Pentagon seeks stronger digital defense for industry in cyber strategy

The U.S. Department of Defense rolled out its plan to shield suppliers from digital sabotage amid growing concern about cyberattacks on critical infrastructure.

The Pentagon on March 28 made public its 2024 Defense Industrial Cybersecurity Strategy, proffering four goals and many more objectives. Among them are widespread adoption of cybersecurity best practices, preservation of supply chains critical to military manufacturing, and improved communication between public and private sectors.

“Our adversaries understand the strategic value of targeting the defense industrial base,” David McKeown, the deputy chief information officer for cybersecurity, told reporters at the Pentagon. “We have, departmentally, started paying a lot more attention to it and engaging with the companies.″

The Defense Department’s pool of contractors and related resources is under constant threat of online harassment and foreign influence. Both Russia and China are known to prod U.S. companies for their closely held designs.

The National Security Agency, FBI and other federal entities in October 2022 said hackers managed to inflitrate a company, sustain “persistent, long-term” access to its network and abscond with sensitive information. The victim went unnamed. Years prior, Chinese-sponsored cyberattacks breached a Navy contractor’s computers, jeopardizing info tied to work on an anti-ship missile, Defense News reported.

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Pentagon suppliers are considered critical infrastructure alongside water, food and energy facilities, health-care firms, and transportation systems. Attacks occur often, and attackers can dogpile on flaws that go ignored, according to McKeown.

“In this day and age, especially in the United States of America, everybody should believe the power of the hacker,” he said. “It’s been proven out numerous times.”

The cybersecurity strategy nests with the Defense Department’s higher-profile guidance: the 2022 National Defense Strategy, the 2023 National Cybersecurity Strategy and this year’s National Defense Industrial Strategy.

Publication comes weeks after the department introduced its fiscal 2025 budget blueprint, which included $14.5 billion for cyber activities. The figure is about $1 billion more than the Biden administration’s previous ask. It’s also up from FY23, when it sought $11.2 billion.

Putin threatens striking Western air bases hosting Ukrainian F-16s

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin scoffed at the possibility of his country launching an attack on a NATO member, calling it “sheer nonsense,” but warned that any Western air base hosting U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets that are slated for deployment in Ukraine would be a “legitimate target” for the Kremlin’s forces.

“Their statements about our alleged intention to attack Europe after Ukraine is sheer nonsense,” Putin said late Wednesday, referring to warnings in the U.S. and Western Europe that Russia could turn its sights on other countries unless it is stopped.

He noted that the U.S. defense budget is more than 10 times higher than Russia’s. “In view of that, are we going to wage a war against NATO? It’s ravings,” he told military pilots during a visit to an air base.

Ukraine is awaiting the delivery of F-16s, which will increase military pressure on Russia, from its Western partners. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said last year that 42 F-16s had been promised. Ukrainian pilots have been training in the West for months on how to fly the warplanes.

The F-16s require a high standard of runways and reinforced hangars to protect them from bombing attacks when they are on the ground. It is not clear how many Ukrainian air bases can meet those requirements, and Russia would be certain to quickly target a few that could accommodate them once the jets arrive.

Putin warned Ukraine’s Western allies against providing air bases in their countries from where the F-16s could launch sorties against the Kremlin’s forces. Those bases would become a “legitimate target,” he said.

“F-16s are capable of carrying nuclear weapons, and we will also need to take that into account while organizing our combat operations,” Putin added.

Military analysts have said the arrival of F-16s won’t be a game-changer in view of Russia’s massive air force and sophisticated air defense systems, though Ukrainian officials have welcomed them as an opportunity to hit back at Russia’s air dominance.

Putin insisted the F-16s “won’t change the situation on the battlefield.”

“We will destroy their warplanes just as we destroy their tanks, armored vehicles and other equipment, including multiple rocket launchers,” he said.

F-16s can be used to bolster Ukraine’s capability to target Russian facilities with long-range missile strikes. Ukraine’s counteroffensive last year came up short in part because it took place without air cover, placing its troops at the mercy of Russian aviation and artillery.

