This will be the eighth mission for the Boeing-built space plane, which has served as an on-orbit, experimental testbed for emerging technologies being developed by the Pentagon and NASA. The platform is designed to conduct long-duration flights before returning to Earth, where it can be repurposed for future missions. The system has already spent more than 4,200 days in space, according to Boeing.

Personnel are currently preparing the vehicle — which will fly with a service module — for another launch at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, according to a press release issued Monday. Mission partners for OTV-8, as the effort has been dubbed, include the Air Force Research Laboratory and the Silicon Valley-headquartered Defense Innovation Unit.

The service module will expand capacity for laser comms demonstrations, per the release.

Laser communications demos in low-Earth orbit “will contribute to more efficient and secure satellite communications in the future. The shorter wavelength of infrared light allows more data to be sent with each transmission,” Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman wrote in post on X.

“We’re also demoing the world’s highest performing quantum inertial sensor ever used in space. Bottom line: testing this tech will be helpful for navigation in contested environments where GPS may be degraded or denied,” he added.

According to Boeing’s press release, the mission will include the first in-space demonstration of a “strategic grade” quantum inertial sensor.

“OTV 8’s quantum inertial sensor demonstration is a welcome step forward for the operational resilience of Guardians in space,” Space Delta 9 Commander Col. Ramsey Hom said in a statement. “Whether navigating beyond Earth-based orbits in cis-lunar space or operating in GPS-denied environments, quantum inertial sensing allows for robust navigation capabilities where GPS navigation is not possible. Ultimately, this technology contributes significantly to our thrust within the Fifth Space Operations Squadron and across the Space Force guaranteeing movement and maneuverability even in GPS-denied environments.”

The launch date is targeted for Aug. 21, according to Saltzman.

During the space plane’s most recent mission, which started in 2023 and wrapped up earlier this year, efforts included experimenting with operating in new orbital regimes, testing space domain awareness technologies and investigating radiation effects, according to officials.

For the mission before that, the X-37B spent a whopping 908 days in orbit.

The post Next X-37B space plane mission will test laser communications, quantum sensor for US military appeared first on DefenseScoop.

The Air Force is requesting nearly $3.5 billion in FY’26 to continue work on the F-47, a sixth-generation fighter under development by prime contractor Boeing. According to budget documents released Thursday, the allocation includes $2.6 billion in discretionary funds and $900 million from the GOP-led reconciliation bill currently under debate in Congress.

In contrast, the Navy’s sixth-gen fighter program known as the F/A-XX, would receive just $74 million in R&D funds — 84 percent less than the $454 million the service received in fiscal 2025. The decision comes after the Navy already delayed around $1 billion for F/A-XX in FY’25 due to spending caps imposed by the 2023 Fiscal Responsibility Act.

“We did make a strategic decision to go all-in on F-47,” a senior defense official told reporters during a Pentagon briefing Thursday. The move was prompted “due to our belief that the industrial base can only handle going fast on one program at this time, and the presidential priority to go all-in on F-47 and get that program right, while maintaining the option for F/A-XX in the future,” they added.

President Donald Trump announced that Boeing had beat out Lockheed Martin for the F-47 contract in March, ending a months-long pause to the program’s selection process caused by budgetary and design concerns. The aircraft is envisioned as a long-range crewed fighter jet that will replace the Air Force’s fleet of F-22 Raptors and is expected to field sometime in the 2030s.

The F-47 platform is the centerpiece of the Air Force’s future Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) family of systems, which also includes robotic wingman drones called Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA). Budget documents indicate that the CCA program would receive a total of $807 million in FY’26, with a majority of those funds coming from $678 million added in the reconciliation bill.

Similarly, the carrier-based F/A-XX is expected to feature longer ranges, enhanced stealth capabilities and be more survivable than the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet it will eventually replace. After Lockheed Martin dropped out of the competition earlier this year, Boeing and Northrop Grumman are both vying to lead the program.

While budget documents at press time did not disclose the specific work planned for the F/A-XX in the next fiscal year, the funding would allow the Navy to “preserve the ability to leverage F-47 work” and prevent “over-subscription of qualified defense industrial base engineers,” the senior defense official said.

The details provided by budget documents end months of ambiguity over the sea service’s plans for the F/A-XX. After Trump’s dramatic rollout of the Air Force F-47 contract award in March, reports surfaced that the Navy would follow suit and name the prime contractor for its sixth-gen fighter the same month.

But that announcement never came, and subsequent reports from Reuters and Bloomberg indicated that funding disputes and industrial base concerns had delayed the program — potentially by three years.

The Navy’s decision to once again scale back funds to F/A-XX is likely to spark ire among lawmakers, many of whom have recently pressed service leadership to move the program forward.

