Page 89 – Defense Daily

AFGSC Conducts Test of Unarmed Minuteman III

U.S. Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC) said on Wednesday that it conducted a routine, reliability flight test of an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile at 1 a.m. Pacific time from Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif.

As in previous tests, the reentry vehicle traveled about 4,200 miles to the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command’s Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site at the Kwajalein Atoll.

In November, the Department of the Air Force conducted a test of multiple warheads on Minuteman III (Defense Daily, Nov. 7, 2024).

On Wednesday, Vandenberg’s 377th Test and Evaluation Group, DoD’s ICBM test organization, “collected and analyzed performance and other key data points to evaluate current missile system competencies,” Col. Dustin Harmon, the group commander, said in an AFGSC statement. “This allows our team to analyze and report accuracy and reliability for the current system while validating projected missile system improvements. The data we collect and analyze is crucial for maintaining Minuteman III while we pave the way for Sentinel.”

The Boeing [BA] Minuteman III, which uses the W78 and W87 warheads, is to be replaced by the Northrop Grumman [NOC] LGM-35A Sentinel in the mid- to late-2030s.

A significant question for the Sentinel program will be the feasibility and extent of re-using equipment, including Minuteman siloes, fielded between 1962 and 1967, to house the thicker Sentinel missiles. Fiber optic, high-bandwidth cables to replace the Minuteman III’s underground network of the copper wired Hardened Intersite Cable System may allow a halving of the number of ICBM Launch Control Centers from the 45 now under the three ICBM bases.

In January last year, the Department of the Air Force said that Sentinel had breached Nunn-McCurdy guidelines, primarily due to construction design changes, and the Air Force last summer rescinded the Sentinel Milestone B engineering and manufacturing development go ahead from 2020 (Defense Daily, July 8, 2024).

True Anomaly Expanding Into California’s ‘Space Beach’ With New Production Capacity

Defense spacecraft and software company True Anomaly on Thursday said it is expanding beyond its Colorado roots by adding new development and production capacity in Southern California as part of the existing aerospace ecosystem there and to position itself for expected declines in launch costs.

The 90,000 square foot facility in Long Beach will include 70,000 square feet for design, development and production of space systems and the remaining portion will be used as office space for the company’s growing employee base. Long Beach will serve as True Anomaly’s new product development center for new payloads and spacecraft design, and allow more classified operations.

The company is expecting launch costs to fall dramatically once SpaceX completes development of its Starship super heavy lift launch vehicle.

Long Beach is known as “Space Beach,” close to the U.S. Space Systems Command, an important customer, and contractors such as SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Northrop Grumman [NOC]. True Anomaly last year received a contract from the command to provide its Jackal spacecraft as part of the VICTUS HAZE Tactically Responsive Space mission (Defense Daily, April 11, 2024).

“At a time when space is the most promising physical frontier for human exploration as well as an emerging battlefield, our new campus gives us an important edge,” Even Rogers, co-founder and CEO of True Anomaly, said in a statement. “The local aerospace ecosystem will allow us to accelerate the design and production of breakthrough technologies that address dynamic new threats on orbit.”

True Anomaly currently has 150 employees and expects to double that this year. The company is based in Centennial, Colo., near Denver where it designs and manufactures the Jackal autonomous orbit vehicle in a 35,000 square foot facility. That facility is roughly evenly split between office and factory space.

The company also has its Mission Control center in Colorado Springs, Colo., as its primary facility for flying spacecraft, and an office in Washington, D.C.

State Department OKs $84 Million Bomb Sale To Romania

The State Department approved a potential $84 million Foreign Military Sale of hundreds of GBU-39B Small Diameter Bombs (SDB-1) to Romania.

The Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress of the sale on Feb. 18.

The sale specifically covers 400 Boeing [BA] GBU-39B Small Diameter Bombs and two GBU-39 (T-1)/B inert practice bombs with fuze alongside training rounds; Common Munitions Built-In-Test (BIT)/Reprogramming Equipment (CMBRE); ADU-890E Computer Test Set Adapter Groups;containers and various other support, training and program support elements.

The agency said the bombs will help Romania increase its ability to deter and defend against threats and participate in NATO coalition air operations.

This follows a similar $86 million sale approved Dec. 20 for 500 GBU-39Bs to India (Defense Daily, Dec. 23, 2024).

