Nouvelles

Nathan Strout WASHINGTON — The U.S. Space Force hopes its prototype low-Earth orbit weather satellites will entice commercial businesses and allied nations to partner up on the project, reducing the cost of delivering critical weather data to the war fighter. The U.S. Air Force has been trying to replace the aging Defense Meteorological Satellite Program for years, ever since Congress opted to can it in 2015. Two capabilities in particular have proven a challenge for replacement: cloud characterization and theater weather imagery. But now the Space Force thinks it has the answer. By leveraging the increasingly popular low-Earth orbit architecture demonstrated by SpaceX's Starlink constellation and other experiments, the military believes it can lower the cost of individual satellites, increase the resiliency of the systems and attract new partnerships. In a recent interview with SpaceNews, Space and Missile Systems Center Portfolio Architect Col. Russell Teehan explained the thinking behind the new approach. The Air Force previously struggled to attract partners due to the sheer cost of the systems, he said. After all, when a single satellite costs more than $700 million, it's difficult to find someone to share the load. That price point forced the Air Force to build exquisite systems, comprised of just a handful of satellites operating in higher orbits. As the Pentagon has come to understand with its other exquisite systems, in wartime this leaves the military's space-based capabilities dependent on just a few satellites that are difficult to defend. A proliferation low-Earth orbit, or P-LEO, constellation may solve both of those problems. Smaller LEO satellites can deliver the same capabilities at a fraction of the cost per satellite, while the sheer number of targets in the constellation means that the loss of a single satellite isn't crippling. “The goal is in doing that, that ideally the commercial and allied sector would increase their desire to partner on those activities,” Treehan said. “[T]he activities in the past were generally $700 million-plus individual systems, which forced us into architectures that were [made up of less than five satellites] that were significantly vulnerable if we were in a time of conflict.” The Space Force is targeting satellites in the $30-50 million range, Treehan added. The Space Force has issued a trio of prototype contracts this summer for new space-based sensors that can collect cloud characterization and theater weather imagery from low Earth orbit. Raytheon Technologies, General Atomics and Astra are leading separate prototyping efforts after receiving contracts from the Space Enterprise Consortium. The Space Force is asking for $131 million to continue these efforts in fiscal 2021. The decision to settle on LEO for this critical weather data follows years of disarray as the Pentagon has worked to find a replacement for the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program, or DMSP. For decades, the military has relied almost entirely on that program for weather data. The first satellite was launched in the 1960s, with the constellation being replenished with updated generations of weather satellites over the years. Today, there are just four DMSP satellites in operation. But no satellite is built to last forever, and there are no new DMSP satellites coming. As those satellites reach the end of their service life, they leave the two vital gaps of cloud characterization and theater weather imagery. Foreseeing this problem, Congress in 2015 directed the Air Force to launch a new weather satellite program to replace DMSP. The Air Force began working on a new constellation to launch in 2024, but there was a problem: a four-year gap between the projected end of DMSP's service life in 2020 and the launch of the new satellites. To fill that gap, the Air Force collaborated with NASA on ORS-8, a satellite to be launched just before DMSP expired. While a contract was awarded to Sierra Nevada Corp. to build that gap-filling satellite, it was protested, rescinded and ultimately canceled by the Air Force after the service determined DMSP's end-of-life date would extend beyond 2024. In 2019, the Air Force proposed a new solution: a free-flying space vehicle that would operate in low Earth orbit. The Pentagon asked for $101 million to begin the effort in fiscal 2020, with plans to launch it in 2024. But that plan didn't last the year. In September, the Air Force told Congress it wanted to scrap the free-flying space vehicle in favor of a new approach. Based on a space-based environmental monitoring capability assessment and strategy review completed in April 2019, the Air Force found it best to switch to an LEO architecture for scalability and increased resilience. Though skeptical, Congress ultimately swapped the funding for the free-flyer space vehicle to the new program. “Across the board in our weather strategies ... we're looking at multilayers of an architecture, how to most cost-effectively move forward in capability. They can be incrementally delivered over time. So that becomes a mix of large satellites that do missions and smaller satellites that we can launch in order to grow capability over time,” Col. Dennis Bythewood, program executive officer for space development at the Air Force's Space and Missile Systems Center, said in September 2019. “We're finding much more capable sensors being delivered in small packages that we think we can grow mission sets over time. Those are the types of things that we are looking at within our strategy.” https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tech/space/2020/08/17/trio-of-prototyping-contracts-brings-new-approach-for-collecting-military-weather-data/

