GM Defense pitches silent-drive vehicle as heir to the Humvee

Emerging rapidly out of dense foliage, a truck swings around a bend on a washboard gravel road, but the only sound is the crunch of gravel beneath tires and the occasional ping of a rock hitting its underside.

The truck is a new hybrid vehicle that GM Defense has developed to show the Army what is possible for a Humvee-type capability that meets the needs of modern warfare. The Army does not yet have a requirement for a new Humvee, or High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle, or something else to replace the 40-year-old vehicle with 50-year-old technology.

But the Humvee, while a longtime workhorse for the Army, is becoming an increasingly unsafe platform. Rollovers have plagued the fleet, resulting in a rise in deaths from the accidents in recent years, which spurred the implementation of some safety measures. The Army has replaced some Humvees with the newer Joint Light Tactical Vehicles, but the service wants to retain a slightly smaller vehicle akin to the Humvee in its inventory, scaling back plans to go whole hog on JLTV within the vehicle size segment.

GM Defense has designed what it’s calling the Next-Generation Tactical Vehicle, taking the Chevy Silverado truck and the same Duramax engine used in the U.S. Army’s Infantry Squad Vehicle and pairing it with an electric battery capable of producing roughly 300 kilowatt hours of power output and a 15-gallon fuel tank.

“Think about the technology that was the foundation for Humvee,” JD Johnson, GM Defense vice president of business development, said in a recent interview at General Motors Milford Proving Ground. “The automotive industry has moved way on from that and our soldiers deserve [more], not just from the driveability and performance, but from the ability to support all their various missions.”

Silverados come off the production line every 54 seconds. The company added an offroad package to the truck and maximized commercial-off-the-shelf features, according to Pete Johnson, GM Defense vice president of business development for integrated vehicles.

GM also integrated “a myriad” of different advanced technologies from some of its electric vehicle programs, including the Hummer EV, and incorporated lessons garnered from its successful rapid production of the Infantry Squad Vehicle, which used a Chevy Colorado chassis, Pete Johnson added.

While the vehicle still uses an engine now familiar to U.S. soldiers, it incorporates energy storage and the ability to use that energy to both drive and power other systems to enhance the Army both from an operational and sustainment perspective, Pete Johnson said.

Because of the electric-power capabilities, the vehicle can operate at low thermal and acoustic signatures.

“If you look at Ukraine, the fight going on right now, one of the risks is if they find you, they can kill you,” Pete Johnson said. Ukrainian soldiers started evacuating casualties from the frontlines with non-tactical vehicles because they were quieter than military vehicles, the company learned from those on the ground, he added.

The technology in GM’s new ride allows for silent drive, Pete Johnson said, meaning the vehicle is able to power systems without idling an engine. In the vehicle, the driver can switch between “silent mode” and regular engine mode with the flip of a switch.

The electric battery also helps decrease the battery requirements for units on the battlefield. The Army has gone from a platoon carrying roughly 48 lbs of batteries in Desert Storm and Desert Shield to carrying 1,200 lbs of batteries. “It’s unreal, the amount of kit now that requires energy,” Pete Johnson said.

The company has also incorporated instantaneous torque technology that allows for effective and agile offroad capability, according to Pete Johnson. The design reduces sustainment burdens and logistics tails because hybrid electric vehicles use fewer parts and less fuel and other batteries on the battlefield, he added.

The company also took safety into account in a number of ways, Pete Johnson said. “We’re disheartened every time we read an article where a soldier, marine, sailor is killed by a rollover … but we’re taking the best modern technology … and we’re building integrated rollover protection systems,” he said.

The Infantry Squad Vehicle already has that capability.

While electronic stability control and antilock brakes are in every single vehicle produced since 2012, “there’s almost no military vehicles that have that,” Pete Johnson said. While the Army has been applying add-on kits to Humvees, that DNA is embedded in the proposed Next-Generation Tactical Vehicle, he said.

The vehicle is transportable in a C-130 and C-17 aircraft and can be sling-loaded by a CH-47 Chinook cargo helicopter or an MH-53 King Stallion helicopter.

GM Defense is showing the vehicle at the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual conference in Washington. The floor model incorporates a Kongsberg remote weapon station, a Lockheed Martin Javelin anti-tank missile launcher and a Drone Buster to counter unmanned aircraft system threats in the back along with a Hoverfly tethered drone for reconnaissance.

“All of that is one platform that you really couldn’t do today” with the power sources onboard vehicles, Pete Johnson said.

