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D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 4
The
Making
of a Drone
Pilotpage 40
U.S. Battles ISIL
On Social Media
New Satellites Boost
Troop Connectivity
At L-3 Link, We’re Delivering the New Standard
for Virtual Simulation Realism.
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resolution geo-specific databases and multi-spectral, physics-based processing technologies with
state-of-the-art image generation and display systems. Our multi-spectral training environment provides
a fully correlated and physically accurate suite of sensor simulations – including all the operational
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To see how L-3 Link is redefining training capabilities, go to www.link.com.
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IMPROVING MISSION READINESS.
IT’S OUR SOLE OBJECTIVE.
Source: Swiss Federal Office of Topography
D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 4 • N A T I O N A L D E F E N S E 1
NDIA’S BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY MAGAZINE
VOLUME XCIX, NUMBER 733
WWW.NATIONALDEFENSEMAGAZINE.ORG
Commentary
18 Healthy Maritime Industry
Vital to National Security
Over the past 30 years, the fleet of U.S.-
flagged vessels has dramatically shrunk.
BY REP. DUNCAN D. HUNTER
Defense Contracting
20 Proposed Reporting Rule on
Counterfeit Items Adds
Burden to Contractors
New rules state that contractors will have
to make additional reports when they
become aware that purchased supplies
are counterfeit.
BY STEVEN R. CAMPBELL
AND JEFFREY A. BELKIN
News Features
Information Warfare
24 Government, Industry
Countering Islamic State’s
Social Media Campaign
Social media websites like Twitter and
Facebook offer Islamic State terrorists a new
propaganda outlet, but for the government,
that data is a vital source of intelligence.
BY YASMIN TADJDEH
Social Media 24
I More than any other terrorist group,
the Islamic State has a sophisticated
grasp of social media and how it can be
employed to spread information, experts
say. The State Department is trying to
counter this propaganda through its own
use of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
Cover Story 40
I At Holloman Air Force Base
in New Mexico, pilots and
sensor operators learn how to
control Predator and Reaper
remotely piloted aircraft. Only
a few months of training with
simulators and live aircraft
separates them from actual
combat.
December 2014
Twitter.com/NationalDefense Facebook.com/NationalDefense
www.NationalDefenseMagazine.org/blog
Exclusive
content on
our blog
Cover image: CAE
D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 4 • N A T I O N A L D E F E N S E 1
Satellites 28
I By the end of 2015, the four pri-
mary spacecraft of the Navy’s mobile
user objective system communication
satellite, also known as MUOS, will be
orbiting the Earth. Officials say this
will allow ground forces to communi-
cate almost anywhere on the planet.
2 N at i o n a l D e f e n s e • D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 4
December 2014
volume xcix
number 733
Editor	
Sandra I. Erwin
(703) 247-2543
SErwin@ndia.org
Managing Editor	
Stew Magnuson
(703) 247-2545
SMagnuson@ndia.org
SENIOR EDITOR 	
Valerie Insinna
(703) 247-2542
VInsinna@ndia.org
STAFF WRITER 	
Yasmin Tadjdeh
(703) 247-2585
YTadjdeh@ndia.org
Design Director	
Brian Taylor
(703) 247-2546
BTaylor@ndia.org
EDITORIAL ASSISTANT	
Sarah Sicard
(703) 247-9469
SSicard@ndia.org
advertising	
Dino Pignotti
(703) 247-2541
DPignotti@ndia.org
For additional advertising information, go
to the Index of Advertisers on the last page.
National Defense Magazine
2111 Wilson Blvd., Suite 400	
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Change of Address:
http://eweb.ndia.org
Letters to the Editor: National Defense
welcomes letters—pro or con. Keep them short
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Forum must be signed. 	
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National Defense (ISSN 0092–1491) is published monthly by the National Defense Industrial Association
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POSTMASTER: Send address changes to National DEFENSE, 2111 Wilson Blvd, Suite 400, Arlington, VA 22201–3061. The title
National Defense is registered with the Library of Congress. Copyright 2014, NDIA.
Communications
28 	Powerful new UHF Satellite
	 System Expected by End of 2015
It has taken more than a decade for the
Navy to develop its new satellite system.
When the service launches its fourth space-
craft in 2015, troops will have a robust
communications link almost any place on
Earth.
	 By STEW MAGNUSON
32 	Army to Revamp, Simplify 		
	 Mobile Command Posts
Lack of interoperability has long been a
problem at Army mobile command posts.
To solve this, service wants to change the
way it acquires and maintains computing
hardware and software.
	 By STEW MAGNUSON
Modeling and Simulation
34 	Military Simulation
	 Market to Remain Flat
Analysts say defense simulation companies
will not be immune to the effects of 	
continued budget constraints.
	 By SANDRA I. ERWIN
36 	Military Training Dilemma:
	 To Outsource or Not?
More international militaries have formed
public-private partnerships with simula-
tion and training companies, but alternative
business models remain rare in the United
States.
	 By SANDRA I. ERWIN
38 	More Companies Relying
	On Modeling, Simulation
	 To Cut Cost
Defense companies are investing in mod-
eling and simulation technologies that
provide a less expensive way to test new
designs than traditional alternatives.
	 By VALERIE INSINNA
Cover Story
40 	Predator, Reaper Crew
	 Training at All Time High as
	 Demand Continues
Commanders of the four training squadrons
responsible for training MQ-1 and MQ-9
pilots and sensor operators expect the
graduation rates will remain stable in the
near future.
	 By VALERIE INSINNA
Training
44 	Industry Shows Off New Army
	 Combat Simulation Tools
Technologies such as vehicle simulators and
virtual tactical trainers will keep soldiers
prepared for the next battle.
	 By YASMIN TADJDEH
46 	Simulation Technology
	Offers Aircrews Enhanced 		
	 Training Opportunities
New aircraft simulators are more realistic
than ever before.
	 By SARAH SICARD
48 	Pacific Pathways to Expand 	
	Army’s Presence in Region
In the recently completed Pacific Pathways
exercises, the Army practiced expeditionary
tactics that service leaders believe will be
necessary for tackling future threats in the
region.
	 By SARAH SICARD
Departments
4 	 President’s Perspective
Time to Get Serious About Tough
Problems
	 by Lawrence P. Farrell Jr.
6 	 Defense Watch
	 Ruminations on current events
	 by Sandra I. Erwin
8 	 Ethics Corner
10 	Business + Industry News
What’s new and next for the industrial base
	 by Valerie Insinna
14 	Homeland Security News
	 Monitoring the homefront
	 by Stew Magnuson and Yasmin Tadjdeh
51 	NDIA News
52 	NDIA Calendar
	 Complete guide to NDIA events
56 	Next Month
	 Preview of our next issue
56 	Index of Advertisers
National defence magazine december 2014
4 N at i o n a l D e f e n s e • D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 4
With midterm election results having been digested and
scrutinized endlessly, serious analysts are turning to a
discussion of the many problems facing the country. The elec-
tion didn’t really settle anything. It only teed up a new assem-
bly of elected leaders who must confront the same issues that
previous leaders faced. The issues are no easier to deal with.
The American public and the newly elected officials hope
that this time something can be done.
Of primary interest to the defense community is funding
and support for the U.S. military. The issue has increased
urgency given our new commitments to the fight against
radicalism in the Middle East and elsewhere. The problem
is not only the increased funding being requested — $5.6
billion sought by the administration for action against the
Islamic State — but also the lack of clear objectives for this
new fight. There is also a need for them to be expressed in a
resolution that the president will be presenting to Congress
to authorize this fight, which is now estimated to take several
years.
Another concern is extending legislative authorization for
the $500 million program to train and equip Syrian moder-
ate forces. This authorization runs out at the same time as
the continuing resolution that funds the government which
expires Dec. 11.
Our increasingly complex and intense military operations
need political support, funding and national understanding, in
addition to a clear definition of what is to be expected.
One wishes that an omnibus appropriation can be accom-
plished by the lame-duck Congress. Certainly something must
be done before the government runs out of funding. Hope-
fully it will not be another continuing resolution extending
out into the new Congress. There is so much to be done that
pushing the budget debate into the next Congress will slow
everything down. The reason for this concern is to be found in
the severe problems with the fiscal year 2016 budget and the
caps imposed by the Budget Control Act of 2011.
As defense officials have said repeatedly, the BCA caps will
impose such stringent limits on spending that major force
adjustments by the services can no longer be avoided. Army
force structure would drop to 420,000, versus the glide path
to 450,000 that leaders had envisioned. Such a small force,
according to Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno, would
be insufficient to execute the Army portion of the national
military strategy. The Navy would not have funds to complete
refueling of the USS George Washington and would drop to
10 carrier battle groups from 11 today. And the Ohio Class
submarine replacement program, already facing insufficient
funding, would be thrown into crisis. Although the Air Force
has its top programs funded at this point, the effects on mod-
ernization and readiness would be severe.
What the Defense Department needs most is a return to
regular order in budgeting and some relief from the BCA
caps.
These problems are illustrative of the many challenges and
uncertainties faced by the entire nation. They are a conse-
quence of our failure to come to grips with balancing our
spending and our revenues. It is far beyond the scope of this
column to fully vet this problem.
It has been reported that U.S. revenues have surpassed $3
trillion. That is an amazing number, but more amazing is the
fact that it is still way short of what is needed to cover our
spending. The interest on the national debt is now around
$250 billion per year, but will surely rise as interest rates
begin to tick up. This will happen faster than most predict,
and interest on the debt will surpass annual defense appro-
priations sooner than we think. Medicare and Medicaid
combined already exceed defense spending.
The fact is at some point, the nation will need an open and
relatively non-partisan discussion on what to do about all
spending — discretionary and non-discretionary. That means
dealing with entitlements and taxes. There will have to be
adjustments and not everyone will be happy, but they must
come at some point. So why not start now with agreements
on small but important legislation that builds cooperation
and confidence in the political process? Surely we can fix the
process of authorizing and funding our military by returning
to regular order, especially in these challenging security times.
What about some needed legislative fixes to the patent
process to further shore up the protection of intellectual
property? What about serious discussion on immigration
reform? If this goes off the track, it will poison all subsequent
efforts to agree on other important issues. A quick deal to
increase the debt limit is possible and will help to build
momentum. There may be many other things that the parties
can agree on, such as infrastructure projects and support of
protocols for dealing with Ebola and other infectious diseases.
The point is that we need to deal collaboratively on a range
of issues.
In the end, though, we can’t avoid the challenging finan-
cial reality. The fact is that the nation is on an unsustainable
trajectory. The reason that we continue to make short-term
adjustments to funding for programs like defense and high-
way construction is that the money is simply not there in
our presently constructed system. While we may be able
to return to regular order in defense and even obtain some
modest relief from BCA caps, the money to do that must
either come from some other account or be borrowed.
There are some voices out there who have given us some
blueprints to follow: David Abshire in his book Call to
Greatness, David Walker in Comeback America, and in the
Simpson-Bowles plan to reform our taxes and entitlements
that return us to a balanced, sustainable financial posture.
We need to trust each other more, to collaborate more and
listen to thoughtful people. Congressional gridlock is killing
the economy and crippling our military. It is time to get off
the dime.
President’s Perspective by lawrence p. farrell jr.
Email your comments to LFarrell@ndia.org
Time to Get Serious About Tough Problems
National defence magazine december 2014
6 N at i o n a l D e f e n s e • D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 4
The democratization of technology should be something
to celebrate. Not so much at the Pentagon, which is
seeing its stranglehold on cutting-edge weaponry slip as more
countries and potential adversaries stock up on shiny objects
that used to be only available to the U.S. military.
The idea that the United States might see its overwhelming
dominance in weapons technology erode is hard to compre-
hend, however, given the enormous spending gap between
the Pentagon and everyone else. In fact, notes the Defense
Department’s chief weapons buyer Frank Kendall, U.S. supe-
riority has now become a double-edged sword because it has
made the country — and its policy makers — complacent.
“When I talk to people on the Hill and I mention that I’m
concerned about technological superiority — particularly
modernization programs of countries like China and Russia
— I get a reaction that is sort of surprise, first, and disbelief
perhaps as well,” Kendall tells an industry gathering. He is
especially worried about China as that nation is determined to
invest in armaments that could neutralize current U.S. advan-
tages in areas such as electronic warfare, stealth and space.
“China’s budget is growing about 12 percent a year,” Kendall
says. “It’s not as large as the United States’ by any stretch of
the imagination, but at the rate it’s growing it will be before
too many years go by.”
So what does the Pentagon plan to do about this?
It is not entirely clear yet. The Defense Department for
various reasons has struggled to get its modernization house
in order. Budget cuts and short-term funding measures have
slowed things down. A lack of vision also has been a problem.
Programs are championed one day and canceled the next.
Internecine rivalries at the Pentagon complicate efforts to
develop cohesive modernization plans as money invested in
one program might come at the expense of another.
How the Pentagon will spend its annual $150 billion to
$160 billion weapons modernization budget is now at the
center of a sweeping review of defense programs led by Dep-
uty Secretary Robert Work, a long-time analyst and historian
of military technology.
Work suggests that the military’s current technology chal-
lenge demands big and bold investments by the United States
in order to jump way ahead of everyone else. This was done
during the Cold War, when U.S. planners figured out how to
“offset” the Warsaw Pact’s much larger conventional forces
with nuclear weapons. That advantage did not last, though, as
the Soviets quickly moved to build their own nukes.
The next wave of innovation came in the 1970s when Sec-
retary of Defense Harold Brown and Undersecretary William
Perry pushed a new offset strategy built around the use of
digital microelectronics and information technology to coun-
ter conventional forces. The strategy set off a wave of innova-
tion in smart weapons, sensors, targeting and control networks.
Work credits the second offset for propelling the United
States into unchallenged superpower status. 
Today, the destructive technologies and weapons that were
once the province of wealthy Western militaries are within
the reach of almost any country.
“Our forces face the very real possibility of arriving in a
future combat theater and finding themselves facing an arse-
nal of advanced, disruptive technologies that could turn our
previous technological advantage on its head,” Work reminds
military officers at the National Defense University.
What a third offset strategy might entail has been the sub-
ject of several editorials, white papers and beltway panel dis-
cussions just within the past few months. Work has called for
a “sense of urgency” in crafting a new strategy, but so far it has
been an ivory tower exercise.
Some of the proposals that are entering the conversation,
not coincidentally, were conceived at think tanks where Work
resided before joining the Obama administration. One is by
former Pentagon official Robert Martinage, an analyst at the
Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.
Martinage says the third offset strategy has to be grounded
in today’s fiscal reality. “We should exploit our existing advan-
tage in unmanned systems, stealth, undersea warfare and com-
plex systems engineering,” he says in an interview. Martinage
suggests the foundation of future technological supremacy is a
“global surveillance and strike” network that would help U.S.
forces stay a few steps ahead of its enemies.
A mix of advanced drones, unmanned submarines and
stealth bombers would be connected in a seamless network,
a technology feat that would be tough for any country other
than the United States to achieve, he says. Another element of
the offset strategy would be to find alternative technologies so
the military becomes less dependent on vulnerable assets like
communications and navigation satellites. U.S. forces also need
novel weapons such as electromagnetic and laser guns that are
relatively cheap and versatile, says Martinage.
He cautions his approach is not meant to be a comprehen-
sive national security strategy, but a vision for how to modern-
ize the military at a time of uncertainty.
Shawn Brimley, of the Center for a New American Secu-
rity, has a similar take. “We need to determine how to
employ emerging technologies like directed energy (critical
for sustainable defense against salvos of guided missiles) and
improved power systems and storage, to harness the potential
of robotic systems to stay in the air or under the ocean for
long periods of time,” he writes in a white paper. Unlike the
offset strategy of the late 1970s, Brimley points out, the Pen-
tagon needs to figure out how to better share technology with
U.S. allies. “In a world where advanced technologies are widely
available and proliferating rapidly, the United States requires a
more liberal approach to exporting defense technologies.”
There is no shortage of opinions on what the offset strategy
should be. What it ultimately becomes is anyone’s guess. What
is certain is that it will influence Pentagon buying decisions
for years to come.
Defense Watch by sandra i. erwin
Email your comments to SErwin@ndia.org
Pentagon Mulls Strategy for Next Arms Race
Wedon’tsendyoutocombat,
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8 N at i o n a l D e f e n s e • D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 4
Character is a critical piece of our national security. As
recent headlines have shown, security breaches, bribery,
cheating, lying and sexual misconduct erode both trust in our
institutions and our nation’s credibility.
Likewise, unethical behavior has the potential to negatively
impact our country’s resilience and readiness.
A lack of character can pose a risk at any level of an orga-
nization. Just one poor decision or action by one person can
jeopardize an entire organization. Organizations across the
national security community can mitigate such risks by recom-
mitting to instill and uphold a culture of character. So how is a
culture of character created? What can be done to ensure that
our national security starts with doing the right thing?
Organizational trust is embodied in culture, and the author-
ity to lead comes from trust. A culture of trust also depends on
having the right people. For me, the right people have positive
attitudes, unquestionable integrity and a commitment to the
mission.
Attitude is of utmost importance. No amount of exper-
tise can make up for a poor or inconsistent attitude from an
employee or leader.
Integrity is key because customers, partners and colleagues
will not want to work with people they can’t trust. Being reli-
able, delivering a quality performance and demonstrating good
judgment to do the right thing are all characteristics that show
a person or a company has integrity.
Commitment is also key because a person can have the best
intentions with a positive attitude and honesty, but this is all
lost if the intentions are not matched with actions that are
consistently and directly aligned with the values and mission of
the specific project or organization. The most dedicated, trust-
worthy and reliable people are those who are mission-oriented
and therefore prioritize the mission. Oftentimes an organiza-
tion can be put at risk when team members are individually or
politically oriented people, meaning they prioritize themselves
over the group mission.
Successful cultures are based on ethics and accountability.
Accountability is knowing and accepting that you alone are
responsible for who you are, for your character and for your
success — or failure — in life. It is critical to maintaining a
position of leadership and strength, for a lack of accountability
creates potential for great risk.
However, a commitment to accountability is not easy, espe-
cially when things go wrong. It’s necessary to take ownership
of our decisions, our actions and the consequences, good and
bad, at home and around the world.
Empowerment and empathy have been my “double E”
secret for leadership success. The first step toward empower-
ment is to know what empathy is. It is an action of under-
standing — knowing your people and what motivates them.
This notion of empathy relates back to the step of building
trust, as it helps establish a rapport and connection with others
on a meaningful level.
Empowerment is providing your people the opportunity to
be in charge. We have to help our people rise to the challenges
they face every day. Strong decisions and actions come from
strong teams. In order to build strong teams, leaders should
enable, encourage and enrich their employees and colleagues
to do the right thing.
