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12 Apr 24. Joint Readout on the Inaugural U.S.-Philippines 3+3 Meeting. The text of the following statement was released by the Governments of the United States of America and the Philippines on the occasion of the inaugural U.S.-Philippines 3+3 Meeting.
Begin text: Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III, and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan met with Philippine Secretary of Foreign Affairs Enrique Manalo, Philippine Secretary of National Defense Gilberto Teodoro, and Philippine National Security Advisor Eduardo M. Año in Washington, DC today. The meeting followed President Biden’s bilateral meeting with Philippines President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. and the historic Japan-Philippines-United States Trilateral Leaders’ Summit on April 11.
The parties reaffirmed their shared vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific and discussed ways to deepen coordination regarding shared challenges in the South China Sea, including repeated harassment of lawful Philippine operations by the People’s Republic of China. Secretary Blinken, Secretary of Defense Austin, and National Security Advisor Sullivan reiterated the United States’ ironclad commitment to the U.S.-Philippine Alliance and recalled that the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty extends to armed attacks on Philippine armed forces, public vessels, or aircraft – including those of its Coast Guard – anywhere in the South China Sea. The parties underscored their determination to increase U.S. support for the modernization of the Armed Forces of the Philippines to improve interoperability and to achieve our shared security objectives. The parties further decided to explore additional opportunities to strengthen global support for upholding the international law of the sea. End text. (Source: U.S. DoD)
12 Apr 24. Austin Emphasizes U.S. Commitment to Defend Philippines. Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III today hosted an enhanced honor cordon and meeting to welcome Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to the Pentagon.
Austin underscored the U.S. commitment to the defense of the Philippines is ironclad, referencing President Joe Biden’s remarks at the White House yesterday.
An attack on Philippine armed forces, vessels or aircraft in the Pacific, including the South China Sea, would invoke the U.S. commitment under the U.S.-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty, Austin said.
The forces of both nations have extended their operational coordination on land, at sea and in the air, the secretary noted.
“This level of cooperation is critical to our collective security and to peace and prosperity across the region,” he said.
Austin noted that the president’s fiscal year 2025 budget request seeks $128 million to fund 36 infrastructure projects on Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement sites in the Philippines, more than double the amount the U.S. has already invested in at those sites.
Spotlight: FY 25 Defense BudgetMarcos said that the Philippines has always been able to look to United States for support, and he said increased cooperation between the two governments and militaries should continue.
The Philippine president praised the first U.S.-Philippines-Japan leaders’ summit that took place yesterday at the White House. There Biden met with Marcos, as well as Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
The leaders of the three countries issued a joint vision statement at the summit. “We believe, fundamentally, that by working together, we can advance the security and prosperity of our own nations, the Indo-Pacific region, and the world,” according to that statement. (Source: U.S. DoD)
12 Apr 24. The Department of Defense Releases the Updated Strategic Management Plan for Fiscal Years 2022 -2026. Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen H. Hicks has approved the updated Fiscal Years 2022 – 2026 DoD Strategic Management Plan. The SMP serves as the Department of Defense’s strategic framework to manage strategic priorities and goals in support of the 2022 National Defense Strategy. It focuses on building enduring advantages and addressing institutional management priorities by using data-analytics to enhance oversight and reform efforts. Additionally, the SMP meets the statutory requirements pursuant the Government Performance and Results Act Modernization Act of 2010 and is published every year with the objective of articulating near-term progress on SMP implementation along with the long-term objectives the department plans to accomplish. The SMP preparation is led by the department’s Performance Improvement Officer and is developed through collaborative coordinated partnerships with the DOD components. The published SMP is reviewed as part of the annual fiscal budget process to ensure it remains aligned with achieving the strategic goals of the President’s budget, the NDS, and the Secretary of Defense’s priorities. For the first time, the FY2025 update to the SMP incorporates outcome-driven performance goals and measures for Military Departments to ensure that the SMP strategic framework accurately represents the work executed by the MILDEP in contribution to strategic priorities and objectives. The SMP includes the Annual Performance Plan and Annual Performance Report. The FY2025 APP reflects the SMP’s longer-term planning outlook by linking its strategic goals and objectives to operational performance goals, measures, and targets for the upcoming fiscal year. The FY2023 APR consolidates prior year performance results across all DOD components and communicates overall implementation progress against the SMP. The SMP strategic priorities and objectives – together with the performance goals, measures, and targets – showcase how the department intends to achieve its goals and priorities and succeed through teamwork across the defense enterprise. The FY2025 SMP focuses on five strategic priorities:
- Take Care of Our People and Cultivate the Workforce We Need
- Transform the Foundation of the Future Force
- Make the Right Technology Investments
- Strengthen Resilience and Adaptability of Our Defense Ecosystem
- Address Institutional Management Priorities
The full SMP is published online on the Performance Improvement Officer/Director of Administration and Management’s performance website: https://dam.defense.gov/Performance-Mgmt/.