Kratos Confirms Hypersonic Test Bed Uses Erinyes Vehicle

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions [KTOS] confirmed tests of the Missile Defense Agency’s (MDA) hypersonic test bed have used its Erinyes vehicle.

On Jan. 13 MDA conducted its second flight

experiment of the Hypersonic Test Bed (HTB), in the Hypersonic Test Bed-2 (HTB-2) flight test from NASA Wallops Flight Facility, Va. (Defense Daily, Jan. 15).

HTB is a glide vehicle meant to be a common platform to host experiments in hypersonic vehicles and targeting. In these initial tests it is launched from a sounding rocket.

The company said this flight specifically expanded the vehicle’s performance envelope and demonstrated its utility as a “low-cost, rapidly configurable test bed” for hypersonic experiments.

Kratos also noted HTB-2 demonstrated new technologies onboard and provided data to be used for design validation and evaluation of current and future technologies.

“Kratos is leading the way in U.S. hypersonic research by affordably and repeatably providing real flight test opportunities to researchers, allowing them to gain valuable experience in relevant conditions and push the Technology Readiness Levels of their products higher,” Dave Carter, President of Kratos DRSS, said in a statement.

Carter emphasized use of the Erinyes helps DoD with incremental high-seed testing for next generation weapons and interceptors “without adding unnecessary risk to programs of record.”

Eric DeMarco, president and CEO of Kratos, boasted success in systems like the Erinyes “have proven the thesis that hypersonic capabilities can be affordable and rapidly developed and deployed, advancing U.S. readiness. The MDA and United States Navy truly lean forward with ready to fly today systems, technologies and relevant capabilities, and Kratos sincerely values our relationship and the focus on affordability and moving fast for the benefit of our country’s National Security.”

DIU Nearing Refresh Of Approved Drones To Include Group 3, FPV, And Tethered Systems

The Defense Innovation Unit has narrowed a competitive list of drones and related equipment to a few dozen as it finalizes an updated list of systems cleared for use by military operators and other government users.

The list of 23 drones going through the final verification for inclusion on the Blue UAS List for the first time include Group 3 systems—which have a maximum weight greater than 55 pounds and less than 1,320 pounds—first person view (FPV) drones—which carry a warhead and are remotely steered by pilots into their target—and tethered drones.

Shield AI’s V-BAT, a Group 3 UAS, made the list. Other companies and their qualified drones include Hoverfly’s Spectre, Neros Technologies’ Archer, ModalAI’s Stalker, Zone 5 Technologies’ Paladin, Teledyne FLIR’s [TDY] Black Hornet, Parrot’s Anavi UKR, Skyfront’s Perimeter 8, Mountain Horse Solutions’ Rotron DT-300, Vantage Robotics’ Trace, Easy Aerial’s Sparrow, Edge Autonomy’s VXE-30 Stalker, Skyfall’s Vampire, Quantum Systems’ Vector, AeroVironment’s [AVAV] Dragon, Zepher’s Flight Z1, Kraus Hamdani Aerospace’s K1000, Teal’s Black Widow, Freefly Systems’ Astro, Skydio’s X10D, Flightwave’s Edge 130, PDW’s C100, and Anduril Industries’ Ghost and GhostX.

The Neros Archer and Hoverfly Spectre have already received Authority to Operate (ATO), which is the last step in achieving verification with requirements directed by Congress in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and a cyber security review. A DIU spokesperson said the unit is on track to publish ATOs for all drones that pass the NDAA and cyber security verification process by the end of April.

Companies and their components and capabilities on the Blue UAS Framework are Vertiq’s electronic speed control, Locus Lock’s global navigation satellite system receiver, Pierce Aerospace’s B1 remote ID beacon, Mobilicom’s Skyhopper PRO/Pro Lite datalinks, ARK Electronics’ flight controller, RPX Technologies’ EmbIR camera, Greensight’s UltraBlue and MicroBlue avionics stacks, TILT Autonomy’s lightweight Starlink Power over Ethernet device, Athena AI’s computer vision software, Auterion Government Solutions Skynode S flight control and mission compute solution for automated tracking and terminal engagement for attritable systems, Doodle Labs’ Wi-Fi transceivers, SensorOps SynDOJO, Primordial Labs’ Anura human-machine interface, and UVX Technologies’ swappable radio module.

The Blue UAS Framework list consists of interoperable, NDAA compliance UAS components and software.

Being on the Blue UAS List and Framework makes it easier for Defense Department end users to acquire these capabilities.

Following three days of assessments last November at the Blue UAS Challenge at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, Calif., the 23 platforms and 14 components and capabilities were selected by service evaluators to go through the NDAA and cyber security reviews. The systems and components were chosen from 369 proposals from companies in the U.S. and 18 foreign countries.

DIU plans on hosting annual competitive challenges to update the Blue UAS List and Framework. Platforms on the current Blue UAS List had to compete to remain on the updated list.

RTX Completes Subsystem Tests For Stinger Replacement Offering, Eyes Flight Test In 2025

RTX [RTX] has completed a series of successful subsystem tests with its offering for the Army’s Stinger missile replacement competition, the company said Tuesday, as it readies for a flight test demonstration later in 2025.

The weapon offering for the Next Generation Short Range Interceptor (NGSRI) program specifically went through 10 subsystem demonstrations, RTX’s Raytheon business unit noted, to include testing the capability’s seeker, flight rocket motor, warhead assembly and more.

U.S. Army paratroopers assigned to the 173rd Airborne Brigade fire a FIM-92 Stinger during an air defense live-fire exercise alongside soldiers with the Croatian Air Defense Regiment. This training is part of Exercise Shield 22 at Kamenjak near Medulin, Croatia on April 8, 2022. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. John Yountz)

“These successful subsystem demonstrations are a crucial step in meeting the U.S. Army’s range and performance requirements for this transformational short-range air defense capability,” Tom LaLiberty, Raytheon’s president of land and air defense systems, said in a statement. “We are confident in our ability to rapidly deliver the Army an affordable, low-risk, highly producible NGSRI solution.”

The Army in March 2023 confirmed it had selected RTX and Lockheed Martin [LMT] for the NGSRI competitive effort to develop a replacement for the Stinger missile, which has been manufactured by RTX (Defense Daily, March 28, 2023).

After two years of development work, the Army has stated plans to hold a “shoot-off” in the near future to inform next steps in the program and as it eyes a Milestone C decision around the second quarter of fiscal year 2028 to move the Stinger replacement effort into production (Defense Daily, June 25 2024).

“Then, based on affordability aspects that have yet to be determined, we may continue to carry two vendors or we may downselect to one and then go into a three-year, very intense, aggressive developmental effort to try to get to a material solution that I can transition into potentially a major acquisition pathway,” Maj. Gen. Frank Lozano, the Army’s program executive officer for missiles and space, told reporters previously.

The Army has previously said it’s seeking a replacement missile for the Stinger “to meet increasing demand and growing threat capability,” noting the Stinger-Reprogrammable Microprocessor will become obsolete in FY ‘23 and that the “current Stinger inventory is in decline.”

RTX said its subsystem tests with its offering’s advanced seeker “demonstrated maximum range acquisition far exceeding Stinger in both laboratory and outdoor environments” and its rocket motor “demonstrated the ability to extend the intercept range of maneuver short-range air defense engagements.”

The remaining demonstrations included testing the weapon’s command launch assembly to achieve “enhanced range for operator detection and identification of aerial targets in real-world, low-visibility environments,” “arena testing of the missile warhead assembly demonstrated precise and repeatable lethality against a broad spectrum of aerial threats” and critical missile functions, including tracking, guidance, aerodynamic control, fuzing and safety, according to RTX.

RTX said the next phase of the NGSRI program will focus on soldier touchpoint events to gather feedback on the Stinger replacement offerings.

The NGSRI program is the third increment of the Army’s Maneuver Short-Range Air Defense (M-SHORAD) initiative, with the first increment focused on the Stryker-mounted SHORAD equipment package and a second on integrating a 50-kilowatt laser on a Stryker.

Saronic Raises $600 Million With Sights On Building Modern Shipyard For Big Autonomous Vessels

Autonomous surface vessel developer and manufacturer Saronic has closed a $600 million funding round for a downpayment on a new waterside shipyard the company has conceived around advanced manufacturing methods for the design and construction of vessels far larger than its current family of products.

Saronic will discuss with federal and state governments the “best strategic location” of Port Alpha, which the company will invest “billions of dollars” in over the life of the shipyard, Dino Mavrookas, co-founder and CEO, told reporters on Tuesday. The exact timing on when Port Alpha will be operating has not been settled but will be “well within five years,” he said, noting the company will move at “Saronic speed,” which is “extremely fast.”

