Sunday, January 19, 2025
Key Issues MADCAP SPY-6 radars Regional Sustainment Framework
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 is drafting a new requirement for micro balloons that can loft sophisticated sensors after recent experiments validated the potential to add a new dimension of resilience to space-based capabilities -- complicating an adversary's ability to disrupt terrestrial connections to orbiting systems.
The Navy plans to spend more than $3.9 billion on a new fleet of T-AGOS 25-class Auxiliary General Ocean Surveillance ships, crucial for detecting and tracking submarine activity in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and for strengthening anti-submarine warfare capabilities.
The Columbia-class submarine program -- the Navy's once-every-two-generations modernization project that commands an outsized portion of the service's investment resources -- is now estimated to cost $139 billion, $12 billion more than the Pentagon originally estimated.
The Pentagon's missile defense enterprise could be poised for a major expansion under the next Trump administration, including tripling the planned buy of Next Generation Interceptors, accelerating the Glide Phase Interceptor development and defending the nation against not just North Korean threats, but also Russian and Chinese ICBMs.
The estimated price tag for the Integrated Battle Command System increased to $13.2 billion -- a 20% hike over the previous $11 billion projected cost, as part of the Pentagon's decision last year to approved the Army air-and-missile-defense networking capability for full-rate production.
The Defense Department last year traded away 153 Standard Missile-3 Block IB interceptors as part of a decision to terminate production of the guided missile interceptors in exchange for buying a dozen Standard Missile-3 Block IIA variants, according to a report to Congress.
The Defense Department has, for the first time, outlined major components of a planned 360-degree air and missile defense system for Guam in a legally required report intended to inform the public -- specifically the island’s residents and their elected leaders -- about the environmental impacts of the system.
The Army is bracing for the possibility that its plans to acquire a full-battalion set of its next-generation Patriot radar as part of the inaugural purchase could be significantly tripped up if lawmakers don't reinstate the Pentagon's full funding request in fiscal year 2025 for the Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensor program.
China is growing its nuclear force at a faster rate than previously forecast and will have more than 1,000 operational warheads fielded by 2030 on delivery systems capable of striking the United States, according to a new Defense Intelligence Agency report on the growing nuclear capabilities of strategic competitors and regional rivals.
The Army is scrapping plans to base its new Chinese ship-killing unit on Guam, removing the Mid-Range Capability (MRC) from the planned architecture for the Western Pacific U.S. territory -- an aspect of Defense Department designs for the region not previously made public.
The Indirect Fires Protection Capability (IFPC) Increment 2 project -- the Army effort to develop a new cruise missile defense system -- is pivoting to operational testing this fall after knocking down a trio of targets in a "very successful" live-fire event, a milestone that keeps the project on track for a production review in early 2025.
The Army is laying the groundwork for a sixth configuration of the Armored Multipurpose Vehicle -- the first addition to the original fleet of five variants since the AMPV requirement was codified in 2013 -- to give combat and mechanized engineers a modern, tracked system to support front-line forces.
The Army has approved a new requirement to integrate offensive and defensive fires -- a paradigm-changing capability that promises a significant breakthrough in missile warfare -- and is now preparing to ask Pentagon top brass to codify this objective through additional performance parameters for the Integrated Battle Command System (IBCS).
L3Harris is pitching a new autonomous reconnaissance and security ground vehicle called the Diamondback, displaying for the first time the futuristic looking combat vehicle -- with a sleek, angular design and large, rugged off-road tires suggesting its tough terrain capability -- at the Association of the U.S. Army exhibit hall.
The Army's current modernization plan is being squeezed by rising personnel costs and will force "really hard choices" -- possibly foiling a once-in-a-generation blueprint to retool the force for modern combat -- if the service doesn't receive an increased budget topline that reflects real growth above inflation, according to the Army secretary.
European arms builder Leonardo today unveiled a new airborne jamming capability -- called BriteStorm -- designed to be carried by uncrewed aircraft, including on systems deemed disposable, to thwart advanced integrated air defense systems and support operations deep within adversary territory.
AM General, the South Bend, IN-based light tactical vehicle maker, will showcase three products on the exhibition floor of the Association of the U.S. Army's annual convention: the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV A2) and trailer, the HUMVEE 2-CT Hawkeye 105mm Mobile Howitzer as well as the all-new MIMIC-V purpose-built truck, the company said in a statement.
The Missile Defense Agency is seeking ideas on a "low-cost interceptor" to "dramatically decrease" the investment required to defeat an adversary threat, seeking proposals on potential technologies, concepts and concepts of operations to deal with enemy ballistic, hypersonic and cruise missiles that could kick off in 2025.
The Army is set to launch a new program that aims to bolster infantry forces against tanks, armored vehicles and enemy forces by arming them with a yet-to-be-identified Mobile-Long Range Precision Strike Missile, a central part of the service's goal to make Infantry Brigade Combat Teams as lethal as Armored Brigade Combat Teams.
The Defense Department is asking lawmakers to reject a House proposal that would quash a new project that aims to integrate the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system into the Army Integrated Battle Command System architecture, arguing classified assessments deemed the project "critical" to countering sophisticated missile threats.