Page 24 – Defense Daily

Defense Watch: ALPV Update, Russian EW, Sentinel, Blue UAS Revamp, HPM

ALPV Update. Lt. Gen. Eric Austin, Deputy Commandant of Combat Development and Integration, on April 30 confirmed the Marine Corps is currently testing two Autonomous Low Profile Vessels [ALPVs] out of Okinawa, with two more on the way. Delivered by Leidos, these vessels are modeled on small narco-boats and can carry two Naval Strike Missiles “or whatever can fit in that form factor,” Austin said during the Modern Day Marine conference in Washington, D.C. He noted they can travel up to 1,000 miles at 10 knots and testing with the Third Marine Expeditionary Force is going well, “having some very good luck with that…with the right volume of those, you can start to do some tactical logistics and move things in a meaningful manner.”

Lost Hornet.

The Navy revealed the USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75) lost an F/A-18E Super Hornet assigned to Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 136 and a tow tractor while operating in the Red Sea on April 28. The Navy said the aircraft was under tow in the hangar bay when the move crew lost control of the aircraft, with the aircraft and a tow tractor lost overboard. One sailor sustained a minor injury. The Navy said an investigation is underway and the Truman Carrier Strike Group with its air wing is still fully mission capable.

Russian EW. An area of warfare in which Russia has exceeded expectations is electronic warfare, according to an industry leader providing thousands of radios to Ukraine. Sam Mehta, president of the L3Harris Communications Systems segment, told reporters last week that the information he receives from the front lines of the Ukraine-Russia conflict is “sobering” and “scary” in that regard. He noted that L3Harris has delivered 40,000 tactical radios and accessories to Ukraine.

Phelan In Korea. Secretary of the Navy John Phelan met with South Korea Acting President Han Duck-soo and Navy Chief of Staff Admiral Yang Yong-mo during an April 30 trip to the region, following a similar visit earlier in Japan. A Navy release said Acting President Han outlined areas the treaty allies can deepen like high-end technology and shipbuilding, the latter as a major reason for Phelan’s tour of the region. Phelan encouraged more investment by South Korean companies in. U.S. shipyards.

…Shipyards Too. Phelan also visited shipyards at Hanwha Ocean Shipbuilding and HD Hyundai Heavy Industries. The Navy noted this visit occurred after Hanwha Ocean’s shipyard recently completed the repair of the USNS Wally Schirra (T-AKE 8). Meanwhile, the Henry J. Kaiser-class underway replenishment oiler USNS Yukon (T-AO 202) is currently undergoing maintenance at the Hanwha shipyard. “The relationship between the U.S. Navy and the Republic of Korea’s maritime industrial base goes far beyond ship maintenance; it is a cornerstone of our shared commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific and strengthens the overall bond between our nations. It fosters innovation, enhances national defense and drives economic prosperity for all,” Phelan said.

STARS LLM. Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) Division, Keyport said it is working with Naval Sea Logistics Center and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University to look into using artificial intelligence (AI) large language models (LLMs) to streamline and improve Navy supply chain reliability via the Sentiment and Topic Analysis for Reliable Supply (STARS) project. They are specifically looking at using LLMs to improve accuracy and consistency in contractor performance assessments that have numerical ratings and written narratives that do not always align. The service said discrepancies can make it difficult to accurately assess contractor performance while STARTS aims to use automated analysis of scores and text for more reliable objective evaluations. This is part of a three-year project that started in 2022 via a grant from the Naval Engineering Education Consortium. It is currently in the research and development phase and managed by NUWC Division, Newport. Virginia Tech researchers are developing and refining AI models.

T-AO 210. The Navy and General Dynamics NASSCO officials christened the newest John Lewis–class replenishment oiler, the USNS Sojourner Truth (T-Ao 210) during a ceremony on April 27. This is the sixth new oiler in the class, set to be able to carry 162,000 barrels of diesel ship fuel, aviation fuel and dry stores cargo. The Navy has three more new Lewis-class oilers on order. They are named after prominent civil rights activists and leaders.

Tank Ammo. The Army on April 28 awarded General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical systems a $727.8 million contract to continue producing 120mm Insensitive Munition High Explosive with Tracer tank ammunition. Work on the latest production contract is expected to conclude by late April 2030, according to the Pentagon.

Lockheed/Rheinmetall. Lockheed Martin and German defense firm Rheinmetall on April 30 said they have expanded an existing memorandum of understanding, with plans to establish a “center of excellence” based in Germany focused on manufacturing rockets and missiles. “This is a step toward helping our European customers meet their NATO commitments and by combining Rheinmetall’s deep regional expertise with Lockheed Martin’s advanced missile technologies, we’re creating a powerful foundation to meet evolving security needs,” Ray Piselli, Lockheed Martin’s vice president of international business, said in a statement. The plans for the new center of excellence will be subject to approval by the U.S. and Germany governments, the two firms noted. “Lockheed Martin and Rheinmetall complement each other perfectly with their specific capabilities and technological expertise. We want to play a significant role in the growing European market with rockets and missiles, where we see a considerable demand. Rheinmetall will not only be involved in sales but will also contribute significantly to the production,” Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger said.

