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Northrop Grumman is poised to compete for the Air Force's secretive Next Generation Air Dominance system, CEO Kathy Warden said today during the company's second quarter earnings call.

In response to a question about Northrop Grumman’s approach to NGAD, Warden said the company has gleaned valuable insights from its work on the B-21 Raider, initial delivery of which is scheduled for the end of this year.

“As we think about sixth-generation aircraft, we are in the process of building the first of those, the B-21, and that’s given us some fantastic experience and lessons that we believe we can apply to other sixth-generation aircraft,” Warden said.

“So, we’re positioned as a competitor,” she continued, referring to NGAD. “I think our government desires to have as broad [an] industrial base able to prime these large opportunities as possible, and we have been clear that we are investing and building our own capabilities and capacities to be able to be a contender.”

Speculation about prospective competitors for NGAD heightened after Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall stated the program entered the engineering and manufacturing development phase at a Heritage Foundation event last month. Contractors have so far been mum about their participation in the program.

The Air Force has offered few details about NGAD, except that it will include a “family of systems” approach that will incorporate crewed and uncrewed platforms and could require a new approach to acquisitions. Kendall has previously stated the platform will likely cost hundreds of millions of dollars per unit.

At the Heritage Foundation event, Kendall said the program is expected to field a new capability by the end of the decade.

The U.S. Army's multibillion-dollar light tank program and expected growth in European defense spending should begin to lift revenues in General Dynamics' combat vehicle segment around 2024, according to a company executive.

“By 2024 and beyond, we ought to see a nice uptick trajectory in combat systems,” Jason Aiken, the company’s chief financial officer, said today on a quarterly earnings call. “We’re still talking low- to mid-single-digit growth, but we ought to see an inflection point.”

Until then, the combat vehicles division will focus on improving margins, he said.

General Dynamics won the competition last month to produce the Mobile Protected Firepower, the Army’s first light tank in decades. That program is expected to be worth up to $6 billion. Initial deliveries and testing are scheduled for 2024, after which production volumes could increase.

European opportunities extend beyond the sale of 250 Abrams tanks to Poland that was approved in February, Aiken said. Combat vehicle spending must make its way through governments, and that can happen slowly.

“It just takes time for interest to turn into budgets, to turn into appropriations, to turn into contracts, to turn into revenue,” he said. “The demand signals are there. We are having regular dialogue and ongoing conversation with those customers about that interest.”

General Dynamics reported $9.2 billion in revenue for the quarter that ended July 3, a decline of 0.3% from the same period a year earlier. Net earnings were $766 million, up 3.9%.

The combat systems segment, which builds combat vehicles, had $1.7 billion in revenue, down 12.3% from last year. Segment operating earnings fell 7.9%, to $245 million.

The marine systems segment, which builds Navy submarines and destroyers, made $2.7 billion in revenue, up 4.5% from a year earlier. Operating earnings for the segment were $211 million, up 0.5%.

Senators signed off on a compromise version of a bipartisan plan today to boost funding of domestic microelectronics production, legislation that a top Pentagon official had previously said was key to addressing semiconductor supply issues.

The 64-33 vote on the highly anticipated language signals a near-end to the framework’s drawn-out path to becoming law, with the House poised to take up the measure as soon as this week.

Included as an amendment to a separate appropriations bill, the so-called “Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) for America” or “CHIPS-plus” proposal includes tens of billions of dollars to encourage facility and equipment investments, incentives for semiconductor manufacturing such as a four-year, 25% tax credit and $2 billion specifically for Defense Department microelectronics purposes.

The bill has trailed behind the Fiscal Year 2021 National Defense Authorization Act that created chips manufacturing and research programs that have gone unfunded. Though the Senate first passed its version of a semiconductor funding plan last June, the House didn’t follow suit with its own plan until February. Senators then approved the House’s version in March, setting up the legislation for conference committee negotiations and the slimmed-down package that hit the floor this week.

The current package resembles the broader legislation the Senate originally passed last summer, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who offered the amendment, said Tuesday. Calling the language “one of the most consequential bipartisan achievements of this Congress,” Schumer, who referred to the proposal as the “Chips and Science” bill, added the approach would reverse the “chip crisis and America’s dwindling commitment to science and innovation.”

