♪[ music ] welcome to this week in defense news. i'm vago muradian. improving battlefield communications remain a top army priority, we get an update from top radio makers. plus, how 55 serce organizations are coming together to support veterans in 200 cities across america. but first, reinvigorating nuclear security has been a top air force priority since a b-52 bomber mistakenly fitted with nuclear weapons flew across the country. a once rigorous system has grown lapse. meanwhile, the air force is modernizing by keeping with a 2010 obama plan by keeping with a smaller arsenal.

in 2010, a nuclear treaty limited with russia limited the number of nuclear weapons. i recently spoke with the chief of staff, and asked him what looming automatic budget cuts would mean for the nuclear enterprise. >> well the nuclear enterprise is the perfection is standard. we look very hard at any serious cut that would jeopardize nuclear assurety. it does loom. it is equivalent to a meat axe. it is not a surgical strike of our dollars, and it has a serious effect. we cannot afford that kind of a cut in our nuclear enterprise. we're in the midst of

modernizing our weapons systems we have made great strides to strangen our ability. our airmen are performing well, everything is on the table in this budget year, just as it was last year, so we will look critically at any cut. >> would there have to be some relief do you think, to allow you guys to continue that kind of work? would there have to be a dispension? >> that's a great question, vago. these are the nations weapons. we present these forces to the commander who deployed them for the president. because they're national weapons, i believe they do deserve special consideration. >> the obama administration has pledged to revitalize -- in terms of modernizing weapons, the last of which were produced in the early 1990s, after completing its latest review, they have come to the conclusion they can reduce the

nuclear arsenal to have a smaller force that can be more modern. what does that mean for the air force in terms of how many weapons you have, and what does it cost to update them? >> the air force produces two legs of the triad as well as the force for europe. the reduction in size we believe should be based on good strategic, and analytic advice. the deterrents in the 21st century are different than the deterrents in the cold war. the flexible, and responsive tools that the air force produces for the deterrents in the icbm leg are really, really important for this century's deterrent equation. and the numbers are going to be discussed. lots of numbers have been

debated. military advice has been provided, and we continue to be involved in that discussion. >> generally, when folks are talking about deterrents, there's always a tendency to focus on russia, given the one part of the world with a track record of performance, and countries living up to their obligation. but as you look at the world, it is becoming a more nuclear world whether anybody likes it or not. obviously, everyone is committed to stopping iran. but india has nuclear weapons, north korea has nuclear weapons. do we need to reengage, and look at not only russia in terms of arms reductions, but also, what are the other folks on the nuclear block before we make any of those decisions especially for further reduction? >> i wholeheartedly would say yes, and we are doing that

work, through table top exercises, through full blown war games, we are looking at a world that is, a world with a deterrents problem set that is a regional problem set. it is not just about russia anymore. the environment we're operating in, with nuclear deterrents is multinodele. certainly, there are powers that still possess the means to do exsteenings damage to the u.s. with nuclear weapons. we now have to bring into that, a power set that is very complex, because we've got to both deter the regional as piering and assure what we provide. the folks at u.s. stratcom are working on this. >> there is discussion of 5,000

now to come out of this, round about 5,000, give or take, but also folks talking about at the end of the day, the nation can get away with an arsenal of 1,000 weapons. does numerically, 1,000 work given the kind of challenges you have? >> numbers are important in this discussion. more important is the capacity to produce the deterrent attributes that you need for the 21st century environment. as an air man, we produce at the end of the day, responsiveness, and flexibility for the president in his triad. to the degree that can he opinion to do that at a certain number, we're ready to discuss it. but, there is a basic stabilizing effect particularly produced by our icbm leg, which doesn't happen below a certain number. and it's also difficult for us to build an enterprise around too small a number.

