Sponsored by Exensor
www.exensor.com
————————————————————————-
26 Jan 23. U.S.-Albanian Leaders Discuss NATO, Bilateral Relations.
U.S. and Albanian defense leaders met today at the Pentagon to make a strong bilateral alliance even stronger. Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III met with Defense Minister Niko Peleshi met as the two nations marked the 30th year of their nations’ defense relationship.
The men last spoke during the Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting in Ramstein Air Base last week. Albania, a NATO ally, is providing aid to Ukraine as the country battles against Russian invaders.
“Over the past three decades, our relationship has only deepened,” Austin said at the beginning of the meeting. “Our forces train and exercise together. They work alongside each other in coalition operations.”
Albanian troops have served alongside U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, Kosovo, Iraq and Latvia. “More recently, we appreciate Albania support and hosting Defender Europe ’21,”Austin said.
The secretary also said he appreciated that Albania has volunteered to host Defender Europe ’23.
“We’re meeting at a critical time for European security,”the secretary said. “Last week’s contact group underscored the importance of moving urgently to strengthen Ukraine against Russian aggression and to strengthen our shared security.”
Austin thanked the Albanian minister for the lethal and humanitarian aid his country is providing Ukraine. Albania is also deploying forces to bolster NATO’s defense in the East.
Peleshi told Austin his country is proud to be a member of NATO and an ally of the United States. He said his country wants to do what is needed. “We have been very active in international missions, NATO missions, U.N. missions and operations because we want to deserve being an ally of the great, most powerful political alliance,” he said. (Source: US DoD)
26 Jan 23. DoD Releases Small Business Strategy. The Department of Defense (DoD) released its Small Business Strategy today. The strategy promotes a strong, dynamic, and robust small business industrial base by focusing on reducing barriers to entry, increasing set-aside competitions, and leveraging programs to grow the industrial base.
“From manufacturers providing the critical parts that we need for our arsenal – to technology companies developing innovative systems and capabilities – small businesses are vital along the entire spectrum of the Department’s needs,” Deputy Secretary of Defense Dr. Kathleen Hicks said. “Reducing barriers and creating more opportunities for small businesses will allow us to expand, innovate, and diversify, increasing our warfighter advantage, strengthening our supply chains, increasing competition in our marketplace, and growing our economy here at home.”
Small businesses make up 99.9 percent of all U.S. businesses as well as 73 percent of companies in the defense industrial base, and last year small businesses were awarded over 25 percent of all DoD prime contracts. As the economic engine of our nation, small businesses create jobs, generate innovation, and are essential, daily contributors to national security and the defense mission. This strategy will help DoD harness the full potential of small businesses through three objectives: implement a unified management approach for small business programs and activities; ensure the Department’s small business activities align with national security priorities; and strengthen the Department’s engagement and support of small businesses.
“Fostering a resilient and robust industrial base is one of my top priorities,” said Dr. William LaPlante, Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment. “Supporting small businesses is not just about meeting a goal or checking a box; it’s about building advantages for our warfighters. All of American industry, especially our innovative small businesses, has a role in developing, delivering, and sustaining the critical capabilities that are required to further implement the National Defense Strategy.”
“Small businesses are crucial to national security,” Director of the Office of Small Business Programs Farooq Mitha added. “Our military depends on small businesses that bring innovation and agility to support DoD’s mission. From providing critical component parts, to cutting edge software platforms, to essential services, small businesses provide support across nearly the entirety of the Department of Defense.”
As part of DoD’s efforts to strengthen support of small businesses, this strategy focuses on stepping up engagement with industry, including providing more tools and resources. This engagement and training effort will be facilitated by the Department’s ninety-six APEX Accelerators located across the country, formerly known as the Procurement Technical Assistance Centers, which serve as a resource for small businesses to increase their readiness, help them find opportunities to do business with the Department and accelerate their insertion into the defense marketplace.
