Page 43 – Defense Daily

NAVAIR Head Warns First MQ-25 Flight This Year Still Requires “A Ton Of Work”

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. – The commander of Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) this week warned a lot of work is still required with the new MQ-25 Stingray unmanned carrier-based tanker aircraft in order to conduct a first test flight as planned this year.

“There’s a lot of confidence in MQ-25 in ‘25. There is a ton of work to get MQ-25 in ‘25…There’s a lot of work right now. A lot of tough discussions are going to have to happen over the next couple months for us to fly that thing in 2025,” Vice Adm. Carl Chebi said here Tuesday during a panel discussion at the annual 2025 Sea-Air-Space expo.

He underscored that these tough discussions will be if they can identify the barriers to the test flight and raise them to the appropriate level to remove them and change the timeline when need be.

“With tough discussions where we identify the barriers and raise those to the appropriate levels, and we can remove those barriers or make the tough decisions. Is that truly a requirement? Do I need to do that test before I field it or can I do it later? Those discussions must occur.”

Chebi thinks those kinds of decisions are currently “happening at too low a level, and we have too many folks saying no who don’t have the authority to say yes.”

The commander of NAVAIR said once they get past those issues, the necessary integration of MQ-25 into the force will become the “pathway for unmanned systems into the air wing.”

The MQ-25 is meant to replace the current F/A-18E/F Super Hornets that are dedicated to tanking duties, which will then be freed up for striking and training missions.

Chebi said the Stingray will ultimately lead to future capabilities to complement the F/A-XX as a sixth-generation fighter “with things like collaborative combat aircraft and other large unmanned systems that we’ll see out into the 2040s.”

Dan Gillian, Boeing [BA] vice president and general manager for air dominance and senior site executive promised MQ-25 will fly in 2025 “because the airplane’s telling us it’s ready to go fly, and airplanes will tell you when they’re ready to go fly. And this one is certainly ready to do that.”

He admitted the MQ-25 has had challenges up to now.

“We’ve learned a lot about how to build a digital platform of that complexity from the ground up. Rolled that learning into MQ-25 and all the things we’re working on now.”

He confirmed the MQ-25 test flight is set to occur at the company’s facility at Mid-America St. Louis Airport in Illinois.

“We’re really excited about it, and the program is building momentum each and every day. And when we fly this airplane later this year, it will be the safest, best unmanned airplane that we’ve ever produced. And we’re really excited to get it to the boat next year and to get it fielded for you to do the work it needs to do straight away.

The MQ-25 Stingray test asset, T-1, conducts deck handling maneuvers on Dec. 12 while underway aboard USS George H.W. Bush (CVN-77), the first testing of the MQ-25 model at sea. (Photo: U.S. Navy) — The MQ-25 Stingray test asset, T-1, conducts deck handling maneuvers on Dec. 12, 2021 while underway aboard USS George H.W. Bush (CVN-77), the first testing of the MQ-25 model at sea. (Photo: U.S. Navy)

In January, commander of Naval Air Forces and Naval Air Force – U.S. Pacific Fleet, known as the Navy Air Boss, confirmed the MQ-25 is planned to test fly off a carrier next year (Defense Daily, Jan. 28).

The Navy plans to buy 76 Stingrays at a total cost of about $1.3 billion.

The Navy first awarded Boeing an $805 million engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) award in 2018 to design, develop, build, test and verify the first four MQ-25s (Defense Daily, Aug. 30, 2018).

The MQ-25 has been delayed several times, with a 2023 DoD Inspector General Office report noting the schedule was pushed back largely due to production maturity issues and more testing needed before moving to production (Defense Daily, Nov., 27, 2023)

Relatedly, Rear Adm. Michael Donnelly, director of the Air Warfare Division (N98) at the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations argued that he thinks the most complex part about adding the MQ-25 will not be its mission sets, but helping the Navy figure out how to integrate unmanned systems generally with manned systems in an aircraft carrier operating environment.

“So that’s going to be a lot of essential learning, and going to allow us then to proceed very rapidly in what we are working, albeit behind, in partnership with the Marines and with the Air Force, and what they will be demonstrating very shortly here with collaborative combat aircraft.”

Trump Issues Executive Order Aimed At Revamping Maritime Policy, Investments In Domestic Shipbuilding

President Trump on Wednesday signed a sweeping executive order aimed at vastly changing the government’s maritime policy and pushing for more investments in domestic shipbuilding.

