Transcripts For WJLA Defense News 20160501

Teaming with her. Martin. Ding lockheed design beat out a german competitor indsnf plans to build 12 submarines for an spacex has snagged his First Air Force contract. Gps3ontract to deliver the satellite is a time for spacex, which last year succeeded in certifying the rocket to compete for military space launches. Competitiony withdrew after congress banned the use of the russian rd 180 rocket engines for military satellite launches. Now we look at Public Opinion on defense spending. Joining me is the director of the university of maryland graham for Public Consultation and president of voice of the people. Thank yo jill you conducted a survey of 7000 registered voters. Talk to them a bit about defense spending. Why dont you give me an overview of the survey and maybe some highlights of the results . We gave a lot of information about the size of the Defense Budget and the current arguments pro and call on about what we should be doing about the Defense Budget. Made they came out is 61 some cuts in the Defense Budget. They were given complete freedom to say what they thought should be done, but the cuts were rather modest. In the context of what is happening with the current Defense Budget they want to they want to pull it down. The majority wanted to pull it down to 497 billion. That is below where it has been, and the president was talking about raising it to 530 billion. The public is fully not too not enthusiastic about any substantial increases. Jill it is interesting, i know the 497 was the same a number of years ago. Went through the same process. They started with a larger number because the budget was higher than and they came down to 497 million that time as well. People are actually reacting to the numbers. They are not just saying, well, i a person who gets defense or i am prodefense spending. They make an assessment get me give arguments pro and con we give arguments pro and con. Jill that is reassuring could was there a distinction between democrats and republicans . Republicans did not either cut increase. You did not have a majority consensus to go either way. They basically left things where they are. Jill surprising to you, would you say, in the Overall Results . What is striking is that they did make a few decisions that are specific, like majority did cut the f 35. Majority wanted to cut the force from 11er down to 10. A majority set to continue with the new the 21 bomber program. B21 bomber program. In terms of what they got, percentages, the biggest cuts were to Nuclear Weapons and missiledefense. In dollar terms, rogers. Ground troops. Jill we will talk more about that after a quick break and see what folks in washington have to say. Stay tuned for more. You are somehow it felt like everything was moving in slow motion. If i didnt react, hurry. I mean just got that sweet ride with a great rate from navy federal. I was not about to let anything happen to her. Just looking out for my wingman. Hes still in training. Open to the armed forces, the dod and their families. Navy federal credit union. Jill welcome back to defense ews. We are continuing our interview with Stephen Colbert groups defense spending survey. Findings, weheir went out on the street and asked people what they think of the pentagons budget ironies priorities. I think that defense is appropriate for extreme last resort, if we had a very modest , i thinkapability something much more modest could serve the purpose and be money saved for the American People and people around the world eat dinner every night and drink clean water every day. And have some basic rights. You know, after 9 11 and everything and some of the stuff originated with these groups active over there, isil and isis, preemptive to be over there doing stuff to take care of it ahead of time to me is a good idea. I think we will focus more on the cyber domain with the emerging threat, packers that are coming, capability with foreign nations and even within our own international borders. Hackers are out there and i think that more and more they will come at us from the center front versus the trip on the ground run. Interesting comments. That person said she is stationed with the army. The cybersecurity, of did cybersecurity come up or no . Issues. What is politically viable relative your allies and so on. Up one thing that came we didnt show it in the film but came up quite a bit was nuclear spending. On the streets some of the conversations we had, people always said cuts to nuclear spending. You mentioned that before the break. Talk to me more about that. Why do you think that was something that was highlighted . That was cut 13 , Nuclear Weapons. Americans understand we have lots and lots of Nuclear Weapons that are tremendously destructive, and they dont see a lot of scenarios where those weapons make sense. Jill it is interesting, so much of Public Opinion is about perception and what they see and read. In your survey they provide a lot of context. With the f 35 we see it in the headlines so often. If he or not, it is a poster child of def spending run amok. How much are people influenced by what they read in the media . Are these wellinformed responses . The average person isnt particularly wellinformed but we make a point of getting them informed as part of this process. It is interesting to see what they do when they have this kind of information. And they do make rather intelligent choices. Hey dont just cut massively they dont increase massively. They make adjustments to my adjustments that are consistent with the idea that america shouldnt be this great big overwhelming power. They do not like the idea of the u. S. And several policemen. They do think the u. S. Have to have a presence. The biggest argument in favor of cutting defense focuses on the sense that there is waste that there is corruption, that there are cost overruns, there is a lot of frustration that the sense that special interests are than what is best for the country. Jill yeah, and we did hear that when we talk to some people down in d. C. In front of the white house in terms of who has influence over the budget and so, which is fair. Confidence is low. Jill yeah, exactly, and congress in particular who controls the purse strings. Looking at where folks seem to be a little bit more favorable, you have the new bomber. You have marines and special forces. Talk to