Page 86 – Defense Daily

Leonardo Details Sub Industrial Base Investment, GA Wins Electric Boat SSN Missile Tube Work

Leonardo DRS [DRS] and General Atomics [GA] on Monday disclosed the details of separate new contracts aimed at expanding submarine parts production for both

Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines and Virginia-class attack submarines, respectively.

Last week, Leonardo DRS chairman and CEO Bill Lynn said the Navy is investing $45 million in its purpose-built Charleston, S.C., facility that it plans to focus on producing steam turbines for Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs) starting in 2026. (Defense Daily Feb. 20).

HII’s Newport News Shipbuilding division conducted and completed initial sea trials for Virginia-class attack submarine New Jersey (SSN 796) in February 2024. (Photo: HII) — HII’s Newport News Shipbuilding division conducted and completed initial sea trials for *Virginia*-class attack submarine *New Jersey* (SSN 796) in February 2024. (Photo: HII)

On Monday the company said the government investment is coming through HII’s [HII] Newport News Shipbuilding division and is expected to expand the capabilities of this 140,000 square foot naval propulsion manufacturing facility.

Leonardo DRS specifically said the investment will “serve as a catalyst for a 40,000 square-foot expansion of the facility in support of capabilities critical to current and future U.S. Navy nuclear submarines and aircraft carriers.

“This significant investment is the result of extensive collaboration between Leonardo DRS, the U.S. Navy, and our shipbuilding customers. It signifies the depth of our combined resolve to address some of the most pressing challenges facing our nation’s submarine industrial base with respect to capacity needed to deliver critical capability on-time and on-budget for the warfighter,” Jon Miller, senior vice president and general manager of the Leonardo DRS Naval Power Systems business unit, said in a statement.

The company noted the investment will build on previous Navy engineering contracts issued to the company previously via submarine builders HII and General Dynamics Electric Boat [GD].

Separately, GA Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS) announced a contract of unspecified value from Electric Boat to build and deliver three shipsets of Virginia Payload Tubes (VPT) for Block VI Virginia-class submarines.

A mockup of the Block V Virginia-class attack submarine with the Virginia Payload Module in use. (Image: General Dynamics Electric Boat) — A mockup of the Block V *Virginia*-class attack submarine with the Virginia Payload Module in use. (Image: General Dynamics Electric Boat)

Each shipset consists of two payload tubes and the contract plans for GA to finish delivering the tubes by 2030.

Block VI boats will be the second group of Virginia-class submarines to include the Virginia Payload Module, a middle section with four Multiple All-up round Canisters that can each hold seven Tomahawk Land Attack Cruise Missiles. The VPM boats aim to replace the capability of four retiring Ohio-class former ballistic missile submarines previously converted from hosting nuclear missiles (SSBNs) to conventionally-armed guided cruise missiles (SSGNs).

The Navy has said it needs 20 VPM-equipped submarines to make up for the four SSGNs.

The company said this follows an earlier 2023 contract award for one VPT shipset that made it a viable supplier for these kinds of submarine components.

“We are excited to continue working with Electric Boat to apply our world-class fabrication and precision machining capabilities, experienced program management, and engineering and quality assurance expertise to help ensure the VPTs are available on time to support an aggressive Virginia-class build schedule,” Scott Forney, president of GA-EMS, said in a statement.

GA-EMS said while it looks forward to providing capacity to support more multi-year procurement and sustainment programs like this, it underscored its experience developing and delivering components and systems for the Ford-class carrier’s Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch EMALS and Advanced Arresting Gear.

To that end, the company said it has undertaken “continuous expansion” of its manufacturing capabilities with skilled workforces at facilities in Tupelo and Iuka, Miss., so it is “well positioned to be a valued, stable resource for the development and production of complex components like the VPTs in support of the Navy’s subsurface and surface shipbuilding enterprise.”

RTX Completes Flight Testing Of AI-Powered Radar Warning Receiver As Customers Line Up

Raytheon has successfully completed flight testing of the artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) technology integrated into the company’s ALR-69R radar warning receiver (RWR) to automatically sense, identify, and prioritize threats to aircraft.