The large, 24-section order is focused on having the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs (APNSA) deliver a “Maritime Action Plan” (MAP) to the president and director of the Office of Management and Budget within 210 days to achieve the order’s policies, with multiple contributions and reports from various department heads.

APNSA is directed to coordinate with the Secretaries of State, Defense, Commerce, Labor, Transportation, Homeland Security, the United States Trade Representative (USTR), and any other relevant agencies to revamp policies and determine new actions.

Among other provisions, within 180 days the Secretary of Defense is to provide an assessment of options for available authorities and private capital to invest to expand the maritime industrial base, including exploring how to use Defense Production Act Title II authorities. This provision also looks to find key components in the supply chain ripe for investment and seeks to submit a legislative proposal on a financial incentives program to incentivize private investment in the maritime industry.

The incentives program is geared towards incentivizing private investment in the domestic construction of commercial components, parts and vessels as well as capital improvements to shipyards through grants, loans and loan guarantees. This program will be informed by a Transportation Department report on maritime industry needs due within 90 days. This includes an inventory of federal programs that can be used to grow the maritime industry.

One of the sources of investment the White House is looking at is having the Commerce Department recommend ways to help incentivize foreign allied country shipbuilders to make capital shipbuilding investments in the U.S. This comes after several recent foreign investments in the maritime industry, like Korea’s Hanwha buying Philly Shipyard last year and a recent agreement between HII [HII] and HD Hyundai to work together for investments in the U.S.

The OMB Director and Secretary of Transportation were also directed to craft a legislative proposal to establish a “Maritime Security Trust Fund that can serve as a reliable funding source to deliver consistent support for MAP programs.”

The executive order also looks to expand maritime prosperity zones akin to similar zones created in his first term’s tax cut bill, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. This time it covers the Secretary of Commerce delivering a plan to establish these zones outside traditional coastal shipbuilding and repair centers.

A company graphic rendering of what the Austal USA new steel production facility and shiplift capabilities will look like once added to its Mobile, Ala. shipyard. This includes hosting a Constellation-class frigate on the shiplift section. (Image: Austal USA) — A February 2024 company graphic rendering of what the Austal USA new steel production facility and shiplift capabilities will look like once added to its Mobile, Ala. shipyard. This includes hosting a Constellation-class frigate on the shiplift section. (Image: Austal USA)

Last year, the Navy shepherded a new public-private partnership where the government worked with a private equity firm to buy the Alabama Shipyard site. The new owner is set to develop unused sections for maritime infrastructure, especially submarine production, as a federally-sponsored opportunity zone (Defense Daily, Sept. 20, 2024).

Turning to procurement, the order directs department heads to develop a proposal for “improved acquisition strategies processes for United States Government vessels and submit such proposal to APNSA and the OMB Director for inclusion in the MAP” within 90 days.

The White House specifically said the proposal should give American shipbuilders market forecasting needed to justify investments in infrastructure and workforce to meet U.S. demand, reforms related to staff structure and innovations in acquisition strategy to improve federal procurement and reduce approval layers, and identify excessive requirements to eliminate the numbers of government reviews and regulations that add to ship delays.

It also will look at using commercial acquisition and modular design practices to reduce complexity and frequent ship design changes, consider use of broader industry standards and domestically-made parts to drive up production volume “while shrinking the iterative design process, which historically had led to delays and cost increases.”

Moving on to workforce issues, the order directs the Secretaries of State, Defense, Labor, Transportation, Education and Homeland Security to deliver recommendations to address maritime workforce challenges, including the impact of potentially establishing new and expanding current merchant marine academies. That provision also directs the creation of a legislative proposal that would establish national maritime scholarships to send experts to learn abroad and bring foreign allied experts to teach at U.S. institutions.

Other provisions include developing a legislative proposal to increase the U.S.-flagged commercial ship fleet, including enhancing subsidies; developing a strategy for the goals and objectives to secure arctic waterways; directing the Transportation Secretary to finalize plans to modernize the Merchant Marine Academy campus; and have the Defense Secretary conduct a review on the funding, support and mobilization of a “robust” inactive reserve fleet.

Executive Order: Commercial Contracts, Other Transactions to Be DoD Default

While non-commercial Major Defense Acquisition Programs (MDAPs) will continue, a Wednesday executive order from President Donald Trump states that commercial contracts will be the default for DoD.

