Del Toro says Disruptive Capabilities Office to solve Navy challenges

WASHINGTON — Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro announced initiatives aimed at making the service more responsive to warfighter challenges: the creation of the Disruptive Capabilities Office to quickly apply new technologies to operational problems, and a pilot program that would help programs of record be more agile.

Del Toro said he signed off on the creation of the DCO to carry on the mission of the Unmanned Task Force, a pilot program that had reached the end of its 12- to 18-month planned existence.

The service two years ago established the UTF to scour government and industry inventories for unmanned technologies and rapidly vet them to address specific operational needs.

In contrast to the highly public work of the Navy’s Task Force 59 in the Middle East, the UTF’s work was largely classified — often looking at specific actions Russia or China might take and seeking an unmanned technology that could help prevent or respond to that scenario.

Michael Stewart, who led the UTF, told Defense News he worked with fleet commanders from across the globe to generate a prioritized list of their toughest operational problems that their current toolkit couldn’t solve. The task force’s small staff would then assemble a sprint team of legal, policy, warfighting, technology and regional experts to brainstorm potential solutions to those problems using existing technology only. The team would rapidly toss out the ideas that would take too long to field, were too complex, were not mature, and so on, and then settle on a small number of potential solutions to test and evaluate in the field, he said.

“We were buying down risk very, very quickly, and we could demonstrate it in an operational setting very quickly,” Stewart said.

The other key feature was that Stewart reported directly to the vice chief of naval operations, a four-star admiral, to discuss the work of the sprint teams and ask them to find small sums of money for specific test events without having to go through the traditional budgeting process.

Del Toro, who announced the DCO’s creation at an event celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Naval Research Laboratory, told Defense News the new office will keep the same work process as the UTF and report to the vice chief and the Navy secretary.

“It will look very much like the Unmanned Task Force in the beginning, until we actually start expanding the different topics and issues we’re going to be working in the Disruptive Capabilities Office,” Del Toro said.

In the early days of the office, it will consolidate all the unmanned initiatives in the Navy to “make sure that we’re super focused on the right thing, the right operational requirement,” Del Toro said. Eventually, it will begin taking on operational problems that might be solved with other emerging technologies.

At the heart of this office, as was the case with Stewart’s UTF, is a “direct line with top leadership so that we can make quick decisions, especially quick resourcing decisions, and put money towards it so that we can actually get things moving faster,” Del Toro said.

The U.S. 5th Fleet would still maintain operational control of its Task Force 59, U.S. 7th Fleet would continue its recent work with four large unmanned surface vessels operating out of Japan, and U.S. 4th Fleet would continue its experimentation with a fleet of Sail Drones in the Caribbean, he said, adding that they’ll all share lessons, concepts of operations and more through the DCO to get the most out of lessons learned.

Michael Brasseur, who led Task Force 59 from its fall 2021 inception until his retirement from the Navy this spring, told Defense News that TF59 had “a bold vision focused on solving key operational problems, and bold people assuming a lot of risk to translate that vision to reality fast.”

“That speed is enabled by novel business models, relentless focus on execution, rapid iteration” and more that allowed the fleet to stitch together a hundred disparate unmanned systems into a sophisticated maritime domain awareness network,” he said. “I am encouraged by [Del Toro’s] announcement today, my hope is that the DCO builds on the successes of the UTF and TF59, but is even bolder.”

Agility in programs of record

Del Toro said his aim isn’t just to help the service bring in new technology outside of its programs of record, he wants to make the acquisition programs more agile as well.

He said in his remarks he would kick off a pilot program with the Program Executive Office for Integrated Warfare Systems — which oversees the Navy’s program offices for weapons and sensors — to create some budgeting flexibility.

Rather than look at spending program by program — the budgeting process today includes specific lines for each individual type of missile, each combat system, each sensor and more within PEO IWS — this pilot would create a portfolio view instead. If an upgrade on one missile needed to be accelerated to meet an urgent warfighter need, the PEO could shift money from elsewhere within the missile portfolio to make that happen, for example.

Del Toro said that if this proves it can increase the rate of development and fielding so the acquisition programs can better keep up with the fleet’s ever-evolving needs, this would be expanded to the other PEOs that cover platforms like ships and aircraft.

After the event, he told Defense News that “I want to give the PEOs maximum flexibility to be able to respond to emergent operational requirements that develop.”

