Army’s Newest Truck Hits the Road

AI Systems Vulnerable to Attack

NATIONALDEFENSEMAGAZINE.ORG ROBO-SHIPS The Navy’s Grand Ambitions for Unmanned Vessels PAGE 26

M A R C H 2 0 2 1

The Business and Technology Magazine of Technology on the cutting edge Get the edge. BAE Systems’ LinkEdge® provides pilots with tactile cueing thereby enhancing their situational awareness while reducing their workload. A perfect retrofit solution, LinkEdge enhances performance, even on non fly-by-wire aircraft, with minimal impact on systems, controls, and airframes.

baesystems.com/flightcontrols VOLUME CV, NUMBER 808 EXPERIENCE MARCH 2021 THE MAGAZINE IN AUGMENTED REALITY

NDIA’S BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY MAGAZINE www.NATIONALDEfENSEMAGAZINE.OrG DOWNLOAD THE FREE NDIA AR APP. If previously installed, please update to the latest version by checking the App Store or Google Play.

Cover Story 26 LOOK FOR n The Navy wants to AUGMENTED develop and deploy large REALITY numbers of unmanned CONTENT ON: surface and underwater vessels. But there are more PAGE24 questions than answers, and critics of the service’s plans PAGE27 abound. Cover: Leidos photo PAGE28

Army Vehicles 24 n The Army’s newest truck — the Infantry Squad Vehicle — is on an accelerated pace for field- ing. The GM Defense- produced platform will be put through its paces this year.

Artificial 10 Intelligence 38 n Strategists are beginning to grasp that AI can be attacked, manipulated or spoofed and must be protected — just 5 8 14 like many other weapons systems.

M A R C H 2 0 2 1 • NATIONAL DEFENSE 1 INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE 34 Coast Guard Ship Modernization March 2021 15 The Price of Success vs. Under Full Steam voluMe cv The Cost of Failure The service has the most ship acquisition nuMber 808 Failure to innovate leaves companies programs in the pipeline since World War II. vulnerable to obsolescence. By STEW MAGNUSON By STEVE CARLSON, JAMES S.B. CHEW EDITOR IN CHIEF AND FRANK SCHIRRMEISTER 36 Navy Optimizing Shipyards Stew Magnuson With Digital Twin Technology (703) 247-2545 VIEWPOINTS The service is in the midst of a [email protected] multi-billion dollar effort to modernize 17 Changing Acquisitions with CREATIVE DIRECTOR its ship repair yards. Advanced Manufacturing Brian Taylor By yASMIN TADJDEH The use of 3D printing remains a (703) 247-2546 conundrum for Army officials. [email protected] By FRANK GAGLIARDI ADVANCED TECHNOLOGIES AND MATTHEW SLOANE 38 Pentagon, Rivals to Play MANAGING EDITOR ‘Cat-and-Mouse’ Game with AI Jon Harper 18 Spinning SBIR Grants into Artificial intelligence’s potential in warfare is (703) 247-2542 ‘Gold’ Requires Midas Touch being tempered by the fact that enemies can [email protected] For startups, winning a small business grant attack it and cause it to go awry. is a cause of celebration, but it’s only the By JON HARPER SENIOR EDITOR beginning of a long road. Yasmin Tadjdeh By GENE MORAN DEPARTMENTS (703) 247-2585 [email protected] PROFILE 4 NDIA Perspective 20 Q&A with Dr. Mark Lewis, The Biggest Risk is Not Taking Risk STAFF WRITER Director of NDIA’s Emerging By JOSEPHINE LEWIS Mandy Mayfield AND RACHEL MCCAFFREy (703) 247-9469 Technologies Institute [email protected] The former chief scientist of the Air Force 5 Editor’s Notes takes the reins of the association’s new By STEW MAGNUSON EDITORIAL ASSISTANT think tank. Meredith Roaten By STEW MAGNUSON 6 Up Front (703) 247-2543 Random facts and figures from industry FEATURES and government [email protected] By STEW MAGNUSON

TACTICAL WHEELED VEHICLES 8 Budget Matters National Defense 22 SOCOM Shows Interest in Who’s funding what in Washington 2101 Wilson Blvd., Suite 700 By JON HARPER Arlington, VA 22201 Hybrid, AI-Enabled Vehicles The command is experimenting with inte- 10 News Briefs grating advanced technologies into its fleets. COMPILED By MANDy MAyFIELD NDIA MEMBERSHIP: By yASMIN TADJDEH The National Defense 13 Algorithmic Warfare Industrial Association (NDIA) is the pre- 24 Army Putting New Infantry What’s coming in artificial intelligence, mier association representing all facets of big data and cybersecurity the defense and technology industrial base Squad Vehicle Through Paces and serving all military services. For more The all-terrain troop carrier can carry nine By yASMIN TADJDEH information please call our membership soldiers and their equipment. department at 703-522-1820 or visit us 14 NDIA Policy Points on the web at NDIA.org/Membership By MANDy MAyFIELD NASA’s Mentoring Program Can Benefit Defense COVER STORY By SHALIZA TOLLIVER National Defense 26 Unmanning the Guns: Navy (ISSN 0092–1491) 41 Ethics Corner is published monthly Has High Hopes for Robotic Ships Justice Guidelines Can Buoy by the National Defense Industrial Most agree robo-ships are coming. The ques- Compliance Programs Association (NDIA), 2101 Wilson Blvd., tion is how many will be in the force and Suite 700, Arlington, VA 22201–3060. TEL By ANNE HARRIS what’s the right mix? (703) 522–1820; FAX (703) 522–1885. Advertising Sales: Kathleen Kenney, 2101 By JON HARPER 42 Government Contracting Insights Wilson Blvd., Suite 700, Arlington, VA Biden Issues New Buy American Directive 22201–3060. TEL (703) 247–2576; FAX SHIPBUILDING CONTRIBUTED By COVINGTON & (703) 522–4602. The views expressed are BURLING LLP those of the authors and do not necessarily 30 Navy Chooses Evolution Over reflect those of NDIA. Membership rates

in the association are $40 annually; $15.00 Revolution for Shipbuilding 43 NDIA News is allocated to National Defense for a one- Facing an emerging Chinese navy that is year association basic subscription and is christening new ships at an alarming rate, the 44 NDIA Calendar non-deductible from dues. Annual rates U.S. Navy is feeling the pressure to keep up. Complete guide to NDIA events for NDIA members: $40 U.S. and posses- By STEW MAGNUSON sions; District of Columbia add 6 percent sales tax; $45 foreign. A six-week notice is 48 Next Month required for change of address. Periodical 32 Navy Fleshing Out Requirements Preview of our next issue postage paid at Arlington, VA and at addi- tional mailing office. POSTMASTER: Send For Next-Gen Logistics Ship 48 Index of Advertisers address changes to National DEFENSE, A new fleet of at-sea resupply ships is in the 2101 Wilson Blvd, Suite 700, Arlington, beginning stages of development. VA 22201–3060. The title National Defense is registered with the Library of Congress. By MANDy MAyFIELD Copyright 2021, NDIA.

2 NATIONAL DEFENSE • M A R C H 2 0 2 1 WITH OVER 10K JLTVs PRODUCED, WE’VE DELIVERED MORE PROTECTED MOBILITY IN A LIGHT TACTICAL VEHICLE THAN ANYONE ELSE OUT THERE.

JLTV’s are designed to get you from mission, to mission accomplished. Anytime. Anywhere. When you combine the world’s most advanced defense systems and capabilities with a robust supply chain and great value—that’s the JLTV. Perspective BY JOSEPHINE LEWIS AND RACHEL MCCAFFREY

The Biggest Risk Is Not Taking Risk n “The perfect is the enemy of the good enough.” Fortunately, project leader for the WID Greater Boston Chapter’s “Taking a close friend imparted this wisdom when the Air Force select- More Risk” event, which encouraged women to embrace risk ed me for promotion to major. by pursuing leadership opportunities in their careers and life. Her assertion gave me the confidence to take risks, to inno- Anchored by a panel featuring speakers from industry and vate, to lead boldly without worrying about making mistakes government, 217 participants tackled common challenges from or needing to achieve a perfect outcome. It helped me stomp different perspectives. on impostor syndrome, the self-doubt and sense of fraudulence After the panel, attendees could access virtual networking that can overcome feelings of accomplishment, when accom- booths to engage with a cross-section of women working in plishment appears to fall short of ideal. defense in the Boston area, and engage one-on-one with panel- Her advice encouraged me to volunteer to lead big proj- ists and each other to share information and advice about tak- ects and gave me confidence to succeed. As we embark on ing risk in pursuit of career objectives. Women’s History month, I’m honored to highlight a Women Lewis received positive feedback after the event, with one In Defense volunteer leader who embraced this ethos in 2020, participant focused on the idea, “you miss 100 percent of the generating positive professional impacts for herself and other shots you don’t take.” This aligned with her takeaway: “the big- women. gest risk is not taking any risk.” Like many of us, Josephine Lewis spent 2020 prioritizing That sentiment resonates with Lewis because she did find it between her job and family in ways she never anticipated. She hard to carve out time for the event, given other demands on enjoys working for Raytheon Technologies and she loves her her schedule. However, she wanted to participate in an event five-year-old twins; however, she never expected to simulta- designed to encourage women to take more risks and she neously work from home recruiting talented individuals and recognized someone needed to take the initiative to make the leading kindergarten for smart, energetic kids. event a reality. Many women would feel they had enough on their She volunteered believing she would enjoy a sig- plate with work, family and a pandemic. But Lewis nificant return on her investment of time, talent and also serves as volunteer leader for WID, and in 2020 energy. she accepted a significant additional workload to Lewis led “Taking More Risk” because she felt the organize and execute a virtual event, “Taking More event would provide her with practical tools to help Risk.” her attain her professional goals. It can be very dif- She stepped up to this leadership challenge because ficult to manage personal priorities with professional she wanted to help other women achieve their pro- priorities, and some women hesitate to take on addi- fessional objectives by reframing their mindsets to Josephine Lewis tional tasks fearing they won’t execute the additional view risk not as a potential danger, but instead as an tasks perfectly. opportunity. An unrealistic standard of perfection can prevent women WID depends on volunteer leader passion and initiative from volunteering to lead a professional development event, a to achieve its twofold mission of helping women within the classic case of the perfect as the enemy of the good enough. national security enterprise achieve their personal objectives I’m sure Lewis faced challenges in organizing and executing and encouraging talented young women to choose the field as the event, but attendees didn’t notice. What they noticed, and a career. what they commented upon, was the value they derived from This means volunteer leaders enjoy wide latitude to work on panelist stories and advice. projects and events they choose based on interest, significance Lewis understands she does not know from where her and professional impact. next professional opportunity will emerge. But she knows it’s Lewis volunteers for two reasons: because she wants to par- out there. Volunteer leadership strengthens her network and ticipate in a community that makes a difference in people’s enhances her knowledge, skills and abilities, increasing her lives, and she seeks professional development opportunities in access to opportunities and preparing her to identify and seize human resources. She specifically volunteers for WID because them. she knows many women, like herself, struggle with taking the So, take the risk! Joining WID will build your network, fos- next steps in their careers; they don’t know how or where to ter your well-being, and provide you with learning experiences start. in leading and supporting projects to benefit your career. photoDefense and RaytheonMissiles She recognizes challenges exist along everyone’s career path, Additionally, leading these events allows you to influence including fear of failure, fear of embarrassment, or fear of others’ lives, in ways you cannot imagine. It won’t always be inadequacy. She finds WID volunteer leadership a critical tool perfect, but it will likely be good enough, for you and the to overcome these challenges, because connecting with other many other women your leadership will impact. ND women facing similar challenges helps create shared confi- dence. Josephine Lewis is talent acquisition at Raytheon Missiles and Defense Lewis’s background and motivation made her the perfect and Rachel McCaffrey is executive director of Women In Defense.

4 NATIONAL DEFENSE • MARCH 2021 Editor’s Notes BY STEW MAGNUSON

When Hondo Talks, People Should Listen

n The change in the administration in January meant a change the positive in me. The discontent is we’ve got to do more and in leadership at the Defense Department. we’ve got to do it faster and we’ve got to do it at larger scale.” Departing the Pentagon were three executives who we in On pivoting quickly… the press were going to miss sorely: Undersecretary of Defense “How fast can we adapt? How fast can we learn? And what for Acquisition and Sustainment Ellen Lord; Air Force chief I’ve come to realize over time is pivot speed really relies on weapons buyer, Will Roper; and his counterpart at the Navy, a strong foundation, right? You can’t pivot effectively if you James “Hondo” Geurts. don’t have a strong foundation on that fulcrum to pivot from.” All had a great, mutually beneficial working relationship On readiness verses modernization… with the press — which isn’t always the case with senior lead- “We’ve got to get away from a false situation where it’s ers. But most importantly, they almost always had something either we’re ready or we’re modern. … We have got to be interesting to say. The marching orders here at the magazine ready and we need to continue to modernize. We can’t either were: when these three talked, we wanted to pass on what just be ready or just modernize. The only way we’re going to they said to our readers. do that is us continuing to find those opportunities to drive Fortunately, Geurts did not resign from the senior executive costs out of the equation. And I’m not talking drive profit or service and just before we went to press was named as the per- margins out. I’m talking drive fundamental costs out. … son “performing the duties of” the undersecretary of the Navy. “There are things we do that drive fundamental costs that We have been listening to Geurts since his days as an acqui- don’t add value to a product. They just add costs. Lots of work sition executive at Special Operations Command. He was to go there.” there for a decade — forging a reputation as someone with On developing talent… innovative ideas who could deliver new technology quickly “…That’s developing talent across the board: talent in and affordably — before being hired by the Navy to be the industry, talent in our labs, talent on our waterfront, and really assistant secretary for research, devel- focusing on creating that environment opment and acquisition. James “Hondo” Geurts where folks want to belong. He admits that the hire three years “There is no better job in the world ago was a bit of a head-scratcher. He than supporting the military and our was a former Air Force acquisition offi- international security from my perspec- cer, then SOCOM, and now Navy? tive. And there’s lots of awesome ways to “I think there was a little bit of anxi- do that. And they don’t all have to be in ety on my part — how do I contribute uniform. ... to a team here?” he said in what would “I go back to this COVID example, be his final talk as assistant secretary the patriots in the shipyard — keeping during the Surface Navy Association’s the ships sailing in the middle of COVID annual conference. — there is no greater example that I can Hondo earned a reputation as an think of, at least in the modern era, where acquisition guru — someone who we have seen that. ... thinks deeply about how to get the “As long as we have the courage to really best technology in the hands of the leverage the diverse inputs and experienc- warfighters as soon as possible. es and backgrounds and get past: ‘Are you Here are a few of Hondo’s thoughts “Hondo earned a reputation a uniform person or an industry person? he shared before stepping down as Or a female or a male?’ We need to get assistant secretary: as an acquisition guru ...” past all of that and get into: ‘What do you On dealing with COVID-19… bring to the team?’” “We delivered $140 billion of contracts. That’s about 21 per- On innovation… cent more than we did last year, almost twice what we did two “If we can close down the distance between the fleet opera- years ago, we did it with 10 percent less contract action. So we tor and the acquisition person and the technology person, did it more efficiently. … that inherently allows us to find opportunities and go after “It takes us all working together, identifying opportunities, them faster. … We should never do a fleet exercise where we leveraging those opportunities by doing so with an output in aren’t experimenting with anything, and we should never have RodgersRichardNavyby photo mind, not an input in mind. … We proved ourselves as a good an experimental exercise and not have fleet operators trying partner in government. We put a lot of things in play that things.” helped our industry partners [and gave] them stability.” As for the trio of Lord, Roper and Geurts, the marching On his constant discontent… orders will remain the same — whether they are inside the “We need to continue to work at scale and at speed. We are Pentagon or out — we will be listening to what they have to making improvements. We are seeing better outcomes. That’s say. ND

MARCH 2021 • NATIONAL DEFENSE 5 FURTHER READING COMPILED BY STEW MAGNUSON UP FRONT Department of Defense Additive Manufacturing Strategy By the Department of Defense It’s Like Amazon Delivery, But With Bullets Flying n Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David Berger wishes his service’s logistics was a n Co-produced by the Joint Defense lot more like Amazon and other private sector delivery services. Manufacturing Council, the office of “They build in resilience, resiliency and redundancy. Assuming that any one of those the deputy director for strategic tech- connecting fibers is gone because of weather, because of whatever … they immedi- nology protection and exploitation, ately shift to plan B,” he said at a recent NDIA conference. and the office of the undersecretary of The Marines are stuck with a hub-and-spoke model, where something is delivered defense for research and engineering, to a central point, then it waits for someone to take it where it needs to go. If there’s a this overlooked document released problem, the item just sits there. the day after the inauguration didn’t Of course, the Corps has to deal with a lot more than the weather, especially when receive a lot of attention, but should enemies are attacking supply lines, he noted. have. “We need that idea, but it needs to be able to survive in a contested environment The list spelling out the potential where an adversary is trying to cut every fiber in that [network] to make sure we benefits for the military of adapt- can’t resupply ourselves,” he said. ing what is also called 3D printing is impressive. Air Force Looking at Commercial Tanking Services For example, innovative designs n The Air Force wants to analyze the feasibility and affordability of leveraging brought on by new manufacturing contractor-owned platforms for aerial refueling services during training exercises. methods can lead to greater operation- “The idea of contract air refueling was to enhance the readiness of the force by al performance of weapon systems. offloading the standard administrative refueling that we do here in the [continental It will help transform the engineer- United States] to prepare our combat air forces … for the joint fight,” Air Mobility ing process from design-build-test to Command Commander Gen. Jacqueline Van Ovost recently told reporters. model-analyze-build. The air staff asked AMC to do a full business case analysis “as we The capability enables rapid proto- look at government-owned, lease back to a contractor, or contrac- type production, reducing develop- tor-owned [tankers], and working with the FAA on the certifica- ment timelines. It can expand the tion and oversight requirement for all of these options,” she said. industrial base by employing alterna- The business case analysis “is going to take some time,” she added. tive manufacturers and lead to the Van Ovost “We are back in the throes of framing the study and awarding that fabrication of parts at the time and study so that we can move forward on this larger analysis.” point of need. It can help solve the problem of Solving Technical Problems Can Be an ‘Art’ parts that become obsolete. And it can n James “Hondo” Geurts, currently performing the duties of the undersecretary reduce the complexity of replacing of the Navy, is known for his out-of-the-box thinking. He once brought in a pair of components when a piece of ma- comic book artists to help a team solve a difficult challenge. chinery that previously had a dozen The artists listened in on the discussion of the problem, then translated it into sperate components welded together graphic novel format to make it easier for everyone to grasp. is reduced to one item, thus reducing “If I can give you the problem — or at least what I think the problem is — you can supply chain complexity, weight and give me solutions that I didn’t know I needed, or you may give me a different way to manufacturing costs. think about a problem,” he said at a recent conference. However, the Defense Department The graphic artists put the story up on the wall and suddenly the group of very and its industrial base aren’t there yet. technically and operationally experienced personnel grasped what was needed. The document details five strategies “There’s this value of bringing diverse teams together to solve common problems,” that will help clear a path for additive Geurts said. manufacturing. For more on Geurts, see page 5. For one, the Pentagon through policy, guidelines and implementation AFRL Fights Against Human Nature plans will encourage 3D printing use n Brig. Gen. Heather Pringle, Air Force Research Laboratory inside the department and industry. commander, said failure is an option when it comes to research and It will also educate and train the development, but facing criticism is never easy. technical and business workforce to “That’s a real human tendency, right? To retreat to the safety integrate and use the capability. when you are a little bit under threat and to reduce the risk that Pringle “Additive manufacturing is a power-

you would face,” she said at a Mitchell Institute talk. ful tool to enable innovation and mod- photos Dept. Defense “We learn more from our failures and knowing what went wrong than we do from ernization of defense systems, support what went right,” she added. readiness and enhance warfighter “We still move the needle and we move the ball down the court.” readiness,” the strategy said. — Reporting by Jon Harper and Stew Magnuson — Stew Magnuson

