Archive: July 31, 2023

US Army developing LASSO tank-killing drone for infantry

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Army kicked off a program to quickly provide soldiers a portable, tank-busting drone, amid ballooning use of similar equipment in the Russia-Ukraine war.

The service’s Program Executive Office Soldier, or PEO Soldier, this month announced the Low Altitude Stalking and Strike Ordnance venture, or LASSO, and a responsibility for lethal unmanned systems, adding that the need for such gear is “urgent.”

LASSO systems can be carried by troops, use a tube for launches and are strapped with a lethal payload, according to the office, which specializes in equipment including uniforms, body armor, night-vision devices and guns. The kit also features an electro-optical and infrared sensor, precision flight controls and the ability to track and engage far-off targets, it said.

The one-way, or “suicide” drone is tailored for infantry brigade combat teams and is expected to be in soldiers’ hands in 2024. Feedback and updates will follow.

“As the Army prepares to engage near peer threats in a conventional conflict, it was evident that our infantry brigade combat teams are in need of additional organic anti-tank capabilities,” Jason Amadi, an office spokesperson, told C4ISRNET July 27. “PEO Soldier’s expertise is supporting the infantry brigade combat teams. No one is better suited to develop and field this capability to IBCT soldiers.”

How high-speed drone racing could aid struggling Air Force recruitment

The Army is still finalizing details related to contracts with defense industry, Amadi said, but the plan is “to focus initial phases of the LASSO program on currently available systems.”

Bomb-laden drones have proven popular in the Russia-Ukraine war, with the clashing militaries attempting to scout, coordinate and attack from deeper and safer distances.

“Both sides are leaning heavily on FPV-type drones — light, portable, kamikaze, expendable systems,” Samuel Bendett, an expert at the Center for Naval Analyses, told C4ISRNET. “There’s a need, right now, for a large number of FPV-type drones. But there’s also a need to advance that development further out, beyond just the immediate line of contact, to where these drones can strike in the rear.”

The U.S. has promised Kyiv hundreds of AEVEX Aerospace Phoenix Ghost and AeroVironment Switchblade loitering munitions. An aid package announced July 25 also included pocket-sized Black Hornet surveillance drones from Teledyne FLIR.

Aerojet eyes resource sharing, renewed stability after L3Harris buy

WASHINGTON — Sharing of manufacturing facilities and other resources, pooling supply chains, new opportunities for employees’ career advancement and renewed stability after three tumultuous years are among the benefits Aerojet Rocketdyne’s division president expects from the company’s acquisition by L3Harris.

In a Friday interview with Defense News, Ross Niebergall, the newly named president of L3Harris’ Aerojet Rocketdyne segment also expressed confidence that he will have the independence to continue running the Aerojet sector as a supplier of engines and propulsion systems to other engin, including those that might compete with L3Harris.

“I see no issues whatsoever,” said Niebergall, who until recently was Aerojet’s vice president and chief technology officer. L3Harris is “buying Aerojet Rocketdyne to get a footprint in the growing missiles and weapons and munitions market. We wouldn’t want to do anything to jeopardize that growth, and that growth really is, as being a merchant supplier” of propulsion systems, he said.

L3Harris on Friday announced it had closed the $4.7 billion deal to acquire Aerojet, a manufacturer of rocket engines and propulsion systems for the Defense Department, NASA and other customers.

After three years of turmoil at Aerojet Rocketdyne — including Lockheed’s failed acquisition and a war for control of the company between former CEO Eileen Drake and former Executive Chairman Warren Lichtenstein, as well as COVID and supply chain challenges — Niebergall expressed relief that the company’s period of uncertainty has come to an end.

“It’s fantastic to be closed, and I’m excited really for the 5,000-plus employees at Aerojet Rocketdyne, that we’re welcoming them into the fold and giving them that stability to continue growing that business,” he said. “There’s a lot of excitement.”

As the acquisition neared its close, Niebergall said, Aerojet reached out to nearly 100 of its most crucial engineers and other leaders to ask if they would remain part of L3Harris. All said yes, he said, and he predicted the newfound stability will improve overall retention of talented workers.

