Ashley Roque covers land warfare and Pentagon leadership for Breaking Defense. Over the past two decades, she’s reported on defense, US politics, and foreign policy for publications inside and outside of the United States including Janes, Roll Call, Inside Defense and Shephard Media. Ashley holds a BA in English with a minor in journalism from Florida State University, and a master's degree in conflict transformation from the University of Basel.
“We see a lot more demand than we can possibly keep up with, that's one of the reasons … the air defense force is so strained, frequent deployments [and the] significant demand signal to meet hotspots all over the world,” Army Under Secretary Gabe Camarillo told Breaking Defense.
"Our Ukrainian partners, because of necessity, are pushing the boundaries on how they do [3D printing] — both at the tactical level and all the way back at their depot system as well. The world has a lot to learn from how our Ukrainian partners are working," Lt. Gen. Christopher Mohan told Breaking Defense.
As threats rapidly evolve, digital engineering, manufacturing capacity and robust supply chains are critical to meeting challenges.
Sources first indicated this summer that Bell would drop Spirit AeroSystems as a supplier due to Boeing’s upcoming acquisition of the embattled aerostructures company.
“We know how to start new programs very, very well, but we have to also learn how to pivot,” Army Under Secretary Gabe Camarillo told Breaking Defense.
“Our units have no assets and no capability to to train with right now, to learn with, to build TTPs with. We started thinking outside the box,” Col. Nick Ryan told Breaking Defense.
PEO CS&CSS is retaining a separate ground autonomy competition designed to field self-driving PLS trucks.
The Sixth Domain is not defined by geography. It’s a new kind of conflict in which autonomy and networked systems allow thousand-dollar consumer electronics to destroy multi-million-dollar conventional weapons systems.
"The expectation is that Replicator 2 will assist with overcoming challenges we face in the areas of production capacity, technology innovation, authorities, policies, open system architecture and system integration, and force structure," Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said.
“[We] probably would need some time to figure out what the timetable is [for industry solicitations] because part of it requires three nations to commit funds, and so I wouldn't want to get ahead of anybody else's budget,” said a senior US defense official.
“With changing governments, it provides an opportunity to review progress and sets a path for continued work,” said Pentagon spokesman Army Maj. Pete Nguyen.
The service awarded both companies a total of $22 million for each to produce eight prototypes for evaluation.
Do more with less: streamline workflows, reduce duplication, invest upfront to save long-term.
“We had battalions and squads with UAS that had not had them in that volume or at those echelons before. We endeavored to make contact with unmanned systems first,” said Col. Jim Armstrong, the commander of 1st ABCT, 3rd ID.
The GAO is expected to rule on the protest, filed by Mistral, Inc., according to documents, by Dec. 16.
Congress has about a week to pass a stopgap funding bill by the end of Sept. 30, when FY 2024 ends and government money runs out.
“This project is my top priority at Anduril, and it has been for some time now. It’s one of the Army’s most critical programs being fielded in the near future, with the goal of getting the right data to the right people at the right time,” said Anduril founder Palmer Luckey, who made his tech breakthrough with commercial Oculus headset.