Archive: June 22, 2024

Army to buy more than 1,000 Switchblade drones through Replicator

The U.S. Army will field more than 1,000 Switchblade 600 drones over the next year as part of Replicator — the Pentagon’s push to field thousands of uncrewed systems.

Gen. James Mingus, the Army’s vice chief of staff, revealed the quantity for the first time during a June 21 House Appropriations defense subcommittee hearing, hosted at the Defense Innovation Unit’s headquarters in Mountain View, Calif.

Built by AeroVironment, the Switchblade 600 loitering munition is one of a handful of systems the Defense Department plans to buy in the first tranche of the Replicator program and is the only one officials have identified by name. Others include an unspecified fleet of maritime drones procured through a DIU solicitation, a batch of uncrewed surface vehicles and a set of counter-drone systems.

The intent of Replicator, which Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks announced last August, is twofold. In the near-term the Pentagon wants to field large numbers of attritable drones to counter China. But the larger goal is to develop an enduring process for buying technology to meet the department’s most urgent operational needs.

The Pentagon plans to spend a total of $1 billion on the effort in fiscal years 2024 and 2025 with funds drawn from various sources including prior year appropriations, a reprogramming request, a national security supplemental approved in August and the department’s yet-to-be approved FY-25 budget proposal.

Switchblade has featured heavily on battlefields in Russia, Syria and Iraq. The Army had already planned to buy the system through its Low Altitude Stalking and Strike Ordnance program, though in smaller quantities, before it was selected for Replicator. Last October, the service announced that it would procure 100 Switchblades to test and field within Army units.

“That was an innovation that we had worked collectively together, it’s a loitering munition, which we then included as part of Replicator Tranche One,” Mingus said during the hearing. “And we are now going to scale and scope that to over 1,000 over the next year or so.”

Hicks announced last month that the department started fielding Replicator systems to Indo-Pacific Command in early May. The Pentagon declined to say what systems had been fielded nor would it disclose quantities.

“This shows that warfighter-centric innovation is not only possible; it’s producing real results,” Hicks said in a statement. “Even as we deliver systems, our end-to-end capability development process continues.”

US prepares to open new training site for foreign F-35 pilots

A new F-35 training site under construction in northwest Arkansas is preparing to welcome fighter pilots from around the world this fall.

Ebbing Air National Guard Base will become the latest U.S.-based site dedicated to training foreign pilots across the global F-35 Joint Strike Fighter enterprise, which now encompasses more than 3,500 jets in 18 countries.

US approves location for Singaporean F-16, F-35 training

The new hub will allow more instructor pilots from the U.S. — the largest member of the F-35 coalition at more than 2,400 jets — to share their expertise with a rotating cast of nations who have less operational experience with one of the world’s most advanced fighters or lack the resources to host a multinational school of their own.

Learning from the U.S. can make the international coalition sharper in combat, Col. David Skalicky, who oversees the project as commander of the 33rd Fighter Wing at Florida’s Eglin Air Force Base, told Air Force Times. Military officials argue that familiarity can prove crucial if the countries must go to war together.

“This is really about increasing the capability and capacity of our allies and partners,” he said.

Poland is slated to arrive as the first foreign F-35 user on campus in September, followed by Finland, Germany, Switzerland and Singapore in the years ahead.

They’ll learn from the new 85th Fighter Group and 57th Fighter Squadron, expected to open at Ebbing July 2, an Air Force spokesperson said.

F-35 pilots from Italy, Norway, Denmark and the Netherlands already train at Arizona’s Luke Air Force Base; Belgium is slated to begin lessons there as well. But Luke lacks the resources and room to welcome students from more than a dozen other countries, spurring the international coalition to look for another site where foreign pilots can learn from the Americans.

The U.S. Air Force tapped Ebbing to host the foreign training mission in March 2023 after a fierce, yearslong lobbying effort by Michigan’s congressional delegation to bring the jets to Selfridge ANGB north of Detroit.

Typically, foreign militaries learn from U.S. pilots at bases that are already operating the same aircraft. Not so for Ebbing, at which F-35 training will become the only on-site flying mission.

