Author: dhoward25

Stephen Losey of Defense News

WASHINGTON — Training Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16 fighters is a key step in building that nation’s future air force, U.S. Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said Monday — but he doubts Fighting Falcons will change the course of Ukraine’s war against Russia.

F-16s “will give the Ukrainians an increment of capability that they don’t have right now,” Kendall said in a breakfast roundtable with reporters hosted by the Defense Writers Group. “But it’s not going to be a dramatic game-changer, as far as I’m concerned, for their total military capabilities.”

Kendall saidthat while F-16s will help Ukraine, they won’t fundamentally alter the balance of power in the war. Effective ground-based air defenses on both sides have meant airpower has not played a decisive role in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Kendall said, and fighters have been used in fairly limited ways as a result.

For more than a year, Ukraine has repeatedly asked the United States and Europeannations to provide fourth-generation F-16s or other fighters. Those requests were always rebuffed.

The situation changed last week, when President Joe Biden announced the United States would support training Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16s, paving the way for Ukraine to receive those fighters.

At Monday’s breakfast, Kendall said Ukraine has been “very understandably unrestrained” in their requests for weapons and hardware such as F-16s from the United States and other nations.

But other weapons packages to Ukraine have been “incredibly useful” in thwarting Russia’s initial drive to seize Kyiv and much of the country, he said, and then pushing Russian forces out of much of the territory it claimed in theearly months of the war. Ukraine has used Western weapons such as High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS, precision rockets and Javelin anti-tank weapons to devastating effect against Russia.

Kendall said the West prioritized sending Ukraine those weapons that would be most effective on the battlefield, before shifting focus to laying the groundwork for a future Ukrainian air force.

He said providing fighters such as F-16s “is seen by some as an escalatory act on our part.”

Speed was also a factor in deciding which weapons to concentrate on first providing to Ukraine, Kendall said. Getting significant quantities of fighters into Ukrainian hands would take months at best, he said, so instead the West looked for armaments that could be more quickly shipped.

Kendall reiterated comments he and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. CQBrown made in July 2022 that eventually, Ukraine will have to move away from its current force of Russian-made Sukhoi Su-27 Flanker and MiG-29 Fulcrum fighters and toward Western-made jets.

“Ukraine is going to remain an independent nation,” Kendall said. “It’s going to need a full suite of military capabilities. And so it’s time to start thinking longer-term about what that military might look like, and what it might include.”

Kendall said the U.S. and other partner nations will work with Ukraine to “figure out a path” toward getting the jets — but it won’t happen soon. He said it will likely take at least several months for Ukraine to receive them.

Many details also have yet to be sorted out, Kendall added , such as where the F-16s will come from, and where their pilots will train.

“We’re just starting our conversations about how we’re going to move forward after the president’s announcement,” he said. “A lot of open possibilities [for training], including our partners.”

NBC News reported in March two Ukrainian pilots were at a military base in Tucson, Arizona, to help sort out how quickly the nation’s fighter pilots could learn to fly advanced fighters such as F-16s. The Air National Guard’s 162nd Wing in Tucson trains pilots from international partner nations to fly the F-16.

But Kendall was optimistic about Ukrainian pilots’ abilities to learn to fly the F-16, saying it would take “months, not years.”

“They’re very motivated,” Kendall said. “Everything we’ve done with the Ukrainians, they’ve shown a capacity to learn. I don’t think I’ve ever seen more motivated individuals, in terms of wanting to get into the fight and make a difference.”

Others:

https://www.airandspaceforces.com/kendall-air-force-ngad-design/

https://tass.com/world/1621347

https://www.airandspaceforces.com/kendall-f-16s-not-game-changer-ukraine/

https://www.voanews.com/a/latest-in-ukraine-zaporizhzhia-nuclear-plant-on-verge-of-nuclear-radiation-accident-/7104287.html

https://www.defenseone.com/policy/2023/05/f-16s-would-offer-no-fundamental-change-ukraines-war-effort-usaf-secretary-says/386645/https://defensescoop.com/2023/05/22/kendall-vows-air-force-ngad-program-wont-repeat-serious-mistake-associated-with-the-f-35/

https://www.airandspaceforces.com/kendall-digital-engineering-over-hyped-20-percent/

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/avoiding-f-35-acquisition-malpractice-aim-of-next-gen-air-dominance-fighter

https://www.voanews.com/a/latest-in-ukraine-zelenskyy-visits-troops-in-donetsk/7105080.html

https://tass.ru/mezhdunarodnaya-panorama/17812795

https://tass.ru/mezhdunarodnaya-panorama/17812987

Former Marine takes diplomacy of emerging technologies, digital infrastructure and the cyber domain around the world.

