Page 24 – Defense Daily

Airbus, Shield AI Partner On Unmanned Lakota For Marines’ Aerial Logistics Connector

Airbus U.S. has partnered with Shield AI to integrate its autonomy software on the unmanned version of the UH-72 Lakota aircraft it’s developing for the Marine Corps’ Aerial Logistics Connector (ALC) program, the companies said Wednesday.

Carl Forsling, Airbus U.S.’ director of business development and strategy, cited Shield AI’s “record of succeeding quickly” in integrating autonomous capabilities as a key factor in the decision to work together on developing the uncrewed MQ-72c cargo-carrying platform.

Rendering of Airbus’ MQ-72C, its offering for the Marine Corps’ Aerial Logistics Connector program. Photo: Airbus.

“That’s important as we have a very time-constrained program. We want to get this capability to the Marine Corps as fast as we can,” Forsling told Defense Daily during an interview at the Modern Day Marine conference in Washington, D.C. “As we progressed through initial design activities with NAVAIR, we flushed out the concept more. It became clear that we wanted to build a best of breed team here and go beyond the skill set that it’s in Airbus Group and go find partners like Shield AI that are leaders in their field.”

The Marine Corps last April selected Airbus for the competitive ALC development effort, with an aim to have a prototype that’s ready to transition into fielding within five years (Defense Daily, May 14 2024).

Airbus has said MQ-72C, the unmanned version of its UH-72 helicopter being developed for ALC, is intended to have a cruise speed of 135 knots, a maximum takeoff weight of over 8.300 pounds and a range above 350 nautical miles.

Under the newly-announced agreement, Shield AI will integrate its Hivemind autonomy software with Airbus’ Helionix avionics suite as it continues work developing the unmanned logistics platform.

“The Lakota has been a mainstay of military aviation for years—a widely-fielded, trusted platform used across a range of missions. Integrating Hivemind onto this aircraft shows how autonomy can rapidly enhance proven systems to meet the demands of today’s missions, and it’s a key step toward fully autonomous, uncrewed logistics operations that are scalable, resilient, and built for the future fight,” Ryan Tseng, CEO of Shield AI, said in a statement.

Forsling said there will be opportunities in the development process for ALC, while still working with a manned Lakota aircraft, to start to “exercise the autonomy tools to give a capability and demonstrate that we are reducing risk, reducing the schedule and budget required to actually bend the metal and make this a fielded prototype.”

“We’ve also done a couple of demo activities, starting with basically validating the initial capabilities of the aircraft from a performance perspective, payload, range, speed etc., of the Lakota and the maintainability and the sustainability and the ability to operate that in the field for long periods of time. So we validated a lot of those capabilities,” Forsling told Defense Daily.

The Marine Corps also selected a team led by Near Earth Autonomy, that also includes Honeywell [HON] and Leonardo Helicopters, for the ALC development effort (Defense Daily, Oct. 28 2024).

The Near Earth-led ALC team is dividing the work into having Leonardo implement a fast-loading, security and unloading system for Joint Modular Intermodal Containers on its AW139 helicopter, Honeywell providing the helicopter’s autopilot that it will augment for autonomous take-off and landing and Near Earth demonstrating a full integrated logistics system with onboard autonomy to guide the aircraft and modify flight trajectory to avoid hazards.

Marines To Outfit First Platoon With New MRIC Cruise Missile Defeat System By End Of FY ‘25

The Marine Corps will field its new Medium Range Intercept Capability (MRIC) this year, a lead official confirmed Wednesday, to include outfitting an initial platoon with the cruise missile defeat capability by the end of fiscal year 2025.

Col. Andrew Konicki, program manager for ground-based air defense, said the rapid fielding plan for MRIC remains on track after the system was “highly effective” during a key operational test this past fall.

The Medium-Range Intercept Capability is set up during a static display at General Raymond G. Davis Center aboard Marine Corps Base Quantico, Jan. 12, 2024. Photo: Photo by Lance Cpl. Michael Bartman, Marine Corps Combat Development and Integration

“We’re going to continue to grow out that capability and get it out in mass across the Marine Corps,” Konicki said during a briefing at the Modern Day Marine conference in Washington, D.C.

The Marine Corps’ MRIC involves integrating the Northrop Grumman [NOC]-built Ground/Air Task Oriented Radar (G/ATOR) and General Dynamics Missions Systems [GD]-developed Common Aviation Command and Control System (CA2CS) with Israel’s Iron Dome mini-Battle Management Control components and the Tamir interceptor.

