Nuclear C3. While it may not get the attention that strategic programs, like Sentinel and the B-21, get, modernization of nuclear command and control and communications (NC3) is vital, according to Gen. Thomas Bussiere, the head of Air Force Global Strike Command. “My concerns are really bounded by the cyber threat–that’s probably the largest concern,” he says. “With a digital backbone your ability to upgrade, to do multi-mission architecture for capabilities and capacities, will provide the ability to maintain the systems ahead of any potential threats. It’s a more reliable, resilient system, and I can’t imagine going back and fielding a new capability in the 2020s and 2030s and not taking advantage of the technologies that have been developed over the last several decades. But we have to be wide-eyed and open and make sure we account for and understand the threats and develop a capability and capacity and give our airmen the tools to maintain and secure it. That’s probably my biggest focus.”
Favorite Bone. Last February’s U.S. Air Force Bomber Task Force deployment of B-1s to Sweden “is probably my favorite example to give—the B-1s in Europe during the accession of Sweden to NATO and then Finland as well,” said Maj. Gen. Jason Armagost, the commander of the Eighth Air Force at Barksdale AFB, La. “It’s a little bit shocking in a good way—how much attention that got, particularly inside those countries, but in Europe, in general. They really took to that, and the fact that we demonstrated that commitment to the partners and allies through bombers is kind of next level of integration. It’s pretty routine through exercises for fighters to play with one another, but to have that kind of integration at the bomber level really does demonstrate that extended deterrence and assurance that takes place through partner integration and shared interests.” In the “Vanguard Adler” exercise in February, the B-1 crews trained with Swedish Air Force pilots of JAS 39 Gripen fighters in what marked the first multi-day deployment of U.S. bombers to Sweden. Eastern Europe and Baltic/Nordic nations have been on edge since Feb. 24, 2022—the date marking Russia’s second invasion of Ukraine in the last decade.
Homeland Picks. President-elect Trump last week added several nominees for Department of Homeland Security positions, including former Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott to be commissioner of Customs and Border Protection. Scott joined the Border Patrol in 1992 and served as chief for nearly two years at the end of Trump’s first administration and the start of the Biden administration. Trump also named Caleb Vitello to be acting director of Immigration and Customer Enforcement (ICE). Vitello is a member of the senior executive service and currently serves as the assistant director of the ICE’s Office of Firearms and Tactical Programs. Tony Salisbury, special agent in charge for the Miami branch of ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations division, will serve as Trump’s deputy homeland security adviser, reporting to Stephen Miller, who will be Trump’s deputy chief of staff for policy and homeland security adviser. Trump previously said he would nominate Republican Gov. Kristi Noem (S.D.) to be his secretary of homeland security.
Anduril and OpenAI. Anduril Industries and the artificial intelligence company OpenAI last week announced a strategic partnership that will leverage OpenAI’s models with Anduril’s defense systems and Lattice software platform for counter-drone applications. The companies said their respective capabilities will be combined to improve the detection, assessment, and response to potentially lethal aerial threats in real-time. “Anduril and OpenAI will explore how leading-edge AI models can be leveraged to rapidly synthesize time-sensitive data, reduce the burden on human operators, and improve situational awareness,” they said. The models will be trained on Anduril’s library of data on counter unmanned aircraft system threats and operations.
Warp Production. Shield AI last week said it is expanding its partnership with Palantir Technologies, this time leveraging Palantir’s Warp Speed operating system for manufacturing and related processes to aid Shield AI’s Hivemind autonomous pilot software. “By leveraging Shield AI’s advanced Hivemind software development kit, along with Palantir’s suite of powerful software solutions, including enterprise resource planning, geospatial intelligence, and operational decision-making tools, the partnership combines the strengths of both companies to address the most critical defense challenges,” Shield said. In October, the two companies said they had partnered to leverage the data that Palantir generates through its globally-deployed geospatial intelligence tools for platforms using Hivemind (Defense Daily, Oct. 18).
