Assistant Secretary of Defense for Sustainment Christopher Lowman told Breaking Defense that negotiations on the performance-based logistics agreement with Lockheed are at an impasse.
By Michael MarrowA new approach to speed, scale and efficiency for the industrial base
Radars, EW, EO/IR, space imagery, and microelectronics are brought under one roof for a streamlined approach to common people and factories.
“Boeing customers around the world are moving to Performance Based Logistics solutions because PBL has the potential to lower flying hour costs, increase aircraft availability, and maximize the use of local industry,” company exec Rick Lemaster told Breaking Defense.
By Agnes Helou
In an interview with Breaking Defense, Lockheed exec Greg Ulmer pushed back on the Pentagon’s complaints about technical data sharing, and said the firm is working with the DoD on better ways to track spare parts.
By Michael Marrow
The cost per flight hour of the F-35A, the most common of the three F-35 variants, will drop from $33,600 to $30,000 over the contract.
By Aaron Mehta and Theresa Hitchens
HASC chides that “the majority” of GAO recommendations on how DoD could better manage the F-35’s nearly $1.3 billion sustainment costs “remain open,” in some cases for more than seven years.
By Theresa Hitchens
In a July report on long-term F-35 costs, the GAO found that the Air Force “needs to reduce estimated annual per-plane costs by $3.7 million (47%) by 2036, or costs in that year alone will be $4.4 billion more than it can afford.”
By Theresa Hitchens
BAE has been working to convince its own suppliers to enter into performance-based logistics to cut costs and increase availability of its EW system for the Joint Strike Fighter, said Betsy Warren, BAE’s director of sustainment for Electronic Combat Solutions.
By Theresa Hitchens
Future inevitability of quantum computers is a security problem today
‘Store Now, Decrypt Later’ attacks must be thwarted now with Zero Trust cybersecurity.
Lockheed Martin and the F-35 Joint Program Office are expected to need a six-month stop-gap contract before inking a deal for sustainment through 2023, company officials say.
By Theresa Hitchens
“There’s a perception out there that Lockheed’s going to take everything, and nobody’s gonna be able to get in to support of the F-35,” said Mike Miles of Lockheed Martin’s F-35 logistics unit about the firm’s PBL proposal. “That’s not the case.”
By Theresa Hitchens
“We’ve always been bullish on the program’s prospects, but admit we’re more worried than we have been in a long time,” wrote Roman Schweizer of Cowen Washington Research Group.
By Theresa Hitchens
Here’s the final piece of Bill Greenwalt’s blueprint for a new defense acquisition system. As Bill points out in this, the third piece: “now comes the hard part.” Congress and the Pentagon have proven clumsily adept at tinkering with the acquisition system over the last 20 years. But no matter how well intentioned, weapons just…
By Bill GreenwaltNEW YORK: “It is utterly unconscionable — utterly unconscionable — that Congress will allow sequestration to go on.” Those are the words of Frank Kendall, the Pentagon’s head of acquisition, speaking to an audience of several hundred New York financial types. Kendall is just back from a trip to Afghanistan and he had heard from…
By Colin Clark
CAPITOL HILL: In a bold attempt to fix the Pentagon’s creaking system to develop and buy weapons, the Senate Armed Services Committee today introduced broad changes to who controls weapons programs and tried to encourage Silicon Valley and other non-defense industries to help maintain the country’s global technological and military dominance. This is the beginning of…
By Colin Clark