Russia has maintained air dominance in the war with Ukraine, though the provision of sophisticated Western air defense systems has forced Russian warplanes to avoid Ukrainian skies and launch attacks while remaining over Russian-controlled territory.

The Kremlin currently has a battlefield edge in weapons and troops, yielding recent incremental gains at points on the around 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line, as Kyiv awaits more promised Western military support and mulls a broader mobilization.

Russia fired salvoes of drones and missiles overnight at southern and eastern regions of Ukraine, authorities said Thursday, injuring more than a dozen people as the Kremlin’s forces persevered with attritional attacks designed to wear down Ukrainian defenses.

Air defense systems intercepted 26 out of 28 Shahed drones, Ukraine’s air force said. Russian forces also launched five missiles overnight, it said.

The regular bombardment of Ukraine by the Kremlin’s forces during the war has recently gained momentum, with missile barrages of the capital Kyiv and strikes on energy facilities across the country. The attacks also aim to weaken Ukrainian morale and act as retribution for Ukrainian long-range strikes on Russian soil.

One of Russia’s goals is to “deplete Ukraine’s inventory of ground-based air defense,” according to a recent military assessment published by the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

That would erode some of Ukraine’s combat ability as it waits on pledged but delayed military support from the West, including ammunition for its artillery and air defenses.

“Kyiv is confronted by the threat that an attritional war in the air domain will increasingly favor Russia without adequate support from the U.S. and its allies,” the IISS said. “Ukraine’s ability to continue to counter Russian air threats and impose costs on the Russian Aerospace Forces remains important to the outcome of the war.”

Authorities in the Mykolaiv region, near the Black Sea in southern Ukraine, said 12 people were injured and six residential buildings were damaged in a Russian strike on the city on Wednesday afternoon with a ballistic missile.

In an overnight attack on the southern Ukraine region of Zaporizhzhia, Shahed drones struck a residential area, lightly injuring two women aged 72 and 74, according to regional Gov. Ivan Fedorov. Rescue services said seven buildings were damaged.

The Black Sea city of Odesa repelled three missile and drone attacks, officials said.

Hatton reported from Lisbon, Portugal.

US Navy preps hypersonic weapon test this spring, with Army watching

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — The U.S. Navy is heading into a major test of a hypersonic weapon that will help determine the way ahead for a joint development program with the U.S. Army, according to the Army’s Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office director.

“The Navy is moving forward on their test, which isn’t a launch out of ground support equipment, but just off a stool launch, so we get another look at the missile,” Lt. Gen. Robert Rasch told Defense News in a March 27 interview here at the Association of the U.S. Army’s Global Force Symposium.

The Navy’s test of the Common-Hypersonic Glide Body will lead into an Army test of the missile in the summer from a ground-based launcher, he said. “Right now, if things go as planned, we’ll be out at the range this summer.”

Hypersonic weapons are capable of flying faster than Mach 5 — or more than 3,836 miles per hour — and can maneuver between varying altitudes, making them difficult to detect. The C-HGB is made up of the weapon’s warhead, guidance system, cabling and thermal protection shield.

The U.S. is in a race to field the capability as well as develop systems to defend against hypersonic missiles. China and Russia are actively developing and testing hypersonic weapons.

The test in the spring is focused solely on missile performance and is conducted using a test stand that eliminates ground support equipment, canister and launcher. “It’s more of a command to the missile to ignite and watch the missile go through stage one, stage two, payload adapter, hypersonic glide body separating and do its thing,” Rasch described.

The test is to ensure the services understand the missile performs as intended, he said.

The Army, at the same time, is ensuring that the ground support equipment for its Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon, or LRHW, works correctly and will then marry up the missile and launcher in the later test, Rasch explained.

If the Navy test is successful, “that is a decision point for the Army to allow the vendor to begin putting those tactical rounds together. We’ve got them lined up, ready to go, in different stages of completeness. I’ve been holding them because I want to see the end-to-end performance,” Rasch said.

The Army has spent several years working with Leidos’ Dynetics to build the industrial base for the hypersonic weapon glide body that will be used by both the ground service and the Navy because the domestic private sector had never built a hypersonic weapon.

