Archive: December 1, 2023

NATO to update artificial intelligence strategy amid new threats

Milan, Italy – NATO is set to update its artificial intelligence strategy to include generative AI amid an increase in cyber attacks on critical infrastructure and interference with government agencies.

The standard, described by the organization as a sort of quality control, is intended to clarify what is expected from industries, institutions and operational end-users across the alliance regarding the application of the technology.

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Advancements in AI have rapidly made it an essential part of the defense alliance’s operations, especially in the cybersecurity domain to identify network vulnerabilities or monitor for anomalies in data access. Now NATO is looking to standardize processes to ensure that generative AI and other new tech can be also be utilized effectively and safely, according to David van Wheel, NATO’s assistant secretary general for emerging security challenges .

“The AI strategy endorsed by NATO in 2021, will be up for review next year and a new version will [eventually] be adopted, which will in part include language around generative AI,” he said during a media roundtable on Nov. 28.

Van Wheel said that while the initial strategy primarily defined the six principles guiding the responsible use of AI, NATO has been working on more recent initiatives to operationalize these concepts.

“Since February, NATO has been working on an AI intelligence certification standard aiming to translate the principles outlined in the 2021 strategy into concrete checks and balances, which is expected to be completed by the end of this year,” he said.

New forms of AI, of which ChatGPT is an example, are able to generate different types of content based on data provided by users. The more information it is given, the better the model learns and produces increasingly realistic outputs.

Some of the key concerns around generative AI are that given the significant amount of data it requires, the likelihood that sensitive intelligence could be misused or leaked by malicious actors is increasing. If not effectively protected, confidential documents could be exploited to create deep-fakes or spread misleading facts.

“We will make it [the revised strategy] as public as we can, to inform the public and those operating in the field of AI of what we are expecting,” van Wheel added.

An alarming number of cyber offenses have recently been reported worldwide ranging from attacks on critical infrastructure to interference with governmental agencies. For Russia specifically, cyber warfare has been an important aspect of its sustained efforts to disrupt Ukrainian networks throughout the war.

“Cyber is still playing a big role in Ukraine, it just doesn’t get the same attention as other types of attacks,” van Wheel said. “Even now, we’re seeing ongoing Russian attacks on Ukrainian data centers and energy infrastructure, which as winter approaches, will be even more critical.”

According to a Microsoft report, over the last year, 120 countries have been victims of cyberattacks, of which nearly half of the targets were NATO member-states.

“We will need AI to defend ourselves,” van Wheel said.

Marine Corps looks at ocean glider for rapid resupply to fight China

The challenge of effective emergency resupply and medical transport in austere and isolated regions such as the Indo-Pacific has led the Marine Corps to invest in “hoverbike” drones and robot mules.

Now, the Corps is investing millions in a developmental “flying ferry” that purports to solve the same problem.

The Marine Corps Warfighting Lab has signed a nearly $5 million contract to test out hydrofoiling seagliders, which may provide an innovative solution for medical evacuation and resupply in littoral regions.

The contract is with Rhode Island-based Regent, a three-year-old company developing all-electric gliders for defense and commercial use. The company announced in November 2022 it had assembled a defense advisory board of retired general and flag officers, notably including Gen. Robert Neller, the 37th commandant of the Marine Corps.

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These seagliders, still in development, represent a boat-aircraft hybrid that has no direct parallel in the commercial or military world. A hydrofoiling base, or small platform that touches the water, allows the body of the glider to stay “airborne” while in motion a short distance above the water’s surface, though not actually in flight. Regent says it has sold 467 of the craft so far to commercial aviation and ferry customers around the world, and has an order backlog totaling nearly $8 billion.

Regent’s current seaglider model ― and the one the Warfighting Lab would be assessing ― is the 12-passenger Viceroy.

The glider can travel up to 180 miles on a single charge, but the company is working to stretch that range outward as battery technology improves, Bill Thalheimer, co-founder and CEO of Regent, told Marine Corps Times in an interview. He theorizes the range could reach 500 miles by the end of the decade.

In light of that expected trajectory, Thalheimer said, the military use case for the gliders in maritime regions like the Indo-Pacific became clear. The novelty of the platform also lends itself to experimentation by entities like the Warfighting Lab.

The Viceroy seaglider initially will be comparable in cost to a small aircraft such as a Cessna Grand Caravan or DHC-6 Twin Otter, he said, although the company expects the cost to come down as more enter production. Those planes cost between $2 and $4 million new.