The base will build new F-35 pilots from scratch, with students who have already qualified to fly fighters but are getting their first taste of the fifth-generation plane itself, Skalicky said.

As many as 36 jets will arrive on base, including 24 F-35s. Ebbing will also host up to 12 F-16s as part of a Singaporean training unit that is transferring from Luke, said Col. Adam Rice, an Air Education and Training Command official tasked with coordinating the project’s progress.

The Air Force expects about four pilots will graduate from Ebbing in 2025 before growing to about three dozen graduates each year through the end of the decade, Rice said.

Trainees will start their seven-month Joint Strike Fighter journey at Eglin — the Air Force’s closest active duty F-35 site — where they’ll be exposed to the F-35′s controls and tactics in classroom lessons and simulated sorties. The program will be split between Eglin and Ebbing until the new location finishes building a simulator facility of its own.

In Florida, they’ll jump from virtual takeoffs and landings to one-on-one aerial dogfights and multi-jet offensives, Skalicky said.

“We usually progress from that point into surface attack [and] suppression of enemy air defense, as well as some higher mission sets like offensive counter-air, escorting strikers … or being part of a strike package,” he said.

After about three months, students will trek more than 700 miles to Ebbing for the second half of the course, when they’ll take to the skies to practice what they’ve learned.

Rice said the project is working to expand the existing training airspace at Ebbing. The site may bring in low-cost threat emitters, or hardware that replicates surface-to-air missile systems so pilots can learn to evade enemy air defenses.

Air Education and Training Command boss Lt. Gen. Brian Robinson “has promised ‘first-class’ training, not ‘world-class’ training, at Ebbing,” Rice said. “It won’t be a training space like Nellis, for instance, but it will be good-quality training for the [foreign military sales] customers.”

Some who graduate will head back to their home countries, where they’ll join their first F-35 units. Others will return to Eglin for further training to become instructor pilots in order to build their own domestic training pipelines, Skalicky said.

To transform the Air National Guard base of about 1,000 troops and civilian employees and an MQ-9 drone wing into a top-tier training range for high-tech fighters, the Air Force is embarking on a $850 million project that is expected to finish by the end of 2028.

Because the clock is ticking for troops to arrive at Ebbing, the Air Force plans to first host classes in an array of trailers and tension-fabric shelters on base. Those temporary facilities will tide over the training enterprise for a few years as the service renovates existing spaces like maintenance shops, while building Joint Strike Fighter-specific facilities for simulators and storage.

Singapore, whose forces will be permanently stationed at Ebbing, is bringing the F-35B, the vertical takeoff-and-landing version of the jet also flown by the U.S. Marine Corps. Because the Air Force’s variant doesn’t have the same capability, the service has to find other instructor pilots to help the Singaporeans, and ensure the flightline is reinforced with special concrete that can withstand the jet’s forces, Rice said.

In September, airmen from Eglin will hold a training exercise at Ebbing to wring out any issues at the site before foreign countries begin arriving later that month, Skalicky said.

But there’s still plenty of work ahead for the complicated project, which requires Air Force officials to weave the wants and needs of multiple countries into a cohesive training ground while navigating erratic congressional funding and a volatile construction market.

“Post-COVID, we’ve had challenges with supply and demand, construction, laborers, you name it. We’re still experiencing that across the enterprise,” said Col. George Nichols, deputy director of facility engineering at the Air Force Civil Engineer Center.

“[I’ve] been doing this for 23 years, and this is one of the most complex beddowns that we’ve done,” he said.

Lockheed ties digital C2 into Joint Fires Network at Valiant Shield

Lockheed Martin said it demonstrated it can integrate digital command and control capabilities into the Pentagon’s Joint Fires Network during Valiant Shield, an exercise in Hawaii this month.

The Joint Fires Network is a U.S. Indo-Pacific Command initiative to improve coordination between commanders and network any sensor from any platform to feed targeting guidance to any weapon system. Valiant Shield is focused on integrating forces across domains with thousands of U.S. military personnel participating along with 200 ships, aircraft and ground vehicles.

