US Military Wants Orbital Platform

The Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit wants options for an unmanned orbital outpost to support space experiments and operations — a logistics hub that might even grow, DIU’s solicitation suggests, to a larger manned space station.

DIU, which is charged with tapping non-traditional commercial companies for innovative technologies to meet Pentagon needs, issued a solicitation last week that gives interested vendors until July 9 to propose a “solution… for a self-contained and free flying orbital outpost.” The platform is to support “space assembly, microgravity experimentation, logistics and storage, manufacturing, training, test and evaluation, hosting payloads, and other functions.”

While the near-term requirements are obviously aimed at prototyping an autonomous, robotic mini-space station to house experimentation, the “future desired capabilities” listed in the solicitation are much farther reaching. They include the capability to dock with unmanned and manned spacecraft and, even more surprisingly, “human rating.”

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The DOD Space Force Report

Final Report on Organizational and Management Structure for the National Security Space Components of the Department of Defense

August 9, 2018

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US Military needs to Prepare for Missile Swarms

The U.S. Air Force relies on more than 5,000 aircraft to give it unmatched dominance over every other competitor on earth. The U.S. Navy, for its part, counts on more than 3,700 aircraft and 273 deployable battle force ships, which constitute the largest and most technologically advanced sailing branch in the world.

This much is true — no country can possibly hope to challenge the United States with military means on a global scale and win. But key to America’s global strength are huge air and naval bases which are vulnerable to being overwhelmed and destroyed by swarms of precision-guided weapons in a limited, regional war.

The Navy also cannot expect its ships to survive if they come under attack by sufficiently large numbers of cruise missiles and ballistic missiles of the kind now fielded by China. While better protected from missiles than bases, the current breadth of U.S. technology and doctrine cannot compensate for this weakness.

The result is that the Pentagon must radically rethink its missile defenses, or risk serious losses in the opening hours of a future conflict. But according to a recent report, the solution could be lots of futuristic lasers, guns and electromagnetic weapons that can engage enormous numbers of incoming missiles at relatively short ranges.

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The Disaster that was the Precision Tracking Space System

Proponents of the Precision Tracking Space System were not shy about touting its supposed benefits.

The head of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency said PTSS represented an “unprecedented capability” to protect America and its allies against a nuclear attack by the likes of North Korea and Iran.

A key congressional supporter described it as “a necessity for our country.”

The planned network of nine to 12 satellites, orbiting high above the equator, would detect missile launches and track warheads in flight with great precision, the proponents said.

It would be able to tell apart real missiles from decoys — an elusive capability known as “discrimination.” It would help guide U.S. rocket-interceptors to destroy incoming warheads. And it would do all this at a fraction of the cost of alternative approaches.

Based on those promises, the Obama administration and Congress poured more than $230 million into design and engineering work on PTSS starting in 2009. Four years later, the government quietly killed the program before a single satellite was launched.

The Missile Defense Agency said PTSS fell victim to budget constraints. In fact, the program was spiked after outside experts determined that the entire concept was hopelessly flawed and the claims made by its advocates were erroneous. It was the latest in a string of expensive failures for the missile agency.

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War is Boring: There is a Secret Spy Plane Flying Over the Pacific

The Pentagon is unflinchingly tight-lipped about any new, high tech planes it has in the works. But every so often, a bit of information manages to squeak out into the public domain.

In 2013, the U.S. Air Force sent a secret spy plane out over the Pacific region. The unknown aircraft – possibly a drone – flew “national collection missions” – a euphemism for strategic intelligence against states like North Korea or China.

It was one of five different types of aircraft flying these missions. The Pentagon’s top headquarters asked the flying branch to use its U-2 Dragon Ladies and RC-135V/W Rivet Joints to take high resolution pictures and scoop up radio chatter, according to an official history of the Air Force’s Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Agency – a.k.a. AFISRA – for that year.

“Other USAF aircraft flying national collection missions included the RC-135U Combat Sent, the RC-135S Cobra Ball and the aforementioned [redacted],” the history stated.

