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Defense News
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[l] at 7/14/25 9:59am
After months of positive news about military recruiting efforts, lawmakers are poised to back White House plans to boost the Defense Department’s end strength by about 26,000 troops next year. The extra service members are included in both the Senate and House Armed Services Committees’ drafts of the annual defense authorization bill, which contains a series of policy and budgetary priorities for the military. Senators on the panel approved their version last week, while the House committee is scheduled to mark up its draft Tuesday. Both plans call for a significant boost in troop numbers in fiscal 2026, with most additions in the Army and Navy ranks. Earlier this year, White House officials in their budget plans for next year outlined a goal of 454,000 active-duty soldiers in fiscal 2026, an increase of 11,700 troops over this year. Similarly, the Navy would grow to 334,600 sailors, up 12,300 active-duty personnel from this year. The plan also calls for a boost of 1,500 airmen from the current level of 320,000 Air Force service members and an increase of 600 Space Force active-duty personnel from the current end strength of 9,800 individuals. The Marine Corps, with 172,300 personnel, would be the only active-duty service not to see an increase. The increases would grow the armed forces to just over 1.3 million active-duty troops, the largest goal since fiscal 2023. House passes Trump megabill with $150 billion in military fundingRecruiting challenges in recent years have made reaching those goals difficult, leading lawmakers to lower their end-strength targets at the start of this fiscal year. In the last few weeks, officials from the Army, Navy, Air Force and Space Force announced they have already met their year-end recruiting targets. If the fiscal 2026 targets become law, those recruiters will face additional challenges in coming months. House and Senate leaders are expected to work on a final negotiated version of the authorization bill throughout the rest of the summer. The total number of guardsmen and reservists would drop by about 800 troops under the plan. The total end strength for those forces is roughly 772,000 service members. Both drafts of the must-pass legislation also back White House plans for a 3.8% pay raise for all troops next year, equal to the federal formula for military salaries to keep pace with private-sector pay. Military pay has increased by at least 2% every year since 2017, and troops have seen a pay increase annually since the 1970s. But the 3.8% pay hike would be a step down from the 4.5% hike all troops saw this past January. And lawmakers last year also approved a second, targeted pay raise for junior enlisted troops which went into effect in January, raising some service members’ paychecks by an additional 10%. For junior enlisted troops, a 3.8% raise in 2026 would mean about $1,200 more in take-home pay. For senior enlisted and junior officers, the raise would add about $2,500 more to their annual paychecks. An O-4 with 12 years of service would see almost $4,300 more over 2025 pay levels.The authorization bill is expected to be finalized sometime this fall.

[Category: / Budget] [Link to media]

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[l] at 7/14/25 9:31am
A KC-46A Pegasus refueling tanker was forced to conduct an emergency landing July 8 after its refueling boom was shredded in a mishap off the East Coast.The unofficial Facebook page Air Force amn/nco/snco posted photos of the KC-46 Friday, which showed extensive damage to the plane’s refueling boom. The War Zone first reported the damage to the KC-46.The photos show most of the boom is ripped off, with its remaining metal ripped and twisted and a chain hanging down. The underside of the plane’s tail was also dented and scraped, which may have occurred from the damaged boom.John Van Winkle, a spokesperson at McConnell Air Force Base in Kansas, confirmed one of the base’s tankers was damaged and pictured in the post. Inbox: "McConnell tail that landed at SJ for the boom"Posted by Air Force amn/nco/snco on Friday, July 11, 2025The KC-46, which is from McConnell’s 22nd Air Refueling Wing, was refueling F-22 Raptors from Joint Base Langley-Eustis that afternoon when the mishap occurred, Van Winkle said. The crew declared an in-flight emergency and landed safely at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in North Carolina without any injuries, he said. The F-22s returned to their home base.A safety investigation is now under way, Van Winkle said, and no further details could be released.

[Category: Air Warfare] [Link to media]

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[l] at 7/14/25 5:01am
PARIS — France will accelerate a hike in defense spending to reach €64 billion (US$75 billion) in 2027, three years earlier than planned, President Emmanuel Macron told troops and military brass ahead of Bastille Day celebrations on July 14.In the face of the greatest threat to freedom since 1945, France needs to step up, the president said in his traditional speech at the Armed Forces Ministry in Paris the evening before the national holiday. Macron said Europe must be ready to face a permanent Russian threat on its borders, from the Caucasus to the Arctic.“Across Europe, nations are rearming, and France cannot leave its European allies on the front line in the face of very short-term threats,” Macron said.France will add €3.5 billion to the 2026 defense budget on top of a planned increase, and €3 billion to the 2027 budget, the French president said. With that, the country will have doubled its defense budget from when Macron took office in 2017, ahead of a plan to reach that level by the end of the current 2024-2030 military planning law.The planned increase comes after NATO members agreed to raise core defense spending to 3.5% of GDP, at a June meeting in The Hague, Netherlands. While a number of allies, including Germany, Sweden and Norway, in recent weeks announced plans to meet the target within the next five years, France has yet to say whether and when it will meet the spending goal.While “certainly appreciable,” Macron’s announcement for an additional €6.5 billion spending over two years amounts to little less than 0.2% of additional GDP at the end of 2027, from a level of defense spending of 2.3% of GDP in 2025, Francois Heisbourg, senior adviser for Europe at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, wrote in a social media post on Sunday.“The target of 3.5% is a long way off, while Germany plans to reach it in 2029,” Heisbourg said.Macron said France – one of the most indebted countries in the European Union – must not rely on more borrowing to pay for more defense. He said Prime Minister Francois Bayrou will explain how the defense budget will be financed on Tuesday, with increased spending to be paid for through “increased activity and more production.”The French effort will allow the country to be credible vis-à-vis its partners, Macron said. He said France and Germany will meet at the end of August for a joint defense and security council, where the countries “will have new decisions to take,” and combined investment and enhanced cooperation will allow to build the European pillar of NATO that France has been calling for.The world is experiencing a technology race in multiple areas with the emergence of artificial intelligence and drones, the return of electronic warfare and new areas of confrontation such as space, cyberspace and the seabed, as well as the shift to quantum technologies, according to Macron.The world is also seeing the return of nuclear proliferation and major conflicts, and “ultimately, let’s be clear, to be free in this world, you have to be feared,” Macron said. “To be feared, you have to be powerful.”That means France must be stronger, “because it’s the nation above all that must defend the nation,” the president said. The war in Ukraine has shown “we need bravery, but also stocks and an appropriate defense industry. We need a nation that is capable of holding out and being mobilized.”Macron said France needs to address areas of weakness, first and foremost its stocks of ammunition, including loitering munitions, as well as saturation weapons and precision arms. French combat groups, frigates and air bases must be equipped with more drones, he said.Other areas to be strengthened include air defense and electronic-warfare capabilities, as well as space capabilities, according to the president.While France has “solid armies,” the country needs to “harden the model and also gain in mass,” Macron said. “These are the areas of efforts that have been identified and which will be the priority areas in the additional efforts to be made under the current military programming law.”The effort will also require defense companies to produce more, faster and at lower cost, according to Macron. He said France’s Directorate General for Armament will monitor this, and prioritize new capabilities and production on French territory.France has world-class capabilities that “should become European solutions,” including the SAMP/T NG air-defense system, missiles, Rafale fighter jets, constellation of low-orbit satellites as well as AI companies, radar and anti-drone systems, according to Macron.“We often already produce them in partnership with several other major European manufacturers or through our groups that already have a European footprint and shareholding structure,” Macron said. “So let’s buy European en masse.”Developing European defense strengthens rather than takes away from French sovereignty, Macron said, calling to “move on from the ridiculous old debates” in a jab at frequent criticism from French nationalist and populist lawmakers slamming pan-European defense cooperation.France’s nuclear deterrent, while “totally and invariably sovereign,” plays a role in Europe’s security, Macron told the troops and officers gathered in Paris. The president said he asked Armed Forces Minister Sebastien Lecornu and Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces Gen. Thierry Burkhard to engage in dialogue with European partners ready to do so to “fully assess the role of our deterrence in collective security.”Macron also said France, as the EU’s only nuclear power, has a “major responsibility” to make sure conventional rearmament is “effective, credible and consistent.”