The JFN demonstration during Valiant Shield “integrated technologies with third-party capabilities as part of an enterprise architecture,” Lockheed said in a June 20 statement.

“The exercise showcased the seamless integration of Lockheed Martin’s advanced command and control functions, employing Operational Planning to coordinate real-time decision-making across the theater of operations, with all the Services and operational domains,” it said. “This approach enhanced the agility and responsiveness of joint operations, using live real-time data, and producing joint tasking orders in an operationally relevant environment.”

Lockheed’s digital C2 system combines its fielded battle management, command and control software with other technologies from industry, the company notes.

To participate in Valiant Shield, the company said it made improvements to its C2 Planning Software that included “streamlining operator workflows by making machine interactions intuitive, enabling real-time monitoring, and facilitating seamless integration with other technologies.”

The company also trained operators on high-fidelity mission simulators prior to the exercise to learn how to use the C2 planning system.

Lockheed has now participated in seven exercises to continue to work on refining its digital C2 capabilities, it said.

For example, the company participated in Northern Edge, an experiment in the Indo-Pacific theater that demonstrated synchronization of technology that could feed into the Pentagon’s connect-everything-everywhere campaign called Joint All-Domain Command and Control, or JADC2.

The company plans to continue to bring technology to exercises and demonstrations in the Indo-Pacific to help build joint, networked capability.

The EU’s fresh designs for funding a defense resurgence, explained

BERLIN — The European Union is gearing up to boost defense spending across the continent amid the threat from Russia and fears of a wavering U.S. commitment, creating or expanding avenues for funding defense projects through EU-level institutions.

The collection of small moves aimed at steering the Brussels bureaucracy towards defense outcomes effectively erodes a longstanding taboo, as the bloc’s foundational texts were interpreted as leaving military spending entirely to member nations.

The funds newly made available for research and development and potentially for military procurement could reach into the billions of euros, according to analysts. The reshuffling of EU decision-makers through elections this year has the potential to strengthen these trends.

The watershed moment came in the form of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in late February 2022, bringing war to the doorstep of the European project. Since then, most EU countries have increased their national defense budgets. Meanwhile, leaders in Brussels looked for ways to supplement the capitals’ efforts.

For example, the bloc leveraged its resources to set in motion a joint purchase of ammunition for Ukraine in a €500 million ($537 million) package just four days after the invasion commenced. It marked the first time in history that the EU purchased lethal weapons. Since then, Brussels has mobilized €11.1 billion ($11.9 billion) on Ukraine’s behalf.

The inanely named European Peace Facility, under which the defense-financing scheme is playing out, has emerged as a key mechanism. Formed in 2021, it’s effectively an account outside the regular books, which means it faces fewer restrictions on what it can be used for.

Meanwhile, the European Investment Bank has loosened its rules on lending for military projects. The bank provides favorable loans and technical assistance to European companies to foster home-grown innovation. Until April of this year, the bank could only fund projects that would receive more than half of their revenue from civilian uses. While the bank still won’t fund purely military initiatives, the scrapping of the fifty-percent rule, encouraged by the EU’s member states in March and then swiftly implemented, has opened the door to funding technologies that may be primarily of military use.

“Unfortunately, the war in Ukraine has made it clear that we need to reinforce Europe´s security and defense industry,” an EIB spokesperson told Defense News in an email. “As the financial arm of the EU, we must contribute to ensuring Europe’s peace and security.”

The bank’s president, Nadia Calviño, has declared defense and security a “strategic priority,” saying in February that the bank was ready to play a more active role.

More red tape was cut with the implementation of a “one-stop shop,” as she put it – a dedicated office to work with defense-related companies seeking the bank’s financial support.

While far from a replacement for national spending, the bank’s funds are significant. The EIB has set itself a target of funding €8 billion ($7.51 billion) through its Strategic European Security Initiative until the end of 2027, of which it has already disbursed €2 billion ($2.15 billion) in the program’s first two years.

