Defense Dept.

EN ROUTE TO TOKYO, Oct. 19, 2009 – Questions about the legitimacy of Afghanistan’s national elections are a complicating factor, but President Barack Obama’s strategic review doesn’t hinge on the outcome, and ongoing military operations aren’t being affected, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said today.

The Afghan election issue has “complicated the situation for us,” Gates said, but he said he doesn’t expect it to delay Obama’s decision on the larger issue of charting the way forward in Afghanistan.    » read more »

CONTRACTS

NAVY

Bechtel Plant Machinery Inc., Monroeville, Pa., is being awarded a $523,530,301 cost-plus-fixed fee contract for naval nuclear propulsion components. Work will be performed in Monroeville, Pa., (67 percent); Schenectady, N.Y., (33 percent). Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. No completion date or additional information is provided on naval nuclear propulsion program contracts. The Naval Sea Systems Command is the contracting activity (N00024-10-C-2119).    » read more »

10/19/2009 - VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AFNS) -- Vandenberg Air Force Base officials successfully launched a Atlas V rocket carrying a Defense Meteorological Satellite Program payload at 9:12 a.m. Oct. 18 from Space Launch Complex-3 here.

This was the second Atlas V launch from Vandenberg AFB and the first Air Force payload to be lifted from Vandenberg AFB aboard an Atlas V.

Atlas V is part of the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle family. The program, which began in the 1990s with the goal of making government space launches more affordable and reliable, resulted in the development of two launch systems, Delta IV and Atlas V.    » read more »

10/19/2009 - SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. (AFNS) -- When President Barack Obama authorized an additional 17,000 troops to "surge" into Afghanistan for Operation Enduring Freedom in February, mobility Airmen answered the call.

To move that many personnel, a concentrated effort in the mobility airlift and air refueling community was needed.

According to statistics from the U.S. Air Forces Central Combined Air Operations Center in Southwest Asia, cargo and passenger movements for January and February remained fairly steady at the "pre-surge" state for Operation Enduring Freedom. In January, 16,450 tons of cargo and 26,600 passengers were moved by mobility aircraft while in February 16,720 tons of cargo and 24,200 passengers were moved.    » read more »

10/19/2009 -- WASHINGTON -- The Department of the Army announced today that it has established additional quality control measures to further ensure that body armor testing documentation and procurement processes are rigorous, consistent, and use available best practices. To this end, the Army has added several quality control positions to include a Senior Executive Service position as the quality assurance director of personal protective equipment. This new senior-level position will report directly to the Army Acquisition Executive.

These changes address issues raised in a GAO report released today entitled “WARFIGHTER SUPPORT, Independent Expert Assessment of Army Body Armor Test Results and Procedures Needed Before Fielding.”    » read more »

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. (10/19/09) - The 2010 Winter Olympics are a few shorts months away, and several Army National Guard Soldiers are currently competing for slots on the bobsled and luge teams.

The Soldiers, Sgts. Mike Kohn, Shauna Rohbock, Jeremy White, Courtney Zablocki, and Pfc. John Napier, are all members of the National Guard’s Outstanding Athlete Program, which brings Guardmembers on active duty to train and compete in their chosen sport.

Over the next few weeks, they will compete in 10 races on a variety of tracks to determine who will go to the Olympics. The Olympic team will be announced in January.    » read more »

10/16/2009 -- WASHINGTON (NNS) -- The services could more effectively power unmanned vehicles, underwater monitoring sensors, ships and aircraft if Naval Research Laboratory scientists achieve their goals of harnessing solar and sea power to fuel the military for years to come, a top NRL scientist said.

"A worldwide peak of fuel production is expected in five to 15 years, and increased demand will likely create large swings in price and availability," Barry Spargo, head of NRL's chemical dynamics and diagnostics branch, said in an Oct. 14 interview on Pentagon Web Radio's audio webcast "Armed with Science: Research and Applications for the Modern Military."    » read more »

October 19, 2009 -- Congresswoman Louise M. Slaughter (D-NY-28), Chairwoman of the House Committee on Rules, issued the following statement following the release of a Government Accountability Office report raising new questions about the Pentagon’s troubled testing program for soldier’s body armor.