The yet-to-be-completed fully operational prototype will weigh 15,000 pounds, handle a payload of 3,500 pounds and have a 65-foot wingspan.

Thalheimer said the glider could fill a known gap in the Marines’ high-speed logistics mission in the Pacific while freeing up helicopters and other longer-range assets for different tasks.

The range of Marine Corps experimentation efforts with light and low-cost platforms that can cover coastal distances fast ― perhaps spanning the distance between an expeditionary advanced base in the littorals and a better-equipped medical center in time to provide care to a wounded Marine within the critical Golden Hour ― speaks to the difficulty of the problem. Former Commandant Gen. David Berger said earlier this year that logistics represents the Corps’ greatest current challenge.

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The seagliders “address a recognized gap within the U.S. Department of Defense for high-speed, low-cost, low-signature, runway-independent mobility in the littorals and fulfill a range of mission sets including troop and cargo transport, expeditionary advanced base operations, and communications,” Regent said in a released statement.

The news of the new glider development contract coincides with the publication of an article by Marine Corps Capt. Trevor Shimulunas arguing for a similar concept: unmanned, single-use aerial gliders for small unit logistics.

“Glider systems decrease the risk of detection by enemy forces,” Shimulunas writes for U.S. Naval Institute Magazine Proceedings. “Released at a significant standoff distance from the supported unit, gliders could eliminate the risk of audible detection, and their small size and color scheme would decrease risk of visual detection.”

Notably, the kinds of unmanned gliders Shimulunas describes are smaller and less expensive than Regent’s model, and would only carry cargo, not passengers.

The Warfighting Lab, Thalheimer said, will be conducting three separate demonstrations as part of the agreement with Regent: a float demo, a hydrofoil demo and a flight demo.

These initial “barebones” demonstrations, he said, will prove out the aircraft’s abilities to operate through its full operating envelope.

According to Regent’s announcement about the Marine Corps contract, the demonstration period will culminate “in a live technical demonstration of the full-scale prototype during a large-scale exercise hosted by the U.S. Government.” Thalheimer did not provide additional details about this planned exercise, saying those conversations are just beginning. The Marine Corps is not purchasing any seagliders in the contract, he said. The Corps’ investment, he added, will allow for maturation of the technology and validation of the concept. Thalheimer added the company was also pursuing conversations with the Coast Guard, which may have a use for seagliders for maritime patrol.

Marine Corps officials did not immediately respond to an inquiry about Regent and its plans to demonstrate the glider.

In addition to logistics and medevac between and around expeditionary forward bases in the littorals, Thalheimer said the Viceroy could serve as an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance platform or an ad hoc communications network when equipped with the right payload.

“They’re essentially aircraft with unlimited loiter time, because they can land and take off in the water,” he said.

In a statement, Neller highlighted this intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance use case, saying speed and signature management in the littorals was critical.

“REGENT seagliders provide the ability to distribute multiple capabilities in the littorals, including logistics, command and control, and ISR,” he said. “The REGENT seaglider capabilities will create success.”

While the prospect of a manned seaglider without armament or built-in defenses operating in a potentially contested future littoral environment might give many pause, Thalheimer said the company is addressing that concern.

Regent expects to develop a future unmanned and autonomous version of the glider soon, he said, adding that its current control system already is highly automated and adaptation will be made easier due to the simplicity of conducting testing over water rather than in trafficked areas.

The currently planned manned version, though, offers certain advantages over traditional aircraft, Thalheimer said. The complexity of training pilots to fly the glider is much less than with a conventional military aircraft, meaning requirements can be lessened and training length shortened, he said.

“These can be enlisted service men and women who are at the helm of this, driving it like a boat with essentially all the capabilities of an aircraft,” he said.

Bill urges Pentagon to speed JADC2 transition in focus on Indo-Pacific

WASHINGTON — U.S. lawmakers are urging the Department of Defense to prioritize the Indo-Pacific as it interlinks soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and their disparate databases in a multibillion-dollar effort known as Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control.

Companion bills filed this week by Rep. Darrell Issa, a California Democrat, and Sen. Joni Ernst, an Iowa Republican, instruct the department to address Indo-Pacific Command’s long-range networking and intelligence-sharing needs first. The command’s remit includes China and North Korea, as well Australia, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. The Biden administration considers the region critical to international stability and financial well-being.

