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07 Dec 23. DOD Recognizes Top Technology, Cyber Performers.
The Defense Department’s chief information officer, John Sherman, today recognized more than a dozen individuals and teams who contributed in exceptional ways to the advancement of the DOD’s information technology goals during 2023.
Joining Sherman in recognizing top performers within the department’s information technology enterprise was Anne Neuberger, the deputy assistant to the president and deputy national security advisor for cyber and emerging technologies. Neuberger provided important context that explained why those being recognized are critical to the nation’s security.
“I cheer the work that these awardees do,” Neuberger said. “The president tracks national cybersecurity closely because he’s aware of the capabilities of our adversaries. This is a group who knows better than anyone the sophistication of Chinese capabilities … you know better than anyone that the data in our networks is ripe with intelligence value. So, the president tracks national cybersecurity, particularly the efforts of DOD, because of the need for the U.S. to project power around the world.”
Right now, Neuberger said, there are a number of conflicts going on around the world where the United States plays a role. She said that might involve a carrier in the Middle East or support to Ukraine in its battle against Russia’s invasion.
“The role of DOD is a global role,” she said. “As a result, the president tracks the work you do each and every day defending DOD’s networks, defending and protecting the people who put their lives at risk and the sacrifices both our civilian and our military personnel — but particularly our military personnel and our families — face every time military folks are on deployment.”
Neuberger said that in their day-to-day work, the DOD military and civilian personnel involved in optimizing and protecting DOD’s cyber enterprise should know that their work is both being watched and appreciated.
“Every day when you sit in your cubby, know the president is tracking your work; know the nation’s security relies on your work; and know we are all deeply grateful for the work you do each and every day,” she said.
As part of the 2023 DOD Chief Information Officer Annual Awards for Information Technology and Cyber Excellence, both teams and individuals were either named recipients of awards or for honorable mentions. Those honored include:
Individual Awards
* Patrick Light, Missile Defense Agency
* Navy Cmdr. Christopher Gregory, U. S. Navy
* Navy Lt. j.g. Scott Tollefson, Joint Staff
Individual Honorable Mentions
* Navy Capt. Donna Poulin, Defense Health Agency
* James Evans, Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation
* Erica Thomas, Office of the Undersecretary of Defense (Comptroller)
* Marine Corps Capt. Alexander Parades, U. S. Marine Corps
Team Awards
* Ship Repair Facility-Japan Regional Maintenance Center, Information Technology and Cybersecurity Department Team, Department of the Navy
* 22nd Communications Squadron, Cyberspace Operations Flight, United States Air Force
Team Honorable Mentions
* Advanced Enterprise Capabilities Division Team, United States Air Force
* Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability Program Team, Defense Information Systems Agency
* Department of Defense Information Networks Inspection Analysis Tool Team, U. S. Cyber Command
* Joint Service Catalog Team, Defense Finance and Accounting Services
* 17th Test and Evaluation Squadron, Cybersecurity Team, U. S. Space Force
* MyPay Fraud Prevention Team, Defense Finance and Accounting Services
Marine Corps Cyberspace Operations Group, Defense Cyberspace Operations Division Team, U. S. Marine Corps (Source: U.S. DoD)
07 Dec 23. Pentagon, Services Coordinating on Operational Stand-Down of Osprey Fleet. The Defense Department office that oversees the military’s tiltrotor aircraft program is coordinating with the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps as they conduct an operational standdown of all CV-22 Osprey variants, Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said today.
Singh said the decision by the services to ground their platforms was taken out of an abundance of caution as the Air Force continues its investigation following last week’s CV-22A Osprey mishap off the shore of Yakushima Island, Japan that killed eight airmen.
She added that the decision by each of the services to conduct the operational standdown reflects the priority Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III has placed on operational safety.
“The secretary fully supports the services and their , out of an abundance of caution, to stand these aircraft down,” she said.
Singh added that while there “will always be an inherent risk in military aviation,” DOD consistently strives to mitigate that risk.
“We will continue to maintain a high level of operational standardization for all of our pilots and all of our crew,” she said.
She said each service will determine guidelines for resuming flight operations in coordination with the DOD’s V-22 joint program office after conducting operational safety investigations within their fleets.
The Air Force Special Operations Command is leading the investigation into last week’s mishap.
Singh echoed Austin’s condolences for the family and loved ones of the service members who were lost in the crash.
“The entire Department of Defense mourns alongside the families and the loved ones of those who lost their lives today in the service of their country,” Austin said in a statement this week. “My heart also goes out to those who were serving alongside these brave men and women in Japan.”
Spotlight: Focus on Indo-Pacific
Singh added that the department is grateful to the Japanese government for their assistance in the search and recovery efforts.
“We will continue to work with them on sharing information and safety procedures during the investigation,” she said. (Source: U.S. DoD)
07 Dec 23. Space Development Agency Providing Capability to Warfighters.
The development goal of the Defense Department’s Joint All-Domain Command and Control, or JADC2, is to connect sensors to shooters to targets, as well as communications connecting Link 16 radios across the military services globally.
For JADC2 to work, a system of satellites is needed.
Derek M. Tournear, director of the Space Development Agency, or SDA, who is tasked in partnership with industry, with getting those satellites in orbit, spoke virtually today at a National Security Space Association event.
SDA has two capabilities it promises to deliver to warfighters, he said.
The first is beyond line-of-sight targeting for moving targets, he said. For example, if there’s a hostile ship or mobile missile launcher, it needs to be detected and tracked and a shooter needs to calculate a fire-control solution. It all needs to happen in near real time from space.
