Page 68 – Defense Daily

Hybrid Architectures That Include Commercial And International Are A Growth Area For Space Force, Guetlein Says

The U.S. Space Force is moving to rely more on the commercial sector and its international partners for capabilities it once owned and operated, giving it more capacity, redundancy and making the nation’s space architecture more resilient, a senior service official said this week.

The connections and networking of Defense Department, commercial, and international assets make them hybrid architectures, Gen. Michael Guetlein, vice chief of space operations, said on Wednesday at the annual McAleese Conference.

In April 2024 the Space Force published its strategy for acquiring commercial space capabilities and soon will release its international strategy, “and when you plug both of those together with the current capabilities, we have that will enable hybrid architectures,” Guetlein said. “That will probably be our growth area for the foreseeable future.”

While DoD at one time led the way in space technology, that era is over and now partnerships with the commercial and international sectors are crucial, he said, highlighting that “All of us operating together are better than the sum of the parts.”

The Space Force is “looking at offloading some of our legacy capabilities” and halting some development programs in favor of relying more on commercial and international resources, Guetlein said. The service’s “acquisition philosophy” is to “exploit everything that we have,” which includes organic, commercial and international by “networking, integrating it in ways that nobody ever thought about before.”

The Space Force only wants to build what it “absolutely must” and not “buy something new and exquisite,” he said.

Currently, satellite communications are the “most closest to being a hybrid architecture” followed by space domain awareness, which DoD is buying a “tremendous amount” from commercial partners and “looking to collaborate with our international partners,” Guetlein said. Next is positioning, navigation, and timing capabilities, which are mostly government-owned but the Space Force is “experimenting” with commercial capabilities here, he said.

The spectrum of space capabilities also includes surveillance, reconnaissance and tracking, and counter-space, that latter being all “DoD kit,” Guetlein said. If any of these capabilities exist in the commercial and international areas, then DoD would rather buy it than make it, and then “integrate it into the enterprise,” he said.

The legacy of the Space Force is one of providing services such as satellite communications, GPS, and launches, but as near-peer adversaries have narrowed the gap on the U.S. lead in space the service is pivoting toward “space superiority for the joint force,” Guetlein said. The nation’s adversaries have rejected the old international norms of behavior and are creating new ones that include the use of cyber-hacks, jamming, spoofing, and lasing, he said.

“What’s more concerning is the new kit that they’re bringing to the fight,” Guetlein said. “Nesting dolls in space capable of launching a missile to take out another satellite. Shadowing satellites. Multiple satellites up there today are shadowing our U.S. satellites in a cat and mouse game. We move, they move. We move, they move. We don’t know what their intent is.”

The U.S. is also seeing adversary spacecraft use grappling arms that can move or kidnap a satellite in space, he said, calling all this behavior “unsafe” and “unprofessional.

Dogfighting between satellites is another capability U.S. near-peer adversaries are assessing in space as they practice tactics, techniques, and procedures, he said. The Space Force, using commercial assets, has “observed five different objects in space maneuvering in and out and around each other in synchronicity and in control,” he said.

GAO Focuses on Mitigating NNSA Explosives Supply Chain Risk

The Government Accountability Office last week said the National Nuclear Security Administration could do more to develop a resiliency strategy to mitigate risks to its explosives supply chain, manufacturing and infrastructure.

According to a report published March 12, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found 66 total risks, identified by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), across the agency’s 11 explosives supply chains.

Potential risks include relying on a sole-supplier that provides a material that could become unavailable, relying on a foreign supplier during a potential geopolitical situation that affects international commerce, operational delays, legacy processes, testing requirements, and the age and safety of infrastructure.

While NNSA followed supply chain risk management practices, such as developing a strategy for mitigating supply chain risks like identifying new suppliers and developing new production processes, GAO said the agency needs a resilience strategy “to ensure the supply chain is flexible” to adapt to and mitigate “future adverse events.”

NNSA’s Acting Administrator Teresa Robbins agreed to all three of GAO’s recommendations. Robbins estimated NNSA would finalize a policy with a process to conduct supplier risk reviews by May 31, and assess the need for a required supply chain risk management training by the same date.

Robbins said by Dec. 31 NNSA is expected to complete a strategy for supply chain resiliency.

The GAO report accompanies the fiscal 2024 National Defense Authorization Act, which includes a provision that GAO assess NNSA’s explosives supply chain, infrastructure and program management.

Santa Fe Commissioners Leery of LANL Expansion into Northern New Mexico

In response to a recent environmental report, Santa Fe County commissioners reportedly plan to raise concerns about impacts of a potential expansion of the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory on regional resources.