“I’m concerned that any hesitancy on our part to proceed with the planned procurement of the sixth-gen fighters for the Navy will leave us dangerously outmatched in a China fight. We cannot wait,” Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Calif., said in May during a House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense hearing with Navy leadership. “Further, we cannot expect to grow the industrial base by undermining aviation programs that rely on highly specialized supply chains and skilled labor that cannot be turned on and off like a switch.”

Ultimately, the final decision on the F/A-XX program’s fate is under discussion by Secretary of the Navy John Phelan, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Trump, a senior defense official told reporters Thursday. When asked whether the Pentagon was considering to create a joint Air Force-Navy program — repeating the F-35 Lightning II acquisition model — the official said “pretty much everything is under consideration to get the tactical air capability that our warfighters need as quickly as possible.”

The post Pentagon budget goes ‘all in’ on Air Force’s F-47, putting Navy’s sixth-gen fighter on hold appeared first on DefenseScoop.

The document, dated June 17 and signed by acting CTO Justin Fanelli, noted the need to “accelerate the adoption of game changing commercial technology.”

The list of priorities “can help shape resource allocation decisions across the enterprise,” he wrote, adding that it should serve as a “signaling tool” to industry partners and private capital to inform how they allocate their resources and focus their efforts.

Artificial intelligence and autonomy top the list of “Level 1” technologies in the hierarchy.

“AI and autonomy play a vital role in information warfare by enabling decision advantage and enhancing the ability of human-machine teaming. The DON seeks AI-driven solutions for real-time data analysis and automated decision-making to enhance operational effectiveness,” Fanelli wrote.

Level 2 technologies under this category include capabilities like applied machine learning and natural language processing; model verification and AI risk governance; mission platforms and human-machine interfaces; and edge AI infrastructure and DevSecOps pipelines.

Next on the list is quantum tech, which Fanelli said will transform secure communications, computing and sensing for information warfare. He noted that quantum encryption could protect the department’s networks from adversaries, and quantum computing would boost data processing and cryptographic resilience.

Level 2 technologies in this area include tools such as post-quantum cryptography and quantum-enhanced communication; hybrid quantum-classical architectures; quantum gravimetry and inertial navigation; and “quantum interconnects and cryogenic systems.”

“Transport and connectivity” are third on the list. According to Fanelli’s memo, the Navy is prioritizing advanced networking, secure communications, 5G and FutureG tech to enable real-time data sharing and command and control.

Level 2 technologies under this category include things like 5G and FutureG nodes and mesh architectures; dynamic spectrum sharing and anti-jamming techniques; datalinks and “ship-to-X” mesh networks; and cloudlets and intelligent routing.

Fourth on the list is command, control, communications, computers, cyber, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance — also known as C5ISR — as well as counter-C5ISR and space capabilities.

“The DON seeks to integrate advanced sensor networks, improve automated data fusion, and develop resilient space-based architectures to support real-time intelligence gathering,” Fanelli wrote.

Level 2 technologies in this area include capabilities such as multi-INT engines and automated targeting; operational pictures and targeting algorithms; hybrid constellations and positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) from space; and open architectures and multi-coalition information sharing.

Fifth on the list is tech related to cyberspace operations and zero trust.

“Cyber threats are evolving rapidly, making Zero Trust Architecture essential for securing DON information networks. Priorities include advanced cyber defense frameworks, threat intelligence automation, and proactive security measures to counter adversarial cyber operations,” per the memo.

Level 2 capabilities under this category include things like identity and access management — such as attribute-based access control and federated identity systems — micro segmentation and risk-adaptive controls for zero trust, cyber threat hunting and deception, and operational technology (OT) security — such as industrial control system and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) protection and remote access.

The complete list of tech priorities for Levels 1, 2 and 3 can be found here.

“A lot of these areas are mainly being driven by commercial tech,” Deputy CTO Michael Frank said in an interview. “It’s going to be a mix of … traditional defense vendors, traditional primes. But you know, we are really focused on getting some new entrants in, right? So, expanding the defense industrial base, getting some new players on the field. And this is a signal to them. This memo is meant to be a signal to them and what we’re focused on, what our priorities areas are, so they can better make decisions … If you’re an entrepreneur in this area or if you’re a VC who’s looking to invest, you know these are the general areas that we’re looking at.”

The Navy is looking to cast a wide net for new capabilities.

“We’re going to be looking at emerging tech from anybody and everyone who is operating in these areas and developing things in these areas, to include the other players in the defense innovation ecosystem. So, you know, looking at what DIU is doing, partnering with In-Q-Tel and what they are doing, because we want to make sure that we have awareness of all the various efforts across government to reduce waste, to reduce redundant spend, reduce redundant efforts, given the fact that we are operating in a resource-constrained environment, both with money and with people and time and effort and all of that,” Frank said.

