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Industry cluster forms around European patrol corvette program

ROME — Shipbuilders from France, Italy and Spain have announced the creation of a consortium to ramp up design work on a new European corvette and coordinate cooperation on the program with dozens of firms around the continent.

Touted as a poster child for European defense industry integration, the European Patrol Corvette program was handed €60 million ($59 million) for development by the European Defense Fund in July, with work led by Spain’s Navantia, France’s Naval Group, Italy’s Fincantieri and Naviris – the joint venture teaming the latter two firms.

On Tuesday, the CEOs from those companies signed their consortium into life at the Euronaval exhibit in Paris, claiming it would “develop the initial design of the vessel, maximizing innovations, synergies and collaboration among European shipbuilding industry.”

To date, 40 firms from 12 EU countries have signed up to work on the program, a statement released by the firms added.

With Italy, France, Spain and Greece as founding national partners, and Denmark and Norway joining them last year, companies including Kongsberg, Siemens, Rolls-Royce, MAN and MTU are also on board.

“This program will strongly contribute to European sovereignty in the naval domain by strengthening European industry, increasing cooperation, efficiency and lowering duplication in defense spending,” the statement said.

An Italian naval official told Defense News last month that the European Defense Fund will issue a “call” next year for participants to push on with the program with a EU grant of around €200 million ($197 million) to be available, leading to the production of the first prototype.

Up to 110 meters long and displacing around 3,000 tonnes, the European Patrol Corvette will be built in a full combat version by Italy and Spain, while France and Spain are opting to pursue a long-range variant.

Nexter, Thales present final RapidFire turret design for French Navy

PARIS — Nexter Systems and Thales have released the final design for a new 40 mm naval air defense system, expecting deliveries to the French Navy to begin in the next few months.

The companies presented an at-scale mockup of the final design for their RapidFire system at the Nexter booth during the biennial Euronaval trade conference, taking place here Oct. 18-21.

The gun system has been in development since 2019, Olivier Lequeux, Nexter’s turret market director, told reporters Tuesday on the show floor. Developed for the French Navy, the RapidFire is designed for low-layer ground-to-air defense – particularly anti-drone warfare – and can protect ships, land units, or bases against a wide range of threats such as jet skis, boats, loitering ammunition, swarms of unmanned aerial systems (UAVs), light aircraft or missiles up to 4,000 meters away.

The gun system is based on the 40CTA (40 mm Cased Telescoped Ammunition) cannon co-developed 25 years ago by Nexter and BAE Systems under the joint venture CTAI. The cannon is in use on the EBRC Jaguar armored reconnaissance vehicle, developed for the French and Belgian armies, and will also be installed on the Ajax armored fighting vehicles in development by General Dynamics for the British Army.

The initial program of record is to deliver four RapidFires to the French Navy, which will equip its new tanker vessels – known in French as batiments ravitailleurs de force, or BRF – with two systems each. The first system is scheduled to be delivered in late 2022 or early 2023, Lequeux said. The first two systems are currently undergoing testing and evaluations.

The companies expect to ultimately deliver over 40 systems to the navy, to equip other vessels including the service’s ocean patrol vessels, and future mine warfare vessels. The RapidFire could also serve as secondary artillery for France’s first-rank frigates and carriers, said Norbert Cadapeaud, product line manager at Thales Land and Air Systems.

Thales and Nexter developed a road map for the air defense system over a decade ago, when the two companies began to identify the need to detect and track very small and very fast targets, Lequeux said.

“To have the capacity to engage a swarm of drones is completely new for this type of system, and for us it was very important,” he said.

Incorporating a panoramic sight on the turret was also critical, as was the development of new ammunition – the Anti-Aerial Airburst (A3B) round dedicated against air targets. Nexter is currently undergoing two years of internal qualifications with the A3B round, which must then be tested and qualified by France’s military procurement office, the Delegation Generale de l’Armement (DGA).

The RapidFire will be equipped with five different types of ammunition, including the A3B. The ammunition can be automatically identified and selected to counter the designated threat, Cadapeaud noted. The optronic sight is capable of operating independently from the gun or connected to the command management system (CMS), and the turret operates passively when not in firing mode, he added.

