Ex-Air Force tech boss eviscerates Pentagon for already losing the AI race against China. (The Drive) “Among various complaints leveled at the U.S. military’s approach to modernization, Chaillan highlights what he sees as a lost battle between the United States and China in the field of cyber capabilities, machine learning, and artificial intelligence, or AI… “We have no competing fighting chance against China in 15 to 20 years,” Chaillan told the FT. “Right now, it’s already a done deal; it is already over in my opinion.” … there could be more to come from Chaillan, who told the newspaper he has plans to testify to Congress about the Chinese cyber threat “over the coming weeks.””
‘Absolutely not true’: Army CIO answers claim US has already lost to China in AI. (Breaking Defense) “He [Raj Iyer] pointed to the Pentagon’s “tight integration” with industry and “our coalition partners.” The US and its partners share “trade intelligence information and other things,” helping both sides. “I can tell you the Chinese don’t have that. They’re operating in a vacuum, and they’re relying on nefarious methods and cyberattacks.” [And here’s an interesting prediction from RAND…] “based on the longer-term economic projections… we expect China’s economic capacity to level out after 2030, which could mean that whatever U.S. advantage remains (if any) at that point could persist as China’s economic growth slows.””
USAF awards Exosonic contract for supersonic UAV concept with Adversary Air mission potential. (Exosonic) ” Low boom supersonic transport company Exosonic, Inc. is proud to announce a Direct to Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract award from the US Air Force (USAF). The contract will fund the development of a low boom supersonic uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) demonstrator… Exosonic’s supersonic UAV will serve as a mock adversary to stress fighter pilots in live flight training exercises. Equipped with various payloads and sensors, training can be conducted at a fraction of the cost of existing live air training solutions. This could save taxpayers millions in training dollars and reduce wear-and-tear on existing USAF operational aircraft that serve as aggressors. “
US Army’s precision strike missile breaks distance record in flight test. (Defense News) “The company did not disclose the distance the PrSM traveled in its flight test, but the goal of the test was to see exactly how far the missile can travel beyond its previous set requirement of 499 kilometers. The original intent was to reach a maximum of 499 kilometers, but America’s 2019 withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty with Russia has allowed the U.S. Army to develop the missile to fly farther. The INF Treaty prevented the development of missiles with ranges between 499 and 5,000 kilometers… The missile broke a range record in May, reaching “more than” 400 kilometers… PrSM also went through three flight tests last year during a technology maturation and risk reduction phase, ranging from 240 kilometers, 180 kilometers and 85 kilometers. Shorter ranges can be more difficult to execute, as the missile must go up and come down quicker, according to experts.”
Thurgood: hypersonic missile program demonstrates how fast Army can move. (Defense News) “Thurgood, who oversees Army rapid acquisition efforts, likened the four-year timeline to design, test and field a hypersonic weapon to the space race of the 1950s, saying the U.S. hasn’t been so united around a rapid technology development program since then… “We don’t have time to do a bunch of flight tests and then give it to the unit; the unit has to be part of the flight test program, so we train them how to shoot this and use this weapon system as we build the weapon system,” Thurgood said… The Program Executive Office for Missiles and Space that will eventually receive the hypersonic weapon has a transition team embedded in the Army Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office.”
Congress allows DoD to shift $3B in spending. (Inside Defense) “Congress has granted the Defense Department permission to reprogram $3 billion in spending across a variety of accounts, though DOD had wanted to reprogram $4.4 billion, according to a new document from the Pentagon comptroller’s office. The 97-page omnibus reprogramming was submitted to Congress on June 16, requesting permission to shift funds appropriated for fiscal year 2021, 2020 and 2019.”
