February 7, 2024 | International, Naval
Supplier bottlenecks threaten US Navy effort to grow arms stockpiles
The sea service spent billions of dollars to increase its weapons inventory. Now it has run into a major obstacle.
July 21, 2020 | International, Aerospace, C4ISR
With a new setup, the Air Force hopes to improve information warfare operations
The Air Force is realigning the cyber mission force teams it provides to U.S. Cyber Command as a way to have intelligence personnel work more closely with cyber operators.
In the past, Air Forces Cyber was made up of cyber and intelligence personnel from 24th Air Force and 25th Air Force, respectively. However, the arrangement created difficulties with command relationships and oversight of teams since the intelligence operators served beneath a separate Air Force command with a separate commander.
But in October, the Air Force decided to merge 24th and 25th Air Force into 16th Air Force/Air Forces Cyber, placing cyber, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, electronic warfare and weather capabilities under one commander, and creating the Air Force's first information warfare entity. The new organization also serves as the Air Force's component to Cyber Command.
The new organization of teams moves intelligence forces from the 70th Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Wing to the 67th Cyber Operations Wing.
“We looked at the intelligence squadron and focused on the position descriptions that really were supporting the cyber mission force ... so that we can merge those intelligence professionals into the cyber operations squadron in order to build the mission elements that supported the combatant command requirements,” Col. Lauren Courchaine, commander of the 67th Cyberspace Operations Group, told C4ISRNET in an interview.
Specifically, these teams are combat mission teams – the teams that conduct cyber operations on behalf of combatant commands mostly in the offensive sphere – and cyber support teams, which provide intelligence, mission planning and other necessary support work for combat mission team.
Officials at the creation of 16th Air Force said the integration would allow the service to provide more robust teams to Cyber Command.
This new structure - with cyber operators, developers and intelligence forces in the same room and read in on the same missions - provides a tighter mission thread, Courchaine said. In the past, she said, when cyber operators needed intelligence support, they'd have to ask their intelligence teammates who weren't always privy to the mission or technical context, which created gaps.
“Now when you have those conversations with intelligence airmen, operators and developers all in the same forum, sometimes in the same room with the same whiteboard, you come to integrated solutions up front in early vice having to work through a process where that one piece of information, potentially out of context, is levied on the intelligence requirement to somebody that you don't know in another place ... to try to understand truly what the intelligence piece that you're looking for,” Courchaine, said. “When you fuse all of them together, I think the output is significantly better and drives that operationally speed, the agility and flexibility that [16th Air Force commander] Gen. [Timothy] Haugh is looking after.”
The final realignment package is still at the Air Staff awaiting final approval with details regarding new units still to be determined, to include a new group activated under the 67th Cyberspace Wing and three new squadrons.
Gaining insights from joint operations
The team realignment also extends to Air Force cyber teams that serve under commanders of other services under different Joint Force Headquarters-Cybers.
The way cyber operations are structured within DoD is individual services do not have their own offensive teams. Instead, these teams work through several organizations, each formally known as Joint Force Headquarters-Cyber that exist beneath Cyber Command, which in turn provide planning, targeting, intelligence and cyber capabilities to the combatant commands to which they're assigned. The heads of the four service cyber components also lead their respective JFHQ-C. These organizations oversee combat mission teams and combat support teams.
Courchaine said the Air Force teams, those that conduct operations in Central Command under Joint Force Headquarters-Cyber and operations focused on China under Joint Force Headquarters-Cyber Fleet Cyber, can bring a global perspective a back to the service. These teams conduct operations on behalf of European Command, Strategic Command, Transportation Command and Space Command.
In some theaters, with the high tempo of operations, such as Central Command, the approach allows the teams conducting operations to bring back lessons learned to their respective services.
“You can see how these three areas will really converge and enable Gen. Haugh from a 16th Air Force perspective to not just be successful in aligning the forces appropriately but driving that return on investment where we're able to converge target sets globally ... to drive operations so that we can influence our adversaries in support of national security objectives,” she said.