This effort will start with legal authorities the Navy already has to move money around from program to program but will hopefully identify the limitations of the current system and identify changes that could make this portfolio approach to spending much more agile.

The pilot will be a success, he said, in “proving, demonstrating there’s value in this — to Congress, to the American taxpayer — so we can build the case in a credible fashion for perhaps, if additional congressional authorities are needed, to propose them in the future.”

Leveraging science and technology

During the event celebrating the centennial of the Naval Research Laboratory, the lab’s Director of Research Bruce Danly spoke of its role in spearheading long-term, high-risk research projects that commercial industry has little interest in.

This type of work will still continue — Danly mentioned a “rapid radiation remediation concept” that would protect space-based sensors from a high-altitude nuclear bomb detonation, something that’s been validated in the lab and will soon be demonstrated in space, as well as research into using laser light beams to send communications, as an alternative to radios that are increasingly at risk of being intercepted or jammed.

Del Toro talked about newer ways to innovate: the new Naval Innovation Center at the Naval Postgraduate School will “enhance and accelerate the innovation process at NPS by … bringing research concepts out of the lab and into the field faster.”

The Marine Innovation Unit “is focused on the identification, experimentation, and rapid fielding of technologies and capabilities to address gaps identified by our Marines,” he said.

“We are dedicated to ensuring that we are collaboratively working together to get the most return on investment of the taxpayers’ money, so that there is no redundancy in what we do, so that work that’s being done in one lab is being shared equitably across the entire enterprise — and actually into the Air Force and into the Army, collaborating as much as we can because that’s absolutely the right thing to do,” he said.

To help focus all these efforts, the Navy’s new Science and Technology Board met for the first time last week to discuss how it would pursue its mission of identifying how new science and technology could be applied to defense missions in novel ways.

Del Toro also directed Chief of Naval Research Rear Adm. Kurt Rothenhaus to submit a science and technology strategy within 90 days to guide how fiscal and human resources are spent to solve sailors’ and Marines’ operational problems today and into the future.

Taiwan’s big stake in Washington’s budget battles

Passing twelve appropriations bills is essential for avoiding a government shutdown and a dangerous return of sequestration, which did so much damage to America’s military over the last decade. And as recent legislative action reveals, these bills are also critical for bolstering deterrence in the Taiwan Strait.

After two years of debate, both House and Senate appropriators have for the first time approved legislation that would fund Foreign Military Financing grants, specifically for Taiwan. This funding would provide the U.S. government another important tool for quickly delivering asymmetric capabilities Taiwan needs to add complexity and risk to Beijing’s military calculus.

The fate of appropriations legislation remains uncertain amid ongoing budget battles on Capitol Hill, which may culminate in another government shutdown this weekend. As negotiations continue, lawmakers should build on recent progress by providing additional resources for Taiwan to preserve peace in the Indo-Pacific.

At minimum, Congress should provide $500 million in FMF for Taiwan in fiscal year 2024, which starts Oct. 1, as House appropriators recommended. The Senate version’s $113 million represents a paltry sum that does not reflect American or Taiwanese security needs.

For perspective, that’s less than ten percent than what Egypt has received in FMF each year for the last three decades—aid that is due for additional scrutiny given alleged connections to bribery charges against Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ). Of the $1.3 billion set aside for Egypt for next year, Senate appropriators withheld $225 million yet again due to persistent concerns related to democracy, rule of law, and human rights.

In other words, under the Senate bill, Egypt could lose twice as much money as Taiwan would receive and still end up with nearly ten times the FMF funding. That is patently absurd given the stakes of defense cooperation with Taiwan and the U.S. commitment to prioritizing the Indo-Pacific.

The Biden administration has also asked for $1 billion in “global FMF” in its supplemental funding request, indicating—albeit somewhat apprehensively—these funds could be used to support Taiwan. Lawmakers should explicitly fence off $300 million of this funding for Taiwan.

Presidential Drawdown Authority is another tool whose value has been clearly demonstrated on the battlefield in Ukraine and can also assist Taiwan. Last year, Congress authorized the President to transfer up to $1 billion worth of equipment from the U.S. military’s inventory to Taiwan but provided no appropriations to replace that equipment.

In July, President Joe Biden used that authority to send the first $345 million tranche of fiscal year 2023 drawdown assistance to Taiwan. Now, Senate appropriators have included $1.1 billion in a draft defense funding bill for fiscal year 2024 to replace U.S. military stocks sent to Taiwan.

