Inside Missile Defense

Pete Hegseth, President-elect Trump’s pick for defense secretary, is scheduled to testify before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Jan. 14.

Pentagon deputy technology chief David Honey is directing the Defense Science Board to conduct a study on "all facets of battlespace management" with regards to the cyber domain. In a memo cleared for open publication Tuesday, Honey said cyberspace’s transition from an operational domain to a battlespace requiring an assigned commander signals a “major shift in how the [Defense Department] intends to treat cyber moving forward” and demands a deeper understanding of its relatively new context. U.S. Cyber Command...

Defense Under Secretary Heidi Shyu has tasked the Defense Science Board with studying and providing recommendations on how prepared the Defense Department is to survive against and respond to a nuclear attack, according to a letter posted this week.

Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS), who is expected to chair the Senate Armed Services Committee next year, unveiled new legislation today aimed at reforming the Pentagon's notoriously slow weapons procurement and budgeting processes. Wicker’s office said his new plan titled “ Restoring Freedom’s Forge: American Innovation Unleashed ” outlines recommendations in five key areas: “cutting red tape, unleashing innovation, increasing competition, enabling decisive action and modernizing the budget process.” The senator and his team have also proposed new legislation via the...

The Navy released its first Advanced Manufacturing Strategy today intended to expand the service's use of technologies like additive manufacturing and 3D printing for construction, repair, re-work and the reverse engineering of parts.

The Pentagon needs to fund the Space Force separately from the Air Force to ensure both receive a sufficient budget, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said today. Otherwise, the service will be forced to split hairs in every budget cycle across the future years defense program to pay for competing priority programs. “The Air Force can't pay for the Space Force. So, within the Department of the Air Force, I can't solve the Space Force problem by moving tens of...

Naval Air Systems Command has directed the inspection of each V-22 Osprey’s Proprotor Gearbox -- the critical part of machinery linked to a series of crashes in recent years -- to verify its current flight hours before each aircraft’s next flight, according to a Navy statement today. If the aircraft’s gearbox meets or exceeds a predetermined flight-hour threshold, it will “resume flights in accordance with controls instituted in the March 2024 interim flight clearance,” the statement reads. The...

Hanwha Systems and Hanwha Ocean has completed its $100 million acquisition of Philly Shipyard, clearing the way for the South Korean defense company to begin U.S.-based shipbuilding operations.

The Navy has completed a congressionally directed testing milestone in its development of unmanned surface vessels, successfully demonstrating 720 hours -- 30 days -- of continuous USV engine operation with no human intervention on six different engine systems, the service announced yesterday.

The fiscal year 2025 defense authorization conference bill charges the defense secretary to establish a line item to fund the Defense Department's Joint Energetics Transition Office in future budget justification submissions. The new provision is an amendment to original language defined in the FY-24 National Defense Authorization Act, which charged the defense secretary with standing up the JETO to support energetics research and investments for the joint forces. The goal is to speed up the process of developing chemicals...