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30 Dec 22. Pentagon and Lockheed Martin Finalize Lot 15-17 Agreement, Capping a Year of International Growth. The F-35 Joint Program Office and Lockheed Martin have finalized the contract for the production and delivery for up to 398 F-35s for $30 billion, including U.S., international partners and Foreign Military Sales (FMS) aircraft in Lots 15 and 16, with the option for Lot 17.
“The F-35 delivers unsurpassed capability to our warfighters and operational commanders,” said Air Force Lt. Gen. Mike Schmidt, program executive officer, F-35 Joint Program Office. “This contract strikes the right balance between what’s best for the U.S. taxpayers, military services, allies and our foreign military sales customers. The F-35 is the world’s premier multi-mission, 5th-generation weapon system, and the modernized Block 4 capabilities these new aircraft will bring to bear strengthens not just capability, but interoperability with our allies and partners across land, sea, air and cyber domains.”
The agreement includes 145 aircraft for Lot 15, 127 for Lot 16, and up to 126 for the Lot 17 contract option, including the first F-35 aircraft for Belgium, Finland and Poland.
Lot 15-17 aircraft will be the first to include Technical Refresh-3 (TR-3), the modernized hardware needed to power Block 4 capabilities. TR-3 includes a new integrated core processor with greater computing power, a panoramic cockpit display and an enhanced memory unit.
These aircraft will add to the growing global fleet, currently at 894 aircraft after 141 deliveries this year. The F-35 team was on track to meet the commitment of 148 aircraft as planned; however, due to a temporary pause in flight operations, which is still in effect, necessary acceptance flight tests could not be performed.
The finalized contract caps off a year of the F-35 delivering combat-proven airpower around the world and continued international growth. This year, Finland, Germany and Switzerland signed Letters of Offer and Acceptance (LOAs) as an important step in their procurement of F-35 aircraft.
“Continuing to add new countries to our global F-35 fleet further validates the capability and affordability of this aircraft in providing 21st Century Security to nations and allies,” said Bridget Lauderdale, Lockheed Martin vice president and general manager, F-35 Program. “There is simply no other aircraft that can do all that the F-35 does to defeat and deter even the most advanced threats.”
F-35 program participants currently include 17 countries. To date, more than 1,870 pilots and 13,500 maintainers have been trained, and the F-35 fleet has surpassed more than 602,000 cumulative flight hours.
30 Dec 22. F-35 deliveries halted after Texas mishap; new contract finalized.
Lockheed Martin on Friday announced it halted acceptance flights and deliveries of new F-35 Joint Strike Fighters amid an investigation into the cause of an F-35B mishap on a Texas runway this month.
The halt means Lockheed delivered fewer F-35s than the 148 contractually required in 2022.
“We were on track to meet our delivery commitment” before the F-35B mishap on Dec. 15, Lockheed spokeswoman Laura Siebert told Defense News. “However, given the delivery pause, we delivered 141 aircraft” this year.
The Pentagon and Lockheed Martin also announced Friday they finalized a contract worth up to $30 billion to deliver up to 398 F-35s for U.S. and international customers over the program’s next three lots, from lots 15 through 17. However, the contract only guarantees lots 15 and 16, with an option for lot 17.
The contract will also include the first F-35s for Belgium, Finland and Poland, Lockheed said in a release.
Siebert said Lockheed halted acceptance flights after the Dec. 15 mishap “out of an abundance of caution.” And because those flights must happen before the delivery of newly built F-35s, it had the effect of halting deliveries as well.
Lockheed has since continued to build new F-35s at Air Force Plant 4 in Fort Worth, Texas, the main facility for building the fifth-generation fighters. But through the latter half of December, those newly completed F-35s stayed on the ground.
Siebert said nine new F-35s are now awaiting acceptance flights and deliveries.
Video of the Dec. 15 mishap, which went viral on social media, showed the F-35B hovering not far above the ground before descending, bouncing once and tipping forward. Its nose and wing touch the ground, and it starts to spin around. The pilot safely ejected.