48 F-35s. Ebbing Air National Guard Base in Ft. Smith, Ark., is to serve as a training ground for allied fighter pilots under the Foreign Military Sales program, and Ebbing’s role may grow. Polish Air Force pilots began training on the F-35 there in January. “We have 48 F-35s scheduled to be located at Ebbing over the next three years,” says Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Since 1988, the Air National Guard’s 188th Wing at Ebbing has transitioned from F-16s to A-10s to MQ-9A Reapers.

Sentinel Report. The U.S. Air Force may announce the details of a program restructuring for the Northrop Grumman LGM-35A Sentinel ICBM in the near future. On Apr. 30, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) listed a new, restricted report–ICBM Modernization: Air Force Actions Needed to Expeditiously Address Critical Risks to Sentinel Transition (GAO-25-107048C).

TOC-L. The U.S Air Force says it tested the Lockheed Martin Tactical Operations Center-Light (TOC-L) during the U.S. Army Project Convergence Capstone 5 exercise at the National Training Center at Ft. Irwin, Calif., at Nellis AFB, Nev., and other sites from February through April ito get a comprehensive air picture through using a number of inputs, including those from allied radars, and acting as a relay to air operations centers. Lockheed Martin, the TOC-L integrator, has said it uses and will use other companies’ TOC-L offerings, such as Solipsys Tactical Display Framework software by RTX’s Collins Aerospace. The Project Convergence Capstone 5 exercise “integrated the TOC-L with other systems, including Palantir’s Maven Smart System and the System-of-Systems Technology Integration Tool Chain, a program designed to bridge communication gaps between disparate systems,” the Air Force said. The service said that it is field testing 16 TOC-L prototypes. The Air Force’s TPY-4 radars and TOC-L are to be significantly lighter than the air picture support required for the current TPS-75 radars.

Cyber Fine. RTX and Nightwing Group LLC, which owns RTX’s former Cybersecurity, Intelligence, and Services business, have agreed to pay $8.4 million to resolve allegations that Raytheon, a subsidiary of RTX, failed to comply with cybersecurity requirements in contracts or subcontracts with the Defense Department, the Justice Department said last Thursday. The department said that “Raytheon Cyber Solutions, Inc., failed to implement required cybersecurity controls on an internal development system that was used to perform unclassified work on certain DoD contracts” as required in defense and federal acquisition regulations. The settlement involves work that allegedly occurred between 2015 and 2021, which is before Nightwing acquired the business.

Blue UAS Revamp. The Defense Innovation Unit is creating two-tiers for its list of drones that the Defense Department can purchase that are compliant with National Defense Authorization Act requirements that the unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) do not include Chinese parts and software, and whose manufacturers are free of adversarial capital. When the Blue UAS List effort began in 2019, there were no more than 24 companies that were eligible to be vetted and when the first list came out, there were more than 100 companies, with about two dozen that could meet the NDAA criteria, Doug Beck, director of DIU, told the House Armed Services Committee last Thursday. Now there are hundreds and possibly thousands of companies to be considered and so DIU plans to refresh the Blue UAS List continuously.

…Select Tier. As part of the “revitalized” Blue UAS effort, DIU is creating a higher tier called Blue UAS Select, which is for drones that meet a higher standard and are the “best of the best,” Beck said. Without naming the drone or its manufacturer, he highlighted a UAS that was just added to the list as part of a refresh effort last fall. “That’s the first U.S. company using only U.S. parts, that’s getting to Ukraine levels of both cost with just a couple $1,000 and dropping and thousands of units a month and rising,” he said. The Blue UAS Select group will get the “white glove treatment, helping them to scale across the department,” he added.

CHAOS Scores. CHAOS Industries, a Los Angeles-based defense technology startup, has raised $275 million in a Series C round, bringing its total funding raised to $490 million since its inception in 2022. The company is developing a suite of products called Coherent Distributed Networks to improve sensor and effector performance. Vanquish is the CHAOS’s first product, a dual-use, multistatic commercial radar that provides early warning and tracking capabilities against drones, missiles, and aircraft. The latest funding round was led by New Enterprise Associates, and co-led by Accel.

EdgeRunner AI Raise. EdgeRunner AI, a startup developing a generative artificial intelligence platform that delivers occupation and mission-specific agents on-device without internet connectivity, has raised $12 million in a Series A round. The new raise, led by Madrona Ventures, brings EdgeRunner AI’s total funding to $17.5 million and will be used to hire more employees and invest in product development. The company’s platform uses open-source large language models and includes features such as chat, question and answer, language translation, transcription, code generation, speech-to-text and vice versa, and more.