The service also separately produced launchers, trucks, trailers and the battle operations center necessary to put together the first weapon battery. Lockheed Martin is the weapon system integrator for the Army’s hypersonic capability that will be launched from a mobile truck.

If the Army test is successful, Rasch said, the rounds will be ready to go to the first unit equipped with the capability.

The service completed its delivery of the first hypersonic weapon capability, minus the all-up rounds, to I Corps’ 5th Battalion, 3rd Field Artillery Regiment, 17th Field Artillery Brigade unit at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state two days ahead of its end-of-FY21 fielding deadline.

The original plan was to train on the equipment and receive those rounds in the fall of 2023, but based on a series of failed or aborted tests, that timeline has slid further down the road.

The Army and Navy last year had to abort flight tests in March, October and November due to “challenges at the range,” Rasch said.

“Every time we do these tests, even if it’s a no-test, obviously, we learn,” Rasch said, “but in this case, the round had to go back and get a little work done on it. These challenges weren’t with the round, but just the process of firing those up, it takes some work.”

The pause in testing while the rounds were evaluated, “gave us a little time to stop and kind of reflect on where we had not done enough developmental testing. Obviously a program that’s moving as fast as RCCTO has on hypersonics, there’s risk involved in going fast,” Rasch said. “You’re doing acquisition and running with scissors at the same time.”

The Army looked at earlier component level testing and figured out where the service may have missed things, he added.

“And we’ve done a series of walk-ups over the last several months to try to make sure we understood exactly what is going on, what’s the phenomena going on and how do we replicate that repeatedly so we know that’s the error,” Rash said.

Even this week, Rasch said, the Army is conducting high-fidelity testing with the ground support equipment, simulating every aspect of the shot to make sure it’s captured “all the phenomena to allow us to get back out to the range.”

While the program is delayed, the speed at which the Navy and the Army are moving is extremely fast for a program of this nature, Rasch noted.

The service went from a blank piece of paper in March 2019 to delivering hardware in just over two years, including an operations center, four transporter-erector-launchers and modified trucks and trailers that make up the ground equipment of the LRHW.

“This is a hard problem. If you look at the history of missile programs, most of them in this space are 10 to 12 years in duration,” he said. “Not only is this a new missile, it’s a new technology of missile and, oh by the way, we had to build new ground support equipment, we had to build new command-and-control capabilities within it. So that was a monumental task.”

BAE demos platform that gives Army AMPVs turret system options

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — BAE Systems showed off a universal top plate that allows the Army’s Armored Multipurpose Vehicle to easily swap turrets for different mission roles.

The company brought an AMPV complete with a 30mm unmanned turret from Elbit Systems to the Association of the U.S. Army’s Global Force Symposium being held this week in Huntsville, Alabama, to demonstrate the capability.

BAE took the original top off the AMPV and put on its own internally funded and developed top plate to create the External Mission Equipment Package, or ExMEP. The design is based off of a study of turrets “of all kinds, all over the world,” Megan Mitchell, BAE’s business development director for Army combat systems, said in an interview at the event.

The ExMEP “enables [the AMPV] to be able to accept over 30 different sized turrets,” she added. “The idea behind this is it allows the Army to basically widen their scope of what they’re able to do with the AMPV.”

The Army’s AMPV, designed to replace the M113 armored personnel carrier and which reached full-rate production in 2023, comes in five variants either being fielded or planned: General purpose; medical evacuation; medical treatment; mission command; and mortar carrier.

“We’re now in full-rate production with the first five variants and that allows us a little bit more latitude to be able to see what it can do next,” Mitchell said. “This is an extremely versatile platform and it’s already doing five very different mission roles, and to be able to expand that capability … there’s a lot more M113s out there than just what the five variants can do.

“What we really wanted to look at is where is the Army’s need and what could we possibly create that will allow us to work with the Army, to say, ‘Oh, if you need a counter-UAS, we can integrate that. If you need this kind of turret, we can integrate that,’” she said.

The company last year demonstrated it could rapidly integrate a Moog-developed counter-unmanned aircraft system turret onto the AMPV and successfully tested the capability in a live-fire event in Arizona. BAE said it hit both ground and air targets in the November 2023 test just 15 months after beginning the ExMEP development effort.