The Office of Small Business Programs encourages those interested in working with DoD to read a “Guide to Marketing to DoD” on https://business.defense.gov
The Small Business Strategy can be found here: https://media.defense.gov/2023/Jan/26/2003150429/-1/-1/0/SMALL-BUSINESS-STRATEGY.PDF (Source: US DoD)
25 Jan 23. DoD Announces Update to DoD Directive 3000.09, ‘Autonomy In Weapon Systems.’ The Department of Defense announced today the update to DoD Directive 3000.09, Autonomy in Weapon Systems. The update reflects DoD’s strong and continuing commitment to being a transparent global leader in establishing responsible policies regarding military uses of autonomous systems and artificial intelligence (AI).
The update also reflects changes in the Department over the last decade, changes in the world, and Department requirements to reissue and update directives within certain time periods.
“DoD is committed to developing and employing all weapon systems, including those with autonomous features and functions, in a responsible and lawful manner,” said Deputy Secretary of Defense Dr. Kathleen Hicks. “Given the dramatic advances in technology happening all around us, the update to our Autonomy in Weapon Systems directive will help ensure we remain the global leader of not only developing and deploying new systems, but also safety.”
The Directive was established to minimize the probability and consequences of failures in autonomous and semi-autonomous weapon systems that could lead to unintended engagements.
The requirements established in the Directive include the following:
- Autonomous and semi-autonomous weapon systems will be designed to allow commanders and operators to exercise appropriate levels of human judgment over the use of force.
- Persons who authorize the use of, direct the use of, or operate autonomous and semi- autonomous weapon systems will do so with appropriate care and in accordance with the law of war, applicable treaties, weapon system safety rules, and applicable rules of engagement.
- The weapon system has demonstrated appropriate performance, capability, reliability, effectiveness, and suitability under realistic conditions.
- The design, development, deployment, and use of systems incorporating AI capabilities is consistent with the DoD AI Ethical Principles and the DoD Responsible AI (RAI) Strategy and Implementation Pathway.
The DoD 3000.09 can be found here: https://media.defense.gov/2023/Jan/25/2003149928/-1/-1/0/DOD-DIRECTIVE-3000.09-AUTONOMY-IN-WEAPON-SYSTEMS.PDF(Source: US DoD)
25 Jan 23. DOD Updates Autonomy in Weapons System Directive.
The Defense Department just updated DoD Directive 3000.09, Autonomy in Weapon Systems, which governs the development and fielding of autonomous and semi-autonomous weapon systems.
The core of the directive remains unchanged. DOD updated the directive due to advances in technology, changes in the structure of the department and changes in the security environment.
The department has been a global leader in the responsible development and use of weapon systems with autonomous functions, first issuing DoDD 3000.09 in 2012. DOD requires extensive testing, reviews and management oversight for the approval of any weapon systems. DoDD 3000.09 requires something more – a review by senior officials prior to the development and deployment of any autonomous weapon systems that do not meet specific exemptions.
The department is committed “to developing and employing all weapon systems, including those with autonomous features and functions, in a responsible and lawful manner,” said Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen H. Hicks in a written statement. The directive is a demonstration of this commitment in action.
Technology has advanced, and changes to the directive reflect these advancements. The update “will help ensure we can remain on the cutting edge not only of developing and deploying new systems, but also safety,” the deputy secretary said.
A second official, speaking on background, stressed that the update to the directive is “a clarification, not a major change.” DOD leaders believe the original 2012 directive remains fundamentally sound, but after a decade, it was due for some tweaks. “The updated directive is one part of a series of DOD policies that establish governance surrounding military uses of autonomous systems and artificial intelligence,” the official said.
The directive remains aimed at ensuring that commanders and operators can exercise appropriate levels of human judgment over the use of force. Among other things, the changes clarify which autonomous weapon systems will require an additional senior review prior to formal development and before fielding.
The directive maintains the requirement that commanders and operators who authorize the use of, direct the use of, or operate autonomous and semi-autonomous weapon systems do so with appropriate care and in accordance with the law of war, applicable treaties, weapon system safety rules and applicable rules of engagement.
