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April 21, 2020 | International, Aerospace

Is the Air Force’s Advanced Battle Management System program gearing up to be the next major acquisition failure?

Valerie Insinna

WASHINGTON — Since Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Dave Goldfein took over as the service's top general in 2016, the Air Force has made figuring out how to connect its weapons with those of the Army, Navy and Marine Corps its biggest priority.

The Air Force is set to have spent $300 million on the Advanced Battle Management System through fiscal year 2021. However, the service is still struggling to define what ABMS needs to do and how much it will cost, the Government Accountability Office said in a report released April 16.

"The Air Force has not established a plan or business case for ABMS that identifies its requirements, a plan to attain mature technologies when needed, a cost estimate, and an affordability analysis. ... To date, the Air Force has not identified a development schedule for ABMS, and it has not formally documented requirements,” it read.

That could have significant consequences for the program down the road, GAO continued:

“GAO's previous work has shown that weapon systems without a sound business case are at greater risk for schedule delays, cost growth, and integration issues.”

The GAO made four recommendations: create a cost estimate and a plan laying out how to afford the program, formalize the decision-making authorities of those involved in ABMS, and develop a list of technologies that are expected to fit into the initial system.

In a response to the report, Kevin Fahey, the assistant secretary of defense for acquisition, concurred with all four recommendations — a sign that, going forward, the Air Force may be required to solidify more of its ABMS plans.

The Air Force has maintained that the program's unconventional structure and methodology is a feature, not a bug.

It wants to use a series of experiments to help discover and mature new technologies that can be weaved in alongside legacy platforms. For instance, the first ABMS experiment connected SpaceX's Starlink constellation with an AC-130 gunship, and the next demo will employ a Kratos Valkyrie drone carrying communications gear that enables the F-22 and F-35 to securely share data while allowing them to maintain stealth.

Air Force officials have said technologies that are proven to be successful and mature during the experiments could become programs of record inside the ABMS family of systems.

However, the Air Force does not seem to have a firm plan for what technologies it needs and when to bring them online, the GAO said. The service has identified 28 development areas that includes a new cloud network, a new common radio, and apps that provide different ways of presenting and fusing data. However, none of those areas are linked to specific technical requirements, and the Air Force hasn't explained what organizations are responsible for the development of those products.

In one damning section, GAO compared ABMS with several cancelled programs with similar aims, such as the Army's Future Combat Systems program that sought to field a family of manned and unmanned technologies and the Joint Tactical Radio System, which was intended to create a government-owned software defined radio. These programs publicly flamed out after millions of dollars were spent in development, in part because certain technologies were not mature enough and caused the schedule to unravel.

The scope of ABMS will be far larger than those previous programs, the Pentagon's Office of Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation told the GAO. But because the Air Force has not provided a detailed acquisition strategy, CAPE does not have confidence that the Air Force will be able succeed where those programs have failed.

“Given the criticality of the battle management command and control mission and the planned retirement of legacy programs, the lack of an ABMS business case introduces uncertainty regarding whether the needed capabilities will be developed within required time frames,” the GAO said.

Figuring out who has responsibility and decision-making authority for ABMS is also a messy proposition, the GAO said.

The ABMS effort is led by a chief architect, Preston Dunlap, who is responsible for managing tradeoffs among the portfolio of technologies and guide experimentation efforts. However, existing programs that will be part of the ABMS family will retain their separate program office with their own independent management, and the Air Force has yet to clarify whether Dunlap will be able to redirect those program's funding to fall in line with ABMS objectives.

For example, the Air Force's program office for space is currently working on a data integration project that could correspond with ABMS efforts to field a cloud network.

But “although some ABMS funds have been obligated for this project, there is no documentation to support that the Chief Architect will be able to direct the PEO to change the project objectives or timeline to align with ABMS requirements once they are defined,” the GAO said.