This is encouraging progress. But the U.S. military services, which are responsible for manning, training and equipping U.S. servicemembers, are unlikely to use the remaining $655 million in drawdown authority for fiscal year 2023 if they believe there is a risk that equipment transferred to Taiwan will not be replaced.

Echoing prior testimony by Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, administration officials testified in the House this month that security assistance authorities for Taiwan, including drawdown, “should be met by full appropriations.”

Congress should include $1.5 billion in supplemental appropriations bill to cover the fiscal year 2023 Taiwan drawdowns and another $1.5 billion in fiscal year 2024 appropriations bill to ensure all drawdowns to Taiwan are backfilled. Replenishment funds should exceed drawdown authority because the cost of new equipment is often higher than the assessed value of the equipment it is meant to replace.

Congress should also direct the State and Defense Departments to prioritize security assistance tools and resources on building Taiwan’s munitions stockpiles as quickly as possible. In a potential conflict, Taiwan’s island geography and proximity to China will likely preclude weapons deliveries of the kind Ukraine received after the conflict commenced.

Credible deterrence requires that Taiwan has the munitions it needs to fight before—not after—a conflict ensues. Focusing Taiwan assistance on weapons and munitions will also enhance the Pentagon’s market demand signal for expanded munitions production to the U.S. defense industrial base.

To be clear, Taiwan must spend more and spend better on its own defense. To its credit, seven consecutive years of increases will make Taiwan’s 2024 defense budget its largest ever. And its latest “National Defense Report” contains encouraging emphasis on defense-in-depth, survivable command control, and AI-enabled weapons and UAVs.

As Xi Jinping’s 2027 timeline to be ready to invade Taiwan rapidly approaches, it’s in the U.S. national security interest to accelerate Taiwan’s procurement of the capabilities it needs to deter such an invasion.

That means not just selling weapons to Taiwan as in the past, but using the full suite of security cooperation tools, including FMF and drawdown authority, in a targeted fashion to deliver the most critical capabilities for credible deterrence.

This is a legislative breakthrough with strategic impact Congress can and must deliver this year.

Dustin Walker is a nonresident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he focuses on US defense policy and strategic affairs in the Indo-Pacific.

Eric Sayers is a nonresident fellow at AEI, where he focuses on Asia-Pacific defense policy and strategy and U.S.-China relations.

Cardin may track Menendez on Saudi pact, Turkey F-16s as panel chair

WASHINGTON ― Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., has stepped down as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee following his indictment over an Egypt-linked bribe scandal, but the panel’s new leader could still hinder Saudi attempts to strike a defense pact with the U.S. and Turkey’s bid to procure F-16 fighter jets.

After his staff distributed a picture and flyer of Saudi political prisoner Abdulrahman Al-Sadhan to reporters at a press conference on Thursday, Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., stressed that he’ll make human rights concerns a key factor in approving arms sales to other countries, a privilege he now enjoys as committee chairman.

“It’s interesting, we have certain relationships right now in regards to Saudi Arabia,” said Cardin. “I will be mentioning this person [Al-Sadhan] during these discussions. It gets personal, but we won’t see policy changes in these countries.”

As chairman, Cardin will also have considerable influence in whether to advance any security treaty with Saudi Arabia requiring Senate ratification. He will also need to make a quick decision on whether to hold $235 million in Egypt military aid following the Menendez indictment by the end of the week.

The Biden administration had been in close contact with Menendez on both its negotiations with Saudi Arabia and Turkey, though Cardin is still waiting to receive those briefings in the weeks ahead after assuming the chairmanship on Wednesday.

Saudi Arabia has asked the U.S. for a mutual defense pact and a civilian nuclear agreement as conditions to normalize ties with Israel. Cardin said he’s “very excited” about a Saudi-Israel normalization deal, calling it “a game changer in the region” but cautioned he would demand human rights accountability and security cooperation safeguards as part of any U.S. commitments to Riyadh.

Cardin highlighted Saudi Arabia’s 2018 murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi on the orders of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, noting “There’s still not been fully accountability with regards to those responsible.”

“These issues need to be talked about and we have to have it included as we talk about a security agreement in the United States and Saudi Arabia,” he said. “And there’s got to be guardrails because any security agreement the United States commits to help defend another country to make sure that it’s always in our national security interest to get engaged.”

