Page 35 – Defense Daily

NRO Launches 10th Proliferated Architecture Mission

The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) and U.S. Space Force on Sunday launched the agency’s 10th proliferated architecture mission on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif., the NRO said on Monday.

The launch is the fourth in the proliferated architecture series thus far this year and brings to “more than 200” the number of satellites put into orbit by the NRO in the last two years, the agency said.

The agency said the first proliferated architecture launch was last May and that NRO satellite launch volume has increased since June 2023 to more than 100, more than 150, and now more than 200 (Defense Daily, Apr. 9, 2024).

NROL-145 is the first NRO mission undertaken with Space Systems Command’s Assured Access to Space organization under the National Security Space Launch Phase 3, Lane 1 task order awarded last October.

Last Wednesday, NRO and the Space Force launched NROL-174 aboard a Northrop Grumman [NOC] Minotaur IV rocket in what NRO said was the first Minotaur launch for NRO from Vandenberg since 2011 (Defense Daily, Apr. 16). A decommissioned Peacekeeper ICBM supplies Minotaur IV with solid rocket motors for its first three stages, and the rocket uses a commercial upper stage.

Previous Minotaur launches for the NRO include the NROL-111 and NROL-129 missions from Wallops Island, Va., in June 2021 and July 2020, respectively, and NROL-66 from Vandenberg in February 2011.

In addition to the NRO launches, the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center at Kirtland AFB, N.M., test flew a Minotaur carrying an unarmed Mk21A reentry vehicle by Lockheed Martin [LMT] for the Sentinel ICBM program last June 18 from Vandenberg.

NROL-174 is part of the NRO/SSC Rocket Systems Launch Program, which “focuses on the small launch market and primarily launches more risk-tolerant experimental, research and development, responsive space, and operational missions,” NRO has said.

“NROL-174 is the third NRO mission launched from SSC RSLP’s Orbital/Suborbital Program-3 contract,” the agency said.

NRC Commissioner Says Doesn’t Know the Future of NRC Under Trump, ‘Does Anybody?’

Christopher Hanson, commissioner for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said Monday he does not know where the future of the agency stands under the current Trump administration, the executive order threatening diluting power, and the current lawsuit against the agency.

“I don’t know,” Hanson said with a laugh in answer to a question by the Exchange Monitor

at a moderated panel at the 2025 Carnegie International Nuclear Policy Conference in Washington. “Does anybody?”

Hanson continued, “I think there are questions that are going to get adjudicated in the courts and so on and so forth. But I think having that independent regulatory body is going to be so critical here. And I think it’s worth defending.”

In February, Trump issued an executive order that gave the Office of Management and Budget power over the regulatory process that used to fall to “independent regulatory agencies,” which include the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).

More recently, a coalition of five states and three private nuclear companies filed a lawsuit against the nuclear regulator in a federal district court in Texas, arguing the NRC inhibited advanced reactor development. The plaintiffs claim in the lawsuit that NRC regulations make it difficult to meet increasing electricity demands, and that NRC has stifled expansion of advanced nuclear technology with a “lengthy” and “restrictive” licensing framework.

The Advanced Nuclear for Clean Energy (ADVANCE) Act, which then-President Biden signed in July 2024, is meant to reform NRC’s methods of issuing nuclear licenses and to require the Department of Energy to research and find ways other than the gold-standard, civil-nuclear 1-2-3 agreement to help get special nuclear materials to aspirant nuclear-power users abroad.

“Congress had some pointers for us in [the ADVANCE Act] about not unnecessarily hindering the deployment of nuclear power,” Hanson said, before adding, “I might have argued that we’ve never unnecessarily hindered the deployment of nuclear power.”

“Everybody wants us to go faster, right?” Hanson said. “Folks want things cheaper and faster.”

Hanson said he believes in “institutions,” and that even though “they need to adapt, constantly… we’re still much better off as a society with them than without them.”

Hanson said that he looks at NRC as an “institution with this incredibly rich history and a really strong performance record, and I hope that any administration coming in will look at us and say, okay, they’re doing a good job.”

Electra Raises $115 Million To Move Ultra Short Aircraft Closer To Production

Electra.aero on Monday said it has raised $115 million in Series B funding to enter the pre-production and certification phase of its EL9 ultra short aircraft it is developing for commercial and military use.

The funding round was led by Prysm Capital

with participation by Honeywell‘s [HON] ventures arm.

The EL9 features blown lift technology and hybrid-electric propulsion—allowing it to take-off and land in 150 feet—the quiet of an electric aircraft, and the ability to operate similar to a helicopter but with the safety and range advantages of a fixed-wing aircraft. The EL9 can carry up to nine passengers with baggage, or 3,000 pounds of payload up to 30 nautical miles. The aircraft’s batteries recharge in-flight, eliminating the need for ground charging stations.

