Author: chloe_habelreeh

By Geoff Ziezulewicz and Diana Stancy Correll of Military Times

August 20, 2021

As the Navy and Marine Corps get ready to join the rest of the U.S. military in mandating COVID-19 vaccines potentially as soon as next month, the sea service’s top medical officer said Thursday that he doesn’t think those refusing the vaccines will need to be administratively disciplined or court-martialed for refusing the general order.

Speaking to reporters as part of a Defense Writers Group event, Navy Surgeon General Rear Adm. Bruce Gillingham said that more than 72 percent of sailors, and more than 50 percent of Marines, are already fully immunized.

For those still refusing the vaccine at this voluntary stage, Gillingham said he doesn’t expect the disciplinary hammer to come down.

“We’ll go back to counseling,” Gillingham said. “We’ll sit down with the individual, understand the source of resistance and address that.”

Gillingham added that he hoped nonjudicial punishment or legal proceedings “would be very late in that continuum.”

“When they realize that, yes, the secretary of defense has made the determination based on expert guidance that (mandatory vaccination) is required for mission readiness, I do believe that those who haven’t gotten the vaccine will see the value and proceed with getting it,” Gillingham said.

“I don’t think we’re going to face significant resistance, frankly,” he added.

He said the service will “certainly be attentive and responsive to medical exemptions” involving immunocompromised individuals or those who had an allergic reaction to the first or second dose of the Pfizer or Moderna mRNA vaccines.

Earlier this month, Gillingham framed COVID vaccines as a vital force-protection measure during a panel at the Sea Air Space symposium.

“We would not send our folks into combat without flak and Kevlar,” he said. “The enemy this time is a virus, and we have a biological body armor for them to take and use to protect them … this is biologic body armor. Put it on, be protected.”

Navy brass has noted over much of this year that troops should expect vaccines to become mandatory at some point.

Chief of Naval Personnel Vice Adm. John Nowell told reporters in July that the path back to normal is vaccination.

“I don’t think you’d see senior leadership pushing (vaccination) if we did not think it was safe and if we didn’t think it was an imperative,” Nowell said.

Fleet Master Chief Wes Koshoffer echoed similar sentiments, especially given the spread of the Delta variant of the virus.

“Now, we’ve got to push hard again for vaccination given that the Delta variant seems to be absolutely ripping through the unvaccinated right now and having significantly higher and more dangerous effects to those that are unvaccinated,” Koshoffer told reporters. “So, we’re back on it now, pushing as hard as ever, to try to get more folks vaccinated.”

Others:

https://news.usni.org/2021/08/19/navy-surgeon-general-expects-little-resistance-to-covid-19-vaccine-requirement-from-sailors-marines

https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2021/08/19/what-discipline-could-you-face-for-refusing-the-covid-vaccine-when-it-becomes-mandatory/

https://federalnewsnetwork.com/navy/2021/08/navy-will-likely-counsel-vaccine-resisting-sailors-before-moving-to-punitive-actions/

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/defense-national-security/hamstrung-austin-admits-he-lacks-troops-to-help-americans-and-afghans-who-cant-get-to-kabul-airport

By Jeff Seldin of VOA News

July 29, 2021

Current and future attempts by the United States to use its military might abroad could very well meet the same fate as the country's nearly two-decade-long war in Afghanistan, a U.S. government watchdog warned, citing the repeated failure of top officials to learn from their mistakes.

U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction John Sopko unleashed the blunt assessment Thursday during a discussion with reporters, accusing wave after wave of top-ranking defense officials and diplomats of lying to themselves, as well as the American public.

"We exaggerated, overexaggerated," Sopko said in response to a question from VOA. "Our generals did. Our ambassadors did. All of our officials did, to go to Congress and the American people about 'We're just turning the corner.'

"We turned the corner so much, we did 360 degrees," he said. "We're like a top."

Sopko, speaking to the Defense Writers Group, said that while there were "multiple reasons" the U.S. failed to create a more effective and cohesive Afghan military, some of it was "this hubris that we can somehow take a country that was desolate in 2001 and turn it into little Norway." 

But another key factor, he said, was "mendacity."

Top ranking U.S. military leaders "knew how bad the Afghan military was," Sopko said, adding that they tried to keep such problems hidden.

'We changed the goal posts'

"Every time we had a problem with the Afghan military, we changed the goal posts," he said. "The U.S. military changed the goal posts and made it easier to show success. And then, finally, when they couldn't even do that, they classified the assessment tool."

Sopko cautioned that part of the problem with setting up Afghanistan for success also hinged on Washington's refusal over almost 20 years to plan for long-term success.

"We've highlighted time and again we had unrealistic timelines for all of our work," he said, pointing to a series of reports by his office during the past 12 years.