6 NATIONAL DEFENSE • M A R C H 2 0 2 1 COMING SOON By the Numbers Robot Density in n The magazine will be the Manufacturing virtually covering parts of NDIA’s Pacific Opera- Industry 2019 tional Science & Technol- ogy conference March 8-11. We’re also looking forward to the associa- tion’s first National Se- curity AI Conference and Exhibition, which was going to be held in De- cember, but got pushed back to March 23-25. We’re begin- ning to receive notifications from other conference organizers that they are proceeding with in-person meetings in the late spring, early summer time Hello, Goodbye deputy director/chief of staff of the Futures frame — no matter what! n NDIA welcomes Dr. Mark Lewis as the and Concepts Center at Army Futures We won’t list them as we director of the Emerging Technologies In- Command, will take over as command- have heard that before, stitute, the association’s recently established ing general of Combat Capabilities De- and don’t want to jinx think tank. For more about Lewis and the velopment Command, Aberdeen Proving them. We’re cautiously institute, see page 20. Ground, Maryland. Brig. Gen. Guy M. optimistic. ND Ellen Lord, former undersecretary of Jones, who served as a deputy defense for acquisition and sus- commanding general tainment, and former NDIA vice with the Eighth Army chairman, has landed at the Cher- in South Korea, takes toff Group as a senior advisor. over Brown’s spot at The Center for a New Ameri- the Futures and Con- can Security launched a new cepts Center. Indo-Pacific Security Program Brig. Gen. Jeth with Lisa Curtis, former National B. Rey, director, J-6, Security Council senior director Lord Central Command, was for South and Central Asia, as its named director of the new director. Also joining the program as Network Cross-Functional Team A University Affiliated Research Center adjunct senior fellows are Rich Verma, for- at Aberdeen. for the DoD mer U.S. Ambassador to India; David Feith, Unmanned aircraft system former deputy assistant secretary of state manufacturer AeroVironment for East Asian and Pacific Affairs; and John agreed to acquire Arcturus UAV Park, director of the Korea Project at the in a cash-and-stock transaction Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center. valued at approximately $405 ENTERPRISES AND SYSTEMS OF SYSTEMS Raytheon Technologies named Michael million as part of efforts to Dumais as its chief of transformation. He expand into adjacent segments was previously executive vice president of and broaden its portfolio and SYSTEMS ENGINEERING AND SYSTEMS operations and strategy at United Tech- customer footprint. MANAGEMENT TRANSFORMATION nologies Corp. prior to the two companies’ The Petaluma, California- merger last year. based Arcturus UAV employs IBM appointed Steve LaFleche as general 270 workers, builds Group 2 and manager for the U.S. public and federal 3 drones and offers contractor- TRUSTED SYSTEMS Defense Dept. photo Dept. Defense market. He previously had a similar role for owned, contractor-operated IBM in the state of New York. services to Special Operations Brig. Gen. Edmond M. Brown, formerly and the Army. ND HUMAN CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT www.sercuarc.org M A R C H 2 0 2 1 • NATIONAL DEFENSE 7 BUDGET MATTERS BY JON HARPER

rently relying on Biden to such waivers and whether such Restrict ‘Buy waivers may be grandfathered American’ or extended.” Additionally, Waivers the order directs the General Services Ad- n President Joe Biden ministration to create recently issued a new a website where all “Executive Order on proposed waivers will be Ensuring the Future Is publicly posted. Made in All of America by Venable attorneys said All of America’s Workers.” key unanswered questions The directive will put waiv- include: Will a domestic ers to “Buy American” laws manufacturer be able to contest in government contracting under additional the grant of a waiver? What happens scrutiny, although it’s unclear how impactful it if a waiver is granted and an American will be when fully implemented, experts say. company is able to provide those items, ser- “With this order, President Biden is ensuring that when the vices, or materials? federal government spends taxpayer dollars they are spent on “Interested companies and practitioners are advised to track American-made goods by American workers and with Ameri- how this added transparency and information may be utilized, can-made component parts,” said a White House fact sheet. particularly with regard to bid protests,” they wrote. The directive increases oversight of potential waivers to Notably, only 3.1 percent of contract dollars awarded by domestic preference laws including through the creation of a the Defense Department in fiscal year 2019 were for items centralized review agency. The move is aimed at “fulfilling the purchased from “foreign entities,” with a total value of about president’s commitment to crack down on unnecessary waiv- $12 billion. ers,” the fact sheet said. Services, petroleum, construction and subsistence items Biden tasked the director of the Office of Management and accounted for about 68 percent of those purchases; defense Budget to create a new Made in America Office. Any procuring equipment 17 percent; and “a variety of categories” 15 percent, agency that seeks to grant a waiver to a Buy American law must according to the Pentagon’s “Report to Congress on Department provide a detailed justification to the office’s director, who will of Defense Fiscal Year 2019 Purchases from Foreign Entities.” then make a written determination as to whether the waiver Of the $381 billion in total Pentagon contracts obligations in will be granted. 2019, the total dollar value for items in which the Buy Ameri- “By centralizing the waiver process at OMB, requiring that can Act was not applied due to inapplicability, waivers and the granting agency investigate the why and how of the cost authorized exceptions, was $6.7 billion, the report said. advantage, and separating the request from the self-interest of “All of this focus on strengthening Buy American from both the contracting activity, likely the result will be a reduction in political parties would lead one to believe that an enormous the number of waivers issued,” attorneys at Venable LLP wrote amount of government funds must be going towards purchases in a recent report, “Biden Strengthens Buy American Provisions from foreign countries. The reality is far different,” said a recent — Executive Order Details Preferences for U.S. Workers and report from The New Center think tank, “Why Buy American Companies.” Usually Doesn’t Buy Us Much.” “Going forward, the ease or difficulty of obtaining waivers Biden said waivers can still be issued in situations where will be subject to the policy directives of the incumbent ad- there is an “overwhelming national security, humanitarian, or ministration and far more visible than individualized decisions emergency need.” made at the contracting level,” they said. Jeff Belkin, partner in Alston & Bird’s government contracts Agency heads are instructed to consider suspending, revising, group, said the executive order “may not be as dramatic as or rescinding agency actions that are inconsistent with Biden’s some have suggested.” Buy American policy, the Venable report noted. “Between exemptions for certain products and the broad

“The EO arguably permits agencies to cancel or modify definition of what constitutes ‘manufacturing’ in the U.S., the illustration iStock existing waivers to conform with domestic preference require- net effect on American manufacturing may not be perceptible ments,” it said. “It is unclear whether agencies will do so, and, if for some time, even after rule changes are finalized,” he said. they do, what notice will be provided to those companies cur- (For more on Biden’s executive order see article on page 42) ND

8 NATIONAL DEFENSE • M A R C H 2 0 2 1 Analysts Call for Adjusting Missile Defense Funding

n The Biden administration should rethink the nation’s investments in missile defense, according to analysts. The Congressional Budget Office in a new report, “Costs of Implementing Recommendations of the 2019 Missile Defense Review,” estimates that the 10-year price tag of the Pentagon’s missile defense plans for the 2020s Small Number of States would be about $176 billion, based on the Trump admin- istration’s 2020 budget request. Dominate Defense Spending Of the $176 billion total, “about 35 percent of the total is for systems that are primarily for homeland ballistic n A huge portion of U.S. defense spending is going to contrac- missile defense, … about 40 percent is for systems that tors and military personnel based in just a handful of states, are primarily for regional ballistic missile defense, and the according to data recently released by the Pentagon. remaining 25 percent is for cruise missile defense,” accord- Defense Department contract obligations and payroll ing to the study. spending in the 50 states and the District of Columbia totaled However, the new administration is expected to con- $550.9 billion in fiscal year 2019. Of those outlays, 73 percent duct a new missile defense review which could result in a was spent on contracts for products and services, while the significant shift in priorities. remaining 27 percent paid the salaries of department personnel, “I think that the Biden administration really wants to be according to the Office of Local Defense Community Coopera- thoughtful and not chase every threat” with expensive de- tion’s latest report on defense spending by state. fensive systems, said Laura Grego, senior scientist with the “California, Virginia and Texas topped the list of recipients for Union of Concerned Scientists’ Global Security Program. overall defense spending,” said a press release accompanying the “It wants to do really hard-nose cost-benefit analyses.” study. They received $181.3 billion, about one-third of the total The United States needs to avoid getting into a “tail allotted to all 50 states plus D.C. chase” trying to keep up with growth in adversaries’ The top five, which also included Florida and Maryland, re- intercontinental missile arsenals, she said during a recent ceived about 43 percent of the total, while the top 10 received panel. To that end, she suggested “slimming down” the approximately 59 percent, according to the data. mandate for the Ground-based Midcourse Defense, or The top 10 states were: California, $66.2 billion; Virginia, GMD, system with the goal $60.3 billion; Texas, $54.8 billion; Florida, $29.8 billion; Mary- of protecting the homeland land, $26.1 billion; Connecticut, $19.7 billion; Pennsylvania, against limited strikes. Greater $18.1 billion; Washington, $17.8 billion; Alabama, $16 billion; focus should be on investing and Massachusetts, $15.8 billion. That adds up to a whopping in systems that are dedicated $324.7 billion. to regional missile defense, she The 10 states whose economies are most dependent on mili- added. tary outlays — measured by defense spending as a percentage Other ideas that have been of their GDP — were: Virginia, 10.6; Hawaii, 7.7; Alabama, 6.9; bandied about, such as build- Connecticut, 6.8; Alaska, 6.4; Maryland, 6; Maine, 5.8; Ken- ing systems that could have a tucky, 5.7; New Mexico, 5.7; and Mississippi, 5.3. global reach like space-based “Some states received substantial funds for both contract and A Standard Missile-3 interceptors, would be “wildly personnel spending, while other states received relatively high Block IIA test launch expensive” and should be amounts in only one,” the report noted. discarded, Grego said. The top 10 states for defense contract spending were: Cali- Tom Karako, director of the Missile Defense Project at fornia, $50.2 billion; Texas, $43.4 billion; Virginia, $41.6 billion; the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Florida, $22.3 billion; Connecticut, $19 billion; Maryland, $18.4 topline funding levels for missile defense should be main- billion; Pennsylvania, $15.3 billion; Massachusetts, $14.7 billion; tained, but some of that money should be shifted toward Missouri, $13.4 billion; and Arizona, $12.9 billion. That adds programs focused on defeating non-ballistic missile threats up to $251.3 billion, more than 60 percent of the total value of such as cruise missiles, drones and hypersonics. defense contract obligations across the nation.

Army photo by Ryan Keith, iStock illustration iStock Keith, Ryan by photo Army “We could be doing something significantly different Patrick O’Brien, director of the Office of Local Defense Com- than what we’re doing now while staying within basically munity Cooperation, said: “State and local officials need to use the same budget profile,” he said. “We’re going to need to this information to better understand the essential continuum stay within that budget profile” due to budget constraints. of investments across people, equipment, weapons systems, real “This is an opportunity to really double down on estate and services required to maintain our national defense. regional and theater air-and-missile defense … for all the Across these areas, they should determine if there are opportu- other aspects of forward [deployed] forces in particular, nities to further develop workforce skills, enhance and improve so that we can support our broad deterrence and defense innovativeness and buying power, and partner to strengthen the goals,” he added. ND resilience of our installations and industrial base.” ND

M A R C H 2 0 2 1 • NATIONAL DEFENSE 9 Lockheed Martin illustration

A but

the rendering Artist’s system of HELIOS don’t run out You Sensors will have HELIOS said integrating carriers. particularly aircraft … I’ll call it a transformational surprised her. executive of- program the Navy’s that into the and how do we integrate off. that is still a ways MAGNUSON - STEW

facility, directed energy weapons feature an almost long as the ship has got power, “As don’t run out of bullets. You “I think certainly we can build a bigger laser, annual Association’s she said at the Surface Navy Seiko Okano, she said. just keep going. You New Jersey, added. Ottaviano said. Lockheed executives the to think about?” do we have and what other [tradeoffs] Okano said: at As for the laser taking down hypersonic missiles traveling is looking at possibly integrating said the Navy Ottaviano optical tracker is the high-powered A bonus for the Navy sensor on the [electro-optical] “It will be the most accurate As for firepower, Adm. Rear said: Ottaviano Mor- carried out in 2020 on land at Lockheed Martin’s Tests giv- realized over time that the capability that we’re “We’ve it is how does that work, ship, larger footprint could result in higher powers capable of taking out larger targets. speeds above Mach 5, to improve, HELIOS into other platforms, as an intelligence, that comes with the system and can double reconnaissance the laser isn’t being and surveillance sensor when fired, ship,” system can fire. of lasers. conference. Aegis, the system into to integrate needed much of the software he added. capability.” unlimited magazine. systems, warfare ficer for integrated “a big deal.” pretty Aegis is into ristown, ing to the fleet is actually more capable than what we initially had thought,”

from low flying “People which pro- said: but at high power contributed The Navy BRIEFS delivering an integrated

said. Ottaviano said he has heard the adage really exciting for us So it’s missiles, and blind sensors, primed to be deliv- the system was this year is slated to be permanently said. Ottaviano

It spent 2020 carrying out a critical design

through unmanned aerial vehicles, direc- Lockheed Martin business development business development director Lockheed’s

or HELIOS,

said in a press briefing. Ottaviano NEWS MAYFIELD MANDY BY COMPILED

but asserted that this time is different. and in some cases, “dazzle” which can

2021 DEFENSE • MARCH NATIONAL

a high-energy laser weapon this year will be firing The Navy Ottaviano, Joe Optical-dazzler and The High Energy Laser with Integrated solid-state laser capable of scalable HELIOS is a 60-kilowatt delivering a full-end system that actually brings “We’re Wrigley, Jason to deliver the integrat- Lockheed Martin went under contract After decades of company research and development sur-

System Aegis Combat Laser Into Integrate to Fully Navy technology. “one year away” to be seem that battlefield lasers always n product solutions, tor for advanced of its destroyers, with one that is fully integrated fielding directed energy ponents say is a major step toward fielding, Surveillance, Burke destroyer Arleigh deployed aboard a Flight IIA DDG and exceeds the capability I think we all had in our mind going forward,” effects, combat system. Aegis with its and integrated defense capabilities to an area where there currently isn’t any “put a hole” it can aircraft, been talking about the promise and the possibility of have laser weapon systems for decades. reached this milestone, to finally have combat and missile defense systems, for naval laser weapons system into the hands of sailors and as part of the Aegis weapon system.” ed system in 2018. review and factory qualification tests. rounding solid-state lasers, ered in such a short time, 10 U.S. Military Experiments With Remote Digital Army Approaches Air Traffic Control JLTV Trailer Milestone

n A military airbase in Florida is testing a remote digital n Approximately two years after the Army’s first unit tower that allows air traffic control to take place hundreds, equipped milestone for the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle, and or even thousands of miles, away from runways. after service exploration of available alternatives, the broader A systems operational verification test took place at program is preparing to begin fielding of the program’s trailer. Homestead Air Reserve Base over the course of one week The JLTV-Trailer will be capable of carrying a 5,100 pound in late 2020. Testing was done using real-world scenarios payload with similar mobility characteristics as that tow and the airbase’s daily operations. An early operational vehicle, according to Michael Sprang, program manager of the assessment began in late 2020 and will be completed mid- JLTV Joint Program Office. 2021, said Jay Balakirsky, Frequentis USA vice president of Operational testing demonstrated that the current Light business development and sales. Tactical Trailer designed for the Humvee was not compatible In this phase, operators will actively control aircraft us- with the JLTV when operating at mission profile speeds, Sprang ing the system. The airfield’s tower will serve as a backup, said in an interview. “The JLTV truck off-road mobility capabil- he explained. ity is significantly higher than the Humvee it is replacing. As a “Remote Digital Tower has the ability to support con- result of this, the capabilities of the JLTV are limited to the safe tingency operations, improve the situational awareness of towing speeds of the LTT to limit equipment damage.” air traffic controllers, and facilitate the control of several This is “the only trailer solution available that allows the airfields from a central location,” he said in an email. JLTV to maintain this critical capability while towing a trailer,” Vienna, Austria-based Frequentis AG has been selling he added. the technology to public sector aviation agencies in regions The trailer design features a bolted steel frame rail and cross- such as Scandinavia, where some airfields are infrequently member design with an independent trailing arm and air spring used, and operating them remotely makes economic sense. suspension. This allows for a mobility profile to match that of For militaries, the system can be set up rapidly and can the JLTV, and reduced height for transport-loading procedures. keep air traffic controllers out of harm’s way, Balakirsky Additionally, tires and rims are common with the JLTV. Other said. features include an onboard stowage box for the removable “This brings great benefit to the warfighter in today’s sidewalls and tailgate as well as attachment of the cargo deck complex environments,” he added. to the chassis through ISO locks, providing a quick removal The system includes augmentation features such as capability. data tags, bounding boxes and visual overlays. It is also the Significantly, the lock interface allows the trailer chassis to first time that a remote digital tower has been integrated be a baseline for any future requirements that will need to be with the Standard Terminal Automation Replacement pulled behind the vehicle. System allowing controllers to see pertinent radar display Sprang acknowledged that the trailer has been a part of data overlaid on the panoramic out-the-window view, the previous acquisition and development phases of the family of company said in a statement. vehicles, which included several variants of the truck, kits and companion trailer. In fact, the production contract source selec- tion following the engineering manufacturing and development phase, which was awarded to Oshkosh Defense, included scope for the JLTV-T production. However, at the Milestone C Defense Acquisition Board, the Army position was to leverage the investment in LTT with Naval Information Warfare Center Atlantic — with the JLTV and not resource the procurement of the companion support of the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps — is trailer. As a result, initial production quantities were limited to sponsoring the test under an other transaction authority test assets. agreement. The company has a history with the Navy as However, in June 2019, an Army Requirements Oversight photoDefense Oshkoshphoto,Frequentis Dept. Defense & it has supported air traffic control for aircraft carriers and Council decision was made to consider and field the JLTV and landing helicopter dock ships over the last seven years. trailer as a system — rather than a mixed fleet — setting the Once the latest assessment is complete, the agreement stage for establishing a JLTV-T distribution plan and funding calls for Frequentis to move to another Air Force base profile for additional procurement. The council also approved where a mobile solution will be demonstrated and tested, fielding the JLTV with the use of the LTT — and a reduced Balakirsky said. mission profile — until the JLTV-T program was established. Frequentis has remote tower installations and trials JLTV-T full unit equipped is currently planned for 2nd ongoing with several military customers in South America, Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Fort the Middle East and Europe. Carson, Colorado, in the third quarter of fiscal year 2021. Sub- “Interest in our RDT technology/implementations sequent fieldings will continue afterwards to match that of the remains high,” Balakirsky said. - STEW MAGNUSON JLTV. - SCOTT GOURLEY

MARCH 2021 • NATIONAL DEFENSE 11 News Briefs Marine Corps Awards OTA For Long-Range Sea Drone

n The Marine Corps has selected shipbuilding company Metal Shark to develop a long-range unmanned surface ves- sel. The service awarded the Louisiana-based company an other transaction authority agreement in January to design, build and test the vessels. Metal Shark will also work with the Marine Corps to integrate autonomy and an advanced U.S., U.K. Navies Establish command-and-control software suite into the systems. Immediate next steps for the company include “develop- London Tech Bridge ment of a low-rate production fleet, a series of early crafts that will be incorporated into the Marine Corps [fleet] and n The United Kingdom’s Royal Navy is teaming with the used to develop, test and demonstrate the technology, which U.S. Navy in a new international Tech Bridge partnership in is intended in the early winter of 2023,” Metal Shark CEO London in hopes of accelerating the adoption of innovative Chris Allard said in an interview. ideas and technologies. The system will be tiered and scalable, providing the The newly established London Tech Bridge will serve as service with the ability to track and destroy targets at range, a command post for innovation for the two navies as they Allard noted. work toward interchangeability in everything from technol- “We are designing the platform for long-term scalability ogy development to deployment and operations. [and] integration of different payloads, whether that be Military, industry and academia can meet, share ideas and submarine detection, hydrographic survey, surveillance [or] collaborate to produce capabilities that will be beneficial to mine hunting,” he said. “We are going to be incorporating both the military and civilian sectors. future opportunities for growth into the craft.” “The Tech Bridge facilitates navigation of the innovation The long-range unmanned surface vessel will be fully au- pipeline for stakeholders,” said U.S. Navy Cmdr. Albert Ar- tonomous with the option of being manned. The system can nold IV, director of the London Tech Bridge. “The offices aim carry multiple payloads, which it can retrieve or launch. to accelerate delivery of capability to the sailor and Marine Metal Shark is working with autonomous technology by developing strategic partnerships that allow rapid flow developer Spatial Integrated Systems — which was recently through the pipeline.” acquired by Huntington Ingalls Industries — to provide the The official partership was announced in December. autonomy capabilities for the platform, according to the The U.S. Naval Agility Office, or NavalX, has successfully company. leveraged a number of Tech Bridges across the United States In addition to the autonomous unmanned system, Metal over the past year. The London office is its first overseas Shark will also produce manned support vessels for the location among its 13 outposts. LRUSV system utilizing its “40 Defiant” military patrol craft, The Tech Bridge expansion is the next logical step for NavalX, Arnold said in an email. Concept of LRUSV system being “The U.S. Navy and Royal Navy have long recognized developed by Metal Shark the very special and critical relationship that we have, and its importance to global security,” he said. “As threat vectors continue to evolve, our two navies have realized that just being interoperable isn’t enough to effectively and efficiently stay ahead of those threats.” In October, the two navies also signed the Statement of Intent for Future Integrated Warfighting, which outlines a shift in the way the two forces work together, going from interoperable, to interchangeable, Arnold said. “To achieve the interchangeability, we need to work at it which the company is currently producing as part of a Navy from all angles, including development of capabilities and patrol boat effort. technology,” he said. “The Tech Bridge is one tool and one of As a number of new unmanned systems programs are be- the first tangible actions following the [statement of intent] ing launched throughout the Defense Department and other that solidifies both countries’ commitment to this new idea.” government agencies, Metal Shark is eyeing new opportuni- Initial focus areas for the effort include unmanned sys- ties in the autonomous system market.

