Archive: January 31, 2023

GOP pushes tougher China dual-use sanctions, cites lax enforcement

WASHINGTON — Republicans are using their brand-new House majority to push for tougher China sanctions enforcement on dual-use equipment even as the Biden administration greatly expands sweeping new export controls on U.S. technology that could be used by the Chinese military.

The new House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman, Mike McCaul of Texas, has launched a three-month review of the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry Security in response to his more than two-year-old requests on export control licenses that the agency has granted for China. Throughout the course of the review, congressional staffers are mulling potential reforms to the process, ranging from public reporting requirements to more drastic measures like moving the Bureau of Industry Security to the Pentagon or another department.

“Our government doesn’t have time to complain that these problems are tough,” McCaul said in a Sunday statement after a Wall Street Journal report on advanced U.S. microchips found in China’s leading nuclear weapons research lab. “We need solutions.”

The chairman first announced the review on Jan. 20 in a letter to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, noting that the Bureau of Industry Security had “failed to uphold its legal obligation to produce requested documents and information” to the Foreign Affairs Committee. When the bureau adds a Chinese company such as semiconductor manufacturer SMIC or telecommunications giant Huawei to its export control list, it must then approve or deny license requests from U.S. tech companies to export their equipment to China.

“That’s the main thing we need from them,” McCaul told Defense News in a hallway interview on Capitol Hill last week. “How many licenses were declined, and where did they go?”

McCaul’s requests to the Bureau of Industry Security date back to November 2020, but his January letter did note that the agency has since provided Congress with a six-month snapshot of its China export controls – which Republicans find concerning.

“It showed that less than 1% [of licenses] were declined and $60 billion went into Huawei and $40 billion went to SMIC,” McCaul said.

Congress received another tranche of data on export control approvals last week, which staffers on the Foreign Affairs Committee are now sifting through. Their findings will inform potential legislative reforms to the Bureau of Industry Security’s export control list.

“We do want a reporting requirement because they never report to the public on export licenses,” said McCaul. “We want a full accounting of that.”

Whether or not the bureau provides a full accounting could influence the scope of any legislation that emerges from McCaul’s three-month review period.

A Republican staffer from the Foreign Affairs Committee previewed other potential export control reforms on the condition of anonymity.

“For a few years now, there’s been chatter about whether there should be one single licensing agency,” the staffer told Defense News, noting that export control regimes are currently split between the State Department’s munitions list and the Commerce Department’s dual-use items list. “Part of what we’re looking to do is figure out if the existing system is the best arrangement or if it should whole-sale be put somewhere else or if different aspects of the export control system should have different agencies as the lead.”

The staffer pointed to legislation introduced last year by Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., which would transfer the Bureau of Industry Security from the Commerce Department to the Pentagon’s Defense Technology and Security Administration.

McCaul and Republicans praised President Biden’s massive expansion of the dual-use export control list last year to include numerous additional restrictions on transferring U.S. technology to Chinese semiconductor and artificial-intelligence companies.

Still, the U.S. had banned the export to Beijing of the semiconductors found in the Chinese nuclear lab since 1997 – highlighting the Bureau of Industry Security’s enforcement challenges even if the Biden administration consistently denies export license requests under its sweeping new microchip regulations.

“The next piece is examining whether or not they approve or deny licenses,” said the staffer. “And for that piece, it’s why transparency to Congress is so important, so we actually see how the policy is being implemented.”

“Whatever rule we come up with, the [People’s Republic of China] is going to try to find ways around it,” the staffer added. “It’s one of those things where it’s somewhat never-ending.”

For his part, McCaul took pains to differentiate his export control review with his concurrent Afghanistan withdrawal investigations and noted that he wants to have “a good working relationship” with Raimondo and the Commerce Department.

“I think we both agree on the same goals,” said McCaul. “They’re very security-minded, which is good for commerce, because usually they’re more industry and not security.”

Turkey frustrates Finland’s and Sweden’s NATO bids

HELSINKI — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s dogged opposition to Sweden’s application for membership of NATO has stymied hopes in Stockholm and Helsinki that Ankara will give its approval ahead of parliamentary elections in Turkey slated for May 14.

The already tense diplomatic relations between Turkey and Sweden were strained further on Jan. 21 when Danish politician, Rasmus Paludan, burned a copy of the Quran in front of the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm. An effigy of Erdoğan was also “hung” during the protest by Kurd separatists.