"Four-star generals, four-star military, four-star ambassadors forced the USAID [U.S. Agency for International Development] to try to show success in short timelines, which they themselves knew were never going to work," Sopko said. "These short timelines, which have no basis in reality except the political reality of the appropriations cycle or whatever, whatever is popular at the moment, are dooming us to failure.

"That unfortunately is a problem not just with Afghanistan," he added. "I think you find it in other countries where we've gone in."

Sopko's critique Thursday came just after the release of his office's most recent report, which described the situation on the ground in Afghanistan as "bleak" and warned that the Afghan government could be facing an "existential crisis."

Pentagon and State Department officials did not immediately respond to Sopko's criticism, but they repeatedly have defended U.S. efforts in Afghanistan and elsewhere.

Last week, America's most senior military officer, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Mark Milley, said Afghan forces were well trained and well equipped, even though the Taliban had "strategic momentum."

Milley also has defended the U.S. model known as “train, advise and assist,” calling it "the best approach" to counterterrorism.

Others:

https://news.yahoo.com/pentagon-watchdog-says-news-afghanistan-112000585.html

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/defense-national-security/pentagon-watchdog-says-news-from-afghanistan-bleak-and-government-could-face-existential-crisis

https://taskandpurpose.com/news/afghanistan-reconstruction-failures-special-inspector-general/

https://www.businessinsider.nl/nearly-half-of-republicans-say-a-time-will-come-when-patriotic-americans-have-to-take-the-law-into-their-own-hands-new-poll-shows/

https://www.businessinsider.nl/the-us-was-doomed-in-afghanistan-and-will-repeat-mistakes-if-it-doesnt-learn-from-them-top-watchdog-warns/

http://www.dailymagazine.news/nearly-half-of-republicans-say-a-time-will-come-when-patriotic-americans-have-to-take-the-law-into-their-own-hands-new-poll-shows-nid-1604630.html

https://news.yahoo.com/nearly-half-republicans-time-come-193407307.html

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/the-us-was-doomed-in-afghanistan-and-will-repeat-mistakes-if-it-doesnt-learn-from-them-top-watchdog-warns/ar-AAMIGdf

https://www.newdelhitimes.com/hubris-and-mendacity-us-watchdog-unloads-on-us-efforts-in-afghanistan/

https://www.sentinelsource.com/news/national_world/wapo/dozens-of-afghan-troops-killed-in-insider-attacks-during-us-military-withdrawal-watchdog-says/article_c210149e-1fea-5f71-abc4-ea8958610ce9.html

https://federalnewsnetwork.com/agency-oversight/2021/07/ig-for-afghanistan-reconstruction-has-plenty-of-work-to-do-after-departure-of-u-s-troops/

https://tass.ru/mezhdunarodnaya-panorama/12021665

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/hubris-experts-add-up-reasons-for-us-failure-in-afghanistan/ar-AAMIKia

https://www.post-gazette.com/news/world/2021/07/29/Dozens-of-Afghan-troops-killed-in-insider-attacks-during-U-S-military-withdrawal-watchdog-says/stories/202107290179

https://www.airforcemag.com/watchdog-afghan-air-force-losing-readiness-before-us-withdrawal-complete/

https://localnews8.com/politics/cnn-us-politics/2021/07/29/pentagon-watchdog-warns-of-existential-crisis-and-criticizes-us-hubris-in-afghanistan/

https://metro.newschannelnebraska.com/story/44413872/pentagon-watchdog-warns-of-existential-crisis-and-criticizes-us-hubris-in-afghanistan

https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/29/politics/pentagon-watchdog-afghanistan-report/index.html

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/watchdog-warns-us-will-repeat-mistakes-of-afghanistan/ar-AAMItOx

https://www.audacy.com/connectingvets/news/as-us-troops-leave-afghanistan-sigar-issues-bad-news

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2021/jul/30/first-afghan-evacuees-arriving-as-us-seeks-more-la/

https://www.breitbart.com/asia/2021/07/30/u-s-afghanistan-watchdog-american-hubris-hid-afghan-military-weakness/

By Phil Stewart of Reuters

July 15, 2021

WASHINGTON, July 15 (Reuters) - President Joe Biden is "110 percent" behind a legislative push to overhaul the military justice system to better serve victims of sexual assault and other major crimes, the bill's champion, Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, said on Thursday.

Gillibrand's remarks to defense reporters came nearly two weeks after Biden endorsed a key component of her legislation: taking decisions about prosecuting sexual assault away from military commanders and giving them to independent prosecutors.

But Biden and his defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, have stopped short of publicly backing Gillibrand's bill, which would take other serious crimes like murder out of the chain of command as well.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Many U.S. military officials have long been wary about taking power away from commanders.

Gillibrand said she received a congratulatory call from Biden when she reached 66 co-sponsors for her legislation. She declined to offer many details from that call but strongly suggested she and Biden were closely aligned.

