The 30,000-pound GBU-57, also known as the MOP, played a key role in Operation Midnight Hammer last month. Air Force B-2 stealth bombers dropped 12 MOP bombs on two different ventilation shafts at Fordow. Another two were used against the Natanz site.

The technology is designed to be capable of attacking underground targets. It can reportedly hit locations hundreds of feet below ground level.

“MOP is a large, GPS-guided, penetrating weapon with the ability to attack deeply-buried and hardened bunkers and tunnels. The warhead case is made from a special high‑performance steel alloy and its design allows for a large explosive payload while maintaining the integrity of the penetrator case during impact,” according to an Air Force description of the system.

The Defense Threat Reduction Agency was heavily involved in testing, modeling and simulation of the system for many years prior to Midnight Hammer, in partnership with the Air Force.

“What we do try to do is test [technologies] in what we call a ‘threat representative environment.’ And in this case, we built a test site to test the munitions against, in collaboration with the Air Force and DTRA’s test organization, to try to ascertain the effects that the MOP would have in certain environments. We’ve continued to do tests over time to then determine what those effects are, and then we use that information to support our modeling and simulation programs. Those models that we’ve built include the weapons effects that we saw during all of the testing events, and include a number of other factors that our experts have brought to bear. That model is also part of that targeting and weaponeering support that we talked about [with regard to Midnight Hammer]. So in addition to the threat representative testing that we did, where we were able to see how does the MOP act in certain situations and certain geographies and architectures, if you will, we also then use that information to support our further modeling and simulation to lead to our best targeting analysis to support those decision makers,” a senior defense official told reporters Thursday during a background call.

U.S. intelligence agencies are still working to complete a final battle damage assessment to better understand the impact of last month’s strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites.

“We don’t conduct the BDA here, but we eagerly anticipate the intelligence community completing BDA on this so that we can assess the models vice what actually happened according to their analysis, and then take a look at how accurate the projections were, so we can use information there to improve our modeling output and our targeting decision support packages that we put together. We also will be able to assess whether or not the weapon performed as planned, according to the BDA,” the senior defense official said.

“Then that information may go into future iterations of the technology,” they added. “We will take this information and determine did things work the way that we wanted them to, in which case, how can we continue to improve upon it? Or did things not work exactly as planned, and how can we fix that so that in the future our next-generation capabilities work that much better? We don’t have that information yet, but we look forward to receiving it so that it can inform our next investments in this arena.”

Notably, MOP fuzes can be programmed.

The bomb is “comprised of steel, explosive and a fuze, programmed bespokely [for] each weapon to achieve a particular effect inside the target. Each weapon had a unique desired impact, angle, arrival, final heading and a fuze setting. The fuze is effectively what tells the bomb when to function. A longer delay in a fuze, the deeper the weapon will penetrate and drive into the target,” Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine told reporters last month during a press briefing about Midnight Hammer.

The Air Force is pursuing a MOP modification program to integrate a “smart fuze” capability into the weapon. The so-called Large Penetrator Smart Fuze is intended to provide “increased probability of kill” against hard and deeply buried targets “by mitigating the risk of target intelligence uncertainty,” according to a report from the Pentagon’s director of operational test and evaluation.

On Thursday’s call, the senior defense official declined to say whether the MOPs used in Midnight Hammer were equipped with the smart fuze capability.

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The most recent strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities relied on more than 30 Tomahawk missiles fired from an attack submarine. Early last year, more than 80 Tomahawks struck targets in Yemen to kick off a month-long American and British campaign against Iran’s Houthi proxies. However, more Navy cruise missiles were expended in these two brief operations, against militarily unsophisticated adversaries, than the Pentagon requested and Congress funded over the same period.

America’s anemic production rates of these and other crucial munitions loom large in deterring aggression in the Indo-Pacific. Here, the vulnerability of U.S. bases and aircraft carriers would require the U.S. military to have the ability to hit an enormous number of Chinese targets well beyond the range of most of its land- or carrier-based combat aircraft. A series of think tank wargames concluded that a conflict in the Taiwan Strait would consume multiple thousands of long-range strike munitions that would exhaust available U.S. inventories within three weeks.

