Defense Business Brief: Defense giants gird for tax battle; $715B skinny budget; Mixed readiness picture; and more… (Defense One) “Raytheon Technologies CEO Greg Hayes issued a blunt assessment of the White House’s proposal to increase the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28%. Raytheon’s tax bill would increase by about $1 billion, and that “means I have to reduce my investment budget by about 20 percent,” Hayes said during a virtual Economic Club of Washington event. The company currently spends about $5 billion annually on research and development.”
America and its military need a blockchain strategy. (C4ISRNET) “Chinese military publications have consistently proclaimed that blockchain technology will provide the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) with an edge in intelligence, weapons lifecycle, personnel management and information warfare… Russia and China are sending overwhelming numbers of delegates to international forums working on blockchain… For the U.S. military, blockchain’s distributed ledger can make acquisitions data more transparent and auditable. The technology can also help combat single points of failures across the digital infrastructure.”
Meet South Korea’s New KF-21 “Hawk” Indigenous Fighter. (The Drive) “The Republic of Korea Air Force (ROKAF) is expected to induct 40 KF-21s by 2028 and have the full fleet of 120 aircraft deployed by 2032… and are intended to complement F-35A stealth fighters—60 of which are being procured from the United States… it does not provide the kind of all-aspect stealth offered by these U.S. fighters… Under a project worth a total of $7.9 billion, South Korea is developing the KF-21 together with Indonesia, which agreed to pay 20 percent of development costs and plans to acquire 50 examples for its own air force.”
Why did China cancel two of its super aircraft carriers? (National Interest) “… the South China Morning Post reported that Beijing was scrapping plans for a fifth and sixth nuclear-powered carrier, once it finished construction of two new steam-powered vessels. The reason? “Technical challenges and high costs,” including issues particularly linked to development of the latter two vessel’s electromagnetic launch systems—the same system bedeviling the U.S. Navy… In a high-intensity conflict with the United States, the PLA Navy would likely struggle to use its carriers without exposing them to unacceptably high levels of risk.”
ABMS aims to revolutionize data flow, speed decisions. (US Air Force) Virtual industry day held with more than 300 industry partners. “Moving forward to create this environment, ABMS will focus on six attributes: secure processing, connectivity, data management, applications, sensor integration, and effects integration… Requests for information from industry will be posted through the standard process via the Government Point of Entry.”
Pentagon releases guides for marking controlled unclassified information ahead of CMMC program launch (Inside Cybersecurity) And here’s the CUI markings chart. These detailed instructions for CUI apply to just about everything, including personnel records, health information, general privacy information, anything in procurement and acquisition, financial data, etc. It must be encrypted if moved anywhere and put through IAW DoDI 5230.09 process if it is to be decontrolled or released.
Army moves ahead on ‘mixed reality’ goggle with Microsoft in $21.8 billion contract. (Army Times) “The goggle then can sync with a company-level cloud, called the “bloodhound,” that processes the data and updates it with new information. The bloodhound then connects with the larger network or cloud when accessible. In early work with the company Shield AI, developers are testing out 3D mapping scans of building interiors, which could be piped into the goggle, allowing a team to see the layout of a building before kicking down doors.”
F-35 Hitmen Put U.S. And Partner Lives At Risk. (Forbes) “If the F-35 is such a “bad deal,” why is the Chinese Air Force trying to copy it in quantity? … When I was first flying the F-15 in the 1970s over half the fleet was grounded due to a lack of operable engines. At one point multiple F-16s were crashing each month. These challenges were solved, as will those facing the F-35.”
Quantum breakthroughs help Army, Air Force advance supercomputing. (Army Times) “… papers published through Army and Air Force-led efforts have found new ways to correct longstanding errors in quantum methods, using machine learning techniques to improve sensing and methods to build quantum communication networks.”
The Navy is getting really into lasers. (Popular Mechanics) ” The U.S. Navy is installing laser weapon systems on nine destroyers as part of an evaluation of the weapons’ potential. Eight of the lasers are lower power weapons designed to dazzle or blind enemy sensors and drones [Optical Dazzling Interdictor, Navy (ODIN)]. The remaining weapon, HELIOS, has the potential to… destroy incoming cruise missiles.”