"There was an indication that he would love to sign that into law. So I believe that the president 110 percent supports what we're doing," she told the Defense Writers Group

At another point, she said: "I do not think we are in opposition to the administration at all."

Gillibrand's bill has been blocked from consideration on the floor of the Senate by the top Democrat and Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee over concerns it is too sweeping.

Gillibrand noted Pentagon data showing the military justice system was not just failing women but minority service members. The data shows minorities are far more likely to face charges than their white peers.

"In the Marines, for example, you are 2.61 times more likely to be given a general court-martial, which tend to be given for more serious crimes with harsher punishments," she said.

Democratic Representative Anthony Brown, a retired Army Reserve colonel and member of the Congressional Black Caucus, voiced strong support for the broader overhaul in companion legislation moving through the House of Representatives.

"The current military justice system is not serving our country's higher values of justice, equity and fairness," Brown wrote in an opinion piece in the Washington Post.

"It has put service members of color at a disadvantage and left them subject to a commander-controlled system they do not trust."

Others:

https://www.politico.com/newsletters/morning-defense/2021/07/16/fresh-opposition-to-defense-cash-in-infrastructure-bill-796543

https://pressfrom.info/us/news/politics/-775848-joint-chiefs-chairman-mark-milley-mum-as-more-details-emerge-about-his-internecine-battle-to-keep-trump-in-check-during-transition.html

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/defense-national-security/joint-chiefs-chairman-mark-milley-mum-as-more-details-emerge-about-his-internecine-battle-to-keep-trump-in-check-during-transition

https://news.yahoo.com/joint-chiefs-chairman-mark-milley-110700191.html

https://985theriver.com/2021/07/15/biden-supports-senate-push-on-military-justice-overhaul-gillibrand-says/

https://www.metro.us/biden-supports-senate-push/https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/wires/1.10004943

https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/us/biden-supports-senate-push-on-military-justice-overhaul-gillibrand-says/ar-AAMcRRW

http://www.dailymagazine.news/biden-supports-senate-push-on-military-justice-overhaul-gillibrand-says-nid-1592066.html

https://thehill.com/policy/defense/563275-gillibrand-expects-vote-on-military-justice-bill-in-fall

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/07/15/senate-vote-military-sex-assault-justice-499785

https://www.rollcall.com/2021/07/15/gillibrand-confident-her-military-justice-bill-will-pass-this-year/

https://www.airforcemag.com/gillibrand-serious-crimes-sexual-assault-military-jags-chain-of-command/

By Joe Gould of Defense News

June 30, 2021

WASHINGTON ― House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith on Tuesday criticized Lockheed Martin and other contractors over the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and its exorbitant lifecycle costs.

“There’s no question that everyone involved ― certainly Lockheed Martin ― could be doing a better job on getting sustainment costs down,” Smith, D-Wash., told the Defense Writer’s Group. “The sustainment costs ― and it varies, I understand they’re as high as $38,000 an hour, and that is incredibly expensive ― it’ll make the plane so that you don’t really want to operate it any more than you absolutely have to.”

The comments are the latest volley at the F-35 program from Smith, who called the fighter a “rathole” in March. He has been pointing to the F-35′s costs and performance problems as a symbol of the Pentagon acquisition system’s shortcomings.

Air Force officials plan to complete a business-case analysis this summer to attack escalating sustainment costs, the service’s top uniformed acquisition official, Lt. Gen. Duke Richardson, said at a Senate hearing last week. In addition, the Air Force is negotiating a three-year sustainment contract with performance incentives, instead of the standard annual contract.

Beyond cost, average repair times stood at 131 days a year ago because there wasn’t enough depot capacity, according to a GAO finding. Richardson touched on those issues last week, telling lawmakers that more repair depots need to be in place quickly.

“When it does break, it tends to stay down for a very long time, and that’s because we haven’t stood up the repair infrastructure,” Richardson said. “We should have gotten started on that, frankly, a lot sooner than we did. And so, that’s the part that we’re really attacking.”

Though F-35 sustainment costs have long been a hot topic, the issue took on new urgency after the GAO reported in April a difference of $3.7 million per aircraft between actual sustainment costs and what the services project they can afford over the program’s lifecycle ― and projected a total overrun of $4.4 billion by 2036.

To build pressure for cost reductions, Smith talked about threatening to mothball F-35s in favor of other platforms or somehow barring contractors linked to F-35 overruns from the emerging Next-Generation Air Dominance, or NGAD, program.

“The NGAD is a pretty good way to incentivize it: you know, if you screw us on this contract, then we ain’t giving you the next one,” Smith said. “There are a bunch of different ways to work it, but I want to be as creative as possible about incentivizing competition and incentivizing all of our contractors to give us the best deal possible.”

