In a Lexington Institute Early Warning blog yesterday entitled "The Pentagon's Tanker Plan Seems Disconnected from the Obama Economic Plan," the organization's CEO, Loren Thompson calls for the Obama Administration to subordinate a KC-X competition that gets the best aircraft to the warfighter (and the best value to the taxpayer) to a presumably gerrymandered one aimed at stimulating the U.S. economy.  Writes Dr. Thompson: "Clearly, the administration needs to do a better job of integrating its military procurement policies with its economic goals."  

This view, which one might expect from an organization on the left and/or a pro-Labor concern, seems odd coming from the Lexington Institute, which, by its charter, routinely champions the inherent value of competition and market forces and decries government intervention. Indeed, as taken from the organization's mission statement: "Lexington Institute believes in limiting the role of the federal government to those functions explicitly stated or implicitly defined by the Constitution. The Institute therefore actively opposes the unnecessary intrusion of the federal government into the commerce and culture of the nation, and strives to find nongovernmental, market-based solutions to public-policy challenges. We believe a dynamic private sector is the greatest engine for social progress and economic prosperity."

As DoD Acquisition tsar Ashton Carter explained to reporters at a soggy Fort Belvoir, VA demonstration, the Persistent Ground Surveillance System (PGSS) is being rushed to Forward Operating Bases (FOBs) in Afghanistan to improve situational awareness in general and to mitigate against IED emplacement in particular.  A high priority program of the Office of the Secretary of Defense, seven PGSS units are in Afghanistan today with four operational.  Thirty-one (31) PGSS systems are to be operational in the country by year’s end. 

PGSS – really a smaller, cheaper, more deployable version of the Persistent Threat Detection System (PTDS) -- increases intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities and provides a more complete surveillance picture through inclusion of information from new sensor systems including EO/IR, full-motion video, and various acoustic payloads.  Dr. Carter argued that the system provides better persistent (24/7) surveillance and associated situational awareness than can be provided by fixed wing aircraft at considerably less cost.

The PGSS aerostat is a small (25,000 ft3) helium-filled tethered blimp that can raise a payload of up to 150 pounds to 1,200-2,000 feet and remain aloft for up to two weeks.  The mainstay PGSS payload is a (98 pound) L-3 Wescam MX-15 EO/IR sensor, but the turret can accommodate most any payload or payload combination of up to 150 pounds.  PGSS has carried various acoustic (shot/mortar identication) sensors and a SIGINT payload deployment appears to be also in the offing.

Program officials noted that the coverage areas of the PGSS with the MX-15 EO/IR payload are as follows: detect a vehicle at 18km; identify a vehicle at 12km; detect a man at 12km; identify a man at 4km.

As for operations, PGSS is operated in theater by contractor personnel, with plans to eventually train uniformed personnel.  The aerostat can be filled with helium in an hour and has a requirement to remain aloft for up to two weeks.  The aerostat can be deployed/launched in sustained winds of up to 20 kts. and operated in sustained winds of up to 60 kts.

To make PGSS more tactically deployable, DoD (with NAVAIR in the lead) is pursuing a spiral development to make the 16K lb. mooring station light enough to allow helicopter sling transport.

Late last week unnamed sources within Boeing Company gave Defense News an exclusive peek into the thinking of senior management, including company CEO Jim McNerney.  And guess what?  Having had its 2002 tanker lease deal scuttled, having lost and successfully protested the initial KC-X award to Northrop Grumman/EADS, having seen to the redrafting of a requirements document and source selection criteria that analysts agree favors its smaller, less-capable 767 tanker, Boeing senior executives are now said to be contemplating a "no bid" on KC-X.  Why?  Boeing claims that EADS is subsidized and the competition is therefore unfair.  Why?  Boeing claims -- although the Pentagon steadfastly denies -- that the Air Force has changed the requirements and the evaluation criteria.  Why?  Because DoD is insisting on a firm fixed price contracting arrangement that transfers risk from the Government to industry.  What's the real outlook?  In the words of one senior Air Force official closely following the developments: "Sometimes posturing is plausible, sometimes it's not.  Spare me.  Boeing will bid KC-X and will continue to do so until it wins."

Speaking before a Heritage Foundation audience on Thursday, Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Gary Roughead addresed the recent comments of Secretary of Defense Robert Gates relative to aircraft carriers and carrier-based aviation.  When asked to provide his views on Secretary Gates' questioning (at the recent Navy League Sea-Air-Space conference) of the need to sustain 11 carrier strike groups, the CNO said that he "preferred to focus" on Dr. Gates' subsequent assertions that he supports the current 11-carrier force structure.  Admiral Roughead went on to sing the praises of carriers and their role as "moveable, sovereign pieces of American power," citing their "flexibility" their "agility" and the critical value of "presence" to the Navy "particularly when the force is not fighting."  Roughead went on to tout the role that carriers have played in addressing recent emergencies contingencies in Asia and Haiti and even underscored their significant contribution to the warfight in land-locked Afghanistan.  It appears that if Secretary Gates and the Obama Administration want to scratch a carrier battle group any time soon, they won't have the complicity of the Navy.