Defense Tech and Acquisition
Cutting the Fat and Incorporating Cost-Effective Tech - Urgency is Needed
Welcome to the latest edition of Defense Tech and Acquisition.
This week we pivoted our weekly post to Monday as we were busy at a Creative Defense Foundation Creative Disruptors Summit with Congressional, Defense, and Industry executives (including many subscribers). We discussed if the U.S. prepared for national security challenges and where we need to invest in defense going forward.
Top Stories
HASC Hearing In Silicon Valley
Fielding Technology and Innovation: Industry Views on DoD Acquisition
Chairman Mike Rogers opening remarks
Mr. Mark Valentine, Skydio
Mr. Brandon Tseng, Shield AI
Mr. Shyam Sankar, Palantir
Mr. Peter Ludwig, Applied Intuition
Mr. Richard Jenkins, Saildrone
Kudos to Chairman Rogers and Ranking Member Smith for championing speed and agility across the DoD and Congress to rapidly acquire and deliver leading tech for defense.
William Mark Valentine "Skydio has delivered thousands of drones on time and schedule across the Services. A single operator controlling multiple UxS is a game changer. The best way to scale the U.S. drone industry is to scale drone support to Ukraine to compete in the most challenging operational environment. DoD needs to radically scale the acquisition of drones."
Brandon Tseng "DoD needs to shift from a requirements based system to an outcome based system. Outline operational challenges and let industry solve the problem. DoD requirements writers don't understand software."
Shyam Sankar "The biggest impact of the Last Supper isn't just the lack of competition, but the decoupling of commercial and defense industries. The monopsony focus on cost plus contracts kills defense innovation. Industry needs to build and that requires the government needs to buy! The rigid procurement process and five year plans weakens us on the global stage. We need to provide CCMDs some budget authority and we need more JUON, JEONs, and UONs."
Peter Ludwig "The Software Acquisition Pathway and Commercial Solutions Opening are invaluable to acquire autonomy software via firm fixed price contracts. DoD needs continued support for DIU's Hedge fund and innovative acquisition and contracting pathways that are flexible and outcome focused."
Richard Jenkins "Long budget process requiring requests years in advance is ineffective. Need a bridge fund within the Services' budget to rapidly respond to threats, cross the valley of death, and scale emerging solutions. This will be critical to keep industry focused on delivering solutions for the DoD."
Stories on the HASC Hearing:
U.S. Shrugs as World War III Approaches
A devastating report on global threats and American weakness is met with indifference.
WaPost: Ukraine is bleeding out
NY Times: China is expanding the geographical reach and escalating violence in its campaign to drive Philippine forces from islands and shoals that Beijing illegitimately claims.
Bloomberg: Washington officials are fearful that Russia will help Iran cross the finish line in its race for nuclear weapons.
What none of these stories do is connect the dots by analyzing the consequences of repeated American failure on the widely separated fronts of the international contest now taking place.
The recently released report of the Commission on the National Defense Strategy details a devastating picture of political failure, strategic inadequacy and growing American weakness in a time of rapidly increasing danger.
The U.S. faces the most serious and most challenging threats since 1945, including the real risk of near-term major war.
The report warns that the nation was last prepared for such a fight during the Cold War, which ended 35 years ago. It is not prepared today.
Should such a conflict break out, the Commission finds that the U.S. military lacks both the capabilities and the capacity required to be confident it can deter and prevail in combat.
Judging from the indifference with which its report has been greeted, more and louder trumpets need to sound.
Cutting the Fat: Why Bureaucratic Weight Loss Needs More Than an Ozempic Fix
Let's get real: the DoD's bureaucracy isn't just bloated—it's in desperate need of a lifestyle change. We need a systematic, strategic approach that actually gets results.
DoD’s Weak Points
Overlapping Roles
Death by Committee
Need-to-Know Paralysis
A Real Workout Plan: Cutting the Fat, One Step at a Time
Interval Training: Shorten Decision Cycles
Simplify the Diet: Lean Out Over-Classification
Functional Fitness: Streamline Roles and Responsibilities
Continuous Improvement: Don't Rely on Quick Fixes
Maximize Rest and Recovery: Prioritize Mission-Critical Operations
Defense Tech
Pentagon to Oversee $3B Effort to Strengthen Microchip Supply
The Pentagon announced today it will help lead a $3B Commerce Department initiative designed to make sure the U.S. military has access to a reliable domestic microelectronics supply chain.
