Page 90 – Defense Daily

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.

Editor’s Note:

In observance of the Presidents Day holiday, Defense Daily will not publish an issue Feb. 17. Your next issue will be dated Feb. 19.

HASC Leaders Ask Service Chiefs to Identify “Obsolete” Weapon Systems, Other Cuts

House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) and Ranking Member Adam Smith (D-Wash.) asked the military service chiefs last Friday to identify “obsolete” weapons systems and other possible areas for cuts.

The committee said in a statement that Rogers and Smith “are asking all military services to identify obsolete programs that don’t enhance our deterrence.”

Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee

Rogers and Smith sent letters to the service chiefs on the topic.

“Our service members and the American taxpayers deserve a defense budget that deters our enemies at the greatest possible value,” the form letters said. “We are committed to eliminating waste, reforming our acquisition processes, and ensuring each dollar within the defense budget is spent wisely. We have a unique opportunity at this time to make quantifiable progress toward these goals.”

“By March 1, 2025, we ask that you identify for the committee an initial list of infrastructure, weapon systems, programs, or processes that are no longer a priority [for your service] and could be divested, right sized, or made more efficient,” Rogers and Smith wrote.

The HASC letter comes a day after President Donald Trump said that 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” (Defense Daily, Feb. 14).

Trump said that the proposed future talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin would also focus on denuclearization, adding the U.S. has “no need” to build new nuclear weapons–an announcement that comes as the U.S. Air Force considers the path ahead for the Northrop Grumman [NOC] LGM-35A next generation ICBM.

The Trump administration is giving out conflicting signals on Pentagon spending, as Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, 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–a plan that had looked to align with White House plans for DoD.

The “Department of Government Efficiency,” a coterie of information technology 20-something year-olds allied with billionaire and SpaceX founder Elon Musk, is examining slicing federal spending and redirecting the U.S. workforce toward the private sector.

Defense Watch: Saildrones, Hypersonic UAS, PrSM Test

Unmanned Help. As the Navy has reduced its assets in U.S. Southern Command’s operational area, the service has introduced more Saildrone unmanned surface vessels, which are providing “great domain awareness” in the Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific Ocean, Adm. Alvin Holsey, commander of SOUTHCOM, said last week. Saildrones, combined with other unmanned assets in the region, helps make up for the manned assets and are “making a difference for me,” he told the Senate Armed Services Committee. Surveillance data obtained by the Saildrones is piped back to the U.S. Navy’s Southern Command in Florida, he said. Currently, eight Saildrones are operating in the Caribbean and three in the Eastern Pacific, and in the “next couple days” there will be 20 in the region, he said.

Hypersonic UAS Collab.

Cummings Aerospace and ATRX last week agreed to collaborate on the development of affordable supersonic and hypersonic unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) for defense and space applications. The companies will integrate ATRX’s Air Turbo Rocket into a new version of Cummings’ Hellhound UAS it is designing to accommodate a hypersonic-capable engine. Cummings said that Hellhound offers affordability due to its 3D-printed modular design and commercial off-the-shelf hardware. Hellhound also allows for payload swaps in less than five minutes with no tools required.

Metal 3D Printing. Specialty metals producer and forger ATI last week commissioned its Additive Manufacturing Products facility in Margate, Fla., a vertically integrated plant for large-format metal 3D printing. “In this new facility, we’ve brought our materials science and forging expertise together with additive manufacturing acumen, delivering high-quality production at scale,” Kimberly Fields, ATI’s president and CEO, said in a statement. “From design to finished product, we’ve formed a powerhouse that solves our customers’ most difficult challenges for the most demanding markets—aerospace, defense, and space.” ATI’s first contract at the facility is with Bechtel Plant Machinery to produce “highly engineered part solutions in support of the U.S. Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program.”

Space Expansion. The Texas Space Commission has awarded an $8.2 million grant to Firefly Aerospace to expand the company’s spacecraft manufacturing facilities in Central Texas, to include an additional 5,600 square feet of ISO-8 cleanroom space, more ground support and test equipment, a spacecraft pressure proof test facility, and upgraded information technology infrastructure for mission operations and labs. Firefly also expects to add 50 new jobs.

Efficient Chips. Startup computer chip developer Encharge AI has raised $100 million in an oversubscribed funding round led by Tiger Global with participation from In-Q-Tel and RTX Ventures, among others. The Silicon Valley-based company is developing analog in-memory-computing artificial intelligence chips that it says require 20 times less energy to run AI workloads versus current leading AI chips. The new funding will be used to bring Encharge AI’s first AI accelerator solutions to market and in configurations to meet customer needs, including aerospace and defense.

