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20 Oct 23. DOD Aims to Publish 1st National Defense Industrial Strategy. By December, the Defense Department hopes to issue its first-ever National Defense Industrial Strategy, which will be followed by DOD’s implementation plan, said Laura D. Taylor-Kale, assistant secretary of defense for industrial base policy.
Taylor-Kale, who spoke yesterday at the 2023 Defense Conference, was confirmed by the Senate in March as the first assistant secretary of defense for industrial base policy.
She advises the undersecretary of defense and other senior defense leaders on all matters pertaining to industrial base resilience, workforce development, innovation, investment and policy. And, she also is shepherding the strategy’s development.
That strategy will focus on creating a clear road map for how the department will prioritize and modernize the U.S. industrial base, she said.
“We’ve seen in the response to COVID and the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East that our industrial ecosystem needs to be ready to provide the capabilities … that the department needs,” Taylor-Kale said.
The goal, she said, is to work in partnership with industry, with the inter-agencies, with Congress and with allies and partners to make defense industrial policy work much more smoothly and strategically, she said.
“This strategy is meant to catalyze a generational change that will guide the department’s focus and policy development and programs and investment in the industrial base for the next three-to-five years,” she said.
The key areas of the strategy, she said, are:
- Creating resilient supply chains
- Having an industrial base that can produce capabilities, services and technologies that are needed at speed, scale and cost
- Ensuring workforce readiness and development
- Delivering flexible acquisitions
- Building in metrics for measurable outcomes
Taylor-Kale said her office hopes to attract new, innovative, non-traditional companies into the industrial base, particularly those that connect dual-use technologies with the emerging needs of the warfighter.
“I want to emphasize that the task before us is really critical. Creating a modern defense industrial ecosystem will take all of us working together. Please come to us with your ideas. We want to partner with you. I want to partner with you to make this work. We in government cannot do this alone. And frankly, we’re not trying to do this alone,” she said, speaking to industry representatives in attendance. (Source: U.S. DoD)
20 Oct 23. Joe Biden has asked Congress for a national security package worth $106bn, including $75.7bn in extra funding for Ukraine and Israel, after calling on lawmakers to preserve US leadership in the world. Requested assistance for Ukraine totals $61.4bn, including $30bn for additional lethal aid for Ukraine and the replenishment of US weapons stockpiles, and $14.4bn for continued military and intelligence support for Kyiv. The proposed $14.3bn package for Israel would include $10.6bn for air and missile defence support, funds for US defence companies and their suppliers, and weapons replenishment for the Pentagon. Passage of the funds, which encompass what the Biden administration deems “an unprecedented commitment to Israel’s security”, is in doubt as it requires approval from a Congress in disarray. No package can be considered until the House of Representatives elects a new Speaker, but Republican lawmakers have rejected a plan to empower someone on a temporary basis after failing to elect a leader for the lower chamber. Some Republicans have also opposed further funding for Ukraine, leaving it unclear whether they would agree to more money for Kyiv when it is tied to assistance for Israel. In his primetime address from the Oval Office on Thursday, the president cast the funding as an investment in US national security and in domestic manufacturing jobs. “We send Ukraine equipment sitting in our stockpiles, and when we use the money allocated by Congress, we use it to replenish our own stores, our own stockpiles, with new equipment,” Biden said. That equipment was “made in America”, he said, highlighting the fact that Patriot missiles for air defence batteries are manufactured in Arizona while 12 states including Pennsylvania, Ohio, Texas manufacture artillery shells. The White House said that $50bn would flow to the domestic defence industrial base, which was already stretched by arming Ukraine, including $3.4bn towards submarine production. The request for funding for the submarine industrial base is a significant move that will alleviate concerns from some on Capitol Hill that the US does not have the capacity to help Australia obtain nuclear-propelled submarines without hurting its own submarine-building programme. “Hamas’s horrific attack and its regional impact are a terrible reminder of the uncertainty we see around the globe and the challenges it raises in the global economy,” said Treasury secretary Janet Yellen. Recommended Aerospace & Defence Israel-Hamas war tests US defence sector already strained by conflict in Ukraine “It also highlights the need for strong international financial institutions that stand ready to respond to economic spillovers of such unexpected crises”, she continued. Biden’s proposal includes financing for the IMF and the World Bank to “provide an alternative to coercive funding” by China, the administration wrote in its letter to Congress. The Biden administration also asked for $9.15bn for the state department for humanitarian aid to Ukraine, Gaza and Israel, and $13.7bn for US border security. The package “addresses the global humanitarian impacts of Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine and of Hamas’ horrific attacks on Israel, including by extending humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza”, the administration said. (Source: FT.com)
