Page 95 – Defense Daily

L3Harris Details AMORPHOUS Autonomy Solution To Control ‘Thousands’ Of Unmanned Assets

L3Harris Technologies [LHX] has detailed its new AMORPHOUS autonomy solution for controlling swarms of unmanned assets, with an intent for the technology to command and control “thousands” of systems simultaneously.

Toby Magsig, L3Harris’ vice president and general manager of enterprise autonomous solutions, told reporters the company is “on multiple contracts” for AMORPHOUS, to include development work with the Army and as its solution for the Defense Innovation Unit’s (DIU) competitive Autonomous Collaborative Teaming (ACT) prototyping effort.

Photo: L3Harris Technologies

“We’re very bullish on the future of our solution. We think it scales well. We think it solves the exact problem. And it’s designed to fit the use cases that DoD envisioned,” Magsig said in a briefing ahead of Monday’s announcement.

L3Harris said AMORPHOUS, which stands for Autonomous Multi-domain Operations Resiliency Platform for Heterogeneous Unmanned Swarms, is designed to allow a single user “to control a mix of uncrewed platforms, payloads and systems, even if another manufacturer produces them.”

Jon Rambeau, L3Harris’ president of integration mission systems, told reporters that “one of the big problems that has yet to be solved” with autonomy is thinking about controlling “thousands of assets simultaneously,” adding AMORPHOUS is designed to “fulfill that need.”

“That’s really not something that’s possible to do with human control only. You have to have a system that can be the orchestra conductor once it’s given a command,” Rambeau said.

Magsig said AMORPHOUS has its roots in the autonomous collaboration initiatives set out in the Navy’s Project Overmatch as well as ongoing experimentation with the Army Research Lab.

“We benefited from feedback from both the Navy and the Army as we’ve developed this product and really optimized it for specific use cases that our sponsors are uniquely interested in,” Magsig said.

L3Harris’ work with the Army Research Lab has been ongoing for about a year, according to Magsig, with one area of focus looking at how AMORPHOUS could support breaching operations.

“Tasks like breaching are very, very dangerous for the warfighter. So the ability to pull soldiers back from those frontlines and [avoid] exposing themselves to mines or other aspects of enemy fire or indirect fire at the point of a breach is really where we’re focused. [It’s about] the ability to detect mines, to destroy them autonomously through kinetic solutions and allow the warfighter to command the operation of a breach without having to actually do each step with warfighters at significant risk,” Magsig said.

DIU in November announced it had selected L3Harris along with Anduril Industries and Swarm Aero for the software component of its ACT program, which is working with prototype autonomous teaming capabilities to support the unmanned systems DoD is rapidly acquiring under the Replicator initiative (Defense Daily, Nov. 20 2024).

L3Harris at the time did not name AMORPHOUS as its solution for ACT and said it would provide a user interface, an open architecture collaborative autonomy capability that is currently in use for experimentation, and serve as a systems integrator for the autonomy architecture.

“A truly open architecture system with published interfaces that anybody can plug into is going to be a really critical element of success,” Rambeau said.

Anduril said DIU selected its Lattice for Mission Autonomy artificial intelligence-based open architecture platform for the competitive prototyping effort.

“We feel that we have a solution that will compete very well,” Magsig told reporters. “This is not service-specific. This is taking a more centralized look at what is the right architecture, the right approach, the right technology to give all the services what they need to be able to do this multi-domain, multi-asset swarm of swarms solution.”

“Essentially what you’re buying here [with AMORPHOUS] is software that integrates with any hardware,” Magsig added. “We are shying away from specific pricing models and holding the customer hostage over a vendor lock solution.”

With AMORPHOUS, L3Harris said it’s specifically getting after collaborative autonomy, which it said is the next step above mission autonomy and is intended to enable “individual uncrewed assets to perform their own tasks autonomously and make real-time tactical decisions inside the network.”

“You need to think of swarms of swarms and the protocol that’s going to lead to that, because that’s really how you achieve the scale that the Department of Defense is looking at,” Magsig said.

AMORPHOUS also supported “smart swarm” technology, where unmanned assets can adjust mission plans “based on current situations or prior outcomes,” with L3Harris citing the autonomy software’s ability to enable missions such as counter-UAS, ISR and targeting, swarming kinetic effects, electromagnetic spectrum operations, autonomous breaching.

Magsig told reporters L3Harris has done “a few iterative events” with AMORPHOUS related to the work on DIU’s ACT effort, with “many more to go.

“AMORPHOUS has demonstrated its flexibility and interoperability by controlling multiple separate assets across multiple vehicle types operating in different domains during government-managed tests,” L3Harris said in a statement on Monday.

Magsig noted that AMORPHOUS is designed to be “interfaced at the operational level and below” while monitored and guided “at the strategic level.”

“You can have multiple user interfaces to monitor this and provide direction. When you’re talking at this scale, there’s going to be multiple commanders that are interested in what the effects are and how this is being used,” Magsig said. “When you look at the multi-domain [aspect], it’s really the joint commanders that are providing that level of integration across multiple domains and are going to have control of the scale of heterogeneous swarms.”

U.S. State Department Approves More Than $7 Billion In Arms Sales to Israel

The U.S. State Department has approved more than $7 billion in arms sales to Israel, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) said on Friday.

The sales include $660 million for 3,000 Lockheed Martin [LMT] AGM-114 Hellfire air-to-ground missiles and nearly $6.8 billion for 2,800 500-pound MK 82 bombs, 2,166 Boeing [BA] GBU-39/B Small Diameter Bombs, 13,000 2,000 pound MK 84 Boeing Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAM) with Strategic Anti-Jam Beamforming Receiver Y-Code (SABR-Y) guidance kits, 3,475 GPS-guided BLU-109 “bunker busters” with SABR-Y, 1,004 500-pound GBU-38s using the MK 82 bomb body, and related fuzes and support equipment.

Northrop Grumman‘s [NOC] site in Rocket Center, W.Va.; L3Harris Technologies‘ [LHX] Fuzing and Ordnance Systems in Cincinnati, Ohio and McAlester Army Ammunition Plant in McAlester, Okla. are other entities to aid in the future production, DSCA said.

The agency said that deliveries are to start this year.

For Foreign Military Sales, fiscal year 2024 represented the State Department’s “highest ever annual total sales of assistance”–$117.9 billion in total deals, a 45.7 percent increase from the $80.9 billion in fiscal 2023, according to a department report last month (Defense Daily, Feb. 4).

FAA Committee Recommends Federal Government Create List Of Approved CUAS Technologies

A rulemaking committee directed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to provide recommendations for certifying, authorizing, and deploying counter-drone systems across the national airspace suggests the federal government develop a list of technologies and vendors that are “proven effective and reliable” for operators to choose from.

The FAA and its federal partners are best positioned to coordinate the evaluation and approval of unmanned aircraft system (UAS) detection and mitigation technologies, and should establish performance criteria, an approved list that streamlines the selection process for users, and maintain databases that store user feedback on the technologies, user and asset locations, and specifics on systems using active emitters that could interfere with other counter-drone systems and or nearby navigation equipment, the UAS Detection and Mitigation Systems Aviation Rulemaking Committee says in its report.

“The advantage of an FAA approved list is that it creates a catalog of vendors and systems that have been vetted by the FAA in advance and removes the burden on operators to determine system capability and compatibility on site,” says the 191-page report. “It also facilitates partnership with other federal agencies that may be required to assist with developing technical standards, such as the FCC or DHS, and streamlines incorporation of new technology types as systems evolve.”

The report is dated Jan. 9 and was released by the FAA on Feb. 5.

One of the committee’s co-chairs was Chris McLaughlin, head of operations at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, who testified before a House panel last Thursday that since 2017 when the airport partnered with the Transportation Security Administration on a local drone detection system, more than 5,000 legitimate UAS flights have been identified. Of those, “150 were operated inappropriately,” he said.

In the case of the inappropriate drone detections, more than 50 percent of the time airport or other local authorities were able to locate the operator, McLaughlin said, adding that those individuals typically did not realize they were violating airspace restrictions. A “couple” of the cases involved criminal use of the drones, he said.

The current technology in use at the airport is not “foolproof” and it is not identifying all potential drone sightings and so there is a need for better detection systems, McLaughlin said. In the instances where criminal behavior is occurring, the airport would like to have non-kinetic capabilities to mitigate the drone threats, he said, noting that non-kinetic solutions are safer for local aircraft operations.

Two lessons learned from the use of the drone detection technology at DFW are that it allows the airport to “narrow the haystack” of authorized and unauthorized users, making it easier to go after the bad actors. The second lesson is the need for constant coordination among the airport, federal, state, and local partners to quickly “mitigate situations as they arise,” he said.

A challenge for the airport is a lack of independent access to local FAA data that shows which drones are cleared to operate in the airspace and those that do not, he said. Airports need this data sharing to improve safety, he said.

The committee’s report also calls for the development of minimum performance standards for the UAS detection and mitigation systems that the FAA and its federal partners would create to support aviation safety.

The report also cites problems with current regulations around counter-UAS testing, saying uncertainty limits investment and progress by vendors who are challenged to test, operate, and sell their systems. The head of an FAA-sponsored UAS testing effort in Alaska told the House panel that her site should be allowed to test C-UAS systems that mitigate drone threats, saying companies are forced to test their systems in Ukraine and elsewhere (Defense Daily, Feb. 6). Permitting more of this testing domestically would also help in the development of counter-drone systems to defend military bases, she said.

Aligned with the recommendation for an approved technology and vendor list, the committee also recommends that there be a “federally acknowledged technical validation process” that aids regulators.

A recommendation that is in line with the FBI, Customs and Border Protection, and the Department of Justice, at least during the Biden administration, is to give state and local partners authorities to mitigate UAS threats. These authorities should be given “under specific and well-defined rules of engagement,” the report says.

Marine Corps Highlights New Osprey Gearbox Sensors In Aviation Plan, Navy Limit At 200 Miles

The Marine Corps’ newest Aviation Plan underscored the importance of new sensors to be installed on the V-22 Osprey to better predict when parts need to be replaced to avoid previous incidents.

The document said this new Osprey Drive System Safety and Health Instrumentation (ODSSHI) will install sensors in critical areas of the aircraft’s Proprotor Gearbox (PRGB) and drivetrain “to provide vibration signature data that will allow maintenance to forecast the failure of parts and plan to remove those parts prior to failure.”

A Marine Corps MV-22B Osprey aircraft assigned to Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 162, 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, lands aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge on Sept. 3, 2017 in preparation to support hurricane relief efforts. (Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Juan A. Soto-Delgado.) — A Marine Corps MV-22B Osprey aircraft assigned to Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 162, 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, lands aboard the amphibious assault ship USS *Kearsarge* [LHD-3]on Sept. 3, 2017 in preparation to support hurricane relief efforts. (Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Juan A. Soto-Delgado.)

It also described that a “more refined Triple-Melt steel” will be the source material for internal components of the PRGB that the service expects will be “material for the internal components of the PRGB which will drastically reduce the likelihood of material defects in critical gears and bearings.”

The V-22 program is also working on a redesigned Input Quill Assembly (IQA) to reduce the “incidence of the wearout mode observed in previous IQA failures that led to aircraft Hard Clutch Engagement (HCE) occurrences.”

On Jan. 31 the Navy awarded the Bell [TXT]-Boeing [BA] Joint Project Office a $46.5 million delivery order for integration and supportability of the V-22 Gearbox Vibration Monitoring/ODSSHI system. It also procures up to 91 ODSSHI kits. The work is expected to be finished by December 2026.

The V-22 has experienced 19 hard clutch engagements that could lead to loss of the aircraft for years. Starting in 2022, there was a jump in serious problems. First, in June 2022, a dual hard clutch engagement led to a fatal crash.

Last June, Vice Adm. Carl Chebi, commander of Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR), said that instance led to the V-22 program implementing clutch replacements after 800 flight hours (Defense Daily, June 12, 2024).

Then, last November, eight airmen died in a CV-22 crash off the coast of Japan. Chebi told lawmakers he got data indicating that was caused by a catastrophic material failure not previously seen. He said NAVAIR is replacing engine clutches after 800 flight hours to prevent the previous hard clutch engagement type incidents while also testing a new clutch design.

Currently, the V-22 is operating under flight restrictions and last year Chebi said those were not likely to be removed before the middle of this year.

The Navy and Marine Corps are allowed to fly their V-22s with safety controls like only having flights within 30 minutes of a divert airfield.

Speaking to reporters on Jan. 27, Navy Capt. Andrew Bear, deputy commodore of Fleet Logistics Multi-Mission Wing VRM-30 in San Diego, said they have translated that flight time limitation into 200 miles for the crews, the distance Ospreys can travel when it flies like an airplane. The Navy advertises the Osprey as having a range of about 1,150 miles.

NAVAIR has set a predetermined flight hour threshold for the V-22 gearbox after which they become more susceptible to problems. While Beard did not disclose that, he said the aircraft in his wing are divided into aircraft with gearboxes under and over 400 flight hours.

Beard also noted there is currently a CMV-22B detachment operating off the USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70) and they have worked closely with the ship “to make sure that the ship stays within 200 miles at all times.”

He admitted there are still some days they do not have an opportunity to fly the Ospreys from the carrier based on where it is operating, which “they just incorporate that into their plan.”

Beard said they define a suitable divert field as a “runway with instrument approach, and I think at least 3,000 feet.”

However, pilots have been given some guidance on what that is, they have been trained to know that “if you’re in extremis and there’s a rock and it’s flat, get it done.”

Senate GOP’s Budget Blueprint For Reconciliation Has $150 Billion For Defense

Senate Republicans’ on Friday unveiled a budget resolution that sets a blueprint for passing Trump administration policy priorities via the reconciliation process, to include adding $150 billion in defense funds over four years.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), chair of the Budget Committee, detailed the proposal that also calls for $175 billion in homeland security spending, with his panel set to mark up the resolution next week.

U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina meets with U.S. service members during a visit at Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia, April 15, 2023. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Stephani Barge)

“To those who voted for and support real border security and a stronger defense in a troubled world, help is on the way,” Graham said in a statement. “This budget resolution jumpstarts a process that will give President Trump’s team the money they need to secure the border and deport criminals, and make America strong and more energy independent.”

The Senate’s decision to press ahead on a budget resolution that supports a two-bill reconciliation process, starting with a defense-border security-energy bill, arrives as the House remains stalled on the pathway to take on reconciliation.

“The American people gave President Trump a mandate to deliver on his key priorities: securing the border, rebuilding our defense, and unleashing American energy,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said in a statement. “The time to act is now, and Senate Republicans are ready to roll.”

The reconciliation process would allow the Senate to pass billions of dollars in budget-related Trump administration priorities without requiring the 60-vote threshold needed to break the filibuster.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has noted a preference to pass one, all-encompassing reconciliation bill, that would also look at addressing the debt ceiling.

While Senate Republicans’ budget resolution doesn’t provide a breakdown of the $150 billion for defense, Graham noted priorities for “growing the U.S. Navy and strengthening its industrial base to restore U.S. maritime dominance,” building out integrated air and missile defense capabilities to counter threats to the U.S. and continued modernization of nuclear defense systems.

Graham adds that the budget resolution would increase total spending by $85.5 billion for each of the four years, while it “will be paid for by a projected $85.5 billion in reduced annual spending.”

The House Freedom Caucus last month released their own proposal for a two-step reconciliation process that called for including up to $200 billion in defense spending over four years (Defense Daily, Jan. 17).

Hegseth Calls For Rapidly Fielding New Tech, Taking Hard Look At Legacy Programs

New Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on Friday reiterated 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.

“There’s a lot of programs around here that we spend a lot of money that when you actually war game it [they] don’t have the impact you want them to,” Hegseth said. “One of the benefits I have is I don’t…have any special interests. I don’t have a background invested in any systems or services. I’m agnostic to that. It means I’m [going to take] a lot of arrows and I’m prepared to do so. That’s fine. We need the best systems in the hands of warfighters when they need it.”

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)

In a town hall discussion at the Pentagon with DoD personnel, Hegseth cited priorities for bolstering the defense industrial base, assessing the acquisition process and taking lessons learned from conflicts around the world and applying that to “how we match what we fund to capabilities and effects.”

“We’re going to take unconventional approaches. We’re going to move fast, think outside the box [and] be disruptive on purpose to create a sense of urgency that I want to make sure exists inside this department,” Hegseth said.

While Hegseth did not offer specifics on programs or initiatives that may be reviewed, he noted Trump directed him to “not to maintain the status quo.”

The Army last week confirmed it’s “conducting a review” of its current solicitations and planned contract awards as new leadership takes helm of the Pentagon, while noting that contracting activities “continue to move forward” while the assessment is ongoing (Defense Daily, Jan. 28).

“As is customary, the Army is currently conducting a review of existing solicitations and awards of contracts to ensure that our programs are aligned with the incoming leadership’s policies and directives. We remain committed to transparency and being responsible stewards of taxpayer dollars,” Army spokeswoman Ellen Lovett told Defense Daily.

GOP Senators’ IRON DOME Act Seeks $19.5 Billion In FY ‘26 For Missile Defense Projects

A pair of Republican lawmakers on the Senate Armed Services Committee have introduced a bill seeking $19.5 billion in fiscal year 2026 for missile defense efforts to support Trump’s “Iron Dome for America” project.

Sens. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) and Kevin Cramer’s (R-N.D.) new Increasing Response Options and Deterrence of Missile Engagements

(IRON DOME) Act would authorize funding for projects ranging from expanding missile interceptor sites to developing new missile defense capabilities.

A THAAD system successfully launches and intercepts a medium-range target using a remote launcher kit in Flight Test THAAD (FTT)-23 at the Kwajalein Atoll in the Republic of the Marshall Islands (Photo: Missile Defense Agency)

“The IRON DOME Act will enhance domain awareness, the eyes and ears of missile defense architecture; bolster U.S. missile defense capacity to meet peer and near-peer threats; and accelerate the development of new capabilities to counter future threats,” Sullivan and Cramer wrote in a statement.

