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Jura said:

Today at 9:23 AM
now A Pentagon budget like none before: $700 billion

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A new

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in Congress, coupled with the fiscal year 2019 budget, has given the Pentagon the ramp it needs to begin reshaping the U.S. military, defense secretary Jim Mattis believes.

“I am very confident that what the Congress has now done, and the president is going to allocate to us in the budget, is what we need to bring us back to a position of primacy,” Mattis said while traveling to Europe on Sunday. Defense News is traveling with the secretary.

When he took office, President Donald Trump pledged to

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, but

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was largely viewed by analysts as falling well short of that goal. Exacerbating that problem has been Congress’ inability to reach a budget deal through the first five months of the fiscal year.

That latter problem appears to have solved itself, with Trump signing off on a congressional deal that gives defense $700 billion in FY18 and $716 billion for FY19. And with the FY19 budget set for release Monday, Mattis is prepared to spend that money – with an eye on building up capability, rather than investing in pure numbers.

“We’re going to have to buy some new F-18s, for example, in order to keep the F-18s squadrons where they can be maintained,” Mattis said. “We will be standing up some new elements, cyber is one example, and we will be recruiting more mechanics in the Air Force and recruiting more soldiers and sailors” to fill out gaps.

“So, it’s not a lot bigger, organizationally. It’s built more to address the changing forms of warfare and to bring the current capabilities up.”

Susanna Blume, a defense analyst with the Center for a New American Security, said she believes a focus on capability over capacity makes sense, even if it goes against Trump’s promise of a large military buildup.

“Even this considerable increase in resources, and it is considerable, is not going to allow the department to approach the campaign promise for structure numbers that then-candidate Trump put out there,” Blume said on Feb. 9.

“In an environment where we’re trying to shift focus to strategic competition with China and Russia, it makes very little sense, to me at least, to focus on number of soldiers and number of ships and number of aircraft without carefully thinking through the capabilities,” she added.

The development of the FY19 budget was complicated by an ongoing series of reviews, including the

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, the National Defense Strategy released in January and the Nuclear Posture Review released in February. The Ballistic Missile Defense Review is still ongoing and could be released in the next month.

Because those policy papers were being developed simultaneous with the budget, deputy secretary of defense Patrick Shanahan has said that it won’t be until FY20 that the true “

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” budget is released. But Mattis noted that the National Security Council team that drafted the National Security Strategy kept DoD firmly in the loop, allowing the department to incorporate at least some of those decisions into its budget plan.

“We were in on the ground floor. We saw different graphs, we went in with our inputs and all, at the same time we were putting together our National Defense Strategy,” the secretary explained. “Our budgeteers were getting constant guidance as the National Security Strategy [and] National Defense Strategy were put together. So this all feeds into the longer term view that’s already couched inside the defense strategy.”

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Lockheed Martin delivered its 400th C-130J on 9 Feb'18. The MC-130J Commando II (16-5835, c/n 382-5835), will be assigned 1st Special Operations Wing at Hurlburt Field (FL) and will be converted to AC-130J Ghostride

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Jura said:

Yesterday at 8:52 AM
and related is some way is Trump expected to nominate head of US Fleet Forces Command for top post in Pacific
source is DefenseNews

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The U.S. Navy is getting larger and adding an extra ship to its fleet in 2019,

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, but the total shipbuilding budget request seems to make little headway toward a

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called for in a review last year.

The Navy’s base budget request is $151.4 billion, with $15 billion in overseas contingency operations funding split with the Marine Corps. The total Department of the Navy budget request is $194.1 billion, including OCO.

Overall, the budget request represents a 7 percent bump over fiscal 2018, according to budget documents provided by the Navy.

The service is asking for $21.9 billion for shipbuilding with a total of 10 ships, just one more than the nine requested in 2018. That number includes plans to buy two Virginia-class attack submarines, three Flight III Arleigh Burke destroyers and a single littoral combat ship.

The Navy plans to stop buying littoral combat ships and start buying the FFG(X) in 2020, according to the future-year defense planning projections in the budget request.

