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Happy Friday!
We have some good news from Congress this week. Yesterday, the National Defense Authorization Act cleared both houses of Congress and heads to the President's desk.
- We have two different summaries for you in the Congress section.
Nick Guertin was finally confirmed as Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development, and Acquisition.
- He was nominated in September 2022 and now moves out of his position as Director, Operational Test and Evaluation.
A hearing on F-35 Acquisition Program Update this week provided both good news and bad news.
- The U.S. pushed upgraded software capabilities to Israeli F-35 jets within a week of identifying the need.
- However, continued production and the next batch of planned upgrades are far behind schedule, and the program is reaching $1 billion in cost overruns.
Our top story this week is an opinion piece from Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro, who passionately pleads with Congress to pass a full-year budget.
- He details some of the costs the Navy is already incurring under the current continuing resolution, considers the impact of another sequestration, and speculates on the damage of a full-year continuing resolution.
- In one of his most zingy lines, he suggests that in last scenario, "I would also have to consider cutting a portion of the funding for programs and initiatives added by Congress to our FY23 budget — items that neither the Navy nor the Marine Corps requested.
- Del Toro is just the latest in a string of military leaders to chide Congress for budgetary inaction and list the host of negative impacts that have and will result.
In acquisition news, DoD CIO John Sherman announced that his office is beginning to craft the next version of DoD's Joint Warfighting Cloud Contract.
- He also said they're working to develop cloud capability at the tactical edge overseas, called the “Joint Operational Edge (JOE)”.
Atlantic Council has launched a commission on software-defined hardware in DoD, aiming to "develop recommendations that would adopt or modify the relevant laws, regulations, policies, processes, or practices necessary to digitally transform and enable the US military and its allies."
Today is graduation day on the NPS campus.
- Among the 280+ students receiving graduate degrees is Master Sergeant Kade Forrester, an ARP-supported student earning an MBA in Contract Management and the first NPS student to receive the "triple crown" of professional acquisition certifications.
- Read our story on this extraordinary human below.
Watch the ceremony live at 10 a.m. Pacific (1 p.m. Eastern), featuring commencement speaker Read Adm. Kurt Rothenhaus, Chief of Naval Research, NPS alum, and previous symposium chair.
And in our "One More Thing" section, enjoy a short holiday message from outgoing DCMA Director, General Dave Bassett, who shared his unique wisdom on a few panels at our most recent symposium.
Tis the Season for festive thoughts about procurement!
This Week's Top Story
Del Toro’s case for funding the US Navy and Marine Corps
Carlos Del Toro, Defense News
Since our founding, the United States of America has always been a maritime nation. For hundreds of years, the sea has proved a vital artery of American prosperity, fueling our economic engine by allowing us to engage in commerce on a global scale. We rely on our world’s oceans for food, for natural resources, for the transportation of goods and people, and more recently to carry vast amounts of data via undersea cables. To maintain our nation’s unrestricted access to sea, and to guarantee the free flow of maritime commerce for ourselves, our allies and our international partners, our nation requires a capable, agile, and lethal Navy and Marine Corps.
Further congressional inaction puts the Department of the Navy — and our nation’s unrestricted access — under a real and substantial threat.
When I became the 78th secretary of the Navy over two years ago, I made a commitment to the American people that I would passionately advocate for and strenuously defend our nation’s naval services. That includes communicating our nation’s requirement for a well-funded Navy and Marine Corps to Congress, as well as the impacts of failing to pass our budget in a timely manner.
For fiscal 2024, President Joe Biden requested a 4.5% increase in funding for the Department of the Navy, providing us with nearly $255 billion to ensure our Navy and Marine Corps are properly manned, trained and equipped. This budget provides the right mix of personnel, platforms and capabilities to ensure freedom of the seas, deter our adversaries and, if necessary, be victorious in combat.
However, as we enter the third month of the new fiscal year, Congress has yet to pass the Department of Defense’s annual budget.
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