DIB Help. The Defense Department last week released a new, competitive open announcement seeking white papers for research or prototype projects in six critical sectors of the defense industrial base—kinetic capabilities, energy storage and batteries, castings and forgings, strategic and critical materials, microelectronics, and workforce development—with additional areas of interest being emerging manufacturing technology, small unmanned aerial systems, submarine industrial base, and space industrial base. Proposals must be essential for national defense and require help in building industrial capacity to be considered for Defense Production Act (DPA) and Industrial Base Analysis and Sustainment Funding. The open announcement is open to partners in the U.S., Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Awards will be made under Other Transaction Authority to get to contract quickly. White papers will be accepted through Sept. 30.
…Supply Chain Help. Separately, DoD’s Industrial Base office last Friday said it has awarded South32 $20 million in DPA grant funds for the sustainable production of battery-grade manganese at the company’s plant in Santa Cruz County, Ariz. South32 said the DoD funding will be matched by a $43 million company investment to “fund activities to support access to the manganese deposit.” Anthony Di Stasio, acting deputy assistant secretary of defense for industrial base resilience, said in a statement that “This first DPA award for manganese production is a big step towards reducing import dependency throughout the battery material supply chain.”
Corporate News. Northrop Grumman last week said its board has approved a 10 percent increase in the company’s quarterly dividend to $2.06 per share, payable June 12. “The investments we’ve made in our broad portfolio give us confidence in our outlook, including strong and expanding cash flows,” Kathy Warden, chairwoman, president and CEO of Northrop Grumman, said in a statement. RTX is partnering with test and measurement equipment solutions company TEVET under the Defense Department’s Mentor-Protégé program with the goal to advance capabilities in radar, electromagnetic spectrum operations, and radio communications systems.
People News. Shipbuilder Austal USA has named Mark Santamaria as its new chief financial officer. He previously held the same position at Cobham Advanced Electronic Solutions and AM General, and held financial officer duties for divisions of CACI International and Lockheed Martin. Retired Army Gen. Paul Nakasone, who most recently commanded U.S. Cyber Command and led the National Security Agency, has been named the founding director of Vanderbilt Univ.’s Institute for National Defense and Global Security. The institute is expected to launch in fall 2024 and will be housed in the university’s School of Engineering.
Autonomy at Sea. Shield AI last week said its MQ-35 V-BAT autonomous unmanned aircraft system took off and landed at sea from the Australian Sentinel, which is the Royal Australian Navy’s remote and autonomously operated patrol boat. Shield AI, working with its partners Toll Uncrewed Systems, posted on LinkedIn that the demonstration showcased V-BAT’s ability to work off small craft. Sentinel recently successfully completed sea acceptance trials.
Drone Station Work. Aiirow, Inc., a small company developing an autonomous drone station to conduct ground operations for small drones, has received a $74,616 Phase I Small Business Innovation Research award from the Air Force’s AFWERX innovation arm related to development of the company’s second-generation product, Dronehub 2.0. The system can autonomously swap out batteries and payloads carried by small drones in contested environments, reducing risks associated with manual operations. “Dronehub is an asymmetrical force-multiplier, enabling persistent missions, enhancing situational awareness, and increasing a commander’s ability to deploy drone assets, including swarms,” Aiirow CEO David Kaye said in a statement.
Romania FMS. The State Department on May 14 approved a potential $340.8 million foreign military sale with Romania for 300 AIM-9X Sidewinder Block II Tactical Missiles. Along with the RTX-built missiles, the deal also includes guidance units, captive air training missiles, missile containers, personnel training and equipment. “The proposed sale will improve Romania’s capability to meet current and future threats by providing air-to-air missiles for its F-16 fleet in support of NATO’s defense mission,” the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) said in a statement.
NATO Support. The State Department also announced on May 16 it has approved a potential $250.2 million FMS case with NATO Support and Procurement Agency for Alliance Ground Surveillance program equipment. The deal covers AN/APG-68 radar processors, Global Hawk drone engine controllers, communications equipment spares, spare components and parts and repair and return support. The new FMS case builds on a previously approved $40.3 million deal for AGS equipment, the DCSA noted. “The proposed sale will improve NATO’s capability to meet current and future threats by improving and sustaining Allied intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities,” the DSCA said in a statement. The prime contractor for the FMS case is Northrop Grumman.
Ukraine Sustainment. The U.S. on May 16 also approved a potential $100 million FMS case with Ukraine covering sustainment of U.S. Army-supplied systems. The State Department noted the FMS case for blanket order sustainment covers equipment and services for vehicles and weapon systems provided by the U.S. Army, as well as logistics and program support. “Ukraine has an urgent need to strengthen local sustainment capabilities to maintain high operational rates for U.S.-provided vehicles and weapon systems. This sustainment support will directly contribute to Ukraine’s battlefield effectiveness through improved logistics and will contribute to more resilient and rapid repair cycle times,” the DSCA said in a statement.
‘B’ For Acquisition Reform. Bill LaPlante, the Pentagon’s acquisition chief, told lawmakers on May 15 he would give the department a ‘B’ if he were to grade ongoing efforts to improve and reform the acquisition process. “Why is it not higher than a ‘B?’ Because, number one, we still are too slow in certain areas, particularly when it involves adapting to modern software. Number two, we still do not have enough parts and pieces that are interchangeable that we can use and are not proprietary to one company. The third area, which is still frustrating sometimes, is we still don’t get the requirements and the acquisition right and lined up, so we have a lot more work to do to get faster and to align those,” LaPlante said during a Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee hearing. “But I would say when you look at cost, schedule and performance…largely, cost increases are coming down, requirements are good and schedule is the one area we still need to make improvement on.”