The first task order under what’s known as the Secure Enclave program was awarded to leading microchip developer Intel Corp.
The funding will focus on improving commercial fabrication facilities and builds on work Intel has done through other DOD programs.
The Secure Enclave project is separate from the Microelectronics Commons and instead focused on creating an end-to-end semiconductor production capability for military requirements.
The U.S produces just 12% of the global microchip supply down from ~37% in the 1990s. Today, most of the world’s supply of advanced semiconductors come from Taiwan, and China exports a large portion of its microchips to the U.S.
Chinese Researchers Say They Can Detect Stealth Aircraft Using Starlink Satellites
Chinese researchers claim that by using the radiation emitted by SpaceX's Starlink constellation, they can detect enemy stealth fighter jets.
This idea is that when an aircraft passes between a satellite and an antenna back on the ground, it can scatter Starlink’s high-frequency electromagnetic waves — ripples that can be picked up by ground-based radar to identify targets.
The Chinese team used a DJI Phantom 4 Pro drone as a stand-in for a potentially larger aircraft for the experiment.
The team claims its new detection method is unaffected by the target’s three-dimensional shape and surface material.
That means the system could provide significant advantages in detecting small and stealth targets.
Our Take: While its always hard to verify the efficacy of PLA claims, this seems very plausible and we have been skeptics of the long-term utility of stealth given the inevitable counters to detection. Instead, the military must accept that the battlefield is now transparent (as demonstrated in Ukraine and attempt to operate as effectively as possible in that environment. One thing is for sure with this experiment, there will be multiple government scientists trying to replicate it.
Lockheed Announces New Extreme Range Version of JASSM
A new extreme range prototype of Lockheed Martin’s AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile could be ready for flight testing in one or two years.
Lockheed is putting its own funds toward early development work on the missile, which he said could significantly expand the missile’s reach past the JASSM and the Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) variants
The Pentagon has not committed to buying the new weapon
The most obvious benefit of the AGM-158 XR’s longer range is that it keeps the pilot further away from a threat.
The AGM-158 XR is still “several years out” from being ready for fielding.
AMRAAM and JATM Missiles Complementary for Future Force Mix
The latest version of Raytheon’s AIM-120 AMRAAM is approaching the threshold range required of the new and secretive AIM-260 Joint Advanced Tactical Missile.
The two weapons may form a high/low mix for future air combat.
Raytheon’s AMRAAM has evolved significantly over its 30-year life. Its range is now beyond parity with threat missiles and it will be complementary to the AIM-260 JATM built by Lockheed Martin.
JATM will address the advanced threat, all the countermeasures, the electronic countermeasures that the threats will employ against us. It has exquisite capability against that.
Meanwhile, the latest AMRAAM has shown phenomenal performance in all those measures during testing with the Air Force.
From an industry perspective, Raytheon and all of our suppliers, we need to see a consistent demand so that it’s there’s value in that investment. It’s not an easy process to stand up a new production.
Anduril Unveils Modular, High-Production Barracuda Cruise Missiles
Anduril Industries on Thursday unveiled a new line of autonomous, air-breathing cruise missiles that the company says will be able to be easily upgraded and produced in large numbers to bolster the military’s arsenal.
The three versions of the subsonic Barracuda cruise missile — dubbed the Barracuda-100, -250 and -500 — are built using common subsystems that can be easily swapped in and out as new technologies are developed or threats emerge, which makes them highly adaptable.
They will be able to conduct direct, stand-off or stand-in strikes.
Barracuda’s open-architecture subsystem structure will allow them to cost about 30% less than other similar missiles.
“Rather than designing bespoke capabilities for each single weapon system that you’re trying to put out there, how do we actually make this simpler, and how to we actually design out the hard parts?” Diem Salmon, Anduril VP for Air Dominance and Strike
Army
Army Has Role to Play in Air Force’s Agile Combat Concept
The Air Force is shifting away from using a few large bases to a more dispersed network of smaller operating locations, and the Army will have a big part in making this evolution for its sister service successful.
