Friday, May 25, 2018
Key Issues First AFC chief GBSD SIGAR
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.
703-562-8730The Defense Department is exploring a potential new ultra-fast, air-launched cruise missile -- specifically a naval variant of the Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept -- a joint Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and Air Force effort slated to produce a flying prototype in fiscal year 2019.
Lawmakers have proposed a nearly 20 percent cut to the Army's planned procurement of the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle in fiscal year 2019, a surprise blow to one of the service's major modernization efforts just as the Oshkosh-led manufacturing program is poised to accelerate production.
The Missile Defense Agency is soliciting ideas for a kinetic interceptor to destroy ballistic missiles during the boost-phase of flight, a first step in establishing a parallel -- or potential rival -- program to the technologically ambitious effort to develop a speed-of-light weapon to kill long-range enemy missiles immediately after launch.
The Missile Defense Agency has launched a potential $1 billion competition for new radars being developed to increase the effectiveness of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense segment of the Ballistic Missile Defense System against long-range North Korean rockets.
The Defense Department plans to pair an Army-designed hypersonic boost glide vehicle with an off-the-shelf rocket to give the Air Force the ability to air-launch an ultrafast weapon as part of a new campaign to leverage the recent success of the Conventional Prompt Strike program, which Pentagon officials say has demonstrated technologies needed for a long-range hypersonic strike capability.
The Pentagon's new weapon system technology chief is poised to shake up the U.S. military's research and development investment portfolio this summer with recommendations for likely increasing funding across 10 priority areas between fiscal years 2020 and 2024 in an effort to produce potentially game-changing capabilities within a decade.
A house panel has adopted legislation that would require the Defense Department to prepare a National Security Science and Technology Strategy annually, an assessment to be provided to Congress that explicitly prioritizes investments across a $15 billion research portfolio that aims to provide the building blocks for potential new weapons.
The Defense Department wants Army ground forces outfitted with a tactical, hypersonic boost-glide vehicle to penetrate enemy air defenses and destroy time-sensitive targets, a notional weapon that would leverage investments in an air-launched, ultra-fast missile capability for the Air Force.
The Defense Department has established a new line in its spending forecast to account for shifting $190 billion from war costs back into the base budget between fiscal years 2020 and 2023, according to the office of the Pentagon's comptroller.
The Missile Defense Agency is moving ahead with assessments that could give the land-based Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense system the means to intercept cruise missiles and aircraft, a new capability Congress mandated be included as part of the next round of improvements to Aegis Ashore systems in Europe.
Draft legislation would require Pentagon brass to validate a requirement for a potential conventional hypersonic strike triad -- setting the stage for a ground-, sea-, and air-launched ultra-fast boost-glide weapon -- along with cost estimates for accelerating initial operational capability of each notional leg of this fledgling new class of weapon.
Lawmakers want an independent assessment of a proposal to arm Predator unmanned aircraft with guided missiles to shoot down North Korean intercontinental ballistic missiles, leveraging proven technologies in the American arsenal to rapidly field a system that uses kinetic interceptors to kill Pyongyang’s ballistic missiles during the boost phase of flight.
The Pentagon will brief industry next month on plans for Hypersonic Defense Weapon Systems, inviting proposals for technologies with the potential to defeat ultra-fast, maneuvering missiles -- a prospective new class of weapons that a top U.S. general said poses "the greatest threat" -- in a step that aims to launch work soon on a new element of the nation's missile defense system.
The Navy has realigned orders for the Air and Missile Defense Radar program to better reflect current shipbuilding plans for the new variant of the Arleigh Burke-class destroyers which will feature the new S-band radar, awarding a contract to Raytheon for a single AN/SPY-6 radar last week instead of two originally envision for fiscal year 2018, according to the service.
House lawmakers are proposing legislation to restore transparency to the Pentagon's ballistic missile defense test plans by requiring the Missile Defense Agency to reinstate advance public disclosure of major flight tests, brushing back claims by MDA that such information should be withheld.
A congressional audit of the Pentagon's major weapon systems portfolio reveals that two major acquisition reform initiatives -- statutory changes Congress spearheaded in 2009 and executive stratagems led by Defense Department procurement executives beginning in 2010 -- have yielded some success reigning in cost growth and improving buying power.
The Defense Department plans to launch a competition next week for a $1 billion radar project to develop and field a new radar site in Hawaii as part of a strategy to increase the effectiveness of the Ground Based Midcourse defense segment of the Ballistic Missile Defense System against long-range North Korean rockets.
Michael Griffin, the Pentagon's new weapons-technology chief, has commissioned a project to develop by early July a portfolio of strategies to advance research and engineering work on 10 technology domains, a move that could signal a potential recalibration of U.S. military modernization spending in the Defense Department's fiscal year 2020 budget proposal.
The Pentagon's weapons-technology boss has commissioned a new study that aims to head off "strategic surprise" in the coming decade by directing an influential advisory panel to examine U.S. military potential blind spots, weighing information about prospective adversaries' technological capabilities and operational concepts that could lead to "regrets in 2028."
The Air Force has established a nearly $1 billion program to prototype a long-range, air-launched, hypersonic strike weapon and Lockheed Martin has elbowed away two other competitors to win the project, the service has revealed.