UDCG Meeting. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Air Force Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will host a virtual meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group on May 20. This will be the 22nd meeting of the UDCG, which gathers senior defense officials from around the world to discuss and coordinate security assistance efforts for Ukraine. “They will join ministers of defense and chiefs of defense from nearly 50 nations from around the world to discuss Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine, and the continued close coordination among the international community to provide the Ukrainian people with the means necessary to defend their sovereign territory,” the Pentagon said in a statement.
Navy Replicator. Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition Nickolas Guertin this week hinted at the Navy’s participation in the Replicator unmanned systems program. “So the Navy has been very supportive of Replicator. We actually brought two Navy and one Marine Corps projects to the first tranche of Replicator in partnership with [the Office of the Secretary of Defense].” He did not clarify if this meant they were only proposed or also selected. The first part of Replicator aims to push thousands of drones to the field by mid-2025 as a way to help counter and complicate Chinese planning. Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks, who’s leading Replicator, recently only named the AeroVironment Switchblade 600 as part of the first tranche, but the Department also said uncrewed surface vessels will also be part of the first tranche.
Amphib Multi-Ship. Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro told the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) on May 16 that he expects to have a more firm commitment on the Navy buying for amphibious ships together within 30 to 90 days. He said he is highly enthusiastic about the four-ship buy and “we are in final negotiations with the shipyard to actually put forward the proposal, obviously, depending on what the numbers come back, but we are aggressively pursuing all negotiations with the shipyard to get to a four-ship procurement on amphibious ships.” Last month Del Toro said an announcement was expected within weeks on buying three San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ships and one amphibious assault ship together. Navy and Marine Corps officials told a House hearing last month that such a multi-ship buy is expected to save upward of $900 million.
..SM Increases. Separately, Del Toro told the committee that production rates for some naval missiles used in Middle East operations are starting to increase. “For multi-year procurements for missile systems, we actually are starting to make progress now working with the industrial base, both the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment and myself have been working with industry. And those production rates are actually starting to come up now. So that we actually will see some increases in SM-2 and SM-6 productions,” Del Toro said. While the more sophisticated missiles are harder to produce overall, “nevertheless, we are starting to see some progress being made in the production base.”
…Project Overmatch At RIMPAC. Del Toro also said the Navy will test its secretive Project Overmatch networking technologies at this year’s 29th international Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) 2024 exercise. RIMPAC occurs every two years and the next version is set to occur around Hawaii. He also said the U.S. has increased collaboration with allies and partners for the upcoming RIMPAC. The Navy Secretary also said the Navy plans to use all four Overlord Unmanned Surface Vessels at RIMPAC “in an incredible way,” without elaborating.
Portsmouth SIOP. During that same hearing, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti told the SASC that the Portsmouth dry dock work under the Shipyard Infrastructure Optimization Program (SIOP) is 47 percent complete and they are on track to meet the current deadline of August 2028. She noted the shipyard has been able to do maintenance while undergoing optimization and the lessons learned from Portsmouth are impacting how they are planning dry dock SIOP plans for the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard. A 2023 GAO report noted the Portsmouth SIOP project had two major cost estimate issues, leading to significant increases from $528 million to $2.2 billion.
LCS-38. Austal USA planned to hold a christening ceremony on May 18 for the future USS Pierre (LCS-38), the last Independence-variant LCS the company is delivering to the Navy. LCS-38 is expected to be delivered in fiscal year 2025, whereupon it will be homeported with the fellow even-numbered Independence-variant ships in San Diego.
KC-46 Refueling Operator Station. Leonardo DRS, Inc. said Boeing has awarded it a contract to build the upgraded Aerial Refueling Operator Station (AROS) 2.0 at Leonardo DRS’ Johnstown, Pa., plant. Boeing is to install AROS 2.0 on new KC-46 Pegasus tankers. AROS 2.0 is to have better performance than 85 first generation, fielded AROS systems by DRS. System displays in the cockpit permit “operators to perform aerial refueling missions while seated near the pilot and other crew members compared to legacy tankers that use a single boom operated seated or prone in the tail looking out a window,” Leonardo DRS said.
40 to 50 Counter Drone Technologies. DoD acquisition chief William LaPlante says that he chairs a Senior Integration Group, established in March, to move counter drone equipment “into theater ASAP.” The U.S. Army is the lead service for integrated counter-drone systems. “We now have between 40 and 50 counter drone technologies,” LaPlante says. “We’re finding out which ones work and which need to get fielded. We also have to make the exchange ratio cost effective. If we’re shooting down a $50,000 one-way drone with a $3 million missile, that’s not a good cost equation. Many of the solutions we’re looking toward with industry and non-traditionals are very cost effective. The technology is changing every couple of weeks, and the tactics are changing, but we’re all over it.”
Hypersonic Equipment. The Army on May 17 awarded Lockheed Martin a $756.8 million contract modification for Long Range Hypersonic Weapon ground support equipment. The work is expected to be completed by the end of February 2028 and a total of $275.3 million was obligated at the time of award, according to the Pentagon. The Army’s LRHW, which has been in development for over four years, will share the same all-up missile round and canister, and Common Hypersonic Glide Body (C-HGB) with the Navy’s Conventional Prompt Strike program. In 2019, the Army chose Lockheed Martin to serve as the weapon systems integrator for the LRHW, which will be fired from a truck, while Dynetics is tasked with producing the C-HGB. The Army is planning to resume LRHW testing this summer, officials have said, which follows a series of canceled tests last year that delayed the service’s planned fielding goal.