Brig. Gen. Robert Mikesh, charged with offensive fires, detailed a quadruple challenge — energetics and propulsion, targeting and seekers, the industrial base and “munitions breadth and depth.”
"Penetrating and disintegrating A2/AD is the fundamental problem of all-domain operations. It's the hardest problem we've got," said Brig. Gen. John Rafferty.
As part of the DoW’s acquisition transformation, streamlined processes must be extended to all companies in the defense industrial base.
Five small businesses won SBIR Phase II awards to build robotic arms to handle shells, software to manage ammo inventory, and other prototype technologies.
"It’s ultimately a political decision, and ... this demands a strong and fully staffed OSD," said Mackenzie Eaglen, of the American Enterprise Institute. "That doesn’t seem likely until much later this year."
PrSM is preparing for its first 300-plus-mile flight test this year, while the ERCA cannon and hypersonic LRHW head for key tests in 2023.
“In my career, certainly this is the most amount of modernization I’ve seen,” Brig. Gen. Brian Gibson says. Can multiple Army programs make their 2023 deadline?
A decorated combat aviator and biotech CEO advocates preparing for novel viral threats before the next crisis.
The Army is testing the MPF light tank; evaluating concepts for the OMFV troop carrier; preparing for major tests of high-tech Robotic Combat Vehicles and workhorse Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicles in 2022; and will test a full battalion of 18 ERCA howitzers in 2023.
Weapons from hypersonics to howitzers have key deadlines to meet next year to keep to the Army’s ambitious timeline, Lt. Gen. Neil Thurgood and Brig. Gen. John Rafferty tell Breaking Defense.
Next fall, the Army aims to test a new artificial intelligence for artillery and fire the prototype PrSM missile to its full 300-plus-mile range -- once they find a venue that's big enough.
Meant to target Chinese warships and Russia’s rear bases, the new intermediate-range missile will fill the gap between the 500+ km PrSM and the Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon.
Predictive artificial intelligence and autonomy will reshape how forces are sustained across the Pacific.
The military services are working together on how to use long-range, land-based missiles to destroy enemy anti-aircraft defenses, says the director of artillery modernization at Army Futures Command.
The Army wants to do a tech demonstration in the southwestern desert – COVID permitting – of how the new weapons systems it’s developing can share data.
This spring’s successful test shots of the Precision Strike Missile and Extended-Range Cannon are just two pieces of a rapidly evolving portfolio of new long-range weapons.
Next year will see the Precision Strike Missile tested at its maximum range of over 300 miles. The base model enters service in 2023, with range and targeting upgrades to follow.