Glenn Dean, program manager of the U.S. Army‘s Stryker Brigade Combat Team, has said that the service branch looks to integrate the Trophy active protection system on a brigade of Abrams main battle tanks by 2020, National Defense Magazine reported Tuesday.

The report noted that the active protection system was designed to engage anti-tank guided missiles and rocket-propelled grenades and the service branch will equip a brigade of Abrams tanks to be stationed in Europe.

“The Army made a decision [that] we would move forward on phase two — which is our final series of testing — and phase three — which is production and deployment, essentially — simultaneously,” said Dean during the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual conference in Washington, D.C.

Dean noted that Trophy was evaluated at Camp Grayling, Michigan to assess the system’s durability in cold environments then further live testing activities were conducted at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama.

Michael O’Leary, director of business development at Leonardo DRS, said that the company looks to supply a Trophy system for the Bradley and Stryker fighting vehicles to help the service branch meet size, weight and power requirements for the vehicles.

Vice Adm. Jan Tighe, deputy chief of naval operations for information warfare, has said the U.S. Navy has begun to explore ways on how to harness collected data to accelerate the decision-making process as the U.S. faces threats from peer adversaries such as Russia and China, Federal News Radio reported Tuesday.

Tighe said at the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association’s Navy IT day the service branch is working on ways to generate decisions quickly through data collected from various sources such as financial systems and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance sensors.

She mentioned the Navy’s efforts to help functional area managers identify data that can be used to perform certain functions and cited the need for a data strategy as the service migrates data to the cloud.

“Part of that calculus requires a data strategy that makes sense of the data that we’re moving to the cloud, which data needs to go to which kinds of clouds,” Tighe said.

“Which data needs to be organized together, what are the standards by which we’re collecting that data.”

Michael Griffin, former NASA administrator, has come out as the most likely candidate for the role of defense undersecretary for research and engineering, sources told Defense News.

Griffin led the space agency between 2005 and 2009, Defense News reported Monday.

The USDR&E role is part of a reorganization plan the Defense Department announced in August and plans to implement in February 2018.

Under the restructuring effort, DoD plans to split the undersecretary for acquisition, technology and logistics role into two positions in which one will be responsible for acquisition and sustainment functions – USDA&S – while the other undersecretary will oversee R&E efforts.

Ellen Lord, formerly Textron Systems president and CEO, was confirmed in August as DoD’s acquisition chief and will transition to the USDA&S role once the restructuring plan takes effect on Feb. 1.

Defense Secretary James Mattis has called on Defense Department leaders to prepare military options that the U.S. government can use in response to North Korea if diplomatic measures fail, Politico reported Monday.

Mattis told the audience at the Association of the U.S. Army conference that current actions against North Korea’s missile and nuclear weapons activities are currently led by diplomacy and economic sanctions.

“Now, what does the future hold? Neither you nor I can say, so there’s one thing the U.S. Army can do, and that is we have got to be ready to ensure that we have military options that our president can employ if needed,” Mattis added.

The defense secretary also urged Congress to eliminate budget caps on defense to help maintain the U.S. military’s readiness, Washington Examiner reported.

Mattis said at the AUSA conference that the Army and other services should support the move to repeal the $549 billion spending cap for fiscal year 2018 by voicing the need for additional funds to stay ahead of adversaries.

Space could be a battleground. This idea is more or less a commentary on the current state of emerging affairs in aerospace; if we are to maintain our presence in space, we need some conscientious brand of ‘space situational awareness’ that all the players around the table can agree on.

“Space is not a sanctuary…it is a war fighting domain,” U.S. Air Force Brigadier General Mark Baird said in a panel at the Defense One Tech Summit in July.

In today’s high-tech warfare environment we take technology for granted, as Gen. Baird believes, and that the ability of the military (see: ‘Space Corps’) and Congress to obtain resources is lacking.

“In terms of terrified, we have to prepare to protect the nation. It is a big task that we’re rushing to make sure we’re ready,” said Baird. “The last 20 years we just launched our missions–the world is changing, but we should change the tense: the world has changed.”

Our nation’s increased use and dependency on satellite and anti-satellite technology for commercial and military use has necessitated the development of effective policies and doctrines for the control of space, prompting questions about probing planets and proliferating the space superiority enterprise.

“It is a good sign because people are now focusing on this problem that we have–we are recognizing across all sectors of the government that we need to be ready, poised and postured so we can protect the nation,” he said.

As the Director of Space Programs for the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Acquisition in Washington D.C., Baird is responsible for a multi-billion dollar budget–a multifarity of defense directives in the planning, development, testing, deployment and continuation of space capabilities–working to stay ahead of the curve across a wide spectrum from the Pentagon to the people.

“Without question, the United States has become increasingly reliant on space. Both economically and militarily, our dependence on space assets is undeniable. Orbiting satellites provide a myriad of services that we have become dependent on, such as precise position, navigation, and timing (PNT); communications; weather data; missile warning; and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR).”

But don’t get too excited, he says with a grin, as men and women that might not be riding rockets into battle anytime soon. Yet.

Commissioned through the Reserve Officer Training Corps program in 1989, Baird was appointed to Brigadier General in 2014, receiving the Defense Superior Service Medal and the Legion of Merit award for “exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services to the United States and the War on Terror.“ During his career, he has served in a variety of positions, including contingency contracting officer, program manager and squadron commander.

Brigadier General Baird will be addressing the Potomac Officer’s Club as a keynote speaker at the 2017 Space: Innovations, Programs, and Policies Summit to be held Oct. 18, 2017 at the Ritz-Carlton Tysons Corner in McLean, VA.

Click here to register

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