The company has more than 2,200 pre-orders for operators that would use the EL9 in the commercial advanced air mobility sector, and more than 20 Small Business Innovation Research contracts with the Air Force, Army, Navy, and NASA. Electra also has a Strategic Funding Increase contract with the Air Force to develop the EL9 for military uses.

“The EL9 Ultra Short opens the door to opportunities to establish new commercial routes, connect communities currently lacking aviation infrastructure, and enable entirely novel logistics capabilities for warfighters,” Marc Allen, Electra’s CEO, said in a statement.

Electra aims to begin flight testing the aircraft in 2027, and to achieve Federal Aviation Administration type certification in 2028 or 2029 with a goal of entering commercial service in 2029.

With the investment, Jay Park, co-founder and managing partner of Prysm, has been added to Electra’s board of directors. Electra is based in Northern Virginia and has about 80 employees.

Previous funding rounds included Lockheed Martin’s [LMT] ventures unit, Honeywell, and France’s Safran.

Commentary: Addressing America’s Military Space Race Vulnerabilities

By Andrew E. Harrod, Defense Opinion Writer.

While Russia seeks Ukraine’s subjugation in Europe and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) looms as a rising danger to Taiwan across the sea in the Pacific, the military dimensions of space have grown ever more important. This is especially true given recent reports that the Pentagon is closely monitoring China and Russia’s new aggressive space capabilities.

In what some observers have called an “Anti-Satellite Age,” dangerous American adversaries like China and Russia increasingly cooperate. The corresponding uncomfortable reality is that many space and defense contractors have vulnerabilities that the PRC and Russia can exploit.

As the Council on Foreign Relations recently analyzed in a task force report, America in recent years has deployed more numerous, smaller space assets to counter satellite vulnerability, yet these efforts “have not kept up with the threat.”

Even SpaceX, which was responsible for 95 percent of all U.S. orbital launches last year, faces such vulnerabilities.

Worries about China business dealings

In last five years, a diverse group, from then-Sen.

Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, to retired Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honore, have worried about SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s China business dealings.

In particular, Musk’s Shanghai-based Tesla plant, raises fears about China’s “Military-Civil Fusion Laws.” Under these laws, corporations in China must reveal new technologies to the government, which could have inadvertent spillover effects upon SpaceX, thereby posing risks to America’s national security.

The broader point remains valid: unlike elected officials or military commanders, private companies have no duty to official policies or national defense strategies. Thus, tightened contractor vetting and oversight mechanisms — which can quickly remedy many of the vulnerabilities that contractors face — will prove essential, as will ensuring as much contractor diversity as the market allows.

Consider the stakes.

Musk’s Starlink and other satellites are key targets for China’s anti-satellite (ASAT) efforts in ongoing efforts to isolate or even conquer Taiwan, which had to develop Starlink alternatives after it rejected Taiwanese joint venture regulations.

Moreover, media reports from January highlighted research in China into new artificial intelligence–driven ASAT methods to attack Starlink satellite constellations. With this new technology inspired by whale hunting behaviors, 99 Chinese satellites could approach – and presumably destroy – almost 1,400 Starlink (or other) satellites in the first 12 hours of a war with Taiwan.

Such ASAT campaigns, combined with the cutting of Taiwan’s undersea communication cables, whose vulnerability appeared again in a recent suspicious cable cutting incident, could isolate the island from the world in the event of conflict.

Two formidable adversaries in space

These threats exist within a world of active Chinese and Russian espionage campaigns targeting America. Thus, even one unintentional security breach at Musk’s American satellite monopoly can provide two adversarial countries, already partners in space, with a significant national security advantage.

These two Eurasian dictatorships are formidable adversaries. U.S. Air Force Gen. Stephen N. Whiting, U.S. Space Command commander, has observed that “the PRC is growing its military space and counterspace capabilities at breathtaking pace to deny American and Allied space capabilities when they so choose.”

On Feb. 29, he testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee that “by 2030, the PRC will, by many estimates, achieve world-class status in all but a few space technology areas” and “seeks to match or surpass the United States by 2045.”

Gen. Whiting also stated that “Russia will remain a formidable and less predictable challenge” to the United States in this respect, with Ukraine conflict losses increasing Russian reliance on cyber and space capabilities.

Indeed, Russia recently moved to develop satellite-based nuclear weapons that not only could destroy swarms of satellites, but leave low-Earth orbit unusable for a full year. While arms control devotees note that the 1967 Outer Space Treaty prohibits space stationing of such weapons of mass destruction, Russia vetoed an American-sponsored April 2024 United Nations resolution affirming the treaty.

