Breaking Defense's Monday Morning Briefing

A News Roundup for the Week Ahead _________________________________________________________________________

A News Roundup for the Week Ahead SNC – Prime Systems Integrator For ALL Aircraft Presented by Sierra Nevada Corporation With a fleet of 200+ commercial and military aircraft, SNC experience includes design, development and delivery of rugged hardware and open architecture software for aerial ISR solutions. Learn more. General Electric Bests Pratt & Whitney In $1.6B F-15EX Engine Competition By Valerie Insinna General Electric, which produced the GE F110-129 engines for the first lot of eight F-15EX aircraft, will continue manufacturing the propulsion system for the rest of the program of record.   Oshkosh Expects Lower Defense Revenue As JLTV Buying Slows By Andrew Eversden Company executives said that JLTV program is a good "base" for Oshkosh to win "adjacent" vehicle contracts.   NSA Should 'Reevaluate' Massive IC Cloud Contract: GAO By Andrew Eversden The GAO decision sustained a protest from Microsoft, saying the agency's evaluation was partly "unreasonable."   Space Force Plans Up To $2.3B In COMSATCOM Contracts By Theresa Hitchens The planned buy with the largest potential value is for DoD-wide SATCOM services from commercial operators of p-LEO constellations, with multiple awards totaling $875 million slated in August 2022.   Defense Companies Brace For Workforce Loss Due To Vaccine Mandate By Valerie Insinna Companies like Raytheon and Northrop Grumman have already increased hiring, anticipating a reduction in its workforce due to the coronavirus vaccine mandate.   Some Advice For Companies Seeking European Defense Fund Money By Aaron Mehta Maj. Donatas Palavenis of Lithuania lays out an analysis for what makes an EDF pitch successful.   'Hundreds' Of China Hypersonic Tests Vs. 9 US; Hyten Says US Moves Too Slowly By Colin Clark Gen. Hyten said he's "probably" going to approve "today or tomorrow a new requirement for Integrated Air and Missile Defense," which is a pillar of the Joint Warfighting Concept (JWC).   SDA Scraps, Relaunches Data Transport Satellite Bidding After Protest By Theresa Hitchens SDA Director Derek Tournear told an industry audience today that proposals under the new OTA would be due the day before Thanksgiving. "You're welcome," he joked.    With Connecticut Stuck In Guam, Spotlight Is Back On Navy's Shipyard Plans By Justin Katz "We've heard these are national treasures," Rep. John Garamendi said of the military's maintenance depots. "And yet, the … organic industrial base infrastructure is chronically underfunded to the point these facilities are relics of the past."   US Military 'Well Postured' For Any Chinese Cyber Onslaught, CIO Nominee Says By Lee Ferran Elsewhere in the hearing John Sherman called attention to a growing concern at the Pentagon over the radio spectrum, saying "spectrum sharing" should be a DoD watchword.   No Time To Go Wobbly On Hypersonics By Lee Ferran It's worth recalling just why the United States is now vigorously pursuing hypersonic weaponization with a sense of urgency. A clue: it isn't because hypersonic zealots just "got their way."   US, China, Russia Test New Space War Tactics: Sats Buzzing, Spoofing, Spying By Colin Clark Models shared exclusively with Breaking Defense offer a rare glimpse into nation-on-nation run-ins in space as satellites follow, flee, and, allegedly, listen in on each other.   Has Space Force Helped Improve Space Acquisition? Survey Respondents Are Split By Aaron Mehta While almost 20% of overall respondents believe that the Space Force is not effective "at all" at improving space acquisition, there is a major split between views of DoD and industry; just 4% of DoD respondents said Space Force hasn't helped, while 23% of industry respondents held that view.   T-X: The Sequel? New Tactical Trainer Solicitation Could Reignite Rivalries By Valerie Insinna "Every day, [the T-38]  becomes just another step more disconnected from the advanced avionics, advanced sensing, the advanced processing that our modern fighters have. And so we can't fill that void fast enough," said Air Combat Command head Gen. Mark Kelly.   An AI 'Brain' For Bandwidth: Peraton Nabs DoD Spectrum Award, Eyes JADC2 By Theresa Hitchens The OSCAR effort is designed do develop AI/ML software that can detect spectrum interference and re-route users to open comms channels in near real time.   Navy's Unmanned Ships Sail With US Ally In The Middle East By Justin Katz New Horizon was the first exercise conducted by a Navy task force focused on unmanned in partnership with the Bahrain Defense Force.   Turkey's Fighter Flirtation With Russia: Is it Serious? By Aaron Mehta Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has already requested a series of F-16 upgrades from the US, but may be using Russia for political leverage.   These Key Programs Face Real Delays From Continuing Resolution By Mackenzie Eaglen Even though a short spending freeze seems mostly harmless, it is clear the US military cannot buy back time.   Cyber Concerns, Classification Disagreements Lead Space Survey Results By Aaron Mehta The first-ever Breaking Defense Space Survey gathered information from national security space professionals in government, the military, and industry.   Lockheed's Acquisition of Aerojet Rocketdyne Delayed By Valerie Insinna "The Aerojet Rocketdyne transaction continues moving through the regulatory approval process, and we now anticipate closing in the first quarter of 2022," said Lockheed CEO James Taiclet.   Drone Attack In Syria May Be Warning Of Things To Come By Arie Egozi The Oct. 20 drone attack comes as Iran is increasing its relations with Syria.   Senate Appropriators Pile On Congressional Criticism Of Next-Gen Missile Warning Program By Theresa Hitchens Given the concerns from across the congressional landscape about Next-Gen OPIR's direction, "it's a reasonable assumption that there's some smoke somewhere there," said Capital Alpha's Byron Callan.   If The Air Force Buys The E-7A Wedgetail, What's Next? By Bradley Bowman As the service works to procure the required number of E-7As as quickly as possible, it should simultaneously implement a comprehensive plan to expedite the training of US Air Force pilots and air battle management crews.   Army Awards Laser Weapon Contract To Boeing, General Atomics Team By Andrew Eversden The Army wants to demonstrate a 300 kilowatt laser weapon in fiscal 2022.   From Sensor To Decision: Maxar's Combined Offerings Support Next-Gen National Security Missions By Maxar Technologies [Sponsored] Space-based intelligence for rapid decision-making will be a critical tool in the multiforce, multidomain landscape of the near future.   The F-35 At 20: How Its Successes, And Failures, Shaped The Aerospace Industry By Valerie Insinna The takeaway from the last 20 years, according to aerospace analyst Richard Aboulafia, might well be, "You succeeded, but please don't try that again."   Strykers To Get New Counter-Drone Tech With General Dynamics, Epirus Partnership By Andrew Eversden The partnership will initially integrate onto Strykers, but as has an eye on future autonomous platforms.   Russian 'SolarWinds' Hackers Launch New Attack On IT Supply Chain, Microsoft Says By Lee Ferran New campaign is evidence "Russia is trying to gain long-term, systematic access to a variety of points in the technology supply chain and establish a mechanism for surveilling — now or in the future — targets of interest to the Russian government," researchers say.   LMXT By Lockheed Martin: America's Next Strategic Tanker By Lockheed Martin [Sponsored] Offered in response to the Air Force's KC-Y Program, Lockheed Martin's American-built LMXT offers impressive capabilities and proven track-record.   Time To Wedge The E-7A Wedgetail Into The US Air Force Fleet By Bradley Bowman Some might argue that the Air Force should transition directly from the E-3 to an unmanned airborne early warning and control capability instead of acquiring the E-7. There are several problems with that approach.   Breaking Defense 611 Broadway • New York, New York • 10012 unsubscribe