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31 Mar 22. DISA’s Skinner on Thunderdome, DES and ‘transitioning’ from a hardware agency. With an eye on China, US military networks in the Pacific likely among first stops for Thunderdome zero-trust program after prototyping, DISA chief Lt. Gen. Robert Skinner told Breaking Defense.
Facing the monumental task that is modernizing the Pentagon’s networks, the head of the Defense Information Systems Agency recently told Breaking Defense his agency is “re-imagining” how it does things, including shepherding through two major contract initiatives that are meant to work hand-in-hand to provide secure services across the sprawling military org chart.
In January, DISA awarded Booz Allen Hamilton a $6.8m prototype contract for Thunderdome, its zero-trust security and network architecture program. At the time DISA said it wanted to move away from the “siloed nature of the classic defense-in-depth security model” and toward “integrating security from the end user all the way to the data being accessed.”
Then, earlier this month, Leidos nabbed the massive $11.5bn Defense Enclave Services (DES) contract, an effort to streamline the Pentagon’s vast network infrastructure of non-service-specific agencies. Under the indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract, the company will be responsible for leading the Fourth Estate Network Optimization initiative, a process that will consolidate systems, personnel and functions, among other program elements.
For DISA chief Lt. Gen. Robert Skinner, the two initiatives are key to his agency’s future work.
“Thunderdome is a way to reimagine… how we look at networks in the future and it’s really more data-centric than it is the old equipment and hardware-focused,” Skinner told Breaking Defense in an exclusive interview last week. “But hardware is still a big part of it because one of the things that we’re really trying to do as a department is not necessarily move away, but really try to transition, from being a kind of hardware company and organization to becoming a software company and organization which really provides a lot more flexibility as we look at providing the services we provide.”
DISA announced over the next six months it planned to produce a working prototype of Thunderdome that’s scalable across DoD. There will be “four or five services” provided under Thunderdome, including Secure Access Service Edge, or SASE, which Skinner described as “a modern way of doing our virtual private networking” where people can access the network from any place, application security stacks and cloud defensive cyber operations.
He added there’s potential for the pilot, if it meets all requirements, to become the minimal viable product that can actually be rolled across DoD. DISA has established cross-functional teams across the agency for the effort and is working with other services — currently the Air Force — to identify their needs.
DISA is also purchasing equipment for the effort, which could be delayed due to supply chain issues, but the goal within the next couple of months remains the same – to have equipment in hand at different locations, Skinner said.
Those locations are still being finalized, but DISA Pacific Field Command in Hawaii likely will be prioritized “because our other focus has to continue to be on the Pacific and making sure that we are taking care of the strategic priority of the department which continues to be the Indo-Pacific and what’s happening out there in relation to China.”
Then comes the melding of Thunderdome with the DES, which would extend the zero-trust concept further across the Pentagon to “fourth estate” agencies.
The Thunderdome contract “plays hand-in-hand” with the DES contract, Skinner said, “because as we’re re-imagining how we provide the services and manage, there’s a technical component that plays in with the personnel and contract components. So they all kind of play together.”
At the same time, broadly speaking Skinner said he envisions DES as a way to consolidate contracting for network-related capabilities, reducing the amount of contract actions and activities that need to occur.
“So what we’re trying to do with the DES contract is through one contractor bringing all the innovation and the good things that we provide from network performance, network monitoring and network management,” he said. “That’s really what DES is supposed to be. We’re trying to integrate, be consistent and accountable for the consolidation of all these IT integrated network operations — that’s the end goal.”
Through DES, DISA will focus on how to best provide support to agencies and organizations that are transitioning “from kind of the current systems that they’re on” to the Department of Defense Network, or DODNET, bringing them all onto one Fourth Estate network that provides everyone the same level of security and resiliency, Skinner added.
However, work on the DES contract has been slowed down due to a protest filed by General Dynamics Information Technology on March 10. The GAO is expected to make a decision no later than June 20.
Skinner said “based from a contractual standpoint, there have been discussions, but with the protest that kind of put everything on hold as we kind of work through the protest action activities and working with GAO and others.”
GDIT declined to comment for this report.
Skinner said DISA is moving in a good direction as it leverages technology and its “three ring approach” to supporting DoD, the warfighter, decision makers and analysts.
“I think everybody should be confident in our capabilities and the things that we’re doing for the nation and taxpayer,” he said. (Source: Breaking Defense.com)
30 Mar 22. Hub change: US reforms its Asian alliance system. For 75 years after the end of the Second World War, the US maintained an alliance system in Asia focused on a handful of key bilateral relationships and mutual defence treaties. The plan was to act as a bulwark against Soviet expansionism and enable US operations in a region with diverse strategic goals and historical animosities. In essence, the US acted as a ‘hub’ with numerous bilateral ‘spokes’ to countries in the region. (Source: Janes)
29 Mar 22. Missile Defense Agency seeks $9.6bn in FY23 budget. The Missile Defense Agency’s $9.6bn fiscal 2023 request seeks to expand regional and homeland defenses against increasingly complex and capable missile threats, according to budget documents released by the agency March 28. The MDA asked for $8.9 bn in FY22, but received an additional $1.5 bn from Congress for a total of $10.4bn. Congress has boosted the MDA two years in a row, arguing there’s a disconnect between the agency’s requests and its ability to meet the requirements of the National Defense Strategy.
The FY23 request comes ahead of the release of a new NDS from the Biden Administration that will include a review of needed missile defense capabilities.
“What we’re focused on today is dealing with a very formidable and evolving threat and so every penny that we’re spending in the ‘23 budget is focused on how we deal with those threats across a multiple set of interesting scenarios,” Vice Adm. Jon Hill, MDA’s director, said at a March 28 Pentagon briefing.
The budget includes $7.9bn in research and development funding, up 9.7% boost from FY22 enacted spending. The research and development funding accounts for 82% of the FY23 budget request, according to Dee Dee Martinez, MDA’s comptroller.
The MDA is requesting $1.2bn in procurement funding, 55% less than Congress enacted in FY22.
And MDA asked for $47m for military construction projects, up from the FY22 enacted level of $23m. The increased budget for MILCON would pay for establishing a missile defense architecture on Guam as well as improvements to ground test facility infrastructure, Martinez said.
Detect and control
Programs that detect and track missiles from space, including the Hypersonic & Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor (HBTSS) and the Space-based Kill Assessment (SKA), would get $130m if the FY23 request advances.
A total of $89m in funding would pay for delivery of space vehicles for launch vehicle integration and complete development of the ground system for the second quarter FY23 launch of two prototypes and on-orbit experimentations of the HBTSS.
MDA began the HBTSS program in 2018 and in early 2021 L3Harris Technologies and Northrop Grumman were each awarded $277 m contracts to develop prototypes.
The agency is also seeking $27m to continue integrating SKA hit assessment integration into the overall missile defense system. An on-orbit checkout was completed in 2019, Martinez said, and the system successfully performed during several recent MDA flight tests focused on its hit assessment capability.
The MDA said it needs $540m to upgrade and sustain 12 AN/TPY-2 radars while also completing the FY21 computer processing unit procurement for a 13th radar. These radars are used both in Terminal High Altitude Area Defense systems and independently.
The agency is asking for $75 m for the Long-Range Discrimination Radar. The LRDR reached the initial fielding milestone at Clear Space Force Station, Alaska, in December 2021. The radar is meant to provide deeper threat discrimination capability for homeland defense.