By Kimberly Underwood of SIGNAL

The U.S. Department of State is formally executing a new role, that of cyber diplomacy. With the creation of the Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy last April and the appointment in the fall of the associated ambassador, the department is globally elevating the dialogue about cybersecurity and the need for international norms and standards, digital infrastructure and emerging technologies. The new organization also has found great demand from allies and partners for cybersecurity assistance, said Nathaniel Fick, ambassador at large, Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy, U.S. Department of State, speaking to reporters today at a Defense Writers Group event in Washington, D.C.

“A key piece of our remit is bolstering cyber capacity amongst our allies and partners all around the world,” Fick said. “I've been all over the Indo-Pacific in my brief tenure already. I'm going back next week. The same [is true] across the NATO alliance and everywhere else in the world, as the thing about the digital space, of course, is that it's global. And in its scope, risk federates across connected systems. Cyber insecurity in a place that may geographically seem pretty remote, if that place is connected to other places that are more strategically central, the risk swims upstream. So, cyber capacity building of our allies and partners is one of our top-most missions.”

The ambassador cites Albania as an example. Iran attacked the country’s digital assets last summer after Albania had given refuge to members of Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK), an opposition group to the Iranian government.

“Albania is a NATO member,” Fick explained. “And for a long time, the United States has been advocating, around the world, for countries to digitize their government services in order to provide better services to citizens and to help cut corruption. ‘e-Albania’ was a pretty elegant response to that request so that Albanians could register to vote online and get drivers licenses and pay their taxes. And then the Iranians just thumped them.”

Fick, along with Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. representative to the United Nations, quickly went to Albania and met with the U.S. ambassador to Albania, Yuri Kim, and officials from the Albanian government, including their national cyber coordinator, Igli Tafa.

“The [visit] had a two-fold mission,” Fick stated. “The first was to remind the Iranian attackers that Albania is a member of NATO, and this is a problematic path that we don't want to go too far down.”

The second priority, he continued, was to coordinate immediate cyber assistance to Albania. The United States adroitly rolled out $25 million in cyber funds to Albania as well as digital capabilities.

“We marshaled a bunch of private sector partners to come in and work with the Albanian government,” Fick stated. “We got e-Albania back online, put basic security measures in place and then started the process of long-term capacity building.”

Given the intense cyber threat landscape that defies borders, U.S. allies and partners are clamoring for such assistance.

“So that model in Albania, we see demand for that everywhere,” he acknowledged. “We're doing something similar in Costa Rica right now, just as an example. [Our efforts] are global in scope.”

Fick emphasized the need for furthering public-private partnerships to help allies and partners, especially in cyber and emerging technologies.

“I was a CEO before,” he shared. “I built a cybersecurity software business, and I met a lot with government counterparts, and they would talk about public-private partnership, and my eyes would glaze over because it generally didn't mean anything. It really does actually mean something in this context.”

Before Russia’s unlawful invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, the Ukrainian government migrated its entire government enterprise to the cloud with the help of the private sector.

“That gave them the ability to continue to communicate and provide services to citizens even when all of the towers were smoking piles of twisted metal. That actually was an extraordinary accomplishment.”

Others:

https://tass.com/defense/1603487

https://tass.com/politics/1603465

https://tass.ru/mezhdunarodnaya-panorama/17513183

https://tass.ru/mezhdunarodnaya-panorama/17512929

https://www.thestate.com/news/politics-government/national-politics/article274248345.html

https://federalnewsnetwork.com/cybersecurity/2023/04/state-dept-cyber-bureau-plans-to-add-tech-experts-to-every-embassy-by-next-year/

https://cyberscoop.com/fick-cyber-diplomats-embassies/

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2023/apr/12/us-aiming-stop-cyberwar-china-reaching-out-foreign/

https://www.meritalk.com/articles/state-dept-to-deploy-global-cyber-officers-by-end-of-2024/

US plans to boost tech diplomats deployed to embassies

Japanese leader highlights unresolved issues affecting his region.

By Kimberly Underwood of SIGNAL

The southern islands of Japan face a large share of the consequences of U.S. military activities, and its leader is seeking appropriate resolutions from U.S. officials. The Prefecture of Okinawa, which includes 32 inhabited islands and 1.5 million people, is witnessing geopolitics and military issues at its shores in ways not seen since World War II.

The island of Okinawa, the largest archipelago in the prefecture’s string, is host to 50,000 U.S. service members, civilians and their families. Moreover, 73% of U.S. military facilities in the country of Japan are located in Okinawa, an undue burden to the small islands, explained Denny Tamaki, governor of Okinawa Prefecture, speaking to reporters of the Defense Writers Group during a visit to Washington, D.C., on March 8.

The heavy concentration of U.S. bases in Okinawa has greatly impacted the island’s residents, with heinous crimes committed by U.S. service members—murder, rape and robbery—as well as dangerous military accidents—aircraft crashes, including into an elementary school—range fires, environmental spills, water and noise pollution, Governor Tamaki said, speaking through interpreter Hiroko Tamaki.

