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By: Kyle Rempfer NEW ORLEANS — The Tennessee National Guard currently has trainers in Ukraine, armored units in Poland, aviators in Kosovo, and other airmen and soldiers deployed across Southeast Asia and the Middle East. That's to say nothing of domestic missions like disaster relief for which they are also responsible. Although those missions are broad, Tennessee Adjutant General Maj. Gen. Max Haston said his guardsmen are well trained to accomplish their tasks. Still, readiness shortfalls on big-ticket items strain their capabilities. “The biggest thing that does impact readiness ... is ensuring we have a common platform across our services,” Haston told Military Times. “We've done a terrific job of taking care of our soldiers with the fielding of individual personal equipment — ballistic vests, helmets, all that stuff. ... But it's the major end items. It's the tanks, the Bradley [fighting vehicles], the helicopters and the planes," he said. Haston explained that readiness issues aren't exclusive to Tennessee Guardsmen. He said they were “enterprise-wide," and boiled down to “dollars and cents.” Readiness concerns aren't something the Guard cooked up on its own. It was the first issue Defense Secretary Jim Mattis brought up during his speech at the 2018 National Guard Association of the United States conference in New Orleans last month. “The way we're going to address the challenges we face is we're going to restore readiness across our force, and you [the National Guard] are considered every bit a part of that force as any active element," Mattis said. “We cannot be unprepared when destiny in the form of mobilization day taps us on the shoulder, for then it will be too late." While his words were welcomed, Guard leadership was still left wondering what the next step will be while they juggle missions abroad with training constraints at home due to outdated equipment. One example: the Tennessee Army National Guard's 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment operates M1A1 Abrams AIM SA tanks, according to Haston. However, active-duty Army units, by and large, are operating the newer M1A2 SEP variant. Full article: https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-air-force/2018/09/06/planes-tanks-and-helicopters-equipment-shortfalls-are-hurting-the-guards-readiness-leaders-say

Par Michel Cabirol La France a lancé un plan pour réduire les dépendances de l'industrie d'armement aux composants américains qui entrent dans la fabrication de certains programmes français. La France veut réduire sa dépendance aux composants américains dans la Défense afin de ne pas gêner l'exportation de ses programmes, a déclaré jeudi la ministre des Armées Florence Parly. La France doit actuellement demander aux Etats-Unis la levée d'interdictions sur certains composants. "Nous avons besoin progressivement de nous désensibiliser par rapport à un certain nombre de composants américains, ce qui ne veut pas dire nécessairement pouvoir se désensibiliser complètement", a-t-elle expliqué lors d'une rencontre avec l'Association des journalistes professionnels de l'aéronautique et de l'espace (AJPAE). La France a d'ailleurs lancé un plan pour réduire les dépendances par rapport à ces composants américains. "Je ne donnerai pas d'exemple précis mais nous avons été confrontés, dans des échanges liés à des prospects exportations, à des difficultés. Et nous savons bien que ces difficultés sont liées en apparence à des questionnements stratégiques et en réalité souvent à des problèmes de concurrence commerciale. Il ne faut pas en être dupes", a-t-elle expliqué. Si un système d'armes contient au moins un composant américain sous le régime de la réglementation américaine ITAR, les Etats-Unis ont le pouvoir d'en interdire la vente à l'export à un pays tiers. Ainsi, ils ont récemment bloqué la vente de missile de croisière Scalp, qui devait armer le Rafale, à l'Egypte et au Qatar. En 2013, Washington avait déjà refusé une demande de réexportation de la France aux Emirats Arabes Unis de composants "made in USA" nécessaires à la fabrication de deux satellites espions français (Airbus et Thales). La visite de François Hollande aux États-Unis en février 2014 avait permis de régler positivement ce dossier. Lors de son audition en juillet dernier à l'Assemblée nationale, Florence Parly avait reconnu que "nous sommes à la merci des Américains quand nos matériels sont concernés". "Avons-nous les moyens d'être totalement indépendants des composants américains ? Je ne le crois pas. Cherchons-nous à améliorer la situation ? La réponse est oui", avait-elle déjà assuré en juillet. La France travaille notamment à désensibiliser les futurs programmes d'armement. Ainsi Florence Parly a affirmé que cette moindre dépendance serait cruciale pour la viabilité du futur programme d'avion de combat (SCAF). Cela passe pour Paris et Berlin d'avoir la capacité d'exporter ce futur système d'armes. Elle a estimé que les industriels devaient prendre en compte ce dossier en lançant des investissements en matière de recherche et de technologie pour être en mesure de fabriquer un composant analogue qui échapperait au dispositif ITAR. "Certains industriels l'ont compris", a-t-elle précisé. C'est le cas du missilier MBDA dans le cadre du développement du futur missile air-air MICA-NG. Ce programme, qui sera opérationnel en 2025, est développé en prenant en compte la contrainte ITAR. Ils seront ITAR Free, assure-t-on à La Tribune. Florence Parly a également rappelé la dépendance de la France pour les drone MALE Reaper. "Pour armer les Reaper, il faut une autorisation du Congrès américain. Est-ce satisfaisant ? Non. Mais aujourd'hui on n'a pas le choix", a-t-elle expliqué, faisant référence aux drones achetés aux Etats-Unis depuis 2013. Pour autant, l'armement des Reaper ne signifie pas que la France armera le futur drone MALE de reconnaissance et de surveillance en préparation pour 2025. "Dans les spécifications, il sera possible de l'armer, ce qui ne signifie pas qu'aujourd'hui la décision est prise sur la question de savoir s'il sera en définitive armé", a-t-elle souligné. https://www.latribune.fr/entreprises-finance/industrie/aeronautique-defense/reglementation-itar-la-france-veut-reduire-sa-dependance-aux-composants-americains-789612.html

