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03 Apr 20. DoD Launches COVID-19 Acquisition Portal and Takes Other Steps to Support the Defense Industrial Base. The U.S. Department of Defense has recently taken the following steps to support the defense industrial base during the COVID-19 crisis:
- The Joint Acquisition Task Force (JATF), led by Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Acquisition Ms. Stacy Cummings, continues to align with the broader DoD COVID-19 task force. JATF serves as the single-entry point to the DoD acquisition enterprise to address the interagency’s requests for acquisition assistance and has members embedded at the National Response Coordination Center (NRCC). The JATF leverages DoD authorities, tools, and skillsets to assist in meeting the Nation’s demand signal as defined by DoD, HHS, and FEMA. The JATF just launched the following portal, which will provide updates for industry as we get new information https://www.acq.osd.mil/jatf.html. The website provides governance and guidance, key product lines, and welcomes resources and solutions from industry, academia, Department of Defense personnel, venture capital firms, and individual contributors. It also groups submissions from several categories (combating the spread, welfare of citizens, readiness, logistics, industrial base impacts, medical and other) so we can quickly match solutions with needs. A designated JATF team reviews inputs daily and priorities for action.
- Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (DASD) for Industrial Policy Jennifer Santos has led 10 defense trade association calls to receive detailed insight into ongoing COVID-19 impacts to the defense industry. These calls provide the department an opportunity to communicate with over 3 million companies who are members of these associations. In addition, there have been two calls focused on supporting small businesses in the defense industry, including one with Small Business Administration leadership that discussed available loans provided through the CARES Act. Providing relief for COVID-19 impacts and increasing cash flow to industry, including changing the progress payment rates were the top issues identified by industry. A direct result of the engagement between industry and department senior leaders is the development and issuance of 15 memos and formal guidance addressing these issues. New memos and guidance are provided to the defense industry associations, the Hill, and are posted to the Defense Pricing and Contracting and Defense Acquisition University websites which all contracting officers and the general public have access to, ensuring all parties have updated and standardized guidance.
- Understanding that the effects of COVID-19 will affect the cost, schedule, and performance of many DoD contracts and that they are beyond the control of the contractor, this week Mr. Kim Herrington, Director of Defense Pricing and Contracting, issued several memos including Progress Payment Implementation and Equitable Adjustment. The Progress Payment Implementation states that the first post-modification progress payment request will result in the application of the higher progress payment rate against all qualified costs, including costs that have been incurred prior to the issuance of the Deviation. We estimate this will result in over $3B in cash being flowed into industry. The department has high expectations that that prime companies are ensuring cash flow is moving to small businesses in their respective supply chains who need it most. The Equitable Adjustment memo states that Department contracts contain clauses that excuse performance delays when the failure is beyond the control and without the fault or negligence of the contractor. This memo states that in the event of such a delay, the contractor is entitled to an equitable adjustment of the contract schedule and cost (when those costs are sufficiently supported), which means the contractor will not be in default because of an event like COVID-19. Contracting officers have the standardized guidance and are working with defense contractors.
- Vice Admiral David Lewis, Defense Contracting Management Agency Director, continues to work closely with the contracting workforce and the Defense Finance and Accounting Services (DFAS) to ensure that invoices are being paid in a timely manner and that DFAS has been paying at the higher progress payment rate. To date, there have been no reported delays on contractor submitted invoices. To support the increased progress payment rate from 80% of cost to 90% for large businesses and from 90% to 95% for small businesses, DCMA has modified approximately 1400 contracts that were already receiving progress payments to show the increased rates. It has also authorized the use of progress payments for additional vendors if they choose.” (Source: glstrade.com)
03 Apr 20. DOD Continually Examines, Modifies COVID-19 Response. The Defense Department is adjusting to the COVID-19 pandemic and leaders at all levels are looking at resources, processes and personnel needed to fight the virus, Jonathan Rath Hoffman, assistant to the secretary of defense for public affairs, said today during a Pentagon news conference.
The department must protect its service members, DOD civilians and families, but there is still a mission that must be done, he said.
“We’ve been very careful to say that there’s no bright lines, things we won’t consider,” Hoffman said. “Every day we’re going to get up, we’re going to look at where the virus is, we’re going to look at how it’s impacting the Department of Defense, and we’re going to make decisions to balance what the risk is, what missions we need to accomplish that day, and what the impact is going to be long-term.”
For example, Army field hospitals deployed to New York and Seattle have been cleared to handle COVID-19 patients. Originally, they were going to treat trauma victims.
Overall, DOD has more than 400 doctors, 1,000 nurses and 60 respiratory therapists supporting the fight on the front lines at the different sites, Hoffman said. “We have another 350 doctors, 500 nurses and almost 100 respiratory therapists that are on the way,” he said.
The Army Corps of Engineers is working closely with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Department of Health and Human Services, governors and mayors to set up temporary field hospitals in the areas with the greatest need. “They built a hospital at the Javits Center in New York in just under four days to provide further relief to local healthcare workers,” he said.
Corps employees have also completed site selection of 549 of 669 alternate care facility sites, he said.
The department continues to provide medical supplies to civilian hospitals. DOD has turned over 5 million N-95 masks to HHS, and Defense Secretary Dr. Mark T. Esper has approved turning over another 5 million masks from the strategic stockpile.
Almost 20,000 National Guardsmen nationwide are working to combat COVID-19. “In Louisiana, for example, 1,200 National Guardsmen have helped deliver over 36,000 N-95 masks, 1.2 million gloves and 50,000 protective suits to testing sites throughout the state,” he said.
But even with all these actions, the U.S. armed services are a warfighting force. Readiness is key to deterrence and “we will smartly do whatever it takes to maintain the readiness of the force,” Hoffman said. “With our operations spanning around 400 bases around the world in 150 countries and 50 states, we balance risks to the force every day.
