Army Issue Service Marches Toward Modernization

Air Force Sets Sights On Robotic Jets

COVID Crisis Spurs Change at Pentagon

NATIONALDEFENSEMAGAZINE.ORG

THE ARMY ISSUE SERVICE MARCHES TOWARD MODERNIZATION

OCTOBER 2020

The Business and Technology Magazine of

VOLUME CV, NUMBER 803 EXPERIENCE OCTOBER 2020 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.

Army Programs 30 LOOK FOR n The Army is pushing forward with a slew AUGMENTED of initiatives across its modernization port- REALITY folio. In this issue, National Defense takes an CONTENT ON: in-depth look at some of the service’s latest experiments and investments. PAGE25 COVER: Army photo by Staff Sgt. Shane Hamann PAGE26 PAGE39

Unmanned Systems 24 n An Air Force effort aimed at acquiring a new class of autonomous drones is underway as industry teams compete for a chance to build a fleet of robotic wingmen. The program is one of the service’s top science-and- technology priorities and will soon undergo operational experiments. COVID-19 22 n Pentagon officials were left scrambling earlier this year to maintain readiness, protect the troops and keep the industrial base healthy amidst the coronavirus pandemic. Officials are taking stock of measures that worked and didn’t work and deriving lessons learned that could be 8 10 12 15 applied to future crises.

OCTOBER 2020 • NATIONAL DEFENSE 1 VIEWPOINT 36 Army Puts Robotic Combat OctOber 2020 16 Acquisition Reform Vehicles Through Paces vOlume cv Requires Cultural Change Officials deemed the first experiment with number 803 The Defense Department continues to heavy unmanned platforms a success. struggle with crossing the “Valley of Death.” BY MANDY MAYFIELD BY JOHN KOVACH AND ARTIE MABBETT EDITOR IN CHIEF 38 Army Begins Fielding Upgraded Stew Magnuson INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE Third-Generation Strykers (703) 247-2545 18 Developing Military Electronic Soldiers are receiving the newest iteration [email protected] Systems Calls for Holistic Strategy of their medium armored vehicle. BY SCOTT GOURLEY CREATIVE DIRECTOR Both hardware and software development Brian Taylor must be addressed. (703) 247-2546 BY STEVE CARLSON, JAMES S.B. CHEW EXCLUSIVE AND FRANK SCHIRRMEISTER 40 Q&A with Army [email protected]

Acquisition Chief Bruce Jette MANAGING EDITOR COMMENTARY In an interview, the Army’s top weapons Jon Harper 20 Hyper-Connected Military buyer discusses how the COVID-19 pan- (703) 247-2542 Needs a Next-Gen Common demic is impacting the service. BY YASMIN TADJDEH [email protected] Operating Picture A key capability for troops operating at the SENIOR EDITOR DEPARTMENTS tactical edge is a mechanism for shared, Yasmin Tadjdeh (703) 247-2585 comprehensive situational awareness. 4 NDIA Perspective BY TODD PROUTY [email protected] Value of Foreign Military Sales Exceeds Profits BY WESLEY HALLMAN STAFF WRITER FEATURES 6 Up Front Connie Lee COVID-19 (703) 247-2543 Random facts and figures from industry and 22 Pentagon Examining Lessons government [email protected] BY STEW MAGNUSON Learned from Pandemic EDITORIAL ASSISTANT COVID-19 is leading to changes across the Defense Department. 8 Editor’s Notes Mandy Mayfield BY YASMIN TADJDEH BY STEW MAGNUSON (703) 247-9469 [email protected] AIR FORCE 9 Algorithmic Warfare What’s coming in artificial intelligence, 24 The Rise of Skyborg: big data and cybersecurity Air Force Betting on BY YASMIN TADJDEH ADVERTISING New Robotic Wingman The service wants new drones that can 10 Budget Matters Christine M. Klein leverage AI and accompany manned fighter Who’s funding what in Washington jets into battle. BY JON HARPER SVP, Meetings & Business Partnerships BY JON HARPER (703) 247-2593 12 News Briefs [email protected] MARINE CORPS BY CONNIE LEE AND MANDY MAYFIELD Kathleen Kenney, Sales Director 28 Marines’ New Recon 15 NDIA Policy Points (703) 247-2576 Vehicle Faces Uncertainty Immunizing Industry Against COVID-19 [email protected] The future of the service’s effort to acquire Liability a new scout vehicle has been thrown into BY JOSEPH SOBECKI Alex Mitchell, Sales Manager question. (703) 247-2568 BY CONNIE LEE 42 Government Contracting Insights [email protected] Showdown Looms on Cost Accounting ARMY Standards CONTRIBUTED BY COVINGTON & National Defense 30 Army Upgrading Medium BURLING LLP Caliber Cannons, Ammo 2101 Wilson Blvd., Suite 700 The service is enhancing its cannon and 43 NDIA News Arlington, VA 22201 ammunition systems to counter adversaries. BY SCOTT GOURLEY NDIA MEMBERSHIP: The 44 NDIA Calendar Complete guide to NDIA events National Defense Industrial 34 Army Invests in New Training Association (NDIA) is the premier association representing all facets of the defense and technol- Tools Amidst Pandemic 48 Next Month ogy industrial base and serving all military services. Leaders want to leverage virtual reality Preview of our next issue For more information please call our membership technology to improve readiness. department at 703-522-1820 or visit us on the web at NDIA.org/Membership BY CONNIE LEE 48 Index of Advertisers

National Defense (ISSN 0092–1491) is published monthly by the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA), 2101 Wilson Blvd., Suite 700, Arlington, VA 22201–3060. TEL (703) 522–1820; FAX (703) 522–1885. Advertising Sales: Kathleen Kenney, 2101 Wilson Blvd., Suite 700, Arlington, VA 22201–3060. TEL (703) 247–2576; FAX (703) 522–4602. The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of NDIA. Membership rates in the association are $40 annually; $15.00 is allocated to National Defense for a one-year association basic subscription and is non-deductible from dues. Annual rates for NDIA members: $40 U.S. and possessions; District of Columbia add 6 percent sales tax; $45 foreign. A six-week notice is required for change of address. Periodical postage paid at Arlington, VA and at additional mailing office. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to National DEFENSE, 2101 Wilson Blvd, Suite 700, Arlington, VA 22201–3060. The title National Defense is registered with the Library of Congress. Copyright 2020, NDIA.

