Pentagon poised to unveil, demonstrate classified space weapon. (Breaking Defense) “In space, we over-classify everything,” Hyten told the National Security Space Association (NSSA) on Jan. 22. “Deterrence does not happen in the classified world. Deterrence does not happen in the black; deterrence happens in the white.”… Another source… opined: “The declassification thing is a disaster. … The genesis is supposedly for deterrence — but those doing it lack basic understandings of deterrence. It’s a f***ing shitshow.”
What satellite attack weapon might the US reveal soon? (Breaking Defense) “By far the most popular guess was an on-board RF jammer — either carried by certain highly valuable US satellites themselves, or more likely on maneuverable “bodyguard” satellites…. In February and again in May of 2020, the mysterious X-37B space plane was used to deploy several small satellites that were not officially cataloged by the United States. As the SWF paper put it: this “suggests that the X-37B may have a mission to serve as a covert satellite deployment platform. The secrecy surrounding both the X-37B and the deployment may indicate they are part of a covert intelligence program, but it may also indicate the testing of offensive technologies or capabilities.”
How a software bill of materials can help solve our supply chain woes. (FCW) “Biden administration released a cybersecurity Executive Order with security requirements to protect federal networks, including security measures for critical software and the minimum elements for a software bill of materials (SBOM)… attacks targeting open-source supplier ecosystems are also rapidly increasing, as seen recently by the widespread “dependency confusion” attacks, which take advantage of a flaw in the way some public open-source repositories house software packages… Until very recently, a big hurdle to broad adoption of SBOMs in federal software supply chains was the lack of formal guidance and standards. This has now been resolved with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s July release of SBOM minimum elements.”
Q&A with Preston Dunlap, chief architect for the Air Force and Space Force. (GovCon Wire) “we’d be foolish to think we can precisely predict what tech will be available to us in the future or what capabilities our adversaries may have… We tend to think on a linear path from requirements, planning, programming, budgeting, and executing. There have been a million papers on why the linear approach – sometimes called ‘industrial age’ or ‘Cold War’ acquisition – has to change, but I think the first thing we need to recognize is that we can’t continue spending our time admiring this problem.”
How analysis paralysis an kill space tech innovation. (BMNT) At NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate, “We’ve invested significantly in what we call our post-phase two opportunities,” Gustetic said. Once you’re in the pipeline, you’re able to get additional funding, up to $5 million, through these post-phase two awards. Some of them allow for matching funding to move these technologies forward. Matchers can be investors or other government agencies.”
Navy poised to issue RFP for afloat network overhaul. (Breaking Defense) “The Navy will soon publish a competitive solicitation for the program of record [CANES] that seeks to overhaul the service’s afloat networks — and provide multiple contractors a chance at a 10-year long contract to help upkeep the fleet’s infrastructure at sea.”
Here’s a C-5M super galaxy giving birth to a CH-47F chinook, there were two in there. (Auto Evolution) “The plane can hold 51,150 gallons of fuel, enough for 5,500 miles flights, and can deliver to whatever destination payloads weighing as much as 285,000 lbs… The helicopter has a maximum gross weight of 50,000 lbs and can fly at speeds 188 mph for a distance of only 460 miles That pretty much means that if this helicopter is to be deployed overseas, it has to be airlifted there by means other than its own Honeywell engines.”
Army cuts procurement of airborne jammer in smaller electronic warfare budget. (Army Times) “The Army eliminated its plan to buy a top electronic warfare system for Fiscal 2022, cutting about $12 million in spending on the drone-mounted jamming pod under development… The decision to delay buying the Multi-Function Electronic Warfare pod is part of the Army’s broader budget trimming, reflected in its decision to cut its request for electronic warfare by more than half — seeking $48 million in FY22, compared to $113 million enacted the year before… Lockheed Martin has worked on the pod mostly under its own internal research and development funds.”
Army has flexibility in its path to a future attack recon aircraft, program leaders say. (Defense News) “The FARA competitive prototype effort began with a list of desired attributes, outlined in the Initial Capabilities Requirement Document (ICRD). The seven “desired” attributes focus on agility, speed, rotor diameter, power plant design, weapons system, weapons launcher and modular open systems approach… Rotor diameter desired attributes [of 40 ft] were derived from a series of urban studies conducted prior to writing the [ICRD]. Our final requirements will be informed based on data received during the Final Design and Risk Reduction as well as the final prototype builds that are ongoing.”
Conductor: Why we migrated from kubernetes to nomad. (The New Stack) “We decided to adopt Kubernetes when the company started to transform its legacy system running on virtual machines to a cloud native platform… However, as our business grew and the platform reached a large scale with thousands of cloud instances, we started running into a series of issues… We also discovered that the Kubernetes job controller, a supervisor for pods carrying out batch processes, was unreliable. The system would lose track of jobs and be in the wrong state.”