19 Oct 23. Decade of Developments Changed DOD’s Focus on Weapons of Mass Destruction.
Back in 2014, the Defense Department’s strategy for countering weapons of mass destruction was focused largely on places like Iran, North Korea and a variety of violent extremist organizations. In 2023, the focus has changed to address new realities, said the department’s assistant secretary of defense for space policy.
The Defense Department late last month released its 2023 Strategy for Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction. In the same way last year’s National Defense Strategy prioritizes China and Russia, the new WMD strategy does the same.
“The defining WMD threats we faced were drastically different than they are today, just 10 years later,” said John Plumb, who spoke Wednesday at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. Today, he said, “the challenges posed by China and Russia are front and center. So this is a new security environment and that demanded a new strategy.”
Weapons of mass destruction, or WMDs, include things like nuclear weapons, chemical and biological weapons and radiological weapons. Plumb said both China and Russia are making advances in at least some of these areas.
“China is aggressively pursuing a rapid expansion and modernization of its nuclear forces,” Plumb said. “The speed and scale has been nothing short of breathtaking. This effort includes the expansion of fissile material production, such as their fast breeder reactors … and the development of more and more diverse nuclear weapons systems.”
Plumb said China could, at its current pace, field an arsenal of about 1,500 nuclear warheads by 2035, adding that China’s compliance with the Biological Weapons Convention is also a concern.
“China regularly conducts research and activities with potential dual-use applications for bio threats, such as its military’s for toxins,” he said.
Like China, Russia is also expanding and modernizing its nuclear weapons program, Plumb said.
“It continues to build non-strategic nuclear weapons and develop new and novel delivery systems,” he said. “Russia has also engaged in irresponsible and troubling nuclear saber-rattling throughout its unprovoked and indefensible invasion of Ukraine.”
Russia has also violated its biological and its chemical weapons convention obligations, Plumb said. That the Russians used the Novichok nerve agent as part of attempted assassinations in both 2018 and 2020, he added, have erased doubts that Russia retains an undeclared chemical weapons program.
“We also know they maintained an offensive biological war program,” he said.
While China and Russia have re-emerged as possible threats in regard to WMD, Plumb said that old threats have not gone away.
North Korea and Iran continue to strengthen their own WMD programs, he said.
“The department has not lost focus on the WMD threats posed by North Korea or Iran or ,” he said.
Within the 2023 Strategy for Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction, Plumb said, are four priorities. These include defending the homeland from WMD attacks; deterring WMD use against the United States and its allies and partners; enabling the joint force to prevail in a chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear environment; and preventing new WMD threats from emerging.
While the 2023 strategy was developed by the Defense Department to guide its own efforts to counter the effects of WMD, Plumb said the U.S. will not be going it alone.
“This is a team effort,” he said. “Like in so many other things we are all in this together. All integrated deterrence efforts are made stronger by planning with allies and partners and by integrating their capabilities with our own. The United States network of allies and partners is an asymmetric advantage and a force multiplier that China, Russia, North Korea, Iran — they could never hope to match. So we will continue to work closely with our allies and partners as we implement this strategy.”
(Source: U.S. DoD)
20 Oct 23. Joe Biden urged Congress on Thursday to approve a security package for Israel and Ukraine worth tens of billions of dollars, saying America needed to overcome its domestic divisions to protect two vital allies and preserve US leadership around the world. Biden did not specify how much money he was seeking but people familiar with the matter said the request was likely to involve $60bn for Ukraine and $14bn for Israel as well as funding for border security and Indo Pacific security. In all, the package is expected to exceed $100bn. In a rare primetime televised address from the Oval Office, the US president said Hamas, the militant group that attacked Israel this month, and Russia, which launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year, shared similar objectives that must be thwarted. “Hamas and [Vladimir] Putin represent different threats, but they share this in common: they both want to completely annihilate a neighbouring democracy,” he said from the White House, referring to Russia’s president. “History has taught us that when terrorists don’t pay a price for their terror, when dictatorships don’t pay a price for their aggression, they cause more chaos and death and more destruction,” he said. “We cannot and will not let terrorists like Hamas and tyrants like Putin win — I refuse to let that happen.” Biden spoke a day after making a one-day visit to Israel for talks with Benjamin Netanyahu’s government over its response to the October 7 attacks, as it prepares for a possible ground offensive that is expected to cause additional civilian casualties and risks further inflaming the region. Biden said he had “cautioned the government of Israel not to be blinded by rage” in its response and stressed he was still committed to a “two-state solution” for an eventual peace with the Palestinians.
But he added that he was making an “unprecedented commitment to Israel’s security that will sharpen Israel’s qualitative military edge”, including boosting its Iron Dome air defence system. Biden, who said he would send the budget request to Congress on Friday, is pairing the Israel funding with additional money for Kyiv as it tries to push back Russian troops who invaded Ukraine more than 18 months ago. US funding for Ukraine is at risk of lapsing in the coming months, making a replenishment an urgent priority for the Biden administration. His message risks being stymied by a dramatic leadership vacuum on Capitol Hill, where Republicans failed on Thursday to find a replacement for the critical role of Speaker of the House of Representatives. The party, which controls the lower chamber, voted to oust Kevin McCarthy from the job earlier this month. “We can’t let petty partisan angry politics get in the way of our responsibility as a great nation,” Biden warned. His speech will find a friendlier audience in the Senate, which is controlled by Democrats but has a clear bipartisan majority in favour of aiding both Israel and Ukraine. (Source: FT.com)
19 Oct 23. US Remains Committed to Slowing Iran’s Missile Program.
The United States is leveling new sanctions against entities and individuals involved in Iran’s missile, unmanned aerial vehicle and conventional arms industries.
The move coincides with the expiration Wednesday of United Nations sanctions on the Islamic Republic.
“The United States will continue to take action to disrupt Iran’s proliferation of UAVs and other weapons to oppressive regimes and destabilizing actors, and we encourage the international community to do the same,” said Brian Nelson, undersecretary of the Treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence, in a statement.
The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control targets 11 individuals, eight entities and one vessel based in Iran, Hong Kong, China and Venezuela.
They have been designated as having “materially supported Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL), or their subordinates in the production and proliferation of missiles and UAVs,” the statement said.
Treasury officials say the action is being taken jointly with the State Department, “which is designating eight individuals and entities related to Iran’s missile, conventional arms and UAV activities.”
The State Department also said about four dozen countries have committed to countering Iran’s missile-related activities by way of a Proliferation Security Initiative, which began during the administration of President George W. Bush.
“We are joined today by a broad grouping of 47 countries in the Proliferation Security Initiative in expressing our shared commitment to taking all necessary measures to prevent the supply, sale, or transfer of ballistic missile-related items, materials, equipment, goods and technology by Iran,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.
“Further, we fully support the decision made by the European Union to retain nuclear, conventional arms, and missile-related restrictions on Iran.”
According to the Reuters news agency, the expiration of the U.N. sanctions comes under a “sunset clause” of the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement. The JCPOA, known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, was aimed at curbing Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.
As president, Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of the deal in 2018 and restored tough sanctions on Iran. He also said the deal’s sunset provisions were “totally unacceptable.”
Tehran has maintained that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.
Efforts by the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden to reinstate the deal’s limitation of Iranian nuclear development have not been successful.
Moscow, meanwhile, says exchanges of missile technology from Russia to Iran will no longer need U.N. Security Council approval. Reuters also reports Russia has not said whether it will now support Iran’s missile development.
U.S. concerns over Iran’s missile program are elevated as tensions rise in the Middle East following militant group Hamas’ deadly surprise attack in southern Israel on October 7.
Israel subsequently declared war on Hamas, which runs the Gaza Strip. Iran has supported Hamas, describing Hamas’ actions as the manifestation of resistance, while denying responsibility for the October 7 attack.
