SIMI VALLEY, CA -- The U.S. military service chiefs said today China and Russia's rise as great military powers pose significant and varied challenges to the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines.
Sunday, December 8, 2019
Sunday, December 8, 2019
Key Issues Space Development Agency F-35 DMT LRSO reviews
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.
SIMI VALLEY, CA -- The U.S. military service chiefs said today China and Russia's rise as great military powers pose significant and varied challenges to the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines.
SIMI VALLEY, CA -- Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon and Blue Origin, called on leaders of U.S. big technology firms to not "turn their backs" on the Defense Department, even if some employees have misgivings about developing new technology for the U.S. military.
SIMI VALLEY, CA -- House and Senate lawmakers have concluded prolonged negotiations over a fiscal year 2020 defense policy bill, paving the way for votes in both chambers beginning as soon as this week, Ranking Member of the House Armed Services Committee Mac Thornberry (R-TX) announced here today.
SANTA MONICA, CA -- The Air Force has readied a plan for immediate formation of a new Space Force in anticipation of direction from Congress, identifying the bulk of the forces, units and missions to be transitioned to the new U.S. military branch in fiscal year 2021 along with "a large pot of money," according to a senior service official.
High-priority Missile Defense Agency projects slated for fiscal year 2020 are at risk of being hamstrung beginning this month if Congress and the White House do not agree to a spending bill, with a Standard Missile-3 Block IB multiyear procurement deal, launch of the Next Generation Interceptor program and more at risk in the event of a yearlong continuing resolution.
A Pentagon spokesman said Defense Secretary Mark Esper took no part in the Army's selection this fall of his former employer Raytheon to build the Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensor, a project company officials expect will deliver a potential $20 billion line of new business.
The growing proliferation of weapons with global reach is prompting Pentagon leaders to launch a study on the need for a robust domestic air defense capability to protect the entire nation -- which, since the advent of flight more than a century ago, has relied in part on two vast oceans as a buffer against adversaries attacking American citizens and soil with low-flying aircraft and missiles.
Two long-time Missile Defense Agency civilian leaders -- the No. 2 and No. 3 officials with more than three decades of MDA leadership roles between them -- stepped down suddenly from their posts last week against a backdrop of tension between the agency and the Pentagon's weapon technology boss over a wide array of issues over how to proceed with new missile defense capabilities.
The Air Force as soon as January plans to begin initial modification of the first of two commercial Boeing 747-8 jumbo jets slated for the $5.3 billion next Air Force One program, dubbed the VC-25B, a major event in the high-profile effort to demonstrate initial flight in late 2021.
U.S. missile defense contractors are pitching ideas for improving the Ground-based Midcourse Defense system with alternative interceptor concepts in a gambit to provide near-term upgrades should the Pentagon proceed with the technically ambitious Next-Generation Interceptor program that could take a decade or more to field.
The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission is recommending Congress require the Pentagon to annually document Beijing's progress toward achieving a 2017 goal set by President Xi Jinping to build a "world-class" military and put the People's Liberation Army on par with other leading global powers.
The Defense Department plans to update the cost estimate for the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent in late spring of next year, setting the stage for a potential major recalibration of the price tag for the new ballistic missile program that generated a pair of valuations in 2017 that varied by more than $20 billion.
An influential Air Force advisory panel has concluded that an alternative intelligence enterprise derived in part from data fused from open sources could provide a new way to locate, identify and attack targets in highly contested environments, according to an abstract of a new study by the group.
The Pentagon's independent cost estimators have pared back forecasted savings the Navy can expect to realize under a multiyear procurement of Virginia-class submarines from $2.5 billion to $1.8 billion, giving the planned 2019 deal the most anemic cost avoidance package achieved through a block buy in the program's two decades of consolidated purchases.
The Pentagon's push to develop a new interceptor for the Ground-based Midcourse Defense system would require the Missile Defense Agency to swap out existing antennae for new sensors optimized for a notional Next Generation Interceptor at six sites around the world with facilities that play a pivotal role guiding exo-atmospheric kill vehicles through space to intercept enemy warheads.
The Missile Defense Agency has formally lifted a restraint imposed last year on production of the newest Aegis ballistic missile interceptor following an early 2018 flight test failure, awarding Raytheon a $267 million option to proceed with building 24 Standard Missile-3 Block IIA rounds.
House lawmakers are launching an investigation into the August decision to terminate the Redesigned Kill Vehicle, directing the Defense Department to provide key documents associated with the ballistic missile defense warhead project as well as outline options for clawing back from contractors some of the $1.2 billion invested in it between 2015 and 2019.
The plan for a technologically ambitious Next Generation Interceptor -- a potential decade-long project to develop a new long-range, guided missile to protect the nation against anticipated North Korean and Iranian ballistic missile threats beginning in 2030 -- is fueling a debate about the shape of the program late in the fiscal year 2021 budget endgame.
The Missile Defense Agency has selected Harris, Leidos, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon to develop prototype designs for the Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor program -- a project formerly called the Space Sensor Layer -- to develop a network of orbiting satellites optimized to continuously track long-range missiles from launch to impact.
The White House Office of Management and Budget is balking at Defense Department plans for a Next Generation Interceptor, exposing a rift inside the Trump administration over how to modernize the Ground-based Midcourse Defense system just weeks after Mike Griffin, the Pentagon's top technology officer, sold Senate appropriators on plans for the new-start program.