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| Friday, June 13, 2025 • 67th Year • Volume 306 • No. 52 | |||||||||||||||
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Pentagon Fiscal 2026 Budget to Prioritize USAF F-47 Over Navy F/A-XX Of the Pentagon’s two sixth generation fighter programs, the U.S. Air Force F-47 by Boeing [BA] takes priority in DoD’s upcoming fiscal 2026 budget request, while the U.S. Navy F/A-XX is in a holding pattern. The White House wants $900 million for the F-47 in the reconciliation bill and another nearly $2.6 billion for the program in the upcoming fiscal 2026 budget request, according to an administration document. By contrast, the Trump administration requested nothing for F/A-XX in reconciliation, while the House bill provides $500 million. The Navy’s upcoming fiscal 2026 budget requests $74 million for F/A-XX. The fiscal 2026 budget “slows F/A-XX program due to industrial base concerns of two sixth-generation programs occurring simultaneously,” the administration budget document said. “On F/A-XX, we are reviewing it,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth testified at a House Armed Services Committee hearing on Thursday in response to a question from Rep. Jen Kiggans (R-Va.). “The budget does provide for a completion of the design. The F-47 program is the priority in this budget, to get that [F-47] moving.” In the fiscal 2025 continuing resolution, F/A-XX received nearly $454 million “with the clear expectation that the Navy would award an Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) contract,” House defense appropriators said in their version of a fiscal 2026 defense bill. “To date, no contract has been awarded, which the Committee considers a failure to execute congressional intent.” The House Appropriations Committee defense panel’s fiscal 2026 bill proposes more than $971 million for F/A-XX “to continue development of the F/A–XX program and directs the secretary of defense to obligate these and any prior funds in a manner that supports accelerated design, system integration, and risk reduction activities to achieve an accelerated Initial Operational Capability.” Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Va.), the chair of the HASC tactical air and land forces panel, said at the Thursday HASC hearing that previous Navy testimony has indicated that service requirements still indicate a need for F/A-XX, particularly in the Indo-Pacific, to deter China.
House Appropriators Want Blueprint, Details For Golden Dome
Amid scant details from the Defense Department about the Trump administration’s proposed homeland missile defense concept, the House Appropriations Committee wants granularity on the piece-parts, costs, and implementation plan for Golden Dome. Even though a draft bill would provide $13 billion for the missile defense effort, a committee report highlights the complete lack of useful information from the administration about Golden Dome. “Importantly, such an ambitious endeavor will require a comprehensive effort and a clear common understanding between the Department of Defense and the Committee of the detailed plans, costs, tradeoffs, and risks involved in developing and fielding such a complex system,” the House appropriators say in report language accompanying their recommendation for the fiscal year 2026 DoD spending bill. “To date, the Department of Defense has yet to provide information on what exactly it entails and how it intends to implement Golden Dome or make the case that it is feasible or affordable.” The White House in May released its FY ’26 budget request that lacked most program details. It has yet to offer much else, although this week it did provide some high-level funding items in a brief document (Defense Daily, June 11). That document shows $24.9 billion for Golden Dome, all of it contained in a reconciliation bill that the House approved and the Senate is considering. No funding for Golden Dome is included in the FY ’26 request, meaning the administration is counting on the reconciliation bill to jump-start its ambitious effort. The committee wants to know what existing programs Golden Dome will consist of, how they will be modified and integrated, details on proposed new investments and technologies to include risk assessments and cost estimates, and how allies and partners will contribute. It also seeks a report within 90 days of the spending bill becoming law that seeking a comprehensive plan for Golden Dome that includes the reference architecture, requirements, and implementation plan. The report can be classified, it says. When the defense spending bill will be enacted is anybody’s guess. Most analysts are expecting FY ’26 to begin under a continuing resolution, which is how the entirety of the federal FY ’25 is operating. When the administration provides its FY ’27 request for the fiscal year that will begin Oct. 1, 2026, the committee wants DoD to provide a separate budget document for Golden Dome with program descriptions, spending justifications and requests for each program, including delineating programs across the department that are related to the missile defense shield. President Trump recently said that Golden Dome would cost $175 billion and be ready in three years (Defense Daily, May 20). The president also appointed Vice Chief of Space Operations Gen. Michael Guetlein to lead Golden Dome. In March, prior to his appointment, Guetlein said that the kit for Golden Dome is still being discussed but that a critical aspect of the vision will be the integration of various systems across all domains that traditionally are stove-piped (Defense Daily, March 24). That integration will require technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning, data orchestration processing, and reliable all-domain communications, he said. At our deadline Thursday evening, the committee was still marking up the defense bill.
