DoD Data Generation. The founder and CEO of Scale AI, Alexandr Wang, told the House Armed Services Committee’s cyber, information technologies, and innovation panel on July 18 that the Pentagon generates 22 terabytes of data daily, but that figure appears to be significantly short of the current mark. While DoD seems not to track that daily data generation, now retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Jack Shanahan quoted the 22 terabytes figure back in April 2017 at a Defense Innovation Board meeting, but the minutes of the Apr. 4, 2017 meeting indicate that he was referring to daily data generation by Air Force intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance systems, such as U-2 imagery and F-35 radar data, not to DoD systems as a whole. Scale AI confirmed on July 21 that Wang’s HASC testimony that referenced the 22 terabytes of data derived from an article in April 2017 that mistakenly said that the 22 terabytes was for all of DoD. Shanahan said in 2017 that the 22 terabytes figure was an amount twice that of the printed material in the Library of Congress. The now defunct organization that Shanahan headed starting in 2018, the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center—became part of the Pentagon’s Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO) in February last year. The CDAO is leveraging combatant command Global Information Dominance Experiment exercises to build a central data repository that is to feed DoD artificial intelligence applications.
Drone Jamming.
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) said that the Air Force, for the first time, flew a company drone, likely the MQ-9 Reaper, with a Georgia Tech Research Institute ALQ-167 Electronic Warfare Countermeasure Pod—known as the “Angry Kitten—on April 27. The ALQ-167 “has flown on other Department of Defense systems, including F-16s,” General Atomics said. “GA-ASI integrated the EW pod in less than nine months at no cost to the U.S. Air Force by using a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement.” General Atomics said that the Air Force is to fly the ALQ-167 pods over the next one to two years to develop tactics, techniques and procedures for their use.
40th Launch. New Zealand’s Rocket Lab said that its 40th Electron launch will hoist an Acadia synthetic aperture radar satellite by Capella Space into orbit, possibly as early as next week. “The mission, named ‘We Love the Nightlife,’ is scheduled to launch from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 on New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula,” Rocket Lab said. “‘We Love the Nightlife’ will [be] Rocket Lab’s third launch for Capella following the successful ‘Stronger Together’ mission launched in March 2023 from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 2 in Virginia, USA, and the “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Optical” mission in August 2020 from Launch Complex 1, which deployed the first satellite in Capella’s SAR constellation.” Payam Banazadeh, founder and CEO of Capella Space, said in a statement that the “We Love the Nightlife” mission will debut Capella’s third generation Acadia.
No Labels. The No Labels centrist political organization, which has floated the idea of a potential third-party presidential ticket, released a new policy document on July 15 that shed some light on the group’s thinking on defense spending. The document states the government “shouldn’t just blindly dump more money into the Pentagon.” “So America undoubtedly needs to spend more to protect our security in a dangerous world, but we need to do so with much less waste and with zero corruption,” the document states. The group, however, also says more is required to retain the U.S.’ place as the world’s strongest military, stating the “lead is shrinking.” “We may not have enough ships to deter Russia and China and to patrol the Pacific and critical sea lanes, while the Army and other branches are missing their recruiting goals. America’s military spending as a share of our economy is less than half what it was 40 years ago. Meanwhile, China actually has more manpower, ships, and submarines than the U.S.,” the group writes in the document.
USCG News. The U.S. Coast Guard earlier this month began work at its facilities to extend the service life of six of its 270-foot Famous-class medium endurance cutters. The Coast Guard Cutter Spencer will receive new main diesel engines, electrical and structural work, and new gun weapons systems with work scheduled to last 15 months. It will take through spring 2028 to complete the service life extension on all six cutters and the work will proceed concurrently with regular maintenance activities on each vessel. The 270-foot vessels will eventually be replaced by the 360-foot offshore patrol cutters, which have been delayed. Separately, the Coast Guard has taken delivery of its 54th 154-foot fast response cutter, the William Sparling, from shipbuilder Bollinger Shipyards. The cutter will be the fifth FRC homeported in Boston. So far, 52 FRCs are in service and the planned buy of 65 has been ordered.
Drone Detection as a Service. The Federal Aviation Administration is surveying the market as part of plans to eventually acquire Drone Detection as a Service (DaaS) to monitor Chinese-made DJI drone activities primarily along U.S. southern border regions and various locations near other land or coastal U.S. border areas. The FAA, which provide second level engineering and logistics support to the Customs and Border Protection counter-unmanned aircraft system program, will acquire 37 Aeroscope sensors. DJI drones are the most widely used recreational unmanned aircraft systems and are also used by bad actors for surveillance and drug smuggling along the southern border.