In addition, the island of Okinawa is facing water contamination, with even the U.S. service members and their families having to use purified water. And while Japanese officials have been trying to investigate the source of the pollution and have requested access to the related U.S. base, it has not been granted.

“I do understand the importance of the Japan-U.S. alliance,” he stated. “The people of Okinawa have a desire to be alleviated of the anxiety coming from the overburden of hosting the United States military bases. I believe it is important that Japan and the United States implement measures to reduce the burden of Okinawa in a visible manner, including to reduce incidents, accidents and [address] the water contamination.”

The United States and Japan also agreed to the relocation of the U.S. Marine Corps Futenma Air Station from Ginowan to Henoko, both located within the prefecture, without considering Okinawa’s local residents, who, along with the governor, oppose the move.

“The will or opinion of Okinawans is against the Futenma relocation to Henoko,” Tamaki stated.  “Oura Bay in Henoko has extremely high biodiversity. In this area, there are more than 5,300 identified species, including 262 endangered species, such as dugong, which is designated as a nationally protected animal... [At the planned construction site of] Oura Bay there is a soft, mayonnaise-like seabed substance that spans 163 acres, so the feasibility of successful construction is very much in doubt.”

Given Okinawa’s proximity to Taiwan, the governor and its residents are concerned about the possible escalation of geopolitics. The Japanese government has shifted its policy, committing to an enhanced deterrence stance with the United States, and Tamaki is concerned that heightened deterrence may affect the region’s military and economic balance. Instead, he urged the priority be peace-building.

“In December last year, the lawmakers of Japan agreed on the three key defense documents, and the Japanese government announced a major shift of its defense policy, which drastically changed from the conventional policy that is in line with the National Constitution of Japan,” he noted. “When we think about the relations between the United States, China and Japan, we have to think about the high dependency amongst each other. These countries are highly dependent on each other economically. The Japanese government has announced that they are committed to enhanced deterrence. However, there is a concern that heightening the deterrence may cause the loss of the balance of the economy.”

In fact, the governor continued, the United States itself had a record high level of trade with China at $690.5 billion last year.

“Considering the tension between China and the U.S. over Taiwan, if anything happens, that is going to have a negative impact to all the players,” Tamaki stressed. “So, I believe engaging in peaceful diplomacy is the way to maintain the status quo or this balance.”

During his visit, the Okinawan governor is meeting with U.S. officials at the Department of Defense and Department of State in charge of Japanese affairs, as well as national security, economic and policy experts. Tamaki shared that he would be discussing Okinawa’s perspective of the relationships between Japan, China, Taiwan and the United States.  “I want to send the message about the current situation we see in Okinawa,” he said. “It also is my mission to convey the message to the American people that we should not allow the situation to happen where that contingency [war] actually happens.”

Moreover, he said, the Japanese government’s shift in defense policy to allow the country to have a long-range standoff missile as part of a counterattack capability has led to a greater fear from some of its population. “There is a concern amongst the Japanese people that means Japan will have a capability that can be used as a pre-emptive strike,” he shared.

On the chance that China does invade Taiwan, Japan has citizen protection laws that provide for the division of responsibilities among its cities and municipalities to protect or evacuate its populations under threat, and while a basic scheme is being planned, Tamaki said, more details, including funding, have yet to be determined by the Japanese government.

“In case there is any war….then the prefecture government or municipal governments have to have plans in place to evacuate its citizens by using private transportation as well—ships, buses, aircraft—there have to be agreements with those private entities in place. However, the discussions have not been done yet regarding the budget allocations. We believe that the national government has to make it clear what the roles and responsibilities are.” 

That evacuation plan by the Okinawa Prefecture may potentially be a real need, with Taketomi, Japan’s southernmost island, only 150 miles from Taiwan. The leader of the U.S. Pacific Air Forces (PACAF), Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach, USAF, in a call with reporters from the Air and Space Forces Association meeting in Colorado on March 8, noted that during a visit to Taiwan by the previous U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, China flooded the eastern Taiwanese coast with part of its naval fleet.

“You saw when Speaker Pelosi went to Taiwan, what China did with their ships,” Gen. Wilsbach said. “They put them on the east side of Taiwan, as a sort of blockade and those ships can put up an anti-access area denial engagement zone, that comes from their surface-to-air missiles that they can shoot from the ships. And so, in order for us to get past those, we got to sink the ships. Sinking ships is a main objective of not only PACAF, but really anyone that is going to be involved in a [potential] conflict like this, you're going to have to sink ships. That's going to be one of the first things you're going to have to do.”

Notably, the Okinawan leader cited two factors that could increase China’s propensity to invade Taiwan.

“There are two elements that can increase the possibility,” Tamaki said. “One is if Taiwan declares independence with a specific date and time. And another is if the U.S. denies the ‘One China’ policy. If those [elements] happen, there is a possibility that China will exert its military power [over Taiwan].”

