With F-16 buy, Slovakia ‘cutting off’ Russian hardware

On the same subject

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  November 21, 2019 | International, Aerospace

  NATO to upgrade its AWACS surveillance aircraft for $1 billion

  By: Sebastian Sprenger COLOGNE, Germany — NATO officials plan to spend $1 billion on upgrades to the alliance's fleet of AWACS reconnaissance planes, according to Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. “I can confirm we will sign a contract upgrading, modernizing the AWACS fleet — $1 billion,” Stoltenberg was quoted as telling reporters ahead of a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels on Wednesday. The news comes coupled with an announcement that the first of five Global Hawk drones making up the Alliance Ground Surveillance program was en route from the United States to its future home base at Sigonella, Sicily. “This reflects how NATO is investing in high-tech capabilities,” NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu wrote on Twitter. The Boeing-made AWACS planes, introduced in 1982, are slated to remain in service until 2035. Their job is to detect enemy missiles and aircraft threatening NATO airspace. Alliance pilots have flown the aircraft to support missions against the Islamic State group and to secure the eastern flank in the wake of Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014. NATO's website bills the AWACS enterprise as the “largest collaborative venture” and one of the few military assets owned and operated by the alliance. The fleet of AGS drones is based on the Northrop Grumman-made Block 40 Global Hawk of the U.S. Air Force. The primary job of the UAVs will be ground and maritime surveillance for commanders and deployed forces. The two announcements come as the alliance is in dire need of signs of life after French President Emmanuel Macron famously declared NATO “brain dead” in an interview with the Economist magazine some weeks ago. While experts are still debating whether the vivid assessment was constructive in nature or rather an unnecessary dig at an alliance already weakened by trans-Atlantic squabbling, there are signs that key European nations like Germany and France have plans to reanimate the pact. German Foreign Affairs Minister Heiko Maas on Wednesday referred to the alliance as Europe's “life insurance,” proposing a reform commission headed by Stoltenberg. NATO members' heads of state are slated to convene in London in early December. U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to attend the summit, determining in large part whether the alliance will be able to celebrate a revival or witness something of a funeral. https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2019/11/20/nato-to-upgrade-its-awacs-surveillance-aircraft-for-1-billion

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  September 20, 2018 | International, C4ISR

  DoD releases first new cyber strategy in three years

  By: Mark Pomerleau In its first formal cyber strategy document in three years, the Department of Defense said it would focus its cyber efforts on China and Russia and use the Pentagon's cyber capabilities to collect intelligence as well as to prepare for future conflicts. According to an unclassified summary and fact sheet released Sept. 18, the documents lay out a vision for addressing cyber threats and addresses the priorities of the department's National Security Strategy and National Defense Strategy, which focused on a new era of strategic great power competition. “The United States cannot afford inaction,” the summary reads. It notes that China and Russia are conducting persistent campaigns in cyberspace that pose long term risk. The documents also say that China is eroding the U.S. military's ability to overmatch opponents and that Russia is using cyber-enabled information operations to influence the U.S. population and challenge democratic processes. The DoD's strategy comes on the heels of other major movements in cyberspace from the department. These include the elevation of U.S. Cyber Command to a full unified combatant command — which affords new and exquisite authorities — the full staffing of Cyber Command's cyber teams, an update to DoD's cyber doctrine and new authorities delegating certain responsibilities from the president to DoD to conduct cyber operations abroad. The summary's lists five objectives for DoD's cyberspace strategy: - Ensuring the joint force can achieve its missions in a contested cyberspace environment; - Strengthening the joint force by conducting cyberspace operations that enhance U.S. military advantages; - Defending U.S. critical infrastructure from malicious cyber activity that alone, or as part of a campaign, could cause a significant cyber incident; - Securing DoD information and systems against malicious cyber activity, including DoD information on non-DoD-owned networks; and - Expanding DoD cyber cooperation with interagency, industry, and international partners. The strategy also describes the need to remain consistently engaged with this persistent adversary and to “defend forward” as a means of disrupting or halting malicious cyber activity at its source, including activity that falls below the level of armed conflict. While academics have criticized the U.S. response to Russian election interference, the strategy notes that the United States tends to view conflicts through the binary lens of war or peace while competitors such as Russia see themselves constantly engaged in a state of war. U.S. Cyber Command's new leader is taking a different tact. “We've got to act forward outside of our boundaries, something that we do very, very well at Cyber Command in terms of getting into our adversary's networks. That's this idea of persistent engagement, the idea that the adversary never rests, so why would we ever rest,” Gen. Paul Nakasone said during an August dinner hosted by the Intelligence and National Security Alliance. Nakasone also has described the notion of defending forward as enabling forces to act outside the boundaries of the U.S. to understand what adversaries are doing in order to better defend against them. https://www.fifthdomain.com/dod/2018/09/19/department-of-defense-unveils-new-cyber-strategy

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  April 1, 2024 | International, Aerospace

  National Guard wish list would restore fighters cut from FY25 budget

  The Air Force cut its planned F-35 and F-15EX purchases in 2025 by six apiece due to budgetary constraints, as well as delays to F-35 upgrades.