Ursa Major on Wednesday said it conducted multiple static fires of a 5-inch solid rocket motor (SRM) packed with propellant in a configuration that enables longer ranges and different thrust profiles, internally validating the startup’s proprietary manufacturing process with the Highly Loaded Grain (HLG).
The Colorado-based company’s advanced manufacturing process is called Lynx and uses additive manufacturing to produce most SRM parts. The Navy is investing jointly with Ursa Major to expand the capability to large rocket motors (Defense Daily, Sept. 17, 2024).
The HLG approach allows more propellant to be packed into the same size rocket motor. The company said its HLG development is funded in part through work with the Navy.
Ursa Major has validated its manufacturing process for other size SRMs but the recent static fires were the first for the HLG, representing a milestone for the internally developed components and processes around the technology.
“While our solid rocket motors are already flight-tested and proven, this static fire represents the successful validation of the full Lynx manufacturing process with HLG, affirming Ursa Major’s ability to be a supplier of mission critical solid rocket motors,” Bill Murray, the company’s chief engineering officer, said in a statement.
More tests of different diameter rocket motors are planned and the company is building motors of “increasingly larger diameters,” a company spokesperson told Defense Daily on Thursday.
“With the Lynx approach, we’re validating a process, rather than a specific motor, to expedite rapid, scaled production of qualified SRMs in multiple sizes,” the spokesperson said.
The Lynx process allows the company to produce different size SRMs on the same production line, providing flexibility to meet customer needs. Ursa Major also highlights that having a common architecture to its production line allows it to produce higher quantities with fewer workers, saving time and money for the HLG and traditional SRMs.
Ursa Major’s rocket motors have been flight-tested, including with RTX (Defense Daily, Dec. 18, 2024 and March 25, 2025). The company is also one of several that was awarded contracts in late 2023 and early 2024 by the Navy to develop SRMs to become a potential alternative source for powering Standard Missiles (Defense Daily, April 8 and April 30, 2024.)
In addition to SRMs, the company is also developing and flight-testing liquid rocket engines.
Achieving President Trump’s vision of a comprehensive homeland air and missile defense system of systems requires continued Defense Department access to the mid-band spectrum, Acting Defense Department Chief Information Officer Katie Arrington said on Thursday.
The 3.1 to 3.45 gigahertz band is used by about 1,100 different DoD platforms and weapon systems, Arrington told the House Armed Services Committee’s panel that oversees cyber and information technology.
“That area of the spectrum is golden, and we need to protect it to maintain national security,” she said in a response to a question about the importance of the mid-band from Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), the subcommittee chairman. “And I use the word golden specifically, because the only way we can achieve Golden Dome right now is having the lower three of the spectrum.”
Golden Dome is Trump’s name for the envisioned missile defense system.
The telecommunications industry wants access to the mid-band as it continues to expand and scale fifth-generation wireless networks around the country.
Arrington’s office is responsible for DoD’s spectrum needs, and she said that working with the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office, the Office of Research and Engineering, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, “we are working to make best use of the spectrum that we have to ensure that we can provide Americans true security with Golden Dome. That is our number one priority.”
Bacon pointed out that there are areas of the spectrum where DoD “cannot trade off.”
Arrington said the Pentagon is exploring dynamic spectrum sharing (DSS) to provide commercial access to the mid-band without “harming homeland defense and national security.” DoD has received bids for a demonstration this November of dynamic spectrum sharing technologies, she said. Industry has advanced spectrum sharing technologies, she highlighted.
Dynamic spectrum sharing is a potential capability but it has “yet to be determined,” she told Bacon.
“We acknowledge that developing DSS at scale will be a significant engineering challenge, requiring substantial investment,” Arrington said in her written statement. “However, with support from industry as well as Congress, the United States could be the first Nation in the world to develop dynamic spectrum sharing at scale.”
The Army has canceled development of the Improved Turbine Engine Program (ITEP), the Future Tactical UAS (FTUAS) and the Robotic Combat Vehicle (RCV), two senior defense officials confirmed to Defense Daily.