“But we will not stand down, we will trust our commanders to do what is best for their troops,” he continued. “Rest assured that we were prepared to assist Americans who are prepared to defend our country if necessary.” (Source: US DoD)
03 Apr 20. Partnering With the U.S. Defense Industrial Base to Combat COVID-19. Statement attributed to Lt. Col. Mike Andrews, Department of Defense spokesman: “The Department continues to aggressively partner with the defense industry to mitigate impacts from the COVID-19 national emergency. To date the Department, through its departmental agencies and the military services, has obligated over $265 million in actions issued in response to COVID-19 with National Interest Action value ‘P20C’ in the Federal Procurement Data System. Of note, over $165 million out of the $265 million has been obligated for Medical Construction, mainly mobile hospitals, that will help allow civilian hospitals to free up additional space for the rising number of patients suffering from coronavirus. In addition, the remaining $100 million includes efforts to provide medical resources including masks, respirators, ventilators, gloves, gowns, fuel, food and other means of support.
The Joint Acquisition Task Force (JATF), led by Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Acquisition Ms. Stacy Cummings, continues to align with the broader DoD COVID-19 task force. JATF serves as the single-entry point to the DoD acquisition enterprise to address the interagency’s requests for acquisition assistance, and has members embedded at the National Response Coordination Center (NRCC). The JATF leverages DoD authorities, tools, and skillsets to assist in meeting the Nation’s demand signal as defined by DoD, HHS and FEMA.
The JATF just launched the following portal, which will provide updates for industry as we get new information https://www.acq.osd.mil/jatf.html. The website provides governance and guidance, key product lines, and welcomes resources and solutions from industry, academia, Department of Defense personnel, venture capital firms, and individual contributors. It also groups submissions from several categories (combating the spread, welfare of citizens, readiness, logistics, industrial base impacts, medical and other) so we can quickly match solutions with needs. A designated JATF team reviews inputs daily and priorities for action.
Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (DASD) for Industrial Policy Jennifer Santos has led 10 defense trade association calls to receive detailed insight into ongoing COVID-19 impacts to the defense industry. These calls provide the department an opportunity to communicate with over 3 million companies who are members of these associations. In addition, there have been two calls focused on supporting small businesses in the defense industry, including one with Small Business Administration leadership that discussed available loans provided through the CARES Act. Providing relief for COVID-19 impacts and increasing cash flow to industry, including changing the progress payment rates were the top issues identified by industry.
A direct result of the engagement between industry and department senior leaders is the development and issuance of 15 memos and formal guidance addressing these issues. New memos and guidance are provided to the defense industry associations, the Hill, and are posted to the Defense Pricing and Contracting and Defense Acquisition University websites which all contracting officers and the general public have access to, ensuring all parties have updated and standardized guidance.
Understanding that the effects of COVID-19 will affect the cost, schedule, and performance of many DoD contracts, and that they are beyond the control of the contractor, this week Mr. Kim Herrington, Director of Defense Pricing and Contracting, issued several memos including Progress Payment Implementation and Equitable Adjustment. The Progress Payment Implementation states that the first post-modification progress payment request will result in the application of the higher progress payment rate against all qualified costs, including costs that have been incurred prior to the issuance of the Deviation. We estimate this will result in over $3B in cash being flowed into industry. The department has high expectations that that prime companies are ensuring cash flow is moving to small businesses in their respective supply chains who need it most.
The Equitable Adjustment memo states that Department contracts contain clauses that excuse performance delays, when the failure is beyond the control and without the fault or negligence of the contractor. This memo states that in the event of such a delay, the contractor is entitled to an equitable adjustment of the contract schedule and cost (when those costs are sufficiently supported), which means the contractor will not be in default because of an event like COVID-19. Contracting officers have the standardized guidance and are working with defense contractors.
Vice Admiral David Lewis, Defense Contracting Management Agency Director, continues to work closely with the contracting workforce and the Defense Finance and Accounting Services (DFAS) to ensure that invoices are being paid in a timely manner, and that DFAS has been paying at the higher progress payment rate. To date, there have been no reported delays on contractor submitted invoices.
To support the increased progress payment rate from 80% of cost to 90% for large businesses and from 90% to 95% for small businesses, DCMA has modified approximately 1400 contracts that were already receiving progress payments to show the increased rates. It has also authorized the use of progress payments for additional vendors if they choose.”
Website resources:
- DOD: https://www.defense.gov/Explore/Spotlight/Coronavirus/
- Joint Acquisition Task Force: https://www.acq.osd.mil/jatf.html
- Defense Contracting Management Agency: https://www.dcma.mil/
- Industrial Policy: https://www.businessdefense.gov/coronavirus/
- Defense Pricing and Contracting: https://www.acq.osd.mil/dpap/pacc/cc/COVID-19.html#EAFandNIA_Code
- Defense Acquisition University: https://www.dau.edu/
(Source: US DoD)
02 Apr 20. Inside US Indo-Pacific Command’s $20bn wish list to deter China — and why Congress may approve it. A $1.6bn defensive ring around Guam. Millions in new military funding for partner nations. A bn dollars for increased stockpiles of long-range weapons.
These are just some of the investments on a $20bn wish list quietly submitted to Congress in recent weeks by U.S. Indo-Pacific Command head Adm. Phil Davidson and obtained by Defense News. The wish list was specifically requested by members of Congress who are eyeing it as the basis for a new Pacific-focused pot of money to deter Chinese military action in the region.
In the fiscal 2020 National Defense Authorization Act, Congress inserted language in Section 1253 requiring INDOPACOM to deliver by mid-March of this year a report detailing what the combatant command needs to fulfill the National Defense Strategy and maintain an edge over China.
The report included questions of force structure, security cooperation in the region and required infrastructure investments. Notably, that report was to come directly from Davidson and not through the Department of Defense — specifically to get a more unvarnished view of what the commander would like to have.
The report serves as the rollout of a new strategy, which Davidson appears to have branded as “Regain the Advantage.”
