October 2, 2020 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security

Britain unveils new operating concept for a ‘fundamental transformation in the military’

LONDON — The British military and government must “fundamentally change” the way they counter the political and military ambitions of authoritarian rivals, or risk being overwhelmed, warned the country's top soldier.

Gen. Nick Carter's speech at the Policy Exchange think tank Sept. 30 coincided with the publication of Britain's new “Integrated Operating Concept.” The chief of the Defence Staff said key changes backed by the concept include improved integration of effort across government and with allies, equipment modernization, and constant competition with adversaries below the threshold of war.

The concept says the strategy rethink “represents the most significant change in UK military thought in several generations. It will lead to a fundamental transformation in the military instrument and the way it is used.”

Carter said one of the “big ideas” in the operational concept was that it makes a distinction between “operating” and “war fighting."

“In an era of persistent competition, our deterrent posture needs to be more dynamically managed and modulated. This concept therefore introduces a fifth 'C' — that of competition — to the traditional deterrence model of comprehension, credibility, capability and communication,” he said. “This recognizes the need to compete below the threshold of war in order to deter war, and to prevent one's adversaries from achieving their objectives in fait accompli strategies, as we have seen in the Crimea, Ukraine, Libya and further afield.

“Competing involves a campaign posture that includes continuous operating on our terms and in places of our choosing.

Carter also identified the nature of the growing threat driving Britain to rethink its strategy.

“Our authoritarian rivals see the strategic context as a continuous struggle in which nonmilitary and military instruments are used unconstrained by any distinction between peace and war. These regimes believe that they are already engaged in an intense form of conflict that is predominantly political rather than kinetic,” he said. “Their way of warfare is strategic, it is synchronized and systematic, and our response must be too.”

The new concept comes ahead of the government's Integrated Defence Review, expected in the second half of November. The review is planned to bring together British policy thinking across defense, security, foreign policy and overseas development spending.

Government ministers and advisers previously signaled the review would see the military effort pivot away from conventional military capabilities and move toward a greater focus on space, cyberspace and artificial intelligence.

Carter's speech and the new strategy document are the best evidence to date of where the government's plan for change is heading.

“We must chart a direction of travel from an industrial age of platforms to an information age of systems,” Carter said. “Some industrial-age capabilities will increasingly have to meet their sunset to create the space for capabilities needed for sunrise. The trick is how you find a path through the night. We know this will require us to embrace combinations of information-centric technologies. But predicting these combinations will be challenging."

The concept identified some capabilities it expects will be in demand in the future, including smaller and faster capabilities to avoid detection; trading reduced physical protection for increased mobility; an increasing dependence on electronic warfare; stealth technology; and evermore sophisticated networks of systems.

Carter made no mention of how the cash-strapped country will find the resources for a strategy rethink that requires substantial spending in sectors like space and cyberspace. Analysts here reckon the early disuse of conventional capabilities, like much of the main battle tank force, may be one way of balancing the books.

Last week, the Ministry of Defence confirmed it is considering cutting an order to buy five Boeing Wedgetail command-and-control aircraft to three platforms as part of its cost-cutting effort. Completion of the new aircraft expected around 2030.

The new operating concept document said it's impossible to immediately abandon the current force structure and create a bespoke one from scratch, noting that important operations must continue and that legacy programs and platforms should retain utility.

Carter reinforced that message, saying it is “important to emphasize that the willingness to commit decisively hard capability with the credibility to war fight is an essential part of the ability to operate and therefore of deterrence.”

https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2020/09/30/britain-unveils-new-operating-concept-for-a-fundamental-transformation-in-the-military/

On the same subject

June 21, 2019 | International, Land, Other Defence

Nearly 40 percent lighter body armor coming to Marines in 2020
By: Shawn Snow The Corps is gearing up to field its new lightweight body armor plates, designed to be worn in the Corps' low intensity or counterinsurgency style conflicts. On Friday the Defense Department announced the Navy awarded a nearly $216 million contract to Point Blank Enterprises for the purchase of up to 680,706 of the new lightweight plates. Maj. Ken Kunze, a spokesman for Marine Corps Systems Command, told Marine Corps Times that the Corps expects to kick off fielding the new plates during the second quarter of fiscal year 2020 and complete by 2023. The new body armor plates will protect “against the preponderance of likely threats while improving mobility” and will reduce the hard body armor weight burden on Marines by 38 percent, Kunze said. The Corps has been in the hunt for lighter body armor as the force tries to reduce the weight burden and combat load carried by Marines and grunts, which a government watchdog report said can be as high as 117 pounds to 119 pounds. One solution was to field a set a new set of armor plates that would provide commanders flexibility to match body armor with the threat in the region the Marines were operating in. That means Marines don't always need to slap on the nearly 15 poundenhanced small arms protective, or ESAPI plates, while operating in low intensity conflicts like Iraq and Afghanistan, where a lighter, more mobile armor plate would be sufficient. The heavy ESAPI plates will still be important, especially as the Corps faces down near-peer rivals equipped with better and more capable weapon systems. Nick Pierce, the armor team lead for infantry combat equipment at Marine Corps Systems Command, previously told Marine Corps Times that the Corps was seeking to shave the 15 pound ESAPI plate down to roughly 8.6 pounds for a medium-sized Marine. Marines can shed a total of 8 pounds to 10 pounds from their combat load when the lightweight plate is used in conjunction with the Corps' new Plate Carrier Gen III system, Pierce explained. The Corps is also looking at new polymer based ammunition and a lighter helmet for grunts to help shave the pounds carried by infantry Marines. https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/your-marine-corps/2019/06/19/nearly-40-percent-lighter-body-armor-coming-in-2020/
May 6, 2020 | International, Aerospace