In cooperation with the Army, where both BAE and the Army funded a portion of the effort, the company integrated Patria’s 120mm unmanned turreted mortar capability using its ExMEP, Mitchell said. BAE turned over the vehicle to the Army in January for testing that will take place at Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona in the spring and summer. More testing will continue into the fall.

A flexible top plate enabling integration of a wide array of turrets is not just targeted toward the U.S. Army, Mitchell noted, but creates options for potential foreign customers who might have specific requirements that go beyond the U.S. Army’s AMPV variants.

Pakistan unveils aircraft and rocket programs, parades military tech

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan’s military showed off its wares and unveiled several defense program during the March 23 Pakistan Day Parade in the capital.

The country displayed new equipment including the Haider platform, the first locally produced, Chinese-designed VT-4 main battle tank. The tank in the parade itself was from the pilot production batch unveiled March 6 by state-owned armored fighting vehicles manufacturer Heavy Industries Taxila.

Pakistan received 300 VT-4 tanks from China under a 2017 deal that involved local production. The system’s design originates from the Al-Khalid/VT-1A that is already in service and produced by Heavy Industries Taxila.

The long-range HQ-9/P surface-to-air missile system also made an appearance for the first time. And the military brought its Fatah 2 guided multiple-launch rocket system and its medium-range Ababeel ballistic missile that carries multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles.

The Chinese-supplied HQ-9/P entered service in 2021, with the parade announcer confirming it had a range of 125 kilometers (78 miles). That falls short of the 250-kilometer-range HQ-9 variants in Chinese service.

Pakistan has also announced new programs, including the PFX effort to replace the JF-17 combat aircraft. It’s 450-kilometer-range Fatah 3 is set to soon enter service, with the 700-kilometer-range Fatah 4 under development.

Justin Bronk, an aerospace expert at the Royal United Services Institute think tank in London, said the HQ-9 offers “shorter effective ranges, but with superior sensor performance compared to the S-300PMU-2 family of Russian [surface-to-air missiles] that they were broadly derived from.”

The weapon relies “on a family of missiles to cover various ranges,” he told Defense News, noting that “the HQ-9/P range — compared to longer-range variants — relates less to the system itself and more to which of the larger interceptor missile versions China was willing to export to Pakistan.”

Still, the military’s media branch, Inter Services Public Relations Pakistan, has previously stated the HQ-9/P significantly enhances Pakistan’s air defense architecture and is fully integrated via a digitized system.

Mansoor Ahmed, an expert on Pakistan’s nonconventional weapons programs and delivery systems, said the Ababeel missile’s presence was likely in response to India’s March 11 test of its Agni-V missile and ballistic missile defense capabilities. The Agni-V is also equipped with a multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle.

The Ababeel missile was last tested in 2023, but its service entry was not announced.

Ahmed, who is now an academic at the Australian National University, told Defense News that Pakistan felt compelled “to demonstrate that it had the credibility and resolve to deter crisis and first-strike instabilities in South Asia.”

He anticipates tests of India’s K-5 and K-6 MIRV-equipped, submarine-launched ballistic missiles “will spur further development of the Ababeel as a series of canisterized and longer-range versions that could carry heavier payloads for possible deployment on submarines in the future, for achieving greater survivability and operational flexibility that covers all possible targets in India.”

He noted this year there seems to be more nuclear-capable missiles on display, and Ababeel and its future developments have “become central to maintain a credible and dynamic full-spectrum deterrent.”

Future fighter

Pakistan’s PFX Program announcement came as a surprise, given existing plans to acquire the Chinese J-31 jet and the country’s involvement in the Turkish Kaan figther aircraft program. A previous fifth-generation program, dubbed Project Azm, seems to have been quietly shelved.

Design work is underway for the PFX Program, but little other detail is known.

However, Trevor Taylor, who leads the RUSI think tank’s Defence, Industries and Society Programme, said Pakistan’s decision is in line with other programs in India and richer Indo-Pacific states.

Indeed, the costs “would be high, and judging from the experience of others, the development time would be extensive,” Taylor told Defense News. He added there’s a likelihood Pakistan will import key subsystems such as engines, radars and other avionics for the PFX Program.

