Page 36 – Defense Daily

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.”

Shaheen Seeks Info From DoD On Tariffs Impact, Potential For Rising Acquisition Costs

A senior member of the Senate Armed Services and Appropriations Committees has raised concerns that the Trump administration’s widespread tariffs policy will lead to a spike in defense acquisition costs and negatively impact the industrial base.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), who is also the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, sent a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday seeking details on how the Pentagon is factoring in the costs of Trump’s “trade war,” which she said is “harming DoD’s purchasing power, weakening supply chains and raising costs on small businesses.”

General Dynamics-NASSCO employee Dennis DuBard, the Start of Construction honoree, initiated the first cut of steel that will be used to construct the future USS Robert E. Simanek (ESB-7) Lewis B. Puller-class expeditionary sea base ship on December 1, 2021. (Photo: General Dynamics)

“In the short term, the announced tariffs alone will increase costs for U.S. defense industrial supply chain companies. [Defense industrial base] companies and their suppliers may be forced to absorb those costs which could drive more companies and jobs out of the defense industrial supply chain, stifling innovation. In the long term, tariffs will drive up DoD’s contracting and procurement costs, limit DoD buying power and ultimately harm the warfighter and our military readiness,” Shaheen wrote.

The Trump administration is currently imposing a “blanket” 10 percent tariff on all imports, a 25 percent tariff on steel and aluminum imports and a 145 percent tariff on all imports from China. The White House also previously announced a slate of larger “reciprocal” tariffs, and then placed a 90-pause day on that policy for all countries except China.

Acting Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development, and Acquisition Brett Seidle told the Senate Armed Services Committee last month the steel and aluminum tariffs could increase shipbuilding costs, noting that “about half of our aluminum and a third of our steel in [2023] came from Canada” (Defense Daily, March 27).

Shaheen, in her letter to Hegseth, also raises concern about DoD’s ability to “secure its own supply chains and fully assess how much of its industrial base is foreign-sourced” amid the tariffs agenda.

“The average American aerospace company relies on roughly 200 first tier suppliers. The second and third tiers have more than 12,000 companies. With the globalization of supply chains, these suppliers and their goods come from a wide array of places,” Shaheen said.

Along with “pressing budgetary pressures” the Pentagon may face in the coming years, Shaheen adds that the added impact of tariffs “have the potential to balloon the budget far beyond [the Congressional Budget Office’s expected increases.”

Shaheen has asked Hegseth to respond with specific information on the expected tariffs impact, to include listing “critical imported supplies” that are now subject to new tariffs, the expected “monetary impact” on DoD contracts, how the Pentagon is factoring in increased costs into fixed-price contracts and how DoD’s purchasing power could be affected.

The letter also asked Hegseth to provide clarity on whether industry can use Chapter 98 of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule to purchase certain critical materials without the imposed duties.

“Providing clarity on this front would help businesses throughout the defense supply chain,” Shaheen said.

Shield AI Touts V-BAT Sorties In Ukraine

The V-BAT unmanned aircraft system (UAS) has conducted more than 130 sorties in Ukraine, including training and operations in contested environments in the country’s war against Russian invaders, drone manufacturer Shield AI said on Thursday.

Early this year, Shield AI said it had opened an office in Kyiv to train Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces (USF) on operating V-BAT (Defense Daily, Jan. 25). The company’s team includes engineers, mission operations personnel, and technical specialists. Shield yesterday said it has also hired Ukrainian military veterans to support its work in Ukraine and this month will bring them to Texas for advanced training.

Citing the USF, Shield AI said operating V-BAT without GPS or communications and provide precision targeting “has provided a decisive advantage over other UAVs in the region.”

V-BAT, a Group 3 UAS that takes off and lands vertically and also flies horizontally, in 2024 began conducting operations in Ukraine with Shield’s Hivemind autonomous pilot software, demonstrating success in challenging electronic warfare environments to find targets that Ukrainian forces could fire on (Defense Daily, Nov. 12, 2024).

“Shield AI’s operational presence and focus on real-world problems have allowed us to build systems that perform where it matters most,” James Lythgoe, the company’s Ukraine managing director and a former British Royals Marine, said in a statement. “V-BAT, powered by our Hivemind autonomy stack, remains the only long-endurance ISR and strike platform to penetrate both Ukrainian and Russian GPS and comms jammers.”

Space Force Outlines Elements Of Space Warfighting In First Framework

The Space Force on Thursday released its first-ever Space Warfighting framework, outlining the activities and considerations to fight in, and out of, space to achieve superiority in the domain.

The framework flows from the appreciation that the military space operations are foundational to joint force operations, enabling global communications, power projection, and long-range kill chains.