“Regain the Advantage is designed to persuade potential adversaries that any preemptive military action will be extremely costly and likely fail by projecting credible combat power at the time of crisis, and provides the President and Secretary of Defense with several flexible deterrent options to include full OPLAN [operation plan] execution, if it becomes necessary,” Davidson wrote.
But regaining that advantage won’t come cheap: The report comes with a request for $1.6bn in additional funding suggestions for FY21 above what the Pentagon put in its February budget request, followed by a request for $18.46bn from FY22-FY26 — a total that exceeds $20bn in additional funds for the region, spread over a six-year period.
“This investment plan represents less than 1% of the DoD’s total obligation authority over the FYDP and provides the necessary resources to implement a strategy of deterrence by 2026,” Davidson stated in the unclassified executive summary.
A new Pacific fund
The report could provide a basis for the idea of a Pacific version of the European Deterrence Initiative, a special DoD fund for projects focused on deterring Russia from aggression in Europe. A Pacific Deterrence Initiative, or PDI, would be focused on dealing with China in the INDOPACOM region.
It’s an idea that has been circulating for several years but has steadily increased in popularity among congressional defense hawks. (Of note, Davidson directly compares the “Regain the Advantage” plan with the costs of the European Deterrence Initiative, or EDI, for which the Pentagon requested $4.5bn in FY21.)
In a recent op-ed, Randall Schriver, who served as the Pentagon’s top Pacific policy official from 2018-2019, and Eric Sayers, who most recently served as special assistant to the commander of INDOPACOM, made a case for the PDI. They said it’s not just a budget exercise, but is “a broader strategic opportunity to message the U.S. commitment to the region.”
“An alignment of the Pentagon and Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill around this effort would be a real opportunity to begin to do in Asia what has already occurred in Europe in the last seven years,” they wrote. “The message the European Deterrence Initiative has sent NATO and Russia should be the same signal we want to send our Asian allies and partners as well as those in Beijing who have grown confident of their military capabilities.”
Speaking to Defense News, Sayers pushed hard on the idea that the 2153 report should provide the basis for what a PDI, starting in FY22, should look like. “Not every item in this package should be considered the answer, but it’s going to start a conversation that is long overdue,” Sayers said.
Right now, the plan to at least create a PDI appears to have important backing.
In a March 24 letter to Davidson, Rep. Adam Smith, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, stated that he intends “to identify funding for an Indo-Pacific Reassurance Initiative in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021.” (The EDI was initially branded the European Reassurance Initiative under the Obama administration.)
In addition, HASC ranking member Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Tx., is “very interested in the idea” of an EDI-like fund for the Indo-Pacific region, according to a Congressional source.
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-MO., a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has also been a vocal backer of the PDI idea, tweeting earlier this month that “The time for a Pacific Deterrence Initiative has come.”
“The 1253 report tells us exactly what we must do to maintain conventional deterrence against China. The Department has dragged its feet on these investments for too long,” Hawley told Defense News in a statement. “It is time to establish a Pacific Deterrence Initiative so we can ensure our forces have what they need to deter Chinese aggression and maintain a free and open Indo-Pacific.”
“Congress is fired up on this, on both sides of the aisle. They have heard INDOPACOM is a priority for years now, but the Pentagon continues to fall short on providing any real answers,” Sayers said. “Section 1253 was an expression of bipartisan frustration with the Pentagon and an effort to bypass the system to ask INDOPACOM directly what they think they need.”
EDI money is a portion of a special Pentagon account known as overseas contingency operations, which is used in the event of war. However, money from the OCO account is allocated to the services to use individually. In the case of EDI, much of the money has been tagged to the Army; with a PDI, it is possible those dollars would be more focused on Navy and Air Force needs.
Arming Guam, building relationships
The funding identified by Davidson is broken into five broad categories:
- Joint force lethality;
- Force design and posture;
- Strengthen allies and partners;
- Exercises, experimentation and innovation; and
- Logistics and security enablers.
“Ultimately, the steps we take must convince our adversaries they simply cannot achieve their objectives with force,” Davidson wrote.
“This requires fielding an integrated Joint Force with precision-strike networks, particularly land-based anti-ship and anti-air capabilities along the First Island Chain; integrated air missile defense in the Second Island Chain; and an enhanced force posture that provides for dispersal, the ability to preserve regional stability, and if needed sustain combat operations,” he added.
Joint force lethality ($5.85bn): Included in this section is what Davidson calls “my number one unfunded priority” — a 360-degree persistent and integrated air defense capability in Guam, with a $1.67bn cost over six years.
“America’s day begins in Guam and is not only a location we must fight from, but we must also fight for — given future threats,” Davidson wrote.
Guam aside, the section includes integration of long-range precision fires such as the Navy’s Maritime Strike Tomahawk and the Air Force’s JASSM-ER weapon ($1 bn over six years); a high-frequency radar system based in Palau to detect air and surface targets ($185m); a homeland defense radar in Hawaii to detect ballistic, cruise and hypersonic threats ($1bn); and a space-based persistent radar system for tracking global threats ($1.9bn).
The latter appears to be aligned with efforts already underway inside the Pentagon, such as the large constellation of systems pursued by the Space Development Agency.
The combatant command “requires highly survivable, precision-strike networks along the First Island Chain, featuring increased quantities of allied ground-based weapons,” Davidson wrote. “These networks are operationally decentralized and geographically dispersed along the archipelagos of the Western Pacific to deter and defend, by reversing any anti-access and aerial-denial (A2/AD) capabilities intended to limit U.S. freedom of action or access to vital waterways and airspace.”
Force design and posture ($5.85 bn): This section focuses on the infrastructure investments needed to spread the U.S. military around the region, breaking the longstanding network of large, centralized bases now seen as easy targets for China’s long-distance capabilities.
“It is not strategically prudent, nor operationally viable to physically concentrate on large, close-in bases that are highly vulnerable to a potential adversary’s strike capability,” Davidson wrote. “Forward-based, rotational joint forces are the most credible way to demonstrate U.S. commitment and resolve to potential adversaries, while simultaneously assuring allies and partners.”