Niebergall said that Drake is no longer with the company, and its previous board has been dissolved.

A top priority for L3Harris, he said, will be carrying out the $215.6 million contract Aerojet received from the Pentagon in April to modernize its complex rocket propulsion manufacturing processes at facilities in Camden, Arkansas, Huntsville, Alabama, and Orange County, Virginia. These improvements were intended to allow Aerojet to increase production and speed up deliveries of Javelins, Stingers, and Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System, or GMLRS, weapons, scores of which of which have been provided to Ukraine.

“Since that’s such an important piece for the Department of Defense, that’s an area that we’re going to apply a lot of attention in the next few weeks, to make sure we’re supporting that,” he said.

Niebergall said he plans to fly to the Huntsville facility on Sunday to get work going as quickly as possible.

The integration of Aerojet into L3Harris will likely take months — and likely into early 2024 — and the details of how it will work are still being hammered out, he said. Since announcing the acquisition last December, the companies formed an organization called the integration management office that included representatives from both firms to figure out how it will work.

“Now, we’re really starting the heavy lifting of actually doing the integration that we’ve been planning for,” Niebergall said.

Integrating the two companies’ information technology functions will be an early priority, and work force integration will follow over the next few months.

Bringing Aerojet’s thousands of employees into L3Harris could present new ways for them to advance in their careers.

“We’re creating an organization that has a lot more resilience and gives people a lot more opportunities within the company,” Niebergall said.

He said Aerojet will be able to take advantage of the broader manufacturing and supply chain resources L3Harris has developed over the years, as well as leveraging economies of scale by using L3Harris’s shipping and other logistics systems.

For example, L3Harris and its new Aerojet division might be able to use the manufacturing facilities each had developed on their own to work on each other’s programs, he said, adding that Aerojet’s 13 facilities and the programs they work on are unique enough that there isn’t much redundancy with L3Harris facilities.

L3Harris will be able to provide more funding to its new Aerojet segment, and make some of its own experts available to help on their projects, he said.

“Now that we’ve pulled Aerojet Rocketdyne into this, we will be … figuring out what resources can we apply. Not just funding, but also people from across the company to be able to surge and apply to Aerojet Rocketdyne as needed to make this into a great company,” Niebergall said.

Niebergall predicted layoffs would be minimal, and would focus on reducing redundant positions at corporate offices.

“Aerojet Rocketdyne is focused on building rocket engines, and that’s something that we need to now strengthen,” he said.

Japan forecasts large boost to defense spending over next five years

MELBOURNE, Australia — Japan will spend more than double on defense over the next five years compared to the previous five amid a host of security challenges in the Indo-Pacific region, according to the country’s latest defense whitepaper.

The English version, released July 28, projects Japan will spend $309.75 billion on defense between fiscal 2024 and fiscal 2028, compared with $122.48 billion between fiscal 2019 and fiscal 2023.

This includes $35.62 billion for standoff defense capabilities that Japan only recently started to acquire; the country spent $1.4 million on that effort in the previous five years. These standoff defense efforts include the acquisition of air-launched standoff land-attack missiles such as the Joint Strike Missile for its F-35 fighter jets, a program to extend the range of its Type 12 ground-launched anti-ship missile, and the development of hypersonic weapons.

Japan’s forecast spending also includes $21.37 billion for integrated air and missile defense; the country spent $7.12 billion on that in the previous five years.

The document argues that Japan needs these capabilities “to counter opposing forces from a safe distance without being attacked.”

Projected spending on the integrated air and missile defense system mentioned in the document will likely primarily go toward two Aegis system equipped vessels that Japan plans to build in lieu of the scrapped Aegis Ashore missile defense system.

The ships, which are due to enter service in 2028 and 2029, will feature Lockheed Martin-made SPY-7 radars that Japan originally procured for its Aegis Ashore program. Local news agency Jiji Press previously reported that the vessels will each have 128 vertical launching system cells for missiles.

