Naval research boss wants ‘experimentation czar’ powers. (Defense News) “Rear Adm. Lorin Selby said the change would amount to an additional responsibility for him, or his successor, as director of the Office of Naval Research…. Once a good idea is identified and matured, scaling it up is what trips up the Navy. If the service finds a cheap uncrewed system and wants to buy 100 or 1,000 of them to scatter around the fleet, for example, there’s no good way to make that happen quickly… “We’ve got to figure that piece out, which means … flexible funding,” Selby said. Rather than require two organizations to be on the same page from opposite sides of the valley of death, Selby prefers to talk about a “bridge owner,” which would be the new experimentation czar.”
Hermeus acquires velo3D printers to 3D print parts of 3,800 mph hypersonic airplane. (Design Boom) “Using Velo3D’s end-to-end metal additive manufacturing solution, Hermeus will 3D print parts for its Mach 5 Chimera engine and Quarterhorse aircraft. Velo3D CEO and Founder Benny Buller shares that hypersonics can be a challenging subset of the aviation industry and that temperature, vibration, and aerodynamics play major factors in the flight of the aircraft at the speeds that Hermeus strives to achieve… ‘I have no doubt that they will bring their vision to life and make hypersonic commercial flight a reality,’ he adds.”
Rheinmetall, Anduril join forces on optionally manned fighting vehicle. (Defense News) ““The partnership with Anduril brings with it exceptional innovations in software development, command and control, sensor integration, and counter-[unmanned aircraft systems] for inclusion in our OMFV offering,” Matt Warnick, American Rheinmetall’s managing director, said in the statement. Other companies in the Rheinmetall-led industry team include Textron Systems, Raytheon Technologies, L3Harris Technologies and Allison Transmission; all together they are known as Team Lynx.”
The US military needs a lot more artillery shells, rockets and missiles for the next war. (Task & Purpose) “Back in February 2018, the Army asked Congress for money to buy about 150,000 shells for 155mm howitzers. That represented an 825% increase in the number of shells that the Army wanted to buy. Events since then have shown that 150,000 shells will not get you far on a modern battlefield. Since February, the United States has provided Ukraine with up to 806,000 shells for 155mm howitzers and another 108,000 shells for 105mm guns… As of June, Ukrainian forces were firing up to 6,000 shells a day.”
GAO: Defense, intelligence agencies need a better plan to buy commercial satellite imagery. (Space News) “Despite a growing demand for satellite imagery, U.S. defense and intelligence agencies are not taking advantage of available commercial technology due to slow and cumbersome procurement methods… From 2019 through 2021, the report said, the NRO spent some of its commercial imagery budget on emerging capabilities, but those efforts have not generally led to sustained funding. Study contracts with small dollar amounts “limit the ability of vendors to expand and enhance service offerings.”
Reliance on dual-use technology is a trap. (War on the Rocks) “The Defense Department’s acquisitions process is more likely to kill the early-stage startups they want to work with than they are to drive those companies to scale and success. Given this, startups should develop a commercial product first and successfully scale their business in the commercial markets. Only after they reach sufficient commercial success to survive the byzantine maze of defense acquisitions should they try to adapt their products for the military. The greatest danger of the dual-use hack is that it substantially slows the Department of Defense’s ability to adopt and deploy a new capability… A bigger [problem] is that many of today’s national security challenges are simply not amenable to dual-use solutions.”
Austal USA inks deal with Saildrone to build wind-powered drones as USV work expands. (USNI News) “Starting in October, the Mobile, Ala., shipyard will start building the 65-foot aluminum Saildrone Surveyor drones in its modular manufacturing facility for use by the U.S. Navy… Powered by wind and solar power, Saildrones are designed for high endurance voyages, originally for maritime research applications. But the Navy has been using them as surveillance platforms in U.S. Central Command since late last year as part of U.S. 5th Fleet’s Combined Task Force 59.”