“God forbid, if we were in a short-term conflict, it would be short-term because we don’t have enough munitions to sustain a long-term fight,” Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK), chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, warned during a recent hearing.

The potential gap between our military needs and industrial throughput is jarring. It calls not only for expanding the numbers and variety of munitions suppliers, but also for deploying the most innovative software in the Defense Department to proactively and assertively oversee them for outcomes. 

America’s traditional defense industry — working through the traditional defense acquisitions system — continues to make the world’s advanced weapons with often spectacular results, as we saw with the B-2s and bunker busters in Iran. But the process is akin to the artisanal production in medieval guilds. Each advanced munition — from long-range strike missiles to missile-defense interceptors — costs millions of dollars to produce and several years to build.  

In recent months, the Defense Department has provided seed funding under the Defense Production Act for more suppliers of solid rocket motors and energetics, stood up a “Munitions War Room,” and engaged the prime contractors directly and pointedly to boost production rates.

Congress has done its part by, after years of DOD requests, authorizing the use of multi-year procurement for long-range anti-ship and air-to-ground missiles (LRASM, JAASM) and missile interceptors (PAC-3 “Patriot”).

The Pentagon should take advantage of non-traditional technology companies — hardware and software makers alike — to furnish a constant flow of actionable options, alternatives, and expanded output. That also involves the DOD articulating a “good enough” set of specs for cruise and interceptor missiles that meet minimum requirements for range, payload, speed, precision, electronic warfare shielding, and compatibility with existing U.S. air and naval launch platforms.

“We need to look at other vendors,” Acting Chief of Naval Operations Adm. James Kilby told the House Appropriations Committee. “They may not be able to produce the same exact specifications, but they might be able to produce a missile that’s effective, which is more effective than no missile.”

New industry entrants are stepping forward with alternative offerings. Others are taking advantage of 3D printing and modular design to produce cheaper missiles that can still get the job done. The question is whether they will get orders from DOD and, equally important, whether they can deliver at scale and on time. The same goes for traditional contractors who are willing to introduce lower-cost alternatives to their profitable incumbent munitions programs.

The usual market solution — increasing orders (and thus demand) for needed munitions — is necessary but insufficient. The underlying structural challenge is capacity and supply — an American industrial base that is not big enough to generate enough materials, metals, chemicals, batteries, sensors, and micro-electronics to surge long-range munitions while also supplying other military weapons systems and commercial products.

For example, after a series of corporate consolidations there are now only two qualified providers — down from six in the 1990s — of military solid rocket motors, a leading cause of munitions production delays. Other rocket motor vendors — Anduril, X-Bow, and Ursa Major, for instance — are coming online with DOD support, while still years away from commencing new production.

The problem is systemic across multiple advanced munitions systems that share and compete for the same scarce components.

Yet, defense supply chains are still mostly tracked and managed as individual programs, often in manual spreadsheets, without the relevant puts and takes on the broader industrial base. For crucial components information, DOD depends way too heavily on the willingness of prime contractors to divulge their own data. Defense leaders lack the modern data capability to hold the primes accountable, and the primes’ own ability to harness the industrial base is more mid-20th century than early 21st. What defense planners need is the AI capability to track and prioritize scarce items across the broader munitions supply chain enterprise, and enable action. The good news is: that AI exists today, out-of-the-box.

Modern data science and analytics make the difference by providing a comprehensive view of supply chains from final assembly at the prime level, down multiple tiers of sub-components, and further down to the smallest washers and widgets. AI-enabled software integrates both internal program data and publicly available information (on competing demand, alternative parts, shipping routes, company financial health, foreign ownership, etc.) to identify vulnerabilities and gaps while generating alternative solutions. For example, identifying a commercial part with 95% commonality to the item holding up military production. 

Reversing the post-Cold War consolidation and withering of America’s defense industrial base — for munitions and everything else — might be the work of years, decades even. But, harnessing the industrial base we have exponentially better than we currently do is within our power now, with defense acquisition software to increase yield. 

