DoD must move faster to leverage commercial technology. (Real Clear Defense) Rep Mike Gallagher: “First, the Pentagon needs to think outside the box when it comes to acquiring commercial technology. Rather than the traditional “program of record” model, which effectively locks the Department into set requirements and a single vendor, the Pentagon should opt for a “capability of record” approach which would cut across all the services and allow the Department to continually assess and purchase commercial technology… Second, DoD must overhaul its existing requirements process when it comes to commercial technologies.”
Inspector General clears former DIU chief of ethics violations. (Defense News) “The Department of Defense Inspector General last week exonerated former Defense Innovation Unit Director Mike Brown of allegations he engaged in “improper personnel practices” while leading the office… “We concluded that you did not engage in improper personnel practices.”
- Who will hold DoDIG into account for intentionally slow-rolling the investigation to nix Mike Brown’s nomination to USD A&S? LaPlante was confirmed more than ONE YEAR after investigation start. IG could’ve done it in a couple months. Chose not to.
Boron-powered Chinese missile will work in the air and underwater. (Interesting Engineering) “… the missile is 16-4 feet (5 m) tall and can cruise at 2.5 Mach when at an altitude of 32,800 feet (10,000 m). Once the target is within a range of six miles (10 km), the missile will go into torpedo mode and travel underwater at the speed of 200 knots (100 m per second) thanks to its ability of supercavitation – making a giant air bubble around it in the water, which reduces drag and does not slow down the rocket… China imports half of its boron ores, most coming from the U.S., so it would be hard to see it through if the Asian nation was planning to weaponize it.”
CNO: Navy will lead DDG(X) design effort, wargames call for fewer large surface warships. (USNI News) ““What we’ve done with DDG X is we brought in private shipbuilders, so that they can help inform the effort. It’s a team, but it’s Navy led… I think it’s important that the Navy maintain the lead on design… Our intent for DDG(X) would be much the same, that we would use a proven combat system on that ship. But we need a ship that has more space and allows for more weight and for capability growth over time. An example might be hypersonic missiles, just based on the size of those missiles.
Citing industry capacity, Navy’s Gilday throws cold water on three destroyers per year. (Breaking Defense) “Asked whether the capacity issues reside solely in the yards of the prime contractors for the destroyers, HII and General Dynamics Bath Iron Works, or if issues exist at the second- and third-tier suppliers as well, Gilday said, “It’s across the board… a lot of that has to do with the workforce, as we recover from COVID.”
Extraordinary circumstances: DoD eyes inflation relief for vendors. (Military Times) ” Contracting officers may apply “schedule relief” or otherwise amend contractual requirements if the government obtains “adequate consideration,” the Sept. 9 memo reads… The secretaries of the armed services have authority under the federal law and regulations to afford “extraordinary contractual relief” in “extraordinary circumstances where contractors have sought or may seek an upward adjustment to the price of an existing firm-fixed-price contract to account for current economic conditions,” the memo reads. Those requests are to be forwarded to Tenaglia’s office within 10 days.”
Raytheon’s guidance shows how new law can hurt free cash flow. (Barron’s) “The IRS is going to require companies to capitalize research-and-development spending like it does when companies buy a capital asset, like a machine, to make widgets. Traditionally, R&D spending was expensed as incurred for both the IRS and under GAAP accounting standards… “This was enacted in the 2017 Tax Act, but it had a delayed effective date,” adds Willens. He isn’t a fan of the move “from a policy point of view.” Willens says the government is essentially punishing firms—for a while—that spend a lot on R&D… Take Raytheon Technologies (ticker: RTX), for example. The company announced earlier this week that the new rule would reduce 2022 free cash flow by about $2 billion—to $4 billion from $6 billion for the full year… Healthcare and tech firms spend multiples of industrial firms on R&D. Still aerospace & defense giant Raytheon took a hit. It spends roughly 4% of annual sales on R&D.”
LCS Coronado decommissioned after less than 9 years of active service. (Navy Times) “It was commissioned in 2014 and saw its first deployment in 2016, cut short after it suffered an engineering casualty and had to return to Hawaii. The following year, Coronado’s embarked crew was marooned in Singapore after revised LCS training standards left the Navy without a qualified crew to rotate aboard… The first two LCS, Freedom and Independence, have already been mothballed, and the third LCS, Fort Worth, is also slated for the chopping block.”
Azerbaijan destroyed an Armenian S-300 air defense system radar using an IAI Harop drone with a range of 1,000 km. (GaGadget) “IAI Harop has a range of 1,000 km and can reach speeds of up to 185 km/h. The drone is 2.5 meters long, has a wingspan of 3 meters and weighs 135 kg. The drone has radio-frequency and electro-optical means of target detection. The flight time is 6 hours.”
Blue Origin says still ‘super early’ into New Shepard launch failure investigation. (Space News) “On that flight, the vehicle’s capsule fired its launch abort motor at about T+65 seconds, sending the capsule clear of its booster. The capsule landed safely, and Blue Origin later confirmed the booster was destroyed. Speculation has focused on a potential problem with the vehicle’s BE-3 engine. The plume from that engine changed appearance at about T+60 seconds, and frame-by-frame analysis showed what appeared to be debris falling off the booster just before the capsule fired its escape motor.”
Iran’s attempted drone thefts highlight challenges of protecting unmanned vessels at sea. (Defense One) “In the span of a week, Iranian forces tried to steal U.S. unmanned surface vessels in the Persian Gulf and Red Sea, and in both instances U.S. helicopters and ships stopped the Iranians and retrieved the drones… Gilday said the Navy might make larger unmanned vessels “initially minimally manned” and part of a group of ships like a carrier strike group or an amphibious ready group, “so they wouldn’t be out there alone and unafraid, if you will.””
US weighing options to compensate commercial companies if satellites are attacked. (Space News) “Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks echoed that sentiment during a fireside chat at the symposium. She said the prospect of a conflict where satellites would be targeted “does require us to think about how we contract effectively, including issues like indemnification,” she said. It’s one of the options that is “absolutely on the table.””
Never sleeps, never even blinks: the hi-tech Anduril towers spreading along the US border. (The Guardian) “The towers use an artificial intelligence system called Lattice to autonomously identify, detect and track “objects of interest”, such as humans or vehicles. The cameras pan 360 degrees and can detect a human from 2.8km away… Biden’s promise of more surveillance is being made good: CBP took $21m from Congress in the 2022 omnibus bill for autonomous surveillance towers, and its budget request for 2023 includes another $13.5m, which would be used to consolidate and support more than 700 surveillance towers, built by different companies… Anduril, for example, has spent $520,000 so far this year and $930,000 last year on lobbying the US Senate, the House of Representatives and the DHS on budget decisions”
Six space companies join Techstars aerospace accelerator. (Space News) “For the first time since 2019, founders will travel to Los Angeles for the 12-week accelerator, backed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the U.S. Space Force. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the program was conducted virtually… “Now if you are a seed or Series A-stage space company, everything isn’t peaches and cream but it’s not bad,” Kozlov said. “Valuations have come down a bit and people are a little bit more sensitive to outlandish claims, but there is still a market.””
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