Navy’s shipbuilding request may be violation of law, Inhofe warns. (Breaking Defense) Inhofe’s tweet: “The @USNavy says we need at least 355 battle force ships to counter future threats from China & Russia. @POTUS’s budget takes a step backward – decommissioning 24 while building just 8 new ones. This puts us on track to a SMALLER Navy fleet over the next 5 years. Illogical.” From the article: “When Navy leadership briefed out their fiscal 2023 budget request on Monday, they proudly pointed out that the service plans to buy nine new ships in the coming fiscal year. Except it turns out that nine ship buy is actually an eight ship buy… At issue is the amphibious assault ship LHA-9, and a repeated attempt by the service to claim it as a new production in multiple fiscal years.”
The Air Force wants to retire 33 F-22s, buy more F-15EXs in new budget. (The Drive) “The proposed 2023 Fiscal Year defense budget includes… at least 150 aircraft now potentially on the chopping block….
- The U.S. Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps are looking to buy 61 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters, in total [24 fewer than last year].
- The Air Force wants to purchase 24 F-15EX Eagle II fighter jets [twice as many as last year]. The Air Force is seeking to retire 33 F-22A Raptor stealth fighters. [Reduce inventory to 153].
- The Air Force wants to send 26 older F-16C/D Viper fighter jets to the boneyard.
- The Air Force is seeking $1.7 billion in funding related to its NGAD program…
- The Navy is again looking to stop buying new F/A-18E/F Super Hornets in this new budget request as it pushes to shift focus to its own Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program.
- The Air Force wants to shed 21 A-10 Warthogs…
- The Navy is asking for funds to buy its first four production examples of the MQ-25A Stingray tanker drone.
- The Air Force is still looking to halt purchases of MQ-9 Reaper drones and is seeking to transfer 100 of its some 300 existing examples to “another government organization” that it would not disclose.
- The Marine Corps wants to buy five MQ-9s to expand its growing fleet of these drones.
- The Air Force wants to get rid of 15 of its 31 E-3 Sentry Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft.
- The Air Force wants to get rid of 15 of its 31 E-3 Sentry Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft.”
Space Force gets roughly 40% increase in Biden request. (Defense One)”The Space Force is requesting $24.5 billion in the 2023 budget, roughly 40 percent more than in last year’s request. Officials said the jump reflects the urgency to launch and defend satellites that can spot a hypersonic missile, track a moving truck, assure U.S. nuclear command and control, and more… The budget request also includes $566 million for the Space Force’s evolved strategic SATCOM program… The Space Force is also absorbing the U.S. Air Force’s Ground Moving Target Indicator mission from JSTARS aircraft the Air Force is planning to retire.”
US Army’s short-range air defense capability will grow to a battalion by year’s end. (Defense News) “The first platoon of the Maneuver-Short-Range Air Defense System has been in Europe for nearly a year in response to an urgent capability gap former U.S. Army Europe Commander Gen. Ben Hodges identified in 2016. The M-SHORAD is a Stryker A1 combat vehicle-based system that includes a mission equipment package designed by Leonardo DRS. That package includes Raytheon’s Stinger vehicle missile launcher. General Dynamics Land Systems is the lead integrator and received a $1.2 billion contract to build and deliver the system in October 2020.”
US Navy seeks to end San Antonio-class ship production, reducing fleet by 8 amphibious hulls. (Defense News) “The LPD-17 class got off to a rough start in its construction, but transformed into a model acquisition program and a workhorse of the fleet. These ships, built at Ingalls Shipbuilding in Mississippi, haul Marines and their gear as part of amphibious ready group/Marine expeditionary unit (ARG/MEU) formations…. The Navy and Marine Corps are conducting an amphibious warship requirements study expected to wrap up very shortly… “Timely global response and day-to-day peer competition requires … no less — or threshold, in requirements speak — than 31 amphibious ships,” he [Lt. Gen. Karsten Heckl] said… The decision to stop the LPD production line could drop the service to 24, at the very low end of an estimate released by the Biden administration last spring.”
DARPA complete underminer program. (DARPA) “DARPA’s Underminer program has demonstrated the feasibility of rapidly constructing tactical tunnel networks that enable secure, responsive resupply in denied environments. These networks could provide infrastructure for logistics support, such as pre-positioning supplies in advance of an operation or providing ongoing resupply as troops move through a contested area. The ability to rapidly bore tactical tunnels could also be helpful in rescue missions.”
US Army on track to award TITAN competitive prototyping contracts. (Defense News) “The service awarded contracts to Raytheon and Palantir in January 2021 to mature designs for its Tactical Intelligence Targeting Access Node, which is being developed to help connect sensors with users in the field in order to support beyond-line-of-sight targeting…. the two companies have completed the ground station modernization phase — which included four “soldier touch points,” two design reviews and two technical demonstrations — and the service is on track to award Phase II contracts in the third quarter of fiscal 2022… Raytheon and Palantir both received 12-month other transaction agreements worth $8.5 million each for their Phase I work. Phase II, a 14-month effort, will focus on complete system prototyping of the contractors’ designs and will conclude with a down-select to a single provider.”
Air Force continues modest shift toward standoff munitions in new budget. (Air Force Mag) “Standoff munitions—primarily the AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile series—continue to get priority in the munitions category of the Air Force’s 2023 spending request…
- The JASSM-ER (Extended Range) is the single largest line item in munitions spending, with a request of $785 million to buy 550 missiles, which USAF officials described as “maxing out” the production capacity of maker Lockheed Martin.
