December 10, 2019 | International, Naval

BREAKING: Marine Corps Planning Major Program Cuts

By Jon Harper

SIMI VALLEY, Calif. — The Marine Corps intends to divest itself of legacy systems as it transforms into a more mobile and expeditionary force, the service's commandant said Dec. 7.

In recent decades Marines have been busy fighting land wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But now they must prepare for a potential conflict in a naval environment against advanced adversaries such as China, Gen. David Berger told reporters at the Reagan National Defense Forum in Simi Valley, California.

“We cannot wait any longer before we start adjusting our service to what we've got to be six, seven, eight years out,” he said. “We have lots of changes we have to make and ... we have to get rid of legacy things in the Marine Corps. We've got to go on a diet. We've got to get back on ship. We've got to become expeditionary again.”

What types of legacy systems will be on the chopping block?

“Big, heavy things,” Berger said. “Expensive things that we can't either afford to buy or afford to maintain over the life of it. Things that don't fit aboard ships. Things that can't fire hyper velocity projectiles. Things that don't have the range that we're going to need or the precision.”

Mobility will be critical in future fights, he noted. Marines must be able to operate from ships or ashore, and move back and forth between domains.

Other platforms that could see cuts include manned logistics vehicles and aircraft.

“All those things we're going to trim down,” Berger said.

The service is also looking to add new capabilities. The commandant did not identify specific systems that the Marines plan to buy, but he provided a flavor of the types of platforms that will be on the shopping list.

“Think unmanned. Think expeditionary. Think very light. Think things that we can sustain forward without a huge logistical train,” Berger said.

Unmanned logistics vehicles and aircraft are examples of new technologies that the service is interested in.

Human beings will still be on the battlefield, Berger noted. “I just don't need them driving a truck delivering chow” if a self-driving platform could perform the task, he said.

Drones could also deliver supplies. “Amazon does it. Why wouldn't we do it?” he asked.

Unmanned combat aircraft are also on the wish list, he noted.

The Marine Corps has been conducting wargames and simulations to help determine how the force should be redesigned for potential future combat scenarios that might occur 10 years out.

“We're in the last stages of that,” Berger said. That effort will likely wrap up in late January or early February.

Force composition changes will be made over 10 years, but some will begin next year, he said.

Officials are examining “every part of our air-ground team,” Berger said. A wide range of capabilities are being looked at. “From individual equipment to crew served [weapons] to F-35s and everything in between.”

The analysis will help determine which programs will be killed, trimmed or added, he said.

The service needs new weapon systems that can find and kill enemy ships at range from ship or shore.

“We have to become a naval force that's lethal in terms of putting at risk another naval force,” Berger said.

In the future, large numbers of unmanned air and ground systems could function as motherships that launch other robotic vehicles and drones to conduct missions, he said.

A major funding realignment is planned over the next five years.

“You'll see a little bit of it” in the fiscal year 2021 budget blueprint, Berger said. “The big muscle movement — that will come in ‘22, ‘23, ‘24 in a big way.”

https://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/articles/2019/12/9/marine-corps-planning-major-program-cuts