IFPC-HPM in Philippines. The Army’s 1st Multi-Domain Task Force in late April conducted tests of the Epirus-built Integrated Fires Protection Capability High-Powered Microwave (IFPC-HPM) and the Fixed Site-Low, Slow, Small Unmanned Aerial System Integrated Defeat System (FS-LIDS) during integrated air and missile defense live fire exercise at Naval Station Leovigildo Gantioqui in the Philippines, the Army said last week. The service said it was the first employment of IFPC-HP in the Indo-Pacific region and first time testing in a tropical environment. IFPC-HPM is designed to defeat swarms of small drones at a relatively low-cost per kill. The 1st MDTF was the first unit to field the system beginning in February 2024. IFPC-HPM and FS-LIDS, developed by SRC, Inc., were used for the first time in the Indo-Pacific as part of a layered defense to detect and defeat small UAS using electronic means.

Business News. RTX last Thursday said its board has declared a quarterly dividend of 68 cents per share, an 8 percent increase over the prior quarterly dividend amount. The private equity firm J.F. Lehman & Company has added former Boeing executive Stan Deal to its operating executive board. Deal is a former chief of Boeing’s Commercial Airplanes and Global Services operating segments.

Air Force Taps Ursa Major To Integrate Tactical Flight Demonstrator For Hypersonic Uses

The Air Force Research Laboratory last Thursday awarded Ursa Major a $28.6 million contract to served as the integrator of a tactical flight demonstrator that will be powered by the company’s Draper liquid rocket engine, which is safely storable like a solid rocket motor but provides the flexible capabilities and range of liquid engines.

The Colorado-based startup is working toward an initial flight test later this year, Ben Nicholson, Ursa Major’s chief growth officer, told Defense Daily last Friday. It is a “high-priority” for the Air Force, he said, describing the schedule as “sporty” and noting that “the fact that they want us to fly this year that that tells you a lot.”

The first flight, which will also be the first time Draper flies, will be below hypersonic speeds and will prove flight, safety, and capability of the tactical demonstrator, Nicholson said. From there “we will be ramping up to hypersonic speed,” Nicholson said.

The 4,000-pound thrust Draper is based on the company’s more exquisite Hadley liquid rocket engine, which has flown multiple times at hypersonic speeds and has provided lessons that give Ursa Major confidence going into the tactical demonstrator flight this year. Both engines feature about 80 percent of their parts printed using additive manufacturing but Draper is a simpler engine with “a lot fewer parts” that is “designed for producibility and scalability,” Nicholson said.

Draper was developed at the behest of the Air Force to come up with a liquid rocket engine that can be safely stored—it is fueled by hydrogen peroxide and kerosene which are stable at room temperature—but can be throttled up and down, and turned off and on like other liquid engines. The engine also features maneuverability and offers the range advantages of liquid engines.

“And what that means is you can effectively loiter and then accelerate and change speeds and trajectories, making it very, very difficult for the adversary to counter that,” Nicholson said.
Hadley is fueled by cryogenic oxygen, which requires more infrastructure to support prior to use, he said.

“Under this contract, Ursa Major serves as the lead integrator for a tactical flight demonstrator that will prove the ability to use a storable liquid rocket system for hypersonic applications,” Dan Jablonsky, Ursa Major’s CEO, said in a statement. “Because of their tactical configuration, storable liquid rocket engines, like Ursa Major’s Draper, are uniquely positioned to deliver to the warfighter a hypersonic capability that is manufacturable at scale and at a fraction of the cost of alternatives.”

The lead integrator is a new role and a “paradigm shift” for the company, going beyond the engine to include marrying the guidance system and materials together, Nicholson said.

The Air Force initially obligated $4.5 million under the fixed-price contract, which it said is for “responsive space, hypersonic, and on-orbit propulsion.” The work is expected to be completed in January 2027.

In May 2024, Ursa Major had hot-fired Draper more than 50 times under a contract with the Air Force and now it has exceeded 200 hot-firings (Defense Daily, May 30, 2024). Nicholson said the 3D printing used for most of the engine allows for design and part modifications to be made quickly and tested.

The all-up round that Ursa Major will integrate Draper with resembles a missile as shown in an artist’s rendering. The company is currently not disclosing its teammates.

Nuclear Modernization and Space Resilience Top Challenges Lohmeier Says He Plans to Address

Nuclear modernization, including the Northrop Grumman [NOC] LGM-35A Sentinel future ICBM, and space resilience are top Department of the Air Force challenges that Matthew Lohmeier, the nominee for undersecretary of the Air Force, said he plans to address.

“If confirmed, I suspect that the modernization of the nuclear portfolio and ensuring the resilience of our space-based architecture will be the most pressing challenges,” he wrote in response to advance policy questions from the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) before his Thursday confirmation hearing.

