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26 Jan 24. Defense Innovation Official Says Replicator Initiative Remains On Track. The Defense Department remains on track in its initiative to field thousands of autonomous systems across multiple warfighting domains as part of the recently announced Replicator initiative, a senior Pentagon innovation official said this week.
Aditi Kumar, the Defense Innovation Unit’s deputy director of strategy, policy, and national security partnerships, said the initiative serves as a tangible example of DOD’s focus on meeting critical warfighter needs at speed and scale.
“The Replicator initiative is squarely grounded in operational need,” Kumar said during a discussion on the role of technology in solving operational challenges hosted by the Hudson Institute, a Washington think tank.
“We need capabilities to address the operational challenges laid out in the National Defense Strategy,” she said. “The future force has to be agile. We have to have the necessary capabilities to deter conflict and, if deterrence fails, to fight and win the war.”
Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks unveiled the Replicator Initiative in August as one approach DOD is taking to meet the challenges laid out in the National Defense Strategy, which identifies China as the United States’ pacing challenge.
The first iteration of the initiative is focused on fielding thousands of autonomous systems across multiple domains within the next 18 to 24 months, as part of the Pentagon’s strategy to counter China’s rapid armed forces buildup.
Hicks said the Replicator Initiative will prioritize the fielding of “attritable” capabilities — platforms that are unmanned and built affordably, allowing commanders to tolerate a higher degree of risk in employing them.
Kumar said DOD is on track to meet the goals laid out by Hicks within the timeline.
“The deputy selected the first tranche of capabilities for Replicator right before Christmas,” she said. “For those capabilities, we’re currently working to identify all of the barriers to acceleration that we need to overcome to make sure that they are fielded, in the hands of the warfighter, in that February-to-August 2025 timeline.”
DIU, the department’s organization for accelerating the adoption of commercial technology throughout the military, has played a central role in making the initiative a reality.
Hicks has recently established the Deputy’s Innovation Steering Group to bring together leaders from across the department to break down systemic barriers that impede innovation.
Defense Innovation Unit Director Doug Beck chairs the Defense Innovation Working Group aligned with the steering group and is charged with driving the process to accelerate technology and make the process repeatable.
Kumar said meeting the critical needs of the warfighter will require input and coordination across the department.
“That is why forums like the DISG are really important,” she said. “Because you have to have everybody around the table focused on problem solving and thinking about how you get a capability from where it is today all the way into the field with all of the associated considerations around training and sustainment, etc.”
She said DOD has also been working closely with Congress on appropriate funding strategies to field the capabilities within the desired timeline.
Kumar echoed other defense officials in emphasizing that the Replicator Initiative is a process for removing barriers to innovation, rather than a single endeavor to field specific technology.
She said in applying Replicator as a process for quickly fielding autonomous systems, DOD stakeholders are gathering key lessons to be applied in future iterations.
“We’ve already learned lessons about how we can move faster,” she said. “And the idea is now to apply that to other capabilities and portfolios so that we can do this again and again and really show that the department has the ability to move as quickly as the threat is moving.”
(Source: U.S. DoD)
26 Jan 24. Defense Officials Say Installation Resiliency Is High Priority. Infrastructure on many installations has climate, energy and resiliency issues that could impact the continuity of operations and quality of life for service members and their families if not addressed, said Rachel P. Ross, deputy chief sustainability officer and acting principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for energy, installations and environment.
The Defense Department has been evaluating structures on installations to determine their age, condition and vulnerability in order to prioritize funding for retrofits, along with updating building codes, Ross said yesterday at the Google Defense Forum.
Ross said some examples of what the department is doing to become more resilient are:
• Working with local utilities;
• Using renewable energy;
• Installing microgrids to ensure power is available at all times.
Forum panelist Deborah Loomis, the senior climate change advisor to the Navy secretary, said the Navy is dealing with climate vulnerability in a number of ways.
The Navy is using modeling and simulation to evaluate infrastructure on its four shipyards with the goal of improving operations, energy and sustainability, she said. Loomis noted that Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia, loses power about 100 times a year.