The CTO’s office is aiming to accelerate the transition of key capabilities to the Navy and Marine Corps.

“We are absolutely more interested in higher [technology readiness levels],” Frank said. “We are more focused on things that we can start testing, validating and transitioning to the warfighter now.”

The list of priority technology areas is meant to be updated over time, he noted.

“This is a living list, it’s an evolving list. You know these technology areas are not going to be static. I mean, Level 1 will probably not change for a while, but the Level 2 and Level 3 … will and should be regularly updated in order for it to be useful to industry partners,” Frank said.

The post Navy CTO unveils list of priority areas for tech investment appeared first on DefenseScoop.

During a keynote address at the AI+ Expo in Washington hosted by the Special Competitive Studies Project, which brought together some of the biggest companies in the tech sector as well as smaller vendors with more niche capabilities, Caine suggested legacy systems and old ways of doing business won’t be sufficient for maintaining military superiority in the future.

“Peace in our nation will not be won by the legacy systems that we’ve had or the legacy thinking. It will be determined by the entrepreneurs and innovators and leaders, both in government and out of government, that create overwhelming strength. It will be won by our breakthroughs in AI, cyber, autonomy, space, energy, advanced manufacturing, data, compute, you name it. And we need your help with this,” he said.

New capabilities can improve command-and-control systems, decision-making, mission execution and survivability, he noted. However, the Pentagon needs industry to scale new technology to the point that it becomes a “strategic differentiator.”

U.S. adversaries are sharing tech and intelligence, enabling them to field advanced capabilities faster, he warned.

“And on our end, the barrier for entry for technology, for disruptive tech, is low, but the barrier to government business is high, frankly, too high. And yet, the changing nature and character of warfare is happening right before our eyes. We’ve seen examples of that, most recently as this weekend” when Ukraine attacked Russia’s strategic bombers with cheap drones, Caine said. “We’ve got to go faster, my friends. And that’s mostly, in many cases, on us in … the government. Together, though, we’ve got to be focused on fighting the next war, not fighting the last war, and we need entrepreneurs both in the private sector and in government.”

He added that the Defense Department needs to “do some work” to improve the requirements process and be “better buyers.”

“I know this from my time in the private sector where I tried to sell things to the government when I was an entrepreneur. It’s hard,” Caine said.

He has previously touted his experience in the private sector, including at his confirmation hearing.

After retiring from the military and before his return to service to lead the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Caine was a venture partner at Shield Capital, an advisor for Thrive Capital and a venture partner at Ribbit Capital, among other roles.

The chairman noted that reform efforts are already underway at the Defense Department.

In recent years, the Pentagon has tried to expand its acquisition ecosystem by attracting non-traditional contractors and encouraging investors to back startups working on defense-related technologies.

In his speech Wednesday, Caine pointed to progress made by organizations like the Silicon Valley-headquartered Defense Innovation Unit, which has outposts in major tech hubs across the country and works with nontraditional tech vendors via commercial solutions opening contracting mechanisms.

“We’ve got to drastically scale that capability and that culture inside the joint force, the entrepreneurial culture, which I believe is one of America’s great tools. We’ve got to change our willingness to accept risks, and we’re going to do that,” he said.

The chairman noted that he needs to make sure the joint force is integrated across the globe within the combatant commands and among the services.

“We’ve got to connect them with our interagency allies and partners, including founders and funders, and scale that capability in order to meet the challenges that we need to,” Caine said. “We can do more.”

Caine is a former F-16 pilot who has held a variety of roles throughout his military career, including with the active-duty Air Force, National Guard and the special operations community.

When it comes to relying on advanced tech at the tactical edge, resiliency is key for mission success, he noted.

“My time as a Special Forces officer taught me that two of one thing is [only] one, and one of one thing is none. So we’ve got to be able to build resilient technology [so] that if the power fails or something like that, we’re still capable of doing it,” Caine said.

The post At AI conference, Gen. Caine calls for connecting with ‘founders and funders’ of emerging tech appeared first on DefenseScoop.

The brigade is participating in the Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center Exportable exercise in the Philippines with that nation’s 7th and 5th Infantry Divisions and an Australian infantry element. The unit was one of the first three brigades to participate in the first iteration of the Army’s so-called transforming-in-contact initiative, which aims to speed up how the service buys technologies and designs its forces by injecting emerging capabilities into units and letting them experiment with them during exercises and deployments.

TiC 1.0 was centered around light units. But now, TiC 2.0 is focusing on divisions as a whole, to include enabling units such as artillery and air cavalry brigades, as well as Multi-Domain Task Forces, some Army special operations units, National Guard units and armored formations.