Within two months, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is to submit to the White House “a plan to reform the Department of Defense’s acquisition processes that, to the maximum extent possible” includes “utilization of existing authorities to expedite acquisitions throughout the Department of Defense, including a first preference for commercial solutions and a general preference for Other Transactions Authority [OTA], application of Rapid Capabilities Office policies, or any other authorities or pathways to promote streamlined acquisitions under the Adaptive Acquisition Framework,” according to the order.

Pictured is Stephen Feinberg during his Senate Armed Services Committee confirmation hearing on Feb. 25 (DoD Photo)

While commercial solutions do not fit MDAPs, the executive order’s focus on commercial contracts and OTAs as the Pentagon default “fits within their [Trump administration’s] preference,” said Jerry McGinn, the executive director of the Baroni Center for Government Contracting at George Mason University.

“We’re already largely going this way,” he said. “We’re already spending about 35 percent of RDT&E [research, development, test & evaluation] on OT contracts. That’s up from five years ago of zero–a pretty dramatic increase. We sort of have the prototyping thing down. We’ve been doing DIU [Defense Innovation Unit] and [U.S. Air Force] AFWERX for a number of years. The real challenge is transitioning to production and sustainment, and those aren’t really addressed in the [EO] effort.”

The Wednesday executive order also charges Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg “to complete a comprehensive review of the Joint Capabilities Integration and Development System [JCIDS] within 180 days…with the goal of streamlining and accelerating acquisition.”

The Pentagon created JCIDS in 2003 under then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. A June, 2022 study on JCIDS “found that the time required for “preparing and validating an Initial Capabilities Document followed by a Capabilities Development Document was an average of 852 days.”

The new Trump EO “focuses on the front end, on requirements, which I think is huge because the JCIDS is a disaster [in] getting things on contract fast, speed, OTs,” McGinn said.

But the big challenge in support for Ukraine or wargames focused on Taiwan, for example, “is production and sustainment,” he said. “We’ve only begun to scratch the surface on those challenges, particularly sustainment.”

Trump Signs Executive Order To Reform FMS Process, Speed Up Arms Sales

President Trump has signed an executive order (EO) aimed at reducing regulations in the foreign military sales (FMS) process in order to speed up delivery of key arms to international partners.

The EO directs a phased implementation effort for reforming the FMS process, to include tasking the Secretary of State and Defense Secretary to formulate a list within 60 days of priority partner nations and key weapons items for potential transfer to those countries.

President Donald Trump addresses the audience after the inaugural parade during the 60th Presidential Inauguration at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C., Jan. 20, 2025. (DoD photo by Staff Sgt. Danny Gonzalez)

“To serve the interests of the American people, the United States must maintain the world’s strongest and most technologically advanced military through a dynamic defense industrial base, coupled with a robust network of capable partners and allies. A rapid and transparent foreign defense sales system that enables effective defense cooperation between the United States and our chosen partners is foundational to these objectives,” the EO states.

The EO is the latest effort to take a stab at reforming the FMS process, with the U.S. approving tens of billions of dollars in potential arms sales annually, and a State Department official noted the new directive aims “to improve speed and accountability by taking action with industry to reduce delays, improve efficiency and enhance the ability of allies to get critical defense technologies faster.”

“I welcome President Trump’s efforts to overcome longstanding issues with the foreign military sales process, expand U.S. defense production capacity and provide weapons to our closest allies and partners faster. The current foreign military sales process has been broken for many years. It’s too hard to understand and is plagued by bureaucratic delays and lengthy requirements that leave our partners waiting for years. Additionally, the dismal state of the U.S. defense industrial base constrains our ability to fill orders that have been on the books for years, and very simply, keeps us from doing the level of business necessary to meet the needs and demands of our partners,” Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho), chair of the Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement.

The new plan specifically calls for cutting red tape “in the development, execution and monitoring of foreign defense sales and of transfer cases to ensure alignment with U.S. foreign policy objectives” and increasing “government-industry collaboration to achieve cost and schedule efficiencies in the execution of the FMS program.”

A bipartisan Congressional task force tasked with reviewing the FMS process during the Biden administration released recommendations for improvements last February, to include raising the thresholds for notification on arms sales and holding Defense and State Department officials more accountable for management of high-value cases (Defense Daily, Feb. 9 2024).