The whitepaper also said Japan is facing an “increasing diversity and complexity of airborne threats,” such as missiles flying at hypersonic speeds, low altitudes and on irregular trajectories.

Other areas expected to see a large investment boost over the next five years include sustainability and resiliency, as well as cross-domain capabilities. The former encompasses ammunition stockpiles, sustainment and maintenance costs, and improving the resiliency of defense facilities. Funding for that is to jump from $42.73 billion to $106.8 billion.

Spending on cross-domain capabilities is anticipated to increase from $21.4 billion to $56.9 billion as Japan continues investing in the integration of its self-defense forces.

The whitepaper also touched on what it calls “the most severe and complex security environment” since the end of World War II, and warned the country “needs to squarely face the grim reality and fundamentally reinforce its defense capabilities, with a focus on the capabilities of its opponents and new ways of warfare.”

German Air Force rushes to Iceland in ‘Rapid Viking’ drill

STUTTGART, Germany — The German Air Force kicked off what it called a “lean and mean” operation on Friday to demonstrate its ability to quickly deploy to Iceland as part of a two-week exercise dubbed “Rapid Viking.”

From July 28 through Aug. 10, six German Eurofighters and 30 service members from the Tactical Air Force Squadron 73 “Steinhoff” are deployed to Keflavik Air Base, according to a service statement. Once on site, the squadrons will conduct several daily practice flights.

The Rapid Viking Exercise is an opportunity for the Air Force to demonstrate how it can move to Reykjavik “at supersonic speed,” said Lt. Gen. Ingo Gerhartz, the service’s chief of staff.

The Luftwaffe aims to serve as a “first responder,” he noted in the statement. “That is why we are training for a quick transfer with the fewest possible human and material resources, especially in this scenario.”

Two A400M aircraft shipped 25 tons worth of material and the personnel to Iceland. The first plane carried nine pallets plus personnel, while the second plane carried five pallets of material plus a hydraulic test stand.

On average, the air force would require between 130 and 150 tons of material to participate in an exercise, for a value of up to €200 million, said Staff Sergeant Oliver M. That amount of cargo can take up to a week to pack up, including three days just to load the pallets onto the aircraft.

For Rapid Viking, the 25 tons of material, worth about €2 million, took only two days to pack and one hour to load onto the aircraft.

The Luftwaffe was last deployed to Iceland in 2012 as part of a NATO air policing initiative. Iceland is a NATO member, but it does not have its own military. Allies show solidarity to the 375,000 inhabitants by temporarily relocating forces to the island nation.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has prompted Europe’s militaries to reassess the state of their capability inventories as well as their ability to get battle-ready fast. Last October, German air force and naval troops performed a rapid deployment to Estonia, participating in a month-long exercise dubbed “Baltic Tiger” to test how quickly the services could provide reinforcements to allies in need.

Last year, the Luftwaffe also performed its first-ever deployment to the Indo-Pacific, completing its goal of reaching Singapore less than 24 hours after takeoff from Neuburg Air Base, in Bavaria.

L3Harris closes purchase of Aerojet Rocketdyne

WASHINGTON — L3Harris on Friday announced it had completed its acquisition of Aerojet Rocketdyne, adding a company with broad expertise in building rocket engines and propulsion systems to its portfolio.

The $4.7 billion deal, which the companies first announced in December 2022, will give L3Harris more opportunities in the missile defense system, hypersonic, and advanced rocket engine markets, the company said in a Friday statement.

“I’m thrilled to welcome more than 5,000 employees to the L3Harris team today,” L3Harris chief executive Christopher Kubasik said. “With national security at the forefront, we’re combining our resources and expertise with Aerojet Rocketdyne’s propulsion and energetics capabilities to ensure that the Department of Defense and civil space customers can address critical mission needs globally.”

Ross Niebergall, who until now was vice president and chief technology officer at Aerojet Rocketdyne, will be the president of L3Harris’ new Aerojet Rocketdyne segment. The company said Niebergall will be responsible for the Aerojet division’s business strategy, financial performance, execution of programs and growth.

