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By: Robert Burns, The Associated Press SANTIAGO, Chile — U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and his Chilean counterpart have signed an agreement pledging closer cooperation in combating cyber threats. Mattis and Defense Minister Alberto Espina held a signing ceremony Thursday after meeting to discuss a range of security issues, including military exercises and cooperation in science and technology. Cyber defense is a topic of growing interest throughout the Western Hemisphere. Banco de Chile, one of the country's biggest commercial banks, has said a hacking operation robbed it of $10 million in June. Santiago was the fourth stop for Mattis on a tour of South America that began in Brasilia on Sunday. He also visited Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires and is scheduled to hold talks in Bogota, Colombia, on Friday. Full article: https://www.fifthdomain.com/international/2018/08/16/us-and-chile-agree-to-cooperate-on-cyber-security

By COLIN CLARK SUFFOLK, VA: Multi-domain command and control, one of the most important efforts the Pentagon is pursuing, is getting plumbed again by Lockheed Martin at its fourth wargame this week where the company will be testing four systems it believes can fuse data from sensors around the world and allow rapid communications to troops. “Integrated teams” of air, space, and cyber experts representing the transparently named country of “Pacifica” will be planning missions and creating kinetic and non-kinetic effects. That's a major shift from the war game I attend a year ago, when separate groups of space, cyber and air tried to work together through a command and control unit. As Breaking D readers may remember, it didn't work quite as planned. During the war game, the organizers separated the air, cyber and space teams, forcing them to communicate directly with the MDC2 leaders. While central coordination was necessary, so was close consultation between those managing both the conventional attacks and the silent strikes using cyber, electronic warfare and satellites as weapons. Hence the change. Here'a a quick summary of the systems Lockheed will be putting through their paces. Common Mission Software Baseline (CMSB): An open systems architecture, CMSB is a cluster of automated decision aids that link operational planning to tactical execution — in a multi-domain context. Most interestingly, it reaches all the way down to the tactical level and includes tactical decision aides and tools. Cyber Attack Network Simulator (CANS): This is an internal Lockheed system that simulates cyber-attacks over a network. After all, you don't want Lockheed networks crashing when the teams launch a simulated attack. Full article: https://breakingdefense.com/2018/08/lockheed-takes-another-shot-at-multi-domain-war

BY TOM RISEN Britain wants to build a twin-engine stealth fighter jet that the Defense Ministry says would enable the United Kingdom to stay competitive in air-to-air combat technology and maintain its domestic fighter industry. U.K. Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson unveiled a full-scale model of the Tempest at the Farnborough Airshow in July as a commitment that Britain would remain “a world leader in the combat air sector.” The U.K. contractors chosen to design the plane must first present a business case for the fighter to the ministry by the end of the year to begin the approval process for funding. The ministry has promised to draw 2 billion pounds ($2.6 billion) for the Tempest over several years from the ongoing Future Combat Air System Technology Initiative enacted in 2015 that ends in 2025 to develop a successor to the twin-engine Eurofighter Typhoon. Team Tempest, the name for the government agencies and companies working on the project, shared limited details about the design in progress beyond the concept they showcased. With their near diamond shape, the Tempest wings resemble those of the YF-23 stealth fighter demonstrator built in 1990 for the U.S. Air Force by Northrop and McDonnell Douglas, notes Adam Routh, an aerospace researcher at the Center for a New American Security in Washington, D.C. The YF-23 was flown in 1990 but lost the competition for the Air Force contract to what became the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor, which ended mass production in 2011. The F-22 engines include thrust vectoring to maneuver the plane around enemy aircraft at close range, which the YF-23 lacked. Thrust vectoring engines were not presented as part of the Tempest concept, possibly because “next generation stealth and guided missiles may undermine the benefits of maneuverability by allowing planes to attack from a significant distance,” Routh says. Pilots of future air-to-air combat won't often find themselves in dogfights won with maneuverability, Routh says, because guided missiles and stealth “will allow aircraft to engage opposing aircraft from a significant distance.” Full article: https://aerospaceamerica.aiaa.org/uk-fighter-concept-emphasizes-stealth-next-generation-sensors

By: David B. Larter WASHINGTON – The U.S. Navy is slowly making progress to restore to fighting condition its hard-worn fleet of F/A-18 Super Hornet fighters, which last year had just one in three of its fighters ready to deploy. Today, almost half of the Navy's 546 Super Hornets are considered “mission capable,” a sign that the readiness investments made in the Mattis era are beginning to bear fruit. In an Aug. 7 media roundtable, Navy Secretary Richard Spencer told reporters the Navy had been chipping away at long-term down aircraft that had been clogging the aviation maintenance depots. The Navy started 2018 with 241 fully mission capable aircraft, and that number is now at 270, he said. Spencer credited the budget increases from the last two years for the turn-around, but also attributed the success to finding new processes that save time. Specifically, he highlighted a program called the Depot Readiness Initiative. As part of that program, Spencer said, the Navy is letting the depots perform regular calendar maintenance as well as depot-level maintenance at the same time, a move that cuts out redundant work by performing scheduled and depot maintenance at the same time. In the roundtable, Spencer said he was stunned at how badly degraded readiness was in the service when he took over. “I didn't have a full appreciation for the size of the readiness hole, how deep it was, and how wide it was. my analogy is you have a thoroughbred horse in the stable that you're running in a race every single day. “You cannot do that. Something's going to happen eventually. ... If you look at where we are now, I can tell you we're a more ready and lethal force today than we were last year.” Full article: https://www.defensenews.com/naval/2018/08/16/the-us-navys-fight-to-fix-its-worn-out-super-hornet-fleet-is-making-way