By opening the door to new partners, better utilizing our existing industrial bases, and enabling speed and affordability, America can regain its strategic edge and ensure its forces are never left wanting for the munitions they need to win.

Jeffrey Jeb Nadaner is a senior vice president at Govini, the defense acquisition software company. He served as the deputy assistant secretary of defense for industrial policy in the first Trump administration.

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A technology assessment event hosted by the SOFWERX innovation hub, in partnership with Army Special Operations Command and Army Space and Missile Defense Command, is slated for April.

The aim is to “advance efforts in developing and producing an advanced light-weight precision glide munition,” according to a special notice.

“USSOCOM is seeking industry submissions for a precision glide munition that is smaller than the GBU-69 and that can be delivered by light-weight uncrewed aircraft,” officials wrote. “The government is interested in the development and eventual fielding of a low-cost, light-weight, precision, unpowered, air-launched glide munition to fill the gap for glide munitions smaller than the GBU-69” for use by special operations forces.

The GBU-69/B — which can be carried by AC-130 gunships or unmanned aerial systems — is 42 inches in length, has a 4.5-inch diameter and a wingspan of 28 inches, and weighs 60 pounds, according to manufacturer Dynetics, a Leidos company. The system has previously been launched from an Army MQ-1C Gray Eagle Extended Range drone manufactured by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, per a 2019 GA-ASI press release.

SOCOM wants a similar type of weapon that weighs 30 pounds or less, including the warhead, according to assessment criteria.

“Warhead types are interchangeable by the operator and should include: airburst with adjustable height above ground setting, point detonation, and penetration,” officials wrote.

The munition should be able to hit targets upwards of 100 kilometers away from the host air vehicle that launches it.

“The munition will have a built-in data link to send its location and receive in-flight instructions to change targets or self-destruct,” per the assessment criteria.

The system must be able to navigate in an electromagnetically contested environment and not be dependent on GPS. The command would prefer at least three methods of navigation, officials noted.

SOFWERX is requesting information from industry about “existing mature capabilities” that might fit the bill for the Gliding Offensive Lightweight Unmanned Munition (GOLUM) assessment event in Tampa, Florida, the city where SOFWERX and SOCOM headquarters are both located.

“USSOCOM will downselect those respondents/submissions they feel have the highest potential to satisfy their technology needs. Favorably evaluated submissions will receive an invitation to attend the AE on/around 18 March 2025,” per the notice.

The assessment event is slated for the April 8-10 timeframe. Afterward, the command seeks to enter into Federal Acquisition Regulation-based or non-FAR agreements with vendors whose solutions are favorably evaluated by subject matter experts from Army Special Operations Command and Army Space and Missile Defense Command, according to officials.

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The Department of Defense tapped ACMI’s federal unit in Aug. 2022 for a pilot that ultimately aimed to explore innovative approaches for leveraging private capital and government funding to make inert chemicals for energetics that can be used by the military in munitions — and also by the commercial sector in agriculture products.

According to a statement shared with DefenseScoop on Wednesday, ACMI Federal received a new task order via the DOD Information Analysis Center’s multiple-award contract vehicle to “significantly expand the scope of the pilot program over the next two years.”

“As part of the pilot extension, ACMI will not only expand the list of chemicals under study but also bring in new academic and commercial partners. $10 million of the investment will be focused directly on the target chemicals, including modernization of batch processes, continuous flow chemistry, sustainable materials and processes, and other innovations. The remaining $5 million will support munitions technology tooling and innovation, including hardware and production machinery modernization and support for manufacturing scale-up,” the organization said.

During the first phase of the pursuit, those involved produced and validated three approaches for domestically manufacturing several critical chemicals. According to officials, they included:

• Demand Aggregation — working with a commercial chemical company to adapt their chemical engineering approach to produce a critical precursor of an energetic material not available domestically in nearly two decades.
• Commercial Market Adaptation — supporting the certification of a lower-cost, commercially-available material for use in place of an existing, domestically unavailable, and more exacting military specification.
• Process Innovation — developing a modern, efficient continuous flow chemistry process with less waste products to enable future domestic production for multiple critical chemicals.

