Defense One
Tom Jones has spent a good portion of his career not being able to tell his family what he does at work. He recalls sitting at the dinner table one night 30-plus years ago, unable to share with his spouse that, just hours earlier, he was read into a classified military project. Now president of Northrop Grumman Aeronautics Systems, Jones has overseen one of the military’s most important, anticipated, and secretive U.S. military projects: the B-21 Raider stealth bomber. On Dec. 2, inside a hangar in the California desert, he and the 8,000 others spread across 40 states who have been secretly building the Air Force’s new stealth bomber will finally get to show their family and friends what they’ve been working on the past seven years.
Defense News
China appears to be fitting indigenous engines on its Shenyang J-15 Flying Shark, a carrier-borne fighter jet. Footage shown Nov. 17 on state-owned broadcaster CCTV showed a People’s Liberation Army Navy J-15 with the afterburner nozzles of the WS-10 Taihang turbofans undergoing calibration in preparation for a test flight at the facilities of manufacturer Shenyang Aircraft Corp.
Flight Global
The Air Force will spend nearly $100 million to purchase 45 additional Active Electronically Scanned Array radars from manufacturer Northrop Grumman. The contract announced by the Department of Defense, valued at $99.3 million, covers 42 production radars and three spare kits for the USAF’s fleet of Lockheed Martin F-16 fighter jets.
Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies
In Episode 104 of the Aerospace Advantage podcast, John Baum chats with a key set of individuals who were involved with the decisions that eventually yielded the B-21 program. Retired Air Force Gen. Kevin Chilton was the commander of U.S. Strategic Command; retired USAF Lt. Gen. David A. Deptula was serving on the Air Staff; retired USAF Maj. Gen. Charlie Lyon was the lead for future Air Force capability requirements in the Pentagon; and Mark Gunzinger was in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. The arrival of the B-21 into America’s air power arsenal stands as a crucially important step in rebuilding long-range strike capabilities and capacity in support of combatant commanders’ demands. The B-21’s Dec. 2 rollout is a critical juncture on the path to realizing this objective. However, this eventuality was not always a certainty.
SpaceNews
Millennium Space Systems announced that its proposed satellite design for a Space Force missile-warning constellation passed a critical review. The company, a subsidiary of Boeing, is developing a sensor satellite for a constellation that the Space Force plans to field in medium Earth orbit (MEO) to detect and track hypersonic missiles. Millennium Space and Raytheon in May 2021 were selected to design separate MEO satellite concepts.
The Associated Press
The Biden administration said Russia has abruptly and without explanation postponed the scheduled resumption of arms control talks. The State Department said Russia had “unilaterally postponed” a meeting of the Bilateral Consultative Commission that was scheduled to begin Nov. 29 in Egypt. It said Russia had promised to propose new dates but had offered no reason for the delay.
Breaking Defense
The value of relatively low-cost unmanned aerial vehicles has become clearer by the day in Ukraine, causing war strategists to rethink the vehicles’ usefulness elsewhere. In this op-ed, David Ochmanek of the RAND Corp. argues that a recent move to pull F-15s out of an American base in Japan is a perfect opportunity for rethinking the military’s posture there—and where drones might fit in.
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Reuters
Rapid advancements in China’s military capabilities pose increasing risks to American supremacy in outer space, said Nina Armagno, director of staff of the U.S. Space Force. Armagno said Beijing had made significant progress in developing military space technology, including in areas such as satellite communications and reusable spacecraft, which allow countries to rapidly scale up their space programs.
One More Thing
The Drive
Celebrate the season in stealth with the 'Silent Night' shirt depicting America's stealthy flying wings—B-2, B-21, RQ-180 (notional), X-47B/UCAV, and RQ-170—that make up a Christmas tree formation like none other. Oh, and of course, there’s an angel on top—the F-117 Nighthawk that started the stealth revolution. For this special mission to help Santa deliver some very exciting gifts to those on his naughty list, the group is flashing their navigation lights along the way out of pure festive cheer. Oh, and as is customary, this formation only operates ‘on a silent night.’
