Air, Space, and Cyber. “Defeating Multipolar Threats: A Strategic Imperative for Airmen & Guardians” is the announced theme for this year’s Air & Space Forces Association (AFA) annual air, space, and cyber conference on Sept. 11-13 at National Harbor, Md. The event will feature a number of panels and speakers on modernization efforts for the Department of the Air Force, including the B-21 Raider stealth bomber by Northrop Grumman, Collaborative Combat Aircraft, responsive space, artificial intelligence, quantum technology, cyber warfare, strategic modernization and airlift. The first annual AFA conference dates back to September, 1947 in Columbus, Ohio where then Army Chief of Staff Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower and first AFA president Jimmy Doolittle addressed attendees, and members of the general public formed a crowd to tour a B-29 bomber.
NROL-107. United Launch Alliance (ULA) is looking forward to its expected Atlas V rocket launch of the U.S. Space Force (USSF)/National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) SILENTBARKER/NROL-107 mission on the morning of Sept. 9 from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Fla.—the last slated NRO launch for ULA’s Atlas V rocket. Next year’s USSF-51 mission is to be the last for Atlas V overall. The Space Force’s Space Systems Command said that 17 of the 51 Atlas V launches have been for the NRO. NRO’s SILENTBARKER satellites are to be a significant leap in geosynchronous orbit indications and warning for the U.S. Space Surveillance Network.
Commercial Space. While DoD’s ground and user segments for positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) and satellite communications (SATCOM) need modernization to enable broader access to commercial services, the Department of the Air Force (DAF) can accrue significant benefit from such services, according to a new RAND study, Commercial Space Services: Opportunities and Risks for the Department of the Air Force. DAF “should be more willing to leverage commercial space services when market risks are low or can be spread among multiple stakeholders, the operational utility of the commercial service is high, and the integration risk can be managed,” the study said. On the PNT side, the “commercial space-based PNT market could provide greater accuracy and signal strength than is currently available via GPS,” the report said, while the commercial SATCOM market “offers a variety of technologies that provide high throughput, jamming resistance, low latency, and global coverage.”
…GPS Alternatives and Repurposing. Buying services from multiple commercial companies “that use dissimilar or heterogeneous technologies (and have dissimilar vulnerabilities) adds resiliency,” which alleviates the vulnerabilities of commercial services to jamming, cyberattacks, and anti-satellite and ground network attacks, RAND said. The RAND report noted the promise of alternatives to GPS, such as the Satelles’ Satellite Time and Location (STL) system, and the possibility of repurposing commercial SATCOM for PNT. The study said that “researchers have demonstrated the possibility of using SpaceX’s Starlink constellation to provide PNT services” in referencing a Sept. 28, 2020 MIT Technology Review article entitled Starlink Satellites Could Make U.S. Army Navigation Hard to Jam.
CENTCOM and Generative AI. U.S. Central Command is experimenting with generative artificial intelligence models and working with entities liked the Defense Department’s Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office “to make sure we’re doing this in a responsible way because we need to understand the performance of the models, how consistent they are, and what places it is most appropriated to apply them,” Schuyler Moore, the command’s chief technology officer, said last week. This will lead to a “demand signal” for use cases, she said at a conference hosted by Defense News.
…Dream End State. Two potential “dream end state” use cases for generative AI include eliminating or at least minimizing “menial tasks” like helping to write an email, Moore said. For example, if generative AI could reduce the time it takes to draft an email by 30 percent and “you gave that time back to me, or more importantly, if you gave that time back to my commander, that would be huge,” she said. A second area is code generation, which typically involves someone seeking the assistance of a software engineer and uses “endless Excel spreadsheets” to explain what he or she wants, Moore said. Generative AI might be able to eliminate these types of hours-long discussions. “Imagine if you were able to type in a query that said, ‘I’d like to display this data and pull these three fields relative to these other three factors rather quickly,’” she said. “And I don’t have to talk to an engineer, it can just pull that forward. That would be a huge deal for us.”
