The Insider

Once and Future Combat
By Marjorie Censer
August 3, 2009 at 5:00 AM

Though Defense Secretary Robert Gates was right to cancel the vehicle component of the Army's Future Combat Systems program, the service needs a new modernization strategy to ensure it does not repeat "the mistakes of the past," according to a new Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments report (.pdf).

The report, "Correcting Course: The Cancellation of the Future Combat Systems Program," was authored by CSBA president Andrew Krepinevich, a new member of the Defense Policy Board, and Evan Braden Montgomery.

It argues that Gates' cancellation of the manned ground vehicles was "justified" because the FCS program "was an ambitious but fundamentally flawed attempt to transform Army force structure.

"Although its original intent -- to improve the Army's ability to meet emerging threats in a changing security environment -- was reasonable, the program ultimately pursued extremely complex and costly solutions to a set of military challenges that have become less and less relevant since the program's inception," the document continues.

More specifically, Krepinevich and Montgomery write, the FCS effort involved fiscal, technical, joint and operational risk.

Yet, they warn that the cancellation of the vehicle component will not itself guarantee success. The report notes that a "a number of FCS components will still be introduced to units throughout the Army over the next decade and a half" and that the replacement ground combat vehicle will be produced under roughly the same timetable as the previous MGV program.

"Apparently, the Army will attempt to incorporate as much of the FCS program as possible into any new design," the report reads.

Consequently, it adds, the Army should "develop a modernization strategy that will mitigate the risks described above, in order to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past."

Tactical Move
By Marjorie Censer
July 31, 2009 at 5:00 AM

The Joint Light Tactical Vehicle program office today announced a deadline for foreign countries interested in participating in the initiative, which is seeking to provide a next-generation humvee.

As Inside the Army reported earlier this month, the program office, along with the Army’s defense exports and cooperation office, hosted an international conference July 16. The event was intended to provide attendees from 16 registered countries information on potential partnerships during the engineering and manufacturing development phase of the JLTV program, a joint Army-Marine Corps effort.

In a press release issued today, the program office said interested countries "must submit a Letter of Intent portraying interest and technical elements no later than September 17, 2009, which will formally indicate their desire to participate in the JLTV program."

The press release adds that international participation in the JLTV effort "will reduce program risk as the Joint Services prepare to meet the challenges of future operations."

JLTV program officials announced earlier this year a project arrangement with Australia that provides funding for additional vehicle prototypes from each contractor team. The program also has working groups with Canada, Israel and the United Kingdom.

Additionally, the document references the new Mine Resistant Ambush Protected All-Terrain Vehicle program, now under way. The press release says "((j))oint collaboration and consistent communication between the Army's JLTV and MRAP program offices, under the same PEO, will only augment the Services' ability to develop survivable, fully capable and expeditionary tactical vehicle solutions to our joint Warfighters."

Art Class
By Sebastian Sprenger
July 31, 2009 at 5:00 AM

The air must have been thick with questions during a U.S. Strategic Command-sponsored symposium on the topic of deterrence this week, judging by the opening remarks of STRATCOM chief Air Force Gen. Kevin Chilton.

In his July 29 speech, published on the command's Web site, Chilton reiterated a few points he made during an appearance on Capitol Hill earlier this year. For one, he argued, U.S. defense experts have not paid enough attention to the question of what deterrence means -- and how it should be practiced -- in a post-Cold War world.

“((W))hatever the reason, the result is, I believe, we’ve allowed an entire generation to skip class, if you will, on the subject of strategic deterrence,” he said. “Few who put on the uniform or joined our civil service corps of the Department of Defense after 1992 have been challenged with the imperative to be versant in the art of deterrence,” he added.

It should be noted that Chilton made his comments out of an assumption that “ nuclear weapons will be with us for the foreseeable future.”

But non-nuclear deterrence mechanisms, including contributions from civilian agencies, also will be crucial as new threats loom from space and cyberspace, Chilton stressed.

The general hurled two profound questions at the audience: How does one deter terrorists? And, our favorite: “What role do nuclear weapons play in efforts to curb their own proliferation?”

We'll check back with STRATCOM soon to find out whether the symposium has helped anyone find the answers.