But he added that a successful security agreement, with safeguards, could “open up more opportunities for arms sales with the Saudis.”

“If we don’t have an agreement, then there’s a great concern as to the use of American military on the Saudis that we’ve seen in the previous campaigns, and I know there’s a great deal of interest among my colleagues on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee,” he told Defense News.

Before backtracking and entering defense pact negotiations with the Saudis, President Joe Biden announced shortly after taking office that he would ban offensive arms sales to Riyadh – including an $8 billion deal for precision-guided missiles agreed to in the Trump administration – because of the Khashoggi murder and U.S.-backed bombing campaign in Yemen that killed close to 9,000 civilians.

Last week, the State Department approved a $500 million arms sale in repairs and spare parts for U.S. tanks and armored vehicles owned by the Saudis. This includes equipment that Saudi border guards used to kill hundreds of Ethiopian migrants and asylum seekers attempting to cross into the kingdom from Yemen, as documented in an August Human Rights Watch report.

Menendez would have had to greenlight this sale, despite announcing a hold on Saudi arms sales last year “beyond what is absolutely necessary to defend U.S. personnel and interests” amid Democratic outrage over Riyadh’s agreement to increase oil output with Russia.

Turkey and Egypt

Cardin also said that he talked with Turkish representatives at the NATO ambassadors meeting on Wednesday.

“I reminded them to stay on track to get the accession of Sweden into NATO,” said Cardin. “They claim that’ll be done first part of next month. If that is true, then we should have the NATO issue resolved, but there are other issues in addition to just NATO accession that needs to be part of our discussions going forward.”

He said he had not made a decision on whether he would allow the F-16 sale to proceed.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan explicitly linked the two issues this month, stating that Ankara would ratify Sweden’s accession if the U.S. moves forward on the F-16 sale. The Turkish parliament could take up Sweden’s accession bid when it returns from a months-long recess in October.

Menendez’s former position as Foreign Relations chairman proved to be Turkey’s chief obstacle in inking the roughly $20 billion sale for 40 Block 70 F-16 fighter jets and modernization kits. He had repeatedly said Sweden’s NATO accession would not be enough for him to approve the sale, at times pointing to a range of other concerns like border tensions with Greece and Ankara’s jailing of journalists and political opponents.

The Justice Department’s indictment against Menendez alleges that he ghost wrote a letter for an Egyptian official lobbying his Senate colleagues not to hold $300 million of Egypt’s annual $1.3 billion in military aid in exchange for bribes in cash and gold bars.

Cardin is also deliberating whether to block $235 million of Egypt military aid that the Biden administration approved via a national security waiver this month. He would need to do this by the end of the month.

“The allegations against Senator Menendez are horrific, and they also involve allegations concerning his role as chairman of the committee,” said Cardin. “So, that is extremely challenging to all of us here.”

However, he stressed that the indictment did not implicate any Foreign Relations Committee staffers.

Cardin last took Menendez’s place as lead Democrat on the committee during the New Jersey senator’s first federal indictment in 2015. However, that indictment did not implicate Menendez’s work on the committee.

While Menendez was required to step down as chairman per Senate rules, he currently remains on the Foreign Relations Committee.

Romania, Czech Republic advance F-35 acquisition plans

WARSAW, Poland — Romania’s Ministry of National Defence has announced it aims to sign a letter of acceptance in 2024 to buy 32 F-35 Lightning II fighters in the program’s first phase, and subsequently secure a further 16 aircraft.

Bucharest intends to purchase “the first two squadrons from the United States of America through the Foreign Military Sales …[scheme to buy] 32 aircraft. The purchase, whose value is estimated at $6.5 billion, will be based upon a government-to-government-type” contract, the Romanian ministry said.

“The endowment program is designed to be completed in two stages. At the end of these, the Romanian Air Force will count three F-35 squadrons,” the ministry’s press office told Defense News in a Sept. 28 statement. “Documents for the first stage of the program were sent for the parliament’s approval.”

Romania’s planned contract is to also cover the delivery of 35 engines, initial logistics support, training services for pilots and technical staff, simulators, weapons, as well as ammunition.

The Romanian ministry said it expects to receive the first jets in 2030.

The decision to buy a then-undisclosed number of F-35s was taken by the Romanian Supreme Council on National Defense (CSAT), a state body chaired by President Klaus Iohannis, at its April 11 meeting.