The second capability is very similar to that of the first capability, but the targets are different. Instead of mobile missile launchers or ships, an adversary’s hypersonic glide vehicle or advanced missile needs to be detected in flight and tracked, and a fire-control solution calculated and executed in near-real time, Tournear said.
SDA is building these capabilities on two main pillars, he said.
Pillar one is proliferation. “We’re not going to do this with a handful of very exquisite satellites. We’re going to do this with hundreds and hundreds of satellites that are in a low Earth orbit. Now a lot of people are starting to accept that that is the future of space and space capabilities — proliferation in low Earth orbit,” he said.
“Not only are we doing that, but the commercial industry, which we’re tailing off of, is clearly starting to build up more and more proliferation in low Earth orbit,” Tournear added.
Pillar two is spiral development. To get those capabilities as quickly as possible, it’s not going to happen by waiting 15 years to reach full capability, he said.
Spiral development, he explained, is buying and fielding satellites about every year or two in tranches, planned from now to the end of this decade. Every year, there should be commercial, state-of-the-art technological advances, called spiral development, so that satellites in follow-on tranches will field even better capability.
This year is the first tranche, called tranche 0. In April, SDA successfully put 10 satellites in orbit. In September, SDA delivered an additional 13 satellites, with more to follow soon. In November, SDA successfully completed the demonstration of the first-ever Link 16 network entry connection from low Earth orbit to ground, he said.
Tranche 0 doesn’t have enough satellites yet to be used in a combat setting, but troops can use this limited capability in demonstrations, training and exercises, he said.
Tranche 1, slated for September 2024, will enable initial warfighting capability with up to 161 satellites operational, he said.
Tranche 2 launches will begin in 2026, and tranche 3 will launch in September 2028, and tranche 4 in 2030, with ever-increasing capability for warfighters such as sustained capability and eventual autonomous operations by tranche 4, he said. (Source: U.S. DoD)
05 Dec 23. Failure to renew spy program would be ‘devastating,’ FBI chief says. FBI Director Christopher Wray called Tuesday for the reauthorization of a U.S. government surveillance tool set to expire at the end of the year, warning Senate lawmakers that there would be “devastating” consequences for public safety if the program is allowed to lapse.
At issue is Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which allows the U.S. government to collect without a warrant the communications of targeted foreigners outside the United States. Law enforcement and intelligence officials see the program as vital to combating terror attacks, cyber intrusions, espionage and other foreign threats.
The program, created in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, is due to expire at the end of this month unless Congress votes to reauthorize it. But Republican and Democratic lawmakers alike have balked at renewing the program in its current form, recommending a slew of reforms in competing legislative proposals that are aimed at better safeguarding civil liberties and that are jockeying for support in the coming weeks.
The thorny path to reauthorization was laid bare during Tuesday’s hearing, when lawmakers from both parties questioned Wray, at times aggressively, over periodic misuse of the program by FBI employees seeking out information about Americans. Though the program enables surveillance only of foreigners located outside the U.S, it also can capture the communications of American citizens and others in the U.S. when those people are in contact with those targeted foreigners.
Sen. Mike Lee, a Utah Republican, said that during his 13 years on the committee, he’d pressed multiple FBI directors about civil liberties violations associated with the surveillance program and had repeatedly been given false reassurances about the reforms being put in place.
“Every darn one of them has told me the same thing: ‘Don’t worry about it, we’ve got this taken care of it, we’ve got new procedures, it’s going to be different now’,” Lee said. “It’s never different. You haven’t changed.”
He added: “We have no reason to trust you because you haven’t behaved in a manner that is trustworthy.”
‘Whole other level’
The fact that Wray devoted a significant portion of his prepared remarks to the Senate Judiciary Committee to the issue underscores its importance to the FBI, particularly at a time when the Israel-Hamas war has drawn heightened concern about the possibility of extremist violence on U.S. soil and contributed to threats being at a “whole other level” since the Oct. 7 attacks.
“I think blinding us through either allowing 702 to lapse or amending it in a way that guts its effectiveness would be reckless at best and dangerous and irresponsible at worst,” Wray said.
Calling the authority indispensable, he told the committee, “702 allows us to stay a step ahead of foreign actors located outside the United States who pose a threat to national security. And the expiration of our 702 authorities would be devastating to the FBI’s ability to protect Americans from those threats.”
Wray, who took over as director in 2017, said that what made the current climate unique is that “so many of the threats are all elevated at the same time.”
But the 702 program has come under scrutiny in the last year following revelations that FBI analysts improperly searched the database of intelligence, including for information about people tied to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol and the racial justice protests of 2020.
Those concerns have united longtime vocal champions of civil liberties, including Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, as well as Republican supporters of former President Donald Trump who are still angry over surveillance missteps made during the Russia investigation of 2016.
Wray and the White House have balked at the idea that the FBI should be required to get a warrant before searching the intelligence database for information about Americans and others inside the The FBI director said such a requirement would be both legally unnecessary and would hold up the bureau in trying to disrupt fast-moving national security threats.
If a warrant requirement is the path chosen, Wray said, “What if there were a terrorist attack that we had a shot to prevent, but couldn’t take it, because the FBI was deprived of the ability under 702 to look at key information already sitting in our holdings?”
One bipartisan proposal from Republican Sen. Marco Rubio and Democratic Sen. Mark Warner, the two leaders of the Senate intelligence committee, would impose a more limited requirement, mandating a court order for when the FBI wants to conduct queries on Americans to find evidence of a crime but not for when the FBI is searching the intelligence database for foreign intelligence information.
