Thursday, April 25, 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 Defense Department does not have a capability to shoot down long-range enemy missiles early in flight to deal with the North Korean nuclear threat, the Pentagon's top officer told Congress Tuesday, offering a classified briefing to lawmakers interested in efforts to arm an unmanned aerial vehicle with such a weapon.
The Navy has awarded a landmark weapon system contract to General Dynamics Electric Boat, a potential $5.1 billion deal that commits the government to proceeding with development of a new-generation ballistic missile submarine and pressing ahead with a $127 billion modernization program that is on course to squeeze future funding for conventional Navy modernization plans.
Air Mobility Command has completed a key study that could set the stage for a "cloaking technology" program of record to develop a next-generation system to provide stealth for large aircraft that operate at standoff rages but are easily identifiable on enemy radar.
The Defense Department will take another three years to refine the price tag for the Air Force's new intercontinental ballistic missile project, drawing on feedback from Northrop Grumman and Boeing, the two contractors selected last month to develop competing ICBM designs.
The Defense Department is laying the groundwork to begin a sweeping new mobility requirements study in 2019, an assessment that will revise the requirement for the total number of aerial refueling tankers, cargo aircraft and supply ships the U.S. military requires to support the defense strategy commissioned by the Trump administration and expected to be complete later this year.
The Army this month plans to begin reliability, availability and maintainability testing of Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle prototypes, the latest milestone in the $13.7 billion project to replace the service's Vietnam-era M113 personnel carriers, according to a service spokeswoman.
The Air Force's award last month of a pair of contracts to launch a Long Range Standoff weapon competition does not necessarily reflect a firm Defense Department decision to procure a new, nuclear-armed cruise missile, according to the defense secretary.
The Air Force today locked in plans to base KC-46A aircraft at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, NC, a move that comes following completion of an environmental impact study that found no significant impacts associated with establishing the service's third main operating base for the new aerial refueling tanker in the Tar Heel state.
Fifty Defense Department projects that require "new-start" authorization in fiscal year 2018 are facing schedule delays as a result of the 10-week stopgap funding bill enacted last week, that bars, as a matter of routine, spending on new projects.
Pentagon plans to ramp up production of about two-dozen major weapon systems in fiscal year 2018 would be largely unaffected by the stopgap spending bill President Trump and congressional leaders hope to enact, funding the federal government from Oct. 1 to Dec. 8.
The Pentagon's portfolio of active multiyear procurement contracts is on track to taper from $10.7 billion in fiscal year 2017 -- or more than 8 percent of DOD procurement spending -- to $1.2 billion by FY-19, according to data recently compiled by the Pentagon comptroller for lawmakers.
KANGERLUSSAUQ, GREENLAND -- Early next month, senior Air Force leaders are heading to Thule Air Force base, the U.S. military's northernmost post in the world and one of the service's most unique locations, as part of a tour of the High North expected to inform thinking on an Arctic strategy.
The Army is executing a multiyear procurement contract for H-60M utility helicopters that obligates the government to buy 51 fewer helicopters than the service proposed to Congress when it sought authorization for a five-year deal, offsetting the cuts in part with foreign military sales.
The Defense Department is sidestepping a requirement to conduct a review of the U.S. military's future aircraft needs originally requested by Congress to produce a prioritized ranking -- or "optimized mix" -- of short- and long-range strike aircraft as well as the best combination of manned and unmanned platforms.
The Navy's next-generation, surface warfare radar program -- the Air and Missile Defense Radar -- late last month successfully tracked a target during a developmental test against a medium-range ballistic missile, an assessment that builds on a test earlier this year to detect and track a short-range ballistic missile target.
The Trump administration is echoing concerns raised by the Obama administration about the ability of the aerospace sector to sustain the unique design and manufacturing skills needed to ensure future U.S. military combat aircraft can be both designed and produced, according to a report by the Pentagon office charged with monitoring the defense industrial base.
The aerospace and technology arm of Jacobs -- a Dallas-headquartered company best known for its global engineering and construction services -- upset incumbent Northrop Grumman by winning a potential $4.6 billion follow-on contract to support the Missile Defense Agency, its first successful major foray into government missile-defense business.
A senior Pentagon advisory panel is finalizing recommendations on potential new long-range-strike capabilities the U.S. military should develop, and plans to brief senior Defense Department leaders on its proposals on Friday.
The Missile Defense Agency's experimental test of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system last month supplanted a long-planned operational flight test of the deployed system -- slated to take place at about the same time this year, according to a Defense Department official.
KANGERLUSSUAQ, GREENLAND -- Senior Air Force officials -- including top brass from major commands and the Pentagon -- are scheduled to arrive here in early September as part of a trip across the High North intended to jump-start work on an Air Force Arctic strategy, and for the chance to see the only service aircraft equipped with skis to operate in the most extreme polar conditions: the LC-130.