The jet is made by U.S. defense giant Lockheed Martin. The planned deal could make Romania the fighter’s largest operator on NATO’s eastern flank.

A growing group of Eastern European allies have set their sights on the F-35. In January 2020, the Polish cabinet signed a deal worth some $4.6 billion to purchase 32 fighters along with a training and logistics package.

Meanwhile, Czech defense leaders said this week they had secured Cabinet approval to buy 24 F-35s.

In a Sept. 27 statement released by her ministry, Czech Defence Minister Jana Černochová said the project to buy the fifth-generation aircraft with related equipment, weapons and logistics will cost “less than five billion dollars, and will be paid gradually in the years 2024 to 2034.”

Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said the first fighters are expected to be ready in 2029, with deliveries to be completed in 2035.

Brazil sets up fund for Army’s armored vehicle, missile capabilities

SAO PAULO — The Brazilian government has launched fund to dedicated to Army capabilities, including the acquisition and development of armored vehicles from the Italian manufacturer Iveco Defence, Astros missile system from Avibras and more.

The plan is part of the Growth Acceleration Program, or PAC, announced by the government in August. The effort is set to spend about 53 billion reals (U.S. $11 billion) on defense. Some of that money will go toward an armored forces strategic program, the Army told Defense News.

“This program has a profound impact not only on the modernization of military capabilities but also on the development of critical technologies,” the Army told Defense News in a Sept. 20 statement.

The focus on armored vehicles will see various types manufactured by the Iveco, which opened a local factory 10 years ago as part of its work with the Army, the service explained. Types include six-wheel drive Guarani armored vehicles, four-wheel drive multitask Guaicuru armored vehicles, eight-wheel drive Centauro combat vehicles, six-wheel drive Cascavel medium reconnaissance vehicles, and modernized Leopard 1 tanks made by Krauss-Maffei Wegmann.

The tank modernization effort was previously postponed “due to high demand for armored vehicle parts in the international market,” the military reported Sept. 17.

The Astros missile system is part of an overall effort to “contribute to the organization of missile and rocket artillery,” enabling long-range and high-precision strategic fire support, the Army said.

Earlier this year, Avibras unveiled new variants of the weapon: the Astros II MK6 and the Astros III. The former has a maximum range of 300 kilometers (186 miles). The latter, which has greater firepower, is designed to operate from an eight-wheel drive vehicle and can launch ballistic rockets, guided rockets, ballistic missiles and tactical cruise missiles, according to the company.

Another part of the investments is directed toward the Army’s aircraft and drones. The military reported aircraft acquisition efforts include “maneuver helicopters” used to transport troops and equipment. According to the armed forces, these helicopters would weigh more than 7.5 tons and could contribute to civilian missions, such as national emergencies.

According to the government, the PAC investment effort is funding the modernization of six HM-1A Pantera helicopters, manufactured by Brazilian firm Helibras, a subsidiary of the French company Airbus Helicopters. The company this year delivered the first modernized unit.

The plan also includes “the acquisition of ten general-purpose helicopters,” the military announced, without providing further details. However, the force has an aviation battalion composed of Helibras-made Caracal helicopters, which are known as HM-4 Jaguars within the Army. They were made under Brazil’s H-XBR project, which involves all three armed forces and continues to provide aircraft for the military.

Another part of the project involves the purchase of nine drones. According to the Army, which did not identify the manufacturers involved, these unmanned aircraft will belong to categories 0 through 2, which vary in terms of operating altitude and range. Category 0 corresponds to drones weighing up to 2 kilograms (4 pounds). Category 1 ranges from 2 kilograms to 150 kilograms, and the third category ranges from 150 kilograms to 600 kilograms.

Kazakh startup pushes into local market for explosive drones

BELGRADE, Serbia — One of the newcomers at the Belgrade Partner 23 defense fair was a Kazakhstan-based company that has purposely kept a low profile over the last year while developing a new explosive drone for the country’s armed forces.

Taharqa Technologies, a Kazakh drone startup founded a year ago, has lifted the veil off its new project, the NMD multirotor drone. The system, which remains at prototype stage, weighs 2 kg and has an endurance of 20 minutes.

“The NMD drone was developed for the armed forces of the Republic of Kazakhstan, as part of the country’s ongoing drone program, which seeks to field a wide variety of unmanned aircraft, including reconnaissance and kamikaze ones,” Tair Balbayev, chief executive of Taharqa, told Defense News.

