Douglas A. Macgregor's Blog, page 12

AV launches new Switchblade variants, VTOL drone design

AUSA 2025 — Defense firm AV today unveiled new versions of its man-portable Switchblade loitering munition family, as well as an update to an existing VTOL platform, to kick off the annual AUSA conference in Washington. 

AV says it has created a new Switchblade platform, dubbed the Switchblade 400, that is a “medium-range” anti-armor loitering munition weighing less than 40 pounds. The firm has also updated its existing Switchblade 300, used for attacks on light armor and personnel, as well as its Switchblade 600 that can hit larger, more heavily armored targets.

“Warfighters require scalable, reliable, and interoperable effects that can be tailored to the threat and the environment,” Trace Stevenson, AV’s president of autonomous systems, said in a company release. “These three new Switchblade variants deliver that flexibility and scalability. Each design builds on proven fielded capability while adding important new capabilities that reduce risk and expand mission sets.”

AV, previously known as AeroVironment, has modified its Switchblade 600 with a new Block 2 version, according to the release, which provides 20 percent longer endurance and over 100 kilometers of handoff and relay range. The existing Switchblade 600 has an endurance of over 40 minutes, the company’s website says, meaning the Block 2 improvement adds at least eight more minutes of loiter time.  

The release adds that the existing Switchblade 300 Block 20 was also updated by the company with a modular payload bay to integrate an explosively formed penetrator warhead, a shaped charge that can pierce through armor. AV’s Switchblade 300 webpage says the platform can fly for over 20 min with a range of roughly 30 kilometers. 

Demand for lower-cost precision munitions has soared in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and other conflicts around the globe, where cheap, unmanned systems have come to define much of modern artillery. AV’s Switchblade in particular has been ordered for use in Ukraine, though it has reportedly faced troubles operating in a contested electronic warfare environment. (The company has said it’s updated its platforms to contend with the problem.)

Building off its existing VAPOR platform, AV also revealed a new variant, the VAPOR Compact Long Endurance (CLE). The drone is a smaller unmanned system in the Group 2 size category, which a separate company press release says can operate longer and fully autonomously to perform surveillance, electronic warfare, precision strike and resupply missions. 

“We built the VAPOR CLE around what warfighters told us they needed most — more time over target, greater lift for mission-critical payloads, and a system rugged enough to survive the toughest environments,” Jason Wright, AV’s senior product line manager, said in the company’s release. “Those upgrades mean troops can carry less gear, set up faster, and count on a single platform to perform multiple roles in the field.”

According to AV’s release, the drone’s “packout case” measures seven cubic feet and weighs 35 pounds and can be deployed without tools. It comes with a two-hour flight time and is modular so that third-party systems can be more easily swapped in. 

“Every detail of the VAPOR CLE reflects an upgrade driven by real-world mission needs,” Jason Hendrix, AV’s vice president of small uncrewed systems, said in the release. “By doubling endurance, increasing lift, and adding onboard autonomy, we’ve transformed the system into a combat-ready tool that gives warfighters more capability in a smaller, more adaptable package.”

Driscoll vows Silicon Valley model is the future for the Army

AUSA 2025 — Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll vowed this morning that “organizational acquisition reform” is on the horizon, promising to adopt a “Silicon Valley” approach to tools, tech and weapons can get into the hands of soldiers quicker than the traditional way of doing business.

“After seeing the power of combining venture capital money and mentorship with startup culture, I can say unequivocally that the Silicon Valley approach is absolutely ideal for the Army,” Driscoll said, according to prepared remarks.

“It will identify promising startups, quickly fund them and get minimally viable products to soldiers in weeks,” he later added. 

The secretary’s comments come after the service announced the FUZE initiative last month —  a venture capital-like acquisition model designed to speed up the private development of emerging technologies for later use by soldiers. The program aims to invest  $750 million over the next year and, as Driscoll announced this morning, it will increase to $765 million the next year. 

“That’s an over 150 percent increase in the Army’s funding towards emerging tech and innovation,” he said. 