According to an article last week in the Santa Fe New Mexican

newspaper, the county commissioners are preparing to respond to the draft site-wide environmental impact statement (SWEIS) from the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA).

The commissioners’ draft letter says the board would not support an increased footprint by the lab into Northern New Mexico.

“We support the no action alternative that continues clean up of the site, but no growth of the site or the mission,” the letter said.

The commissioners are expected to approve the draft letter at a future meeting with potential specific language on lab expansion into the Northern New Mexico housing landscape. No date has been set to approve the letter and add it to the SWEIS public comment.

The letter cites concerns about the proposed power line that would go through Native land, and even quotes President Trump saying that “there’s no reason for us to be building brand new nuclear weapons” as a reason to end expansion of pit production.

Chair of Danish Parliament Defense Committee Warns NATO Countries on Buy of U.S. Military Equipment

The chairman of the Danish Parliament’s defense committee advised NATO countries on Wednesday to avoid the buy of U.S. military equipment, including Lockheed Martin [LMT] F-35s fighters.

“As one of the decision makers behind Denmark’s purchase of F-35s, I regret it,” Rasmus Jarlov wrote on X. “The USA can certainly disable the planes by simply stopping the supply of spare parts. They want to strengthen Russia and weaken Europe and are showing that they are willing to do tremendous damage to peaceful and loyal allies like Canada just because they insist on existing as a country.”

President Trump has said that he wants to make Canada the U.S.’ 51st state and that he wants to acquire Greenland from Denmark.

“I can easily imagine a situation where the USA will demand Greenland from Denmark and will threaten to deactivate our weapons and let Russia attack us when we refuse,” Jarlov wrote. “Therefore, buying American weapons is a security risk that we cannot run. We will make enormous investments in air defense, fighter jets, artillery and other weapons in the coming years, and we must avoid American weapons, if at all possible.”

“I encourage our allies and friend to do the same,” he wrote.

In 2016, Denmark chose the F-35 to replace the country’s F-16s, and the Danish Parliament in 2017 funded the buy of 27 aircraft. Denmark has received 8 F-35s so far, and the planes are to begin taking over the Danish air denial mission from the country’s F-16s on April 1.

Jarlov’s warning comes a week after Portugal Defense Minister Nuno Melo said that his country is unlikely to buy the F-35 despite the Portuguese Air Force recommending the fighter as the prime candidate to replace the country’s F-16s.

“We cannot ignore the geopolitical environment in our choices,” Melo said. “The recent position of the United States, in the context of NATO…must make us think about the best options, because the predictability of our allies is a greater asset to take into account.” Melo said that Portugal is concerned that the U.S. “could bring limitations to use, maintenance, components, and everything that has to do with ensuring that aircraft will be operational and used in all types of scenarios.” Instead of up to 28 F-35s, Portugal may now opt for the Rafale or Eurofighter.

In April 2021 Lockheed Martin and Danish officials held a ceremony at the company’s F-35 factory in Fort Worth for the induction of the F-35A to the Royal Danish Air Force (Defense Daily, Apr. 7, 2021). At that ceremony, then Danish Defense Minister Trine Bramsen said that the F-35A “will be at the absolute center for the Danish Defense in the coming decades” and will gird the Royal Danish Air Force’s interoperability with NATO allies.

Denmark said that it scrambled F-16s 81 times last year, mostly to monitor Russian flights over the Baltic Sea.

While Trump and his advisers have pushed NATO allies to increase their defense spending to five percent of their respective GDPs, such increases may well come without the participation of U.S. defense companies.

A March 19 European Union white paper on defense argues for countries to invest 800 billion Euros in the next four years in defense to bring their defense spending up by 1.5 percent of their GDPs.

“Authoritarian states like China increasingly seek to assert their authority and control in our economy and society,” the paper said. “Traditional allies and partners, such as the United States, are changing their focus away from Europe to other regions of the world. This is something that we have been warned about many times but is now happening faster than many had anticipated. The moment has come for Europe to re-arm.”

Mach Industries Plans Own Jet Engine Factory To Power Cruise Missiles, UAVs

Mach Industries, the startup developing long-range weapons for the U.S. and its allies, this year plans to begin construction of a factory to produce microturbines that power cruise missiles and Group 4 and lighter unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to meet its own small jet engine needs and those of other companies.

The company is in selection process and hopes to downselect and start construction of a facility later in 2025, Ethan Thornton, CEO and founder of the Huntington Beach, Calif., company, told Defense Daily

by email. The new plant would have the capacity to build 12,000 engines annually, the company said.