The conflict in Ukraine has shown that the modern battlefield is becoming increasingly transparent. It is increasingly difficult to hide, and U.S. forces must be able to disperse and be mobile.
In the Indo-Pacific, China has built up an expansive anti-access/area denial system comprising thousands of missiles of all sorts of different ranges, and for the Air Force that means that we're not going to be able to mass many, many, many fighter jets in one particular place because it's too rich of a target.
The Air Force has developed its Agile Combat Employment concept, which calls for the service to “have smaller numbers of aircraft in a lot of different places.
The Army’s Patriot air and missile defense systems are in huge demand, particularly for use in Ukraine and the Middle East, and they “are probably the Army’s most stressed force element.
The Army in the next few years will be expanding its air defense force structure with an additional Patriot battalion, as well as new batteries of its Indirect Fire Protection Capability system and counter-UAS capabilities.
The Army is planning a significant increase in investment in UAS, counter-UAS and EW capabilities in its 2026 budget request as a direct result of what we’re seeing in Ukraine.
Anduril Announces IVAS Team-up With Microsoft
“This project is my top priority at Anduril, and it has been for some time now. It’s one of the Army’s most critical programs being fielded in the near future, with the goal of getting the right data to the right people at the right time,” Palmer Luckey, Anduril founder , who made his tech breakthrough with commercial Oculus headset.
After teasing his tech startup’s broader entrance into the military mixed-reality space, Luckey is now disclosing at least one entry point: the integration of new sensors and the firm’s Lattice platform into the US Army’s latest version of the Integrated Visual Augmentation System.
Anduril’s Lattice platform has been “successfully integrated” into Microsoft’s hardware and software platform for both the IVAS 1.1 and 1.2 versions.
The 1.2 version of IVAS is currently going through testing with the Army, while industry awaits the Army’s official greenlight to kickstart a recompete program under an initiative dubbed IVAS Next.
Lattice is billed as an open software platform that gleans data from different sensors and systems and moves that data into a single integration layer where high-value information is filtered for users.
For the Army system, the companies say that means that as incoming airborne threats like drones home in on a soldier’s location, they are autonomously detected and soldiers donning the upgraded IVAS are warned.
Related Articles:
Trust But Verif-AI: Army Will Let GenAI Draft Acquisition Documents, with Guardrails
A user can’t just say “write me a RFP” and get the AI to blurt out a draft, explained Ask Sage founder Nic Chaillan. Instead, the software will guide them through the process step by step – and use multiple AI models to check each others’ work.
Ask Sage recently announced it had deployed its genAI software to the Army’s secure cloud, cArmy.
The press release touted a host of processes the new tech could automate, such as software development, cybersecurity testing, and even parts of the federal acquisition system to include drafting and generating RFIs, RFPs, scope of work, defining requirements, down-selecting bidders and much more.
Ask Sage software doesn’t just consult a single LLM. It’s a model-agnostic intermediary or abstraction layer between the human user and their data, on the one hand, and a whole parliament of different AI models — over 150 of them.
Navy
CNO NAVPLAN 2024
“The Navy shall be organized, trained, and equipped for the peacetime promotion of the national security interests and prosperity of the United States and for prompt and sustained combat incident to operations at sea.” Title 10 U.S. Code §8062
Project 33 is how we make strategic gains in the fastest time with resources we influence. By 2027, Navy will:
Ready our platforms: 80% combat surge ready ships, aircraft, and submarines
Operationalize robotic and autonomous systems: Deliver proven systems
Fight from the Maritime Operations Center: Resource our MOCs
Recruit and retain talent: Man deployers to 95% of billets , reach 100% rating fill
Deliver Quality of Service: Eliminate waitlists and provide quality housing
Invest in Warfighter Competency: Improve LVC training
Restore critical infrastructure: Prioritize infrastructure directly supporting operational readiness in the Pacific
CNO Unveils Project 33 With a Heavy Emphasis on Robotic Systems, Information Dominance
Unmanned capabilities not only keep sailors out of harm’s way, but they provide opportunities to greatly expand the sea service’s warfighting capacity at less cost than traditional Navy vessels.