The companies’ roadmap includes adding guided munitions to the turret, per Nexter’s Lequeux.

The RapidFire includes some adaptations from its land-based variant, such as to account for the different munition weights, he added. But the land and naval versions will be assembled on the same production line, with modifications occurring only at the very end of the process.

Nexter is on contract to deliver 40 CTA cannons under the French army’s Scorpion modernization program for the next four decades, meaning the RapidFire can be produced for equally as long, Lequeux noted.

Thales and Nexter expect a number of export opportunities for the RapidFire as well, but declined to offer specifics.

Bloomberg-led panel meets to advise Pentagon on capital and innovation

WASHINGTON — Billionaire Michael Bloomberg and other members of U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s reinstated innovation advisory board met for the first time to explore the Pentagon’s relationship with investment capital and find ways to speed the adoption of new technologies.

The Defense Innovation Board met Oct. 17 with a new slate of members chaired by Bloomberg, the former New York City Mayor and founder of Bloomberg LP. The group includes leaders from across the defense, business and education sectors convened to offer independent recommendations on Pentagon technology challenges.

The board was set up in 2016 to bring the technological innovation and best practice of Silicon Valley to the U.S. Military. This week’s meeting was the group’s first since 2021, when Austin cleared the rosters of the Pentagon’s 40 advisory boards and conducted a review due to concerns about last-minute appointments by the Trump administration.

“Over the years, the board has been successful in bringing new ideas forward, including on talent and culture, digital transformation, software acquisition and artificial intelligence,” Bloomberg said during a brief public meeting that followed closed sessions with Austin and other senior leaders. “It’s also adopted principles and best practices from business to help the department run more smoothly. But there is much more that we can do, and I’m looking forward to that challenge.”

Executive Director Colleen Laughlin said Austin charged the panel with informing the Pentagon’s National Defense Science and Technology Strategy.

The study is focused on ensuring the department is adequately investing in critical and emerging technology areas, which Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Heidi Shyu identified in February. The 14 areas include hypersonics, space, artificial intelligence, directed energy and advanced computing.

Shyu told C4ISRNET in an interview on Oct. 10 that her team conducted a review of the military funding for these priorities and expects to issue a report early next year.

During the closed session, the board received a briefing from Shyu on the S&T strategy and the “innovation ecosystem.” They also heard from Mara Karlin, assistant secretary of defense for strategy, plans and capabilities, who discussed the National Defense Strategy, and were provided an update on the department’s digital modernization plan.

Ryan Swan, a Defense Innovation Board member and chief data and analytics officer at financial investment firm Vanguard, said Austin wants the panel to consider how the department might signal to the commercial market that it’s serious about investing in the technologies Shyu highlighted. He asked the board to offer recommendations on building a DoD workforce that can perform advanced analytics and cybersecurity.

Former Air Force acquisition executive Will Roper, who also sits on the board, said the strategy offers the department an opportunity to consider what “tomorrow’s war” will look like and what enabling technology may be required to win it.

He noted that just as the war in Ukraine highlights past discussion and planning for network-enabled weapons and integrated commercial services, the outcomes of future conflicts will rely heavily on the foresight of today’s leaders.

“This has been thought about, it’s been talked about, it’s been invested in and now it’s happening,” Roper said. “Looking at the S&T strategy for the department is simply bringing that same vision.”

Getting .com and .gov together

Austin challenged the panel to consider how the Pentagon might take advantage of private sector investment and innovation, particularly as more commercial companies are developing capabilities that could have national security applications.

Roper said he’s glad Austin is focused on leveraging privately funded innovation, calling it “a trend that this building has to get its head around.”

Finding ways to better take advantage of a broader, more diverse industrial base, he said, could help “counterbalance” some of the consolidation that’s occurred across the defense sector, allowing companies that are building capability for both the government and commercial markets to partner with DoD.

“Allowing companies that are a little bit of ‘.com’ and a little bit of ‘.gov’ to be able to work successfully in national security on their path toward global success can be a winning formula for the U.S. and one that really unlocks the potential of our market economy,” Roper said. “It’s a great first area for us to look at.”