2 NATIONAL DEFENSE • O C T O B E R 2 0 2 0 Whether it’s across town or halfway around the world, with every shipment and every project, our customers place their trust in our hands. My hands. Because at some point, every piece of business I touch becomes a personal responsibility. It’s up to me to keep costs down, performance on schedule, and quality at a premium. Someone’s business is riding on it. And I won’t let them down. I am

pilotdelivers.com / 1-800-HI-PILOT Perspective BY WESLEY HALLMAN

Value of Foreign Military Sales Exceeds Profits n The National Defense Strategy is predicated on three pillars Strategy, there has been growing concern about the defense of equal importance to the long-term geostrategic success of industrial base’s ability to surge production during a national the United States. emergency. The experience of the COVID-19 crisis only The second, “Strengthen Alliances and Attract New Part- amplified those concerns. ners,” contains multiple imperatives, but one of the most Just as importantly, these production lines keep the highly important is the provision of advanced U.S. military equip- skilled, specialized and cleared workforce working on advanced ment and services in the form of foreign military sales (FMS) weapons systems, building the needed skills to field even more and direct commercial sales (DCS). We need to build on the advanced systems. Without overseas orders, America would momentum of the Conventional Arms Transfer initiative to face significant atrophy in its most important asset, its talent. keep America as the global supplier of choice. Should the nation find itself in a national emergency, open These sales have several reinforcing benefits to U.S. national production lines could mean the difference. security to include: creating built-in interoperability with friends, Also, for every plane, armored vehicle, Aegis cruiser, radio, or allies and partners; cost-effectively maintaining and expanding radar sold to a friend, ally or partner, defense contractors real- regional influence; lowering unit costs to the U.S. military; keep- ize economies-of-scale that ultimately lower the per-unit cost ing operational critical production lines and the cleared, skilled to the U.S. taxpayer, incrementally making its forces not just workforce key to maintaining surge capacity in case of national more effect but more affordable over time. emergency; and increasing revenues for the defense industrial Finally, according to Lt. Gen. Charles Hooper, former direc- base to be invested in the capabilities that will keep the U.S. tor of the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, the United warfighter advantaged across the spectrum of conflict. States recorded arms sales of $55.4 billion in fiscal 2019. As the strategy notes, the United States does not fight alone. Those sales convert to revenues across the breadth and depth It operates by with, and through the friends, partners and allies of the defense industrial base to reinvest into efforts including it has cultivated throughout history. Operating in coalition, the advanced manufacturing equipment, workforce training, and nation has developed unmatched capabilities and operational the research and development necessary to iterate and inno- dominance. Those capabilities did not emerge by accident; an vate at a pace to extend technological leads over competitors. effective fighting force is not the result of a pick-up game. To further realize the national security benefits of overseas Effectiveness during conflict results from superior equip- sales, we must expand on ment coupled with effective training from the individual “We must expand on the momentum built by service member to large force formations. When friends, allies this administration’s Con- and partners operate the same equipment with the same tac- the momentum built ventional Arms Transfers tics, training and procedures, disparate allied or coalition forces initiative. A key part of can effectively integrate their operations, amplifying impact by this administration’s that initiative is rationaliz- through interoperability across all echelons and tasks from Conventional Arms ing non-program of record maintenance and logistics to battlespace coordination. sales. Increasingly, coun- Even when the U.S. military is not present, providing Transfers initiative.” tries want tailored capa- capabilities through FMS and DCS regionally extends the bilities and not the exact, stabilizing influence of the United States. Developing allies’ off-the-shelf, U.S. version. Every step away from the program capabilities builds a regional bulwark for the rules-based inter- of record version involves multiple layers of further oversight, national order the United States and its friends built after clearances and other impediments. World War II. Those capabilities, along with an expectation of As the lead association working with the Defense Secu- U.S. support, serve as a powerful deterrent to regional actors rity Cooperation Agency on the effort, the National Defense who seek to disrupt the status quo. Industrial Association put together a working group of industry Additionally, sales to partners and allies come with impor- experts to collaborate with government partners toward a sys- tant constraints on how they can use, transfer, or support that tem that can rapidly identify sponsoring offices within the mil- equipment. America would exercise little ability or influence itary services, expedite clearances and lower the cost and time to impose moderating policies in current Middle East con- of transactions to maintain U.S. producers as go-to suppliers. flicts without those nations’ desire for superior U.S. equip- From World War II to the post-9/11 conflicts, sharing ment. And, in the ultimate example of how foreign sales can equipment provided competitive advantage to American and influence the buyer, the Iranian Shah’s preference for U.S. partner forces. The rise of peer competitors demand we build equipment, and the subsequent cut-off of all support to that upon and strengthen foreign military sales and direct commer- equipment post-revolution, left the current Iranian regime cial sales, to ensure this important aspect of national security militarily handicapped for over 30 years. remains a decisive advantage. ND Besides geopolitical advantages, we reap significant economic benefits from overseas sales. With the refocus on great Retired Air Force Col. Wesley Hallman is senior vice president for power competition brought on by the 2018 National Defense strategy and policy at NDIA.

4 NATIONAL DEFENSE • O C T O B E R 2 0 2 0

FURTHER READING COMPILED BY STEW MAGNUSON UP FRONT Which Way the Dragon? Sharpening Allied Perceptions of China’s Strategic Trajectory Fail Fast? Heck: ‘No!’ By Ross Babbage, n Pentagon acquisition gurus along with Vice Chairman Center for Strategic and of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. John Hyten have said Budgetary Assessments military R&D programs should be able to “fail fast,” learn from mistakes and move on without being hammered by n Is there a better way Congress. But are lawmakers receiving the message? to predict what China Heck “No,” said Rep. Denny Heck, D-Wash., a member of the will do in the next 30 House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. years, or so? “When there is a failure, there will be a news story,” he said at an NDIA conference. Australian Ross Bab- “And then there will be some portion of the Congress that seeks to exploit that for bage in this 136-page political gain,” said the lawmaker, who is retiring at the end of this session. report, which contains It will take elected officials with a “strong backbone” to accept a lot of risk and to the essays of other Indo-Pacific reverse “244 years of American history,” he added. experts, looks to do away with traditional analyses that give predictions Controlled Unclassified Information: Please Define five or 10 years in the future. n The Pentagon’s Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification is meant to protect de- Ross is a non-resident Senior Fel- fense industrial base networks and controlled unclassified information, or CUI, from low at the Center for Strategic and cyberattacks, but officials know that distinguishing what is or isn’t CUI is causing Budgetary Assessments and CEO of headaches for some contractors. Strategic Forum Ltd., a non-profit “CUI is complicated,” acknowledged Katie Arrington, the Pentagon’s point person committed to fostering high-level for CMMC. discussions and debates on the secu- The Defense Department is planning to push out webinars and online videos that rity challenges confronting Australia, will help define CUI, Arrington said during a conference hosted by NDIA’s San Diego and brings an allied perspective to Chapter. the debate. “Here’s an easy way to think about it,” she said. “If you are looking at something, if China just in the last year — like you are transmitting something or you are downloading something that would give the rest of the world — was roiled the adversary an advantage in any way — that is CUI.” by the COVID-19 crisis, he points out. Who saw it coming? Navy Cyber: Buyer Beware “The prospects of further natural n The Navy needs to be more cautious about the equip- disasters, economic disruptions, ment it adopts as adversaries look to increase cyberattacks, military reverses and significant according to Chief of Naval Research Rear Adm. Lorin political shifts cannot be ruled out, Selby. but the specifics are also impossible “Obviously, as we go forward with more technology we to predict,” he wrote. Selby have more cyber risks than ever,” he said at the San Diego Some of the variables are: the event. “So using commercial equipment isn’t always the durability of the China Communist right thing to do. We need to make sure that this equipment is robust.” Party regime; the technological, This will also require the Navy to pay more attention to the software it purchases, economic and corporate progress of he noted. For instance, much of the software acquired for the USS Zumwalt was the nation; the level of international based on a Windows platform that quickly became outdated. cooperation or resistance it faces; “No one really realized that Windows was going to stop supporting [the] software and the extent it uses its military that quick after putting it up, but it happens, and we have to probably plan ahead beyond its borders. better for that,” he said. The report spells out four alterna- tives for China’s future and some Satcom Common Operating Picture in Works key early indicators that can tip n Lt. Gen. William Liquori, Space Force director of strategic requirements, archi- analysts off that one of them may be tectures and analysis, said the marriage of military and commercial satellite programs coming true. within the new service brings up the necessity of a common operating picture for all The fourth, “Macro-Singapore,”

