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20 Mar 20. Coronavirus Slows Eucom Exercise but Fails to Affect Readiness. In the U.S. European Command area of responsibility, where approximately 35 cases of COVID-19 have been reported among the 72,000 service members assigned there, some participation in Exercise Defender-Europe 20 has slowed — but readiness to participate in the defense of the continent hasn’t changed at all, said the Eucom commander.
“We in the military plan for tragic events like this often, and we continue to adjust not in weeks, not in months, but in days and in hours,” said Air Force Gen. Tod D. Wolters, Eucom commander, who dialed into a teleconferenced press briefing at the Pentagon today. “As we currently sit, based [on] the trajectory of the virus spreading across Europe, we’re in a position, based [on] the commanders in the field at all components and in all domains, to be able to sustain the current readiness posture that we have.”
Wolters said planners in Eucom are preparing for “worst-case scenarios” in regard to the spread of coronavirus. A worst-case scenario, he said, might mean having to call on U.S. forces from outside Eucom to pick up the mission there. “At this point, we don’t forecast that to occur, but conditions in the environment will dictate that in the future.”
For now, Wolters said, he thinks Eucom will be able to handle its mission on its own and continue to effectively participate in the defense of Europe, along with partner nations.
“Based on all the factors that we’ve been able to embrace, we should be in a position to where we can sustain our force at a readiness level to effectively deter on [the] continent,” he said.
While readiness remains, Wolters said, Exercise Defender-Europe 20 activities have been slowed. The exercise, which runs February through May of this year, is in part meant to demonstrate the U.S. military’s ability to deploy a large combat force to Europe in support of both U.S. and NATO objectives there. As part of the exercise, more than 20,000 U.S. service members were expected to deploy from the U.S. to Europe.
“What we’re going to wind up getting when it’s all said and done is approximately 5,000 to 6,000 additional U.S. Soldiers to be able to accommodate the pieces and parts of Defender-Europe 20,” Wolters said. “We’ve had to cancel some exercises that were live-play exercises that extended out of Poland and that extended outside of Germany.”
Nevertheless, Wolters said, portions of training will continue inside of Germany and Poland.
“We’ve been able to take the forces that we have up to this point, and we’ll be in a position to where they’ll get some part-task training on shoot, move and communicate within the confines of Germany and Poland,” he said. “And they’ll certainly get the basic gunnery training requirements filled that they need to get.”
As a result of coronavirus concerns, Wolters said, Eucom will see less of Defender-Europe 20 that it had hoped — but there will still be some gains.
“We’ve been able to get 30% or 40% accomplished, and as time goes on between now and the middle of May, and we continue to fine tune the number of forces that we have, we’ll be able to get part-task training completed to the point to where, at least from a large exercise like Defender Europe 20, we’ll wind up with a 40% to 45% readiness gain as a result of what we’re able to do,” Wolters said.
When it comes to partnerships involving the fight against coronavirus, Wolters said there’s been no reduction at all. There, he said, the partnerships between the U.S. and NATO nations on the continent are strong.
“I would contend that the solidarity that I’ve witnessed for NATO and NATO partners has been incredibly powerful,” Wolters said. “I don’t think there’s any shortage of energy for the nations to come forward and join hands to make sure that we’re all doing all we can to beat this virus.”
20 Mar 20. Pentagon declares defense contractors ‘critical infrastructure,’ must continue work. The U.S. Defense Department has declared that defense contractors are “critical infrastructure” to national security, a designation that comes with an expectation to maintain a consistent, normal work schedule amid the outbreak of the new coronavirus, COVID-19.
In a Friday memo to industry, Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Ellen Lord made it clear that she wants defense companies to continue to deliver their products and services to the Pentagon on time.
“If you work in a critical infrastructure industry, as designated by the Department of Homeland Security, you have a special responsibility to maintain your normal work schedule,” Lord wrote. “We need your support and dedication in these trying times to ensure the security of this Nation. I understand that this national emergency presents a challenge and we are dedicated to working closely with you to ensure the safety of the workforce and accomplishments of the national security mission.”
Lord also spelled out large swaths of the industrial base for which this order applies, including the aerospace sector; mechanical and software engineers; manufacturing/production workers; IT support; security staff; security personnel; intelligence support; aircraft and weapon systems mechanics and maintainers; suppliers of medical suppliers and pharmaceuticals; and critical transportation.