DeSantis on EVs. Florida Governor and Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis said he doesn’t think climate change initiatives “should be a factor” for the military, adding he doesn’t “want to force the Department of Defense to be using electric vehicles.” DeSantis’ comments came in an interview aired on July 18 with CNN’s Jake Tapper, where he was asked about his policy proposal that the Pentagon should not prioritize climate policies over national security requirements. “Well, here’s the thing — how are you going to equip your fighting force to win. Are you going to put those considerations in, are you going to create the most lethal force available? I can tell you, China is not going to use those considerations. If they need to burn more coal to defend their country, they are going to burn more coal to defend their country,” DeSantis said. The Army is pursuing programs such as the Electric Light Reconnaissance Vehicle and has cited an interest in the potential for hybrid-electric and electric vehicles to offer increased “silent watch” capability and a reduced logistics burden by shedding fuel requirements.
Emerging Technologies Interest. General Dynamics’ Information Technology business unit last week released a survey it conducted of 425 officials across defense, civilian and intelligence agencies saying that about 66 percent of their agencies are “moderately to extremely ready to embrace emerging technologies” and one-third say the reasons for doing so are increased security and improved productivity. Regarding cybersecurity postures, technologies with the greatest impact are artificial intelligence, followed by emerging cyber capabilities, then data and predictive analytics. Cost of course is an issue. The survey shows more than a third say cost and budget concerns and compatibility with existing software are key challenges. It also says 43 percent of defense respondents view increased cybersecurity as a top motivation and are leading the market in applying robotic process automation and 5G adoption. Intelligence and homeland security agencies are leading the adoption of cloud and edge computing.
Arctic Bound. The U.S. Coast Guard medium polar icebreaker, Healy, departed Seattle on July 11 for a months-long Arctic deployment to conduct science and research missions, engage in exercises and exchanges with foreign partners, conduct maritime domain awareness, and conduct other operations as directed. The Coast Guard’s Research and Development Center will be working on several projects during the deployment, including air domain awareness radar, high latitude underway connectivity, next-generation distress communication capability for Alaska and the Arctic, and evaluate visibility of colors for service-approved lifesaving equipment in marine conditions.
Polar Imaging Effort. Members of the intelligence community and the National Science Foundation last week agreed to provide continued public access to historical and new digital elevation models (DEMs) using commercial imagery collected over the Arctic and Antarctic through 2032. As part of the ArcticDEM initiative, the National Reconnaissance Office modified its existing Electro-Optical Commercial Layer contract with Maxar Technologies at no additional cost to provide the government with long-term access to regional imagery to create DEMs, which are used to quantify characteristics of a land surface. The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency can share the imagery with NSF-funded university partners to update the foundation’s ArcticDEM and reference elevation model of Antarctica projects.
…Easier Access. NGA Director Vice Adm. Frank Whitworth last Friday said that the new ArcticDEM agreement will make it much easier for academics to get DEMs in the polar regions than previously. “And we have liberated that data which had been mired in just a weird contract now is actually going to be made available to academia writ large into the world,” he said during a panel discussion about the Arctic at the Aspen Security Forum. NGA, which is part of the intelligence community and a combat support agency, wants “to understand every inch of this Earth,” Whitworth said, adding that ArcticDEM will provide the “baseline for three-dimensional information as so what the baseline is for ice, permafrost, even water.”
More DDG(X) Work. General Dynamics Bath Iron Works and HII’s Ingalls shipbuilding won modifications of an unspecified value for shipbuilder engineering and design analysis to produce design products in support of the future DDG(X) guided missile destroyer preliminary design and contract design. Those are the two companies that currently build the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers (DDG-51). The July 20 announcement noted the specific value of these contract awards is not being released publicly now because it is considered source-selection sensitive information. The two companies are expected to finish the work by July 2024.
LCS-30. The Navy plans to commission the future USS Canberra (LCS-30) Independence-variant Littoral Combat ship at the Royal Australian Naval Base Garden Island on July 22 local time. LCS-30 was built by Austal USA at its shipyard in Mobile, Ala. The ship is named after Australia’s capital city. LCS-30 will ultimately be homeported at San Diego. Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro will deliver the commissioning ceremony’s principal address with other remarks by various U.S. and Australian officials. LCS-30 will be the 16th commissioned Independence-variant LCS.
LCACs Lift. Ship to Shore Connector (SSC), Landing Craft, Air Cushions (LCAC) vessels 105-107 got a lift of opportunity (LOO) aboard the USS Gunston Hall (LSD-44), on July 14. The vessels had been at Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City Division for post-delivery test and trials after being delivered by Textron Systems. LSD-44 transported the SSCs in its well deck, as designed. LSD-44 is due to offload the three vessels at ACU 4 in Little Creek, Va., later this month. The parent unit of LCACs is on the East Coast. Previously, LCACs 101-103 arrived at ACU 4 in February 2022. The SSCs are being built to replace the legacy LCACS with similar configurations, dimensions and clearances as older craft but with improved systems.
