Monday, March 20, 2023
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 most advanced Patriot interceptor knocked down ballistic missile targets this month during a key reliability test, an event that marked the first successful launch of a PAC-3 Missile Segment Enhancement by the Integrated Air and Missile Defense Battle Command System (IBCS) as well as the beginning of a field surveillance program for the growing guided-missile fleet.
Lockheed Martin is readying to ramp up production of Patriot Advanced Capability-3 Missile Segment Enhancement interceptors in 2022 with a new manufacturing line that -- when paired with beefed up supplier agreements -- will double the annual output of the new guided missiles.
The Defense Department did not violate the law in 2020 when it overhauled missile defense policies and governance rules, federal investigators ruled in a new report requested by Congress.
Lawmakers want the Army to begin work immediately on maneuvering submunitions for long-range precision fires while also backing a service proposal for a new project to develop a maneuvering variant of a surface-to-surface missile -- effectively doubling down on efforts to add non-ballistic capabilities to the register of planned Precision Strike Missile improvements.
The Defense Department assesses that China in 2020 fielded a hypersonic strike weapon -- the DF-17, a maneuvering glide body paired with a medium-range ballistic missile with an estimated range of 1,500 miles -- a public declaration that Beijing has operationalized a technology the U.S. military has not yet fielded and tacit admission the Chinese military for now dominates the near-space domain.
The Missile Defense Agency has formally launched a contest to scale back Boeing's decade-long grip on the entire development and sustainment prime contract for the Ground-based Midcourse Defense system, publishing a request for proposals for the first of two planned full-and-open competitions for future GMD work that will be in addition to a guaranteed, but smaller, continued role for Boeing.
The Pentagon has outlined for Congress options for a new integrated air and missile defense of Guam in a classified report that marks the latest development in a long-running internal Defense Department debate over the efficacy of such as system, outlining a potential capability that uses elements of the Aegis Ashore as a building block and ties in Army technologies.
The Army and Lockheed Martin are aiming by the end of this year to begin incorporating a multimode seeker into the Precision Strike Missile -- adding a sensor that will give the long-range weapon an option to attack ships as well as surface targets -- expanding the service's inventory of so-called multidomain weapons, a capability intended to complicate China's response in a potential conflict.
A Senate panel has recommended a steep cut to Army plans in fiscal year 2022 to rapidly prototype and test trailer-sized directed-energy weapons, a proposal that if enacted could hobble service plans for laser and microwave protections against cruise missiles and drone swarms.
The Army is getting ready to lock in a requirement for an extended-range variant of its Precision Strike Missile and is moving to shroud the reach of the planned weapon -- which service leaders previously discussed openly -- in secrecy, a determination that will codify the scope of the competition for industry and keep potential adversaries, such as China, guessing about the precise offensive potential of U.S. ground units.
Three defense contractors from Europe and the Middle East deployed to Washington, DC, their respective 155 mm howitzer variants mounted on trucks for display at a convention center, all hoping to catch the attention of U.S. government officials who are contemplating options for replacing towed cannons that are now deemed vulnerable to counter-battery fire against an advanced adversary such as Russia or China.
Sandia National Laboratories launched a trio of research rockets in support of a Pentagon project to develop and field a long-range hypersonic weapon, the Navy announced today, lofting instrumented boosters over the Atlantic Ocean from a U.S. government launch pad in Virginia.
White House, Pentagon and North American Aerospace Defense Command officials are refining a list of critical sites in the United States and Canada for active defense against long-range Russian and Chinese cruise missiles, eyeing domestic deployments in a crisis of sophisticated air defense systems such as Patriot and optimal locations for fighter aircraft armed with advanced radar.
The Missile Defense Agency's plan to deliver the Long Range Discrimination Radar for operations is delayed yet again -- pushing the key milestone off by an entire year compared to original plans -- with a new target date now set for December 2021 as the government and prime contractor Lockheed Martin work to complete installation of the new sensor next month.
Senate appropriators are proposing $10.3 billion for the Missile Defense Agency in fiscal year 2022, an increase of $1.4 billion above the Pentagon’s request, including funds to buy 14 additional Terminal High Altitude Area Defense and eight Standard Missile-3 Block IIA interceptors as well as finance the start of a new air and missile defense system for Guam.
The Army -- which earlier this month announced deployment of its first Iron Dome battery to Guam -- is "on track" to ready for deployment a second short-range air defense battery equipped with the Israeli-developed system by December, according to a senior leader, in accordance with statutory mandates to utilize the interim cruise missile defense capability which the service does not plan to fully integrate with other elements of its air- and missile-defense network.
The first Army unit equipped with the new Maneuver-Short Range Air Defense capability conducted a first-ever, live-fire of the rapidly developed system this month -- a major milestone in the effort to harden U.S. ground forces in Europe from Russian threats.
U.S. Army Test and Evaluation Command is readying within weeks to commence a high-stakes assessment of Army Integrated Air and Missile Defense -- a command-and-control system that integrates sensors, weapons and mission command across an integrated fire control network.
Lockheed Martin believes it can accelerate delivery of a Next Generation Interceptor to support emplacement by 2027, a new development that matches expectations from senior military officials that incentives built into the acquisition strategy could deliver a new guided missile to defeat North Korean intercontinental ballistic missiles sooner than 2028.
AM General, maker of the U.S. military's legacy light tactical vehicle fleet, will toss its hat in the ring for the upcoming competition to build Joint Light Tactical Vehicles, a move that presents incumbent Oshkosh with a formidable challenger and assures the Army an industrial rivalry that acquisition officials hope will drive innovation and a fair cost in an estimated $7.6 billion project.