With testing of the Cognitive Algorithm Deployment System (CADS) complete, the RTX [RTX] business on Monday said it is in discussions with several potential customers and programs expect the system to begin being acquired in early 2025 for use in multiple platforms.

The company initially tested CADS hardware and cognitive radar processing on its flight test aircraft, followed by flights aboard an F-16 at the Air National Guard’s test range in Arizona last December. For CADS, Raytheon is using commercial off-the-shelf technology from Deepwave Digital, which supplies its computing stack, to include the “latest” embedded graphics processing unit, to enable the “AI models to be integrated into the company’s legacy RWR systems for AI/ML processing at the sensor,” the company said.

The flight tests used AI/ML techniques provided by Raytheon—Raytheon Tiny Brains—Georgia Tech Research Institute, and Vadum, Inc., both of which supplied algorithms for CADS. Threats used during the tests included search radars, fire control radars on surface-to-air missiles, anti-aircraft artillery, and airborne interceptors such as J-20, Mig-29, and other aircraft, providing data to score and refine the algorithms.

The testing includes some ML-enabled precision direction finding capabilities.

“The advantages of AI in defense systems are extensive, and our recent CADS test demonstrates how commercially available products, paired with advanced algorithms and cognitive methods, can help the U.S. and its allies outpace peer threats,” Bryan Roselli, president of advanced products and solutions at Raytheon, said in a statement. “CADS’ ability to quickly process data and run third-party algorithms that prioritize threats, with almost no latency will significantly enhance survivability for military personnel.”

CADS helps sense and identify threats not seen before and “improves survivability in situations where legacy systems do not have adequate information to inform a course of action,” the company said.

CADS initially is being integrated into the ALR-69R because the RWR is flying on hundreds of aircraft, including the F-16, C-130, KC-46, MQ-25, and others, the company said.

B61-12 LEP Sustainment Begins After Last Production Unit Produced

The B61-12 nuclear gravity bomb’s life extension program has “fully transitioned into the stockpile” after its last production unit was produced in December, Sandia National Laboratories said Monday in a press release.

With production complete for the B61-12 life extension program, the gravity bomb can now enter the stockpile for “sustainment,” the press release said, meaning it will be monitored through surveillance, assessment and maintenance to assure it can be deployed safely and securely.

According to the press release, the program is still producing spare components, and will pursue “program closeout activities” into fiscal year 2026, which is consistent with 2025 Stockpile Stewardship and Management Plan published in October.

The B61-12 life extension began in 2008, and the gravity bomb itself is the oldest in the U.S. arsenal, with over 50 years of service since 1968. The life extension program includes replacing older modifications of the B61 in the stockpile.

The National Nuclear Security Administration coordinated with the Air Force to deliver the last production unit three years after the first production unit, which was produced in November 2021, the press release said.

The B61 family of bombs is currently deployed from the U.S. Air Force and NATO bases, NNSA said.

Castelion Chalks Up Another Flight Test Of Hypersonic Missile Prototype

Castelion Corp. last week said it successfully completed another flight test of a prototype hypersonic missile the startup is developing to provide the Defense Department with affordable long-range strike weapons that can be produced at scale.

The Feb. 17 flight test at Spaceport America in New Mexico was done in support of a direct-to-phase two Small Business Innovation Research contract with the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Integrated Capabilities Directorate. The SBIR effort is titled Future Operational Capabilities for the US (FOCUS) and is demonstrating “a wholly new approach to weapon system design and manufacturing that focuses on scalability, cost, and supply chain robustness,” the California-based company said.

Castelion is demonstrating its solid rocket motor development, hypersonic thermal protection material testing, and missile avionics that it has developed from “non-traditional supply bases” for FOCUS, it said. The company is vertically integrated and in addition to SRMs, is also building the missile avionics, control actuation systems, and seeker to avoid being hung up by supply chain delays and to lower costs.

The company, which exited stealth mode in October 2023, conducted an initial flight test that March, and then in November 2024 began more routine flight testing of its missile prototype, with flights occurring every two to three weeks to iterate the design and improve the capabilities of the subsystems. In January, Castelion announced a $100 million Series A funding round (Defense Daily

, Jan. 29).

