The Insider

The Defense Department today announced a new $400 million military aid package for Ukraine that will immediately transfer weapons from U.S. stocks.

The package, being funded via presidential “drawdown” authority, includes:

• Additional ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems;
• Additional 155mm artillery rounds;
• Additional 105mm artillery rounds;
• Additional 25mm ammunition;
• Armored Vehicle Launched Bridges;
• Demolition munitions and equipment for obstacle clearing;
• Testing and diagnostic equipment to support vehicle maintenance and repair; and
• Spare parts and other field equipment.

Today’s announcement follows a Feb. 24 aid package valued at $2 billion and funded through the Ukraine Security Initiative.

Earlier this week, Pentagon policy chief Colin Kahl said DOD has about $12 billion remaining in congressionally appropriated security assistance funds for Ukraine in fiscal year 2023.

Mercury Systems today announced the appointment of Christine Fox Harbison as executive vice president and "chief growth officer," according to a company statement.

Reporting to Mercury CEO Mark Aslett, Harbison will be responsible for "executing the company’s growth strategy, driving enterprise-level capture and proposal efforts, leading strategic account management, and developing global technology partnerships and initiatives," the statement reads.

Prior to joining Mercury Systems, Harbison was vice president and general manager of the combat systems and mission readiness division in Northrop Grumman's defense systems sector. Before that, she was vice president of Northrop Grumman's advanced ground sensors business unit. She also previously worked at Raytheon Technologies, according to Mercury Systems.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin today released a "message to the force," again centering China as the Pentagon's "pacing challenge," and pledging continued security assistance for Ukraine and Taiwan.

“Implementing our strategy means tackling the pacing challenge from the People's Republic of China (PRC) while also confronting the acute threat of Russian aggression and managing the risk of escalation as [Russian President Vladimir] Putin' s cruel war against Ukraine enters a second year,” Austin said in a Pentagon-wide memo.

The defense secretary said an “increasingly aggressive” China represents a “generational challenge” for the United States as Beijing is “trying to shape the international rules-based system to suit its authoritarian preferences.”

Austin said the United States will provide “self-defense capabilities” to Taiwan as the threat from China “evolves.”

Meanwhile, the United States is working through an $18 billion foreign military sales backlog with Taiwan that has drawn the focus of Congress. The State Department on Wednesday notified Congress of a new $619 million FMS deal with Taiwan for F-16 munitions.

Austin, in his memo, also said the United States will continue to support Ukraine as it continues to fight off an ongoing Russian invasion.

“We are determined to support Ukraine's fight for freedom over the long haul,” he said. “Working closely with our allies, we have already strengthened NATO' s Eastern Flank, and we will continue to strengthen our collective defense and deterrence.”

Additionally, Austin said climate change represents another crisis for the Defense Department.

“Our strategy and planning addresses the security implications of our changing climate,” he said “We are developing new platforms that mitigate logistical risks in contested environments. We are also investing to improve mission resilience and cut the risks from extreme weather.”

Austin said the department is also working to modernize the U.S. military “from hypersonic weapons to our Joint Warfighting Concept, from data analysis to artificial intelligence.”

This Wednesday INSIDER Daily Digest has news on oversight of U.S. weapon donations to Ukraine, a billion-dollar AWACS aircraft contract and more.

With all the billions of dollars' worth of weapons the U.S. is sending Ukraine, it might be worth setting up a watchdog agency similar to the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction:

Afghanistan watchdog favors new special inspector general for Ukraine

Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction John Sopko, who recently released a report on the collapse of the Afghan military, said a special agency similar to SIGAR should be established to oversee the nearly $100 billion in U.S. security and humanitarian support flowing to Ukraine.

The E-7A Wedgetail aircraft, which Boeing this week won a billion-dollar contract to work on, will provide airborne moving target indication and battle management, command and control capabilities and multirole electronically scanned array radar:

Air Force awards contract to Boeing for E-7A Wedgetail

The Air Force awarded Boeing a $1.2 billion initial contract for the E-7A Wedgetail, which will replace the aging E-3 Airborne Warning and Control System aircraft, the service announced Tuesday evening.

Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl told the House Armed Services Committee this week that even "under the most expeditious timeline," it would take three to six years to provide Ukraine with new F-16s:

DOD balks at lawmakers' calls to send F-16s to Ukraine

The Defense Department's policy chief said the Biden administration is hesitant to send F-16 aircraft to Ukraine for several reasons, including timing and cost, despite new calls from Congress and requests from Kyiv to do so.

Document: House hearing on U.S. military support for Ukraine

Col. Candice Frost, commander of U.S. Cyber Command's Joint Intelligence Operations Center, spoke this week at a Billington Cybersecurity event:

CYBERCOM: Ongoing war in Ukraine informed Biden's new cyber strategy

The Biden administration's forthcoming national cybersecurity strategy will increase cooperation with new allies as U.S. Cyber Command monitors malign activity from Russia and China, according to a top CYBERCOM official.

The White House is looking to strengthen the U.S. defense supply chain:

Biden waives some statutory requirements for supply chain resilience

President Biden has signed a presidential waiver of some statutory requirements authorizing the use of the Defense Production Act to allow the Defense Department to more aggressively build the resiliency of the U.S. defense industrial base and secure its supply chains.

