HASC Chairman's Top NDAA Priorities: Improving Racial Equality and Fixing Health Care by Patricia Kime of Military.com

The current House defense policy bill contains a cluster of provisions to improve opportunities for minorities in the armed forces -- measures that House Armed Services Chairman Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., said are a top priority for passage.

The defense bill, which will be debated Wednesday by the committee, would provide $3 million in scholarships at minority institutions for students engaged in the Defense Department's Science, Mathematics and Research for Transformation, or SMART, program.

And it would give $17 million to Historically Black Colleges and Universities, or HBCUs, and other minority institutions in an effort to diversify the national security workforce.

The bill also would require the military departments to submit a report summarizing the gender and race of each officer recommended on a list for promotion for the pay grades O-4 and above.

In a phone call with members of the Defense Writers Group Tuesday from Washington, D.C., Smith said the funding is needed because "there is statistically disparate treatment of people of color and others within the [Uniform Code of Military Justice]."

"Also in terms of hiring and promotion. We aren't doing enough there," Smith said.

More measures to improve equality in the U.S. military are expected to be introduced when the committee convenes Wednesday. After the committee approves the bill, it will have to pass the House and be reconciled with the Senate's final version, which also contains proposals aimed at improving diversity within the Defense Department.

The current Senate bill would require the Defense Department to conduct an in-depth study on the racial, ethnic and gender composition of units, the participation rates of minority populations in certain units and a review of minority leadership at the general officer level, as well as identify barriers to minority accession and training.

The Senate bill also would require the military services to expand their Reserve Officer Training Corps programs at several historically black colleges and universities and minority institutions for at least five years under pilot programs.

In the wake of the May 25 killing of Minneapolis resident George Floyd while in police custody and the growing call to recognize the discrimination Americans of color often face in education, employment and their communities, Defense Secretary Mark Esper this month announced a package of military-wide initiatives to improve diversity.

DoD has established a Defense Board on Diversity and Inclusion in the Military, a group assigned to develop recommendations to increase racial diversity and ensure equal opportunity in the ranks.

It also plans to stand up a Defense Advisory Committee on Diversity and Inclusion in the Armed Services, similar to the successful Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services, established nearly 70 years ago.

In the past month, the individual services also have announced steps to improve diversity and quash racism in the ranks. The Army, which established a diversity office in 2005, announced this month it would stop using photos in promotion board applications to reduce bias. Navy Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michael Gilday announced the formation of a Navy task force on racial equality. The Air Force, whose chief of staff, Gen. Charles "CQ" Brown is the first African American ever to lead a military branch, increased the size of scholarships for ROTC students attending an HBCU or Hispanic-serving institution. And the Marine Corps became the first service to ban the Confederate flag from military bases.

Lawmakers have said they want the services to be the source of change within their ranks and have encouraged DoD to "recognize there is more work to be done."

"We are at a transformational point in this country, civilian and military wise," said Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., during a hearing of the House Armed Services personnel subcommittee this month. "And I think there's a lot of work to do."

Smith said Tuesday that in addition to improving racial equality across DoD, his other top personnel priority for the fiscal 2021 National Defense Authorization Act is the military health system, which is undergoing a consolidation and reform effort initiated in 2017.

As part of the changes, the Defense Health Agency is assuming management of the military services' hospitals and clinics and the service medical commands are shifting focus from caring for service members, families and retirees to treating only uniformed personnel.

The House bill currently contains a provision to delay the changes until the Pentagon provides Congress with an update of its medical staffing and plan to shift more retirees and family members to Tricare.

"I see the merit of what they are talking about doing in merging [the system] together ... but I need a better understanding. Reconciling that would certainly be at the top of the list," Smith said.

-- Patricia Kime can be reached at Patricia.Kime@Monster.com. Follow her on Twitter @patriciakime.

The original article can be found here.

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Lawmakers want answers from Pentagon, White House on reported Russian bounties by Caitlin Kenney of Stars and Stripes

WASHINGTON — Leaders on the Senate and House Armed Services Committees said Monday that they want answers from the Pentagon and White House about reports that a Russian military intelligence group had paid bounties to kill American troops in Afghanistan.