Officials have been laying the keel for a future hybrid fleet via experimentation and other efforts, such as standing up Task Force 59, establishing the Disruptive Capabilities Office, and regularizing the integration of unmanned platforms into numbered fleets via 4th Fleet.
Earlier this year, Franchetti announced the creation of a new rating for robotics warfare specialists among enlisted personnel, and the service also stood up a new robo-ship squadron aimed at helping the service integrate small maritime drones into its forces.
Additionally, the Pentagon’s Replicator effort is aiming to accelerate the fielding of uncrewed surface vessels and unmanned underwater vehicles for the Navy.
Franchetti is looking to get many more robotic systems into the water in the next three years in operational settings, noting in her navigation plan that officials also recognize the value that can be derived from employing commercial robotic and autonomous systems in sea-denial missions.
Navy Unveils New Catapult Plan to Accelerate Emerging Tech for High-Priority Problems
The Navy is shifting business models to prepare for future threat environments.
Looking to catapult over the bureaucracy that’s known to decelerate innovation across Pentagon components, the Navy is getting set to launch a new opportunity designed to accelerate resources to ultimately help deploy and scale emerging technologies that get after some of the greatest challenges warfighters will need to confront in modern conflicts.
The Navy plans to launch a new BAA next month — aptly named Catapult — via which it will invest millions of dollars in strategic financing to support small businesses with existing capabilities that can tackle the Navy’s highest-priority concerns, like digital architecture development and rearming at sea.
Their creative vision to get small businesses involved in traditionally sole-sourced environments to become more disruptive in meeting real-world needs.
This first-of-its-kind, multi-award Catapult challenge will leverage SBIR funding for direct-to-phase-two prototypes already approved in the Navy or other federal agencies, and potentially expedite the transition of those proven capabilities to military personnel.
“It’s kind of out of a study to look into the Navy’s R&D enterprise concept that had me take a look at that — that the original Catapult idea emerged and it was really very much about, how do we put strategic resources to take great ideas and get them better positioned to scale?” Maria Proestou
Del Toro Warns Appropriators of Widespread Delays for Navy if 6-Month CR Passes
Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro warned congressional appropriators that numerous high-profile shipbuilding efforts — Columbia and Virginia-class submarines as well as certain aircraft carriers — would suffer programmatic setbacks if lawmakers pass a six-month continuing resolution.
A six-month CR risks delaying critical investments in the submarine industrial base and the AUKUS partnership.
The half-year CR would also further delay the John C. Stennis (CVN-74), an aircraft carrier that is currently undergoing a mid-life overhaul.
Del Toro said 20 construction projects, five research and development efforts, up to 58 ship maintenance availabilities, as well as procurement of five ships and various aircraft and munitions programs would also be set back under the six-month CR.
New Missile Allows Marine Pilots to Strike Far, Avoid Air Defenses
Marine fighter pilots now have a missile that can strike targets up to 230 miles away, keeping aviators out of the range of many enemy air defense systems.
In late August, Marines became the first to run ordnance operations with the AGM-158A missile using F/A-18 Hornet.
The missile not only surpasses the capabilities of any other weapon currently in the Hornet’s extensive weapons portfolio, but also the Marine Corps at large.
The missile, which is also slated for use on F-35B and F-35C aircraft, comes in two variants: the AGM-158B extended range version and the AGM-158C long-range, anti-ship version.
The Lockheed Martin-manufactured extended range variant can strike targets out to 620 miles
Navy Takes Teally Big Swing With Private Investment to Boost Sub Industrial Base
The introduction of a private investment fund into such a long-term and infrastructure-intensive national security project is rare, but the Navy said there are contractual mechanisms in the deal that support Navy oversight and authorities to safeguard Navy and national security interests.
The Navy today unveiled an unusual collaboration with a private investment fund aimed at boosting America’s capacity to crank out modern submarines, in this case with an ambitious development of a shipyard in Alabama.
A private fund, the United Submarine Alliance Qualified Opportunity Fund (USA Fund), purchased the 355-acre Alabama Shipyard outside Mobile where it will prioritize Navy maritime infrastructure investments and sustainment activities with the goal of developing an additional 75% of the site to support submarine production, workforce training, and industrial capacity.