By seamlessly connecting forces across all environments, including cyber and space, U.S. defense officials hope to outwit and outshoot tech-savvy adversaries of the future. Establishment of such links has been piecemeal as the services each have their own contribution to the connectivity campaign, and outdated or siloed technologies have hampered in-the-field collaboration.

The JADC2 Implementation Act, as the legislation is known, motivates “the right people and programs at the Pentagon to deploy needed strategies in a transformative way,” Issa said in a statement Nov. 27. “These capabilities will be a force multiplier for military efforts abroad and achieve smooth and efficient integration of warfighting units on the battlefield.”

The geography of the Indo-Pacific, too, poses unique challenges. Vast expanses of water, with islands strewn throughout, dares connectivity while dense foliage impedes signals and extreme weather events foil logistics.

Untangling it all to find the right solutions, and soon, is critical, according to Ernst. The bills require regular updates on activities, including the deployment of a joint data integration system handled by the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office. The office was established in 2021 and has since played a significant role in the CJADC2 pursuit.

“No matter the service branch, commanders should have access to critical capabilities to best equip our warfighters and better coordinate our military’s efforts across air, land, sea, space, and cyber,” Ernst said in a statement. “Through the Joint All-Domain Command and Control Implementation Act, I’m working with Congressman Issa to further integrate our joint forces and give commanders better access to the tools they need to achieve their mission.”

The Defense Department in fiscal 2024 requested $1.4 billion for CJADC2. It said the funding was necessary to “transform warfighting capability.” Lawmakers have previously questioned related price tags and timelines.

The proposals in both chambers are congruent with plans outlined last year in drafts of the National Defense Authorization Act. At the time, senators advocated for a joint headquarters for CJADC2 alongside INDOPACOM as well as quarterly demonstrations of tech maturation.

Canada to buy Boeing-made Poseidons in $5.9 billion deal

VICTORIA, British Columbia — The Canadian military will start receiving in 2026 Boeing-made P-8A Poseidons it is buying through a deal worth $5.9 billion.

Canadian cabinet ministers, including Defence Minister Bill Blair, made the official announcement Thursday, but defense observers had long expected it after Canada earlier this year requested from the U.S. pricing on the P-8.

Canada will initially acquire 14 of the planes with the option to buy two additional P-8s at a later date.

Blair said the aircraft should be all delivered by the fall of 2027 and the fleet fully operational by 2033.

The P-8A will replace Canada’s current maritime patrol aircraft, the CP-140 Aurora, which has been in service for more than 40 years.

Blair said Thursday during a news conference in Ottawa that it has become increasingly difficult for Canada’s military to maintain the CP-140 fleet because of its age. “It has reached its limit,” Blair said.

He noted the Boeing plane is a proven capability operated by Canada’s “Five Eyes” allies: the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. Blair said Canada did not want to take a risk and look at aircraft now under development.

There will be additional spending on new infrastructure, weapons and simulators for the P-8, he added.

Boeing will be expected to provide investment in Canadian industry equivalent to the value of the contract it is receiving, federal government officials said at a background briefing.

The Royal Canadian Air Force uses the CP-140 on operations around the world, including for hunting submarines and detecting security threats such as illegal fishing, drug trafficking, and polluters along the Canadian coastlines.

Blair noted Canada’s newly acquired CC-330 Husky refueling aircraft fleet will be able to refuel the P-8A.

He told reporters the P-8s will come as Canada is facing increasing threats, particularly in the Arctic. “We are seeing a more aggressive posture from our potential adversaries such as Russia and China,” he added.

The Canadian military had originally planned a competition starting in 2024 to replace the CP-140 Auroras. Bids were to have been submitted in 2027. Both Boeing, with its P-8, and Canadian firm Bombardier, with its special mission Global 6500 aircraft, were interested in competing.

But in a surprise move in March 2023, Canada requested pricing from the U.S. government for a fleet of 16 P-8s. Public Services and Procurement Canada, the federal contracting department, announced the P-8 was the only aircraft that could meet Canada’s needs.

In June, the State Department approved the sale to Canada of 16 P-8A aircraft and related equipment at an estimated cost of $5.9 billion.

That sparked a campaign of political lobbying by Bombardier and its partners, which include General Dynamics Mission Systems-Canada.

