Despite increasing uncertainty over President Trump’s surprise proposal to cut $33 billion from defense, the Pentagon’s R&D chief says he’s confident more cash will be pumped into laser weapons and new space capabilities.
By Paul McLearyA major overhaul is coming in software for missile warning
Space Systems Command’s FORGE program is the first, major missile-warning software modernization effort in 20 years.
The Japanese government is spending billions on sea and ground-based missile defenses, but all the talk in the Pentagon is on space, as the U.S. scrambles to meet new hypersonic threats from China and Russia.
By Paul McLeary
While officials as senior as Chief of Staff Mark Milley have previously talked about Army hypersonics in general terms, today’s statements by both the Army’s Russell and OSD’s Miller were unequivocal: The Army wants a ground-launched hypersonic weapon.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
“All of the fundamental research in hypersonic aerodynamics is United States (work),” said Pentagon R&D chief Mike Griffin. “We did not choose to weaponize the results of that research. Our adversaries have chosen to weaponize it. That’s the challenge. We will respond.”
By Colin Clark
“I’ve never seen a Congress more on our side than it is today,” Griffin said. “In every meeting on the Hill, I am asked, ‘what relief do you need? What legal remedies do you require? What can we do to help you move faster?’ So if you are bound by legal impediments…I need bring those forward, because I am perfectly willing to go to Congress.”
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. Some 35 years after Ronald Reagan’s famous Star Wars speech, the Pentagon’s R&D chief said that space-based missile defenses are technically feasible and reasonably affordable.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
A new report on “Strategic Surprise” is slated to help inform the Pentagon’s efforts to reset spending and development to meet peer challenges in the coming years.
By Paul McLeary
New Army mounted system won’t play favorites when it comes to C5ISR, EW and A-PNT
The CMOSS Mounted Form Factor will facilitate tech insertion for new capabilities while co-existing with the Mounted Family of Computer Systems.
These single points of failure already limit military modernization and potentially could disrupt operations in a crisis. That’s especially true if production needed to ramp up urgently for a major war, a subject the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Joseph Dunford, has publicly angsted about.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
WASHINGTON The Navy says it is running short of critical submarine-detecting sonobuoys, thanks to stepped-up submarine activity by Russia in the Mediterranean and around Europe. As a result, the service has asked Congress to reprogram $20 million to buy more of the detection devices in an Omnibus funding package the Pentagon sent to Congress earlier…
By Paul McLeary
“The major challenge for the US is China,” CNA analyst Larry Lewis said. “They are approaching the use of AI just like the US approached going to the moon in the sixties.”
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
Pentagon kicking off new program to work with the defense industry on counter-intelligence to stop Chinese hackers. But lawmakers aren’t convinced.
By Paul McLeary
Given the two-year break from sequestration, the Pentagon is hurrying up to hire civilians to push the modernization of the force to head off advances by China and Russia, a new DoD strategy document says.
By Paul McLeary
The White House and Pentagon have been talking up the return of Great Power Competition with the rise of China and Russia, but the Senate Armed Services Committee is frustrated that the 2019 defense budget doesn’t put money where the rhetoric is.
By Paul McLeary
Project Maven has made huge strides in its first year, but the key is remaining open to updates from whoever has the best idea for new algorithms, and new code, a military leader says.
By Paul McLeary
