photo UD DoD

LONDON, Sept. 14, 2011 /PRNewswire

Small precision weapon is ideally suited for counterinsurgency mission

Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) is seeking to integrate the combat-proven Griffin missile onto the Hawker AT-6 light attack aircraft.

Griffin weighs 44 pounds with its launch tube, is 43 inches long and is an air- and ground-launched, precision-guided missile designed for rapid integration onto rotary- and fixed-wing aircraft and ground-launch applications. 

"Integrating Griffin on the AT-6 aircraft gives the warfighter a cost-effective solution to provide persistent surveillance and low-collateral damage in counterinsurgency and irregular warfare operations," said Harry Schulte, vice president of Raytheon Missile Systems' Air Warfare Systems. "The integration of precision weapons onto versatile light-attack, reconnaissance platforms enables customers to take off-the-shelf capabilities and rapidly field a solution that meets their needs."

Griffin enables the warfighter to engage targets via a user-friendly graphic interface and guide the weapon to the target using GPS coordinates or laser designation. To maximize lethality, the user can choose to engage the target with height of burst, point detonation or fuze delay.

The Griffin missile is in production and integrated on the C-130 Harvest Hawk. Griffin A is an aft-eject missile designed for employment from non-conventional platforms such as the C-130 aircraft. Griffin B is a forward-firing missile that launches from rotary- and fixed-wing aircraft and ground-launch applications.

Artist's impression of the Joint High Speed Vessel (JHSV). (Image: Austal)

September 14, 2011 defpro.com

Austal’s USA shipyard, based in Mobile, Alabama, recently celebrated the successful launching of the US Department of Defence’s first-of-class Joint High Speed Vessel, “Spearhead”.

The 103m catamaran has been designed as a multi-use platform, capable of providing rapid intra-theatre deployment and transportation of personnel, equipment and supplies, while supporting military logistics, sustainment and humanitarian relief operations.

As prime contractor, Austal was awarded the construction contract for the first 103-metre JHSV in November 2008, with options for nine additional vessels between FY09 and FY13. Construction on JHSV 2, “Vigilant”, is well underway at Austal’s Module Manufacturing Facility, and contracts have been awarded for a further five JHSVs.

September 14, 2011 SHEPARD GROUP Source: Oshkosh Defense

The next generation of light combat military vehicles require new levels of mobility and protection to operate effectively in remote, rugged and hostile landscapes. Oshkosh Defense, a division of Oshkosh Corporation, designed the Light Combat Tactical All-Terrain Vehicle (L-ATV) to meet the military's future needs based on 10 years of operational experience with the military utilizing Oshkosh's heavy, medium and MRAP vehicle fleets in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The affordable Oshkosh L-ATV incorporates field-proven technologies, advanced armor solutions and expeditionary levels of mobility to redefine safety and performance standards for the US Armed Forces and international militaries. The L-ATV also is designed for future growth, with the ability to accept additional armor packages and technology upgrades as the mission requires.

"We designed the L-ATV to address the rapidly evolving threats and provide troops with greater ability to navigate through extreme driving conditions," said Ken Juergens, vice president and general manager of Joint Programs for Oshkosh Defense. "Battlefields have changed - threats are more dangerous, operating environments are more rugged and fuel efficiency is more important than ever. The state-of-the-art L-ATV is designed to meet these challenges, today and well into the future, just as our M-ATV continues to meet evolving battlefield threats without comprising its payload and off-road mission profile."

Equipped with the Oshkosh TAK-4iTM independent suspension system, the next generation of Oshkosh's TAK-4 suspension system, the L-ATV can safely navigate dangerous on- and off-road terrain while providing unmatched ride quality. The TAK-4i technology uses a proprietary technology to deliver 20 inches of independent wheel travel - 25 percent more wheel travel than any vehicle in the US military's fleets - and expands on the success of the TAK-4 system, which is currently fielded on more than 20,000 military-class vehicles.

The L-ATV's armored capsule is scalable and can accept multiple armor configurations to protect troops from IEDs and today's other prevalent battlefield threats. The capsule is optimized for protection, weight and mobility, and its modular and flexible design allows the vehicle to accept a greater range of upgrades and continuous enhancements.