Sen. Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat who said he had not yet made up his mind on how he’d vote, asked Wray whether that more narrow proposal might be more acceptable. The FBI director said that that proposal might provide a viable path forward, but noted that searches of the database for the sole purpose of finding evidence of a crime were very rare.
Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, summed up the issue by telling Wray that though “there was no question” that Section 702 was a “critical tool for collecting foreign intelligence” he would encourage significant reforms to protect the privacy of “innocent Americans.” (Source: C4ISR & Networks)
05 Dec 23. Del Toro aims to reinvigorate US shipping to strengthen fleet.
The U.S. commercial maritime industry has long been shrinking.
From 1953 to 2016, the number of shipyards capable of building large, oceangoing military and commercial vessels declined from 30 to six, and their annual output declined from 60 to seven, according to an analysis of U.S. shipbuilding records.
Now, Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro is raising the alarm, warning that the service won’t be able to fulfill its mission without a strong commercial counterpart.
A thriving maritime industry would mean more trained builders and maintainers the Navy could tap in the event of a crisis; more dry docks and construction facilities the service could leverage; and more investments in innovative tooling, technology and processes to build ships faster and cheaper.
And, chiefly, it would mean a larger fleet of American-built ships the military could call into service if a war broke out.
Del Toro wants to see this commercial maritime might become a reality through an emerging initiative he’s calling “maritime statecraft.”
He introduced the idea in a September speech at Harvard University, saying it “encompasses not only naval diplomacy but a national, whole-of-government effort to build comprehensive U.S. and allied maritime power, both commercial and naval.”
Del Toro told Defense News in a Nov. 13 interview the decline in commercial maritime capability “has exposed ourselves, as a nation, to shipbuilding, sealift and economic trade vulnerabilities.”
According to 2022 CIA estimates, China has 7,362 merchant ships, or commercial vessels engaged in carrying goods. The United States has 178.
If war broke out, the United States could call 60 American merchant ships into service through its Maritime Security Program to supplement about 100 government-owned merchant ships that were mothballed but could return to service. They would help move military vehicles and materiel into a theater.
But China, which the Pentagon considers the greatest threat to U.S. security, has a far greater ability to compel private companies to support the military, and it has a significantly larger fleet of commercial ships to lean on.
Del Toro said the United States can no longer afford this imbalance.
“Maritime statecraft, basically, is a Department of the Navy effort to drive not just our own initiatives but a whole-of-government awareness, advocacy and action to rebuild the comprehensive maritime power of the nation in order to meet the challenges and opportunities we’re going to face as a maritime nation in the 21st century,” the secretary said.
Rebuilding American shipping
After decades of fewer yards building fewer ships, the American maritime industry requires revitalization and modernization, Del Toro explained. To achieve this, he said he’s working with his counterparts across the government to identify what the shipbuilding industry needs and how government can help.
In mid-November, he called a meeting with several other entities at the first-ever Government Shipbuilders Council in Baltimore, Maryland. Participants included the Army, the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Coast Guard, the Maritime Administration, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Days before the meeting, Del Toro said he hoped it would be the start of a “conversation about a whole-of-government vision for maritime statecraft.”
For example, he explained, the Maritime Administration successfully partnered with the Philly Shipyard to deliver the first national security multimission vessel on time and on cost in September.
Del Toro said other government agencies could leverage this program.
He also pointed to a tool left unused since the Reagan administration: “construction differential subsidies” to incentivize private companies to buy ships from American builders instead of cheaper foreign yards.
This provision of Title 46 of the U.S. Code, which allows the government to pay up to half the cost difference, hasn’t received funding since the early 1980s. But Del Toro said he and the Transportation Department’s secretary still have the authority to grant these subsidies, as long as he and the homeland security secretary certify there’s a national security need for a vessel.
“Initial funding, for example, for a single vessel — even if phased out over several years, since the accounts can be funded indefinitely — would send a powerful signal to shipbuilders that the program is being revived,” Del Toro said, though he did not address whether or how this might be incorporated into the fiscal 2025 budget.
The need for private capital
Del Toro, himself a businessman, has been encouraging private investors to spend money on small- and medium-sized shipyards and their suppliers.
His pitch: This is a worthwhile investment that would help the U.S. commercial shipbuilding sector assist the Coast Guard and the Navy in more rapidly building better and cheaper vessels.
While nothing concrete has come of these talks, Del Toro said he’s encouraged by the fact investors are “intrigued.”
He’s also looking for foreign investment in U.S. small- and medium-sized shipyards. As examples, he cited Australian company Austal’s purchase of its Austal USA yard in Alabama in 1999 and Italian company Fincantieri’s purchase of its Fincantieri Marinette Marine shipyard in Wisconsin in 2009.
“We’re still fully committed to the Jones Act,” which calls for American-built, -owned and -operated ships to move goods between American ports, he said. “But having said that, there are opportunities, I believe, as we continue to expand the commercial and naval marketplace — especially the commercial marketplace — for them to invest in some of our shipyards.”
Noting Japan and South Korea previously bought shipyards overseas, and then modernized and automated the facilities to a degree that far surpasses the capability of many American yards, Del Toro said “encouraging them to make investments here could be a powerful statement, if the business case allows it.”
Leveraging renewed maritime might
U.S. leaders have accused China of waging a governmentwide effort to threaten its neighbors at sea by using the People’s Liberation Army Navy, the Coast Guard and its maritime militia fleet of fishing vessels to harass foreign sailors operating in their nations’ exclusive economic zones while fishing, exploring the seabed for natural resources, and drilling for oil and gas.