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May 22, 2020 | International, Aerospace, Naval
‘Major Milestone’ As Allies Join SPACECOM’s War Plan
"The hesitation to include allies in Olympic Defender was on our end as well," says Secure World Foundation's Brian Weeden. "National security space is sort of the last bastion of America's 'crown jewels'." By THERESA HITCHENSon May 21, 2020 at 5:50 PM WASHINGTON: A number of US allies may now join Space Command in the US military's baseline plan for protecting and defending satellites during war, Operation Olympic Defender, we hear, following in the footsteps of the first country to sign up, the United Kingdom. SPACECOM today announced its leader, Gen. Jay Raymond, has signed the first order under OOD in his capacity as head of the combatant command. OOD is the US military's operational plan for protecting and defending US and allied satellites in conflict. “This is a major milestone for the newly established command,” Raymond said. “As the threats in the space domain continue to evolve, it is important we leverage and synchronize capabilities with our allies not only to understand each other's national perspectives, but to work seamlessly together to optimize our multinational space efforts.” Strategic Command created OOD in 2013 as the foundational plan for how the military will protect and defend US and allied satellites in a conflict. As Breaking D readers know, OOD was updated in 2018 to open up allied participation. “The purpose of OOD is to strengthen allies' abilities to deter hostile acts in space, strengthen deterrence against hostile actors, and reduce the spread of debris orbiting the earth,” the SPACECOM release explains. OOD is only one of a number of operational plans for space war Raymond has been working on since SPACECOM was established as a geographic command with an area of responsibility (AOR) 100 kilometers above sea level and up to infinity. He told reporters yesterday that he last week inked the new “campaign plan” for SPACECOM's day-to-day operations; every Combatant Command has such a campaign plan; this will be SPACECOM's first. “That's our foundational plan, if you will,” Raymond explained, “that drives our day-to-day activities across the command of SPACECOM.” In addition, SPACECOM now has responsibility for developing, updating and enacting when the ball drops specialized contingency plans for space war, mapped to specific adversary countries. Former Secretary of Defense Ash Carter back in 2016 set the precedent, naming Russia, China, Iran and North Korea as the key strategic challengers to the US military. SPACECOM's announcement today also noted that the United Kingdom was the first ally to publicly acknowledge this past July its participation in OOD. London subsequently sent additional personnel to Combined Space Operations Center (CSpOC) and the 18th Space Control Squadron at Vandenberg AFB to support its decision, SPACECOM added. CSpOC is responsible for command and control of day-to-day space operations and includes allies representation. The 18th Space Control Squadron is responsible for space domain awareness operations. Up to now, many allies were leery of signing up due to the fact that space operations were being commanded by STRATCOM, which also oversees US nuclear war planning. Public opinion in many US allies, such as Germany and Italy, traditionally has been strongly anti-nuclear. It is not by chance that even the UK, which had joined OOD under STRATCOM's control, kept its participation silent until now. “Some of those same concerns were initially raised about having USSTRATCOM be the lead agency for signing SSA data sharing agreements with other countries,” noted Brian Weeden, head of program planning at Secure World Foundation and a former Air Force officer who worked on space situational awareness operations at STRATCOM. “But the hesitation to include allies in Olympic Defender was on our end as well,” Weeden added. “National security space is sort of the last bastion of America's “crown jewels” and there are a lot of people in that community who are very reluctant to open the kimono to our allies, even the allies who we've been deeply collaborating on intelligence sharing for decades.” DoD and expert sources say interest in participation in space war planning has increased not just because of SPACECOM's standup, but also because concerns about Russian and Chinese efforts to build up their military space capabilities. Indeed, NATO in December declared space an operational domain of joint allied action — albeit insisted that this does not mean NATO endorses space weaponization. France last summer adopted an aggressive space strategy, including pursuit of offensive