The spokesperson, who asked to remain unnamed to be able to speak more freely, said that the bank’s managers expect key areas for funding through this avenue will include quantum computing, semiconductors, space, materials, biodefence, autonomous systems and sensing technologies.

Even more backing is now possible through indirect funding – equity, securitization, and guarantee products by the bank and its subsidiaries – following a revision of the rules in early May, the spokesperson added.

The EIB’s new clout in the security sphere – even if still ostensibly with the aim of developing civilian technologies – is in addition to existing EU money sources like European Defence Fund, which provides an additional €8 billion available to national governments until 2027.

On the procurement side, there has been talk about repurposing the European Stability Mechanism – created to assist struggling countries and stabilize the Eurozone – to be able to provide defense-related funding, potentially even for purchasing military equipment by Eurozone countries.

ESM Managing Director Pierre Gramegna has advocated for the idea publicly and privately. He indicated there had been considerable interest across the continent, though unanimity is needed to reform the fund.

“I have been reaching out to countries … by visiting the 20 member countries of the euro area, which are the 20 members of the ESM, to get views on how we could make the ESM in the future even more meaningful, especially in the times of external crisis,” Gramegna said at a Eurogroup meeting in March of this year.

The most notable holdout remains Italy, which calls the ESM obsolete and has blocked any recent attempts to reform it. “The point of Italy is to say we need an ESM that can be used on more occasions. Now, on one issue where we have already a solution, they are unfortunately not yet convinced,” Gramega said in an interview with NBC.

The ESM functions like an intergovernmental treaty, thereby putting it outside of the defense caveats associated with the EU budget. It is conceivable, for example, that the mechanism could dole out cheap cash for the procurement of weapons. At €422 billion ($453 billion), the lending capacity of the ESM is far greater than any EU country’s military budget.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who has been campaigning for a second term, has pledged to install for the first time a commissioner for defense following her reelection, a move that could further jolt the bloc’s defense and security muscles.

Still, some insiders believe the pace of change will be slow, and there are still differing opinions about what the defense of Ukraine means for Europe.

“Things usually only happen fast if there is a super crisis which is not the case right now,” said Manica Hauptmann, political head of the Representation of the European Commission in Berlin. “It’s super open how these discussions will develop.”

India advances light attack helicopter program with large tender

Thanks to its high-altitude performance, the Light Combat Helicopter – or LCH for short – is an important aviation platform for India’s military. Now, a major acquisition of this helicopter type has moved forward after India’s Ministry of Defence issued a request for proposals.

The RfP was issued to Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), the designer and manufacturer of the 5.8-ton LCH Prachand. The request asked for 156 helicopters, split into 90 for the Indian Army and 66 for the Indian Air Force.

Release of the RfP was confirmed by HAL in a stock exchange filing on June 17. The deal is expected to be worth more than 450 billion rupees (around US$5.4 billion) once negotiations conclude and a contract is issued.

In response to the news, HAL shares surged 6.5% to hit a record 5,582.80 rupees.

Defense News sought additional information about the tender from HAL, but had received no reply by press time.

K.P Sanjeev Kumar, a former Indian naval aviation test pilot and aviation commentator, told Defense News that this tender “is a significant milestone in India’s journey of making customized helicopters for its armed forces”.

He said the LCH Prachand is “arguably the only attack helicopter that packs a punch all the way from sea level to super high altitude”. It can take off and land at altitudes of 16,400ft (5,000m), thus making it ideal for operations along India’s mountainous borders with China and Pakistan.

Armaments on the LCH include Mistral air-to-air missiles, up to four FZ231 2.75-inch (70mm) rocket pods, a nose-mounted M621 20mm cannon and, in the future, Dhruvastra air-to-ground missiles.

Although the LCH is considered an indigenous design, only a 45% level of local content was attained in 15 limited series production LCHs delivered in 2022-2023. However, HAL’s goal is to reach 55% local content with the 156 series-produced helicopters.

An important reason for the increase in indigenous content is a 2023 agreement with Safran for full technology transfer of the Shakti 1H1 engines that power it.

The LCH’s development has been protracted, its maiden flight occurring way back in 2010. Sanjeev Kumar noted “product improvement is a continuous process,” and that, hopefully, HAL will address legacy issues of other HAL helicopters, such as low time between overhaul of key subassemblies, in the LCH.

Sanjeev Kumar concluded: “So long as attack helicopters remain relevant in the battlespace, the LCH will be a vital weapon in India’s arsenal.” These Prachands will operate alongside 28 AH-64E Apache helicopters procured from Boeing in the U.S.

This tender comes on the heels of an RfP for 97 Light Combat Aircraft Mk 1A aircraft issued to HAL in April. As at March 31, HAL’s order books stood in excess of 940 billion rupees, even before these LCA and LCH orders were lodged.

Pentagon tech hub to launch dozens of new projects with FY24 funding

The Defense Innovation Unit plans to spend most of its nearly $1 billion fiscal 2024 budget to accelerate existing projects and add new ones in technology areas like counter uncrewed aerial systems and space transport.

Congress approved a nearly 10-fold funding increase in FY24for the Pentagon’s commercial technology hub to support its expanding mission to help the Defense Department quickly foster and field commercial capabilities in large numbers. Prolonged budget deliberations delayed the release of appropriations, which meant that DIU’s funding came more than five months into the fiscal year, presenting the organization with the challenge of using that money in a short period of time.

DIU Director Doug Beck has said the funding would be split among four areas: accelerating existing programs; launching new ones; supporting projects housed within other Defense Department innovation organizations; and addressing some of the challenges commercial companies face as they try to work with DoD.

In a June 20 statement, DIU said offered more details on that split, revealing that 50% of the funding — or about $491 million — would be directed toward speeding up its priority efforts. Another 25%, about $246 million, will fund new projects.

“While DIU has already begun putting the new budget into action, with Congressional oversight, over the next few months, DIU expects to release two dozen solicitations using our FY24 appropriations for new projects,” the organization said.

Existing priorities include technologies to support attritable uncrewed systems, the Pentagon’s Joint Fires Network and other space, cyber, energy, logistics and human systems efforts.

Along with space transport and Counter UAS, new projects will focus on cross-cutting software and advanced manufacturing with the goal of helping enable more resilient and integrated autonomous systems operating across multiple domains.

“DIU’s FY24 spending is concentrated on closing the U.S. military’s most critical operational capability gaps with the focus, speed, and scale required to help us deter major conflict or win if forced to fight,” Beck said in a statement.

The remaining 25% of funding will support DIU’s role in coordinating various Pentagon innovation organizations like the Air Force’s AFWERX and the Navy’s NavalX and breaking down “systemic barriers” to adopting non-traditional technology within the Pentagon. That includes expanding DIU’s network of OnRamp Hubs, which are based around the U.S.

“DIU, working with partners across the Department, will continue industry outreach through a variety of in-person and virtual engagements, providing informational content about how to work with DIU and, more broadly, how to better engage the DoD,” the organization said.

White House redirects air defense interceptors to embattled Ukraine

The U.S. moved Ukraine to the front of the line for its sales of air defense interceptors — one of the most critical weapons in Ukraine’s self-defense.

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby announced the reshuffle in a briefing today, calling it “difficult but necessary.” In the short-term, he said, Patriot and NASAM interceptors that had been slated for other countries will now go to Ukraine.

“As a result, deliveries for these missiles to other countries that are currently in the queue will have to be delayed,” Kirby said.

The White House expects Ukraine will receive these air defense weapons by the end of the summer. Kirby said the number will be in the hundreds, and that the decision should give Ukraine what it needs for the next 16 months. At that point, the countries who currently have air defense missiles on order can expect to start seeing theirs delivered.

“To be clear, those countries will still receive the missiles they have ordered,” Kirby said. “It’s just that the delivery will take a little longer.”

He did not say which countries would be affected by the delays, but noted that the decision will not impact Taiwan or Israel.

Lockheed Martin is fully funded by the U.S. Army to build 550 PAC-3 Missile Segment Enhancement (MSE) missiles a year at its Camden, Arkansas, production line and hit a rate of 500 per year in December 2023.

