The Insider

Oshkosh Defense earnings increased by 11% even as the company draws down domestic production of the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle, company leaders said during their fourth-quarter earnings call today.

“Domestic JLTV production will conclude in early 2025 but we believe we will continue to have opportunities to supply JLTVs to foreign allies through the direct commercial sales process in 2025 and beyond,” Oshkosh President John Pfeifer said during the call.

Oshkosh Defense sales for the fourth quarter of 2023 increased 7.2%, driven by JLTV sales, in what Pfeifer called a “strong quarter.”

During an October earnings call, the company announced a decrease in sales for the defense segment but expected to increase production from other defense contracts.

Selected to build the JLTV in 2015, the four-wheeled vehicle is designed for combat operations and will replace a portion of the Army’s humvees.

In January 2023, the Army awarded AM General a follow-on production contract for the JLTV. Oshkosh appealed the outcome in June, but the Government Accountability Office denied the company’s protest.

Earlier this year, the Marine Corps selected Oshkosh for its Rogue Fires program, a JLTV variant with an anti-ship missile launcher.

Oshkosh is also scheduled to deliver Medium Equipment Trailers for testing a six-axle transport platform designed to carry 60-ton payloads on European roads.

Earlier this week, the Army announced it will extend a current contract for Oshkosh’s Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles.

In 2022, the Army selected Oshkosh to build the Medium Caliber Weapon System, a 30mm cannon designed for the Stryker combat vehicle.

The company is currently bidding for the Common Tactical Truck, a series of logistics trucks designed to replace the current Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck.

Oshkosh is also competing for the Robotic Combat Vehicle, an unmanned robotic vehicle designed to operate alongside manned units.

The Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office today launched the first of two artificial intelligence bias bounty exercises aimed at unearthing unknown risk areas in Large Language Models.

“Bias bounties are new crowdsourced efforts to help detect bias in AI systems,” a Defense Department release said.

Both exercises aim to develop new routes to “algorithmically auditing and red teaming AI models,” as well as conducting experiments that address the risks involved with LLMs.

The CDAO Responsible AI Division, which is leading both exercises, launched the first bias bounty today, noting that the second will “soon follow.”

The first public bounty will run from Jan. 29 through Feb. 27.

"The RAI team is thrilled to lead these AI Bias Bounties, as we are strongly committed to ensuring that the Department's AI-enabled systems -- and the contexts in which they run -- are safe, secure, reliable and bias free," Matthew Johnson, acting chief of the DOD's RAI Division, said in the release.

The bounty exercise launched today specifically looks at Large Language Models to discover potential areas of risk, starting with open source chatbots.

"Given the Department's current focus on risks associated with LLMs, the CDAO is actively monitoring this area; the outcome of the AI Bias Bounties could powerfully impact future DOD AI policies and adoption," Craig Martell, chief digital and artificial intelligence officer, said in the release.

In December, Bill Streilein, CDAO’s chief technology officer, said that DOD is focusing on responsibly adopting and leveraging technology, like Generative AI, across the department.

In October, the Space Force put a temporary ban on government computers allowing Generative AI and Large Language Models in efforts to enhance data protection. Inside Defense was not immediately able to determine if the ban is still in place.

A few weeks prior to the ban being announced, Heidi Shyu, under secretary of defense for research and engineering, released a memo establishing a Defense Science Board task force charged with “balancing security, reliability, and technological advantage” related to Generative AI.

The release today encourages public involvement, citing no coding experience necessary, to help uncover bias, adding that participants can earn money from scoring and evaluation through DOD funding.

ConductorAI-Bugcrowd and BiasBounty.AI have partnered with CDAO to help with development and execution of both projects, with the CDAO Defense Digital Service Directorate advising.

Huntington Ingalls Industries will lead the refueling and complex overhaul of aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman (CVN-75), the Defense Department announced Friday.

The $913 million contract awarded to HII will consist of “engineering, design, material procurement and fabrication, documentation, resource forecasting and pre-overhaul inspections,” the announcement added.

“Comprehensive planning is vitally important to the overall success of an engineering and construction project of this magnitude on the aircraft carriers that serve our nation,” said Rob Check, NNS vice president of in-service aircraft carrier programs, in a company statement. “This contract allows us to properly plan for each step in the overhaul process, from preparing for the ship’s arrival at NNS to its redelivery back to the Navy, so that Harry S. Truman and its sailors can continue to protect peace and prosperity around the world.”

Advanced planning and long-lead-time material procurement is set to be completed by June 2026, according to the contract.

The contract follows debate in 2019 over whether to push forward with refueling the aircraft carrier, with the Navy saying that retiring the ship would allow for greater exploration of unmanned systems technology. Yet, lawmakers from both parties opposed the ship’s retirement.

The contract announcement also comes ahead of HII’s fourth-quarter earnings call this Thursday.

The Navy's Science and Technology Board plans to visit Pearl Harbor facilities and conduct interviews with officials this week on warfighting advantage and emerging technologies.

In closed meetings at Naval Station Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, HI, from Monday to Wednesday board members and subject matter experts will discuss expanding “warfighting advantage through technologies that have the potential to disrupt the nature of warfighting,” according to a Federal Register notice posted today.

