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September 9, 2021 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security

Next Pentagon budget will detail climate change spending

The push comes after extreme weather, fueled by a warming of the earth's atmosphere, has wreaked havoc on Americans across the country this summer.

https://www.defensenews.com/smr/defense-news-conference/2021/09/08/next-pentagon-budget-will-detail-climate-change-spending/

On the same subject

  • House defense spending bill would give the MQ-9 Reaper drone a second life

    July 9, 2020 | International, Aerospace

    House defense spending bill would give the MQ-9 Reaper drone a second life

    By: Valerie Insinna WASHINGTON —The House Appropriations Committee is aiming to resuscitate the MQ-9 Reaper program, which the Air Force wants to curtail in fiscal 2021. The committee's version of the FY21 spending bill, which its defense subcommittee will deliberate Wednesday in a closed hearing, would allocate $344 million for 16 MQ-9 Reaper drones. The language is a good sign for the aircraft's manufacturer, General Atomics, which stood to lose hundreds of millions of dollars in sales if the Air Force stopped buying the aircraft. The service in FY20 had planned to buy nine MQ-9s in FY21, 17 in FY22, two in FY23 and three in FY24, but zeroed out all plans to buy additional Reaper drones as part of its FY21 budget request. However, the Reaper isn't home free just yet. The Senate Appropriations Committee has yet to unveil its own version of the legislation, leaving it unclear whether the Senate will concur with the House committee's spending bill. The MQ-9 wasn't the only aircraft program to get a boost from House appropriators. The committee added 12 more F-35s to the budget, for a total of 91 jets and $9.3 billion. The lawmakers are also planning to authorize $965 million for 11 C-130J aircraft — an increase of two planes — and they boosted the number of V-22 Ospreys tilt-rotor aircraft from nine to 11. The bill also beefs up the investment for the UH-60 Black Hawk with an additional $141 million, funding a total of 42 helicopters. The legislation funds three P-8A Poseidon submarine-hunting planes for the Navy Reserve force. Those aircraft were not originally included in the budget. The Navy would get an additional E-2D Advanced Hawkeye, for a total of five planes costing $791 million. The committee also approved $1 billion for nine CH-53K helicopters, two more than the request. Additionally, the legislation would allow U.S. Special Operations Command to begin its Armed Overwatch Program, but the bill summary did not state how much funding would be allotted in FY21. The House committee fully funded most other major military aircraft programs, including money for 50 AH-64 Apache attack helicopters, five CH-47 Chinook Block II cargo helicopters and long-lead funding for additional Chinooks for the Army. The Air Force would get 12 F-15EX fighters, 15 KC-46 tankers and 19 HH-60W combat rescue helicopters. Meanwhile, the Navy's request of 24 F/A-18E/F Super Hornets was also fully funded by the committee. https://www.defensenews.com/air/2020/07/08/house-defense-spending-bill-would-give-the-mq-9-reaper-drone-a-second-life/

  • Finland’s defense minister: Continuity and change in Finnish defense policy

    December 17, 2018 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security

    Finland’s defense minister: Continuity and change in Finnish defense policy

    By: Jussi Niinistö Today we are all adapting to a new security environment, both in Europe and globally. From the Finnish point of view, we can see some continuity and some new elements. After the Cold War ended, Finland did not initiate a massive defense transformation. Even though we started to build interoperability with our NATO partners and participated in crisis management operations, the main focus of the Finnish Defence Forces was always the defense of our own territory. Our consistent policy was to keep our defense strong. The upcoming investments — including four new corvettes for the Navy and replacement of the Finnish Air Force's F-18 fleet — and new defense-related legislation will further strengthen our readiness and national defense. What has changed in our current environment, however, is that other European Union and NATO countries have also started to focus on the defense of their own territory, and NATO's presence is the Baltic Sea region has increased. This has enhanced stability and security in the Baltic Sea region. At the same time, increased presence in our neighborhood has created more training opportunities. Increased cooperation and coordination is also needed because of our geography and a shared security environment, which creates some interdependency. This type of defense cooperation is based on a shared, common interest. Today, the Finnish Defence Forces are more capable and more interoperable than they have ever been. That makes us effective in looking after our own security and a solid partner for other EU member states and NATO countries. For Finland, the European Union has always been a security provider. It is increasingly also a facilitator and enabler of defense cooperation. The union has tools that other organizations lack. The European Defence Fund or promoting military mobility in Europe are just a few examples, and only a beginning, as we are moving from out-of-area crisis management to a more strategic approach to protecting Europe and its citizens. Although all the EU member states have agreed on the direction we are heading, some want to move faster than others. The vision for the future must bring countries together instead of sowing divisions. The more the EU can do for defense, the better for NATO and the trans-Atlantic link. A more capable and integrated Europe is also a stronger trans-Atlantic partner. In this respect, more EU does not mean less NATO. EU and NATO must continue to coordinate their actions on both hard and soft security. I hope this illustrates why we, in Finland, do not see European strategic autonomy as an alternative to NATO or as an alternative to a strong trans-Atlantic link. It is also essential to mention the Nordic Defence Cooperation, which has also adapted to changes in our shared security environment. In November, the Nordic defense ministers adopted a new Vision 2025 for taking our cooperation forward. The vision states that we will improve our defense capability and cooperation in peace, crisis and conflict, and that we will ensure a close Nordic political and military dialogue on security and defense. This regional cooperation supports what we are doing in the EU and together with NATO. During my time as the minister of defense of Finland, we have taken other steps to strengthen the trans-Atlantic link. A prime example is our bilateral defense relationship with the United States. In October 2016, we signed our bilateral statement of intent on defense cooperation. This was later followed by a trilateral statement of intent between Finland, Sweden and the United States in May 2018. The statements of intent speak to both the depth and width of our cooperation, including joint exercises, policy dialogue and materiel cooperation. In the coming years, these links will be further strengthened. We must also keep our minds on the bigger picture. There is a dual challenge: to sustain the vital trans-Atlantic relationship and further strengthen European security. These goals can best be achieved by increasing European capabilities. Europe needs to finds its voice and speak, alongside the United States. Jussi Niinistö is Finland's defense minister. https://www.defensenews.com/outlook/2018/12/10/finlands-defense-minister-continuity-and-change-in-finnish-defense-policy/