Slaughter was the first lawmaker to raise questions about the reliability of the military’s testing system for armor plates, which are worn by some members of the military deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan.    » read more »

MARLBOROUGH, Mass., Oct. 19, 2009 -- Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) has been selected as the network systems integrator for the Army Expeditionary Warrior Experiment. This experiment will integrate more than 25 technologies from more than 20 different companies and government agencies to operate on a single integrated backbone network.

Raytheon will provide the integration capability to establish the network and join a variety of communication devices, command and control applications and sensor platforms. Raytheon's MAINGATE solution is the backbone of the network, which will link together unattended ground sensors, unmanned ground vehicles and unmanned aircraft systems.    » read more »

October 16, 2009 -- WASHINGTON – Today, President Barack Obama named George D. Mulligan, Jr. as Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of the White House Military Office (WHMO).

President Obama said, "George brings decades of experience and has served with integrity and a deep commitment to his country – not just in his role at the White House Military Office, but throughout his distinguished career. I am very grateful that George has agreed to lead the Office and I look forward to continuing to work with him in the coming months and years."

President Obama made the following announcement today:

George D. Mulligan, Jr., Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of the White House Military Office (WHMO)    » read more »

October 16, 2009 -- WASHINGTON – An innovative, far-sighted partnership between the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Department of Defense (DoD) will improve the health care system for Veterans and dramatically change the way health care is delivered to all Americans, according to Deputy Secretary of Veterans Affairs W. Scott Gould.

“The future will see VA and DoD working even closer together,” said Gould, “as we fulfill the President’s requirement for a single Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record that will support Veterans from their day of induction to their day of interment.”

Gould spoke Oct. 15 at the second annual DoD “Breakthrough Convention” devoted to improving business practices in the nation’s largest government agency.    » read more »

Washington, DC – Earlier this week Congressman Rob Andrews announced that the House and Senate Armed Services Committees have reached agreement on the conference report to H.R. 2647, the Fiscal Year 2010 National Defense Authorization Act. This legislation authorizes $550.2 billion in budget authority for the Department of Defense (DOD) and the national security programs of the Department of Energy (DOE). The bill also authorizes $130 billion to support overseas contingency operations during fiscal year 2010.    » read more »

WASHINGTON, Oct. 14, 2009 – The Veterans Affairs Department continues its efforts to provide the best support possible to the nation’s military veterans, VA Secretary Eric K. Shinseki told a House committee here today.

“We have been busy putting into place the foundation for our pursuit of the president’s two goals for this department: transform VA into a 21st-century organization, and ensure that we provide timely access to benefits and high quality care to our veterans over their lifetimes -- from the day they first take their oaths of allegiance until the day they are laid to rest,” Shinseki said in his written statement provided to the House Committee on Veterans Affairs.    » read more »

WASHINGTON, Oct. 14, 2009 – Defense Department officials have been straightforward about the number of U.S. troops flowing into Afghanistan, Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell said here today.

As deliberations on the way forward in Afghanistan continue at the White House, Morrell addressed media reports that implied the department was sending an extra 13,000 servicemembers to Afghanistan as enablers for added combat forces.    » read more »

WASHINGTON, Oct. 14, 2009 – Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates will kick off a whirlwind trip this weekend that will begin with a change of command ceremony at U.S. Pacific Command in Hawaii, followed by visits to South Korea, Japan and a NATO defense ministers conference in Slovakia.

Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell announced the around-the-world trip during today's Pentagon media briefing.

Gates is slated to preside at the Oct. 19 Pacom change of command ceremony at Camp H.M. Smith in Honolulu, where Navy Adm. Timothy J. Keating will pass the helm of the oldest and largest U.S. combatant command to Navy Adm. Robert Willard.    » read more »