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Army
April 4, 20190

All of the Crazy New Gear the U.S. Army Wants to Smash the Enemy (nationalinterest.org)

In 2014, having withdrawn from Iraq and looking to end its official combat mission in Afghanistan, the U.S. Army started to assess the impact of more than a decade of almost exclusively fighting insurgents and terrorists. In that time, it had trained its troops primarily for that mission and bought gear specifically for those nebulous conflicts.

But the world seemed to be getting more complicated and troops would need new weapons and gear to help deal with these threats. So, the ground combat branch went … (read more)

Global Force Symposium
March 28, 20190

Army debuts missile defense framework in move to counter drones, hypersonic threats (defensenews.com)

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — The U.S. Army released its new air and missile defense framework March 27 that aims to pursue multimission units and counter emerging threats like drones and hypersonic missiles, the Army’s Space and Missile Defense Command chief told Defense News in an interview just ahead of the Association of the U.S. Army’s Global Force Symposium.

Lt. Gen. James Dickinson said the strategy will chart the course for future air and missile defense forces by using capabilities already fielded and … (read more)

Global Force Symposium
March 26, 20190

Army’s $2.3B wish list would speed up future helo buy, boost lethality efforts (defensenews.com)

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — The Army’s $2.3 billion unfunded requirements list — or wish list — sent to Capitol Hill includes money to speed up the service’s plan to buy a future long-range assault helicopter earlier and would boost lethality efforts such as outfitting more Stryker combat vehicles with a 30mm gun.

The unfunded requirements list is something the military services send to Congress each year shortly following the release of the defense budget request to inform lawmakers on where money would be spent if there was more of it. The lists are usually provided at the request of congressional defense committees.

The service has made a major pivot toward six modernization priorities it deems necessary to modernize the force and through a rigorous review of every program within the Army by leadership, billions were found within … (read more)

Global Force Symposium
March 21, 20190

More fire power: US Army sets out to develop new missiles in FY20 (defensenews.com)

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Army is embarking on several new missile development programs while ramping up and accelerating other ongoing programs to deliver more fire power to the force at greater ranges, according to the service’s justification books for its fiscal 2020 budget request.

The service’s No. 1 modernization priority is Long-Range Precision Fires, or LRPF, because the Army believes it is central to future operations in environments where access to terrain may be difficult or entirely denied, or where soldiers lack the territorial advantage to counter threats.

And the LRPF capability plays an important role the service’s emerging doctrine — Multidomain Operations — where the Army and its … (read more)

Acquisition
March 14, 20190

Army ‘Big Six’ Ramp Up in 2021: Learning From FCS (breakingdefense.com)

WASHINGTON: Army modernization will really hit the gas in 2021, officials said today, ramping up rapidly from the 2020 budget request released this week. But the service has learned from past disasters to “try before you buy” and will give itself time to test how new technology works against real-world threats, said Undersecretary Ryan McCarthy, himself a veteran of the Army’s Future Combat Systems debacle. As each of 31 top-priority technologies matures — and not before — the service will move money into it and out of … (read more)

Budget
March 13, 20190

Where are the laser-armed drones? Missile Defense Review wish list missing from MDA’s budget (defensenews.com)

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Missile Defense Agency’s $9.4 billion budget request for fiscal 2020 — while slightly smaller than last year’s budget of $9.9 billion — maintains many efforts from previous years to defend the homeland and counter regional threats, but it does not reflect some of the major ambitions laid out in the recently released Missile Defense Review.

The two-year delayed Missile Defense Review, released in January, lists space-based missile defense sensors and laser-armed drones as part of a wish list for missile defense capabilities, but these new desires are not … (read more)

Technology
February 13, 20190

Navy invents trip wire to short out electronics probed by IP thieves, foreign agents (techlinkcenter.org)

A team of U.S. Navy scientists and engineers received a U.S. patent on a technology that stops intellectual property theft, a major concern for electronics and defense companies who use hardware produced by subcontractors in Asia.

U.S. Patent 10,204,875, titled “Systems and Methods for Inhibiting Backend Access to Integrated Circuits by Integrating Photon and Electron Sensing Latch-up Circuits,” was issued to inventors Matt Kay, Matthew Gadlage, Adam Duncan, Brett Hamilton, Brett Werner, and Austin Roach, all of Indiana, on Tuesday, for their work at … (read more)

Budget
February 8, 20190

BREAKING: Army Realigning $25 Billion to Fund Modernization Priorities (nationaldefensemagazine.org)

The Army’s fiscal year 2020 budget request will reflect its intent to reduce, eliminate or delay programs in favor of its top modernization priorities, according to the service’s top civilian leader.

In the 2020 budget blueprint — which is expected to be released mid-March — the service shifted “the dollars dramatically into the future next-generation projects defined by our cross-functional teams,” Army Secretary Mark Esper said Feb. 8 during a panel discussion at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C.

These priorities fall under the Army’s new Futures Command that was first announced in October 2017. They include: long-range precision fires, next-generation combat vehicle, future vertical lift, the network, air-and-missile defense and … (read more)

Europe
January 22, 20190

Rheinmetall, BAE Systems launch joint venture for military vehicles (defensenews.com)

COLOGNE, Germany, and LONDON — German tank-maker Rheinmetall plans to buy a majority stake in U.K.-based business BAE Systems, a move that could create a new industry heavyweight in the military vehicles market.

The two companies signed an agreement to create a joint business based at BAE Systems’ Telford, England, facility. If government regulators approve, Rheinmetall would hold 55 percent of the new Rheinmetall BAE Systems Land, or RBSL, with the British firm keeping 45 percent.

BAE’s armored vehicles business in the U.K. has an annual turnover of about … (read more)