The Insider

The Space Development Agency named Gurpartap "GP" Sandhoo as deputy director today, following the departure of Ryan Frigm from the role.

Sandhoo is a veteran who has served more than 36 years with the Navy and Marine Corps in both active and reserve components. His resume also includes time as the deputy director at the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Heinlein Chair in Astronautics at the U.S. Naval Academy and head of the Spacecraft Engineering Division at the Naval Research Laboratory.

Before joining SDA as a senior adviser at the end of last year, Sandhoo worked at Quantum Space as vice president and chief architect and at Northrop Grumman as the director for emerging technologies.

Sandhoo becomes the young agency’s second deputy director after Frigm resigned his position last week.

“I’d like to thank Ryan for his immeasurable contributions and leadership over the last six years as we built the agency from the ground up and accelerated space acquisition strategies to get capabilities into the hands of warfighters at speed,” said SDA Director Derek Tournear. “We are pleased to have GP seamlessly move into the deputy director position where he will leverage his impeccable space acquisition credentials and experience during this crucial period as we prepare to launch the PWSA’s Tranche 1, the initial operational capability, later this summer.”

Frigm assisted with the standup of the agency in 2019, when it was under the Pentagon's research and engineering office, according to an SDA news release. He assisted with the transition of the agency into the Space Force, the launch of the first Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture demonstration satellites and the program management of the first three operational tranches of PWSA.

Raytheon's Barracuda Mine Neutralization System has been tested in its first untethered, semi-autonomous operation, the company announced Tuesday.

In recent open water testing in Narragansett Bay, RI, the vehicle proved it can autonomously navigate, communicate, detect and identify targets, and operate independently underwater, according to a Raytheon news release.

“This recent testing demonstrates the significant strides we've made in advancing mine countermeasure technology,” Raytheon’s Naval Power President Barbara Borgonovi said in a statement. “Barracuda's capabilities will dramatically improve safety and efficiency for the U.S. Navy, keeping sailors out of harm's way while effectively addressing underwater threats.”

Last fall, the semi-autonomous system showed it could detect, track and hold position on a target independently -- the first time Barracuda demonstrated this ability. The vehicle used geo-homing and acoustic communications to transmit data back to a littoral combat ship.

The program is set to enter Low-Rate Initial Production by FY-28 according to an RTX spokesperson. Citing an ever-evolving DOD budget, the company is "on schedule with our requirements and are moving forward with our commitments," the spokesperson told Inside Defense.

IOC will be achieved by 2030, according to the company's news release. They are currently building contractor test assets and plan to build 85 units for the Navy to complete its own testing, Barracuda Program Manager Josh Navikonis told Inside Defense last October.

Through a recent solicitation to industry, the Army has communicated an objective of fielding as many as 10,000 unmanned aerial vehicles within a year at a cost of less than $2,000 each.

The July 2 sources-sought notice states the Army’s aviation program executive office aims to deliver “an initial quantity of systems” by Sept. 30, with the ability to ramp up to as many as 10,000 over a 12-month period. The drones also must have the capability of being modified by soldiers with “a variety of third-party payloads, armaments and munitions without vendor involvement.”

The notice also states the systems may be “utilized as targets” during counter UAS training and other exercises.

In the last few years, the Army has placed a greater emphasis on investing in drone warfare, with officials closely observing conflicts in Ukraine and Russia. The recent Army Transformation Initiative, released in early May at the direction of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, focuses on divesting from legacy aviation platforms such as older Apache helicopters, and getting more UAS and counter-UAS capabilities into formations.

Additionally, Army Secretary Dan Driscoll and Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George have discussed in congressional testimony the need to more rapidly field low-cost drones.

The July 2 sources-sought notice also states the systems offered by industry must be repairable by soldiers in the field without the involvement of the vendor -- in line with the Army’s focus on expanding its “right to repair” equipment, which is another tenet of the transformation initiative.

“Soldier repair is needed to allow units to fully understand their equipment and stay in the fight while waiting for additional systems/spare components,” the notice states.

Responses to the notice are due by the close of business on July 18.