Such hard facts manifest how holding corporations accountable to the national interest must go hand in hand with strengthening America’s defenses in space. America cannot afford to lose the new space race and will therefore need more than one rocket man.

Andrew E. Harrod, a fellow with the Lawfare Project, is an international relations and national security commentator.

Army Aims To Have First Human-Machine Integrated Formation Platoons In FY ‘27

The Army is aiming to have its first “human-machine integrated” formation (HMI-F) platoons in place around fiscal year 2027, a lead official said recently.

Lt. Col. Jonathan Judy, the Army Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office’s (RCCTO) military deputy leading HMI-F, said the phased effort to deploy formations outfitted with a slew of robotic platforms is still in the development phase, while there’s a “significant opportunity” for industry to assist in the iterative design process as the service moves forward.

Robotic Combat Vehicle (Light), RCV(L), prototype during Soldier Experimentation at the National Training Center, NTC, Fort Irwin, Calif., from July to September 2023. Photo: Savannah Baldwin, Army’s PEO Ground Combat Systems

“The Army must leverage the best technological advances in industry and best practices for integrating machines into how we plan, train and execute missions,” Judy said during remarks at the Association of the United States Army’s recent Global Force Symposium in Huntsville, Alabama. “HMI-F will bring robotic systems into formations with the goal of having the machines not soldiers make first contact with the enemy.”

“We haven’t fully tapped industry’s ability to provide more scalable and adaptable solutions tailorable specifically to meet the Army’s ever-evolving needs. While industry partners have delivered innovative capabilities, further advancements in seamless interoperability are still in development, particularly those that enable real time decision making and adaptability,” Judy added.

Gen. James Rainey, head of Army Futures Command, first detailed the HMI-F effort in December 2023, noting that testing was already occurring with two platoon formations to inform scaling of experimentation efforts within brigade combat teams (Defense Daily, Dec. 13 2023).

“This is happening. It’s going to happen. It’s going to scale. [We’re] not replacing humans with robots, but [we’re looking at] what is the optimal combination of the two],” Rainey said at the time.

For the first two HMI-F platoons, Judy said the Army envisions an armored configuration that utilizes the BAE Systems Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle as a control platform working in tandem with Robotic Combat Vehicles and an infantry configuration with the GM Defense [GM] Infantry Squad Vehicle as the control vehicle and General Dynamics Land Systems’ [GD] MUTT XM as the robotic platform, with both formations employing additional robotic capabilities for kinetic and non-kinetic effects.

“While robots will play a role on the battlefield, human operators will remain central to the decision making process, ensuring that any actions against the enemy targets are made with human oversight,” Judy said.

The Army RCCTO is leading HMI-F prototype development, Judy noted, to include supporting broader efforts across current programs of record for robotic systems and looking at ways to expedite fielding.

“We are managing an Army integrated solutions team focused on emerging cross-Army autonomous and robotic projects into prototypes prepared for operational deployment,” Judy said, noting there’s also an effort to develop a common controller for operating different robotic platforms. “Our primary goal in the development of HMI formations is to integrate and standardize interfaces of multiple technologies to increase coordination capability while minimizing the cognitive burden on our soldiers.”

The HMI-F initiative is also making use of modular open system architecture (MOSA) approaches to allow for increased industry participation as the Army iteratively refines its design approach and accounts for new technology enhancements, according to Judy.

“As we continue to mature the interfaces of the ecosystem, this will allow industry to design and integrate new technologies more quickly and at a reduced cost. MOSA will limit stovepiping and ensure flexibility for future development of additional capabilities as enemy threats evolve,” Judy said.

Judy said the Army’s tactical network will serve as the “backbone” that enables the “system of systems” HMI-F approach to work, to include ensuring the architecture integrates with existing mission command solutions to support data sharing.

“It must be resilient to disruptions and capable of self healing to maintain operational continuity,” Judy said. “Achieving these objectives will require innovative approaches and cutting-edge technologies combining multiple waveforms into a single smart routing solution.”

Force Multipliers – Adam Maruyama

In this monthly column, Defense Daily highlights individuals from across the government, industry and academia whose efforts contribute daily to national defense, from the program managers to the human resource leaders, to the engineers and logistics officers.

Adam Maruyama is Everfox’s Field CTO for Digital Transformation and AI. In this capacity, he advises the organization on using trusted, assured technologies to bring the latest technological innovations into their environments in a secure manner. Previously, Adam served more than 15 years in the US Intelligence Community supporting cyber and counterterrorism operations, including co-leading the drafting of the 2018 National Strategy for Counterterrorism.

How did you get involved in the defense industry or community?