The update on the additional cancellations arrives as House defense appropriators have signaled support for the Army’s new wide-ranging transformation initiative, while seeking details to quell “questions and anxiety” on the service’s planned cuts.
The Textron Aerosonde 4.8 HQ during the FTUAS Flight Demonstration. Photo: Army PEO Aviation
“I am not here to protect the status quo. I’m not here to slow things down when it comes to innovation,” Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.), the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee, said in a Wednesday hearing. “But I am going to address some of the things that have been released by the Army with some of the programs that there’s a proposal to cancel. Because I won’t speak for all the committee members, but I know the chairman and I and our staffs have fielded lots of phone calls and lots of questions”
The Army last week detailed its new Army Transformation Initiative (ATI) that includes cutting “obsolete” programs such as the M10 Booker combat vehicle, Joint Light Tactical Vehicles, Humvees, the AH-64D Apache attack helicopter and Gray Eagle drones (Defense Daily, May 1).
Army Secretary Dan Driscoll said in a recent discussion on the War on the Rocks podcast that ATI is a “complete reset” of how the Army will make decisions going forward, while Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George added the service will look to cut items that are “inefficient” and “are not going to work on the modern battlefield.”
“I think you make some good cases for why these programs need to be reviewed, relooked at, phased out or just cold cut, as you’re suggesting. But those come with a lot of questions and anxiety from people who are working on those programs and companies who have made investments in those programs. Not saying we shouldn’t do it but just saying let’s put our thoughtful hat on here for a second about how we go about announcing and moving forward with some of this,” McCollum said.
Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), chair of the Appropriations Committee, said the Army was “very helpful” and let the panel know of its planned ATI announcements, while noting that additional specifics will need to be provided.
“But I, too, look forward to just seeing more detail as that goes down the road. But I appreciate what I saw. I certainly didn’t have any objections to what was laid out. It was very positive and I was very impressed,” Cole said.
McCollum, who mentioned the ITEP, FTUAS and RCV cuts in her opening remarks at the hearing, said she “totally agrees” with the Army’s approach with ATI, while also pressing for an “open dialogue” on the decisions behind planned cancellations.
“I need to understand better how you’re going to work with Congress and work with industry, especially to ensure a soft landing for some of these Army programs that are going to be canceled,” McCollum said.
Driscoll, in the recent podcast discussion, said the Army’s received “an “incredible outpouring” of bipartisan support for the transformation initiative and that the service will work “hand in hand” with Congress on how the program cuts will be implemented.
“I think we don’t know quite yet for each system and each platform what is going to happen. But what we are doing is we are reaching out to those companies who make [those systems], we are working with Congress, we are talking with soldiers and we are trying to figure out the way forward with as many parties as we can possibly bring to the table,” Driscoll said in the podcast interview.
Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, was one of the first senior national security-focused lawmakers to comment on the ATI, calling it a “positive step” while also noting Congress is still awaiting specifics on the planned divestments (Defense Daily, May 5).
The cancellation of ITEP will end work on the GE Aerospace [GE]-built T901 engine, which the Army had envisioned as the future capability to power its AH-64 Apache and UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter fleets.
As part of the Army’s announcement last year canceling the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft program, the Army noted it would also delay moving into production of the T901 engine and invest in further research and development efforts.
After receiving the first two T901 engines from GE Aerospace last June, Sikorsky [LMT] confirmed in January it had begun ground runs with the new engines on a Black Hawk helicopter to prepare for the first flight test later this year (Defense Daily, Jan. 29).
The FTUAS cancellation ends the current effort to find a replacement for the legacy Shadow drone, with the Army having selected Textron Systems’ [TXT] Aerosonde Mk. 4.8 Hybrid Quad UAS and Griffon Aerospace’s Valiant for a competitive prototyping effort to inform a production award that had been planned for late fiscal year 2025.
With RCV, the Army has now ceased its current development effort which had involved evaluating test platforms from Textron Systems, General Dynamics Land Systems [GD], Oshkosh Defense [OSK] and McQ Inc.
Those four firms were awarded a combined total of $24.7 million for phase one of the RCV program, with the Army having planned to ultimately select one company in FY ‘25 to deliver nine prototypes before making a production decision in FY ‘27.