On the same subject

May 6, 2020 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security

Esper: Flat budget could speed cutting of legacy programs
By: Aaron Mehta WASHINGTON — If the Pentagon faces tighter budgets in the coming years, departmental planners should look to cut legacy programs first in order to preserve funding for modernization requirements, Defense Secretary Mark Esper told reporters Tuesday. “Frankly, my inclination is not to risk any in the modernization programs; it's to go back and pull out more of the legacy programs,” Esper said in response to a question about what modernization priorities, such as shipbuilding, might be on the table. “We need to move away from legacy [programs] and we need to invest those dollars into the future. We have a lot of legacy programs out there right now. I could pick dozens out from all branches of the services. So that is where I would start,” he continued. “What that would mean is probably accepting some near-term risk, but I think that is something [that has to happen], given the trajectory that we see China is on, and we know where Russia may be going in the coming years. So that is one place where I would begin, but we're going to be working through this course of action.” The secretary also emphasized that he's not going to “risk the strategic deterrent,” reiterating that modernizing America's nuclear capabilities remains the department's top priority. Budgets were already expected to be flat or decline slightly in the coming years before the coronavirus pandemic, which has required the U.S. government to pump trillions of dollars into the economy. Esper said that “tremendous load” is something the department must consider as it plots a budget strategy for fiscal 2022 and beyond. His comments match what the secretary said Monday during an appearance at the Brookings Institution, where he said the spending spree in response to the spread of COVID-19 means the department's ongoing efforts to find internal efficiencies must continue to bear fruit. The department claimed savings of $6.5 billion in FY19 through process reforms and the sale of obsolete equipment, with another $5.7 billion in spending reallocated from legacy programs to modernization priorities. During the Brookings event, Esper noted that the department will “likely need” extra money from Congress if a fourth coronavirus supplemental fund is worked out, in order to help cover costs for medical supplies procured by the Pentagon. At the start of his press event, the secretary used prepared remarks to note that top defense leaders will be appearing at the Senate Armed Services Committee tomorrow to discuss the Federal Communications Commission's decision to allow Ligado to operate in the L-band spectrum, a move long opposed by the department because of concerns it will negatively impact GPS. Esper said the decision “disregards the many objections of industry and the inner agency, grounded in years of hard data and science. Ultimately this will cause harmful interference to the GPS network, jeopardizing our nation's security, prosperity and way of life.” The secretary declined to comment on why the FCC moved ahead with the decision. C4ISRNET, a sister publication of Defense News, has reported the decision came amid political pressure from top Trump administration officials. https://www.defensenews.com/pentagon/2020/05/05/esper-flat-budget-could-speed-cutting-legacy-programs/
February 4, 2019 | International, Land, C4ISR

To prepare for the future battlefield, the Army has opened its AI Task Force at CMU
COURTNEY LINDER To prepare the armed forces for the “future battlefield” of 2028 or 2035, the U.S. Army is setting up shop at Carnegie Mellon University. On Friday, the Army officially activated its new Artificial Intelligence Task Force at the National Robotics Engineering Center in Lawrenceville before a crowd of politicians and researchers from nearly a dozen universities. The task force will become a national network of experts in academia and private industry, building out solutions that the Army can use not only on the battlefield but also in rescue missions and in protecting civilians. CMU is the home base, but the task force will eventually include other partners. “At the end of the day, I'd rather not fight a war,” said Mark Esper, secretary of the Army. “And so, if we can master AI ... then I think it will just really position us better to make sure we protect the American people.” He said during the Iraq war, many soldiers died on simple runs from Kuwait City to Baghdad on a daily basis. “If I could have had fewer soldiers in vehicles and had a convoy led using artificial intelligence ... think of all the lives that could have been saved,” he said. General John Murray, Commander of the Army Futures Command, which is geared toward modernizing the military, said that in the near-term, he can imagine facial recognition technology could aid in combat. Other areas of interest include technological advances in AI, robotics, and even hypersonic missiles that travel much faster than the speed of sound. When adversaries have uniforms on, he said, it's easy to tell who's the enemy. When those enemies are dressed in plain street clothes, it's much harder. With facial recognition, the military can become more precise in selecting targets. Still, there are ethical considerations to keep in mind when designing technology that could ultimately disarm or kill. When asked if the university had set up an ethics committee before partnering with the Army, CMU President Farnam Jahanian did not directly answer but offered that academia has a duty to use its knowledge for national defense. “One of the important benefits of having this task force be based here is that it's going to give us the ability to have discussions about AI and other emerging technologies and ethical applications of these technologies, both in a military context as well as a civilian context,” he said. Mr. Jahanian was careful to note that faculty members are free to work on only the research that they feel drawn to; they are not told which applications to focus on. If they feel an ethical tug-of-war in their minds, they can opt not to participate. CMU has a long history of contracting with the Department of Defense and many breakthrough technologies — including autonomous vehicles — have benefited from defense dollars. Some of these advancements, Mr. Jahanian said, are not geared toward killing at all. The university has created flexible robots that can maneuver through rubble and send a live feed to recovery specialists to aid in search and rescue missions. They've built statistical and data mining techniques to more accurately predict when military vehicles require maintenance, saving time and money. Machine learning and computer vision can even help diagnose and treat depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. Financials between the Army and CMU were not disclosed, but Mr. Jahanian said funding from the Army will not only go to CMU but also to other partners that eventually sign on. “Winning on the future battlefield requires us to act faster than our enemies while placing our troops and resources at a lower risk,” Mr. Esper said. “Whoever gets there first will maintain a decisive edge on the battlefield for years to come.” Courtney Linder: clinder@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1707. Twitter: @LinderPG. https://www.post-gazette.com/business/tech-news/2019/02/01/army-ai-task-force-cmu-carnegie-mellon-university-robotics-pittsburgh-farnam-jahanian/stories/201902010012
May 22, 2019 | International, Aerospace