Retired Adm. Michael Mullen, who was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 2007 to 2011 and has since served on corporate boards for several companies, said he’s been surprised at how difficult it is for non-traditional defense firms to do business with DoD.

“It’s just been stunning to me,” he said. “I think we need to figure out a way to make it easier.”

Lawmakers seek emergency powers for Pentagon’s Ukraine war contracting

WASHINGTON ― Bipartisan legislation introduced in the Senate would grant the Pentagon wartime procurement powers, allowing it to buy high-priority munitions using multi-year contracts to help Ukraine fight Russia and to refill U.S. stockpiles.

The Senate Armed Services Committee’s chairman, Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., and ranking member, Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., proposed the legislation as an amendment to the annual defense authorization bill, which the Senate is expected to vote on in November. It was offered instead of the critical munitions acquisition fund that the Pentagon and some lawmakers sought for the same purposes, before Senate appropriators rejected it.

The amendment, the text of which was released last week, offers multi-year contracting authorities typically reserved for Navy vessels and major aircraft. As drafted, it would let the Pentagon lock in purchases of certain munitions made by Lockheed Martin, Raytheon Technologies, BAE Systems and Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace over fiscal 2023 and 2024, a step aimed at encouraging manufacturers to expand production lines for sought-after munitions.

The Pentagon would also be permitted to team with NATO to buy weapons for its members in mass quantities, and for Ukraine-related contracts, the legislation would ease several key legal restrictions on Pentagon procurement through fiscal 2024 ― a sign lawmakers see the war dragging on.

The intent of the legislation is to spur the Pentagon and industry to move more aggressively by removing bureaucratic barriers, with an eye not only on Russia but the potential for a confrontation with China over Taiwan, according to a senior congressional aide who spoke to Defense News on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak with the press.

“Whether you want to call it wartime contracting or emergency contracting, we can’t play around anymore,” the aide said. “We can’t pussyfoot around with minimum-sustaining-rate buys of these munitions. It’s hard to think of something as high on everybody’s list as buying a ton of munitions for the next few years, for our operational plans against China and continuing to supply Ukraine.”

If the language becomes law, the Department of Defense would be allowed to make non-competitive awards to arms manufacturers for Ukraine-related contracts, an idea spearheaded in legislation from Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., and 13 other senators.

The Inhofe-Reed amendment would also grant special emergency procurement authorities reserved for contingency operations and waive a requirement that contractors provide certified cost and pricing data, a safeguard intended to help ensure the Pentagon is paying reasonable prices.

Criticism from Capitol Hill

The move comes amid criticism from Capitol Hill and the defense industry that the Pentagon is moving too slowly. Of the $6 billion Congress appropriated this year to buy equipment for Ukraine, DoD has awarded $1.2 billion, and of $12.5 billion appropriated to replace U.S. stockpiles of weapons sent to Ukraine, just $1.5 billion has been awarded, the Pentagon said Sept. 20.

“This is an effort to speed up contracting,” said Mark Cancian, a defense budget analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “We’ve been hearing from industry, when we talk to them about this issue, that they want to see a demand signal. DoD has been saying the right things but they haven’t been providing that demand signal. And when you look at the amount of money actually obligated, it’s very low.”

One aim of the amendment is to signal to the defense industry that it’s time to restart or to re-energize dormant supply lines. Lockheed CEO Jim Taiclet said during a July earnings call that the Pentagon had yet to put the contracts in place or coordinate with industry to buy more supplies, a process that could take two to three years. “And I can tell you the clutch isn’t engaged yet,” Taiclet said.

While the legislation will likely be welcomed by the defense industry, Julia Gledhill, a defense analyst in the Center for Defense Information at the non-partisan watchdog group Project on Government Oversight, said Monday that Congress should leave protections against defense spending bloat in place.

“Ukraine aid shouldn’t be another way for contractors to nickel and dime the Pentagon, wasting taxpayer dollars and undermining the purpose of assistance: to support the Ukrainian people,” Gledhill said. “But the amendment further deteriorates already weak guardrails in place to prevent corporate price gouging of the military.”