Boeing, in a news release Thursday, noted it has 81 Canadian-based suppliers contributing already to the P-8. In addition, it has partnerships with key Canadian firms such as CAE and Raytheon Canada, the firm said.

“The P-8 will bolster Canada’s defense capability and readiness, and we look forward to delivering this capability to the Royal Canadian Air Force,” Heidi Grant, president of business development for Boeing’s defense business, said in the news release. “Together with our Canadian partners, we will deliver a strong industrial and technological benefit package that guarantees continued prosperity to Canada’s aerospace and defense industry.”

First US submarine repairs in Australia scheduled for summer

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Navy will conduct its first submarine maintenance work in Australia next summer using the sub tender Emory S. Land, with 30 Australian sailors embarked to learn how to repair the Virginia class of submarine.

This will be an early step in establishing a nuclear-powered attack submarine maintenance capability at the HMAS Stirling naval base in Western Australia in the next few years as part of the trilateral AUKUS arrangement.

U.S. Navy Undersecretary Erik Raven said the service has already taken a number of steps since the March announcement of the AUKUS “optimal pathway,” which lays out three phases: U.S. and U.K. submarines operating out of Stirling; Australia buying and operating new and used Virginia-class submarines from the U.S.; and Australia building and operating its own SSN-AUKUS submarine.

Raven said Australian officers, sailors and government civilians are already in the nuclear training pipeline with the U.S. Navy and are learning attack sub maintenance procedures in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and at Barrow-in-Furness, England.

Australia is making upgrades at Stirling, he said, and planning for the sub tender-based maintenance period next summer is underway.

“That tender-based maintenance period will include 30 Australian exchange sailors that will deploy with the tender for qualifications to participate in maintenance,” Raven said Thursday at a Navy League congressional shipbuilding breakfast.

In 2024, Raven said, the first Australian sailors will be assigned to serve on U.S. submarines, and Australian maintainers will begin performing maintenance at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard as part of their training.

Additionally, the navies will begin buying training systems and simulators that will go to Stirling.

To support those plans, Raven urged lawmakers, some of whom were in the audience, to pass as soon as possible four legislative proposals the Navy sent to Congress.

“Current law limits our ability to undertake the next steps of this program,” he said. “Specifically, absent relief, we cannot receive the funds that Australia has committed to invest in the U.S. submarine industrial base; train Australian workers in construction and maintenance for the nuclear submarine industry; sell a Virginia-class submarine to Australia; or modernize our export control systems to execute this ambitious program.”

He asked that these measures be included in the Fiscal Year 2024 National Defense Authorization Act still being considered by the House and Senate.

Seven questions with BAE Systems’ US chief executive

WASHINGTON — The war in Ukraine has been fought with two sets of equipment.

On one end are the systems that may define the future of warfare: drones — many of them single use — designed to spot or strike the enemy.

On the other are the systems that have defined warfare for generations: artillery and armored vehicles.

Much of the equipment in this second category — from the M777 howitzer to the Bradley Fighting Vehicle — are made by BAE Systems. And yet they may not be for much longer, as the company winds down old production lines.

Like others in industry, BAE Systems is preparing for the future, as seen in its $5.55 billion acquisition of Ball Aerospace this August. But, at the same time, the war in Ukraine is leading many countries to reconsider their supply of traditional systems, including artillery.

Ahead of the Reagan National Defense Forum, a symposium of industry and government defense officials in California, Tom Arseneault, the chief executive of BAE Systems’ U.S. business, spoke with Defense News about how his company is balancing both needs.

This interview was edited for clarity and length.

Last year, you discussed horizons and that there was a short-, a medium- and a long-term one for your planning. What are the horizons that you see now — in particular the short-term horizon of Ukraine?

What we’re all working on now across industry is more of a short- to medium-term horizon, where we’re working to backfill that which has been donated [to Ukraine]. That’s everywhere from munitions to combat vehicles.

The [Department of Defense] has seen an opportunity where they’ve sent some equipment they’ve had in their inventory for some time to replace that with newer equipment. Case in point for us, the old M113s — a Vietnam-era armored personnel carrier — [300] of those have been sent to Ukraine. We don’t make those anymore and haven’t in some time. But the Army is ordering AMPVs, the armored multipurpose vehicle, which is in production today. They’re adding to the orders they already had, in order to eventually backfill those.

