US Air Force says these are its options for hiring private aerial refueling companies. “The cost per flying hour for these solutions ranged from $15,000 to $27,000… The report also reveals that, at present, it costs the Air Force an exorbitant $98,000 per flight hour to operate the KC-46A.” Holy guacamole! Cost disease at work on the KC-46A.
China set to complete its BeiDou satellite network, rival to GPS. “… a $9 billion project called BeiDou. That’s Mandarin for “Big Dipper.” Like GPS, BeiDou gives its signals away free… And BeiDou has one feature that GPS doesn’t: satellite texting.”
In war, Chinese shipyards could outpace US in replacing losses; Marine Commandant. Certainly true. “These superb, multipurpose ships are extremely expensive—meaning we’ve never had the desired number.”
Air Force is looking at using magnetic fields to navigate instead of GPS and flight testing it on F-16s. Interesting throughout. “Features of the earth’s crustal magnetic field differ across the globe not unlike the variation in topography over land. Like land features, they remain fairly stable over time so you can use them as “landmarks” for navigation..” … F-16 is doing a lot of innovative things, additive manufacturing, kubernetes… Perhaps attributable to a lot of organic support and a great PM.
Shout it from the rooftops! Give Space Force funding flexibility. Interesting throughout. “We’re not talking about, ‘How do I move, you know, a billion dollars … five years from now?’” he said. “We’re talking about within year of execution, how can we move money within a portfolio to be able to take care of problems that were unforeseen.”
Defense manufacturing groups would get cybersecurity grants under new legislation. Much more simple to directly subsidize what is expected to be an enormously expensive CMMC program rather than have the companies foot the bill with an unclear path to reimbursement through allowable costs on contracts. “… issue funds only to Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) Centers, the public-private partnerships that assist small manufacturers, with the intent of helping those kinds of companies reach compliance.”
Air Force Rapid Sustainment Office to launch sustainment innovation hub. “The capability’s networked “hub and spoke” model – which places the RSO central to the “hub” connected by the “spokes” of venture-backed startups, academia, university-affiliated research centers, and industry consortiums [sic] – will help ensure sustainment innovation.”
Steve Blank: The Chip Wars of the 21st Century. “In May 2020, TSMC announced it was going to build a $12 billion foundry in Arizona to make some of its most advanced chips. Foundries take at least three years to build and are the most expensive factories on earth.” Might fall through, however, if China threatens to nationalize TSMC’s two foundries in mainland China. They have other cards too…
USAF’s new strategy for future tech. A conversation bw Will Roper and Techstars’ Warran Katz. This is interesting: “We cannot continue to work with the same handful of defense companies year after year… [and instead will] grow a new kind of defense industrial base for this century that does not create primes.” Rather than churning the seat of primes with new/innovative companies, there will be no primes? I suppose the idea is, real civil-military fusion with dual-use companies that don’t think of themselves as primes with fully segmented business units. In my mind, that would require a revolution in government cost accounting and contracting.
Missing Osprey part sparks call for an investigation at Yokota. “”The fallen part is a serious accident, which could involve human lives, and causes anxiety among the residents,” the letter [from Japan] states.”
DoD space strategy highlights role of private sector. “The DoD has an opportunity to leverage innovation and cost-effective investments driven by the private sector.”
Navy graduates its first F-35C TOPGUN class. “Pilots from Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 125 “Rough Raiders” and VFA-147 “Argonauts” were the first TOPGUN students to complete the [13 week] course in the F-35C Lightning II.”
SASC wants to reshape industrial base, create ‘innovation base.’ “his will require a “whole of government approach,” the SASC said.” Authorizing $100M to expand capacity. Here are the critical sectors: “microelectronics, rare earth minerals, medical devices, personal protective equipment, and pharmaceutical ingredients.” Another big part is a pilot program to offer higher compensation for highly skilled positions at a level usually only found in the Senior Executive Service.
US Air Force gives blockchain firm $1.5M to build supply chain network. Here’s my article on why the DoD needs to lean into blockchain. “SIMBA CEO Joel Neidig said his firm will “stand up” a node running Hyperledger Fabric at Oklahoma’s Tinker Air Force Base.”
Over-prescriptive requirements hinder defense innovation. “Current efforts might produce a 40-page requirements document, he said. “That’s me telling you how to do it,” he said. “Now, what you’re seeing is a flip. So we’re really asking them, how would you help us solve this problem?” … Of course, performance-based contracting has been a priority since at least the 90s. I think it’s a cultural issue, getting people to think about the technical aspects rather than do what was done on the last contract.
CENTCOM Chief: US troops can’t keep up with the flood of cheap drones downrange. “I argue all the time with my Air Force friends that the future of flight is vertical and it’s unmanned” … “The unfunded priorities list requested $67.6 million for systems to “help counter these airborne IEDs and intelligence gatherers.” Why is that not a *real* priority and actually funded?
A roadmap to getting AI-ready. “When someone comes and asks us to build an impactful AI application to help them make better decisions on the battlefield, we don’t want to have to respond with, ‘Well, we’d love to help you, but you don’t have any data. So, we’ll have to start from scratch.’”
Chinese debates on the military utility of artificial intelligence. “The Chinese military is not a hive mind. Debates within the Chinese military are robust and often contrarian… President Xi has mandated that the Chinese military be “fully modernized” by 2035 and a “world-class military” — on par with the United States military — by 2050.” China’s realism and patience amazes me, but parity with US may come much sooner than 2050 if the US doesn’t go all in on agile acquisition.
Thanks for the reference in the F-16 headline. I can’t take much credit for that project, but it sounds like a promising lab initiative.