Sponsored by Galvion
www.galvion.com
——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
25 Sep 25. North Korea close to developing ICBM that can hit US with nuclear weapon, South Korea’s Lee says. North Korea is in the last stage of developing an intercontinental ballistic missile that could hit the United States with a nuclear weapon, though it has yet to master re-entry technology, South Korea’s president said on Thursday. President Lee Jae Myung, who is visiting New York for the United Nations General Assembly, hosted an investor relations session on Thursday at the New York Stock Exchange. He pledged to reduce security risks linked to North Korea in order to draw more investments and spur the economy. “Whether for negotiations with the U.S. or for their own regime, they are continuing to develop intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the United States, carrying a nuclear bomb and bombing the United States,” Lee said. (Source: Reuters)
24 Sep 25. Joint Fires Network will complete transition from R&D to acquisition program Oct. 1.
“We’ll formally take the stick in a week,” said Maj. Gen. Luke Cropsey, head of the Air Force’s increasingly powerful PEO-C3BM, which is building new AI-enhanced command networks for the Air Force and the other services.
A key part of the Pentagon’s nascent AI-enhanced command system for future wars, the interservice Joint Fires Network, will complete its evolution from an R&D experiment to a formal acquisition program office on Oct. 1, Maj. Gen. Luke Cropsey told reporters here at the annual Air Force Association conference. Cropsey heads the Air Force’s Program Executive Office for Command, Control, Communications, and Battle Management (PEO-C3BM). In its three short years in existence, PEO-C3BM has already taken over more than 50 disparate programs that the Air and Space Forces want to fuse into a single Department of the Air Force Battle Network. As part of that process, the PEO’s Chief of Architecture and Engineering, Bryan Tipton, is studying how to consolidate disjointed, obsolescent or outright redundant systems into a more manageable number of more modern “end-to-end capabilities,” Cropsey said.
“In three months, I should have a draft of our enterprise-wide strategies about how we’re going to converge those stacks,” he added.
Leading innovation. Securing the future. Explore Northrop Grumman today.
These reforms don’t just affect the Air and Space Forces, however, because many of the systems Cropsey manages also carry vital data for the Army, Navy, and Marines as well. That means his PEO has come to play a central role in connecting all the services into a worldwide meta-network known as CJADC2 — and that role is now expanding even further with the PEO’s takeover of the Joint Fires Network project. Joint Fires Network began in 2019 as an interservice effort to manage the bewildering variety of potential targets and available weapons in a future US-China war. As one official put it, JFN tries to apply AI to the battle planning problem of “who should shoot who?” To date, JFN’s been run by US Indo-Pacific Command — with extensive input from other commands, armed services, and agencies — under supervision from the Pentagon’s undersecretary of research and engineering (R&E). But, last year, Cropsey announced JFN would transition to a formal acquisition Program of Record (POR) under his program office, moving from R&E’s supervision to the undersecretary of acquisition and sustainment (A&S). Specifically, Cropsey is standing up “what we’re calling an integrated program office” to run JFN, he said, combining personnel from the Air Force, Navy, Defense Information Systems Agency, and, to a lesser extent, the Army.
“I put a senior colonel out in San Diego as the senior guy out there representing me [at the JFN office],” Cropsey said. “He showed up this past summer, and we formally take the stick in a week. So 1 October, that program will transition over the Integrated Program Office, and we’ll be off.”
It’s worth noting that the traditional division between R&E and A&S is increasingly blurred, especially when it comes to software-heavy systems like CJADC2. The Pentagon can deploy prototype code (sometimes called a Minimum Viable Capability) during the ostensible “research” phase and seeks to constantly refine and rapidly update already-deployed code during what’s supposedly “sustainment.” Cropsey emphasized that he’s not cutting anyone out of the interservice collaboration on Joint Fires Network. “We’ve maintained that that joint/OSD-level flavor to how the program is being operated,” he said. “There’s a governance process for JFN that will stay just the way that it is, that ensures that the COCOMs, the related OSD offices, and the related services all have a voice into what that looks like and how we do it. That’s not changing.” An Air Force staffer explained that the Integrated Program Office will still fall under an interservice Executive Steering Group of generals, admirals and equivalent senior civilians. Likewise, Cropsey said he’s not kicking out any of the contractors currently working on JFN tech. “The other thing that’s not changing is the current performers,” he said. “They’re going to keep rowing.” Instead, the goal of the new structure is to reinforce success with more personnel. “What we’re doing is we’re adding additional capability, people-wise,” Cropsey said, “and we’re going to build out that program office so that we’re addressing integration aspects beyond what they’re currently capable of doing, with the added manpower.” (Source: Breaking Defense.com)
24 Sep 25. Pratt & Whitney’s new engines to power munitions and CCA. The company will conduct a second series of tests on the new family of engines early in 2026. Pratt & Whitney, an RTX business, is in the process of creating a novel family of engines with scalability ranging from 500 to 1,800 pounds of thrust. These engines will have the ability to power both munitions and collaborative combat aircraft (CCA), according to a company statement issued on 22 September 2025. Pratt & Whitney’s prototyping arm, Gatorworks, is responsible for the development of the engines. Created in 2018, Gatorworks focuses on the “rapid and agile development” of reliable lower cost military engines.