“If confirmed in this role, I believe that my greatest contribution will be on communicating that nuclear modernization is not an option,” he wrote. “It is the very foundation of our national security strategy—and we must get it right.”

The Air Force is restructuring Sentinel to reduce program costs.

On Jan. 18 last year, the service said that it notified Congress that Sentinel had breached Nunn-McCurdy guidelines, primarily due to construction design changes, and then DoD acquisition chief William LaPlante ordered a root-cause analysis. The latter led last summer to the DoD decision to continue the program, due to its stated importance to strategic deterrence, but also to the rescinding of the Sentinel Milestone B engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) go-ahead from 2020 (Defense Daily, July 8, 2024).

Last summer, the Air Force pegged Sentinel cost at $140.9 billion, 81 percent higher than the September 2020 estimate when the program was approved for EMD–a rise that DoD said has less to do with the missile than the command-and-control segment, including silos, launch centers, “and the process, duration, staffing, and facilities to execute the conversion from Minuteman III to Sentinel.”

Initial operational capability for Sentinel will now likely be years past the Air Force’s initial goal of May 2029.

Air Force plans have called for a Sentinel launch center for at least 24 of the missile alert facilities and for 3,100 miles of new utility corridor for Sentinel.

The civil works for Sentinel may also include hardening silos to account for improved accuracy of Russian and Chinese nuclear missiles.

In late March and early last month, Air Force leaders held community town halls in Kimball, Neb.; Pine Bluffs, Wyo., and Raymer, Colo. at which the service said that it would build new silos for Sentinel, which has a significantly larger design than its predecessor 1960s-era Minuteman missile series (Defense Daily, Apr. 16). The service had planned to renovate the 450 Minuteman silos.

The provision of multiple warheads, countermeasures, and increased range to hit China means the Sentinel design is significantly larger than that of the current Boeing [BA] Minuteman III.

In addition to new silos for Sentinel, the Air Force has said it plans to begin digging up the old, Hardened Intersite Cable System (HICS) copper wires for Minuteman III in 2027 to replace HICS with fiber optic cables for Sentinel by 2030.

At the Thursday SASC confirmation hearing for Lohmeier, Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) called Sentinel “probably the most complex and important defense project that’s ever been undertaken by the Pentagon.”

In Lohmeier’s prepared responses before the hearing, he wrote that “on resilient space architectures, I believe that we must continue to build partnerships with the commercial sector, leveraging what is available and only building what we absolutely must.”

Former Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said that his biggest concern in the Department of the Air Force’s fiscal 2025 budget was the shortfall of funding for counter space and Lohmeier wrote in his prepared answers before the Thursday SASC hearing that U.S. Space Force gaps are most concerning to him.

“We must develop both offensive and defensive space control for any potential conflict and for day-to-day operational freedom,” Lohmeier wrote. “Enhanced resilience, via proliferated constellations, commercial capabilities, and protection against kinetic and non-kinetic threats, is absolutely crucial.”

In May 2021, then Lt. Gen. Stephen Whiting–now the four-star head of U.S. Space Command–fired then Lt. Col. Lohmeier as the commander of the 11th Space Warning Squadron at Buckley Space Force Base, Colo., after Lohmeier aired his views opposing diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives during a conservative podcast.

Before the Space Force, Lohmeier served as an Air Force F-15C pilot. Democratic senators at Thursday’s SASC hearing questioned Lohmeier’s judgment for that podcast appearance and for a posting on X last Aug. 9 that the Jan. 6, 2021 assault on the Capitol was a “gov’t [government]-led false flag and hoax at the Capitol.” The post, which is still on Lohmeier’s X site, says that after Jan. 6, 2021, the former Biden-Harris administration “demonized the men and women in uniform” and then “purged conservatives and Christians with their [COVID-19] shot mandates.”

Army Cancels Procurement Of M10 Booker Combat Vehicle

The Army is canceling procurement of the General Dynamics Land Systems [GD]-built M10 Booker combat vehicle, a senior defense official confirmed to

Defense Daily.

The decision to move on from the M10 Booker arrives just over a year after the Army accepted initial deliveries of its newest combat vehicle and comes as the service pursues a transformation strategy that includes shedding obsolete equipment.

A live fire demonstration of the Army’s newest combat vehicle, the M10 Booker, marks the conclusion of the M10 Booker Dedication Ceremony at Aberdeen Proving Ground, in Aberdeen, Md., April 18, 2024. (U.S. Army photo by Christopher Kaufmann)

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the Army to cut “outdated weapon systems” as part of a new memo that directs sweeping changes across the service, with the service’s leaders confirming plans to cancel procurement of Joint Light Tactical Vehicles, Humvees, the AH-64D Apache attack helicopter and Gray Eagle drones (Defense Daily, May 1).