House Defense Appropriators Reject Cancellation of USAF E-7
House defense appropriators propose $500 million in fiscal 2026 for the U.S. Air Force E-7A Wedgetail airborne early warning aircraft by Boeing [BA] and turn back the Trump administration’s bid to cancel the plane as a successor to the E-3 Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS). The House Appropriations Committee’s defense panel, in its version of a fiscal 2026 defense bill, said that “the committee firmly believes that a combination of air and space assets for mission sets such as early warning are necessary today and will be required well into the future.” The bill is a cart before the horse, as the White House still has not sent to Congress a full fiscal 2026 budget request for DoD or the other federal departments and agencies. Yet, administration budget request details are emerging from White House documents provided to reporters on background. The coming DoD fiscal 2026 budget “terminates the E-7 request,” according to a budget document, which notes near term “AF reliance on [U.S. Navy] E-2D for future support” (Defense Daily, June 11). The document says that the request declines from the $807 million appropriated in fiscal 2025 to $200 million–a level which may indicate DoD plans to close out the Air Force’s five-year, $2.5 billion rapid prototyping contract awarded last summer. Northrop Grumman [NOC] builds the E-2D Advanced Hawkeye. House defense appropriators have proposed $1.2 billion for four E-2Ds in fiscal 2026. Since 2023, the Air Force has retired 15 of the 31 aircraft in the service’s AWACS fleet, as the service looked to field the Wedgetail. Air Force officials in the Pacific have listed E-7 as a top need. “Our assessment is that [E-7] was gold-plated, late, and over-cost,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth testified at a Thursday House Armed Services Committee hearing in response to a question from Rep. Derek Schmidt (R-Kan.). “We look at the future fight–extending the E-2D is our view, alongside space-based ISR as the capability of the future–not a prospective hopeful future, but the technologies are there to begin to deliver even more robustly than an aerial platform. Our budget does reflect those tough choices.” Space-based air moving target indication (AMTI) is to receive a boost with $2 billion in the DoD reconciliation bill. The Department of the Air Force has discussed AMTI from space since September 2021. In March, the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies advised the Air Force to add more than $5 billion in its fiscal 2026 budget request to buy 26 Wedgetails to replace the 16 E-3 AWACS planes “in hospice care.” Australia has fielded six Wedgetails for the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) at RAAF Base Williamtown.
House Appropriators Back Army’s M-10 Booker Cancellation, Rebuke Other Proposed Cuts
The House Appropriations Committee’s proposed fiscal year 2026 spending bill includes funding for several programs the Army had said it planned to cancel as part of its new transformation initiative, while the committee has backed the Army’s intent to end the M10 Booker combat vehicle program. House appropriators are seeking more information from the Army on its transformation plan, noting they’re “disconcerted” with the lack of details provided so far for the initiative. “While the committee supports the Army’s intent to become a leaner, more lethal and adaptive force, the committee is disconcerted by the manner in which the Army has chosen to present its plans and rationale to achieve the objectives set out in the Army Transformation Initiative (ATI) to the congressional defense committees,” lawmakers wrote in a bill report accompanying the defense spending legislation. “To date, the Army has yet to provide complete budgetary details, tradeoffs and risk assessments of proposed divestments and investments of capabilities and programs associated with ATI.” The new Army Transformation Initiative (ATI) rolled out last month has included plans to cut “obsolete” programs such as the AH-64D Apache, the M10 Booker Humvees, Joint Light Tactical Vehicles (JLTV) and Gray Eagles as well as potentially ending development of the Improved Turbine Engine Program (ITEP), Future Tactical UAS (FTUAS) and the Robotic Combat Vehicle (Defense Daily, May 1). Army Secretary Dan Driscoll has said ATI will also drive plans to procure more drones and counter-drone capabilities, AI-driven decision-making tools and “lethal, battle-ready” tanks and attack aircraft. The House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee unveiled its proposed $831.5 billion FY ‘26 spending bill on Monday, noting it allocates $345 million for JLTVs covering 863 vehicles for the Army and $169 million for the Marine Corps and $240 million for eight MQ-1C Gray Eagle 25M aircraft for the Army National Guard (Defense Daily, June 9). The full House Appropriations Committee took up the defense spending bill on Thursday, with the markup still going as of Defense Daily’s deadline, as the White House has yet to deliver a detailed FY ‘26 budget request to Congress. “Consequently, in drafting its appropriations