…Partnership with Booz. Palantir is also partnering with Booz Allen Hamilton in what the companies are calling a “co-creation partnership with an initial focus on information infrastructure modernization and secure interoperability, and data-centric systems to improve collaboration and combined mission planning with allies and partners. Booz Allen Chairman, President, and CEO Horacio Rozanski said the two companies created a prototype in 45 days and that working together they “are creating new mission capabilities” that leverage their respective technologies and expertise.
AI to Detect Deepfakes. The Defense Innovation Unit last week said it awarded Hive a two-year, $2.4 million contract to apply its artificial intelligence-based deepfake detection models in support of the intelligence community. Hive said its technology will be “deployed in an offline, on-premise environment and capable of detecting AI-generated video, image, and audio content.” Capt. Anthony Bustamante, a project manager and cyber warfare operator for DIU, said the “deepfake identification technology will give the DoD the ability to take decisive action against AI-generated content,” and added that “this work represents a significant step forward in strengthening our information advantage as we combat sophisticated disinformation campaigns and synthetic media threats.”
Startup Raise. Fabri, a startup developing a digital foundry, has raised $5 million in a seed round led by Lavrock Ventures, with participation from RTX Ventures, Tenon Ventures, and SBXi. “This funding will accelerate our ability to revolutionize the investment casting industry,” the company posted on LinkedIn last week. “With our fully integrated digital foundry, our mission is to deliver precision metal castings with unparalleled speed and cost-effectiveness.” The company was co-founded by Steven Davis while he was at MIT and has developed a “high-throughput additive manufacturing process and AI-driven design software…to deliver castings in days, not months.”
New Lockheed Martin Leaders. Lockheed Martin last week announced several new leaders, including naming Kevin O’Connor as its new general counsel and corporate secretary effective Jan. 13, 2025. O’Connor, most recently chief legal officer for Carrier Corp., will succeed Maryanne Lavan, who is retiring. The company has also made Maria Demaree, general manager of the National Security Space business line, as its new senior vice president of Enterprise Business and Digital Transformation, and chief information officer effective Jan. 1. She will be succeeded by Dave Young, her current deputy. Demaree succeeds Yvonne Hodge, who is retiring. Skunk Works Chief John Clark has been named senior vice president for Technology and Strategic Innovation. He will be succeeded at Skunk Works by OJ Sanchez, who is vice president of the Integrated Fighter Group. Sanchez’s replacement will be announced at a later date. Finally, Tony DeSimone, the company’s vice president of Engineering and Technology, will become senior vice president of Enterprise Engineering.
…More People News. Brett Markham, who had been the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s chief of staff, is now the agency’s deputy director, succeeding Tonya Wilkerson who was on a joint duty assignment from elsewhere in the intelligence community. Voyager Space has named Wallis Laughrey as its chief strategy officer. He previously was vice president of Anduril Labs. Unmanned surface vessel developer and manufacturer Saronic has appointed four industry advisers to help guide the startup’s strategy, product and customer alignment, and market expansion. The new advisers are former Navy Secretaries Kenneth Braithwaite and John Lehman, former Chief of Naval Operations Michael Gilday, and retired Rear Adm. H. Wyman Howard, who commanded the Naval Special Warfare Command. Finally, a national security technologies-focused investment fund founded by venture capital firm Anzu Partners and the lobbying firm J.A. Green & Company, have appointed former Navy acquisition chief James “Hondo” Geurts and retired Army Gen. Mike Murray as venture partners.
Space Sensor Award. Muon Space last week said it received a two-year Phase II Small Business Innovation Research award to accelerate development of the company’s electro-optical/infrared imager for space-based environmental monitoring. The Silicon Valley startup is already developing the instrument for wildfire detection. The award by U.S. Space Systems Command’s SpaceWERX innovation arm will help the Defense Department fill data gaps in cloud characterization and theater weather imagery. Muon said a protoflight mission of the first of the FireSat instrument is expected in early 2025 and the first operational phase of the FireSat constellation will launch in 2026.