The company also has contracts with the Army and Navy.

Joint Chiefs Chairman Pick ‘Razin’ Caine Described As ‘Serial Entrepreneur,’ ‘Air-Ground Integrator’

President Trump’s pick to serve as his new top military adviser, retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Dan “Razin” Caine, is a former F-16 pilot and deputy commanding general of a joint task force that fought ISIS in Iraq, who would return to the Pentagon after having also spent time in the investment and venture capital world.

A defense official on Monday described Caine, Trump’s nominee to be chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as a “nonpartisan candidate” and a “true air-ground integrator.”

Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Dan “Razin” Caine, President Trump’s nominee to serve as the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Photo: U.S. Air Force.

“He’s a guy that truly understands the joint force and how air integrates with ground and fires,” the official told Defense Daily. “He’s a joint guy through and through.”

“I think he’s going to listen to the service chiefs and understand what their priorities are and try to give way together to transform our military,” the official added.

Trump announced last Friday evening he was firing Air Force Gen. Charles “CQ” Brown, Jr. as his joint chiefs chairman and would tap Caine to be his replacement as the nation’s top uniformed officer.

“General Caine is an accomplished pilot, national security expert, successful entrepreneur and a ‘warfighter’ with significant interagency and special operations experience,” Trump said in a statement on social media. “During my first term, Razin was instrumental in the complete annihilation of the ISIS caliphate. It was done in record setting time, a matter of weeks. Many so-called military ‘geniuses’ said it would take years to defeat ISIS. General Caine, on the other hand, said it could be done quickly, and he delivered.”

Caine’s most recent senior military role was as the associate director for military affairs at the CIA from 2021 to 2024, and his Air Force biography notes that from 2009 to 2016 he was a part-time member of the National Guard and “a serial entrepreneur and investor.”

After retiring from military service in December, Caine joined venture capital firm Shield Capital and he is also currently a partner at Ribbit Capital, an advisor to Thrive Capital and chairman of the national security advisory board at Voyager Space, according to his LinkedIn profile.

“His background suggests familiarity with industrial base issues and defense technology. We don’t know how he could further reshape DoD programs and priorities, but there already is a fair amount in motion,” Byron Callan, an analyst with Capital Alpha Partners wrote.

Navy Adm. Christopher Grady, the current joint chiefs vice chair, is performing the duties of the chairman until a replacement is confirmed by the Senate.

Caine, 56, retired from the Air Force as a three-star in December and would likely be the first Joint Chiefs chairman to have never served as a four-star prior to assuming the role, as well being the rare official that would have to return to military service for the position. His nomination will need to be approved by the Senate.

“I think what’s most important to us in uniform is he’s a man of character and integrity, so he’s going to advise the president with what’s best for the country not with what the president or anybody else necessarily wants,” the defense official told Defense Daily. “He’s coming in at an interesting time, but he’s just a really good person for this job.”

Kilby Performing CNO Duties After Trump Fires Franchetti

Adm. James Kilby, Vice Chief of Naval Operations (Vice CNO) is performing the duties of the CNO after President Trump directed Adm. Lisa Franchetti be relieved alongside Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Air Force Gen. C.Q. Brown on Friday night.

In a Saturday statement to the fleet, Kilby confirmed in accordance with the U.S. Code, he will perform the duties until a new CNO is appointed and confirmed.

Official picture of Vice Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral James Kilby — Adm. James Kilby, Vice Chief of Naval Operations (Vice CNO). (Photo: U.S. Navy)

Kilby said the Navy will press ahead with current priorities and thanked Franchetti for her 39 years of service

“The work of our Navy continues without disruption. We will sustain forward-deployed lethal forces that enhance the peace and deter our adversaries. We remain focused on improving lethality, strengthening our warfighters, and readying our platforms. We will continue to do what the Navy does best: deliver warfighting advantage for the Nation.”

Kilby assumed the duties of Vice CNO on Jan. 5, 2024. Previously, he served as deputy commander of U.S. Fleet Forces Command.

