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Raytheon fired several of its DeepStrike JR3 training rockets at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona, in what the company called a “third successful flight test” for the U.S. Army. JR3 is short for Joint Reduced Range Rocket. The Army wants it to replace the Reduced Range Practice Rocket that HIMARS and M270 crews shoot in training. […]View the full article

Lockheed Martin’s plant in Camden, Arkansas, has turned out its 100,000th GMLRS rocket, the guided round fired from HIMARS and M270 launchers, and the company says it’s now making “nearly 14,000 rockets per year.” Lockheed held a ceremony at the plant Tuesday to mark the number, according to a company release. The rate came “ahead […]View the full article

Five self-driving vehicles arrived at Fort Benning, Georgia, on Nov. 4 to start a U.S. Army trial of commercial autonomous shuttles on post, according to an Army release. The vehicles are part of the Robotic Operations for Autonomous Delivery and Sustainment prize challenge, known as ROADS, which the Army is running with the Defense Innovation […]View the full article

A micro-crack, trapped moisture or a coat of paint that’s too thick in an F-16’s nose cone “will act like a dirty lens” on the fighter’s radar, and only one shop in the U.S. Air Force tests for that: a radio frequency shop at Hill Air Force Base, Utah. The 523rd Electronic Maintenance Squadron tests […]View the full article

The cannon-armed ACV-30 can be carried aboard the Marine Corps’ maritime prepositioning ships, Blount Island Command says, after Marines ran a yellow tape measure along one inside the cargo hold of USNS Dahl (T-AKR 312) on Nov. 4. Logistics specialists had expected trouble. The turreted ACV-30 was the variant in the Amphibious Combat Vehicle family […]View the full article

U.S. Air Force C-17s flew 25th Infantry Division HIMARS launchers to Kauai during the Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center’s Rotation 27-01, where crews rolled them off on the airfield and went straight into a fire mission. The drill was a dry fire, with no rockets launched, and the division has not said how many launchers […]View the full article

The U.S. Air Force wants to buy equipment for DroneShield’s Immediate Response Kits, a portable counter-drone system, at Joint Base San Antonio in Texas. The 502nd Contracting Squadron at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland posted a brand-name-only request for quotes on Nov. 10, and offers are due Nov. 17. The notice covers “the associated equipment needed […]View the full article

Companies interested in building the next U.S. Space Force missile warning satellites in medium Earth orbit have until Dec. 1 to answer a Space Systems Command request for information on Epochs 3 and 4. The deadline was originally Oct. 31, and a Nov. 10 update also raised the page limit to 50 and told firms […]View the full article

The Space Development Agency has awarded SpaceX a $9.9 million contract to study whether the company’s commercial “Plaser” laser terminal can be used on the Pentagon’s missile warning and tracking satellites. The deal, announced by the U.S. Department of War on Nov. 10 and awarded on Nov. 9, covers a risk reduction study, delivery of […]View the full article

U.S. defense startup XDOWN has carried out a strike demonstration with its STUD system, a compact, hand-launched tactical aircraft built to give individual soldiers their own strike and reconnaissance capability. The test took place in Eastern Europe, where the company’s partners are helping with the technical side of the project. The company released video of […]View the full article

U.S. defense startup XDOWN has carried out a strike demonstration with its STUD system, a compact, hand-launched tactical aircraft built to give individual soldiers their own strike and reconnaissance capability. The company says the test validated the aircraft, its launch concept, flight controls and strike capability together as one integrated system, and that it is […]View the full article

The Federal Aviation Administration has licensed Sierra Space to bring its Dream Chaser spaceplane back from orbit and land it on the runway at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, clearing one of the last regulatory steps before the long-delayed vehicle’s first flight. The FAA said on November 9 that it had issued a vehicle […]View the full article

The U.S. Department of War cannot reliably track the roughly 26 million F-35 spare parts it owns, worth about $31 billion and stored at more than 700 government and contractor facilities around the world, the Government Accountability Office said in a report released Nov. 9. The congressional watchdog found that the F-35 Joint Program Office’s […]View the full article

