Farnborough Start. England’s biennial Farnborough International Air Show kicks off July 22 and is to last through July 26. The show, a gathering spot for aerospace enthusiasts, can highlight commercial and defense innovations and interoperability among U.S. and allies. This year, U.S. Air Forces in Europe-Air Forces Africa said that it plans to display and/or fly F-15E Strike Eagle and F-35A Lightning II aircraft from the Royal Air Force 48th Fighter Wing in Lakenheath, England; the F-16 Fighting Falcon from the 31st Fighter Wing at Aviano Air Base, Italy; and the C-130J Hercules transport from the 86th Airlift Wing at Ramstein Air Base, Germany.
…Shared Vision. As NATO marks its 75th anniversary, U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin, Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman, and Royal Air Force Chief of the Air Staff Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton signed a “Combined Air and Space Power in the 21st Century” vision statement during the RAF’s Global Air and Space Chiefs Conference in London on July 17.
Futures Game. Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Adm. Lisa Franchetti hosted the CNO Futures Game at the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, R.I., on July 16-17. This wargaming is used to help chape and inform naval strategy, analysis, operational concepts and warfighting requirements, said Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Warfighting Development Vice Adm. Dan Dwyer, who organized the event. ““By examining potential future states, we can characterize the operational problems the Navy will face today and tomorrow as well as what roles the Navy may be asked to perform in support of our national security,” he said. The Naval War College is designated by the CNO as the Navy’s pillar lead for wargaming, conducting over 50 gaming events annually.
LPD-22 Forward. The USS San Diego (LPD-22) San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ship is due to join Forward Deployed Naval Forces Japan (FDNF-J) and replace the USS Green Bay (LPD-20), which has been forward deployed for a decade at U.S. Fleet Activities Sasebo, Japan. The Navy noted this reiterated the U.S. commitment to the defense of Japan and will directly support the Defense Strategic Guidance to posture the most capable units forward in the Indo-Pacific region.
CVN-69 Home. Carrier Strike Group Two returned home to Norfolk, Va., on July 13 after defending commercial shipping against attacks by Houthi forces in Yemen during a nine month deployment to the 5th and 6th Fleet area of operations. The strike group conducted over 750 engagements, using 792 munitions against threats like land attack cruise missiles, anti-ship ballistic missiles and unmanned systems, the Navy said. The Navy ships launched 155 standard missiles and 135 TLAMs from vertical launch systems. The Navy said the carrier itself launched and recovered over 13,800 sorties, accumulated 31,400 flight hours, conducted over 30 replenishments at sea and sailed over 75,000 nautical miles.
PEO IWS. Rear Adm. Tom Dickinson relieved and succeeded Rear Adm. Seiko Okano as Program Executive Officer, Integrated Warfare Systems (PEO IWS), during a ceremony on July 11. During the event, Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition (ASN(RD&A)) Nickolas Guertin presented the Legion of Merit to Okano. PEO IWS is working to turn existing combat systems into an Integrated Combat System. During Okano’s tenure, the destroyer USS Winston S. Churchill (DDG-81) became the first ship running a fully virtualized Aegis Combat System to successfully intercept an air target with a missile. The Navy also fielded the SPY-6 Air and Missile Defense Radar. Dickinson takes over after previously serving as commander of Naval Surface Warfare Center and commander of Naval Undersea Warfare Center. Okano in turn is set to relieve Rear Adm. Doug Small as commander of Naval Information Warfare Systems Command this summer.
PHNSY & IMF. Capt. Ryan McCrillis relieved Capt. Richard Jones as the 49th commander of Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility (PHNSY & IMF) during a change of command ceremony on July 12. During the ceremony, commander of Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) Vice Adm. James P. Downey praised Jones for his record, with the facility having completed the availabilities for the USS Mississippi (SSN 782) and USS Minnesota (SSN 783) early and under budget, as well as conducting “maintenance on critical systems by performing unprecedented waterborne repairs” without needing to drydock the submarines USS Missouri (SSN-780) and USS Charlotte (SSN-766). McCrillis started his career at the facility and previously served as Primary Military Deputy as NAVSEA 04 – Industrial Operations.
MQ-9B Engine. General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) said that it flew a company-owned MQ-9B SkyGuardian drone with a Pratt & Whitney Canada-supplied PT6-E-Series engine on July 15. During the 44-minute flight, the engine “demonstrated exemplary handling and acceleration,” GA-ASI said. The MQ-9Bs have carried Honeywell TPE331-10 turboprop engines. The PT6 “delivers a 33 percent increase in power over MQ-9B’s current engine, with a highly mature dual-channel Full Authority Digital Engine Controller,” GA-ASI said. David Alexander, the president of GA-ASI, said that the latter has “worked with Pratt & Whitney for years, specifically on our jet-powered Avenger.” GA-ASI said that it has started delivering MQ-9Bs to the United Kingdom and that contracts are in place with Belgium, Canada, Taiwan and the U.S. Air Force “in support of” special operations. In addition, on Feb. 1, the U.S. State Department approved an up to $4 billion sale of 31 MQ-9Bs to India. The Japan Coast Guard is using MQ-9Bs for maritime operations, and the U.S. Navy has been using them for sonobuoy and other testing.
