Category Archives: Industry News

ORLANDO, Fla. — U.S. Space Command is updating its approach to integrating commercial systems into operations as the broader national security space community takes a more forward-leaning posture toward working with the private sector.

Gen. Stephen Whiting, who leads the command, said the new strategy, which was signed out in November, focuses on SPACECOM’s core tasks and how commercial space capabilities fit within those areas. The update follows the release of two high-level commercial integration strategies earlier this year — the first from the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the second from the Space Force.

The leader of the House Armed Services Committee said Tuesday the Space Force needs to grow in size to overcome increasing threats from China and Russia.

Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., was a key player in establishing the Space Force five years ago. At the time, he and others in Congress advocated for a small, agile force that could quickly establish the processes and organizations needed to get the service up and running.

Drones have revolutionized modern warfare in the sky. Now defense companies and navies are betting they can do the same underwater.

The new underwater drones, with names such as Ghost Shark, Herne and Manta Ray, can typically dive thousands of feet below the surface and operate largely without human interaction for days on end. That ability makes them ideally suited to gather intelligence, protect undersea infrastructure and counter potential threats in the Pacific, advocates say.

“This is an opportune moment for these vehicles,” said Cynthia Cook, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank. “Submarines are fantastic, but they are expensive.”

A record share of Americans support higher defense spending, according to the annual Reagan National Defense Survey released Thursday.

Just under 80% of respondents said they would prefer a larger military budget, with 49% saying they are strongly in favor of one. The 79% share is two points higher than last year’s survey, as a super majority often expresses support on the question. It also outpaces some of America’s other foreign policy priorities, such as aid (43%) and “promoting freedom abroad” (61%).

A U.S. Navy destroyer can fire dozens of cruise missiles within minutes. Reloading the deadly warship back in port can take two months. In a war against China, that could be a fatal weakness.

To overcome the delay, Navy engineers pulled a 30-year-old crane out of storage, wired it up to computers, and used it to build a new prototype reloading system called the Transferrable Reload At-sea Method. TRAM, as it is known, promises to slash the time needed for missile reloading, potentially to just days.

“The ability to rearm at sea will be critical to any future conflict in the Pacific,” said Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro after a recent test of TRAM off the California coast, to which The Wall Street Journal was granted exclusive access.

Constrained for funds and facing rapidly improving potential adversaries, the US Air Force (USAF) is grappling with how to ensure control of the air in the 2030s.

One proposal — leaning heavily on standoff forces to provide “affordable” mass without traditional air superiority — has a problem: even with long-range kill chains, exquisite smart weapons, and low-cost swarms, no one has specifically described how such novel ideas would lead to victory. As the USAF considers difficult standoff versus stand-in decisions and what future control of the air might entail, the debate must return to a critical focus: how to produce effective mass.

Arguments over whether air superiority is necessary overlook a critical point: In a hypothetical defense against an invading adversary, the USAF might win with standoff-centric theories of victory, if they solve the effective mass calculus. However, with air superiority, the odds of victory increase drastically.

The Pentagon has chosen seven companies to build software to connect the swarms of small, low-cost drones it’s buying through the Replicator program.

The Defense Innovation Unit on Wednesday announced awards for two key Replicator software efforts: Opportunistic, Resilient and Innovative Expeditionary Network Topology, or ORIENT, and Autonomous Collaborative Teaming, known as ACT. DIU issued solicitations in July and received proposals from 251 companies.

The U.S. needs to be prepared to expand its nuclear force to deter the growing threats from China, Russia and North Korea, say senior Biden administration officials.

Decisions on whether to deploy more nuclear weapons are being left to the incoming Trump administration, which has yet to spell out its defense plans.

During his first term in office, Donald Trump endorsed all of the major nuclear-weapons programs he inherited from the Obama administration and added two new nuclear systems. The Trump transition didn’t respond to requests for comment.

What You Need to Know: The U.S. Navy’s “Navigation Plan for America’s Warfighting Navy” sets a goal of having 80% of its fleet combat-ready by 2027 to counter China’s military buildup. However, delays and budget overruns, especially with the Virginia-class submarine program, jeopardize this timeline.

The Pentagon published a second and more detailed plan to invigorate the American defense industry this year, including the weapons it sees as most crucial to deter China.

The implementation plan, released Tuesday, builds on a strategy published this January, which described how the U.S. defense sector has withered and how the Pentagon wants to revitalize it.