Missile Defense

Air Force Space Command is working to boost its test and training range infrastructure and is eyeing the creation of a new Space Test and Training Group in the next five to 10 years.

The Pentagon has drafted a new policy to guide software acquisitions, and officials are preparing to test out the pathway through wargaming next month, according to documents obtained by Inside Defense.

The Trump administration wants to retain the option to develop a road-mobile variant of the new Ground Based Strategic Deterrent, objecting to legislation that would extend through 2030 the current statutory ban on truck-launched intercontinental ballistic missiles -- which are more difficult for an adversary to target than silo-based weapons.

At the prompting of the Senate Armed Services Committee, the presumptive next defense secretary and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff both declined to endorse a controversial reorganization of the Strategic Capabilities Office under the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, pledging to review the proposed change.

Army Secretary Mark Esper, nominated to be defense secretary, today defended his time as a senior Raytheon executive as Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) argued that his failure to commit to several of her recusal proposals "smacks of corruption, plain and simple."

The U.S. military requires a new high-agility interceptor and a layer of space-based sensors to defend against hypersonic threats, the presumed next defense secretary told lawmakers today, shedding new light on Defense Department thinking about elements of a hypersonic defense system.

Lawmakers have turned down a Pentagon gambit to accelerate the Space Development Agency's launch, citing concern about the sudden resignation last month of the agency's director and shifting plans for the new entity. The move signals Congress' flagging confidence in Under Secretary of Defense Mike Griffin's project to rapidly develop, acquire and field next-generation space capabilities.

Although the Pentagon did not ask for reprogramming authority for a key Air Force missile warning program in its recent omnibus request, the director of the Air Force's space acquisition programs confirmed today the service still intends to send a separate reprogramming to Congress in order to keep the program on schedule.

More than a dozen GOP senators last week revolted against the Trump administration's current budget negotiation strategy, which they said calls for potentially funding the federal government with a stopgap spending measure for a full year and requesting Congress provide special exemptions for new Pentagon spending.