Included in the designation are personnel working for companies as well as subcontractors who perform under contract for the department. Contractors who perform tasks such as providing office supplies, recreational support or lawn care are not considered essential.
By designating the defense industry in such a way, companies involved may be able to get around state-directed shutdowns such as the one in New York right now. Similarly designated workers include, among many others, law enforcement, health care providers, water and power authorities, and IT support for emergency services — all of whom are still on duty in the current crisis.
In the memo, Lord noted, companies involved should “follow guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as State and local government officials regarding strategies to limit disease spread.” Some companies have instituted work-from-home policies where applicable, although in cases such as production of defense equipment or work in secure facilities, that option appears unrealistic.
Force of law?
Things may not be as cut and dry as Lord’s memo makes it seem, warned Jeff Bialos, a partner with the Eversheds-Sutherland law firm and former deputy under secretary of defense for industrial affairs.
He notes that Lord’s memo is based on guidance, put out the day before by the Department of Homeland Security, which does not carry with it the force of law to override decisions on work stoppage that may come from a state.
“These are guidelines only. They do not have the force of effect of law,” Bialos warned.
Bialos thinks the memo may be a useful tool for industry to turn to local governments that are eyeing a work shutdown and say they should be given an exemption. But should the local government decide not to grant that exemption, how much force the memo may have is unclear.
“Thee’s no slam dunk here. Everyone is struggling with these issues. And I think what this memo does is put another arrow in the quiver of a company that wants to keep doing business to meet defense needs. And it also is a document companies can provide to localities and states, and say ‘please give us an exemption.’”
In a statement released late Friday, Lt. Col. Mike Andrews, a spokesman for Lord, said the undersecretary met today with Senate Armed Services Committee chairman Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Ok., on the memo and other issues.
Lord “remains committed to daily communication and collaboration with the defense industrial base, especially the defense industry trade associations. In addition, she’ll be contacting several state Governors to discuss state-specific critical infrastructure and essential workforce efforts,” Andrews said, adding that a daily call between members of Lord’s team and industry associations continues.
Jerry McGinn, a longtime official at the department’s Office of Manufacturing and Industrial Base Policy, said the move was the right one to make.
“You’re essentially trying to keep that workforce engaged and supporting that customer. This is trying to give DoD organizations flexibility to reduce contract disruptions, stop-work orders, and other actions that could impact the contractor workforce” said McGinn, now executive director of the Center for Government Contracting at George Mason University.
“And that in general is a good thing. It’s not something you want to do for six months, because then you might have trouble monitoring performance, but for this critical time it seems like a reasonable kind of thing to do.” (Source: Defense News)
19 Mar 20. Nikki Haley resigns from Boeing board, cites opposition to bailout. Former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley is resigning from Boeing’s board after the aircraft maker asked for a government bailout amid the coronavirus outbreak.
“As we encounter the COVID-19 crisis, Boeing, along with many other companies, face another major set of challenges,” Haley wrote in a letter dated Monday on a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. “However, the board and the executive team are going in a direction I cannot support.”
The filing added that Haley, who has served on the board for over a year, is against the company receiving federal support “as a matter of philosophical principle.”
On Thursday the company asked Congress for a $60 billion bailout for the company and its aerospace suppliers after their stocks plummeted nearly 18 percent on Wednesday.
President Trump and lawmakers have promised to provide assistance to the company, even as other industries, including the airlines, make similar requests. As a major employer, Boeing has long held clout in Washington and the company is marshaling those resources in what experts say is its toughest test yet.
“While I know cash is tight, that is equally true for numerous other industries and for millions of small businesses,” Haley added. “I cannot support a move to lean on the federal government for a stimulus or bailout that prioritizes our company over others and relies on taxpayers to guarantee our financial position. I have long held strong convictions that this is not the role of government.”
On Wednesday Trump signed a coronavirus aid package that includes paid leave benefits and free testing. Lawmakers are already at work on the next package, a potentially $1trn stimulus bill, which companies like Boeing would have to compete for. (Source: Defense News Early Bird/https://thehill.com/)
20 Mar 20. US Navy and AFCENT conduct dual carrier and joint air wing operations. The US Navy’s two Nimitz-class aircraft carriers, USS Dwight D Eisenhower (CVN 69) and USS Harry S Truman (CVN 75), have started dual carrier strike group (CSG) and joint air wing operations.