(Source: https://www.defense-aerospace.com/ Voice of America News)
17 Oct 23. Defense Innovation Board to study innovation barriers, data economy. The Defense Department’s technology advisory board is launching two studies focused on identifying the practices and policies that impede innovation and improving the way the Pentagon uses and integrates data, from battlefield operations to acquisition processes.
The deputy undersecretary of defense for research and engineering, David Honey, commissioned the Defense Innovation Board to complete the two studies by February.
The innovation report is driven by recent organizational changes within the department, Honey said in an Oct. 6 memo, which was published this week. Those changes include the elevation of the Defense Innovation Unit as a direct report to the secretary of defense and the establishment of the deputy defense secretary’s Innovation Steering Group, the Office of Strategic Capital and Task Force Lima — a group created in August to analyze and integrate generative AI tools.
It also comes amid DoD plans to field thousands of small drones and other autonomous systems over the next 18 to 24 months, an effort dubbed Replicator that is likely to depend on significant coordination among the services and greater integration of commercial capabilities.
“The recommendations should focus on procedures that align Department incentives, policies for accelerating and scaling new warfighting capabilities, and practices that inspire and attract the next generation of innovators,” Honey said in the memo.
Proposed changes should be broad, he said, ranging from security to acquisition to information technology and human capital. They should also be recommendations the Pentagon can act on quickly, “laying the groundwork needed to compete and overmatch in a technology and innovation driven environment,” the memo states.
The impetus for the second study, focused on data integration, is the Pentagon’s strategic push to elevate data sharing. Both the 2022 National Defense Strategy and the 2023 National Defense Science & Technology Strategy emphasize the need for the department to better utilize information in what Honey calls a “data economy.”
That economic environment, he said, would enable initiatives like Replicator, Task Force Lima and Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control — a DoD-wide effort to create a more networked future force.
“Implementing these critical efforts will require refining and scaling a modern, standards-based data enterprise architecture across the department,” Honey said.
The study should evaluate the gaps within DoD’s existing data enterprise and recommend steps to establish an “assured, available and accessible” ecosystem by 2025. (Source: C4ISR & Networks)
19 Oct 23. New sanctions target Iran’s weapons programmes; trade, compliance risks elevated. On 18 October, the US Department of Treasury announced new sanctions targeting individuals and entities based in Iran, Hong Kong, China and Venezuela for enabling Iran’s ballistic missile and drone programmes. Specifically, the sanctions target companies and individuals that have supported the defence ministry and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in the production of drones and missiles. Overall, 11 individuals, eight companies and one vessel are subject to the new sanctions. The recent sanctions follow numerous existing measures by the US to mitigate Iran’s attempts to produce military technology. In a statement made on 18 October, Secretary Antony Blinken announced that Iranian missiles posed a threat to Israel. Concerns of Russia’s use of Iranian missiles against Ukraine were also cited. Additional sanctions will likely be introduced in the medium term, targeting Iran and affiliated countries and entities. This will possibly lead to scrutiny of trade flows with Iran and increased compliance pressure for companies operating in targeted regions. (Source: Sibylline)
17 Oct 23. Senators push Biden to release submarine costs for AUKUS. A bipartisan group of senators is appealing to the White House to release Pentagon cost estimates related to the submarine-industrial base as the Biden administration and Congress move to implement AUKUS, the trilateral submarine-sharing pact with Britain and Australia.
The cost estimates are critical to a debate that has delayed key congressional authorizations needed to advance AUKUS. The study is expected to detail the level of investments needed for the industrial base to sustain submarine production requirements for both the U.S. and Australia.
A Senate letter obtained by Defense News asks Biden to release the cost estimates by the end of the month to inform AUKUS legislation. The Defense Department completed the study months ago, but the letter says the Pentagon does not intend to release its findings and cost estimates until it unveils the fiscal 2025 budget request early next year.
Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi — the top Republican on the Armed Services Committee — spearheaded the bipartisan letter. Wicker has held up Senate passage of two AUKUS authorizations, making them contingent on the Biden administration and Congress allocating additional funding for the submarine-industrial base as part of a defense supplemental request to bypass the $886 bn military spending cap in the debt ceiling agreement.
