Fourth Frigate. The Navy awarded Fincantieri Marinette Marine $526 million on May 18 to exercise an option for the detail design and construction of the fourth Constellation
-class guided-missile frigate, FFG-65. The work is expected to be finished by December 2028. The first-in-class future USS Constellation (FFG-62) has been production at the company’s Marinette, Wis., shipyard since August 2022 and is set to be delivered in 2026. The company is also under contract to build the future Congress (FFG-63) and Chesapeake (FFG-64). The Navy awarded Fincantieri a contract in 2020 for the lead frigate and up to nine follow-on option ships with a total value worth up to $5.5 billion.
DDG-126. General Dynamics Bath Iron Works (BIW) marked the keel laying of the future Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Lewis H. Wilson (DDG-126) on May 16. DDG-126 will be the first Flight III version of the destroyer that BIW builds. The other destroyer shipyard, HII’s Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Miss., is building the first Flight III ship, the future USS Jack H. Lucas (DDG-125). The newest variant features the AN/SPY-6(V)1 Air and Missile Defense Radar and accommodations for it. DDG-126 is named after Medal of Honor recipient and former Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. Louis H. Wilson, Jr. Laying of the keel and its authentication at this ceremony is the start of hull integration and represents the joining together of a ship’s major modular components. BIW is on contract to build 10 destroyers and is also building the future John Basilone (DDG-122), Harvey C. Barnum Jr. (DDG1-24), Patrick Gallagher (DDG-127), William Charette (DDG-130) and Quentin Walsh (DDG -32).
DDG-125. HII’s Ingalls Shipbuilding successfully finished acceptance trials for the first Flight III Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer, the future USS Jack H. Lucas (DDG-125), the company said on May 19. The Navy noted the trials ended on May 18, with the ship returning to the company’s Pascagoula, Miss., shipyard. The acceptance trials entailed the ship and crew performing a series of demonstrations to be reviewed by the Navy’s Board of Inspection and Survey (INSURV) to validate Navy specifications and requirements before ship delivery.
Systems Engineering. A new MITRE paper outlines the problems that DoD has faced in the fielding of complex systems for large programs, even given the reported on-time successes of the U.S. Air Force B-21 Raider development thus far. “The Department of Defense (DoD) seems to perennially struggle with implementing complex systems or systems of systems,” according to the paper, Starting Simple with JADC2. “More common than the successes are those programs that arrive over budget and behind schedule, or those that never arrive at all. The replacement for the Air Operations Center (AOC)—also known as the AOC 10.2 program—was canceled after failing to meet budget or schedule even after multiple revisions.” The paper also mentions the Air Force’s GPS/OCX ground station by Raytheon and U.S. Space Force’s ATLAS by L3Harris to replace the 3-decade-old Space Domain Awareness Capability (SPADOC). ATLAS and its predecessor replacement for SPADOC have been “close to delivery for years, having undergone multiple changes in name without yet fielding actual capability, preventing decommissioning of the legacy SPADOC system,” the paper said.
…Keep It Simple, Stupid. MITRE said that it independently assessed how the Pentagon was faring in fielding Joint All Domain Command and Control (JADC2) features early last year. “The landscape has certainly evolved over the past year, but the early-2022 assessment concluded that the DoD was not on a path to success with JADC2, and that it was unlikely the DoD would achieve its desired end state with JADC2 given the strategic direction and governance construct in place at the time. This conclusion was based on a number of factors, including that the goals for JADC2 weren’t clear or actionable, that a number of the documents written to guide JADC2 were cumbersome and lacked coherence, and that although each military service was performing laudable work on modernizing its C2 systems, they weren’t aligned to a common JADC2 approach.” The Joint Requirements Oversight Council (JROC) defined the JADC2 architecture nearly a decade ago and merged the Air Force’s Multi-Domain Command and Control and the Army’s Multi-Domain Battle as JADC2 in 2016-17 with the Joint Staff’s J6 as the overseer. The MITRE paper advised that JADC2 have a defined focus; start as a simple working system by stitching together existing tactical efforts; and then take on more complexity after experimentation.