The Series C funding raises brings to $850 million the two-year-old Austin, Texas-based company has raised in private capital. Last week, Saronic announced it has acquired a new 420,000 square foot facility in Austin that will be fully operational later this year manufacturing its small autonomous surface vessels (ASVs), increasing its current footprint to about 520,000 square feet.

Company officials declined to give specifics on the sizes of the medium and large ASVs that will be produced at Port Alpha.

Rob Lehman, a co-founder and chief commercial officer, said the company is “actively designing” the medium and large ASVs to address the “sphere of wants, needs, and requirements that we’re seeing and hearing from across our customer sets.” Saronic is navigating demand based on the Navy’s current needs and what is in the planning stages, he said, adding the company is not waiting around to position itself to deliver capability that will be needed.

Mavrookas said, “There’s no upward limit on what we’re going to build.”

Later in the media roundtable, Mavrookas said that the larger vessels that will be built at Port Alpha get after the Navy’s goal of a hybrid fleet that is 40 to 50 percent autonomous, which means 300 to 325 ships to complement the service’s manned combatants. On top of that is the thousands of smaller ASVs, he said.

The larger ASVs will be built “10 times” faster, cheaper, and better than current ships and, if produced at “the right price points,” it will make their maintenance and sustainment over a 40-year or 50-year life-cycle is just obsolete,” he said.

“We want to build those as attritable autonomous platforms that are produced economically at scale,” Mavrookas said. “Economically for a large autonomous service combatant is a different price point than it is for a 24-foot small unmanned service vessel. But it’s also not a $2 billion price tag like the current DDG [destroyer].”

Saronic’s current fleet of ASVs includes the six-foot Spyglass, 14-foot Cutlass, and most recently the 24-foot Corsair, which is designed to keep up with the Navy’s surface fleet (Defense Daily, Oct. 23, 2024). Lehman said Saronic is “going big on Port Alpha” to meet current and future Navy needs, so “we don’t want to come up short on how we lay down this footprint.”

Legacy shipbuilders are struggling with workforce issues, including attrition, shortages, and the need to replace more skilled craftsman that have left the trade with unskilled labor. Port Alpha will not face the same constraints as builders of manned surface combatants, Lehman said.

“So, when you take the human out of it, from the keel up from day one, and you’re not converting a manned platform design to be an unmanned vessel, it really unlocks some of the advanced manufacturing techniques, robotics, and kind of throughput enhancing technologies that are available,” Lehman said. Saronic is working with the Navy to meet their requirements for unmanned vessels and “not tying ourselves to policies and certifications that were born from a…manned fleet.”

Saronic’s large ASVs will require welders that to a degree are doing work similar to that being done by legacy shipbuilders, but the new unmanned ships will not suffer from the same constraints, he said.

“And, look, at the end of the day…when you are not constrained by legacy infrastructure, and you’re not applying band aids to existing workforce and capabilities, that really opens the aperture,” Lehman said.

The funding round was led by investor Elad Gil and includes General Catalyst as a new backer. Existing investors a16z, Caffeinated Capital, and 8VC also participated. The investment values Saronic at $4 billion.

MH-139A Begins Initial Operational Test and Evaluation

The Boeing [BA] and Leonardo MH-139A Grey Wolf has begun initial operational test and evaluation (IOT&E), the U.S. Air Force said.

“Three MH-139 IOT&E flights took place during the week of Jan. 27, 2025, demonstrating the aircraft’s capabilities,” according to the 341st Missile Wing at Malmstrom AFB, Mont. “One test evaluated the aircraft’s ability to support a convoy, assessing communication systems and general convoy support operations. The other two tests focused on emergency response, specifically launch facility recapture and recovery – measuring response times from idle to airborne. The helicopters responded to a simulated threat with a full tactical response force load-out and onboard weapons.”

A recent Pentagon directorate of operational test and evaluation (DOT&E) annual report, completed before the start of MH-139A IOT&E, said that the MH-139A program “needs to address several challenges for the MH-139A to be operationally suitable. DOT&E noted concerns, including that engine ingestion of dust and debris may cause long-term maintenance issues if not resolved.”

“This is in addition to previously reported concerns about engine maintenance caused by expansion of the aircraft flight envelope and higher power requirements,” the study said. “Moreover, carbon buildup has been identified in several parts of the aircraft’s engine including the engine fuel nozzles.”

The 908th Flying Training Unit at Maxwell AFB, Ala., is to become the formal training unit for the MH-139A, which is to replace the Bell [TXT] UH-1N Hueys for support of the ICBM missile fields and for contingency transport of government leaders in the Washington, D.C., area.