“The introduction of a private investment fund, which by nature aims to maximize profit, into such a long-term and infrastructure-intensive national security project carries inherent risks But, the Navy evaluated those risks and inserted contractual mechanisms and authorities that safeguard Navy and national security interests.” Matthew Sermon, executive director at the Navy’s PEO for strategic submarines.
Air Force
Threat From China Increasing
The Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall spoke about the growing threat that China poses to the Indo-Pacific region during a keynote address at an Air & Space Forces Association conference.
The secretary explained that the Chinese Communist Party continues to heavily invest in capabilities, operational concepts and organizations that are specifically designed to defeat the U.S. and its allies' ability to project power in the Pacific
This includes weapons targeting U.S. land and sea assets like air bases and aircraft carriers.
“I've been closely watching the evolution of China's military for 15 years. China is not a future threat; China is a threat today." Frank Kendall
AFMC’s Balancing Act: Modernizing While Keeping the Legacy Fleet Flying
AFMC does both of those things (modernizing and sustaining) ... and we have to do both of those simultaneously.
Doing both is “front and center” in AFMC’s strategic plan with the first objective being to sustain the fleet and the second objective to deliver the future force.
It’s not unusual for AFMC leaders to navigate a new modification to a tanker while having to put that same tanker fleet through a heavy maintenance cycle every five years or overhauling engines at certain points.
Today’s funding streams complicate the task. To build new systems, takes investment money, but to sustain existing systems takes flying hours and what he called separate operations and maintenance funds.
The command is setting up a “product support architecture” under Lt. Gen. Donna Shipton, commander of the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center to help address these challenges.
“Our PEOs within AFMC are life cycle managers. They don’t get to make a choice between: Do I sustain or do I make a modification? They have to do both. That’s why we exist. We work pretty hard to do that. It’s definitely a balance.” Gen Duke Richardson
Collaborative Combat Aircraft Offer Potential For More Risk Taking, Air Force Wargaming Director Says
Simulations being done with the Air Force’s future unmanned Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) are showing that operators are takings risks that they would not with manned aircraft.
The combination of a lower price point expected from acquiring and operating a CCA and the fact that a person’s life is not at risk drives the willingness to take more risks.
Air Force leaders noted that mass alone presents a “hard problem” for an adversary to solve, which could act as a deterrent.
“We take more risk for the tactics and things that we wouldn’t do with an airplane that’s got a person in it, we’ll absolutely do with the CCA, and we’ll say, ‘Hey, good luck little buddy. Go on. Go tackle this tough problem,’ where perhaps we wouldn’t do that with the fanned aircraft,” Maj. Gen. Joseph Kunkel
As Air Force Mulls Next-Gen Fighter, Tanker Plans Hang in the Balance
The Air Force’s next-generation tanker was once envisioned as a stealthy, penetrating refueling platform but that idea is changing amid competing budget priorities and evolving concepts of how the service will achieve air dominance in the future.
Officially, plans for the Next-Generation Aerial Refueling System (NGAS), still call for a clean-sheet tanker design, more survivable than the service’s current Boeing KC-46 and KC-135 tankers.
While Air Force officials are adamant that another tanker needs to be developed, how the service will pay for it remains to be seen.
The size and role of the future tanker hinges on the Air Force’s sixth-generation fighter jet program, called Next Generation Air Dominance,
The NGAD program is moving away from a penetrating, counter-air fighter, and more towards a family of systems where drones conduct most of the close-in work meaning the need for a stealthy tanker to refuel close to the fight is reduced too.
“This whole idea of operating really close to enemy territory with fighters and tankers is starting to just not be practical or feasible anymore. And that's why the NGAD program's evolving, I think, NGAS will also evolve to deprioritize stealth and low observability,
Related Article: Future of Next-Gen Fighter Still up in the Air
New, Re-Imagined NGAD Could Cost Less Than an F-35
The Next-Generation Air Dominance fighter—once envisioned as a hyper-expensive, exquisite platform—could be restructured to slash its price to less than an F-35.
Making NGAD less costly could mean sacrificing range and payload, possibly going from two engines to one, a counter-intuitive solution that could be possible only if the Air Force had a stealthy Next-Generation Air-refueling System (NGAS) that could evade adversary’s missile systems.
