White House taps former Air Force official to run Pentagon acquisition. (Defense News) “William LaPlante, the president and chief executive of Draper Laboratory, will be nominated to be the undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment. LaPlante served as assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition for three years, until he left in November 2015 to join the non-profit MITRE Corp… But it could still be a few months until LaPlante is on the job… the department’s work on the fiscal 2023 budget is just about done. But he noted that Biden nominees will play a larger role in the following budget for fiscal 2024.”
Mike Griffin critical of US response to China’s advances in hypersonic weapons. (Space News) ““They launch a missile costing maybe a few million dollars or even 10s of millions of dollars, and two or three of those can take out an aircraft carrier.” … When he left DoD, the U.S. military services were on track to produce two hypersonic rounds per month. “We need to up that by a factor of 10,” he said. “The Chinese are not going to be scared by a few dozen rounds a year. They need to be facing hundreds of new rounds per year.”… The Pentagon’s budget for 2022 includes $3.8 billion for hypersonic weapons research, which is more than last year’s $3.2 billion budget.”
Pentagon weighing reorganization of AI, data offices. (Breaking Defense) “Under the proposed plan, the three offices in question — the Defense Digital Service (DDS), the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC) and the office of the Chief Data Officer (CDO) — would remain largely independent, but would all report up to a new individual, tentatively named the Chief Data & AI Officer… as opposed to the current structure where DDS and JAIC report directly to Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks while the CDO reports to the Chief Information Officer.”
Two cheers for the Pentagon’s New Data and AI initiative. (Defense One) “the JAIC is torn between being a developer of algorithms itself and being an enabler that helps the military services figure out how to develop and implement algorithms within relevant military programs. The JAIC also has lacked the authority to compel the military services and other institutions to collaborate. A tight linkage between DoD’s data and AI hubs will give DoD’s algorithmic efforts better access to necessary data to succeed.”
New jets, same old mistakes in Air Force purchasing. (Federal News Network) POGO’s Dan Grazier: ” … what Pentagon leaders have been doing is they’ve come up with a whole series of schemes to avoid the MDAP process, to avoid a lot of the oversight steps and reviews that go along with them. So the F-15EX is being dubbed a middle tier acquisition program. And that provides the Air Force the justification, I suppose, to avoid a lot of those usual overstep functions… our concern is that — well, so the Office of Director of Operational Test Evaluation was created in 1983, and it was created over very vigorous objections of the defense industry, and certain service leaders, many of whom went on to work for the defense industry, because they wanted to be able to basically write their rules and be able to say whatever they wanted about the performance of these weapons. “
The Air Force’s most advanced jets may be vulnerable because of their own weapons. (Business Insider) “The Air Force has invested heavily in sophisticated aircraft, but its air-to-air missile arsenal has fallen behind in many respects. The main concern is that the limited range of outdated weapons will make those aircraft easy targets for adversaries with advanced air defenses and longer-range missiles… The PL-15 long-range AAM is the most impressive in China’s arsenal. With a range between 93 miles and 124 miles, the PL-15 likely outdistances its closest American counterpart, the AIM-120D… Crucially, the missile can make course corrections without the pilot turning on his radar and giving away his position. China is also currently developing the PL-XX, which may have a range between 186 miles to 248 miles… Lockheed Martin’s AIM-260 Joint Advanced Tactical Missile is the Air Force’s highest priority air-to-air weapon and has been developed in strict secrecy. It may have twice the range of the AIM-120D and is expected to be carried by F-22s, F-35s, F-15EXs, and Navy F/A-18s.”
DARPA’s aerial turducken, the LongShot, still cooking towards 2022 milestone. (Breaking Defense) Its “an “air-launched unmanned air vehicle (UAV) with the ability to employ multiple air-to-air weapons.” In other words, a plane launches the LongShot mothership, which in turn launches its own air-to-air missiles… DARPA budget documents show the agency planned to spend $24 million on the project in 2021 and another $36 million next year.”
Defending against drones is becoming a business. (Axios) “Dedrone found a 217% increase in unauthorized drone access to nine selected U.S. facilities between 2019 and 2020, and it says the number has only increased since then… Dedrone’s first line of defense is sensors capable of picking up the radio frequency signals used to communicate with and control a drone, or it uses radar or visual images.”
Popular science lauds AFRL weapon as among ‘best of what’s new.’ (Dayton Daily News) “… counter drone weapon, the Tactical High-power Operational Responder (otherwise known as “THOR”) — has been named the Popular Science “Best of What’s New” in the security category… “With the Air Force’s THOR, the military has a new tool to fry an entire swarm” of drones, Popular Science said. “The system emits high-powered microwaves that hurt electronics, but not people or wildlife. Compact enough to fit on in a shipping container or a C-130 cargo plane, this electrically powered weapon can be set up in a few hours.”
The steps we must take to strengthen America’s national security innovation base. (Defense News) ” There are too many layers in the decision-making process and too many individuals that can slow or halt entire programs. Saying “no” or, worse, studying the program to death in fear of mistakes or failure happens all too often, many times in direct opposition to leadership’s clear signal to move forward. Compounding this, program managers rotate in and out of programs at a pace defined by a person’s career track, independent of program milestones or accomplishments… More often, the labs should serve as the center for integration — not invention — of new tech into the existing warfighting systems. “
Northrop to flight-test software-defined SATCOM radio for AFRL. (Breaking Defense) “The demonstration project is designed to show that the defense prime’s Freedom radio can work with modems provided by other vendors and easily communicate with current military SATCOM networks as well as future satellite constellations.”
