Ukraine/Abrams. The first group of refurbished Abrams tanks set to go to Ukraine have been accepted by the U.S. government, the Army’s top acquisition official said on Aug. 7. “Of the initial set of tanks for Ukraine, the last one has been produced and is ready to be shipped. So that’s an important step in the process,” Doug Bush, the assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology, told reporters. The Biden administration announced plans in late January to supply Ukraine with 31 General Dynamics Land Systems-built Abrams tanks as part of a $400 million weapons aid package to be procured with Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative funds, aiming to deliver the refurbished M1A1 tanks this fall. “So they are done. Now they have to get to Europe and then to Ukraine along with all the things that go with them, ammunition, spare parts, fuel equipment, repair facilities. So it’s not just the tanks, as I’ve said before, it’s the full package that goes with it. That’s still on track,” Bush said.
Spike Missiles.
Poland is purchasing hundreds of Rafael’s Spike-Long Range anti-tank guided missiles under a new deal worth “around $100 million,” the Israeli company announced on Aug. 6. Rafael noted the missiles will be purchased through Polish defense firm Mesko, which it said has previously manufactured the weapon. “Mesko and Rafael have collaborated in working with the Polish market since 2003, allowing for the sale of completely ‘Poland-ized’ missiles to be provided for the Polish user. The robust local manufacturing capabilities have provided the Polish [Ministry of Defense] with over 3,000 Spike missiles that are entirely Polish-made,” Rafael said in a statement.
Autonomous Collaborative Platforms. General Atomics said that its Avenger drone paired with “digital twin” aircraft for autonomous Live, Virtual, and Constructive (LVC) collaborative combat missions on July 13 from General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc.’s (GA-ASI) Desert Horizon Flight Operations Facility in El Mirage, Calif. The company said that the flights demonstrate General Atomics’ commitment to a maturation of its Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle “ecosystem for Autonomous Collaborative Platforms (ACP).” The U.S. Air Force’s ACP program has focused on moving mature autonomous drones into the prototype phase. The Air Force requests $119 million for ACP in fiscal 2024–$69 million for an Experimental Operations Unit to reduce Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) program risk by exploring how CCAs could function most effectively with crewed aircraft in future Air Force squadrons; and nearly $50 million for the Viper Experimentation and Next-gen Operations Mode (VENOM). Under VENOM, the Air Force is to conduct test flights of six autonomous F-16s with rapidly upgradable software.
…Project FoX. General Atomics said that the manned-unmanned teaming in the July 13 tests used the Air Force’s Project Fighter Optimization Experimentation (Project FoX) system, developed by the 412th Flight Test Wing at Edwards AFB, Calif., in 2021 for the F-35. Project FoX is to enable easier information exchange between platforms and includes a touchscreen tablet for fighter cockpits. “The tablet provided control and monitoring of advanced autonomy while it conducted a multi-objective combat mission consisting of LVC entities,” General Atomics said. “Mission autonomy capabilities focused on optimized search and signature management. Search optimization autonomy behaviors were provided by Scientific Systems Company, Inc.” GA-ASI said that its Reinforcement Learning agent, commanded by the FoX tablet, “navigated to an operator-identified target while minimizing the radar cross section” and that the manned-unmanned teaming, “facilitated via open mission system messages and alignment to the newest government architectures, demonstrated real-time operator tasking and supervision of an autonomous platform as it conducted its mission.”
DoD AI Task Force. The Defense Department last week established a new task force focused on integrating and analyzing generative artificial intelligence (AI) efforts across the department. Task Force Lima will be led by the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office in the pursuit “of generative AI models while identifying proper protective measures and mitigating national security risks that may result from issues such as poorly managed training data,” Craig Martel, who heads the office, said in a statement. “We must also consider the extent to which our adversaries will employ this technology and seek to disrupt our own use of AI-based solutions.” Navy Capt. M. Xavier Lugo, mission commander of the task force and a member of the CDAO’s Algorithmic Warfare Directorate, said the department “recognizes the potential of generative AI to significantly improve intelligence, operational planning, and administrative and business processes.”