This Monday INSIDER Daily Digest has news on a recently opened Army microelectronics manufacturing facility, plus the Air Force seeking to increase the range of its F-35A Joint Strike Fighters, a fresh look at how the Pentagon plans to fund the Golden Dome missile defense system and more.

A new Army microelectronics center, which officially celebrated its opening June 5, will house engineers and technicians that will repair, manufacture and test circuit cards that are used in various weapon systems:

With new Tobyhanna facility, Army aims to reduce need for foreign electronics suppliers

With the opening of a new microelectronics manufacturing facility last month at Army Communications-Electronics Command's Tobyhanna Army Depot, PA, service officials believe they can reduce U.S. reliance on foreign suppliers of electronic components.

In its current configuration, the Air Force F-35A variant has a combat radius of about 670 nautical miles, something the service is looking to extend:

Air Force considering external fuel tanks to extend range of F-35A

The Air Force wants to begin examining ways to increase the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter's range by potentially integrating external fuel tanks onto the aircraft, according to the service's fiscal year 2026 budget request.

Pentagon budget documents reveal the Pentagon is aligning resources across its research, development, procurement, operations and maintenance accounts as well as infrastructure portfolios in support of Golden Dome, advancing President Trump's goal to build a new domestic missile shield by 2029:

First look inside Trump's $175B missile shield: 34 DOD projects to advance Golden Dome

The Pentagon's plan to launch Golden Dome for America is peppered across nearly three dozen budget lines that collectively show the initial contours of the next-generation missile defense system -- the start of what President Trump has said will be a $175 billion investment in ways to defend U.S. airspace in an era of advanced, multidomain attack.

Army leaders have recognized, after running the Infantry Squad Vehicle through multiple "transforming in contact" renditions this past year, that they'll need to give Brigade Combat Teams a higher number than previously thought:

ISVs for BCTs: Army needs more than expected, vice chief says

The Army is requesting $308 million in fiscal year 2026 to buy more than 1,000 Infantry Squad Vehicles as the service attempts to surge procurement while shedding itself of bulky Joint Light Tactical Vehicles and humvees.

The Army has reduced its procurement quantity of IVAS 1.2 from 3,162 to zero, according to FY-26 budget documents and a service statement:

Army reprogramming IVAS procurement funds for development of future system

The Army has submitted a fiscal year 2025 reprogramming action for $229.9 million in procurement funds to develop future iterations of the Soldier Borne Mission Command system, which was formerly known as the Integrated Visual Augmentation System.

The Senate Armed Services Committee will meet in closed session next week to craft its version of the fiscal year 2026 defense authorization bill.

The panel’s subcommittee’s, according to the congressional calendar, will begin meeting in closed session on Monday, while the full committee will meet Wednesday.

Chairman Roger Wicker (R-MS) has said he wants to see the topline for FY-26 increased above the Trump administration’s $848 billion regular appropriations request for the Defense Department, which is the same as what Congress enacted in FY-25.

Lawmakers, however, voted today to pass a separate budget reconciliation bill that would increase defense spending by $113 billion in FY-26, bringing the total national defense topline somewhere around $1 trillion.

But Wicker and other lawmakers have said they believe the FY-26 defense budget should be increased even more.

“What we have in front of us is an inadequate budget request and with precious little detail and no follow-on data about fiscal years 2027, 2028 or 2029,” Wicker said during a June 18 hearing in which he pledged to fight to increase the defense topline.

The House Armed Services Committee has not yet officially announced when it will hold its all-night marathon to mark its version of the bill, though congressional staffers said July 15 is a possibility.

This pre-Independence Day INSIDER Daily Digest has news on an Army "affordable," mobile and high-speed theater strike capability, plus the Rapid Defense Experimentation Reserve program being eliminated and more.

Dubbed Affordable High-Speed Strike (AHSS), the new-start initiative is part of the Army's Long Range Precision Fires modernization effort, backed by a modest but symbolically important $501,000 seed funding, according to Real Time Defense, a new analytical tool that facilitates deep dives into DOD budgets and programs:

Army seeks seed funding to launch new Affordable High Speed Strike missile in FY-26

The Army is seeking fiscal year 2026 funding to jump-start a new missile development effort aimed at delivering an "affordable," mobile and high-speed theater strike capability, a clean-sheet missile concept unfettered by Cold War treaty limits.