I joined the Intelligence Community in the shadow of 9/11. Seeing the early morning broadcasts of the towers while in my home state of Hawaii, then driving to school and seeing Pearl Harbor in the distance, galvanized my decision to focus on national security. I joined the National Security Agency’s Stokes Scholarship program, which provided me with the opportunity to study at Georgetown University in preparation for a career as an Intelligence Analyst.

While working at the NSA, I focused on counterterrorism and cyber operations at all levels. This included supporting individual operations in warzones, leading a team in the NSA’s Counterterrorism watch center, and co-leading the development of the 2018 National Strategy for Counterterrorism as part of the National Counterterrorism Center. These experiences, and my focus on the fundamentally asymmetric disciplines of cyber and counterterrorism, provided me with invaluable insights into customer needs and how we, as an industry, can address emergent cyber threats.

What are some challenges you faced working through your career?

As a government employee, I always found it difficult to reconcile the fast pace of innovation with the necessarily deliberative pace at which the government moves. Industry can often move faster than their government counterparts when it comes to agile development of disruptive technologies. On the other hand, the government also plays a vital role in rigorously assessing and implementing those technologies to create secure ways to use state-of-the-art technology. In many cases, the government’s assessments’ results and their implementation best practices can trickle back to industry, creating a more secure defense and security ecosystem on both sides of the public-private partnership. When done right, it’s a virtuous cycle.

Did you feel like you always had sufficient mentors and leaders to help guide you? Why/why not?

Like most people, I’ve had periods of my career characterized by a lack of solid leadership and mentorship. I’ve also been fortunate enough to have periods where leaders and mentors lifted me up. Some of the toughest times in my career were in organizations that focused on production rather than people. In these environments, I lacked a sense of meaning in the work and a vision of what was next in my career. Trying not to disrupt the flow of work also made it hard to seek out mentors in these organizations, especially for high-performing junior employees worried about bothering more senior folks with requests for advice that weren’t relevant to the tactical work of the moment.

On the flip side, I had the privilege of serving under some amazing leaders and mentors who taught me about the power of a truly empowered organization. In these organizations, “I trust your judgment” is far more than an aphorism and abdication of responsibility for a decision – it’s an endorsement of experts’ views on critical subjects and a promise that the leader will not only defer to them but also actively champion them. Radical empowerment creates better outcomes because it forces everyone in the organization to develop thoughtful, rigorous positions, knowing that they carry weight and will not be easily cast aside.

How do you work to be a mentor yourself to younger counterparts?

I think the most important part about being a mentor is making it clear that you’re available and that mentorship is not a burden. As I mentioned earlier, it’s very easy for a junior colleague to think that asking for advice or mentorship is bothersome. Doing things like setting a regular cadence for mentorship and occasionally checking in on our professional protegees helps to break that perception.

Another key part of my approach as a mentor – one that I’m not always as successful with as I’d like to be – is that mentors should be thought partners, not solution providers. Unless there’s a serious ethical, legal, or regulatory risk involved, I try to help my proteges analyze all dimensions of potential decisions and then support them whether or not their decision is the one I would have made myself.

What does it mean to be successful in your career field?

I’ve long believed that cybersecurity is a whole-of-society issue. Success in cybersecurity doesn’t just mean helping provide cybersecurity solutions to the government entities, although that’s certainly a key part of it. Success in cybersecurity means understanding the kind of tactics our adversaries use to surveil and disrupt the services that underpin day-to-day life in America – Volt Typhoon’s intrusions into critical infrastructure and Salt Typhoon’s intrusions into telecoms come to mind. It is our duty to convince the government, corporations, and individual citizens to adopt the disruptive technologies necessary to counter these threats. This change isn’t always easy, but, in my view, it’s necessary.

What are some of the under-appreciated positions in the defense field, the unsung heroes or essential cogs in the machine that help the job get done with less recognition?

A lot of credit is given to the operators who make things happen and even the collectors and analysts who feed those operations. The support folks who keep systems running and implement the guidance to protect against the threats that analysts warn us about are the unsung heroes of our defense and security apparatus. It’s very easy to complain when things go down, but especially as technology becomes more complex and the threats to our systems become more advanced, keeping those systems secure and operational is a much harder and more complicated job than most people may realize.

How can the industry improve in promoting these individuals and building them up?

We’ve already begun to elevate technology leaders like CIOs and CISOs in government, but we can do a lot more for our working-level colleagues who keep these systems running all day. Many defense and security organizations have a tendency to clamor for urgent action on mission critical systems, and Murphy’s Law ensures those systems often go down at inopportune times. It’s critical to provide the folks trying to fix those systems with grace and patience rather than pressuring them for every millisecond of uptime. Those folks are invisible 99.9% of the time when the systems are working, and a slight hiccup in connectivity or functionality, no matter how badly timed it may be, usually doesn’t mean they’ve done anything wrong!

How has the culture changed around diversity within your career?