Mach Industries has also stood up a new division, Mach Propulsion, which will focus on the development and production of the small jet engines. Mach Propulsion is led by Jeremy Klyde, who joined the company this month after nearly five years with Anduril Industries, the last two as director of propulsion engineering, and the first three as a propulsion engineering manager.

Klyde also spent more than two years at Zone 5 Technologies working on small turbines and low-cost cruise missiles, more than three years at Lockheed Martin [LMT] on the propulsion system for the company’s Fury Group 3 unmanned aircraft system, and nearly four years at Volvo Group’s Truck Technology operations as a powertrain engineer, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Mach Industries’ future jet engine plant will manufacture propulsion systems for its own platforms and other companies to further position itself as a supplier of components for the drone and defense industry. The company said existing micro-jet engine facilities are at capacity and that its forthcoming plant would “strategically” position it as the primary provider of jet engines for the next generation of unmanned aircraft.

The Mach Propulsion factory would also allow for design, testing, and prototyping. Klyde plans to hire more than 30 engineers.

Mach Industries already has a 115,000-plus square-foot facility to manufacture its Viper vertical takeoff cruise missile, a transonic glider to deliver munitions, and a high-altitude platform system balloon that would carry sensors, communications payloads, and effectors.

Additionally, Mach’s Forge Huntington plant is also manufacturing drones for drone developer HevenDrones, and the two companies are co-developing components like avionics and radios for drones (Defense Daily, March 18).

Germany’s JetCat supplies the engines for the Viper Strategic Strike effort. Mach Propulsion will focus on higher thrust class engines “with both enhanced durability and reusability,” Mach Industries said.

Thornton said the initial Mach Propulsion facility will build engines between 50 and 3000 newtons. For comparison’s sake, Williams International’s F107 turbofan engine that powers the Tomahawk cruise missile provides upwards of 2700 newtons of thrust.

HII Names VEEM As Initial Australian Company To Enter Sub Supplier Program

HII [HII] named Australia’s VEEM Ltd. as one of the first companies that will join a submarine supplier pilot program HII is leading to help connect Australian firms to the U.S. and U.K. submarine industrial bases.

The U.S. company noted VEEM has decades of experience in performing precision casting for the

Collins-class submarine, which HII said makes it “well positioned” to become part of the Virginia-class submarine supply chain under the Australian Submarine Supplier Qualification (AUSS-Q) pilot program.

Earlier this month, Australia announced it awarded HII a $6 million contract to manage this new submarine supplier qualification pilot project, to help Australian companies qualify to enter the U.S. submarine industrial base supply chain to further the integration of defense industries and bolster Australia’s capabilities under the AUKUS agreement (Defense Daily, March 11).

Tim Brow, vice president of operations for HII Nuclear Australia Pty Ltd., said AUSS-Q is designed to “qualify and elevate suppliers to contribute to the U.S. Virginia-class submarine program. Companies like VEEM have already demonstrated their expertise, and this initiative will help integrate their capabilities into the broader supply chain.”

VEEM’s company website says it designs and manufactures “disruptive, high technology marine propulsion and stabilization systems” for maritime industries. It is headquartered in Perth, Western Australia, was founded in 1968, employs about 180 people and listed on the Australian Securities Exchange in 2016.

HII emphasized this is all part of creating a seamless defense supply network among the three AUKUS partners, with USS-Q “unlocking new opportunities for Australian industry, creating high-skilled jobs, and strengthening the foundation for future AUKUS submarine production.”

In a recent HII visit to VEEM, Australian deputy prime minister and defense minister Richard Marles discussed the AUUS-Q’s selection of VEEM.

“HII is America’s largest naval ship builder and what it is doing through this program is qualifying Australian companies to participate in the supply chain of building U.S. Virginia-class submarines. And this really speaks to one of the great opportunities of AUKUS, because at its heart what AUKUS is seeking to do is to establish a seamless defense industrial base across the three countries,” Marles said in a statement,

During a media event at VEEM, Marles added, “this is a tangible step forward in the story of AUKUS. This builds our national military capability, but in the process we are building a national defense industry capability and providing high skilled, high paid jobs.”

Army G-8 Doesn’t See Full-Year CR Having ‘Dramatic Impact’ On TiC Rapid Fielding Effort

The Army’s lead resourcing official said Tuesday he does not see the full-year continuing resolution having a “dramatic impact” on the ability to rapidly field promising new technology out of the service’s ongoing and expanding Transforming in Contact (TiC) initiative.

