The ministry listed 49 ongoing modernization and acquisition projects across the military. Here are some that stood out:

Land Forces

M60 tank: Two separate modernization projects are ongoing. The first will replace the existing fire control system with the new Volkan-M, as well as provide additional armor protection and protected crew seats to M60T tanks. The contract was signed in January 2023. The second bolsters the firepower, survivability and mobility of M60A3 tanks. Prototype development studies are continuing.

Leopard 2 A4 tank: The platform variant is undergoing modernization work through a contract signed in 2022 between the government’s defense program management agency SSB and local defense contractor BMC Otomotiv. Aselsan, another Turkish business, is providing the fire control systems; remote controlled weapon stations; command, control, communication and information systems; laser warning systems; driver vision systems; active protection systems; and close-range surveillance systems. BMC will integrate these systems into the tank and overhaul the chassis.

T-155 Firtina self-propelled howitzer: The next generation of the T-155 is under construction by BMC Otomotiv. The original contract covers the delivery of 130 units. As of the end of 2023, the company had delivered eight. BMC is also developing an engine for the weapon. Inspection and acceptance activities of the prototype engine concluded Feb. 24, 2023.

ACV-15 vehicle: Aselsan is modernizing the combat vehicle by providing the 25mm Nefer turret, among other systems. The Defence Ministry’s 2nd Main Maintenance Factory Directorate is conducting the repair and overhaul of the engine and the transmission of the vehicles.

Naval Forces

Milden submarine project: The Naval Forces’ design office is working on the country’s first indigenous submarine program. Construction is to take place at Gölcük Shipyard Command. A test block is to undergo construction this year, and efforts to build the first submarine are scheduled to start in 2025.

Reis-class submarine program: Hizirreis, the second submarine of the Reis project, which includes the production of six submarines, began May 25, 2023. Gölcük Naval Shipyard is carrying out the work.

Preveze-class submarine: After integration and testing activities ended on the TCG Preveze submarine, which acted as a testbed for the early delivery of the systems, the Gölcük Naval Shipyard started midlife upgrades for the TCG Sakarya in July 2022. That platform is the first submarine to receive the modernization features, and work is ongoing. The plan is to modernize all Preveze-class subs during maintenance and overhaul periods until 2027.

Barbaros-class frigate: Turkey is working on a midlife modernization project focused on the sensors, weapons and combat management systems of Barbaros-class frigates. The first ship to receive upgrades, the TCG Barbaros, is currently performing acceptance tests.

Air Forces

F-16 fighter jet: There are two separate projects for the Turkish Air Forces. The first one is the procurement of new F-16 Block 70 aircraft and the application of Viper modernization to the existing F-16 Block 40/50 airframes in service. The second is meant to extend the structural service life of F-16C/D Block 40/50 aircraft currently in service to 2050, and to strengthen them structurally. This project will take place in facilities run by the 1st Air Maintenance Factory Directorate.

Akinci and Anka-S drones: There are ongoing efforts to buy various types of Akinci and Anka-S drones. For both of these projects, Turkey considers the extension of their range via satellite as critical.

Hürjet aircraft: The primary goal of this project is to design and produce a single-engine, tandem-seat jet trainer with performance features that will play a critical role in training pilots for modern fighter aircraft. The prototype made its maiden flight in April 2023.

Hürkuş-B aircraft: This program for a new-generation basic jet trainer is meant to meet Air Force Command’s need for additional training aircraft. Ultimately, this is to improve the quality of combat readiness training and the effectiveness of flight personnel training. The first aircraft is scheduled for delivery in 2025.

Militaries the world over are increasingly developing and deploying drones and robotics, with the systems posing a threat on land, at sea and in the air. The growing importance of uncrewed systems has been on display for two years in Ukraine and is at the heart of the Defense Department’s clandestine Replicator initiative.

In discussions about the Army’s fiscal 2025 spending plans, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology Doug Bush said a multiyear procurement for something that changes as fast as unmanned aerial systems “may not be appropriate.”

“There’s also a lot of new entrants in that space,” Bush said in a briefing at the Pentagon. “Committing to one, as good as that company might be, would perhaps foreclose other options because there’s so much innovation with new companies in that space.”

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Multiyear procurements are typically used to secure mass amounts of munitions. They are thought to motivate defense suppliers, who can count on longer-term demands and ramp up production as a result, and save money by buying in bulk over the long run.

But locking in on the same drone year after year is a different circumstance, according to Bush. Demands for technology can change month to month, let alone year to year.

“What you buy in one year, I’m not sure you’d want to buy that exact same [unmanned aerial system] for five years,” Bush said. “We might be heavy one year in intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance and heavy the next year in strike.”

The Army’s fiscal 2025 budget blueprint totals nearly $186 billion, an uptick of $400 million compared to the year prior. The service is asking for $175.4 billion in its base budget and another $10.5 billion to pay for overseas operations.

The budget levels also presume the congressional passage of supplemental funding to cover the costs of funneling military aid to Ukraine and to support increased operations in the Middle East, Defense News reported.

The service is asking for $175.4 billion in its base budget and another $10.5 billion to pay for overseas operations.

The FY25 budget levels also presume the passage of supplemental funding by Congress to cover the costs of providing military aid to Ukraine and to support increased operations in the Middle East. The most recent supplemental package passed the Senate but is stuck in limbo waiting for a House vote.

The Army is canceling several modernization programs and truncating some procurement across the future years defense program, but it is not making those cuts in order to stay in line with congressionally mandated budget gaps, Army Under Secretary Gabe Camarillo said in a March 8 briefing with reporters at the Pentagon. The service made “some very difficult tradeoffs, particularly as we’re trying to maintain pace on modernization,” he said.

“We’re trying to fully fund our military personnel account,” he said, “but at the same time, we wanted to make a significant investment in barracks and housing, so areas, for example, that we had to potentially look at are other areas of [operations & maintenance] spend[ing] that are not tied to readiness.”

And the service will continue to prioritize readiness and modernization geared toward operating in the Indo-Pacific theater as part of a larger strategy to deter China’s aggression in the region. Its share of the Pacific Deterrence Initiative in FY25 would be $1.5 billion. The Army would fund $461 million in FY25 for its Operation Pathways exercises, for example, and is asking for $602 million in research and development and $2.8 billion in procurement to field integrated air and missile defense capability in part to support the defense of Guam.

Additionally, “the Pacific focus leads to more investments in longer range, precision munitions,” Army acquisition chief Doug Bush said in the same briefing.

Protecting people

“Overall, the [FY]25 budget funds the needs of our soldiers, $70.7 billion in military personnel funding to account for all increases in basic pay, housing and subsistence,” Camarillo said. The Army is investing $900 million more in FY25 in its personnel account over FY24.

Continuing to acknowledge its recruiting challenges, the service is planning on an active-duty end-strength of 442,300 soldiers. In FY24, the Army requested funding for an active-duty force of 452,000 troops.

Army National Guard end-strength will remain the same as it was in the service’s FY24 budget request – a total of 325,000 – and the Army Reserves will grow to 175,800, an increase of 1,000 reservists over FY24 budget request levels.

The service is investing in recruiting to include the expansion of the Future Soldier Prep Course, improved recruiter selection and training and other efforts to redesign its recruiting workforce. And the Army plans to spend $1.1 billion for marketing and advertising in FY25.

Military housing improvements were a top priority in the FY25 budget, Camarillo noted, including $935 million for new barracks construction at nine sites, up by 41% from the FY24 request. “Barracks and sustainment is funded to 100% for the first time ever, at least in recent memory,” Camarillo said.

The Army is requesting $71.4 billion for operations and maintenance, down by just under 1% from its FY24 request. The budget accounts for the Army’s force structure changes and supports “projected global requirements.”

Modernization modifications

In addition to the Army’s recent decision to cancel its Future Armed Reconnaissance Aircraft to invest in the current utility and cargo helicopter fleets and new unmanned aircraft systems, the service’s FY25 budget will reflect the cancellation of another major priority program established five years ago when the Army overhauled its modernization enterprise and set out to build over 30 weapons systems and other capabilities.

The Army has decided not to move forward with the Extended Range Cannon Artillery program, which used a service-developed, 58-caliber gun tube mounted on the chassis of a BAE Systems-made Paladin Integrated Management howitzer.

“We concluded the prototyping activity last fall, unfortunately, not successful enough to go straight into production,” Army acquisition chief, Doug Bush, said in the same March 8 media briefing. “So what we’re hoping to do is, after an exhaustive tactical fires study that was done to revalidate elements of the requirements by the Army led by Army Futures Command, we hope to, this summer, go into an evaluation of existing systems from industry to get the sense of the maturity of those systems … that would lead to ..a downselect of one of those systems for potentially follow-on production.”

The Army is asking for $55 million to execute its new plan to fill ERCA requirements in FY25.

Overall, the service’s total research, development, test and evaluation funding is $14.1 billion, dropping by $1.7 billion from the FY24 request, or a 10.8% decrease.

The Army plans to spend $24.4 billion in procurement in FY25, $1 billion more than requested in FY24, or a 4.5% increase.

“The shift in RDT&E from FY24 to 25 shows a progression of many of our key capabilities and systems going from R&D into production to include some of the aviation rebalancing as well as the production of new aviation platforms,” Camarillo said.

The Army plans to shift $4.5 billion taken from the FARA development program canceled in the middle of a competitive prototyping effort, along with money taken from the discontinued UH-60 Victor-model Black Hawk program and the retirement of Shadow and Raven UAS, to current fleet upgrades and procurement and future UAS, launched effects and loitering munitions programs.

The service’s other major Future Vertical Lift program — the Future Long Range Assault Aircraft — is fully funded in the budget according to the current cost estimate, Bush said. “We are going through a Milestone B [research and development phase] this year, where we will finalize our cost estimate for the program’s [Engineering and Manufacturing Development] phase.”

The Army also continues to fund its troubled Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon program, hoping for a successful test planned for this summer. It wants $538 million in FY25 for research and development and another $744 million in procurement. The service was supposed to field the first unit with all-up rounds at the end of last year, but following a series of failed and canceled flight tests, the program is lagging behind.