“We need to get to the bottom of it and we need to do it now. Again, this week before Congress leaves on the Fourth of July,” Rep. Mac Thornberry of Texas, the ranking Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, told reporters Monday morning during a Defense Writers Group conference call.

The New York Times reported Friday that American intelligence had determined a Russian intelligence unit had secretly offered Taliban-linked militants bounties to kill American and coalition service members in Afghanistan. The Washington Post reported Sunday that it is believed some of the bounties did result in the deaths of Americans.

The House Armed Services Committee’s leadership has requested a briefing by the Pentagon for Monday or Tuesday on the intelligence to understand its credibility and how intelligence officials arrived at their conclusion, Thornberry said. The Pentagon had not responded to their request yet, he added.

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The US military isn't just worried about Russia's fighter jets in Libya but also who's flying them by Christopher Woody of Business Insider

• The US has added to its concern about Russian fighter jets delivered to Libya in May, saying the pilots are inexperienced and may put civilian lives in danger.
• The Russian jets have arrived in the middle of a protracted civil war, where the Russian-backed side is fighting with an internationally recognized government that is supported by NATO member states.

US concerns about the arrival of Russian fighter jets in Libya have been compounded by evidence those planes are being flown by inexperienced pilots, military officials said Thursday.

US Africa Command said in late May that Russia had deployed at least 14 MiG-29 and several Su-24 fighters to Libya to support Russian state-sponsored private military contractors, or PMC.

Reuters reported in early May that the UN found up to 1,200 personnel from Russian private military contractor Wagner Group were in Libya to support warlord Khalifa Haftar in his fight against the country's internationally recognized government. Africom said Thursday about 2,000 Wagner Group personnel were estimated to be in Libya.

The aircraft were flown from Russia to Syria, where their Russian markings were painted over, and then to Libya. That violated a UN arms embargo and indicated that Russia was "clearly trying to tip the scales in its favor in Libya," US Army Gen. Stephen Townsend, head of Africom, said at the time.

On Thursday, Africom warned of what it said was a lack of skill among the aircraft's pilots.

US Africa Command

"There is concern these Russian aircraft are being flown by inexperienced, non-state PMC mercenaries who will not adhere to international law" and aren't bound by the laws of armed conflict, said US Marine Corps Brig. Gen. Bradford Gering, Africom's director of operations. "If this is true and bombing occurs, innocent Libyan lives are at risk."

At a Defense Writers Group event on Thursday, Gen. Jeffrey Harrigian, commander of US Air Forces in Europe and Africa, told reporters that the Russian aircraft and their pilots have largely been working on "pilot proficiency."

"Primarily what we've seen then as far as activity is, in essence, what I would quantify as sorties where they're working on their basic flying skills," Harrigian said,

Africom said a MiG-29 was photographed operating near the city of Sirte in northern Libya, but Harrigan said the US was unable to confirm Wagner Group's involvement in strikes reported in that area.

Harrigan described the pilots as "guys that may be retired" and "guys that they're finding out there who have flown these types of aircraft."

"Naturally, from a professional airman's perspective, that's going to raise some concern. It ought to raise concern in everybody's mind in terms of what's their ability to put weapons on the appropriate targets," Harrigan added.

"It's a small, constrained environment to operate in, where it takes precision weapons," Harrigan said. "So when you haven't had potentially the opportunity to operate with precision weapons in a manner that's going to require tactics, techniques, and procedures — that are a skill set that we trained significantly to ensure that we put weapons where we need to — that's an area that we have concern."

Getting to a win-win

Russian aircraft being used to support private military companies sponsored by Russia. Photo release June 18, 2020.(US Africa Command)

US military officials have characterized the presence of Russian weapons in Libya as a potential threat to NATO.

"If Russia secures a permanent position in Libya and, worse, deploys long-range missile systems, it will be a game-changer for Europe, NATO and many Western nations," Brig. Gen. Gregory Hadfield, deputy director for intelligence at Africom, said at the end of May.

Libya gives Moscow a "military base strategically positioned in striking distance of Europe," Hadfield said.

On Thursday, Africom released a photo showing what it said was a Spoon Rest mobile early-warning radar system "designed to provide tactical support to military activities" and used by Russia "when deployed to a nation in the conduct of tactical combat operations."