Andrew Eversden Correction: An earlier version of this story misspelled the name of Sara Gamble, a program manager in quantum information science at the Army Research Office. WASHINGTON — A research project funded by the U.S. Army has developed a new approach to manufacturing quantum computer chips, representing a significant step forward toward making quantum processors at the scale needed to deliver rapid processing capabilities to the battlefield. The new approach could impact how the service builds quantum networks and distributed sensing capabilities. Quantum processors use a qubit to store information. The researchers were looking to increase the amount of qubits placed onto a photonic chip. Prior to the experiment, researchers were only able to get two or three qubits into one photonic chip, said Sara Gamble, a program manager in quantum information science at the Army Research Office, an element of the Army Research Laboratory at Combat Capabilities Development Command. “Currently we can exert control and successfully manipulate handfuls of qubits, like very countable numbers of them. But when it comes to the millions or billions of qubits that we need for applications of actual interest, how to get to those millions or billions of qubits is a major research challenge,” Gamble said in an interview with C4ISRNET. In this study, researchers succeeded in integrating 128 qubits onto a photonic chip by making small quantum “chiplets” and placing them onto a larger circuit. The chiplets were able to carry quantum information through artificial atoms created by scientists by exploiting defects in diamonds. The increase to 128 is a large jump, but well short of the thousands, millions or billions of qubits needed to successfully complete the applications the service sees as useful in the future. For example, qubits could be used for distributed sensing through networks of quantum systems on the battlefield to allow for greater situational awareness, though Gamble noted that quantum information science research is still in the early stage. “We know that a lot of these qubit types are also excellent sensors. So for things like electric and magnetic fields, these quantum sensors can sense those fields ... with a higher sensitivity than you can get out of classical sensor,” Gamble said. “And then if you network those quantum sensor systems together, that increase you can get in your signal goes up even more. “So we need those isolated qubit sensors. But then we also need a way for those qubit sensors to talk to each other over a quantum network.” Being able to process data at quantum speeds would benefit the military as it seeks to make decisions based on large sets of data coming in from the battlefield in near-real time, and as it moves toward multidomain operations. “It's a fundamentally different way to gather, process and share information,” Gamble said. The research was completed by scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Sandia National Laboratories. The new technology still needs to undergo tests to ensure the qubits in the chip can be controlled in a way that would help the Army. Gamble said the research team is also considering how to automate parts of the production process. “Thinking about how we can automate these processes to make them even more repeatable is going to be exciting,” Gamble said, “and something that's going to be necessary if you really want to do this for, you know, millions to billions of qubits instead of 128.” https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tech/it-networks/2020/08/17/us-army-funded-research-project-makes-inroads-on-scaling-quantum-processors/

By: Mackenzie Eaglen House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith, D-Wash., and Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, recently wrote in an op-ed on Defense News that Congress “cannot panic and hand out blank checks to defense contractors.” They were concerned with a “lack of detail” in the Pentagon's stimulus funding request. Pentagon officials have responded with said requested detail. It's clear the defense, shipbuilding and aerospace industrial base — an “essential” workforce as designated by the Department of Homeland Security — is indeed in need of help. These critical firms need financial support to the tune of about $11 billion to support more than 100,000 direct jobs. Nor should the military have to take it out of hide, as suggested by some. According to the Defense Department, the data from industry is showing 30-40 percent inefficiency across the defense industrial base, but certain sectors like shipbuilding are experiencing 50-60 percent inefficiency. At shipyards, for example, blue-collar worker attendance ranges from just half to 70 percent. Other short-term sectors at risk include textile manufacturers, body armor suppliers and small business electronics suppliers, who feed guidance systems and wiring harnesses in Army vehicles and aircraft. A sampling of specific reasons for inefficiency include: Confirmed cases or quarantines Government facility closure/standdown test delays Telework Closures due to travel