“Our customers demand a competitive environment that produces innovative, agile solutions,” Niebergall said. “We will expand on the strong Aerojet Rocketdyne heritage to enhance production and deliver on those expectations.”

By Friday morning, Aerojet Rocketdyne’s website had been redirected to L3Harris’ home page, and it is now known as Aerojet Rocketdyne, an L3Harris Technologies company. L3Harris’ other business segments are space and airborne systems, integrated mission systems, and communication systems.

Lockheed Martin’s previous attempt at acquiring Aerojet for $4.4 billion ran aground amid federal regulator’s antitrust concerns. The Federal Trade Commission sued to block that deal in January 2022, and the following month, Lockheed canceled plans to buy Aerojet.

In January 2023, a month after L3Harris announced its own acquisition plans, Sen. Elizabeth Warren raised concerns to the FTC. Earlier this month, she also asked the Defense Department to carefully review the deal for any potential conflicts.

The FTC on Wednesday told L3Harris it would not block the deal, and the company told investors in a letter that it would swiftly move to close its purchase of Aerojet.

US Army general dies in plane crash near Aberdeen Proving Ground

WASHINGTON — A longtime U.S. Army acquisition officer and aviator has died in a plane crash near Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland.

Maj. Gen. Anthony Potts, who until weeks ago led the service’s Program Executive Office Command, Control and Communications-Tactical, or PEO C3T, died at the scene near 3600 Old Level Road in Havre de Grace, according to the Harford County Sheriff’s Office and media reports.

Potts was the only person in the single-engine plane when it went down in a field July 25. No one on the ground was hurt. Dozens of first-responders were dispatched to search for the wreckage, according to the Level Volunteer Fire Company. The National Transportation Safety Board said it is investigating the matter.

Potts, who grew up in Kentucky, planned to retire soon after nearly four decades of military service. He was commissioned as an Army aviation second lieutenant in 1986 and later served in operations Desert Shield, Desert Storm, Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom. He was also an attack helicopter platoon leader in Germany.

Potts most recently helmed PEO C3T, tasked with developing, deploying and supporting battlefield communications gear. Before that, he led PEO Soldier, which deals in everyday equipment, such as uniforms, body armor, night-vision devices and guns. Both roles were considered critical to protecting troops and modernizing the way the Army fights.

Maj. Gen. Robert Collins, who led PEO C3T prior to Potts, in June 2022 described the Kentuckian as “a truly a strategic and critical thinker, a team builder.”

“He understands the modernization instrument and how it runs,” Collins said at the time, “and he certainly understands that the centerpiece of our modernization is our soldiers.”

Additional countries consider security links with US National Guard

Switzerland, Finland and Sweden are considering joining the U.S. National Guard’s security partnership program in a further expansion of American military ties across Europe after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The chief of the National Guard, Gen. Dan Hokanson, announced the discussions with each country, which had not previously been reported, in remarks at the National Press Club on Thursday.

Interest by the three countries in the program is the latest indication of how Russia’s war has led each of those nations to take steps that consider ending long-standing policies of military nonalignment.

“I’m pleased to announce that we will soon deepen and expand our security cooperation relationships throughout Europe,” Hokanson said

Finland and Sweden “are currently in discussions for partnerships,” he said, while “Switzerland is currently reviewing the relationships that other nations share with the National Guard and assessing the possibility of the program in their future.”

Finland and Sweden were the most recent countries to seek NATO membership; Finland joined in April and Sweden is waiting for approval. Longtime-neutral Switzerland began considering easing export controls on sending weapons to active war zones earlier this year.

The National Guard’s State Partnership Program is a lesser-known but key military instrument for U.S. troops to build relationships with foreign militaries by conducting regular training and education exchanges with young officers. It partners National Guard units with host nations.

The program can help foreign military better shape their own operations to reflect Western military organization and equipment. That is something seen as key to getting a host of Eastern European nations on NATO standards to ease how multinational armies could conduct operations.

