Defense Tech and Acquisition News
The New Year Beckons and The Momentum is Positive
Happy New Year and welcome to the latest edition of Defense Tech and Acquisition. With the new year, brings optimism for defense tech modernization and enterprise reforms.
This includes harnessing more of America’s and allies innovation from tech to efficiencies for national security.
The Indo-Pacific region continues to be the top priority and the military services are hyper focused on modernization and readiness for that fight.
Industry must continue to make strategic investments and inroads, aided by OSC and private capital. AI, autonomy, software, and quantum will be at the forefront of defense modernization, future warfare, and our Substack posts.
A new Congress was seated and a new administration will come in two weeks to continue the important national security work. Enjoy!
Top Stories
The Next Defense Reform Must Fully Bring the US Tech Sector on Board
The American defense community is balancing a robust yet aging defense industrial base with an emerging $130B defense tech ecosystem. We have the opportunity to increase our military might if we embrace the moment and inject modern cyber, software, materials and electronics technology to enhance our traditional defense industrial base.
Instead, we are wasting the talents of America’s world-class tech sector and, in doing so, putting our country and allies at risk.
That’s because we have an ecosystem without a marketplace. The Department of Defense won’t buy commercial capability at scale from Silicon Valley. The result is fighting with one arm behind our back.
Warfighting and deterrence capabilities are typically hardware-enabled and software-defined, but the Pentagon treats those attributes as though they evolve at the same pace.
America and its allies must signal in unambiguous terms that we are committed to purchasing technology based on clear and concise requirements without prescriptive solutions.
We must enact flexible policies that allow for consistent upgrading of new capabilities based on need and scale.
Adopt the recommendations of multiple congressional commissions and think tank task force studies, such as streamlining security reviews and accreditation of software use across multiple U.S. federal agencies.
We need to be able to export older-generation technology to partners and allies with protections against exploitation by our adversaries.
We need a clear mandate to a specific leader within the government to ensure ownership and accountability of this problem.
Defense Tech Scaling New Heights With Incoming Administration
The recent run up in the stock market—especially for tech stocks—signals a stimulative business climate during the second Trump Administration which should fuel a continued rise for defense tech—the incorporation of new technologies such as AI, cyber, autonomy and space for military applications.
The first Trump Administration saw an S&P 500 increase of 50%, a much larger tech stock increase of 138%, and 380% for the Magnificent 7 stocks.
Economic outlook provides fertile ground for gains in the defense tech sector which has already been one of the most promising areas for venture investors.
Trump began referring to the Reagan doctrine of “peace through strength” which recalls an era when the U.S. spent 6% of GDP on defense compared to today’s 3%—the lowest relative level in 75 years.
The incoming SASC chair, Sen. Roger Wicker, is on record calling for a generational investment in defense spending at 5% of GDP.
Military superiority now depends to a large degree on commercial technologies such as AI, autonomy, cyber, space, and others being used in military applications.
In the last 50 years, there has been a dramatic shift in the drivers of military technology from government labs to consumers and businesses
Consequently, venture funding has become the primary financing mechanism and is two to three times the size of the DoD’s R&D budget.
DIU now has a $1B budget. OSC now has the authority to make up to $1B in loans for technologies like batteries or quantum computing for national security.
DEPSECDEF’s Replicator initiative appears to be on track to deliver against its goal of thousands of attritable autonomous systems within 18 months.
Space Force commercial acquisition strategy seeks to buy more data from new satellite constellations that provide multi-modal sensors and faster revisit rates.
The Army is on track to begin producing the Remote Combat Vehicle in 2027 while the Air Force is developing CCAs to complement fighter jets.
There is a growing consensus that the supply base must broaden beyond the prime vendors which will create opportunities for more vendors.
I believe DOGE will accelerate the trends fueling defense tech. Elon Musk will be a proponent of fixed-price contracts rather than the cost-plus approach of defense primes.
Modernizing our force and expanding our warfighter capabilities from a greater number of suppliers will elevate defense tech to new heights.
With Growing Presence, DIU Continues Efforts to Lower Barriers For New Entrants
Less than a year since the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit entered its new era dubbed DIU 3.0, the innovation hub has its eyes set on further scaling operations and bringing more non-traditional contractors into the department’s ecosystem.
DIU Director Doug Beck unveiled his updated strategic vision in early 2024 as a way to address a number of challenges that have kept the organization from accelerating the DoD’s adoption of dual-use, commercial technologies.
DIU has folks all across the country helping to galvanize the defense innovation ecosystem.
Although the organization is still working to synchronize all relevant components into a single commercial operations center, DIU is already seeing improvements to how it brings new companies into the Pentagon ecosystem.
While funding uncertainties have historically served as a barrier to entry, new entrants are also worried about other bureaucratic hurdles such as cyber resiliency, security clearances and the cumbersome ATO process.
Addressing those specific challenges will be a focal point for the unit in 2025.
Moving forward, a big focus will be on aligning the Pentagon’s most critical capability gaps with where the venture capitalist community is making investments - specifically hardware-intensive capabilities.
Dual-Use Is a Strategy, Not a Category (Nor a Trap)
Gene Keselman and Fiona Murray
The term “dual-use” is something of a lightning rod in the startup world, sparking debates about its meaning and usefulness.
Jake Chapman wrote that reliance on dual-use technology is a trap, arguing that timing issues, IP controls, and commercial interests undermine the essential prioritization of defense needs.
Others have worried that categorizing projects as dual-use excludes them from a range of funding sources or banking services.
Our experience from MIT, working with startups across a range of critical technologies exploring defense and commercial civilian markets, is to define dual-use as a strategy, not a category.
The technologies that can serve both military and civilian purposes are so wide that as a category, dual-use has a diminishing meaning.
A dual-use strategy (regardless of whether it puts defense first or in parallel with civilian use cases), like any market entry strategy, is about making tradeoffs: which solution to build and for whom, how to test it, how to fund it, and how to appropriately deploy it.
Typical commercial markets have fierce competition, a focus on rapid innovation, and a direct relationship between customers and products. They have demanding customers who focus on economic efficiency.
In contrast, the mission market often operates within a more structured environment, with long timelines, stringent regulations, and a complex web of stakeholders that may lie between the capability and the end user but often focus more on end capabilities.
Brian McCarthy described the “valley of death” where seven in ten startups fail within the first few years is exacerbated by limited funding for research contracts and complex processes.
While the underlying solution might be similar for commercial and defense contexts, the way technological progress is described and measured can differ significantly.