By: Aaron Mehta WASHINGTON — Last December, Ellen Lord sat down with reporters and told them that the reorganization of the Pentagon's Acquisition, Technology and Logistics office would be a two-year process. Now, however, Lord believes her Acquisition and Sustainment office will beat that target, easily. “I believe we are going to be pretty squared away” by the first quarter of calendar year 2019, Lord told Defense News in an interview following her appearance at the second annual Defense News Conference. “I believe those last critical slots — a lot of [deputy assistant secretary of defense] slots, a few director slots — will all be filled by March of '19. We're excited to get going on the work,” she said. The AT&L reorganization included splitting the office into two new units — the undersecretaries of Acquisition and Sustainment, led by Lord, and of Research and Engineering, led by Mike Griffin. In July, Deputy Secretary of Defense Pat Shanahan released a memo — obtained first by Defense News — finalizing the structures of the new organizations. Full article: https://www.defensenews.com/smr/defense-news-conference/2018/09/06/as-reorganization-should-be-completed-a-year-ahead-of-time

By: Joe Gould WASHINGTON — A Trump administration official wants to create a “safe space” for international defense-industrial base cooperation. As China's military modernization strategy bridges its civil-military divide and the U.S. National Defense Strategy emphasizes the American industrial base, the Pentagon must protect and encourage America's international partnerships, according to Eric Chewning, the Pentagon's deputy assistant secretary of defense for industrial policy. “As China articulates a civil-military fusion doctrine where they are intentionally blurring the lines between their developments on the military side and the commercial side, we need to work with our allies to create a safe space where we can work collaboratively to do that,” Chewning said Wednesday at the Defense News Conference. Chewning's comments came as the Trump administration's defense-industrial base review has been delayed for months, but after the administration has streamlined conventional arms and drone export policies, in part to boost the American defense sector. The Pentagon's acquisitions and sustainment arm maintains bilateral conversations with 35 nations on industrial collaboration, providing a forum to work together in the context of the U.S. strategy's emphasis on great power competition with Russia and China. The Pentagon could scale up a handful of pilot programs tied to the 2017 expansion of the national technology and industrial base to include the U.K. and Australia, Chewning said. But the challenge is to create other avenues for countries outside that core group, like Israel. “We have different constructs that apply to different allies, and we're trying to figure out what the right tools is,” Chewning added. Sharing information and technology is easier said than done. As the U.S. pursues space and cyber capabilities, classification levels are trending higher, potentially hindering the effort, the Danish Embassy's minister-counselor for defense, Peter Michael Nielsen, told conference attendees. “We do need to see a need to continue sharing technology and information,” Nielsen said. “We also have problems in defense, to get the meetings, to get the information.” The Trump administration's “America First” emphasis is creating questions and concerns among allies, in that it also emphasizes “Buy America” provisions that penalize them, panelists said. “We have a strong concern. We are exempted, and if that changed it would be huge," Nielsen said. Full article: https://www.defensenews.com/smr/defense-news-conference/2018/09/05/trump-dod-official-wants-safe-space-for-defense-industrial-base-cooperation

By Matthew Cox The commander of the U.S. Army's Maneuver Center of Excellence said Wednesday that basic training programs for combat arms specialties such as armor and engineers will soon start a pilot program similar to the one that is extending Infantry one station unit training to 22 weeks. About 400 recruits are now in their seventh week of the pilot at Fort Benning, Georgia that is adding eight weeks to the traditional 14-week infantry OSUT. Once that pilot program is complete, Army officials will begin extending other combat arms OSUT programs, Maj. Gen. Gary Brito, the commander of MCOE at Benning, told an audience at the Association of the United States Army's Sept. 5 Aviation Hot Topic event. "It started with infantry; now we will begin a pilot with armor one station unit training at the beginning of next calendar year," Brito said. "We also have some guidance from [Training and Doctrine Command] to do the same thing with the engineers at Fort Leonard Wood [Missouri]. "This could expand, and it most likely will, to some of the other combat MOSs over the next couple of years, to transform out to 22 weeks for all." Recruits in infantry OSUT traditionally go through nine weeks of Basic Combat Training and about four-and-a-half weeks of infantry advanced individual training. The pilot adds eight weeks of training time to hone marksmanship, land navigation and other key combat skills. "The guidance to the team is ... you have 22 weeks now to build and do the best land navigation you can do; you have 22 weeks now to have the best marksmanship training that you can do," Brito said. Full article: https://www.military.com/daily-news/2018/09/05/army-wants-extended-training-armor-engineers-other-combat-jobs.html

