The hard part is no longer the technology to fly at more than Mach 5: It’s putting together all the parts to build hypersonic missiles in bulk.

It’s not all about AI and software. You need hardware compact enough — and secure enough — to deploy into a war zone.

“I believe we need the Space Force, in fact, in my opinion, a domain-specific service to organize, train, and equip space forces is overdue,” Air Force Secretary nominee Barbara Barrett said.

“What I want to bet on is the ability of the United States and our Western allies to out-innovate adversaries,” says Mike Griffin, undersecretary of Defense for research and engineering.

An interconnected ecosystem of primes, subs, suppliers, and partners mean one weak link can bring down the entire chain.

WASHINGTON: If Chinese and Russian spies have been doing their jobs well, they might well have been able to compromise some of America’s most important satellites, including the missile launch detection birds known as SBIRS. A report out today from the Pentagon’s Inspector General says that Air Force Space Command’s failure to safeguard its supply chain… Keep reading →

A key dynamic in the shift from COIN-centric land wars to a twenty-first century combat force is what the US and its closest allies will learn from each other thanks to the core weapons systems they are buying at the same time. Hidden in plain view is the emergence of a significant driver of change  –- flying the same… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: Two top Pentagon officials laid out a multi-pronged push to lower the price of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter below $80 million apiece. The chief of the F-35 Joint Program Office, Lt. Gen. Chris Bogdan, and the director of defense pricing, Shay Assad, are underwhelmed by contractor Lockheed Martin‘s  cost reduction efforts so far.… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: For all the senatorial furor over Chinese counterfeit parts making their way into US weapons, the Pentagon is worried about something worse. Corrupt subcontractors selling knock-off products at brand-name prices is much easier to cope with than foreign governments covertly altering those components to grant themselves a back door into American systems.”The vast majority… Keep reading →

For Teri Takai, the key to overseeing cybersecurity for the world’s largest defense organization is striking a delicate balance between enabling mobility and safe-guarding information that is often crucial to national security. In her role as the Department of Defense’s chief information officer, she must also convince a widely diverse group of constituents that a… Keep reading →