I’m very glad to see that the culture has changed to allow for a lot more diversity of opinion. What used to be a rather rigid, top-down culture now allows for more voices of dissent and constructive conversation around the best course of action – whether that’s within an individual branch or at the interagency level. This level of collaboration is critical not only for best outcomes but also to keep an increasingly vocal Gen Z engaged and attract its top talent to public service.

What is your advice for new entrants to the defense/military community?

Own your career. Almost all the defense and security agencies in government are an embarrassment of riches when it comes to roles, responsibilities, and missions that an employee can pursue. It’s easy to be overwhelmed by these choices, but developing a personal brand and long-term goals early in your career can help you navigate your options and take advantage of all the adventures and pivots the defense and security sector offers.

What do you see as the future of your sector in national defense?

As information advantage continues to emerge as the predominant strategic advantage of the 21st century, I believe that cybersecurity and cyber operations will remain a critical part of national defense at all levels of government. As an industry, it’s critical that we keep innovating and finding new approaches to address emergent threats. Cybersecurity is fundamentally an asymmetrical discipline where using similar tactics on both sides will too often result in success for the attacker. Trying to spot all potential malicious activity in an environment where the volume of data is increasing exponential will become an unmanageable task. As such, developing and implementing deterministic preventative cybersecurity technologies – technologies designed to prevent attackers from pushing data or code onto critical infrastructure systems in the first place – is key to maintaining America’s edge in the cyber domain.

Who are the Force Multipliers in your community? Let us know at [email protected].

Defense Watch: FMD + Hyundai, SecNav To Sea, Polar Star Refresh

FMD + Hyundai. Fairbanks Morse Defense (FMD) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with South Korea’s HD Hyundai Heavy Industries this month to explore opportunities to collaborate of future international Navy initiatives. The MoU signing occurred during the annual Sea-Air-Space expo on April 8. Given both the Navy and the Trump White House are pushing measures to improve domestic shipbuilding and connect international companies with domestic U.S. work, “This MoU allows both our companies to explore avenues that drive mutual growth while still supporting our national manufacturing and maritime defense priorities,” FMD CEO George Whittier said in a statement.

SecNav To New Carriers.

Newly minted Secretary of the Navy John Phelan recently visited both the USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) and the future USS John F. Kennedy (CVN-79). Phelan embarked on CVN-78 to observe Carrier Strike Group 12’s Composite Training Unit Exercise (COMPTUEX) from April 10-11, his first visit on an operational CSG since being confirmed. On April 16 Phelan then visited the second Ford-class carrier, CVN-79, at HII’s Newport News Shipbuilding shipyard in Virginia. The second visit included an overview of ship construction and an engagement with the ship’s crew.

Navy UnderSec. Secretary of the Navy John Phelan on April 15 announced he tapped civil servant Brett Seidle to perform the duties of under secretary, replacing the retiring Victor Minella in that role. Seidle currently serves as the acting Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition (ASN-RDA). Minella has served in various positions at the Navy since 1987 and has performed the duties of acting under secretary since Jan. 22. In February President Trump nominated former Navy captain and Virginia senate candidate Hung Cao to serve as under secretary, but it is unclear when the Senate will vote on his confirmation.

T-ATS 12. Shipbuilder Austal USA and the Navy marked the start of construction with a keel laying ceremony for the future USNS Solomon Atkinson (T-ATS 12) Navajo-class towing, salvage and rescue ship on April 16. T-ATS 12 will be the seventh ship in its class and the second of five construction contracts awarded to Austal for the T-ATS vessels. The company is building the ships at its Mobile, Ala., shipyard.

SSBN-826 Propeller. The Navy this month announced the Navy’s Naval Foundry and Propeller Center (NFPC) delivered the final major propulsor component for the future USS District of Columbia (SSBN 826) to General Dynamics-Electric Boat on April 8. SSBN-826 is the under-construction first Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine. Electric Boat accepted the component in Philadelphia, Pa., and brought it to their Groton, Conn., shipyard on April 10. NFPC has been working on the propulsor patterns, models and castings for years before the boat started construction in 2022. The Navy argued this work has pushed engineering innovation to “new heights, resulting in multiple record-breaking pours for nonferrous castings in the U.S. The largest casting was over 260,000 pounds and is already at Electric Boat for installation. NFPC has produced four components for SSBN-826, which will be transported to Groton, where Electric Boat is responsible for final assembly of all of the Columbia-class submarines.

