Page 87 – Defense Daily

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.

Space Radar Sensor Startup Kapta Emerges From Stealth With Goal To Lower Costs, Provide Target Tracks

Kapta Space, a startup developing advanced radar sensing technology for space platforms, last Friday announced a $5 million seed round as it emerged from stealth with an aim accelerate a space-based or near-space demonstration of its capabilities.

The company currently has five full-time employees with plans to double that by this summer to help continue development of the radar technology and likely begin with an airborne mission, Milton Perque, co-founder and CEO of Seattle-based Kapta, told Defense Daily

last Thursday. Kapta is also partnering with engineering organizations to leverage their expertise for certain aspects of the radar technology, he said.

The goal of a potential airborne assessment will be to prove the sensor can track a target or take a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) image using its electronically steered beam technology and then transition it to a space-based demonstration, Perque said.

Most of the interest in Kapta’s technology is coming from the Defense Department but the company believes its capability is a discriminator that will dramatically reduce imaging costs and be appealing to an array of commercial users for “economic and industrial decision making.” Kapta is touting 10 times or greater cost reductions compared with legacy space radar platforms.

These cost savings will be achieved through the electronically steered radar that enables “persistent and low-latency satellite constellations” with more frequent revisit rates, Kapta said.

“This novel approach to electronic beam steering provides much more high-rate area coverage than reflector-based radars, which must be mechanically pointed, and at a much lower cost and power consumption than phased arrays, which have historically been so expensive that only a few such sensors could be fielded, typically at reduced functionality,” Kapta said.

Kapta sees two main mission categories for its sensor data. One is SAR data and analytics, and the other is tactical tracking such as moving target indication (MTI). Perque said by scaling its technology Kapta can produce larger or smaller arrays for SAR, as well as ground and air MTI.

Perque and his co-founder, Adam Bily, have received classified briefings on MTI operating concepts, he said. Before founding Kapta in February 2023, Perque was with radar startup Echodyne and Bily was with satellite developer and manufacturer Astranis.

Before the company was founded, Kapta won a $1.8 millon direct to phase two small business innovation research contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency for the development of its technology.

The seed funding raise was led by MetaVC with participation from Entrada Ventures and Blue Collective.

Northrop Grumman and Hanwha Sign MOU For Korean Helo-Based Mine Detector

Northrop Grumman [NOC] signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Korea’s Hanwha to use it as a supplier for a mine detection system to be used by South Korea’s Countermeasures Helicopter (KMCH) program, the company said Thursday.

Previously, in 2023 Korea Aerospace Industries, Ltd. (KAI) awarded Northrop Grumman a contract to provide the AN/AES-1 Airborne Laser Mine Detection System (ALMDS) and technical support for the Engineering, Manufacturing and Design (EMD) phase of the South Korea’s Korean Mine Countermeasures Helicopter (KMCH) program. The EMD phase is due to be finished in 2027 (Defense Daily, Oct. 16, 2023).

Under this new agreement, Hanwha will support manufacturing ALMDS hardware components for the South Korean units. Northrop Grumman previously delivered ALMDS units to the U.S. Navy in the Littoral Combat Ship’s mine countermeasures mission package on MH-60S Seahawk helicopters and to the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF).

ALMDS detects, classifies and locates floating and near-surface moored mines from helicopters, in day or night operations. Northrop Grumman noted the system also provides target geo-location that supports later follow-on neutralization operations of the detected mines.

“Industry collaborations with companies such as Hanwha and KAI are key to Northrop Grumman’s approach to technology development across the globe. Our team is committed to delivering advanced solutions to meet the security needs of the Republic of Korea’s Ministry of National Defense,” Janice Zilch, vice president for multi-domain command and control programs at Northrop Grumman, said in a statement.

The companies did not disclose any monetary values in the future work.

Former Navy Acquisitions Chief Says Frigate Parent Design Mod Plan Flawed, ‘A Lot Harder Than It Sounds’

The former Navy acquisition chief this week admitted the Navy’s plan to modify a parent design for the Constellation-class frigate was more difficult than the service thought, leading to major ship design and production delays.

While the Navy usually made iterative changes to existing designs for years, “when we needed to make wholly new designs, we had a tendency to make additions or modifications to ship designs that were already in play somehow. Certainly, we saw that in the frigate acquisition,” Nickolas Guertin, former Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development, and Acquisition, said during a Feb. 19 event at the Hudson Institute.

Under the frigate program the Navy did a runoff and competition predicated on going fast by picking another hull and modifying it with U.S. Navy mission systems and weapons.