Harrigan said the photos show Russia continues "to build out what I would call their intent to have a better understanding of the air domain [and] look to leverage those fighters in a manner that ultimately could influence the broader outcomes."

"My concern has been that should Russia gain a more permanent foothold, as they have demonstrated ... in Syria, that's going to be a significant security concern to our European flank to the south," Harrigan added. "As we have continued to watch that ... you're not seeing any of the surface-to-air missile build up, but we're continuing to see some of the air-domain capabilities roll into Libya."

Libya's ongoing civil war is primarily between the Government of National Accord in the country's east and forces loyal to Khalifa Haftar, a former general and warlord who leads the Libyan National Army, in the west.

The internationally recognized GNA and militias allied with it are backed by Turkey, Qatar, and Italy, while Haftar is supported by Egypt, Russia, and the United Arab Emirates. Both sides have ignored the UN arms embargo.

In recent weeks, the GNA, with Turkey's help, has been able to advance east, taking territory from Haftar's forces and destroying weapons supplied to them by foreign backers.

Harrigan said Thursday that Haftar's supporters "are not well synchronized," which has led to "an effective effort by the GNA to move farther to the east" that may make the warlord more amenable to a political resolution.

The UN said last week that the two sides started new ceasefire talks in Libya after GNA forces, with Turkey's help, repelled a LNA attack on the country's capital, Tripoli.

Asked about the prospect of direct conflict between Turkey and Russia, Harrigan said that so far "they have been able to deconflict" and that "there's no real desire" to escalate to "state-on-state" fighting.

"I think they want to drive it into an environment that gets to the point where somebody has got enough of the territory to drive then some type of diplomatic discussion to get to what I would categorize as a win-win for both sides," Harrigan said.

Original article can be found here.

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Big Changes to Military Health System Will Be Delayed, Top Health Official Says by Patricia Kime of Military.com

The COVID-19 pandemic is having a significant impact on reforms of the Pentagon's health system, delaying plans to reduce services at 48 hospitals and clinics by months and forcing additional reviews of civilian care in locations affected by the changes.

Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs Thomas McCaffery told reporters Thursday that efforts to alter operations at some military treatment facilities was scheduled to begin in September, but now may start "more toward the end of the year" or later.

The changes, designed to focus the facilities on providing medical care to active-duty personnel only as well as training military medical personnel, thereby shedding non-uniformed beneficiaries to the Tricare network, will result in outsourcing health care for at least 200,000 patients.

For the plan to work, the Defense Department is dependent on the availability of providers within Tricare. With the ongoing pandemic, however, "it's going to affect the timeline as to when that happens," McCaffery said during a conference call with the Defense Writers Group, an association of defense and national security correspondents.

"Because of the requirements of the health system -- that we really have been diverting more time and resources to the COVID response -- it could be something more to the end of the year that we would have a better idea of which military treatment facilities of the 48 would be earlier implementation and which would be later," he said.

The changes originally were expected to take two to four years. McCaffery said implementation at each MTF will largely depend on the ability of local providers to absorb new patients. But with both military and civilian health care workers engaged in pandemic response, local networks "may not be able to engage with us at this moment," he said.

"The key driver here is whatever change we make, we want to maintain access to care for our beneficiaries, and obviously that only works if that private-sector network is available," McCaffery said.

Efforts to reform the military health system date to 2012 with the creation of the Defense Health Agency, a DoD department created to standardize and consolidate health care functions and services across the Army, Navy and Air Force medical commands.

But the transformation snowballed under the fiscal 2017 National Defense Authorization Act, which required DHA to assume management of all military hospitals and clinics, as well as many medical functions, and left the service medical commands to focus on providing medical care only to military personnel.

Defense officials say the efforts will curb costs and improve care and services across the board for beneficiaries. But the changes have met pushback from the services -- which continue to support DHA with hospital management and face a reduction of medical personnel billets -- as well as some military advocates.

In December, Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy sent a memo to Deputy Defense Secretary David Norquist expressing concern over what he saw as a "lack of performance and planning with respect to the transition” by the Defense Health Agency.