“The concept of the RCV is incredibly important. The problem is cost. And so what we’ve seen, and this has been seen all over the world, is we keep creating and purchasing these exquisite machines that very cheap drones can take out,” Driscoll said in the recent podcast discussion. “We are the wealthiest nation perhaps in the history of the world, but even we can’t sustain a couple million dollar piece of equipment that can be taken out with an $800 drone and munition. So I think the concept of what we got from the RCV was incredibly valuable but the actual cost ratio just didn’t work.”
McCollum said HAC-D will require additional info from the Army on the expected costs to close out the planned divestments and program cancellations.
“There is a cost to close out [programs]. I get your spreadsheet, it’s saving money in the long run. But you’re going to have to spend money to close [these programs] down,” McCollum said.
The U.S. Air Force said on Thursday that the program executive officer (PEO) for bombers at the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio submitted a program deviation report (PDR) on the B-52 Radar Modernization Program (RMP) to the service’s acquisition executive on Apr. 11.
“The Air Force is assessing the cost and schedule growth on the program and initial review of the PDR indicates it will be a significant cost breach,” the Air Force said on Thursday. “Per 10 USC §2433, a significant breach is the lower threshold and is intended to notify Congress a program is experiencing significant unit cost growth relative to its baseline. The next step in the process is for the Secretary of the Air Force to provide the formal notification to Congress prior to 24 May.”
On Jan. 28, AFLCMC said that Air Force Gen. Duke Richardson, the head of Air Force Materiel Command, had named Joseph Peloquin, the deputy PEO for bombers, as the acting PEO after Richardson relieved Brig. Gen. Erik Quigley “following an internal investigation which revealed inappropriate personal relationships.”
One of Peloquin’s prior positions was as senior adviser for Air Force positioning, navigation, and timing, and his Air Force acquisition and contracts experience dates back to 1989, according to his LinkedIn bio.
Darlene Costello is the acting Air Force acquisition chief. The Trump administration still has not nominated a replacement for Andrew Hunter, who was the head of Air Force acquisition during the Biden administration. Troy Meink is awaiting Senate confirmation as the new Air Force secretary, and Gary Ashworth is the acting secretary.
Unit costs for B-52 RMP have increased to 15 percent over the baseline–a status that represents a significant Nunn-McCurdy breach (Defense Daily, May 7).
Costello told a congressional hearing on Wednesday that she believes the program will not surpass the 25 percent “critical” Nunn-McCurdy unit cost threshold.
“I am pretty confident in this, which is why we have decided to continue with the program,” Costello testified. “We believe we can find an affordable way forward to deliver the needed capability. We conducted an affordability review when we first got the information about the pricing coming in higher than we expected. We’ve refined the requirements down to a minimum viable product of what [Air Force] Global Strike [Command] really needs this to do, as opposed to possibly other items. That doesn’t mean we can’t bring in capability later, but for now we’re focusing on getting this capability to the warfighter because it’s needed.”
“We don’t believe it’s gonna be a critical Nunn-McCurdy,” she testified. “We don’t believe we’re close to having a critical Nunn-McCurdy, but we are beyond the significant threshold, and we’re working through the process to inform the Congress of that.”
Last July, Air Force officials said that RMP was abutting a significant cost breach and that the PEO for bombers was re-examining requirements that may be operationally irrelevant or too restrictive–requirements like the level of fidelity for the new radome and the number of hours required for B-52 “cold starts.”
The Air Force has said that RMP for the 76 B-52Hs is to include a new, active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar based on RTX‘s [RTX] APG-79; a new, wide-band radome by L3Harris Technologies [LHX] on the aircraft’s nose; two L3Harris 8 x 20 inch high definition displays for the radar navigator and the navigator; two new, hand controllers by California-based Mason Controls; and new display sensor system processors by L3Harris to interface between the radar and other B-52 systems.
Germany’s Rheinmetall AG and Finland’s ICEYE said that they signed a memorandum of understanding on Thursday to create the Rheinmetall ICEYE Space Solutions joint venture–60 percent owned by Rheinmetall and 40 percent by ICEYE–to build synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and other satellites in Germany.
