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| Tuesday, May 27, 2025 • 67th Year • Volume 306 • No. 39 | |||||||||||||
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Defense Watch: Palantir Partnership, U.S./UAE, 95th Wing, Leidos/Saudi MoU Palantir/Divergent. In a new partnership announced on May 20, Palantir will provide access to Divergent Technologies’ advanced manufacturing system on its Foundry and Warp Speed software platforms. “The partnership provides Palantir’s defense and commercial customers with seamless access to Divergent’s digital manufacturing capabilities in production environments,” the companies said in a joint statement. “With access to the Divergent Adaptive Production System (DAPS) within Palantir’s software, customers will be able to rapidly identify emerging supply chain vulnerabilities and then directly address them through on-demand manufacturing of critical parts by Divergent.” The new DAPS capability was described as an “end-to-end engineering design and manufacturing system leveraging AI-driven design, industrial-rate additive manufacturing and universal robotic assembly to deliver structures that are faster to develop, higher performance and lower cost than their conventionally designed and manufactured alternatives.” Divergent CEO Lukas Czinger said providing access to DAPS on Palantir’s software platforms can help customers “identify and solve production shortages and new product developments on unmatched timelines.” Bosnia FMS. The State Department said on May 20 it has approved a potential $100 million Foreign Military Sale with Bosnia and Herzegovina for AW119Kx helicopters. Along with the Leonardo aircraft, the deal would also include training for pilots and maintainers, in-country contractor field service representative support, technical assistance, ground support equipment and logistics support. “The proposed sale will improve the capability of the Armed Forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina to meet current and future threats by supporting regional and NATO cooperation exercises, protecting Bosnia and Herzegovinian national security interests in the country’s mountainous and inaccessible terrain. The aircraft will also enable the AFBiH to better support disaster relief, search and rescue, and other humanitarian aid missions in the country, and will also serve for pilot training,” the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in a statement. U.S./UAE. The U.S. has signed a new letter of intent with the United Arab Emirates designating it is a “major defense partner.” The Pentagon said the agreement, signed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Mohammed Mubarak Al Mazrouei, the UAE’s Minister of State for Defense Affairs, at a ceremony in Abu Dhabi, “represents a shared commitment to develop a structured roadmap that will guide enhanced military-to-military cooperation, joint capability development, and long-term defense alignment between the two nations.” The partnership includes establishing a new strategic initiative between DoD’s Defense Innovation Unit and the UAE’s Tawazun Council to “deepen ties in defense innovation, facilitate joint research and development and expand industrial and investment partnerships across both defense ecosystems.” The UAE was also “formally welcomed into the U.S. National Guard State Partnership Program through a partnership with the Texas National Guard,” according to DoD. The new agreement follows President Trump’s visit to Abu Dhabi where he announced plans for $200 billion in commercial deals between the U.S. and UAE. Robot Controller. AV’s Tomahawk GCS has received a $5.1 million contract to provide the Dismounted Common Controller (DCC) solution in support of the Army Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office’s Human-Machine Integrated Formations (HMIF) effort, the company said on May 19. AV’s Tomahawk will provide its Grip TA5 capability for the DCC program, which it said offers multi-platform compatibility and “provides operators command-and-control of multiple robotic assets in real-time, enhancing mission adaptability and response speed.” The Army is aiming to have its first HMIF platoons in place around fiscal year 2027, and officials have cited the need for a common controller for operating different robotic platforms as a key capability. Howitzers. The Army on May 21 awarded BAE Systems a $423.4 million contract for production of self-propelled howitzer systems. Work on the deal, which is an undefinitized, cost-no-fee contract, is expected to be completed by the end of June 2028. A total of $214.5 million was obligated at the time of award, according to the Pentagon. BAE Systems builds the M109A7 self-propelled howitzer for the Army. 95th Wing. U.S. Air Force Gen. Thomas Bussiere, the head of Air Force Global Strike Command, says he’s “pleased…so far” with the stand up of the 