Governor Tamaki emphasized that many Okinawans still remember the great cost of war, with 200,000 military and civilian lives lost during the Battle of Okinawa in World War II. “Some Okinawans do understand the deployment of Japan's Self-Defense Force in Okinawa by the Japanese government,” the governor said. “However, now because of this tension over Taiwan, many Okinawans think that we should never let Okinawa be a battlefield again.”

“We believe that deterrence is the most valuable outcome of the friction that we could have over Taiwan, and we would encourage the Chinese not to attempt to take that island by force,” Gen. Wilsbach stated. “It's not in their interest, it's not in the world's interest, it is not in the region’s interest, and certainly it is not in Taiwan's interest. So, we would say don't take that island out by force. And we hope to deter them. But if deterrence fails, one of the first things, from a PACAF standpoint, the first target that we're going to have to deal with is the ships.”

Others:

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2023/mar/8/okinawa-gov-denny-tamaki-dc-push-smaller-us-milita

https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-military/2023/03/08/okinawa-governor-wants-more-power-to-prosecute-us-troops/

https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/08/politics/army-new-recruiting-commercial-be-all-you-can-be

By Doug G. Ware of Stars and Stripes

WASHINGTON — An independent watchdog who investigated U.S. military operations in Afghanistan said Tuesday that American forces left behind billions of dollars in weapons, vehicles and equipment and the Taliban has learned how to use some of it, including aircraft.

John Sopko, the special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction, or SIGAR, released a report outlining U.S. failures in the country after 20 years of war there. The report includes reasons why Afghan government forces fell so quickly to the Taliban when the United States withdrew in 2021 and states roughly $7.2 billion in American military equipment was left in Afghanistan.

The equipment includes at least 78 aircraft worth more than $920 million, 40,000 vehicles, more than 300,000 weapons and thousands of air-to-ground munitions.

“Some of [the equipment] was destroyed, a lot of it wasn’t,” Sopko told reporters Tuesday in Washington. “Was I surprised? No. [The Pentagon] had a horrible system in place to keep track of weapons and where they were and how they were maintained.”

Sopko, the SIGAR since 2012, said some of the U.S. equipment left behind was “sophisticated” — such as night vision and communications hardware — and Taliban militants have probably learned how to operate some of it by now.

“That’s a concern,” he said. “We have seen and we have picked up intelligence that the Taliban are actually flying some of the helicopters and some of the planes. … But it’s a concern. That’s a lot of hardware and a lot of weaponry.”

A preliminary version of the SIGAR report, titled “Why the Afghan Security Forces Collapsed,” was given to Congress last year and concludes there were several reasons why the Afghan government fell so quickly — such as government corruption, poor planning and low morale among Afghan troops, especially when the U.S. said it would pull out.

“This is like the house of cards. When you pull one card, you can see the next one going. Or maybe dominoes is the [analogy],” Sopko said. “When you pulled out the support for the Afghan government, the morale started to crater.”

The report said Afghanistan was a failure mainly because the United States “lacked the political will to dedicate the time and resources necessary to reconstruct an entire security sector in a war-torn and impoverished country.”

“The U.S. and Afghan governments share in the blame. Neither side appeared to have the political commitment to doing what it would take to address the challenges, including devoting the time and resources necessary to develop a professional [Afghan military], a process that takes decades,” the report reads. “The February 2020 decision to commit to a rapid U.S. military withdrawal sealed the [Afghan military’s] fate.”

SIGAR was created by Congress in 2008 and has issued dozens of reports in the past 15 years on American efforts in the war-scarred country. Though American involvement in Afghanistan has ended, the office will continue to exist until its funding pipeline falls below $250 million. Once that happens, it will terminate in six months. SIGAR said it had about $2.2 billion at the start of 2023.

Sopko said Tuesday that the Pentagon and State Department weren’t entirely cooperative with the SIGAR review. Rebecca Zimmerman, the Pentagon’s deputy assistant secretary of defense for Afghanistan, Pakistan and Central Asia, wrote in a letter to SIGAR that it disagreed with the report’s claim that there was a lack of communication between the U.S. and Afghanistan.

Further, the Pentagon has conducted its own investigation into the failures of Afghanistan, which has not been made public yet.

“We did conduct an internal classified lessons-learned report. That report remains classified and I don’t have any updates right now in terms of potential releasability,” Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon’s top spokesman, told reporters Tuesday.

The U.S. made its exit from Afghanistan in August 2021 after several months of preparations. The quick collapse of the Afghan government has led to numerous questions about what went wrong and is a subject of scrutiny by House Republicans.

When President Joe Biden announced the U.S. pullout in early 2021, he said the military had achieved its purpose there and flatly refused to pass the war on to another president. Former President Donald Trump had wanted to withdraw even sooner, first in late 2020 and then by May 2021 before he lost to Biden in the presidential election.

