Starlink Competitors? Next Friday, Oct. 6, is the planned launch date for Amazon’s two Project Kuiper Protoflight satellites aboard a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Station, Fla. Amazon’s Project Kuiper hopes to place 3,236 satellites into low Earth orbit over the subsequent decade to offer global broadband access. Last yr, Amazon announced $10 billion in launch contracts with ULA, Blue Origin, and ArianeGroup. Notably absent from the Project Kuiper launch provider list was SpaceX, which builds the Starlink LEO communications system and the Falcon 9 rocket heavily utilized by U.S. Space Force. In January, the Space Force’s Space Development Agency (SDA) renamed its planned proliferated LEO constellation because the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture, which can include satellites for rapid sensor-to-shooter communications within the Transport Layer and hypersonic/ballistic missile targeting within the Tracking Layer. SDA is to start fielding the Tranche 1 satellites—the primary for military operations—late next yr. Tranche 1 is to incorporate about 150 Transport Layer and Tracking Layer satellites. Up to now, Lockheed Martin and York Space Systems have received contracts for the Tracking Layer.
…Starshield Contract.
Space Force has awarded SpaceX a $70 million contract for the corporate’s planned Starshield LEO satellite communications. The Department of the Air Force said that the contract includes “end-to-end service, user terminals, ancillary equipment, network management, and other related services.” SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk is distancing Starlink from military use—his vacillation on continued employment by the Ukrainian military to repel Russian forces being one example. DoD said on June 1 that it had reached an agreement to proceed funding Starlink service for the Ukrainian military, but it surely declined for “operational security” to release the terms or the quantity of that agreement/contract—one which could also be open-ended with no funding cap. Where Musk intends for Starlink to be focused on industrial/civilian use, the Starshield variant is to be for military use. Along with Space Force launch and Starshield contracts, SpaceX has also received SDA Tracking Layer contracts. As well as, SDA has awarded SpaceX a contract “to perform studies for tying industrial backhaul communications networks, equivalent to Starlink, to the SDA Transport Layer,” SDA Director Derek Tournear wrote on Sept. 28 on .
AUSA Update. The Association of america Army (AUSA) in a brand new statement has affirmed it’ll hold its annual conference scheduled for Oct. September 11 in Washington, D.C., “even when there’s a government shutdown.” “We imagine AUSA’s core mission of supporting America’s Army is simply too necessary to risk,” retired Gen. Bob Brown, AUSA’s president and CEO, said in a press release. “That is critical for Army transformation. We cannot lose momentum.” The event, which gathers 1000’s for Army updates and industry exhibits, may coincide with a shutdown with Congress having yet to pass final appropriations bills or a seamless resolution stopgap funding measure with the tip of the fiscal yr just days away. Brown, in his statement, noted greater than 22,000 people have registered for the upcoming AUSA conference.
Demonstration and Shakedown. On Sept. 27, DoD said that an unarmed Trident II D5 Life Extension (D5LE) missile by Lockheed Martin launched off the coast of San Diego from the U.S. Navy’s -class ballistic missile submarine USS (SSBN-743) by General Dynamics’ Electric Boat. The first objective of the Demonstration and Shakedown Operation-32 (DASO-32), as other DASOs, was “to guage and display the readiness of the SSBN’s Strategic Weapon System and crew before operational deployment following the submarine’s engineered refueling overhaul,” DoD said. “DASO-32 is the last DASO conducted by an -class SSBN coming out of engineering refueling overhaul (ERO), marking the completion of all post-ERO DASOs for the -class SSBNs.” Lockheed Martin said that it’s modernizing the D5s for the long run -class ballistic missile submarines. “DASO-32 increased the Trident II D5 record to 191 successful test launches since design completion in 1989 – essentially the most reliable test record for a big ballistic missile,” the corporate said.
‘Latest Maritime Statecraft.’ Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro called for a “latest maritime statecraft” in a speech on the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government on Sept. 26. He said this covers not only naval diplomacy but a whole-of-government effort to “construct comprehensive U.S. and allied maritime power, each industrial and naval.” Del Toro said the Biden Administration is committed to pragmatic diplomacy, improving U.S. shipbuilding, working with allies and partners to assist them arise to coercive actions by China within the South China Sea, and constructing latest maritime coalition via unmanned technologies,
More MCM USV. The Navy awarded Bollinger Shipyards one other $12.5 million firm-fixed-price modification for production of Mine Countermeasures Unmanned Surface Vehicles (MCM USV). The work will largely be split between Lockport, La. (37 percent); Portsmouth, Va. (34 percent); Dallas, Texas (14 percent); and Slidell, La. (10 percent) and is anticipated to be finished by September 2024. In April 2022 Bollinger won an initial $14 million contract to supply the MCM USV over Textron Systems, which previously worked with the Navy for years in earlier MCM USV experimentation. The initial contract covers production and services for the primary three MCM USVs with options of as much as six more in the bottom yr and up to a different 24. If all options of the unique contract are exercised, the entire value will likely be about $123 million.
