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18 Dec 25. Defence spending bill will increase opportunities for defence sector, capacity of US armed forces. On 17 December, the US Senate passed a USD 901bn defence policy bill with bipartisan support, sending the legislation to President Donald Trump, who has stated he will sign it into law. The 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) includes a 4% pay rise for US troops and a ban on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programmes in the Department of Defense, in line with Trump’s agenda. Furthermore, the bill blocks US forces from withdrawing from Europe, provides USD 800m for Ukraine and mandates that unedited videos of airstrikes in the Caribbean Sea must be sent to Congress. These initiatives deviate from Trump’s 2025 National Security Strategy (NSS), highlighting the Republican Party’s growing internal divisions over defence policy, specifically regarding Russia. Nonetheless, we assess that the bill’s passage will mitigate the risks of funding lapses and operational disruption for the US military. Additionally, the bill’s emphasis on the modernisation and streamlining of acquisition processes vis-à-vis weapons and supplies will likely present opportunities for the defence sector to obtain new contracts and funding. (Source: Sibylline)
17 Dec 25. Senate passes $901bn defense authorization bill with major acquisition reform push. The bill forces the Pentagon to adopt a “portfolio acquisition executive model” for managing programs and makes it easier for commercial firms to do business with the department. President Donald Trump’s $4.5trn tax cut bill prevailed in a crucial Senate test vote, a sign that Republican leaders are resolving the infighting over portions of the legislation and moving toward meeting a July 4 deadline the president has set for passage. The Senate has passed the fiscal 2026 defense authorization bill, setting the stage for sweeping changes to the nation’s defense acquisition to be encoded into law. Senators voted 77-20 on a bipartisan basis to send this year’s National Defense Authorization Act to the desk of President Donald Trump, who has indicated he will sign the bill. The NDAA, which was passed by the House on Dec. 10, authorizes $900.6 bn in defense funds, or about $8bn more than the White House’s request.
“We’re about to pass, and the President will enthusiastically sign, the most sweeping upgrades to these business practices in 60 years,” Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., said in a speech ahead of the vote. “This is a monumental achievement. The 21st Century poses threats that will require the most creative and innovative defenses. Americans are already building the technology to meet those threats, and these reforms will help the Pentagon tap into that energetic innovation ecosystem.”
In a statement of administration policy issued last week, the White House stated the NDAA will enable the Defense Department to make investments into key areas of the defense industrial base, such as critical mineral and refining projects.
“Section 804 authorizes the Secretary of War to enter into multiyear procurement contracts for critical munitions, providing the certainty needed to expand industrial capacity and delivering cost savings for the taxpayer,” the statement reads. “Further, the defense procurement system will now emphasize speed of delivery, production capacity, and innovation, revolutionizing the culture of the Department’s acquisition activities.”
Acquisition reform was the cornerstone of the NDAA this year, with both committees coming up with plans centered around speeding up the process and making it easier for new entrants to do business with the Defense Department.
In the end, the final language combined elements from both proposals, including the Senate’s bid to centralize management of weapons programs under broader “portfolio acquisition executives” instead of the current program executive officer model, as well as the House’s push to reform the requirements process. To entice new entrants and commercial companies to work with the Pentagon, the bill includes new requirements to look at off-the-shelf solutions and removes compliance requirements on small commercial firms. It also starts a new Defense Innovation Unit effort called the Bridging Operational Objectives & Support for Transition (BOOST) Program, which is aimed at helping companies with operationally viable tech to transition into production. However, “right to repair” provisions put forward in both the House and Senate bills were ultimately stripped from the final version. During a roundtable with reporters today, Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said the elimination of those provisions is “one of the things … I’m unhappy about” but added that he didn’t know what led to the removal of that language. According to a fact sheet released by the HASC majority, the NDAA procurement plan includes $26 bn for shipbuilding, $38 bn for aircraft and $4 bn for ground vehicles and $25 bn for munitions. It also authorizes $400 m for Ukraine, as well as $175 m for the new Baltic Security Initiative. Those amounts, however, are merely recommendations, as it will be up to congressional appropriators to determine the final FY26 defense topline and how money is spent. In the realm of policy changes — which are backed by the force of law — the NDAA contains several key provisions outside of the major acquisition reform effort. It fences 25 percent of the funds in Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s travel budget until the Pentagon provides unedited video of the boat strikes in US Southern Command to the congressional armed services committees. It also softly pushes against changes to the US relationship with Europe as spelled out in the National Security Strategy, prohibiting the department from reducing US force structure in the region below 76,000 servicemembers until it has provided an assessment on the potential security impacts. (Source: Breaking Defense.com)
17 Dec 25. Pentagon Preparing to Merge Military Commands, Cut Generals, Says Report. Senior Pentagon officials are preparing to downsize key U.S. military headquarters and cut several top positions under a sweeping reorganization led by War Secretary Pete Hegseth, according to The Washington Post. The plan would cut combatant commands from 11 to eight. Central, European, and Africa Commands would merge into a new U.S. International Command, while Northern and Southern Commands would combine into “Americom,” overseeing the Western Hemisphere. Remaining commands would include Indo-Pacific, Cyber, Space, Strategic, Transportation, and Special Operations. The plan would also reduce the number of four-star generals and admirals reporting directly to Hegseth. People familiar with the plan told The Post that the changes would complement Trump administration efforts to shift resources away from the Middle East and Europe and toward the Western Hemisphere. The Post noted that the administration’s national security strategy, released this month, states that the “days of the United States propping up the entire world order like Atlas are over.” Chuck Hagel, former U.S. defense secretary, questioned the proposal, telling The Post: “You want commands that have the capability of heading off problems before they become big problems, and I think you lose some of that when you unify or consolidate too many.” Retired Vice Adm. Robert Murrett told Newsweek that the national security strategy could produce “reverberations for years to come and possible near term security challenges,” including what he described as “soft language regarding China.” Hegseth’s team declined to comment on what it called “rumored internal discussions.” It called any suggestion of a divide “completely false,” adding that “everyone in the Department is working to achieve the same goal under this administration.” (Source: https://www.sofx.com/)
12 Dec 25. V-22 Osprey at risk of more ‘catastrophic’ mishaps, Navy review finds. On the heels of 12 major mishaps in the last four years, the military’s first tiltrotor aircraft program must take “immediate and decisive action” to avoid more loss and tragedy, a new comprehensive review released Friday by the U.S. Navy finds. The V-22 Osprey, which the Navy uses for aircraft carrier onboard delivery missions, is overdue for a midlife upgrade, spending far too much on unscheduled maintenance and contending with undertrained maintainers — all of which spell increased risk for a platform that has faced intense scrutiny since its earliest days in the air. The 33-page review recommends the establishment of a readiness and safety steering board to report annually to top officials on the Osprey’s status; initiation of the overdue midlife upgrade; and changes to establish a “proactive safety system” to identify and address mechanical issues before mishaps occur.