The agency is seeking $165m for the Sea-Based X-band radar to cover continued operations and radome replacement and wants $20m to refurbish and extend the life of the Cobra Dane radar.
The MDA also wants $569m to fund its critical Command and Control Battle Management and Communications (C2BMC) system, which links missile defense systems worldwide. In addition to sustainment and upgrades, the funding would cover integrating LRDR into the network for homeland defense, which has been delayed to FY23 due to COVID-19 issues.
MDA told Defense News that like in previous budget years, it has not provided funding for the Homeland Defense Radar- Hawaii. Congress provided the agency $75m in FY22 to procure and deploy such a capability.
Congress mandated in its FY22 omnibus spending package that the agency, the INDOPACOM commander and the director of Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation (CAPE) to provide the congressional defense committees with its submission of the FY23 request an updated briefing on current and evolving threats, the capability that HDR-H would bring against those threats and other realistic solutions to defend the region from ballistic missile threats.
The MDA’s effort to operationalize the Aegis Ashore system in Poland is ongoing, but the agency has made progress after what has amounted to a four-year delay, according to Hill.
Engage
The agency is requesting $539m to continue to design and develop multiple-land based radar systems, procure weapon system components and initiate military construction planning and design activities for the defense of Guam, the budget documents state.
“Current forces are capable of defending Guam against today’s North Korean ballistic missile threats,” Martinez said. “However, the regional threat to Guam, including from China, continues to rapidly evolve.”
In FY22, the agency, at the request of U.S Indo-Pacific Command, asked for $78.3m to look at systems to support Guam and another $40m to procure long-lead items.
The idea was the agency would have a clearer sense of how to defend Guam against missile threats by FY23 and would ask for more money to cover implementation of an architecture, according to last year’s budget briefing.
Congress provided an additional $80m to accelerate the Guam architecture in the FY22 budget.
“The architecture has now been finalized and includes a combination of integrated MDA, Army and Navy components,” Martinez said. “The FY23 funding “continues the architecture work but also provides funds for design and development of multiple land-based radar systems, procurement of weapon system components and initiates MILCON planning and design activities.”
The agency is also asking for $2.8bn to continue to sustain and upgrade its Ground-Based Midcourse Defense System, designed to protect the nation from intercontinental ballistic missile threats from North Korea and Iran.
“The request sustains and improves the performance reliability, availability and cybersecurity resiliency of the GMD weapon system throughout the [Future Years Defense Program],” Martinez said.
The funding would cover “upgrades to homeland defense system capabilities, including ground based interceptors, ground systems, and phased array, Ground-Based Interceptor communication terminal kits and improves components of the agency’s GMD system, including GBI fire control nodes, communication systems, launch systems, and infrastructure to pace rogue nation threats to the homeland,” she added.
The budget would also pay for a Next-Generation Interceptor to ultimately replace GBIs. The MDA has selected two competitors — Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman – to design NGIs, and the budget would pay to move both competitors through a critical design review.
The Aegis Missile Defense system would get $1.6bn to cover 47 SM-3 Block IB and 10 Block IIA missiles, upgrading Aegis ship sensors with the new SPY-6 radar and providing other upgrades on the Navy’s newest destroyers, the documents show.
In FY22, Congress approved an additional $192m for SM-3 Block IIA missile procurement.
The Terminal High Altitude Area Defense System needs $422m, according to the budget documents, to continue software development for the seven deployed systems and extend interceptor service life.
The FY23 funding would also buy three more THAAD interceptors.
Tech development and testing
The agency plans to spend $39m in advanced research and advanced concepts development and another $563m in systems engineering to link missile defense elements into one integrated and layered architecture.
MDA is asking for $361 m for missile defense system testing. This includes funding to maintain test infrastructure as well as conduct several tests such as a GMD test and a THAAD and Patriot MSE interoperability test.
Another $560 m would go toward developing and producing threat representative targets.
The agency wants $225m for hypersonic defense efforts to include its Glide Phase Interceptor development to address regional hypersonic missile threats, upgrade existing systems for future demonstrations and continue development of technologies and solutions for future hypersonic defense architectures.
The MDA is evaluating GPI proposals, Hill said, ahead of a formal development effort.
MDA asked for $247.9 m in FY22 to develop the capability, which would examine an oprational demonstration of the glide phase defense capability using the Aegis weapon system.
The agency is also planning to spend $11m to work on the system architecture for cruise missile defense of the homeland, including a fire control demonstration using the Joint Tactical Integrated Fire Control system.
The agency asked for $14m in FY22 to work on cruise missile defense of the homeland.
“I would say the trade space is still within the department on how fast we’re going to move against what defended assets and what critical assets. So there’s a lot of homework to be done,” Hill said of homeland cruise missile defense. “Our job is to lay down the technical architecture options and work that within the department to see what we can do.” (Source: Defense News)
30 Mar 22. Pentagon budget 2023: Lawmakers request details on inflation impact. Two key members of the US Congress want the Pentagon to explain how a recent surge in inflation will affect the buying power of the US Department of Defense (DoD). In a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and other DoD leaders, Senator Jim Inhofe and Representative Mike Rogers, the top Republicans on the Senate and House Armed Services Committees, asked the department to clarify why it assumes only a 2.3–2.6% inflation rate in its newly released fiscal year (FY) 2023 budget request, even though the federal government estimates that consumer prices rose nearly 8% over the past 12 months.
“We need to understand what assumptions the department is operating under, how they arrived at their inflation estimate, and how Congress can help meet the needs of our military as we develop our own recommendations for the 2023 fiscal year,” Inhofe and Rogers said in a statement on 29 March. The lawmakers asked the Pentagon to respond to their letter by 15 April. (Source: Janes)
29 Mar 22. DOD Acquisition Officers Will Learn to Better Acquire and Transition Commercial Technologies.
In this era of modern warfare, access to cutting-edge, commercial technology is vital for warfighters and national security.
To ensure access to commercial technology, the Defense Department is promoting broader use of agile acquisition methods by training acquisition professionals on the Defense Innovation Unit’s acquisition process, said Mike Brown, DIU director.
Recognizing the need to keep pace with commercial product cycles and adopt best practices for commercial procurement, Defense Acquisition University and DIU have joined forces to develop and implement the Immersive Commercial Acquisition Program, he said.
As part of the program, DOD acquisition personnel will work on service-aligned projects, alongside a DIU contracting officer and project team, as well as commercial solution providers on a variety of projects.
Program participants will also take virtual classes on other transaction authorities through DAU, said Jim Woolsey, DAU president.
“Acquisition professionals, especially those in contracting, work in an increasingly complex environment,” Woolsey said. “Creating opportunities like this where they can develop specialized skills and gain experience that they take back and share with others is one of the great strengths of this program.”
Up to six contracting officers will be competitively selected from across the DOD civilian and military communities to take part in the 12-month, immersive program.
Set to launch officially in October 2022, the first ICAP cohort will receive targeted training and hands-on experience in every aspect of the commercial solutions opening process. This will range from acquisition strategy to the basics of leveraging other transactional authorities and day-to-day project execution. Participants will also get first-hand knowledge of the commercial sector.
“To give our warfighters the best and most current technology available, DOD must embrace and leverage an acquisition process that maximizes competition and enables the department to operate at commercial speeds,” said Brown. “To do this, we need to train our acquisitions talent from across the services on how to effectively transition technologies from the commercial sector into the DOD.”