The operations were conducted in the Arabian Sea along with a B-52 Bomber belonging to the US Air Forces Central Command (AFCENT).
The combined capability and interoperability between the platforms will enable the navy to carry out multi-task force operations under the US Central Command area of responsibility.
The two CSGs represent a multi-platform team of ships, aircraft and sailors. Equipped with immense capabilities, they can conduct a broad range of missions around the world.
According to the US Navy, such integrated operations improve readiness and help ensure stability and security in the central region.
It also demonstrates the commitment to the free flow of commerce and freedom of navigation in international waters.
Commander of US Naval Forces Central Command vice-admiral Jim Malloy said: “While we continue to take active steps to prevent and mitigate the effects of Covid-19 across the Middle East, Naval Forces operating in the region have suffered no impacts to readiness.
“We remain ready and focused to respond forcefully and decisively to any aggression. Our two carrier strike groups have been laser-focused on readiness to defeat any threats to security in the region, planning and training specifically against potential threats since June of 2019.
“While we do not and will not seek conflict at sea, we have never been better postured and more thoroughly prepared to response to it with overwhelming force.” (Source: naval-technology.com)
18 Mar 20. Trump’s $46bn coronavirus aid request includes $8bn for the Pentagon. The White House submitted an emergency funding request to Congress late Tuesday for an additional $45.8bn, with $8.3bn in it for the Defense Department ― all to address the new coronavirus pandemic.
The request is separate from the Trump administration’s $1trn stimulus proposal, which it presented the same day on Capitol Hill.
“With the pandemic growing, resource needs have also grown. The unprecedented mobilization the Administration has achieved has forced agencies to incur unanticipated costs,” White House acting budget director Russell Vought said in a letter attached to the 118-page request. “These costs must be met with a legislative response to ensure full operational capacity. The aim of this request is to maintain that capacity and ensure that resource needs created by the pandemic response are met.”
For the Department of Defense, the funds would be to “mitigate the risk of COVID-19 to United States service members, their dependents, and DOD civilians; minimize the impacts of the virus on strategic mission readiness; and support national response efforts,” according to Vought’s request.
“The request includes resources to facilitate changes in servicemember personnel policy; expedite access to rapid COVID-19 diagnostics; ensure access to medical care, including additional medical countermeasures; address the impacts of the pandemic on logistics and supply chains, including pharmaceuticals and personal protective equipment; and bolster the overall national response.”
The president is also requesting a variety of new authorities across the federal government, including the provision of transfer authority from the Defense Emergency Response Fund to other currently available DoD accounts.
On the heels of an $8.3bn aid package Congress approved last week ― primarily for the Department of Health and Human Services ― the sizes of the spending packages signal the broad scope of what the Trump administration believes it will need to grapple with the pandemic. (Source: Defense News)
18 Mar 20. No COVID-19 Test Kits For Navy Ships At Sea. DoD is slated to receive $8.3bn to fight COVID-19 in new White House request, as positive virus tests for military personnel jump to 49. Not one of the Navy’s 82 ships currently underway has received coronavirus test kits for their crews, even as the number grows of sailors ashore testing positive.
“There are currently no FDA approved testing platforms that are suitable for placement on forward operating Naval Ships,” a Navy official told Breaking Defense via email. “So, the ships in the Pacific do not currently have the ability to conduct diagnostic testing for COVID-19. Depending on location, specimens can be sent for testing at shore based labs.”
The coronavirus had caused over 100 deaths in the United States — 8,000 worldwide — by Wednesday, but the federal government’s slow response to the global pandemic has led to testing rates much lower than countries like Italy and South Korea, both of which have been hit hard by the virus.
The Navy official said the fleet has three ships “with preventative medicine teams aboard with portable testing machines. These machines are currently only approved to do surveillance testing for COVID-19.”
That testing can detect signs of different illnesses, but cannot identify COVID-19. Currently, only one aircraft carrier, an amphibious ship, and the USS Blue Ridge command ship have the surveillance test machines.
