Archive: June 20, 2024

Lawmakers urge Defense Innovation Unit to partner with Israel, Taiwan

House lawmakers want the Pentagon’s commercial technology hub to expand its partnerships with Israel and Taiwan to bolster the countries’ defense-industrial bases.

The proposals came in two separate amendments to the House’s version of fiscal 2025 defense policy legislation, which the panel adopted June 14. Both were put forward by Iowa Republican Rep. Zach Nunn.

The Taiwan provision calls for the Defense Innovation Unit to study the feasibility of establishing a “strategic partnership” with the country’s ministry of defense. That could include coordinating on things like defense industrial priorities and dual-use technology development as well as helping Taiwan establish pathways for startups research and development efforts.

The Israel amendment emphasizes similar opportunities, but also calls for DIU to work with the Israeli military to counter Iran’s development of dual-use defense technologies and “harmonize global posture through emerging technology.”

The U.S. has vowed support for both nations, sending Israel more than $12.5 billion since the start of its war with Hamas last October. In April, Congress approved $4 billion in aid to Taiwan and other Indo-Pacific partners as part of a $95 billion package that included funding for Ukraine and Israel.

The call to deepen that support through more collaboration on commercial technology comes as DIU looks to be more embedded with partners around the globe — a key component of its vision for growth in the coming years, a strategy called DIU 3.0. The goal is to create a pathway for DIU innovation to be shared with allies who may also need it.

“We must connect the solutions created by U.S. tech companies to allied and partner acquisition organizations when appropriate — and connect capabilities developed by our partner nations’ companies to our own needs and to one another — especially in a conflict, when speed is critical,” according to the DIU 3.0 strategy, which was released in February.

As part of that effort, DIU is bolstering its relationships with existing innovation initiatives in partners countries — including India, the United Kingdom and Australia — and helping those without such organizations to establish them.

DIU is also embedding itself within the Defense Department’s combatant commands. To date, it has units in five of the seven COCOMs.

Matthew Way, who leads DIU’s counter uncrewed aerial systems portfolio, said these partnerships with combatant commands not only bring the organization closer to the operators but they also give commanders another tool to leverage technology from commercial and non-traditional companies.

For example, DIU is heavily involved in U.S. Indo-Pacific Command’s Joint Mission Accelerator Directorate, which is designed to ensure the command’s top priority technology projects have a network of support within DOD and industry.

“That’s really helped flatten communications,” Way said during Applied Intuition’s June 13 Nexus Conference in Washington, D.C. “The way we approach our problem sets is really working with combatant commands and end users.”

Romania to buy 54 howitzers from South Korea’s Hanwha Aerospace

WARSAW, Poland — The Romanian Ministry of National Defence has chosen the K9 Thunder 155 mm self-propelled howitzer for the nation’s armed forces.

The country’s military is to receive a total of 54 howitzers with related gear, the ministry said in a statement.

The decision to buy the weapon, which is manufactured by Hanwha Aerospace, was announced on June 19 following a meeting held by Romanian National Defence Minister Angel Tîlvăr and his South Korean counterpart, Won-sik Shin. The meeting was part of the Shin’s official visit to Romania.

The South Korean company was designated as “the winner of a competitive procedure for Romania’s purchase of three howitzer systems caliber 155 mm at battalion level, comprising 54 K9 Thunder self-propelled howitzers, support equipment, and an initial amount of specific ammunition,” according to the ministry.

The statement did not disclose the value of the forthcoming procurement. However, earlier information from the Romanian ministry indicated that Bucharest plans to spend around RON 4.2 billion (U.S. $910 million) to acquire new howitzers along with related gear and ammunition.

Local sources have said other bidders for the contract included Germany’s Krauss-Maffei Wegmann with the Panzerhaubitze 2000, and Turkish BMC with its T-155 Fırtına.

Alexandru Georgescu, a Bucharest-based security and defense analyst, told Defense News that the South Korean offer of industrial cooperation with Romania’s defence industry played a large role in convincing local decision-makers to select the K9, combined with relatively short delivery and integration schedules.

Chinese military’s rifle-toting robot dogs raise concerns in Congress

Congress is worried that robot dogs with machine guns will be bounding onto the battlefield in the near future.