DIU focuses exclusively on accelerating commercial technology into the DOD and has transitioned 45 solutions in its first six years, Brown said. DIU prototypes, transitions and scales projects in six key areas where commercial technology leads: autonomy, artificial intelligence, cyber, energy, human systems and space. These solutions, ranging from small drones to commercial satellite imagery or artificial intelligence software, are fielded in one or two years instead of one or two decades.
Following the rotation, the graduates will provide an ongoing connection between DIU and their services for future projects. As it matures, this annual program may expand to other functional acquisition career fields such as program management, finance and legal. It will provide the acquisition workforce with more commercial acquisition experts who are fluent in new and different acquisition tools and methods to acquire innovative commercial technology, Brown said. Submissions will be accepted from mid-April to early May 2022 on DIU’s website. (Source: US DoD)
28 Mar 22. Fiscal 2023 Budget Funds Military for Today, Future. President Joe Biden’s $773bn fiscal year 2023 Defense Budget Request funds the department for today’s security environment and positions DOD to maintain its competitive advantage in the years ahead, Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen H. Hicks said today. Hicks, along with Navy Adm. Christopher W. Grady, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, unveiled the budget that is built on the tenets of the new National Defense Strategy. That strategy recognizes Russia as a concern — especially since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — but still regards China as America’s pacing threat.
The budget is roughly an 8.1 percent increase over fiscal year 2022. “These investments are as vital as ever, as we face a myriad of challenges,” Hicks said at a Pentagon press conference.
Hicks said the people of Ukraine “are foremost on our minds” as they confront the Russian invasion of their country. “Even as we confront Russia’s malign activities, the defense strategy describes how the department will act urgently to sustain and strengthen deterrence with the as our most consequential strategic competitor and pacing challenge. The PRC has the military, economic and technological potential to challenge the international system and our interests within it.”
The strategy does not discount other threats and she specifically cited Iran, North Korea and threats from violent extremists.
The United States fights with a joint force that provides amazing combat effectiveness and lethality. “With the joint warfighting concept and a new strategic approach to setting requirements, our joint force has set out to achieve expanded maneuvers in all domains, building new capabilities and leveraging technologies to achieve overmatch against any potential adversary,” Grady said. “The American people can be confident that this year’s budget request … ensures the joint force remains the most lethal and capable military on the planet. It will modernize, and it will transform the force needed to win in the 2030s and beyond.”
Service members and civilians would receive a 4.6 percent pay raise if Congress approves this budget, Hicks said. This is the largest pay raise in 20 years. The budget also calls for investing in child care including fee assistance, new construction and sustainment. The request also calls for at least a $15 per hour minimum wage for everyone in the federal workforce. The majority of those affected by this last are in the child-care workforce.
The budget request also asks for $55.8bn for military health care and $9.2bn for family support — including commissaries, DOD Education Activity schools, youth programs and morale, welfare and recreation programs.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III has spoken at length about “integrated deterrence” being one of the key concepts of the new strategy. Two others are campaigning and building enduring advantages.
Integrated deterrence is essentially bringing to bear all aspects of defense and the larger U.S. government. It also calls for working closely with allies and partners around the world. The concept needs combat-credible forces and a safe, secure and effective nuclear deterrent.
The fiscal 2023 budget calls for $56.5 bn for air power. The money is focused on F-35 fifth-generation joint strike fighters, F-15EX — a mix of fourth-generation aircraft with fifth-generation avionics, the B-21 Raider stealth bomber, more air mobility aircraft, KC-46 tankers and various unmanned aircraft systems.
The budget stressed integrated defense with $40.8bn for construction of nine battle force fleet ships. The funding includes incremental funding for construction of Ford-class aircraft carriers, and two Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines.
A total of $12.6bn is dedicated to modernization of Army and Marine Corps combat equipment including armored multi-purpose vehicles, the amphibious combat vehicle and the optionally manned fighting vehicle.
Another part of integrated deterrence is the recapitalization of the nuclear triad. The budget request is for $34.4 bn. This includes upgrades to weapons systems and the nuclear command, control and communications system.
Hypersonic weapons are scheduled to be fielded under this budget request with $7.2bn across the services. This includes a hypersonic missile battery by fiscal 2023, hypersonic missiles aboard Navy ships by fiscal 2025 and hypersonic cruise missiles by fiscal 2027.
Another $24.7bn goes to missile defeat and defense initiatives, including $892m for the defense of Guam from Chinese missiles.
Cyberspace remains a contested domain and the budget contains $11.2bn for cyberspace activities including adding five more Cyber Mission Force Teams and “operationalizing” the department’s Zero Trust Architecture.
Space is the ultimate high ground and the budget calls for $27.6bn for everything from detecting missile launches to global positioning satellites to “hardening” satellite communications.
Another concept in the strategy is called campaigning. “Our competitors are increasingly undertaking activities designed to erode U.S. deterrence and advance their own interests via gray zone activities,” Hicks said. “We, in turn, will operate forces, synchronize broader department efforts and gain advantage on our terms by tying together the breadth of U.S. and allied and partner defense activities through campaigning.”
Central to campaigning is ensuring that the joint force is ready now, across the full battlespace competitors can present, she said.
DOD will be able to respond to threats anywhere in the world, but “the department will focus our campaigning efforts in the Indo-Pacific and Europe,” Hicks said. The Pacific deterrence initiative along with other efforts are the basis for efforts in that region. DOD will invest in enhancing its comparative military advantage, promote the military posture, provide for resilient logistics and increased cooperation with regional allies and partners.
In Europe, the budget will support U.S. European Command “and deepen our ironclad commitment to NATO,” she said. “We will optimize the responsiveness of the joint force, provide assistance to Kyiv through the Ukraine security assistance initiative, and bolster security cooperation programs.”
The campaigning concept is tied to joint force readiness. Officials said the campaigning aspect receives $134.7bn in the fiscal 2023 request. The Army would receive $29.4bn under this request, the Navy $47.4bn, the Air Force $35.5bn, the Marine Corps $4.1bn and the Space Force, $3bn. U.S. Special Operations Command is slated to receive $9.7bn of this pot of money and other joint requirements would consume $5.6bn.
Building enduring advantages aspect of the National Defense Strategy comes down to people, Grady said. DOD must grow its talent. It must build resilience and force readiness and it must ensure accountable leadership. The 4.6 percent pay raise for both military and civilian members of DOD. It is the largest civilian pay raise in more than a decade.
“Building enduring advantages also means that the department must continue to innovate and modernize,” Hicks said. “Of the roughly $130 bn that we are investing in — our largest request ever — $16.5 bn is dedicated to science and technology.”
The strategic concept looks to address diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility. The budget includes $479 m to implement the recommendations of the Independent Review Commission on Sexual Assault in the Military.
The budget also calls on Congress to allow the services to retire or discontinue programs no longer needed. In the Navy, this calls for the retirement of some cruisers, littoral combat ships and a landing ship dock. In the Air Force, this calls for retiring A-10s, E-3 Sentry aircraft, E-8 JSTARS, KC-135s and C-130H.
The end strength of the services remains essentially unchanged at 2,122,900 active, Guard and reserve service members.
The Army is set at 998,500. This is down 3,000 on the active duty rolls from fiscal 2022. The Army National Guard is set at 336,000, and the Army Reserve at 189,500.
The Navy is at 404,000, down incrementally from fiscal 2022 level of 406,135. The Navy Reserve is set at 57,700.
The Marine Corps end strength goes up slightly from 209,606 to 210,000 with 33,000 in the Marine Corps Reserve.
