Lawmakers want DoD to explore tech’s valley of death problem. (NextGov) “The proposals to be reviewed at Wednesday’s markup directs the Defense secretary to carry out a five-year pilot to help take science and technology activities into full-scale implementation as well as to submit a report evaluating the barriers that prevent DOD from scaling innovative tech.”
BAE systems raises dividend launches new buyback on strong outlook. (Reuters) BAE “would hike its dividend to 9.9 pence, 5% up on last year’s interim payout, and would start a 500 million pound ($697 million) share buyback over the next 12 months. The plan to raise investor returns, which help lift the company’s shares by more than 2% in early business.”
Department of the Navy strategy for intelligent autonomous systems. (USNI News) “The primary challenge in realizing this future lies not only with scientific discovery and technology invention, but it equally involves accelerating the development, operationalization, and adoption of invention, but it equally involves accelerating the development, operationalization, and adoption of emerging technologies into IAS-enabled warfighting capabilities.”
Air Force concludes latest hypersonic flight test at Edwards AFB. (Aerotech News) “The Air Force conducted its second AGM-183A Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon booster flight test July 28, 2021… Following the safe separation maneuvers, the rocket motor did not ignite… Objectives for the test included demonstrating the safe release of the booster test vehicle from the B 52H and assessing booster performance.”
DoD releases official policy on use of additive manufacturing. (3D Printing) “More specifically, the document (available here in full) contains many interesting details on the specific roles of each DoD agency and figure. For example, the Director of DLA (Defense Logistics Agency), will be in charge of developing, maintaining, and hosting the joint AM model exchange (JAMMEX or Joint Additive Manufacturing Model Exchange), a portal to share approved AM data sets and other secure, interoperable data management capabilities based on the common DoD AM data framework that enables DoD entities to securely access and share, buy, or acquire license rights in AM data.”
Lockheed’s F-35A could face first price rise in years as inflation bites. (Fox Business) “The first F-35A cost $221 million when it came off the production line in 2007. Since then, production quantities and know-how have increased, helping the price of the stealthy fifth-generation fighter drop to $79 million today as it gained appeal and buyers in 15 countries. That trend may be over for the jet which has been criticized for its cost since the day it first took flight.”
Laser Done: Rafael, Lockheed developing next-gen missile defense system to make Israeli Airspace ‘impregnable’. (Eurasian Times) “The laser technology in military pursuits provides a number of advantages like precision, scalability, prevention of collateral damage caused by fragmenting ammunition, among others. Laser weapon systems offer precise capabilities to counter multiple threats, including rockets and drones, Rafael and Lockheed Martin said… Brig-Gen Yaniv Rotem, head of the ministry’s Military R&D, said that the ground system will also be able to destroy targets at a range of eight to ten kilometers with a 100-kilowatt laser.”
US Navy’s CNO explains the reasons for retiring old Ticonderoga-class cruisers. (Naval News) CNO Gilday: ““So the most controversial [topic] is the cruisers. There are seven proposed decommissionings in the FY22 budget and the argument I made falls across three areas: First is the cost to own and operate which is about $5 billion over the five-year defense plan. The second is reliability and these ships on average are about 32-years old. We’re seeing cracks and we’re seeing challenges in the material conditions of these ships that are a certain degree unpredictable so they’re `unknown unknowns.’ [such as fuel tank cracks that recalled a cruiser twice on deployment back to homeport]. And the third is Lethality. Some of these cruisers have the SPY-1A [AEGIS] radar which is an analog system; others are early SPY-1Bs. They’re approaching obsolescence, Number One, and Number Two, they have difficulty seeing the threat based on the speed and profiles of the threat missiles we see flying these days.”
HASC ‘skeptical’ of Navy plans to mitigate shortfall, transition into future jet. (Defense News) “… it asked in fiscal 2022 budget request to stop Super Hornet production, believing that it can extend its current fleet long enough and field NGAD quick enough that the service won’t suffer a significant fighter shortfall during the transition… “We’re aware that the Navy wants to focus more resources and funding on NGAD. But if you recall eight or 10 years ago, they tried to do the same thing when F-35C was in development. They truncated the Super Hornet line to focus more on F-35C, and they found out, as the F-35C kind of struggled, the Navy had to go back to procuring more Super Hornets.” [said a HASC committee aide.]”
