The House Armed Services Committee’s ranking Republican says
his vote to pass the fiscal 2020 National Defense Authorization Act will depend
on whether the final bill continues the recent progress is preparing the
military to confront Russia and China or slides back into the readiness crisis
that started with the 2011 Budget Control Act and sequestration.

To ensure continued gains in readiness and future
capabilities, Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) said June 11 that he will offer an
amendment to increase the bill’s funding by $17 billion, which includes about
$4 billion for additional U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps aircraft, ships,
unmanned vessels, weapons and emergency repairs of hurricane damage to two East
Coast Marine bases. Thornberry said he also will propose restoring cuts made by
the majority Democrats in strategic nuclear programs, ballistic missile defense
and personnel issues.

But for national defense to receive even the $733 billion
total offered by Democrats — let alone the $750 billion Thornberry and Republicans
seek — Congress and the Trump administration would have to approve a budget
bill to override Budget Control Act spending caps, which would take nearly $90
billion from 2020 defense spending.

Some conservative Republicans and Trump aides oppose raising
the caps for domestic issues, which the Democrats insist must accompany higher
defense spending. But in a breakfast meeting with defense writers, Thornberry
said he would remind fellow Republicans that the first job of the federal
government is to defend the country. And “if we are going to fulfill our
duties, we will have to take some things that we don’t necessarily like or
want.”

When Republicans fully controlled Congress, they agreed with
the Obama administration on a bill that waived the caps for fiscal years 2018
and 2019, which allowed substantial increases in defense spending and some
growth in domestic programs. So far, no such agreement has been reached for
fiscal 2020 and 2021, which are the last two years covered by the Budget
Control Act limits.

Thornberry said one of the “greatest accomplishments” of the
last two years was “to rebuild our military after it was deeply damaged by sequestration.
… We have seen the consequences of cutting our military, in accident rates and
other things. It’s not like these are just number on a spread sheet. These are
real lives, life-and-death decisions that we make.

“As I look at this year’s bill, the question is for me, does
this continue the gains we have made in rebuilding our military and in being in
a competitive position with Russia and China?”

Within the $17 billion spending increase Thornberry’s
amendment would authorize is funding for four additional Navy F-35Cs Lightning
II strike fighters; two Marine vertical-lift F-35Bs; one more E-2D Hawkeye
early-warning aircraft; more funding for aircraft carrier construction; 38
long-range missiles and additional mission modules for Littoral Combat Ships;
the second fleet oiler and unmanned surface vessels cut by the Democrats;
$748.8 million for Navy hypersonic research; $211 million for the overhaul of
the aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis (CVN-74); $1.2 billion for various
personnel programs; and $2.3 billion for emergency repairs of hurricane damage to
Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point and Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in
North Carolina.

The Republican funding plan also would restore authority to
field the low-yield nuclear warhead for the submarine-launched Trident D-5
ballistic missiles and funding for modernization and expansion of the nuclear
weapons production facilities.

Their draft NDAA also sharply criticizes the Navy’s handling
of the new USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier (CVN-78), which ran far past its
planned budget and production schedule and, due to numerous mechanical and
technical problems, is not expected to be ready for operations until this fall
— more than two years after the Navy accepted it. The NDAA protests that the Gerald
R. Ford is not capable of fully supporting operations of the F-35C Lightning IIs
and it would bar the Navy from accepting the second ship in the class, USS John
F. Kennedy (CVN-79), currently under construction, until it is made compatible
with the F-35C.

Thornberry would not say if he supports the
restrictive language on the Kennedy but said: “Sometimes we need to put things
in the bill to get their attention.”

PATUXENT
RIVER, Md. — The U.S. Navy’s presidential helicopter program awarded a $542
million contract to Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin company, on June 10 to build
six VH-92A aircraft, spares and support equipment, the Program Executive Office
for Assault and Special Missions announced in a release.

“The team
has efficiently leveraged a proven platform with cutting-edge government
mission systems for rapid agile development of the next helicopters to fly presidential
missions,” said James F. Geurts, assistant secretary of the Navy for research,
development and acquisition. “I am proud of the combined government and
contractor team who has worked so hard to transition this program into initial
production and did so at over $1 billion less than the program’s cost
baseline.”