Driscoll announced the first FUZE competition, called xTechDisrupt and “powered by” Silicon Valley startup accelerator Y Combinator, would start “right here at AUSA.”

“Like Shark Tank, contestants will make a product pitch for $500,000, then sprint for 30 days to launch their breakthrough tech,” he said.

Driscoll, like other key Pentagon appointees, hails from the private equity and venture capital worlds, with previous jobs that include chief operating officer of the $200 million Flex Capital VC fund.

The point of this new acquisition model is to break down barriers, Driscoll said, emphasizing that the current way the Army operates has “lined the primes’ pockets for so long.” The line echoed previous eyebrow-raising comments Driscoll made in May when he said he would consider it a “success” if he sees a prime defense contractor die on his watch.

Driscoll argued this morning that primes contribute to the “12-18 month contracting cycle” that prohibits the service from providing weapons and tech to the warfighter at at the speed that is necessary. 

Simultaneously, this morning Driscoll teased an upcoming acquisition shakeup at which the Army has been nodding for several months. 

“Our acquisitions enterprise is more complicated than it should be, and that’s getting in the way of empowering soldiers. So, we will combine it all under a single organization that reports directly to senior Army leadership,” Driscoll said. “We want simple, fast, and efficient. We want to get soldiers the tools they need now, not a decade in the future. We will break down barriers until we measure acquisitions not in years and billions, but months and thousands.”

PDW unveils multi-mission payloads for C100 drones

WASHINGTON — PDW has announced a new three-pronged set of multi-mission payloads for its C100 unmanned platform.

Those multi-mission payloads — each distinct, modular variants that forces can mix and match depending on their environment or mission — allow for greater flexibility and survivability on the battlefield in contested or GPS denied environments, according to the company.

They include:

A spectrum awareness tool in partnership with CACI Mastodon for direction finding to better understand signals of interest in the environment for better situational awareness, threat mitigation and operational flexibility;A communications relay in partnership with Silvus for a mesh networking capability to extend the communications of a variety of different radios, critical at the edge in instances where it can be difficult to put a signal out father, especially in mountainous terrain or electronic warfare environments, and;An assured position, navigation and timing capability using video cameras based upon satellite images to navigate when GPS is denied or jammed.

“Any military unit operating in contested environments would benefit from these capabilities and we are actively producing and ready to deliver on this need,” Ryan Gury PDW CEO and cofounder, said in a release.  

PDW has previously scored a $20 million contract with the Army to provide its C100 drones to transformation in contact units. TiC aims to speed up how the Army buys technologies and designs its forces by providing units with emerging capabilities for experimentation during exercises and deployments.

In an interview with Breaking Defense, Gury noted that the multi-mission payload concept was derived from the company’s work with the Army and TiC units.

“The idea of the TiC program is getting feedback from the customer, iterating on their work as fast as possible. In this instance, these MMPs were something that TiC has really helped foster and it’s just an awesome way of working together in a world where velocity is so pertinent,” he said. “TiC has been really beneficial to companies like ours.”

‘I have got this s— figured out’: Anduril unveiling EagleEye mixed-reality device at AUSA

AUSA 2025 — Anduril is unveiling EagleEye — its new line of mixed-reality, heads-up displays — in Washington this week, as it works to secure a production deal with the Army for its follow on Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) program. 

“I have got this shit figured out. … I’ve done this before. I’ve done it more or less perfectly,” Anduril founder Palmer Luckey told reporters last week when asked how EagleEye will mitigate past concerns about instances of cyber sickness among soldiers using the Army’s prior IVAS prototypes.

“Its very clear that we are going to have to … save the day on this,” he said separately. “And I’m very happy that it seems to all be panning out.”

Luckey has been teasing EagleEye for quite some time and has now snagged one of two development contracts with the Army. The company, he explained, is actually working on four EagleEye variants, all in various stages of development. That includes an 80g (2.8 oz) Oakley standard issue glasses design, as well as a ballistic, full-face shield option that is being designed in-house. 

Two such EagleEye variants will be on display for the first time this week at the Association of the US Army’s annual conference, along with a new company product line — body armor. 

