Australian USVs. A Royal Australian Navy (RAN) official recently announced a $3.3 million contract to acquire five Ocius Technologies Bluebottle Unmanned Surface Vehicles. On Nov. 24, Rear Adm. Pete Quinn, Head of Navy Capability at the RAN, said this will be an important investment in naval strategy. “We have vast areas we need to patrol, and we have to and will be investing in uncrewed platforms that will be out there persistently conducting surveillance,” Quinn said in a statement. Ocius CEO Robert Dane said over the past 15 months five Bluebottles under a Defense Innovation Hub contract had sailed almost 23,000 nautical miles. The Bluebottle USV travels at 5 knots; can be launched from a boat ramp/ship; has a 661-pound modular payload; average payload power of 50W; uses solar, wind and wave power; and is 22 feet long.
GPS III. The Military Communication and Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) Directorate of U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command said that it has awarded Lockheed Martin about $744 million in exercising the third production option for three new GPS III Follow-On (IIIF) satellites. The third production option covers GPS IIIF Space Vehicles (SVs) 18, 19, and 20. “Building on the technical baseline of SV 01-10, the newer satellites will provide increased anti-jam capabilities for the military with the addition of a regional military protection capability,” SSC said. “Precision ranging measurements will be enabled by a Laser Retro-reflector Array and will address the consolidation of telemetry, tracking and commanding frequencies. Additionally, GPS IIIF leverages major international collaboration with the Canadian Department of National Defense, and other U.S. Government organizations such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Air Force Rescue Coordination Center, and the U.S. Coast Guard Office of Search and Rescue (SAR) by hosting a new SAR payload.” The GPS IIIF SV11-12 satellites were included in the original GPS IIIF contract awarded to Lockheed Martin in September 2018 to build up to 22 GPS IIIF satellites, SSC said. Under that contract, SSC exercised the first production option for SV13-14 in October 2020 and the second production option for SV 15-17 in October 2021.
Trident II Support. The Navy’s Strategic Systems Program office awarded Lockheed Martin a $50 million modification on Nov. 28 for Trident II (D5) missile production and deploy systems support. The Trident II missiles are the nuclear-armed submarine launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) based on the current Ohio-class and future Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs). This work is for both U.S. SSBNs and the U.K.’s SSBNs. Work is expected to be finished by September 2027. The contract was awarded on a sole source basis.
ESSM Support. The Navy awarded Raytheon Technologies a $398 million modification on Nov. 28 to a previously awarded contract. This exercises options for fiscal year 2023 guided missile assemblies, shipping containers, and spare parts are in support of the fiscal years 2021-2023 Evolved SeaSparrow Missile (ESSM) Block 2 full-rate production requirements. The work is expected to be finished by March 2027.
Aegis Modernization. The Navy on Nov. 18 awarded Raytheon Technologies a $23 million order under an earlier awarded basic ordering agreement to provide Aegis Modernization kits for the Navy destroyers and allies. This combines purchases that are divided into the U.S. Navy (57 percent), Japan (42 percent) and Australia (one percent), with the latter two under the Foreign Military Sales program. Work will be split between Andover, Mass. (77 percent) and Chesapeake, Va. (23 percent) and is expected to be finished by March 2026. The order was not competitively procured in accordance with regulations with only one responsible source.
Taking Stock. Members of congressional defense committees, including Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) of the Senate Armed Services Committee, have owned stocks in marquee defense companies, and there has been bi-partisan legislation introduced to ban such ownership and trading. In one trading instance, Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), a SASC member, inherited Lockheed Martin stock when her mother passed away last December. While Fischer’s office said that the senator intended to sell such inherited defense stock all along, Fischer did not sell the Lockheed Martin stock until June this year, more than two months after she questioned Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin at an Apr. 7 hearing about U.S. Air Force and Navy planned aircraft divestments in fiscal 2023. Walter Shaub, the head of the Project on Government Oversight’s government ethics initiative and the former director of the federal Office of Government Ethics between January 2013 and July 2017, said that the Fischer example “really highlights the need for Congress to ban its members from trading or owning stocks” and that “something is terribly wrong when you can have a member of Congress, as you do here, with an undisclosed conflict of interest working on a matter that affects her financial interests — the fact that she didn’t even break any rules shows that members of Congress are operating in an anything-goes environment.”
