Drone Corps Opposition. Gen. Randy George, the Army chief of staff, told lawmakers on May 21 he doesn’t believe a proposal to establish a separate drone branch within the service “would be helpful.” George is now the second senior Army official to push back on the House Armed Services Committee’s proposal in its version of the FY ‘25 NDAA to establish a Drone Corps, after Under Secretary Gabe Camarillo said last week it might be counterproductive to moving out on new UAS and counter-drone initiatives. “We appreciate the interest, for example, on drones. You mentioned a drone branch. For us, this is a capability that’s going to be, I think, resident in every formation at every echelon. So we see this as integrated into our formation, not some separate piece. And I think we need that kind of flexibility,” George said during a Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee hearing. “But I don’t think it would be helpful to have a separate drone branch.”
C-UAS News.
The Canadian Armed Forces have selected a man-packable component of CACI International’s SkyTracker suite of counter-uncrewed aerial systems (C-UAS) for dismounted operations. CACI said BEAM, which is the SkyTracker form factor being acquired by Canadian forces, provides dismounted omnidirectional signal detection for drones as part of a layered defense to detect, track, and defeat small UAS. The U.S. Secret Service last week said it plans to acquire the EnforceAir 2 drone detection systems from D-FEND Solutions. The Secret Service said the radio frequency-based “EnforceAir is the only counter-drone solution that combines cyber capabilities of taking control and landing the most advanced and widely spread commercial drones and high-risk custom-made drones.”
UAS Seed Round. Neros Technologies, a California-based startup developing and manufacturing small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), last week said it closed a seed funding round, bringing total venture investment in the small company to $10.9 million. The seed round was led by Sequoia Capital and included Cantos, Peter Thiel, A*, D3, Long Journey, and BoxGroup. The company wants to help fill a gap in U.S. manufacturing and says it is “on a mission to build effective, practical, unmanned systems that keep military deterrence viable and directly save allied lives on the battlefield.” Neros recently opened a 15,500 square-foot facility in El Segundo, Calif., for research and development, and high-volume production.
Destroyers Named. Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro announced two names of new future Arleigh Burke-class Flight III guided missile destroyers, the future USS Richard J. Danzig (DDG-143) and Michael G. Mullen (DDG-144). Del Toro announced the names during the U.S. Naval Academy Commencement week ceremony on May 22. DDG-143 is named in honor of the 71st Secretary of the Navy and DDG-144 honors the former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Chief of Naval Operations. These will be the first ships bearing their names.
U.K. Amphibs. The British Royal Navy announced it plans to procure six new amphibious Multi Role Support Ships (MRSS) to replace the HMS Albion and Bulwark, which are set to stay in service until 2033-2034. These new ships will also succeed three Bay-class amphibious support vessels, the Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFAs) Lyme Bay, Mounts Bay and Cardigan Bay as well as support ship RFA Argus. The U.K. government said the MRSS aims to be able to deploy on a wider variety of operations and designed to carry vehicles, aircraft, insertion craft and a range of uncrewed systems for “complicated missions.” The ships will also act as primary casualty receiving ships to provide medical care to British forces. While the government did not reveal timelines or prices for the vessels, it said the Ministry of Defense entered the first or concept phase of MRSS and will work with industry as part of early market engagement ahead of vessel design.
Patrol Boats. On May 16 the Navy awarded Metal Shark Boats and ReconCraft LLC a multiple award contract to procure up to 73 40-foot patrol boats for the Naval Expeditionary Combat Command. The maximum cumulative dollar value for both contracts combined is $290 million over seven years. Under this award, Metal Shark received $6.5 million and ReconCraft gets $7.7 million for initial contract awards. The first orders are expected to be finished by December 2025 at Metal Shark’s Jeanrette, La., and ReconCraft’s Clackamas, Ore., facilities. The DoD announcement noted this was competitively procured with four offers received, but as usual it did not name the two other offerors.
Hospital Ship Avail. The Navy awarded Alabama Shipyard LLC a $30.08 million contract on May 23 for a 156-calendar day shipyard availability for the regular overhaul and dry dock availability o the USNS Comfort (T-AH 20) hospital ship. The DoD contract announcement noted this covers a base work package and five unexercised options for more work and time that, if exercised, would increase the total value to $40.9 million. Work will occur in Mobile, Ala., from August 2024 through January 2025. The announcement added this was solicited as a small business set-aside with two offers received.
People News. Lockheed Martin’s board has elected Heather Wilson as a director, effectively immediately, the company said on May 22. Willson served as secretary of the Air Force from 2017 to 2019 and is president of the Univ. of Texas at El Paso. “Heather has a proven track record in government, academia, and the private sector, and I look forward to her strategic insight as a member of the board,” Lockheed Martin Chief Jim Taiclet said in a statement. The company last week also said the Ilene Gordon, who had been a board member for eight years, resigned effective May 24. BAE Systems, Inc., the U.S.-based subsidiary of Britain’s BAE Systems, has appointed Betty Sapp to its board. Sapp was director of the National Reconnaissance Office from 2012 to 2019 and was a CIA officer for more than 20 years when she retired in 2019. Finally, the venture-backed technology company TrustPoint, which is developing next-generation global navigation satellite systems products and services, has appointed Charles “Chuck” Beames as executive chairman of the board. Beames holds the same roles at satellite manufacturer York Space Systems and the space cybersecurity firm SpiderOak.
