Pentagon: N. Korea moving closer to nuke missile

By David Alexander

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - North Korea's continuing development of nuclear technology and long-range ballistic missiles will move it closer to its stated goal of being able to hit the United States with an atomic weapon, a new Pentagon report to Congress said on Thursday.

The report, the first version of an annual Pentagon assessment required by law, said Pyongyang's Taepodong-2 missile, with continued development, might ultimately be able to reach parts of the United States carrying a nuclear payload if configured as an intercontinental ballistic missile.

North Korea launched a multi-stage rocket that delivered a satellite into orbit in December, an advance that "contributes heavily" to the country's development of a long-range ballistic missile capability, the report said.

It is also continuing to refine its atomic weapons capability, including with a nuclear detonation in February, and is capable of conducting "additional nuclear tests at any time," the report said.

"These advances in ballistic-missile delivery systems, coupled with developments in nuclear technology ... are in line with North Korea's stated objective of being able to strike the U.S. homeland," the report said.

"North Korea will move closer to this goal, as well as increase the threat it poses to U.S. forces and allies in the region, if it continues testing and devoting scarce regime resources to these programs," it said.

The document characterized North Korea as one of the biggest U.S. security challenges in the region because of its effort to develop nuclear arms and missiles, its record of selling weapons technology to other countries and its willingness to "undertake provocative and destabilizing behavior."

The report comes at a sensitive time in the region, with friction between Washington and Pyongyang only now beginning to ease following two months of increasingly shrill rhetoric that seemed to edge the Korean peninsula close to war.

Tensions between the two countries rose sharply after North Korea put the satellite into space in late December and conducted the nuclear test in February. The test triggered new U.N. sanctions, which led to a barrage of threats from Pyongyang.

North Korea went so far as to warn of nuclear strikes on the United States and South Korea, as its new leader, Kim Jong-un, marked his first year in office following the death of his father.

The U.S. and South Korean militaries went ahead with a long-scheduled military exercise despite the threats and Washington sending stealth bombers and other planes to the region in a show of force.

North Korea signed a deal to get rid of its nuclear program in exchange for aid in 2005 but later backed out of the pact and now says it will not give up its atomic weapons program.

The United States has firmly rejected North Korean demands that it be recognized as a nuclear-armed state. Washington has stepped up its diplomacy with China over the issue.

(Reporting By David Alexander; Editing by David Brunnstrom)

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Pentagon to Furlough Teachers, Cut Commissary Time

The Pentagon says it will be forced to furlough about 15,000 military school teachers and staff around the world because of the automatic budget cuts that took effect last Friday, but the department will manage the process so that the schools don't lose their accreditation.

Pentagon press secretary George Little says the military will also close all of the commissaries on bases around the world for one extra day each week. They are currently open six days a week.

Teachers will likely have to take a day off each week, since the school day can't legally be shortened.

Little says the cuts, which run through September, will have an impact on the current school year and the one that will begin in August or September.

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Pentagon says no additional cracks found in F-35 engines

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon said on Wednesday that no additional cracks have been found on F-35 fighter engines during inspections begun after the February 19 incident that halted flights of the entire fighter fleet, and operation of the engines on the ground.

Kyra Hawn, spokeswoman for the F-35 program office, said officials were continuing to investigate a cracked engine blade found on a test plane at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, with engineers at enginemaker Pratt & Whitney due to break open the affected engine blade for further study on Wednesday.

Pratt, a unit of United Technologies Corp, supplies the engine for the single-engine, single-seat fighter plane, which is built by Lockheed Martin Corp.

The Pentagon announced the grounding of all F-35 warplanes on Friday after an inspection revealed a crack on a turbine blade in the jet engine of an F-35 being tested at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

It was the second engine-related grounding in two months of the $396 billion F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the Pentagon's largest weapons program. The Marines Corps version of the plane was grounded for nearly a month starting in mid-January because of a faulty hose in the engine.

Hawn said inspections were under way of the engines on all 51 F-35 jets in the Pentagon's inventory, as well as additional engines that are spares or on planes being assembled by Lockheed at its Fort Worth, Texas, plant.

None of the engines inspected thus far had shown similar cracks to the one found on the Florida test plane, she said.

She said nondestructive testing of the cracked turbine blade had been completed, including microscopic tests and X-rays, with additional "destructive" testing scheduled for Wednesday, including a test in which the blade will be "fractured" open for closer examination of the surface.

She said the Pentagon would announce further details when the engineering investigation was complete.

Sources familiar with the investigation told Reuters on Tuesday that Pratt & Whitney is 99 percent sure the problem with the turbine problem that grounded the Pentagon's F-35 fleet was not caused by high-cycle fatigue, which could force a costly design change.

Pratt officials have also largely ruled out a manufacturing defect, according to two sources briefed on the investigation, who said the company was recommending the resumption of ground operations of the engine as early as Wednesday, and a return to flight operations later this week.

Tests completed on Tuesday supported that view, pointing to a "creep structure rupture" caused by the fact that the engine on that particular test plane had been run particularly hard at hot temperatures since it was used for after-burner testing, said the two sources, who were not authorized to speak publicly.