This was a newly constructed F-35B that had not been transferred to the U.S. government. The pilot is in the Air Force and was performing quality checks for the Defense Contract Management Agency at the time.
Naval Air Systems Command is still investigating the mishap, with the support of the F-35 Joint Program Office. But earlier this week, the JPO issued guidance as a result of the incident for a small number of newer F-35s it felt are at higher risk.
In a Tuesday statement to Defense News, the JPO said it “has issued a Time Compliance Technical Directive (TCTD) to restrict some aircraft, which have been evaluated to be of higher risk, from flight operations while the investigation into the mishap on December 15 continues and until procedures can be developed for their return to flight.”
The JPO would not say how many fighters were grounded.
A source familiar with the program told Defense News the investigation into the Dec. 15 mishap found that a tube used to transfer high-pressure fuel in the fighter’s F135 engine, made by Pratt & Whitney, had failed. This discovery prompted the JPO to update its safety risk assessments, which affected jets with fewer than 40 hours of flying.
Pratt & Whitney declined to comment to Defense News on the Dec. 15 mishap because it involves an ongoing investigation.
The latest contract for F-35s could include more fighters than the Pentagon originally estimated. When the handshake agreement was announced in July, William LaPlante, the Pentagon’s chief weapons buyer, said the deal was for about 375 aircraft.
But the maximum order of 398 fighters Lockheed Martin will now build — 145 in lot 15, 127 in lot 16 and an option to build up to 126 in lot 17 — is still 80 fewer than those included in the previous $34 billion contract for lots 12 through 14, signed in 2019.
“The F-35 delivers unsurpassed capability to our warfighters and operational commanders,” Air Force Lt. Gen. Mike Schmidt, the F-35′s program executive officer, said in the Lockheed release. “This contract strikes the right balance between what’s best for the U.S. taxpayers, military services, allies and our foreign military sales customers.”
Lockheed said it has so far delivered 894 F-35s worldwide, including the 141 from this year. Other nations that will receive fighters as part of the latest contract include Australia, Denmark, Israel, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway and the U.K.
“Continuing to add new countries to our global F-35 fleet further validates the capability and affordability of this aircraft in providing 21st century security to nations and allies,” Bridget Lauderdale, vice president and general manager for Lockheed Martin’s F-35 program. “There is simply no other aircraft that can do all that the F-35 does to defeat and deter even the most advanced threats.”
The average price of an F-35A aircraft vehicle — that is, everything in the fighter except the engine — will increase 6.5% between lot 14 and lot 17, Lockheed said. The company added it was able to hold the cost growth down below the rate of inflation.
The per-unit aircraft vehicle cost for an F-35A was $65.6 million in lot 14, Lockheed said. That cost will increase to $70.2 million in lot 15, before dropping to $69.3 million in lot 16 and then rising again to $69.9 million in lot 17.
Siebert said the government’s contract with F135 engine-maker Pratt & Whitney is not finalized, so the total price for an F-35 including the engine cannot yet be calculated.
This is a shift from the previous contract, which saw several years of declining F-35 costs. The Pentagon said in 2019 the average price per F-35 would fall about 12.8% from lot 11 to lot 14.
Lockheed said several factors have contributed to the increase in costs, including inflation, supply chain issues and other COVID-19 related complications, as well as the reduced number of jets being purchased.
The F-35s being built for lot 15 and beyond will include greater capabilities, most notably the inclusion of Technology Refresh 3 upgrades to the jet’s hardware and software, which Lockheed said is also contributing to the price increase. The TR3 upgrades are intended to improve the F-35′s displays, processing capability and memory, while paving the way for the jet’s Block 4 modernization effort.
“You’re adding capabilities, you’re buying more of a jet now,” Edward Smith, Lockheed Martin’s director of F-35 domestic engagement, told Defense News during a visit to Plant 4 in November. “Your prices are going to go up a bit. You can’t [get the price lower] by cutting … airplanes out of a lot buy.”
Schmidt touted the increased capabilities that will come with the next batches of F-35s in the release.