Successful organizations must make culture an ongoing pri-
ority and an all-out effort. Culture is established with founda-
tional documents that state the organization’s mission, values,
and guiding principles. They are reinforced by organizational
codes of conduct and ethics, which must be reviewed regularly.
And repetition is the key to ingraining the culture throughout
the organization.
CACI created a series of management manuals that were
specifically developed to help employees practice and exem-
plify the CACI culture and to ensure that they understand
their role in assisting the company with achieving its strategic
goals. Its culture is founded on strong values, and good charac-
ter in particular, and serves as its corporate identity — what its
employees live and breathe. It impacts everything it does. Its
strong sense of culture helps it make tough decisions instinc-
tively and breeds productivity, collaboration and innovation.
One good example of ingrained culture is the Marine Corps.
Its mottos of MVP – mission, values, pride and semper fidelis
communicate the Marines’ culture of mutual trust, collective
pride and self-discipline.
If we want to see things take a better course, we all have to
make a commitment to good character and serve as role mod-
els with our actions and our words. A culture that emphasizes
“good character” is the sine qua non for our nation’s readiness
and resilience.
The character of the nation reinforces the legitimacy of its
global leadership, the vitality of our economy and credibility of
our cultural influence.
As Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said, “Ethics and
character are absolute values that we cannot take for granted.
They must be constantly reinforced.” If this means a character
turnaround — for the security and the success of our country
— so be it. 
Ethics Corner By J. Phillip “Jack” London
Our Best Defense — A Culture of Character
Joseph Reeder,
Chairman
Greenberg Traurig LLP
Glenn Baer
G.D. Baer & Associates, LLC
William Birkhofer
Jacobs
J. Kelly Brown
EMSolutions Inc.
Beverly Byron
Byron Butcher
Associates
Dale Church
Ventures & Solutions LLC
Vincent Ciccone
RASco Inc.
Margaret DiVirgilio
Concurrent Technologies
Corporation
R. Andrew Hove
HDT Global
John Illgen
Northrop Grumman
Information Systems
Stephen Kelly
Battelle
James McAleese
McAleese & Associates
Richard McConn
M International Inc.
William Moore
LMI
Graham Shirley
The Pegasus Group Inc.
Deborah Thurman
NDIA Ethics Committee
J. Phillip “Jack” London is executive chairman of CACI
International Inc.,and author of Character: The Ultimate Success
Factor (www.characterthebook.com)
National defence magazine december 2014
10 N at i o n a l D e f e n s e • D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 4
The Army and Marine Corps joint
light tactical vehicle program is on
schedule, but if sequestration returns in
2016, it will likely decrease the services’
purchasing power, said the joint pro-
gram office manager.
“The impact will more than likely …
be a slowdown of production, which
equals a stretch out of production,” said
Army Col. John Cavedo. “If you buy
less, the cost will move up.”
Nonetheless, Cavedo expressed con-
fidence that the program would be able
to weather mandatory budget cuts, as it
had in fiscal year 2013.
“We were able to work through both
furlough and government shut down,
the impacts of sequestration … by being
incredibly efficient,” he said. “The folks
on my team worked day in and day out
… [looking at] every cell on the Excel
spreadsheet, looking for every little
block they could shave a little bit of
money from.”
Cavedo said in October he expected
to release the final request for proposals
in early November. The services plan
to downselect to a single vendor by
the end of fiscal year 2015 for low-rate
initial production.
Three companies are still vying
for the contract: truck manufacturer
Oshkosh Corp.; AM General, which
produces the Humvees slated to be
partially replaced by JLTVs; and Lock-
heed Martin, a relative newcomer to the
tactical vehicle industry.
If sequestration is reinstated, a com-
bination of factors will help protect the
program, said John Urias, president of
Oshkosh Defense. Because it’s a joint
program, there is added incentive to
keep it alive. “The other thing is we
have congressional support.”
“Timing, I think, is also to our advan-
tage” because sequestration would occur
in 2016 “and this program will, we
hope, be on contract by then,” he said.
“The last thing you want to do is start
cutting into programs that you’ve just
put on contract.”
The JLTV program has implications
for the future of other vehicles.
The Army plans on buying 49,099
JLTVs, which will not be enough to re-
place its current fleet of Humvees. Even
as the force downsizes, the service will
likely need additional light armored ve-
hicles, said Scott Davis, Army program
executive officer for combat support
and combat service support.
“The assessment is, obviously you
could buy more JLTVs” or invest in up-
grading existing up-armored Humvees,
he said. “We’re really at the very early
stage of that analysis.”
Although the Army has not yet
settled the question of whether it will
recapitalize a portion of its Humvee
fleet, that has not stopped companies
from putting forward upgrade options.
Northrop Grumman, for one, is
pitching a brand new chassis that would
increase the mobility and ride quality of
an up-armored Humvee as well as dou-
bling its fuel efficiency, said Jeff Wood,
the company’s director of vehicle mod-
ernization in the mission solutions and
readiness division.
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■ Northrop Grumman is jumping into the fray
of the Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar
System recapitalization program to replace the
Air Force’s premier surveillance and targeting
aircraft.The service wants to buy new airframes
equipped with the latest software, sensors and computing
systems, with four becoming operational as early as fiscal year
2022.
The company is the prime contractor of the legacy JSTARS
system, which is integrated on the Boeing 707-derived E-8C
aircraft.Aircraft and electronics companies such as Boeing,
Gulfstream, Raytheon, Rockwell Collins and Bombardier have
also expressed interest in the program.
Northrop Grumman is not an aircraft manufacturer and has
not yet selected which business liner or jet will house its new
JSTARS, said Alan Metzger, vice president of the company’s
recapitalization effort. Rather, its approach has been to invest
in the myriad electronic systems that comprise JSTARS.
“Since this whole thing began, we’ve been doing all of the
required things you would expect in terms of risk reduction,
requirements analysis, trying to understand the system archi-
tecture,” he said. Northrop has refined its battle management
command-and-control software and integrated it with assorted
computers, communications systems and
sensors within a Gulfstream 550 testbed.
“I think one of the reasons why we have
been looking at the 550 is because it is the
smallest aircraft” under consideration, said
spokesman Bryce McDevitt.“We essentially
wanted to demonstrate that the integration
of the Joint STARS technology would be
possible on a smaller aircraft, which is what
we’ve done.”
The Gulfstream 550, as a business jet, is smaller than the
mid-size Boeing 707 airliner, but because communications and
other electronic systems are continuously shrinking, the legacy
capability can fit into a smaller footprint, Metzger said.
In September and October, the company demonstrated its
system at Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Virginia, Hanscom Air
Force Base in Massachusetts, Joint Base Andrews in Mary-
land and Robins Air Force Base in Georgia, Metzger said. He
believes the company’s testbed showcases an “80 percent
solution.”
“We have tested different sensors on our aircraft, different
[communication] devices on our aircraft and things of that
nature,” he said.“Some of the things we have tested will be
the final configuration. Others won’t. So we still have that
process to go through, and that basically requires the Air Force
to firm up their final requirements so we can make our final
selection.”
Northrop will also choose an airframe at that point, he said.
command and control
JSTARS Contractor Joins
Modernization Competition
■ As the nature of warfare changes,
it’s likely special operators will need
increasingly stealthy ways to penetrate
remote, hard-to-reach locations.That is
one of the reasons Logos Technologies
is developing a hybrid-powered offroad
motorbike for the Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency,Wade Pulliam,
the company’s manager of advanced
concepts, stated in an email.
The company received a small busi-
ness innovation research grant earlier this
year to design the bike and expects that
DARPA will approve further funding to
make a prototype, he said.The vehicle
will be lighter and easier to handle than
the Kawasaki M1030M1 currently in
use.
“It is capable of near-silent operation
as well as extended range,” he said.“We
believe the bike can easily maintain a
range of 100 miles between refuels …
sufficient to satisfy an existing military
capability gap.”
The motorbike can
run on multiple fuels,
including JP-8, gasoline
or diesel. Logos expects
that it will improve on the
M1030M1’s fuel efficien-
cy by at least 10 percent,
Pulliam said. Its battery
can also be used as an
auxiliary power supply.
To develop the vehicle,
Logos partnered with
BRD Motorcycles, which
designed a militarized
version of its RedShift
MX electric motocross bike. It will be
powered by a hybrid-electric propul-
sion system that Logos developed for an
unmanned aerial vehicle, Pulliam said.
The biggest challenge for the team is
integrating the vehicle with the propul-
sion system.
“What we’re doing is putting [a]
multi-fuel hybrid-electric power system
on an all-wheel drive motorcycle,
something that hasn’t been done before.
There is significantly less real estate
available on the motorcycle, so finding
space for all of the systems that must be
added is much more difficult than on a
car,” he said.
“Additionally, maintaining the balance
of the motorcycle is critical if the system
is to operate effectively in off-road
missions — further constraining the
integration effort,” he added. Front-to-
back balance is especially important for
the rider “to maintain complete control
in complex terrain while driving aggres-
sively.”
science and technology
Company Developing
Hybrid Energy Motorbike
For Special Operators
RedShift MX electric motorcross bike BRD
Email your comments to VInsinna@ndia.org
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INNOVATION IS A POWERFUL WEAPON.
MEGGITT IS THE SYSTEM OF CHOICE.
More than a decade after the
Army reluctantly took on the
responsibility for responding to domestic
chemical, biological and nuclear attacks
or accidents, it has built a force of more
than 18,000 dedicated personnel.
In 2001, only 10 of the planned
57 National Guard WMD civil sup-
port teams were certified to respond
to weapon of mass destruction attacks
on the homeland, said Robert Salesses,
deputy assistant secretary of defense for
homeland security and defense support
of civil authorities.
Those National Guard units are
intended to advise local authorities and
have only 22 members, he said at the
Association of the United States Army
annual conference.
Today, there are 57 such teams in
all the states and territories which can
respond to a crisis within three hours. In
addition, there are 17 enhanced response
force packages with more than 180
personnel who can respond within six
hours and provide search and extraction,
decontamination and medical response.
There are 10 homeland response forc-
es with some 566 personnel with similar
capabilities, which can deploy within
six to 12 hours. One of these units is as-
signed to each of the Federal Emergency
Management Agency’s regions.
In addition, U.S. Northern Command
can deploy the defense CBRN response
force with some 5,200 members for
catastrophic incidents. It can arrive on
the scene within 24 hours and has a
range of capabilities including command
and control, enhanced medical response
and rotary wing lift and medevac.
Together these units are known as the
CBRN response enterprise.
“The terrorist threat that drove the
establishment of the [CBRN response
enterprise] nearly 10 years ago, in my
opinion, is evolving and in most esti-
mates is actually more dangerous today
than it was back then,” Salesses said.
Along with the terrorist threats, the
Fukushima incident in Japan showed
that accidents can be equally destructive,
he said.Thirty-one states have nuclear
power plants, totaling more than 100
reactors, he noted.About 50 million
residents live within 50 miles of these
power plants.
As for chemical plants,“there are
thousands of them,” he said.About 500
of them he characterized as “extremely
dangerous,” with 100 million people liv-
ing less than 30 miles from them.
“There is certainly an expectation by
the citizens of this country that we will
be there to support them in their time of
need,” he said of the military.
Jim Kish, deputy assistant administra-
tor for response at FEMA, said it was
after the anthrax attacks of 2001 when
the Army was tapped to take on the
WMD response task.There was initially
substantial resistance and skepticism
about the service carrying out the mis-
sion, he added.
Salesses said:“We looked to the Army
and knew that the Army would carry
the majority load…. How it stepped up
to the plate was critical … even when it
was engaged in Afghanistan and Iraq.”
Maj. Gen.William F. Roy, command-
ing general of operations at Army North/
Fifth Army, said there is now a tiered re-
sponse in place, with state and local per-
sonnel on a scene first, then the National
Guard advisory team brought in second.
Depending on the scope of the incident,
the larger teams with decontamination
or medical response capabilities can be
called in.
“In my opinion, speed of response
equals saving American lives,” Salesses
said.
Roy said by the end of fiscal year
2015, there will be 80 units spread out
at 38 different posts and camps.
“Looking at the glass half full — we
have somebody close to whatever may
happen. Glass, half empty. It is hard to
get together to train,” he added.
Training is one area that can be
improved upon, said Steve Cichocki,
program manager for CBRN response at
Northern Command.
“Northcom has matured over the past
couple of years as a combatant com-
mand and we have vastly improved the
way we have organized and prepared for
14 N at i o n a l D e f e n s e • D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 414 N at i o n a l D e f e n s e • D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 4
Army Takes Stock of Its Domestic
Chem-Bio-Nuclear Response Capabilities
by Stew Magnuson and yasmin tadjdeh
Homeland Security News
Army
D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 4 • N a t i o na l D e f e n s e 15
■ The National Oceanic and Atmo-
spheric Association and the Coast
Guard are teaming up in the Arctic to
test new unmanned aerial system ap-
plications.
This summer, the Healy, the Coast
Guard’s research icebreaker, conducted
unmanned aerial vehicle tests in the
Arctic alongside NOAA, said Robbie
Hood, UAS program director at the
scientific agency.The Coast Guard is
“letting this ship be a testing ground for
unmanned technologies, both water ve-
hicles and air vehicles,” she said during
the Association for Unmanned Vehicle
Systems International’s annual program
review.
NOAA used 13–pound Puma UAVs
during the exercise.The system is
built by AeroVironment, a Monrovia,
California-based UAV manufacturer.
One experiment conducted during
Arctic Shield included a simulated oil
spill, Hood said.
“There is going to be increased …
oil drilling in the Arctic.What would
happen if there is an oil spill or some
catastrophe? We all know how hard it
Coast Guard, NOAA Testing Drones in Arcticthe mission,” he said.
The CBRN response enterprise needs
to man, train and equip its forces, and
this should all culminate in a National
Training Center exercise before troops
are presented to the combatant com-
mander.
“It’s Northcom’s view that this should
be normal and prepared for in the same
way as other Army missions,” Cichocki
said.This “is not the case now.”
Salesses said there is a risk that the
force, which took more than a decade to
build, could backslide with troop reduc-
tions and budget cuts.
“For those who want to look at reduc-
ing the force structure, I would be cau-
tious in that regard,” he said.
“There is a clear expectation that the
nation expects the Department of De-
fense to answer the call when something
goes bad,” he added.
“It’s a national asset and with shrink-
ing force structure across the all the
services, I think it is critical that the in-
vestment DoD has made be maintained
at the full rate it is now,” he added.
Roy said Northcom and Army Forces
Command are looking into how the
CBRN response enterprise can be
resourced to be more effective based on
the mission set.
CoastGuard
COASTGUARD
I The Coast Guard is operating ships
with obsolete command, control,
computer and communications systems,
the Department of Homeland Security
inspector general said.
The budget crunch is causing the
Coast Guard to scrap some shipboard
and aircraft information technology and
sensor upgrades, the IG said in a report:
“U.S. Coast Guard Command, Control,
Communication, Computers, Intelli-
gence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance
Modernization.”
Some of its older, legacy ships are rely-
ing on obsolete technology, which is hav-
ing an impact on mission performance,
the report said.
“Significant budget reductions” are
forcing the service to delay upgrades, the
report said.
“Revised plans do not fully address
how the Coast Guard will meet the criti-
cal technology needs of these aircraft and
legacy ships,” the report said.This makes
missions more costly, it
added.
The service is in the
middle of a 25-year plan
to modernize its ships.
Among them is the
national security cutter
fleet.There will be eight
of those, with four currently sailing.
The offshore patrol cutter is still
under development, and will replace
the workhorse 210-foot and 270-foot
medium endurance cutters, but the first
of the 25-ship fleet is not expected to
be delivered until 2021.The service will
have to rely on its legacy ships with their
outdated information technology systems
for years to come as that fleet is built out,
the report noted.
The IG said there is no plan in place
to give this mix of old and new ships and
aircraft a common system baseline in
which they could all operate.
“The Coast Guard … did not have
plans in place to migrate
to a common system
baseline for the ships and
aircraft included in the
modernization project,
or to ensure effective
support for multiple
systems,” the report said.
“As a result, the Coast Guard may
experience higher lifecycle costs and
reduced mission effectiveness in the
future,” it continued.
The inspector general recommended
that the Coast Guard implement a plan
to provide the older ships with the sys-
tems needed to carry out their missions
as replacements are being built. It also
needs a strategy to manage multiple tech-
nologies across legacy and new platforms,
the IG said.
The Coast Guard concurred with its
findings.
was to address the problems in Deepwater Horizon. It’s going to
be even worse in the Arctic,” Hood said.
To mimic an oil spill — such as the Deepwater Horizon catas-
trophe, where an estimated 5 million barrels of oil spilled into the
Gulf Mexico in 2010 — scientists threw oranges, peat moss and
environmentally safe green dye into the Arctic Ocean. Research-
ers then flew Pumas above the simulated spill to monitor it.
“One thing that is helpful about this is just being able to look
at that image and see ‘how big is this oil spill? How big is it go-
ing to be?’” Hood said.
NOAA also worked with AeroVironment to test new landing
methods for the aircraft, Hood said.
“The Puma was designed to land in the water. But it’s pretty
dangerous to put a team over the side of the ship and either
walk across the ice or go on a small boat to pick up the aircraft,
so the Coast Guard was really interested in developing a differ-
ent capture system for it,” Hood said.
Two new capture systems were demonstrated, Hood said.
One included landing the Puma on the deck of the ship, but
that was “a little rough on the aircraft,” she said.A net capture
system was also tested.
Observing the Arctic will be critical going forward, Hood said.
“Polar monitoring is really important.You’re going to be
hearing more and more and more about this in the years going
forward because there’s a lot of change happening to the Arctic
sea ice,” Hood said.“There is a concern that 10 years from now,
15 years from now, 20 years from now, that in the summer time
the sea ice may melt so much that it will be completely ice free.
That changes the whole dynamic of what’s happening in the
Arctic.”
NOAA — which works with a number of unmanned systems,
including the Global Hawk — wants to field additional UAVs,
but any aircraft purchased would need to balance affordability,
dependability and capability, Hood noted.
Email your comments to SMagnuson@ndia.org
Coast Guard Information Technology, Sensor Needs Go Unfilled
National defence magazine december 2014
18 N at i o n a l D e f e n s e • D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 4
COMMENTARY
By Rep. Duncan D. Hunter
The old saying of “he who rules the seas
rules the world” is still relevant. Through-
out history, the strength and power of
navies and commercial maritime fleets
have made nations great. America is no
different.
Our national security and economic
interests are inextricably linked to the
seas. 
