The Navy Put Its Next Amphib on Hold. Good. (Defense One) “Unlike existing amphibious connectors that handle traditional Marine ship-to-shore movements, such as the currently fielded Landing Craft Air Cushion and the just-beginning-to-join-the-fleet Ship-To-Shore Connector, the LAW would transport Marines from shore to shore.”
- Other characteristics include a length of 200 to 400 feet, a maximum draft of 12 feet, a crew of not more than 40 sailors and up to 75 Marines, and 4,000 to 8,000 square feet of cargo area. The Navy desires the ship to have a top speed of at least 14 knots, and an unrefueled transit range of 3,500 miles.
- As war nears, Heckl said, the new amphibious ship “goes into hiding, it goes into bed-down somewhere. Nowhere do we envision the LAW out transiting the sea lanes in the middle of a kinetic fight.”
- Critics talk of the vulnerability of large amphibious ships, but it is unclear how the purchase of a ship that will not take part in conflict improves things.
NASSCO pitches ESB drone mothership variant to US Navy. (Naval News) “NASSCO has proposed major modification concepts to the U.S. Navy’s Expeditionary Sea Bases, or ESB, which could see them serve as motherships for XLUUVs and UAVs, or transit F-35 airframes.”
- through a specially made launch system located inside of the vessel, an ESB can support various UUVs including the Orca Extra-Large UUV… We call it the Rotary UUV Launch And Recovery System, the RULARS.
- Another modification explored by NASSCO was for ESB to perform At-Sea Precision Lift (ASPL), which would allow ESB to transfer supplies and equipment with other vessels while at sea.
Army ready to ask vendors to help build its vision of a unified network. (Federal News Network) “By this fall, the Army intends to issue a major solicitation for a multi-year, multiple-award contract to start implementing unified network operations (UNO), with an emphasis on a modular, software-intensive architecture.”
- In December, Gabe Camarillo, the Army undersecretary, signed off on changes to the Army’s programming, planning, budgeting and execution (PPBE) processes that should let officials move IT investments through the requirements and spending approval pipelines much more quickly.
- Iyer said the framework, as it’s currently imagined, will eventually lead to a single program evaluation group (PEG) for “digital” matters, replacing the multiple PEGs that currently must sign off on IT investments. “We’ve been stovepiped with our budgeting, and it’s been managed by a billion folks who don’t understand the strategy and who may not have the technical expertise to make decisions,” Iyer said.
China undergoing build-up in every warfare area, says ONI commander. (USNI News) “The Taiwanese are asking themselves “what can we do to make China think twice” before it would attempt a cross-straits invasion, Rear Adm. Michael Studeman said last week. He said Beijing has increased its probes of Taiwan’s air defenses and sent more warships by the island since this summer to also warn off the United States and potential allies.”
- What has been the most surprising thing to him across his more than 30 years of service has been Beijing’s ability to take basic technology from systems like anti-ship ballistic missiles and transform it rapidly into a hypersonic weapons system.
Monthly Russia produces more shells than US produces 155mm shells. (Bulgarian Military) “There is no shortage of projectiles in the Russian army and it is not expected, including taking into account the available ammunition. The Russian monthly volume of production of the entire range of large-caliber projectiles many times exceeds the same indicator for the production of 155-mm projectiles in the USA.”
Palantir CEO tells tech workers who don’t like the company’s military deals, ‘don’t work here.‘ (CNBC) “Two-thirds of people in Silicon Valley don’t want to work for companies like Palantir, Karp said in Davos. However, he added, “one-third only wants to work for your company.””
- In 2020, Palantir moved its headquarters from Palo Alto, California, to Denver, Colorado, months after Karp complained publicly to Axios on HBO about what he called the “increasing intolerance and monoculture of Silicon Valley.”
- In recent years, the company has diversified into the private sector and, as of the third quarter, is now serving 132 commercial customers, up from 59 a year earlier.
Space Force procurement chief looking for big wins in 2023. (Space News) “As Frank Calvelli nears his first year as head of military space acquisitions, he is optimistic that his push for speed and agility in procurement programs is starting to resonate.”
- SDA is building a constellation of small satellites in low Earth orbit using fixed-price contracts and agile methods advocated by Calvelli. But there are still skeptics who are not convinced the Pentagon should embrace this approach at the expense of traditional big-ticket satellite developments. So successfully launching SDA’s first 28 satellites in March and June has become a top concern for Calvelli, as any setbacks would give ammunition to critics.
Ingalls has solid workload, but needs clarity on future contracts. (Defense News) “The yard may see a “lull” in the five- to 15-year time frame, based on the most recent plans from the U.S. Navy, but Ingalls hopes for better news about the fate of the San Antonio-class production line in the upcoming fiscal 2024 budget request.”
- The Navy proposed truncating the amphibious transport dock’s production line in the FY23 budget request, but Congress pushed back. It’s unclear where the debate over the ships will go, with some hoping this year’s budget submission.
- But he [CNO Gilday] had previously brought up a rack-and-stack approach for the current budgeting process, in which items are prioritized based on need, with readiness as a top concern and the size of the fleet a lesser concern.
With starshield, SpaceX readies for battle. (Space News) “SpaceX quietly unveiled Starshield last month offering defense and intelligence agencies custom-built spacecraft, sensors, and secure communications services leveraging SpaceX’s investment in its Starlink network of broadband satellites.”
- The [Starlink] system — with well over 3,000 satellites in orbit and thousands more to come — demonstrated resilience against [Russian] jamming and showed the strength of this kind of proliferated architecture.
- SpaceX’s original approach was to sell Starlink communications as a commercial service to DoD, Harrison said, “but think they’re finding that that’s harder than they thought.”
- “Speed in space acquisition is a very simple formula,” Calvelli said. “You build smaller satellites, you use existing technology and reduce non-recurring engineering. You take advantage of commercial capabilities and you execute.”
Why engineers build crappy products. (Will Schenk)
- Engineers don’t want to make choices that limit power and flexibly.
- Engineers value adding potential functionality higher than removing unneeded complexity.
- Engineers want to engineer their way out of design problems.
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