War Is Boring obtained the heavily redacted historical review through the Freedom of Information Act. In 2014, the flying branch renamed AFISRA to the 25th Air Force.

[...]

So what is the mystery aircraft? The blacked-out portion of the document suggests the missing portion is five to seven characters long. With that in mind, the super secret RQ-170 Sentinel – a six character designation that would fit in the redacted segment – is one possibility.

[...]

Of course, the censored plane could be something entirely new. For decades, the Pentagon and the CIA have repeatedly acknowledged advanced aircraft projects — after the fact — only to decline to release any significant information about them.

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Absorption of the British Military Continues: The Defense Intelligence Agency Appoints British Officer as Deputy Director

The Pentagon's principal spy agency is appointing a British Air Force officer as its first deputy director in charge of improving "integration" between U.S. intelligence units and spy agencies of other English-speaking countries.

U.S. intelligence agencies have long had close relationships with their British counterparts, but former and current U.S. intelligence officials said this is the first time they knew of a U.S. spy agency naming a foreigner to a top executive position.

In an official announcement, the Pentagon said that the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) had chosen Air Vice Marshal Sean Corbett of Britain's Royal Air Force (RAF) as its first "deputy director for Commonwealth Integration."

The Pentagon said that Corbett, presently the RAF's top professional intelligence officer, would be top advisor to DIA director Lt. Gen. Vincent Stewart on defense and intelligence issues concerning an alliance of English-speaking countries known as the "Five Eyes."

Mark Lowenthal, a former senior CIA and State Department official, said the British general's DIA appointment marked a first for a foreigner, but the appointment was "not that unusual. Think of him as a senior liaison officer."

Five Eyes partners include the U.S., Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Relations between these countries agencies have always been close, but the Pentagon said that over the last ten years the U.S. had sought to improve mechanisms to exchange intelligence information and to collaborate more closely.

Historically, Five Eyes spy units which have collaborated most closely have been the agencies which engage in electronic eavesdropping, notably America's National Security Agency (NSA) and Britain's Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ).

Traditionally, these agencies have shared raw information and divided up the world for eavesdropping coverage.

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Russian Submarines, Intel Ships Operating Near Undersea Internet Cables, Worry Pentagon

Russian submarines and spy ships are aggressively operating near the vital undersea cables that carry almost all global Internet communications, raising concerns among some American military and intelligence officials that the Russians might be planning to attack those lines in times of tension or conflict.

The issue goes beyond old worries during the Cold War that the Russians would tap into the cables — a task American intelligence agencies also mastered decades ago. The alarm today is deeper: The ultimate Russian hack on the United States could involve severing the fiber-optic cables at some of their hardest-to-access locations to halt the instant communications on which the West’s governments, economies and citizens have grown dependent.

While there is no evidence yet of any cable cutting, the concern is part of a growing wariness among senior American and allied military and intelligence officials over the accelerated activity by Russian armed forces around the globe. At the same time, the internal debate in Washington illustrates how the United States is increasingly viewing every Russian move through a lens of deep distrust, reminiscent of relations during the Cold War.

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Pentagon Tells United Launch Alliance: No More Russian RD-180 Rocket Engines for you!

On Friday, the Pentagon denied a request from United Launch Alliance for a waiver from a U.S. law that limits the use of the Russian-made RD-180 engine in the first stage of the company’s Atlas V rocket for military and reconnaissance launches.

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Pentagon Acknowledges Upgrading Nuclear Weapons Overseas

The U.S. Defense Department acknowledged it’s upgrading nuclear weapons stored abroad, but — in keeping with standard practice — didn’t specify where.

“We are proceeding with full-scope nuclear weapon life extension programs to ensure reliability and enhance surety, safety, security, and use control, including for those weapons that are forward deployed,” Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said on Wednesday during a briefing with reporters.

Davis wouldn’t confirm whether the work is taking place Incirlik Air Base in Turkey near the Syrian border. “We neither confirm nor deny their presence at any specific location,” he said.

His comments came after Maria Zakharova, the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, told German’s ZDF television that the U.S. was modernizing B61 nuclear bombs stored “not just in Germany, but also in Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, and Turkey.”

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Pentagon Requests Permission to Purcahse Two More F-35s

The Pentagon will request funding in fiscal 2016 to buy 57 F-35 jets made by Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT), two more than previously planned, according to two government officials.

The Defense Department’s previous five-year plan had projected buying 55 of the fighter jets during the year that begins Oct. 1, said the officials, who asked not to be identified before President Barack Obama submits his budget to Congress on Feb. 2.

If approved by lawmakers, the acquisition would mark a major increase for a program that’s experienced cuts amid tight defense budgets and setbacks in testing of the costliest U.S. weapons system. The Pentagon had requested 34 of the jets for the current year, and Congress increased that to 38.

The projected budget for 55 aircraft was $9 billion; the added cost for two more planes wasn’t immediately available.

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General Pawlikowski on the Pentagon's Offset Strategy: Autonomy, Refueling & Additive Manufacturing are key

Ellen Pawlikowski helps decide what weapons the Air Force buys and manages the buying process, so when the lieutenant general says she likes autonomy and 3-D printing as the most promising capabilities for her service to develop as part of the new offset strategy, it’s worth listening.

“This is Ellen Pawlikowski speaking,” she says in her E-ring office at the Pentagon, making sure we all know this is her personal opinion. She thinks autonomy — a cluster of technologies that allows weapons to execute missions without much human intervention — can “play a major role. It can allow me to get more numbers in things than I can get now.” And, as most generals will tell you, quantity possesses a quality all its own.

This is all about the Pentagon’s offset strategy, overseen by Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work, designed to ensure America’s continued military dominance for a long time. Pawlikowski is the uniformed official who oversees the Air Force’s science and technology work, so much of the service’s offset strategy effort will be led by her.

“I can see a scenario where you’ve got an F-35 orchestrating an attack with 20 RPAs [remotely-piloted aircraft] that are weapons-equipped and that F-35, with all its sensors and communications, is essentially an orchestrator,” she says.

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New Pentagon Budget Adds Aircraft, Ships

Military aviation officials and defense contractors will have a merry Christmas if the $1.1 trillion fiscal year 2015 budget is approved as agreed upon on 10 December passes both houses of the US Congress.

The Department of Defense netted $93.8 billion in procurement funding, of which $31.9 billion is slated for aircraft purchases by the air force, army and navy.

Congress authorised the purchase of a total 38 Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning IIs, nine more than were bought in fiscal year 2014 and four more than the Obama administration requested. The order funds two additional F-35As for the air force at $224 million and two F-35Cs for the navy at $255 million.

The navy also will receive authorisation to purchase 15 Boeing EA-18G Growler electronic attack aircraft for $1.46 billion. Those aircraft were not included in the navy’s 2015 budget request, but the service included atop its list of unfunded priorities. Twelve EA-18Gs were added into a bill passed by the House that died without a vote on the Senate floor.

Though it rewards the navy, the bill denies the air force authority to retire its Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolts by funding the fleet’s maintenance at $337.1 million. The plan, pitched as a cost-saving measure by a cash-strapped air force, met with strenuous opposition on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers have been promising to preserve the A-10.

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Additionally, The Ohio SSBN Replacement was also fully funded and a new LPD-17 San Antonio Class Amphib was also paid for.  UCLASS naval UCAV  was fully funded (with some restrictions) and the Long Range Strike Bomber was also fully funded.

Hagel Outlines Pentagon's Embrace of the Robopocalypse

After months of build-up, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel formally launched the military’s quest for a combination of new technologies to maintain America’s military supremacy over the next 20 years in the face of Russian and Chinese challenges.

In a speech before the second Reagan National Defense Forum here, Hagel divulged some crucial details as to how America could preserve its endangered technological superiority. The next morning, the Pentagon released Hagel’s memo about the effort...

