Acquisition headlines (10/18 – 10/24/2020)

Cheap drones vs. expensive tanks: a battlefield game-changer? “The war has been most visibly characterised by ‘kill cam’ footage of drones attacking armoured fighting vehicles, including main battle tanks, as well as unprotected infantry, with devastating effect.”

Air Force new fighter jet: who built the secret new fighter jet. “Lockheed Martin’s Chief Financial Officer has dropped hints that the aerospace giant is working on a new aircraft program—and clues suggest it just might be the Air Force’s secret new fighter jet.”

Google AI Tech will be used for virtual border wall, CBP contract shows. Good long-form article. “Google’s technology for CBP will be used in conjunction with work done by Anduril Industries.”

Contentious Corona Debates push budget decisions. “This “culture of consensus” slows the service down, he said, because “you can’t get everybody to agree, so you don’t agree, and you keep working it until you beat down your dissenters,” at which point it’s put before a boss “to approve it.””

Network, GPS will be jammed in project convergence 2021. “In this fall’s Project Convergence exercises, it took a heroic effort just to get the network to work at all. Next year, the Army wants the network to function in the face of electronic attack.”

What we don’t know about military innovation. Will we see more caution in acquisition? “There is real value to rapid technology demonstrations and prototyping, but doing a rapid prototype in the absence of a plan for what comes next – design maturity, production, sustainment, and DOTMLPF-P considerations—is likely to build a bridge to nowhere.”

Lockheed picks Relativity’s 3D-printed rocket for experimental NASA mission. ““If you look at the manufacturing tools being used today, they’re not much different from the last 60 years,” Ellis explained. “It’s fixed tooling, giant machines that look impressive but only make one shape or one object that’s been designed by hand. And it’ll take 12-24 months to make it.” Not so with Relativity. “With our 3D-printed approach we can print the entire fairing in under 30 days,” Ellis said. “It’s also software defined, so we can just change the file to change the dimensions and shape.””

DOD Approves $87 Million for Newest Bioindustrial Manufacturing Innovation Institute. “… the $87M in DoD funding will be combined with over $187M in non-federal cost-share from 31 companies, 57 colleges and universities, six nonprofits, and two venture capital groups across 31 states. “

Supreme Court to hear case over use of DoD funds for Trump border wall. “The high court has previously allowed construction to continue, even after a federal appeals court ruled in June that the administration had illegally sidestepped Congress in transferring the Defense Department funds.”

New podcast: Maneuver against the bureaucracy.

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply