Douglas A. Macgregor's Blog, page 3

Pentagon creates new role managing B-21, F-47, AF1, ICBM programs

WASHINGTON — A top Air Force officer has been tapped for a new role managing the service’s next-gen bomber, fighter and ICBM programs, confirming news first reported by Breaking Defense in August.

Lt. Gen. Dale White was nominated for a fourth star yesterday, lining him up for the role of direct reporting portfolio manager (DRPM) for Critical Major Weapons Systems. White will report directly to Deputy Defense Secretary Steven Feinberg. Aviation Week was first to report White’s formal nomination.

In a statement, the Air Force said that White, who is currently the the Air Force’s military deputy for acquisition, will have oversight of the “LGM-35A Sentinel Intercontinental Ballistic Missile systems, Minuteman III ICBM systems, B-21 Family of Systems, F-47 Family of Systems, and VC-25B Presidential Airlift,” the latter of which is known as Air Force One when the president is aboard.

“The DRPM will be assisted by a small, highly specialized staff resident in the Pentagon, with the current acquisition workforce supporting the DRPM critical major weapons systems programs to remain in place,” the service said, adding that the new job will be stood up “over the next few months.”

Part of the timing on that will depend on the Senate, which will have to confirm White. There are limited working days before the year ends, and Congress has to figure out not just the National Defense Authorization Act, but how to keep the government open after Jan. 30.

It’s unclear if the Navy will also be moving ahead with a DRPM role. Breaking Defense previously reported that a similar role was being considered to focus on submarine programs.

Germany’s first space security strategy aims at independent defensive, offensive capabilities

WASHINGTON and BERLIN — Germany’s first-ever national security space strategy envisions a plethora of new military capabilities to boost Berlin’s capacity to act independently to protect and defend its space assets — as well as play a stronger role in influencing European and global security policymaking.

“This Space Safety and Security Strategy forms an important part of Germany’s efforts to safeguard its interests and consolidate its position as a responsible actor in space,” German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul and Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said in a foreword to the document.

The long-awaited “Space Safety and Security Strategy,” released today by the German Foreign and Defense Ministries, lays out in surprising detail the government’s priorities across sectors, including defense, and how they will be implemented over the next several years.

While stressing Berlin’s continued strong support for international law and space norms of behavior, the strategy exemplifies Germany’s pivot in recent years from its traditional position against the weaponization of space to a more robust military stance that includes the pursuit of offensive counterspace weapons.

The strategy “sets out how Germany will decisively and rapidly expand its defence capabilities in space. It promotes the systematic integration of the space domain into defence planning within the context of national and collective defence, thereby contributing to Germany’s deterrence and defence capabilities as well as those of its NATO Allies and European partners,” the document explains.

A graphic included in the Space Safety and Security Strategy. (German Foreign and Defense Ministries)

German Space Command chief Maj. Gen. Michael Traut told the Berlin Security Conference today that under the new strategy the military is moving to improve its capacity across a wide range of mission areas.

“There will be some large programs to enhance and replace our existing SATCOM [satellite communications] capabilities. Secondly, we will broadly enhance our space reconnaissance and intelligence capabilities by adding some new capabilities, not only replacing and reinforcing our radar satellites or perhaps optical satellites, but getting new capabilities in terms of signals from space,” he said.

Further, Traut said, MoD will develop new capabilities for “satellite-based missile detection, because as you know Europe is not only under threat in space, but under threat by ballistic missiles and hypersonic vehicles. So this is on top of the list of our national defense executives and chiefs to provide a very capable, credible integrated air and missile defense.”

Finally, he added, German Space Command is working on creating more robust command and control systems and “space effectors, which do not necessarily need to be destructive.”

Far from being a wish list, MoD’s ambitious plans now have the resources to enable them following the Sept. 25 announcement by Pistorius that Berlin will invest €35 billion ($41 billion) over the next five years on space security.

The new strategy sets out 10 interagency priorities designed to create a stronger German space infrastructure across the civil, commercial and military sectors. These are:

Maintaining, developing and strengthening the ability to operate, protect and defend our own national and European space infrastructure;Supporting a responsive, resilient and innovative space industry, including through the regular awarding of contracts by sovereign customers;Supporting an active, innovative research sector; Achieving the capability for military space operations;Achieving the capability for cyber operations and electromagnetic spectrum operations in the space domain;Closing capability gaps as quickly as possible, for example by pooling and sharing;Ensuring the national ability to take action with core strategic and military capabilities by reducing dependence on non-European actors through the maintenance, development and strengthening of our own space reconnaissance capabilities;Potential inclusion of German space systems into European and international alliances and partnerships such as NATO, space projects and organisations;Potential incorporation of European space infrastructure into national use;Developing the capability to establish space situational awareness as a civil-military task, including by building a sensor network with global coverage;Developing norms, rules and principles for responsible state behaviour within the United Nations framework.

Those priorities are to be implemented through three “strategic actions,” with each supported by a long list of specific subtasks: the first is, “Identify risks and threats, develop options for action;” then, “Promote international cooperation and sustainable order;” and finally “Build deterrence, strengthen defence capabilities and resilience.”

For example, under the first basket, MoD is charged with fielding a global sensor network for space situational awareness. In addition, the military is to pursue a new satellite constellation for tracking launches of adversary “rockets, satellites, HAPS [High Altitude Platform Systems] and hypersonic flight systems.”

Under the third basket, the strategy calls for the development of “technical and operational capabilities to restrict/prevent military use of space by an adversary at national level and/or in cooperation with partners, including deep precision strike and hypersonic capabilities.” It also instructs MoD to field “highly agile low-signal surveillance and bodyguard satellites and reusable spaceplanes to inspect and effect an adversary’s systems.”

On a macro-level, the strategy is subtle, but clear, on Berlin’s ambitions to up its space game on the international stage.

“We are deepening our European and international cooperation as part of our own capability building and are increasing our whole-of-government resilience in space. We will expand Germany’s defence capabilities in space decisively and rapidly. We are also promoting the application and further development of space law,” the strategy states.

Further, the document pledges Germany to take a stronger role in guiding European space defense policy and investments.

“Germany is assuming more responsibility for the protection and defence of EU space systems and is working towards incorporating security and defence aspects in civilian programmes,” the strategy document says.

At the same time, Berlin also is pushing for Europe to establish strategic autonomy and reduce its dependence on “non-European actors” (with a beady eye on the US government and industry) for everything from ISR capabilities to space launch to future exploration/exploitation of resources beyond Earth’s orbit.

Commercial innovation, not government production, will win the drone war

The central theme of Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s recent speech on acquisition reform was that commercial companies and technologies are at the foundation of a strong defense industrial base and military innovation. As he put it, the department wants to harness more of America’s cutting-edge companies to focus their talent and technologies on our toughest national-security problems. New results won’t appear overnight, but the direction launched by Hegseth is the right one.

That’s why defense policymakers should be cautious about a provision now under consideration in the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that could undercut the dynamism we need in one of our most critical emerging defense sectors: unmanned autonomous systems.

Tucked into the bill is a proposal based on the SkyFoundry Act of 2025, to establish a government-owned innovation hub and production facility that would produce up to one million small unmanned aircraft systems under the oversight of the US Army Materiel Command. The Army recently reiterated this plan to build one million drones over the next 2-3 years.

For many reasons, producing drones at a government-owned facility would be a mistake.

First, directing production to government-owned facilities runs counter to the broader effort now underway to strengthen America’s manufacturing base by fostering a vibrant commercial sector. A central theme of both the first and second Trump administrations has been to revitalize US industry through partnership with the private sector rather than by expanding government production. President Donald Trump’s Made in America initiatives framed manufacturing as a collaboration with business, not a government enterprise.

Consistent with that vision, Trump’s June 2025 executive order on achieving drone dominance focuses on commercialization — advancing drone development, production, and export through industry leadership. Hegseth’s July drone dominance memo reaffirmed these points, directing the Army to accelerate acquisition from commercial suppliers. Even the Army itself has echoed this message, calling for the rapid fielding of low-cost unmanned systems developed by the private sector.

Second, an Army that produces its own drones as opposed to purchasing from the dozens of American companies now in this space could cut our soldiers off from the innovation and rapid adaptation that are essential to winning on today’s and tomorrow’s battlefields. After all, it is the private sector that drives innovation. Deputy Secretary Steve Feinberg’s initiatives have emphasized the need to draw in new companies and commercial innovation so that the Pentagon can source, field, and update capabilities from industry more quickly and at greater scale. Hegseth’s recent speech underscored the same point —lowering barriers to entry for firms so that innovations can reach the department faster.

Third, directing government production in a key sector risks perpetuating the supply chain problem that is already a drag on America’s drone industry. Supply chains for drones are fragile and many of the magnets, key motors, and electronics vital to autonomous systems come from China. Until the United States and its allies can produce these inputs, US companies will remain vulnerable. China has already restricted the export of batteries, motors, and flight controllers to the US, Europe, and Ukraine. Army production of drones would divert limited supplier from American companies, thus reducing the chances of a healthy, competitive sector down the line.