Ukraine invasion prompts congressional push for a new look at Patriot missile defense needs

Mobilizing munitions manufacturing

Concerned about constraints on the U.S. defense industrial base’s ability to produce munitions to resupply U.S. stocks transferred to Ukraine, Congress this year appropriated $600 million in Defense Production Act funding. Some of the money is to expand domestic capacity and invest in domestic production of strategic and critical materials.

The Senate Armed Services Committee authorized $2.7 billion for future munitions production when it advanced the FY23 NDAA in June. And while multi-year contract authorities could save the Defense Department money on munitions procurement over annual contracts, they could also add several billion dollars more per year in non-discretionary spending to the defense budget topline – an annual, contentious debate in Congress.

The House NDAA, which passed 329-101 in July, contains a more limited critical munitions acquisition fund offered as an amendment from the House Armed Services Committee’s chairman, Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash. That amendment would apply only to high-demand munitions transferred to Ukraine and its European neighbors.

The sheer volumes of weapons that the legislation authorizes contracts for equipment sent to Ukraine includes 750,000 XM1128 and XM1123 rounds for 155mm artillery; 1,000 M777 Howitzers; 700 M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems and 100,000 Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems.

But it extends far beyond what the U.S. needs to replenish stocks sent to Ukraine. For instance, it authorizes contracts to procure up to 20,000 Stinger anti-aircraft missiles and 25,000 Javelin anti-tank missiles. That far exceeds the approximately 1,400 Stingers and 5,500 Javelins that the U.S. has sent to Ukraine from its stocks.

“These numbers are much larger than just replenishing stocks,” said Cancian. “These are huge numbers. They are not driven by what we’ve given to Ukraine, but sort of related to what we’ve given to Ukraine.”

“This isn’t replacing what we’ve given them,” he added. “It’s building stockpiles for a major ground war in the future. This is not the list you would use for China. For China we’d have a very different list.”

The amendment also authorizes buying up to 30,000 AGM-114 Hellfire missiles; 36,000 AGM-179 Joint Air-to-Ground Missiles; 1,000 Harpoon missiles; 800 Naval Strike Missiles; and 10,000 Patriot Advanced Capability – 3 air defense system and 6,000 MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems.

The proposed legislation also authorizes contracts for 20,000 AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air missiles, which Ukraine has not fired extensively – if at all. Britain announced last week that it would donate these AMRAAM rockets to Kyiv for its use in the Norwegian Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System, which the United States has pledged to provide in the future via the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative.

Co-production with NATO

To that end, the legislation aims to facilitate co-production of weapons systems with NATO allies. For example, the proposed legislation also authorizes sharing designs for large-caliber cannon, which Cancian noted was developed by Britain.

In a separate provision that would allow bulk weapons purchases between the U.S. and NATO, the amendment would expand existing authorizations that cover NATO’s bulk purchases of logistics support items, like fuel, to cover acquisitions of any kind. The idea is that the U.S. and allies would be able to pool resources for artillery shells and other weapons and potentially save costs by buying together.

European countries are focused on boosting the defense industry’s production capacity to provide for countries future needs and to backfill stockpiles sent to Ukraine.

While U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was in Brussels last week, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that the alliance had decided to increase stockpiles of munitions and equipment ― and to speed up aid deliveries to Ukraine.

Because allies are digging deeper into their stocks to be able to provide more support to Ukraine, “it’s important that we also are able to ramp up production,” Stoltenberg said, adding that emerging NATO plans would provide industry with the long-term demand it need to boost production.

Austin led a meeting of Ukraine donor nations in Brussels where the defense chiefs discussed how to keep supplying Ukraine “in the difficult months and years ahead” and “pushed to galvanize our industrial bases to fire up production for the systems to defend Ukraine, even while meeting our own security needs.”

In Washington last week, the U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency’s director, James Hursch, projected U.S. arms sales would increase continuously over the next three years as the conflict fuels demand from Europe.

“They are drawing lessons from the conflict that we see today about the kinds of systems they need to have,” Hursch said, projecting demand for armored vehicles, precision fires and integrated missile defense systems.

US Transportation Command favors buying used sealift ships

This story has been updated to add that U.S. Transportation Command would be interested in new purpose-built sealift ships as a longer-term solution to recapitalizing the fleet but is focused on buying used ships as a near-term solution.