While the Army has yet to fund another missile production increase, Lockheed has invested internally to build 650 interceptors a year.

In 2023, Lockheed signed six letters of approval with international customers.

There are 19 countries with the Raytheon-made Patriot and that customer base is growing. Switzerland purchased five batteries and 75 missiles in November 2022 and Romania plans to buy additional fire units. At least two other European countries are close to announcing plans to buy Patriot, according to Raytheon this spring.

Slovakia has recently expressed interest in purchasing Patriot, and Germany has said it intends to grow its Patriot force.

The decision is one of the most extraordinary measures America has taken to protect Ukraine since the full-scale war with Russia began two years ago. For months, Pentagon leaders have said that air defense is at the top of the agenda for the countries supporting Kyiv. And they’ve taken recent steps to prove it.

“Air defense has been at the top of my agenda for a long time,” said U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin at a June press conference.

Austin spoke at NATO headquarters in Brussels, shortly after a meeting of countries that gather each month to coordinate support for Ukraine. Just before the summit, multiple outlets reported that the U.S. was sending another Patriot system to Ukraine — though neither Austin nor Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. CQ Brown would confirm the news.

Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy said in June his country needs seven Patriot systems, one of the most advanced air defense systems in the world. Germany announced earlier this year that it would send one to Ukraine. The Netherlands similarly committed to assembling and sending another system.

Other countries have committed different air defense systems altogether, such as NASAMS.

“It’s not just Patriots,” Austin said at the June presser, listing out other systems. “It’s a number of capabilities that Ukraine needs, and they need the interceptors to complement the platforms.”

Short supply

Despite their importance, both air defense batteries and the interceptors they fire are in short supply. The U.S. and its allies have spent much of the war sourcing whatever extra weapons are available — especially as Ukraine faced drone and missile barrages on its cities and critical infrastructure. The decision this week reflects how tight the supply chain for these systems is. Rather than expanding capacity, the U.S. has reordered it.

“It’s a reminder of the importance of expanding inventory,” said Tom Karako, an expert on air defense at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, of the decision.

Karako said that the money meant to expand that capacity included in the April national security supplemental — a massive refresh of security aid to Ukraine and other countries — hasn’t been spent yet. Though there is around $48 billion for military aid to Ukraine in the package, the amount marked for air defense isn’t specified, he said.

“You don’t just turn on a dime and start spitting out Patriots like a Xerox machine,” Karako said.

The White House didn’t specify what countries will be affected by the reshuffle, though Karako said that the likely candidates will be in Europe and the Middle East.

Kirby said that Washington would do what it could to shorten any delays.

Still, he said, “each country is going to have a different set of circumstances that apply to that based on what they’ve ordered and what their own self-defense needs are.”

European ammo firms tell EU to ‘hurry up’ with 155mm shell aid top-up

PARIS — European policymakers should urgently provide more funding to increase production of the propellant and explosive materials required to manufacture 155mm artillery shells, ammunition makers Nammo and KNDS said at the Eurosatory defense show in Paris.

“The response from the industry: hurry up,” said Morten Brandtzaeg, the CEO of Nammo, in response to a round table question about the need for European Union financing beyond the €500 million (U.S. $536 million) ASAP program allocated in March. “We need to get this in place as soon as possible.”

The scaling up of artillery shell production to help Ukraine defend itself against Russia’s invasion equates to “an industrial war,” and the time lag to boost output is concerning, the Nammo CEO told Defense News on the sidelines of the round table discussion.

While the EU says annual European production capacity of 155mm shells reached one million in January, the bloc was only able to deliver slightly more than half of one million shells promised to Ukraine by March. The ASAP program will help Europe reach production capacity of 2 million shells a year by the end of 2025, according to the European Commission.

The requirements to further boost raw-materials production have already been identified as part of ASAP, and there is no new tender necessary should the European Commission for example decide to invest an additional €200 million, according to Dominique Guillet, vice president of ammunition at KNDS. “We know what is necessary. It’s just a decision to take.”

