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12 Jun 24. Osprey fleet won’t return to full flight operations until 2025. The U.S. military doesn’t expect its fleet of more than 400 V-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft to fully resume normal flight operations until at least the middle of 2025, a Navy admiral in charge of the joint program told a House Oversight subcommittee Wednesday.
Naval Air Systems Command boss Vice Adm. Carl Chebi, whose office oversees Ospreys in use across the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps, said a review that is probing whether the enterprise has adequate manning, training and equipment, will last another six to nine months.
“As we have findings from the comprehensive review, I will take the necessary actions to ensure continued safe flight operations,” Chebi told the panel of lawmakers.
The command allowed the Osprey to begin returning to the air — with flight restrictions in place — in early March, three months after the fleet was grounded in early December following an Air Force CV-22 crash off the coast of Japan that killed all eight airmen on board.
Ospreys can be flown like an airplane and take off and land like a helicopter, making them useful for aircraft carrier landings as well as for special operators entering austere environments.
The Marine Corps operates hundreds of the aircraft, while the Air Force and Navy own around 50 and 30, respectively. Marine Ospreys are starting to reenter the fray; 10 aircraft from Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 268 headed to Hawaii in May in preparation for a training exercise in Australia, while the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit is using them in Sweden as part of Exercise Baltic Operations.
The Navy’s CMV-22 fleet remains sidelined from performing its carrier support mission at sea, service officials said Wednesday. Despite getting the green light to resume regular missions, the services are barred from flying more than 30 minutes from an airfield where they could land in case of an emergency, according to Military.com.
Osprey crews at Cannon Air Force Base, New Mexico, have begun rebuilding their skills in anticipation of returning to normal ops, and other squadrons are getting close to flying again, Air Force Special Operations Command spokesperson Lt. Col. Rebecca Heyse told Air Force Times.
An investigation into the Air Force’s Nov. 29 CV-22 crash is nearing completion, with briefings for families expected in the coming weeks. The military has said that accident was the result of a material failure that hadn’t been seen before on the Osprey.
Ospreys have suffered a string of fatal crashes since the U.S. military introduced them into special operations more than two decades ago, including four mishaps that have killed 20 service members since March 2022. The military grounded the Ospreys in 2022 and again in 2023, after a series of “hard clutch engagements” that occurred when the input quill assembly, which attaches the Osprey’s engine to its proprotor gear box, wore out earlier than expected.
On Wednesday, Chebi and Gary Kurtz, program executive officer for anti-submarine, assault and special mission programs including the Osprey, told lawmakers that a redesigned clutch is expected to begin testing soon.
“We anticipate that we will have a new clutch fielding in the mid-2025 timeframe,” Kurtz said.
Faced by Gold Star families who held photos of loved ones during Wednesday’s hearing, lawmakers questioned the aircraft’s mishap and readiness rates, the latter of which have struggled in recent years due to woes like corrosion issues and a lack of available parts.
For example, the Air Force CV-22 fleet’s mission-capable rate, or the percentage of time that the aircraft can perform at least one of its core missions, hovered around 50% between fiscal years 2020 and 2022, according to data provided to Air Force Times.
Members of the House Oversight Committee also pushed for more transparency, saying the military wasn’t sharing enough about the findings on its recent crashes.
Some on Capitol Hill are running out of patience.
Rep. Stephen Lynch, a Democrat from Massachusetts, called for the entire fleet to be grounded while the military works works out a fix for the clutch.
“If another Osprey goes down, we’re done,” Lynch said. “This program’s done.” (Source: Defense News Early Bird/Military.com)
11 Jun 24. Bill aims to strengthen contested logistics strategy in Pacific. As the U.S. and its allies and partners in the Pacific face down an increasingly aggressive China, a bi[artisan bill introduced in the Senate aims to strengthen the relationship between the U.S. and key countries in the region in order to better protect supply lines and ensure sustained operations, should a conflict occur.
Republican Sen. Mitt Romney, of Utah, who serves on the Foreign Relations Committee, and Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly, of Arizona, a member of the Armed Services Committee co-introduced the proposed legislation today.
