Pentagon advances experiments with autonomous barges to replenish aircraft. (Nextgov) “Autonomous marine navigation company Sea Machines is the prime contractor steering the work. On Thursday, the Boston-based business announced the advancement of a multi-year other transaction agreement between it and the Defense Innovation Unit… “The ‘kit’ converts conventional deck barges into self-propelled, expeditionary platforms that can replenish rotary wing aircraft, surface vessels, and shore stations.””
Volansi marks maritime drone delivery milestone. (Aviation Week) “Delivery drone developer Volansi completed the first autonomous unmanned air system (UAS) maritime cargo delivery between two moving U.S. government ships at sea near Key West, Florida.”
The latest revolutionary tools in warfare? Microwaves. (Washington Post) “In the video demonstrations I watched, the Epirus system, known as Leonidas, can disable an adversary drone but leave untouched a friendly one a few feet away. It can take down big, fixed-wing drones as well as tiny quadcopters… Former defense secretary Mark T. Esper just joined the Epirus board, and the Pentagon plans to start deploying the company’s counter-drone systems to U.S. forces around the world this year… the breakthrough for anti-drone microwaves was what they call “SmartPower” — using super-dense Gallium Nitrite chips and AI algorithms to stabilize, focus and direct energy to precise frequencies.”
POGO remembers Pierre Sprey, Pentagon provocateur and mentor. (POGO) “Every time a pilot takes off in an F-16 or a soldier is saved when an A-10 sweeps an enemy position with a burst of 30mm rounds, Pierre Sprey’s contributions to our national defense are on display. The world lost this towering man when he died peacefully in his Maryland home on August 4, 2021.”
Appropriate appropriations – Other Transactions (Strategic Institute) “It is clear from the foregoing discussion that various R&D activities can be funded by appropriations other than R&D appropriations such as O&M or procurement funds. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) generally takes the view that when an agency has two or more appropriations that are consistent with the purpose of a transaction it may make a choice as to which appropriation it uses. However, once having made the choice it should consistently use that same appropriation account for similar transactions.”
Army Futures Command outlines next five years of AI needs. (C4ISRNET) “… the service is “particularly” interested in AI research of autonomous ground and air platforms, “which must operate in open, urban and cluttered environments.” The document specifically asks for research into technologies that allow for robots or autonomous systems to move in urban, contested environments, as well as technologies that reduce the electromagnetic profile of the systems. It also wants to know more about AI that can sense obscure targets and understand terrain obstacles.”
Navy nearing decisions on small, medium UUV replacement options. (Defense News) “The Mk 18 Mod 1 Swordfish and Mk 18 Mod 2 Kingfish date back to the late 1990s and 2000s… The medium-size Razorback UUV has a program history more than a decade long, with the Navy initially seeking a UUV that could sense the littoral battlespace… The Lionfish small UUV and the Viperfish medium UUV programs that will replace these three legacy programs are both making good progress and should be ready to replace their predecessors in the next two to three years.
Palantir: With joint all-domain command and control, the Pentagon is finally catching up. (C4ISRNET) “The SOCOM example shows how we’re moving from the intel space to the mission command space. We’re doing that at SOCOM while also doing that at a lot of other places, but if you focus on the contract vehicle, it sort of doesn’t play into what Palantir actually does. And so that goes back to the idea that what we do is make an operating system of sorts that brings legacy systems, legacy sensors and data all over the place to help people make decisions. A lot of people thought that was an intel thing in the past… I think with Project Convergence, the Army is our best partner.”
SpaceX remains the sole winner of NASA astronaut moon lander contract, GAO affirms. (Space.com) “”The pertinent question is whether the protester would have submitted a different offer that would have had a reasonable possibility of being selected for award had it known that the requirement would be waived,” the GAO stated. The GAO added that there was enough differentiation between the SpaceX, Blue Origin and Dynetics proposals to tilt the assessment towards SpaceX’s award.”
An F-35 pilot’s helmet costs more than a Ferrari and takes two days to get fitted. (Task and Purpose) “The F-35 helmet is a technological marvel. It can display night vision, thermal imagery and video from below the jet, letting pilots effectively see through the airframe and track targets without having to look back and forth from their cockpit screens… “Imagine if you’re in a car, you’re driving and you want to eat pizza. It will put a triangle over all the pizza restaurants” … “Small things such as a new haircut or a couple of pounds gained could cause the helmet to not fit correctly.””
DoD considering marketplace for smaller cloud vendors as follow-on to JEDI replacement. (Fed Scoop) ““It will not be exclusive to the five U.S.-based hyperscale cloud service providers, but it will be available to anyone, any integrator or cloud service provider, that can meet the department’s requirements”… JWCC [Joint Warfighter Cloud Capability], on the other hand, will only be open to the largest “hyperscale” cloud providers.”
Skunk Works’ factory of the future will use roaming robots to rapidly assemble top secret aircraft. (The Drive) “Lockheed Martin’s famous Skunk Works advanced projects division has opened a new cutting-edge manufacturing facility at its campus in Palmdale, California… A company representative told The War Zone that the Electroimpact robots had drilled more than 7,519 holes in structures for the X-59A, at a rate of one hole every 21 seconds, and that only 23 of those needed to be redrilled… This level of accuracy in machining also helps ensure uniformity in parts, including spares, which is important for sustaining systems as time goes on… the robots are capable of being programmed to perform this work autonomously.”