Immediate next steps for the team will involve pinpointing and securing new partners and funders — and working with the Pentagon to finalize the list of additional chemicals that will be included in this next iteration.

“For the first phase of the Critical Chemical Pilot Program, ACMI’s goal was to achieve a 10-to-1 ratio of private to public investment. In the first year of the program, ACMI exceeded this goal, achieving a 16-to-1 private to public funding ratio. Full-scale operations could achieve a ratio as high as 25-to-1, amplifying the DOD’s investment and providing a maximum return on investment for the U.S. taxpayer,” per the statement.

The organization declined to identify the chemicals that have been prioritized for production so far.

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The Air Force plans to spend more than $6 billion on a new CCA drone program and related projects over the next five years. The platforms are expected to serve as robotic wingmen for the service’s manned fighter jets and perform other missions, and they are one of Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall’s “operational imperatives” for modernization.

SASC Chairman Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., said pursuing these types of uncrewed systems “makes a great deal of sense.” However, “one of the constraints I think we have is the number of missiles available for our aircraft right now. And creating this autonomous capability [and] multitudes of other aircraft would compound our missile problem,” he told service leaders during a committee hearing Tuesday.

Kendall responded that the service is requesting multiyear procurement of several different types of munitions, including the Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM), Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) and Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM), noting that officials are also asking for an increase of approximately $1.5 billion in spending for missile procurement compared with the previous budget to address the issue raised by Reed.

“We’re trying to do a balanced set of investments, and that includes the weapons as well as the platforms,” Kendall said. “We’re also trying to increase the production capacity that you have when we get it into production.”

According to budget documents, the multiyear procurement strategy fits in with the “large lot procurement concept” in which “individual MYPs would be executed in a concurrent and overlapping multiyear strategy so that synergies in production across different but related programs can generate efficiencies and result in greater production capacity, accelerated delivery, and lower unit costs.”

Large lot procurement “represents an evolution of the existing MYP contracting and financing strategy, that leverages the savings generated through the use of Economic Order Quantities (EOQ) financing to procure additional lots of missiles under a Buy-to-Budget concept, to further improve efficiencies and yields. In addition, the MYP supports the procurement of critical munitions and enables substantial progress towards improving inventory objective requirements to meet the National Defense Strategy,” per the documents.

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles “CQ” Brown said extra funding for munitions will help “facilitize” the Air Force’s ambitions and enable an increase in production rates, not only for weapons like AMRAAM, but also the follow-on Joint Advanced Tactical Missile (JATM) — which he noted will be an “important aspect to support the collaborative combat aircraft.”

Service leaders see acquiring CCA drones as a cost-effective way to augment fighter jet capacity, with the expectation that the next-generation unmanned aircraft will cost a fraction of a manned F-35.

The push comes as China is developing its own advanced drones.

During the hearing, Kendall noted that Beijing, which the Pentagon views as the top threat, is fielding capabilities that are designed to defeat the U.S. military’s ability to project power, including modernizing their air-to-air weapon systems.

“That’s the reason that I’m so obsessed with getting on with the next-generation capabilities” like collaborative combat aircraft, he said.

The new drones are expected to carry some of the same munitions that manned platforms are equipped with, which means the service will need larger inventories.

“One way to think about it is that the pod or the weapon that might have been under the wing of a crewed aircraft is now flying in separate [uncrewed] aircraft and managed by that commander of that [manned] aircraft. The analysis that we’ve done shows that the adversary has to honor each of those aircraft as it is a full threat,” Kendall explained.

CCAs would increase adversaries’ targeting challenges and present “tactical dilemmas” that they don’t currently have to face, he noted.

The robotic platforms would also keep pilots out of harm’s way and allow the Air Force to take more risks.

