The business of defense, October 16

The Army’s newly announced Futures and Autonomous Systems Command (FASCOM) “feeds up into” the planned Autonomous Warfare Command, Acting Army Secretary Adam Telle said Oct. 14.^1–2 He spoke at the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual meeting in Washington.¹

Telle said FASCOM will work with the other services to create scale for purchasing power and share best practices on autonomy.¹

The Army will evaluate open systems architecture when choosing an XM30 winner, Brig. Gen. Troy Denomy, portfolio acquisition executive for ground maneuver, told Breaking Defense in its Oct. 16 report.¹

Denomy’s stated priority connects vehicle selection to the Army’s ability to adapt platforms quickly, particularly against drones, according to Breaking Defense. He explained that open architecture lets the Army and industry partners add new software and hardware as technology becomes available and threats change.¹

The Army already described XM30 as using a modular open system architecture in its June 2023 contract announcement.²

Denomy said it was too early to tell which of the two competitors, American Rheinmetall and General Dynamics Land Systems, had implemented a more open architecture, Breaking Defense reported. Each vendor has delivered one prototype for testing at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Denomy said.¹

The Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group deployed Oct. 8 with an unmanned surface vessel, acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao said, DefenseScoop reports. Speaking at an AUSA conference panel, Cao described the vessel as both medium-sized and large-size. He called the Theodore Roosevelt group the first carrier strike group to deploy with a large-size unmanned surface vessel.¹

The Navy accepted a newly manufactured C-130J-30 Super Hercules from Lockheed Martin in Marietta, Georgia, on Oct. 15.¹

The delivery begins the Navy's planned transition from the legacy E-6B Mercury. The airframe's next phase includes mission-system modification, ground testing and developmental flight testing to become an E-130J Phoenix II.¹

The aircraft is part of an initial procurement of three aircraft the Navy acquired in September 2024.¹

The Airborne Strategic Command, Control and Communications Program Office manages the airframe. Sailors of Strategic Communications Wing 1 at Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma, will operate and maintain the modernized fleet.¹

Defense News reports, in a story from Reuters, that an order to limit the satellite system Ukraine uses for battlefield communications and drone operations came from inside the White House. Two U.S. officials and a Western official briefed on the matter spoke anonymously, without identifying who made the decision or implemented it.¹

Defense News reports that the Department of War is Starshield's biggest customer. The officials said leaders at the department received a message that SpaceX's Starshield service for the Ukrainian military needed to be slowed.¹

A senior U.S. official said the president had made no such request. The White House did not respond to questions about whether other administration officials might have made it.¹

Ukrainian officials said military-grade Starlink receptors stopped working when mounted on fast-moving objects. A person in Ukraine's Defence Ministry said Thursday that the receptors were working in motion again, but only at speeds up to 100 miles per hour (160 kph).¹

In the Reuters report published by Defense News, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said on X on Wednesday that the U.S. government owns and controls Starshield systems. He said any speed or usage limits are decided by the U.S. military or the president. SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment.¹

The Department of War has established Task Force Easy to accelerate improvements in weaponized drones and small uncrewed ground vehicles across the U.S. military, DefenseScoop reported. Its commander, Army Col. Michael Penn, said the initial focus is first-person viewer and one-way attack drones.¹

The remit extends to how troops train with and evaluate equipment: Penn said the task force has been tasked to establish a drone team, according to DefenseScoop. Its responsibilities would include training, tactics, procedures and standards development, along with helping combat training centers conduct training and combat evaluations of new equipment.¹

Penn outlined the task force’s work at the Association of the U.S. Army conference on Oct. 13, DefenseScoop reported. The outlet also reported that Task Force Easy leads the department’s pacesetter work on the Chief Digital and AI Office’s Project Swarm Forge, which aims to deliver collaborative autonomy at the edge.¹

Germany’s Ministry of Defence has formally notified Boeing it will not directly procure the MQ-28 Ghost Bat drone wingman, Breaking Defense reported Oct. 16, citing a company spokesperson.¹

Germany’s 2029 target for fielding collaborative combat aircraft (CCA) now looks in doubt, according to Breaking Defense. The outlet cited Politico’s reporting that Berlin will wait until the early 2030s for the capability.¹

The ministry declined to discuss potential procurement projects in its response to Breaking Defense, citing procurement and public contracting law and the requirement that parliament address such matters first. Boeing deferred questions about the reason to the ministry, Breaking Defense reported.¹

Boeing Australia and Rheinmetall unveiled an MQ-28 at the Berlin Air Show on June 10, hoping to fly it for the German air force, Breaking Defense reported. Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger told the outlet then that government negotiations were continuing. If Germany wanted the aircraft by 2029, he said, he expected the final stage of contract negotiations would have to begin by the following year at the latest.²

Israel is set to acquire 12 Apache “Echo” attack helicopters from Boeing, Defense News reported, citing an Israeli Ministry of Defense announcement this week. Delivery is scheduled for the beginning of the next decade, the outlet reported.¹

An urgent cabinet phone vote on Wednesday approved the necessary budgetary source at the expense of another long-term, non-defense national program, according to Defense News. The vote made signing possible that day, the outlet reported.¹

The agreement had stalled over a funding dispute between Israel’s finance and defense ministries, Defense News reported. The finance ministry demanded budget adjustments and a defined funding source, while the defense establishment pressed for urgent approval regardless of general budget discussions, according to the outlet.¹

Israel missed an Oct. 7, 2026, deadline following several U.S. extensions, Defense News reported. Israeli defense officials sought another extension, and their U.S. counterparts agreed on condition that the deal be signed immediately, according to the report.¹

Lockheed Martin Skunk Works and the Royal Netherlands Aerospace Centre (NLR) announced a broader strategic partnership on Oct. 15 at NL-US Defense Industry Days. The partners plan to position the Dutch defense industrial base within the international supply chain.¹

Connections to Dutch industry are one of four areas of cooperation, alongside coordination on military operational analysis, alignment on technology roadmaps and collaboration on unmanned aerial systems.¹