He has experience in missile defense, surface warfare and future force issues.

Kilby’s first command was of the Arleigh Burke-class USS Russel (DDG-59), followed by the Ticonderoga-class cruiser USS Monterey (CG-61) during its maiden ballistic missile defense deployment in 2011.

His flag assignments before Fleet Forces include leading the Naval Surface and Mine Warfighting Development Center; Carrier Strike Group 1; director of Warfare Integration, N9I; and Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Warfighting Requirements and Capabilities, N9 from 2019 to 2021.

In July 2023 the Biden White House nominated then-Vice CNO Franchetti to be the next CNO and Kilby to become VCNO, but these positions were delayed by Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s (R-Ala.) previous longstanding hold on general and flag officer confirmations in opposition to DoD policy on reproductive care.

Franchetti performed the duties of CNO starting when previous CNO Adm. Mike Gilday retired in August 2023. Franchetti and Kilby both finally took their most recent positions as CNO and VCNO in January 2024, after the Senate finally confirmed them.

Kilby previously had a key role in the Navy’ secretive Project Overmatch, which seeks to develop a future force where manned and unmanned systems’ data inform a common operating picture to allow commanders to best match sensors to shooters through new networks and battle management tools.

In 2020, while serving as Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Warfighting Requirements and Capabilities (N9), Gilday made him the “Future Force Architect” for Project Overmatch (Defense Daily, Oct. 15, 2020).

Whereas commander of Naval Information Warfare Systems Rear Adm. Douglas Small was appointed to build the connective tissue for Project Overmatch’s Naval Operational Architecture, this role had Kilby lead efforts to accelerate development of unmanned systems and long-range fires.

Then, last month, Kilby said amid Red Sea engagements with Houthi forces and drones, he regretted that while at N9, he did not push for more investments of ship self-protection laser weapons at lower power outages focused on small unmanned aerial vehicles (Defense Daily, Jan. 14).

“I was driving to the high end of the threat for anti-ship cruise missiles, which is somewhere between 500 kilowatts and one megawatt, and I didn’t have the foresight to think about this [drone] threat. That taken, you gotta shoot and engage with what you have which is what they’re doing,” he said during the Surface Navy Association conference.

Rocket Lab’s Spacecraft Design For VICTUS HAZE Passes Key Hurdle Ahead Of Launch This Year

Rocket Lab USA [RKLB], one of two company’s building spacecraft for a U.S. Space Force demonstration of a rapid response to aggressive behavior by an adversary in space, on Monday said its effort successfully passed the critical design review (CDR).

Clearing the CDR means California-based Rocket Lab’s Pioneer spacecraft for the VICTUS HAZE mission is ready for the production phase of the program, which will include integration of the satellite into company’s Electron launch vehicle and the start of ground segment preparations for launch later this year. The CDR was done in late January.

Rocket Lab and True Anomaly

last spring received $32 million and $30 million contracts, respectively, from the Space Force’s Space Systems Command, Defense Innovation Unit, and SpaceWERX for the Tactically Responsive Space (TacRS) mission for rendezvous and proximity operations to counter aggressive adversarial behavior on orbit (Defense Daily, April 11, 2024).

The CDR for True Anomaly’s spacecraft will be held in April, Space Systems Command’s Space Safari program office said. The company’s launch will occur no earlier than this October, the office said.

“The exact launch dates for both VICTUS HAZE vehicles are withheld to enable demonstrating Tactically Responsive Space capabilities under realistic conditions,” Lt. Col. Jason Altenhofen of the Space Safari program office said.

Rocket Lab’s TacRS mission will lift off from the company’s Launch Complex 1 in Mahia, New Zealand. Once the Space Force gives notice, Rocket Lab will have 24 hours to achieve launch readiness. Once on orbit, the Pioneer spacecraft will maneuver to track and reach an object, and then identify and characterize potential threats.

“The ability to build a spacecraft, launch it, and operate it all in-house, on a tactically responsive timeline, is incredibly rare, but with our extensive launch heritage and deep vertical integration across space systems, we’re ideally suited to make this mission a success,” Brad Clevenger, president and CEO of Rocket Lab’s Rocket Lab National Security subsidiary, said in a statement. “VICTUS HAZE solidifies Rocket Lab as a trusted and highly capable, end-to-end space company that can enable complex missions to serve the needs of the nation.”