“We can sacrifice one of these aircraft, put it well out in front, use it to draw fire and force the other side to expose itself and then be subject to engagement,” Kendall said. “We call them a ‘attritable.’ They’re not expendable, but we can afford to lose some of them operationally. There’s nobody in them that we’re going to lose. So, it changes our tactical options substantially.”

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These types of capabilities, also known as kamikaze drones or suicide drones, have been in the headlines in recent months as the U.S. has supplied them to Ukraine, including Switchblades and the new Phoenix Ghost.

Last week in Brussels, Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment William LaPlante met with his international counterparts under the auspices of the Ukraine Defense Contract Group, as NATO countries and others make long-term plans to enhance their ability to manufacture critical munitions and continue aiding Ukraine.

“We had all of these acquisitions and defense industrial base specialists in the room together … We heard from nearly 20 of our partners who discussed efforts that they are doing to strengthen and expand their own industrial bases and deal with supply chain issues — all the issues we all are dealing with right now,” LaPlante said at the Pentagon during a media briefing on Friday to discuss his trip.

DefenseScoop asked LaPlante if loitering munitions were a topic of discussion at the armaments confab and if he’s concerned about production rates or supply chains for these types of weapons.

A variety of capabilities were discussed, he noted.

“On the broader category of loitering munitions … there’s lots of different options that the U.S. has and other countries have that all have different capability of endurance, different warhead sizes, etc.,” he said. “It’s not really a supply chain or industrial base issue.”

To date, the United States has committed to providing more than 700 Switchblades and approximately 700 Phoenix Ghost systems to Ukraine, among a slew of other weapons, according to the Department of Defense.

Some of these items have come from drawdowns of U.S. military stocks, while others are being procured from defense contractors through Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative funds. Systems being acquired through USAI will take longer to deliver — six to 24 months in many cases — and are intended to meet Ukraine’s long-term needs.

Recent contracting actions through USAI include $18 million awarded to AeroVironment for Switchblade 300s, $2.2 million awarded to AeroVironment for the larger Switchblade 600s, and $116 million awarded to AEVEX for Phoenix Ghost platforms, according to the DOD.

However, looking at munitions more broadly, supply chains and the ability to meet growing demand are a concern for the Pentagon and U.S. allies.

LaPlante said his meeting with his fellow armaments directors last week resulted in commitments to stand up smaller working groups to continue the conversation and drive “actionable progress.”

“These working groups will define multinational strategies to mitigate supply chain constraints, increase production and pursue not just interoperability, but interchangeability,” he said.

Multi-year contracts and pooling resources are some of the ideas being discussed, he noted.

“When it comes to industrial base, really where the conversations go — and it may need help from the Congress and it may need socialization — is multi-country procurements, even development and contracting for items, such that we would have production lines … of the same item — multiple geographic places that are producing the same item by multiple countries. That’s where we would like to potentially go, not for everything but where it makes sense,” he added.

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The DOD has already spent billions of dollars on research, development, test and evaluation for these types of systems, and officials hope to transition them into production soon — with the Air Force, Army and Navy each looking to begin fielding the weapons in the next one to three years.

“What the hypersonics community is trying to do is shoot towards an all-up round cost that’s reasonable,” Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment William LaPlante said Thursday at the DefenseTalks conference hosted by DefenseScoop. “We’re not going to be able to buy very many of them if they’re $80 million all-up rounds. So they’re shooting for somewhere even as low as 10 or 5 million [dollars] a round. And that really is going to drive the numbers.”

By comparison, the non-hypersonic Tomahawk cruise missile costs about $2 million per round, and the SM-6 costs just under $5 million per round, according to Pentagon budget documents.

The budgeting process is already underway for the next Program Objective Memorandum, known as POM ’24, LaPlante noted.

“There is a wedge in the budget to do hypersonics and do it with production. We’re leaving open exactly the specific path that we’re going to use, but it will be funded. Absolutely,” he said.

The quantities that the DOD decides to buy will depend on the cost per round and the types of hypersonic weapons — namely, cruise missiles or boost-glide systems — that the Pentagon chooses to procure, he noted.