[...]

There’s no exhaustive list, but after what must have been agonizing negotiation among Pentagon staffers over every word, the following technologies made it into Hagel’s speech tonight as priority areas for the Pentagon’s dwindling investment funds: “robotics, autonomous systems, miniaturization, big data, and advanced manufacturing, including 3-D printing.”

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US to Change Significant Changes to how it Funds Nuclear Weapons Triad?

It isn’t official but Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work hinted today that the United States will undertake a fundamental reordering of its national security budget by paying for new nuclear submarines, new nuclear bombers and new ICBMs in new accounts set aside just for them.

“This is something we have discussed in the department,” Work told reporters during a briefing on the Pentagon’s response to the string of major scandals involving the Air Force and Navy nuclear forces. This year it was drugs and cheating for the Air Force; the Navy had cheating too. Before that, the Air Force lost track of some nuclear weapons in 2007 and mistakenly flew them across the United States. And, of course, there were the nuclear fuses and other parts mistakenly sent to Taiwan in 2006 that we didn’t notice for a while.

“We think this is going to be a president’s budget ’17 discussion,” Work said. The decision will be driven in part, he seemed to imply, by whether sequestration comes back into effect next year. “f you go to sequestration level cuts, you will not be able to make what we believe are the prudent investments that you would have to do to make sure we have a safe, secure and effective deterrent. We are going to have to address that forthrightly.”

One of the attractions of creating these new accounts is that they would not be part of the regular budget division between the services so the military could not take money from the nuclear force to pay for conventional weapons, as has happened in the past.

Those new accounts, which Work said would not be officially decided until the 2017 budget, would appear to effectively take budget authority for these national nuclear assets away from the Navy and Air Force so that funding for them would not eat up the money for the conventional weapons that they buy. Among the billion dollar questions this raises is, would the services still be able to control the money, or would it become joint money or Office of Secretary of Defense money controlled by those officials.

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Is Karem Aircraft Working on a Secret Tilt Rotor VTOL for the US Military?

The owner of Karem Aircraft, which was passed over by the US Army for a spot in the joint multi-role technology demonstration (JMR-TD) programme, says the company could still contribute to the future of US military rotorcraft.

“When things are not in the public domain, I don’t go first. I let the government go first,” Abe Karem tells Flightglobal about future US government business opportunities beyond JMR. “I’m not confirming, denying or saying anything. I put $25 million after tax – that’s $50 billion in Sikorsky speak. So yes, we are fully committed to that. This is not something that will be brushed aside. I can say that for me. I am not saying anything for the government.”

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US Military's Plan for Adapting to Climate Change

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Pentagon Wants to buy 8 F-35s, 12 AH-64Es With Supplemental Wartime Funding

The Pentagon has asked the US Congress for permission to move just over USD1.9 billion in supplemental wartime funding, known as the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) account, into specific procurement accounts, with over half of that amount going to aircraft purchases.

The reprogramming request, dated 9 September and viewed by IHS Jane's , asks for USD404,000 million for 12 Boeing AH-64E Apache attack helicopters to replace 21 Bell OH-58D Kiowa Warrior helicopters lost in combat.

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Serious Potential Budget Issues With Need to Replace Bombers, Boomers & Surface Ships Coming

It won’t happen tomorrow, but the Pentagon may have to start eating its young to pay for two of the most expensive weapons in US history: the Air Force’s Long Range Strike bomber and the Navy’s replacement for the Ohio class nuclear missile submarine.

That’s the estimation of Todd Harrison, the top budget expert at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessment. His conclusions are based on a new detailed report, Analysis of the FY 2015 Budget Request being released as you read this.

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In some ways, this feels like the constant worries about Social Security I have heard since I was a teen.  OTOH, the budget situation is not good for doing procurements and, frankly, we've gotten pretty bad at them.  OTGH, we have a serious problem: the ships we are using for our navy with the exception of the new carrier, LCSes, attack subs and the three lonely Zumwalts are very old designs which date back to the Cold War.  All of these need replacing.  Likewise, our nuclear weapons are aging and must be replaced.  This is also true of the bomber to carry them.  Or the Boomer to launch.  Or the ICBM to launch them.  Or the tanks we use for our heavy forces are also legacy items.  

If the world had remained the US as the sole 'hyperpower' then who cares?  However, the world has changed.  China is rising.  It has two stealth aircraft under development.  It has its first carrier.  It too is working on hypersonic, laser and other high tech weapons.  We are about to face a peer.  A peer, even if we are not at war with them nor planning to try, we will need the capability to stand toe-to-toe with if there is a stare down.  Like in the South China Sea.  

Putin did one remarkable thing, for all his asininity: he showed soft power has limits.  Serious limits.  Ones which need to be met with hard power.  If the side does not care about the soft power consequences, the hard power capability is absolutely necessary to stop the bad actor.  And that requires modern, up to date capabilities.  Ones conceived and brought to bare in a timely, cost effective manner. 

We need to replace the legacy systems.  We need them in a timely manner: not 15, 20 years after the program is started.    We need sufficient numbers of them to meet the challenges of the post hyperpower world.  And we need them not to break the bank.  This is all doable. 

F-35A Fire Fix Coming

It hasn’t been tested yet, and the “root cause” for the problem has not yet been identified, but Maj. Gen. Peter Bogdan, head of the F-35 program, expects upcoming tests to demonstrate a fix for the engine problem discovered when an F-35A engine exploded early this summer.

The fix will be made to the fan module, which will be replaced in all the 156 engines should the tests prove out, Bogdan said at the annual ComDef conference. Pratt & Whitney, maker of the F135 engine. is setting up a test in southern Florida at its treat facility next to the Everglades “to see what a good rub is and what a bad rub is,” he said to snickers from the juvenile press corps. Basically, the blades on the fan rub a spot on the engine cowl. The blades are expected to rub on the cowling and dig that trench. The problem is that the blades are getting hotter than expected.

Bogdan said that the plane that blew up was damaged during two seconds of flight when the test pilot — operating well within the safety envelope of the plane’s abilities — put G forces, yaw and roll stresses on the plane all at the same time. The titanium blades heated to 1,900 degrees, as opposed to the normal 1,000 degrees and began to crack. On June 23, when the pilot was taking the plane down the runway for takeoff, the fan blade “cracked,” Bogdan said. The circular part of the engine stretched out and shot through the left fuel tank. Fire resulted. The plane, Bogdan said, is not a write-off but an opportunity for combat repairs…

Exactly why this happened isn’t exactly clear yet. The root cause, as engineering types call it, appears close. Initially, the program was searching through 138 possible reasons. “We are really close,” Bogdan told the ComDef audience, having whittled the number down to four.

In the meantime, Pratt & Whitney is designing a fan section with a built-in trench to avoid the rubbing. It must be done very carefully, to avoid allowing air in — which is why the engines are designed the way they are now. The program office, in the meantime, is going to take a new F-35 and place the same G forces, yaw and roll “in a very disciplined manner to see how burn-in occurs.” The prototype fan action with the trench should be designed by late October.

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Hypersonic Conventional Prompt Global Strike Prototype Explodes After Lift-off

A new hypersonic weapon developed by the U.S. military exploded shortly after lift-off from an Alaska test facility during a long-awaited flight test early Monday, the Pentagon said.

No one was injured in the incident, which occurred shortly after 4 a.m. EDT (0800 GMT) at the Kodiak Launch Complex in Alaska, said Maureen Schumann, spokeswoman for the U.S. Defense Department.

"The weapon exploded during takeoff and fell back down the range complex," Schumann said.

The weapon was developed by Sandia National Laboratory and the U.S. Army, as part of the military's "Conventional Prompt Global Strike" technology development program which is seeking to build a weapon that can destroy targets anywhere on earth within an hour of getting data and permission to launch.

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