tems, autonomy, AI, biotechnology, directed energy, lasers “There are a couple of other unmanned systems pro- concept Shark Metal and space capabilities, Arnold said. grams coming out of both the Navy and [the Department The London Tech Bridge will be facilitating a joint U.K.- of Homeland Security] that we’re excited to be a part of,” U.S. test and evaluation symposium in late 2021 to assess Allard said. (For more on Navy unmanned systems see story on new capabilities. - MANDY MAYFIELD page 26) - MANDY MAYFIELD

12 NATIONAL DEFENSE • M A R C H 2 0 2 1 Algorithmic Warfare BY YASMIN TADJDEH

Spending on Quantum Tech on the Upswing

n Investments in quantum technology — which use the National Laboratory and the University of Chicago announced manipulation of neutrons, photons, electrons and protons to they had completed successful tests on what they called a perform tasks — are increasing worldwide and will reach $10 “quantum loop,” which could serve as a precursor for a future billion by 2024, according to an expert. national quantum internet. “The security implications of quantum technologies, as well as Quantum will also help drive the development of AI plat- the expected advantage in computing and sensing have caught forms, experts say. the interest of the world’s governments,” said Gabe Lenetsky, In a draft final report, the National Security Commission business development engineer at Keysight Technologies. on Artificial Intelligence — which was tasked by Congress to China has poured billions of dollars into its quantum pro- research ways to advance the development of AI for national grams, he said during a January webinar hosted by BrightTALK. security and defense purposes — said quantum technology is Other countries accelerating their investments include Ger- poised to enable new growth in artificial intelligence. many, the Netherlands, Canada, and several Asia-Pacific nations “As semiconductor manufacturers reach the physical limits of including Japan. microchip design, leadership in the next-generation computing Just last year, India began a $1 billion investment into quan- hardware will be essential to leadership in AI,” said Commis- tum technologies, he added. sioner Gilman Louie during a public meeting of the group in Meanwhile, the United States previously lagged in spending January. The government should “prioritize quantum computing until 2018 when Congress passed the National Quantum Ini- use cases to create a market for such services and to incentivize tiative Act “to garner leadership in the areas of quantum tech- the domestic fabrication of quantum computing components.” nologies and computing,” Lenetsky said. While traditional computers will likely remain the most There are three main areas of quantum research including economical way of performing computational tasks, quantum computing, sensing and communications, he noted. computers “have the potential to outperform their classical Quantum computers — which utilize basic units known as counterparts on certain classes of problems related to machine qubits rather than 1s and 0s like traditional computers — will learning and optimization, the simulation of physical systems, play an important role in data encryption including the optimi- and the collection and transfer of sensitive information,” com- zation of computational algorithms for modeling systems, missioners said in the draft report. A final report was slated to big data and artificial intelligence, he said. be released in March. Quantum sensors offer extreme sensitivity for appli- Quantum computers could more efficiently optimize cations of precision timing and navigation through military logistics operations or help discover new materi- methods like electromagnetic sensing, he said. als for weapon platforms, the study noted. Quantum communications will enable secure data Commissioners recommended the government tran- pipelines, he noted. sition quantum computing basic research to national These technologies will have a big impact on the aerospace security applications as well as incentivize domestic quantum and defense sectors, Lenetsky predicted. For example, a sensing fabrication. application called quantum illumination can play a large role in “The United States is a global leader in research of quantum the development of new radar systems “to get to higher range computers, but it risks losing its edge in real-world applica- and sensitivity of stealth objects,” he said. tions,” the report said. “It must continue investing in develop- Quantum technology could also enable a secure communica- ment of national security use cases, recognizing that advances in tion system known as “quantum key distribution,” or QKD. quantum may drive future advances in AI.” “QKD is promising for satellite applications or satellite-to- Additionally, commissioners recommended the government ground communications,” he said. However, distance is the No. offer access to quantum computers through the National AI 1 challenge for space applications, he noted. Research Resource. “The main reason is that the longer the distance, the more “Publicly announcing specific government use cases of quan- chance the qubits will be absorbed or scattered,” Lenetsky tum computers will signal that a market exists for national explained. “This has implications on whether the repeaters and security applications and encourage further investment by nodes along the way are trusted or untrusted. As such, we typi- the private sector,” the group members said. “Incentivizing the cally see the need to have a repeater every 100 kilometers or so domestic design and manufacturing of quantum computers via to maintain reasonable bit rates. This may be over optical fibers tax credits for relevant expenditures, loan guarantees and equity or over satellite mediums.” financing would help to avoid the situation in which the U.S. Quantum key distribution could enable a quantum internet, government currently finds itself regarding access to trusted and Lenetsky noted. This would be a “virtually unhackable” system secure microelectronics.” illustrationiStock that would make it substantially harder for a person to eaves- Microelectronics are a foundational element of key tech- drop on the transmission of encrypted data, he said. nologies such as AI, but the United States is reliant on foreign The U.S. government is making investments in a quan- sources of production which leaves its supply chain vulnerable tum internet. Last year the Department of Energy’s Argonne to disruption, the report noted. ND

MARCH 2021 • NATIONAL DEFENSE 13 Policy Points BY SHALIZA TOLLIVER

NASA’s Mentoring Program Can Benefit Defense n Since 1958, NASA has been at the forefront of exploration. pliers and investing in new technology to acquire domestic Its achievements in science and engineering helped America sources is a national priority. However, a possible model for win the Cold War and provide the foundation of today’s con- the solution has already presented itself — mentor-protégé nected society. Today, its mentor-protégé program is showing programs — which in addition to NASA, is also a tool for the similar innovation. Defense Department. The program’s intent is to “incentivize NASA prime contrac- For some, NASA seemingly has nothing to do with national tors to assist small, disadvantaged business concerns, histori- security. However, one cannot fully understand the story of the cally Black colleges and universities, minority institutions, and development of the Space Shuttle until “the national defense women-owned small business.” context in which it was conceived, developed and initially Last year, the Boeing Co., a major NASA prime contractor, deployed” is considered, wrote the editors of Wings in Orbit: and Southern University and A&M College at Baton Rouge, Scientific and Engineering Legacies of the Space Shuttle. Louisiana, signed an 18-month mentor-protégé partnership to Southern University and NASA have enjoyed a long rela- work together on NASA’s Space Launch System. Boeing is one tionship and show just how initiatives like the mentor-protégé of the largest primes to participate in NASA’s mentor-protégé program can and have helped push the United States forward. program. Morgan Watson — a Southern University engineering faculty “Ask professionals across trade industries about the benefits member and a former NASA engineer — is proof of that. of allying veteran, large companies with energetic startups, After graduating in 1964, Watson helped integrate the Mar- and they’re likely to praise the marriage of proven business shall Space Flight Center. He went on to become a part of the acumen, fresh perspectives and bleeding- mission that sent the first man to the edge technological capabilities,” says Lee Moon. Mohon, of ASRC Federal, an aerospace “National secu- Patrick Mensah, associate dean of and defense company. According to research and graduate programs in NASA, it is the only federal agency with rity acquisition Southern University’s College of Sci- a mentor-protégé program targeted at his- ences and Engineering, said it was oppor- torically Black colleges and universities. programs could tunities like this that led to Southern These partnerships aim to solve some be both revo- being the first historically Black college of America’s most significant national or university to enter into an agreement security issues. lutionized and with Boeing as a member of NASA’s “America is at a crossroads,” said retired mentor-protégé program. Air Force Gen. Hawk Carlisle, presi- revitalized ...” While national security is not the pri- dent and CEO of the National Defense mary focus of NASA’s mentor-protégé Industrial Association. “The industrial program or Boeing’s agreement with base is facing multiple headwinds,” he Southern University, the ramifications of noted. “Skilled, cleared workforce short- making such programs a part of national ages remain a challenge,” and “increased security can be far-reaching. regulatory burdens and barriers to new By exposing smaller institutions and entrants continues to be a barrier,” he businesses, accompanied by the moti- said. vated people molded and produced by The supply chain is one example of a them, to opportunities like the ones pro- security concern since some niche com- vided by the mentorship program, U.S. ponents needed for space flight are no national security acquisition programs longer manufactured domestically. This is especially concern- could be both revolutionized and revitalized tapping into all ing in the new age of great power competition, where supply our talent pools and domestic resources. chains are becoming an emerging area of concern. NASA-sponsored mentor-protégé partnerships between Ellen Lord, the former undersecretary of defense for acquisi- entities such as Boeing and Southern University could be one tion and sustainment, said the “silver lining” of the COVID-19 solution to sourcing and mobilizing the workforce needed to pandemic is that it encouraged U.S. businesses to bring their develop the next generation of hardware, software and services supply chains back to the United States. Many of America’s required by the U.S. military. supply chain vulnerabilities are due to its dependence on for- They could also provide an opportunity to wean the United eign nations — China in particular. The pandemic highlighted States from its dependence on international supply chains just how much even something like the spread of a virus — strengthening national security while boosting support for touches the defense industry. small businesses and the American workforce. ND photoiStock The Pentagon’s industrial policy office suggested in the “2020 Industrial Capabilities Report” that qualifying new sup- Shaliza Tolliver is a junior fellow at NDIA.

14 NATIONAL DEFENSE • MARCH 2021 Industry Perspective BY STEVE CARLSON, JAMES S.B. CHEW AND FRANK SCHIRRMEISTER

The Price of Success vs. the Cost of Failure

n “Uneasy is the head that wears the crown.” a hybrid environment or a fully cloud-based environment — Shakespeare most likely did not appreciate the timeless allowing development teams to scale resources as needed. For relevance when he wrote that line for his play Henry IV, example, in the weeks and months leading up to a tapeout of Part 2. When applied to business, the clairvoyance cannot be a custom chip, or before the next release of complex software, overstated. the amount of hardware verification and software testing has Successful companies achieved their standing by being com- to scale to a much higher capacity than during the rest of the petitive in their respective markets. A recognized measure of development process. business success is having the company become a part of the In contrast to all these improvements in the commercial, Dow Jones Industrial Average. In 2021, there are no original consumer-facing world, development of complex hardware companies left on the index, and many of these original com- and software systems in the defense industry looks quite grim panies haven’t been part of it for many years now. today. Current acquisition programs that have massive budget There are several reasons for that. Some unfortunately failed overruns and significant schedule delays are producing systems to adopt disruptive technologies that would have maintained, that are neither affordably sustainable nor modernizable. and perhaps strengthened, their leadership position. One of That said, it doesn’t necessarily have to be this way. A digi- the lessons to be learned here is that companies can get left tal revolution, as it has been experienced in the commercial behind if they fail to innovate, leaving themselves vulnerable to world, seems unavoidable in the coming decades. Some of it more agile competitors who keep a pulse on disruptive tech- can already be witnessed in the rise of nontraditional space nologies. This is an everyday reality in the tech industry. Com- companies and the government’s future aircraft programs. panies must innovate or succumb to the competition. The solution for the defense industry to keep up with the The defense industry is now facing a disruptive technology changes in development can be seen as a two-fold methodol- moment and looking directly at Silicon Valley for inspiration. ogy that requires both an investment and a growth mindset. Within the Defense Department, the digital revolution is in The investment of money is obvious, but companies also need full swing, with multiple new programs signifying a push for to change how they view their role in the process. The defense widespread adoption of commercial processes by defense con- industry must operate with the mindset that they are in a tractors. The department is signaling that it is ready to push highly competitive market where rapid and meaningful inno- the envelope with commercial best practices and will no lon- vation determines whether they sink or swim. ger tolerate the “never enough time and money to do it right, This isn’t the first time defense contractors have been but enough time and money to do it over” acquisition process. encouraged to operate as if they have free-market competition. The Defense Department is now demanding better, faster Some who are reading this article may even say, “We tried that and cheaper. And as it studies successful commercial compa- before.” In the late 1980s, there was a push to implement the nies who regularly produce must-have, sophisticated, quality well-intended, but ultimately ineffective, Total Quality Man- products on a “can’t miss Christmas” schedule with a firm agement system. The idea was that acquisition program cost fixed-price budget, it’s clear that there is a better way. overruns and schedule delays were the result of companies With this push for commercial processes, one might hear having to adhere to military standards. Some believed that the phrases such as “emulate before you fabricate” and “digital required adherence to these standards discouraged innovation. twinning” within the halls of program offices, even as some Essentially, if companies were given the freedom to determine wonder if these are fads that will eventually pass. their best way to meet system requirements, the result would In reality, much can be learned from Silicon Valley. Tech be better products developed at a reduced cost and in less companies have hard deadlines, such as the holiday shopping time. season or key trade shows, for hardware/software systems. In It has now been proven that only when operating in highly the commercial world, companies usually have only one shot competitive, free markets, do such practices yield the desired to get it right. results. Over a period of years, elements of the development process Because Defense Department investments funded the have changed. Prior to the growth and proliferation of cloud creation of many cutting edge technologies used to develop computing, development tools basically had to be purchased systems to give the military an advantage, there seems to be a at the beginning of a project for its duration. Addi- tionally, computing resources, in terms of workstations and servers, had to be acquired for the full project duration.

illustrationiStock Today, the development of hardware and software can be done securely in the cloud — whether it’s

MARCH 2021 • NATIONAL DEFENSE 15 prevailing belief within the defense industry that the price of the government-subsidized incumbents. entry into the defense market by a nontraditional company is The push for commercial space systems, along with other too high. However, that belief has proven to be a myth. In fact, well-covered programs, indicates that the government is now defense-related technologies are now the foundation of our taking action to own their acquisition destiny. As these actions country’s economic engine. continue to show significant benefits, more will be taken. Entrepreneurs have used these defense technologies to The overall reaction by the defense industry to these events develop highly profitable, innovative products that created has been interesting, with little indication of large-scale chang- new commercial markets. These new markets become highly es. Some still view this as a passing fad. In fact, they seem to competitive, thus fueling the desire to consistently introduce be doubling down on working to maintain the status quo. But new products that delight the customer. if we know anything from history, it’s that labeling innovation Some may argue that the defense industry has the same as a passing fad can be problematic. A visit to Syracuse, New goals. To this point, one must acknowledge a significant differ- York, once dubbed the “Typewriter Capital of the World,” ence between the defense industry and commercial product could make that pretty clear. Ask a millennial now what a development. In the defense industry, product development is typewriter is, and they would likely need to Google it on their almost entirely funded by the Pentagon. This means companies smartphone. have little incentive to avoid cost overruns and schedule delays. When companies encounter a disruptive technology for On the flip side, commercial product development is funded their market, many make the determination that the price to internally, and missing a product launch cycle during a major continue to compete is too high. However, not doing so can buying season or introducing a poor-quality product can prove leave them at a competitive disadvantage. The list of compa- catastrophic to a company. nies that have learned the hard way that there is no such thing In the highly competitive commercial electronics systems as “too big to fail” or “too important to fail” is incredibly long. market, high levels of internal research-and-development Looking toward the future, we can hope that entities within investment have resulted in tools and processes that are used the defense ecosystem take a close look at the commercial sec- to consistently produce affordable, high-quality, sustainable tor as a model for best practices to evolve in order to meet the and modernizable products. new needs of an educated, aware defense customer. ND In recent years, defense officials have acknowledged the benefits of nontraditional commercial companies competing Steve Carlson is director of aerospace and defense solutions, James in the defense marketplace. The most visible example is the S.B. Chew is senior group director and Frank Schirrmeister is senior growth of commercial space contractors who are profitably group director of solutions marketing at Cadence Design Systems. selling systems to national security agencies and NASA that Chew also serves as chair of the National Defense Industrial Associa- are priced lower and are more reliable than those produced by tion’s Science and Engineering Technology Division.

16 NATIONAL DEFENSE • MARCH 2021 Viewpoint BY FRANK GAGLIARDI AND MATTHEW SLOANE

Changing Acquisitions with Advanced Manufacturing

n In 2019, the secretary of the Army released a memoran- It is prudent for any industrial manufacturer contributing dum with the subject line “Army Advanced Manufacturing products to their supply chain as the Army considers theirs, to Directive of 2019-29: Enabling Readiness and Modernization realize the benefits of product improvements by re-thinking through Advanced Manufacturing.” The directive “establishes and re-designing with additive manufacturing in mind. policy and assigns responsibilities for the employment of Questions should be: “Have we optimized our design and advanced manufacturing methods and materials in all capabil- accounted for the freedom of increased geometric complexity ity areas.” that additive manufacturing provides?” It is apparent that the genesis of this directive stems from “Are we considering advanced materials, or are we simply the realization that industry is evolving into the “digital era” of 3D printing with traditional materials for which we already manufacturing. Digitization is the prime mover of advanced have a traditional source available?” Alternatively, “are we manufacturing, and data the fuel for its models, code and additively manufacturing parts for manufacturing lines that automata. have become obsolete or whose supply line has dramatically One of the most prominent areas readily associated with this decreased?” promising manufacturing revolution is additive manufactur- Program managers must first adopt — and engineering sup- ing, colloquially known as “3D printing.” Despite its ubiquitous port staff must encourage — this type of thinking before the presence within the dictates of the Army directive, the use of technical, cost and scheduling aspects of additive manufactur- additive manufacturing remains a conundrum for our acquisi- ing are even considered or evaluated. tion personnel. The pressing question continues to be: when Once the acquisition community deems that additive manu- exactly is it appropriate and sensible to implement additive facturing can provide a strategic benefit to the part design or manufacturing in lieu of traditional manufacturing processes the supply chain, they should juxtapose its assessment with already in place? a more traditional manufacturing process. These comparative Presently, on the surface, additively manufactured solutions assessments will incorporate technical analyses, cost evaluations and their usage seem destined to remain in the realm of pro- and scheduling estimates. totyping. Their functional uses are often deemed unproven The technical analyses must make considerations for both and cost prohibitive. However, to the additive manufacturing process alleviate natural hesitancies with and the additively manufactured the unknown and subpar economic end item, as they do for the tra- returns, the Army directive provides ditional sources. Cost evaluations a jump-off point to propel its manu- will bifurcate into direct and indi- facturing into the future by taking a rect breakdowns — with additive disciplined approach to selecting and manufacturing-specific distinctions designing parts for additive manu- incorporated. facturing. And, finally, scheduling estimates The Army approach recognizes must account for supply chain varia- and affords the latitude to take tions due to the impact of additive its cues from industry and imple- manufacturing on sourcing, manu- ment a multi-staged business case facturing, shipping and receiving — analysis for part selection. The essentials of the analysis may such as just-in-time manufacturing — and distribution. be comprised of four main areas that collectively address the These three stages of evaluation will provide program man- benefits to the part, materiel system, and manufacturing pro- agers with a complete and nuanced view of the role of additive cess. These areas are strategic/performance drivers, technical manufacturing in shifting the engineering and business land- considerations, activity-based cost assessments, and scheduling scape toward advanced manufacturing. considerations. Additive manufacturing is not the sole panacea for produc- The first step to any successful implementation of additive tion, but it does have the ability to change the way many items manufacturing lies with evaluating influential performance are “designed, made, bought and delivered.” factors or strategic drivers. It is imperative that acquisition pro- Without this realization, a commensurate strategic approach fessionals resist the temptation to plug additive manufacturing and a nuanced view of the impact of additive manufacturing machines into their existing manufacturing processes if they on the current engineering and business landscape, organiza- hope to reap all the potential benefits of the new technolo- tions will never realize the full benefits of this technology. ND gies. The Advanced Manufacturing Directive of 2019-29 aids in pointing the acquisition professionals in the right direction Frank Gagliardi, Ph.D. and Matthew Sloane, Ph.D. are the principal photoiStock by encouraging them to consider the potential improvements investigators for the Advanced Manufacturing Cell of the Quality Engi- in their ability to design, produce, deliver and sustain materiel neering and System Assurance Directorate at the U.S. Army Combat capabilities. Capabilities Development Command - Armaments Center.