One on one with US Army Pacific Command chief Gen. Charles Flynn

The Army has spent the last year increasing the complexity and breadth of its exercises in the Pacific while trying out new capabilities that will soon be a part of formations in the theater. Relationships with Pacific nations have grown amid continuing tensions with China, and U.S. Army Pacific chief Gen. Charles Flynn has staked out a role for land forces in a region associated primarily with air and naval power.

Defense News sat down with Flynn prior to the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual conference. Here are edited excerpts of the conversation.

The Army has been busy in the Pacific this year participating in larger exercises. What are some of your major takeaways and what progress has been made through these efforts with allies and partners?

We recently finished Orient Shield and had the highest level of interoperability with the Japanese Self-Defense Forces. Of course, that’s an army-to-army exercise, but for the first year, we had units from the Australian Army participating in that in Japan, so that’s a step change, adding a third country, if you will, to it.

The Mid-Range Capability missile system was sent to the Philippines, and it showed the value of training with our Philippine Army counterparts. We saw the assurance and deterrence that comes from that capability.

And then in the Arctic, you saw the operation that the 11th Airborne Division just conducted out in the Aleutians. But maybe more importantly was their last [Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center] rotation. They had 11 countries. They did a number of air assaults up there. One of them was a combined air assault with a Canadian aircraft. There was a 15-ship air assault, about 20 degrees below zero.

Those are just some highlights between Alaska, the Philippines, Japan and Australia, using the first island chain and extending all the way down past Papua New Guinea onto the Australian continent.

You mentioned the Mid-Range Capability missile deployed to the Philippines and it appears the decision is to keep it there for now. What is the significance of this?

I know there’s a lot of discussion out there about the timing and location, but I guess the point I’m going to make is that, for the time being, the MRC is going to remain in the Philippines, and that is at the request of the Philippine government and military. I think it’s an important assurance measure for our treaty ally there and the training that we’re doing on a system like that, because they obviously are interested in systems like that, but they’re also interested in other systems that they purchased, like the BrahMos [cruise missile] from India.

Maybe the most important part of all of this is what we’re really doing with the Philippine army and the Philippine military, which is to try to help develop and train forces in support of their territorial defense concept.

We can get wrapped on the MRC, but as you are aware, this is one of many new and coming Army land-based, long-range precision fires platforms. … I think you know that we are moving rather quickly with [the Precision Strike Missile] on the HIMARS platform. We fired the PrSM off of Palau earlier this year. … These are demonstrations of the capabilities that land forces can provide from the land on being able to do sea-control, sea-denial, territorial defense and influence operations in the air littorals and the maritime littorals.

The Pacific theater has really ramped up as a test bed of new and future capabilities. What are you learning and how is this continuing to refine or drive requirements?

The operating environment out here is extraordinary and challenging — the distances, the ranges involved, the conditions of weather, jungle, archipelagos, urban, extreme-cold weather, mountainous. I mean, you name it, you have it. And it’s extreme, like, where the 11th Airborne Division was just training in India. And then where we’re operating in the Philippines, it’s a totally different set of conditions. I think one of the challenges for commanders is the range of the operational environment and conditions that you have to conduct operations in.

The second point I’d make on this is that, in many ways, Army capabilities underpin joint operations, and this is where the interdependencies of the joint force come together. And I just believe that the Pacific is the best laboratory for learning. You have to test these new capabilities forward, and they have to be part of our campaigning effort out here. And the demands on the Army forces in this theater, they’re unique. We bring enabling capabilities from deep sensing to terrestrial collection, integrated air and missile defense, Army watercraft systems, sustainment. And then we already talked about long-range precision fires in the maritime environment.

The last point I’ll end on is when you are conducting experiments and tests as part of your operations and as part of your campaigning effort, there is a deterrent value that you gain from that because you keep your opponents guessing. And you’re also working with your partners and allies on new capabilities, new technologies, new organizations, and they learn from doing that with at least U.S. Army Pacific. That’s an enormously valuable contribution to deterrence and assurance across this region.

How would you characterize how the Army has grown its relationships in the Pacific region over this past year?

They’re far improved and they’re increasing, and why is that important? Because it really does three things: It improves our interoperability and our confidence as a multinational team. It improves our combined and joint capabilities because we’re training as a joint and combined and multinational force. And then the third is it denies key terrain, and it denies human terrain and physical terrain by the land power network.

That land power network is the strategic architecture that binds this region together. Let me give you a couple of concrete examples. In 2021, Garuda Shield [in Indonesia] was an army-to-army exercise. Now, Super Garuda Shield is a multinational and joint exercise, and it averages somewhere between 10 and 12 countries participating in it every year. I already mentioned Orient Shield. That’s one that was army-to-army, now it’s three countries. I haven’t mentioned Yama Sakura in Japan. That’s four countries: Japan, Philippines, Australia and United States.

