Britain, NATO order Saab’s Carl-Gustaf weapons

LONDON — The British Army will buy Swedish Carl-Gustaf M4 recoilless rifles to plug a gap in anti-armor capabilities left by donating similar equipment to Ukraine.

British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace announced the deal, worth £4.6 million ($5.7 million) plus a little more for a package of ammunition and training, during a March 29 meeting here with his Swedish counterpart, Pal Jonson.

The ministry said in a statement the Saab-made weapons would be used to “replenish” munition stocks handed over to Ukraine in its defense against Russia.

No details of delivery times or weapon numbers have been made available by the British.

Earlier versions of the Carl-Gustaf were operated by the British military between the 1970s and 1990s before being withdrawn.

The British deal wasn’t the only success for the recoilless rifle announced by Saab this week.

The Swedish arms manufacturer said March 30 that it had also signed framework agreements with the NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA) for the Carl-Gustaf M4 and the AT4 anti-armor weapon.

The NSPA has placed a purchase order for Carl-Gustaf ammunition with deliveries planned 2023-2025 as well as a similar deal for AT4 missiles with deliveries planned 2023-2024.

The Carl-Gustaf order from Britain will help boost anti-structure capabilities left diminished by stockpiles of NLAW next generation light anti-tank missiles run down by the UK government’s donation of thousands of weapons to Ukraine.

The missile is credited by the Ukrainians with playing an important role in halting Russian armored attacks over the last 13 months.

Designed by Saab, Thales UK produces the NLAW weapon at a site just outside Belfast, Northern Ireland.

The British have ordered 600 copies for delivery this year. While struggling to put together a supply chain for the out-of-production weapon, officials announced a further deal with Saab in December 2022, worth £229 million, to supply a large number of weapons starting next year, with deliveries finishing in 2026.

The Carl-Gustaf deal was part of wide-ranging talks by Wallace and Jonson, which included British support for Sweden’s stalled effort to join NATO.

The two sides also signed a letter of intent to deliver 14 BAE Systems Bofors-built Archer 155mm wheeled guns to replace British Army AS90 tracked artillery vehicles donated to Ukraine.

The Archer vehicles are meant as an interim measure until Britain acquires a new fleet of guns planned to be in operation by the end of the decade.

“Future potential collaboration” in support of Ukraine was also on the agenda of the two defense ministers, the British MoD said in its March 29 statement.

A spokesperson declined to elaborate on the nature of the possible tie-up, but it is thought the two sides are exploring how they can work together to meet urgent Ukrainian requirements for support.

Northrop’s battle command system for Poland primes production pump

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — At an Alabama-based Northrop Grumman facility, now primed to build a U.S. Army battle command system, three fire-control relays painted green sit side by side.

But these relays that connect the Integrated Battle Command System to sensors and shooters in the field aren’t for the American service. Instead, they are going from Madison to nearby Redstone Arsenal for a final review before shipment to the Polish military.

The three relays seen March 27 marked the last of the equipment that makes up the IBCS technology Poland will receive as part of its first order of Patriot air defense systems it bought years ago.

“That hardware will ship in-country next month. Actually, the Poles will complete their training, and we’ll reach base operational capability, essentially being online at the end of the summer,” Northrop Grumman’s director of network solutions, Ian Reynolds, told reporters at the production line on Monday.

With Russia carrying out an invasion of neighboring Ukraine, Poland is clambering to buy high-end defense capabilities. It reached an agreement with the U.S. in 2018 to buy Raytheon Technologies-made Patriot systems bolstered by an advanced battle command system that the U.S. Army was still developing.

Poland received a waiver to acquire IBCS because it wanted the capability before it would be fielded to U.S. soldiers. Typically, American-made weapon systems are fielded to U.S. forces before they’re sold internationally.

Poland’s request was risky because the IBCS program, at the time, was struggling in tests, and the program’s schedule had slipped by roughly four years.

The command system was originally developed as the brains of a future air and missile defense system for the Army. It was to tie together with a new 360-degree radar and potentially new launchers, replacing the aging Patriot weapon.

But the Army expanded the role for IBCS, deciding the system would also connect other sensors and shooters on the battlefield like the still-in-development Indirect Fire Protection Capability designed to defend against rockets, artillery, mortars, cruise missiles and drones. The mission expansion further delayed IBCS fielding plans.

