The Insider

The Defense Department has named former Army official Laurie Buckhout as its new cyber policy chief, according to an announcement today.

Buckhout, an Army veteran who served as chief of the service’s electronic warfare division from 2006 through 2010, began her new job as deputy assistant secretary of defense for cyber policy on March 17, DOD said.

After retiring from the Army, Buckhout was a member of the team conducting the 2013 Defense Science Board Summer Study on 21st Century EMS Operations, served as international vice president and president of the Association of Old Crows and returned to government as a member of the Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee for the Commerce Department from 2016 to 2019.

Buckhout also founded Corvus Consulting, a strategic consulting group specializing in electronic warfare and cyberspace operations. It sold to information technology company Castellum in 2019 -- where she served as chief strategist that same year until 2023.

She also lost the race for a North Carolina congressional seat to incumbent Rep. Don Davies (D) in November.

Buckhout said in the release she “could not be happier to be once again serving [her] country under our 29th Secretary of Defense, Secretary Hegseth.”

“The Defense Department’s cyber warriors,” she continued, “are some of the most powerful force multipliers in our arsenal to deter aggression, secure our borders, and assist our allies in strengthening their own defenses.”

GE Aerospace was awarded a subcontract to "design, develop and deliver" avionics systems for the Army's Future Long Range Assault Aircraft, the company announced today.

Bell Textron won the contract for FLRAA in late 2022, and the program entered milestone B last summer.

FLRAA will eventually begin operation as the successor to the Black Hawk helicopter starting around 2030, although officials have said it will not be a one-for-one replacement and Black Hawks will continue flying until the 2070s.

GE Aerospace is involved in the development of the “digital backbone,” according to a press release from the company. This allows changes to be made to the system “without going to the systems integrator, which optimizes the cost and speed of change” by moving data quickly through the aircraft.

Tanika Watson, GE Aerospace’s general manager for future vertical lift, said in a statement Monday that the digital backbone “provides the framework to make aircraft system modifications and realize the benefits of Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA) designs from the outside of Future Vertical Lift programs.”

“Entering this next phase enables us to continue advancing the digital backbone for the U.S. Army’s Future Vertical Lift programs,” Watson said.

President Trump emphasized areas of emerging technology with increasing focus for military applications in a Wednesday letter to the administration’s leader for science and technology policy.

The letter tasks Michael Kratsios, director for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, with providing insight on three key topics of interest for the administration -- including ways in which the United States can “secure its position as the unrivaled world leader” in critical and novel areas such as artificial intelligence, quantum information science and nuclear technology.

“Rival nations are pushing hard to overtake the United States, and we must blaze a bold path to maintain our technological supremacy,” Trump writes to Kratsios.

All three topics of concern mentioned are included in a list of 14 “critical technology areas vital to maintaining the United States’ national security,” as identified by the Defense Department. In that vein, they’ve each seen increased attention, investment and adoption across the department recently.

Quantum information science

The Defense Innovation Unit announced earlier this month that it is set to field and test quantum sensing systems -- a technology falling under the quantum information science category -- for military applications as part of its Transition of Quantum Sensors project.

The announcement came nearly five months after a bipartisan Senate duo sent a letter to then-Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in October seeking insight into the department’s use of quantum sensing technology to maintain a strategic advantage over the nation’s adversaries.

It also came nearly seven months after a Defense Science Board study pointed to the potential application of quantum inertial sensors as GPS alternatives.

Artificial intelligence

The U.S. Army is developing a plan, in collaboration with the other services, to create an artificial intelligence-enabled fire-control network to support the “Golden Dome” executive order, a service official told Inside Defense earlier this week.

It comes after DIU awarded a prototype contract earlier this month for its Thunderforge initiative -- aimed at integrating AI into military planning and wargaming -- which it plans to initially deploy for use by U.S. Indo-Pacific Command and U.S. European Command.

Nuclear Technology

The Navy awarded Lockheed Martin a contract modification valued at $383 million in late January for the next life extension of the Trident II D5 missile -- to design and develop a modernized version of the submarine-launched, nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missile. It would aim to extend operational service for the sea leg of the nuclear triad through 2084.

Earlier that week, a DIU official said at the West 2025 conference that the Pentagon’s innovation arm was in the process of evaluating vendor proposals to deliver a nuclear power source for military installations.

Today’s INSIDER Daily Digest starts off with the aircraft carrier industry warning of production interruptions without more funding, the Space Force is examining how it writes requirements, some cyber CMMC news, the Army has had its LTAMDS buy cut in half in 2025, and more.

The folks who build aircraft carriers say there could be productions slowdowns if the Navy doesn’t get more money:

Industry warns of ‘cold’ production lines for aircraft carriers, asks for more AP funding

Aircraft carrier industrial base members prepared today to plead their case on Capitol Hill, asking for $600 million in advanced procurement funding for the fifth Gerald R. Ford-class carrier (CVN-82) in fiscal year 2026, and for contract awards to be granted no later than FY-29.

Space Force officials are looking at how they write program requirements:

Space Force reworking requirements-writing process to harness industry innovation

The Space Force is refining its requirements-writing process to be more flexible and allow greater industry innovation while still ensuring new programs will meet mission needs, Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman said today.

Looks like a key date for the CMMC program may be slipping:

Timing for second CMMC rulemaking could face hurdles amid Trump directives on deregulation

The Defense Department's plan to finalize the second rulemaking for the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program by mid-2025 is starting to slip as the Pentagon works to meet requirements from President Trump’s Jan. 31 executive order on deregulation.