Talisman Saber [in Australia], just about 10 years ago, was army-to-army. Now it’s 15 countries and 30,000 forces contributing to it. Those are real examples of our relationships that manifest themselves into real assurance and deterrence. Denying human terrain and physical terrain by our presence is the great counterweight that we have to the threats that are facing us each day out here.

You’ve been working on the establishment of what you call joint interior lines. What have you accomplished to really build those?

The idea really has four foundational warfighting functions or systems: command and control, protection, collection, and sustainment.

In the area of sustainment we’re working on some Joint Theater Distribution Centers, and those range in places from Guam to new locations or existing locations, potentially putting levels of material in Japan. There’s locations in the Philippines and Australia, we’re putting some additional stock levels in Guam. Then, of course, we’re working on our Army Prepositioned Stock-Afloat and distributing some of that equipment in new locations.

We have a new composite watercraft company that is being built and stationed in Japan. We’ve already had our forward-positioned watercraft stocks in Yokohama North Dock in Tokyo Harbor. We are also taking commodities with us and dropping them in locations where we don’t have to drag that back and forth: consumables like water, food, medical supplies, engineering equipment, things that we use during exercises and whatnot.

We have improved our terrestrial collection capabilities. We are improving our ability to conduct processing, exploitation and distribution of intelligence signals using all-source intelligence with our PED center here in Hawaii. We’re doing a lot of things with our integrated air and missile defense capabilities, starting in Guam, but also deploying those kinds of capabilities throughout the region when we’re on exercise.

Then, in the area of command and control, the Army has a really deep magazine well of command-and-control nodes that can go out into various locations and integrate small-scale and large, complex operations for the joint and multinational force.

I think we’ve done some really good work on what’s called exercise-related construction. So if we’re out on an exercise, we’re using our engineers but also host-nation engineers to do things like building roads, extending runways, improving facilities from ranges that we use and warehouse locations that we co-use with our host nation.

I would categorize that as work in the protection lane, because it’s a form of mobility and counter mobility and protection for us.

Where is the Army in determining the way ahead for APS Afloat? How are you looking at APS in the theater as you develop stronger relationships with countries throughout?

I’m not going to get ahead of the Army secretary, but I do think that what we’re doing between Project Convergence and the way we’re operating out here, working on creative, innovative and new ways to distribute equipment, sets and commodities, we need to do that as part of the joint force. When you think about agile combat employment, distributed maritime operations, expeditionary, advanced basing — you know, the three other service concepts — I think it’s our responsibility out here to reduce the vulnerabilities and look for creative ways to distribute our material support.

And we work with industry. I think there’s some really interesting capabilities and technologies, from unmanned vessels to underwater storage. The Pacific is a laboratory for learning and having those capabilities out here and for us to find creative ways to do that with our multinational partners is really important.

How Project Polaris is gearing up the brigade by targeting the squad

The home for all things soldier gear is partnering with a host of Army entities on a project to build a better infantry brigade by working from the bottom up at the soldier and squad level.

Army Times spoke with Maj. Gen. Christopher Schneider, commander of Program Executive Office-Soldier, ahead of the annual Association of the U.S. Army’s Annual Meeting and Exposition about the “Project Polaris” initiative.

Coordinating the Army’s many groups that encompass all the parts of a brigade requires significant effort. The coordination between Schneider’s command and others is now considered the service’s Close Combat Integration Enterprise, or CCIE, Schneider said.

“We have never been as aligned as we are today,” Schneider said.

The CCIE includes Program Executive Office-Soldier, Soldier Lethality Cross-Functional Team, Maneuver Capabilities Development and Integration Directorate, Army Research Laboratory and Combat Capabilities Development Command entities such as the Soldier Center, Armaments Center and C5ISR Center’s Research and Technology Integration Directorate, among others.

Updates on soldier gear, cold weather, targeting and body armor

While the initiative involves a lot of titles and acronyms, its goal is to ensure that when one entity makes a change to the soldier kit, the rest of the organization can understand the ripple effects.

“Most of the equipment today has got to work together,” Schneider said. “We do that with systems engineering — hardware and software and (Tactics, Techniques and Procedures) and the doctrine component.”

By meeting regularly and reviewing a series of initiatives, all the groups can produce common standards that they can share with the defense industry to create products.

A good chunk of structured soldier feedback is coming to the enterprise through the Cross Functional Team-Soldier Lethality, headed by Brig. Gen. Phillip Kiniery III, who also serves as the Infantry School commandant.