[Category: / Europe] [Link to media]

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[l] at 7/14/25 3:57am
ROME — An Italian plan to build the world’s longest suspension bridge could boost Italy’s bid to reach NATO spending targets if it is defined as defense spending, experts have said.Government approval is expected this month for a €13.5 billion ($15.8 billion) project to build a 3.6 km (2.2 miles) bridge linking the Italian mainland with the Italian island of Sicily.At the same time, Rome committed at the June NATO summit to increasing its defense spending to 5% of GDP by 2035 from the 2% percent it says it will reach this year.Of the 5% percent of GDP target, NATO members agreed that 3.5% should be true defense spending while the remaining 1.5% could be made up of strategic infrastructure programs to strengthen national economies.That 1.5% corresponds to about €30 billion according to Italy’s current GDP.It is the spending category into which Italian officials are considering inserting the bridge to Sicily, and Italian investment bank Equita said in a new report last week that spending on the bridge could represent 0.2 percent of GDP a year – around €4 billion – during the peak construction period.Behind Italy’s defense-spending hike, pushback at home“According to government documentation submitted to Brussels, the bridge is being positioned as a strategic logistics corridor for rapid troop and equipment deployment to NATO’s southern flank,” the report stated.Inserting its cost into the 1.5% of GDP to be spent on strategic infrastructure was an example of “opportunistic accounting,” which could avoid “politically sensitive increases to core defense spending and deficit,” it added.“Several countries – notably Italy, France, and Germany – have already signaled their intent to channel the new 1.5% target into strategic national infrastructure,” the report said.“Many governments already have substantial infrastructure investments in place. By reclassifying portions of these investments under defense-related categories, countries can raise their defense spending metrics without increasing actual public deficits or launching new projects,” it added.The report also cited Italian deputy transport minister Edoardo Rixi stating that Italy could throw in the upgrade and expansion of its rail network to meet the NATO 5% target.An official in the Italian port city of Genoa has also said the government plans to include a new breakwater which would allow more military vessels to dock.Before Italy can focus on finding infrastructure programs to fill the 1.5% category, it will first need to figure out how to boost real defense spending from the current declared two percent to 3.5% in ten years.“That means adding spending worth 0.15% of GDP a year until 2035, which is about €3.2 billion a year or more if GDP increases,” said Carlo Cottarelli, an economist at Milan’s Catholic University.“That won’t be easy considering that health and pension spending are expected to soak up an extra 1.4% of GDP by 2035,” he added.Making life more complicated for Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni is the widespread public opposition to extra defense spending with his shared by members of her own government.Rather than going shopping for new kit to hit 3.5%, Italy should accelerate payments on existing programs, said Alessandro Marrone, who heads the defense, security and space program at Rome think tank IAI.“The Italian army has launched programs with long time lines and could increase the tranches,” he said.“Italy could also accelerate research and development work on the GCAP fighter program which currently extends out to 2050,” he added.If Italy is looking for a brand new purchase it should consider better integrated air and missile defense systems, he said, particularly if the U.S. no longer supports European capabilities.Meanwhile, in the short term, Italy is yet to spell out exactly how it will get defense spending to 2% of GDP this year.Italy’s finance minister said 2% would be achieved in 2025 – up from 1.54% last year – hours before Meloni visited U.S. President Trump in April, sparing her blushes over Italy’s low defense spending.Overall spending reached €29.18 billion last year, and getting to 2% this year means finding an extra €8.7 billion this year to reach a new total of €37.9 billion.Since Meloni’s Washington visit, no official statement has been made about where the money will come from.Sources have told Defense News that parts of the Italian coast guard’s operation could be reclassified as defense spending to reach 2%. Another solution may be classifying Italy’s tax police as a military unit thanks to an existing law which allows the tax police to fall under military command in times of war.“We have not been told yet what the solution will be, and whether it will be accepted by NATO,” said Cottarelli.Marrone said he thought NATO would not kick up a fuss over creative accounting.“My educated guess is that Italy has already talked to NATO to mitigate the risk of surprises – and that applies also to other nations,” he said.

[Category: / Europe] [Link to media]

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[l] at 7/11/25 1:02pm
Some A-10 Warthogs could get a reprieve from total retirement as Congress moves to reverse some of the Pentagon’s most dramatic Air Force cuts in its proposed fiscal 2026 budget.The Pentagon’s budget, which the department released in June, calls for the Air Force to retire its remaining 162-plane fleet of A-10 attack aircraft in 2026, two years earlier than originally intended. It also calls for canceling the E-7 Wedgetail program in favor of E-2D Hawkeyes and space-based sensors, and cutting the planned purchase of F-35A Joint Strike Fighters down to 24, or nearly in half.The proposed E-7 and F-35 cuts sent shockwaves through the Air Force community and prompted 16 retired four-star generals — including six former chiefs of staff — to speak out against the changes. They sent top congressional leaders a letter Monday urging lawmakers to change course.The Senate Armed Services Committee on Friday announced it had approved its version of the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act, which would mitigate some of the A-10 and F-35 changes.Proposed Senate defense bill would add $500M in long-term Ukraine aidThe committee’s NDAA would require the Air Force to keep at least 103 Warthogs in 2026. And it would add 10 more F-35As to the service’s procurement list, to buy 35 of the advanced fighters.The chairman’s mark of the House Armed Services Committee’s NDAA, also released on Friday, would restore funding for the Air Force’s E-7 program. The E-7 is a Boeing-made airborne battle management that would replace the aging E-3 Sentry, or Airborne Warning and Control System aircraft.But in recent months, the Pentagon has moved to kill the E-7 program. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told lawmakers in June that the E-7’s cost has risen. He also questioned whether it would be survivable in a fight against an advanced peer such as China.The Pentagon’s proposed 2026 budget would cut E-7 funding to nearly $200 million, a reduction from $850 million in 2024 and $607 million in 2025.The House’s proposed NDAA would add another $600 million to the E-7 program to continue its rapid prototyping phase, bringing its budget to nearly $800 million.And the House would grant the Air Force’s request for $387 million for the Lockheed Martin-made hypersonic AGM-183A Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon, or ARRW. The Air Force started to back away from ARRW after a handful of failed tests in recent years but is now showing signs of changing course.The Senate NDAA would also require the Air Force to submit two comprehensive roadmaps on how it plans to accomplish key missions in the future: one on its bomber force, and the other on how it will conduct intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.