Boeing rolls out Australia’s first ‘Loyal Wingman’ combat drone
By: Valerie Insinna WASHINGTON — Boeing is set to roll out the first “Loyal Wingman” drone for the Royal Australian Air Force during a Tuesday morning ceremony, putting the RAAF high on the list of countries experimenting with autonomous aircraft. “This a truly historic moment for our country and for Australian defense innovation,” said Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison. “The Loyal Wingman will be pivotal to exploring the critical capabilities our Air Force needs to protect our nation and its allies into the future.” The RAAF plans to buy three drones, which Boeing calls the Airpower Teaming System, as part of the Loyal Wingman Advanced Development Program. Over a series of flight tests and demonstrations, the RAAF hopes to figure out how to best integrate drones with fighter jets and other combat aircraft, allowing the air force to keep pilots safe by putting lower cost unmanned assets at risk during a fight. “Autonomy is a big element of this, as well as the incorporation of artificial intelligence. Those two elements combined enable us to support existing forces,” said Jerad Hayes, Boeing's senior director for autonomous aviation and technology. The ATS is semi-autonomous, meaning that fighter pilots will not have to remotely control the maneuvers of the drone, said Shane Arnott, Boeing's ATS program director. “When you are teaming, say with a Super Hornet, they don't have the luxury during combat maneuvers or operations to be remotely piloting another aircraft while doing their own,” he said. But one of the biggest technical questions still remains: How much data should be transferred from the ATS to the cockpit of the manned aircraft controlling it, and when does that turn into information overload? That question is one Boeing wants to answer more definitively once ATS makes its first flight later this year and moves into its experimentation phase, Arnott said. “There's a lot for us to figure out [on] what's that right level of information feed and direction. One of the great benefits of working with the Royal Australian Air Force is having the real operators [give feedback],” he said. “We don't have all the answers yet. We have a lot of understanding through our surrogate simulator and surrogate testing that we're doing, but we will prove that out.” Boeing first introduced the Airpower Teaming System at the Australian International Airshow at Avalon in February 2019, when the company unveiled a full-scale model. Since then, the company has moved quickly to fabricate the first of three aircraft, completing the fuselage structure this February. In April, the aircraft stood on its own wheels for the first time and powered on. The ATS air vehicle is 38 feet long, with a removable nose that can be packed with mission-specific sensors and other payloads. Throughout the design process, Boeing simulated a “digital twin” of the aircraft that allowed it to virtualize the operation of the aircraft, as well as how it would be produced and maintained. It also saved money by incorporating resin-infused composite structures, including one that is the largest piece Boeing has ever manufactured using that technique, Hayes said. That large structure snaps into another to form the plane's wings, cutting down on the manpower needed to fabricate the aircraft. While the drone's sleek, twin-tailed design is simple, with only four moving surfaces, it was carefully composed to optimize the aircraft's survivability, maneuverability and cost, Arnott said. While Arnott wouldn't talk about the stealth features of the aircraft, he noted that “there was a lot of thought put into getting that right balance of ‘good enough' across the board, and [radar] signature is obviously an aspect, and affordability is a big one.” Boeing officials have also declined to comment on the price of the aircraft, but Arnott and Hayes made it clear that Boeing intends to keep it cost-competitive with its main competitor, Kratos Defense and Security's XQ-58 Valkyrie. The U.S. Air Force has expressed interest in procuring Valkyrie for the loyal wingman role and to host communications relay payloads that would allow the F-35 and F-22 to share data stealthily. Boeing is also engaged with the U.S. military about potential uses of the ATS, Hayes asid. “We see the Airpower Teaming System platform as capable of going against many different mission sets, and as such, we're engaging across the Department of Defense to understand their specific mission need, what their requirements are for those, and understanding exactly how the Airpower Teaming System fits those,” he said. The nose — which is 8.5 feet long with more than 90k cubic inches volume — is key to the company's strategy to sell the system outside of Australia, Arnott said. Boeing envisions working with international customers to create customized modular payloads that could be built with the help of indigenous suppliers, thus increasing its appeal. “The industrial aspect of this is of a lot of interest for a number of countries,” said Arnott. “Being able to do meaningful work on the systems to the extent of creating whole new payloads or role capability is of great interest.” https://www.defensenews.com/air/2020/05/04/boeing-rolls-out-australias-first-loyal-wingman-combat-drone/
June 30, 2022 | International, Land

General Dynamics unit wins contract to build new light tank for infantry
General Dynamics Land Systems beats out BAE Systems in a competition to build and field Mobile Protected Firepower systems for the Infantry Brigade Combat Team.

All news

Britain unveils new operating concept for a ‘fundamental transformation in the military’

On the same subject

General Dynamics unit wins contract to build new light tank for infantry General Dynamics Land Systems beats out BAE Systems in a competition to build and field Mobile Protected Firepower systems for the Infantry Brigade Combat Team.

General Dynamics unit wins contract to build new light tank for infantry
General Dynamics Land Systems beats out BAE Systems in a competition to build and field Mobile Protected Firepower systems for the Infantry Brigade Combat Team.