me about that. Marinesal forces and are the ones that people do not want to cut. That is more connected to what they see as going on out there dealing with isis, dealing with terrorist groups, dealing with situations on the ground in afghanistan, which they do support continuing operations there, by the way. That is more the role that they see for American Defense forces. Than big Ground Troops and big ships and aircraft carriers and so on. Jill they just look expensive, that is probably why. Not that they want to cut it deeply, but they want to trim it a bit and not let it expanded too much. When it comes to intervening and dealing with terrorist groups and things like that, you are thinking of special ops and marines who can come in and take care of the situation quickly and get out. Jill and in virginia you say you did a little look at people in virginia specifically. They cut of it last the country as a whole a bit less than the country as a whole but they car favorite cutting the aircraft carriers and the f35, but more conservative in terms of their cutting. Jill ok, great. It kind of fell in line with the nation at large for the most part. Thank you for joining us. It was fascinating to read. Youre welcome. Jill News Reporter on a proposed plan to restart jill welcome back to defense news. House market of the defense policy bill included a surprising permission, possibly restarting production of raptor, martins f22 which was terminated in 2011. Defense News Reporter Lara Seligman asked why now . Three reasons, and two of them are vladimir putin. The first is that when the f22 was originally stopped, when secretary gates said 177 planes was enough and congress added another 10, they were looking at a world where they thought wars were going to look like iraq and afghanistan. That was the position from on high. Later, russia will get one warning morning and remember they were russia, the prospect of the war seems more real. That was one reason it was considered maybe we might want weapons more money on here to report that kind of concept. A second reason is that both china and russia are building fighters comparable not the equal of, but comparable to f22 in some ways. More importantly, theyre willing to exploit them, as we see very vivid in the deal with india. If 187 were , we are thinking about a world in which there may be other countries with that kind of weaponry and with advanced air defense systems. The third reason is that the critics of f35, in bringing up some of the things they dont like about f35, have highlighted some of the differences between f22 and f35, some of the ways in which f22 may be a better aircraft, at least enough that the confluence of those three issues now has people thinking about f22 again. Lara thats fascinating, but how realistic is this proposal . Does this actually have traction right now . Well, i think realism is a little bit in the eye of the beholder could in theory, all things are possible. I guess at one level, it is realistic if you remove, for example, budget constraints. Certainly lines have been restarted in the past. It is not impossible to do. Technically it can be done. It is not cheap. Then you get into the question of what is the cost benefit analysis. F22the advantages the offers, and by the way, this is advantages that are also inherit, worth the tradeoff you have to make to prioritize resources . Lara and the dod is facing this huge acquisition way right now, especially the air force, especially in aircraft modernization programs. Does the dod have resources for f22, butnot just the the f35 and the f22 together . The be21 bomber is Significant Program that sooner or later we dont know when, but it is going to move into procurement funding as well. You already see the air force deferring f35s because they are so tight on money in the hardware account. Even if the f22 came with a pot of money come in my be hard for them to execute without affecting those other programs. It seems like the logical tradeoff would have to be the f35. The air force cannot afford to not buy tankers. They need to recapitalize the bomber force. The only way to make room for a net22 type of investment is to scale back the f35. The f35 is a huge program so if one were seriously to consider scaling it back, not something i would recommend, that would free up a number of resources and no a long way towards diminishing the weight and one could see the possibility that essentially filling in the gaps that that would create in the air force structure combat is an argument can be made. Dodnd given the overall wave, there is no guarantee that if the air force cuts requirement for f35, they would keep the money lara exactly, yeah. People have drawn comparisons between the f35 and the f22 and said that they really do different missions. How do each of those planes fit into the vision for the air force of the future, air superiority 2030 that the dod is talking about . That document emphasizes flex ability and the ability of platforms to evolve. The f35 is built largely on software and built to revolve. 22 might not be as flexible. Andrew has a good new piece on the flex ability platforms and how important that is. It is not clear, however, that what they would buy would be that model. I would say come i guess a sharp distinction between mission has never really been that sharp. The f22 was designed and built as an air superiority fighter, have used it as a bombing asset. Similarly, the f35 has significant air to air capability. One of the things that is interesting to me is it has a lot more internal payload than the f22. We seem to be heading towards an era where the navy as significant as it may be as significant if not more significant than a platform which it is launched. The f35 may have some advantages in that it can carry more weapons. Lara that is really interesting, but going back to the question of the f22, is it possible that it would be f22 as it was envisioned in the 1980s and 1990s or would it be the upgraded f22 that would be more expensive . Well, if you are starting the line again from scratch, you have a number of years of advancement in sensors, processors, and the original data system was built around the 286 find anymore. It has evolved since then. It wouldnt there be some incentive to update the systems inside the aircraft . We have learned a lot in the intervening years since the f22 was designed that could be applied to an updated aircraft. And networks and updates already planned for the f22. There have been some updates already planned for the f22. The more new designs you have to do, the less attractive this becomes. We have a Fighter Program already. If you are making modifications that change much about the airplane, the fact that you have the old tooling is not nearly as relevant. 