restrictions Logistic implications caused by travel restrictions requiring commercial freight Availability of parts and supplies High absentee rates Local and state lockdowns Foreign government lockdowns Supplier shutdowns Pentagon leaders are worried about the near term, but also permanent damage. Officials are “concerned with a potential loss of critical labor skills,” such as welders. Shipbuilders are in dire straits given the “significant touch labor” required to build a ship and “greater facility impact from social distancing.” The potential shutdown of one of the “big seven” private shipyards is a real risk right now. The Virginia-class attack submarine is currently experiencing delays in its production line, as Newport News Shipbuilding has “prioritized its available workforce on supporting maintenance for in-service submarines and aircraft carriers.” If electricians, engineers and solderers shift from the Virginia assembly line elsewhere, the work is slowed and “the opportunity for the cost to come down on each successive submarine hull is diminished.” Congress has repeatedly supported this program above recent budget requests and presumably cares greatly about this unanticipated cost overrun through no fault of nor negligence by the contractor. The Air Force is experiencing major program delays due to the impact on the aerospace industrial base — both primes and suppliers. Programs impacted include the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and KC-46 tanker due to facility shutdowns in the U.S., England, Italy and Japan. These two aircraft programs will likely miss major milestones — therefore delaying the time when they become available to the war fighter. Aircraft engine-maker GE Aviation is a “fragility concern” across the armed forces. For the Air Force, the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile and the Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile are “being impacted by reduced workforce and facility availability.” The Small Diameter Bomb motor supplier is being pulled to support the Federal Emergency Management Agency with motors for hospital beds. Aerospace firms with commercial work are reporting problems given the massive decline in commercial demand, which affects defense. Contrary to the assertion that the Pentagon doesn't need more stimulus money to support contractors, the services are “concerned about large commercial companies, like Boeing and GE that are critical to our defense industrial base facing negative cash flow and other associated impacts from COVID-19.” Small businesses and subcontractors are particularly vulnerable as they have far less slack to respond to crises. Many live contract to contract, as indicated by a 2018 Pentagon report. According to the Defense Department, “small businesses ... have been the hit the hardest due to unfamiliarity that [the] defense industrial base is exempt from most local shelter-in-place orders.” The Pentagon's request for more stimulus money is not a case of pork for primes. This industry has “a notably high rate of subcontracted work flow and systems with high component volumes, driving job loss directly to program partners and the supply chain.” So while virtually all of the Pentagon's missiles are built by two primes, 98 percent of the subcontractors making parts for U.S. munitions are the only source for these items. If these unique businesses fail, there may not be any replacements. A study last year by George Mason University found “contractor workforce challenges have a direct impact on the government's ability to ramp up quickly.” Budget fluctuations are particularly hard on small companies that “do not have large enough portfolios to shift people between projects. The contractor workforce loses skills or move on.” These firms operate with “thin margins and low lines of credit.” The additional costs to respond to COVID-19 were not part of the original contracts the companies are currently performing, and warrant stimulus money. Hopefully, Chairman Smith and Sen. Durbin now agree. https://www.defensenews.com/opinion/commentary/2020/08/18/the-defense-industry-remains-in-dire-straits-congress-must-pass-another-relief-package/

Nathan Strout WASHINGTON - The U.S. Space Force will begin sharing valuable space situational awareness data with the United Kingdom as part of Operation Olympic Defender, the service announced Aug. 14. Under a recently signed agreement, the Space Force will share it's Standardized Astrodynamics Algorithm Library with the U.K.‘s Ministry of Defense. SAAL is a collection of the Space Force's understanding of orbital physics and algorithms that helps the service predict the trajectories of objects on orbit. “Aggressive actions in space must be deterred through a multinational, coordinated effort, allowing for the defense and protection or our collective capabilities,” said Maj. Gen. DeAnna Burt, USSF director of Operations and Communications, in a statement. “Sharing the SAAL with our coalition partners enables greater cooperation and coordination between the U.S. and our Allies.” The agreement comes as part of Operation Olympic Defender, an American-led coalition of space-faring allies working together to deter hostile actions in space, strengthen deterrence against hostile actors and address the growing issue of orbital debris. Operation Olympic Defender was officially taken over by U.S. Space Command in May and is located at the Combined