At MIT, we have developed the Dual-Use Readiness Levels™ framework as a guide to help startup teams understand the language of both sides of the strategy, tack from one to another at the right time, and evaluate readiness across five critical dimensions: commercial funding, mission funding, commercial customers, mission customers, and technology.
By using these dual-use readiness levels, we have found that startups can better navigate market complexities, secure diverse funding sources, and achieve growth.
Project 33 Is Enabling Joint All-Domain Operations in the Indo-Pacific
The Navy’s Navigation Plan 2024 and its Project 33 implementation plan are increasing readiness for high-end warfare.
The U.S. strives to maintain regional stability and safeguard the sovereign rights of all nations in the Indo-Pacific—the most consequential theater of operations for the 21st century.
China, Russia, and North Korea are threatening that stability and security. But the U.S. joint force, working with increasingly capable allies and partners, is constantly preparing to deter them from upending the regional order.
Core to the capabilities of the joint force and its interoperability with allies and partners are the readiness and modernization of each U.S. military service.
Project 33 provides a clear path to improve the Navy and enhance its contributions to the joint warfighting ecosystem.
The Navy will increase readiness by: reducing maintenance backlogs to improve combat surge capability; operationalizing robotic and UxSs; redoubling efforts to recruit and retain the right talent; improving flexible training to build sailors’ tactical proficiency; and restoring critical infrastructure to generate and sustain the ready forces required.
Unmanned systems provide the ability to project fires and effects dynamically, at any time, from multiple axes, and with mass. Some capabilities are difficult for adversaries to detect or counterattack.
Project 33’s vision to provide more munitions on more platforms in more places, and its focus on counter-C5ISR is key to making the Navy—and the joint force—more lethal and survivable.
NIWC Pacific’s Offensive Swarm-Enabled Tactics program is testing and fielding capabilities that focus on autonomous swarming tactics using small but massed attritable UxSs in key geographic areas.
In the Indo-Pacific theater, the joint force is exploring ways to use geography to canalize and restrict adversary movement.
There are roles for AI to play in every aspect of sea denial and sea control, from ISR to fires, C2, and sustainment.
The joint force must not “overlearn” the lessons coming out of the current conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.
The entire joint force is creating tools to improve knowledge and awareness of sustainment stocks and forces—treating sustainment as a part of the fires and effects processes.
The services are integrated into a warfighting ecosystem at the tactical and operational levels, and they continue to pursue ways to increase integration.
All these joint and combined exercises and activities strengthen U.S. alliances and communicate to adversaries the futility of aggression.
How Suicide Drones Transformed the Front Lines in Ukraine
In the past, drones used by state forces generally shared a common characteristic: They were purpose-built, closely held weapons from nations with extensive histories of arms production.
Ukraine turned to smaller armed drones from a different source: hobbyist mini-aircraft, sold for recreational use and aerial photography, available to civilian purchasers worldwide.
At first Ukraine principally used models of the Chinese DJI Mavic line - descended from the radio-controlled toy aircraft of generations before but enhanced by the technical superpowers of the digital age: tiny cameras, GPS sensors, easy-to-learn flight apps and rechargeable lithium-ion batteries.
Sturdy and relatively inexpensive, they weighed less than two pounds and accommodated add-on features from 3-D printers.
Their miniaturization was valuable, too. Unlike many fixed-wing drones flown by the U.S. and other national militaries, with wingspans dozens of feet across, these drones could be carried by hand and launched from most anywhere.
After Russia invaded in force in 2022, Ukrainian units quickly acquired and flew drones at a larger scale, for reconnaissance, coordinating fire support and dropping bomblets. Russian soldiers saw the value of Mavic drones, too.
As their scale of use climbed, Ukraine renewed its experimentation with another class of retail quadcopter: FPV drones.
Flown by pilots wearing goggles displaying live video feeds, they were popular among drone-racing enthusiasts and were briefly tried in eastern Ukraine in 2016.
Fast, powerful and less expensive than Mavics, Ukraine’s Center for Special Operations “A,” saw their potential for one-way flights with munitions attached.
Ukraine began rolling out a weapon unlike anything the world’s militaries had previously seen. FPV drones blended the power of anti-tank projectiles, the range of mortars and the accuracy of sniper fire, but with an added feature: aerial agility.
Rethinking Defense: The Role of Private Capital
Michael Sion, John Wenzel, and Blaine Pellicore
As battlefield demands shift, the government is seeking to accelerate investment in advanced technologies and encourage disruption. Private capital will help the US close the investment gap, innovate faster, and improve the affordability of defense platforms and systems.
Venture capital and private equity firms can add value in two key areas.
Disruptive start-ups need growth-oriented investments to develop new capabilities and achieve step-change improvements such as reducing the cost of delivering battlefield outcomes (sometimes called “cost per effect”).
More mature companies will require investment to increase manufacturing scale and production capacity, improve on-time delivery, and bring unit costs down.
Preparing for military threats across different regions is expensive.
Meeting the challenge will require a step change in funding for advanced technologies, defense platforms, and manufacturing.
The total US defense budget has declined for decades as a percentage of gross domestic product, and government R&D as a proportion of GDP is now well below the post–Cold War levels of the early 1990s.
Company-funded R&D by defense-focused companies has not filled the gap. The top five prime defense contractors working for DoD spend only 3% of their total revenue on R&D.
The top seven commercial technology companies invest 11% of their much larger revenue bases in R&D.
In its first National Defense Industrial Strategy, DoD underscored the need to diversify its supplier base and adopt more flexible acquisition strategies that make it easier for new entrants and commercial companies to invest in and serve defense markets.
The DOD is using two key tools to achieve these objectives and reward company-funded investment.
The first is alternative contract structures, such as fixed-price contracts and other transaction authorities (OTAs).
Fixed-price contracts reward risk-taking by creating incentives for achieving outcomes and reducing costs.
OTAs are alternative contracting mechanisms that facilitate access to new and commercial technologies outside of standard, and more cumbersome, government acquisition pathways.
Good examples of these approaches are the Space Development Agency’s fixed-price small satellite contracts and the DIU’s use of OTAs to support rapid prototyping and adoption of commercial technologies.
The second tool includes new mission and program architectures, such as “as a service” contract structures that compensate suppliers for outcomes instead of products, or innovation funds that transfer development risk to suppliers but create demand signals that encourage suppliers to accept that risk.
In FY24, for example, DIU through the Replicator program channeled $500M to nontraditional competitors to rapidly develop and prototype novel autonomous capabilities such as air and sea drones. The program also provided funding for volume production.