Finally, the track record of the government-owned facilities that make up the so-called “organic industrial base” (OIB) is problematic. Established decades ago under federal law to ensure that the United States could mobilize in wartime, the OIB is burdened by aging infrastructure and outdated equipment. Government Accountability Office reports have repeatedly found that, while some improvements have been made, the depots still face a multibillion-dollar backlog of maintenance and modernization projects — roughly $3 billion by some estimates — and that much of the capital equipment is well past its service life.

Why pour money into an aging system that relies on the government rather than energizing commercial manufacturing? Moreover, the Army’s own modernization leadership has emphasized the importance of facilities that can conduct digital repair, not large-scale serial production.

Some elements of the SkyFoundry proposal could be constructive, if properly adapted. For example, establishing a joint government–industry working group could help identify capability gaps, align investment priorities, and accelerate fielding. The Defense Production Act’s authority to conclude so-called “voluntary agreements” could provide a mechanism for doing this without triggering concerns about collusion. In addition, the government could catalyze faster innovation by offering its facilities to private-sector firms to test, prototype, and develop new technologies — similar to the Department of Energy’s laboratory system. And the SkyFoundry provision to create a hub for lessons learned in recent wars could be useful too.

Of course, the Department of War and the Army have vital roles to play in ensuring that American soldiers have access to the best drones possible. As the department has demonstrated in recent months, it possesses powerful instruments to catalyze the private sector to take on important defense problems. By using its power to make purchase commitments and off-take agreements and a range of other innovation-related authorities, the DoW can help address the Army’s drone shortage while also ensuring that the “valley of death” is not littered with promising drone companies.

But at a time when the entire nation should be focused on expanding production capacity for the industries of the future, this is not the moment to turn inward and build parallel, government-owned manufacturing systems. The government’s role is to catalyze and incentivize, not to replicate what the private sector does best. The goal should be an industrial base that can surge on demand and continuously update hardware and software, ensuring America’s competitive advantage against adaptive adversaries.

The new acquisition philosophy is the right one: Compete for ideas, contract for speed, and buy at scale. Commercial purchase commitments and off-take agreements — not government plants — are the right tools for that.

Nadia Schadlow is a senior fellow at Hudson Institute and a co-chair of the Hamilton Commission on Securing America’s National Security Innovation Base. She served as deputy national security advisor for strategy in the first Trump administration. She also serves as a strategic advisor for a US drone company.

What Russia and China showed off at the 2025 Dubai Airshow

Day three of the Dubai Airshow brought more news from the United Arab Emirates’ domestic defense industry and plenty of aviation rivalry between world powers. Stealth fighters have stolen the spotlight at the Middle East’s largest defense gathering, as a prospective F-35 sale to Saudi Arabia becomes the talk of the town and Russia tries to play up its Su-57 Sukhoi. Catch up on all of Breaking Defense’s news and multimedia coverage of the airshow now.

Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Lightning II generated plenty of buzz at the 2025 Dubai Airshow as the US hashed out a deal to sell the stealth fighter to Saudi Arabia. (Daniel Woolfolk/Breaking Defense)Russia pitches its Su-57 stealth fighter as an alternative to the F-35. (Agnes Helou/Breaking Defense)China’s Wing Loong WL-X is the country’s answer to American hunter-killer drones like the MQ-9 Reaper. (Daniel Woolfolk/Breaking Defense)Russia’s Zala Lancet drone acts as a loitering munition as well as a surveillance tool. (Daniel Woolfolk/Breaking Defense)Saab is pitching its GlobalEye jet for the airborne early warning and control mission as the US and NATO reconsider earlier contracts. (Daniel Woolfolk/Breaking Defense)UAE-based Calidus’ B-250 trainer and light attack aircraft makes an appearance at the airshow. (Agnes Helou/Breaking Defense)The UAE’s air force flew the Dassault Mirage 2000-9 fighter during the airshow. (Agnes Helou/Breaking Defense)

MBDA’s planned Emirati subsidiary will focus on missiles, loitering munitions: Exec

DUBAI AIRSHOW — European missile defense giant MBDA plans to open a new wholly-owned subsidiary in the United Arab Emirates, a first for the firm outside Europe, which will develop loitering munitions and missiles, according to a company executive.

“It’s the first time that we [will] open [a] wholly owned subsidiary outside Europe, though comparing the landing company to a domestic, national company is too early, because it needs to grow,” Patrice Hajjar, MBDA’s vice president for the Middle East, told reporters today in a briefing.

The “objective” of the future company, which Hajjar said would likely be established next year, is to “really increase our presence in the Middle East, leveraging on the local capability, industrial capability, which is really mature in the UAE, and cooperating with other stakeholders like [UAE defense firms] EDGE Group and Calidus, for integration of some of our system on [their] platforms,” he said.