“The scalability of the architecture, the commonality across models, and the use of additive manufacturing will allow us to significantly reduce development and production timelines as we look at existing and future applications with customers,” Pratt & Whitney’s military engines business president Jill Albertelli said.
Pratt & Whitney is set to conduct a second series of tests on the new family of engines early in 2026. These tests are aimed at validating crucial design elements. Upon completion, this engine family will be available to domestic and international customers of Pratt & Whitney. The development of new engines follows the company’s opening of an 845,000ft² military engine manufacturing facility in Oklahoma City in October 2024. This expansion enables Pratt & Whitney to cater to the increasing demands for F135, F117, TF33, F100, and F119 engines from both US-based and global defence users. In March 2025, Pratt & Whitney also completed a series of tests on its innovative rotating detonation engine (RDE). These tests were undertaken in partnership with the RTX Technology Research Center (RTRC). (Source: airforce-technology.com)
23 Sep 25. Germany to buy anti-torpedo torpedo in 2026, leaked document shows. The German military intends to start the procurement process for a novel “Anti Torpedo Torpedo” in 2026, according to a budget planning document published by Politico Europe on Tuesday. Defense officials plan to allocate €70m ($83m) for the system, marketed by ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems as a kinetic interceptor to protect naval vessels against incoming torpedoes, according to the document. Officials envision consideration of the procurement by the parliamentary budget committee during the panel’s May 6, 2026, session, with a written proposal due to lawmakers two weeks prior. In an email to Defense News, a spokesman for the German defense ministry said he could not comment on the document or the program planning specifically. Atlas Elektronik, a subsidiary of TKMS, has for years advertised its SeaSpider anti-torpedo torpedo as the world’s first market-ready kinetic interceptor, arguing it’s the only way to reliably eliminate torpedoes with increasingly sophisticated seekers. Traditional torpedo defense has relied on tricking torpedo sensors into missing their target. Development of the SeaSpider technology began as a joint project between Atlas and the Dutch TNO research organization almost 20 years ago. The work continues now with funding from the European Union’s PESCO – Permanent Structured Cooperation – framework, a mechanism meant to deepen cross-border defense ties in Europe. The light torpedo is designed to independently lock onto and kill incoming torpedoes of any kind, serving as a short-distance, hard-kill interceptor. It has onboard sensors and homing abilities, and is uniquely driven by solid-fuel rocket propellant. No country has officially placed an order for the SeaSpider yet, although earlier this year, the Netherlands announced its intention to buy the weapon. The German and Dutch navies, whose commands are integrated, were deeply involved in the development and testing of the system. The Dutch navy’s anti-submarine warfare frigate will reportedly be the first to receive the new weapon in the Netherlands. On the German side, company officials have said their intended first user will be the new F127 frigate, whose planned progress through the German defense procurement motions roughly lines up. The F127 is a new ship class for the German navy, serving as an air defense-oriented frigate. According to the spreadsheet, a procurement decision is envisioned for one month later, in June 2026, and will be worth €26bn ($30.7bn). (Source: Defense News)
22 Sep 25. Textron Systems Corporation, a Textron Inc. (NYSE: TXT) company, announced today that it delivered the XM204 Top Attack Munition, an anti-vehicle terrain shaping system, to the U.S. Army to support U.S. Army Europe operations. The delivery occurred under the current XM204 low-rate initial production (LRIP) contract. The XM204 program is managed by Joint Program Executive Officer Armaments & Ammunition (JPEO A&A), Project Manager Close Combat Systems (PM CCS), and Project Manager Terrain Shaping Obstacles (PdM TSO). The delivery follows successful completion of U.S. Army-led First Article testing in April 2025, which certified the system for delivery to the Army and its allies. The certification included rigorous testing to verify the XM204’s target engagement and self-destruct technologies. With the certification complete, Textron Systems stands ready to fulfill orders for both the U.S. Army and its allies in need of counter-mobility capability. The XM204 is an anti-vehicle munition with standoff and top attack capabilities designed to support terrain shaping operations by supporting a number of counter mobility tasks such as blocking, disrupting and turning an enemy force. The XM204 can be rapidly emplaced and is highly portable; the system can be employed alone, in multiples or in tandem with other terrain shaping systems.