The role of the Air Force Warfighting Integration Capability or AFWIC, which was established in 2017 to help define how the service will fight wars in the future, is also unclear. An AFWIC senior official told the GAO that the organization began leading the service's multidomain command and control initiatives in 2019, but it is uncertain whether AFWIC also has the power to change the direction of the ABMS program.

https://www.c4isrnet.com/c2-comms/2020/04/20/is-the-air-forces-advanced-battle-management-system-program-gearing-up-to-be-the-next-major-acquisition-failure/

On the same subject

  • Britain kicks off competition to manage ground stations for next Skynet satellite program

    September 13, 2019 | International, Aerospace

    Britain kicks off competition to manage ground stations for next Skynet satellite program

    By: Andrew Chuter LONDON — Britain's defense secretary has fired the starting gun on an industry competition to manage the ground station element of the £6 billion Skynet 6 communications satellite program. “I can announce the launch of a new competition for an industry partner to operate and manage the ground stations, infrastructure and technology involved in this [Skynet 6] program,” Secretary of State for Defence Ben Wallace said in a speech at the DSEI defense exhibition in London Wednesday. The invitation to industry players could see incumbent ground service provider Airbus lose the contract after more than 15 years operating ground stations and satellites in the Skynet 5 private finance initiative deal with the British Ministry of Defence. The ground station service deal with Airbus comes to an end in 2022. Earlier MoD briefings to industry said they envisioned a contract award to the winning bidder around August next year. Julian Knight, head of networks at the MoD's Information Systems and Services organization said the government was about to enter a vital phase of the program. “We are seeking an innovative partner that will ensure effective and consistent defense satellite communications and will look to continually maximize performance and value for money,” he said. “The successful bidder will also negotiate the MoD's access to commercial satellite services, as well as managing the U.K.'s contribution and access to systems owned and operated by the U.K.'s allies,” said Knight. Ken Peterman, president of government systems at Viasat, said he was pleased at the references to commercial capabilities being adopted as part of the program. “ We are very encouraged by today's Skynet 6 announcement as it further demonstrates the value of commercial satellite trajectories and the need for an ecosystem that will allow war fighters to use both commercial and MoD purpose-built capabilities as one seamless enterprise.” It's not clear whether the British intend to use the Skynet 6 ground stations for non-communications satellite applications in the intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance sector. 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The in service date for the satellite is targeted for mid2025. Beefing up space capabilities has become a top priority for the British and the threat posed by rival nations was referenced by service chiefs speaking at the DSEI show. Wallace referenced it as well. “Today we're having to deal with increasing threats to satellite-based navigation and the need for robust communications has never been more vital," he said. “That's why we're developing Skynet 6, which will give our forces unparalleled capacity to talk to each other in any hostile environment.” The British announced earlier this year they are collaborating with the U.S. on a project known as Artemis, aimed at researching the military potential of launching a constellation of small satellites. The goal is to launch a demonstrator vehicle within 12 months. Small satellite development is pretty much dominated by the British, primarily through the Airbus owned Surrey Satellites Technology. The British are also the first international partner to formally sign up for a little talked about U.S.-led coalition effort called Operation Olympic Defender, aimed at strengthening allies' ability to deter hostile actions by nations like Russia and China. Despite the new urgency to build a space capability, the British have still not published their long awaited space defense strategy detailing how the military intends to develop its space thinking in the decade ahead. Air Chief Marshal Mike Wigston, who recently took over as the chief of the air staff, declined to say when the document might surface or why its publication has been delayed for more than a year. Industry executives though were more forthcoming. One executive, who asked not to be named, said one of the principal reasons for the delay was the haggling between Joint Forces Command and the Royal Air Force over who would end up controlling Britain's military space activities. https://www.c4isrnet.com/c2-comms/satellites/2019/09/11/britain-kicks-off-competition-to-manage-ground-stations-for-next-skynet-satellite-program/

  • French Army orders 364 Serval armored vehicles

    January 19, 2021 | International, Land

    French Army orders 364 Serval armored vehicles

    By: Christina Mackenzie   PARIS — The French Army is expected to receive 108 Serval armored vehicles in 2022 as part of an order from manufacturers Nexter and Texelis totaling 364. The contract was finalized through the DGA procurement agency on Dec. 23 but was not announced until Jan. 15. The two companies, which formed a temporary joint operation to build the light-armored, multirole Serval, will deliver the first 12 production vehicles in the first half of 2022, followed by a further 96 in the second half. The government previously allocated funding for the vehicle order, so the Army is expected to have a total of 978 Servals by 2030. The Serval is a four-wheel drive, 15-ton vehicle designed to replace the 40-year-old VAB, an armored personnel carrier and support vehicle. It complements the much bigger 24-ton Griffon armored vehicle, and these two, together with the Jaguar reconnaissance and combat vehicle, form the core of the French Army's Scorpion program to replace all French front-line fighting vehicles. They will be linked via a new communications and battlefield management system, the Scorpion Combat Information System. Three main versions of the Serval — patrol; intelligence and reconnaissance; and communications — will each have their own variants. Designed to operate in combat zones, the Serval combines flexibility, strategic mobility and payload-carrying capacity. The DGA said that despite difficulties caused by the coronavirus pandemic, testing of the vehicle, which began in September 2019, was sufficiently advanced to allow this first production phase to take place before the end of 2020, as planned in France's 2019-2025 Military Program Law. In addition, as part of a procedure undertaken by the gendarmerie (national police force) to renew its fleet of armored vehicles, the Nexter-Texelis team has proposed a vehicle based on the Serval capable of operating in mainland France and overseas. https://www.defensenews.com/land/2021/01/15/french-army-orders-364-serval-armored-vehicles/

