BALTOPS 2023. The 52nd NATO Baltic Operations (BALTOPS) 2023 maritime exercise is set to start in Tallinn, Estonia on June 4, lasting through June 16. The alliance’s primary Baltic region maritime exercise will feature 19 member states, one partner nation, 50 ships, over 45 aircraft and 6,000 personnel, the Navy 6th Fleet said in a statement. Participants include Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the U.S. Notably, this will be the first time Finland is included as a NATO member state rather than a long-running participating partner country, since it joined the alliance this year. BALTOPs will be led by U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa/6th Fleet but it will be commanded and controlled by Naval Striking and Support Forces NATO (STRIKFORNATO), headquartered in Oeiras, Portugal.
…USV Ops.
The 6th Fleet noted BALTOPS 2023 will for the first time include training in personnel recovery using unmanned surface vehicles. “BALTOPS remains an alliance proving ground, and is vital for honing the leading edge of combined interoperability in mine countermeasures, unmanned surface vehicle operations, and integrated maritime and air operations,” the command said. The Navy said these changes along with other underwater and space domain operations will build on the BALTOPS 2022 scenario story lines, like integrating the NATO Space Center.
NATO’s Eastern Flank. As Ukraine continues its effort to repel the Russian assault, the U.S. Air Force said on May 30 that Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Block 40 Global Hawks in the 7th Reconnaissance Squadron are supporting NATO’s eastern flank. The squadron at Sicily’s Naval Air Station (NAS) Sigonella is under the 319th Reconnaissance Wing at Grand Forks AFB, N.D. While Air Force personnel at NAS Sigonella control the Global Hawks for take-off and landing, a pilot and sensor operator from the 348th Reconnaissance Squadron at Grand Forks take the handoff from Sigonella during flight. The Sigonella Global Hawks support U.S. European Command, Central Command, and Africa Command missions. Air Force Maj. Benjamin Buckley, the assistant director of operations for the 7th Reconnaissance Squadron, said in an Air Force statement that the squadron “recently tested our mission capabilities of Agile Combat Employment for the very first time as an enterprise in Europe by moving personnel, maintenance equipment and an RQ-4 to Larissa Air Base, Greece, and partnered with the Hellenic Air Force to exercise new patterns and skills at a dynamic location.”
Super Hornet Materials. The Navy awarded Boeing a $200 million modification on June 1 covering “critical” long lead material and associated efforts to help maintain the full-rate production timeline for “congressionally added F/A-18E/F aircraft.” Congress added 20 more F/A-18E/F Super Hornets to the Navy’s account than it requested in the FY 2022 and 2023 budget bills at a value of $977 million for 12 in FY ‘22 and $600 million for eight in FY ‘23, while Congress seems ready to finally end procurement with no F/A-18s in the FY ‘24 budget process. The Navy had been trying to end the production line for those years in order to redirect funds into Super Hornet modernization/life extension and the Next Generation Air Dominance program instead. The Navy is obligated to buy these fighters by Congress, but it has not yet executed the contracts. This work will largely be split among El Segundo, Calif. (69 percent), and St. Louis, Mo. (20 percent), and is expected to be finished by June 2025.
BAE Partnering Up. BAE Systems has launched Mission Advantage, a program where its Intelligence & Security Sector partners with companies in the areas of enterprise information technology, emerging technology, research and development, and collaborative innovation networks to bring “cutting edge technologies” to its customers. Existing partners include companies such as Amazon Web Services, Intel, IBM, Dell, Nvidia, Microsoft and Red Hat. “This program will allow us to respond faster to evolving customer requirements and to address their most complex national security challenges,” said Daniel Perkins, director of strategy and technology partnerships for BAE Intelligence & Security.