Loomis also said the Navy also has done an exercise to evaluate the impacts of climate change on its installations—from wildfires, droughts and high temperatures to flooding, sea level rise and storms—and what can be done to reduce them. (Source: https://www.gov.uk/)
26 Jan 24. Special aid tool for Israel approved for Taiwan’s use, but not Ukraine. President Joe Biden’s foreign aid request for Ukraine, Israel and the Indo-Pacific remains stalled on Capitol Hill, inhibiting funding for a unique mechanism that could help U.S. allies and partners build up their own defense industries.
Until recently, Israel was the only country with a special privilege called offshore procurement, which has allowed it to use a portion of its Foreign Military Financing, or FMF, grants to invest in its own defense-industrial base instead of purchasing weapons from U.S. defense contractors as other recipients are required to do.
Congress approved offshore procurement for Taiwan FMF more than a year ago, hoping to replicate the Israel model and help Taipei grow its on-island production lines as it seeks to deter a possible Chinese invasion. The roughly $110 billion foreign aid bill stalled in Congress would allow Israel and Taiwan to use Foreign Military Financing for offshore procurement, but it does not extend those privileges to Ukraine or eastern European allies impacted by the war.
“We need to build production capacity there; we need to build it here,” said Brad Bowman, the senior director of the Center on Military and Political Power at the hawkish Foundation for Defense of Democracies, noting offshore procurement can help friendly countries make their defense industries more self-sufficient.
“With applications to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, we want to make the defense-industrial base in each of those three beleaguered democracies as healthy and robust as possible in order to meet their respective military requirements while first prioritizing the U.S. defense-industrial base,” said Bowman. “But the second brush needs to be that we are doing everything we can in our defense-industrial base to create additional defense-industrial capacity to help our beleaguered democratic partners because this is a wise investment and not charity.”
Taiwan
When Congress approved up to $2bn per year in FMF for Taiwan in the fiscal 2023 National Defense Authorization Act, it made 15% of that amount eligible for offshore procurement.
“The comparison to Israel was brought up in the policy discussions saying, ‘Look, we’ve had success with using our FMF for Israel’s domestic defense industry, we should do the same for Taiwan. We made the argument it’s even more relevant because of this need for on-island protection,” said Josh Paul, the former congressional affairs director at the State Department’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs.
“That’s something the administration supported with the theory being that we want Taiwan to build its on-island capacity to produce munitions because in some Taiwan contingencies, you can imagine a scenario where it’s hard to get stuff to the island,” Paul told Defense News.
Most FMF grants and loans allow the recipient countries to buy weapons from U.S. defense companies via the Foreign Military Sales process. Allowing Taiwan to use FMF money on its own defense industry could help relieve the roughly $19 billion Foreign Military Sale backlog partially caused by U.S. defense-industrial base constraints.
Eric Gomez, a senior fellow at the libertarian Cato Institute, said offshore procurement is “a good idea for trying to get countries like Taiwan to develop their defense industry on their own.” Still, he pointed to discussions on Capitol Hill and the State Department about whether FMF is “appropriate” for Taipei given the island’s estimated $800bn GDP for 2023.
Concerned about placing additional strain on the State Department’s base budget, congressional appropriators opted to fund Taiwan FMF as loans instead of grants for FY23. The State Department obligated $80 million in Taiwan FMF in August. If Congress passes the foreign aid bill, much of the $2 billion in Indo-Pacific FMF is expected to go toward Taiwan.
Israel
Roughly half of the State Department’s annual FMF budget, or $3.3 billion, goes to Israel each year. Israel had historically been allowed to use a quarter of its FMF for offshore procurement on its own defense contractors instead of U.S. companies, which FMF recipients are generally required to buy from.
The $38bn, 10-year memorandum of understanding with Israel signed under the Obama administration gradually phases out its offshore procurement privileges through 2028. The offshore procurement privileges for Israel’s annual $3.3bn in FMF is slated to drop from more than 20% in FY24 to less than 15% in FY25, according to the Congressional Research Service.