With the drone war heating up in Ukraine and the Middle East, the Army is requesting roughly $40 million in research and development for various directed energy programs that will help the service tackle countering small UAS and drone swarms to include work to provide both a laser weapon and high powered microwave system for the Indirect Fire Protection Capability Increment 2 program, Camarillo said. And the service is requesting $88.5 million to continue developing its Directed Energy Maneuver-Short Range Air Defense System.

Procurement plus up

The Army is requesting $24.4 billion, a $1 billion dollar boost over FY24, to begin buying some of the new weapons systems the service is planning to field as the result of a major modernization push to ensure the service is ready to fight in a multidomain environment against high-end threats by 2030.

There are no major munitions or missile procurement boosts as a means to replenish stockpiles sent to Ukraine or expended in the Middle East as the service continues to push for the approval of supplemental funding to cover those costs, according to Camarillo.

Yet some quantities will go up in FY25 as new missiles begin to be fielded to first units. For instance, the Army wants to buy 230 Precision Strike Missiles for $492 million in FY25, which were fielded to the first unit in late 2023.

And the service would ramp up the number of Mid-Range Capability missiles, its new ship-killing capability, planned for production. The Army is requesting $183 million in FY25 to continue MRC development as well as $233 million to procure 32 Tomahawk missiles and MK14 cannisters, along with operational support. MRC is one program that was supposed to be fielded to the first unit in FY24 but a continuing resolution is preventing the Army from reaching that milestone.

Continued investment in major munitions like the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 Missile Segment Enhancement missile, Javelin, Guided Multiple Launch Rocket system, and 155mm artillery are planned in FY25.

The PAC-3 MSE’s first multiyear contract was supposed to start in FY24 but without supplemental funding, cannot be finalized. FY25 would be the second year of the contract the Army needs to replenish and stockpile the missile which is being used both in Ukraine and the Middle East. The Army wants 230 missiles in FY25 for $963 million.

The Army would also like to spend $1.2 billion on GMLRS, procuring 6,408 missiles in a multiyear buy, which is “the highest base budget number for GMLRS probably ever,” Bush said.

A purchase of 10 more High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems for $79.4 million is also on tap, as well as 126 next-generation Stinger missiles for $75.2 million.

The majority of the 155mm munitions production would come from supplemental funding but the Army is requesting to build 50,000 for $171.7 million using base budget dollars in FY25.

The Army is prioritizing air-and-missile defense in its budget in FY25, supporting 15 Patriot battalions for $172 million and the service is requesting $516.6 million to procure four new Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensors to replace older Patriot radars.

The Indirect Fire Protection Capability system would also get a budget boost in FY25. The service is asking for $658 million to procure systems needed for the program’s initial operational test and evaluation. The Army asked for $313 million in FY24.

With the surging need for counter-unmanned aircraft systems, the Army is requesting to spend $82.5 million to buy Mobile Low, slow, small, unmanned aircraft Integrated Defeat System (MLIDS) and $26.4 million for Fixed Site LIDS. The service would also spend $116.3 million on Coyote interceptors in FY25 and another $33.6 million on unspecified C-UAS effectors.

As the result of the FARA advanced helicopter cancellation, the Army plans to use funding freed up by the decision to begin production of the CH-47F Block II Chinook for active force along with what it’s already building for Special Operations units, investing $465.2 million in FY25.

The Army is also planning on buying more UH-60M Black Hawks, asking for $709 million in FY25. And the service wants to rapidly procure new Future Tactical UAS as it retires aging Shadow and Raven UAS from the aviation fleet, asking for $149 million to buy aircraft and another $128 million to continue development. The Army wants to award a contract for FTUAS in the fourth quarter of FY25.

“We concluded the prototyping activity last fall,” Doug Bush told reporters at a March 8 briefing on the fiscal 2025 budget request. “Unfortunately, [it was] not successful enough to go straight into production.”

The new plan — following an “exhaustive” tactical fires study meant to revalidate elements of the extended-range cannon requirement led by Army Futures Command — is to evaluate existing options from industry this summer “to get a sense of the maturity of those systems.”

Of the 24 new Army systems slated to make it into the hands of soldiers by the end of 2023, only the Extended Range Cannon Artillery program missed that goal. The ERCA system uses a service-developed, 58-caliber gun tube mounted on the chassis of a BAE Systems-made Paladin Integrated Management howitzer.

The Army was building 20 prototypes of the ERCA system: two for destructive testing and the remaining 18 for a battalion.

The operational evaluation of ERCA revealed “engineering challenges,” Bush said a year ago. Observations in early testing of prototypes showed excessive wear on the gun tube after firing a relatively low number of rounds.

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Army Futures Command leader Gen. James Rainey told Defense News last summer the service was working on a new conventional fires strategy expected by the end of the calendar year. The strategy would determine both capability and capacity of what exists and what the Army may need, Rainey said.

The strategy considered 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.

Depending on the artillery strategy’s conclusions, there are a variety of options the service could consider in order to fulfill the Army’s requirement for an extended-range cannon, Bush said.

The Army was able to conduct a variety of successful tests with ERCA prototypes, including hitting a target on the nose 70 kilometers (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 to the gun tube.

The Army is racing to extend artillery ranges on the battlefield to take away advantages of high-end adversaries like Russia and China. The ERCA weapon was intended to be able to fire at and destroy targets from a position out of the range of enemy systems.

That requirement remains, Bush stressed last week.

The hope now is to find systems that currently exist and are capable. The Army would then choose one for production if it proves promising, Bush said.

“There [are] things people say, and then we need to actually do testing to make sure it’s true,” he explained.

“It’s a shift from developing something new to working with what is available both domestically and internationally to get the range,” he added, “because the fires study validated the range and volume are still needed, so we want to find a different way to get there.”

The Army is asking for $55 million in its FY25 budget to pursue the new effort to find an extended-range cannon capability.

The service also plans to continue developing new munitions it was already working on as part of the ERCA program, Bush noted.

The service on March 9 rolled out a policy, dubbed Enabling Modern Software Development and Acquisition Practices, enshrining the revisions. Officials said the measure brings them closer to private-sector expectations, making business simpler and more inclusive.

“We thought this was important to do this now, and issue this policy now, because of how critical software is to the fight right now,” Margaret Boatner, the deputy assistant secretary of the Army for strategy and acquisition reform, told reporters at the Pentagon. “More than ever before, software is actually a national-security imperative.”

Consequences of the policy include: changing the way requirements are written, favoring high-level needs statements and concision over hyper-specific directions; employing alternative acquisition and contracting strategies; reducing duplicative tests and streamlining cybersecurity processes; embracing a sustainment model that recognizes programs can and should be updated; and establishing expert cohorts, such as the prospective Digital Capabilities Contracting Center of Excellence at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland.

While the policy is effective immediately, the different reforms will take different amounts of time to be realized. The contacting center, for example, has several months to get up and running. No additional appropriations are needed to make the transitions, according to Boatner.

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“All of our weapons systems, our missiles, our radars, our helicopters, our tanks? They run on software,” she said. “The ability to rapidly develop and upgrade and enhance these capabilities is critical to ensure that we can maintain that competitive overmatch over our adversaries.”

U.S. competition with Russia and China — world powers considered top-tier national security threats — is increasingly digital. A ballooning demand for seamless connectivity, lightning-quick decision making and advanced robotics has propelled software into the spotlight.

Chief Information Officer Leonel Garciga said the new directive puts the Army in a more-dynamic posture.

“As our partners were coming in to compete on work inside the Army, we were almost holding ourselves back by not having some of this stuff in place and missing out on some opportunities,” he told reporters. “This is kind of edging into the second phase of our digital transformation as a service.”

The Army considers digital transformation, or the phasing in of new technologies and virtual practices, vital to its larger modernization goals. Previous budget blueprints featured billions of dollars for cyber and information technology.

Program Executive Office-Land Systems announced Wednesday that General Dynamics Land Systems and Textron Systems Corporation would design, develop and manufacture an advanced reconnaissance vehicle 30-mm autocannon prototype vehicle.

The contract award is $11.8 million for Textron and $10.9 million for General Dynamics. Each company will produce one prototype to be delivered by fiscal 2025, land systems spokesman David Jordan told Marine Corps Times.

If prototyping is successful for the family of vehicles, which includes other variants, production could cost between $1.8 billion and $6.8 billion throughout five years, according to a 2022 Congressional Research Service report.

Both Textron and General Dynamics announced in January that each company had completed testing of a command and control advanced reconnaissance vehicle variant prototype, according to company websites.

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This 30-mm cannon variant will use the same turret and weapon system that is on the amphibious combat vehicle-30, said Steve Myers, Marine Corps program manager for light armored vehicles.

“Ensuring commonality is crucial, especially for the Marine Corps’ capacity to maintain weapon systems with limited fleets,” Myers said in a land systems release. “The prototyping of the ARV-30 allows the government to test and confirm the requirements before entering the engineering and manufacturing development phase.”

The Marine Corps established the Light Armored Vehicle Way-Ahead plan to replace the light armored vehicle, which has been in service since the early 1980s. The light armored vehicle is a trooper carrier vehicle with radio systems and a 25 mm Bushmaster cannon that has been used extensively in Marine deployments since its fielding.

But light armored vehicle’s life cycle is expected to end in the mid-2030s, Myers said at the time.

In 2019 the service announced the advanced reconnaissance vehicle concept as the official replacement for the light armored vehicle.

But the Corps wanted more than just a newer up-armored gun truck. In the following year, Marine Corps Systems Command staff and Office of Naval Research personnel developed the advanced reconnaissance vehicle concept that would use the vehicle to conduct command and control, sensing, cyber and drone missions.

The Marines later laid out concepts for a command, control, communications and computers/unmanned aerial systems version. Textron and General Dynamics delivered those prototypes in late 2022. Marines tested and evaluated those in from January 2023 to November 2023.

