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Lawmakers readying legislation to block A-10 cuts
Apr. 10, 2014 - 06:00AM |

By Brian Everstine
Staff writer Air Force Times

Lawmakers say Air Force plans to cut A-10 flights and training are illegal
Lawmakers in both the House and Senate are planning legislation to block the Air Force’s plans to retire the A-10.

The announcement comes during a week of contentious dialogue between the Air Force and Congress, with lawmakers alleging that the service is breaking the law by cutting back A-10 flying hours and by inflating its estimate of savings possible by retiring the A-10. Air Force officials say they are frustrated with lawmakers’ offbase claims that the service does not care about the close air support mission, or about the lives of service members on the ground whom the A-10 protects.

“The comment I’ve heard that somehow the Air Force is walking away from close air support I must admit frustrates me,” Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday. “We have battlefield airmen in our Air Force who live, train, fight and die shoulder-to-shoulder with soldiers and Marines on the battlefield. ... CAS is not an afterthought for us. It never has been. It’s not an aircraft, it’s our mission and we’ll continue to do it better than anyone on Earth.”

But that is not enough for a vocal group of lawmakers, led by Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., who say that cutting the A-10 would put troops’ lives at risk and that the Air Force has not sufficiently thought out or made the case for the Warthog’s retirement.

“Our most solemn obligation when we send our troops into harm’s way is to ensure that they have the best support possible,” Ayotte said Thursday. “Ask any solder which aircraft provides the best close air support, and they’ll tell you that the proven aircraft is the A-10.”

Ayotte, along with Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz.; Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-S.C.; and Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, said they will craft and support amendments to the fiscal 2015 National Defense Authorization Act to block the cuts. Reps. Vicky Hartzler, R-Mo., and Ron Barber, D-Ariz., said they will support companion legislation in the House.

“We’re going to do away with the finest close air support platform in history, and we are then going to have some kind of nebulous idea of a replacement with an airplane that costs at least 10 times as much, with the F-35? That’s ridiculous,” McCain said. “That’s absolutely ridiculous.”

Ayotte said the committee is looking for cost offsets in the Defense Department budget to protect the A-10.

The Air Force, in deciding to cut the A-10 in order to save about $3.7 billion, analyzed other options, including cutting 350 F-16s, cutting the entire B-1B Lancer fleet and delaying the purchase of 40 F-35s. It determined the best decision was to get rid of the Warthog.

“From an operational perspective, clearly the least operational risk came from divesting the A-10 fleet,” Welsh said. “... I am concerned that we’re talking about perhaps some of the wrong things, because this isn’t about whether or not the A-10 is a great aircraft or whether it saves lives on the battlefield. It is a great aircraft, and it does save lives.”

However, other aircraft do as well, Welsh said. F-16s have flown more close air support sorties than the A-10 over the past eight to nine years. The F-15E, B-1, AC-130 and B-52 also provide close air support.

“We have pilots in the F-16 who have hit the ground trying to strike inside caves and died,” Welsh said. “Our F-16s have been doing close air support with full tactics, techniques and procedures with the Army since the late 1970s. The F-15Es have been doing it for the last 10 years.”

Ayotte said that while she does not want to downplay the importance of other aircraft, the A-10 is the best choice for close air support. The other fleets are important, but the Air Force’s other options to make up the costs are “dramatic scenarios,” she said.

“Whenever anyone wants to defend their position, they always give you the most dramatic scenario of, ‘Well, this is your only choice,’ ’’ Ayotte said. “We are the Senate Armed Services Committee, we will look across the entire defense budget. There has been a history, there are certain programs that are certainly acquisition failures. There are many places that we will also look, beyond what the Air Force has presented us.”

On April 3, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno told lawmakers that while the Army did not make a recommendation to retire the A-10, he understands the budget decisions that have to be made. He said the Army would work with the Air Force to develop tactics, techniques and procedures that would be necessary to get proper close air support from F-16s.

Ayotte said that those tactics, techniques and procedures are already in place with the A-10, meaning the Army and Air Force would have to do more work for the other aircraft to try to make up ground.

