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29 Feb 24. Congress renews stopgap funding, averting partial shutdown.
Despite reaching an agreement on spending toplines in January, House and Senate lawmakers still have not approved a fiscal year 2024 budget.
Lawmakers today approved yet another stopgap funding patch to keep the federal government open — at least for a few days — punting for the fourth time in the 2024 fiscal year in lieu of passing a budget.
The legislation averts a partial government shutdown previously set to begin Saturday, extending funding for a handful of federal agencies to March 8. Remaining agencies, including the Pentagon, will have their funding stretched by two weeks to March 22 under the agreement.
Many conservative House Republicans largely opposed the extension of the current continuing resolution (CR), though a majority of GOP members and a near-unanimous group of Democrats ultimately approved the measure by a vote of 320 to 99. Senators agreed to fast track the legislation shortly thereafter, which passed the upper body 77-13.
Though House and Senate leadership reached an agreement on topline spending numbers for the FY24 budget in January, lawmakers still have not been able to nail down particulars of the legislation, particularly as conservatives in the House have called for deeper spending cuts. A CR has now been in place for nearly half of FY24, which began October 1.
Dodging another shutdown is likely welcome news at federal agencies like the Pentagon, though the extension of the CR will not be met with celebration by DoD. Under a CR, spending is locked at FY23 levels and new programs that begin in FY24 will not be able to proceed until the new budget is passed.
Military officials for months have warned of the consequences of a prolonged CR, with service secretaries on Wednesday convening a rare joint press conference to outline the consequences to reporters: billions of dollars in funds that are essentially unusable, lost time on critical modernization efforts and the cancellation of training exercises.
Time is running out for lawmakers to pass the FY24 budget before mandatory spending cuts kick in. Under the terms of the debt ceiling agreement known as the Fiscal Responsibility Act signed into law last year, a 1 percent cut to FY23 spending levels will be triggered if a CR is still in place after the end of April. The debt ceiling deal also capped FY24 and FY25 defense spending at $886 billion and $895 billion, respectively.
Officials have said spending areas like troop pay would be fenced off from those cuts, meaning other accounts like R&D and acquisition would likely have to bear the brunt if spending is slashed. (Source: Breaking Defense.com)
29 Feb 24. Military Leaders Say Maintaining U.S. Strategic Edge Requires Continued Investment.
Senior military officials told lawmakers today that the United States remains ready to deter strategic and space-based threats, but continued investment is critical amid increasing competition.
Air Force Gen. Anthony J. Cotton, U.S. Strategic Command commander, and Space Force Gen. Stephen N. Whiting, U.S. Space Command commander, said recent investments by Russia and China underscore the imperative to maintaining the United States’ strategic edge.
“The most important message I want to deliver today is that the forces under my command are ready to deter our adversaries and respond decisively should deterrence fail,” Cotton said in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee. “No adversary should ever doubt our capability today.”
But he said those capabilities should not be taken for granted.
“We do this in the face of challenges unlike anything America has ever encountered,” Cotton said. “We are confronting not one but two nuclear peers: the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China. This reality combined missile developments in North Korea, Iran’s nuclear ambitions, and the growing relationships amongst those nations adds new layers of complexity to our strategic calculus.”
Cotton noted the quickening pace at which China has developed its fixed intercontinental ballistic missile launchers and projections that China’s nuclear arsenal could reach nearly 1,000 warheads by 2030.
He also highlighted recent statements by Russian President Vladimir Putin that 95% of Russia’s strategic nuclear forces have been modernized.
“In short, our competitors are improving their position against the U.S. and its allies in multiple domains at rates that are far exceeding the pace we’ve seen just a few years ago,” he said.
Whiting also described advancements by U.S. competitors that challenge the United States’ edge in space.
He noted that China’s intelligence satellite fleet had grown to more than 359 systems as of January more than tripling its space-based intelligence collection presence since 2018.
“With their space and counterspace systems, they have dramatically increased their ability to monitor, track and target U.S. and allied forces, both terrestrially and on orbit,” Whiting said.
Russia has also continued to develop and test space and anti-satellite capabilities, Whiting said.
Both leaders told lawmakers that continued investments in strategic and space-based capabilities are critical.
“While our legacy systems continue to hold potential adversaries at risk, it is absolutely critical we continue to speed, at speed with the modernization of our nuclear triad,” Cotton said.
The 2022 Nuclear Posture Review identified the modernization of the U.S. nuclear arsenal as a top priority in maintaining a strong nuclear deterrence.