M777s — a towed artillery piece with a 155mm gun originally contracted with the Marine Corps — [and] there’s on the order of 1,000 of those around the world. Demand dried up for those, and we basically went out of production with that equipment back in 2018. Now, given the elevated visibility of the importance of artillery in conflicts like this, it’s gotten some renewed interest. The Army is working with us to reconstitute that.

That’s restarting the production line that was dropped off in 2018, because of the demand that we’ve seen from Ukraine?

Yes, that of the Army, but also through the Army for foreign military sales.

Are there other systems or capabilities you’re now starting to revisit that might be hitting the end of their production lines?

The Bradley — it’s on the order of a couple hundred Bradley Fighting Vehicles that have been sent over [to Ukraine]. So while we were for planning purposes winding down over the next couple years, the Bradley line, we’ve got orders for hundreds more of the newer variant.

The war in Ukraine has shown a mix of low-end and high-end tech — artillery but also FPV [first-person view] drones. How do you straddle that as a company?

The Ukrainians are pulling [different kinds of tech] all together and integrating it in ways I don’t think anybody would have originally predicted. That creates challenges and opportunities for their supply chains and for our involvement in those.

We’re helping out with some more modern equipment in the form of our laser guided munitions — these are small rockets. We’re using those for counter UAS now, where you can get a laser on an enemy drone, and then fire these to take them out of the sky. That’s more modern technology coming off the production line today being used for what was an emergent need.

So that’s an example of the kind of work you’re doing to meet the future need?

I think that is. In the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, there was the rise of the improvised explosive device. That sort of came out of nowhere and became a real problem. Well, now there are flying IEDs.

Having an inexpensive 2.75 inch rocket with a laser guidance kit [intercepting it], that’s a good equation. In the past, [the rocket] was originally designed as an air-to-ground munition, as the old unguided rockets were. Now it’s being used in a counter UAS application really born out of this need in Ukraine.

To what extent has the difficulty in getting a full appropriations bill passed this year complicated your planning?

Industry has gotten accustomed to this delay, and the DoD has as well in the way they time their spending. But especially when the demand is up and they have these needs on multiple fronts, it’s a big problem. While it has not manifested itself yet, the longer this pushes out into 2024, it will borderline cripple a number of services, in terms of their plans.

We didn’t talk about that long horizon, which is unchanged and that is the Indo Pacific threat — more near-peer adversary, higher technology. The bulk of the DoD budget is pointing at that threat, particularly around investment accounts. That’s where time is the enemy.

You said the damage hasn’t materialized quite yet. When would we reach that point?

When you start getting down into the late first half, early second half of next year. By the time you get to the half year, you’re three months away from the government fiscal year coming to an end.

Navy launches efficiency drive in pursuit of savings

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Navy is looking to find budget savings and efficiencies to give it more flexibility under tighter budget caps, the service’s undersecretary said today.

Erik Raven, who oversees the business side of the Navy, said the sea service is working with its program managers and prime contractors to address cost overruns, as one way to address the lower-than-expected budgets that stem from this summer’s Fiscal Responsibility Act.

More broadly, “the department is executing an internally focused effort to identify opportunities to better allocate funding,” in what Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro has called the Running Fix effort, Raven said at a Navy League congressional shipbuilding breakfast event Thursday.

The assistant secretaries for research, development and acquisition and for financial management and comptroller will co-chair the effort, which Raven says will build upon past efforts to identify efficiencies.

In fact, Comptroller Russell Rumbaugh said in announcing Running Fix during a September speech the Navy has had a “constant call for efficiency” for the last two decades. He said many of the same ideas have come up each time and still haven’t been implemented.

Rumbaugh noted the Navy has claimed $200 billion in efficiencies over the last 14 budget cycles, much which has been cost avoidance, which can include things like buying something sooner to prevent price hikes later.

But Raven said this current effort “isn’t only a drill about saving dollars and cents; this is a drill about increasing efficiency across the department of the Navy.”

He offered information technology as an example: the Navy still pours money into its legacy systems, even though paying for newer systems would lead to larger savings down the road and bring the Navy up to current industry standards.

Through an effort called Cattle Drive, he said the Navy hopes to winnow down the number of IT systems — much like a cattle drive doesn’t end well for the cows, he joked, this effort won’t end well for legacy systems that hurt Navy efficiency, but persist through budget and programmatic inertia.

More broadly, Raven noted, “increasing efficiency and accountability within the Department of the Navy is not just about buying a new computer system that can keep better track of things; it’s about improving our business processes.”

