FVL CFT/Autonomy. The Army’s Future Vertical Lift Cross-Functional Team is looking at potentially taking on autonomy as its official fifth line of effort, the organization’s director told reporters on April 24. “We are assessing what would be another line of effort. And I think, right now, autonomy is a critical aspect of all of this and how do you bridge autonomy across all these systems,” Brig. Gen. Cain Baker, the FVL CFT director, said during a briefing at the Army Aviation Mission Solutions Summit in Denver. “We are looking at right now how we would go after that autonomy and how does it touch the other warfighting functions in the CFT. That’s an initial step off.” Baker noted the CFT’s current lines of effort remain the Future Long Range Assault Aircraft, Future Tactical UAS, Launched Effects and Modular Open Systems Architecture.
UH-60V. Although the Army will end production of the UH-60V digital cockpit upgrade as part of its recently announced aviation rebalancing, a lead official said on April 25 the service has plans to field the Black Hawk aircraft in the new configuration through 2027. “Even though it’s a program that’s unwinding, there are a little over 100 aircraft that are [in that configuration],” Maj. Gen. Walter Rugen, director of Army aviation, said during remarks at the Army Aviation Mission Solutions Summit. The UH-60V was a retrofit program to upgrade UH-60L Black Hawks with a Northrop Grumman-built digital cockpit.
…FTUAS Demand. During his remarks, Rugen said he also expects that demand for the in-development Future Tactical UAS is “going to be off the charts,” noting the Army’s aim is to meet a First Unit Equipped milestone in FY ‘26. “That’s my prediction for [FTUAS], with the Shadow cancellation and the demand by divisions to have that tactical UAS capability in their formations,” Rugen said. The Army said on April 25 it has awarded Textron Systems and Griffon Aerospace the next two options on the FTUAS development contract, which include flight tests in FY ‘25. “There’s no amount of money that will accelerate that left. But what we, in the [Pentagon], are doing is putting more units into the fielding process and that’s our version of acceleration.” Textron is offering its Aerosonde Mk. 4.8 Hybrid Quad UAS and Griffon Aerospace is pitching its Valiant drone platform for the FTUAS program.
Space Pivot. RTX is focusing its spacecraft business away from being a prime contractor to a component supplier to the primes, Chris Calio, the company’s president and chief operating officer, said last week. He was asked on the company’s first quarter earnings call about comments he made last summer at the Paris Air Show that RTX needs a new strategy for space to boost growth in this market. “And I think when you look at our strengths…in that portfolio, I think that pivot now is the right one,” Calio told investors. “We’ve got historical strength in…some of the exquisite space areas. We’ve got some other strengths in some of the key components that go in to the prime satellites and buses. But again, I think that’s where we’re going to be shifting away from perhaps being a space prime to being more of a component supplier.”
Navy Cyber Adviser. Anne Marie Schumann was sworn in as the next Department of the Navy Principal Cyber Adviser (PCA) on April 22. In this role, Schuman will advise the Secretary of the Navy, Chief of Naval Operations (CNO), and Commandant of the Marine Corps on cyber issues. She is set to coordinate with the Department of the Navy Chief Information Officer (CIO), Department of Defense PCA and DoD CIO. Schumann succeeds Chris Cleary, the first adviser who left after his three-year term ended in November. She previously served as the Senior Cyber Threat Adviser to the Director for Command, Control, Communications and Computers/Cyber and CIO, Joint Staff J6.
Frigate Designers. Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro on April 23 during a Stimson Center event elaborated on how the Navy is helping Fincantieri Marinette Marine complete the design work on the Constellation-class frigate. For over a year, the ship’s design was frozen at about 80 percent. “With regards to the design teamwork, we’ve actually sent a big team, over 50 design engineers from Naval Sea Systems Command, basically to go live and work side by side with them in Wisconsin to…minimize the amount of time necessary to get to the final design and digitization of the frigate so they can actually move to production work a lot faster,” Del Toro said. He also reiterated the shipyard has had retention problems so the department is working with them to try to provide additional incentives to pay workers to stay in shipbuilding for longer.