Lockheed says it has lowered its portion of the sustainment cost per flight hour by 44 percent since 2015 and that it expects to lower it another 40 percent over the next five years.

“We’re committed to working with our customers to bring F-35 sustainment costs down and improve overall aircraft capability, availability and affordability for our warfighters,” a company spokesperson said in a statement.

Smith stopped short of bashing the F-35 entirely, calling it “an important platform,” and he didn’t say the problems were all Lockheed’s fault.

“It’s part of our future no matter what, but for it to be effective, we’ve got to get those costs under control, and we’ve got to find ways to incentivize ― and I know it’s not just Lockheed,” Smith told reporters.

“You’ve got a lot of subs that are involved with the software problems, and there are engine issues that we’re trying to get our arms around. So, you know there’s a lot of work to be done here, but we need to incentivize the entire operation to bring costs down, and also, by the way, to get us to the capability that we need.”

Work is afoot on new, more fuel-efficient engine technology meant for sixth-generation fighters that could be used in the F-35 to drive down costs, Smith said. Fully funding those upgrades and fielding them as soon as possible would be helpful, he added.

To inject more competition in defense acquisitions more broadly, Smith said he is considering language in the upcoming defense policy bill aimed at to ensuring the Defense Department can maintain intellectual property rights when it buys systems from defense contractors.

“It’s a freaking complicated thing to build an airplane, or to build anything that’s going to be in the middle of a firefight, and it’s not going to go seamlessly, and it’s not going to go on time and under budget every time,” Smith said. “However, we can do a hell of a lot better than we did in the last 20 years.”

Valerie Insinna and Rachel Cohen in Washington, D.C. contributed to this report.

Others:

https://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/articles/2021/6/29/hasc-chairman-says-congress-wont-kill-gbsd-program

https://spacenews.com/hasc-to-scrutinize-space-force-budget-satellites-have-to-be-easier-to-defend/

https://www.airforcemag.com/russia-china-team-up-challenge-us-space-superiority/

https://insidedefense.com/daily-news/smith-backs-new-f-35-engine

https://asiatimes.com/2021/07/russia-china-tag-team-could-end-us-space-supremacy/

https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/why-adam-smiths-attacks-f-35-never-hit-target-188951

https://www.businessinsider.com/democrats-want-pause-new-gbsd-icbm-for-other-military-needs-2021-6

https://www.militarytimes.com/pay-benefits/mil-money/2021/06/29/house-panel-backs-27-percent-pay-raise-for-troops-in-2022/

https://www.defensenews.com/congress/2021/06/29/smith-slams-f-35-lifecycle-costs-in-latest-salvo/

https://insidedefense.com/daily-news/house-dems-signal-support-icbm-replacement

https://news.yahoo.com/smith-slams-f-35-lifecycle-212941283.html

https://www.militarytimes.com/congress/2021/06/29/smith-slams-f-35-lifecycle-costs-in-latest-salvo/

https://www.realcleardefense.com/2021/06/30/russia_and_china_could_team_up_to_challenge_us_space_superiority_783591.html

https://menafn.com/1102372030/Russia-China-tag-team-could-end-US-space-supremacy&source=28

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/41362/switzerland-chooses-f-35-as-its-next-fighter-jet

https://www.exchangemonitor.com/not-trust-savannah-river-house-armed-services-chair-says-pit-review/

https://tass.ru/mezhdunarodnaya-panorama/11781303

"China is not mentioned with one single word in the current Strategic Concept," said NATO SecGen Jens Stoltenberg. "In one [way] or the other, I'm absolutely certain China will be reflected, and the challenges that China poses will be reflected" in the planned 2022 update.

By Theresa Hitchens of Breaking Defense

June 15, 2021

WASHINGTON: NATO will boost its collective funding pool for alliance-wide command and control, says Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. Yesterday’s deal comes at a time when the US is pressing allies to support its emerging strategy for network-centric All Domain Operations in globe-spanning war with Russia and China.

“Increased common funding will enable us to do more command and control together, more exercises, higher readiness, invest in critical infrastructure, and many other things,” he told the Defense Writers Group this morning.

In the summit communique released yesterday, the 30 NATO heads of state meeting in Brussels agreed to increase NATO’s “common funding” beginning in 2023. The extra funding — the amount of which has not been hashed out — is designed to support a new “Strategic Guidance” to guide NATO future operations, and the cutting edge technologies (such as AI and big data analytics) needed to implement that reorientation.

NATO’s joint funds, which total about 2.5 billion Euro (about $3 billion) annually, are supplied by member nations on a cost-sharing scheme based on Gross National Income, and are spent on infrastructure and collective capabilities — such as airborne early warning — that would be too expensive for any individual ally to bear. The funds are divided into three separate budget baskets, according to NATO’s website: “the civil budget (NATO HQ running costs), the military budget (costs of the integrated Command Structure) and the NATO Security Investment Programme (military infrastructure and certain capabilities).” Extra contributions to efforts funded by the common pool, in cash and in kind, can also be made by groups of likeminded members.

