Three Virginia lawmakers wrote to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, complaining about news that the employees now under the National Security Personnel System would not get an “across-the-board pay raise with other federal employees.” Government Executive reports that Rep. Tom Davis (R), Rep. James Moran (D), and Rep. Frank Wolf (R) are not anti-NSPS, but they said employees under Spiral 1 were told that, in the first year under the new system, they would receive the same basic pay boost as those still under the old civil service system. The Pentagon’s new civilian personnel system is still under legal attack from unions, with at least one threatening to pursue Supreme Court relief from the plan’s current labor relations rules.
There is a new entrant in the highly competitive field of collaborative combat aircraft—semi-autonomous drones meant to fly alongside manned combat aircraft. Northrop Grumman unveiled its new Project Talon aircraft to a small group of reporters at the facilities of its subsidiary Scaled Composites.
