Thursday, December 4, 2025
Key Issues Stryker downsizing CAML Cape Cod GBR
Jason Sherman is a reporter for Inside Defense. For more than three 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 Pentagon has selected more than 1,000 companies to compete for work on the Golden Dome missile defense initiative, marking the first major step toward what could become a decade-long, $151 billion wave of contracting to modernize U.S. homeland defense against advanced missile threats.
The Space Force is moving ahead with its plan to digitize the nation's network of long-range missile warning radars, announcing a December industry day at Cape Cod Space Force Station, MA to brief contractors on near-term upgrades and on-site technical constraints associated with the Ground Based Radar Digitization initiative.
The Pentagon is shielding details about the marquee effort of its Golden Dome missile defense initiative, using what officials describe as "enhanced security measures" to withhold information about newly issued contracts for space-based interceptor prototypes.
The Army will open a Global Tactical Edge Acquisition Directorate office in Hawaii early next year, extending its new rapid-innovation structure into the Indo-Pacific as part of a broader effort to push acquisition decisions closer to deployed commanders, according to the director of the organization.
NATO must abandon decades of network-bound, proprietary command systems and shift to a cloud-based method of sharing and processing data if it wants to defend Europe against rapidly evolving drone and missile threats, a senior alliance official said in a call for sweeping policy change.
Two emerging defense firms are positioning themselves to challenge the missile-interceptor dominance of RTX and Lockheed Martin, arguing that commercial manufacturing methods and rapid development cycles can produce a new class of smart, inexpensive weapons tailored for the Pentagon's Golden Dome initiative.
The Army has activated a new fast-track procurement channel designed to push proven technology to the field in weeks rather than years, and the first company through the system is Utah-based Fortem Technologies, whose counter-drone systems have been used in combat in Ukraine and have drawn investment from major U.S. defense primes.
The Defense Department is preparing to solicit industry proposals for a prototype space-based interceptor, taking a concrete step toward what experts say is the most achievable slice of an otherwise costly and technically daunting vision for a space-based missile defense layer: midcourse kinetic intercept.
The Pentagon has advanced the Golden Dome for America initiative using an interim baseline architecture and is now proceeding with an implementation plan that remains under department review, a step forward for one of the most ambitious missile defense efforts in decades, according to officials and a statement provided to Inside Defense. (UPDATED)
The decision to nominate Maj. Gen. John Rafferty to lead U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command comes as service leaders work to more closely integrate offensive and defensive fires, a move that is stirring concern among air defenders who argue that an artillery background doesn't provide expertise needed for Golden Dome.
The Army has selected the senior leaders who will helm its largest acquisition restructuring in decades, an overhaul intended to speed the delivery of new weapons and technology to soldiers and push decision-making authority closer to the point of need.
The Army is creating a new Global Tactical Edge Acquisition Directorate to accelerate how battlefield technology reaches soldiers, part of a broader push to shorten the cycle between innovation and large-scale procurement and a major overhaul of the service’s acquisition enterprise unveiled today.
The Army’s new Program Acquisition Executive Fires director, Lt. Gen. Frank Lozano, has delegated responsibility for the Guam Defense System Joint Program Office to the Integrated Fires Directorate in the service’s, according to an Army official. (UPDATED)
When the director of “A House of Dynamite” -- the new Netflix nuclear thriller -- began preparing to shoot scenes depicting U.S. Strategic Command, she wanted every blinking light, console switch and dialogue to ring true.
Lockheed Martin is partnering with the Missile Defense Agency to identify new suppliers worldwide for its Terminal High Altitude Area Defense interceptor, a push executives say is essential to meeting record demand for missile defense systems and strengthening fragile production lines.
The Missile Defense Agency and Army are moving ahead with plan to merge the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system into the service's new Integrated Battle Command System -- a shift with the potential to fundamentally change how the Army defends against missiles as well as support the Golden Dome domestic air defense project.
Lockheed Martin is preparing a proposal for the Army’s next-generation long-range strike weapon, responding to a non-public solicitation issued in late September that could position its Long Range Maneuverable Fires (LRMF) technology as the baseline for Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) Increment 4, according to people familiar with the effort.
The Army has selected AeroVironment for its Next-Generation Counter-Unmanned Aircraft System Missile, awarding the company a $95.9 million contract under the Long-Range Kinetic Interceptor (LRKI) program, according to a company announcement.
The Pentagon’s new Joint Interagency Task Force 401 and the Golden Dome for America missile defense initiative are beginning to take shape as complementary parts of a larger national defense strategy -- one focused on countering small drones and long-range missile threats through speed, autonomy and integration.
The Army's fast-track development of its next evolution of the Abrams tank, the M1E3, will deliver a preprototype by the end of this year and a platoon of operational vehicles by late 2026, one of the service's most aggressive modernization drives in decades -- and a striking embrace of foreign-born technology at the heart of the new tank's powertrain.