McCarthy asked for a delay in transitioning Army health facilities to DHA and also sought to keep the Army Public Health Center and Army Medical Research and Development Command, slated to transfer to DHA.

On Thursday, McCaffery did not comment on McCarthy's request, but said much of the DoD's funding for research and development comes through his office, and he works with the DHA and the services to determine priorities and allocate the money to various offices and research arms.

"We think that approach works well, and we are going to continue that," he said.

Among the ongoing reforms within the military health system is a planned reduction of more than 17,000 medical billets. Early last year, the Army, Navy and Air Force quietly began planning to eliminate positions for several thousand doctors, nurses, technicians, medics and corpsmen and administrative personnel.

But which positions have been targeted has not been made public: Neither the DHA nor the services have released their plans, even as they have said they already are jettisoning those jobs through attrition.

Congress has requested a detailed report on the reductions; McCaffery said Thursday it will be forwarded to the House and Senate this month.

But even that plan may be subject to change as a result of the pandemic, he added.

"Obviously, implementation of that or other reforms will be tied to what we have learned and what we are learning with regard to the pandemic," he said.

Nearly 4,000 active-duty, reserve and National Guard medical personnel deployed within the United States and elsewhere to assist the U.S. public health response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

As of Thursday, more than 7,400 military members, 1,213 family members, 1,691 civilian DoD employees and 771 defense contractors have tested positive for the coronavirus. Thirty-six, including three service members, have died.

McCaffery, a former health industry executive who took office last August, said he initially was concerned at the two- to three-year turnover of military medical community positions, the result of changes in duty stations and deployments.

But he expressed enthusiasm for the DoD's ability this year to switch rapidly from focusing on health system reform to responding to a national emergency.

"It's very easy for [health system leadership] to quickly pivot. ... Usually, when our medical forces are deployed, whether it's overseas or domestically, it's for trauma-related events. This was very different, a very different enemy," he said.

-- Patricia Kime can be reached at Patricia.Kime@Monster.com. Follow her on Twitter @patriciakime.

Original article can be found here.

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Army Invites Air Force ABMS To Big Network Test: Project Convergence by Sydney Freedberg Jr. of Breaking Defense

This fall’s experiment will study how the Army’s own weapons can share target data, Gen. Murray said, but in 2021 he wants to add the Air Force’s ABMS network.

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Russia Poses 'Serious' and 'Growing' Threats to US in Space, Says Top Pentagon Official by Carla Babb of Voice of America News

WASHINGTON - Russia continues to pose “serious” and “growing” threats to U.S. interests in space, according to the top military officer for space defense.

“They’re real, they’re serious and they’re concerning,” Gen. John Raymond, chief of the newly established U.S. Space Force and head of U.S. Space Command, told reporters Wednesday.

“Our advantage has been diminished, and that's why the establishment of the Space Force in the Aerospace Command is so important — to allow us to move fast with agility of effort, reducing costs to stay ahead of that growing threat,” he added.

The realm of space is essential to everyday activities from navigation to banking. Space assets are also critical to military missions from launching missiles to collecting intelligence.

Raymond did not elaborate when pressed for specific areas where the U.S. advantage is eroding but touted “significant strides” over recent months to remain the world leader in space.

Raymond credited having the “best partnerships” as a major reason the United States leads in space, confirming that Peru this month became the latest nation to join a U.S.-led network that shares information on space objects.

The data-sharing space situational awareness agreement will give Peru access to satellite tracking data, connecting Peru’s space agency with the military team that tracks space objects for the United States.

Raymond warned, however, that as the United States has watched both Russia and China advance in space capabilities, “any progress they make could erode our advantage.”

Russia and China have recently placed a greater emphasis on their space capabilities, including developing technology and weapons that could disrupt or destroy satellites.

“Our adversaries in the last several years have weaponized space. They’ve made it a war fighting domain,” Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said Friday.

In recent weeks, Russia fired an anti-satellite missile, technology that could threaten U.S. orbital assets. It also conducted test maneuvers of two satellites that followed a U.S. spy satellite, a move that the U.S. Space Force said last month "exhibited characteristics of a space weapon.”