Poland will become the first operational user of IBCS, not the U.S. Army. But the U.S. will benefit from the Eastern European country using the system, Reynolds said.

“As we were proposing [low-rate initial production] in a competition, we were able to show that: ‘Hey, we, Northrop Grumman, have a live, hot production line. We have a team already supporting the software development, the hardware development.’ ” he said. “So that really benefited the U.S. Army — just stepping into that already established line.”

The company also took lessons learned from building systems for Poland’s Wisla program — the effort to procure a Patriot capability — and applied it to the U.S. Army’s low-rate production program, according to Michael Hahn, Northrop’s IBCS program director.

The U.S. Army awarded Northrop a $1.4 billion contract for both low-rate initial production and full-rate production of its future battle command system in December 2022.

Poland’s first order, which includes two Patriot Configuration 3+ batteries, came with a $4.75 billion price tag.

As part of the deal, Northrop delivered two firing batteries of IBCS, which consists of six engagement operations centers, six integrated collaborative environment tents and associated equipment, and 12 integrated fire control network relays.

Polish Defence Minister Mariusz Błaszczak announced in May 2022 that the country would launch the second phase of its midrange air defense program by requesting the U.S. government sell it six more Patriot batteries with related gear, including IBCS.

Proliferating prospects

The U.S. Army passed through the initial operational test and evaluation last fall, and a full-rate production decision is expected April 10, as well as the delivery of the first two batteries of IBCS to Poland. Other European-based NATO allies are watching Poland and the U.S. program of record evolve, Reynolds said.

Northrop also submitted IBCS for an Australian competition for a joint air battle management system, Reynolds said, and both Japan and the U.K. are seeking international solutions for an air defense battle command capability. He expects Australia will choose a winner this summer.

And Hahn anticipates Japan will soon issue a letter of request for the capability, while the U.K. has already posted a draft request for proposal to industry.

Poland also wants IBCS for its Narew short-range air defense program, and the country is working on issuing a letter of offer and acceptance with the U.S. government before the end of the year as well as a letter for the second phase of the Wisla program. Poland is buying MBDA’s Common Anti-air Modular Missile for the Narew program.

“With current world events, a lot of our allies and partners are increasing their defense spending investment,” Reynolds said. “While air and missile defense has always been important, it hasn’t always risen above the budget cut line, but we are seeing that it is now that they are backing up their intentions around integrated air and missile defense.”

Northrop is touting the IBCS system as an open, modular system beneficial to foreign customers. “There’s real recognition that in a fight, they’re going to want truly integrated operations with the U.S. Army,” Reynolds explained.

The company is busy preparing its IBCS production line for new and existing customers within the 60,000-square-foot manufacturing space, and it has 500 employees across the program. It takes roughly 18 months to build an IBCS, according to Hahn.

While the system struggled earlier in the program, the company says the technology has had 15 out of 15 successful flight tests, meaning they resulted in target intercepts.

IBCS was also chosen as the command-and-control capability for a new air and missile defense architecture in Guam, where it will connect to a variety of sensors and shooters. Northrop is working with the Missile Defense Agency to tie IBCS into other homeland defense capabilities.

Israel launches Ofek 13 intel satellite for secretive military unit

JERUSALEM — Israel has sent its Ofek 13 military intelligence satellite into space from a site in central Israel using the country’s Shavit launcher, the Defense Ministry said this week.

“The successful launch of the satellite is yet another important example of the Israeli defense establishment’s groundbreaking innovation,” said Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who was present during the launch.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently fired Gallant from his post for challenging a judicial overhaul plan, but it appears Gallant is still in the position. The ministry hasn’t provided an update to his status.

Israel sent the satellite into orbit on March 29, and it has begun transmitting data, the ministry said. Ofek 13 will complete an initial series of inspections before it is declared operational in the “near future,” the ministry added in its statement.

The ministry described the Ofek 13 satellite as a synthetic aperture radar operating in low Earth orbit. This type of system tends to have an orbit period as short as 90 minutes.

The Space and Satellite Administration, which falls under the purview of the ministry’s Directorate of Defense Research and Development, conducted the launch, which was carried out in coordination with the Israel Defense Forces and local company Israel Aerospace Industries.