MBDA mentioned the “future establishment of MBDA UAE” in a press release Tuesday, saying the move would also “consolidat[e] MBDA’s position as a long-term industrial partner of the UAE.”

MBDA and Hajjar credited the UAE’s Tawazun Council for supporting the move. Tawazun Council a governmental entity that essentially fills the role of defense contractor. The entity operates Tawazun Industrial Park (TIP) where research and development operations with international firms take place to produce UAE national intellectual property for defense platforms.

MBDA already has a Missile Engineering Center in the UAE, and Hajjar said the new subsidiary will absorb that entity when it’s up and running, as well as other MBDA projects in the country.

Hajjar said that MBDA is also working with French thermal battery manufacturer ASB Group to launch a thermal battery factory in the UAE. Thermal batteries provide high power needed for rocket and missile operations.

“It’s a key component of missiles. You have in a missile, like four to five batteries for the seeker, for the computer and so on. And ASB is a world leader,” he said. “So we are bringing here in UAE, our main supplier, internal battery for production facility from A to Z, in order to also build up together with our partner, strong industrial base and a key component of missile, for instance, for smart weapons.”

Hajjar spoke to reporters from the MBDA stand at the Dubai Airshow, where a black, diamond-shaped loitering munition was on display. The weapon was codeveloped with Tawazun in the Missile Excellence Center.

“I would say so, technology maturity, which is quite high, and it needs to be, we need to finalize the development,” Hajjar said. “We have already done demonstration flights, and it requires another two years, because it’s not only the development, [it’s] is also adding local content. So we have the objective to investigate, for with the supply chain, local supply chain, what can be added in the concept and design of this.”

Vertical integration of rare Earth elements for US autonomous dominion

This essay is part of the Pathfinder series, a coproduction between Breaking Defense and the Center for a New American Security. Click here to find out more.

America’s national security is imperiled by its dependence on China for the rare earth elements (REEs) essential to artificial intelligence (AI), autonomous systems, and precision-guided weapons. Without secure access to refined REEs, even the most sophisticated algorithms and defense platforms become inoperable.

China’s dominance across the REE supply chain­ — from supply to mining to refining — creates a single point of failure for US military readiness. In a crisis, Beijing could weaponize these choke points, halting production of the AI-enabled drones, electronic warfare systems, and missiles that underpin US deterrence in theaters from the Middle East to the Indo-Pacific.

Rebuilding A Domestic Supply Chain

Washington should treat REEs not as commercial commodities but as strategic national assets. A bipartisan path forward lies in the vertical integration within US borders of domestic mining, separation, refining, and magnet alloying capacity. MP Materials’ operations in California offer a prototype for such an effort.

Based in Las Vegas, MP Materials owns and operates the Mountain Pass mine in California, the only active rare earth mine and processing site in North America. According to company analysts, MP is working to expand its capacity downstream to domestically produce separated oxides and permanent magnets. It recently struck a major public–private partnership with the Department of Defense (DoD) to accelerate the construction of a completely domestic US rare earth magnet supply chain. This 10X Facility will help ensure domestic magnet manufacturing, expand heavy rare earth separation, and establish long-term price floor guarantees that reinforce US independence in the REE chain.

Under the agreement, the DoD becomes MP’s largest shareholder, commits to a 10-year price floor, and agrees to purchase all magnets for defense and commercial use from the new facility. MP’s recent statements emphasize that the company has invested nearly $1 billion to reindustrialize the full rare earth supply chain, completely ceasing exports of concentrate to China and accelerating downstream operations to the American military and US private companies.

The Next Phase Of Resilience For MP Materials

MP’s expansion also highlights a key risk. Without policy support for refinement and magnet production, the United States might only reshore upstream mining or, worse, extract raw concentrate and ship it abroad to adversarial companies, leaving the United States vulnerable to foreign control over the most critical stages of the supply chain. MP’s ambition demonstrates how domestic investment can rebuild an end-to-end rare earth supply chain vital to US technological and national security competitiveness, but only if the government treats MP Materials as a model to replicate rather than a standalone venture.

Congress should support MP Materials and similar firms by extending federal assistance beyond mining to include magnet fabrication, offtake procurement, and integration with defense manufacturing. Additionally, pairing MP’s scaling capacity with national labs and university consortia can create a Manhattan Project for magnets that could counter China’s head start in the field.

From Materials To Military Innovation

America’s long-term security depends not only on a vertically integrated REE chain, but also on transforming them into battlefield innovation. Even with a stable domestic supply, the United States risks falling behind adversaries that can rapidly field new REE-based systems. The war in Ukraine illustrates an opportunity. Russia’s initial armored advances were blunted not by high-end Western munitions but by fleets of jury-rigged drones, prototyped in small workshops and refined by frontline feedback. Ukraine’s defense innovation ecosystem has embraced grassroots drone development, open collaboration, and rapid iteration, underscoring the need for the United States to pair its material advantages with similar agility in design and deployment.