Under the new EO, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth are first tasked with implementing previously approved FMS reform directives, reevaluating “restrictions imposed by the Missile Technology Control Regime,” and submitting a joint letter to Congress proposing an update to the notification thresholds for arms sales.

Next, Rubio and Hegseth are instructed to formulate the list of priority partners and “end-items for potential transfer to those partners” within 60 days, which is then expected to be updated annually.

The EO is also intended to bolster the U.S.’ own industrial base, with reform efforts focused on “integrating exportability features in the design phase, improving financing options for partners and increasing contract flexibility overall.”

“This mutually reinforcing approach would enhance United States warfighting capabilities by fostering healthy American supply chains, domestic production levels and technological development,” the EO states.

Aerospace Industries Association President and CEO Eric Fanning praised the EO, citing FMS as an “essential tool” to support the domestic industrial base.

“With foreign military sales at historic levels, it’s clear the world wants that capability in even greater quantities. We are eager to partner with the Trump Administration to improve the FMS process. We look forward to updating a decades-old system to one that is transparent and efficient, responds to current global threats, and delivers jobs for the American people. The time for action is now,” Fanning said in a statement.

The subsequent phases of the implemental process call for Rubio and Hegseth, in consultation with the Secretary of Commerce, to submit a plan within 90 days for improving the transparency of the FMS process, to include developing metrics for accountability, and then offering a proposal within 120 days to “develop a single electronic system to track all [Direct Commercial Sale] export license requests and ongoing FMS efforts throughout the case life-cycle.”

Byron Callan, an analyst with Capital Alpha Partners, cited the development of a new tracking system as one of the “positive elements” from the new directive.

“The overall spirit is to increase U.S. defense exports, although eventual outcomes have to be weighed against trade and tariff actions and views on the reliability of the U.S. as a defense ally,” Callan said.

House Narrowly Passes Compromise Reconciliation Blueprint With $150 Billion For Defense

The House on Thursday narrowly passed an updated, compromise budget resolution that sets a blueprint for passing Trump administration priorities, and which includes plans to boost defense spending by $150 billion.

After the Senate crafted the revised framework and passed the measure last week, Congressional Republicans are now set to head into negotiations on a range of high-ticket items for the eventual reconciliation bill, to include potentially finding up to $1.5 trillion in spending cuts, finalizing details on raising the debt ceiling and extending the 2017 Trump tax cuts.

House Speaker Mike Johnson gives his remarks in honor of WWII Ghost Army veterans, formerly assigned to the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops and the 3133rd Signal Service Company, during a special ceremony at Emancipation Hall, U.S. Capitol Visitors Center in Washington, D.C., March 21, 2024. (U.S. Army photo by Henry Villarama)

“It’s a good day in the House. House Republicans passed the Senate amended budget resolution, allowing us to move forward with drafting the one big, beautiful bill. The American people are counting on us, and we will deliver,” Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) wrote in a social media post.

Thursday’s 216-214 vote to pass the budget resolution was largely along party lines, while two Republicans, Reps. Thomas (R-Ky.) and Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.), joining all Democrats in opposing the measure.

The House and Senate previously approved competing budget resolutions before the upper chamber unveiled a compromise version that takes a one-bill approach to boost defense and border security spending along with the tax and spending cut measures (Defense Daily, April 2).

The reconciliation process would allow the Senate, when the eventual bill gets there, to pass billions of dollars in budget-related Trump administration priorities without requiring the 60-vote threshold needed to break the filibuster, while the House will require a near-unified GOP caucus to support the measure facing likely unanimous Democratic opposition.

Along with the $150 billion for defense, which is an increase from the $100 billion in the House’s original blueprint, the newly-approved budget resolution includes $175 billion to support border security spending.

The budget resolution does not provide a specific breakdown of how the additional funds should be spent over the four years covered by the pending reconciliation bill, tasking committees to determine how the spending would be authorized.

Counter-C5ISR and Long Range Fires Top of Paparo’s List to Deter China

To deter China, long-range fires and counter command, control, communications, computers, cyber, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C5ISR) are top priorities for U.S. Navy Adm. Samuel Paparo, the head of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, he told the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) on Thursday.