Medium Icebreaker News. The Coast Guard earlier this month asked for information on the Arctic Security Cutter (ASC) to bolster its awareness of the domestic and international maritime industrial bases that have “existing icebreaking capable vessel designs that are ready for construction or already in production.” The April 11 Request for Information for the ASC, which would be a medium polar icebreaker to complement the Coast Guard’s heavy Polar Security Cutter (PSC), suggests the Coast Guard would like the vessel in relatively short order, “within THIRTY-SIX (36) months of a contract award date.” Bollinger Shipyards recently received a nearly $1 billion contract modification to complete design and construction of the first PSC, which will be delivered in 2030, six years later than originally planned.

…Parameters. The RFI said preliminary ASC capability parameters include a length of 360-feet or less, a beam of 78-feet or less, and a draft of 23-feet or less. The Coast Guard wants a vessel with a 6,500 nautical mile range at 12 knots and 60 days of endurance, the capability to break ice three-feet thick at three knots, and a flight deck and hangar to accommodate one HH-60 helicopter. And given the dearth of polar icebreaking know-how among U.S. shipyards, the service said it wants to learn about “the current capability and availability of global shipyards that could support the construction and subsequent launch of an existing icebreaking capable design” in three years. Responses are due by April 25. The Coast Guard has said it wants a mix of eight or nine medium and heavy polar icebreakers.

…Polar Star Refresh. The Polar Star, the Coast Guard’s sole operating heavy polar icebreaker, on March 30 arrived at Mare Island Dry Dock in California to begin the fifth of five planned phases of its service life extension program (SLEP), the service said last week. The final phase of the SLEP will have the refurbishment of heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems in two remaining zones, recapitalization of the gyro repeater to update to modern standards for safe navigation, and replacement of main propulsion and auxiliary systems with modern units. Sewage pumps and tank level indictors will also be recapitalized. The nearly 50-year-old cutter recently completed its annual mission to Antarctica to break ice so resupply vessels could reach a scientific station. The goal of the SLEP program has been to keep the Polar Star operational until the PSC fleet comes on line.

New Space Plant. Safran Defense & Space, Inc. this month opened a new 28,000 square foot facility in Parker, Colo., near Denver to serve as a hub for manufacturing the EPS X00 space electric propulsion systems for Defense Department and commercial customers. Shipments will begin in 2026. The plant will also be a hub of expertise for satellite communications, and space and ground domain awareness. Safran operates an antenna network for its WeTrack space surveillance service.

XR for Maintenance. Gecko Robotics and L3Harris Technologies have partnered to bring an extended reality (XR) technology for remote aircraft inspection for military and industry customers. Pittsburgh-based Gecko’s XR capability captures thousands of high-definition images of an aircraft’s surface to create a precise 3D model of the plane’s physical characteristics, providing a “digital twin” of the structure. The model allows inspectors to remotely assess a plane’s health without sending a full crew for an onsite inspection, saving costs. The companies have been doing prototype testing with the technology for the past year.

GA-ASI Tech Investments. General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) last week said it is investing in two Dutch companies, Emergent Swarm Solutions and Saluqi Motors. The investments grew out of the inaugural Blue Magic Netherlands event last November that was hosted by the San Diego-based company and Dutch government near Eindhoven to foster innovation in the Netherlands industrial ecosystem. Emergent is developing software for autonomous flight and intelligent swarming of unmanned systems. GA-ASI said its partnership with Emergent will develop autonomy skills for its own drones. Saluqi makes high-density, high-performance motors that GA-ASI will help qualify for aerospace applications.

Bones in Japan. U.S. Air Force B-1Bs from the 9th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron at Dyess AFB, Texas have deployed to Misawa Air Base Japan as part of a Bomber Task Force mission in support of Pacific Air Forces’ (PACAF) training with allies to bolster deterrence, PACAF said. “These deployments continue the enduring security cooperation with Japan and support our combined capability to quickly and decisively respond to any challenge presented in the Indo-Pacific,” according to PACAF.

Reaper Crash Report. Air Combat Command at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Va., has released an Abbreviated Accident Investigation Board (AAIB) report on the Nov. 29, 2023 crash of an MQ-9 Reaper deployed with Air Force Special Operations Command’s 12th Expeditionary Special Operations Squadron in the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) area of responsibility. The drone, made by General Atomics and operated by the 432nd Wing at Creech AFB, Nev., lost fuel flow to the engine and hit the ground 44 seconds after takeoff—a crash with an AAIB estimated loss of more than $21 million for the drone and its equipment. The cause “was an undetermined mechanical failure within the fuel control unit,” the report said. General Atomics “considered six potential causes, eliminating four, but was unable to determine a single root cause between a possible P3 line or torque motor failure,” according to the AAIB. The Air Force Judge Advocate General has issued eight MQ-9A accident reports—four in the AFRICOM AOR–since the start of 2023.