Turkey wants Finland and Sweden to implement all aspects of the Trilateral Memorandum (TR) signed by the three countries in June 2022. The TR demands that the Nordic applicant states adopt tougher measures against representatives of terrorism groups, including the PKK, in their countries.

Additionally, Turkey is demanding that Sweden and Finland end their “arms embargo” on Turkey, setting this as a condition of Ankara’s support for their NATO membership.

Finland and Sweden do not operate official bans on the export of military equipment to Turkey, but neither country has issued export licenses since Turkey launched a ground attack offensive against Syrian Kurds in south-eastern Syria in 2019.

The leader of Denmark’s ultra-right-wing Hard Line party, Paludan, came to the attention of Danish and Swedish authorities in April 2022 when he revealed plans for a “Koran burning tour” in Sweden and Denmark during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Paludan initially abandoned the plan following warnings of possible arrest by authorities in Sweden and Denmark.

Turkey responded angrily to the burning of the Quran in Stockholm, accusing the Swedish government of compliance by failing to stop the anti-Islam protest led by Kurdish activists. Turkish President Erdoğan warned Stockholm that Sweden should “no longer count on Turkey’s support for its bid to join NATO.”

The rising concern over Turkey’s negative position on Sweden’s NATO membership has resulted in a deepening of cross-border talks between Stockholm and Helsinki. The two Nordic unaligned states had planned to “jump together” in to the Alliance. The scaled-up tensions between Turkey and Sweden are endangering that ambition.

Finland is holding more regular talks with Sweden to deal with the problems besetting the accession process. Recent talks since Jan. 26 have involved meetings between Sweden’s Foreign Minister Tobias Billström, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and Finland’s Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto.

“Finland and Sweden remain in agreement, that irrespective of all current objections and obstacles we will continue our joint journey into NATO. We plan to work on common measures to ratify our membership and join at the same time. Against the backdrop of the events in Stockholm, I honestly do not think we will see any significant progress in that ratification before the elections in Turkey in May,” Haavisto said.

Sweden and Finland are now hoping, based on the outcome of May elections in Turkey, that both countries could receive Turkey’s support to ratify membership before the NATO Summit scheduled for Vilnius, Lithuania, on July 11.

Sweden and Finland remain optimistic they will obtain membership approval from Hungary in February or March. Hungary and Turkey are the two NATO member states that have yet to ratify the two Nordic countries’ accession bids.

Turkey’s strong opposition to Sweden’s NATO application, while it remains more open to Finnish membership, has raised concerns that Ankara may be playing politics with a sensitive defense issue.

Erdoğan’s open hostility towards Sweden could be aimed at gaining more influence in NATO and with the United States, said Aras Lindh, a Middle East and North Africa researcher at the Swedish Foreign Policy Institute.

“The possibility that Erdoğan’s words form a tactical statement must not be ignored. It could be an attempt to drive a wedge between Sweden and Finland, or a response to the United States,” Lindh said.

With Turkey disapproving of Sweden’s membership application, prime minister Ulf Kristersson’s government could face the stark prospect of having to abandon its candidacy of NATO, a development that would isolate it from all other Nordic states in the Alliance and serve to potentially weaken traditional and longstanding pan-Nordic defense collaboration.

The accession by Finland and Sweden to NATO will take longer than anticipated, said Paul Levin, Director of Stockholm University’s Institute for Turkish Studies.

“Relations between Sweden and Turkey have been fraught with tension for some time. The same is true for Turkey’s relations with Finland. However, these latest developments and the undertone of statements by Turkey’s president have sharpened significantly. The rift will take time to heal,” Levin said.

The mood in Helsinki, which is closely monitoring diplomatic interactions between Stockholm and Ankara, remains cautiously optimistic that progress can be made to move the status of Finland’s and Sweden’s applications forward with Turkey’s support.

Finland’s President, Sauli Niinistö, told a press briefing in Helsinki on Jan. 27 that “serious discussions” are required with the Erdoğan government to restore trust between the three countries while prioritizing the implementation of all strands of the TR before the NATO Summit in July.

“There needs to be serious man-to-man discussions with President Erdoğan. Right now, it’s starting to look very much as if the Turkish presidential elections will take precedence and not much will happen before then,” Niinistö said.

Turkey’s more favorable view of Finland’s NATO application is helped by a number of important recent events. Finland’s Ministry of Defense granted new defense materiel export permits to Turkey in mid-January 2023, allowing the shipment of reinforced steel from the Raahe-based company Miilux Oy.