“The launch was successful, according to plan,” said AvI Berger, who leads the Space and Satellite Administration. “Initial indications from the satellite are also very good. Within the coming weeks, we will complete technical tests and receive the first pictures before delivering the satellite for operational use by the IDF.”

Daniel Gold, head of the R&D directorate, said the satellite is equipped with the “utmost advanced abilities at the peak of global technology” and “constitutes a leap forward in operational and technological abilities for the preservation and improvement of Israel’s standing in space for the coming decades.”

The satellite will be used by Israel’s Unit 9900, a classified branch within the IDF involved in analyzing, interpreting and understanding satellite images and maps. Brig. Gen. Erez Askal, who commands the unit, said the launch positions Israel “as a regional and international space power.

“Our unit’s soldiers and commanders will continue to work around the clock to ensure the satellite’s successful operation and to provide a full operational intelligence picture,” the officer added.

Israeli has launched its Ofek series of satellites since 1988. Israel’s Air Force has previously described the satellites as “a tool that allow us to look beyond the horizon, to see and investigate all of our areas of interest, and best deal with the theaters and threats. … The satellites are a power multiplier and produce a great amount of product for the IAF.”

Ofek 11 was launched in 2016, and Ofek 16 in 2020. The latter carried a Jupiter camera designed by Elbit Systems.

The Defense Ministry has not explained the numerical logic behind naming the satellite that came after 11 as 16, and then returning to 13 this year.

IAI was the prime contractor for the development of the satellite, the launcher and the ground station monitoring system. The launch engines were developed by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and Tomer, a government-owned company.

The head of IAI, Boaz Levy, praised the Ofek 13′s “groundbreaking intelligence capabilities” and “unique radar observation capabilities” that enable intelligence gathering in any weather and visibility conditions. Israeli statements on the launch did not elaborate on the satellite’s capabilities.

“We will continue to prove that even the sky isn’t the limit for the Israeli defense establishment and that we continue to enhance its capabilities in every dimension in the face of various challenges,” Gallant said at the latest launch.

Lawmakers decry US Navy’s plan to decommission aging amphibious ships

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Navy’s plan to decommission three amphibious warships ahead of schedule has drawn ire from some legislators, who last year put into law a requirement for the service to maintain a fleet of at least 31 ships for the Marine Corps to use.

The Navy in its fiscal 2024 budget request asked to decommission three Whidbey Island-class amphibious dock landing ships — the Germantown, Gunston Hall and Tortuga — which it tried to decommission last year and Congress voted to save.

Vice Adm. Scott Conn, the deputy chief of naval operations for warfighting requirements and capabilities, explained during a Tuesday hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee’s sea power panel that these ships are not viable options for overseas operations given their poor condition. The vessels have not reached the end of their planned 40-year life span.

Conn said the ships’ original service life was meant to be 35 years, but in the 1990s the Navy changed that to 40 based on the assumptions the ships would operate in six-month deployments and be properly maintained along the way.

Throughout the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, “we operated those ships much longer than six-month deployments,” Conn said. “We know we didn’t put the resources [toward] those ships to be able to sustain them. So now we’re in a position where we have some hard choices to make.”

As the Navy watches their performance in ongoing maintenance availabilities, “we don’t have the confidence, as we’re seeing growth work and new work, that those ships will get out of the maintenance phase, be able to get through a work-up cycle … which is a year long, and then go on deployment.”

Why keep them if “we can’t get them away from the pier,” Conn wondered.

It would cost about $3 billion to keep the Whidbey Island amphibious ships and cruisers the Navy wants to decommission, but Conn argues that money would be better spent on other ships. Additionally, decommissioning the ships rather than continuing their unsuccessful maintenance availabilities would free up sailors for other ship assignments at sea and would free up repair yards to work on ships that are more badly needed by the fleet.

Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, who serves in the Marine Corps Reserve, told Conn the Navy’s plan to decommission these ships brings the fleet lower than the now-statutory requirement for 31 ships.

“This is not a suggestion, it’s a law,” he said. “You have a law, we passed it … and the Navy comes out and says: ‘Eh, we’ll just blow off those silly U.S. senators.’ ”

Conn told him that “having 31 ships, of which three of them may be tied to a pier for the next five years, is not really 31.”

Onboard training simulators in your motor pool? The Army wants that.

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — If the U.S. Army’s future warfare planners have their way, “Motor Pool Mondays” may never look the same.