During last week’s debate over the annual defense authorization bill, House lawmakers inserted language in the massive military policy measure to require a new assessment from the Defense Department on “the threat of rifle-toting robot dogs used by China” in potential future conflicts.

The issue has gained public attention in recent weeks after Chinese military officials showed off armed robotic quadrupeds during recent military drills with Cambodia.

In a video released by state-run CCTV on May 25, a 110-pound dog-like robot is shown carrying and firing an automatic rifle. A spokesman for the Chinese military said the robot, which can perform many tasks autonomously, could “serve as a new member in our urban combat operations.”

Marines test robotic mule that could carry weapons, sensors

Drone warfare is not new to the U.S. or foreign militaries, and the American military for years has experimented with robot dogs for use in reconnaissance and unit support roles.

But the idea of a robot version of man’s best friend shooting at American soldiers was enough to prompt House members to demand that the secretary of defense investigate “the threat such use poses to the national security of the United States.”

The amendment was adopted without objection from any members of the chamber. But it will have to survive negotiations with senators on the broader defense measure in coming months before it can become law.

The Senate is expected to hold floor debate and make possible amendments to its draft of the legislation in the next few weeks.

Small drones will soon lose combat advantage, French Army chief says

PARIS — The advantage now enjoyed by small aerial drones on battlefields including in Ukraine is but “a moment in history,” French Army Chief of Staff Gen. Pierre Schill said at the Eurosatory defense show in Paris.

While anti-drone systems are lagging and “leave the sky open to things that are cobbled together but which are extremely fragile,” countermeasures are being developed, Schill told reporters during a tour of the French Army stand at the show June 19. Already today, 75% of drones on the battlefield in Ukraine are lost to electronic warfare, the general said.

”The life of impunity of small, very simple drones over the battlefield is a snapshot in time,” Schill said. “Right now it’s being exploited, that’s clear, and we have to protect ourselves. Today, the sword, in the sense of the aerial drone, is powerful, more powerful than the shield. The shield is going to grow.”

This year’s edition of Eurosatory featured dozens of anti-drone systems, including shotguns, cannons and missiles, while companies including Safran, Thales and Hensoldt presented soft-kill solutions to eliminate drones by electronic means. Schill said vehicles in France’s Scorpion collaborative combat program will all be anti-drone systems in two years time, linking their detection capability with turrets that can fire a missile or a 40mm airburst grenade.

First-person view drones currently carry out about 80% of the destruction on the front line in Ukraine, when eight months ago those systems weren’t present, according to Schill. The general said that situation won’t exist 10 years from now, and the question could be asked whether that might already end in one or two years. Schill cited the example of the Bayraktar drone, “the king of the war” at the start of the conflict in Ukraine but no longer being used because it’s too easy to scramble.

The general said he doesn’t consider that the war in Ukraine calls into question the French choice of a maneuvering army built around medium armor, with a focus on speed and mobility. The vehicles that the Army is introducing as part of the Scorpion program — the Griffon, Serval and Jaguar – can be equipped with either active or passive protection, even if a strong emphasis of mine protection means they’re “quite massive.”

Griffons, Servals

The French Army is receiving around 120 Griffons and 120 Servals every year as part of Scorpion, as well as more than 20 Jaguars. The vehicles are equipped with “extremely powerful” information systems, and a vehicle such as the Griffon may contain more lines of code than a Rafale fighter jet, according to Schill.

Vehicles developed before the Scorpion program, such as the Leclerc main battle tank, are being reconfigured to become part of the collaborative combat system, which for example allows a target detected by one vehicle to be attacked by another. Scorpion was “extremely ambitious,” works, and has met expectations, according to Schill.

“Everything we had planned is perfectly in place, but it’s just a question of cost effectiveness on certain capabilities,” the general said.Something not considered five years ago is the rapid development of microprocessors, which means the gathered data can now be analyzed within the vehicle rather than externally. In combination with on-board artificial intelligence, that will allow for capabilities such as immediate threat detection, including of drones.

When looking to draw lessons from Ukraine, there needs to be a distinction between what is situational and related the type of terrain and battles being fought, and what is structural, the general said. The war in eastern Europe doesn’t mean the issues of the past 30 years around risk and crisis management will disappear. “We must remain a versatile army.”

