IT spend expected to trend up, acting DoD CIO says. (FCW) “The Defense Department’s IT spend has risen steadily in recent years, with an approximate 16% increase from just under $31 billion in fiscal 2016 to nearly $36 billion in fiscal 2021, according to the federal IT dashboard… The IT investment budget for fiscal 2022 is projected to be $38.6 billion…The Defense Department has been planning to open a zero trust program office, which was originally slated to stand up in October.”
Will the military waste billions on JADC2 efforts? (National Defense Magazine) “For fiscal year 2022, the Air Force requested $204 million for its Advanced Battle Management System… The Army requested about $107 million for Project Convergence, and the Navy requested an undisclosed amount of funding across three classified program elements for Project Overmatch. The Pentagon is expected to spend billions more on these efforts in coming years… “While many programs and activities are simultaneously underway across DoD, a major impediment to making meaningful progress is that no one ‘owns’ the overall JADC2 mission area,” [Todd Harrison] wrote.”
Army’s ‘Scarlet Dragon’ uses AI with Navy, Air Force and Marine assets to rapidly find, ID and destroy targets. (Army Times) “The Army recently scanned 7,200 km across four states on the eastern seaboard and used artificial intelligence to find and destroy specific simulated targets in an area the size of a 10-square-foot box…. The event was the fourth of its kind for the Scarlet Dragon program, which began in 2020… a key ingredient was the National Geospatial-Intelligence Center, which provided satellite imagery for software to sift through and find targets… The software for the project comes out of the Pentagon’s Project Maven, an algorithm-based tool used to quickly process drone video for target ID and selection which started in 2017… “Since our first event we have been able to reduce the speed of moving data from sensor to shooter by nearly 50 percent,” [Marine Corps CDO Col. Solsbury] said.”
China has upgraded its best stealth fighter jet with domestic-made engines. (CNN) “The pair of twin-engine J-20s that put on a show for crowds at Airshow China in the southern city of Zhuhai on Tuesday were equipped with the WS-10 engine. The WS-10 was developed by the People’s Liberation Army Air Force to replace Russian engines that were in early versions of the J-20… the WS-10 engines would give the J-20 low supercruise ability, meaning they could fly at supersonic speeds for prolonged periods.”
China ‘decodes’ F-22, F-35 puzzle; flaunts ‘world’s first anti-stealth radar’ that can detect stealthiest of aircraft. (EurAsian Times) “Researchers at China’s Tsinghua University had said they intend to develop a full-sized prototype. Chinese scientists explained that high-energy quantum particles would be able to acquire targets not typically visible to radars. However, physicist Jeffrey Shapiro, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a pioneer of the quantum radar idea, opined that the process is fraught with far too many technical issues for it to be of any use.” [Eric: Even if the likelihood of Chinese claims being correct is 1 percent, wouldn’t the impact be of such consequence as to require hedging in the US?]
Army awards Palantir $823M contract for enterprise ‘data fabric’. (Breaking Defense) “The Army announced today it has enlisted the data analytics firm Palantir in a $823 million contract to provide what the company called the “data fabric and analytics foundation” for the Distributed Common Ground System-Army program…. Palantir will provide Army users with its Gotham data platform, which Palantir said in a release will “connect the dots between disparate sources.””
Turkey asks US to buy 40 Lockheed Martin F-16 jets. (Daily Sabah) “… [A source says that Turkey] requested to buy 40 Lockheed Martin-made F-16 fighter jets and nearly 80 modernization kits for its existing warplanes… Ankara had ordered more than 100 F-35 jets, also made by Lockheed Martin Corp., but was removed from the program in 2019 by the U.S. Department of Defense on the pretext of purchasing a Russian missile defense system.”
Defense Department appoints Jason Weiss as chief software officer. (Fed Scoop) “He moves into the new position after serving as director of software modernization at the department since January. In the new post, Weiss will oversee the adoption of modern software development practices and the modernization of legacy applications across the DOD. Prior to joining government earlier this year, Weiss had a two-decade career leading IT and cloud development projects in the private sector, most recently as vice president of IT transformation at BAE Systems. He began his career as a cryptologic technician in the Navy.”
Report: US Army could field two new vertical lift aircraft if services lives within its means. (Defense News) “The Army experienced several failures over the last 20 years attempting to replace its OH-58D Kiowa Warrior with the RAH-66 Comanche and the ARH-70 Arapaho, followed by an attempt almost a decade ago to look at commercial off-the-shelf capabilities…. “Based on the data, FVL’s ability to be affordable may be to ensure that combined spending on FARA and FLRAA for RDT&E, procurement and O&S consumes approximately 1.6 percent of the Army’s annual topline, on average,” the report concluded… The Army should consider splitting the FVL ecosystem into three major elements: platforms and airframes; mission systems; and payloads, weapons and offboard effects.”