Army Secretary Dan Driscoll and Gen. Randy George, the Army chief of staff, said the service will pursue a new “Army Transformation Initiative” (ATI) that will “re-examine all requirements and eliminate unnecessary ones.”

GD Land Systems beat out BAE Systems in June 2022 to build the Army’s new M10 Booker, and was awarded a $1.14 billion contract covering delivery of up to 96 vehicles under low-rate initial production (Defense Daily, June 28 2022).

The deal began with an initial delivery order for 26 vehicles, and the Army accepted delivery of the first M10 Booker in February 2024 and had plans to achieve a first unit equipped milestone in late 2025.

The M10 Booker, formerly known as Mobile Protected Firepower, combined a version of GD Land Systems’ latest M1 Abrams tank turret with a new, purpose-built chassis and that Army has said it was designed to provide Infantry Brigade Combat Teams “with mobile, protected direct-fire capability to apply lethal and sustained long-range fires to light armored vehicles, hardened enemy fortifications and dismounted personnel.”

DIU To Issue Solicitation For Low-Collateral Effects Counter-Drone Solutions

The Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) next week plans to issue a solicitation seeking commercial solutions to more safely defeat small drones, the head of the unit said on Thursday.

The commercial solutions opening for low collateral defeat drone capabilities will be aimed at the use of these systems in highly populated areas, Doug Beck told the House Armed Service’s Subcommittee on Tactical Air and Land Forces.

Beck said the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will be part of the low collateral effects effort. The agency is also part of the Defense Department’s ongoing Replicator 2 Initiative that was announced last September and is largely focused on protecting domestic military installations from drone threats, he said (Defense Daily, Sept. 30 and Oct. 14, 2024).

A major concern of the DoD and U.S. government in general with using counter-drone solutions in domestic operations is minimize local impacts that would arise from using kinetic interceptors and non-kinetic defeat systems that could disrupt commercial aircraft or nearby civilian infrastructure.

Lt. Gen. Robert Collins, the principal military deputy to the Army’s research and acquisition chief, told the panel that the service is looking at using unmanned aircraft systems that deploy nets to capture potential threat drones in mid-air “without having significant challenges in spectrum de-confliction.”

Being able to better sense the presence of drones in populated areas is a key focus area of DIU, Beck said. In addition to the sensors, such as acoustic and radar, this also includes wireless communications and artificial intelligence to fuse the data to rapidly understand the situation and make decisions, he said.

Some Democratic Lawmakers Ask for DoD IG Review of Golden Dome

A group of 42 congressional Democrats–five senators and 37 representatives–are asking the Pentagon Inspector General’s (IG) office to investigate the planned Golden Dome missile defense project.

A Jan. 27 executive order from President Trump directed the development of the U.S. missile defense shield, to include space-based interceptors–a project “experts estimate could cost trillions” of dollars, according to the Thursday letter to acting DoD IG Steven Stebbins.

Signatories include Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.)–members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Reps. Greg Casar (D-Texas)–a member of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability’s military and foreign affairs panel, John Garamendi (D-Calif.)–the ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee’s readiness panel, and Jill Tokuda (D-Hawaii)–a member of the HASC readiness panel.

The letter expressed conflict of interest concerns related to top Trump adviser, Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX, and SpaceX’s position as a front-runner for Golden Dome contracts.

A special government employee (SGE) at the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Musk “is subject to” U.S. Office of Government Ethics (OGE) “regulations governing the conduct of executive branch employees,” the letter said. “One of those standards, OGE regulation 5CFR Section 2635.702, prohibits using public office for private gain. Mr. Musk is also subject to the criminal prohibition in 18 U.S.C. Section 208 against participating in a particular matter in which he has a financial interest, which carries a penalty of up to five years in prison.”

“If Mr. Musk were to exercise improper influence over the Golden Dome contract, it would be another example of a disturbing pattern of Mr. Musk flouting conflict of interest rules,” according to the letter. “DOGE has directed cuts to agencies that regulate his companies and gained sensitive data about Americans and his companies’ competitors.”

New Memo Orders Army To Merge Futures Command And TRADOC, Pursue Acquisition Reforms

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s new memo directing sweeping changes within the Army calls for merging the service’s modernization-focused Futures Command with Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC), prioritizing acquisition reforms and adjusting force structures.

“I am directing the Secretary of the Army to implement a comprehensive transformation strategy, streamline its force structure, eliminate wasteful spending, reform the acquisition process, modernize inefficient defense contracts and overcome parochial interests to rebuild our Army, restore the warrior ethos, and reestablish deterrence,” Hegseth writes in the memo.

Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll and Chief of Staff of the Army Gen. Randy A. George join “Fox and Friends” to discuss the new Department of Defense memorandum on Army transformation and acquisition reform, at the Pentagon, Washington, D.C., May 1, 2025. (DoD photo by U.S. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Alexander Kubitza)

The wide swath of initiatives are part of a new “comprehensive transformation strategy” for the Army that includes ending procurement of “outdated weapon systems,” with Army leaders confirming cuts will be made to programs such as Joint Light Tactical Vehicles, Humvees, the AH-64D Apache attack helicopter and Gray Eagle drones (Defense Daily, May 1).

The merging of the Austin, Texas-based Futures Command, established in 2018 and now led by Gen. James Rainey, with TRADOC, led by Gen. Gary Brito and based at Fort Eustis in Virginia, is part of an effort to downsize, consolidate, or close redundant headquarters, according to the memo.

The two organizations will merge into a single command “aligns force generation, force design and force development under a single headquarters,” Army Secretary Dan Driscoll and Gen. Randy George, the Army chief of staff, wrote in a letter to the force on the transformation initiative.

It remains to be seen who will be at the helm of the new organization, as the directive is a major change for Futures Command, which has overseen requirements development for the service’s modernization efforts.

Hegseth in the memo also endorses the Army’s recent push to seek flexible funding authority that would allow it to move money within select capability areas rather than having funds tied to rigid budget line items allowing the Army to more rapidly procure promising technologies.

The Army secretary is directed to work with the Pentagon comptroller on the effort to “consolidate budget lines and shift from program-centric funding to capability-based funding across critical portfolios…to ensure rapid technology adaptation,” according to the memo.

“Agile funding, which shifts from program-centric to capability-based portfolios, will increase timely equipment fielding and accelerate innovation cycles. Adaptation is no longer an advantage — it’s a requirement for survival,” Driscoll and George said.

The flexible funding push has started with an initial focus on drones, C-UAS and electronic warfare as a “pilot program,” while Army Vice Chief Gen. Mingus said recently the strategy should eventually cover all technology that advances faster than the standard budget cycle (Defense Daily, April 22).

Additional acquisition reforms directed in the memo include expanding the Army’s use of Other Transaction Authority agreements “to enable faster prototyping and fielding of critical technologies,” including software, implementing performance-based contracting “to reduce waste,” and expanding multi-year procurement agreements “when cost effective.”

Hegseth has also directed the Army to merge headquarters “generate combat power capable of synchronizing kinetic and non-kinetic fires, spaced-based capabilities, and unmanned systems,” to divest outdated formations and to realign forces strategically “to optimize deterrence and rapid deployment, above all to defend the American homeland and deter China in the Indo-Pacific.”

“We’re cutting headquarters. We’re cutting some of the bloat, making sure that we get after the inefficiencies so we’re completely focused on buying war-winning technologies and that’s exactly what we need to do,” George said in a Fox News interview on Thursday.

The Army is also tasked with reducing and restructuring manned attack helicopter formations and augmenting such units with inexpensive drone swarms “capable of overwhelming adversaries.”

Driscoll and George, in their letter, specify there are plans to eliminate 1,000 staff positions at Headquarters Department of the Army, the service will reduce one Aerial Cavalry Squadron per Combat Aviation Brigade in the active component and will consolidate aviation sustainment requirements and all Infantry Brigade Combat Teams will be converted to the new Mobile Brigade Combat Teams.

“We are trading weight for speed, and mass for decisive force,” Driscoll and George wrote.

The Army has tested the Mobile BCT concept as part of its Transforming in Contact initiative, which included the GM Defense [GM] Infantry Squad Vehicle as a “centerpiece” capability “to move every infantry squad much faster and much lighter” (Defense Daily, May 9, 2024).

Additionally, the memo directs the Army to merge Forces Command with U.S. Army North and South “into a single Headquarters focused on homeland defense and partnership with our Western Hemisphere allies” and to consolidate and realign headquarters and units within Army Materiel Command, to include integrating Joint Munitions Command and Army Sustainment Command “to optimize operational efficiency and streamline support capabilities.”

Coast Guard Approved For Full Production Of First Polar Security Cutter

Following a decision by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in late December allowing the Coast Guard to move forward with limited production of a new heavy polar icebreaker, the department this week greenlit the start of full production for the first Polar Security Cutter (PSC), the service said on Thursday.

The December decision authorized the Coast Guard to build 16 of the 85 modules that make up the PSC. Bollinger Shipyards, which is under contract for up to three PSCs, in 2023 began work on eight prototype modules to help it come down the learning curve in terms of strengthening workforce skills and refining construction methods (Defense Daily, Aug. 4, 2023).

The April 30 approval by DHS allows the Coast Guard, and Bollinger, to construct all 85 modules.

The PSC represent a major relearning of skills and expertise in the design and construction of polar icebreakers. The Coast Guard’s lone heavy polar icebreaker, the Polar Star, is nearly 50 years old, and the service’s only medium polar icebreaker, the Healy, is 25 years old. Both vessels have been plagued with mechanical and maintenance issues.