WASHINGTON — The head of U.S. Transportation Command is focused on recapitalizing the nation’s sealift fleet with used vessels over designing and building new ones, as suggested by a congressional panel.

The average ship in the sealift fleet is 46 years old, and Gen. Jacqueline Van Ovost said Friday that the Navy and the Transportation Department are facing increasingly large maintenance bills for these ships, which would move about 90% of vehicles and materiel to a conflict.

Transportation Command has noted that 37 of the 50 large roll-on/roll-off vessels in the sealift fleet — many converted car carriers that would haul heavy platforms and gear into theater — are set to retire in the next decade.

In 2019, Congress approved a plan to buy seven used vessels as one step in recapitalizing this fleet, much of which was built following sealift failures in the Gulf War and is now nearing the end of its planned service life.

A vessel acquisition manager bought two of these vessels, but today’s hot commercial market has left the government unable to buy the next two for which Congress appropriated money. The manager had selected the next two vessels for purchase, but those ships were pulled off the market due to increasing commercial shipping demands, Van Ovost said.

The general noted she wants to continue buying used vessels at a consistent rate of two per year, and perhaps at a higher rate if the market cools and the government can afford to recapitalize faster.

Asked about the possibility of designing and building new sealift ships, she said that although “everybody loves that new ship smell,” continuing with the buy-used plan provides better bang for the buck. A TRANSCOM spokesman later added that the new ships would be welcome down the line but that TRANSCOM was focused on the buy-used strategy currently authorized by Congress as a way to field capability on a shorter timeline.

Under the proposal in the House’s version of the fiscal 2023 National Defense Authorization Act, the Maritime Administration, which is part of the Transportation Department, would design and build up to 10 ships in a U.S. shipyard. For that plan to be implemented, the Senate must also agree, and Congress would have to add funding to the department’s budget.

“Do we really need it, is the question, and then do we have the capacity here in America to build that ship? And the balance of resources and return on investment — what does that look like?” Van Ovost said. “From the bang-for-the-buck [perspective], you get a 15-year-old ship, and that’s got some real bang for the buck. It’s like buying a used car versus buying that new car: When it comes off the lot, you lose 20% [of its value]. So we’re going to continue forward with the vessel acquisition manager, we have the funding.”

Though the first attempt to buy the third and fourth used vessels didn’t pan out, she said the money from Congress won’t expire for a few more years. The government is looking for suitable options on the market and will have the money in hand when an opportunity arises, she explained.

Van Ovost said a Mobility Capability Requirements Study validated the square footage of sealift capacity the military needs for various operational plans, which means her command has a good understanding of its needs compared to the state of the fleet today.

“When they’re on the move, they work great,” she said of the aging ships. But a 2019 turbo activation exercise, which saw the ships scramble into action, proved only 40% could actually get up and running.

Van Ovost said some are near the end of their lives and need to retire, while the better-performing ships could see their service lives extended as the government continues to seek replacements.

Xtend signs $9M drone deal with Pentagon’s irregular warfare office

JERUSALEM — Xtend will develop multi-payload drones for the Pentagon’s irregular warfare office under an $8.9 million deal, the Israeli company announced.

This is the sixth contract between Xtend and the Irregular Warfare Technical Support Directorate, and it follows a deal in May for the supply of hundreds of Wolverine Gen2 drones to the U.S. government.

The company, strengthening its foothold in the United States, recently established its U.S.-based subsidiary Xtend Reality. The company attended the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual conference earlier this month, where it demonstrated a so-called human-guided autonomous drone system with a simulator.

Additionally, the drone on order, expected to carry 0.5 kilograms (1.1 pounds) of payload, will be manufactured in the United States.

The new contract “further strengthens our collaboration with the U.S. Department of Defense,” Robert Peters, who heads Xtend Reality, said in a statement.

The latest deal will see the delivery next year of hundreds of drones that can operate indoors and outdoors, according to Rubi Liani, Xtend’s co-founder and chief technology officer.

“Our core technology is the [operating system]; we are creating an operating system to fill gaps of human and machine [teaming],” Liani added.