The Navy thought this way they could “make a smaller, more affordable surface combatant that we’ll be able to make in a higher volume – It turns out that modifying someone else’s design is a lot harder than it sounds,” Guertin said.

He noted there is research on the “fallacy of mod repeat, whereas sometimes you’re just better off designing a new ship.”

However, Guertin said since both the government and the domestic shipbuilding industry don’t have a “bench depth” to design ships affordably and quickly, they went with the parent design path.

In 2020 the Navy ultimately awarded Fincantieri Marinette Marine the initial $795 million contract to design and build the first 10 frigates, expected to cost upward of $5.6 billion (Defense Daily, Oct. 8, 2020).

The frigate is based on the French and Italian FREMM frigate design, but the U.S.-based subsidiary had not designed or modified a ship design themselves before. Previously, the company produced the Lockheed Martin [LMT]-led Freedom-variant LCS.

Last year, the Navy admitted the frigate is running about three years behind schedule due to slow design completion as well as workforce issues (Defense Daily, April 3, 2024).

In December, Rear Adm. Kevin Smith, Program Executive Officer for Unmanned and Small Combatants (PEO USC), underscored this was the first time Marinette Marine worked as a prime shipbuilder in the U.S. dealing with design and workforce issues (Defense Daily, Dec. 12, 2024).

Guertin said this already-flawed parent design path was exacerbated by contract choices.

“Because that was the path we chose, we thought, well, we can do a detailed design construction contract – all at once. So we’re going to fix price the iteration of a design to suit our national and military needs, and then also fix price as a part of the same deal.”

He argued that given his design experience, in order to go fast and complete the design quickly, they needed to do enough upfront work like modeling, prototyping and risk reduction analysis.

official portrait ofNickolas Guertin, former assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition — Nickolas Guertin, former assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition. (Photo: Defense Department)

“You have to be careful about how you go fast. Well, we weren’t particularly careful about that, because we did the detail design and construction contract all at once, fixed price the design and fixed price the outcome of that design into a constructed ship. That did not work out.”

Guertin also emphasized that in military construction the customer has major input to how things are built, but that was not considered in how the contract was put together.

He said he helped direct sending government engineers and naval architects to work with the industry design teams together in Wisconsin at the shipbuilder’s facility, which “arrested the decay of getting our design work done and then accelerated it.”

This sought to make it so all the players “could grind their way through that design process to get to the point where it would be a stable design, robust and ready, so that we could start cranking those ships out and even compete that design, which was always a part of the acquisition for that ship anyway.”

He also stipulated ship design does not need to be 100 percent done before any construction work can start, using the example of starting the keel if the bottom sections of the ship design are complete.

“There’s a valid reason to start some construction before all of the design is done. We’ve had a tendency to start that construction process too early and not have it all worked out before making that big commitment.”

In contrast, Guertin claimed the Navy did a much better job on risk reduction before construction started on the Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines, despite that program running over a year late.

“We did that marvelously with Columbia. We thought through the propulsion plant, we worked out how to build the missile tubes, we borrowed the defensive combat system from the Virginia-class, and the whole iterative and incremental, swiftest program that I helped put together years ago, so that we de-risked that ship.”

Even though the Columbia-class submarine is now running late, “it is the least late of all the new design construction projects that we have, because we did all that hard upfront risk mitigation before committing to production,” he added.

Truman Carrier Commander Relieved After Collision

The Navy on Thursday said the commanding officer of the aircraft carrier that collided with a merchant vessel last week was relieved of command.

The Nimitz-class carrier USS

Harry S. Truman (CVN-75) collided with the bulk carrier merchant vessel Mesiktas-M near Port Said, Egypt on Feb. 12. CVN-75 was headed back to the Red Sea while the merchant vessel was on its way to Constanta, Romania (Defense Daily, Feb. 13).

The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman arrives at the NATO Marathi Pier Complex in Souda Bay, Crete, Greece, in February 2025. — The *Nimitz*-class aircraft carrier USS *Harry S.* *Truman* (CVN-75) arrives at the NATO Marathi Pier Complex in Souda Bay, Crete, Greece, during a scheduled port visit on Feb. 6, 2025. (Photo: U.S. Navy by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Andrew Eder)

Capt. Dave Snowden, commanding the ship since December 2023, was relieved by Rear Adm. Sena Bailey, commander of Carrier Strike Group 8. Snowden is being temporarily assigned to Naval Air Forces Atlantic. Truman’s interim commanding officer will now be Capt. Christopher Hill, commanding officer of the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69).

CVN-69 is undergoing scheduled maintenance at Norfolk Naval Shipyard after it finished a nine-month deployment to U.S. Central Command and European Commands last July.