“One of the concerns that I have is that the chief of staff of the Army is basically saying we’ll have to come up with new solutions if we move away from the A-10,” Ayotte said. “When we talk about close air support missions, not all close air support missions are the same. Some are conducted at higher levels ... and some are conducted at much lower (altitude), close to the troops. So this was the mission that Gen. Odierno expressed direct concern to this committee about not yet having the TTPs in place.”

On April 4, Ayotte and Sen. Saxby Chambless, R-Ga., sent a letter to Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James saying that plans to stop A-10 flights this year are illegal. The letter states that the the service has not allotted any flight hours for the A-10 weapons school, has canceled A-10 modernization and has ended the normal sustainment process for fiscal 2015, which begins Oct. 1. However, the 2014 National Defense Authorization Act blocks the Air Force from retiring or preparing to retire the A-10 in calendar year 2014. This means that the Air Force’s plans for the beginning of fiscal 2015, while still in calendar 2014, are against the NDAA, the lawmakers wrote.

“If so, we request that you reverse these actions to ensure the Air Force is in full compliance with the law and Congress’ intent,” the letter states.

The Air Force’s plans would retire the 283 remaining A-10s from 2015 to 2019, providing replacement aircraft for Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve units, mostly F-16s that become available as the F-35 ramps up. The F-35 is a priority because it is more “survivable” than the A-10in contested areas, Welsh said. The Air Force’s mission is more than close air support, and future fleets need to be able to operate in challenging areas, where the A-10 would not survive, he said.

The Air Force’s role is to save “big” numbers of lives on a battlefield in ways other than just close air support, Welsh said. Other roles include eliminating an enemy’s command and control, logistical infrastructure and resupply, and “ providing air superiority so your ground and maritime forces are free to maneuever and are free from air attack,,” Welsh said.

“We’re good at this,” he said.

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Improved coating for howitzer spindles to save money, reduce environmental impact
April 4, 2014

By Dan Lafontaine, RDECOM Public Affairs



ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md. (April 4, 2014) -- U.S. Army engineers' efforts to implement an improved coating for howitzer breech spindles will provide several benefits -- easing the logistical burden on Soldiers, reducing hazardous waste and saving millions of dollars.

Rust, wear and corrosion problems force the Army to condemn breech spindles before their full service lives. A team at the U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command, or RDECOM, is leading a project to identify, validate, test and evaluate a solution.

Project officer Maira Senick and technical lead Dr. Christopher Mulligan, both with RDECOM's Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center, in partnership with Product Manager Towed Artillery Systems, are aiming for a production-ready coating within six months to a year.

"We're improving the performance of the howitzer, reducing the logistical burden on the Soldier, and saving the government more than $2 million per year," said Mulligan, a materials engineer. "A lot of times when you're trying to improve performance or eliminate hazardous materials, you end up with a more expensive process. Here, we're a saving a significant amount of money over the life cycle of the weapon with minimal to no increase in production cost."

EASING LOGISTICAL BURDEN, SAVING MILLIONS OF DOLLARS

Mulligan explained that the spindle is the howitzer component that seals the chamber and holds the pressure to prevent gas from leaking from the breech.

Chromium has been used to coat spindles for decades, but the Army has found this method often leads to a shortened service life when subjected to the rigors of Soldiers using the weapons in training or combat.

"Any time you have corrosion, wear or chipping, it could result in loss of the seal and affect chamber pressure and accuracy. It needs to function properly. Wear and corrosion cause malfunctions," Mulligan said.

To find and evaluate possible replacement technologies, the team developed a list of 10 primary metrics necessary for a new coating and application process. These included resistance to corrosion, mechanical wear and high temperatures.

The group evaluated 12 material formulations in small samples and then down-selected to three based on performance and cost. The candidates currently being tested are High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering from Sheffield Hallam University in the United Kingdom, Accelerated Plasma Arc from Phygen Coatings, and Electroless Nickel Plating.

Mulligan said they are all vastly outperforming the chrome plating in terms of corrosion and wear.

To ensure the coatings can withstand the rigors of Soldier use, the ARDEC team then turned to the Aberdeen Test Center at Aberdeen Proving Ground for live-fire testing on a howitzer range.

After the first round of firing, the spindle undergoes 30 days of weathering in a caustic and acidic propellant byproduct, known as swab water, to simulate potential conditions in combat, followed by another round of firing and then a final weathering cycle.

"[Soldiers] use swab water to clean after firing, and sometimes proper maintenance is not done," Mulligan said. "We need to make sure it can withstand the firing environment and still maintain its corrosion resistance. After these are all fired and go through the second 30-day weathering cycle, we're going to put them back through accelerated corrosion testing for a five-day cycle in an environmental chamber, including salt fog as the final step."

Mulligan explained that following one aggressive cycle in the chamber, the chromium coating exhibits severe corrosion.

Senick said the team is constantly searching for new coating technologies and has identified a fourth option from Canada. Funding has recently been secured, and testing will begin within a few months.

"Even though we have engaged on a path forward with these promising alternatives, we continue to monitor trends and advances on the corrosion-mitigation coating field," she said. "We have identified a newly developed promising chemical vapor deposition type coating known as Carbonyl."

After all testing is complete, a final decision on the best process is expected within 90 days.

As the improved coatings extend the life of spindles, the logistical demands on Soldiers will decrease as fewer spare parts will need to be transported and stored. The Army would then buy fewer spindles as the requirement for replacements is reduced.

REDUCING ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARD

Another important aspect of the project is the environmental benefit, Mulligan said. While the current spindle chrome electroplating process is federally permitted and under close engineering controls, it generates a waste stream of hexavalent chrome, which is highly carcinogenic.

The goal is to establish a dry process that allows for a completely clean environmental method, he said.

"There are high costs associated with controlling that hazardous waste, plus the human risk. If we can eliminate the use of chrome electroplating, then we can eliminate the hazardous waste stream associated with it," Mulligan said.

The project aims to comply with a Department of Defense directive issued in April 2009, which mandates the minimization of hexavalent chromium in defense-related industrial base manufacturing, Senick said.

Senick also said that the cost of environmentally friendly processes can often be prohibitive. However, the team was able to overcome this obstacle for the spindle coatings.

"We knew that for an alternative to be even considered, it not only had to be technically qualified but economically suitable," she said. "The coatings under consideration meet this requirement."

SUPPORT FROM FOREIGN COMPARATIVE TESTING PROGRAM

In order to fund the evaluation of foreign processes and materials, the group submitted a proposal through the Foreign Comparative Testing Program. FCT's mission since 1980 has been to find and evaluate "here and now" solutions to meet operational needs.

The Office of the Secretary of Defense's Comparative Technology Office evaluates the proposals and selects candidates for funding. The RDECOM Global Technology Integration Team manages the program for the Army.

Jason Craley, FCT project officer at RDECOM headquarters, said the project has been a success because it accomplishes two objectives concurrently -- cost savings paired with longer equipment life.

FCT also allows Army researchers the flexibility to explore different options without having a pre-determined solution before starting the program, he said. The addition of the Carbonyl coating to the testing plan is a prime example of this flexibility.

"This effort was ahead of its time in emphasizing life-cycle cost reduction when I first worked with Benet Labs to submit the initial FCT proposal, in 2011," Craley said. "Since then, there has been an increased emphasis at the OSD level on affordability through extended service life due to constrained resources. Affordability is one of three OSD focus areas for the current FCT proposal cycle. The other two are interoperability with U.S. allies and new capabilities to counter emerging threats.

"The howitzer breech spindle FCT project is a forerunner to the type of effort that will be an OSD-level priority over the next few years in an era of shrinking budgets."

-----

RDECOM is a major subordinate command of the U.S. Army Materiel Command. AMC is the Army's premier provider of materiel readiness -- technology, acquisition support, materiel development, logistics power projection, and sustainment -- to the total force, across the spectrum of joint military operations. If a Soldier shoots it, drives it, flies it, wears it, eats it or communicates with it, AMC delivers it.