Office of Strategic Capital FY25 Investment Strategy
The FY25 Investment Strategy identifies and prioritizes investment areas for the OSC’s newly authorized credit based financial products.
Investments will be prioritized based on their national security impacts, defined as those that provide the U.S. and/or its allies and partners with robust competitive advantage relative to strategic competitors.
OSC’s approach for maximizing the effectiveness of its investments extends the FY2024 Investment Strategy’s approach in two key ways.
The methodology categorizes investment priorities by their national security impact.
The approach utilizes a suite of analytical tools for assessing how those national and economic security impacts can best be achieved.
OSC approaches its contributions to solving that challenge with a framework that describes the landscape of national security impacts across competitive arenas and near-, medium-, and long-term timeframes.
Key industries are those that produce capabilities essential to national security beyond mere control of elements of an economic network.
Near-Term (0-3 years): Capturing Chokepoints in Economic Networks.
Medium-Term (2-7 years): Dominating Key Industries.
Long-Term (5-15+ years): Winning Critical Tech Races.
Related Story: OSC Accepting Loan Applications as it Looks to Lend Up To $984M
The Snyder Cuts: Reforming IRS 1946-1952
In the scandal-plagued Truman administration, the most corrupt agency was the Bureau of Internal Revenue (now IRS). After a series of lurid scandals, involving officials being bribed with luxuries such as fur coats, the Bureau’s commissioner was sentenced to five years in prison. More than 150 other bureau officials were fired.
The public was not impressed by the work of the bureau either as corporate tax investigations were two years behind and income tax refunds took more than twelve months to arrive.
Congress was inclined to pile on new procedural controls in response to the corruption but Truman’s Treasury Secretary, John Snyder, saw that corruption and inefficiency were symptoms of the same problem: bad management.
Better management would allow the agency to root out corruption while also modernizing its archaic business methods. To strengthen management, the Bureau needed fewer procedural controls, not more.
The Treasury, therefore, needed put its own house in order. It turned to work simplification.
During WWII, the Bureau of the Budget (now OMB) had responded to issues by creating a new management unit tasked with training federal managers.
They termed the new management approach work simplification, which held that implementation and policy went hand-in-hand, and therefore managers had to be trained to streamline procedure in order to achieve policy goals.
Managers would be taught to create several types of charts for analysis, one of which was the process chart. The chart would show the flow of an application (or other document) through an agency from start to finish.
The purpose of understanding the process was to simplify the process.
A government process often has individual safeguards that seem sensible in isolation, but that taken together waste time in return for minimal gain.
Managers were encouraged to consider the process as a whole and drop controls that failed to add value.
One approach the IRS chief took was to built up enthusiasm among line managers by having them win fast victories by improving existing processes.
This laid a foundation of success that won him the confidence needed to carry out larger reforms.
Our Take: This post is worth reading in full to understand how the IRS turned itself around. We need more work simplification these days more than ever. We have allowed processes to overrule common sense and overreaction to a small problem is all too common. All government managers should consider where they can implement some of these principles in their workplace.
Giving Our Paper Tiger Real Teeth: Fixing the U.S. Military’s Plans for Contested Logistics Against China
There is growing concern that the U.S. military is unable to deter or win a conflict with China in the Western Pacific. China’s sophisticated arsenal of long-range missiles is a lethal threat to America’s traditional way of deploying and employing expeditionary forces. With a rising sense of urgency, three U.S. military Services (Marines, Army, and Air Force) have embraced new CONOPS that favor dispersed operations.
On the surface, these ideas appear to restore survivability within the Pacific’s first island chain by making American formations harder to find and target.
Unfortunately, these concepts are astonishingly logistics-intensive.
Worse still, America’s military committed itself to these demanding concepts without full consideration of whether they were even logistically supportable.
Now, evidence is emerging suggesting that each Service’s individual concept is probably logistically unsustainable. Even worse, each Service concept implicitly transfers risk from the Service to the joint force but without a clear accounting of how all these risks aggregate together.
Observations
Logistics Matters Most
Innovation Often Fails Because of Logistical Oversights.
The U.S. Military’s New Concepts Are Logistically Dubious.
Three Emergent Problems in Joint Force Logistics
An Insufficient Consideration of Joint Force–Wide Logistics.
Too Many Seams.
A Large Cultural Gap Between Combat and Logistics Communities.
Three Recommendations to Enable Contested, Dispersed Logistics.
Revitalize a Joint Combat Logistics Culture.
Empower a Stronger Joint Logistics Structure in the Pacific.
Experiment With a New, Logistics Led Framework for Planning.
Our Take: Given logistics is central to winning any war, it is worth reading Zachary’s full article. It won the 2024 SECDEF National Security Essay Competition.
Defense Tech
Is the Era of Software As a Service Over?
Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft has outlined a bold yet controversial vision for the future of business applications in a world dominated by AI. According to him, the era of SaaS as we know it is coming to an end, giving way to integrated platforms where AI becomes the central driver.
This transformation is poised to disrupt traditional tools and workflows, paving the way for a new generation of applications.
For decades, SaaS applications have been indispensable in powering business operations but have all built their dominance on one fundamental premise: they’re essentially CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) databases with business logic layered on top.
In the AI era, Nadella envisions that this business logic will migrate to an AI layer, disrupting the role of traditional SaaS apps.
This means that AI agents, as intelligent orchestrators, will integrate seamlessly across multiple SaaS platforms, effectively reducing these apps to their barebones function as databases.
The “intelligence” part of these systems — the workflows, decision-making, and automation — will shift to the AI agents, collapsing the individual value proposition of isolated SaaS tools.
“The business logic is all going to these AI agents. They’re not going to discriminate between what the backend is — they’ll update multiple databases, and all the logic will be in the AI tier.”
Palantir and Anduril Join Forces with Tech Groups to Bid for Pentagon Contracts
Palantir and Anduril, two of the largest US defence technology companies, are in talks with about a dozen competitors to form a consortium that will jointly bid for US government work in an effort to disrupt the country’s oligopoly of “prime” contractors.
The consortium is planning to announce as early as January that it has reached agreements with a number of tech groups. Companies in talks to join include Elon Musk’s SpaceX, ChatGPT maker OpenAI, autonomous-ship builder Saronic and AI data group Scale AI, according to several people with knowledge of the matter.
The move comes as tech companies seek to grab a bigger slice of the US government’s huge $850bn defence budget from traditional prime contractors such as Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and Boeing.
It comes as defence tech start-ups have attracted record amounts of funding this year, as investors bet they will be among the winners of higher federal spending on national security, immigration and space exploration.