If PEO Soldier or another entity has some kit they want to test, Kiniery has the soldiers to do it.

“It’s about that feedback,” Kiniery said.

For example, soldiers under Kiniery’s command may be testing out new night vision devices in the field, but they’re not just evaluating how well they can see in the dark. They’re using targeting lasers and Nett Warrior, a software situational awareness tool, with the devices.

Those soldiers are going to tell Kiniery and others what did or didn’t work.

With more time using the gear, soldiers can provide developers with more feedback.

“We’re talking about the programs and systems being delivered by Maj. Gen. Schneider and his team and how do they integrate into a fighting formation,” Kiniery said.

For PEO Soldier, that’s been reflected in programs started last year such as the Operational Kit Analysis, or OKA, and New Equipment Training.

The OKA project involves several senior noncommissioned officers with expertise in certain areas visiting units and assessing a layout of what that unit would pack for a 72-hour mission.

The team goes through the gear list evaluating what’s required and what’s optional. They then check on what that unit’s soldiers have been trained to use. If there’s a mismatch, they can advise more training or to ditch the gear if it’s not needed.

Their aim is to lighten the load and ensure soldiers know how to properly use their equipment.

The New Equipment Training is another aspect of how PEO Soldier is working with soldiers, by sending equipment experts to the units to show NCOs in the unit how to use the gear and train others on its use.

The team will revisit the unit to assess the effectiveness of the training and whether they’re using the new equipment they’ve been issued.

US Army Pacific to absorb new units under ‘transformation’ mantra

The U.S. Army command for the Indo-Pacific finds itself at the front of the service’s transformation initiative, incorporating new unit types created to facilitate rapid adaptation to adversary tactics, according to U.S. Army Pacific Command chief Gen. Charles Flynn.

Several units in the Pacific, from Hawaii to Alaska, were chosen as part of Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George’s initiative, dubbed “Transforming in Contact,” Flynn said in an interview ahead of the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual conference.

“But there’s a whole other transformation in contact that’s going on out here at the operational and theater level.”

That transformation has to do with absorbing new organizations and capabilities designed to facilitate the quick incorporation of new tactics and technologies in the field.

“In my view, that is where the connective tissue occurs between tactical forces and operational and strategic forces that exist in the joint world,” Flynn said.

For example, the Army in the Pacific is the first to get a Theater Information Advantage Detachment, Flynn said. The TIAD is meant to keep its finger on the pulse of how adversarial nations like China and Russia are conducting information warfare.

The service has deployed a Security Force Assistance Brigade, a Theater Fires Element and the TIAD into areas near China, Flynn added.

The Army has already created two of three Multidomain Task Forces in the Pacific theater, which have been heavily involved in exercises throughout 2024.

The service is planning to build five MDTFs total. Another is based in Europe, while one more will be based at Fort Liberty, North Carolina, and designed to align with global rapid responses.

The units will operate across all domains — land, air, sea, space and cyberspace — and are equipped with the Army’s growing capabilities, including long-range precision fires.

The MDTFs will take on game-changing capabilities like the Precision Strike Missile, or PrSM, the Mid-Range Capability missile system and the delayed Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon as part of a Long-Range Fires Battalion.

The Army in June fired two PrSM missiles in Palau as part of a ship sinking exercise during Valiant Shield. The service also deployed the MRC missile to the Philippines during the Balikatan exercise in May. The MRC missile system, for the time being, will remain in the Philippines, Flynn said.

The Pacific Army has also established a Theater Strike Effects Group, Flynn added.

“This theater-level Army space formation is integral for today’s battlefield,” Lt. Gen. Daniel Karbler, then the head of Army Space and Missile Defense Command, said in January. “It will allow us to leverage the experience of its command team and staff to ensure success at every echelon, ensuring that all our capabilities are being employed when and where they’re needed best.”

The group will coordinate with the MDTFs that will use Army space interdiction forces with cyber and electronic warfare capabilities to block adversary defenses, according to the Army’s Space and Missile Defense Command.

As it works through the deployment of these major new capabilities like long-range precision fires, it’s imperative, Flynn said, that the Army is organized properly at the theater level in order to effectively coordinate the right engagement authorities.

“This extra capacity at the Theater Army level is transformational and its organizational changes are in front of the arrival of new technologies, new capabilities and new platforms,” he said. “It’s tailored to the region.”

Why Space Force chose commercial firms to build its new ground system

The Space Force wants to transition the first of its space domain awareness satellite programs to a new cloud-based ground system as soon as next spring — and rather than work with a traditional defense contractor, it’s formed a consortium of small, commercial firms to help it modernize satellite operations.