Another Saab AI Deal. Sweden’s Saab last Thursday announced its second acquisition within two weeks of a company with core capabilities in artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML), this one CrowdAI, a Silicon Valley-based firm applying the technology to computer vision for top corporations and the U.S. military and intelligence community. “This acquisition is another step in our international growth strategy as we seek to ensure Saab is well positioned in key markets and to sustain our competitive advantage,” said Micael Johansson, Saab’s president and CEO. “CrowdAI will help Saab enhance our existing portfolio with AI/ML capabilities and, together with the recent acquisition of BlueBear in the United Kingdom, is another example of how we are meeting the emerging needs of our customers.” Devak Raj, co-founder and CEO of Saab’s U.S.-based subsidiary Saab, Inc., is now chief digital and AI officer of the subsidiary’s strategy office in San Diego. The BlueBear deal was announced in late August and the company develops AI-enabled software for autonomous swarm systems of crewed and uncrewed vehicles.
Weaponized Integrator. Boeing’s Insitu business unit last week said it has integrated a munitions capability on its Integrator fixed-wing unmanned aircraft, giving the 24-hour endurance drone a precision strike capability. Insitu said it worked with “multiple weapons developers and U.S. government agencies” to enable the integration of miniature munitions on Integrator. The Group 3 UAS has a maximum payload weight of 40-pounds and can carry multiple sensors at a time, including a laser designator and rangefinder, allowing “users to easily transition between kinetic and non-kinetic missions,” said Abigail Denburg, Insitu’s vice president of global growth. “Based on global events and the evolution of the modern battlefield, Insitu’s customers are demanding a kinetic strike capability,” she said.
…Insitu Pacific News. Separately, Insitu’s Pacific unit, which is based in Australia, said it and Boeing demonstrated autonomous search, detection, and classification capabilities aboard two uncrewed aerial vehicles this summer during the biennial U.S.-Australian Talisman Sabre defense exercise. “This was the first time we were able to integrate our AI-enabled technology into an Australian Defense Force exercise, which provided an operationally-relevant terrain environment to test and demonstrate machine learning capabilities,” said Emily Hughes, director of Boeing Phantom Works Global. Insitu Pacific said that the UAVs included software for automated object detection and optimized route planning while communicating with a ground station.
People News. Dana Deasy, a former chief information officer for the Department of Defense during the Trump administration, has been appointed to the board of directors of Science Applications International Corp. effective Sept. 8. Before his work at DoD, Deasy was the global chief information officer and managing director of J.P. Morgan Chase from December 2013 to December 2017. Leidos has promoted Amy Smith to senior vice president of government affairs, the company’s top lobbyist on Capitol Hill. Smith joined Leidos in 2020 as vice president of government affairs after serving seven years at Boeing as chief of staff and senior director, international operations, and policy.
DoD Biometrics in the Cloud. Leidos last week said it has completed the deployment of the Defense Department’s Automated Biometrics Information System (ABIS) to the cloud, what it described as “the first step and a key enabling milestone to securing fully automated biometrics capabilities in the cloud, delivering increased system availability and performance to stakeholder globally.” ABIS is DoD’s authoritative multi-modality biometrics repository for storage and search. The work was done under the Biometrics Enabling Capability Increment One contract. Leidos also said that having the biometric cloud capability will reduce reliance on traditional computing services.
AUSA. Rick Maze, AUSA’s director of media operations, told Defense Daily the organization doesn’t know right now how its annual conference will be impacted if there’s a government shutdown. The annual AUSA conference, which gathers thousands for Army updates and industry exhibits, is set to take place Oct. 9-11 in Washington, D.C., which may coincide with a shutdown if Congress is unable to pass final appropriations bills or a continuing resolution stopgap funding bill before the end of September. “The critical thing in the fate of the AUSA 2023 annual meeting will be what happens to the Army and what restrictions might be announced in terms of travel and participation,” Maze said. A shutdown could prevent certain Army personnel from traveling to D.C. for the event.