US defence procurement has long been criticised as slow and anti-competitive, favouring a small number of decades-old primes, such as Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and Boeing. These vast conglomerates typically produce ships, tanks and aircraft that are costly and take years to design and manufacture.
DARPA Eyeing New Quantum Sensing Program
DoD sees quantum sensors as promising capabilities for alternative PNT and ISR.
DARPA may soon launch a new program to develop more robust quantum sensors that can be integrated onto U.S. military platforms.
The initiative seeks to bring quantum sensors to DoD platforms.
While quantum sensors have demonstrated exceptional laboratory performance in a number of modalities (magnetic and electrical field, acceleration, rotation, and gravity, etc.), their performance degrades once the sensor is placed on moving platforms due to electrical and magnetic fields, field gradients, and system vibrations.
RoQS seeks to overcome these challenges through innovative physics approaches to quantum sensing.
The program aims to develop and demonstrate quantum sensors that inherently resist performance degradation from platform interferers and demonstrate them on a government-provided platform.
Although DOD officials see potential uses for quantum-enabled capabilities in computing, encryption and communications, sensing is considered by many observers to be the most mature application for near-term use by the Pentagon.
Accelerating Weapons Integration for Fighter and Bomber Aircraft
A near-peer conflict will require the Air Force Navy to employ their entire conventional munitions portfolio, which includes a wide variety of air-to-air and air-to-surface weapons. Unfortunately, the nation’s latest aircraft are largely outfitted with legacy weapons that are vulnerable against near-peer competitors.
Adding advanced weapons to existing fighter and bomber aircraft requires an in-depth, time-consuming, and expensive qualification and certification process.
Challenges arise from the certification process, risk tolerance, overreliance on flight testing, lack of investment, human capital shortages, and inadequate use of standards.
Talented weapons integration and test SMEs are in high demand across government and industry. Planning for and executing weapons certification tests are labor-intensive, require a skill set uncommon outside of the DoD ecosystem, and demand years of training and experience to develop proficiency.
The near-term approaches include prioritizing the most critical weapons, implementing incremental envelope and minimum viable capabilities certification, and fully staffing weapons integration and test teams.
An OSD-level working group could be organized to identify areas for acceleration and develop needed policies and regulations to implement the findings.
M&S standardization across the DoD will need to include acceptable risk tolerance guidelines.
DoD could invest in an adequate number of weapons emulators with supporting wind tunnel validation data for aircraft programs.
Require programs to buy an adequate number of FSAs at the beginning of a program and upgrade and replace them in a timely manner.
Universal Armament Interface (UAI) could be implemented to realize an actual plug-and-play interface.
Invest in test infrastructure that will enable programs to collect relevant flight-quality data on the ground (wind tunnels and chambers) that can be used to offset flight testing.
GigEagle and the DoD’s Agile Talent Ecosystem Receives Scaling Investment from CDAO
CDAO provided more than $5M to further develop GigEagle's AI-powered Joint talent marketplace for digital talent.
Initially launched by the DIU as a real-time talent matching platform in April 2024 - today it has more than 4,500 users.
GigEagle is DoD’s first agile talent platform that leverages machine learning to rapidly connect skilled personnel with mission-critical roles.
Since GigEagle's pilot iteration launched in April 2024, dozens of hiring managers across DoD have successfully secured the right talent for their needs.
Supported organizations include the Army Reserve, SSC, EUCOM, AFRL, and an Intelligence Community agency, among others.
Army
From a New Civilian Leader to Modernization Priorities, Army Changes Afoot: 2025 Preview
As the Army heads into the new year, it will be greeted with questions about weapon affordability and ways to carve out efficiencies.
“It should be clear to all of us that the days where we indiscriminately could buy an entire Army’s worth of inventory in a single program of record are gone. We can’t afford to invest in obsolescence. There are some things we are going to stop buying old, stand-alone tech, equipment that can’t operate in our formations, and isn’t survivable on the modern battlefield. Even if t was a program of record, we may have to stop buying it.”
GEN Randy George, Army Chief of Staff
The Army has been grappling with a flat budget as it pushed forward with modernization priorities categories — long-range precision fires, next-generation combat vehicles, future vertical lift, the network, air and missile defense and soldier lethality.
The Army killed off Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) and halted development on its Extended Range Cannon Artillery (ERCA) platform. It announced five companies to demo their existing long-range fires platforms.
IVAS and RCV Phase II are other big ticket items for 2025.
The Army is also poised to use next year’s Project Convergence capstone event to test out the service’s future C2 architecture to see if it’s on the right track.
If testing there goes well, senior leaders will likely hand the prototyping project over to the AFC Network Cross-Functional Team to continue work.
Army to Sole-Source Deal for Hypervelocity Projectiles, Drone-Killing Artillery Cannon
The Army plans to spend about $646M on the MDAC system in FY25-27.
The Army intends to award prototyping agreements to BAE Systems for new ultra-fast weapons to shoot down drones and other airborne threats. The Army in recent months has been doing market research to inform its pursuit of a multi-domain artillery cannon (MDAC) and hypervelocity projectiles (HVP)
The Strategic Capabilities Office awarded the firm a $16M contract a few years ago to mature and demonstrate the lethality of its hypervelocity projectile against ground targets at extremely long ranges.
The HVP is a next-generation, common, low drag, guided projectile capable of executing multiple missions for a number of gun systems, such as the Navy 5-Inch; Navy, Marine Corps, and Army 155-mm systems; and future electromagnetic railguns.
The MDAC technology is intended to defend U.S. military forces at fixed and semi-fixed locations against attack by a broad spectrum of drones, fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft, cruise missiles, subsonic and supersonic cruise missiles, and other advanced threats.
Our Take: Awarding a sole source $600+M contract for a new technology definitely gets our attention and not in a good way. Was there really no other company who could conceivably do this work?
This Army Unit is the First to Field New Company and Battalion Drones
Soldiers with the 10th Mountain Division, which is currently deployed in Romania, recently became the first Army unit to field the service’s newest reconnaissance drones.
The 317th Brigade Engineer Battalion, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, out of Fort Drum, NY, employed the Skydio and GhostX systems during training operations.
The Skydio X10D drone is a short-range recon aircraft that can fly up to 5 kilometers and stay aloft for approximately 30 minutes.
The GhostX, made by Anduril, goes a bit farther. It can fly up to 15 kilometers and stay in the air for an hour.
Soldiers flying the new drones nabbed new skills during the operation.