…Bipartisan Bills. On Feb. 10, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a SASC member, and Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) introduced S. 3631, the Bipartisan Ban on Congressional Stock Ownership Act, which would ban stock ownership and trading by members of Congress and their spouses. Co-sponsors include Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), another SASC member. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) introduced a companion bill, H.R. 6678, in the House on Feb. 24–legislation backed by Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), the chair of the House Appropriations Committee. “Congress has imposed stricter rules on the lowliest entry-level employee in the executive branch than it has imposed on its own members,” Shaub said. “We wouldn’t have this sort of problem if Congress banned them from having conflicting financial interests.”
Manned-Unmanned Teaming. General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. (GA-ASI) heralded a Nov. 17 manned-unmanned teaming test involving a company MQ-20 Avenger drone, a Lockheed Martin-operated Sabreliner acting as a fighter, and two F-5 Advanced Tiger fighters from Nevada-based Tactical Air Support, Inc. “During this event, all aircraft performed coordinated maneuvers to sense relevant airborne targets in the infrared spectrum,” per General Atomics. Next-generation Lockheed Martin Tactical Infrared Search and Track sensors and the General Dynamics EMC2 multifunction processor–the so-called “Einstein box”–underpinned the data sharing during the test. Michael Atwood, GA-ASI’s senior director of advanced programs, said in a statement that the test “is a clear demonstration of our rapidly maturing Autonomous Collaborative Platform (ACP) mission system suite and moves us one step closer to providing this revolutionary capability to the warfighter.”
Union Support. The head of largest aerospace and defense union in the U.S. last week wrote President Biden urging an increase in F-35 fighter production in the fiscal year 2024 budget request that will be sent to Congress in 2023. Robert Martinez said the FY ’23 request of 61 F-35s “was a major disappointment” for the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers and warned that production cuts could cause “major perturbations in the production line” of the advanced fighter. Martinez, in a Nov. 29 letter to Biden, says the F-35 needs funding for at least 86 aircraft annually “to keep our workforce intact and our production lines firing on all cylinders.” Otherwise, he says, the current budget plans will lead to “job reductions across the program.”
Ukraine Lessons. There is an “essential” need for unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and the ability to counter enemy drones “across all branches and at all echelons” of the British military, says new report on preliminary lessons learned from Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine. The report, released in late November by the United Kingdom-based Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies, is based on operational data provided by the general staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. It says that 90 percent of deployed UAS “are lost” that “For the most part” they “must be cheap and attritable.” The report is based on operations from February through July. “For land forces, [UAS] must be organic to units for the purposes of both situational awareness and target acquisition,” it says. “The primary means of CUAS is EW. Another critical tactical requirement is to be alerted to the presence of UAS.”
…More Lessons. Additional lessons include the need for precision weapons, although given that these weapons “are scarce and can be defeated by EW,” they must be delivered quickly on target. To do so requires disrupting enemy electronic warfare capabilities to create opportunities for precision fires. “In modern warfare, the electromagnetic spectrum is unlikely to be denied, but it is continually disrupted, and forces must endeavour to gain advantage within it,” the report says. It also says that land forces must dispersed to be survivable given the widespread presence of intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance sensors that make it difficult to hide for long. “Forces instead should prioritise concentrating effects while only concentrating mass under favourable conditions—with an ability to offer mutual support beyond line of sight—and should give precedence to mobility as a critical component of their survivability.”
