Acquisition rules block the building of war-winning networks. (Air Force Magazine) “… “believe it or not, we found that the primary barriers to being able to field these software tools” have to do with how funds are appropriated in certain accounts; the “color of money.” … “the only way you discover these issues is if you try it. So this is programmatic experimentation in parallel to warfighting experimentation.””
Path for DARPA tech to become part of military’s JADC2 enterprise still unclear. (C4ISRNET) ““Our real big challenge now is how to transition those. We don’t have a nice, clean-cut program office where we can take our tools and put them directly in a classic, conventional program of record. They’re not designed to do those kinds of things. They’re enabling infrastructure.”… “Maybe the answer is experimentation, maybe it’s program of record transition, but we’ve got to maintain some kind of coherence across this federated portfolio as these programs go off and have their own lives.””
Why the AOC cannot execute JADC2. (OTH Journal) “The AOC of today functionally seems designed to encourage stovepipes as it isolates personnel on to specialized teams… If an AOC is cut off from its tactical units, those units have limited ability to continue mission execution as so much has been centralized… The speed that is necessary for JADC2 to be successful does not exist in the AOC. The AOC runs all it’s planning and operation cycles on the 72 hour Air Tasking Order process.”
Marines adopt DARPA force design software to build to Corps for future fight. (Marine Corps Times) “Using the PROTEUS software, Marines were able to visualize and manipulate their electromagnetic footprint, apply logistics support automation, and obtain quantitative analytics on the effectiveness of force packages and tactics in real time [in urban scenarios].” … The ULTRA section of PROTEUS displays urban areas in three dimensions, using the below-1,000 foot view from camera mapping equipped drones… The dynamic composition engine known as COMPOSER includes software that can automate equipment loadout and planning to develop commanders plans and what kind of logistical support needed to execute that mission set. COMPOSER will also use electromagnetic spectrum operations tools to give feedback on EM signature risk, communications assets and network configuration.”
Air Force rethinks Position Navigation and Timing PNT. (Air Force Research Lab) AFRL is “… adapting open software architectures with existing PNT technologies like Vision Navigation (VisNav), Signals of Opportunity (SoOP) and magnetic anomaly navigation (MAGNAV). He explained that the sorties successfully demonstrated that a fused VisNav/SoOP system could perform within the reconfigurable AgilePod throughout a wide range of aircraft and environmental conditions.”
DoD moving forward with first financing study in decades. (Federal News Network) “GMU will examine free cash flow in the defense sector, the impact of cash flow by contract type and financing, financing and its impact on small businesses, and government accounting system requirements as a barrier to the commercial sector’s willingness to do business with the federal government,” GMU said in a statement.
Lawmakers want Pentagon to map supply chain risks, cut China products. (Defense News) “Just imagine that scenario played out, where we’re in a limited escalation with China, and they make all the propellant for our ammo,” Slotkin said. “I don’t think if we were missing the irony that we might not be able to engage if we needed to because they provide all the propellant.”
Really big deal as Army awards Bradley Replacement contracts: OMFV. (Breaking Defense) The Army awarded “contracts worth $299.4 million to five companies for the second phase of the Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle…Army officials pointed to America’s last major conflict in the Pacific, World War II, as proof that no military can prevail without the protection and firepower armored vehicles offer. Flamethrowers and tanks were crucial in taking Iwo Jima, for example.”
Senate panel backs $25B Pentagon budget boost. (Politico) The vote drew support from Democrats after Republican senators telegraphed in recent weeks that they would seek to boost the overall defense budget. The vote was announced Thursday by Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), a member of the Armed Services Committee, in a call with reporters.” Pentagon base budget request at $715B is $11B more than last year. Republicans want 3 to 5 percent growth above inflation.
Russia’s new SU-75 checkmate promises a lot. Can it deliver? (Breaking Defense) “… one of the chief priorities for the Su-75 was “today there is no single-engine, fifth generation fighter available at a reasonable price.” … The unit cost that has been associated with the aircraft is US $25-30 million, which is the price point that the design team thinks will interest their primary target customers… to date the program is financed with company funds and there is no government support at present. In the meantime, there “are conversations on-going with different potential [export] buyers.”” But Russia’s composites industry isn’t so great for low RCS, so they use more labor intensive coatings. Digital integration and sensors also seems to be an issue.
Raytheon CEO says ‘speed trumps stealth’ in hypersonic weapon era. (Bloomberg) “We’ve talked about stealth for the last 30 years, but speed trumps stealth when you’re talking about something that can go up to Mach 20, which is about 17,000 miles an hour. The ability to defend against hypersonics is the huge market.”
