Breaking Defense's Monday Morning Briefing

A News Roundup for the Week Ahead _________________________________________________________________________

A News Roundup for the Week Ahead The Kratos Air Wolf Tactical UAS: a highly survivable, low-cost force multiplier Presented by Kratos By leveraging Kratos' legacy low-cost target-drone supply chain and building new tactical systems, like the Air Wolf, Kratos can deliver extremely survivable, affordable jet aircraft that can deploy weapons or support ISR missions. Learn more. Space Force at two: 'Still a toddler,' with all that brings By Theresa Hitchens "We made it clear when we stood this up that it is going to be an evolutionary process, and that we just stood up the bare bones in the first year — because it's hard enough to do that," Rep. Mike Rogers said. "And we're putting the flesh on the bones each year trying to mature it in a slow and pragmatic fashion, and do it right."   AFRL jumpstarts early research on cislunar monitoring, satellite servicing By Theresa Hitchens The SURI program is is aimed at transitioning "high risk, high reward ideas in science" to "applied technology and advanced technology development," said Maj. Gen. Heather Pringle, AFRL director.   Here's the Army's 24 programs in soldiers' hands by 2023 By Andrew Eversden The Army boasts that about two-thirds of its modernization priority programs will be in various stages of prototyping by fiscal 2023.   milCloud 2.0 to die a quiet death in spring 2022 By Andrew Eversden Sunset deadline could be tight, according to a former DISA official, as "May 2022 is tomorrow in terms of DoD IT."   Navy to pick new torpedo in March 2022 following delay By Justin Katz Northrop Grumman says it submitted its Very Lightweight Torpedo proposal in November.   France wants to transform its 'beautiful' army for high-intensity warfare By Murielle Delaporte As Gen. Eric Laval recently put it, "Today the French Army is beautiful, but in a high intensity conflict, would it be able to hold beyond 48 hours?"   Marines' Berger sidelines AAV from waterborne ops despite improvements By Justin Katz The suspension comes months after an investigation into an accident that left eight Marines and one sailor dead.   NDAA passes Senate at $740 billion; heads to Biden's desk By Andrew Eversden The legislation includes funding increases for deterrence initiatives in the Indo-Pacific and Europe, and approves Air Force efforts to divest of some legacy aircraft.   Navy starts building hub for surface, subsurface drones By Justin Katz The new facility will house the most high-profile, upcoming unmanned maritime systems.   Tactical cloud coming to Army's Multi-Domain Task Forces in 2022 By Andrew Eversden The service's cloud and data efforts will be "anchored" to the Multi-Domain Task Forces as the Army looks to ensure data is accessible and resilient in combat.   DoD, IC must better harvest commercial space innovation, officials say By Theresa Hitchens "The good news is the government is very interested in the commercial opportunities, but from the industry standpoint, it's hard to figure out like what door to walk through and how to how to make that contact," said Steve Isakowitz, CEO of the Aerospace Corporation.   Pentagon stops implementing vaccine mandate for defense contractors By Valerie Insinna A Pentagon spokeswoman says the department has stopped implementing the vaccine mandate for federal contractors.   UAE F-35 deal on life support after Emiratis cancel acceptance of weapons package By Valerie Insinna The UAE's plans to buy the F-35 now seem rocky, with the Emiratis threatening to pull out of the agreement.   Will strong actions follow words in Biden's space policy? By Lee Ferran The new Space Priorities Framework put forward by the Biden administration makes promises on global leadership, space traffic coordination, and deterrence.   BAE Systems, Inc., CEO Tom Arseneault on COVID, JADC2 and defense budget optimism By Aaron Mehta "I think there's not going to be an appetite for large scale M&A in in the defense industry," the BAE Systems Inc. CEO said, while noting smaller add-ons will continue.   How digital systems integration makes future vertical lift more capable and affordable for the Army By Breaking Defense [Sponsored] The future of Army aviation depends on major improvements in aircraft speed, range, and reliability. Bell's vision to ensure these programs enhance national security and are affordable relies on digital engineering and modeling to integrate missions and air vehicle systems with sustainment in mind so they all meld together in advance of manufacturing to reduce risk.   Amid Iran concerns, US won't help Israel speed up tanker buy: Sources By Arie Egozi "The US effort to cool off the Israeli intention to act is portrayed by small delays and longer evaluation of Israeli requests," one Israeli defense source told Breaking Defense   Biden taps Senate staffer for Navy No. 2 civilian job By Justin Katz President Joe Biden also announced Kristyn Jones as his nominee to become the Air Force comptroller.   New defense budget commission could be last hope for fixing DoD spending By Bill Greenwalt The new independent panel will make legislative and policy recommendations to reform the budgeting process "to enable the United States to more effectively counter near-peer competitors."   Resolute Dragon: US Marine-Japanese exercise is a precursor to 2022 Indo-Pacific event By Justin Katz Resolute Dragon 2021 is one of the largest joint military exercises conducted between the US and Japan, and directly influences the Pacific-wide Exercise Keen Edge.   Swarms of attritable UAS can create the ISR picture the Air Force wants By Breaking Defense [Sponsored] The Air Force Research Laboratory and Kratos are developing the Off-Board Sensing System to deploy less expensive UAS in large numbers.   Electric vehicles for military just a 'matter of timeline': BAE Systems Inc CEO By Andrew Eversden "I think once the benefits of it are seen … the norms will change and we'll see good uptake there," Tom Arseneault said.   Download our Project Convergence eBook By Breaking Defense Breaking Defense reporting about what the service did during PC21, what it found, and how much further it still has to go.   Breaking Defense 611 Broadway • New York, New York • 10012 unsubscribe