Lt. Gen. Karl Gingrich, deputy chief of staff G-8, said the Army has received “a couple tranches” of replenishment funding that will mitigate some of the CR impact and be allocated toward procuring TiC capabilities.

U.S. Army Soldier assigned to the 3rd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division carries a GhostX drone after completing a successful flight mission during Exercise Combined Resolve 25-1 at Hohenfels Training Area on Jan. 31, 2025. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Vega, Bryanne)

“Is the full year CR going to have an impact? Yes, it is. Is it going to have a dramatic impact? In my opinion, no. And why is that? Because we have worked with [the Office of the Secretary of Defense] and we really appreciate Congress and the allocation of replenishment funding,” Gingrich said in remarks at the McAleese Conference in Arlington, Virginia. “And we are starting to get that on contract now so that we can actually bring that into the force later on this year and early into ‘26 depending on the timing, each one of those commodities is a little bit different.”

President Trump signed the CR on Saturday to avoid a shutdown and keep the government open through the end of September, with the stopgap funding measure including a slight boost to defense spending and containing a provision allowing the Pentagon to initiate new start programs.

Gingrich said the Army is still analyzing the full scope of the new CR and “what, how much and where can we move monies,” adding that having to rely on reprogramming or transferring funds would have slowed down TiC acquisition activities “a little bit.”

“But I think the replenishment tranche funding that we’re getting is going to allow us to kick start that,” Gingrich said.

The Army’s TiC effort, spearheaded by Gen. Randy George, the service’s chief of staff, has focused on testing new operating concepts with select Army units and providing troops with new technology, such as drones and electronic warfare capabilities, to gather feedback and inform rapid fielding decisions.

Gingrich said TiC is allowing “on ramp of new technologies and quicker spirals of how those technologies are being applied on the modern battlefield.”

“We are seeing changes in UAS, counter-UAS and electronic warfare that are measured in weeks, not months and years,” Gingrich added.

The Army is now in the process of initiating TiC 2.0 and expanding the initiative to include more technology and participation from two more divisions, two Armored Brigade Combat Teams, two Stryker Brigade Combat Teams, additional formations in the Guard and Reserves and the service’s Multi-Domain Task Forces (Defense Daily, March 14).

“We are trying to acquire things differently. We are trying to do tranched funding. We are trying to pump innovation in this space. We are trying to make sure that we have acquisition processes in place that allow us to swap things out that change on a weekly basis as opposed to a yearly basis,” Gingrich said.

Maj. Gen. Robert Barrie, the Army procurement office’s deputy for acquisition and systems management, said last month the service plans to deliver “thousands” of S-METs and GM Defense [GM] Infantry Squad Vehicles in the coming years as a result of TiC efforts to date (Defense Daily, Feb. 25).

Gingrich added that part of the Army’s effort to buy things different as a result of TiC is the push for agile funding authorities from Congress to flexibly move funding around capability areas rather than rigid budget line items, with the service initially focusing the effort on drones, counter-UAS equipment and electronic warfare capabilities.

“What we are trying to do in those three portfolios…UAS, counter-UAS and electronic warfare, working with the committees of record over on the Hill, [is] how do we consolidate so that we have some flexibility to respond to that operational environment through our budget construct and we are not limited to kind of the bureaucracy inside the building of reprogramming action in order to respond to something,” Gingrich said. “We learned some tough lessons over the last few years as we were watching our soldiers in contact and our inability within our budget to actually move some money to address their needs.”

Gingrich said he has described the initial push for agile funding authority around those three areas to congressional authorizers and appropriators as a “pilot program” which could look to expand upon if there’s success with the effort.

“I think, let’s run these portfolios and see how they do, see if they’re actually giving us the flexibility that we need. Then, we’ll codify them as no longer pilot programs. And then we can pivot to something else in the future,” Gingrich said. “Perhaps network [capabilities] in the future could be something like that.”

DIU Awards Prototype Contracts To Streamline Program Execution

The Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) this week said it has awarded one-year contracts to three commercial companies that provide artificial intelligence-powered software that automates business management workflows with the goal being to enhance the Defense Department’s visibility into the lifecycle of the unit’s programs.

The companies are expected to provide a minimum viable product before the end of 2025, a DIU spokesperson said.

The values of the prototyping contracts were not disclosed, although GovSignals, who is partnered with Unstructured, said its award has a multi-million-dollar value. The New York City-based company said the award is its first in directly supporting a government agency instead of its current focus on government contractors.

GovSignals said its platform will better manage DIU’s acquisition workflows. DIU said the company’s software also speeds information sharing and adapts to evolving mission requirements.