Last year, Boeing delivered the first Grey Wolf production helicopter to Malmstrom as part of the Air Force’s low-rate initial production (LRIP) buy of 13 MH-139As (Defense Daily, Aug. 5, 2024).

In March last year, after the Air Force approved MH-139A LRIP, the Air Force awarded Boeing a $285 million contract for those first 13 MH-139s.

The MH-139A is based on Leonardo’s commercial AW139 helicopter.

Last April, an Air Force fiscal 2025 budget hearing before the House Appropriations Committee’s defense panel revealed that the MH-139A, like the next generation Northrop Grumman [NOC] LGM-35A Sentinel ICBM, had breached Nunn-McCurdy defense program cost provisions, first enacted in the fiscal 1983 defense authorization act (Defense Daily, May 1). Law requires DoD to notify Congress of unit cost overruns of 15 percent and above in major defense acquisition programs.

The Grey Wolf’s Nunn-McCurdy breach followed a decision in the Air Force’s fiscal 2025 budget to reduce the planned buy of 80 MH-139As–six development and 74 production aircraft–to 42.

“With a 50 percent increase in speed and range and a 5,000 pound-pound increase in max gross weight compared it is predecessor, the MH-139A can execute multiple mission sets,” Boeing has said. “Combined with lower operating costs, increased reliability and improved maintainability, the aircraft provides improved capability and greater flexibility for the U.S. Air Force.”

After Backlash, White House Reverses Most NNSA Terminations

The Trump administration paused on firing hundreds of federal employees that worked on the nation’s nuclear weapons for the Department of Energy’s semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration, media outlets reported.

Late last Thursday, over 300 of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) 1,800 employees were fired, including all probationary employees, through Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency.

By late Friday night, NNSA’s acting director Teresa Robbins issued a memo rescinding the firing of all but 28 employees “effective immediately,” according to Associated Press.

According to NBC News, NNSA officials tried notifying employees Friday that were laid off the day prior that “termination letters for some NNSA probationary employees are being rescinded, but we do not have a good way to get in touch with those personnel.”

The layoffs were heavily criticized by former and current NNSA officials. Jill Hruby, NNSA’s former administrator, said the firings would cause “nearly guaranteed” delays to the country’s modernization program, according to USA Today.

Additionally, in a rare social media posting, Rob Plonski, the agency’s deputy division director of worker safety and health, wrote on LinkedIn over the weekend that he feels “compelled to speak out against the recent decisions to reduce the DoE/NNSA federal workforce” without regard for “impacts of tomorrow.”

“We cannot expect to project strength, deterrence, and world dominance while simultaneously stripping away the federal workforce that provides strategic oversight to ensure our nuclear enterprise remains safe, secure, and effective,” Plonski said. “This is a pivotal moment.”

Sources: Senior Execs Leaving DoE Weapons Complex

With the White House seeking to dramatically shrink the federal workforce, sources told sister publication The Exchange Monitor recently that senior executives with decades of experience in the Department of Energy’s weapons complex are leaving the government.

Those who may be departing, either through taking the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) deferred resignation or other means, such as standard retirement, include a former acting head of DoE’s Office of Environmental Management and one or more site managers, according to sources who spoke to the Monitor.

OPM closed out the deferred resignation, or “fork in the road” buyout program on Wednesday evening Feb. 12. Multiple sources who the Monitor spoke to Thursday and Friday listed the following managers as leaving DoE:

Jim Owendoff has been DoE’s chief risk officer since October 2018. Before then, Owendoff worked in several high-ranking jobs within DoE Environmental Management, including as acting head of the nuclear cleanup organization early in the first Trump administration. Altogether, Owendoff spent 21 years at Environmental Management, according to his online bio. He spent 25 years in the U.S. Air Force and also worked in the Office of the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Environmental Security. A phone call placed to Owendoff’s extension at DoE Friday was not immediately returned.

Mike Budney became manager of DoE’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina in February 2018, according to his bio. For the three years prior to that, Budney headed business operations in the DoE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. Budney also spent 29 years in the U.S. Navy and worked with Northrop Grumman [NOC]. A call to Budney’s extension at SRS Friday was not immediately returned.

“You wonder who DoE has on the bench,” one executive with a DoE contractor told the Monitor Friday.

More names of Environmental Management supervisors are circulating. This is a developing story.