Approximately 75 percent of U.S.-
international commerce moves by water,
and the volume of international trade is
expected to climb as the world economy
rebounds. The U.S. maritime industry
employs more than 260,000 Americans,
providing nearly $29 billion in annual
wages and accounting for more than
$100 billion in annual economic output.  
Beyond the important contributions
to our economy, a healthy maritime
industry is vital to our national security.
Throughout our history, our nation has
relied on a strong shipyard industrial base
and robust fleet of U.S. flag commercial
vessels crewed by American merchant
mariners to build naval assets and carry
troops, weapons and supplies to the
battlefield. 
In World War II, U.S. shipyards built
nearly 6,000 sealift vessels to resupply
our forces on the battlefield and allied
civilian populations in their homes. The
merchant marine sailing these vessels
paid a high price, as 733 ships were
sunk and 5,638 merchant mariners were
lost. During Operation Desert Storm,
more than 350 U.S. flag vessels deliv-
ered an average of 42,000 tons of cargo
each day. At the height of the activity,
there was a ship every 50 miles — a
“steel bridge” — along an 8,000-mile sea
lane between the United States and the
Persian Gulf. During Operations Endur-
ing Freedom and Iraqi Freedom, U.S.
flag commercial vessels transported 63
percent of all military cargos moved to
Afghanistan and Iraq. 
Over the course of these and other
conflicts, we have learned that we cannot
rely on foreign flag vessels to resupply
U.S. troops defending our nation on for-
eign battlefields. 
During World War II, the Korean War
and the Vietnam War, certain foreign
nations refused to allow vessels flying
their flags to move cargo for the United
States and our allies. During Operation
Desert Storm, the United States led a
worldwide coalition with almost unlim-
ited access to staging areas, modern ports
and infrastructure, and to vessels and
crews of many nations. Even then, how-
ever, some foreign flag vessels and crews
refused to enter the Persian Gulf or carry
coalition cargo.
Our history has proven how vital it is
that we maintain a robust fleet of U.S.
flagged vessels to carry critical supplies
to the battlefield, a large cadre of skilled
American mariners to man those vessels,
and a strong shipyard industrial base to
ensure we have the capability to build
and replenish our naval forces in times
of war. 
Unfortunately, over the last 30 years,
the U.S. flag fleet sailing in the interna-
tional trade has shrunk from over 800
vessels to less than 85 today. Nine vessels
left the U.S. flag in the last year alone.
The U.S. flag fleet now carries only 2 per-
cent of the world’s cargo tonnage. 
Over the last three decades, we have
also lost more than 300 shipyards and
thousands of jobs for American mariners.
While U.S. shipyard and sealift capacity
declines, rival nations are growing. Over
the last decade, China has become the
world’s leading shipbuilding nation.
The number of Chinese shipyards has
grown to more than 1,600, a majority of
which are state run. Shipyard capacity is
so great in China that the government
recently announced a plan to reduce the
number by pushing out dozens of pri-
vately owned yards.
Chinese sealift capacity is also expand-
ing.  There are currently over 2,000
commercial vessels operating in the
international trade under the Chinese
flag. The number of Chinese flag vessels
has grown by nearly 500 in the last eight
years. The majority of these vessels are
operated by state-run corporations.
The decline in U.S. shipyard and sea-
lift capacity coupled with the growth
occurring in countries such as China has
serious ramifications for national security.
For the sake of our national and eco-
nomic security, we need to reverse this
trend. We cannot fight and win a war if
we cannot resupply and transport our
war fighters.
Much of the decline the U.S. maritime
sector has experienced is the result of an
uncompetitive global playing field.  Many
foreign nations provide direct subsidies
to their shipyards and to vessel operators
flying their flags. 
These countries lack modern laws to
protect workers and the environment. 
These countries also impose little, and in
some cases, no tax obligation on compa-
nies operating vessels under their flags. 
Making the situation worse, the United
States has the highest corporate tax rate
in the developed world and one of the
world’s costliest regulatory environments.
Congress and the administration need
to work closely with the maritime indus-
try and labor on ways to revitalize our
merchant marine and shipyard industrial
base. Fortunately, efforts are currently
underway at the Maritime Administra-
tion to develop a National Maritime
Strategy that will hopefully include
clear recommendations for Congress to
strengthen the U.S. merchant marine and
shipyard industrial base.  In the interim,
my Coast Guard and maritime transpor-
tation subcommittee is reviewing legisla-
tive proposals from maritime industry
and labor, as well as other stakeholders
to improve the competiveness of the flag
fleet, reduce regulatory burdens on U.S.
vessel operators, and incentivize ship-
building in the country.
If U.S. shipyards and vessel operators
cannot compete in time of peace, they
will not be there to serve our nation
in times of war.  If we want to remain
a world power capable of defending
ourselves and our allies, we must work
together to revitalize our maritime sec-
tor. ND
Healthy Maritime Industry
Vital to National Security
Rep. Duncan D. Hunter, R-Calif.,
has served in Congress since 2009.
Navy
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20 N at i o n a l D e f e n s e • D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 4
DEFENSE CONTRACTING
By Steven R. Campbell
and Jeffrey A. Belkin
After recent reports documented a
significant increase in counterfeit parts
across the supply chain, the Defense
Department and the Federal Acquisition
Regulatory Council have issued a num-
ber of rules to mitigate the threat that
such items pose.
In actuality, however, the proposed
rules expand obligations for defense and
other government contracting manufac-
turers and suppliers well beyond mere
counterfeit issues.
As discussed in Robert Metzger’s
October National Defense article “New
Rule Addresses Supply Chain Assur-
ance,” the Defense Department final
rule only applies to Defense Depart-
ment contracts and solely concerns
counterfeit issues with electronic parts.
In contrast, the Federal Acquisition
Regulatory Council’s proposed rule
would cover all federal supply contracts
and concerns both counterfeit and non-
conformance issues related to any type
of end item.
On May 6, Defense published its first
final rule amending the Defense Federal
Acquisition Regulation Supplement in
partial implementation of Section 818
of the National Defense Authorization
Act for Fiscal Year 2012.
On June 10, the Federal Acquisition
Regulatory Council issued a proposed
rule seeking to amend the Federal
Acquisition Regulation in partial imple-
mentation of Section 818 of the Nation-
al Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal
Year 2012.
While these two rules are linked in
some respects, the Federal Acquisition
Regulatory Council’s proposed rule is
much broader in scope and application
than Defense’s final rule.
In short, the proposed rule seeks to
reduce the risk of counterfeit and non-
conforming items by building on the
existing contractor inspection system
requirements. It adds a requirement
for contractors to report to the govern-
ment-industry data exchange program
(GIDEP) database a “counterfeit item,”
a “suspect counterfeit item,” or an item
that contains a “major nonconformance”
or “critical nonconformance” that is a
common item and constitutes a quality
escape that has resulted in the release of
like nonconforming items to more than
one customer.
The rule also requires contractors and
subcontractors to screen reports in the
GIDEP database to avoid the use and
delivery of reported items.
The proposed rule broadly applies
to any Federal Acquisition Regulation-
covered agency and all contractors and
subcontractors at any tier providing
supplies to the government, including
commercial items and small business
vendors.
The proposed rule provides defini-
tions for the following five key terms.
Common item: an item that has
multiple applications versus a single or
peculiar application. Common items
include, for example, raw or processed
materials, parts, components, subassem-
blies and finished assemblies that are
commonly available products such as
non-developmental items, off-the-shelf
items, National Stock Number items or
commercial catalog items.
Counterfeit item: an unlawful or
unauthorized reproduction, substitution
or alteration that has been knowingly
mismarked, misidentified or otherwise
misrepresented to be an authentic,
unmodified item from the original man-
ufacturer or a source with the express
written authority of the original manu-
facturer or design activity, including an
authorized aftermarket manufacturer.
Unlawful or unauthorized substitution
includes used items represented as new
or the false identification of grade, serial
number, lot number, date code or per-
formance characteristics.
Design activity: an organization, gov-
ernment or contractor that has respon-
sibility for the design and configuration
of an item, including the preparation
or maintenance of design documents.
Design activity could be the original
organization or an organization to which
design responsibility has been trans-
ferred.
Quality escape: a situation in which a
supplier’s internal quality control system
fails to identify and contain a noncon-
Proposed Reporting Rule
On Counterfeit Items
Adds Burden to Contractors
thinkstock
National defence magazine december 2014
forming condition.
Suspect counterfeit item: an item for
which credible evidence — including
but not limited to visual inspection or
testing — provides reasonable doubt
that the item is authentic.
The proposed rule does not suggest
any changes to the definitions of “critical
nonconformance” or “major nonconfor-
mance” currently provided under FAR
Section 46.101.
Under the proposed rule, a contractor
would be subject to two broad reporting
requirements.
First, contractors would have to
provide a written report to GIDEP
within 60 days of becoming aware that
a common item purchased by or for
the contractor for delivery to or for the
government is counterfeit, is suspected
to be counterfeit or contains a major or
critical nonconformance and constitutes
a quality escape that has resulted in the
release of like nonconforming items to
more than one customer.
Second, contractors would have to
provide a written report to the contract-
ing officer within 30 days of becoming
aware of any end item, component,
subassembly, part or material contained
in supplies purchased by the contractor
for delivery to or for the government is
counterfeit or is suspected to be coun-
terfeit.
In addition to these two reporting
requirements, contractors would be
required to screen reports in the GIDEP
database to avoid the use and delivery of
items that are counterfeit, suspected to
be counterfeit or contain a major or crit-
ical nonconformance. Contractors would
also be required to retain all counterfeit
or suspect counterfeit items until the
contracting officer provides disposition
instructions.
The public comment period for the
proposed rule ended Sept. 10. Given the
breadth and significant impact of the
proposed rule, the Federal Acquisition
Regulatory Council will likely spend
some time reviewing the comments and
considering revisions to it. Of particular
concern is that the proposed rule, unlike
the Defense Department final rule, does
not protect contractors and subcontrac-
tors from civil liability that may arise
from good-faith compliance with the
mandatory reporting requirements.
Further, the proposed rule fails to
address how manufacturers, vendors
and suppliers can challenge an incor-
rect report and what minimal steps
contractors and subcontractors must
take in order to properly incorporate the
GIDEP screen into their procurement
process.
However the council ultimately
addresses these issues, the newly
expanded reporting and screening
requirements will have a significant
impact on the government contracting
community as a whole.
Moreover, how the council ultimately
implements this rule will be a good
indicator of what Defense will likely do
in terms of interpreting and expand-
ing its rules concerning counterfeit and
nonconforming parts. And if you think
lawyers will be monitoring GIDEP for
opportunities to file product liability
lawsuits or False Claims Act fraud
claims, you are probably correct. ND
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Steven R. Campbell is a senior
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Bird LLP. Jeffrey A. Belkin is a former
Department of Justice trial lawyer and
leads the government contracts practice
at Alston & Bird.
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24 N at i o n a l D e f e n s e • D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 4
By Yasmin Tadjdeh
The U.S. government, along with
industry partners, is working to stymie
the Islamic State’s burgeoning social
media campaign, which experts say is
widespread and highly advanced for a
terror organization.
ISIL — which currently controls large
swaths of territory in Syria and Iraq —
has documented its brutal tactics, such
as beheadings, on various social media
accounts ranging from Facebook and Ins-
tagram to Twitter.
Experts and national security leaders
have said that the terrorist organization,
which started as an offshoot of al-Qaida,
has an advanced understanding of social
media, using it to disseminate informa-
tion and connect with potential jihadists
across the globe.
Department of Homeland
Security Secretary Jeh Johnson
said during a speech in October
that ISIL’s social media strategy is
highly sophisticated.
A “new phenomena we see
among terrorist organizations
is the very adept use of social
media, literature and propaganda
that is very westernized in its lan-
guage and tone. We look at some
of it, it’s about as slick as I’ve ever
seen in terms of advertising and
promotion,” Johnson said during
the Association of the United
States Army annual meeting and
exposition in Washington, D.C.
Through social media, ISIL
is inspiring adherents who have
never set foot in a terrorist com-
pound to commit acts of violence,
Johnson said.
ISIL has a ground force of more
than 30,000 individuals in Iraq
and Syria. It is extremely wealthy
and takes in over $1 million per
day in revenue, Johnson noted.
ISIL’s social media campaign is
“very aggressive,” said Peter Ber-
gen, a national security analyst at
CNN, during a September panel
discussion on jihadist terrorism
at the Bipartisan Policy Center,
a Washington, D.C.-based think
tank. Bergen also co-authored
the “Jihadist Terrorism: A Threat Assess-
ment” report released by the center in
September.
The report examined trends and
threats within jihadist terrorist groups,
including al-Qaida affiliates.
The advanced use of media platforms,
such as Twitter, while executing an attack
is a new occurrence, the report said.
“The use of social media during ter-
rorist attacks to incite and engage with
followers and report to the media … is a
new phenomenon, changing traditional
notions of how terrorist groups commu-
nicate and organize,” the report said.
It pointed to the deadly 2014 West-
gate mall terrorist attack in Nairobi,
Kenya, as one of the first examples of
social media being employed during an
attack.
“The attack on Westgate was the
first time that a major terrorist attack
was live-tweeted and also the first time
that information released by a terrorist
organization on Twitter and other social
media sites was at times more reliable
and timely than information released by
the Kenyan government,” the report said.
One tweet from the group said, “All
Muslims inside #Westgate were escorted
out by the Mujahideen before beginning
the attack,” the report said.
Dozens of people were killed during
the incident, which was coordinated by
al-Shabaab, an al-Qaida affiliate.
Foreign fighters in Syria are also avid
social media users, the report said.
“If Vietnam was the first war to be
covered by television, and the
Gulf War was the first war
carried live by cable news, in
many ways Syria is the first
social media war — where the
conflict is largely documented
on YouTube, Facebook and Twit-
ter,” the report said.
The State Department has
taken note of ISIL and other
jihadist groups’ embrace of
social media and is countering
it with its own strategy. Using
ISIL’s own propaganda, the
Center for Strategic Counter-
terrorism Communications,
which operates under the State
Department, has produced a
number of videos and images
showing the brutality of ISIL
and other terrorist organizations.
The strategy is part of the
CSCC’s “Think Again Turn
Away” program, which uses
social media platforms such as
Facebook, Twitter and YouTube
“to expose the facts about ter-
rorists and their propaganda,”
according to its mission state-
ment. The center shares images,
videos and news clips while also
engaging directly with terrorists
and their sympathizers online.
A large image of two visibly
injured and bloody men plasters
the top of the group’s Facebook
Government, Industry Countering
Islamic State’s Social Media Campaign
How ISIL Is Using Social Media to Further Its War
source: zerofox.com
page with a message that says, “Is this an
act to be proud of?”
On its verified Twitter account, @
ThinkAgain_DOS, the group has sent
out tweets that urge followers to reject
ISIL.
In one tweet accompanied by an
image of ISIL members handing out
flour, the groups said, “#ISIS steal, loot
— take photos of themselves handing
out flour as if they’re heroes for throw-
ing the people crumbs.”
In another tweet, a member of CSCC
rebukes a Twitter user who praised
Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S. citizen and ter-
rorist who was killed in a drone strike in
Yemen in 2011. Al-Awlaki was one of
al-Qaida’s top propagandists who used
the internet and other forms of media,
including a magazine called Inspire, to
recruit members to the organization.
In an Oct. 29 tweet, user @umm_
muthanna said, “We will never forget
you! America killed you but you are in
highest ranks,” in reference to al-Awlaki.
CSCC tweeted back: “Awlaki —
another hypocrite held up as a model of
piety — visited prostitutes at least seven
times.”
In another photo, CSCC tweeted
out a censored image of a toddler kick-
ing what appears to be a severed head.
“GRAPHIC — #ISIS supporters, fighters
teach children disregard for human dig-
nity at young age,” read the message that
accompanied the image.
The State Department declined to
comment for this article.
Most of ISIL’s members are young
adults, said Colin Clarke, a RAND Corp.
associate political analyst who researches
the group. ISIL has even created a video
game that is modeled off of Grand Theft
Auto, he said.
“The group is specifically trying to
recruit younger fighters, that’s for sure.
You see that with things like the video
game, that’s not meant to appeal to an
older generation,” he said.
One of the most impressive aspects of
ISIL is the speed in which it is able to
produce its propaganda, Clarke said. It
has responded in real time to events, live
tweeting attacks and battles.
This deluge of information gleaned
from tweets, Instagram photos and Face-
book status messages are both blessings
and curses for the terrorist organization
and Western governments, he said. While
social media allow ISIL to disseminate
information, they also give governments
trying to stop them heaps of information
to work off.
“From a United States or a Western
perspective, it’s a bad thing that the
group is using it to communicate with
each other and recruit but … it’s a good
thing that now we’re learning things we
probably wouldn’t have learned other-
wise,” Clarke said.
BAE Systems is one company that
is sifting through the endless piles of
information insurgency group members
have posted on social media, Kyle Lewis,
senior regional analyst at the company,
told National Defense in an email.
“Our analysts design customized solu-
tions to identify, collect, process, analyze
and report useful information from
social media, web forums, video posting
sites, anonymous text-pasting sites and
anywhere else terrorist groups are con-
versing or posting content,” Lewis said.
Company analysts can collect impor-
tant information from social media
accounts operated by terrorists, however,
many providers, such as Facebook or
Twitter, often shut down those accounts
before analysts can look through them,
Lewis noted.
“This is problematic for analysts,
because those terrorist accounts are a
rich source of information. Once that
content or a specific account is banned,
it takes knowledgeable analysts to detect
the new accounts associated with that
terrorist group or to identify that a ter-
D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 4 • N A T I O N A L D E F E N S E 25
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rorist group has moved to a new social
media platform,” he said. “If you can’t
identify those things, you’ve lost a valu-
able stream of information.”
Analysts are able to identify threats by
looking for “non-specific indicators,” he
said.These include references to travel,
conversations that move from public to
private message and unusual patterns in
social media use, Lewis said.
“Over time, you’re able to develop
timelines and benchmarks that help you
identify when and where a car bomb
attack is more likely to occur, or whether
an anti-government protest is going to
turn violent,” he said.
While not specifically confirming that
they are watching ISIL members’ social
media activity, Lewis said that the com-
pany was monitoring “trouble spots” in
Iraq and Syria.
This type of social media mining is a
burgeoning market, Lewis said.
“The amount of real-time information
from conflict zones that is now available
to us on social media is unprecedented. In
the Middle East and North Africa, it
really began with the Arab Spring in late
2010. Since then, social media usage has
expanded rapidly. With mobile phone
usage proliferating as quickly and widely
as it is in the region, the amount of infor-
mation available to us will continue to
grow,” he said.