“Production is to take place at the Neuss site, among others, and is scheduled to begin in the second quarter of 2026,” the companies said.
ICEYE has said that it owns and operates the world’s largest SAR satellite constellation. The Helsinki-based company has launched 44 satellites for its own and customers’ use and plans to launch more than 20 new satellites annually in 2025, 2026, and after. The company provides SAR imagery to the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office through a study contract.
In June last year, “Rheinmetall announced its participation in the world’s largest fleet of radar reconnaissance satellites,” Rheinmetall and ICEYE said on Thursday. “In September 2024, Rheinmetall and ICEYE had further intensified their cooperation. In the course of this, Rheinmetall had secured exclusive rights to market the SAR satellites to military and government end users in both the German and Hungarian markets. The first major milestone in the intensified cooperation between Rheinmetall and…ICEYE was reached in November 2024.”
“To meet Ukraine’s urgent need for SAR imaging satellite reconnaissance capabilities, Rheinmetall and Ukraine had signed a contract with the support of the German government,” according to the statement. “The agreement extends the SAR data and other support that Ukraine received from ICEYE during the war.”
In 2023, Lockheed Martin [LMT], Northrop Grumman [NOC], and German officials broke ground on an F-35 center fuselage Integrated Assembly Line in Weeze, Germany near the Düsseldorf-based Rheinmetall.
Rheinmetall said at the time that the Weeze plant will, starting this year, build at least 400 F-35A center fuselages (Defense Daily, Sept. 6, 2023).
Kratos Defense & Security Solutions [KTOS] recently unveiled a version of its Valkyrie stealthy, aerial combat drone with internal landing gear to enable conventional takeoff and landing to give customers more options, Eric DeMarco, the company’s president and CEO, said on Wednesday.
The jet-powered fixed-wing Valkyrie is currently launched off a rail using a rocket. The landing gear variant will fly this year, DeMarco said last evening on the company’s first quarter earnings call.
Development of the landing gear variant of the tactical unmanned aircraft system (UAS) was done in “conjunction and communication with several customers,” he said. The customers are not being disclosed.
The UAS can also be trolley-launched off a runway for training and to enable maximum payload capability, he said.
The goal with the Valkyrie family is to “provide runway flexibility and runway independence to our customers,” DeMarco said.
Kratos has begun serial production of 24 Valkyrie units using company funds and is flying with “multiple customers, expanding mission capabilities and other criteria as we progress toward” customer production decision, DeMarco said. Customers can visit the factory to “see their respective tail numbers in production,” he said.
DeMarco also disclosed that that the company’s Dark Fury hypersonic vehicle successfully flew its first mission at hypersonic speed, “achieving all expectations under a customer funded contract.”
Kratos has long-lead orders for “several” Dark Furies and Erinyes hypersonic test bed, which has also been successfully flight-tested, he said.
“Dark Fury is truly an incredible system, including its speed, range and precision characteristics and at its extremely low cost point, which is positioning Kratos, similar to Kratos jet drone family, to provide affordable mass and quantities,” DeMarco said.
There are also orders for about 70 solid rocket motors, including Zeus, for upcoming and expected hypersonic missions, he added.
The orders for the vehicles and rocket motors demonstrate the pending increase Kratos expects in hypersonic-related sales that will pick-up in the second half of 2025 and accelerate into 2026, DeMarco said.
Kratos’ “hypersonic franchise” will be the top growth driver in the next few years “unless global peace breaks out,” he said, adding that this goes beyond air vehicles and rocket motors to included the company’s position on spacecraft that detect and track hypersonic launches.
The second growth driver will be the company’s engine business, which includes turbojets, rocket motors, and space propulsion systems.
Third is microwave electronics, in particular the company’s business unit in Israel that sells internationally, he said.
If and when the tactical drone business takes off, DeMarco said this will be “one of the, if not the biggest needle mover for the company.” For now, the tactical drone outlook is a “call option” until the orders flow, he said.