“The F-35 is the world’s premier multi-mission, fifth-generation weapon system, and the modernized Block 4 capabilities these new aircraft will bring to bear strengthens not just capability, but interoperability with our allies and partners across land, sea, air and cyber domains,” Schmidt said.
Lockheed said it expects to deliver between 147 and 153 fighters annually over the next two years, although that could change as a result of the delivery pause at the end of 2022. (Source: Defense News)
28 Dec 22. Army special operations rethinking force structure, tech. The next year could prove pivotal for the Army’s most elite forces, as ongoing experiments with force structure and how to best integrate technical expertise at the tactical level could reshape the way the service’s special operations look and fight.
Army Times obtained an exclusive interview with the commanding general of Army Special Operations Command at the Association of the U.S. Army conference in October, highlighting the pilot programs for the publication’s November cover story.
Lt. Gen. Jon Braga explained that the increasing role that space and cyber operations play in competition and conflicts (such as the ongoing war in Ukraine) has necessitated a reconsideration of long-held truths. The recently-unveiled “influence triad” is a framework to help commanders consider special operations, space and cyber together in a modern-era “combined arms” model.
The command is experimenting with expanding the size of the Special Forces operational detachment-alpha from the traditional 12 soldiers to 16. Other “convergence” efforts are underway to integrate all three branches of Army SOF at the battalion and brigade headquarters levels rather than keeping them siloed by branch as they currently are.
Braga also said that the command is experimenting with creating a new career field with a tech focus to help take some of the technical load off of the soldiers currently on the teams.
The commander indicated that other options could be on the table as well, such as restructuring the reserve component civil affairs and psychological operations formations. (Source: Army Times)
23 Dec 22. Biden Signs National Defense Authorization Act into Law.
President Joe Biden has signed the Fiscal 2023 National Defense Authorization Act into law allotting $816.7bn to the Defense Department.
The act means a 4.6 percent pay raise for military and civilian members of the department, and includes $45bn more than originally requested to counter the effects of inflation and to accelerate implementation of the National Defense Strategy.
The act also authorizes $30.3bn for national security programs in the Department of Energy and the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board and $378 m for other defense-related activities.
Although inflation has been dropping, the act authorizes $12.6bn for inflation impacts on purchases. It also funds $3.8bn more to account for inflation in military construction. It is a testament to the size of the agency that the act authorizes $2.5bn for inflation impacts on DOD fuel purchases.
One of the more contentious items in the act is requiring the defense secretary to rescind the mandate that members of the armed forces be vaccinated against COVID-19. “The department will fully comply with the law,” DOD officials said. “DOD remains committed to the health and safety of the force and to ensuring we are ready to execute our mission at all times.”
Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III ordered the mandate on August 24, 2021. The COVID-19 vaccinations have been successful. Some 98 percent of active duty service members and 96 percent of the total force have been vaccinated. Since April, only two service members have died from COVID-19.
Austin argued that the mandate is necessary to protect military readiness, and he has been clear in his support for maintaining it. Still, Congress has spoken and the department will fully comply with the NDAA, officials said.
On the personnel side, the act authorizes additional funding to address the effects of inflation on compensation. It also puts in place language allowing more service members to qualify for the basic needs allowance by increasing the eligibility threshold and allowance size from 130 percent of the federal poverty line to 150 percent. The act authorizes the defense secretary to increase this benefit to 200 percent of the poverty line when appropriate.
The act increases bonuses and special pay for service members in qualifying career fields. The act also looks to give recruiters a tool to revive and extend temporary authority for targeted recruitment incentives.
DOD officials have said that roughly one-third of spouses must obtain new professional licenses every time they move to a new state. The act expands the scope of financial reimbursement related to spouse relicensing and business costs arising from a permanent change of station.
The act also calls for a pilot program to reimburse military families for certain child care costs related to a permanent change of station.