MARCH 2021 • NATIONAL DEFENSE 17 Viewpoint BY GENE MORAN

Spinning SBIR Grants Into ‘Gold’ Requires Midas Touch

n It’s not uncommon for a company new to the federal mar- ketplace to be elated with their award of a phase 1 Small Busi- ness Innovation Research (SBIR) contract. If it’s the first time breaking through, it should be cause for celebration for the awardee. In particular, the Defense Department and other government agencies can appear like a challenging labyrinth that requires understanding unique con- ditions and language to navigate. A $50,000 or $100,000 award for a company that has been toiling with a new concept or technology may be the critical first step to the big leagues of sustained federal sales. But let’s put it into perspective. It is the essential first step of a very long road. The SBIR program is a time-tested way for the government to seed funding for new ideas. Some of the Gold Rush, but do they know where they are in that rela- those ideas are good, even great. Some will prove not so use- tionship? ful. It’s OK for ideas not to pan out. The SBIR award will have SBIRs stimulate small business participation in research and achieved a success by mitigating government risk and avoiding development that support critical priorities. They serve a noble a big bet that ultimately fails. purpose, and the government’s desire to seed federal funding The Discovery Channel has a program called “Gold Rush,” is well-intended. However, landing a SBIR contract does not which has aired for many seasons and has since rolled out mean a company has struck gold. It may have secured a spinoffs. The storylines follow several family-run mining opera- phase 1 contract for $50,000 or $100,000. Compared to the tions, primarily in Alaska and the Yukon area of Canada. Spe- maybe zero corporate dollars they had in the bank, yes, this is cifically, these miners run strip mines where acres and acres of real money. But they are a speck of gold in a front loader of dirt are excavated and then mechanically sifted to reveal very pay dirt until they are mature enough to connect to programs tiny specks of gold. During a months-long mining season, each of record. mine might produce anywhere from 15 ounces to 2,500 ounc- Company owners have toiled from one phase 1 SBIR award es of gold that can be processed and subsequently sold. That’s to the next for nearly 20 years, never having advanced to solve right — ounces of gold. a need validated by a funded requirement. It shouldn’t be the Depending on gold’s market price, the season can prove case. wildly profitable, merely break-even, or bust. The themes of A few years ago, while attending a professional seminar ses- the show often revolve around wrenching decisions related sion led by the then-chief of naval research, he asked a hotel to return on investment. Will it cost more to set up and run a ballroom filled with 1,000 attendees to raise their hands if strip-mining operation than the value of gold to be mined? If they had recently won a phase 1 contract. Many hands went they dig for the pay dirt, will they capitalize on the dig before up, well over half in the room. Next, he asked, “Raise your the harsh winter rolls in again? Revenue before costs can range hand if you have received a phase 2 SBIR contract.” A lot of from $27,000 to $4.5 million dollars. After the cost of opera- hands went up, but not nearly as many as with phase 1. He tions, that’s a challenging profit profile to sustain. continued, “Raise your hand if you have received a phase 3 With SBIRs, return on investment for the government is SBIR contract.” Fewer than 10 hands went up. more often a secondary consideration to solving the govern- That was a dramatic decrease. That ballroom session of ment need. Said differently, if the new capability significantly a professional conference was not an outlier; the condition advances the warfighter’s demand, the investment decision revealed in the dramatic narrowing from phase 1 to phase 3 is becomes a relativity discussion. Investment returns for the the norm. SBIR awardee may look like a more straightforward calcula- Why does that happen? There are myriad reasons. Failure of tion. Getting that first phase 1 contract typically does not the technology to develop, government need changes, inability require extraordinary effort. to integrate the emerging capability with technical specifica- Companies using SBIR contracts are participating in Gold tions, and the customer-contractor relationship can play a role. Rush-style mining. But they aren’t the miner; they are the Failure to satisfy a need is perhaps the most damning and specks of gold. often not understood by contractors. SBIRs exist to promote In the best of circumstances, the technology or capability small business opportunities while potentially allowing exciting will be nurtured to maturity and maybe even a sizeable con- capabilities to quickly breakthrough and solve a validated need. photoiStock tract funded through a program of record. But those odds are SBIR funding is a tool. It is a way for the government to long. The award mitigates government risk. So, yes they are in mitigate risk, encourage participation, and avoid chasing too

18 NATIONAL DEFENSE • MARCH 2021 many shiny objects that cost a lot of money before the shiny ently. They take position near a gold vein, and their specialized thing is ready for prime time. capability fits. Further, they communicate with their customer The SBIR budget across the Defense Department is network with intent, learning about needs, obstacles and approximately $2 billion, representing two-thirds of the gov- opportunities. They have likely mapped contacts and aligned ernment total for this type of contract. In fiscal year 2019, funded requirements to their company specialties across mul- there were over 3,000 awards of SBIR contracts, with many tiple fiscal years of demand. companies receiving multiple awards. Just doing some quick Many states have additional small business incentives that math, it’s clear that most awards are well below $1 million. can complement an initial foray into government sales via Few lines of the president’s budget proposal record numbers SBIR. Such incentives include tailored loan programs, grants, smaller than $1 million, although contract awards of less value tax credits and employee skills training opportunities. When are numerous. thoughtfully coordinated, perhaps with a Procurement Tech- It can be a useful exercise to learn where SBIR dollars nical Assistance Center counsel, these myriad programs can appear in the budget. strengthen the federal sales tapestry of small businesses new to All government agencies publish budget data by fiscal year the federal customer. in searchable formats online. The defense budget documents For companies with SBIR contracts who also supply larger are exemplary compared to other agencies and are fertile prime contractors, don’t overlook the need to communicate ground to learn and increase understanding of how and why with that large prime. Many subcontractors have insufficient some decisions get made. contacts with their prime customer; they know too few people A company awarded tens of thousands of SBIR dollars to and speak too infrequently about the wrong things. A large help share the development costs for a capability should feel prime customer must understand when a supplier is work- great. Still, it does not necessarily advance a company to the ing on a SBIR. They can help with efforts to extend the work larger funding and the real opportunity to solve even bigger while simultaneously helping expand a network. government needs. If an awardee’s primary contact at the prime customer is a Getting into the actual budget as part of a program of contracting official or purchasing agent, that should be a red record is the real Gold Rush in which they want to participate. flag of an insufficient array of communications with the prime. Those same companies nurtured through SBIR can grow their Many smaller companies new to the federal market hold back customer relationships and solve need into the tens of millions for fear of upsetting their prime and potentially inhibiting future of dollars per year. Sound capitalistic? It is. That’s OK. business. It’s an ill-placed fear. Ideally, they should want multiple The acquisition system encourages participation by all, to people working at the prime to know everything about the the degree that it can, but as described above, the competi- capabilities, ongoing work, and desire to solve more issues. tive odds are far from even. Despite SBIR initiatives, much A SBIR contract gives a subcontractor something positive to of defense spending still goes to fewer than 100 companies. share with its prime that signals government interest in what Bloomberg Government’s report, “The BGOV200, FY19 Fed- they do. Work to connect those dots that may seem disbursed eral Industry Leaders,” identifies only 69 companies that had at the outset. total contracts exceeding $1 billion, for a total of $310 billion. Those who have been supporting government needs and That’s close to half of annual defense spending going to fewer requirements understand the differences and subtleties than 100 contractors. described above. They know the programs and how to follow There are hundreds of defense companies, and thousands the funding. The SBIR award is a terrific tool. An awardee of suppliers with revenues below $1 billion are competing for must appreciate that the contract vehicle is just that — a tool those remaining dollars. Some have a full-time presence in that provides an entry point. From that entry point, the real Washington, D.C. Some use a coterie of professional support prospecting can begin. ND in general consulting, business development and lobbying. The SBIR awardee must be aware that those competitors are Gene Moran is president of Capitol Integration, specializes in govern- participating in different mining activities. Their more sophisti- ment affairs and is the author of “Pitching the Big Top: How to Master cated mining operations have mapped out the gold a bit differ- the 3-Ring Circus of Federal Sales.”

NationalNational DefenseDefense PodcastPodcast TuneTune in in each each monthmonth to hearhear toptop stories stories from from the the upcomingupcoming magazinemagazine issue, coveringcovering everything everything from from militarymilitary technology technology to defense legislation.legislation. www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/podcastswww.nationaldefensemagazine.org/podcasts

MARCH 2021 • NATIONAL DEFENSE 19 Q&A with Dr. Mark Lewis, Director of NDIA’s Emerging Technologies Institute n Dr. Mark J. Lewis in January took the but rather to present credible and reli- oping hypersonics were tough but by no helm of the National Defense Industrial able analyses on where those invest- means insurmountable. Are the services Association’s new Emerging Technolo- ments should be made, in order to developing the technology making prog- gies Institute after serving dual roles maximize their value and minimize the ress? What are some of the harder chal- in the Pentagon as the acting deputy time to delivery. lenges that lie ahead? undersecretary of defense for research and engineering and director of defense Do you see it playing a role in influenc- I have spent the majority of my research and engineering for moderniza- ing the Defense Department’s advanced research career in hypersonics, and it’s an tion. technology goals? If so, how will you do area that I believe is absolutely essential One of the nation’s foremost experts that? to national defense. The simple answer is in hypersonics, he has also held positions yes, we have made remarkable progress as chief scientist of the Air Force, the I absolutely do expect ETI to play a in developing this technology and getting founder of both the Center for Hyper- role in setting the department’s goals, as it closer to fielded systems. sonics Education and Research and the well as impacting how those goals are Unfortunately, so have our competi- NASA-Air Force Constellation Univer- realized. tors, who are ahead of us in a number sity Institutes Project, and the director of Ultimately, we want to not only of key aspects. We can always improve the Institute for Defense Analyses’ Sci- contribute to the national debate, but the technology, but at this point I hon- ence and Technology Policy Institute. actually frame that debate in order to estly believe our remaining challenges He recently shared his thoughts with encourage actions that will accelerate the are more policy and infrastructure than National Defense magazine Editor in delivery of modern capabilities into the technical. Chief Stew Magnuson on the role of the hands of our warfighters. We know hypersonic systems work. new institute and some of the advanced We’ll do that in several ways. ETI will Now it’s just a matter of being able to technologies it will be following. pull together teams of members who design, test and deploy these systems in a will work with appropriate government timely and efficient manner. Can you tell us about the new institute officials and other essential partners, to In many ways, that means relearning and what you hope to accomplish as its research and convene discussions on a how we used to do things in the past first leader? carefully chosen set of technology issues. and insisting on moving beyond proto- Remember that NDIA’s approximately types to deliver real capabilities at a use- The Emerging Technologies Institute 1,700 corporate members and more than ful scale. (ETI) is NDIA’s new think tank, devoted 63,000 individual members represent to accelerating the development and an incredible pool of talent that includes What do you see as the main benefits of implementation of technologies that will expertise on just about any technology AI in the military? How do you assess be essential to the future defense of our topic we might touch upon. That’s a the services’ efforts to integrate artificial nation. Our nation’s defense is at a criti- strength that is truly unrivaled by any intelligence into their day-to-day opera- cal point; the technological superiority comparable organization. tions? that our military has come to depend We are committed to producing upon is being challenged across the research products that are of the highest Al is often called a game-changer, a board by peer competitors and emerg- quality, building a reputation for objec- term that is overused, but in this case is ing threats. Make no mistake, we are in a tivity and independence, and drawing on absolutely appropriate. But we also have race, and it is one with the most serious the incredible resources of NDIA as well to be careful, because the term AI is of implications. as the unrivaled access we have to indus- misused quite a bit, thrown about with If the United States is to retain its trial and government leadership. some abandon. military advantage, we need to double We are also building strong partner- There are too many folks who think down on the full range of modernization ships with academia so that we can they can solve technological roadblocks technologies, including artificial intel- leverage the best and the brightest that by merely invoking AI, but we’re not ligence and autonomy, biotechnology, our universities have to offer. Further, there yet. True AI brings several impor- cyber, quantum science, microelectronics, we will take full advantage of NDIA’s tant attributes — including the abil- networked systems and communications, incredible convening authority to address ity to rapidly incorporate information directed energy, space and hypersonics. audiences across the executive branch from multiple sources, and to speed To that end, ETI is being stood up and on Capitol Hill, as well as industry, up decision-making cycles. AI can help as a source of trusted information and academia and the broader research com- us relieve humans of tedious tasks so thought leadership on defense research munity. that people can do what they do best. and engineering. Very importantly, we’re We have also learned that AI-powered not just here to advocate for more total I heard you say about two years ago systems are willing to take risks to them- spending on research and engineering, that the technological challenges devel- selves that humans would be unwilling

20 NATIONAL DEFENSE • MARCH 2021 may be up as the Navy is integrating a pathways. solid-state laser into an Aegis Weapon Biotechnology, for example, can offer System aboard a destroyer later this new ways to manufacture structural year. (See story on page 10) materials — think of repairing a runway Do you think this will be a niche crater by spraying microorganisms into capability, or open the floodgates to it — or even in-situ manufacturing of jet more applications if the program is suc- fuel. That makes biotech one of the most cessful? exciting disciplines of this century.

We are definitely seeing the dawn of What concerns you most about the tech- directed energy as another arrow in our nological competition between the U.S. defense quiver. and its allies vs. China and its ambi- to take. This is being driven by two develop- tions? The services are indeed all stepping ments. The first is the practical realiza- up to the plate in AI. I would also note tion of lasers that operate at useful Earlier I referenced peer competi- that beyond the services we have activi- power levels. It isn’t just about power tors who are breathing down our necks, ties across the enterprise, including the of course, other aspects of the technol- and have in some cases exceeded our Defense Advanced Research Projects ogy are also important, including beam capabilities. China is the country that Agency, the Joint Artificial Intelligence control, though we have seen significant concerns me the most. They are mak- Center, as well other Defense Depart- advances there as well. ing significant advances in a number of ment organizations such as the Office Another development is a refined the critical technology areas, including of the Director of Operational Test & understanding of how we would use hypersonics and AI, and they have done Evaluation, which is taking an early lead directed energy. We have come to under- so in large measure by wholesale theft of in thinking through how we will effec- stand that a laser that simply duplicates American intellectual property. tively test AI systems. the effects of a kinetic weapon really But what I worry about most is the Having said that, I would warn that doesn’t buy its way onto a platform somewhat minimal likelihood that China we are still in the early stages of learning unless it can do so at significantly will apply the same ethical standards to how AI can be used best, including when reduced cost; and a laser that brings those technology areas as we will. For and where it can buy its way into future some new capability — say defense example, consider the dangers of bio- systems. To that end, I would argue that against a hitherto unstoppable threat — technology if misused; will China abide our goal has to be establishing AI as a really brings value. by ethical standards? There are about 12 systems engineering discipline and coor- The Navy application is especially million Uyghurs who would tell you no. dinating R&E efforts across the board. exciting — think of a directed energy What about the application of AI? Just weapon that could give a ship a near- look at what the Chinese are doing in There are many alarmists who warn infinite magazine depth. establishing and manipulating social rat- against the dangers of AI being applied Base defense, particularly against low- ings of their own population. to weapon systems. What’s your take on cost unmanned craft, is also a very attrac- Even in the hypersonics arena, we the controversy? tive application, from both a capabilities see China and Russia both blurring the standpoint as well as a cost tradeoff. lines between conventional and nuclear The Department of Defense has been systems in ways that we will not. So very clear on establishing ethical guide- Biotechnology is a field that the military bottom line, this is a technology race we lines for the use of AI. I actually think AI obviously has an interest in developing. dare not lose. And that is why the ETI is can lead to weapons that are used more What are some potential applications so important at this time. responsibly. For example, an AI system for biotech in the military? that helps us refine and pinpoint a target Finally, if you could do one thing to could reduce the chances of collateral Until recently, many in the DoD boost the number of U.S. students pursu- damage or targeting errors; and an AI viewed biotechnology as promising, but ing careers in science, technology, engi- system that removes a human operator not something that was directly relevant neering and math, what would you do? from harm’s way is clearly one that I to their mission. That has changed sig- would prefer. nificantly since the pandemic began, I actually don’t think it’s a matter This is an issue in which ETI, and in part because much of the success of of attracting more students into the NDIA as a whole, will have a very cred- the various COVID vaccines was built STEM disciplines, as there isn’t much ible voice. on investments that the Department of evidence of an overall STEM short- I do worry about how our peer com- Defense made years ago. age. What I would like to do instead is petitors will use AI, and that is one of But biotechnology is about much attract students already interested in the reasons I want the United States to more than medicine or human per- STEM to work on problems in national develop these capabilities first. formance. In fact, it opens up new defense. And the way to do that is to opportunities for manufacturing and can give scientists and engineers exciting and photo NDIA There is an adage that laser weapons enhance the industrial supply base, not meaningful things to work on that will on the battlefield are always just a year only giving us new materials but also contribute to the growth and security of away from becoming a reality. The year alternate, less vulnerable, production our country. ND

MARCH 2021 • NATIONAL DEFENSE 21 providing SOCOM with a hybrid-elec- SOCOM Shows Interest in tric variant of the LTATV in year three of the program. Hybrid, AI-Enabled Vehicles “We’re really excited to test and field a vehicle like this with Special Opera- tions Forces as it will open up even more BY YASMIN TADJDEH rently building two GMV 1.1 hybrid operational use cases with a high level Special Operations Command prototypes to explore the usefulness of of export power and even quieter opera- is experimenting with emerg- hybrid-electric technology, Hawkins said. tional modes,” he said in an email. ing technologies as it works to bolster its “We expect to conduct performance The company leveraged work from its ground vehicle fleet with new capabili- testing and gather SOF operator feed- commercial product lines as it developed ties. back this summer,” he said. “The results the new vehicle, said Shane Novotny, The command’s family of vehicles will help inform future decisions on director of engineering at Polaris Gov- — which features 3,000 platforms — whether to invest in outfitting the exist- ernment and Defense. includes the Ground Mobility Vehicle ing GMV 1.1 fleet with the technology.” “The MRZR Alpha is engineered and 1.1, light tactical all-terrain vehicles, A spokesperson for General Dynamics designed to meet specifications and non-standard commercial vehicles and said the company is not involved in the requirements that greatly expanded on mine-resistant ambush protected plat- hybrid-electric prototype effort. the durability, payload and performance forms, said Navy Cmdr. Tim Hawkins, a The command also plans to purchase of the current LTATV, the MRZR Die- SOCOM spokesman. hybrid-electric prototypes of its light sel,” he said. Special Operations Command is cur- tactical all-terrain vehicle in the coming The platform has a durable chassis, rently investing its research, develop- fiscal year, Hawkins added. “The LTATV powerful drivetrain and modular vehicle ment, testing and evaluation dollars for prototypes will be evaluated by the pro- design, he noted. It features an expanded vehicles in lightweight armor, hybrid- gram office and SOF operators to help exportable power system and can carry electric systems, advanced situational inform any future requirements and pos- more payload. awareness and autonomy/semi-autono- sible procurement of the technology,” he “We’ve also increased the size of the my, Hawkins said in an email to National said. cargo area by 60 percent and added Defense. It is seeking technology that The LTATV is a Special Operations greater functionality through the incor- maximizes mobility, payload and protec- Command-modified, commercial-off- poration of a flatbed design that includes tion. the-shelf lightweight platform that can cargo tie-down rails for added adapt- Last year, the organization and its be internally transported via V-22s, ability,” he said. “For example, with the industry partner finished production H-53s and H-47s, according to Babbitt’s tailgate installed and flat, two litters can of the Ground Mobility Vehicle 1.1, a slides. There are two variants including be secured without any modifications to highly mobile platform that supports a two-seat and a four-seat platform. The the second row or its seating capacity.” both lethal and non-lethal special ops vehicle is intended to perform a variety The vehicle is powered by an 8-speed missions. of missions including reconnaissance and automotive transmission and a 4-stroke, The vehicle — which is manufac- medical evacuation. 118 horsepower turbo-diesel engine, tured by General Dynamics Ordnance according to the company. That provides and Tactical Systems — is “becoming a MRZR Alpha 200 foot-pounds of torque. Addition- mainstay of our capabilities throughout ally, the four-seat version includes 2,000 the force,” said Col. Joel Babbitt, pro- pounds of payload, run-flat tires and can gram executive officer for SOF Warrior, reach top speeds over 60 miles per hour. which oversees the command’s vehicle Earlier this year the company wrapped portfolio. up the critical design review phase of the The system offers SOCOM increased program, Schmidt said. mobility including internal CH-47 Chi- “Our rigorous testing and extensive nook transportability, he noted during off-road mission profile field evalua- the 2020 Virtual Special Operations tion miles … [have] proven the MRZR Forces Industry Conference hosted by Alpha’s performance and durability at the National Defense Industrial Associa- Last year the General Services Admin- extreme heat, in the cold chamber and tion. istration awarded a multi-year contract in when operating on desert sand dunes or Key capability areas of interest for the support of the command for the lifecycle rocky terrain at elevation,” he said. GMV include lightweight armor mate- replacement of its LTATV fleet to Polaris Production of the platform will be rial, improved payloads, storage capacity, with a value of up to $109 million. followed by government durability and vehicle weight reduction, terrain-specific Polaris offered SOCOM its MRZR user testing, as well as air transportation tire alternatives as well as command, Alpha platform, a lightweight vehicle certifications, he said. control, communications, computers, with off-road capabilities that was pur- Because the effort is an indefinite- intelligence, surveillance, and reconnais- pose-built for the command. delivery/indefinite-quantity contract, sance integration cost reductions, accord- Mark Schmidt, manager of defense the number of vehicles is not specified. photo Polaris ing to Babbitt’s slides. programs at Polaris Government and However, Schmidt said the company Additionally, the command is cur- Defense, said the company would be could produce 1,500 MRZR Alphas per