The French choice has been to not separate the army into distinct parts suited for different theaters, for example an intervention army that is agile and mobile and a mechanized armor army prepared to fight a war like the one in Ukraine today, with “perhaps more rugged, lowered vehicles, but which, when they hit a mine will kill crews.”

Schill said he wants to preserve the “warrior aspect” of the French army, in which every soldier is aware they can be deployed in operation, rather than a soldier in a territorial defense army “who will never do anything.”

The pace of military drone development means that Army can’t commit to large buying programs, because an acquired capability can become obsolete in five months, according to the general. Schill said today’s drones fly better than those two or three years ago, with more computing power onboard that is capable of terrain-based navigation or switching frequencies to escape jamming.

Drones can’t be compared to 155mm shells, which can be stocked and will remain relevant in 10 years time, and the Army needs to find “the right system in this fast-moving world of new technology,” Schill said. The challenge is creating an industrial model that can produce in mass if necessary, and sufficiently standardized.

Future buying of electronic gear such as drones but also small radios and smart phones may be done in batches to allow for technology evolution, for example renewing equipment at the brigade level rather than multiple-year programs to equip the entire Army with a new piece of equipment, Schill said.

‘Just not possible’

The general also commented on the future French-German Main Ground Combat System, which will consist of several vehicles, some of them manned and others automated, combining anti-drone weapons, close-defense anti-aircraft capabilities, missiles and a canon. Putting all of that on a single tank would create a vehicle weighing 80 metric tons, which “is just not possible.”

Development of the system is going to 10 to 15 years because the land-based robotics are “not completely mature yet,” according to Schill.Schill said he doesn’t know whether the right main gun for the future tank system will be 120mm, 130mm or 140mm, saying that will depend on issues such as stealth and mobility requirements, as well as what the gun bore would add in terms of penetration. KNDS, which is involved in the MGCS program, presented a gun that can swap its barrel to fire either 120mm or 140mm shells.

The French Leclerc tank probably won’t get a second upgrade beyond the current XLR version being rolled out, according to the general. He said the French-German agreement is for the next-generation system in 2040, making the Leclerc question a secondary issue.

It’ll be in France’s interest to piggyback on any capability additions made by the United Arab Emirates, another Leclerc user, between now and 2040 as a way to finance intermediate innovations, Schill said. The introduction of the MGCS won’t immediately mean the end of the Leclerc, which the general expects to be in service in the French Army until 2045.

US Army to launch AI pilot project for acquisition workforce

The U.S. Army wants to better understand how its acquisition and contracting workforce could use generative AI to improve efficiency and is launching a pilot next month to explore those questions.

Jennifer Swanson, deputy assistant secretary of the Army for data, engineering and software, said the effort will shed light on how the service’s acquisition and logistics enterprise could take advantage of generative AI tools to make processes like contract writing and data analysis more efficient.

“The pilot’s not just about increasing our productivity, which will be great, but also — what are the other things that we can do and what are the other industry tools that are out there that we might be able to leverage or add on,” Swanson said June 18 at Defense One’s Tech Summit in Arlington, Va.

The Army is the latest Defense Department agency to announce efforts to experiment with generative AI. The Air Force and Space Force last week unveiled their own experimental tool — the Non-classified Internet Protocol Generative Pre-Training Transformer, or NIPRGPT. And in 2023, the Navy rolled out a conversational AI program called Amelia that sailors could use to troubleshoot problems or provide tech support.

Swanson said she’s optimistic about the potential for generative AI, especially for laborious specialties like contract writing and policy where automation could release some strain on the Army’s workforce.

“In the area of contracts and in the area of policy, I think there’s a huge return on investment for us,” she said. “Might [AI] one day be able to write a contract? We hope so. But we’ve got to pilot and test it and make sure everybody’s comfortable with it first.”

The large language model the service will use for the effort is different from systems like ChatGPT, Swanson said, because it is trained on Army data. It will also provide citations that indicate where the data it provides originated, a feature that will help the service fact-check that information.

The pilot is part of a broader effort within the Army to identify both the pitfalls and the opportunities that come with widely adopting AI tools. In March, the service announced a 100-day plan focused on reducing the risk associated with integrating AI algorithms.