The executive stated that the push for the national armament project began prior to the Ukraine war, and has accelerated in recent years. In May 2022, for example, the Kazakh border guards received hand-launched “Raven” drones from the United States to monitor their borders for terrorist activity.

The same month, Turkish Aerospace Industries and Kazakhstan Engineering also signed a license agreement for the country to begin locally manufacturing ANKA drones. This marked an key decision, as Kazakhstan became the first state outside of Turkey to produce these systems.

However, what has shifted is Astana’s ambition to build up its own manufacturing capabilities and mass-produce military strike drones.

In regards to the NMD system, the requirement from the Kazakh Ministry of Defense was weapon that can target enemy infantry with high-explosive fragmentation warheads. According to the manufacturer, the drone can penetrate armor up to 10 mm.

“Although realistically this will not happen within the next year, our goal is to be able to take the NMD model into production in the near future,” Balbayev added.

This is the first time the Kazakh company attends the Serbian arms fair, and the motivation behind its presence this year was to come to understand its positioning within the international market and secure potential funding.

Aside from drones, Taharqa is also designing gliding munitions to be used with combat aircraft to defeat air-defense positions. That weapon is slated to have an 8 kg high-explosive warhead and be powered by an electric motor to allow it to reach ranges up to 60-70 kilometers when launched from heights of 3-5 km, the company said.

How Iranian, Russian arms makers shared a Belgrade trade fair hall

BELGRADE, Serbia — Iranian defense officials were livid at some of the organizers of the “Partner 23″ arms fair here about the placement of their colossal stand: Tucked away in a separate pavilion, shared primarily with Russia’s weapons export agency, who would come look at Tehran’s offerings of drones and missiles?

That was the gripe Iranian delegation members strongly voiced at a Serbian government-sponsored defense exhibition that brought together some of the West’s most prominent foes in Europe’s back yard.

The event, which ran Sept. 25-28, also featured large European contractors like Airbus, plus a smattering of other defense entities ranging from countries like Italy to Azerbaijan, making for an unusual grouping of political adversaries under the banner of selling weapons.

Placed center stage on Iran’s setup were anti-ship cruise missiles, air defense systems and small-scale prototypes of the M6, Karrar and Shahin drones. Models included the AD-75 air defense missile with a maximum range of 75 kilometers; the CM-35 anti-ship cruise missile with a 130 kg warhead; and Shahin vertical take-off and landing unmanned aerial system fitted with multi-rotor propellers by China-based company T-Motor.

The towering setup of 16 weapon systems dwarfed the neighboring stand of Rosoboronexport, whose sparse display suggested the delegation had come empty-handed. Some of the only visible items shown by the Russian group were a video of the Barrier-2, an electronic-scanning radar to detect drones, and a large picture of the Pantsir missile system.

This is at odds with what Rosoboronexport had said it would be showcasing in a statement released two days prior to the fair.

“Given the high interest of the world market in the unmanned aerial vehicles, the Orion-E and Orlan-30 reconnaissance drones will be on display at the company’s booth; it will also present the Su-35, MiG-35 fighters, Yak-130 combat trainer, and more to air force representatives,” Rosoboronexport stated on its website.

A Russian representative here blamed the meager showing on logistical problems in transporting the equipment to Belgrade.

Iran has helped supply Russia with ammunition and drones to support the invasion of Ukraine, as Moscow’s stocks are reportedly dwindling. Earlier this summer, the European Union imposed a new set of sanctions against Tehran that prohibits bloc companies to export drone parts to the repressive regime.

A Defense News reporter was told by fair organizers here that the layout of the event was arbitrary, and that the Russian and Iranian exhibitors were placed in separate hall only because that space was newly added to the display space of an event grown in popularity.

The Iranians were still highly miffed, complaining that the isolation resulted in next to no visitors coming to see their systems.

In an outburst of anger on the second day of the event, Iranian delegates declared that their defense ministry perhaps wouldn’t have booked the space had they known about the layout. Contributing to their protest was the fact that for a scheduled meeting with an undisclosed Serbian company, the host-nation executives had not shown up.

According to the Iranians, Tehran’s shopping list included navigation systems for guided artillery. Commanders typically use those munitions for targeting military vehicles or high-value assets like command posts or reinforced structures.