Experimenting with 3D printing assets forward in theater is providing not only valuable lessons, but increasing the combat capability for 2nd Brigade and the 25th ID as a whole.

“The closer we can get that capability to the edge or that capability as close as we can to the soldiers that are employing it and realizing where adjustments need to be made, the quicker we can innovate and improve overall lethality,” Maj. Gen. Marcus Evans, commander of 25th Infantry Division, said in an interview Tuesday.

In one example, Evans said soldiers provided a recommendation for modifying a piece of equipment that the 3D printing was able to repair and make the modifications. He added while that was just one small example, the possibilities are endless.

This was a lesson directly from the European theater and Ukraine’s war with Russia. The Ukrainian army is providing, in many instances, a bevy of case studies for how future conflict will be fought and how tactical victories can be achieved.

By some estimates, there are thousands of drones flying on the battlefield, either for reconnaissance or as one-way attack weapons. The ability to rapidly repair or build new devices at the pace of operations has been critical.

Such a capability will also be needed in the Pacific theater, given the complex environment of various islands that forces will need to operate from, across vast distances. Forward-placed 3D printers will enable forces to maintain capabilities without long supply lines.

“It provides agility, it provides redundancy, and allows us to diversify our supply lines. From a commander perspective, all of those increase the ability to protect ourselves and project lethal formations and sustain lethal formations without always having to rely on an elongated supply line, which, as you’re aware, is very [susceptible] to interdiction to various kinds of attacks,” Evans said. “Now you’ve essentially moved a sustainment capability as far forward as possible and placed it organic to a formation that is doing the majority of the training and the focusing on lethality.”

The division is in the early stages of figuring out how to employ such a capability, to include how to maneuver it and protect it from being targeted by the enemy.

“A consideration is we know that that capability will be targeted. We have to understand how we move it, we have to understand how we protect it, how we get it into positions where it can hide in plain sight and continue to support soldiers,” Evans said.

On the flip side, he said they’re maturing counter-drone capabilities as well. While the Army has been experimenting a lot with commercial unmanned aerial systems, counter-UAS poses much more significant challenges given there aren’t many advanced commercial solutions available.

2nd Brigade improved its ability to detect and defend itself from incoming drones from its combat training center rotation in October in Hawaii.

For example, in one instance, a multi-domain reconnaissance team had activated a counter-UAS sensor notifying them of incoming drones approximately 15 minutes out. They were able to adjust their camouflage, preventing the enemy UAS from finding them.

Roughly 24 hours later, the unit was able to passively defeat another incoming drone, returning it to its control station.

“That is one small example of something we were not as proficient at in October, but we’ve certainly seen an increase in the use capability and understanding of employing that counter-UAS mechanism,” Evans said.

The division is also working on improving how it sees itself within the electromagnetic spectrum. There continues to be increased requirements for electronic warfare and counter-drone capabilities, Evans noted.

“The ability to scale and provide as many command posts and units in the field coverage, both from in the electromagnetic spectrum and also from the counter-UAS capability,” is important, he said. Since last October, “we have received additional equipment in terms of electronic warfare and in terms of counter-UAS equipment, which we have been able to employ here, generally, pretty effectively.”

EW tools can also be used in the counter-drone realm to jam signals.

Moreover, understanding a unit’s signature will allow it to be more nimble against enemies and make better decisions regarding how it maneuvers on the battlefield or deceives adversaries.

“All of this comes back to being able to gain positions of advantage, both tactically and operationally, to gain the benefits of employing those assets, whether it’s conduct electronic warfare in an attack mode or being able to see yourself so you can take actions to protect yourself and your formations. Those actions could be passive camouflage or they could be active deception measures,” Evans said.

The post 25th Infantry Division testing forward-deployed 3D printers in the Pacific appeared first on DefenseScoop.

For starters, leaders believe it is a validation of some of the radical change the service is seeking in how to procure and manage capabilities differently in the future.

“Yesterday was a really good example of just how quickly technology is changing the battlefield. We’ve seen this over the last couple of years that everybody talks about [Program Objective Memorandum] cycles and everybody talks about program of record. I think that’s just old thinking,” Gen. Randy George, chief of staff of the Army, said Monday during the Exchange, an AI conference hosted by the Special Competitive Studies Project.

POM cycles refer to the five-year planning process for programs and capabilities in the Pentagon.

George noted that technology is changing too rapidly on the modern battlefield to be wedded to these large procurement programs that historically have taken years to develop and once fielded, can be largely obsolete.

He wants to shrink the timeline it takes to develop systems and get them in the hands of soldiers, especially given much of these capabilities, such as drones, communications gear and electronic warfare tools, are increasingly available on the commercial market.