the means space assets use to communicate. is the best scenario. That’s where photo Dept. Defense photo, House U.S. The Defense Information Systems Agency’s commercial satcom office was trans- leadership institutes “far-reaching ferred to the Space Force, giving commanders better visibility across all communica- economic and social reforms, re- tion assets, he said at a Defense News conference. A common operating picture will duces the country’s military and in- give commanders a better understanding of what’s happening if opponents try to ternational footprint, and negotiates degrade communications. Funding toward this goal will be found in the 2021 and a genuinely cooperative partnership 2022 fiscal year budgets, he added. with the West.” — Reporting by Connie Lee, Stew Magnuson and Yasmin Tadjdeh Wouldn’t that be nice? ND

6 NATIONAL DEFENSE • OCTOBER 2020 9 2025 reporters reporters , Jim Smith,

ND 11 2024 for the DoD Research Center TRUSTED SYSTEMS A University Affiliated National Defense National 8 HUMAN CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT HUMAN CAPITAL 2023 MANAGEMENT TRANSFORMATION SYSTEMS ENGINEERING AND SYSTEMS www.sercuarc.org ENTERPRISES AND SYSTEMS OF SYSTEMS The month kicks off with NDIA’s NDIA’s with off kicks month The It ends with the association’s new new association’s the with ends It In between, between, In

2022 Special Operations Command’s acquisi- Command’s Operations Special presenter. a be will executive, tion JADC2 & All Domain Warfare Sympo- Warfare Domain All & JADC2 held be also will which 27-28, Oct. sium, virtually. an- AUSA’s covering virtually be also will 13-16. Oct. meeting, nual Virtual Special Operations/Low-Intensity Operations/Low-Intensity Special Virtual Conflict Conference, Oct. 2. 2. Oct. Conference, Conflict COMING IN OCTOBER n 7

7 7 2021 De- 13 2020 NATIONAL DEFENSE • 13 2019 . Ellen Lord. OCTOBER 2020 9 2018 9 2017 9 2016 Conference, which was held virtually this year due to the ongoing ongoing the to due year this virtually held was which Conference, 8 2015 Posted by Jon Harper on Sept. 9. Go to https://bit.ly/2DNbEMI for the complete story. complete the for https://bit.ly/2DNbEMI to Go 9. Sept. on Harper Jon by Posted Companies in the defense industry will have have will industry defense the in Companies — — The Pentagon plans to initially look at costs incurred by contractors in the the in contractors by incurred costs at look initially to plans Pentagon The to billion $10 total will expenses COVID-19-related that estimated Lord else- and Hill Capitol on opposition into run has request Pentagon The “So, we would get all of that back. We think that would take two to three three to two take would that think We back. that of all get would we “So, It’s unclear when Congress might provide the money. However, once that that once However, money. the provide might Congress when unclear It’s ap- an got we once because months six to five take would it think “We Section 3610 of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security, or or Security, Economic and Relief Aid, Coronavirus the of 3610 Section

March 15-Sept. 15 timeframe as it considers claims, she said. said. she claims, considers it as timeframe 15 15-Sept. March suffer, will programs acquisition forthcoming, isn’t relief fiscal If billion. $20 warned. she and needed is funding the whether questioning observers some with where, sector. defense the in firms some among reports earnings positive to pointing impact. economic the assess to needed is visibility more said Lord However, months. Then we want to look at all of the proposals at once. It isn’t going going isn’t It once. at proposals the of all at look to want we the Then using rationalize months. to have “We added. she process, out” in/first first a be So to not. what’s and reimbursable be would what place, in put we’ve rules process.” a of terms in months six to five think we overall fense News fense crisis. health public happens, it will still take a while before contractors receive their payments, payments, their receive contractors before while a take still will it happens, Lord. to according reimbursement] [for proposal for request a for out go would we propriation, through RFPs those down flow to have to going are companies larger the and the at remarks during said she data,” the gather [and] chain supply their n to wait five months or more before they are are they before more or months five wait to due incurred they’ve costs extra for reimbursed top Pentagon’s the crisis, COVID-19 the to 9. Sept. said buyer weapons provide to Department Defense the allow authorities other and Act CARES, How- pandemic. the to related expenses allowable for contractors to Pentagon funding the March, in Congress by passed was legislation the although ever, BEST OF THE WEB THE OF BEST MONTHS WAIT TO CONTRACTORS REIMBURSEMENTS COVID FOR is still waiting for lawmakers to appropriate the funding, noted Undersecre- noted funding, the appropriate to lawmakers for waiting still is Sustainment and Acquisition for Defense of tary 10 15 5 By By the Numbers Ships Procured or Force Battle FY2015-2025 Requested, SOURCE: CONGRESSIONAL RESEARCH SERVICE For more on Navy procurement, see page 10 page see procurement, Navy on more For