Raymond slammed Russia’s “hypocritical” behavior toward space, saying that Moscow is advocating for outer space arms control at the same time it is developing space weapons.

Iran and North Korea have less developed capabilities than Russia and China, but they still pose a threat, according to defense officials.

Last month, Iran conducted its first successful launch of a military satellite into space. Raymond reiterated to reporters Wednesday that the satellite was “nothing more than a tumbling webcam” that was unlikely to provide intelligence.

Original article can be found here.

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Goldfein says the Air Force is preparing for a long-term 'new abnormal' by Corey Dickstein of Stars and Stripes

Stars and Stripes is making stories on the coronavirus pandemic available free of charge. See other free reports here. Sign up for our daily coronavirus newsletter here. Please support our journalism with a subscription.

WASHINGTON — The Air Force’s top general said he believes the coronavirus will impart a long-term “new abnormal” on the U.S. military as the outbreak is unlikely to subside totally until a vaccine is widely available.

Gen. David Goldfein told reporters Wednesday that he has ordered an Air Force-wide "reset" for June 1, when he wants the service to find ways to increase operations tempos slowed by the pandemic. The Air Force chief of staff said he would like to see plans to increase the number of recruits coming into the service by that deadline and procedures to safely ramp up some of the Air Force operations that have been curtailed in an effort to slow the spread of the virus.

“All the projections are no vaccine for upwards of a year,” Goldfein said during the video news briefing. “So, that means we’ve got to refine our ability to survive and operate and do the missions our nation requires. And we’ve got to bring back those missions we have slowed down, so that we can get back to some kind of sense of new normalcy in an abnormal world.”

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Head of Global Strike Command Wants to Make Air Force Bombers Even More Lethal by Oriana Pawlyk of Military.com

With planned cuts and retirements coming to the U.S. Air Force's bomber inventory, the head of Air Force Global Strike Command wants to make the remaining aircraft even more lethal in the future.

The Air Force plans to have a total of 165 to 175 bombers in its inventory once the B-21 Long Range Strike Bomber comes online.

Gen. Timothy Ray has advocated for a larger fleet -- roughly 220 -- but until the B-21 Raider enters service in the latter part of the 2020s or early 2030s, he wants to make sure the current bomber fleets have the capability to carry a bigger variety of loads.

There are opportunities to keep some airframes, such as the B-1B Lancer, relevant by "increasing our long-range strike," Ray said during a phone call hosted by the Defense Writers Group.

In August, the Air Force showed that the B-1 fleet may have more options, after it proved it can transform the Lancer to hold more ordnance, a first step toward it carrying hypersonic weapons payloads.

A test by the 419th Flight Test Squadron at Edwards Air Force Base, California, demonstrated how crews could fasten new racks onto the B-1's external hardpoints and reconfigure its internal bomb bays to hold heavier weapons.

Related: America's Non-Nuclear Bomber Could Someday Carry Hypersonic Weapons

Earlier this week, Ray told Air Force Magazine what weapons would make sense for this role: the hypersonic Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW, pronounced "Arrow"), currently under rapid prototype development; and a conventional version of the Long-Range Stand-Off weapon, or LRSO (which is meant to be a nuclear cruise missile, replacing the AGM-86B Air Launched Cruise Missile for other aircraft that still carry nuclear weapons, such as the B-52 Stratofortress).

B-1 bomb bays are already snug for conventional weapons, and hypersonic weapons -- which would travel at speeds of Mach 5 or higher -- would take up more space due to the complexity of their propulsion design.

Speaking to reporters Thursday, Ray said he thinks the non-nuclear B-1 fleet, which has been in recovery mode since 2018 after years of constant deployments, may be able to take ARRW on faster.

He separately told Air Force Magazine, "I think our carriage capability is good for that."

And while there's no requirement to create a conventional version of LRSO, Ray said it's the range he's interested in. "I think that's going to be a very, very good missile," he told the magazine.

To date, its range has not been specified; its predecessor AGM-86B can fly "1,500-plus miles," according to the Air Force.

Officials have already employed other missiles on the aircraft, such as the Joint Air to Surface Stand-Off Missiles-Extended Range (JASSM-ER), as well as the Long Range Anti-Ship Missile, or LRASM. A single B-1B can carry up to 24 LRASMs; the missile achieved early operational capability on the bomber in 2018.