GDMS to integrate CMS onto US Navy’s Overload USVs. (Naval News) “The US Navy has recently deployed four containerized SM-6 launchers for testing on the unmanned surface vessel “Ranger,” one of two unmanned ships that support the US Navy’s Ghost Fleet experimental program, which is run in partnership with the Strategic Capabilities Office.”
Palantir secures additional $43 million contract from Space Systems Command. (Yahoo!) “This award provides continued capabilities for Project Brown Heron which enables all-domain situational awareness and decision-making at NORAD/USNORTHCOM (N-NC), and the Space C2 division under the Cross Mission Ground & Communications Enterprise (ECX). The Palantir platform, known as Warp Core, is being utilized to make decisions from large volumes of data in support of these missions.”
ISR missions for space force ‘just make a lot of sense,’ USECAF says. (Air Force Magazine) “This led to the Air Force requesting to cut back on ISR operations in its fiscal 2022 budget, specifically by the MQ-9 Reaper drone. The service has also sought to retire its E-8C Joint STARS fleet… The Space Force, for its part, has already expressed an interest in the ISR mission…The proliferation of small satellites and the dropping cost of launches made such a move possible, Raymond said, and it is “complementary” to the service’s existing missions.”
With T-7 on the way, why is ACC eyeing a new trainer? (Defense News) “The Air Force released a request for information for a new trainer aircraft, dubbed the Advanced Tactical Trainer, on Oct. 12… The RFI said it would also be used to provide adversary air support… [ACC Commander Kelly] added that ACC needs additional features in the aircraft it uses to conduct fighter pilot training — features the T-7 was never required to have. Kelly said those features could include increased use of sensors, and increased fuel requirements for mission duration and afterburner use. And he expects it could have some rudimentary weapons computing capability and some simulation playback capabilities to teach pilots how to respond to threats… “I need something … that’s not $20,000-plus cost per flying hour, closer to $2,000 to $3,000 cost per flying hour, that comes a little closer to our modern avionics,” Kelly said.”
DOD working to build database of innovative acquisitions. (Fed Scoop) “The DOD has a range of offices that offer small research grants and other non-traditional contracts to purchase emerging tech, like AFWERX or the Defense Innovation Unit. But there is little coordination of those investments among the offices, Shyu lamented… Shyu’s database would be a new means for the entire department to share information… Called the Rapid Defense Experimentation Reserve (RDER), the fund was recently set up to grant money to test new ideas submitted by services and combatant commands. Just in the first five weeks of open calls for submissions, the military submitted 203 white papers.”
Leaked video in UK shows F-35 falling off aircraft carrier. (AA) “A leaked video reported widely by local media in the UK appears to show a British F-35 fighter jet drop off the launch ramp of the HMS Queen Elizabeth, the country’s flagship aircraft carrier, without ever managing to get airborne first… Local media have speculated that something like a plastic rain cover might have been sucked into the jet’s engine, causing it to fail.”
Oshkosh defense to build another 1,600 JLTVs for the Army. (Breaking Defense) “The order also includes 125 vehicles set aside for allies and partners, including Brazil, Lithuania, Montenegro, and Slovenia… ut the Army is in the process of preparing a new contract for the vehicle, with a new award expected in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2022. According to industry day slides posted earlier this month, that contract is expected to be worth $6.5 billion and includes about 17,000 JLTVs and 10,000 trailers.”
DARPA to launch DoD’s first in-space manufacturing research program. (Space News) “The project, led by DARPA’s biological technologies office, is called B-SURE, short for biomanufacturing, survival, utility and reliability beyond Earth… “There is a critical DoD need for the continued development and expansion of orbital manufacturing to enable and ensure supply chain resiliency, sustained technological superiority, and asset security and repair for current and future operations,” DARPA said in a broad agency announcement.“
Former defense secretary Esper sues Pentagon in memoir dispute. (The Hill) “The former Pentagon chief, in his email to Austin cited in the lawsuit, said he was asked not to quote Trump in the book, asked not to use certain verbs or nouns when writing about historical events, and asked to delete his perspective on the actions of other countries and conversations he had with foreign officials. He also said some of the requested redactions “were already in the public domain; some were even published by DOD.”… He suggested that someone involved in the review process might have leaked the information, “possibly to undermine the impact it would have had were it to first appear in the published version of ‘A Sacred Oath,’” the lawsuit added.”
Elon Musk tells SpaceX employees that Starship engine crisis is creating a ‘risk of bankruptcy.‘ (CNBC) ““The Raptor production crisis is much worse than it seemed a few weeks ago,” Musk wrote… Musk on Nov. 17 said SpaceX will “hopefully launch” the first orbital Starship flight in January or February, pending regulatory approval by the FAA as well as technical readiness… to move to orbital launches, the rocket prototypes will need as many as 39 Raptor engines each – necessitating a sharp ramp in engine production… He also noted at the time that Starship development “is at least 90% internally funded thus far,” with the company not assuming “any international collaboration” or external funding.”
US military & govt break law, buy banned Dahua/Lorex, congressional committee calls for investigation. (IPVM) “The House Armed Services Committee has called for an investigation after IPVM provided evidence that multiple federal agencies, including four military branches, illegally purchased relabeled Dahua surveillance equipment in 2021… The House Armed Services Committee has called for an investigation after IPVM provided evidence that multiple federal agencies, including four military branches, illegally purchased relabeled Dahua surveillance equipment in 2021… The evidence is clear that sellers often will not say or do not know if their products are NDAA-banned; some manufacturers even lie about compliance.”
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