Trump last week signed an executive order to move out on a massive, likely multi-billion dollar “Iron Dome For America” project, which will utilize space-based interceptors, calling for new Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to submit a plan for the program within 60 days and expecting the project to be included in the upcoming fiscal year 2026 budget request (Defense Daily, Jan. 28).

The executive order states the “missile shield” project is intended to defend against ballistic, hypersonic and cruise missile threats and other advanced aerial attacks, which the White House said “remains the most catastrophic threat facing the United States.”

“For decades, American missile defense strategy has focused on protecting our country from ballistic missile threats posed by rogue nations or accidental launches from a peer nation,” Sullivan said. “Senator Cramer and I are introducing legislation to build a homeland missile defense system that can protect our country from the intensifying threats and growing arsenals of China and Russia.”

The largest project the IRON DOME Act would authorize is $12 billion to expand missile interceptor fields at Fort Greely in Alaska with the new Lockheed Martin [LMT]-developed Next-Generation Interceptors.

Sullivan and Cramer’s bill also supports $1.4 billion for Lockheed Martin’s THAAD missile defense system, $1.5 billion for PAC-2 and PAC-3 munitions and MM-104 Patriot batteries and $1 billion “to build Aegis Ashore ballistic missile defense infrastructure in Alaska and on the East Coast.”

The bill also supports a range of research and development efforts, to include $900 million for space-based missile defense, $750 million to modernize terrestrial-based domain awareness radars, $500 million for directed energy or missile interception capabilities across the services and $60 million for space-based satellite sensors.

Additionally, the bill calls for $250 million to “complete and certify Hawaii’s Aegis Ashore system,” $100 million for procurement and fielding of dirigibles, $63.1 million to build a Missile Defense Complex and Fire Team Readiness Facility and $25 million to support Missile Defense Agency (MDA) planning and design activities for an East Coast-based missile defense interceptor site at Fort Drum, New York.

“The IRON DOME Act forces modernization of our missile defense systems from Alaska to North Dakota to Maine to Florida to California and back up to Alaska. This will ensure that we’re never caught off guard from a modern missile attack on our homeland,” Cramer said in a statement.

MDA this week released a Request for Information soliciting industry for its potential solutions to support the “Iron Dome for America” project that could be delivered in two-year capability windows, spanning from late 2026 to beyond 2030 (Defense Daily, Feb. 3).

U.K. To Lead Next Ukraine Defense Contact Group Meeting, Hegseth Will Attend

The United Kingdom will convene the next meeting of the international coalition coordinating security assistance efforts for Ukraine, taking over the U.S.’ lead role for the first time.

The Ukraine Defense Contact Group (UDCG) meeting at NATO’s headquarters in Brussels on Feb. 12 is the group’s first gathering since the start of the new Trump administration, while the Pentagon has confirmed that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth will be in attendance.

An airman with the 436th Aerial Port Squadron loads cargo during a Ukraine security assistance mission at Dover AFB, Del., on Jan. 13, 2023 (DoD Photo)

“The UDCG will gather ahead of the NATO Defence Ministerial Meeting…to discuss priorities for Ukraine as the international community continues to work together to support Ukraine in its fight against Putin’s illegal invasion,” the U.K. Joint Delegation to NATO said in a statement, confirming that UK Defence Secretary John Healey will convene the meeting.

Former U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin formed the UDCG following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and subsequently led each meeting, with the group of senior defense officials from around 50 countries gathering about once a month to discuss coordinating assistance efforts to meet Kyiv’s immediate battlefield needs and longer-term security requirements.

Following the most recent UDCG meeting in January, Austin told reporters the coalition “must continue” (Defense Daily, Jan. 9).

“It’s up to the future administration to make their own decisions. We want to make sure that we’ve done everything we can to ensure that, you know, we’re continuing to support [Ukraine] and they have the options to go in whatever direction they want to go in,” Austin said at the time.

The upcoming UDCG meeting arrives amid uncertainty as to whether the new Trump administration would continue participating and questions on the priority of Ukraine assistance efforts more broadly.

“At the UDCG, the first to be chaired by the United Kingdom, [Secretary Hegseth] will reiterate President Trump’s commitment for a diplomatic end to the war in Ukraine as quickly as possible. He will also highlight the need for increased European leadership on security assistance to Ukraine,” the Pentagon said on Friday.

Bradley Bowman, senior director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Center on Military and Political Power, said the U.K. “deserves great credit” for its support for Ukraine, while adding that “no other ally – no matter how capable – can fully replace the American leadership role in the UDCG.”

