“NASA’s X-59 QueSST (short for Quiet SuperSonic Technology) is an experimental piloted aircraft designed to fly faster than sound without producing the annoying – if not alarming – sonic booms of previous supersonic aircraft.” Link is here.
Good ideas: “Drone swarm attacks of the type that crippled Saudi oil refineries, could be hammered down with an electromagnetic weapon called “Thor” developed by the United States Air Force (USAF) research laboratory.”
5 Massive Defense Deals You Have Might Missed in Last Week’s Pentagon Contracts Update. Some new company names in there for me.
Hedge Funds Have Never Been This Bullish On Lockheed Martin Corporation. You’d think that if the innovation hubs in the DOD are successful in transitioning new technologies and new companies, investors wouldn’t be so bullish on the huge incumbents. The DOD budget is a zero-sum game. Looks like Wall Street is betting on the status quo playing out for a while longer.
“Moreover, hypersonic gliders are actually at a speed disadvantage compared with ballistic missiles of the same range.” Here’s the author’s point: “The Pentagon’s budget request for fiscal 2020 included $2.6 billion for hypersonic-related research, and there is a strong appetite in Washington for deploying hypersonic weapons as soon as possible. But the Defense Department would be wise to move cautiously. Hypersonic weapons may ultimately find their niche in U.S. military strategy, but first the Pentagon must define their role and analyze potential alternatives.” In other words, stop everything until a clear military requirement is created… note that this was the same argument made about the F-16 and F-18 when they got into development — there was no military requirement and so Congress should halt all funding!
Kongsberg unveils Vanguard warship design that could ‘rock the market’. Extensive use of commercial technologies has led to a reported 50 percent decline in sustainment costs, which is generally 60-70 percent of total system lifecycle costs. A slice: “Vanguard will have what is effectively a plug-and-play capability, enabling the multipurpose vessel to pack containers — that meet this International Organization for Standardization’s guidelines.” How’d Norway do it with so little funding compared to the US Navy? Well, it was probably because they had an austere budget they pulled it off. Read the whole thing.
China has developed a sophisticated stealth armed drone that is reportedly capable of evading US defence systems. It is called the “Sharp Sword.” I guess that depends on how well US “passive” radar is coming along…
More on that: India to Upgrade Its Sukhoi with Radar Capable of Detecting F-35, Chinese J-20. Claims are detection ranges between 29 and 58 kilometers, so an F-35 would pick up the adversary far in advance.
Trump tweeted ‘billions of dollars’ would be saved on military contracts. Then the Pentagon fired the official doing that. — This really wasn’t about Trump, however. Long article but important — reminds me of the backlash against Gordon Rule in the early 1970s who built up a $1 billion backlog in Navy change order requests.
ComNavOps: “The Navy views the MQ-8C as the key to enabling the LCS as a viable anti-ship threat and yet it is difficult to see how the aircraft can effectively and survivably perform the intended scout/targeting function.” Here’s the link.
“The Navy would have to spend $200 billion more — a 31 percent boost each year — over the next 30 years to reach its goal of 355-ships.” That lack of flexibility in ramping up ship procurements is startling, even when it is a long term increase. Comes out to about $2.8 billion a ship on average for the 304 ships purchased through 2034.
Meet America’s newest military giant: Amazon. Winning the JEDI cloud would not make Amazon a military giant. Amazon is already a giant, and adding $1 billion a year over ten years doesn’t push to needle very much. But the JEDI episode shows that it’s nearly impossible to break into defense as a major prime, even for a firm like Amazon that is incredibly skilled at enterprise sales.
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