bill, the committee is unable to take the ATI proposal into full consideration until further details have been provided,” lawmakers write in the bill report. Driscoll has said that “many of the cuts and the lack of requests for obsolete equipment” will be reflected in the forthcoming budget submission. Language in the bill report directs the Driscoll and Gen. Randy George, the Army chief of staff, to provide a briefing to the House and Senate Defense Appropriations Committee by the end of July on FY ’26 budget impacts and five-year budget planning guidance as a result of cuts and plans under the ATI. The bill also directs Driscoll to inform the congressional defense committees of any proposed changes implemented as of ATI, no later than 30 days after initiating an effort associated with the plan. The defense spending bill report also confirms that House appropriators have rebuked several other proposed Army cuts, to include allocating $4.6 million for Humvee procurement, as well as $100 million for modernization of the Army National Guard’s vehicles and continues development of ITEP and FTUAS with $175 million and $185.5 million, respectively. GE Aerospace [GE] officials told reporters last week the fate of the T901 helicopter engine, developed under the ITEP program and intended to power Black Hawks and Apaches, is likely dependent on how fiscal year 2026 funding shapes out, while noting the company has discussed plans with the service for speeding up the program if it moves forward (Defense Daily, June 3). HAC-D has also included $360 million to remanufacture 12 AH-64 Apache helicopters, while Mingus has previously said the Army doesn’t plan to upgrade any more AH-64Ds to the newer E-model (Defense Daily, May 15). House appropriators, however, have honored the Army’s proposal to end the General Dynamics Land Systems [GD]-built M10 Booker and included no funding for the program, which received $439.1 million in FY ‘25. The Army on Wednesday evening officially announced the M10 Booker cancellation, which had been reported previously (Defense Daily, May 2). “In response to current world events and in support of the strategic objectives outlined in the Army Transformation Initiative, the U.S. Army has issued a termination for convenience of the current low-rate initial production of the M10 Booker Combat Vehicle and will not enter into full-rate production as originally planned,” the Army said. “The Army will request to reallocate the remaining funds in fiscal 2025 to accelerate fielding of war-winning capabilities and anticipates additional significant savings to be fully realized within the next 18-24 months.” GD Land Systems beat out BAE Systems in June 2022 to build the Army’s new M10 Booker, and was awarded a $1.14 billion contract covering delivery of up to 96 vehicles under low-rate initial production (Defense Daily, June 28 2022). The deal began with an initial delivery order for 26 vehicles, and the Army accepted delivery of the first M10 Booker in February 2024 and had plans to achieve a first unit equipped milestone in late 2025. “The ongoing contract termination process will ultimately determine the disposition of the remaining assets,” the Army added. The M10 Booker, formerly known as Mobile Protected Firepower, combined a version of GD Land Systems’ latest M1 Abrams tank turret with a new, purpose-built chassis that the Army has said was designed to provide Infantry Brigade Combat Teams “with mobile, protected direct-fire capability to apply lethal and sustained long-range fires to light armored vehicles, hardened enemy fortifications and dismounted personnel.” GD Land Systems declined to comment on the program decision and the Army has not yet responded to a request for additional details on where it intends to spend funds that are re-obligated from M10 Booker and what it will do with the vehicles it already has in its fleet.
Planet Nabs NATO Award For Geospatial Intelligence
Planet Labs [PL] on Thursday said it has won a “seven-figure contract” from NATO to provide geospatial intelligence and related analytics for daily Earth observation of the alliance’s areas of interest. The value of the award was not disclosed. NATO’s Allied Command Transformation said Planet will provide persistent space-based surveillance, enhanced early indicators and warnings, improved maritime domain awareness, and the ability to monitor ceasefires and violations of international law. Planet said it will leverage its PlanetScope broad area monitoring technology, and artificial intelligence and machine learning analytics. “This swift integration of Planet’s satellite data and insights, especially through the Smart Indications and Warning, Broad Area Detection project, is vital for strengthening our global awareness and rapidly addressing complex security challenges at speed, Adm. Pierre Vandier, supreme allied commander transformation, said in a statement. “This initiative reinforces NATO’s commitment to maintaining our technological edge, ensuring strategic advantage and cost-effectiveness, and directly enhancing deterrence, strengthening collective defense, and empowering our warfighters with real-time situational awareness.”
