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.
Less than two months after the Missile Defense Agency's newest ballistic missile interceptor failed in a high-stakes flight test, lawmakers are handing the Pentagon $136 million in the fiscal year 2018 spending bill for a do-over.
The Defense Department does not -- as this time -- require a program to develop space-based ballistic missile interceptors to shoot down enemy long-range rockets during the boost phase of ascent, according to the top U.S. military commander for missile defense and space operations.
An influential Pentagon advisory board has recommended the U.S. military quickly develop and field an interim capability to defeat hypersonic weapon threats, launching a program to develop a defensive capability against a new-class of ultra-high-speed strike systems that are the focus of an race between Washington, Beijing and Moscow.
The Missile Defense Agency is exploring whether the Navy's newest interceptor -- originally designed to intercept medium- and intermediate-range threats -- can extend its reach to strike intercontinental ballistic missiles, a new gambit to bolster defense of the United States from North Korean ballistic missile threats, according to a senior defense official.
The Defense Department is exploring a potential new mission for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter: ballistic missile defense, according to a senior DOD official. The move could leverage sensors on the planned fleet of 2,456 new stealthy aircraft the U.S. military plans to buy in the coming decades to help detect and track enemy launches.
The Defense Department is delaying the planned deployment of the European Phased Adaptive Approach Phase 3 until sometime in 2020, a setback of at least a year to the plan to add a second Aegis Ashore system in Europe due to slow progress with construction at the new ballistic missile defense site in Poland, according to DOD.
The Navy is reverting to an earlier plan and will shock test the lead ship of its new aircraft carrier class, the Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78), an apparent reversal after the service appealed to Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.
The Navy and U.S. Strategic Command have begun reviewing the requirement for a new submarine-launched ballistic missile, a prelude to commencing a major acquisition to develop and field a follow-on to the Trident II (D5) missile.
U.S. Army and Israeli air defense forces plan to conduct live-fire missile defense missions early next week in Israel, the culminating event of a major bilateral exercise that is working through the challenges of creating a single air picture with the aim of integrating the two nations' respective ballistic missile defense systems.
The Defense Department has commenced a sweeping new mobility study, an assessment that aims to consider the precise number of aerial refueling tankers, cargo aircraft and supply ships needed to support the Trump administration's National Defense Strategy and drive any related new investment decisions in the military's fiscal year 2020 spending plan.
The Missile Defense Agency has provided Congress a $1.2 billion wish list to finance 16 projects that were not included in the agency's $9.9 billion fiscal year 2019 budget request, including bolstering missile defense in South Korea as well as additional investments in new technologies such as speed-of-light weapons, space-based sensors and new warhead development.
The Missile Defense Agency's top unfunded requirement in fiscal year 2019 is a new space-based network of sensors to track enemy long-range ballistic missiles during the midcourse of flight, giving the Missile Defense Tracking System -- a program launched in FY-18 but curiously zeroed in MDA's FY-19 budget request -- a potential new path to funding.
The Pentagon's top weapons tester -- citing operational security concerns -- has drawn the curtain on a key public report that characterizes the operational effectiveness, suitability and survivability of the Ballistic Missile Defense System, a $165 billion project to defend against North Korean and Iranian threats.
The Air Force and Missile Defense Agency are conducting a joint review of space capabilities with plans to provide the Office of the Secretary of Defense a coordinated fiscal year 2020 spending request that reflects agreed upon priorities of requirements and programs, according to a senior military officer.
The Defense Department is considering options to bundle U.S. orders for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter into multiyear contracts with Lockheed Martin as soon as fiscal year 2021, potentiality consolidating annual purchases of about $11 billion for nearly 100 aircraft into mega-deals that would provide industrial base stability and notionally yield savings compared to yearly contracts.
Commercially available, high-performance unmanned aerial systems -- when used for nefarious means -- pose “a significant and growing threat” to U.S. forces, particularly dismounted infantry and lightly armored vehicles in the Army, Marine Corps and Special Operations Forces.
The Navy is asking Congress for permission to negotiate a $3.5 billion contract with Northrop Grumman to buy E2-D Advanced Hawkeye aircraft in a multiyear deal that would bundle two dozen of the airborne surveillance, detection and tracking systems as part of a block buy the service says would net savings of $336 million.
The Navy is proposing a new three-year, consolidated contract to buy F/A-18E/F Super Hornet aircraft, a $3.7 billion deal that locks in orders through 2021, as a hedge against the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter taking longer than planned to be fielded.
The Air Force next month will stand up a program office for the Stand-In Attack Weapon as part of a new $657 million, five-year campaign to bolster the punch of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and B-21 bomber when operating in contested environments, giving the stealthy aircraft new armament to knock out sophisticated enemy air defenses.
The Pentagon -- citing a need to "safeguard critical defense information" -- will no longer provide advance information about Ballistic Missile Defense System tests, a policy change that departs with a long-standing practice of routinely publishing both test schedules and test objectives.