One noteworthy event detail: Chilton made a point of greeting foreign symposium attendants who traditionalists would consider the very targets of U.S. deterrence efforts. Among them were Sergey Kislyak, the Russian ambassador to the United States, and Chinese military scholar Senior Colonel Yao Yunzhu.

An “interconnected world” indeed, as Chilton called it.

KEI Kill?
By John Liang
July 30, 2009 at 5:00 AM

House lawmakers today sought to delete $80 million allocated to the Missile Defense Agency’s last week by the House Appropriations Committee to keep Kinetic Energy Interceptor-related technology development going until the Defense Department's renewed emphasis on “early intercept” efforts gets under way.

The committee’s report on the FY-10 defense appropriations bill states that MDA “is determining how to make the best use of the current technologies and their technical worth as well as the possible benefits of integrating these developments with other MDA programs.”

But this morning, during a House floor debate on the FY-10 defense appropriations bill, Reps. John Tierney (D-MA) and Rush Holt (D-NJ) submitted an amendment that would delete those funds.

A program that has been killed by the defense secretary and had no funding included for it in either the House or Senate authorization bills "no longer warrants Congress' support," Tierney said, adding:

It's never too late to do the right thing, and here's our opportunity to do the right thing. We have to at some point in time start looking at all of our budgets and that includes the defense budget to make sure that we're not putting money out that needs to be put towards other priorities. Here you have the Missile Defense Agency's director himself saying that this program should be terminated, you have the secretary of defense and two administrations saying the program should be terminated; you have from what i can hear from the silence of those who say they're against this amendment not arguing in fact that this is a program that should move forward.

For his part, Holt said:

I understand the desire of the distinguished Chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee to get something of value from the billions of dollars already spent, but stringing this program along is not the answer. Even after removal of $80 million in funding for the KEI, the underlying bill still would provide $20.6 billion in R&D funding to learn from the mistakes of this program.

Mr. Chairman, even if the KEI were “successful,” it would never work well enough to change our strategy. Missile defense systems must be perfect to achieve their professed goals. But we can never count on their perfection. The fact is we don’t need them against our friends and they only encourage our enemies to build more offensive systems to get around the so-called shield.

The best this flawed system could provide us is a provocative yet permeable defense, creating an inherently destabilizing situation that would weaken the security of all Americans.

Rep. John Murtha (R-PA), the House Appropriations defense subcommittee chairman, opposed the amendment, but said House and Senate lawmakers "may need to adjust this in conference." Further, he said, "this program's already spent a billion dollars, we ought to get something out of it."

The House subsequently killed the amendment via voice vote.

Kendall Tapped
By Christopher J. Castelli
July 30, 2009 at 5:00 AM

The White House today announced plans to nominate Frank Kendall to be deputy under secretary of defense for acquisition and technology. If confirmed, he will serve under Pentagon acquisition chief Ashton Carter.

Here's Kendall's bio, as released by the White House:

Frank Kendall is currently a Managing Partner at Renaissance Strategic Advisors, an Arlington, Virginia based aerospace and defense sector consulting firm. Mr. Kendall has over 35 years of experience in engineering, management, defense acquisition and national security affairs in private industry, government and the military. For the past decade Mr. Kendall had been a consultant to defense industry firms, non-profit research organizations, and the Department of Defense in the areas of strategic planning, engineering management, and technology assessment. For the past several years Mr. Kendall has also been very active as an attorney in the field of human rights, working primarily on a pro bono basis. He has worked with Amnesty International USA, where he is currently a member of the Board of Directors, Human Rights First, for whom he has been an observer at Guantanamo, and for the Tahirih Justice Center, where he is currently Chair of the Board of Directors. Within government, Mr. Kendall held the position of Director of Tactical Warfare Programs in the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the position of Assistant Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Strategic Defense Systems. Mr. Kendall was Vice President of Engineering for Raytheon Co, where he was responsible for management direction to the engineering functions throughout the company and for internal research and development. Mr. Kendall also spent ten years on active duty with the Army, serving in Germany, as an Assistant Professor of Engineering at West Point, and in research and development positions. Mr. Kendall is a former member of the Army Science Board and the Defense Intelligence Agency Science and Technology Advisory Board and he is currently a consultant to the Defense Science Board and a Senior Advisor to the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Mr. Kendall was born in Pittsfield, MA. He is a Distinguished Graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and he holds a Masters Degree in Aerospace Engineering from California Institute of Technology, a Master of Business Administration Degree from C.W Post Center of Long Island University, and a Juris Doctoris from Georgetown University Law Center.