The recently passed continuing resolution has given the Army some, but not all, of the money it needs in 2025 for the LTAMDS effort:

Army got back some LTAMDS funding in CR, but will have to wait on buying two prototypes

HUNTSVILLE, AL -- The Army’s Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensor program won’t experience quite as steep a cut under the recently passed continuing resolution, compared with congressional appropriators’ original marks. But the service still won’t be able to purchase two of the four prototype radars it had planned to procure in fiscal year 2025, the program executive officer says.

An Army UAS endeavor will see significant growth through its next phase:

Army 'Transforming in Contact' initiative's next phase will include thousands of drones, counter drones

HUNTSVILLE, AL -- The Army's "Transforming in Contact" initiative, started more than a year ago, will grow significantly in its next phase to include thousands of unmanned systems, counter UAS systems and mobility platforms, a service official said today.

While layoffs are occurring across the government, the Navy’s civilian workers are mostly unaffected:

Navy's civilian workforce is largely intact amid Trump admin layoffs, service officials say

Civilian Navy personnel involved in the design, construction and maintenance of the service's fleet have largely been spared from the sweeping federal layoffs being carried out by the Trump administration, two Navy officials told lawmakers today.

The Army has awarded Leonardo DRS a $16.9 million contract to develop a modernized prototype of the electric weapon control system on the M109A7 Paladin, the service’s self-propelled howitzer, according to a press release the company put out today.

The direction came in the form of an other transaction agreement to prototype a next-generation version of the control system, called the Paladin Electro Servo Amplifier, which will be built with up-to-date electrical technology.

“Paladin is a mission critical combat system, and our agility and leading-edge capabilities ensure our U.S. Army partner has the necessary capabilities to support our warfighters for the long term,” Denny Crumley, senior vice president and general manager of the Leonardo DRS Land Electronics business unit, said in a statement. “We are thrilled to be providing this next generation of technology to the Army’s M109A7 Paladin combat vehicle.”

The service is hoping to solicit vendors to demonstrate their own mature -- wheeled or tracked -- 155mm self-propelled howitzer systems in a competitive evaluation at Yuma Proving Ground, AZ, next year, in the hopes of increasing the range capability compared with the M109A7, which fires up to 40km.

We start off this midweek INSIDER Daily Digest with news about anti-drone systems for a major U.S. command, the latest national intelligence view of the world, a new hypersonic defense test, news from the Army’s Project Convergence, and more.

Money has been moved around to boost U.S. CENTCOM’s anti-drone defenses:

DOD shifts funds for anti-drone systems for CENTCOM

Congress has approved a Defense Department request to reprogram funding to purchase four anti-drone weapon systems mounted to shipping containers for U.S. Central Command.

The intelligence community has spelled out the threat from international drug cartels:

Cartels placed atop global threat list, while Trump's intel team criticized over Signal leak

An annual threat assessment from the U.S. government's top spies has identified criminal drug cartels as the Trump administration's No. 1 concern, followed by the individual and collective threats posed by China, Russia, Iran and North Korea, though a hearing meant to discuss the report today mostly spotlighted the growing controversy surrounding senior officials' mistaken sharing of secret war plans against Houthi militants in Yemen with a journalist.

A significant hypersonic threat test was recently carried out:

MDA, Navy execute key test of hypersonic defense capabilities with Aegis and new target

The U.S. military executed a dry run for a planned missile defense upgrade to protect aircraft carriers from advanced threats -- including Chinese and Russian hypersonic weapons -- in a significant first-time event combining a medium-range launch vehicle with a hypersonic re-entry vehicle, according to the government.

The Army has demonstrated a missile-launching vehicle robot:

RTX runs successful demo with unmanned launcher vehicle at Project Convergence

RTX has successfully tested a driverless, missile-launching vehicle using a new training rocket at a Project Convergence live-fire test event, according to a press release the company put out this morning.

The Army sees a real benefit in an AI fire control network:

Army charting course for AI-enabled, fire-control network to support Golden Dome mission

HUNTSVILLE, AL -- The Army is in the process of formulating a plan with the other services to create an artificial intelligence-enabled, fire-control network to support President Trump's "Golden Dome" executive order, according to a service official.

A new positioning system that allows unmanned surface vessels to operate in GPS-denied environments is now operational within the Navy -- a landmark in the service’s efforts to boost navigational capabilities in contested areas.

USV developer Saildrone developed this capability to be used in conditions like those observed by Task Force 59 -- the Navy’s unit for unmanned systems -- in the Middle East but did not develop it “exclusively” for that group’s mission, a Saildrone official told Inside Defense.

“We developed it because it delivers more capability for the customer,” said Andy Hertel, Saildrone’s senior director of Navy programs. “It will be deployed across the fleet, not in response to the environment, but so that we have it when/if we need it to be prepared before GPS denial/spoofing starts happening. It is another great example of the tight turning radius Saildrone has when compared to traditional assets.”

The positioning system uses multiple forms of localization, to ensure vehicles like the mid-sized Voyager USV can operate without relying on satellites, according to the company’s news release.

“Satellite positioning and connectivity can no longer be relied upon in potential future conflicts,” Saildrone CEO Richard Jenkins said. “It is essential that our unmanned systems can continue to operate in denied environments, and Saildrone once again leads the way with demonstrated resilience in real operational missions with U.S. Navy.”

In January, Task Group 59.1 -- which falls under Task Force 59 -- announced plans to launch a USV with GPS-denied capability. GPS disruptions in the Gulf of Aqaba have posed a challenge for the task group, Lt. Luis Echeverria shared at the Surface Navy Association’s conference in January.

“Initially we saw that as a challenge, but now we see that as a win and we capitalize on that,” Echeverria said. “We ran a series of tests with GPS-denied capability, and later on this spring we will be launching for the first time a USV with GPS-denied capability out of the Gulf of Aqaba and into the northern Red Sea.”