DoD on China Restrictions. The Defense Department welcomes the Biden administration’s restrictions on U.S. investments in China in key technology areas, Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder said last Thursday. The restrictions affect semiconductors, artificial intelligence, and quantum computing. “You have no further than to look at our annual China Military Power Report, which has documented how the PRC has made major investments to fuse its security and development strategies and acquire advanced dual-use technology for coercive actions,” Ryder told reporters. “It’s no secret that the PRC has a stated goal to acquire and produce key sensitive technologies that directly support the PRC’s military modernization and related activities, and it’s no secret that the PRC exploits U.S. capital and expertise to help develop its military and intelligence capabilities.”
Counter-Drone Services. Following demonstrations in spring 2022 of counter-small unmanned aircraft system (CaaS) as a service, there is actual funding and deployment of these capabilities for the U.S. Armed Forces, the lead official for the Defense Department’s assessment of counter-drone capabilities said last week. The Marine Corps has funded six CaaS sites, Special Operations Command is doing an “element” of CaaS, and the Army in fiscal year 2024 will have two sites, Army Maj. Gen. Sean Gainey, director of the Joint Counter-UAS Office (JCO), said at the Space and Missile Defense Symposium. In the fall of 2022, the JCO recommended five companies’ solutions to provide CaaS at fixed-sites. Anduril Industries, Black Sage Technologies, CACI International, Rafael Systems Global Sustainment, and Science Applications International Corp. were recommended following the April 2022 demonstrations of their capabilities at Yuma Proving Ground, Ariz.
Cyber Command Award. Parsons Corp. last week said it received a potential five-year $109 million classified contract to continue to provide U.S. Cyber Command, with a particular focus on the J9 Acquisition and Technology Directorate mission set. The contract, which has a base-year and four one-year options, continues work Parsons previously did under the command, control, communications, computers, and capabilities development and bridge contracts.
New NRO RFP Imminent. The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) later this month hopes to release a Request for Proposals (RFP) under its Strategic Commercial Enhancement Broad Agency Announcement seeking new entrants for satellite-based electro-optical remote sensing capabilities, Pete Muend, director of the agency’s Commercial Systems Program Office, said last week. NRO released the draft RFP in May. Awards under the BAA have typically been made within three months of the solicitation. Maxar Technologies, BlackSky Technology, and Planet Labs won a $4 billion, 10-year NRO contract in May 2022 to provide commercial satellite EO imagery under the EO Commercial Layer program. Muend said that in addition to new entrants, the RFP will give the agency an opportunity to assess “new nuances and capability” and mission utility. He also said there will be a “very low barrier to entry” and that awardees may not have satellites in orbit.
Launch Deal. Satellite maker BlackSky Technology and rocket maker Rocket Lab USA last week signed a deal to launch a new generation of satellites on Rocket Lab’s Electron launch vehicle. “With these launches BlackSky will replenish, replace, and expand on-orbit capacity, introduce Gen-3 capabilities, and further enable BlackSky to meet the demands of the most time-dominant missions,” Brian O’Toole, BlackSky’s CEO, said in a statement. BlackSky booked a block of five launches beginning in 2024 from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 1 in Mahia, New Zealand. The Gen-3 birds will produce electro-optical images with up to 35-centimeter resolution.
…2024 Mission. Separately, Rocket Lab said that it has signed a new launch services agreement “with a confidential customer” for a launch next year of the company’s Hypersonic Accelerator Suborbital Test Electron (HASTE) rocket from NASA’s Wallops Island, Va. facility. The inaugural HASTE launch took place on June 17 for Leidos under the Multi-Service Advanced Capability Hypersonic Test Bed (MACH-TB) program. Derived from Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket, HASTE is “tailored specifically for suborbital and hypersonic test flight capability” with “a modified Kick Stage, a larger payload capacity of up to 700 kg/1,540 pounds, and options for tailored fairings to accommodate larger payloads,” Rocket Lab said.