The Navy does plan to be close to 300 ships by the end of 2019, up from 280 ships as of Feb. 12, 2017, according to the Navy’s website. Much of the growth will come from littoral combat ships coming online. The service is also planning to maintain its pace of buying an aircraft carrier every five years, with a carrier slated for 2023 in the future-year defense planning projections, or FYDP.

The Navy is also planning to add sailors to its ranks, asking for a plus-up of about 7,500 sailors over last year’s request, setting 2019 end strength at 335,400. The Navy plans to continue to grow end strength through 2023, projecting growth of 344,800.

For aircraft, the Navy is asking for $19 billion, a figure which includes 24 F/A-18 Super Hornets in 2019 and has another 86 planned for the FYDP.

The Navy is planning to buy nine F-35Cs and the Marine Corps plans to pick up another 20 of the vertical-launch F-35Bs in 2019. The Navy’s buying strategy for the F-35C picks up in 2020 with 16 slated for purchase and then 24 every year from 2021 through 2023 for a total of 97 in the FYDP.

Procurement of the MQ-25 Stingray, an aerial unmanned tanker currently in development, is slated to begin in 2023, the last year of the FYDP.

The Navy also plans to keep its foot on the gas with the Virginia-class fast-attack submarine program, which includes two of the subs in 2019, the year the Navy plans to buy the first Columbia-class. The Columbia-class sub is destined to replace the Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine.

The Navy had been calling for maintaining the pace of two Virginians per year, even on years they plan to buy the Columbia-class boats — a departure from the service’s last 30-year shipbuilding plan.

Weapons, R&D and more

In the weapons category, the Navy is planning to buy eight of the new over-the-horizon weapons for the littoral combat ship in 2019, with a total of 64 planned in the FYDP. That missile is widely expected to be the Raytheon-Kongsberg Naval Strike Missile. A decision will likely be announced this summer.

The Navy plans to keep up the pace with the SM-6 missile, planning for 125 of them per year through the next five years. The budget also plans for 45 Evolved Seasparrow Missiles, with a total of 705 through the FYDP.

On the aviation side, the Navy plans to buy 25 long-range anti-surface missiles in 2019, with a total of 75 in the FYDP. There are none planned after 2021.

The plan also calls for 75 joint air-to-ground missiles with 838 total in the FYDP.

The Navy is investing $705 million in research and development for the Columbia-class submarine. For the Navy’s future frigate, the budget requests $135 million, which the Navy says is needed for a “reassessment” of the capabilities needed. Funding will support warfare systems engineering, design and planning efforts.

The Navy’s total operations and maintenance funding is set at $41.4 billion, a drop from FY18 but still up from the last Obama budget, which asked for $38.2 billion.

The oft-shafted military construction budget for the Navy and Marine Corps is up from $1.8 billion to $2.5 billion.

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Jura said:

Yesterday at 12:58 PM

Aloha! anybody interested in
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Jura said:

Yesterday at 12:58 PM

Aloha! anybody interested in
US Military News, Reports, Data, etc.
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Laser skeptics sometimes note that laser proponents over the years have made numerous predictions about when lasers might enter service with DOD, and that these predictions repeatedly have not come to pass. Viewing this record of unfulfilled predictions, skeptics might argue that “lasers are X years in the future—and always will be.”

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The U.S. Army is going to assess the possibility of putting a 50-kilowatt laser onto its

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objective solution in less than five years, according to the service’s fiscal 2019 budget justification documents released Feb. 12.


“As part of the objective solution, the 50 kilowatt laser will be assessed for possible transition from Science and Technology to an objective M-SHORAD program in FY2022,” the document reads.

Fiscal 2019 dollars — a total of $118 million combining both base and overseas contingency operations accounts — would be used to develop an interim solution and an objective manuever SHORAD, or M-SHORAD, family of systems. The objective solution will be capable of defeating fixed-wing, rotary-wing, and unmanned aircraft systems from small all the way up to Shadow-sized UAS as well as indirect fires threats.

It’s been roughly two years since

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, acknowledging both the growing threat of small drones observed on the Ukrainian border by the Russian military and the realization that a key assumption held by the U.S. military for years that it will have air dominance against adversaries will undeniably be challenged.

That reality has even led the Army to identify air defense as one of its

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, with SHORAD being the top priority within that category.