As part of that exercise, Swanson said, the Army reviewed its spending on AI research and found that testing and security are the two biggest gaps toward fielding these tools more broadly. The service also identified 32 risks and 66 mitigations it can implement to reduce their impact. Further, it created a generative AI policy that it will apply to the pilot in order to set parameters for the effort. That policy includes a requirement that there be a “human in the loop.”

The generative AI pilot will lead into the next phase of the effort — a 16-month focus on how to use the technology operationally. Findings from that work will inform the Army’s budget for fiscal 2026.

“So the 100 day plan is setting the conditions — where are we at — and then the 500 day plan is really about operationalizing it,” she said.

Florent Groberg, vice president of strategy and optimization at private investment firm AE Industrial partners, said that as the Army moves through these review processes and experiments with AI, it should be transparent with industry about what it wants and then move quickly to leverage the tools companies are developing.

“To me, it’s really understanding the framework of what you want to accomplish,” he said during the same panel with Swanson. “Put some boundaries out there and then go do it.”

US Army moves out on digital engineering strategy

The Army is embarking on a strategy to implement a digital engineering environment meant to speed the pace, lower the cost and reduce risk in weapons systems development, according to Jennifer Swanson, the service’s deputy assistant secretary for data, engineering and software within its acquisition branch.

Gabe Camarillo, the Army under secretary, who previewed the effort last fall, signed the directive in May, Swanson said, which enables the Army to grow its digital engineering capability across the force using current development programs to pave the way while promoting increased interoperability and developing a capable and experienced workforce.

Already, the defense industry is using digital engineering, including digital twins, to develop future vertical lift aircraft, combat vehicles and even hypersonic weapons.

“We view digital engineering as the linchpin of all the digital transformation efforts that we have ongoing today,” Swanson said in a June 18 press briefing at the Pentagon.

“Data, the way that software communicates, the output of that software, and how we inform our soldiers and commanders to make real time decisions, [artificial intelligence] [are] pivotal, critical,” she said. “Leveraging that data, leveraging those software capabilities; digital engineering is really how it all comes together,”

The directive policy has four tenets. The first is to establish digital engineering focus areas, the second is to promote interoperability and implementation across the force, the third is to establish and monitor programs identified as “pathfinders” and the fourth is to develop talent and expertise.

The Army has identified three focus areas for the strategy: Ground vehicles; aviation; and sensors.

The aviation focus area takes many lessons learned from industry which has been using digital engineering for aircraft design heavily. The Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft, one of the DE pathfinder programs, was designed from the beginning in a digital environment and has served as a prime example for how the service plans to develop major weapon systems digitally going forward. FLRAA was built and flown in record time because it was designed digitally.

The ground vehicle focus area will draw from the automotive industry, according to the directive, which, “leverages DE heavily in designing cars and trucks today and has gained tremendous efficiencies and increased quality as a result.”

The Army is already using digital engineering in its XM30 Mechanized Infantry Combat Vehicle competitive design effort from the very beginning and is therefore one of the service’s pathfinder programs to “illustrate DE’s potential contributions, highlight existing policies and processes that may hinder a program’s ability to implement DE and identify how to advance DE adoption in various contexts,” the directive states.

XM30 program challenges

The challenges programs face as they begin to implement digital engineering as part of the design and development process were recently highlighted in the XM30 program. In the Government Accountability Office’s weapon systems annual assessment, officials found “it took longer to release the request for proposals due to a lack of experience with digital engineering while directing contractors to use specific software design approaches.”

Additionally, the Army “lacked precedent for scoping a digital open architecture project, which delayed the Source Selection and Evaluation Board process,” the GAO found.

XM30 was “really first in terms of putting [DE] out in an RFP that way,” Swanson said. “There was learning to be done and so I think that’s why it took a little bit longer, but I think sometimes you do have to go a little slow to go fast because I think they will absolutely benefit and the return on investment is there.”

One of the challenges that still exists, and that the XM30 program is working through, is related “to the fact that we don’t have interoperable digital engineering tools in industry,” Swanson said. “It’s a big problem.”

The Army “is not going to direct everybody to use a certain tool,” she said. “The lack of ability to cleanly and easily share data between all those tools causes challenges and that’s not just inherent to what we’re doing. That’s across the industry.”

The industry is planning to adopt new standards for digital engineering tools to increase interoperability to solve that challenge, Swanson said. The goal to establish those standards is targeted for the end of the summer, she added.