In the unclassified summary, details are scarce, but funding primarily focuses on dispersal and pre-positioning facilities.
Strengthen allies and partners ($384m): Spend any time at an event about INDOPACOM and it won’t take long for someone to point out that America’s longstanding advantage in the Pacific relies on a bedrock of alliances and partnerships in the region.
“Relationships represent important components of U.S. national power beyond our nation’s economic and military strength,” Davidson wrote. “Throughout the region, discussions with foreign national leaders always lead back to the role U.S. values play in shaping global behavior. This is evident based on the network of alliances and partnerships built across the Indo-Pacific over the last 75 years.”
There are two focus areas in this section: setting up a Mission Partner Environment, which uses “cloud-based technologies, integrated systems, and secure access controls to provide assured command, control, and communications (C3),” and the creation of three fusion centers to work with allies on specific tasks, including a counterterrorism cell already in the works with Singapore and others.
Exercises, experimentation and innovation ($2.87bn): Essentially a pot of money to carry out major exercises across INDOPACOM and beyond, this category includes the use of test ranges in Alaska, Hawaii and California, among others.
“U.S. forces must be capable of fighting in highly contested environments against technologically advanced opponents, while also minimizing detection across domains,” Davidson wrote. “The Joint Force lacks the capacity to integrate service recommended weapons and capabilities into a warfighting concept that deters the adversary and puts us in a position to win. This challenge can only be met by conducting a series of high-end, multi-domain exercises with a continuous campaign of joint experimentation.”
Logistics and security enablers ($5.11bn): This broad category captures everything else the command might need. Included here are logistic needs for “dispersal locations, airfield battle-damage, repair capabilities, and infrastructure for C4I, munitions generation, mobility processing, and fuel storage.”
It also includes a call to fully fund security cooperation requests under the Maritime Security Initiative, an effort launched in 2015. Fully funding those requests, Davidson claimed in his report, would “result in a 32 percent increase in theater security cooperation, forming the backbone of the ability to engage, posture, and develop partner nations.”
The document also asks that Joint Interagency Task Force West not be shut down, as it was scheduled to be in FY23. Davidson wrote that it provides access to countries without strong naval militaries.
Finally, the document requests a “restart of various counter-propaganda tools designed to target malign influence” to counter information operations in the region targeting the U.S. and its partners. (Source: Defense News)
02 Apr 20. Trump invokes Defense Production Act for ventilator manufacturing. U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday invoked the Defense Production Act to aid companies building ventilators for coronavirus patients to receive the supply of materials they need.
In a memo released by the White House, Trump directed the U.S. Health and Human Services secretary to use his authority to help facilitate the supply of ventilator materials for six companies – General Electric Co, Hill-Rom Holdings Inc, Medtronic Plc, Resmed Inc, Royal Philips N.V. and Vyaire Medical Inc.
Lawmakers have clamored for Trump to invoke the act to end or at least reduce the country’s yawning shortage of ventilators. Because the fast-spreading coronavirus is a respiratory disease, the need for ventilators is multiplying by the hundreds each day. On Thursday Johns Hopkins University said more than 1 million people around the world currently have the coronavirus.
State officials and health experts said the United States will ultimately need tens of thousands of additional ventilators.
“I am grateful to these and other domestic manufacturers for ramping up their production of ventilators during this difficult time,” Trump said in a short statement released alongside the memo. “Today’s order will save lives by removing obstacles in the supply chain that threaten the rapid production of ventilators.”
Last week Trump first invoked the emergency powers to compel auto giant General Motors to produce ventilators. (Source: Reuters)
02 Apr 20. Done deal: Boeing will have to rip and replace KC-46 sensor and camera systems on its own dime. Boeing and the Air Force have finalized an agreement to fix the KC-46 aerial refueling tanker’s most serious technical problem, Defense News has learned from multiple sources familiar with the matter. The agreement puts an end to years of negotiations between the Air Force and aerospace giant over the nature and extent of redesign work needed to correct the Remote Vision System, the collection of cameras and sensors that provide boom operators the imagery needed to steer the boom into another aircraft and safely transfer fuel.
Perhaps more importantly, the deal paves a path that will allow the service to deploy the KC-46 in combat in the mid 2020s — something Air Force leaders have bristled against with the tanker in its current form.
The Air Force and Boeing have agreed on a two-phased roadmap to address RVS technical issues, said one source familiar with the agreement.
The first phase allows Boeing to continue providing incremental improvements to software and hardware that will fine-tune the imagery seen by the boom operator, the source said. The second phase — which will take years to complete — involves a comprehensive redesign of the RVS where its hardware and software will be almost completely replaced with new color cameras, advanced displays and improved computing technology.
Boeing and the Air Force both declined to comment on the matter.
Unlike legacy tankers, where boom operators can look out a window in the back of the aircraft and rely on visual cues to steer the boom, operators in the KC-46 are completely dependent on the imagery provided by the RVS.
Although Air Force operators say the system works in most conditions — and provides a safer way to offload fuel during nighttime conditions or bad weather — certain lighting conditions can cause the RVS imagery to appear warped and misleading, contributing to cases where the boom accidentally scrapes the surface of another aircraft. That could be a safety hazard for the pilot of the plane receiving gas, and it could also potentially scrape the stealth coating off a low observable jet, eroding its ability to evade radar detection.
Under the terms of Boeing’s fixed-price firm contract and previous agreements with the service, the company will be financially responsible for paying for the entirety of the redesign effort. The company has already exceeded the $4.9bn ceiling on the contract, and has paid more than $3.5bn in cost overruns as technical problems have mounted.
Boeing is the system integrator for the RVS and designs its software, while the system’s cameras and sensors are primarily designed by Rockwell Collins.
Air Force’s acquisition executive Will Roper is expected to brief congressional staff on the deal this afternoon, sources said. Afterwards, the service is expected to release additional information about the deal.