However, the Senate’s foreign aid bill allows Israel to spend 100% of its extra $3.8bn in FMF on its own defense contractors instead of U.S. companies, while taking the unusual step of waiving the standard congressional notification requirements. Paul noted this push came from the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, or OMB, after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
“This was a point at which we were putting together a rushed supplemental,” said Paul. “The push from OMB was not only use all the available authorities, but we need to come up with any new authorities as well just to show that we can do everything in our power to be supportive of Israel.”
Paul, who resigned to protest the civilian death toll in Gaza in October as the Biden administration assembled the supplemental, noted offshore procurement in Israel has helped it build an industrial base that sometimes competes with U.S. defense contractors.
“This has been a very major subsidy for major companies like Rafael, Elbit or IAI as they sort of invest in themselves to grow their own capabilities to the point where they’re now a top 10 global defense exporter, particularly in fields such as unmanned aerials systems, including one-way UAS and a lot of other electronic military intelligence systems,” said Paul.
Still, Bowman said “there’s no scenario where I think Israel will become fully independent in its defense-industrial base.”
Bowman argued Israel “should focus” on developing “the systems they would have problems getting in a future war with Hezbollah in Lebanon.” He noted this would reduce Israel’s dependence on Washington since
Ukraine and Europe
There is no authorization to use offshore procurement for Ukraine FMF, and Biden’s foreign aid spending request didn’t ask for it. The current bill includes $1.7bn in FMF for Ukraine and countries impacted by the war.
The majority of FMF appropriated in previous Ukraine aid packages has gone to European countries impacted by the war rather than Kyiv, which has received the bulk of its U.S. support from direct weapons transfers from U.S. stockpiles and longer-term assistance via the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative.
Gomez said there’s less need to give NATO members offshore procurement because they already have appropriate defense-industrial capacity. “It’s just that they don’t spend enough money on it.”
Biden and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., have touted the fact that most military assistance in the foreign aid supplemental goes to U.S. defense contractors, arguing it spurs job creation.
In Ukraine, the Biden administration has sought to help Kyiv build its defense systems in-country with the Commerce Department hosting a U.S.-Ukraine defense-industrial base conference in December. Lockheed Martin and Raytheon signed a memorandum of understanding in September to produce Javelin anti-tank missiles in Ukraine.
“Another big difference between Ukraine and Taiwan is the active conflict in Ukraine,” Gomez added, noting one of the problems for offshore procurement in Ukraine is the question of whether its “defense industry can be survivable enough to produce things.”
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned Ukraine could lose the war if Congress does not pass the foreign aid spending bill, and it’s unclear how Congress and the State Department will pay for FMF for Taiwan without the supplemental. (Source: Defense News)
26 Jan 24. Readout of Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen H. Hicks’ Meeting With the Defense Innovation Board. Pentagon Spokesman Eric Pahon provided the following readout:
Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks hosted the Defense Innovation Board’s winter meeting at the Pentagon today in a closed, classified session.
During this session, the Defense Innovation Board members provided an update on their work, and briefed findings and recommendations from two publicly-released studies.
Board members highlighted the need for a unified, scalable data access approach to accelerate adoption of data, analytics, and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities for the warfighter. They recommended modernizing security processes, standardizing contract bidding practices, implementing dual-use technology and cross-functional teams, and centralizing enterprise licensing.
Board members also emphasized the importance of senior leadership in fostering a culture of innovation and risk-taking and holding all leaders accountable for innovation outcomes.
Deputy Secretary Hicks provided an update on the Department’s innovation efforts and discussed scaling new technology and innovation initiatives.
She also highlighted the urgency of adopting emerging capabilities that are redefining warfighting and working better with our allies and partners on technology and innovation.