“American leadership of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group has made the group more effective in its vital mission of building a more effective coalition to help Kyiv defend itself and counter the worst invasion in Europe since World War II. That American leadership of the UDCG has also provided the United States additional leverage,” Bowman said in a statement. “If the U.S. is weakening its position in Europe, why would Putin want to make any concessions?”

In the last weeks of the Biden administration, the Pentagon confirmed that the incoming Trump White House would have “a few billion dollars” remaining in Presidential Drawdown Authority to use for Ukraine security assistance packages (Defense Daily, Jan. 8).

Hegseth’s travel to Europe next week will include visiting U.S. European Command and Africa Command in Germany, then the UDCG meeting and NATO Ministerial in Brussels before stopping in Poland to discuss “our strong bilateral defense cooperation, continued deterrence efforts along NATO’s eastern flank, and Poland’s leadership as a model ally in defense investment and burden-sharing in NATO,” the Pentagon confirmed.

“At his first NATO Ministerial with Allied counterparts, he will engage with NATO Allies and partners to discuss the need to boost Allied defense spending, increase European leadership, and expand defense industrial base capacity on both sides of the Atlantic,” the Pentagon said.

Trump said last month he plans to ask NATO nations to increase their defense spending to five percent of gross domestic product (Defense Daily, Jan. 23).

Defense Watch: Iron Dome Industry Day, Aussie MQ-4C, Terminator Risk, Calio Takes Chair, DOGE Concerns

Iron Dome Industry Day. The Missile Defense Agency’s Request for Information looking for capabilities to demonstrate for President Trump’s “Iron Dome for America” executive order includes a plan to conduct an industry day on Feb. 18. After the common day, MDA is prepared to conduct up to 60 minute-long sessions with individual parties to provide additional clarifications. Respondents intending to participate in individual sessions are to send requests by Feb. 10.

Aussie MQ-4C.

Northrop Grumman finished testing Australia’s third MQ-4C Triton unmanned aerial vehicle at its Palmdale, Calif., facility, the company said Feb. 6. The company is preparing to transport the Triton to Naval Air Station in Patuxent River, Md., where it will join the second aircraft for calibration testing before they are both sent to the Royal Australian Air Force. Delivery is scheduled for later this year.

Terminator Risk. Defense insiders have debated the level of importance of unmanned systems in Ukraine, and some have said that drones will never remove the historic pattern of mostly young men at arms dying for their respective countries. SpaceX founder Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and member of President Trump’s advisory team, disagrees, as he told U.S. Military Academy Dean Army Brig. Gen. Shane Reeves in a newly released interview from last August. “The biggest effect, I think, by far is AI on drones,” Musk said when asked how warfare will transform. “The current war in Ukraine is very much a drone war…A major power war is very much going to be a drone war. I do worry about the existential risk of AI, which is that, if you employ AI and drones, do you go down this path where eventually you get to Terminator? Try to avoid that. Minimize the Terminator risk, but essentially when you’re making military drones, you are making Terminators. I think you’ll somewhat be forced into giving the drone localized AI because if the AI’s far away, it can’t control it as well as localized AI–an autonomous killing machine once you give it the okay in a particular arena, and it goes.”

Golden Anniversary. The U.S. Air Force Red Flag 25-1 exercise at Nellis AFB, Nev., with the U.K. Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) is having its golden anniversary, as the “high-end training” began in 1975 to tackle lessons learned from the Vietnam War. “Red Flag continues to focus on overcoming the complexities of Great Power Competition, with an emphasis on integrating air, space, and cyber capabilities to counter advanced threats,” the 57th Wing at Nellis said. “Training scenarios push participants to operate in contested and degraded environments, forcing rapid decision-making and teamwork under pressure. The RAF and RAAF play key roles in these scenarios, demonstrating their ability to seamlessly integrate with U.S. forces in highly dynamic combat situations.”

Sea Raise. Autonomous surface vessel startup Seasats last week said it closed a $10 million funding round to help it grow as it deploys its vessels globally. The funding raise was led by Shield Capital and included Aero X Ventures, Techstars, and other investors. The 11-foot, solar-powered Lightfish is the San Diego-based company’s flagship vehicle that is deployed globally for a variety of missions such as subsea mapping, oil spill monitoring, maritime domain awareness, and border security. A Lightfish is currently undertaking a 7,000-plus mile mission from San Diego to Japan.

