Tuesday, January 18, 2022
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.
Israel today conducted a major test of its national missile defense system, launching a pair of its most advanced guided-missile interceptors against a ballistic missile target in an event designed to assess the limits of the weapon system.
The Defense Department is looking to dramatically increase the pace and reduce the cost of hypersonic technology testing, eyeing a new advanced capability project that would execute monthly launches for about $15 million per event -- less than one-tenth the cost of past major events -- to “fail fast and learn” and accelerate fielding of improved weapons.
The Defense Department is feeling the squeeze of rising prices and has had to shift funds around internally in recent weeks to cover $1.5 billion in must-pay bills, the Pentagon's chief financial officer told Congress today.
The Defense Department is asking industry for feedback on plans for a "full-scale hypersonics flight test series" -- with further details available only to cleared contractors.
The Pentagon must conduct a new review over the next year that could reshape the U.S. military's $2 trillion roster of current weapon system acquisition projects by identifying programs for divestiture that are not keeping pace with emerging threats.
The Army is eyeing new options to limit further entanglement with an Israeli-made air defense system, specifically being released from a statutory requirement to buy and operationally deploy additional Iron Dome batteries.
The Missile Defense Agency formally launched the second of two new industry competitions for the so-called Ground-based Midcourse Defense system future acquisition: Systems Integration, Test and Readiness (SITR).
Northrop Grumman and Raytheon Technologies -- teamed to design a new intercontinental ballistic missile killer -- completed their Next Generation Interceptor System Requirements Review with the Missile Defense Agency, clearing the companies to proceed with product development of their new missile design.
The Missile Defense Agency has approved the second of two competing design proposals for a Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor, clearing L3Harris to proceed with Northrop Grumman in beginning to fabricate space vehicles critical to U.S. military plans to counter a new class of ultra-fast maneuvering weapons.
Lawmakers have set a 2025 target for fielding an improved air- and missile defense capability on Guam to give the island 360-degree protection against advanced Chinese threats, a statutory provision -- once the fiscal year 2022 defense authorization bill is signed by the president -- that would set a new marker in the debate over whether, what and when to deploy on the Western Pacific U.S. territory.
SIMI VALLEY, CA -- The Defense Department is eyeing increased Army deployments across the Indo-Pacific in a gambit to put boots on the ground -- rotating in and out of different countries -- for as many as six months a year to demonstrate a commitment to the region and create conditions for increased access in the event of a crisis with China.
SIMI VALLEY, CA -- Pentagon leaders are vetting combatant command high-priority, 2021 capability shortfalls as part of an annual plea for new -- and sometimes novel -- technology to address gaps in the current weapons inventory that put at risk their respective war plans.
SIMI VALLEY, CA -- Political dysfunction in Congress is driving Pentagon leaders to contemplate a major internal budget drill to craft a second, parallel plan for fiscal year 2022 that would wring nearly $40 billion from expected spending plans and prepare for major setbacks across the weapon system modernization portfolio.
SIMI VALLEY, CA -- Pentagon leaders are concerned about the health of the Army's Patriot force, particularly the stress that high operational tempo and limited deployment predictability is having on readiness, driving soldiers to leave units that provide the cornerstone of air and missile defense for deployed forces and allies.
SIMI VALLEY, CA -- The Marine Corps needs more money in fiscal years 2023 and 2024 to buy Light Amphibious Warships, critical to service plans to establish new littoral units that can nimbly move shore-to-shore inside China's striking range, while contemplating a radical new use for its big-deck combatants: "Motherships" to unleash unmanned air and undersea systems.
SIMI VALLEY, CA -- The Marine Corps is open to one day adopting a hypersonic strike weapon if its size is not too cumbersome for new front-line units being designed to operate in contested areas, said the service's top general, who allowed the service "could be" interested in a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency effort called OpFires.
The U.S. military today took a key step toward operationalizing a major new component of its national missile defense system, declaring the Long Range Discrimination Radar -- a hulking pair of sensors in the heart of Alaska, each six stories tall and equally wide -- fielded and ready for testing to improve defense against North Korean intercontinental ballistic missiles.
SIMI VALLEY, CA -- The Defense Department is considering a request from Poland to buy as many as 250 Abrams tanks, a deal likely worth more than $3 billion that would provide stability for the heavy armor production line and deliver an important capability to a European ally near Russia -- a package a senior DOD official involved in the process views very favorably.
SIMI VALLEY, CA -- The Defense Department is awaiting "passback" guidance from the White House, a topline allocation that will allow Pentagon leaders to lock in the fiscal year 2023 budget proposal and account for inflation forecasts that could significantly diminish weapon system buying power.
SIMI VALLEY, CO -- The Army's maiden deployment of its Israeli-built Iron Dome air and missile defense system is wrapping up, capping a deployment to Guam -- billed as an experiment -- that began in early October to exercise transporting the system and setting up for operation but not conducting any live firings.