The L-ATV's modern technology engine delivers expanded power capabilities, greater fuel efficiency and integrated communications for improved diagnostics and maintenance over legacy engine technologies currently fielded. An optional Oshkosh ProPulse diesel-electric hybrid powertrain has been developed, integrated and tested in the L-ATV, providing a powertrain option that can be readily implemented to maximize the vehicle's efficiency through improved fuel economy, high levels of exportable power (stationary and on the move) and lower life-cycle costs.

As evidenced with the MRAP All-Terrain Vehicle (M-ATV) production, when the company ramped up to exceed 1,000 vehicle deliveries per month, Oshkosh has robust manufacturing capabilities, proven expertise and is ready now to build the L-ATV cost effectively on-time and in the quantities needed, with flexibility for future growth. Oshkosh's flexible production capabilities and remanufacturing experience allow the company to quickly incorporate production changes or retrofit vehicles with additional armor or upgrades.

AATD Concept

Sep 13, 2011 By Graham Warwick - aviation week and space technology

Washington - Finally responding to calls from operators and industry to begin work on replacing its hard-pressed helicopter fleets, the U.S. Army is moving ahead with a program to develop the next generation of rotorcraft. But the service faces a challenge securing sufficient government and industry funding to sustain competition until a development program can begin around the end of the decade.

The Army has kicked off the Joint Multi-Role (JMR) program not knowing exactly what it wants or which of its helicopter fleets it will replace first. Instead it has a list of desired attributes and a rough timescale—2027-28—for fielding its first all-new rotorcraft in 50 years. The task of turning those attributes into requirements for a next-generation aircraft falls to a pair of technology demonstrators the service plans to build and fly in 2017.

In a sign the Army is getting serious, its budget for rotorcraft science and technology (S&T)—which has long run at a mere $100 million a year—is being augmented for the JMR demonstrators. But additional funding, as well as industry cost-sharing, will be needed if the service is to fly two robust demonstrators with mission systems and so keep its competitive options open.

“It’s a major breakthrough that we are not flat-lined at $100 million and they have been successful in getting Army leadership to increase S&T funding for the JMR demonstration,” says Michael Hirschberg, executive director of American Helicopter Society (AHS) International, a technical body. “It remains to be seen whether it will be enough to do everything they want the technology demonstrators to do.”

JMR is seen as a family of vertical-lift vehicles, from light to ultra-heavy, sharing common technologies. As a starting point, the Army has selected the middle of the range and the medium utility JMR. Not only would this replace the Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawks that make up its single largest helicopter fleet, but studies over the next two years will show to what extent technologies required in a medium utility JMR could scale down to the light scout and up to the heavy transport classes.

Distilled from several recent Army and Pentagon-level analyses that identified gaps in U.S. rotorcraft capabilities, the list of desired attributes for the JMR family of vehicles includes speed exceeding 200 kt., up from less than 150 kt. for today’s helicopters, a combat radius of 230 nm and 6,000-ft./95F hot-and-high performance. In addition to better affordability, durability and survivability, other attributes include a common core avionics architecture and an optionally manned capability.

“The capabilities demanded cannot be achieved through upgrading the current fleet,” says Ned Chase, platform technologies division chief at the Army’s Aviation Applied Technology Directorate (AATD). “We want to build two technology demonstrators to pursue capabilities lacking in the current fleet while maintaining competition and providing different alternatives.”

The list of attributes for the medium utility JMR has been provided to three industry teams that received configuration trades and analysis contracts at the end of June. Awarded to Bell Boeing, Boeing and Sikorsky, the 18-month contracts are each worth $4 million, with industry contributing a similar amount. “We are negotiating with one more, and should award a contract in the next couple of weeks,” says Chase.

The configuration studies “will distill out the things that bring the most value, and get us from a list of attributes to the design requirements for a next-generation rotorcraft,” he says. “They will provide the performance specification for the demonstrator aircraft.”

The JMR demonstrators will not be prototypes, as the YUH-60 and -61 were for the Black Hawk or YAH-63 and -64 for the Apache. For one thing, they are expected to be smaller than the objective vehicles to reduce cost. And secondly, Chase says, the Army has committed to industry to have another competition for development and production.