“Approval for full production enables the Coast Guard and U.S. Navy integrated program office to maintain production momentum, and for the shipbuilder to accelerate hiring to deliver this critical asset as quickly as possible to support national security initiatives,” the Coast Guard said on Thursday.

The first PSC is slated for delivery in 2030, six years behind schedule. The following two vessels are expected in 2032 and 2034.

The Coast Guard wants a mix of eight to nine heavy and medium polar icebreakers. The service recently began surveying the domestic and global maritime industrial base for a medium icebreaker, the Arctic Security Cutter, with a goal of getting the first vessel delivered withing three years of contract award.

The Coast Guard in late March awarded Bollinger nearly $952 million to complete design and construction of the first PSC (Defense Daily, March 26). The award more than doubled the cost to build the ship. VT Halter Marine, which won the PSC contract before Bollinger acquired the company, in April 2019 received a $746 million contract for the ship.

The House panel that oversees Coast Guard authorities is strongly backing the PSC and ASC programs, recommending more than $9 billion in a reconciliation program for the icebreakers (Defense Daily, April 30). That funding also covers “domestic” icebreakers, which are used on the Great Lakes and other waterways.

The Coast Guard on Thursday released a request for information seeking feedback from U.S. and allied nation shipyards on “existing or production-ready icebreaking capable vessels” for either a medium (DOMICE-M) and light (DOMICE-L) missions. A DOMICE-M vessel would be 140-feet or less in length and the DOMICE-L 65-feet or less.

Hegseth Directs Army Scrap ‘Outdated’ Systems, Cuts Include JLTVs, AH-64Ds, Gray Eagles

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has directed the Army to cut “outdated weapon systems” as part of a new “comprehensive transformation strategy,” with the service’s leaders confirming plans to cancel procurement of Joint Light Tactical Vehicles, Humvees, the AH-64D Apache attack helicopter and Gray Eagle drones.

Hegseth’s memo outlines a series of initiatives aimed at ensuring the Army prioritizes “defending our homeland and deterring China in the Indo-Pacific region,” to include accelerating fielding of unmanned systems and launched effects and service leaders affirming commitment to modernization efforts such as the new Future Long Range Assault Aircraft and the upgraded M1E3 Abrams tank.

AM General’s JLTV A2 on display at the 2023 AUSA conference in Washington, D.C. Photo: Matthew Beinart.

“To build a leaner, more lethal force, the Army must transform at an accelerated pace by divesting outdated, redundant, and inefficient programs, as well as restructuring headquarters and acquisition systems. Simultaneously, the Army must prioritize investments in accordance with the administration’s strategy, ensuring existing resources are prioritized to improve long-range precision fires, air and missile defense including through the Golden Dome for America, cyber, electronic warfare, and counter-space capabilities,” Hegseth writes.

Army Secretary Dan Driscoll and Gen. Randy George, the Army chief of staff, said the service will pursue a new “Army Transformation Initiative” (ATI) to carry out the priorities laid out in the memo.

“This initiative will re-examine all requirements and eliminate unnecessary ones, ruthlessly prioritize fighting formations to directly contribute to lethality, and empower leaders at echelon to make hard calls to ensure resources align with strategic objectives. To achieve this, ATI comprises three lines of effort: deliver critical warfighting capabilities, optimize our force structure, and eliminate waste and obsolete programs.”

David Fitzgerald, the Army’s acting under secretary, said last month the service was “systematically reviewing” its portfolio of legacy programs and current requirements (Defense Daily, March 25).

“We cannot afford to continue robbing modernization by continuing to pay for things we no longer need,” Fitzgerald said at the time. “As we free up resources and [make] hard choices, we will redirect them to the transformation of our force. The Army’s transformation plan is not just about spending on different things, it’s about spending differently.”

The memo directs the Army to end procurement of “obsolete weapon systems,” and Driscoll and George have confirmed that will include canceling plans to continue producing “outdated crewed attack aircraft” such as the AH-64D, “excess ground vehicles” like the Humvee and JLTV and “obsolete UAVs” like the Gray Eagle.

“We will also continue to cancel programs that deliver dated, late-to-need, overpriced, or difficult-to-maintain capabilities. Yesterday’s weapons will not win tomorrow’s wars,” Driscoll and George write in a new letter to the force. “This is a first step. We have already directed a second round of transformation efforts to be delivered in the coming months.”

The JLTV cancellation, in particular, is a major pivot for the Army after the service awarded AM General a potential 10-year, multi-billion dollar deal just over two years ago to build the new JLTV A2 and take over as prime contractor from Oshkosh Defense [OSK]. AM General has said it remained on track to support the Army’s plan to begin fielding the JLTV A2 in mid-2026 (Defense Daily, Feb. 9 2023).