For Want of AI. If only Russia had used artificial intelligence to help sort out a messy traffic jam that halted its ground forces north of Kyiv just days after launching an invasion against Ukraine things may have turned out differently, a U.S. intelligence official said last week. “If they had real-time traffic monitoring with AI to assist in routing adjustments, and AI-generated topographic data to provide alternative movement options, they would have been more likely to reach Kyiv,” Vice Adm. Frank Whitworth, director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), said last week at the Esri International User Conference.
…IUUF Challenge Winners. Earlier this month, NGA and the Defense Department’s National Security Innovation Network (NSIN) awarded $1 million in prize money to two companies and a non-profit for their solutions to forecast industrial-level illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing (IUUF). Athenium Analytics won the grand challenge, taking home $500,000 for its solution that leverages AI-enabled imagery analytics, predictive models, and proprietary risk scores to identify and manage risk. Second place went to Sync Layer, Inc., which uses data visualization technology to analyze large volumes of data, and the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence received $50,000 related to its AI research that includes the maritime sector. “The challenge winners’ forecasts outperformed the historical Global Fishing Watch baseline by up to 25 percent,” Mike Brady, NGA research scientists and program manager of the challenge, said in a statement. “With regular feedback and refinements, these forecasts could be beneficial for operational uses in the future.”
Quantum Effort. The Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) last week said it is initiating the Quantum Benchmarking Initiative (QBI), with a goal to “build an industrially useful computer much faster than conventional predictions.” DARPA is teaming with the Department of Energy’s Office of Science and the State of Illinois on the QBI. The prototype effort builds on two other DARPA programs, Quantum Benchmarking and Underexplored Systems for Utility-Scale Quantum Computing. The agency plans to issue a QBI program solicitation.
People News. RTX last week said that Troy Bruk has been appointed president of Collins Aerospace, succeeding Stephen Timm, who will retire in March 2025. Brunk has led three of the strategic business units within Collins, which is one of three operating segments within RTX. Navistar Defense, which was recently renamed ND Defense LLC, has appointed Imtiaz Uddin as its new CEO, succeeding Ted Wright, who has retired. Uddin previously was the company’s chief operating officer and before that was vice president of operations and supply chain for BAE Systems. Finally, Oshkosh Corp. has appointed Angela Ambrose as vice president of government operations, leading global public policy. Most recently, she was vice president of government relations and communications for General Motors Defense.
AI Task Force. The head of the Pentagon’s Chief Digital and Artificial Office (CDAO) said Task Force Lima, the department’s effort to look at generative AI, is in the “final stages” of putting together a report on its findings and recommendations. Radha Plumb, the DoD CDAO, told reporters on July 16 that Task Force Lima has focused on three specific areas related to generative AI: defining responsible use and setting guidelines, exploring potential use cases and assessing requirements in order to onboard generative AI capabilities. “That’s what we’re looking at as the starting point of Task Force Lima. And that’ll inform things like policy activities, how we approach future budget builds and budget requests and what types of pilots we may want to take on in CDAO or other parts of the department may want to take on,” Plumb said, adding that generative AI is a “very compute-intensive and data-intensive requirement.” It is undecided yet whether Task Force Lima will be extended beyond its current 18-month period of work, according to Plumb.
Defense Appropriators/Biden. Congress’ top Democratic defense appropriators, Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) and Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.), are among the latest lawmakers to call on President Biden to drop his reelection bid. “Montanans have put their trust in me to do what is right, and it is a responsibility I take seriously. I have worked with President Biden when it has made Montana stronger, and I’ve never been afraid to stand up to him when he is wrong. And while I appreciate his commitment to public service and our country, I believe President Biden should not seek re-election to another term,” Tester said in a statement. Tester is now the second Senate Democrat, joining Peter Welch (D-Vt.), to publicly call on Biden not to seek reelection. “Winning in November and defeating [former President Donald] Trump’s dangerous, hate-filled agenda must be Democrats’ sole focus. To give Democrats a strong, viable path to winning the White House, I am calling upon President Biden to release his delegates and empower Vice President [Kamala] Harris to step forward to become the Democratic nominee for president,” McCollum said in a statement.
Vance/Ukraine Aid. Former President Trump this week officially chose Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) as his running mate, selecting one of the Senate’s top opponents of aid to Ukraine. Vance, a Marine Corps veteran, led a group of over two dozen conservative GOP lawmakers, along with Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), in sending a letter this past fall to Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young detailing opposition to the Biden administration’s supplemental spending request seeking $24 billion in continued aid for Ukraine. “I do not think it is in America’s interests to fund an effectively never-ending war in Ukraine,” Vance said during remarks at the Quincy Institute in May.
IT Outage. The massive IT disruption caused by a faulty CrowdStrike update to Windows users on July 19 had “no impact on DoD operations,” according to Air Force Gen. C.Q. Brown Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The CrowdStrike defect caused widespread outages impacting businesses, air transport, health care systems and more. “But I will share with you, this gives you an indication of how important cyber security [is], how we use our software, our tools, is important. And the things we do, particularly in DoD, to protect our capabilities to ensure that we can still protect the nation, even when you have a glitch or whether it’s an attack, is to be best postured to be able to support,” Brown said during a discussion at the Aspen Security Forum.