  • Enabling Revolutionary Nondestructive Inspection Capability

    June 17, 2019 | International, Other Defence

    Enabling Revolutionary Nondestructive Inspection Capability

    X-rays and gamma rays have a wide range of applications including scanning suspicious maritime shipping containers for illicit materials, industrial inspection of materials and processes, and medical diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. Current technologies, however, are not ideal. X-rays produce a continuum of energies that limit their inspection and diagnostic performance, and gamma rays can only be produced at specific energies unique to a given radioactive isotope. DARPA today announced its Gamma Ray Inspection Technology (GRIT) program. GRIT seeks novel approaches to achieve high-intensity, tunable, and narrow-bandwidth sources of gamma ray radiation in a compact, transportable form factor that would enable a wide range of national security, industrial, and medical applications. A Proposers Day webinar describing the goals of the program is scheduled for July 8, 2019. “What we're trying to do in GRIT is transform the use of x-rays and gamma rays,” said Mark Wrobel, program manager in DARPA's Defense Sciences Office. “Current sources of gamma rays, like Cobalt-60 or Cesium-137, are not very flexible. They require special licenses to possess and only emit gamma rays at very specific energies. What we desire is a source of very high-energy photons that we can tune to match the application we need. This ranges from more effective detection of illicit cargo, to a more informative medical x-ray.” GRIT aims to provide a source of tunable, pure x-rays and gamma rays from tens of keV (kilo-electron volts) up through over ten MeV (mega-electron volts). Currently, tunable and narrow bandwidth gamma ray sources only exist at highly specialized user facilities best suited for basic research and are not able to support broad practical applications. Shrinking these photon sources to a transportable system is a major goal and challenge of the GRIT program. GRIT technology could make possible a range of new inspection and diagnostic protocols. In medical and industrial radiography, for example, GRIT could enable revealing specific elemental and material content, such as calcium in bones or specific metals in cargo. A typical x-ray only shows differences in density in the object being inspected – whether a piece of luggage at an airport, or an individual at a doctor's office. If successful, a GRIT x-ray source could be tuned to detect and quantify the concentration of specific elements of interest, such as the amount of calcium in a given bone x-ray, enabling radiologists to actually see bone composition. Tuning energy between 10s of keV to over 100 hundred keV would allow detection of specific elements that might be of interest in characterizing novel materials and processes at micron scales. These techniques would be relevant to defense applications including non-destruction inspection of novel additively manufactured materials and alloys for their elemental composition. At energy levels in the MeV range, gamma ray photons have high enough energy to actually interact with the nuclei of atoms. Whereas x-rays work by interacting with the shells of atoms, GRIT would be able to stimulate the nucleus of an atom to bring about an effect called nuclear resonance fluorescence, a sort of “fingerprint” that is unique to each isotope on the periodic table. “With GRIT, you could probe and detect specific isotopes of interest by fine-tuning the photon energy to minimize background noise and take advantage of the nuclear resonance fluorescence phenomenon,” Wrobel said. “Those isotopes could be rare-earth elements of interest or special nuclear materials. To be able to definitively say, ‘Yes, there's highly enriched uranium in this object' and be able to characterize how much is present would be a significant leap forward over our current capabilities.” DARPA is seeking expertise in a range of technologies on the GRIT program including advanced accelerator technology, high-energy laser systems, novel control systems, and new x-ray and gamma ray detector technology. To register for the GRIT Proposers Day webinar, visit: https://go.usa.gov/xmh28. GRIT's focus on new, compact photon sources for inspection complements DARPA's Intense and Compact Neutron Sources (ICONS) program, which is developing compact neutron sources. The two technologies would work in tandem, yielding a very robust inspection capability. Caption: The Gamma Ray Inspection Technology (GRIT) program seeks tunable gamma ray sources for a host of national security, industrial, and medical applications. https://www.darpa.mil/news-events/2019-06-14

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