Analyst and former Pakistan Air Force pilot Kaiser Tufail agreed. “How the cost of such a platform would be kept within affordable limits would be a challenge and would depend on the export potential of the PFX,” he told Defense News.

Importantly, the extent of help from China “would be a key factor,” Taylor noted, and “a basic issue that would have to be addressed would be reconciling an ability to carry weapons with low radar observability.”

Cooperation appears certain, with Turkey as one option, according to aerospace expert Doug Barrie at the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies think tank. Alongside the PFX Program, he cited Pakistan’s February announcement to team up with Turkey to develop a beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile.

However, he said, “given the very close defense aerospace ties between Pakistan and China, I wouldn’t discount that either.”

As for its features, Pakistan would likely want the PFX aircraft to “have stealth capability, which should also entail conformal weapons carriage and enough internal fuel,” Tufail said.

“A powerful [active electronically scanned array] radar and [beyond-visual-range] missiles that can outrange the Meteor of the Rafale should also be prime requisites,” he added. “Seamless sensor fusion, alongside comprehensive [electronic counter-countermeasures] capability, would be equally important.”

Fatah family

Pakistan’s announcement of the Fatah 3 and Fatah 4 weapons indicates the government continues to develop systems to “both enable greater precision firepower from deep within the country against Indian front-line targets, and similar reach into valuable Indian rear-area bases and systems from Pakistani border areas,” according to Frank O’Donnell, a nonresident fellow with the Stimson Center think tank’s South Asia Program.

By focusing on the offensive capabilities of multiple launch rocket systems and drones, Pakistan is able to free up its Air Force from strike missions to higher-level air-to-air combat roles, O’Donnell said, citing the parade commentator who stated the Fatah 2 “can evade any enemy air defense system.”

This “underlines how Pakistan is continuing to implement lessons from the Russia-Ukraine and Azerbaijan-Armenia wars,” he added. Both of those conflicts have featured the heavy use of combat drones.

And notably, he said, “sophisticated Russian air and missile defense systems — such as the Russian S-400, which India is deploying against Pakistan — are still vulnerable to asymmetric missile barrages and drone strikes.”

Army artillery needs more range, mobility and autonomy, study finds

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — The U.S. Army’s recently completed conventional fires study determined the service should focus on more autonomous artillery systems with greater range and improved mobility, the Army Futures Command chief said Wednesday.

Speaking at the Association of the U.S. Army’s Global Symposium here, Gen. James Rainey said the Army will achieve these improvements by incorporating robotics into systems, improving artillery rounds and pursuing readily available mobile howitzer options.

The service began working last year on a conventional fires study intended to lead to a new strategy. Rainey said at the time the review would consider the existing capability and capacity and future Army needs. It was also going to assess new technology to enhance conventional fires on the battlefield, such as advances in propellant that make it possible for midrange cannons to shoot as far as longer-range systems.

The study has already influenced one program. The Army, after also conducting a prototyping effort for an Extended Range Cannon Artillery system, concluded the platform was not the right approach.

The service plans to focus instead on extending the range of current artillery systems with innovative munitions still under development as part of the ERCA program, Rainey said.

“We are in a resource constrained environment,” he added. “You can go after an exquisite system or you can take a more holistic approach.”

The Army was able to conduct a variety of successful tests with ERCA prototypes, including hitting a target 70 kilometers, or 43 miles, away at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona, in December 2020 using an Excalibur extended-range guided artillery shell.

The problems with the cannon were mostly related to the length of the gun tube and its ability to withstand a large number of projectiles without excessive wear.

The Army is planning to deliver a better armored howitzer, Rainey said. “There are some great capabilities out there.”

However, towed howitzers may not have a clear future with the Army, he said, adding “the future is not bright for towed artillery.”

Rainey said he’s “very interested in autonomous and robotic cannon solutions” for joint forcible entry formations like the 82nd and 101st airborne divisions.

The Army is pursuing mobile, indirect fires capabilities for light infantry and Stryker formations as well, he noted.