Space Operations Center at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. The U.K. was the first nation to join Operation Olympic Defender and is the first to receive access to the SAAL. Under the new arrangement, that nation's Space operations Center will now be better able to collaborate with the Space Force, sharing algorithms and data to better predict orbital trajectories. The Space Force is looking to share the SAAL with more partners within Operation Olympic Defender. According to the announcement, the Secretary of the Air Force's International Affairs Office, SPACECOM and the Space Force have recognized a new framework that will allow other coalition partners to begin receiving SAAL. SPACECOM has signed a number of space data sharing agreements with other countries in recent months. https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tech/space/2020/08/18/space-force-to-begin-sharing-technical-space-data-with-uk/

By: Gerard O'Dwyer HELSINKI — The Finnish government's budget proposal for 2021 has allayed concerns of delays or reduced funding for the Armed Forces' (FAF) HX Fighter Program. The plan will effectively increase the military's budgetary framework in 2021 by $2 billion to $5.8 billion to meet phase one of the project's procurement costs. The economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has forced Finland to significantly increase international borrowings and further load national debt, was feared to have a negative bearing of the fighter replacement project, particularly against the backdrop of a potential economic recession and grim forecasts of an 8 to 10 percent drop in GDP in 2020. Instead, the 2021 budget both protects and moves forward the $12 billion national security capital investment. The HX Fighter Program will have a “substantial effect” on the FAF's budgetary position and finances from 2021, said the HX Program's Director, Lauri Puranen. The $5.8 billion allocation represents a massive 54 percent increase on the FAF's defense budget for 2021 compared to 2020. Moreover, the higher financial provision will elevate military non-aligned Finland's defense spend, as a ratio of GDP, from 1.4 percent in 2020 to over 2 percent in next year. Finland plans to procure up to 64 fighters to replace its ageing fleet of F/A-18C/D Hornets. The government is slated to finalize its decision on the choice of fighter aircraft in 2021. The project timetable, with oversight from the FDF's Logistics Command, envisages the Finnish Air Force taking delivery of new fighters over the period 2025 to 2030. International fighter aircraft in contention for the $12 billion contract include the Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet, the Dassault Rafale, Eurofighter Typhoon, Lockheed Martin F-35 and the Saab Gripen. Phase two of the HX project is currently underway. This is focused on the content of the procurement in respect to each individual bidder. A request for best and final offers will be sought at the end of the second phase of negotiations in the fourth quarter of 2020, and ahead of a government decision on selection in the first half of 2021. Although the 2021 budget has secured project-specific funding for the HX Fighter Program, the overall fragile state of Finland's national finances threatens to curtail capital increases to other areas of defense, including training and multi-branch field exercises, in that year. Gen. Timo Kivinen, the FAF's defense chief, said that while the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in the postponement of exercises, it has not affected Finland's military readiness. https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2020/08/18/finlands-12-billion-fighter-plan-dodges-the-post-pandemic-budget-axe/

Andrew Eversden WASHINGTON — An information warfare project run by Naval Information Warfare Systems Command (NAVWAR) recently received hundreds of millions of dollars in new funds after a successful first 18 months, NAVWAR announced Aug. 17. NAVWAR's Information Warfare Research Project (IWRP), which uses an agile acquisition tool known as an Other Transaction Authority to quickly contract for and deliver IW tools, recently received a $400 million funding increase and two-year performance period extension after hitting its $100 million funding ceiling a year before the project was set to expire next summer. The massive bump was approved by Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition James Geurts. The project, which kicked off in October 2018, now has a $500 million ceiling and a five-year performance period. “IWRP has proven its effectiveness and successfulness as a streamlined approach to rapid prototyping,” said Jee Youn Fickling, IWRP program manager at Naval Information Warfare Center (NIWC) Atlantic, in a statement. “As interest increases to do more prototyping in order to keep up with the pace of technology, IWRP OTA offers the flexibility and speed within 14 technology areas. The growth in interest from IWRP users across many Navy and Marine Corps commands and program offices and the growth in the size of the consortium, speaks volumes to the need to quickly make awards for prototypes.” The project focuses on technology areas that include tools for cyber warfare, autonomous systems, cloud computing and data analytics. IWRP partners with industry and academia through a consortium managed by Advanced Technology International, a non-profit that builds