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.
The Pentagon's top weapons tester has deemed a key upgrade of the Joint Space Operations Center (JspOC) Mission System (JMS) is not operationally effective or suitable for its space situational awareness mission, a setback for the Air Force program which aims, among other things, to provide real-time alerts of hostile actions against U.S. satellites.
The Defense Department is considering a new guided-missile interceptor program to defeat hypersonic boost glide threats as part of a range of potential new-start programs that also include a possible high-powered laser or adapting existing ballistic missile interceptors to deal with the new-class of ultra-fast threats that China and Russia are expected to field in the 2020s.
The Army's Common Infrared Countermeasures program -- a Northrop Grumman-led effort to outfit U.S. military helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft with a next-generation defense against infrared-guided missiles -- passed muster with the Pentagon's top tester in the inaugural assessment of the $3 billion program.
The Pentagon today notified Congress that the State Department has approved a potential $2.1 billion sale to Japan of two Aegis Weapon Systems, a key development in Tokyo's plans to expand its land-based ballistic missile defense shield to defend the entire Pacific nation against North Korean threats by building a pair of Aegis Ashore systems.
Army Secretary Mark Esper has commissioned an influential advisory panel to recommend how the service's new modernization command -- established as part of a major reorganization in July 2018 in response to decades of failed acquisition projects -- should operate "to create a fast-moving, innovative and future-thinking organization."
Army Secretary Mark Esper has directed an independent review of the service's next-generation anti-armor strategy, an assessment by a panel that recommends, among other things, investment strategies and design parameters for next-generation combat vehicles and supporting systems.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates the cost to maintain and modernize nuclear forces over the next decade will be $494 billion, including $291 billion for Defense Department programs to sustain strategic and tactical strike systems as well as nuclear command, control, communications and early warning systems.
The Missile Defense Agency has commissioned a trio of studies for a new $1 billion Pacific Radar, a planned homeland defense sensor slated for emplacement at a yet-to-be-determined location to improve the ability to assess whether U.S. ballistic missile interceptors hit threatening North Korean long-range rockets during the midcourse of flight.
The Air Force has formally established a $3.8 billion cost estimate for the UH-1N replacement program -- a price tag that is 65 percent higher than the $2.3 billion contract award announced in September when the service picked Boeing to build a fleet of MH-139 utility helicopters.
Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan, backed by top brass and senior Pentagon officials, has directed the Army and Missile Defense Agency -- along with the Joint Staff -- to resolve by mid-June a $10 billion dispute that for years has bedevilled plans to transition responsibility for the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system from the agency to the service.
The 2019 Missile Defense Review directs a dozen follow-on studies with implications to dramatically expand the $180 billion Ballistic Missile Defense System by potentially growing the land- and sea-based interceptor fleets, adding the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter into the missile defense sensor network, initiating a hypersonic defense program and expanding space-based capabilities.
President Trump will unveil a new blueprint for missile defense spending, posture and policy on Jan. 17 that calls for "urgent investment" in next-generation capabilities including space-based systems -- such as kinetic and laser interceptors -- as part of an envisioned future shield needed to address an expanded range of new and advanced offensive missiles threatening the Unites States and its allies.
A mandatory audit of major weapon system programs turned up no cost growth in fiscal year 2018, which means the Office of the Secretary of Defense did not impose a penalty tax -- for a fourth consecutive year -- on any of the military services as required by law.
The Defense Department today published a new China Military Power report that finds the Asian country is on the cusp of fielding some of the most modern weapons in the world.
The Missile Defense Agency has lifted a stop-work order for Standard Missile-3 Block IIA guided missiles imposed on manufacturer Raytheon after the new Aegis ballistic missile interceptor failed in a key flight test a year ago.
The Navy estimates the MQ-25 Stingray unmanned aircraft system -- the service's first operational unmanned aircraft for the aircraft carrier fleet -- will cost $15.2 billion to acquire, up nearly $2 billion from a $13.3 billion price tag the service tallied last year.
The Army has set plans to integrate a high-energy laser weapon into its short-range air and missile defense arsenal by 2027, making room for a directed-energy capability alongside guided-missile interceptors in the Indirect Fire Protection Capability Increment 2 system.
The Army will acquire two Iron Dome batteries to provide ground forces an interim capability by 2020 against unmanned air vehicles, mortars, rockets, artillery and cruise missiles as well as explore full adoption of the Israeli-developed system for the Indirect Fire Protection Capability Increment 2-Intercept program and incorporation with the Integrated Battle Command System by 2023.
The Army is coordinating with the Marine Corps to integrate the Ground/Air Task Oriented Radar (G/ATOR) with the Integrated Air and Missile Defense program, a sign of new confidence by the Army that its $7.9 billion IAMD program -- beset two years ago by a string of serious developmental setbacks and schedule delays -- has turned a corner and is "on track" for fielding in 2022 or sooner.
The Navy last year braced for the prospect that faulty welding on a key Columbia-class submarine subsystem could devour 15 of the 23 months reserved for potential schedule delays in building the first missile tubes, but eventually crafted a "recovery" plan that aims to limit delays to 10 months -- a course that keeps construction plans for the new weapon system on track.