Deputy Secretary Hicks thanked the members of the Defense Innovation Board for their passion and commitment to driving change in support of the national defense mission. (Source: U.S. DoD)
25 Jan 24. US-Turkey: Biden urges Congress to approve arms sale to Turkey, decreasing bilateral tensions. On 24 January, President Joe Biden sent a letter to Congressional leaders informing them of his decision to begin the formal notification process for the sale of Lockheed Martin F-16 aircraft to Turkey. The letter to the Senate Foreign Relations and the House Foreign Affairs committees urged members to approve the sale ‘without delay,’ as soon as Ankara completes Sweden’s NATO accession process. On 23 January, Turkey’s parliament ratified Sweden’s NATO membership bid, clearing a major obstacle to winning congressional approval for the fighter jet deal. While Congressional leaders have cast doubt on a speedy approval, they have voiced support for Ankara’s decision. Tensions with Turkey will likely lessen in the short term. However, relations will remain strained in the long term due to Turkey’s continued attacks against Syrian Kurdish allies, aggressive actions in the Eastern Mediterranean, and military support for Azerbaijan against Nagorno-Karabakh. In the short-to-medium term, Turkey’s approval of Sweden and the arms sale will work to tighten the NATO alliance and present a united front regarding the Russia-Ukraine war. (Source: Sibylline)
23 Jan 24. Upgraded F-35 deliveries slipping to fall 2024, Lockheed says. Lockheed Martin’s production of the latest upgraded F-35 Joint Strike Fighters is slipping further behind schedule, and deliveries likely will not resume until the third quarter of 2024, the company said Tuesday.
Lockheed CEO Jim Taiclet told investors in an earnings call that the business now expects to deliver between 75 and 110 F-35s this year — fewer than the roughly 150 annually the company typically aims to deliver.
The delivery disruption of the newest F-35s, intended to features upgrades known as Technology Refresh 3, means Lockheed’s sales of the jet took a $400m hit last year.
Taiclet said the company is making progress on the jets enabled with the TR-3 upgrades, which would come with software and hardware improvements including better displays, computer memory and processing power. But the system maturation process “is taking somewhat more time than we originally anticipated,” he added.
“The second quarter customer acceptance of delivery software remains our target,” he said. “However, we now believe that the third quarter may be a more likely scenario for a TR-3 software acceptance.”
The TR-3 upgrades are needed to prepare the F-35 for a further wave of upgrades known as Block 4, which would allow the jet to carry more precision weapons, advanced sensing, jamming and cybersecurity capabilities, and more accurate target recognition. Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Va., worries TR-3 delays could in turn delay the rollout of Block 4 upgrades.
“We are taking the time and attention to get this [TR-3] technology insertion right the first time because it will be absolutely worth it,” Taiclet said. TR-3?s features “will provide our customers with the onboard digital infrastructure of data storage, data processing, and pilot-user interface to provide unmatched capabilities for many years to come.”
But TR-3, which was originally due in April 2023, has repeatedly slipped behind schedule due to software problems and challenges integrating it with the jet’s new hardware. In July 2023, Lockheed Martin began rolling the first jets intended for the TR-3 configuration off its production line in Fort Worth, Texas.
Because those jets could not undergo test flights the Defense Department requires before delivery, the military refused to accept them. New aircraft awaiting TR-3 are now stored at Fort Worth, and Lockheed said between 100 and 120 jets could remain there later this year.
The F-35 Joint Program Office said in a statement to Defense News that it and industry partners are focused on delivering capable fighters, but that delays in software maturity are still putting those deliveries at risk.
The JPO said it and Lockheed are working on a plan to allow the government to accept undelivered jets before the full TR-3 capabilities are validated.
“Any aircraft involved and delivered as part of the truncation plan will provide valuable capabilities to the warfighters while TR-3 completes final verification and validation,” the office said.
In November, the office confirmed a production F-35 had flown with an interim version of the TR-3 software installed. Flying jets with such early release versions of the software is “potentially” one way for deliveries to resume before TR-3 is done, the JPO said that month.
Lt. Gen. Michael Schmidt, who leads the F-35 program, told lawmakers in December that production of a few key components needed for TR-3 hardware also ramped up slower than expected, which is contributing to the delay.
When the Pentagon halted deliveries, it and Lockheed Martin still expected TR-3 to be ready between December and April 2024. But in September 2023, Lockheed and the JPO said TR-3 could take even longer. That revised schedule placed delivery at sometime between April 2024 — which would already be a full year late — and June 2024.
That schedule is now sliding further, it appears.
