4 novembre 2024 | International, Terrestre
20 mars 2020 | International, Naval
Maine lawmakers want contract relief, quicker payments for industry to combat COVID-19 impact
By: Aaron Mehta
WASHINGTON — In a letter to Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and acting Navy secretary Thomas Modly, the congressional delegation from Maine has requested quicker payments and relief from contractual obligations for the defense industrial base, including local shipyards, impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak.
In the letter sent Thursday, the delegation — Republican Sen. Susan Collin and Independent Sen. Angus King, as well as democratic Reps. Chellie Pingree and Jared Golden — warn that “the Department of Defense and the Navy must immediately act to protect our nation's defense industrial base, including our nation's shipyards.”
Maine is home to Bath Iron Works, owned by General Dynamics, which produces both the Zumwalt and Arleigh Burke class destroyers.
The delegation has three key demands. The first is for the department to “work to mitigate cash flow and other financial burdens” on contractors and subcontractors as a result of the outbreak, “to include relief from contracting requirements that are uniquely impacted by COVID-19.”
The contract relief being sought involves waiving schedule and price requirements in case delivery times are impacted by loss of workforce due to coronavirus-inflicted travel bans, closures, quarantines or travel restrictions. It could also potentially give cover should a subcontractor be unable to deliver a part on time.
Second, to take “any actions possible to accelerate or advance payments or new contract obligations in order to provide immediate stability to the industrial base.” The lawmakers offer to “immediately assist” the department if additional funding or “new legal authorities” are needed to make such sped-up payments possible.
And third, the delegation calls for the department to clarify “planning and public guidance to ensure a stable industrial base while also ensuring the health and safety of the defense industrial base workforce” — that is, to make clear what workers must stay at work, and which could potentially work from home.
A spokesman for General Dynamics told Defense News earlier this week that they are allowing anyone who can work from home to do so, while curtailing travel and pausing participation in trade shows.
“An outbreak of COVID-19 at one of our nation's shipyards or other large defense contractors could truly be devastating to our national defense,” the delegation writes. “We ask you to work with and support industry to take all the necessary protective actions.”
King is a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, while Collins sits on the appropriations defense subcommittee. Pingree is a member of the House Appropriations Committee while Golden is on the House Armed Services Committee. It is expected that Collins, at least, will be speaking directly to Modly about the issue in the near future.
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6 avril 2018 | International, C4ISR
Marines cyber forces to grow
By: Mark Pomerleau The Marine Corps' main cyber war-fighting organization will soon be growing. Maj. Gen. Lori Reynolds, commander of Marine Corps Forces Cyberspace Command, said her force doesn't have the depth to do what the Army is doing in experimenting with integrated offensive and defensive cyber effects at the tactical edge with full brigades. This is one of the reasons the commandant approved expansion at MARFORCYBER, Reynolds told Fifth Domain following her appearance on an AFCEA-hosted panel in early April. “We've got to do that,” she said, referring to what the Army is doing. “We've got to get the rest of the service, Training and Education Command, we've got to give them the skills and the talent, if you will, to think about how do we prepare the rest of the Marine Corps to integrate cyber effectively. Moreover, the Marine Corps created a cyber career field earlier this year and requested 1,000 billets related to cyber/electronic warfare/information operations in the most recent budget to be better postured to fight and win in an increasingly modern battlefield. MARFORCYBER will get around 40 percent of new career field designees to work on the defensive side with just a couple going to the offensive teams, Reynolds said. The Marines have recognized that cyber is going to be a foundational capability in the future with some ingrained organizational structure behind it. “We just really have to get more return on investment ... and what we want to be able to do is continue to increase our proficiency and skills,” Reynolds said. “When you're constantly moving people out of the cyber workforce, you're starting over again all the time. That doesn't work.” Currently, the Marines deployed on the cyber mission force — a joint force that makes up U.S. Cyber Command's cyber warrior cadre — are lateral moves, Reynolds said, or they're working as signals intelligence Marines and they're just in and out of cyber. While the total number of forces on the CMF will stay the same, the types of Marines filling those roles will change, a MARFORCYBER spokeswoman told Fifth Domain. When a communication officer currently working on a team rotates, that billet will be coded as a cyberspace officer and will be filled only by someone in the new cyber career field, they added. The model going forward should be building a “foundation from the ground up of defensive cyber and then maybe start building some of our offensive capability from the defense while we're still flowing SIGINT through the offensive teams,” Reynolds said. This move comes as the Marines, as well as the other services, are going through a bit of a culture shock when it comes to introducing these nontraditional skill sets into the ranks. “I think the commandant is willing to challenge every assumption we've ever made about how we treat these MOS,” Reynolds said. In fact, during recent congressional testimony, Reynolds noted that the commandant often points out “we may end up with a platoon of warrant officers, and that's got to be okay with us.” https://www.fifthdomain.com/dod/marine-corps/2018/04/05/marines-cyber-forces-to-grow/
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8 septembre 2020 | International, Terrestre
Northrop Grumman charges on with XM913 50 mm cannon deliveries to US Army
by Ashley Roque Northrop Grumman remains under contract with the US Army to mature a critical component of its ground combat fleet ‒ the XM913 50 mm cannon ‒ even as the service weighs its cannon calibre requirements for the its future Bradley replacement fleet. As of late August the company had delivered four XM913 cannons to the service, with plans to deliver seven more by the end of October, Northrop Grumman spokesman Jarrod Krull told Janes. In addition to these weapons, he noted that the company is anticipating an “imminent order” for 10 additional cannons that would be delivered to the service in 2021 for qualification, testing, and integration activities. “The 50 mm cannon combines Bushmaster chain gun reliability with [a] next-generation effective range that will provide the warfighter with increased stand-off against near peer adversaries,” Krull wrote. The army is working with the company to further develop the cannon, in part, to support its Next-Generation Combat Vehicle (NGCV) portfolio and allow soldiers to fire quicker and reach farther distances. The XM913 cannon can fire two munitions ‒ the XM1204 High Explosive Airburst with Trace (HEAB-T) and XM1203 Armour-Piercing Fin-Stabilized Discarding Sabot with Trace (APFSDS-T) ‒ and is central to the army's Advanced Lethality and Accuracy System for Medium Caliber (ALAS-MC) effort. https://www.janes.com/defence-news/news-detail/northrop-grumman-charges-on-with-xm913-50-mm-cannon-deliveries-to-us-army