Canada's top admiral says navy staff, resource needs in 'critical state' | Reuters

On the same subject

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  October 4, 2019 | International, Land

  State formally approves $39M Ukraine arms sale

  BY REBECCA KHEEL The State Department formally approved a potential $39.2 million sale of Javelin anti-tank missiles and related equipment to Ukraine, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency announced Thursday. News of the approval broke earlier this week, but Thursday's announcement represented the formal notification to Congress of the approval. The sale, which is now subject to a 30-day congressional review period, would include 150 Raytheon-made Javelin missiles and 10 launchers, as well as related equipment and support. “This proposed sale will contribute to the foreign policy and national security of the United States by improving the security of Ukraine,” Thursday's announcement said. “The Javelin system will help Ukraine build its long-term defense capacity to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity in order to meet its national defense requirements.” The United States first sold Ukraine 210 Javelin missiles and 37 launchers in 2018. Thursday's announcement comes as House Democrats pursue an impeachment inquiry into President Trump, in part over his handling of U.S. military aid to Ukraine. The Javelins are separate from almost $400 million in Pentagon and State Department aid that was held up earlier this year, but they have still come under scrutiny after they were mentioned in the July call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that's at the center of an impeachment inquiry. Democrats are probing whether Trump pressured Ukrainian leaders to investigate 2020 election rival and former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, as alleged in a whistleblower complaint. Among the questions is whether Trump held up military aid to Ukraine, which is battling Russia-backed separatists, as leverage. About $400 million in aid for Ukraine approved by Congress was held up over the summer before being released Sept. 11. Trump acknowledged holding up the money, but has alternately said he did so because of concerns about corruption or because he believes Europe is not contributing enough to Ukraine. In the July call, Zelensky told Trump his country was almost ready to buy more Javelins, according to a rough transcript of the call released by the White House last week. Immediately after Zelensky mentioned the Javelins, according to the rough transcript, Trump said, “I would like you to do us a favor though” and asked Zelensky to look into CrowdStrike, a U.S.-based internet security company that initially examined the breach of the Democratic National Committee's servers in 2016. On the call, Trump also asked Zelensky to work with his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and Attorney General William Bar to investigate Biden's role in the firing of a Ukrainian prosecutor, according to the reconstituted transcript. https://thehill.com/policy/defense/464257-state-formally-approves-39m-ukraine-arms-sale

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  December 22, 2022 | International, C4ISR

  US Air Force sees 5G as one of many connectors on future battlefields

  The Defense Department and its contractors are tinkering with 5G as demand explodes for more and more-protected lines of communication.

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  August 23, 2018 | International, C4ISR

  Here’s how one Army leader sees the future of war

  By: Mark Pomerleau The Army of the future will be leaner and that means junior officers will have more responsibility and more capability in their hands, a top Army general said Aug. 21. Lt. Gen. Theodore Martin, deputy commanding general of Training and Doctrine Command, said in future wars a platoon or company may be the unit that takes action. Martin, speaking at the TechNet Augusta conference, said that units have become smaller since World War I. Then, the U.S. military fought with huge field armies. World War II was fought with armies and corps, the Korean and Vietnam Wars were fought primarily with divisions, and the modern counterinsurgency wars have been fought with brigades, Martin said. With a potentially smaller, and leaner, structure, the junior officers that will command these units will have have capability within their power. “The type of assets that now reside at the brigade level, my grandfather ... if he were alive today [he] would be totally flabbergasted by what a colonel can bring to bear on the battlefield under his or her own authorities,” Martin said. Brigades today are led by colonels. In the future, Martin envision a lieutenant who will have grown up in a multidomain world with an education in the Army that is much different than that of today, and which prepared him or her for the future fight. Army leaders will expect that a platoon will take advantage of electronic warfare, cyber and information operations. This could mean the platoon will throw an electronic warfare grenade that will blind enemy mission command systems, jam radios and block similar attacks to keep friendly radios online. Then, as the platoon gets closer to its objective, perhaps they will send an email to the enemy commander saying something like their wife is cheating on them or their bank account has been emptied, as a way to create an additional distraction, Martin said. Martin acknowledged this vignette seems a little far-fetched, but in the multidomain battlefield “that's what we're going to be facing and it's a race to capability,” he said. https://www.c4isrnet.com/show-reporter/technet-augusta/2018/08/22/heres-how-one-army-leader-sees-the-future-of-war/