“Space superiority is not only a necessary precondition for Joint Force success but also something for which we must be prepared to fight,” the Space Force says in the foreword to the framework. “Gained and maintained, it unlocks superiority in other domains, fuels Coalition lethality, and fortifies troop survivability. It is therefore the basis from which the Joint Force projects power, deters aggression, and secures the homeland.”

Space control is the enabler of space superiority, the 22-page framework says. Space control consists of the activities to “contest and control the space domain,” namely counterspace operations, which includes offensive and defensive actions, it says.

There are three activities that make up offensive operations: orbital strike, space link interdiction, and terrestrial strike. Orbital strike refers to destroying, disrupting or degrading and adversary’s space platforms using kinetic or non-kinetic means.

Non-kinetic means, such as cyber or electromagnetic attacks, would be used to interdict space links. Terrestrial strikes, also carried out using kinetic or non-kinetic means, can be done by any of the military services and could entail attacking enemy launch sites, other terrestrial infrastructure such as command and control nodes and mission centers, and space systems.

Defensive actions are divided into active and passive space defenses. Active defense includes escort operations, which could be using space capabilities to protect friendly space assets.
Active space defense also includes counterattack against an adversary’s orbital, terrestrial, and space link systems, and suppression of adversary counterspace targeting by denying the “adversary’s ability to collect or disseminate weapons-quality targeting data during an orbital engagement,” the framework says.

Passive space defense consists of seven operations that comprise threat warning, military deception, hardening, dispersal, disaggregation, mobility, and redundancy. These operations are aimed at achieving specific space superiority effects such as rapid communication of “indications of enemy space or space-enabled attacks, or frequently moving space and related assets to reduce vulnerability and increase survivability.

“Space Warfighting offers the counterspace framework necessary to execute the tenets of Competitive Endurance, the USSF’s theory of success to achieve U.S. space superiority while safeguarding the safety, security, stability, and long-term sustainability of the space domain,” the framework says. “The ideas in Space Warfighting should shape Guardians’ planning and activities to avoid operational surprise, deny first-mover advantage, and undertake responsible counterspace campaigning.”

STRATCOM Looking Into Strategic Impacts of Golden Dome, Commander Says

U.S. Strategic Command is looking into potential impacts of President Trump’s Golden Dome missile defense to the nation’s nuclear deterrence, the commander said in a fiscal 2026 Strategic Forces Posture hearing April 9.

“We’re looking at some of the things that came from the SDI [Strategic Defense Initiative] initiatives, some of the talking points, some of the op eds… just to kind of capture what that looks like, and we’re still in the middle of doing that,” Strategic Command (STRATCOM) Commander Air Force Gen. Anthony Cotton said at the House Armed Services Strategic Forces subcommittee hearing.

The Strategic Defense Initiative, nicknamed the “Star Wars” initiative, was a proposed missile defense system that then-President Ronald Reagan announced in 1983. While the Star Wars initiative was never realized, it envisioned a space-based missile defense system most similar to Trump’s Golden Dome that he announced originally as the “Iron Dome for America” in a

January executive order.

“You spend all day thinking about maintaining nuclear deterrence and strategic stability around the world,” Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.), ranking member of the Strategic Forces subcommittee, said to Cotton. He then asked Cotton if he and STRATCOM were involved in thinking through potential impacts “a Golden Dome could have on the strategic stability that is increasingly precarious because of Russia and China’s novel delivery systems.”

Cotton, who will retire in the coming months, responded that “at this time, STRATCOM is actually looking” at some of those impacts.

The Golden Dome, which the executive order states is intended to defend against hypersonic, cruise and nuclear-armed ballistic missile threats and a “countervalue attack by nuclear adversaries,” has gotten a mixed response. In a March hearing with Cotton held by the Senate Armed Services Strategic Forces subcommittee, Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) said his “concern” was that in building such a defense system, “our adversaries’ response to having a missile defense system could be to build more nuclear weapons. And, if one or two get through, that is too many.”

The Washington-based think tank the Arms Control Association (ACA), agreeing with Kelly, called the Golden Dome “misguided” with “enormous opportunity costs.”

“The fundamental problem with any plan for a national missile defense system against strategic nuclear attack is that cost-exchange ratios favor the offense and U.S. adversaries can always choose to build up or diversify their strategic forces to overwhelm a potential shield,” ACA said in a March 25 article. “The fantasy of a missile shield runs against a core rule of strategic competition: the enemy always gets a vote.”

Meanwhile, Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told sister publication The Exchange Monitor in early April that “these are the same arguments that have been made for decades and I reject that,” in response to arguments against the Dome.

“We need to protect the homeland from as many dangers as are out there,” Wicker said. “The concept of an Iron Dome for America is actually even more vital given the space capabilities of our adversaries are quickly developing.”

Leidos Pitches New Low-Cost Attritable UUV

Leidos [LDOS] last week pitched a new Sea Dart small, attritable low-cost uncrewed undersea vessel (UUV) as an alternative to more expensive systems during the annual 2025 Sea-Air-Space expo.