Boeing delivered the first KC-46 tanker to McConnell Air Force Base, Kan., in January 2019, but the Air Force has withheld $28m per aircraft upon delivery due to the RVS issues. So far, the company has delivered 33 tankers to the service. (Source: Defense News)
01 Apr 20. Top Marine ‘signaling’ to industry that F-35 cuts are on the table. The top officer in the U.S. Marine Corps is sticking to the planned procurement of the F-35 joint strike fighter — but indicated a willingness to cut planes in the future if analysis says it makes sense.
Marine Commandant Gen. David Berger told reporters Wednesday that he is a firm believer in the capabilities the F-35 is bringing, in particular the jump-jet B model favored by the service. However, Berger made it clear he’s not wedded to long-term procurement plans, at a time the corps is shedding legacy missions as it pivots to focus to a primarily naval-focused service.
“Right now, the program of record plows ahead as it is,” he said. “But I’m signaling to the industry, we have to be prepared to adjust as the operating environment adjusts. Right now, the program of record stays the same, but we will — we must — adapt to the adversary and we must adapt to the operating environment that we’re challenged with being in.”
Berger noted that an upcoming independent review of his force posture plans, expected to be completed in the next few months, could be a forcing function for more changes. Already, his planning guidance to the corps changed how many planes are featured in each F-35 squad, from 16 to 10.
Longstanding plans call for the Marines to procure 353 of the F-35B and 67 of the F-35C carrier variants.
“There’s nothing like it,” Berger said of the jet. “The F-35B, the ability to operate from austere airfields and ships both, [is] incredible. In wargames, it’s one of the handful of capabilities that really caused an adversary problems, because it is so flexible, it’s deployable ashore or from ship. Gamechanger is sort of an overused phrase, but I’m a huge advocate of the F-35 and its capabilities.”
Broadly speaking, Berger said, what will drive how many F-35s are in a squadron going forward, or how many the Corps eventually buys, comes down to maintenance — a longstanding issue for the stealthy jet.
“If the maintenance readiness of the F-35 proves to be very, very strong, then of course, like any other system you need less of them because more of them are up all the time. On the other hand, if it turns out not to be so, then you’re going to need more of them, to account for the ones that are in repair, that are down right now,” he said.
Complicating that issue is what he called the “unique” supply chain for the jet, which in theory lets parts flow in from all over the world, as opposed to the traditional U.S. based supply.
“In all aspects, we absolutely know we will learn along the way, and if its appropriate we will make adjustments” to either the squad level or the overall buy, Berger said. “But it’s not a lack of confidence in the airframe at all.” (Source: Defense News Early Bird/Defense News)
01 Apr 20. Top Navy Official Provides Update on Aircraft Carrier COVID-19 Cases. Numerous sailors aboard the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt have tested positive for the COVID-19 virus, and the Navy continues to support its subordinate commanders to protect sailors and Marines so they can protect the homeland and maintain their readiness to the best of their ability, Acting Navy Secretary Thomas B. Modly said.
In a telephone briefing for Pentagon reporters today, the acting secretary said the Roosevelt has had 93 positive tests, with 86 of those service members exhibiting symptoms and seven having no symptoms. So far, 593 have tested negative.
Nearly 1,300 crew members have been tested so far, and some of the results have not come back yet, he added.
The Navy has accelerated testing and is deep-cleaning all the spaces on the ship, Modly said.
“We are providing the commanding officer what he has requested, and we are doing our best to accelerate the pace wherever we can,” the acting secretary said. “Like the rest of the country and the world, we are learning more about stopping the spread of this virus each day.”
The front lines are constantly being redrawn in this process, Modly said. “Stopping the spread of this virus is the fight we are in right now. [The] Teddy Roosevelt is a frontline theater in this new battle, and we have to respond with the skill and agility and direct communication required to protect our people and our nation,” he added.
Modly provided a timeline of actions the Navy has taken since the Roosevelt deployed.
“Prior to deployment, we embarked a special medical team on the ship,” he said, noting that before the Roosevelt’s visit to Vietnam, the World Health Organization identified fewer than 20 COVID-19 cases there at the time, and all of them were in Hanoi, which is “far away from where the ship was going.”
The ship’s staff screened sailors returning from liberty, including taking temperature readings, and anyone suspected of having been exposed was quarantined immediately. “We had no positive tests at that time,” the acting secretary said.
“At the end of the 14-day observation period aboard the ship, there were two sailors with symptoms who had positive tests,” he said, adding that they were properly isolated and flown off the ship to the naval hospital in Guam, and that their symptoms have since been resolved.
“We identified and quarantined all those who were suspected of being in close contact with those that had tested positive,” Modly said. And all sailors with confirmed positive tests were removed from the ship and isolated immediately, the acting secretary told reporters.
The Navy continues its process of contact tracing, quarantine and monitoring to understand who might have been infected, he said. Once in port in Danang, Modly said, the commanding officer and the medical team expressed concern that the spaces off the ship were not sufficient to isolate service members at an adequate pace.
Additional space in Guam was sought immediately, and progress is being made, Modly said. “We already have nearly 1,000 personnel off the ship right now, and in the next couple of days, we expect to have about 2,700 of them off the ship,” he said.
Modly emphasized that the Navy will not remove every sailor from the Roosevelt, noting that although it’s big, it floats and it has a lot of people on it, the comparison of the aircraft carrier to a cruise ship pretty much ends there.
“This ship has weapons on it. It has munitions on it. It has expensive aircraft, and it has a nuclear power plant. It requires a certain number of people on that ship to maintain safety and security,” he said. (Source: US DoD)
01 Apr 20. General Compares DOD’s COVID-19 Response to All-Out War. The fight against the COVID-19 pandemic is an all-out war that’s being approached as a large-scale military campaign, the commander of North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command said.