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Air Force R&D group experiments with Google Glass
Apr. 11, 2014 - 12:20PM |


By Heather Kuldell
Staff writer
FILED UNDER
News
Military Technology
An Air Force research and development team is testing how Google Glass could be used in combat zones.

Developed by Google, the low-profile, wearable computer displays contextual information within the user's field of vision and responds to voice commands. People interested in the devices must apply through Google's Glass Explorer program, which requires that applicants are at U.S. residents, at least 18 years old and pay a $1,500 fee. The Battlefield Air Targeting Man-Aided Knowledge (BATMAN) researchers of 711th Human Performance Wing were selected through the standard process and received two pairs of Google Glasses, reports VentureBeat.

The BATMAN researchers are experimenting with many probable battlefield scenarios, including how Google Glass could be used by ground forces to help aircraft acquire targets or how it could work as a communications device between combat controllers and overhead aircraft.

The BATMAN team also is working on proprietary software to enhance the Android operating system that currently powers the glasses, according to VentureBeat.

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450 U.S., Romanian troops in joint military games
Apr. 10, 2014 - 01:17PM |


By Nicolae Dumitrache
The Associated Press
FILED UNDER
News
World News
CAMPIA TARZII MILITARY BASE, ROMANIA — Some 450 U.S. and Romanian troops and technical staff kicked off joint military exercises in northwestern Romania on Thursday, flying U.S. F-16 fighter jets alongside Romanian ones.

Four F-16s and one Romanian MiG-21 LanceR took off from Romania’s Campia Tarzii military base as the Dacian Viper 2014 exercises began. The weeklong exercise at the base 300 kilometers (190 miles) northwest of Bucharest — the fourth of its kind between the two nations— was planned before Russia’s annexation of Crimea last month.

Wing Commander Marian Petrus, commander of 71 Air Base, said Romanian pilots will be trained to fly F-16s.

“The purpose of the exercise is to train in techniques and practices used by NATO armies. The final objective is to raise the level of training for the young pilots,” said Wing Commander Adrian Motorga of the 711 Fighter Squadron.

NATO’s eastern nations have been calling on the alliance to beef up its presence following the annexation and related tensions involving Ukraine. Romania, Ukraine and Russia all border the Black Sea.

NATO has already reinforced its Baltic air patrols and is performing daily AWACs surveillance flights over Poland and Romania. The U.S. said this month it was sending new troops and aircraft to a Romanian base near the Black Sea, a decision made before Russia took control of Crimea.

Romania’s defense ministry signed a deal in October to buy secondhand F-16 fighter jets from Portugal to bring its air force up to NATO standards.

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Bedbug infestation confirmed at Cherry Point barracks
Apr. 10, 2014 - 06:00AM |


By Hope Hodge Seck
Staff writer Marine Corps times
FILED UNDER
News


Officials with Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point confirmed this week that they had verified multiple infestations of bedbugs in an enlisted barracks since August 2013—and they confirmed another infestation Wednesday.

First Lt. Hector Alejandro told Marine Corps Times that the base had investigated and confirmed three reports of bedbugs at Barracks 4169 in the last eight months.

“In each case, it was two adjoining rooms that were reported — and none of the rooms had repeat reports over this period,” he said, via email. “In each case, the reports were investigated [and] confirmed and the rooms were treated for bedbugs. Subsequent inspections of the rooms and adjacent rooms confirmed that the bed bugs were eradicated.”

Marine Corps Times became aware of the bed bugs problem on the base when a Marine sergeant brought the problem to the paper’s attention.

The Marine, who identified himself as a member of Cherry Point’s Marine Wing Headquarters Squadron 2 but asked that his name be withheld because he was not authorized to speak with the media, said he was aware of two bug infestations: one in late December or early January, and one in March.

The first infestation happened when he was serving as a unit liaison for the barracks. He snapped photographs of a bug crawling on one of the beds and ugly bites on the body of one of the infested rooms’ residents.

