Here’s the inter­view with Dakota Wood, senior fel­low with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments on VH-​​71, EFV, MV-​​22, JSF, Seabasing and dis­trib­uted operations.

Enjoy…

– Christian

You all know by now that Sen. John McCain raised the issue of the VH-​​71 Kestrel heli­copter pro­gram — the so-​​called “Marine One” buy — at the “fis­cal sum­mit” yes­ter­day at the White House.

Defense Tech has been on the story for a while but had a hard time get­ting details on it (sens­ing the polit­i­cal impli­ca­tions of the pro­gram and it’s inter­na­tional com­po­nent, the program’s been a bit locked down a la F-​​22).

One thing we did know is that McCain’s defense staff had eyed this pro­gram for can­cel­la­tion months ago. Not sure why they tar­geted this one in par­tic­u­lar, but I have some back­ground on the pro­gram from my report­ing of the pre-​​downselect wran­gling between Sikorsky and LockMart/​Augusta-​​Westland a few years ago.

I’m not really sure of the urgency of the pro­gram — in other words I don’t have a clear sense of how long the VH-​​3 air­craft are going to be “air­wor­thy” or what the cost-​​benefit of keep­ing them in the air vs. buy­ing a new helo really is. My sense was that the award to LockMart/​A-​​W was a bit more risky than the Sikorsky plat­form, since Sikorsky is crank­ing out H-​​60s and was offer­ing an S-​​92 deriv­a­tive for the new Prez chop­per (it’s just a stretched out ver­sion of the 60). How much of the LockMart award was a reach-​​out to Euro allies is unclear, but more than a few sources say it clearly was.

Program allies have been say­ing that the increased costs are a result of increased require­ments — par­tic­u­larly nuclear hard­en­ing and other high-​​tech add ons. And that may be true. But it seems to me this pro­gram was awarded in an envi­ron­ment when these sorts of cost esca­la­tions could be expected and accom­mo­dated with some grumbling…and I won­der how much the pro­gram relied in the idea that “hey, we can’t cut cor­ners with the president’s heli­copter” to give them a pass.

Well, looks like the chick­ens have come to roost.

So, in an effort to give DT read­ers a bit more per­spec­tive, I’m sched­uled a live pod­cast with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments’ Dakota Wood, a for­mer Marine Officer and sub­ject mat­ter expert on Marine pro­grams and orga­ni­za­tion. We’ll use the oppor­tu­nity to talk to him a lit­tle bit about this and other Corps ini­tia­tives at 1430 EST today.

Hope you’ll lis­ten in…

– Christian

Welcome to the 2nd edi­tion of The Weekly Buzz.

In this episode, DoD Buzz Editor Colin Clark and con­trib­u­tor Greg Grant talk about break­ing news on Pentagon acqui­si­tion chief John Young’s replace­ment, the JLTV protest denial, turn­ing Marines into SOF-​​like units, the satel­lite intel gap and what a surge could do for Afghanistan.

DoD Acquisition chief:

• Ashton Carter could face Senate oppo­si­tion — he’s smarter about nukes than the over­all acqui­si­tion. community.
• Sources say he’s a no go, but Obama sources say they’re stick­ing with him…for now.

JLTV:

• Pentagon is relieved that GAO over­turned — uphold­ing would have crip­pled all acqui­si­tion programs.
• Still won’t stop the tide of protests — will becom­ing auto­matic for most big pro­grams since com­pa­nies will be look­ing for any piece they can get of a dwin­dling acqui­si­tion pie.

USMC SOF-​​like org:

• Gen. James Mattis, head of JFCOM, is push­ing for new orga­ni­za­tion of some Marine units to get off FOBs and push smaller teams into the bush — thinks it’s a bet­ter way to fight “irreg­u­lar” wars.
• It’s not about high-​​priced whis­tles and bells — it’s about train­ing, orga­ni­za­tion and man­power structure.
• Admits that could lead to more Wanat sce­nar­ios but depends on sup­port from air and other “cover.”

Sat/​Intel gap:

• Dennis Blair con­vened a panel of 10-​​pound brains to indi­vid­u­ally exam­ine gaps and sug­gest solu­tions — each will report to Blair individually.
• Had a 14-​​hour meet­ing to scrub all pro­grams and cur­rent systems.
• Debate between small, cheap satel­lites — exposes pri­or­ity con­flict between Pentagon which wants intel to ground units and CIA/​Intel com­mu­nity that wants the high­est res­o­lu­tion intel for the president.

Afghanistan push:

• Unclear how much will help — sur­prised it took so long. Could you imag­ine if Casey or Abizaid had asked for more troops in Iraq and it had taken this long to send them?
• Stryker units will help guard routes and pound south­ern insurgents.
• Aviation brigade most sought after — SOF has been say­ing “don’t send more men, send more helos.”

Please lis­ten to the entire episode to hear more details and to find out what’s com­ing up next week.

– Christian