Navy: Cross Domain Swarm Sensing Demo at Pax a Success
Raymond Koehler, a mechanical engineer at the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, demonstrates unmanned swarm mission planning software at Naval Air Station Patuxent River’s West Basin Marina in Maryland on June 17, 2025. The software helps the Navy plan missions with unmanned systems by simulating drone, sensor, and arrangement combinations to achieve mission goals at sea. (US Navy photo by Todd Frantom)
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economic community. The opinions expressed here do not reflect opinions of the Leader’s owners or staff.
The US Navy successfully demonstrated its mission planning software for swarms and other configurations of unmanned air, surface, and underwater systems at NAS Pax River, reports Seapower Magazine. The new Optimized Cross Domain Swarm Sensing, or OCDSS, software program helps the Navy plan missions using groups of unmanned aircraft. By running thousands of computer simulations, it determines the best combination of drones, sensors, and arrangement to achieve mission goals.
The House passed President Donald Trump’s sweeping tax, health care, immigration, and defense spending law on Thursday by a vote of 218-214. Among other provisions in the spending package, the bill contains $150 billion for the Defense Department, slated for shipbuilding, the Golden Dome homeland defense project, and refilling America’s inventories of precision weapons.
The American arm of Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri has named George Moutafis as its new CEO, reports Breaking Defense. The change “comes at a pivotal moment for the US shipbuilding industry, as the new US administration places renewed strategic emphasis on strengthening domestic naval capabilities,” Fincantieri wrote in a news release. Moutafis is currently an executive with gunmaker Beretta USA.
The Defense Logistics Agency Maritime Mechanicsburg awarded a $5 billion contract in June to six businesses with the goal of boosting ship manufacturing at speed, reports Defense News. The contract will see companies including SupplyCore, Atlantic Diving Supply, Culmen International, ASRC Federal, Fairwinds Technologies, and S&K Aerospace manufacture parts for an array of Navy vessels.
The pilots who carried out the mission to bomb nuclear sites in Iran in June were invited to mark the Fourth of July at the White House, reports Military Times.
The DoD’s inspector general said the Navy did not document changes to recruitment procedures, reports Navy Times. The June 27 report finds that the service failed to properly log new recruiting processes that helped the service reach its enlistment goals in fiscal 2024. The Navy Recruiting Command exceeded its objective of 40,600 recruits in 2024 by streamlining the medical waiver process and modernizing the operational recruitment process.
The US military is maintaining its presence in the Middle East, including fighters and air defense assets, following the strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities June 22 and subsequent retaliation by the Iranians against Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, reports Air & Space Forces Magazine.
The Navy will stop sharing satellite weather data from its Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center with NOAA at the end of the month, reports Military Times. Data gathered from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program, or DMSP, all Near-Earth Space Weather instruments and other Defense Department-owned systems will cease to be provided to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The Department of Justice has changed two Chinese nationals with acting as foreign agents and spying on the US Navy in an attempt to gather intelligence and enlist other agents, reports Navy Times. Yuance Chen, 38, and Liren “Ryan” Lai, 39, appeared in federal court last month to face charges. They were acting as agents of the People’s Republic of China government, according to a DOJ news release.
Watchdog group Democracy Defenders Fund has called on the DoD Inspector General’s Office to investigate whether the recent commissioning of four tech executives as part-time Army officers is in keeping with laws and practices against self-dealing, reports Business Insider on MSN. Last week, Military.com reported that the execs would not be recusing themselves from business dealings with the DoD.
The Army is preparing to roll out a new policy that could lead to soldiers diagnosed with a chronic skin condition that causes painful razor bumps and scarring to be kicked out of the service — an issue that disproportionately affects Black men, reports Military.com.
Months after the Pentagon rolled out a policy aimed at wooing back service members booted from the military over the COVID-19 vaccine, the Pentagon has confirmed that only 13 people — all Army soldiers — have rejoined, reports Military.com.