“Sea Dart is the next step in the progressive evolution of our UUV product line, introducing a new, low-cost commercial UUV to the market. It offers the flexibility to fully customize customer payloads while staying true to our core commitment to keeping production costs significantly lower than other models,” Dave Lewis, senior vice president of Sea Systems for Leidos, said in a statement.

The new one or two-person transportable UUV comes in two standard diameters: six and nine inches. The company noted it is capable of performing either environmental, scientific or research missions focused on low cost platforms or the Navy with a platform compatible with the Navy’s preferred underwater vehicle software architecture and new non-propogating UUV battery design. Leidos is also considering producing a 12.75-inch diameter variant.

The range will be user-selectable, dependent on payload, but the company is looking at about 19 hours range with maximum battery storage combined with low speed. If the client prefers a higher end motor to go over 12 knots, that lowers the endurance.

The company developed the Sea Dart with internal research and development funding.

One of the reasons Leidos is pushing the Sea Dart is to “change the conversation, and instead of continuing on a ramp of more exquisite capability in some of these vehicles, we wanted to move into a place that we allowed a UUV for the masses, if you will,” Jason Weed, Undersea Subject Matter Expert at Leidos’ Maritime Systems Division, told Defense Daily in an interview last week.

Weed added the company’s goal is for the vehicle to be attritable, but with user-selected payloads so it can act like a smart torpedo or aid in counter-mine, underwater survey, undersea infrastructure sensing and other missions for military or civilian clients.

He said Leidos is pricing out the Sea Dart to be in the “very, very low hundreds of thousands – I could say very comfortably about $200,000 for one of our units.”

The company billed this as 80 to 90 percent lower than similar small UUVs on the market with similar capabilities, making their strength being able to provide the Navy with large numbers in the near term.

“We can kind of get scale or bring other players in to the UUV field that otherwise couldn’t because the $2 million to $4 million price tag for some of these very exquisite vehicles,- we’re 10x at least on the savings between those exquisite vehicles where it has probably a lot of functionality that isn’t necessary for the specific use case that the customer is looking for,” Weed said.

He argued this translates into a $100 million order for small UUVs means at least over 200 Sea Darts with full payload integration compared to a notional competitors’ 50 UUVs that cost $1 million to $2 million each.

“That’s really what the differentiator is, is there are other folks out here in the market, but when you do a side by side comparison of what their capabilities are, they don’t match up and align for what we’re doing,” he added.

This comes amid several new entrants into the Navy UUV market as demand rises to produce new capabilities faster than traditional shipbuilding can deliver. During the expo, Anduril announced its new Copperhead family of UUVs that are meant to be launched from another unmanned vehicle, with a similar weaponized munition variant option (Defense Daily, April 7).

Weed said Leidos has integrated the capability to launch and recover Sea Dart from a submarine torpedo tube, but it can also be launched and recovered from the seafloor or surface ships

“The goal is to have an attritable vehicle. Obviously, we can recover it. We can build that functional functionality into the payloads. But also it’s limited use. It’s not designed to last 10 or 15 years, because that’s not the price point we’re at.”

He boasted that given the vehicle price point and design combined with its open software architecture, Leidos can replace obsolete components “on the fly” and continue to maintain it without a major complete redesign.

Weed said the company’s workflow analysis found they can produce about 180 to 200 UUVs per year with one work cell working one shift per work day. However, Weed emphasized they can flex to add work cells or more shifts if demand signal increases.

Medium displacement unmanned surface vessel Sea Hunter sails in formation during Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) 2022 on July 28. (Photo: U.S. Navy by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Aleksandr Freutel)

“ I would say very comfortably that we can probably build 200 units a year, as soon as the order would come in, we could move to that level. And we’re working very closely with our subcontractors to get those lead components that we would need as well,” Weed said.

He also confirmed Sea Dart is partially an outgrowth of DoD’s Replicator initiative but also his own kind of experience previously working at Navy Unmanned Undersea Vehicles Squadron One, now UUV Group One, where he saw no similar low-cost options that can scale into the hundreds for constant deployment in the Navy’s inventory.

“There wasn’t anything out there at a price point that was going to make sense for the Navy. And so through internal [research and development funding], they developed this vehicle, the Sea Dart.

Weed said Leidos has already integrated the payload of one customer they would not disclose, with an in-water test in recent weeks. He said within a month of getting the payload, Leidos tested and integrated it with the Sea Dart.

He confirmed the company has had active government interest in Sea Dart and international interest, referencing the expo opportunity to showcase.

Other unmanned offerings from Leidos include its Sea Archer small unmanned surface vessel (USV) and for Navy-tested medium USVs, the Sea Hunter, Sea Hawk, Ranger and Mariner.