In 2021, the MoD rejected an export license application by Miilux to export steel for use in the manufacture of armored vehicles in Turkey. Seventy percent of Miilux’s shares are owned by the Turkish OYAK pension fund. The MoD is currently engaged in adopting new measures to simplify the export of military kits to Turkey

Snagged military fuel card contract triggers lawmaker scrutiny

WASHINGTON ― The Pentagon is taking another stab at opening competition for the AIR Card program, a government credit card widely-used to pay for a huge military expense ― fuel, but the effort is facing skepticism from a key lawmaker.

Under the contract, troops use the Aviation Into-Plane Reimbursement (AIR) cards and Ship Bunkers Easy Acquisition Card (SEA) cards to keep U.S. military aircraft around the globe fueled up and ready to go. The contract holder processes the transactions and profits almost entirely from transaction fees it charges the government’s network of commercial fuel suppliers.

But in a December letter to the Defense Logistics Agency, Rep. Michael Waltz raised alarms about DLA’s award of the contract last June to Miami-based Associated Energy Group, instead of longtime incumbent Kropp Holdings Inc., of Overland Park, Kansas. After KHI protested the decision, DLA scrapped the award and opted to reopen the competition.

KHI alleged in its protest that, because AEG is a fuel supplier, allowing it to manage the service would be unfair to other suppliers and spur them to exit the government’s fuel supply network.

Waltz, who chairs the House subcommittee on military readiness, had similar concerns. According to his office, multiple fuel suppliers reached out to Waltz with worries that if AEG managed the network, it could compromise their proprietary information and force them to consider leaving the government’s network.

In Waltz’s letter, he said, without mentioning KHI or AEG by name, the contract should go to a “neutral liaison” between fuel suppliers and the government.

“I am concerned that the compromised competition could potentially damage the government’s aviation fuel network and military readiness,” Waltz said in the Dec. 12 letter, obtained by Defense News.

Whichever company wins will get to manage and charge fees for a huge number of transactions for fuel and related services. According to solicitation documents, KHI handled just over $1 billion in military fuel sales and ground service expenses in 2019 and nearly $900 million in 2018. How much KHI earned that way isn’t public, and the listed $2.5 million contract value for last year likely only reflects what KHI charged to the government.

While the competition continues, the DLA subagency responsible for the contract, DLA Energy, has extended its current contract with KHI to June 30, 2023, and included a six-month option that, if exercised, would further extend the contract to Dec. 31, 2023.

AEG did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

DLA spokeswoman Michelle McCaskill said there’s no time-frame for a new award.

“DLA Energy determined that corrective action was the best course of action in response to the protest and is therefore re-evaluating relevant offers,” she said. “DLA is unable to provide further details while the source selection process is ongoing.”

Asked to address concerns about potential conflicts of interest, McCaskill said DLA follows the relevant federal acquisition regulations.

In a statement, KHI President Virginia Zimmerman said KHI should win the contract again because the company maintains a large network of fuel suppliers and was the longtime incumbent.

“KHI is uniquely qualified to support the warfighter due to KHI’s position in maintaining and operating one of the world’s largest commercial aviation fuel networks, decades of experience and expertise in providing government technology solutions, and successful management of the on-the-ground complexities facing the U.S. Government in the procurement of fuel across the globe,” Zimmerman said in the statement.

US Air Force awards Boeing $2.3B contract for 15 more KC-46s

WASHINGTON — The Air Force has awarded Boeing a $2.3 billion contract for 15 more KC-46 Pegasus refueling tankers.

In a contract announcement Friday evening, the Pentagon said the latest batch of KC-46s will make up the ninth production lot of the tankers, and their construction is expected to be completed by the end of August 2026.

Boeing said Monday this brings the number of KC-46s the Air Force has under contract to 128, 68 of which are delivered and in use.

Boeing is also under contract for 10 more KC-46s to partner nations, six for Japan and four for Israel. Japan has already received its first two KC-46s.

The KC-46 has steadily increased its ability to refuel more aircraft in recent years. In September, the Air Force said it is now cleared to carry out all refueling missions around the world on all aircraft except the A-10 Warthog.

In August, a trio of KC-46s carried out the Pegasus’ first refueling missions during real-world operations. These KC-46s were in the Middle East region for a training exercise and refueled F-15E Strike Eagle fighters carrying out U.S. Central Command missions.