Formidable Shield. U.S. 6th Fleet and STRIKFORNATO finished Formidable Shield 2023 on May 23, Europe’s largest integrated air and missile defense exercise. It took place over a 1,000 nautical mile space from Northern Norway to the west coast of Scotland with several NATO member and partner states, over 20 ships and 25 aircraft and almost 4,000 personnel. During the exercise, participants fired 30 missiles across 23 live-fire scenarios to target subsonic and supersonic targets. One early event included U.S. Navy P-8A Poseidon, Spanish Navy Álvaro de Bazán-class frigate ESPS Blas De Lezo and Royal Danish Navy Absalon-class frigate HDMS Esbern Snare simultaneously engaging a maritime target with Harpoon anti-ship missiles. Other events included NATO forces tracking and cueing ballistic missile targets while simultaneously engaging subsonic and supersonic missile targets with Aster-15s and Aster-30s, Standard Missile-2, and Evolved Sea Sparrow Missiles.
GM Defense/C-UAS. GM Defense has teamed up with technology firm Black Sage to work on developing counter-drone solutions for use on the company’s military vehicle platforms. The agreement was announced at this week’s Canadian Association of Defense and Security Industries (CANSEC) 2023 conference, where GM Defense showcased its four-seat multi-mission and logistics variant Infantry Squad Vehicle (ISV) equipped with Black Sage’s Sawtooth C-UAS system, which it said has capabilities for data fusion, automated target recognition, threat evaluation and ISR functionalities. “Our teaming agreement with Black Sage helps us offer greater flexibility to warfighters while continuing to develop mobility solutions that perform in diverse environments. This collaboration enables GM Defense and Black Sage to leverage the synergies of our respective companies, extend battlefield capabilities and showcase solutions that can drive mission readiness,” Steve duMont, president of GM Defense, said in a statement. GM Defense is currently providing the ISV to the U.S. Army, with the program approved for full-rate production in April.
HII Promotions. HII’s Newport News Shipbuilding on May 31 announced it promoted three leaders to fill upcoming retirements, effective July 1. Rob Check will become vice president of in-service aircraft carrier programs; Thomasina Wright will become vice president of fleet support programs; and Les Smith will take over as vice president of Enterprise (CVN-80) and Doris Miller (CVN-81) aircraft carrier programs. These personnel will succeed the retiring Todd West, NNS vice president of in-service aircraft carrier (RCOH) programs; Gary Fuller, NNS vice president of fleet support programs; and Ron Murray, NNS vice president of quality, who all started their careers in the 1980s. NNS president Jennifer Boykin also announced related leadership changes in dealing with the succession of Murray. Julia Jones, vice president of manufacturing, will succeed Murray as vice president of quality while Brian Fields, vice president of Enterprise (CVN-80) and Doris Miller (CVN-81) aircraft carrier programs, will take over as vice president of manufacturing.
…And Mission Technologies. HII Mission Technologies division also announced on June 1 Garry Schwartz was promoted as the division’s chief operating officer while Todd Gentry was promoted to president of the C5ISR business group. Both of the officials report to HII Mission Technologies president Andy Green. Schwartz previously served in leadership positions at SAIC and Alion Science and Technology while Gentry was previously the senior vice president at the C5ISR business group, having joined the company in 2019. Before joining HII, Gentry was the director of the advanced aviation assessment portfolio under the Army’s Aviation and Missile Command.
Israeli Buy Philosophy. Director of the Israel Missile Defense Organization Moshe Patel recently said his organization’s acquisition philosophy is different from the U.S. in that they need to deploy as soon as possible and improve later. The Israeli government believes “that we need to have something good enough that it will be faster deployed. And in order to bring it to completeness, we will do it on the run. And while we are achieving a sprint experience in a combat lesson, though, this is the philosophy and this is something that we’re doing. [Through] today, it was very, very helpful,” Patel said during a Center for Strategic and International Studies event on May 30. He noted they act differently from the U.S. “because our threat is immediate and we need to deploy as soon as possible and to be ahead of the threat.”
Rocky Mountain High. As the Department of the Air Force remains mum on a timeline for a decision on whether U.S. Space Command will remain at Peterson Space Force Base, Colo., or move to Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Ala., Colorado looks to get three space organizations full-time. Activated in March, the U.S. Space Force’s Space Delta 15—a command and control group that supports the National Space Defense Center—“is expected to be permanently based at Schriever Space Force Base,” the Department of the Air Force said. In addition, the new 75th Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Squadron (ISR) is to be at Schriever, while the 74th ISR Squadron, activated last November, is to be based at Peterson. The two ISR squadrons are to support Space Delta 7. The 74th provides tactical space threat analysis and intelligence, and the 75th is charged with “the federated targeting mission through orbital targeting sections focusing on integrating kinetic and non-kinetic targeting for the Joint Force across several orbital regimes,” the Department of the Air Force said.