CORAS, which is based in Northern Virginia, will develop a centralized platform to integrate financial tracking, milestones, and vendor management into one project and financial management system, DIU said.

Pryzm Dynamics will also provide a centralized platform to streamline financial, contract, and project management, report project status, and aid collaboration. The Boston-based company said its “intuitive workflows and expertise in acquisition data integration” will make DIU’s financial and program management more efficient.

“DIU needs accurate and on demand knowledge of the status of our projects to share with DoD leadership, our DoD partners, and Congress,” Jaime Fitzgibbon, DIU AI program manager, said in a statement. “The goal of this project is to transform insight gathering from manual spreadsheet drudgery into an intelligent, responsive system. By harnessing AI and large language models, we’re deploying a solution that not only accelerates the discovery of insights but also establishes accountability through automated precision.”

The contracts for the Enterprise Workflow and Reporting Platform, or eWARP, were awarded in February. At the end of the performance period, DIU could decide to move forward with one or more of the companies, or have them partner, the spokesperson said.

GAO Says NNSA at ‘Fraud Risk’ For Awarding Money to Not-Small Businesses

The Government Accountability Office said last week that the National Nuclear Security Administration and six of its management and operating contractors incorrectly reported small business contracts awarded in fiscal 2018-2022.

According to a report released by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) March 13, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) awarded $1.1 billion of its $16.8 billion small business contract funds to businesses “that did not meet size standards established by the Small Business Administration.”

The report also said that, encompassing another $1.9 billion of the $16.8 billion, NNSA and the contractors could not provide information needed for GAO to determine whether the businesses met the size criteria.

Teresa Robbins, acting administrator for NNSA, concurred with GAO’s recommendations in an agency letter. Robbins said that NNSA would ensure its Small Business Program addresses root causes of errors, which Robbins said was “human input error,” by Oct. 31. She also said the program would work with prime contractors and update the procurement review system.

By Dec. 31, Robbins said NNSA expects to have a process in place to verify vendor size errors have been corrected.

The management and operating contractors the GAO studied from fiscal 2018-2022 included:

Consolidated Nuclear Security, LLC, which was the joint-venture contractor for the Pantex Plant and Y-12 National Security Complex at the time.
Honeywell Federal Manufacturing & Technologies [HON], which managed and operated Kansas City National Security Campus.
Lawrence Livermore National Security, the joint-venture running Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
Mission Support and Test Services, the joint-venture running Nevada National Security Site.
National Technology & Engineering Solutions Of Sandia, the joint venture running Sandia National Laboratories.
Triad National Security, the joint-venture running Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Sullivan, NORTHCOM Favor Increased Alaskan Deterrence Build-Up

Adak Island, the site of a former Navy base closed in 1997 after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, may see military reuse to aid U.S. posture in the Indo-Pacific.

The Aleutian island became the site of an Army Air Corps base in August, 1942 after Pearl Harbor and the Japanese occupation of the neighboring islands of Attu and Kiska–the first foreign occupation since the War of 1812 of territory belonging to the continental U.S. The military, citing the Japanese threat, moved hundreds of native Aleutians–the Unangax–to squalid internment camps in southeast Alaska. After the war, Adak transferred to the U.S. Air Force and then the U.S. Navy before a Base Realignment and Closure round shut the Navy base there in 1997 due to the fall of the Soviet Union six years earlier.

Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee’s (SASC) readiness and management support panel, has said that a reopening of the former Adak Naval Air Station and the island’s airfield would mean easier U.S. fighter intercepts of Russian bomber overflights and enhanced deterrence of Russia and China.

“When you’re intercepting strategic bombers, a lot of times our fighters are having to fly over a thousand miles just to get to the end of the ADIZ [Air Defense Identification Zone] to intercept them,” Sullivan said last month at a SASC hearing with U.S. Air Force Gen. Gregory Guillot, the head of North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM).

Alaska has Air Force F-22 and F-35 fighters by Lockheed Martin [LMT] at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson and Eielson AFB, respectively.

“I would support Adak for sure for maritime and air access and…Deadhorse or a point at the far north part of Alaska, because those missions aren’t only long—a thousand miles or more with five or six or seven air re-fuelings usually at night—but also the harsh conditions, if a pilot should have to eject,” Guillot replied when Sullivan asked him at the hearing whether he supported re-opening Adak and using other locations, such as Utqiagvik in northern Alaska, to aid search and rescue. “Having those forward points…would allow us to pre-position search and rescue aircraft or be able to land there in an emergency, which are capabilities that we just don’t have right now.”