Amid faltering domestic program, Taiwan orders more MQ-9B drones

CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand — Taiwan’s plan to field four MQ-9B SkyGuardian drones has advanced thanks to a second contract awarded to General Atomics Aeronautical Systems.

The island nation’s purchase comes as its own efforts to field a similar domestically developed platform falter.

The U.S. Defense Department signed the $250 million deal with General Atomics for the final two MQ-9Bs on March 11 through the government’s Foreign Military Sales program.

The award followed an initial contract dated May 1, 2023. That $217.6 million deal promised the delivery of two aircraft by May 2025. However, a U.A. Air Force spokesperson told Defense News the first two drones will arrive in 2026 and the final pair in 2027.

The spokesperson clarified that this contract action was “re-announced because they broke the contract into two separate actions, each for two MQ-9s.”

Taiwan will also receive two ground control stations as part of the agreements.

The U.S. government had approved this sale in November 2020, stating that MQ-9s would give Taiwan “intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), target acquisition, and counter-land, counter-sea and anti-submarine strike capabilities.”

These drones could take over some missions performed by Taiwan’s fighter fleet that is already busy monitoring Chinese military activities in the surrounding airspace and sea. Beijing considers the island nation a rogue province and has threatened to take it back by force.

“It’s an important ISR platform for the Taiwan military, giving them a cutting-edge platform to improve their ability to monitor China’s gray zone activities. In a time of war, the MQ-9 can also be used in hunter-killer roles,” Rupert Hammond-Chambers, president of the US-Taiwan Business Council, told Defense News.

The arrival of these SkyGuardians is particularly important, given Taiwan’s Teng Yun medium-altitude, long-endurance drone, currently under development by the National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology, is encountering difficulties. In January, Taiwan’s Central News Agency reported the Teng Yun 2 had “not passed its combat readiness testing phase, with initial results finding there was still room for improvement.”

Taiwan defense analyst Chen Kuo-ming said the Teng Yun has made insufficient progress since its 2015 unveiling. “In the past year there have been lots of tests. However, I’m worried about the Teng Yun because its progress, compared with Chinese UAVs, is so slow,” the expert noted.

Nevertheless, he was optimistic the program would eventually succeed.

The Teng Yun 2 received a more powerful American-made engine as well as an enhanced configuration and flight control system. Taiwan’s military started testing it in March 2023, but further improvements must take place before the Air Force can consider fielding it.

Taiwan’s MQ-9Bs are expected to carry the WESCAM MX-20 multispectral targeting system and RTX’s SeaVue maritime multirole radar. However, Chen said it’s unlikely the U.S. will give Taiwan permission to arm its MQ-9Bs.

Hammond-Chambers said these American-built drones should improve interoperability with allies, noting he expects Taiwan will “procure more MQ-9s in the future as they build out the number of platforms available. Four is a start and will allow for training, infrastructure and experience to be garnered. In a permissive D.C. arms sales environment, Taiwan should be able to procure more.”

UK lawmakers, defense chief clash over looming defense spending cuts

LONDON — U.K. lawmakers clashed with Defense Secretary Grant Shapps this week over cuts to next year’s core defense spending, dismissing his counter-argument that the budget would actually rise as political gamesmanship.

The parliamentary Defence Committee convened the March 26 session roughly a month after the government released its 2024-2025 budget plan, showing a drop in defense funding for the next fiscal year.

Shapps said there was “confusion” in the documents published by the Treasury because they fail to account for £2.5 billion ($3.2 billion) pledged in supplementaries for Ukraine aid and £280 million for ammunition stockpiles.

“Once you add those two things in, which are then comparable to the outturn of last year with the outturn of this year, you get a 1.8 percent real-terms increase of £1.5 billion,” he said. Because of these omissions, Shapps said, “you’re not comparing apples with apples but apples with oranges.”

According to the government’s Spring budget 2024, also known as the Red Book, the operating budget allocated to the Ministry of Defence is going down by £2.2 billion from £35 billion in 2023-24 to £32.8 billion in 2024-25.

In terms of capital spending – the other large chunk that makes up the British defense budget – the amount dips from £19.2 billion in 2023-24 to £18.9 billion in 2024-25.