“With each passing day, China’s military continues to improve and expand its capabilities.” Romney said in a statement to Defense News. “The Chinese Communist Party’s ambitions are clear. In the event of a conflict in the Indo-Pacific, the United States could face challenges effectively moving personnel and equipment in an area that comprises about half of the earth’s surface.”
The legislation “will help us address vulnerabilities and maintain our readiness in contested environments. By strengthening partnerships in the Indo-Pacific, we can better support our troops and uphold our commitments to our allies in the region,” Kelly added in the statement.
The bill would require increased oversight over the U.S. military’s various efforts to conduct logistics and sustainment in a contested environment and also lays the groundwork for increased partnerships specifically for maintenance and repair with allies and partners in the Pacific.
The Defense Department has been working on how to tackle contested logistics from fort to port to foxhole, but the bill would require a review and a report be submitted to Congress accounting for all of the various efforts across military departments.
The legislation would require the secretary of defense to assess each military services’ role within the joint force in a contested logistics environment, the bill states. Specifically, a review would focus on the services’ ability to effectively maintain and repair capabilities, preposition or store materials needed to surge capability or support operations, examine the ability to repair and maintain without dedicated maintenance facilities, and figure out the resources needed to “reduce or mitigate the risks associated with operations in a contested logistics environment.”
A report would be due no later than one year following the enactment of the act.
Local supply chain
Additionally, while Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the U.K. are all able to provide product support to the U.S. in a contested logistics environment such as transferring spare parts to the U.S. in order to more efficiently repair equipment in conflict, the bill would require Japan and South Korea to be included in that group of allies.
Japan and the U.S. recently took new steps to strengthen its relationship, vowing to improve command-and-control systems, form an industrial council to build weapons together, network their missile defense systems with Australia’s and start a joint exercise in the United Kingdom.
South Korea and the U.S. are also exploring whether the country’s defense industry could help maintain, repair and overhaul American warships and weapons.
Lastly, the proposed legislation would authorize the Defense Department to conduct maintenance on certain surface vessels in foreign ports under a U.S. Navy pilot program called Ship Wartime Repair and Maintenance, or SWaRM.
In order to ensure ships can be repaired quickly and easily at foreign ports, the Navy’s SWaRM pilot program aims to test out the process of undergoing repairs away from U.S. ports and would allow the service to figure out how to navigate the contracting process, allowing foreign workers to work on American ships and ensuring those workers are trained in accordance with American standards and regulations.
Keeping ships operational to deliver capability to ports throughout the Pacific is critical to sustaining Navy readiness, the bill emphasizes.
The U.S. Army is also considering, as a part of its watercraft strategy still taking shape, how it might use ships, even commercial ones under contract, from allies and partners.
‘Mesh network of friends’
The Pentagon as well as the individual services have been ringing the alarm bells to ensure the U.S. is ready to supply and sustain the force in conflict in the Pacific. The Pacific accounts for over a quarter of the globe and the vast distances the U.S. must travel to within the theater creates an enormous challenge alone.
The U.S. Army has been working to adapt its approach to logistics to prepare for possible conflict with China but also deter it from increased aggression in the region. The service recognized contested logistics as a key contribution to its Multidomain Operations doctrine published in 2022 in a special annex and created a contested logistics cross-functional team in 2023 to develop capabilities critical to operations where projecting, supplying, maintaining and sustaining the force will be contested across the board by near peer adversaries.
The U.S. military has been working with allies and partners to create capability through exercises like Talisman Sabre in Australia, Operation Pathways and RIMPAC. These exercises give the U.S. the opportunity to see what ports might be ideal for delivering supplies via watercraft and where weapons and supplies can be kept on a more permanent basis.
The Army has been building a “mesh network of friends, partners and allies,” Lt. Gen. Xavier Brunson, who commands the service’s I Corps, said last fall.
Relationships are growing and strengthening, U.S. Army Pacific commander, Gen. Charles Flynn, emphasized in May at a conference in Hawaii. Flynn noted in his speech that the opportunity to increase multilateral cooperation is the highest he has ever seen.
Commanders are working on strategies to lighten the logistics tail in contested environments and keep more capability forward in theater.
Conversations are ongoing with foreign partners about the possibility of tapping local industry in the Pacific to provide repair parts, supplies (even blood) and other capabilities, arrangements that are likely to be essential when the U.S. cannot rely on bringing everything with it to respond to a crisis or conflict.
