“The LRDR completed a Space Domain Awareness (SDA) data collect event in January 2024 that proved the SDA capability, and the U.S. Space Force and MDA are in the process of formally declaring LRDR ready for SDA early use in April 2024,” according to MDA Director Lt. Gen. Heath Collins.
By Theresa HitchensROC-X – The solution to organic precision strike capabilities
At AUSA Global Force 2024, IAI presented integrated, AI-driven combat systems – both manned and unmanned – that are opening new opportunities on the battlefield.
The new Mk21A reentry vehicle will be mounted atop the Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile and will carry an updated nuclear warhead known as the W87-1.
By Michael Marrow
“The question is,” asks Jenny Town of the Stimson Center, “how to step down from this ledge before an accident escalates into something much more dangerous?”
By Colin Clark
Missile Defense Agency pushes back, pointing Breaking Defense to positive report from Pentagon tester, laudatory comments from senior military officials and recent test wins.
By Theresa Hitchens
“We need to recognize that we can no longer operate in the somewhat static ‘spy vs spy’ conditions of the Cold War and that we are dealing with a technologically advanced and ever-adapting adversary who has both the know-how and funding to continually push us on every front,” former Pentagon official Doug Loverro said.
By Theresa Hitchens
The reported Chinese system was hinted at by Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall in an earlier speech, a source said, but Kendall now says his words were just a coincidence.
By Theresa Hitchens
Modernizing our supply chain is a national security imperative
Closing supply chain gaps in innovating technology will reposition the industrial base to be a strategic source of value.
“It is going to take us 10 to 15 years to modernize 400 silos that already exist. And China is basically building almost that many overnight. So the speed of difference in that threat is what really concerns me most,” Gen. John Hyten, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs says.
By Colin Clark
While there are no “major technical hurdles,” an Air Force officer said a redesign for a sensor faring is needed.
By Colin Clark
The combination of a modern long-range bomber (the H-20), and an expanded seaborne ballistic missile force, as well as this massive inflation of the land-based ICBM component, makes China’s nuclear forces look far more like their “hegemonic” counterparts in Russia and the United States than the minimal or limited deterrent presented by French or British nuclear forces.
By Dean Cheng
“The growing diversity of the Chinese nuclear threat and its mixing in with conventional forces creates complexity for US commanders. It is also unclear what conditions would lead to PRC nuclear use, since their arsenal is growing and creating more options,” Bryan Clark of the Hudson Institute says.
By Colin Clark
The benefit of diverse and effective long-range precision fires was reinforced by then-U.S. Pacific Command Commander Navy Adm. Harry Harris, who challenged the Army to develop more lethal, long-range precision fires that could not only engage adversary land targets, but also sink ships at sea.
By Robert Brown
Some critics cite a growing nuclear stockpile as another indicator of a looming arms race. But the size and age of the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile is at the lowest level of warheads since the late 1950s, with the average warhead age being older than at any other time in history.
By Michael Lutton
Defense experts and the Pentagon’s hypersonics R&D director told us the Union of Concerned Scientists study, which argues hypersonic weapons offer marginal improvements over existing weapons at an outsized cost, got something wrong at every step.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
China analyst Dean Cheng breaks down the key military aspects of Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s statements at the recent Party Congress.
By Dean Cheng