The Senate had already signaled last week the latest iteration of the legislation had requisite support to pass the chamber, when lawmakers voted 64-34 to move forward on the package. While lawmakers initially planned a cloture vote on the package Monday night, the timeline was pushed to early Tuesday due to area thunderstorms that disrupted members’ travel plans.

Pentagon officials have repeatedly touted the importance of onshoring microelectronics processing. With the microelectronics supply chain centralized in the Asia-Pacific region, Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks last month said DOD and other agencies “would be substantially advantaged by such a move.”

“DOD has to be a fast follower in this area,” she said. “We don’t acquire enough chips given the vast amount of chips that are purchased in the United States to really drive that industry. What we need and what that [bill] would help us get is a national security approach, an enclave approach, that helps us go after the kinds of higher-end capabilities that we need with a secure, assured supply chain.”

The Pentagon’s fiscal year 2023 budget request includes $3.3 billion for microelectronics technologies -- investments that Hicks has said will focus on developing “the kinds of more high-processing and specialized chips that we need uniquely.”

There are a number of DOD applications, such as strategic radiation-hardened microelectronics, that have specific military uses and aren’t viable for commercial investment, according to one expert who spoke with the Government Accountability Office for a newly released report covering policy pathways to reduce supply chain risks and stave off future shortages.

“The official stated that it is critical that DOD invest in microelectronics [research and development] to maintain technical superiority of weapons systems,” GAO’s review stated.

Hicks was among the officials and industry executives who participated in a meeting with President Biden this week on the importance of the CHIPS legislation’s passage, during which she highlighted the “dependency that we have on the defense side” on microelectronics access, ranging from the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter to emerging technologies such as quantum, hypersonics, 5G and more.

This Tuesday INSIDER Daily Digest has news on cruise missile defense, the Joint Strike Fighter's engine and more.

The Senate Armed Services Committee, in its mark of the FY-23 defense policy bill, added $50.8 million for a Cruise Missile Defense-Homeland Kill Chain Demonstration:

NORAD bid for FY-23 cruise missile defense demo finds support in Senate

A Senate panel has endorsed a proposed live-fire demonstration to explore a cruise missile defense architecture to protect high-priority domestic assets, authorizing $50 million in the Missile Defense Agency's fiscal year 2023 budget in support of North American Aerospace and Defense Command.

The committee also recommends a provision that could inform deliberations about whether to triple the size of the Next Generation Interceptor acquisition:

Draft legislation would require funding plan for 64 Next Generation Interceptor fleet

The Pentagon would be required to draft a plan to pay for a fleet-wide replacement of the homeland defense ballistic missile inventory, according to legislation proposed by a Senate panel that would identify the price tag associated with expanding the program of record for the Next Generation Interceptor beyond 20 guided missiles to a total of 64.

The Air Force's top civilian spoke this week about the engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter:

Kendall: Air Force F-35 engine modernization decision planned for FY-24 budget

The Air Force plans to decide whether to field a new engine for the service's F-35 fleet or upgrade the aircraft's existing propulsion system by the time it files its fiscal year 2024 budget request, according to service Secretary Frank Kendall.

On-orbit servicing of the Global Positioning System has begun:

Lockheed Martin begins GPS on-orbit servicing

After winning a 10-year, $581.6 million Global Positioning System on-orbit servicing contract in June, Lockheed Martin was recently awarded $147.7 million by Space Systems Command for the first five-year period of performance, according to an SSC press release.

Lt. Gen. Kevin Kennedy, the new head of the 16th Air Force, spoke to the media recently:

New 16th Air Force commander sees collaboration as key in fight against cyberattacks

The new commander of the 16th Air Force, Lt. Gen. Kevin Kennedy, said collaboration and partnerships across the service, joint forces and with industry will be key focuses of his tenure.

The Army has awarded BAE Systems a five-year contract extension to continue operating its ammunition plant in Virginia through 2026, the company announced Tuesday.

The $1.3 billion contract covers management, production maintenance, sustainment and modernization of the Radford Army Ammunition Plant, the company said. It has operated the plant since 2012.

