November 12, 2024 | International, Aerospace, C4ISR
June 14, 2018 | International, Land
No more Army adviser brigades or amphib ships? This proposed report could radically change how the services fight
A Senate committee is asking for a report that could radically alter the “roles and missions” of the services — especially the Army and Marine Corps.
Senate bill 2987 calls for the services to put together this report by February. However, the bill is still in draft form and would require House agreement to become law.
The proposal for the report suggests the Marine Corps could take over all counterinsurgency missions from the Army, thereby eliminating the newly established and deployed Security Force Assistance Brigades.
The bill's authors instead want the Army to beef up its presence in the “great power competition” against Russia and China by increasing the size and strength of its vehicle fleet. The service would also use more drones and fewer manned aircraft to support ground units in the multi-domain fight.
The Senate Armed Services Committee's request also calls for the services to conduct or provide the following:
- An assessment whether the joint force would benefit from having one service dedicated primarily to low-intensity missions, thereby enabling the others to focus more exclusively on advanced peer competitors.
- A detailed description of, and accompanying justification for, the total amount of forces required to perform the security force assistance mission and the planned geographic employment of such forces.
- A re-validation of the Army plan to construct six Security Force Assistance Brigades, and an assessment of the impact, if any, of such plan on the capability of the Army to perform its primary roles under the National Defense Strategy.
- An assessment whether the security force assistance mission would be better performed by the Marine Corps, and an assessment of the end strength and force composition changes, if any, required for the Marine Corps to assume such a mission.
The analysis isn't limited to ground forces either. The SASC wants an assessment of the feasibility of current plans and investments by the Navy and Marine Corps to operate and defend their sea bases in contested environments.
One assessment may strike deeply into current Marine Corps and Navy projects — amphibious connectors and the ships that carry them.
SASC is asking the Pentagon to conduct the following:
- An assessment whether amphibious forced entry operations against advanced peer competitors should remain an enduring mission for the joint force considering the stressing operational nature and significant resource requirements of such missions.
- An assessment whether a transition from large-deck amphibious ships to small aircraft carriers would result in a more lethal and survivable Marine Corps sea base that could accommodate larger numbers of more diverse strike aircraft.
- An assessment of the manner in which an acceleration of development and fielding of longer-range, unmanned, carrier-suitable strike aircraft could better meet operational requirements and alter the requirement for shorter range, manned tactical fighter aircraft.
Special operations forces would join the Army's shift back to fighting big militaries, getting out of the counterinsurgency business as well, according to the Senate proposal.
Senators are seeking:
- A detailed assessment whether the joint special operations enterprise is currently performing too many missions worldwide, and whether any such missions could be performed adequately and more economically by conventional units.
- A detailed assessment whether the global allocation of special operations forces, and especially the most capable units, is aligned to the pacing threats and priority missions of the National Defense Strategy.
- A detailed description of the changes required to align the joint special operations enterprise more effectively with the National Defense Strategy.
Additional reviews include the space mission, requirements for the KC-46 tanker aircraft, and logistics in contested environments.
If approved, the Senate Armed Services Committee wants the report by Feb. 1.
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September 26, 2018 | International, Aerospace
US Air Force turns to data analytics to solve B-1, C-5 maintenance challenges
By: Valerie Insinna WASHINGTON — The U.S. Air Force is making changes to the way it sustains the B-1B Lancer bomber and C-5 Super Galaxy cargo plane, moving to a maintenance approach that will allow it to use data analytics to predict problems, the acting head of Air Force Materiel Command said. Both the B-1 and C-5 fleets transitioned to a conditions-based maintenance model last month, Lt. Gen. Robert McMurry, commander of the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, told Defense News in a Sept. 18 interview. “Given the aging fleet situation that we have, we probably need to be using data better to take care of it — which is a drive toward what most everyone right now is saying is the right way to manage fleet sustainment, which is through condition-based maintenance and data analytics,” he said. “So we're trying to bring that on.” The approach — which involves using algorithms to predict the need for repairs rather than waiting for a part to break — is a standard practice in the commercial airline industry to help reduce maintenance-related delays or cancellations, but has been less common in the Air Force. AFMC determined it needed to make a greater push toward conditions-based maintenance as a result of servicewide reviews triggered by rising concerns about the number of aviation-related mishaps. The first review, directed by Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Dave Goldfein, involved a one-day standdown that would give flying and maintenance units a chance to communicate potential safety concerns up the chain of command. Gen. Ellen Pawlikowski, then the head of AFMC, also directed the organizations under her command, like the Air Force Sustaiment Center, to evaluate its own data. The reviews have since concluded, with the Air Force finding “two systems ... where high risk was accepted,” said McMurry, noting that “operational security does not allow us to identify them.” “Our process is dealing with those responsibly,” he added. The B-1 and C-5 were chosen as pilot programs for the conditions-based maintenance approach because they are sustained by airmen and have older, relatively small inventories, making for a more manageable data set. But the planes have something else in common — a recent history of well-publicized mishaps. The C-5 has sustained a number of nose landing gear malfunctions that led to a standdown and maintenance assessment in 2017. But despite a fix being put in place, there have still been problems with the gear, such as a March 2018 event where one C-5 landed on its nose at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas. Meanwhile, the B-1 fleet was temporarily grounded in June after a safety investigation board found problems with ejection seat components while investigating a May 1 emergency landingwhere the ejection seats did not deploy. Full article: https://www.defensenews.com/digital-show-dailies/air-force-association/2018/09/25/air-force-looks-to-data-analytics-to-help-solve-b-1-c-5-maintenance-challenges/