The Air Force — including the Space Force — stays at 510,400. By percentage, the Air Force department receives 30.3 percent of the budget with the Navy receiving 29.9 percent. The Army receives 22.9 percent and defense-wide is pegged at 16.9 percent. (Source: US DoD)
28 Mar 22. US Army’s $178bn FY23 budget protects modernization, cuts end strength. The U.S. Army’s fiscal 2023 $178bn budget aims to preserve its modernization plans but trims the total number of troops, according to service budget documents released March 28.
The budget is comprised of $163bn in base funding and $15bn for overseas operations.
The request is a 1.7% boost over the Army’s $175bn fiscal 2022 enacted budget and is level with FY21 enacted funding.
The increase over FY22 allows the Army “to maintain the readiness, continue the transformation of our modernization efforts as well as take care of our people,” Maj. Gen. Mark Bennett, director of the Army budget, said in a March 25 briefing to reporters.
He said the increase accounts for both inflation and real growth; the Army used a 2% inflation rate when crafting the budget, Bennett said.
The budget in FY23 “allows us to do two things fundamentally,” Army Under Secretary Gabe Camarillo said in the advance briefing.
“First and foremost, we maintain a very high state of readiness,” he said. “If you look just at the last year in review, what did the Army accomplish? It’s utterly remarkable; everything from COVID-19 response … disaster response here at home, support to Operation Allies Welcome and helping to process the displaced Afghans coming out of that mission. Then, of course, our response to Ukraine and to the invasion by Russia and providing support to our NATO partners in Europe.”
The Army is also undergoing a transformation, Camarillo said, “to the Army of 2030 and beyond. It is transitioning out of two decades of support for counterterrorism operations into an Army that is postured as part of the joint force to meet the demands of what the pacing challenges are of China and obviously the acute threat posed by Russian aggression.”
As part of its efforts to modernize, Camarillo said, the Army opted to temporarily reduce its active force count to 473,000 troops. But it will maintain 336,000 in the Army National Guard and 189,500 in the Army Reserve. The Army’s enacted FY22 end strength was 485,000 for the active force.
The Army plans to increase end strength back to 485,000 active duty soldiers within five years, according to Camarillo.
“The reason why is in order to make sure that we are maintaining our emphasis on high quality talent,” he said. “We are looking at making sure that we fill the needs of cutting edge formations in the Army like our Multidomain Task Forces.”
“This is not a budget driven decision,” Camarillo added. “It is entirely about quality.”
The total budget increase also accounts for a 4.6% pay raise soldiers will get starting in January 2023.
Overseas operations funding
FY23 marks the second year the Pentagon has not had an Overseas Contingency Operations funding account — which was meant to pay for operations abroad.
As in FY22, the Army is asking for $15bn in its base budget for overseas operations.
As Russia continues to wage its war on Ukraine, it will be hard to predict the funding the service will need, Camarillo said, but “we will continue to work with the Department of Defense and with Congress, be transparent, communicate needs as they arise.”
Operations and Maintenance
The Army is receiving a 5.4% boost in FY23 from the FY22 enacted amount of $55.3bn to $58.3bn.
The budget funds 22 combat training center rotations and provides for an increase in flying hours from 10.3 hours per pilot to 11.1 hours.
The account also pays for a third Multidomain Task Force. The Army has already operationalized two MDTFs — one in the Pacific and one in Europe.
The Pentagon is requesting $4.2bn to deter Russia and reassure allies in Europe. The European Deterrence Initiative has remained steady at roughly the same amount since FY21. Of that total, the Army’s portion is roughly $2.8bn, which is an additional $464 m over last year’s enacted funding, Bennett said.
The funding for the Army includes $942m for increased presence through the rotation of a division headquarters, Armored Brigade Combat and other enabler units supported by additional active and mobilized reserve component units and soldiers, Bennett said.
A total of $305m in the request would fund exercises such as Defender Europe, Operation Atlantic Resolve and Operation Joint Guardian in Kosovo.
Also part of the EDI request is $41m to enhance and sustain a Mission Partner Environment network that allows the U.S. and its allies to tie battlefield command-and-control nodes and networks together.
The request funds execution of the Army’s climate strategy, released earlier this year. The service plans to spend $725m in FY23 to implement various aspects of the strategy, according to Bennett.
Camarillo said the Army will fund continued prototyping of a hybrid tactical electric fleet, including experimenting with ways to move in that direction with the Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles and the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle. There are also a number of funded projects in the science and technology portfolio that push toward an all-electric or hybrid electric combat vehicle in the future, he said.
Modernization
The Army is requesting 5.5% less in its research and development account than enacted in FY22. The Army received $14.5bn in FY22 to include $100m in direct war and enduring costs. The service is asking for $13.7bn in FY23.
“The ‘23 budget will reveal the Army continuing on its path with all its major acquisition programs, especially all the new capability and staying on current timelines, broadly speaking,” Doug Bush, the Army acquisition chief, said at the March 25 briefing. “The Army, I think, is presenting a very balanced approach overall that doesn’t take excessive risk and maintains momentum going forward.”
In its research and development budget, the Army is seeking $1.5bn less in its science and technology account. The Army received $4.3bn in FY22 and is asking for $2.7bn in FY23.
The service is asking for $11bn in FY23 for demonstration and validation of capabilities, engineering manufacturing, testing and management, operational systems and software and digital requirements. It received $10.2bn in FY22.
The budget aligns 82% of the Army’s S&T funding to its top six modernization priorities: Long Range Precision Fires, Next-Generation Combat Vehicle, Future Vertical Lift, Network, Air and Missile Defense and Soldier Lethality.
Funding includes prototyping for the Long-Range Hypersonic Missile with the fielding of the first battery in FY23, the Mid-Range Capability Missile flight tests and initial fielding of the Precision Strike Missile, the budget documents note.
The budget request also continues to advance the Lower-Tier Air-and-Missile Defense (LTAMDS) radar to replace Patriot Air-and-Missile Defense radars.
The annual Project Convergence exercise would receive $90.8m in FY23 in both operations and maintenance and research and development funding to test new operational concepts and technology, Bennett said during a March 28 Pentagon press briefing.
The Army previously held multiple rounds of budget and portfolio reviews dubbed Night Court, which resulted in a large transfer of funding into the modernization portfolio from elsewhere in the service’s budget. This year, it made only limited funding shifts.
“There’s always changes to be made and puts and takes within building a modernization account,” Bush said, but there have been “no major terminations and no dramatic schedule changes.”
Yet, “in some of these things, we have made adjustments to keep them on track in line with their cost estimates,” he noted.
“In this particular budget, you’ll see we only have three things that we moved out of [equipping] into [sustainment],” Brig. Gen. Mac McCurry, the Army’s force development director at the Pentagon, said in last week’s briefing, and that resulted in a small amount of funding — just $23.5 m — moving across those accounts.
Procurement
The service is asking for 6.5% less in its procurement account. The Army received $22.8bn in FY22, including $1.6bn in direct war and enduring costs. The Army wants $21.3bn in FY23, including $1.2 bn in overseas operations funding.
The Army is asking for $500 m less in aircraft procurement funding for a total of $2.8bn. For missile procurement, the service is seeking $3.8bn, up from the $3.5bn it received in FY22.
The Army is also asking for less for weapons and tracked combat vehicles. The service got $4.3bn in FY22 and wants $3.6bn in FY23.