Trump’s administration negotiated with the Taliban for an exit and the result was the Doha Agreement in February 2020. Negotiations for that pact did not include the Afghan government, an omission that some experts have said demoralized Afghan leaders and troops and contributed to the collapse.

The SIGAR report comes as the United States provides ongoing military support for Ukraine in its war against Russia. Biden’s administration has pledged more than $30 billion in weapons and equipment since the war started a year ago. It has raised concerns in Congress about oversight and tracking whether the U.S. weapons and equipment are being used as intended.

“We take accountability of U.S. assistance to Ukraine very seriously. We have an active and proactive whole-of-government system to prevent the illicit diversion of weapons in Eastern Europe,” Ryder said. “To this date, we have not seen any evidence of any type of widespread diversion of any of the assistance that we provided.”

Ryder said there’s a “robust” system to track all weapons systems when they enter Ukraine, and personnel at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv keep tabs on them through physical and virtual inspections.

If there are lessons from Afghanistan that can be applied to the situation in Ukraine, Sopko said he wasn’t confident that they will be.

“I’m not super optimistic that we are going to learn our lesson,” he said. “I’ve been in Washington since 1982 and learning lessons is not in our DNA in the United States, unfortunately.”

Others:

https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-military/2023/02/28/why-20-years-wasnt-enough-to-train-the-afghan-army-to-win/

https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/28/politics/afghanistan-watchdog-lessons-learned-ukraine-sigar

By Jaspreet Gill of Breaking Defense

Security sector governance “is incredibly important because, to me, security sector governance is the overlay for all of these issues,” Jessica Lewis, assistant secretary of state at the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, said at a Defense Writers Group breakfast.

WASHINGTON — Countries must follow required security practices and procedures if they want to buy US made weapons under the Biden administration’s updated Conventional Arms Transfer (CAT) policy, a senior state department official emphasized today.

Security sector governance “is incredibly important because, to me, security sector governance is the overlay for all of these issues,” Jessica Lewis, assistant secretary of state at the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, said at a Defense Writers Group breakfast. “So if you look at how countries are working on their security sector, questions of how those security sectors work influence things like corruption, human rights, compliance with rule of law — and frankly, I think, provide an underpinning for democracy when we talk about the relationship between the security sector and, you know, democratic institutions.”

While the US still aims to bolster weapon sales, Lewis made it clear that the US can and should have both “strong and deep” security cooperation relationships while working with countries on protecting human rights. 

The revised CAT policy, released Wednesday, reverses the Trump administration’s economic-first stance, setting an overarching standard that takes into account potential human rights impacts of any weapon sales. 

The policy, in part, sets a new standard for the administration to not go through with an arms transfer if it assesses that the arms could be used to facilitate human rights abuses. Previous standards restricted arms transfers only in cases where the government had actual knowledge that the arms would be used to abuse human rights. 

“I think from the outset, it sets a very different tone than the Trump administration’s policy, which it replaces,” Rachel Stohl, vice president of research programs at the Stimson Center, told Breaking Defense on Thursday. “Obviously, it does the same thing that all CAT policies do, but it really sort of sends an incredibly strong message and explains how conventional arms trade is tied to US values, to US interests, both from a foreign policy and a national security perspective.”

Stohl added the biggest question that remains is how the policy actually gets implemented and what changes will be seen because of the policy. 

“Because I think if you look at the Biden administration’s record so far, there are numerous examples of where the administration has provided arms sales to countries with very concerning human rights records, for example, and so, if they had been using sort of the framework or the approach of this policy from the beginning, what changes today?” she said. “What are we gonna see this administration do differently? How are we going to know that it’s having an impact?”

Under the policy, the government will focus on four areas when supporting an arms transfer decision: competitive financing, exportability, technology security and foreign disclosure and exploring possibilities that deliver more cost-effective capabilities outside of systems routinely bought by the Defense Department. A State Department official on background told Breaking Defense on Thursday that the National Security Council has established four interagency working groups tackling those lines of efforts. 

According to a fact sheet about the policy, the administration still aims to support an innovative defense industrial base, but the government “will promote transfers when they are in the US national interest, in line with the considerations of the CAT Policy and applicable export control regulations, and consistent with defense trade advocacy procedures.”

Eric Fanning, president and CEO of the Aerospace Industries Association, said in a statement that the policy is a “critical signal” to industry and allies. 

“We simply must reduce the time it takes to make critical arms transfer decisions,” Fanning said. “The CAT policy’s modernization and supply chain resiliency goals, along with the Department of Defense’s ‘Tiger Team’ and other ongoing government assessments, are a good start. However, we need urgent, senior-level action. Our industry has provided clear and actionable recommendations to improve the arms transfer process, and we remain hopeful those recommendations will be taken up with immediate effect.”