Another company scouring the inter-
net for threats is MTN Government, a
Leesburg,Virginia-based satellite, cyber
security and intelligence, surveillance and
reconnaissance company.
Through its social media threat intel-
ligence managed service released earlier
this year, the company is able to look
through the dark corners of the internet
for cyber security threats potentially per-
petrated by terrorist organizations against
the government, Ben Shaw, director of
MTN Government’s intelligence service
program, said in an email.
“Extremist groups and individuals are
constantly searching for new ways to steal
our identities, information and intellectual
property,” Shaw said.“Leaders across all
four branches of our military are currently
being impersonated on every major social
media network.”
This “can fool many honest Americans
into divulging confidential information,
national secrets or other information,” he
noted.
MTN Government partnered with
ZeroFOX, a social risk and cyber threat
intelligence company, to deliver the
proprietary ZeroFOX solution to govern-
ment clients.
Over the summer, ZeroFOX released
an infographic explaining some of the tac-
tics ISIL has used during its social media
blitz. One includes “hashtag hijacking.”
(See graphic)
“ISIS activists will use a popular trend-
ing hashtag as a means of infiltrating
conversations by adding that hashtag onto
one of their unrelated tweets.They can
also mass tweet using their own desig-
nated hashtags, which gets them to trend,”
the graphic said.
ISIL also uses computer bots to carry
out its campaign, the company said.The
bots enable them to “continually regener-
ate accounts” that have been shut down
by social media networks.
Additionally the terror group has cre-
ated its own Arabic-language Twitter app
called the “Dawn of Glad Tidings” that
allows ISIL to send tweets through per-
sonal member accounts, the company said.
“This allows ISIS’ tweets to reach hun-
dreds or thousands more accounts, giving
the perception that their content is bigger
and more popular than it might actually
be,” the infographic said. ND
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28 N at i o n a l D e f e n s e • D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 4
By STEW MAGNUSON
After more than a decade of development, 2015
promises to be a key year for the Navy’s mobile
user objective system communication satellite.
The four spacecraft that comprise the core of the fleet
should all be in orbit by the end of the year, which will give
users seamless on-the-move links almost everywhere on the
planet.
The satellites’ deployment will converge with that of the
warfighter information network-tactical (WIN-T) increment
2, which will give individual ground troops unparalleled voice
and data connectivity through nodes that connect to the
spacecrafts’ robust UHF band.
“Never before have we been able to see a dismounted, dis-
advantaged, downrange pointy end [of the stick] soldier being
able to talk thousands of miles back to another location,” said
Chris Marzilli, president of General Dynamics C4 Systems.
The Navy has deployed two of the four satellites needed for
global coverage, with the third expected to leave the Lockheed
Martin factory in California the first week of November on its
way to Cape Canaveral, Florida, said Iris Bombelyn, the com-
pany’s vice president of narrowband communications.
MUOS number three is scheduled to launch sometime in
January and the fourth in August, she said in an interview.
Lockheed Martin is under contract to produce a fifth on-orbit
spare by 2016. The Navy will not consider the MUOS deploy-
ment complete until that final spacecraft is on orbit in 2017,
she said. But as far as users are concerned, they should be able
to connect to the satellites almost anywhere on the planet by
the end of calendar year 2015 after on-orbit checkouts are
complete.
“When the entire constellation is up, you can go from any-
place in the world to anyplace in the world and talk,” she said.
Some have compared it to a “cell phone tower in the sky,”
Bombelyn said. It will have 16 times the capacity of the legacy
Ultra High Frequency Follow-On satellites they are replacing.
Users will be able to send and receive pictures, videos and
text while talking just as they can with a typical smartphone,
she said. “You don’t have to drop off the voice line to look at
data,” she said.
The Navy made a prescient move when MUOS was still on
the drawing board to go with the then-nascent 3G technology,
Bombelyn said.
“In 2004, 3G was cutting edge, it was just a gleam,” she said.
Each of the four satellites cover about two-thirds of the
Earth, so the overlap creates seamless coverage, she noted.
They were not required to provide strategic communica-
tions during a nuclear attack as is the case with the Air Force’s
new Advanced-EHF satellites, she noted. However, that makes
them more affordable. The processing is done at four ground
stations rather than onboard MUOS, she said. The satellites are
referred to as “bent pipes.” In other words, data and voice com-
munications are sent to the spacecraft, where they are retrans-
mitted to a ground station, processed, then sent off again via
terrestrial or space links.
Because the processing is done terrestrially, it allows the
Navy to more easily and affordably carry out upgrades at the
four ground stations. They are located in Virginia, Hawaii,
Australia and Sicily. The latter
experienced delays when the local
population — fearing the health
effects of electro-magnetic waves
— voiced opposition to the project.
That has been worked out and the
station in Niscemi, Italy, is expected
to be up and running by January,
she said.
The knock on satellite programs
for decades is that the terminals
that connect to the spacecraft —
because they are often developed
and fielded by different services
and program managers — are rarely
in synchronization with the space-
craft.
Marzilli said that is not the case
for MUOS. It dovetails perfectly
with the WIN-T increment 2, and
the software-defined PRC-155
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30 N at i o n a l D e f e n s e • D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 4
to blend those two programs of record,” he said.
MUOS did suffer program delays. The arrival of the compat-
ible terminals was more to do with happenstance, executives
said.
WIN-T does not require satellites for connectivity, but it
makes the system more robust, he said. It is a self-forming,
self-healing and self-discovering network, where signals con-
nect through nodes to reach a destination. It gives users longer
ranges, and the ability to get signals around solids such as
buildings, valleys, mountains or thick foliage, he said.
Troops at the tactical edge with rifleman radios will not
directly connect to the satellites, but as long as they can con-
nect to a Manpack, or another larger node in the network, they
can reach anywhere in the world, Marzilli said.
The WIN-T system automatically chooses the most direct,
secure and economical path between points, so it doesn’t bur-
den transponder capacity on a satellite.
“If you can reach your neighbor via line of sight, it will
choose that path,” he said. The satellites will provide more of
an “On-Star” emergency backup when signals are stressed.
That’s one of the great advantages of UHF communications
and MUOS, Bombelyn said. It can take weak or out-of-synch
signals, harvest them and recombine them into a stronger sig-
nal. UHF bands suffer less interference from rain, clouds and
foliage, “which allows you to provide better support to what
we call a stressed user — somebody who is in a lone survivor
scenario,” she said.
General Dynamics and Rockwell Collins have teamed up to
produce the PRC-155 HMS Manpack. It is in its third low-rate
initial production and they are being sent to schoolhouses and
other units so soldiers can become familiar with them, Marzilli
said.
There are some 20,000 PRC-154 riflemen radios already
fielded capable of connecting to the Manpacks.
The Air Force Research Laboratory recently paid for a series
of tests to see how well the MUOS enabled terminals per-
formed on an airborne platform. Both General Dynamics and
Rockwell Collins brought their terminals to Joint Base Lewis-
McChord located near Tacoma, Washington.
Rockwell Collins brought its upgradeable ARC-210 termi-
nal. About 37,000 of the radios are already installed in some
140 different platforms in 80 countries. They can be upgraded
to take the MUOS waveform.
General Dynamics brought the HMS Manpack to serve as
an airborne radio. While intended for dismounted operations,
the terminal works fine when installed in ground or air vehi-
cles, Marzilli noted.
Both were placed on a rack inside a C-17 and flown over
the Pacific. They successfully connected to the two MUOS sat-
ellites currently aloft — one over the continental United States
and the other over the Pacific — as well as an HMS Manpack
on the ground. They sent voice, data and aircraft position data
to a simulated air operations center at Scott Air Force Base in
Illinois while flying over the ocean.
Rockwell Collins is under contract with the Navy to move a
MUOS enabled ARC-210 into a product development transi-
tion phase.
“We expect them to be rolling off the factory floor in [fiscal
year] 17,” said Joseph Blank, advanced networking program
manager at Rockwell Collins.
“That was one reason why it was important for us to go and
prove out MUOS. Now we can take the ARC-210 radios to
the customer and start integrating it in. So when they come
off the factory floor in 17, they will be ready to drop right into
an aircraft,” Blank said. “We’re starting to look at the customer
base now,” he added.
Another knock on terminals have been their high prices.
Blank said the company has been working with the Navy
to reduce recurring costs. There should be no bump in the
per-unit price when the ARC-210 transitions to the MUOS-
enabled version.
Another advantage that isn’t often mentioned will be clarity,
Blank said. Satellite communications are notoriously scratchy
and hard to understand. “And now you can literally have voice
recognition capabilities from the clarity that is in it,” Blank
said.
Earlier in 2014, Lockheed Martin and the terminal manufac-
turers spent their own funds to see how far the MUOS signal
would reach into the polar regions.
Lockheed Martin chartered a C-130 to carry out operational
tests as close as it could to the North Pole, and brought along
representatives of General Dynamics, Rockwell Collins and
Harris Corp. It was a 14-hour flight from Barrow, Alaska. The
aircraft could only reach as far as 89.5 degrees north, which is
some 30 miles short of the North Pole. While there, the test
found no degradation in the signals even though the system
was never required to function higher than 65 degrees north.
The participants believed that if they were able to go the
remaining 30 miles, they probably still would have had some
kind of signal.
“That is obviously a communications starved territory that is
quite important politically,” Marzilli said.
Next, Rockwell Collins’ Blank said, are more demonstra-
tions. The company wants to do more tests with the MUOS
airborne terminal to show its capabilities to original equipment
manufacturers, who have multiple customers among the ser-
vices.
“We’re looking forward to getting out and doing the field
tests and getting this radio into production,” Blank said.
Bombelyn said the MUOS constellation may not end at the
five spacecraft.
“There are provisions for growing the system,” she said.
There is a whole set of frequencies in the UHF bandwidth
available with the capacity to accommodate four more satel-
lites and an on-orbit spare, which could double the capacity,
she said.
Lockheed Martin has canvassed the international user com-
munity and there is a lot of interest in funding a sixth MUOS
satellite in return for access to the larger system, she said.
Nordic countries, after hearing about the tests near the
North Pole, are keenly interested, she added.
“We definitely have pent up user need,” she said. Many allies
already have access to the legacy UHF Follow-On system so
there isn’t really a reason why it can’t be shared, she said.
The office of the secretary of defense must first rule that the
system is exportable, she noted.
“If we can get some kind of hint from [OSD] that that is
a consideration, then we definitely have the capability to put
together a consortium for the Navy of international partners
that would be willing to fund another satellite,” she said. ND
Email your comments to SMagnuson@ndia.org
National defence magazine december 2014
32 N at i o n a l D e f e n s e • D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 4
By STEW MAGNUSON
To hear Army leaders describe it,
assembling the typical mobile command
post is organized chaos.
They comprise a mishmash of differ-
ent operating systems and applications,
most of which require their own moni-
tors or servers. There is little interoper-
ability. A small cadre of field service
representatives — civilian contractors
— have to stand by to ensure that
everything runs smoothly, or worse fly
halfway around the world just to install
updates.
“We have an enormous amount of
systems that fit into an Army com-
mand post. ... a huge amount of systems,
resources and people that go in to set-
ting them up and operating them,” said
Phillip Minor, deputy director for the
common operating environment at the
office of the assistant secretary of the
Army acquisition logistics and technol-
ogy.
The Army now has a goal to revamp
and simplify the posts by 2019 called
the command post computing envi-
ronment project, Minor said at the
Milcom conference in Baltimore. That
will require changing a system that has
somewhere near 30 different comput-
ing systems for 30 different applications
managed by about five different pro-
gram managers.
To tackle this problem, the Army
is in the beginning stages of radically
changing the way it acquires, maintains
and uses information technology and
software. Part of this effort is creating
the “common operating environment,”
a streamlined and simplified software
backbone that every application will
ride on, Minor said.
The common operating environment
will be interoperable, but divided into
three categories: mobile handheld for
dismounted troops, mounted for vehi-
cles and aircraft and command posts.
Each category will have its own program
manager.
“If I develop IT for a dismounted sol-
dier, I have different considerations than
I would if I’m developing IT for a major
command center,” Minor said.
The command posts are a ripe target
for the Army to radically alter, other
leaders said at the conference.
“It’s as if every time you bought soft-
ware at Best Buy, you bought a separate
computer to go with it,” said Mike
McCaffery, chief of tactical applications
at the Department of the Army, G-8.
For a decade during the two wars,
money was no object. If a new appli-
cation could help save lives, it was
purchased and integrated into the com-
mand post. Contractors were flown to
remote spots to install all the equip-
ment. Soldiers were taken away from
their regular duties to sit in classrooms
for 40 to 80 hours to learn to operate
the new systems, McCaffery said.
“We want to get away from that. We
have to get away from that. And the
common operating environment is the
way to do that,” he added.
The Army is going to completely
change the way it creates the require-
ments, funds, develops and tests soft-
ware, Minor said.
Currently, the service uses the same
acquisition processes to procure soft-
ware as it does a landmine or tank,
McCaffery said. Information technology
changes in six months to a year — or
even sooner, he said, but the current
acquisition processes take about seven
years. First Training and Doctrine Com-
mand must write the requirements.
Then the G-8 budget personnel such as
himself have to secure the funding. After
the software is developed, it is tested for
two years.
The rapid acquisition of life-saving
software for the Afghanistan and Iraq
wars showed that this timeline can
be drastically reduced. However, the
systems delivered were proprietary soft-
ware and stovepiped, he said.
“It’s effective but not optimal,” he
said.
The first step toward a new command
post that is streamlined and easier to
set up, operate and tear down, is creat-
ing standards for the software. Just like
Microsoft or Apple operating systems,
it will have basic functions like chat,
maps and email. Current systems must
reinvent all these simple tasks for each
new application. Every three years there
will be a new standards release and a
test of the infrastructure to make sure
the Army stays current with industry,
McCaffery said.
The intelligence community has a
council of chief information officers
that reviews the standards that it will
bake into the next software iteration
and builds, tests, and releases it, he said.
The Army may model its new process
similarly.
As for requirements, TRADOC is on
board with a new way to write the nec-
essary documents, called “IT Box.” Once
a need for a new application is identi-
fied, the command will get to work and
produce the requirements rapidly, Minor
said.
As for funding, McCaffery said the
project has support on Capitol Hill, and
the money to implement the new sys-
tem is secured. If the Army can make a
case that it is spending a nickel to save a
quarter, that resonates with lawmakers
today.
“The money is there. And in this envi-
ronment, that is no small feat. This is
something that is gaining momentum,”
he said.
Once a requirement is created, it will
be posted on FedBizOpps, and vendors
can respond.
Since all the applications will be used
on the common operating environment
using established standards, develop-
ment time should be shortened drasti-
cally, he said.
As will the testing, said John Sellner,
technical standards team lead at the
Army CIO/G-6.
“Testing will no longer be the long
pole in the tent in this process,” he said.
Program managers already go through
several rounds of testing as the applica-
tion is developed, and because they are
using the same standards, the final tests
should not take as long as they have
in the past. Sellner said it could take
about a week to put a new application
through the wringer.
“As long as the testing is done proper-
ly at the [program manager] and [com-
puting environment] levels, we believe
that this process will be extremely
quick,” Sellner said. “We have worked
with the test-and-evaluation community
to make sure these timelines are fea-
sible.”
McCaffery said this streamlined
approach “will remove a lot of the barri-
ers for industry to come in and develop
Army to Revamp, Simplify
Mobile Command Posts
software for the Army.”
This new way of doing business is
common in the commercial industry
today, he said. Operating systems are
standardized and refreshed periodically.
Users pick and choose what they need.
“A fires guy needs different kinds of
software than the logistician. But he
doesn’t need a complete system that
does fire. He just needs his unique fire
functionalities. Why can’t we give him
his fire functionalities on a common
platform?” Minor asked.
The standards will allow more
interoperability with systems coordinat-
ing with each other.
Do we really have to have a distinct
database for each system? Minor asked.
“Can I build a database that supports all
of my users in the command post?”
Updates will also be done over the
secure networks. That will reduce the
number of field service representatives.
“Sometimes we have more field ser-
vice reps than we have soldiers on the
ground. It’s a problem,” McCaffery said.
Personnel going to Iraq took days or a
week to download all of the security
patches that have built up over time.
“We can’t do that anymore,” he added.
“This is nothing new. This is nothing
unusual. We’re just trying to catch up
with the civilian market,” McCaffery
said.
Yet Minor said implementing the
common operating environment may
not come easily.
“It’s an enormous cultural challenge
for the Army… It’s significantly differ-
ent than the way we develop software
today and how we developed it in the
past,” he said.
Industry representatives listening in
on the presentation at Milcom asked
panelists who would be creating and
maintaining the common operating
environment. They expressed skepticism
that the Army could do it alone and do
away with the contractors who must co-
locate with soldiers.
Maintenance and software updates
will be handled by program managers
and program executive officers, McCaf-
frey said.
Minor said, as always, it will still be a
partnership between industry and the
military. But he has already met with
vendors who are eager to build the com-
mon operating environment. Their ideas
had “caveats,” he said.
“We didn’t want to be locked into a
vendor for the command post common
foundation,” he said.
Stephen Kreider, program executive
officer for intelligence, electronic war-
fare and sensors, indicated at a separate
panel that the Army will be bringing
more of these functions in house.
“We’re getting the Army and the sol-
diers back to managing and owning their
own system as opposed to turning over
their shoulder and saying, ‘I need the
[field service representative] support,’”
he said.
He pointed to the Army’s recent
effort to streamline and simplify the
distributed common ground system, an
intelligence processing system fed by
some 700 different sensors.
It cost the Army about $250 million
per year just to update the software, and
about all of it was done through con-
tractor support.
“We can’t afford that in the construct
going forward,” he added.