New Strategic Concept

NATO leaders plan to sign off on the updated Strategic Guidance at the 2022 Madrid summit, said Stoltenberg, who will lead the effort. While he wouldn’t be drawn on details in order not to preempt member state discussion, he made clear the new approach is necessary to reflect an increasingly belligerent Russia and the rise of China as a military power with global ambitions.

“The need to update the Strategic Concept reflects that the world has changed since the last time we agreed the Strategic Concept, which was in 2010,” he said.

This was the first NATO summit to clearly identify China as a threat to all the members. “China’s stated ambitions and assertive behaviour present systemic challenges to the rules-based international order and to areas relevant to alliance security,” the summit communique said.

NATO’s agreement to refocus its collective strategy comes as the US is about to finalize a new Joint Warfighting Concept, which centers on overcoming the high-tech threats that will be posed in conflicts with peer adversaries. That concept in turn relies heavily on DoD’s new Joint All Domain Command and Control (JADC2) strategy for networking and managing high-speed military operations across all five domains of warfare: land, sea, air, space and cyberspace. The JADC2 strategy was recently approved by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, and includes a push to integrate allies into the future meta-network — what military leaders sometimes refer to as Combined JADC2.

Russia: From Strategic Partnership To “Difficult Relationship”

When the alliance’s last Strategic Concept was signed, Stoltenberg said, “we actually hoped to work for a strategic partnership with Russia … that’s not the case now. We see a pattern of behavior by Russia — aggressive actions against neighbors — so it was [necessary] to change the language and the message on Russia.”

“Russia continues to breach the values, principles, trust, and commitments outlined in agreed documents that underpin the NATO-Russia relationship,” the summit communique says. “We have suspended all practical civilian and military cooperation with Russia, while remaining open to political dialogue. Until Russia demonstrates compliance with international law and its international obligations and responsibilities, there can be no return to ‘business as usual’.”

Still, Stoltenberg strongly backed the Biden administration’s efforts to revive more constructive US-Russia dialogue, and the renewed US commitment to nuclear arms control efforts, as risk reduction measures.

“Even if we don’t believe in that better relationship in the near or foreseeable future, we need to manage a difficult relationship with Russia to address risk,” he said, noting that “when we have more military presence, there is a risk for instance that accidents that can spiral out of control.”

NATO also needs to work with Russia on nuclear arms control, and therefore allies “very much welcome the extension of the New START agreement,” he added. “We, as allies, welcome and support that President Biden is going to meet with President Putin. … For us, dialogue is not a sign of weakness. It’s a sign of strength. So, President Biden has a united NATO behind him, when he meets with President Putin on Wednesday.”

China Looms Large

While Stoltenberg was careful in his language, he stressed that the new Strategic Concept must take into account potential threats from Beijing.

“China is not mentioned with one single word in the current Strategic Concept,” he said. “In one [way] or the other, I’m absolutely certain China will be reflected, and the challenges that China poses will be reflected.”

That said, he reiterated the summit communique’s language about the need for NATO nations to engage with China — a nod to the fact that not all NATO members are comfortable with painting China as an adversary. Nonetheless, it is clear that NATO members and other European countries are increasingly uncomfortable with what Western leaders see as a no-holds-barred push by Beijing to change the international order to its favor.

France and the EU, for example, have launched strategic reviews with a wary eye on China.

In an important symbol of that growing concern, the White House announced today that the US and the European Union agreed today in Brussels to suspend the 16-year-old tariff dispute between Boeing and Airbus for five years. (Many, but not all, 27 EU members also are members of NATO.)

“Today’s announcement resolves a long-standing trade irritant in the U.S.-Europe relationship,” US Trade Representative Katherine Tai told reporters this morning. “Instead of fighting with one of our closest allies, we are finally coming together against a common threat. We agreed to work together to challenge and counter China’s non-market practices in this sector in specific ways that reflect our standards for fair competition. This includes collaboration on inward and outbound investment and technology transfer.”

Investing In New Tech 

The agreement to bolster NATO common funds was largely spurred by a March 2020 Science & Technology Trends 2020-2040: Exploring the S&T Edge report from the alliance’s Science and Technology Organization. It identifies eight “emerging and disruptive technologies (EDTs)” that will change the nature of warfare, and that NATO must embrace to stay ahead of threats.

Those include artificial intelligence (AI), big data analytics and autonomy — all critical building blocks for JADC2. Also included are space technologies, hypersonics and quantum technologies that will underpin globalized warfare.