22 NATIONAL DEFENSE • M A R C H 2 0 2 1 year on its current production line. Nick Francis, director of Polaris Defense, said the contract was structured in a way that did not limit the vendor from expanding on the vehicle’s capa- bilities, which allowed the company to exceed requirements in some areas. “This was a great approach, because it doesn’t put a limit on a very qualified industry base,” he said. Previous MRZRs have been outfit- ted with a variety of payloads including counter-drone systems, direct-fire weap- Ground Mobility Vehicle 1.1 ons, ISR systems and autonomy packag- es. Schmidt noted that with the Alpha’s increased payload capacity, exportable he said. point in time and managing the obsoles- power and physical space, it is easier to In a request for information released cence of them,” Babbitt said. incorporate a variety of payloads. last year, Special Operations Command Areas of interest for the command In year two of the program, testing said it was seeking industry input about include active reset operations, obsoles- and delivery will focus on an Arctic an armored ground tactical vehicle that cence management and sustainment cost mobility package, Schmidt said. could transport nine to 11 passengers reductions, according to his slides. This “includes a full cab enclosure and as well as be internally transported in a One of the largest vehicle programs tracks,” he said. “This will greatly expand C-130 aircraft. for the military writ large has been the the terrain and environments the MRZR “The government is primarily focused Army and Marine Corps’ acquisition of Alpha can operate [in], to include snow on understanding the marketplace for Oshkosh Defense’s joint light tactical and ice.” commercial and non-developmental vehicle. Special Operations Command Planning is also ongoing to outfit the items and/or commercial items easily does not plan to purchase purpose-built LTATV with autonomous capabilities, modified,” the solicitation said. JLTVs, Hawkins said, but is currently Hawkins said. The command is consider- Mark Cancian, senior adviser at the collaborating with the JLTV Joint Pro- ing purchasing a few autonomous plat- Center for Strategic and International gram Office and its user community “to forms in the coming fiscal year. Studies’ International Security Program, determine the potential configuration “We will then test the prototypes and said many of SOCOM’s vehicle pro- and cost of a future JLTV ‘SOF-kit.’” conduct user evaluations to help deter- grams are well suited for counterterror- Babbitt noted that the JLTV will be mine the usefulness of the technology, ism and counterinsurgency operations, brought into the SOF fold via the ser- which will also help inform any pos- which the command has become known vices. sible future requirements for integrating for in the past two decades. However, “This is a service-provided solution autonomy into any portion of our fleet,” with the Pentagon emphasizing great from the Army, Navy, Air Force, he said. power competition with advanced adver- Marines to their components within Other artificial intelligence efforts saries such as Russia and China, those USSOCOM,” he said. “It’s a great capa- include a data-logger system that collects types of platforms are not as ideal. bility and will certainly be a mainstay of vehicle operational parameters to help The other services are moving “toward our capabilities into the future.” advise maintenance efforts, Hawkins said. armored vehicles because of the higher A potential future acquisition oppor- “Machine learning is used in this log- level of threat,” he said. “SOCOM would tunity is a lifecycle replacement for the ger to help project managers and logis- have to at least balance its vehicle inven- non-standard commercial vehicle fleet in ticians determine when a vehicle will tory with some sort of armored vehicle the coming years, Hawkins said. reach the end of its economical useful- that could operate in a higher threat SOCOM uses the platform — which ness,” he said. “This a key factor when environment.” resembles regular trucks found on high- making informed decisions on whether A heavily armored vehicle such as ways all over the United States — when vehicles should be replaced or receive JAGMS could be particularly useful in they want to blend in with local popula- lifecycle extensions.” great power competition, Cancian said. tions overseas, Babbitt said. Meanwhile, one new vehicle Special Meanwhile, Special Operations Com- “If you want to look like just another Operations Command has indicated mand is maintaining its fleet of mine jingle truck, this is what you’re driving, it may be interested in pursuing is the resistant, ambush-protected vehicles, except ours are armored, ... much better Joint Armored Ground Mobility System, which consist primarily of SOF-modified maintained and can go a lot of places or JAGMS. MRAP all-terrain vehicles and RG- that some of the local vehicles may or Currently, no formal acquisition pro- 33-A1 platforms. may not be able to,” he said. cess is planned, Hawkins noted. How- MRAPs gained fame during the wars Capabilities of interest for the current photo Dept. Defense ever, last year the command conducted a in Iraq and Afghanistan after being fleet include lightweight armor materials, market analysis of the industrial base for rushed into the field to protect troops lightweight vehicle components, C4ISR vendors that could produce such a plat- from roadside bombs. cost reductions and suspension technol- form. That report is under review, “We are actively resetting those at this ogy, according to Babbitt’s slides. ND

MARCH 2021 • NATIONAL DEFENSE 23 The ISV program is the first major Army Putting New Infantry award for GM Defense since the sub- sidiary was re-established by its par- Squad Vehicle Through Paces ent company in 2017. The company returned to the defense market in 2017 after a long hiatus that began when a BY MANDY MAYFIELD Testing for reliability, availability and previous iteration of GM Defense was The Army is testing its new maintainability was slated to take place sold to General Dynamics in 2003. transport vehicle less than a at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona, and Tom Spoehr, director of the Heri- year after it awarded a contract to GM Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, in tage Foundation’s Center for National Defense for the program. February, he said. Defense, commended the Army for the Developmental testing of the Infan- The vehicle has already completed speed of the program, noting that the try Squad Vehicle, or ISV, began in successful tests in the static drops cate- service has refrained from burdening the November and will culminate effort by adding unnecessary in an initial operational test requirements. in August, said Steve Her- “The program is moving rick, product lead for ground at a decent rate of pace. It mobility vehicles at the has not been slowed down. program executive office for It hasn’t had any delays, combat support and combat protests, setbacks,” he said. service support. “They’ve taken a very hard The Army received the line in terms of just keeping first batch of its new ISVs in this program very simple.” October from GM Defense The high percentage of 120 days after awarding the commercial equipment in company a contract. The ini- the program makes it well tial delivery of the vehicles is Infantry Squad Vehicle suited for a more rapid part of the Army’s effort to acquisition strategy, Spoehr fast-track the acquisition of an said. all-terrain, highly transportable gory for low velocity airdrop. Low The Army “probably looked to what platform intended to provide velocity airdrop is the delivery of [the] defense industry had out there, and SCAN ground mobility capabilities for THIS a platform or other asset out of an maybe even tailored their requirements IMAGE infantry brigade combat teams. aircraft involving parachutes that in that direction,” he said. The ISV is an all-terrain troop are designed to slow the speed of The Pentagon’s effort to embrace carrier for nine infantry squad descent as much as possible so it commercial capabilities that meet its soldiers and their associated impacts the ground with minimal requirements is a step in the right direc- equipment. The vehicle has force. tion, Spoehr said. a payload requirement of 3,200 See the Starting in March, the service “You don’t want the military to be ISV in pounds and a maximum weight of action will begin live drops with soldiers completely oblivious to what industry 5,000 pounds. It is also required to executing missions after the drop, has to offer, so I think this is a good mar- be transportable on a CH-47 Chinook Herrick said. riage of both,” he added. helicopter and airdropped by C-17 and Following the airdrop testing, initial GM Defense is teaming with Ricardo C-130 aircraft, according to the Army. operational test and evaluation exercises Defense on the ISV program. Ricardo GM Defense was awarded a $214 will begin at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, will handle integrated product support, million contract for the program in June in August, Herrick said. including technical manual development, to manufacture 649 ISVs. The company “The program management team new equipment training, provisioning, will support the production of up to is executing an aggressive acquisition total package fielding and field service 2,065 vehicles with additional authoriza- strategy to field the first unit equipped,” support. tion over eight years. which is slated to be the 1st Brigade During the ISV competition, the Following the award, the company Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, Army selected GM Defense, an Oshkosh has since delivered all nine test assets to at Fort Bragg within the third quarter of Defense-Flyer Defense team and an proving grounds and continues to pro- this fiscal year, he said. SAIC-Polaris partnership to build two duce vehicles per the contract require- The ISV is based off General Motors’ prototypes each. The teams were award- ments, the company’s Chief Engineer Chevrolet Colorado ZR2 mid-size truck. ed a $1 million other transaction author- Mark Dickens said in an interview. The majority of the offering is crafted ity agreement to build the vehicles. The Army’s product lead for ground from commercial-off-the-shelf parts. OTAs are a contracting mechanism that mobility vehicles office, in coordination Some 90 percent of the vehicle is allow for more rapid prototyping efforts with Army Test and Evaluation Com- made from COTS components, which than traditional contracting methods. photo Defesne GM mand, has already executed key safety has enabled fast-paced deliveries, low- Army Test and Evaluation Command and performance tests, Herrick said in an ered costs and simplified parts sustain- conducted developmental testing of email. ment, Dickens said. all three vendors’ prototype ISVs from

24 NATIONAL DEFENSE • M A R C H 2 0 2 1 December 2019 through January 2020, night-vision goggles for missions,” he at General Motors’ Milford Proving according to a recently released report said. “There are no recommendations for Ground in Michigan. Later this year, from the Defense Department’s chief change at this time that have not already production of the vehicles will move to a weapons tester. Following those exami- been implemented.” Concord, North Carolina, facility, a plan nations, the ISV program office con- When asked about the report, Dickens that has long been in place, he noted. ducted two soldier “touchpoint” tests in said the soldier feedback GM Defense Construction at the 75,000-square- January 2020. received from the touchpoints was favor- foot facility is expected to continue According to the report from the Pen- able, noting the company found a unique through early spring 2021, and the pro- tagon’s former Director of Operational seating configuration for its offering duction line there will begin delivering Test and Evaluation Robert Behler — given the small footprint laid out in the vehicles in April 2021, according to the which was released this January — the Army’s requirements. company. vehicles were constricting for soldiers. Spoehr also noted that although the “It was a perfect footprint for us to “All vendors’ ISVs are cramped and DOT&E finding was valid, a vehicle transition to what we needed for a man- soldiers cannot reach, stow and secure with strict requirements such as carrying ufacturing facility,” Dickens said. There equipment as needed, degrading and nine soldiers and having the ability to fit have “been modifications to the concrete slowing mission operations,” the report inside a CH-47 Chinook aircraft is going to facilitate the manufacturing assembly said. During the tests, “soldiers on all to be a cramped ride. line and the shipping, receiving [and] ISVs could not readily access items in “The parameters that the Army speci- security. We have made modifications to their rucksacks without stopping the fied — the weight, the height, all those the grounds for storage of vehicles in a movement, dismounting and removing kinds of things — it was going to be secure manner.” their rucksacks from the vehicle.” cramped no matter what,” he said. “The The facility can support the produc- Despite these findings, Herrick said laws of physics makes this a cramped tion of up to 2,065 vehicles with addi- the ISV still meets all of the require- vehicle, period. To get nine soldiers on tional authorization over eight years. ments created for the program. it and it has to be this [specific] weight The company is duplicating its pro- “The Army’s assessment is that the and size — there’s no way it is not going duction processes from Milford Proving ISV requirement and solution set are in to be cramped.” Ground at the North Carolina plant, alignment,” he said. Meanwhile, GM Defense has started Dickens said. Many individuals currently “Soldiers who evaluated the ISV renovations to a North Carolina facil- working out of Milford were hired from prototypes in both soldier touchpoints ity where it intends to manufacture the the North Carolina area and brought to were able to carry their rucksacks, hel- ISVs, Dickens said. the proving ground to be trained prior to mets, vests, individual weapons and The first group of trucks will be built working at the new facility. ND

NEED A CONTRACT VEHICLE? OUR PRE-COMPETED DLA CONTRACTS ALLOW US TO RAPIDLY DELIVER YOUR PRODUCTS AND SERVICES TO YOUR FEDERAL CUSTOMERS.

partner with us darleydefense.com/partner-application

Through supplier partnerships, we ensure government customers have rapid access to commercial- off-the-shelf solutions and navigate Audrey Darley | 4th Generation Darley straight through the federal Director, Supply Partner Relations procurement process. Contact us [email protected] to see how we can work together.

630.735.3500 | WWW.DARLEYDEFENSE.COM | TRUSTED WORLDWIDE SINCE 1908

MARCH 2021 • NATIONAL DEFENSE 25 UNMANNING THE GUNS Navy Has High Hopes For Robotic Ships

BY JON HARPER sioned.” The Navy is keen to integrate large unmanned vessels They will provide additional “offensive punch” and “afford- into the fleet in coming decades. But there remains able solutions” to grow the Navy, he added. a great deal of uncertainty about how much of the total force Officials also tout unmanned platforms as a way to keep will be robotic as political, budgetary, operational and indus- sailors and Marines out of harm’s way. trial considerations complicate the calculus. The sea service’s latest 30-year shipbuilding plan, released Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michael Gilday in his in December during the final weeks of the Trump administra- “CNO Navigation Plan” said these types of vessels will play a tion, laid out a long-term vision for robotic vessels, calling for vital role in the future. additional resources to “accelerate fielding the full spectrum of “Successfully integrating unmanned platforms … gives our unmanned capabilities, including man-machine teaming ahead commanders better options to fight and win in contested of full autonomy.” spaces,” he said in the guidance, which was released in January. For the future years defense program in fiscal years 2022- illustration Boeing “They will expand our intelligence, surveillance and recon- 2026, the blueprint calls for about $4.3 billion for 12 large naissance advantage, add depth to our missile magazines, and unmanned service vessels (LUSV), one medium unmanned provide additional means to keep our distributed force provi- surface vessel (MUSV), and eight extra-large unmanned

26 NATIONAL DEFENSE • M A R C H 2 0 2 1 COVER STORY

LEFT: Boeing’s Echo Voyager, which is informing development of the com- pany’s Orca XLUUV for the Navy.

ABOVE: Artist’s rendering of an MUSV

RIGHT: Sea Hunter USV

underwater vehicles (XLUUV). The Pentagon’s Future Naval Force Study called for The Navy envisions LUSVs being 200 feet to 300 procuring 143 to 242 unmanned surface and undersea feet in length, with full load displacements of 1,000 SCAN vessels, including 119 to 166 USVs and 24 to 76 UUVs THIS tons to 2,000 tons; MUSVs being 45 feet to 190 feet IMAGE by the 2040s. long, with displacements of roughly 500 tons; and “We’re not sure of the exact numbers yet,” Chairman of XLUUVs having a diameter of more than 84 inches, the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley said at the U.S. according to the Congressional Research Service. Naval Institute Defense Forum Washington conference. The large surface ships are initially intended to However, at some point in coming decades upwards of 25

operate as missile-launching platforms in support of See the percent of the fleet could be sailorless, he said. L3Harris concept, Leidos photo Leidos concept, L3Harris manned multi-mission platforms; the medium ones as Sea Hunter However, many details about what the Navy will buy, low-cost forward deployed sensors and communications in action and when it will buy, have yet to be fleshed out. nodes; and the extra large boats as modular platforms capable “As we learn from land-based testing and as prototypes are of delivering multiple payloads at extended ranges. matured, specific procurement profiles outside the FYDP will Beyond the FYDP, a wide range of numbers have been be refined,” the shipbuilding plan stated. thrown around for how many platforms could be acquired. Meanwhile, lawmakers are questioning the Navy’s vision.

M A R C H 2 0 2 1 • NATIONAL DEFENSE 27 The fiscal year 2021 National Defense to do and how it’s going to serve U.S. sailed from Hawaii to California. Other Authorization Act cut $205 million national interests.” platforms, such as the Orca extra large from the service’s $464 million request Ronald O’Rourke, a naval specialist UUV, are under development. for medium and large technology com- at the Congressional Research Service, Geurts said each new platform will ponents and prototypes. said lawmakers have a number of fac- have to prove its capabilities and utility The act also put restrictions on the tors to consider as they evaluate funding to get integrated into the fleet. Defense Department’s ability to add requests going forward. Speaking at the Brookings Institution, offensive capabilities to such systems “The Navy’s large UV programs pose Milley said at some point in the future until it could satisfy Congress that the a number of oversight issues … includ- there could be sailorless aircraft carrier platforms would adhere to the laws ing issues relating to the analytical basis battle groups. “I’m not saying it’s going to of armed conflict and were the most for the more distributed fleet architec- happen, but it’s theoretically possible.” appropriate vessels to meet offensive ture; the Navy’s accelerated acquisition However, some missions such as requirements. strategies for these programs; technical, carrier operations are extraordinarily “I want to make sure we get it right,” schedule and cost risk in the programs; complex, noted Vice Adm. James Kilby, Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Va., ranking the proposed annual procurement rates deputy chief of naval operations for member of the House Armed Services for the programs; the industrial base warfighting requirements and capabili- seapower and projection forces subcom- implications of the programs; potential ties. mittee, said at the Surface Navy Associa- implications for miscalculation or esca- “Let’s stair-step our way into this” tion’s annual symposium. lation at sea; the personnel implications introduction of robotic platforms, “I want to make sure we don’t lose of the programs; and whether the Navy he told reporters. “Let’s think about time by taking some missteps,” he added. has accurately priced the work it is pro- manned and unmanned teaming. Let’s “I would rather take a little bit of time to posing to do,” O’Rourke wrote exactly determine how unmanned gets in a recent CRS report, “Navy integrated into the fleet, how things get Large Unmanned Surface and done with the capability there.” Undersea Vehicles: Background Other challenges identified by naval and Issues for Congress.” observers include connecting the plat- James “Hondo” Geurts, who forms to the service’s broader command, served as assistant secretary control and communications network, of the Navy for research, and how problems will be addressed development and acquisi- when the vessels have problems at sea tion prior to the presidential with no sailors aboard to fix them. transition, told reporters that The ships will need to have a rela- robotic platforms are meant to tively high level of autonomy and not supplement manned ships, not be remotely piloted, noted Brent replace them, saying it’s not Sadler, senior fellow for naval warfare an “either/or” choice. The sea and advanced technology at the Heri- service is planning additional tage Foundation’s Center for National testing events and exercises to Defense. demonstrate USV and UUV “It’s not going to be like [today’s capabilities and develop con- aerial] drones where you have to have cepts of operations to deter- constant or near-continuous control or mine how best to integrate them look at complexity of the mis- data feeds to control these platforms,” into the larger fleet architecture. sion, let’s look at duration of the SCAN he said. That’s especially true for under- “Do I see a place where we’re THIS mission. … Let’s not drive to the water robots. having large numbers of [ships] IMAGE toughest case” in the early stages. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-Conn., chair- running around doing ISR and The portion of the fleet that man of the HASC seapower sub- collection and creating comms is unmanned will be determined committee, said lawmakers aren’t nodes across a vast expanses of not just by how many robotic fundamentally opposed to relying more ocean? Absolutely,” said Geurts, vessels are procured in coming heavily on robotic systems. who as of press time was perform- See the years and decades, but how many Echo Voayer However, “it’s not unreasonable before ing the duties of undersecretary of the in action manned boats are acquired. we make large investments, to really get Navy. “Now it’s just, how do we do it? Right now, there are currently some of these basic fundamental ques- And can we do it cost effectively? just shy of 300 manned platforms in the tions fleshed out,” he said. “When you get into the lethal end of battle force. Under the latest plan, that Eric Labs, senior naval analyst with things, I think we have notions and ideas number would grow to 316 by 2026 the Congressional Budget Office, said that we’ve got to go off and experiment and surpass 400 by the mid-2040s. legislators have generally been support- and demonstrate and prototype,” he However, the proposed buildup ive of new shipbuilding programs. How- added. would come with a hefty price tag — ever, “they are not very supportive when The service has already been experi- between $27 billion and $36 billion they do not have a clear understanding menting with prototypes such as the annually over the next 30 years, accord- and vision of what the ship is going Sea Hunter USV, which has successfully ing to Labs. Many observers have ques-