US military culture and acquisition, by contrast, remain locked in decades-old procurement practices that stifle experimentation. The only way to break free is to institutionalize rapid development for drone and autonomous systems innovation and create, in essence, an industry that blends openness, private sector competition, live battlefield feedback, and modular architecture. Such a reimagined development cycle should maintain a public design repository under permissive licensing so that vetted US startups and allied teams can propose, test, and evolve designs. Additionally, placing embedded liaisons with frontline units and operators to field-test and iterate designs in real environments would ensure ingenuity for this next phase of warfare.

A Bipartisan Strategy For Security And Renewal

A completely domestic industrial base of REEs able to mass-produce drones at scale, coupled with an adaptive design culture, would ensure dominance and security for decades to come. Politically, both prongs offer bipartisan appeal. Democrats can frame vertical integration as green industrial policy, as American plants reduce toxic refining abroad, create union jobs, and strengthen supply chains for both defense and clean energy. Republicans can emphasize insulating America from Beijing’s leverage to reduce the risk of wartime shortages and reinforce US technological sovereignty.

Skeptics may contend that subsidizing the domestic rare earth supply chain constitutes corporate welfare, while the rapid fielding of autonomous systems borders on reckless adventurism. Yet the alternative of the United States depending on adversaries for critical inputs and procurement cycles that can easily be shut off is just as risky. Just as Congress once recognized aerospace and nuclear power as inherently strategic industries worthy of public investment and rapid development, it must now do the same for rare earth supply chains and autonomous systems.

US policymakers must act now so that when the next generation of autonomous drones takes flight in a future conflict, every magnet in their motors, every alloy in their rotors, and every line of code is anchored in expedient American innovation. These reforms can offer a bipartisan strategy that ties economic renewal in rare earth elements to military adaptation.

Kevin Chen is a former data scientist and intelligence analyst currently pursuing a master’s degree in public policy at the Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs. Chen has over three years of experience in the US intelligence community applying AI/machine learning to national security challenges. He now focuses on AI governance, US-China technological competition, and the intersection of emerging technology and global affairs at Yale. Chen graduated from Dartmouth College in 2022 with a BA in data science. He is from Knoxville, Tennessee, and is fluent in Mandarin Chinese.

Meeting modern airpower needs with faster R&D cycles for propulsion

As new technologies appear seemingly daily, companies must be prepared to quickly adapt, evaluate new solutions and implement them at a pace that keeps up with both demand signals and competitors. Doing so requires a robust research and development (R&D) infrastructure that allows for rapid development, deployment and advancement of technologies across all of the domains involved in modern military applications.

Rolls-Royce LibertyWorks brings the next generation of energy, propulsion, and power management systems to life. Located in Indianapolis, their advanced research and rapid-prototyping facility turns high-potential ideas into demonstrable systems — shaping how the world powers flight, defense, and exploration.

Breaking Defense spoke with John Kusnierek, Senior Vice President, LibertyWorks Research and Technology, on how Rolls-Royce is adapting to change, its role in the defense industrial base and its heritage as LibertyWorks marks its 30th anniversary. 

Breaking Defense: What’s happening in the world that necessitates the need for something like LibertyWorks, and how do those threat scenarios inform the work that you do?

Kusnierek: We are actually at one of the most consequential periods of time in both the aerospace industry and the defense industry. You can see that emerging in lots of different ways. It’s quite vivid. In the Ukraine-Russia war, where you have the appearance of drones in quantities that had previously not been imagined, doing everything from very short-range strikes to long-range strategic strikes and emerging very quickly on the battlefield. One of the things that’s certainly coming through as the key ingredient is the ability to adapt as quickly as possible. 

LibertyWorks Research and Technology, Senior Vice President, John Kusnierek with a Rolls-Royce Olympus engine used on the Concorde supersonic jet. (Photo courtesy of Rolls-Royce)

Our customers, the Department of Defense and others, all recognize that speed to field equipment is important. At the same time, there is still the need for the traditional larger programs that move at a somewhat slower pace, but nonetheless are very foundational, whether that is bombers, fighters, or transports. 

As the power of computing, the size of mission systems like electronics and radars, as those have steadily been miniaturized, then obviously in many cases the aircraft, the platforms, become smaller and hence the engines become smaller. But that is actually not a race to the bottom. All that means is that some of the traditional missions that were accomplished by larger aircraft can now be accomplished by smaller aircraft. 