That modernization effort, which is being carried out over the next two decades, includes initiatives to modernize all three legs of the nuclear triad.
Whiting also noted that while the U.S. “remains the best military space power in the world,” the current architecture is “optimized for operations in a benign space environment.”
“To ensure success in the contested space … environment we now find ourselves in, it is vital that U.S. Space Command has delivered improved capabilities and capacities, fully tested and with trained personnel by 2027,” he said. “While a conflict in space is not inevitable, it would certainly be devastating and disrupt our use of space for decades.
“We must be ready if deterrence fails,” he said. (Source: U.S. DoD)
28 Feb 24. Continuing resolution would slow military modernization, services warn. The U.S. military may run out of personnel funds before the end of the year, be forced to scale back operations and see ongoing modernization efforts harmed if Congress fails to pass a defense spending bill by the end of next week, service leaders warned Tuesday.
The undersecretaries of the Army, Navy and Air Force said they’d have bns of dollars in “misaligned” funds — money that exists but not in the right budget lines to support their current spending needs — if they’re stuck with a full-year continuing resolution that keeps fiscal 2023 spending levels through the rest of 2024.
They agree that they’d have to prioritize current operations first, then people and then acquisition and modernization in a CR.
“You see sailors and Marines across the globe today, performing important missions: the Red Sea is an excellent example of how current operations take precedence,” Navy Under Secretary Erik Raven told reporters at the Pentagon.
Without sufficient funds, he said, “we have to make tough choices. But between the ability to fight tonight and be ready for all the threats, versus preparing for the future and modernizing our forces — it is a tough decision, but we have to lay our chips somewhere, and that’s on the ability to perform our missions today.”
Raven said the Navy’s ability to make that prioritization, though, would require Congress to grant the services some “unprecedented flexibilities” in the form of massive reprogrammings, or moving money from one line item into another.
The Navy, for example, would have $26bn in the wrong places, and would need Congress to approve $13bn in formal reprogrammings — more than twice the money Congress approves for the entire Defense Department in a typical year, he said.
But the reprogramming frenzy would be vital to mitigate the risk the services would take in their modernization efforts and industry would face if contracts are delayed or nixed altogether.
The Army is facing a similar misalignment in funds, to the tune of $6 bn.
“These are production rate increases, new starts — both in programs for acquisition as well as military construction projects that we cannot start,” Army Under Secretary Gabe Camarillo said,.
The Air Force’s misalignment in funds equates to over $13bn and “impacts are particularly challenging in the Space Force, who has seen their budgets rising over the last couple of years,” Air Force Under Secretary Jones said.
‘Burning hotter’
Further complicating funding this fiscal year is the fact that Congress has yet to pass a sweeping supplemental request, which the Pentagon hoped would supply weapons to Ukraine and Israel in support of ongoing wars for both countries and would also fund the Southwest border mission. The lack of supplemental funding compounds the impact of a long-term CR, Camarillo said.
The Army is spending $500m out of its base budget for operations costs in the European theater, another $100m in the U.S. Central Command area of operations and another $500m for the operations along the U.S. Southwest border.
“At one point in time, there was a thought that all of this could be funded through a supplemental, and it is now currently, today, in FY24, being funded 100% out of the Army’s base budget,” Camarillo said.
“We are just burning hotter than we normally would across all of our appropriations accounts,” he said. “[U.S. Army Europe and Africa] in Germany has explained that … they will run out of money this summer in the absence of extraordinary relief, aka a reprogramming.”
This will be a problem across the board, he added, to include running out of funds in the Army’s military personnel account.
Industry impacts
The services planned to ramp up munitions spending in FY24, to bolster their own stockpiles as a hedge against a future fight and to replenish allies’ and partners’ stocks.
A year-long CR puts that industry ramp-up in peril.
Camarillo said he was “particularly concerned” the CR would not allow the services to “send that strong signal to give industry the incentive to be able to facilitize, invest in a workforce and be able to do those extra shifts that we know that we need in order to restore our munitions.”
Camarillo said the Army intended to kick off a multiyear procurement effort for the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 Missile Segment Enhancement (PAC-3 MSE) interceptors in FY24. Under a full-year CR, it would be $1.2bn short to reach the production rates needed to achieve the economic order quantities and savings associated with the multiyear procurement deal.
Lockheed Martin has invested significantly in the PAC-3 MSE line to grow production from 550 missiles per year to 650. The Army requested in its FY24 budget $775 m to ramp up that production. The company intends to grow production beyond 650 in the following year, as demand increases due to the war in Ukraine and conflict in the Middle East.