“When the V-22 Enterprise does not actively manage risks with the potential for catastrophic outcomes, the risks compound, increasing the likelihood of a catastrophic event that, if left unaddressed, will ultimately occur,” the investigation concluded.
The Navy’s review — and a simultaneously released Government Accountability Office report — follow a November 2023 crash of an Air Force CV-22 Osprey that killed eight troops, ultimately attributed to a gear box failure. In the dozen mishaps since 2022 involving Marine Corps and Air Force personnel, four Ospreys have been destroyed and 20 personnel have been killed. The review determined that the Osprey is “accumulating safety risk” due to lagging timelines to fix identified problems; failure to follow airworthiness and flight safety procedures; missing airworthiness standards for some risks; and challenges related to differing safety standards and priorities between the three services that fly the Osprey. It also found the Osprey has suffered in readiness due to a failure to implement best practices across the services, persistent “reliability issues” and challenges in managing and delivering aircraft and parts inventory. While defenders of the V-22 have accurately pointed out that the aircraft, at least in the Marine Corps, has a lower mishap rate than fleet averages, the report highlights other concerning ways that the Osprey is an outlier. The V-22, it found, has the second-highest number of “catastrophic” risks of any naval aviation platform, meaning components at risk of failure with catastrophic outcomes. Parts at risk are also 70% older on the Osprey than on other Navy planes, it found.
“As the first and only military tiltrotor aircraft, it remains the most aero-mechanically complex aircraft in service and continues to face unresolved legacy material, safety, and technical challenges,” the investigation notes.
In maintenance concerns, the Osprey is again at odds with other platforms, requiring 100% more unscheduled maintenance than the Navy average and requiring about 22 maintenance man-hours per flight hour, compared with about 12 for other aircraft.
“Despite numerous initiatives aimed at improving procedural compliance, most efforts to date have not led to significant improvements in safety outcomes,” investigators found. “A critical gap remains in the form of specific, measurable, and enforceable action plans, complete with clear timelines and accountable owners, to address the root causes of non-compliance, improve procedural adherence, or mitigate the effects of non-compliance at the enterprise-level.”
Among recommendations already being implemented are a retrofit of prop-rotor gear boxes to address identified risks; the development of risk mitigation plans; and a midlife upgrade, which is listed as “in-work,” with no estimated completion date. Establishment of new proficiency standards for maintainers is also underway across services. Other recommendations, like the establishment of a readiness and safety steering board, have yet to be started. Anthony Krockel, a retired Marine Corps colonel who flew the Osprey from 2010 to 2018 and came to its defense earlier this year, saying its record “was not a safety outlier,” told Military Times he saw additional problems contributing to the aircraft’s woes. While he noted that the aircraft was full of sensors and that issues could arise from crews’ failure to address the equivalent of “check engine lights” on degrading parts, he also said the Osprey had a track record of parts that failed well before their anticipated service lives were up.
“If something was supposed to last, you know, 10,000 hours before it is being replaced, it’s lasting, like, 2,000 hours,” Krockel said. “And so that’s what’s driving these really high unscheduled maintenance rates.”
That, in turn, he said, had a “cascading effect” on maintenance backlogs.
“So now you have to spend time that wasn’t scheduled on the backs of these Marines to fix the plane and, oh, by the way, because these components are breaking more often, you’re depleting the spares inventory much faster than was originally anticipated,” he said. “And so now you don’t have any spares on the shelf because they’re being used systemically, higher than originally budgeted for.”
Krockel said he’d still like to see a thorough review take place of the top 10 “degraders to readiness” involving the V-22, including the parts that most frequently failed.
“Some of them are technically challenging to fix. Some of them are logistics challenges,” he said. “So there’s larger challenges, but if you get those top 10 degraders fixed and get the aircraft to higher mission capable rates, then everybody wins.” (Source: Defense News Early Bird/Military Times)
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Founded in 1987, Exensor Technology is a world leading supplier of Networked Unattended Ground Sensor (UGS) Systems providing tailored sensor solutions to customers all over the world. From our Headquarters in Lund Sweden, our centre of expertise in Network Communications at Communications Research Lab in Kalmar Sweden and our Production site outside of Basingstoke UK, we design, develop and produce latest state of the art rugged UGS solutions at the highest quality to meet the most stringent demands of our customers. Our systems are in operation and used in a wide number of Military as well as Homeland Security applications worldwide. The modular nature of the system ensures any external sensor can be integrated, providing the user with a fully meshed “silent” network capable of self-healing. Exensor Technology will continue to lead the field in UGS technology, provide our customers with excellent customer service and a bespoke package able to meet every need.
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