By: Valerie Insinna WASHINGTON — The U.S. Air Force is racing to kick-start its new accelerated program to buy next-generation missile warning satellites, awarding a contract on Aug. 14 to Lockheed Martin for the first three satellites in the Next-Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared program. The award, which has a value of up to $2.9 billion, will allow Lockheed to do the design work, flight hardware procurement, early manufacturing and risk-reduction work necessary for a critical design review, the service said in a statement. Lockheed is set to provide the three geosynchronous Earth orbit satellites in the Next-Gen OPIR constellation. "As we develop these new systems, speed matters," Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson said in a statement. "We are focused on providing a missile warning capability survivable in a contested environment by the mid-2020s." More specifically, the Air Force has said it plans to launch its first Next Gen OPIR satellite in 2023, two years earlier than its original plan to begin fielding the replacement for the Space Based Infrared System, or SBIRS, which called for first launches in 2025. Gen. John Hyten, commander of U.S. Strategic Command, was one of the biggest critics of the Air Force's original procurement strategy for a next generation SBIRS. In December, he called the service's plan to field the new constellation by fiscal 2029 “ridiculous” and said it could be done faster. Full article: https://www.defensenews.com/space/2018/08/15/sprint-towards-new-missile-warning-satellites-begins-with-first-contract-award-to-lockheed

By: Robert Burns, The Associated Press BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — The U.S. and Argentinian militaries will pursue closer cooperation on numerous fronts, including military education and training, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Wednesday after meeting with his counterpart during the first visit to Argentina by an American defense chief in 13 years. "We focused on what we can do working together as they go through very difficult economic times," Mattis told reporters as he was departing Buenos Aires for a flight to Santiago, Chile. "Both sides are very open to a stronger military-to-military relationship in complete transparency, so there cannot be any doubt about what's going on." Before they met, Mattis and Argentinian Defense Minister Oscar Aguad publicly expressed their hope for better ties. Mattis alluded to the help the U.S. Navy provided Argentina last November when one of its submarines went missing with 44 sailors aboard. The last U.S. secretary of defense to visit Argentina was Donald H. Rumsfeld in 2005. https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2018/08/16/mattis-says-us-will-work-more-closely-with-argentina/

By: Shawn Snow The Corps wants new lighter body armor to give commanders more flexibility in low-intensity conflicts on the battlefields of places like Iraq and Afghanistan. The Marines posted a request for information, or RFI, Wednesday to seek out industry support in fielding a new, lighter body armor that will complement the Enhanced Small Arms Protective Insert, or ESAPI, plates already fielded by Marines. According to the RFI, the Corps is seeking new armor to provide “protection from non-armor piercing rounds that are currently prevalent in counterinsurgency operations and other low intensity threat environments.” “Our current ESAPI plates do an amazing job of protecting Marines and have saved many lives,” Nick Pierce, Individual Armor team lead, program manager of Infantry Combat Equipment at Marine Corps Systems Command, said in a command release. “The only problem is Marines are currently given a binary choice between taking on 15 pounds to be protected or zero pounds and very little protection. This new lightweight plate would protect Marines and give commanders the choice of what plate to use based on the specific mission.” https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/your-marine-corps/2018/08/15/the-corps-wants-lighter-body-armor-for-counterinsurgency-conflicts/

By: The Associated Press ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. — The U.S. Air Force says it wants to add 1,200 jobs within the next year at its sprawling base in central Georgia. The hiring initiative was announced Wednesday at Robins Air Force Base, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) south of Macon. Brig. Gen. John Kubinec says the base needs more workers at its Warner Robins Air Logistics Complex, which is seeing its "most consequential year for new workload growth in over a decade." Full Article: https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2018/08/15/robins-air-force-base-plans-to-add-1200-jobs/

By: Mark Pomerleau The director of the Defense Intelligence Agency had a pointed message for members of industry; whatever solution is pitched, it has to be understood in the context of how it will be used. Like many top defense leaders giving presentations nowadays, Lt. Gen. Robert Ashely, speaking Aug. 13 at the DoDIIS conference in Omaha, Nebraska, stressed the need for industry's help going forward to solve DIA's tough problems. However, solutions must not work just in the lab, but also in the operating environment military and intelligence leaders believe forces will be conducting operations in the future. “Through my career I've seen too many times the technology looks great in the lab ... but it doesn't scale to the battlefield,” he said. Full Article: https://www.c4isrnet.com/show-reporter/dodiis/2018/08/15/heres-what-the-dia-director-wants-industry-to-know/