Lockheed Martin opens new hypersonic missile factory. (Air Force Magazine) “The 65,000-square-foot facility, to be called Missile Assembly Building 4 (MAB 4), in Courtland, Ala., will also be used to build the Army’s Long Range Hypersonic Weapon and the Navy’s Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS) missile, Lockheed Martin said in a press release. Those two systems have major components in common, including the hypersonic glide body vehicle itself… The new facility is one of four “intelligent factory” sites Lockheed Martin is opening this year.”
This is our most detailed look at Russia’s S-70 unmanned combat air vehicle. (The Drive) “There are also nice views of the UCAV’s very exposed engine exhaust. This is something that The War Zone has noted would limit its all-around stealthiness since the very first images of this unmanned aircraft emerged back in 2019. The Okhotnik’s overall surface is hardly flush, either, with various exposed fasteners and seams that would negatively impact its radar-evading qualities… Sukhoi says the S-70 is expected to change significantly, inside and out, between the first two examples and the next two. The most notable expected difference will be the replacement of the exposed rear engine exhaust with a shrouded one” [Good pictures]
Swarm grammar: DARPA to test whether single user can control 200 drones. (Defense News) “The November capstone event at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, is part of DARPA’s OFFensive Swarm-Enabled Tactics (OFFSET) program, which envisions smaller units able to mass up to 250 small aerial and ground unmanned systems in urban areas… Northrop’s open-architecture system, dubbed Rapid Integration Swarm Ecosystem, allows an operator to draw a sketch on a tablet, which tells the unmanned systems to perform a specific task… For example, she said, the user could circle a building on the tablet, telling the unmanned systems to converge on the structure. Or the user could draw a question mark over a target, which denotes a specific task based on predetermined swarm grammar, she added.”
Exercise Nobel Jaguar: US Navy-USMC team brings integrated lethality to the littorals. (Naval News) “Concealed through the cover of darkness and a small footprint on the electromagnetic spectrum, Marines with 3rd Battalion, 12th Marines quickly reached a nearby port where they loaded multiple High Mobility Artillery Rocket System launchers and readied for embarkation on the USNS Brunswick (T-EPF 6), an expeditionary fast transport ship…. Meanwhile, Marines leveraged sensing capabilities, such as the Ground/Air Task Oriented Radar, and connections with Link 16 to share targeting data with the USS Carl Vinson (CVN70) and USS Howard (DDG83), sailing in the Philippine Sea, and F/A-18s with Marine Aircraft Group 12 operating in the surrounding airspace.”
First Littoral Combat Ship decommissioned 12 years early. (Maritime Executive) “Freedom is one of the six lightly-armed LCS vessels that the Navy wishes to mothball early in order to “reallocate time, resources and manpower in support of increased lethality.” The first, USS Independence, was decommissioned on July 29 at Naval Base San Diego… The Senate version of the FY2022 appropriations bill incorporates language that would permanently limit the Navy’s ability to retire ships early, and it is aimed squarely at moderating the service’s regular requests to remove its oldest and least-cost-effective vessels. However, the clause includes a waiver process if the Secretary of the Navy determines that the vessel is not needed and cannot be maintained or stored.”
F-35 engine maker braces for sustainment cost spike. (Breaking Defense) “In the mid-2020s — just as the Pentagon expects to see a sharp decrease to F-35 sustainment costs — the first F135 engines used by the jet will hit 2,000 hours and will be sent to the depot for a scheduled overhaul… Under its current contract, Pratt & Whitney is obligated to ensure that no more than 10% of F-35s are down due to engine issues, with 6% being the objective number. Historically, the company has “beat” the objective number, with only 4% of the fleet typically non-mission capable because of engine problems. With about 9% of jets currently down due to engines, Pratt & Whitney is still technically within threshold levels of its agreement with the Pentagon, even if it’s not meeting the objective, Glode said.”
DoD accelerates hypersonic technology research with R&D awards totaling $25.5M. (3D Printing Industry) “The US Department of Defense (DOD) has awarded 18 university-led projects a total of $25.5 million to accelerate hypersonic flight research via technologies such as 3D printing, machine learning, and non-destructive testing… the University of Virginia-led project will seek to 3D print high-temperature parts made of previously unused niobium alloys, which could enable huge time and cost savings for more complex geometries. The hopes are that these proposed 3D printing capabilities will eventually be applied to scramjets – a class of hypersonic jet engine in which combustion takes place in supersonic airflow.”
B-52 Stratofortress lives into the 2050s with improved electronic warfare system. (Auto Evolution) “This week one of these contractors, L3Harris, announced it would be in charge of upgrading the aircraft’s electronic warfare self-protection system… The exact details of the upgrades have not been announced, but as a side note, these systems have been, in the case of the B-52, in the hands of L3Harris for the past 50 years. The new contract, estimated at $947 million over the next ten years, should keep the company on board for the remainder of the plane’s life.”
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