Work resumes on new ICBM silos. Six months after Air Force leaders ordered a pause on the way-over-budget command and launch segments of the Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile program, Northrop Grumman has resumed work under a service-approved plan, company executives said Tuesday. “We are back into designing those [launch facilities] and really nailing down with the Air Force the appropriate requirements that will lead us to be able to move faster and potentially reduce costs on the program from the baseline that emerged coming out of the Nunn-McCurdy [breach],” CEO Kathy Warden said on the company’s second-quarter earnings call. Defense One’s Audrey Decker reports, here.
More, after the jump…
Welcome to this Wednesday’s edition of The D Brief, a newsletter dedicated to developments affecting the future of U.S. national security, brought to you by Bradley Peniston. Share your tips and feedback here. And if you’re not already subscribed, you can do that here. On this day in 1921, the Chinese Communist Party was established in Shanghai.
Around the Defense Department
Trump admin looks for alternatives to Musk’s SpaceX for Golden Dome. Reuters: “It comes amid a deteriorating relationship between Trump and Musk, which culminated in a public falling-out on June 5. Even before the spat, officials at the Pentagon and White House had begun exploring alternatives to SpaceX, wary of over-reliance on a single partner for huge portions of the ambitious, $175 billion space-based defense shield, two of the sources said.” Read on, here.
Army’s new launcher fires a missile at a maritime target. In a first for the Pacific region, a Typhon launcher shot an SM-6 anti-ship missile at a target 166 kilometers away during this year’s Talisman Sabre exercise with Australia, the deputy commander of U.S. Army Pacific told reporters Tuesday. The launcher was positioned at the Bradshaw training area several hundred miles from Darwin, Australia, Lt. Gen. JB Vowell said during an event with George Washington University’s Project for Media and National Security. Defense One’s Meghann Myers reports, here.
USAF experiments with AI decision aids for targeting. Air Force Times reports that a four-day exercise dubbed “Experiment 3” last month marked the debut of “a novel planning and execution methodology, one never before executed” by the Air Force. “The 805th Combat Training Squadron, also known as the Shadow Operations Center — Nellis battle lab, saw participants use AI software to accelerate their decision-making and targeting processes over four days in a simulated battle space.” More, here.
Q&A with Epirus CEO. Andy Lowery talks to Defense One’s Lauren C. Williams about his new Army anti-drone contract, and what keeps him up at night.
Ukraine
The war is “evolving faster than ever,” reports the Wall Street Journal from the front lines, quoting Ukrainian soldiers and describing new tactics. “Drones are now so dominant that they force everything else—infantry, armor, artillery, logistics and even trench design—to adapt to a sky full of buzzing robots.” Read, here.
Asia
China appears to be readying “loyal wingman” drones of its own. The War Zone: “Satellite imagery of preparations for a major upcoming military parade in China shows that new ‘loyal wingman’ type drones, or at least mockups thereof, are set to be revealed. A video clip has now emerged that is also drawing new attention to Chinese crewed-uncrewed teaming developments.” Read more, here.
Lastly today: “Bye bye, bro.” NYT: “A British F-35B fighter jet that was stranded at an airport in southern India for more than a month over mechanical issues, becoming a local celebrity in the process, is finally making its way home.” Read on, here.
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