Using different machines connected by an operating system as the core of the technology enables users to fly unmanned aerial systems while also operating unmanned ground vehicles and unmanned underwater vehicles, he said. “The idea is for the operator to feel like the drones and robots are tools and part of the team. This is human-machine teaming, and every contract or drone we are developing is connected to the same system approach.”

The company did not specify which units will use the drone ordered in the latest contract, but Liani said commando-type users will probably adopt the system.

The concept “is to give every unit the tools to use, and they can create any configuration they want, starting from ‘mix and match,’ ” Liani added. “They can select the type of drones for the mission. For example, swarm of (1) outdoor drone and (2) indoor, or any configuration they like according to the mission profile.”

US military developing tech, concept to resupply Pacific troops

WASHINGTON — The U.S. government may require commercial planes and ships conducting military lift operations to carry technology that lets them navigate and communicate even when an adversary is trying to jam their systems, according to the head of U.S. Transportation Command.

This requirement for carry-on kit for sealift and airlift partners comes amid the command’s effort to mature its concept for sustaining the joint force in a fight in a contested environment.

Gen. Jacqueline Van Ovost told reporters Friday that last year’s collaboration between military and commercial aircraft to evacuate at-risk Afghans as the Taliban took control of their country foreshadowed what could happen in the Pacific region, which is a larger area and likely includes more dangerous airspace. During the withdrawal, military aircraft flew in and out of contested airspace in Kabul, but quickly offloaded passengers to commercial planes for a longer flight out of the region.

“As we work with our commercial carriers and the [Federal Aviation Administration], we think about where they could go and then where they would transload onto a military-specific platform for the last thousand tactical miles. Those are the kinds of concepts of operations we’re working with the carriers,” she said ahead of an Oct. 17 speech at the fall meeting of the National Defense Transportation Association.

Last year, for the third time since its 1951 creation, the Civil Reserve Air Fleet was activated. The organization is part of an agreement between civilian airlines and the government to augment military airlift assets when needed. A comparable Maritime Security Program exists on the maritime side to supplement government-owned sealift ships.

On the maritime side, Van Ovost said civilian mariners have a long history of sailing into dangerous waters to resupply military forces, and she expects that will continue if a conflict erupted with China or another adversary. However, she acknowledged TRANSCOM can equip these ships for safer and more effective operations.

Her command is studying how to place a Navy reservist onboard to serve as a tactical adviser, working alongside the ship’s master to maneuver in a contested environment as well as advising on emissions control, secure communications, and situational awareness in a denied or degraded space.

For both commercial ships and planes, Van Ovost said, TRANSCOM wants to develop carry-on kits to bring Link 16 connectivity, secure navigation and other capabilities.

“China has tailor-made their capabilities to try to disrupt our lines of communication, whether that be sea or air or land. They don’t want us to mobilize, to deploy; they don’t want us to get into theater, so they’ll be looking for ways to deny, degrade or delay our ability to even leave the United States, where 85% of the force elements reside,” she added.

TRANSCOM is working with U.S. Northern Command and U.S. Cyber Command to understand what threats these commercial companies could face at home that might prevent them from mobilizing, including cyberattacks at airports as well as denial of communications and navigation closer to American shores.

Once personnel, trucks, fuel and materiel make it to theater, it will be tougher to get them to the point of need, Van Ovost said. The armed services — the Navy and Marine Corps in particular — are looking at new operating concepts that call for smaller units to be more dispersed around the theater, creating a greater need for the intra-theater movement of supplies.

The command’s analysis directorate recently briefed her on the latest Future Deployment and Distribution Assessment, which will be signed soon, according to TRANSCOM spokesman Scott Ross. This eighth iteration of the research and analysis effort is set in the 2030-2035 time frame and considers both inter-theater lift to move gear to the Pacific and intra-theater lift to move gear to the specific point of need.

Ross said this latest study shows the need for airlift and sealift capabilities with a mix of volume, range and other attributes.

Van Ovost specifically said she’s eyeing the Navy’s upcoming Light Amphibious Warship and Next-Generation Logistics Ship programs. Even though they’re under development for the Navy and Marine Corps’ operational needs, she said they may play an important role in joint force intra-theater lift.