At the same event, Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Va., said “the mindset has to change across the Pentagon: it has to change from saying we’re process-oriented to being outcome-oriented,” which will involve taking some risks.

Running Fix, established this fall, aims to inform the fiscal 2026 budget request, which will be sent to Congress about 14 months from now.

Raven told Defense News Thursday any money saved through this department-wide effort would go to Del Toro’s top priorities of buying and maintaining platforms and supporting people.

As an incentive for commands to “self-nominate” their own efficiencies, though, he said in many cases a command that can demonstrate a cost saving will be allowed to repurpose that money within its own portfolio.

Lawmakers urge Air Force to shift fighters to guard, reserve squadrons

WASHINGTON — A bipartisan group of lawmakers on Thursday urged the Air Force to temporarily shift some of its fighters from active-duty units to guard and reserve squadrons to maintain balance as the service retires older air frames.

The letter, which was signed by 16 senators and 27 representatives including Rep. John James, R-Mich., asks Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall to consider a concept called “fleet leveling” as a temporary solution to ensure the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve does not lose some of its fighter squadrons or experience.

“Absent intervention, the ANG is slated to lose two fighter missions in the next [few] years or will be forced to continue operating with older models,” the lawmakers wrote.

The Air Force is in the process of retiring its fleet of rugged but aging A-10 Warthog attack aircraft by the end of this decade. Two guard squadrons will lose their A-10s in the process — the 107th Fighter Squadron at Michigan’s Selfridge Air National Guard Base, which is in James’s district, in 2027 and the 104th Fighter Squadron at Maryland’s Warfield Air National Guard Base in 2025 — but the Air Force has not yet identified an aircraft to replace them. Many of the lawmakers who signed the letter represent states or districts that could be affected by the retirements.

If the Warthogs there retire before a replacement fighter is found, James and the other lawmakers worry the squadrons at Selfridge and Warfield would lose their missions and lead to a loss of experienced, “combat-proven,” and hard-to-replace pilots, maintainers and support personnel.

Other signatories to the letter include Reps. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., Don Bacon, R-Neb., Debbie Dingell, R-Mich., and Lisa McClain, R-Mich., as well as Sens. Cory Booker, D-N.J., Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, Ben Cardin, D-Md., and John Kennedy, R-La.

The Air Force has for years struggled to train and keep enough pilots and maintainers, and the lawmakers worry the problem could be exacerbated if these guard squadrons lose their Warthogs without a replacement mission. This would force the service to spend significant amounts of money and effort training replacements, they said.

“It takes more than a decade to produce an experienced fighter pilot,” they wrote. “Unlike the active component, closing [a guard or reserve] fighter squadron results in the permanent loss of hundreds of deeply experienced personnel. That experience, and the millions of taxpayer dollars invested to train them, are lost forever.”

Fleet leveling would be a “stopgap measure” to maintain the guard and reserves’ combat capacity while industry builds more fighters to replace the retiring jets, lawmakers said.

A temporary shift of fighters could also help reinforce other guard squadrons that fly older and outdated F-16s and F-15Cs, the lawmakers said.

“Should these pilots be called to service at the request of combatant commanders or our military at large, fleet leveling will ensure that these pilots are ready and able to answer the call,” they said.

Air National Guard director Lt. Gen. Michael Loh has also backed leveling the fighter fleet to strike a more even balance of jets across the service’s components. During a panel at the September 2022 Air Space Cyber conference hosted by the Air and Space Forces Association, Loh pointed out that the guard makes up 27% of the service’s fighter force, yet it has less than 7% of the service’s F-35s and less 11% of its F-22s.

“Right now, there’s huge pressure on the fighter fleet, and we’re at a capability and a capacity issue,” Loh said at the 2022 AFA. “How do we get after that? Level the fleet. … We’re sitting on A-10s, F-15Cs, [older] F-16s, both [the guard and reserve]. We need a strong, healthy recapitalization plan.”

Noah Sadler, a spokesman for James, said the congressman thinks Boeing-made F-15EX would be a good candidate to balance the fleet and is trying to bring those new jets to Selfridge.

An amendment to the House’s version of the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act, which was proposed by James in July, would require the Air Force to buy two more F-15EXs and send them to a guard base without a replacement for its retiring Warthogs. The Senate’s NDAA does not have a similar provision, but James hopes it will end up in the final version.