DOD will continue to study advancements in related technology, including artificial intelligence. As these technologies mature, DOD officials recognize the importance of updating DOD policy. “While not all autonomous weapon systems will incorporate AI-enabled capabilities moving forward, AI is likely to play an increasing role in a range of systems and capabilities,” the official said. (Source: US DoD)
25 Jan 23. Ukraine, Asia Drove 50% Increase in FY22 Arms Sales. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency last year saw a substantial increase in the arms sales it administers, including arms purchased directly by partner nations with their own funds and sales funded through the Foreign Military Financing program.
Total arms sales in fiscal year 2022, about $52bn worth, exceeded FY21’s $34.81bn in sales by nearly 50%.
James A. Hursch, the director of DSCA, cited factors such as the waning effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and concerns about China’s rising influence in the Pacific as possible reasons for increased sales.
“Perhaps most importantly, the understanding among our partners and allies that we’re back in an age of great power competition,” Hursch said. “They see what’s happened in Ukraine. Central European countries, for example, are looking to get some of the same capabilities that have worked well for the Ukrainian army, and to increase their own capabilities for deterrence.”
In the Pacific, allies and partners are wary of China’s increasing dominance. “Allies are looking at China and the situations with China in Asia, and thinking they need to increase their capabilities,” he said.
Last year’s increase can also be attributed to existing partners now opting to buy more expensive gear, Hursch said.
“As we continue to improve our equipment, it tends to get more costly. Buying a HIMARS system, for example, is more expensive than buying a Howitzer,” he said referring to the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System. “And that’s the sort of upgrade that several of our allies and partners are looking to do.”
While large equipment purchases are responsible for much of last year’s increase, it can also be attributed in part to some of DSCA’s less costly programs which help partner nations build institutional capacity, he said.
“We do things like making sure they have the capacity to do coastal surveillance or maritime surveillance,” he said. “We work with countries that are working to build their own airspace surveillance.”
To help with that capacity building, Hursch said DSCA last year deployed 42 defense advisors to 23 different countries through DSCA’s Ministry of Defense Advisors program.
“These are folks who are actually embedded in foreign governments to provide advice to countries, which could be about their procurement stuff, but could also be about helping set up a national security strategy,” he said.
In the coming years, Hursch said, he expects to see continued increases in arms sales — but he also said it would be difficult to predict by just how much. One contributing factor which he said makes him confident of increasing sales is that many allies have publicly committed to spending more on their own defense.
“When you look at our allies and partners, a lot of them have increased their defense budgets in recent years, or in the last year or so, in response to what’s happened in Ukraine,” he said. “I think we will continue to see strong demand signals because of that … It’s a little hard to tell exactly how much the increase will be, but I think it will be at least as strong as this year and probably a little higher.”
Also, a possibility for increased sales in the future, Hursch said, is that allies and partners in Eastern Europe may be interested in providing their own Soviet-era equipment to Ukraine and would then be interested in buying replacement equipment from the U.S. to backfill their own capabilities.
“We have had those conversations,” he said. “In fact, in last year’s foreign military financing budget, the State Department had a certain amount of money that was given out to help replace Soviet-era systems that might have been donated to Ukraine, and to help them buy Western systems in the future. So, there have been some of these conversations.”
Between the Feb. 24, 2022, Russian invasion of Ukraine and the end of FY22, the U.S. committed to more than $14.9bn in security assistance to Ukraine through both presidential drawdown authority and the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative.
A drawdown allows the president in certain circumstances to withdraw existing weapons, ammunitions and material from existing U.S. military stocks and provide that to other nations. Support under USAI differs from that provided as part of PDA in that it uses money appropriated by Congress to purchase new equipment for Ukraine rather than having it be limited to pulling from existing military inventory.
DSCA was involved in helping the U.S. meet both of those kinds of commitments to Ukraine, Hursch said.
“All of those presidential drawdown authority execution orders — telling the military departments and service to actually do that — are done by DSCA,” Hursch said. “And we’re intimately involved … in working through the demand signals that come from theater and from U.S. European Command, working through shaping and putting together the packages of presidential drawdown amount and getting that coordinated within the U.S. government and the department.”