research and development partnerships. In the last 18 months, the IWRP has released more than 800 prototyping opportunities, according to the NAVWAR press release. The consortium has more than 580 partners. IWRP users include NAVWAR, NIWC Atlantic, NIWC Pacific, Naval Sea Systems Command Logistics, Maintenance and Industrial Operations, Program Executive Office (PEO) for Digital Enterprise Services, PEO for Manpower, Logistics and Business Solutions, PEO Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Intelligence Space Systems, PEO Integrated Warfare Systems, Marine Corps Systems Command, Naval Analytics Office and Office of Naval Research. “IWRP has been a game changer and has proven to be a key enabler in rapid delivery of IW capability to the warfighter,” said Nicole Stone, director of rapid prototyping – information warfare at NIWC Pacific, in a statement. “Collaboration with our partners in industry, small business and academia, with the flexibility necessary to adapt to evolving requirements, is critical to our success in winning the fight. IWRP provides that platform for us.” https://www.c4isrnet.com/information-warfare/2020/08/18/navy-information-warfare-project-received-400-million-funding-boost/

By: Valerie Insinna WASHINGTON — When Boeing Defense, Space and Security CEO Leanne Caret dials into our hourlong interview on Aug. 4, she comes prepared with 15 minutes worth of opening statements that include thoughts ranging from the company's performance during the coronavirus pandemic to the state of the KC-46 tanker program. She knows she has a lot to cover, and a lot to answer for. Caret stepped into the top Boeing defense job in 2016, after the American company lost a lucrative contract for the U.S. Air Force's next-generation bomber. Questions about Boeing's future as a producer of fighter jets — and the prominence of its defense business — lingered as the end of the F-15 and F/A-18 production lines loomed in the near future. Now the tables have turned. With COVID-19 devastating the travel industry and eradicating near-term sales opportunities for commercial airliners, Boeing's defense sector finds itself as the company's model pupil. “One of the questions that I get a lot is, how has that changed the expectations for me and for our defense and space business?” Caret told Defense News. “And I wanted to just anticipate the question and share that, you know, as I see it, the company's expectations of our business are the same as always. We need to perform consistently, and we need to perform well. And while our progress may be viewed through a different lens for a period of time, the expectations of how we do our job and what we deliver haven't really changed.” Under Caret's leadership, Boeing has logged a number of major wins, including contracts for the T-7A trainer jet and the Grey Wolf helicopter for the Air Force, as well as the Navy's MQ-25 drone. New orders for a block upgrade of the Super Hornet aircraft resuscitated that production line, and in July the company got its first order for the Air Force's F-15EX jet. “I mean, how many people a few years ago would have placed a bet that we'd be building new F-15s? I say, few to none,” she said. But amid this progress, the company has met stumbling blocks. Most prominently, the KC-46 has been hampered by a list of technical issues, including foreign object debris found in the jets and a dispute with the Air Force over the camera system that allows the boom operator to refuel other aircraft. A deal on a fix for the latter problem was agreed to in April after more than a year of negotiations. “I think we've turned the corner. I really do,” Caret said. “What I want you to know from me is I want every KC-46 delivered to be perfect. We're not there yet. But we're aligned with the Air Force, and our road map is sound.” This interview with Caret was edited for length and clarity. The COVID-19 pandemic is still ongoing, and there could be a second wave approaching. With that in mind, what is the health of Boeing's defense business? Where are you seeing challenges? It's not unique to Boeing, but our workforce — think about this — they have masks on, safety glasses, bump caps, vests, gloves, 6-feet proximity. This environment that they're working in, it's just hard. We are still right in the middle of the pandemic. You'll see states that have different protocols. From a Boeing Company position, our goal is to make certain that our employees are safest at work. Click here to see the Defense News Top 100 list. One of our biggest lessons learned is the quick benefit you can have from minimizing contact and quarantining. So when a case is identified, we do an entire trace of where the individual has been so that we can quarantine those who are potentially at risk, and then also make certain that they have the ability to go get the testing. Every employee, we've made sure they have thermometers and masks as we continue to bring folks back in. We're making certain that we have lots of really great cleaning details, and folks just focused on easing the anxiousness of our teams because day in day out this is really hard. As you talk about the fall and the worry about the flu — we don't have a vaccine yet for COVID, and then you are dealing with the compounding effects of schools not being in session. We have not had a respite from this. How is the health of your second-tier suppliers and below that? Are you concerned