iStock illustration Editor’s Notes BY STEW MAGNUSON

A Hard Look at the Landmine Issue

n GETTYSBURG, Penn. — The landmine issue for a number four surgeries, he lost his other leg. of years was little talked about. For lack of a better metaphor, it Being a landmine victim led him to specialize in the topic was not unlike a Chinese-made Type-69 anti-personnel mine: academically as he pursued a PhD at Georgetown University. buried in Cambodia and forgotten until the Trump administra- No one has published more scholarly articles on the history of tion announced earlier this year that previous restrictions on landmines than Rutherford, and he has a new book, America’s their use by the U.S. military had been lifted. Buried History: Landmines in the Civil War. For a day, anti-landmine campaigners expressed their disap- I traveled to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, recently to hear him pointment, but the issue again quickly faded from public dis- give a talk about a topic that has not previously been exam- course. ined in depth: the first widespread use of land and waterborne Nevertheless, I assigned a reporter a story on the issue and mines in warfare. The Confederacy employed victim-activated suggested he call my friend, Kenneth Rutherford, for comment. and wire-activated mines for perimeter defense and to cover Rutherford — a James Madison University professor of politi- retreats in several famous battles. They were controversial cal science — has been a part of the International Campaign to from the get-go, with several Confederate generals declining to Ban Landmines, which won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1997. He employ them believing they were inhumane weapons. has a strong point of view, but provides measured commentary. Others embraced them with President of the Confederate He is one of the world’s foremost experts on the history of States Jefferson Davis settling the matter and declaring them landmines, an occasional speaker at NDIA conferences, and the legitimate weapons of war. media’s go-to source on the issue. Union generals, of course, hated what were then known as I have known Rutherford since 1987. Over “torpedoes,” calling them “infernal machines” and the ensuing decades, we both had personal threatened to execute any rebel caught burying journeys with these types of weapons. them. I first encountered the issue as a young man I asked Rutherford after the talk about what while teaching Afghan refugees in Peshawar, my deminer friend said back in 1990 — that Pakistan, from 1990-1991, when I got to know mines were effective, especially for perimeter two different Army Special Forces A-Teams, defense. who were there to teach members of the “I have a son who is a second lieutenant in the Afghan resistance how to detect and dismantle Marine Corps and I want him to have every tool mines. I invited one of these deminers to speak at his disposal to protect himself,” Rutherford to my class, where he gave a presentation on all said. But there are plenty of new technologies the dastardly tricks Soviet Union forces used to that can do perimeter defense more effec- terrorize civilians with landmines. tively than victim-activated landmines such as If they are such awful weapons, why do we unmanned aerial vehicles. use them? I asked the deminer. Landmines are still in use on the Korean “Because they work,” he answered bluntly. Peninsula, but U.S. forces haven’t planted them They are effective for perimeter defense, he said, noting when since 1991. Exports have ceased, and the current stock now U.S. forces lay minefields around outposts, the location of each dates back to 1997. mine is carefully mapped out, and they are removed when no Abandoning an outpost and leaving a minefield behind longer needed. That was opposed to the Soviets, who hid them causes instability in civilian populations and U.S. forces want in toys so children would get their arms blown off, and seeded stability, Rutherford asserted. Meanwhile, he noted, no country them in fields, orchards and villages to render the areas useless. in the world contributes more to humanitarian demining cam- Evil empire indeed. paigns than the United States at some $180 million per year. During my time in Pakistan, I got to know many other work- And my final point: when senior U.S. military officials ers in the demining field, including the innovators who drove address the issue of autonomous armed robots, they always the first flails — the armored trucks that churned up soil to state that a warfighter must make the decision to pull the trig- destroy mines. ger. So how do they square that policy with planting a victim- In 1997, I was a journalist in Cambodia — another coun- activated landmine? try plagued with unexploded mines — and I wrote on the Policy and practicality may consign U.S.-made victim-activat- topic extensively. I interviewed a pair of Lawrence Livermore ed landmines to museums and history books. researchers, there to see if their new mine detectors using However, China and other bad actors still manufacture ground-penetrating radar could help clear minefields. them. And the Iraq and Afghanistan insurgencies’ use of road- Meanwhile, Rutherford was having a more intimate personal side bombs showed they can be effective strategic and tactical journey with landmines. It began while he was working with weapons. refugees in Somalia in 1993 when one exploded underneath his The “infernal machines” will unfortunately be around a long vehicle. He miraculously lived, but lost a leg immediately. After time. ND

8 NATIONAL DEFENSE • O C T O B E R 2 0 2 0 Algorithmic Warfare BY YASMIN TADJDEH

Microelectronics Industry at ‘Inflection Point’ n Microelectronics underpin some of the Defense Depart- establish public-private partnerships that provide a framework ment’s key capabilities including artificial intelligence, for further commercial growth.” advanced manufacturing and space systems. However, the Pen- The Pentagon is working with the U.S. International Devel- tagon has long warned that the United States is too reliant on opment Finance Corp. to take advantage of different financial systems and components made abroad, particularly in China, tools as it tries to shore up the domestic industry, Lord said. and that it must bolster its own domestic industry to hedge Adam Boehler, the CEO of the organization, said the Devel- against future national security risks. The technology is now opment Finance Corp., or DFC, can be thought of as America’s the department’s No. 1 research-and-engineering moderniza- bank. It functions as a kind of loan processor for the Pentagon tion priority. through the Defense Production Act. DFC’s role is to provide The U.S. microelectronics industry is at an inflection point, loans to support the reshoring of critical areas of supply, he said. said Ellen Lord, undersecretary of defense for acquisition and Boehler noted that part of the reason the production of sustainment. microelectronics went offshore years ago was because labor “A key enabler for generating both readiness and modern- costs were much more of an issue than now. ization is to rethink how we harness the nation’s technical “But now you look at manufacturing technology and it’s innovation and business know-how to regenerate a domestic become more important that you’re invested in automation microelectronics industrial base that captures commercial prac- technology, in next-generation manufacturing,” he said. “That tices to produce components and devices with a known pedi- labor arbitrage is significantly decreasing.” gree, and then transition to a zero-trust capability,” she said. The The Defense Department and DFC believe that the private idea behind zero-trust security is that an organization should market can bring microelectronics production back to the not trust any user or device and must verify identity before United States if it is triggered, he said. granting access to its network. “The nice thing here is what may not have been sustainable The Pentagon’s push to strengthen the U.S. microelectronics 15, 20, 25 years ago from a manufacturing process, because of industry comes as officials worry that the foreign-made chips technology, is [now] sustainable,” he said. and components that make up many of its weapon systems Meanwhile, DAPRA is working on ways to ensure the could be compromised or unreliable. Defense Department always has ready access to leading edge Today, the United States leads in the research, development secure microelectronics devices, said Dr. Peter Highnam, the and design of microelectronics while foreign nations financially agency’s acting director. benefit from the production of such components, Lord said To get at that, in 2017 DARPA launched its Electronics during remarks at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Resurgence Initiative with officials committing to spend $1.5 Agency’s Electronics Resurgence Initiative Summit in August. billion over five years. “In 2020, we are at the midpoint with Currently, about 75 percent of the microelectronics that are outstanding prog- designed by U.S. firms are produced offshore and 95 percent ress to report,” he are packaged and tested offshore. A variety of factors have led “About 75 percent of the said. to this situation. These include environmental regulations, local, microelectronics that are Successes include state and federal taxes, wage pressure and workforce issues, the first integration which have prompted many companies in the microelectronics designed by U.S. firms are of photonics with supply chain to move offshore, she said. state-of-the-art That means “we can no longer clearly identify the pedigree of produced offshore ...” field programmable our microelectronics,” Lord said. “Therefore, we can no longer gate arrays, he said. ensure that backdoors, malicious code or data exfiltration com- Additionally, the agency has made the first 3D processor manu- mands aren’t embedded in our code.” factured in a domestic foundry. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic — which has highlighted The Defense Department is also executing on a microelec- issues with dependence on foreign supply chains — illustrates tronics roadmap, said Nicole Petta, assistant director for the how important it is for the United States to reshore critical microelectronics office for the undersecretary of defense for manufacturing capabilities, Lord added. research and engineering. The Pentagon is working on a technical path to ensure that The roadmap focuses on competition, security and ensuring all components and circuits are not compromised regardless of against supply chain disruption, she said. manufacturing location. However, it also needs its own trusted, “In the near term, we’re focused on competition and secu- domestic sources, she said. rity,” she said. “The department must get access to the capabili- “I am proposing a step-by-step process for reconstituting the ties that already exist onshore. We need multiple suppliers and U.S. microelectronics supply chain,” she said. “While DoD does competition for critical technologies that the department uses.” not drive the microelectronics market, as we only constitute The Pentagon wants to have more mobility in moving from roughly 1 percent of demand, we can drive significant R&D what she called different “foundry ecosystems” for components, and we have the power to convene thought leaders … and she said. ND