In September 2023, Space Systems Command successfully launched the VICTUS NOX TacRS mission, achieving launch-ready status within 24 hours of notice and then lifting off within 27 hours of that same notice, both records (Defense Daily, Sept. 15, 2023). For that mission, a Firefly Aerospace Alpha launch vehicle lifted a Millennium Space Systems-built satellite into low-Earth Orbit for a space domain awareness mission. Millennium is a business unit of Boeing [BA].

Army Puts $10 Billion Multi-Award Modern Software Development Contract ‘On Hold’

A final solicitation for the Army’s potential 10-year, $10 billion multiple-award Modern Software Development (MSD) contract is “on hold indefinitely” as the service reviews its strategy for the effort, according to a new notice.

The Army announced the decision as an update published on Feb. 18 to its original notice for the MSD program.

The 50th Expeditionary Signal Battalion (Enhanced) and 63rd Expeditionary Signal Battalion conducted a combined Large Scale Combat Operations (LSCO) communications exercise on Fort Liberty, North Carolina, September 29, 2021. (U.S. Army photo by Capt. Eric Messmer)

“We appreciate industry’s feedback and involvement, which has been invaluable in shaping our digital acquisition strategies. We will provide further updates through new postings and we look forward to future collaboration opportunities,” the Army wrote. “Thank you for your understanding and continued interest in working with the Army.”

Last August, the Army released the draft Request for Proposals for the MSD indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contracting vehicle, detailing plans to select up to 20 vendors in early 2025 (Defense Daily, Aug. 19, 2024).

The Army has said the MSD contract aims to procure software solutions that comply with the guidelines set by its new software policy directive published in March 2024, which included a focus on more iterative development and delivery of new capabilities.

“The directive highlights the importance for software contracts and programs to use modern principles including employing agile methods, software metrics, modernizing testing, DevSecOps, CI/CD, use of digital engineering practices and achieving Data Centricity through adherence to data mesh principles,” the Army wrote in the draft RFP.

A total of between 10 and 20 awards were expected to be made initially for the MSD contracting vehicle, with an aim to have initial contracts and task orders in place by this month.

The pause in the MSD solicitation arrives as the Army is currently “conducting a review” of its current solicitations and planned contract awards as new leadership takes the helm of the Pentagon (Defense Daily, Jan. 28).

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

After seeking feedback from the industry on its strategy for the MSD effort, the Army affirmed plans to take a hybrid approach and award both cost plus fixed fee and firm fixed price deals to “best allow for flexible execution of task orders with the intent of getting best-of-breed traditional and non-traditional contractors.”

Doug Bush, the Army’s former acquisition chief, addressed pushback from some of industry on the service’s approach to the MSD contract and said that comments that the service planned to solely use a cost-plus model for awards were “misunderstood or misconstrued” and that the hybrid approach allowed for maximized flexibility (Defense Daily, Sept. 6, 2024).

“The Army fully intends to leverage commercial software capabilities where they meet our requirements. Ideally, we would never have to develop software. If there is something in the commercial world that already does what we need, we will of course mature it through our commercial approach,” Bush told reporters in September. “Firm fixed price contracts for software are not going away. We will use them a lot and we are using them a lot.”

“When the Army does have a very military-specific requirement for software capabilities that cannot be filled commercially, the Army does of course have to develop capability in partnership with industry. Sometimes we need new software. Software to help a tank’s fire control system work is not a commercial product,” Bush added.

General Electric and Pratt & Whitney Report Progress on NGAP

General Electric [GE] and RTX‘s [RTX] Pratt & Whitney have reported progress in their Next Generation Adaptive Propulsion (NGAP) efforts for the U.S. Air Force’s manned Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) fighter.

GE said that on Wednesday that it had finished Detailed Design Review (DDR) of its X102 adaptive cycle engine–what the company called “the first engine in GE Aerospace’s history to be developed using model-based systems engineering, representing a transformative shift in how advanced propulsion systems are designed and tested.”

