Saturday, April 20, 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.
A House panel wants the Army to prepare options for a "low-cost" generic interceptor that can operate as part of the Patriot surface-to-air missile system, a move that comes as the price tag for the newest variant of the Patriot interceptor approaches $1 million and lawmakers are seeking options to bolster inventories and foreign buyers are asking for less expensive options.
A House panel is directing the Defense Department to conduct an enterprise-wide analysis of competing technology projects that all aim to one day deliver a weapon capable of intercepting an intercontinental ballistic missile during the boost phase of flight -- and identify which project offers the best option.
House lawmakers want to explore options for folding the Missile Defense Agency into other Defense Department organizations and removing an exemption in place for 17 years that allows development and procurement of ballistic missile defense programs outside traditional weapon system acquisition rules.
House lawmakers are proposing a measure to halt funding for development of a submarine-launched hypersonic strike weapon, a move that would upend Navy plans to develop a Conventional Prompt Strike weapon, citing concerns about the potential for miscalculation by adversaries that might mistake the planned new capability for a nuclear-tipped ballistic missile.
A House panel is enthusiastically backing the Navy's proposal to adapt a scaled-down version of the SPY-6 radar for the bulk of the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer fleet, directing the service to draft a plan on the cost and technical feasibility of swapping out the legacy SPY-1 radar on the DDG-51 Flight IIA variants with a smaller version of the larger SPY-6 designed for the DDG-51 Flight III variant.
House lawmakers are proposing legislation to increase oversight of the Pentagon's evaluation of cyber vulnerabilities across its $1.6 trillion major weapon systems portfolio, calling for comprehensive reports by the Defense Department's acquisition executive on any identified shortfalls, including mitigation plans.
Crane Naval Surface Warfare Center in Indiana is playing a key role in supporting the Defense Department's hypersonic weapons development program, according to a Navy official who publicly discussed the organization's role in the Conventional Prompt Strike program for the first time.
Vice Adm. Jon Hill today assumed leadership of the Missile Defense Agency from retiring Lt. Gen. Samuel Greaves during a ceremony at Ft. Belvoir, VA, according to an agency official.
Defense Department plans for a new kinetic boost-phase interceptor, an air-launched weapon envisioned for fighter aircraft to attack enemy ballistic missiles, stalled this month after the Air Force and an unnamed contractor failed to agree on contract terms to develop the new capability.
The Missile Defense Agency, eyeing new ballistic missile target needs, will meet with industry next month as part of an ongoing market research effort in support of a potential future acquisition of new re-entry vehicles, medium- and intermediate-range ballistic missile-class targets as well as intercontinental ballistic missile-class targets.
The Army flipped key evaluation criteria during the solicitation endgame for the Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensor competition, supplanting "capability" for "schedule" as the most important factor in the final request for proposals compared to an earlier draft for the potential multibillion-dollar project to replace the service's Patriot radar inventory.
House lawmakers are stepping up congressional oversight of the Air Force's Hypersonic Conventional Strike Weapon and Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon projects, arguing the Pentagon's new five-year spending plan indicates a potential lack of commitment to seeing them completed.
House lawmakers are proposing legislation that would elevate the role of academic research in tackling hypersonic weapons by establishing a university consortium to support U.S. military efforts to expedite testing, evaluation and acquisition.
The Army's unmanned combat vehicle rodeo in Texas included six companies, some of which offered more than one candidate, putting 10 robotic systems through their paces in a technological maturity assessment for the Robotic Combat Vehicle program.
The Air Force has started a rapid-prototyping project to develop a new guided-missile interceptor designed to be fired from fighter aircraft to chase down and destroy enemy intercontinental ballistic missiles immediately after launch during the boost phase of flight, a capability that -- if it works -- could deliver a powerful new layer to the Ballistic Missile Defense System.
The Defense Department is laying the groundwork for a fiscal year 2021 budget request that would prop up its base budget by plowing $65 billion previously forecast as war spending into routine appropriation accounts, including nearly $20 billion for weapons investment, repeating a central strategy of the Trump administration's FY-20 budget request.
The Army has formally ratcheted up the range requirement from 300 kilometers to 400 kilometers for a next-generation ballistic missile called the Precision Strike Munition (PrSM), the focus of a $2.8 billion competition between Lockheed Martin and Raytheon to build thousands as part of a follow-on to the Army Tactical Missile System program.
Missile Defense Agency Director Lt. Gen. Samuel Greaves, facing frustration from lawmakers impatient with the Defense Department for continuing to withhold findings of a study completed in 2016 about a potential East Coast missile defense site, said a decision about identifying a location for a notional new missile field was not his call.
The State Department has approved more than $5 billion in potential missile defense arms sales to a pair of Persian Gulf nations for Patriot air and ballistic missile defense interceptors as well as radar, paving the way for potential deals worth $2.7 billion to the United Arab Emirates and nearly $2.5 billion with Bahrain.
The Navy last summer conducted a fly-off of three different long-range, satellite-guided rounds originally designed for ground forces as part of a continuing analysis to give service leaders options for how to extend the reach of the 5-inch guns on destroyers and cruisers to best support Marine Corps operations ashore.