You can also find it on defense.gov here: chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://media.defense.gov/2024/Apr/12/2003438601/-1/-1/1/FY25_DOD_STRATEGIC_MANAGEMENT_PLAN_2024_FINAL.PDF
(Source: U.S. DoD)
12 Apr 24. Defense Intelligence Officials Underscore Need for Key Authorities to Counter Evolving Threats. Defense intelligence officials underscored this week the critical role authorities under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act serve in defending against foreign adversaries amid an increasingly challenging national security landscape.
A key provision in the act, Section 702, which allows for collection of electronic intelligence against non-U.S. persons abroad under federal court supervision, is set to expire this month unless reauthorized by Congress.
In testimony before the House Armed Services’ Intelligence and Special Operations Subcommittee on Thursday, three senior defense officials told lawmakers that reauthorizing Section 702 is of utmost importance.
“FISA section 702 is absolutely critical to our foreign intelligence mission,” said Air Force Gen. Timothy D. Haugh, director of the National Security Agency.
“There is no substitute for this authority,” he said. “The timely, actionable information it provides cannot be replicated by other means.”
Congress approved Section 702 in 2008 as part of the FISA Amendments Act. The original act was passed in 1978. The amendments passed in 2008 were aimed at addressing intelligence collections gaps that had emerged from the advancements in technology since FISA was first passed.
Information collected under Section 702 has been used to protect the U.S. from hostile foreign adversaries, including terrorists.
Authorities under Section 702 are set to expire on April 19.
Haugh, who also serves as the commander of U.S. Cyber Command, was joined by Milancy D. Harris, acting undersecretary of defense for intelligence and security, and Air Force Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, in urging Congress to approve the reauthorization.
“One of the ways Congress can provide its most effective support and defense of the nation is to reauthorize Section 702 of … ,” Kruse said. “Although DIA does not operate under these specific authorities, our all-source analysis mission, our ability to operationalize intelligence, and our support to Congress is dependent on those who do.”
The potential expiration of authorities under Title VII of FISA comes as the Defense Department faces rapidly evolving threats throughout the globe.
The trajectory and rate of change in the national security arena is perhaps the highest and most consequential we’ve seen in our lifetime.”
The officials underscored the critical role DOD plays in managing competition with China.
“Our No. 1 priority remains addressing our pacing challenge: the People’s Republic of China,” Harris said. “Our network of regional allies and partners is deep, wide, strong and committed to a shared vision of peace, stability and deterrence.”
Spotlight: Support for UkraineHarris also noted DOD’s continued engagement with allies and partners in supporting Ukraine’s defense against Russia’s ongoing invasion and in responding to the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas and emerging threats posed by terrorism in the Middle East.
“The trajectory and rate of change in the national security arena is perhaps the highest and most consequential we’ve seen in our lifetime,” Kruse said.
“How we respond matters,” he said. “And our level of innovation, focus and integration must match our adversaries, stride for stride. We must position ourselves and our capabilities to meet threats we see now and on the horizon and not simply posture to repeat successes of the past.” (Source: U.S. DoD)
12 Apr 24. FBI director warns of domestic terror threat following Moscow attack, amid Israel-Hamas war. On 11 April, FBI Director Christopher Wray warned Congress about the threat of a terrorist attack in the US similar to the 22 March attack against a concert hall in Moscow (Russia) that killed 144 people. The FBI stressed that there is an elevated threat of a co-ordinated attack in the US after Islamic State Khorasan Province (IS-K) claimed responsibility for the Moscow attack. The FBI was conducting around 4,000 active international terrorism investigations at the end of FY2023. The agency also emphasised that the Israel-Hamas war will possibly have a substantial impact on violent radicalisation. While the FBI has not increased the national terror threat level, it will likely urge federal-, state- and local-level security services to monitor for possible Islamist terror threats closely in the short-to-medium term, particularly in major urban centres. (Source: Sibylline)
11 Apr 24. Taylor-Kale: Defense Industrial Strategy Already Making Headway in Maritime Space.
In January, the DOD released for the first time a National Defense Industrial Strategy, which, among other things, spells out how the department plans to strengthen the U.S. defense industrial base. Already, priorities outlined in that plan are having a positive impact on the nation’s maritime space, the assistant secretary of defense for industrial base policy said.
The DOD’s NDIS is driven by four priorities, including building resilient supply chains, investing in workforce readiness, leveraging flexible acquisition strategies and enabling economic deterrence.
On Wednesday, Laura Taylor-Kale discussed DOD efforts so far on three of those priorities during the 2024 Sea-Air-Space maritime exposition outside Washington.
“Resilient supply chains seek to invest in and strengthen supply chains in order to be able to securely produce the products and services and technologies that we need now and in the future,” Taylor-Kale said.
Her office, she said, manages the Defense Production Act along with industrial base analysis and sustainment programs.
“These programs make targeted investments in the industrial base and in critical areas in the supply chain,” she said. That includes, for instance, solid rocket motors and chemicals and critical materials needed for weapons systems.