Camarillo added the Army could not begin to field its Mid Range Capability missile to the first unit, which is important to its Pacific deterrence, due to new programs not being allowed to start under continuing resolutions. Nor could it increase production levels for the Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System, Javelin missile, and 155mm munitions.
“I will just say that we have always said our goal was to get on 155 artillery 100,000 per month rounds by the end of calendar year ‘25. We cannot get there unless we get both the appropriation and we get the supplemental,” Camarillo said.
“It’s very challenging, because we’re asking industry to lean as far forward as they possibly can and to make investments both in additional personnel, unique tooling and machining that’s required to ramp up production capacity,” Camarillo said.
And the Army planned to buy 225 Coyote counter-unmanned aerial system interceptors – a spending need that hits home, he said, due to the recent deaths of three soldiers in Jordan who were killed by a drone strike from Iran-backed militants — but those, too, could not be purchased in a year-long CR.
For the Navy, Raven said the sea service wanted to double its Standard Missile 6 spending — something particularly timely, as Navy ships are expending the older SM-2 missiles almost daily in the Red Sea, shooting down Houthi missiles and drones — but that cannot happen under the full-year CR.
After the Navy just last week awarded a maintenance contract to HII’s Newport News Shipbuilding to overhaul the attack submarine Boise – which has languished at the pier since 2015 and has been unable to undergo repairs at either a public or private repair yard – Raven said a full-year CR would render the Navy unable to actually fund and execute that contract this year due to a $600m shortfall in the submarine maintenance funds.
It would also see a $800m shortfall in amphibious ship spending that could put at risk America-class amphibious assault ship construction, a $2bn shortfall in submarine construction spending that would threaten the Virginia-class attack sub program, and more.
For the Air Force, Kristyn Jones, who is performing the duties of the under secretary of the Air Force, said the service has five contractors onboard for its collaborative combat aircraft effort, but that wouldn’t be able to move forward.
The full-year CR would also hamper production increases on the Joint Strike Missile and the F-35A Joint Strike Fighter, both of which the Air Force says it needs for a high-end fight, as well as spending on the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile for facilitization to support future production increases.
“We hear over and over: the industry wants that solid demand signal so they know how to invest, they can support the facilitization — and by having this uncertainty, it really has negative impacts across the defense industrial base,” Jones said. (Source: C4ISR & Networks)
28 Feb 24. Top Air Force General Discusses Plan to Reoptimize for Future of Warfare. The Air Force is at a critical inflection point as it adapts to the changing character of warfare, its top general said today.
Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David W. Allvin said deterring conflict in the emerging era of great power competition while maintaining capabilities to win against legacy threats calls for bold decisions and a commitment to adaptation.
“I do believe this is a time of consequence,” Allvin said during a discussion on optimizing air power hosted by the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based public policy organization.
“We may not see it because there’s distractions and there’s complexity in the environment right now,” he added. “But we’ve had that before. Those who were able to pierce the fog, look through that and be able to see into the future with some courage and make the bold decisions now, in this time of consequence, will look back in at ourselves and be proud.”
Allvin’s remarks follow sweeping changes, announced by the Air Force earlier this month, to reoptimize the service to meet the demands of the future.
Those changes included key decisions by the service that focus on developing people, generating readiness, projecting power and developing capabilities to maintain superiority in an era of great-power competition.
The decisions, endorsed by the Air Force’s most senior civilian and military leaders, outline both near- and long-term initiatives that emphasize speed and agility to prevail against near-peer competitors.
“We are moving forward with a sense of urgency to ensure we are ready to deter and, if necessary, win,” Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said when he unveiled the blueprint.
“We are out of time,” he said, underscoring the imperative for reoptimizing for the new environment.
Discussing the way forward today, Allvin said the Air Force must be capable of operating in more contested environments and at increasing ranges.
That will require more agile force deployment while being able to integrate with joint and combined forces to have the greatest combat effect, he said.
“That’s a different way of warfighting,” he said, adding that it will require not only organizational change and new capabilities, but also a change in mindset for airmen.
“It’s really about adapting our institution to be able to be more conducive for the environment, which is more fast paced, rapid, where opportunities come and go faster,” he said. “You can’t be operating at a 20th century, bureaucratic pace when you have a 21st century dynamic environment.” (Source: U.S. DoD)
28 Feb 24. Pacific Air Forces hold bilateral talks with Philippines Air Force. During the bilateral discussions PACAF and PAF worked to develop mutual lines-of-efforts to incorporate into future interactions.