What the Marines want in the advanced reconnaissance vehicle:

• An automatic medium-caliber cannon.
• Anti-armor capability to defeat close-in heavy armor threats.
• Precision-guided munitions to defeat threats beyond the engagement range of threat systems.
• Unmanned systems swarm capability to provide persistent, multifunction munitions.
• Advanced, networked, multifunctional electronic warfare capabilities.
• A modern command-and-control suite and a full range of sensors.
• Organic unmanned aerial and ground systems that can be deployed from the advanced reconnaissance vehicle.
• Active and passive vehicle protection.
• Robust cross-country/on-road mobility performance with shore-to-shore water mobility.

Source: Congressional Research Service

Early planning for the advanced reconnaissance vehicle began in 2016, prior to the Force Design 2030 launch under former Commandant Gen. David Berger in 2019.

Before force design changes, the advanced reconnaissance vehicle was slated to serve much as the light armored vehicle had in light armored reconnaissance battalions.

But the Corps continues to restructure its force, aiming for leaner, smaller formations that can operate distributed, conduct reconnaissance, and counter reconnaissance for the joint force. Platforms such as the ARV must be able to help with deep sensing and pass data for targeting and protect themselves from electromagnetic attack and detection.

In 2023, Berger spelled out in his final update to the force design how reconnaissance would change.

The service needed “littoral, multi-domain reconnaissance capabilities that our light armored reconnaissance battalions do not currently provide.” The document notes that the Corps will shift instead to “mobile reconnaissance battalions” that will include maritime, light mobile and light armored companies.”

The service has hundreds of thousands of radios, too many to quickly and cost-effectively modernize given looming security deadlines and cat-and-mouse competition with Russia and China, world powers with sophisticated signals intelligence capabilities. An as-a-service model may provide the military with the latest radios and support networks while driving down costs and promoting hardware and software flexibility.

At least one related request for information was published last year. It garnered more than a dozen responses, ranging from enthusiasm to rejection, officials said at the time.

The input was helpful to the Army, and that sort of dialogue with defense suppliers will continue, Undersecretary Gabe Camarillo told reporters March 7, 2024, on the sidelines of the McAleese defense conference in Washington.

“We were going to send an RFI out, we were going to enter into a very formal and elaborate conversation with industry about the economics of that buying model and get feedback,” Camarillo said. “I think we’ll continue to partner with industry on multiple RFIs, multiple discussions in different fora.”

Exploratory pilots could help iron out kinks, Camarillo said. Radio as a service could resemble a subscription offered by some makers of consumer products; it could also mirror other deals in which companies furnish goods and expertise on a rolling basis, keep them up to date and handle quality control.

Updated connectivity has for years been a priority for the Army, alongside demands for improved long-range precision fires, air and missile defense and aviation. Secure, reliable networking is a tenet of the Pentagon’s Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control concept, which envisions insights seamlessly relayed across land, air, sea, space and cyber.

Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George at the same conference Thursday said the service must recognize the demands of today without losing sight of the potential leaps ahead of tomorrow.

“We have to get our soldiers the right technology, when it is relevant, with the ability to upgrade and adapt to the threat. If we don’t, then we are putting our men and women in the dirt unprepared to fight and win,” George said. “This isn’t just about product innovation, it’s about process innovation.”

The chief of staff previously said soldiers “need to shoot, move and communicate,” and that “technology should facilitate those fundamentals, not encumber them.”

More details will come toward the end of the month when Army Futures Command commander Gen. Jim Rainey unveils the new CFT at the Association of the U.S. Army’s Global Force Symposium in Huntsville, Alabama, the chief said.

George told reporters at the March 7 McAleese & Associates annual defense forum in Washington that the Army is seeing a wide variety of technology that can help the service see farther and better including high-altitude balloons with a variety of payloads.

Deep sensing will help with reconnaissance and surveillance as well as long-range fires targeting.

“It gets back to the sensors and how that’s going to look inside our formations, that’s what we’re working toward,” George said.

Deep sensing platforms could also include things like high-altitude, fixed-wing, solar-powered platforms, other unmanned aircraft or manned spy planes with more capable sensors. The Army is experimenting with all of these capabilities.

The service is currently taking capabilities like high-altitude balloons and figuring out where they might reside with formations and how they might be employed by units at places like the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California, George noted. For example, the Army is experimenting with high-altitude balloons at the service’s major experimentation capstone event Project Convergence now underway.

Army Futures Command, which was established more than five years ago to tackle the Army’s toughest modernization challenges, set up cross-functional teams to focus on different capabilities the service needs to fight in a multidomain environment against high-end threats and near-peer adversaries.

The original CFTs are Long-Range Precision Fires, Next-Generation Combat Vehicles, Future Vertical Lift, the Network, Precision Navigation and Timing, Air-and-Missile Defense, Soldier Lethality and Synthetic Training Environment. The idea was to convene a whole range of Army officials, from training and doctrine writers to sustainment experts to acquisition officers and even system operators, to ensure the success of a program.

A year ago, Rainey said there would be some changes to CFTs down the road as programs are fielded and that some new CFTs would emerge.

At last year’s Global Force Symposium, Rainey unveiled plans for the Army’s newest CFT, one that would focus on contested logistics and would be based in Huntsville nested near Army Materiel Command, which handles logistics capabilities.

Technology developed through the terminated program will also be applied to a wider variety of platforms, he said.

The service is “planning to set up additional research and development resources for the UH-60M Black Hawks to continue to improve that vital platform,” Doug Bush, the Army’s acquisition chief, told lawmakers during a House Armed Services Committee’s Tactical Air and Land Subcommittee hearing on March 6.

The end of the FARA program last month marked an abrupt change of direction in aviation modernization and became one of the service’s most significant program cancellations of the last decade. The Army had already spent at least $2 billion on the program and had requested another $5 billion for the next five years.

At the same time, the service scrapped its Shadow and Raven unmanned aircraft systems developed for the counterinsurgency fight nearly two decades ago and a program – the UH-60V – that upgraded Lima-model Black Hawks with a digital cockpit for the National Guard. The Guard will now get Mike-model UH-60s.

The Army also plans to invest in a new multiyear procurement buy of its UH-60M Black Hawks and purchase CH-47F Block II Chinook cargo helicopters it did not plan to procure for the active component. And it will invest roughly $2.5 billion across the next five years beginning in fiscal 2025 in new unmanned capabilities, according to Bush.

While FARA has come to an end, the Army said it needs the funding budgeted in FY24 to close out the program and wrap up some critical technology development efforts that can be transferred to other programs.

The FY25 budget request will show that the Army has requested funding for UH-60 research and development across its future years development program “that was not there before,” Bush said.

“When we go to that next multiyear, we hope that’s a better Black Hawk aircraft,” he said. “The one we have is great, but we hope that that R&D, cutting across the whole FYDP, that will allow us to have a better aircraft.”

Making Black Hawk better

One of the largest areas of technology development in the FARA program was focused on a modular open systems architecture.

That development will cascade to other aviation platforms from its Future Long Range Assault Aircraft to the current fleet of helicopters and even to other future platforms like the XM30 Mechanized Infantry Combat Vehicle in the design phase now, Gen. James Rainey, Army Futures Command commander, said during the same hearing.

The number one priority for Black Hawk upgrades will be incorporating the open system architecture, Maj. Gen. Mac McCurry, the Army’s Aviation Center of Excellence commander, testified at the hearing. “The ability for us to turn and be more nimble as we react to changes on the battlefield and put a new piece of kit on a Black Hawk, that open architecture helps us do that very well.”

The Army also “learned numerous things … modeling and simulation that we developed as part of this, the whole Launched Effects ecosystem was one of the main things we’ve benefited over the course of this study,” Rainey added.

Launched Effects will be deployed from both aircraft and ground platforms and will not only be able to perform armed scout-type missions for Army aviation but will be host to a wide variety of sensors and payloads to perform reconnaissance, take out enemy weapons, provide targeting or even extend network connectivity.

More technology that will be transferable includes work on Degraded Visual Environment capabilities, which the Army has been working on for many years, as well as sensor processing and heads-up mounted display advancements, according to McCurry.

Additionally, the service did a lot of work on sensor miniaturization and lightening payloads and sensors that can now be easily transferred to unmanned systems, he added.

And work on additive manufacturing to get away from forgings and castings will increase the Army’s maintenance-free operating periods, McCurry said.

A path for improved engine

The Army plans to spend some of its time closing out the FARA program testing out its Improved Turbine Engine Program engines in the FARA prototypes built in a competition between Lockheed Martin and Bell Textron. Both aircraft had been built and recently received ITEP engines to begin the process toward initial flights by the end of the year, prior to the program’s cancellation.

“We’ve got engines in test stands today. We’ve got engines in the aircraft today that we’re going to run in the FARA aircraft and we will learn from that,” Brig. Gen. David Phillips, the Army’s program executive officer for aviation, said during the hearing.

The ITEP engine program experienced technology development and supply chain hurdles, drastically delaying its introduction to the aircraft it will power including the FARA program. ITEP was originally designed to replace the engines in UH-60M and AH-64E Apache attack helicopters, giving the aircraft 3,000 shaft horsepower and increased fuel efficiency.

The Army is delaying procurement of the ITEP engine, a move it announced along with the FARA cancellation, but it is sustaining its research and development efforts, Bush reassured at the hearing.

“We’re going to revisit that in [the program objective memorandum FY]26, to understand based on how things are going with integration on Apache and Black Hawk, when those procurement dollars need to come back into the program,” he said. “The Army remains committed to that program and getting that capability to the fleet.”

Defense News on Feb. 9 talked to Parker about how the Army is working to integrate its modern capabilities on the battlefield to provide a layered approach to addressing a widening array of complex threats, as seen in Ukraine’s fight against Russia’s invasion and in the Middle East.

This interview was edited for length and clarity.

Some programs among various cross-functional teams are transitioning to other portfolios, particularly Program Executive Office Missiles and Space, in your case. How is that coming along for major programs like the Integrated Battle Command System and Maneuver-Short Range Air Defense?