Battery News. Lyten, which is developing and manufacturing lithium-sulfur batteries, has signed agreements with California Sulphur Company, and another at California’s Port of Stockton, to supply domestically sourced, industrial-grade sulfur to the company’s manufacturing facilities in California and Nevada. Lyten is using sulfur, which is locally sourced, to replace minerals such as nickel, manganese, cobalt, and iron used in current batteries to eliminate reliance on global supply chains dominated by China. Lithium-sulfur batteries are an alternative to lithium-ion batteries, weigh dramatically less, offering improved cost and range benefits for a range of aerospace and defense uses such as satellites and drones.

Land Leg. Former DoD acquisition chief William LaPlante rescinded the Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) decision for the Northrop Grumman LGM-35A Sentinel ICBM last July after a Nunn-McCurdy breach, and the U.S. Air Force said this week that it has suspended “the design, testing, and construction related to the Command and Launch Segment.” The Trump administration has nixed Biden administration directives and decisions, so is it possible that the new White House will do the same on Sentinel, which got the okay for EMD in 2020 during Trump’s first administration? Important work lies ahead for Air Force Brig. Gen. William Rogers, the program executive officer for ICBMs–a position created last April under the Biden administration as part of then-Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall’s “re-optimization for Great Power Competition.” Before he became PEO/ICBMs last year, Rogers was the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center’s PEO for bombers.

PrSM Test. The Army on February 12 successfully conducted two engagements with its new Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) Increment 1 during a flight test at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. “Both PrSM Increment 1 missiles, travelling the predicted range and trajectory, engaged multiple targets, including a surrogate SCUD missile, radar and rotary wing platforms,” the Army said in a statement. “Both PrSM Increment 1 missiles performed nominally for range, time of flight, accuracy, and height of burst.” The Lockheed Martin-built PrSM is the Army’s program to replace its legacy ATACMS missiles, with the base weapon capable of reaching ranges up to 500 kilometers. The recent flight test at Yuma Proving Ground follows a Limited User Test with PrSM Inc. 1 missiles at White Sands Missile Range in December.

DroneShield AUKUS. Australia’s DroneShield counter-drone company on Feb. 13 announced it had registered under AUKUS in both the U.S. and Australia to allow export of most of its military and dual-use goods, technologies and services to the U.S. and U.K. without requiring an export license. The company underscored this kind of agreement streamlines trade, reduces administrative barriers and accelerates capability delivery.

SSC Engines. The Navy awarded Rolls-Royce a $167.38 million contract on Feb. 7 to produce 40 MT7 turboshaft engines for the Ship to Shore Connector (SSC) Landing Craft Air Cushion 100-class craft. This includes ancillary parts, installation kits and a portable test tool inspection. The award includes options that, if exercised, would raise the total value to $167.7 million. Work will occur at the company’s Indianapolis, Ind., facility and is expected to be finished by June 2028. If options are exercised, work will last through December 2028.

T-AO 189. Military Sealift Command (MSC) awarded South Carolina’s Detyens Shipyards Inc., a $21.15 million contract on Feb. 10 for the 180-day availability for the regular overhaul and dry dock availability of MSC’s USNS John Lenthall (T-AO 189) fleet replenishment oiler. The contract includes a base period with four option periods, which if all exercised would raise the total value to $21.78 million. Work is expected to be finished by September 2025. This award came as a small business set-aside with proposals solicited via the Government Point of Entry website with three offers received. As usually, the government did not detail the other offerors.

Acoustic Facility. Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City Division (NSWC PCD) conducted a ribbon-cutting ceremony for its new Acoustic Test Facility and Instrumentation building on Feb. 5, the Navy announced Feb. 12. The new building was possible based on a concept from personnel in 2012 and the 2022 demolition of a former building. They broke ground on this 1,400 square foot facility in 2023. The Navy aims to use the facility to provide instrumentation, data acquisition, and electronics staging areas, supporting the NSWC PCD Acoustic Test & Calibration Pier Service Cost Center. The division said this will allow the Navy lab’s team to develop and test advanced sensors, systems, payloads and platforms for subsea and seabed warfare and mine warfare missions.

