US Army's $178 billion FY23 budget protects modernization, cuts end strength

On the same subject

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  July 25, 2018 | International, Aerospace

  Bulgaria issues request for proposals for fighter jets

  SOFIA (Reuters) - Bulgaria has sent a request for proposals (RFP) for 16 new or used fighter jets to replace its aging Soviet-designed MiG-29s to seven countries, the defense ministry told Reuters on Wednesday. The Black Sea country, which joined NATO in 2004, has called for bids to supply aircraft from the United States, Portugal, Israel, Italy, Germany, France and Sweden. Last month Bulgaria's parliament approved a plan to buy the jets. It plans to acquire them in two equal stages as part of efforts to improve its compliance with NATO standards. Some 1.8 billion levs ($1.08 billion) will cover the first eight aircraft, as well as ground handling, team training and three years of initial integrated logistics support. Potential suppliers include Boeing's F/A-18 Super Hornet, Saab's Gripen, Dassault's Rafale and Lockheed Martin's F-16 or Eurofighter, the ministry said. Sofia is asking manufacturers to provide bids by October 1. The ministry has called for bids for new or used jets from the United States (F-16 and F/A-18 Super Hornet), France (Dassault Rafale) and Sweden (Gripen C/D) as well as new jets from Germany (Eurofighter 3 Tranche) and used planes from Portugal (F-16), Israel (F-16) and Italy (Eurofighter Tranche 1). NATO has encouraged its eastern members to develop, buy and operate new alliance equipment. Some eastern European NATO allies that were once Soviet satellites still rely on Russian-made military jets - two-thirds of Poland's military equipment dates from the pre-1991 Soviet era, for example. The question of which warplanes to buy has vexed successive governments in Bulgaria for more than a decade. Sofia aims to raise its annual defense expenditure to 2 percent of the country's gross domestic product by 2024. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bulgaria-defence-jets/bulgaria-issues-request-for-proposals-for-fighter-jets-idUSKBN1KF10W

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  July 3, 2018 | International, C4ISR

  Does DoD know how to supply intel for cyber ops?

  By: Mark Pomerleau Cyber has been an official domain of warfare for nearly a decade, yet the Department of Defense is still learning how to integrate it with operations. And some members of Congress are concerned the traditional military intelligence organs to this day don't understand intel support to cyber ops. The House Armed Services Committee is directing that a briefing on the subject must take place by December 1, 2018. The briefing — delivered by the under secretary of defense for intelligence, in coordination with the Defense Intelligence Agency and the military services — is expected, according to a provision in the committee's annual defense policy bill, to address multiple issues, including: Efforts to standardize a common military doctrine for intelligence preparation of the battlefield for cyber operations; Efforts to develop all-source intelligence analysts with the capability to support cyber operations; and Efforts to resource intelligence analysis support elements at U.S. Cyber Command and the service cyber components. “The committee is concerned about the Defense Intelligence Enterprise's ability to provide the cyber community with all-source intelligence support, consistent with the support provided to operations in other domains,” the provision, called an “item of special interest,” says. In some cases, other intelligence disciplines, such as human intelligence or signals intelligence, might be needed to help enable a cyber operation. A committee aide noted that the goal is to get DoD to think about cyber operations just as operations in any domain and build the infrastructure to support that. According to Gus Hunt, Accenture Federal Services cyber strategy lead, cyber as a domain is really no different than the others from an intelligence support perspective. The objective of intelligence, he told Fifth Domain in a recent interview, is to ensure it provides timely information about the adversary, who they are, the status of their capabilities and any information about the threats that are there. “I think what you're seeing ... is that people are asking the question are we appropriately structured or resourced and focused to be as effective as we possibly can in this new realm of cyber and cyber operations,” Hunt, who previously served as the chief technology officer at the CIA, said. “Because they're asking the question, I think the obvious answer is ... we're not structured as effectively as we possibly can be ... [but] it's really good that people are sitting there asking.” The Army is experiencing similar problems, especially when it comes to experimenting with force structure changes and bringing cyber effects to the tactical edge, which currently don't exist. “We're not seeing a corresponding growth in the intel organizational structure with the cyber and” electronic warfare, Lt. Col. Chris Walls, deputy division chief for strategy and policy in the cyber directorate of the Department of the Army G-3/5/7, said at the C4ISRNET conference in May. “The existing intel force structure is really going to be stressed when we put this EW and cyber capability into the field unless they have a corresponding growth and capability as well,” Walls said of tactical cyber effects and teams. https://www.fifthdomain.com/congress/2018/07/02/does-dod-know-how-to-supply-intel-for-cyber-ops/

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  September 9, 2021 | International, Land

  Czech defense group expands in Slovakia with wheeled vehicle program in mind

  Slovak Defence Minister Jaroslav Naď told reporters Sept. 8 that the government had approved the ministry's vehicle acquisition plans.