The Defense Policy Board is scheduled to meet in closed session March 7-8 to hold classified discussions on Pentagon "information operations."

Information operations are used by the U.S. military to “influence, disrupt, corrupt or usurp the decision making of adversaries and potential adversaries while protecting our own,” according to the Government Accountability Office.

Meanwhile, U.S. adversaries use information operations for the same purposes, with Russia’s targeting of U.S. elections being a high-profile example.

The Defense Policy Board will “receive classified briefings and hold classified discussions on how well DOD information operations are understood, leveraged, integrated and synchronized into broader interagency and national level influence activities and strategic communications,” according to a Federal Register notice.

Defense officials slated to brief the committee include Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict Christopher Maier and Rear Adm. Ronald Foy, the Joint Staff's deputy director for Global Operations, J-39, J-3.

Additionally, the committee will be briefed by John Kirby, coordinator for strategic communications at the National Security Council, Cara Abercrombie, deputy assistant to the president and coordinator for defense policy and arms control, and Jonathan Finer, principal deputy assistant to the president for national security affairs.

The board will also be briefed by acting Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Elizabeth Allen, and James Rubin, the special envoy and Coordinator at the State Department’s Global Engagement Center.

This Tuesday INSIDER Daily Digest has news on the resilience of the Defense Department's supply chain, the Army's Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System and more.

We start off with some supply chain news:

Biden waives some statutory requirements for supply chain resilience

President Biden has signed a presidential waiver of some statutory requirements authorizing the use of the Defense Production Act to allow the Defense Department to more aggressively build the resiliency of the U.S. defense industrial base and secure its supply chains.

The Army's top civilian official spoke Monday at an event hosted by the American Enterprise Institute:

Wormuth says additional GMLRS contracts are a possibility as Ukraine war continues

Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said Monday that the service could award more contracts for the Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System next year, as the United States continues to ramp up its munitions production in the effort to aid Ukraine against the Russian invasion.

The Marine Corps is looking to acquire a new type of tactical wheeled vehicle:

Marine Corps may expand JLTV family in pursuit of lighter ground vehicle

The Marine Corps is evaluating its fleet of ground vehicles and considering an addition to the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle family as it seeks a land platform lighter than the JLTV but more robust than the Ultra-light Tactical Vehicle.

In case you missed it last week, here's a deep dive into the Air Force's efforts to fix an important component of the KC-46 airborne refueling tanker:

How the Air Force and Boeing went 'out to Hollywood' to find a fix for RVS

Since the disclosure of critical issues with the KC-46's Remote Vision System in 2018, finding a fix for RVS -- whose troubles have stretched out the tanker's schedule and served as a leading reason for billions of dollars in losses on the aircraft -- has been a top priority for Boeing, and after years of effort, company executives are ready to unveil their solution.

Jessica Lewis, the assistant secretary of state for political-military affairs, spoke at a recent Defense Writers Group breakfast:

Senior State official sees 'tectonic' moment to surge U.S. weapons sales abroad

A top State Department official said today the United States has an opportunity to surge foreign military sales, especially to countries seeking to "diversify" their arsenals away from Russian suppliers as Moscow struggles to maintain its ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

The Army has agreed to a set of recommendations laid out in a new Defense Department inspector general report which found that the maintenance processes needed to better track the mission capability rates of prepositioned stocks in Europe and that there must be better coordination between units deploying the equipment.

The report, released Monday, was conducted to evaluate how well Army Sustainment Command and the 405th Army Field Support Brigade maintained prepositioned stocks of equipment at APS-2 in Germany. It comes one year after the Army began issuing equipment to an armored brigade combat team supporting NATO’s deterrence efforts toward Russia after the country invaded Ukraine.

The report found that from Feb. 27 to March 24, 2022, the AFSB moved equipment to the Armored Brigade Combat Team “in a timely manner,” but that some vehicles were not fully mission capable to support rapid deployment. It also found that less than 90% of the equipment the ABCT received was fully mission capable, which was below the Army maintenance standard.

The IG report also outlines “coordination shortfalls” between the ABCT and AFSB, and states that the AFSB “did not follow existing procedures or plan for sufficient personnel to issue equipment to the 1 ABCT at the handover area.” This lack of coordination slowed the issuance of some pieces of equipment such as M1 Abrams tanks, Joint Light Tactical Vehicles and M88 recovery vehicles, the evaluation found.

The IG report issued four recommendations, which were:

• For Army Materiel Command to review whether an update to the maintenance processes is required to include and track the mission capability rates of prepositioned stocks.
• For the 405 AFSB to implement ways of testing APS-2 equipment, and to build a test track.
• For the 405 AFSB to create a “procedures checklist” to help deploying units coordinate their efforts with Army field support battalion workforces during rapid deployments.
• Update Army regulations so that prepositioned stocks are configured for transport at the APS storage site and configured for combat at the handover area.

The Army stated that it concurred with all four recommendations in its response, but the recommendations remain “open,” meaning that the service must provide evidence that it has implemented them.