Lockheed Martin Celebrates FBM Headquarters Move To Florida's Space Coast

On the same subject

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  July 10, 2023 | International, Other Defence

  Russia’s war could reshape the global arms market in favor of China

  China has the opportunity, the incentive and the capacity to gain from Russia’s losses.

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  June 3, 2020 | International, Aerospace, Security

  Air Force to dole out nearly $1 billion for ABMS development

  Nathan Strout The Air Force will dole out up to $950 million over the next five years to develop and enable its Joint All Domain Command and Control concept, according to a May 29 contract announcement. JADC2 is a new data architecture being pushed primarily by the Air Force for multidomain operations across the service branches. Under JADC2, the Department of Defense wants to connect any sensor to any shooters, regardless of domain. For instance, one aspect of JADC2 is ensuring that data collected by space-based sensors can be processed, transferred to a command-and-control node where it can be fused with other sensor data, and distributed to the appropriate shooter in near-real time. The Air Force has pursued this JADC2 vision by investing in the Advanced Battle Management System family of systems. ABMS seeks to bring the internet of things to the battlefield with an open architecture. The Air Force began testing ABMS last year and is set to conduct its next test in August or September. The Air Force contracts, with a ceiling of $950 million total, will provide maturation, demonstration and proliferation of JADC2-related capabilities across platforms and domains. Contractors will be expected to leverage open-system designs, modern software and algorithm developments to enable the JADC2 vision. Twenty-eight companies will compete for task orders under the new indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contracts. Several of the vendors selected are not traditional DoD contractors, highlighting the Air Force's desire to include novel commercial approaches to ABMS. “We want a wide variety of companies, and we definitely want fresh blood in the ABMS competition, so there is a lot that can be contributed from companies that are commercially focused, that know a lot about data, that know a lot about machine learning and [artificial intelligence] and know a lot about analytics. Those are going to be the most important parts of the Advanced Battle Management System,” Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Will Roper told reporters May 14. While the announcement didn't delineate what each of the vendors would bring to the table, multiple vendors on the contract have provided technologies that fit into the JADC2 concept as well. For example, Persistent Systems supports the Wave Relay Tactical Assault Kit program, which provides multidomain communications and situational awareness to Air Force convoys. In a news release, Silvus Technologies announced it would supply its StreamCaster Mobile Ad hoc Networking radio systems for ABMS under the contract. Silvus says its technology can provide a high-bandwidth, tactical-edge network that connects assets across domains. That technology fits into meshONE, a part of ABMS focused on battlefield networks. MeshONE was used in the December 2019 ABMS test, and the new contract will provide more equipment for future tests. No funds were issued at the time of the award. Work is expected to be completed May 26, 2025. https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tech/it-networks/2020/06/02/air-force-to-dole-out-nearly-1-billion-for-abms-development/

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  April 17, 2020 | International, Aerospace

  AF Seeks Freedom To Shift $$ Between Space Programs

  "[T]he way that the Air Force and now Space Force put their budget submissions into Congress, it puts all of the programs into individual program elements," Roper said, "and that's like locking [each] program into a little financial prison." By THERESA HITCHENSon April 16, 2020 at 4:28 PM WASHINGTON: The Air Force wants Congress to approve new powers allowing the service to fund space acquisition in ‘blocks' that would allow it more freedom to shift funds from one specific program to another, says service acquisition head Will Roper. The idea, he told reporters today, is to give the Space Force acquisition authorities that mimic those used by fast-moving and highly capable organizations such as the Special Capabilities Office and the NRO. The mechanism: putting multiple programs into one budgetary program element (PE) number so priorities can be juggled or monies shifted to ailing programs to help them cope with cost or schedule overruns. “One of the things that we are very passionate about for space acquisition is trying to consolidate the space portfolio into a few number of program elements,” Roper said, noting that when he headed the SCO “we funded almost all of our programs out of one program element. That's really important because it let me optimize the portfolio of programs, not just do individual programs,” he explained. “Well, the way that the Air Force and now Space Force put their budget submissions into Congress, it puts all of the programs into individual program elements, and that's like locking [each] program into a little financial prison.” Although it is true that other organizations with acquisition powers — including SCO, NRO and the Missile Defense Agency — have such flexibility, it is unclear whether Congress will acquiesce to the same for the Space Force. The 2016 NDAA created a new “major force program” — MFP 12 — for DoD reporting on the national security space budget precisely to overcome: a) the lack of transparency in DoD budgeting for space programs, and b) the long-standing Air Force practice to shift space funds to air power programs that were suffering setbacks. However, an MFP does not allow the Air Force or other space services to move money around without congressional assent. As late as the 2020 budget request, DoD admitted that it still had not sorted out how exactly to meet the MFP-12 requirement as it was still developing standard practices for determining what should be included or not. Joshua Huminski, director of the National Security Space Program at the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress (CSPC), said wryly that the Air Force request is likely to “require very artful selling to Congress.” He explained in a phone conversation today that congressional leaders already are keeping the Air Force on a short leash regarding space acquisition. Roper said the request for such new authorities will be included in the space acquisition report Air Force Secretary Barbara Barrett is required to send to Congress under language in the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). That report was due March 31 but has yet to be transmitted. Roper said the report is finished but is being reviewed by Defense Secretary Mark Esper. As I've reported, Barrett's report will punt on the question of whether the NDAA-required Space Force acquisition executive will be a fully separate office or will be organized in some fashion as a subunit of Roper's current shop. It's no secret that Roper has strenuously opposed a fully bifurcated space acquisition office. Roper confirmed today that the pending report is concentrating on how the service hopes to use its current, and newly proposed, acquisition authorities to speed the often decades-long process of moving new space capabilities from design to procurement. He explained that the Air Force will wait until after Congress decides on its proposal for future space acquisition authorities before circling back to the organizational question — in effect, meaning that the service will not address the issue until after the 2021 NDAA is passed. “And then once we determine what will be given to us or not, then for round two, we'll look at what's the right way to organize with these new authorities, and at that point we'll take on the question of whether there should be one or two service acquisition executives,” he elaborated. The service has until October 2020 to establish the controversial new space acquisition post. https://breakingdefense.com/2020/04/af-seeks-freedom-to-shift-between-space-programs