95th Wing at Offutt AFB, Neb. Activated on Feb. 28, the wing assumes responsibility for the E-4B “Nightwatch” National Airborne Operations Center (NAOC) aircraft from the now defunct 595th Command and Control Group. Col. David Leaumont, the former commander of the 595th C2G, heads the 95th Wing, which is to achieve full operational capability in 2027, the Air Force said. Last year, the service awarded SNC an up to $13.1 billion contract for the Survivable Airborne Operations Center (SAOC) to replace the “Nightwatch.” SAOC is “fairly nascent in its execution from the contract award last year but going very well,” Bussiere says. GPS OCX. This year, the U.S. Space Force plans to field the Global Positioning System Next Generation Operational Control System (GPS OCX) by RTX’s Raytheon, and the Space Force has awarded Raytheon’s Aurora, Colo., site a nearly $380 million contract for “pre-operational acceptance support and post-operational acceptance interim contractor support” through March next year with an option for another year. Congress has criticized GPS OCX for being nearly a decade late, and system cost estimates have significantly increased from the $3.9 billion estimated in November 2012. SOLIC. The late Charles Whitehouse–a decorated World War II U.S. Marine Corps pilot, CIA official, and ambassador to Laos and then Thailand from 1973-1978, became the first assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low-intensity conflict (SOLIC) when then Defense Secretary Frank Carlucci called him out of retirement in 1988. Whitehouse’s son, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), mentioned his father’s service during a Senate floor speech on May 21. “Many years ago, my father set up Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict in the Defense Department,” Sen. Whitehouse said. “He was the first SOLIC, as they called it, and one of the things that people in special operations really didn’t like was being told that what they were doing was low-intensity: ‘Mr. Whitehouse, when it is you that is being shot at, it is not low-intensity. We gotta get rid of that name.'” Air Force ASSET. The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio may award a $95 million contract by October for the Assessment of Sensing-Autonomy Sensor Exploitation Technologies (ASSET) program. ASSET’s goal, according to AFRL, is to provide the Department of the Air Force “with comprehensive tools to model, analyze, assess, and predict mission-level effects based on sensor performance obtained empirically or through modeling, simulation, and analysis across multiple domains to include air, ground, space, and cyber” in order to “generate knowledge and understanding of multi-domain sensing autonomy mission sets that fuse information from any source, reason closed loop over the environment, and enable improved, timely, and executable battle space decisions for Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance, Strike, and Electronic Warfare.” Leidos, Saudi MoU. Leidos last week said it signed a memorandum of understanding with Saudi Arabia’s National Security Services Company to collaborate on modernizing security detection technology for the country’s airports and ports of entry. Leidos, which already supplies security detection equipment to customers in Saudi Arabia, said it will provide people and baggage scanners, explosive detection devices, systems to rapidly screen cargo and vehicles, and local training and services. The MoU was signed during the U.S.-Saudi Investment Forum while President Trump was visiting Saudia Arabia in May. Coastal Domain Awareness. The Coast Guard is planning a modeling and simulation (M&S) program to improve its missions around maritime domain awareness in coastal areas. The service last week issued a Request for Information saying the simulation will begin by ingesting geospatial data—landmasses, bathymetry, boundaries of territorial waters, and environmental conditions—that define an area of responsibility. The M&S program then populates the area with specific Coast Guard assets and simulates civilian and malicious actors that operate on past observed behaviors. The service’s assets attempt to detect the bad actors and conduct interdictions and boardings. The program could influence operating concepts. AM Partnership. The Defense Department’s Manufacturing Technology Office has provided $2.1 million for a partnership between Japan’s Nikon Advanced Manufacturing and the Pennsylvania-based National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining to advance the adoption of Constellium’s Aheadd CP1 Aluminum alloy for additive manufacturing (AM) in aerospace and defense applications. The project also includes ASTM International and 3Degrees, a consortium of metal AM experts from Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, RTX, General Atomics, and Honeywell Aerospace Technologies.