Strykers in Suriname
By Marjorie Censer
July 29, 2009 at 5:00 AM

The Army has conducted its first tropical environment testing of the Stryker vehicle, according to the latest issue of Army AL&T Magazine.

The tests were held in an unlikely place: Suriname, which the magazine notes is South America's smallest country and has a per capita income less than 10 percent that of the United States.

Though Yuma Proving Ground, AZ, where the Stryker has undergone extensive testing, "also maintains test facilities in Hawaii, Honduras, and Panama, none of the three were suitable for the unique requirements of testing the several dozen-ton vehicle," the article says.

But readying for testing in Suriname wasn't easy, it adds. The Army had to find living quarters for testers and quickly build a compound "with security fencing, wiring, and communications networks." A test vehicle operator staked out 30 miles of existing roads for the evaluation, while the test vehicle endured a four-week boat trip from Texas to Suriname, delayed by a hurricane and other bad weather.

The testing was insightful, the magazine says, noting, for example, that the vehicle often sank in clay saturated by tropical rains. Testers learned that keeping the tires inflated at highway pressures would prevent sinking while also ensuring jungle biomass did not "compromise the space between the wheel and the tire."

"These types of insights would not have been generated by testing the vehicle in a simulation chamber," the article says.

Ultimately, it adds, the testing was completed five weeks ahead of schedule.

Fair Credit
By John Liang
July 29, 2009 at 5:00 AM

Credit agency Standard and Poor's announced today that it has lowered Boeing's credit rating from "A+" to "A" due to changes in Pentagon spending and weaker commercial air traffic.

"Boeing Co.'s defense business remains stable, but changes in defense-spending priorities could constrain the long-term growth and competitiveness of the unit," the S&P statement reads, adding:

"The downgrade reflects concerns about the possibility of further production cuts due to airline order deferrals and cancellations, risks related to the development of the midsize 787 jetliner, which is two years behind schedule, and the potential for higher customer financing needs," said Standard & Poor's credit analyst Christopher DeNicolo. "The long-term effect of changes in U.S. defense spending, and substantial pension liabilities were also factors," he continued.

COIN Collection
By Thomas Duffy
July 29, 2009 at 5:00 AM

In late October the U.S. Army/Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Center will host a three-day leaders' workshop to look at COIN operations in the border region of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The title of the workshop: “What is counterinsurgency and how as a military, do we approach the problem.”

The Army’s Ft. Leavenworth, KS, will be the host site.

Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, was asked by The Los Angeles Times yesterday if there was too much focus on counterterrorism in the Afghanistan operation.

“I think there hasn't been enough focus on counterinsurgency,” he said. “I am certainly not in a position to criticize counterterrorism. But at this point in the war, in Afghanistan, it is most important to focus on almost classic counterinsurgency.”

The COIN workshop gets under way on Oct. 27 with a counterinsurgency overview and presentations on the insurgent environment and cultural competencies. Day two leads off with a presentation on COIN lessons learned from Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom.

Day three will feature Philadelphia Inquirer foreign affairs columnist Trudy Rubin speaking on “Regional Developments.” That day, and the workshop, concludes with a panel discussion.

Changes Afoot
By Sebastian Sprenger
July 29, 2009 at 5:00 AM

White House Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag today announced a change to the Federal Acquisition Regulations aimed at cutting back on the use of cost-reimbursement contracts.

Compared with fixed-price contracts, these types of contracts allow companies to bill the government for all incurred costs. This could turn out to be a bad deal for Uncle Sam because companies have no incentive to keep their costs down.

Upcoming changes in the FAR will address under what circumstances cost-reimbursement contracts are "appropriate" and the necessary government "acquisition workforce resources" required to oversee them, Orszag wrote in a memo to agency leaders.

According to the document, the change will come "soon." It includes no specific date.

The Obama administration wants to reduce the use of cost-reimbursement and other high-risk contract types by 10 percent in fiscal year 2010.