OCTOBER 2020 • NATIONAL DEFENSE 9 Navy concept or or ND An “anomaly” granted by lawmakers would allow the program program the allow would lawmakers by granted “anomaly” An table the on be could cuts spending defense 2021, Beyond a be will it and program priority top our still is “Columbia by affected been has industry shipbuilding the Meanwhile, “In terms of budget I have been fairly vocal … in our discus- our in … vocal fairly been have I budget of terms “In “I’m not concerned from a — is there an ability to get the the get to ability an there is — a from concerned not “I’m to begin with a continuing resolution — perhaps for several several for perhaps — resolution continuing a with begin to to move forward even while other programs are restricted at at restricted are programs other while even forward move to appropriations full-year a until levels funding 2020 year fiscal passed. is bill That say. analysts COVID-19, from fallout economic the to due and fleet the of size the up ramp to plans Navy are threaten could resources If systems. next-generation of variety a go. introduce to money its wants it where knows service the constrained, Geurts successful,” be to resourced is ensure we that program risk. at put or on risk take to afford can we that mission a not forward.” go we as others all above prioritized be will it so And social introduced has which pandemic, COVID-19 ongoing the large A measures. safety other and requirements distancing per- been already has work construction advanced Navy of the amount far, So boat. Columbia first the for modules on formed months. That could throw a wrench in the Navy’s plans. Navy’s the in wrench a throw could That months. we CR a were there if that Congress] [of members with sions on Columbia execute to able be to anomaly an need would said. Geurts schedule,” said. “It provides the strategic deterrent for our nation, and that’s that’s and nation, our for deterrent strategic the provides “It said. the to related program the on impacts negative any seen not has Geurts. to according coronavirus, be, would concern “The said. he perspective,” — done? work that available hours productive of number the … have we the do isn’t that that degree the To expect? normally would we workforce productive available the prioritize would we case, be would impact the then and Columbia, on hours productive programs.” other in seen

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BUDGET MATTERS BUDGET HARPER JON BY

NATIONAL DEFENSE The Navy may face budgetary constraints and other ship- other and constraints budgetary face may Navy The The new nuclear-armed subs will replace the aging Ohio-class Ohio-class aging the replace will subs nuclear-armed new The risk the include horizon the on problems potential However, boat the have to ability Navy’s the risk at put “could That $14.4 is boat first the of cost procurement estimated The has and 2024, in boat second the procure to aims Navy The first the for contract a negotiated already has service The expected is 1, Oct. starts which 2021, year fiscal However,

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10 Navy to Columbia Protect All at Navy Program Costs Next-Gen Air Dominance Lacks ‘Constituency’

n The Air Force’s next-generation air dominance initiative may run into fiscal headwinds in coming years without an established political constituency in Congress, according to a leading defense budget analyst. The project, also known as NGAD, is currently in the research-and-development phase. Service leaders have Uptick in Spending Seen for indicated that the concept will include a family of systems, both manned and unmanned, although they have been Directed Energy Weapons tight-lipped about the secretive effort. “The classification — which we need because we don’t n Armed forces around the world are expected to boost want to tip our hand to the adversary about what types of investment in directed energy weapons such as lasers and high- capability are going to enter the battlefield — is holding powered microwaves over the next decade as the technology back our ability to talk more broadly about the tremen- matures, a new study forecasts. dous progress we’re making,” Assistant Secretary of the Air The U.S. military more than doubled its spending on this Force for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Will Roper capability between fiscal years 2017 and 2019, from $535 mil- said at a Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies event. lion to $1.1 billion. Other nations, such as China and Russia, Todd Harrison, director of defense budget analysis at are also investing in these types of systems, said a recent report the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the from market analysis firm GlobalData titled, “Directed Energy effort is currently receiving about $1 billion per year. The Weapons (Defense) — Thematic Research.” service requested another $1 billion in fiscal year 2021, The U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force and Missile Defense Agency and plans call for ramping up funding across the future are pursuing the technology for missions such as air-and-missile years defense program. defense. However, defense spending may start to decline in 2023 However, “while DEWs are currently focused on defensive or 2024 as lawmakers try to tackle budget deficits made functions, and continue to have huge potential in this area, worse by the COVID-19 pandemic, he noted. they could also provide several capabilities and advantages over Which Pentagon programs will be most vulnerable to traditional weapons because of their speed-of-light delivery, cuts? Systems that are already in production or already precision engagement, controlled/scalable effects, logistical have procurement contracts awarded and source-selection benefits and low-cost per shot,” said defense analyst Nurettin completed “tend to have more staying power just because Sevi, who authored the study. of the built-in congressional support for them,” Harrison “They have immense potential to be a game-changer in the said. Programs that are still early in development, on the near future, as well as revolutionary in the long term,” he said other hand, tend to have less backing from lawmakers. in a statement accompanying the release of the report. “Devel- “NGAD comes to mind as one that could potentially be oping combat-capable DEWs will be a crucial differentiator delayed or de- between military forces in the 2020s.” ferred,” he said. As it pursues the technology, the Pentagon needs to utilize “They’ve not had modular open systems architectures for its directed energy a downselect at systems, Chris Behre, the lead for the initiative in the office of all; they’re not the undersecretary of defense for research and engineering, said even close to that during a recent webinar hosted by Booz Allen Hamilton. yet. They’re still The Defense Department plans to roll out a draft govern- spending a sig- ment reference architecture in 2021 for industry and acqui- nificant amount sition offices to comment on. Such a framework, which is of money on the expected to be included in future requests for proposals, will program, and enable cost and schedule savings and easier upgrades, he said.

Air Force Research Laboratory concept, Lockheed Martin photo Martin Lockheed concept, Laboratory Research Force Air it’s not well-defined enough to know is that really going The aim is “to make sure that when we go to try and put to produce a … fighter that’s going to be really relevant together a whole system we have options to go out and find against Russia and China in the foreseeable future.” the best of breed” for subsystems, he added. Eventually the project will be competing for funding Sean Ross, deputy high-energy laser technical area lead and with other modernization programs that already have prototyping liaison for the Air Force Research Laboratory, said: strong political backing, such as the F-35 joint strike “There is a strong potential for a well-crafted modular open fighter, parts of which are produced in more than 40 states systems standard to actually decrease market barriers because across the country. now nontraditional vendors, smaller companies and innova- NGAD “doesn’t have a built-in constituency yet” among tors can … compete here rather than if the entire system were the political class, Harrison said. It will therefore be dif- completely proprietary. ... We could see an increase in small ficult for the Air Force to defend it against budget cutters, business [participation] and innovation if we get the standard he added. ND right.” ND

OCTOBER 2020 • NATIONAL DEFENSE 11 iStock photo-illustration with which Construction for the site will begin in in begin will site the for Construction laboration laboration with Army Futures Com- Futures Army with laboration voted regents of board university’s The January 2021 at the George H.W. Bush Bush H.W. George the at 2021 January mand, which is based in Austin. in based is which mand, mand, tic, Aero-Optics, and Materials, or BAM. or Materials, and Aero-Optics, tic, in August to appropriate $22.5 million million $22.5 appropriate to August in for the testing range known as the Ballis- the as known range testing the for MM