The service is seeking $2.6bn in ammunition funding, up from $2.3bn enacted in FY22; and the Army is asking for $8.5bn in “other procurement,” down from the $9.4bn it received in FY22.
The funding will support the Armored Multipurpose Vehicle as it transitions into the operational force, the Mobile Protected Firepower vehicle and the Next Generation Squad Weapon, according to budget documents.
The request also supports the start of the Tactical Intelligence Target Access Node (TITAN) procurement, which is a link to facilitate LRPF capability.
According to Army documents, the Army will buy 35 AH-64E Apache Remanufactured aircraft, up from the 29 in FY22. The service will buy 25 UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters, after it received funding for 33 in FY22.
The Army is asking for 252 Patriot Missile Segment Enhancement (MSE) missiles in FY23, up from the funded 180 in FY22.
The Army received funding for 110 PrSM missiles in FY22 but will wants slightly more — 120 — in FY23 as it brings the system online.
The service is requesting 72 AMPVs in FY23 and 28 MPF vehicles in FY23.
The Army is buying fewer Paladin Integrate Management (PIM) howitzers in FY23, asking for 27 of the systems after receiving funding for 23 in FY22.
The Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicle funding is also reduced in FY23.
And the Army will buy 32 Integrated Battle Command Systems in FY23, up from 26 in FY22.
To preserve the Army’s top priority modernization efforts, Bush said the service had to make a “conscious choice to somewhat adjust down funding levels” for what he would call “our enduring programs.”
Abrams tanks and the Stryker Combat Vehicle face some reductions in funding, he said.
The Army submitted its request asking for a half of an Armored Brigade Combat Team per year for Abrams, McCurry said. A year ago, the service asked for three-quarters of an ABCT in its FY22 budget request. The service is asking to field about a third of a Brigade Combat Team for Stryker per year. The Army asked for two-thirds of a BCT in FY22, according to McCurry.
The reductions still maintain levels sufficient for the industrial base, Bush noted.
“That is the classic kind of balancing you have to do when you’re going through modernization cycles, when do you start cycling a little bit of money off enduring programs to start creating headspace for new things,” he said. (Source: Defense News)
28 Mar 22. USN budget would pay for 9 ships, decommission 24 amid readiness drive. The U.S. Navy is requesting more money in its fiscal 2023 budget proposal compared to the previous fiscal year, but it’s still on a trajectory toward a smaller fleet. Increasingly higher bills for nuclear-powered submarines and aircraft carriers are crowding the shipbuilding budget, and rising costs due to inflation and other factors are further complicating efforts to balance the budget, the Navy’s top budget officer told reporters March 28. As a result, the Navy is asking for nine ships in FY23, even as it plans to retire 24. It is asking for 96 aircraft, but no F/A-18 Super Hornets and fewer carrier-variant F-35C Joint Strike Fighters than last year. It’s also proposing a decrease of about 10,000 sailors to crew the fleet in the next five years.
Meredith Berger, who is currently performing the duties of Navy undersecretary, told reporters the plan is strategy-driven and follows the chief of naval operation’s priorities of funding the Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine in full and then prioritizing readiness for today, lethality for tomorrow and capacity for down the road.
The budget proposal, she said, “enables the Department of Defense’s investment in the three pillars of the National Defense Strategy: integrated deterrence, campaigning forward and building upon our enduring advantages to fulfill the strategic priorities that are identified [in] the National Defense Strategy.”
Rear Adm. John Gumbleton, the deputy assistant secretary of the Navy for budget, told reporters that the funding request was “balanced” among those priorities.
The Navy’s request represents a 5% growth in spending compared to the FY22 budget Congress passed, and the Marine Corps’ request would be a 1.8% increase in spending compared to the enacted FY22 budget.
Gumbleton said this is “a lot more money than we thought we were going to get at the beginning of this process.”
Still, lawmakers will likely reject the Navy’s plans for its ship fleet. Members of Congress in recent years have criticized the service for not including enough ships in its budget request to grow the fleet to a congressionally mandated 355-ship force.
Ships
The Navy asked to buy nine ships in FY23, compared to the eight it requested in FY22 — which Congress bumped up to 13 in the hopes of moving the Navy to a larger fleet size.
Included in the request are two Virginia-class attack submarines, two Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, one Constellation-class frigate, one America-class amphibious assault ship, one San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock, one John Lewis-class fleet oiler, and one Navajo-class towing, salvage and rescue ship.
The $27.8bn shipbuilding budget also includes incremental funding for the Ford-class aircraft carriers and the Columbia SSBN, as well as $1.3bn in “cost-to-complete” funds for ships purchased in the FY22 budget, whose cost went up due to inflation and the COVID-19 pandemic, Gumbleton said.
The rear admiral said every ship class under construction in FY22 saw an increase in cost that the Navy had to assist in paying for. The fixed-price, incentives-based contracts all include clauses for inflation, which the shipbuilders invoked with the Navy.
Additionally, he said, “as we emerge from the pandemic and we’re observing schedule delays, that schedule delay has a cost, and that’s what we’re seeing in our cost-to-complete.”
The Navy currently has 298 ships. That would dip to 280 by FY27 under the plan pitched by the Navy.
The service proposes decommissioning 24 ships in FY23: nine Freedom-variant LCSs, five Ticonderoga-class cruisers, four Whidbey Island-class amphibious dock landing ships, two attack submarines, two oilers and two Montford Point-class expeditionary transfer docks.
Of those 24 vessels, 16 have not yet reached the end of their service lives and would require the Navy secretary to sign a waiver to Congress, including all nine LCSs, one of the five cruisers and the two expeditionary transfer docks.
“We remain committed as an administration to that 355-[ship goal for the Navy fleet], but first and foremost it’s making sure that we have a fleet that has the right mix of capability, lethality, and something that we are able to sustain and support,” Berger told reporters.
Gumbleton said decommissioning the 24 ships would free up $3.6 bn across the next five years to reinvest in modernization and lethality.
With the prioritization of funds being Columbia, readiness, lethality and then capacity, the top line couldn’t necessarily cover all the lethality needs without freeing up additional funds. “A piece of that was our choice in going after decommissioning vessels that were very expensive to maintain, our cruisers at the end of their life. LCS is regrettably a younger ship, but the warfighting value was the trade,” he said.
He also noted that 21% of the shipbuilding budget supports the Columbia program — which doesn’t affect the ship count for FY23 since the Navy is not buying a new ship this year but rather is incrementally paying for the lead ship bought in FY21 and buying parts for the upcoming FY24 ship.
Overall, 56% of the shipbuilding budget goes to nuclear-powered subs and aircraft carriers, leaving less room for surface ships.
The Columbia program will grow to consume 30% of the shipbuilding budget once it moves into one-per-year procurement later this decade. As a result of this pressure, surface ship programs may be scaled down.
Gumbleton said in a second briefing in the afternoon that the Navy would ask for a multiyear procurement contract for destroyers that covers nine ships from FY23 to FY27, with an option for a 10th ship, barely achieving the two-per-year rate that would sustain two separate contractors: General Dynamics Bath Iron Works and Ingalls Shipbuilding.
This is short of the last five-year destroyer contract that allowed as many as 15 ships, or three a year. He also said the Navy delayed its plans to bring a second shipyard into the frigate program, and that the “sawtooth” procurement rate alternating one or two ships per year represents the maximum workload that prime contractor Fincantieri can handle on its own at the Marinette Marine Shipyard.
Aircraft
The Navy asked to cease its Super Hornet jet production in FY23, something it asked to do in FY22 and Congress rejected.