so we're very concerned about a pursuit of a local number. >> let's go to the b61, nuclear gravity bomb. it is now being modernized. there are those who look at the costs. som estimates have it as high as $16 billion. why is the b61, as well as so many other nuclear programs costing so much money? what is the challenge in this revitalization. >> these are complex, and high- tech weapons. contrary to every other military capability we produce, this has to stand the scrutiny of nuclear assurety standards. we must be able to prevent an accidental launch, and it must only be deployed, and executed when we have proper authority from the president. those are two very high standards. so the surety things that must go into that weapon are at an

exponentially higher level. the b51 itself is, has thousands of components. when you change out a few of them, you have to make sure that they all work together properly. and you also have to, once you get in there, upgrade those that date back to the 1970s, to make it last for another 20 years. >> how do you cut the cost of doing that? >> we've already done that. engineers, when they open the weapon, gave us a list of things they would like to do to make the weapon really, really good. we just need it to beat basic military characteristics. there were certain things proposed that have already been shed from the program, and those are going to save dollars. >> there is talk about fitting this onto the jsf. the weapon obviously is carried by the bomber force, as well as the f15 strike eagle force. but the jsf was never fully intended, my understanding, to

be a nuclear aircraft. >> we do have a handle on that. it's actually not that hard, as you know, the f35 is a very software intensive airplane. the software must be adjusted to speak to a life extended b61. that software upgrade has been planned for several years now. to be inserted into the development phase of the software for the f35, we're not there yet. it will happen in self-years in the early 2020s, is when we expect the f35 to be integratable with a life extended b61. >> sir, thanks very much. we really appreciate it. >> thank you vago, it's good to have this conversation.

leading radio makers with 60 percent of the us and 40 percent of the global market. the company has also been one of the leading supporters of the network integration evaluations, massive exercises that put prototype equipment in the hands to troops to determine their battlefield utility. their input helps contractors improve their products and shapes what the army buys. the next network integration exercise is later this month in the american southwest that will include a face off among three radio business: harris, itt excelis and general dynamics. joining us again is dennis moran, a retired army signal corps major general who is now vice president for government business development at harris. sir, welcome back . >> thank you. >> i know we're doing a little bit of show and tell here, but let me start off with, you know, in july, a pentagon evaluators had concluded that a

competing radio by general dynamics was having problems and performance issues. the army started to acquire some of your radios in lieu of some of the radios that were having problems. it appears that the pentagon has awarded a $250 million contract for 3700 radios. what's next for you with regard to what is called the h jitters joint tactical radio system contract. >> let me just tell you that harris corporation is still a major provider of capability to the united states army and to other parts of the department of defense. the jts program, since the last time we talked 18 months ago has changed significantly. what has really come across in that program is that the importance of including nondevelopmental item products like the two that we have in front of us here into the mix. i don't know very much about

the pending low rate initial production award, that gd may be getting, but it's a natural part of the hms program as it starts to wind down. but i think what we will see is that as that program goes forward, just like in the rifleman radio, is the hms mad pack as it moves into full rate production, which will be in about a year, will include radios that come, not only for those developed in the program of record, but also introduced by companies like harris, and others. so we're still in the mix, and happy to be there, because we think we bring value to the market. >> in another two weeks, the army is going to conduct its next nie, there's going to be a bit of a faceoff and analysis that's going to happen for the vehicle mounted radios, how tough is that test? and how confident are you that you're going to emerge with something at the end of the

process? >> just like each of the nie's, they're all very important. this one, there's an opportunity for companies to show off what they call their srw soldier radio wave form aplicae. harris is there along with a number of other companies. this is clearly an example of where the army's process is a winner both for the industry and for the war fighter. this was a requirement just identified less than 6 months ago, and it's going to rule in acquisition contracts awarded within 18 months of when they thought it was smart to have this capability. i think our product will do extremely well. we were in the last nie, and just this last spring, and that product did very, very well. >> well, you guys have been a big supporter of the nie process, but is there a sense that you guys have been burned in this process? >> no, that is certainly not an

accurate assessment. if you go back in time, just over the last two years. out of the first nie, because of the performance of the 117g, we received approximately a $66 million order, and there have been other opportunities because of our performance that we've gotten additional opportunities. so i think that the, we still are excited about bringing capability into the nie. i think the process is maturing. i still think for those companies that want to do business with the army, you've got to be at white sands missile range. >> we've got about 30 or so seconds left. ausa is right around the corner, what should we be looking forward to hearing from you guys? >> what is harris bringing to the army brigade combat team modernization. we'll give people a peek at what our full rate production

radios are going to look like. >> and in just a couple of seconds. aerial is also very important. the army wants to get stuff up in the air. we're going to be seeing stuff on that,some ideas? >> absolutely, we have a whole realm of products within harris that provide that capability. >> we really appreciate it. up next, creating a new, nationwide veteran and service member support initiative.