Others:

https://insidedefense.com/daily-news/senior-state-official-sees-tectonic-moment-surge-us-weapons-sales-abroad

https://breakingdefense.com/2023/02/naval-warfare-poised-to-play-smaller-role-in-year-2-of-ukraine-war/

https://www.voanews.com/a/us-claims-russia-s-strategic-failure-extends-beyond-the-battlefield/6977829.html

By Haley Britzky of CNN

It could take more than a year for the US Army to deliver M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine, Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said Thursday, and plans are still being drawn up on how they will be delivered — and when.

“We’re looking at what’s the fastest way we can get the tanks to the Ukrainians,” Wormuth said during a Defense Writers Group event. “It’s not going to be a matter of weeks, I will say that. None of the options that we’re exploring are weeks or two months. There are longer timelines involved. But I think there are options that are less than two years, less than a year and a half. But again we have to look at the pros and cons of each of them.”  

“I think it’s still to be determined as to whether tanks could get there by the end of the year,” she said. 

Among the options being presented to US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin are building tanks “from scratch,” Wormuth said. Typically, however, the Army modernizes existing tank variants instead of building them from scratch. 

She also said that they are looking at options that would include “countries that we’ve sold tanks to previously,” which could “presumably get tanks to the Ukrainians more quickly but might disrupt relations with important allies.” 

More on the tanks timeline: Since the US announced M1 Abrams tanks would be provided to Ukraine alongside other tanks from partner nations, US officials have cautioned that the timeline of getting them there could be substantial. 

And it’s not just about the tanks themselves; as Wormuth pointed out on Thursday, it’s also about the support will also include recovery vehicles, ammunition, and the training for Ukrainian troops that comes along with them. 

Others:

https://news-24.fr/le-pentagone-pousse-lindustrie-de-la-defense-a-produire-plus-darmes-pour-lukraine/

https://www.newdelhitimes.com/us-army-officials-confident-in-competition-with-china/

https://financialpost.com/pmn/business-pmn/latest-on-ukraine-russian-invasion-at-one-year-mark-more-sanctions-coming

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-02-24/latest-on-ukraine-russian-invasion-at-one-year-mark-more-sanctions-coming

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2023/feb/23/pentagon-pushing-defense-industry-churn-out-more-a/

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/defense-national-security/time-to-arm-taiwan-to-the-teeth-was-yesterday-declares-gallagher-upon-return-from-secret-visit-to-taipei

https://trendfool.com/news/army-secretary-shoots-high-for-recruiting-goals-despite-crisis-in-finding-enlistees-reports/

"We are in a tremendously dynamic situation where technology is changing rapidly, techniques are changing rapidly, operational issues, we are truly multi-dimensional,” Sen. Jack Reed said.

By Mark Pomerleau of Defense Scoop

With the current Congress sworn in and back to business, one of the main priorities for the top member of the Senate Armed Services Committee is helping the U.S. military adapt to technological developments.

“First is reimagining how we fight. We are in a tremendously dynamic situation where technology is changing rapidly, techniques are changing rapidly, operational issues, we are truly multi-dimensional,” Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., told the Defense Writers Group Tuesday regarding issues he’d like the SASC to focus on this year.

The proliferation and importance of space capabilities, the reliance and criticality of the electromagnetic spectrum, and ubiquity of software all pose unique challenges and paradigm shifts from previous conflicts and eras.

“All of that has to be reimagined and integrated. And our experience in Ukraine is giving us insights for this transformation,” Reed said. “The most adaptable is the field of electronic warfare and the innovation that they’re seeing taking place, some of it spontaneously on the part of the Ukrainians just doing some ingenious things because desperate times require desperate need. They’re doing it.”

“One of the lessons I take away from this is this battle in Ukraine has been so much for in the spectrum in terms of individual Ukrainians developing software so that someone, anyone with a phone can report the location of a tank. It goes in, it’s analyzed quickly, but [with] the AI and then sent to a shooter. That’s the type of information and type of technique that we have to start evolving,” Reed continued. “The people who fight [like they did during] the last war usually end up losing it, and we don’t want to do that.”

There are steps the military has taken in recent years to get ahead of the curve, he noted. One example is the creation of Army Futures Command to spearhead the service’s modernization initiatives.

He also said there’s a “move afoot” to create a Joint Readiness Command, although he didn’t elaborate on what such an organization would do.

Reimagining how the military fights is all well and good, but it must also be underpinned by concrete modernization efforts, which Reed said will also be a big priority for his committee this year.

“We have to get equipment that is capable of operating effectively. In fact, we have to stay ahead of the competition in this regard. That requires research, investment and also requires developing production, operations and techniques to get the equipment out the door in time,” he said.

