Under Protest. Mistral Inc. on Sept. 6 protested the Army’s award to AeroVironment (AV) of a potential $990 million, five-year contract for Switchblade loitering munitions. AV has said it will deliver its Switchblade 300 and 600 systems within months under the lethal unmanned systems contract, which it received in August. Deliveries may have to wait as the due date to resolve the protest with the Government Accountability Office is Dec. 16. “In our view, we respect the procurement process and the right of companies to protest decisions, however we believe the Army’s decision to award the contract to AV was made in compliance with federal procurement rules and in the best interest of the warfighters who depend on this critical technology,” AV said in a statement.
Taiwan FMS. The State Department last week approved a potential $228 million foreign military sale to Taiwan’s representative office in the U.S. to buy return, repair, and reshipment of classified and unclassified spare parts for aircraft and related equipment. The spare parts will be transferred from U.S. government stocks. The State Department said the sale will improve Taiwan’s “ability to meet current and future threats.”
Counter-Drone Bill. The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee last week approved a bipartisan bill to reauthorize, reform and expand existing counter-unmanned aircraft system authorities of the Departments of Homeland Security, Justice, Transportation, and the Federal Aviation Administration. The Counter-UAS Authority Security, Safety, and Reauthorization Act (H.R. 8610) would be in effect until Oct. 1, 2028, if it passes the House and Senate.
…Highlights. Some key provisions of the bill include establishing an application process for federal, state, local, territorial, or tribal law enforcement agencies, in partnership with a covered entity, to acquire, deploy, and operate approved counter-drone systems for detecting, identifying, monitoring, and tracking UAS. A provision of the bill would also establish a pilot program at five sites to assess the efficacy of drone defeat systems that could be used by state law enforcement agencies to protect covered entities. The bill also directs DHS, DoJ, and the FAA to maintain a list of approved makes and models of counter-UAS detection mitigation systems, equipment, and technology. If the bill is signed into law, the FAA has one year to create a plan to operate C-UAS detection and mitigation systems at covered airports. The bill would also establish within the FAA an Office of Counter-UAS Activities to manage the administration’s efforts in this area.
…More C-UAS. Speaking of C-UAS, the Defense Department’s Innovation Unit in partnership with Singapore’s Ministry of Defence have launched a $300,000 joint challenge to identify innovators for drone communications and counter-drone technologies. The joint challenge has two opportunities to identify and scale dual-use technologies, the first being to help ships operating close to shore to continuously detect, track, identify, and disrupt unauthorized drones. The second is for resilient communications with small commercial UAS during humanitarian and disaster relief missions. Submissions will be accepted through Oct. 30. Registration can be done at: https://nsin.mil/events/2024-11-27-innomaritime-uasdefensesolutions-challeng/.
Space Force Award. U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command last week said it has awarded a $13.2 million Strategic Funding Increase, called STRATFI, to the commercial satellite company Astranis to add military Ka band to its Omega satellites to ensure compatibility with existing military user equipment and frequency plans. Under the STRATFI agreement, SSC is providing $3.3 million in funding to complement investment by Astranis and its venture capital backers. SSC said Astranis will also develop a hardware design that supports Protected Tactical Waveform over the Omega satellites that enables anti-jam communications to warfighters in contested battlespace.
P-8A Maintenance. The Navy awarded AAR Government Services Inc. and Standard Aero Inc. a contract worth up to a total $1.2 billion on Sept. 19 to provide depot-level engine maintenance, repair, overhaul, and field assessment and repair for P-8A Poseidon aircraft. This contract allows the companies to compete on individual orders that will provide this support for P-8As operated by the U.S. Navy, Royal Australian Air Force and Foreign Military Sales customers. AAR’s work will mostly occur in Atlanta, Ga., while Standard Aero is focused on work in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada and is expected to be finished by September 2029. Funds will only be obligated on individual orders as they are issues. This competitive contract had four offers, but as is standard the Navy did not disclose the two other competitors.