New Shipbuilding Prez. Austal USA, the Alabama-based shipbuilding subsidiary of Australia’s Austal, has named Michelle Kruger as president. She has been the acting president since August 2023 when Rusty Murdaugh resigned from the role. Kruger has been with the company since 2022 as vice president of global services and support after working for General Dynamics, where she worked at its Electric Boat, NASSCO, and Bath Iron Works shipyards in various leadership positions. Kruger has a bachelor’s degree in marine engineering from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy and a master’s in marine engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
…New Lead for Airbus N.A. Airbus last week also announced a new leadership move, naming Robin Hayes as chairman and CEO of Airbus Americas, Inc., effective June 3, which is when the company’s current chief in the U.S., C. Jeffrey Knittel, retires. Hayes is a former CEO of JetBlue Airways and held senior executive roles at British Airways. Hayes will lead the commercial aircraft business, and have responsibility for coordination among the company’s helicopters, space, and defense businesses in North America.
AeroVironment AI Kit. AeroVironment last week introduced a kit that includes a way to quickly retrofit its fielded unmanned aircraft assets with a payload to enable edge computing and its AVACORE autonomy software that has modular interfaces such as autopilots, radios, and sensors, and provides flexibility for developing and conducting new autonomous missions. The Autonomy Retrofit Kit includes SPOTR-Edge, AV’s computer vision software that detects, classifies, localizes, and tracks objects of interest day or night.
Saronic Expanding. Autonomous surface vessel (ASV) developer and manufacturer Saronic last week said it has acquired 65,000 square-feet of additional space in Austin, Texas, to expand its headquarters and production facilities, bringing total occupancy in the area to 100,000 square-feet. The expansion will enable the production of hundreds of its ASVs annually, and support development and manufacture of its new, and largest vessel, Corsair, it said. The startup expects to add 100 jobs this year, elevating headcount to 200 employees. The company also maintains a 5,000-plus square-foot ocean testing facility in Galveston, Texas.
A SAFETY Act First. Counter-unmanned aircraft system and airspace security company Dedrone has received SAFETY Act Designation status from the Department of Homeland Security, making it the first counter-drone company to receive limited liability protections offered by the act. Dedrone said its Dedrone Tracker AI command-and-control platform, and its DedroneSensor radio frequency sensors received the designation, which is in effect until April 30, 2029. The Northern Virginia-based company’s solutions are deployed worldwide at 829 sites, including airports and stadiums, and with U.S. and international governments.
Virtual Aegis. The USS Winston S. Churchill (DDG-81) Arleigh Burke-class destroyer became the first ship to run a fully virtualized Aegis Combat System (ACS) to intercept an air target with a missile, the Navy said on April 24. This milestone was marked during the ship’s last phase of its Combat System Ship Qualification Trials. The ship first started operating with a virtualized ACS in July 2023. Six more ships and four land-based test sites are projected to run virtualized ACS in 2024 as well. The virtualized ACS is a contribution to the Navy’s larger effort to shift to a single force-level integrated combat system for all surface ships. The virtualized system will allow rapid delivery of improved capabilities and improve data on systems performance at sea to roll into a continuous development process.
MCM LCS-30. The Navy embarked the first Mine Countermeasures Mission Package (MCM MP) aboard the USS Canberra (LCS 30) Independence-variant Littoral Combat Ship on April 18, the Navy said. The service now expects the first MCM Mission package deployment at sea in FY 2025. The mission package includes unmanned maritime systems and sensors to locate, identify and destroy mines in littoral waters while keeping the ship further from the threat than current MCM forces. It uses an MCM Unmanned Surface Vehicle, MH-60S helicopter and support equipment.
Sierra Nevada Wins SAOC. The Air Force late last Friday said it selected Sierra Nevada Corp. contract for the Survivable Airborne Operations Center (SAOC), which will replace the Boeing-built E-4B fleet that is based on the 747 passenger plane and is used as a mobile national command authority in crisis situations, such as “doomsday” events. The award is worth $13.1 million and total obligations in fiscal year 2024 are for $59 million. SNC will develop and produce the SAOC.