“The U.S. Navy holds commanding officers to the highest standard and takes action to hold them accountable when those standards are not met. Naval leaders are entrusted with significant responsibilities to their Sailors and their ships,” the Navy said in a statement.

The service argued relieving the commanding officer will not impact CVN-75’s mission or schedule.

The Truman started repairs at U.S. Naval Support Activity Souda Bay, Greece on Feb. 16 under an Emergent Repair Availability (Defense Daily, Feb. 19).

The Navy said the collision has not endangered the carrier and that an aircraft elevator near the collision point was not damaged. Damage is limited to the exterior wall of two storage rooms and a maintenance space, a line handling space, the fantail and a platform above a storage space.

Top Senate Defense Appropriator McConnell Won’t Seek Reelection In 2026

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), the upper chamber’s top defense appropriator, said Thursday he will not seek reelection in 2026.

McConnell will end his four-decade career after having served as the longest-tenured Senate leader in U.S. history, a role he stepped down from ahead of the current Congress and as he took over as chair of the Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee.

Maj. Gen. Brett Sylvia, commanding general of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) and Fort Campbell, speaks with Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) before the VOLAR barracks ribbon-cutting ceremony on Aug. 27, 2024, at Fort Campbell, Ky. Photo by Staff Sgt. Kaden Pitt, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault)

“Seven times, my fellow Kentuckians have sent me to the Senate. Every day in between I’ve been humbled by the trust they’ve placed in me to do their business here. Representing our Commonwealth has been the honor of a lifetime,” McConnell said in remarks on the Senate floor on Thursday. “I will not seek this honor an eighth time. My current term in the Senate will be my last.”

McConnell, who had served as the Senate Republican leader since 2007, assumed the coveted SAC-D chairmanship from Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont,), who lost his reelection bid, and after the GOP regained majority control of the chamber (Defense Daily, Nov. 21 2024).

“I think this is the most dangerous time since right before World War II. Our adversaries – the North Koreans, the Chinese, Russians, Iran and Iran’s proxies – are all talking to each other. They have one thing in common, they hate us. And they want to diminish our role in the world,” McConnell said previously. “We need to ramp up defense spending in order to prevent a direct conflict with our adversaries. It’s a lot cheaper to prevent war than it is to have one. So that’s the focus I’m going to have for the next couple years.”

In December, McConnell wrote in a Foreign Affairs piece that the U.S.’ almost $900 billion defense topline is “not nearly enough” and urged the incoming Trump administration to support “a significant and sustained” defense spending boost (Defense Daily, Dec. 16 2024).

McConnell represents the Army’s Fort Campbell, home of the 101st Airborne Division, as well as Fort Knox and the Blue Grass Army Depot, and recently touted the Army’s decision to award Repkon USA a contract worth up to $435 million to build a new TNT facility in Graham, Kentucky that will restart domestic production (Defense Daily, Nov. 8 2024).

With McConnell’s retirement, the most senior Republicans on SAC-D that could look to take helm of the panel include Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine), the current SAC chair, Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) or Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who currently leads the Senate Budget Committee.

Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) is the current top Democrat on SAC-D and would likely shift from his ranking member role to the chairmanship if Democrats retake their majority following the 2026 midterms.

McConnell was one of three Republicans, along with Collins and Murkowski, who voted with all Democrats in opposing Pete Hegseth’s nomination to be defense secretary (Defense Daily, Jan. 24).

“Effective management of nearly 3 million military and civilian personnel, an annual budget of nearly $1 trillion, and alliances and partnerships around the world is a daily test with staggering consequences for the security of the American people and our global interests,” McConnell said in a statement ahead of Hegseth’s confirmation. “Mr. Hegseth has failed, as yet, to demonstrate that he will pass this test. But as he assumes office, the consequences of failure are as high as they have ever been.”

SASC Chair Supports Hegseth’s DoD Budget Review, Plan To Cut And Move Billions To New Priorities

The Republican chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee said Thursday he supports Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s plan to “review the entire budget” at the Pentagon to find around $50 billion that can be cut and shifted to Trump administration priorities.

Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) offered his comments following the Pentagon’s confirmation on Wednesday evening that Hegseth has directed DoD officials to cut 8 percent from the pending fiscal year 2026 budget request, put together under the Biden administration, that can be redirected to other programs.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth holds a town hall meeting for Department of Defense personnel at the Pentagon, Washington, D.C., Feb. 7, 2025. (DoD photo by U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Madelyn Keech)

“This process will enable the secretary to offset needless and distracting programs – such as those focused on climate change and DEI – and direct focus on important warfighting priorities shared by the Congress,” Wicker said in a statement.