The problem was reported to the unit command, he said, and the Marines involved were referred to medical attention and moved out of their rooms. Later, the Marine said, he moved into a room next to one that had been infested. He started to notice bites on his body soon afterward. When he reported the problem, he said, he was told to clean all his gear and move into a different room.

But, he said, he was not provided with resources to eradicate the bugs. So, he spent hundreds of dollars of his own money on cleaning supplies , taping his combat gear and clothing into airtight garbage bags. To his knowledge, the Marine said, the other barracks residents had not been informed about the problem, and he said he was frustrated overall with how the Marines had been left to deal with the issue on their own.

“It’s mind-numbing,” he said. “I'm still healing up from some of the bites too.”

Marine officials said the process of dealing with the bugs was more hands-on than the Marine indicated. The eradication process included relocation of Marines to other rooms while their rooms were cleaned and inspected, Alejandro said, and residents of affected rooms were given instructions on how to isolate their clothing and gear until it could be cleaned and inspected.

Flyers were also distributed to room residents on how to inspect and clean their clothing, he said, and Marines in the barracks were informed about about the infestation during a formation and told how to look for the bugs.

“Military barracks are closely inspected at least weekly for neatness and cleanliness,” he said. “These inspections also take into consideration that, as frequent world travelers, military personnel are at greater risk of unknowingly coming into contact with and transporting bedbugs.”

Alejandro did not immediately respond to the Marine’s contention that he had to pay for his own cleaning supplies.

A common blight in hotels and urban residences, bed bugs can be extremely difficult to eradicate, and the Environmental Protection Agency recommends contacting a certified professional to treat the problem.

The most recent reported outbreak on a Marine Corps base was in 2010, when seven barracks rooms aboard Camp Lejeune, N.C. were confirmed to be infested with the bugs. Officials said at the time that it was the first reported outbreak for the base.

Other bases are going to great lengths to avoid such a problem: Marine base Camp Pendleton, Calif. awarded a contract worth more than $228,000 for bedbug-resistant mattresses for its base housing on April 8.

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Air Force faces shortage of engineers
Apr. 12, 2014 - 09:33AM |


By Aaron Mehta
Staff writer Air force Times
FILED UNDER
News
More than any other military service, the Air Force depends on a constant stream of technological improvements and scientific breakthroughs. But according to the service’s chief scientist, a “perfect storm” of personnel issues is endangering the retention and recruitment of top scientific talent.

“When we asked recently across our AFRL [Air Force Research Laboratory] directorates how many of you are afraid of losing people, and know people have résumés on the street, every single hand went up,” Mica Endsley said. “So those are the kind of worries we have. We need to retain the people we’ve got, as well as be able to recruit in new people.”

About 26,000 people work in the Air Force science and engineering career fields, roughly split at 16,000 civilian, 10,000 active duty. Of that total, around 2,800 civilians and 500 military personnel work at Air Force research labs.

Endsley said the service has seen an almost 30 percent loss in the past two years of senior scientists — the chief technicians and other leaders who help guide labs and develop new programs.

“We have a large number of people over 50. We have a larger number of people under 35. Then we have a gap in the middle, where we didn’t recruit very much in the 1990s,” Endsley said. “As we move early retirements in and have senior people leaving, there’s going to be a gap in leadership.”

At the same time, recruitment of young people with technical expertise has become challenging.

The issue isn’t a lack of budget, although like everyone else, the research labs would be happy to accept more funding. The service’s top two officials made it clear at a February event that they recognize the need to protect those investments.

Science and technology funding “is absolutely essential to a service that prides itself on being fueled by innovations, was born of technology and must stay ahead of the technological curve to be successful,” said Gen. Mark Welsh, chief of staff. “So we have to pay a lot of attention to S&T funding. Every funding line we have is coming down, but we can’t slash S&T.”

Those comments were echoed by Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James, who said, “There was an effort to protect these accounts vis-à-vis others.”