There are several changes in the act regarding housing. The act extends the authority to adjust the basic allowance for housing in high-cost areas. It encourages DOD to coordinate efforts to address housing shortages. The act also makes the assistant secretary of defense for energy, installations and environment the department’s chief housing officer.
There were no surprises on active duty end strength with the Army set at 452,000; the Navy at 354,000; the Air Force at 325,344; the Marine Corps set at 177,000 and the Space Force at 8,600.
Other aspects of the act include the authorization of special duty pay for members based on cold weather climate conditions in which their duties are performed. The act also starts a program to reimburse Alaska-based service members for the cost of airfare to travel to their homes of record.
The NDAA authorizes $32.6bn for Navy shipbuilding, an increase of $4.7 bn. This will fund 11 battle force ships including three Arleigh Burke-class destroyers; two Virginia-class submarines; two expeditionary fast transports; one Constellation-class frigate; one San Antonio-class amphibious ship; one John Lewis-class oiler and one Navajo-class towing, salvage and rescue ship.
The act also calls for the Navy to build a third Arleigh Burke-class destroyer and allocates $2.2bn to the effort.
The act funds eight F-18E/F aircraft, 16 F-35C aircraft, 15 F-35B jets and 12 CH-53K helicopters. The legislation also authorizes two more V-22 Osprey aircraft, seven E-2D Hawkeye aircraft and five KC-130J tanker aircraft. The act funds several unmanned aerial platforms including the Triton and Stingray systems.
The act authorizes the full fiscal year 2023 budget request for the European Deterrence Initiative and extends and modifies the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative. It authorizes $800m in fiscal year 2023, an increase of $500m above the initial budget request.
More importantly, the act expresses the sense of Congress that the United States’ commitment to NATO is ironclad, and emphasizes the importance of maintaining a unified response to Russia’s unjust war in Ukraine and other shared security challenges, according to a release on the Senate Armed Services Committee website. The Senate release also stressed that the U.S. must continue to assist Ukraine in its fight against the unjust and unprovoked attack by Russia.
To that end, the act calls for an assessment of the required U.S. force posture and resourcing needed to implement the National Defense Strategy in Europe and uphold U.S. commitments to NATO.
Across the globe, the act extends the Pacific Deterrence Initiative through the fiscal year and identifies approximately $11.5 bn of investments in support of initiative objectives.
The U.S. military works alongside allies, partners and friends, and the act provides an increase of $198.5 m for partner capacity building through the International Security Cooperation Programs account within the Defense Security Cooperation Agency.
The NDAA also calls for an independent assessment of DOD efforts to train, advise, assist and equip the military forces of Somalia, and authorizes an increase of $10 m to support U.S. Africa Command’s efforts to diversify the locations of its multilateral military exercises on the African continent.
The legislation extends the authority to assist Iraq to counter the Islamic State and provides monies to train Syrian allies against the terror group.
The act looks to provide long-term aid to Ukraine especially in waiving restrictions related to contracts for munitions to support Ukraine or to increase DOD’s stocks of critical munitions. It also provides multi-year procurement authority for certain munitions.
The act authorizes DOD to establish a Center for Security Studies in Irregular Warfare to serve as a central mechanism for developing irregular warfare knowledge. The center will be open to allies and partners.
Finally, the act fully funds the U.S. Special Operations Command’s budget including approximately $250 m for unfunded requirements identified by the Socom commander. (Source: US DoD)
22 Dec 22. US can strengthen security by developing domestic rare earth resources. U.S. foreign policy is increasingly focused on combating China. There is constant news of China seeking geopolitical power and control — from the possible invasion of Taiwan, to strengthening their alliance with Russia, to the competition for space supremacy. That’s why the Defense Department’s recent 2022 China Military Power Report called China, “the most consequential and systemic challenge to our national security and to a free and open international system.”
But earlier this year – in a move that made few headlines – the U.S. made a necessary but concerning decision that gives China power over a critical piece of our vital military equipment. Lockheed Martin had to halt delivery of the Air Force’s new F-35 fighter jet because it used a Chinese-produced cobalt and samarium alloy in the turbomachine that helps start the engine.
