CSAF: F-22 not in USAF’s long-term plan. (Air Force Magazine) “Charles Q. Brown Jr. wants to neck down the Air Force’s fighter inventory from seven fleets to four, and the F-22 is not on his short list… The objective mix will include the A-10 “for a while”; the Next-Generation Air Dominance system; the F-35, “which will be the cornerstone” of the fleet; the F-15EX; and the F-16 or its successor… “The F-22 is still undergoing modernization,” USAF spokeswoman Ann Stefanek said. “There are no plans to retire it in the near-term.” How and when the F-22 will retire will depend on the outcome of the TacAir study, she said.”
DARPA seeks “always on” interconnected networks for multidomain missions. (DARPA) “Current military networks, however, are manually and statically configured, stove piped, prone to error, and don’t scale easily… To provide continuously available network pathways, DARPA recently announced its Mission-Integrated Network Control (MINC) program. MINC seeks to develop software that autonomously configures networks of networks regardless of the communication device or networking resource… Successful DARPA networking and information programs such as DyNAMO, SHARE, SoSITE STITCHES, and Network UP have addressed various challenges associated with deconstructing the stack and demonstrated key technologies that MINC will leverage.”
Head of Pentagon’s ‘SWAT team of nerds’ stepping down. (Politico) “Brett Goldstein, who was appointed DDS’ second-ever director in 2019, will finish his “nerd tour of duty” at the end of June… Under Goldstein, DDS expanded its portfolio beyond software and so-called bug bounty programs like the “Hack the Pentagon” to include projects ranging from support for pandemic-fighting units to developing a biometric app to help Army soldiers on the battlefield distinguish between fellow soldiers and enemies.”
South Korea develops autonomous UAV navigation technology “to avoid hazards in sky.” (Urban Air Mobility News) “While UAVs and smaller drones are capable of reaching their destination autonomously, it is hard for them to detect hazards such as high-rise buildings and large trees in real-time and navigate around them… South Korea’s Agency for R&D in defence technology has developed a technology that allows Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to autonomously avoid external threats and obstacles while flying.” Result of a 4-year program.
Northrop Grumman to develop sense-and-avoid solution for Triton. (Janes) ““Sense and avoid will help ensure our customers can safely operate Triton out of almost any airfield or airport in the world, in full compliance with current and emerging aviation regulations around the globe… “Our sense and avoid solutions enable active collision avoidance, empowering them to operate safely in commercial airspace.””
NAVSEA seeing ship sustainment successes with digital twins, but wants a more comprehensive tool. (USNI News) “Also in the digital transformation strategy is an emphasis on cybersecurity, which Galinis said was a top priority. Asked during the event about what kind of cyber threats NAVSEA and the fleet face, especially in light of last week’s ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline, Galinis said that “I think we’re already at war in that space, quite frankly, and I think we saw that … last week. And whether it’s a state or a non-state actor. But that’s an area that we take very seriously.””
Building the software that helps build SpaceX. (Space Overflow Blog) “One problem with a monolith is that you have to deploy all of the pieces together. If something was broken in our shop floor system, but we had big changes that we wanted to release in the inventory system, we had to wait to deploy the changes,” says Madonia. “We were on a weekly release cadence and we needed to move faster.”
Electron launch fails. (Space News) “The rocket was carrying two imaging satellites for geospatial intelligence company BlackSky… The previous Electron launch, in March, also carried a BlackSky satellite as part of a rideshare mission. The launch is the second failure of the Electron in less than a year, and the third in 20 launches.”
Fast and furious: Army to test laser weapon as it looks to field rapidly developed system next year. (Stars and Stripes) “It took the Army, with defense contractor Kord Technologies, less than two years to build the first Directed Energy Maneuver Short-Range Air Defense system, or DE M-SHORAD — a Stryker A1 vehicle outfitted with a 50-kilowatt high-energy laser. Army officials want to field the first four DE M-SHORADs to soldiers by late next year to provide highly mobile air defense protection against new world threats like armed enemy drones.” Read the whole thing.
Space Force aims to take on an Air Force surveillance mission. (Defense One) ““The Air Force, now the Space Force, has a program that we’re building GMTI for space, from space. And so you will see that’s another area where we’re actively working to be able to provide that capability.”
Two men accused of illegally obtaining, selling Air Force technical data. (Air Force Times) “Sarfraz Yousuf, 43, is accused of selling at least 1,875 sets of data known as technical orders to Marc Chavez, 53, between January 2015 and July 2020.”
Microwave weapons could be used to destroy swarms of drones. (BBC) “military researchers and arms manufacturers are developing directed energy weapons with the power to disable drones using lasers, particle beams, radio frequency waves and more. One of the latest is called Leonidas, created by US start-up Epirus. It uses high-powered microwaves (HPM) to overwhelm drones’ onboard electronics.”
Arqit raising $400 million with a SPAC to launch quantum encryption satellites in 2023. (Space News) “Arqit is not disclosing who is building its satellites, which will support quantum encryption technology it calls QuantumCloud. The startup says its technology will secure communications links of any networked device against hacking, including attacks from a quantum computer.”
Proposed bill aims to toss a new wrench in NASA’s moon lander plan. (The Verge) “Under Cantwell’s language [for the FY22 NASA authorization bill], NASA would be required to reopen the competition within 30 days and allow it to use $10 billion of its budget to pick a second lunar lander provider.”
Just in: Pentagon ‘doubling down’ on acquisition reform. (National Defense Magazine) “Since 2010, NAVSEA has seen a 25 percent increase in its workload but has also grown its workforce by about 10,000 full-time employees, he noted. “
Army discloses hypersonic LRHW range of 1,725 miles, watch out China. (Breaking Defense) “These weapons will depend on targeting data from long-range sensors – Army, joint, and intelligence agency – shared over a Joint All Domain Command & Control (JADC2) network. And they’ll rely on artificial intelligence to swiftly spot targets, prioritize among them, and propose the best weapon to fire.”
JAIC automates DoD’s back office: ‘From 20 minutes to seconds.’ (Breaking Defense) “These projects tie in with JAIC’s Joint Common Foundation, which he describes as an “incubator for products and prototypes.” He also notes that DRAID — a multi-award contract to provide JAIC with data services — will involve “a ton of automation,” including automated data pipelines, automated data transformation, and the creation of synthetic data.”
Cannibalized parts, systems that sailors can’t fix: LCS maintenance woes could get worse, watchdog warns. (Navy Times) “In its analysis of 18 LCS delivery orders — 16 of which were for minor or routine maintenance — GAO found that there were 651 contract change requests for growth work, and that 52 percent of those requests involved work that emerged only after the ship was in the availability… “A senior Navy maintenance official stated that the amount of growth work for LCS is ‘unbelievable,’” the report states.”
DoD aims to transform itself into a data-centric organization. (DoD) DepSecDef’s data decrees:
- Maximizing data sharing and rights for data use.
- Publishing data assets in the DOD federated data catalog along with common interface specifications.
- Using automated data interfaces that are externally accessible and machine-readable and ensuring interfaces use industry-standard, non-proprietary, preferably open-source, technologies, protocols and payloads.
- Storing data in a manner that is platform and environment-agnostic, uncoupled from hardware or software dependencies.
- Implementing industry best practices for secure authentication, access management, encryption, monitoring and protection of data at rest, in transit and in use.
China’s new bid to take on Elon Musk’s Starlink: A state-owned satellite enterprise. (South China Morning Post) “Known as China Satellite Network Group, the young company is tasked with launching low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites into space, beaming internet services to anywhere on the planet… The company has no official website at the moment, and the government has yet to release any information about the firm’s organisational structure.”
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