The Insider

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.

Senior defense officials are scheduled to appear before Congress this week and are also slated to speak at several think tank events.

Monday

The Brookings Institution hosts a discussion on arms control following Russia's suspension of its participation in the New START Treaty.

The American Enterprise Institute hosts a discussion with Army Secretary Christine Wormuth on the service's role in the Indo-Pacific region. The event will also feature Gen. Charles Flynn, chief of U.S. Army Pacific.

The Hudson Institute hosts a discussion on U.S. sealift in the Pacific.

GovExec hosts a discussion with senior defense officials on "securing hybrid endpoints."

Tuesday

The House Armed Services Committee holds an oversight hearing on U.S. military support to Ukraine.

The House Armed Services military personnel subcommittee holds a hearing on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on U.S. servicemembers.

The House Armed Services readiness subcommittee holds a hearing on energy, installations and environment programs.

The House Appropriations defense subcommittee holds an oversight hearing on Ukraine.

The Senate Armed Services Committee holds a hearing on the war in Ukraine.

The new House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party will hold its first hearing at 7 p.m.

Wednesday

The Center for Strategic and International Studies hosts a conversation with Army Secretary Christine Wormuth.

DefenseOne hosts a discussion on combat aircraft.

Thursday

The Hudson Institute hosts a discussion with Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) on the strategic importance of Taiwan.

The Hudson Institute hosts a discussion on building a more resilient Indo-Pacific security architecture.

DefenseOne hosts a discussion on the state of the Army.

Friday

The Center for Strategic and International Studies hosts a conversation with Army acquisition chief Doug Bush.

The Center for a New American Security hosts a discussion with General James Rainey, chief of United States Army Futures Command, and Army acquisition chief Doug Bush.

The Defense Department announced a $2 billion security assistance package to Ukraine today on the one-year anniversary of the ongoing Russian invasion, including additional unmanned drones, counter-drone systems, precision ammunition and electronic warfare detection equipment.

The package will be provided by working directly with defense contractors under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, rather than immediately transfer weapons from U.S. stocks.

The new package includes:

• Additional ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems;
• Additional 155mm artillery rounds;
• Munitions for laser-guided rocket systems;
• CyberLux K8 unmanned aerial systems;
• Switchblade 600 UAS;
• Altius-600 UAS;
• Jump 20 UAS;
• Counter-UAS and electronic warfare detection equipment;
• Mine clearing equipment;
• Secure communications support equipment;
• Funding for training, maintenance and sustainment.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin released a statement marking the one-year anniversary of the conflict and highlighting the more than $32 billion in security assistance the United States has committed in the past year.

“The United States has rallied the world to support Ukraine and hold Russia accountable,” he said.

Austin said the United States has specifically provided more than 1,600 Stinger anti-aircraft systems, over 8,500 Javelin anti-tank systems, 232 howitzers, 38 HIMARS and more than two million rounds of artillery ammunition.

Additionally, he noted, the United States has pledged to provide one Patriot air-defense battery, eight National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems, 109 Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles, 31 Abrams tanks and 90 Stryker Armored Personnel Carriers.

Many of the systems funded through the USAI, however, will not reach Ukraine for many months, possibly a year or two. Austin also did not address Ukraine’s request for combat aircraft though DOD officials have said conversations continue.

The defense secretary noted the work of the 50-nation Ukraine Contact Group, through which U.S. allies have committed more than $20 billion in security assistance to Ukraine, including hundreds of tanks, thousands of other armored vehicles, hundreds of artillery systems and air defense capabilities.

Austin has said the weapons that have been flowing into Ukraine via rapid transfers from U.S. stocks are to be in place for a “spring offensive” intended to dislodge Russian forces from their positions in the eastern part of the country.

Boeing plans to deliver its final F/A-18E/F Super Hornet to the Navy late in 2025 and conclude production of the legacy fighter line, according to a Thursday company announcement.

Boeing will continue supporting modernization of the Navy’s existing F/A-18 and EA-18G Growler fleet into the mid-2030s and could extend Super Hornet production to 2027 if the aircraft is selected by an “international customer.”

Service life modification efforts for Block II Super Hornets will stretch through the next decade as Boeing upgrades the fighters with Block III capabilities. The company will continue hiring at its St. Louis site over the next five years to support this operation.

After the last Super Hornet is delivered, Boeing will turn its attention to developing future manned and unmanned military aircraft and ramping up production of systems including the MQ-25 Stingray unmanned refueling aircraft, T-7A Red Hawk digital training system and the Air Force’s F-15EX Eagle II fighters.

The company will upgrade its infrastructure to support these new focus areas, with plans to build three new facilities in St. Louis, the announcement states.

“We are planning for our future, and building fighter aircraft is in our DNA,” said Boeing Air Dominance vice president and St. Louis site leader Steve Nordlund in a statement included in the release. “As we invest in and develop the next era of capability, we are applying the same innovation and expertise that made the F/A-18 a workhorse for the U.S. Navy and air forces around the world for nearly 40 years.”

Touting the demonstration as an industry first, Lockheed Martin and Juniper Networks successfully tested routing technology that prioritizes the flow of critical information from contested environments to military commanders.

The “mission-aware” routing technology delivers the most important information to commanders first and withstands connectivity challenges in remote areas or jamming from adversaries, Lockheed announced today.

Since 5G is seen as a critical enabler of the Pentagon’s Joint All Domain Command and Control effort, there’s been a rise in industry collaborations and investment in 5G technologies.

“By combining our secure 5G.MIL technologies with Juniper’s industry-leading [software-defined wide-area network] solution and routing capabilities, Lockheed Martin is delivering resilient, intelligent communications that keep our customers ahead of evolving threats,” Dan Rice, vice president of 5G.MIL programs at Lockheed said in a statement.

In the demonstration, the companies connected Lockheed’s Dynamic Data Link Manager and Juniper’s Session Smart Routing to create a hybrid SD-WAN solution. Since it’s software-defined, SD-WAN creates a more resilient communications architecture if battle managers are faced with denied or degraded network conditions.

“The hybrid SD-WAN solution connects disparate tactical nodes and networks to form a decentralized, heterogenous network of networks with secure 5G and military data link connectivity,” the company said.

Lockheed and Juniper expect to expand this experimentation in future demonstrations from the lab to field exercises.