Beyond financing capacity, companies need to take into account research-and-development funding, with long range and precision important for future munitions, and loitering munition another new development that needs to be considered, said Guillet.

The industry also needs to consider “the end of the peak and the big volume,” and how to manage the new assets beyond that, according to Thierry Francou, the CEO of French artillery-propellant manufacturer Eurenco.

Brandtzaeg said he “fully supports” coordinating demand, for example with one European country holding a significant amount of explosives, while another has significant capacity to fill warheads. The Nammo CEO cautioned against industry consolidation, however, while Guillet and Francou also expressed doubts about further concentration in the European ammunition industry.

“It’s not the time for consolidating something you are in short supply of,” Brandtzaeg said. “There are a handful of players in Europe. They should not be fewer, but a few should be bigger.”

The price of a 155mm shell produced in Western Europe ranges from a low of $5,000 to more than $10,000 for the high-end ammunition, a senior industry executive attending the round table told Defense News.

Ammunition manufacturers face higher supply-chain costs due to more demand for machinery, as well as more expensive energy, which is “a big weight,” according to Francou.

“We have an increase in pricing of all the machinery, and this is the case of everyone in this room,” Francou said. “One example: In order to accelerate the investment, we accept to overpay in order to be first in line. If I have time, I can do it cheaper, but in three years. So in the end, what is the price of the acceleration right now?”

The price of small-caliber ammunition has also doubled. “This is the market during the last five years,” Francou said.

Brandtzaeg at Nammo said price hikes aren’t only due to the war in Ukraine, but started already because of the Covid-19 pandemic, and setting up a new ammunition factory takes two to three years.

Navy slows procurement of key vessel for Marine littoral maneuvers

The Navy has delivered nine vessels so far to replace its aging fleet of landing craft, but those watercraft’s operational status was delayed by a year due to testing delays.

The ship-to-shore amphibious connector, set to replace the existing landing craft, air cushion platform, is now expected to hit initial operational capability in September and the Navy will decide on full production by January 2028, according to the Government Accountability Office’s Weapon Systems Annual Assessment, released Monday.

Once fielded, the ship-to-shore connector vessel will take on the name of the landing craft, air cushion vessel, a Vietnam War-era platform, according to the report.

The amphibious craft, which rides on a cushion of air, allows sailors and Marines to off and onload troops, vehicles, equipment and supplies rapidly from the well decks of amphibious ships.

There are 72 craft in the Navy’s fleet and the current plan calls for a one-to-one replacement with the new ships as the legacy connectors reach the end of their service life.

In 2000, the Navy started a service live extension program to add 10 years of use to the existing fleet.

Since the replacement program launched in 2009, costs and timelines have both expanded.

The first reported cost estimate in 2012, following early development phases, was $5.3 billion total for a unit cost of $73 million per vessel.

As of 2023, according to the report, the program is expected to cost $6.5 billion total for a unit cost of $90 million per vessel.

The Navy has slowed its procurement to two craft each year during fiscal years 2025 to 2028. That decision was in part due to low procurement funds expected during that time frame.

A 2023 RAND Corporation report called on the Navy and Marine Corps to address the survivability of their amphibious craft, which includes the connectors and other vessels.

“The landing craft utility (LCU) and landing craft air cushion (LCAC) … were not designed with survivability in mind as part of a [Stand-In Force]. The requirements for these craft were developed using past naval concepts for power projection and in a more permissive threat environment,” the RAND report reads.

Existing and replacement ship-to-shore connector data:

Landing craft, air cushion

Payload: 60 tons.Personnel: 23; 185 when configured with the personnel transport module.Speed: 40 knots, depending on load.

Ship to shore connector amphibious craft

Payload: 74 tons.Personnel: 26; 85 when configured with the personnel transport module.Speed: 35 knots at sea state 3, or faster, depending on load.

Source: Marine Corps Combat Development and Integration

The connector program has delivered nine vessels to the Navy so far, four of those over a 12-month period in 2023. The program has 24 of the eventual 72 craft currently under contract with Textron Systems Inc.

