DYNAMOL SKYSaab has picked emerging solid rocket motor producer Anduril Rocket Motor Systems to design and build solid rocket motors for its Ground-Launched Small Diameter Bomb, according to officials from both companies.
The selection of Anduril jump-starts the company’s effort to become a new major solid rocket motor supplier in the U.S. – a small pool with currently just two big players.
Amid the need to dramatically ramp up munitions production in the U.S. to meet future needs and replenish stock sent to Ukraine, more companies are stepping into the specialized business.
The new teaming arrangement is about building both Saab’s meaningful presence in the U.S. and its partners. “This is one of the areas that is really exciting for us, is building these strategic partners in the U.S., which is going to complement our broader capacity and capability growth strategy,” Brad Barnard, the Swedish company’s U.S. subsidiary’s vice president and general manager of land sys..
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U.S. Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll promised Congress today the service would show its homework in 10 days on how it decided to consolidate commands, restructure formations and cancel or restructure a slew of weapons programs.
In a memo to the Army, the service secretary announced in early May that major change was underway and dubbed it the Army Transformation Initiative.
Yet many of the decisions laid out in the document lacked clear analysis behind them, such as a plan to consolidate Army Futures Command and Training and Doctrine Command into one entity and cancel programs just as they were crossing the finish line like the M10 Booker light tank and the Robotic Combat Vehicle
Driscoll tallied the amount of spending planned over the next five years for programs the service will cancel or reorient to roughly $48 billion. The service will reallocate funding into innovative efforts to transform the Army into a highly mobile and lethal force, service leaders are saying.
“I agree .. -
The Army’s ongoing brigade modernization program is headed to the Guard.
Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George told members of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee during a hearing Wednesday that Guard units are being identified for the service’s Transformation in Contact, or TIC, initiative.
“We want to do that as fast as we can in the Guard as well,” George said. “They are identifying those units who can do that in the Guard.”
The initiative seeks to deliver new equipment — such as Infantry Squad Vehicles, drones, counter-drone equipment and increased electromagnetic warfare capabilities — to operational units as they prepare for major training events and deployments.
George noted that those same capabilities will be in the Guard as well.
“They’re going to have the same systems,” George said. “They will not look any different.”
First armor brigade conducts combat training center rotation with new tools
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Four Silicon Valley technology executives from major companies are joining the U.S Army Reserve as officers to inject the speed and expertise of commercial technology development into military innovation through the newly established Detachment 201, an Executive Innovation Corps, the service announced Friday.
The Pentagon has long turned to civilian experts for technological insight, from World War II-era scientists to modern advisory boards like the Defense Innovation Board. Detachment 201 takes the desire to collaborate with the high-technology industry to a new level: embedding senior tech execs directly into the Army Reserve as uniformed officers.
Those first Army Reserve lieutenant colonels, who will be sworn in today are Shyam Sankar, Palantir’s chief technology officer; Andrew Bosworth, chief technology officer of Meta; Kevin Weil, OpenAI’s chief product officer; and Bob McGrew, an advisor at Thinking Machines Lab and former chief research officer for OpenAI, the Arm.. -
The U.S. Army has signed off on the advancement of two industry teams into a technology development phase to build prototypes of a Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicle replacement.
American Rheinmetall Vehicles and General Dynamics Land Systems have passed through the critical design review stage of a competition to build the XM30 Mechanized Infantry Combat Vehicles and have the green light to start bending metal, several individuals within industry and the service have confirmed to Defense News.
The individuals were granted anonymity because they are not authorized to speak publicly.
The two companies were chosen from a pool of bidders in June 2023 to proceed to the detailed design phase of the program.
The XM30 was recently called out in a memo issued by the Army secretary as a program the service is keen on accelerating, along with a modernized version of its Abrams tank it is calling the M1E3. The service is championing the program as it axes other vehicle programs like the M10 Booker.. -
The Army has spent well over a billion dollars on a light tank the service is now terminating, just as the program was slated to enter into full-rate production.
The M10 Booker was going to be the first new combat vehicle to enter the force in four decades.
The service noted its plans to cancel the M10 Booker procurement in a memo issued at the start of last month and on June 11 officially announced the program’s end.
“In response to current world events and in support of the strategic objectives outlined in the Army Transformation Initiative, the U.S. Army has issued a termination for convenience of the current low-rate initial production of the M10 Booker combat vehicle and will not enter into full-rate production as originally planned,” the Army said in a statement.
The Army set out to fill a lethality gap in its infantry formations, and following analysis spearheaded by Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, who led the Army’s future-focused efforts within Training and Doctrine Comman.. -
In the wake of a string of deadly military aviation accidents over the past several years, the U.S. Army is launching a major overhaul of how it trains new pilots that focuses on getting back to the basics.
The overhaul includes rethinking the type of aircraft used for training, along with a likely shift to a contractor-owned-and-operated schoolhouse.
“I think I have one sacred responsibility and that is to deliver competent aviators to the government,” Maj. Gen. Clair Gill, commander of the Army Aviation Center of Excellence Command, said at an Army aviation conference in Nashville, Tennessee, last month. “I’m not sure that I’m doing that in spades right now.”
The fatal Jan. 29 collision of a U.S. Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines passenger jet near Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C., and a spate of Army aviation mishaps over the last several years have been at the forefront of the minds of Army aviation leaders as t.. -
Some Army installations could be powered by nuclear microreactors under an executive order recently issued by President Donald Trump.
The order, published May 23, calls for deploying advanced nuclear reactor technologies for national security and directs Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll to establish a program using the technology for both installation and operational energy.
It orders the operation of a nuclear reactor at a domestic military base or installation by Sept. 30, 2028.
“Advanced nuclear reactors include nuclear energy systems like Generation III+ reactors, small modular reactors, microreactors, and stationary and mobile reactors that have the potential to deliver resilient, secure, and reliable power to critical defense facilities and other mission capability resources,” according to the order.
Pentagon to build micro nuclear reactor to power far-flung bases
Testifying before the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday, Driscoll and Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ra.. -
Within the Army Transformation Initiative, the Army’s Next Generation Command and Control (NGC2) effort represents a fundamental change in delivering data-driven C2 to our formations. From requirements to resourcing, acquisition and contracting, every gear in the system is being rebuilt to drive smarter, faster, and more effective outcomes. The scope and pace of this change is creating both opportunities and questions as industry adapts with us.
What are we doing with NGC2?We’re delivering seamlessly integrated C2 capability from corps down to squad. The key is a data integration layer that enables a rapid buildout of applications across warfighting functions such as fires, intelligence, logistics, and protection, and provides a common operating picture across all. The integrated data layer is the foundation for multifunctional artificial intelligence-enabled models that will rapidly augment decision making and speed.
Commercial hardware and software is critical to achievin.. -
Horoscope for today, 17 March 2023: Know your fortune for Friday
