Navy, Air Force flight stats have been dive bombing for two decades: CBO. (Breaking Defense) ““In general, fleetwide availability rates have declined for both services, but they have declined more for [the Department of the Navy]. Average annual flight hours per aircraft have followed a similar trend,” according to a Congressional Budget Office analysis of the services’ aviation statistics since 2001. “Both the Air Force and DoN experienced declines in the number of flying hours per aircraft and a sharper decline during the pandemic,” the report continues.”
To benefit from commercial tech, DoD will have to solve the problem of security. (1945) “The failure to see the JEDI procurement through to a successful conclusion is one example of how DoD acquisition practices fly in the face of security requirements. A single cloud makes sense from a security point of view and from the point of view of ensuring seamless movement of data down to the tactical edge. One of the distinguishing features of JEDI was the high security requirements for the winning contractor. At the time the contract was awarded, there was only one company, Amazon Web Services, able to meet those standards. The decision to go with multiple contractors recreates the very problem that JEDI was intended to solve: a veritable storm of clouds across DoD with inherent incompatibilities and security seams.”
Japan set to develop railguns to counter hypersonic missiles. (Nikkei Asia) “An earmark of 6.5 billion yen ($56 million) has been included in the fiscal 2022 budget for the development of prototypes of military-use railgun equipment. Planners intend for the system to be ready for actual use in the second half of the 2020s…. Existing intercept missiles are limited to speeds of about 1,700 meters per second. Interceptors fired from electromagnetic railguns are expected to reach speeds of over 2,000 meters per second. During the research stage, a prototype achieved a speed of nearly 2,300 meters per second.”
Army DEVCOM names first permanent chief technology officer. (Breaking Defense) “DEVCOM tapped Charneta Samms for the new CTO position… Previously, Samms served as chief of plans and programs at the Army Research Lab, where she oversaw the planning, programming, reprogramming, budgeting, execution and documentation of ARL’s research program…. DEVCOM is a major subordinate command to Army Futures Command, the primary leader of the Army’s vast modernization effort. It’s home to the Army Research Lab as well as other components such as the Ground Vehicle Systems Center and C5ISR Center.”
Air Force’s small telescope tech will help detect enemy satellites sneaking up on friendly ones. (The Drive) “The ability to detect and capture images of space-based objects without the need for massive telescopes could aid in the Pentagon’s efforts to track small, maneuverable satellites in close proximity to one another — an increasingly critical capability as space becomes a major battleground.” [Using a 1.5 meter telescope, they captured a 30km moon of an asteroid in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.] “The key technology enabling this milestone is known as adaptive optics, a system that enables scientists to reduce the blurring or distortion caused by atmospheric interference when viewing objects in space. There are a few different types of adaptive optics in use, ranging from using deformable mirrors that can ‘cancel out’ atmospheric interference to using lasers to project artificial “guide stars” that can be used as reference points to measure and subsequently reduce atmospheric interference.”
LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman on innovating for an uncertain future. (HBR) “There is no innovation without risk. Frequently what happens in these kind of things is I’ll take an innovation and it’ll just work. Obviously, there’s ways you try to be innovative in risk-intelligent ways. You try to maximize the chance that it will work. You try to minimize the cost of it not working. You try to have some things where if it didn’t work, it still works in some viable way. But literally, if you’re trying to be innovative and you don’t see the risk in what you’re doing, either you’re not being innovative, you’re being blind to the risk, or maybe it’s just not that interesting.”
We think Kratos Defense & Security Solutions is taking some risk with its debt. (Yahoo!) “The latest balance sheet data shows that Kratos Defense & Security Solutions had liabilities of US$210.6m due within a year, and liabilities of US$410.3m falling due after that. On the other hand, it had cash of US$369.9m and US$274.7m worth of receivables due within a year. So it actually has US$23.7m more liquid assets than total liabilities… Unfortunately, Kratos Defense & Security Solutions’s EBIT flopped 11% over the last four quarters. If that sort of decline is not arrested, then the managing its debt will be harder than selling broccoli flavoured ice-cream for a premium.”
House appropriators to probe CR impacts to DoD. (Inside Defense) “The hearing has been scheduled for Jan. 12… Pentagon officials and lawmakers have long complained about CRs and their debilitating restrictions that freeze budgets at previous-year levels and prohibit spending on new defense programs. The Government Accountability Office, however, released a report in September saying CRs have become “routine” at the Pentagon and therefore manageable… Still, lawmakers and DOD officials say there is nothing routine about the danger of a yearlong CR, which would have the practical impact of cutting the FY-22 defense budget by tens of billions of dollars.”
HII demonstrates open architecture autonomy integration capability with Sea Machines’ SM300. (Naval News) “In July 2020, HII announced a minority share investment in Boston-based Sea Machines as part of its expansion into unmanned systems…. Sea Machines’ SM300 system can be outfitted to ocean-capable vessels to enable remotely commanded USV operations or can work alongside an onboard crew to elevate the capability, precision, and endurance of a mission-driven vessel. During the demonstration, HII’s autonomy managed mission delegation and enabled collaborative autonomy with other unmanned systems while providing the SM300 system information to manage the USV heading and speed…. HII has further developed and refined its own autonomy solutions, including collaborative autonomy, advanced health monitoring, and sensor fusion and perception, which have been fielded on 23 vessel types for more than 6,000 hours.”
Navy’s unmanned minesweeper clears underwater shock trials. (Breaking Defense) “The Unmanned Influence Sweep System (UISS), capable of launching from the Navy’s littoral combat ships or operated from shore, is designed to use both acoustic and magnetic sensors to deter and sweep mines at sea… Beyond the surface vessel itself, the UISS is a complex family of systems that handle everything from power and radar to generating the magnetic fields and acoustics, as well as one system dedicated to “Mine Detonation Detection,” according to a Pentagon factsheet [PDF]. As a semi-autonomous capability, it has its own “obstacle avoidance sensor package” and a Command, Control, Communications, and Computers (C4) suite.”
DoD well on its way to creating data centric future, says chief data officer. (C4ISRNET) “It’s about speed and if you don’t organize your data, if you can’t create repeatable, testable, and trusted data workflows from the tactical edge all the way up to your senior most decision making boardroom activities, then you will just lag behind,” Spirk said… “I don’t view it [the Chief Data and AI Officer] as a bureaucracy. If anything, I think the establishment of this activity knocks down some bureaucratic walls because it puts all of us under one vision that a CDAO can come in and lead,” he explained.”
Boeing reveals new hypersonic aircraft model evolved from previous Valkyrie concept. (The Drive) “Boeing has unveiled a new model of a proposed reusable hypersonic aircraft at a conference this week. The design is an evolution of concepts that were first displayed publicly four years ago and could potentially have military and commercial applications, including as a space launch mothership, according to the company.”
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