Thursday, April 25, 2024
Thursday, April 25, 2024
This Friday INSIDER Daily Digest has news on the Army's Stryker combat vehicle, the nascent Joint Hypersonic Transition Office, foreign drone sales and more.
We start off with news about the Army's Stryker combat vehicle:
Two Stryker upgrades moving into testing phases
Two upgrade programs for the Stryker vehicle, the Anti-Tank Guided Missile Engineering Change Proposal and the Common Remotely Operated Weapons System-Javelin ECP, are moving from development to testing, according to the program office.
Army assures 'healthy competition' for Stryker MCWS after vendors drop out
The officials in charge of the Army's program to put a 30 mm cannon on the Stryker vehicle are saying the competition is still "healthy" despite at least two vendors out of six choosing to withdraw from the initial phase.
Mark Lewis, director of defense research and engineering for modernization, recently spoke to Inside Defense on the new Joint Hypersonic Transition Office:
DOD establishes Joint Hypersonic Transition Office to stand up new university consortium and more
The Defense Department has established a Joint Hypersonic Transition Office and charged the new shop with overseeing creation of a university-led consortium to expand cooperation between academia, industry and government as part of the U.S. military's goal to eventually scale production of a new class of high-speed, maneuvering weapons.
Proponents of increased drone sales have long complained the government's strict regulations on exports obstruct timely sales, excluding American companies from a global market dominated by Israel and China:
As Air Force looks to drone export reforms, focus is on speeding deliveries
Even though the Air Force has spent the last two years trying to reform its drone export enterprise, particularly working to accelerate transfers, industry insiders say they haven't seen the expected results.
The Army's new heads-up display will have better batteries:
Upcoming IVAS touchpoint to include new battery prototypes
Soldiers will use new silicon-anode conformal wearable battery prototypes in an upcoming test of the Integrated Visual Augmentation System, the Army's new augmented reality heads-up display.
Navy acquisition chief Hondo Geurts told reporters today that while the problem originated with the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System's power handling system, the service is still trying to determine the specific cause of the issue on the aircraft carrier Gerald Ford (CVN-78):
Geurts: Navy still working to diagnose problem that caused EMALS failure on Ford
The Navy is still assessing what caused the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System aboard its new aircraft carrier to go out earlier this month during an at-sea testing period.
Research on Navy pilots' physiological episodes will have implications for a whole bunch of aircraft:
Navy's deep dive on PEs will impact F-35, other military fleets
The Navy's team assessing physiological episodes in aviators has concluded its investigations into two aircraft fleets, but the admiral in charge says the team’s work will have implications for other military planes as well.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which is developing a ground-launched hypersonic weapon for use by the Army, is now in discussions with the Marine Corps about a similar capability:
Marine Corps eyeing DARPA-developed hypersonic weapon
The Marine Corps is exploring adopting a hypersonic weapon, a move that would extend plans for fielding the new class of ultra-fast, maneuvering systems beyond the Army, Navy and Air Force.
Last but certainly not least, some cyber defense news from our colleagues at Inside Cybersecurity:
Solarium Commission staff want legislative action on national cyber director, CISA-based cyber planning cell
The Cyberspace Solarium Commission is advocating for getting up to 20 recommendations from the group's report included in this year's defense policy bill, according to commission Executive Director Mark Montgomery, who says the creation of a national cyber director and a Joint Cyber Planning Cell within the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency are among the top priorities.