{"id":176861,"date":"2025-12-04T07:00:37","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T12:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=176861"},"modified":"2025-12-03T16:36:30","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T21:36:30","slug":"acquisition-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=176861","title":{"rendered":"Acquisition news"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Some stories on military acquisitions struck me. Not surprisingly, at the top of the heap are drones –\u00a0 lots and lots of drones.<\/p>\n

The Pentagon has created a new program to spend $1 billion over the next two years to buy hundreds of thousands of one-way attack drones for the military. Dubbed the Drone Dominance Program (DDP), it is an implementation of War Secretary Pete Hegseth\u2019s July memo authorizing major changes to how the department procures and uses these weapons.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Someone would have to tell me – over 300,000 of any new weapon other than sidearms have to be a record?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Drone Dominance Program (DDP) is designed to help industry organize around the need for low-cost, supply-chain secure sUAS manufacturing at scale, urgently,\u201d according to a Request for Information (RFI) published Tuesday. \u201cThe DDP intends to place $1 billion in fixed-price orders utilizing 10 U.S.C. 4022 [existing federal procurement authorities] over four phases in the next two years.\u201d<\/p>\n

The RFI does not specify what types of drones DDP is seeking, but based on the anticipated cost per unit, it is most likely first-person view (FPV) drones and other small quadcopters now ubiquitous on the battlefields of Ukraine.<\/p>\n

\u201cVendors are expected to incorporate feedback and improve their designs across the phases while maintaining production capacity to be competitive.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cVendors will bear development and manufacturing risk,\u201d the RFI notes. \u201cThe government will pay a fixed price only for units that are delivered, inspected and accepted. There will be no progress payments or cost-reimbursement terms under this effort.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0TWZ<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I especially like that last – unlike the typical cost+ contracts, the manufacturers are paid only for success, not overruns.<\/p>\n

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If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, our experience with the Houthi and drones launched at Israel must have highly impressed us.<\/p>\n

The Pentagon is standing up its first dedicated one-way attack drone unit in the Middle East, turning to a low-cost system reverse-engineered from Iran\u2019s Shahed-136 as part of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth\u2019s push to accelerate the use of cheap, rapidly fielded unmanned weapons, The Wall Street Journal reported.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“Reverse engineered”… typically means ‘we stole it’. A proud tradition – we had to pay Mauserwerke $600,000 back when we, er, “appropriated” their stripper clip design for the 1903 Springfield. ‘Course, the Iranians shamelessly copy OUR technology, so it’s all good.<\/p>\n

The FLM 136, also called Lucas, has a triangular wingspan just over eight feet. It can fly for about six hours and uses onboard sensors and AI for autonomous navigation. At $35,000 per unit, it costs a fraction of an MQ-9 Reaper, which runs roughly $16 million.\u00a0\u00a0Seeking Alpha<\/a><\/p>\n

In a quick follow-up to our breaking post on the Pentagon sending Shahed-136 clones to the Middle East, specifically \u201cto flip the script\u201d on Iran, we are getting new images of what configurations the Low-Cost Uncrewed Combat Attack System (LUCAS) kamikaze drones that will be used by Task Force Scorpion Strike (TFSS) exist in. The adaptability of the basic Shahed-136 platform is a key feature we highlighted in our extensive case for the U.S. pursuing large quantities of these drones, which you can read in full here<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0TWZ II<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Recently released photos indicate that these FL-136 drones have the option of a nose-mounted gymbaled camera and what looks like a satellite connection, implying both targeting on the fly and controlled drone swarming capability.<\/p>\n

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And near and dear to some of youses hearts, Mossberg has announced winning an $11.6 million dollar contract to supply shotguns…LOTS of shotguns, to the Army.<\/p>\n

The M590 is based on the company’s legendary M500 platform, but with a heavy-walled barrel, metal trigger guard and safety, clean-out mag tube, and a thick Parkerized or Marinecote finish. Numerous stock, forend, and barrel length options exist, as well as the always popular heat shield and bayonet lug.<\/p>\n

It is unclear if the award is an extension of the $19 million maximum value contract for 17-inch M590s issued in September, but either way, the Army is getting a lot more 12-gauge Mossys.\u00a0 Guns.com<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Interesting we are buying so many shotguns as we raise the emphasis on drones.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Some stories on military acquisitions struck me. Not surprisingly, at the top of the heap … Acquisition news<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":668,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[213,359],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-176861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-your-tax-dollars-at-work","category-army"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/668"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=176861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176861\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=176861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=176861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=176861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}