Net income in the quarter more than tripled to $4.5 million, 3 cents earnings per share (EPS), from $1.3 million (2 cents EPS) a year ago. Excluding taxes, acquisition and restructuring costs, interest and other expenses, per share earnings of 12 cents beat consensus estimates by three cents.
Sales rose 9 percent to $302.6 million from $277.2 million a year ago, with 7 percent of the gain organic.
Growth drivers in the quarter were defense rocket systems, microwave products, C5ISR-related products, and target vehicles. Weighing on earnings was an operating loss in the Unmanned Systems segment due to increased material, subcontractor, and labor costs on multi-year fixed-price production contracts awarded in 2020 and 2021. DeMarco blamed higher subcontractor costs on a couple of companies that are increasing their prices.
The outlook for 2025 is unchanged, with organic sales still forecast to increase 10 percent, and then another 14 percent in 2026.
Orders in the quarter were robust at $365.6 million and backlog stood at $1.5 billion, up 4 percent from just over $1.4 billion at the end of 2024. Free cash flow was negative $51.8 million.
Lithium-sulfur battery developer and manufacturer Lyten on Thursday said it is launching an initiative to bring its lightweight, domestically-sourced batteries to the drone industry.
Battery cells produced by Lyten were used to power a Titan Dynamics unmanned aircraft system (UAS) for more than three hours in a test that included various maneuvers and speeds up to 86 miles per hour, the California-based company said.
Toward the end of the second quarter, Lyten plans a new battery platform intended for longer endurance drone flights and broad commercial use, and also expects to conduct another flight test on Titan’s UAS lasting up to eight hours, the company said. That test will occur late in the second, or early third, quarter, Keith Norman, Lyten’s chief marketing officer, told Defense Daily in an email response to questions.
For the recent flight-test, Lyten’s battery cells were packaged into a pack by Upgrade Energy and flown on Titan’s 3D-printed Blackbird drone, which as a range of more than 300 miles, a payload capacity of nearly six pounds, and can be carried in Pelican cargo case.
Lyten said it is dedicating production capacity in its California manufacturing facilities to meet demand for its high-endurance drone propulsion batteries to meet defense applications.
The Lithium-sulfur batteries are free of nickel, cobalt, manganese, and graphite, materials the Lyten highlights are “dominated by Chinese supply chains.” Upgrade Energy integrated the battery cells in Los Angeles, where Titan also 3D-prints its drones.
“This creates a full, end-to-end, U.S.-sourced and manufactured drone, making it fully National Defense Authorization Act compliant and supply chain secure,” Norman said.
Lyten is also working to integrate its batteries into AEVEX Aerospace’s UAS, and the lithium-sulfur cells are slated to be demonstrated aboard the International Space Station following a launch later this year.
Quantum computing company IonQ [IONQ] has signed an agreement to acquire Capella Space to accelerate its plans in quantum networking. IonQ, based in College Park, Maryland, announced the move on Wednesday.
Capella operates commercial satellites that capture X-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data. The company offers imagery, monitoring, and analytics for use cases in defense and intelligence, maritime awareness, disaster response, and more.
Capella has four satellites in operation, with several more set to launch this year. The company provides satellite imagery to the U.S. government.
IonQ plans to launch a global space-to-space and space-to-ground satellite quantum key distribution (QKD) network. The company said acquiring Capella will “deepen and accelerate IonQ’s quantum networking leadership,” and expand quantum computing partnerships with U.S. agencies through Capella’s facility security clearance.
“We have an exceptional opportunity to accelerate our vision for the quantum internet, where global quantum key distribution will play a foundational role in enabling secure communications,” said IonQ CEO Niccolo de Masi.
Also on Wednesday, IonQ announced plans to acquire Lightsynq Technologies, a company founded by former Harvard University quantum memory experts, focused on interconnected quantum systems.
Earlier this year, IonQ acquired quantum networking company Qubitekk, and entered an MoU with satellite antenna and gateway developer Intellian Technologies to explore a partnership that would merge quantum computing with future Intellian products.
Capella CEO Frank Backes said in a release that Capella’s platform will integrate with IonQ’s quantum capabilities “to enhance analytics, sensors, and security to bolster commercial applications and global defense and intelligence missions.”