“The XM204 is the only system available of its kind providing autonomous terrain shaping capabilities,” said Henry Finneral, Senior Vice President, Weapon Systems. “Counter-mobility missions are critical to the Army’s terrain shaping and forces protection objectives, and the XM204 will provide unmatched capability to U.S. forces and allies.”
“The successful delivery of the XM204 is a testament to the power of collaboration and the need to modernize our terrain shaping capabilities. This achievement is a critical step forward in ensuring our forces maintain a decisive operational advantage on the battlefield,” said Colonel Vinson Morris, PM CCS Project Manager.
The system fulfills a critical requirement to increase the capability of terrain shaping obstacles as the military prepares to counter peer adversaries.
22 Sep 25. FoI Response: “Did an Archer Artillery System overturn on Salisbury Plain in the last 6 months.
Dear Mr Nettlefold,
Thank you for your email of 14 July 2025 in which you requested the following
information:
“Did an Archer Artillery System overturn on Salisbury Plain in the last 6 months.
What was the damage and cost and is the Programme suspended?”
On 3 July 2025 the cab of an Archer self-propelled howitzer did overturn by 90 degrees on Exercise DRAGON CYCLONE on Salisbury Plain Training Area. After investigation, the cause was determined to be a combination of testing terrain and the deliberately challenging exercise conditions applied in order to thoroughly train and test both the equipment and personnel.
It is worth noting that this is the only occasion that Archer has overturned whilst in use by the British Army. The gun is based upon a Volvo platform, which enables unconstrained physical rotation of the cab relative to the trailer. The gun crew selfevacuated safely from the cab with only minor injuries, both the turret and the ammunition within it were undamaged. As part of the recovery the gun was recovered in situ and system checks confirmed that there was no damage to the electronics and only minor physical damage to the cab. The Archer project will not be
suspended; it is a proven design that has now achieved Initial Operating Capability with the British Army.
on the Commissioner’s website at https://ico.org.uk/.
Yours Sincerely,
Equipment team Army Policy & Secretariat
BATTLESPACE Comment: Given that the Archer was tested under ‘deliberately challenging exercise conditions,;’ this shows that the fightability of the gun is limited to less arduous conditions. Simon Humphrey of Hanwha made this point in his pre-DSEI brief in that to achieve maximum capability that British Army’s heavy artillery must be able to fight the gun in all terrains, weather and conflicts. The statement that ‘it is the only occasion that Archer has overturned,’ is no excuse as clearly the system has just started trials. The 6×6 chassis was dropped in favour of an 8×8 by BAE Bofors just after the acquisition which clearly shows the limitations of the 6×6 chassis and its ability wage war in all conditions. In addition, having fired the 14 round magazine, Archer has to exit the battlefield to replen. Sourcves sugegst that the MoD and the Army see the Archer Procurement as rushed and political and are looking at a larger force of wheeled and tracked 155 SP Howitzers Time for another look at K9?
———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–
About Galvion:
Galvion designs, develops, and delivers mission critical head, face, and torso protective solutions as well as intelligent power and data management systems for the world’s most demanding military and tactical teams. Founded in 2002 as Revision Military, a foundational belief in calculated investment and capability expansion led to a strategic refocus, resulting in the divestiture of the protective eyewear business, along with the Revision name, in 2019. Rebranded as Galvion, the company’s products and technology continue to evolve beyond purely passive protection, focusing instead on active systems that enhance performance and survivability, with an eye to the ever-changing demands of the modern battlefield. Through advanced design, keen end-user insight and intelligent integration, Galvion engineers uniquely customized solutions that go beyond what was once thought possible.
Privately owned with ISO 9001:2015 certified facilities in Vermont, Massachusetts and New Hampshire in the US, Montreal in Canada and Bristol in the UK, Galvion’s team of 400+ employees work proactively to solve the problems left unsolved by others.
——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-