When asked for a ballpark figure for how many hypersonic missiles could be purchased over the future years defense program, LaPlante suggested it will be well beyond single digits.

“It’s not going to be our buying [just] eight of them. It’s going to be many more, many more. I don’t know if we know what the exact number is because it’s going to be driven by the price. But I would say certainly many tens of these at least. And again, it’s really a different answer on whether it’s the glide vehicle you’re talking about or the cruise missile,” he said.

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Russian troops there have reportedly been using unencrypted devices, including their personal cell phones, to talk to other units and people back home. That has made them vulnerable to Ukrainian forces who can eavesdrop on what they’re saying and pinpoint their locations.

“We are very much looking every single day in real time at what’s happening in Ukraine and what we’re seeing with the Russian military, and trying to glean as many lessons learned as we can for what we think that means for the Army in the future. And I think there are a couple of lessons that really leap out,” Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth said Tuesday during an event hosted by the Atlantic Council think tank.

That includes “the importance of secure communications and the consequences of when soldiers use their cell phones, whether it’s because that’s just everyone is used to using cell phones, or because secure communication systems and radios are not working,” she said.

“When soldiers use unencrypted comms that makes them targetable. And I think, you know, we’re going to have to think about that,” she added. “Certainly, most of our young soldiers are used to having their phones with them everywhere they go. But more broadly, I think it speaks to the fact that we’re going to have to look at how can we reduce our signatures — the signatures of our formations on the battlefield — as much as possible because the battlefield of the future will be highly transparent.”

The conflict has also highlighted the growing threat of drones, she noted.

Ukrainian and Russian forces have been using unmanned aerial systems to locate and attack their opponents. The United States has supplied loitering munitions and other UAS to help Ukraine do just that.

Air-and-missile defense is a top modernization priority for the Army, Wormuth noted, and the service is also the Pentagon’s executive agent for counter-small UAS modernization efforts.

“Drones and other unmanned systems are going to prove significant challenges for us,” she said. “We’re working hard on this but there’s quite a bit more work to do.”

Meanwhile, the Department of Defense has been providing a variety of other critical weapons to Ukraine, including anti-aircraft weapons and anti-armor missiles. That has contributed to Russian logistics challenges, which slowed their advance toward Kiev in the early stages of the war.

Wormuth said the U.S. military is better prepared than Russia’s in this regard, but there are still concerns, especially when it comes to potentially fighting China in the Indo-Pacific.

The Pentagon views Beijing’s military — not Moscow’s — as its top threat. The People’s Liberation Army has a variety of long-range missiles and other so-called anti-access weapons that it could employ against U.S. logistics nodes and platforms.

“Everything we’re seeing right now in Ukraine certainly underscores that you can be the best equipped military in the world but if you can’t sustain your forces, it doesn’t matter. And the Russians have displayed a notable and somewhat surprising deficiency in this area. But I think you know this is also a strength for the U.S. Army. But nevertheless, given the distances that would be involved in the Indo-Pacific, I think it underscores that we have really got to focus on how do we provide logistics effectively in a contested environment like the one we know we would face in the future,” she said.

The Army is investing in more modernized watercraft that could move supplies and personnel around the Pacific, she noted.

Meanwhile, the DOD wants to buy more munitions to replenish its stockpiles that have been drawn down as part of the security assistance packages that the Biden administration has committed to Ukraine. The Pentagon also wants to buy next-generation systems.

“Everything we’re seeing in Ukraine underscores the importance of maintaining our industrial base and our munitions stockpiles. Again, munitions are going to be very important in the future, particularly if we get into a protracted conflict. We’ve just signed contracts with a couple of our major industry partners to begin replenishing our stocks of Javelins and Stingers. And we’re also talking with industry more broadly about, you know, what can we do to think about stockpiling some of the longer lead items that we may have in some of our critical munitions in the future,” Wormuth said.

However, a military’s fighting ability isn’t solely determined by technology — it also depends on leadership, training and discipline. In that regard, the United States has a “very significant” competitive advantage over countries like Russia, particularly when it comes to America’s non-commissioned officer corps, Wormuth said.