T-AO 209. General Dynamics’ National Steel and Shipbuilding Company’s (NASSCO) in San Diego, Calif. laid and authenticated the keep for the 5th Navy John Lewis-class fleet replenishment oiler, the future USNS Lucy Stone (T-AO 209). Keel laying marks the start of ship construction, joining together a ship’s modular components. T-AO 209 is named in honor of an American suffragist and abolitionist from the 19th century. “The fifth John Lewis-class oiler will enhance the fleet’s ability to refuel ships at sea,” John Lighthammer, program manager, Auxiliary and Special Mission Shipbuilding Program Office, said in a statement. GD NASSCO is also in production on the future oilers USNS Earl Warren (T-AO 207), USNS Robert F. Kennedy (T-AO 208) and USNS Sojourner Truth (T-AO 210). They are also under contract on the future USNS Thurgood Marshall (T-AO 211), USNS Ruth Bader Ginsburg (T-AO 212) and T-AO 213.
SMDC Ukraine Lessons. Lt. Gen. Daniel Karbler, commanding general of U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command, said the Russia invasion of Ukraine has validated what his community was saying, that adversaries using missiles and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles in warfare is “normalized…So the need for integrated air and missile defense and not just active defense, but other capabilities are critical. We recognize that and that’s why we are developing the capabilities going forward,” Karbler told reporters Aug. 8 during the Space and Missile Defense Symposium in Huntsville, Ala. He noted Brig. Gen. Maurice Barnett, commander of 10th Army Air and Missile Defense Command in Germany, is closely deriving lessons learned from the conflict and using that to provide coverage and protection of European Command assets.
…Non-Military Target Surprise. However, Karbler said Russia attacking multiple targets beyond pure military targets “should cause everybody to have cause for concern – because you can’t get missile defense for every single thing that could be attacked. He said military personnel do not expect to see someone act like the Russians in this conflict, “attacking every target out there. That’s something that you don’t expect as a military professional.”
…Lasers Hard To Sustain. Karbler agreed with what Army Maj. Gen. Sean Gainey, director of the Joint C-UAS Office (JCO), said during the conference that maintenance of directed energy lasers weapons is a serious concern to him. Karbler said lasers are complicated and they do not have something akin to a motor pool, supply room or maintenance office full of replacement or repair parts. “Those are going to be ones that are going to have the ability to [receive maintenance] just in time, and so that that could impact the operational readiness of the equipment.” He noted beyond the scarcity of laser weapon parts the maintainers “require some level of expertise” to fix and replace parts, and “it’s not like changing an oil filter…it’s going to be pretty complicated.”
CNO Tenure. Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Adm. Mike Gilday will finish his four-year tenure and relinquish the office during a ceremony at the U.S. Naval Academy on Aug. 14. Vice Chief of Naval Operations Adm, Lisa Franchetti has been nominated by President Biden to be the next CNO but will perform the duties on an acting basis until the Senate votes on her confirmation, pending Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s (R-Ala.) blanket hold on DoD nominees.
T-ATS 12. Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro on Aug. 7 announced a future Navajo-class Towing, Salvage, and Rescue (T-ATS) ship will be named the USNS Solomon Atkinson (T-ATS 12). The ship is being named after an Alaskan Native American and one of the first Navy SEALs who also served in South Korea and for three combat tours in Vietnam. The Navy noted Atkinson trained several astronauts in underwater weightless simulations, including Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. Navajo-class ships provide ocean-going tug, salvage and rescue capabilities, replacing the Powhatan-class T-ATF Fleet Tugs and Safeguard-class T-ARS Rescue and Salvage vessels.
SSC Materials. The Navy awarded Textron Systems a $241 million undefinitized contract action on Aug. 4 to procure long-lead time material and non-recurring activities for five more Ship-to-Shore Connectors (SSC) LCAC-100 class vessels. The work is expected to be finished by October 2025. This was not a competitive contract as Textron is the only “responsible source,” as the craft builder for the Navy.