We would like everything to be able to transition into a program of record. You’ve hit on two of our signature modernization efforts. As we look at M-SHORAD Increment 1 — our kinetic version — we are currently fielding our third battalion for that at Fort Cavazos, Texas, with our first battalion in Germany and the second battalion at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.

PEO Missiles and Space is heavily involved with that. When we look at M-SHORAD Inc 1, that initially came out as part of a directed requirement.

We are moving through the requirements process, we briefed the Protection Functional Capabilities Board in December, and we got the [Joint Capabilities Board] scheduled for April for an Inc 1 capabilities development document.

We continue to codify those requirements, specifically for sustainment of the capability. That’s going to put us in a good place to get this thing fully transitioned and get that capability to the warfighter.

IBCS is our other big signature effort. It is a program of record. A full-rate production decision has been made. PEO Missiles and Space is working on that.

[We are looking at] software upgrades to the system to be able to incorporate additional capability. We’ve established a governance process where we [consider] additional capabilities to incorporate within the system, and we’re able to prioritize that from not only a material developer but from a capability developer standpoint with the proponent at Fort Sill.

We want to transition all of our programs over to the two Army capability managers.

We’re still on track for fielding to the first unit in fiscal 2025.

The Pentagon’s director of operational test and evaluation recently released a report with a section on integrated air and missile defense. A full operational test and evaluation for IBCS was scheduled to begin in the fourth quarter of FY24. Is that on track? As the report mentioned, that FOT&E will evaluate how well deficiencies were corrected.

There were some challenges noted in the initial operational test and evaluation, and that’s part of our prioritization process we look at about every month.

We are currently working through that to make sure they are addressed and we have those fixed for FOT&E. That is on schedule.

That’s part of the bigger complex problem PEO Missiles and Space has — three signature modernization efforts all inherently linked together between IBCS, the Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensor, and the Indirect Fire Protection Capability, all being fielded on a very similar timeline — and making sure all those efforts are integrated. It is not an [enviable] task. That’s why they essentially came up with the integrated fires test campaign we’re now on, leading up to that FOT&E for IBCS.

It’s about working those development efforts simultaneously. PEO Missiles and Space is doing a great job making sure these development efforts are synchronized because one slip and we could be looking at a domino effect. That’s why the second and third order effects to other programs are part of that conversation.

The integrated fires test campaign is designed to support milestone decisions we have coming up for each of the programs. Everything is currently on track. That’s the good-news story, but your “spidey senses” are always looking for where that hiccup could happen that then creates a domino effect across three programs.

The Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensor is in testing now. You’ve received radars. The front end and the back end will come together later. How are things going?

There’s been no change to the plan. This program has had challenges, but the thing that’s really reinforced my confidence as of late was the flight testing that happened this past quarter — two successful engagements on the front end against surrogate threat targets.

Now we are looking toward integrating that back-end piece as well so that we actually have the full 360-degree capability. It’s still in development, but some of the initial feedback was positive.

The Indirect Fire Protection Capability is another program that has taken longer than expected. Please provide an update on the Army’s receipt of the first IFPC launchers. There was also a request for information that came out for a second interceptor.

[IFPC is an] important piece of the puzzle. This is definitely a concept we’ve had coming for a while. The good news is we have launchers now out on the ranges.

The PEO Missiles and Space team recently had a successful launch of an AIM-9 missile off one of our launchers. I’m looking down the road toward that continual developmental testing we have coming up, all leading toward test flights and IOT&E, [expected] in 2026.

We’re going to have a cruise missile-capable interceptor with the AIM-9X. [The second interceptor] is about more advanced capabilities.

[The PEO Missiles and Space program executive officer], Brig. Gen. Frank Lozano, and his team are working diligently as they get their request for information responses back.

You are designing a multimission launcher for IFPC. How is the Army looking at a wider variety of interceptors beyond one or two types? What is realistic to have in the family of interceptors that could be part of IFPC?

I have had a lot of conversations about interceptors lately. A specific lesson we’re taking out of Ukraine is there’s no silver bullet. What is working for Ukraine is a layered system-of-systems approach.

I’m kind of frequency hopping over [the topic of] counter-unmanned aerial system [technology]. How do we get ahead of the cost curve? Some of these small UASs are developed for a few [hundred dollars] or a few [thousand]. The commander on the ground will fire [at] that to save lives or protect an asset, but I’d rather not have to force them into that corner.

We’re taking a look at some low-cost solutions. We’re taking a look at how we can increase magazine depth. We’re taking a look at capabilities such as the Advanced Precision Kill Weapon, the less expensive Hydra rocket variants that potentially get after that cost curve but still provide a level of lethality we would need to combat two or three small UAS threats.

The same can apply for IFPC; the counter-cruise missile fight; the Patriot air defense system for [the Lower Tier Future Interceptor] in bridging some littoral space; and the Patriot and the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense systems.

The counter-small UAS mission is relatively new for the AMD CFT. How is that taking shape? How are you supporting the Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office as well as the Joint Counter-small Unmanned Aircraft Systems Office?

You kind of hit the nail on the head in terms of it taking a village, especially with this mission set. Case in point: I just met with the Air Force Research Laboratory on what it’s developing.

In April 2022, there were four signature modernization efforts [for AMD CFT]. A couple months later, we had five. So as we talk about evolving, that’s one of the things we’re continuing to transform on.

We are currently in the process of fielding our first two division sets. It’s the first phase of that first division set fielding —primarily the handheld capabilities we’re procuring.

That will be followed, before the end of the year, with essentially phase two, which is focused more on the Low, slow, small, unmanned aircraft Integrated Defeat System, the Ku-band Radio Frequency Sensor radars, [and] the Coyote variants. Those capabilities [will go] to the first two divisions.

What observations from warfare in Ukraine and the Middle East are influencing what your team does?

Some of the stuff is potentially in the realm of machine learning and being able to help system operators make decisions.

We are continuing to look at how the threat is evolving with respect to speed, with respect to hardening defense mechanisms that platforms have in terms of payload, capacity, battery life — all these things that can enhance their capability.

The Army wants to replace the Stinger missile. Where does that effort stand?

That’s Inc 3 of M-SHORAD. Inc 1 is the kinetic version we’re currently fielding; Inc 2 is our directed-energy version we’re working on with the Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office.

Inc 3 is two things primarily: one is the next-generation Stinger, two is the 30mm proximity fuse ammunition.

Both are helping us gain capability within that M-SHORAD [space] and over to the counter-UAS space. With the next-generation Stinger, we are looking at increasing or getting better capability than we had with our previous generation.

There are two main competitors for the [Stinger replacement] competition PEO Missiles and Space is handling.

What else is getting your attention beyond specific portfolio items?

One of the things we’re starting to look toward is a human-machine interface. We’re going to [carry out] some engagements and try to learn as much as we can.

I’m not trying to look at it from a platform perspective, but a system perspective in terms of what we can leverage that’s already been done, and how can we adjust that in order to be able to focus on an air defense-type system on top of it.

Under the $178 million deal, announced March 6, Denver-based Palantir will build 10 TITAN ground stations, designed to help the Army connect data-gathering sensors from across multiple domains to shooters in the field to support advanced beyond-line-of-sight targeting.

“We are thrilled to move into the next phase to deliver these revolutionary capabilities to our warfighters,” Col. Chris Anderson, the Army’s project manager for intelligence systems and analytics, said in a statement. “TITAN provides game changing technologies on how we collect, process and disseminate intelligence across the battlefield, providing us a decisive edge in supporting Multi-Domain Operations.”

The award follows a three-year design and prototyping phase that pitted Palantir’s system against one developed by RTX, formerly Raytheon. The firms’ designs were refined based on regular feedback from Army users, including a demonstration last summer that assessed technical performance and usability.

Bryant Choung, Palantir’s senior vice president for defense solutions, said the program’s emphasis on incorporating feedback through regular demonstrations, or soldier touchpoints, has helped ensure the company’s winning system includes the capabilities most needed in the field.

“The way that the Army has structured this has allowed them to field this type of innovative technology incredibly rapidly, but while making sure that we’re getting that feedback from soldiers to make sure that we’re on the right track,” he told C4ISRNET in a March 5 interview.

That soldier input will continue over the next two years as Palantir further refines its TITAN prototype.

Palantir plans to deliver all 10 systems in that timeframe, Choung said. That includes five advanced variants, which will integrate with tactical trucks like the Family of Medium Tactical Vehicle Fleet’s M1083, and will be able to take in space sensor data.

The company will also build five basic variants that will be installed on the Army’s Joint Light Tactical Vehicle. While it won’t have the direct space downlink, the basic version will have access to data from space sensors.

Choung noted that because the systems are software-heavy and designed for modularity, the company can continue to upgrade each variant based on the Army’s needs. In its statement, the service noted that the contract covers “the integration of new technologies.”

By 2026, the Army will decide whether the capability will transition into full production. The service hasn’t yet determined how many units it will ultimately buy, but Choung said the company estimates it will be in the range of 100 to 150 systems.

Palantir’s subcontractor team on the effort includes Northrop Grumman, Anduril Industries, L3Harris, Pacific Defense and Sierra Nevada Corporation.

Anduril said in a statement that it will play a role in TITAN’s hardware design and development as well as scaled manufacturing.

“With extensive experience developing and manufacturing software-defined hardware systems for austere environments, we look forward to leveraging advanced design, engineering, and manufacturing approaches for the next tranche of vehicle systems, building on the techniques that enabled us to deliver the initial TITAN prototype in months,” said Tom Keane, senior vice president of engineering at Anduril.

Logos Technologies announced a $19.4 million deal for its Serenity hostile fire detectors late last month. The five-year arrangement also accounts for maintenance and operation costs across U.S. Africa Command.

Serenity combines electro-optical and acoustic sensors to pinpoint the origin of weapons fire and explosions as far as 6 miles away. It can be paired with a wide-area motion imagery, or WAMI, device to document swaths of land over extended periods of time.

“Serenity can cue the WAMI system to a particular area of interest — say, the location of an enemy mortar team — and then the WAMI system can track their movement across the battlefield, as well as ‘go back in time’ and discover their initial staging area,” Doug Rombough, vice president of business development at Logos, said in a statement.