SSN-800. HII’s Newport News Shipbuilding division plans to christen the Virginia-class submarine, the future USS Arkansas (SSN-800), on Dec. 7. SSN-800 is the 27th Virginia-class submarine and the last HII Block IV vessel before the future USS Utah (SSN-801), the last General Dynamics Electric Boat-built Block IV boat. The company previously hosted a ceremonial keel laying for SSN-800 in Nov. 2022.
EOD Agreement. The Naval Surface Warfare Center Indian Head Division on Dec. 2. said it signed a one-year Public-Private Partnership (P3) Agreement with the U.S. Bomb Technician Association under the Navy command’s Center for Industrial and Technical Excellence designation. The agreement seeks to have the two organizations work to provide test, evaluation, and demonstration and assessment services for Energetics and Energetic Systems, including Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) related technologies. This also includes Explosive Energetic threat and precursor threat Detection Equipment to be used by DoD and civilian law enforcement personnel.
Taiwan FMS. The State Department said on November 29 it has approved a possible $320 million foreign military sale with Taiwan for spare parts and support for its fleet of F-16 aircraft and Active Electronically Scanned Array Radars. The FMS case covers spare and repair parts and U.S. government and contractor engineering, technical and logistics support services. The State Department said deliveries of the spare parts for the aircraft and radars is expected to begin in 2025, with equipment to be transferred from current U.S. stocks.
More Taiwan. The State Department has also approved a separate FMS case with Taiwan for continued support of its Improved Mobile Subscriber Equipment, with the deal potentially worth $65 million. “Taiwan has requested to buy extended services provided under a previously implemented case whose value was under the congressional notification threshold,” the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) said. The new FMS case builds on an earlier $41.6 million deal covering support for the tactical communication equipment. “This proposed sale serves U.S. national, economic, and security interests by supporting the recipient’s continuing efforts to modernize its armed forces and to maintain a credible defensive capability,” the DSCA said in a statement.
McConville Joins Board. Ret. Gen. James McConville, the former Army chief of staff, has been appointed a non-executive board member at satellite communications firm ALL SPACE, the company announced on Dec. 3. “…McConville’s expertise in defense, strategic leadership, and operational modernization will prove invaluable as ALL SPACE continues to establish itself as an integral partner for defense and government organizations, moving forward in its mission of advancing satellite communications with the highest standards of security, resilience, and operational excellence,” the company said in a statement. McConville retired from the Army in the summer of 2023, after serving for more than 40 years to include four years as chief. “I am delighted to join ALL SPACE at this pivotal moment in the evolution of satellite communications,” McConville said in a statement. “The company’s strategic vision positions it at the vanguard of the industry. As the demand for resilient and secure connectivity surges across defense and government sectors, ALL SPACE’s advanced multi-orbit solutions are set to redefine global communication standards.”
ManTech/Cyber. ManTech said on Dec. 5 it has been awarded a five-year, $1.4 billion task order “to deliver comprehensive full-spectrum cyber solutions” for customers in the Pentagon and the Intelligence Community. The task order, awarded by DoD, will specifically focus on providing cyber capabilities in support of the Interagency Intelligence and Cyber Operations Network (ICON), the company noted. “In a world where cyber threats evolve at an exponential pace, our goal is to ensure that our customers have ‘capability overmatch’ in any cyber battlespace scenario,” Barbara Haines-Parmele, president of ManTech’s intelligence sector, said in a statement. “This task order provides an incredible opportunity to enhance, train and equip the force, contributing to force readiness and enabling effective operations.”
Leidos/DoDNet. Leidos has received three new task orders from DISA under the $11.5 billion, 10-year Defense Enclave Services program to support the next phase of migrating users to the Pentagon’s Department of Defense Network, the company said on Dec. 5. “Under these awards, Leidos will begin to integrate new technologies and services into DoDNet with the goal of enabling [Fourth Estate Defense Agencies and Field Activities] (DAFA) migrations and enhancing user experience,” Bryan Jolly, Leidos senior vice president of digital modernization for the DISA IT business area, said in a statement. Leidos noted the first task order “supports DoDNet Generation 2 Release 2, which positions the network for large-scale DAFA migrations, delivering data-driven, cloud-based management services, automation tools, Zero Trust cybersecurity enhancements and an optimized user experience” and the second and third awards “launch the migration process to DoDNet for two DAFAs, the Defense Contract Management Agency and the Defense Contract Audit Agency.”