[Category: Air Warfare] [Link to media]

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[l] at 7/11/25 11:14am
The Senate’s version of its fiscal 2026 defense policy bill would provide $500 million in long-term security aid to Ukraine, a week after the Pentagon temporarily paused military equipment heading to the country.Under the proposed National Defense Authorization Act, which the Senate Armed Services Committee approved by a 26-1 vote Wednesday, the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative would receive a refresh in funding after the Biden administration emptied it earlier this year.That account is one of two main ways the Pentagon has provided military support to Ukraine over the last three years. Rather than directly ship stocks from the U.S. military, it contracts defense firms to build weapons Ukraine needs and then provide them over time.“It’s not nearly enough in terms of scale. But the intent is to show that we believe Ukraine requires additional support,” a congressional aide said on the condition of anonymity while briefing on the bill.US resumes sending some weapons to Ukraine after Pentagon pauseThe bill would also reauthorize the program through 2028. The House Armed Services Committee chairman’s markup of the 2026 NDAA would do the same, approving $300 million for the account.In its late-June budget request, the Pentagon didn’t request any money for the program, concluding in a review that it was inconsistent with the president’s agenda.The bill, which hasn’t yet passed in the Senate overall, also comes only days after the Defense Department temporarily halted weapons deliveries to Ukraine, reportedly after a review of U.S. stockpiles showed warning signs for America’s own military readiness.“We can’t give weapons to everybody all around the world. We have to look out for America and defending our homeland,” Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said in his first standalone briefing July 2.Parnell said the pause was part of a broader review of American military assistance to countries around the world. He didn’t specify what other countries were affected.The White House also confirmed the pause, though it has since disputed that one ever took place, alongside the Pentagon. Shortly after it occurred, President Donald Trump said the U.S. would actually keep supporting Ukraine’s military.“At President Trump’s direction, the Department of Defense is sending additional defensive weapons to Ukraine to ensure the Ukrainians can defend themselves while we work to secure a lasting peace and ensure the killing stops,” Parnell said in a later statement.

[Category: Congress] [Link to media]

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[l] at 7/11/25 11:01am
The Space Force expects to have a more advanced digital training capability that includes simulated threats available for guardians by the end of this year.Maj. Gen. Tim Sejba, who leads Space Training and Readiness Command, said Thursday the service has started to use the software in readiness exercises like Space Flag and is working now to upgrade the capability to better simulate the space environment. “This is basically a digital environment at various classification levels that is going to allow us to be able to provide a red threat,” Sejba said during a Mitchell Institute webinar. “We’re bringing units together at Space Flag already and executing within that digital environment.”Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman has made readiness a top focus for the Space Force, calling on the organizations that train guardians and develop the supporting infrastructure to move quickly to prepare the force to operate amid heightened threats from China and Russia to U.S. space capabilities. That focus includes a push to upgrade its existing simulators, which don’t currently meet the service’s training and tactics development needs. In the long term, the Space Force envisions a more robust virtual training infrastructure, but for now, the service is piecing together new and existing systems to try to fill that gap.The digital training environment Sejba highlighted, called Swarm, is one tool the service has been using in tactical training exercises. Swarm features simulated threats as well as U.S. and allied capabilities — allowing operators to not only train against adversarial tactics but with representative Space Force systems.Sejba said STARCOM plans to transition Swarm to a cloud-based environment in the next year or two if it has the funding to support the effort. That would allow geographically distributed crews to train together on a more regular basis. “With the right funding and the amounts of industry focus, we know that we can deliver fairly quickly on some of these things,” Sejba said.The Space Force’s fiscal 2026 budget request includes $141 million to build out a National Test and Training Complex, which includes virtual capabilities for basic and advanced training. That’s a $40 million decrease from what last year’s budget projected the service would need in fiscal 2026. Sejba noted that the Space Force is also working to make sure that training requirements are top of mind for program offices charged with developing new satellites and ground systems. “That’s just part of what the expectation is so that we can get ahead of this as opposed to playing catch-up,” he said.

[Category: Space] [Link to media]

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[l] at 7/11/25 10:00am
The United States is selling weapons to its NATO allies in Europe so they can provide them to Ukraine as it struggles to fend off a recent escalation in Russia’s drone and missile attacks, President Donald Trump and his chief diplomat said.“We’re sending weapons to NATO, and NATO is paying for those weapons, 100%,” Trump said in an interview with NBC late Thursday. “So what we’re doing is, the weapons that are going out are going to NATO, and then NATO is going to be giving those weapons (to Ukraine), and NATO is paying for those weapons.”Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Friday that some of the U.S.-made weapons that Ukraine is seeking are deployed with NATO allies in Europe. Those weapons could be transferred to Ukraine, with European countries buying replacements from the U.S., he said.“It’s a lot faster to move something, for example, from Germany to Ukraine than it is to order it from a (U.S.) factory and get it there,” Rubio told reporters during a visit to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.Ukraine badly needs more U.S.-made Patriot air defense systems to stop Russian ballistic and cruise missiles. Trump’s Republican administration has given conflicting signals about its readiness to provide more vital military aid to Ukraine for its more than three years of fighting Russia’s invasion.After a pause in some weapons shipments, Trump said he would keep sending defensive weapons to Ukraine. U.S. officials said this week that 155 mm munitions and precision-guided rockets were on their way.Ukraine is seeking more coveted Patriot air defense systemsGermany, Spain and other European countries possess Patriot missile systems, and some have placed orders for more, Rubio said.The U.S. is encouraging its NATO allies “to provide those weapons, systems, the defensive systems that Ukraine seeks … since they have them in their stocks, and then we can enter into financial agreements with them, with us, where they can purchase the replacements,” Rubio said.Ukraine has asked foreign countries to supply it with an additional 10 Patriot systems and missiles, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday. Germany is ready to provide two systems, and Norway has agreed to supply one, he said.Trump caught off guard by DOD pause on Ukraine arms deliveries: ReportRussia has recently sought to overwhelm Ukraine’s air defenses by launching major aerial attacks. Earlier this week, Russia fired more than 700 attack and decoy drones at Ukraine, topping previous nightly barrages for the third time in two weeks.At the same time, Russia’s bigger army is pressing hard on parts of the 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line, where thousands of soldiers on both sides have died since the Kremlin ordered the invasion of neighboring Ukraine in February 2022.Impact of the latest Russian attacksIn the latest attacks, a Russian drone barrage targeted the center of Kharkiv just before dawn Friday, injuring nine people and damaging a maternity hospital in Ukraine’s second-largest city, officials said.Mothers with newborns were being evacuated to a different medical facility, Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov wrote on Telegram. He didn’t say whether anyone at the hospital was among the injured.Also, a daytime drone attack on the southern city of Odesa injured nine people.“There is no silence in Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said after the Kharkiv bombardment. Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, has endured repeated and intensifying drone attacks in recent weeks, as have many other regions of the country, mostly at night.June brought the highest monthly civilian casualties of the past three years, with 232 people killed and 1,343 wounded, the U.N. human rights mission in Ukraine said Thursday. Russia launched 10 times more drones and missiles in June than in the same month last year, it said.Other weapons sought by UkraineZelenskyy urged Ukraine’s Western partners to quickly enact pledges of help they made at an international meeting in Rome on Thursday.Ukraine also needs more interceptor drones to bring down Russian-made Shahed drones, he said, adding Moscow plans to manufacture up to 1,000 drones a day.Zelenskyy said Thursday that talks with Trump have been “very constructive.”Latest developments in the Ukraine crisisAfter repeated Russian drone and missile onslaughts in Kyiv, authorities announced Friday they are establishing a comprehensive drone interception system under a project called Clear Sky.The project includes a $6.2 million investment in interceptor drones, operator training, and new mobile response units, according to the head of the Kyiv Military Administration.Zelenskyy appealed to foreign partners to help Ukraine accelerate the production of the newly developed interceptor drones, which have proved successful against Shaheds.“We found a solution, as a country, scientists and engineers found a solution. That’s the key,” he said. “We need financing. And then, we will intercept.”AP Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee contributed from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

[Category: Pentagon] [Link to media]

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[l] at 7/11/25 9:47am
The Navy hopes its Next-Generation Attack Submarine, currently known as the SSN(X), will be a successful combination of stealth, operational life and autonomous technology — but that idea may not become reality anytime soon.A Wednesday report to Congress sent by the Congressional Research Service said the submarine’s development is projected to be significantly delayed. While the Navy requested nearly $623 million in research and development for the program in its fiscal 2026 budget proposal, the timeline for the attack submarine has not changed since the service delayed its production from the 2030s to the 2040s last year. Critically, the Congressional Research Service report lists among its issues for Congress the possible impact this delay could have on U.S. global seapower and warfighting capabilities, specifically “on the future U.S. ability to maintain undersea superiority and fulfill U.S. Navy missions.” During the fiscal 2025 budget process, the planned procurement of the first SSN(X) was delayed by five years — from fiscal year 2035 to 2040 — “due…to limitations on the Navy’s total budget,” according to the Congressional Research Service report. Prior to last year, the SSN(X) program had already been delayed from a projected 2031 start.Navy delays next-generation submarine start to early 2040s“The delay of SSN(X) construction start from the mid-2030s to the early 2040s presents a significant challenge to the submarine design industrial base,” the Navy’s fiscal 2025 budget proposal said. The service said that was because of an “extended gap” between the design programs for its Columbia-class submarine and the future SSN(X). The plans for the SSN(X) are ambitious. According to the Navy, the next-generation submarine “will provide greater speed, increased horizontal [i.e., torpedo room] payload capacity, improved signatures, flexibility” and “conduct full spectrum undersea warfare.” Autonomous systems are expected to be integrated into the SSN(X), which will reportedly model the stealth capabilities of the Virginia class and the rapid attack functions of the Seawolf class. Plans also call for the submarine to incorporate the flexibility and operational hardiness of the Columbia class, which itself is facing staggering delays in development and is currently projected to be delivered two years late in 2029. Like the Columbia and Virginia classes, the vessel will be nuclear-powered. It is projected to be larger than the original design for the Virginia-class submarine, which is about 7,800 tons submerged, and possibly go over 10,100 tons. The cost to procure the next-generation submarine is currently projected to fall between $7.1 billion and $8.7 billion. Delays remain an urgent issue within the Navy’s efforts to reboot U.S. shipbuilding, which the GAO has described as being in a “perpetual state of triage.”

[Category: Naval] [Link to media]

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[l] at 7/11/25 8:16am
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — China has failed to intimidate rival claimant states into surrendering their sovereign interests in the disputed South China Sea despite its intensifying “bullying tactics,” and the United States and other allied countries are ready to further boost deterrence against Beijing’s aggression, the U.S. Pacific Fleet commander said.Adm. Stephen Koehler, who oversees the largest naval fleet command in the world, gave assurances Friday in a Manila forum of U.S. commitment to help defend freedom of passage and the rule of law in the Indo-Pacific region. The Pacific Fleet’s mission, he said, was to deter aggression across the region with allies and partners “and to prevail in combat if necessary.”Filipino military pushes naval base upgrades, fearing Chinese spyingChina’s tactics have “grown steadily and more aggressive with rammings, water cannons, lasers and sometimes worse,” Koehler said. “But despite these bullying tactics … China has failed to intimidate Southeast Asian claimants into surrendering their sovereign rights.”Chinese officials did not immediately comment on Koehler’s remarks, but they have warned Washington in the past to stop meddling in what Beijing says is a purely Asian dispute that China has been trying to resolve peacefully.Koehler cited how Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam have sustained or expanded their offshore oil and gas operations in their Exclusive Economic Zones in the South China Sea despite Beijing’s growing assertiveness. The Philippines, he said, has boldly exposed China’s assertive actions by publicizing the dangerous maneuvers of Chinese forces, including the use of powerful water cannons and laser beams.“We’ve seen a laudable resilience and resolve to defend their maritime rights in the face of mounting pressure. Nearly all Southeast Asian littoral states are now prioritizing stronger maritime capabilities,” Koehler told the forum. “The U.S. Pacific Fleet is always ready to work with you to strengthen deterrence and show no individual country can be pushed around.”Deterrence, he said, has worked to prevent a larger conflict and crisis that could hamper the flow of trade through the waterway and affect many economies.Western and Asian ambassadors, including from the U.S., Canada, Australia, France, Germany, the European Union, Japan and New Zealand, spoke at the forum, which marked the 9th anniversary of the issuance of a 2016 international arbitration ruling that invalidated China’s claims to virtually the entire South China Sea.The Philippines brought its conflicts with China in the South China Sea to international arbitration in 2013, a year after a tense standoff over a disputed shoal which Beijing’s forces surrounded and effectively seized. China refused to participate in the arbitration, rejected its outcome as a “sham” and continues to defy it.U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines MaryKay Carlson said the arbitration ruling was a triumph for the Philippines and “a beacon guiding us toward a future where powerful countries cannot trample on the legal rights of other states.”“Nine years on, Beijing has ignored the ruling and continues to operate with impunity,” Carlson said. “China continues to engage in illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive actions in support of its spurious claims.”She renewed a warning that the U.S. is obligated to defend the Philippines under a 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty if Philippine forces come under an armed attack, including in the South China Sea.With China’s “worrisome” rejection of the arbitration ruling, the Philippines has moved to strengthen its forces and territorial defense, including by pursuing legislation to demarcate the limits of its territory, which has further strained Manila’s ties with Beijing, Philippine Foreign Secretary Theresa Lazaro told the forum in a video message.But she said that “it is a strategic consideration that we continue the dialogue and consultation with China, even amidst tensions that severely impact the bilateral relationship.”Chinese and Philippine officials plan to hold another round of talks in Beijing on their increasingly tense disputes in the South China Sea later this month to prevent further escalation.

