Military space programs have to navigate a maze of 60 agencies. Creating a Space Force may not make things simpler.
By Colin ClarkA new approach to speed, scale and efficiency for the industrial base
Radars, EW, EO/IR, space imagery, and microelectronics are brought under one roof for a streamlined approach to common people and factories.
Over the last 18 months the Air Force and Army have charged ahead on multi-domain and only Lockheed Martin has spoken publicly about its efforts to win related contracts. Today that changed as Raytheon’s VP Todd Probert sat down with me here to discuss how important Multi Domain is to his company.
By Colin Clark
WASHINGTON: After three years during which it’s been the Air Force’s greatest problem child, Raytheon’s next-generation ground control system for GPS satellites is back on track, the company’s top man on the program says. Ellen Lord, the head of Pentagon acquisition, and Will Roper, head of Air Force acquisition, met with Bill Sullivan and other…
By Colin Clark
PENTAGON: The Air Force was eclipsed as the biggest budget winner this year, partially because of its decision to begin shifting from current weapons to new ones. The Army, which has greatly increased its commitment to land weapons, increased 14.9 percent and the Air Force is up 14.1 percent. Meanwhile the Navy Department — which includes…
By Colin Clark
WASHINGTON: If all goes well, Raytheon‘s crucial next-generation ground control system for GPS, OCX, will pass its first major hurdle next month as it scrambles out from under the opprobrium of being labeled the worst acquisition program in the Air Force. OCX is designed to double the accuracy of the Position, Navigation and Timing (PNT) signal,…
By Colin Clark
WASHINGTON: Space Corps. It sounds cool. You get visions of space marines and pilots saving the universe. In their latest blast against the Air Force, though, Reps. Mike Rogers and Jim Cooper are more, well, down to earth. They argue that the failings of big-ticket programs such as OCX and FAB-T offer ammunition that a Space…
By Colin Clark
PENTAGON: The big news on the 2018 Air Force space budget: it grew at least $1.5 billion. That’s a large increase considering the total budget request is $10.4 billion. For perspective, the entire Defense Department space budget last year — known as the space Major Force Program — was $22 billion. The Air Force oversees the vast…
By Colin Clark
A 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.
COLORADO SPRINGS: OCX, for the last two years the most troubled space acquisition program and a watchword for the high risks of being the first program to try and meet the Pentagon’s highest cyber security standards, may now open the way for Raytheon to plow its way deep into the rich fields of the cyber security market.…
By Colin Clark
ARLINGTON: The Air Force got blasted from Donald Trump’s bully pulpit before the President-Elect was even inaugurated. It looks like 2017 — the youngest service’s 70th year — will be full of presidential turbulence. [We rolled out our crystal balls for our 2017 forecast. Click to read the whole series.] Outgoing Air Force Secretary Deborah…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
WASHINGTON: There was little doubt that the hack- and jam-proof GPS ground stations known as OCX would be resurrected after incurring a Nunn-McCurdy breach. Even though it was the most screwed up program in the Air Force, was behind schedule and had gone grossly over budget, OCX is a crucial program at an important time. America needs…
By Colin Clark LONDON: The most troubled program in the Air Force, the highly-secure set of GPS satellite ground stations known as OCX, underwent yet another quarterly review last Thursday and was found to have “made progress.” The Air Force statement says that Acquisition Undersecretary Frank Kendall and Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James, “with support of Lt. Gen.…
By Colin Clark
COLORADO SPRINGS: The Aerospace Corp. the people who brought you the concept for GPS, are launching GPS 2.0. It all began when two Aerospace Corps scientists J.R. Woodford Woodward and H. Nakamura penned a little-known briefing In 1966, “Navigation Satellite Study,” that paved the way. Tomorrow, the Aerospace Corp. will issue a new study it hopes will pave…
By Colin Clark CAPITOL HILL: After a decade of improvements to space acquisition after more than a decade of disasters, the most troubled program being built by the US Air Force is again a space program. So said the man who should know: Lt. Gen. Sam Greaves, head of the amazing but often-reluctant-to-speak folks at Air Force Space and…
By Colin Clark
The core task of the men and women who buy America’s weapons is to envision the adversaries and environments of tomorrow and buy forces that are up to the challenge. This involves generating a similar set of assumptions to those used by operational strategists. Today, three assumptions underpin U.S. acquisition strategy that will leave tomorrow’s forces…
By Steve Callicutt and Josh Wiitala