Tag Archives: Michael Griffin

The Department of Defense will appoint an assistant director to facilitate the application of artificial intelligence capabilities to directed energy systems, C4ISRNET reported Wednesday. Michael Griffin, the department undersecretary of research and engineering, created the assistant director for AI in 2017 along with other positions that are focused on specific technology areas including hypersonics and directed energy.
 

Acting Defense Secretary and 2019 Wash100 Award winner Patrick Shanahan officially unveiled the new space development agency, CNN reported Wednesday. Fred Kennedy, director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s tactical technology office, will lead the agency as part of the proposed space force, according to a copy of Shanahan’s memo obtained by the publication.

During a recent Center for Strategic and International Studies event in Washington, D.C., Lt. Gen. Samuel Greaves, director of the Missile Defense Agency, said the MDA is considering acquiring interceptors, National Defense reported Friday. Greaves noted that the agency is conducting assessments of available interceptor missiles after completing an analysis of potential capabilities for hypersonic defense.

Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan has issued a memo directing Michael Griffin, defense undersecretary for research and engineering, to submit by March 1 a plan to establish a new space development agency, SpaceNews reported Wednesday. Griffin’s office will oversee the new agency, which is expected to be set up no later than March 29, according to the Jan. 19 memo initially reported by Inside Defense.

President Donald Trump and the Department of Defense plan to release on Thursday a document that lays out the administration’s missile defense strategy, The Washington Post reported Wednesday. The Missile Defense Review comes as Russia, China, Iran and North Korea pursue development work on ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and hypersonic glide vehicles that could pose a threat to U.S. forces and allies in Asia and Europe.

Michael Griffin, undersecretary for research and engineering at the Department of Defense, has said the Pentagon has begun to ramp up efforts to build hypersonic weapons as Russia and China advance development work on the technology, DoD News reported Thursday. Griffin said Thursday at a National Defense Industrial Association-sponsored event in Washington that DoD considers developing boost-glide, air-breathing hypersonic platforms.

The Defense Department looks to accelearate space projects and leverage commercial technology platforms through the establisment of a new agency early next year, SpaceNews reported Tuesday.

The Defense Department’s top technology officer has called on the government to expand the country’s missile defense by adding technologies that can counter hypersonic missile threats, USNI News reported Friday.

Michael Griffin, defense undersecretary for research and engineering, has said the Defense Department seeks to expand its budget for directed-energy weapons for missile defense operations in the next few years, Defense News reported Tuesday.
 

Jeff Gossel, the senior intelligence engineer at the National Air and Space Intelligence Center’s Space and Missile Analysis Group, has said that China's placing the Queqiao relay satellite on the far side of the moon may give the country the ability to send attack spacecraft around the moon to outflank U.S. space assets in Earth orbit, Nextgov reported Wednesday. The China National Space Administration launched the Queqiao satellite in preparation for the Chang'e 4 rover mission, which is set to land on the side of the moon facing away from the Earth.