The INSIDER daily digest -- Nov. 14, 2024

This Thursday INSIDER Daily Digest has news on Navy Virginia-class submarines, defense contractors needing more money to build extra munitions, the Air Force's Collaborative Combat Aircraft program and more.

Rear Adm. Jonathan Rucker, program executive officer for attack submarines, told reporters this week that contract negotiations to build two Virginia-class submarines are “almost done but not quite” but didn't specify how the contract would be structured in the absence of additional funding needed to complete construction:

Navy 'finishing up' contract negotiations for FY-24 Virginia subs despite $1.95B funding shortfall

The Navy is "finishing up contract negotiations" for Block V Virginia-class submarines Baltimore (SSN-812) and Atlanta (SSN-813), service officials said today, despite Congress' refusal to provide an additional $1.95 billion to cover cost growth in the program.

Defense contractors need more money:

LaPlante advises weapons makers to ask what a five-fold boost in production would take

Pentagon acquisition chief Bill LaPlante said the U.S. defense industrial base and that of its allies needs more money to produce weapons at much higher rates if it wants to compete with China and Russia and exit a "vicious circle" of cost cutting and reduced capacity.

Some Collaborative Combat Aircraft news:

Anduril, General Atomics concepts for increment 1 of CCA drones clear critical design reviews

The Collaborative Combat Aircraft designs created by Anduril Industries and General Atomics Aeronautical Systems have completed their critical design reviews, according to a top Air Force official.

The Army is drafting a directed requirement to quickly acquire technology first used by French forces in 1794 during the Battle of Fleurus to spot enemy movements and now set to be adapted for some of the most complex missions envisioned in modern conflict:

Army drafting new requirement for micro-balloons to add resiliency to space operations

The Army is drafting a new requirement for micro balloons that can loft sophisticated sensors after recent experiments validated the potential to add a new dimension of resilience to space-based capabilities -- complicating an adversary's ability to disrupt terrestrial connections to orbiting systems.

The Navy is asking research and development organizations and academia to submit potential Assured-Positioning, Navigation and Timing technologies that can be integrated onto unmanned surface vessels:

Navy asks industry for A-PNT solutions, amid rise in battlespace GPS disruption

Following lessons learned with GPS disruption in the Ukraine battlespace, the Navy will seek to test capabilities to guard against these interferences on combatant ships and unmanned surface vessels in an exercise planned for March off the shores of Virginia.