Other pathfinder programs the Army is using to guide its digital engineering transformation are the Integrated Fires Mission Command, the Joint Targeting Integrated Command and Control Suite, the M113 Armored Personnel Carrier and the Program Executive Office Aviation Logistics Data Analysis Lab for UH-60 Black Hawk, CH-47 Chinook and AH-64 Apache helicopters.

Selecting some older programs as pathfinders, like the M113, may come as a surprise, but according to Swanson, the M113 has a digital twin

“There is a lot of reuse of parts between the M113 and our newer vehicles and so being able to take that digital twin, leverage it and evolve, it is great,” she said.

One of the bigger challenges as the Army seeks to execute the directive will be to extend digital engineering capabilities beyond the development realm.

“We want to build those digital threads from requirements all the way to sustainment,” Swanson said. “That requires all of our partners within the Army that help us acquire these technologies and these programs and so that’s really what this directive is about is being able to set the stage to enable everybody else to do it.”

Artis forms Sentinel vehicle protection venture with UAE’s Bin Hilal

Virginia-based defense contractor Artis, with an active protection system it says is capable of defending vehicles from attacks from above, is forming a joint venture with the United Arab Emirates’ company Bin Hilal Enterprises to offer its system overseas.

Artis and BHE signed a memorandum of understanding the Eurosatory international defense conference in Paris on June 18.

Artis told Defense News in January that it had been demonstrating its Sentinel All-Threat Defeat System, formerly known as Improved Iron Curtain, at a West Virginia range. The system had international interest, particularly in the Middle East, it said.

“The JV will offer original equipment, manufacturing and engineering services, and will extend to lifecycle support, spare parts, field services, warranty support and training,” an Artis statement said, and “will meld the extensive active protection experience of Artis with the business and cultural acumen of BHE.”

The companies will immediately work to provide Sentinel to local and regional allies, the statement notes.

“This MOU represents a critical component of our international growth strategy and directly supports our commitment to the United Arab Emirates,” Artis CEO Keith Brendley said in the statement.

“Sentinel is a third-generation APS, and is the most advanced system in the world. It is the only active protection system that can protect against all threats, including providing top-attack protection from a swarm of drones,” he said. “Sentinel also mitigates sabot rounds and fuzed threats.”

Artis said previously it has demonstrated the Sentinel can protect vehicles and infrastructure from nearly all direct-fire threats, including tank-fired rounds, anti-tank guided missiles, rocket-propelled grenades and loitering munitions – otherwise known as exploding drones, which target vehicle and infantry alike, often with deadly effect.

Iron Curtain

The Virginia-based business has spent 20 years refining and expanding a capability versatile enough to handle nearly all threats to combat vehicles, including top-attack threats, long before the war in Ukraine and the use of loitering munitions highlighted the need for such robust protection.

The U.S. Army, years ago, evaluated the company’s Iron Curtain active protection system for combat vehicles but never adopted the technology.

The Army launched an effort in 2016 to rapidly field interim solutions to protect Abrams tanks, Stryker combat vehicles and the Bradley infantry fighting vehicles. The service pursued options through a demonstration phase.

The service had selected Iron Curtain as an interim protection system in 2017 for the Stryker but decided against fielding the system after the testing and demonstration phase in 2018. Service leaders said at the time that while Iron Curtain worked in concept, it would take too much time and money to mature the system.

Artis developed its first design for top-attack protection through a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency around 2008, Brendley told Defense News. The company has since continued work on the design through investors. But Sentinel’s capability gained significant traction through a contract with the Army’s Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office, awarded shortly after the service rejected Iron Curtain for the Stryker, he explained. Artis concluded its work with the office in June 2023.

Artis has yet to acquire a first customer, but according to Brendley, “the APS market is like any other market. If you take a look at emerging markets, automobiles or smartphones, what have you, the markets are always there, but they didn’t materialize until the right product came along and we think we have the right product. I think the market is going to respond to that.”

Ground robots hauling drones into battle is a trend at Paris arms fair

PARIS — The next-generation of robot warfare is unfolding with the teaming of ground and air robots propelling each other forward.

At the Eurosatory trade show here, the U.S.-based company Teledyne Flir debuted a new unmanned ground vehicle, or UGV, mounted with its nano aerial drone, the Black Hornet 4, on top.