Konicki confirmed the Marine Corps still intends is to buy three batteries worth of MRIC for initial fielding, which follows the successful Quick Reaction Assessment in the fall.

Last August, the Marine Corps awarded RTX [RTX] a $24.8 million contract to deliver missiles, launchers and loading devices for the system (Defense Daily, Aug. 30, 2024).

RTX, in cooperation with Israel’s Rafael, officially broke ground last February on a new production facility in Camden, Arkansas that will build SkyHunter interceptors, the U.S. version of the Tamir missile, for MRIC and to serve as a second source of Tamir interceptors for Israel’s Iron Dome.

“There will be more testing involved with [MRIC] as we transition from the Tamir effector to the SkyHunter. We’ll have some qualification testing with that. That’s probably going to take place 18 to 24 months from now,” Konicki said.

Konicki said Wednesday he’s also interested in potential opportunities to connect MRIC with passive radar capabilities.

“Because the G/ATOR’s an active system, if I can get a passive [radar] system for MRIC that gives me shot fidelity, man, [that’s] huge. Let’s do it,” Konicki said.

State Approves Software Deal To India, Patriot Upgrades to Kuwait

The State Department on Wednesday approved a $131 million software deal to India and $425 million in services work with the Patriot air defense system to Kuwait.

The Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress of the two proposed sales on Wednesday.

The foreign military sale to India is for Indo-Pacific Maritime Domain Awareness and related equipment. Hawkeye 360 of Herndon, Va., is the contractor involved in this deal. India has asked to buy SeaVision software (including requested software enhancements); Technical Assistance Field Team (TAFT) training; remote software and analytic support; access to SeaVision documentation; and other related elements of logistics and program support.

The foreign military sale to Kuwait is for the PATRIOT Post-Deployment Build 8.1 and related equipment. The contractor for this deal is RTX [RTX].

Kuwait requested to buy services, including delivery, installation, and upgrade, for PATRIOT Post-Deployment Build (PDB) 8.1. The following non-MDE items will be included: software development; delivery and support; sustainment maintenance; spare and repair parts; personnel training and training equipment; U.S. Government and contractor engineering, technical, and logistics support services; integration and test support; and other related elements of logistics and program support.

Operational Assessment Testing of IVEWS on F-16 Completed, Northrop Grumman Says

Northrop Grumman [NOC] said that it has completed operational assessment testing of the company’s ultra-wideband architecture AN/ALQ-257 Integrated Viper Electronic Warfare Suite (IVEWS) for U.S. Air Force F-16 fighters.

The company’s Rolling Meadows, Ill., site said that the company had “successfully completed Operational Assessment flight testing” on two Block 50 F-16s at Eglin AFB, Fla., and Nellis AFB, Nev. The more than 70 sorties showed IVEWS’ “effectiveness against advanced radar-guided threats” and provide “an option for the Air Force to go to production and fielding,” Northrop Grumman said.

In June 2021, Northrop Grumman received a $40 million Other Transaction Agreement award for an IVEWS prototype, and the Air Force chose IVEWS to equip Air Force F-16s in March 2022.

“During testing, IVEWS was subjected to highly accurate representations of complex, modern radio frequency threats in operationally relevant environments, verifying the results seen during rigorous laboratory, chamber and early flight testing,” Northrop Grumman said on Wednesday.

“The system detected, identified and countered the full range of radar threats, providing complete RF protection for operationally representative missions and enhanced situational awareness of the battlespace,” the company said.

Last year, Northrop Grumman said that IVEWS had gone through testing at the Air Force’s Joint Preflight Integration of Munitions and Electronic Sensors (J-PRIMES) facility at Eglin AFB, Fla.

In addition to IVEWS, Northrop Grumman builds the AN/APG-83 Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) Scalable Agile Beam Radars (SABR) to equip U.S. Block 70 F-16s and to upgrade older U.S. F-16s having the APG-68 radar, developed by Westinghouse–now part of Northrop Grumman.

“IVEWS and Northrop Grumman’s SABR radar demonstrated digital interoperability,” the company said on Wednesday. “By communicating on a pulse-by-pulse basis, the two systems ensure that neither one will reduce the performance of the other, allowing for simultaneous electronic warfare and targeting capabilities.”

Air Force Lt. Col. Christopher James, the materiel leader for the F-16 development branch at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, said in the Northrop Grumman statement on Wednesday that the more than 70 sorties in operational testing occurred in more than 100 flying hours over 7 months.

“Not only did the system perform well, but it also worked during its first flight on two aircraft, which is unprecedented for a complex and fully integrated electronic warfare system,” he said. “It has earned the slogan, ‘IVEWS, works first time, every time.’”