Two KC-46s also carried out long endurance flights totaling 42 hours in December, supporting a bomber task force mission in the Indo-Pacific region.

The contract award also provides for data, subscriptions and licenses in addition to the aircraft.

KC-46s are built in Everett, Washington, on Boeing’s 767 production line. They have the capability to share data between other nearby aircraft and operations centers on the ground to increase battlefield awareness.

US Army selects four companies to build new tactical truck prototypes

WASHINGTON — Mack Defense, Navistar Defense, Oshkosh Defense and an American Rheinmetall and GM Defense team will build prototypes for a Common Tactical Truck after the U.S. Army awarded them deals worth a cumulative $24.3 million.

Each team will build three prototypes of each CTT variant — an M915 Line Haul Tractor and M1088 Medium Tractor; a Palletized Load System; and Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck. Vendors will also provide digital designs to go with each variant and a design study for a wrecker, according to the Army.

The prototyping effort is meant to “really allow the Army to evaluate current commercial technology in a military-type application, modified off-the-shelf for military purposes,” Brig. Gen. Luke Peterson, the Army’s program executive officer in charge of combat support and combat service support, told Defense News last fall. “We are going to really learn what industry can offer us, and affordability is going to be the key driver here for the Army to make those informed decisions.”

In the Army’s award announcement Friday, Peterson said the “CTT effort brings an increased level of standardization to the Army’s Tactical Truck fleet.”

“This effort is reminiscent of the original Liberty Truck, a heavy-duty truck produced by the United States Army during World War I,” he continued. “It was the first official standardized motor vehicle adopted and produced by the U.S. military. “The CTT program can be viewed as the Liberty Truck of the 21st century, as it will similarly seek to streamline the Army’s supply, maintenance, and training requirements.”

The service in June 2022 released a request for proposals to build prototypes.

The Army will begin evaluating the initial prototypes at the start of 2024, according to Friday’s statement. The evaluation results will feed a capabilities development document that will be submitted to the Army Requirements Oversight Council. An AROC decision on whether to move forward is planned for fiscal 2026.

If the Army greenlights the requirements, the Army plans to again open the competition, allowing vendors to submit bids for the engineering and manufacturing development phase, the statement adds.

Initial production could total about 5,700 vehicles valued at around $5 billion.

American Rheinmetall Vehicles and GM Defense partnered over the summer of 2022 to compete to build a prototype for the Army. They showcased a Rheinmetall MAN Military Vehicles HX tactical military truck at GM Defense’s booth at the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual exhibition in Washington last fall. The truck was hauling one of the Infantry Squad Vehicles that GM Defense is building for the Army.

Mack Defense’s chief executive, Dave Hartzell, told Defense News last year it was basing its prototype design and technology on its Granite family of vehicles — and militarizing it.

AM General, which did not receive a contract to build prototypes, announced its bid at the AUSA conference. The company teamed with Italian company Iveco Defence Vehicles, which is partnered with BAE Systems to supply the U.S. Marine Corps’ Amphibious Combat Vehicle.

“The team’s High Mobility Range Vehicle architecture for [the Common Tactical Truck] will be based on a newly launched highly modular range of trucks, specifically designed for military use,” according to AM General’s statement at the time.

Following deficiency, Marines add comms capability to ACV variant

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Marine Corps’ Amphibious Combat Vehicle – Command and Control Variant was not built with sufficient long-range communications capability, a Pentagon test and evaluation office found, but the service has since integrated additional equipment to fix the problem.

The Director of Operational Test and Evaluation wrote in an annual report, released this month, the “ACV-C is operationally effective as a stationary command post but not operationally effective as a mobile command post. The ACV-C does not have enough secure beyond-line-of-sight (BLOS) voice and data nets to support the [command and control] mission.”

“When the ACV-C is stationary, embarked staff can set up additional BLOS external antennas to support communication demands,” it continues. “The embarked staff is limited to a single BLOS net when the ACV-C is mobile.”

The Marines are currently fielding the personnel variant of the ACV, which will make up the bulk of the fleet of vehicles. The corps plans to pursue four different variants; the second is the command and control variant.

According to the DOT&E report, ACV-C shares a common hull, powertrain, drivetrain, water propulsion system and survivability suite with the baseline vehicle, but also has seven radios to allow for secure voice and data communications, as well as other radios, antennas, and a larger battery pack to support silent watch operations.

