The PrSM, pictured here, is a next-generation, long-range precision-strike missile in the US inventory. (U.S. Army/Darrell Ames)
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — The Army’s new Portfolio Acquisition Executive Fires shop is trying to bridge four key “capability gaps” as it works on 62 programs, according to the one-star general leading the effort.
Brig. Gen. Robert Mikesh, charged with offensive fires under the PAE, detailed the quadruple challenge today at the annual Space and Missile Defense Symposium by pointing towards energetics and propulsion, targeting and seekers, the industrial base and “munitions breadth and depth.”
“Let’s start with this propulsion and energetics,” Mikesh told the audience. “The challenge there is straightforward: high cost, complex manufacturing, limited capacity, and in some areas, constrained resources. Propulsion is foundational to almost everything we do in the missile business.”When it comes the targeting and seeker challenge, Mikesh said the service is betting that future conflicts will take place in “heavily contested electromagnetic environments” where GPS and networks will be challenged. That requires weapons that are “hardened,” he added.
“That means a multi-mode approach,” Mikesh told the audience. “It means reducing dependency on a single source of information, and it means bringing together data from multiple sensors and domains to move data rapidly, and give the soldier the confidence that that weapon will reach its intended target, even if an adversary is going to do everything possible to prevent that from happening.”Moving to the industry challenge, Mikesh called on companies to stop proposing weapons that lock the government into a single solution, leaving soldiers unable to make modifications and upgrades. Instead, he reiterated, the Army needs “open architecture and multiple sources.”Mikesh’s fourth capability gap, munitions breadth and depth, was a recurring theme during this week’s conference in Huntsville, especially at a time of reports of stockpile concerns due, in part, to ongoing military operations against Iran.