Wicker has previously detailed an agenda to boost U.S. defense spending to five percent of GDP, likely pushing the Pentagon’s topline over the trillion-dollar mark (Defense Daily, May 29 2024).

Hegseth’s memo specifically directed DoD officials to identify cuts to “low-impact and low-priority Biden-legacy programs” in the FY ‘26 budget requests, with those offsets used to boost funds for “President Trump’s America First priorities for our national defense, according to acting Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert Salesses.

“The Department of Defense is conducting this review to ensure we are making the best use of the taxpayers’ dollars in a way that delivers on President Trump’s defense priorities efficiently and effectively,” Salesses said in a statement. “Through our budgets, the Department of Defense will once again resource warfighting and cease unnecessary spending that set our military back under the previous administration, including through so-called ‘climate change’ and other woke programs, as well as excessive bureaucracy. The time for preparation is over – we must act swiftly to deter current and impending threats and make the best use of taxpayers’ dollars in doing so.”

While Hegseth’s full memo has not been publicly released yet, the Washington Post reported that the directive extends beyond this budget cycle and calls for officials to find 8 percent of the budget that can be cut and redirected to new priorities each of the next five years.

It remains to be seen which programs will be targeted for cuts, while reports on Hegseth’s memo noted a list of 17 categories that are exempt, to include: border security activities, nuclear modernization, the Air Force’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft program, the Navy’s Virginia-class submarines, homeland missile defense, counter-drone initiatives, munitions efforts and more.

Hegseth earlier this month said his focus on “rebuilding the military” will include rapidly fielding new technologies and scrutinizing the effectiveness of legacy programs for future deterrence and potential conflict (Defense Daily, Feb. 7).

Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), the top Democrat on SASC, stated the memo could lead to the Pentagon making “hasty, indiscriminate budget cuts,” which coincides with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) turnings its attention to DoD as it looks to inform potential workforce reductions.

“These types of hasty, indiscriminate budget cuts would betray our military forces and their families and make America less safe. I’m all for cutting programs that don’t work, but this proposal is deeply misguided. Secretary Hegseth’s rushed, arbitrary strategy would have negative impacts on our security, economy, and industrial base,” Reed said in a statement.

Hegseth said earlier this month the Pentagon will partner with the DOGE to take a look at where cuts can be made at the department (Defense Daily, Feb. 10).

Shortly after Hegseth’s confirmation in late January, the Army confirmed it was “conducting a review” of its current solicitations and planned contract awards as new leadership takes the helm of the Pentagon, while noting that current contracting activities continued to move forward (Defense Daily, Jan. 28).

Roman Schweizer, an analyst with TD Cowen, said in a note on Thursday that there’s likely to be “considerable concern” on the wide swath of programs that are not on the exemption list and therefore could be subject to cuts.

“Based on DoD’s statement, this is not a cut in DoD’s top line,” Schweizer wrote. “We expect uncertainty about major programs until the FY26 budget is released.”

The release date for the FY ‘26 budget request remains uncertain amid the new review, while Hegseth is expected to receive a plan back soon from DoD officials with areas to target for cuts.

Reps. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) and Adam Smith (D-Wash.), the chair and ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee respectively, sent letters to the military service chiefs last week asking them to identify “obsolete” weapons systems and other possible areas for reductions (Defense Daily, Feb. 14).

Meanwhile, Trump said last Thursday he intends to meet with the leaders of China and Russia to propose that all three nations agree to cut their military budgets “in half,” which stands in stark contrast to his own prior remarks and the view among senior GOP lawmakers that the U.S., and its NATO allies should push to boost defense spending (Defense Daily, Feb. 14).

SDA to Re-Bid Tyvak’s Contract for 10 Gamma T2TL Satellites After Viasat Protest

The Space Development Agency (SDA) will cancel a contract with Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems and issue a new solicitation for 10 spacecraft following a bid protest by Viasat [VSAT].

Viasat filed a suit in September in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims related to the August 2024 SDA awards to Tyvak and York Space Systems to build and operate 10 satellites each for the Tranche 2 Transport Layer (T2TL) – Gamma variant.

According to a status update from the government in publicly available case documents, a government investigation found that an SDA employee’s communications with Tyvak impacted the award decision and violated the Procurement Integrity Act.

The investigation found this did not impact the award made to York Space Systems, which will continue working on its contract.

According to the documents, the Space Development Agency will take corrective action of terminating Tyvak’s agreement, and draft and issue a new T2TL Gamma solicitation. In addition, the former source selection official (SSO) and source selection advisory council chair are recused from the competition.

