Battle Management. The Department of the Air Force’s program executive office (PEO) for command, control, communications and battle management (C3BM) may hold another industry day this fall after one on May 9 in Chantilly, Va., brought in representatives from almost 150 companies, according to Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (AFLCMC). Air Force Lt. Gen. Luke Cropsey is the C3BM program executive officer and Gordon Kordyak is the deputy. Kordyak said in an AFLCMC statement that he wants “to create a feedback loop that allows industry to raise a red flag and warn us when there’s an iceberg ahead and we’re not seeing it.” Cropsey said that the May 9 meeting included a briefing by Bryan Tipton, the chief of architecture and engineering for PEO C3BM at Hanscom AFB, Mass. A 15-year veteran of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Lincoln Laboratory, Tipton was the chief architect of the Department of the Air Force’s Rapid Capabilities Office between 2017 and 2022 and was the technical lead for the Air Force’s Advanced Battle Management System before joining PEO C3BM. Tipton has a doctorate in physics from MIT, according to his bio.
Deployable Combat Wings.
The Air Force said that it is instituting Deployable Combat Wing (DCW) Unit Type Codes (UTC) to help personnel train together, as the service prepares for conflicts against high-tech, potential adversaries like China. The service has chosen five candidates for the DCWs: the 19th Airlift Wing at Little Rock AFB, Ark.; the 23rd Wing at Moody AFB, Ga.; the 366th Fighter Wing at Mountain Home AFB, Idaho; the 4th Fighter Wing at Seymour Johnson AFB, N.C.; and the 20th Fighter Wing at Shaw AFB, S.C. The DCW UTCs are to replace the Expeditionary Air Base and Air Task Force deployment models. The former are to end in fiscal 2027, the latter in fiscal 2028. Air Force Maj. Gen. Gerald Donohue, the chief of staff at Air Mobility Command at Scott AFB, Ill., and the former 379th Air Expeditionary Wing commander, says that DCW UTCs are geared toward “effectiveness…on day one” and that, while “it was a privilege to command downrange…it would’ve been even better with a DCW. The teaming aspect is extraordinary.”
No Alternatives? Last month, a Congressional Budget Office study estimated that Pentagon nuclear modernization would cost at least $946 billion between this year and 2034—a projection that does not include “significant additional increase in costs” that may stem from a restructuring of the program for the Northrop Grumman LGM-35A Sentinel future ICBM and delays that are to come with Air Force efforts to reduce costs after the service notified Congress of a Nunn-McCurdy critical cost breach for Sentinel in January last year. Sentinel’s estimated cost has more than doubled to $140 billion. “If the president determines—which is his right—that we need to maintain 400 warheads on ICBMs, there are lots of ways we can do that,” Jon Wolfsthal, director of global risk at the Federation of American Scientists and a former nonproliferation adviser to the Obama administration, tells the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. “During the Obama administration in 2016, we suggested that you could take the 200 most reliable Minuteman IIIs and simply put two warheads on each of them. You would cut the reliability risk of the ICBM program significantly, because you could take the most reliable, most modern of the Minuteman IIIs and maintain two warheads on each. This wouldn’t risk inviting an attack because Russia or China would still have to strike at 200 fixed land targets. So, you still would have the sponge and a very visible deterrent, but that was rejected by the Air Force as unworkable, even though it turns out the Sentinel program is also unworkable.”
Missile Defense Goals Unmet. A new classified Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, published May 29, was titled “Missile Defense: Delivery and Testing Goals Unmet for Fiscal Year 2024.” While the office would not disclose other details, the title indicates several delivery and testing goals that the Defense Department did not meet this past year. This report is likely similar to an unclassified 2023 GAO report titled “Annual Goals Unmet for Deliveries and Testing.” That report said MDA interceptor and radar upgrade deliveries continued to be later than planned and failed to meet its own annual goals.
EB Union Approves. Workers of the Marine Draftsman Association UAW Local 571 overwhelmingly ratified a new five-year contract agreement that negotiators reached with General Dynamics’ Electric Boat on May 18. It passed 1,596 to 280. After the previous agreement expired in April, the union approved a potential strike if an agreement was not completed by May 19.The roughly 3,500 union members are draftsmen, designers and largely other technical workers. The agreement includes 30.6 percent of wage increases compounded over the agreement’s lifespan, among other benefits.