“Counter-C5ISR in cyber, space, and counter space to ensure that the United States can see, understand, decide, act, assess, and learn faster than the PRC [People’s Republic of China] can [in order] to enhance our ability to blind, deceive, and destroy the adversary’s ability to see and sense,” Paparo said in response to a question from Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.). on what INDOPACOM does not have now that it will need. “Then, in addition, the requirement to effect those long range fires…that make the joint force effective in attacking centers of gravity; the platforms that they ride on; the sustainment of them; and the critical infrastructure across the theater that enables the force to reach the principles of expanded maneuver and puts geography on our side, which it is.”

The USS Fitzgerald (DDG 62) was the first destroyer to fire a Naval Strike Missile during the Pacific Rim exercise last July 18 (U.S. Navy Photo)

Last October, a Pentagon official said that the Rapid Defense Experimentation Reserve (RDER) this year would focus on solutions to meet INDOPACOM’s needs to see, blind, and “kill” the enemy–an effort to yield insights on gaps in U.S. situational awareness, counter-C5ISR, and targeting (Defense Daily, Oct. 29, 2024).

The stock of Navy long-range missiles and the number of ships for them are concerns for the Navy in INDOPACOM. Navy long-range missiles include the RTX [RTX] Tomahawk cruise missile, the Lockheed Martin [LMT] AGM-158C Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile, and the Kongsberg Naval Strike Missile. In addition, the future long-range stable may include the Hypersonic Air-Launched Offensive Anti-Surface weapon, which Lockheed Martin is developing.

The U.S. Air Force has said that it wants not only standoff weapons, but shorter-range missiles to sustain the pace of future conflict (Defense Daily, Feb. 26).

Maven Adoption Quadruples In Past Year

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.—Use of the Defense Department’s marquee artificial intelligence platform for finding targets of interest has quadrupled in the past year to about 20,000 users, the head of the agency that manages the program said on Wednesday.

The rapidly increasing use of the Maven Smart System by the military services, combatant commands, and other users is demonstrating the “popularity” of the platform and keeping the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) “busy,” Vice Adm. Frank Whitworth, NGA director, told Defense Daily

in an interview at the annual Space Symposium.

Busy means more support to warfighters, training, taking on new intelligence collection requests, and more.

NGA Maven applies AI and machine learning to imagery data, primarily satellite, to automatically provide users with potential targets on a single pane of glass, speeding the decision-making process for analysts and operators. Palantir Technologies [PLTR] is the prime contractor for Maven Smart System and the Defense Department’s Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office is responsible for the contracting and setting up licenses with users.

NGA’s focus is to “keep developing a better Maven,” Whitworth said.

Adding more users to the Maven platform will be dependent on budgets, he said.

Maven Smart System is a commercial system and user interface available for use by all combatant commands and the services. U.S. Special Operations Command uses a different interface to access Maven.

The time it takes the Maven platform to scan an image and highlight a detection has reduced 80 percent in the past year, Whitworth said. The challenge for NGA is that the amount of data the agency sifts through continues to increase, which threatens the improved latency unless the agency is given more compute resources, he said.

Whitworth has been “making the argument” for the past year for more compute resources, he said. He expressed confidence in DoD and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence that they will “do the right thing here, but compute is a big part of it.”

The computer vision technology used in Maven is able to make detections using a tiny fraction of a target’s image. Still, the technology can get better and there are times when confidence is unclear, Whitworth said.

NGA Maven is now running “three tests” on the platform with multi-modal AI models to increase the confidence of detections, Whitworth said. He declined to name the models but highlighted that the use of generative AI, which mines huge datasets to produce text, audio and other content, is encouraging.

While in the “nascent” phase, generative AI models are being applied to location data like latitudes and longitudes, and “coupled with computer vision that’s really complex…I’m seeing the promise of this,” he said.

Trump Administration Support for Nuclear Triad May Lead to Sentinel Reprieve

President Donald Trump’s Wednesday executive order, Modernizing Defense Acquisitions and Spurring Innovation in the Defense Industrial Base, speaks of cancellations of Major Defense Acquisition Programs (MDAPs) that are 15 percent over unit cost or 15 percent behind schedule, but the Northrop Grumman [NOC] LGM-35A Sentinel future ICBM may get a reprieve, as DoD re-baselined the program last year after a six-month Nunn-McCurdy review that led then-DoD acquisition chief William LaPlante to certify that the program was essential to strategic deterrence and that there were no cheaper alternatives to meet the joint requirements.

DoD officials, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, have supported the continuance of the nuclear triad.