Navy
For the Navy, All Eyes Will be on China-Taiwan: 2025 Preview
ADM Lisa Franchetti has ordered the Navy to be prepared for the possibility of conflict with China over Taiwan in 2027. But for better or worse, the Navy the US has today is largely the one it will have in 2027.
What can the Navy do before then to prepare for a potential conflict with China?
The answer the service has presented comes from Franchetti’s recently published Navigation Plan, which includes her “Project 33,” the spearheading initiative setting the service’s focus on 2027. Franchetti lays out numerous goals but one that stands out is her focus on 80% surge readiness.
The Navy’s struggles with maintenance keeping pace with operational tempo — even in peacetime, never mind wartime — are well documented.
Franchetti has also taken to using the phrase “Getting more players on the field,” referring to building traditional warships, but also unmanned vessels, among other efforts.
The Navy spent considerable time and money in the first half of the 2020s going through the steps to incorporate unmanned surface and subsurface vessels into its fleet. And there are success stories such as Saildrones patrolling the seas in support of 4th Fleet.
Franchetti’s plan states candidly that without a larger budget, the service will face deep strategic constraints.
The Navy’s never-ending quest for 355 ships: 5 Navy stories from 2024
Ship counts were clearly on the mind of US Navy officials this year as they made numerous plays to bolster the fleet in novel ways.
In 2024, the Navy didn’t have enough ships or subs it wanted in its fleet. And it showed.
A bipartisan chorus of lawmakers as well as top Navy leadership have bemoaned the fleet’s size for years now. Despite federal law stating the service must maintain more than 355 ships, the fleet’s actual size currently fluctuates between the high 280s and low 290s.
1. Navy lays out major shipbuilding delays, in rare public accounting
2. How SECNAV’s claims about S. Korean, Japanese shipbuilders do and do not line up
3. ICE Pact: Why the US had to recruit help in race with Russia, China for Arctic icebreakers
4. Navy takes ‘really big swing with private investment to boost sub industrial base
A View from the Western Pacific
Those Chinese dredging projects of a decade ago are now operational military outposts, serving as logistics and basing hubs for PLA Navy, China Coast Guard, and maritime militia vessels, allowing them to sustain their presence throughout the South China Sea.
The PLAN buildup has delivered more than 100 new ships over the past decade, bringing its fleet to around 370 ships—and it is still growing.
Recently, China joined Russia’s large-scale Ocean 24 exercise—a demonstration of their growing strategic cooperation in the maritime domain. While the PLAN’s partnerships are not as strong as U.S. alliances in the region, China is working more closely with Russia, North Korea, and Iran every year.
The Indo-Pacific region is a global economic engine, producing $2T in trade each year with the U.S. alone. It contains more than 60% of the world’s population.
What happens in this theater will define the next decade and, likely, the next century. For the Navy, maintaining warfighting advantage to provide senior leaders options remains essential.
The global system that has fostered peace and stability in this region provides all nations—regardless of size—a chance to prosper.
Seventh Fleet also conducts regular bilateral and multilateral operations with Australia, Canada, and India, whose advanced navies lend authoritative voices to the global conversation on the need to keep the Indo-Pacific open and free.
From inside the first island chain, Seventh Fleet continuously hones its readiness, capability, and capacity to prevail in any contingency.
Expeditionary Mining Could Help Win—or Prevent—the Next War
LCDR Christopher Price
To establish sea denial and foster deterrence, prioritize expeditionary mining.
The Navy—the most powerful navy in the world—lacks the most effective (and cost-effective) means of sea denial: expeditionary mining.
Conventional mining by warships, submarines, aircraft, and unmanned systems is a worthy investment. But history has shown the strategic, operational, and tactical value of mining littoral regions in adaptive, unconventional ways.
In modern scenarios, deploying small teams to lay mines from shore or from civilian, host-nation, or nonstandard vessels may be the only feasible method to deter an amphibious landing or deny enemy vessels maneuver in littoral regions.
Expeditionary mining is not a new concept. Sovereign nations and nonstate actors have achieved strategic and operational objectives such as deterrence and sea denial using those kinds of asymmetric tactics.
This includes shore-based mining and mining from unconventional platforms, particularly in littoral regions and strategic chokepoints.
Air Force
Under Trump, Decision on Air Force’s NGAD Will Shape Fleet for Decades
The Air Force struggled for much of 2024 to figure out how — and even whether — to proceed with its planned sixth-generation fighter, known as NGAD.
Since the election, prominent Trump advisers Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy have disparaged the idea of building more crewed fighters, and said the military should instead concentrate on drones.
Rep Wittman believes that crewed fighters will be necessary for the military in the near-term but in the long term uncrewed platforms will take on a greater role — particularly as technology advances at a rapid pace.
Gen Allvin agrees drones will play a key role in future warfare, and feels the military needs to strike a balance between crewed and uncrewed platforms.
“The future is really about the most effective human-machine teaming. One can take the idea of drones or uncrewed warfare … to the extreme, and if you take the human out of this very human endeavor, which is warfare, then it becomes too easy to do. Warfare is always a human endeavor.” Gen Allvin
Trump Administration Inherits Air Force Funding Hurdle: 2025 Preview
The FY26 budget is now (almost) here, and decisions within it are in the hands of the incoming Trump administration.
In conjunction with incumbent Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin, Sec Kendall’s successor will chart the way forward for a service that is struggling with a shrinking fighter force, pressing modernization needs and a wholesale revamp aimed at countering China.
An early preview of the problems facing the next administration was recently laid out by Kendall, who mused that the service’s plans for a next-gen tanker or fighter may not be affordable.
Other critical efforts additionally need funding in the upcoming FY26 budget, most notably two legs of the nuclear triad.
Proponents of a bigger Air Force budget will still have allies on Capitol Hill under the new GOP majority that will be more concerned with reining in spending.
One key champion for a larger Pentagon topline will likely be Kentucky Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell, who is set to chair the Senate subcommittee that oversees defense spending.
Incoming SASC Chair Roger Wicker, R-Miss., has also called for a “full-scale rebuilding of the shrinking US Air Force,” including by pressing forward with the NGAD program.
Outgoing Air Force acquisition chief Andrew Hunter described two principal challenges awaiting the next administration: getting the proper resourcing, and ensuring systems are effectively integrated in a new, highly connected age of warfighting.
SECAF, B-21, Budgets: The Top Stories We’re Tracking for 2025
As we head into 2025, these are some of the stories that Air and Space Forces Magazine will be keeping a close eye on.
Who’s the Boss?
President-elect Donald Trump has announced his picks for virtually every other major Pentagon post, including the other service secretaries. But his choice for the Air Force remains unknown.