Dubbed the SUGV 325, the ground robot is light enough to be carried by a single person and is fitted with an arm-like structure for grabbing objects.

“We see robots as being good unmanned partners for unmanned aerial systems, you can lean into the good things of the robot – eight hours of runtime, capability to carry heavier payloads, and persistence – and pair it with the drone’s agility and speed,” Nate Winn, director of product management for unmanned systems at Teledyne told Defense News.

Both assets can be used to extend each other’s range, where if something is detected by the high-definition cameras onboard the UGV, the drone can be launched from the robot using the same controller to go investigate potential danger further away.

Robot craze in Russia-Ukraine war shines light on their drawbacks

The unmanned duo also enables it to increase the standoff distance between a threat and military personnel on the battlefield, Winn added.

“Any action in the battle space begins with gathering information, so you want the robot and or the unmannd arial system to be the first point of contact with any potentially threatening situation,” he said.

The integration of aerial drones and combat robots into fighting units is something that the U.S. Army appears to be experimenting with.

Last month, footage branded with the U.S. Army’s Sandhills Project logo emerged on social media, in which more than a dozen drones are seen launched from a UGV in less than 15 seconds.

Another robot-on-robot combo at the trade show here was Rheinmetall Canada’s Mission Master CXT, which was armed with a tethered drone from the French company Elistair.

“We have already integrated it into our Mission Master command and control software, meaning that with the same control tablet, a single operator can control the UGV and the connected drone,” Etienne Rancourt, director of international business development at Rheinmetall Canada said.

The Elistair drone is also able to follow the Mission Master at a 30-meter altitude autonomously, he added.

Elusive hypersonic arms need Western teamwork, NATO researcher says

PARIS — Hypersonic weapons are likely still decades away from fielding, and the requisite research is best carried out collaboratively among Western nations, according to Kerstin Huber, executive officer for applied vehicle technology at NATO’s Science and Technology Organization.

“I would think it needs another 20 years,” Huber told Defense News on the sidelines of a round table discussion on the technology at the Eurosatory defense show in Paris.

Governments have generally been tight-lipped about hypersonic technology, which could provide an edge over adversaries, or lead to an arms race. Hypersonic missiles are typically defined as flying faster than five times the speed of sound while being maneuverable in atmospheric conditions, and their fundamental challenge is the extreme heat generated during flight.

Missile Defense Agency satellites track first hypersonic launch

“With this new type of technology, you will not be able to rush into things,” Huber said during the briefing. “It will take a number of nations, a number of scientists, industries to collaborate in order to tackle the challenges.”

NATO partners should consider working on hypersonic technology within the alliance framework, “because every single nation brings a certain puzzle piece to the bigger picture.” The U.S. has lots of outer space-related infrastructure that will be needed to develop the technology, Australia has the requisite space – geographically speaking – for testing and Europe is strong on materials science and numerical simulation, Huber said.

Shielding hypersonic missiles’ sensitive electronics, understanding how various materials behave and predicting aerodynamics at temperatures as high as 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit (1,649 degrees Celsius) will require extensive flight testing, the U.S. Congressional Budget Office said in a 2023 report, adding that test failures in recent years have delayed progress.

Hypersonic missiles could cost one-third more than ballistic missiles of the same range with maneuverable warheads, according to CBO analysts.

While Russia has been using something it calls hypersonic weapons, Huber questioned whether the country has really developed technology that meets the typical definition.

The number of actors who would be able to build such a capacity is “quite limited” due to the high level of technology required, according to Col. Christophe Cabaj, in charge of missile capacity architecture at France’s armaments agency, who participated in the round table.

The high speed at which hypersonic missiles travel and the heat generated as a result means they’re surrounded by ionized air, which makes communication, navigation, guidance and control “very difficult,” according to Huber. Development of new materials is helping protect sensors, she said.

Much of the information around solutions for hypersonics to deal with the high temperatures is classified, according to Lionel Mazenq, who helps develop advanced systems at pan-European missile maker MBDA. “This is well-known that ceramic materials are of key importance, as well as very high temperature alloys. Going into more details is difficult.”

