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| Friday, May 3, 2024 • 66th Year • Volume 302 • No. 25 | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Space Based GMTI Radar Satellites to be in Low Earth Orbit A U.S. Space Force official on May 2 said that the Space Based Radar (SBR) under development by the Space Force and National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) will be a proliferated low Earth (LEO) constellation. LEO has displaced geosynchronous as the orbit of choice for new DoD satellites, including those of the Space Force’s Space Development Agency (SDA). SBR is to replace the retired Joint STARS aircraft by Northrop Grumman [NOC] for ground moving target indication (GMTI). SBR “allows us to support multiple combatant commanders simultaneously,” Maj. Gen. Gregory Gagnon, the deputy chief of space operations for intelligence, told a Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies’ Schriever Spacepower virtual forum. “Space is no longer only strategic. Space is tactical, and our adversaries have made it so.” A proliferated LEO SBR “makes it difficult for them to take down,” he said. The Department of the Air Force has said that SBR will fill regional and global gaps in GMTI coverage (Defense Daily, May 17, 2023). Airborne GMTI assets are unable to gather data at long ranges beyond several hundred miles, due to the Earth’s curvature and threats from advanced air defenses, such as those of China, Gagnon said. At 62,000 feet, for example, the Air Force’s U-2 Dragon Lady by Lockheed Martin [LMT] has a 300 nautical mile line-of-sight surveillance distance, he said. “I’m not concerned, from a technical readiness level, that we’re gonna have an issue [with SBR],” Gagnon said. “This is doing tracks from radars. The Department of Defense and our industrial base know how to do that. What we need to do is make sure that we can rapidly process and move those tracks into warfighting formations. The Space Force proposal, since we’re part of the joint force and we’ve stood up components in each of the combatant commands, is to make sure that our component can service their component partners, whether it’s the Army, maritime component or the Air Force component, with timely, relevant MTI capability, based off the direction of their joint combatant commander. The second big benefit of this is it can be completely integrated with the national intelligence community.” In response to a question on counterspace on May 2, Gagnon echoed Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall’s remarks this week on U.S. counterspace and said that Kendall and other Department of the Air Force officials have made Congress aware of counterspace needs to counter China and Russia. “I think about 25 or 24 percent of the Space Force budget is focused on responsible counterspace campaigning, or space superiority, if you will,” Gagnon said. “I obviously can’t tell you all the pieces that are inside there [counterspace], but what I will tell you is we’re actively talking about this with our board of directors who pay for us–Congress–so that they understand the needs at a very precise level,” he said. “The PLA [China’s People’s Liberation Army] funding from ’24 to ’25 went up 7.1 percent. In the past, we often talked about defense budget as not a competitive issue vis a vis someone else. They’re going 7 percent. We aren’t. We have to make trades…I have champagne dreams, but I live on a beer budget.” Kendall told the House Appropriations Committee’s defense panel on Tuesday that the department had to curtail counterspace funding plans in fiscal 2025 because of budget constraints (Defense Daily, Apr. 30). ”Our greatest regret, if you will, in the constraints we had this year was we couldn’t move forward more quickly on counterspace capability, in particular,” Kendall said on Tuesday. “Our pacing challenge is fielding a number of systems that threaten the joint force and are targeting assets like aircraft carriers. We need to have the capability to do something about those assets so they can’t provide an attack targeting surface to the Chinese military. That would be the highest thing on our list that we aren’t able to move forward as quickly as we’d like to.” Gagnon said on May 2 that China’s peacetime military expansion, including a “550 percent” increase in on-orbit space systems since Dec. 31, 2015 when China created its military space component–the Military Aerospace Force–is “profoundly concerning.” Just after the establishment of China’s Military Aerospace Force nearly nine years ago, “my lead scary story was they have these direct ascent missiles that can launch from western China and go up and destroy satellites, and they’re gonna build a lot of them and they have these lasers that can lase things and cause satellites not to work,” Gagnon said. “My main narrative today is way more concerning.” “My main narrative today is of that rapid growth in things in space–for the last two years, they’ve placed over 200 satellites in space both years,” he said. “Of that, over half are remote sensing satellites purpose-built to surveil and do reconnaissance in the western Pacific and globally, satellites designed with a proliferated architecture so they’re resilient against attack, an architecture not designed for efficiency and cost effectiveness, but to go to war and sustain in war…They will be inside a rapidly expanding weapons engagement zone to track their target and put fires/weapons on that target, even against mobile targets. Few countries have that advantage. Our allies have had it because they’ve partnered with us [the United States], but it’s really just been us against mobile targets at extremely long distances. That monopoly is over.”