The Space Rapid Capabilities Office in September awarded initial contracts to 20 small businesses who will compete for $1 billion worth of task orders over the next five to seven years.

The companies span a range of expertise. Aalyria, a spinoff from Google parent company Alphabet, develops software to help organizations manage satellite networks and builds laser communication terminals. A Colorado-based firm, Infinity, specializes in systems engineering. Omni Federal, based in Washington, D.C., develops cloud and cyber solutions.

Col. Greg Hoffman, who leads the Rapid Resilient Command and Control program, or R2C2, said being able to take advantage of the breadth of experience and specialization represented across those firms is important for a program that aims to build a more resilient, capable ground operations system.

“We honed in on this small business approach because they’ve got the right experts to team with us to deliver this satellite operations software that we need for dynamic space operations,” he told Defense News. “There’s so much talent that we’re able to tap into across these 20 companies.”

As U.S. Space Command eyes a future where satellites are designed to maneuver in space, the Space Force’s rapid acquisition team is working to ensure the service’s ground infrastructure is ready to operate those systems.

R2C2 builds on two previous Space Force ground programs: the Space RCO’s Ground Command, Control and Communications program; and Space Systems Command’s Enterprise Ground Services, or EGS, program. EGS in particular sought to bring together the Space Force’s many command and control systems, but its scope was too broad and its requirements too complex.

The service last year opted to narrow its focus in order to deliver the capability more quickly. The program is now focused on developing a system that can operate highly maneuverable satellites — a mission the service calls dynamic space operations.

The Defense Department has traditionally struggled to field ground systems on time, often launching satellites years before their operation segments are ready. Space Force acquisition executive Frank Calvelli has challenged the acquisition community to change that paradigm and field working ground systems ahead of the satellites they’ll operate.

Hoffman said Calvelli’s directive is top of mind for the Space RCO. The program’s use of commercial vendors and focus on Space Command’s real-time operational needs make it different from legacy acquisition approaches, he said.

R2C2 is structured to release new capabilities on a regular cadence — weekly and sometimes monthly, Hoffman said. Startups and small firms are created around a rapid delivery mentality and tend to be unburdened by large overhead and corporate processes. That mindset aligns well with the Space RCO, he added.

“What we want to do is really focus on delivering the software . . . and get it into the hands of testers and operators for that feedback,” Hoffman said. “Being able to work with the developers and the testers and operators is really critical to delivering this sort of nascent capability and doing it on the timelines that our senior leaders expect.”

Early milestones

The program has already logged several successes since it took shape in the summer of 2023. The Space RCO was able to use some existing agreements with small vendors to develop a prototype, which means it didn’t have to wait to get started. That work helped the team prepare its technical approach and its strategy for working with a cohort of commercial companies rather than a larger prime contractor.

The Space Force’s long-awaited commercial space strategy offers near-term action steps to improve the way it procures private-sector space capabilities.

Within the first three months, R2C2 received authority to operate for its commercial cloud capability — a process to validate a program’s cyber approach that often takes two or more years to complete. That early approval allowed the team to start pushing software code quickly, Hoffman said.

The program also demonstrated the ability to load its satellite operations suite into the commercial cloud environment, which it used to simulate operations and then establish a limited connection with a satellite in orbit. That work culminated in August when the program used its prototype to send 11 commands to the satellite, which the spacecraft acknowledged.

Now, with its R2C2 vendors on contract, the Space RCO is working to acclimate them to the program’s requirements — and the DOD environment — so they’re ready to compete for future work. Hoffman said he expects to start issuing delivery orders this fall and winter with the goal of providing multiple opportunities for competition each year.

Over the next year, the focus will be on scaling the capabilities the team has already developed so that R2C2 can start to integrate satellites in the spring time frame. Hoffman wouldn’t identify which satellite programs would be first in line, but noted that they are existing systems that fall within the dynamic space operations mission.

Eventually, the program’s focus will shift to partnering with new programs and ensuring that its schedules are aligned so the satellites can integrate as soon as they’re ready.

“We’re going to line up with their timing,” Hoffman said. “When they need a ground system, we’re going to be ready for all their ground test campaign and pre-launch readiness activities and then for their on-orbit operations.”

Italy’s Avio expands to fill US Army solid rocket motor orders

ROME — Italy’s biggest rocket and missile motor manufacturer, Avio, is set to triple production within five years as the American military and industry look to it to ease a chronic production shortfall in the United States, the firm’s CEO has said.

In July, Avio signed with Raytheon to develop “critical solid rocket motors for defense applications,” as well as partnering with the U.S. Army “for the development and fast-prototyping of a solid rocket motor for surface-to-air applications.”