The pick could continue shepherding Kendall’s OIs through to completion or reverse course on many key efforts.
What Happens to NGAD and CCA?
Kendall formed a blue-ribbon panel of former Air Chiefs and other experts to review NGAD but after additional study, preliminary media reports indicate minimal changes to the project.
The corollary to the NGAD question is CCA—there seems to be a common consensus on the importance of the program but just how fast it can move forward remains to be seen.
What’s Next for B-21?
The B-21 Raider entered flight testing at Edwards AFB at the very beginning of 2024, and there are few details on its success there besides the fact that it has been flying up to twice a week.
There are no hard timelines set for when the Raider might enter service. Curious observers will be hungry for details, however few or vague, in 2025.
Integrated Capabilities Command
One of the biggest changes from the re-organization the Air Force announced earlier this year was the creation of a new command to centralize and streamline how the Air Force sets requirements for its future force.
In September, Chief of Staff Gen. David W. Allvin announced the standup of a provisional ICC, with the goal of achieving full operational capability in 2025.
Part of that challenge is because the new command will require moving personnel and establishing a headquarters, which means it will receive special attention from lawmakers and will need Congressional approval.
A four-star commander might also be needed to ensure ICC can take the leadership role it needs.
REFORPAC
Another initiative announced was a major exercise in the Indo-Pacific in summer 2025 dubbed Resolute Force Pacific,” or REFORPAC.
The scale of the exercise is meant to be vast—nearly 300 aircraft spread across 25 locations in the Pacific, outstripping all other major exercises the service has held in recent years.
But leaders have warned that the scale of the exercise may have to be pared back if Congress does not pass a new budget in time (given the CR until Mar)
Large-scale exercises are seen as crucial to work out joint operating concepts and command and control kinds for future combat against a peer like China.
Warrant Officers
One of the most popular changes the Air Force announced in 2024 was the reintroduction of warrant officers in the cyber and IT career fields.
The first class of warrant officers graduated in December, and another cohort isn’t far behind but there are still lots of unknowns—how the Air Force will employ these new warrant officers, what the feedback will be on their value to commands, and which other career fields might be added next.
Space Force Growth
After explosive growth in its early years, the Space Force faced its first proposed budget cut for 2025.
Meanwhile, leaders have grown increasingly vocal about the need for more manpower and resources to fulfill all the Space Force’s growing missions, particularly counter-space efforts.
The service got its start under President Trump, and his return to office could boost its efforts to expand. If the new administration does support a bigger Space Force, the rate at which it grows will be watched closely.
Air Force Growth
Congress has resisted cuts to the AF, but also shown skepticism about the F-35 fighter and the Air Force’s overall strategy.
The incoming administration will face major decisions about how to pay for more Air Force and what it might be willing to give up to acquire more jets faster.
Air Force Aligns Cyber Center to CIO
The Air Force is realigning its Headquarters Cyberspace Capabilities Center to the CIO in an attempt to streamline information technology functions.
The center, headquartered at Scott AFB was stood up in 2019 and was responsible for delivering cyber capabilities.
The recently change making it a field operating agency that is secretariat aligned will require no movement of people, and it’s expected to reach full operational capability by October 2025.
As a field operating agency, the center will develop and manage services such as cloud computing, cybersecurity, mobility, and data centers, to ensure interoperability and consistency across the department.
As part of those changes, the Air Force has sought to elevate the role of cyber and IT functions, with forthcoming moves including elevating Air Forces Cyber and splitting the intelligence and cyber roles at the deputy chief of staff level.
“This is a significant step toward streamlining and consolidating Information Technology functions and ensuring unity of effort in IT service delivery across the Air Force and Space Force. By combining and aligning these functions to their authoritative owner, the IT enterprise will be able to produce capabilities in shorter, more rapid development cycles — ensuring requirements are expediently actioned and delivered to the Airmen and Guardians who need them.” Secretary Kendall
Air Force, Industry Partners to Develop SAE International Standard for All Aircraft Data Formats
The Air Force Rapid Sustainment Office is working with industry partners to standardize data formats across the U.S Air Force fleet.
The effort, known as the SAE AS7140 Common Open Data Exchange (CODEX) standard, will create three aircraft data file formats and a universal aircraft data file decoder API by early 2025.
The goal is to create a universal tool that can be leveraged across the DoD and allow for easier, faster, and consistent data use and communication between organizations.
Part of the work includes standardizing Health and Usage Monitoring Systems data for all modern and some legacy Air Force platforms, at three separate points in the data collection and distribution process.
A significant partnership between the Air Force and Industry was required to make this universal standard possible.
Air Force industry partners included Airbus, Bell, Boeing, Collins Aerospace, EASA, GE Aerospace, Honeywell Aerospace, IEEE, Leonardo, Lockheed Martin, Meggitt, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Rolls Royce, SAE, and Sikorsky.
Space Force
For the Space Force, Terrestrial Turf Wars and Rising Budgets Await: 2025 Preview
Former SECDEF Donald Rumsfeld elicited snickers with his famous quote about “known knowns, known unknowns and unknown unknowns” but those words seem appropriate for prognosticating what 2025 will look like for the Space Force.
Known Knowns: Likely Budget Increase, New Capabilities Debut
First is the likely growth in both the Space Force’s budget and force size. Given that President-elect Donald Trump takes personal credit for the Space Force’s creation, service advocates appear pretty confident on social media that the service’s budget and status within the Defense Department will rise.
But given the administration’s much-touted effort to cut costs by finding efficiency in government departments including DoD, few analysts are putting their bets on a funding increase anywhere close to Kendall’s call.
Second, Congress is going to be looking at 2025, as the Space Force’s fifth year, for it to show results from efforts to pivot to new ways of doing business. Five years on, what new capabilities have been fielded to meet the growing threat?
Known Unknowns: Space Force-IC Boundaries, Tilt Towards Offensive Ops
The long-running turf battle between the Space Force and NRO/NGA will continue to fester into next year.
The most pressing source of strife is the question of who is in charge of buying commercial remote sensing imagery and products when and under what circumstances — an issue that a industry officials say threatens to undercut the nascent market.
Savvy betters will be putting money on a marked shift in budget priorities next year towards the development of new capabilities for targeting Russian and Chinese space systems, whether those be suspected killer satellites or more traditional military support systems such as intelligence-gathering satellites.
Unknown Unknowns: ???
All things considered — including the runaway pace of technology innovation in the commercial space market — 2025 seems even more ripe than this year for supernova-sized surprises.