28 NATIONAL DEFENSE • M A R C H 2 0 2 1 tioned the plan’s affordability. Traditional players in the military MARITIME SECURITY For comparison, Congress allocated shipbuilding sector such as Huntington about $24 billion for Navy shipbuilding Ingalls Industries will be involved in pro- in 2020. ducing robotic vessels, Sadler said. Capitol Hill, Sadler said. “To get to this larger fleet is going to In January, HII announced that it had What is the right mix of manned and require substantially more resources … completed the first phase of its new robotic ships for the future fleet? than what we’ve seen” in recent years, Unmanned Systems Center of Excel- “I have not seen or heard of any argu- Labs said. lence in Hampton, Virginia. It will be ment that would make me think that Also unclear is the extent to which used to assemble hull structures for unmanned has no place in the future,” the new U.S. administration will back its Boeing’s Orca XLUUV offering for Sadler said. “It will have some role. How predecessor’s vision. the Navy, the company said in a press big it is, is really the question — and President Joe Biden has said the mili- release. how fast” the Navy adopts the technol- tary writ large should emphasize capa- The main facility, sized at 135,000 ogy. bility over capacity, and he has touted square-feet, is scheduled to be complet- The Future Naval Force Study envi- unmanned systems as a key technology ed by the end of 2021, and will be used sioned the unmanned portion increasing for the future. for prototyping, production and testing to as high as 35 percent, or more than Biden’s nominees for senior Defense of new platforms. one-third of the fleet. Department positions have been non- “HII has made significant investments “I would certainly start to get skit- committal about the longstanding goal in the unmanned systems industry dur- tish if the ratio of unmanned vessels of a 355 manned-ship fleet, but touted ing the last year,” said Duane Fothering- became upwards of 30 percent of the the importance of artificial intelligence ham, president of Huntington Ingalls’ total force,” Sadler said. “I would start to Technical Solutions unmanned worry that we’re becoming a little too systems business group. “This unbalanced.” facility solidifies HII’s com- Robotic ships pose some disadvan- mitment to advancing devel- tages when it comes to interacting with opment of unmanned systems allies and conducting peacetime opera- for our current and future tions, he noted. customers.” “You don’t have a crew that can go However, nontraditional ashore and engage,” he said. “You don’t players can be expected to have a ship that can exercise with expand the industrial base for a partner navy or coast guard like a these types of ships and sup- manned ship can. And those are very porting technologies, Sadler important missions, especially in the noted. military diplomacy arena, which is very “There are other … build- important if you’re going to compete ers out there that we may with the Chinese in the South China not be thinking of yet,” he Sea and the East China Sea.” said. “There may be more New systems need to demonstrate Echo Voyager open water test entrants into this market once their reliability and ability to perform the money and the contracts their assigned missions before the start going out and it becomes Navy should even consider reducing its and autonomy — key enablers of robot- more real.” demand for manned vessels, which are ic platforms. However, right now “too many ques- more proven platforms, he added. The new administration is expected tions are swirling” regarding the budget Support for them will ultimately to put forth its first shipbuilding plan and other issues to encourage a rush depend on how well they perform at this spring. Sadler said it is possible that from nontraditional companies to jump sea, he noted. Biden’s team will only make minor into the market, he added. “Congress needs to know that they’re adjustments to the existing one. Down the road, growth in the robotic going to get a return on investment “They might even actually slam on ships industry — and the jobs it pro- before they really expand the produc- the gas and say, ‘We need more, this is vides — will likely bolster support for tion,” Sadler said, noting that interest not good enough,’” he said. “But given these programs in Congress, Sadler in drone aircraft ramped up after they the strength of the voices of those that noted. demonstrated their utility in combat want to use DoD ... as a bill payer [for However, any push to shift funding zones in places like Afghanistan and domestic programs], I’m not as optimis- away from manned platforms toward Iraq. tic that that’s a likely outcome.” unmanned programs would make law- “When they started killing bad guys Another key factor that will affect the makers whose constituents would be up in the mountains and in the desert, it Navy’s plans is the state of the indus- negatively impacted “kind of pissed,” became, ‘Oh wow, this is great! We want trial base. The service has highlighted Sadler cautioned. it.’ Then it was on steroids for many, photo Boeing the need to bolster industry and the “You don’t want to mess with that … many years,” Sadler said. “The same workforce to achieve its vision, and has because from a purely political calcula- thing is true for these unmanned [naval] promised more investments. tion, you’re going to make enemies” on systems as well.” ND

MARCH 2021 • NATIONAL DEFENSE 29 Navy Chooses Evolution Over Revolution for Shipbuilding

BY STEW MAGNUSON process and land-based testing has been Vice Adm. William Galinis, key to the Flight III successes so far, he Naval Sea Systems Command added. commander, points to the Arleigh The follow-on to the Littoral Com- Burke-class guided missile destroyer pro- bat Ship, the Constellation-class frigate, gram as an example of how the service serves as another example of this evolu- should acquire more ships. tionary approach backed up by rigorous “If you think about the DDG-51 class engineering before keels are laid. The and how we have evolved that since light amphibious warship, next-genera- the concept first came about back in tion destroyers, DDG(X), and the joint the 1980s and where we are today … Coast Guard-Navy Polar Security Cutter it really is kind of a model program,” he program are other ships still in the early said at the Surface Navy Association’s stages of development, he noted. annual conference. “The design approach is key to deliv- The evolutionary type design versus ering the ships and … these new con- the revolutionary approach has made it cepts and new programs that are coming combat relevant throughout its life and down the way,” he added. continues to do so, he said. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Whether it is the current goal of a Michael Gilday said: “In the future, 355-ship Navy or the even higher 500- we’re really going to have to team plus ship fleet proposed by Mark Esper closely together to deliver platforms in the waning days of his tenure as like the Constellation class and the new defense secretary, the Navy has a lot of DDG(X) on time. ... We have to get vessels to build over the next couple of them right. We cannot afford to have decades. delays. We cannot afford to have big Facing an emerging Chinese navy that mistakes. We can’t afford to have cost is christening new ships at a rate that overruns. We really have to deliver those alarms some experts, the U.S. Navy is on-time, on-budget and with the kind of feeling the pressure to keep up. capabilities that work.” The new shipbuilding plan, which Rear Adm. Casey Moton, program covers 2022 to 2051, was released in executive officer for unmanned and December and called for the fleet to small combatants, said the new frigate grow to 316 manned battle force ships has a great foundation because of all the by fiscal year 2026. The service current- work that went into the program in the ly has just under 300 battle force ships. design phase. Budget instability, acquisition snafus Risk was reduced by using a mix of an and capacity at its shipyards are among existing “parent” design for the ship and the possible roadblocks. non-developmental technologies for the “We really have to get the next-gen- subsystems. eration warships delivered on time and “There was a lot of hard work with without some of the first-class challeng- industry to mature those designs before es that we’ve seen previously on some we ever even put the ship on contract,” of our platforms,” Galinis said. Moton said. The DDG-51’s Flight III Combat The Navy has been doing the func- System that is currently being developed tional design work on the frigate and has shows that the risk in these programs entered the detailed design phase that shouldn’t be in the basic elements of the will be completed by the end of fiscal ships, but the subsystems that give them year 2021. Production begins in fiscal program executive office ships, said the their “teeth,” he said. year 2022, he said. Fincantieri Marinette new destroyers “are making tremendous McDowellRiley MCSN Navybyphoto “As we think about these newer Marine is the lead contractor for the progress, which will improve our lethali- designs, our high-end technical risk first three ships. ty and warfighting capability for decades should really be the combat capability “Preparing for production is our to come.” that you deliver and not so much the focus,” Moton said. Other efficiencies can be found platform,” Galinis said. Tom Rivers, executive director for through contract vehicles, Rivers said. Rigorous engineering in the design amphibious, auxiliary and sealift in Landing platform dock ships 28

30 NATIONAL DEFENSE • MARCH 2021 from ship to shore with aircraft and MARITIME SECURITY landing craft. The PEO’s “economic order quantity strategy” leverages the authorities and the appropriations given provide expertise and oversight for to the Navy this year to maximize cost concept design work, giving the require- and schedule benefits, while also provid- ments community a single authoritative ing more stability and production effi- resource for developing and transitioning ciency to suppliers, he said. with these programs, Rivers said. That includes the workforce. Without “By doing this, we’re getting a better highly skilled shipyard workers, these understanding of the crosscutting chal- vessels can’t be delivered on schedule. lenges across the industrial base, that in “We need to send to industry a com- turn allows [us] to develop strategies mon, steady demand signal so they can and better promote the resiliency of the hire, they can train. They can’t invest critical business space,” he said. without that. [Or] we can’t expect Gilday said: “Our public shipyards, them to be ready when we have a our aviation depots, our global networks demand,” Rivers said. of bases are our readiness engines. They “That is one of our initiatives — to are long overdue for restoration and bring that stability to the workplace for remain a focus of mine.” at least the amphibious ship workforce. While the Navy pursues a goal of sail- We’re trying to do the same type of ing 355 ships, or possibly more, it must strategy with other shipbuilding pro- also make tough choices to subtract some grams to bring that stability,” he added. platforms from the fleet, Gilday said. At the end of fiscal year 2020, the “The composition of the fleet matters Navy had 45 ships at various stages to us the most,” he said. of development, which will increase “Divestments will also be necessary steadily throughout this year as the ser- to build back the naval power America vice awards more contracts, said Rivers. needs. That includes the first experimen- “We’re focused on setting the right tal [Littoral Combat Ship] hulls, legacy conditions with the industrial base, so cruisers, dock landing ships and transfer- that we’re executing to the plan and ring non-core Navy missions like Aegis delivering ships on schedule,” he said. Ashore [missile defense] to our ground Rivers’ office is also working closely forces. Our sailors put years of excep- with the requirements community to tional service into these platforms, but develop the light amphibious warship — pivoting to the future requires tough also known as LAW. choices,” he said. Officials have described the vessel as Gilday also said unmanned vessels will somewhere between 200 to 400 feet be a part of the shipbuilding mix. long that can carry about 75 Marines “We need to pursue unmanned sys- and their equipment. It is a new con- tems, pure and simple. They expand our cept and not replacing any legacy ships. [intelligence, surveillance and reconnais- Officials have not announced how many sance] advantage. They add depth to our of the new amphibs they would like to magazines and they can operate inside procure. highly contested areas. They will provide The Navy plans to accelerate delivery affordable solutions to grow our Navy of the landing craft by adapting com- and to provide lethal combat fire,” he mercial vessels and design standards, said. (For more on unmanned systems see Rivers said. story on page 26) These surface ships — along with an As for the other hindrance to get- aggressive schedule to build new sub- ting ships delivered on time — fiscal marines — makes coordinating work uncertainty coming from Congress or a at shipyards complex. The Navy has change in administrations — that’s to be established a shipbuilding industrial base expected, he said. Guided-missile destroyer USS Arleigh Burke task force led by Matt Evans, which is “There will be fiscal uncertainties in specifically charged with helping to align the future. No doubt about that,” Gilday ship and submarine construction, main- said. “There always is, but we have to through 30 are under construction with tenance, and matching them with avail- have our priorities right. … We have to LPD-31 now under contract. able resources, capability, and capacity understand what we’re expected to con- The San Antonio-class ships provide requirements, Rivers said. tribute to the joint force and that’s sea the Navy and Marine Corps with sea- The Navy also appointed Tina Zim- control and power projection, and we based platforms that can ferry troops mer as its first futures director to can never lose sight of that.” ND

MARCH 2021 • NATIONAL DEFENSE 31 Navy Fleshing Out Requirements for Next-Gen Logistics Ship

BY MANDY MAYFIELD “Navy Next-Generation Logistics Ship Military Sealift Command dry cargo and The Navy wants to build a new Program: Background and Issues for ammunition ship USNS Lewis and Clark class of at-sea resupply ships, Congress.” but it has more work to do to develop “DMO aims at avoiding a situation requirements and secure adequate fund- in which an adversary could defeat U.S. combatants resupplied at sea,” Hendrix ing for the effort. naval forces by concentrating its attacks said. “It has to be carefully managed The service announced in 2020 its on a relatively small number of large, from that perspective.” Next-Generation Logistics Ship pro- high-value U.S. Navy ships,” the study The NGLS program will likely be gram, or NGLS, which is planned to be explained. operated by Military Sealift Command a new class of vessels that will enable In December, the Navy released a which is currently in charge of the refueling, rearming and resupply of new long-term shipbuilding plan aimed replenishment and military transport Navy ships while complementing its at boosting the capacity and capability ships for the Navy and other services, existing logistics forces. of its fleet. Over the next 30 years, the Rivers noted. The NGLS program is part of the blueprint calls for procuring a number According to the CRS report, the new Combat Logistics Force, said Tom Riv- of new vessels including 80 combat logistics ships may be built in two differ- ers, executive director for amphibious, logistics force ships. ent variants to perform specific missions. auxiliary and sealift programs at the “Logistics ships are and have always The vessels “will enable refueling, program executive office for ships. The been an integral part of the Navy’s rearming and resupply of naval assets Navy’s current combat logistics ships architecture,” said Jerry Hendrix, a naval — afloat and ashore” in support of Dis- include oilers, or T-AOs, dry cargo and analyst and retired Navy captain. Hen- tributed Maritime Operations, littoral ammunition ships, or T-AKEs, and fast drix recently released a book, To Provide operations in contested environments combat support ships, or T-AOEs. These and Maintain a Navy: Why Naval Pri- and expeditionary advanced base opera- ships are all large auxiliary vessels. macy Is America’s First, Best Strategy, in tions, the report said. “We’re looking for something that is which he advocates for a larger logistics The Navy is also considering convert- smaller than the existing T-AOs, T-AKEs, fleet. ing existing vessels, building new ships, T-AOEs,” Rivers said during a panel An auxiliary logistical support fleet is or pursuing both options to acquire the Russell Michael Class 2nd PettyNavybyphoto Officer discussion at the Surface Navy Associa- necessary for keeping Navy ships that logistics platforms, Rivers said. tion’s annual symposium in January. are spread out across vast theaters resup- Military Sealift Command issued a The new fleet would include an plied with fuel, spare parts, ammunition solicitation in December looking to increased number of smaller ships to and food, he said in an interview. obtain an existing commercial platform support a more distributed architecture Having a bigger Navy means there to experiment with for the program, an and enable the Navy to more easily needs to be growth in the logistics fleet effort that could help inform require- counter adversaries through a concept “or what you’ll end up finding is that ments, Rivers said. called Distributed Maritime Opera- you’ll be out of balance, you’ll have Rivers said PEO Ships is partnering tions, or DMO, according to a recent too many combatants and you won’t with Erica Plath, director of strategic

Congressional Research Service report, have the logistics force to keep those mobility and the combat logistics divi-

32 NATIONAL DEFENSE • MARCH 2021 sion in the office of the chief of naval “Those people who are trained to build MARITIME SECURITY operations, to help develop require- civilian or combat logistics ships also ments for the program. Officials are have skill sets that can contribute to the focused on writing the requirements marketplace for the naval shipyards, so it subcommittee on seapower and force for the refueling, resupply and rearming helps to generate a better trained work- projection, recently has been advocating portions of the program, he added. force for us in the long run.” for the logistics fleet, and other Navy Military Sealift Command hosted an As the Navy grows its combat logistics vessels that defend that fleet. Near-peer industry day in January where more shipbuilding capability, it likewise bol- adversaries such as China could target than 20 companies participated, Rivers sters its small parts suppliers, he noted. logistics ships and thereby interrupt said. During the event, program lead- This “has a tendency to lower the critical military supply lines. ers shared initial concepts studies with overall cost of your naval ships — your “More and more people are under- members of industry. The Navy is plan- destroyers, your cruisers — simply standing the critical nature of the Navy ning to release an industry study request because you have more parts suppliers in this fight and the critical nature of all for proposals in the first quarter of 2021 that are in the market of building small the different components … whether it with the goal of awarding multiple parts and components, and then com- is tankers, or securing tankers or cable companies contracts later this year that peting for those contracts with the gov- ships … as well as a modernized logis- will help inform requirements for the ernment,” Hendrix said. “By adequately tics fleet, and then having the ability to program. managing your logistics force, as well as make sure that we are protecting the “We’re planning to release an industry your military sealift and your merchant logistics fleets,” he said. study RFP here in this quarter, and … fleet, you are actually adding to your Another important aspect of logistics we’re looking to get some multiple par- naval force as well by growing that resil- ships, specifically in wartime scenarios, ticipants to help us as we kind of inform ience and lowering your overall costs.” is that they are imperative for supplying the requirements decision process,” Riv- The Navy requested $30 million in not just the Navy, but the other services ers said. research-and-development funding for as well, Hendrix noted. For example, The Navy hosted its first industry day the program for fiscal year 2021. How- Air Force bases in the Asia-Pacific region for the program in June 2020 to gain ever, funding for the NGLS was cut rely on Navy resupply vessels for avia- feedback from attendees and to con- by $6 million in the fiscal year 2021 tion jet fuel. tinue developing program characteristics. Defense Department Appropriations Wittman shared the same sentiment, One of the challenges the service is fac- Act, according to the CRS report. noting that soldiers also rely on logistics ing is underway replenishment, Rivers Oftentimes, logistics ships are one of ships. said. That “is unique to Navy ships, and the last programs funded by the Navy, The Army “understands in a very we’re trying to figure out how to best Hendrix noted. strong way that if they are going to be integrate that into a commercial plat- A “challenge that we often have is part of that [fight] in the Indo-Pacific, form, because we want NGLS to there needs to be a strong Navy,” be based upon a commercial plat- Wittman said. “The Army has got form as much as possible,” he said. to have a fleet of logistics ships to Underway replenishment is a be able to mobilize and to be able method of transferring fuel, muni- to get there.” tions and other goods from one Meanwhile, PEO Ships is ship to another during operations focused on speedily developing at sea. capabilities and delivering vessels The contract for designing and on time. constructing, or converting, the To increase its commitment to first NGLS will be awarded in the the effort, Rivers said a shipbuild- second quarter of fiscal year 2023, ing industrial base task force was according to the CRS report. Con- USNS John Ericsson, left, transfers fuel to the stood up last year, “which is specifi- struction or conversion of additional dry cargo and ammunition ship USNS Richard E. cally charged with helping to align ship platforms will follow in fiscal year 2024 Byrd during an underway replenishment. and submarine, construction, mainte- and subsequent years. nance and modernization with avail- Building logistics ships won’t just help able resources, capability and capacity the Navy meet its resupply require- getting the logistics force to rise to the requirements.” ments. It can also build resiliency and top of the priority list,” Hendrix said. “If As the service branches into more redundancy back into the military’s there’s a restricted number of dollars, small programs, the industrial task force overall shipbuilding infrastructure, Hen- an argument has to be made that the will give the Navy better insight into drix said. logistics force is as important to invest issues members of industry are facing. BowenStephen Navybyphoto “The one thing that we know is that in as your naval surface combatant force, “By doing this, we’re getting a better a strong, robust logistics fleet — and for and that we need to also invest in those understanding of the cross-cutting chal- that matter, a strong, robust merchant shipyards that are associated with build- lenges across the industrial base, that in fleet — helps to train workers, whether ing them.” turn allows us to develop strategies and they’re welders or pipefitters or electri- Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Va., ranking better ... resiliency of the critical busi- cians that can work on ships,” he said. member of the House Armed Services ness space,” Rivers said. ND

MARCH 2021 • NATIONAL DEFENSE 33 note. Despite the storm damage and the COVID-19 pandemic, the program is back on track, he said. The second hull will follow in 2023 and funding is in place to buy long-lead time materials for hulls three and four, he said. The service has yet to name a ship- builder for hulls five through 25, he said. “We have had a lot of industry study and engagement to ensure that that’s a fair and open competition,” he added. The service’s second highest prior- ity, the Polar Security Cutter, is also on schedule to begin construction by the end of the year, Johnston said. “This has been a very unique program because we haven’t built a heavy polar ice breaker in the United States in about 40 years,” Johnston said. The joint Coast Guard-Navy program has funding for two hulls so far “and very good support for hull three,” John- Coast Guard Ship ston said. The Coast Guard currently operates Modernization only one icebreaker, the aging Polar Star. Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Karl Under Full Steam Schultz said at the same conference that the service needs “a minimum” of six. Johnston said: “That’s going to be an incredible asset. And the partnerships BY STEW MAGNUSON 2018, the company’s Panama City, and the relationships [with the Navy] As work continues on replacing Florida, shipyard suffered heavy dam- that we built out has spread across all of its fleets of outdated ships, the age when struck by Hurricane Michael, our acquisition programs … and that has Coast Guard is kicking off the develop- which resulted in the Coast Guard hav- paid incredible dividends.” ment of two new programs — a vessel ing to revise the costs and schedule of Meanwhile, the Coast Guard is in the for Arctic operations and a family of the program as the company rebuilt its pre-acquisition stage of developing a boats that will ply inland waterways. facilities. The Department of Homeland new ship it is calling the Arctic Security “We have a lot going on. We’re doing Security granted the company $659 Cutter, which will also be designed to more acquisitions than we’ve done since million in relief, but announced that operate in cold climates and serve as a World War II,” said Rear Adm. Mike hulls five through 25 would have to be medium-sized icebreaker, Johnston said. J. Johnston, assistant commandant for recompeted. “At this point it’s a little early to really acquisition at the service. The Government Accountability pull out the strategy, but we will cer- Progress continues on the Coast Office in a November 2020 report, tainly be planning to engage industry as Guard’s top shipbuilding priority, the “Coast Guard Acquisitions: Opportuni- we move forward,” he said. Offshore Patrol Cutter, he said at the ties Exist to Reduce Risk in the Off- How many Polar Security Cutters are Surface Navy Association annual meet- shore Patrol Cutter Program,” said the ultimately built will have an impact on ing in January. revised schedule was risky. the new program and allow the Coast Hull No. 1 of the planned 25-ship “The Coast Guard authorized the Guard to better refine requirements. fleet is under construction and on track start of construction for the first two Schultz said he would like to have to be delivered to the Coast Guard in OPCs despite not having a stable design, six icebreakers and three of the smaller 2022. It will take about 20 years to which is inconsistent with shipbuilding Arctic Security Cutters for a total of build out the fleet. The $12 billion pro- best practices,” the report said. nine ships. gram will replace the service’s 270-foot “Further, the revised post-hurricane To ensure there is always icebreakers and 210-foot medium endurance cut- delivery dates for the first four OPCs are on hand, the service is considering rent- ters, which are becoming increasingly optimistic and do not fully incorporate ing them to meet its needs, Schultz said. expensive to maintain and operate, the schedule risks, increasing the likelihood “We’re looking at some leasing options photoGuard Coast Coast Guard has said. that the OPCs will not be delivered as a bridging strategy — not to be in lieu Eastern Shipbuilding Group is the when promised,” the report said. of [buying vessels], but additive — to contractor for the first four hulls. In Johnston sounded a more optimistic close some gaps,” he added.

