Pentagon lacks big picture for fighter jet procurement, watchdog says

On the same subject

• 

  July 24, 2020 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security

  $21B for defense reportedly included in COVID aid proposal

  By: Joe Gould WASHINGTON ― The White House and Senate Republicans are nearing an agreement on a $1 trillion-plus economic rescue proposal that would also seek $21 billion for defense, according to a draft obtained by the New York Times on Thursday. The emerging GOP proposal would include $11 billion in payments to contractors under the Section 3610 of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, which allowed firms serving the federal government to seek reimbursement for pandemic-related expenses. However, amid reports of internal divisions―over the defense money and other aspects―Republicans delayed the rollout to at least next week. Defense trade associations, along with dozens of industry executives, have conducted a vocal lobbying effort across government to secure the money as they grapple with the economic damage wrought by the coronavirus pandemic. It was unclear from the draft document — essentially a list of priorities and amounts — what the remainder of the defense funding would be for. The line item in the draft read only: “$20 billion — Defense total ($11 billion of which is for 3610 payments to contractors.” The funding follows $10.5 billion the Pentagon previously received under the CARES Act. The emerging proposal would include another round of stimulus payments to individuals, additional aid to small businesses and a partial extension of enhanced unemployment benefits, according to a summary circulating on Capitol Hill that was obtained by the New York Times. The defense portion would be a boon to the Pentagon and its suppliers, but it's by no means a done deal. The White House and Senate Republicans, which took months to draft the proposal, faced more delays this week over internal disagreements ― as well as coming negotiations with Democrats, who have sought as much as $3.5 trillion for coronavirus relief. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, meeting with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, told reporters that staff are working to finalize text of the agreement, which was expected to be released as a group of bills instead of one piece of legislation. Underscoring the difficulties, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., on Thursday rejected the GOP's “piecemeal” approach, saying the proposal fell “very short.” It omits Democratic priorities like food assistance, aid to prevent evictions, hazard pay for essential workers, and aid to states and communities, they said. Since officials with the Department of Defense have called for defense reimbursements in the low double-digit billions, warning that they would otherwise have to raid modernization and readiness accounts for the funding, some analysts have predicted Congress would address the need. “We expect the Senate's version of the next COVID-19 relief package to include money for Section 3610 impacts and related cost impacts,” Roman Schweizer of the Cowen Group wrote Thursday in a note to investors. “We think this money will be small compared to the total cost of the bill (~$1T+) and will be included in the final bill. This will be positive for defense [firms] and allow DoD to protect investment accounts. We expect a lengthy, complicated process for cost recovery.” In a Senate floor speech earlier in the week, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Jim Inhofe said Congress ought to follow through on Section 3610 with appropriations, or risk delays and cost overruns in weapons programs as well as attrition in the defense industry's workforce. “Defense industrial companies have done a great job in ensuring that their suppliers — primarily thousands of small businesses — stay open and keep their employees paid,” said Inhofe, R-Okla. “In the CARES Act, we gave DoD the authority and the tools to reimburse these companies to keep the defense workforce strong. But the DoD needs money to use these tools.” https://www.defensenews.com/congress/2020/07/23/21b-for-defense-in-draft-covid-aid-proposal-report/

• 

  September 17, 2023 | International, Land

  At London arms fair, global war fears are good for business | Reuters

  As Russia's Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un met this week to discuss what analysts believe will be a deal for an exchange of weapons, the West's leading companies were descending on Europe's biggest arms show in London.

• 

  January 22, 2020 | International, C4ISR, Security

  What new documents reveal about Cyber Command’s biggest operation

  Mark Pomerleau New documents provide insight into the growing pains U.S. Cyber Command faced in building a force while simultaneously conducting operations. The documents, which were released as part of a Freedom of Information Act request from the National Security Archive at George Washington University and later shared with journalists, are a series of internal briefings and lessons from the Defense Department's most complex cyber operation at the time, Operation Glowing Symphony. That operation was part of the larger counter-ISIS operations — Joint Task Force-Ares — but specifically targeted ISIS's media and online operations, taking out infrastructure and preventing ISIS members from communicating and posting propaganda. While Cyber Command described the operation, which took place in November of 2016, as a victory in the sense that it “successfully contested [ISIS] in the information domain,” the documents demonstrate the extent to which the command was still learning how to conduct operations and the exact steps to follow. “Process maturation is something they pull out a lot. Obviously, as CYBERCOM was standing up, it was pulling together plans for how they were going to operate. They actually hadn't operated that much,” Michael Martelle, cyber vault fellow at the National Security Archive, told reporters. “A lot of these frameworks were formed in theory. Now they go to try them out in practice.” Cyber Command leaders have stressed in public remarks for years that the command was building its force while operating. But the extent of those operations has been limited. Officials in recent years have explained that the command didn't undertake many offensive operations. One official said last year he could count on less than two fingers the number of operations, Cyber Command conducted in the last decade or so. One member of Congress said DoD didn't conduct an offensive cyber operation in five years. But when they were in action, in this case with Operation Glowing Symphony, Martelle said the documents show cyber leaders did not anticipate the amount of data they would access. “They actually weren't prepared for the amount of data they were pulling off of ISIS servers ... CYBERCOM was not set up for an operation of this magnitude from day one,” he said. “They had to learn on the fly, they had to acquire on the fly, they had to grow on the fly.” The documents note that Cyber Command's capability development group, is “developing USCYBERCOM data storage solutions.” The capabilities develop group, now known as the J9, serves as the advanced concepts and technology directorate and worked to plan and synchronizing cyber capability development and developed capabilities to meet urgent operational needs. Experts had noted that in the past the CDG/J9 had been stressed in recent years by a limited staff and burdened by developing tools for operational needs, namely Joint Task Force-Ares. Another example of potential growing pains the documents point to was the fact that updates to operations checklists were not made available readily to the team. Finally, the documents note that authorities and processes the command was operating under that the time were restrictive in some cases. “Absent of significant policy changes from [the office of the secretary of defense], USCYBERCOM is limited in its ability to challenge ISIS [redacted]. As a result, USCYBERCOM has [redacted] to achieve our objectives,” the executive summary of a 120-day assessment of Operation Glowing Symphony says. Those authorities and processes have been streamlined by the executive branch and Congress in recent years. Commanders now follow a process that defaults toward action, Maj. Gen. Dennis Crall, deputy principal cyber adviser and senior military adviser for cyber policy, said during an event Jan. 9. He explained the updated process provides continuity, tempo, pace and timing. Ultimately, Martelle noted that the real importance behind Operation Glowing Symphony is that Cyber Command used the experience from those events and Joint Task Force-Ares more broadly as a template for future operations. Cyber Command's top official, Gen. Paul Nakasone, who was also led Joint Task Force-Ares, has noted that the task force laid the foundation for the Russia Small Group, which was created to combat election interference in the 2018 midterms. “This concept of a task force lives on. A lot of that thinking came from what we were doing in 2016,” he told NPR. That task force has now evolved to be more all encompassing covering election threats more broadly. https://www.fifthdomain.com/dod/cybercom/2020/01/21/what-new-documents-reveal-about-cyber-commands-biggest-operation/