Bush: New Supplemental Doubled Army’s Request For Boosting 155mm Ammo Production
The recently passed supplemental funding bill included around $6 billion to boost 155mm artillery ammunition production, double what the Army had requested as the service pushes to build 100,000 such rounds per month by late 2025. Doug Bush, the Army’s acquisition chief, told reporters on Thursday that Congress fully funded the service’s requested projects for its munitions ramp up efforts and that the additional funding lawmakers added in the supplemental will allow production lines to sustain a rate of 100,000 artillery shells per month for longer. “That I think is a vote of confidence as we make our way to [producing] 100,000 [155mm artillery] shells a month and that will let us do that for longer,” Bush said. “Included in that [$6 billion] number, of course, is a substantial amount of investment in facilities…They really did our request plus added a lot of funding, which is great.” Bush first told reporters back in November that the Biden administration’s supplemental request to Congress included $3.1 billion for increasing 155mm artillery shell production, which he said would be required to meet the service’s goal for building 100,000 per month by 2025 (Defense Daily, Nov. 8, 2023). Producing 100,000 155mm rounds per month would represent a nearly fourfold increase from current capacity, with the service working to replenish its own stockpiles and continue supporting requirements for international partners such as Ukraine and Israel. Bush said on Thursday the “big add” from Congress included covering additional production of 155mm ammunition subcomponents, to “the charges that shoot the artillery shells.” “Congress had already funded a lot of the ramp up for the metal parts, the shells. A lot of what was in the [new] supplemental does the rest, which is producing enough explosives and materials to actually build the charges to shoot the shells. So it kind of completes the upgrade in the scale up of the entire fuse to the charge. It funds the rest of that [ramp-up] plan,” Bush said. “That’s why we needed this to get to 100,000 [artillery shells] per month. We would have gotten to 100,000 per month of just shells without the [supplemental] funding. But just the shells are no good, you need the rest.” President Biden signed the new $95 billion supplemental last week, which includes $60.8 billion in assistance for Ukraine, $26.4 billion in aid to Israel, and $8.1 billion for U.S. security in the Indo-Pacific region, to include aid to Taiwan, and $3.3 billion to invest in the U.S. submarine industrial base (Defense Daily, April 24). Bush said projects supported in the supplemental to help boost munitions production include funding for a new TNT factory and several hundred million dollar projects to “dramatically” increase IMX-104 explosive production at Holston Army Ammunition Plant. “There isn’t [a TNT factory] in the United States. We’re going to have one now. That will take some time. We have to still decide where to put it. There are multiple candidates,” Bush said. The Army has also been building three new production lines for 155mm artillery ammunition in Texas, funded in a previous supplemental, with Bush confirming on Thursday that the factory with additional capacity is set to be ready this summer (Defense Daily, Feb. 22). “Importantly, the [new] supplemental provides sufficient funding to use [the new production lines] for a long time, because after you build a factory you have to have money to actually buy the shells. So now we have that in place as well,” Bush said. General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems [GD] and subcontractors, to include Turkish industry partners, are managing construction, installation and follow-on production of the new 155mm projectile metal parts lines in Texas as part of a previously awarded Army contract.
SECNAV Says Navy Needs More SM-3s
The Secretary of the Navy this week admitted the service will need more RTX [RTX] Standard Missile (SM)-3s for regional air and missile defense missions in the wake of recent Middle East naval operations. “I truly believe that SM-3s will be needed in greater numbers in the future, given the operations that took place in defense of Israel here recently where some were fired, and very effectively. So I think given the future threat in our deterrence mission in the Indo-Pacific, we are going to need more SM-3s in the future,” Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro said during a House Armed Services Committee hearing on May 1. Del Toro admitted this when Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) noted the Missile Defense Agency’s (MDA) FY 2025 budget request cut the number of new SM-3 Block IB missiles, a change from the FY ‘24 budget plans to continue procuring the interceptor through FY 2029. He said those SM-3 decisions were made before the Middle East operations. “In light of the changing operations,” the Del Toro said, “I think we’re going to have to re-look that, in order to add more SM-3s in the future.” The MDA FY ‘25 budget request includes $406 million to procure 12 SM-3 Block IIA missiles while the agency plans to terminate new production of the SM-3 IB in favor of the Block IIA. The agency also planned to buy 12 more SM-3 IIAs annually for the following four years (Defense Daily, March 14). Last month, the Secretary said the Navy used almost $1 billion in munitions to intercept drones and missiles in the Red Sea and Middle East to argue in favor of the now-passed supplemental spending bill. The law includes over $2 billion to replenish Navy munitions like various Standard Missile variants (Defense Daily, April 17). Del Toro also confirmed the first use of SM-3 in combat operations. The SM-3 is designed to defeat ballistic missiles during the midcourse flight phase outside the atmosphere and is launched from Mk 41 Vertical Launching System cells of Aegis-capable ships or Aegis Ashore sites.