German Lasers. Rheinmetall and MBDA Deutschland announced on Sept. 19 that they will continue to cooperate on developing laser weapons for maritime platforms. Rheinmetall said they are focusing on getting a joint maritime product to the market within five to six years, particularly looking at ship drone defense. “Both companies are convinced that their complementary skills in the field of laser weapon technology will enable them to successfully develop a military laser weapon system. The companies have now concluded a corresponding cooperation agreement,” Rehinemtall said in a statement. This comes after a Rheinmetall-MBDA Germany laser weapon demonstrator was integrated on the German Navy’s F124 Sachsen air defense frigate from June 2022 to September 2023. During the trial, the demonstrator logged over 100 test shots.
MEDEC. Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro’s Chief of Staff Christopher Diaz spoke at the Center for Naval Analyses (CNA) Maritime Economic Deterrence Executive Council (MEDEC) on Sept. 17. Del Toro announced the creation of MEDEC in February. The Navy said MEDEC is the Navy’s “acknowledgement of maritime economic risks and represents the department’s commitment to helping researchers identify and address problems early for the safety of Navy personnel.” It brought together industry leaders to form breakout groups and discussions throughout the day. Diaz noted the MEDEC is the coordinating body of various Navy Department bodies focuses on addressing adversarial economic activities that threaten the technology and capabilities the Navy relies on. It is co-chaired by Principal Military Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Research, Development and Acquisition) Vice Adm. Scott Pappano.
SSN-796. The Navy commissioned the Virginia-class submarine USS New Jersey (SSN-796) at Naval Weapons Station Earle in Middletown, N.J., on Sept. 14. This is the third Navy ship named after the state. SSN-796 is a Block IV submarine and is the first boat of its type designed for a mixed-gender crew.
T-AO 214. Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro on Sept. 18 announced an upcoming John Lewis-class oiler will be named the USNS Dolores Huerta (T-AO 214). The ship will be named in honor of a labor and civil rights activist in the farm workers’ labor movement from the 1950s to 1990s. T-AO 214 will be the 10th ship in the class, which is designed to carry fuel to the Navy’s carrier strike groups, holding up to 162,000 barrels of oil as well as various dry cargo.
Integrated Capabilities Command. As part of the U.S. Air Force’s ongoing re-optimization for Great Power Competition, the service has stood up a provisional Integrated Capabilities Command (ICC) to speed modernization efforts. The command will “begin leading Air Force modernization prioritization efforts across several key investment areas, while continuing to develop the framework for the permanent ICC, which is expected to reach final operational capability as a new Air Force’s institutional command in 2025,” the Air Force said.
More Funding. U.S. Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall says that he’s most concerned about the adequacy of Department of the Air Force funding, particularly for the Space Force for which the department requested $29.4 billion in fiscal 2025, $600 million less than the fiscal 2024 request. “I’m most concerned about adequacy of the resources we’re gonna have going forward and transforming the Space Force into an entirely changed and new set of military capabilities from what we have today costs a lot of money,” he says. “Getting the Air Force to the next generation of equipment is gonna cost of money…There’s no way around that, I’m afraid.”
…CCA. Kendall and other Air Force leaders, including Air Force Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach, the head of Air Combat Command, got a chance to view and sign the Anduril and General Atomics mock-ups of their Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) offerings at the Air and Space Forces Association’s (AFA) annual Air, Space and Cyber conference in National Harbor, Md. “I talked to the people involved in managing that program,” Kendall says of his CCA discussions at AFA. “I’m very encouraged by that.”
Maven Smart System Expansion. On Sept. 18, the U.S. Army awarded Palantir Technologies a nearly $100 million, five-year contract that Palantir says will expand Maven Smart System across the military services. The new contract “simplifies and expedites the ability for services to access the existing capabilities within Maven Smart System,” Palantir says. “This expanded user base is a result of demand for Maven Smart System to improve interoperability between strategic and tactical operations within the military departments and increase readiness by building upon existing Department of Defense investments for joint interoperability and fight-tonight capabilities.” Maven Smart System is the graphical user interface for Maven, which began in 2017 and became a program of record under the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency last year. Maven’s artificial intelligence is to underpin Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control.