Getting to a lower price comes with disaggregating capability, shifting missions to other platforms.
Once you start integrating CCAs and transferring some mission equipment and capabilities functions to the CCAs, then you can talk about a different concept.
A reconsideration is needed “because of threat changes, because of financial constraints, because of the development of technology, including the introduction of CCAs.”
Air Force Will Take Lead in Joint Prototype Battle Management Tech
The Air Force will be taking over the Pentagon’s prototype Joint Fires Network, or JFN, as it transitions to a fully fledged program of record.
JFN is currently a technology demonstration under U.S. Indo-Pacific Command—an IT platform linking warfighters on land, sea, and in the air with surveillance assets and weapons systems across the region, providing a common situational picture of enemy threats and allowing them to be remotely targeted.
The Integrating PEO for C3BM is now responsible for procuring the systems that will go into the DAF Battle Network as well folding JFN into the mix.
The PEO (Maj Gen Luke Cropsey) touted progress his office was making with Cloud-Based Command and Control (CBC2) and Tactical Operations Center-Light, or TOC-L that will support Air Force JADC2 operations.
How the AF Averted a Major Flaw in its Drone Wingmen Approach
Whatever the next chapter of U.S. air power will look like, there will be drones — and lots of them — accompanying manned fighters into battle.
The Air Force may have saved the service from a major miscalculation: A new cohort of CCAs, as originally envisioned, wouldn’t have been able to fly far enough to be effective, a serious problem in the Pacific theater.
Air Force changed its acquisition practices by soliciting early input from stakeholders who were previously consulted only later in the process.
The service brought operators from Air Combat Command into the room alongside acquisition experts, who would normally have taken the lead on a major procurement like this.
With ACC operators’ insights, he said, the Air Force was able to push contractors to find the “sweet spot” of enough range, at a reasonable price and on the right timeline.
AF SAE: The time has come to move away from the lengthy, traditional model in recent decades of sending requests for proposal to a limited number of major firms and only picking one.
Instead, the Air Force wants to move to a next-generation acquisition model that continually works with a range of industry partners and iterates multiple designs over time.
The growth of additive manufacturing, and technology advancements making it possible to conduct distributed manufacturing for high-end military capabilities, are also helping the Air Force create its new procurement model.
Related Articles:
General Atomics is ready to rewrite the rules of airpower … again
Skunk Works’ Losing Loyal Wingman Drone Was Very Stealthy “Gold Plated” Design
Air Force Plans to Bed Down 25 F-35s in FY26
The Air Force plans to bed down 25 F-35As in FY26, according to a recent DoD report outlining how the service plans to field an inventory of nearly 700 of the aircraft by the end of the decade.
For FY26, the report includes a plan to bed down 16 F-35Bs and 20 F-35Cs, with the services reaching an inventory of 245 and 219 of those aircraft by FY29.
Air Force’s ChatGPT-like AI pilot draws 80K users in initial months
Since the Air Force and Space Force launched their first generative AI tool in June, more than 80,000 airmen and guardians have experimented with the system.
Early adopters come from a range of career fields and have used the tool for variety of tasks — from content creation to coding.
Dubbed the Non-classified Internet Protocol Generative Pre-training Transformer, or NIPRGPT, the services are using the system to better understand how AI could improve information access and to get a sense of whether there’s demand for the capability within its workforce.
“What it signals to me is that people can now be more positively entrepreneurial and they don’t have to wait for a dashboard to be developed or a major system upgrade. In some cases, they’re able to just bring in the knowledge they have a relationship with.” Alexis Bonnell, AFRL CIO
PACAF Eyeing Replicator Systems to Complement Day-to-Day Operations
According to the Air Force’s Pacific Air Force’s chief, Replicator capabilities will be instrumental in countering China’s advanced military presence but there’s still much to puzzle out regarding the overarching concepts of operation for the platforms.