DDG-125. The Navy’s first Flight III -class guided-missile destroyer, the long run USS , sailed away from shipbuilder HII’s Ingalls Shipbuilding facility in Pascagoula, Miss., on Sept. 27. The ship is ready to be commissioned during an Oct. 7 ceremony in Tampa before it sails to its homeport of San Diego. As the primary Flight III ship, DDG-125 incorporates many design modifications to permit it to field the AN/SPY-6(v)1 Air and Missile Defense Radar and Aegis Baseline 10 combat system.
Milley Retires. Army Gen. Mark Milley, the twentieth chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, stepped down from his role on Friday as he retired following greater than 40 years of military service. “After a lifetime dedicated to the common defense, you may have greater than earned a while for the pursuit of happiness. So at this bittersweet moment, let me simply say: thanks, General. Thanks for all that you may have done, and for all that you may have given. We wish you Godspeed within the chapters still to come back,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said during remarks at Milley’s relinquishment of command ceremony. Air Force Gen. Charles Q. Brown was sworn in Friday as the subsequent Joint Chiefs chairman, after serving as Air Force chief of staff for the last several years.
Feinstein Passes. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the longest-serving female senator, passed away on Sept. 29 on the age of 90. Feinstein, who served three many years within the U.S. Senate, was a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee and its defense subcommittee. “It’s a loss to her colleagues from California, who’ve served together with her and know her as I do—as a tower of strength. To our colleagues on the ground who’ve worked together with her on a laundry list of laws that you’re going to hear about, and that’s way too long to list today. To her constituents, that you must know: we relied on her, just as you probably did. And he or she was here each day to fight for you—irrespective of what,” Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), chair of the Appropriations Committee, said during floor remarks.
Nigeria Helicopters. MD Helicopters said on Sept. 28 it has signed a contract with Nigeria to deliver 12 of its 530F Cayuse Warrior Plus Scout/Attack helicopters for the Nigerian Army. Delivery of the helicopters to Nigeria will begin within the fourth quarter of 2023, the corporate said. “MD Helicopters is grateful for the trust of the Nigerian government, and we’re excited to showcase this purpose built, best value solution to Nigeria and the world,” Brad Pedersen, president and CEO of MD Helicopters, said in a press release. The worth of the deal was not disclosed.
CROWS Order. Norway’s Kongsberg has received a $94 million order from the U.S. Army to deliver 409 more Commonly Remotely Operated Weapon Station (CROWS). The brand new order was placed under the most recent five-year IDIQ contract the Army awarded Konsgberg in October 2022. “We’re more than happy for the chance to deliver additional CROWS systems to the U.S. Army and with the boldness our customers place in our products and our organization,” Eirik Lie, president of Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace, said in a press release.
Indo-Pacific Help. The Biden administration is proposing to offer $11.4 million to the Indo-Pacific Partnership for Maritime Domain Awareness (IPMDA) in support of a technology pilot. The IPMDA was launched in 2022 by the U.S., Australia, India, and Japan to assist combat illicit activities within the Indo-Pacific region, including illegal fishing. A key focus of the initiative has been the use of business distant satellite sensing data. The brand new U.S. funding, called the IPMDA-Pacific pilot, followed a U.S.-Pacific Islands Forum Summit hosted by President Biden last week. The State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs is funding the initiative to work with regional institutions on information sharing and evaluation, create in-country capability for information collection, and strengthen legal assistance networks between regional organizations and domestic transnational crime units.
Leidos Security Detection News. The Transportation Security Administration last week awarded Leidos $48.5 million for medium-speed explosive detection systems (EDS), which the corporate provides for airports to mechanically scan checked bags for explosives. The corporate also said it’s working with Sofia Airport in Bulgaria to put in three of its MV:3D high-speed EDS systems that meet European Union threat detection standards, and two transmission X-ray systems. The high-speed systems can each scan as much as 1,800 bags per hour. Finally, Customs and Border Protection in September said it plans to award the corporate a contract to produce seven Mobile Passenger Vehicle Scanning Systems. The agency said that Leidos’ MXPL is the one mobile passenger vehicle X-ray scanning system that might be “operated remotely in difficult operating environments on an independent power source to quickly detect the illegal transit of contraband transported through people, cargo, containers, and in other conveyances entering through ports of entry.”
DoD Microelectronics Awards. The Defense Department last week made two awards totaling a combined $17.5 million to strengthen the U.S. industrial base for microelectronics. The awards, made through the DoD Office of Industrial Base Policy’s Manufacturing Capability Expansion and Investment Prioritization, include $11.5 million to the U.S. Partnership for Assured Electronics for the Defense Business Accelerator (DBX) and the Printed Circuit Board (PCB) Market Catalyst. The DBX leverages private capital and the industrial market to hurry emerging defense technologies into lasting businesses to strengthen the provision chain and the PCB project will create a plan for a brand new company that stimulates “demand for domestic production of ultra-high density interconnects for PCBs,” DoD said. It is going to be as much as DoD whether to fund the brand new company. A separate $6 million award will likely be for development of a cloud-based platform to assist program offices across the department manage parts throughout their life-cycle. The enterprise-management cloud project will likely be performed by JRC Integrated Systems, LLC, and Systems Innovation Engineering.
Drone Swarming Work. Darkhive Inc. says it has received 4 Air Force AFWERX small business contracts price $5 million in total to develop low-cost, resilient drone swarming technologies. The corporate is developing small, autonomous drones for military and public safety applications.