The INSIDER daily digest -- April 25, 2024

This Thursday INSIDER Daily Digest has coverage from this year's Army Aviation Association of America conference, plus unmanned systems news and more.

We start off with coverage from this year's Army Aviation Association of America conference:

After FARA cancellation, Sikorsky using prototype to do ground runs with engine

DENVER -- Two months after the Army announced it would be cancelling the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft program as part of a larger aviation rebalance, Sikorsky is putting the engine in its prototype aircraft to use in preparation for modernizing the Black Hawk instead.

Army anticipates milestone C for Chinook Block II in fourth quarter of FY-25

DENVER -- The Chinook CH-47F Block II helicopter is expected to reach full-rate production in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2025, an Army official said here at the annual Army Aviation Association of America conference. Prime contractor Boeing anticipates the first aircraft to be delivered to the Army within a matter of weeks.

Pentagon acquisition chief Bill LaPlante spoke this week at a panel hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies:

DOD testing counter-drone capabilities and next-gen fires but still searching for 'scale'

The two senior officials in charge of Pentagon acquisition and technology said today that they are working on several promising projects for countering drones and low-cost missiles, including everything from acoustic detection systems to directed-energy lasers and high-powered microwaves.

Anduril and General Atomics have been chosen to work on prototype designs for the Air Force's Collaborative Combat Aircraft program:

Air Force picks Anduril and General Atomics to build first CCA prototypes

The Air Force is moving ahead with Anduril Industries and General Atomics to advance their designs into the prototyping stage for the first Collaborative Combat Aircraft, the Air Force announced this week.

One of the recent APFIT funding awards was focused on supplying DOD with "rack-mounted optical clocks":

Vector Atomic will receive APFIT funding to supply rack-mounted optical clocks that run on domestically sourced elements

Vector Atomic, a small quantum precision company, told Inside Defense it will receive approximately $11 million in “APFIT” funding to help increase manufacturing of optical clocks that do not rely on vital materials from countries such as China and Russia, adding that the Defense Innovation Unit successfully integrated the system into an atomic gyroscope.

The Defense Department's fiscal year 2025 budget request includes a dramatic increase in planned spending for the Strategic Capabilities Office's advanced component and prototype development funding across the new five-year spending plan compared to the FY-24 budget request:

DOD eyes major upswing in prototype funding for office focused on countering China, Russia

The Pentagon plans to pump an additional $1.7 billion -- a 75% increase over last year's plan between fiscal years 2025 and 2028 -- into the secretive shop that prototypes new and surprising ways of using existing technology to bolster conventional deterrence against China and Russia.

Space Force Generation, or SPAFORGEN, cycles guardians through three phases -- prepare, ready and commit -- and is the service’s model for assigning and allocating forces to combatant commands:

Saltzman: SPAFORGEN 'drastic change' to Space Force readiness model

The Space Force is expanding across the service the readiness model it launched in 2022, which Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman called "the most drastic change accompanying the establishment of the Space Force" in a letter to guardians last week.

Document: CSO notice to guardians on SPAFORGEN