“The volume of submarine tonnage the industrial base must produce to meet the Navy’s own requirements and fully implement the AUKUS agreement will require historic and sustained investments in the submarine workforce and supplier network,” the senators wrote. “To achieve such capacity, Congress must have a comprehensive understanding of the current status of the submarine-industrial base as well as the future resource investments necessary to meet our nation’s requirements.”
Three Democrats — Sens. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Tim Kaine of Virginia — signed onto the letter alongside Republican Sens. Dan Sullivan of Alaska and Kevin Cramer of North Dakota. The White House and Defense Department did not respond to requests for comment by publication.
Under AUKUS, Australia will buy at least three and as many as five Virginia-class submarines from the U.S. as an interim capability in the early 2030s.
The Navy has blamed industrial base constraints for causing it to fall behind its pre-AUKUS goal of producing two Virginia-class and one Columbia-class submarine per year. The service expects the industrial base to start delivering the Virginia-class attack submarines on time by 2028.
But Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the vice chief of naval operations, told the Senate in September AUKUS would require a slight increase in production requirements to 2.2 Virginia-class submarines per year.
Wicker argues this increase requires additional funding for the submarine-industrial base beyond the $647m the White House requested for FY24.
He mustered half the Senate Republican caucus in July to block an AUKUS authorization that would permit the transfer of two Virginia-class submarines to Australia and another that would allow the Defense Department to accept Canberra’s $3 bn contribution to the submarine-industrial base.
However, he did allow a third authorization to begin training Australian private sector personnel in nuclear submarines to proceed as part of the annual defense policy bill, which the Senate passed 86-11 in July.
“Understanding the scope of the generational investment required for the [submarine-industrial base’s] viability is critical for development of AUKUS-authorizing legislation this year,” the Wicker-led letter states.
Rep. Joe Courtney, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee’s seapower panel, is more bullish on the submarine-industrial base’s ability to meet the Navy’s own requirements and keep the AUKUS commitments to Australia — in part because of money set aside in prior years for that purpose.
“I welcome more investment into the submarine-industrial base,” Courtney told Defense News. “My perspective is though that should not be a reason that we do not move forward on the AUKUS implementation bills that the administration sent back in April.” (Source: Defense News)
17 Oct 23. Southcom Aims to Create Maintenance Partnerships With South American Nations. U.S. Southern Command has a plan to help partner nations in South America better maintain equipment they’ve bought from the U.S. through either the foreign military sales or excess defense articles programs.
As part of its Theater Maintenance Partnership Initiative, or TMPI, Southcom will work with South American partner and allied nations to develop maintenance expertise, which runs the gamut from equipment-level maintenance all the way to life-cycle management, said Marine Corps Lt. Col. Gabriel Christianson, multinational logistics officer at U.S. Southern Command.
“We are looking to provide a spectrum of support and engagement for our partners and allies,” Christianson said. “This is more than just simple maintenance training on end items, although that is a tangible, very important aspect of the program.”
At the tactical level where maintainers actually put wrenches to hardware, Christianson said Southcom will work with host and attending countries to both educate and enable. But the aim of TMPI goes further than that.
For more senior military and civilian leaders, a multinational logistics officer’s course is expected to provide, among other things, an understanding of the six functions of logistics, NATO codification, lifecycle management and planning at the operational and strategic levels, Christianson said.
“At the strategic level, we will look to support our partners with logistics professionals … to advise the sustainment professionals within our partner and ally force components, joint commands, and ministry of defense offices to achieve their readiness goals,” Christianson said, adding that courses will be available in multiple languages.
The TMPI concept, Christianson said, was developed after partners and allies in Southcom expressed concerns regarding the maintenance challenges they have with their own equipment.
Last week, Southcom Commander Army Gen. Laura Richardson spoke with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington, D.C., where she discussed development of the TMPI and its goals.
Richardson said partner nations in South America together operate more than 50 C-130 Hercules aircraft, a cargo plane that’s been in operation in the United States and other nations since the mid-1950s.
Not all those C-130 aircraft in Southcom’s area of responsibility are maintained to the same standard, however. Because of that, missions that might have happened in Southcom have not happened the way partner nations would have liked, Richardson said.
” the Haiti earthquake a couple of years ago, in 2021, there was some countries that wanted to participate in that recovery effort but couldn’t get there,” she said. “And we weren’t able to fly them … but they had forces on the ground. They were ready. They had the equipment. They were ready to go, and they couldn’t get there.”