The Space RCO: Unlocking the Power of Collaboration for National Defense
One of the key factors that sets Space RCO apart is our commitment to collaboration with the space industry.
We believe that by working together with industry partners, we can tap into the latest innovations and expertise and accelerate the development of advanced space capabilities.
This approach has proven to be highly successful, with our partnerships yielding significant benefits in terms of speed, agility and cost-effectiveness.
Collaboration with the space industry is vital for several reasons.
First, it allows us to leverage the expertise and resources of industry partners who bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to the table. This enables us to develop and field space capabilities that are tailored to meet the specific needs of our nation’s defense.
Second, collaboration fosters a spirit of innovation and experimentation, which is essential for staying ahead of the curve in the rapidly-evolving space domain.
Space Industrial Base Racing to Meet Growing Demand for Military Satellites
Over the next decade, DoD intends to proliferate hundreds of new military satellites on orbit that will provide improved space-based capabilities for warfighters.
While the effort has been lauded as an ambitious and innovative plan to revolutionize space acquisition, it has also exposed critical vulnerabilities in the U.S.’ ability to manufacture and deliver systems at scale.
At the forefront of the relatively novel approach is the Space Development Agency’s spiral acquisition strategy that is being used for the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA).
Once it’s built out, the constellation is expected to comprise hundreds of satellites in low-Earth orbit (LEO) and include space vehicles carrying different communications, data relay, missile warning and missile tracking capabilities.
A total of 158 satellites are being developed for Tranche 1 of the PWSA: 126 data transport sats, 28 missile warning/missile tracking sats and four missile defense demonstration sats.
Although the first operational satellites known as Tranche 1 were slated to launch in fall 2024, that deadline has since been delayed to March or April 2025 due to supply chain bottlenecks.
Dirk Wallinger, CEO and president of York Space Systems, said challenges the company had weren’t specific to its Tranche 1 contracts, but actually reflect a lack of diversity in the supply chain that is affecting the entire space industry.
Addressing the problem would require rethinking high-level performance requirements in a manner that would diversify the supplier base and enable more competition in industry.
L3Harris is also trying to move away from single or sole-source suppliers by building strong relationships with the swath of subcontractors it has worked with on all three of its contracts for the PWSA.
The most effective way to mitigate supply chain risks has been to buy satellite buses from providers ahead of receiving mission specifications. In the future, it’s crucial that the government secures these long-lead items as early as possible to effectively eliminate delays.
While SDA has tried to ensure its system requirements can leverage readily available hardware, there are some components that must be tailor-made for the Tranche 1 satellites.
Mesh network encryption devices that are approved by the National Security Agency have been a significant headache because there’s only one manufacturer able to make them
“One of the key bottlenecks results from [requests for proposals] with subsystem performance specifications that inadvertently narrow the qualified vendor pool to a single supplier. This limits the value tradeoffs of all of the prime contractors and by creating dependency on sole-source suppliers, exacerbates delays.” Wallinger
“We do not have the industrial capacity built today to get after this. We’re going to have to start getting comfortable with the lack of efficiency in the industrial base to start getting excess capacity so that we have something to go to in times of crisis and conflict.” Vice CSO Gen. Michael Guetlein
SpaceX Launch Surge Helps Set New Global Launch Record in 2024
The world set another record for orbital launches in 2024 in a continuing surge of launch activity driven almost entirely by SpaceX.
There were 259 orbital launch attempts in 2024, a 17% increase from the previous record of 221 orbital launch attempts in 2023.
That increase in overall launches matches the increase by SpaceX alone, which performed 134 Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launches in 2024, up from 96 in 2023.
The company performed more orbital launches than the rest of the world combined.
China performed 68 launches in 2024, breaking a record of 67 launches set in 2023. Russia performed 17 launches, followed by Japan (7), India (5), Iran (4), Europe (3) and North Korea (1).
International
China Stuns With Heavy Stealth Tactical Jet’s Sudden Appearance
In something of a stunning development, China appears to already be flying a stealthy, high-performance sixth-generation crewed combat aircraft, imagery of which just began to emerge.
At this early stage, we have very little idea about the precise identity of the new aircraft, but many elements of its design are very much in line with what we already knew about Chinese sixth-generation airpower aspirations.
Aside from the sheer size of the new aircraft, the most striking thing about it is its planform and tailless configuration. It has a modified delta wing with chine lines extending all the way to the nose area.
Next-generation tactical combat aircraft eschewing traditional tails is a major design driver being pursued by the U.S. military, as well.
This is predominantly to significantly reduce the aircraft’s radar signature across multiple bands and from all aspects.
There are some aerodynamic efficiencies also to be had with such a design, including better performance for sustained high-speed dashes and cruising flight.
At the same time, a tailless configuration can adversely affect maneuverability, even with the most advanced computerized flight control systems.
There are currently no signs of thrust-vectoring engines on this aircraft, which would help enhance agility and overall stability.
It’s not entirely clear the exact level of enhanced low observability this new aircraft might offer but this aircraft incorporates significantly greater low observable technologies that are a leap ahead of the J-20.
Its large size would seem to reflect an overarching concern with long endurance and comparatively massive internal volume to accommodate a very large fuel load, as well as weapons and sensors.
Experts: New Chinese Combat Aircraft Likely a Medium-Range Bomber
The larger aircraft could be analogous to the FB-22 medium stealth bomber considered but not adopted by the U.S. Air Force in the early 2000s.
Three engines would make the aircraft very heavy—or at least reduce its range and payload—and experts speculated that the reason for three may have to do with generating power for intense electronic warfare applications or to mix bypass air with the exhaust air to cool it and reduce the aircraft’s heat signature.
It has a two-engine exhaust system similar to that of the F-22, potentially suggesting that China is exploring a number of ways to reduce the heat signature and possible thrust vectoring of combat aircraft engines.
China Places Massive Order for Kamikaze Drones
A Chinese drone manufacturer has disclosed a massive government order for almost a million lightweight kamikaze drones, to be delivered by 2026.
Details about the specific type or technical specifications of the drones remain undisclosed.
Footage and reports suggest the use of FPV drones and kamikaze drones in simulated combat scenarios to enhance the readiness of PLA forces.
China’s military-industrial complex has been rapidly advancing in the realm of unmanned systems.
The PLA has placed significant emphasis on drones as force multipliers, particularly in areas like reconnaissance, electronic warfare, and precision strikes.
The integration of kamikaze drones provides a cost-effective and scalable solution for saturating enemy defenses, a tactic that has proven effective in various modern conflicts.