AT-6B Flies
By Marcus Weisgerber
July 28, 2009 at 5:00 AM

Hawker Beechcraft's first AT-6B light-attack plane made its inaugural flight yesterday at the company's Wichita, KS, production facility.

The aircraft -- dubbed AT-1 -- flew “uneventfully” for just under 50 minutes, meeting all of its test objectives, according to a company official.

Hawker Beechcraft plans to demonstrate an AT-6B equipped with a number of high-tech communications equipment, datalinks and sensors to the Air National Guard initially in the fall and then again more robustly next year.

Air Force officials plan to use the findings from the congressionally directed AT-6B demonstration when conducting a potential OA-X light-attack plan acquisition program or programs. In recent months, Air Force officials have talked about using a propeller-driven irregular warfare plane as a tool for building partnerships with countries that cannot afford them, and have no need for high-end fighter jets.

At the same time, Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS) has submitted an amendment to the fiscal year 2010 defense authorization bill that would require the defense secretary to coordinate development of an irregular warfare aircraft across all the military services, including the National Guard and Reserve. This includes “the requirements, concept development, demonstration and platform development.”

Brownback also wants the AT-6B demonstration to inform potential IW aircraft purchases down the road, according to the amendment.

Lawmakers have included funding in the Pentagon's FY-08 and FY-09 budgets for the AT-6B tests.

Directing DTRA
By John Liang
July 28, 2009 at 5:00 AM

The Defense Threat Reduction Agency has a new director, the Pentagon announced today.

Kenneth Myers, a former senior staff member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was sworn in yesterday, according to a Defense Department statement:

Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, Ashton B. Carter, said, "The selection of Ken Myers as the director of DTRA is another significant step in transforming how we defend against the threat of weapons of mass destruction. He has the right background with 15 years of hands-on nonproliferation, counter-proliferation and arms control experience at the national level to lead the agency in its mission to protect the United States and its allies from weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and support a safe, secure and reliable deterrent." Carter added that Myers also brings experience with the Moscow and START treaties; export controls; the U.S. - India Peaceful Atomic Energy Cooperation Act; and Cooperative Proliferation Detection, Interdiction Assistance, and Conventional Threat Reduction Act.

Myers has a bachelor's degree from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, and a master's degree from the Catholic University of America, according to DOD.

Meet and Greet
By Kate Brannen
July 28, 2009 at 5:00 AM

Defense Secretary Robert Gates arrived in Iraq this morning to meet with the 4th Brigade, 1st Armored Division, a combat unit that was recently transitioned into the Army's first "advise and assist" brigade. Its mission is to train and advise Iraqi security forces while the United States draws down its combat forces over the next year.

The brigade, trained specifically to carry out stability operations, marks a change in the United States' role in Iraq, as well as in how the Army is adapting to answer the demand for security force assistance in Iraq and Afghanistan. In March, Lt. Gen. William Caldwell, commander of the Army's Combined Arms Center at Ft. Leavenworth, KS, said eight brigades had been tapped for special training to become AABs, as Inside the Army reported.

The 4th Brigade, based at Ft. Bliss in El Paso, TX ,and known as the "Highlander" brigade, began operations in Southern Iraq on June 4.

Further reading:

Tongue Tied
By Thomas Duffy
July 27, 2009 at 5:00 AM

Even though the United States military is involved in two active wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the U.S. intelligence community is tracking terrorists throughout the Middle East and South Asia, the number of foreign language-speaking professionals involved in these pursuits is woefully inadequate, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence said last week.

In its fiscal year 2010 authorization report released last week, the committee laments that five years after Congress asked the director of national intelligence to identify foreign language requirements of the intelligence community and produce a plan to meet those needs, neither request has been met.

The committee added:

Furthermore, individual agency and military service programs aimed at creating strategies to improve foreign language programs are inconsistent across the Intelligence Community. NSA has near-real-time visibility of its language capable employees and hires and trains according to actual needs, but most other Intelligence Community agencies have no similar capability. The new Director of the CIA recently announced a major overhaul of the CIA’s foreign language hiring, training, maintenance, and use policies which should eventually result in a more language capable workforce, but other agencies have not been similarly aggressive. DIA continues to suffer from chronic shortages of language-capable employees, but has not developed a strategy for improvement. To explain their failure to redress critical gaps in national security foreign language capacity, agencies point to their lack of control over clearance processes, shallow hiring pools, the inability to allocate time to training, insufficient resources, and, in some cases, a dearth of qualified instructors. Yet, the United States is one of the most polyglot of developed countries -- more than one in five Americans speak a language other than English in the home and more than a million citizens are of Middle East or South Asian descent.