Denmark is seeking to increase the number of young people in the military by extending compulsory enlistment to women for the first time, reports AP News. Men and women can both still volunteer, and the remaining places will be filled by a gender-neutral draft lottery.
The DoD’s renaming spree may be slowing after SecDef Pete Hegseth ordered a new name for the USNS Harvey Milk last week. A defense official told Task & Purpose that no decision has been made to rename other ships like the Harvey Milk, one of 12 John Lewis-class replenishment oilers named for civilians with ties to the civil rights era.
The Military Health System last month rescinded a policy from March that prohibited DoD civilian employees and contractors working abroad from getting rape test kits done on military bases, reports Stars and Stripes.
Navy Special Warfare Boat Operator 2nd class Noah Tobin died July 1 during a training parachute jump in Porterville, CA, reports Tack & Purpose. He was attending the Naval Parachute Course run by the Naval Special Warfare Advanced Training Command.
The US Transportation Security Administration has announced a new initiative to improve the travel experience for members of the US military community, reports Passenger Terminal Today. TSA and its TSA PreCheck enrollment providers, CLEAR, Idemia, and Telos, will honor Gold Star family members by waiving the enrollment fee for TSA PreCheck.
Maryland officials said they would fight the Trump administration’s plans to relocate the FBI to another site in Washington, DC, instead of moving it to Prince George’s County, reports Maryland Matters. Greenbelt, MD, which was selected after years of competition, is still a better site for the agency than Ronald Reagan Building, the officials said last week. The move reverses a 2023 GSA decision that identified a site near the Greenbelt Metro for the new headquarters, following years of study and of competition between Maryland and Virginia jurisdictions to land the site.
The latest Labor Department jobs report said the 147,000 jobs were created in June, despite economic uncertainty that has weighed on the economy, reports The Washington Post. The unemployment rate ticked was 4.1%.
Contracts:
ASRC Federal Gulf State Constructors LLC., Beltsville, Maryland, has been awarded a $21,969,365 modification (P00009) to a previously awarded contract (FA300224C0009) for base maintenance services. This modification brings the total cumulative face value of the contract to $146,483,685. Work will be performed at Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas; Frederick Airfield, Oklahoma; and Sheppard Annex, Lake Texoma, Texas, and is expected to be completed by July 31, 2031. Fiscal 2025 operations and maintenance appropriations funds will be obligated at the time of modification in the amount of $3,577,136. The 82nd Contracting Squadron, Sheppard AFB, Texas, is the contracting activity.
Textron Systems Corp., New Orleans, Louisiana, was awarded a $353,961,249 fixed price incentive-firm target contract modification to previously awarded contract (N00024-23-C-2452) to exercise the option for the construction of three Ship to Shore Connector Landing Craft air cushion 100 class craft. Work will be performed in New Orleans, Louisiana (66%); Pasadena, California (11%); Cincinnati, Ohio (7%); Gloucester, United Kingdom (4%); other locations (3%); Hunt Valley, Maryland (1%); Huntsville, Alabama (1%); Russellville, Arizona (1%); Stamford, Connecticut (1%); West Palm Beach, Florida (1%); Riverdale, Iowa (1%); Chanhassen, Minnesota (1%); Gold Beach, Oregon (1%); and Chesapeake, Virginia (1%), and is expected to be completed by July 2031. Fiscal 2025 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funds in the amount of $353,961,249 were obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, DC, is the contracting activity. (Awarded June 30, 2025)
Grunley Construction Co. Inc., Rockville, Maryland, was awarded a $15,000,000 modification (P00003) to contract W912DR-22-D-0007 for a broad variety of major and minor repairs, modifications, renovations, rehabilitation, alterations, design-build, design-bid-build and new construction projects. Bids were solicited via the internet with one received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Aug. 16, 2027. US Army Corps of Engineers, Baltimore, Maryland, is the contracting activity.
