Ukraine supplies 90% of US semiconductor-grade neon (and what it means to chip supply chain). (Venture Beat) “Ukraine supplies more than 90% of the U.S.’s semiconductor-grade neon, a gas integral to the lasers used in the chip-making process, while Russia supplies 35% of the U.S.’s palladium supply, a rare metal that can be used to create semiconductors… Raimondo noted that the median inventory of chips fell from 40 days in 2019 to less than five days in 2022 and that most chip fabs are running at more than 90% utilization.”
CNO Gilday: We need a naval force of over 500 ships. (USNI News) ““We need 12 carriers. We need a strong amphibious force to include nine big-deck amphibs and another 19 or 20 [LPDs] to support them. Perhaps 30 or more smaller amphibious ships to support Maritime Littoral Regiments… to 60 destroyers and probably 50 frigates, 70 attack submarines and a dozen ballistic missile submarines to about a 100 support ships and probably looking into the future about 150 unmanned.”… that force would be about 513 ships with 263 manned combatants, plus 100 logistics and supply ships and 150 unmanned vessels.”
Top oversight Dems to Pentagon: stop ‘hiding’ info on weapons programs from public. (Breaking Defense) “The prevalent and unprecedented redactions [in the DOT&E report] effectively hid information on the status of multi-billion-dollar weapons programs from US taxpayers footing the bill… The [lawmakers] also gave the Pentagon a March 9 deadline to hand over information that justifies why information was marked CUI for each weapon system evaluated in the report, and what entity was responsible for making that determination… For instance, the section on the Marine Corps’ CH-53K helicopter contained no data about the performance of the aircraft during tests, whereas previous reports included detailed information about deficiencies encountered in testing.”
Anduril CRO: There is no fair competition for non-traditional companies in defense. (Breaking Defense) ““I would love someone to do a study to figure out how many open competitions are wired for a winner ahead of time before that solicitation ever hits the light of day,” Matthew Steckman, chief revenue officer at Anduril… “It’s got to be 85%, right? … There is no fair competition…. You cannot start a new business right now and reach any kind of scale working with the Department of Defense. Period,” he said. “We should all let that sink in for a little bit.”
CSAF releases modified action order as progress on bureaucracy remains elusive. (Air Force Magazine) “More specifically, current Air Staff decision-making remains cumbersome, slow, allows ‘soft vetoes’ without accountability, and prioritizes compromise and consensus over decision quality. Mired in hierarchical processes and content with the status quo, the Air Staff must adapt to mission command and collaborative approaches to address the 21st Century threats and competitive strategic environment.”
Army needs to better use software authorities, new acquisition leader says. (Fed Scoop) “Douglas Bush, who was sworn into the top Army acquisition job Feb. 11, said that increasing the speed and agility of how the Army buys software is a top priority…. Bush said the main issue when buying software is the lack of flexibility in the way the Army is allowed to spend money. Traditionally, the Army is authorized to use specific types of funding — also known as a “color of money” — for certain types of programs, like research and development or production procurement.”
Troubled Littoral ship still can’t perform mission, GAO says. (Bloomberg) “Littoral Combat Ships [have] “not yet demonstrated the operational capabilities it needs to perform its mission,” congressional auditors have found almost 14 years after the first vessel was delivered and more than $31 billion has been spent. More than $3 billion of that has gone toward the Navy’s estimate that operating and maintaining the ships will cost at least $60 billion over 25 years. But that projection is outdated and incomplete… “Operational testing has found several significant challenges, including the ship’s ability to defend itself if attacked and failure rates of mission-essential equipment.” … What Navy leaders once touted as a 55-vessel fleet of $220 million ships has dwindled to a planned 35 costing on average $478 million apiece. “
Following first demonstration, Edge unveils swarming drones based on AI technology. (Defense News) “Halcon, a subsidiary of UAE’s Edge Group, unveiled a tube-launched swarming drone system known as Hunter 2-S… the swarming drones application can fire 36 drones and control them. “They are equipped with [friend or foe identification] systems.” … The swarm’s targets may include enemy fighter jets on the tarmac at a military base or an incoming convoy of enemy armored vehicles… Hunter 2-S uses 3D printed parts, specifically the aerospace qualified thermoplastic material.”
Report on Navy large unmanned surface and undersea vehicles. (USNI News) “The Navy’s proposed FY2022 budget requests $434.1 million in research and development funding for these large UVs and their enabling technologies… The Navy envisions LUSVs as being 200 feet to 300 feet in length and having full load displacements of 1,000 tons to 2,000 tons, which would make them the size of a corvette. (i.e., a ship larger than a patrol craft and smaller than a frigate)… The Navy wants LUSVs to be low-cost, high-endurance, reconfigurable ships based on commercial ship designs, with ample capacity for carrying various modular payloads—particularly anti-surface warfare (ASuW) and strike payloads, meaning principally anti-ship and land-attack missiles.”
Losing tech war to China? After hypersonic missiles, ex-Google CEO says US far behind in another critical technology. (EurAsian Times) “Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google, has chastised the US government for its delayed 5G rollout, claiming that the government’s “dithering” has left America “well behind” China… Schmidt and Allison cited statistics from PCMag to suggest that most 5G services in the US are substantially slower than those in China. They also claimed that, despite ongoing US sanctions against Huawei, the Chinese company remains a top 5G provider globally. They also referred to the Federal Aviation Administration’s “hysterics” over the possibility of 5G operations in the C-band spectrum interfering with aircraft radio altimeters. They claimed that the Chinese government has invested a total of $50 billion in 5G networks in the country, but the US has only allocated $1.5 billion so far. “The pathetic U.S. performance in the 5G race is a sign of America’s larger failure to keep up with China on strategically important technologies. China is also ahead of America in high-tech manufacturing, green energy and many applications of artificial intelligence,” they added… China has also demonstrated that a hypersonic weapon could communicate and detect targets using 6G technology, eliminating some of the issues about blackouts that occur at speeds of five times the speed of sound or more.”
Why are details of Navy’s project overmatch so scarce? Adversary eyes, for one. (Breaking Defense) “… whatever the military is doing behind the scenes to make Overmatch a reality — and what’s slurping up millions in taxpayer dollars — has been virtually shrouded in secrecy… “We’ve been very deliberate about keeping a low profile… for good reason. Our competitors steal everything. And frankly, they’re not ashamed of it,” Rear Adm. Doug Small, the senior officer in charge of Project Overmatch, told Breaking Defense… “When you download Yelp [on your phone], Yelp does not come to your house to see if it will open properly, if every possible information flow across every network, whether it’s Wi-Fi, or cellular, or 3G, or 4G or whatever, that all of those data paths work,” he said.”
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