What are the key areas of research and development in propulsion? 

One of the examples of rapid prototyping that we are extremely proud of supported an urgent operational need for infrared suppression on the AC-130W gunship, and LibertyWorks has technologies that are fairly unique in the industry that we applied to that problem. We had to compete successfully, and our competitors are very sharp. 

One of the things about the U.S. defense market is that it’s very competitive. If you’re in a group of the best and competing to win, the Defense Department has the access to the best solution. We were able to provide a design and field something in a very short period of time, a matter of months, which was able to fly in combat to support combat operations successfully. 

One of the concerns often with rapid prototyping is, yes, we’re going to provide something which can be fielded very quickly, but can it be operated over a long period of time? Can it be sustained so that it’s actually mission capable? In this case we were successful with a system that was robust, did not require maintenance and was effective. That’s a great example of a shorter time cycle. 

Hypersonics is actually a good example of a longer cycle. Rolls-Royce has a variety of architectures and solutions which are versatile across a range of speeds that a hypersonic system would be flying. These are air-breathing hypersonic technologies, not to be confused with rocket-boosted weapons. The cycle here depends on the maturity of the technology. It depends significantly on how quickly the Defense Department wants to move. The last thing not to lose track of is that hypersonics is test infrastructure intensive. Having the ability in the United States to test these systems is a key component. 

The Rolls-Royce F130 turbofan engine has been selected as the powerplant for the B-52 Commercial Engine Replacement Program. (Photo courtesy of Rolls-Royce)

Why is this a pivotal time in aerospace and defense for propulsion? How is the pace of technology affecting real-world events? 

If you look at some of the headlines, there are certainly comments out there from defense officials from both the U.S. and our European allies with regard to the security environment being the most challenging since the end of World War II. There’s a geopolitical pressure, geopolitical risk, if you will, that exists in a lot of different areas in the world. 

You have to combine that with the pace and availability of technology, and the proliferation of technology, whether it is miniaturization of electronics which use AI for example, or a future in which quantum computing or quantum communication becomes important. Quantum sensing is also something that’s on the horizon. These are technologies that are coming into play now in some manner, but I don’t think we have even scratched the surface of all the use cases and how prolific and impactful those technologies will be. 

Think of the first cell phone, which was not a smartphone, and then the way that the smartphone has absolutely revolutionized the way we live. It’s going to be that kind of impact from these other technologies.

Discuss the importance of Rolls-Royce and LibertyWorks to the U.S. defense industrial base, and the partnerships you’ve developed over the years across the U.S. supply chain to help support that?

We have a broad footprint. We provide engines — I’m talking Rolls-Royce, Indianapolis — to all of the services for their platforms, for their aircraft, for their capability. We also provide sustainment support for those 24/7, 365. We’re proud of our engines, not only from a heritage standpoint, but also from a looking-forward standpoint. 

I can tell you when there’s news of an at-sea rescue using, for example, V-22s, that gives us a tremendous amount of pride, as does seeing the elephant walks on some of the bases where our aircraft are present. A lot of veterans work at Rolls-Royce. I will note that in the most uncertain times of COVID, our workforce kept delivering engines. 

The V-22 Osprey is powered by two Rolls-Royce AE 1107C engines. U.S. Army photo by Kevin W. Clark.

When you look back at the last 30 years of LibertyWorks and its roots in the Allison Engine Company, what stands out to you?

I’m a history geek. I love finding out about and examining the long and storied history of Allison and Rolls-Royce. As I look back at the 30 years, what I would absolutely foot stomp is change. So change occurs, technologies come into focus. Some of the technologies mature and become obsolete, but it’s always about change. It’s always about looking forward and figuring out where we need to go next – staying close with the customer, finding out what is important to them, which also changes as time unfolds. 

Rolls-Royce and LibertyWorks are a key part of the U.S. defense industrial base. We are very proud of our position supporting our DoD warfighting customers. We’re dedicated to that and we are looking for what is actually the next stage of need from the customer.

India picks BAE Hägglunds’ BvS-10 for Army’s new tracked vehicle

LONDON — The Indian Army has selected BAE Systems Hägglunds’ BvS-10 for its next all-terrain tracked vehicle, in what a BAE official told Breaking Defense was the “first expanse of BvS-10 into Asia.”

The production contract, worth an undisclosed sum, was awarded to Indian conglomerate and prime in the program, Larsen & Toubro, for a total of 18 BvS-10 “Sindhu” ATVs, the L&T announced today.

“The BvS10 Sindhu is an upgraded variant of the proven BvS10 articulated all-terrain vehicle with adaptations tailored specifically for India’s terrain and climate, including high altitude, desert, marshland and amphibious environments,” the announcement said.