“The presidential
lift mission is a no-fail mission for the Marine Corps,” said Lt. Gen Steven
Rudder, the deputy commandant for Marine Corps aviation. “We deliver helicopters
and MV-22 transportation across the globe to support the requirements of the presidency.
The authorization to move forward with procurement of the VH-92A will allow the
Marine Corps to deliver the next generation of presidential helicopter
support.”

The VH-92A
aircraft will increase performance and payload over the current presidential
helicopters, VH-3D and VH-60N, that have been serving more than 40 years. The
VH-92A will provide enhanced crew coordination systems and communications
capabilities plus improve availability and maintainability.

Government testing will
continue to validate system performance and prepare for initial operational test
and evaluation planned for mid-2020 and initial operational capability (IOC) in
late 2020.

ARLINGTON,
Va. — The merger of the Raytheon Co. and United Technologies Corp. (UTC),
announced June 9, will result in a defense company with a broad portfolio in
weapons, sensors, mission systems, avionics and propulsion.

In a joint
announcement, Raytheon and UTC said they entered into an agreement to merge, naming
the merged company Raytheon Technologies Corp.

“The transaction will create a premier systems provider with
advanced technologies to address rapidly growing segments within aerospace and
defense,” the announcement said. “The merger of Raytheon, a leading defense
company, and United Technologies, a leading aerospace company, comprised of Collins
Aerospace and Pratt & Whitney, will offer a complementary portfolio of
platform-agnostic aerospace and defense technologies.”

Raytheon
is known for missiles and other aerial weapons, radars, undersea weapons,
command-and-control systems and mission systems among other systems. UTC is the
manufacturer of the F135 engine used on the F-35. Collins is known for cockpit
avionics and other aircraft systems.

“Areas of joint advancement include, but are not limited to:
hypersonics and future missile systems; directed energy weapons; intelligence,
surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) in contested environments; cyber
protection for connected aircraft; next generation connected airspace; and
advanced analytics and artificial intelligence for commercial aviation,” the
companies’ announcement said.

Raytheon’s four business sectors will be consolidated into
two sectors, Intelligence, Space and Airborne Systems and Integrated Defense and
Missile Systems. The UTC sectors Collins Aerospace and Pratt & Whitney will
form the third and fourth sectors of Raytheon Technologies.

Tom Kennedy, the current chairman and chief executive
officer of Raytheon, will be appointed executive chairman of Raytheon Technologies
and Greg Hayes will be named CEO. Two years following the close of the
transaction, Hayes will assume the role of chairman and CEO. The company will
remain headquartered in the Boston area.

UTC’s
Carrier and Otis sectors are expected to be spun off into separate companies in
2020.

ARLINGTON, Va. — The U.S. Navy has awarded to Lockheed Martin
Aeronautics Co. a contract to continue development of Block 4 capabilities for
the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter.

Naval Air Systems Command awarded a $1.8 billion “cost-plus-incentive-fee,
cost-plus-award-fee, cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for continued design
maturation and development of Block 4 capabilities in support of the F-35
Lightning II Phase 2.3 Pre-Modernization for the Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps
and non-U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) participants,” according to a Defense
Department announcement.

Details of the Block 4 capabilities have not been released by the
F-35 Joint Program Office, but they are mainly incremental software and sensor
upgrades intended to add to the aircraft’s agility, lethality and situational
awareness to enable the aircraft to keep ahead of the threats anticipated in
the future.

ARLINGTON, Va. — The U.S. Marine Corps has awarded a
contract to Northrop Grumman Systems Corp. in Baltimore for full-rate
production of the TPS-80 Ground/Air Task Oriented Radar (G/ATOR).

According to a June 7 Department of Defense release, the
Marine Corps Systems Command awarded to Northrop Grumman a $958 million contract
for the purchase of 30 full-rate production G/ATORs plus spare parts and
retrofit kits.

The Marine Corps plans to procure a total of 45 G/ATOR
units.

The TPS-80 is a three-dimensional,
expeditionary, short/medium-range, multirole radar capable of detecting
low-observable, low-radar-cross-section targets such as rockets, artillery,
mortars, cruise missiles and unmanned aerial systems.

