Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Jack Reed (D-RI) said today a new executive order from President Biden to review the U.S. defense industrial base is the start of a "major effort" to secure national supply chains, despite challenges posed by China's key role in the global marketplace.
Missile Defense
February 24, 2021
February 24, 2021
The COVID pandemic has revealed the U.S. defense industrial base to be "not healthy" and hampered by "weak" supply chains that threaten the ability of the nation to nimbly develop and field new capabilities to keep ahead of technological advances by other nations, according to the Pentagon's No. 2 military official.
February 23, 2021
House and Senate defense authorizers used hearings with outside technology experts this week to probe the Pentagon's struggle to transition new technologies into programs of record and take full advantage of advances in software.
February 22, 2021
The Pentagon has entered arrangements with three universities to study key areas related to contract finance and pricing that could impact the way defense contractors are paid.
February 19, 2021
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said today he discussed challenges posed by "an increasingly aggressive China" during recent meetings with NATO officials.
February 18, 2021
The U.S. and Israel today announced the start of a new collaborative weapon system project: Arrow-4, a "next-generation" guided-missile interceptor -- a project neither previously disclosed by the Missile Defense Agency nor explicitly authorized by Congress -- that aims to improve the Missile Eastern nation's ability to defeat both endo- and exoatmospheric threats.
February 18, 2021
The Missile Defense Agency is exploring a new laser project to advance technology able to destroy ballistic, hypersonic and cruise missile threats in all phases of flight -- from the ground, air, sea and also space.
February 18, 2021
The Defense Department is readying -- as soon as next week -- an announcement on two winning design proposals for a Next Generation Interceptor, a major missile defense modernization initiative launched in August 2019 by the Trump administration whose fate now rests with the Biden administration.
February 12, 2021
The Missile Defense Agency is exploring a new laser project to advance technology able to destroy ballistic, hypersonic and cruise missile threats in all phases of flight -- from the ground, air, sea and also space.
February 12, 2021
Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), who recently became chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told Inside Defense in an exclusive and wide-ranging interview he wants to continue to see the Defense Department "transform" to counter China and prepare for the challenges of the 21st century, though he made it clear that transformation will likely need to occur amid downward budget pressure.
February 11, 2021
The head of the Pentagon's new China Task Force, Ely Ratner, said today he and his team intend to assess whether the Defense Department is "adequately organized" to address a wide range of challenges related to U.S.-China relations, including "technology competition."
February 10, 2021
A cruise missile defense system to protect the U.S. homeland would cost between $75 billion and $466 billion, a hefty sum that would protect the lower 48 states only and could still be defeated by an adversary capable of launching a cruise missile from near the U.S. border in Mexico or Canada as well as from the sea, near the U.S. coastline -- raising questions about the efficacy of any such investment.
February 10, 2021
Two Senate committees this week weighing the nomination of Neera Tanden, who has been tapped to run the White House Office of Management and Budget, spent little to no time discussing national security issues, but she did provide one panel with a written statement with her views on defense spending.
February 9, 2021
The Pentagon's new leaders have committed to numerous reviews in the past few weeks that could have a significant impact on the U.S. military, including its budget and global footprint.
February 9, 2021
A bureaucratic maneuver last summer by the Office of the Secretary of Defense aimed at clipping the wings of the Missile Defense Agency has drawn an investigation and a statutory directive to halt any action that would lock in rules subjecting MDA to increased oversight by other arms of the Defense Department.
February 8, 2021
A new Army study -- launched during the last weeks of the Trump administration and now subject to a review by the Biden administration -- aims to assess the ability of ground forces to operate on a radioactive battlefield as well as explore the prospects for a high-tech, networked force against a high-altitude, nuclear detonation.
February 5, 2021
The U.S. military has delayed until 2028 plans for a major flight test to demonstrate the ability of three major ballistic missile defense systems to collaborate, a goal that if not further postponed will be 15 years after the Pentagon's top weapon tester called for the Navy and Army systems to establish rudimentary engagement coordination for theater-level threats.
February 5, 2021
The Defense Science Board says the Pentagon could gain "revolutionary" benefits from upgrading and increasing its use of capabilities like digital engineering, virtual exercising, strategic gaming and synthetic environments.
February 4, 2021
The Air Force Research Laboratory is evaluating the utility of directed-energy capabilities for future wars by engaging fighter pilots, weapon system officers and battle managers in a new series of virtual exercises taking place at Kirtland Air Force Base, NM.
February 4, 2021
The Missile Defense Agency is recalibrating plans to develop a counter-hypersonic capability by scrapping a prototype development project in favor of moving directly to an interceptor program of record, a major change that aims to accelerate by many years delivery of a new guided missile that could arm the U.S. military with a weapon to intercept long-range hypersonic warheads during the glide phase. (UPDATED)
Pages
Inside Missile Defense