BAE Systems Hägglunds Regional Director Darren Restarick told Breaking Defense L&T will be responsible for the end-to-end build of BvS-10s at their Armoured Systems Complex facility in Hazira, the same location tasked with manufacturing Hanwha’s K9 self-propelled howitzer. Contracted under the ‘Make in India’ initiative by the Indian government, the deal will also ensure a “broader security of supply” of BvS-10 parts globally, Restarick added.

“This deal represents technology transfer, know-how and technical support,” Restarick said, confirming the BvS-10 had successfully passed vehicle trials at altitudes as high as 18,000 feet above mean sea level. The contract also includes a comprehensive integrated logistic support package for initial deployment, maintenance, and life cycle sustainment.

RELATED: Indian defense budget boosted 9.5%, but analysts say pension hindering weapons spending

According to a request for proposals (RFP) issued by the Indian Ministry of Defence in 2022, the armed forces had been seeking an ATV capable of working “seamlessly” in high altitude areas as well as “low-lying salt flats and swamp areas.”

All 18 platforms will be troop-carrying variants and are scheduled to be delivered to the Indian Armed Forces within two years, BAE Systems Hägglunds confirmed to Breaking Defense.

The BvS-10 is already in service with the armed forces of Austria, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom. It’s also on order for the German Army and has been selected for the US Army’s Cold Weather All-Terrain Vehicle (CATV) program.

Hägglunds competed against India company Prominent Comtech’s Talwar ATV in the competition, another a twin-cabin and amphibious ATV.

It remains unclear whether the Indian MoD will modify BvS-10 for additional roles, which can include “command and control, ambulance service, vehicle repair and recovery, logistics support, situational awareness, as well as vehicle mounted lethality and support weapons” vehicles, according to the official announcement.

“This contract addresses and manages many of the challenges customers and users now face in the world. How do we deal with security of supply? How do we create assurance in our supply chains? Because under ‘Make in India’ requirements of BvS-10, L&T has to deliver greater than 60 percent indigenous content that exponentially increases the scope and capacity for us to provide all of our customer base potential security of supply going forward,“ Restarick concluded.

Middle East Black Hawks could be converted into unmanned UHawks, Sikorsky says

DUBAI AIRSHOW — Just weeks after unveiling a prototype Black Hawk helicopter reimagined from the ground up as an unmanned rotorcraft drone, Sikorsky has a new pitch to Middle Eastern customers: Let us help convert your aging Black Hawks into pilotless S-70 UHawks.

“Customers with old Black Hawks, Lima models or Alpha models, as they start to retire those aircraft, there might be another use for that aircraft to extend its life by this different sort of autonomous application, and so we think that’s very exciting, and that also ensures that, from a customer perspective, it’s certainly more cost efficient,” Ramsey Bentley, director of strategy, at the Lockheed Martin subsidiary, told reporters Tuesday. “We’re simply taking a customer’s existing aircraft and outfitting it for a different purpose with the Matrix autonomy kit, with fly-by-wire software, and then removing a variety of components, like the cockpit.”

Beth Parcella, Sikorsky’s vice president of strategy and business development, said the company could use “local industry” in the Gulf and elsewehere in the Middle East for the months-long conversion.

“Our thought process is that we would send a small team from Sikorsky to help overseas with the conversions, but it would be local industry that actually does it,” Parcella said.

“Our approach is, we want to be listening to our teammates, and you know how they want to execute this. Because, you know, even though our prototype is a LIMA model [UH-60L], we can do this with any Hawk, whether it’s a Seahawk, Black Hawk,” she said.

Several Middle Eastern or North African nations fly the traditional Black Hawk, including Egypt, Jordan, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and Saudi Arabia.

The inclusion of local industry in any conversion would especially play into pitches for the UAE or Saudi Arabia, where local governments have mandated half of all defense products be locally manufactured by 2030.

A Sikorsky UHawk unmanned Black Hawk sits ready for payloads in his undated photo. (Photo courtesy of Sikorsky).

Parcella told journalists that the conversion can be done by integrating Matrix autonomy system into existing Black Hawks.

Bently described Matrix as a “non-aircraft specific autonomy system.”

“It was a co-development with the DARPA agency, and we have matured it over the last few years. We’re flying it on multiple different types of aircraft, from rotary wing to fixed wing to UAS aircraft, and we’ve got over 1,000 flight hours on our matrix autonomy system,” he said.

RELATED: Unmanned Black Hawk program in Army’s hands as ALIAS robo-helo takes likely last flight

He added that Matrix allows scalable autonomy, giving the operators multiple options.