How is the Navy coping with sailors who’ve had shore leave in countries where the virus has struck? Earlier this month, the Pacific Fleet instituted a rule mandating that ships leaving port observe a 14-day quarantine at sea. The aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt and cruiser USS Bunker Hill are wrapping up self-quarantine after sailors went ashore in Da Nang, Vietnam earlier this month. There have been no reports of cases on either ship.
Several Navy officials told me the service is in the process of obtaining testing kits to get out to the fleet, but could not offer a timeline for when that might happen, or how many kits might be available.
President Trump announced Wednesday he was invoking the Defense Production Act to meet urgent medical equipment needs. “We have millions of [masks]. We need millions more,” Trump said. “We need respirators. We need ventilators. We have a lot of ventilators, but we need more.”
On March 17, a group of Democratic Senators, led by Sen. Jack Reed, ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, sent a letter to the president calling on him to sign the act.
The Pentagon is handing over 5 million respirator masks and 2,000 ventilators to the Department of Health and Human Services from the military’s strategic reserve, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said at the Pentagon Tuesday. One million masks will be available “immediately” Esper said at the White House today.
The Air Force also flew 500,000 COVID-19 testing kits from Italy to Memphis, Tennessee, on Monday.
Gen. Dave Goldfein, the Air Force chief of staff, told reporters Wednesday the kits will be distributed around the country.
On Tuesday, the Navy reported three coronavirus cases among sailors, two of whom are assigned to ships home-ported in San Diego and Everett, Washington. One sailor is assigned to the Littoral Combat Ship Coronado at Naval Base San Diego and the other to the guided-missile destroyer Ralph Johnson in Washington. Last week, another San Diego-based sailor assigned to the USS Boxer also tested positive, On Tuesday, the Navy also announced that a sailor who works on the staff of the 2nd Fleet in Norfolk, Va., tested positive. All of the ships are in port and not at sea.
But the lack of testing kits on ships underway represents a huge unknown for the thousands of sailors living in tight quarters at sea, where long work hours and shared living and eating facilities offers no opportunity to practice social distancing, which experts say is a key way to limit exposure to the coronavirus.
The Navy’s two hospital ships, the USNS Comfort and USNS Mercy could be activated to aid in the national response. A Navy official confirmed to Breaking Defense that the medical teams for the two ships are currently being notified of their upcoming deployment.
The idea is for the ships, which each have a 1,000 bed capacity, to take patients who are not suffering from COVID-19 from hospitals, making more room for coronavirus patients.
On Tuesday evening, theTrump administration requested an additional $45.8bn from Congress to boost government agencies amid the coronavirus outbreak, including $8.3bn for the Defense Department.
The money for the DoD is meant to “facilitate changes in servicemember personnel policy; expedite access to rapid COVID-19 diagnostics; ensure access to medical care, including additional medical countermeasures,” and address impacts the pandemic will likely have on logistics and supply chains, White House acting budget director Russell Vought said in a letter attached to the 118-page request. (Source: Breaking Defense.com)
18 Mar 20. US Navy readies hospital ships for Covid-19 response. The US Department of Defence (DoD) is looking to prepare the US Navy hospital ships USNS Mercy and USNS Comfort to assist in the response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Speaking to reporters yesterday, Secretary of Defence Mark Esper said that the navy was preparing to get the ships ready to deploy in case they are needed to support the DoD’s wider Covid-19 response effort.
Esper said: “We’ve already given orders to the Navy a few days ago to lean forward, in terms of getting them ready to deploy.”
USNS Mercy is currently in port, while maintenance is currently underway on USNS Comfort. The shops are currently deployed on the US West and East Coast respectively.
As the ships are designed primarily to treat trauma patients, not infectious diseases, Esper said they would likely be used to reduce the pressure of trauma patients on coastal hospitals.
Esper said: “They don’t have necessarily the space, the segregated spaces you need to deal with infectious diseases. And so one of the ways by which you could use either field hospitals, the hospital ships or things in between is to take the pressure off of civilian hospitals when it comes to trauma cases, is to open up civilian hospital rooms for infectious diseases.”
Alongside the hospital ships, the DoD is also looking at how it could deploy military field hospitals to fill in a similar role taking trauma patients and allowing existing hospitals to focus on infectious disease cases. Esper said that DoD field hospitals if necessary would likely be based near hospitals to alleviate the pressure of trauma patients.
