US Army and USAF to jointly develop battlefield network, called CJADC2. Combines Army Project Convergence with Advanced Battle Management System. Navy have been less public. Related: A consensus-driven joint concept for all-domain warfare will fall short.
Space Force nears year mark, acquisition remains a quagmire. “The Space Development Agency could easily die away without anybody missing it, said former Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson.” Also this: “65 DoD entities had fingers in the space acquisition pie.”
Democratic Armed Services chairman predicts defense budget fight if Biden wins. Adam Smith (D-Wash) “There will be those Democrats who want to substantially cut the defense budget. I don’t believe it is the majority of my party, and I know it is not the position of the Biden-Harris ticket.” The figure some Democrats have “trotted out” is a 20 percent cut.
Air Force eyes Autonomous Tanker for KC-46 follow-on: Roper. If KC-46 is doing so poorly, and the Air Force already wants to move on to the next, much more survivable, tanker concept, then why not cancel the KC-46 and use those vast quantities of funds? Well, there’s current tanker missions needing to be met, and the current fleet is over 50 years old! And Boeing would have taken a ~$3.5 billion hit, without the payoff of production and sustainment. But hard choices have to be made somewhere, why not here? KC-46 will crowd out so much in the future if it keeps going, with cost per flight hour near $100K, perhaps 4x existing tankers!
US ICBM to replace 1970s Minuteman may cost $111 billion. “… the purchase of 659 missiles — 25 for initial testing and 634 for silos, spares and later testing.” CBO says nuclear modernization could peak to 15% of DoD acquisition costs in early 2030s, including B-21 and Columbia Class.
Aircraft mission capable rates rise: Gen. Wilson. No real figures given though… Also, “Just yesterday, Lockheed Martin announced that it may miss its production goals for this year by up to 24 aircraft because of supplier delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic”
Over a dozen companies awarded contracts for Air Force’s Skyborg combat drone program. AFLCMC has said it wants to “award as many IDIQ contracts as practicable, and to include additional contractors over time.” Not clear to me if the competition will mostly be for open mission systems on the Valkyrie system from Kratos, or if the other players are contending strongly with Kratos and there might be one or multiple airframes chosen. Related: AFLCMC awards Skyborg second phase.
New document reveals scope and structure of Operation Warp Speed and underscores vast military involvement. “Just 29 of the roughly 90 leaders on the chart aren’t employed by the Department of Defense”
Ending China’s Chokehold on Rare-Earth minerals. The real point is processing, not just extraction: “While China’s proportion of the world’s remaining reserves is estimated at between 25% and 45%, extraction is no longer China’s sole leverage on the market. Nearly all the rare earths mined anywhere in the world, including the U.S., are processed in China.”
In R&D, Generalists are more valuable than you think. “Over the last 40 years, organizations have increased their expenditures on R&D as a percentage of all expenses by 800%.”
The Pentagon’s highly questionable proposals for a Navy with over 500 ships. “… it’s unclear how realistic the Navy’s plans for getting to the existing 355-ship mark might be, let alone increasing that total to over 500 vessels.”
[I forgot to schedule this post for last Sunday, Oct 4… the first missed day since I started this blog. But I’ll give myself a pass because it was my wedding day!]
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