Army Futures Command leader Gen. James Rainey and the director of the Synthetic Training Environment Cross-Functional Team, Brig. Gen. William Glaser, have said the service wants to integrate the simulation environment directly into its combat vehicles.

“I don’t think we need to have [both] the combat vehicle and the simulator,” Rainey said Wednesday morning at an Association of the U.S. Army event. “I believe the technology exists that we should be able to train on platform.”

Later that day, Glaser described the onboard simulators as a “panacea.”

“A platoon leader can wake up in the morning, do [physical training], go to the motor pool to do command maintenance, [go] to lunch, [and] they can come back and actually train on the same piece of equipment he has been maintaining,” the simulations officer hypothesized.

Harnessing the capabilities under development at his Orlando, Florida-based center, Glaser detailed a potential future where units in garrison can perform collective simulated training “right there in the motor pool.”

Combing the Synthetic Training Environment’s One World Terrain project with onboard simulators could revolutionize pre-combat rehearsals for deployed soldiers on a virtual version of the ground they’re preparing to fight over, Glaser suggested.

One World Terrain, one of the cross-functional team’s most heralded capabilities, has already helped commanders plan real-world missions.

“When it gets to the point where commanders are demanding this tech capability while they’re deployed so they can actually use it as a rehearsal capability before putting soldiers in harm’s way — [that] is really what we’re trying to look for as we move out to 2040,” Glaser said.

But both generals cautioned that onboard simulations in the motor pool, no matter how large or integrated with other capabilities, will never replace live training events.

“That only gets you so far,” Rainey said. “You’ve got to get out in the dirt and do the combined arms maneuver.”

Hackers probing contractors for path to Pentagon, DISA chief says

WASHINGTON — Foreign hackers are targeting contractors to the U.S. government not only for their intellectual property and non-public information, but also to find furtive avenues into Pentagon networks, according to the director of the Defense Information Systems Agency.

Lt. Gen. Robert Skinner on March 29 told Congress that hackers backed by China, Russia and other adversaries are applying “very high” levels of effort to digitally infiltrate, surveil and make off with plans or intelligence closely held by suppliers to the Department of Defense.

Also on their radar are means of going “upstream,” he said at a Senate Armed Services subcommittee hearing.

“Some of them see the defense industrial base as a soft underbelly,” said Skinner, who also serves as the commander of the Joint Force Headquarters-Department of Defense Information Network. “That’s why our work with [Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification] 2.0 and our work day-to-day with our defense industrial base partners is critical moving forward, because that’s where the adversary is really targeting.”

CMMC 2.0 is a framework launched in 2021 to protect the defense industrial base’s sensitive unclassified information from frequent and increasingly complex cyberattacks.

In October, the National Security Agency, FBI and other federal entities said hackers managed to infiltrate a defense industrial base organization, maintain “persistent, long-term” access to its network and abscond with sensitive data. They did not identify the victim. Years prior, Chinese-sponsored cyberattacks breached a Navy contractor’s computers, jeopardizing info tied to secret work on an anti-ship missile, Defense News reported.

US sent ‘hunt-forward’ team to Albania in wake of Iranian cyberattacks

The Pentagon’s fiscal 2024 budget blueprint seeks $13.5 billion for what it described as “cyberspace activities.” They include zero-trust — a cybersecurity paradigm in which networks are assumed already breached, thus requiring constant validation of users and devices — as well as supply chain risk management.

The latest cyber request is up 20.5% from the FY23 ask. The spending is needed to keep the Pentagon’s virtual pipelines thickly insulated, according to Pentagon CIO John Sherman, who testified alongside Skinner.

“All of our systems, be they for weapons, enterprise IT, command and control, business systems or defense critical infrastructure, must be equipped with the most modern cyber defenses that can stand up to savvy and determined state and non-state actors,” Sherman said.

The Biden administration’s national cybersecurity strategy labels China as the No. 1 cyber threat, capable of siphoning data and contorting information for its own authoritarian gain.

Russia, the strategy says, remains a significant cyber threat and is refining its espionage and influence skills.

“As we’ve seen in Ukraine, today’s battlefields are increasingly digital and connected, with all the opportunities and vulnerabilities that environment presents,” Sherman said.