Current engines would not reach the same "hot time" for years, Pratt engineers have said, which would allow the Pentagon to impose incremental limits on engine use and monitor them for possible component replacement, one of the sources said.

"Basically this engine was run for an extraordinary amount of time at very high power in a short period of time," said the source, who was not authorized to speak publicly.

Pratt had no comment on the state of the investigation.

The top uniformed officers in the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps are due to meet on Thursday for a long-scheduled meeting about the F-35, but they are slated to discuss bigger issues such as when the services can start using the new warplanes for military operations, according to a defense official familiar with the meeting. The services must provide estimated dates for "initial operating capability" to Congress by June 1.

The service chiefs would also discuss a new Pentagon drive to use competition to reduce the staggering cost of operating and maintaining the new jets, a sum now forecast at over $1 trillion over the next decades, the source said.

Lieutenant General Christopher Bogdan, who runs the F-35 program for the Pentagon, slammed Pratt and Lockheed during an air show in Australia earlier on Wednesday, accusing the companies of trying to "squeeze every nickel" out of the U.S. government and failing to see the long-term benefits of the project.

Hawn said a separate incident involving temperature control equipment built by Honeywell International Inc has been deemed a "minor test discovery, with no impact to safety of flight or operations.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal-Esa; editing by Gerald E. McCormick, Matthew Lewis and Bernard Orr)

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Pentagon suspends F-35 flights due to engine blade crack

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon on Friday suspended the flights of all F-35 fighter planes after a routine inspection revealed a crack on a turbine blade in the jet engine of an F-35 test aircraft in California.

The F-35 program office said it was too early to know the fleet-wide impact of the engine issue, but it was suspending all flights until an investigation into the issue was completed.

It said it was working closely with Pratt & Whitney, the United Technologies Corp unit which builds the engine for the fighter, and Lockheed Martin Corp, the prime contractor for the radar-evading warplane, to ensure the integrity of the engine and return the F-35 fleet to flight as soon as possible.

(Reporting By Andrea Shalal-Esa; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick)

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Pentagon buyers authorized to discuss budget cuts with industry

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon's top weapons buyer on Thursday authorized Defense Department purchasers and program managers to begin talking to industry partners about plans for implementing $46 billion in budget cuts on March 1 and what impact it may have on business.

The directions from Frank Kendall, the undersecretary of defense for acquisition, were the first time Pentagon contracting and acquisitions personnel have been authorized to consult with their industry counterparts about the upcoming spending cuts, known as sequestration.

Kendall said in a February 21 memorandum obtained by Reuters that Pentagon purchasers and program managers were "encouraged" to begin making contact with industry counterparts at the discretion of their managers and chains of command.

"It is important we keep industry informed about our plans and involved in our decision-making process to the maximum extent possible, particularly when ongoing or upcoming contract awards may be affected," Kendall said in the memo.

Company officials said they had been warning of the damage sequestration could cause and had been pressing for a solution.

"For over a year, Northrop Grumman has been vocal about the negative impacts sequestration will have on national security, the industrial base, the supplier chain, the workforce, and the national economy," Northrop Vice President Randy Belote said.

An official at another company, speaking on condition of anonymity, said, "we're encouraged by any efforts, and we're working closely with our customers to understand how sequestration could impact our programs."

"Significant delays in funding for any production program could threaten the stability of our supply chains, increase costs, prolong delivery schedules and ultimately weaken our national security posture," the official said.

The authorization for Pentagon purchasing officials to begin talking to their industry counterparts comes a week before $46 billion in across-the-board spending cuts are scheduled to go into force on March 1.

Pentagon officials have issued dire warnings in recent days about the potential impact of the cuts. The cuts will be compounded by the fact that the department did not receive an appropriation for this year and is being funded by a "continuing resolution" that keeps spending at 2012 levels.

Officials say 2012 funding levels are about the same as 2013, but the budget priorities are different and much of the money is in the wrong accounts. The Pentagon, they say, has little flexibility to shift funds between accounts and is facing a significant shortfall in some areas.

Kendall said talks with industry would help both sides prepare more effectively.

"Engaging in this dialogue will allow industry to more productively make their own internal business plans to deal with potential sequestration impacts," Kendall said in the memo.

"Feedback from industry will provide valuable insights as government managers decide how best to move forward in attempting to meet the war-fighter requirements and DoD (Department of Defense) needs under severely constrained budgetary conditions."

Kendall's memorandum also encouraged program managers and grant officers to quickly notify companies and universities carrying out Pentagon research about any plans to reduce their grants or awards funding.

"Program and awarding officials ... should work together to notify recipients as soon as practicable after decisions about reductions are made so that recipients have as much time as possible to adjust their program execution plans," Kendall's memo said.

The acquisitions chief said communication would need to be more limited if proprietary information were involved or if the contract was in the process of being awarded.

"However, as a general rule, transparency with industry and academia while we plan for potential sequestration and CR (continuing resolution) is in the department's long-term best interests," Kendall said.

(Reporting By David Alexander; Editing by David Brunnstrom and Stacey Joyce)

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