“The design review was presented to the U.S. Air Force, showcasing the comprehensive digital engine model and validating its readiness for the next phase of development,” GE said.

The Evendale, Ohio-based GE Aerospace is now to test a full-scale X102 demonstrator engine.

“Adaptive cycle engines are critical to ensure U.S. combat aircraft maintain their superiority by providing greater range and significantly more thermal management capability compared to today’s most advanced combat engine,” the company said.

A day after the GE Aerospace X102 announcement, East Hartford, Conn.-based Pratt & Whitney said that its XA103 NGAP offering had also finished DDR for the Air Force.

“Pratt & Whitney presented directly from its collaborative digital environment, providing reviewers with immediate access to all the data and material to satisfy the stringent criteria,” Pratt & Whitney said. “Passing this fully digital evaluation allows the team to begin procuring hardware for the construction of its XA103 prototype ground demonstrator, which is expected to test in the late 2020s.”

The XA103 “has an adaptive architecture, enabling its components to actively adjust for optimized fuel efficiency, survivability, and power and thermal management, surpassing the capabilities of fourth- and fifth-generation engines,” Pratt & Whitney said. “This step change in engine capability will help ensure the U.S. Air Force maintains air superiority and deters pacing challenges.”

Last month, the Air Force awarded GE and Pratt & Whitney contracts worth up to

$3.5 billion each for NGAP technology maturation and risk reduction (Defense Daily, Jan. 28).

“The work includes design, analysis, rig testing, prototype engine build and testing, and weapon system integration,” the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (AFLCMC) said at the time.

“The contract modification is for the execution of the prototype phase of the [NGAP] program and is focused on delivering a state-of-the-art propulsion system with a flexible architecture that can be tailored for future combat aircraft operating across various mission threads; and digitally transforming the propulsion industrial base,” AFLCMC said.

NGAP engine prototyping with GE and Pratt & Whitney is a change from the previous strategy, which envisioned just one engine provider in the prototyping phase. That change came because of increased NGAP funding, the Air Force has said.

Top Trump adviser Elon Musk has questioned the value of manned fighters, and manned NGAD does not appear on a list of 17 areas that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has said are safe from the eight percent in annual DoD cuts he envisions in the next few years.

Defense Watch: Meink Meeting, DoD Workforce, IMX 2025, New UAS, Space Milestones

Meink Meeting. The office of Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) says that he met on Thursday with Troy Meink, President Trump’s nominee for Air Force secretary. Wicker’s office said that the two discussed “challenges and opportunities in the future Air Force fleet structure, including sixth-generation aircraft, unmanned systems, and American dominance in space.” Meink has served as the principal deputy director of the National Reconnaissance Office. Nuclear modernization, national missile defense, and the Air Force’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft are on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s list of priorities that are to be safe from the 8 percent in annual cuts Hegseth has proposed, and Wicker indicated a similar train of thought–minus the manned Next Generation Air Dominance fighter–on Thursday regarding his priorities. “We have a lot of work to do to ensure that the Air and Space Forces own the skies and stars, including standing up the Next-Generation Air Dominance Fighter, accelerating the procurement of the Collaborative Combat Aircraft, preserving existing and effective Air Force fighters, and constructing platforms that will be critical to a future national missile defense system,” according to Wicker.

Probationary Blues.

The Defense Department last week said it expects to cut its civilian workforce between 5 and 8 percent, adding that beginning this week it will start to lay off 5,400 probationary workers followed by a hiring freeze. The department is “re-evaluating our probationary workforce” as it complies with President Trump’s direction for a more efficient and productive workforce, Darin Selnick acting under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness, wrote in a DoD-wide memo on Friday. The hiring freeze will remain in effect while the department analyzes its personnel needs, Selnick wrote. “As the Secretary made clear, it is simply not in the public interest to retain individuals whose contributions are not mission critical,” he said. “Taxpayers deserve to have us take a thorough look at our workforce top-to-bottom to see where we can eliminate redundancies.” Selnick also said employees will be “treated with dignity and respect” per usual.