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there are now about 40,000 charitable organizations in america that aim to help veterans. but that many groups pushing in different directions, wasteful in the best of times. the points of light foundation one of america's leading organizations in june launched a blueprint to help veterans in key cities. a key partner is americorps, it trains veterans and deploys them on two year assignments to serve communities nationwide. joining us are mike monroe, and kobe langly, a former officer for the corporation for national community service, the parent of americorps. gentlemen, welcome to the show, mike, i want to start with you, what is the community blue print, how does it work, and what do you hope to accomplish?

>> the community blueprint was created to put tools and resources in the hands of communities to help veterans and their family. what we are doing with it is to help this population that we need to help. >> any services, or are you just talking in the main? is it transaction services, finding jobs? >> we're focusing on eight impact areas. what we think are the most needy areas for the population. and we've created tools that people can use. >> what are the top three impact areas you're looking at? >> homelessness, employment, education, and there's the others. >> kobe, this has never been tried before on this scale. obviously, americorps is one of the big groups that are involved in this. each organizations have their own agendas, they're all pushing in different directions, legitimately. how do you plan to pull more

people into this to grow the size of the team? >> well, first i say we're lucky to have partners like points of light, and nonprofit sponsors bringing resources to this fight. i do have to say americorps has history in this space. there are 1 million alumni, americorps around the nation today, in the past 20 years. >> most of which are veterans. >> a good number of them are veterans. it's that human network that we believe can be the ties that bind these different organizations together. you're right, bringing 55 together is going to be historical. we do have forming partnerships with other associations that kind of started this initiative to help kind of develop the community blueprint, but points of light is a formidable organization. if anybody can get this done by leveraging americorps members, they can do it.

it's 55 organizations. we serve 140 nonprofit organizations in this space right now, so sky is the limit. >> how many organizations do you want to pull in? as resources dwindle, you really can't afford. >> what we're trying to do now, and we launched the community blue print last tuesday. we need to get the penetration into communities. we're launching a veteran leader corps, and that is with the help of americorps, and our lead sponsor, excelis, getting people on the ground. serving in 15, 20 communities around the country. we have the initial class of 30, and their supervisors are out at front royal for a four day training. it's going great, i just came from there.

>> let me ask you, kobe, you were talking about the million person reservoir you guys have. how are some ways you guys are going to deploy that? folks get trained up, do their two year stint, and they're trained, and have nothing to do. >> this is a network of individuals that stay connected, that stay engaged, through the community blueprint model, what we're hoping to do is take these organizations and these nonprofits and provide them with the capitol resources they need to grow, and to reach into communities, and have communities own these partnerships as they're launched, you know from state to state to state. that's what we're really hoping to do. i've got to tell you, when you work with formative nonprofit organizations, legacy nonprofit organizations, they've grown and thrive by leveraging americorps members to assist them in this process. >> the best way people can get in touch with you guys?

>> for me, they can go on the points of light website, or go to www.the- communityblueprint.org. >> thanks guys, we appreciate

defense budgets have been rising for the better part of no surprise that few civilians or uniformed officers now in charge have any experience managing a downturn. sure, a small number of top leaders were jr. officials or officers during the last draw down, but that's not the same thing as managing one. it's a challenge that the chairmen of joint chiefs

recognize and want to change. carter's office organized a seminar about navigating organizations. carter, dempsey and other officers learned through norm augustine. their organizations were widely different, but the common experience here is change management, and there are valuable lessons from each that apply to what the military services will be facing over the coming decade. the fact is that america's military is the best educated force in history, but is behind the power curve when it comes to managing in a time of austerity. too little training is devoted to thinking and operating efficiently, because money wasn't a problem. now that it's time to start cutting, they need to learn a lot in a hurry. we'll be back next week at the

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