The three teams already under contract are taking different approaches. One is “doing a deep dive on a single configuration,” says Chase. Another is studying three different concepts, while the third is looking at all possible options, he says. Bell Helicopter CEO John Garrison has said previously that the Bell Boeing team responsible for the V-22 Osprey proposed a tiltrotor configuration for the JMR studies. The fourth contract is taking longer to negotiate because the unidentified entity is not as experienced in contracting with the Defense Department, “but they have a good proposal,” says Chase.

The same list of attributes for a medium utility JMR has been supplied to an independent government design team that is looking at advanced helicopter, compound helicopter and tiltrotor concepts, he says. The government designers are providing data on the three configurations to an operations analysis team at Fort Rucker, Ala., which will run scenarios to establish the relative values of the desired attributes. “They will consider the performance of a fleet of aircraft to establish what operational value each attribute brings to the table,” Chase says.

“We need to understand which attributes are most important on the battlefield, and most cost-effective to implement,” he says. “We need to understand how to get the right mix of capabilities on the aircraft. The decisions we make will impact rotary-wing aviation operations for the next 50 years.”

The aim is to develop a draft requirement for the medium utility JMR—“it’s about this big, goes this far, does these things and we have an idea we can afford it,” Chase says—and use that to derive the demonstrator specification.

At the same time, an acquisition team involving the Army, Navy, Special Operations Command and other potential customers is developing an initial capabilities document (ICD) establishing the requirements for the JMR. This is expected to be completed by mid-fiscal 2012, says Chase. The ICD is a necessary precursor to an analysis of alternatives and Milestone A approval for a new acquisition program, and it is not clear yet whether the ICD will be for the overall JMR family of vehicles or just for the medium utility class.

“We have established a joint-service team through the Office of the Secretary of Defense’s Future Vertical Lift [FVL] working group,” he says. This brings together rotorcraft operators within the Pentagon and was directed by Congress to determine capability gaps, develop an S&T road map and strategic plan for vertical lift, and identify funds for technology development.

With the ICD in place, AATD plans to award multiple contracts in fiscal 2013 to begin design of the JMR demonstrators. Following preliminary design reviews, the Army in fiscal 2015 intends to downselect to two contractors to build the aircraft. “We are putting funding in place for two. They may be the same or entirely different configurations,” he says. Phase 1 of the demonstration will involve flight tests of the demonstrator air vehicles. Phase 2, following two years later, will involve the design and integration of two open-architecture mission systems into the demonstrator aircraft.

Work on defining the common core architecture has already begun. “We’ve started that first, to build a Defense Department/industry consensus on an open systems architecture,” says Chase, adding that the program office responsible for developing the Army’s Victory open architecture for combat vehicles is involved. The goal is to develop a common standard for a scalable architecture to be used in mission-system development in Phase 2. As with the air-vehicle Phase 1, the plan is to award two demonstration contracts to avionics integrators “as a hedge against risk,” says Chase.

With U.S. military rotorcraft production facing a cliff around the end of this decade as procurement programs end, AHS has been campaigning for more investment in technology development to sustain industry capabilities and lay foundations for the next generation.

“The Defense Department needs to ensure there is enough funding for the JMR demonstrators to really be relevant,” says Hirschberg. “This is the Pentagon’s one chance to realize a significant advancement in capabilities—they can’t afford to be timid.”

HMCS Victoria (SSK 876)

13 septembre 2011 Par Rédacteur en chef. PORTAIL DES SOUS-MARINS

Un incendie s’est déclaré à bord du sous-marin canadien HMCS Victoria, le seul sous-marin susceptible d’être opérationnel à cours terme. Il s’agit du dernier en date d’une longue série d’incidents touchant ces sous-marins achetés d’occasion à la Grande-Bretagne. Ils ont passé plus de temps en réparation qu’en mer.

Le commandant du sous-marin, le Lt. Cmdr. Christopher Ellis, a confirmé qu’un incendie s’était déclaré mardi dernier dans l’antenne radio, située au sommet du sous-marin. L’incendie est survenu au cours de mesures de niveau des émissions radioélectriques.