“EagleEye is less one product, and it’s more a platform that other people can build products on top of,” he said, explaining that the lighter glasses could be used by soldiers working in logistics roles, while the full-face shield could be better suited for soldiers on the frontlines. 

“The full-face ballistic shield fully encapsulates your head to protect primarily [from] blast force,” Luckey said. “Now, that’s a much wider field display. It’s over 200-degrees wide and over 100-degrees tall. It’s a very different display system that’s more like a night vision pass through system. It’s not optically transparent. It’s a full reprojection system.”

While initial EagleEye prototypes for the Army will use the existing Integrated Head Protection System helmet, Luckey said that helmet is not ideal for a mixed-reality heads-up display, in part because they are designed to have rotational slip to help protect soldiers’ heads. That rotational slip is a challenge when it comes to keeping the device in place, so the company is working on a new helmet design.

A new ballistic plate is also being designed to protect a soldier’s chest and lighten the load when the EagleEye computer, battery and radio are added in.

“What we’re trying to do is integrate those all into one piece that is lighter, lower profile than all those things combined,” he said.

“It’s not … the highest performing battery in the world, nor is the highest performing armor in the world,” he added. “However, it’s still much higher performance when you use it to do both of those things than if you were to do them completely separately.”

Plotting The Course 

Luckey has been eyeing his entrance into IVAS/Soldier-Borne Mission Command (SBMC) space for years. After rising to prominence with the development of the civilian Oculus augmented reality headset, he eventually sold that company and device to Facebook (now Meta) in 2014 and had well-documented political fallouts with people inside the company, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

As Luckey set out to stand up Anduril around 2017, he reached out to investors pitching the design of tactical augmented reality displays.

“My investors at the time told me that … I could not put all of our cards or our eggs in that basket because they believed that it was an extension of a pissing contest I had with Mark Zuckerberg as to how to build the best augmented reality glasses. They were somewhat right,” Luckey said.

Around this time, the Army ramped up its search for a virtual reality heads up display that soldiers could use for training and in combat, including under the cover of darkness. In 2018, it picked Microsoft’s commercially available HoloLens 2 heads-up display for the IVAS program and eventually awarded the company a 10-year, $22 billion production deal. 

However, the device was plagued with problems that ranged from soldiers complaining of cyber sickness symptoms like nausea and visual discomfort to software glitches. After several fits and starts, and redesigns, the service moved ahead with a plan to recompete the hardware earlier this year and officially asked industry to submit viable options for the SBMC .

In the meantime, Luckey said last week that he had been preparing for this moment — working on EagleEye for two-and-a-half years, and already integrating Anduril’s Lattice platform into the Microsoft-designed device. 

Then in April, with a competition on the horizon, Anduril officially assumed oversight of the original multi-billion-dollar IVAS production deal, which is expected to home in on the data architecture.

Luckey, around that time, also made a play to claw back all the intellectual property from Meta and struck up a partnership between the two companies. 

“I now have all my toys back,” he said. “So everything that I did before I sold the company, everything I did while I was at Meta, and everything that they did afterwards.  All of it is on the table for EagleEye.”

In September, the Army tapped Anduril and the startup firm Rivet to proceed with the IVAS redo for the hardware component of the system.

Based on photos on its website, Rivet’s design closely resembles glasses. At the time of the contract award, Rivet CEO David Marra said his company signed a $195 million contract with the Army that will cover an 18-month rapid prototyping sprint. Those dollars, he said, will be used to continue engineering and testing work, and the production of 470 “production representative” devices.

Anduril, meanwhile, said it received a $159 million contract for initial prototyping, with plans to begin delivering close to 100 units in the April-June 2026 timeframe.

Modernized Gray Eagle® ER and Gray Eagle® STOL: The gold standard in MALE unmanned aircraft

The U.S. Army and its global partners have seldom looked ahead to an era more unpredictable than the coming decades of this century. With so much instability and so many advances in technology, how can they be sure they’re making the right moves now to prepare?

