September 7, 2018 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR

Pentagon’s A&S reorganization should be completed a year ahead of time

WASHINGTON — Last December, Ellen Lord sat down with reporters and told them that the reorganization of the Pentagon's Acquisition, Technology and Logistics office would be a two-year process.

Now, however, Lord believes her Acquisition and Sustainment office will beat that target, easily.

“I believe we are going to be pretty squared away” by the first quarter of calendar year 2019, Lord told Defense News in an interview following her appearance at the second annual Defense News Conference.

“I believe those last critical slots — a lot of [deputy assistant secretary of defense] slots, a few director slots — will all be filled by March of '19. We're excited to get going on the work,” she said.

The AT&L reorganization included splitting the office into two new units — the undersecretaries of Acquisition and Sustainment, led by Lord, and of Research and Engineering, led by Mike Griffin.

In July, Deputy Secretary of Defense Pat Shanahan released a memo — obtained first by Defense News — finalizing the structures of the new organizations.

Full article: https://www.defensenews.com/smr/defense-news-conference/2018/09/06/as-reorganization-should-be-completed-a-year-ahead-of-time

On the same subject

September 18, 2020 | International, C4ISR

Space Force issues $298M contract for new anti-jamming satellite design
Nathan Strout Northrop Grumman was awarded a $298 million rapid-prototyping contract to design a new anti-jamming communications satellite payload for the U.S. Space Force, the Space and Missile Systems Center announced Sept. 16. Under the contract, Northrop Grumman will build a payload for the Evolved Strategic SATCOM (ESS) program, a next generation constellation that will provide secure, jam-resistant, survivable communications for military leadership all over the world. The new system will be interoperable with the Advanced Extremely High Frequency satellites currently on orbit. The Space Force wants ESS to have enhanced resilience and cybersecurity capabilities. And unlike AEHF, the new satellites will have polar components to provide communications over the Arctic. Currently, the Enhanced Polar System satellites are used to extend the AEHF network to the polar regions. The Space and Missile Systems Center could award up to three rapid-prototyping contracts in 2020, according to the Space Force's fiscal 2021 budget request, before selecting a final contractor to build out the constellation. It's not immediately clear how many ESS payloads would be in the constellation, or what satellites they'll be hosted on. “Northrop Grumman looks forward to building on more than 40 years of successfully delivering protected satellite communications solutions to our customers,” said Cyrus Dhalla, vice president, communications systems, Northrop Grumman. “ESS is critical to extending our nation's secure satellite communications infrastructure, as it will provide strategic users with assured, uninterruptable connectivity without fear of discovery anywhere on the globe.” Work is expected to be completed May 2025. https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tech/c2-comms/2020/09/17/space-force-issues-298-million-contract-for-new-anti-jamming-satellite-design/
October 11, 2022 | International, Aerospace

Army counter-drone office recommends 3 teams to protect installations
In a memo obtained by Defense News, the Joint Counter-small Unmanned Aircraft Systems Office makes its recommendation for Counter-UAS as a Service vendors.
June 1, 2020 | International, Naval

Exercise to unite four combatant commands to test homeland defenses for the first time
Geoff Ziezulewicz For the first time, four U.S. combatant commands are coming together this week for an exercise that simulates how the military would respond to an attack on its home turf. Headed by U.S. Northern Command, the four-day exercise began this week off the East Coast and also involves U.S. Space, Transportation and Strategic commands, according to NORTHCOM. The aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman strike group and its air wing will join Canadian fighter jets and Air Force F-15s in conducting intercepts against adversary aircraft during the exercise, which began Thursday and will wrap up Sunday. This week's exercise continues a long stint at sea for the Truman's crew. The ship left Norfolk in November for its third overseas cruise in the past four years. While the strike group's deployment began to wrap up this spring, it spent its time as a rapid-response force at sea instead of pierside in order to protect the crew from exposure to COVID-19. An Air Force B-1B bomber will be used as the enemy aiming to infiltrate U.S. airspace as well. Along the way, brass hope the exercise can strengthen the military's ability to communicate and share real-time information in such a scenario, according to NORTHCOM. U.S. Transportation Command is providing refueling tankers along the coast to support defending forces during the exercise, and Space Command is providing satellite communications and GPS. “Leading complex multi-combatant command operations across multiple domains demonstrates our readiness to defend our homeland regardless of COVID-19,” Air Force Gen. Terrence O'Shaughnessy, the head of NORTHCOM, said in a statement. Correction: this article incorrectly stated when the Truman deployed last year. The carrier deployed in November. https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2020/05/29/exercise-to-unite-four-combatant-commands-to-test-homeland-defenses-for-the-first-time/

All news

Pentagon’s A&S reorganization should be completed a year ahead of time

On the same subject

Army counter-drone office recommends 3 teams to protect installations In a memo obtained by Defense News, the Joint Counter-small Unmanned Aircraft Systems Office makes its recommendation for Counter-UAS as a Service vendors.

Army counter-drone office recommends 3 teams to protect installations
In a memo obtained by Defense News, the Joint Counter-small Unmanned Aircraft Systems Office makes its recommendation for Counter-UAS as a Service vendors.