“We can fly with two pilots in the aircraft. We can dial up the autonomy. We can fly with one pilot, so the autonomy provides a competent co-pilot, if you would, or we can dial it up all the way and be a fully autonomous system with no pilots in the aircraft,” he said.

The tech would need an export license for foreign conversions, Bentley said, something Sikorsky is working on now.

The UHawk, as unveiled at the Association of the US Army annual conference in the US in October, removes the pilot’s cockpit completely in favor of front-loaded storage space.

“[It] is a UAS with 10,000 pounds of payload capability, and really has a number of missions that it can undertake,” Parcella said.

Sikorsky officials said that flight testing of the UHawk will start by mid-2026 and anticipated production to start by the end of that year.

Amid talk of 20-year aid deal, experts say Israel should recalibrate its US relationship

JERUSALEM — Earlier this month Axios published a report that raised some eyebrows here in Israel. It said that Israeli officials were seeking a 20-year military aid commitment from the US — double the 10-year pledges Jerusalem and Washington have worked out in the recent past.

And while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to distance himself from the story, experts here appear to be taking the development seriously, while suggesting a change of course: Rather than seeking more aid, Israel should seek to change the relationship’s dynamic.

“The understanding that will be reached with the present administration should be used to build a trajectory that leads from the current model of the aid package to partnership,” Eran Lerman, a former deputy for foreign policy and international affairs at the national security council in the Israeli prime minister’s office, told Breaking Defense. 

Israel currently receives $3.8 billion a year in defense aid based on a Memorandum of Understanding signed in 2016. The aid is largely spent in the US to buy platforms and systems from American defense giants such as Lockheed Martin. But the current MOU will expire in 2028, and negotiations over a new one would need to be concluded during the Trump administration’s current second term. Axios, citing two Israeli officials and a US official, said the 20-year idea had been floated in recent weeks.

Netanyahu rejected the report, saying in an interview with Australian TV host Erin Molan, “My direction is the exact opposite. … I think it’s time to ensure that Israel is independent.” Those comments came just weeks after Netanyahu said the country needed to be more self-sufficient in a speech where he referenced the ancient Greek city-state of Sparta.

There’s also the matter of US President Donald Trump and his America First agenda.

“The challenge is that Trump has already made very clear that he doesn’t like giving money, and he’s also spoken about how Israel already gets a lot of money,” said Yaakov Katz, a fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute. 

Axios did say that more joint research and development programs are under discussion, part of what it described as “America First tweaks” that could better appeal to Trump. 

Lerman suggested this was a step in the right direction, but it needed to go farther. He said more of a partnership model would mean the US and Israel both benefit from work on defense technology, and doesn’t make Israel dependent on aid. Lerman said that such a partnership should preserve Israel’s legally mandated Qualitative Military Edge in the region, a key foundation of US-Israel ties.

“There should be other ways for sustaining Israeli military superiority in the regional context that does not necessarily depend on the American taxpayer,” he added. “Down the road, through a long and well-planned transition, this will benefit the strategic interests and defense establishments of both countries.”

Lerman also pointed out that there is a precedent for this shift. Israel used to receive economic and military aid, but the economic aid was phased out by 2007.

Katz said he believed officials were discussing “a new model, and I think that’s what they’re trying to do is not to make it a one-way street where it’s just money being given to Israel.” 

Jon Hoffman, a research fellow at the Washington, DC-based libertarian-leaning CATO Institute, said he was skeptical that smaller changes would be beneficial to the US. He responded to the Axios report in a post on X noting that “there is no such thing as ‘America first’ tweaks to such a deal. … This is the epitome of America LAST. Israel is a strategic liability — walk away.”

In an interview with Breaking Defense he elaborated, saying Israel is “very aware of the changing winds in the US.” 

“The current status quo is unsustainable,” he added, saying Israel does not need US aid to keep its relationship with Washington “special.”

Hoffman said the US should approach Israel “the way we approach South Korea or Germany; or any other country. That means any decision we make should be approached from arm’s length and US interests. Stopping this knee-jerk of unquestioning support.” 

However negotiations continue, the recent conflicts in the Middle East have provided evidence for either side in the argument. Israeli military technology has grown by leaps and bounds so that Jerusalem is less dependent on US cutting-edge tech — but only somewhat less. American missile defenses, for instance, were used to fend of Iranian missiles and drones during barrages this year.

Economically speaking, “We [Israel] have a GDP per capita higher than Japan for the last decade and perhaps higher than Germany,” noted Lerman. “At a point it becomes obvious the current model cannot be sustained, on the other hand the US needs to sell a huge amount of weapons.”

Whatever happens, he said, there must be a “path to sustaining the QME, because that is the foundation of stability in the region.”