Last fall, L3Harris Technologies

[LHX] said that its site in Clifton, N.J., began building 166 AN/ALQ-254(V)1 Viper Shield all-digital electronic warfare suites for F-16 fighters in six countries under a total Viper Shield backlog of $1 billion (Defense Daily, Sept. 19, 2024). The company said that it was talking with other countries to address what it believed to be an additional $1.5 billion in demand. L3Harris has said that it believes Viper Shield could one day go on U.S. F-16s

True Anomaly Raises $260 Million To Support Growth

Space technology startup True Anomaly raised $260 million in a funding round targeted at product and talent investment, increasing vertical integration, and facility expansion.

The oversubscribed Series C round was led by Accel.

True Anomaly said in the next 18 months it will launch its third orbital flight test to low Earth orbit (LEO), Mission X, fly the Space Force’s VICTUS HAZE Tactically Responsive Space mission that will be lifted to orbit by a Firefly Aerospace launch vehicle, deploy its first Jackal autonomous orbital vehicle to geosynchronous orbit and cislunar space, enhance its Mosaic software platform, and introduce a new product that will enable responsiveness to on-orbit threats.

Other investors in the funding round include Meritech Capital, and existing investors Eclipse, Riot Ventures, Menlo Ventures, 645 Ventures, ACME Capital, Space VC, Champion Hill Ventures, and Narya. Stifel Bank is providing debt capital.

Fourth Plane for USAF SAOC Program Arrives at SNC’s Dayton Site

Nevada’s SNC has received the fourth 747-8i at the company’s Aviation Innovation and Technology Center (AITC) in Dayton, Ohio for the U.S. Air Force Survivable Airborne Operations Center (SAOC) program, SNC said on Wednesday.

A year ago, the Air Force awarded SNC an up to $13.1 billion contract for an E-4C SAOC to replace the Boeing [BA] E-4B “Nightwatch” fleet, based on the 747 passenger plane and used as a mobile national command authority in crisis situations, such as “doomsday” events (Defense Daily, Apr. 26, 2024).

The E-4B entered service in 1980 more than five years after its predecessor, the E-4A.

While SAOC was a significant win last year for SNC, the latter was the only company that remained in the SAOC fray, as Boeing was unable to meet Air Force requirements.

SNC has been a contractor for the Air Force’s BIG SAFARI special mission aircraft program.

“Just six weeks after contract award, SNC welcomed the first [Korean Air] 747-8i to the AITC,” SNC said on Wednesday. “Four months later, in October 2024, SNC celebrated the opening of a second state-of-the-art hangar at the AITC while simultaneously breaking ground on two additional hangars to support ongoing and future projects.”

“Progress on the program continued throughout the fall with arrival of the second SAOC aircraft at the AITC”–an arrival followed by the move of the first SAOC aircraft to Wichita State University’s National Institute of Aviation Research (NIAR) in November of 2024,” the company said. “The move officially commenced the program’s engineering and development activities.”

For SAOC, SNC has teamed with RTX‘s Collins Aerospace, GE Aerospace [GE], Safran‘s Greenpoint Technologies Inc., Lockheed Martin‘s [LMT] Skunk Works division, NIAR, and Rolls-Royce.

When SNC won SAOC last year, the company said that its team also included FlightSafety International‘s FSI Defense. SNC and FSI Defense did not respond to email questions on whether FSI Defense is still a member of SNC’s SAOC team.

The $150 billion DoD reconciliation bill includes $168 million to accelerate production of SAOC (Defense Daily, Apr. 28).

VTG Acquires Cyber And Signals Intelligence Firm Triaplex

VTG on Wednesday said it has acquired Triaplex, Inc. in a deal that adds to its cyber and signals intelligence capabilities and expands its intelligence community customer base.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Triaplex is based in Fulton, Md., near Fort Meade, home of U.S. Cyber Command and the National Security Agency. The company has more than 30 employees.

Founded in 2020, Triaplex provides radio frequency solutions to its intelligence community customers. Triaplex’s senior leadership will join VTG.

“This partnership allows us to make the right, focused investments in our talent and technology, bolstering our core RF expertise,” David Lee, CEO of Triaplex, said in a statement.

VTG is based in Northern Virginia and provides modernization and digital engineering technology services to its customers. The acquisition is the fourth since it received a majority investment from the private equity firm A&M Capital.

Trump Announces 21 F-15EXs to Replace A-10s at Selfridge

President Trump announced 21 Boeing [BA] F-15EX fighters will replace the A-10 Warthog close air support aircraft at Selfridge Air National Guard Base, Mich.