Serenity systems are already used by U.S. troops, Rombough added, and a quickly deployable version for international forces is under consideration. The Army Research Laboratory is also looking into a smaller version of Serenity that can be mounted on a gyrocopter, according to the company.

Counterterrorism missions across the African continent involve multiple countries and their forces. The region has been plagued by violent organizations affiliated with al-Qaida and the Islamic State group. In addition, coups in Mali in 2020, Burkina Faso in 2022 and Niger in 2023 have complicated U.S. Defense Department operations and assistance programs there.

Elbit Systems of America is itself a part of Israeli business Elbit Systems, the 21st largest defense contractor in the world when ranked by defense-related revenue. Elbit Systems earned nearly $5 billion in defense revenue in 2022 and about $4.8 billion in 2021, according to Defense News Top 100 analysis.

The project is linked to the $9.6 billion jet procurement contract reached between Finland’s MOD and the American company Lockheed Martin in February 2022. The deal covers the delivery of 64 F-35s to the Finnish Air Force.

The building of the aircraft assembly facility forms part of the contract’s so-called stage one industrial component. The umbrella project required the signing of a lease for a suitable assembly plant development site. This was found near the town of Nokia. The site lease was signed in January between the Finnish Defence Forces and Defence Properties Finland, the state organization tasked with managing properties and assets owned by Finland’s defense administration.

Construction work on the engine assembly building is slated to commence during the second half of 2024. Under the terms of the industrial deal struck between Finland and Lockheed Martin, engine maintenance at the facility in Nokia will continue throughout the entire life cycle of the Air Force’s F-35 fleet.

“Industrial cooperation tied to the F-35 agreement will generate critical maintenance and repair expertise for Finland’s indigenous defense industry. This includes performance areas like reliability of maintenance. The agreement will also create significant know-how in Finland for F-35 engine assembly and testing,” Defence Minister Antti Häkkänen said.

The assembly plant will operate in close collaboration with the regional aircraft hub in Tampere run by Patria’s aviation division. An estimated 100 personnel will work in various assembly roles at the facility.

The government owns 50.1% of Patria, and the Norwegian company Kongsberg controls the remainder. Patria itself owns half of the Norwegian defense contractor Nammo.

The F-35s are set to replace the Air Force’s ageing McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet jets. These planes are scheduled to retire by 2030. The first batch of the F-35s on order are due for delivery and then deployment to Arctic air bases in Finland’s Lapland region by 2026.

The industrial cooperation component of the F-35 acquisition deal is expected to be scaled up in stages by 2030. The broadening of the industrial agreement may include the production or assembly in Finland of certain parts and systems used in the aircraft.

The Air Force has already tested the F-35′s suitability and adaptability to operate in extreme weather conditions, especially in Arctic areas of Finland during the country’s long winters that feature limited daylight.

In recent exercises, the service routinely used stretches of “closed highway” in Arctic and sub-Arctic regions as temporary airstrips. The Air Force is currently running such maneuvers as part of the weeklong Hanki drills in the north of the country, which are to continue until March 2.

The 74-page whitepaper, which the service unveiled during its annual symposium this week and which builds on a similar document published four years ago, details planned procurements out to 2037.

“The Air Force is aware of [the importance of] long-term development planning and spending of the national budget to achieve maximum value,” said the service’s commander, Air Chief Marshal Panpakdee Pattanakul.

Indeed, part of the whitepaper’s raison d’être is to stake claims for long-term funding as its aircraft inventories age. For instance, the 2020 version stated the fighter fleet had an average age of 26 years, a figure that continues to increase.

But the government’s procurement process is disjointed, according to Greg Raymond, an expert in Asia-Pacific affairs at the Australian National University. He cited factors like political instability, inadequate strategic planning, annual rather than multiyear budgeting measures, and weak civil oversight that allows each armed service to makes its own decisions.

In the latest whitepaper, the Air Force gives priority to a medium-range air defense system possessing a minimum 30-nautical-mile range from fiscal 2025 to fiscal 2028. Afterward, from FY33 to FY37, the service plans to carry out a second phase for a medium- or long-range air defense system.

From FY28 to FY32, the force plans to buy a short-range air defense system boasting gun-, missile and laser-based weapons. Credence is given to counter-drone systems, too, and a nine-year project to procure these is to commence in 2025.

The service is also eyeing 12-14 new fighters to replace the F-16 jets of 102 Squadron based at Korat. The procurement is scheduled to take place from FY25 to FY34, two years later than originally planned. The squadron’s F-16s from the late 1980s are to retire by 2028.

Two contenders have emerged for the aircraft requirement: Lockheed Martin’s F-16 Block 70/72 and Saab’s Gripen.

“We’re confident the F-16 Block 70/72 will complement the RTAF’s existing F-16 fleet and deliver the advanced 21st century security capabilities and performance needed to address Thailand’s most pressing defense requirements,” a Lockheed spokesperson told Defense News.

Thailand ordered its first Gripen C/D fighters in 2008. Following a January 2021 contract, the aircraft were upgraded to what the manufacturer calls the MS20 configuration.

Robert Björklund, who markets the Gripen to Thailand for Saab, told Defense News the existing fleet is integrated into the Saab-supplied Link T data system and that the aircraft provides its user with “a very wide range of weapon options, including its highly effective RBS15 anti-ship missile.”

A second fighter replacement project for 12-14 aircraft is slated for FY31 to FY35 to replace F-5E/F jets of 211 Squadron at Ubon that are to retire around the end of the decade. An identical number of fighters are needed to replace F-16A/Bs of 403 Squadron at Takhli from FY37 to FY46.

Thailand tries to maintain relations with several competing nations, including the United States, China, Russia and India, the whitepaper noted. Thailand previously purchase materiel from China, such as armored vehicles, air defense systems and a submarine.

Asked whether the Royal Thai Air Force would consider buying a Chinese fighter like the J-10CE, Raymond said the service values its relationship with the U.S. and likeminded allies too much to do so. He noted that Thai-U.S. relations have “largely stabilized,” despite the latter denying the former’s request to buy F-35A jets last year.

“They wouldn’t want to see themselves placed on the outer [circle] in terms of not getting invitations to things like [exercise] Pitch Black in Australia. I tend to think they’d be perhaps more careful about getting Chinese aircraft than the Thai Navy was about getting a submarine,” he said.

The whitepaper also detailed an effort starting this year to refurbish C-130H Hercules transport aircraft. The 2020 version recommended the service buy 12 replacements, but that idea was dropped.

As for pilot training, last year’s delivery of 12 T-6TH trainers allowed the Air Force to retire its Pilatus PC-9 fleet last month. New Zealand-built CT-4E trainers are to retire in 2031, so basic trainers will be needed from FY33. New lead-in fighter trainers are also sought from FY25, with Thailand already operating the South Korean T-50TH in this role.

The new whitepaper also emphasized unmanned technologies. One effort underway is the Thai-developed M Solar X solar-powered drone. Loitering munitions are also schedule for purchase by 2026, as are medium combat drones from FY26 to FY29 and high-altitude pseudo-satellites from FY24 to FY35.

The Air Force also mentioned procurement programs for micro- and nano-drone swarms from FY26, and a research and development effort for weaponized tactical drones from FY29.

And two Saab 340B Erieye airborne early warning aircraft are to receive enhanced command-and-control capabilities, with their dorsal-mounted radars to be replaced. This would take place from FY26 to FY29.

The government’s FY24 defense budget bill calls for a 198 billion baht (U.S. $5.5 billion) fund, of which $1 billion is for the Air Force. The service has already applied for an allocation of approximately $530 million for a first batch of four fighters.

The U.S. and Italian firms signed a memorandum of understanding to “evaluate cooperation opportunities in the tiltrotor technology domain,” they said in a statement Thursday.

That cooperation will get underway in earnest with a NATO Next Generation Rotorcraft Capability concept study, where Leonardo will take the lead on a tiltrotor architecture proposal with Textron’s Bell in support, the firms said.

The agreement follows a long partnership between the firms on the BA609 tiltrotor program, which ended in 2011 when Bell pulled out, leaving Leonardo — then known as Finmeccanica — to push on with the effort.

Bell went on to win the U.S. Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft program in 2022 with its V-280 tiltrotor, while Leonardo has kept faith with the BA609, now known as the AW609, albeit moving slowly with development. Officials have cited the lack of government development cash as a reason.

With a target of 2025 for certification for its tiltrotor, Leonardo officials were less than enthusiastic when the Italian Air Force encouraged them to team with Lockheed Martin and Boeing on their Defiant-X coaxial rotor helicopter.

When the Defiant was beaten out in the FLRAA competition by Bell’s tiltrotor, Leonardo officials felt vindicated in sticking with tiltrotor technology.

”Now we are the only European company with a tiltrotor close to certification, primarily for civil application but which can be converted to military applications,” said Leonardo CEO Roberto Cingolani on Thursday.

Cingolani was speaking during a presentation of Leonardo’s preliminary results for 2023, which showed it delivered 185 helicopters during the year, up from 149 in 2022. Electronics orders were up by 15.9%, buoyed by orders from the U.K. for new MK2 radars for its Eurofighters.

Leonardo’s U.S. unit DRS saw revenues rise 4.9% to $2.8 billion. Overall group revenue rose 3.9% to €15.3 billion (U.S. $16.5 billion).

At the presentation, Cingolani said talks were back on with German electronics firm Hensoldt about a joint venture. Leonardo purchased a 25.1% stake in the firm in 2021, but declined to participate in a capital increase in December and saw its stake in the firm drop to 22.8%, prompting suggestions its interest in the tie-up was fading.

”We didn’t participate in the capital increase because the German government and the previous top management of Hensoldt didn’t say clearly whether the possibility of a Leonardo-Hensoldt alliance or joint venture was still open,” said Cingolani.

“A few weeks ago the new CEO of Hensoldt came to Rome, and we had a long and constructive discussion and he told me they are reconsidering a joint venture,” Cingolani added. “Now we are studying what we can do together.”