Numbers compiled by analytics firm VisualDoD show research and development funding for the Air Force in the proposed fiscal 2015 budget at $23.7 billion. Roughly $2.1 billion is requested for AFRL, a figure slated to grow slightly each year of the five-year future years defense program.

Endsley said she appreciates that the Air Force has tried to protect its investments in science. But she says the issue is more about morale than available funding.

The largest reason for the morale issue? Uncertainty, she said. The sequestered budget forced civilian furloughs in 2013.

The number of active-duty individuals in the S&T realm also concerns the chief scientist. Endsley said she believes the service should develop a separate promotion system for scientists and engineers.

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40 lawmakers seek to halt closure of military fast food outlets
Apr. 10, 2014 - 06:00AM |


By Karen Jowers
Staff writer Army times
FILED UNDER
News
Congress & DOD
Forty lawmakers have signed a letter asking the Labor Department to exempt some military morale, welfare and recreation and exchange operations — such as fast food concessions — from wage regulations affecting federal contractors on military bases.

“Should these policy changes be fully implemented, we are concerned they will eliminate jobs, negatively impact recreational services on military bases, and limit the dining options for service men and women on military installations,” states the April 10 letter, signed by Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee’s personnel panel, Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., chairman of the House Education and the Workforce Committee; and 38 others.

McDonald’s restaurants already have closed on three Navy bases, and Marine Corps officials have said one will close on a Marine Corps base. Another eatery, “I Love Country,” has closed at Naval Station Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

“Such a drastic policy change should have received thorough examination,” Wilson said in a statement announcing the letter. “In light of recent spending reductions targeted towards military installations, now is not the time to reduce support services our military families have grown to depend upon. Additionally, this government mandate threatens to destroy jobs at a time when American workers need them most.”

At issue are recently implemented Labor Department rules for fast food workers on federal contracts under the Service Contract Act that require an increase in their minimum wage, varying by region.

The rules also require payment of new, additional “health and welfare” benefits at a rate of $3.81 per hour. The Navy’s waiver request noted that in six areas in Florida, California and Virginia, the increase in the hourly wage ranged from 72 percent to 76 percent.

For example, in one area in California, the prior wage rate of $7.25 per hour has increased to $12.79 per hour with the regional increase and the $3.81 health and welfare benefits addition.

More closures may come unless relief is granted. Navy and Marine Corps exchange officials estimate that up to 390 fast food concession operations would close on installations across the U.S. and its territories, which would result in the loss of jobs for nearly 5,750 employees, according to an April 8 letter to Labor Department officials signed by Russell Beland, deputy assistant secretary of the Navy for military manpower and personnel, asking for exemption from the wage regulations.

These contracts are negotiated for different bases at different times, so the effects will be seen incrementally. The Navy and Marine Corps exchange systems already have suspended 74 contracts for “new concepts,” according to the Navy letter.

Many family members and veterans are employed by the fast food restaurants.

Officials of the two exchange services estimate a combined loss of about $27 million a year in profits associated with food service sales alone. The companies that build and operate the restaurants on base make payments to the exchange systems.

Concessionaires can’t increase their prices on bases as a way to mitigate their increased labor costs, the lawmakers noted. “Price increases are not allowable under most contracts because they cannot charge more for similar services within a specified radius of a military installation,” the letter states.

And fast food restaurants outside base gates are not bound by the minimum wage rules associated with the federal contracts.

The increased cost from the new rules eliminates any profit potential fast food concessionaires might have had, the Navy’s Beland said in his letter, and puts them “in an impossible business dilemma insofar as performing under his concession agreement.”

One company told the Navy that “a restaurant on a military base is not paid by the federal government; it relies on the revenue it receives from its customers, and provides revenue payments to the military exchange systems that help support MWR programs. … Dramatically increasing costs for restaurants operating on base will simply result in the closure of those facilities over time because they will no longer be profitable.”

An exemption is necessary to avoid serious effects on the exchanges’ operations, and on the amount of money the exchanges contribute to MWR, Beland said.

In 2012, 32 percent of Navy exchange profits came from food services in the U.S. and its territories, as did 17 percent of Marine Corps exchange profits.

