Air Force’s top civilian hints at changes to hypersonic weapons programs. (Defense News) ““It’s pretty clear to me what the Chinese want to do with the hypersonics they’re developing. It’s even pretty clear to me what the Russians might want to do with hypersonics,” Kendall said.” “The target set that we would want to address, and why hypersonics are the most cost effective weapons for the U.S., I think it’s still to me somewhat of a question mark,” he added. “I haven’t seen all the analysis that’s been done to justify the current program.””
As Air Force signals hypersonic doubts, key senators want to go faster. (Breaking Defense) ““The committee believes that the Department of Defense (DOD) needs to focus more attention on the expeditious development and maturation of key hypersonic flight technologies.”… Overall, however, Mark Lewis, who formerly spearheaded hypersonic research at DoD’s Office of Research & Engineering, told Breaking Defense that he agrees — vehemently — with SASC’s position, rather than the message coming from the Air Force. “I’m puzzled that the Air Force might be pulling back, because we had done extensive studies and extensive analysis that demonstrated quite clearly the effectiveness of these systems,” said Lewis”
Air Force ABMS refocus: Capabilities and kit, not experiments. (Breaking Defense) ““My early observation is that this program has not been adequately focused on achieving and building specific, measurable improvements and operational outcomes,”… “To achieve effective change, we must keep our eye on the ball. For me that means focusing on the fielding of meaningful military capability into the hands of our operational users. It does not mean one or two leave behind, unmaintainable token prototypes that came out of experiments.” Kendall said that across the board, DoD and the Air Force seem to have “embraced the idea of innovation and the pursuit of innovation, without adequate attention to how innovation should be harnessed to specific operational performance requirements… “He wants to know: where’s the targeting data developed, and where does it go. He wants a waveform — where’s the node that it needs to be fused, and where are we going to put that to make a decision off of it and execute on it? Those are valid questions.””
SecAF to Congress: Let us retire aircraft or we can’t beat China. (Defense News) ““It was a frequent occurrence during my confirmation process to have a senator agree with me about the significance of the Chinese threat, and in the same breath to tell me that under no circumstances could the — take your pick — C-130s, A-10s, KC-10s, [or] MQ-9s in that senator’s state be retired, nor could any base in his or her state ever be closed or lose manpower that would cause impact to the local economy,” he said… “We will not succeed against a well-resourced and strategic competitor if we insist on keeping every legacy system we have,” he said… “I do understand the political constraints here, and I’m happy to work with Congress to find a better mechanism to make the changes we need, but we must move forward,” Kendall added.”
Air Force secretary wants to boost work with traditional defense industry. (Fed Scoop) ““While there has been a lot of emphasis on new sources of technology from places like Silicon Valley, certainly a worthy initiative, there has not been enough effort to tap into the capabilities that exist in both major defense contractors and defense-oriented non-profit organizations,” [Kendall] said… One key lesson from tech companies that Kendall said he wants to bring into the Air Force is a tight collaboration between product developers and product users.”
From disruption to diffusion: scaling innovation across government. (Federal News Network) Jack Shanahan: “First, leaders at the highest levels of every organization must commit to making the major transition from a hardware-centric, industrial-age mindset to a software-centric, information-age one. They need to provide top-down pressure, advocacy and oversight, setting high standards and empowering people at every level… Second, there needs to be a new appreciation of the role of the much-maligned middle management layer… Finally, we must establish a new pipeline that grows a larger base of people at every level who will accelerate the adoption and integration of emerging technologies.
Northrop Grumman now has five B-21 stealth bombers in production. (Defense News) ““As I speak there are now five test aircraft being manufactured on the B-21 production line at Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, California,” he said. “You will never hear me make optimistic predictions about programs. All programs have risk and the same is true of the B-21, but at this point at least, the program is making good progress to real fielded capability.”… It’s unclear how close Northrop Grumman is to finishing construction on the first B-21.”
The case for a SaaS bill of material. (CSO Online) “In addition to a lack of answers as to what consumers will do with SBOMs once they receive them, it is even less clear as to how to develop them for vendor-managed deployment models such as software as a service (SaaS). Especially as the industry sprints toward nearly ubiquitous use of SaaS, this ambiguity presents a hurdle toward the effective use of SBOMs as a risk management tool.”