A full-year continuing resolution that would keep fiscal 2023 spending levels through the rest of 2024 means the U.S. Army, for instance, would run out of operations and maintenance funding in the European theater as it trains Ukrainian soldiers to defend against Russia’s ongoing invasion of the country, which has entered its third year.

The financial strain is compounded by the lack of certainty over whether Congress will pass a supplemental funding package that would reimburse the Army for expenses incurred so far in bankrolling support to Ukraine.

The Army already spent $500 million in the European theater in operations and maintenance, and “we were counting on a supplemental to be able to sort of replenish us for that,” Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said at a Feb. 27 Defense Writers Group event. “What that means is probably by late spring, summer, we would have to make some difficult choices about other [NATO] exercises, for example, that our forces participate in.”

Additionally, the Army has been funding support to Israel to include deployments of units to the Middle East in the event they are needed, she added.

Army Under Secretary Gabe Camarillo told reporters Feb. 28 at the Pentagon that the service spent $100 million in U.S. Central Command’s area of operations as well as another $500 million to support the U.S. Southwest border security mission.

“I do worry. Our budget has been flat for the last couple years. We don’t have a lot of cash under the sofa cushions, and if we don’t get a budget and we don’t get a supplemental, we’re going to probably have to cancel some things,” Wormuth said.

The Army is prioritizing current operations, Camarillo said, which means it is “going to have to look to other areas of O&M spending where they “can potentially take some risk,” including “exercises and the degree to which we participate in some around the globe. We might have to scale some of that back in the absence of an appropriation this year.”

For the Air Force, Kristyn Jones, who is performing the duties of the service’s undersecretary, told reporters alongside Camarillo that in order to pay its personnel, training exercises would take the hit.

“Anything that’s already on a [Foreign Military Sales] case won’t have a dramatic impact, but all of the replenishment that we’re expecting in the supplemental is currently impacted. And even things like F-35 [fighter jet] training that we’re planning … with our allies and partners, that’s impacted by not having this appropriation as well.”

The Air Force is focused on trying to ensure flight hours are maintained, but it’s also important, Jones noted, that pilots receive training.

Despite the military’s experience in warfare, “we’re in a different strategic environment and we need to do the exercises, often joint and allied, to prepare for that environment. And the lack of our ability to do that doesn’t allow us to, again, to test the new techniques, the new military tactics that we’d like to have primarily for an Indo-Pacific fight,” Jones said. “That’s really where we need to stretch our muscles a little bit more.”

Learning from sequestration

With a possible extended or full-year continuing resolution, the service undersecretaries said the last time the military felt such a painful budget crunch was during the 2013 sequestration, where the services were required by law to make percentage cuts evenly across spending lines.

One of the fallouts of the 2013 sequestration was a rise in aviation mishaps because vital training flight hours were cut. Military Times and Defense News took a deep dive into aviation mishaps from FY11 through FY18 and uncovered the trend.

“Safety is always going to come first,” said Navy Under Secretary Erik Raven, “but we did look at the lessons of 2013 and sequestration, where we spread risk around the enterprise, and I think the concerns about maintaining ready and trained forces are part of the lessons that we’re using to inform if we get into this worst-case scenario where we don’t have our ’24 budget enacted and we are under a CR.”

“We’re not going to repeat that same peanut butter spread,” he added.

But trade-offs will be inevitable, he acknowledged, and “we’ll have to look across the board to see how to maintain the focus on current operations.”

CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand — The Indian government is closer to buying a multibillion-dollar package of cruise missiles, air defense weapons, surveillance radars and fighter jet engines following approval from the country’s highest decision-making body on security affairs.

At a Feb. 21 meeting, the Cabinet Committee on Security approved the four procurement projects cumulatively worth about 350 billion rupees (U.S. $4 billion).

According to local media reports quoting government sources, the approved items were BrahMos cruise missiles for the Navy, air defense guns for the Army, ground-based air surveillance radars and new engines for the Air Force’s MiG-29 fighters.

Approval by the committee, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi chairs, is a necessary step along the Defence Ministry’s contractual pathway.

Local media reported the BrahMos missile deal would be signed in March. The consolidated contract would include some 220 weapons to arm Indian frigates and destroyers — the largest-ever individual BrahMos order for India.

The contract will reportedly involve a mix of standard 290-kilometer-range (180-mile-range) and extended 450-kilometer-range (280-mile-range) BrahMos missiles, of which 75% is locally made.

“The BrahMos is expected to considerably enhance the potential for surface-to-surface attacks by Indian Navy ships, especially with extended-range missiles,” Rahul Bhonsle, a director of the New Delhi-based consultancy Security Risks Asia, told Defense News.

India is also exporting BrahMos missiles to the Philippines under a deal worth about $375 million signed in January 2022. Atul Rane, who leads the missile manufacturer BrahMos Aerospace, said last year the company has set a goal of exporting $5 billion worth of BrahMos weapons by 2025.

The committee also approved the purchase of Sudarshan air defense systems from private firm Larsen & Toubro — an acquisition worth approximately $844 million. The Army would use the systems, which feature radars and 40mm guns, to protect its installations and the country’s border areas.

The Sudarshan approval followed an October 2022 request for procurement seeking 141,576 ammunition rounds to accompany 220 guns, including pre-fragmented, programmable proximity fuses and smart rounds.

The Sudarshan is also competing in an Air Force competition for 244 close-in weapon systems.

“Air defense guns have assumed importance because of the overall weak air and missile defense profile with dated equipment, with the Indian Army in particular, and the add-on threat from drones,” Bhonsle explained.

The Indian Army relies on antiquated Bofors L/70 and ZU-23-2B towed guns, and their replacement has become urgent given the emerging threat of drones and loitering munitions.

Larsen & Toubro is also set to provide the air surveillance radars, worth about $723 million. India is prioritizing better radar coverage of its northern and western borders to guard against Chinese and Pakistani aircraft, respectively. Augmenting the existing radar network in phases, the Air Force will operate the new indigenous sensors.

And Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. is to manufacture new RD-33MK engines for MiG-29 fighters in collaboration with Russia, with the project worth about $639 million.

These projects underscore India’s attempts to maximize indigenous input. The Make in India economic policy seems to be gaining groud, Bhonsle said.

“However, it should be noted there is also considerable foreign collaboration involved in many of the projects, as up to 50% or more is permissible under existing rules for acquisition,” Bhonsle added.

Troops fired the XM7 rifle and XM250 automatic rifle, part of the Next Generation Squad Weapon program, at the Cold Regions Test Center at Fort Greeley, Alaska, according to an Army release.

That testing began in late January and ran through Feb. 9.

The XM7 rifle will replace the M4 carbine while the XM250 automatic rifle will replace the M249 Squad Automatic Weapon. Both are chambered in 6.8mm and slated for the close combat forces such as infantry, special operations, scouts, combat engineers, combat medics and forward observers.

The 6.8mm round intermediate caliber round is the first of its kind for U.S. forces and provides users a heavier round that can have lethal effects at greater distances and punch through barriers that stop the standard issue 5.56mm round, which is the caliber of the M4 and SAW.

Both weapons come with an advanced fire control, dubbed the XM157, that houses a ballistics computer to help shooters compensate for bullet drop and distance.

In 2022 the Army chose Sig Sauer to build the two weapons and produce the 6.8mm ammunition until the service upgrades the Lake City Army Ammunition Plant with a production line devoted exclusively to 6.8mm.

The same year the service chose Vortex Optics/Sheltered Wings to provide the XM157 fire control.

The 10-year weapons contract has a ceiling value of $4.5 billion, XM157 fire control cost ceiling is set at $2.7 billion, Army Times previously reported.

The M4 and SAW are expected to remain the primary small arms of non-close combat forces for the coming decades. Once fielded, the XM7 and XM250 will drop the “X” designator.

A platoon with the 101st Airborne Division conducted limited user tests of the rifle, carbine and optic in November. A not-yet-identified platoon with the 101st will officially field the weapon in September, Army Times previously reported.

Staff with the Army’s Cross Functional Team-Soldier Lethality, Program Executive Office-Soldier and the Joint Program Executive Office Armaments and Ammunitions worked with soldiers at the Alaska testing center to evaluate the weapon’s performance in extreme cold weather.

“Extreme cold can affect the weapon’s functionality, of course, but it also hinders a Soldier’s movement and mobility,” said Maj. Brandon Davis, a member of the SL CFT operations team. “So which sling does he prefer in these conditions? Can he or she effectively manipulate the widgets on the weapon wearing gloves? We’re getting after every aspect of how the NGSW impacts lethality and mobility under extreme conditions.”

The service has scheduled testing for the NGSW in extreme heat and humidity later this year, according to the release.

Anduril, serving as the prime contractor, plans to deliver “a modified, autonomy-ready Uncrewed Ground Vehicle (UGV) based on Hanwha’s proven Arion-SMET platform, which has already demonstrated its performance in highly-relevant and varied environments in the Indo-Pacific, including the latest Foreign Comparative Testing with the U.S. Army and Marine Corps in Hawaii,” the companies said in a Feb. 29 statement.

The Army chose General Dynamics Land Systems’ Multi-Utility Tactical Transport, or MUTT, for its SMET unmanned ground system in a first increment of the program. The $162.4 million contract, awarded in October 2019, would wrap up at the end of October 2024. GDLS won another follow-on contract in 2020.

Now the service has opened bids for the second increment of the program intended to carry gear and light payloads to decrease the burden to soldiers in the field. The Army is pursuing two major robotic combat vehicle platforms simultaneously: the Robotic Combat Vehicle meant to fight alongside Stryker and Bradley vehicles, and the SMET, which is likely to accompany lighter formations.

Anduril and the U.S. arm of South Korean defense firm Hanwha will also be working with Forterra, formerly RRAI, to incorporate its AutoDrive vehicle autonomy solution “to enable complex on and off-road maneuvers,” the statement reads.