Some factors, no matter how unsettled the times, remain constant, including the need for reconnaissance, surveillance, and target acquisition and similar vital roles on the battlefield. That’s why General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) continues to set the benchmark with its Modernized Gray Eagle® Extended Range (ER) and Gray Eagle® Short Takeoff and Landing (STOL) platforms — two best-in-class medium-altitude, long-endurance aircraft designed to meet the operational needs of the U.S. Army and international customers.

These aircraft stand apart due to their modular open systems architecture; unmatched pedigree in flight hours; adaptability to diverse payloads and weapons; and indispensable role in reconnaissance and contested logistics — especially vital in operational theaters around the Western Pacific.

The Importance of Modular Open Systems Architecture

The Modernized Gray Eagle ER and Gray Eagle STOL leverage GA-ASI’s modular open systems architecture, a modern design philosophy that prioritizes flexibility and innovation. This approach ensures seamless integration with multiple payloads, sensors, and data systems, enabling operators to customize mission configurations rapidly and efficiently.

Many are the general officers and program leaders who pause when talking about their work to hold up their smartphone: “I just want this,” they say — hardware that can change what it does with the simplicity of downloading a new app. The Gray Eagle is that aircraft.

What makes these platforms unique is their ability to remain interoperable with existing command, control, and data-sharing frameworks. The modular architecture also empowers the U.S. Army and allied forces to integrate new technologies, such as advanced radar systems, electronic warfare capabilities, or AI-enabled decision-making tools, without requiring costly or time-consuming modifications. 

As threats evolve, these UAS can evolve alongside them.

Proven Reliability: 9 Million+ Flight Hours

GA-ASI has long been recognized for its contributions to combat aviation, with an industry-defining track record that spans more than three decades. The company’s aircraft, including Predator®, Reaper®, and Gray Eagle, have collectively surpassed 9 million flight hours — a testament to their reliability, endurance, and operational value.

For the U.S. Army, this means the Modernized Gray Eagle ER and Gray Eagle STOL are battle-tested platforms with proven operational effectiveness across a range of missions. These aircraft have demonstrated their ability to adapt and thrive under pressure. International customers gain access to platforms backed not only by cutting-edge technology but by decades of experience in live operations, instilling confidence in the Gray Eagle’s ability to deliver results.

Multiplicity of Payloads and Weapons

One of the standout attributes of the Modernized Gray Eagle ER and Gray Eagle STOL is payload adaptability. These platforms can be outfitted with a diverse array of sensors, ranging from electro-optical/infrared cameras to synthetic aperture radar, electronic warfare modules, and signals intelligence suites. This versatility enables mission sets that span intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance; target acquisition; strike; and more.

Nowhere is mission versatility more useful than in the Indo-Pacific theater of operations. U.S. and allied forces must operate across vast distances, often in areas with limited access to logistical support. This rewards an aircraft that is efficient, reliable, durable, and persistent across domains. Modernized Gray Eagle ER and Gray Eagle STOL rise to the occasion.

GA-ASI’s Gray Eagle® STOL delivers a powerful short-field advantage for remote operations.

Gray Eagle STOL, in particular, adds a crucial element to this equation — organic short-takeoff capability. This allows the aircraft to operate from austere airfields or even naval vessels, bypassing reliance on large fixed bases that could be targeted by adversaries. It can provide indispensable support with sustained ISR, resupply, and strike all on the same flight. 

Gray Eagle STOL might take off from a rear-area base loaded with supplies for U.S. or allied forces in a forward position. The aircraft can fly to its destination with no risk to an onboard human crew, use a dirt or unimproved runway to land and drop off food, medicine, and ammunition, and then climb back out to circle and provide overwatch while local forces recover it. If any threats remain, Gray Eagle STOL can be deployed to engage them or coordinate with other forces.

The Core of Reconnaissance and Target Acquisition

For the U.S. Army and global militaries, reconnaissance, search, and target acquisition remain foundational to modern warfare. Modernized Gray Eagle ER and Gray Eagle STOL have proven themselves instrumental in providing commanders with actionable intelligence across multiple domains — whether tracking enemy movements, monitoring high-value targets, or securing maritime chokepoints. 