Golden Dome Threat Assessment. The Defense Intelligence Agency in mid-May released a single page unclassified graphic assessment called “Golden Dome for America: Current and Future Missile Threats to the U.S. Homeland.” Noticeably, DIA predicts China’s increases in various strategic weapons between now and 2035: 400 intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) to 700 missiles by 2035, submarine-launched ballistic missiles from the current 72 to at least 132 by 2035, boosted hypersonic weapons from 600 to 4,000 and an increase in land attack cruise missiles from about 1,000 now to 5,000 by 2035. The report also assessed North Korea in the next decade would increase from 10 or fewer ICBMs now to 50 by 2035.
Reed Blasts DOT&E Plans. Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), ranking member on the Armed Services Committee, has criticized Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s intended restructure of the Pentagon’s Department of Operational Test and Evaluation, stating it would reduce the office’s staff to a “skeleton crew” that “may be unable to provide adequate oversight for critical military programs, risking operational readiness and taxpayer dollars…Secretary Hegseth’s decision to gut the Pentagon’s Director of Operational Test and Evaluation office is reckless and damaging to military accountability and oversight. For decades, DOT&E has played a vital, legally mandated role in safeguarding the integrity of major defense programs and ensuring military systems are effective before they are put into warfighters’ hands…The Secretary has given no logical reasoning for this action, and I am concerned that this move appears retaliatory, driven by Mr. Hegseth’s opposition to some of DOT&E’s recent, legally required oversight decisions.” In a recent memo, Hegseth directed the reduction of DOT&E office’s staff by nearly 50 personnel, down to 30 civilians, 15 military personnel and one Senior Executive Service leader. “This kind of politically motivated interference undermines independent oversight and leaves warfighters and the public more vulnerable to untested, potentially flawed systems,” Reed said.
New BAE Florida Shiplift. BAE Systems plans to commission a new $250 million Pearlson Shiplift and four-acre land-level repair facility at its Jacksonville, Fla., shipyard on June 2. The service plans to use these new facilities to service Navy ships at Mayport Naval Station as well as commercial vessels using the Port of Jacksonville. This ribbon-cutting ceremony will host Acting CNO Adm. James Kilby symbolizes the start of operations, with the first ship lifting set for mid-June. The company underscored this new shiplift system will be one of the top 10 largest in the world.
LHA-7. Vigor Marine Group said on May 29 its Marine CM San Diego division completed a Continuous Maintenance Availability for the America-class amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli (LHA-7) five days ahead of schedule. The company said this work lasted from February to May and included over 250 skilled workers. The work included platform repairs, tank repairs and preservation, bulkhead shaft seal repair, pump mechanical seals, service diesel generator repair, piping replacements, refrigeration compressor overhaul and various aircraft and cargo weapon elevator repairs. The company is also working on the docking selected restricted availability for the destroyer USS Russell (DDG-59) and USS Momsen (DDG-92) and is conducting planning for an upcoming Selected Restricted Availability (SRA) for the destroyer USS Sterett (DDG-104).
Coastal Sentinel. Coastal Sentinel, which the Coast Guard announced in its new Force Design 2028 blueprint as a next-generation maritime surveillance capability, is the name being given to a concept for a “collection of future systems the Coast Guard intends to deploy: a robust and integrated sensor network to collect, process, and combine real-time data; artificial intelligence and cloud-native services to combine and present that data at scale; and best-in-class applications to drive and enable mission performance for end users,” the service’s acquisition directorate told Defense Daily last week. Coastal Sentinel will take advantage of “several state-of-the-market technologies” to secure the nation’s border and maritime approaches, it said.
RTX Investment. RTX has made a “multi-million dollar investment” in Canada’s Gastops Ltd., to support research and development of next-generation oil debris monitoring (ODM) system technology to monitor oil and fuel for RTX Pratt & Whitney military engines. Gastops said the investment is being made by RTX’s Raytheon segment in collaboration with Pratt & Whitney. Gastops’ MetalSCAN ODM sensors have provided diagnostics and engineering monitoring of P&W’s F119 engine since the early 1990s. The F119 powers the U.S. Air Force F-22 fighter. MetalSCAN is also being used in other P&W engines and discussions are underway to integrate the company’s monitoring technologies on more military engine programs.
