January 1, 2024 | International, Aerospace
New in 2024: Air Force plans autonomous flight tests for drone wingmen
The Air Force is laying the groundwork for a vast fleet of more than 1,000 autonomous drones that will fly alongside piloted fighters.
June 25, 2020 | International, Aerospace
Congress has questions about the Air Force’s and Navy’s next-generation fighter programs
By: Valerie Insinna
WASHINGTON — The House Armed Services Committee wants to limit the amount of money the Air Force and Navy get for their respective sixth-generation fighter programs until it gets some answers.
The Navy and Air Force are leading separate efforts to develop a follow-on fighter jet to the F-35, with both services calling their programs “Next Generation Air Dominance.” Both projects are in the early stages of development, with the services hoping to ramp up activities this year.
But HASC intends to fence off 85 percent of the fiscal 2021 funding requested for the NGAD until the committee receives an independent review performed by the Pentagon's director of cost assessment and program evaluation, according to the Tactical Air and Land Forces Subcommittee's markup of the FY21 defense policy bill.
A committee aide told reporters on Monday that the stipulations are “nothing out of the ordinary” and are meant to allow lawmakers to gain further insight into the programs, not to permanently strip funding from the efforts.
“When they field their capabilities, we just want to make sure that they've thought them through, that the department has determined that they are affordable and that anything else that is already in the budget into the future that's high priority as well is not going to get pushed out unintentionally if they have unexpected cost growth or run into problematic issues when they field the capabilities,” the aide said.
How's the Air Force effort going?
Earlier this month, Air Force acquisition executive Will Roper said the service is on track to finalize a business case for its NGAD program this summer.
The Air Force envisions NGAD as a family of systems that could include aircraft, drones and other advanced technologies. But when it comes to developing new advanced aircraft, Roper wants to pursue a new strategy he calls the “Digital Century Series” that would have multiple companies continuously developing new jets and competing against each other for small-batch contracts.
The business case, which is being put together by the program executive office for advanced aircraft, will explore whether the Digital Century Series idea is technically feasible, how the development and procurement process should be structured, and whether it would be cheaper than traditional contracting methods.
“That is going to really help us, I hope, because we'll show that data and argue that it is not just better from a ‘competing with China and lethality' standpoint. It's just better from a business standpoint,” Roper said. “If it breaks even or is less [than traditional methods], I will be exceptionally happy. If it's more expensive — and I hope not exceptionally more — then we're going to have to argue” on behalf of the program.
The Air Force has asked for $1 billion for its NGAD program for FY21. It received $905 million for the program in FY20.
How's the Navy's effort faring?
The Navy's NGAD program, also known as F/A-XX, is more mysterious.
In its FY21 budget rollout this year, the service announced it would curtail its Super Hornet buy, purchasing a final 24 F/A-18E/Fs and then using the savings from a planned 36 jet buy from FY22 to FY24 to invest in its own future fighter.
Little is known about the Navy's requirements. The service completed an analysis of alternatives in June 2019, as well as broad requirements and guidance for a concept of operations.
The effort is now in the concept development phase, during which defense companies explore ideas “that balance advanced air dominance capabilities and long-term affordability/sustainment,” Navy spokesman Capt. Danny Hernandez told Defense News earlier this month.
Congress has signaled that it may not be willing to allow the Navy to stop buying Super Hornets in future years. HASC inserted language into the FY21 defense policy bill urging the Navy to continue buying new Super Hornets, warning the service that next-generation fighter procurement does not always proceed according to plans.
“The committee recalls the Navy curtailed F/A-18 procurement approximately 10 years ago with aspirational goals to maintain strike-fighter inventory levels with planned procurement of F-35C,” the committee said. “That plan was not realized due to F-35 program execution and subsequently required the Navy to procure additional F/A-18E/F aircraft to reduce operational risk. The committee expects a similar outcome may occur with the Navy's current plan for FA-XX due to affordability and technological challenges.”
The bill also directs the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Defense Department's inspector general to provide more information on the operational risk incurred by not buying additional Super Hornets, as well as F/A-18 squadron adherence to maintenance practices.
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July 15, 2019 | International, Aerospace
Can commercial satellites revolutionize nuclear command and control?