From parts to hypersonics, Pentagon sees 3D printing as ‘game changer’

WASHINGTON — The growth of additive manufacturing is a “game changer” for the military — one that can facilitate everything from rapid repairs to aircraft after bird strikes to accelerating the development of hypersonic weapons, a top Defense Department official said Wednesday.

Keith DeVries, deputy director of the Office of the Secretary of Defense’s Manufacturing Technology Program, said in a Defense News webcast Wednesday that additive manufacturing has made “tremendous leaps” in the last few years and opened up novel possibilities for creating new weapons and components.

Additive manufacturing has particularly come in handy when designing new systems, DeVries said, allowing programs to iterate during the rapid prototyping process much more quickly than in traditional manufacturing processes.

It has also been used to create “one-off” spare parts to repair aircraft or other systems that might otherwise have to wait long periods for a replacement component to work its way through a slow supply chain, he said.

“We’ve even seen bird strikes repaired on aircraft overnight, or in a few days, through additive manufacturing,” DeVries added.

3D printers can also quickly create new tools, which typically take a long time to arrive when they are made in traditional ways, he said.

And DeVries said the scale of objects that can be 3D printed is also increasing, to the point where entire structures such as houses can be built that way.

The Defense Department has taken notice of those advancements, he said, and is looking for ways to apply them.

“In the defense side … having the ability to print a runway or a hangar or something literally overnight can be amazing,” DeVries said.

Additive manufacturing has advanced since its early days, when it made objects from more fragile polymers to materials with higher tensile strength. Today, DeVries said, these manufacturing techniques create objects from high-entropy metals that are particularly strong and stand up to wear and tear, using lasers to melt metals that can withstand high temperatures and allowing more complex shapes to be crafted.

“Those advancements have been fundamental unto themselves,” DeVries said. “Now, it feels like we’re turning a corner and we’re trying to find what the sweet spot is for how big of a build volume is appropriate for us to apply that technology.”

And hypersonic weapons are a prominent example of a program where additive manufacturing can be useful.

Scramjet propulsion systems that are central to some hypersonics, for example, require complex chambers that can be difficult to make, DeVries said. But 3D printing these components is allowing hypersonic weapons manufacturers “some fantastic capabilities,” he said.

Additive manufacturing would allow scramjet components to be made from high-temperature metals in a way that eliminates the need to have complex welds or brazing joints, DeVries said. Those joints need to be tested to ensure they’re sound, he said, but a component made via additive manufacturing that doesn’t have those joints won’t need such testing.

“Being able to incorporate additive manufacturing is enabling us to manufacture complexity that has not been able under the subtractive, traditional manufacturing methods,” DeVries said. He noted hypersonic development is still in the rapid prototyping phase.

But DeVries said traditional manufacturing techniques such as casting and forging still have a place, and warned the DoD and manufacturers should only seek to replace those techniques with additive manufacturing “in a very intentional and frankly limited way.”

“We want to treat [additive manufacturing] as a tool in the toolkit, and we want to apply it exactly where it’s necessary, and where it adds the most value,” DeVries said.

Exemption given for Navy to build nuclear sub in stopgap funding bill

WASHINGTON ― Congress intends to give the Pentagon a carveout in a short-term funding bill that will allow the Navy to begin construction on a new ballistic missile submarine. Without that exemption, service leaders have expressed concern that congressional budget dysfunction could otherwise push the program behind schedule and create a nuclear deterrence gap in the years ahead.

The Senate’s bipartisan stopgap funding bill, released Tuesday, includes a rare exemption that would allow the Navy to start building the second Columbia-class submarine before Congress passes a full Pentagon budget for fiscal 2024. A rival stopgap funding bill introduced by House Republicans also includes the Columbia-class carveout. It’s unclear when Congress will pass the exemption into law, as unrelated issues threaten to spark a government shutdown at the end of the week.

While lawmakers broadly agree on the need to allow the Navy to procure the next Columbia-class submarine as soon as possible, that cannot begin until both chambers agree on a stopgap funding bill.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., has added several provisions to the House bill opposed by Democrats at the behest of the far-right Freedom Caucus, including a Republican immigration bill and non-defense spending cuts. And the bipartisan Senate bill includes another $6 billion in economic and military aid for Ukraine, which a growing number of House Republicans oppose.

The impasse means a government shutdown is likely. There’s no telling how long it may last, making it unclear when the Navy can procure the next Columbia-class submarine. And even if Congress does coalesce around a stopgap funding bill, it will still disrupt three other Navy ship programs: the Virginia-class attack submarine, the Constellation-class frigate and a new submarine tender replacement program.