Acquisition Complete. Accenture Federal Services last week said it closed its acquisition of Cognosante, a provider of digital transformation and cloud modernization solutions to federal health, defense, intelligence, and civilian agencies. Terms of the deal, first announced in April, were not disclosed. Accenture Federal said the acquisition adds more than 1,500 employees. The company also said it is creating a new federal health portfolio for its business.
Fishing Challenge. The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) and the National Security Innovation Network last week announced 10 finalists for the first phase of their $1 million Global Fishing Forecast Grand Challenge, which is aimed at finding new ways to forecast industrial fishing to help combat illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing. The Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, Athenium Analytics, Esri, Jataware Corp., Orbital Insight, PierSight LLC, PolArtic LLC, a team of Misram LLC and Reverie Venture INC, Sync Layer, Inc., and the Univ. of Miami CSTARS will brief their solutions to the interagency judging panel, which will select the first, second, and third place winners, which will get $500,000, $200,000, and $50,000, respectively.
Optical Comms Record. CACI International last week said that NASA successfully sent data more than 200 kilometers from its Psyche spacecraft to the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California via the company’s optical communications technology, a distance record. CACI currently has more than 25 optical communications terminals in low-Earth orbit on U.S. government satellites that have been used to demonstrate space-to-space and space-to-ground optical communications. CACI said that NASA will continue to use the communications technology as part of the Deep Space Optical Communications experiment as the range is extended.
Space Force Convert. Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) says he is now fully behind the U.S. Space Force, established on Dec. 20, 2019, as a separate service. “When the Space Force was first proposed, I was a skeptic,” King says. “I ultimately supported it, but I just wasn’t sure that this was a direction we needed to move in. I am now a convert. I think the Space Force is absolutely in the right place at the right time taking the right actions, and I’m glad that we have an organization that’s dedicated strictly to that mission. I don’t know how often you have senators admitting mistakes, but I wanted to get that in the record.” King chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee’s strategic forces panel.
SDA Tranche 1 Service Hand-Offs. In December, U.S. Space Force’s Space Development Agency (SDA) plans to begin launching its Tranche 1 satellites—the first series to have operational, non-test birds. Tranche 1 is to have 126 Transport Layer communications satellites, 35 Tracking Layer missile tracking satellites, and 12 tactical demonstration satellites. “SDA’s strength is small sats, proliferation, low Earth orbit, hundreds of miles above the Earth,” says Frank Calvelli, assistant secretary of the Air Force for space acquisition and integration. “We tend to go to Space Systems Command for more traditional missions, such as military satellite communications at higher altitudes, higher altitudes for missile warning, [and] for launch for space domain awareness, and then we tend to go to Space RCO [rapid capabilities office] for things related to protect and defend, unique missions that support U.S. Space Command. I think SDA is showing the way to other parts of the [Space Force] organization that by building smaller, and using fixed price, you can go faster. I’m impressed with them bringing in new space companies, like Sierra Space, Rocket Lab, and York Space Systems and using commercial bus lines, like we see at Airbus and Terran Orbital, and I think those are really healthy things for the country…The biggest thing we’ll see down the road is we need to make sure that, as we launch Tranche 1, people use it. It doesn’t matter how fast we build them, if no one uses them, and we need to get the services to ramp on and adopt it.”
Canada FMS. The State Department on May 21 approved a potential $96.4 million foreign military sale with Canada for Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) tail kits. The deal would cover 690 KMU-572 JDAM tail kits, 75 KMU-556 JDAM tail kits and 25 KMU-557 JDAM tail kits, built by Boeing. The State Department noted the new FMS case builds on a separate $16.1 million deal with Canada that covered 210 KMU-572 JDAM tail kits, 50 KMU-556 JDAM tail kits and 25 KMU-557 JDAM tail kits. “The proposed sale will improve Canada’s capability to meet current and future threats by increasing available stores of munitions for its air force,” the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in a statement.
End-Use Monitoring. An amendment from Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) that would prohibit further drawdown of U.S. weapons to be transferred to Ukraine without meeting additional end-use monitoring requirements was defeated during the House Armed Services Comittee’s markup of its FY ‘25 NDAA. During debate on the measure, Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) said the provision would be “unduly cumbersome” to continuing security assistance efforts for Ukraine. “My understanding is that DoD is troubled by this. And we already have all manner of different end-use requirements on Ukraine. They have been very heavily vetted and certified. I mean, we already delayed aid to Ukraine six months longer than we should have. If we delay it further, it could have catastrophic consequences, in my view,” Smith said. “DoD opposes this amendment. They have said, if forced to, they could execute it. It’s not because they support it.” Gaetz’s amendment was defeated by voice vote.
Cluster Munitions. HASC also voted down a separate amendment from Gaetz that looked to block the transfer or sale of cluster munitions, which the U.S. has provided to Ukraine. “My friends, the civilized world has stopped producing and [transferring] cluster munitions. The United States is an outlier in this respect. These munitions are indiscriminate. They largely are killing civilians. This should not be a part of how the United States conducts warfare. We should not be a follower here and we should lead,” Gaetz said. Smith pushed back, adding that “Russia is not going to similarly limit themselves.” “Unfortunately, this is amounting to unilateral disarmament of the Ukrainians in the midst of a fight for their lives. In an ideal world, I completely agree. And if we could get every other country in the world to agree to not use these, I’m there. I think it’s the place we oughta go and I think the U.S. better be very cautious about where we send them, and we have been. The only place in the world right now where we’re sending them is Ukraine,” Smith said. HASC voted 10-48 against the amendment, with four Republicans and six Democrats supporting the measure.