Aviation Week first reported the decision this week that SDA will recompete the contract. Earlier this year, Breaking Defense reported that former Space Development Agency chief Derek Tournear’s placement on administrative leave was related to this bid protest. The SDA now has a new acting director, William Blauser.

According to the documents, Blauser deliberated over whether the SDA should recompete the 10 space vehicles. The T2TL Gamma prototype could inform the SDA’s Tranche 3 that it intends to solicit this fall.

“While SDA believes the requirement for an additional 10 SVs currently remains and justifies the expenditure of a significant amount of money, further delays in this competition could require SDA to re-evaluate the requirement,” the government said.

The Tyvak prototype agreement announced in 2024 was worth $254 million. York’s award is worth $170 million.

Tyvak is now part of Lockheed Martin after Lockheed acquired its parent company Terran Orbital last year.

According to the SDA’s original T2TL Gamma solicitation, these space vehicles are set to include optical communications terminals to support in-plane and cross-plane links, links to terrestrial OCTs (ground, air, and maritime), and links to compatible space vehicles external to the Transport Layer.

This story was first published by Via Satellite

Ortberg Nabs RTX Government Affairs Chief For Same Role At Boeing

Boeing [BA] on Thursday said it has hired Jeff Shockey as its new chief lobbyist, replacing Ziad Ojakli, who left the company in December after holding the job since October 2021.

Shockey previously was senior vice president of global government relations at RTX [RTX], a job he held since August 2021 when he left Boeing after nearly six years there, first as head of federal affairs and international policy, then as the defense segment’s top executive for global sales and marketing.

Shockey’s appointment as executive vice president of government operations, global public policy, and corporate strategy is effective Feb. 24. He will report to Kelly Ortberg, Boeing president and CEO, and serve on the executive council.

“Jeff’s tremendous record of accomplishment across more than 30 years in government, government relations and business development will be an asset as we work to restore trust with key government stakeholders,” Ortberg said in a statement. “His prior experience at Boeing and across the commercial and defense industry will support our ongoing focus on strengthening our culture and building a new future for Boeing based on a strong foundation of safety, quality, and performance.”

Shockey also worked on Capitol Hill for 15 years, the first eight as legislative director for former Republican Congressman Jerry Lewis (Calif.), later as staff and deputy director of the House Appropriations Committee, and then a year-long stint with the House Intelligence Committee as staff director before making his first move to Boeing.

Sullivan-Cramer Bill Would Upgrade PARCS Radar

Upgrade of Cavalier Space Force Station, N.D.’s AN/FPQ-16 Perimeter Acquisition Radar Attack Characterization System (PARCS) radar, originally built by General Electric [GE] in the 1970s, is a provision in a bill introduced this month by Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) and Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.)–both members of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC).

The secretary of defense shall use all available authorities “to accelerate the modernization and digitization” of PARCS “to improve detection of intercontinental and sea-launched missile threats, as well as improve space domain awareness capabilities,” according to S. 435, the Increasing Response Options and Deterrence of Missile Engagements (Iron Dome) Act.

The senators introduced their bill for SASC consideration on Feb. 5–nine days after President Trump signed an executive order for a multi-billion dollar Iron Dome space-based interceptor project (Defense Daily, Jan. 28).

Upgraded early warning radars (UEWR) and PARCS are to provide long-range missile warning and detect objects in orbit for the Space Surveillance Network’s “space domain awareness.”

In 2023, U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command’s awarded Science Applications International Corp. [SAIC] a nearly $575 million ground-based radar maintenance and sustainment (GMASS) competitive contract to support UEWR and PARCS (Defense Daily, Aug. 29, 2023).

GMASS is a follow-on to the Sustainment and Modification of Radar Sustainment Sensor (SMORS) contract. The Air Force awarded Northrop Grumman [NOC] an $866 million SMORS contract on June 1, 2018.

The Sullivan-Cramer bill contains other missile defense provisions to align with the Trump EO, including accelerated development of the Glide Phase Interceptor against hypersonic missiles and the expansion of “Next Generation Interceptor production and silo construction at Fort Greely, Alaska, to field a minimum of 80 interceptors at Fort Greely for defense of the United States to be completed not later than January 1, 2038.”

In addition, the legislation would permit middle tier of acquisition rapid prototyping for additional tranches of the Space Development Agency’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture and for a drone network “for both forward deployed armed forces and homeland defense capable of detecting through audio sensing technology the approach of advanced missiles, including advanced cruise missiles and hypersonic missiles.”