Following Talisman Sabre, for instance, the U.S. military was given permission to leave behind equipment in prepositioned stock in Australia.
“As logisticians, we need to be successful and to understand the theater and to really set conditions for those joint interior lines,” Maj. Gen. Jared Helwig, the Army’s 8th Theater Sustainment Command commander in the Pacific, said last fall “and build out that architecture that we know that, if we don’t rehearse in competition, will be very difficult to execute in crisis.” (Source: Defense News)
12 Jun 24. Gen. Rainey: Army Not Ready for Separate Drone Corps. U.S. Army General James Rainey, commanding general of Army Futures Command, has stated that it is premature to establish a dedicated drone branch within the Army. In a recent discussion with Thomas Karako, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Rainey emphasized the need to integrate Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) into current Army formations and training regimens.
Rainey highlighted that while UAV specialists are already embedded within the Army, the current focus should be on maximizing the utility of these assets across various echelons rather than creating a separate branch. “I don’t know that it’s going to warrant its own branch,” Rainey said, adding, “Certainly, I’d say it’s too soon for that.”
The Army is actively seeking to advance its drone capabilities. Last Thursday, the service released a request for information (RFI) targeting private industry partners to develop a large drone capable of performing a range of missions. The desired Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) should be able to conduct reconnaissance, surveillance, security, attack, precision strike, intelligence collection, and command and control support. The specifications call for a drone that can fly at altitudes above 30,000 feet with a range of 500 nautical miles and features for short takeoff and landing.
This initiative aims to address gaps in the Army’s current aviation strategy, which has been influenced by lessons from recent conflicts, particularly in Ukraine. The service is looking for drones equipped with advanced sensors, such as electro-optical/infrared/laser designators and synthetic aperture radar, and capable of deploying precision-guided munitions and other emerging technologies.
The Army’s request reflects its evolving approach to drone warfare, weighing the benefits of deploying a few highly capable drones versus swarms of lower-cost units. The reevaluation follows significant changes in the Army’s aviation roadmap, including the cancellation of the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) program and the phase-out of smaller drone fleets.
Despite these advancements, top Army officials, including Rainey, remain cautious about establishing a dedicated drone branch. Rainey stressed the importance of integrating UAVs within combined arms formations, drawing parallels to how chemical, biological, and nuclear protection is a skill set familiar to all soldiers. He advocated for leveraging existing capabilities and training rather than creating a new organizational structure.
Rep. Rob Wittman of Virginia has proposed the creation of a drone corps in the 2025 defense authorization bill, arguing that it would allow the Army to better utilize the unique capabilities of drones. However, this idea has met resistance from senior Army leaders. Army Under Secretary Gabe Camarillo and Army Chief of Staff Randy George have both expressed concerns that a separate drone branch could detract from ongoing integration efforts. (Source: https://www.sofx.com/)
11 Jun 24. Change in Sustainment Is Imminent, DLA Director Says. The military services are undergoing an intense transformation that requires the Defense Logistics Agency and industry to think, act and operate differently, DLA’s director told leaders of 14 industry associations at a meeting last week.
“Every service, every combatant command, and every regional command is reevaluating themselves — their equipment, warfighting concepts, organizational structure, etc. — and how they intend to accomplish wartime objectives,” Army Lt. Gen. Mark Simerly said in his first meeting of DLA Industry Association leaders at DLA headquarters.
The semiannual meeting allows the agency to build a shared understanding of current challenges and develop strategies to meet them with supply partners in industry associations, like the Aerospace Industries Association, National Institutes for the Blind, and Professional Services Council.
The changing nature of war and threats from China, Russia, Iran and North Korea are driving the need for transformation across the Defense Department, Simerly said.
“It’s not a question of whether we have to change. It’s how we change and when we change, and we should all have a sense of urgency about the pace. DLA cannot afford — our nation cannot afford — for DLA to simply be in response mode,” Simerly said. “In some cases, we need to lead change.”
Challenges in contested logistics
“Logistics is being targeted and will continue to be targeted in different ways than it ever has been in any other conflict previously,” Simerly continued. “We will be contested in every domain — air, sea, space, land and in the homeland. We’ll also be contested at every level of war, from tactical to strategic.”