The request would buy nine F-35C Joint Strike Fighters and five E-2D Advanced Hawkeyes for the Navy, as well as four F-35Cs, 15 F-35Bs, five KC-130Js and 10 CH-53K King Stallions for the Marines.
Asked about the decrease in F-35Cs for the Navy compared to this year, when Congress allotted money for 15 — a particular issue as the Navy tries to stave off a fighter shortfall — Gumbleton said the request was more about the money than the need for the jets.
“The fact that we did come down in our JSF request was more about balance than anything else — it was about balancing a ship construction portfolio, aviation portfolio, weapons, R&D, etc. So I think we would have liked to have had more JSF, but that’s the balance that we can yield,” he said.
Of note, the five Advanced Hawkeyes and the 26 TH-73A helicopter trainers in the budget request would be the last in the program before the production lines end.
The three V-22 Ospreys the Navy is buying this fiscal year and the nine the Marines are buying would be the last for that production line as well, with the services listing zero in their request for FY23 and in the four following years.
New in the aviation plan, however, is the MQ-25A Stingray, an unmanned carrier-based tanker that would go into production at a rate of four a year starting in FY23.
Readiness and lethality
Following just behind the all-important Columbia program in the Navy’s funding prioritization is the readiness of today’s fleet.
Gumbleton said in the afternoon briefing that the budget request:
- Invests $1.7bn in the Shipyard Infrastructure Optimization Program, with a focus on upgrading dry docks at three of the four public shipyards.
- Continues a pilot program meant to help ship maintenance availabilities at private repair yards remain on track even when they span two fiscal years.
- Increases ship-operations funding by 6% to allow for more days at sea with more spare parts.
- Spends 16% more on flying hours to allow pilots to train more and to cover the growing cost of spare parts.
He explained that readiness was highly prioritized, in part because of the message it sends to potential adversaries. Operating forward with ready forces “influences competitor perceptions of the benefits and costs and risks inherent in their actions, while amplifying our strengths.”
When it comes to investments in lethality and modernization, budget documents show a 9% in Navy research and development spending compared to FY22 and a 5.5% increase in Marine Corps research and development spending.
Among the initiatives are long-range fires and next-generation platforms.
The Navy includes $2.7bn in its FY23 request for R&D and acquisition efforts for long-range fires and hypersonic technology. Included is $1.2bn for R&D for the Conventional Prompt Strike Program, referring to the Navy’s name for its hypersonics development program with the Army, as well as $199m for Standard Missile-6 Block 1B development and $85 m for Maritime Strike Tomahawk development.
In June, a memo signed by then-acting Navy Secretary Thomas Harker noted concern that the service’s next-generation fighter jet, destroyer and attack submarine programs were all converging on a similar timeline, setting the Navy up for an unaffordable budget scenario as the programs move through development and into acquisition.
The budget request includes $237m for SSN(X) development, up from $1m in FY21 and $98m in FY22. It also contains $196m for DDG(X) development, compared to $19m in FY21 and $38m in FY22. The Next Generation Air Dominance budget is classified.
Gumbleton told Defense News during the afternoon briefing that the investments show “the acknowledgement that we do need to invest in those future classes.” He said he couldn’t reveal NGAD funding levels but noted they “do go up over the [five-year budget period] quite dramatically.”
“We know we have to get after this, and this reflects our best balance versus risk on those platforms we need to move out on.” (Source: Defense News)
28 Mar 22. USAF would cut 150 aircraft, including A-10s, buy fewer F-35s in 2023 budget. The Air Force’s budget for fiscal 2023 calls for cutting 150 aircraft, including older A-10 Warthogs, F-22A Raptors, T-1 Jayhawks, and KC-135 Stratotankers.
The Air Force would also buy fewer F-35As and HH-60W Jolly Green II combat rescue helicopters under the proposed 2023 budget released Monday.
And it would provide more funding for the B-21 Raider bomber, hypersonics, the Next Generation Air Dominance program and the replacement for the aging E-3 Sentry, known as the Airborne Warning and Control System.
The Department of the Air Force’s proposed budget, including both the Air Force and Space Force, would grow to $194bn, a nearly 7% increase from the approximately $182bn approved for 2022. The Air Force’s portion of that budget would be about $169.5bn.
The bulk of that growth would go to increased spending on research, development, testing and evaluation; procurement; and operations and maintenance, as part of the Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles “CQ” Brown’s directive to “accelerate change or lose.”
The requested RDT&E spending alone would increase by $9bn, including funding for the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent, NGAD and the B-21 family of systems.
Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said in a March 25 briefing with reporters this budget shows the “transformation that we’re trying to achieve,” to deal with the changing threat environment.
While Russia remains an “acute concern” and North Korea, Iran and violent extremist groups are still a threat, Kendall said, the budget is primarily focused on China and its rapidly modernizing military as the “pacing challenge.”
And the Air Force aims to lay the groundwork for further changes in the 2024 budget, he added.
‘Hard choices’ on retirements
Kendall said the Air Force had to make “hard choices” about slimming down its aircraft fleet, although the proposed retirements are not as steep as the more than 200 the service asked for last year.
“We have to get rid of, what I’ll call legacy equipment in order to have the resources to modernize,” Kendall said.
The Air Force is taking another swing at retiring some A-10 Thunderbolt II attack planes. The proposed 2023 budget aims to cut 21 Air National Guard A-10s at Fort Wayne, Indiana, and transition that squadron to the same number of F-16s.
Kendall said he hopes retirement will not be controversial — but the A-10 has survived past attempts to trim its fleet. The service sought to cut 42 A-10s in 2022, but Congress ultimately blocked those retirements in the National Defense Authorization Act, while allowing all other retirements the Air Force sought.
While some have called for transferring A-10s — originally designed to destroy columns of Russian tanks invading Europe during the Cold War — to Ukraine, Kendall said that war has indirectly shown how the Warthog is outdated and due for retirement.
Ukraine’s ground-based tactical air defenses have proven to be devastatingly effective against Russia, Kendall said, keeping them from achieving air superiority and conducting aerial operations. The A-10, while rugged, is slow and vulnerable to those types of defenses.
“While the A-10, from a point of view of delivering munitions, would be terrific for killing Russian tanks, etc., its survivability would be in question,” Kendall said. “That’s one of the reasons that we need to move beyond the A-10, because we’re worried about high-end threats now. We’re not worried about the same threats we were worried about, at least to the same degree, when we were doing counterinsurgencies or counterterrorism.”
The Air Force also plans to cut 33 Block 20 F-22 fighters, which Kendall said are now mainly being used for training purposes and aren’t combat-capable.
Maj. Gen. James Peccia, the Air Force’s deputy assistant secretary for budget, said it would take $1.8bn over eight years to get those F-22s ready for combat, making it prohibitively expensive. The Air Force will instead take $1.5bn that would have gone toward those F-22s and redirect it to modifying F-35s and modernizing other F-22s, he said. The Air Force said some of those funds will also go toward the NGAD family of systems.
“We will take operational jets and use them for training, but we can also take them and use them in the fight,” Peccia said. “It’s really using every dollar as smart as we can in our fighter portfolio, when we’re trying to modernize that portfolio.”
The Air Force now has 186 F-22s, of which 36 are Block 20s. The Raptor fleet would end up at 153 if all retirements are approved. Kendall said he doesn’t anticipate further F-22 retirements in the future until the NGAD is ready to replace it.
