The U.S. authorities is barreling in direction of its first shutdown since 2018.
Final week, the Home didn’t advance its spending invoice for fiscal yr 2024, placing the U.S. authorities on path towards a shutdown until Congress passes a stopgap spending invoice by Sept. 30. Whereas the Home is gridlocked, the Senate appears poised to maneuver ahead with a seamless decision.
In the event that they don’t attain an settlement in time, many troops must report back to work with out pay—and about half of the Protection Division’s civilian employees will likely be furloughed. A shutdown might additionally imply navy coaching delays and disruptions in supplying weapons and gear to Ukraine.
Protection contractors might see delayed funds, or no pay in any respect, relying on their contract funding. And authorities contractors usually are not assured again pay. However the Pentagon could enter new contracts or ask for work to be carried out on present contracts to fill mission wants the place a delay in contracting could be an “imminent danger” to human life or nationwide safety, per latest steering.
Aerospace and protection corporations boast greater than 2 million staff, and the business’s lead commerce group, AIA, desires Congress to “act now to fund the federal authorities…particularly for the Division of Protection, in addition to the Federal Aviation Administration and NASA” within the title of nationwide safety and aviation security.
The Nationwide Protection Industrial Affiliation, which represents almost 2,000 corporations and 65,000 members, urged Congress and the White Home to work on “ample, secure, and on-time funding” to forestall “disruption and dear delays within the protection industrial base” in a press release.
“Our warfighters deserve stability and predictability, as do employees and firms unfold throughout the complete nation working exhausting to assist them,” mentioned David Norquist, the affiliation’s president and Pentagon’s former deputy secretary of protection.
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Northrop will get $705M for brand new F-35 missile
The Air Drive has picked Northrop Grumman to construct the Stand-in Assault Weapon, or SiAW, a brand new air-to-ground weapon for the F-35. Final yr, the service awarded Northrop, Lockheed Martin, and L3Harris three short-term prototyping contracts. As much as two of the primes might have continued into this subsequent section of growth, however Northrop confirmed that it’s the sole winner of the $705 million contract.
“The SiAW is a complicated air-to-surface missile offering stand-in platforms the flexibility to quickly strike all kinds of targets,” the Air Drive mentioned Monday. The service desires the missile to achieve preliminary operational functionality by 2026.
Air Drive’s new electrical taxi
Edwards Air Drive Base has obtained its first electrical vertical take-off and touchdown plane from Joby Aviation. The service will use it to check how battery-powered planes may transport cargo and personnel. Typical missions for the aircraft will stay round 25 to 50 miles, however it may well fly as much as 100 miles on a single cost. The Joby plane might be helpful to journey brief distances in a number of the island clusters within the Pacific, Col. Tom Meagher, AFWERX Prime Division Chief, informed Protection One. This supply is a part of the corporate’s $131 million contract with AFWERX.
DOD: Present F-35 restore scheme is “unsustainable.” The Pentagon has been shopping for new F-35 components in lieu of repairs—a system that has change into unsustainable, protection officers inform the Authorities Accountability Workplace. And the additional cash spent on these new components might additional hobble plans to construct up a service depot that may alleviate the restore backlog. D1’s Audrey Decker has extra, right here.
Military to spend $8 billion on tactical IT. Leidos snagged the indefinite supply, indefinite amount contract which goals to supply the Military a “one-stop store” for IT {hardware} over the course of 4 years with two three-year choice durations.
Pentagon to pay GlobalFoundries $3.1 billion for chips. The ten-year contract will give DOD and different federal companies entry to the newest microelectronics and processes.
3D-printed submarine components. Common Dynamics Electrical Boat and HII’s Newport Information Shipbuilding division are utilizing additive manufacturing, or 3D-printing expertise, to supply deck drains produced from a copper-nickel alloy for nuclear-powered submarines. “We’re aggressively searching for alternatives to search out methods to include this expertise into mainstream shipbuilding,” Dave Bolcar, Newport Information’ vice chairman of engineering and design, mentioned in a press release. “This collaborative mission leverages authorizations made by the Navy that streamline necessities for low-risk additive manufacturing components.”
Making strikes
- Julie Berry is Common Dynamics Bathtub Iron Works’ latest vice chairman and chief info officer, the corporate introduced Monday. Berry, who beforehand labored for healthcare organizations, will oversee Bathtub’s IT, “cybersecurity, and related distributors.”
- The Senate Armed Providers Committee will contemplate two key Pentagon nominations this week: Derek H. Chollet to be protection undersecretary for coverage and Cara L. Abercrombie to be assistant protection secretary for acquisition. However their nominations could get hung up by a GOP senator’s maintain.