Russian Army to set up first military unit armed with strike robots. (Tass) “”As Chief of the Army Main Staff Vasily Tonkoshurov reported to the defense minister, the first unit with strike robots will be set up in the Russian Armed Forces to operate five Uran-9 robotic systems or 20 combat vehicles,” the ministry said… The Uran-9 combat robot is produced by the 766th Production and Technological Enterprise. It is armed with a 30mm automatic gun, Ataka anti-tank missiles and Shmel flamethrowers.”
US Space Force establishes tech and acquisition arm in Los Angeles. (Dot.LA) “The Los Angeles Air Force Base’s Space and Missile Systems Center in El Segundo will become the headquarters of the planned division called the Space Systems Command.” There are 25 aerospace unicorns operating in LA today.
Space Force to establish a new command to oversee technology development and acquisition. (Space News) “Altogether SSC will oversee a workforce of about 10,000 people… Two space procurement organizations that are not part of SMC — the Space Rapid Capabilities Office at Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico; and the Pentagon’s Space Development Agency — will not be part of the SSC but will work closely with the new command, Thompson said. Thompson said the new command is not simply a re-labeling of existing activities done by SMC… For example, SMC realigned program offices that operated in vertical organizations into a horizontal enterprise so there is more coordination and sharing of resources… A new organization called SpaceWERX — formed recently under the Air Force technology accelerator AFWERX to work with space entrepreneurs and venture investors — will be under the SSC space systems architect.”
F-15EX named the Eagle II. (Air Force Magazine) “… the F-15EX is designed to take advantage of recent advancements in F-15 development funded by foreign partners, and new approaches in digital engineering to speed up the acquisition timeline. The two F-15EXs will be delivered within nine months of the contract award, as opposed to the normal 39 months… Ten percent of the [F-15C/D] fleet is grounded due to structural issues, with 75 percent flying beyond their certified service life, he said. The fleet has an average age of 37 years, and a life extension is “cost prohibitive,” he said.”
The last bus problem. (Boz) “Building hardware roadmaps has proven to have a similar quality. When there is only one product in the roadmap there is pressure from every technology team to try to fit their feature in somehow. That is hardly the path to a great product. But when you have multiple products roadmapped out into the future people can target the appropriate intercept for their feature based on quality and value.”
Hypersonic missile fails test-launch from B-52 bomber. (Defense One) “The ARRW was to launch from the B-52 over the Pacific Ocean. Instead, “the test missile was not able to complete its launch sequence and was safely retained on the aircraft which returned to Edwards AFB,” the Air Force said in an emailed statement… Lockheed is developing several hypersonic weapons for the U.S. military. At the end of 2020, the company had “north of $3 billion” in hypersonic-related orders.”
Valkyrie drone launches even smaller drone from inside payload bay. (Defense News) “During the Valkyrie’s sixth flight test at Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona, it opened its payload bay doors during flight for the first time and released an ALTIUS-600, a small, tube-launched autonomous drone made by Area-I, a Georgia-based company that designs unmanned aerial systems… [The ALTIUS-600] can weigh up to 27 pounds — including a 6-pound payload stored in its nose — and has an endurance of about four hours, according to Area-I.
Microchip security continues to confound Pentagon. (Text Xplore) “Nearly nine years ago, the Senate Armed Services Committee reported the results of an investigation of counterfeit electronic parts in the U.S. military. The year-long probe found fully 1 million bogus parts, including components for several types of combat aircraft… China’s share of the Defense Department semiconductor market, in particular, grew from 7 percent to 13 percent from 2010 to 2019… nearly 90 percent of U.S. computer chip manufacturing needs comes from East Asia… About 17 years ago, the Pentagon created a so-called Trusted Foundry program… This program covers only about 2 percent of the chips the military buys… [In FY 2020 NDAA, Congress] directed the Defense Department to develop a system for monitoring the trustworthiness of its semiconductors and to implement it by 2023.”
Lockheed Martin buys up to 58 launches from rocket builder ABL space. (CNBC) “ABL’s RS1 rocket fits in the middle of the launch marketplace, between Rocket Lab’s small Electron and SpaceX’s large Falcon 9 vehicle. RS1 is nearly 90 feet tall and is designed to launch as much as 1,350 kg (nearly 1½ tons) of payload to low Earth orbit… Lockheed Martin’s venture arm is one of ABL’s early investors, with the company having raised about $220 million in private capital so far… Based on ABL’s $12 million price tag for an RS1 rocket, the deal with Lockheed Martin is estimated to be worth nearly $700 million over eight years, assuming the maximum number of launches.”
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