Though the Navy does not want to see any of its acquisition programs disrupted, the Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine program holds particular national security importance.

The Columbia program replaces the aging Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines, which today prowl the world’s oceans with nuclear missiles onboard. Their entire mission is to remain hidden under the seas in case called upon for a nuclear strike. They will begin to reach the end of their lives and decommission in FY27.

The Columbia program is already on a tight schedule that’s growing ever tighter as construction challenges arise. The Navy originally crafted an “accelerated schedule” that would have delivered the first boat in the program six months ahead of its contractually obligated timeline, but Vice Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti told the Senate earlier this month that buffer was completely gone now due to a string of manufacturing, workforce and supply chain delays. The boat is still meeting its original contractual schedule, though, she noted.

The first boat, called the District of Columbia, must be delivered to the Navy by the General Dynamics’ Electric Boat yard in Connecticut by the fall of 2027 so it can undergo substantial testing ahead of a 2031 maiden deployment. If it misses that first patrol due to construction delays, the Navy and the country could see a gap in its at-sea nuclear deterrence in 2031.

The program will only grow more challenging from there, as the Navy picks up the pace and will begin to buy the massive submarines at a one-a-year rate, despite industry challenges on the first boat.

The second boat in the program is one of nine ships the Navy intends to buy in FY24, and Franchetti said the service, without the congressional carveout, would not be allowed to buy it and begin construction activities under the continuing resolution — which, depending on the length of the delay, risks a cascade of delays at the shipbuilder and its thousands of suppliers.

Defense Secretary Austin’s salary cut to $1 under GOP budget plan

House Republicans on Wednesday approved a measure to slash Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s salary from more than $221,000 annually to less than $1, based on their dissatisfaction with his work so far.

The move has little chance of becoming law, but underscores the growing animosity between conservatives and military leaders reporting to President Joe Biden. House Democrats dismissed the move as little more than a political stunt.

As part of debate on the fiscal 2024 defense appropriations bill, GOP lawmakers approved multiple similar proposals to cut salaries for Defense Department positions they dislike.

The Pentagon’s director of diversity and inclusion, the head of the department’s equity and inclusion office, the military’s chief diversity officer, and the assistant secretary of defense for readiness — a transgender woman — were all targeted with amendments that would trim their annual salary to less than $1.

Capitol Hill dysfunction threatens key defense initiatives

Austin, as Biden’s top civilian military leader, was lambasted by Republican lawmakers on the House floor Wednesday for the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, the military’s recent recruiting shortfalls and COVID-19 vaccine policies during the pandemic.

“Many Americans agree: We do not want the United States’ military led by failure, causing us to be weak,” said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green, R-Ga. and sponsor of the Austin salary provision. “We need to pass this amendment.”

A proposal to cut Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley’s pay to $1 was also floated by Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., but dismissed by party leaders before Wednesday’s debate.

Green’s amendment was approved by a voice vote. Democrats did not press for a roll-call vote which may have prevented the provision from being adopted.

However, the pay cut is already unlikely to advance beyond the House, given Democratic control of the Senate and Democratic dissatisfaction with the defense budget bill. Party leaders have already publicly opposed the appropriations plan over Republicans’ inclusion of controversial social policy provisions, including language that would overturn the Pentagon’s abortion travel leave rules and restrict medical care for transgender troops.

“You may disagree with the administration’s policies, as we all have done over the years with different administrations. But Secretary Austin has done nothing to merit this,” said Rep. Betty McCollumn, D-Minn., and ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee’s defense panel. “There’s no need for us to make such a personal, drastic attack by eliminating his pay.”

The White House has already threatened to veto the appropriations bill.

Republican leaders also included other amendments offered by the right-flank of the party, including the Freedom Caucus, on the floor. An amendment from Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, would bar the Pentagon from implementing President Joe Biden’s climate change executive orders, mirroring language he added to the defense policy bill in July.

A bevy of other bipartisan amendments would dock funding from the Defense Department’s Operation and Maintenance account in order to bolster various research and development programs.

The House is expected to vote on the full defense spending bill later this week. Even if it passes, a government shutdown starting Sunday remains likely, since House Republicans continue to disagree with Senate Democratic leaders over federal spending levels for a short-term government funding bill.