[Category: / Asia Pacific] [Link to media]

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[l] at 7/10/25 4:20pm
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday announced sweeping changes to the way the Pentagon buys and fields uncrewed air systems, or UAS, with a goal of establishing “UAS domain dominance” by 2027. Hegseth announced the policy changes in a video recorded on the Pentagon’s front lawn. With Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” playing in the background, a quadcopter delivered a memo announcing the policy changes, which Hegseth then signed.“While our adversaries have produced millions of cheap drones, before us we were mired in bureaucratic red tape,” he said in the video, which he posted from his official X account. “Not anymore.”Unleashing U.S. Military Drone Dominance @DOGE pic.twitter.com/ueqQPc7rKI— Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth (@SecDef) July 10, 2025The memo lists three broad goals: bolstering the U.S. drone manufacturing base, delivering thousands of low-cost systems to military units over the next few years and integrating drone operations into training programs. “Next year I expect to see this capability integrated into all relevant combat training, including force-on-force drone wars,” Hegseth wrote in the memo.The announcement builds on a June 6 White House executive order that calls for normalizing drone operations and integration into the national airspace as well as investment in production and emerging technologies across commercial, civil and national security sectors.Specifically, Hegseth’s expansive memo rescinds past policies established by the Defense Department in 2021 and 2022 that provide guidance for implementing congressional mandates that restrict the U.S. military from buying drones and components produced by Chinese companies. It gives procurement authority to combat units to buy, test and train with small UAS that comply with statute and encourages “local innovation” like 3D printing parts. The memo also references a Defense Innovation Unit-led effort called Blue UAS — established in 2020 as a process for certifying commercial drones for military use. According to the memo, responsibility for maintaining and publishing the list of compliant drones, known as the “Blue List,” will shift to the Defense Contract Management Agency. “The Blue List will be dynamic, retaining all previous component and supply chain findings, and including updated performance evaluations from testing and key lessons learned from training,” the memo states. The document says that DOD has failed to field UAS at speed and in the numbers that the modern battlefield requires. It calls for department-wide reforms to how the military services buy drones and directs the secretaries of each department to “modify or delete” any policies that overregulate testing, training, procurement and fielding.Further, it directs the Air Force, Army, Navy and Marine Corps to each create active duty formations by September, built for the sole purpose of scaling the use of small drones across DOD — with initial systems delivered to U.S. Indo-Pacific Command by 2026. The services must also create and resource “unsubordinated program offices” focused entirely on rapidly acquiring drones. The memo also tasks them to identify, by September, any existing programs whose requirements would be better met by uncrewed systems. The services will be required to detail improves they’ve made to acquisition processes as part of their fiscal 2027 budget submissions. Hegseth also tasks the Department of Government Efficiency and the Office of Strategic Capital with presenting financing options — like direct loans or advance purchase commitments — to inject funding into the U.S. drone industrial base. “Our adversaries have a head start in small UAS, but we will perform a technological leapfrog and establish small UAS domain dominance by the end of 2027,” Hegseth wrote. “We will accomplish this urgent goal by combining the Nation’s best qualities, including risk-taking. Senior officers must set the tone. Accelerating this critical battlefield technology requires a Department of War culture.”

[Category: Pentagon] [Link to media]

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[l] at 7/10/25 8:49am
PARIS — France proposed to partners Germany and Spain to “rethink” the work share on the Future Combat Air System project in order to stick to a schedule that would see a future fighter enter into service from 2040 onwards, the country’s Directorate General for Armament said.While the program has made significant progress, including deciding on the shape of the fighter demonstrator, it’s currently encountering difficulties, the DGA told Defense News in an emailed reply to questions. France therefore recently proposed to its partners to redesign their cooperation based on “strengthening industrial leadership,” the armaments agency said.“France, as the program’s lead nation, is proposing to its government and industrial partners that they draw lessons from the first years of cooperation in order to continue to ensure that the schedule is met and the project is successful,” the DGA said. “The principle and details of this redesigned cooperation are currently being discussed with the partners.”The French proposal comes amid reports that plane maker Dassault Aviation is seeking a greater share in some parts of the program. The company’s CEO Eric Trappier has said questions over governance within the project need to be sorted out before the fighter moves into phase 2, which includes building a fighter demonstrator.While Dassault is the lead company for the development of a new warplane within the overall combat system, Trappier has repeatedly complained about delays due to bickering over work share with partner Airbus, representing Germany and Spain for the fighter segment.The company declined to comment on the press reports about it seeking a bigger share.Airbus officially still expects FCAS to be fully operational by 2040, whereas Trappier has repeatedly said the incurred delays mean 2045 is more likely for the fighter. The DGA has previously said it expects phase 2 of FCAS to start early 2026.With FCAS designed to ensure future air superiority in a contested environment, but also a project that will contribute to French strategic missions from 2040 onwards, “it is therefore essential that the schedule is adhered to,” the DGA said.One of the roles of the FCAS fighter will be to carry the air-launched component of France’s nuclear deterrent, currently handled by Dassault’s Rafale jet.Airbus makes the Eurofighter that equips the German and Spanish air forces, and which doesn’t have a nuclear role.The program has met four critical milestones, and the current difficulties are “inherent in a program of this scale and ambition,” according to the DGA, which described FCAS as a project of “unprecedented complexity.”Discussions on revamping the FCAS cooperation don’t call into question the goals and overall balance of the project, which is a “program of equals,” the armaments directorate said.However, the ongoing talks will “lead to a reworking of the division of labor between each industrial player,” the DGA said. “Each player’s share of the work is not a given but will be the result of discussions between the partners.”Trappier has said he would prefer cooperation to be modeled on the French-led nEUROn project to develop a stealth drone, which involved six countries working together, with Dassault the leader.FCAS is a key program for European sovereignty in defense, and continuing the program is of strategic interest for France, which is “firmly committed” to the project, according to the DGA.France, Germany and Spain in December 2022 awarded Dassault Aviation, Airbus, Indra Sistemas and Eumet a €3.2 billion ($3.7 billion) contract for phase 1B of the program, covering research, technology and overall design.