“Space is the next frontier for IonQ’s leadership in quantum computing, quantum networking, and ultra-secure environments,” Backes said. “Quantum technologies have the potential to revolutionize space-based operations by enabling ultra-secure communications that transmit data to and from platforms with unmatched security.”
The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2025 and is subject to regulatory approval.
The Army wants to speed up fielding of its Future Long Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) by two years to 2028 but won’t commit to future plans for awarding another multi-year UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter contract, the service secretary said on Wednesday.
Army Secretary Dan Driscoll said the service met with FLRAA developer Bell [TXT] last week and tasked them with crafting a plan for accelerating the program’s timeline, which was currently set to begin fielding in 2030.
The V-280 Valor. Bell photo.
“What we wanted to partner with them and task them [to do] is spend this week and create a plan and tell us how do you push [FLRAA] forward by years and then what do we, the Army, need to do to help you,” Driscoll said during a House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee hearing. “We do not intend to sit back passively as [Bell] begins this manufacturing process…we are going to be a part of the process and we are going to be cutting through the red tape and doing our part, as the United States Army, to push it forward and get it in the hands of soldiers.”
Bell’s V-280 Valor tiltrotor aircraft was named the winner of the FLRAA competition in December 2022, beating out a Sikorsky [LMT] and Boeing [BA] team’s Defiant X coaxial rigid rotor helicopter offering for the program to find a platform that will eventually replace a sizeable portion of the Black Hawk fleet (Defense Daily, Dec. 5, 2022).
The Army’s initial FLRAA deal to Bell is worth up to $1.3 billion but could total $7 billion if all options are picked up.
Last August, the Army approved the Milestone B decision to move FLRAA into the Engineering and Manufacturing Development phase, to include picking up the next contract option that will cover the build of six prototype aircraft (Defense Daily, Aug. 2 2024).
Col. Jeffrey Poquette, the Army’s FLRAA program manager, told Defense Daily in March that a Critical Design Review for the future platform is expected later this year and that the Army was working with Bell on when the first prototype could be delivered.
FLRAA currently remains on track for a Milestone C decision to move into production in FY ‘28 and to meet the initial fielding goal for FY ‘30, Poquette confirmed at the time.
Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Calif.), the HAC-D chair, specifically asked when the Army thinks it can reach full-rate production for FLRAA and the quantities it plans to build, with Driscoll responding that the service should have a better idea of those details “within a matter of weeks.”
“We don’t feel like we’re in a position quite yet to answer this question but we think within a matter of weeks we’ll have a very clear plan [for FLRAA] that we can come pitch you as a subcommittee that you can help us look at and be able to react to,” Driscoll said.
“It is an example, I think, of our own systems and failures getting in the way. When they showed me the [FLRAA] aircraft and said how fast it went and how far it went, it clearly will add capabilities that can be relevant in INDOPACOM. But when I asked, ‘When did the first test flight occur?’ And I think it was 2017 or 2018. My stomach sank that it had been seven years since we think we had found what we needed but we hadn’t transitioned to it,” Driscoll told the panel. “We are actively working on a plan to try to sync with Pentagon leadership…to move that forward as quickly as possible.”
The Army’s assurance of its commitment to FLRAA, and the new intent to speed up the program, comes as the service has rolled out a wide-ranging transformation that includes cutting “outdated weapon systems” such as the M10 Booker combat vehicle, Joint Light Tactical Vehicles, Humvees, the AH-64D Apache attack helicopter and Gray Eagle drones (Defense Daily, May 1).
Gen. Randy George, the Army chief of staff, told lawmakers FLRAA is a “much needed system,” noting the future platform will be able to fly at 350 miles per hour at a range of 350 miles making a “significant difference” offer current capability.
“It can be optimally manned which means it could fly out autonomously. You can connect it with drones. There’s a lot of things that you can do with that system. We can use it around the world. I think it’s critically important in the INDOPACOM [theater]. I think it’s also something that SOCOM is going to want to be able to use…So we want to get it moving as fast as possible,” George said.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), the HAC ranking member whose district includes Stratford, Connecticut where Sikorsky builds the Black Hawk, pressed Driscoll and George on the Army’s intentions for awarding another UH-60 multi-year contract.