Cyberthreats are already disrupting supply operations around the world and need collaborative focus. The agency’s digital-business transformation is one example of how DLA is leading change for the department as it adopts new technology and improves data integration among military services and suppliers.
Industry partners are indispensable as DLA assesses its posture and ability to support warfighters with precision, he added. As it adjusts resource models to increase flexibility, DLA must improve its ability to forecast military requirements that it shares with suppliers annually.
“What tools, mechanisms, procedures and relationships do we require to improve our forecasting model? We know we owe you the answers, and we’re laser-focused on that,” Simerly said.
He added that industry must share its perspectives on challenges unique to the defense industrial base, including the impacts of inflation, supply chain disruptions and fiscal pressures on the ability to produce the supplies warfighters need.
At the meeting, DLA Acquisition Director Matt Beebe provided data on DLA’s contract obligations. The agency hit a high point in fiscal 2023 at almost $50 bn, up from $48.2 bn in 2022. He attributed the growth more to inflation than an increase in items bought.
The agency’s industrial base shrank from 12,000 suppliers in 2016 to just 8,500 in 2023, but Beebe said the rate of decline is slowing. In 2023, DLA hired a consultant to study the trend and its likely causes.
“We didn’t find any indication that something about our acquisition strategies was causing the problem. In fact, we found our rate of decline, which was about 22-24% over those years, was half the rate of loss as the rest of the Defense Department and federal government,” Beebe said.
David Berteau, president and CEO of the Professional Services Council, noted that concerns over the declining defense industrial base might be better addressed by looking at whether company mergers contribute to smaller numbers.
“The real question you have to ask is: Can you still get what you want from those 8,500?” he said.
Beebe added that an Industry Engagement Plan with goals like helping American businesses compete in government contracts and creating process efficiencies may have tempered DLA’s decline.
Events like the recent DLA Supply Chain Alliance Conference and DLA Worldwide Energy Conference also give DLA unique opportunities to partner with industry.
“We’re looking at being involved in 30 industry events this year, either one that we hold or one that industry holds,” Beebe continued. “That’s very important to us as we further our understanding of industry capabilities and share opportunities.”
In fiscal 2024 demand projections, requirements are up for hardware and energy support and DLA items in the clothing and textiles; medical; subsistence; and construction and equipment supply chains. Overall sales for weapons support and troop support are projected at $26.4 bn, with $19.6 bn going toward weapons support.
“When we meet again in the fall, we’ll be able to talk about that with more precision,” said Tim Moorefield, chief of planning for DLA Logistics Operations.
Much of the growth in sales is due to increasing demands on foreign military sales, especially for Ukraine and Israel, he added.
The event also included a presentation on DOD’s Mentor-Protégé Program, which aims to increase small business participation in defense contracts, and a breakdown of action plans in response to the results from the 2022 Supplier Survey. The overall score dipped slightly from the 2020 survey with the largest decreases in timeliness and timely resolution.
The next survey will launch in the fall and measure DLA’s communication, growth and profit potential, the strength of DLA-supplier relationships, and effectiveness. (Source: U.S. DoD)
10 Jun 24. Joint Press Statement on the 3rd Nuclear Consultative Group (NCG) Meeting. The United States and the Republic of Korea (ROK) convened the third Nuclear Consultative Group (NCG) in Seoul on June 10, 2024. Established to implement the Washington Declaration between the United States and Republic of Korea in April 2023, the NCG is an enduring bilateral consultative body to strengthen the U.S.-ROK Alliance and extended deterrence to contribute to peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and in the region.
The meeting was co-chaired by Dr. Vipin Narang, U.S. Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy and Dr. Cho Chang Lae, ROK Deputy Minister for National Defense Policy. U.S. and ROK officials from the U.S. National Security Council, the ROK National Security Office, and relevant defense, foreign affairs, intelligence, and military authorities also took part in the meeting.
During this NCG meeting, both sides assessed that the NCG has bolstered nuclear deterrence and the response capabilities of the Alliance since the inaugural NCG through in-depth discussions on all areas of extended deterrence, including information sharing, consultative mechanisms, and joint planning and execution.