The National Guard program began 30 years ago after the collapse of the Soviet Union as former Soviet states looked for ways to move away from their communist-styled military organization. Ukraine was one of the first to join the National Guard program, partnering with California’s National Guard. From the earliest days of Russia’s invasion, Ukraine’s air force has reached out for support to the California National Guard partners it trained with.

Sweden and neighbor Finland ended their policy of military nonalignment after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. Both applied for NATO membership, seeking protection under the organization’s security umbrella.

Finland, which shares a more than 800-mile (1,300-kilometer) border with Russia, joined NATO in April. But Sweden, which has avoided military alliances for more than 200 years, had previously been delayed due to objections from Turkey. But earlier this month, Turkey agreed to remove one of the last major roadblocks to Sweden’s membership.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Turkey had agreed to support Sweden’s NATO bid –- by putting the issue to a vote in parliament — in return for deeper cooperation on security issues and a promise from Sweden to revive Turkey’s quest for European Union membership.

The war in Ukraine has also prompted Swiss government officials to grapple with their country’s longtime conception of neutrality, which is enshrined in the constitution and prohibits exporting weaponry to active war zones.

See the weapons on display during North Korea’s military parade

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un shared center stage with senior delegates from Russia and China as he rolled out his most powerful nuclear-capable missiles in a military parade.

The event Thursday evening marked a major war anniversary with a show of defiance against the United States and deepening ties with Moscow as tensions on the Korean Peninsula are at their highest point in years.

State media said Kim attended the parade with Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chinese ruling party official Li Hongzhong.

The streets and stands were packed with tens of thousands of spectators, who roared in approval as waves of goose-stepping soldiers, tanks and intercontinental ballistic missiles filled up the main road.

Associated Press writers Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates and Edith Lederer in New York contributed to the report.

Defense budget policy bill negotiations face murky waters

Congressional leaders say they’re confident they can reach agreement on a compromise defense authorization bill later this year even though the House and Senate drafts advanced so far differ significantly on a host of contentious social issues.

On Thursday, Senate lawmakers approved their version of the massive authorization bill, which outlines plans for $886 billion in defense spending next fiscal year and mandates a host of program and policy changes for the military.

It also includes a 5.2% pay raise for troops next January and a collection of bonus reauthorizations needed for recruiting and retention efforts. The measure has been passed out of Congress for 62 years, and is considered must-pass legislation for Congress each year.

Senators advanced their draft after more than a week of amendments work which included new protections for military members from debt collectors and new limits on Chinese access to sensitive U.S. military technology. The final measure passed by a 86-11 vote, with significant support from members of both parties.

That stands in sharp contrast to the House authorization bill vote earlier this month, which passed 219-210 largely along party lines.

House Democrats balked at supporting the measure after GOP leaders included amendments which would repeal the Defense Department’s abortion access policies, restrict medical care for transgender troops, eliminate military diversity initiatives and ban the Pentagon from implementing President Joe Biden’s climate change mitigation orders.

Despite the acrimony, key congressional leaders said this week they are confident the competing authorization bill drafts can be sorted out in interchamber negotiations, and that a compromise can be found sometime this fall.

“We’ll get it done,” said Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. “Staff will go ahead and start compromising on low-hanging differences over the August recess, and we’ll get back in September to clean up the other differences. I’m confident we’ll wind up in a good place.”

Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, also said he was “optimistic” about the final product, stating “we always get a bill, six decades plus. We’ll get one this time.”

Committee ranking member Adam Smith, D-Wash. — who voted against the measure on the House floor — expressed a similar positive outlook.

“I think we will be able to resolve our differences,” he said on Thursday. “Obviously, the House Republicans are going to have to back off a lot of those things they added in. But we were perfectly OK with the bill as it passed out of committee. So there is a path ahead.”

The House Armed Services committee draft of the measure did include limits on Defense Department diversity training, restrictions on future COVID-19 vaccines mandates and several other measures that drew the ire of minority Democrats. But ultimately most voted to move ahead with the legislation, because of its overall importance to the military.