A-10 attack jets use Michigan road for landing and takeoff exercise. (Motor 1) “On August 5, aircraft from the Michigan Air National Guard landed and departed from a stretch of two-lane highway in the northeast portion of the state. It’s the first time such military activity has occurred on a public highway… A-10s from the Michigan Air National Guard participated in a similar exercise in Estonia back in 2018, and many countries have conducted similar exercises involving public roads over the decades. “
This VC wants to help startups win $682 billion a year in government contracts. (Fast Company) “To tap into that federal money, tech companies often need a strong champion within the government agency they’re trying to work with. They may also need a wise “sherpa”—as Stanford prof Steve Blank puts it—to guide them through the labyrinthine procurement process that finally leads to a contract… Since Harpoon’s inception three years ago, its founders say they’ve helped startups access a total of $496 million from 52 federal contracts across eight different agencies.”
US Army orders more Strykers with 30mm cannons from Oshkosh. (Defense News) “The U.S. Army has ordered 83 more Stryker combat vehicles equipped with 30mm cannons from Oshkosh Defense worth $99 million to outfit another brigade combat team… The Army decided to outfit three out of six of its brigades equipped with Strykers with 30mm guns following an Army Requirements Oversight Council review evaluating the performance of the 30mm Stryker Dragoon operated in Europe by the 2nd Cavalry Regiment.”
Hypersonic weapons may evade $342M Pentagon satellite project: China Study. (Newsweek) “Last October, SpaceX and L3Harris won Space Development Agency (SDA) contracts to build a total of eight satellites to detect and track missiles as part of a new “tracking layer” in low-Earth orbit. It will complement what is already the world’s most sophisticated missile warning and defense system, the 11-satellite Space-Based Infrared System (SBIRS) operated by the U.S. Space Force. To track hostile hypersonic missiles, however, new research in China suggested the Defense Department may need to operate up to 100 space-based sensors, according to a report on Monday in Hong Kong‘s South China Morning Post…. The weapon’s signal could also be “obscured or reduced by the atmosphere and background heat on Earth.””
Carl Vinson strike group using first deployment with F-35C, beefed up air wing to hone advanced operations. (Defense News) “That extra electronic warfare capacity from the two additional Growlers in the air wing, combined with the additional E-2D for greater in-air command and control and the new stealth and advanced sensing from the F-35C, he said, keeps the whole strike group safe” by “getting ahead of the threat’s ability to gain information on us early on” by finding and destroying enemy sensors, networks and shooters before they can see the strike group coming.”
General Atomics providers detailed look at Sparrowhawk air-launched and air-retrievable small UAS. (Aviationist) ” an aircraft such as the MQ-9 Reaper can carry under its wings, as it might a traditional payload like a sensor pod or a fuel tank (it weighs just 500 lb), and which can be launched and then recovered in mid-flight… The Sparrowhawk might surveil an area for hours and turn back to rendezvous with the mothership holding at a safe distance, thanks to its hybrid electric propulsion system that allows an endurance of more than ten hours and a range of 500 nautical miles.”
ABL, Astra, Relativity selected to compete for US Space Force responsive launch contracts. (Space News) “OSP-4 is an indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract for rapid acquisition of launch services. Vendors compete for individual orders, and have to be able to launch payloads larger than 400 pounds to any orbit within 12 to 24 months from contract award… There are now 11 vendors in the program that will compete for 20 missions over the next nine years. OSP-4 is authorized up to $986 million for launch contracts over that period.”
Space Development Agency launches experimental infrared sensor into orbit. (C4ISRNET) ” the Prototype Infrared Payload, or PIRPL, will test the use of a multispectral sensor to detect ballistic missiles from low orbits… By placing those sensors more than 20,000 miles closer to the Earth’s surface, they can more easily pick up the relatively brighter threats… PIRPL is the first experiment in that missile warning capability, known as the Tracking Layer. The sensor will give SDA its first look at the infrared background noise of the Earth’s surface, ocean and atmosphere at different times of day and night. Understanding that is the first step to being able to pick out the hypersonic threats from space.
One of the most troubled pieces of hardware on the US’s new aircraft carrier will be ready this year, Navy says. (Business Insider) “After more than four years of delays, the Navy‘s newest — and most expensive — aircraft carrier finally is set to have all of its weapons elevators working by the end of this year… The Ford’s elevator systems use new technology — high-powered magnets instead of cables — to move ordnance… Last summer, the service said it had six elevators working. At that time, Navy officials said the elevators would be ready by the time the ship went to shock trials. The service announced the ship completed the last of its three shock trials on August 8. Four of the elevators still were not installed.”
How America almost got hypersonic aircraft decades ago. (Sandboxx) Solid background on the history, here’s one good part. “In 1967, William “Pete” Knight made history at the stick of his North American X-15A-2 rocket-powered aircraft when he reached a speed of Mach 6.7, or around 5,140 miles per hour, at an altitude of some 102,000 feet. While this particular flight was one for the record books, it was no fluke. Over nine years, 12 pilots would take the stick of the X-15 for a total of 199 flights, 13 of which even met the Air Force’s criteria for spaceflight, earning eight pilots their astronaut wings.”
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