Mission Technologies, Ingalls Drive Strong Opening Quarter At HII
HII [HII] on Monday reported strong first quarter results led by its Mission Technologies and Ingalls Shipbuilding segments. HII credited work on C5ISR and cyber, electronic warfare, and space for driving performance and Mission Technologies, and higher volumes for Navy surface combatants and amphibious ships at Ingalls. Newport News Shipbuilding, which builds and repairs aircraft carriers and nuclear-powered attack submarines, was down modestly in the quarter. Net income increased 19 percent to $153 million, $3.87 earnings per share (EPS), from $129 million ($3.23 EPS) a year ago, smashing consensus estimates by 35 cents per share. Sales increased 5 percent to a record $2.8 billion from $2.7 billion a year ago. Operating income at the Mission Technologies segment was up 65 percent on a 20 percent increase in sales to a record $750 million. The higher income was mainly due to sales and operating performance, and the segment also enjoyed a tailwind stemming from less amortization costs. Mission Technologies’ results were ahead of HII’s expectations, but the company is being “conservative” with its guidance although there are upside opportunities, Tom Stiehle, HII’s chief financial officer, said on the earnings call. Ingalls’ operating income was up 9 percent on a 14 percent increase in sales to $655 million. At Newport News, operating income dipped 2 percent and sales dropped 5 percent to $1.4 billion. Shipbuilding margin was 6.8 percent in the quarter and HII is still forecasting between 7.6 percent and 7.8 percent for the year. Labor challenges remain for HII’s shipbuilding operations and its suppliers and continue to impact programs, Chris Kastner, HII’s president and CEO, said on the call. The company hired more than 1,700 craft personnel in the quarter, putting it on track to meet its target of 6,000 for the year, although retention rates remain below pre-COVID levels, he said. “We continue to use overtime, contract labor, and outsourcing to mitigate risk and strengthen the opportunity for progress and schedule stabilization,” Kastner said. First-of-class issues on the bow for the Columbia-class nuclear missile submarine program that impacted schedule are “essentially behind us now,” he said, adding that work against the recovery plan is “a bit ahead of schedule.” Asked by one analyst on the call about the Navy’s request for one Virginia-class attack submarine in the fiscal year 2025 request even though there is strong interest in Congress for two vessels, Kastner replied that two submarines would “keep the supply chain healthy.” This would “eliminate” risk for suppliers, he said. HII tallied $3.1 billion in orders in the quarter and backlog stood at $48.4 billion, up shy of a percent from the end of 2023. Free cash flow was negative $274 million but the company still expects to generate between $600 million and $700 million of free cash this year. Despite the strong financial results, HII left its 2024 guidance intact. Sales are forecast to range between $11.5 billion and $11.9 billion.
Next-Generation OPIR Polar Satellite Completes Critical Design Review, Ready To Build
U.S. Space Systems Command (SSC) on Wednesday said that the Next Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared (OPIR) Polar (NGP) space vehicle being developed by Northrop Grumman [NOC] recently passed the critical design review (CDR), marking the last key milestone before fabrication begins. “This successful CDR milestone shows the space vehicle meets standards and is on track to continue our launch planning efforts,” Lt. Col. Nicholas Laliberte, material lead for SSC’s NGP program, said in a statement. “As a major component of our series of checks and evaluations, this success boosts our confidence the program will deliver essential capabilities to the warfighter to counter aggressive actions from U.S. adversaries. SSC said the CDR included more than 50 subsystem, mission payload, and space vehicle design reviews. In addition to clearing the way to begin manufacturing the satellite, the successful CDR also greenlights coding, assembly, integration, and testing of the satellite, SSC said. Northrop Grumman will build two NGPs, which will operate in highly elliptical orbits to detect and track ballistic and hypersonic missiles over the northern polar region. The company received a potential $2.4 billion contract in 2020 for NGP.