“I think [the Black Hawk] is a critical tool and I hope you agree with me that is the case,” DeLauro said. “It’s not just a constituency issue here…it’s about the Black Hawk and what it has meant to the safety of our soldiers and the national security of this country. That is my primary goal in addressing this issue.”
Both Driscoll and George declined to offer a firm commitment on awarding another multi-year deal for more Black Hawks, and said they would have to get back to the committee with an answer on that decision.
“Congresswoman, I appreciate that your constituency involves Black Hawk and the Americans who have made it. Our constituency is the American soldier and the taxpayer whose dollars we spend,” Driscoll said. “We’ve had this conversation with many of our largest companies in the last week. We are unwilling to make commitments that aren’t, in our opinion, in the best interests of soldiers and their lethality and keeping them safe if we deploy them anywhere in the world and to bring them home. So we can follow up with your office but right now we can’t answer that.”
The Army and Sikorsky in June 2022 signed what was expected to be the final multi-year UH-60M Black Hawk contract, awarding the company a five-year deal worth $2.3 billion for delivery of 120 H-60M helicopters (Defense Daily, June 27 2022).
With options, the Army noted the 10th multi-year deal for Black Hawks could potentially be worth $4.4 billion and cover more than 250 helicopters, to include aircraft for FMS customers.
When the Army announced its major aviation restructure in February 2024, which included canceling development of the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft, it detailed plans to award another multi-year contract for UH-60M Black Hawks with the newly freed-up resources and to focus on future modernization upgrades for the platform.
“This is a very, very troubling conversation and I will produce the background and information that I’ve been given about the future of the Black Hawk for our national security and the modernization and investment in that modernization,” DeLauro said during the hearing.
George said he was “not aware” of any adjustments to previously discussed plans for the Black Hawk, reiterating that the Army intends to keep upgrading its fleet to the UH-60M model.
“I see [that] Black Hawks are going to be with us for a while, but I do think we’re going to have to adapt what we’re doing. There just may be less Black Hawks,” George said.
Former Army Secretary Christine Wormuth told lawmakers in April 2024 the service planned to move “immediately” into the next Black Hawk multi-year contract upon the conclusion of the current procurement deal with Sikorsky in FY ‘27, adding it would be a five-year contract covering 24 helicopters per year (Defense Daily, April 10).
The director of the Missie Defense Agency (MDA) last week confirmed both the next homeland ballistic missile defense interceptor and first dedicated hypersonic missile defense interceptor are both running late due to earlier than planned downselects.
[LMT] to continue Next Generation Interceptor (NGI) development over competitor Northrop Grumman [NOC]. The agency previously planned to continue this competition at least through the Critical Design Review (CDR) (Defense Daily, April 15, 2024).
The NGI is planned to add to and possibly ultimately replace the current Ground Based Interceptors geared toward defending against nuclear-armed ballistic missiles that could be launched by North Korea in a conflict. They are largely deployed at Fort Greely, Alaska. MDA previously already built 20 silos at the site to accommodate the first group of NGIs.
Shortly before the decision was made public, MDA Director Lt. Gen. Heath Collins told the House Armed Services’ Strategic Forces subcommittee that the change was due to both fiscal pressure from caps in the Fiscal Responsibility Act as well as positive technical development from both teams (Defense Daily April 12, 2024).
Figure 1 from the June 2024 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on the Missile Defense Agency’s Next Generation Interceptor program. (Image: GAO)
He said accelerated contractor execution schedules meant MDA had “an appreciably larger body of technical knowledge and data available to assess contractor performance ahead of a traditional systems development at this point in the design maturation process.”
Collins now told the same panel on April 30 that this downselect occurred specifically about a year and a half earlier than MDA had previously expected.
He noted while NGI is MDA’s largest and highest priority that has achieved “significant progress at the system level,” it is still experiencing 18 months or more of delivery delay.
Collins confirmed the top limiting issue with NGI remains its solid rocket motor development.
