GAO: Navy’s XLUUV undersea minelayer $242M over budget, 3 years behind schedule. (USNI News) “The service contracted in March of 2019 with Boeing to build the five prototypes to meet a 2015 joint emergent operational need (JEON) for an advanced mining platform… The GAO blamed the cost overruns on the “Navy’s decision to not require the contractor to demonstrate its readiness to fabricate the prototype XLUUVs, as called for by leading acquisition practices.”… A defense official told USNI News on Wednesday that much of the delay was due to COVID-19 pandemic-related production issues. The lack of batteries, qualified welders and titanium were bottlenecks in the XLUUV production process.”
Cold water poured on Navy’s unmanned surface vessel ambitions by veteran lawmaker. (The Drive) Elaine Luria: “Another hurdle to a fleet of USVs is that the need “really hasn’t been clearly articulated in my mind to Congress. What is the purpose of these unmanned ships? Unmanned aerial vehicles – UAVs – have been providing a great service for many years and add additional capacity. Unmanned Underwater Vehicles – UUVs – they have a purpose. But the unmanned surface vessels? It’s really unclear.””
Autonomous systems took center stage at AFA. (Defense One) “There’s also a complicated cultural problem, Mike Benitez, Shield AI’s product director, told Defense One. The process gets choked in the budgeting cycle, but there also hasn’t been a focus on autonomy research, he said. Of the Pentagon’s hundreds of AI programs, only a handful are doing advanced autonomy, and their budgets reflect it: “The cost of an engine for a fighter jet is probably more than all those programs put together,” Benitez said. “We’re past a proof of concept. The technology exists, we’ve demonstrated it can be done. We just need the government to make the next move to actually get serious about it. If you want to get serious about a program, you’ve got to fund it seriously.””
Kelly: Take an iterative approach to collaborative combat aircraft or risk getting it wrong. (Air and Space Forces) ““The captains will lead us through this,” he said. “That’s the path we’re going on: get the tools to the Airmen and get out of their way. Let them iterate and innovate.” He urged that the Air Force listen to those who will fight with the CCAs. “Throw it into the mix … and learn,” he said. He said he’s sure that “if we try to foist” an end-item “on them and tell them how to do it, we’ll mess this up.” Kelly called himself a fan and an advocate of iteration, “because there’s so much we don’t know. And if we try to shoehorn our way into something … we may cue up an exquisite miss.” He also noted that exquisite capabilities usually end up being very expensive.”
How to ensure the US and its allies have the weapons they need. (Defense News) Daniel Data and Jerry McGinn: “First is to recognize that capacity exists across the transatlantic space. LaPlante said DoD needs to invest in the supply chain to meet today’s needs and to ensure resiliency for future demands. Critical here is not just more investment dollars but also predictability, stability and durability of demand…Second, the Ukraine war has demonstrated the U.S. must modify its foreign military sales processes to produce and export at speed… Third, industrial resilience is built before a crisis. Developing a “build allied” approach — co-production, licensed manufacturing, and other flexibility options — will increase resiliency and benefit both sides of the Atlantic in terms of increased jobs, industrial output, trade, and interoperaSet featured imagebility. It will also allow for more hot production lines in times of crisis.”
Pentagon tightening rules for non-traditional contracts in wake of internal audit. (Breaking Defense)”The OIG spokesperson explained that Section 2371b of Title 10 “allows for one of 4 conditions for a prototype OT award.” But, the audit report found that DoD rules contain “no requirement to validate that the contractor met those conditions (other than saying they are nontraditional contractors (NDC)) or document that agreement personnel verified the contractors status in the files.””
Defense policy bill punted into November. (Inside Defense) “Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said today the Senate will not vote on any legislation until Nov. 14, sending lawmakers home to campaign for mid-term elections and delaying passage of the chamber’s defense authorization bill… Schumer, who previously said the Senate would be in session to pass the bill in October, said on the chamber floor today that senators should be prepared for “an extremely — underline extremely — final two months of this Congress.””
Win or die: AMC commander presents Mobility Manifesto. (Air Force) “Nobody is going to care what our plans are for five to 10 years if we lose tomorrow,” Minihan said. “Our toys, our training, our desires are meaningless unless we maneuver them to unfair advantage and unrepentant lethality.”
Why DoD needs to think like a football team. (1945) “Ideas from sports have already revolutionized the technology industry. The “Agile” way of working is rooted in sports. Though we tend to think about Agile in terms of software development, consider all the sports terminology involved, giving us words such as sprint, huddle, and scrum. What I found in analyzing the work of elite sports teams is that they use Agile principles to develop their people.”
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