Polar Star Fixes. The Coast Guard’s sole heavy polar icebreaker, the Polar Star, is undergoing the third of five planned phases of its service life extension program (SLEP), beginning with operational tests and cable installation for a new fire detection system. The current work is being done by Mare Island Dry Dock at the Polar Star’s homeport in Seattle. Once the initial SLEP work is finished, the ship is slated early in June to move to a dry dock in Vallejo, Calif., for fire detection, communications, electrical controls and salinity cells upgrades. Work is scheduled to be completed in early October.
Red 6 Capital Raise. Augmented reality company Red 6 has completed a $70 million Series B financing round led by RedBird Capital Partners that will allow the company to continue to invest in its proprietary technology that supports its Advanced Tactical Augmented Reality System (ATARS) that delivers a multi-node synthetic training environment for multiple users. Some of the other investors in the funding round included Boeing’s AEI Horizon X, Lockheed Martin Ventures, the United Kingdom’s National Security Strategic Investment Fund, and Robert Downey Jr.’s Downey Labs. The ATARS allows pilots to fly in an aircraft and simulate training with synthetic technologies.
FMD in with pureLiFI. Fairbanks Morse Defense last week said it has signed an exclusive reseller agreement in the U.S. with Britain’s pureLiFi, allowing the Wisconsin-based naval supplier to offer the secure, mobile wireless light communications technology for ship maintainers. PureLiFi’s technology coupled with FMD’s FM Onboard capability provides secure connectivity at sea “enabling technicians to securely communicate from the engine room with live, remote technicians who can help troubleshoot any issues,” says FMD’s CEO George Whittier. Ship maintainers and technicians equipped with a head-worn Microsoft HoloLens mixed-reality device can see a digital twin of a system they are working on, such as an engine, allowing them to view its health status and provide instructions for fixes. For pureLiFi, the deal transitions the company’s technology beyond its current land-based uses.
Gov Services. Boeing’s services segment has been enjoying strong growth amid a post-pandemic rebound in air traffic and while the gains have been driven by the commercial side of the business, there has been a bit of a comeback in government services, Torbjorn “Turbo” Sjogren, vice president and general manager of government services within Boeing Global Services, said recently. With geopolitics evolving in a very rapid manner, we’re getting very strong demand signals from the United States Navy and Air Force particularly in terms of readiness, and then equally outside the United States,” he told reporters in late May during a media tour of Boeing’s defense headquarters. Germany’s recent order for 60 Boeing-built CH-47F Chinook helicopters will also benefit the services business immediately, he said. Supply chain disruptions stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic are tamping down some on growth, he added.
Dutch FMS. The Statement Department last Friday said it approved a potential $110 million foreign military sale (FMS) to the Netherlands for MK-41 vertical launch systems that will be supplied by Lockheed Martin. The Netherlands wants eight eight-cell MK 41 VLS Baseline VII Strike Length Launcher Modules and related equipment that will be used on a new ship class. The State Department said the modules are intended for Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile (ESSM) Block 1 and Standard Missile (SM)-2 capabilities. The ESSM Block 1 is for ship self-defense against high-speed, low-altitude anti-ship cruise missiles, helicopters and high-speed surface threats. The SM-2 is a medium-range surface-to-air missile.
USCYBERCOM Leader Nom. Air Force Lt. Gen. Timothy Haugh has been nominated to serve as the next leader of U.S. Cyber Command and the National Security Agency. Haugh, who is currently deputy commander at USCYBERCOM, would succeed Army Gen. Paul Nakasone, who has held the dual-hatted leadership role at Cyber Command and NSA since May 2018. Haugh would be the first Air Force official to lead Cyber Command since its inception in 2010. He previously commanded the Sixteenth Air Force, also known as Air Forces Cyber, from 2019 to 2022.