34 NATIONAL DEFENSE • MARCH 2021 “Truly in the high latitudes, it’s all deploy these ships in innovative ways MARITIME SECURITY about presence. And we are excited to and really press the limits of their maxi- be off to the races on building icebreak- mum effectiveness.” ers,” he added. Another program in the pre-develop- commercial watercraft. One idea that had been considered ment stage is the Waterways Commerce A request for proposals to replace but appears to be dead now is nuclear- Cutter, which will be a family of three the 35 legacy tenders should be out powered icebreakers. platforms intended for rivers, lakes, in March, Johnston said. The service is “We have moved off the nuclear- intracoastal waterways and harbors. looking at three monohull variants. powered” icebreaker, Schultz said. “The Some of the boats this program would The Coast Guard plans to acquire ability to operate that in the Coast replace — inland tenders — have been 16 river buoy tenders, 11 inland con- Guard — that just doesn’t exist, and nor in the water for 77 years, Johnston said. struction tenders and three inland buoy could we build out to that with all the They maintain and replace navigation tenders. The new tenders will have demands on our plate.” buoys that facilitate the safe passage of greater endurance, speed and larger deck Meanwhile, the National Security load capacity than their predeces- Cutter program continues with the sors. The ships will also feature ninth ship recently delivered by NUMBER OF AUTHORIZED improved habitability and will the contractor, Huntington Ingalls COAST GUARD CUTTERS accommodate mixed-gender crews, Industries’ Ingalls Shipbuilding of according to a service factsheet. Pascagoula, Mississippi. A draft request for proposals was The original program of record released in July with an anticipated had eight NSCs in the Coast Guard contract award in 2022 and initial inventory, but Congress has since operating capability scheduled for authorized funding for three more, 2025. plus kicked in $100 million to pur- “The ability to affordably and chase long-lead time materials for a National Security Cutter 11 safely move product across and 12th ship. throughout the nation is vital to Fast Response Cutters, which American prosperity,” Johnston replace the service’s 110-foot cut- Offshore Patrol said. ters, are past the middle of their Cutter 25 “We are producing the cutters production run, with 42 of a and capability for the operator on planned 64 boats now completed. schedule and on budget the major- Capable of sailing at 28-plus ity of times, but we are far from knots, Johnston called them “a perfect,” he said. game-changer.” Two of the new The service is in the middle of vessels will be sailing to Bahrain an acquisition study being done by to replace two legacy ships that independent consultants that will have been there since Operation look at where the Coast Guard can Iraqi Freedom, he said. There will improve. eventually be a total of six stationed “We’re looking forward to using there, Schultz added. that as a tool to drive us from good The multi-mission Fast Response to great,” Johnston said. Cutters are just “one tool,” Schultz Fast Response Cutter 64 There is a lot more work to said. “They complement our 11 be done to support all these new National Security Cutters as well as ships, Schultz said. The Coast our forthcoming 25 Offshore Patrol Polar Security Guard is looking for more funding Cutters. Add to that [up to] three Cutter 2 to boost its capacity and capabili- new Polar Security Cutters, and you ties. It is pursuing upgrades to its have a fleet of 103 highly capable information technology systems U.S. Coast Guard cutters,” he said. and other assets, as well as looking That will add 2,000 more sea- to bring on more personnel, the going billets for the service’s person- commandant said. nel needs, he noted. “To close the Coast Guard As for the ships, “they’re not one- readiness gap, we need sustainable for-one replacements at all,” Schultz Waterways Commerce Cutter 30 annual budget growth — I would said. “Each new platform outper- say 3 to 5 percent over the next forms the legacy hull it replaces. five years,” Schultz said. “We need And we haven’t yet even fully real- a booster shot of sorts, about $900 images Guard Coast ized the capabilities or the potential million to $1 billion dollars to of these platforms. I continue to address our most pressing needs.” challenge our cutter community, ND our cutter commanding officers to — Additional reporting by Jon Harper

MARCH 2021 • NATIONAL DEFENSE 35 fication of that, we will start into that Navy Optimizing Shipyards effort,” he said. Norfolk is also moving along well, he added. With Digital Twin Technology Lagana noted that all the yards will have their digital twins up and running BY YASMIN TADJDEH ture is intrinsically linked to perfor- this year. The Navy’s public shipyards mance and in 2017 began laying the The service is already gleaning a great — which repair the service’s groundwork for the SIOP program, deal of information from Pearl Harbor’s submarines and aircraft carriers — are which officially began in the summer of digital twin, he said. aging and facing obsolescence issues. 2018, Lagana said. “We’re definitely getting some better To revitalize the yards and improve “This really is an … industrial manu- insight into some potential tweaks in infrastructure, the Navy is in the midst facturing optimization program with a infrastructure,” he said. “With any analy- of a multi-billion-dollar optimization focus on productivity in the shipyards sis, you kind of want to find that sweet overhaul that will employ digital twin and how that affects the overall national spot, that knee in the curve to where technology to map out areas most in defense,” he said. “How do we get can I get the most efficiencies with the need of changes. submarines in and out of shipyards as best return on investment.” The Shipyard Infrastructure Optimi- efficiently as possible, so the fleet com- In some cases, the Navy is finding that zation Program, or SIOP, is a 20-year, manders have the assets they $21-billion effort to modernize the four need to do their mission?” public yards in Norfolk, Virginia; Pearl Critical to the effort is a Harbor, Hawaii; Portsmouth, Virginia; modeling-and-simulation tech- and Puget Sound, Washington. nology known as digital twins “We’ve got dry docks that are over which digitally replicates an 100 years old,” said Steve Lagana, pro- object, place or building, said gram manager for the SIOP office. “We Stephanie Douglas, executive have buildings that are over 100 years director for logistics, mainte- old.” nance and industrial opera- Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Va., ranking tions at Naval Sea Systems member of the House Armed Services Command. subcommittee on seapower and projec- “The modeling and simula- tion forces, said the yards are in dire tion is really key as it allows need of an upgrade. us the opportunity to figure “When you travel to our public ship- out how to optimize flow, not yards, it is sobering to see the age of the only within the shops, but dry docks, … the limited capability of around the yards to provide the dry docks, and also the age of the the most efficient and pro- shops that are there,” he said during the ductive layout for operations Surface Navy Association’s annual con- within the shipyard,” she said. ference in January, which was held vir- “We’re already seeing some tually due to the COVID-19 pandemic. really exciting things come This creates substantial efficiency out of the modeling-and- The Los Angeles-class fast-attack submarine USS issues, he noted. simulation piece of it in terms Olympia arrives at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. “If you go to a place like Norfolk of opportunities.” Naval Shipyard, and you’re working on The service reached out to a ship in a dry dock and the shop that industry to tackle the “massive effort” some areas are not as bad as they origi- is producing materials for that ship is and chose Siemens Government Tech- nally thought and applying “lean manu- thousands of feet away, … it is grossly nologies to create digital twins for each facturing principles” could provide good inefficient to be able to do that,” Witt- of the four yards, Lagana said. value, Lagana said. man said. “There has never been a digital twin However, in other areas they are find- Over time, the infrastructure “got modeling-and-simulation effort of this ing that they may need to construct new a little misconfigured for what we’re size and scale ever in the world,” he said. buildings to create efficiencies. doing,” Lagana said in an interview with The service completed its first digital For example, some workforce service National Defense. twin of Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard buildings may need to be moved closer The missions had changed over the near the end of 2020, he said. Puget to the waterfront, he said. “That way the years from shipbuilding to maintenance, Sound recently finished up its baseline workers don’t have to travel so far for and then to nuclear-powered ship main- model and will soon begin an analysis food or for training or for any type of tenance, he noted. for its industrial optimization. Mean- support,” he said. “The infrastructure just never evolved while, data collection recently wrapped In April, the office plans to bring with those changes,” he said. up in January at Portsmouth. together all of Pearl Harbor’s facilities The Navy recognized that infrastruc- “Once we do the validation and veri- engineers, modelers and industrial engi-

36 NATIONAL DEFENSE • MARCH 2021 neers to sift through the data and out- said. “We can continuously do this with MARITIME SECURITY line a new area development plan that the model. We can manipulate the mod- will articulate the service’s intentions el with new information, and you can for the shipyard, Lagana said. That will program in different functionality … so computer modeling,” he said. They “have include infrastructure investments that we can run different types of analyses.” for a long time been using computer are required to achieve efficiencies and a The digital twins are becoming very modeling to improve the efficiency of strategy to execute them. robust and flexible tools, he added. their shipyards and improve their work- As the various digital twins come Lagana noted that the service went flow and figure out how to maximize online, the Navy is applying lessons with a single contractor for all four yards the predictability of the ship construc- learned to the entire program, he said. to increase continuity among the digital tion process.” “We’re learning as we’re ingesting twins. Digital twins are just now starting to thousands and thousands of lines of “There’s different variables at each of be employed in ship repair yards, he data and information into the model,” the shipyards that we have to consider, noted. The challenge for them, however, he said. The service is identifying … [including] what kind of mission, is that they are much smaller than new- limitations in the software and working what kind of fleet assets each shipyard construction yards and have less money through those to make the system more services, inactivation of ships, different to invest. efficient. Those changes will then be types of ships that can pull into differ- “The returns aren’t as significant,” he incorporated into the other digital twins. ent types of dry dock to different yards,” said. “You don’t get the big tranche of he said. “We felt as a risk money that you do with a ship con- mitigation tool, we’ll use one struction project where you can sort of approach, one methodology bring your digital twin investment into at all four sites to get us to a the construction of a new class of ship.” really high confidence level Digital twinning requires a lot of baseline that we can then software and time which can result in a evolve from.” significant investment, he said. This approach has facili- “They may not have that kind of cash tated knowledge transfer lying around,” he noted. The Navy could between the yards and has either provide a system to them or help allowed the service to make them invest in it themselves by giving progress rapidly, he added. them a grant. Lagana noted that so far However, Wittman has criticized the there have been no delays SIOP program and said it is taking too caused by the COVID-19 long to complete. pandemic. “We need to cut the SIOP plan in half “We haven’t even seen a in order to have any chance of having delay of one day,” he said. “As what’s necessary to maintain the ships,” soon as COVID hit, the team he said. “If we’re going to build to a got together, and because 500-ship Navy the only way that we a lot of this is digital kind have the full capability of those ships of work and the big boom is to make sure that there’s not a single of Zoom and [Microsoft] maintenance availability that’s missed; Teams and virtual meeting and making sure, too, that we have nec- platforms, … it was easy essary practices in order to get change to continue to have those orders through quickly, to make sure we engagements in a virtual model what to expect.” Already the service has found changes environment and continue the dialogue Vice Adm. William Galinis, com- at Puget Sound that can be applied to and the data transfers to keep moving.” mander of Naval Sea Systems Com- Pearl Harbor. Lagana noted that digital twin tech- mand, noted that the SIOP program “is “The interesting thing is we found out nology could be useful across the Navy, certainly one of those things that we a tidbit of information at Puget Sound including in private ship repair yards for really need to get after” over the next that we did not find at Pearl because of surface vessels. decade. a different business line,” he said. “It’s a Bryan Clark, director of the Center However, Douglas said accelerating constant learning process. We’re learning for Defense Concepts and Technol- the program would not be easy. every day with the data, the model and ogy at the Hudson Institute, noted that “Think about it in terms of living in how we interact with the model.” some private construction shipyards are your house while they’re doing a whole- Lagana compared the Navy’s digital already employing the technology. sale renovation and moving you from twin approach to what is known as spi- “Doing digital models of your ship- room to room to room,” she said. “That’s ral development of software. yard is very popular in some of the high the challenge that we will have in trying

Navyphoto “You let [the first version] run for a efficiency shipyards you see overseas. to accelerate as there’s so many depen- little bit, find your bugs, and then you Chinese shipyards, Daewoo in South dencies in between everything we do program in the fixes for those bugs,” he Korea, German shipyards — all use within the shipyards.” ND

MARCH 2021 • NATIONAL DEFENSE 37 Pentagon, Rivals to Play ‘Cat-and-Mouse Game’ with AI

BY JON HARPER integrity of the data that the software study said. The U.S. military and its for- relies on. With this level of understanding eign adversaries could soon find However, adversaries don’t neces- about how a particular machine learn- themselves in an interminable battle sarily have to break into a network or ing model works, adversaries could also to protect their artificial intelligence system to thwart it, the report noted. figure out how it may be compromised, systems from attack while developing For example, attackers might not need the study noted. offensive capabilities to go after their to hack into a military drone to cause it Technology developers and policy- enemies’ AI capabilities. to misidentify its targets — they could makers are confronted with the task Defense officials see great potential simply make educated guesses about the of figuring out how to manage the for artificial intelligence and machine drone’s machine learning system model inevitable risks associated with machine learning to aid in a variety of missions and act to exploit it. learning. ranging from support functions to front- In a so-called “evasion” operation, an Meanwhile, the Pentagon also has line warfighting. But the technology attacker can make subtle changes to incentives to develop capabilities to go comes with risks. system inputs to cause a machine to after competitors’ platforms. “Machine learning … offers the allure change its assessment of what it is see- “The United States is not the only of reshaping many aspects of national ing, the study explained. country fielding AI systems, and the security, from intelligence analysis to To illustrate this vulnerability, CSET opportunity to exploit these vulner- weapons systems and more,” said a cyber experts made subtle changes to abilities in adversaries’ systems may recent report by the Georgetown Uni- a picture of Georgetown University’s be tempting,” the CSET report noted. versity Center for Security and Emerg- Healy Hall building, a National Histori- “There are obvious military benefits of ing Technology, “Hacking AI: A Primer cal Landmark, and then fed that into a causing an enemy weapon to misidentify for Policymakers on Machine Learning common image recognition system. its targets or send an adversary’s autono- Cybersecurity.” “Human eyes would find the changes mous vehicles off course. There are However, “machine learning systems difficult to notice, but they were tailored also the obvious intelligence benefits of — the core of modern AI — are rife to trick the machine learning system,” stealing adversaries’ models and learning with vulnerabilities,” noted the study the report said. “Once all the changes about the data they have used.” written by CSET Senior Fellow Andrew were made … the machine was 99.9 U.S. defense officials are already think- Lohn. percent sure the picture was of a tricer- ing through these issues. Adversaries can attack these systems atops” dinosaur. The Air Force has been in talks with in a number of ways to include: manipu- While the Healy Hall triceratops the Defense Digital Service about hold- lating the integrity of their data and vignette might be amusing to some ing an AI hacking challenge. leading them to make errors; prompting readers, it would be no laughing mat- “We want to go into this clear-eyed them to unveil sensitive information; ter if, say, a military drone misidenti- and understand how to break AI,” said or causing them to slow down or cease fied a hospital as a weapons depot and Will Roper, who recently served as functioning, thereby limiting their avail- bombed it; or, conversely, if enemy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for ability, according to the report. tanks were allowed to attack U.S. troops Acquisition, Technology and Logistics. Methods such as “data poisoning” and because an adversary was able to trick “There’s not a lot of commercial invest- “evasion” are just some techniques that an ML-equipped surveillance system ment [or] commercial research on that. can lead ML platforms to make mis- into misidentifying the platforms as Not nearly as much as there is on mak- takes. innocuous commercial vehicles. ing AI.” “In ‘data poisoning,’ attackers make The aim of another type of counter- Roper, a highly respected tech guru changes to the training data to embed AI operation, known as a “confidential- who spearheaded a number of artificial malicious patterns for the machine to ity attack,” is not to cause a machine intelligence initiatives at the Pentagon, learn. This causes the model to learn the learning system to make errors, but to left office in late January during the wrong patterns and to tune its param- uncover sensitive data. presidential transition. eters in the wrong way,” the report To achieve this, adversaries can watch More research and probing could help explained. “In ‘evasion,’ attackers dis- how the system responds to different uncover vulnerabilities in AI and ML. cover imperfections in the model — the kinds of inputs. “Whatever we discover, we’ll try ways in which its parameters may be “From this observation, attackers can to fix,” Roper told reporters during a poorly tuned — and then exploit these learn information about how the model Defense Writers Group event. “Then weaknesses in the deployed model with works and about its training data. If the whatever we fix, we’ll try to break. And carefully crafted inputs.” training data is particularly sensitive — we’ll try to break those fixes and fix illustrationiStock For example, an attacker could break such as if the model is trained on classi- those breaks. And I guess that goes on into a network and manipulate the fied information — such an attack could forever in what we’re calling ‘algorith- data stored within it, compromising the reveal highly sensitive information,” the mic warfare.’”