Une guerre commerciale affecterait tous les avionneurs, dit Airbus
LONDRES, 16 mai (Reuters) - Une nouvelle escalade des tensions commerciales affecterait les entreprises du secteur aéronautique dans leur ensemble, y compris Airbus, concurrent de Boeing, a prévenu jeudi le président exécutif de l'avionneur européen. Dans le cadre du litige de près de 15 ans auprès de l'Organisation mondiale du commerce (OMC) qui oppose les Etats-Unis et l'Europe sur les subventions à l'industrie aéronautique, les deux parties menacent d'imposer à chacun des milliards de dollars de droits de douane. “Les tensions commerciales que nous constatons, nous pensons qu'elles sont des tensions perdantes-perdantes”, a déclaré Guillaume Faury à la presse lors d'une visite à Londres. Boeing a exhorté mercredi le gouvernement américain de limiter les représailles exercées sur les avions européens afin de pas nuire aux équipementiers américains. Mais Guillaume Faury juge impossible pour les entreprises concernées de contenir les retombées liées à la détérioration du climat commercial international, qui a également conduit à une guerre douanière entre les Etats-Unis et la Chine. “Ces tensions, et la situation commerciale, ne sont d'aucune aide pour aucun des acteurs de l'aérospatiale”, a-t-il déclaré. “Nous ne pensons pas que nous en perdrons plus que les autres dans cette situation, mais nous pensons que cela devrait être résolu d'une manière ou d'une autre afin que les entreprises mondialisées comme dans le secteur de l'aviation puissent continuer à se développer”, a-t-il ajouté. Guillaume Faury a par ailleurs de nouveau mis en garde sur l'impact de la sortie de la Grande-Bretagne de l'Union européenne, tout en étant moins alarmiste que son prédécesseur, Tom Enders, qui avait menacé de retirer le groupe du Royaume-Uni. Airbus, qui produit des ailes d'avion en Grande-Bretagne et emploie 14.000 personnes dans tout le pays, profite du retard pris dans le Brexit pour “se préparer à tous les scénarios”, a déclaré Guillaume Faury, ajoutant qu'un Brexit sans accord est toujours possible, même si cela est moins probable. “Les choses n'ont fondamentalement pas changé, et par conséquent elles s'aggravent. Ce manque persistant de clarté est (...) une distraction”, a-t-il déclaré. “Le Royaume-Uni fait vraiment partie de notre écosystème. Nos usines et nos sites au Royaume-Uni sont très compétitifs. Nous aimerions que cela continue, quoi qu'il arrive.” MISES EN GARDE Guillaume Faury a également mis en garde contre des poursuites judiciaires contre l'Allemagne, Berlin ayant décidé en mars de prolonger de six mois l'arrêt des ventes d'armes à l'Arabie saoudite à la suite du meurtre du journaliste et opposant saoudien Jamal Khashoggi. Cette décision remet en cause des milliards d'euros de contrats militaires, dont une commande de 10 milliards de livres (13,27 milliards de dollars) pour la vente de 48 Eurofighter Typhoon à Ryad, via un consortium dirigé par BAE Systems et comprenant l'Allemagne, Airbus et le motoriste MTU Aero Engines . “Il est très important de clarifier les règles et de comprendre comment les partenaires comprennent qu'ils peuvent faire confiance à l'Allemagne en tant que partenaire”, a déclaré Guillaume Faury. Ce commentaire survient alors que la France et l'Allemagne planchent sur un nouvel avion de combat dans lequel Airbus est le partenaire industriel du côté allemand. (Claude Chendjou pour le service français, édité par Benoît Van Overstraeten) https://fr.reuters.com/article/frEuroRpt/idFRL5N22S4HE

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