Both the Navy and Marine Corps exchange systems contribute about 70 percent of their profits to MWR programs.

“Contracted operations for fast food and other services are a key aspect of these operations and provide much needed and desired services for our military personnel while generating tens of millions of dollars to underwrite vital community support programs,” the lawmakers wrote.

If Labor Department officials do not grant exemptions, the wage-related issues may intensify next year as a result of an executive order signed Feb. 12 by President Obama.

The order will raise the minimum wage for federal contracts from $7.25 to $10.10 per hour for employees working on new and renegotiated federal contracts beginning Jan. 1. That means all federal contract employees on military bases — including those working in fast food establishments — would earn $13.91 per hour.

“We applaud the effort of Chairman Wilson to provide relief to the exchanges,” said an industry source. “A number of factors are converging on the exchanges that inhibit their ability to provide goods and services to military families.”

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Pentagon seeks more funds to counter bio weapons
Apr. 10, 2014 - 02:01PM |


By Ray Locker
USA Today
FILED UNDER
News
Congress & DOD
The Pentagon wants to spend more money on a secret program to track weapons of mass destruction because of new information showing an increased need to locate chemical and biological weapons, military budget plans show.

The increased funding for the Nimble Elder program of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) is “driven by recent classified DoD guidance,” according to DTRA’s budget plans, which were released in March.

Nimble Elder, Pentagon documents show, involves WMD-tracking teams that work with combatant commands around the world to either deploy rapidly to crisis spots around the world or are already based in those areas. They collaborate with technical support groups to “provide the (combatant commands) and other U.S. government agencies with the capability to counter WMD threats.”

DTRA officials want an extra $6.8 million for “low-visibility Chemical/Biological search” that would meet “specific Combatant Command requirements,” the budget document shows.

DTRA officials declined to comment, saying Nimble Elder is classified.

The threat from biological weapons is real and growing, said Gerald Parker, vice president for public health preparedness and response at Texas A&M University’s Health Science Center.

“Biological weapons are a considerable threat that we need to pay attention to and develop new capabilities that are able to respond to bio threats,” said Parker, a former deputy assistant secretary of Defense for chemical and biological defense. “Bio threats can emanate from state-sponsored and non-state-sponsored programs.”

The budget document contains the amount of extra funding the agency is seeking but not the total amount spent on the program. It also did not specify the source of the latest concern.

“It’s become a lot easier to manufacture these (biological weapons),” said Christopher Bidwell, a senior fellow in non-proliferation law and policy at the Federation of American Scientists. “It’s cheaper, there’s more knowledge being transferred and the gene sequence” for creating a biological agent “has gone from costing millions of dollars per sequence to a few thousand.”

Nimble Elder was expanded in 2011 to include technical support groups for Central Command, which oversees troops in Afghanistan, and Africa Command, which has been playing a greater role in fighting throughout that continent. DTRA records show the Central Command group is manned and equipped, while that for Africa is about 75 percent done.

The technical support teams work with DTRA’s operations center, which coordinates with various government laboratories around the country.

Bidwell said it’s unclear why DTRA is seeking more money but added that “maybe there are alternative explanations beyond threat that would cause the Pentagon to ask for more money for the program.”

Another indication of the Pentagon’s focus on biological weapons is found in the budget plans for DTRA’s Cooperative Threat Reduction program, which works to reduce the WMD threat with governments around the world. The Pentagon plans to cut overall spending on the program in the 2015 fiscal year from $500 million to $365 million, but its planned spending for biological weapons tracking will remain virtually the same from year to year.

DTRA is the primary military agency tracking weapons of mass destruction. In February, it announced a call for “researchers who can find small organic molecule inhibitors that can either slow or kill the growing number of drug-resistant bacteria, including the 11 pathogens on the government’s Tier 1 list” of most dangerous pathogens.

“There are a few pathogens that can keep me awake at night,” Parker said. “One of those is anthrax,” whose agent, Bacillus anthracis, is on the Tier 1 list. “The consequences of an effectively delivered anthrax as an intentional attack would only need a kilogram quantity to produce casualties in the tens of thousands if effectively produced and effectively delivered in an aerosol device.”