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The initial focus will be on making integrated circuit chips customized for tri-service munitions.

Cooperative research and development agreements (CRADAs) are vehicles that enable federal entities to combine resources and engage in R&D with non-government institutions to unlock breakthroughs around topics of shared interest. Such agreements aren’t new, but a CRADA signed this week between the Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (CCDC) Armaments Center and the National Armaments Consortium (NAC) has multiple elements that make it unique.

“We sat down with [Army officials from the CCDC Armaments Center at their headquarters] in Picatinny Arsenal, New Jersey, with their technology transfer office. We’ve done some CRADAs in the past, but as we were brainstorming, we thought, ‘What if we could create a master CRADA?’” NAC Executive Director Charlie Zisette told FedScoop in an interview on Friday.

CRADAs offer a variety of benefits for government, industry and academic organizations involved, like access to laboratory facilities and equipment, and flexible intellectual property and licensing options to push forward innovation. But Zisette noted one challenge associated with these agreements is that “they are a legal document — even though no money is exchanged, it is a contractually binding agreement, if you will. And if you’re a nontraditional [contractor], and you’ve never done anything like this,” they can be difficult to navigate.

“What we did as a consortium is we went and hammered out all of the terms and conditions, through our contracts and our legal [resources], through the Army’s contracts and their legal, and created a base agreement that would ensure to protect all of our members as well as the government. That kind of sets the stage for doing all that hard work upfront,” he explained.

This newly signed “master” CRADA allows for all of NAC’s more than 970 member organizations — of which more than 80% are nontraditional defense contractors and academic institutions — to participate in different statements of work, or “annexes,” anticipated to be released by the CCDC Armaments Center.

The way Zisette puts it, each impending annex can be thought of as an addendum to the CRADA. Essentially, the plan is that when the Department of Defense has a fresh armaments-related problem statement down the line, the consortium can quickly send it out to about 4,500 people who are on its list of almost 1,000 members. 

Those interested can then sign the annex, “and then it’s off to the races,” Zisette said.

While CRADAs are often between one specific government laboratory and non-governmental organization, another notable aspect of this agreement, according to Zisette, is that other Pentagon-affiliated laboratories besides the CCDC can sign on. And a Navy component already has.

“Now, it’s kind of a pilot, right? Because the Army has never done this, and so we all agreed — let’s get it started,” Zisette said. “We’ll take this as our first thing, and if this works, then anybody can use this CRADA.”

Under the first annex of this master agreement, the CCDC Armaments Center is set to work with the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division and a number of NAC members to develop and refine an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) that is broadly compatible with tri-service munitions.

Due to the sensitive nature of the topic, Zisette noted that he couldn’t go into great detail about the technology the participants aim to innovate. But, speaking generally, he offered some context.

“Smart weapons are critical to what we do, right, and part of being smart is not just maybe in guidance and control, or GPS and navigation — but it’s also in knowing exactly what my target is, and when and how I need to put effects on the target,” Zisette said. 

He brought up a variety of conflict scenarios, like needing to “take a group of vehicles out, versus I have a hardened and deeply buried target where I need to go all the way into the ground.”

This envisioned ASIC, according to Zisette, “becomes the computer chip or the computer set that allows us to have the intelligence onboard to address multiple and complex targets, and allows us to do it right the first time, every time.” 

He added: “And that’s really important because what we don’t want to do is create an individual munition for every single thing we’ve got to do.”

Those collaborating ultimately intend to help pave the way for versatile and smart weapons.

“Since we have this technology, in terms of computational capability and integrated circuitry, we now can have that intelligence onboard and we can allow that intelligence to make those decisions, obviously, through our programming and communications, with the weapon. And that is hugely powerful,” Zisette said.

Verified NAC members interact via a secure common platform. The consortium is accepting new members interested in cooperating for this and potential future projects. Barriers to entry are pretty low, Zisette noted, but it is restricted to only U.S. companies. 

