Monday, May 20, 2024
Key Issues GAO on F-35 SLCM-N program office PrSM funding
Jason Sherman is a reporter for Inside Defense. For more than two decades -- including stints with Defense News and Armed Forces Journal -- he has covered the Pentagon, defense industry, the military budget, weapon system acquisition and defense policy formulation as well as reporting on technology, business, and global arms trade. Jason has traveled to more than 40 countries, studied medieval history at the State University of New York at Buffalo, and lives in Brooklyn.
The Navy -- which failed to draw more than a single bid during its inaugural $3.2 billion air-and-missile-defense radar production competition -- is readying a follow-on contest for the SPY-6 family of radars likely worth billions of dollars that appears to reflect a lesson learned from the initial acquisition stumble.
The Defense Department can now re-purpose a homeland defense radar for Guam after the Senate dropped its opposition to the move, lending speed to the project to improve air- and missile defenses of the Western Pacific U.S. territory. The radar was originally purchased for Hawaii but never emplaced due to local opposition over the size and impact of the large sensor.
The Pentagon is wrapping a veil of secrecy around the substance of an upcoming Defense Science Board summer study, marking as classified particular areas of focus that will be explored as part of the influential advisory panel's marquee 2024 investigation, an effort that typically culminates in August and often shapes future weapon system investment plans.
The Defense Department is considering earlier-than-planned design selections for the Next Generation Interceptor and Glide Phase Interceptor to free up funds needed to finance fiscal year 2025 shortfalls caused by GOP-mandated debt ceiling negotiations that trimmed the Biden administration's FY-25 military spending forecast.
A proposal to dramatically expand in law the national missile defense policy -- with a provision proposed in the House version of the fiscal year 2024 defense authorization bill the Biden administration warned would be destabilizing, unaffordable and undoable -- was rolled back in the final version of the legislation.
Lawmakers have more than doubled authorized spending for hypersonic defense in fiscal year 2024, fully funding the Missile Defense Agency's off-budget wish to add $225 million to the Pentagon's $208 million formal request and directing an accelerated development and fielding plan for the Glide Phase Interceptor.
The potential for space-based missile defense capabilities -- including orbiting interceptors -- will get another serious assessment in 2024, more than 40 years after President Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative and nearly six years after the Pentagon last explored the matter, this time at Congress' direction.
The Defense Department plans next month to conduct the second of two major technical reviews for the Next Generation Interceptor competition, assessing Northrop Grumman's design and select components for a homeland defense guided-missile prototype after completing a similar review in October of the same for Lockheed Martin.
A new variant of the Ground-based Interceptor successfully stopped an intermediate-range ballistic missile today over the Pacific Ocean using a booster that utilized only two of three available rocket stages -- demonstrating the ability to release the kill vehicle earlier, significantly expanding both the engagement area and time available to counter inbound threats.
The Defense Department plans to conduct a test of the homeland ballistic missile defense system today, launching a Ground-based Interceptor from Vandenberg Space Force Base, CA this morning.
The conflicts in Ukraine and Israel have ushered in a new "era of missile-centric warfare" and elevated the importance of missile defense systems, demonstrating in real-world events capabilities previously relegated to intelligence forecasts and baked into key policy documents, including the 2022 National Defense Strategy, according to a senior Pentagon official.
Aegis Ashore Poland -- a key component of the Obama administration's 2009 initiative to defend U.S. deployed forces and NATO allies in Europe from Iranian ballistic missile threats -- will drag itself over the finish line next week after five years of construction delays when the Navy formally adds the land-based system to its inventory.
SIMI VALLEY, CA -- Any extension of a stopgap spending measure beyond early February would be "pretty calamitous" for the Army, triggering immediate consequences that include delaying weapon system acquisition milestones, delaying production-ramp decisions and cancelling training, according to a senior service official.
After more than four months without a three-star officer at the helm, the Missile Defense Agency today has a full-fledged leader after Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) abandoned his quixotic quest to change Pentagon health services for woman and the Senate confirmed Air Force Lt. Gen. Heath Collins' promotion.
SIMI VALLEY, CA -- The Defense Department's fiscal year 2025 budget request will -- at best -- squeeze investment accounts compared to Pentagon plans earlier this year as a result of the June debt-limit deal demanded by House Republicans, forcing what DOD's top weapons buyer calls "difficult choices" about where to trim planned spending.
SIMI VALLEY, CA -- The Defense Department is readying plans to integrate a 2024 advanced technology experimentation exercise with similar Australian efforts down under after both nations this fall exchanged observers at key events, according to the Pentagon's top technology development official.
SIMI VALLEY, CA -- The Defense Department -- after 18 months of problems with both the two-stage missile and the ground launcher for the U.S. military's premier long-range hypersonic strike weapon -- has determined the original development path is no longer viable and remedial work on both elements of the Army's Dark Eagle program is now necessary. (UPDATED)
SIMI VALLEY, CA -- The first fruits of the Defense Department's high-profile Rapid Defense Experimentation Reserve -- nearly two years in the making -- are at risk of stalling out due to budget uncertainty, potentially slowing delivery to combatant commanders of new capabilities recently validated through experimentation earlier this year as having warfighting utility.
SIMI VALLEY, CA -- Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin addressed the 10th gathering of the Reagan National Defense Forum by calling on Congress to provide fiscal year 2024 funding certainty in an address that did not outline any new initiatives or policy objectives but focused on the unique role of the United States leadership in the world.
The Army is exploring an Extended-Range Soft-Recoil cannon on a Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles truck to test the limits and capabilities of 155mm artillery fired from a highly mobile platform and commissioned a full-scale demonstrator as part of determining how best to replace towed systems now vulnerable to counterbattery fire.