Taiclet said more than 90% of the TR-3 capabilities are now in flight test, and Lockheed is moving the software integration process forward to include more aircraft and mission subsystems.
Lockheed’s chief financial officer, Jay Malave, said the company is confident it can meet the new third quarter goal to begin delivering TR-3 jets. But if the schedule slips further, he explained, Lockheed would have to reconsider its production pace of F-35s and possibly slow it down.
The company is bleeding cash due to the F-35 delivery halt — and the wound does not appear likely to heal soon.
“As we make progress [on the] TR-3 program, as well as getting ourselves into production, it’s difficult to take risk and rely on risk retirements as we’re still facing this program, and the progress we’re making there,” Malave said. “And so we assume that profit adjustments slow down in 2024 on the F-35 program.”
Lockheed Martin delivered 98 F-35s in the previous TR-2 configuration in 2023, including 18 in the fourth quarter, Taiclet said. The company originally planned to deliver between 147 and 153 fighters last year.
The delivery halt meant Lockheed’s net F-35 sales for the year dropped $400m, partially offsetting the growth in other areas. Lockheed’s classified Skunk Works unit saw its sales grow by $540m in 2023, and rising production of F-16s meant its sales grew $230m for the year, the company said.
Despite the F-35?s troubles, Lockheed’s aeronautics sector saw its sales grow 2% in 2023 to nearly $27.5bn. The aeronautics sector’s 2023 profit ticked down about 1% to $2.8bn. (Source: Defense News)
22 Jan 24. U.S. Continues Protection Mission in Middle East, Convenes Ukraine Defense Group Meeting.
As part of an international effort, the United States continues to protect shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, and continues to defend against attacks on American forces in Iraq and Syria, by Iranian supported groups, Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said today.
Singh also said Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III and Air Force Gen. CQ Brown Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will host a virtual meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group tomorrow.
There have been 151 attacks against U.S. forces in the Middle East since Oct. 19, Singh said. Over the weekend, U.S. forces responded to threats from Houthi rebels and from Iran-backed groups. On Jan. 20, U.S. Central Command forces struck Houthi missiles aimed into the Gulf of Aden, she said. “U.S. forces determined the missile presented a threat to merchant vessels and U.S. Navy ships in the region and subsequently struck and destroyed the missile in self-defense,” Singh said. “This action will make international waters safer and more secure for U.S. Navy and merchant vessels.”
Also on the 20th Iran-backed groups launched multiple ballistic missiles and rockets at Al-Asad airbase in Western Iraq. “Most of the missiles were intercepted by the bases air defense systems, while others impacted the base,” she said. “Two U.S. personnel were injured but have since returned to duty, and there was some structural damage to non-critical facilities. And at least one Iraqi service member was wounded.”
These are the latest attacks which stretch back to Oct. 17 in Iraq and Syria and to Nov. 19 from Houthi rebels in Yemen. “We are going to continue to respond, as we do not seek an escalation,” Singh said. “It is really up to the Houthis, to these backed militias to stop their attacks on our forces, on commercial shipping, on innocent mariners that are transiting the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.”
Singh also said two Navy SEALs lost during a boarding operation on Jan. 11 have been listed as deceased. “We mourn the loss of these two brave SEALs and our hearts are with their families,” she said.
The SEALs were boarding a dhow conducting illegal transport of lethal aid from Iran to Houthi forces in Yemen. The Navy and international partners launched an expansive search operation covering more than 21,000 square miles to locate their missing teammates.
Austin and Brown will host the 18th meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group virtually tomorrow. The group comprises more than 50 countries who come together monthly to coordinate security assistance for Ukraine. “This contact group continues to make … a real difference in real time,” Singh said. It “is a testament to our collective resolve to stand up to Russia’s assault on democracy sovereignty and the rules-based international order that keeps us all secure.”
This is the first meeting of the group in 2024. Congress must pass a supplemental bill to continue U.S. funding to Ukraine. Still, the meeting of the group enables the nations to confer and work together to get military capabilities into the hands of Ukrainian service members. The United States continues to support Ukraine with U.S.-led training continuing at bases in Germany and pilot training continuing in Arizona. (Source: U.S. DoD)
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