The S&T report explains that over the next 20 years, “four overarching characteristics can be expected to define many key advanced military technologies: “intelligent,” “interconnected,” “distributed” and “digital.” (Hmm, channeling former US Air Force acquisition czar Will Roper, perhaps?)

“Technologies with these characteristics are bound to increase the Alliance’s operational and organisational effectiveness through: the development of a knowledge and decision advantage; leveraging of emergent trusted data sources; increased effectiveness of mesh capabilities across all operational domains and instruments of power; and, adapting to a future security environment replete with cheap, distributed and globally available technologies,” the S&T report said.

Sensors: AWACS Replacement; Drones

NATO common funding currently supports two major programs: the NATO Airborne Early Warning and Control Force (NAEW&C Force), and the new(ish) Alliance Ground Surveillance (AGS) system.

The NAEW&C, which is one of the few military assets completely owned and operated by NATO, is based on a fleet of 14 aging Boeing E-3A Airborne Warning & Control System (AWACS) aircraft. The fleet is currently undergoing a $1 billion upgrade, but NATO intends to retire AWACS in 2035.

In 2020 six transatlantic firms and consortia provided concept proposals for a replacement effort — with the alliance considering moving away from an aircraft solution to a distributed sensor network, according to a report by colleague Valerie Insinna. According to NATO’s website, the next step is a “new competition” to be launched this year “for a second round of more in-depth industry advice, valued at up to Euro 90 million” (about $100 million).

The AGS is based on a fleet of five NATO RQ-4D Phoenix remotely piloted aircraft, which are derived from the US Air Force’s Block 40 Global Hawk.

In testimony to how hard it is for NATO to execute joint buys, the alliance agreed way back in 1992 that NATO needed to own and operate a “complete and integrated ground surveillance capability that would offer the Alliance and its member countries unrestricted and unfiltered access to ground surveillance data in near real-time, and in an interoperable manner.”

After a number of twists and turns, a group of 15 allies finally decided to buy the drones, and “the associated European-sourced ground command and control stations,” according to NATO’s website. The 15 supporters are: Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and the United States. AGS initial operating capability was finally declared in February.

Others:

https://breakingdefense.com/2021/06/nato-to-invest-in-c2-for-strategic-pivot-china-rises-as-alliance-threat/

https://news.yahoo.com/more-ukraine-join-nato-says-161448648.html

https://thehill.com/policy/defense/558586-senate-armed-services-member-administration-should-have-hair-on-fire-over

https://www.defensenews.com/congress/2021/06/15/we-need-more-before-ukraine-can-join-nato-says-stoltenberg/

https://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/articles/2021/6/15/nato-chief-says-alliance-spending-on-the-upswing

https://insidedefense.com/daily-news/nato-members-endorse-new-cyber-defense-policy

https://www.defensedaily.com/nato-embarks-offensive-cyber-cybersecurity-efforts/cyber/

https://www.airforcemag.com/nato-russia-threats-growing-china-influence/

https://www.defense.gov/Explore/News/Article/Article/2658794/nato-stands-together-as-biden-reaffirms-us-commitment-to-alliance/

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/defense-national-security/nato-pivots-toward-china-seeks-to-avoid-mistakes-on-russia

https://tass.ru/mezhdunarodnaya-panorama/11659009

https://tass.ru/mezhdunarodnaya-panorama/11659083

By John A. Tirpak of Air Force Magazine

June 6, 2021

Despite reduced funding for the Advanced Battle Management System in the fiscal 2022 budget request, the Air Force is aiming to field increments of the system more quickly, said Gen. Arnold W. Bunch Jr., head of Air Force Materiel Command.

The Air Force only received $158.5 million in 2021—half its requested amount for ABMS—and it only asked for half the amount it planned to request in 2022 ($204 million).

“We did get some money taken away, and we weren’t able to do everything exactly the way we expected to do last year,” Bunch told reporters during a virtual June 4 Defense Writers Group. This drove the Air Force to cancel one of its demonstration events, he said.

The Air Force will “look at … putting out more of these increments in a regular battle rhythm, so we’re more integrated together and we share that information in a more timely manner, and we’re pushing more things out to the field quicker,” he said. The first increment will be a communications gateway that can roll onto a KC-46 tanker and provide “additional situational awareness for the KC-46, and others, but link-in the F-22 and F-35 [with] data sharing, and create that bridge so we can share and communicate better.”

Bunch did not directly explain why the amount planned to be requested had been reduced or whether he felt the ABMS program is “struggling.”

The desire to put out better-defined increments more quickly was behind designating the Rapid Capabilities Office as the “integrating” program executive office, Bunch explained. “We’ve picked the first increment and now they’re working with the KC-46 office mobility and training Program Executive Office to get that to happen,” he said.