Exclusive Interview: Lockheed’s CEO wants his company to connect all the Pentagon’s weapons. (Defense One) “There’s a lot of ways to get there, but I think the only feasible way is to literally start connecting individual platforms together within a technology roadmap.”… “I really want to drive our 5G.mil architecture,” Taiclet said. “That architecture is going to be open [so] others can tie on to it, but I think since we have really strong platform positions with all the services and all the domains, Lockheed Martin can be a real pathfinder for the industry here.””
Is competition in federal contracting dead? (Federal News Network) “… the competitive processes in the federal contracting system actually serve to limit competition, to the point where the number of companies doing business with the federal government has shrunk for the last several years while the number of dollars awarded to companies has increased.”
Agency reuse of FedRAMP-approved cloud products climbs with automation. (Fed Scoop) “… agency demand for cloud products grew 60% in the first half of fiscal 2021 compared to the first half of fiscal 2020.”
Gilday: The budget request supports future fleet vision, even if it’s a smaller fleet. (Defense News) ““If our topline stays the same or decreases, we’re going to see a declining fleet in terms of capacity. If we take a look at the fact that 60 percent of our budget is for manpower, for operations and for maintenance, and that those costs are increasing on an annual basis at about almost two and a half percent above inflation, that’s going to eat away at our ability to grow capacity that will ever approach above 300 ships, based on how we’re funded right now,” he said… Gilday has continued to stand by this request to divest the cruisers despite pushback from lawmakers. He said the cruisers are an average of 32 years old and are in poor material condition… “When we tried to deploy a ship most recently and had to bring it back twice because of fuel tank cracks is an example.”
The Pentagon is bolstering its AI systems — by hacking itself. (Wired) “A machine learning “red team,” known as the Test and Evaluation Group, will probe pretrained models for weaknesses. Another cybersecurity team examines AI code and data for hidden vulnerabilities… Researchers are developing ever-more creative ways to hack, subvert, or break AI systems in the wild. In October 2020, researchers in Israel showed how carefully tweaked images can confuse the AI algorithms that let a Tesla interpret the road ahead.”
New Pentagon policy to accelerate use of 3D printing amid fresh cyber concerns. (Federal News Network) “DoD officials agreed with the IG’s recommendations to treat AM systems as Information Systems under DoD policy and require 3D printing systems to get an ATO. The Air Force told the IG it was releasing a policy requiring an ATO for AM systems in May, with full compliance required by May 2022.”
With all three Gunsmoke-J satellites on orbit, the Army is ready to test space-based targeting. (Defense News) “In a demonstration last fall, the Army was able to show that it could take images from satellites on orbit down to Earth, process them with artificial intelligence to find threats, and deliver targeting data to weapon systems in about 20 seconds… Gunsmoke-J is a Joint Capability Technology Demonstration conducted by the Army Space and Missile Defense Command and Assured Position Navigation and Timing/Space Cross Functional Team…the satellites will complete a number of on-orbit demonstrations in 2021, culminating in a military utility assessment. Gunsmoke-J will then be transitioned to an Army program of record.”
Navy, Air Force defense plans to retire planes and ships. (Stars and Stripes) “In 2010, Air Force planners expected to have almost 1,000 F-35s in active service by now, when the actual number is closer to 300. To fill the gap, the Air Force has upgraded some older fighters, extended the service life of others, and tried to maintain a capable fleet today.”
Submarine leaders want to tap into JADC2 network without giving away their position. (Defense News) ““When you talk about JADC2, a lot of times people are thinking of the submarine force potentially relaying information back to the joint force. In many cases, since we’re the inside force, it’s the rest of the force and the rest of the systems providing us information,” he said… “in some cases we’ll use UUVs to deliver mines, for instance, clandestinely delivered mines. In some cases, we’ll use them for a comms relay. In some cases, we’ll use them as a sensor to go forward.””
Submarine industry is growing less fragile, but it needs stability going into SSN(X), increased repair work. (Defense News)“Where SSN(X) is timed is right where we’re coming off that Columbia design team, that very robust design team; we’re going to capitalize on that design team, give that stability. And we’re going to time it such that when Columbia is ramping down in production, we’ll be ramping up in SSN(X),” Houston said.”
How China’s flying submarine drone could change the way sea battles are fought. (via Yahoo!) “Water is 800 times more dense than air, and stickier. Similar drones developed in Western countries must rotate their blades at a slow speed while underwater or risk snapping. But the Chinese drone used two kinds of blades with one designed to spin 3,600 times per minute in water to generate a powerful thrust…. China, for instance, is developing transmedium drones to be released by a submarine hundreds of metres under the water’s surface for airborne surveillance, communication or attack.”
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