Un des sous-mariniers qui était sur le quai, a remarqué la fumée dégagée par l’antenne, a indiqué Ellis.

« Il n’y avait aucun signe de fumée ou autre à bord du sous-marin, » a déclaré Ellis, expliquant que l’antenne est étanche avec le reste du sous-marin. « C’était un incendie mineur. »

Le sous-marinier a alerté les 6 membres d’équipage qui étaient à bord du HMCS Victoria et a prévenu les pompiers de la base d’Esquimalt, sur la côte Pacifique.

3 membres d’équipage qui étaient de quart à bord du sous-marin, ont pris les mesures d’urgence, isolant les systèmes haute puissance du sous-marin et s’assurant que tout le monde évacuait le sous-marin.

Les pompiers ont utilisé un camion-échelle pour asperger l’antenne radio avec de l’eau et éteindre l’incendie.

L’antenne radio ressemble à un périscope et est utilisé pour communiquer avec d’autres bâtiments, des avions et des stations à terre.

On ignore pour l’instant ce qui a provoqué l’incendie, mais on suppose qu’il s’agit d’un feu d’origine électrique, a indiqué Ellis.

Il a ajouté que l’antenne peut être remplacée en quelques jours, et que l’incident n’interrompra pas l’entrainement en cours.

« Tous les entraînements se déroulent comme prévu. La seule chose que cela va retarder, c’est nos essais de communications. »

Le HMCS Victoria se trouve depuis le mois d’avril à quai dans la base d’Esquimalt, après 5 ans en cale sèche pour modernisation. Il devrait effectuer d’ici la fin de l’année des essais à la mer. L’an prochain, le HMCS Victoria sera le premier sous-marin canadien de la classe Victoria à lancer une torpille MK-48. Pour l’instant, c’est le seul sous-marin canadien à peu près opérationnel, pendant que les 3 autres subissent des réparations et des modernisations.

Référence : Vancouver Sun (Canada)

September 13, 2011 defpro.com

FAIRFAX, Va. | General Dynamics Information Technology, a business unit of General Dynamics, has been selected by the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) as an awardee for the Manufacturing Technologies for Remotely Piloted Vehicles contract. The five-year, multiple-award, indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract has a total potential value of $45 million among all awardees.

General Dynamics will develop new design methods to improve supply chain and manufacturing techniques for all aspects of Remotely Piloted Vehicles and Aircraft (RPVs/RPA), including airborne and ground components. In addition, General Dynamics will provide program management, systems engineering and research and development services. Work will be performed at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. The company plans to hire approximately ten additional employees to support this contract.

"General Dynamics has a long, proven history with the Air Force Research Laboratory," said Ken Hess, vice president and general manager of General Dynamics Information Technology's Air Force Joint Services sector. "We will deliver new design methods and improvements to supply chain and manufacturing techniques in an effort to reduce costs and improve the efficiency and availability of remotely piloted vehicles for the U.S. Air Force."

Headquartered at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, the AFRL is a scientific research organization dedicated to the discovery, development and integration of affordable aerospace warfighting technologies. Composed of eight technical directorates, one wing and the Office of Scientific Research, the AFRL specializes in performing research experiments in conjunction with universities and contractors. General Dynamics currently provides the AFRL with laboratory management and full life-cycle research and development activities for the Air Vehicles, Materials & Manufacturing and Sensors Directorates.

12.09.2011 By Carlo Munoz defense.aol.com

Washington: The Marine Corps says it needs more amphibious ships. Now, thanks to a new working group, they will finally have the numbers to prove it.

The working group, started today by Marine Corps Combat Development Command, will take information from upcoming amphibious exercises and use that data to as it presents the service's arguments to Capitol Hill and DoD for more ships, according to a source familiar with the group.

Those exercises will run the gamut from large-scale amphibious drills such as the upcoming Bold Alligator to smaller exercises geared toward specific combat scenarios, the source said.

The Marines are looking to increase the 28-ship amphibious fleet up to 33, which the service says is the base number of vessels needed to support two brigade-sized Marine Expeditionary units.