DARPA requests information for wing-in-ground [WIG] effect aircraft for the US military. (Naval News) It’s “essentially a plane that flies over a surface by gaining support from the reactions of the air against the surface of the earth or water to lift up the bottom of the wings, or a “hoverplane.”… WIG vehicles achieve increased aerodynamic efficiencies and address many of the operational limitations of traditional sea and air lift platforms in maritime theaters, but they are unable to operate in high sea states and have limited capability to avoid collisions in congested environments… A good WIG aircraft example is Boeing Phantom Work’s Pelican, designed around early 2002. The Boeing Pelican concept shows how massive such a WIG aircraft can exist [with a wingspan of 500 ft. compared to a 747’s 213 ft.].”
Beyond ABMS: Air Force pushes experimental tech for AI, IT, Data. (Breaking Defense) ““I think our role in that is to operationalize AI as much as possible, which means a lot of investments in infrastructure data and so on,” Dunlap said. For example, one of the big goals of the office’s July 8-28 “Architecture Demonstration and Evaluation (ADE)” exercise — formerly called “ABMS Onramps” — was to serve as a “bridge” in the transition of DARPA’s STITCHES (System-of-systems Technology Integration Tool Chain for Heterogeneous Electronic Systems) AI data ‘translator’ to the Air Force.”
Raymond unveils new Space Force ad: ‘space is hard.’ (Space News) “If you think back to the last time we met at Space Symposium, there were about 2,100 active satellites on orbit. Today there’s over 4,900. That’s astounding.”
Sneaky US Navy feedback device could stop people from being able to speak. (New Scientist) “The device, called a handheld acoustic hailing and disruption (AHAD) system, records a target’s speech with a long-range microphone and plays it back to them with a tiny delay. As anyone who has spoken on a phone or internet call that echoes their voice back at them will know only too well, such delayed auditory feedback can be highly disruptive.”
Space Development Agency’s policy chief: ‘our focus is maintaining our rapid schedule.’ (Space News) “With a $900 million budget, SDA has special acquisition authorities to allow projects to move fast without getting bogged down in reviews and Pentagon bureaucracy. SDA plans to launch its first 28 satellites to low Earth orbit in fall 2022: 20 will be part of a mesh communications network called the Transport Layer, and eight will be missile-detecting sensor satellites known as the Tracking Layer. The next projected batch of 150 satellites is planned to launch in 2024… “We get a lot of questions about how we get our requirements and how we determine what capabilities we’re going to deliver. The answer to that is that we have a ‘warfighter council’”… We have our own head of contracting activity. All of these authorities have been delegated to us by the secretary of defense and they enable SDA to go fast… Committees on the Hill are focused on helping us keep those authorities, and keep our independence and innovative culture intact.”
Air Force’s Kendall creates space acquisition office, accelerates absorption of Space Development Agency. (Defense One) “Kendall announced that he has established a new space acquisition office and that he is speeding up plans to absorb the Space Development Agency… “While SDA may not yet firmly be part of the department of the Air Force, there is no reason why we shouldn’t begin to move aggressively in that direction,” Kendall said.”
Navy’s AARGM-ER missiles to enter production. (Naval News) “Navy’s Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile – Extended Range (AARGM-ER) received Milestone C (MS-C) approval August 23. The U.S. Navy plans to award the first two low-rate initial production lots over the next several months… The team conducted the first live-fire event in July to verify system integration and rocket motor performance, as well as initiate modeling and simulation validation. Captive and live fire flight testing is planned to continue through 2022 and initial operational capability is planned for 2023.”
Air Force prioritizes blockchain security with new constellation network contract. (CoinTelegraph) The effort is to “develop an end-to-end data security solution using blockchain encryption and distributed data management for the United States Transportation Command, Air Mobility Command’s 618th Air Operations Center, and a Civil Reserve Air Fleet partner. According to the platform, its goal is to securely exchange data with commercial partners on missions.
HASC seeks constrains on F-35 buys, multi-year sustainment contract plans. (Breaking Defense) “In essence, this language means that budget planners would have to take into account the long-tail costs of sustaining the jets — a longstanding issue for the F-35 — in order to decide how many of the fighters they can afford to maintain in their eventual fleet… The HASC draft bill also requires Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to submit a report, no later than March 1, 2022, on sustainability costs — before the F-35 Joint Program Office can move to a performance based logistics (PBL) contract with prime contractor Lockheed Martin.”
Tax break could bring 3,000 new jobs to Cobb’s Lockheed plant. (Atlanta Journal Constitution) “A lucrative tax break could bring 3,000 new jobs to a major defense contractor in Cobb County, spurring as much as $1.6 billion in new investment at Lockheed Martin’s sprawling Marietta plant… State lawmakers estimate the incentive could be worth more than $50 million.”
Sea Machines signs contract to create autonomous VTOL, replenishment vessels. (Naval News) “In October 2020, Sea Machines was enlisted by the DoD to engineer, build and demonstrate ready-to-deploy system kits that transform existing commercial barges to platforms capable of landing and replenishing military aircraft… Phase 2 of the multi-phase contract delegates $3.1M to the deployment of a full-scale ocean-going replenishment platform.”
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