China’s Navy could catch up to America’s by 2030, analysts say. (Popular Mechanics) “CSBA’s analysts concluded that China could afford to increase its carrier fleet from three to a total of five by 2030, and its number of cruisers and destroyers from 36 to 60. It could also increase the number of Type-094 nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines from six to ten. Total tonnage, or the total weight of ships of the Chinese Navy, would increase from today’s 1.3 million tons to approximately two million tons… The U.S. Navy’s total tonnage worldwide is about 4.5 million tons.”
Deja vu: Army’s 21st century HR platform delayed again, indefinitely. (Army Times) “The Integrated Personnel and Pay System-Army — otherwise known as IPPS-A — was originally scheduled to go live across the entire Army in December 2021, before failed systems tests led senior leaders to order a nine-month delay… Eggers said that most of the core HR functions in IPPS-A, such as awards, personnel requests and assignment transfers, currently work as intended. But senior leaders ultimately opted not to launch the mostly functional platform. The contractor overseeing the systems integrations efforts, CACI International, has received more than $557 million over seven years for the project thus far… That could see the contractor make an additional $500 million, bringing the platform’s potential price tag beyond $1 billion.”
Boeing demonstrates open autonomy architecture for MUM-T with MQ-25. (Naval News) “… the demonstration showed how both the P-8A and E-2D could easily task an MQ-25 teammate with an ISR mission specifying only the search area and no-fly zones. Using an onboard autonomy framework developed by Boeing subsidiary Aurora Flight Sciences, the MQ-25 autonomously did the rest – including validating the command against its operational constraints, planning its route and conducting its search pattern, among many other tasks. Aurora also created and demonstrated a prototype platform abstraction layer – a software boundary that decouples MQ-25’s flight safety and flight critical components from mission software and sensor hardware.”
How one Air Force office eliminates barriers to digital transformation. (Defense News) “All told, Boeing estimates its use of virtual models and 3D tools [for the T-7A] slashed assembly hours by 80% and halved the time needed for software development. The Air Force also saw similar wins on other major programs including Sentinel, which will replace the Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile, and its effort to install new wings on the A-10 attack aircraft…When program officers and contractors ask the [Digital Transformation] office for a detailed road map, he usually emphasizes the need for reliable, flexible funding mechanisms, foundational infrastructure, and digital tools.”
Pentagon suspends F-35 deliveries after discovering materials from China. (Politico) “The Defense Contract Management Agency notified the F-35 Joint Program Office at the Pentagon on Aug. 19 that an alloy used in magnets contained in the F-35’s turbomachine pumps came from China. Lockheed Martin builds the overall aircraft, but the turbomachine is produced by Honeywell.”
What is the Marine Corps’ advanced reconnaissance vehicle? (Breaking Defense) “As part of the portfolio of reconnaissance, surveillance, and target acquisition systems, ARV will be a purpose-built combat vehicle system, highly mobile on land and water, that can sense, communicate, and fight as the manned hub of a robotic and autonomous systems-enhanced team… The Marine Corps is interested in six variants of the ARV each with unique roles: command, control, communications and computers-unmanned aerial system (C4/UAS); organic precision fire-mounted; counter UAS; 30mm autocannon and anti-tank guided missile; logistics; and recovery.”
Spanish, German companies start work on hypersonic missile interceptor. (Defense News) “Among the higher awards is the European Hypersonic Defence Interceptor (EU HYDEF) program… ill run for 36 months and is expected to cost nearly €110 million ($110.2 million). The EU will contribute a maximum of almost €100 million to the effort. The goal is to build a “European interceptor targeting the 2035+ threats, along with weapon and sensor systems,” per the EU fact sheet.”
Air Force faces key questions for next-gen fighters drone wingmen. (Breaking Defense) “But big questions still remain: Will the service begin what Kendall has called a “Collaborative Combat Aircraft” program of record in the upcoming fiscal 2024 budget? How many types of drones will it seek to procure? And what role will these novel aircraft play on future battlefields? … “I think the most important thing is our ability to show that the autonomous core system was effective, and it can be moved from aircraft to aircraft,” said Brig. Gen. Dale White, the Air Force’s program executive for fighters and advanced aircraft. “We had two completely different vendors, two completely different aircraft, [and] we could use the autonomous control system on both.””
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