Del Toro said the U.S. needs to be able to push back and help allies and partners deal with geopolitical, economic and climate-related challenges. He pointed to a 2020 incident in which Chinese ships harassed a West Capella drillship hired by Malaysia’s state-owned Petronas energy company to explore undersea oil and gas reserves.
“The U.S. 7th Fleet’s Task Force 76 began a remarkable prototype operation, pioneering a new approach to support our partners’ civilian vessels in standing up to China’s coercive maritime insurgency in the South China Sea,” Del Toro said in his September speech.
After U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps and Royal Australian Navy forces “maintained a persistent presence in determined support of a partner’s sovereign, internationally recognized rights, China backed down,” he added.
To wield this greater naval might, Del Toro said the U.S. Coast Guard needs a bigger budget for more ships and operations, particularly in the Pacific. The Navy’s Military Sealift Command and the Transportation Department’s Maritime Administration will also play an increasingly large role in naval diplomacy and maritime statecraft, he added.
Internally, he said, the Navy is focused on closing gaps in its ability to operate and sustain itself overseas. He noted the service wants to increase its ability for Navy oilers to refill their stores from commercial tankers at sea instead of returning to a fuel depot ashore.
Additionally, he expects the Navy to demonstrate its ability to reload vertical launching system cells at sea next year, with a shore-based demonstration in the spring at Port Hueneme, California, followed by an at-sea demonstration in the summer.
Del Toro called these kinds of naval logistics “foundational” to the fleet’s ability to remain at sea in contested waters and conduct missions under the maritime statecraft banner.
An initiative without funding
Analysts praised Del Toro’s approach, but agreed there’s a lack of specifics.
Jerry Hendrix, a senior fellow at think tank Sagamore Institute, said the secretary set “the right aspirational goal.” However, “none of this is real until it’s in the budget, and I have not seen parallel statements from either [the deputy defense secretary] or [the defense secretary] on the maritime statecraft initiative.”
“Additionally, we haven’t seen anything out of the West Wing. Until a more senior sponsor comes alongside, this is an initiative without funding,” Hendrix added.
Similarly, Brent Sadler, a senior research fellow in naval warfare and advanced technology at the Heritage Foundation think tank, said it’s unclear who within the Navy will own this strategy.
“The secretary asked for academics to research and help refine the ideas; this is needed, but not enough,” he explained.
Sadler added that Del Toro could start taking small actions now to implement maritime statecraft, particularly the naval diplomacy aspect.
He noted that using Navy and Coast Guard ships to protect allies’ and partners’ economic interests would reassure them they’re economically better off siding with the U.S. rather than China. Beijing has leaned heavily on its Belt and Road Initiative to invest in foreign ports and infrastructure as a means of gaining access and influence.
Furthermore, Del Toro could embed staff at the U.S. government’s International Development Finance Corp. to push for naval development projects, Sadler said, and could send Navy construction battalions to key Pacific island nations to improve ports, airfields and warehouses for fuel and ammunition storage.
“These would be seen quickly as bettering the local islanders’ livelihoods through improved tourism [and] trade as well as a foundation for future military operations — win-win,” he said.
Sal Mercogliano, who teaches at Campbell University and the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, agreed that, given the Chinese government’s use of commercial and military assets for geopolitical purposes, the U.S. should do the same. Specifically, he said, growth in the commercial sector would generate a greater American presence overseas at a time when U.S. forces and other “hard power” fleets are focused on the Pacific theater but limited in how many ships they can keep forward deployed at any given time.
Mercogliano noted the secretary could follow up on his speech by attaching the Navy to the Maritime Administration’s National Security Multi-Mission Vessel program and ordering several more ships, which include large and reconfigurable spaces, to serve as hospital ships or tenders.
The secretary could also build on the success of that vessel’s acquisition model by leveraging it for new classes of sealift ships, the professor added.
And, Mercogliano said he’d like to see a written strategy that looks at both commercial and naval shipbuilding sectors — something lawmakers want, too. A November Congressional Research Service report notes “Congress has requested the executive branch formulate a national strategy toward achieving a competitive maritime industry four times in the last decade, most recently in December 2022 … and has requested three Government Accountability Office reports on the subject.”
Del Toro told Defense News he is already taking action, noting the Government Shipbuilders Council meeting would craft a path forward for government spending in the maritime sector in 2024 and beyond.
He added that he hopes activities already happening in the background will yield results in 2024, including visits to foreign shipyards and to small- and medium-sized yards in need of investment, as well as efforts to encourage large shipbuilders to outsource more work to smaller builders.
“We ask our allies and partners, both internationally and domestically, to think with us strategically and work with us and the Congress to be able to revitalize the commercial shipbuilding industry in this nation so that it can continue to contribute in even greater ways to a greater naval capability across our country,” Del Toro said. (Source: Defense News)
05 Dec 23. Assistant Secretary of Defense Christopher P. Maier Addresses Crucial Role of Irregular Warfare at the Semi-Annual Irregular Warfare Forum. Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict, Christopher P. Maier, delivered a keynote address at the semi-annual Irregular Warfare (IW) Forum.
The event, co-hosted by the U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School and the National Defense University College of International Security Affairs, convened leaders from diverse sectors to discuss critical IW policy, doctrine, training, and education in the context of strategic competition.
In his remarks, Secretary Maier emphasized the pivotal role of IW in achieving national security objectives. He underscored how IW enables a whole-of-government approach during competition, supporting both campaigning and deterrence—core principles outlined in the National Defense Strategy.