Dry Dock Upgrade Works. The Seawolf-class attack submarine USS Connecticut (SSN-22) docked at the recently upgraded Dry Dock 5 at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard & Intermediate Maintenance Facility in Bremerton, Wash., on July 12 for the boat’s Extended Docking Selected Restricted Availability (EDSRA). This is one of several dry docks being upgraded with interim seismic mitigation after a SIOP-related review found several dry docks susceptible to seismic damage in the region. Dry Dock 5 had been tested and recertified before SSN-22 docked there. Other mitigation work continues at the Trident Refit Facility Delta Pier in Bangor, Wash. The Navy noted the mitigation work included drilling holes for the installation of anchors inside the dry dock walls to improve structural integrity and safety. “The mitigation efforts updated existing emergency response plans to better address the chance of a catastrophic earthquake, along with improved early-warning employee notification systems in the dry docks,” the Navy said in a statement.
EHETS Award. Oshkosh Defense has received a new $57 million order from the Army to produce 116 more Enhanced Heavy Equipment Transporter System (EHETS) trailers, the company said on July 18. The Army awarded Oshkosh Defense the EHETS contract in September 2022, which could be worth up to $263.2 million. “The ongoing conflict in Ukraine demonstrates the critical need for having rigorous logistics systems capable of delivering equipment and cargo across any terrain worldwide,” Pat Williams, Oshkosh Defense’s chief programs officer, said in a statement. “The EHETS trailer is a prime example of Oshkosh’s commitment to providing solutions that meet the demands of an evolving battlefield. Oshkosh and our partner Broshuis B.V. are honored to continue to provide this critical capability for the Soldier.” EHETS is designed to be pulled by Oshkosh’s Heavy Equipment Transport truck, and the company has previously said the combined systems are “designed to self-load and unload and can haul a payload of up to 90 tons, allowing it to transport the heaviest Army tracked vehicles.”
Austin on Tuberville’s Block. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has said Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s (R-Ala.) hold on military nominations and promotions over his opposition to the Pentagon’s abortion policy is causing a “readiness issue.” “The fact that Sen. Tuberville maintains this hold on the promotions of our senior officers, it cascades [and] it creates friction throughout the entire chain. It disadvantages families. You’ve heard us talk about the impact of that. And so I would ask Sen. Tuberville to lift his hold,” Austin said during a press briefing on July 18. DoD officials on July 19 briefed the Senate Armed Services Committee on the administration’s policy covering travel money for armed services personnel to receive reproductive healthcare, including abortions, outside the states that have made it illegal and extremely restrictive, which reportedly did not change Tuberville’s position. “I think we have to keep things in perspective. One in five of our troops are women. They don’t get a chance to pick where they’re assigned. They’re serving their country. They’re sacrificing each and every day. And they deserve, in my view and in the view of our leadership, to have access to non-covered reproductive health care. And that’s what this policy does,” Austin said on July 18.
…Army Impact. Army Secretary Christine Wormuth has said she’s worried Tuberville’s block will lead to a “brain and talent drain” from the service. “We have 12 or 13 three and four-star generals that we’ve already had to extend who were planning to retire. We now had to go to them and say, ‘Sorry, you can’t leave your jobs for the next several months.’ And the people who were hand selected to come up and take those roles are stuck, basically. And that means that a lot of our key organizations are not going to be led by the people who we hand selected, who had all the right experiences to take over those formations,” Wormuth said during a discussion at the Aspen Security Forum on July 20. “If you are a major, a lieutenant colonel, a colonel in the United States Army, you are looking at this and saying, ‘Is that what it means to become a general officer? Do I want to put myself or my family through all of this rigamarole, through all of this uncertainty? I don’t know.’”
SASC Advances Noms. The Senate Armed Services Committee on July 20 advanced nearly 2,700 military nominations, to include the pending confirmation for Air Force Chief Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. to be the next Joint Chiefs chairman and Army Vice Chief Gen. Randy George to be the service’s next chief of staff. The nominations were reported to the floor, but will remain stalled while Tuberville’s hold is in place. During his recent confirmation hearing, Brown said the block will cause the military to “lose talent.” George echoed similar remarks during his own confirmation hearing and said the move was “impacting our readiness.”
More Cabinet Intel. President Biden last Friday invited CIA Director Bill Burns to serve as a member of his Cabinet, which would add to the intelligence community’s weight on the board of key presidential advisers given that Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines is also a member. Biden said that Burns has “harnessed intelligence to give our country a critical strategic advantage” and has led the CIA in “delivering a clear-eyed, long-term approach” to key national security challenges, including Russia’s unprovoked war against Ukraine, competition with China, and “addressing the opportunities and risks of emerging technology.” Including Vice President Kamala Harris, Biden’s Cabinet numbers 25 senior government officials.