there could be delays in getting parts, components or subsystems that Boeing needs as we head into the fall? We've already seen delays. Think about what we went through in both Mexico and India. We have suppliers in both of those countries. And again, this is not unique to Boeing. As they were going through their shutdowns and their quarantines, it impacted, many times, their production rates. And so that is where we have really a great cross-sharing of information occurring. One big focus for us has been making sure we've been aggressive in making certain that they have cash flow, they have liquidity. We've actually hosted events with the Small Business Administration for our supply base. On one level, it's making certain that we help them get what they need. We also adjust how we do business so it makes it more efficient. A great example of that is how we're doing virtual inspections now. We have teams go out and inspect parts and do different things like that. We now do them with videos and cameras so that we don't slow the supply base down. Anywhere where we can do advances and allow our supply base to do advanced delivery, we're doing that as well. What's been the impact of pauses at your defense production lines in Puget Sound, Washington, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania? Will Boeing be able to deliver all of the military aircraft that was the books for 2020? So for instance, with the Army, we actually did slow down the pace of Apache [attack helicopter] final assembly due to some supply chain impacts resulting from COVID. And most of those came from our efforts with our JV [joint venture] with [Indian defense company] Tata. But there is some realism in what you're talking about. Now, I'm not seeing drastic changes at this point. But to your earlier point, we haven't gotten to the fall yet. So we're all being very pragmatic. We're being very cognizant of prioritizing what our customers need and making certain that we can support them. And then we just assess it on a case-by-case basis. And I'll defer to the services to let them publish any changes that have been agreed to or not. Is the worst over for Boeing's defense business, or is there concern that a second wave of COVID-19 could cause a more dramatic impact? I mean, let's be honest: If nothing else, we know the flu always hits hard in the fall/early winter time frame. So there's a compounding effect there. And so we are planning for another resurgence, but we have the benefit of what we've already been through, and a disciplined approach for how we manage it. That's really going to aid us. I'm not going to predict, other than to say we are better positioned now to handle a resurgence than we were when the thing first started. Under your leadership, there was a realigning of some of Boeing's business divisions involved in the defense sector. But given that the operating environment has changed, do you anticipate more restructuring or changes in leadership? I think any good leader always looks at: Do you have the right structure for the business environment and for the market? And we made some very specific decisions when I first came into this role about flattening the organization, taking out layers, reducing. We were extremely top heavy. We eliminated a lot of that. I feel very comfortable. I'm not predicting anything significant. Do you expect an impact on foreign military sales because of the global economic downturn or because countries are trimming defense spending? Absolutely. The industry is already seeing that nations have been affected by spending on COVID similar to the U.S., and they're having to go look at their timelines. We have not seen any cancellations. But we have seen some acquisitions and some contracts pushed to the right. Now, you also know that many of our international deals take — you know, they're years in the making anyways. But I think it's only pragmatic for us to look at it through the lens that they're going to face the same pressures the U.S. does in terms of spending decisions. And so that's why we really need to be flexible and we need to be innovative. Over the past few years, Boeing has bid very aggressively on a number of defense programs like MQ-25 and T-X. Considering Boeing's commercial business now faces a number of financial challenges, was that a bad move? What sort of impact will that have on Boeing as a whole over the next couple years? Will Boeing continue to employ the same bidding strategy? I actually remain very confident in the investments we made on both the MQ-25 and the T-7. There was a lot of commentary back at that time about how much we invested. We had already redesigned, reimagined, how are we going to use advanced modeling and simulation and digital twins. And so those investments, in terms of how we design and build, I think have paid off not only for those programs you mentioned, but for the F-15EX for the air power teaming system and for everything that follows. It wasn't just about the bid. We evolved ourselves in terms of how we did the work, not just the offering. And that was really the true differentiator. I think that enabled us to win. Going forward, I think you will see — as we're delivering these aircraft and additional orders come in — that it was exactly the right thing to do. So the investments Boeing made in advanced manufacturing processes and digital engineering make you confident these programs won't be a