Drawing from two decades of experience collaborating with interagency colleagues on counterterrorism and stabilization operations, Secretary Maier highlighted the importance of layering effects to maximize impact.
The forum provided a platform for leaders across the military, government, business, and academia to engage in robust discussions. Secretary Maier’s insights aligned with the broader efforts led by the Joint Staff’s Director for Joint Force Development, Lt. Gen. Dagvin Anderson, to realign IW policy with the 2022 National Defense Strategy.
As part of a suite of DoD implementation guidance documents, Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III published the Irregular Warfare Implementation Guidance, now the cornerstone of this effort to integrate IW across the DoD’s plans and capabilities. The guidance signifies a substantial reorientation of the department’s direction and intent regarding IW.
This effort aligns with the department’s focus on customizing deterrence and optimizing coordination both within and outside the department, as outlined in the National Defense Strategy. For Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict, this involves ensuring that both conventional and special operations forces participate in IW planning and campaigning to achieve the strategic objectives set forth in the National Defense Strategy.
Read the Secretary of Defense’s memo on the Irregular Warfare Implementation Guidance here: chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://media.defense.gov/2023/Dec/05/2003352079/-1/-1/0/24-P-0155-RESPONSE.PDF (Source: U.S. DoD)
04 Dec 23. US arms sales dip causes top 100 contractor revenues to slide in 2022: Report. SIPRI said global competitors moved faster, and revenues for defense firms in Asia and the Middle East “increased substantially.”
Amid a global rush to buy defense systems, last year actually saw a fall in annual weapons sales by leading US defence companies, contributing heavily to the top 100 global defense companies suffering a real terms revenue dip of 3.5 percent, according to new data from a Swedish conflict and armaments research group.
In a report released today, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said that weapon sales and “military services” from the 100 companies amounted to $597bn last year, marginally higher in monetary terms than 2021 when a figure of $592bn was recorded but actually a few percentage points lower when factoring in inflation.
The real terms revenue decrease between 2021 and 2022 for the 100 firms “was chiefly the result of falling arms revenues among major companies in the United States,” noted the report, adding that US competitor revenues across Asia and Oceania and the Middle East had, by contrast, “increased substantially” in the same period. Arms revenues by the 42 US companies on the top 100 list fell by 7.9 percent to $302bn in 2022, the report said. From that group, 32 firms posted a fall in year-on-year arms revenue. US suppliers accounted for 51 percent of the top 100 arms revenues.
The report draws on those regions faring better than the US and European suppliers as a result of them better able to respond to “increased demand within a shorter time frame,” as compared to a slower pace of orders in peacetime.
“This was especially true in countries where companies maintain responsive ‘ever-warm’ manufacturing capabilities, such as Israel and South Korea, and those where companies tend to rely on short supply chains,” added the report.
The US industrial problems exposed by SIPRI come at a time when US lawmakers are fighting over spending bills, with bns of dollars in aid for Ukraine and Israel at stake.
SIPRI also forecasts an uptick in new equipment orders that could see a significant increase in global arms sales “in the next few years.”
Despite weapons orders increasing vastly since the war in Ukraine, contractors across the US and Europe have been unable to implement production ramp ups due to “labour shortages, soaring costs and supply chain disruptions,” according to the report.
The SIPRI figures are somewhat skewed because “late in the year” orders were not included in the document due to defense contractor revenues behind a time lag between orders and production.
Trends to have emerged from the report included top 100 arms revenues for Asia and Oceania being higher than those from European companies for the second year in a row. The former group (made up of 22 suppliers) record arms revenues of $134bn — a 3.1 percent jump compared to 2021. (Source: Defense News Early Bird/Breaking Defense.com)
04 Dec 23. Israel, Ukraine, Taiwan Support Ironclad, But Congress Could Help, Vice Chairman Says. The Defense Department provides security assistance to Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan, but Congress could pass a budget with supplementary funding that would ensure robust continuation of that support, said Navy Adm. Christopher W. Grady.
Grady, vice chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, spoke today at the Atlantic Council.
“Continuing resolution are not where we want to be. We need stable and predictable funding” for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan, but also for DOD readiness and modernization, he said.
On a separate topic, Grady commented about China’s claim today that the littoral combat ship USS Gabrielle Giffords illegally entered waters near the Second Thomas Shoal, a tiny island in the South China Sea claimed by both China and the Philippines.
Grady said that the United States will continue to operate in international waters in accordance with international law, and that includes the South China Sea, as well as the Taiwan Strait.
The U.S. is blessed to have allies and partners in that and other regions, he added. It’s a strategic advantage that China doesn’t have.
Grady noted that although he heads the Joint Requirements Oversight Council, there’s also a new International Joint Requirements Oversight Council that meets and leverages the advantages of acquisition strategy with allies and partners.
There have been two meetings of the IJROC, he said. “We are establishing requirements that we can work through together.” (Source: U.S. DoD)
04 Dec 23. Pentagon warns of program delays and testing woes without a new budget. Pentagon leaders warned Congress that without a full-year budget, key programs, from uncrewed aircraft to hypersonics, could hit lengthy delays — and risk America’s standing in what the Defense Department sees as a technological race with China.
“We cannot waste time,” said Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall in a panel discussion at the annual Reagan National Defense Forum here.
In the last two years, the Air Force has introduced a set of goals meant to outcompete China’s military — among them systems like the Collaborative Combat Aircraft, uncrewed planes meant to fight alongside F-35s later this decade. The CCA itself is an important platform, Kendall said, but more important is the larger goal it represents: finding faster and cheaper systems.