NCG Principals applauded substantive progress on NCG workstreams, including on the NCG Guidelines; security and information sharing protocols; nuclear consultation and communication processes in crises and contingencies; nuclear and strategic planning; U.S.-ROK conventional and nuclear integration (CNI); strategic communications; exercises, simulations, training and investment activities; and risk reduction practices.
The NCG completed its review of the Guidelines document, which provide principles and procedures for the Alliance to maintain and strengthen the credible and effective nuclear deterrence policy and posture. Both sides agreed that the Guidelines will lay a solid foundation for strengthening U.S.-ROK cooperation on extended deterrence as equal partners.
Furthermore, NCG Principals discussed joint and combined planning and execution of U.S-ROK CNI options on the Korean Peninsula and reaffirmed the integration of ROK advanced conventional capabilities with U.S. nuclear operations substantively strengthens the allied deterrence and response capabilities against the DPRK nuclear and missile threat.
NCG principals applauded the second convening of the Nuclear Deterrence Immersion Course in May. 2024, through which officials from across the ROK interagency enhanced their expertise on the application of nuclear deterrence on the Korean Peninsula and in the region.
Both sides reaffirmed their commitment to continue close cooperation to strengthen the combined deterrence and defense posture. To this end, the NCG will leverage an interagency simulation, an NCG-led TTX, and a military-to-military TTX, as venues to exercise NCG work. In addition, both sides discussed ways to further enhance visibility of U.S. strategic assets deployments around the Korean Peninsula and to execute U.S.-ROK CNI exercises and training in relation to U.S. strategic assets deployments.
NCG principals approved the NCG work plan and proposed key activities for the second half of 2024 and reiterated their commitment to continue to achieve substantive progress on NCG workstreams in an expedited and mutually coordinated manner. The two principals will report the outcome of the NCG to the 56th U.S.-ROK Security Consultative Meeting in Washington D.C. this fall and to their respective commanders-in-chief in an appropriate manner.
The fourth principal-level NCG will be convened in the United States later this year. (Source: U.S. DoD)
07 Jun 24. House bill funds new tranche of Philippines, Taiwan military aid. House Appropriations Committee Republicans released their fiscal year 2025 State Department spending bill this week, which will be considered by the full committee next Wednesday, with sections demonstrating the continued U.S. interest in countering China’s growing threat in the Indo-Pacific region.
A subcommittee approved the measure during its markup Tuesday after some Democrat members voiced concerns that proposed funding cuts for international financial institutions including the UN Development Program harm U.S. national security. While the Democrats argue the bill underfunds the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development, there is bipartisan support for an increase in overseas military aid to both the Philippines and Taiwan.
The bill, which is $12 bn below the Biden administration’s State Department budget request for FY25, would reduce overall funding by 6%. At the same time, it allocates $100 m in Foreign Military Financing for the Philippines and another $500 m in Taiwan FMF. That’s well above the State Department’s FY25 budget request, which asked for $42.2 bn in FMF for the Philippines and $100 m for Taiwan.
The FMF program grants U.S. allies and partners cash assistance to buy defense equipment, training and services to ensure they can work toward common security goals together — in this case, the threat of China in the region.
“The legislation makes clear that we will not retreat from the cause of freedom,” House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., said during the bill’s markup Tuesday. “It confronts the growing creep of hostile regimes by countering Communist China’s influence in the Indo-Pacific region and intimidation of Taiwan and our other partners in the area.”
Both the Philippines and Taiwan need to defend their territory from China, and the U.S. is there to help.
In the South China Sea’s Scarborough Shoal, China’s Coast Guard attacked Philippine fishing vessels in late April. But this is not the only instance of Chinese aggression in the area.
More recently, China put the pressure on Taiwan, the country that China considers a province, when they commenced a military drill around the island after the inauguration of President Lai Ching-te.
“My view is that we should principally focus on Taiwan and the Philippines right now,” Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., told Defense News in an interview at the Shangri-la dialogue in Singapore last week. “But look, even $20 [m] or $40 m in [foreign military financing] for some of our partners out here would be significant.”
As chair of the Senate’s State Department’s spending panel — the State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs subcommittee — Coons oversees FMF. Unlike the House, the Senate panel has not released its FY25 bill yet.
China’s aggressive activity in the area is causing the U.S. to pay more attention and give FMF to those countries in need, like the Philippines and Taiwan, to counter their growing competitor.