The Rapid Defense Experimentation Reserve (RDER) program "was eliminated as part of the budget to streamline defense innovation redundancy, and optimize resource allocation toward more impactful modernization initiatives," according to a department-wide budget justification book for FY-26:

Pentagon terminates RDER program, military services assuming responsibility in FY-25

The Pentagon is terminating funding for its rapid experimentation and prototyping initiative in fiscal year 2026, transitioning the program's key elements to the military services, according to recently released budget documents.

Document: OSD's FY-26 budget justification books

The unexpected pause in Marine Corps Joint Light Tactical Vehicle procurement closely follows the Army's move to cancel all future JLTV procurement as part of a major force restructuring, blindsiding the Marine Corps, which has historically procured JLTVs in smaller quantities:

Marine Corps to pause JLTV procurement following Army divestment

The Marine Corps will pause procurement of the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle in fiscal year 2026, according to the service's budget request, which indicates the stoppage is intended to allow producer AM General to catch up on a delivery backlog.

In the aftermath of the bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities, the U.S. intelligence community is conducting a battle damage assessment expected to last several weeks to determine if the Massive Ordnance Penetrators were successful:

Following Iran strike, Air Force exploring enhancements to Massive Ordnance Penetrator

As the dust begins to settle following U.S. strikes last month on Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities -- which marked the first-ever use of the GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator -- the Air Force is beginning to envision a new bomb to hit deeply buried targets with even greater impact.

Last but by no means least, the latest cyber defense news from our colleagues at Inside Cybersecurity:

Atlantic Council offers options to strengthen U.S. supply chains for competition in offensive cyber

In a recent report, the Atlantic Council reviews the current state of the U.S. supply chain compared to China and provides recommendations on shoring up capabilities to participate in effective cyber offensive operations.

This Wednesday INSIDER Daily Digest has news on the Army's Anubis Technology Maturation Initiative, the Navy's Modular Attack Surface Craft program and more.

An Army project, known as the Anubis Technology Maturation Initiative (ATMI), launched in fiscal year 2022 to figure out how to put together a prototype of a Snapdragon chip that can receive and process the Defense Department's modernized M-code GPS signal:

Army turning to commercial industry for M-code GPS processing

The Army for the first time has successfully paired its modernized, jam-resistant GPS signal with commercial-grade processing chips to help it reduce internal slog as part of a plan to build a secure position, navigation and timing (PNT) capability with less time and money, Pentagon officials told reporters yesterday.

The Navy's Modular Attack Surface Craft program will soon enter a prototyping phase with industry to develop technology, demonstrate unmanned capability, and hopefully reduce risk for future procurement:

New details about MASC USV emerge in Navy budget proposal

As the Navy prepares to combine medium and large unmanned surface vessel efforts into one program, fresh details have emerged in the service's fiscal year 2026 budget request, which details research and development plans for the new Modular Attack Surface Craft program.

The Army's No. 2 uniformed officer spoke this morning at an event hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies:

Army to lead new task force on drones that reports directly to Hegseth

The Army will lead a new joint interagency task force on unmanned aerial systems and counter UAS, Vice Chief Gen. James Mingus said today.

Epoch 1, or the Missile Track Custody program, supports the Resilient Missile Warning and Tracking Medium-Earth Orbit effort, which seeks to launch a proliferated constellation of satellites:

First Epoch 1 launch slips to FY-27

The initial launch of the missile warning/missile tracking satellite part of the Epoch 1 program has been delayed from fiscal year 2026 to the middle of FY-27, a Space Systems Command official said today.

Army officials at Rock Island Arsenal's Joint Manufacturing and Technology Center in Illinois expect a new 3D printer to come online sometime next year and give the service the capability of scaling to a rate of 10,000 drones per month:

Army's sprint to 10,000 3D-printed drones a month could take off next year

ROCK ISLAND, IL -- This past spring, Lt. Gen. Chris Mohan, the deputy commanding general of Army Materiel Command, challenged the service to begin scaling up its additive manufacturing capabilities, including an effort to 3D-print drones at scale.