As a result of the Sentinel re-baselining, the program is no longer in breach, as Sentinel awaits a restructuring late this year or early next year for a new Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) phase decision by DoD. Programs that run afoul of the Nunn-McCurdy guidelines in the fiscal 1983 defense authorization act are in significant breach for 15 percent unit cost overruns and critical breach for 25 percent.

Schedule, however, was not in those guidelines.

Jerry McGinn, the executive director of the Baroni Center for Government Contracting at George Mason University, said on Thursday that the 90-day MDAP review by DoD “could be a vehicle for the administration to justify cancellation of big programs lower on their priority list and free up big money to address other administration priorities.”

Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Va.), vice chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said that this week that the U.S. Navy should consider scrapping its Constellation-class frigates by Fincantieri Marinette Marine, which won the $795 million contract in 2020 (Defense Daily, Apr. 9).

“It’s hard to see them [DoD] cutting one leg of the [nuclear] triad,” McGinn said on Wednesday. “The only one [possible program elimination] that comes to mind is Constellation…At the same time, they [the Trump administration] want to increase shipbuilding.”

Last summer, the Air Force pegged Sentinel cost at $140.9 billion, 81 percent higher than the September 2020 estimate when the program was approved for EMD–a rise that DoD said had less to do with the missile than the command-and-control segment, including silos, launch centers, “and the process, duration, staffing, and facilities to execute the conversion from Minuteman III to Sentinel” (Defense Daily, July 8, 2024).

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

Other Air Force programs that may come under the DoD microscope for unit cost increases and/or schedule delays include the Boeing [BA] and Leonardo MH-139A Grey Wolf to replace the Bell [TXT] UH-1N Hueys in the ICBM fields; the Boeing VC-25B Air Force One replacement; the company’s T-7A Red Hawk trainer; and the B-52 Radar Modernization Program (RMP), which the Air Force said last year had not reached but was abutting a significant Nunn-McCurdy unit cost breach of 15 percent over the baseline (Defense Daily, July 31, 2024).

RMP for the 76 B-52Hs is to include a new, active electronically scanned array radar based on RTX‘s [RTX] APG-79; a new, wide-band radome by L3Harris Technologies [LHX] on the aircraft’s nose; two L3Harris 8 x 20 inch high definition displays for the radar navigator and the navigator; two new, hand controllers by California-based Mason Controls; and new display sensor system processors by L3Harris to interface between the radar and other B-52 systems.

The small number of Pentagon programs cancelled after Nunn-McCurdy breaches include the Bell ARH-70 armed reconnaissance helicopter for the U.S. Army in 2008 and the Boeing Joint Tactical Radio System-Ground Mobile Radio for the Army in 2011.

Last year, when asked why DoD and industry had not better predicted the construction costs that led to the Sentinel Nunn-McCurdy breach, U.S. Air Force Gen. Anthony Cotton, the head of U.S. Strategic Command replied, “I don’t know. I wish I knew the answer to that because, not only when it comes to Sentinel, but when it comes to all the modernization within my purview, all of that has to be taken into consideration” (Defense Daily, Feb. 2, 2024).

“That’s not just limited to the replacement of the ICBM,” he said at the time. “That’s gonna be true when it comes to understanding MILCON across the portfolio. We’re gonna have to wise up to ensure that we understand what that means for all the legs of the triad and, to be frank, all modernization across the Department [of Defense] that really touches on MILCON and how you move that forward.”

The Air Force fielded 450 Minuteman silos between 1962 and 1967, of which 50 are decommissioned but may be brought back for future testing.

The first operational Minuteman fielded on Oct. 27, 1962 at Malmstrom AFB, Mont., during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

DoD has not embarked on an ICBM project in nearly seven decades and has no historical data on silo costs from the 1960s. In addition, Sentinel suffered from design immaturity, and the COVID-19 pandemic led to spikes in concrete and steel costs.

New Space Adviser Charged With Integrating Military Space Enterprise

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.—The Department of the Air Force’s acting space acquisition chief recently added a senior adviser to his staff to honcho the seemingly gargantuan task of integrating and making interoperable the military space enterprise.

James “Woody” Haywood said he will work with the “entire space enterprise community” on the integration of the space enterprise.”

