Saturday, January 18, 2025
Key Issues MADCAP SPY-6 radars Regional Sustainment Framework
Jason Sherman is a reporter for Inside Defense. For more than two decades -- including stints with Defense News and Armed Forces Journal -- he has covered the Pentagon, defense industry, the military budget, weapon system acquisition and defense policy formulation as well as reporting on technology, business, and global arms trade. Jason has traveled to more than 40 countries, studied medieval history at the State University of New York at Buffalo, and lives in Brooklyn.
The Navy is poised to recalibrate its near-term budget plan -- either down or up -- as it awaits fiscal guidance from the incoming Trump administration on the sea service's topline, a decision that will determine the fate of a $257.6 billion forecast for the department in 2026 and $275 billion in FY-27.
The Navy is eyeing as many as 80 SPY-6 sensor sets for the surface warfare fleet as well as foreign navies as part of a potential nine-year buying plan beginning in fiscal year 2027 that will shape a multibillion-dollar, air-and-missile defense contest the government hopes will draw more than the first production lot's single bid.
Lockheed Martin has delivered to Japan the first of four radar arrays for the Aegis System Equipped Vessel, a bespoke ship that will carry the missile defense sensors as part of Tokyo's project to bolster defense of the nation against North Korean ballistic missile attack.
The Navy, after expending $1 billion in guided-missile interceptors against relatively low-cost targets during operations in the Red Sea, last year quietly began experimenting with hypervelocity projectiles to give the 5-inch guns across the destroyer and cruiser fleets a low-cost alternative to down drones, cruise and ballistic missiles.
The Army is spiking plans to integrate the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system into the Integrated Battle Command System architecture in fiscal year 2025 -- a capability deemed "critical" for countering advanced missile threats -- after failing to persuade lawmakers the project was justified.
The Army is exploring plans to arm its High Accuracy Detection and Exploitation System (HADES) intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft with new launched effects, seeking industry input on mounting released assets to a high-flying, fast-moving plane.
The Army has selected BAE Systems to produce a prototype cannon that flips its offensive punch for a defensive role as part of a wider U.S. military project to shield high-value, small-area assets by defeating cruise missile raids with a paradigm-changing capability: hypervelocity projectile gunfire.
Epirus, a defense technology company, will host a live demonstration soon to showcase its advanced counter-drone capabilities, including a "100-drone shoot down" that aims to display the company's ability to neutralize a swarm of unmanned aerial systems with a single, coordinated strike.
Bowing to Defense Department "sensitivity concerns," congressional auditors will not make public the 2024 annual review of the Missile Defense Agency's work -- the first time in more than two decades the Government Accountability Office will cloak its report on MDA's progress in meeting the acquisition goals and objectives of a $246 billion project.
The U.S. military inched closer to fielding a new class of ultra-fast, maneuvering weapons -- a 16-year odyssey to precisely attack targets more than 2,000 miles away with a non-nuclear strike -- following a "successful" flight test over the Atlantic Ocean of the Common Hypersonic Missile.
The Army is poised to seek permission to provisionally field its next-generation, short-range ballistic missile following a key test at White Sands Missile Range, NM, where the service successfully executed a salvo launch of a pair of the first increment of Precision Strike Missiles, a major development for the $8.4 billion program.
The Army's Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensor successfully completed a key operational assessment last week, clearing an important testing hurdle necessary to stay on track for a planned high-level review where the next-generation Patriot radar will seek to pivot to production.
The U.S. military today executed the first-ever ballistic missile defense test from Guam -- a technical achievement that validated a small step toward integrating legacy technology in support of fielding a new 360-degree defense of the American territory in the Western Pacific against advanced Chinese threats.
Congress is poised to finalize legislation that could lead to a $5 billion expansion of the United States' homeland missile defense system, mandating construction of a third missile defense site on the East Coast and likely setting up a new round of debates over where to build the new missile field.
SIMI VALLEY, CA -- The U.S. military rapidly developed and deployed still-classified means to defeat hypersonic missiles, the fruit of a focused effort the Pentagon's top technology official spearheaded to find ways to defeat a new class of ultra-fast maneuvering weapons deemed a "huge success."
SIMI VALLEY, CA -- Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), the next Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee chairman, delivered a forceful call for massive increases in Pentagon spending on Saturday -- warning the United States must be prepared for the growing threat of simultaneous conflicts and advance a roadmap to "restore" U.S. primacy through alliances and re-invigorated deterrence.
SIMI VALLEY, CA -- Sen. Deb Fischer (R-NE), a senior Senate Armed Services Committee member, today urged executives from the nation's largest defense companies to identify cuts to their own military programs in preparation for the "Department of Government Efficiency" review set to be run by tech billionaires Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy at the behest of President-elect Trump.
Japan's project to defend its territory from ballistic missile attack with a new Aegis-equipped ship is now a $1.5 billion project for Lockheed Martin after the Missile Defense Agency on Tokyo's behalf last week awarded a potential $579 million contract modification to extend development efforts by two years.
The Army is asking industry for ideas on possible electronic warfare payloads that could be carried at very high altitudes by an uncrewed system, a step that aims to help refine a requirement for an emerging requirement for a new electronic attack system.
The Army is planning to equip infantry teams with enhanced firepower to quickly neutralize enemy threats, repurposing air-launched Hydra missiles for ground-launch missions as part of a broader effort to incorporate new insights from the war in Ukraine into modern combat strategies.