“What we got to do is make sure that we’re aligned and that’s what we’re trying to do, changing the processes up here to make sure that we’re getting them the equipment, the war-winning capabilities that they know they need,” he said. “We’re going to have to be more agile. Drones are going to constantly change. We’re going to be trying to play the cat-and-mouse game with counter-UAS, so we’re going to have to work through that to make sure that we’re buying systems. We’re going to need a lot more agility in how we buy things.”

The Army has been experimenting with this approach through what it calls transforming-in-contact, which aims to speed up how the service buys technologies and designs its forces by injecting emerging capabilities into units and letting them experiment with them during exercises and deployments.

George said one of the Army’s units that just went to the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Johnson, Louisiana — which provides the most realistic combat scenarios the Army can create for units to train where forces simulate a battle campaign against an active enemy — had close to 400 drones in it. That is substantially higher than the number of drones other formations have had recently, with 3rd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division possessing over 200 during a January rotation in Europe, previously the most to date.

The Army doesn’t want to field the same systems like that for years because the technology changes so rapidly.

“We’re constantly updating those. I think that that’s how we have to be focused moving forward,” George said.

He also noted that Ukraine’s drone attack over the weekend flips the cost curve. Kyiv used relatively cheap systems to destroy millions to billions of dollars worth of Russian combat power.

“Look at how cheap those systems were compared to what they took out. We have to be thinking about that [with] everything we’re doing,” George said.

The attack, furthermore, exemplified how transparent battlefields are becoming, meaning there is nowhere to hide.

“We talk a lot about you can’t really hide anymore on the modern battlefield. You’re going to have to be dispersed, lower signature, all of those things, which we talk a lot about with our troops and with our commanders,” George said.

Moreover, the attack was videoed and viewed around the world hours later. The increasingly open-source nature of information about military activities around the world has implications for how the Army will operate in the future.

“We all knew about that within a matter of minutes. Everything was out there on open source,” George said.

The high-profile Ukrainian assault against Russian bombers came as the U.S. Army is in the midst of a major transformation effort. At the end of April, the service announced what it dubbed Army Transformation Initiative, where it seeks to shrink its headquarters elements, become leaner and change how it spends.

As part of that effort, Secretary Dan Driscoll said his service pitched itself to President Donald Trump and Pentagon leadership as the “innovation engine” for the Department of Defense by plucking the best ideas and technologies from the commercial sector and testing them out in the Army.

“We fundamentally believe the Army should be the innovation engine of the Pentagon … but we have to earn that right,” Driscoll said alongside George at Monday’s AI conference. “We basically said, hey, we will earn the right to do this by — we’ll cut ourselves. For ATI, the other thing … is it’s $3 billion dollars of cuts, and that’s a lot of money that people want to go to other programs. We’ve made the cuts, we’re recycling it to buy the things we want and need. We’re going to continue to run that engine and innovate.”

The post U.S. Army is already taking lessons from Ukraine’s drone attack on Russia’s strategic bombers appeared first on DefenseScoop.

“This design for the Golden Dome will integrate with our existing defense capabilities and should be fully operational before the end of my term, so we’ll have it done in about three years,” Trump said during a press conference in the Oval Office. “Once fully constructed, the Golden Dome will be capable of intercepting missiles even if they are launched from the other sides of the world, and even if they are launched from space.”

In addition, Trump announced that the Space Force’s Gen. Michael Guetlein will serve as the direct reporting program manager for Golden Dome. Currently serving as vice chief of space operations, Guetlein will have complete developmental oversight of Golden Dome — envisioned as a multi-layered homeland missile defense shield that will lean heavily on space-based systems.

Trump also signaled that Canada has requested to be part of the Golden Dome project, noting that their involvement would be a “fairly small expansion” but that the U.S. would work with the country on pricing and details.

Golden Dome was initiated following a January executive order that tasked the Defense Department to develop and field an “Iron Dome for America” — subsequently renamed as Golden Dome.

In a statement, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth noted that the Pentagon “has developed a draft architecture and implementation plan for a Golden Dome system of systems that will protect our homeland from a wide range of global missile threats.”

While Trump did not provide specific details on the chosen architecture, officials have previously said it would encompass proven terrestrial-based platforms, as well as several space-based systems — including new sensors and interceptors — that will allow the U.S. to destroy incoming missiles in early stages of flight.

“Our adversaries have become very capable and very intent on holding the homeland at risk while we have been focused on peace overseas,” Guetlein said during Tuesday’s press conference. “It is time we change that equation and start doubling down the protection of the homeland. Golden Dome is a bold and aggressive approach to hurry up and protect the homeland from our adversaries.”

In a statement, Hegseth said that the architecture “will be fielded in phases, prioritizing defense where the threat is greatest.”

However, developing and fielding Golden Dome on Trump’s aggressive three-year timeline will likely not come easy. 