Two Percent Pass. Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.) on Thursday introduced H.R. 2924, a bill to allow Secretary of State Marco Rubio to discontinue visas for “foreign nationals” in NATO countries that do not spend at least two percent of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on defense. 23 of 32 NATO countries have met that benchmark, which NATO set in 2014. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said in February that NATO’s current burden sharing goal for member nations to spend two percent of GDP on defense is “a start, as President Trump has said, but it’s not enough,” adding that the U.S.’ current mark of around 3.4 percent of GDP is a “very robust investment.” Trump and congressional Republicans are backing a NATO burden sharing increase to five percent of GDP. Countries not hitting the current two percent minimum include Canada, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg, Croatia, and Slovenia. Iceland has no standing military but helps fund NATO and has a 1951 agreement with the U.S. for the country’s defense.

Army Cloud. Oracle has been selected to provide cloud computing and storage services for the Army’s Enterprise Cloud Management Agency (ECMA), the company said on April 15. The award was made as a task order under the Pentagon’s potential $9 billion Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability (JWCC) contract. “Building on the DoD’s largest competitive JWCC award in 2024, this new task order will help advance the ECMA’s mission to deliver and manage a secure, multi-cloud ecosystem in support of the Army Digital Transformation Strategy. In addition, by expanding ECMA’s catalog of cloud capabilities, the new task order will enable Army customers to further innovate across all operational domains,” Oracle said in a statement.

Launched Effects. The total contract award value for the three vendors selected to participate in the Army’s Launched Effects-Short Range (LE-SR) special user demonstration is approximately $26.8 million, a spokesperson for Program Executive Office Aviation confirmed to Defense Daily. The spokesperson noted that individual vendor funding “has not been allocated yet.” The Army in March selected AEVEX Aerospace’s Atlas, Anduril Industries’ Altius 600 and RTX’s Coyote for the LE-SR special user demo, which is intended to inform future prototyping and procurement plans. “The period of performance for this special user demo is 18 months, which includes a New Equipment Training (NET), an Operational NET and a culminating event,” the spokesperson said. Launched Effects is the Army’s program to field new autonomous air vehicles that can be launched from aircraft or ground platforms with a variety of payloads and mission system applications to provide a range of effects for reconnaissance, extended communications links and eventually lethal capabilities.

Burn n’ Go. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in May plans to host a Proposers Day for a new program it calls Burn n’ Go (BnG) to develop a new solid rocket motor design where the thrust profile can be tailored after manufacturing to allow a single motor to be used across different weapon systems. DARPA also said that BnG will provide “new capabilities and applications, enabling flexible weapons procurement and large-scale production/stockpiling.” The agency said the program “will leverage materials science innovations that control the burn surface area post-production” and provide other benefits. In additional to materials science-based solutions that have shown promise, DARPA is open to other approaches for BnG, it said last week in a notice on Sam.gov. The Proposers Day is slated for May 8 in Arlington, Va.

USAF May Fund Integration of JMPS with MH-139 Flight Management System

The U.S. Air Force may fund the integration of its Joint Mission Planning System (JMPS) with the Honeywell [HON] Primus Epic Phase 7 Flight Management System carried on the Boeing [BA]/Leonardo MH-139A Grey Wolf helicopter, which is to replace the Bell [TXT] UH-1N Hueys in support of the ICBM missile fields and in contingency transport of government leaders in the Washington, D.C., area.

On Wednesday, the MH-139A program office in the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center’s Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance & Special Operations Forces directorate said that it is “conducting market research to identify possible sources capable of integrating the USG [U.S. government] owned Joint Mission Planning System with current on-board commercial flight system of the aircraft.”

“Any proposed solution must allow the Joint Mission Planning System and Honeywell Primus Epic Phase 7 Flight Management System to exchange data in order to allow the aircraft to accept, display, and map flight mission data,” the Wednesday Request for Information (RFI) said. “Technical support is expected during the initial implementation and testing of the system. Subject matter expert support is expected for an extended period of time after initial implementation and testing.”

The Air Force has said that it began moving all its aircraft to JMPS in 2008. JMPS started as a congressionally directed effort two decades ago.

The combined JMPS/Primus Epic Phase 7 system is to load a minimum of 40 flight plans with a maximum of 100 waypoints; a single flight route with a maximum of 100 waypoints; and a custom data base with a minimum of 750 waypoints, the RFI said. In addition, the system is to allow the automation of waypoint files and flight plans; provide geodetic coordinate entry for flight planning; load and download mission data from the flight management system; and use Air Force weather data and notice to airmen.

In January, the MH-139A began initial operational test and evaluation (IOT&E) at Malmstrom AFB, Mont. (Defense Daily, Feb. 18).

Last year’s Pentagon directorate of operational test and evaluation (DOT&E) annual report, completed before the start of MH-139A IOT&E, said that the MH-139A program “needs to address several challenges for the MH-139A to be operationally suitable. DOT&E noted concerns, including that engine ingestion of dust and debris may cause long-term maintenance issues if not resolved.”

