What happens after the HBTSS prototype demonstrations, however, is yet to be determined, according to MDA and industry officials.
By Theresa HitchensEnterprise-wide training: the Army’s $3.5B program for multi-service combat readiness
The competition for Warfighter Training and Readiness Solutions will bring together training networks, combat training centers and live ranges across the DoD enterprise.
The reported Chinese system was hinted at by Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall in an earlier speech, a source said, but Kendall now says his words were just a coincidence.
By Theresa Hitchens
The delivery is a significant milestone for the Army’s Long Range Precision Fires modernization effort.
By Andrew Eversden
The goals of the test were “vehicle integration and release sequence, safe separation from the launch aircraft, booster ignition and boost, booster separation and engine ignition, and cruise,” DARPA said today, adding that the “primary test objectives were met.”
By Theresa Hitchens
“We’re gonna down-select … later in the year. Then I have to worry about future budgets, and so that’s what’s really going to throttle” the number of contractors, says MDA Director Vice Adm. Jon Hill.
By Theresa Hitchens “I would like to have overhead sensors that see everything, characterize everything that goes on on this planet from a missile perspective, all the time everywhere. … That’s unobtainium right now,” says VCJCS Gen. John Hyten.
By Theresa Hitchens
Training with the first Long Range Hypersonic Weapon prototype system will commence on Oct. 18, says Rob Strider, deputy director of the Army Hypersonic Project Office.
By Theresa Hitchens
What’s new in naval radars and missiles: Defending the Pacific
Defending U.S. naval forces in the Pacific, Red Sea, and elsewhere require a range of systems from close-in weapons to anti-ballistic missiles.
SDA and MDA need to characterize the Earth’s infrared background — which has “a lot of complex shapes to it, clouds, land and stuff like that” — in order to “pull out the dim signal” of a hypersonic missile, an SDA official explained.
By Theresa Hitchens
Some Israeli observers say the missile test is part of Moscow’s effort to gain a very strong presence in the Mediterranean. For example, they say that in recent days the Russian Air Force and the Russian Navy performed a joint combat drill just 30 km from the British aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth, is currently in the eastern Mediterranean near Cyprus.
By Arie Egozi
GAO notes that efforts to defend against Russian and Chinese hypersonic missiles are much less mature than offensive efforts, with much less funding. Only 12 of 70 projects tracked by GAO related to defenses; DoD requested $207 million in 2021 for hypersonic defense, up from $157 million in 2020.
By Theresa Hitchens “In some ways, it’s too early to say ‘game changer,’ or ‘nothing.’ And I would say, just to put it starkly, each of those positions is probably likely to be untrue or inaccurate,” CSBA’s Tom Mahnken says.
By Theresa Hitchens
“Information gathered up to and through Tracking Layer Tranche 0 will help inform decisions about future tranches, including how many and which types of sensors should be flown to provide the warfighter a complete advanced missile threat solution,” SDA spokeswoman Jennifer Elzea says.
By Theresa Hitchens
“”Where will the money for this program come from, and will it means less money for the Space Force and all the existing space programs of record?” asks Secure World Foundation’s Brian Weeden.
By Theresa Hitchens
The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) is reportedly finishing its study of command and control architecture options to best defend Guam, the farthest outpost of our homeland. This new C2 system must have three features: an open architecture, the ability to bring different services’ radars and interceptors together, and disaggregation. Since leaving Indo-PACOM to pursue other…
By Harry Harris