“The loss of time just from when we started this concept, when we came up with the idea to today, is two years,” he said. “If we don’t get a ‘24 budget, we may lose another year.”
Sitting next to Kendall on the panel, Heidi Shyu, head of research and engineering in the Pentagon, said the inconsistent funding has slowed the testing of hypersonics, another key technology.
The Defense Department’s Test Resource Management Center requested more funding for these efforts in FY24, but it can’t move forward without an appropriation. Shyu said her office will send Congress later this month a list of systems — with state-level data — of systems in her portfolio that would be affected by a yearlong continuing resolution, or CR.
“China spends an enormous amount of money on test assets,” Shyu told reporters. “This is where we have [a] shortfall.”
The U.S. government has been funded through CRs for the past two months, after a last-minute deal in Congress. These bills freeze spending at last year’s levels and halt new starts and new money.
The current short-term bill has a staggered expiration date, ending in mid-January and early February.
Because the government so often fails to pass funding bills on time, the Pentagon plans its budget knowing it may not be able to start new contracts in the first quarter. For that reason, Army acquisition chief Doug Bush told Defense News, the effects of these last two CRs have been limited.
That changes if there isn’t a spending deal by January or beyond, he said. In that case, Bush added, much of the Army’s plans for next year will be delayed.
“I have dozens of programs that are hitting important new milestones in FY24 in the areas of air defense, long-range strike, intel systems, TITAN,” Bush said, referring to the Army’s new targeting system planned for later this decade. “We’ve got a wide range of things that are right in the middle of either finishing development or going into production.
Adding to the urgency is part of a bill passed earlier this year to raise the debt ceiling: If all 12 of Congress’ appropriations bills aren’t passed before January, there will be a 1% cut in all government spending.
That provision has made it much harder for Pentagon employees to plan for future spending levels, said the Defense Department’s top acquisition official, Bill LaPlante.
“What we told everybody as they were building their budget [was] … remember, this is not like previous years,” LaPlante said in a gaggle with reporters. “There’s going to be some hard choices.” (Source: C4ISR & Networks)
01 Dec 23. Dozens of Troops Suspected of Advocating Overthrow of US Government, New Pentagon Extremism Report Says. An annual Pentagon report on extremism within the ranks reveals that 78 service members were suspected of advocating for the overthrow of the U.S. government and another 44 were suspected of engaging or supporting terrorism.
The report released Thursday by the Defense Department inspector general revealed that in fiscal 2023 there were 183 allegations of extremism across all the branches of military, broken down not only into efforts to overthrow the government and terrorism but also advocating for widespread discrimination or violence to achieve political goals.
The statistics indicate the military continues to grapple with extremism following its public denunciations and a stand-down across the services ordered by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in 2021. Furthermore, the numbers do not make it clear whether the military’s approach is working. In 2021, the year the data was first released to Congress, there were 270 allegations of extremist activities. In 2022, that figure dropped to 146 before rebounding over the past year.
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The Army had the most allegations in fiscal 2023 with 130 soldiers suspected of participation in extremist activity. The Air Force suspected 29 airmen; the Navy and Marine Corps reported 10 service members each. For the first time, the inspector general also reported numbers for the Space Force as a separate entity from the other services — it suspected four Guardians of extremism.
The IG report also included instances of alleged criminal gang activity: There were 58 allegations of gang activity across the military.
However, the report did note that, out of all the suspected extremism and criminal gang activity, 68 of the total cases were investigated and cleared or deemed unsubstantiated.
In the U.S., extremist activity, including neo-Nazi, white supremacist and anti-government movements, has been growing, and numerous violent plots by veterans and even active-duty troops have been thwarted in recent years. Experts on extremist movements have warned about the growing potential of more violence and future attacks, similar to the Oklahoma City federal building bombing in 1995 that killed 168 and was carried out by an Army veteran.
In February, a former National Guardsman, Brandon Russell, who founded the Atomwaffen Division, a neo-Nazi hate group, was charged with plotting to blow up Baltimore’s electrical grid and cause as much suffering as possible. Russell, who allegedly kept a framed photo of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, was sentenced to five years in prison in 2018 after an arrest in Florida for possessing explosives.
In the wake of the Jan. 6 siege of the U.S. Capitol building, the Pentagon tried to make a show of dealing with the problem of extremism among troops after it became clear that veterans as well as some active-duty troops were among the mob that stormed the halls of Congress in an effort to halt the certification of the 2020 election.
Military.com has reported that many of those efforts — including the military-wide extremism training stand-down ordered by Austin — were largely symbolic and were widely considered as just another box for commanders to check.
One active-duty noncommissioned officer said that, aside from the fact that no one was paying attention at the stand-down briefing he attended, the commander giving the lecture was “talking about what he thought were radical groups like Black Lives Matter.”
The idea that far-left groups are just as problematic as far-right ones is a popular talking point among conservatives and Republican lawmakers. However, law enforcement officials and experts who study the topic have consistently noted that far-right groups espousing anti-government and white supremacist views are the biggest threat to the U.S. today.
The report also revealed that other efforts such as screening prospective recruits before enlistment are not working as well as intended.
Some recruiters did not complete all of the screening steps and “as a result, military service recruiters may not have identified all applications with extremist or criminal gang associations,” according to the inspector general report.
“Further, the audit found that one military service entered data indicating applicants disclosed extremist or gang associations even though the applicants had not made such disclosures,” the IG said, but it did not reveal which of the services falsely accused some of its recruits of having extremist ties.
What the report does make clear, however, is that when allegations are made, they are being referred for investigation, and when allegations are substantiated, some action is taken.