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footprint footprint footprint NATIONAL DEFENSE Army contractors and academic institutions are increasing increasing are institutions academic and contractors Army Facility development efforts being spearheaded by Bell Tex- Bell by spearheaded being efforts development Facility 140,000-square-foot new its unveiled Textron Bell August, In vice Isbell, Glenn ground,” proving a of kind as it view “We technolo- refine and test to center the use will company The the in forward move to Bell picked Army the spring, the In if see ... risks, some take can we where place our is “This a building is System University A&M Texas the Meanwhile,

Industry Presence n their footprint in the Lone Star State, setting up sites across across sites up setting State, Star Lone the in footprint their initiatives. modernization Army support to Texas a support will Systems BAE and University A&M Texas tron, projects. Army high-priority of number to intended Worth, Fort in center technology manufacturing as envisioned is FVL programs. lift vertical future the support aging service’s the replace will that helicopters new of family a platforms. at innovation manufacturing and prototyping rapid of president facility. new the of said Bell, and build successfully to ability its demonstrating while gies interview. an in said Isbell aircraft, lift vertical future support re- attack future the — efforts FVL key two for competition aircraft. assault long-range future the and aircraft connaissance work,” do that things the refine then and work, will things [and] costs time, cycle reduce to is goal whole “Our said. Isbell quality.” increase col- in facility testing systems energy directed and hypersonics 12 Companies Vie to Design New Weather Satellite

n Multiple defense contractors have been chosen to develop a prototype design for the Space Force’s next-generation electro- optical infrared weather satellite. The Space Enterprise Consortium awarded $309 million in the form of three other transaction authority agreements for the first phase of the program. Atmospheric & Space Technology Marine Corps Seeks Research Associates, General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems Group and Raytheon received OTAs. New Warfighting Center The spacecraft will help “inform operators and warfighters on decisions on how to execute missions,” said Shawn Cochran, n In search of a new warfighting center, the Marine Corps senior business development manager for space and C2 systems picked three companies to develop prototype designs. at Raytheon Intelligence and Space. “It’s really designed from Contracts were awarded to BAE Systems, Microsoft the onset to help us better understand clouds, cloud movement, and Cole Engineering Services. and characterize them to enable things like air-to-air refueling The 100,000-square-foot facility will be located at missions, or [operations] where clouds could be covering an Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia, and will host more area of interest.” than 12 wargames per year, according to a service an- The companies will be working on phase 1 for eight months, nouncement. Two of these exercises will include at least Cochran said. Phase 2 is the final design review and phase 3 is 250 people. construction and launch. The new center will enable Marines to run through dif- Raytheon is working on the satellite dubbed the Theater ferent fighting scenarios while controlling specific aspects Weather Imaging and Cloud Characterization, or TWICC, of the environment. “In order to stay ahead of peer com- Cochran said. The system will give users increased viewing petitors, it is vital that the Marine Corps conduct constant capability at night. wargames,” Lt. Gen. Eric Smith, deputy commandant for “Our TWICC design enables the military to continue being combat development and integration, said in the news re- able to see at night, see weather effects and see the ground be- lease. “The data that comes from such wargames enables cause we leveraged something called the day-night band, which us to more rapidly determine which capabilities we will gives nighttime weather and weather-like phenomena imaging, need for future fights.” even without lunar illumination for mission planning and bat- The facility is scheduled to be completed in the fourth tlespace intelligence,” he explained. quarter of fiscal year 2023. Initial operating capability is The new system will also be designed to provide improved slated for fiscal year 2024, with full operational capabil- resolution and better daytime capabilities, he noted. ity expected in fiscal year 2025. The building will include The new bands features such as gaming classrooms, an auditorium, a will give users “a conference room and “other spaces to support wargaming richer perspective of needs,” according to the release. what’s going on in the BAE Systems was awarded a $19 million contract for atmosphere from the the prototype design phase, the company announced in surface to the tropo- August.“This prototype will integrate big data and ad- sphere,” he said. vanced analytics in a secure cloud environment for future As of press time, wargaming design and assessments,” Peder Jungck, vice ASTRA and Gen- president and general manager of BAE Systems’ Intelli- eral Atomics had not gence Solutions business, said in a statement. responded to requests Designs will be due in October 2021. BAE received for comments. In a news release, ASTRA announced that it is the contract award in July. As of press time, Microsoft and Air Force illustration, Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Timothy Valero Timothy Cpl. Lance by photo Corps Marine illustration, Force Air working with Lockheed Martin, Science and Technology Corp., Cole had not yet responded to requests for comment. Pumpkin Inc., and Atmospheric & Environmental Research on “In order to exceed the commandant of the Marine the effort. The company is working on an eight-channel Rapid Corps’ high priority wargaming center, our BAE Systems Revisit Optical Cloud Imager. team will develop our solution leveraging state-of-the- “Our solution assures easy implementation and rapid refresh [art] machine learning, artificial intelligence as well as of new technology into the architecture as required, and will predictive and detailed analytics,” said Gene Hodges, meet both government and commercial [space-based environ- BAE Systems Intelligence Solutions’ business director of mental monitoring] requirements,” Scott Jensen, the project’s programs. principal investigator and ASTRA senior vice president for The company plans to provide features that will allow technology, said in the release. the Corps to evaluate the implications of emerging tech- Cochran said the Space Force hopes to have an initial proto- nologies of allies and adversaries, help leadership make type by January 2023 and wants the constellation to be ready informed programmatic decisions and provide better for initial operational test and evaluation by 2025. - CL training for Marines, he noted. - CL