By having Army personnel do more
of these tasks, the service is shaving $60
million per year off the distributed com-
mon ground system program, which
should come to $1.2 billion in savings
over the life of the system, he said. ND
Email your comments to SMagnuson@ndia.org
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National defence magazine december 2014

  • 1. w w w . N A T I O N A L D E F E N S E M A G A Z I N E . O R G ■ $ 5 . 0 0 D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 4 The Making of a Drone Pilotpage 40 U.S. Battles ISIL On Social Media New Satellites Boost Troop Connectivity
  • 2. At L-3 Link, We’re Delivering the New Standard for Virtual Simulation Realism. HD World® is a high-fidelity virtual training environment that immerses warfighters in real-world, dynamically interactive training scenarios. In providing unparalleled realism, HD World combines high- resolution geo-specific databases and multi-spectral, physics-based processing technologies with state-of-the-art image generation and display systems. Our multi-spectral training environment provides a fully correlated and physically accurate suite of sensor simulations – including all the operational modes of EO/IR, radar and sonar systems – to support manned or unmanned training. To see how L-3 Link is redefining training capabilities, go to www.link.com. Link Simulation & Training L-3com.com IMPROVING MISSION READINESS. IT’S OUR SOLE OBJECTIVE. Source: Swiss Federal Office of Topography
  • 3. D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 4 • N A T I O N A L D E F E N S E 1 NDIA’S BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY MAGAZINE VOLUME XCIX, NUMBER 733 WWW.NATIONALDEFENSEMAGAZINE.ORG Commentary 18 Healthy Maritime Industry Vital to National Security Over the past 30 years, the fleet of U.S.- flagged vessels has dramatically shrunk. BY REP. DUNCAN D. HUNTER Defense Contracting 20 Proposed Reporting Rule on Counterfeit Items Adds Burden to Contractors New rules state that contractors will have to make additional reports when they become aware that purchased supplies are counterfeit. BY STEVEN R. CAMPBELL AND JEFFREY A. BELKIN News Features Information Warfare 24 Government, Industry Countering Islamic State’s Social Media Campaign Social media websites like Twitter and Facebook offer Islamic State terrorists a new propaganda outlet, but for the government, that data is a vital source of intelligence. BY YASMIN TADJDEH Social Media 24 I More than any other terrorist group, the Islamic State has a sophisticated grasp of social media and how it can be employed to spread information, experts say. The State Department is trying to counter this propaganda through its own use of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Cover Story 40 I At Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico, pilots and sensor operators learn how to control Predator and Reaper remotely piloted aircraft. Only a few months of training with simulators and live aircraft separates them from actual combat. December 2014 Twitter.com/NationalDefense Facebook.com/NationalDefense www.NationalDefenseMagazine.org/blog Exclusive content on our blog Cover image: CAE D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 4 • N A T I O N A L D E F E N S E 1 Satellites 28 I By the end of 2015, the four pri- mary spacecraft of the Navy’s mobile user objective system communication satellite, also known as MUOS, will be orbiting the Earth. Officials say this will allow ground forces to communi- cate almost anywhere on the planet.
  • 4. 2 N at i o n a l D e f e n s e • D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 4 December 2014 volume xcix number 733 Editor Sandra I. Erwin (703) 247-2543 SErwin@ndia.org Managing Editor Stew Magnuson (703) 247-2545 SMagnuson@ndia.org SENIOR EDITOR Valerie Insinna (703) 247-2542 VInsinna@ndia.org STAFF WRITER Yasmin Tadjdeh (703) 247-2585 YTadjdeh@ndia.org Design Director Brian Taylor (703) 247-2546 BTaylor@ndia.org EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Sarah Sicard (703) 247-9469 SSicard@ndia.org advertising Dino Pignotti (703) 247-2541 DPignotti@ndia.org For additional advertising information, go to the Index of Advertisers on the last page. National Defense Magazine 2111 Wilson Blvd., Suite 400 Arlington, VA 22201 Change of Address: http://eweb.ndia.org Letters to the Editor: National Defense welcomes letters—pro or con. Keep them short and to the point. Letters will be edited for clar- ity and length. All letters considered for Readers Forum must be signed. Letters can be either mailed to: Editor, National Defense, 2111 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 400, Arlington, VA 22201 or e-mailed to letters@nationaldefensemagazine.org. Subscription and Reprints: Editorial fea- tures in National Defense can be reprinted to suit your company’s needs. Reprints will be customized at your request and are available in four-color or black and white. For information regarding National Defense subscription terms and rates, please call (703) 247-9469, or visit our web page at www.ndia.org. NDIA Membership: The National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA) is the premier association representing all facets of the defense and technol- ogy industrial base and serving all military servic- es. For more information please call our member- ship department at 703-522-1820 or visit us on the web at www.ndia.org/membership National Defense (ISSN 0092–1491) is published monthly by the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA), 2111 Wilson Blvd., Suite 400, Arlington, VA 22201–3061. TEL (703) 522–1820; FAX (703) 522–1885. Advertising Sales: Dino K. Pignotti, 2111 Wilson Blvd., Suite 400, Arlington, VA 22201–3061. TEL (703) 247– 2541; FAX (703) 522–1885. The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of NDIA. Membership rates in the association are $40 annually; $15.00 is allocated to National Defense for a one-year association basic subscription and is non-deductible from dues. Annual rates for NDIA members: $40 U.S. and possessions; District of Columbia add 6 percent sales tax; $45 foreign. A six-week notice is required for change of address. Periodical postage paid at Arlington, VA and at additional mailing office. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to National DEFENSE, 2111 Wilson Blvd, Suite 400, Arlington, VA 22201–3061. The title National Defense is registered with the Library of Congress. Copyright 2014, NDIA. Communications 28 Powerful new UHF Satellite System Expected by End of 2015 It has taken more than a decade for the Navy to develop its new satellite system. When the service launches its fourth space- craft in 2015, troops will have a robust communications link almost any place on Earth. By STEW MAGNUSON 32 Army to Revamp, Simplify Mobile Command Posts Lack of interoperability has long been a problem at Army mobile command posts. To solve this, service wants to change the way it acquires and maintains computing hardware and software. By STEW MAGNUSON Modeling and Simulation 34 Military Simulation Market to Remain Flat Analysts say defense simulation companies will not be immune to the effects of continued budget constraints. By SANDRA I. ERWIN 36 Military Training Dilemma: To Outsource or Not? More international militaries have formed public-private partnerships with simula- tion and training companies, but alternative business models remain rare in the United States. By SANDRA I. ERWIN 38 More Companies Relying On Modeling, Simulation To Cut Cost Defense companies are investing in mod- eling and simulation technologies that provide a less expensive way to test new designs than traditional alternatives. By VALERIE INSINNA Cover Story 40 Predator, Reaper Crew Training at All Time High as Demand Continues Commanders of the four training squadrons responsible for training MQ-1 and MQ-9 pilots and sensor operators expect the graduation rates will remain stable in the near future. By VALERIE INSINNA Training 44 Industry Shows Off New Army Combat Simulation Tools Technologies such as vehicle simulators and virtual tactical trainers will keep soldiers prepared for the next battle. By YASMIN TADJDEH 46 Simulation Technology Offers Aircrews Enhanced Training Opportunities New aircraft simulators are more realistic than ever before. By SARAH SICARD 48 Pacific Pathways to Expand Army’s Presence in Region In the recently completed Pacific Pathways exercises, the Army practiced expeditionary tactics that service leaders believe will be necessary for tackling future threats in the region. By SARAH SICARD Departments 4 President’s Perspective Time to Get Serious About Tough Problems by Lawrence P. Farrell Jr. 6 Defense Watch Ruminations on current events by Sandra I. Erwin 8 Ethics Corner 10 Business + Industry News What’s new and next for the industrial base by Valerie Insinna 14 Homeland Security News Monitoring the homefront by Stew Magnuson and Yasmin Tadjdeh 51 NDIA News 52 NDIA Calendar Complete guide to NDIA events 56 Next Month Preview of our next issue 56 Index of Advertisers
  • 6. 4 N at i o n a l D e f e n s e • D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 4 With midterm election results having been digested and scrutinized endlessly, serious analysts are turning to a discussion of the many problems facing the country. The elec- tion didn’t really settle anything. It only teed up a new assem- bly of elected leaders who must confront the same issues that previous leaders faced. The issues are no easier to deal with. The American public and the newly elected officials hope that this time something can be done. Of primary interest to the defense community is funding and support for the U.S. military. The issue has increased urgency given our new commitments to the fight against radicalism in the Middle East and elsewhere. The problem is not only the increased funding being requested — $5.6 billion sought by the administration for action against the Islamic State — but also the lack of clear objectives for this new fight. There is also a need for them to be expressed in a resolution that the president will be presenting to Congress to authorize this fight, which is now estimated to take several years. Another concern is extending legislative authorization for the $500 million program to train and equip Syrian moder- ate forces. This authorization runs out at the same time as the continuing resolution that funds the government which expires Dec. 11. Our increasingly complex and intense military operations need political support, funding and national understanding, in addition to a clear definition of what is to be expected. One wishes that an omnibus appropriation can be accom- plished by the lame-duck Congress. Certainly something must be done before the government runs out of funding. Hope- fully it will not be another continuing resolution extending out into the new Congress. There is so much to be done that pushing the budget debate into the next Congress will slow everything down. The reason for this concern is to be found in the severe problems with the fiscal year 2016 budget and the caps imposed by the Budget Control Act of 2011. As defense officials have said repeatedly, the BCA caps will impose such stringent limits on spending that major force adjustments by the services can no longer be avoided. Army force structure would drop to 420,000, versus the glide path to 450,000 that leaders had envisioned. Such a small force, according to Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno, would be insufficient to execute the Army portion of the national military strategy. The Navy would not have funds to complete refueling of the USS George Washington and would drop to 10 carrier battle groups from 11 today. And the Ohio Class submarine replacement program, already facing insufficient funding, would be thrown into crisis. Although the Air Force has its top programs funded at this point, the effects on mod- ernization and readiness would be severe. What the Defense Department needs most is a return to regular order in budgeting and some relief from the BCA caps. These problems are illustrative of the many challenges and uncertainties faced by the entire nation. They are a conse- quence of our failure to come to grips with balancing our spending and our revenues. It is far beyond the scope of this column to fully vet this problem. It has been reported that U.S. revenues have surpassed $3 trillion. That is an amazing number, but more amazing is the fact that it is still way short of what is needed to cover our spending. The interest on the national debt is now around $250 billion per year, but will surely rise as interest rates begin to tick up. This will happen faster than most predict, and interest on the debt will surpass annual defense appro- priations sooner than we think. Medicare and Medicaid combined already exceed defense spending. The fact is at some point, the nation will need an open and relatively non-partisan discussion on what to do about all spending — discretionary and non-discretionary. That means dealing with entitlements and taxes. There will have to be adjustments and not everyone will be happy, but they must come at some point. So why not start now with agreements on small but important legislation that builds cooperation and confidence in the political process? Surely we can fix the process of authorizing and funding our military by returning to regular order, especially in these challenging security times. What about some needed legislative fixes to the patent process to further shore up the protection of intellectual property? What about serious discussion on immigration reform? If this goes off the track, it will poison all subsequent efforts to agree on other important issues. A quick deal to increase the debt limit is possible and will help to build momentum. There may be many other things that the parties can agree on, such as infrastructure projects and support of protocols for dealing with Ebola and other infectious diseases. The point is that we need to deal collaboratively on a range of issues. In the end, though, we can’t avoid the challenging finan- cial reality. The fact is that the nation is on an unsustainable trajectory. The reason that we continue to make short-term adjustments to funding for programs like defense and high- way construction is that the money is simply not there in our presently constructed system. While we may be able to return to regular order in defense and even obtain some modest relief from BCA caps, the money to do that must either come from some other account or be borrowed. There are some voices out there who have given us some blueprints to follow: David Abshire in his book Call to Greatness, David Walker in Comeback America, and in the Simpson-Bowles plan to reform our taxes and entitlements that return us to a balanced, sustainable financial posture. We need to trust each other more, to collaborate more and listen to thoughtful people. Congressional gridlock is killing the economy and crippling our military. It is time to get off the dime. President’s Perspective by lawrence p. farrell jr. Email your comments to LFarrell@ndia.org Time to Get Serious About Tough Problems
  • 8. 6 N at i o n a l D e f e n s e • D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 4 The democratization of technology should be something to celebrate. Not so much at the Pentagon, which is seeing its stranglehold on cutting-edge weaponry slip as more countries and potential adversaries stock up on shiny objects that used to be only available to the U.S. military. The idea that the United States might see its overwhelming dominance in weapons technology erode is hard to compre- hend, however, given the enormous spending gap between the Pentagon and everyone else. In fact, notes the Defense Department’s chief weapons buyer Frank Kendall, U.S. supe- riority has now become a double-edged sword because it has made the country — and its policy makers — complacent. “When I talk to people on the Hill and I mention that I’m concerned about technological superiority — particularly modernization programs of countries like China and Russia — I get a reaction that is sort of surprise, first, and disbelief perhaps as well,” Kendall tells an industry gathering. He is especially worried about China as that nation is determined to invest in armaments that could neutralize current U.S. advan- tages in areas such as electronic warfare, stealth and space. “China’s budget is growing about 12 percent a year,” Kendall says. “It’s not as large as the United States’ by any stretch of the imagination, but at the rate it’s growing it will be before too many years go by.” So what does the Pentagon plan to do about this? It is not entirely clear yet. The Defense Department for various reasons has struggled to get its modernization house in order. Budget cuts and short-term funding measures have slowed things down. A lack of vision also has been a problem. Programs are championed one day and canceled the next. Internecine rivalries at the Pentagon complicate efforts to develop cohesive modernization plans as money invested in one program might come at the expense of another. How the Pentagon will spend its annual $150 billion to $160 billion weapons modernization budget is now at the center of a sweeping review of defense programs led by Dep- uty Secretary Robert Work, a long-time analyst and historian of military technology. Work suggests that the military’s current technology chal- lenge demands big and bold investments by the United States in order to jump way ahead of everyone else. This was done during the Cold War, when U.S. planners figured out how to “offset” the Warsaw Pact’s much larger conventional forces with nuclear weapons. That advantage did not last, though, as the Soviets quickly moved to build their own nukes. The next wave of innovation came in the 1970s when Sec- retary of Defense Harold Brown and Undersecretary William Perry pushed a new offset strategy built around the use of digital microelectronics and information technology to coun- ter conventional forces. The strategy set off a wave of innova- tion in smart weapons, sensors, targeting and control networks. Work credits the second offset for propelling the United States into unchallenged superpower status.  Today, the destructive technologies and weapons that were once the province of wealthy Western militaries are within the reach of almost any country. “Our forces face the very real possibility of arriving in a future combat theater and finding themselves facing an arse- nal of advanced, disruptive technologies that could turn our previous technological advantage on its head,” Work reminds military officers at the National Defense University. What a third offset strategy might entail has been the sub- ject of several editorials, white papers and beltway panel dis- cussions just within the past few months. Work has called for a “sense of urgency” in crafting a new strategy, but so far it has been an ivory tower exercise. Some of the proposals that are entering the conversation, not coincidentally, were conceived at think tanks where Work resided before joining the Obama administration. One is by former Pentagon official Robert Martinage, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. Martinage says the third offset strategy has to be grounded in today’s fiscal reality. “We should exploit our existing advan- tage in unmanned systems, stealth, undersea warfare and com- plex systems engineering,” he says in an interview. Martinage suggests the foundation of future technological supremacy is a “global surveillance and strike” network that would help U.S. forces stay a few steps ahead of its enemies. A mix of advanced drones, unmanned submarines and stealth bombers would be connected in a seamless network, a technology feat that would be tough for any country other than the United States to achieve, he says. Another element of the offset strategy would be to find alternative technologies so the military becomes less dependent on vulnerable assets like communications and navigation satellites. U.S. forces also need novel weapons such as electromagnetic and laser guns that are relatively cheap and versatile, says Martinage. He cautions his approach is not meant to be a comprehen- sive national security strategy, but a vision for how to modern- ize the military at a time of uncertainty. Shawn Brimley, of the Center for a New American Secu- rity, has a similar take. “We need to determine how to employ emerging technologies like directed energy (critical for sustainable defense against salvos of guided missiles) and improved power systems and storage, to harness the potential of robotic systems to stay in the air or under the ocean for long periods of time,” he writes in a white paper. Unlike the offset strategy of the late 1970s, Brimley points out, the Pen- tagon needs to figure out how to better share technology with U.S. allies. “In a world where advanced technologies are widely available and proliferating rapidly, the United States requires a more liberal approach to exporting defense technologies.” There is no shortage of opinions on what the offset strategy should be. What it ultimately becomes is anyone’s guess. What is certain is that it will influence Pentagon buying decisions for years to come. Defense Watch by sandra i. erwin Email your comments to SErwin@ndia.org Pentagon Mulls Strategy for Next Arms Race
  • 9. Wedon’tsendyoutocombat, WEBRINGTHEcombatTOYOU RENTONLYWHATYOUNEED,WHEREYOUNEEDIT ANDFORONLYSOLONGASYOUNEEDIT. www.RAYDON.com virtualtrainingsystems STATE OF THE ART, NOW…AND AFFORDABLE, TOO. Therentalofvirtualtrainingenablerstosupportcurrenttrainingrequirements provides state-of-the-art technology that is immediately Ready to Train and at a cost per soldier training hour far lower than that of traditionally acquired enablers (Military avoids the typical Total Costs of Ownership). COMMANDERS DESERVE DIRECT INPUT TO THE TRAINING ENABLERS THEY NEED…and they should not have to wait years for their arrival, if ever. For the first time, Commanders can demand Training Enablers that directly match their training objectives and are scalable to available time to train, throughput and location. Risk and responsibility for sustainment, upgrade, and storage shifts from the Military to Industry.