It remains unclear what types of individual combat scenarios the group use for their analysis will drill down into since those details will likely be classified.

The Marines are already compiling information from past exercises for the working group as part of that effort, according to one Marine Corps official.

Once information will be key to Marine Corps as it makes its argument to the Hill for more amphibious ships in their spending proposal for fiscal year 2013.

Marine Corps commandant Gen. James Amos has been publicly touting the effectiveness of amphibious ships in recent months.

Citing successful operations in Libya and humanitarian efforts in Haiti, the four-star general claimed DoD could get more bang for the buck by putting more amphibs in the fleet.

Despite all that rhetoric, the Marines have not done a good enough job in putting hard numbers in place to clearly show the service needs more amphibious ships, the source said.

The data provided by the new Marine Corps working group will look to fill that gap. Given the growing pressure on defense spending, the Marines will need all the help they can get.

The service has already put a plan in place to shrink its total force once as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan wind down.

But many in DoD and on the Hill are expecting troop levels within the services to drop much lower than had been expected, with some anticipating a 100,000-man cut across the services.

Virginia-class USS California (SSN 781) underway. (Photo: Huntington Ingalls Industries)

September 13, 2011 Daniel Goure, Ph.D. - Early Warning Blog, Lexington Institute / defpro.com

Since coming into office, the Obama Administration has been focused on making military procurement more efficient. The Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics has formulated a wide range of policies and initiatives designed to streamline the acquisition process and rein in costs. Millions of dollars and tens of thousands of man-hours have been spent on this effort.

Yet, there is a program, one begun well before the current group of defense officials arrived at the Pentagon, which stands as the poster child for doing procurement the right way. What makes this program even more impressive is that it is for a major weapons system.

I am referring to the Virginia-class attack submarine program. In a determined effort to reduce both the cost and the length of time it took to build the submarine, the U.S. Navy’s program office for submarines, in close cooperation with the two companies building the sub -- Electric Boat and Newport News Shipbuilding (now part of Huntington Ingalls) -- created a “design for affordability” program.

Using advanced computer-aided design techniques and innovative manufacturing procedures, the program has squeezed hundreds of millions of dollars in cost out of the construction of each submarine. In addition, the time to completion for the latest submarine built has been reduced by almost two years.

As a result of this successful effort, the submarine program has now begun construction of its second boat in a single year. The move to a two-a-year build rate not only facilitates more efficient production but helps to ensure that the number of attack subs in the fleet does not go below a critical threshold.

As the Department of Defense looks at how to manage projected defense budget cuts, it should ensure that nothing is done to alter the successful trajectory of the Virginia-class submarine construction program.

HART program concept drawing from official IPTO (DARPA) website

13/09/11 By Dominic Perry SOURCE:Flight International

Northrop Grumman has introduced an unmanned air vehicle data management system to the European market, to allow troops on the ground to "eliminate the tunnel-vision of the battlefield".

The HART (heterogenous airborne reconnaissance team) allows soldiers at small unit level without their own UAV to benefit from the plethora of assets overflying the battlespace.

Tim Beard, deputy director of advanced concepts at Northrop Grumman Aerospace, said: "We have got a lot of UAVs in the air, but no-one has created a system so that everyone can share the data."

A unit leader simply sends a request for imagery to the tactical operations centre, which then prioritises the request.

The HART system then selects the most relevant imagery or the nearest UAV, and the image is geolinked and sent back to the unit leader.

In some cases HART could take over a UAV and fly it to the correct location, although Northrop conceded this will not be required by all customers.

So far, nine UAV platforms and one piloted aircraft - the Beechcraft C-12 Huron - have been integrated into the HART system.

A further three - General Atomics' Gray Eagle and Northrop's Global Hawk and Fire Scout - are pending.

HART has been trialled by the US Army and US Marines, with the programme led by the Air Force Research Laboratory.

September 13, 2011 by Galrahn - informationdissemination.net

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is reporting that the 5th Lockheed Martin version of the LCS will be called the USS Milwaukee (LCS 10).

U.S. Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus will meet Tuesday with Mayor Tom Barrett to discuss the USS Milwaukee. Mabus also is scheduled to throw out the first pitch at Tuesday's Milwaukee Brewers game. A video of the littoral combat ship will be shown on the video scoreboard before the game.

