Microsoft Wins Pentagon’s $10 Billion JEDI Contract, Thwarting Amazon. “In 20 years of covering tech, I’ve never seen a battle for any type of contract reach this level of nastiness.” The bigger news sites seem to imply that Trump had a strong hand in the source selection. I doubt that, though the political types would call me naive.
And the backlash heats up over “so-called” OT contracts: Seeking an edge over geopolitical rivals, Pentagon exploits an obscure regulatory workaround. Again, the main problem seems to be that they say OTs are going to major traditional contractors, but it’s not clear that is actually the case.
More on the OT debate: Before getting down too far into the weeds of the [Washington] Post’s misleading or clearly erroneous statements.
Pentagon, With an Eye on China, Pushes for Help From American Tech.
Is this a surprise? Navy May Scrap Goal of 355 Ships; 310 Is Likely. I wonder how much of that is difficulty/cost of ramping up procurement at shipyards, and how much is the infeasibility of making many ship hulls operating 40 or 50 years. Find more on that in my podcast with Ed Keating from the CBO.
SecNav accuses Congress of spreading disinformation about Gerald Ford carrier.”Secretary Spencer himself promised the President that the weapons elevators would be fully functional by the end of this past summer. It is now fall and no elevators accessing the ammunition storage areas are functioning, which results in a carrier with no combat capability.” It’s odd that SecNav would make such a promise when he doesn’t have the technical knowledge to set it right himself, and is in any case very far removed from actual operations of the contractor or program office.
More on that: Carrier Ford May Not Deploy Until 2024, 3rd Weapons Elevator Certified. Rep. Elaine Luria asked: “The original deployment was 2018 and best estimates we’re looking at 2024?” From the FY15 SAR for the CVN-78, it seems that Initial Operational Capability was slated from Feb. 2016, not 2018. So that’s an 8 year slip, not 6.
And what’s going on with Chinese carriers? Satellite images reveal China’s aircraft carrier ‘factory,’ analysts say. “I think the really surprising thing these images show is the extensive infrastructure buildup that has gone on.”
Shanahan and others on DOD AI: “I can’t speak exactly on the quality of their talent, but here’s the way I talk about this: If you put enough people and enough money at the problem, eventually you solve the problem, even if you’re not going to get it right for the first five years… There are a lot of people who want to go very quickly with A.I. but we live by five-year budget cycles.”
US Air Force gets its first anti-drone laser weapon from Raytheon. It is also mounted on a land vehicle. I wonder how it performs using a laser compared to the Army’s BLADE or USAF’s THOR systems which use electronic attack. It’s nice that they are testing alternative systems rather than pre-committing to one.
Boeing and Lockheed Martin to build advanced infrared search and track (IRST) for Navy Super Hornet. “Infrared sensors like the IRST detect the heat from an aircraft’s engine exhaust or even the heat generated by the friction of an aircraft as it passes through the atmosphere. Unlike radar, infrared sensors do not emit electronic signals, and do not give away their presence to adversaries.” If the US will have it operational by 2021, and we can expect adversaries to be close behind, then what happens to the logic of stealth aircraft like the F-35?
Israel to Eradicate Some of F-35’s Downsides by Heavily Modifying Them. “While the entire list of changes for the jet as a part of the modification programme remains unclear [on-board computer is one of them], it will feature options to install third-party additions that are ‘plug-and-play'”
A British DARPA. “The government also wants to ‘[reduce] bureaucracy in research funding to ensure our brilliant scientists are able to spend as much time as possible creating new ideas, not filling in unnecessary forms.'”
Meet Project TERN: DARPA’s Crazy Plan to Make Every Ship an Aircraft Carrier. A part of disaggregated mosaic warfare? Perhaps the logic is, if you can’t make a supercarrier more survivable, then build smaller systems with drones. The problem is potentially that drones are less survivable themselves, or that supercarriers are expensive because they provide many opportunities to get more robust. Torpedo boats, after all, didn’t make capital ships go extinct.
Textron unveils revolutionary unmanned light tank at AUSA 2019.
Hypersonics Pitch Day: Air Force Woos [9] Startups. Let’s see if USAF will spread a little money around, or whether they will put significant funding to a contractor like the Army/Navy did for Dynetics, which won $351.6 million.
Leave a Reply