Even with the estimated $175 billion price tag, a previous report from the Congressional Budget Office warned that the architecture would likely require a higher number of space-based sensors and interceptors than previously thought.

“For the lowest-cost alternative that CBO examines here, the reduction in launch costs would cause the total estimated cost of deploying and operating the [space-based interceptor] constellation for 20 years to fall from $264 billion to $161 billion (in 2025 dollars),” CBO wrote in a letter to lawmakers on May 5. “For the highest-cost alternative that CBO examines, the total estimate would fall from $831 billion to $542 billion.”

Republican lawmakers have already proposed a $25 billion down payment on Golden Dome under the reconciliation bill, but that legislation has yet to be approved by Congress.

Despite the budget uncertainty, Trump told reporters that he’s confident the funding for Golden Dome will come through.

“We’ll have a big phase very early, starting immediately with the $25 billion. It’ll cost about $175 billion [when] completed,” Trump said, adding that he believes Golden Dome will be fully operational “in two-and-a-half to three years.”

The Pentagon is currently working with the Office of Management and Budget to develop a plan for funding recommended capabilities that will be reviewed by Trump before he finalizes his budget request for fiscal 2026, according to a statement from Hegseth. 

Others have raised alarm over the technical feasibility of Golden Dome, particularly because many of the radars that would be in the architecture use the 3.1-3.45 GHz band of the electromagnetic spectrum. Pentagon officials and lawmakers have expressed concern that plans to auction off parts of the Defense Department’s spectrum to commercial telecommunications companies could inhibit Golden Dome’s ability to operate.

Lawmakers have also questioned Pentagon officials recently about other technical challenges with Golden Dome, such as the ability to field space-based interceptors and integrate multiple platforms under a single architecture. But Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, noted during Tuesday’s press conference that there are a number of U.S.-based companies — from traditional defense primes to VC-backed startups — ready to tackle the project.

“Our technology sector is head and shoulders above any other place in the world, and they’re going to be a key part of this,” Sullivan said.

The post Trump: Golden Dome will cost around $175B, be ‘fully operational’ in three years appeared first on DefenseScoop.

In that position, Michael will serve as the primary advisor to the secretary of defense and other Defense Department leaders on tech development and transition, prototyping, experimentation, and management of testing ranges and activities. He’ll also be in charge of synchronizing science and technology efforts across the DOD.

Michael comes to the job from the private sector, where he’s been a business executive, advisor and investor. He told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee that he’s been involved with more than 50 different tech companies during his career. Perhaps most notable, from 2013 to 2017, he was chief business officer at Uber.

In government, he previously served as special assistant to the secretary of defense when Robert Gates was Pentagon chief.

Michael was born in Egypt and his family moved to the United States when he was a child to escape what he described as hostility to Christians.

“Emil has lived the American Dream by building several successful Tech companies, including Uber,” then President-elect Donald Trump said in a statement in December when he announced his pick for Pentagon R&E chief, adding that Michael will “ensure that our Military has the most technologically sophisticated weapons in the World, while saving A LOT of money for our Taxpayers.”

Michael touted his business background during his confirmation hearing in March and in responses to written questions from senators. He noted that he previously served on the Defense Business Board, which provides independent advice to Pentagon leaders on business management issues.

“I am a firm believer that bringing best practices from the private sector into the Department is a top priority because, if adopted effectively, they will streamline operation and allocate resources more appropriately,” Michael told lawmakers.

He suggested that some research and development programs could end up on the chopping block under his watch, saying Pentagon officials need to have the discipline to “stop projects that are failing” and focus S&T investments on “only those things that are aligned on our ‘peace through strength’ mission.”

“Time must be a factor in all of our decisions as we confront an increasingly sophisticated adversary in China, which not only has lower labor costs, but is notorious for intellectual property theft, making its research and development … even faster and less expensive than we could have imagined only a decade ago,” he said.

Michael also told senators that he would work to “recast” the relationship between the Defense Department and the emerging tech sector.

“The DOD needs to foster a more robust and competitive defense industrial base by providing more realistic requirements, inviting smaller and innovative companies with less burdensome processes, becoming more agile in how and when we grant contracts. The private sector too should bear some more responsibility for the risks of their own failure. A healthy ecosystem will provide for weapons that are better, cheaper and faster,” he said at his confirmation hearing.

He suggested venture capitalists could play an even larger role in supporting the defense industrial base, particularly for small businesses that need additional funding to thrive in that marketplace. For example, he told lawmakers that, if confirmed, he would look for opportunities under Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer (SBIR/STTR) programs for small businesses to leverage VC investment.