The vehicle is meant to serve as a tactical echelon command post for a regiment or battalion, it notes.

Barb Hamby, a spokeswoman for the Marines’ Program Executive Office for Land Systems, told Defense News the command and control gear includes government-furnished radios, intercoms, laptops and associated equipment, with L3Harris Technologies and Panasonic the primary vendors for that gear. BAE Systems makes the ACV vehicles and integrates this mission gear into its vehicle hull.

Hamby said the original vehicle requirements did not require multiple beyond-line-of-sight voice and data networks, leading to the issues DOT&E identified.

“The program office has since incorporated several engineering changes to address these concerns,” she said.

The Marine Corps conducted ACV-C testing in early 2022, leading to a March decision to move into production.

The DOT&E report also notes reliability challenges with the vehicle’s mission systems, stating “frequent communication failures degraded the ACV-C’s C2 mission effectiveness. The embarked staff need more hands-on training in troubleshooting frequent communication problems.”

Hamby told Defense News “the issues are being addressed through additional training and giving Marines more time with the equipment.”

“In addition, a technical instruction is under development which will instruct Marines on how to check all subsystems of the C2 suite in the form of a limited technical inspection,” she continued. “This TI will also be part of the published technical manual.”

Hamby said these changes will be made prior to fielding the vehicle and that PEO Land Systems does not anticipate any fielding delays. Marines will be given the new enhanced training as their units receive the ACV-C vehicles, and the service expects to declare initial operational capability in the second quarter of fiscal 2024.

Defense firms flock to Hungary amid EU isolation

MILAN — The Hungarian government and its state-owned holding N7 have signed three joint ventures in December alone, part of a large-scale spending spree for new weapons and production plants.

The deals, involving major foreign defense manufacturers, come amid a reported shortage of personnel to operate and build the equipment.

Over the past few years, the European country has embarked on a journey to modernize and bolster its defense-industrial base, having neglected it for well over a decade. This has translated into an approximate $1.4 billion increase in defense spending for 2023, compared to the year prior, which means the budget is nearing $4.5 billion, per analytics business Janes.

According to statements by Hungarian Defence Minister Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky, this will allow the country to raise military expenditure to 2% of its gross domestic product — a year earlier than expected. NATO set that goal for its members, of which Hungary is one.

Roughly 30% to 40% of the funds are expected to go toward capability development and upgrading military stocks.

The focus on military production comes as the Budapest government is increasingly isolated within the European Union. Some see Prime Minister Viktor Orbán as working to undermine the bloc, which is home to many of the defense companies seeking to do business in his country.

“The defense budget had been declining since the end of the Cold War, where at its lowest point in 2010, Hungary only had one operational military transport helicopter and less than a dozen combat-ready armored vehicles,” said Péter Wagner, a senior research fellow at the Hungarian Institute for Foreign Affairs and Trade.

That left the government with two alternatives, he explained: Either spend an enormous amount of money outside of Hungary, or bring in as much domestic production as possible. The country has primarily banked on the latter.

In the last month, the government and N7 signed three joint venture agreements:

With Germany’s Rheinmetall for the production of explosives in response to a European shortage of ammunition.With Germany’s Dynamit Nobel to become the first customer of the RGW 110 HH-T anti-tank weapon.With the Czech Republic’s Colt CZ Group to supply the Hungarian military with firearms.

These deals, in a similar fashion to other ones, share common elements: a transfer of technology and capabilities, the building of an in-country manufacturing plant, local add-ins with future procurement of the weapons to the Hungarian Defence Forces, and the foreign entity retaining majority shares.

The European Union has long criticized Budapest over several issues, ranging from judicial independence to corruption to the misuse of EU funds. In a report published in July 2022, the European Commission concluded Hungary could no longer be deemed a democracy, having become an “electoral autocracy,” where European values are under systemic danger.

According to local advocates, what makes Hungary’s defense ecosystem an attractive destination for investors can be categorized into distinct pillars. Firstly, a number of international entities cite the country’s logistics infrastructure and central location — acting as a gateway for foreign firms to Central and Southeast European markets — as a selling point.

Secondly, Tamás Csiki Varga, a senior research fellow at the Budapest-based Institute for Strategic and Defense Studies, said that “procurements are strongly bound to long-term defense-industrial investment on a spectrum, from assembling through production to future joint innovation, rather than a one-time arms purchase.”

