🛰️ RAND finds no workforce to rebuild lost satellites

Textron Systems secured two Naval Air Systems Command task orders worth up to roughly $85 million combined for contractor-owned, contractor-operated drone ISR services supporting 7th Fleet.

The company will fly its Aerosonde Mk. 4.7 vertical takeoff drone, delivering Maritime B-Kits provisioned for up to 175 sensor data hours per month across 12-month operational periods.

Buying surveillance as a service adds Pacific ISR capacity without new platform purchases or lifecycle costs, under a five-year vendor framework valued at $819 million.

A RAND report published Aug. 31 concludes the US lacks the engineers, technicians and assemblers needed to replace military space assets destroyed early in a war with China or Russia.

Assemblers show a 19-to-1 shortfall, roughly 244,000 annual openings against 13,000 credentialed workers, while fiscal 2024 Top Secret clearance investigations averaged nearly six months.

RAND recommends about $5 million a year for scholarships and outreach, and says surge-planning requirements written into contracts would let firms expand capacity before a crisis.

AEVEX and Divergent Technologies announced a collaboration to build an autonomous drone using the Divergent Adaptive Production System, which pairs AI design software with industrial 3D printing and robotic assembly.

The system prints structural nodes from application-specific alloys, then assembles them robotically without custom tooling, cutting part counts and allowing design changes without retooling a line.

The pairing targets the gap between prototype and volume production, where digital manufacturing could compress timelines as drone requirements shift faster than conventional airframe programs absorb change.

Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division demonstrated a towed robotic connector that repeatedly captured, refueled and released an unmanned surface vessel off Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story, Virginia.

USNS Vindicator transferred 400 gallons of fuel to the Navy-owned T38 test vessel, with roughly 100 connection cycles completed over several days around the event.

The team went from concept to sea trial in seven months and now targets a fully autonomous demonstration spanning rendezvous, capture, transfer, disconnection and return to mission.

Adam Telle, the Senate-confirmed assistant Army secretary for civil works, was named acting Army secretary effective immediately following the departure of Dan Driscoll.

Telle steps ahead of Under Secretary Michael Obidal, who would normally assume the role, and previously served as chief of staff to Sen. Bill Hagerty and as White House Senate liaison.

The Army enters its next phase without a Senate-confirmed secretary while US forces remain engaged with Iran and significant Army units stay stationed across the Middle East.

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