- The service is also buying 28 Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) variants of the JASSM for $119 million, after buying none in fiscal 2022…. the relatively small increase in units “illustrates the limited capacity of our industrial base, including its lack of surge capacity”
- The request for 1,919 Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMS) in the fiscal 2022 budget plummeted from 16,800 units the year before, but this year rises back up to 4,200 units.
- The buy of Small Diameter Bomb I, which also dropped sharply from 2,462 in 2021 to 998 units in 2022, has fallen again, to 356 weapons in 2023. The Air Force has stated a preference for the GBU-53/B StormBreaker (previously known as SDB II), which nevertheless also declines from 985 units in 2022 to 761 bombs in the new request; a level comparable to that of two years ago.
- the AGM-114 Hellfire missile, which largely equips MQ-9 Reaper drones, was not mentioned in the service’s budget highlights as it was in recent years.
Navy dramatically increases funding for secretive Project Overmatch. (Defense News) “The Navy is seeking $195 million for the effort in fiscal year 2023, a 167% increase over the $73 million the service received for the effort in fiscal 2022…. Project Overmatch is the most secretive of the three major JADC2 efforts by far. Details on Project Overmatch development have been scant, with spending classified by the Navy… While the release of a top line budget for Project Overmatch offers a new level of insight into spending on the effort, the Navy didn’t offer any context on the year-over-year increase in the fiscal 2023 budget request.”
Anduril taps former Pentagon acquisition official to bolster international business. (Defense News) “Greg Kausner, who was until last month performing the duties of the undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, started as head of global defense for Anduril on March 14… Anduril’s international portfolio is relatively small, though it has contracts with the British Defence Ministry and recently opened an office in Australia.”
Biden’s FY23 budget request fails to fully tackle inflation. (Defense News) “…. the Pentagon, the White House and the Congressional Budget Office have, for years, assumed a 2% inflation rate for budget growth. This year, the CBO updated its 2021 inflation forecast to 5.4%… President Joe Biden’s 4% bump for the military is a useful down payment on tackling inflation and price increases across the board; however, there are few items or outcomes Americans and the Defense Department are buying right now that are seeing cost growth as low as just 4 points.”
Canada picks the F-35 in fighter replacement competition. (Defense News) “Canada plans to buy 88 new fighter jets to replace its CF-18s. The government has budgeted about CA$19 billion (U.S. $15 billion) for the purchase… Delivery of the first aircraft would be scheduled for 2025 if an agreement is reached. If an agreement is not reached, the government has the option to enter into talks with Saab, whose Gripen fighter came second to the F-35 in the competition.”
US Navy wants long-range missiles, more maintenance money in wish list. (Defense News) “The top item on the [unfunded priorities] list is a relatively low-dollar one: $23 million in weapons maintenance funding to expand the number of combat-usable Standard Missile-6 weapons, clearing the backlog of 125 missiles that need upgraded to support Pacific operations. Second on the list is $33 million to buy 11 more AGM-158C-1 Long Range Anti-Ship Missiles to boost lethality. Next comes $171 million for “maritime spares outfitting” for surface ships, submarines, unmanned systems, IT systems and more to increase spares availability at the point of use. Then there’s $175 million to fund ship repair and spare parts to support greater operations in the Pacific theater as part of the Pacific Deterrence Initiative.”
Ukraine shows the need to change US export rules on unmanned systems. (Breaking Defense) “Ukraine is largely relying on — and making famous — the Turkish-built TB2 Bayraktar UAVs. Kyiv is not alone in this regard: many US partners and allies are forced by US regulations to buy UAVs from other countries, including Israel, Turkey and, most concerningly, China…. the US State Department treats UAVs as if they were akin to nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missiles or cruise missiles when considering requests by allies and partners. This is ludicrous given the massive differences between the systems, but the US State Department largely denies ally and partner requests for UAVs on this basis.”
Broken ARRW: Hypersonic program faces uncertain future after 2023. (Air Force Mag) “The service’s 2023 budget request does not include any procurement funds for the troubled hypersonics program, and though officials said they remain committed to the program in 2023, its future is less certain… [Test] failures led to Congress stripping out the planned procurement of 12 ARRW missiles in the 2022 budget; the Air Force had asked for $160 million on the assumption that the tests would go smoothly… Instead, the budget funds $577 million in research, development, test, and evaluation for the department’s hypersonic programs, which includes both ARRW and the Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile.”
Bid protest could lead to protracted fight over $11B DISA contract award. (Fed Scoop) “Unifying the 22 agencies on a single, streamlined network will provide cost-efficiency, defendability from cyberattacks and agility for modern IT development by eliminating “unnecessary complexity within the IT space,” DISA said in a release… “When you’re talking about dollar figures of this amount … I would consider it unusual to not see a protest,” Moriarty told FedScoop… “When you talk about $11 billion, it’s not a hard decision to make to try to stay in the fight.””
Federal contractor launches pre-award challenge over $15B Polaris solicitation. (Fed Scoop) “Federal contractor BD Squared has filed a pre-award challenge over the $15 billion Polaris governmentwide acquisition contract, citing concerns that the solicitation may violate Small Business Administration regulations…. “The solicitation … permits a mentor-protégé joint venture to provide qualifications and experience from only the mentor firm. This means that the competition for this small business set-aside contract will ultimately devolve into a comparison of qualifications from large business mentor firms against small businesses like BD Squared,” BD said in its complaint.”
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