Congress may reject Navy’s proposal to end LDP-17 flight II line, lawmakers say. (USNI News) “Last week, the Navy in its FY 2023 budget request proposed ending the LPD-17 Flight II line with LPD-32, but the Marine Corps put advanced procurement funding for LPD-33 at the top of its annual wish list to Congress. Funding for those ships comes out of the Navy’s shipbuilding account and the request shows a division between the Navy and Marine Corps over the future of the amphibious fleet…. Wittman argued the Navy needs to buy both the larger amphibious ships like LPDs and the smaller Light Amphibious Warship the Marine Corps wants to shuttle Marines around islands and shorelines in the Western Pacific…. Wittman argued for the Marine Corps’ vision of LAW as a less expensive ship and said the Navy can’t afford to add requirements and increase the cost of the vessel. The Marine Corps wants to buy the LAWs quickly for $150 million per hull. “It’s more of a connector, so your connectors are never designed to be survivable,” he said.”
Divide and conquer: Air Force next-gen fighter to get unique software system. (Breaking Defense) “The Air Force’s future fighter is being built with its flight control software completely separated from the software governing its mission systems, a unique feature that the service’s top general said will allow the aircraft to be refreshed with new technologies more quickly… [In] the F-16 I flew, the mission software and the flight control software were all intertwined. So anytime you did a mission upgrade, you had to go back and make sure the aircraft is safe to fly.””
Glide Breaker program enters new phase. (DARPA) “DARPA is seeking innovative proposals to conduct wind tunnel and flight testing of jet interaction effects for Phase 2 of the Glide Breaker program. The overall goal of Glide Breaker is to advance the United States’ ability to counter emerging hypersonic threats. Phase 1 of the program focused on developing and demonstrating a divert and attitude control system (DACS) that enables a kill vehicle to intercept hypersonic weapon threats during their glide phase. Phase 2 will focus on quantifying aerodynamic jet interaction effects that result from DACS plumes and hypersonic air flows around an interceptor kill vehicle.”
As Silicon Valley tries to enlist, the Pentagon strangles innovation. (War on the Rocks) “Given that the Defense Innovation Unit is the Department of Defense’s most successful organization in developing and acquiring advanced dual-use technology, one would expect the department to scale the Defense Innovation Unit. The threats are too imminent and stakes too high not to. So what happened? Congress cut the budget by 20 percent. Why? The defense ecosystem is at a turning point. Defense innovation threatens entrenched interests. Given that the Pentagon budget is essentially fixed, creating new vendors and new national champions of the next generation of defense technologies becomes a zero-sum game.”
After hearing Silicon Valley complaints, Hicks says no “magical” fix to acquisition. (Breaking Defense) “When more than 15 space- and software-related startups gathered at the Space Force’s SpaceWERX innovation hub to speak with Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks, it meant an opportunity to share horror stories about bureaucratic red tape they’d encountered while working with the Defense Department — a near universal experience among attendees… “There will not be government solutions to all of the challenges that the government is facing, with regard to how to kind of manage through that full innovation cycle. That said, I think there’s a lot more that we can do,” she [DepSecDef Hicks] said. “My view isn’t like, I’m going to magically unlock special secret approaches that haven’t been touched before,” she told traveling press. “I think it’s more about how you start to shift the incentives. Are you coming at the right time to solve some of these problems?”
In electric-powered laser test, Navy shoots down cruise missile analog. (Breaking Defense) “The Navy’s primary research and development agency successfully tested an all-electric, high-energy laser, shooting down “a target representing a subsonic cruise missile in flight,” the Pentagon announced Wednesday. The weapon, called the Layered Laser Defense, is built by Lockheed Martin and can be used to counter unmanned drones and fast-attack boats as well as provide tracking and identification capabilities through its high-resolution telescope… Lockheed, in addition to LLD, is also the prime contractor for another Navy laser weapon system under development dubbed HELIOS. Breaking Defense reported in January the company is preparing to install that weapon onboard a destroyer sometime in 2022.”[Business jets are sometimes used to “represent” cruise missiles, wonder what was actually used in the test.]
Collins Aerospace creates group to make hypersonic weapons, next-generation aircraft. (Defense One) “Advanced Structures combines two of Collins business units, Mechanical Systems and Aerostructures. The mechanical systems group builds aircraft parts, including landing gear, wheels and brakes, and propellers, while the Aerostructures group has historically built nacelles, the casing wrapped around a plane’s engine… Mehta touted technologies, such as carbon-carbon, a material that the company uses in making brakes that can also be used to make an aircraft structure withstand high-speed flight… “One of the challenges in hypersonics is you have to protect the payload in the most extreme environment,” Mehta said. “You think about the friction, you think about some of the heat characteristics and requirements, that a hypersonic, whether it’s a projectile or whether it’s an aircraft. This is the type of material that helps solve that particular problem.””
The Navy’s shipbuilder oversight offices are underutilized, watchdog agency report. (Navy Times) “Co-located with shipyards, the Navy’s Supervisors of Shipbuilding, Conversion and Repair, or SUPSHIP, are the sea service’s on-site lead for overseeing quality assurance, according to GAO, a legislative branch watchdog agency. But SUPSHIP offices face several challenges in their mission to improve shipbuilding results, the report found. For starters, SUPSHIPs have limited input before contracts are awarded, and their expertise is not leveraged in the decision-making process… Further, the Navy’s process for accepting ships from builders fails to include SUPSHIP’s expert input on ship quality and readiness… From propulsion systems aboard the Freedom-class littoral combat ship to the advanced weapons elevators aboard the aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford to a special treatment not adhering to the hulls of Virginia-class fast attack submarines, the Navy regularly “accepts delivery of incomplete ships with significant uncorrected deficiencies,” the GAO report states.”