“This is in addition to previously reported concerns about engine maintenance caused by expansion of the aircraft flight envelope and higher power requirements,” the study said. “Moreover, carbon buildup has been identified in several parts of the aircraft’s engine including the engine fuel nozzles.”

The 908th Flying Training Unit at Maxwell AFB, Ala., is to become the formal training unit for the MH-139A.

Last April, an Air Force fiscal 2025 budget hearing before the House Appropriations Committee’s defense panel revealed that the MH-139A, like the next generation Northrop Grumman [NOC] LGM-35A Sentinel ICBM, had breached Nunn-McCurdy defense program cost provisions, first enacted in the fiscal 1983 defense authorization act (Defense Daily, May 1). Law requires DoD to notify Congress of unit cost overruns of 15 percent and above in major defense acquisition programs.

The Grey Wolf’s Nunn-McCurdy breach followed a decision in the Air Force’s fiscal 2025 budget to reduce the planned buy of 80 MH-139As–six development and 74 production aircraft–to 42.

DIU Seeks Demonstrable Long-Range High-Capacity Payload UUVs

The Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) on Thursday launched a new Commercial Solutions Opening (CSO) initiative to find more uncrewed vessels that can demonstrably hold high-capacity payloads for extended ranges for the Navy.

This project, dubbed the Combat Autonomous Maritime Platform (CAMP), is dedicated to former U.S. Pacific Fleet Director of Warfare Systems Richard Camp.

Defense Innovation Unit logo

DIU argued CAMP is necessary because to maximize operational effectiveness, the military requires more capabilities to send large payloads across long distances but “current UUV capabilities present limitations in range and payload capacity, hindering the effective deployment of critical resources in certain operational scenarios.”

The solicitation specifically seeks commercially available and demonstration-ready uncrewed systems that address these kinds of limitations to find a scalable and cost-effective solution for the long-range payload deployment mission.

DIU said it desires CAMP candidates should cover mission sets like emplacement of various sized loads; bathymetric surveys and mapping; intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; communications across the air/water interface; and ability to operate in a GPS-denied environment.

The candidate CAMP platforms should also include at least some of several capabilities: range over 1,000 nautical miles; capable of performing deeper than 200 meters underwater; have a modular payload capacity with the ability to drop payloads to the seafloor; autonomous navigation, guidance, obstacle/collision avoidance with remote operation; capability for RF communications and capability or demonstration of pathway for undersea communications; modularity for switching payloads and mission sets; and hardware and software architecture with open interfaces that can integrate with third party payloads.

DIU wants the seafloor payload sizes to be at least include five feet long and 19 inches diameter as well as 21 feet long and 21 inches in diameter.

Notably, DIU wants the candidates to be transportable, deployable and recoverable with commonly available commercial freight and transportation equipment or demonstrate a path to that – which would mean these systems would not have to be based only on Navy warships.

DIU said while it does not expect interested companies to be able to meet all specifications, it encouraged those with demonstrable capability applicable to at least one of the attributes to apply regardless. It also said that while they will accept partial solutions from vendors, they encourage those that cannot propose complete solutions to team up.

After this initial phase, DIU expects the CSO to move to a Phase 2, wherein the government plans to observe a live in-person and in-water demonstration of the solutions.

Phase 2 is expected to start about four weeks after the closing date of this initial area of interest solicitation.

Army Seeks Industry’s Info On Production-Ready ‘Purpose-Built Attritable Systems’

The Army is seeking industry’s information on potential offerings for “Purpose-Built Attritable Systems (PBAS),” detailing an interest in small, first person view (FPV) drones that are “production-ready.”

A new Sources Sought notice states the Army may invite industry for a follow-on PBAS demonstration to showcase solutions that are commercially available, reusable and that have “unretrievable components,” to include uncrewed aircraft platforms and payloads.

Red Cat’s Black Widow sUAS. Photo: Red Cat.

“FPV-enabled [small UAS] provide the maneuver force a low cost solution with increased maneuverability, precise lethal payload delivery and operator concealability,” the Army writes in the notice.

Potential PBAS solutions should be designed with baseline mission characteristics for “rapid reconfigurability and modular payload capabilities that allow for mission changes across target acquisition tasks, with the added flexibility to execute kinetic operations as needed,” according to the notice.

“The system’s mission characteristics include a field-level reconfigurable, modular payload capability to execute the primary mission of reconnaissance, surveillance and target acquisition, secondary mission of communications relay and [an] enhanced mission set of lethal payload delivery and electronic support,” according to the notice.

The Army notes that information collected in response to the new notice “may be used to fulfill future procurement requirements.”