The committee's answer? It now wants the comprehensive strategy sent to Congress by the end of this year.

The Defense Department has taken steps to boost the military’s foreign-language prowess and cultural competencies -- skills that save lives on the battlefield -- but different goals and approaches are stalling the effort, another congressional committee warned in a study that Inside the Pentagon reported on last November:

The services’ strategies for cultivating language and cultural skills should better align with the department’s for creating foundational language and cultural expertise, the House Armed Services oversight and investigations subcommittee states in its Nov. 20 report, “Building Language Skills and Cultural Competencies in the Military: DOD’s Challenge in Today’s Educational Environment.”

The services are more concerned with developing a culturally aware force than a linguistically capable one, the report states.

“We will begin to believe that ‘transformation,’ to use the department’s word, has occurred when, for example, language and cultural capabilities play a greater role in promotions, when unit readiness measures these skills, and when training in these skills takes place as early as recruit training alongside traditional warfighting skills, such as qualifying on the rifle range,” the lawmakers assert.

China Talks
By Christopher J. Castelli
July 27, 2009 at 5:00 AM

One of the largest and most senior Chinese delegations ever to come to the United States is in Washington this week for strategic and economic talks that will address national security issues.

Agenda items include “how both sides can maintain open investment policies” and “how the U.S. is going to protect national security . . . but at the same time, create a basis where Chinese companies can also come to the U.S. and create jobs in the U.S.,” a senior administration official told reporters last week.

The talks, being held today and tomorrow, will cover counterterrorism and nonproliferation as well as bolstering cooperation on regional security issues such as North Korea, Afghanistan-Pakistan and Iran. The agenda also includes global governance, health and infectious diseases, sustainable development, human rights, Tibet and the recent violence in China’s Xinjiang province.

China’s delegation is led by Vice Premier Wang Qishan and State Councilor Dai Bingguo. The State and Treasury Departments are leading the U.S. delegation, which also includes U.S. Pacific Command chief Adm. Timothy Keating.

“I think it's important to have Pacific Command in the room,” Keating told reporters last week. The two countries do not have a robust military-to-military dialogue right now, he said, but there’s “plenty of substance to discuss.” He said he hopes maritime security talks will be scheduled sooner rather than later.

Future Look
By John Liang
July 24, 2009 at 5:00 AM

At a House Army Caucus breakfast earlier this week, Defense Secretary Robert Gates previewed the near future for operations in Afghanistan:

The next few months will be hard, especially as we clear and hold areas where we have not had a persistent presence, and as we attack an enemy that has, over the past few years, become more battle-hardened, lethal, and media-savvy. As with our troop increase in Iraq in 2007, we expect violence to increase before signs of progress and positive momentum start to show -- hopefully by sometime next summer.

The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq "will continue to affect the state of the Army for years to come," Gates said.

And, despite the stress of the two wars, the secretary said the Army would be able to meet its recruiting and retention goals "much earlier than planned."

As for long-term strategy, Gates said:

There is little doubt that the security challenges we now face, and will in the future, have changed -- and our thinking must likewise change. It simply will not do to base our defense strategy solely on continuing to design and buy -- as we have for the last 60 years -- only the most technologically advanced versions of weapons to keep up with or stay ahead of a superpower adversary, especially one that has been gone for nearly a generation.

We have to invest in new concepts and new technologies and take into account all the assets and capabilities we can bring to the fight. We have to measure those capabilities against the real threats posed by real-world adversaries with real limitations, not threats conjured up from enemies with unlimited time, unlimited resources, and unlimited technological acumen. And we have to prepare to wage future wars and break the habit of rearming for previous ones.

Some have called for yet more analysis before making any of the decisions in this budget. Or cited varying definitions of “requirements” in defense of the status quo. A number of the arguments I’ve heard remind me of the line about those who use statistics the way a drunken man uses a lamp post -- for support rather than illumination.