  • 10. 8 N at i o n a l D e f e n s e • D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 4 Character is a critical piece of our national security. As recent headlines have shown, security breaches, bribery, cheating, lying and sexual misconduct erode both trust in our institutions and our nation’s credibility. Likewise, unethical behavior has the potential to negatively impact our country’s resilience and readiness. A lack of character can pose a risk at any level of an orga- nization. Just one poor decision or action by one person can jeopardize an entire organization. Organizations across the national security community can mitigate such risks by recom- mitting to instill and uphold a culture of character. So how is a culture of character created? What can be done to ensure that our national security starts with doing the right thing? Organizational trust is embodied in culture, and the author- ity to lead comes from trust. A culture of trust also depends on having the right people. For me, the right people have positive attitudes, unquestionable integrity and a commitment to the mission. Attitude is of utmost importance. No amount of exper- tise can make up for a poor or inconsistent attitude from an employee or leader. Integrity is key because customers, partners and colleagues will not want to work with people they can’t trust. Being reli- able, delivering a quality performance and demonstrating good judgment to do the right thing are all characteristics that show a person or a company has integrity. Commitment is also key because a person can have the best intentions with a positive attitude and honesty, but this is all lost if the intentions are not matched with actions that are consistently and directly aligned with the values and mission of the specific project or organization. The most dedicated, trust- worthy and reliable people are those who are mission-oriented and therefore prioritize the mission. Oftentimes an organiza- tion can be put at risk when team members are individually or politically oriented people, meaning they prioritize themselves over the group mission. Successful cultures are based on ethics and accountability. Accountability is knowing and accepting that you alone are responsible for who you are, for your character and for your success — or failure — in life. It is critical to maintaining a position of leadership and strength, for a lack of accountability creates potential for great risk. However, a commitment to accountability is not easy, espe- cially when things go wrong. It’s necessary to take ownership of our decisions, our actions and the consequences, good and bad, at home and around the world. Empowerment and empathy have been my “double E” secret for leadership success. The first step toward empower- ment is to know what empathy is. It is an action of under- standing — knowing your people and what motivates them. This notion of empathy relates back to the step of building trust, as it helps establish a rapport and connection with others on a meaningful level. Empowerment is providing your people the opportunity to be in charge. We have to help our people rise to the challenges they face every day. Strong decisions and actions come from strong teams. In order to build strong teams, leaders should enable, encourage and enrich their employees and colleagues to do the right thing. Successful organizations must make culture an ongoing pri- ority and an all-out effort. Culture is established with founda- tional documents that state the organization’s mission, values, and guiding principles. They are reinforced by organizational codes of conduct and ethics, which must be reviewed regularly. And repetition is the key to ingraining the culture throughout the organization. CACI created a series of management manuals that were specifically developed to help employees practice and exem- plify the CACI culture and to ensure that they understand their role in assisting the company with achieving its strategic goals. Its culture is founded on strong values, and good charac- ter in particular, and serves as its corporate identity — what its employees live and breathe. It impacts everything it does. Its strong sense of culture helps it make tough decisions instinc- tively and breeds productivity, collaboration and innovation. One good example of ingrained culture is the Marine Corps. Its mottos of MVP – mission, values, pride and semper fidelis communicate the Marines’ culture of mutual trust, collective pride and self-discipline. If we want to see things take a better course, we all have to make a commitment to good character and serve as role mod- els with our actions and our words. A culture that emphasizes “good character” is the sine qua non for our nation’s readiness and resilience. The character of the nation reinforces the legitimacy of its global leadership, the vitality of our economy and credibility of our cultural influence. As Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said, “Ethics and character are absolute values that we cannot take for granted. They must be constantly reinforced.” If this means a character turnaround — for the security and the success of our country — so be it.  Ethics Corner By J. Phillip “Jack” London Our Best Defense — A Culture of Character Joseph Reeder, Chairman Greenberg Traurig LLP Glenn Baer G.D. Baer & Associates, LLC William Birkhofer Jacobs J. Kelly Brown EMSolutions Inc. Beverly Byron Byron Butcher Associates Dale Church Ventures & Solutions LLC Vincent Ciccone RASco Inc. Margaret DiVirgilio Concurrent Technologies Corporation R. Andrew Hove HDT Global John Illgen Northrop Grumman Information Systems Stephen Kelly Battelle James McAleese McAleese & Associates Richard McConn M International Inc. William Moore LMI Graham Shirley The Pegasus Group Inc. Deborah Thurman NDIA Ethics Committee J. Phillip “Jack” London is executive chairman of CACI International Inc.,and author of Character: The Ultimate Success Factor (www.characterthebook.com)
  • 12. 10 N at i o n a l D e f e n s e • D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 4 The Army and Marine Corps joint light tactical vehicle program is on schedule, but if sequestration returns in 2016, it will likely decrease the services’ purchasing power, said the joint pro- gram office manager. “The impact will more than likely … be a slowdown of production, which equals a stretch out of production,” said Army Col. John Cavedo. “If you buy less, the cost will move up.” Nonetheless, Cavedo expressed con- fidence that the program would be able to weather mandatory budget cuts, as it had in fiscal year 2013. “We were able to work through both furlough and government shut down, the impacts of sequestration … by being incredibly efficient,” he said. “The folks on my team worked day in and day out … [looking at] every cell on the Excel spreadsheet, looking for every little block they could shave a little bit of money from.” Cavedo said in October he expected to release the final request for proposals in early November. The services plan to downselect to a single vendor by the end of fiscal year 2015 for low-rate initial production. Three companies are still vying for the contract: truck manufacturer Oshkosh Corp.; AM General, which produces the Humvees slated to be partially replaced by JLTVs; and Lock- heed Martin, a relative newcomer to the tactical vehicle industry. If sequestration is reinstated, a com- bination of factors will help protect the program, said John Urias, president of Oshkosh Defense. Because it’s a joint program, there is added incentive to keep it alive. “The other thing is we have congressional support.” “Timing, I think, is also to our advan- tage” because sequestration would occur in 2016 “and this program will, we hope, be on contract by then,” he said. “The last thing you want to do is start cutting into programs that you’ve just put on contract.” The JLTV program has implications for the future of other vehicles. The Army plans on buying 49,099 JLTVs, which will not be enough to re- place its current fleet of Humvees. Even as the force downsizes, the service will likely need additional light armored ve- hicles, said Scott Davis, Army program executive officer for combat support and combat service support. “The assessment is, obviously you could buy more JLTVs” or invest in up- grading existing up-armored Humvees, he said. “We’re really at the very early stage of that analysis.” Although the Army has not yet settled the question of whether it will recapitalize a portion of its Humvee fleet, that has not stopped companies from putting forward upgrade options. Northrop Grumman, for one, is pitching a brand new chassis that would increase the mobility and ride quality of an up-armored Humvee as well as dou- bling its fuel efficiency, said Jeff Wood, the company’s director of vehicle mod- ernization in the mission solutions and readiness division. By Valerie Insinna Business + Industry News Light Tactical Vehicles Sequestration Could Hamper Joint Light Tactical Vehicle army · Ultra Lightweight UAV bladders · Specialty fuel tanks for unmanned systems · Self-sealing fuel tanks for tactical vehicles · Aerial fuel delivery barrels · ISO 9001:2008 Certified Manufacturer www.arm-usa.com | 800-433-6524 ARM-R-COAT® Self-Sealing Coating CONTAINMENT SYSTEMS FLEXIBLE FUEL LIGHTWEIGHT UAV BLADDERS CUSTOM FUEL TANKS
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  • 14. 12 N at i o n a l D e f e n s e • D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 4 ■ Northrop Grumman is jumping into the fray of the Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System recapitalization program to replace the Air Force’s premier surveillance and targeting aircraft.The service wants to buy new airframes equipped with the latest software, sensors and computing systems, with four becoming operational as early as fiscal year 2022. The company is the prime contractor of the legacy JSTARS system, which is integrated on the Boeing 707-derived E-8C aircraft.Aircraft and electronics companies such as Boeing, Gulfstream, Raytheon, Rockwell Collins and Bombardier have also expressed interest in the program. Northrop Grumman is not an aircraft manufacturer and has not yet selected which business liner or jet will house its new JSTARS, said Alan Metzger, vice president of the company’s recapitalization effort. Rather, its approach has been to invest in the myriad electronic systems that comprise JSTARS. “Since this whole thing began, we’ve been doing all of the required things you would expect in terms of risk reduction, requirements analysis, trying to understand the system archi- tecture,” he said. Northrop has refined its battle management command-and-control software and integrated it with assorted computers, communications systems and sensors within a Gulfstream 550 testbed. “I think one of the reasons why we have been looking at the 550 is because it is the smallest aircraft” under consideration, said spokesman Bryce McDevitt.“We essentially wanted to demonstrate that the integration of the Joint STARS technology would be possible on a smaller aircraft, which is what we’ve done.” The Gulfstream 550, as a business jet, is smaller than the mid-size Boeing 707 airliner, but because communications and other electronic systems are continuously shrinking, the legacy capability can fit into a smaller footprint, Metzger said. In September and October, the company demonstrated its system at Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Virginia, Hanscom Air Force Base in Massachusetts, Joint Base Andrews in Mary- land and Robins Air Force Base in Georgia, Metzger said. He believes the company’s testbed showcases an “80 percent solution.” “We have tested different sensors on our aircraft, different [communication] devices on our aircraft and things of that nature,” he said.“Some of the things we have tested will be the final configuration. Others won’t. So we still have that process to go through, and that basically requires the Air Force to firm up their final requirements so we can make our final selection.” Northrop will also choose an airframe at that point, he said. command and control JSTARS Contractor Joins Modernization Competition ■ As the nature of warfare changes, it’s likely special operators will need increasingly stealthy ways to penetrate remote, hard-to-reach locations.That is one of the reasons Logos Technologies is developing a hybrid-powered offroad motorbike for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency,Wade Pulliam, the company’s manager of advanced concepts, stated in an email. The company received a small busi- ness innovation research grant earlier this year to design the bike and expects that DARPA will approve further funding to make a prototype, he said.The vehicle will be lighter and easier to handle than the Kawasaki M1030M1 currently in use. “It is capable of near-silent operation as well as extended range,” he said.“We believe the bike can easily maintain a range of 100 miles between refuels … sufficient to satisfy an existing military capability gap.” The motorbike can run on multiple fuels, including JP-8, gasoline or diesel. Logos expects that it will improve on the M1030M1’s fuel efficien- cy by at least 10 percent, Pulliam said. Its battery can also be used as an auxiliary power supply. To develop the vehicle, Logos partnered with BRD Motorcycles, which designed a militarized version of its RedShift MX electric motocross bike. It will be powered by a hybrid-electric propul- sion system that Logos developed for an unmanned aerial vehicle, Pulliam said. The biggest challenge for the team is integrating the vehicle with the propul- sion system. “What we’re doing is putting [a] multi-fuel hybrid-electric power system on an all-wheel drive motorcycle, something that hasn’t been done before. There is significantly less real estate available on the motorcycle, so finding space for all of the systems that must be added is much more difficult than on a car,” he said. “Additionally, maintaining the balance of the motorcycle is critical if the system is to operate effectively in off-road missions — further constraining the integration effort,” he added. Front-to- back balance is especially important for the rider “to maintain complete control in complex terrain while driving aggres- sively.” science and technology Company Developing Hybrid Energy Motorbike For Special Operators RedShift MX electric motorcross bike BRD Email your comments to VInsinna@ndia.org E-8C air force
  • 15. The U.S. Army’s Engagement Skills Training (EST II) required a realistic, virtual small arms training system for marksmanship, collective and judgmental scenarios to meet current and future needs. Meggitt Training Systems delivered the Best Value solution that met the Army’s requirements, providing intelligent training and innovative products. Innovation is key: 3-D marksmanship with moving eye-point perspective, an intelligent coaching application and flexible systems architecture, featuring a wireless mobile tablet that allows instructors to control the system during training. Being chosen as the Army’s EST II system of record solidifies Meggitt Training Systems as the global leader in virtual simulation training. Meggitt ensures training consistency and supports uniform instruction, with realistic simulation systems and live fire range components at home and around the world. Visit us at I/ITSEC in Orlando, Florida, December 1-4 in Booth 1712 meggitttrainingsystems.com INNOVATION IS A POWERFUL WEAPON. MEGGITT IS THE SYSTEM OF CHOICE.
  • 16. More than a decade after the Army reluctantly took on the responsibility for responding to domestic chemical, biological and nuclear attacks or accidents, it has built a force of more than 18,000 dedicated personnel. In 2001, only 10 of the planned 57 National Guard WMD civil sup- port teams were certified to respond to weapon of mass destruction attacks on the homeland, said Robert Salesses, deputy assistant secretary of defense for homeland security and defense support of civil authorities. Those National Guard units are intended to advise local authorities and have only 22 members, he said at the Association of the United States Army annual conference. Today, there are 57 such teams in all the states and territories which can respond to a crisis within three hours. In addition, there are 17 enhanced response force packages with more than 180 personnel who can respond within six hours and provide search and extraction, decontamination and medical response. There are 10 homeland response forc- es with some 566 personnel with similar capabilities, which can deploy within six to 12 hours. One of these units is as- signed to each of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s regions. In addition, U.S. Northern Command can deploy the defense CBRN response force with some 5,200 members for catastrophic incidents. It can arrive on the scene within 24 hours and has a range of capabilities including command and control, enhanced medical response and rotary wing lift and medevac. Together these units are known as the CBRN response enterprise. “The terrorist threat that drove the establishment of the [CBRN response enterprise] nearly 10 years ago, in my opinion, is evolving and in most esti- mates is actually more dangerous today than it was back then,” Salesses said. Along with the terrorist threats, the Fukushima incident in Japan showed that accidents can be equally destructive, he said.Thirty-one states have nuclear power plants, totaling more than 100 reactors, he noted.About 50 million residents live within 50 miles of these power plants. As for chemical plants,“there are thousands of them,” he said.About 500 of them he characterized as “extremely dangerous,” with 100 million people liv- ing less than 30 miles from them. “There is certainly an expectation by the citizens of this country that we will be there to support them in their time of need,” he said of the military. Jim Kish, deputy assistant administra- tor for response at FEMA, said it was after the anthrax attacks of 2001 when the Army was tapped to take on the WMD response task.There was initially substantial resistance and skepticism about the service carrying out the mis- sion, he added. Salesses said:“We looked to the Army and knew that the Army would carry the majority load…. How it stepped up to the plate was critical … even when it was engaged in Afghanistan and Iraq.” Maj. Gen.William F. Roy, command- ing general of operations at Army North/ Fifth Army, said there is now a tiered re- sponse in place, with state and local per- sonnel on a scene first, then the National Guard advisory team brought in second. Depending on the scope of the incident, the larger teams with decontamination or medical response capabilities can be called in. “In my opinion, speed of response equals saving American lives,” Salesses said. Roy said by the end of fiscal year 2015, there will be 80 units spread out at 38 different posts and camps. “Looking at the glass half full — we have somebody close to whatever may happen. Glass, half empty. It is hard to get together to train,” he added. Training is one area that can be improved upon, said Steve Cichocki, program manager for CBRN response at Northern Command. “Northcom has matured over the past couple of years as a combatant com- mand and we have vastly improved the way we have organized and prepared for 14 N at i o n a l D e f e n s e • D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 414 N at i o n a l D e f e n s e • D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 4 Army Takes Stock of Its Domestic Chem-Bio-Nuclear Response Capabilities by Stew Magnuson and yasmin tadjdeh Homeland Security News Army
  • 17. D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 4 • N a t i o na l D e f e n s e 15 ■ The National Oceanic and Atmo- spheric Association and the Coast Guard are teaming up in the Arctic to test new unmanned aerial system ap- plications. This summer, the Healy, the Coast Guard’s research icebreaker, conducted unmanned aerial vehicle tests in the Arctic alongside NOAA, said Robbie Hood, UAS program director at the scientific agency.The Coast Guard is “letting this ship be a testing ground for unmanned technologies, both water ve- hicles and air vehicles,” she said during the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International’s annual program review. NOAA used 13–pound Puma UAVs during the exercise.The system is built by AeroVironment, a Monrovia, California-based UAV manufacturer. One experiment conducted during Arctic Shield included a simulated oil spill, Hood said. “There is going to be increased … oil drilling in the Arctic.What would happen if there is an oil spill or some catastrophe? We all know how hard it Coast Guard, NOAA Testing Drones in Arcticthe mission,” he said. The CBRN response enterprise needs to man, train and equip its forces, and this should all culminate in a National Training Center exercise before troops are presented to the combatant com- mander. “It’s Northcom’s view that this should be normal and prepared for in the same way as other Army missions,” Cichocki said.This “is not the case now.” Salesses said there is a risk that the force, which took more than a decade to build, could backslide with troop reduc- tions and budget cuts. “For those who want to look at reduc- ing the force structure, I would be cau- tious in that regard,” he said. “There is a clear expectation that the nation expects the Department of De- fense to answer the call when something goes bad,” he added. “It’s a national asset and with shrink- ing force structure across the all the services, I think it is critical that the in- vestment DoD has made be maintained at the full rate it is now,” he added. Roy said Northcom and Army Forces Command are looking into how the CBRN response enterprise can be resourced to be more effective based on the mission set. CoastGuard
  • 18. COASTGUARD I The Coast Guard is operating ships with obsolete command, control, computer and communications systems, the Department of Homeland Security inspector general said. The budget crunch is causing the Coast Guard to scrap some shipboard and aircraft information technology and sensor upgrades, the IG said in a report: “U.S. Coast Guard Command, Control, Communication, Computers, Intelli- gence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Modernization.” Some of its older, legacy ships are rely- ing on obsolete technology, which is hav- ing an impact on mission performance, the report said. “Significant budget reductions” are forcing the service to delay upgrades, the report said. “Revised plans do not fully address how the Coast Guard will meet the criti- cal technology needs of these aircraft and legacy ships,” the report said.This makes missions more costly, it added. The service is in the middle of a 25-year plan to modernize its ships. Among them is the national security cutter fleet.There will be eight of those, with four currently sailing. The offshore patrol cutter is still under development, and will replace the workhorse 210-foot and 270-foot medium endurance cutters, but the first of the 25-ship fleet is not expected to be delivered until 2021.The service will have to rely on its legacy ships with their outdated information technology systems for years to come as that fleet is built out, the report noted. The IG said there is no plan in place to give this mix of old and new ships and aircraft a common system baseline in which they could all operate. “The Coast Guard … did not have plans in place to migrate to a common system baseline for the ships and aircraft included in the modernization project, or to ensure effective support for multiple systems,” the report said. “As a result, the Coast Guard may experience higher lifecycle costs and reduced mission effectiveness in the future,” it continued. The inspector general recommended that the Coast Guard implement a plan to provide the older ships with the sys- tems needed to carry out their missions as replacements are being built. It also needs a strategy to manage multiple tech- nologies across legacy and new platforms, the IG said. The Coast Guard concurred with its findings. was to address the problems in Deepwater Horizon. It’s going to be even worse in the Arctic,” Hood said. To mimic an oil spill — such as the Deepwater Horizon catas- trophe, where an estimated 5 million barrels of oil spilled into the Gulf Mexico in 2010 — scientists threw oranges, peat moss and environmentally safe green dye into the Arctic Ocean. Research- ers then flew Pumas above the simulated spill to monitor it. “One thing that is helpful about this is just being able to look at that image and see ‘how big is this oil spill? How big is it go- ing to be?’” Hood said. NOAA also worked with AeroVironment to test new landing methods for the aircraft, Hood said. “The Puma was designed to land in the water. But it’s pretty dangerous to put a team over the side of the ship and either walk across the ice or go on a small boat to pick up the aircraft, so the Coast Guard was really interested in developing a differ- ent capture system for it,” Hood said. Two new capture systems were demonstrated, Hood said. One included landing the Puma on the deck of the ship, but that was “a little rough on the aircraft,” she said.A net capture system was also tested. Observing the Arctic will be critical going forward, Hood said. “Polar monitoring is really important.You’re going to be hearing more and more and more about this in the years going forward because there’s a lot of change happening to the Arctic sea ice,” Hood said.“There is a concern that 10 years from now, 15 years from now, 20 years from now, that in the summer time the sea ice may melt so much that it will be completely ice free. That changes the whole dynamic of what’s happening in the Arctic.” NOAA — which works with a number of unmanned systems, including the Global Hawk — wants to field additional UAVs, but any aircraft purchased would need to balance affordability, dependability and capability, Hood noted. Email your comments to SMagnuson@ndia.org Coast Guard Information Technology, Sensor Needs Go Unfilled