Once completed, the meetings will aid the development of recommendations meant to support Navy secretary tasking, the notice added.

Boeing will commence the first 13 deliveries of its MH-139 Grey Wolf helicopter to the Air Force this year, a company spokesperson told Inside Defense.

The news comes after the program’s first operational helicopter moved out of the final production stage and took its first flight at the Leonardo Helicopters facility in Philadelphia late last month.

The MH-139 is a multimission aircraft meant to patrol nuclear missile silos, shuttle high-ranking officials around the National Capital Region, and provide some tactical airlift capabilities. Boeing and Leonardo were awarded a contract in 2018 to recapitalize the Air Force’s Vietnam-era UH-1N Huey fleet.

In 2022, the Air Force accepted an initial four Grey Wolf prototypes for military testing.

“We are committed to advancing this program and have achieved another significant milestone with the first production aircraft," Azeem Khan, MH-139 program director, said in a statement. "This accomplishment positions us to complete outstanding testing and move closer to delivering this critical capability to the U.S. Air Force."

The program finally received milestone C approval from the Air Force in March of last year to kick off low rate initial production after facing a 17-month delay. Procurement of the Grey Wolf was ultimately deferred from the fiscal year 2022 budget to FY-23 due to pending completion of three supplemental civil airworthiness certifications to allow for military flight.

The Boeing spokesperson said the company will continue its required Federal Aviation Administration testing as it prepares for initial deliveries. The service has said it plans to purchase 84 Grey Wolf helicopters to replace 63 aging Hueys.

Zeno Power, which in May was awarded a $30 million Air Force contract to build a satellite powered by nuclear waste, has announced a new deal with the Energy Department by which it will obtain radioactive material needed to fuel its “novel” power system.

In an announcement today, DOE said it recently transported a “radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) containing strontium-90” from the Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management “to a commercial nuclear facility out of state, where Zeno will recycle the material to power its novel radioisotope power systems (RPS).”

“The technology in these power systems is capable of converting heat generated by the decay of radioisotopes into a durable, reliable source of electricity in remote and challenging environments,” DOE said.

The public-private partnership with Zeno, DOE said, “has reduced the amount of legacy radioactive material on the site” so the company can “recycle the material into a source of clean energy.”

OREM Manager Jay Mullis called the arrangements a “win-win” that removes “a significant source of radioactivity at a savings to taxpayers, while also supporting nuclear innovation.”

Zeno co-Founder and CEO Tyler Bernstein said in a company press release that the “innovative partnership will transform a waste product and taxpayer liability into a clean energy asset that will advance national security and scientific missions.”

“We’ve now demonstrated the core building block of our technology and secured our initial fuel supply chain -- positioning us as the clear leader to commercialize RPS technology by 2026,” he said.

The Air Force contract Zeno was awarded in May was to build a radioisotope-powered satellite by 2025. In October, Zeno also announced it has been awarded a $7.5 million defense contract to build and demonstrate an RPS 2025 that is “capable of providing resilient, distributed power on the seabed.”

The company is also developing RPS technology with NASA and other lunar industry companies.

Zeno, in its statement, said RPSs are “compact devices that convert heat from radioisotopes into a persistent and reliable supply of clean energy.”

Though strontium-90 has been used in RPSs before, Zeno says that past systems have been “heavy, constraining their use to limited terrestrial applications.”

“Zeno’s key innovation is a novel design that increases the specific power of Sr-90 heat sources, enabling broad use of its RPSs in space and terrestrially,” the company said.

This Thursday INSIDER Daily Digest starts off with some missile defense news, a look at what is causing the cost increases for the Air Force’s Sentinel missile program, financial news from Electric Boat, Army investments in ammunition plants, and more.

Big changes may be coming for the Missile Defense Agency:

New missile defense governance, potential 'integrator' role, to be decided this spring

The Defense Department this spring must re-write its seminal missile defense governance policy to replace a controversial memorandum advanced during the Trump administration that curtailed the Missile Defense Agency's autonomy by elevating approval authority for key activities to senior Pentagon officials.

An Air Force official spoke about the Sentinel program’s cost growth:

Aspects of Sentinel other than the missile drove Nunn-McCurdy breach, official says

It's not the actual missile that's causing the drastic cost increase in the Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile program but the surrounding civil works components, a top Air Force official said today.

EB discussed its latest financial report this week:

Electric Boat reports improved submarine throughput amid continued supply chain challenges

General Dynamics Electric Boat is seeing throughput improvements within the Columbia- and Virginia-class submarine programs but still needs additional aid from the Navy to stabilize the submarine supply chain, company executives said today.

The Army told us where it is spending big money to improve its infrastructure:

Army spending $4.5B to modernize several ammunition plants

The Army will invest $4.5 billion to modernize its ammunition plants as part of a wide multibillion-dollar, 15-year effort to modernize its industrial base, according to the service.

An industry trade group sees real potential for the CMMC program outside of the defense sector:

AIA sees potential expansion of CMMC program beyond DOD following release of proposed rule

The Aerospace Industries Association is advocating for the Defense Department's Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program to be used by civilian agencies, as part of an effort to address "ambiguity" over sensitive information held by contractors and create synergies.