Northrop Grumman Manta Ray UUV Prototype Completes Water Testing
Northrop Grumman’s [NOC] Manta Ray uncrewed underwater vehicle completed full-scale in-water testing earlier this year, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) said. DARPA this week announced the Manta Ray conducted the testing in February and March off the coast of Southern California. Tests demonstrated the vessel’s at-sea hydrodynamic performance, covering submerged operations using all the vehicle’s modes of propulsion and steering including buoyancy, propellers, and control surfaces. Last month, Northrop Grumman said it finished assembly of the Manta Ray prototype at its Annapolis, Md., facility (Defense Daily, April 8). DARPA now said the company shipped the prototype in subsections from Maryland to California. It also argued this helped demonstrate how easy it is to ship and assemble this UUV using modular subsections, supporting the possibility of rapid deployment worldwide without taking up to much valuable naval pier space. “Our successful, full-scale Manta Ray testing validates the vehicle’s readiness to advance toward real-world operations after being rapidly assembled in the field from modular subsections. The combination of cross-country modular transportation, in-field assembly, and subsequent deployment demonstrates a first-of-kind capability for an extra-large UUV,” Kyle Woerner, DARPA program manager for Manta Ray, said in a statement. He also said shipping the UUV in parts conserves energy vs. having it transit the distance itself. The Manta Ray is designed with several payloads and uses buoyancy-driven gliding to move in the water. DARPA intends the UUV to demonstrate the option for a new class of long-duration and long-range UUVs with payloads of different sizes that does not require in-person human logistics. DARPA said it is “engaging with the U.S. Navy on the next steps for testing and transition of this technology.” The agency also said PacMar Technologies is continuing to test its full-scale energy harvesting system this year. In 2021, DARPA first awarded contracts to Northrop Grumman and Martin Defense Group to move from Phase 1 to Phase 2. In Phase 1 of Manta Ray the participants started designing and conducting preliminary testing on new approaches to energy management, UUV reliability, navigation and undersea obstacle avoidance. Phase 2 included subsystem testing before moving to fabrication of this full-scale model.
Collaborative Autonomy Tested in EpiSci/USAF Autonomy Prime Flights
California-based EpiSci said this week that the company finished multiple collaborative autonomy tests last month under the U.S. Air Force’s Autonomy Prime program to train operators on the company’s Starling Tactical Artificial Intelligence (AI) system. Autonomy Prime is under the service’s AFWERX innovation arm. “This [Starling] effort continues EpiSci’s participation in a variety of autonomy efforts across the Department of Defense, focused on delivering trusted autonomy for a secure future for U.S. and allied warfighters,” EpiSci said on May 1. “The flight test events demonstrated EpiSci’s autonomous search algorithms during live flight on two unique uncrewed platform types,” the company said. “The test results demonstrated Starling’s portability to integrate on and enable uncrewed aircraft to operate in contested environments and perform search and automatic target recognition tasks.” Privately-held Anduril and General Atomics got the nod from the Air Force last week in the service’s first round of Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) picks to beat out publicly traded defense industry heavyweights, Boeing [BA], Lockheed Martin [LMT] and Northrop Grumman [NOC] (Defense Daily, Apr. 24). EpiSci has said that its Tactical AI software is hardware agnostic and has already been deployed “on a growing list of systems from swarms of uncrewed aerial and maritime systems to tactical fighter aircraft.” Last month, EpiSci said that it had begun working with Northrop Grumman to integrate EpiSci’s TacticalAI software with Northrop Grumman’s aeronautics system architecture “to accelerate the delivery of advanced autonomous solutions” (Defense Daily, Apr. 3). Dan “Animal” Javorsek, EpiSci’s chief technology officer and a former F-22/F-35 pilot and Air Combat Evolution (ACE) program manager at DARPA, said in the EpiSci statement on May 1 that company “teams have integrated and operated TacticalAI-enabled autonomy products on 10 uncrewed airborne and surface platform types in less than 6 months.” “EpiSci is committed to accelerate the pace at which we can bring relevant operational capabilities to the warfighter across all domains,” he said. RTX [RTX] in December 2022 said its venture capital arm had made a minority investment in EpiSci (Defense Daily, Dec. 8 2022). Air Force leaders have said that CCA is one of their top priorities. Kendall has said that plans are to field “more than 100” CCAs in the next five years with a top unit cost of $25 million to $30 million. By the end of the year, Kendall said that he will fly on the X-62A Variable Stability In-Flight Simulator Test Aircraft (VISTA) equipped with the Shield AI Hivemind AI piloting software (Defense Daily, Apr. 17). VISTA is a modified Block 30 F-16D in service since 1992. Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Calif.), the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee’s defense panel, said this week that he is concerned by a steep reduction in the Air Force’s request for Autonomy Prime in fiscal 2025 (Defense Daily, Apr. 30).