repeat of the KC-46 program? It is my goal to never have a repeat of tanker, and that was the headset that I've gone into with pretty much every decision that we make. It started with how we design and how we build, to your point, and how we sustain over the long term. We had to go prove out those advanced technologies, and we spend our investment dollars wisely to be ready to go pursue this. So these are not the same; these programs aren't even in the same ballpark. With flight testing ongoing for an interim version of the KC-46′s remote vision system, called RVS 1.5, when do you expect the Air Force to make a decision on adopting that? We're still waiting for that. They participate in the flight testing. As a matter of fact, we had [then-Chief of Staff of the Air Force] Gen. [Dave] Goldfein out in Seattle. He was with me just a couple of weeks ago. We're getting real pleased with the feedback. I think you've heard [Air Force acquisition executive] Dr. [Will] Roper's comments about it, and [he's] really pleased with the path that we're on. But that'll be an Air Force decision, and so I will defer to them on that. The Air Force will award a Ground Based Strategic Deterrent contract in August, and Boeing did not bid because of complaints with how the competition was run. Is Boeing still looking at its legal options? Is it considering a protest? We made the decision to not bid on GBSD due to what I was concerned about with the process, and I'll just leave it at that. What do you see as the sales potential for F-15EX? We are already getting inquiries. We're very excited, and they are nations that you would not be surprised about. Are you satisfied that the Navy is committed to MQ-25? What kind of future do you see for that program? We're absolutely thrilled with the partnership with the U.S. Navy. And you probably saw that in April they increased the quantity to a total of seven. So we're well on track to what we were working with in our assumptions when we bid on the program. We have completed nearly 30 flight hours to date, and what [Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition James] Geurts saw while he was out there [at MidAmerica St. Louis Airport in St. Clair County, Illinois], was the aerial refueling store already mounted under the wing of the aircraft. As as we get back into flight testing later this year, we'll be able to collect more performance data. https://www.defensenews.com/top-100/2020/08/17/ceo-of-boeings-defense-wing-talks-stumbling-blocks-from-kc-46-to-covid/

By: Jen Judson WASHINGTON — The U.S. Army is recycling demilitarized rocket motors and repurposing the materials to make test missiles and it's saving the service money, according to Thomas Webber, director of the Army's Space and Missile Defense Command Technical Center. These test missiles are called “zombies” and save the Army from having to destroy old boosters, giving them a new life, Webber said during the Defense News Space and Missile Defense Symposium Debrief event Aug. 5. The effort started several years ago when the Army's Program Executive Office for Missiles and Space and the Patriot air and missile defense lower-tier product office began running out of targets for tests and spending “a lot” of money to buy more targets, Webber said. The tech center proposed a “significantly cheaper” solution of using recycled motors reaching the end of operational life that would be appropriate for both developmental and operational missile tests, which are accurately representative of ballistic missile threats, he said. Following a demonstration at the end of 2016, the zombies have taken off. “We've been very successful,” Webber said. Since then, the program has expanded, providing targets not only for Patriot testing, but also the Missile Defense Agency and foreign military sales test events. The Army has built seven targets to date. There are three variants: Pathfinder Zombie; the Black Dagger Zombie that adds an additional booster — the Terrier MK70 — for longer ranges; and Sabre, a shorter-range version. A zombie was the target used in a recent critical test showing the Patriot system could be interoperable with the Army's Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, Webber said. Another target was successfully deployed in a June 25 test at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, for a foreign military sales customer. The targets will be used in some of the upcoming tests that will help officials make decisions on the Lower-Tier Air-Defense Sensor, the future radar for the Army's Integrated Air-and-Missile Defense System to replace Patriot, Webber noted. Specifically, a Black Dagger will be used during the IAMD Battle Command System limited-user test coming up next month. “It has been a tremendous boon for us to be able to provide a more affordable, effective target,” Webber said. He added that the Army is saving roughly 50 percent of what it would cost to replace targets simply by buying more. “We can turn these around pretty quickly and support those operational test events,” he said. And it has provided “the capability needed to be able to make sure that we're validating and testing those operational weapon systems with regular and recurring test events,” Webber said. https://www.defensenews.com/land/2020/08/16/the-us-army-is-building-zombies-no-not-the-brain-eating-kind/