Air Force Gen. Terrence J. O’Shaughnessy, joined by Army Lt. Gen. Laura Richardson, commander of U.S. Army North, briefed Pentagon reporters today by phone on the Northcom COVID-19 response.
As of today, 5,600 Northcom personnel are involved in the response in a wide variety of ways, O’Shaughnessy said, adding that many more are ready to aid in the effort in support of state and local authorities.
The Navy hospital ships USNS Comfort in New York City and USNS Mercy in Los Angeles are receiving non-COVID-19 patients, he said, lessening the patient load of local hospitals treating COVID-19 patients. The Navy is also deploying a large expeditionary medical unit from Jacksonville, Florida, that will be split between Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, and New Orleans to expand medical capability. They, too, will receive non-COVID-19 patients, he said.
Three large Army field hospitals will be mobilized and deployed to support non-COVID-19 medical efforts in the Seattle area, and two in the New Jersey-New York City area, he said.
“The scope of our response is unprecedented,” O’Shaughnessy said. “And we’re prepared to respond even more as needed.”
Richardson noted that the Federal Emergency Management Agency is taking the lead on where medical assets are placed, and the Defense Department is fully integrated with the agency’s efforts and response.
“Our military usually deploys around the world,” she said. “And now, we’re serving right here in the homeland with all of the great American heroes: doctors, nurses and medics on the front line.”
In addition to helping American civilians, O’Shaughnessy said, DOD is defending the homeland and deployed forces from adversaries while protecting the health of the force.
On several occasions in March, he noted, U.S. and Canadian fighter pilots intercepted multiple Russian aircraft off the coast of Alaska to ensure the Russians stayed in international air space. (Source: US DoD)
30 Mar 20. Pentagon seeks to classify future year defense spending plans. The Pentagon has asked Congress to allow it to classify its Future Year Defense Program spending projections, new documents have revealed.
The FYDP numbers, which project five years into the future, are considered essential information for the public to see where the Department of Defense expects to invest in the future, and to hold the department accountable when those spending plans change.
Information on the request was published Monday by Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists. Aftergood wrote that the proposal would “make it even harder for Congress and the public to refocus and reconstruct the defense budget.”
In its request to Congress, the Pentagon wrote that an unclassified FYDP “might inadvertently reveal sensitive information,” despite the fact the numbers have been unclassified since 1989.
“With the ready availability of data mining tools and techniques, and the large volume of data on the Department’s operations and resources already available in the public domain, additional unclassified FYDP data, if it were released, potentially allows adversaries to derive sensitive information by compilation about the Department’s weapons development, force structure, and strategic plans,” the DoD wrote.
It added that there is a commercial concern with the FYDP providing too much information to industry.
“The Department is also concerned about the potential harm to its interactions with commercial interests by release of FYDP information prior to the budget year. Exposing resources allocated to future acquisition plans may encourage bids and other development activities not beneficial to the Government,” the proposal read.
Seamus Daniels, a budget analyst with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said in a tweet that “DoD’s proposal to eliminate the unclassified FYDP severely limits the public’s ability to track how strategy aligns with budgets and how program plans change over time. Serious step backwards in transparency from the department.”
Earlier this year, the No. 2 uniformed officer in the Pentagon railed against the department’s tendency toward overclassification, calling it “unbelievably ridiculous.”
The Pentagon has requested a number of legislative changes this year, in addition to the FYDP classification attempt.
Among the notable requests are one that would remove the requirement for the defense secretary to “notify the Senate and House Armed Services Committees whenever the Secretary establishes or modifies an end-of-quarter strength level;” a request for the ability to add an additional 15 general officer billets in the combatant commands and three general officer billets on the Joint Staff, to be filled exclusively by reserve component officers; and a request to rename the assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low-intensity conflict as the assistant secretary of defense for “Special Operations and Irregular Warfare.” (Source: Defense News)
29 Mar 20. A US lawyer, Larry Klayman and his advocacy group Freedom Watch along with Buzz Photos have filed a USD 20trn lawsuit against China in March 2020. This has prompted a thought whether the Corona virus is a natural virus or a man-made creation. If the virus was a man- made creation, then the success of a new form of warfare has just begun, the era of biological warfare.
The shift in the economic aspects as a result of the after math of the virus attack is too early to be judged. However, it is expected that the European and the Western Economies, which are the forerunners of the Global GDP will have an economic nosedive. This would in turn allow the Chinese economy to grow stronger and re-emphasize its position as the manufacturing hub of the world. The growth of the Chinese economy over the past few years is shown in the figure below.
The Defense Industry has experienced paradigm shifts from hand to hand combat to UAV being operated from thousands of miles away, firing PGM on enemy targets. The industry focus has been towards minimizing mass killing by increasing accuracy and precision of the platforms. The key performance improvement across platforms have been accuracy, speed, range and lethality. The other forms of warfare which have sprouted along with technology advancements are the cyber warfare and electronic warfare. It is important to note that these two forms of warfare are aimed at paralyzing the defense assets and not a source for mass killing.
The two other forms of warfare which are aimed at paralyzing civilians are the chemical and biological warfare. There have been incidents of use of Chemical weapon across the world, the most recent incident is in Syria, wherein Chlorine gas, Sarin and Sulfur Mustard Gas were dropped on the Syrian civilians. It is concluded that around 90% of the chemical agent used was Chlorine Gas, which were delivered from Helicopters or Rocket Launchers. Chlorine Gas turns into Hydrochloric acid if inhaled, resulting in severe damage to the respiratory system.
A study conducted by the GPPi (Global Public Policy Institute) concluded that around 336 incidents of Chemical weapons usage have been confirmed between 2012- 2018, out of which around 98% of the total incidents are concluded to be carried out by Assad regime and rest 2% by the Islamic State Group.
Biological attacks mission have been carried out in US soil in the past. In September 2001, the Amerithrax, also called Anthrax Attack targeted the US Senators and a few prominent media personalities. Letters containing anthrax spores were mailed to the offices of senators and media personalities. The quick response by the US Government restricted the fatalities to five. In this scenario as well, the targets are identified thereby not resulting in mass civilian deaths.