Report: Embattled Ukraine seeks to buy advanced drones from General Atomics. (Times of San Diego) ““Together with our team, we discussed with General Atomics the prospects of increasing the capacity of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the current situation in Ukraine,” Markarova told the Post.”
How sherpas guide startups through government contracting terrain. (Space News) “Founders without military or government contracting backgrounds face an indecipherable array of potential programs and funding sources. Imagine coming from academia or the software sector and trying to make sense of conversations that revolve around AFWERX, CFIUS, DIU, In-Q-Tel, SBIR and STRATFI. What’s a startup to do? Many turn to so-called sherpas — retired military officers who help them navigate the unfamiliar terrain.”
HII unveils Odyssey, its answer to Navy’s call for open architecture autonomy. (Breaking Defense) ” HII has unveiled an autonomy software suite that it says can be put on any ship or vehicle and is consistent with the requirements the US Navy has been developing for autonomous platforms… In essence, the company says Odyssey can be installed on land, maritime or aerial platforms and prepares them to accept a variety of plug-and-play modules that HII has developed, such as health monitoring and perception, or capabilities developed by a third party.”
Power Struggle: How the US Army is tackling the logistics of battlefield electricity. (Defense News) “[The Army] envisions the service fielding hybrid electric tactical vehicles by 2035 and moving to all-electric tactical vehicles by 2050. To get there, the Army is preparing its first-ever operational energy strategy, which is expected by the end of the year… “There are so many different kinds of batteries, and so you need individual chargers for each of those, and you’ve got soldiers carrying around all these batteries,” she said. “We are considering that in development and trying to push toward some standard form factors.””
Ukraine opens Russian drone, finds Canon DSLR inside. (Peta Pixel) “What the soldier found is that the primary camera responsible for image capture is a Canon EOS Rebel T6i (AKA 750D), a DSLR camera launched in 2015 with a retail price of $750 but which is currently worth about $300 to $400 on the used market. The camera is mounted to a board with a hook-and-loop fastener strip (commonly referred to as Velcro)…The soldier notes how surprisingly low-tech the military drone [Russian Orlan-10] is — observers quickly pointed out that certain aspects of it are more reminiscent of a hobbyist RC airplane project than a high-tech piece of military spying technology.”
Lockheed Martin’s Stalker VXE unmanned aircraft completes record flight. (Auto Evolution) Stalker is a small, versatile UAS that’s currently in use by Special Forces all around the world. With a wingspan of 18 ft (4.8 meters), it offers long-endurance imaging capabilities and can take off and land in hostile environments… Stalker gets its power from a Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) that uses propane to stay in the air for more than eight hours. It can achieve a maximum speed of 58 mph (93 kph) and climb to 12,000-ft (3,658-meter) altitudes… On February 18th, Stalker completed a demonstration at the Santa Margarita Ranch in California and stayed in the air for 39 hours, 17 minutes, and 7 seconds, establishing a new record in the Group 2 category (which defines UAS that are in the 11 – 55 lbs/ 5 – 25 kg weight class).” [Fitted with external fuel tanks]
Versatile multi-domain MQ-9B SeaGuardian has revolutionized anti-submarine warfare. (Breaking Defense) “SeaGuardian does so many things at once, so well, in a way nothing has before. It can see, optically, with its electro-optical infrared sensor, as well as through haze or smoke with its synthetic aperture radar. It also can scan a wide area with the long-range maritime surface search radar. It has onboard systems that collect signals intelligence and communications intelligence. It can take on any number of other payloads – including a subsurface acoustic processor that allows it to detect and track submarines…. It’s the only UAS that has demonstrated fully self-contained anti-submarine prosecution. The aircraft carries a number of sonobuoys – sensors that drop from the air and go below the surface and search for subs. It can simultaneously process up to 32 of them to track submarines – it successfully tracked a U.S. Navy Los Angeles-class submarine for several days throughout the Integrated Battle Problem exercise in 2021.”
A second FFG-65 shipyard? Fincantieri ‘can meet demand’ for now. (Breaking Defense) “… the Navy plans to purchase the ship’s technical data package from Fincantieri and begin to qualify alternate shipyards so that the program office is ready to move forward if senior leadership chooses. The Navy took care to ensure its contract with Fincantieri for the Constellation-class included the rights for the government to purchase the technical data package… language in the fiscal 2022 defense spending bill indicated some on Capitol Hill are apprehensive that establishing a second yard too early could lead to costly mistakes in the future.”
Electric warfare and drone swarms: Here’s the Army’s plan for EDGE 22. (Breaking Defense) “Rugen said that EDGE 22 will focus on networks and interoperability as part of seven “key” exercise objectives. The exercise, Rugen said, will include two air assaults alongside allies. The Army plans to use electronic warfare, including electronic sensing and electronic attack, to enable the assault… “So if a German squad leader needs an emergency call for fire, you know, how do we do that in an effective manner in a fast, agile manner, back into the 82nd [Airborne Division] BCTs’ [brigade combat teams] TAK [tactical assault kit] and TOC [tactical operations center],” Rugen told reporters during a media roundtable. The EDGE venue will also host a drone swarm of around 30 Air Launched Effects, essentially mini-drones that can carry different payloads… Among the unclassified behaviors, the ALEs perform autonomous detect and identify of targets, communication in denied environments, provide lethal targeting and complete battle damage assessment.”
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