By: David B. Larter WASHINGTON — As the U.S. Navy pushes forward with developing its large unmanned surface vessel, envisioned as a kind of external missile magazine that will tag along with larger manned surface combatants, a growing consensus is forming that the service needs to get its requirements and systems right before making a big investment. Congress has, for the second year in a row, slowed the development of the large unmanned surface vessel, or LUSV, in the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act. The language in this year's bill would essentially force the Navy to have a working prototype with all systems tested and fully integrated before using procurement dollars for the boats. In an exclusive July 16 interview with Defense News, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michael Gilday said that while the marks were frustrating, he agreed with Congress that requirements must be concrete right up front. “The approach has to be deliberate,” Gilday said. “We have to make sure that the systems that are on those unmanned systems with respect to the [hull, mechanical and electrical system], that they are designed to requirement, and perform to requirement. And most importantly, are those requirements sound? “I go back to: Do I really need a littoral combat ship to go 40 knots? That's going to drive the entire design of the ship, not just the engineering plant but how it's built. That becomes a critical factor. If you take your eye off the ball with respect to requirements, you can find yourself drifting. That has to be deliberate.” Gilday has called for the Navy to pursue a comprehensive “Unmanned Campaign Plan” that creates a path forward for developing and fielding unmanned systems in the air, on the sea and under the water. Right now, the effort exists in a number of different programs that may not all be pulling in the same direction, he said. “What I've found is that we didn't necessarily have the rigor that's required across a number of programs that would bring those together in a way that's driven toward objectives with milestones,” Gilday told Defense News. “If you took a look at [all the programs], where are there similarities and where are there differences? Where am I making progress in meeting conditions and meeting milestones that we can leverage in other experiments? “At what point do I reach a decision point where I drop a program and double down on a program that I can accelerate?” ‘A lot of risk' According to the Congressional Research Service, the Navy's approach is to adapt a commercial design and put a bare-bones crew onboard while the service figures out how to move toward a fully unmanned system. “The Navy wants LUSVs to be low-cost, high-endurance, reconfigurable ships based on commercial ship designs, with ample capacity for carrying various modular payloads — particularly anti-surface warfare (ASuW) and strike payloads, meaning principally anti-ship and land-attack missiles,” the report read. But some very basic questions still need to be answered about how a large unmanned, or lightly manned, surface vessel might work, said Matthew Collette, an associate professor of naval architecture and marine engineering at the University of Michigan. “One of the biggest challenges people are realizing now is the machinery systems and keeping the systems operational for six months [over a deployment],” Collette said. “If you think about a ship today, there are daily machinery rounds and constant preventative maintenance. The Navy has its casualty reporting system, and the commercial world has something very similar. And over six months, that's a lot of work that's not getting done on the autonomous ship. “And there are two approaches to this that I've seen: One is you design it essentially like a space craft where you really limit what you do with the ship to make it as robust as possible and really accept that today that means less capability. We're just not going to be able to throw all the bells and whistles on that kind of a ship today. And for the smaller size ships, that's a good approach. “But the other approach is to try and monitor it and put in a lot of redundancy and figure out how we get this system reimagined so it can do a six-month deployment. And I can't really assess where we are with that at this point, I just don't have enough insight to know if that's six months away. Is it six years? Is it never reachable?” It's unclear that adapting an existing design will get the Navy where it needs to be, in large part because the Navy is going somewhere radically different from what the commercial offshore oil and gas or ferry industry is going, Collette said. “It's important to note that where the commercial industry is going is different from where the Navy wants to go,” Collette said. “In the commercial marine industry, you have a licensed captain ashore who is able to teleport to the ship whenever it needs human intervention. And we're really talking about short runs, like inter-European runs of six hours, 12 hours, and working their way out from there. “The Navy has really asked for a much harder, much more difficult problem. And you could see how something like the [extra-large unmanned underwater vehicle] as a technology trail that works toward this direction, but jumping toward something like large unmanned surface vessel, is a big, big step with a lot of risk.” https://www.defensenews.com/naval/2020/08/17/in-developing-robot-warships-us-navy-wants-to-avoid-another-littoral-combat-ship/