Wednesday, April 14, 2021
Key Issues KC-46A SiAW program Space Force
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 Missile Defense Agency today launched a project to field a Glide Phase Interceptor -- a major U.S. military effort to develop a counter-hypersonic capability within the decade -- asking industry for proposals for a weapon compatible with the Navy's Aegis combat system with an eye to awarding contracts as soon as this summer.
The Air Force has formally recalibrated schedule targets for the two remaining acquisition milestones for the troubled $43.9 billion KC-46A acquisition -- setting March 2022 for Required Assets Available, an objective that would mark initial operational capability delay of more than four years, and September 2024 for a full-rate production review.
The Navy, which last fall proposed a $3.6 billion, five-year plan to launch a fleet of Large Unmanned Surface Vehicles packed with long-range missiles, is now conducting an analysis to determine if an LUSV is the most appropriate platform to add offensive punch to the surface fleet -- an assessment mandated by Congress and which the service aims to complete by October.
The Missile Defense Agency has debriefed Boeing on its loss in the Next Generation Interceptor, giving the incumbent in the Ground-based Midcourse Defense program through next week to consider whether to protest awards to Lockheed Martin -- which ranked first in the three-way contest -- and a Northrop Grumman/Raytheon team, according to a source familiar with recent developments.
The Marine Corps last November notched a successful demonstration of the planned Navy and Marine Corps Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System, firing a Naval Strike Missile from a Joint Light Tactical Vehicle in an event that validated the basic design concept and supports continued development of the Remote Operated Ground Unit Expeditionary -- or ROGUE -- vehicle, according to service officials.
The Navy is asking industry for ideas on integrating a long-range hypersonic strike weapon on a destroyer, eyeing a three-pack load, in a key step toward potentially adapting the Conventional Prompt Strike for DDG-1000 Zumwalt-class ships and potentially the DDG-X, the planned follow-on large surface combatant.
Northrop Grumman and Raytheon are proposing a Next Generation Interceptor that features "sixth-generation" kill vehicle technology and adapts state-of-the-art digital tools from B-21 bomber and Ground Based Strategic Deterrent programs, according to company representatives. (UPDATED)
The Missile Defense Agency today selected Lockheed Martin and a Northrop Grumman-Raytheon team for initial design contracts for a Next Generation Interceptor, bumping Boeing from the race to build a new guided missile intended to protect the United States before the end of the decade from advanced North Korean intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Congressional auditors have identified 70 projects focused on hypersonic weapons research and development backed by $15 billion through 2024 across the U.S. government, shining light into the breadth and scope of a campaign to field a new class of maneuvering ultra-fast weapons with the potential to shape the balance of power between the U.S. military and other major powers such as China and Russia.
Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks has approved the Next Generation Interceptor project to proceed, clearing the way for the Missile Defense Agency to award a pair of contracts as well as seek $1.6 billion in fiscal year 2022 and FY-23 for the new Ground-based Midcourse Defense guided missile, according to a source familiar with the decision.
The Biden administration is not yet sold on the Missile Defense Agency's plan for a Next Generation Interceptor and is conducting a review of the project, which has completed the source-selection process and is now subject to further assessment by Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks.
Missile Defense Agency plans to deliver the Long Range Discrimination Radar for operations is delayed again with a new setback pushing the key milestone from June to September, according to U.S. government officials.
A Senate missile defense proponent today called on colleagues to collectively urge Pentagon leaders to support the Next-Generation Interceptor program -- a project launched by the Trump administration -- that has largely completed the source-selection process to proceed with development but remains under review by the Biden administration. (UPDATED)
On the eve of Gen. Glen VanHerck's first 2021 posture hearing on Capitol Hill, North American Aerospace Defense Command -- the bi-national organization he oversees along with U.S. Norther Command -- has published an unclassified executive summary of a new strategy.
The Navy is advancing work on an offensive hypersonic weapon, awarding Lockheed Martin a $1.5 billion contract to design, develop and build equipment needed to test and field a new two-stage rocket booster that will carry a planned ultrafast maneuvering glide vehicle.
China is expected by 2025 to introduce as many as 200 operational hypersonic missiles to its force as part of a sweeping modernization program to challenge U.S. dominance in the Asia-Pacific region that also includes growing the People's Liberation Army's fighter and bomber fleets by 56% and 29% respectively while also ratcheting up the size of its maritime surface combatant fleet.
Russia is arming naval forces in the Pacific region this year with a new advanced cruise missile that will give its submarines and ships the ability to sink other ships and -- for the first time -- execute long-range strikes against land targets, according to a senior Pentagon official.
The Defense Department has begun work on a Guam Defense System -- following high-profile advocacy over the last year by the top U.S. military commander in the Asia-Pacific region -- and directing the Missile Defense Agency to start designing the first operational Aegis Ashore system on U.S. territory.
The Pentagon has turned to software engineers at three different universities to conduct an independent technical assessment of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, a move that signals failure of a 2012 recovery plan for the fifth-generation fighter in the wake of a December decision to indefinitely postpone a full-rate production review required no later than this month.
China is on track to overtake the United States as the most powerful military in the Pacific within the decade -- potentially as soon as 2026 -- with the wherewithal sooner than previously expected to establish permanent, regional primacy, the top U.S. military official in the Asia-Pacific region warned March 4.