OCTOBER 2020 • NATIONAL DEFENSE 13 NewsBriefs IntelCommunityInvesting InBiothreatDetectionTool U.S.,U.K.Teaming n As technological advancements increase the spread of biologically OnInternational engineered organisms throughout the world, the U.S. government is investing in a tool to identify modified organisms that could pose a SpacePitchDay threat to the public. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence in July awarded Draper Laboratory a $7.8 million contract to develop new n A joint United Kingdom-United States team is host- detection systems to identify whether organisms have been engi- ing its first International Space Pitch Day in November, neered or developed naturally. The award comes from the office’s where it plans to award a combined total of $1 million Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity, or IARPA. to new technology and space innovation companies. The contract — which is part of IARPA’s Finding Engineering- The pitch day — which is being funded jointly by Linked Indicators, or FELIX, program — calls for the Massachu- the Royal Air Force, the U.K.’s Defence Science and setts-based Draper Laboratory to continue development of its Technology Laboratory, U.K. Strategic Command, U.S. custom bioinformatics pipelines that contextualize DNA sequenc- Air Force, Space Force and NATO — was created to ing data, and miniaturized microarray hardware. accelerate the process of acquiring new capabilities The microarray, which is smaller than a postage stamp, allows us- by giving startup companies a chance to present their ers to conduct multiple rounds of genetic tests on an organism. The ideas to military leaders. tool can be used to detect biological threats, monitor the environ- Officials appointed Starburst Aerospace, a global ment and inspect food, according to the company. aerospace and defense accelerator, to support the “What we’re able to do is to take really, very small amounts of event by acting as an industry partner through mentor samples and assess … whether something is genetically engineered programs for startups. Through the effort, the entities or not,” said Kirsty McFarland, a Draper molecular microbiologist are attempting to bolster international readiness, said and principal investigator on the FELIX program. Van Espahbodi, managing partner and co-founder of The new contract follows an 18-month phase 1 contract with Starburst. the office that consisted of the company proving out its ability to A key aim will be helping companies “understand perform the basic principles around protocols and lab methods the nuances that go into a very traditionally heavily necessary for success, McFarland said. regulated environment for acquisition rules,” he said. “We went through two different periods of testing,” she said. “We The competition is seeking to address six challenge have testing periods pretty frequently. We had two over the course sets chosen by the U.S. and U.K. teams. Capabilities of the 18 months where we were sent 100 samples and we had sought include: a verification and comparison tool for to assess those samples and give results back without knowing the space domain awareness, technology to measure the answers.” impacts of space weather, and other systems to support This latest award puts the company in the second phase of the space domain awareness. effort, McFarland noted. “What we try and do is try and simplify [the process] “In phase 2, we’re really refining the things that we’ve developed a little bit more and say, ‘Have you created some kind in the first phase,” she said. “We’re going into slightly more compli- of predictive analytics tool in a different commercial cated things for assembly and under- environment, and do we see a duality that could be ap- standing where DNA came from.” plied in this case?’” Espahbodi said in an interview. The likelihood of genetically modi- Proposals for the effort were due in September. fied organisms being released into the Chosen companies were slated to be announced in environment has increased due to the October, and they will be invited to participate in a use of mechanisms such as the clustered five-week mentoring course prior to the formal pitch regularly interspaced short palindromic day. The pitch day was to be held in November in Lon- repeats, or CRISPR, which is a tool that don during the Defense Space Conference, but it may can edit genomes and fast-track DNA be conducted virtually due to the ongoing COVID-19 modification processes, McFarland said. pandemic. Moving forward, the program is According to the competition’s official rules, the focused on honing the ability to easily contracts awarded will fall under a memorandum of discern whether an organism has been understanding between the U.K. Ministry of Defence modified intentionally or whether it was done by nature, she said. and U.S. Defense Department. To accompany the microarray hardware and streamline the pro-

Although the pilot program is between the United cess of converting and reading data gathered from the system, the Draperphotophoto,iStock Kingdom and United States, it was created with the company also created two bioinformatics tools — a computational intention of growing into a larger coalition, Espahbodi pipeline and a visual dashboard. These form a semi-automated said. “We’ve already had many other countries [and] method for feeding data into the lab. It can also provide information defense organizations reach out and say, ‘How do I join on whether an organism is suspected to be engineered or natural,

the next iteration of this?’” -MM McFarland said. -MM

14 NATIONAL DEFENSE • OCTOBER 2020 Policy Points BY JOSEPH SOBECKI

Immunizing Industry Against COVID-19 Liability

n Duty, breach, causation, damages — four words that no law should not have absolute immunity, but in order to stimu- student can forget from their first year torts course, but four late the economy, they need to open. Proposed legislative words that will likely form the basis of COVID-19 civil negli- COVID-19 liability protections for businesses that reasonably gence claims against employers. implement safety precautions would give companies an incen- The elements are as simple as an MRE (Meal, Ready-to-Eat), tive to operate in an uncertain environment. the answers are as complicated as the F-35 supply chain. Liability protection does not mean liability immunity. Busi- Do employers have a duty to protect consumers and nesses who blatantly subject employees or consumers to unsafe employees from COVID-19? While far from legal dictum, conditions related to COVID-19 should still have liability. businesses should exercise reasonable care in protecting However, businesses that make a good faith effort to comply employees and consumers from the virus. If a duty exists, has with safety standards deserve protection from destructive law- business breached this duty? Just because an employee or con- suits; the costs of defending and potential damages would have sumer contracts the disease at a business, it does not de facto disproportionate impacts on small and medium businesses. imply that a business has breached a duty of reasonable care. They should not have to choose between closing or facing the The biggest point of contention in any COVID-19 liability risk of potential litigation. case will likely be causation. Legal causation is a high bar to The stakes are especially high lower down in the defense meet. In order to prove causation, plaintiffs need to prove that industrial base supply chain. A local restaurant shutting down the breach of a duty to protect consumers or employees is the is a tragedy. However, this pales in comparison to what hap- proximate (direct) cause of COVID-19 transmission. Given pens when the single supplier of a part needed for a compli- that so little is still known about transmission of the virus, this cated system, like the F-35, shuts its doors for good. appears to be an extremely high bar to satisfy. Unfortunately, Supplier shortages of specialized parts was magnified in July mere exposure to a COVID-19 lawsuit can be financially 2019. Even though Turkey has been kicked out of the F-35 debilitating to employers and is looming large over employ- program after buying the S-400 ers’ decision to reopen. So, if winning a case at trial is not the Triumf missile system from Rus- answer to COVID-19 liability, what is? sia, Lockheed continued to source “I voluntarily agree to assume all of the foregoing risks parts for the F-35 from Turkish and accept sole responsibility for any injury.” This is the first suppliers because of difficulty in sentence of a boilerplate waiver that is used across industry acquiring specialized parts from for anything from skydiving to renting a car. While signing a U.S. and allied suppliers. A surge of waiver satisfies the legal requirements, most of America does small and medium businesses clos- not give detailed consideration to the pages of text making up ing within the defense industrial waivers before signing. base would disrupt production Fortunately, in the pre-COVID era waivers of liability were of important military systems, mostly reserved for businesses offering consumers high-risk “The stakes are which could potentially be a major discretionary recreational activities. Unfortunately, in the post- especially high national security risk. COVID era businesses are justifiably concerned about liability Companies across all sectors, and for decisions as simple as asking paid employees to physically lower down in especially in the defense industrial come into work. Also, unfortunately for business, the answer base, serve a vital role in our soci- to COVID-19 liability is not as simple as offering employees the defense ety. Without business, there is no waivers of liability. industrial base industry, jobs, or tax revenue. For one, uniformly changing the conditions of employment No business deserves a blank to include such a waiver would be problematic with many supply chain.” check to put employees — or con- employment contracts. Unilaterally changing the terms of an sumers — at risk by forcing them employment contract can lead to civil liability and other legal to return to unsafe production floors where COVID-19 can issues. The law recognizes that certain activities are inherently spread rampant. dangerous and discretionary; this is why businesses offering Businesses do, however, deserve insulation from a litigation- high-risk discretionary activities can offer “take it or leave it” hungry society looking for a scapegoat. Legislation providing waivers of liability to consumers. Going to work isn’t generally COVID-19 liability protection shields businesses, employees accepted as a high-risk discretionary activity. If liability waivers and consumers, while supporting the continued strength and are not an effective COVID-19 “vaccine” for businesses, then resilience of the defense industrial base. It is unclear if legisla- what is? tion will be the “vaccine” for COVID-19 liability, but it should Karri Palmetier, an attorney who works with small- and be part of the dose. ND photoiStock medium-sized businesses to navigate government contracts in Colorado, said, “if businesses open up and reasonably imple- Joseph Sobecki is a junior fellow at the National Defense Industrial ment safety precautions, they should not be liable.” Businesses Association.