IMX 2025. The largest Middle East maritime exercise, the International Maritime Exercise (IMX) 2025, concluded on Feb. 20. The ninth iteration of this 12-day event included 5,000 personnel from over 30 countries and organizations conducting exercises in the Persian Gulf, Gulf of Oman, Gulf of Aden, Red Sea and Indian Ocean. Exercise serials included diving, harbor security, mine countermeasures; unmanned systems and artificial intelligence integration; visit, board, search and seizure procedures; and global health management events.

New UAS. AeroVironment last week introduced its JUMP 20-X, a modular Group 3 unmanned aircraft system (UAS) designed for autonomous maritime and multi-domain operations. The fixed-wing JUMP 20-X uses artificial intelligence-powered autonomy for precise vertical take-off and landing on fast moving ships in rough seas, has a 13-hour endurance, is powered by a heavy fuel engine that can run on multiple fuel types, and features beyond-line-of-sight connectivity and a modular 30-pound multi-payload capacity for various missions, including precision strike. AV said its SPOTR-Edge computer vision technology also enables automated object detection and classification.

Logistics Help. Commercial prototypes successfully used to speed and automate Defense Department flight scheduling processes in support of global logistics operations are progressing into production contracts for wider use, the Defense Innovation Unit said last week. C3 AI developed an artificial intelligence-enabled dashboard for the Air Force’s Operational Energy Office to fuse aircraft sensor and mission data to analyze the effectiveness of operational energy initiatives, speeding up assessments from three days to two hours. The tool allows DoD to create more efficient flight protocols and lower fuel consumption while maintaining combat capability, DIU said. C3 AI has received a success memo for its prototype and is transitioning to production contracts that will allow other government organizations with similar needs to use the company’s solution.

…Google and AWS. Google Public Sector and Amazon Web Services also received prototype contracts in late 2022 for the flight scheduling effort. Google developed a user facing application for the Navy Air Logistics Office to create automate the creation of flight schedules based on lift requests, eliminating manual processes and optimizing fuel savings across the service. Google will receive bridge funding to transition to a production contract that will be used to mature into a potential program of record, DIU said. AWS modified its internal air logistics optimization engine the company developed for on-time global package delivery to support U.S. Transportation Command’s Air Mobility Command. DIU said AWS developed route options that reduced the number of aircraft needed by up to 50 percent, saved 12 percent in mission operation costs, and reduced delivery expenses by 10 percent. The AWS prototype is continuing through fiscal year 2025.

Space Milestones. Rocket Lab USA last Wednesday in New Zealand launched its 60th Electron rocket, lifting BlackSky Technology’s first Gen-3 Earth observation satellite into orbit. For Rocket Lab, the mission came 10 days after its previous Electron launch from the same complex, showcasing its increasing launch cadence. For BlackSky, which has used the Electron launch vehicle nine times since 2019, the successful orbiting of its 35-centimeter electro-optic imaging satellite “represents a major inflection point for our global defense and intelligence customer base as BlackSky introduces very high-resolution Gen-3 capabilities to our high-frequency, low-latency monitoring constellation,” Brian O’Toole, the company’s CEO, said in a statement.

GOLUM. U.S. Special Operations Command’s SOFWERX innovation arm and the Army are seeking a solution for a Gliding Offensive Lightweight Unmanned Munition (GOLUM) assessment event with an eventual goal of fielding a low-cost, lightweight, precision, unpowered, glide munition for launch from a lightweight uncrewed aircraft to fill a need for glide munitions smaller than the GBU-69 for Special Operations Forces. Submissions are due by March 10 and respondents with proposals deemed favorable will receive invitations by around March 18 to discuss their offers in April at the assessment event in Tampa, Fla. The government will use the event to negotiate potential awards.

Autonomy Management. Israel’s Elbit Systems last week unveiled Dominion-X, an open architecture platform for autonomously managing unmanned systems. “Dominion-X fosters human-swarm teaming, facilitating seamless interaction, influence, and behavioral inference,” Elbit said. “It delivers large-scale, distributed sensing capabilities with advanced information fusion and distillation for superior situational awareness and terrain dominance.”