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For Business Credit or a loan, more factors come into play than just your credit score. Your relationship with your Financial Institution is a significant factor in the Business Credit application process could it gives the lender valuable insight into your character and your cred athough it is rare to get loan that covers 100 of your startup cost, strong Business Plan and your relationship with your Financial Institution will have you get the funding your Business Needs to get off the ground. Jill thanks very much. We will see you next week. When we return, a Senior Reporter talks to the defense Information Systems agencys chief of commercial Satellite Communications. You are watching defense news we were making a move. The dewe had to. Made we knew that if we came in too high, it would cost us big time. We had to stay low. And boy did we. We locked it in and rode that low rate from Navy Federal Credit union all the way to our first house. Its a splitlevel ranch. So cute open to the armed forces and their families for over 80 years. Navy federal credit union. Jill Senior Reporter amber corrin recently interviewed the chief of the Satellite Communications division at the systems agency. He is starting the opti and indicating to an analysis of alternatives for the air force. He asked she asked mr. Miller how that is coming along. It is designed with the air force to determine the optimum octomom thee optimum mixture could we took current analysis and looked back on the analysis that i went pricing structure on different and purchasingg arrangements and looked at what would be the National Requirement National Requirement based on the report and we basically built a model that would help us to determine the optimum mixture for each theater based on requirement. It is coming quite well and we expect to finish the work at the end of this month, april, and started up to the chain of command and delivering the final product. Amber . Hat point this this something it will be released to the public . Bedont anticipate it will released to the public but they use it to formulate instructions. They will take our input and get their thoughts around how they should provide instructions to the air force. Amber ok. I know one of the project you are working on our pathfinder meject is maybe you can tell a little bit about what the projects are and what are the goal. Goals of all the pathfinders are to help the Department Better understand the requirements, help the department investigate alternative means to inquire, to investigate alternative management strategies. The 5 pathfinders, the first is requirement analysis pathfinder, net gets to the heart of the requirement. It looks at a wide range of things. How much we expected to have to lease moving forward. How we are utilizing print or can we find efficiencies to get to how much we need in each theater and what are the modifiers such as security and utilities that should be considered when moving forward . Is thed pathfinder utilization monitoring pathfinder where we do just that. We determine how well we are using it. Is it efficient . The output of that we expect to be recommendations study state and the surge for utilization. If you are if you have his mission a certain mission, lets say a training mission, how much of your bandwidth should he and how much should you leave and reserve . Our other pathfinder is we have one based on the management pathfinder. How can we manage things to be more efficient . We have a fixed transmission plan and we give it to the vendor and say that these are the services we need and they lay out the plan with all the carriers. Could be more efficient if we manage it on the fly . We engineered it and gave a message and put out the carrier. Could we save and how much . Is it 10 , 20 . All of that would inform what the requirement is. It would shave a little more of the requirement based on better management. 10 would be 50 million a year. Amber wow. And with the pathfinder project from windows are wrapped up, are these going to feed into the aoa . We are making record editions on things we can do immediately but they will feed into the aoa and some of them where finding utility in for business in general so we can make better document decisions for commercial communication. Mber ok do you have any samples of the specific areas where you have already implemented Lessons Learned . Well, weve made recommendations. One of the ones were taking a look at our Training Networks and see if we can find efficiency by doing aggregation and changing the way we manage. We have written up recommendations and looking to see how they work their way up through the department. We have a couple of the pathfinders i didnt quite get to. Think i talked about three of them. Is trying to do the aggregate see what kind of discounting the department can expect greater durations. We havent executed those pathfinders yet. We have identified candidates but we face challenges on multiyear contracting. We have been trying to outline what those challenges are so the department to make a strategy. Jill thanks for watching. Visit us at defensenews. Com for continuous coverage of national and international defense. Join us next week when we talk about the good and the bad of the pentagon strategy for combating the islamic state. Thanks for joining us. I am jill aitoro. [music] dr. Charles stanley you want to learn to listen to god . As we said, get in the word of god and begin to meditate upon the word of god. He will speak to you. And when you listen to him, and trust him, and obey him, youre going to find yourself growing in your christian life; becoming stronger and stronger; more and more confident; more assured; and more and more able to recognize the presence of god in your life and in your relationships than ever before. Male announcer today on in touch, the requirements of obedience. Announcer join us during the program and follow along with