Through TMPI, aircraft owned by partner nations in the region could all be ready to fly and could all meet modern standards for interoperability — meaning that if any mission from any nation required airlift, anybody could contribute or participate.
“This fits right in line with … how do we not just have individual countries doing internal things, but how do you bring that forward for the betterment of the hemisphere and partner nations working together,” Richardson said.
Christianson said that TMPI’s focus will include more than just aircraft like the C-130, however.
“It will not be only the large items like C-130s, but those end items in all domains that we want to ensure remain a prime asset for our partners to utilize,” Christianson said. “If a truck isn’t running, they can’t get to the field. And if it is a U.S. truck, we want to support their efforts to ensure strong maintenance readiness. This goes for boats, helicopters, radios — whatever they have acquired and have a desire to engage with us on. We want this to be a true partnership where we share requirements and provide solutions for the full spectrum of defense articles, from education to depot-level repair in some cases.”
The TMPI is expected to have nine “centers of excellence” to help maintainers and leaders in partner nations develop the skills needed to keep equipment they are responsible for operating and ready to participate in missions across Southcom’s area of responsibility. Those centers of excellence will be hosted by partner nations in Southcom.
Already, Richardson said, three locations for those centers of excellence have been selected. In Columbia, there will be both an aviation maintenance and electronic maintenance center of excellence. Meanwhile, Jamaica’s Caribbean Military Academy will host a multi-domain center of excellence that involves maintenance of not just aircraft, but ground equipment and naval vessels, as well.
“Jamaica a well-respected defense capability in the Jamaican Defense Force and an excellent military school that trains the entire spectrum of their forces from initial entry to officers,” Christianson said. “We would like to collaborate with the Caribbean Military Academy in Jamaica over the next several years to invest in facilities and materials to allow them to further their offerings in maintenance of articles in air, sea, and land.”
The Colombians, Christianson said, have a center in Tolemaida — just outside the capital city of Bogota — that already trains pilots from multiple nations and also trains some maintainers for the region. He said Southcom would like for the Colombians to expand the capacity of the facility.
“We would like to move their goals a little further down the field and give some additional focus to the production of maintainers but also support their expansion of the Tolemaida depot-level repair facility from strictly a national capability to an organization that has expanded throughput sufficient to support other partners and allies in the region and with expanded capabilities, as well,” he said.
Southcom is also working with the Colombians to host a multinational course for logistics officers.
“The multinational course will do for the leaders of tomorrow what the centers of excellence will do for the young solder, sailor or airman: arm them with the education and ideas that will support the complex systems of the future, while building relationships for our western hemisphere family of ally and partner nations,” Christianson said.
In addition to facilities in Colombia and Jamaica, Christianson said other nations in Southcom have also expressed interest in hosting maintenance training centers of excellence. The remaining centers of excellence will be rolled out during fiscal year 2026 and 2027.
“Maintenance is hard for the U.S. military,” Richardson said. “And if it’s hard for us, I know it’s hard for everybody else.”
Fortunately, she said, there’s a lot of competence in Southcom partner nation militaries, and it’s expected that TMPI will bring the best of what those nations have to offer to help every partner nation inside Southcom up their maintenance game.
“Being a helicopter pilot, I know what it means to keep all your aircraft when you’re in combat,” she said. “You want as many that can fly in the air and not broke on the ground. … The countries are excited about this. Really excited. It’ll touch on aviation maintenance, radio maintenance, vehicles, all of it. And I think it can really help in the hemisphere with our countries.” (Source: U.S. DoD)
17 Oct 23. Statement from Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh on Force Posture. Today, Secretary Austin placed approximately 2,000 personnel and a range of units on a heightened state of readiness through a prepare to deploy order, which increases DoD’s ability to respond quickly to the evolving security environment in the Middle East. No decisions have been made to deploy any forces at this time. The Secretary will continue to assess our force posture and remain in close contact with allies and partners.
Additionally, he approved a deployment extension for the Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group in the U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa/Sixth Fleet Area of Operations. The strike group was nearing the end of its six-month deployment to the U.S. European Command area of responsibility. (Source: U.S. DoD)
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