When the service reached six vessels in its inventory, it should also have been at initial operational capability. However, according to the report, the program had yet to complete initial operational testing and evaluation.

That target date has slipped each year since its initial evaluation in 2020. The program expects to conclude operational testing in June, according to the GAO report.

Although the manufacturer was able to deliver four craft in a year, it has taken, on average, five years from start to finish to build a single vessel, according to the report.

The GAO report noted that the connector program is installing solutions to two technical problems previous connectors had exhibited: cracking propeller blades and premature gearbox wear.

Program officials have not found problems with these issues since installing solutions on new connectors.

But LCAC 108 did have one “severe deficiency,” according to the report. Weld repairs to the bottom of the craft’s hull failed during testing, “allowing water to enter the hull.”

Those defects were corrected, and the vessel was delivered to the Navy in November 2023.

US approves loitering munitions sale for Taiwan’s ‘porcupine strategy’

Taiwan won approval from main benefactor the U.S. to buy hundreds of loitering munitions, as part of a “porcupine strategy” to use such attritable weapons to help defend the country from a potential Chinese military invasion.

The Defense Security Cooperation Agency’s June 18 approvals included 291 Altius 600M-V loitering munitions from Anduril, plus 720 Switchblade 300s from AeroVironment. The former is valued at $300 million and the latter at $60.2 million.

Revitalize laws to turn Eastern and Northern Europe into ‘porcupines’

The Altius 600M-V package includes warheads and electro-optic/infrared cameras, pneumatic launchers, transport trailers and ground control stations. The 47lb (12kg) aircraft has a 276-mile (440km) flight range and 4-hour endurance.

As for the Switchblade 300, it comes with both anti-personnel and anti-armor warheads. It is smaller, with a 3.69lb (1.68kg) weight and just a 20-minute endurance.

Chen Kuo-ming, a Taipei-based defense analyst, told Defense News the Switchblades are suitable for anti-personnel use, and the Altius against armor.

The weapons should be delivered in 2024-2025.

“In the face of the Chinese Communist Party’s frequent military operations around Taiwan, the U.S. side in this case agreed to sell arms items that will have reconnaissance and immediate strike capabilities and can respond quickly to enemy threats,” Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense said in a statement.

The U.S.-Taiwan Business Council also applauded the potential sales. Council President Rupert Hammond-Chambers noted they “add substantially to Taiwan’s inventory of mobile smart munitions, which can be used during on-island fighting all the way through to attacking People’s Liberation Army assets off Taiwan’s coastline”.

Chen said he believes these loitering munitions are good for Taiwan, since they can be used by independent units, even if the country’s navy and air force have been defeated.

However, he expressed concerns about their price – an Altius costs more than five times a Javelin antitank missile, for example. He also questioned the ability of Taiwanese frontline units to see and therefore target enemies beyond visual range.

Chen said the National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology – Taiwan’s defense research and development agency – had displayed various drones, including a loitering munition – at a 2023 Taipei defense exhibition. However, “Until now, we have no real loitering munition for the army to use. So after about nine months, the U.S. government decided to sell these to Taiwan.”

Hammond-Chambers also noted, “Taiwan currently has domestic companies who are working with foreign partners to develop their own indigenous mobile smart munitions. In conjunction with Foreign Military Sales cases such as these, we should expect the Ministry of National Defense to also start procuring locally to meet their defensive requirements.”

At last month’s Shangri-Li Dialogue in Singapore, Adm. Samuel Paparo, head of the U.S, Indo-Pacific Command, outlined a plan to strike back if China attacks Taiwan. “I want to turn the Taiwan Strait into an unmanned hellscape using a number of classified capabilities … so that I can make their lives utterly miserable for a month, which buys me the time for the rest of everything.”

Long-range loitering munitions are one such method.

CAPTIONS

1

The Altius 600 has been delivered to Ukraine, but Taiwan will be the first customer for the warhead-armed Altius 600M-V. (U.S. Army)

2

This image shows the latest Switchblade 300 Block 20 loitering munition from U.S. company AeroVironment. (AeroVironment)