Michigan Senate Seat. Mike Rogers, the former Republican Congressman who served as chair of the House Intelligence Committee from 2011 to 2015, has announced his candidacy for Michigan’s open Senate seat in 2024. Rogers is the sixth Republican to enter the GOP primary for the Michigan seat, which is open following Sen. Debbie Stabenow’s (D-Mich.) announcement in January that she would not seek reelection. Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), a member of the House Armed Services Committee and a former State Department and Pentagon official during the Obama administration, is currently considered the frontrunner for the Democratic primary to fill Stabenow’s seat.
Kiggans Challenger. Navy veteran and Democrat Missy Cotter Smasal has announced she’s running for Virginia’s 2nd district challenging Rep. Jen Kiggans (R-Va.), a fellow Navy veteran and member of the House Armed Services Committee. “I joined the Navy because I wanted to serve my country, not myself. VA veterans and families deserve someone who will stand up for them, and Jen Kiggans has made it clear she won’t. I’ve been called to serve again, and I hope you’ll join our team,” Cotter Smasal wrote in a social media post after announcing her candidacy. Cotter Smasal has already secured the endorsement of Rep. Jennifer McClelallan (D-Va.) and former Virginia Governor Ralph Northam. Kiggans beat Democrat and Navy veteran Elaine Luria in the last election for the 2nd district seat.
Artillery Charges. The Army has selected General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems and Nammo to compete for orders to deliver 155mm M119A2 propelling bag charges under a new $488.7 million contract, the Pentagon announced on Sept. 7. The two companies were the only two firms to submit bids for the work, which is expected to be completed by September 2028.
Acting NAVAIR. Rear Adm. George Wikoff took over as acting Commander of Naval Air Forces (NAVAIR) and Naval Air Forces U.S. Pacific Fleet from retiring Vice Adm. Kenneth Witesell during a change of command ceremony on Sept. 7. Whitesell served as the ninth “air boss” since October 2020 and is retiring after serving in the military for 39 years. Wikoff previously served as vice director of the Joint Staff since May 2021. Wikoff is serving in this acting role because his promotion to vice admiral and nomination to command U.S. 5th Fleet is part of Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s (R-Ala.) blanket block of all military confirmations. In March, the Biden administration nominated Rear Adm. Danier Cheever to be the next Naval Air Forces commander, but that change is also blocked.
GENISYS. Naval Sea Systems Command installed the Global Energy Information System (GENISYS) suite onboard DDG-51 Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers, the command announced Sept. 8. The suit includes a Shipboard Energy Assessment System (SEAS) and digital logbooks to connect fuel consumption, mission and environmental data to give operators a platform to better manage energy consumption aboard ships. “This initiative is a great example of how we are harnessing feedback from our Fleet commanders, leveraging innovation from the Navy’s Small Business Innovation Research Program, and linking it to other applications such as condition-based maintenance to drive a greater understanding of our onboard equipment to optimize operational excellence,” Peter McCauley, NAVSEA technical warrant holder for machinery integration and program manager for fleet energy management, said in a statement.
…LPDs Next. Both of these systems were field tested earlier this year and now will undergo testing and crew training before being made fully operational later this year, The Navy said GENISYS is next set to be installed on San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ships starting in 2024.
Frigate Test Site. The Navy conducted a Constellation-class Frigate (FFG 62) Land Based Engineering Site (LBES) facility overhaul commencement ceremony on Aug. 24, hosted by Program Executive Office (PEO) for Unmanned and Small Combatants. The LBES is located at Naval Surface Warfare Center, Philadelphia Division (NSWCPD). The LBES is meant to support frigates by performing full-plant system integration, control systems development and testing, crew training, fleet operational support, modernization, and risk mitigation. The site will have frigate-representative equipment, the ability to simulate propulsion configurations and operational parameters and allow crews to train with a live plant before being posted to their commissioned ships, the service said. NSWCPD already has the DDG-51 LBES, the DDG(X) Next Generation Guided-Missile Destroyer Land Based Test Site (LBTS) and Advanced Weapons Elevator (AWE) Land Based Engineering Test Site (LBETS).