Of all the extremist and gang activity allegations, 135 were reported to military or civilian law enforcement, and 109 of the allegations were reported to another DoD organization or official.
Furthermore, 69 of all the allegations were substantiated at the time the report was written and the vast majority of those — 50 — were handled through administrative actions. That included involuntary discharge for 19 and counseling in three instances, while 17 more were handled by nonjudicial punishment and two went to court-martial.
There were no substantiated cases of extremism or gang activity where no action was taken.
While these figures, compared with the overall size of the services, are small, research and experts say that military service members and veterans pose an outsized danger to communities when they go down the path of extremism, given their increased familiarity with firearms and ability to organize and plan effectively.
In 2020, an Air Force sergeant at Travis Air Force Base in California pulled up to a federal courthouse in Oakland, California, in a white van and opened fire on security guards, killing one before going on the run and murdering a county sheriff’s deputy a week later as part of a larger plan to incite a civil war.
Also in 2020, members of a group that included two Marines and styled itself as a “modern day SS” were arrested on allegations that they were plotting to destroy the power grid in the northwest. U.S. court records in that case say members discussed recruiting other veterans, stole military equipment, asked others to buy explosives, and discussed plans to manufacture firearms. (Source: Military.com)
03 Dec 23. Public-Private Partnership Is Key to Building Defense Industrial Base and Workforce. The U.S. defense industrial base and federal government must work together to shore up the defense industrial base and workforce of the future, the Pentagon’s top acquisition official said yesterday.
William A. LaPlante, undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, called for a whole-of-government approach and creative solutions by the private sector to draw the talent needed to ensure a capable, innovative industrial base with a talented resilient workforce.
He highlighted the need for our nation and our global allies to produce critical systems and equipment rapidly and at scale. He also said recruiting a trained and skilled workforce to the defense industrial workforce requires public-private collaboration at all levels to build a robust talent pipeline.
“This is at the state and local levels. This is at the high schools all the way up to the federal level,” LaPlante said during a panel discussion at the Reagan National Defense Forum in Simi Valley, California.
“I think we can do even a better job at … making sure we’re all talking to each other,” he said.
LaPlante and his fellow panel members took note of U.S. shipbuilders’ investments in training opportunities for high schoolers to develop skills that will translate into well-paying jobs that will be in demand in the future.
“I think the submarine industrial base has done a lot of really good work,” he said.
He added that the government and private sector can also work together to ensure that the work environment within defense manufacturing is attractive to future talent.
“If you’ve been to some of these advanced manufacturing, it looks like they’re at a startup,” he said. “It’s really cool. That actually matters. And, so, the government—all of us—can help…to invest in those areas.”?
LaPlante also said the government and private sector can work together to lower barriers to entry for some professions that require highly skilled employees, but not necessarily a college degree.
While he said that this may not be feasible for all positions, it can work in some. “You know, people without college degrees can do software sometimes a lot better than those of us that are overly educated beyond our intelligence,” LaPlante said with a touch of humor. “You think about that; that goes against culture, right? But we’ve got to think of these creatively like that,” he said.
The Defense Department is preparing to release a comprehensive National Defense Industrial Strategy—the first of its kind in DOD’s history—that seeks to tie our nation’s highly capable and innovative industrial and technology base to our current National Defense Strategy and meet the global challenges DOD confronts. (Source: U.S. DoD)
02 Dec 23. Austin: In Troubling Times, World Needs U.S. Leadership. As the world considers the repercussions of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the brutal Hamas terrorist attack on Israel, an increasingly assertive China, and the disturbing aspirations of nations like Iran and North Korea, it considers also what the role of the United States will be—and what its role must be is leadership, said the U.S. secretary of defense.
“We’re living through challenging times,” said Lloyd J. Austin III, who spoke today at the Reagan National Defense Forum in Simi Valley, California. “That includes the major conflicts facing our fellow democracies, Israel and Ukraine; bullying and coercion from an increasingly assertive China; and a worldwide battle between democracy and autocracy.”
When the world appears to be in disarray, Austin said, U.S. allies and partners look to the United States to see what must be done. And the U.S. must not waiver in providing leadership and decision-making.
“These are the times when both our friends and our rivals look to America,” he said. “These are the times when the American people count on their leaders to come together. And these are the times when global security relies on American unity and American strength.”
Since the end of World War II, Austin said, the world has adhered to a rules-based international order, developed with U.S. leadership, that has provided not just the United States, but the entire world an unprecedented period of peace and prosperity. Neither that rules-based order nor U.S. leadership must be allowed to falter, he said.
“The world built by American leadership can only be maintained by American leadership,” Austin said. “American leadership rallies our allies and partners to uphold our shared security. And it inspires ordinary people around the world to work together toward a brighter future.”
Inside the United States, Austin said, some Americans have shied away from the country’s role as a global leader and prefer instead that the U.S. move toward isolationism. Austin said that’s been a mistake in the past and is a mistake today, as well.
“If we forfeit our position of responsibility, our rivals and our foes will be glad to fill that vacuum,” he said. “In every generation, some Americans prefer isolation to engagement — and they try to pull up the drawbridge. They try to kick loose the cornerstone of American leadership. And they try to undermine the security architecture that has produced decades of prosperity without great-power war.”
Were the U.S. to shirk its leadership role, he said, America’s enemies and the enemies of its allies would only be emboldened. And that failure to lead would put the security and wellbeing of the United States and its allies at risk.