The Pentagon’s R&E chief plays a key role in fostering next-generation military capabilities and overseeing work on the “critical technology areas” that the Pentagon has identified. Those areas currently include trusted AI and autonomy; space; integrated sensing and cyber; integrated network systems of systems; microelectronics; human-machine interfaces; advanced materials; directed energy; advanced computing and software; hypersonics; biotech; quantum; FutureG wireless tech; and “energy resilience.”

“If confirmed, I look forward to reviewing the work being done in all 14 Critical Technology Areas and ensuring the Department’s resources are focused on our most critical challenges with the right amount of weight behind each area,” Michael told lawmakers.

He highlighted AI, autonomous systems, quantum computing, directed energy and hypersonics as some of his top priorities, if confirmed.

The R&E directorate is also expected to play a major role in Trump’s Golden Dome missile defense initiative.

Michael noted that Golden Dome will require systems engineers across the DOD to collaborate on architecture and software, in partnership with the development and acquisition communities.

After he’s sworn in, Michael will take over for James Mazol, who has been performing the duties of undersecretary for R&E during the early months of the second Trump administration. Heidi Shyu was the last person to hold the role in a Senate-confirmed capacity during the Biden administration.

Updated on May 15, 2025, at 4:15 PM: A previous version of this story stated that “renewable energy generation and storage” was one of DOD’s 14 “critical technology areas.” While that was the case during the Biden administration, the Trump administration has changed the focus to “energy resilience.” This story has been updated to reflect that change.

The post Senate confirms former Uber executive as Pentagon’s chief technology officer appeared first on DefenseScoop.

Senators voted 74-25 to approve Meink as the 27th Secretary of the Air Force, making him the third and final of President Donald Trump’s service secretary nominees to be confirmed during his second term.

In his new role, Meink will be the top civilian official for the Department of the Air Force — which also includes the Space Force — as it undertakes a wide range of modernization efforts.

Meink has a deep background of previous military and government service. He entered the Air Force in 1988 through the ROTC program, and served as a KC-135 Stratotanker navigator and instructor, as well as a test engineer for ballistic missile test vehicles at the Missile Defense Agency.

More recently, Meink was the deputy under secretary of the Air Force for space under the Obama administration until he was tapped in 2020 by the first Trump administration to serve as principal deputy director of the National Reconnaissance Office, which is charged with developing and operating spy satellites and related technologies.

As Meink takes charge of the Department of the Air Force, he will be responsible for guiding both the Air and Space Forces through efforts to upgrade key systems and capabilities across all of their core mission areas. During his confirmation hearing in March, lawmakers asked Meink how he would address challenges with balancing the department’s modernization efforts with current readiness needs.

“One of the first things I plan to do is take a holistic look at all the modernization and all the readiness bills that we have coming. And then I will put together and advocate for what resources I think are necessary to execute all of those missions,” he told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

As secretary, Meink will play a key role in continued development of key Air Force platforms and weapons systems — including the sixth-generation F-47 fighter jet, Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) drones, the B-21 Raider stealth bomber and the troubled LGM-35A Sentinel missile program. The Air Force is also in the midst of upgrading its command-and-control architecture, AI capabilities, and cyber and IT tools.

For the Space Force, Meink will oversee satellite programs, such as the Space Development Agency’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture. The service is also on a path to partner more closely with commercial industry, while also advocating for more attention to be given to critical counterspace operations. 

After he’s sworn into office, Meink will be required to review the Department of the Air Force’s sweeping reorganization effort known as Reoptimizing for Great Power Competition. The plans were introduced in 2024 during the Biden administration by then-Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall and put into motion. However, early in the second Trump administration Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ordered the DAF to pause work until a new Senate-confirmed secretary and undersecretary could review the initiative.

Matthew Lohmeier, who previously served as a Space Force lieutenant colonel but was relieved from his post in 2021, has been tapped to serve as Air Force undersecretary. His Senate confirmation hearing was held May 1, but it’s unclear when senators plan to vote on his confirmation.

Although Meink has more experience at the Defense Department compared to Trump’s other service secretary picks, his nomination did not come without controversy. Following a report from Reuters that Meink arranged a multibillion-dollar contract to favor SpaceX, Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Tammy Duckworth of Illinois asked Meink to provide information about his relationship with Elon Musk, SpaceX CEO and key Trump advisor.

“These reports raise concerns about your ability, if confirmed as Secretary, to treat contractors fairly and prioritize the Air Force’s mission over Elon Musk’s business interests,” Warren and Duckworth wrote in a letter to Meink in February.

While Meink’s relationship with Musk and SpaceX did not come up during his confirmation hearing, Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., probed him on rumors that SDA is planning to cancel contracts for the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture and replace them with a sole-source award for SpaceX’s Starshield capability. Meink claimed that he was not aware of any such considerations, but said he would investigate them, if confirmed.