The general also said she and other leaders are discussing “a multimodal joint solution, such that when they’re done with the [light amphibious warship], how can we use that to move other things around in the Pacific? We can no longer be really service-centric in that last thousand tactical miles — that’s what our study uncovered. We’ve got to be more joint in our solutions.”

The ability to get goods to their final destination on time in a denied environment “is concerning,” she admitted, but exercises next year will try to address any remaining gaps in that capability and prove that innovative solutions — such as adding kit to a commercial tanker so it can offload fuel at sea without stopping at a port — can overcome any threats China pay pose.

To identify remaining gaps, “we are absolutely following the scheme of maneuver for the Marine Corps and for the Navy, especially on how they need to be replenished, their timelines to meet the joint warfighting concept, and then what drives the capabilities” that TRANSCOM will pursue in the coming years.

US Air Force tests exoskeleton to give cargo-loading porters a boost

WASHINGTON — The Air Force this month demonstrated an exoskeleton it hopes will allow aerial porters to load cargo onto aircraft with fewer injuries and less fatigue.

The Forge System exoskeleton is designed to augment the leg strength of aerial porters, who are in charge of managing and loading passengers and cargo on and off mobility aircraft, with pneumatically-powered leg braces and a backpack.

They might not be as elaborate as the exosuit Sigourney Weaver used in the classic movie “Aliens,” but the overall concept — using tech to give human muscles and bones a boost during strenuous labor — is not far off.

Aerial porters’ cargo-loading duties are physically demanding, and they often suffer injuries to their muscles and bones from overuse.

The cargo aerial porters push and pull onto planes can range from pallets of equipment, gear and food weighing thousands of pounds to drones to even more massive tanks or High Mobility Artillery Rocket System trucks. A 2019 Transportation Department study found disability benefits for aerial porters cost the government $31 million each year.

The Air Force said last year that 2019 study prompted it to start looking at exoskeleton technology that could cut down on porters’ injuries. A previous exoskeleton developed by Arizona State University, Air Mobility Command, and the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center dubbed the Aerial Port Exoskeleton, was tested at Travis Air Force Base in California last year.

The Army has also developed various models of exoskeletons to lessen soldiers’ injuries from lifting ammunition or moving other heavy loads. And U.S. Special Operations Command has experimented with an Iron Man-like armored tactical exoskeleton for special operators, though making that concept a reality has proven challenging.

The Forge System, the latest version of the exoskeleton, was developed by California-based Roam Robotics as part of a Direct to Phase II Small Business Innovation Research grant, with the help of the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Center for Rapid Innovation.

AFRL and a team from Roam on Oct. 6 demonstrated the Forge System at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, the service said in a release.

As part of this demonstration, two aerial porters from the 87th Aerial Port Squadron at Wright-Patterson moved a 3,500-pound pallet onto a C-17 Globemaster with the help of the exoskeleton. Typically, that kind of a load would require four or five porters, the Air Force said.

One of those porters, Chief Master Sgt. Sean Storms, said he felt much less pressure on his knees while moving the pallet as the exoskeleton’s actuators gave him a boost.

John Florio, the deputy director for AFRL’s Center for Rapid Innovation, said the exoskeleton could allow teams of porters to load heavier objects onto aircraft more quickly, saving time and money.

“But the biggest game changer for the Air and Space forces is less injuries to personnel, which can lead to longer careers,” Florio said. “Chronic injuries are rampant all over this particular field, and in other related fields too.”

Brig. Gen. John Andrus, commander of the 711th Human Performance Wing, said medical personnel conducting aeromedical evacuations who have to lift sick or injured troops on litters are another example of airmen who could benefit from such an exoskeleton.

Andrus and other observers at the demonstration tried on the exoskeleton and used it to push weighted sleds, climb stairs while carrying weights and take on other activities meant to simulate the work aerial porters do.

The French Navy is getting antsy about tech upgrades in its fleet

PARIS — Senior French navy leaders said the service needs quick technology buys that can instantly boost ship performance in the face of a rising possibility for combat at sea.