Earlier this month, Maj. Gen. Stephen Purdy, acting assistant secretary of the Air Force for Space Acquisition and Integration, appointed Haywood as his senior adviser to “effect the integration and interoperability” effort, U.S. Space Systems Command (SSC) said on Wednesday. Purdy also made Haywood senior adviser for space command, control, and integration, which includes advising the Space Systems Integration (SSI) Office within SSC.

Senior Adviser for Space Command, Control, and Integration (SASC2I). This includes advising the Space Systems Integration Office (SSIO) for the Space Force within Space Systems Command.

“I think the biggest challenge is complexity,” Haywood told reporters Wednesday evening at the Space Symposium. Beyond the “multitude of systems…that must be interconnected so that missions can execute through that enterprise,” Haywood said people like operators and trainers are part of the “system of systems” complexity.

In addition to the bevy of Defense Department systems, the military space enterprise is being expanded to include commercial and international assets, Haywood said.

The technical integration will require a “modular open systems approach (MOSA),” he said. In general, it comes down to standards, interfaces, and control documents.

Work has begun, Haywood said, pointing to an industry partnership with the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers called the Space Systems MOSA Interface Standards Alliance, which in January announced a new committee to recommend or develop standards for optical communications across space systems operated by SSC, the National Reconnaissance Office, and NASA.

The committee is the Space-to-Gateway/Ground-Optical Communications (S2G-OC) committee. The alliance said the S2G-OC Committee’s work on “Standardized optical communication methods and protocols will enable multi-vendor interoperability of satellites with ground gateways and networks across a hybrid DoD/Commercial architecture.”

In about two months Haywood said he will have a two-year plan and “toolset” that will direct what he wants to see happen.

As Purdy’s adviser, Haywood said his priorities include working with the program executive officers and “partner organizations to define cross-program interfaces,” integrated testing, ensuring space and related ground capabilities are executed in “concert.”

Haywood will also be attuned to resource impacts as he assesses integration needs and will advise Purdy accordingly, he said.

For his SSI role, which was mandated in the fiscal year 2025 National Defense Authorization Act, Haywood said he will advise on space command and control, enterprise system-of-systems integration, space domain awareness and related sensor developments.

An engineer, Haywood has worked for the Air Force for 30 years, working in acquisition, rapid prototyping, and autonomy and artificial intelligence, with half the time spent in space and the other half non-space projects. He also spent five years as an executive in industry.

“I got an opportunity to come to this job and I jumped on it because I love this kind of work,” he said. “I feel I was groomed, grown to be a large space enterprise system of systems integrator.”

Trump Order Targets Sentinel, Other Major Defense Acquisition Programs

In a series of executive orders released Wednesday, President Donald Trump said any major defense acquisition program 15 percent over cost could be cancelled.

“[A]ny program more than 15 percent behind schedule based on the current Acquisition Program Baseline (APB), 15 percent over cost based on the current APB, unable to meet any key performance parameters, or unaligned with the Secretary of Defense’s mission priorities, will be considered for potential cancellation,” the order said. “The Secretary of Defense shall submit the potential cancellation list to the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for future budget determinations.”

Pictured is a U.S. Air Force depiction of the LGM-35A Sentinel (U.S. Air Force)

That could include Sentinel, the Air Force’s Northrop Grumman [NOC] intercontinental ballistic missile that would replace Minuteman III as the land leg of the nuclear triad. Sentinel breached a threshold of 25 percent over baseline cost projections in January 2024, triggering a mandatory report to Congress under a law known as Nunn-McCurdy.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has 90 days, or until early July, to complete a comprehensive review of all major defense acquisition programs to determine any inconsistent with the order.

In July 2024, the Air Force said Sentinel’s costs have soared even more since the service announced the Nunn-McCurdy breach, clocking in now at about $140.9 billion, or 81 percent higher than the program’s first Milestone B estimate.

The Air Force had targeted May 2029 for initial operational capability for Sentinel, but that date will be several years later, the service has said.

Then Pentagon acquisition boss William LaPlante, who led the Nunn-McCurdy program review, said that DoD will scale down the Sentinel launch facilities and make them less complex to aid the transition from Boeing‘s [BA] Minuteman III to Sentinel. The new missile will initially carry W87-0 warheads provided by the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.

Later Sentinels will use W87-1 warheads, a replacement warhead for the W78 now used on Minuteman III. W87-1 warheads will also include freshly cast plutonium pits, fissile first stage nuclear weapon cores, from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.