Key DoD tech nominee would check for ‘undue bias’ toward prime contractors. (Inside Defense) David Honey, nominee for Deputy USD R&E, told the SASC: “Having greater participation as a prime contractor by new entrants from the commercial world could significantly increase marketplace competition and benefit the Department. If confirmed, I will review our prototyping strategy and practices to ensure that there is no undue bias toward traditional prime contractors or system integrators, and that qualified commercial companies (both large and small) are considered for these functions. ”
Pentagon R&D czar ‘looking for money’ for 32 new tech projects. (Breaking Defense) “Shyu’s office has briefed Deputy Defense Secretary Kath Hicks on 32 proposed experimentation areas that hold the promise of the biggest payoffs… If successful in obtaining funding in FY21, the Pentagon would hold experiment events at least once a year, though Shyu added that she would like to conduct two sprints annually… While Congress has yet to approve a FY22 appropriations bill, the Pentagon’s proposed budget did not request seed money to start the experimentation campaign. If Pentagon leadership approves Shyu’s effort, the department will have to work with Capitol Hill to free up funding in the FY22 budget.”
SOSA consortium unveils first standards for military sensor technologies. (Defense News) “Almost four years after its first meeting, a consortium of government and industry representatives has released its first set of standards for open-architecture military sensor and electronic warfare systems, potentially paving the way for a new era of true plug-and-play capabilities… The most notable example of what SOSA will enable is the Army’s C4ISR/EW Modular Open Suite of Standards, or CMOSS. Instead of having each sensor, computing or electronic warfare capability custom-installed onto a vehicle, CMOSS provides a single chassis with a number of card slots. The Army can then install new capabilities by plugging in 1-inch VPX cards, or upgrade capabilities by replacing cards with newer, advanced versions.”
Comparing Tesla’s spending on R&D and marketing per car to other automakers. (Visual Capitalist) The punchline here is that Tesla spent $2.9 billion on R&D and zero dollars on sales and marketing in 2020. Compare that to Ford, Toyota, GM, and Chrysler — which together spent $3.9 billion on R&D and nearly $2 billion on sales and marketing. “While capital allocation is vital, one factor that differentiates Tesla from the rest, is Elon Musk himself. With over 60 million followers on Twitter, his wild popularity has no doubt aided in Tesla’s brand recognition.”
JAIC chief wants AI progress to be ‘slow and incremental.’ (Fed Scoop) ” The Department of Defense’s Joint Artificial Intelligence Center is looking to field AI across the military slowly, so products can be broadly usable across combatant commands, the center’s director said Friday. That mindset appears to be different from some innovative upstart organizations within the government that have emphasized the private-sector mentality of speed and agility in finding solutions to pressing challenges.”
Chinese flying wing drones launch swarming decoys at enemy warships in industry video. (The Drive) “What we do see of the AVIC video in CCTV-7’s footage begins with one of the apparent GJ-11 derivatives taking off from the deck of what looks to be a Type 075 amphibious assault ship… The video then moves on to show a flight of four of these UCAVs deploying air-launched decoys. The general exterior shape of the decoys is extremely similar to that of Raytheon’s ADM-160 Miniature Air-Launched Decoy (MALD) series, which you can read all about here. MALDs are essentially small cruise missiles that have electronic warfare suites in lieu of traditional warheads, which, depending on the exact variant, allow them to jam enemy radars or attempt to fool their operators into believing that large groups of aircraft or missiles are coming at them from various directions.”
Chinese testing experimental armed drone ships at secret naval base. (USNI News) “China is testing its large uncrewed surface vessels (USVs), according to satellite photos provided to USNI News by Maxar and an analysis of open-source intelligence… The JARI, possibly referencing the Jiangsu Automation Research Institute, is an noteworthy USV in its own right. The PLAN first revealed it as a model in 2018, launched a prototype in August 2019 and conducted sea trials in January 2020. The small 50 foot-long craft has been described as a mini-destroyer because of its ambitious weapons and sensor fit. With a remote weapons station (RWS), it is intended to be armed with a small vertical launch system (VLS) for surface to air missiles and two lightweight torpedo tubes. Sensors include phased-array radars, electro-optical devices and sonar… The new unreported USV has a similar overall form to JARI… The other unreported USV is a large catamaran, also with a length of approximately 70 feet.”
