January 28, 2019 | International, Other Defence
By: Jill Aitoro
WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif. — The promise of Silicon Valley is built on unicorns — startup companies valued at more than $1 billion. They're rare. Hence the name. But the payoff is big enough that venture capitalists are willing to funnel a lot of money by way of multiple rounds of funding toward unproven technologies, to accept significant risk, in hopes they'll be in on the ground floor of the next great discovery.
Compare that to Washington, where in the words of Defense Innovation Board Executive Director Josh Marcuse: “We put forward a defense program full of things that we know aren't going to work, but no one is willing to say so.”
For more than three years the Pentagon has attempted to draw upon the Silicon Valley culture of innovation, to buy instead of build, to take advantage of commercial technology. But success has been spotty at best — with SpaceX and Palantir rather exclusively held up as the two “unicorns” catering to the military.
But while many procurement reformists will point to burdensome regulations as the problem, innovation leaders from both the Department of Defense and Silicon Valley companies agreed during a November roundtable hosted by Defense News that no laws currently in place prevent smart buying by the government.
Instead, those same innovation leader say that what causes the greatest minds in the tech community to walk away from the largest buyer in the world is a slow, arduous process combined with a serious lack of understanding within the Pentagon for how software is designed.
“We basically created an innovation program where you have to have Howard Hughes-style entrepreneurship to do anything that matters,” said Trae Stephens, partner at San Francisco-based venture capital firm Founders Fund and co-founder of Silicon Vally tech firm Anduril.
To buy or to build
Since the 1990s, defense acquisition regulations have clearly stated that commercial preference should be given in every contracting decision. Reinforcing that point, the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics released a guidebook for acquiring commercial items in January 2018, stating: “The time and cost to develop and field new capabilities, the technological advances made by near peer competitors and the rapid pace of innovation by private industry have demonstrated the need to access the best technology — now.”
And yet, such earnest support of commercial tech does not regularly filter to the acquisition community. Agencies over-specify requirements, “so now if the company wants to do business with [the Pentagon], they have to modify their product,” Stephens said. “All you have to do is say, ‘Yes, we have validated that there is no commercial product that meets our requirements,' and that's it.”
The Pentagon does not, however, do the opposite — adapt requirements for a particular product.
“There are a lot of things that we just have to build. We're going to build aircraft carriers, we're going to build fighter planes,” Stephens added. “And then there's the thing that we're going to buy — the products. These should be entirely separate conversations.”
That over-specification runs counter to the “agile” development method typically favored by the tech community, which is built on a premise of short sprints that factor into evolving requirements. Agile can't exist without a degree of flexibility, ensuring, too, that if you fail, you fail fast. Contrast that with the traditional waterfall approach that predefines the various phases of development to ensure, in theory, a predictable outcome.
Full article: https://www.defensenews.com/smr/cultural-clash/2019/01/28/what-the-pentagon-could-learn-from-unicorns
August 23, 2023 | International, Aerospace
Country joins the U.S., the Soviet Union and China as only nations to achieve this milestone. Russia’s Luna-25 mission ended with a crash days earlier.