Downmass Delivery Interest. U.S. Transportation Command is seeking U.S.-based industry and academic entities for studies to assess and demonstrate global cargo delivery from and through space to Earth. TRANSCOM is interested in space-based pre-positioned stocks and terrestrial point-to-point sorties. “Combinations of these capabilities may provide DoD an on-demand ‘downmass’ delivery option independent of launch method, not constrained to any specific launch provider,” the command said in a notice last week. A virtual industry day is slated for Feb. 19 to describe research objectives and answer questions.

Teledyne Closes. Teledyne Technologies last week closed its $710 million acquisition of two aerospace and defense electronics businesses of Excelitas Technologies that will operate within Teledyne’s Aerospace and Defense Electronics segment as Teledyne Qioptiq. The acquired Excelitas businesses include a United Kingdom-based operation that provides advanced optics for head-up and helmet mounted displays, tactical night vision systems, and proprietary glass used in space and satellite applications. A U.S.-based operation provides customer energetics, high-voltage semiconductor switches, and rubidium frequency standards for space and defense uses.

Calio Assuming Chair. RTX Corp. last week said that President and CEO Chris Calio will add the role of chairman effective April 30. Greg Hayes, the company’s current executive chairman, informed RTX’s board he would be stepping down from the role. Hayes will remain an employee as a special adviser to the CEO through Jan. 2, 2026. As special adviser, Hayes will continue to receive his $1.1 million annual base salary but will not be eligible for an annual incentive plan. And, beginning April 30, he will lose the personal use of corporate aircraft, a company-provided car and driver, and home security system installation.

CDAO Award. BigBear.ai last week said it won a contract from the Defense Department’s Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO) to transition the company’s Virtual Anticipation Network (VANE) prototype from research to operation. VANE will support CDAO and the Office of the Secretary of Defense with custom artificial intelligence models to assess news media in countries that are potential foreign adversaries. “VANE was created to contrive clarity in multi-domain environments for military and government applications by aggregating and analyzing vast data points, enabling predictions of adversarial activity in complex situations,” BigBear.ai said. It also said the contract has a transition plan to deploy VANE on CDAO’s Advana environment, allowing combatant commands access.

Relocatable NII Interest. Customs and Border Protection is planning a competition for large scale-non-intrusive inspection (NII) relocatable passenger vehicle systems to quickly scan cars and light vehicles for explosives, drugs, including fentanyl. andontraband in high-throughput environments like border crossings. The mobile, low-energy NII systems would allow occupants to remain inside the vehicle during scanning. CBP wants these systems to be able to scan 150 vehicles or more per hour. The agency is planning a five-year contract with a base-year—in which five systems would be acquired—and four options. CBP is already deploying fixed-site large-scale NII systems at land ports of entry to safely scan passenger vehicles with the occupants inside.

People News. Terran Orbital, a Lockheed Martin company, last week announced the appointment of Michael Young as senior vice president of business development. Previously, Young led business development at Hanwha Phasor, and has held leadership roles at Ulta Intelligence and Communications, Envistacom, and General Dynamics SATCOM Technologies. Space technology company True Anomaly last week appointed Frank Calvelli to its board. He was assistant secretary to the Air Fore for Space Acquisition and Integration during the Biden administration.

MUOS SLE Early Design Review. Lockheed Martin says that the Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) service life extension (SLE) program has gone through an Early Design Review with the U.S. Space Force. Fielded in 2019, the four Lockheed Martin-built MUOS geosynchronous satellites provide military forces ultra high frequency voice and data communications. “Future MUOS satellites planned as part of the program will be critical in continuing to provide crystal-clear, secure communications to military forces on the move,” the company says. In January last year, the Department of the Air Force chose Lockheed Martin and Boeing to develop MUOS satellite concepts under Phase 1 of the MUOS SLE program. “For its proposed MUOS satellites under the extension program, Lockheed Martin has called upon SEAKR Engineering, an industry leader in advanced electronics for space applications,” Lockheed Martin says. “Together the company and Lockheed Martin have designed a new MUOS payload processor – a centrally important electronics box on the spacecraft. This new component uses state-of-the-art space technology to achieve an optimal balance of processing performance, resilience and resource utilization aboard the satellite. Lockheed Martin’s next-generation [Technology Readiness Level-6] MUOS payload processor also introduces a modern feature: it can be re-programmed once in space. The ability to reconfigure aspects of this critical payload will enable future MUOS satellites to evolve and meet emerging mission needs throughout their lives on orbit.”