How a video game engine will power Javelin anti-tank training

Correction: A previous version of this story misrepresented the available options for Javelin training; There are multiple approaches. This version also clarifies the status of SAIC’s block I Basic Skills Trainer.

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Aspiring tank-killers around the world could soon blast armor in an upgraded simulated environment powered by a graphics engine used for the video game Fortnite.

This reality is only awaiting an upgrade to defense contractor SAIC’s block I version of the Javelin missile’s Basic Skills Trainer. The upgrade will integrate Epic Games’ Unreal 4 engine into scenarios.

SAIC experts demonstrated the upgraded trainer to Army Times on Wednesday at an Association of the U.S. Army event, allowing a reporter to destroy a simulated T-72 tank, a platform that Russia operates.

Updates can take significant time and effort, but the upgrade is expected to reach soldiers by 2025. The existing Javelin trainer was developed in 2001 and modeled on real-world training ranges.

Both U.S. and foreign purchasers of the Javelin receive an allotment of trainer devices, and approximately 900 are in operation around the world.

SAIC officials said the trainer is typically employed in a classroom setting, where troops become familiar with the device and its controls. While U.S. personnel sometimes progress to fire expensive, live missiles in their training, not all users around the world have that opportunity. That means the trainer could be their only experience with the Javelin platform until it’s time to face down an enemy vehicle.

And the new Unreal Engine-powered version of the trainer will ensure a more realistic experience, SAIC experts said. After viewing the current software and comparing it to the forthcoming one, Army Times observed significant improvements in picture quality, terrain options and target realism.

The company is hopeful that bringing the program up to modern graphics standards can help “born-digital” Gen Z troops focus on training rather than graphical shortcomings.

Adopting an off-the-shelf physics and graphics engine will make maintaining the trainer and developing new scenarios — customized to each customer’s specifications — easier and cheaper, SAIC officials said. The Unreal Engine has a large user community across several industries, making it easier to solve problems, find talent and continue building additional capabilities into the new trainer.

The next-generation trainer’s expected 2025 release will come on the heels of an expansion of the anti-tank platform’s production line.

The Javelin is among several Western weapons that gained popularity over the last year, as Ukraine fights off its Russian invaders. In spite of the demand, Army Secretary Christine Wormuth pushed back on the narrative of a “Javelin crisis” at a March 15 event.

“We’re making 2,500 Javelins a year already,” the Army’s top official said. “And we’re going to be getting that up to 5,000 Javelins a year in the next year or two.”

In Utah, one airman’s trashed F-35 is another’s training aid

HILL AIR FORCE BASE, Utah—Call it the “Island of Misfit Toys.”

Tucked away in a beige, concrete workshop at the 388th Maintenance Squadron here, the remnants of trashed F-35 Lightning II fighter jets are getting a second wind.

Airmen are turning unflyable aircraft into training assets for F-35 maintainers who would otherwise have to learn those lessons on an operational jet or a computer. The master sergeant in charge argues it’s saving the Air Force millions of dollars — and it’s fun, too.

Salvaging planes has become a pet project for Master Sgt. Andrew Wilkow, a maintainer with the 372nd Training Squadron. Rehabbing the wrecks is one of his full-time jobs, after a career of repairing battle damage and overhauling jets at maintenance depots.

Right now, he’s working on the beaten-up cockpit of a Marine Corps F-35B that crashed near Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, South Carolina, in 2018. A Pratt & Whitney F135 engine that was salvaged from a 2020 mishap at Eglin AFB, Florida, sits nearby.

The idea started in 2020, when Wilkow helped the F-35 Joint Program Office reattach a jet’s wings — a process for which the program had no blueprint. That aircraft caught fire upon takeoff at Eglin in 2014.

Hill figured out a way to stick the wings back on, and later used the fuselage to train F-35 crew chiefs and maintainers in repairing combat damage. Then an acquaintance at the program office wanted to repay the favor.

“[He] said, ‘Hey, I’ve got some crashed jet parts. Do you want those?’” Wilkow said. “That turned into … ‘Well, what can’t I have?’”

Pilot program for F-35 maintainers ends with little fanfare

Wilkow has taken in carcasses from three other F-35s since then.

After an F-35A from Luke AFB, Arizona, caught fire in 2016, Wilkow had it sawed in half so maintainers could tinker with the inside of a real jet. The F135 engine from the 2020 Eglin mishap, and the 25 mm GAU-22/A four-barrel Gatling gun from the same plane, will be static displays where airmen can learn how to inspect the hardware.