The Air Force asked for almost $1.7bn for NGAD in 2023, including $133m in RDT&E funding.
The Air Force is also planning to transfer 100 of its more than 300 MQ-9 Reapers to “another government organization,” Kendall said. Such language is typically used to describe the CIA or other clandestine government organizations.
The MQ-9s are physically staying where they are, Peccia said; he would not specify to whom they are being transferred.
AWACS replacement coming
The steepest cuts to individual fleets, as a percentage, will come to the aging E-8 Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System, or JSTARS, and E-3 Sentry. The Air Force would retire eight of its JSTARS at Robins Air Force Base in Georgia in 2023, and the final four JSTARS would be retired in fiscal 2024, completing the fleet’s divestment. The first four JSTARS retirements are planned for this fiscal year.
An E-3 Sentry assigned to Tinker Air Force Base, Okla., leads a formation of F-15 Eagles assigned to Langley Air Force Base, Va., over the coast of North Carolina during an air refueling mission, March 23, 2022. The Air Force would also retire 15 E-3s from Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma.
This would be about half the service’s 31 E-3s, and the Air Force would use that funding to procure and field a successor. The budget would provide $227m in new funding for the E-3 recapitalization.
Kendall said the Air Force will make a decision “within the next several months” on which aircraft will replace the E-3, but acknowledged Boeing’s E-7 Wedgetail is “the leading candidate, quite obviously.” Before the service makes a decision, Kendall said it will have to look at its requirements and conduct market research to do its “due diligence.”
Both the AWACS and JSTARS fleets are “aging out” and need to be replaced, Kendall said.
The Air Force said the proposed 2023 funding for an E-3 replacement would pay for a rapid prototype aircraft, once a choice has been made, that would be delivered in fiscal 2027. The Air Force also hopes to get funding for a second prototype in 2024, and a decision on production in fiscal 2025.
Peccia added that both aircraft would be extremely vulnerable in a future, high-end fight, and need to be replaced with more survivable planes.
The Air Force also wants to retire 10 older C-130H Hercules transport aircraft at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama. With the arrival of four new C-130J Super Hercules, that would bring the service’s entire C-130 fleet from 279 to 271.
Those retired C-130Hs would be replaced with MC-139 Grey Wolf helicopters, of which the Air Force hopes to buy five in 2023.
And the Air Force wants to retire 50 of the service’s 177 T-1 Jayhawk twin-engine jet trainers because, Kendall said, the service is changing its approach to multi-engine training.
The Air Force said new training concepts such as Undergraduate Pilot Training 2.5 — which uses more technology like immersive virtual reality training, virtual instruction and remote learning — will allow the service to phase out the T-1 for students learning to fly mobility aircraft.
And the service said advancements in the T-6 Texan will make it possible for students to learn on a single aircraft, allowing it to mothball some of the least-capable T-1s instead of replacing their engines.
As the Air Force brings on more KC-46 Pegasus tankers, it hopes to retire 13 Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard KC-135s in 2023. Four of those would come from March Air Reserve Base in California, and nine would come from Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey.
The service wants to add $222 m to procure 15 KC-46 Pegasus tankers, up one from the 14 in last year’s proposed budget.
Kendall suggested the Air Force might buy more KC-46s for its KC-Y bridge tanker procurement. The service is still a few months away from deciding how to proceed on acquiring its future tanker, he said, and needs to do more research.
But as the service looked closer at what it needs for the tanker of the future, Kendall said the requirements “started to look like a modified KC-46, more than they do a completely new design.”
“I think that there’s still a possibility of a competition out there,” Kendall said. “But as we’ve looked at our requirements, the likelihood of a competition has come down.”
The Air Force wants $2.7 bn to add 24 F-15EX fighters in 2023, twice the number of fighters it originally asked for in 2022. Congress eventually authorized the Air Force to buy 17 F-15EXs this year.
Peccia said the Air Force hopes to continue the accelerated purchase of F-15EXs over the next few years, as it retires the older C and D models of the fourth-generation fighter by fiscal 2026.
Fewer F-35s
And the Air Force wants to buy 33 F-35As, fewer than the 48 the service asked for last year.
Kendall said the Air Force trimmed its F-35A purchases to free up funds for developing NGAD, continue working on an advanced engine for the F-35 and roll out the F-15EX as quickly as possible.
Adding more F-15EXs will allow the service to more quickly replace aging F-15Cs, Kendall said. The F-15EX can carry more weapons than the F-35, making it well-suited to homeland defense and some defensive counter-air missions overseas.
Kendall expressed disappointment with the F-35′s recent development, and said he wants to get Block 4 done and to “see that real progress is being made in the development side.” He singled out the performance of Technology Refresh 3, an upgrade to the F-35′s computing systems, and said it “has not been what we wanted.”
But he stressed the F-35A will remain a central part of the Air Force’s fighter fleet for years to come, and that the Air Force’s goal of buying 1,763 of the fighters remains unchanged.
“Of course we’re committed to the F-35,” Kendall said. “We’re 15 years into production, and we’ll be building F-35s probably another 15 years. It’s going to be a cornerstone of the [tactical air] fleet for the foreseeable future.”
Kendall said the Air Force will continue R&D on the Adaptive Engine Transition Program, which could result in a new, cutting-edge engine for the F-35A. He said developing such a new engine is expensive, and the Air Force is looking to partner with other services to share the cost.
The Air Force’s requested budget for AETP would increase to nearly $273m, to complete scheduled testing of engine prototypes, make progress on reducing the engine’s weight, and work on F-35 integration, among other efforts.
And the budget contains $113m for the Air Force’s Autonomous Collaborative Platform effort to develop autonomous drones to team up with piloted NGAD and B-21 aircraft.
That will help pay for initial research and development, including preliminary design, defining requirements, and possibly technical risk reduction, Kendall said. If successful, he said that could pave the way to one day moving the manned-unmanned teaming concept into a program of record and full-scale development.
“We’re starting down that road,” Kendall said. “We haven’t fully defined the products yet. And as we get to do that, then we’ll be able to put budget-quality information together into future budgets.”
Kendall said the Air Force won’t be able to afford a combat fleet comprised entirely of expensive aircraft such as the F-35, F-15EX and the “very expensive” NGAD family of systems, and that it has to start incorporating lower-cost platforms such as the autonomous drone wingmen concept.
The budget would increase spending on nuclear command, control and communications by $162m, which will help pay for projects, equipment and facilities for locations that will in the future host the B-21 and Ground Based Strategic Deterrent missions.
The 2023 budget would add $1.7bn in procurement funds for the B-21′s low-rate initial production, bringing B-21 procurement spending to nearly $1.7bn, though Peccia could not comment on how many B-21s the service will seek to buy. In all, the Air Force wants to spend more than $5.2bn on the B-21, including for continuing its engineering and manufacturing development phase.
The Air Force is also planning to cap the number of HH-60W combat rescue helicopters it plans to buy at 75, down from about 113. The final 10 Jolly Green IIs the Air Force plans to purchase in 2023 would be the last, Peccia said.
Kendall said the changing threat environment prompted the Air Force to reconsider its combat rescue helicopter needs.