The Missile Defense Agency on May 21 published a presolicitation notice previewing a new decade-long next-generation missile defense contract vehicle worth up to $151 billion total. MDA expects to issue a draft solicitation for this upcoming Multiple Award Scalable Homeland Innovative Enterprise Layered Defense (SHIELD) Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract in late May or early June 2025. “As a long-planned strategy, SHIELD will allow MDA and other DoD entities to rapidly issue orders under one enterprise flexible vehicle. The proposed contract vehicle anticipates a period of performance of 10 years, which will consist of a base ordering period and one or more optional ordering periods,” the notice said. The agency also described SHIELD as essentially aimed at addressing the directives of the White House’s Golden Dome initiative, which seeks to detect, track and intercept threats from ballistic, hypersonic and cruise missiles as well as other aerial attacks on U.S. territory. “The MDA requires an advanced, multi-domain defense system capable of detecting, tracking, intercepting, and neutralizing threats to the United States homeland, its deployed forces, allies, and friends across all phases of flight by ballistic, hypersonic, and cruise missiles, and other advanced aerial attacks,” the notice said. MDA further intends the contract to help ensure a “continuous, layered protection against air, missile, space, cyber, and hybrid threats originating from any vector – land, sea, air, space, or cyberspace.” The notice described the contract vehicle as aiming to provide rapid delivery of “innovative capabilities” to warfighters with more speed and agility while leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning-enabled applications when relevant as well as maximizing the use of digital engineering, open systems architecture, model-based systems engineering and agile processes in acquisition, development, fielding and sustainment of the various missile defense capabilities. MDA said it anticipates work areas under the IDIQ contract to cover applications across MDA’s purview, including science and technology, research and development, prototyping, demonstration and testing of prototypes, disruptive technologies, experimentation, architecture development, modeling and simulation, systems engineering, weapon design and development, integration and assembly, production and folding, test and evaluation, hardware and software modifications, and cybersecurity. This is only the latest solicitation related to Golden Dome missile defense improvements. Previously, MDA announced a new Multiple Authority Announcement (MAA) contract vehicle to let the Defense Department pursue non-traditional acquisitions under both traditional Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) contract and non-FAR work. This included pursuing technologies related to the Golden Dome order, like space-based interceptors (Defense Daily, March 31). More recently, MDA issued the MDA Advanced Capability Concepts solicitation, seeking white papers on innovative concepts and technological innovations to enhance the missile defense system elements (Defense Daily, May 14). Then, on May 20, the White House announced some basic figures of the Golden Dome initiative, including aggressive claims it will cost $175 billion and be completed within three years (Defense Daily, May 20). However, a May 5 Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report estimated the costs of space-based interceptors (SBI) section alone for Golden Dome could cost between $161 billion to $831 billion, depending on cost savings in space launch advances and how much the system will ultimately defend against long-range ballistic missiles. President Trump’s original executive order directing the development of the Golden Dome architecture and system called for it to defend against all sorts of air and missile attacks, including long range ballistic missiles from peer or near-peer adversaries. For decades, the U.S. domestic missile defense system has been focused on defending against a small North Korean force. The non-partisan think tank Federation of American Scientists’ (FAS) Nuclear Information Project, led by Hans Kristensen, estimates that as of 2025 Russia has 5,449 total warheads. While that number includes retired warheads awaiting dismantlement, FAS estimates about 1,710 Russian warheads are deployed on ballistic missiles and bomber bases. Likewise, they estimate China has about 600 nuclear warheads, with the vast majority not actively deployed. Russia’s 2022 New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) declaration said it was deploying 1,549 strategic nuclear warheads on 540 strategic delivery systems, meaning ICBMs, submarine-launched ballistic missiles and heavy bombers. However, Russia suspended its participation and reporting for New START in February 2023 after facing repercussions for its invasion of Ukraine. The U.S. intelligence community also estimates Russia has an arsenal of about 1,000 to 2,000 non-strategic shorter-range nuclear warheads not covered by the treaty.
Scout Space Wins Space Force Funding for GEO Space Domain Awareness
Scout Space has won a new contract from the U.S. Space Force to deliver a new GEO Geostationary Orbit (GEO) space awareness domain (SDA) sensor. The contract, worth $3.8 million, is a Tactical Funding Increase (TACFI) Sequential Phase II contract by the USSF Space Systems Command (SSC) Space Safari Office, with $1.9 million coming from both SpaceWERX and Scout Space’s private match. Scout Space made the announcement May. 7. The TACFI program will enable Scout to expand its delivery of advanced SDA data and observation systems, helping defense, civil, and private sector stakeholders maintain operational safety in orbit. The company said the funding aligns with its plans to deploy a distributed constellation of optical sensors and provide full GEO coverage and advancing global SDA networks. With this funding, Scout will build the first GEO flight unit for its Owl product line, a long-range, independently taskable optical payload system in support of SSC’s Space Safari Office. Designed to deliver object detection and orbit determination, the gimbaled optical Owl sensor strengthens SDA capabilities through advanced tracking and monitoring features, further positioning Scout as a leader in space security technologies. “The U.S. Space Force’s recognition of Scout’s potential is a testament to the growing importance of space domain awareness in today’s rapidly evolving space environment. This contract not only accelerates our ongoing innovations but also marks a significant step in our mission to improve the safety and security of space for both commercial and government stakeholders,” Philip Hover-Smoot, CEO of Scout Space, said in a statement.