US Army’s light tank competition enters final stretch. (Defense News) “The service selected General Dynamics Land Systems and BAE Systems in December 2018 to each build and deliver 12 prototypes for the Army’s Mobile Protected Firepower, or MPF, program… The two prototypes differ significantly. GDLS offered a new, lightweight chassis with a high-performance power pack and an advanced suspension, combined with a turret featuring the latest version of the fire control system found in the Abrams main battle tank… BAE Systems’ design is an updated M8 Buford armored gun system with new capabilities and components… The Army is anticipating awarding a contract to GDLS or BAE “about the end of the third quarter of fiscal 2022.””
US Army delays Microsoft’s $22 billion HoloLens deal. (DCD) “Earlier this year Microsoft won a $22 billion deal to deliver 120,000 custom HoloLens kits to soldiers. As part of the contract, Microsoft will provide cloud and Edge services to support the augmented reality kit… However, after nearly a year of testing, the Army has announced a pushback on the widespread roll-out of the hardware. This week the US Military announced it was delaying the roll-out of the project, saying it shifting IVAS Operational Test and fielding to a date “later in FY22.”
Pratt & Whitney’s GatorWorks to 3D print entire jet engine. (Flight Global) “GatorWorks can afford to take risks because it is not designing or manufacturing ultra-reliable turbofan engines used on fighter jets or airliners. Instead, it is focused on low-cost military engines such as the TJ-150, which is used to power small cruise missiles… P&W thinks it can consolidate the TJ-150’s number of parts from 400 to about half a dozen. It calculates that the process will cut the engine’s cost in half… “Right now, if we want to do an iteration, we’ve got hard tooling that’s about a 12-month lead time,” Stagney says. “If we can do additive, we can eliminate that lead time and print new configurations in a couple of weeks.””
Products speak louder than PowerPoints. (Breaking Defense) “Kratos operates differently than your typical defense contractor. It is a public company that acts more like a venture-backed, high-tech startup. Rather than waiting for the customer to begin a program of record or issue a Request for Proposal, Kratos anticipates a need and gets to bending metal, shaping composites, or writing software–on its own dime… We probably have a handful and a half of products and systems that are in the infamous valley of death. We’ve flown them, we’ve demonstrated them–satellite systems, ground systems, drone systems–and we’re trying to get into a program of record or get to a quantity production scenario… 30 months from a white piece of paper to our Valkyrie, a 3,000-mile strike unmanned drone, flying. We do that all the time. We don’t show up with PowerPoints; we show up with products. For the development of the XQ-58A, while the customer contributed about $10 million, we assumed the risk and contributed about $30 million
The US Army will soon be able to see itself in cyberspace on the battlefield. (C4ISRNET) “The Army will field the new tool, called Cyber Situational Understanding, to operational units in fiscal 2022 as part of what the service calls Capability Set ‘21… It’s a first-of-its-kind tool that will be built into the Command Post Computing Environment, which will consolidate current mission systems and programs into a single user interface at the command post.
Lockheed unveils new laser weapon for Army’s Stryker vehicles. (Breaking Defense) “Lockheed is designing a 50 kilowatt laser called DEIMOS, short for Directed Energy Interceptor for Maneuver of Short Range Air Defense… “We see a competition for a program of record on the horizon. The [Army’s Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office] and [Program Executive Office] Missiles and Space have been very clear about that,” he said, adding that the competition could occur as early as 2023… Lockheed hopes to unseat an incumbent team of Raytheon and Kord Technologies, which received a $123.9 million contract this summer to build a Directed Energy Maneuver Short Range Air Defense system (DE M-SHORAD) from the Army after their prototype completed a shoot out earlier this year.”
Maxar files protest over Space Development Agency’s satellite procurement. (Space News) “SDA on Aug. 30 issued a request for proposals for the Transport Layer Tranche 1 — a mesh network of small communications satellites in low Earth orbit projected to start launching in 2024. Proposals were due Oct. 8, the same day Maxar filed the protest… Several industry sources familiar with SDA’s satellite procurement said they were unaware of what might have prompted Maxar’s protest but noted that bid challenges are to be expected in a program of this size and importance. SDA said as many as three suppliers could be selected to produce 126 satellites… SDA last year selected Lockheed Martin and York Space Systems to produce the first 20 satellites of the Transport Layer Tranche 0.”
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