October 2, 2020 | International, Aerospace, Naval, C4ISR
Mike Yeo MELBOURNE, Australia — Japan is set to continue its recent trend of setting new records for its annual defense budgets, with the country continuing to cast a wary eye on China's military modernization and nuclear-armed North Korea's missile program. The latest budget request issued by Japan's Ministry of Defense is seeking $55 billion for fiscal 2021, which begins in April 2021. The amount is an 8 percent increase from the previous year, and makes it the eighth consecutive year the defense budget request to the Ministry of Finance has set a new record high. This is the first defense budget for the government of Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, who looks set to continue his predecessor Shinzo Abe's push for Japan to bolster its international involvement in security matters. Unsurprisingly, the latest budget request includes potential funding for more Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighters. The ministry is seeking $308.5 million for four more F-35A conventional-takeoff-and-landing variants, and $249.8 million for two F-35B short-takeoff-and-vertical-landing versions. Japan has an eventual requirement for 105 F-35As and 42 F-35Bs, which makes it potentially the biggest operator of the F-35 outside of the United States. The F-35Bs will be operated onboard Japan's helicopter destroyer Izumo, which is being retrofitted domestically to operate the stealthy fifth-generation fighter jets. The budget request is seeking $218.6 million this fiscal year for the project, which will include thermally protecting the Izumo's flight deck from the jets' exhaust gases and reshaping of the ship's forward flight deck for operating the jets. As usual, the budget request also includes items related to Japan's air and ballistic missile defense capability. The country is seeking $370 million to acquire more Patriot Advanced Capability-3 Missile Segment Enhancement missiles. Japan recently backtracked on plans to acquire the ground-based Aegis Ashore system following technical difficulties with the development of the SM-3 Block IIA interceptors, and is currently looking at alternatives. Japan's local defense industry will also get funding for various defense acquisition and research projects under the budget request, with the MoD seeking $643.7 million for three more Kawasaki P-1 anti-submarine aircraft and $487.5 million for two more C-2 airlifters from the same manufacturer. Japan's land forces are seeking $180.7 million for 25 more Type 16 wheeled maneuver combat vehicles, while the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force has asked for $937.2 million and $654.1 million respectively to acquire two more frigates and the first boat of a new class of attack submarine. Research funding for Japan's next-generation stealth fighter to replace the approximately 90 Mitsubishi F-2s currently in service is also being stepped up, with $555.8 million requested and an additional $113.6 million sought for research and development of fighter subsystems such as radars and mission systems integration. A further $218.6 million will go toward the research and development of Japan's hypersonic weapons program, while the development of a standoff long-range electronic warfare aircraft based on the C-2 airlifter will require $144.9 million and a further $67.2 million requested for the acquisition of onboard systems to equip it. The budget request also includes funding for less traditional defense, such as the research and operation of space and cyber units, as well as for new electromagnetic warfare units. The electromagnetic unit would be based at the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force's Asaka base, north of Tokyo, and an unspecified number of staff would be deployed at several army bases across the country by March 2022, mostly in southern Japanese islands including Okinawa — areas of increased Chinese maritime and air activity. The mission of such a unit would be to block electromagnetic attacks that could disrupt thing such as radio and GPS functions. The ministry is requesting $66 million to purchase RC-2 reconnaissance aircraft, and about $218 million for research into surveillance systems to counter electromagnetic attacks by drones and other weapons. Japan in May launched the Space Operations Squadron as part of the Japan Air Self-Defense Force, with 20 initial members. It is expected to grow to about 100 members once the unit is fully operational in 2023. The unit is tasked with monitoring and protecting Japanese satellites from enemy attacks or space debris. It will also conduct satellite-based navigation and communications for other troops in the field. The ministry will launch a commanding unit in western Tokyo and staff size will be increased to 70 next year. It is seeking more than $680 million to design and launch a surveillance satellite, and develop and purchase equipment compatible with its ally the United States. The budget request will now be reviewed by Japan's Finance Ministry, which will then decide on the funding allocation for the various ministries and announce Japan's next budget, which is expected later this year. https://www.defensenews.com/global/asia-pacific/2020/10/01/japan-reveals-record-high-budget-request-supporting-hypersonic-tech-f-35-buys-and-more/
May 4, 2020 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security