Mark Francois, member of the defense committee, added up these losses, saying it was a combined £2.5 billion drop in defense spending for next year.

While Francois acknowledged the £2.5 billion promised to Ukraine, he said these funds are not part of the U.K. defense budget.

He went on to describe Shapps’ numbers as “smoke and mirrors,” accusing him of “suffering a massive defeat at the hands of the Treasury.”

“You’ve had your budget cut by £2.5 billion and you’re now trying to play smoke and mirrors with the Ukrainian money to pretend your budget hasn’t been cut when it’s been slashed,” Francois said.

Jeremy Quin, chair of the Defence Committee, joined Francois in his assessment that the defense budget was recording a drop in real terms.

Meanwhile, Shapps stood by his argument, saying the overall defense budget was up £1.4 billion to £55.6 billion with the Ukraine funding included.

The line of questioning came off the back of a defense committee report published on Feb. 4, which found the Ministry of Defense is unready for a “high-intensity” war.

The report cited capability shortfalls, stockpile shortages and a net loss in personnel, which all combined would delay Britain’s combat readiness.

A review by the Public Accounts Committee, released March 8, found the Ministry’s alleged failure to adequately manage stocks of spares and supplies puts military personnel at risk.

Earlier this year, during a Jan. 15 speech at Lancaster House, Shapps said given the “threats” posed by Russia, China, North Korea, Iran and Houthi rebels in Yemen, the world is “moving from a post-war to a pre-war world.”

Space Force to upgrade sensors for in-orbit testing, training

As the Space Force looks to improve its live testing and training capabilities, the service is considering upgrading existing satellites with more robust sensors to support that mission.

Through a partnership with the Pentagon’s Test Resource Management Center and the Defense Innovation Unit, Space Training and Readiness Command, or STARCOM, plans to install new space domain awareness sensors on satellites in orbit as soon as 2025.

Those sensors, designed to provide real-time information on the space environment, could help STARCOM create a secure environment to test space capabilities in orbit and train operators on live spacecraft.

“The race is on to get resilient capabilities into space ahead of emerging threats,” Space Force spokesperson Lt. Meghan Liemburg-Archer told C4ISRNET in a March 25 statement. “This capability could enable a more robust on-demand test and training architecture.”

STARCOM’s plan for a live testing and training capability is just one piece of the Space Force’s broader Operational Test and Training Infrastructure, which includes a mix of simulated and in-orbit capabilities designed to train guardians and make sure satellites and ground systems work as designed.

The service’s fiscal 2025 budget request includes $196 million in research and development funding to establish a National Space Test and Training Complex, or NSTTC — a significant jump from the $21.8 million it asked for in FY24.

As for the upgrade mission, details on its potential scope are slim, and Liemburg-Archer said the service is still determining how many sensors it will buy and which satellites it will install them on.

Katalyst Space Technologies, an Arizona-based startup, is providing its SIGHT sensor for the effort as well as its Retrofit Attachment System, which allows it to install a sensor to a satellite in orbit. SIGHT was designed to track debris and other space objects, including active satellites.

DIU awarded Katalyst a $4.5 million contract in January, the funds for which were provided by the Test Resource Management Center, which is also interested in better understanding how satellites could be used to support testing in multiple environments — including for hypersonic systems.

Ghonhee Lee, the company’s CEO, told C4ISRNET the initial contract was for the first ground test unit, which will complete testing this summer. The firm is awaiting additional funding to begin building the flight unit, he said, noting that the prolonged fiscal 2024 appropriations process slowed down that effort.

For the installation itself, the Space Force is working with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which runs a program with the Naval Research Laboratory called Robotic Servicing of Geosynchronous Satellites, or RSGS, that aims to demonstrate the ability to inspect and service satellites using a mechanical arm.

Space Logistics – a subsidiary of Northrop Grumman — will fly the RSGS payload, which is set to launch in early 2025.

Lee said Katalyst will work with DARPA and Space Logistics to coordinate and rehearse the installation process and then Katalyst’s analytics software will be sent to government operations centers to support the mission.

