How the Integrated Battle Command System is essential to the vision of the connected battlespace
The demand signal from allies and coalition partners points to the Integrated Battle Command System (IBCS) as a transformational command and control capability for integrated air and missile defense that’s going to be in strong, global demand for years to come.
“Data is the new oil for the international economic order,” Alan Shaffer, a top Pentagon acquisition official, told the annual ITSEC training and simulation conference.
By Paul McLeary
The US military is rebuilding its ability to protect its radios, sensors and radars while jamming those of its adversaries. But we’re still probably second or third in the world.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
Even as one official warned that budget pressures would squeeze the budget, another said the nation must expand the defense industrial base to build a 355-ship Navy.
By Paul McLeary
A slew of new civilian officials are settling in at the Pentagon, adding muscle to promises of change in how the military develops and buys technology, and how fast it can put that gear in the field.
By Paul McLeary
NATIONAL PRESS CLUB: “We have lost the electromagnetic spectrum,” said Alan Shaffer, the Pentagon’s research and engineering chief, this morning. “That’s a huge deal when you think about fielding advanced systems that can be [countered] by a very, very cheap digital jammer.” We’ve heard senior Pentagon officials fret about electronic warfare before, most prominently the Chief of…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
[UPDATED with Hagel, Shaffer comments] NATIONAL PRESS CLUB: The four armed services only submitted their draft 2016 budgets to the Office of the Secretary of Defense “basically yesterday,” Undersecretary Frank Kendall said this morning — and he’s already “concerned.” As the Pentagon’s top weapons buyer, Kendall sees worrying signs. With the automatic budget cuts known as…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
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.
WASHINGTON: The Pentagon is not nimble. That’s more of a problem than ever in an era where even terrorist groups can increasingly download, buy, or steal sophisticated technology. So how can America’s bureaucratic military stay ahead? While Congress is wrestling with acquisition reform, some experts both inside the Pentagon and out argue that there’s more…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
WASHINGTON: “We’ve been complacent,” Frank Kendall said. For decades, the Pentagon’s top weapons buyer said yesterday, the US has assumed its forces will be better equipped than any foe, but that’s increasingly in doubt: “Our technological superiority is very much at risk, there are people designing systems [specifically] to defeat us in a very thoughtful…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
The CHIPS Act has been hailed by supporters as a game-changing piece of legislation in the microelectronics tug-of-war between the US and China. But is it a revolution, or is it just a starting point? In this new op-ed, Alan Shaffer, Mike Fritz and Bob Hummel of the Potomac Institute lay out how much more…
By Alan R. Shaffer, Mike Fritze and Bob Hummel