“Much of everything we do at a minimum is controlled unclassified information. Many of the projects we do, of course, are classified,” he explained. “It isn’t that we can’t use foreign technology, and we encourage foreign technology, but they end up being like a subcontractor.”

Although it’s tough to put timelines on innovation, Zisette said the technology is fairly well understood, so he’s optimistic that outcomes from the CRADA will be seen in the next year or so.

“We all know exactly all of the inputs that the Army in this case needs to have, and the Navy, so that they can start to shape their basic architecture and the requirements, and be able then to take that as a package and come back out to industry and say, ‘Okay, we’re ready for primetime. Let’s go do some real scale-up, prototyping and discovery from there,’” Zisette said. “I wish things were like super fast, but we are dealing with weapon systems.”

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The initiative is part of a broader request for $33 billion in supplemental funding request for security, economic and humanitarian aid that the White House submitted to Congress Thursday.

The $550 million would help to “procure high-demand munitions for the U.S. and approved coalition partners, build critical war reserves, and expedite availability of munition systems,” according to the White House.

During a press conference Thursday afternoon at the Pentagon, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin III said the fund will allow the department to purchase and establish a “strategic reserve” of vital capabilities like anti-aircraft and anti-tank munitions, and enable the department “to surge for this crisis, and quite frankly, crises to come.”

Earlier this week after meeting with allies and partners at Ramstein Air Base in Germany to discuss long-term security assistance to Ukraine, Austin had noted the “tremendous demand that we’re facing for munitions and weapons platforms.”

There is a need to provide “staunch support to Ukraine while also meeting our own requirements and those of our allies and partners,” he said at Ramstein.

Of the $33 billion in supplemental funding requested Thursday, $20.4 billion would go toward additional security and military assistance for Ukraine and other U.S. efforts to strengthen European security in cooperation with NATO allies and other partners in the region.

That includes $5 billion in additional drawdown authority for transferring DOD stocks, $6 billion for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, and $4 billion for the State Department’s Foreign Military Financing program.

The Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative directly supports Ukraine by funding the acquisition of critical defense capabilities and equipment.

A total of $5.4 billion in the package would help replenish DOD stocks of weapons and other systems provided to Ukraine.

Another $1.9 billion would go toward cybersecurity, intelligence and “other defense support.”

“This funding supports ongoing operational surges across multiple national defense components, including accelerated cyber capabilities, weapons systems upgrades, increased intelligence support, improving industrial base production capabilities for missiles and strategic minerals, and classified programs,” the White House fact sheet said.

An additional $50 million would go toward establishing a Defense Exportability Transfer Account to enable the Department of Defense to make more systems exportable and interoperable with coalition partners.

In a letter to Congress, Biden said: “Additional security assistance will put urgently needed equipment into the hands of Ukraine’s military and police, including ammunition, armored vehicles, small arms, demining assistance, and unmanned aircraft systems.”

He added: “There is no doubt that continuing to support Ukraine in this war against Russian aggression will require a substantial additional investment on our part. What I want to make clear to the Congress and the American people is this: the cost of failing to stand up to violent aggression in Europe has always been higher than the cost of standing firm against such attacks.”

The funding in the supplemental request would dwarf the $3.4 billion in security assistance that the United States has provided to Ukraine since the beginning of Russia’s invasion on Feb. 24

According to the DOD, as of April 22 U.S. security assistance committed to Ukraine included: more than 1,400 Stinger anti-aircraft systems; 5,500 Javelin anti-armor systems; 700 Switchblade tactical unmanned aerial systems; 121 newly developed Phoenix Ghost drones; an undisclosed number of Puma drones; an undisclosed number of mysterious “unmanned coastal defense vessels”; and a slew of other capabilities.

There has been bipartisan support on Capitol Hill for providing security assistance to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion. However, lawmakers and others in the national security community have also expressed concern about the pace of the drawdown of DOD munitions stocks. They have called for additional investments to replenish them and bolster production capacity. The supplemental funding request put forward by the Biden administration is partly aimed at addressing those concerns.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include comments from Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin at a Thursday afternoon press conference at the Pentagon.

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