G/ATOR is being developed and
fielded in three blocks and will be used by Marine Air-Ground Task Force across
a range of its capabilities. The capability blocks will cover air combat element
and ground combat element missions, replacing three in-service legacy radars
and the functionality of two systems already retired.

The Program Executive Officer Land Systems in Quantico,
Virginia, is the portfolio manager of the G/ATOR program.

The
House Armed Services Committee chairman downplayed the partisan differences
over the fiscal 2020 National Defense Authorization but said the “biggest
threat” to adequate defense funding was the failure to reach agreement on
lifting punishing spending caps.

Although
the chairman’s mark he released would ban funding for low-yield nuclear warheads
for a submarine-launched ballistic missile and defense money to build U.S.-Mexico
border barriers and provide $17 billion less in total defense spending, which
the Republicans oppose, “the overwhelming majority of this bill, that is
incredibly important, is not controversial,” said the chairman, Rep. Adam Smith
(D-Washington).

Addressing
a Defense Writers’ Group breakfast June 10, Smith cited a 3.1 percent military
pay raise, funds to continue improving readiness, efforts to fix deteriorating family
housing, funding for 11 Navy battle fleet ships, including three attack
submarines, and “countless other projects, all of which we agree on,” that are in
the Democrats’ proposal. “The amount of stuff that we disagree on is about 2% of
the bill.”

But
in response to a Seapower question about the impact on defense funding if
Congress and the administration cannot agree on lifting caps enacted with the
Budget Control Act of 2011, which would cut nearly $90 billion from the base
defense budget, Smith said: “You have correctly identified the biggest threat
we face.” Senate Republicans were expected to plead for a deal to lift the caps
during a White House meeting on June 10.

The
committee will take up the NDAA on June 12, and the debate is likely to go well
into the night as Republicans have attacked provisions that came out the
subcommittee process as an unusual breach of HASC’s tradition of
bipartisanship.

Smith
defended the proposed total defense funding of $733 billion as the number
initially recommended by the Pentagon and said the $750 billion requested later
by the Trump administration “would encourage inefficiencies.” Committee
Republicans, however, insisted $750 billion was necessary to meet the 3% to 5%
real growth recommended by last year’s Strategic Capabilities Commission.

Although
Smith repeated his long-held view that the military wants to spend too much on
nuclear arms, he noted the Democrats would fully fund the new B-21 strategic
bomber and the Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine to replace the aged
Ohio class and would increase overall spending on strategic programs. Smith and
some arms-control advocates argue that the new W-76.2 lower-yield warhead for
the submarine-launched Trident D-5 missile would reduce the strategic load of
the Ohio boats and increase instability.

Other
controversial issues in the proposed NDAA are a ban on use of defense funds to
build President Trump’s border wall, would require that any use of troops for
border security not affect combat readiness and would be paid for by the U.S.
Department of Homeland Security. It also would restrict the administration’s
ability to reprogram defense funds to use for border security, which the
president did this year.

Although
the proposal would increase the purchase of F-35s for the Air Force, it would
fence some of the funding for the Lightning II pending analysis of ways to
improve the parts supply line for the fighter. Similarly, funding to buy more
of the Marine Corps’ CH-53K heavy-lift helicopters would be curtailed until the
U.S. Navy submits reports on how it will fix technical problems hampering the
program.

There
also will be debate on the nature of a future command to manage space programs,
with the Democrats resisting the president’s demand for a separate service,
which Smith called too expensive and bureaucratic. But Smith said he believes
the Air Force has done a poor job managing space.

SAN JUAN,
Puerto Rico — The Coast Guard Cutter Joseph Doyle (WPC-1133) was commissioned
into service June 8 during a ceremony at U.S. Coast Guard Sector San Juan,
Puerto Rico, the Coast Guard 7th District said in a release.

The Joseph
Doyle is the 33rd fast-response cutter (FRC) to be commissioned in the Coast
Guard and the seventh to be assigned to Sector San Juan and homeported in
Puerto Rico.