38 NATIONAL DEFENSE • MARCH 2021 and therefore require new protections and responses,” it said. “For example, machine learning vulnerabilities often cannot be patched the way traditional software can, leaving enduring holes for attackers to exploit.” The Pentagon already has experience Alka Patel, head of the ethics team A subtle change in an attacker’s leveraging machine learning for intelli- at the Pentagon’s Joint Artificial Intelli- operations can change how effective a gence operations such as Project Maven, gence Center, told National Defense that particular defense is, the study noted. which used the technology to help the military’s AI systems will need to be Additionally, defensive techniques human analysts sift through hours and designed and engineered so they can be that work well for a less sophisticated hours of drone footage collected from disengaged or deactivated if they aren’t machine learning system might not be overseas battlefields. operating as intended. as effective for a more advanced system, Future plans call for deploying a In this new era of algorithmic warfare, or vice versa. variety of unmanned and autonomous will the attacker or the defender have The CSET report compared AI com- systems to include robotic aircraft, the upper hand? petition to the arcade game “Whack-a- combat vehicles and ships. (For more on “It is hard to answer this question Mole” where defenders must rapidly bat unmanned ships see story on page 26) until the field of machine learning down new threats that keep popping up. Roper said artificial intelligence tech- cybersecurity settles on specific offensive “New attacks are invented and nologies are ushering in “a new epoch of and defensive techniques,” the CSET defenses are developed, and then those warfare.” report said. “Even then the answer may defenses are defeated, and so on,” the “The algorithms, the AI that we take not be clear, as attackers and defenders study said. into the fight, we’re going to have to engage one another, both sides will dis- So how should policymakers and have an instinct for them and they will cover new techniques.” technologists approach this challenge? have weaknesses that are very different The study likened the situation to a System-level defenses, according to the than our humans and our traditional sys- “rapidly evolving cat-and-mouse game.” CSET study. That includes the use of tems,” Roper said. Roper noted that it’s unclear what the redundant components and the enable- The military will need to develop balance of power will be. ment of human oversight and interven- “digital stealth” and other digital coun- tion when possible. termeasures to thwart enemy efforts to The report used a self-driving car undermine U.S. artificial intelligence and scenario to illustrate how system-level machine learning capabilities, he noted, defenses could avert disaster. comparing the concept to how warfight- “A commonly cited example of an ers currently use stealth and electronic attack involves placing a sticker on a warfare to defeat enemy radars and jam- stop sign that makes it appear to auton- ming devices. omous vehicles to be a 45 mph sign,” The Defense Department needs to An image of Georgetown University’s iconic it said. “Although this attack is possible accelerate its acquisitions so that it Healy Hall was altered to trick an image and easy to perform, it only achieves doesn’t end up fighting “tomorrow’s war recognition system into thinking it was a a destructive effect if the car drives triceratops dinosaur. with yesterday’s AI,” he added. into a busy intersection. If the car has The military will have to find the many ways to decide to stop, such as by right balance between letting “smart” “It could end up being that it’s so easy knowing that intersections usually have machines do their thing, and keeping to break that the offensive order of AI stop signs, relying on lasers for collision them on a leash with humans exercising … is always so dominant that we don’t avoidance, observing other cars stopping, oversight. really have to worry about it. We just or noticing high speed cross-traffic, then While officials acknowledge the risks have a lot of counter-AI capability and the risk of attack can remain low despite involved in relying on artificial intel- we muddy that water for both sides,” the car being made of potentially vul- ligence, the technology is also viewed by he said. “But it could be that it balances nerable machine learning components.” many as too useful to pass up. pretty well, that the countermeasures While traditional cyber attacks won’t “When it’s having a bad day, when an and the counter-countermeasures bal- be going away anytime soon, algorithmic adversary’s potentially messing with it, ance well so that as you get into a cat- warfare is the future of cyber conflict, it’s too fragile today for us to hand the and-mouse game, if you pick your plan said James Lewis, director of the Strate- reins completely to it,” Roper said. “But well, you can always have a decided gic Technologies Program at the Center it’s too powerful when it’s having a good advantage.” for Strategic and International Studies. commons Wiki Gtownsfsvia photo day for us not to have it there in the Defenders face a number of chal- Biden administration officials need to first place.” lenges. For one, traditional cybersecurity continue to think about “how we devel- The Defense Department’s AI strat- techniques don’t necessarily apply to op our own tools, how we mess with egy, released in 2019, calls for funding machine learning, the CSET report other countries’ tools,” Lewis said in an research aimed at making artificial intel- noted. interview. “Our opponents are certainly ligence systems more resilient, including “Attacks on machine learning systems looking at more sophisticated tools” for to hacking and spoofing. differ from traditional hacking exploits attacking AI systems, he warned. ND

MARCH 2021 • NATIONAL DEFENSE 39

41

if

and ND

but it to three compli- the primary top priori- These are Is the corpora- is most What example, For

and practices

The document is a useful document rec- The evaluation of the risk assessment The results whether the risk assessment is being periodically updated and how, whether adjustments are being made to policies, appropriately devoting compliance resources to the high-risk areas, non-existent. ommends considering things like whether the company is actually DEFENSE • NATIONAL 2021 MARCH

never enough to simply because it’s

an ethics and should conduct every contractor whether the business is just setting up a pro- It may appear intimidating for some, adequately resourced and empow- is the program own par- only needs to focus on its A contractor

or managing and improving a mature program. need to employ a continuous improvement Contractors violation risks may be Act Corrupt Practices while Foreign the big picture, Stepping back and remembering start with, To faith? In being applied earnestly and in good Is the program document is substantive and The newly revised evaluation updates is one of several That lessons learned consideration is modified over It also asks whether the risk assessment newly The ” comprehensive. “ evalua- revised tion document is substantive and company, the business is a strictly domestic trucking among its ance with workplace regulations will be compliance risk assessment. areas. steer the focus of resources to high-risk other words, com- And does the corporation’s ered to function effectively? work in practice? pliance program culture. are to pre- ethics and compliance program goals of an effective and promote an ethical corporate vent and detect misconduct base. every possible that covers ance program and assess its own situation contractor important is that the well-designed? program compliance tion’s “yes” that enables it to answer implement a program cited in the guidelines: fundamental questions Anne R. Harris is owner and an LLC, principal ethics of Ethics Works and compliance consulting with practice a focus on con- government She tractors. formerly served as ethics officer for Dynamics General Corp. Contact her at [email protected]. these programs, gram, to help them understand the standards for tool for contractors comprehensive. needn’t be. that is ticular risk profile and design and implement a program appropriate for its size and its needs. to remain effective. approach for the program once a put a code of ethics on the shelf and conduct training year. enhancements, valuable document that emphasize looking at how the to the evaluation evolves over time. ethics and compliance program from compliance fail- time to take into account lessons learned organizations in the ures — either internal or observed at other same industry or region. risk landscape. internal controls as a result of a shifting ties,

indi- of the one

this docu- and negoti- including: This is key.

or anyone who Con- “Code of a small- and For a government con- For

document helps explain “we make a reasonable, for value But it also has great of the periodic evaluation this document is a rich source both at the time of the offense and periodic assessment of the and protection from retaliation for or niche operators,

enforcement of standards through HARRIS ANNE BY “adequacy and effectiveness” is the this should be reassuring. internal control systems that include criminal division of Justice the Department guidance emphasizes evaluation the program to charge them, determining whether Sentencing Guidelines for Organizations Federal

a hotline or some other type of communication

standards; and policies and procedures to set behavioral staff and resources to put in place a world-class compli- 2020, June

In April 2019, and revised in First published in 2017 Manual,” “Justice department’s In accordance with the “evaluation” The information in the It also requires: document fleshes out evaluation Department’s The Justice In addition, The U.S. Acquisition Regulation 3.1002 also states that Federal It is not expected that every company will commit the Ethics Corner

document. in place, compliance program n Programs” Compliance of Corporate “Evaluation updated its for prosecutors dealing with matters ment offers guidance and ethics programs. and improving compliance must consider when investigating of the factors prosecutors corporations, ating any agreements, and when a charging decision is made. wrongdoing. involving corporate in designing as an outline of many best practices contractors standards; whether the program to prosecutors what to look for to judge under review is adequate and effective. looking to create or improve its or indeed any company tractor compliance and ethics program, the need for a compliance and ethics officer; duct” communications about those and effective periodic training concerns. those who raise monitoring and auditing: to address changing risks. element bullets with useful insights into how to those program implement them effectively. round of revisions. of information and it is enhanced with each programs, requirements for compliance and ethics about perceived misconduct con- concerns mechanism to raise fidentially or anonymously; disciplinary or corrective action; effectiveness of the program; adjusting the program risks with a view toward organization’s time, Regulation present standards and Acquisition and the Federal should be appro- compliance program that any organization’s priate to the company and its particular situation. The prosecutors’ guidance states, vidualized determination in each case.” resisted starting down the path to implement a com- may have out of concern that it would be too expensive pliance program and time-consuming, ethics and compliance program elements of a contractor’s “suitable to the size of the company and extent of should be medium-sized contractors,

its involvement in government contracting.” Justice Guidelines Can Buoy Compliance Programs

Credit Government Contracting Insights BY SAMANTHA CLARK, EVAN SHERWOOD AND MICHAEL WAGNER

Biden Issues New Buy American Directive

n On Jan. 25, President Joe Biden issued a much-anticipated empowered to again raise the domestic component threshold, executive order announcing plans to strengthen the govern- a potential change that could have disruptive effects on gov- ment’s preference for domestically-sourced supplies, a move ernment contractors with global supply chains. that has major implications for contractors. After decades of managing supply chains to meet the 50 Executive Order 14005 on “Ensuring the Future Is Made in percent cost-of-components threshold, the seemingly modest All of America by All of America’s Workers” is the most ambi- increase to a 55 percent cost-of-components threshold already tious in a line of recent proclamations from the White House has required many contractors to reexamine bills of materials aimed at strengthening domestic preference requirements in and assess the need to shift sources of supply. The prospect of federal contracting. It calls for an array of changes to existing another increase to this threshold will require further adjust- domestic preference regulations and procedures in order to ments to sourcing and supply plans and is likely to prompt “maximize” federal purchases of domestic supplies. frustration from some multinationals about a perceived mov- The order contemplated changes that generally fall into ing target for BAA compliance. three principal categories: proposed revisions to substantive But the executive order’s direction to consider replacing the Buy American Act, or BAA, standards and requirements; addi- cost-of-components test with a value-based test would consti- tional procedures for review and approval of waivers from tute an even more fundamental regulatory shift. For nearly 70 Made in America laws; and detailed tracking and reporting years, the cost-of-components standard has been a foundation- requirements focused on Made in America compliance and use al element of the BAA’s country of origin test. The prospect of of waivers. This article focuses on the first of these categories. an alternative standard focusing on the domestic value that is The order calls for the Federal Acquisition Regulation Coun- added to the product will create uncertainty and complicate cil to consider amending Part 25 of the FAR to change the planning for global companies that sell into the federal market. regulatory thresholds and standards that have long-defined the In addition, replacing the cost-of-components test could application of the Buy American Act. Historically, an article raise questions about how this new approach might apply to was considered a “domestic end product” for purposes of the commercially available off-the-shelf, or COTS, items. At pres- BAA if the article was manufactured in the United States and ent, federal regulations waive the cost of domestic components exceeded 50 percent of the the domestic content test of the BAA for acquisitions of “The effect of Biden’s directive will depend COTS items, but the execu- tive order provides no assur- on the details of its implementation. ” ance that the value-added test would not apply to such cost of all components for the end product. The rule histori- items. Such an expansion cally applied an upward cost adjustment for foreign products could raise the regulatory of up to 12 percent when compared to the price of a domestic hurdle on a wide range of manufacturers who otherwise might product. not be tracking the sources of components for COTS items. On the last full day of the Trump administration, the FAR In the near term, contractors will be keen to have a clearer Council issued a rule that increased the domestic content understanding as to how the government proposes to imple- threshold from 50 percent to 55 percent (and from 50 percent ment this proposal. Key open questions include: how this val- to 95 percent for iron and steel components used in iron and ue-based standard would be defined and quantified; whether steel end products), and increased the price adjustment for for- the same domestic content thresholds would apply under the eign products from a maximum of 12 percent to a maximum value-based standard; and what constitutes “U.S. job-support- of 30 percent. ing economic activity” within the meaning of the executive Biden’s new order directs the FAR Council to consider a order. further increase in these numerical thresholds, although it does Ultimately, the effect of Biden’s directive will depend on the not set a specific target. details of its implementation. While it largely avoids prescrip- Of potentially greater significance, however, the order tive details, it requires the FAR Council to consider proposing directs the council to consider replacing the BAA’s “cost of new implementing regulations within 180 days, and the Office component test” for evaluating domestic content with a test of Management and Budget and General Services Administra- that considers “the value that is added to the product through tion likewise are directed to establish oversight and reporting U.S.-based production or U.S. job-supporting economic activ- mechanisms to ensure BAA compliance. ity.” This is a potentially seismic change to the law’s regulatory Contractors would be well-advised to closely track these

analysis, though substantial questions remain about how the developments as they unfold. ND illustrationiStock government would identify and quantify the “value” of U.S. production or “job-supporting economic activity.” Samantha Clark is special counsel, Evan Sherwood an associate and Under the executive order, the FAR Council will be Michael Wagner a partner at Covington & Burling LLP.

42 NATIONAL DEFENSE • MARCH 2021 News

Hill, Merbaum Named NDIA International Division Leaders n The National Defense Industrial NDIA would like to express Association announced new leader- its gratitude to Wayne Fujito as ship appointments for the Interna- he steps down from the division tional Division. chairmanship but remains actively Greg Hill, vice president of engaged as a member of the Divi- global trade compliance at Leon- sion Executive Committee. ardo DRS, has been named the new The committee will soon begin chair. Hill will lead the division for laying out an agenda and the path the next two years. forward for the division in 2021. Alan Merbaum, senior associ- Please send ideas for topic or ate at Booz Allen Hamilton, will speaker requests to Division Direc- support Hill as the newly elected Hill Merbaum tor Britt Sullivan at bsullivan@ vice chair. NDIA.org. ND

Women In Defense Scholarship iFEST Organizers Applications Now Open Issue Call for Ideas n Women In Defense, an affiliate of NDIA, is now ac- n In collaboration with the National cepting applications for academic year 2021-2022 WID Training and Simulation Association — scholarships. an affiliate of NDIA — the Advanced Through the WID Scholarship Program, Women In Distributed Learning Initiative is Defense encourages women to pursue careers support- pleased to announce iFEST 2021. iFEST is the premier confer- ing U.S. national security. Eligible candidates may sub- ence on distributed learning, bringing together thought leaders, mit applications for funding to assist them in pursuing innovators and senior officials from government, industry and education on the path to a career in defense or foreign academia to collaborate and share the latest challenges and in- policy. Applications must be sub- novations in the field. mitted no later than March 12. The event is being planned as an online conference with op- For more information portunities for some in-person sessions Aug. 30 through Sept. 1. and to apply for a WID A call for ideas will close March 15. Ideas may be submitted Scholarship, please visit for six topical areas. Formats include presentations, tutorials, WomenInDefense.net/ posters and activities. Notification of acceptance will be sent WIDScholar. April 16. Please contact Ann Web- Potential speakers may submit ideas at application.ndia.org/ ster at [email protected] abstracts/11d0/. Presenters will be selected based upon the qual- with any questions. ND ity and fit of their submissions. Full papers are not required. ND

M A R C H 2 0 2 1 • NATIONAL DEFENSE 43 MARCH 23-25 NDIA National Security CALENDAR AI Conference & Exhibition 2-30 2021 Human Systems Virtual conference Digital Experience NDIA.org/NSAICE We look forward to Virtual conference NDIA.org/HSDE bringing together APRIL 4 Tactical Wheeled leaders in government, 6-7 Integrated Precision Vehicles Webinar industry, and academia Warfare Review (IPWR-21) Virtual webinar Virtual conference again to solve the most NDIA.org/TWVMarch challenging issaues in NDIA.org/IPWR21 8-11 2021 Pacific Operational national security. 7-8 2021 Insensitive Munitions Science & Technology (POST) & Energetic Materials (IMEM) To keep our community Conference Technology Symposium engaged, NDIA meetings, Virtual conference Virtual symposium NDIA.org/POST conferences and events are NDIA.org/IMEM21 currently held virtually. 15 NDIA-IPMD: Applying Agile 8 2021 Joint NDIA/AIA Visit NDIA.org/Coro- Development and Execution on Industrial Security Spring DoD Projects navirus for event status Webinar Virtual webinar updates. Virtual webinar NDIA.org/IPMDAgileUpdate NDIA.org/ISCSpring Christine M. Klein 23-24 2021 Undersea Warfare Senior Vice President, Virtual Conference MAY Virtual conference Meetings, Divisions & NDIA.org/VirtualUSW 11-13 64th Annual Partnerships Fuze Conference Virtual conference NDIA.org/Fuze21

NDIA NATIONAL SECURITY AI CONFERENCE & EXHIBITION

Register Today This will be the premier event on innovation in artificial intelligence (AI) for national security. Focusing on topic areas such as the competition continuum, AI solutions, federal AI initiatives, and real-world AI technology. Attending this event includes unparalleled access to key information and members of the AI community. Join us in leveraging the pace of AI development and deployment to strengthen the safety and security of the United States and our allies.

March 23 – 25 | NDIA.org/NSAICE

44 NATIONAL DEFENSE • MARCH 2021 REGISTER TODAY MAY 17 – 21 | SOFIC.ORG NDIA KEEPS YOU INFORMED ON THE LATEST INDUSTRIAL BASE NEWS RELATED TO COVID-19: • IMPORTANT INFORMATION • POLICY ACTIONS AND MEMOS • RESOURCES AND DOCUMENTS • EVENT UPDATES

NDIA.ORG/CORONAVIRUS

AN ONLINE COMMUNITY FOR DEFENSE PROFESSIONALS

NDIA Connect is a member-only benefit that’s bustling with information, conversation, and activity stimulated by defense professionals from industry, government, and academia. Log in today to explore the platform’s various functionalities and contribute to our collective mission in support of the warfighter. From anywhere and at any time, use NDIA Connect to network with colleagues, collaborate on projects, and stay connected.

Connect.NDIA.org

46 NATIONAL DEFENSE • M A R C H 2 0 2 1 2021 PACIFIC OPERATIONAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY (POST) CONFERENCE

Overcoming Regional Security Challenges through Collaborative Technology Engagement

For the first time ever, this conference will be virtual and feature a mix of classified and unclassified sessions, enabling attendees to examine regional security challenges and collaborative technology engagement relevant to the S&T community from all over the world. This event is not to be missed; it represents your chance to attend specially curated keynotes and panels that are sure to deliver insights and information critical to our collective mission of supporting the warfighter. International cooperation and technological modernization will be two main topics of discussion, as will military readiness and breakthrough capabilities. Join NDIA and USINDOPACOM as we discover DoD research opportunities, participate in workshops, network with senior leaders, and explore a full industry showcase.*

*The industry showcase is a separate event to POST 2021 and is hosted exclusively by NDIA. USINDOPACOM does not support or endorse the industry showcase event.

March 8 – 11 | NDIA.org/POST Next Month

CMMC Update Army Aviation Industrial Base ■ Soon, every defense contractor — big and small — will have ■ The Army aviation industrial base — which manufactures to earn Cybersecurity Model Maturity Certification to do busi- the service’s family of helicopters — has been clobbered by ness with the Defense Department. A variety of experts give the COVID-19 pandemic. Service leaders are working with their best advice on how to prepare for this eventuality. companies to try and mitigate issues, but concerns about the health of the industrial base remain. Artificial Intelligence ■ The National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence V-22 Upgrades — which was tasked by Congress to research ways to advance ■ The U.S. military’s V-22 — which is employed by the the development of AI for national security and defense pur- Marine Corps, Navy and Air Force Special Operations Com- poses — is on the cusp of releasing its final report. What are mand — is now almost 15 years old. We take a look at the the key enablers of AI technology commissioners are homing upgrades in store for the tilt-rotor aircraft. in on? Counter-UAS Army Helicopters ■ The Defense Department is investing more into countering ■ The Army is working to acquire both a future scout helicop- unmanned aerial systems. The Pentagon is organizing new pro- ter and a Black Hawk replacement aircraft. What strides are grams and strategies to protect troops from the ever-improving being made by the service and industry to meet requirements technology. for the new programs?

MARCH 2021 Index of Advertisers Interact with the companies whose products and services are advertised in National Defense. ADVERTISER INTERACT PAGE NO.

Collins Aerospace ...... www. collinsaerospace. com/gnc...... Back cover

BAE Systems ...... www. baesystems. com/flightcontrols...... Inside front cover

C3 Integrated Solutions ...... www. c3isit. com/CMMC-Ready...... Inside back cover

Darley Defense ...... www. darleydefense. com...... 25.

Oshkosh Defense ...... www. oshkoshdefense. com...... 3

Systems Engineering Research Center ...... www. sercuarc. org...... 7

ADVERTISING For information on advertising in National Defense or one of NDIA’s electronic offerings, contact:

Senior Vice President Sales Director Sales Manager Meetings & Business Partnerships Kathleen Kenney Alex Mitchell Christine M. Klein (703) 247-2576 (703) 247-2568 NDIA’S BUSINESS AND (703) 247-2593 [email protected] [email protected] TECHNOLOGY MAGAZINE [email protected] Fax: (703) 522-4602 Fax: (703) 522-4602 NationalDefenseMagazine org.

NDIA MEMBERSHIP: The National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA) is the premier association representing all facets of the defense and technology industrial base and serving all military services. For more information please call our membership department at 703-522-1820 or visit us on the web at NDIA.org/Membership.

48 NATIONAL DEFENSE • MARCH 2021 Get ready for CMMC with C3 Integrated Solutions

The C3 CMMC Readiness Program C3 Integrated Solutions specializes in securing our nation’s Defense Industrial Base using Microsoft Government Cloud. Our C3 CMMC Readiness Program leverages the Microsoft 365 GCC High, Azure Government, and industry leading partners to meet Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) requirements in a methodical, incremental approach. To get the most out of GCC High and understand your road to compliance, turn to C3 Integrated Solutions.

Get started today To learn more about the C3 CMMC Readiness Program, visit c3isit.com/CMMC-Ready.

(571) 384-7950 | [email protected] 1001 19th Street N | Suite 1200 | Arlington, VA 22209

©2021 C3 Integrated Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved. DELIVERING ON TARGET

Precision munitions guidance proven to withstand 20,000g shock

Our Atlantic Inertial Systems’ ultra-reliable, gun-hard guidance technology extends the range and performance of many munition types – and now delivers fibre-optic gyro (FOG) levels of performance without the added size, weight and cost. collinsaerospace.com/gnc

© 2020 Collins Aerospace