The Army’s modernization initiatives aren’t plunging into the valley of death this week or even, in most cases, this year. It will take time to build prototypes, to test them and to figure out how the force will make the most of new technology. But over the next few years, enough of these projects have to make it across that daunting gap to actually change the Army.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.How to unlock innovation and savings for DoD: “commercial,” not COTS
Overmatch is fleeting and while traditional acquisitions can’t always keep up with new threats, a different and approved practice can.
What mission does the Army really need armed robots for — expendable scouts, perhaps, or supplementary fire support? And does buying robots for that role really offer more tactical value than spending the same money on mundane upgrades to, say, self-propelled artillery?
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
Today, Brig. Gen. McIntire told me, Army field artillery and air & missile defense are like two boxers, one who can only punch and the other who can only block. “We’ve got to have one boxer that has the ability to strike and block simultaneously,” he said. “That’s the speed that we’re going to need in the future.”
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.What should the device show the soldier? “Where am I? Where are my buddies? And where is the enemy?” said Gen. Townsend. “Then other stuff could be optional.”
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
if you can deliver new technology really fast, the US Army is now willing to pay your company much higher profits. And it’s working hard to make sure that new tech actually gets to new weapons.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
The Army’s new emphasis on armed recon could potentially disrupt the all-service Future Vertical Lift project (FVL).
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. “If you start a process with an org chart, you’re toast,” Army Under Secretary Ryan McCarthy said. “Focus on what you want to achieve.”
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
How to ensure readiness of next-generation defense technology: Solving the issue of massive heat.
High-performance systems generate tremendous amounts of heat that can compromise missions and make high-tech systems less effective in tactical environments. But there is a solution to this modern-age challenge.
As the new National Defense Strategy shifts the U.S. armed forces’ focus from combating violent extremists to confronting China and Russia, Raytheon is offering an array of multi-domain capabilities to modernize the Army “not just for today but tomorrow,” Kim Ernzen, executive vice president of the company’s Land Warfare Systems, says. Raytheon is particularly well…
By Otto Kreisher [Sponsored by Raytheon]
Unlike the Taliban, Russia and China can shoot down our drones, jam our transmissions, and hack our computers. So to prepare to fight them, we need a very different communications network — one the US Army is now studying how to build.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
The Army is modernizing three artillery systems: 155 cannon, the cheapest option, for the close fight against the enemy’s frontline forces; guided rockets for the deep fight against enemy reinforcements and supply lines; and missiles, the most expensive munitions, for very deep or even strategic strikes against targets in the enemy rear and homeland.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
All this technology serves a new concept of operations for defeating dense advanced air defenses of the kind Russia and China are both building for themselves and selling abroad.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
The long-term solution may take “big, leap-ahead technology,” said Maj. Gen. Pete Gallagher, head of the Cross Functional Team leading the network overhaul. But short-term solutions can be as simple as replacing bulky metal antennas with inflatable ones or loading new software on an off-the-shelf Android phone.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
The catch, of course, is that the Army’s tried to field all these things before — and failed. Why would things go any better this time around? Brig. Gen. Christopher Donahue has an answer for that.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
The first phase of the Synthetic Training Environment initiative replaces existing simulators for vehicles. The second phase aims to create — in just two years — something the Army’s never had before: an “immersive” virtual training environment for troops on foot.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