DSCA, Hursch said, was also involved in several tranches of providing USAI support to Ukraine as well.
DSCA has more than 1,200 authorized military and civilian positions and contractor personnel. But the total workforce involved in security cooperation efforts across the entire Defense Department exceeds 16,000. While some of those security cooperation professionals don’t work directly for Hursch, they are accredited in their work and are also trained at the Defense Security Cooperation University, a part of DSCA which stood up just a little over three years ago.
Meeting 2022’s security cooperation efforts around the globe, Hursch said, required the efforts of all of those professionals.
“The enterprise as a whole, not just DSCA, stepped up last year,” he said. “As a whole, we have increased our focus on trying to get things done quickly, to get the foreign military sales process to work more quickly and to get wherever possible contracts to be let faster.”
Hursch said DOD has been directed by Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III to improve their own part of the Foreign Military Sales process.
“The secretary asked us to look at ways in which we can improve the FMS process as a whole,” he said, adding that it’s not the first time DSCA has been asked to streamline and improve their portion of FMS. He said as part of the SECDEF’s most-recent direction, the team has looked at several case studies so that they might draw from those some lessons on how to improve.
“One is the continued need to better educate and prepare our workforce over time, which we put some effort in, but we need to do more on,” he said. “Another is questions about the acquisition system — which is something which we’re working on altogether, with the acquisition and sustainment folks.”
As a result of COVID-19, he said, there have also been concerns about the capacity of the U.S. industrial base to manufacture and provide the materiel foreign nations might want to procure from the U.S.
“Our acquisition and sustainment people have been working hard to try to make progress on that,” he said. “In terms of actual recommendations, we have talked about some places where we can try to decrease bottlenecks in the process. We’ve talked about whether we can improve our ability to forecast demand signals to help the industrial base. And we’re putting in place processes — some committees and structures within the department — to try to make sure that we keep this sort of continuous process improvement moving forward.”
DSCA also serves as executive agent for six regional centers for security studies. The newest of those, the Ted Stevens Center for Arctic Security Studies, opened in August in Anchorage, Alaska. The center will in part help the U.S. security apparatus navigate new opportunities and challenges opening in the Arctic, Hursch said.
“They have taken off fairly quickly to do several things,” Hursch said. “One is to undertake work that helps U.S. government personnel understand the challenges of doing business in this incredibly fragile environment — an increasingly and strategically important environment.”
The center, he said, has already been working with international partners in the Arctic, including Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Canada and Norway, to discuss challenges there and to ensure interoperability and mutual understanding between nations operating in the region. Topics of discussion include climate change, hard power in the region, and working with indigenous populations who live in the Arctic.
” been very active in sort of creating this community of interest,” he said. “There’s a lot of different work that they’ve been engaged in.”
Hursch said in the last year, he thinks DSCA and security cooperation have moved to the center of the U.S. national security policy as a primary tool for what’s happening in both Eastern Europe and Asia.
“We think there’ll be more of that,” he said. “I think the centrality of our security cooperation mission will only continue to increase. If you look at the National Defense Strategy, and the National Security Strategy, you will see stronger words about the need to work with partners and allies — integrated deterrence has a very strong role for working with partners and allies.”
Working with partners and allies, Hursch said, is what DSCA does — and well.
“We set up the relationships and we increase the capabilities through security cooperation,” he said. “I think that will continue to increase.” (Source: US DoD)
25 Jan 23. Lockheed: F-35 deliveries can’t resume until mishap investigation done. Nearly six weeks into the acceptance flight pause that has halted deliveries of new F-35 fighters, it remains uncertain when they will resume.
In an earnings call with analysts Tuesday, Lockheed Martin chief executive Jim Taiclet said the company is awaiting the completion of an investigation into a Dec. 15 F-35B mishap before acceptance flights — required before new fighters can be delivered — can once again take place.
Taiclet did not provide a time frame for when he expects deliveries to resume.