The Space Force declined to comment on the timeline, saying information about the schedule is “restricted” and the mission has technical challenges that need to be resolved. Lee noted that the timing is tight and largely dependent on continued funding, including money in the fiscal 2025 budget request meant to support the mission.

Along with schedule pressure, Lee said he’s concerned the effort could end up being a one-off demo rather than an expanded program to provide STARCOM with in-orbit training capability.

“There’s a major risk that this basically ends up kind of in like its own little corner and doesn’t actually make it into the broader Space Force acquisition strategy and capability roadmap,” he said.

That roadmap will drive future investment in space mobility and logistics capabilities and is still in development as the service determines what utility these systems may have for future operations. The Space Force has refueling demonstrations planned in the next few years, requesting about $14 million for those efforts in fiscal 2025, but hasn’t settled on a longer term strategy.

Lee said Katalyst’s hope is that the need for sensors to support STARCOM and the NSTTC will drive the service to consider how in-orbit repair and upgrade capabilities could bring value. If the mission is successful, he said, it could help make that case and perhaps lead to opportunities for other applications.

He added that Katalyst is in discussion with Space Systems Command — the Space Force’s acquisition arm — and the Commercial Services Office about how to scale the technology through other program offices.

“I think it’ll actually increase the adoption of the capability in SSC and the operations community at large,” Lee said. “The Space Force has already done it through the NSTTC, so then there’s already a playbook.”

Attack drones at heart of ‘military partnership’ between Russia, Iran

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is buttressed by Iranian technologies, drawing alarm from U.S. lawmakers and military officials.

What was once simple collaboration between two governments has in the past year blossomed into a “nascent military partnership,” according to a U.S. Central Command assessment submitted this month to Congress. The command was the keystone of the U.S. war on terror; its remit includes Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and Yemen.

Tehran has provided Moscow’s war machine at least 1,000 attack drones and dozens of multipurpose unmanned aerial systems for use against Ukrainian troops, with future plans to aid domestic production, said CENTCOM boss Gen. Michael Kurilla. Those figures are up dramatically from just months ago.

“The relationship between Iran and Russia? That really started when they asked for them to provide the one-way attack UAS, specifically the Shahed-136,” Kurilla told the House Armed Services Committee on March 21. “They started providing complete systems, and they built an actual factory in Russia, and those same Shahed-136 — a very capable system — are now going at a rate of over 100 a week from Russia into Ukraine.”

Footage of Russian production lines was shared online earlier this year. On display were rows of black and grey Shahed clones: airframes with triangular bodies, rounded spines, stubby nose cones and vertical stabilizers extending above and below the wings.

Militaries and militant groups are increasingly using drones and other unmanned technologies to collect intelligence and strike from greater distances. Their battlefield applicability is highlighted by the Russia-Ukraine war as well as Houthi harassment in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.

Iran is implicated in both aggressions, according to the Defense Intelligence Agency, a principal source of foreign intel for combat operations. Russian troops and Houthi rebels alike have adopted the Shahed, known among the respective forces as the Geran or Waid, agency analysis shows. The model offers users an explosive payload with more than 1,000 miles of range, all at relatively low cost.

US sees ‘footprints’ of Iran-backed group in Tower 22 drone attack

U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, a Connecticut Democrat, said one of the “most obvious manifestations” of Iran’s belligerence is “the fact that they’ve now become a major weapons supplier” to foreign governments.

“One of the reasons why Ukraine is in such desperate straits right now is because of the torrent of drones that, again, is being used by Russian forces to weaken the front line,” Courtney said.

Tehran has long supported a constellation of extremist groups in its neighborhood, and the U.S. has repeatedly sanctioned individuals and organizations for their alleged weapons work.

The Treasury Department in December said it targeted 10 entities and four individuals for facilitating Iran’s procurement of U.S.-origin electronics for use in unmanned systems. Two months later, the department said it hit four front companies that supplied “materials and sensitive technology for Iran’s ballistic missile and UAV programs,” including the Shahed series.

“We all know Iran has been a patron of terrorist militia and a main source of instability in the region for over 40 years,” U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, an Alabama Republican, said. “But over the last few years, it seems the ayatollah has become even more emboldened.”