The demand in the U.S. for Avio’s wares and know-how reflects the demand for rocket motors driven by conflicts around the world as well as a narrowing in supply options following the 2018 purchase of Orbital ATK by Northrop Grumman.

Avio is working on opening a U.S. production site, but will start out by working on its new American workload at its Colleferro site in Italy.

“Today we manufacture 200-300 rocket motors a year at Colleferro and can triple that in 4-5 years on present commitments,” Avio CEO Giulio Ranzo told Defense News.

Avio already works on the propulsion and other components for the Aster 30 missile, as well as solid-propellant rocket motor of the new CAMM-ER air defense missile, while its core business is space, putting 120 satellites into orbit in the last 12 years thanks to 24 launches of its Vega launcher.

Ranzo said approximately two more years would be needed for Avio to qualify Solid Rocket Motor (SRM) products at its Colleferro site as per recent U.S. contracts. The approach would however be faster and safer than waiting for the new facility in the U.S. to start its qualification phase ahead of volume manufacturing, he added.

“U.S. officials have said production in the U.S. would be the ideal, but they understand that takes time. Establishing new capacity cannot be done in months,” he said.

“There are plenty of startups trying to enter this market, but this requires decades of experience in production at scale and a large and authorized site to handle explosives” he added.

Few details have emerged about the two U.S. deals, but Ranzo said, “We have just worked on the new CAMM-ER missile which means we have fresh technical knowledge. Most equivalent systems in the U.S. date to the 1980s.”

Avio set up a U.S. subsidiary, Avio USA, in 2022, appointing as CEO James Syring, a retired U.S. Navy vice admiral and former director of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency.

Syring told Defense News, “There has been a consolidation of the industrial base, essentially leaving Northrop Grumman and Aerojet as the sole SRM manufacturers, but even before that there has been a longstanding capacity shortfall for the production of rocket motors and missiles vs current demand.”

He added, “This is not a new thing. You talk to customers and prime contractors and they say they would order double if they could. The ongoing conflicts have exacerbated the situation.”

Syring said the company’s expansion aims to top up lagging U.S. production capacity as opposed to capturing market share there.

“We hear ‘Buy American’ a lot, and that is why we are working to establish by a sizeable U.S. factory presence to serve all customers,” Syring said.

He added, “The Department of Defense has been vocal about the need to leverage international production capabilities, given the maxed out supply base. The DoD has been supportive of us getting established.”

As well as capacity, Avio also offered innovations, according to Syring. “Avio has innovative technology and capabilities for booster cases, thermal protections and nozzle manufacturing that no U.S. rocket motor supplier has.”

MacDill dodges major storm damage as people, planes remain evacuated

MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida, saw significant rain and strong winds as Hurricane Milton cut across the state Wednesday night, but the base appears to have avoided the worst of the storm.

As of Thursday, trees are down, some roads are impassable and low-lying areas are flooded, said Capt. Kaitlin Butler, chief of public affairs for the 6th Air Refueling Wing. However, the flooding did not reach any of the base’s buildings, she said, and damage appears to be limited. No injuries have so far been reported.

“We are incredibly fortunate to have been spared the expected storm surge, and the winds did not gust any stronger than they did,” Col. Ed Szczepanik, commander of the 6th Air Refueling Wing, said in a video posted on social media Thursday.

But with roads still riddled with storm debris, evacuated MacDill personnel and families cannot return yet, Szcezpanik said.

Milton terrified many in the region earlier this week as it swiftly grew to Category 5 status, coming only two weeks after Hurricane Helene slammed into the northwestern part of Florida and left a deadly path of destruction across the Southeast.

But wind shear, or a sudden change in the wind’s direction that can cause turbulence for airplanes, began to weaken Milton as it approached Florida. It ended up tracking to the south and making landfall as a Category 3 hurricane near Siesta Key, about an hour south of Tampa.

While the storm dumped a significant amount of rain on still-saturated MacDill and winds reached more than 90 miles per hour, the base was fortunate that a storm surge didn’t materialize the way it did during Helene, Butler said. Helene’s storm surge reached a record-breaking 7 feet, 9 inches in some places on base, causing floods and knocking out power to the base.

MacDill remains closed and largely evacuated, and it was not yet known when people and planes will return, Butler said. The limited evacuation order will remain in place at least through Thursday, she said, to keep people safe and ensure they don’t end up getting caught on dangerous or impassable roads trying to get back to MacDill.

A hurricane recovery team is now working its way through MacDill identifying and addressing damage or potentially dangerous spots, Butler said.

