Navy CNO Defends Increased Secrecy in Wake of Chinese Hacking
The Navy, unlike the other Armed Services, is hiding the names of its officers from the public in fear they could become targets for Chinese hackers.
Hypersonics Won’t Repeat Mistakes Of F-35
Let a hundred hypersonic flowers bloom, Pentagon officials say, instead of a single cumbersome mega-program.
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Turning R&D into reality to meet the challenges of the modern battlefield
Knowing when to build on commercial systems and when to develop something new can be the difference between parity and information dominance.
Dems Lash Out At Trump ‘Fake OCO’ Budget Gambit; Hint At Budget Deal
The Trump Pentagon budget is "dead on arrival," a top defense House Democrat says. And a Republican colleague rips budget gimmicks in the 2020 request.
Marines’ Love Affair With 3D Printing: Small Is Cheap, & Beautiful
"My eyes are watering with what our young people can do right now," the Assistant Commandant said. "They’re really smart and they’ve got a lot of really good ideas," Commandant Neller said. "We would be well served to turn them loose."
Space-Based Sensors Needed For Missile Defense Vs. Hypersonics: MDA
WASHINGTON: The Missile Defense Agency needs sensors in orbit to track hypersonic threats, the MDA director said this week. Such satellites would use mature technology and could perform other surveillance missions to help justify their cost, Lt. Gen. Samuel Greaves told the McAleese/Credit Suisse conference Tuesday. Last week, as we reported, the chief of Strategic […]
House Approps Chair Promises Pentagon ‘Flexibility’ On O&M Funds
Legislators will probably loosen some rules on federal spending to help the Pentagon cope with Congress's failure to pass funding bills until six months into the fiscal year. Budget dysfunction has gotten so bad it's forcing even the famously strict appropriations committees to loosen the reins after years of resistance.
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GPS: Still the gold standard in global navigation
The GPS network continues to prove its unmatched reliability, and it’s only getting stronger.
Army Studies 30 Cities For Futures Command
The Army is studying 30 cities as possible sites for the Futures Command it's standing up this summer -- but the winning city may hardly notice.
China Loves DoD Acquisition Culture, Says R&D Chief Griffin; He Loves Hypersonics
The new head of Pentagon R&D delivered a scathing critique of how the military develops and buys equipment. “I did not take this job to reach parity with adversaries," Griffin said. "I want to make them worry about catching up with us again."
‘Core’ Battle Is US, Allies Vs. Corrupt Dictators: Rep. Smith
WASHINGTON: This city’s fixation on how much stuff the Pentagon should buy is distracting us from the “core ideological struggle” against corrupt dictatorships, said the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee. Numerical targets like a 355-ship Navy — now enshrined in law — or a 500,000 active soldier Army are not only unaffordable […]
Lockheed’s Not Cutting F-35 Costs Enough, But We Know How: Assad, Bogdan
WASHINGTON: Two top Pentagon officials laid out a multi-pronged push to lower the price of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter below $80 million apiece. The chief of the F-35 Joint Program Office, Lt. Gen. Chris Bogdan, and the director of defense pricing, Shay Assad, are underwhelmed by contractor Lockheed Martin‘s cost reduction efforts so far. […]
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Data overload threatens decisionmakers as autonomy expands
Reducing cognitive overload on warfighters while improving “time to trust” for autonomous systems is a matter of design.
Army Electronic Warfare Investment Lags Russian Threat
There is a great disconnect in the Department of Defense. Leaders at the highest levels realize we are falling behind — or have already fallen behind — Russia and China in electronic warfare, the invisible battle of detecting and disrupting the radar and radio transmissions on which a modern military depends. Even in the traditionally lower-tech […]
LCS Cut Ripples Through Navy’s New 30-Year Shipbuilding Plan
WASHINGTON: Defense Secretary Ashton Carter cut the Littoral Combat Ship program by 12 vessels last fall, but the surface fleet will feel the impact for decades. The long-term ramifications are laid out in detail by the Navy’s forthcoming 30-year shipbuilding plan, excerpts of which were obtained by Breaking Defense. Last year’s 30-year plan projected the […]
Navy Hits Gas On Flying Gas Truck, CBARS: Will It Be Armed?
WASHINGTON: More gas. Less stealth. Maybe weapons. New name. Same money. Tighter schedule. That, in a dozen words, is how the Navy is evolving its program for carrier-launched drones. Since the cancellation of the original UCLASS drone– Unmanned Carrier-Launched Aerial Surveillance & Strike — Navy leaders have insisted they would get the simplified successor in […]
B-21 And F-35 Engines May Share Tech; Pratt Won’t Talk
WASHINGTON: The B-21 bomber probably uses some common technologies and equipment to that used for the Joint Strike Fighter’s F135 engine. We can’t be certain because no one will confirm it. But Lt. Gen. Chris Bogdan, head of the F-35 program, did tell the annual McAleese/Credit Suisse conference this: “There are some things we learned from the […]