The subsequent national security waiver was necessary because the U.S. lacks domestic production capacity for this critical material. The choice was either to accept the Chinese alloy or have the new planes sit in storage.
In the short-term, the decision poses no national security risk. As the waiver order made clear, the rare earth elements are not a safety risk and the F-35s have already logged over 500,000 flight hours.
In the long term, the status quo around critical materials is unacceptable since it gives China a “kill switch” for America’s defense manufacturing. Were China to invade Taiwan and risk war with the U.S., it would almost certainly cut off the alloy and therefore make it impossible to produce new F-35s during the conflict. Since rare earths are components for almost all modern manufacturing, this would also halt our ability to produce tanks, naval vessels, and virtually every other weapons system.
The root cause of this problem is China’s near-monopoly on critical materials for batteries, magnets, and other essential components in manufacturing. China processes more than 80% of the world’s cobalt. It is mined under inhumane conditions in the Congo, often by child labor, and then shipped overseas to be refined into a usable form.
More broadly, China controls over 95% of the world’s rare earth metals, which are 17 different elements crucial to magnets, batteries, and many other manufacturing processes.
China cutting off American manufacturing capacity during a war is not some far-fetched tail risk. A Chinese invasion of Taiwan is increasingly plausible as Chairman Xi tightens his grip on power and becomes ever more hostile to the Western-led international order. In wargames, American policymakers assume that a surprise attack on American bases throughout the Indo-Pacific would precede an invasion of Taiwan. Chinese media outlets have echoed that plan.
American defense manufacturing and military preparedness does not need to be at China’s mercy. We can refine critical materials with a secure and sustainable domestic supply chain.
Metal refining conjures up a frightening mental image of billowing smoke stacks, bubbling vats of toxic chemicals, and workers risking life and limb. While that is the traditional process used overseas, it isn’t how a modern American company would or should operate. Materials science, metallurgy, chemistry, and engineering have all made tremendous advances since refining went overseas.
American innovation can re-shore these critical materials without compromising our values of environmental sustainability or worker safety. New techniques are capable of refining rare earth metals, nickel, cobalt, & platinum group metals from mining waste known as tailings. There are no direct carbon emissions, no hazardous byproducts, and no risk to workers’ health.
This process is already being used to make commercially viable neodymium — a rare earth metal used in magnets — in the U.S. for the first time in decades. Both startups and established corporations are making advances in production, meaning the nation can have a secure domestic supply chain.
The federal government must take concrete steps to support environmentally sustainable domestic production of rare earths, including increasing funding for federal grants and low-interest loans to rapidly scale up metal refining. While research and development is essential, the biggest challenge faced in this industry is capital costs to expand since refining requires large amounts of expensive equipment.
We simply cannot afford to put our national security at risk and wait another decade to reshore these critical materials. The F-35 fighter jet is a technological marvel that gives America a huge advantage in war. But as we are seeing in Ukraine, being able to rapidly produce new equipment is equally essential. That will never happen so long as China controls our ability to access critical materials. We cannot delay bringing them back to the U.S. (Source: Defense News Early Bird/Defense News)
23 Dec 22. Congress passes funding bill with major cash infusion for Pentagon. Congress on Friday passed a spending bill to fund the government and avoid a shutdown as part of a deal that includes a significant cash influx for the Defense Department with a 9% budget increase over fiscal 2022 levels on top of billions in additional aid for Ukraine.
The House on Friday voted 225-201 to pass the $1.7trn omnibus spending bill after the Senate did the same 68-29 on Thursday. President Joe Biden is expected to sign the legislation, which includes $817bn for the FY23 Pentagon budget as well as another $27.9bn for the Defense Department to continue its effort to support Ukraine. This marks a significant increase over the $773bn in defense spending Biden asked for as part of his budget proposal earlier this year.
“The world’s greatest military will get the funding increase that it needs, outpacing inflation,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Wednesday. “This is a debate about American security, American servicemembers, and American interests on the world stage.”