These platforms excel at delivering persistent ISR capabilities, offering continuous coverage of critical infrastructure, frontlines, and contested zones. Their ability to provide near real-time data to commanders at all levels ensures decision-making is informed, rapid, and effective. In complex battlespaces, where asymmetric threats, drone swarms, and low-flying cruise missiles merge with traditional state adversary challenges, Gray Eagle platforms offer unparalleled situational awareness.

Although small new battery-powered systems have a role on future battlefields, only large, long-winged, traditional aircraft-style platforms can handle these core requirements in the way the U.S. Army and its partners need. 

The GA-ASI Advantage

At the heart of the Modernized Gray Eagle ER and Gray Eagle STOL’s success is the overarching GA-ASI advantage. With a history of delivering more than 1,100 aircraft over three decades and pioneering advancements in combat aviation, GA-ASI has cemented its reputation as the world leader in UAS development. Whether supporting humanitarian assistance, scientific research, or combat operations, the company’s systems have redefined the role of uncrewed platforms in modern warfare.

For the U.S. Army and its global landpower force allies, GA-ASI’s Modernized Gray Eagle ER and Gray Eagle STOL remain the gold standard. In an age defined by rapid technological evolution and operational complexity, the

Boeing drawing up new tiltrotor helo wingman

AUSA 2025 — Aerospace giant Boeing is in the “conceptual stages” of a new tiltrotor drone wingman, according to a company executive, who said the unmanned system could join platforms like US Army Apache attack helicopters or Chinook transport aircraft in battle.

“It’ll be a tiltrotor with two proprotors” and a gas turbine engine, Chris Speights, chief engineer of Boeing’s vertical lift portfolio for its defense division, said in a briefing with reporters on Oct. 7 ahead of the AUSA conference in Washington. “We believe that that’s going to provide the most mature, rapid ability to field.” 

The modular, unmanned wingman “is a conceptual design that’s being developed,” Speights said, adding that Boeing is seeking feedback from the Army. “But all of our analysis shows that this is absolutely meeting the needs” for a “family of systems” setup where various platforms are connected together and working in tandem. 

The drone, dubbed CxR, is being designed to “carry the payloads that are relevant for Apache types of missions,” Speights said, whereas a potential variant, dubbed ClR, would provide logistics support for aircraft like the Chinook. The drone would be in the Group 4 or 5 category, the upper end of how the Pentagon describes sizes of drones. He deferred questions about its development timeline. 

The Army in a shakeup of its aviation portfolio last year canceled a next-gen reconnaissance aircraft dubbed FARA, redirecting its dollars into unmanned systems, though officials did commit to continuing a futuristic assault aircraft dubbed the MV-75. Other military services like the Air Force and Navy are pursuing their own unmanned wingman, but with varying designs. 

Estimating the drone’s max gross weight could be between 5,000 to 7,000 lbs, Speights said it would likely be capable of carrying payloads as heavy as 1,000 to 2,000 lbs. Boeing engineers are targeting a speed for the platform at somewhere between 200 to 250 knots, according to Speights, which he said would potentially enable it to be a wingman for the MV-75.   

“We want to have technologies that are proven,” Speights said, pointing to the company’s experience with the troubled V-22 Osprey that is currently expected to fly with restrictions until next year. Specifically, Speights said Boeing learned important lessons concerning features like tiltrotor control mode transitions — essentially, what systems and flight controls are needed for an aircraft to take off like a helicopter and then shift its rotors in flight to fly like a plane.

“We really want to leverage and lean on that, because there’s a lot of maturity and capability there, and that’s what we see adding value to this collaborative requirement,” he said.

Pentagon preparing to pull $8 billion from ‘unobligated’ R&D coffers to pay troops

WASHINGTON — The Department of Defense plans to siphon $8 billion in leftover fiscal 2025 research and development funding to ensure troops get a paycheck during the ongoing government shutdown, a department official said in a statement on Saturday. 