Despite the vast differences between the two bills on culture war issues, they both contain a series of similar provisions. That includes language freezing new construction at the temporary Space Command facility in Colorado Springs and freezing half of Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall’s budget until he makes a months-overdue decision about whether to keep the combatant command there or move it to Huntsville, Alabama as previously planned.

Both bills also institutionalize the sea-launched cruise missile nuclear program while providing approximately $190 million in FY24 for its continued research and development, despite opposition from the Biden administration.

The Senate also amended its bill on the floor with numerous other provisions. Last week, senators voted 65-28 to require congressional approval for U.S. withdrawal from NATO — a precaution against former President Donald Trump’s possible return to the White House.

The Senate also unanimously attached an amendment from Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisc.,that would require 100% of components in Navy ships to be manufactured in the United States by 2033.

Another amendment includes two authorizations for the trilateral AUKUS agreement with Australia and Britain: one that allows the U.S. to begin training private sector Australian employees in submarine work and another intended to speed up export control licenses for the two countries.

However, Wicker blocked two other AUKUS authorizations from the bill, vowing to hold them until Congress provides more funding for the submarine industrial base via a defense spending supplemental.

The authorizations Wicker blocked would have allowed the sale of up to two Virginia-class submarines to Australia and permitted Washington to accept $3 billion from Canberra for the U.S. submarine industrial base.

The House and Senate are scheduled to be on recess until early September. Formal negotiations between the two chambers on the authorization bill will begin then, but informal behind-the-scenes work will carry on throughout the summer.

Software glitch during turbulence caused Air Force F-35 crash in Utah

An F-35A Lightning II fighter crashed at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, last October when turbulent air confused its avionics, rendering the jet uncontrollable, an Air Force investigation has found.

The nonfatal crash marks the second time an Air Force F-35A has been destroyed in an accident since the jets began flying in 2012. Its loss cost the Air Force more than $166 million, the service said in a report released Thursday.

The accident unfolded just after 6 p.m. local time on Oct. 19, 2022, as a quartet of F-35As returned to Hill from an “uneventful” training sortie, the report said. The jet that crashed, assigned to Hill’s 421st Fighter Squadron, was approaching the base as the third aircraft in the four-ship formation.

As they prepared to land, the pilot felt a “slight rumbling” of turbulence from the wake of the aircraft in front of him, the report said. The bumpy air caused the F-35′s flight controls to register incorrect flight data, and the jet stopped responding to the pilot’s attempts at manual control.

The pilot tried to abort the landing and try again, but the jet responded by sharply banking to the left. Further attempts to right the aircraft failed, and the pilot safely ejected north of the base. His F-35 crashed near a runway at Hill.

The entire incident lasted less than 10 seconds, the report showed.

The aircraft “looked like a totally normal F-35 before obviously going out of control,” an F-35 test pilot who watched the accident from the ground told investigators. “I did see really large flight control surface movements — [stabilizers], trailing edge flaps, rudders all seem to be moving pretty rapidly.”

Investigators found that the pilot involved in the crash hadn’t followed turbulence procedures in effect that day. That requires airmen to fly farther apart, with at least 9,000 feet between landings.

However, the report noted that the F-35′s flight manual tells pilots to space out their landings by 3,000 feet, and doesn’t specify how far apart they should be in case of turbulence.

Simulations confirmed that the issue stemmed from the jet’s misinterpretation of the flight data, not the physical effects of turbulence itself.

“The F-35 enterprise has over 600,000 flight hours and this is the first known occurrence where wake turbulence had this impact on the air data system,” the report noted.

The Air Force said the likelihood of a similar accident happening again is minimal.

“As with any aircraft accident, we will incorporate the findings from this report as appropriate to improve processes and enhance flight safety across the Air Force,” an Air Combat Command spokesperson said.

The F-35A is the Air Force’s most advanced stealth fighter for aerial reconnaissance, ground strike and air defense missions. The service plans to grow from about 375 to 432 F-35As in 2023, stationed at several bases in the U.S. and overseas.