anti-satellite weapons. Japan on May 19 announced its new Space Operations Squadron, under the Japanese Air-Self Defense Force, to monitor and protect Japanese satellites. For example, the number of countries signing SSA agreements with DoD has jumped to 25, with Peru signing a memorandum of understanding with SPACECOM just last week to gain access to data about space objects collected by the military's Space Surveillance Network of radar and optical telescopes, as well as data to help the country's satellites avoid on-orbit collisions. “This agreement will give Peru access to the highest quality satellite tracking data available to assist them with PerúSat-1 and its eventual follow-on and will provide a linkage to the experts at the 18th Space Control Squadron. In addition, the SSA Agreement enables Peru to request seven advanced services available only to agreement holders,” SPACECOM said in a May 12 announcement. Spain, France and Italy — all of which operate military satellites — have expressed interest in participating in OOD, we are told. Besides the UK, the other members of the so-called “Five Eyes” — Australia, Canada and New Zealand — who already shared intelligence with the US are expected to join in. Although Germany has been hesitant to be seen as pro-space weapons, Berlin has a sophisticated military space program and is unlikely to stay outside of operational planning if rival France joins in. Japan too can be expected to sign on, as it has been seeking myriad ways to be more active in partnering with the US military on space protection — including agreeing to host US military payloads on Japanese satellites. https://breakingdefense.com/2020/05/major-milestone-as-allies-join-spacecoms-war-plan
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May 9, 2019 | International, Aerospace
Saab to build new plant in Indiana for T-X trainer jet
By: Valerie Insinna WASHINGTON — Swedish aircraft manufacturer Saab will build a T-X production facility in West Lafayette, Indiana, where it will manufacture its portion of the Air Force trainer jet it is developing with Boeing, the company announced Wednesday. The company plans to invest $37 million in the site, which will produce “major structural sections” and conduct final assembly of Saab's piece of the jet, according to a Saab news release. Then those elements will be sent to Boeing's facility in St. Louis, Missouri, to be mated with the rest of the trainer. Construction on the new facility will begin in 2020, and Saab intends to hire at least 300 full-time employees from the area during the initial years of the site's operation. The announcement, made Wednesday during a ceremony at West Lafayette-based Purdue University, fulfills a promise Saab officials made in 2017 to establish a new manufacturing center in the United States once the Boeing-Saab team had won the T-X contract. At the time, Saab President and CEO Håkan Buskhe said the company was still considering site locations, as well as whether to repurpose an existing production facility or construct a new campus. However, he was confident at least 90 percent of the jet could be made in the United States — an important qualifier under the Trump administration, which has touted “Buy American” policies. Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb, Purdue University President Mitch Daniels and Buskhe attended the ceremony on Wednesday. “After careful consideration, we have chosen West Lafayette, thanks to the visionary leadership of both the State of Indiana and the world-leading Purdue University,” Buskhe said. “Today's announcement is a part of our growth strategy in the United States, and deepens our relationship with the U.S. customer. We see great possibilities here for this facility and our partnerships.” In addition to building the new facility, the Swedish company will partner with Purdue University, a hub of engineering talent in the Midwest, to conduct research on advances in sensors, artificial intelligence and autonomous technologies. During the ceremony, Buskhe noted the scope and level of investment of these activities has not been decided. Under the T-X program, Saab and Boeing will produce at least 351 trainers for the U.S. Air Force. The Navy and Marine Corps is also interested in buying the jet, and the Air Force is considering its use for simulating adversaries during combat and for light-attack missions — a prospect that could land the Saab-Boeing team additional sales in the hundreds. The Air Force awarded the $9.2 billion T-X contract to Saab and Boeing last year, and the service's first T-X squadron is expected to be operational in fiscal 2024. https://www.defensenews.com/industry/2019/05/08/saab-to-build-new-t-x-plant-in-indiana/