“Through these programs, last year, we invested more than a billion dollars in critical minerals and materials, castings and forgings and microelectronics supply chains,” she said.
The recently signed and passed fiscal year 2024 defense appropriations and the FY2025 presidential budget request, Taylor-Kale said, billions of dollars for supply chain investments includes munitions, maritime strike capabilities, shipyard and submarine industrial base improvements and workforce development initiatives.
“Another way to help build industrial base resilience is to engage with our allies and partners, especially our close ones, to expand global defense production and increase supply chain resilience,” she said.
The department is doing that now, she said, citing the AUKUS trilateral security partnership among the U.S., U.K. and Australia as an example. The AUKUS partnership, agreed to in 2021, is aimed at fostering technology exchanges among the three nations and also at helping to build Australia’s nuclear-powered submarine force.
“We’ve worked with Congress to make it easier for our defense industrial base to work closely and collaboratively with industry in Australia and the United Kingdom,” she said.
Australia is now working to manufacture munitions for the guided multiple launch rocket system, also called GMLRS, she said. And outside AUKUS, the DOD’s relationships with partners and allies are yielding other positive outcomes as well.
“Norway is expanding its capacity to produce 155 mm artillery rounds,” she said. “And Germany’s Rheinmetall is working to build a munitions factory in the Ukraine just to name a few examples.”
In the Indo-Pacific, Taylor-Kale pointed to recently announced agreements in place with India and Japan to coproduce and acquire advanced capabilities to strengthen deterrence across the Indo-Pacific and said there are efforts underway to implement major defense initiatives with South Korea and the Philippines as well.
As part of an effort to invest in workforce readiness, Taylor-Kale pointed to a program run out of her office, the Metallurgical Engineering Trades Apprenticeship & Learning, or METAL program, which advances efforts to get more young people involved in casting and forging — a critical skill needed to support maritime defense.
“There is a global challenge for skilled workforce,” she said. “I hear this all the time, not just from American industry and our colleagues here, but also from international industry as well as our international partners. Younger generations generally show less interest in pursuing manufacturing careers or lack the science, technology, engineering and math skills needed for industrial work.”
Casting and forging, Taylor-Kale said, plays an important role in the maritime environment, including construction of offshore platforms, ship hulls, propellers and rudders.
“Through national workforce initiatives like the program … the DOD is introducing younger generations to careers in casting and forging, something that I actually think is really cool and fascinating that we’re doing it and we’re oftentimes using advanced technologies to help spur interest in these areas,” she said.
Supporting economic deterrence, Taylor-Kale pointed out that Congress has named Australia and the U.K. as domestic sources eligible for the Defense Production Act.
“Companies in those countries, as well as in Canada, can apply for grants,” she said. “And … our newly stood-up Defense Industrial Base Consortium … also accepts proposals from international partners, from the U.K., Canada and Australia. (Source: U.S. DoD)
11 Apr 24. US sets new record for Foreign Military Sales in 2023. The Director of the Defence Security and Cooperation Agency has said that the US set a $80.9bn record for Foreign Military Sales in 2023.
The Defence Security and Cooperation Agency (DSCA) said that 2023 set a record for US sales of military equipment and hardware, with $80.9bn in business through the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) system.
“That is a record,” said DSCA Director James Hursch, with European nations becoming “huge customers.”
Speaking at the 2024 Sea-Air-Space maritime exposition on 9 April, Hursch went on to highlight the activity of Sweden, Poland, and Netherlands as customers of significant size.
Poland was marked as a special case, joining the US in co-production of defence systems, strengthening its own industrial base in a pattern the US would like to be repeated with other partners and allies around the world, according to Hursch.
“One of the principal lessons we have learned in the Ukraine crisis and looking at ourselves as we’ve gone through this is… the health of our defence industrial base,” he said.
“I think we’ve discovered… domestically, we need to pay more attention to that. We have a new National Defense Industrial Base Strategy, which has been published by [DoD’s] acquisition and sustainment office. But I think it’s also true that we’re seeing in Europe an increased focus on the strength of the industrial base. And we’re looking for ways in which we can cooperate across those industrial bases.”
In 2023, Poland also made US purchases of: AH-64E Apache helicopters; High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS); the Integrated Air and Missile Defense Battle Command System; and M1A1 Abrams Main Battle tanks.
Nato Allies have made a substantial proportion of US FMS in both 2023 and 2023, with $20bn in fiscal year 2022 and $24bn in fiscal year 2023.
Of the $80.9bn in value of authorised arms transfers and security cooperation programs from 2023, $62.3bn of the sales were to US ally and partner nations and an additional $14.7bn was used through teh Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative and Building Partner Capacity programs under the Foreign Assistance Act. (Source: army-technology.com)
10 Apr 24. AI-Operated Fighter Jet will Fly. The US Air Force is betting a large part of its future air warfare on a fleet more than 1,000 autonomously operated drones, and later this spring its top civilian leader plans to climb into an artificial intelligence-operated warplane and let it take him airborne.
Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall told senators on Tuesday at a hearing on the service’s 2025 budget that he will enter the cockpit of one of the F-16s that the service has converted for drone flight to see for himself how the AI-controlled plane performs in the air.
“There will be a pilot with me who will just be watching, as I will be, as the autonomous technology works,” Kendall told the Senate Appropriations Committee defense panel members. “Hopefully neither he or I will be needed to fly the airplane.”
Drone warfare has quickly expanded from the sidelines of combat to one of its primary weapons. Drones are a daily threat in Ukraine and in the Middle East. In Ukraine, everyday citizens are targeted by Russian drones but also are assembling drones to collect video of Russian positions. In the Middle East, Iranian-backed Houthis and militant groups have regularly employed sophisticated air, sea and underwater drones to target U.S. bases and commercial ships in the Red Sea.
The Air Force began planning for its fleet of collaborative combat aircraft, or CCAs, several years ago, and it envisions a scenario in which one piloted jet will be able to quarterback multiple AI-driven, responsive drones, which the service calls “loyal wingmen.”
The service has been tight-lipped on what the fleet of drones will look like in size or platform, whether they will be full-size warplanes or something smaller. Kendall said the converted F-16 test flight will be done for him to observe the technology behind the future fleet.
The fleet is being designed specifically with future warfare, and potentially a conflict with China, in mind. China has rapidly modernized its anti-access capabilities as more sophisticated air defense systems make it risky to send manned crews too close. Drone aircraft could augment the service’s ability to breach those defenses, and they are envisioned to provide support in a variety of future missions such as surveillance or jamming.
The Air Force requested $559m in the 2025 budget to continue research and development of the future CCA air system.
“The initial role for the aircraft was going to be counter-air, but it will have the potential to do other things,” Kendall said.
The drone fleet is also expected to be cheaper than developing new manned jets, Kendall said. The current goal is to have each cost about a quarter to a third of what an F-35 fighter costs now, or about $20 m apiece. (Source: UAS VISION/abc NEWS)
10 Apr 24. Republicans pick defense hawk to usher spending bills. Republicans on Wednesday selected their new leader of the House Appropriations Committee, replacing Rep. Kay Granger, R-Texas, who announced in March she would step down from the post.
The full Republican conference unanimously picked Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., to chair the committee. Although fellow defense appropriator Rep. Robert Aderholt, R-Ala., had also expressed interest in the position, Cole was the only candidate to formally run for the post.
Cole will step down as chairman of the House Rules Committee, which controls the floor agenda. Like Granger before him, he currently sits on the defense appropriations subcommittee and has historically favored large military budgets. He described the Biden administration’s fiscal 2025 defense budget proposal of $895bn as insufficient during a hearing with Navy and Marine Corps leaders on Wednesday shortly after his appointment.
“I think this budget is too low,” Cole said. “I think that’s been consistently true with the administration. I also recognize we’re under the constraints of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, and that’s going to make it difficult for us to do some things I think we need to do.”
Cole was referring to last year’s debt ceiling agreement that capped discretionary spending levels. Under that agreement, the Defense Department receives more discretionary funding than all other federal agencies combined.
“I look forward to hitting the ground running tomorrow and am committed to engaging with the entire conference to deliver the necessary appropriations bills in a timely matter,” Cole said in a statement on Tuesday after the House Republican Steering Committee, which controls panel assignments, nominated him as appropriations chairman.
Congress did not pass a full FY24 defense spending bill until March, nearly six months into the fiscal year that began in October.
Granger, who is not running for reelection in November, said she is stepping down as appropriations chairwoman early in part because “an election year often results in final appropriations bills not getting enacted well until the next fiscal year.”
Cole told the Nebraska Examiner that he expects Congress will have to fund the government with a stopgap spending bill through the upcoming presidential election instead of full FY25 appropriations legislation at the start of the fiscal year on Oct. 1.
Whether Congress passes the FY25 spending bills before January depends on President Joe Biden or former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Democratic and Republican nominees, respectively.
“The winner will probably decide,” Cole told the Nebraska Examiner. “Do we want to finish business this calendar year, which is always the best thing to do, win or lose, or do you want to kick it into next year?
“I hope we don’t do that, but that’s the way I see it unfolding right now.”
As appropriations chairman, Cole will have to balance the demands of traditional Republican defense hawks and fiscal conservatives more closely aligned with Trump’s America First wing of the party. Cole also favors Ukraine aid and has consistently voted in favor of it, though Trump and a growing number of Republicans oppose additional assistance for Kyiv.
While House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has said the House would act on Ukraine aid, he has so far ruled out putting the Senate’s $95 bn foreign aid bill — which also includes assistance for Israel and Taiwan — on the floor. The Senate passed that bill 70-29 in February.
Johnson has yet to reveal a formal plan for Ukraine aid. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., has threatened to force a vote removing Johnson as speaker, should he move forward with a Ukraine package.
Last year’s effort instigated by a small band of right-wing Republicans to oust former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., plunged the House into weeks of chaos as the conference struggled to select a new leader.
