Sunday, May 12, 2024
The OH-58D Kiowa fleet grounded at Ft. Rucker, AL, on Oct. 18 was back in the air very shortly thereafter, according to Army spokeswoman Kelly Pate.
Inside the Army reported late last month that the fleet was grounded due to an issue with a newly installed flight control component. The problem did not affect any other Kiowa fleet in the service.
The fleet has been back in the air for two weeks. “It was a quick fix,” Pate said, adding that a systematic review of the issue is under way.
There is "sufficient support" to undo legislation designed to slash the Defense Department's budget by nearly $600 billion if a new supercommittee fails to agree on a deficit-reduction deal, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said today.
The 12-lawmaker supercommittee has until Nov. 23 to produce a bill that would find at least $1.2 trillion in savings over 10 years. If the supercommittee fails, it triggers a sequestration mechanism that would automatically find half of those savings from Pentagon coffers.But because of national security concerns, lawmakers are rallying around undoing that mechanism, said McCain, the ranking member on the Senate Armed Services Committee. He said he and his colleagues are working on ways to find reductions in spending that the Pentagon, Congress and the president can agree upon.
"Congress cannot bind the actions of future Congresses," McCain said. "So the sequestration is not engraved on the golden tablets."
Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-MI) said although the results of sequestration would be "terrible," he did not want to comment on what would happen if the supercommittee fails. He said the goal of this mechanism is to put pressure on the supercommittee to reach an agreement.
The Defense Department must "change the paradigm" of how it responds to cyber threats, according to a top Pentagon official.
"We see a disturbing track from exploitation to disruption to destruction," Gen. Keith Alexander, the commander of U.S. Cyber Command, said today.
Speaking at a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency conference in Arlington, VA, Alexander said he would like to see the Pentagon change the way it reacts to cyber threats from a defense that responds when they occur to an approach that does not wait for an attack to take place.
"The way we set up our defense is much like the Maginot line," Alexander explained, referring to the defensive fortifications built by France that were flanked by Germany during World War II. "The adversary looks at it for vulnerabilities. They find the vulnerability, they penetrate the network . . . we beat the system administrator, we diagnose the malware, we set up the signature, we clean our systems. . . we wait for the next exploitation, and they come."
"We've got to change the paradigm of waiting for that software," he said, adding that the department is creating "hunting teams" to find malware in networks "as quickly as possible." This concept is part of the Defense Industrial Base (DIB) pilot the department is testing.
"The partnership is a great way to set forward," Alexander said of the partnership with industry. "It gets you hunting within [industry] networks and it sets up a boundary."
The Army and the Marine Corps are beginning a major rewrite of a major field manual, known officially as FM-3-24/MCWP 3-33.5, Counterinsurgency. Since its publication in 2006, the Army says, the manual "has been one of the most widely read and oft-quoted field manuals by military leaders, academic scholars, and policy-makers alike. The manual's enduring principles and fundamentals have guided the operational planning and actions, at all echelons, in our on-going conflicts worldwide."
Now it's due for a tune-up, according to the Army's Combined Arms Center:
As the Army undergoes a doctrinal review as part of Doctrine 2015, the Counterinsurgency Center has started the revision process of FM 3-24. Our goal is to produce a field manual that captures the enduring tactics and procedures to guide Army and Marine ground forces, integrated with joint, interagency, and multinational partners, conducting counterinsurgency operations, against future irregular threats, as part of our larger effort to create the conditions for favorable conflict resolution. Simply put, the revised FM 3-24, informed by the many lessons learned after a decade of sustained land combat operations, will allow US ground forces to continue to address irregular threats in an uncertain future.
And the service wants your input:
This is an Army and Marine Corps field manual, so, decisions on content, writing style, and format are made by the US military. However, the Counterinsurgency Center seeks to engender a collaborative environment that capitalizes on the collective experiences, intellect, and expertise of practitioners, scholars, and agency partners, to create the best doctrinal guide for our ground forces.
Please provide your informed comments by filling out our questionnaire, writing on our blog, or simply contacting us.
The Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, also known as the congressional "supercommittee," received a letter today from an Ohio congressman who is trying to set the record straight on the cost of maintaining the U.S. nuclear arsenal.
Rep. Michael Turner (R-OH), the chairman of the House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee, was responding to a letter sent last month to the supercommittee by other House members who want to see the U.S. nuke budget cut:
On October 11, 65 Members of Congress sent a letter to each of you claiming that we "spend over $50 billion a year on the U.S. nuclear arsenal," and calling on "the supercommittee to cut $20 billion a year, or $200 billion over the next ten years, from the U.S. nuclear weapons budget." This $50 billion per year figure is incorrect -- and, when coupled with the cuts proposed by the October 11 letter, deeply harmful to a fully informed and accurate debate.
The correct figure is approximately $21.4 billion per year. Therefore, the requested cuts of $20 billion per year would effectively amount to unilateral and immediate nuclear disarmament by the United States. These proposed cuts would therefore have, I’m sure you’ll agree, catastrophic impacts to our national security and global stability.
Turner cited a Nov. 2 hearing of his subcommittee where several Defense and Energy department officials rejected the $50 billion a year figure for maintaining the U.S. nuclear arsenal.
An influential military advisory group is calling for the Obama administration and Congress to develop a national energy strategy that includes stronger vehicle fuel efficiency standards and an aggressive plan to diversify U.S. transportation fuels to cut petroleum use 30 percent over 10 years -- proposals that are based on a conclusion that current reliance on markets will not work to foster a major energy transition and national leadership is needed, according to Clean Energy Report. Further:
The 30 percent goal is consistent with President Obama's call for cutting U.S. oil consumption one-third within a decade.
The far-reaching recommendations were developed by the Military Advisory Board (MAB) of the Alexandria, VA-based Center for Naval Analyses, a not-for-profit research and analysis organization, and are presented in a Nov. 2 report -- "Ensuring America's Freedom of Movement: A National Security Imperative to Reduce U.S. Oil Dependence" -- that is billed as an urgent "call to action." The MAB includes 11 recently retired admirals and three- and four-star generals whose previous reports on the nexus among energy, climate change and national security are deemed crucial milestones in the military's adoption of strong clean energy goals over recent years.
Retired Gen. Paul Kern, chairman of the MAB, in an interview with Clean Energy Report, says that it will be up to the media, Congress and other policy makers to recognize the urgency of the issue raised in the report and help realize the recommendations. As part of the report's roll-out, the MAB will hold a series of briefings in both the House and Senate to convey the message that the United States needs to act now to diversify its fuels and curb petroleum use. "Oil is the U.S. Achilles heel," Kern says, and is a world commodity whose prices the United States cannot control. "We need to explore all resources," he says.
Kern is optimistic the country can come out an energy leader again through technological innovation and cites programs already under way in the Defense Department -- such as the Air Force and Navy push to use alternative biofuels -- that are consistent with the report's recommendations. But broader sustained programs are needed, he says, not the stop-and-start support the U.S. government has provided for alternatives so far.
The Chinese and Russian governments “will remain aggressive and capable collectors of sensitive U.S. economic information and technologies, particularly in cyberspace,” according to a report released today by the Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive.
“Chinese actors are the world’s most active and persistent perpetrators of economic espionage. U.S. private sector firms and cybersecurity specialists have reported an onslaught of computer network intrusions that have originated in China, but the [intelligence community] cannot confirm who was responsible,” states the report.
Russia’s intelligence services, meanwhile, “are conducting a range of activities to collect economic information and technology from U.S. targets,” it adds.
Further, the report warns that “some U.S. allies and partners use their broad access to U.S. institutions to acquire sensitive U.S. economic and technology information, primarily through aggressive elicitation and other human intelligence (HUMINT) tactics. Some of these states have advanced cyber capabilities.”
Lockheed Martin announced today that it has conducted the first test-firing of its Joint Air-to-Ground-Missile reduced-smoke rocket motor. The motor achieved "predicted thrust levels" and "turn-down ratio" and met "all test objectives," according to a company statement.