Overland AI has released footage of a six-wheeled vehicle built by Richard Childress Racing’s manufacturing arm driving itself across rough ground while carrying a heavy load, the latest attempt by the Seattle company to show that its self-driving software can be fitted to vehicles it did not design. The vehicle is the RCR 6WAP, short […]View the full article

U.S. drone maker AEVEX has won an indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract worth up to nearly $400 million to supply unmanned aircraft systems to an unnamed U.S. customer, the company said on November 10. The multi-year deal sets a spending ceiling and lets the customer order drones and related support services as needed, instead of buying a […]View the full article

German defense group Diehl has opened a new production line for 155mm artillery shell bodies at Röthenbach an der Pegnitz in Bavaria, built with help from Norwegian ammunition maker Nammo. Diehl Metall and Diehl Defence inaugurated the line on November 10, the companies said. Pilot-series production began in October. The line makes the steel bodies […]View the full article

After the election, I gave a single-point quick look at what I think will be a casualty of the midterm election for our Navy. Looking ahead, I think everyone needs to be clear-headed that having a “big defense budget” was not an election winner. It really wasn’t an issue…so it has no heft. We also need to understand that we may have one of the most left-wing cohorts coming to Capitol Hill in, well, perhaps post-Watergate. The 89th and 111th were quite liberal, but not filled with as many hard-leftists, perhaps. We’ll see what they do in office, but this new class will move the center of gravity to the left. Yes, there are some (D)s coming in who know the defense issues, but they are not the ones with, well, heft. So, what could happen? I’m not emperor, so I cannot pick and choose what I want…and I am aware of my biases. I am Mr. “We are a maritime and aerospace power,” so you know where I would put money in the short term—say, a few POM cycles—if we were facing declining defense budgets. Make no mistake, we are. We are probably at the high-water mark for defense budgets, and should plan accordingly. Things are going to have to go. OK, I officially do not like automated systems—Artificial Intelligence or Super Intelligence, whatever—getting involved AT ALL in how we allocate our defense budget. As I like to say: fewer accountants, more thinkers. Letting the black-box do your thinking for you simply removes agency, accountability, and produces excuses…etc…etc. I have no illusions about how the sausage is made in DC. I know everything from the NDAA to selection boards in Millington (yes, that is politicized too) involves imperfect human imput. Trust me, I get it…but there are humans in the loop. Sure, they try to hide from responsibility, but you can find it if you want. Automated systems? Nosomuch. True, ‘garbage in—garbage out’ applies, and those who write the program shape the results…but few go after those who write the code. “It’s what the machine kicked out…” Do. Not. Like. That being said, AEI’s Defense Futures Simulator is an interesting exercise to go through if you are trying to find out what may come out the other end should defense cuts come at scale. What makes it interesting? Well, what it comes up with after the code gets through chewing on things. I’d encourage everyone to sign up for the Simulator and give it a try. It won’t let you pick this system or that. It just takes your priories. The black-box does the rest. This is how the good folks at AEI describe the project. As Congress returns from recess after the midterm elections, the FY 2027 defense budget hangs in the balance. The administration requested a record $1.45 trillion in funding for the Department of Defense (DoD) through a combination of base budget and reconciliation funding, not including additional national defense funding outside of DoD. Before Congress left for recess, it made little progress advancing defense appropriations and a reconciliation package for defense. DoD is currently operating under a continuing resolution (CR) at the FY 2026 base budget level of $858 billion until December 11, 2026. The range of outcomes at play between the CR level and the requested budget level is nearly $600 billion, roughly the size of the entire defense budget a decade ago in nominal terms. If the Congress cannot agree to the full requested level of $1.5 trillion, it will have to make hard choices about what to cut, what to defer, and what to keep. In this working paper, three AEI scholars take on this difficult task so that everyone knows the stakes involved. Using the publicly available Defense Futures Simulator, we each developed plans for how we would adapt the budget under three hypothetical levels of funding for FY 2027, including reconciliation and base budget combined, but excluding the supplemental requirements. The first scenario considered is $1.25 trillion, a cut of $200 billion from the request. The second scenario is a reduction of $350 billion to $1.1 trillion in total funding. The third scenario is $1.0 trillion, which is $450 billion less than the request and roughly equal to the FY 2026 level of funding including the prior $152 billion reconciliation package. They are much more pessimistic than I am in the second and third scenarios. If you made me make a prediction today, I’d say we’re looking at a bit under a 15% reduction from $1.45 trillion. The first 10% in FY27, and then the other 5% in decreasing amounts through FY31. It is something to start with. In the simulator, here is how my Plan Salamander works inside their emphasis slider. You enter how you would have a different emphasis, then pick your cuts. Here is how I would allocate the $209 billion in cuts over five years. What did that give me? Everything got cut, but some things more than others. My Marines—our most useful service—got hit the least. Excellent. I do like that the Simulator, rightfully, cut Army end strength the most, but what got my attention was the Tonnage (Navy). What did it cut? I was surprised that BBGN was still hanging in there…and that the LHA was taking the hit. A completely different decision from what I would make…but something has to go and, again, I cannot micromanage the outcomes here. Somehow, we’d need to claw back this loss. Just like Grok or ChatGPT, AI/SI gives you an 80% solution. The other 20% you can adjust. I like this. Good exercise. Nice Phase-1. Give it a shot. Leave a comment Share This Substack is reader-supported. 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Rocket Lab has signed more than $515 million in launch contracts for its new Neutron rocket in a single quarter, and has raised the rocket’s base price to $70 million per launch, up from $55 million, the company said on November 9. The eight missions came from five customers, including the U.S. Space Force and […]View the full article