“Today, we
make history as we welcome the USCGC Joseph Doyle, and Puerto Rico is now the sector
in the Coast Guard with the largest number of fast-response cutters,” said Rep.
Jenniffer-González-Colón, who represents Puerto Rico in Congress. “I’m honored
to be the ship’s sponsor of this beautiful cutter and that it is also commanded
by a woman. This is part of the work we do in collaboration with the Coast
Guard, and other agencies, so Puerto Rico can have the necessary resources to
guarantee the safety of our coasts and combat illegal drug trafficking.”

“It is an
absolute honor to be the commanding officer of the Coast Guard’s 33rd fast-response
cutter, but more importantly the seventh fast-response cutter in Puerto Rico,” Lt.
Catherine Gillen said. “My crew and I look forward to serving the people of
Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands and keeping these beautiful islands
safe.”

“Each fast
response cutter represents an extraordinary resource [that] increases our
search-and-rescue and other multimission capabilities in our area of
responsibility,” said Capt. Eric King, commander of Coast Guard Sector San
Juan. “The Joseph Doyle will contribute to strengthening the coastal security
of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands as the nation’s most southern
maritime border.”

Sentinel-class
FRCs are designed to conduct maritime drug interdiction, alien migrant
interdiction, search and rescue, national defense, homeland security, living
marine resource protection and other Coast Guard missions. They can deploy
independently to execute Coast Guard missions and prevent potential threats
from approaching the nation’s shores and offers improved capabilities over the
aging 110-foot Island-class patrol boats it replaces.

The FRC is
part of the Coast Guard’s layered approach to maritime security that also includes
the national security cutter and the offshore patrol cutter. FRCs are 154 feet
long with a beam of 25 feet, and they can reach a maximum sustained speed of 28
knots. They are armed with a 25 mm machine-gun mount and four .50-caliber
machine guns.

Each FRC
is named for a Coast Guard hero who distinguished him or herself in the line of
duty. The Cutter Doyle’s namesake is Capt. Joseph O. Doyle. Born in 1836 and keeper
of the Charlotte, New York, Life Saving Station starting in 1878, he achieved
two impressive rescues that year.

The first rescue
was of the wreck of the schooner B.P. Dorr of Chicago, which was discovered on Sept.
11, 1878. At 9:30 p.m. the ship stranded about one mile west of Doyle’s station.
The vessel was visible by the flare of a strong torch on board despite the
rain. With the six men and the women on board, the vessel safely and swiftly
was returned to the beach under the steady oar of the keeper. The second rescue
in which Doyle showed his skill and bravery involved the wreck of the schooner
Star of Millpoint, Ontario Canada, on Oct. 23, 1878.

Doyle was
awarded the Gold Life Saving Medal for his actions in both rescues.

KEY WEST, Fla. — The U.S. Coast Guard interdicted six Cuban
migrants on June 6 about 39 miles east of Islamorada, the Coast Guard 7th
District said in a release.

Coast Guard 7th District watchstanders received a report from another vessel on the scene with a wooden rowboat that carried with six people who were asking for water. The watchstanders diverted the crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Charles David Jr. (WPC-1107) to assist.

The cutter’s crew arrived on scene and embarked the six people, who
claimed Cuban nationality, due to safety of life at sea concerns with the
unsafe vessel.

“The Coast Guard continues to maintain a focused and coordinated effort with multiple agency assets to interdict any attempt to dangerously and unlawfully immigrate by sea to the United States,” said Cmdr. Michael Vega of the Coast Guard 7th District’s enforcement branch. “Those who are interdicted at sea attempting to illegally immigrate will be repatriated to their country in accordance with existing U.S. immigration policy.”

A total of 308 Cuban migrants have attempted to illegally enter the U.S. by sea in fiscal year 2019 compared to 384 in fiscal 2018. These numbers represent the total number of at-sea interdictions, landings and disruptions in the Florida Straits, the Caribbean and the Atlantic. Once aboard a Coast Guard cutter, all migrants receive food, water, shelter and basic medical attention.

CHERBOURG, France — Navy Secretary Richard V. Spencer named a future Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, DDG 132, in honor of Coast Guard Capt. Quentin Walsh, who was awarded the Navy Cross for his service during World War II, the secretary’s public affairs office announced in a June 6 release.

“Capt.
Walsh was a hero whose efforts during World War II continue to inspire, and his
leadership in securing the French port of Cherbourg had a profound effect on
the success of the amphibious operations associated with Operation Overlord,”
Spencer said.