Bomber Task Force. U.S. Air Forces Europe and Air Forces Africa said on Thursday that B-52H Stratofortress strategic bombers “arrived in Europe as part of a routine Bomber Task Force-Europe deployment, underscoring the U.S.’ shared commitment to regional security and NATO’s collective defense.” The bombers conducted a “routine mission” with France, Sweden, and Finland and are to participate in exercises and training events with allies, officials said.

Budget Blueprints. Both the Senate and House Budget Committees this week advanced their respective chamber’s budget resolution proposals that each set a blueprint for passing Trump administration priorities via the reconciliation process. The Senate Budget Committee first voted 11-10 on February 12 to move its proposal with $150 billion for defense toward full floor consideration. “The Department of Defense will receive $150 billion at one of the most dangerous times in world history, and energy reform is coming. These initiatives will be fully paid for because we will find cuts and other programs to offset the cost of border security and a stronger military,” Senate Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said in a statement. A day later, the House Budget Committee approved advancing the lower chamber’s proposal with $100 billion for defense by a 21-16 vote. “The resolution passed out of Committee today is a blueprint to right-size the bloated federal bureaucracy, rein-in the reckless spending that spurred record inflation, and roll back the barrage of burdensome regulations that are crushing our small businesses,” House Budget Committee Chair Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) said in a statement. A next step will likely involve the House and Senate GOP reaching a compromise between their two proposals.

155mm Ammo. The Army will host an industry day on March 20 and 21 in Parsippany, N.J., to discuss continued efforts to expand and accelerate production of 155mm artillery shell production. “The industry day will inform the industrial base on the status of 155mm munition expansion and potential new U.S. Army requirements to expand production and accelerate delivery of 155mm projectiles and ancillary equipment,” the Army wrote in a notice. The event is specifically expected to cover the current status of the Army’s 155mm shell production push, efforts to accelerate production of artillery propellant charge systems, industrial base investments into explosives and raw materials, munition innovation efforts, modernization of government-owned, contractor-operated facilities and opportunities with NATO, according to the notice. The Army is currently working toward a goal of boosting 155mm artillery shell production up to 100,000 rounds per month by late 2025.

SecArmy Nom. The Senate Armed Services Committee on February 11 advanced Dan Driscoll’s nomination to be the next secretary of the Army. Driscoll’s nomination now heads to the floor for full Senate consideration. The 38-year-old Driscoll, an Army veteran who has worked in investment banking and venture capital, would likely be one of the youngest officials to ever serve in the role. During his confirmation hearing, where he seemed to have bipartisan support for his nomination, Driscroll said the Army must improve “as a customer.”

Marine Corps To Shift LRUSV To Major Capability Pathway in 2027, DOT&E Says

The Marine Corps plans to transition its Long Range Unmanned Surface Vessel (LRUSV) to the major capability acquisition pathway in fiscal year 2027, according to the Pentagon’s top weapons tester.

The annual FY 2024 Office of the Director of Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E) report of major weapons programs said the service intends future development of the LRUSV to “focus on multi-domain sensor collections in support of the Maritime Reconnaissance Company.”

The LRUSV prototype is capable of traveling semi-autonomously to designated patrol areas to loiter indefinitely, depending on fuel. It is geared to launch loitering munitions or other payloads against maritime targets.

LRUSV started as a rapid prototyping program focused on a USV that can maneuver autonomously and with a remote pilot, able to launch loitering munitions or small USVs (sUSV). The sUSV deploys from the rear deck of the LRUSV, which separately houses an organic precision fires-mounted loitering munition system with an interface to launch an all-up round against maritime targets.

Metal Shark built the prototype LRUSVs while HII’s [HII] Newport News Shipbuilding division is the contractor for the autonomy systems.

In 2022 former Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David Berger said the LRUSV will primarily act as an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) platform, focused on launching other unmanned collection systems rather than focusing on being a kinetic weapon platform (Defense Daily, Sept. 19, 2022).

In May 2021 the Marine Corps established LRUSV as a Middle Tier of Acquisition rapid prototyping program. The service approved a master test strategy in November 2021 before it was put under DOT&E oversight. Then, in July 2023, the Marine Corps directed a capability requirement change to refine the direction for the next phase of acquisition.

Following that, DOT&E said in September 2023 the Marine Corps directed the termination of the LRUSV Middle Tier of Acquisition program, removing it from DOT&E oversight for now.

“The Marine Corps intends to transition the LRUSV to the major capability acquisition pathway at Milestone B in 2QFY27,” the tester’s report said. “DOT&E removed the LRUSV program from oversight in March 2024 and expects to return it to oversight upon restoration of the program in FY27.”