Startup Advice for Congress. Congress can do more to assist startups within the national security arena by “making more bets” on these enterprise capital-backed firms “by taking only a tiny percent of the $1 billion budget and allocating more toward early-stage startups,” Sassie Duggleby, co-founder and CEO of Venus Aerospace, a Houston-based startup developing a reusable hypersonic spaceplane, said last week. Duggleby said that she was “told by” a high-level Defense Department official that “in the event that they needed to make a bet between Venus or considered one of the key primes, that they might pick the prime because they knew they wouldn’t get fired if something went mistaken.” Speaking during a webinar hosted by the Silicon Valley Defense Group, Duggleby said Congress needs make DoD risk averse “in order that they will make those bets.”
SILENTBARKER Count Down.
The National Reconnaissance Office plans to launch the SILENTBARKER/NROL-107 NRO/U.S. Space Force mission on Aug. 29 from Cape Canaveral, Fla., aboard a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket. ULA is a Boeing/Lockheed Martin partnership. The SILENTBARKER satellites are to enhance significantly the space domain awareness provided by the six Northrop Grumman Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program satellites, 4 of which launched between 2014 and 2016, and the last two of which launched on Jan. 21 last 12 months.
Australia FMS. The State Department said on Aug. 18 it has approved a possible $975 million take care of Australia for 22 Lockheed Martin-built HIMARS launchers. Under the deal, Australia can be set to receive 190 GMLRS rockets, also built by Lockheed Martin. “This proposed sale will support the foreign policy and national security objectives of america. Australia is considered one of our most vital allies within the Western Pacific. The strategic location of this political and economic power contributes significantly to making sure peace and economic stability within the region,” the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in a press release.
JWCC. The Pentagon has now awarded 13 task orders totaling $200 million thus far under its recent Joint Warfighter Cloud Capability (JWCC) enterprise cloud computing program to Google, Oracle, Amazon Web Services and Microsoft, the pinnacle of the Defense Information Systems Agency said on Aug. 16. Lt. Gen. Robert Skinner, the DISA director, told attendees on the AFCEA TechNet Augusta conference that there’s 45 packages coming together for upcoming JWCC task orders, nine of that are related to the Pentagon’s work on the C-JADC2 command and control strategy. “Lots of work has gone on with JWCC. I feel that’s successful story with all that we’ve been capable of do,” Skinner said. The update follows DISA’s announcement in late March that it had awarded initial task orders to the 4 JWCC vendors value $3.8 million each. The potential $9 billion JWCC program is aimed toward giving the DoD globally-available cloud services across all classification levels and for all warfighting domains.
DDG-128. HII’s Ingalls Shipbuilding division in Pascagoula, Miss., successfully launched the Navy’s third Flight III Flight III Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer, the longer term USS Ted Stevens (DDG-128), the corporate said on Aug. 15. DDG-128 is the 76th overall destroyer of the category and is called after former senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) who served as a pilot in World War II. HII has delivered 35 DDGs to this point and has 4 Flight III destroyers under construction and 6 more recently awarded. DDG-128 is next set to be christened during a ceremony on Aug. 19 in Pascagoula.
CG-53 Decom. The Navy held a decommissioning ceremony on Aug. 10 at Naval Base San Diego for the Ticonderoga-class cruiser USS Mobile Bay (CG-53). CG-53 was built by Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Miss., and commissioned in 1987. The ship was named in honor of the Battle of Mobile Bay throughout the Civil War. The ship is being inactivated and will likely be towed to the Navy’s Inactive Ship’s facility in Bremerton, Wash., where it’ll be placed in a Logistic Support Asset (LSA) status.
Decom After Five Years. The Freedom-variant Littoral Combat Ship USS Sioux City (LCS-11) was decommissioned in Mayport, Fla., on Aug. 14 after serving for under five years. The ship deployed 4 times with the U.S. Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Fleets. LCS-11 was built by Fincantieri Marinette Marine in Wisconsin and commissioned in late 2018. The ship type was originally meant to serve for as much as 25 years. The Navy said it planned to decommission the ship in 2022 as a part of the FY ‘23 budget request. Like other ships of its class, LCS-11 has a defect with its combining gear, limiting its top speed and not using a fix. The service goals to maneuver funding to other priorities while acknowledging the LCS ships haven’t lived as much as their hope and original missions. The ship now moves to a Foreign Military Sales status where it might probably be sold to partner countries.
SSN-805. Navy and General Dynamics Electric Boat officials conducted a keel-laying ceremony for the longer term Virginia-class submarine USS Tang (SSN-805) on Aug. 17. SSN-805 will likely be a Block V submarine and the thirty second overall Virginia-class boat. The submarine is called after a family of fish but additionally a World War II submarine. The Block V variants will likely be the primary submarines including the Virginia Payload module that enables them to field more missiles.
NAVSEA Warfare Centers. Capt. Thomas Dickinson succeeded retiring Rear Adm. Kevin Byrne to assume command of Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) Warfare Centers during a ceremony on the Washington Navy Yard on Aug. 11. Dickinson previously served as principal military deputy and chief operating officer for Director, Surface Ship Maintenance, Modernization and Sustainment (SEA 21) in addition to Commander for the Navy Regional Maintenance Center. Byrne led the Warfare Centers since April 2020. The Warfare Centers conduct research, development, test and evaluation efforts for the longer term Navy and supply in-service engineering and logistics support for operational surface and submarine vessels. Dickinson previously succeeded Byrne as commander of the USS Barry (DDG-52) and eventually served as AEGIS BMD Weapon Systems Program Manager on the Missile Defense Agency and executive assistant to the Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition from August 2021 to 2022.