Further complicating matters, House Republicans will be down to a one-vote majority after Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., leaves Congress later this month. (Source: Defense News)
10 Apr 24. USAF issues $409m award for long-sought Pacific airfield. The U.S. Air Force has awarded a contract for an airfield on Tinian, a Pacific island military leaders consider crucial to their plans in the region. Fluor, an engineering and construction company based in Irving, Texas, will receive about $409m to finish the project within five years, the company announced April 10.
Tinian is part of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, an American territory north of Guam and about 1,500 miles east of the Philippines. The Air Force launched bomber raids against Japan from Tinian during World War II. Since then, the island’s jungle has grown over the finished runways.
For years, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command — the military organization responsible for the region — has wanted to rebuild them. Its goal is part of what the Air Force calls Agile Combat Employment — divvying U.S. forces into smaller groups around the region. More, smaller groups would make American positions harder to target, the argument goes.
The top military and civilian leaders in the Air Force visited the island earlier this month to survey work on the airfield. Since January, airmen have started to clear hundreds of acres of jungle so that construction work can begin.
Indo-Pacific Command sends lawmakers an annual wish list of projects it deems necessary to deter a conflict in the region. This year’s list included $4.8bn for infrastructure, though about a fifth of these construction projects show up in the Pentagon’s budget request for fiscal 2025.
Pentagon and military leaders in the Pacific sometimes disagree on where to spend money in the region and what work is even possible in the short term. That’s particularly true when it comes to construction. Materials and workers are much more expensive on Pacific islands than in the continental United States, and projects require bureaucratic rigmarole to start.
The result is often a path paved by delays, a Republican congressional aide told Defense News in January.
“The money takes very long to show up,” the aide said. “Then simultaneously you’re dealing with horrific bureaucratic problems.”
As a U.S. territory with existing sites to build on and mostly flat land, Tinian should be one of the easier places for the Defense Department to work, the aide said.
“It’s not a complicated project.” (Source: Defense News)
10 Apr 24. AUKUS Partners Focus on Indo-Pacific Security in Shaping Joint Capabilities. Maintaining peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific serves as the key factor driving the selection of advanced capabilities to pursue as part of the AUKUS security partnership between the U.S., U.K. and Australia, senior officials said yesterday.
Justin McFarlin, deputy assistant secretary of defense for international and industry engagement, detailed the top criteria for decision makers as the three countries begin to partner with industry in shaping the path forward for enhancing joint capabilities and interoperability under the partnership.
“It’s really about maintaining peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific,” McFarlin said in underscoring the overarching intent behind the security partnership during a panel discussion at Sea-Air-Space 2024, an exposition hosted by the Navy League at National Harbor, Maryland.
The partnership was agreed to in September 2021, kicking off a multiphased approach to fostering technology exchanges among the three countries and building Australia’s nuclear-powered submarine force.
Under the plan’s first pillar, Australia will purchase three Virginia-class, conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarines in time to replace its current fleet of diesel electric subs in the 2030s.
The three countries will also develop a state-of-the-art platform designed to combine and leverage their shared submarine technology. The “SSN-AUKUS,” as the future platform is known, is slated to be fielded by the U.K. in the 2030s and by Australia in the 2040s.
The second pillar of the agreement is focused on developing joint capabilities to further enhance interoperability among the participating nations with a focus on cyber capabilities, artificial intelligence, quantum technologies and additional undersea capabilities.
McFarlin said that as the U.S., U.K. and Australia further define their technology requirements under the second pillar, they remain laser focused on selecting technology that is relevant to all three nations while maintaining a focus on the Indo-Pacific.
“Our focus is maintaining the peace and stability in that region,” he said.
Additionally, McFarlin said the technology selected must add mutual value to all participating nations.
“As we look at new opportunities, we’re very focused on what is AUKUS difference that’s going to cause this to be better trilaterally, rather than if it’s just bilateral or one country doing it,” he said.
Shimon Fhima, the director of strategic programs for the U.K. Ministry of Defense, also described his focus on selecting technology that will pay dividends across all three countries with a focus on maintaining regional security.
“In thinking about the capabilities that we invest in, it has to be something that will maintain the strategic balance of security in the Indo-Pacific,” he said.
Fhima echoed McFarlin in describing his criteria for capabilities that add value to warfighters across the partnership.
“It’s really important that we’ve got to be better together,” he said. “Therefore, the sum of our parts must be far greater than us working it individually.”
McFarlin and Fhima were joined during the panel by Michael Vaccaro, the U.S. State Department’s deputy assistant secretary for defense trade controls, and Stephen Moore, the first assistant secretary for AUKUS advanced capabilities for the Australian Department of Defense.
The officials spoke one day after the three nations’ defense ministers announced that they are considering cooperation with Japan in pursuing advanced capabilities specifically under the second pillar of AUKUS.
In a joint statement on Monday, the defense ministers cited Japan’s “strengths and its close bilateral defense partnerships with all three countries” as factors in the decision.