“This is a new booster, a new development, and we have experienced delays and issues with that development, and are expecting 18 months or more delay into the delivery of that initial capability.”
He said in an attempt to reduce that delay, MDA has taken unspecified “actions to shore up the development as well as bring in an additional source to help buy down the schedule risk of the development.”
In his written statement to the subcommittee, Collins elaborated that beyond expected design challenges to NGI, its complexity is driving “unanticipated programmatic, technical, and producibility challenges that are driving increases to the estimated development and deployment schedule.”
He added there that the earlier-than-planned downselect most significantly impacted NGI’s supply chain. This means after learning of the incoming early downselect, suppliers moved to limit fiscal exposure and even stopped some development work on “critical NGI components.” These supply chain impacts were further exacerbated by the “post-COVID-induced inflation.”
Beyond those supplier issues, Collins explained there have been “significant” development and manufacturing issues with the solid rocket motor cases set to be used for qualification testing. The motors themselves are properly on the path to execute the first NGI flight test, he said.
“These development and supply chain challenges required us to develop a comprehensive NGI re-plan schedule. The result is key milestones have shifted to the right.”
Given all of the supply chain, inflation and development delay issues, Collins said MDA plans for the NGI program to execute its All Up Round Critical Design Review in the first quarter of fiscal year 2027, followed by two “rigorous flight tests” in FY 2029.
This schedule translates into providing U.S. Northern Command “with an opportunity to declare an Initial Operational Capability no later than FY 2030.”
Collins said MDA is also looking into adding a potential NGI flight test demonstration in 2028 to “demonstrate confidence” and reduce program risk.
Raytheon Missiles & Defense concept art of a potential ship-based Glide Phase Intercept hypersonic defense system. (Image: Raytheon Technologies)
Separately, Collins told the subcommittee the Glide Phase Interceptor (GPI) hypersonic defense program is also dealing with repercussions from the selection and downselect “years earlier than planned” due to similar DoD priorities and resourcing decisions.
Last September, MDA selected Northrp Grumman over RTX [RTX] to continue developing GPI (Defense Daily, Sept. 25, 2024). In November, MDA then awarded Northrop Grumman a $541 million contract to continue GPI development (Defense Daily, Nov. 15, 2024).
He said while hypersonic missile defense is still a ‘key area” that needs additional focus, delivery of the first GPI units was pushed back from 2032 to 2035 as a result of the earlier GPI selection.
Notably, Collins’ written statement to the committee said this shift to 2035 also marks that “the overall programmatic risk is high.”
However, he told the committee that if acceleration options that MDA is currently evaluating work out, they could recover back to the previous 2032 delivery plan.
“It is primarily a resourcing at this point. There are some technological things that need to happen in the next three to five years, but then there is a resourcing and alignment issue that could accelerate that. We believe we could recover to 2032 with no increased level of programmatic risk across the program, but that’s about the fastest we could do today,” Collins told the committee.
According to FY 2025 budget request documents published last year, the GPI timetable milestones were pushed back a year from the FY 2024 plans following Budget Control Act-forced funding reductions. The Preliminary Design Review was said to be set for FY 2030 instead of 2029, Critical Design Review in 2033 instead of 2032 and delivery starting in 2035 rather than 2034(Defense Daily, March 18, 2024).
Previously, the FY 2024 defense authorization act pushed PDA to develop and field GPI faster than the agency expected it would be able to: reaching Initial Operating Capability with 12 interceptors by the end of 2029 and Full Operating Capability of at least 24 interceptors by 2032 (Defense Daily, Dec. 21, 2023).
In his written statement, Collins elaborated that MDA is working with RTX and co-development partner Japan to “shore up the program” and look for opportunities for acceleration and to “burn down risk as soon as possible.”
Beyond potentially getting the GPI program back on track to 2032, he reiterated the agency is still exploring other alternatives and options to add “residual” or partial hypersonic defense capability to other weapon systems currently in use.
However, for now Collins reiterated the only other “hypersonic maneuvering target defense capability we have is in the fleet with the SM-6 and the Sea-Based Terminal capability.”