By: Aaron Mehta WASHINGTON — When Congress delivered a $716 billion defense budget to the Pentagon, defense leaders made it clear it was a welcome boost — but some questioned if the number would be enough to do everything the department foresees as necessary. Now the ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee — who is poised to take over the HASC should November elections go blue — is warning that tightened belts are on the horizon. Asked specifically if $716 billion is the right number for defense and whether future budgets will stay at that level, Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash, said flatly: “No and no.” “I think the number's too high, and its certainly not going to be there in the future,” Smith said at the second annual Defense News Conference. The congressman argued that the debt and deficit situation facing the country requires balancing out how the government is spending, particularly after the Trump administration's tax cuts made it “even more difficult to get our budget under control.” But drawing down the defense budget has to be part of a broader look at U.S. strategy, something that Smith said requires a realistic look at America's military strategy. He pointed to the idea that 355 ships are vital for the Navy as an example of flawed logic, because “capability matters.” “We can do this,” Smith said of the U.S. remaining the key world power. “I'm not even remotely worried about it. It is a more complicated and different world in some ways, but the Cold War was no walk in the park either. World War II certainly wasn't. We will always face challenges. The question is about being smart. “We just have to be smart instead of trying to force our way back into a world that is never going to be again." “We are going to be a major, major player, probably the major player, on the global stage” for a long time to come, Smith added. “But we are not going to be utterly and completely dominant.” https://www.defensenews.com/smr/defense-news-conference/2018/09/05/adam-smith-expects-future-defense-budgets-to-dip-below-716-billion

By: Pierre Tran PARIS — French Armed Forces Minister Florence Parly has appointed Emmanuel Chiva, a specialist in artificial intelligence and training simulation, as director of the newly formed agency for defense innovation, the ministry said. Chiva took up the post Sept. 1, when the innovation office was officially set up, the ministry said in a Sept. 4 statement. Parly made the appointment in consultation with Joël Barre, head of the Direction Générale de l'Armement procurement office. The innovation agency will report to the DGA. The agency will be the key player in a new strategy for innovation, seeking “to bring together all the actors in the ministry and all the programs which contribute to innovation in defense,” Parly said in an Aug. 28 speech to a conference held by Medef, an employers' association. The innovation office will be open to Europe, while allowing experiments to stay close to their operational users, she said. Parly has set a budget of €1 billion (U.S. $1.2 billion) for the agency, which will seek to coordinate attempts to apply new technology to military applications. Chiva has more than 20 years of experience in AI and training simulation. He previously held a senior post for strategy and development at Agueris, a specialist in training simulation for land weapon systems. Agueris is a unit of CMI Defence, a Belgian company specializing in guns and turrets for armored vehicles. Agueris was on the CMI stand at the Eurosatory trade show for land weapons in June. Agueris held three conferences on AI, with Chiva speaking at a roundtable debate on innovation. Chiva is a graduate of Ecole Normal Supérieure and a specialist in biomathematics, the study of the application of math to biology. “His appointment perfectly illustrates my vision of defense innovation: open to research and the civil economy, in which entrepreneurship is not a concept but a reality,” Parly said. https://www.defensenews.com/industry/techwatch/2018/09/05/artificial-intelligence-expert-gets-top-job-at-french-defense-innovation-agency

September 4, 2018 – Ottawa – National Defence / Canadian Armed Forces From September 10 to 21, 2018, Canadian defence scientists and Canadian Armed Forces personnel will be conducting a series of technology research experiments in the city of Montreal alongside participants from partner nations including Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States. Activities will include testing and assessing new technologies in various urban environments and landscapes. The Contested Urban Environment 2018 experiment (CUE 18) will take place around the Côte-des-Neiges Armoury, around Belvedere Kondiaronk on Mont Royal, along rue de la Montagne, and at Silo 5 in the Old Port area. Most of the activity will happen during the day, however, there will be also be periods of testing at night. All military personnel participating in the CUE 18 experiment will be unarmed. This activity is being conducted in support of advancing research around how to best conduct military operations in urban environments. Measures are being taken to ensure minimum inconvenience to those in the area, however the public is advised that certain areas may be inaccessible during CUE 18 experiment. Questions concerning local issues including traffic disturbances, road closures etc. should be directed to the City of Montreal. Questions from the public regarding the experiment can be directed to Department of National Defence's science and technology organization, Defence Research Development Canada at CUE18_EUC18@forces.gc.ca. Questions from media can be directed to the Department of National Defence's Media Relations Office at mlo-blm@forces.gc.ca.

LONDON—The German defense ministry says it has begun a radical restructuring of the country's armed forces to better prepare it for modernization and an uptick in defense ... Full article: http://aviationweek.com/awindefense/germany-radically-overhauling-military