[Category: / Europe] [Link to media]

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[l] at 7/10/25 3:24am
THE HAGUE, Netherlands — France and the United Kingdom, Europe’s two nuclear-armed powers, have agreed to coordinate their atomic arsenals in response to major threats against the continent.The decision comes as part of a series of defense agreements signed by French President Emmanuel Macron and U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Thursday. While nuclear coordination is set to deepen under the agreement, as is nuclear research cooperation between France and Britain, the document makes it clear that the atomic arsenals will not be fused entirely.“The respective deterrents of both countries are independent but can be coordinated,” the U.K. government said in a press release. The idea is to achieve a political, not an operational, integration of the two nuclear forces.The move comes amid a rapidly changing security environment that has European leaders scrambling to rearm and lessen their dependence on Washington as a security guarantor. As Russia has intensified its war against Ukraine, a conflict portrayed domestically by President Vladimir Putin as a struggle against NATO, and with defense leaders in Washington turning their attention to the Pacific, there has been talk here about a “Euro deterrent” for some time.The latest Franco-British move is the closest the continent has come to such a strategic capability, at least on paper.While the exact text of the new agreement has not been publicly revealed at the time of writing, the UK government said that it stipulates “there is no extreme threat to Europe that would not prompt a response by both nations.”The French president’s visit to London also spurred a flurry of other military agreements, including to jointly develop a new cruise missile that will replace Storm Shadow/SCALP, to collaborate on developing advanced anti-drone weapons, and to jointly develop the next generation of beyond-visual-range, air-to-air missiles for the Royal Air Force. Additionally, the meeting yielded an update to the Lancaster House treaties, a defense framework between London and Paris dating back to 2010. The new version will add the objective of operational force integration in new domains like space and cyber.Also part of the defense agreements is an industrial component, with the governments targeting an “Entente Industrielle” that can turbo-charge the military equipment production of both countries. The threatening security environment in which Europe finds itself has prompted a marked shift in the thinking of leaders across the continent. Macron, in particular, has stood out as pushing for greater European integration, albeit mostly under French leadership. He has floated the idea of extending the French nuclear umbrella to the rest of the continent several times since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with mixed results. The U.K., for its part, has found new warmth from European capitals since the return to power of the more pro-European Labour Party, and in light of the country’s active role among the “Coalition of the Willing,” a loosely structured group supporting Ukraine.

[Category: / Europe] [Link to media]

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[l] at 7/9/25 6:03pm
The Trump administration has resumed sending some weapons to Ukraine, a week after the Pentagon had directed that some deliveries be paused, U.S. officials said Wednesday.The weapons heading into Ukraine include 155mm munitions and precision-guided rockets known as GMLRS, two officials told The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity to provide details that had not been announced publicly. It’s unclear exactly when the weapons started moving.Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth directed the pause on some shipments last week to allow the Pentagon to assess its weapons stockpiles, in a move that caught the White House by surprise.Affected were Patriot missiles, the precision-guided GMLRS, Hellfire missiles, Howitzer rounds and more, taking not only Ukrainian officials and other allies by surprise but also U.S. lawmakers and other parts of the Trump administration, including the State Department.It was not clear if a pause on Patriot missiles would hold. The $4 million munition is in high demand and was key to defending a major U.S. air base in Qatar last month as Iran launched a ballistic missile attack in response to the U.S. targeting its nuclear facilities.President Donald Trump announced Monday that the U.S. would continue to deliver defensive weapons to Ukraine. He has sidestepped questions about who ordered the pause in exchanges with reporters this week.“I would know if a decision is made. I will know,” Trump said Wednesday. “I will be the first to know. In fact, most likely I’d give the order, but I haven’t done that yet.”Asked a day earlier who ordered the pause, he said, “I don’t know. Why don’t you tell me?”Trump has privately expressed frustration with Pentagon officials for announcing the pause — a move that he felt wasn’t properly coordinated with the White House, according to three people familiar with the matter.The Pentagon has denied that Hegseth acted without consulting the president, saying, “Secretary Hegseth provided a framework for the President to evaluate military aid shipments and assess existing stockpiles. This effort was coordinated across government.”It comes as Russia has fired escalating air attacks on Ukraine, with a barrage that the largest number of drones fired in a single night in the three-year-old war, Ukrainian officials said Wednesday.Trump has become increasingly frustrated with Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying he wasn’t happy with him.“Putin is not, he’s not treating human beings right,” Trump said during a Cabinet meeting Tuesday, explaining the pause’s reversal. “It’s killing too many people. So we’re sending some defensive weapons to Ukraine, and I’ve approved that.”The 155mm artillery rounds have become some of the most-used munitions of the war. Each round is about 2 feet long, weighs about 100 pounds and is 155mm, or 6.1 inches, in diameter. They are used in Howitzer systems, which are towed large guns identified by the range of the angle of fire that their barrels can be set to.Howitzer fires can strike targets up to 15 to 20 miles away, depending on what type of round and firing system is used, which makes them highly valued by ground forces to take out enemy targets from a protected distance.The U.S. has provided more than 3 million 155mm rounds to Ukraine since Russia invaded its neighbor in February 2022. It has sent more than $67 billion in overall weapons and military assistance to Ukraine in that period.Associated Press writer Aamer Madhani contributed to this report.

[Category: Pentagon] [Link to media]

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[l] at 7/9/25 12:02pm
HIROSHIMA, Japan — The Japanese army on Wednesday began deploying its fleet of V-22 Ospreys on a newly opened permanent base in southwestern Japan, in the country’s latest move to strengthen its defense as tensions in the region grow.The first of the fleet of 17 Ospreys arrived at its new home base of Camp Saga, Japan’s Ground Self-Defense Force said, with the rest to come by mid-August.The move is part of Japan’s accelerating military buildup, especially in the southwest, meant as a deterrence to China’s increasingly assertive maritime actions in the area.Japan plans to operate the Ospreys more closely with the amphibious rapid deployment brigade at Ainoura, in the nearby naval town of Sasebo, as part of the plan to reinforce the defense of remote southwestern islands, Defense Minister Gen Nakatani told reporters Tuesday.“The security environment surrounding Japan has been increasingly severe, and it is our pressing task to strengthen our island defense capabilities,” he said.The use of the V-22 remains controversial in Japan, especially in the south, due to a series of accidents involving the aircraft.Dozens of protesters stood outside Camp Saga, chanting, “Get out Osprey!” One of them, Osamu Rikihisa, said, “You never know when another Osprey crashes again.”In November 2023, a U.S. Air Force Osprey crashed off Japan’s southern coast, killing eight people. In October 2024, a Japanese army V-22 Osprey tilted and hit the ground while attempting to take off during a joint exercise with the U.S. military. An investigation found human error to be the cause.Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, in his election campaign speech Wednesday in Saga, said Ospreys are significantly superior to conventional helicopters and can “bolster Japan’s security and disaster relief operations.”