“One of the things that I’ve pushed for — particularly over the last 10 years — is to expand competition and expand the industry base,” Meink told lawmakers. “That ends up almost always with the best result, both from capability and cost to the government.”

The post Senate confirms Troy Meink as 27th secretary of the Air Force appeared first on DefenseScoop.

The CIO’s recently released software modernization implementation plan for fiscal 2025 and 2026 marks another call from Pentagon leadership for the entire department to improve delivery of software-based capabilities. The document lists three key goals for the next two years — focusing on software factories, enterprise cloud and transforming processes — as well as specific tasks for each goal that aims to improve overall software modernization.

The goals and tasks in the document build upon the DOD CIO’s first software modernization implementation plan for fiscal 2023 and 2024. According to the new roadmap, the Pentagon completed 27 out of 41 of the tasks outlined in the previous plan, carried 12 tasks over to FY25 and FY26 and combined two tasks with others in the updated document.

Rob Vietmeyer, chief software officer for the deputy CIO for information enterprise, said that while working through the goals in the first implementation plan, the office realized that some of the associated tasks weren’t mature enough to fully execute on.

“For a small portion, we learned that we didn’t know enough about a couple of those activities, so we dropped them. And then some of them, we were maybe over aggressive or they evolved,” he said Wednesday during a panel discussion at AFCEA’s TechNet Cyber conference. “I’ll say, from an agile perspective, we didn’t have the user score exactly right, so some of these stories have continued into the implementation plan two.”

The first goal outlined in the new plan is to accelerate and scale the Pentagon’s enterprise cloud environment. Along with its multi-cloud, multi-vendor contract known as the Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability (JWCC), the department also has a number of other efforts aimed at providing cloud infrastructure overseas and at the tactical edge. 

Vietmeyer said that even though JWCC has been a relative success — noting that the department has awarded at least $2.7 billion worth of task orders under the program — the contract vehicle was “suboptimal” for large acquisitions. The CIO is currently planning for what it calls JWCC 2.0, a follow-on phase that adds more vendors and different contracting mechanisms to the program.

Beyond JWCC, the implementation plan calls for the establishment of additional contract options for cloud innovation — specifically geared towards small business and “niche providers” — that can be awarded before the end of fiscal 2026.

“In the implementation plan, we’re trying to build that next-generation cloud infrastructure and extend it. Not just looking at JWCC, but we’re also looking at how we extend for small business cloud providers,” Vietmeyer said. 

The document also offers guidance for Pentagon efforts to expand cloud access to the edge, such as through Stratus or the Joint Operational Edge (JOE) environments. In the next two years, the department will develop a reference design for an “underlying cloud mesh” that facilitates data transport, software development and information-sharing across different infrastructures overseas, according to the plan.

The mesh architecture would allow warfighters from one military service to access a cloud node operated by a different service, or one owned by the Defense Information Systems Agency, Vietmeyer explained.

“We’ve seen that one of the challenges is moving to a mesh type of architecture, so we can identify where computing infrastructure exists and allow the warfighters to take advantage [of it],” he said. “How do we start to build the ability for applications and data to scale across that infrastructure in a highly resilient way?”

Along with enterprise cloud, another goal within the updated implementation plan focuses on creating a Pentagon-wide software factory ecosystem that fully leverages a DevSecOps approach. The CIO intends to take successful practices from the various software factories in DOD and replicate them across the department, according to the plan.

“DoD must continue to scale success and bridge the right disciplines together … to ensure end-to-end enablement and realization of the software modernization vision and adoption of software platforms and factories organized by domain,” the document stated.

The CIO will also work to remove existing processes and red tape that prevents software developers from accessing critical tools and capabilities; increase the number of platforms with continuous authorization to operate (cATO) approvals; and create a DevSecOps reference design for artificial intelligence and software-based automation deployment.

Lastly, the implementation plan outlines multiple tasks geared towards evolving the Pentagon’s policies, regulations and standards to better support software development and delivery — including creating secure software standards, improving software deployment in weapons platforms and growing its workforce.

Although work to accelerate the Pentagon’s software modernization has been happening for years, leaders at the department have begun pushing for more focused efforts to remove bureaucratic red tape through new guidance — such as Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s Modern Software Acquisition memo released in March, and the CIO’s new Software Fast Track (SWIFT) program.

“For modern practices to become the routine way of developing and delivering software, policy, regulations, and standards must be reviewed and updated,” the implementation plan stated. “DoD must work with DoD Components to update policy and guidance to reduce the barriers to adopting new practices and to accelerate software delivery and cybersecurity approvals to enable adoption of the latest tools and services.”

The post Pentagon sets out two-year plan to scale enterprise cloud offerings, software factories appeared first on DefenseScoop.