It is interesting to note that in case of Syria and US, the mode of delivery can be arrested thereby reducing the collateral damage. Secondly, the Chemical weapons or Anthrax are not contagious compared to Corona. Assuming that Corona is a biological weapon, it beats all traditional controls of human defense. This form of warfare converts the human body to a deadly weapons platform, capable of eliminating anyone in contact. This is one of the reasons eminent well-guarded personalities have also been affected by the virus.
The Corona incident has created unintended opportunities for Pharma companies, however a systematic shift in warfare could result in an increased market entry of Pharma companies into the Defense sector. In future, these companies could be engaged in proactive defense or could also be used for offensive modes. This could also change the overall landscape of the existing defense contractors. This was witnessed by the entry of defense companies into the cyber security segment.
It is difficult to ascertain the involvement of China on the creation of Corona virus; however, the country has managed to control the virus in spite of its large population. As of 28th March the cumulative deaths in Italy and Spain are around 14800+, which is four times more than in China. It should be noted that the cumulative population of Italy and Spain are around 110 Million, compared to the population of China, which is around 1.4 Billion.
The question to origin of Corona would be answered in time. The total number of Global deaths due to Corona has surpassed around 28,600+ (March 28, 2020). It is expected that the human race would gain immunity to this virus in the near future but at the moment, the tunnel does not look too bright on the other side. The best hope is to assume that the Corona is not a work of mankind, because, if proven otherwise, the Defense industry would spiral into the biowarfare segment, which would result in mass killing irrespective of race, sex, religion, age, community or creed.
28 Mar 20. Partnering With the U.S. Defense Industrial Base to Combat COVID-19. Statement attributed to Lt. Col. Mike Andrews, Department of Defense spokesman: “The Department continues aggressively partner with the defense industry to mitigate impacts from the COVID-19 national emergency.
Under Secretary of Defense Ellen Lord’s Acquisition and Sustainment leaders in Industrial Policy, Defense Pricing and Contracting, Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) and the Defense Contracting Management Agency (DCMA) continue to work closely with the military services, the Hill and State Governors to make significant progress supporting the whole of government effort to combat COVID-19.
This week DLA modified an existing contract for the procurement of 8,000 ventilators from four vendors worth an estimated $84.4m. This will be a time-phased delivery over the next several months and we expect orders to begin shipment within the next few days, with 1400 being delivered by early May. Delivery locations will be determined by FEMA.
In addition, DLA’s support to the Navy’s hospital ships, the USNS Comfort and USNS Mercy, includes over $2m in pharmaceuticals and medical supplies, 975,000 gallons of fuel, as well as food and repair parts. These New York City and Los Angeles deployments respectively will help local medical systems by helping alleviate strain on civilian medical infrastructure.
DTRA has helped deliver six C-17 (military air) shipments, totaling 3 million COVID-19 test kit swabs, to support U.S. medical professionals testing needs. DTRA will continue to work with U.S. Transportation Command to support future deliveries. Future flights starting next week will increase test kit amounts significantly in the months ahead.
The Department has processed several hundred contracts and orders related to COVID activities, including everything ranging from transportation, communication to medical supplies. DCMA is implementing a mass modification to approximately 1,500 contracts to raise the limits on progress payments from to 90% for large businesses, and to 95% for small businesses.
This will provide immediate cash flow to industry, especially small businesses in the supply chain, once incorporated into the contract. The department has a high expectation level that prime companies are also ensuring cash flow is moving to small businesses in their respective supply chains.
The department continues to partner with industry to retool and remission production lines to manufacture masks, gowns, ventilators and other critical personal protective equipment.
The industrial policy defense trade associations calls continue, and the department held its first defense industry small business call today. Industrial Policy’s Small Business Office, and the military service small business offices, were on the line to provide updates and receive feedback, and continue to work with the Small Business Administration and their small business emergency loan program to help protect these companies.
The Joint Acquisition Task Force is integrated within FEMA’s National Coordination Center, and will help communicate demand signals for medical products to industry. It will also help identify areas of fragility in the defense industrial base, and to help develop capacity.
The department will continue to leverage its traditional DPA Title authorities to support the industrial base and the national emergency, but to date, DOD has not executed any DPA efforts that fall under Executive Order 13909 the President issued on March 18, 2020.
The department is using the Defense Acquisition University to help keep the 140,000 acquisition professionals updated.
Under Secretary Lord remains very grateful and proud of the 140,000 strong acquisition workforce, who continue to selflessly support efforts to combat COVID-19.”
Website resources:
- DOD: https://www.defense.gov/Explore/Spotlight/Coronavirus/
- Defense Contracting Management Agency: https://www.dcma.mil/
- Industrial Policy: https://www.businessdefense.gov/coronavirus/
- Defense Pricing and Contracting: https://www.acq.osd.mil/dpap/pacc/cc/COVID-19.html#EAFandNIA_Code
- Defense Acquisition University: https://www.dau.edu/
(Source: US DoD)
28 Mar 20. Military Leaders Ask to Delay Budget Planning To Focus on Coronavirus, Let Staff Stay Home. But the Defense Department+’s No. 2 told Army, Navy, and Air Force budget planners to figure a different solution.
Pentagon workers say that despite Defense Department warnings for non-essential personnel to stay home during the coronavirus pandemic, mundane bureaucratic work on next year’s budget has kept some employees in the building unnecessarily and distracted senior military leaders from focusing on immediate virus response. On Thursday, senior leaders in charge of the Army, Air Force and Navy budgets asked Deputy Defense Secretary David Norquist to delay a June 1 deadline for the early budget plans for fiscal year 2022, Defense One has learned.
Norquist responded by asking the service leaders to come up with other ways to ease their workload — including potentially canceling the submission altogether, a spokesman for Norquist said.