  • From crowd control to ‘wireless energy beaming,' the Army’s new vehicles must have more power but use less fuel

    November 9, 2018 | International, Land

    From crowd control to ‘wireless energy beaming,' the Army’s new vehicles must have more power but use less fuel

    By: Todd South As Army leadership looks to transform ground operations and logistics experts shave supply requirements such as fuel, work being done to generate more electric power with less fuel is at the heart of the land fight in the next wave of warfare. The two paths converge at work being done to “electrify” the future vehicle fleet at the Army's center for vehicle research – the Tank Automotive Research Development and Engineering Center. A November forum at TARDEC focused on advances in vehicle electrical power as service leaders, industry experts and researchers pursue ways to give more soldiers more power to run complex systems of the future. The first such forum took place in June and laid out an overview of what will need to happen to reach Army goals. Over the next year, participants will refine their plans to build a complex fleet of vehicles capable of a host of tasks not yet fielded. Vehicles have come a long way from moving forward and backward and carrying troops and ammo. “The electrical demands on the Army's vehicles today are growing far beyond anything we've seen before,” said George Hamilton, TARDEC's lead for Vehicle Electronics Architecture. “Our focus is on developing and providing a modular, flexible and adaptable vehicle architecture that can expand to meet future demands of all kinds.” And the goals are ambitious. The Army wants most of the electrification infrastructure in place or ready for testing by mid-2024 and a working, all-electric power train for the fleet by 2027. The systems and capabilities that the electrification project is pursuing are aimed at enabling seamless Multi-Domain Operations in which forces can access limited windows in the fight at various domains, from the traditional air-land-sea to cyber-electronic warfare-space domains. But, power demands on legacy vehicles only grow as more systems are added, experts said. Over time, that's meant entirely new wiring, amplifiers and other electronics architecture for the same vehicles that have been in service for decades. For example, in 2001, the standard vehicle only required a 150 amp alternator to power its onboard systems. Today, that same vehicle needs 10 times the amperage to run all of the weapon systems, computers, radios, monitors and cameras on current vehicles. At a recent talk at the Association of the U.S. Army, Lt. Gen. Aundre Piggee, the Army G-4, said that future combat operations will not be able to rely on forward operating bases. Logisticians will need to find expeditionary ways to move supplies, especially fuel, to combat units. Current brigade combat teams are able to operate for about three days before a full resupply. But Piggee said that the goal is to stretch that to seven days. To meet that end, a variety of options are being explored, but the main supply saver is reducing demand, specifically fuel. BCTs will need to use at least one-third less fuel to keep their standalone abilities at the one-week mark, he said. That extends beyond petroleum and to battery life, power consumption on smart grids, and anywhere else that technology procedures and advancements can make the formation lethal as long with less fuel or power consumption. So, at the same time that larger formations must be more self-sustaining and use less fuel, the systems that enable their fighting might will need more power. Tomorrow's vehicles will need to do much more than what's being demanded now. On the Army wish list are energy weapon systems to counter rockets, missiles and drones, wireless energy beaming to help with running unmanned ground vehicles and aerial drones with remote power, non-lethal energy weapons for crowd disbursement, silent modes for vehicle movement, high-power electronic jamming, electronic armor to deflect electromagnetic spectrum and projectile attacks, and long-range electromagnetic guns for multiple uses. And the backbone of those capabilities is an open architecture powering system on the next wave of ground vehicles that nearly any system built today or decades from now can plug into, and it will provide the power needed to run. Part of that, the Next-Generation Combat Vehicle Electrical Power Architecture, has been in development at TARDEC since 2012. Once implemented, the system is expected to provide fuel efficiency that will reduce fuel consumption by more than 10 percent and provide 20 percent more efficient power generation and energy transfer. That will put less strain on the vehicle systems while using less fuel and providing more power. And, it can take powerful hybrid vehicles, those using both petroleum-based fuels and battery or fuel cell power. This effort is coupled with a recent partnership between TARDEC and the U.S. Department of Energy into hydrogen fuel cell technology. “We think hydrogen as a fuel source, and the fuel cells that generate electricity from the hydrogen, will enable enormous capability for our warfighters,” Paul Rogers, director of TARDEC, said in a release. The applications go beyond fuel efficiency and reducing fuel logistics burdens. “Vehicles using hydrogen run on electric motor propulsion, giving very low noise and thermal signatures while in operation,” Rogers said. “Additionally, we can generate valuable electrical power using hydrogen fuel cells that currently requires noisy and heavy generators.” Both of those efforts could help not only operational forces in the tactical fight but the surrounding support that brings them their supplies. https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2018/11/08/from-crowd-control-to-wireless-energy-beaming-the-armys-new-vehicles-must-have-more-power-but-use-less-fuel

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