Here are the cheap counter-drone solutions DoD tested in the Arizona desert. (Defense News) “After soliciting whitepapers in May on the federal contract opportunities site, the Joint Counter-Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems Office — or JCO — and the Army’s Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office — or RCCTO — chose five solutions to go up against threat targets at Yuma Proving Ground from Aug. 30 through Sept. 17… The DroneGun and the DroneKiller each use electronic warfare capabilities to neutralize a drone threat while the rest rely on kinetic measures to defeat unmanned systems… Flex Force’s offering uses a 7.62mm round, while the Smash Hopper uses a 5.56mm round that is fired from a regular handheld weapon that would deploy with a soldier.. Northrop’s proximity round was fired from an XM914 chain gun already in the Army’s inventory… Systems should cost less than $15,000 per drone engaged, the JCO said. For a hand-held capability, the office wanted something that can be held, attached to a weapon or user while conducting dismounted operations, and weighs less than 24 pounds. Systems should cost less than $37,000 per unit.”
South Korea unveils new supersonic anti-ship missile. (Naval News) “South Korea unveiled five new weapons and technologies on 15 September 2021, testing two of them on the day: A submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) and a long-range air-to-surface missile. Not tested last week but unveiled on the occasion, the supersonic anti-ship missile… It is known that South Korea’s indigenous supersonic cruise missile, shown to the public with K-SLBM (Hyunmoo 4-4) by the Blue House and the Ministry of National Defense (MND) on September 15, is capable of precisely striking Chinese aircraft carriers and other hostile ships in Western and Eastern Seas of the Korean Peninsula with the speed around Mach 2-3… both the initial launch and appearance resembled that of Russian P-800 Yakhont (and its Indian derivative, the BrahMos), confirming previous media coverage on rumors that the South Korean military develops its local supersonic cruise missile by using Russian technology. Yakhont can hit a target from 300 to 600 km with high speed of Mach 3.”
Navy plans to cut 1,000 civilian jobs, close US base libraries in $280M cost savings drive. (USNI News) “In total, the FY22 budget for base operations is $4.8 billion and the service’s shore enterprise is facing a budget shortfall of $280 million… “At present, FY23 is shaping up to be even worse, you can expect to see [additional] service reductions based on the 5% year-over-year BOS reduction directed by SECNAV Harker.”
GAO steps up criticism of Space Force’s missile-warning satellite procurement. (Space News) “GAO in a report released Sept. 22 raised concerns about the Next-Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared Block 0, or Next-Gen OPIR, a planned constellation of five sensor satellites that will provide early warning of ballistic missile launches… “Although the Space Force has some previous experience acting as the lead system integrator on its Global Positioning System program, this is the first time the government will serve such a role for the missile warning capability area,” the report said.”
Small businesses doing big things in DoD space programs. (Space News) “Teams at the lab [“Dragon Army”] work in software sprints — building, testing and getting feedback from Space Command in short order. This work is not done under government contracts but simply to showcase companies’ space domain awareness capabilities in hopes that they will eventually land a military contract… About 30 space startups, defense contractors and nonprofits have set up shop at the 12-acre business park… The Air Force killed JMS [joint mission system] in 2019 and awarded Bluestaq a small business innovation research contract to develop the UDL. In March the company got a $280 million contract from the Space Force to maintain and expand the UDL [unified data library[ over the next two years. The company now has nearly 90 employees.”
Lockheed rewards shareholders with 7.7% dividend hike. (Yahoo!) “Lockheed’s management has been annually raising the dividend rate and it belongs to an exclusive group of companies that have raised the dividend rate every year since 2003. The board of directors approved a dividend increase this month, leading to a whopping 244.6% total increase in annualized dividend over the last decade… In the first six months of 2021, the company repurchased shares worth $1.5 billion. The board authorized an additional $5 billion for share repurchases.. The company continues to clinch big defense deals from the U.S. government and allied countries and as a consequence, it exited second-quarter 2021 with a record backlog of $141.7 billion.”