The company’s earnings report for the end of 2022 offered a glimpse of how the delivery pause at the end of the year hit its aeronautics sector’s bottom line.
Overall, according to Lockheed, its aeronautics sector recorded nearly $27bn in net sales in 2022, $239m more than in 2021. That included increases of about $375m on classified contracts with higher volumes, $80m more for the F-22, and growth of about $55m for the F-16 program.
But that growth was offset by a sales decline of about $310m for the F-35, which Lockheed Martin said was due in part to lower volume.
Lockheed halted acceptance flights of new Joint Strike Fighters immediately after a Dec. 15 mishap involving a newly constructed F-35B during an acceptance flight in Texas. Video of that mishap showed the F-35B hovering close to the ground before descending, bouncing and tipping forward until its nose and wing touched the ground. Its pilot safely ejected from the spinning fighter.
The Navy’s investigation into the mishap, which is still ongoing, uncovered signs that a high-pressure fuel tube in the fighter’s Pratt & Whitney-made F135 engine had failed, a source familiar with the program told Defense News last month.
On Dec. 27, the Defense Department, Lockheed Martin and Pratt & Whitney agreed to pause delivery of new F135 engines while the investigation continues to look for the root cause of the accident.
The pause in acceptance flights for new F-35s in turn halted deliveries. Lockheed Martin said last month it had been on track to meet its goal of 148 fighters delivered by the end of the year before the new planes were grounded. The company ended up delivering 141 F-35s in 2022.
Taiclet said in Tuesday’s earnings call the company is waiting on the government and Pratt & Whitney to finish the mishap investigation, and that the company expects to be notified it can resume acceptance flights and deliveries once that is done.
Taiclet said final production of F-35s — primarily at its facility in Fort Worth, Texas, but also in Italy and Japan — is continuing at the same pace before the mishap occurred. Lockheed is also continuing to order and receive parts to use in its jets.
Lockheed officials also touched on the company’s plans to upgrade fighters with a new batch of hardware and software upgrades, which is expected to begin with the production of lot 15 fighters later this year.
Jay Malave, Lockheed’s chief financial officer, said the company hopes to begin retrofitting the existing fleet of F-35s with the hardware and software upgrades known as Technology Refresh 3 sometime next year. This will be part of Lockheed Martin’s sustainment work on the F-35.
The Air Force flew its first test F-35 with TR3 — which includes improved memory, processing power and displays, and will help get the fighter ready for Block 4 upgrades — earlier this month.
Taiclet said Lockheed plans to roll out more software releases and added capabilities in the months to come.
“It’ll be able to handle more weapons, it’ll be able to upgrade electronic warfare capabilities, it’ll be able to accomplish more missions,” Taiclet said. “The basic functionality of the aircraft alone is going to be elevated significantly by the insertion of this technology.” (Source: Defense News)
23 Jan 23. US defense industry unprepared for a China fight, says report. The U.S. defense-industrial base is not ready for a battle over Taiwan, as it would run out of key long-range, precision-guided munitions in less than one week, according to a new report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
U.S. military aid to Ukraine has helped prevent a Russian victory against the neighboring nation, but that assistance has depleted Pentagon stockpiles and shown that the American defense industry cannot surge for a major war, the think tank found.
“As the war in Ukraine illustrates, a war between major powers is likely to be a protracted, industrial-style conflict that needs a robust defense industry able to produce enough munitions and other weapons systems for a protracted war if deterrence fails,” wrote Seth Jones, senior vice president and director of the international security program at CSIS.
“Given the lead time for industrial production, it would likely be too late for the defense industry to ramp up production if a war were to occur without major changes.”
The report, which spotlights U.S. military aid to Ukraine and criticizes bureaucratic hurdles for defense contracting and U.S. arms sales overseas, recommends Washington reexamine its munitions needs and deepen its supplies, and that it remove regulatory hurdles to manufacturing with and exporting to allies.
The Wall Street Journal was first to report on the CSIS study.