Esper said: “So ideally what you would do is locate it somewhere, maybe next to a hospital, whereas trauma patients come in, instead of going into the hospital, they would go into the field hospital, where we could treat the broken legs, the lacerations, the falling down, hit-your-head type of stuff. We can handle them in our big open bays, we have our doctors that can do that.
“And if you come in for a Covid, we’ve now freed up rooms for you to go inside the hospital, where you have segregated rooms with bathrooms and all those things you need to treat infectious patients.”
USNS Mercy and USNS Comfort both have the capacity to carry one thousand beds, with the ability to treat up to 80 intensive care patients at any given time. Both ships also have 12 fully-fitted operating theatres to treat the most severe trauma cases. The two ships were originally built as tankers in the 1970s but were acquired by the US Navy and converted into hospital vessels in the 1980s. (Source: naval-technology.com)
17 Mar 20. Trump’s $46bn coronavirus aid request includes $8bn for DoD. The White House submitted an emergency funding request to Congress late Tuesday for an added $45.8bn, with $8.3bn in it for the Defense Department―all to address the coronavirus pandemic.
The request is separate from the Trump administration’s $1trn stimulus proposal, which it presented the same day on Capitol Hill.
“With the pandemic growing, resource needs have also grown. The unprecedented mobilization the Administration has achieved has forced agencies to incur unanticipated costs,” White House acting budget director Russell Vought said in a letter attached to the 118-page request.
“These costs must be met with a legislative response to ensure full operational capacity. The aim of this request is to maintain that capacity and ensure that resource needs created by the pandemic response are met.”
For DoD, the funds would be to, “mitigate the risk of COVID-19 to United States service members, their dependents, and DOD civilians; minimize the impacts of the virus on strategic mission readiness; and support national response efforts.
“The request includes resources to facilitate changes in servicemember personnel policy; expedite access to rapid COVID-19 diagnostics; ensure access to medical care, including additional medical countermeasures; address the impacts of the pandemic on logistics and supply chains, including pharmaceuticals and personal protective equipment; and bolster the overall national response.”
The president is also requesting a variety of new authorities across the federal government, including the provision of transfer authority from the Defense Emergency Response Fund to other currently available DoD accounts. On the heels of an $8.3bn aid package Congress approved last week ― primarily for the Department of Health and Human Services ― the sizes of the spending packages signal the broad scope of what the Trump administration believes it will need to grapple with the pandemic. (Source: Defense News Early Bird/Defense News)
16 Mar 20. US to continue operating two aircraft carrier strike groups in Gulf. The US Department of Defense has confirmed that it will continue to operate two aircraft carrier strike groups (CSG) in the Gulf region.
US Central Command commander Marine Corps general Kenneth F McKenzie Jr said that the task forces will remain in the region for a certain time period. The decision has been made following defensive precision airstrikes against Iran-backed Shia militia group’s (SMG) sites in Iraq.
Under the US Central Command (CENTCOM) area of responsibility (AOR), the two aircraft carrier strike groups that will continue operations are the USS Dwight D Eisenhower (CVN 69) and the USS Harry S Truman (CVN 75).
McKenzie said: “So, we are going to keep them for a while, and I am not going to comment on exactly how long that will be because we typically try to avoid talking about tactical operations.
“The beauty of the aircraft carrier is this. It has an enormous offensive capability. It has an enormous defensive capability. It has mobility. We can move it around. Additionally, there are no access, basing and overflight issues associated with an aircraft carrier. It is a floating piece of American sovereignty. So, I can employ it in a variety of different ways.
“So, we can move it around to present a completely changing potential threat to an adversary. So, the carriers are very important to us, and we know that the Iranians watch them very closely too.”
The defensive precision strikes were targeted at five weapon storage facilities. The facilities are SMG’s Kata’ib Hizbollah (KH) sites in Iraq.
The US strikes against the terror group were in retaliation to the rocket attacks targeted on Camp Taji on 11 March. The attack killed three coalition members and injured 14 others.
In the last six months, the KH has been involved in 12 rocket attacks against coalition forces. In February, allied ministers agreed to enhance Nato training mission in Iraq. (Source: naval-technology.com)
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