Teaching airmen to use a borescope, a tool that lets mechanics look through tiny holes, is particularly important for catching internal troubles that could cause an engine to malfunction.

The Marine Corps cockpit should be ready in November to teach people about landing gears, avionics and more, Wilkow said. That process involves steps like removing contaminants, softening sharp edges, fabricating new panels and other broken components, and attaching a new canopy.

He plans to install a computer into the cockpit so airmen can see the same training cues as they would get at a desk, without sending the jet back to a private company. Dumpster diving turns up other parts that can come in handy for free.

“These airplanes cost so much money [that] with a mishap, it’s a loss,” he said. “But for maintenance, it doesn’t have to be. … We can turn something that was garbage into something that you never had.”

Maintainers typically learn about their aircraft using operational jets, which means units have to choose between keeping planes on the ground or delaying their own training.

And plenty is off-limits for those planes: You can’t “lift an operational jet with a crane, collapse the front landing gear and then set the nose of the aircraft on the ground without significant risk of damaging it,” Wilkow said in a release last year.

Fighter wings try a fresh approach to maintenance

Those involved in refurbishing the F-35s hope they’ll become a key part of new coursework to train airmen faster, particularly as the Air Force looks to merge some maintenance specialties and rebuild that workforce.

An exodus of more experienced mechanics led to thousands of vacant repair jobs, which the Air Force has fought to refill. Now, Wilkow hopes his salvaged planes can help get younger technicians up to speed.

“The [Ogden Air Logistics Complex] depot itself is having a hard time with keeping their people — Northrop Grumman down the street is paying more,” he said. “With new people coming in, not having a lot of experience … this is to help everyone.”

The salvaged planes can build trainees’ confidence and make them more comfortable at work, said Tech. Sgt. Kevin Browning, who works on the jet’s stealth features with the 388th Maintenance Squadron.

“With the new generation of airmen, most of them haven’t even touched tools before,” he said. “We have to charge them with drilling holes in a $120 million airplane. You want to make the mistake here, and learn here, before you go out and exercise that ability.”

They also serve to educate civilian employees and contractors who may only have experience repairing fourth-generation aircraft. More advanced aircraft like the F-35, F-22 Raptor and B-2 Spirit require a more precise hand than their earlier counterparts, Browning said.

“[On] B-52s, if it’s not coming off, you hit it harder,” he said. “You don’t do that on an F-35. Everything’s pieced together perfectly.”

Wilkow said the project can save the Air Force tens of millions of dollars on buying new training systems from F-35 manufacturer Lockheed Martin.

Progress can be slow, in part because the people and equipment needed to get the job done are in short supply. But Wilkow said it’s worth it.

“When the Air Force spends so much money on the aircraft, maintenance doesn’t get the fancy simulators to train on,” he said. “It’s a neat opportunity for us to get nice, new toys — even if they’re garbage.”

His advice to other airmen who want to do the same: Build a good plan, communicate it well and follow through.

“This takes a lot of creativity and innovation, thinking outside the box,” he said. “If you have something good, stick with it.”

US Air Force drops Lockheed hypersonic missile after failed tests

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Air Force isn’t going to buy the hypersonic AGM-183A Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon after the prototyping phase ends, following problems during testing, the service’s acquisition chief told lawmakers Wednesday.

But the service will still finish the ARRW program’s last two all-up round test flights to collect data to help with future hypersonic programs, Andrew Hunter told the House Tactical Air and Land Forces Subcommittee in written testimony.

“While the Air Force does not currently intend to pursue follow-on procurement of ARRW once the prototyping program concludes, there is inherent benefit to completing the all-up round test flights to garner the learning and test data that will help inform future hypersonic programs,” Hunter wrote.

Hunter sounded the death knell for Lockheed Martin’s ARRW program a day after Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said in another hearing that a March test had failed.

The Air Force on Friday said it had conducted a second test launch of a fully operational prototype ARRW on March 13. But the service did not describe the test as successful, instead saying it met several objectives. After a previous test launch in December, the Air Force had released a statement that said all objectives were met.

Kendall told the House Appropriations Committee’s defense panel on Tuesday that the March 13 ARRW test was “not a success” and that the program has “struggled a little bit in its testing process.”