BY REBECCA KHEEL - 05/03/20 01:30 PM EDT Defense budget cuts are looming as the coronavirus pandemic places pressure on the federal budget across various agencies. The Pentagon had already been expecting relatively flat budgets for the next few years due to economic constraints caused by the widening deficits in the country. But with the pandemic, the deficit is projected to explode after Congress passed trillions of dollars in coronavirus relief packages, with more aid bills expected. Defense budget analysts are predicting that will mean cuts to defense spending down the line. Meanwhile, Democrats say the crisis should result in a rethinking of national security that gives less money to the Pentagon and more to areas like public health. The chairman of the House Armed Services Committee said this past week it's hard to predict where the defense budget will head after the crisis abates, but suggested the entire federal budget will need to be re-examined. “The economics of this get much more complicated than they were before this, and it's logical to assume that we are going to have to reevaluate our entire budget, both revenue and expenditures,” Chairman Adam Smith (D-Wash.) said on a teleconference in response to a question from The Hill. “Beyond that, it would be pure speculation as to what's gonna happen.” Smith, a long time opponent of the nuclear budget, specifically highlighted nuclear modernization as an area for potential cuts, but said defense portfolios are “all on the table to figure out how to spend the money more wisely.” In the meantime, defense hawks, progressives and deficit hawks alike are honing their arguments as they brace for defense cuts. The defense budget battles are already starting to play out as Congress debates further coronavirus relief bills. The Pentagon has said it expects to request “billions” of dollars in the next bill to help contractors hit by the virus. That funding would follow the $10.5 billion the Pentagon got in the third coronavirus stimulus package for the Defense Production Act, defense health programs, and military deployments related to the crisis and other areas. Smith, though, said this past week he would not support more Pentagon funding in further coronavirus bills, saying the department can find unused funding in its existing $738 billion-plus budget. Smith's comments came about a week after dozens of progressive organizations led by Win Without War argued in a letter to Congress that “any arguments that the Pentagon cannot use existing resources to respond to the crisis should be met with considerable skepticism.” But the Pentagon maintained after Smith's comments it cannot dip into its existing budget for coronavirus relief. Ellen Lord, the Pentagon's top weapons buyer, said the department may be able to use some operations and maintenance funds for coronavirus needs, but added money still has to be available for “pretty significant needs” in readiness and modernization. “I am not sure that we have the fiscal flexibility to encompass all of the new demands we have and the inefficiencies that we are seeing and perhaps may see in the future,” Lord said at a briefing. “But I respect what Chairman Smith is saying, and we will obviously do our best.” Looking further ahead, Pentagon officials have indicated they are preparing to tighten their belts at the other end of the crisis. In a webinar with the Brookings Institution this past week, Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy recalled “compressed budgets” in the wake of recovery bills for the 2008 financial crisis, culminating in the 2011 Budget Control Act that Pentagon officials now blame for readiness shortfalls. The law set budget caps that resulted in sequestration, continuing resolutions or government shutdowns in several years. “These are challenges we're thinking about now as we look at the [Future Years Defense Program] and whether or not this will pressurize Army budgets in the [fiscal year] 23, 24 timeframe, which are very critical to us and our modernization efforts and increasing our talent management within the force," he said. “We are watching that very closely, and we know that is a challenge that is out in front of us.” Late last month, the Congressional Budget Office projected that Congress' rescue and stimulus efforts will cause the federal deficit to quadruple to $3.7 trillion, the largest by far in U.S. history. Defense budget experts say the ballooning deficit likely spells defense cuts in the future, citing trends after previous rising deficits and economic downturns such after the 2008 financial crisis. “What has historically happened is, when Congress and fiscal conservatives come out and get serious about reducing the debt and reducing spending, defense is almost always part of what they come up with for a solution,” Todd Harrison, director of defense budget analysis at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said in a webinar. “So, we could be looking at a deficit-driven defense drawdown coming in the next two or three years. At least history would suggest that that is a real possibility.” In the same webinar, American Enterprise Institute resident fellow Mackenzie Eaglen predicted the “budget comes down sooner rather than later.” “There probably will be a total relook even at the [National Defense Strategy] fundamentals and what mission is going to have to go in response to this,” she added. But defense hawks are arguing the Pentagon should not be used to pay other bills,, saying the country still faces threats from Russia and China. Fred Bartels, a senior policy analyst for defense budgeting at the conservative Heritage Foundation, said the defense budget needs to match the National Defense Strategy, which has not changed despite the pandemic. The strategy calls for the military to be ready for so-called great power competition with China and Russia. “What you're going to have is likely empty promises, and that's the worst possible outcome for the military,” Bartels said of a budget cut without a strategy change. “If your national strategy tells the world that you're going to do that but you don't follow through, it's going to be harder and harder to operate.” But the pandemic has intensified calls from progressive lawmakers to rethink what constitutes national security. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) told The Hill the crisis shows the definition of national security needs be expanded. “Lawmakers must view issues like climate change, biosecurity, cybersecurity and this pandemic as serious and real national security threats facing our nation,” Khanna said in a statement to The Hill. “For too long, we were myopically focused and spending trillions on traditional national security issues like terrorism and ‘great power' politics. These new threats impact our health, safety, and economy, requiring new funds to address them.” https://thehill.com/policy/defense/495762-defense-budget-brawl-looms-after-pandemic