GA-ASI’s MQ-9B: The right UAV for persistence, power, and performance
When assessing the state of the art of unmanned aerial systems, it’s critical to be very clear about what various aircraft can and can’t do – and could never do.
The Strategic Capabilities Office is considering engineering designs by BWXT Advanced Technologies, LLC, and X-energy, LLC. One design will be selected and announced this spring.
By Jaspreet Gill
Overlord is the Pentagon’s somewhat secretive USV development program to inform the technology and capabilities that will one day be aboard most unmanned Navy ships and subs.
By Justin Katz
“There is an underlying commitment to move as fast as you can… because the pacing threat is constantly moving and accelerating,” said Lt. Gen. Eric Smith, commander of Marine Corps Combat Development Command.
By Paul McLeary
Outgoing AF acquisition head Will Roper is rumored “to be in the mix” to take DoD acquisition czar Ellen Lord’s place, along with CSIS’s Andrew Hunter.
By Theresa Hitchens “I think Space Force and its advocates hoped that they’d have a radically new approach to budgeting and acquisition,” CSIS’s Mark Cancian says, but Congress is unlikely to agree.
By Theresa Hitchens
If the Pentagon does build the mobile reactors, it will deploy them far from the front lines – and even if they’re hit, their revolutionary TRISO fuel pellets will stay intact at temperatures that can melt steel.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
Enterprise-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 2020 mandates an independent study of whether MDA should be moved from R&E to the purview of Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment (A&S) Ellen Lord.
By Theresa Hitchens
Congress worried that the SCO’s ability to act fast would be stymied by layers of bureaucratic approval required for any decisions. Under DARPA, it would have been bumped four reporting levels down.
By Theresa Hitchens
The Pentagon’s second test of a previously-banned missile went as planned today, with the US upping its game from a cruise missile to a ballistic missile.
By Paul McLeary
The test puts the nail in the coffin of the INF Treaty, which the US withdrew from earlier this month.
By Paul McLeary
Presumptive Deputy Defense Secretary Norquist pledged to “revise budget review timelines and data collection standards to maximize senior leader decision-making quality and timing.”
By Paul McLeary Insiders say dysfunction within Griffin’s office is creating concerns within the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill.
By Theresa Hitchens “My integrity and belief in SCO’s mission is more important to me than my friendship over many years with Mike (Griffin).”
By Colin Clark
As Secretary of Defense, Carter set the military on its current course: containing Russia and China with high-tech investments in AI, networks, and long-range weapons.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.