“By combining Anduril’s electronics and software, Hanwha Defense USA’s proven hardware, and Forterra’s proven off-road vehicle autonomy stack, the partnership will bring speed, flexibility, and advanced capabilities to dismounted infantry,” Zach Mears, head of strategy at Anduril, said in the statement. “With a simplified user interface powered by Lattice, users will be able to quickly and easily command and control the S-MET to support lethal effects at the tactical edge.”

Lattice is Anduril’s software originally designed to counter drones and other threats, but has wider applicability for sharing battlefield information and data at a tactical level. Anduril is also teamed with American Rheinmetall Vehicles in the XM30 Mechanized Infantry Combat Vehicle competition underway to eventually replace the Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicle, bringing its Lattice capability to that effort as well.

The capability, Anduril states, will allow soldiers to operate the vehicle, manage payloads and communicate simultaneously in “complex environments.”

The team is focused on load-carrying, power generation capacity, reduced sustainment, survivability and a modular architecture for a wide array of payloads, the release details.

The robotic vehicle will have a low acoustic signature, “ensuring that it serves as an asset, not liability on the modern battlefield,” the statement adds.

Other expected competitors are Teledyne FLIR, GDLS, Rheinmetall, with teammate ST Engineering, and HDT.

Teledyne FLIR announced its bid in October at the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual conference.

The Army has tightly held details on the competition such as the timeline for evaluating and choosing winners and what comes after and has not posted any solicitations on the public domain for federal contract opportunities, Sam.gov.

The service is focused on rigorous experimentation with robots and emerging technology to develop integrated fighting formations of both humans and robots. The Army calls it “human-machine integration” and is evaluating exactly how robotic technologies can be coupled with the best of what humans can bring to the table on the battlefield.

The document’s release on Tuesday comes as the Army continues transitioning from counterinsurgency missions to large-scale combat operations against technologically advanced adversaries, Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said at a Feb. 27 event in Washington hosted by the Defense Writers Group.

Force structure changes are also necessary, she said, because the Army is working through a massive modernization effort involving a wide variety of new capabilities coming online now and over the next two decades.

“What we’ve done through the force structure changes is make room for some of the new formations,” she said, adding this equates to 7,500 new spaces for soldiers to go.

At the same time, the service’s recruiting challenges have left it with a “hollow force structure,” Wormuth said, “so we needed to basically reduce 32,000 spaces to both shrink over-structure and make room for that 7,500 [spaces] of new structure.”

The Army’s current authorized force structure is 445,000 active duty soldiers, but the service was designed for 494,000. The new force structure is meant to bridge the gap, bringing troop levels to approximately 470,000 soldiers by fiscal 2029.

Wormuth told Defense News in an interview last fall that the Army was preparing to go to Capitol Hill to address some vital changes that would include both reductions from the counterinsurgency-related structure and high-tech additions to the force’s inventory. The planned force structure would focus more on operations at the corps and division levels, and less on brigade combat teams.

“By bringing force structure and end strength into closer alignment, the Army will ensure its formations are filled at the appropriate level to maintain a high state of readiness,” the Army’s whitepaper stated. “At the same time, the Army will continue to transform its recruiting efforts so that it can build back its end strength, which is needed to provide strategic flexibility, reduce strain on frequently deploying soldiers, and add new capabilities to the force.”

What’s in?

Some major elements of the new force structure will include building out the Army’s five theater-level multidomain task forces, or MDTF.

The Army has already established three MDTFs: two in the Indo-Pacific theater and one in the European theater. The service plans to set up another dedicated to the Pacific region, and yet another that is “service-retained” to likely focus on U.S. Central Command’s area of operation, Wormuth said at the Defense Writers Group event.

The MDTFs will consist of a headquarters and headquarters battalion, a multidomain effects battalion, a long-range fires battalion, an Indirect Fire Protection Capability battalion, and a brigade support battalion, the whitepaper noted.

“As discussions with allied countries progress over time, the Army will likely forward station elements of the MDTFs permanently, such as the multi domain effects and long range fires battalions, to strengthen deterrence,” the document stated.

The Army will also make “significant investments” in structure for integrated air and missile defense at both the corps and division levels to include four additional Indirect Fire Protection Capability battalions that offer defense against rockets, artillery, mortars, drones and cruise missiles at fixed and semi-fixed sites; and four additional Maneuver Short-Range Air Defense battalions.

The document noted that these new and additional formations are “only a representative sample of the Army’s full capability growth.”

What’s out?

Some of the structure that is coming out of the force are spaces authorized but not filled by soldiers. The Army won’t be asking current soldiers to leave, the paper explained.

“The Army looked carefully at each military occupational specialty, and examined each skill set and functional area for efficiencies,” the paper read. For instance, the Army will reallocate engineer assets at the brigade combat team level to the division echelon, “which allows the Army to reduce the overall number of engineer positions while giving division and corps commanders flexibility to concentrate assets as necessary during large scale combat operations.”

The Army reduced almost 10,000 spaces through efficiencies like reallocating engineer assets. The service also reduced 2,700 authorizations based on modeling, the paper stated, to include factors like “demand over time, capacity to meet National Defense Strategy requirements and past deployment stress.”

Some other Army-wide reductions will come from adjustments to close combat forces, according to the paper, to include inactivation of cavalry squadrons in continental U.S.-based Stryker brigade combat teams and infantry brigade combat teams, converting the latter’s weapons companies to platoons and eliminating some positions in the security force assistance brigades “representing a decrement to capacity at minimal risk.”

These reductions equate to another 10,000 spaces, the paper noted.

The Army also observed that its special operations forces had doubled in size over the past 20 years. “The Army conducted extensive analysis examining special operations requirements for large scale combat in multiple theaters and applied additional modeling to understand the requirements for special operators during the campaigning phase of great power competition,” the document stated.

The service concluded the structure there could be reduced by 3,000 spaces. “Specific reductions will be made based on an approach that ensures unique SOF capabilities are retained,” the paper added. “Positions and headquarters elements that are historically vacant or hard to fill will be prioritized for reduction.”

Maj. Gen. Brian Eifler, commander of the Alaska-based 11th Airborne Division, spoke with reporters Monday about the Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center training exercise that took place from Feb. 8 through Feb. 22 across the state.

It’s been three years since the Army started its Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center rotations in Alaska, and Eifler said this was the largest and most complex version of the training so far.

A Mongolian Armed Forces infantry company and 600 Canadian troops, 350 from the 3rd Battalion, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, 165 from the Royal Canadian Air Force and 100 from various support forces, participated alongside U.S. forces. Other partner nations such as Sweden, Finland and South Korea sent forces to work with staff sections of U.S. units.

Another 18 nations sent observers to the exercise, Eifler said of the growing exercise.

Army sketches out plan for an Arctic brigade combat team

The Army released its Arctic Strategy in 2021. In June 2022, the service reactivated the 11th Airborne Division in Alaska to oversee and grow Arctic-focused forces and training to counter increasing militarization of the region by Russian and Chinese military forces.

The 1st Brigade, 11th Airborne Division, served as the “blue force” fighting over the two weeks against two battalions of the 2nd Brigade, 11th Airborne Division, which served as the enemy force.

Both units ran their field operations but were joined by simulated brigades. Eifler and his team were able to fight an entire division in the exercise using simulated forces alongside real soldiers, he said.

The 2nd Brigade was given about five times the number of rockets, artillery and ammunition to battle 1st Brigade. The “enemy” brigade also had air defense, communication jamming and electronic warfare tools.

That extra firepower meant that blue force fire units had to pick their targets wisely, shoot quickly and move rapidly to avoid enemy counterfires, Eifler said.

The enemy air defense challenged the blue force to create attack windows and push realistic approaches to a near-peer adversary that controlled the sky.

A standard airborne or air assault mission would easily be detected in that scenario, he said. Which meant division aviators had to strike first.

“We did a 150-mile deep attach with our Apache division while avoiding air defense emitters that we put out,” Eifler said. “They had to duck and weave over those 150 miles close to the terrain to get to the target and destroy it and get back safely.”

Deep strike

That was the first and longest such deep strike of that distance since the rotations began, Eifler said.

Once the strike had its effect, the blue force brigade flew a more than 80-mile air assault using 15 aircraft, including Chinooks and Black Hawks, he said.

On the ground, soldiers used the five new cold-weather, all-terrain vehicles, or CATV, during the exercise, which Eifler said performed well and allowed soldiers to maneuver over various snow, mud and water-logged terrain. Temperatures fluctuated from -40 degrees Fahrenheit to 40 F

BAE Systems won the $278 million contract to produce the cold-weather, all-terrain vehicle for the Army in 2022. At the time the service planned to purchase 163 of them to replace its decades-old small unit support vehicle.

The cold-weather, all-terrain vehicle is a tracked vehicle that can carry nine soldiers and equipment.

At the same time, 1st Brigade dispatched soldier teams on snowmobiles armed with Javelin missile launchers to navigate off-road and knock out enemy tanks and vehicles.

“One of our standing orders is to stay off the road when you’re fighting in harsh weather because the roads and trails are like the enemy’s engagement areas,” Eifler said. “We’re always saying ‘if your traveling is easy, you’re running into danger. And if it’s very hard and difficult to move you’re winning.’”

In the airwaves, the enemy force jammed digital communications that, at times, forced commanders to dispatch those same CATVs and snowmobiles to hand-deliver orders to battalions and other units.

The unforgiving cold

Eifler stressed that soldiers operating in the Arctic need to simultaneously keep their high-tech gear running but be ready to go “manual or mechanical” to get the job done.

The unforgiving cold can paralyze some systems and drain batteries in minutes, not hours.

As part of the exercise, soldiers used a C-130 cargo plane to fly a high mobility artillery rocket system more than 500 miles to Utqiagvik, Alaska ― a city on the northernmost reaches of the state and above the Arctic Circle.

Eifler’s blue force also had to contend with smaller, but still challenging threats.

The enemy force used small drone swarms of a dozen or fewer drones used to detect unit positions. They even “armed” some of the small drones with tennis balls and Nerf footballs to drop onto locations, showing soldiers they could be hit by ordnance they weren’t tracking.

During the two-week exercise, Eifler said soldiers tested 40 different types of equipment, from communications gear and vehicles to tents, skis and boots.