Congress OKs Israel F-15 sale as Biden takes heat on heavy bomb pause

The White House has convinced two key Democrats on Capitol Hill to lift their hold on a roughly $18 billion F-15 sale to Israel, even as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu adds to pressure on the Biden administration to release its own pause on a shipment of thousands of heavy bombs to the country.

Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York and Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland – the top Democrats on the foreign affairs panels in both chambers – confirmed Monday that they’ve lifted their months-long blockade of 50 Boeing-made F-15 fighter jets; Raytheon-made Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles; and Boeing-made Joint Direct Attack Munitions kits, which convert so-called dumb bombs to precision-guided munitions.

Shortly thereafter, Netanyahu released a video in English attacking President Joe Biden for his April pause on delivery of some 3,500 air-to-ground munitions for Israel, including 500- and 2,000-pound bombs. He said he raised the issue during a recent meeting with Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

“It is inconceivable that in the past few months, the administration has been withholding weapons and ammunition to Israel,” Netanyahu said on Tuesday. :Israel, America’s closest ally fighting for its life, fighting against Iran and other common enemies. Secretary Blinken assured me the administration is working day and night to remove those bottlenecks.”

The Washington Post first reported Monday that Meeks and Cardin have released their holds on the hold on F-15s, which are not slated for delivery until the end of the decade, after pressure from the Biden administration and pro-Israel advocates. The Washington Post also reported that the Biden administration is considering releasing its own hold on the 3,500 heavy bombs for Israel, which were slated for immediate delivery.

“We continue to have constructive discussions with the Israelis for its release, but I don’t have any updates beyond that,” a National Security Council spokesperson told Defense News regarding the munitions hold.

Blinken said Tuesday that the U.S. continues to “review” the heavy bomb delivery but added “everything else is moving as it normally would move.”

Biden withheld the heavy bombs in May ahead of Israel’s Rafah offensive in the southern Gaza Strip, voicing concern that they would exacerbate civilian casualties in a conflict that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and brought the population to the brink of famine. The last president to publicly withhold weapons shipments to Israel was Ronald Reagan in 1982 after seeing pictures of civilians killed in Lebanon.

Meeks also cited civilian casualties, widespread starvation and restrictions on humanitarian aid in April as factors in his decision to hold the F-15 sale before reversing course.

“I have been in close touch with the White House and [National Security Council] about this and other arms cases for Israel and have repeatedly urged the administration to continue pushing Israel to make significant and concrete improvements on all fronts when it comes to humanitarian efforts and limiting civilian casualties,” Meeks said in a statement. “I continue to support the administration’s pause on certain munitions transfers due to concerns about ongoing civilian casualties in Gaza. The aircraft in question will not be delivered until years from now, and I remain supportive of Israel’s right to defend itself against the real threats posed by Iran and Hezbollah.”

Congressional pressure

Although Meeks lifted the F-15 hold a few weeks ago, the State Department has yet to formally notify Congress of the sale. Nor has it formally notified Congress of a separate $1 billion sale in tank ammunition and tactical vehicles. The notifications would trigger a formal congressional review period in which senators critical of Israel’s Gaza offensive could trigger floor votes seeking to block either sale.

Congress has also moved legislation seeking to undo Biden’s pause on the heavy bomb delivery and restrict the president’s ability to restrict future arms transfers to Israel.

A provision in the House’s fiscal 2025 defense spending bill would bar the Pentagon from using funds “to withhold, halt, reverse or cancel the delivery of defense articles or defense services” for Israel, and force the president to transfer withheld weapons to the Israeli military within 15 days.

The Appropriations Committee advanced the defense spending bill last week in a 34-25 party-line vote with the full House set to vote in the weeks ahead.

Some Democrats also joined Republicans in May to pass 224-187 a more stringent bill undoing Biden’s heavy bomb hold, but the Democratic-held Senate has refused to hold a floor vote amid a White House veto threat.

Congress invited Netanyahu to address a joint session on July 24. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., both signed off on the invitation alongside Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

Meanwhile, Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Cory Booker, D-N.Y., convened a private meeting Tuesday for senators with several CEOs – including major Republican donors – to urge Congress to continue arms sales for Israel, Punchbowl News reported. Palantir CEO Alex Karp and Booz Allen Hamilton CEO Horacio Rozanski were reportedly set to attend the meeting alongside several finance and tech CEOs.