Rheinmetall Agreement. Germany’s Rheinmetall said on May 13 it has entered into a strategic cooperation agreement with the Ukrainian-state owned Ukroboronprom defense organization. Rheinmetall said the agreement is intended to bolster Ukraine’s defense industry and work toward building joint defense capabilities, which will start with efforts around maintaining and repairing vehicles Germany has transferred to Kyiv previously. “Under this agreement, Ukraine will benefit from a comprehensive transfer of technology, the creation of additional defense technology capacities in Ukraine, additional local valued added and the short-term delivery of military equipment from Germany,” Rheinmetall said in a statement.
Patriot Repaired. A Patriot air defense system in Ukraine damaged during a recent Russian missile attack has been repaired and is operational again, a Pentagon spokesperson confirmed on May 18. “For more specifics on the Patriot itself, I would refer you to the Ukrainians. What I can confirm is that one Patriot system was damaged but it has now been fixed and is fully back and operational,” Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters during a press briefing. Singh said the Patriot system had “minor damage” that needed to be repaired. The Pentagon confirmed last week that Ukrainians used a Patriot battery to take out a Russian Kinzhal missile, which has been described as having ability to operate at hypersonic speeds, during a recent attack.
MH-139 Hoist Test. The Boeing and Leonardo MH-139A Grey Wolf helicopter finished its first live hoist test at Eglin AFB, Fla., on Apr. 26, Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC) said on May 15. During last month’s test, the helicopter, which is to replace the UH-1N Huey for ICBM field support, used a massive forest penetrator and a rescue strop to lift an AFGSC Detachment 7 special mission aviator, AFGSC said. “The 413th Flight Test Squadron and Det. 7 worked together to reach another milestone for the Air Force’s newest helicopter,” the command said.
Dividend Hike. Northrop Grumman last week said it will increase its quarterly dividend by 8 percent to $1.87 per share payable June 14. The hike marks the 20th straight year the company has increased its dividend and is part of its balanced approach to capital deployment.
People News. Cerberus Capital Management has hired retired Air Force Gen. John “Jay” Raymond as a senior managing director for the firm’s supply chain and strategic opportunities platform. Raymond retired in 2022 with his most recent assignment as the first Chief of Space Operations for the U.S. Space Force. General Electric has named Rahul Ghai as its new chief financial officer effective Sept. 1, succeeding Carolina Dybeck Happe. Ghai has been CFO of GE Aerospace since August 2022. Chris Inglis, who recently resigned as the nation’s first National Cyber Director, has joined the strategy advisory board of Securonix, which provides security information and event management for hybrid-cloud, data-driven enterprises. Inglis joints former Booz Allen Hamilton executive Patrick Gorman, former Citi Chief Information and Security Officer Tom Harrington, Mike McConnell, former Director of National Intelligence, Kirstjen Nielsen, Homeland Security Secretary during part of the Trump administration, and Robert Rose, a former member of the Homeland Security Advisory Council, on the new board.
Space-Related News. Terran Orbital Corp. which develops and builds satellites used by military, civil and commercial customers, last week broke ground on a new 94,000 square-foot satellite manufacturing facility in Irvine, Calif. The project is expected to be completed in January 2024 and will be Terran Orbital’s fifth production facility. Edgybees LTD, an Israeli-based company with software that gives greater accuracy to full-motion video and satellite imagery, has created a new U.S. entity, Edgybees Inc., that will be focused on solutions for the U.S. government, states and the commercial sector. Edgybees Inc.’s new board of directors includes Chairman Bradley Feldmann, the former head of Cubic Corp. and current chairman and CEO of Neology, Darryl Garrett, a consultant and intelligence expert, and Keith Masback, a geospatial intelligence consultant and owner of Plum Run, LLC.