"Basically, the configuration we're seeking is external hardpoints that can allow us to add six ARRWs, and then you still have the bomb bay where you can carry the LRASM or the JASSM-ER," Ray said Thursday. LRASM or JASSM-ER could also be carried externally, he added.

"Our investments will be to improve the external carriage, and make sure that we have a good sustainment gameplan," he said.

Does that mean AFGC is poised to one day reconfigure a bomber to be the "arsenal plane?"

In November, Dr. Will Roper, assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, technology and logistics, said the service may select one of its bombers -- the B-52, B-1 or B-2 Spirit -- to be used as an arsenal plane, or a heavy, multifunctional, munitions-packed aircraft.

But Ray on Thursday said he thinks the arsenal plane will be born out of a "clean sheet design," not necessarily using a bomber airframe or a cargo plane, both ideas put forth in recent years.

The Air Force is slated to cut 17 Lancers in the latest fiscal 2021 budget proposal, reducing the fleet to just 44; the service plans to retire the fleet by 2036.

-- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @oriana0214.

Other articles:

AirForce Magazine: Ray Touts 'Clean-Sheet' Arsenal Plane, Hypersonics, B-1 Recovery, End of Bomber CAS

Aviation Week: USAF Bomber Chief Prefers Clean Sheet Design For Arsenal Plane

Defense Daily: Air Force's Bomber Fleet Could Get Larger, More Lethal, Global Strike Command Leader Says

Inside Defense:  AFGSC to move forward with ARRW over DARPA's air-breathing hypersonic weapon

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National Defense: Air Force Increases Need for More LongRange Bombers

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The Army Is Increasing Combat Gear Stockpiles in Europe and Pacific by Matthew Cox of Military.com

The head of Army Materiel Command said Tuesday that the service is drafting plans to expand its prepositioned sets of combat equipment in Europe and the Pacific to better prepare for future conflict.

"I am responsible for maintaining the Army Prepositioned Stocks (APS)," said Gen. Gustave "Gus" Perna, head of Army Materiel Command. "As of right now, I am actually building an additional set that I have been directed to build" for the European theater.

"We are already working on ways to expand APS out in the Pacific," he added.

The Army positions sets of APS around the world so brigade combat teams and other units can deploy rapidly and draw new combat equipment from them.

"We also position it so that those who are always watching us know that we are ready, that we have capabilities around the world, and it's a matter of just getting on a plane and drawing that equipment," Perna told reporters Tuesday at a Defense Writers Group breakfast.

He said the Army will likely take lessons from the upcoming Defender-Europe 2020 exercise to rethink how APS is outfitted and positioned in Europe.

"I can envision where [Defender-Europe] 2020 might illuminate several things: Is it in the right place, do we need to adjust, do we want to set up alternate sites to keep everybody guessing about what we are doing, is there a better place to put things for a better advantage?" Perna said.

"I also think coming out of Defender 2020 might be a thought process of 'Hey, we need more, additional to what we have or we need different from what we have.' In other words, we have this capability, but that is really not what we needed. What we really need is this capability at the same location."

While he would not get into specifics, Perna said that leaders at Army Pacific Command will draft their strategy for APS and then "brief courses of action" to Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy and Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville.

"We want to show our enemies ... we are not going to sit around and wait for you to start; we are going to be ready when you start," Perna said. "It's not just put it in a warehouse and high-five ourselves -- it's get it there, exercise it and demonstrate that we can maneuver around the Pacific."

APS, previously known as Activity Sets, have already gone through a significant redesign over the past several years, he said.

"Activity Sets and APS are two different things. Army Prepositioned Stocks serve a primary purpose -- to allow the president of the United States to make decisions and for us to execute rapidly," Perna said.

"An Activity Set [was] a bunch of equipment in some type of cantonment area that people use to train on -- two different things. And we have been very successful underneath Gen. Mark Milley and now Gen. McConville to eliminate those activity sets and focus readiness on Army Prepositioned Stocks.

"Our APS around the world are ready to go now."

Original article can be found here.

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