“The cost of abdication has always far outweigh the cost of leadership,” Austin said. “The world will only become more dangerous if tyrants and terrorists believe that they can get away with wholesale aggression and mass slaughter. America will only become less secure if dictators believe they can wipe a democracy off the map. And the United States will only pay a higher price if autocrats and zealots believe that they can force free people to live in fear.”
The U.S. has not shied away from its leadership role, Austin said, and will not. Instead, he said the U.S. has responded where crises have occurred—such as Ukraine and Israel—and has also continued to strengthen partnerships globally as a way to help future crises from developing.
Following the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, Austin said he made the trip to Israel to assure partners there that the U.S. is committed to their security.
“I flew to Israel to underscore our solidarity and our resolve, and to make it crystal-clear that America’s commitment to Israel’s security is ironclad,” Austin said.
Since then, he said, the U.S. has provided security ass5eistance to Israel and helped get hostages held by Hamas returned home.
“We will continue to do everything that we can to help secure the release of every man, every woman and every child seized by Hamas — including American citizens,” Austin said.
In the Middle East, Austin said, the U.S. has also increased its own security posture. That now includes two carrier strike groups, an amphibious ready group, a Marine expeditionary unit, a guided-missile submarine, integrated air-defense and missile-defense forces, and fighter aircraft and bombers.
Austin also said that U.S. leadership with Israel includes reinforcing important values, such as those embodied in the law of war. And one of those values is that civilians must be protected. It’s something Austin said he had experience with during his time as an Army general operating in Iraq, and it’s something he said the U.S. continues to remind Israel of as it fights against Hamas.
“In this kind of a fight, the center of gravity is the civilian population. And if you drive them into the arms of the enemy, you replace a tactical victory with a strategic defeat,” Austin said. “I have repeatedly made clear to Israel’s leaders that protecting Palestinian civilians in Gaza is both a moral responsibility and a strategic imperative.”
The U.S. hasn’t just provided security assistance to Israel, Austin said. The U.S. has also provided humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza. This week, he said, the U.S. airlifted more than 54,000 pounds of U.N. medical supplies, clothing and food to those in Gaza. He said it won’t be the last airlift of supplies.
Going forward, Austin said, the U.S. remains committed also to peace in the Middle East. And that means, he said, there must be a two-state solution there. There must be a nation for the Jewish people, and there must be a nation for the Palestinians, as well. And those two nations must act as good neighbors.
“We believe that Israelis and Palestinians must find a way to share the land that they both call home,” Austin said. “And that means a path toward two states living side by side in mutual security … a two-state solution remains the only viable way out of this tragic conflict that has ever been proposed.”
Following the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, the U.S. also stepped up to its leadership role. Last year, for instance, Austin spearheaded the creation of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, a coalition of some 50 nations that meets monthly and is committed to the security of Ukraine now and into the future.
Since the February 2022 Russian invasion, the U.S., allies and partners have worked to get important weapons to the Ukrainians to allow them to defend themselves. Included there are High-Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS; Patriot air defense systems; Abrams tanks; and more, Austin said.
U.S.-led efforts have helped Ukrainian forces weaken the Russian military, and Austin said that U.S. leadership and partner efforts must not stop until Ukraine is again free.
“The outcome of this struggle will define global security for decades to come,” he said. “And we don’t have the option of sitting it out. President Biden has laid down a clear objective: The United States seeks a free and sovereign Ukraine that can defend itself today — and deter more Russian aggression in the future. And, so, we are working together with our allies and partners to help Ukraine build a future force that can ward off more Russian malice in the years to come.”
If the U.S. and partners fail to stand up to Russian aggression, Austin said, Russia will only be emboldened to do more.
“Russia’s invasion of Ukraine offers a grim preview of a world of tyranny and turmoil that should make us all shudder,” he said.
In the Pacific, Austin said China is the only rival with the intent and potentially the capacity to reshape the international order.
“The PRC hopes that the United States will stumble and become isolated abroad and divided at home,” he said. “But together, we can prevent that fate. And we have made extraordinary progress, along with our allies and partners, in meeting the China challenge and forging a more secure Indo-Pacific.”
Across the Indo-Pacific region, the U.S. is leading by strengthening partnerships there with other nations who value freedom and democracy.
With the Philippines, for instance, Austin said the U.S. has embarked on an expansion of the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement. That expansion will allow the U.S. access to four more Philippine military facilities.
The U.S. and India last summer also unveiled a new direction defense industrial cooperation.
“That strategy is already driving our work together on key defense platforms,” he said. “We also rolled out a major deal to build aircraft engines in India. And when I was back in India last month, we announced our intent to co-produce armored vehicles with India — our first time with any foreign partner.”
The U.S. has also been working closely with Japan, South Korea, Papua New Guinea, and Australia, as well.
Through the AUKUS partnership — which includes Australia, the United Kingdom and the U.S. — those three nations will help Australia acquire conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarines, Austin said.
In advance of the Reagan National Defense Forum, Austin said he met in California with British Defense Secretary Grant Shapps and Australian Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles, who also serves as defense minister, for the second meeting of AUKUS defense ministers.
The United States is a world leader, and its military remains the most lethal fighting force in human history, Austin said. Neither of those will change.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we are the United States of America,” Austin said. “It’s not enough just to pursue our national interests. We must also live our national values. As President Reagan said, ‘Our foreign policy should be to show by example the greatness of our system and the strength of American ideals.’ We must ensure, as President Biden has said, that America remains ‘a beacon to the world.’ We will not let that beacon flicker or fade. In this uncertain hour, at this time of testing, the world looks to America again. And we must not give our friends, our rivals, or our foes any reason to doubt America’s resolve.” (Source: U.S. DoD)
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