It is so rare to see Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus actually talking about and promoting something specific to the US Navy - like the Littoral Combat Ship - that I felt compelled to note his activity on the blog this morning. Well done sir.

And yes, I love the idea of showing a video of the Littoral Combat Ship (and hopefully sailors as well) on the big screen at a MLB game.

Meanwhile, USS Independence (LCS 2) has stopped in Pensacola as she continues to head west. It seems everyone I speak to recently is keeping one eye on the upcoming activities related to testing several MIW technologies currently on that ship. The way I look at this is - it is very nice to see MIW getting attention by Navy leadership for a change.

Finally, for those nerds like me who follow such things, the other first CO of USS Freedom (LCS 1) has been given a major command. According to scuttlebutt I've heard, Michael Doran - the first Gold crew CO for USS Freedom - will soon take over as CO of USS Port Royal (CG 73). The first blue crew CO of USS Freedom (LCS 1), Don Gabrielson, is currently CO of USS Cape St. George (CG 71). For those who thought LCS would be bad for ones career, allow me to respectfully disagree by noting that early on it would appear to be the surest way in the SWO community to achieve major command - at least so far. Obviously two is not a trend, yet, but it is fair to say that in the SWO community of the US Navy today - LCS is where the innovations are taking place right now.

The Navy has a huge manpower cost problem that will not be easily fixed, and in the case of both of these former LCS COs - they literally wrote the book on how to run a ship with less people. LCS COs who learn how to get more from less will be invaluable on the older cruisers which are unlikely to see more sailors anytime soon short of major war at sea, so logically the US Navy is better off giving former LCS COs major commands on ships because the US Navy needs them to figure out how to thrive - not just survive - during lean times that include manpower shortages on ship. Rewarding former COs with major command also sends a strong signal to the SWO community - the promotion water is sweeter with LCS right now, and with LCS going to happen regardless of how hard DoD budgets are cut, every encouragement the Navy can offer to the best and brightest SWOs to shift to LCS is a positive for the LCS program - which the Navy needs to work.

ORLANDO, Fla., September 13th, 2011 Lockheed Martin

Lockheed Martin has performed more than 8,600 hours of tests on its Joint Air-to-Ground Missile (JAGM) cooled seeker, proving its operational capability and low risk.

Lockheed Martin’s cooled seeker technology is a primary discriminator in its pursuit of the U.S. Army’s JAGM competition.  The cooled seeker design provides longer range targeting than an uncooled seeker, which is critical to aircrew safety in the presence of air defense systems.  Additionally, a cooled seeker delivers clearer imagery than an uncooled seeker.

“We have thoroughly tested our JAGM seeker in all operational conditions, confirming our decision to go with the cooled seeker design,” said Frank St. John, vice president of tactical missiles in Lockheed Martin’s Missiles and Fire Control business.  “A cooled seeker provides the increased performance that is required to destroy the full range of JAGM targets in all operational conditions at safe standoff ranges.”

The seeker tests included lab, van, tower and captive flight tests on Lockheed Martin’s tri-mode seeker variants.  Hardware-in-the-loop environmental tests and missile flight tests were also performed, including 3,000 hours of testing during the program’s Technology Demonstration phase.  Testing also included data collection against a variety of targets (heavy armor, littoral, stationary and moving) over a range of environmental and countermeasure conditions, providing unparalleled real-world data for development, verification and validation of the seeker algorithms.

Work on the Lockheed Martin JAGM program will be performed in Orlando and Ocala, Fla., and Troy, Ala., as well at suppliers’ facilities across the U.S. and in the UK. Contract award is expected in late 2011.

Sen. Daniel Inouye said that most reductions in the defense bill were from "program terminations, schedule delays, programs changes since submission of the budget last February, inadequate justification, unaffordable future year costs, or corrections (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)

13 Sep 2011 By KATE BRANNEN DefenseNews

In its markup of the 2012 defense spending bill, the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on defense is recommending terminating the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) and cutting $1.2 billion from the Air Force's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program.

The moves are part of a $26 billion cut to the Pentagon's 2012 budget request.