Until the pandemic arrived, the Pentagon’s 2022 budget process had been proceeding on an accelerated schedule some officials said is typical of election years. Hundreds of military and civilian officials across the service branches and the Office of Secretary of Defense had been assembling the Defense Department’s nearly three-quarter-of-a-trillion-dollar request, known within the military as the program objective memorandum. This POM will be sent later in the year to the White House, which will make its final decisions and send the presidential budget request to Congress no earlier than February.
“The POM can wait,” said one defense official involved in crafting the budget who was not authorized to speak publicly.
Top U.S. Defense Department leaders have spent the past two weeks assuring the public and their own service members that the Pentagon was on top of the coronavirus, protecting its own people, and supporting the nation-wide effort to help contain the disease.
But service members working in the Pentagon have argued that not enough is being done to protect them from the spread of the virus. As of Friday, there have been at least four positive cases of COVID-19 among individuals who regularly work in the Pentagon, including two people who work on the Joint Staff, according to reads-outs of internal briefings obtained by Defense One.
As Pentagon leaders have increased health protection levels and restrictions on entering the building, senior leaders alongside teams of number crunchers from each military branch are still scrambling to finish the election-year budget planning.
Trying to meet that accelerated deadline has kept senior leaders from focusing on the department’s coronavirus response, stretching them thin amid a crisis, said an Army official close to the planning process.
The first defense official working on the budget said that meeting the June 1 deadline has kept personnel coming into the building to work, even as senior officials urge many to work from home as much as possible to limit the spread of the virus, especially within the Pentagon.
“The fiscal year 2022 program objective memorandum is what most of us here in the building are working on right now,” the defense official said.
If Trump wins reelection, his budget request would likely be delivered to Congress next February. But if a Democrat wins the White House in the November presidential election, history shows the incoming administration would make changes to align with its political priorities, and the Pentagon would not send the fiscal 2022 spending request to lawmakers until even later into next spring.
It’s unclear how delaying the current budget planning would affect daily staffing at the Pentagon, which is currently hovering just under 5,000 people. The Army official said pushing back the deadline would little affect the overall number of people in the building.
But in an effort to keep senior leaders focused on the COVID-19 response, the Army and the Air Force have asked to move the deadline to July 31; the Navy has asked to move it to at least mid-June. Proponents of pushing the deadline say it would be a simple way to lighten the load on senior officials.
“We would have been on track for that had it not been for the inefficiencies of teleworking and other COVID-19 slow-downs,” the defense official said. “To me, it’s the easiest lever that can be switched right now. Let’s drop back and do last year’s schedule.”
The decision of whether to delay the planning now sits with Norquist, the Pentagon’s No. 2 civilian.
“The deputy believes it is not enough to simply delay the submissions — all that does is move the same amount of work to the right on the calendar,” Lt. Col. Chris Logan, a spokesman for Norquist, told Defense One on Friday. “He has asked the services to develop better, more aggressive, more creative options to streamline the program/budget process, to include canceling the June POM submission altogether.”
Service members familiar with work on the budget requests say that some staff have been coming into the building because their home internet connections are too slow and Pentagon software too unwieldy for efficient work.
“They really didn’t start thinking about teleworking until two weeks ago and quickly discovered there aren’t enough laptops to work from home, people have major issues with our email access out of the building,” the defense official said. “The Microsoft Outlook web access is ‘90s technology that lets you dial in. I can’t get my email working!”
“None of us were really telework-ready,” another defense official who does not work directly on the budget said. “The IT side of it was not capable of handling this load [although] they are rapidly expanding it this week.”
Even if the technical problems were resolved, current and former officials familiar with the process say that most of the real work happens in meetings classified as “Secret” or higher, and on a secure network that staff can’t access remotely.
There is another option to ease the strain on the building: Pentagon leaders are weighing upgrading the Pentagon’s health protection status to its highest level, HPCON-D, a move that would restrict access to “mission essential” personnel only. Senior budget officials in the service branches have pushed Norquist to consider POM staff non-mission essential. That would essentially push “pause” on budget efforts indefinitely.
On Thursday, just under 5,000 people had swiped into the building by 9:30 a.m., about 20 percent of staff who arrive for a normal workday. (Source: Defense One)
31 Mar 20. Pentagon seeks to classify future year defense spending plans. The Pentagon has asked Congress to allow it to classify its Future Year Defense Program spending projections, new documents have revealed.
The FYDP numbers, which project five years into the future, are considered essential information for the public to see where the Department of Defense expects to invest in the future, and to hold the department accountable when those spending plans change.
Information on the request was published Monday by Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists. Aftergood wrote that the proposal would “make it even harder for Congress and the public to refocus and reconstruct the defense budget.”
In its request to Congress, the Pentagon wrote that an unclassified FYDP “might inadvertently reveal sensitive information,” despite the fact the numbers have been unclassified since 1989.
“With the ready availability of data mining tools and techniques, and the large volume of data on the Department’s operations and resources already available in the public domain, additional unclassified FYDP data, if it were released, potentially allows adversaries to derive sensitive information by compilation about the Department’s weapons development, force structure, and strategic plans,” the DoD wrote.
It added that there is a commercial concern with the FYDP providing too much information to industry.
“The Department is also concerned about the potential harm to its interactions with commercial interests by release of FYDP information prior to the budget year. Exposing resources allocated to future acquisition plans may encourage bids and other development activities not beneficial to the Government,” the proposal read.
Seamus Daniels, a budget analyst with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said in a tweet that “DoD’s proposal to eliminate the unclassified FYDP severely limits the public’s ability to track how strategy aligns with budgets and how program plans change over time. Serious step backwards in transparency from the department.”
Earlier this year, the No. 2 uniformed officer in the Pentagon railed against the department’s tendency toward over classification, calling it “unbelievably ridiculous.”
The Pentagon has requested a number of legislative changes this year, in addition to the FYDP classification attempt. (Source: Fifth Domain)
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