Big Charge In First Quarter, But Parsons Reports Business Booming
Net earnings fell drastically for Parsons [PSN] after a big tax hit in its first quarter, but the federal contractor on Wednesday reported record revenue and healthy core operations. Parsons posted a net loss of about $107 million, or $1.01 a share, for the quarter ended March 31, down from earnings of roughly $25.5 million, or $0.23 a share, in the year-ago quarter, according to a Wednesday press release. Quarterly revenue was about $1.5 billion, up from almost $1.2 billion a year ago. Parsons took a roughly $214 million tax hit in the quarter after it bought back convertible notes, debt that can be turned into stock, at a higher price than it sold them for, according to its latest earnings release. Without that big charge, adjusted earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortization, Parsons’ measure of the health of its core operations, was roughly $141 million, up significantly from about $90 million a year ago. “Looking forward, I am excited about our business given the ample tailwinds we have… that will enable us to continue to make accretive acquisitions to drive future revenue growth and margin expansion,” Carey Smith, CEO of Parsons, said on a conference call with investors. In April, Parsons was one of two companies awarded a contract with the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Office of Nuclear Smuggling Detection and Deterrence. Alongside this $1 billion contract, Parsons also received a $21 million contract with NNSA in January to support construction management at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Outside of the NNSA, Parsons is part of Hanford Mission Integration Solutions, a Leidos [LDOS]-led joint venture in Washington State that faces a lawsuit based on allegations of overbilling. The contractor asked that the Department of Justice drop the lawsuit. This story first appeared in Defense Daily affiliate publication Weapons Complex Morning Briefing.
Maxar’s First 2 WorldView Legion Satellites Launch After Years of Delays
The first two satellites in Maxar’s long-awaited WorldView Legion constellation launched on Thursday afternoon, a significant milestone for the program after years of delays. SpaceX launched the satellites on a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force base in California. The mission lifted off at 11:37 a.m. PT. SpaceX confirmed deployment at 12:29 p.m. PT. These satellites are the first two of six planned WorldView Legion satellites. The program is an update to Maxar’s Earth observation (EO) capabilities, and Maxar says they will offer 30 cm resolution imagery, the highest resolution commercially available. When all six satellites are launched, it will triple Maxar Intelligence’s capacity to collect 30 cm-class and multispectral imagery. The full Maxar constellation will consist of 10 electro-optical satellites, which the company said will image changing areas on Earth as frequently as every 20 to 30 minutes. The expanded capabilities are expected to support more detailed, up-to-date mapping and 3D technology. Maxar currently has four imagery satellites in orbit — three WorldView satellites and one GeoEye satellite. Maxar Space Systems built the WorldView Legion satellites for Maxar Intelligence. The businesses split into two companies last year. These satellites are the first satellites in the Maxar 500 series — a mid-size spacecraft platform that can be tailored for multiple missions and orbits. The satellites faced years of hardware and work delays. They were previously targeted to launch as early as mid-2021. Maxar went quiet on the program after the company was acquired by private equity firm Advent International in 2023, until the satellites were shipped to the launch site in March. Maxar supplies Earth imagery to the U.S. government and Department of Defense. The company is on the National Reconnaissance Office’s Electro-Optical Commercial Layer (EOCL) contract that began in 2022. Maxar’s 10-year contract is worth up to $3.24 billion and includes a five-year base contract commitment of $1.5 billion — a contractual commitment of just over $300 million for each of the first five years.
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