Lockheed Martin and a Raytheon-Boeing team competing for JAGM work touted successful rocket motor tests in August, as Inside the Army reported. The companies are angling to be selected for the engineering and manufacturing development phase and are waiting for an award of a 48-month contract to continue development and, eventually, begin begin low-rate initial production.
InsideDefense.com reported in October that the Army and Navy have proposed terminating the JAGM program, leaving its fate in the hands of the Office of the Secretary of Defense.
Painting the JAGM program's future as uncertain, Army chief programmer Lt. Gen. Robert Lennox, told the House Armed Services tactical air and land forces subcommittee last week that the Army considers the multibillion-dollar program a lower-priority item given that the Hellfire missile, which JAGM is designed to replace, is “doing well in combat today.”
The Congressional Budget Office released a report this week that looks at the military potential for using unmanned airships as C4ISR and airlift platforms. The report lists three main findings:
* If the speed, payload, and endurance proposed for unmanned airships can be achieved, the resulting craft could serve effectively in the ISR and airlift roles;
* Airships' performance characteristics would provide some advantages and suffer from some disadvantages relative to those of the conventional aircraft currently used for ISR and airlift missions; and
* Airships would present new operational challenges such as greater sensitivity to weather conditions and the need to provide unique types of maintenance and support.
The report does not have any estimates on how much such a technology would cost because its development "is at an early stage, [and] in most cases cost estimates would be highly speculative." Additionally:
Although CBO does compare the capabilities of airships to those of other aircraft, assessing cost-effectiveness would require analyzing costs as various technologies mature.
In July, InsideDefense.com reported that the Defense Department had tapped Lockheed Martin to study the feasibility of constructing hybrid airships capable of hauling 20-ton cargo loads, an assessment that could pave the way for building a prototype airship as soon as fiscal year 2012. Further:
The four-month, $150,000 risk-reduction study contract -- sponsored by U.S. Transportation Command and awarded June 7 by the Army's Space and Missile Defense Command -- signals a growing interest among military logistics leaders in the potential use of airships for a wide-range of operational purposes, from supplying overseas combat missions to providing disaster relief.
For its logistics lift airship study, the Army wants information on crucial technologies and issues associated with cargo handling.
"The Logistics Lift Airship technologies development is urgently needed to enhance the capabilities of the Department of Defense in transporting personnel, supplies, equipment and other materials to increasingly numerous and dispersed locations around the world to respond to any crisis," the Army said in a solicitation last fall.
TRANSCOM spokeswoman Cynthia Bauer said the Army received a dozen industry white papers in response to the solicitation, asked five respondents to prepare formal proposals and received four responses. In addition to Lockheed's, the Army is considering awarding a second contract, she told InsideDefense.com.
Congress has also gotten into the act this year regarding airships. In May, InsideDefense.com reported that lawmakers had directed the Pentagon to convene a series of internal brainstorming sessions to envision possible combat uses of a massive airship with capabilities similar to an in-development demonstration air vehicle that is predicted to haul payloads weighing up to 1,000 tons and cruise at speeds as high as 100 knots. Further:
The House Armed Services emerging threats and capabilities subcommittee, in its version of the fiscal year 2012 defense authorization bill, would require the Defense Department to conduct a series of tabletop exercises "to develop concepts of operations for how rigid-hull, variable-buoyancy hybrid air vehicle technology might be employed in future platforms."
The Pentagon, under the auspices of the assistant secretary of defense for research and engineering, is building a rigid-hull, variable-buoyancy hybrid air vehicle technology demonstrator through an effort called "Project Pelican."
Through this five-year project, DOD in conjunction with NASA-Ames Research Center aims to integrate independent technologies into a rigid aeroshell variable buoyancy (RAVB) air vehicle, according to Pentagon budget documents. This Pelican airship is intended to demonstrate the technical maturity of aircraft that can be scaled to a larger size, taking off and landing vertically.