“The President has directed the Secretary of War to use available funds to pay service members on October 15th,” the official wrote in a brief statement to an array of questions by Breaking Defense. “The Department of War has identified approximately $8 billion of unobligated research development testing and evaluation funds (RDTE) from the prior fiscal year that will be used to issue mid month paychecks to service members in the event the funding lapse continues past October 15th.”

The unusual move comes nearly two weeks into the government shutdown, prompting DoD to begin furloughing some its civilian workforce. Those in uniform, however, have been required to continue working without a paycheck until either a FY26 spending bill is passed, lawmakers eke out a deal on a continuing resolution to reopen the government at FY25 spending levels, or, as has happened in the past, Congress passes a special agreement to cover pay for troops.

The official did not answer questions about an array of topics including how long those funds are expected to last, if additional dollars have been identified or what impact that will have on efforts to develop new weapons and tech.

One defense source told Breaking Defense that they are expecting a hit to ongoing development programs, but just what that means is not clear. DoD also appears to be unilaterally making the move without clearing a reprogramming request though Congress. 

So far, Republicans and the Trump administration are at odds with Democrats’ position that there needs to be an extension of federal subsidies for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act in order to end the shutdown.

On Saturday, President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social that, “I am using my authority, as Commander in Chief, to direct our Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, to use all available funds to get our Troops PAID on October 15th.”

Denmark commits $4.5 billion for additional F-35 jets, invests in Arctic defense spending plan

BELFAST — Denmark pledged today to spend 56.4 billion Danish Krone ($8.77 billion) on “significantly strengthening” its defense capabilities, split between a second tranche acquisition of 16 Lockheed Martin F-35 fifth-generation fighter jets, valued at 27.4 billion Danish Krone, and an Arctic spending plan at a cost of 27.4 billion Danish Krone.

The decision to invest in more F-35 stealth jets takes the Danish Air Force’s fleet to 43 units and “enables the solution of new combat aircraft tasks,” the Danish MoD said in a translated statement. In June, Denmark’s Minister of Defence Troels Lund Poulsen initially shared that at least 10 more of the US made aircraft would be acquired.

“The Ministry of Defense will now initiate a dialogue with the international F-35 program office with the aim of being able to implement a rapid delivery of the new fighter aircraft, which can support a rapid build-up of the Danish Armed Forces’ combat power,” added the MoD statement.

Copenhagen revealed that “as something new” the F-35 acquisition will also include Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) wingman drones, appearing to confirm for the first time that it plans on acquiring the US-made platforms. The exact timing of such an order remains to be seen as the US Air Force program only reached its flight test phase in August. 

The CCAs “are seen as a significant contribution to operational task solving. The follow-up drones can, for example, be used as a forward weapons platform or for reconnaissance under tactical control of the pilot in the F-35 fighter aircraft,” noted the MoD.

Funding of spare parts, flight simulators and a variety of other supporting systems are also tied to the combat jet acquisition. The platform is a core part of Denmark’s contribution to NATO missions.

In a separate statement, Copenhagen shared details of its Arctic spending plan, driven largely by land and maritime investments, with a heavy focus on boosting Greenland defenses. Specifically, plans for a new Arctic Command headquarters in Nuuk, Greenland, have been approved, so too “provision of maritime patrol aircraft,” potentially through cooperating with a NATO counterpart.

Lund Poulsen has previously indicated that if a maritime patrol aircraft deal involving alliance members does not go ahead, Copenhagen will push forward with a deal on its own. 

Other procurements included in the regional spending push include a pair of Arctic ships, while “access to icebreaker capability” has also been signed off. Investment in a North Atlantic submarine cable between Denmark and Greenland, drone procurements and development of a radar capability in East Greenland have also been waved through by lawmakers.

Denmark’s prioritization of boosting defenses in Greenland comes amid political tension with US President Donald Trump, based on his comments around buying the self-ruled territory or taking it by force.

If data is the new ammo, Army may need dedicated data formations: General

WASHINGTON — Controlling and managing the deluge of data in the modern Army could require the service to establish new formations dedicated to the task, according to a key Army officer.

