How to rejuvenate speed in the aerospace and defense sector
The global aerospace and defense (A&D) industry can produce astonishingly advanced airplanes and other complex equipment, but it routinely fails to develop those programs on time, on […]
Programs
Air Force’s NGAD needs to be a “team of systems,” not a “family of systems”
I recently blogged about the family of systems concept for the Air Force’s Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program. NGAD is envisioned to be more […]
HASC Chairman: defense acquisition is hard!
The chairman of the House Armed Services committee today passionately pushed back on the idea that wasteful spending on defense systems is the result of […]
Probability of a ballistic missile salvo hitting US Navy surface ships
On a recent Midrats podcast episode, Gerry Doyle and Blake Herzinger discuss the likelihood of a Chinese ballistic missile like the DF-21 successfully hitting a […]
F-35 Program Manager says DoD must avoid past mistakes, own the technical baseline
This is perhaps the most interesting part from the April 2022 HASC hearing on F-35 sustainment. Representative Waltz asked Lt. Gen. Eric Fick, PEO for […]
Takeaways from the Navy’s revised (again) 30-year shipbuilding plan
The new Navy 30-year shipbuilding plan released April 18. Here’s an overview from Navy Times. Interestingly enough, the 30 year shipbuilding plan not only gets […]
500 Javelin-per-day requirement in Ukraine: Is it reasonable and what could it cost?
I want to come back to an article from the weekly headlines real quickly: The Ukrainians have submitted similar lists in recent weeks but a […]
DoD needs to rebuild competency in hypersonic flight test
We need to move rapidly toward weaponization of hypersonics. We have already demonstrated that we have the technical understanding to address both the challenges of […]
How the Saab Gripen fighter can rapidly develop and deploy software
The ability to embrace change was one of the important factors taken into account while designing Gripen E. The fighter, with its smart split avionics, […]
The secret to the success of the F/A-18E/F: Lessons in expeditious innovation
For 100 years, success in aerial combat came from the ability to point the nose of the aircraft and shoot the sucker. To do that […]
Highlights from Defense Innovation Unit’s 2021 annual report
Here are some excerpts from the Defense Innovation Unit 2021 annual report (I compiled the table below for your reading ease): In fiscal year (FY) […]
FFG-62, DDG(X), and the future of surface combatants
Here’s RADM Mark Montgomery (ret.) talking with Vago Muradian about the new Constellation-class frigate: Historically, the Navy either changed the HME — the hull, mechanical, […]
AFWERX companies starting to transition, but jury’s still out scaling transformation
It’s been an incredible year for #afventures and #afwerx companies. While we’re still finishing our end of year reports, I’m thrilled to be able to share a preview of […]
Aircraft availability and flying hours have been plummeting since 2000
The CBO has a nice, short paper on aircraft availability rates in the Air Force and Navy. Check out the charts. There’s been a general […]
Does the US still have 50% of major warships, and thus command of the sea?
Command of the sea was defined as concentration of naval power, in which one nation possessed roughly 50 percent of the total relevant warships owned […]