To deter China, the U.S. has relied on partnerships with allies in the Indo-Pacific.
“There are a whole series of conversations underway between the United States and Taiwan, the United States and the Philippines, and a half dozen other regional actors,” Coons said. “Those conversations should then inform the final downselect in terms of how much for each and for what purpose.”
The U.S. and Philippines have ramped up their joint military exercises, called Balikatan, because of the acknowledgment that the Philippines’ territorial defense needs improvement.
Balikatan, the Tagalog word meaning “shoulder to shoulder,” has expanded over the years under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement. The U.S. and the Philippines used this 2014 agreement to boost their alliance.
The agreement allows the U.S. to deploy troops and fund Philippine military bases’ improvement and construction. As of 2023, there are 10 sites under this agreement.
Other legislation the U.S. has approved to counter the influence of China in the Indo-Pacific includes the foreign aid bill that Congress passed in April.
That bill included $2 bn in FMF for Taiwan and other allies that are “confronting Chinese aggression,” as well as $1.9 bn to transfer weapons to Taiwan from U.S. stockpiles. (Source: C4ISR & Networks)
07 Jun 24. Hicks Says Military Leaders Must Embrace Need for Change.
In a changing world, the U.S. military needs leaders to be “change agents,” Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks told graduates of the Army War College today.
The college at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania, prepares officers and national security civilians for senior-level commands and/or responsibilities. Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III and retired Marine Corps Gen. Joe Dunford, the 19th chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, are just two graduates of the institution.
Hicks told the graduates that the world is complicated and will require more from them than ever. China is the pacing challenge for the United States and will remain so for the foreseeable future, she said.
Russia is “an acute threat to the international system, as illustrated by its ongoing cruel war of choice against Ukraine,” Hicks said, adding that the world still faces persistent regional threats — North Korea, Iran and violent extremist organizations.
On top of these challenges are threats posed by climate change and pandemics that are sort of like “threat multipliers” that complicate all problems.
“One trend I know you’ve observed from your studies is the rapidly changing character of warfare,” she said. “Now, Clausewitz warned that it is ever-changing, but today, that change is fueled by the accelerating pace of technology.”
This doesn’t mean that the need for power on the ground ends, but it will mean that what landpower looks like will change, the deputy secretary said. She pointed to the Army’s Multi-Domain Task Forces and the Marine Littoral Regiments as two examples.
She also pointed to service members and civilians “who are seizing opportunities to innovate every day — like using data and to improve our decision advantage, leveraging commercial technologies to deliver capabilities to the warfighter at greater speed and scale, and crafting novel operational concepts for how to use those capabilities in ways that confound our competitors and achieve our missions in the battlespace.”
The military is just part of the equation of deterrence, Hicks said. “Deterrence requires us to sharpen more than just the military tool of national power,” she said. “Today’s complex security challenges require whole-of-government solutions. In every region of the world, preserving and promoting peace demands that America also has a robust diplomatic corps, well-resourced development agencies, and a world-class intelligence community.”
All this ensures deterrence will be effective, but it also means that leaders must look to change.
“Those of you in uniform have been taught how to lead troops since before you commissioned,” she said. “Others have led teams at various times in your careers to date. That is still needed with more empathy, creativity and foresight than ever.
“But at the same time, we also need you to help lead your branches, your services, your departments and agencies to ensure they keep pace with a changing world.”
Leaders must embrace change and realize it cannot only be instituted from the top down, but from wherever it arises. “You can lead from anywhere, in any organization,” Hicks said. “So, from this point forward, take that as your charge. Be a change agent. As you shore up the institutional legacies you’ve inherited, shape and prepare them for what comes next.”
The graduates will face novel challenges no one has anticipated. “You will be at the frontier of solving them,” she said.
Hicks told the graduates to remember their education “and use it.”
She told them to rely on the teammates they’ve met at Carlisle and call on them. “They’ve become your intellectual battle buddies, which means no future challenge need be yours alone to solve,” she said.
Finally, Hicks told the graduates to “root yourself firmly in the values underpinning our democracy. Stay grounded in your commitment to healthy civil-military relations. Forge ties with those who have little direct knowledge of the military or public service. And live your oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States.” (Source: U.S. DoD)
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