The vast number of weapons the U.S. is sending to Ukraine highlights how difficult it would be to replenish them. For example, the U.S. has committed more than 160 M777 155mm howitzers to Ukraine, leaving its inventory “low.” Manufacturer BAE Systems would need at least 150 orders over several years to justify restarting production lines.
U.S. military stocks of Javelin anti-tank weapons, Stinger anti-aircraft weapons, counter-artillery radars and 155mm artillery shells are all considered low by the study.
Stocks of the Harpoon coastal defense system, a key capability for Taiwan, are considered medium, though current U.S. inventories might not be sufficient for wartime, Jones wrote.
Army officials, cognizant of the demand, said last month they are investing in a “dramatic” ramp-up in monthly production of 155mm shells over the next three years ― and they’ve awarded contracts for that to General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems, American Ordnance, and IMT Defense.
Still, top Army officer Gen. James McConville told reporters this month that the service could consider buying in advance the parts of weapons that take the longest to build, so that they’re available in the event of a war.
“We have to start to think about, you know, how do you in a nonlinear way, buy insurance so when something happens, when you have the money, you can reduce the amount of time to stand up your organic industrial base,” McConville said.
Along these lines, the CSIS report recommends the U.S. create a strategic munitions reserve. The government, under the authorities in the Defense Production Act, would buy one or two lots of long-lead subcomponents — such as metals, energetics and electronics — for critical munitions to reduce the 12-24 months of lead time in times of crisis.
‘Too sluggish’
One of the most important munitions to prevent a Chinese seizure of all of Taiwan are long-range precision missiles, including those launched by U.S. submarines.
China considers Taiwan a rogue province, and has threatened to take back the island by force. In a conflict over Taiwan, the U.S. would depend on Long Range Anti-Ship Missiles to strike China’s naval force outside the range of its air defenses.
While it takes Lockheed Martin two years to make LRASMs, the think tank projects a Taiwan conflict would drain U.S. military supplies within a week.
Likewise, in a war against a major power the U.S. military would expend hundreds of Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles and extended-range versions each day, emptying its inventories in just over a week.
The military would also expend large quantities of ship-based munitions, such as the Standard Missile 6.
Several munitions considered critical in a Taiwan scenario ― Tomahawk missiles, Joint Air-to-Ground Missiles, Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles and Long Range Anti-Ship Missiles ― take more than 20 months to produce, calling into question the ability to replace them during a war.
Spending for naval munitions stockpiles to boost readiness is a priority for the U.S. Navy’s top officer. Adm. Mike Gilday’s list of unfunded priorities for this year sought $33m to buy 11 more LRASMs, and he’s seeking to maximize the production of key weapons, including the Maritime Strike Tomahawk and the SM-6.
“Not only am I trying to fill magazines with weapons, but I’m trying to put U.S. production lines at their maximum level right now and to try and maintain that set of headlights in subsequent budgets so that we continue to produce those weapons,” Gilday told Defense News earlier this month. “That’s one thing we’ve seen in Ukraine — that the expenditure of those high-end weapons in conflict could be higher than we estimated.”
According to the CSIS report, the Pentagon should examine its munition needs with an eye toward Europe and the Pacific, based on operational plans, wartime scenarios and analyses.
Furthermore, Congress could hold hearings into defense-industrial base capacity and find ways to streamline approval for the Pentagon’s requests to move money between accounts, the report added.
While foreign military sales can supplement U.S. government orders and establish predictable, efficient production rates for industry, the report called the FMS system “risk-averse, inefficient, and sluggish.”
In one case, a decision to sell a system to Taiwan through the Foreign Military Sales process — rather than as a direct commercial sale — added two years to a delivery date, on top of a two-year production timeline.
The report also criticizes the system for the transfers of sensitive technologies from the United States, which can take 12-18 months, even for close allies.
“In trying to prevent military technology from falling into the hands of adversaries, the United States has put in place a regulatory regime that is too sluggish to work with critical frontline countries,” Jones wrote in the report. (Source: Defense News Early Bird/Defense News)
————————————————————————-
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
————————————————————————-