A 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.
The Pentagon is moving out quickly to get in front of Chinese advances in artificial intelligence, and is rushing a plan up to Capitol Hill to work with the intel community more closely.
By Paul McLeary
The American way of war — using overpowering industrial might, crushing firepower, and owning the sea and skies — may have come to an end, a top Pentagon official says. For the past two decades, “the Chinese and the Russians have been working to undermine that model,” said Elbridge Colby, deputy assistant secretary of defense…
By Paul McLeary
BALTIMORE: The Pentagon has fallen in love with Silicon Valley — though it’s largely unrequited — but traditional defense firms argue there are some things only they can do. One striking example: this Northrop Grumman factory, where the company makes its own microchips “from sand” with unique security features that are not available from commercial vendors.…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
CAPITOL HILL: House Armed Services Committee Chairman Rep. Mac Thornberry’s third attempt to improve how the Pentagon buys weapons aims to simplify defense procurement and cut down on waste by using commercial buying methods. It directs the Pentagon to use online marketplaces such as Grainger, OfficeMax or Staples to buy items that currently are acquired…
By Sandra Erwin
SILICON VALLEY: Defense Secretary Ash Carter changed the leadership today of his flagship office trying to improve relations with entrepreneurs and major companies here. At the same time, Carter reorganized the Defense Innovation Unit (Experimental) — DIU(X) — to link it directly to his office, largely bypassing the traditional Pentagon acquisition system. In a prepared statement…
By Colin Clark
PENTAGON CITY: “The Pentagon’s an impatient mistress,” George Duchak told reporters yesterday, “so we have to have some early successes.” He’s not kidding about the “early.” Duchak is director of the Defense Innovation Unit – Experimental (DIUx), the Pentagon outreach office in Silicon Valley that’s all of two months old. “We grew 50 percent last…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
ROC-X – The solution to organic precision strike capabilities
At AUSA Global Force 2024, IAI will present integrated, AI-driven combat systems – both manned and unmanned – that are opening new opportunities on the battlefield.
With the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act completed and headed to the president’s desk likely sometime next week, it’s useful to summarize the biggest policy changes therein. While most Republicans do not take the veto threat seriously, Mr. Obama will surely do just that. Still, when this bill eventually receives his signature later this year…
By Mackenzie Eaglen
PENTAGON: The US military really, really wants Silicon Valley to help it find technologies to keep ahead of the Russians and Chinese and Defense Secretary Ash Carter’s visit there today is proof. But Silicon Valley has rejected the Pentagon’s blandishments or just plain ignored them for three decades. Today, Defense Secretary Ash Carter is holding…
By Colin Clark
GAO Says Oracle Protest Did Not Make Policy; Criticizes Greenwalt Op-ed
I’ve been covering Pentagon acquisition policy for more than 15 years and this is a first for me. The Government Accountability Office offers below a critique of Bill Greenwalt’s sharp criticism of a recent GAO protest decision. For those of us who watch Pentagon procurement, most protests are obscure and boring. Then come ones…
By Kenneth Patton