The Army has taken critical steps to rapidly fill the capability gap in Europe with Avenger SHORAD units resident only in the National Guard, rapidly deploying them to the region attached to a rotational armored brigade combat team. The Avenger unit — one of the battalions out of the South Carolina National Guard’s 263rd Army Air and Missile Defense Command — is set to deploy this month.

At the same time, the service began to look at interim solutions to fill the gap with a plan to ultimately develop a new SHORAD system down the road.

And companies with possible solutions have come out of the woodwork even from

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and South Korea. Several contractors participated in a demonstration at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, in September 2017 to inform the Army of existing capabilities that could work for SHORAD.

The Army has already successfully demonstrated

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— the Mobile Expeditionary High-Energy Laser (MEHEL) — at the Maneuver Fires Integrated Experiment (MFIX) 2017.

At the same time, the Army has taken delivery of a

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and will integrate it onto the a Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck (HEMTT) that will become the High Energy Laser Mobile Test Truck.

But before the Army even thinks about lasers, it needs to choose an interim solution and begin work on a future program-of-record SHORAD system.

In FY19, the service will continue interim M-SHORAD capability development and integration of “the identified solution” into existing maneuver formation equipment. Funding includes building and testing 12 prototypes.

The plan is to ultimately field up to three M-SHORAD battalions. The interim solution is expected to reach an initial operational capability at the end of FY21.

The Army will also complete an analysis of alternatives for its objective SHORAD family of systems and begin concept development within the technology development phase of the program.

The service plans to award funds in the second quarter of FY20 for competitive development of objective M-SHORAD variants with a demonstration from multiple vendors during a technology maturation and risk reduction phase. The service will downselect in FY21.

The Army plans to reach the engineering and manufacturing development phase of its program of record in the second quarter of FY22.

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The head of the U.S. Pacific Command said Wednesday that the United States is hampered in keeping pace with China’s ground-based missiles thanks to treaties it has signed to limit its stockpiles.

In particular, the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty between the United States and Russia is “self-limiting,” Adm. Harry Harris told the House Armed Services Committee, particularly since “over 90 percent of China’s ground-based missiles would violate the treaty.”

The Cold War-era pact bans nuclear and conventional ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges of 500 to 5,500 kilometers. Both Moscow and Washington accuse the other of violating the treaty.

Harris did not advocate for the United States to pull out of the treaty, but his pointed comments will no doubt be noted both in Moscow and Beijing, as the Pentagon moves out on a new military buildup to counter the technological military advances being made by those two countries.

In particular, Harris expressed alarm over Chinese advances in hypersonic missiles, which could be fired and hit U.S. aircraft carriers and land bases in the Pacific almost before American radars could pick them up.

“We need to continue to pursue that in a most aggressive way,” and “develop our own hypersonic offensive weapons,” Harris said.

In photos leaked last month, it appears that the Chinese navy is preparing to test a ship-mounted hypersonic railgun, which would be capable of launching projectiles along electrically-charged rails. Testing done by the U.S. Navy has sown that such projectiles could reach speeds of up to 7,800 km an hour, with a range of up to 150 km.

Harris also took something of a contrarian view of the motivations of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, telling the panel that the mercurial leader isn’t building ballistic missiles and a nuclear capability merely to deter the United States, but “I do think that he is after reunification [of the Korean peninsula] under a single communist system.”

North Korea’s advances in its nuclear and ballistic capabilities are “rapidly closing the gap between rhetoric and capability,” Harris warned. “The Republic of Korea and Japan have been living under the shadow of [North Korea’s] threats for years, and now the shadow looms over the American homeland.”

To counter those threats, the admiral advocated for putting ballistic missile interceptor silos on Hawaii, while discounting the effectiveness of the Aegis Ashore and THAAD systems in protecting Hawaii in the event of a North Korean ballistic missile attack.

Harris has been in the Navy for nearly four decades and has led the U.S. Pacific Command since May 2015. Last week, the Trump administration announced Harris’ nomination to be U.S. ambassador to Australia. The post requires Senate confirmation.

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Air Force Academy leader: Why diversity?
By Jay Silveria

Updated 7:52 AM ET, Wed February 14, 2018

Lt. Gen. Jay Silveria is the superintendent of the US Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his.