“The scenarios that we’re most worried about are not the same as they once were,” Kendall said. “When we were doing counterinsurgencies, we were worried about losing pilots in those kinds of situations. The need was different. The acts of aggression like we’re seeing in Europe, or we might see in the Pacific by [China] put us in a very different scenario from a combat rescue point of view.” (Source: Defense News)
28 Mar 22. Space Force wants 40% budget increase as it looks to bolster space-based missile warning. The U.S. Space Force’s $24.5 bn funding request for fiscal 2023 represents a 40% increase over last year, driven by an urgency to build out the Department of Defense’s space-based missile warning and tracking architecture. Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall told reporters during an embargoed media briefing March 25 that the Space Force’s $7bn budget growth above the service’s $17.4bn fiscal 2022 request represents a need to shift to more resilient space architectures. Much of the increase is focused on research and development, but it also includes additional transfers from the other services as well as the Space Development Agency, which will transition into the Space Force in October.
“The reason there is a Space Force, the reason the Obama administration changed its strategy for space, was because of the threat — the widespread investment that both China and Russia have in anti-space, counterspace capabilities, including things that threaten us and within all different orbital regimes,” Kendall said. “This is a move toward systems that can continue to provide the services we depend on.”
Kendall noted that while much of the Space Force’s fiscal 2023 budget request resides in its research and development portfolio, funding will shift toward procurement in the coming years as the service begins to field a new proliferated architecture. The service’s $15.8bn research and development request is $4.5bn higher than in fiscal 2022 and more than four times the fiscal 2023 request for procurement funding, which stands around $3.6bn.
“When you see the ratios of R&D to procurement costs that you’re seeing in our budgets right now, it’s like a red flag that tells you that the procurement costs that are going to be required to buy the things you have in R&D are going to go up,” he said. “So, we’re doing the R&D and that’s a down payment on future capability, but there’s a necessity — if we’re going to be able to effectively deter and project power the way we need to be able to do that — to move that R&D money and get into procurement and put real quantities of actual equipment in the hands of our operators.”
Kendall said he has directed the Air Force and Space Force acquisition offices to structure programs in order to field “meaningful” capability as quickly as possible.
“For that reason, I think there are going to be some very hard choices as we go through the R&D and define exactly what we’re going to buy in order to get into a procurement mode instead of an R&D mode,” he said.
The Space Warfighting Analysis Center has led the force design efforts that will support major architecture shifts for the Space Force, and its early efforts have focused on the Department of Defense’s missile warning and tracking systems. Informed by that work, the service’s budget request proposes $4.7bn for the satellites, sensors and ground systems that will make up that architecture.
That includes a $1bn increase for the Next-Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared System, which is developing missile tracking satellites that will be based in geosynchronous and Polar orbits as well as a new ground segment that will fuse data from missile warning sensors. The service’s fiscal 2022 budget included $2.45bn across the program’s three segments.
DoD has not yet released its detailed budget justification documents, so it’s not immediately clear how the $1bn is distributed, but spokeswoman Capt. Samantha Morris told C4ISRNET the increase includes $576m in additional funding for the GEO segment and $238m for Polar, with the remaining $186 m likely supporting the ground segment.
The budget request also proposes $1bn for what appears to be a new initiative called Resilient Missile Warning and Tracking, which Kendall said would fund development of the service’s long-term architecture. He didn’t offer much detail on the effort but said it would be part of a “proliferated, multi-orbit, disaggregated architecture” that is more resilient to attack. The early development funding, if approved, will put the service on a track to begin initial procurement of that architecture in the next five years, Kendall noted.
Morrison said the other piece of the department’s space-based missile defense architecture, the Space Development Agency’s Tracking Layer, is included as part of the Resilient Missile Warning and Missile Tracking funding line. She did not offer details on specific funding levels for SDA’s missile tracking capabilities, saying “the entire portfolio is currently under review to determine how best to use the resources.”
Elsewhere in the budget, the service requests $1.6bn to procure six Space Force and SDA launches and proposes a $406m increase for the Evolved Strategic Satellite Communications program — significant growth over last year’s $160m request. ESS will succeed the Advanced Extremely High Frequency Satellite program to provide secure, survivable and anti-jam communications.
The request also adds $108m for the Deep Space Advanced Radar Capability, a rapid acquisition program that will provide all-weather space domain awareness in GEO. Fiscal 2023 funding, if approved, would support the standup of the first DARC site as well as prototyping for the radar. The Space Force in February awarded Northrop a $341m Other Transaction Agreement for the program’s first increment. (Source: Defense News)
28 Mar 22. Pentagon seeks $11.2bn for cyber in FY23 budget request. The Pentagon wants $11.2 bn for various cyber efforts, with plans to harden networks, shield critical infrastructure and expand forces under U.S. Cyber Command’s authority. The Biden administration’s fiscal year 2023 budget request, released March 28, is an increase of $800m, or nearly 8%, over the administration’s fiscal year 2022 cyber ask, and $1.4bn more than the plan for the fiscal year before that. The figure includes a little more than $1bn for Navy cybersecurity, a boost of more than $200 m compared to fiscal year 2022 enacted levels, budget documents show. Exact figures for the Army and Air Force were not immediately clear.
“U.S. prosperity and military success depend on the cyber resiliency of the Joint Force to execute missions successfully in a contested environment,” the Pentagon said in a press release detailing the budget. “The FY 2023 Budget allows for continued investment in cyberspace initiatives.”
To advance its goals in cyberspace — an increasingly influential domain — the Defense Department plans to invest in cyber training ranges and to add five teams to Cyber Command’s Cyber Mission Force, lifting the total to 142.
The force, now thousands of people strong, was stood up in 2012 to execute the department’s cyber missions and has been dubbed its “action arm.” The Defense Department hoped to add 14 teams to the cyber force over the next three years, C4ISRNET reported in May 2021, citing an official familiar with the matter.
Cyber Command in 2018 said all of its teams had reached full operational capability. Gen. Paul Nakasone, the Cyber Command chief, at the time said the teams developed the “skills and capabilities necessary to defend our networks and deliver cyberspace operational capabilities to the nation.”
A request for comment made to Cyber Command was not immediately answered Monday.
The Defense Department’s larger ask and continued emphasis on cyberspace come amid a torrent of concerns expressed by lawmakers and other officials, as well as Russia’s ongoing assault on Ukraine, where internet services have been knocked offline, communications have been jumbled and websites have been paralyzed by distributed denial-of-service attacks.
Budget documents published by the White House describe cyber investment as a priority while explicitly painting Russia as a threat and malign influence that needs countering. The Kremlin’s digital reach has repeatedly stretched to U.S. shores, where hackers and other shady operators have interfered with elections, attempted to sway public sentiment and harassed private industry.
The FBI, National Security Agency and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency in February accused Russian-backed hackers of targeting U.S. defense contractors and absconding with sensitive or proprietary data.
The fiscal year 2023 budget would increase cybersecurity support for the defense industrial base via additional pilot programs and other services, documents state. (Source: Defense News)
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Founded in 1987, Exensor Technology is a world leading supplier of Networked Unattended Ground Sensor (UGS) Systems providing tailored sensor solutions to customers all over the world. From our Headquarters in Lund Sweden, our centre of expertise in Network Communications at Communications Research Lab in Kalmar Sweden and our Production site outside of Basingstoke UK, we design, develop and produce latest state of the art rugged UGS solutions at the highest quality to meet the most stringent demands of our customers. Our systems are in operation and used in a wide number of Military as well as Homeland Security applications worldwide. The modular nature of the system ensures any external sensor can be integrated, providing the user with a fully meshed “silent” network capable of self-healing. Exensor Technology will continue to lead the field in UGS technology, provide our customers with excellent customer service and a bespoke package able to meet every need. A CNIM Group Company
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