Russia’s Defense Ministry has for the first time claimed that its air defenses shot down AGM-188A Rusty Dagger cruise missiles, the U.S.-made weapons better known as ERAM, or Extended Range Attack Munition. The statement was later deleted from the ministry’s official accounts without explanation. The ministry gave no details of where or how many of […]View the full article

U.S. Special Operations Command is looking for companies that can build a helmet-mounted display that lets special operators fly first-person-view drones and see battlefield data without taking their eyes off their surroundings. The command posted a sources sought notice on Nov. 9 on the federal government’s contracting website, seeking a display module with a 50-degree […]View the full article

The Pentagon’s research and development arm, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), is preparing a program called Anzio to develop technology that would let spacecraft use Earth’s upper atmosphere, rather than rocket fuel, to make large changes to their orbits. DARPA’s Tactical Technology Office announced the effort on Nov. 9 in a notice on […]View the full article

Japan’s defense procurement agency is building its own uncrewed ground vehicles in three weight classes, ranging from under 1 ton to as much as 10 tons, a display at the agency’s technology symposium shows. The display was shared by Rikuno Yuuno, a former Japan Ground Self-Defense Force soldier who now comments on military affairs, in […]View the full article

Poland has received its last batch of South Korean K9 self-propelled howitzers and K2 tanks for this year, Poland’s Armament Agency said on November 9. Several dozen K9 Thunder howitzers and K2 Black Panther tanks were being unloaded after arriving in the country, the agency said in a post on social media. The vehicles were […]View the full article

A Ukrainian lawmaker says she has blocked the final vote on a bill to create Space Forces within the country’s armed forces, just hours after parliament approved it in the first reading. Mariana Bezuhla, an independent member of the Verkhovna Rada who was elected on President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s Servant of the People party list, announced […]View the full article

The U.S. Marine Corps is buying two RIPSAW M3 uncrewed ground vehicles from Textron Systems and its subsidiary Howe & Howe, the company said on November 5. The vehicles will go to the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory in Quantico, Virginia, where Marines will use them as testbeds for experimentation. The lab plans to fit the […]View the full article