Friday, October 24, 2025
Jason Sherman is a reporter for Inside Defense. For more than three 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.
Lockheed Martin is preparing a proposal for the Army’s next-generation long-range strike weapon, responding to a non-public solicitation issued in late September that could position its Long Range Maneuverable Fires (LRMF) technology as the baseline for Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) Increment 4, according to people familiar with the effort.
The Army has selected AeroVironment for its Next-Generation Counter-Unmanned Aircraft System Missile, awarding the company a $95.9 million contract under the Long-Range Kinetic Interceptor (LRKI) program, according to a company announcement.
The Pentagon’s new Joint Interagency Task Force 401 and the Golden Dome for America missile defense initiative are beginning to take shape as complementary parts of a larger national defense strategy -- one focused on countering small drones and long-range missile threats through speed, autonomy and integration.
The Army's fast-track development of its next evolution of the Abrams tank, the M1E3, will deliver a preprototype by the end of this year and a platoon of operational vehicles by late 2026, one of the service's most aggressive modernization drives in decades -- and a striking embrace of foreign-born technology at the heart of the new tank's powertrain.
Raytheon has broken ground on a $53 million expansion of its Andover, MA radar production campus, a move company executives say will allow it to ramp up output of the Army's new Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensor after a year of throttled production.
The Pentagon's new Joint Interagency Task Force 401 (JIATF 401) is moving fast to chart a new course for counter-drone defenses after its first major exercise, Operation Clear Horizon, revealed critical gaps in how the military detects and defeats small, unmanned aircraft.
The Army is on track to begin flight testing the Increment 2 variant of the Precision Strike Missile early next year, with a goal of obligating initial procurement funds by mid 2026, according to a senior service official.
Boeing said it secured about $2.7 billion in multiyear contracts from Lockheed Martin last month to produce seekers for the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 interceptor, underscoring surging demand for missile defense systems as global tensions mount.
The long-stalled Lower Tier Future Interceptor could soon re-emerge as a funded effort, marking a potential reboot of a program that has struggled to gain traction for nearly five years, according to a senior Army official.
AM General will arrive at next week's Association of the U.S. Army conference with a fresh pitch to the Pentagon: a reimagined version of its Hawkeye mobile artillery system that it says is lighter, faster and deadlier than before.
Northrop Grumman executives are sketching a vision of the Army's Integrated Battle Command System stripped from its tented command posts and packed onto light vehicles, vans or even civilian buildings -- a response to the Army's recent solicitation for an "adaptive" version of its flagship air and missile defense network.
The Army notched a key milestone in its air and missile defense modernization push last week when soldiers successfully intercepted two maneuvering cruise missiles using the Integrated Battle Command System, or IBCS, in a contested environment, according to the service.
The Pentagon has a new plan to improve its family of Upgraded Early Warning Radars, asking industry for help advancing software that sharpens the ability to classify objects in flight.
Land-based integration testing of U.S.-supplied equipment for Japan's first Aegis System Equipped Vessel (ASEV) kicked off this month in the United States, a milestone the Ministry of Defense said is aimed at ensuring the shipborne ballistic missile defense system will be fully functional once installed.
The Pentagon has awarded Lockheed Martin $44.2 million to continue adapting the Aegis missile defense system for Guam, funding work on software development, integration testing and other upgrades aimed at countering advanced ballistic and hypersonic threats.
NATIONAL HARBOR, MD -- L3Harris Technologies' leaders say the company is ready to deliver a space-based interceptor, arguing that propulsion, sensing and connectivity technologies developed across its portfolio can be rapidly integrated into an offering for the Pentagon's new competition, a centerpiece of the Golden Dome for America project.
The Space Force has formally launched a competition to prototype space-based interceptors, issuing a Sept. 18 request for proposals even as analysts and former senior defense officials warn that physics and budget realities cast long shadows over the Trump administration's centerpiece Golden Dome missile defense initiative.
The Missile Defense Agency is seeking industry proposals for a new high-altitude infrared sensor system that can scan wide swaths of the sky for large numbers of incoming missiles and generate high-resolution tracking data.
A new cost study estimates that space-based missile interceptor constellations could run from tens of billions to several trillion dollars, underscoring technical warnings from former Pentagon technology chief Mike Griffin, who has argued that physics and budgets will ultimately determine whether boost, glide or midcourse designs are feasible.
President Trump's ambitious plan to shield the U.S. from modern missile threats -- a layered homeland defense system against ballistic, hypersonic and advanced cruise missiles dubbed Golden Dome -- may be technically possible to build but the price tag will depend on choices that could run into the trillions.