Hegseth. President-elect Trump on Dec. 6 offered public support for Pete Hegseth, as his pick for secretary of defense has faced sexual misconduct allegations and has been on Capitol Hill the last week seeking to bolster support from Senate Republicans for his nomination. “Pete Hegseth is doing very well. His support is strong and deep, much more than the Fake News would have you believe,” Trump wrote in a social media post. Trump’s statement comes amid reports the next president has been mulling potentially replacing the embattled Hegseth, an Army veteran and Fox News host, with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) as his choice to lead the Pentagon.
…Confirmation Odds. Meanwhile, Byron Callan, an analyst with Capital Alpha Partners, said his firm was lowering their odds that Hegseth will be confirmed as secretary of defense from 60 percent down to 35 percent. “We cannot independently verify allegations that have emerged regarding his past. However, if true, they create a steeper hurdle to Senate confirmation. His marital history, including infidelities and alleged assault, is at odds with the behavior and culture of senior military leadership,” Callan wrote in a note. “As for who could then be nominated if Hegseth withdraws, we assume that Trump would look for someone with a similar mindset to attack ‘woke’ policies at DoD and who also exhibits a high degree of loyalty to Trump.”
AMRAAM FMS. The State Department on December 6 said it has approved a potential $807 million foreign military sale with the Netherlands for up to 226 AIM-120D3 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAM). Along with the RTX-built AMRAAMs, the new FMS case would also include up to five guidance sections and one integrated test vehicle. The Netherlands would also receive AMRAAM control sections, missile containers and support equipment, encryption devices, spare parts and weapons system support services. “The proposed sale will improve the Netherland’s capability to meet current and future threats by providing advanced all-weather, beyond-visual-range, air-to-air defense to protect Dutch and Allied forces in transition or combat and significantly improve the Dutch contribution to NATO requirements,” the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in a statement.
T-AO 211. General Dynamics NASSCO laid the keel for the future USNS Thurgood Marshall (T-AO 211) John Lewis-class Replenishment Oiler during a San Diego ceremony on Dec. 5. These ships are operated by Military Sealift Command and carry substantial volume for oil, dry cargo capacity, and aviation capability. The T-AOs are a key part of the Navy’s fuel delivery system and also provide capacity to the Navy’s Combat Logistics Force.
Aussies Honor Courtney. The Australian Embassy appointed Rep. Joe Courtney (D-Conn.) into the Order of Australia as an Honorary Officer in the General Division during an official dinner on Nov. 18. As the ranking member of the House Armed Services seapower subcommittee and co-chair of the Congressional Friends of Australia Caucus, Courtney is a major booster of the AUKUS agreement to help Australia field nuclear-powered attack submarines. His district encompasses General Dynamic’s Electric Boat Groton shipyard that produces American submarines. During the event, Australian Ambassador Kevin Rudd said this is the country’s highest national award and said, “We don’t give them out like confetti. You are a seriously good man…you’ve become deeply engaged over the years with the Commonwealth of Australia. Thank you, Joe Courtney, for everything you have done.” Previous appointees include former Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), former ambassador to South Korea and commander of Indo-Pacific Command Adm. Harry Harris, and retired Gen. David Petraeus.
DDG-59 DSRA. The Navy awarded Continental Maritime of San Diego a $64 million contract action to perform maintenance, modernization and repair on the Arleigh Burke-class USS Russell (DDG-59) for its fiscal year 2025 docking selected restricted availability (DSRA). This covers all labor, supervision, equipment, production, testing, facilities and more needed to prepare for and accomplish the work on DDG-59. The contract includes options that, if exercised, would raise the total value to almost $73 million. The work is expected to be finished by June 2026. The announcement noted the contract was competitively procured with three other offers received, but DoD per usual, did not disclose the other competitors.