First Portal Mission. Portal Space Systems will launch its first mission to orbit in early 2026 aboard Momentus Inc.’s Vigoride orbital service vehicle. Portal will use the mission to validate its flight computer, flight software, avionics, and power management systems, which will be critical to its highly maneuverable Supernova spacecraft the Washington-based company is developing for transorbital flight. “We have nicknamed this payload mini-Nova as it is providing needed and necessary systems engineering and flight test validation to ensure mission success for the upcoming Supernova spacecraft,” Jeff Thornburg, co-founder and CEO of Portal, told Defense Daily in a statement. “We are seeing far too many software, comms, and power system failures in our industry due to the lack of robust systems engineering, integration, and testing.”
Firehawk in Oklahoma. Texas-based Firehawk Aerospace is branching out into Oklahoma where it will build a new 40,000 square foot manufacturing facility and test infrastructure, courtesy of a 320 acre land transfer near Fort Sill, and a $22 million state and federal funding package. The Dallas-based startup is developing solid rocket motors and additively manufactured propellants to fill shortfalls in U.S. supply chains for these products. Groundbreaking is slated for this summer.
Poland FMS. The State Department said on May 21 it has approved a potential $180 million foreign military sale with Poland for GBU-39/B Small Diameter Bombs. The deal includes 1,400 of the Boeing-built bombs along with practice bombs, tactical training rounds, containers, weapons system support and spare parts. “The proposed sale will improve Poland’s capability to meet current and future threats by enhancing its capacity to conduct effective air-to-ground strikes, reinforcing its capability to protect Polish sovereign territory, and improving its ability to meet NATO requirements,” the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in a statement.
…Estonia FMS. The State Department has also approved a potential $296 million FMS case with Estonia for Javelin missiles. The deal includes 800 of the RTX and Lockheed Martin-built missiles as well as 72 Javelin Lightweight Command Launch Units (LwCLUs), and builds on a previously approved $10.2 million FMS case that included 12 LwCLUs, LwCLU Basic Skills Trainers, Javelin missile simulation rounds, battery coolant units and spare parts. “The proposed sale will enhance Estonia’s capability to meet current and future threats by providing a credible force that is capable of deterring adversaries and participating in NATO operations,” the DSCA said.
M270A2 Award. The Army on May 23 awarded Lockheed Martin a $214.4 million contract to recapitalize more Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) into the upgraded M270A2 configuration. The deal includes funds to support M270A2 MLRS foreign military sales cases with Finland, the United Kingdom, and Italy, according to the Pentagon. Work on the deal is expected to be completed by the end of 2030. The M270A2 configuration of the launcher features a new 600-horsepower engine, new fire control system and an improved armored cab.
C-UAS. QinetiQ said on May 27 it has received a three-year, $41 million task order to provide software and technology integration support for counter-drone projects led by the Army Combat Capabilities Development Command’s C5ISR Center. “As systems integration experts, QinetiQ US will support key aspects of the program including development, testing, deployment and training, providing warfighters with critical sensor technologies needed to detect and track increasingly sophisticated drone threats,” QinetiQ said in a statement. QinetiQ added that its advanced sensor and data fusion solutions “provide the critical detection and tracking capabilities essential to layered counter-drone defense systems….By enabling precise threat identification, these solutions deliver the intelligence foundation necessary for effective counter-UAS neutralization decisions.”
UKR and Raytheon. The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense on May 19 held talks with RTX’s Raytheon, noting the discussions covered Kyiv’s “critical need” for additional Patriot air defense systems and interceptors. “The Minister of Defense stressed that this is a matter of national priority, focused on the protection of people, critical infrastructure, cities and villages,” the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense said. Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said he told Joseph DeAntona, Raytheon’s vice president for land and air defense systems, that Kyiv is “ready to invest in this area, as it concerns the lives of our citizens and the resilience of the state…This is one of our strategic priorities. Deepening interaction with Raytheon is a strategic component of such cooperation.” The conversation also included discussing opportunities to expand cooperation between U.S. and Ukrainian defense industries, the MoD said.