19 mai 2020 | International, Naval
By PAUL MCLEARY
WASHINGTON: The Navy might not yet have an overarching plan to design and build its fleet of the future, but it is taking small steps that provide clues as to where service leadership wants to go.
Over the past week, the Navy announced two industry days to meet with prospective shipbuilders for a new class of logistics ship that can operate under fire, and an unmanned anti-mine vessel, both new programs that would allow the Navy and Marine Corps to push deeper into contested territory in the Pacific, and keep troops and sailors resupplied once they get there.
The Next Generation Medium Logistics Ship is the bigger effort, representing an entirely new class of manned ship designed to operate in a crowded environment while supplying ships at sea and a new, lighter, Marine force on the ground that is currently being designed by Commandant Gen. David Berger.
A May 15 post on a government contracting website asked the defense industry for their ideas, explaining that the Navy is looking for ships that are “smaller than existing ships in the Combat Logistics Force, and will operate near contested environments, sustaining afloat (Surface Action Group) and ashore (Expeditionary Advanced Base) requirements.”
The expeditionary advanced base idea is part of a wide-ranging overhaul of the Marine Corps to get lighter, faster, and more deadly by employing precision weapons the Corps hopes to integrate into its formations in the coming years.
Berger is working to stand up several Marine Littoral Regiments, with the first based in Hawaii and falling under the Japan-based III Marine Expeditionary Force. The first three regiments, designed to move fast and have anti-air and possibly anti-ship weapons, will be based in the Pacific region, pointing to where Berger and the Marines see the pacing threat coming from in the future.
Relying on smaller units armed with precision weapons that can operate inside the weapons range of an enemy, moving in tight waterways and using small islands to provide cover for naval air air forces is key to the emerging Marine Corps vision, which has its eye cast squarely on the South China Sea.
More broadly, Berger plans to lop off a significant portion of the Corps' traditional strength — artillery, armor, and rotary wing lift — in favor of a leaner, more precise and much faster force. The Navy, conversely, while pledging to move forward with some unmanned ship plans, generally wants to retain its huge nuclear aircraft carriers, dozens of big deck amphibs, and an aging destroyer fleet while introducing a new frigate to the mix.
Not all those ships would be able to move as far afield as the new Marine regiments, making support and resupply an issue, though a new class of frigates, which the Navy selected earlier this month, could possibly fit the bill. The small, multi-mission ships will be more maneuverable than Arleigh Burke-class destroyers and will come with the Aegis combat system, 32 vertical launch cells, the new SPY-6 radar system, and more power generation capabilities that will make it capable of sustaining new directed-energy weapons as they become available.
“I see it doing multiple things, this is going to be a real workhorse supporting distributed maritime operations in the future,” Vice Adm. James Kilby, deputy chief for warfighting requirements and capabilities, recently said.
To supply those Marines ashore, the Navy believes there are several types of commercial vessels which may be able to perform these missions, but is also considering” conversion of existing vessels, new construction, or a combination of conversions and new construction in order to acquire the required number of Next Generation Logistics Ships,” the solicitation said.
On May 13, the Navy also announced a virtual industry day for the Mine Countermeasures Unmanned Surface Vehicle program, one of several unmanned efforts the service is planning to bolster the larger, manned fleet. “The purpose of this industry day is to improve industry's understanding of how the MCM USV program fits into the Navy's plans to expand the use of unmanned vehicles,” according to the notice, which adds the MCM “will be a ship-launched or shore-launched, open architecture (OA), surface vehicle capable of autonomous safe navigation and mission execution.”
The plans for both programs — and the frigate, as well — depend on what a study being helmed by Deputy Defense Secretary David Norquist finds in his look at the Navy's Integrated Navy Force Structure Assessment, which the Pentagon blocked the Navy from releasing in February, as planned.
After being briefed on the plan for building a 355-ship fleet over the next decade, Defense Secretary Mark Esper told the Navy he was taking over the project, and putting Norquist in the lead of relooking the plan. It's not clear what issues Esper had with the plan, but some officials and experts have speculated that the Navy isn't moving fast enough to divest of older, larger ships in favor of smaller, faster and unmanned vessels.
Esper has said he expects the study to be complete by July.
21 avril 2023 | International, Terrestre
Germany, Poland and Ukraine signed an agreement on Friday for a hub to repair Leopard tanks used in Ukraine to fight Russian forces, Germany's Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said at a meeting of allies at the Ramstein air base.