“One of the things that we’re going to look at in there is as [Next Generation Command and Control (NGC2)] and data becomes really our ammunition, the question is, is there an organization designed to oversee data across the United States Army?” Deputy Chief of Staff of the G-6 Lt. Gen. Jeth Rey told Breaking Defense in an interview.

NGC2 is a sprawling effort to replace the Army’s command and control networks and infrastructure in order to pass data more efficiently from sensors to decision-makers to soldiers and everywhere in between. The ability to do so quickly, military leaders have said, will be key to victory — and survival — on the modern, data-soaked battlefield.

As such, Rey said the Army is exploring — but hasn’t decided on — whether it needs a dedicated formation to manage and integrate data across the entire Army, that spans from within the US to outside the nation’s borders, from garrison to the tactical edge. The formation would allow the Army to deliberately focus on standardizing data formats, ensuring interoperability, applying artificial intelligence and machine learning for insights, and ultimately enabling data-centric operations across the force, regardless of location, Rey said.

Information will not only need to be managed by individual units themselves to enable operations, but coordinated and integrated with joint and multinational data that will come together at the theater level for a joint combatant commander.

As for where the formation could fit in with NGC2, Rey said he envisions it as interacting with the application and data layers, where it would “oversee that exchange of data, not only within the Army, but all of the joint services and our coalition partners.” (NGC2 is made up of four layers, the other two being the transport layer, on which data is moved from one location to another, and the integration layer, where data flows from in and out of the unit and is triaged using artificial intelligence.)

Meanwhile, a parallel but similar effort under development involves the alignment of signal brigades and regional cyber centers to be under the operational control of the Army Service Component Commands (ASCC).

This touches not just the data, but is also about ensuring theater commanders have the necessary signal and cyber capabilities already assigned to their area of responsibility and tailored to their specific needs, especially in setting the theater with partners and allies, Rey said. This includes the authorities and relationships that come with the corps alignment directly to the combatant command.

“We are now trying to look at saying how does the signal regiment ensure that we’re transforming to support or enable that ASCC commander,” Rey said. “[We’re] taking a look at our formations in all of our [combatant commands], under all of our ASCCs and seeing where we make adjustments along the way.”

30-Month NGC2 Sprint

A prototype of NGC2 is expected to be run through the ringer at the Army’s Project Convergence Capstone 6 later this year, after which the service will decide how to begin buying and fielding the new tech to units across the service. Rey previously described the task as a 30-month sprint, a large part of which will be replacing legacy equipment to serve NGC2’s newer transport and infrastructure layers.

“Think of us as, like, we’re the road and highway, as we now put the cars on there, which is data and applications that are going to be moving along that highway and taking information to wherever it needs to go. Because data, obviously, is the ammunition that we used to do everything,” he said.

“We must insert into the formations the new transport and infrastructure layers, removing the legacy kit out of the formation. The legacy kit is trucks, it’s base band equipment and we’re talking about nearly 2 million pounds of base band transit cases and inserting that new, lighter and more maneuverable and capable, agile type of equipment into the formation all the way down to the edge.”

That legacy equipment mostly pertains to the remainder of Warfighter Information Network-Tactical (WIN-T) equipment that is still in formations. The Army first began fielding WIN-T more than 20 years ago, and the service determined in 2017 that its configuration was too “fragile” and “vulnerable”, launching a multi-year modernization effort.

While the Army has been providing new capabilities to units since that time, for the most part, only priority units such as light, airborne units for crisis response have received updates, leaving a large portion of the force still operating on legacy equipment.

“This is a deliberate and incredible phase approach. The team of G-3/5/7, the [centers of excellence], the Mission Command Center, here at the G-6 we’re all in concert looking at every division. This is 19 divisions across all compos, compo one, two and three,” Rey said. “We have the units lined up. It’s very deliberate to keep the units still capable of accomplishing their mission as we divest of the equipment and then reinvest in the new capabilities that we’re putting into formation with the training, the sprint training that we’re putting into the formations to get them up to speed on the new kit.”

The newer kits will include embedding transport and infrastructure layers with lighter and smaller equipment such as pLEO terminals to talk to low Earth orbit satellites.