The Air Force will also do better at “outlining what we’re doing and pushing increments out,” he said. The service will continue to do ABMS experimentation—what the service until recently called “on-ramps”—to “look at the art of the possible” for capabilities that will be included in future increments, Bunch said. The new increments will be fielded more regularly than they have been.

Overall, “I think we looked at how we were putting it out in the field and we restructured our timelines there, to make it more effective, and deliver more capability in a regular pattern,” he said.

Others:

Air Force Seeks Quicker ABMS Increments Despite Reduced Funding - Air Force Magazine

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By Justin Katz of FCW

May 13, 2021

Brandon Wales, the acting chief of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, conceded on Thursday the dozens of deadlines in the administration's new executive order will "stretch the system" as his agency and others work to enact President Joe Biden's wide-ranging plan to revamp the federal government's cybersecurity.

"I think the community is right to say this is ambitious, this is big, but I think that just reflects what's needed to confront the cybersecurity threats and risks that we face right now," Wales told reporters during an event hosted by the George Washington University's School of Media and Public Affairs.

The executive order, which was published Wednesday night, contains deadlines for CISA, the Department of Homeland Security, the Office of Management and Budget and other agencies to begin reworking the government's cybersecurity with some timelines as short as 30 days from the order's signing.

"Tools like multi-factor authentication, encryption, endpoint detection response, logging, and operating in a zero-trust environment will be rolled out across government networks on a tight timeline," according to a senior administration official.

As the government's premiere cybersecurity agency, CISA will take the lead in implementing many of the initiatives included in the EO. Wales said he was acutely aware of the various deadlines, citing the first one CISA will have to meet in just a few weeks. But he contended they are achievable and that in many cases the work had begun long before the EO was finalized. Having written direction from the White House, he said, gives CISA the power and mandate to finish the job.

"There already has been a significant move towards multifactor authentication across the dot gov, already more than 95% of all network traffic in the dot gov is already encrypted," according to Wales. "That being said, you're right, some of the things in here are going to stretch the system, [they] are going to require us to push hard."

The cybersecurity-focused executive order came as the White House continues to manage the ransomware attack by Darkside on Colonial Pipeline. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, whose department is leading the response, announced last night the company has begun restoring operations.

Wales said on Thursday that CISA expects to issue more detailed guidance to industry later today about indicators of compromise it discovered this week while working with the FBI to investigate the attack.

Bloomberg and the New York Times have reported that Colonial Pipeline paid a ransom to the hackers to resume operations. Wales declined to comment when asked if Colonial has made any payments.

President Joe Biden speaking at the White House today also didn't comment on reports of the paying of the ransom. Biden said the FBI does not believe the Russian government or President Vladimir Putin was directly involved in coordinating the attack, but that the criminals responsible likely live in Russia.

He also called on the Senate to quickly confirm Chris Inglis and Jen Easterly as national cyber director and the head of CISA, respectively, nominations the White House announced on April 12.

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By Eric Tucker of AP News

April 29, 2021

WASHINGTON (AP) — An FBI operation that gave law enforcement remote access to hundreds of computers to counter a massive hack of Microsoft Exchange email server software is a tool that is likely to be deployed “judiciously” in the future as the Justice Department, aware of privacy concerns, develops a framework for its use, a top national security official said Wednesday.

The department this month announced that it had obtained a warrant from a federal judge in Texas to remove web shells, or malicious code that gives hackers a foothold into networks, from hundreds of vulnerable computers affected by a hack that Microsoft has blamed on a group operating from China.

WASHINGTON (AP) — An FBI operation that gave law enforcement remote access to hundreds of computers to counter a massive hack of Microsoft Exchange email server software is a tool that is likely to be deployed “judiciously” in the future as the Justice Department, aware of privacy concerns, develops a framework for its use, a top national security official said Wednesday.

The department this month announced that it had obtained a warrant from a federal judge in Texas to remove web shells, or malicious code that gives hackers a foothold into networks, from hundreds of vulnerable computers affected by a hack that Microsoft has blamed on a group operating from China.ADVERTISEMENT

The FBI operation was designed to disrupt the effects of a hack that affected many thousands of servers running the Microsoft Exchange email program. Many victims took steps on their own to safeguard their systems, but for those that who did not, the Justice Department stepped in to do it for them with a judge’s approval.

It was the virtual equivalent of police going around the neighborhood locking doors that criminals had opened remotely.

“We have a decision to make, which is are we going to go ahead and do that action ourselves or are we just going to leave that malware there, sort of unremediated,” said Assistant Attorney General John Demers, speaking at a virtual discussion hosted by the Project for Media & National Security at George Washington University.

He said the operation was one of the very first of its kind and was the subject of extensive discussion by the FBI and the Justice Department. The department is figuring out how it plans to use that capability in the future.

“We don’t yet have sort of worked out what our criteria are going to be going forward,” Demers said. “Now that we’ve had this experience, that’s the kind of discussion we’re having internally now.

