An audit by the DoD Inspector General found that while federal law “allows for one of 4 conditions for a prototype OT award,” Pentagon rules contain “no requirement to validate that the contractor met those conditions,” an OIG spokesperson told Breaking Defense.
By Theresa HitchensIntegrating commercial off-the-shelf computing on military platforms and how to make it work
The systems may be off-the-shelf, but the packaging for integration on vehicles and ships provides cradle-to-grave resiliency.
The Pentagon’s grand plans for Joint All Domain Command & Control require translating masses of data across incompatible systems. “Unless you get the underpinnings of a foundational data fabric,” Maj. Gen. Peter Gallagher told me, “it will never happen.”
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
The experimental targeting goggles field-tested last fall didn’t work in the rain. The ruggedized version to be tested this month will fix that flaw – and more, the Army says.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
Other Transaction Authority prototyping tripled from 2017’s $1.6 billion, while other non-traditional vehicles, like research grants, declined from $730 million to $590 million.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
After weeks of COVID delays, combat soldiers are now testing both the IBCS network and the IM-SHORAD vehicle at White Sands. The first live shots against flying targets are just weeks away.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
The drone’s mission set “could be anything from base defense to communications to sensing,” said AFLCMC’s Brig. Gen. Dale White.
By Theresa Hitchens
Industry sources say the Army shouldn’t enter its own in-house design team in the race to replace the M2 Bradley. Top Army officials told us why it would work.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
Advances in radar are key to countering the modern drone warfare and missile threat
Drones, high-speed cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles attacking together from 360° creates complexity only certain radars can handle.
“I spent the first 15 years of my career walking around in a lab with a laser, saying ‘does anyone want this…’ and the warfighter [kept] going ‘that’s adorable,’” Craig Robin recalled ruefully. “Just recently there’s been a tremendous pull [because] we simply just got out it into the user’s hands and they recognized the value.”
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
The Army’s urgently developing new air-launched drones, long-range missiles, and electronic architecture to go on the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft that Bell and Sikorsky are vying to build.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
Reformers like Air Force acquisitions chief Will Roper have seized on Other Transactions Authority contracts as a way to bypass bureaucracy and jumpstart innovation.
By Colin Clark
The thing that delayed Defiant, it turns out, is the same thing that makes it really attractive to the Army.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
“Now that they’ve completed the initial ground run, the team can finish its work to clear the aircraft for first flight,” said Mike Hirschberg, executive director of the Vertical Flight Society. “Assuming the Defiant team doesn’t find anything noteworthy from its ground testing, it should be up in the air in the next few weeks.”
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
“Ultimately that is what this is all about, why I get up every morning, that’s why AFC exists: to make sure, not today’s soldier, but our kids and our grandkids have the core concepts, the organizational structures, and the capabilities they need to fight and win on a future battlefield,” Gen. Murray said, “or even better yet not to fight at all, because there is nobody in the world in the future that would ever take on the United States in ground combat, because we have done our job so well.”
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
“Our new approach is really to prototype as much as we can to help us identify requirements, so our reach doesn’t exceed our grasp,” Secretary Esper said. “A good example is Future Vertical Lift: The prototyping has been exceptional.”
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
