13 mars 2023 | International, Naval
White House asks for $11 billion more for Navy, Marine Corps spending
Documents published by OMB offer an early look at the services' budget requests ahead of the Pentagon's rollout next week.
2 novembre 2018 | International, Terrestre
NATO general: Europe not moving fast enough on military mobility
By: Aaron Mehta
WASHINGTON — European nations are not moving as fast as needed to resolve long-standing logistical issues that could tie up efforts to meet invading Russian forces, according to a top NATO general.
“From a military perspective, of course I would say it is not moving fast enough,” Lt. Gen. Jan Broeks, director general of the alliance's International Military Staff, said Wednesday.
“It is not moving fast enough. Of course, there is always an element of how fast you can get financing, building the brigades, building the roads,” Broeks added. “It's a lot of work. but we need to be ambitious and we need to be very clear, in a military context.”
Since Russia seized Ukrainian territory in 2014, NATO nations have woken up to the challenges involved in moving military forces from one side of the continent to a potential eastern front, an issue that broadly falls under the “military mobility” heading. Officials have been upfront that the situation needs a lot of work and investment, but Broeks' comments underline how much more work there is to do.
Those challenges largely fall into two sets. The first is logistical — finding which roads can support the weight of military equipment, increasing capacity at key ports or repairing aged rail tracks. The second is legal — making sure nations have preapproved forces from other nations to enter their airspace and cross their borders.
Broeks, who is from the Netherlands, traveled to Washington this week accompanied by Lt. Gen. Esa Pulkkinen, the Finnish officer who serves as director general of the European Union's military staff. The two were hosted by the Center for a New American Security think tank.
Pulkkinen said the legal set of challenges is the one that can be most easily tackled. “These are the areas where you can proceed more [quickly]. Some of the issues are in the hands of the EU, some in the hands of the member states,” he said.
And Broeks indicated there may be developments in the area of authorities coming “weeks and months” ahead of the alliances 2019 political guidance document.
“When I think about rapid air mobility, it's a very critical element,” he explained. “At the moment, it is a procedural element. If we were deploying forces either through airlifts or through support through airlift, or elements of this [such as] rotary-wing and fixed-wing supporting missions, if they would not have to go through procedures for clearance, then we're there in rapid air mobility.
“We in Europe control this,” he added. “We need to go with nations because nations own the airspace.”
Since taking over their respective jobs, the two men have made it a point to regularly attend dinners to foster closer ties between military planning for NATO and the EU; the visit to Washington represents the first time two officers in those jobs have traveled together to America, and the trip is part of an effort to assuage concerns within the U.S. government that NATO and the EU are not coordinating defense priorities.
Much of that concern stems from the EU's announcement in late 2017 of the Permanent Structured Cooperation on security and defense, or PESCO, a fund for EU defense projects. American officials quickly sounded the alarm that PESCO could take funds away from NATO priorities.
Both Broeks and Pulkkinen have downplayed those concerns, with the two pointing to military mobility as one example where PESCO can help support NATO nations with extra funding while providing benefits for non-NATO nations. But Pulkkinen also emphasized that while PESCO is funding some initiatives on the mobility front, it should be treated as extra help, not the central solution.
Another area of joint collaboration for military mobility has come from NATO's Trident Juncture exercise, now underway. Both men said the exercise includes a focus on moving units through various airspaces and over borders.
“We get lessons learned out of this because the U.K. has forces [moving] through the Netherlands, through Denmark, through Norway. The Germans move forces north. So we get a lot of this, both from interoperability and military mobility,” Broeks said.
“We don't have any EU exercises at all, [so] any chance to improve the interoperability of the forces, including the EU members' state forces, is good for us,” Pulkkinen added. “We are very grateful on the EU side that some non-NATO EU allies are [involved].”