MacDill, home of the 6th and 927th air refueling wings and headquarters of U.S. Special Operations Command and U.S. Central Command, has about 5,250 service members and 1,350 civilian personnel, as well as family members who live on base.

As Milton approached Florida over the weekend after forming in the Gulf of Mexico, the base began to evacuate its aircraft and personnel. Two of the base’s KC-135 Stratotankers that couldn’t be flown out were stored in hangars, while 13 others were evacuated to McConnell Air Force Base in Kansas. Other KC-135s are conducting operational missions elsewhere.

About 185 base personnel are operating out of an emergency operations center at Raymond James Stadium, the Air Force said.

Secret X-37B spaceplane maneuvers could impact future space operations

Ten months into its latest and largely classified mission, the Space Force’s X-37B spaceplane is embarking on a new set of maneuvers that could inform future space operations for the service.

The Boeing-built spacecraft has functioned as a testbed for Pentagon and NASA technologies since 2010. The spacecraft’s current mission, OTV-7, began in December with the goal of experimenting with future space domain awareness technologies.

While many details of the mission are classified, the Space Force offered a rare glimpse into the X-37B’s latest endeavor in a press release Thursday, revealing that the spaceplane is preparing to conduct what’s called an aerobraking maneuver.

Although it’s a new move for the X-37B, aerobraking has been used by NASA and other space agencies for years. The technique involves a series of passes that rely on the drag of Earth’s atmosphere. If successful, it will allow the X-37B to change orbits using minimal fuel.

US Space Force sends X-37B craft on another secretive mission

“This first of a kind maneuver from the X-37B is an incredibly important milestone for the United States Space Force as we seek to expand our aptitude and ability to perform in this challenging domain,” Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman said in a statement.

The spacecraft will use the aerobraking maneuvers to change its orbit around Earth and dispose of its service module before completing its test mission. The Space Force didn’t provide details on when it expects the spacecraft to return to Earth.

U.S. Space Command has identified a growing need for what it calls dynamic space operations, or the ability for satellites to maneuver away from threats or toward objects in space that operators may want to observe more closely. That’s a departure from today’s spacecraft, most of which are designed to remain in a specific orbital position throughout their service life.

As a result, existing spacecraft have a finite amount of fuel and their gas tanks aren’t meant to be refueled in orbit. The Space Force is pursuing options for new spacecraft designs that include larger fuel tanks and ports for refueling or maintenance, as well as additional spacecraft and other in-orbit infrastructure to provide those services.

Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said the X-37B maneuvers could have significant implications for how the Space Force navigates the environment in the future.

“This novel and efficient series of maneuvers demonstrates the Space Force’s commitment to achieving groundbreaking innovation as it conducts national security missions in space,” he said.

To deter Iran, US must rethink military basing in the Middle East

Geography is destiny, but when it comes to U.S. bases in the Middle East, it needn’t be. Our current basing structure detracts from our ability to deter Iran — the core threat — because it reduces our ability to fight effectively in a high-intensity scenario. We need to overcome the tyranny of geography.

In a full-blown war with Iran, these existing bases will be rendered unusable by sustained Iranian attack. The Iranians can see this and have created a large and very capable missile and drone force in part to exploit this situation.

Therefore, we need to reexamine where we are based in the region, both on a day-to-day and contingency basis.

Navy warships helped take down Iran’s attack on Israel, Pentagon says

Our presence at existing bases provides an important assurance mission to host countries. Thus, we are unlikely to permanently leave bases like Al Dhafra in the United Arab Emirates and Al Udeid in Qatar.

We should, however, work with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Oman and Egypt to identify bases as far to the west as possible where we can deploy aircraft, maintenance capabilities, refueling capabilities and weapons.

We have already done some of this work. The “Western Basing Network” was a joint U.S.-Saudi decision to evaluate bases near the Red Sea for use in times of war. Not as far advanced but still under consideration were basing concepts that included Oman, Egypt and Jordan. The U.S. Combined Air Operations Center at Al Udeid has also shifted some of its responsibilities to locations in the United States, significantly reducing air command and control vulnerabilities.

How does this approach, known as “agile combat employment,” work? Based on warnings and indications of war, land-based air assets would relocate to the western bases from their locations along the Arabian Gulf. The number of Iranian weapons that could reach them would be significantly reduced, warning times would be increased and the Iranians would have a targeting problem in ascertaining from which bases U.S. aircraft operated.

In the event of hostilities, these aircraft would launch from the distant bases, be refueled en route and conduct combat operations over Iran. Depending on how the fight was going, they could land and refuel/rearm at the existing forward bases on the Arabian Gulf, minimizing their time on the ground, and increasing their “cycle rate.” Regardless, they would return to the western bases to “bed down.”

