Saturday, April 27, 2024
Key Issues Optical clocks Prototype funding SPAFORGEN
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 Army's Stryker Upgrade program -- a project that as recently as last year enjoyed a $1.2 billion annual budget to up-gun and expand improvements across the armored wheeled vehicle -- is now a billpayer, with service leaders siphoning $1.3 billion from future plans to finance other projects.
The Pentagon plans to pump an additional $1.7 billion -- a 75% increase over last year's plan between fiscal years 2025 and 2028 -- into the secretive shop that prototypes new and surprising ways of using existing technology to bolster conventional deterrence against China and Russia.
The Defense Department is placing a bet on new laser-cooling technology for missile defense capabilities that carries such promise that the Pentagon will not disclose the company associated with the $11 million contract award.
The Army has cut $4.8 billion from planned future spending on the Indirect Fire Protection Capability-High Energy Laser in the service's new five-year spending plan, a dramatic reduction that removes future funding stability for a cruise-missile-killer-and-more project that a key service official says remains a priority.
The Pentagon this summer plans to launch a pair of ultra-fast, maneuvering targets in separate tests to calibrate space-based sensors recently placed in orbit as part of the U.S. military’s latest efforts to assemble a suite of new technologies to counter long-range hypersonic glide vehicles.
Lockheed Martin has bested Northrop Grumman in a contest to build the Next Generation Interceptor, a development that establishes for a generation the beginning of a new order in the U.S. missile defense industrial base that will be filled out soon when a contest between Raytheon and Northrop is settled for the Glide Phase Interceptor.
The Defense Department is wrapping up work on a comprehensive analysis of technologies needed for an Air and Cruise Missile Defense of the Homeland capability, findings slated to influence in particular Air Force and Army spending plans beginning in fiscal year 2026.
The Missile Defense Agency this month will pick a winner between Lockheed Martin and Northrop in the Next Generation Interceptor competition, slicing a year off the original source-selection plan to develop the homeland defense guided missile based on information produced during the first round of the contest.
The Army, after a failed five-year project to rapidly prototype a self-propelled, extended-range cannon, wants to launch a new-start Next Generation Howitzer program, marking a third attempt since the end of the Cold War to build a leap-ahead artillery system -- this time with a goal to counter threats forecasted in 2040 and beyond.
The Army is doubling funding in its updated five-year budget plan for the Integrated Battle Command System in an effort to expedite development of software needed to integrate a list of new sensors, including the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, the Remote Interceptor Guidance-360 and more.
The Army has set new plans to triple annual spending on Patriot Modifications in fiscal year 2027 as part of a $3 billion increase over five years to improve the capability and readiness of the air defense system, a 174% hike compared to the current future years defense program.
A year after a Chinese stratospheric balloon flew across the United States -- triggering a political furor, discussion about gaps in domain awareness and the eventual combat downing of the airship -- the U.S. military is seeking funding to begin its own high-altitude balloon project to conduct intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's sensor technology portfolio that aims to improve the accuracy and timeliness of surveillance and targeting systems is being offered up as a bill payer in the Pentagon's new five-year spending plan, with proposed reductions of more than $900 million when compared to the current blueprint.
The Navy has slashed by more than half planned development of a next-generation fighter aircraft, cutting more than $7 billion for the F/A-XX project between fiscal years 2025 and 2028, indicating funds previously programmed for future years were redirected to finance higher priorities and the new-start project. (UPDATED)
The United States teamed with Australia for the first time in a major ballistic missile defense test, demonstrating interoperability and integration during the intercept of a medium-range ballistic missile as part of a developmental and operational test for the U.S. Navy and Missile Defense Agency.
The Pentagon is seeking new-start authority in fiscal year 2025 to begin buying a man-portable, tube-launched, uncrewed aircraft called the Low Altitude Stalking and Strike Ordnance (LASSO) as part of the Army's Family of Low Altitude Unmanned Systems program -- an effort to give dismounted infantry next-generation tank-killing capability.
The Army is drafting a requirement for a next-generation mobile passive radar -- a version of the Army Long Range Persistent Surveillance system mounted on a tactical truck that can quickly deploy a 60-foot-tall sensor to help detect cruise missiles, aircraft and smaller uncrewed flying systems.
The Defense Department last month designated a single official to oversee the acquisition of technology needed to develop and field a 360-degree, air-and-missile defense capability for Guam, tapping Army Lt. Gen. Robert Rasch to be executive officer in charge of the newly created Joint Program Office in support of the Guam Defense System.
The Defense Department is looking to acquire a handful of new high-flying, ultra-long endurance aircraft -- uncrewed systems with "point-and-click" command and control features that can fly up to seven days -- packed with sensors to provide commanders a flavor of intelligence that is crucial in modern conflict: high-quality, pattern-of-life behavior.
The Army is looking to launch a new-start project in fiscal year 2025 to extend the effective range of directed-energy weapons -- seeking a capability to sharpen the aim of speed-of-light systems in general and specifically to give the laser-armed Indirect Fire Protection Capability a longer reach against cruise missiles.