Others:

https://news.yahoo.com/republicans-aim-pentagon-civilian-workforce-142747804.html

https://consent.yahoo.com/v2/collectConsent?sessionId=1_cc-session_b7575c9c-9a10-4a9c-a850-fb205e9709de

https://www.defensenews.com/electronic-warfare/2023/02/08/russia-ukraine-lessons-to-boost-us-electronic-warfare-sen-reed-says/

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/defense-national-security/probing-the-gap-past-chinese-balloon-missions-went-undetected

https://www.airandspaceforces.com/ukraine-has-more-pressing-needs-than-f-16s-top-senator-says/

https://www.afcea.org/signal-media/intelligence/intelligence-considerations-prc-surveillance-balloon

https://breakingdefense.com/2023/02/reimagining-how-we-fight-sasc-chairman-details-4-priorities-for-coming-year/

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/defense-national-security/biden-defense-diversity-equity

Service leaders have “healthy” discussions with defense secretary during aid-package planning, Berger said.

By Caitlin Kenney of Defense One

The Marine Corps is keeping a close eye on the flow of donated weapons and spare parts to Ukraine to make sure their own service doesn’t run low, the service’s top officer said Wednesday.

“The impact there is not just on how many systems we have, but also parts. We have to monitor very closely because it’s like you have another army or another Marine Corps that you’re feeding,” Gen. David Berger, the commandant, told reporters at a Defense Writers Group event. “So at the same time we look at the number of systems and how’s that going to affect us and our war plans and our training, we also have to look at the parts and will that affect our own readiness, our own material readiness.”

Marine howitzers and other weapons are among the billions of dollars’ worth of aid sent to Ukraine in the wake of Russia’s February invasion.

Lt. Col. Garron Garn, a Pentagon spokesperson, said Wednesday they could not detail each service’s donations, citing “operational security considerations.”

Ukraine can request spare parts for their U.S. weapons through American soldiers in Poland. 

The Pentagon’s own stockpiles of 155mm artillery shells and some missiles are “dwindling,” CNN reported last month. 

Berger said some people have been surprised at Ukraine’s heavy use of unguided artillery rounds in an era of precision weaponry.

“War’s not like that,” he said. “This is a slugfest. This is a human fight.”

The Marines are closely watching their own ammunition stocks to make sure they have enough to maintain readiness and fight a war, Berger said.

“Because [if] you draw that down too much, now the risk is on you,” he said. “Your own readiness might suffer if you didn't monitor it closely. So we have to do that and we have.”

Berger said the service chiefs have “healthy” discussions with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin about how donating new batches of weapons and gear might affect their services.

“The secretary asks us each time there's a presidential drawdown: ‘Tell me the risk to [operational] plans, tell me the risk to training and readiness’,” he said. “It is no-holds-barred. Nobody's holding back.”

Garn pointed to Austin’s statement that the military would not go below its readiness requirements.

“In selecting specific systems over others, the departments take into consideration what the readiness impacts are of drawing down that equipment from U.S. stocks. We are working to replenish U.S. inventories and backfill depleted stocks of Allies and partners,” the spokesman said in an email.

Others:

https://www.afr.com/policy/foreign-affairs/us-to-provide-15b-for-taiwan-weapons-funding-20221209-p5c540

https://www.federaltimes.com/federal-oversight/2022/12/08/white-house-steps-in-as-navy-pentagon-feud-over-amphibious-ship/

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/defense-national-security/pentagon-says-disinformation-not-vaccine-mandate-has-had-minimal-impact-on-recruiting

https://www.c4isrnet.com/cyber/2022/12/08/limiting-gen-z-marines-phone-use-hard-but-necessary-top-marine-

says/https://news.usni.org/2022/12/07/marine-commandant-will-have-more-say-in-crafting-navys-amphibious-force-as-part-of-new-defense-bill

https://news.usni.org/2022/12/07/pentagon-unclear-how-military-would-handle-end-of-mandatory-covid-19-vaccines

https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/naval/2022/12/07/ukraine-war-validates-key-principles-of-new-marine-unit-in-pacific/

https://www.ft.com/content/3392ecb4-e13a-4bb4-a05b-2029e070dcb9

By Jim Garamone of DOD News 

U.S. engagement with the nations of Africa has subtly changed with U.S. defense, diplomatic and economic officials listening to African leaders detail their needs, goals, values and concerns, Chidi Blyden, deputy assistant secretary of defense for African Affairs, said.

Blyden spoke to the Defense Writers' Group yesterday and detailed how the Defense Department and the U.S. Africa Command are working with the nations of the diverse and expansive continent. She spoke in advance of the African Leaders' Summit that will be held in Washington next week.  

DOD's work with African nations is rooted in the "three D" approach: defense, development and diplomacy. This approach is not new, but DOD and other U.S. agencies are working very hard to learn from past mistakes "and work very closely together with African partners to form genuine partnerships based on mutual respect, trust values and interest," she said.  

The three D approach has always sought to meld the efforts of the State Department, DOD and the U.S. Agency for International Development together with varying degrees of success. "I think the emphasis this time around is going to be that we are going to do this in collaboration, conjunction and coordination with African partners," Blyden said.  

U.S. Africa Command was born with this idea in mind. The command has both Defense and State department leadership, she said. "What we're doing now is combining and merging these efforts rather than doing them separately, while working in close collaboration with other parts of the government, as well," the deputy assistant secretary said.  