Sweden sending Gripens to NATO’s Steadfast Noon nuclear drill, in historic first

STOCKHOLM — Sweden will participate in NATO’s annual nuclear military exercise for the first time, a major step for a nation that avoided military alliance for 200 years and has avoided nuclear entanglements entirely. 

The Swedish government’s statement on Friday regarding the deployment of Saab Gripen fighter jets to the Steadfast Noon exercise follows Finland’s confirmation of its participation with F/A-18 Hornets. Finland first participated last year. The exercise will be hosted by the Netherlands and kicks off next week.

Last year’s exercise involved 13 allied countries and more than 60 aircraft, including nuclear-capable jets, bombers, and fighter escorts. Refueling aircraft and planes capable of reconnaissance and electronic warfare also took part in the exercise, which is designed to ensure the strength and credibility of NATO’s nuclear deterrent. 

NATO has yet not stated the extent of this year’s exercise, but according to news reports, 71 aircraft from 14 nations are taking part this year.  ​​No live nuclear weapons are used. 

“In an increasingly uncertain world, NATO needs a credible nuclear capability to prevent attacks against the Alliance. Steadfast Noon contributes to ensuring this,” Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said in a written statement Friday. 

The exercise “sends a clear signal to any potential adversary that we will and can protect and defend all allies against all threats,” NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said on Friday. 

While Sweden joined the NATO alliance in March 2024, it has been an open question of how much Stockholm would embrace the fact NATO is undergirded by nuclear weapons from the United States, United Kingdom and France. At a seminar in Stockholm in June 2024, NATO’s head of nuclear policy, Jim Stokes specifically called this out, saying, “Sweden needs to communicate to its public the importance of having joined a nuclear alliance.”

Which is why today’s announcement is notable, as is the language Defense Minister Pål Jonson used in the announcement: “By participating with conventional Gripen combat aircraft in Steadfast Noon, Sweden contributes to ensuring that NATO’s nuclear deterrence remains credible, robust, and effective.”

To be clear, neither Swedish nor Finnish military jets will touch nuclear weapons. Their participation focuses on practicing conventional support capabilities with Gripen and F/A-18 Hornet jets, contributing to the alliance’s nuclear deterrence strategy and tactics, known as SNOWCAT (Support of Nuclear Operations with Conventional Air Tactics). But that has real value. 

“With conventional air tactics, one can, for example, escort combat aircraft loaded with simulated nuclear weapons or, in actual combat, real nuclear weapons. Each ally can participate in accordance with their own preferences and national political decisions,” former director of NATO’s weapons control, William Alberque said, when Sweden applied for membership in 2022. 

To ensure the security of NATO’s allies, the US maintains B-61 nuclear weapons in Europe, under strict US custody and in compliance with the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

In a NATO nuclear mission, certified allied dual-capable aircraft would deliver the weapons, supported by conventional forces. Such a decision would require explicit approval from NATO’s Nuclear Planning Group, which involves both Sweden and Finland’s defense ministers, as well as authorization from the leaders of Washington and London. 

The US Air Force is estimated to store around half of its 200 tactical B61 bombs at airbases in NATO countries Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy and Turkey. These bombs can be carried by specially certified fighter aircraft of these nations, as well as American fighter and bomber aircraft.

Full-scale production of the new version of the non-strategic (tactical) B61-12 bomb began in 2022. Manufacturing and deployment was completed at the start of 2025, according to Stockholm’s International Peace Research Institute.

The F-15E was the first jet certified to carry the B61-12 nuclear bomb, then the F-35A.  Last year, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) confirmed certification for the B-2, F-16, and German Air Force PA-200 Tornado, with efforts ongoing to certify the Italian Air Force’s Tornado and the U.S. Air Force’s B-21 bomber. 

A new variant, the  B61-13, is designed to have a higher-yield in the range of a 360 kiloton blast, which would represent a major step up from the 50 kiloton B61-12. A first production unit on the B61-13 is scheduled for fiscal 2026, according to the announcement, as Breaking Defense reported in January.