Between 13-15 February the Pacific Air Forces (PACAF) welcomed leaders from the Philippines Air Force for a series of bilateral discussions and expert exchanges at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.
The initiative, part of the Airmen-to-Airmen Talks (A2ATs), aims to strengthen military ties and improve interoperability between the US and its Indo-Pacific allies. The discussions are part of an ongoing effort to foster military cooperation and ensure preparedness for joint operations.
During the meetings, participants reviewed 183 items and highlighed 10 key efforts for future collaboration, as said US Air Force Lt Col Morgan Clark, the PACAF Philippines desk officer.
Key topics of the talks included enhancing air domain awareness, planning combined air patrols, modernising military capabilities, and boosting information sharing between the two forces. Maj Gen Ramon Guiang of the Philippines Air Force expressed appreciation for the constructive dialogue and the opportunity to plan for upcoming challenges.
“I extend my heart felt gratitude to PACAF staff for your willingness to engage in dialog and share your experiences and expertise,” said Maj Gen Guiang, Vice Commanding General of the PAF. “Together we are stronger and more resilient in facing emerging challenges.”
See Also:
- Philippine Air Force boosts Indo-Pacific interoperability with new C-130
- QinetiQ delivers new air combat training to Slovenian pilots
US Air Force Maj Gen Mark Weber, Air National Guard Assistant to the PACAF Commander and co-chair to the A2AT, made remarks regarding the strength to the alliance between the US and Philippines. “We proved the US and Philippines have, and continue to build, an unbreakable bond,” said Weber, Air National Guard Assistant to the PACAF Commander. “Together we have proven we are reliable security partners focused on preserving peace and prosperity across the region.”
Philippines has made a number of major purchases for its Air Force recently, with the purchase of a new C-130H in February 2024, two new T-129 Attack Helicopters in December 2023, and the expansion of its Cessna 208B ISR Aircraft fleet in September 2023. In August 2023, Sweden offered the JAS-39 Gripen aircraft to the Philippine Air Force as part of its ongoing modernisation. (Source: airforce-technology.com)
28 Feb 24. US Army Aviation pivots its force posture to meet near-peer threats. With plans to pursue the new FLRAA platform and divest 150 Black Hawks, the US Army revealed its intention to pivot its force structure back to 2004 levels. The US Army Aviation branch revealed it is restructuring its future lift fleet to match near-peer threats as it seeks to strip away the counter-insurgency posture cultivated over the last two decades in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Presently, the US Department of Defense acknowledges it must outmatch regimes militarily as they seek to challenge the so-called ‘Rules-Based Order’ – espousing national sovereignty and liberalism on the world stage – in which it identifies China as a “pacing threat,” alongside Russia, Iran and North Korea.
Fundamentally, the transition will see the US Army take a step backwards, returning to 2004, pre-Iraq surge levels.
A step backward?
As part of the US Army’s “aggressive optimisation,” the service announced at the end of 2023 that it intends to reduce its UH-60 Black Hawk fleet by more than 150 units.
According to the leading intelligence consultancy, GlobalData, Black Hawk helicopters have logged more than four m flying hours since it entered service in 1978, during a diverse range of combat missions in Panama, Afghanistan, Iraq, and numerous humanitarian and rescue missions including operations in Bosnia.
In its place, the Future Long Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) will serve as a successor long-range, high-speed utility aircraft. Units will utilise FLRAA’s increased speed, range, and manoeuvrability to assault enemy forces from areas of relative safety outside the range of enemy long-range fires.
Likewise, the force has already cancelled its Future Assault Reconaissance Aircraft (FARA) in favour of a more hybrid force structure that employs uncrewed reconnaissance systems as collaborative aerial assets designed to increase the lethality and survivability of the main, crewed platforms.
This mark an age of warfare marked by faster, longer-range, hybridised roles in an age where long range fires reach greater distances with much more precision.
Balancing insurgency and near-peer threats
According to its Armed Conflict Survey 2023, the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), a British security think tank, warned: “At the core of the grim outlook for conflict globally is the current complexity of contemporary wars, which often feature a large number of diverse non-state armed groups (NSAGs) as well as external interference.”
The IISS indicates that there is still a place for counter insurgency methods in a modern force structure. This was a point that was reiterated in discussions at the IMH conference – US Army Aviation must pursue a balance.
The UK Ministry of Defence is pursuing such a balance too, for which it announced that it will begin to negotiate with suppliers for its New Medium Helicopter concept, which the Government hopes will serve as a multi-mission “Swiss Army knife.” (Source: army-technology.com)
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