Contributing: Kendall Breitman, USA Today.

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Corps wants crisis response unit in western Africa
Apr. 12, 2014 - 10:08AM |
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Africa Partnership Station 13
Senegalese marine commandos and U.S. Marines conduct training in September. Many African nations are open to a greater U.S. presence in their countries. (Sgt. Marco Mancha/Marine Corps)

By Hope Hodge Seck
Staff writer
FILED UNDER
News
World News
A move to relocate the Marine Corps’ crisis response unit from Europe to a nation in western Africa may be completed within the next two years, Marine Corps brass said last week.

Special-Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force Crisis Response, created last April in the wake of the terrorist attack on a U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, operates out of Morón, Spain. But Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Jim Amos told a crowd at the Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space Expo on April 7 that officials are working to get the unit closer to potential crises.

“If you drop straight down to the Gulf of Guinea, this is where we hope to be sometime within the next year or two,” he said. “There’s a great need, as you look at the Gulf of Guinea and you go east — that part of central and south Africa — if something happens in that part of the world, then it will be very difficult for U.S. forces to get down there.”

Later in the week, Maj. Gen. Raymond Fox, commander of Marine Corps Forces Africa , expanded on these plans, saying that the Marine Corps had specific countries in mind that might be able to host the unit in the future.

“It would certainly be ideal, assuming that Africa is important to the U.S., assuming that there’s going to be instability problems in Africa, that we very slowly start ... operating in places like Senegal, and maybe a little farther south,” he said. “I’m not going to name any countries ... but there’s places we’re looking at, and the governments are supportive, and the U.S. State Department is warming up to the idea, and we will over time [secure] places we can operate out of to get closer to the problem.”

While there are some Marines in Liberia, he said, that country is not geographically the right location for the mission.

Other countries in the region include Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, and Sierra Leone; another seven countries surround the Gulf of Guinea.

Fox told Marine Corps Times he saw the timeline for such a move possibly stretching five or more years into the future as the U.S. worked with African nations to secure the agreements and permissions necessary. Talk of a base in western Africa, he said, is still early.

“Everyone gets really concerned about the ‘B’ word, because that’s a whole government thing,” he said. “So we’re never talking about that. We’re just talking about getting used to going places.”

As part of that strategy, Fox said, SP-MAGTF Africa, based in Sigonella, Italy, would increase use of MV-22 Ospreys in theater security missions, and work to help nations in the region get used to seeing Marines and their equipment.

“Next time we’re going down to Senegal to do that work, we’re going to fly them down there in V-22s. So what we get out of it is, they see V-22s, we give the ambassador a ride, their chief of defense a ride, they’re happy. So the next time they see us, they say, ‘Hey, OK.’ ”

The building of these trust relationships, he said, would not take place overnight.

“This is going to take a long time to get everybody sensitized,” he said. “But we’ve made great strides.”

The 800-strong SP-MAGTF Crisis Response, with a complement of V-22s and KC-130J Super Hercules heavy lift aircraft, has demonstrated its mettle in a handful of crises in its 12 months of existence. Most notably, the unit was called into Juba, South Sudan, in December to evacuate a U.S. embassy amid deteriorating security conditions.

Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. John Paxton pointed out last week that, even with midair refueling and a quick response force, it took more than 15 hours for Marines with the unit to fly from Morón to a forward position in Entebbe, Uganda, in anticipation of the evacuation mission.

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Jura said:

Have you heard of the Multi-mission Combat Ship?

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TerraN_EmpirE said:

we have tal... Posted about a number of times particularly after the Navy moved to stop LCS and move to a frigate as both General dynamics Independence class and Lockheed martin's Freedom class have variants based on this. Basicly the second both makers cooked up there LCS designs the architects looked at each other and then there boss who looked them in they eye and said "draw larger export and follow ons" that's what these ship concepts represent stretched up gunned LCS frigates.

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