Wind tunnel testing is to validate inlet redesign of the Rolls-Royce F130 engine for the U.S. Air Force’s Commercial Engine Replacement Program (CERP) for the Boeing [BA] B-52H bomber, as the program looks to enter development this month. In December 2023, the Air Force approved the transition of CERP from Middle Tier of Acquisition (MTA) rapid prototyping to Major Capability Acquisition (MCA). “In December 2023, the program received Air Force approval to transition to the MCA pathway before development start, but development start has been delayed by nearly a year—to June 2025,” according to the Government Accountability Office’s just released annual weapons systems assessment. “According to the program, delays stem from ongoing engine inlet issues the program found during design testing and from Boeing’s lag in submitting proposals needed for maturing the program’s cost and schedule baselines,” the assessment said. “Officials stated that Boeing submitted qualified proposals in summer 2024 that the program is currently reviewing. As part of ongoing design work, officials identified a critical issue regarding engine inlet distortion—a non-uniform flow of air that can affect the engine’s performance and operability—resulting in a redesign of the engine inlet. While the program used a digital model during the rapid prototyping effort that simulated how prospective contractors’ engines would fit in the aircraft, officials said performance data from testing showed that the design did not meet requirements. Officials stated that Boeing will complete wind tunnel testing to fully verify the design in summer 2025. Officials stated that these data are essential to completing the critical design review [CDR], planned for April 2026, three years later than originally planned.” The program said that it used digital modeling and digital engineering to complete the engine inlet redesign in December last year and that the inlet “now meets performance and operability requirements.” The Rolls-Royce F130s are to replace the B-52H’s Pratt & Whitney [RTX] TF33-PW-103 engines, which the Air Force has said it wants to retire by 2030, yet the F130 is not to achieve initial capability and a full-rate production decision until January 2033. In September 2021, the Air Force awarded Rolls-Royce a CERP contract worth up to $2.6 billion through fiscal 2038 to outfit the B-52 with the F130, based on Rolls-Royce’s commercial BR725 carried on Gulfstream [GD] G650 business jets (Defense Daily, Sept. 24, 2021). CERP and the Radar Modernization Program are the Air Force’s key modernization efforts for the B-52H. The modernized bombers will carry the B-52J designation. “We are proud of the strong progress we have made towards delivering the B-52J for the U.S. Air Force on time and on budget,” Scott Ames, Rolls-Royce’s program director for B-52 CERP, said in a company statement on Thursday. “This spring, we moved into engine altitude testing at Arnold Engineering Development Complex in Tullahoma, Tennessee and continue to use cutting edge, digital engineering to inform our testing program and allow us to stay on track to deliver for the Air Force.” ‘Working closely with our partners at Boeing, we have met major program milestones including successfully holding the engine CDR, completing Rapid Twin Pod testing to support the B-52’s unique nacelle configuration, and finishing the first phase of sea-level testing in Indianapolis,” according to Ames.
Muon Space Adds $90 Million In Funding Round; Acquires Spacecraft Propulsion Startup
Satellite developer and manufacturer Muon Space on Thursday said it has closed an oversubscribed $89.5 million Series B1 funding round, bringing its total Series B round to $146 million as it continues to scale operations. The Silicon Valley-based company also said it has acquired propulsion startup Starlight Engines, which it said is developing the first commercially available solid propellant Hall-effect thruster, adding an in-house propulsion capability as it vertically integrates its Halo satellite platform. The company said integration of Starlight’s technology has begun as it increases Halo production. “By bringing this technology in-house and integrating it into our Halo platform, we can accelerate delivery timelines while improving both schedule reliability and overall mission performance,” Paul Day, vice president of spacecraft production at Muon Space, said in a statement. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. In addition to scaling operations and adding Starlight, Muon said its new funding is also being put toward infrared and radio frequency instruments, hiring employees, and expanding its global ground station network. In the past six months the company has grown its employee base by 50 percent to 150 personnel, it said. The company has opened a 130,000 square-foot facility in San Jose, Calif., that includes 70,000 square feet of manufacturing space—including 30,000 square feet of clean room space—and test operations. Muon said the facility can support production up to 500 satellites ranging from 100 kilogram to 500 kilogram-plus class spacecraft. The B1 round was led by Congruent Ventures and included existing investors Activate Capital, Acme Capital, Costanoa Ventures, and Radical Ventures, and new investor ArcTern Ventures. The raise consists of $44.5 million in equity and $45 million in credit facilities. The National Reconnaissance Office recently awarded Muon a second stage contract to continue developing its multispectral electro-optical and infrared data for persistent situational awareness of global thermal activity (Defense Daily, May 16). In October 2024, Muon was one of 19 companies selected by the Space Development Agency to compete for prototype and experimentation work for the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (Defense Daily, Oct. 24, 2024).
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