[Category: / Asia Pacific] [Link to media]

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[l] at 7/9/25 10:03am
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has ended its experiment to create a heavy cargo seaplane.The nearly three-year-old Liberty Lifter program was intended to design and build — and possibly float and fly — a long-range, low-cost seaplane that could take off and land in rough seas. DARPA said in 2023 that it wanted the plane to have roughly the same size and capacity as a C-17 Globemaster, which can carry more than 170,000 pounds of cargo such as M1 Abrams tanks.In a statement to Defense News, DARPA confirmed it had concluded the Liberty Lifter program in June. Aviation Week first reported the ending of the Liberty Lifter program.“We’ve learned we can build a flying boat capable of takeoff and landing in high sea states,” program manager Christopher Kent said. “The physics make sense. And we’ve learned we can do so with maritime building techniques and maritime composites.”But DARPA said it will not move forward with building an aircraft, which would only be a demonstrator.“We think our findings validate the hypothesis we had going in: you can build platforms that fly significantly cheaper and at significantly more locations than we do today,” Kent said. “This opens up a pathway for next generation aircraft to be built using far more efficient construction technologies.”DARPA also said more work needs to be done to blend maritime construction with aircraft certification.In a statement to Defense News, Aurora said the technology it developed through the program will be used in years to come.“Through the Liberty Lifter program, we were able to show the viability of the design and the feasibility of novel manufacturing techniques,” Aurora said. “Aurora is proud of the technical advancements we made through the preliminary design of Liberty Lifter, and we expect to apply these learnings to future programs.”DARPA first worked on Liberty Lifter with General Atomics and Boeing subsidiary Aurora Flight Sciences, which developed their own competing designs. DARPA hoped creating a cargo seaplane could lead to new opportunities for the military and commercial organizations to conduct fast logistics missions, as well as develop innovative manufacturing techniques and materials to bring down the cost of building large aircraft.DARPA said it restructured the Liberty Lifter program in late 2023 to pull forward technical risk reduction activities. In early 2024, DARPA announced it had dropped General Atomics from the program and continued with Aurora’s pitch.Aurora and DARPA used simulations and tests of scaled models to demonstrate the seaplane’s technical design, as well as building and stress-testing examples of the new methods and materials intended for the plane.Those simulations and tests showed the concept was viable, DARPA said, and the novel building methods one day could help dramatically cut the cost of building large aircraft. The agency is now working with industry and other stakeholders in the Defense Department to figure out how to rapidly field these technologies in other forms.The contracts and modifications DARPA issued to Aurora and General Atomics totaled at least $22 million, with $8 million going to General Atomics and $14 million to Aurora.

[Category: Air Warfare] [Link to media]

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[l] at 7/9/25 9:32am
A promising Air Force Research Laboratory system designed to integrate drones into air traffic management systems at military installations could one day be installed at bases around the world. AFRL’s Collaborative Low-Altitude Uncrewed Aircraft System Integration Effort, or CLUE, fuzes data from radars, counter-UAS systems and other sensors to create a shared operating picture for air traffic controllers, security forces and UAS operators. John Sawyer, a UAS analyst for the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment — which is leading efforts within DOD to partner with the Federal Aviation Administration to improve airspace integration — said CLUE is a game changer. “Your security teams see more than just what their Counter UAS sensors are seeing. Your air traffic controllers can now see the drones. Your UAS operators can now see everyone else,” Sawyer told Defense News on the sidelines of a June 25 Defense Innovation Unit drone test in Fairbanks, Alaska. “That makes it a lot easier to integrate.”Managing both manned aircraft and unmanned drones operating in the same airspace is a growing challenge for both civil and military air traffic controllers. For the Defense Department, which provides about 20% of the air traffic control services in the United States, solving the problem helps enable its plans to increase its own UAS inventory while also protecting bases and troops from enemy drones, Sawyer said. CLUE began development in 2016 at the lab’s information directorate in Rome, New York. In 2022, the service took the system to MacDill Air Force Base in Florida for initial testing. Then last year, AFRL — in partnership with DIU, the Pentagon’s acquisition office and several companies — integrated several UAS platforms into the uncrewed traffic management system. During the demonstration, CLUE provided operators with a visual tool to help with air traffic deconfliction, UAS identification and FAA compliance. Sawyer said the system has shown “a lot of promise” in these demonstrations and tests and DOD plans to install CLUE at Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany later this year. At the same time, the Pentagon is close to establishing a requirement for the system that could start the process of acquiring and fielding it at DOD installations. “I would hope that within the next month the senior leadership says, ‘Yes, that’s a requirement that we need this ecosystem to develop. It’s an operational requirement to have an ecosystem that enables us to integrate those mission sets on an installation,’” he said.Beyond CLUE, Sawyer said the FAA and DOD are making progress normalizing integrated manned and unmanned airspace operations. He highlighted a new FAA regulation in the works, Part 108, that provides a framework for agencies and companies operating drones to fly beyond the visual line of sight with fewer restrictions and without the need for constant waivers. “I think that’s going to do a lot to move the ball forward with beyond visual line of sight operations and really codifying unmanned traffic management,” Sawyer said. “There is definitely progress.”

[Category: Unmanned] [Link to media]

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[l] at 7/9/25 8:46am
Two new aircraft carriers will yet again experience delays in delivery, after already having previously delayed in past years, Navy budget documents reveal. The delivery of the Navy’s next Ford-class aircraft carrier, to be christened the John F. Kennedy, will now be delayed by two more years, the Navy’s Fiscal Year 2026 budget justification documents show. It had been scheduled to be delivered this month. Delivery is now pushed back until March 2027. Before this latest setback, the carrier had already been delayed by an estimated one year. Additionally, another repeat delay is in store for the future carrier Enterprise, which was scheduled to be delivered in September 2029. The budget documents now show that “due to delays in material availability and industry/supply chain performance,” it is now projected to be finished in July 2030.This is not the first delay for the Enterprise, either. It was scheduled for delivery in 2028 before being pushed back to 2029 last year, according to USNI News. The sudden year-long delay for the John F. Kennedy, according to the budget documents, is “to support completion of Advanced Arresting Gear (AAG) certification and continued Advanced Weapons Elevator (AWE) work.” The Ford class, the newest type of aircraft carrier, features new reactor and electric plants, an advanced propulsions system and an Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System, among other updates.Both the AAG and AWE systems lagging on the future John F. Kennedy are currently operational on the aircraft carrier Gerald Ford, which departed from Norfolk, Virginia, two weeks ago as the lead vessel of its strike group on a deployment to Europe amid tensions with Iran. The creeping delays facing the new aircraft carriers are the latest examples of what has been a decades-long struggle within the Navy to obtain new ships. “We are behind in every ship class [by] different rates, but at least years,” Adm. James Kilby, acting chief of naval operations, recently told the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense. The Pentagon is attempting to remedy the situation by awarding contracts to boost ship manufacturing, developing unmanned systems and modernizing centuries-old shipyards to accommodate new vessels.