French Navy Chief of Staff Adm. Pierre Vandier argued on Monday the service must field upgrades on much shorter development cycles than has traditionally been the case. He was speaking at a colloquium here organized by the French naval industry group GICAN (Groupement des Industries de Construction et Activités Navales). The event served as a curtain raiser for the 38th biennial Euronaval trade conference, scheduled for Oct. 18-22 outside Paris.

Vandier and other officers warned that France and its allies must be better prepared for maritime warfare, as global supply ships, data transfers, and critical materials all pass through the domain. After three decades of relative maritime peace, incidents such as the sinking of Russian ships in its war on Ukraine, the rise of China’s navy and the recent sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines have thrown the need for strong navies into sharp relief, they argued.

The French Navy has begun preparing for a new era of high-intensity war, where battles may be fought underwater on the sea bed, in the air, in space or on the surface. Officials are looking to take advantage of breakthroughs in technologies such as artificial intelligence, unmanned aerial, surface, and underwater systems, and space-based capabilities. But sailors can no longer wait 15 years for new capabilities to be developed, said Rear Adm. Éric Malbrunot, deputy chief of naval operations for plans and programs.

Instead, upgrades should be performed in incremental development cycles, and standalone capabilities such as off-the-shelf unmanned systems can serve as capability boosters, he said.

The French Navy needs capabilities that will still work even if parts of a ship’s central combat system break down, according to Vandier. Manufacturers must pivot from developing “fail safe” systems to “safe to fail” systems, he urged. “Plug and fight”-type equipment will act as force multipliers in a high-intensity war scenario, Vandier predicted.

The technological advancements presently in development – from artificial intelligence to cyber capabilities to drones – offer “magnificent opportunities” to modernize the service and ensure its operational superiority, said Emmanuel Chiva, director of the French military procurement office Delegation Générale de l’Armement (DGA) during the colloquium. The challenge, he noted, comes down to cost.

“As a decision-maker, I cannot ignore the reality and the weight of this constraint,” he said.

Chiva, who took the helm of the DGA this summer, said a new “strategic vision” for the procurement office is in progress, which will be released in late 2022 or early 2023. The strategy will reveal the DGA’s “road map” for designing more holistic defense systems “on the scale of capabilities, rather than program by program.” The goal is to encourage the introduction of new solutions, faster, he added.

Another goal for the strategic vision is to transform the DGA from serving merely as a contracting authority to becoming a prime contractor itself, “with end-to-end control of our defense system,” Chiva said.

EU approves $486 million for Ukraine, plus training mission

BRUSSELS — The European Union on Monday approved a military training mission in Europe for thousands of Ukrainian troops and a plan to provide about €500 million (U.S. $486 million) in extra funds to help buy weapons for the war-torn country.

The mission, which will have a headquarters in Brussels and be under the command of French naval officer Vice Adm. Herve Blejean, will initially run for two years with a budget of almost €107 million.

EU headquarters said in a statement that the mission’s aim is to allow the Ukrainian armed forces to “effectively conduct military operations” so that Ukraine can “defend its territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders, effectively exercise its sovereignty and protect civilians.”

It said the EU will provide “individual, collective and specialized training.” Countries that aren’t part of the bloc will be allowed to take part in the training effort. The aim initially is to train about 15,000 Ukrainian troops, chiefly in Poland and Germany.

It’s hoped the mission will be up and running by mid-November.

Several EU and NATO nations are already training Ukraine’s armed forces on a bilateral basis. Asked what added value the Brussels-based mission would bring, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Monday he’s “strongly convinced that putting together the capacities of the European armies, we can offer a much better product.”

NATO started training military instructors in Ukraine after Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula in 2014. The military alliance believes that training the trainers is the most effective way of helping Ukraine’s forces, as it doesn’t require troops needed for battle to leave the country.

The EU also approved a sixth tranche of money, worth €500 million, from the European Peace Facility — a fund used to reimburse member countries that provide weapons, ammunition and nonlethal military support to Ukraine.

About €10 million from that sum will be used to provide equipment and supplies, like personal protection gear, first-aid kits and fuel.

It brings the total EU sum in security support made available for Ukraine to more than €3 billion. Individual countries are spending more on top of that. The decisions will come almost eight months after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine.