A key congressional panel, concerned by a recent independent cost estimate for the Pentagon's marquee offensive hypersonic strike weapon, is moving to rein in plans for the Conventional Prompt Strike program by clipping Navy-requested procurement funding as well as resources sought for a Block 2 variant and blueprint efforts to integrate the two-stage booster and hypersonic glide vehicle into the Virginia-class submarine.
Missile Defense
November 12, 2020
The Defense Department has named John Tenaglia principal director of defense pricing and contracting, while Kim Herrington, who had been acting in the role, has become director of industrial base acquisition portfolio management, according to a Pentagon spokeswoman.
November 12, 2020
Senate appropriators have rejected the Pentagon's gambit to give the Space Development Agency funding control of the Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor project in a recommendation that appears set to end a bureaucratic turf skirmish and consolidate the Missile Defense Agency's role as the lead entity for the new orbiting technology project.
November 12, 2020
Two senior House Progressive Caucus members are asking President-elect Biden to nominate a defense secretary who has not been previously employed as a defense contractor.
November 12, 2020
The Space Force this week awarded Lockheed Martin a $258 million contract to develop a competing satellite payload prototype for the Evolved Strategic Satellite Communications program.
November 12, 2020
A Missile Defense Agency signature project -- adding two "layers” to the homeland ballistic missile defense architecture by folding in the newest Aegis ballistic missile interceptor and a future variant of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense interceptor -- is on the ropes after lawmakers raised serious concern about the endeavor's maturity.
November 11, 2020
The Senate Appropriations Committee is concerned with the proliferation of the Defense Department's rapid prototyping programs and has approved additional funds for the Pentagon's chief weapons tester to increase oversight of them.
November 11, 2020
The Space Force is considering creating a National Security Space Launch research and development program focused on accelerating technologies that support future space access, mobility and logistics needs to support its next launch services procurement strategy.
November 10, 2020
President-elect Joe Biden has named nearly two-dozen people to his Defense Department agency review team to ensure "a smooth transfer of power" and help the new administration "hit the ground running on Day one."
November 10, 2020
The Defense Department is reversing gears on plans to halt the Homeland Defense Radar-Hawaii project, exploring a new potential location for the sensor at the Navy-controlled Pacific Missile Range Facility, charting a course to continuing the program in the face of united support by all four congressional defense committees to reinstate funding for the effort in fiscal year 2021.
November 10, 2020
Senate appropriators are recommending lawmakers reject the Defense Department's request to bypass current contracting requirements guiding the construction of launch facilities and launch centers for the military's next intercontinental ballistic missile system.
November 9, 2020
As President-elect Biden begins to roll out transition plans, several defense industry executives say they don't expect immediate big changes under a new administration.
November 9, 2020
New planning guidance from Chief of Space Operations Gen. John Raymond highlights the need for the Space Force to invest in resiliency and next-generation capabilities and announces the service's intentions to create a Space Warfighting Analysis Center tasked with creating future force design alternatives.
November 9, 2020
The Army has tapped Lockheed Martin to oversee integration of a Mid-Range Capability prototype battery, awarding a sole-source contract to design a land-based launcher for two mainstay Navy strike weapons built by competitor Raytheon -- the Tomahawk cruise missile and Standard Missile-6 -- as part of a major push by the Pentagon to rapidly address a shortfall highlighted by a recent service assessment and combatant commanders.
November 6, 2020
The Space Development Agency has issued stop-work orders to L3Harris and SpaceX -- the companies developing its initial space tracking layer satellites -- after Raytheon and Airbus filed protests of the early October contract awards.
November 4, 2020
The Defense Department is asking for help rethinking how to protect the United States from long-range missiles, particularly how to redesign the $202 billion system of sensors, command and control networks and interceptors optimized for ballistic missile threats to also account for cruise missile and maneuvering hypersonic weapons.
November 2, 2020
The Defense Department has awarded Lockheed Martin a contract to upgrade the Aegis Weapon System to improve Navy cruisers' and destroyers' ability to detect, track, and defeat new intermediate-range threats as well as track and report on maneuvering hypersonic threats.
November 2, 2020
If former Vice President Joe Biden performs as polling suggests and defeats President Trump on Nov. 3, the Defense Department could see significant changes, despite a likely continued focus on COVID-19 and great power competition with China.
October 30, 2020
The Defense Department this week moved to turn the tables on China, forming a new University Consortium for Applied Hypersonics to accelerate work on ultra-fast weapons by increasing collaboration with academic communities -- a project that aims to replicate an idea born in Beijing where professors and students work closely to advance national aims.
October 29, 2020
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith (D-WA) said today the current National Defense Strategy places too much emphasis on militarily dominating China and Russia and called on Democrats to rewrite it if former Vice President Joe Biden wins the presidential election.
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