Boeing and General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems today announced a new partnership to offer the U.S. military speed-of-light-weapons for air and missile defense, specifically 100kW- to 250kW-class high-energy lasers.
Sunday, June 23, 2024
Sunday, June 23, 2024
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.
Boeing and General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems today announced a new partnership to offer the U.S. military speed-of-light-weapons for air and missile defense, specifically 100kW- to 250kW-class high-energy lasers.
The Missile Defense Agency conducted three major ground tests between January and late August, events that aimed to advance work on the European Phased Adaptive Approach Phase 3 and support improved integration between the Patriot and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense systems.
The Navy has commissioned more than a dozen Light Amphibious Warship "concept design" industry studies due next month that are expected to shape a formal competition next summer in advance of a planned lead-ship contract award in fiscal year 2022.
The Missile Defense Agency is laying the groundwork for a new Ballistic Missile Defense System layer to defend North America from enemy cruise missiles as Air Force leaders eye options for how the U.S. and Canada might better defend against low-flying, air-breathing threats.
The U.S. military today conducted a flight test demonstrating new interoperability between the Patriot and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense systems as it responds to an urgent requirement from commanders in South Korea for improved Patriot-THAAD integration to defend against North Korean ballistic missile threats.
The Missile Defense Agency is launching a second layer to its counter-hypersonic portfolio with a new project that aims to develop a sea-based interceptor to defeat threats in the terminal phase -- an envisioned last-line of defense for the Navy against a new class of ultra-fast glide vehicles and cruise missiles being developed by Russia and China -- with plans to vet proposals by December and award initial contracts in early 2021.
The Missile Defense Agency has granted Boeing Phantom Works a final attempt to demonstrate a 100-kilowatt class laser by spring of next year, an assessment that will determine whether the company's directed-energy project can be considered for inclusion in the Pentagon's Industry Laser Scaling roadmap for continued development, according to MDA.
Army officials are holding in abeyance a recommendation to certify to lawmakers that the Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle program is on a solid footing -- an endorsement withheld last year in the wake of production start-up challenges on the $15.4 billion program -- while keeping a close eye on results of upcoming tests of the new BAE Systems-built combat system.
The Missile Defense Agency is pressing ahead with a project to develop a speed-of-light weapon to knock down maneuvering hypersonic vehicles, awarding Raytheon $9.7 million to advance work originally proposed two years ago on a Hypersonic Defense Weapon System concept and setting the project on a path to a potential Microwave Technology Testbed.
Boeing today disclosed that it is teamed with General Atomics and Aerojet Rocketdyne for the Next Generation Interceptor, offering what a company official said is "freshness" to the Ground-based Midcourse Defense system modernization competition by pulling in two established defense industry suppliers that haven't previously had high-profile, missile defense accounts.
The Aegis Ashore ballistic missile defense system being eyed to bolster protection of Guam could potentially be armed for strike missions to offset China's current ballistic and cruise missile advantage against U.S. forces, according to the top U.S. military official in the region.
The Army plans to reproduce for combatant commanders around the world the package of improvements now being fashioned to enhance integration of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense and Patriot Advanced Capability-3 systems in response to urgent requests in 2017 from top brass in South Korea for improved ballistic missile defenses.
The Air Force has tapped Lockheed Martin to exercise a project using a new contract vehicle potentially worth $15 billion for continued development and procurement of C-130J aircraft -- a five-year deal with options to buy as many as 120 aircraft that, if fully exercised, could dwarf the most recent multiyear procurement deals for the U.S. military's intra-theater lift workhorse fleet.
The Trump administration is balking at four missile defense provisions advanced by the Senate Armed Services Committee's mark of the fiscal year 2021 defense authorization bill, asking lawmakers to reconsider a funding cut and increase to the Next Generation Interceptor and Homeland Defense Radar-Hawaii programs, respectively.
China's military modernization -- particularly development of its strategic forces -- is driving the U.S. military to begin preparing for the advent of Beijing as a nuclear competitor on par with Russia, a development that will require a different deterrence strategy from the playbook the Defense Department has long maintained to counter Moscow, according to a senior U.S. military official.
Northrop Grumman and Raytheon Technologies are pitching a Next-Generation Interceptor design backed by what they say are engineering teams with unparallel experience knocking down targets in space and knowledge of today's Ground-based Midcourse Defense system -- promising a unified, "seamless" corporate team to deliver a new booster and kill vehicle as if from a single company.
U.S. Northern Command wants to retool the U.S. weapon system inventory for homeland defense against Russian and Chinese threats -- particularly new, long-range, conventional strike weapons designed to hobble critical domestic infrastructure -- with unprecedented air and maritime sensing capabilities linked to all-domain command and control tools that would guide a new array of anti-missile systems.
The Pentagon's No. 2 official has overhauled missile defense policies and governance in a move that will subject the Missile Defense Agency to increased oversight by other arms of the Defense Department, establishing new rules for the $202 billion portfolio of missile defense weapon system projects and setting the stage for the first major revision of the agency's charter in over a decade. (UPDATED)
The Missile Defense Agency is delaying until the end of this year a marquee test, slated for fiscal year 2020, pitting a Standard Missile-3 Block IIA against an intercontinental ballistic missile target to validate a new homeland defense architecture that would add a new "underlayer" to work in tandem with the Ground-based Midcourse Defense system.
The Army's most advanced Patriot interceptor appears to have misfired during a key test of the service's new air and missile defense system, requiring a back-up guided missile, an older Patriot variant, to chase and destroy a tactical ballistic missile target last week.