[Category: Naval] [Link to media]

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[l] at 7/9/25 8:46am
Two new aircraft carriers will yet again experience delays in delivery, after already having previously delayed in past years, Navy budget documents reveal. The delivery of the Navy’s next Ford-class aircraft carrier, to be christened the John F. Kennedy, will now be delayed by two more years, the Navy’s Fiscal Year 2026 budget justification documents show. It had been scheduled to be delivered this month. Delivery is now pushed back until March 2027. Before this latest setback, the carrier had already been delayed by an estimated one year. Additionally, another repeat delay is in store for the future carrier Enterprise, which was scheduled to be delivered in September 2029. The budget documents now show that “due to delays in material availability and industry/supply chain performance,” it is now projected to be finished in July 2030.This is not the first delay for the Enterprise, either. It was scheduled for delivery in 2028 before being pushed back to 2029 last year, according to USNI News. The sudden year-long delay for the John F. Kennedy, according to the budget documents, is “to support completion of Advanced Arresting Gear (AAG) certification and continued Advanced Weapons Elevator (AWE) work.” The Ford class, the newest type of aircraft carrier, features new reactor and electric plants, an advanced propulsions system and an Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System, among other updates.Both the AAG and AWE systems lagging on the future John F. Kennedy are currently operational on the aircraft carrier Gerald Ford, which departed from Norfolk, Virginia, two weeks ago as the lead vessel of its strike group on a deployment to Europe amid tensions with Iran. The creeping delays facing the new aircraft carriers are the latest examples of what has been a decades-long struggle within the Navy to obtain new ships. “We are behind in every ship class [by] different rates, but at least years,” Adm. James Kilby, acting chief of naval operations, recently told the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense. The Pentagon is attempting to remedy the situation by awarding contracts to boost ship manufacturing, developing unmanned systems and modernizing centuries-old shipyards to accommodate new vessels.

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[l] at 7/9/25 8:23am
U.S. Air Force fighter pilots integrated two Kratos XQ-58A Valkyrie drones into an aerial combat training exercise at Florida’s Eglin Air Force Base in what the Air Force has described as “a major leap in human-machine teaming.” Pilots of an F-16C Fighting Falcon and an F-15 Strike Eagle controlled two Valkryie drones each while flying, wielding them while performing combat maneuvers. The pilots successfully used their skills in harmony with the unmanned aerial vehicles in realtime. “With this flight, we mark a crucial step in developing capabilities that harness human-machine teaming to overcome complex threats and expand our advantages,” Brig. Gen. Jason E. Bartolomei, commander of the Air Force Research Laboratory, said in a release. “By developing and integrating autonomous platforms with manned systems, we can quickly adapt, increase combat effectiveness, and reduce risk to our aircrews in contested environments.”The Air Force Research Laboratory executed the training event alongside the Air Force Test Center, Air Combat Command and the U.S. Navy, with support from the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering. The Valkyrie is a relatively low-cost and lightweight tactical UAV that can be operated remotely. It is extremely resilient, capable of performing a wide array of missions. During this exercise, the Valkyries served in a “loyal wingman” role to the fighter pilots, effectively functioning as partners. The drones can also be used for stealth surveillance, as they can fly long range at high-subsonic speeds, and have interior bomb bays and wing stations that lend themselves to modification for different types of operations. They require no runways or airfields to operate successfully. They can also fly in swarms and deploy in formations.“We are committed to innovation and integrating ACPs [autonomous collaborative platforms] through these kinds of demanding, operator-driven evaluations that allow us to learn rapidly and enhance our human-machine teams,” said Gen. Ken Wilsbach, commander of Air Combat Command. The test comes amid increasing exploration of unmanned systems as both a modernization and a cost-cutting measure by the Department of Defense. The U.S. Navy recently integrated robotic vessels into a key Baltic warfighting exercise and earlier in May conducted two unprecedented unmanned weapons tests.

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[l] at 7/9/25 7:52am
Technological innovation is a core means for societies to defend themselves and enhance the well-being of their people. What has made the U.S. the leading nation has not merely been democracy and the rule of law, but the successes of American industry in creating, adopting, and integrating innovation for both commercial society and our armed forces. Innovation has been an elixir for our nation’s success.Nonetheless, any lead in innovation is not perpetual. U.S. technological innovations are susceptible to intellectual property theft. Our competitors are racing to develop new technologies. Our engineers and scientists are outnumbered by those overseas. And, our appetite for national investment in research and development is constrained by the cost of our current government operations, procurement, manpower, and debt.For well over a decade, legislative and executive branch leaders, leading pundits and academics, and industry chief executive officers have all called for faster and better government adoption of technological innovation. Numerous reform initiatives across past congresses and administrations, even those that have led to new legislation and new policies, have not done the job, however.The Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and numerous executive orders and Congress’s FoRGED and SPEED Acts have similar laudable objectives. How can they achieve breakthrough success?Part of the answer is to create better measurements to assess progress toward desired objectives. With that goal in mind, our 2025 Government Contracting Trends and Performance Index examined the shape of the broad industrial base that supports all Federal government agencies, trends in government contracting, and the self-evaluated financial performance of government contracting firms. The results of that analysis include the following top-level findings:Measuring innovation outcomes is imperative, but lackingYou get what you measure. The federal government’s use of agile acquisition vehicles like Other Transaction Authorities (OTAs) and Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants has exploded in recent years. However, there is no measurement of outcomes. Without such measurement, the extent to which the nation is reaping benefits from these contract instruments is principally anecdotal. Better measurements of the outcomes of these efforts are critical if we are to understand the value of our national investments and rely on them as engines of innovation.Incentives are the true drivers of innovationGovernment marketplace incentives are necessary to attract and retain vendors who create impactful, cutting-edge technology. When we surveyed over 400 firms about how they assess their financial performance, respondents resoundingly identified profitability, ease of doing business, and steady partnership as their key performance indicators. It is ridiculous to expect that effective technology innovators will contribute to solutions for the federal government without meaningful profit. Innovators can make their living in the commercial sector. If the federal government is serious about innovation, it must appropriately incentivize companies to deliver and sustain new, effective, and efficient solutions. Incentives determine outcomes.Small businesses innovate, but the preponderance of small business work is not in innovationSmall businesses participate in innovation as government contractors through SBIRs and other efforts. However, the preponderance of the work dominated by small businesses includes civil engineering, software installation and programming, facility utilities installation and repair, administrative services, and non-technical manufacturing. Though important to the functioning of government, this work is largely unrelated to innovation. For increased small business contributions to innovation, agencies will need to evolve their respective small business contracting approaches.Put the “non” back in nontraditional defense contractorsThe legislative intention for identifying and advantaging nontraditional contractors was to recruit advanced technology firms into the government marketplace. However, the legal definition for nontraditional firms excludes only 7.5% of firms in the Department of Defense (DoD) market. If nontraditional contractors are expected to be instrumental in increasing innovation, these firms must be both better defined and tracked over time.Industrial base sentiment was strong across the spectrum of companies in 2024The Baroni Center’s analysis found the federal market remains competitive, despite a reduction in the number of firms over the past decade. Moreover, our survey results and financial performance index show that government contracting firms of all sizes and composition remained positive about their recent performance and their future prospects. Company sentiments could be quite different today because of DOGE, but the companies’ key performance indicators, however, would likely be unchanged.These findings and related recommendations can help inform ongoing government initiatives designed to improve contracting processes and execution. We very much look forward to engaging with government and industry on these efforts to drive better outcomes across the government contracting community.Jerry McGinn is the Executive Director of the Greg and Camille Center for Government Contracting in George Mason University’s Costello College of Business and a former senior DoD acquisition official. Jeff Kojac is the Director of Studies for the Center and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

[Category: Opinion] [Link to media]

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