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13 juin 2019 | International, Sécurité, Autre défense
Congress wants to create ‘cyber first responders’
By: Chloe Rogers House lawmakers passed a bill June 10 that would require the establishment of permanent “cyber incident teams” to help protect both federal agencies and the private sector from cyberattacks. The Department of Homeland Security Cyber Incident Response Teams Act would create permanent teams of cybersecurity specialists within DHS that the government and industry could call on to help them recover from network breaches. “When cyberattacks occur, immediate expertise is needed to mitigate damage and ensure organizations are restored,” the bill's primary sponsor Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said. “Cyber incident response teams provide that expertise and function as our cyber first responders.” The teams, which will be housed under the DHS's National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center, could also include cybersecurity experts from the private sector as members. McCaul said the bill fosters “collaboration between the public and private sector to ensure that our nation can continue to adapt to the constant changes in the cyber landscape.” Reps. John Katko, R-N.Y.; Jim Langevin, D-R.I.; John Ratcliffe, R-Texas; and Dutch Ruppersberger, D-Md., also sponsored the bill. The House bill was introduced in February as companion legislature to the bipartisan DHS Cyber Hunt and Incident Response Teams Act introduced by Sens. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., and Rob Portman, R-Ohio. The Senate version of the bill was approved by Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee in April. https://www.fifthdomain.com/congress/capitol-hill/2019/06/12/congres
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27 octobre 2020 | International, Aérospatial
South Korean study finds Chinook upgrade more expensive than buying new helos
Brian Kim SEOUL — Research on the long-awaited upgrade of Chinook helicopters flown by the South Korean military shows it would be cheaper to buy new aircraft, according to a local lawmaker. Rep. Min Hong-chul of the ruling Democratic Party revealed the result of the latest preliminary research on the Chinook upgrade during a parliamentary audit of the Defense Acquisition Program Administration on Oct. 20. The lawmaker, who sits on the National Assembly's Defense Committee, said the research concluded in September that the cost of upgrading 17 of the 43 CH-47D Chinook helicopters would be about 1.35 trillion won ($1.2 billion), which is higher than the estimated cost of 1.22 trillion won for buying new ones. The upgrade cost is partly driven by the fact that Chinook manufacturer Boeing no longer produces parts for older variants, like those owned by South Korea, so specially ordered parts could prove expensive, Min said, citing the research conducted by the Defense Agency for Technology and Quality, which is affiliated with DAPA. Furthermore, some Korean military task equipment such as the Korean Variable Message Format data link cannot be installed on the upgraded helos due to incompatibility, the research suggested. “A series of reverses and delays on decision-making have foiled key arms acquisition projects, including the Chinook upgrade,” Min said, expressing concern about an operational gap in military transport trainings and missions. South Korea operates about 50 Chinooks, with some of them in service for up to 50 years. With some parts of the older Chinook no longer being produced, the South Korean fleet's operational rate has suffered, according to the lawmaker. For instance, the Air Force's Chinook utilization rate from the first half of the year was around 40 percent. DAPA is expected to hold a meeting soon to decide whether to buy new heavy-lift helicopters rather than upgrade the existing fleet. But industry sources expect buying new helos would take more time and end up costing more, depending on the variant. “To get Block I CH-47F Chinook cargo helicopters, which have been on the shopping list of the South Korean Army, the letter of offer and acceptance should be issued by July next year at the latest, but it would be very difficult to finalize the decision-making procedures within the timeline,” said Ahn Seung-beom, a military analyst and writer with Defense Times Korea. “[If it doesn't] buy Block I, South Korea has an option to get Block II, which is to be produced for the U.S. Army first, and then it could take more time and costs to get the up-to-date, heavy-lift helicopters.” A source at Boeing told Defense News that both cost and an export license stand in the way of South Korea's CH-47F Block II purchase. “The development of the CH-47F Block II is still underway, so the price cannot be expected at this moment,” the source explained on condition of anonymity. “The U.S. Army has yet to place an order for the new cargo helicopters, so it's unclear how many aircraft would be produced.” It's also unclear if a foreign sale will receive approval, the source added. “The U.S. government strictly controls arms technology, so getting an export license for key weapons systems is a hurdle.” https://www.defensenews.com/global/asia-pacific/2020/10/27/south-korean-study-finds-chinook-upgrade-more-expensive-than-buying-new-helos/