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.
President Trump's initial National Security Strategy calls for fielding an "enhanced" missile defense capability, including the means to defeat threats prior to launch, a policy likely to put emphasis and funding behind new projects, including non-kinetic capabilities, lasers and possibly cyberattack weapons.
Army funding is insufficient to support work on projects with potential to deliver new and disruptive technologies for the future force, according to an influential service advisory panel.
The Pentagon has tapped Boeing to compete in a new technology demonstration effort to integrate a low-power laser on a high-altitude unmanned aerial vehicle, handing the company which led the Airborne Laser program -- terminated in 2009 -- another bite at the apple in the U.S. military's latest effort to develop speed-of-light missile defense.
Pentagon top brass last year relaxed a key warfighting requirement for the Joint Air-to-Ground Missile program at the request of the Army, which did not believe the $7.1 billion Hellfire-replacement program being developed by Lockheed Martin could meet its inflight reliability criteria, according to the Defense Department inspector general.
The Missile Defense Agency has awarded a pair of research contracts that aim to develop an ability for radar and other sensors to track hypersonic glide vehicle threats which both China and Russia are testing.
The Navy's latest attempt to find the most efficient way to complete planned purchases of the E-2D Advanced Hawkeye appears to be stymied by lawmakers unwilling to allow a multiyear procurement deal beginning in fiscal year 2019 for the Northrop Grumman-built aircraft longer than five years.
Boeing's initial blueprint for a new intercontinental ballistic missile recently passed muster with the Air Force during a key review, clearing the defense contractor to proceed with initial systems development as part of an $18 billion project to develop two competing designs as part of the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent program.
Key lawmakers are pumping the brakes on a potentially precedent-setting Navy proposal to negotiate a multiyear procurement contract that extends over seven years -- tripping up Pentagon plans with Bell-Boeing to consolidate remaining MV-22 Osprey purchases in a single contract beginning in fiscal year 2018.
The U.S. government posted a $41.9 billion tally of potential sales of military equipment and services to foreign nations in fiscal year 2017 -- up 25 percent from the FY-16 total -- including $32 billion in proposed purchases of weapon systems, according to the Defense Department.
The Senate Appropriations Committee has endorsed a Pentagon plan to accelerate development of the new Ground-based Midcourse Defense warhead -- which aims to improve defenses against a potential North Korean or Iranian intercontinental ballistic missile -- lifting proposed spending even beyond the Trump administration's requested increase.
Senate lawmakers want the Pentagon to sharpen its forecast for Raytheon-built guided missiles, directing the Missile Defense Agency and Navy to prepare a report outlining inventory and acquisition objectives for the Standard Missile portfolio, which include missile defense and anti-ship capabilities.
A mandatory audit of major weapon programs has turned up no cost growth in fiscal year 2017, which means the Office of the Secretary of Defense will not be imposing a penalty tax -- for the third consecutive year -- on any of the military services as required by law.
The Army -- which has fumbled for two decades with acquisition projects to modernize its ground combat vehicle fleet -- is required under the final version of the fiscal year 2018 defense policy bill to deliver a plan to Congress for building a prototype for a new ground combat vehicle.
House and Senate lawmakers have proposed legislation to set the size of the Air Force's current fighter aircraft fleet as a floor, blocking the service from unilaterally retiring any fighter or attack aircraft through 2022.
The U.S. military is eyeing a technology experiment that could lead to a new satellite constellation focused on detecting and tracking a new class of ultra-fast, maneuvering missiles which intelligence agencies say are an emerging threat to U.S. forces.
Congress will soon vote on a defense policy bill that requires the U.S. military to plan for an "early operational" variant of a hypersonic strike weapon by 2022, setting a new statutory expectation for the Conventional Prompt Strike technology development effort.
Lawmakers, bending to the reality that cost estimates for the Navy's new aircraft carriers continue to climb, are for a third time raising the cost cap for new Ford-class ships, setting a new statutory threshold of $12.6 billion for the future Enterprise (CVN-80) and follow-on aircraft carriers.
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine has completed a Navy-commissioned report on ways to defend forward-deployed ships from potential enemy missile and rocket attacks into the early 2030s, including potentially novel kinetic and non-kinetic ways to protect the fleet.
The Defense Department has selected General Atomics to compete in the new technology demonstration effort to integrate a low-power laser on a high-altitude unmanned aerial vehicle, expanding the project to develop different approaches for a potential precursor to an airborne laser capable of intercepting ballistic missiles during the boost phase of flight.
A senior Navy official said this week the service plans to arm its Ohio-class submarines and Virginia-class attack subs with a hypersonic boost-glide weapon, in the event Defense Department leaders elect to acquire such a capability, a significant revelation about U.S. military planning for a Conventional Prompt Strike capability.