  • 20. 18 N at i o n a l D e f e n s e • D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 4 COMMENTARY By Rep. Duncan D. Hunter The old saying of “he who rules the seas rules the world” is still relevant. Through- out history, the strength and power of navies and commercial maritime fleets have made nations great. America is no different. Our national security and economic interests are inextricably linked to the seas.  Approximately 75 percent of U.S.- international commerce moves by water, and the volume of international trade is expected to climb as the world economy rebounds. The U.S. maritime industry employs more than 260,000 Americans, providing nearly $29 billion in annual wages and accounting for more than $100 billion in annual economic output.   Beyond the important contributions to our economy, a healthy maritime industry is vital to our national security. Throughout our history, our nation has relied on a strong shipyard industrial base and robust fleet of U.S. flag commercial vessels crewed by American merchant mariners to build naval assets and carry troops, weapons and supplies to the battlefield.  In World War II, U.S. shipyards built nearly 6,000 sealift vessels to resupply our forces on the battlefield and allied civilian populations in their homes. The merchant marine sailing these vessels paid a high price, as 733 ships were sunk and 5,638 merchant mariners were lost. During Operation Desert Storm, more than 350 U.S. flag vessels deliv- ered an average of 42,000 tons of cargo each day. At the height of the activity, there was a ship every 50 miles — a “steel bridge” — along an 8,000-mile sea lane between the United States and the Persian Gulf. During Operations Endur- ing Freedom and Iraqi Freedom, U.S. flag commercial vessels transported 63 percent of all military cargos moved to Afghanistan and Iraq.  Over the course of these and other conflicts, we have learned that we cannot rely on foreign flag vessels to resupply U.S. troops defending our nation on for- eign battlefields.  During World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War, certain foreign nations refused to allow vessels flying their flags to move cargo for the United States and our allies. During Operation Desert Storm, the United States led a worldwide coalition with almost unlim- ited access to staging areas, modern ports and infrastructure, and to vessels and crews of many nations. Even then, how- ever, some foreign flag vessels and crews refused to enter the Persian Gulf or carry coalition cargo. Our history has proven how vital it is that we maintain a robust fleet of U.S. flagged vessels to carry critical supplies to the battlefield, a large cadre of skilled American mariners to man those vessels, and a strong shipyard industrial base to ensure we have the capability to build and replenish our naval forces in times of war.  Unfortunately, over the last 30 years, the U.S. flag fleet sailing in the interna- tional trade has shrunk from over 800 vessels to less than 85 today. Nine vessels left the U.S. flag in the last year alone. The U.S. flag fleet now carries only 2 per- cent of the world’s cargo tonnage.  Over the last three decades, we have also lost more than 300 shipyards and thousands of jobs for American mariners. While U.S. shipyard and sealift capacity declines, rival nations are growing. Over the last decade, China has become the world’s leading shipbuilding nation. The number of Chinese shipyards has grown to more than 1,600, a majority of which are state run. Shipyard capacity is so great in China that the government recently announced a plan to reduce the number by pushing out dozens of pri- vately owned yards. Chinese sealift capacity is also expand- ing.  There are currently over 2,000 commercial vessels operating in the international trade under the Chinese flag. The number of Chinese flag vessels has grown by nearly 500 in the last eight years. The majority of these vessels are operated by state-run corporations. The decline in U.S. shipyard and sea- lift capacity coupled with the growth occurring in countries such as China has serious ramifications for national security. For the sake of our national and eco- nomic security, we need to reverse this trend. We cannot fight and win a war if we cannot resupply and transport our war fighters. Much of the decline the U.S. maritime sector has experienced is the result of an uncompetitive global playing field.  Many foreign nations provide direct subsidies to their shipyards and to vessel operators flying their flags.  These countries lack modern laws to protect workers and the environment.  These countries also impose little, and in some cases, no tax obligation on compa- nies operating vessels under their flags.  Making the situation worse, the United States has the highest corporate tax rate in the developed world and one of the world’s costliest regulatory environments. Congress and the administration need to work closely with the maritime indus- try and labor on ways to revitalize our merchant marine and shipyard industrial base. Fortunately, efforts are currently underway at the Maritime Administra- tion to develop a National Maritime Strategy that will hopefully include clear recommendations for Congress to strengthen the U.S. merchant marine and shipyard industrial base.  In the interim, my Coast Guard and maritime transpor- tation subcommittee is reviewing legisla- tive proposals from maritime industry and labor, as well as other stakeholders to improve the competiveness of the flag fleet, reduce regulatory burdens on U.S. vessel operators, and incentivize ship- building in the country. If U.S. shipyards and vessel operators cannot compete in time of peace, they will not be there to serve our nation in times of war.  If we want to remain a world power capable of defending ourselves and our allies, we must work together to revitalize our maritime sec- tor. ND Healthy Maritime Industry Vital to National Security Rep. Duncan D. Hunter, R-Calif., has served in Congress since 2009. Navy
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  • 22. 20 N at i o n a l D e f e n s e • D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 4 DEFENSE CONTRACTING By Steven R. Campbell and Jeffrey A. Belkin After recent reports documented a significant increase in counterfeit parts across the supply chain, the Defense Department and the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council have issued a num- ber of rules to mitigate the threat that such items pose. In actuality, however, the proposed rules expand obligations for defense and other government contracting manufac- turers and suppliers well beyond mere counterfeit issues. As discussed in Robert Metzger’s October National Defense article “New Rule Addresses Supply Chain Assur- ance,” the Defense Department final rule only applies to Defense Depart- ment contracts and solely concerns counterfeit issues with electronic parts. In contrast, the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council’s proposed rule would cover all federal supply contracts and concerns both counterfeit and non- conformance issues related to any type of end item. On May 6, Defense published its first final rule amending the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement in partial implementation of Section 818 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012. On June 10, the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council issued a proposed rule seeking to amend the Federal Acquisition Regulation in partial imple- mentation of Section 818 of the Nation- al Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012. While these two rules are linked in some respects, the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council’s proposed rule is much broader in scope and application than Defense’s final rule. In short, the proposed rule seeks to reduce the risk of counterfeit and non- conforming items by building on the existing contractor inspection system requirements. It adds a requirement for contractors to report to the govern- ment-industry data exchange program (GIDEP) database a “counterfeit item,” a “suspect counterfeit item,” or an item that contains a “major nonconformance” or “critical nonconformance” that is a common item and constitutes a quality escape that has resulted in the release of like nonconforming items to more than one customer. The rule also requires contractors and subcontractors to screen reports in the GIDEP database to avoid the use and delivery of reported items. The proposed rule broadly applies to any Federal Acquisition Regulation- covered agency and all contractors and subcontractors at any tier providing supplies to the government, including commercial items and small business vendors. The proposed rule provides defini- tions for the following five key terms. Common item: an item that has multiple applications versus a single or peculiar application. Common items include, for example, raw or processed materials, parts, components, subassem- blies and finished assemblies that are commonly available products such as non-developmental items, off-the-shelf items, National Stock Number items or commercial catalog items. Counterfeit item: an unlawful or unauthorized reproduction, substitution or alteration that has been knowingly mismarked, misidentified or otherwise misrepresented to be an authentic, unmodified item from the original man- ufacturer or a source with the express written authority of the original manu- facturer or design activity, including an authorized aftermarket manufacturer. Unlawful or unauthorized substitution includes used items represented as new or the false identification of grade, serial number, lot number, date code or per- formance characteristics. Design activity: an organization, gov- ernment or contractor that has respon- sibility for the design and configuration of an item, including the preparation or maintenance of design documents. Design activity could be the original organization or an organization to which design responsibility has been trans- ferred. Quality escape: a situation in which a supplier’s internal quality control system fails to identify and contain a noncon- Proposed Reporting Rule On Counterfeit Items Adds Burden to Contractors thinkstock
  • 24. forming condition. Suspect counterfeit item: an item for which credible evidence — including but not limited to visual inspection or testing — provides reasonable doubt that the item is authentic. The proposed rule does not suggest any changes to the definitions of “critical nonconformance” or “major nonconfor- mance” currently provided under FAR Section 46.101. Under the proposed rule, a contractor would be subject to two broad reporting requirements. First, contractors would have to provide a written report to GIDEP within 60 days of becoming aware that a common item purchased by or for the contractor for delivery to or for the government is counterfeit, is suspected to be counterfeit or contains a major or critical nonconformance and constitutes a quality escape that has resulted in the release of like nonconforming items to more than one customer. Second, contractors would have to provide a written report to the contract- ing officer within 30 days of becoming aware of any end item, component, subassembly, part or material contained in supplies purchased by the contractor for delivery to or for the government is counterfeit or is suspected to be coun- terfeit. In addition to these two reporting requirements, contractors would be required to screen reports in the GIDEP database to avoid the use and delivery of items that are counterfeit, suspected to be counterfeit or contain a major or crit- ical nonconformance. Contractors would also be required to retain all counterfeit or suspect counterfeit items until the contracting officer provides disposition instructions. The public comment period for the proposed rule ended Sept. 10. Given the breadth and significant impact of the proposed rule, the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council will likely spend some time reviewing the comments and considering revisions to it. Of particular concern is that the proposed rule, unlike the Defense Department final rule, does not protect contractors and subcontrac- tors from civil liability that may arise from good-faith compliance with the mandatory reporting requirements. Further, the proposed rule fails to address how manufacturers, vendors and suppliers can challenge an incor- rect report and what minimal steps contractors and subcontractors must take in order to properly incorporate the GIDEP screen into their procurement process. However the council ultimately addresses these issues, the newly expanded reporting and screening requirements will have a significant impact on the government contracting community as a whole. Moreover, how the council ultimately implements this rule will be a good indicator of what Defense will likely do in terms of interpreting and expand- ing its rules concerning counterfeit and nonconforming parts. And if you think lawyers will be monitoring GIDEP for opportunities to file product liability lawsuits or False Claims Act fraud claims, you are probably correct. ND The International Forum for the Military Training, Education and Simulation Sectors 28 - 30 April 2015 PVA Expo, Prague Organised by: National Training & Simulation Association, USA National Training & Simulation Association, USA National Training & Simulation Association, USA www.itec.co.uk/facebookwww.itec.co.uk/linkedin @ITEC2015 Visit us at Booth 2182 at I/ITSEC BOOK YOUR SPACE TODAY WWW.ITEC.CO.UK/NDIA • Discuss a wide range of sponsorship opportunities to increase your brand awareness • First time exhibitor package for a cost effective way to exhibit • Meet face-to-face with international, senior military and industry leaders • Launch new technologies and services to a captive audience • Network with high-quality international attendees 75032-8_ITEC03B_ NDIA-Advert_178x124mm_2015_v2.indd 1 13/11/2014 16:40 Steven R. Campbell is a senior associate in the construction and government contracts group at Alston & Bird LLP. Jeffrey A. Belkin is a former Department of Justice trial lawyer and leads the government contracts practice at Alston & Bird.
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  • 26. 24 N at i o n a l D e f e n s e • D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 4 By Yasmin Tadjdeh The U.S. government, along with industry partners, is working to stymie the Islamic State’s burgeoning social media campaign, which experts say is widespread and highly advanced for a terror organization. ISIL — which currently controls large swaths of territory in Syria and Iraq — has documented its brutal tactics, such as beheadings, on various social media accounts ranging from Facebook and Ins- tagram to Twitter. Experts and national security leaders have said that the terrorist organization, which started as an offshoot of al-Qaida, has an advanced understanding of social media, using it to disseminate informa- tion and connect with potential jihadists across the globe. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said during a speech in October that ISIL’s social media strategy is highly sophisticated. A “new phenomena we see among terrorist organizations is the very adept use of social media, literature and propaganda that is very westernized in its lan- guage and tone. We look at some of it, it’s about as slick as I’ve ever seen in terms of advertising and promotion,” Johnson said during the Association of the United States Army annual meeting and exposition in Washington, D.C. Through social media, ISIL is inspiring adherents who have never set foot in a terrorist com- pound to commit acts of violence, Johnson said. ISIL has a ground force of more than 30,000 individuals in Iraq and Syria. It is extremely wealthy and takes in over $1 million per day in revenue, Johnson noted. ISIL’s social media campaign is “very aggressive,” said Peter Ber- gen, a national security analyst at CNN, during a September panel discussion on jihadist terrorism at the Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank. Bergen also co-authored the “Jihadist Terrorism: A Threat Assess- ment” report released by the center in September. The report examined trends and threats within jihadist terrorist groups, including al-Qaida affiliates. The advanced use of media platforms, such as Twitter, while executing an attack is a new occurrence, the report said. “The use of social media during ter- rorist attacks to incite and engage with followers and report to the media … is a new phenomenon, changing traditional notions of how terrorist groups commu- nicate and organize,” the report said. It pointed to the deadly 2014 West- gate mall terrorist attack in Nairobi, Kenya, as one of the first examples of social media being employed during an attack. “The attack on Westgate was the first time that a major terrorist attack was live-tweeted and also the first time that information released by a terrorist organization on Twitter and other social media sites was at times more reliable and timely than information released by the Kenyan government,” the report said. One tweet from the group said, “All Muslims inside #Westgate were escorted out by the Mujahideen before beginning the attack,” the report said. Dozens of people were killed during the incident, which was coordinated by al-Shabaab, an al-Qaida affiliate. Foreign fighters in Syria are also avid social media users, the report said. “If Vietnam was the first war to be covered by television, and the Gulf War was the first war carried live by cable news, in many ways Syria is the first social media war — where the conflict is largely documented on YouTube, Facebook and Twit- ter,” the report said. The State Department has taken note of ISIL and other jihadist groups’ embrace of social media and is countering it with its own strategy. Using ISIL’s own propaganda, the Center for Strategic Counter- terrorism Communications, which operates under the State Department, has produced a number of videos and images showing the brutality of ISIL and other terrorist organizations. The strategy is part of the CSCC’s “Think Again Turn Away” program, which uses social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube “to expose the facts about ter- rorists and their propaganda,” according to its mission state- ment. The center shares images, videos and news clips while also engaging directly with terrorists and their sympathizers online. A large image of two visibly injured and bloody men plasters the top of the group’s Facebook Government, Industry Countering Islamic State’s Social Media Campaign How ISIL Is Using Social Media to Further Its War source: zerofox.com
  • 27. page with a message that says, “Is this an act to be proud of?” On its verified Twitter account, @ ThinkAgain_DOS, the group has sent out tweets that urge followers to reject ISIL. In one tweet accompanied by an image of ISIL members handing out flour, the groups said, “#ISIS steal, loot — take photos of themselves handing out flour as if they’re heroes for throw- ing the people crumbs.” In another tweet, a member of CSCC rebukes a Twitter user who praised Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S. citizen and ter- rorist who was killed in a drone strike in Yemen in 2011. Al-Awlaki was one of al-Qaida’s top propagandists who used the internet and other forms of media, including a magazine called Inspire, to recruit members to the organization. In an Oct. 29 tweet, user @umm_ muthanna said, “We will never forget you! America killed you but you are in highest ranks,” in reference to al-Awlaki. CSCC tweeted back: “Awlaki — another hypocrite held up as a model of piety — visited prostitutes at least seven times.” In another photo, CSCC tweeted out a censored image of a toddler kick- ing what appears to be a severed head. “GRAPHIC — #ISIS supporters, fighters teach children disregard for human dig- nity at young age,” read the message that accompanied the image. The State Department declined to comment for this article. Most of ISIL’s members are young adults, said Colin Clarke, a RAND Corp. associate political analyst who researches the group. ISIL has even created a video game that is modeled off of Grand Theft Auto, he said. “The group is specifically trying to recruit younger fighters, that’s for sure. You see that with things like the video game, that’s not meant to appeal to an older generation,” he said. One of the most impressive aspects of ISIL is the speed in which it is able to produce its propaganda, Clarke said. It has responded in real time to events, live tweeting attacks and battles. This deluge of information gleaned from tweets, Instagram photos and Face- book status messages are both blessings and curses for the terrorist organization and Western governments, he said. While social media allow ISIL to disseminate information, they also give governments trying to stop them heaps of information to work off. “From a United States or a Western perspective, it’s a bad thing that the group is using it to communicate with each other and recruit but … it’s a good thing that now we’re learning things we probably wouldn’t have learned other- wise,” Clarke said. BAE Systems is one company that is sifting through the endless piles of information insurgency group members have posted on social media, Kyle Lewis, senior regional analyst at the company, told National Defense in an email. “Our analysts design customized solu- tions to identify, collect, process, analyze and report useful information from social media, web forums, video posting sites, anonymous text-pasting sites and anywhere else terrorist groups are con- versing or posting content,” Lewis said. Company analysts can collect impor- tant information from social media accounts operated by terrorists, however, many providers, such as Facebook or Twitter, often shut down those accounts before analysts can look through them, Lewis noted. “This is problematic for analysts, because those terrorist accounts are a rich source of information. Once that content or a specific account is banned, it takes knowledgeable analysts to detect the new accounts associated with that terrorist group or to identify that a ter- D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 4 • N A T I O N A L D E F E N S E 25 NewDCPROSeriesHeadsets ClearcommunicationforTrainingand Simulationoperations © 2014 David Clark Company Incorporated ® Green headset domes are a David Clark registered trademark. Made In USA W W W. D AV I D C L A R K . C O M David Clark Company DC PRO Series communication headsets are customizable for a variety of training and simulation communication applications in virtually any moderate to low-noise environment. DC PRO Series headsets are available as passive noise-attenuating or Hybrid Electronic Noise-Cancelling models. Headsets provide lightweight durability and ‘rest-on-ear’ design offers outstanding comfort. For more information call 800-298-6235 or visit www.davidclark.com headsets are customizable for a variety of training and simulation communication applications in virtually any See Us At I/ITSEC Booth #2179 230-31022 MIL DC PRO 4877X6875 ND.indd 1 11/10/14 1:25 PM
