Breaking Defense's Monday Morning Briefing

A News Roundup for the Week Ahead _________________________________________________________________________

A News Roundup for the Week Ahead   Complex missions require new playbooks. Presented by Guidehouse We partner with our public sector and commercial clients to address their most important challenges with innovative solutions. Learn more. SWAC ponders acquisition strategy, limits of user terminals in future SATCOM plan By Theresa Hitchens Asked by Breaking Defense when a final product might be available, SWAC official David Voss quipped, "Not fast enough from what we've been told."   Hawkeye 360, Leidos see synergy in ground target observation data analytics By Theresa Hitchens Leidos' investment raises Hawkeye 360's total amount of Series D funding — typically the last round of private investment before a startup goes public — to $150 million.   In new agreement US, Japan team up on counter-hypersonic research By Valerie Insinna The agreement was announced just a day after a North Korean missile test and months after the eye-opening Chinese test of a fractional orbital bombardment system.   Navy, Air Force flight stats have been dive bombing for two decades: CBO By Justin Katz The military's decline in flight hours and aircraft availability has remained a hot topic for lawmakers for several years.   New defense strategy may be 'incremental,' but crux is implementation: Ex-officials By Valerie Insinna "Quite often there are ethereal words about a vision of where to go, which is very important," said Ellen Lord, the Pentagon's former top acquisition official. "But I think that needs to be reduced to what are we going to do? When are we going to do it and who's going to do it?"   Kazakhstan revolt adds new variable to Russia's plans for Ukraine By Reuben Johnson Already, Russian military forces have been deployed to Kazakhstan. If greater numbers are needed, it would likely impact any plans Vladimir Putin has for Ukraine.   Biden expected to name 18th Airborne Corps commander to CENTCOM By Andrew Eversden Kurilla currently serves as command of the Army's 18th Airborne Corps.   NGA working with NRO to target satellite imagery 'deep fakes' By Theresa Hitchens NGA's Chief Information Office Mark Andress said he has an entire engineering team dedicated to certifying the accuracy and validity of imagery products and the metadata around them.   DSCA names James Hursch as new director By Valerie Insinna James Hursch, a Pentagon civilian with decades of security cooperation experience under his belt, has taken over the Pentagon's foreign arms sale office.   A year after Jan. 6, DoD's vague extremism definition could set up new problems By Mark Cancian "DoD is taking the attitude towards violent extremism that the Supreme Court took towards pornography; they will know it when they see it," writes Mark Cancian. "That was not a useful legal test for pornography, and DoD will run into the same problem."   The major threats and challenges for America in space [Infographics] By Aaron Mehta A first-ever Breaking Defense space survey asked professionals in defense- and space-related fields about what worries them the most, and where America is falling behind.   Myriad ways that commercial satellite capabilities augment DoD space assets By Breaking Defense [Sponsored] The U.S. Space Force is looking to the commercial satellite industry to make sure that breakthroughs in technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning are made available to combined commercial/military satellite networks.   Space Force plans multiple hosted payloads for GEO belt monitoring By Theresa Hitchens Space System Command's overarching goal is to develop "diverse" capabilities for space domain awareness across all orbits.   Pentagon dispatching data teams to COCOMs this year: Top data official By Andrew Eversden "It's getting that data talent into the combatant command, knowing that it's going to be there so that they can begin understanding what they have and what's within the art of the possible there," Dave Spirk, the Pentagon's chief data officer, said.   US, Israel finalize deal for 12 heavy-lift helos, two KC-46s By Justin Katz The deal includes 12 King Stallions with options for an additional six in the future.   Hard power and conventional deterrence still matter, just ask Putin By Joshua Huminski What is needed is fewer new slogans like "Integrated Deterrence" and more, serious conversations about America's strategy toward Moscow and Beijing.   Israeli sources expect 'dramatic' increase in drone attacks in region By Arie Egozi TEL AVIV: The pace of drone attacks on American forces and its partners in the region are expected to "dramatically" increase in the coming months, a pair of Israeli defense officials tell Breaking Defense. The warning comes as the early days of January have already seen attempted drone attacks on American forces at al Asad…   Russian ASAT debris imperils DoD, NRO sats, while ISS risks increase: COMSPOC By Theresa Hitchens The COMSPOC analysis shows that the bulk of the some 1,500 debris pieces being tracked by Space Command's 18th Space Control Squadron will de-orbit within about three years time.    Navy's unmanned minesweeper clears underwater shock trials By Aaron Mehta "This brings us one step closer to delivering the [Mine Countermeasure] mission package to the fleet," a Navy official said.   Army DEVCOM names first permanent chief technology officer By Andrew Eversden The new CTO will focus on integrating DEVCOM's research and technology efforts.   L3Harris streamlines with a focus on missile defense, space By Theresa Hitchens The reorg eliminates the company's Aviation Systems segment, which is responsible commercial aviation solutions, systems, networks and pilot training.   Marines mulling interceptor upgrade for MADIS to counter UAS By Justin Katz Part of the Pentagon's broader counter UAS strategy it published last year, the Marines hope to field a system by fiscal 2025.   Lockheed Martin beat its F-35 delivery goal for 2021 By Valerie Insinna The company delivered three more F-35s than it expected to in 2021, Lockheed announced today.   Miles above top secret: Does the US classify too much in space? [Video] By Aaron Mehta A quarter of experts on space policy debate whether the US needs to be more open about its space capabilities.     Breaking Defense 611 Broadway • New York, New York • 10012 unsubscribe