Analysts note that such an extensive procurement aligns with the PLA’s objectives of modernizing and expanding its capabilities to prepare for potential large-scale engagements.
China Unveils Amphibious Assault Ship That Can Launch Fighter Jets
The Sichuan, the first ship of the Type 076, is China’s largest such ship yet, displacing 40,000 tons and equipped with an electromagnetic catapult that will allow fighter jets to launch directly off its deck.
The ship is designed to launch ground troops in landing crafts and provide them with air support.
it’s also equipped with an arrestor technology that allows fighter jets to land on its deck.
Finland Eyes Defense-Spending Boost Well Past NATO Mark
Finland’s conservative-led government has unveiled a broad plan to lift defense spending from $6.8B in 2025 to $11.5B in 2032.
The government’s proposal, which has gained the majority support of the main opposition parties in the parliament, would reposition Finland’s annual spending on defense closer to 3.3% of GDP, placing it well above NATO’s 2% guideline.
Finland’s spending on defense in 2024 is expected to reach around 2.4% of the nation’s GDP.
The Finnish government presented an updated Defense Report to the parliment on Dec. 19, its first since the country joined NATO in April 2023.
The report warns of the danger that Russia could decide to extend its war with Ukraine to neighboring NATO-aligned Baltic countries and member states of the European Union.
A number of big ticket procurements, including the $8.8 billion deal to purchase 64 Lockheed Martin F-35A fighters, saw the defense budget increase to $6.1B in 2023.
German Navy tests BlueWhale Underwater Drone for Covert Ship Tracking
The Germany Navy has tested the BlueWhale underwater drone as a candidate platform for what the sea service envisions as a future fleet of unmanned vessels for combating enemy submarines.
The German sea service explicitly envisions an anti-submarine warfare role for the BlueWhale vehicle, made by Israel Aerospace Industries.
Equipped with various cameras as well as active and passive sensors, the drone can spot submarines, surface vessels and sea mines — notably, without emitting signals of its own that would alert targets that they are being tracked.
The BlueWhale drones fall into the category of large unmanned underwater vehicles, weighing in at 5.5 tons, with a length of almost 11 meters and a diameter of over 1 meter.
Germany’s Marine 2035+ strategy envisions accelerating the development of unmanned technology and quickly integrating new drones into the sea service’s command-and-control schemes.
UK MoD Develops Quantum Clock
The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) has revealed that a secret laboratory is creating a quantum technology-based atomic clock, designed to improve military intelligence and surveillance capabilities.
Quantum clocks offer precise navigation systems independent of GPS satellites, which are susceptible to interference in conflict situations.
The quantum clock offers precision and enables accurate time measurement.
Scheduled for deployment within five years, this is the first of its kind in the UK and aims to advance global navigation systems, satellite communication, and aircraft navigation.
They also secure communication systems and improve the accuracy of advanced weapon systems.
This initiative follows a trilateral agreement between the MoD, DARPA, and the Canadian Department of National Defence, to advance AI and cybersecurity systems.
Japan to Buy V-BAT Surveillance Drones for Future Patrol Vessels
The Japanese cabinet has approved the purchase of six V-BAT UAVs as part of the defense budget proposal for FY25.
An amount of 4 billion yen ($25M) has been allocated for the purchase to enhance the surveillance and intelligence-gathering capabilities of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force’s surface vessels.
The V-BAT platform is designed to take off and land in high winds, on crowded flight decks, and aboard moving vessels with landing zones as small as 12 x 12 inches (30 x 30 centimeters).
The V-BAT can be installed with a range of interchangeable and customizable payloads and sensors such as electro-optical/medium-wave infrared cameras, an automatic identification system, and land/maritime wide area search AI-based capabilities.
Congress
The 119th Congress is now seated. It includes 100 military veterans.
Senate Majority Leader: John Thune (R-SD)
Senate Minority Leader: Chuck Schumer (D-NY)
SASC Chairman: Roger Wicker (R-MS)
SASC Republican Members: Deb Fischer (NE), Tom Cotton (AR), Mike Rounds (SD), Joni Ernst (IA), Dan Sullivan (AK), Kevin Cramer (ND), Rick Scott (FL), Tommy Tuberville (AL), Markwayne Mullin (OK), Ted Budd (NC), Eric Schmitt (MO), Jim Banks (IN), Tim Sheehy (MT).
SASC Ranking Member: Jack Reed (D-RI)
SASC Democratic Members: Jeanne Shaheen (NH), Kristen Gillibrand (NY), Richard Blumenthal (CT), Mazie Hirono (HI), Tim Kaine (VA), Angus King (ME), Elizabeth Warren (MA), Gary Peters (MI), Tammy Duckworth (IL), Jacky Rosen (NV), Mark Kelly (AZ), Elissa Slotkin (MI).
SAC-D Chairman: Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
SAC-D Ranking Member: Dick Durbin (D-IL)
Speaker of the House: Mike Johnson (R-LA)
Minority Leader: Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY)
HASC Chairman: Mike Rogers (R-AL)
HASC Ranking Member: Adam Smith (D-WA)
HAC-D Chairman: Ken Calvert (R-CA)
HAC-D Ranking Member: Betty McCollum (D-MN)
We are still operating under a continuing resolution through March 14, 2025.
Defense Nominations
SECDEF: Pete Hegseth - Confirmation hearing Jan 14th.
DEPSECDEF: Stephen Feinberg
USD(A&S): Michael Duffey
USD(R&E): Emil Michael
USD Policy: Elbridge Colby
Army Secretary: Daniel Driscoll
Navy Secretary: John Phelan
Air Force Secretary: ??
Podcasts, Books, and Videos
Stealth and Scale: Quality, Quantity, and Modern Military Power, War on the Rocks. Michael Horowitz and Joshua Schwartz, Ph.D.
Upcoming Events and Webinars
Army IT Day, AFCEA Nova, Jan 8, VA
Moving to a Threat-Based Approach in the Acquisition System, SVDG, Jan 10, Online, Feat. Matt
WEST 2025, AFCEA, Jan 28-30, San Diego, CA
Prodacity 2025, Rise8, Feb 4-6, Nashville, TN
National Logistics Forum, NDIA, Feb 11-13, Orlando, FL
Special Operations Symposium, NDIA, Feb 19-20, Washington DC
Creative Disruptors in the Desert, CDF, Feb 21-22, Indian Wells, CA
Tactical Wheeled Vehicles Conference, NDIA, Feb 24-26, Reston, VA
Defense Software and Data Summit 2025, Govini, Feb 26, Washington DC
See our Events Page for all the other events over the next year.
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