“The number of aircraft that we would have — while incredibly capable — may be a little bit less than we had initially desired as those aircraft were coming onto line. So we have a high-end, highly capable force in many aspects. But I see a complement to that being the ability to have affordable mass — or things that we can deploy in great numbers, that have a significant deterrent value, that can be either in place or be accessible in short order, and can cover a range of challenges and threats. So, I see a lot of goodness in that, and certainly it being a complement to what we do every day.” Gen. Kevin Schneider
Our Take: As we have stated many times, it will be impossible for any service to work out new CONOPS if they don’t have hardware in hand and the willpower to devise new methods of executing operations. It doesn’t just happen, it will take novel thinking and potentially abandoning sacred cows of how operations were conducted in the past.
Emphasis on Electronic Warfare a Must, Air Force Secretary Says
While details on the findings of the Air Force’s yearlong deep dive into electronic warfare capabilities are largely classified, Secretary Frank Kendall said the findings will shape near-term budget and architecture decisions.
The study is part of a broader Air Force effort to understand key technologies that affect operations across multiple mission areas.
This follows a push from the service in recent years to better leverage the electromagnetic spectrum for communication, sensing, intelligence and non-kinetic warfare.
Electronic warfare systems have not traditionally fared well in funding fights, with larger platforms and weapons programs almost always taking priority.
“We believe we can counter advanced adversary kill webs by integrating a combination of electronic warfare tools, operationalized cyber capability and other elements. I’m excited to see us making fast progress on this mission area for the Air Force.” Frank Kendall
Other Air Force News:
Space Force
Anduril Moves its AI Focus to the Heavens, Planning New Space Monitoring Sats
Anduril is using its own funds to develop new satellites for monitoring the heavens with the intent for the satellites to be launched by the end of 2025.
Top brass from both the Space Force and US Space Command repeatedly have said that improved space domain awareness is a first-order priority.
The company has multiple hardware and software payloads already deployed on orbit, and is delivering advanced systems that range from on-orbit edge processing of sensor data to resilient satellite command and control.
“Anduril will design, manufacture, and integrate modular mission payloads designed to enable unique mission requirements, leveraging our extensive expertise across imaging, electronic warfare, command and control, and mission autonomy. These payloads will provide warfighters with real-time data exploitation, autonomous coordination of satellites, and resilient communication capabilities.” Gokul Subramanian, Anduril’s SVP of Space and Engineering
Related Article: Domain Awareness, Counterspace Systems Top Space Force Budget Needs
Seizing The High Frontier
A combined and integrated space superiority and missile defense system will ensure the U.S. controls the high frontier to protect against attacks by China and Russia today and into the future.
Russia and China have boldly and systematically pursued space dominance.
It is time for the U.S. to seize the high frontier. We have the lead today, but without a focused and concerted effort that lead can vanish.
These new High Frontier capabilities should be designed, developed, tested, deployed and managed by a single integrated organization and leverage allied capabilities to strengthen and expand its capabilities.
Space Force Missile Tracking Constellation Faces ‘Critical’ Demo
The first tranche of the SDA’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture is performing well in orbit, but the crucial capability of getting satellites built by different vendors to talk to one another has yet to be demonstrated.
SDA has set up an optical test bed and a networking test bed at the Naval Research Laboratory so vendors have to bring their equipment, plug it into NRL and show that they can talk to the government gold standard as well as other vendors and make sure all that works.
The whole point of this PWSA is to build up a market that we can have multiple vendors all competing to keep the price low and keep the innovation pushing forward.
If a vendor is locked into only one or they can't talk to others, that falls apart pretty quickly, and it pushes space back into a historically unsuccessful stovepipe model.
“Can you do Link 16 [communications] from space? Can you actually do missile tracking from low-Earth orbit, … affordable satellites? And then finally, can you actually form an optical mesh network?” And those things, we've answered all three of those in the affirmative. Derek Tournear
SDA Eyes Laser Link Between Different Contractors’ Birds
York Space Systems has gotten the laser communications system working on their recently launched satellites for the Space Force’s nascent Low Earth Orbit network.
The next step is to get York’s satellites linked by laser to SpaceX’s birds.
The two contractors have gotten their tech to connect successfully in extensive, rigorous tests on the ground.
The stakes are make-or-break for SDA’s ambitious Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA).
SDA Evaluating Future Role in Niche Space-Based ISR Missions
SDA is in the early stages of understanding how the organization can further support the DoD and IC in conducting intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance of advanced missile threats from space.
