Army

Despite telling Congress the Army believes it cannot integrate the Israeli-made Iron Dome air defense system into the service's own command-and-control architecture, the head of Army Futures Command said today the service would try its best to do so.

The White House has released a new report laying out the broad contours of its plan to confront a rising China, while House and Senate lawmakers prepare to pitch legislation that would give the Pentagon new resources in the Indo-Pacific region.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's two high-profile hypersonic weapon technology efforts -- one a boost-glide vehicle the other an air-breathing missile -- are both "going well" despite an apparent delay in planned first flight tests, according to the Pentagon's top technology official.

Mike Griffin, the Pentagon's chief technology officer, said he is concerned that weapon system research and development spending will soon be squeezed as the federal deficit mounts in the wake of the novel coronavirus outbreak and pressure grows to rein in federal spending -- a view he said should come as no surprise to anyone.

Without fanfare, the Missile Defense Agency in late January posted on the front page of its public website a new organizational chart that marked the culmination of a project last year to retool bureaucratic structures to now account for a wider array of challenges to U.S. forces, allies and the homeland.

The Missile Defense Agency is eyeing formation of a third-party entity dedicated to managing rapid prototyping of missile defense projects, following a pivot by the Army, Navy, and Air Force from traditional acquisition rules to a new pathway called “middle-tier” acquisition intended to experiment with and potentially deliver new weapons in two to five years.

The Defense Department inspector general today released new plans to audit the Pentagon's response to the COVID-19 outbreak, including oversight of $10.6 billion Congress has authorized for DOD to focus on the pandemic.

The Missile Defense Agency estimates total spending on the Ground-based Midcourse Defense system to be $46.6 billion, including $34 billion in sunk costs and more than $12 billion in forecasted outlays through fiscal year 2025 -- in part to help finance a Next Generation Interceptor intended to keep GMD effective against threats expected in the 2030s.

The Army is on track to hit a key milestone this summer in the Extended Range Cannon Artillery program, transitioning a lead prototype of the service's top modernization priority from its birthplace as a science and technology project at Picatinny Arsenal, NJ, to Warren, MI, setting the stage to proceed with production of follow-on variants, according to a senior official.