Agencies on the hook to meet new Buy American acquisition goals for most products. (Federal News Network) “OMB said the increase will go from 55% to 60% immediately. It will then increase again to 65% by 2024 and 75% by 2029… The Buy American Act doesn’t currently apply to commercial technology purchases. But the EO does require the Federal Acquisition Regulations Council to “promptly review existing constraints on the extension of the requirements in Made in America Laws to information technology that is a commercial item and shall develop recommendations for lifting these constraints to further promote the policy…””
Lawmakers want answers on US Army plans to protect vehicles from drones. (Defense News) “While it has been able to field an interim system on its Abrams tanks, the Army has fallen behind with an interim system installation for the Bradley. The effort to equip Strykers with an APS is on the backburner because it was determined there is no system suitable for the platform.”
Amazing: DARPA is working on nuclear-powered armed attack spacecraft. (National Interest) “How much would a reliable, next-generation propulsion system impact operations? There appear to be a variety of interesting possibilities, including potentially sending interceptors into space to knock out or destroy enemy intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) or hypersonic weapons.”
AI is letting this company build a new kind of defense contractor. (Fortune) “Incumbent defense contractors tend to think of their products as silos, each centered around a big piece of hardware designed to meet a particular customer spec, often with bespoke software designed from scratch just for that product. That’s not how Shield thinks, [Shield AI CEO Brandon] Tseng tells me… To that end, last week the company announced it is buying Heron Systems, a small Virginia- and Maryland-based defense contractor that burst onto the scene last year when its software won a series of simulated dogfights against top human fighter pilots.”
OMFV Awards mark broad shift in army acquisition. (Breaking Defense) “the service tried hard, Coffman said, “to lower the barriers to entry for foreign and non-traditional vendors…Because our more traditional approach tends to be structured in such a way that you not only had to be a US company, but generally it has to be a very large company…. a relatively small defense company, Point Blank Enterprises, and an American subsidiary of a foreign company, American Rheinmetall Vehicles, were awarded concept definition contract.”
USAF pauses plan for Davis-Monthan centers of excellence as Congress looks to block A-10 cuts. (Air Force Magazine) “The service wants to cut its A-10 fleet from 281 aircraft to 218, reducing its operational squadrons from nine to seven. The remaining A-10s would be upgraded with new wings…. The markup specified a $272 million increase to the Air Force’s operation and maintenance budget to restore the A-10s. The bill also calls for a report on close air support mission effectiveness.”
Lockheed Martin takes $225m loss on significant classified aeronautics programme. (Flight Global) ““We have a development contract that we believe will be successful from a schedule and performance standpoint, and then ultimately will turn into production, a production program,” Lockheed CFO Ken Possenriede said during the company’s quarterly earnings call.”
House panel backs adding second guided-missile destroyed to Navy budget. (The Hill) “the panel is recommending two Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers instead of the one requested by the administration, and one towing, salvage and rescue ship instead of two… “It’s a dangerous game for the Navy to play,” one aide said. “I don’t think it’s guaranteed that when they do these types of taking stuff out at the last minute and depending on Congress to put it back, that’s always gonna be the case.””
DIU awards Anduril Industries contract for counter-drone AI technology. (C4ISRNET) 5-year contract up to $99 million. “The technology uses the company’s Lattice artificial intelligence operating system and a network of sensors to autonomously detect, classify and track targets… “Because the services will be buying C-UAS as a service, Anduril will be able to provide a range of systems based on a particular threat profile instead of a one size fits all model,” Steckman said. “We can also focus on continuous-development and continuous-release of our software operating system, ensuring that the warfighter is always getting the best tech.”… Anduril and DIU worked from prototype to production in 18 months”
US Navy destroyer launches four SM-6 missiles against two SRBMs in latest MDA test. (Naval News) “Based on initial observations, one target was successfully intercepted. At this time, we cannot confirm the second target was destroyed… FTM-33 was the most complex mission executed by MDA (a raid of two test targets and two SM-6 Dual II salvos consisting of four missiles). It was the third flight test of an Aegis BMD-equipped vessel using the SM-6 Dual II missile.”
Jet-powered Coyote drone defeats swarm in Army tests. (The Drive) The Army claimed “it achieved its first “air-to-air non-kinetic defeats” using Coyote Block 3 drones. The recent demonstration saw the Coyotes take down a hostile swarm of 10 drones using a non-specified electronic warfare system or directed energy weapon of some kind… That would typically mean the Coyotes used either an electronic warfare “jammer,” or a form of directed energy like high-powered microwaves… These initial Coyotes [from 2007] were marketed as low-cost intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance platforms, but ended up being somewhat of a testbed for a wide variety of applications.”
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