“As commander-in-chief, I am proud to announce that very soon we will replace the retiring A-10 Warthogs with 21 brand-new F-15EX Eagle II fighter jets–the best in the world,” Trump said in a Tuesday speech at Selfridge.

In the last several years, Air Force leaders have said that the retirement of the A-10 fleet would not lead to a fall in the quality of CAS for front-line troops and that other aircraft can perform the CAS role.

In August 2023, the Air Force said that it would retire 78 A-10s at Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz., and that the 492nd Special Operations Wing–an Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) support wing–would move from Hurlburt Field, Fla., to Davis-Monthan where it would become a power projection wing “with all of AFSOC’s mission capabilities (strike, mobility, ISR, air/ground integration).”

The fiscal 2025 National Defense Authorization Act reduces the authorized ceiling of A-10s in the Air Force inventory from 135 to 96 (Defense Daily, May 14, 2024).

HASC Advances $150 Billion Defense Boost Bill, As Top Dem Objects

The House Armed Services Committee voted 35-21 on Tuesday to advance a $150 billion defense spending plan as part of the forthcoming reconciliation bill.

HASC’s markup of the legislation included voting down a slew of Democrat-proposed amendments aimed at placing limits on the spending, to include a measure that would have made 75 percent of the funds unavailable until the Pentagon certifies its classified information policies, which follows Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s involvement in the Signalgate incident.

Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), ranking member on the House Armed Services Committee, speaks during floor debate of the FY ’25 NDAA on June 13, 2024. Photo: Screenshot of U.S. House livestream.

“This is a historic day. Never before has HASC had the opportunity to use reconciliation to make a generational investment in our national security. But we do today,” HASC Chair Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) said in his opening remarks at the markup.“The bill before us provides $150 billion in mandatory funding to modernize our military, revitalize the defense industrial base, and improve the quality of life for our servicemembers. The time for this level of investment is long overdue.”

The $150 billion defense bill includes $25 billion for the Golden Dome missile defense system, tens of billions to boost shipbuilding and production of munitions and drones, $33.7 billion for shipbuilding and increases for a wide swatch of defense priorities (Defense Daily, April 28).

Rep. Adam Smith (Wash.), HASC’s top Democrat, offered the amendment to place a hold on 75 percent of the funds and voted against the bill, citing his objection that the defense spending boost would be paid for with “devastating cuts” to government programs such as Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

“There’s no question that the Department of Defense has requirements and that we as a country face threats and challenges from around the world. We clearly need to meet those threats and challenges, and we need to do so in ways that promote efficiency and effectiveness and allow for greater innovation,” Smith said in a statement following the vote. “Gifting the Pentagon an additional $150 billion with little to no guard rails, on top of the nearly $900 billion defense budget already passed and without any budget plan from the President for Fiscal Year 2026 or even execution instructions for FY25, defies basic common sense.”

“Giving that money to the Pentagon as it continues to churn with chaos inflicted by Secretary of Defense Hegseth and as a result of the President caring about only one thing—loyalty to himself—borders on negligence,” Smith added.

Ultimately, five HASC Democrats, Reps. Jared Golden (D-Maine), Gabe Vasquez (D-N.M.), Don Davis (D-N.C.), George Whitesides (D-Calif.) and Eugene Vindman (D-Va.), joined with all Republicans to pass the measure.

HASC’s markup will now go to the House Budget Committee, which will compile it with the other committee’s portions of the legislation to form the full reconciliation bill. When the Senate then takes up the measure, SASC may conduct its own markup prior to the upper chamber’s consideration of the legislation.

Garamendi Amendment To Delay Sentinel Fails

An amendment proposed by Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.), a longtime anti-nuclear advocate, to postpone Sentinel funding from a $150 billion defense reconciliation bill marked up in the House Armed Services Committee narrowly failed on Tuesday.

Garamendi’s amendment was killed, 25-30, while the overall bill advanced, 35-21, to the House Budget Committee.

Sentinel, an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) currently being built by Northrop Grumman [NOC], received $1.5 billion in “risk reduction” funding in the

bill released over the weekend. Garamendi, a longtime anti-nuclear advocate, offered an amendment that would withhold the $1.5 billion line item for Sentinel risk reduction until Milestone B is approved.

Milestone B approval means the program can enter the engineering, manufacturing and development phase. While the Sentinel program received Milestone B approval in 2020, the approval was rescinded when the Air Force notified Congress last year that the program breached Nunn-McCurdy cost guidelines, or went 25% over budget.

Garamendi called Sentinel “extraordinarily expensive,” adding “I’m not exactly sure what risk reduction means.”