3D Printing. The Navy announced the crew of the USS Bataan (LHD-5) Wasp-class amphibious assault ship recently finished the primary metal 3D part fabrication and alternative for a de-ballast air compressor (DBAC). The Navy underscored this occurred five days after the printer was installed on the ship. The ship specifically built a sprayer plate a part of a DBAC, which is used to force pressurized air through saltwater tanks and discharge amassed saltwater. The tanks are filled to lower draft and launch amphibious operations. The Navy said producing this plate at-sea “bled the ship to mitigate the time spent obtaining a alternative assembly.” The printer used features a Phillips Additive Hybrid system, which integrates a Meltio3D laser metal wire deposition head on a Haas TM-1 computer numerical control mill. These parts allow the system to each add and subtract material from a printing project.
Operational Hack-A-Sat. Throughout the fourth annual Hack-A-Sat competition as a part of the DEF CON 31 hacking conference in Las Vegas, Nev., on Aug. 11-12., the Department of the Air Force said that it “made history with a successful and first-of-its-kind capture-the-flag hacking competition on an operational satellite” to assist improve military satellite cybersecurity. This 12 months, hackers tested their skills against The Aerospace Corp.’s Moonlighter 3U cube satellite, created with U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command (SSC) for cyber exercises to advance cyber security research. Launched on June 5 to the International Space Station as a part of the SpX-28 industrial resupply mission, Moonlighter “was deployed into low Earth orbit on July 6 and was commissioned just in time for its first mission to host the Hack-A-Sat 4 final event,” SSC said. Col. Neal Roach, SSC’s director of engineering and integration for space domain awareness and combat power, said in an SSC statement that Moonlighter is “the primary and only hacking sandbox in space.”
Small DoD Drone Award. Autonomous drone developer Darkhive last week said it has received a $1 million award from the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering to boost the capabilities of its drones for DoD strategic initiatives. Darkhive said they’re partnering with the office’s Innovation and Modernization team. “They supply really phenomenal programs and resources for small businesses like ours to construct, test, and evaluate our products in relevant field operations environments,” John Goodson, Darkhive’s CEO, said in a press release. Darkhive has previously received awards from the Air Force’s AFWERX technology directorate and the DoD Defense Innovation Unit.
Recent EDS RFP. The Transportation Security Administration last week issued a Request for Proposals for as much as 33 medium-speed explosive detection systems (EDS) that might be deployed at eight U.S. airports scan checked bags for explosives. The contract may have a base-year and 7 one-year options. Leidos and Smiths Detection are the suppliers of medium-speed EDS to TSA. Proposals are due by Sept. 6.
HII Hunting Kit. HII’s Mission Technologies division has released a cyber threat hunting kit called SABERHUNT that’s designed to look for, detect and counter malicious activity on federal and mission partner nation networks. SABERHUNT works on traditional networks, cloud, or hybrid environments, HII said last week. The kit will be transported in airline-approved carry-on cases. HII’s team for SABERHUNT includes Dell Technologies, Secure Enterprise Engineering, Gigamori, VMware, and World Wide Technology, Inc.
Recent A&D Advisory Team. The boutique aerospace and defense investment bank KAL Capital Markets has formed a brand new advisory team, Critical Technologies Enterprise and Growth, which is able to provide advisory services on raising capital, mergers and acquisitions, and technique to critical and emerging technology founders within the defense and space arena. The advisory team will likely be led by KAL founders Trevor Bohn and Ryan Murphy, and recent director Trevor McKinnon.
DHS HQ Infusion. The Department of Homeland Security is getting $288 million through the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act to further construction for its headquarters facilities on the St. Elizabeths campus in Southeast Washington, D.C. The brand new funding will likely be used to support the relocation of the headquarters of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and Immigration and Customs Enforcement and a brand new 1,500-space parking garage. DHS said the brand new offices will create space for six,500 personnel. St. Elizabeths was chosen in 2007 because the DHS headquarters site and the Coast Guard in 2010 was the primary agency to maneuver there.
U.S., ROK, Japan Summit. The U.S., South Korea and Japan on Friday at Camp David in Thurmont, Maryland held the first-ever standalone summit among the many leaders of the three nations. At a press conference following the meeting, President Biden detailed the group’s discussions on bolstering defense cooperation efforts. “It is a recent era in partnership between Japan, the Republic of Korea and america,” Biden said. “We’re elevating our trilateral defense collaboration to deliver an Indo-Pacific region that features launching annual multi-domain military exercises, bringing our trilateral defense cooperation to unprecedented levels. We’re doubling down on information sharing, including on [North Korea’s] missile launches and cyber activities, strengthening our ballistic missile defense cooperation and , critically, we’ve all committed to swiftly seek the advice of with one another in response to threats to anyone of our countries from whatever source it occurs.”
Tech Collaboration. South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol also noted the three countries agreed to expand collaboration amongst their respective national laboratories on research and development efforts and work on emerging technologies. “We decided to broaden our collaboration in the sector of cutting-edge technologies to secure future growth engines, specifically in AI, quantum, bio and next-generation telecommunications and space sectors. Cooperation amongst our three countries will deliver powerful synergies,” Yoon said on the press conference, via English translation.