DDG-116. The Arleigh-Burke class guided missile destroyer USS Thomas Hudner (DDG-116) left Naval Station Mayport, Fla., for the U.S. 4th Fleet area of operations on Feb. 18 to deploy to the U.S. Southern Command area to support bilateral and multinational maritime operations. Previously, DDG-116 finished serving an eight-month deployment with the Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group (CSG) in January, where it served as an air defense unit off the coast of Israel.

FMD DDG Equipment. Fairbanks Morse Defense’s American Fan business unit won multiple purchase orders to provide cooling and ventilation fans for 10 Flight III Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, the company said on Feb. 18. This includes gas turbine room blowers; collective protective system fans for ventilation against nuclear, biological and chemical substances; and vaneaxial and centrifugal fans for machinery room and general shipboard cooling and ventilation. This is an outgrowth of HII winning a multi-year procurement for seven Flight III DDGs in August 2023. The company said this specifically covers the future USS Thomas Kelley (DDG-140), Ernest E. Evans (DDG-141), Charles J. French (DDG-142), Richard J. Danzig (DDG-143), Michael G. Mullen (DDG-144), and DDGs 145-149.

New MoU. GM Defense and Emirati technology and defense firm EDGE signed a new memorandum of understanding this week at the International Defense Exhibition & Conference 2025 in Abu Dhabi to explore opportunities to offer light tactical vehicles for potential customers in the Middle East, Africa, Malaysia and Indonesia. “This strategic agreement marks a significant step toward localizing GM Defense’s advanced capabilities and expanding GM’s transformational technologies and investments into new global defense markets,” GM Defense President Steve duMont said in a statement. GM Defense will specifically work with EDGE’s NIMR Automotive to assess potential projects. “This collaboration reflects a shared vision to unlock new possibilities in defense solutions. By uniting EDGE’s regional insight, operational excellence, and established infrastructure with GM Defense’s technical expertise and industry leadership, we aim to create a powerful synergy that will drive innovative projects and elevate operational capabilities across key markets,” Khaled Al Zaabi, EDGE Group’s president of platforms and systems, said in a statement.

Arrington Returns. Katie Arrington, who previously led the Pentagon’s effort during the first Pentagon administration to establish new cyber security requirements for DoD contracting, announced on Feb. 18 her return to the department as chief information security officer. In May 2021, Arrington was placed on leave and had her security clearance revoked for allegedly sharing classified information from a military intelligence agency. Arrington then reached a settlement with the government in February 2022 and ultimately resigned from the Pentagon. Details of Arrington’s prior suspension have remained classified.

Senate Budget Blueprint. The Senate early on Feb. 21 voted 52-48 to pass a budget resolution that sets a blueprint for passing Trump administration priorities via the reconciliation process, to include spending $150 billion on defense over four years. “This budget resolution directs other Senate committees to find spending cuts to fully pay for the much-needed funding for border security and the U.S. military,” Senate Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said in a statement. The vote was largely along party lines, while Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) joined all Democrats in voting against the measure. Earlier in the week, President Trump endorsed the House GOP’s competing budget resolution that supports a one-bill process for reconciliation over the Senate’s two-step approach that would start with a defense-border security-energy bill before taking on a second measure focused on tax and spending cuts. “I hope the House can pass one big bill that meets President Trump’s priorities. But this approach provides money that we needed yesterday to continue the momentum on securing our border, enforcing our immigration laws, and rebuilding our military. Time is of the essence,” Graham said.

DoD Consulting Review. A new memo signed by Steven Morani, the Pentagon’s acting acquisition chief, directs the department’s components to conduct a review of their existing contracts for consulting services. “Each component’s review shall assess the essentiality of contracts…for the purpose of terminating or descoping contracts for activities that are not essential for the department to fulfill its statutory purposes,” Morani writes in the memo. The phased review will begin with validating contracts where DoD has placed a direct order under a General Services Administration contract vehicle for consulting services, before moving to a second phase focused on non-GSA consulting contracts. “Components shall take action to terminate, descope or forego exercising options for requirements determined to be non-essential as a result of this review,” Morani writes.