By: Nathan Strout The rapid growth of commercial space makes the use of non-government satellites for nuclear command and control increasingly tempting, according to one official. During a speech June 26, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein said that the service — which oversees both the United States' ground-based intercontinental ballistic missiles, as well as strategic bombers capable of delivering nuclear warheads — was open to the idea of using private sector satellites. “Whether it's Silicon Valley or commercial space, there's unlimited opportunities ahead right now for us in terms of how we think differently on things like nuclear command and control,” said Goldfien. “I, for one, am pretty excited about it.” The military has increasingly turned to the commercial sector to expand its capabilities more cost efficiently. For instance, the National Reconnaissance Office — the agency in charge of the nation's spy satellites — announced that it was looking to expand the amount of satellite imagery it buys from commercial companies. The Air Force has also expressed interest in developing a hybrid architecture for satellite communications, which would see war fighters able to switch between commercial and military satellites as they move through coverage areas. According to Goldfein, there's no reason that commercial capabilities could not similarly be applied to nuclear C2. “The work that we're doing in connecting the force and building a network force around the services in the conventional side has equal applications to the nuclear command and control side, because at the end of the day what we need is resilient capable architecture that keeps the commander in chief connected,” said Goldfien. “So one of the areas that I think we're going to be able to leverage significantly is the rapid and exciting expansion of commercial space in bringing low-Earth orbit capabilities that will allow us to have resilient pathways to communicate.” Currently, the military relies primarily on the Advanced Extremely High Frequency System for the nuclear sector. With four satellites in orbit and a fifth to be launched later this month, AEHF provides highly secure, anti-jamming communications for the military and national leaders like the commander in chief. It wasn't clear in Goldfein's comments whether he was interested in using commercial capabilities to augment, replace or work as a backup to AEHF and other military satellite systems. He did note that the sheer volume of satellites in some commercial constellations provides increased survivability for the network. “We want to get to a point both in conventional and unconventional, or conventional and nuclear, where if some portion of the network is taken out, our answer ought to be, ‘Peh, I've got five other pathways. And you want to take out 1,000 satellites of my constellation, of which I have five? Knock yourself out.' That's what I see is going to be a significant way that we're going to be able to leverage,” said Goldfein. The possibility of lowering costs is another major incentive to turning to the commercial sector to begin providing the communications necessary. “What we want to eventually get to is the reversal of the cost curve. Right now it actually costs us more to defend than it takes to shoot. And we want to reverse that so it actually costs them more to shoot than it takes for us to defend,” explained Goldfien. Goldfein pointed to commercial launches as an area where competition had helped drive down costs. “Increased access to affordable launch and smaller payloads that are more capable has caused this rapid expansion of commercial capabilities in space,” he said. “That may be one of the most exciting developments that we have going forward, because industry is going to help us solve many of these problems.” https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tech/c2-comms/2019/07/12/can-commercial-satellites-revolutionize-nuclear-command-and-control/
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June 11, 2018 | International, Aerospace
LOCKHEED MARTIN ANNOUNCES $100 MILLION VENTURE FUND INCREASE
BETHESDA, Md., June 7, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) announced the doubling of its venture capital fund to $200 million and recent investments in early-stage companies focused in the areas of autonomy and advanced manufacturing. "Our focus is on finding and investing in companies developing cutting-edge technologies that will grow our business and disrupt our industry," said Chris Moran, vice president and general manager of Lockheed Martin Ventures. "We're developing long-term strategic partnerships with companies and helping them navigate through the early stages of product development while leveraging our decades of experience working with government customers." Enabled by tax reform legislation, Lockheed Martin Ventures is focusing the additional $100 million on early-stage companies in the areas of sensor technologies, autonomy, artificial intelligence and cyber. With the fund's latest investment, Lockheed Martin expanded its relationship with nTopology, creator of ELEMENT, an emerging software technology in the high-growth additive and advanced manufacturing sectors. "Our investment in nTopology will bring strategic advantages in Lockheed Martin's computational design processes and help shorten the periods between the design and manufacturing phase," said Moran. The increase in the venture fund is part of $460 million that Lockheed Martin is investing as a direct result of tax reform savings. The tax reform legislation enables Lockheed Martin to make investments that improve its global competitiveness, including investing in transformative technologies that will bring lasting benefits to customers, employees and communities. The company is making additional investments enabled by tax reform savings, including: $200 million additional investments in capital expenditures and research and development in 2018 $100 million in employee training and educational opportunities over the next five years $50 million investment in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education enrichment, including the establishment of a new Lockheed Martin STEM Scholarship Fund $10 million for the launch of the Lockheed Martin Innovation Prize competition More details of Lockheed Martin's investments enabled by tax reform legislation can be found here. About Lockheed Martin Headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, Lockheed Martin is a global security and aerospace company that employs approximately 100,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services. SOURCE Lockheed Martin https://news.lockheedmartin.com/2018-06-07-Lockheed-Martin-Announces-100-Million-Venture-Fund-Increase