  • 28. rorist group has moved to a new social media platform,” he said. “If you can’t identify those things, you’ve lost a valu- able stream of information.” Analysts are able to identify threats by looking for “non-specific indicators,” he said.These include references to travel, conversations that move from public to private message and unusual patterns in social media use, Lewis said. “Over time, you’re able to develop timelines and benchmarks that help you identify when and where a car bomb attack is more likely to occur, or whether an anti-government protest is going to turn violent,” he said. While not specifically confirming that they are watching ISIL members’ social media activity, Lewis said that the com- pany was monitoring “trouble spots” in Iraq and Syria. This type of social media mining is a burgeoning market, Lewis said. “The amount of real-time information from conflict zones that is now available to us on social media is unprecedented. In the Middle East and North Africa, it really began with the Arab Spring in late 2010. Since then, social media usage has expanded rapidly. With mobile phone usage proliferating as quickly and widely as it is in the region, the amount of infor- mation available to us will continue to grow,” he said. Another company scouring the inter- net for threats is MTN Government, a Leesburg,Virginia-based satellite, cyber security and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance company. Through its social media threat intel- ligence managed service released earlier this year, the company is able to look through the dark corners of the internet for cyber security threats potentially per- petrated by terrorist organizations against the government, Ben Shaw, director of MTN Government’s intelligence service program, said in an email. “Extremist groups and individuals are constantly searching for new ways to steal our identities, information and intellectual property,” Shaw said.“Leaders across all four branches of our military are currently being impersonated on every major social media network.” This “can fool many honest Americans into divulging confidential information, national secrets or other information,” he noted. MTN Government partnered with ZeroFOX, a social risk and cyber threat intelligence company, to deliver the proprietary ZeroFOX solution to govern- ment clients. Over the summer, ZeroFOX released an infographic explaining some of the tac- tics ISIL has used during its social media blitz. One includes “hashtag hijacking.” (See graphic) “ISIS activists will use a popular trend- ing hashtag as a means of infiltrating conversations by adding that hashtag onto one of their unrelated tweets.They can also mass tweet using their own desig- nated hashtags, which gets them to trend,” the graphic said. ISIL also uses computer bots to carry out its campaign, the company said.The bots enable them to “continually regener- ate accounts” that have been shut down by social media networks. Additionally the terror group has cre- ated its own Arabic-language Twitter app called the “Dawn of Glad Tidings” that allows ISIL to send tweets through per- sonal member accounts, the company said. “This allows ISIS’ tweets to reach hun- dreds or thousands more accounts, giving the perception that their content is bigger and more popular than it might actually be,” the infographic said. ND Email your comments to YTadjdeh@ndia.org As technology advances, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) need to stay focused on improving the end user experience and developing advanced training and simulation systems. Dedicated Computing is a leader in the design, development and deployment of visual compute, storage, and analytics solutions. We enable OEMs to stay focused on strategic initiatives. Our integrated solutions help OEMs: • Improve the End User Experience • Connect and Secure Their Solutions • Leverage Big Data • Manage Uptime Requirements Realistic training environments need high performing and reliable solutions. Visit us at booth 2068 during the I/ITSEC Conference. Learn more at www.dedicatedcomputing.com/iitsec
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  • 30. 28 N at i o n a l D e f e n s e • D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 4 By STEW MAGNUSON After more than a decade of development, 2015 promises to be a key year for the Navy’s mobile user objective system communication satellite. The four spacecraft that comprise the core of the fleet should all be in orbit by the end of the year, which will give users seamless on-the-move links almost everywhere on the planet. The satellites’ deployment will converge with that of the warfighter information network-tactical (WIN-T) increment 2, which will give individual ground troops unparalleled voice and data connectivity through nodes that connect to the spacecrafts’ robust UHF band. “Never before have we been able to see a dismounted, dis- advantaged, downrange pointy end [of the stick] soldier being able to talk thousands of miles back to another location,” said Chris Marzilli, president of General Dynamics C4 Systems. The Navy has deployed two of the four satellites needed for global coverage, with the third expected to leave the Lockheed Martin factory in California the first week of November on its way to Cape Canaveral, Florida, said Iris Bombelyn, the com- pany’s vice president of narrowband communications. MUOS number three is scheduled to launch sometime in January and the fourth in August, she said in an interview. Lockheed Martin is under contract to produce a fifth on-orbit spare by 2016. The Navy will not consider the MUOS deploy- ment complete until that final spacecraft is on orbit in 2017, she said. But as far as users are concerned, they should be able to connect to the satellites almost anywhere on the planet by the end of calendar year 2015 after on-orbit checkouts are complete. “When the entire constellation is up, you can go from any- place in the world to anyplace in the world and talk,” she said. Some have compared it to a “cell phone tower in the sky,” Bombelyn said. It will have 16 times the capacity of the legacy Ultra High Frequency Follow-On satellites they are replacing. Users will be able to send and receive pictures, videos and text while talking just as they can with a typical smartphone, she said. “You don’t have to drop off the voice line to look at data,” she said. The Navy made a prescient move when MUOS was still on the drawing board to go with the then-nascent 3G technology, Bombelyn said. “In 2004, 3G was cutting edge, it was just a gleam,” she said. Each of the four satellites cover about two-thirds of the Earth, so the overlap creates seamless coverage, she noted. They were not required to provide strategic communica- tions during a nuclear attack as is the case with the Air Force’s new Advanced-EHF satellites, she noted. However, that makes them more affordable. The processing is done at four ground stations rather than onboard MUOS, she said. The satellites are referred to as “bent pipes.” In other words, data and voice com- munications are sent to the spacecraft, where they are retrans- mitted to a ground station, processed, then sent off again via terrestrial or space links. Because the processing is done terrestrially, it allows the Navy to more easily and affordably carry out upgrades at the four ground stations. They are located in Virginia, Hawaii, Australia and Sicily. The latter experienced delays when the local population — fearing the health effects of electro-magnetic waves — voiced opposition to the project. That has been worked out and the station in Niscemi, Italy, is expected to be up and running by January, she said. The knock on satellite programs for decades is that the terminals that connect to the spacecraft — because they are often developed and fielded by different services and program managers — are rarely in synchronization with the space- craft. Marzilli said that is not the case for MUOS. It dovetails perfectly with the WIN-T increment 2, and the software-defined PRC-155 HMS Manpack and AN/PRC-154A rifleman radios. “There was a high sense of urgen- cy knowing that there was a need Powerful New UHF Satellite System Expected by End of 2015 The Mobile User Objective System Lockheed martin
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  • 32. 30 N at i o n a l D e f e n s e • D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 4 to blend those two programs of record,” he said. MUOS did suffer program delays. The arrival of the compat- ible terminals was more to do with happenstance, executives said. WIN-T does not require satellites for connectivity, but it makes the system more robust, he said. It is a self-forming, self-healing and self-discovering network, where signals con- nect through nodes to reach a destination. It gives users longer ranges, and the ability to get signals around solids such as buildings, valleys, mountains or thick foliage, he said. Troops at the tactical edge with rifleman radios will not directly connect to the satellites, but as long as they can con- nect to a Manpack, or another larger node in the network, they can reach anywhere in the world, Marzilli said. The WIN-T system automatically chooses the most direct, secure and economical path between points, so it doesn’t bur- den transponder capacity on a satellite. “If you can reach your neighbor via line of sight, it will choose that path,” he said. The satellites will provide more of an “On-Star” emergency backup when signals are stressed. That’s one of the great advantages of UHF communications and MUOS, Bombelyn said. It can take weak or out-of-synch signals, harvest them and recombine them into a stronger sig- nal. UHF bands suffer less interference from rain, clouds and foliage, “which allows you to provide better support to what we call a stressed user — somebody who is in a lone survivor scenario,” she said. General Dynamics and Rockwell Collins have teamed up to produce the PRC-155 HMS Manpack. It is in its third low-rate initial production and they are being sent to schoolhouses and other units so soldiers can become familiar with them, Marzilli said. There are some 20,000 PRC-154 riflemen radios already fielded capable of connecting to the Manpacks. The Air Force Research Laboratory recently paid for a series of tests to see how well the MUOS enabled terminals per- formed on an airborne platform. Both General Dynamics and Rockwell Collins brought their terminals to Joint Base Lewis- McChord located near Tacoma, Washington. Rockwell Collins brought its upgradeable ARC-210 termi- nal. About 37,000 of the radios are already installed in some 140 different platforms in 80 countries. They can be upgraded to take the MUOS waveform. General Dynamics brought the HMS Manpack to serve as an airborne radio. While intended for dismounted operations, the terminal works fine when installed in ground or air vehi- cles, Marzilli noted. Both were placed on a rack inside a C-17 and flown over the Pacific. They successfully connected to the two MUOS sat- ellites currently aloft — one over the continental United States and the other over the Pacific — as well as an HMS Manpack on the ground. They sent voice, data and aircraft position data to a simulated air operations center at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois while flying over the ocean. Rockwell Collins is under contract with the Navy to move a MUOS enabled ARC-210 into a product development transi- tion phase. “We expect them to be rolling off the factory floor in [fiscal year] 17,” said Joseph Blank, advanced networking program manager at Rockwell Collins. “That was one reason why it was important for us to go and prove out MUOS. Now we can take the ARC-210 radios to the customer and start integrating it in. So when they come off the factory floor in 17, they will be ready to drop right into an aircraft,” Blank said. “We’re starting to look at the customer base now,” he added. Another knock on terminals have been their high prices. Blank said the company has been working with the Navy to reduce recurring costs. There should be no bump in the per-unit price when the ARC-210 transitions to the MUOS- enabled version. Another advantage that isn’t often mentioned will be clarity, Blank said. Satellite communications are notoriously scratchy and hard to understand. “And now you can literally have voice recognition capabilities from the clarity that is in it,” Blank said. Earlier in 2014, Lockheed Martin and the terminal manufac- turers spent their own funds to see how far the MUOS signal would reach into the polar regions. Lockheed Martin chartered a C-130 to carry out operational tests as close as it could to the North Pole, and brought along representatives of General Dynamics, Rockwell Collins and Harris Corp. It was a 14-hour flight from Barrow, Alaska. The aircraft could only reach as far as 89.5 degrees north, which is some 30 miles short of the North Pole. While there, the test found no degradation in the signals even though the system was never required to function higher than 65 degrees north. The participants believed that if they were able to go the remaining 30 miles, they probably still would have had some kind of signal. “That is obviously a communications starved territory that is quite important politically,” Marzilli said. Next, Rockwell Collins’ Blank said, are more demonstra- tions. The company wants to do more tests with the MUOS airborne terminal to show its capabilities to original equipment manufacturers, who have multiple customers among the ser- vices. “We’re looking forward to getting out and doing the field tests and getting this radio into production,” Blank said. Bombelyn said the MUOS constellation may not end at the five spacecraft. “There are provisions for growing the system,” she said. There is a whole set of frequencies in the UHF bandwidth available with the capacity to accommodate four more satel- lites and an on-orbit spare, which could double the capacity, she said. Lockheed Martin has canvassed the international user com- munity and there is a lot of interest in funding a sixth MUOS satellite in return for access to the larger system, she said. Nordic countries, after hearing about the tests near the North Pole, are keenly interested, she added. “We definitely have pent up user need,” she said. Many allies already have access to the legacy UHF Follow-On system so there isn’t really a reason why it can’t be shared, she said. The office of the secretary of defense must first rule that the system is exportable, she noted. “If we can get some kind of hint from [OSD] that that is a consideration, then we definitely have the capability to put together a consortium for the Navy of international partners that would be willing to fund another satellite,” she said. ND Email your comments to SMagnuson@ndia.org
  • 34. 32 N at i o n a l D e f e n s e • D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 4 By STEW MAGNUSON To hear Army leaders describe it, assembling the typical mobile command post is organized chaos. They comprise a mishmash of differ- ent operating systems and applications, most of which require their own moni- tors or servers. There is little interoper- ability. A small cadre of field service representatives — civilian contractors — have to stand by to ensure that everything runs smoothly, or worse fly halfway around the world just to install updates. “We have an enormous amount of systems that fit into an Army com- mand post. ... a huge amount of systems, resources and people that go in to set- ting them up and operating them,” said Phillip Minor, deputy director for the common operating environment at the office of the assistant secretary of the Army acquisition logistics and technol- ogy. The Army now has a goal to revamp and simplify the posts by 2019 called the command post computing envi- ronment project, Minor said at the Milcom conference in Baltimore. That will require changing a system that has somewhere near 30 different comput- ing systems for 30 different applications managed by about five different pro- gram managers. To tackle this problem, the Army is in the beginning stages of radically changing the way it acquires, maintains and uses information technology and software. Part of this effort is creating the “common operating environment,” a streamlined and simplified software backbone that every application will ride on, Minor said. The common operating environment will be interoperable, but divided into three categories: mobile handheld for dismounted troops, mounted for vehi- cles and aircraft and command posts. Each category will have its own program manager. “If I develop IT for a dismounted sol- dier, I have different considerations than I would if I’m developing IT for a major command center,” Minor said. The command posts are a ripe target for the Army to radically alter, other leaders said at the conference. “It’s as if every time you bought soft- ware at Best Buy, you bought a separate computer to go with it,” said Mike McCaffery, chief of tactical applications at the Department of the Army, G-8. For a decade during the two wars, money was no object. If a new appli- cation could help save lives, it was purchased and integrated into the com- mand post. Contractors were flown to remote spots to install all the equip- ment. Soldiers were taken away from their regular duties to sit in classrooms for 40 to 80 hours to learn to operate the new systems, McCaffery said. “We want to get away from that. We have to get away from that. And the common operating environment is the way to do that,” he added. The Army is going to completely change the way it creates the require- ments, funds, develops and tests soft- ware, Minor said. Currently, the service uses the same acquisition processes to procure soft- ware as it does a landmine or tank, McCaffery said. Information technology changes in six months to a year — or even sooner, he said, but the current acquisition processes take about seven years. First Training and Doctrine Com- mand must write the requirements. Then the G-8 budget personnel such as himself have to secure the funding. After the software is developed, it is tested for two years. The rapid acquisition of life-saving software for the Afghanistan and Iraq wars showed that this timeline can be drastically reduced. However, the systems delivered were proprietary soft- ware and stovepiped, he said. “It’s effective but not optimal,” he said. The first step toward a new command post that is streamlined and easier to set up, operate and tear down, is creat- ing standards for the software. Just like Microsoft or Apple operating systems, it will have basic functions like chat, maps and email. Current systems must reinvent all these simple tasks for each new application. Every three years there will be a new standards release and a test of the infrastructure to make sure the Army stays current with industry, McCaffery said. The intelligence community has a council of chief information officers that reviews the standards that it will bake into the next software iteration and builds, tests, and releases it, he said. The Army may model its new process similarly. As for requirements, TRADOC is on board with a new way to write the nec- essary documents, called “IT Box.” Once a need for a new application is identi- fied, the command will get to work and produce the requirements rapidly, Minor said. As for funding, McCaffery said the project has support on Capitol Hill, and the money to implement the new sys- tem is secured. If the Army can make a case that it is spending a nickel to save a quarter, that resonates with lawmakers today. “The money is there. And in this envi- ronment, that is no small feat. This is something that is gaining momentum,” he said. Once a requirement is created, it will be posted on FedBizOpps, and vendors can respond. Since all the applications will be used on the common operating environment using established standards, develop- ment time should be shortened drasti- cally, he said. As will the testing, said John Sellner, technical standards team lead at the Army CIO/G-6. “Testing will no longer be the long pole in the tent in this process,” he said. Program managers already go through several rounds of testing as the applica- tion is developed, and because they are using the same standards, the final tests should not take as long as they have in the past. Sellner said it could take about a week to put a new application through the wringer. “As long as the testing is done proper- ly at the [program manager] and [com- puting environment] levels, we believe that this process will be extremely quick,” Sellner said. “We have worked with the test-and-evaluation community to make sure these timelines are fea- sible.” McCaffery said this streamlined approach “will remove a lot of the barri- ers for industry to come in and develop Army to Revamp, Simplify Mobile Command Posts
  • 35. software for the Army.” This new way of doing business is common in the commercial industry today, he said. Operating systems are standardized and refreshed periodically. Users pick and choose what they need. “A fires guy needs different kinds of software than the logistician. But he doesn’t need a complete system that does fire. He just needs his unique fire functionalities. Why can’t we give him his fire functionalities on a common platform?” Minor asked. The standards will allow more interoperability with systems coordinat- ing with each other. Do we really have to have a distinct database for each system? Minor asked. “Can I build a database that supports all of my users in the command post?” Updates will also be done over the secure networks. That will reduce the number of field service representatives. “Sometimes we have more field ser- vice reps than we have soldiers on the ground. It’s a problem,” McCaffery said. Personnel going to Iraq took days or a week to download all of the security patches that have built up over time. “We can’t do that anymore,” he added. “This is nothing new. This is nothing unusual. We’re just trying to catch up with the civilian market,” McCaffery said. Yet Minor said implementing the common operating environment may not come easily. “It’s an enormous cultural challenge for the Army… It’s significantly differ- ent than the way we develop software today and how we developed it in the past,” he said. Industry representatives listening in on the presentation at Milcom asked panelists who would be creating and maintaining the common operating environment. They expressed skepticism that the Army could do it alone and do away with the contractors who must co- locate with soldiers. Maintenance and software updates will be handled by program managers and program executive officers, McCaf- frey said. Minor said, as always, it will still be a partnership between industry and the military. But he has already met with vendors who are eager to build the com- mon operating environment. Their ideas had “caveats,” he said. “We didn’t want to be locked into a vendor for the command post common foundation,” he said. Stephen Kreider, program executive officer for intelligence, electronic war- fare and sensors, indicated at a separate panel that the Army will be bringing more of these functions in house. “We’re getting the Army and the sol- diers back to managing and owning their own system as opposed to turning over their shoulder and saying, ‘I need the [field service representative] support,’” he said. He pointed to the Army’s recent effort to streamline and simplify the distributed common ground system, an intelligence processing system fed by some 700 different sensors. It cost the Army about $250 million per year just to update the software, and about all of it was done through con- tractor support. “We can’t afford that in the construct going forward,” he added. By having Army personnel do more of these tasks, the service is shaving $60 million per year off the distributed com- mon ground system program, which should come to $1.2 billion in savings over the life of the system, he said. ND Email your comments to SMagnuson@ndia.org of top defense contractors choose PROPRICER™* Find out why Accurate and reliable. Use PROPRICER™ CE to efficiently create and manage cost proposals. Save time and improve accuracy with sophisticated “What-if” capabilities, comprehensive custom reporting and powerful data summary options. Discover why PROPRICER™ has become the number one selling commercial software product for proposal pricers and estimators. Visit us at PROPRICER.com/ndm11 today. PROPRICER™ is a trademark of Executive Business Services | *Washington Technologies top 100 contractors, 2014. EBS_January_Nat_Def_Ad_CE_A.indd 1 11/17/14 11:07 AM