The contract award will fund the production of propellants, according to a July 15 Pentagon contract announcement, which the company says can be used for direct fire, indirect fire and rocket applications.

Top Army leaders and the House Armed Services Committee have expressed concerns about the munitions industrial base and its ability to meet surge capacity.

Last week, Army Under Secretary Gabe Camarillo said the munitions industrial base was a “top concern across the Department of Defense.”

This Monday INSIDER Daily Digest has news from head of the Air Force's 16th Air Force, missile defense and more.

Lt. Gen. Kevin Kennedy, the new head of the 16th Air Force, spoke to the media recently:

New 16th Air Force commander sees collaboration as key in fight against cyberattacks

The new commander of the 16th Air Force, Lt. Gen. Kevin Kennedy, said collaboration and partnerships across the service, joint forces and with industry will be key focuses of his tenure.

The Senate Armed Services Committee, in its mark of the fiscal year 2023 defense policy bill, recommends a provision that could inform deliberations about whether to triple the size of the Next Generation Interceptor acquisition:

Draft legislation would require funding plan for 64 Next Generation Interceptor fleet

The Pentagon would be required to draft a plan to pay for a fleet-wide replacement of the homeland defense ballistic missile inventory, according to legislation proposed by a Senate panel that would identify the price tag associated with expanding the program of record for the Next Generation Interceptor beyond 20 guided missiles to a total of 64.

More missile defense news from the defense policy bill:

Senate authorizers add funds to accelerate GPI, countermand USD research and engineering

Senate lawmakers are proposing a dramatic increase in spending for the Glide Phase Interceptor in fiscal year 2023 -- a nearly $300 million boost the Pentagon's top technology shop last fall determined would not necessarily accelerate plans for fielding a hypersonic defense.

In Southern California, U.S. and Australian navies are working together to deploy unmanned underwater vehicles from an amphibious ship during the 2022 Rim of the Pacific exercise:

U.S., allied nations deploying UUVs from amphib during RIMPAC

Partner nations of the United States are putting unmanned underwater vehicles to the test in the world's largest maritime exercise this summer.

Our colleagues at Inside Cybersecurity have details on the Pentagon's Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program in the Senate version of the fiscal year 2023 defense policy bill:

Senate defense policy bill directs GAO to produce report on CMMC reciprocity

Senate Armed Services Committee leadership is asking the Government Accountability Office to "conduct an assessment on the incorporation of reciprocity" into the Pentagon's Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program, in the chamber's latest version of the fiscal year 2023 defense authorization bill.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is looking to kick-start a program to generate enhanced imaging capabilities that could scan entire buildings from the outside or map underground tunnels beneath Earth’s surface.

The examples were included in a recent agency press release announcing a forthcoming proposers day, intended to get officials from academia, government and industry familiar with the Muons for Science and Security effort, called MuS2.

The program aims to develop a new source of muons -- subatomic particles similar to electrons that “can travel easily through dozens to hundreds of meters of water, solid rock, or soil” at high energy, according to DARPA’s release. Officials hope to see between 1 million and 100 million muons created through the undertaking, a notice posted to SAM.gov late last week shows.

“MuS2 will lay the groundwork needed to examine the feasibility of developing compact and transportable muon sources,” Mark Wrobel, MuS2 program manager in DARPA’s Defense Sciences Office, said in the release.

Only two main avenues for producing or harnessing muons currently exist, according to DARPA, and adding to those options is challenging because of the need for a high-energy, giga-electronvolt (GeV) particle source.

Given those requirements, large physics research facilities are the primary source of terrestrially developed muons, per the release.

“Our goal is to develop a new, terrestrial muon source that doesn’t require large accelerators and allows us to create directional beams of muons at relevant energies, from 10s to 100s of GeVs -- to either image or characterize materials,” Wrobel added.

The proposers day, slated for Aug. 5, would follow the release of an anticipated broad agency announcement, according to the SAM.gov notice. Registration will close July 29 or when all the available slots are filled.

The SAM.gov notice indicated that a BAA could be released as soon as this month. As the four-year program progresses, officials anticipate it’ll be divided into two equal phases: one focused on experimentation, modeling and scaling studies in support of the production of 10 GeV muons; and a second focused on scalable accelerator design generation for at least 100 GeV, the release states.