs, and Democrats retain control of Congress, Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) would become chairman, but only if he relinquishes his Senate Banking Committee chairmanship. If Dodd passes, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) is next in line as chairman. On the committee's GOP side, its second-ranking member, Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), is not seeking reelection this fall. And Ranking Member Sen. Dick Lugar (R-Ind.)--a fan of Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Biden-- despite his party affiliation, is seen potentially having a future in an Obama administration. Obama will exit the Foreign Relations Committee if elected president, and other members are facing reelection battles, including Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.)--who happens to be the next-ranking Republican behind Hagel. Sources say a Dodd chairmanship would not bode well for the prospects of International Traffic in Arms Regulations reform.

Tanker Delegates. A vote for GOP presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is a vote against Boeing's re-bid for the Air Force aerial refueling tanker contract, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D-Kan.) told Illinois delegates to the Democratic National Convention early last week, Crain's Chicago Business reports. Sebelius' state would get a huge economic shot in the arm if Chicago- based Boeing snags the contested contract initial won by a Northrop Grumman- European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company team. McCain, of course, blocked an earlier, flawed Boeing tanker lease plan. Sebelius told Crain's the contest "really comes down to an American company and a foreign company," and that Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) would not favor Boeing but would "level the playing field." The Pentagon had not released the revised tanker solicitation as of last Friday afternoon.

MRAP Monitoring. Marine Commandant Gen. James Conway says an ongoing audit of the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles (MRAP) program will bode well for his service. Then-Department of Defense Inspector General (DoD IG) Claude Kicklighter said in March his office's audit seeks to determine if the program office "is taking appropriate actions to accelerate vehicle delivery to users" and is reviewing the services' MRAP and Humvee requirements. The Marine Corps requested the audit after a service employee alleged hundreds of troop deaths in Iraq would have been prevented if MRAPs were fielded faster after an urgent request from theater. "I think the IG is going to have some fairly positive things to say about our urgent-needs process," Conway told reporters last Wednesday, adding "some (report) excerpts are starting to slip out a little bit." An IG spokesman said it will be "a couple of months at least" until a draft report debuts.

Physical Fence. Customs and Border Protection has issued a stop work order to the Secure Border Initiative network (SBInet) technology prime contractor Boeing to give it time to work with the Department of Interior to go through the process of gaining access to land for the deployment of sensor equipped towers that will help keep watch over parts of the United States' Southwest border. Moreover, CBP says the technology Boeing will deploy on the virtual watchtowers needs more integration testing. Meantime, CBP says it is looking at possibly transferring some funds that were planned to go to Boeing for the start of two technology deployments in FY '08 to procuring and deploying physical fencing along the border with Mexico. CBP says the costs for fence construction are way up, due to higher costs in general for fuel, steel and other materials. Transferring funding will help keep the physical fencing deployment on track, the agency says.

...And Virtual Fence. CBP says that before the SBInet deployment of TUS-1 and AJO-1 begin, the program will focus on completing ongoing system-level integration testing as well as beginning formal system qualification testing, which includes the use of a field test facility in New Mexico similar to a border-like environment. TUS-1 and AJO-1 refer to two stretches of the U.S. border in Arizona. DHS had initially hoped that both of the deployments would receive conditional acceptance later this year.