19 juillet 2019 | International, Aérospatial
By: Nathan Strout The Department of Defense redirected more than $282 million to intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance programs in the past two months, largely from a defense-wide operation and maintenance account. The most recently approved reprogramming of $247 million was dated June 21. According to the Pentagon, the action aims to close ISR gaps in the combatant commands. The transfers go to a variety of programs, including artificial intelligence development and developing a bilateral network to share ISR data with strategic partners. In addition to the $247 million from operation and maintenance accounts, the June 21 reprogramming action also transfers $22.5 million to Special Operations Command. That money was made available after ending a program for a signals intelligence sensor effort that originally appeared in the fiscal year 2018 budget. About $13 million of that funding will now provide signals intelligence sensors for use on contractor airborne ISR systems, while another $6.5 million will go toward modernizing an undisclosed maritime ISR system. The remaining funding will go to acquiring and deploying six new sensitive compartmented information facilities. The June 21 reprogramming action follows a $12.25 million reprogramming action May 20. Then, about $7.9 million of that funding went to classified programs, while the remaining $4.3 million went to upgrading AI and machine learning processors in support of pattern of life analysis. Of the more than quarter of a billion dollars in transferred funding, the Army received $31 million, the Navy received $28.6 million, the Air Force received $77.6 million, and the remaining $144.8 million will be spent on defense-wide programs. Meanwhile, the Air Force has announced July 15 that Col. Julian Cheater will be the service's new director of ISR operations. Cheater will work under the deputy chief of staff for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance and cyber effects operations, a position created recently as part of the Air Force's reorganization of it's ISR and cyber efforts. https://www.c4isrnet.com/intel-geoint/2019/07/16/pentagon-redirects-282m-to-close-isr-gaps/
27 mai 2020 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité
Le secteur de la défense pourra jouer un rôle important pour le rebond économique du pays, estime Christian de Boissieu. Il ne se délocalise pas. Il suscite la création d'emplois qualifiés. Un plan de relance dans la défense permettrait ainsi de renforcer la sécurité et la souveraineté, tout en stimulant l'investissement privé. Par Christian de Boissieu (professeur émérite à l'université Paris-I et vice-président du Cercle des économistes) Publié le 20 mai 2020 à 8h50Mis à jour le 20 mai 2020 à 11h03 La crise actuelle affecte l'économie française avec une ampleur inégalée depuis 1945 : la récession est à la fois imparable et profonde. Tous les secteurs sont touchés. L'ampleur du rebond dépendra, entre autres facteurs, de la capacité de l'Etat à accompagner la reprise, ce qui passe par un plan de relance aux deux niveaux, national et européen. L'enjeu est alors d'identifier les secteurs pertinents. Par hypothèse, le secteur de la défense est orienté vers la sécurité et la souveraineté, au moment même où ces valeurs s'affirment avec force. Il pourrait également jouer un rôle important pour relancer l'économie du pays. Le secteur industriel de la défense ne s'est pas délocalisé ; il n'a donc pas à se relocaliser comme d'autres activités stratégiques. Il crée un grand nombre d'emplois qualifiés. Les entreprises de défense occupent une place centrale dans le système national d'innovation. Elles réalisent, pour leurs activités civiles et de défense, 25 % de la R & D effectuée par les entreprises françaises. Elles ont une activité de dépôt de brevets importante, plusieurs entreprises de défense se classant chaque année dans le top 10 des brevets déposés à l'Inpi, et elles participent grandement à la structuration des réseaux de recherche. Efficience opérationnelle Un plan de relance incluant la défense aurait un impact économique notable, renforcé par la dualité militaire/civil des activités de défense. Les dépenses d'équipements militaires ou de R & D sont des dépenses d'investissement ; elles suscitent des retombées de nature à stimuler la productivité. Pour des raisons stratégiques, les chaînes de production et de recherche sont également plus nationales que dans le reste de l'économie. Les études montrent que ces spécificités se traduisent par un effet multiplicateur des dépenses publiques élevé (multiplicateur d'impact sur le PIB d'environ 2 au bout de dix ans). Elles indiquent également que, loin de les évincer, les dépenses d'équipement militaire ou de recherche dans la défense sont complémentaires des investissements privés. Financer la R & D défense permettrait ainsi de soutenir la recherche française à un moment où celle-ci va être fortement affectée. En outre, la relance par la défense non seulement ne dégrade pas la balance commerciale, à la différence de nombreux secteurs, mais, au contraire, l'améliore en stimulant la recherche, en augmentant l'efficacité des processus de production et en renforçant, aux yeux de l'extérieur, l'efficience opérationnelle du matériel militaire français. Par ailleurs, la base industrielle et technologique de défense a toujours eu une forte dimension locale en contribuant à l'aménagement du territoire et au maintien de l'activité dans de nombreuses zones industrielles sous-dotées. Cette proximité ne serait que renforcée par une relance passant aussi, et sans exclusivité, par la défense. Stimuler l'investissement privé Une telle relance doit d'abord être nationale, mais elle doit s'accompagner d'une initiative de l'Union européenne. C'est l'occasion unique de faire enfin décoller l'Europe de la défense. Ainsi, la proposition initiale d'un budget de 13 milliards d'euros pour le Fonds européen de défense pour les six prochaines années, soit moins de 1 % du budget de l'UE, doit être retenue au moment où les autres continents ne cessent d'augmenter leurs dépenses de défense. Un plan de relance dans la défense permettrait ainsi de renforcer la sécurité et la souveraineté tout en stimulant l'investissement privé, la recherche civile et en provoquant un impact économique important. Autant d'éléments nécessaires dans la période qui s'ouvre. Christian de Boissieu est président du Conseil scientifique, de la chaire Economie de défense, IHEDN et membre du Cercle des économistes. https://www.lesechos.fr/idees-debats/cercle/opinion-un-plan-de-relance-pour-la-defense-1204431