Thursday, January 21, 2021
Key Issues 'Buy American' Army COMEX Open architectures
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 Aegis ballistic missile defense system demonstrated the ability to track a long-range hypersonic weapon during a non-intercept test executed in parallel with a March 2020 flight test of the Conventional Prompt Strike program, launching a simulated Standard Missile-6 against the actual hypersonic glide body during its 2,000-mile flight over the Pacific.
The Missile Defense Agency has selected L3Harris Technologies as a finalist from a pool of four contenders in the contest to develop a Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor.
The Pentagon's acquisition executive has cleared Northrop Grumman's Integrated Air and Missile Defense Battle Command System -- a program that has suffered delays and technical setbacks since 2009 -- to transition from development to initial production, marking the start of a 10-year, $4.4 billion plan to deliver 454 units.
The Navy is wrapping up a project to define options for a new nuclear-tipped, submarine-launched cruise missile with plans to conclude by the end of the summer an analysis of alternatives that will offer Defense Department leaders -- and the incoming Biden administration -- a turn-key solution to launch development of a program in fiscal year 2022, according to a senior service official.
Government testers are evaluating a Lockheed Martin-built laser that promises a better-than-expected capability that, when paired with the Aegis combat system, provides area defense far more robust than simply self-defense against small boats and unmanned aircraft promised at the outset of the project, according to a company representative.
The Navy is advancing plans for integrating a long-range hypersonic strike weapon into the DDG-1000 Zumwalt-class destroyer fleet and, as part of the effort, is also eyeing a next-generation vertical launch system -- able to accommodate larger missiles than the currently fielded Mk41 -- for its follow-on to the DDG-51, the Large Surface Combatant.
Inside Defense has retracted a story published Jan. 6 that incorrectly reported a three-month delay in the Regional Glide Phase Weapon program.
The head of U.S. Strategic Command moved to bat down suggestions that the Minuteman III -- the Air Force's aging intercontinental ballistic missile -- can be upgraded to remain in service longer than currently planned in order to free up funds the Pentagon wants to allocate to a replacement: the estimated $85 billion Ground Based Strategic Deterrent program.
The Missile Defense Agency has secured a more than $200 million boost for the Standard Missile-3 Block IIA interceptor in fiscal year 2021, partially satisfying its No. 1 unfunded requirement that will be roughly divided between the Aegis guided missile's development and procurement accounts.
Congress wants a report early next year on the ability of the U.S. military to defend the nation against a cruise missile attack -- with particular emphasis on vulnerability of approaches across the north polar region -- as well as an update on plans with Canada to modernize the early warning radar system currently in use across the Arctic.
The Pentagon's acquisition executive is readying a verdict on the Army's Integrated Air and Missile Defense program -- a $7.9 billion effort vital to U.S. ground-force plans to detect, track and defeat modern air threats -- following last week's milestone review where the service requested permission to pivot from development to initial production.
House and Senate lawmakers have proposed adding $1.3 billion to the Missile Defense Agency's fiscal year 2021 budget request -- a 14% hike that would allocate $10.4 billion for guided-missile interceptors, radars, space-based sensors and more -- while also taking the agency to task for inconsistent budgeting across its modernization portfolio.
Lawmakers have charged the Pentagon's top officer with overseeing a comprehensive new assessment of U.S. air and missile defense capabilities of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Space Force and Missile Defense Agency against advanced threats such as hypersonic glide bodies and long-range, ultra-fast cruise missiles and to develop a plan to address these threats.
The Army contest to find an off-the-shelf wheeled 155 mm howitzer will have at least three contenders: BAE Systems, Elbit America, Global Military Products, with AM General, another potential player, unwilling to comment on its status in the competition.
The Missile Defense Agency is asking industry for ideas on how to improve the Command and Control, Battle Management, and Communications (C2BMC) system, eyeing new enhancements for potential incorporation in planned upgrades of the global system of workstations, servers, network equipment and software that collectively ties together the $202 billion Ballistic Missile Defense System.
Israel and prime contractor Rafael yesterday completed a successful test of the country’s billion-dollar, U.S. government-subsidized short-range missile defense system against a cruise missile.
Lawmakers have declined to authorize funding for the Missile Defense Agency's proposal to add new layers to the homeland ballistic missile defense architecture -- a centerpiece of the agency's new modernization plan -- instead directing the Pentagon to provide detailed justifications for its vision to bolster the Ground-based Midcourse Defense system with the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense and the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense systems.
The Army would be forced to dial back modest end strength increases planned for the near-term in order to help finance a lame-duck proposal by the Trump administration to dramatically increase the size of the Navy fleet, a move that would shave 1,700 troops from a planned increase of 6,700 -- a 25% decrement between fiscal years 2021 and 2022.
Lawmakers have delayed a statutory deadline for on-orbit testing of the Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor from the end of 2022 to the end of 2023, authorized additional spending and definitively assigned the Missile Defense Agency responsibility for developing the new payload project.
Lawmakers have agreed to authorize -- over the objections of the Defense Department -- an interim upgrade program of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense system that could, if backed by appropriations in fiscal year 2021, divert resources from other Missile Defense Agency priorities and potentially detract from efforts to develop a Next Generation Interceptor.