DOGE Concerns. Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), ranking member on the House Armed Services Committee, was one of several top Democrats who sent a letter on Feb. 4 to President Trump expressing concern and seeking details on the Elon Musk-led Depart of Government Efficiency’s task force that sought access to a trove of classified databases at federal agencies this week. “Reporting indicates that these individuals have sought access to government facilities and data in a highly irregular fashion, putting at risk sensitive data and classified information. It is also unclear what such actions and information have to do with achieving the intended purpose of the DOGE,” the lawmakers wrote to Trump. “Similarly, we are concerned by reports about individuals affiliated with DOGE gaining access to sensitive personnel data systems at the Office of Personnel Management as well as the Bureau of the Fiscal Service’s payment systems at the Department of Treasury. If not appropriately safeguarded, irregular or improper access to data contained in these systems could compromise the privacy of individuals, as well as elevate counterintelligence risks.” The letter was also signed by the top Democrats on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Foreign Affairs Committee, Oversight Committee, Judiciary Committee, Ways and Means Committee and Financial Services Committee.

ISVs. The Army on Feb. 5 awarded GM Defense a $44.9 million firm fixed price contract for Infantry Squad Vehicles. Work on the latest production deal is expected to be completed by the end of 2025. The Army approved the ISV program for full-rate production in April 2023. GM Defense’s ISV is based on the ZR2 variants of the company’s Chevrolet Colorado midsize truck.

Kuwait FMS. The State Department on Feb. 6 said it has approved a potential $1 billion foreign military sale with Kuwait for design and construction services in support for maritime and land facilities at the Mohammed Al Ahmed Naval Base, the Ras Al Ard Naval Base for Onshore Logistics, an alternate logistics station in Kuwait and construction of a headquarters complex. The FMS case covers life cycle design, construction, project management, engineering studies and services, technical support, facility and infrastructure assessments, planning, programming, design, acquisition, contract administration, construction management and logistics, according to the Defense Security Cooperation Agency. “The proposed sale will improve Kuwait’s capability to meet current and future threats by providing onshore logistic support,” the DSCA said in a statement. “The principal contractor(s) will be determined from approved vendors, likely by competitive acquisitions.”

Maritime Industrial Base. Matthew Sermon relieved Jay Stefany as Direct Reporting Program Manager for Maritime Industrial Base (DRPM-MIB) during a Jan. 28 ceremony. The MIB program was established in September 2024. Acting Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development, and Acquisition (ASN(RD&A)) Brett Seidle lauded Stefany’s leadership establishing and developing the program as “instrumental in positioning this team to revitalize America’s shipbuilding capabilities, building off of the Navy’s previous success, and expanding and integrating the portfolio.” Seidle noted Stefany previously was the longest-serving Acting Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research Development and Acquisition and in his recent roles “has been at the forefront of developing the strategy and securing industrial base investments to meet our submarine and shipbuilding imperatives.”

…Sermon Now. Sermon previously served as Executive Director for Program Executive Office Strategic Submarines, where he had key roles in overseeing Columbia-class submarine acquisition and helping to revitalize the submarine industrial base (SIB), having established and led the Navy SIB program from 2021 to 2024. “I am honored to take on this critical role and continue to build off of the progress we’ve made over the last several years. Through focused collaboration between the Navy, industry, and educational institutions, we will ensure America remains at the forefront of innovation and defense, Sermon said.

Sub EW. The Navy awarded Lockheed Martin a $551 million contract on Feb. 3 for production and support for AN/BLQ-10 submarine electronic warfare systems in new and in-service vessels. The contract includes options that, if exercised, would raise the total contract value to almost $1.4 billion. The work will occur at the company’s facility in Syracuse, N.Y., and is expected to be finished by January 2030. While this requirement was competitively procured only the producer of the current EW systems made an offer on the solicitation.

Coast Guard Interested In Maritime Domain Awareness As A Service

The Coast Guard is seeking candidates that can provide long-range persistent maritime surveillance as a service for its command centers to help in executing missions.

The areas of interest for the maritime domain awareness service are in U.S. territorial waters to the nation’s Exclusive Economic Zone, which extends 200 nautical miles out from the coast line, and would cover the continental U.S., Alaska, Hawaii, and U.S. territories.

A Request for Information asks potential offerors to be able to provide a technical demonstration of a web-based sensor feed into the service’s command centers.

Requirements include automatic detection, identification, and characterization of vessels at least 30-feet long. The Coast Guard is interested in a wide variety of sensors that can provide a data feed picture at least 100 nautical miles in diameter either live or with no more than 15 minutes of latency.

The service also wants data fed into its tactical Minotaur Mission System that fuses sensor data to allow aircraft and cutters to share and track information and infantry, and its Sextant system that provides a single pane of glass to display geospatial data.

Technical demonstrations are planned for either the third or fourth quarter of fiscal year 2025. Submissions are due by March 5.