The two-star said that in the future the force likely will need more snowmobiles for the types of missions used in this exercise as well as casualty evacuation and basic mobility.

Early observations include a need for a better tent system that can fit into a rucksack and improved ski bindings to withstand the extreme cold temperatures, he said.

The milestone — something the Defense Department and the other armed services still have not achieved — comes after almost two decades of trying to prepare the Corps’ records and several failed audits along the way.

During this two-year audit, the Marine Corps had independent third-party auditors from Ernst and Young vet the value of all its assets listed on financial statements. The Corps also had to prove that every single item existed and was where the service said it was.

Gregory Koval, the assistant deputy commandant for resources, told reporters the audit team made more than 70 site visits in the U.S. and around the world. In these visits, they checked more than 7,800 real property assets such as land and buildings; 5,900 pieces of military equipment; 1.9 million pieces of non-ammunition supplies, such as spare parts; and 24 million items of ammunition, some of which are stored at Army and Navy facilities.

If a vehicle wasn’t where it was listed as being because it was out conducting operations, or a piece of ammunition wasn’t there because it had already been shot in a recent exercise, the Corps had to show documentation or photos of that, too, in order to explain discrepancies.

Koval said the final financial report states the Marine Corps passed its audit but still has some areas where it can improve.

Lt. Gen. James Adams, the deputy commandant for programs and resources, said one area of focus is automating processes. Today, there are disparate systems where data must be manually moved from one system to another, introducing the opportunity for error. The service is moving toward integrated, automated systems that would avoid human error in sharing information between human resources and financial data systems, for example.

Adams said that passing the audit now will make all future ones more manageable. This last audit asked a third party to validate the existence and the value of every single thing the Marines own, which required significant historical research, he explained.

Subsequent audits, on the other hand, will be able to assume the past information is correct and therefore only cover “from this point forward,” instead asking Marines to prove information related to that fiscal year’s financial transactions.

Adams said the Corps got close to completing past audits in a single fiscal year, but because of the immense historical research, they couldn’t get the audit completed and over the finish line in a single year. For the fiscal year 2023 audit, the service requested an extension, which could prove to be a model for the other services.

“It was a goal of the commandant of the Marine Corps to pass the audit because he wants to show the credibility of the Marine Corps back to the Congress and the taxpayer,” Ed Gardiner, the assistant deputy commandant for programs and resources, told reporters.

In addition to having more time, this audit also used the military’s new general ledger software, Defense Agencies Initiative, in which auditors had confidence, according to Gardiner.

Gardiner explained the services were, by law, supposed to start financial audits in the 1990s, but the Marine Corps didn’t begin producing statements in preparation for an audit until 2006. The first audit in 2010 showed plenty of room for improvement, he said. In late 2013, the Marines announced they had passed a limited-scope audit for fiscal year 2012 — but in March 2015, a number of financial and oversight leaders reported the results were unreliable and the clean pass would be rescinded.

In 2017, the Marine Corps began conducting full financial statement audits.

The 2023 full financial statement audit was conducted to the highest standards, Gardiner said, with the Ernst and Young team not only being audited themselves by a peer-review team but also by the Pentagon’s inspector general team.

“We’ve been all the way to the end of the process, and we have lessons learned that we can share with the rest of the department,” he said, adding the Marine Corps hopes these lessons “can be an accelerant for the rest of the department.”

Pentagon Comptroller Michael McCord made similar remarks in November 2023, when the Pentagon failed its sixth audit since 2018.

Noting the Marines’ extension, McCord said that “we are very focused on it as a test case for the department and the larger services.”

“Whatever results of that may be when we get the auditor’s final opinion, I want to commend the USMC and, in particular, (Marine Corps Commandant Gen.) Eric Smith for their leadership and effort,” McCord added.

Indeed, both countries have experienced heavy losses in life and materiel during the war, which began when Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. There’s now a growing sense this conflict has reached a stalemate, and that it will likely continue through the year, according to a report released this month by the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

The London-based think tank also recently updated its Military Balance+ database, which assesses the defense capabilities of militaries around the world. The following compares select system types and data points between Russia and Ukraine, based on data from IISS, with footnotes at the bottom of this article. The data is current as of November, meaning it accounts for nearly two years of war.

• Data as of November 2023.
• Armored Fighting Vehicles are armored combat vehicles with a combat weight of at least 6 metric tons.
• Artillery includes guns, howitzers, rocket launchers and mortars with a caliber greater than 100mm for artillery pieces and 80mm and above for mortars, capable of engaging ground targets with indirect fire.
• Surface-to-Surface Missile Launchers are launch vehicles for transporting and firing surface-to-surface ballistic and cruise missiles.
• Air Defense includes guns, directed-energy weapons and surface-to-air missile launchers designed to engage fixed-wing, rotary-wing and unmanned aircraft.

The board brings recommendations to the Joint Requirements Oversight Council, which supervises the development of new capabilities and acquisition efforts, for final approval of program requirements.

The M-SHORAD system’s development took place in record time as the result of an urgent operational need identified in 2016 for the European theater. The Army received the requirement to build the system in February 2018. It took 19 months from the time the service generated the requirement to the delivery of prototypes for testing in the first quarter of 2020.

The first platoon to receive the M-SHORAD, a Stryker combat vehicle-based platform that includes a mission equipment package designed by Leonardo DRS and RTX’s Stinger vehicle missile launcher, deployed to Europe in 2021.

The Army is now fielding its third M-SHORAD battalion at Fort Cavazos, Texas. The first M-SHORAD battalion remains in Germany, and the second is based at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.

“When we look at Increment 1 of M-SHORAD, that initially came out as part of a directed requirement, so we’re following up right now through the requirements process,” Parker told Defense News in a recent interview.

Parker’s team briefed protection capability to the Functional Capabilities Board in December. That organization falls under the purview of the Joint Capabilities Board. Now the JCB will consider the Increment 1 capabilities development document in April, Parker said.

“As we continue to codify those requirements,” he explained, the service is looking closely at sustainment of the capability. Upon completion, “that’s going to really put us in a good place for being able to get this thing fully transitioned and get that capability out to the warfighter.”

Two more variants of M-SHORAD are coming. The Army has concurrently been working on a 50-kilowatt laser weapon version, known as Directed Energy M-SHORAD, and is in the process of holding a competition to bring a new and improved interceptor replacement for the current Stinger missile. DE M-SHORAD is considered the second increment of the program.

The directed-energy variant was originally to become a program of record in 2023, with the possibility of a new competition opening up for vendors to supply alternatives to the current prototype solution from Kord Technologies using a laser developed by Raytheon, an RTX company.

But the Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office, which is spearheading the effort, determined the system would need more time in development. The new plan is to transfer the program to the Program Executive Office Missiles and Space in fiscal 2025.

Parker said the rapid capabilities office continues to work on the technology and wants to keep DE M-SHORAD’s move to a program of record on the same timeline.

The third increment of the program is primarily focused on providing a next-generation Stinger missile and 30mm proximity fuse ammunition, which will help “gain capability within that maneuver SHORAD and over in the counter-[unmanned aircraft systems] space,” Parker said.

The service wants the Stinger missile replacement for SHORAD to be faster, survive jamming and more easily hit tougher targets like drones, the service’s program executive officer for missiles and space, Brig. Gen. Frank Lozano, told Defense News last fall.

In September 2023, the Army awarded RTX and Lockheed Martin with contracts to competitively develop the Stinger replacement. RTX is the provider of the legacy Stinger missile currently used in the Army’s SHORAD capability and also in a man-portable configuration. The Army no longer produces Stinger missiles, so the service is pulling from current inventory to meet the mission.

While the Army has sent some of its refurbished Stingers to Ukraine in response to Russia’s invasion of the country, and no longer builds new Stinger missiles, it still plans to take five years to develop and qualify the new interceptor and move into low-rate production.

The Army originally developed the Integrated Battle Command System as the brains of a future air and missile defense system, intending to link it with a new 360-degree radar and potentially new launchers in order to replace the aging Patriot air- defense system component by component.

“When we look at our prioritization of capabilities that we want to integrate on the IBCS, THAAD is right there currently listed as a priority. I won’t get into where in the priority list, but it is absolutely there,” Col. William Parker told Defense News in a recent interview.

As part of the Army’s effort to connect a web of sensors and shooters on the battlefield, it spent more than a decade developing IBCS to work with radars like the Sentinel A4, Patriot, Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensor and the Indirect Fires Protection Capability. The latter, which is still under development, is expected to be capable of defeating rockets, artillery, mortars, cruise missiles and drones.

IBCS experienced years of delays related to its increasing mission sets and technical problems in an initial 2016 limited-user test. The Army spent years ironing out software issues through follow-on user tests. The service held an initial operational test and evaluation in 2022 and declared it fully operationally capable in the spring of 2023.

The Army will hold a full operational test and evaluation for IBCS in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2024 and plans to field the capability to the first unit around the middle of fiscal 2025, Parker said.

Now that IBCS has cleared a variety of hurdles, Parker’s outfit — the Air and Missile Defense Cross-Functional Team, which is part of Army Futures Command — is working to integrate the command-and-control technology with a number of other systems, including THAAD.

The cross-functional team is scheduled to experiment with that integration at Project Convergence, which kicks off Feb. 23 and will run through mid-March. Project Convergence is a campaign of learning where the joint force experiments with capabilities it envisions needing against high-end threats and advanced adversaries.

The key effort is centered around joint integration of sensors and shooters, and the Army will push data through IBCS over to THAAD’s command and control in order to see how much bandwidth it can handle, Parker said.

“You have a whole lot of sensors on the battlefield, and the more ability that we have to take advantage of those for providing data, for providing situational awareness, whatever the case may be, is just going to help our commanders on the ground,” Parker said.

While IBCS is now a program of record and will mostly live under the purview of Program Executive Office Missiles and Space, the cross-functional team is continuing to work on “agile development” of the technology. The team is continuously looking at what software upgrades to the system are possible to incorporate in order to expand capabilities and then pushing those upgrades into IBCS.