Last week, the full appropriations committee agreed to allocate $513 billion for the Pentagon's 2012 base budget, not including military construction. This freezes defense spending at 2011 spending levels.

The full committee also agreed to fully fund the president's request of $118 billion for overseas contingency operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

"While this was not an easy allocation to meet, I can assure you that this recommendation takes care of our men and women in uniform and their families, fully supports military readiness, protects the forces, and maintains our technological edge," committee chairman Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, said September 13 in his opening statement.

The subcommittee bill will now move to the full committee, which plans to mark up the bill Sept. 15.

Fiscal year 2012 begins Oct. 1. Without any appropriations bills passed, Congress will have to pass a temporary spending measure, called a continuing resolution, to keep the government funded beyond Sept. 30.

To meet the $26 billion cut, the subcommittee recommended nearly 600 line-item reductions in the bill.

"Most of these reductions are made as a result of program terminations, schedule delays, programs changes since submission of the budget last February, inadequate justification, unaffordable future year costs, or corrections to poor fiscal discipline," said Inouye, who also serves as subcommittee chair.

For example, the Defense Department identified more than $10 billion that they no longer need in 2012, including $5 billion in excess funds due to troop reductions in Afghanistan that President Barack Obama announced after the budget was submitted.

Inouye said the commander in Afghanistan who oversees training Afghanistan Security Forces identified $1.6 billion that is no longer needed. Another $135 million was cut from the Air Force's tanker replacement program because service leaders said they could not spend the money by the end of next year.

As for the $1.2 billion cut to the JSF program, Inouye cited "excessive concurrency in development and production," and recommended maintaining 2011 production levels for two more years "in order to limit out-year cost growth."

"The test program is only 10 percent complete, yet the request continues to ramp up production of aircraft in fiscal years 2012 and 2013," Inouye said. "For each aircraft we build this early in the test program, we will have to pay many millions in the future to fix the problems that are identified in testing."

The subcommittee also recommends terminating the Army and Marine Corps JLTV program, which was started as an effort to build a next-generation Humvee.

The program has faced growing scrutiny over the last few years, with other vehicles promising similar capabilities and the Marine Corps expressing concern about the vehicle's weight. Since the program's inception, the services have fielded thousands of Mine Resistant Ambush Protected All Terrain Vehicles to Afghanistan and have launched a competitive Humvee recapitalization program.

In recommending termination, Inouye cited "excessive cost growth and constantly changing requirements. The committee believes that alternatives exist today to meet the Army and Marine Corps' requirements to recapitalize and competitively upgrade the Humvee fleet, and supports funding for those programs."

DoD is currently paying three industry teams to develop JLTV technology.

In February, DoD announced that the award of the JLTV engineering and manufacturing development contract would be delayed until January 2012 because the Army had changed its requirements.

"Some defense and trade analysts suggest that the JLTV program will cost well over $10 billion and possibly as much as $30 billion to $70 billion, depending on the final cost of the vehicles chosen and the number of vehicles procured," the Congressional Research Service reported in March.

The subcommittee bill does not fund the Navy's request for an additional Mobile Landing Platform ship, noting the Congress funded it in the 2011 appropriations bill.

"We believe that this remains an important requirement and expect the Navy to fund the third ship in the fiscal year 2013 request," Inouye said.

In some areas, the subcommittee recommended increased spending.

The bill includes an additional $250 million for vehicle survivability upgrades for MRAPs, an additional $500 million for National Guard and Reserve equipment, and an additional $240 million for Abrams tank upgrades.

It also fully funds the Pentagon's research and development request and increases funding for cyber security, nanotechnology and space situational awareness.

Speaking to reporters after the markup, Inouye said the bill included funding for the Medium Extended Air Defense System, a tri-national program with Germany and Italy.

The Pentagon announced in February that it no longer intended to purchase the MEADS system, but required $800 million over the next three years to capitalize on the research and development.

The subcommittee fully funds the Pentagon's requested end strength and the 1.6 percent authorized pay raise for military personnel.

Some may consider the recommended cuts as tough, but Inouye said the subcommittee believed they were "fair and prudent."