Tata-Lockheed Martin joint venture achieves new milestone in ‘Make in India’ defense production. (EurAsian Times) “The company claims that it has increased the indigenization of C-130 manufacturing by transitioning the production of approximately 2,200 previously imported empennage components to Tata Sikorsky Aerospace… “Currently, every empennage that is delivered around the world is built in Hyderabad and its components will be further indigenized from 85% to up to more than 95% by Q1 2022”.”
Israel wants to put new equipment inside the F-35. Exclusive Q&A. (Breaking Defense) “While he would not go into details about what Israeli-made technologies the IAF would want to add to the F-35, sources here say they include a new electronic warfare system, a new communication system that will allow a two-way flow of real time data, and the addition of highly-classified weapon systems to be loaded into the weapons bay when operating stealthily. Israel has a program of record for 50 of the conventional take-off and landing F-35A models… Israel is also in discussions with the US about procuring a new tranche of advanced F-15s.”
The Air Force is testing robotic loaders to mount hypersonic missiles on its bombers. (The Drive) “Enter the MHU-TSX, a robotic loading system that does that job more quickly, and almost autonomously, hauling these big weapons around and loading them on aircraft even at the kinds of austere airfields from which the Air Force is likely to fight future campaigns against peer or near-peer adversaries… The AGM-183A Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon, or ARRW, for example, for which the B-52H Stratofortress is set to be the primary launch platform, is set to be carried on a new Boeing-developed underwing pylon, named Hercules, each of which will be able to hold three ARRWs… The effort resulted from a collaboration between the AFWERX innovation initiative.”
DoD spending on JADC2 jumps, with increased focus on interoperability: Report. (Breaking Defense) “Realizing the ground to make up on interoperability, the report says DoD’s spending on networks (up 34%) is now outpacing spending in other enabling JADC2 sub-components, including computers and AI (up 21%), communications (up 12.7%), and satellite communications (up 4.2%)… “DoD is engaging with a more diverse and innovative set of companies,” noting that the top three vendors in the AI and machine learning subsegment captured just 7.2% of total spending. In addition to diversifying its vendor base, DoD is also pulling in more partners, with “the vendor count for the computers and AI segment increas[ing] by 44.8%, from 460 vendors in FY17 to 666 vendors in FY20,” the report notes.”
Mysterious stealthy shape that resembles future fighter concepts spotted at radar test range. (The Drive) “Intriguingly, the test shape does seem to show some broad similarities with various next-generation fighter designs, including some concepts for Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD), that we have seen to date. It appears to have a diamond-like, tailless shape, with an elongated fuselage and a single prominent chine line. The ‘hump’ is perhaps where the cockpit would be located, although the shape could equally be intended to represent an unmanned concept. It is hard to tell if the article represents a full planform, or more of just the fuselage.” And here’s Steve Trimble: “I showed this to Gen Mark Kelly, Air Combat Command chief. His immediate reply was that he had no idea what it was. And then he took my laptop and stared at it for about 20 seconds. His expression was (WARNING: my impression) somewhere between confused and impressed.”
Brown: Air Force serious about E-7 wedgetail. (Breaking Defense) “The Air Force is looking seriously at buying the E-7 Wedgetail to replace the aging Boeing E-3 Sentry Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) planes, with an eye to the 2023 budget… Boeing originally built the Wedgetail for the Royal Australian Air Force, signing a developmental contract in 1999… The UK announced in March 2019 it intended to buy five E-7s, but in March of this year decided to cut the number to three… “When you look to the future, ideally you’d like to be able to look at capability that can be defensible,” he said. But the Wedgetail could fill the gap in the meantime.”
Kaman unveils medium-lift UAV to resupply distributed Marine Corps forces. (Defense News) “Kaman’s KARGO unmanned aerial vehicle has been designed from scratch over the past nine months to meet the Marines’ needs for an Unmanned Logistics Systems-Air (ULS-A) medium-lift vehicle… the vehicle will be able to balance range and payload capacity — up to 500 nautical miles and as much as 1,000 pounds of cargo — to help the Marine Corps move “beans, bullets and Band-Aids,” or even potable water, fuel and spare parts, to small units in remote locations.”
Leave a Reply