The Army has mostly been buying the newer AH-64E model aircraft for its Apache fleet, and in March 2023 signed a multi-year contract with Boeing [BA] for deliveries of the upgraded configuration that will run through 2027 and could be worth up to $3.8 billion (Defense Daily, March 17 2023).

Driscoll said Thursday that President Trump and Hegseth have “empowered the Army to go make the hard decisions and the hard changes to reallocate our dollars to best position our soldiers to be the most lethal that they can be.”

“These are hard decisions. These are legacy systems that have been around for a long time. There’s a lot of momentum, there’s a lot of lobbyists around them. But with the leadership of [Trump and Hegseth] and our chain of command, we have been empowered to go do what’s right,” Driscoll said in a Fox News interview

Hegseth has also previously directed Pentagon officials to find eight percent of the department’s budget that can be cut and shifted to Trump administration priorities (Defense Daily, Feb. 20).

“We will introduce long-range missiles and modernized UAS into formations, field the [General Dynamics Land Systems [GD]] M1E3 tank, develop the [Bell [TXT]-built] Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft, and close the C-sUAS capability gap. Command and control nodes will integrate artificial intelligence to accelerate decision-making and preserve the initiative,” Driscoll and George write.

The memo also directs the Army to field long-range missiles capable of striking moving land and maritime targets by 2027, with the service already pursuing a version of the Lockheed Martin [LMT] Precision Strike Missile that integrates a multi-mode seeker, and to field unmanned systems and launched effects with every division by the end of next year.

Driscoll and George said the new ATI transformation strategy builds on the ongoing and currently expanding Transforming in Contact initiative, which has focused on testing new operating concepts with select Army units and providing troops with new technology, such as drones and electronic warfare capabilities, to gather feedback and inform rapid fielding decisions.

“We don’t have a challenge with the innovation. The innovation’s happening down with our soldiers. We’re changing formations,” George said in the Fox News interview. “We’re watching what’s happening. We know we need to change. If there’s one thing, we just can’t go fast enough. We’ve got to speed [up] that change.”

Hegseth’s memo also directs the Army to achieve “electromagnetic and air-littoral dominance” by 2027, to integrate improved C-UAS capabilities into maneuver platoons by 2026 and maneuver companies by 2027, to enable “AI-driven” command and control at the headquarters-level by 202 and to bring advanced manufacturing and 3D printing capabilities to operational units by 2026.

Leonardo DRS Opens 2025 With Strong Results

Leonardo DRS [DRS] on Thursday posted strong first quarter results with earnings and sales higher across its operating segments.

Net income increased 72 percent to $50 million, 19 cents earnings per share (EPS), versus $29 million (11 cents EPS) a year ago. Excluding impacts from income taxes, interest expense, acquisition and restructuring costs, adjusted earnings of 20 cents EPS beat consensus estimates by three cents per share. Adjusted margin increased 10 basis points to 10.3 percent.

Sales increased 16 percent to $799 million versus $688 million a year ago. The top-line benefitted from accelerated material receipts from some suppliers. Revenue drivers included tactical radars, ground and naval network computing, electric power and propulsion, and force protection programs.

The company’s electric power and propulsion efforts support Navy ship programs, and more domestic opportunities are emerging, Bill Lynn, chairman and CEO of Leonardo DRS, said on the earnings call. He declined to discuss program specifics due to “competitive reasons,” but did highlight a recent demonstration of the company’s electric propulsion technology on a medium unmanned surface vessel that showcases the versatility of its offerings as the Navy considers a mix of manned and unmanned platforms.

Lynn addressed the macroeconomic environment, highlighting the fiscal year 2025 continuing resolution that allows new program starts, funding flexibility, and a higher threshold for reprogramming authority.

“As of now, we have not seen any significant changes to customer procurement behavior and the leading indicators reinforce the durability of demand,” he said.

Tariffs are a watchlist item for Leonardo DRS, he said, pointing out that the company’s footprint is largely domestic as is its supplier base. The company has told its suppliers to alert on tariff-related costs so that it can pursue remedies with government customers, he said.

The company has been relatively unscathed by China’s nearly two-year-old restrictions on rare earth minerals. However, a sole-source optic supplier on an international infrared sensing program was unable to execute on purchase orders in the first quarter due to restrictions on germanium, leading to higher costs for Leonardo DRS as it found alternative sources, Lynn said.

“Outside of this discrete supplier issue, there have not been significant challenges with respect to supply to date, but pricing has certainly become more volatile,” he said.

The company’s outlook for 2025, which is unchanged from prior guidance, factors in the germanium related suppler challenge and related higher costs, Lynn said.

Infrared sensing is a core capability of Leonardo DRS.

Orders in the quarter totaled $1 billion and backlog rose to a record $8.6 billion, up 10 percent from $7.8 billion a year ago. Free cash flow was a negative $170 million.