“For over
two centuries, the Navy and Marine Corps team and the Coast Guard have sailed
side by side, in peacetime and war, fair weather or foul. I am honored the
future USS Quentin Walsh will carry Capt. Walsh’s legacy of strength and
service throughout the world, and I am proud that for decades to come, this
ship will remind friends and adversaries alike of the proud history of our
services and the skill and professionalism of all those who stand the watch
today.”

Spencer
made the announcement alongside Adm. Karl Schultz, the commandant of the U.S.
Coast Guard, in a ceremony aboard the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Eagle in
Cherbourg, France.

“We
are grateful to the U.S. Navy and Sec. Spencer for honoring one of our Coast
Guard heroes, Capt. Quentin Walsh,” Schultz said. “Naming a future
Navy destroyer after Capt. Walsh, the first Arleigh Burke-class ship to be
named after a Coast Guard legend, highlights not only his courageous actions
but the bravery of all U.S. service members involved in the D-Day Invasion of
Normandy.

“The
U.S. Navy and Coast Guard legacies are interwoven as reflected in the heroic
actions of Capt. Walsh and the Navy Sailors under his command during the
liberation of Cherbourg,” the commandant continued. “We will remain
always ready to stand with our brothers and sisters in the U.S. Navy and Marine
Corps.”

During
World War II, while serving on the staff of the commander, U.S. Naval Forces,
Europe, then Cmdr. Walsh was given command of a 53-man special task force
assigned to capture the vital port of Cherbourg. Despite heavy casualties, his
small force seized the port facilities and took control of the harbor the day
after they entered the city.

After he
discovered that the remaining German garrison at Fort du Homet held 52 U.S.
Army paratroopers as prisoners, Walsh, under a flag of truce, exaggerated the
strength of the forces under his command and persuaded the commanding officer
of the remnants of the German garrison to surrender. These actions earned him
the Navy Cross and, all told, he accepted the surrender of over 700 German
soldiers. Walsh died May 18, 2000.

MIAMI — The
Coast Guard Cutter Hamilton (WMSL-753) crew is scheduled to offload about 26,000
pounds of seized cocaine and about 1,500 pounds of seized marijuana June 6 at
Port Everglades, the Coast Guard 7th District said in a release.

The drugs
were interdicted in international waters of the Eastern Pacific Ocean off the
coasts of Mexico and Central and South America, including contraband seized and
recovered in more than a dozen interdictions of suspected drug smuggling
vessels by U.S. Coast Guard and Royal Canadian Navy ships:

Hamilton was
responsible for four cases, seizing about 1,400 pounds of marijuana and some
9,000 pounds of cocaine.

Cutter
Resolute (WMEC-620) was responsible for four interdictions seizing approximately
7,550 pounds of cocaine.

Her Majesty’s
Canadian Ship Whitehorse with a U.S. Coast Guard law-enforcement detachment
aboard interdicted two suspected smuggling boats and seizing more than 2,000
pounds of cocaine.

HMCS
Yellowknife, also with a Coast Guard law-enforcement detachment aboard, was
responsible for one interdiction, seizing more than 50 pounds of marijuana.

The Coast
Guard Cutter Mohawk (WMEC-913) was responsible for five cases, seizing nearly
8,600 pounds of cocaine.

“The crew of
Hamilton has shown the utmost commitment and dedication to the Coast Guard and
to the United States over the course of the last three months,” said Capt.
Mark Gordon, commanding officer of the Hamilton.

“It is
incredibly difficult for our crew to be separated from family and loved ones
for such an extended time, but their perseverance and enthusiasm to conducting
this mission was fundamental to our success. Without their determination these
criminal organizations would continue to spread fear and violence throughout
the Americas.”

Hamilton is a
418-foot national security cutter homeported in Charleston, South Carolina. Resolute
is a 210-foot medium endurance cutter homeported in St. Petersburg, Florida.
HMCS Whitehorse and Yellowknife are Royal Canadian Navy Kingston-class
coastal-defense vessels homeported in Esquimalt, British Columbia. Mohawk is a
270-foot medium-endurance cutter homeported in Key West, Florida.