(CNN)A few months ago, I stood in front of more than 4,000 Air Force Academy cadets and delivered a simple message in response to a racist incident that occurred at our preparatory school: If you can't treat someone with dignity and respect -- get out.

Ultimately, it turned out that one of the individuals thought to be a victim had actually perpetrated the incident. True to my message, that individual is no longer at the preparatory school because their actions, regardless of race or intentions, were counter to the culture of dignity and respect we demand at the United States Air Force Academy.

The short speech went viral and put our academy at the center of an ongoing national dialogue on race. I was honored to receive letters of support from airmen and military members, congressmen and congresswomen, senior US and allied officers, and individuals around the world. These letters may have been addressed to me, but they universally spoke of their respect and admiration for our academy, our cadets, and the men and women who work here.

That incident led me to some sober reflection, where I pondered an important question as both a military commander and the leader of an academic institution: Why is diversity so important?

My commitment to diversity as an ideal of our service is born from a humble belief that as people, not just airmen, we should treat each other with dignity and respect. We must embrace the full spectrum of our humanity, perspectives and experiences.

We come to the Air Force from across the country and around the globe, each of us with varied backgrounds and experiences, which are vital to how we exchange ideas, challenge assumptions and broaden our horizons. Diversity is one of the truest reflections of our nation's ideals, and part of the fabric of our military. It is crucial, not because it is in vogue, but because it makes us better, stronger and more effective as a fighting force.

As airmen we have a single mission: Fight and win the nation's wars, be it in the sky or in space and even cyberspace. Our best measure of success is the effectiveness we deliver on the battlefield, or the war we prevent because of our collective skill. We have to be singularly dedicated to that mission and how we achieve it, which means that when we consider the attributes of an individual member of our team, it must be through an objective lens of professionalism, where the only thing that matters is how he or she contributes to our strength and effectiveness.

Diversity makes Air Force more effective

In the face of rising threats we need each and every member of our team at his or her best. Keeping talented people out of the fight because we do not value diversity makes the Air Force less effective. Similarly, when members of our team demean, harass, haze, or assault one another it degrades our capabilities.

I spent the last year in command of the air war against ISIS at United States Central Command, which oversees military efforts in the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia. Make no mistake, the modern battlefield is more complex and moves faster than ever. We don't have time for distractions or for small-minded people.

Against ISIS, we are waging a war using the most sophisticated and interconnected combat power in history. But our real advantage is the intellect, innovation, creativity and courage of our troops. If any among us thinks these qualities are defined by race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation or identity or any other factor of the human condition, then the Air Force Academy and our military is not the place for them.

The link between diversity and victory does not exist in the abstract. It is real and has been proven throughout history. From 1941 to 1946, in the small, segregated town of Tuskegee, Alabama, black Americans trained to become fighter pilots. They would form the 332nd Fighter Group and serve in the Europe, where they overcame the racism inherent in the WWII Army Air Corps to amass an impressive record.

Over their 15,000 sorties, the Tuskegee Airmen's professionalism, valor and airmanship earned the respect of the B-17 crews they escorted. More importantly, the bomber formations they guarded suffered fewer losses than those escorted by other units, which meant more of their bombers made it to their targets in Germany and back home again. They made the 15th Air Force more lethal, and their contributions were pivotal in the outcome of World War II.

While the Tuskegee Airmen would influence the battle in Europe, the Native American Code Talkers would help the Allies prevail in the Pacific. Approximately 500 Native Americans would enlist in the United States Marine Corps during World War II and use their native languages to encrypt vital communications during combat.

Since the code was just an application of their native language it did not require special equipment and it improved the speed and accuracy of communication on the battlefield. Furthermore, this unique code, which utilized the diversity of America, was never cracked and allowed innumerable critical communications to take place among the Allies, free from the fear of information falling into the Axis powers' hands.

The Allies eventually broke the code of the German Enigma machines, intercepting and exploiting vital information -- a secure communications disparity that would prove crucial to Allied victory in the war. Leveraging our unique talents born from our diversity can offer advantages that even the greatest technologies cannot overcome.
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