Thursday, April 25, 2024
Thursday, April 25, 2024
This Friday INSIDER Daily Digest has news on renewed F-35 engine deliveries, the Army's upcoming budget request, foreign military sales and more.
Engine deliveries for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter have resumed:
Grounded F-35s expected to soon return to flight after JPO lifts pause on engine deliveries
An undisclosed number of F-35s that have been grounded since the crash of an F-35B in December are expected to return to flight within weeks, a source with knowledge of the program's status told Inside Defense.
Top Army officials spoke at a Defense Writers Group breakfast this week:
SECARMY: FY-24 budget a 'balancing act,' no funds redirected to increase modernization
The Army's fiscal year 2024 budget request is a "balancing act" that aims to fund the service's modernization goals while also paying for personnel and improvements to housing infrastructure, said the service's top civilian -- and will not include any dramatic funding shifts compared with the FY-23 spending proposal.
Army acquisition chief: Service could improve on 'jointness' when it comes to unmanned aircraft
The Army is in "OK shape" when it comes to its unmanned aircraft, but could improve on taking a more joint approach with other military branches, the service's top acquisition official said Thursday.
The Aerospace Industries Association, National Defense Industrial Association and Professional Services Council have released their recommendations to modernize elements of the U.S. foreign military sales system:
Business groups recommend FMS reforms to DOD 'tiger team' as Biden overhauls arms controls
Amid the release of the Biden administration's revised arms export policy, three leading defense business associations have sent recommendations to a special Pentagon "tiger team" charged with accelerating the U.S. foreign military sales process, especially for Taiwan, which senior military officials -- alarmed by Russia's invasion of Ukraine -- have said could be invaded by China in the coming years.
Document: Defense industry groups' report on FMS
In December, the Pentagon provided Congress a report required by law that aggregates aviation plans across the military departments and combatant commands and forecasts projected needs for the next 15 years, but didn't publicly release it:
DOD now treating long-term aviation plan -- once public -- as controlled unclassified info
The Defense Department has completed a new, long-term aviation inventory and funding report, and -- in a major break with prior practice -- will no longer make the document public, withholding from scrutiny investment plans for one of the government's largest portfolios that cost more than $50 billion annually to support about 14,000 aircraft.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency announced last week that it tested Shield AI’s and other DARPA performers’ AI algorithms to control a full-scale F-16 during a demonstration in December:
Shield AI eyes 2025 for AI fighter jet pilots
After demonstrating its artificial intelligence algorithms during an inflight test with an F-16, Shield AI aims to have a version of its self-driving software ready for a fighter jet by 2025.