The agreement contains $8bn specifically allocated to help the Pentagon cope with the impact of inflation, including $1bn in acquisition-related costs and $3.7bn for fuel. Republicans and some centrist Democrats have hammered the Biden administration for underestimating the inflation rate in its budget proposal.
Ukraine aid
The bill brings the total amount of emergency cash Congress has given the Pentagon to help Ukraine fend off Russia’s invasion to $61.4bn since the war started in March.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appealed to Congress — and skeptical House Republicans — for additional aid in a joint address Wednesday following a meeting with Biden at the White House.
“It is just a matter of time when [Russia] will strike against your other allies if we do not stop them now,” said Zelenskyy. “There should be no taboos between us in our alliance. Ukraine never asked the American soldiers to fight on our land instead of us. I assure you that Ukrainian soldiers can perfectly operate American tanks and planes themselves.”
The omnibus includes $9.3bn for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which allows the Pentagon to contract for new weapons and equipment for Kyiv.
Another $11.9bn in the Ukraine supplemental spending is allocated for the Defense Department to replenish weapons the U.S. has already sent to Kyiv from its existing stockpiles under presidential drawdown authority. The bill also increases Biden’s drawdown authority for Ukraine to $14.5bn for FY23, allowing him to continue transferring weapons from U.S. stocks.
Littoral combat ships
The bill takes aim at the Navy’s efforts to retire littoral combat ships, which Congress inhibited when it passed the FY23 National Defense Authorization Act earlier this month. A report accompanying the omnibus directs Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro to submit a plan on littoral combat ships to Congress within a month from when the bill becomes law.
“The Navy is conducting studies on the alternative uses of these platforms, including the future integration of unmanned systems,” the report states. “It is noted and appreciated that the Navy is taking these positive steps in utilizing ships that were funded at great taxpayer expense.”
The omnibus allocates $31.9bn for the Navy to buy an additional 12 ships with an eye on bolstering the fleet to compete with China in the Indo-Pacific. That includes $6.9bn for three Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, despite the White House’s opposition to acquiring a third such ship.
“Month after month, year after year, competitors such as China are methodically pouring money and planning into upgrading and modernizing their own militaries,” said McConnell. “They are constantly probing new ways to expand their military, intelligence, economic, and political reach — indirectly or directly threatening American forces and our allies’ and partners’ forces.
Additionally, the bill provides $4.5bn for two Virginia-class fast attack submarines, $3.1bn for the Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine, another $3.1bn for two amphibious assault ships and $1.1bn for a Constellation-class Frigate.
Aircraft transfers to Central Asia
The bill report says the “agreement provides funding for international security cooperation programs with Central Asian countries to increase border security and counter terrorist threats emanating from Afghanistan by utilizing certain aircraft taken out of that country.”
The Biden administration is negotiating with Uzbekistan and Tajikistan to transfer some 50 U.S. aircraft in exchange for counter-terrorism cooperation. Afghan pilots affiliated with the previous U.S.-backed government flew these planes out of the country amid the Taliban takeover last year in the wake of the Biden administration’s withdrawal.
The report directs Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to consult with Congress on the costs of transferring these aircraft to the aforementioned Central Asian countries within two months of the bill’s enactment.
The omnibus also provides $8.5bn to procure 61 F-35 fighter jets and restore another 19. That’s on top of another $2.1bn to continue modernizing the F-35 program. (Source: Defense News)
23 Dec 22. More sanctions against Russian entities likely amid expanded power to prosecute war criminals. Congress approved a bill on 22 December to expand the government’s power to prosecute suspected international war criminals located in the US, regardless of where the crime was committed. The legislation – which was backed by lawmakers citing alleged Russian war crimes in Ukraine – will bring the US legal code in line with international law. Currently, federal law only allows for suspected war criminals to be prosecuted if an offence was committed in the US, or if the victim or suspect is a US national. The move comes as the US State Department confirmed the imposition of new sanctions against ten Russian naval entities. Further sanctions against Russian shipping and logistic firms are likely in the near term.
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