In a joint press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio at the White House today, President Joe Biden said the potential inclusion of Japan in the pursuit of advanced capabilities under AUKUS adds to significant steps in strengthening defense cooperation.
In addition to exploring Japan’s potential cooperation in the AUKUS partnership, Biden announced that the U.S., Japan and Australia will partner in creating a networked air defense architecture. The U.S. and U.K. will also be standing up trilateral military exercises with Japan.
“All told, that represents a new benchmark for our military cooperation across a range of capabilities,” Biden said.
During Tuesday’s panel, the officials noted that expanding AUKUS Pillar 2, to include additional partners has been a consideration from the start and that the three countries looked forward to further discussions with Japan on how they might cooperate on particular projects. (Source: U.S. DoD)
10 Apr 24. Top Cyber Official Credits Foreign Surveillance Tool With Keeping Americans Safe. The Defense Department’s top cyber official credited a key provision of the amended Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act with keeping Americans and the DOD safe from foreign adversaries during testimony at a Senate Armed Services Committee posture hearing today.
Air Force Gen. Timothy D. Haugh, who serves as commander of U.S. Cyber Command, director of the National Security Agency and chief of the Central Security Service, referenced Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 during his opening remarks.
“Since … elevation to a unified combatant command in 2018, Cyber Command has worked hard to make the most of its resources, authorities and support,” Haugh said. “Of those authorities, none is as vital to national security and the command as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which is essential for identifying malicious cyber actors in protection of the nation and the Department of Defense.”
Section 702 grants the government the ability to acquire foreign intelligence information by conducting targeted surveillance of foreign persons located outside of the United States.
When asked to give a real-world example of how Section 702 is used to protect America and its citizens, Haugh explained how the provision is a valuable resource in tracking fentanyl supply chains from China to Mexico.
” allows us to connect dots from the precursors as they start in China, and all the way through to the potential criminal organization,” said Haugh. “We have produced significant amounts of reporting that allow law enforcement to now look at that from a targeted perspective — leveraging the data we’ve created in foreign intelligence outside the United States — to be able to then take action to limit risk to the American people.”
During the hearing, one committee member asked Haugh to address possible public concerns and/or mistrust over Section 702 by clarifying exactly “what is legal and what is not legal to be collected under 702 provisions.”
“This is the most transparent intelligence authority we have,” Haugh responded, adding that Section 702 is built with protections for the American people and that only foreign intelligence targets operating outside the United States may be authorized for collection.
“This authority cannot be used to collect against Americans,” Haugh emphasized, adding that intelligence-based information is queried in such a way as to ensure that any data on U.S. citizens that may have been incidentally collected is not brought into any reports.
When it comes to cybersecurity, Haugh provided one example of how U.S. citizens might be tied to Section 702, though only tangentially and not as a target of surveillance.
“If we see China attempting to hack something in the United States … and we see that there’s a U.S. company that is the target … we would then query on that company,” to attempt to identify what’s being attacked, and to notify the target as quickly as possible, Haugh said.
Haugh then elaborated on the previously mentioned protections built into the provision.
” allows us to ensure the privacy of Americans; and it has oversight built in from the executive branch, the legislative branch and from the courts to ensure that we’re using it properly,” he said, adding that there is language in the current bill before Congress that will mandate civil and criminal penalties for any misuses of Section 702.
“It is our Americans that serve every day in the national defense of the American people,” said Haugh. “And that includes their civil liberties their privacy; and we will continue to be transparent about how we use this authority to defend Americans every single day collection against China, against Russia, counterterrorism threats and cyber threats that face the nation every single day.”
Section 702 of FISA is currently set to expire on the 19th of this month, though many of the committee members attending today’s hearing expressed optimism that the provision will be renewed before then. (Source: U.S. DoD)
09 Apr 24. Brown: DOD FY25 Budget Request Aligns With Message to Joint Force. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Air Force Gen. CQ Brown, Jr., explained during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing today how the Defense Department’s fiscal year 2025 budget request aligns with his message to the joint force.
Shortly after becoming chairman in October 2023, Brown released his message focusing on three expectations: giving primacy to the honing of warfighting skills; modernizing the joint force and leading aggressively with new concepts and approaches; and recognizing trust as the foundation of the military profession.
Brown cited a series of challenges identified in the 2022 National Defense Strategy — the risky behavior of China, a newly aggressive Russia, and a destabilizing Iran and North Korea were among them — as being threats to an increasingly complex global security environment.
“These challenges are interconnected,” Brown said, “which demands a strategic approach to addressing the immediate threats, while also preparing for future contingencies.”
As it relates to honing warfighting skills, Brown said that DOD’s $849.8 bn budget request contains $147bn that not only sustains readiness and ensures DOD can counter threats in the near-term, but also focuses on integrating allies and partners into planning and operations. It also expands security operations, interoperability and training.
“Our investments in readiness ensure the joint force can respond when the nation calls,” said Brown.