A new Defense Department report to Congress reiterates DOD's interest in pitching the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter to India. "Should India indicate interest in the JSF, the United States would be prepared to provide information on the JSF and its requirements (infrastructure, security, etc.) to support India's future planning," states the "U.S.-India Security Cooperation Report," which was sent to lawmakers today.
This "one-time report," requested in the Fiscal Year 2012 National Defense Authorization Act, "provides a current status of U.S.-India relations and outlines ways to enhance bilateral security cooperation in the future," Pentagon Press Secretary George Little said in a statement.
The report notes India plans to buy 126 fighter aircraft and is working with Russia on the development of the Sukhoi/HAL Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft. The U.S. F-16 and F/A-18 competed in but were ultimately eliminated from India's Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) competition in April. "Despite this setback, we believe U.S. aircraft, such as the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), to be the best in the world," the Pentagon writes.
Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter noted the possibility of India's involvement in the JSF program in January in remarks at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, when he was the department's acquisition chief. Carter said the U.S. would not block Indian participation in the program, but he added that it is up to India to decide whether to join the program.
The new report to Congress notes the United States has taken "many steps" in recent years to foster science and technology and research and development cooperation with India. "In so doing, we have signaled our unambiguous intent to pursue cooperative opportunities on increasingly sophisticated systems. As our relationship continues to mature, we expect co-development of armaments to become a reality," the Pentagon writes.
"Over the next five years, the United States will continue to establish itself as a reliable defense supplier to India and look for opportunities to enable further training and exchanges between our militaries as India continues its military modernization," the report states, noting that DOD, along with the State and Commerce departments, "will advocate for U.S. solutions to Indian defense needs."
"We recognize that India is also seeking to build its own indigenous defense industry, and is looking for the best technologies to use in its defense sector," the report adds. "The United States wants to develop deeper defense industrial cooperation with India, including a range of cooperative research and development activities. The United States is committed to providing India with top-of-the-line technology."
C-130Js delivered beginning in February are "the first U.S. military aircraft to have been delivered to India in half a century and have already been successfully employed to provide critical humanitarian assistance following an earthquake in Sikkim in September," the report notes.
The White House plans to nominate Michael Sheehan for the post of assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low intensity conflict. Sheehan, a fellow at the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, recently served as a terrorism analyst for NBC News. In a statement released Monday evening, the White House detailed his previous experience:
From 2003 to 2006, he served as the Deputy Commissioner for Counter Terrorism in the New York City Police Department. From 2001 to 2003, he was the Assistant Secretary General of Mission Support in the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations. Mr. Sheehan was appointed as Coordinator for Counter Terrorism at the U.S. Department of State (1998-2000) and was confirmed by the Senate as Ambassador-at-Large in 1999. Mr. Sheehan is a retired U.S. Army Special Forces officer; in this capacity he served on many overseas assignments including Panama, Korea, El Salvador, and Somalia. He was awarded the Combat Infantry Badge for his service. While on active duty, he served at the White House on the National Security Council from 1989 to 1992 and again from 1995 to 1997. He holds a B.S. from the United States Military Academy at West Point, and an M.S. from Georgetown University School of Foreign Service.
The Defense Science Board has been tasked with reviewing the Pentagon's "organization, doctrine, training and planning for contractor logistics support of contingency operations," according to a recently released memo.
In the June 15 terms of reference, then-Pentagon acquisition chief Ashton Carter -- who has since become deputy defense secretary -- called for a review of:
(1) Department of Defense policies and procedures for planning for contractor logistics support of contingency operations.
(2) Department organization and staffing for the implementation of such policies and procedures.
(3) The development of Department doctrine for contractor logistics support of contingency operations.
(4) The training of Department military and civilian personnel for the planning, management and oversight of contractor logistics support of contingency operations.
(5) The extent to which the Department should rely upon contractor logistics support in future contingency operations, and the risks associated with reliance on such support.
(6) Any logistics support functions for contingency operations for which the Department should establish or retain an organic capability.