Kendall said Tuesday that the Air Force still wants to carry out two more ARRW tests with its remaining prototypes. But he told lawmakers that the service is more committed to its other major hypersonic weapon program, the Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile.

Hunter did not address the ARRW program in the verbal testimony he delivered to lawmakers, nor did lawmakers ask him about it.

Hypersonic weapons can travel at speeds greater than Mach 5 and are highly maneuverable, which makes them difficult to track and shoot down. China and Russia have invested considerable resources in developing these weapons for their militaries, and several U.S. lawmakers have expressed concern that the country is not doing enough to field its own hypersonic capabilities.

Kendall said Tuesday that the Dec. 9 test of an operational prototype ARRW was “a very successful flight” and a step forward for the program.

Kendall has long expressed skepticism on the ARRW program, as it has faced delays and failed tests. The program also suffered a string of three test failures in 2021. And in March 2022, after Congress passed a fiscal 2022 spending bill that struck plans to buy ARRW missiles that year and instead funded more research and development, Kendall said “ARRW still has to prove itself.”

Oshkosh to shutter JLTV line next year if protest fails

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Oshkosh Defense is preparing to close its Joint Light Tactical Vehicle production line by the end of 2024, after the Army earlier this year selected AM General to take over production of the Humvee replacement.

Wisconsin-based Oshkosh is still holding out hope the Army’s decision might be overturned, company President Tim Bleck, told Defense News in an exclusive interview March 22. The company in February filed a protest with the Government Accountability Office over the Army’s award.

“We’ve got a workforce that will produce these vehicles through the end of 2024,” Bleck said, adding that the company can accept orders until around the end of November 2023. Oshkosh has multiple foreign customers, including Montenegro, Brazil, Slovenia and Lithuania. Belgium, North Macedonia and Romania have said they will buy the vehicles.

The company is now weighing what to do with its workforce. Oshkosh is weighing opportunities to transfer its JLTV line to another product, Bleck said, but should an opportunity arise to build JLTVs once again down the road, “it’s hard to go back to tactical wheeled vehicles once you fill up the facility with something else.”

AM General has said it has 18 months — equating to a rough start time of August 2024 — to begin building new JLTVs. This start time, designated by the Army, is meant to avoid production gaps.

The Army’s contract to AM General is worth about $8.66 billion for 20,682 JLTVs and 9,8333 trailers. AM General, which has been owned by private-equity firm KPS Capital Partners since 2020, is now setting up its infrastructure at its 96-acre Mishawaka Manufacturing Campus in Indiana.

Oshkosh won the JLTV contract in 2015 to replace the aging Humvee fleet, beating out both Humvee-maker AM General and competitor Lockheed Martin.

The original JLTV competition included a requirement for the Army to own the technical data package with the idea that it would potentially hold new competitions to continue building the vehicle. In the latest competition, the service added some new requirements, including corrosion protection, improved fuel efficiency and anti-idle technology as well as lithium-ion batteries.

The GAO is expected to render a decision on the protest in June.

According to a redacted copy of the protest obtained by Defense News, Oshkosh contends the Army took “glaring risks” by selecting AM General, noting the company has “zero experience manufacturing the JLTV” and “by its own admission, must build out its own facilities before it can start production.”

Oshkosh says in the protest the Army did not appropriately consider AM General’s financial capacity.

“As other parts of the business are expected to have a temporary recovery, supply chain troubles and inflation will continue to place extreme burdens on cash availability forcing the organization to incur additional debt and increased credit risk,” the document reads. “This financial risk in conjunction with performance and schedule risk inherent with a new program mean [AM General] will continue to be a high credit risk until 2026 or beyond.”

On cost evaluation, Oshkosh writes in its protest that AM General “was proposing labor categories that were not appropriate for the work to be performed. Accordingly, the Army would have recognized the rates as unrealistic and made an upward adjustment.”

Additionally, the protest states that AM General “lacks the existing supplier relations needed to manufacture the JLTV.”

From the beginning Oshkosh has been focused “on driving our costs down through the supply chain, focused on continuous improvements and saving every penny that we could knowing that there would be a recompete seven years later, so we were laser focused on that,” Bleck said. “When we saw the other competitor’s proposal price, we said we couldn’t even touch that, we would incur a significant amount of losses at their proposal price.”