However, access to these installations is not guaranteed. The necessary political decisions are not necessarily made quickly in this region. The facilities themselves range from “bare bones” bases to fully equipped ones. Nonetheless, this is something that is squarely in the best interest of all concerned.

There is a second component to this new basing construct, and it is the opportunity made possible by Israel’s 2021 entry into the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) Area of Responsibility (AOR). It is now possible to consider basing in Israel in the event of a war with Iran. It has the same geographic advantages as basing in western Saudi Arabia or other Arab states. Additionally, Israel has a powerful, proven air and missile defense capability. The fact that Israel is now in CENTCOM also facilitates training, interoperability, and even maintenance. Israel should certainly be at the forefront of possible basing alternatives.

The third component to the basing solution also involves Israel, and it is the growing normalization of ties with Arab states. This was made diplomatically possible by the signing of the Abraham Accords in 2020. It was made operationally feasible by Israel’s move into the CENTCOM AOR. It was further underwritten by Iranian malign behavior which has finally convinced the Gulf States that a collective approach to air and missile defense is necessary, practicable and achievable without sacrificing sovereignty. It is largely a matter of sharing tactics, techniques, and procedures and agreeing what sensor information to share, and how to share it, with the U.S. acting as the honest broker.

We have a clear-cut example of this concept at work. The Iranians’ large, complex attack against Nevatim Airfield in Israel on April 13, 2024, failed because of Israeli competence, U.S. and allied assistance and the cooperation and assistance of Arab neighbors. Information was shared; airspace was shared. In every measurable way, this was a remarkable success story.

Deterrence must be continuous; in the Middle East, it can have a very short half-life unless it is refreshed systematically. The events of the past two months clearly show that Iran can be deterred from undertaking irresponsible and deadly attacks in the region, but this requires resources, careful messaging and the demonstrated ability to fight and win if necessary.

We now need to move aggressively to develop basing alternatives that demonstrate that we are prepared to fight and prevail in a sustained, high-intensity war with Iran. Geography is destiny for some, but not for all. Being obviously ready to rebase rapidly, and frequently exercising the capability, will increase the chances of peace in the region, because Iran will be watching.

Gen. McKenzie, a retired U.S. Marine general, served as commander of U.S. Central Command from 2019 to 2022. He is the Hertog Distinguished Fellow at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America and author of “The Melting Point: High Command and War in the 21st Century.”

Gulf countries beef up their undersea-warfare chops with European tech

BREST, France — Gulf countries are making new investments to increase their undersea warfare capabilities, including Qatar with the purchase of Italian-made mini-submarines and Saudi Arabia with the acquisition of French towed array sonars.

The upgrades come as naval threats in the region have proliferated, turbo-charged by Yemen’s Houthi rebels targeting commercial shipping vessels in the Read Sea and the Gulf of Aden with weapons technology old and new. Supported by Iran, the group has deployed missiles and drones in addition to unmanned surface vessel, damaging cargo ships and disrupting global trade dependent on the sea route.

Saudi Arabia, which borders the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea, has attempted to bolster its underwater surveillance capabilities in part by acquiring a handful of Combined Active Passive Towed Array Sonars from Thales.

The order, which company officials here told Defense News was placed earlier this year, is for five Captas-1 sonars that will equip Saudi’s Avante 2200 corvettes manufactured by the Spanish company Navantia.

The system is the first variant of the Captas family of sonars and is designed to detect conventional submarines operating in shallow-water environments, with a range between 20 to 30 kilometers.

Other Gulf countries have chosen to invest in different technologies. For instance, in 2021, Qatar signed a contract with the low-profile Italian company M23 worth €190 million ($208 million) for the production of two small submarines.

One of the mini-submarines, destined for the Qatari Emiri Navy, was tested over the summer in Northern Italy.

“The Qataris may have chosen Italy not only because of its renowned tradition in this niche capability segment, but also because of the strong relationship that exists between Rome and Doha in the defense sector,” Federico Borsari, resident fellow at the U.S. Center for European Policy Analysis said.

He highlighted that between 2019-2023, the Gulf country was the main recipient of Italian weapons and that the two countries’ navies train together on a regular basis.

Mini-subs offer capabilities that will cater specifically to Qatar’s operational environment, Borsari explained, as they are designed to perform missions in difficult-to-access waters.

“They can act as asymmetric disrupters even against superior adversaries– they are also designed to follow the seabed’s contours and easily infiltrate harbors for covert operations, and can typically also lay minefields,” he said.