Varga added that the newly developed defense industry receives both government benefits and subsidies. The country further offers a relatively cheap and well-trained labor force as well as a lower production cost per unit than elsewhere.

In addition, “arms exports are not politically sensitive in Hungary,” he noted. “While conforming with international weapons transfer regulations, there are no political or domestic societal gridlocks that could hamper their exports to conflict regions.”

The U.S. Commerce Department’s International Trade Administration refers to Hungary as having a regulatory climate that makes it increasingly challenging to conduct business. Hungary is facing a budget deficit estimated by the agency as amounting to $7 million; that could likely increase with the EU’s decision to freeze nearly €22 billion (U.S. $24 billion) in long-term subsidies, previously an important economic driver for the country.

Since 2016, the International Trade Administration reports, multinational companies have identified shortages of qualified labor as the “largest obstacle” to financing in Hungary.

US Navy suspends work at four West Coast dry docks over seismic risks

WASHINGTON —The U.S. Navy will immediately suspend submarine repair work at four dry docks in Washington state, following new concerns about their ability to withstand seismic activity, service leaders told Defense News.

The Navy identified new concerns related to dry docks 4, 5 and 6 at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard as well as the dry dock at Trident Refit Facility Bangor, two service officials told Defense News on Thursday.

They stressed there is “no immediate risk” and that this step is strictly preventative, allowing a team of more than 100 experts to more fully study the four dry docks and better understand what mitigation steps are required for longer-term safety.

All four dry docks are currently empty and do not have any imminent submarine maintenance availabilities planned, the officials said. The team has the support of Navy leadership to move as quickly and safely as possible to get the dry docks operational again and minimize the impact to the fleet.

This disruption comes at a time when the submarine force is already strained — 18 attack submarines fleetwide are in a maintenance period or pierside waiting to enter one, nearly double the number of subs that should be sidelined for maintenance, per Navy scheduling assumptions.

Puget Sound Naval Shipyard is the primary location for attack submarine and aircraft carrier maintenance on the West Coast. Trident Refit Facility Bangor tends to the West Coast ballistic missile submarine fleet.

The Navy routinely conducts seismic risk assessments on all ashore facilities in earthquake-prone areas. The service has previously performed several of these assessments at Puget Sound and took corrective actions based on the results.

This time, however, more modern scientific techniques and technologies cued the Navy to concerns of which they were previously unaware. So-called Level 1 and Level 2 seismic events “could potentially cause dry dock structural failures that pose a risk to our sailors and workforce and damage to our submarines,” an official explained.

Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command and other commands conducted this study last year “with a goal of better modeling of potential outcomes of several types of major earthquakes,” one official said. The firm WSP USA conducted the engineering analysis and submitted its findings in late October, identifying “potential dry dock failure during a seismic event and the necessity to postpone docking submarines in the four affected locations as safety of the shipyard workers, the surrounding community, preservation of the environment are of utmost concern to the Navy.”

Since October, “short-term mitigations have been put in place, and it’s really important here that these were proactive steps taken in order to ensure the safety of our sailors, shipyard workforce, the public and the environment,” another official said.

The effort culminated in the decision, announced to the Puget Sound and Bangor workforce Friday, to cease operations at these four dry docks until further assessment and mitigations take place.

The officials said all the dry docks in the area were built at different times and under different Navy construction codes. Other dry docks at the yard will remain active, including Dry Dock 2, which is currently working on the guided-missile submarine Ohio.

The official said the concern over these four particular dry docks is directly tied to the nature of their design and construction.

As for next steps — as well as potential timelines and costs associated with the mitigation work — an official said that “it’s too early to tell.”

“We’ve been asked and tasked this week to come up with mitigations to put in place to address some of the concerns the seismic study has put in place. But at this stage it’s just too early to tell” what will come of the discussions, the official explained.

The official added that more than 100 experts from the Navy, the Defense Department and private industry have gathered to look at the dry docks, put forward a range of mitigation proposals and select the right ones to pursue.

Given the top-level support, an official said, current-year money will be found to immediately fund these projects, rather than waiting to insert them into future budget year plans.

The officials also noted that “the shipyard’s workforce size and workload demands will not change because of these temporary measures,” largely because there aren’t any dry docking availabilities getting canceled or delayed in the near term.

Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Trident Refit Facility Bangor “are working with the fleet to mitigate impacts to ship schedules. The work packages for each availability are being evaluated and structured to continue work pier-side when possible. As our mitigation plan moves forward, we will have a better understanding of future impacts to availabilities,” an official said.

Generative AI like viral ChatGPT lands on DISA technology watch list

WASHINGTON — ChatGPT, a bot launched by OpenAI in November that produces human-like conversations and content, including surreal art and computer code, has caught the eye of U.S. defense officials.

And the tech that underpins the viral bot, generative artificial intelligence, was recently added to a Defense Information Systems Agency watch list, according to Chief Technology Officer Stephen Wallace.

“We’ve heard a lot about AI over the years, and there’s a number of places where it’s already in play,” he said Jan. 25 at an event hosted by a chapter of AFCEA, a communications-and-electronics interest group, at the Army-Navy Country Club in Arlington, Virginia. “But this sort, the ability to generate content, is a pretty interesting capability.”

The watch list, regularly refreshed, has in the past featured topics that later became pillars of defense connectivity and security, such as 5G, zero-trust digital defense, quantum-resistant cryptography, edge computing and telepresence.

“We’re starting to look at: How does [generative AI] actually change DISA’s mission in the department and what we provide for the department going forward,” Wallace said.

ChatGPT, applauded by some for its potential to augment worker productivity and spurned by others over questions of bias and ethics, surpassed 1 million registered users within a week of its launch. The easily accessible platform has shown “a huge swath of the population” the power and pitfalls of AI, according to Bill Drexel, an associate fellow of technology and national security at the Center for a New American Security.

Pentagon’s AI chief says data labeling is key to win race with China

“While it’s obviously not a military system, per se, I think that that growing exposure of these kinds of incidental, often corporate-driven enterprises is really raising the awareness of what can go right and what can go wrong with these tools,” he told Defense News at a separate livestreamed event on Jan. 26.

Exactly how generative AI might be applied at the Pentagon is unclear, and Wallace did not provide specifics. Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI and creator of ChatGPT, met this week with lawmakers in an attempt to demystify the tool, Semafor reported.

The U.S. military is spending more and more on AI and related tech as a means to improve battlefield analysis and predict maintenance needs, among other applications.

The Pentagon’s public spending on AI, including autonomy, ballooned to $2.5 billion in 2021 from a little more than $600 million in 2016. More than 685 AI projects, including several tied to major weapons systems, were underway as of early 2021, according to the Government Accountability Office.

And in November, Air Force Chief Information Officer Lauren Knausenberger said the service must “automate more” to remain dominant in a world of advanced computing and lightning-fast decision-making.

L3Harris delivers experimental navigation satellite

WASHINGTON — L3Harris delivered the experimental Navigation Technology Satellite-3 to the Air Force Research Laboratory for its final phase of integration and testing, keeping the program on track for a late 2023 launch.

AFRL announced the delivery Jan. 26, which brings the lab closer to conducting the first U.S. positioning, navigation and timing experiment in almost a half century.

“This major milestone marks the transition from space system development at contractor’s facilities to the final stage of integration and test activities,” program manager Arlen Biersgreen said in a statement.

AFRL awarded L3Harris an $84 million contract in 2018 to develop NTS-3, which will serve as a testbed for future GPS capabilities including steerable beams that provide regional coverage, a reprogrammable payload that can receive updates while on orbit and built-in defenses against signal jamming. The lab and the Space Force are also considering how the satellite could augment the current GPS constellation as standalone small satellites.

The program’s scope also includes development of NTS-3 ground receivers, which allow military users to take advantage of the satellite’s advanced PNT capabilities.

In its first year on orbit, the satellite will conduct more than 100 experiments to test different technologies and performance techniques. In the meantime, the program has been using the satellite in ground experiments and exercises, including the Army’s PNT Assessment Exercise last August.

With the satellite now on hand, Biersgreen said AFRL and L3Harris are conducting functional and performance tests. These include the first evaluation of the satellite’s radio frequency broadcast capability. Once the tests conclude, the lab will test the satellite’s performance in conditions meant to simulate the space environment.

Data from NTS-3 ground testing will be available to the Space Force and other partners on the program in the coming months, he said.

As the program’s continue preparations for NTS-3′s launch, the Space Force and the Air Force are making plans for how they will use the technology. The Space Force is in the throes of a force design study that will recommend changes to the current PNT architecture.

The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, on the other hand, is closely tracking the user segment, which includes the PNT receivers.