(7) The scope and level of detail on contractor logistics support of contingency operations that is currently included in operational plans, and that should be included in operational plans.
(8) Contracting mechanisms and contract vehicles that are currently used, and should be used, to provide contractor logistics support of contingency operations.
(9) Department organization and staffing for the management and oversight of contractor logistic support of contingency operations.
(10) Actions that could be taken to improve Department management and oversight of contractors providing logistics support of contingency operations.
(11) The extent to which logistics support of contingency operations has been, and should be, provided by subcontractors, and the advantages and disadvantages of reliance upon subcontractors for that purpose.
(12) The extent to which logistics support of contingency operations has been, and should be, provided by local nationals and third country nationals, and the advantages and disadvantages of reliance upon such sources for that purpose.
Former Pentagon acquisition chief Jacques Gansler, retired Army Gen. Paul Kern and former Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Advanced Technology Ronald Kerber are the task force's co-chairs, according to the memo.
Inside the Pentagon reported in August that to help DOD better manage operating and support costs of major weapon programs, defense officials have developed a standard template to inform major acquisition milestone decisions and have instituted contractor cost reporting requirements for a number of programs.
DOD's Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation shop is also working to implement policies and procedures that emphasize the importance of using these operating and support cost estimates to inform key acquisition decisions, ITP reported.
To help conform to the need to better track money spent by contractors on maintaining systems, CAPE's Defense Cost and Resource Center has also put into place tailored contractor logistics support reporting for a number of big DOD programs, according to the ITP story. These programs include the C-17, the C-5 Reliability Enhancement and Re-engineering Program, the MQ-1C, the F-22, the F/A-18E/F, EA-18G, Light Utility Helicopter, Stryker and V-22.
The United States spent $54.6 billion in fiscal year 2011 for national intelligence programs, according to a statement issued this morning by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.
Clapper's office is required by law to release the dollar figure no later than 30 days after the end of the fiscal year. Beyond the number Clapper's not revealing anything else, as reflected in his statement:
Any and all subsidiary information concerning the NIP budget, whether the information concerns particular intelligence agencies or particular intelligence programs, will not be disclosed. Beyond the disclosure of the NIP top-line figure, there will be no other disclosures of currently classified NIP budget information because such disclosures could harm national security. The only exceptions to the foregoing are for unclassified appropriations, primarily for the Community Management Account.
Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Clifford Stanley has resigned from his post, the Pentagon announced today. Stanley, a retired two-star Marine general who took office in February 2010, plans to leave the Pentagon within the next two weeks, said Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs Doug Wilson. JoAnn Rooney, the principal deputy under secretary for personnel and readiness, will serve as acting under secretary until a successor is named, Wilson said.
The Pentagon’s statement quotes from Stanley’s resignation letter, which does not give a reason for his departure but states that the office he’s leaving is “on the right path.”
In today’s statement, Wilson said Defense Secretary Leon Panetta believes Stanley “has been a devoted public servant -- including as a Marine -- for all of his professional career.” Panetta has “praised Stanley as an advocate for America's men and women in uniform,” Wilson said, noting the defense secretary accepted the resignation and plans after his current trip in Asia to “personally convey his appreciation” for Stanley's service.
The Washington Post reported on Aug. 31 that the Defense Department inspector general was investigating reports that Stanley “hurt morale by dismissing or reassigning dozens of top officials, spent lavishly on a new conference room, and offended staff members when he used the word ‘mongoloidism’ to describe people of low intelligence.”
Budget pressures will force the Army to cut back on holding costly conferences, Army Secretary John McHugh writes in an Oct. 14 memo.
“Changing the ‘business as usual’ mindset as it relates to conferences is the right thing to do and is even more imperative in the current environment of declining resources,” McHugh writes. “Simply put, we must implement more cost-effective and efficient methods to train, plan, collaborate and disseminate information. Experience has shown that conferences are an expensive means of accomplishing these goals.”
The memo challenges the Army to eliminate “waste in conference planning.” Attached to the memo is a new policy that establishes conference-approval authorities.