The new approach also includes the private sector to create a "whole of society approach," she said. "Our new approach will also harness the ingenuity of both the African diaspora and the African populations, leveraging the expertise of our partners and incorporating both," she said. "Once we unite these efforts, we will recognize and strengthen the unique links that exist between security, governance and development, and we are confident that it will yield … dividends that we haven't seen in the past."

DOD and Africom will focus on working with civilian-led defense institutions to reinvigorate efforts to build institutional capacity. The organizations will also work to build and strengthen relationships with the African security sector through education, exercises and training opportunities. 

"Our intent is to try and reevaluate the past to see what it can teach us," she said. "We're obviously trying to adapt our approach to show that we have learned from it; we're looking to adopt creative solutions to help turn Africa's potential into reality. We've seen that they have tremendous promise and that they want our support and partnership to do so." 

The United States is not the only nation seeking to work with African nations. China and Russia are also seeking influence on the continent with China seeking allies to change the rules-based international system, and the Russian Wagner Group looking to leach onto struggling states for influence and money. 

Still, Blyden reiterated a statement that Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III has made many times: The United States is not asking nations to choose between the United States and China or Russia. "I honestly believe … that we are the best partner for African nations on a number of issues because we share so many strategic and mutual objectives with African countries — such as climate change mitigation, pandemic relief and support, economic recovery post COVID-19, and obviously countering malign influence from outsiders, actors who don't have African interests in mind," she said. 

The African Leaders' Summit will focus on engagement and consultation with African partners. "We want to continue to socialize our approach with African leaders to ensure that the approach continues to address the most pressing challenges and seizes upon Africa's opportunities as they evolve," she said. "I'm confident that this approach and the efforts that we'll make through the African Leaders' Summit will pay the dividends that we hope to achieve. We want leaders to leave here understanding that the breadth of opportunities to work with the United States are endless." 

By Meghann Myers of Military Times

The Pentagon is standing up a new command devoted to helping Ukraine win its war against Russia. It will oversee not only the billions of dollars in aid that the country has received, but the ongoing U.S. training mission with Ukrainian troops, according to the announcement Friday.

The 300-person Security Assistance Group-Ukraine will take over the job that the XVIII Airborne Corps headquarters recently turned over in Germany, the Defense Department’s policy chief told reporters Tuesday at a Defense Writers Group event.

While he wouldn’t call it a “permanent” command, Colin Kahl said, it signals a transition to a more “enduring capability” beyond the crisis response model from the XVIII Airborne Corps.

“We had a training mission with Ukraine before the war, right? So, the commitment to Ukraine is not new,” he said. “So, really, we just see this as a continuation of what we’ve been doing with the Ukrainians since 2014. It got dialed up as a consequence of Russia’s further invasion of Ukraine back in February, but, really, it’s kind of just institutionalizing what we’ve been doing since then.”

Kahl declined to say whether a three-star general would be appointed to lead the command, a move the New York Times reported Friday, but the mission had previously been overseen by a three-star, Lt. Gen. Christopher Donaghue, the corps’ commander.

The SAG-U would represent the Pentagon’s first move to create more long-term force structure in Europe since Russia’s invasion earlier this year. Senior officials have publicly discussed the possibly of more permanently based troops, or more heel-to-toe troop rotations, but without hinting at any impending announcements.

The U.S. military’s footprint in Europe has swelled from 80,000 to 100,000 since February, when the first of tens of thousands of troops were mobilized to NATO countries for reassurance missions.

Since then, troops have been training with local forces and helping coordinate the transport of aid to Ukraine, or training Ukrainian troops outside of their country, a mission that the SAG-U signals will continue.

Whether that means this surge of Europe deployments will also continue is up in the air.

“So, right now, the intent is to keep troop levels at the same level as they’ve been,” a senior military official told Military Times during a background briefing Oct. 31. “We have no announcements to make in terms of any changes to that in the near term.”

Others:

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/nov/9/massive-strategic-failure-kherson-pullback-is-puti/

https://www.defense.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/Article/3214909/russia-suffers-catastrophic-strategic-disaster-in-ukraine/

https://www.navytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2022/11/09/long-term-assistance-command-to-oversee-training-mission-with-ukraine/

https://tass.com/world/1533991

https://tass.com/world/1533987

https://tass.ru/mezhdunarodnaya-panorama/16276439?utm_source=app.meltwater.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=app.meltwater.com&utm_referrer=app.meltwater.com

https://insajder.com/svet/namestnik-sefa-pentagona-priznal-da-pomoc-ukrajini-osupljivo-hitro-prazni-ameriske-arzenale

https://www.newsweek.pl/swiat/polityka/wojna-w-ukrainie-wydarzenia-z-9-listopada/6yh04eq

https://newsformy.com/news-1453940.html