Hypersonics Partner. Stratolaunch, LLC says it has been added to the Dynetics team for the Navy-led Multiservice Advanced Capability Test Bed (MACH-TB), which is aimed at affordably testing hypersonic technologies far more frequently than is currently the case by the Defense Department. Stratolaunch says that the team will leverage its Talon-A reusable vehicle for flight testing hypersonic payloads. “This partnership will accelerate the frequency of testing that is imperative to reducing the risk of hypersonic system technology development,” says Zachary Krevor, CEO of Stratolaunch.
DDG 123 Delivered. HII’s Ingalls Shipbuilding Division last Wednesday delivered the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer Lenah Sutcliffe Higbee (DDG 123) to the Navy, marking the end of the shipyard’s work on the Flight IIA ships as it transitions to Flight III destroyers, which will be upgraded with the AN/SPY-6(V)1 Air and Missile Defense Radar. The AMDR will enable the Flight III DDGs to simultaneously conduct anti-aircraft warfare and ballistic missile defense.
New Launch Subsidiary. Rocket Lab USA has created a new subsidiary dedicated to providing launch services and space systems capabilities to the U.S. government and allies. Rocket Lab National Security LLC will build on the company’s previous work for the National Reconnaissance Office, the Space Force and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Rocket Lab offers two launch vehicles, the Electron and Neutron, satellites, radios, separation systems and space solar products.
FirstSource III Proposals. The Department of Homeland Security finally is ready to begin accepting Phase II proposals for its FirstSource III procurement, with bids due by Jan. 18, 2023. The small business information technology program is potentially worth $10 billion over 10 years. Proposals under the second phase of the program were originally anticipated to be due in November 2022.
Boeing Eyes Europe. Boeing last week said it is expanding its presence in Europe to pursue new growth opportunities with two new Brussels-based officials, Liam Benham, who is the new president of Boeing EU, NATO and Government Affairs Europe, and Kristen Richmond, the new managing director for EU Policy. The two new leaders succeed Kim Stollar, who led the Boeing EU Policy and NATO team the past four years. She is now the managing director of Commercial Contracts for Boeing Global Services.
APKWS. BAE Systems on Nov. 29 said it has completed more ground-to-air tests aimed at proving the effectiveness of using 70mm rockets with Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System (APKWS) kits to take out Class-2 drone threats. “Militarized drones are becoming more prevalent in conflicts around the world, and we’re giving our customers an efficient way to counter them without wasting expensive missiles,” Greg Procopio, BAE Systems’ director of precision guidance and sensing solutions, said in a statement. “Our tests demonstrate that APKWS guidance kits have the flexibility to engage a variety of targets to meet the evolving mission needs of the warfighter.” BAE Systems said the demonstrations in southern Arizona involved firing five APKWS-guided counter-drone rockets from a containerized weapon system, with the weapons destroying all five targets.
BAE Systems/Microsoft. BAE Systems has also announced its partnering with Microsoft to leverage its Azure cloud computing-enabled services for the Pioneer wargaming platform, which it said will enable “more realism in the platform’s high fidelity simulations providing customers increased confidence in decision making.” “Microsoft Azure is widely regarded as a prominent provider of cloud computing services for government,” Peder Jungck, vice president and general manager of BAE Systems Intelligence Solutions, said in a statement. As the cloud provider of choice for our wargaming platforms in our Pioneer ecosystem, our customers will now benefit from its advanced capabilities.” BAE Systems described Pioneer as a “system-of-systems that enables wargame operations across multiple domains, including land, air, sea, space, and cyber,” to include leveraging explainable artificial intelligence capabilities.
New DoD IG. The Senate on Nov. 30 confirmed Robert Storch to serve as the Pentagon’s inspector general, a position that had not had a permanent Senate-confirmed official in the role since early 2016. Storch previously served as the inspector general for the National Security Agency. The Senate voted 92 to 3 in favor of his nomination. Sens. Mike Braun (R-Ind.), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) were the three ‘no’ votes.