“This is not a tool of first resort that we’re going to be using a couple times a week as different intrusions come up,” he added. “This does require working with the private sector on the right solution. It does require testing to be sure that you’re not going to otherwise disrupt someone’s computer system.” Such operations will be done judiciously in the future, he said.

Demers acknowledged concerns from some privacy advocates that the government, without permission of the computer system operators, had gained remote access and removed the web shells. But he pointed out that the department did obtain a judge’s permission and said the government felt compelled to act because, after a period of several weeks, there were still unremediated web shells that continued to serve as access point for “hackers of all stripes.”

“And so the choice that the government had was just continue to leave those open or take the court-authorized action that we did, and ultimately we decided to move ahead,” Demers said. “But to the extent possible before then, we had been notifying every victim that we could identify of the intrusion.”

Others:

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By Matthew Cox of Military.com

April 16, 2021

The commander of Army Forces Command said Friday that, in the coming weeks, he will release the results of two investigations he ordered after the disappearance and murder of Spc. Vanessa Guillen last year.

Last September, Gen. Michael Garrett requested that Gen. Mike Murray, head of Army Futures Command, lead an in-depth 15-6 investigation looking at how the actions of the chain of command at Fort Hood, Texas, related to the fate of Guillen, a 20-year-old 3rd Cavalry Regiment soldier who disappeared from the base on April 22, 2020, after being murdered by a fellow soldier on post.

In December, the Army relieved or suspended 14 leaders at Fort Hood as a result of an independent review that found the base's command climate was permissive of sexual harassment and assault. The results of Murray's investigation will decide whether the service will take additional action against some of those leaders.

A second investigation, which is nearly complete, will decide the fate of 1st Cavalry commander Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Broadwater and Command Sgt. Maj. Thomas C. Kenny, the 1st Cavalry's command sergeant major. Both were suspended in December pending the results of the investigation into the unit's command climate and whether it adhered to the Army's Sexual Harassment and Assault Response Prevention, or SHARP, program policies.

"We are very, very close to closing out both of these investigations," Garrett told reporters Friday at a Defense Writers Group event. "We will identify folks that we are holding responsible, and you will see the actions that we have taken as a result."

Garrett's comments came after the Army unveiled a number of changes designed to revamp the service's SHARP program in response to recommendations of the Fort Hood independent review.

He acknowledged that Murray's investigation, which involved thousands of interviews, has taken seven months to complete.

"Part of the due process is the individuals that are named in the investigations have an opportunity to review it and to provide a rebuttal, and that takes time," Garrett said.

With Murray's 15-6 investigation, "we have a couple of notifications to let people know what our actions are going to be before they see it in the press," he added. Investigators leading the 1st Cavalry investigation are about to turn over the findings to Broadwater and Kenny so they can review them and provide a rebuttal.

On Monday, officials at Fort Hood are scheduled to dedicate a special gate into the post in honor of Guillen, Garrett said.

"We are closing in on the one-year anniversary of her death, and I tell you I don't think a day goes by that I don't think about Spc. Guillen," he said. "We as an Army failed to protect Spc. Guillen."

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By Dimitri Kirsanov of TASS

April 5, 2021

As confirmed by the head of the US Navy headquarters Michael Gilday, in 2021 the next Russian-American consultations will take place, at which the implementation of the agreement will be considered.

WASHINGTON, April 5. / TASS /. US Navy Chief of Staff, Admiral Michael Gilday, is open to the idea of a potential modernization of the 1972 Agreement on the Prevention of Incidents on the High Seas and Overhead Airspace between Moscow and Washington. The American military leader announced this, answering questions from a TASS correspondent on Monday at an Internet briefing for a small group of journalists.

"With regard to INCSEA [Incidents at Sea Agreement], I always think about how to act better. Therefore, if the Russians adhere to a similar view, then I am open for discussion," - said Gildey. He commented on the question of whether the American side is ready to support the improvement of the said agreement.

At the same time, the admiral confirmed that the next Russian-American consultations will take place later this year, at which the implementation of the agreement will be considered. Such negotiations between the Russian Navy and the US Navy are held annually. "We will have meetings with Russian colleagues on INCSEA this year. So maybe this [the prospect of modernizing the agreement] will be among the issues that we will talk about," Gildey said.

"I believe that we must be transparent and open by any means that will strengthen security at sea, avoid any kind of incidents that could damage sailors from both countries," added the US Navy Chief of Staff.

As Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov pointed out last December, Moscow is ready to work with Washington to modernize mechanisms for managing dangerous situations and preventing incidents that could result in the use of nuclear weapons. Russia presented the United States with "concrete ideas" for modernizing the 1972 agreement on the prevention of incidents on the high seas and coastal waters, the deputy foreign minister said.

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