In terms of joint force modernization and the pursuit of new concepts, the budget request invests $167.5bn in procurement to “equip the joint force with unparalleled combat capabilities across every domain.”
Additionally, the budget invests $143.2bn in research, development, testing and evaluation of future capabilities aimed at retaining the nation’s strategic edge.
Lastly, the budget invests in nuclear modernization, multiyear procurement of critical munitions, digital innovation, and an overall strengthened defense industrial base, Brown said.
“With rapidly evolving threats and technologies, accelerating our modernization is crucial,” he added.
Brown then turned to his third expectation of trust, calling it “the foundation of our profession.”
“The joint force must build upon and uphold trust in each other, trust with our families, trust of our elected leaders, and the trust of our nation,” said Brown. “Enhancing the quality of service and quality of life for our personnel is not just a moral obligation, but a strategic imperative.”
To that end, Brown said DOD’s budget request includes investment in quality-of-service efforts, which include educational benefits, advanced training and career development.
Brown said the budget also calls for quality-of-life projects that include child care facilities, medical clinics and housing. There is also funding for spousal employment initiatives, programs to combat sexual assault and additional mental health resources.
“We must create an environment where all can reach their full potential,” said the chairman.
Brown concluded his remarks by assuring that the public can trust that the joint force stands ready.
“Ready to defend our national interests, ready to deter aggression, and ready — if necessary — to fight and win our nation’s wars,” he said.
“We are living in consequential times, and there is no time to waste.” (Source: U.S. DoD)
08 Apr 24. CNO: Investing in Industrial Base, Growing the Fleet Are Top Priorities. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti today said that investing in the defense industrial base to increase the size of the Navy’s fleet in coming years is a top priority for the Department of the Navy. The CNO made her remarks during a panel discussion that kicked off this year’s Sea-Air-Space maritime exposition just outside of Washington.
“We know we need a larger Navy,” said Franchetti. “Every study since 2016 has shown that; and I think the most effective way to work on that right now is to invest in our industrial base, invest in the workforce invest alongside our industry partners… to speed up the production and throughput of the ships and submarines that we need.”
The Navy currently has 88 ships under contract, with 66 of them currently under construction, Franchetti said.
“When I look at our ability to be a standing force, a crisis response force a force that is ready to go today … relies heavily, crucially and critically on the U.S. Navy,” Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. Christopher J. Mahoney, who was also on the panel with Franchetti, said of how Navy amphibious ships directly contribute to the Marine Corps being able to execute its mission.
Concurring with Franchetti’s assessment of the need to strengthen the industrial base, Mahoney said that he believes bundling future purchases of amphibious ships would not only save the taxpayer money but would also attract more workers to the shipbuilding industry thanks to multi-year job security.
“And not just pipe fitters and welders,” Mahoney said, “but managers, engineers and architects that otherwise might not see a future that far out.”
During the panel, Franchetti and Mahoney offered their perspectives on the Navy’s shipbuilding industry, as a result of both leaders having recently toured various shipyards along the Gulf Coast.
“All of the industry partners are facing some of the same challenges in the workforce , said Franchetti. “So, we’re working alongside industry to generate some of these pipelines where people can be recruited, they can come in and get training, and they come out with a certification and then immediately go and be employed,” she further explained.
When asked about how much responsibility to build up the industrial base both DOD and industry should share, Franchetti and Mahoney each agreed that such responsibility should be closely and mutually shared.
“It has to be a partnership with and industry,” said Franchetti. “It’s a commitment on the part of both to be able to move forward.”
According to the Congressional Budget Office, there were 290 battle force ships in the Navy’s fleet at the start of fiscal year 2024. The sea service hopes to upscale that number to the mid-to-high 300s by 2053.
Additional naval priorities the CNO listed during the panel included near-term readiness of the force and investment in the upcoming Columbia class of nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines. (Source: U.S. DoD)
08 Apr 24. New DoD commercial space strategy opens door to military, financial protection for contractors. The strategy notes that contracts with commercial space providers could, if deemed necessary, “enable prioritization of Department requirements and capability needs over other commercial clients in specific situations.”
The Pentagon’s long-awaited “Commercial Space Integration Strategy” opens the possibility that military force could be used to protect US commercial space operators, as well as suggests that the Defense Department will provide financial support to contractors providing space services.
The document, released today by outgoing Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy John Plumb, is the first of its kind — although senior DoD and Intelligence Community officials for years have been touting their intent to take better advantage of cutting-edge commercial space technology. The strategy therefore breaks little new ground, but does put a formal stamp of approval on efforts that up to now have been essentially ad hoc and scattered across different services and organizations.
Further, the new Pentagon strategy has been coordinated with a separate Space Force commercial space strategy that is expected to focus a bit more tightly on acquisition when it is released, likely within the next couple of days. Plumb told reporters today the strategies will be “very much aligned.”
“Deeper integration of commercial space solutions represents a conceptual shift away from legacy practices in which the Department has relied on bespoke, DoD-specific capabilities and limited the use of commercial solutions,” the Pentagon strategy reads. “Given the expansion of the commercial space sector and the proliferation of space capabilities, the Department will benefit by making commercial solutions integral — and not just supplementary — to national security space architectures.”
