Monday, April 29, 2024
Monday, April 29, 2024
Key Issues Optical clocks Prototype funding SPAFORGEN
This Tuesday INSIDER Daily Digest has news on Lockheed Martin winning a multibillion-dollar missile defense contract, the Government Accountability Office's latest report on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and more.
The Missile Defense Agency has announced the down-select decision for the follow-on homeland defense guided missile slated for the Ground-based Midcourse Defense program:
Lockheed wins NGI, shaping new missile defense industrial order for a generation
Lockheed Martin has bested Northrop Grumman in a contest to build the Next Generation Interceptor, a development that establishes for a generation the beginning of a new order in the U.S. missile defense industrial base that will be filled out soon when a contest between Raytheon and Northrop is settled for the Glide Phase Interceptor.
More missile defense news:
Air Force, Army readying FY-26 new-start proposal: domestic cruise missile defense capability
The Defense Department is wrapping up work on a comprehensive analysis of technologies needed for an Air and Cruise Missile Defense of the Homeland capability, findings slated to influence in particular Air Force and Army spending plans beginning in fiscal year 2026.
A new Government Accountability Office report finds that over the past decade, "GAO has made 43 recommendations designed to improve the department's operation and sustainment of the F-35 program. While DOD concurred with many of these recommendations and has implemented some of them, 30 (about 70 percent) remain unimplemented":
F-35 costs again skyrocket while aircraft performance remains unsatisfactory
The price tag attached to keeping the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the Pentagon's largest-ever acquisition program, in service has long been a point of budgetary contention.
Document: GAO report on F-35 sustainment
More coverage from the recent Space Symposium in Colorado:
Whiting: SPACECOM needs dynamic space operations, on-orbit servicing
COLORADO SPRINGS, CO -- To meet emerging threats, U.S. Space Command needs more investment in fielding capabilities for dynamic space operations, including on-orbit refueling and maintenance, SPCECOM Commander Gen. Stephen Whiting said last week.
The Defense Department recently submitted its fifth package of legislative proposals:
DOD proposes streamlining tech maturity milestone approval
The Pentagon is asking Congress to consider a proposal that would streamline the technology development phase of defense acquisition, or milestone A, to better tailor the procurement process for specific weapons and to cut redundant documentation burdens.
Document: DOD's fifth FY-25 legislative proposals package
According to government notices posted last week, two Marine Corps contract awards for a loitering munitions system could be worth as much as $249 million each:
Marine Corps selects three contractors for Organic Precision Fires-Light development
The Marine Corps has selected Teledyne FLIR, Anduril Industries and AeroVironment to develop and deliver Organic Precision Fires-Light (OPF-L) -- a loitering munitions system intended to provide infantry Marines with a beyond-line-of-sight, precision-strike capability.