Monday, February 6, 2023
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's chief technology official has expanded the list of critical areas for research and engineering in a gambit to "drive innovation" to new sectors such as renewable energy generation -- a push to enlarge the U.S. military technology development portfolio even as inflation is threatening to squeeze Pentagon investment plans.
New details about technologies demonstrated during a hypersonic technology flight test last fall were revealed today when General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems announced its self-destruct units were flown on two of three sounding rockets launched to assess potential new capabilities for the Pentagon's marquee hypersonic glide vehicle projects.
The Maneuver-Short Range Air Defense system -- rapidly acquired by the Army in response to capabilities Russia demonstrated in 2014 against Ukraine and which is now being fielded to units in Europe -- is not yet operationally effective nor operationally suitable.
The Air Force has released Boeing from future cost-growth liability on the KC-46A tanker, altering the fundamental terms of a 2011 contract that capped government costs at $4.9 billion and forced the defense contractor to pay out-of-hide for remedial work that so far totals $5.5 billion -- a move that comes as Boeing saddles the Air Force with a new major milestone delay.
The Defense Department is looking to the video game industry to help improve a high-consequence system used by U.S. military forces to determine where best to position guided missile interceptors and radars to defeat long-range missile threats, including North Korean nuclear-armed rockets.
The Army last fall executed a potentially paradigm-changing technical demonstration, lashing up for the first time separate command-and-control systems that are today used for either missile defense or offensive missile strikes.
The Navy has pushed the target completion date for a mandated study -- exploring potential alternatives to a fleet of Large Unmanned Surface Vessels that include commercial ships and amphibious warships packed with long-range missiles -- until spring, a delay of more than six months compared to the project's original goal.
Israel today conducted a major test of its national missile defense system, launching a pair of its most advanced guided-missile interceptors against a ballistic missile target in an event designed to assess the limits of the weapon system.
The Defense Department is looking to dramatically increase the pace and reduce the cost of hypersonic technology testing, eyeing a new advanced capability project that would execute monthly launches for about $15 million per event -- less than one-tenth the cost of past major events -- to “fail fast and learn” and accelerate fielding of improved weapons.
The Defense Department is feeling the squeeze of rising prices and has had to shift funds around internally in recent weeks to cover $1.5 billion in must-pay bills, the Pentagon's chief financial officer told Congress today.
The Defense Department is asking industry for feedback on plans for a "full-scale hypersonics flight test series" -- with further details available only to cleared contractors.
The Pentagon must conduct a new review over the next year that could reshape the U.S. military's $2 trillion roster of current weapon system acquisition projects by identifying programs for divestiture that are not keeping pace with emerging threats.
The Army is eyeing new options to limit further entanglement with an Israeli-made air defense system, specifically being released from a statutory requirement to buy and operationally deploy additional Iron Dome batteries.
The Missile Defense Agency formally launched the second of two new industry competitions for the so-called Ground-based Midcourse Defense system future acquisition: Systems Integration, Test and Readiness (SITR).
Northrop Grumman and Raytheon Technologies -- teamed to design a new intercontinental ballistic missile killer -- completed their Next Generation Interceptor System Requirements Review with the Missile Defense Agency, clearing the companies to proceed with product development of their new missile design.
The Missile Defense Agency has approved the second of two competing design proposals for a Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor, clearing L3Harris to proceed with Northrop Grumman in beginning to fabricate space vehicles critical to U.S. military plans to counter a new class of ultra-fast maneuvering weapons.
Lawmakers have set a 2025 target for fielding an improved air- and missile defense capability on Guam to give the island 360-degree protection against advanced Chinese threats, a statutory provision -- once the fiscal year 2022 defense authorization bill is signed by the president -- that would set a new marker in the debate over whether, what and when to deploy on the Western Pacific U.S. territory.
SIMI VALLEY, CA -- The Defense Department is eyeing increased Army deployments across the Indo-Pacific in a gambit to put boots on the ground -- rotating in and out of different countries -- for as many as six months a year to demonstrate a commitment to the region and create conditions for increased access in the event of a crisis with China.
SIMI VALLEY, CA -- Pentagon leaders are vetting combatant command high-priority, 2021 capability shortfalls as part of an annual plea for new -- and sometimes novel -- technology to address gaps in the current weapons inventory that put at risk their respective war plans.
SIMI VALLEY, CA -- Political dysfunction in Congress is driving Pentagon leaders to contemplate a major internal budget drill to craft a second, parallel plan for fiscal year 2022 that would wring nearly $40 billion from expected spending plans and prepare for major setbacks across the weapon system modernization portfolio.