The Space Force this year received funding via the department’s new Quick Start authority to begin work for a program known as Long Range Kill Chains, a joint effort with the NRO to develop ground moving target indicator (GMTI) sensors and auxiliary payloads that will replace part of the E-8C JSTARS fleet.
SDA already has some programs underway that will experiment with fire-control solutions for address advanced missile threats, such as the experimental Fire-control On Orbit-support-to-the-war Fighter (FOO Fighter) satellites and the Gamma variant of the Tranche 2 data transport layer.
“Moving forward, we see there are a lot of niche missions where the fine line between what is the tracking mission and what becomes the custody mission starts to get blurred. If you’re going after more and more advanced, specialty-type missile systems, that’s tracking, but it can also be the custody mission.” Derek Tournear
Space Command’s Commercial Operations Group Gets Expanded Role
An organization formed under the U.S. Space Command (Joint Task Force-Space Defense Commercial Operations or JCO) to harness commercial technology for space domain awareness is taking on broader responsibilities, including using commercial space systems for battlefield intelligence.
The JCO, based at Schriever Space Force Base in Colorado, was formed in 2020 as an extension of the National Space Defense Center.
The NSDC is a joint military and intelligence organization that coordinates efforts between government agencies and commercial partners to monitor space activities, detect threats and plan operations.
Currently operating as a global virtual operations center with allied nations, the JCO is venturing into new areas including tracking electronic signals emissions to identify jamming sources and delivering battlefield intelligence to military commands using commercial sources like Earth observation satellites.
JCO will take over the Tactical Surveillance, Reconnaissance, and Tracking (TacSRT) program and leverage commercial satellite imagery and analytics to provide timely surveillance and reconnaissance products, often within hours of a request.
Companies interested in working with the JCO are encouraged to reach out through the Space Systems Command’s Commercial Space Force Front Door portal.
To evaluate potential commercial products, the JCO hosts events known as Sprint Advanced Concept Training.
To be considered, commercial products must be compatible with the unified data library, a cloud-based repository integrating commercial and government data.
Related Article: Space Force Wants Funding to Expand Commercial Data Analytics Pilot Program
Evolving AI Capabilities in Space
AWS set up a space-focused team last year to explore ways to use generative AI, a major evolution using deep-learning models to answer questions and create content based on patterns detected in massive datasets.
In a recent experiment using AWS cloud services and computing technology from Sweden’s Unibap, he said a satellite from D-Orbit of Italy almost doubled available bandwidth by using AI to only send relevant hyperspectral data from orbit back to Earth.
International
Podcasts, Books, and Videos
Reindustrializing America, Democratize the Air w/Dan Magy, Startup Defense
AI and Decision Science w/Dr. Courtney Crosby, All Quiet on the Second Front
Revolutionizing Risk Assessment in Defense w/Alex Martin, Defense Mavericks
Connecting DevSecOps to Boyd’s Theories w/Mark McGrath, Defense Unicorns
Xi is Preparing Belt and Road Phase Two: Militarization w/Michael Sobolik, Arsenal of Democracy
Upcoming Events and Webinars
Future Force Capabilities Conference, NDIA, Sep 24-27, Virginia Beach, VA
Unmanned Systems West, ACI, Sep 25-26, San Diego, CA
Military Tactical Comms, DSI, Sep 25-26, National Harbor, MD
DARPA Discover DSO Day, Oct 3-4, Boston, MA
Defense Conference 24, PSC, Oct 8, Arlington, VA
Stanford Conference on Technology + National Security, Oct 9, Stanford, CA
Pacific Defense Contracting Summit, DLF, Oct 8-10, Honolulu, HI
AUSA Annual Meeting and Expo, Oct 14-16, Washington DC
Midwest Defense Innovation Summit, Oct 16-17, Indianapolis, IN
TechNet Indo Pacific, AFCEA, Oct 22-24, Honolulu, HI
Expeditionary Warfare Conference, NDIA, Oct 22-24, Laurel, MD
Microelectronics Commons and NSTC Symposium, Oct 28-30, Washington, DC
Systems and Mission Engineering Conference, NDIA, Oct 28-31, Norfolk, VA
See our Events Page for all the other events over the next year.
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