Space Systems Command Forecasts Big Award of Maneuverable GEO Commercial Contract
U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command (USSF/SSC) is forecasting an up to $895 million to $905 million award by next February for a 10-year Maneuverable Geosynchronous Orbit (M-GEO) Satellite-Based Services contract. In an FY 2025-2026 USSF Commercial Satellite Communications (COMSATCOM) Forecast to Industry, SSC said that the contract would provide “satellite services facilitated by on-orbit supportable spacecraft and the construction, launch, control, and operation of purpose-built M-GEO satellites” and that “the effort comprises the equipment and capabilities The Space Force’s first Space Warfighting Framework, released last month, highlights the importance of satellite maneuver to complicate adversary surveillance and targeting. Space Force said that it is pursuing “dynamic space operations” to include satellite maneuver among orbits, in-space refueling, on-orbit satellite repair/upgrades, and rapid launch/deployment of cheaper satellites. Maj. Gen. Stephen Purdy, the Department of the Air Force’s acting space acquisition chief, said that Space Force is examining the incorporation of commercial features for the Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program (GSSAP) (Defense Daily, May 14). Five of six Space Force GSSAP satellites by Northrop Grumman [NOC] are still in operation. Four launched between 2014 and 2016, and two in January, 2022. Under the new commercial approach, Space Force operators would be “accomplishing the same GSSAP mission” and “using the same GSSAP system with the same ground systems and data they do now, but these would be using faster, cheaper commercial build times and less expensive parts in order to bring that together faster,” Purdy said. After Space Force’s Space Systems Command received responses to a Request for Information last fall about the unclassified commercial geosynchronous space situational awareness need, Purdy signed an Acquisition Decision Memorandum to reflect the level of interest–what Purdy said has “been an ability that the international market’s been clamoring to provide” (Defense Daily, March 11). GSSAP satellites maneuver to conduct rendezvous and proximity operations to monitor and inspect other satellites. The Space Force fiscal 2025-2026 COMSATCOM forecast also includes a possible follow-on contract of $215 million to $225 million by September for commercial Ku-band services for U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) and a follow-on award by December of $140 million to $150 million for U.S. Indo-Pacific Command (USINDOPACOM) for “rapid purchase of Ku-bandwidth for airborne intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance and command & control missions in the USINDOPACOM Area of Responsibility” with “host nation agreements/frequency clearances as needed to enable access to services.” In March 2020, Peraton received a nearly $219 million contract for the AFRICOM services, while SES Space and Defense–the U.S. arm of Luxembourg’s SES S.A.–holds the current contract for INDOPACOM.
DIU Seeks AI/ML Tools To Help Navy Converge Data At Maritime Ops Centers
The Defense Innovation Unit last week issued a solicitation seeking commercial artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) solutions for converging data inputs at the Navy’s Maritime Operations Centers (MOCs). The Situational Awareness by Intelligent Learning Systems (SAILS) project is aimed at helping the Navy unify the vast amounts of data coming from different inputs—space-based, shipboard, airborne, intelligence reports, and others—and improve operational management. The SAILS project will “improve situational awareness for operators, and optimize decision support tools by offering track confidence scoring and real-time recommendations to assist commanders in allocating geographically dispersed resources (eg. satellites, aircraft, vessels, etc.),” DIU said. The AI/ML applications should address watch floor workflow automation, track confidence scores, sensor and resource optimization, natural language-based model tuning to allow end users to interact with the tool, and modularity and open architecture to integrate into existing and future Defense Department systems and interfaces. Interested vendors must be experienced in working on classified networks. Reponses are due by June 6.
Defense Daily will not be published Monday, May 26, in observance of the Memorial Day holiday. Your next issue will be dated May 28.
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