Plumb stressed that the strategy is aimed beyond the usual defense industrial base to the broader commercial market, looking to leverage tech and capabilities not designed from inception for government use.
While acknowledging that there is some “inherent risk” in relying on commercial systems, involving trade-offs between speed and security, the strategy stresses there also is risk in failing to harness commercial “innovation and speed.”
As long argued by leaders of the Space Force and US Space Command and underlined by the war in Ukraine, more and better use of commercial contractors and the space supply chain further can contribute to the resiliency of the overarching US national security space architecture.
Thus the goal, according to the strategy, is to find the best “balance” between government and commercial capabilities.
The document lays out four “top-level priorities to maximize the benefits” of commercial solutions. “First, we will ensure access to commercial space solutions across the spectrum of conflict. Second, we will achieve integration prior to crisis. Third, we will establish security conditions that promote integration. Fourth, we will support the development of new commercial space solutions,” the strategy says.
DoD has identified 13 “mission areas for national security space” where commercial products, data and services could be utilized to a greater extent than currently. Those mission areas are identified as: “Combat Power Projection; Command and Control (C2); Cyberspace Operations; Electromagnetic Warfare (EW); Environmental Monitoring (EM); Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR); Missile Warning (MW); Nuclear Detonation Detection (NUDET); Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT); Space Access, Mobility, and Logistics (SAML); Satellite Communications (SATCOM); Space Domain Awareness (SDA); and Spacecraft Operations.”
That said, the strategy explains that the depth of reliance on commercial solutions will vary from mission to mission.
Thus, strategy lays out three general “categories” for organizing use of commercial capabilities by mission area:
• Government Primary Mission Areas, where “a preponderance of functions must be performed by the government, while a select few could be performed by the commercial sector.” These missions currently include: “combat power projection; C2 (to include NC3); EW; NUDET; MW; and PNT.”
• Hybrid Mission Areas, currently including: “cyberspace operations; SATCOM; spacecraft operations; ISR; SDA; and EM.”
• Commercial Primary Mission Areas, where “the preponderance of functions within these mission areas could be performed by the commercial sector, while a limited number of functions must be performed by the government.” At the moment, the only mission area included in this category is SAML, with the document noting that “emerging commercially developed mission areas, such as in-space servicing, assembly, and manufacturing (ISAM), may provide additional opportunities in the future to support the warfighter.”
‘Ensured Access’ Through Financial, Military Means
Perhaps of most interest to industry is the strategy’s section on how DoD intends to “ensure” its “access” to commercial capabilities, including “being able to surge commercial capacity to meet military requirements and capability needs across the spectrum of conflict.”
First and foremost, DoD intends to rely on contracts and other agreements to bind suppliers that will include “cyber, data, and supply chain security requirements.” In addition, the strategy says that if deemed necessary “contracts will enable prioritization of Department requirements and capability needs over other commercial clients in specific situations.”
The planned use of contractual clauses to give the government power to appropriate commercial space products, data and services mimics the somewhat controversial practice at the National Reconnaissance Office for obtaining private-sector remote sensing imagery — sometimes called “checkbook shutter control.”
To sweeten that bitter pill, the strategy says that DoD is considering a number of methodologies to provide financial incentives and assurances to commercial providers.
“Commercial entities employing solutions in support of military operations accept risk. Traditional commercial insurance, commercial war-risk insurance, U.S. Government-provided insurance, and indemnification as defined in statute are all possible financial protection tools to mitigate that risk,” the strategy explains.
“U.S. government provided insurance is statutorily available for the air and maritime domains but is not yet available for the space domain. The Department will evaluate gaps in protection from commercial insurance providers, the conditions under which U.S. Government-provided insurance would be needed for the space domain, and whether those conditions have been met,” it adds.
This issue of shutter control and financial compensation, including indemnification, also has been a key debate in the Space Force’s own effort to develop a concept for a Commercial Augmentation Space Reserve (CASR).
CASR is still in development, with Space Systems Command’s Commercial Space Office planning its next engagement with industry on the issue in September, according to the office’s director, Col. Rich Kniseley.
The office is “working on several plans for CASR including an Incentive Plan, Surveillance and Inspection Plan, Threat Sharing Plan, Acquisition Strategy and subsequent plans for contracting, programming and budgeting. We will continue to share these plans with industry as they near final draft stages, through various Reverse Industry Days and Requests for Information,” he told Breaking Defense in a March 18 email.
Finally, the new Pentagon strategy somewhat cryptically states that in some circumstances military force could be employed “to protect and defend commercial assets.” It does not, however, define those circumstances. DoD and the Intelligence Community have been working to agree when and how commercial space operators might be protected for the past two years.
In his briefing today, Plumb declined to be drawn into “hypotheticals” about if and when military force could be used to defend commercial satellites, for instance. (Source: Breaking Defense.com)
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