OCTOBER 2020 • NATIONAL DEFENSE 15 Viewpoint BY JOHN KOVACH AND ARTIE MABBETT

Acquisition Reform Requires Cultural Change

n According to a recent study by the National Bureau of Capabilities Office and the Defense Innovation Unit, and Economic Research, “despite sustained progress in scientific broader use of other transaction authorities designed to incor- knowledge, recent productivity growth in the U.S. has been porate more commercial industry standards and best practices. disappointing.” Expanded utilization of OTAs attempts to address the Additionally, the study describes a fragmenting of the inno- bureaucracy inherent in Federal Acquisition Regulation vation ecosystem, making the application of basic science contracts and increase the use of commercial industries and increasingly difficult in several industries. This is evident in the products for defense-related S&T and prototyping. According decreased corporate spending on research and development to William Weinig in “Other Transaction Authority: Saint or over the past several decades. Sinner for Defense Acquisition?” published in the April 2019 These trends are presenting several challenges with the tran- edition of the Defense Acquisition Research Journal, the 4,775 sition of innovative scientific discovery in the defense industry. pages of standard acquisition policy, regulation and best prac- Despite continued government sponsorship of science-and- tices are streamlined into fewer than 100 pages of guidance for technology programs and organizations focused on innovating OTA-based prototype projects. These projects, however, are novel capabilities, the Defense Department continues to strug- not a panacea for an improved ethos in defense acquisition. gle with crossing the “Valley of Death” from basic research to There are many unintended consequences being felt by the fielded products and capabilities. broader use of OTAs, and some of these “loopholes” are being As J. Ronald Fox explains in his report, Defense Acquisition addressed in Government Accountability Office findings. Reform, 1960–2009: An Elusive Goal, meaningful change will The desire for change is clearly evident; however, organi- only occur when “a better understanding of how and why the zational and process change is challenging and takes time to Defense Department and its contractors work the way they “flow down” through the organization and supporting activi- do and how government and industry incentives stimulate and ties. Leadership, consistent vision, and alignment of incentives reinforce the seemingly intractable problems.” at all levels must be rigorously pursued in order to change While the department seeks innovative solutions, the stan- culture. dard acquisition system focuses on structured program execu- The authors of “The Culture Factor,” in the January-February tion with minimal risk. Not following these practices invites 2018 issue of Harvard Business Review, said culture cannot scrutiny among the government program managers as well as exist solely within a single person; it permeates multiple lev- industry. This incentivizes a culture of caution, a limitation els throughout an organization and develops through critical that is repressing the Pentagon’s desire for innovation and events in the collective life and learning of a group. rapid acquisition. Culture cannot change overnight, but it can be changed over According to the 2018 National Defense Strategy, “The cur- time with shared experiences. In a business environment, this rent bureaucratic approach, centered on exacting thoroughness can be addressed through consistency in leadership and incen- and minimizing risk above all else, is proving to be increas- tives across the organization and industry. ingly unresponsive.” The Pentagon has tried to address these Program managers are trained to maintain steady execution challenges with various acquisition reform initiatives, but with with a mindset that fears failure. No one intends to fail; how- marginal adoption and ever, innovation and change require us to take calculated risks “Culture cannot change limited department- that may at times result in failure. In product development, wide guidance. Pervasive particularly for advanced solutions, failure of measured risk overnight, but it can be change in the processes should be accepted as “learning” and should be rewarded. The changed over time with and culture that supports risk-accepting culture is a dramatic shift for industry which them takes time, creativ- has been trained through experiences based on the risk averse shared experiences.” ity and commitment. tenets of defense acquisition policies. To address these chal- The best way to promulgate cultural change is by going back lenges, both the department and Congress have issued various to what defines culture — a set of shared experiences over policies and directives attempting to streamline the processes time. An environment that allows programs to gain experience for transitioning science and technology to operational systems. in driving innovative behaviors can empower the organization Congress has enacted several changes to acquisition policy to make timely decisions and accept more challenges by intro- aimed at improving the pace of innovation, such as the Sec- ducing and rewarding active management of calculated risk. tion 804 prototyping authorities in the 2016, 2017, and 2018 Thomas Edison is often quoted when asked about the num- National Defense Authorization Acts — specifically, the intro- ber of failures along the way to the creation of the light bulb: duction of Middle Tier Acquisition pathways into acquisition “I have not failed 10,000 times. I have not failed once. I have policy. succeeded in proving that those 10,000 ways will not work. The department has also attempted to drive innovation and When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will speed in the acquisition structure and processes through the find the way that will work.” Edison took a strict managed risk Better Buying Power initiative, the creation of the Strategic approach in most of his creations, learned from failures and

16 NATIONAL DEFENSE • OCTOBER 2020 applied those lessons to create success. processes that advance the “managed risk” approach across all Creating an incubator for cultural change is one way to levels of the organization. increase adoption of these practices. This could be done The incentives can be both tangible and subtle. During through a new or established organization of high potential the Long Range Anti-Ship Missile program the team imple- resources representing a range of skills and experiences. They mented clear schedule incentives to the prime contractor that must be focused on delivering significant, urgent advance- were financially beneficial. These financial incentives drove ments in capability while being challenged and empowered to behavior across the industry team because there were con- prove out innovative approaches. crete results, such as monetary bonuses, gained by meeting or A commendable example being pursued by the U.S. Air exceeding schedule goals. Program leadership reinforced the Force is its series of “Vanguard” programs. These activities are focus on these objectives and incentivized creative thought structured to rapidly accelerate emerging weapon systems and throughout all levels of the team through day-to-day commu- warfighting concepts through prototyping and experimenta- nications and special commendations at project events. tion. This allows for early capability demonstrations and early Through various incentives, such as bonus pay, the incuba- adoption by the warfighter. Utilizing these efforts to build a tors can create a pipeline of change agents by attracting top cultural experience will not only support success of the Van- personnel. guard programs, but it will also promulgate that culture to the Another method, which a handful or organizations imple- historically more traditional organizations. ment well, is to create and foster “brand appeal,” such as Deliberate planning is required to stand up these incuba- DARPA — “come here, do great things and change the world!” tors. There have been a few examples over the last few years The assignment in these organizations attracts motivated within the Defense Department where an organization mere- people eager to participate in a high-performing organizational ly changed its name to something more “innovative.” Yet keep- culture. ing the same processes, people and incentives creates the same Cultural reform is a cornerstone in changing our defense experiences that grew the culture to begin with. acquisition industrial complex. The department and industry As with most complex environments, people are every- partners should consider creating incubators that are staffed thing. Organizations should select individuals that can think with the “right” people, incentivized and chartered to solve creatively and apply their requisite experiences to understand urgent needs for our warfighters. Through the shared successes why current processes exist and how they can be adopted and and failures, a culture will emerge with the ability to harness modified to meet the specific needs of the project. the tools Congress has provided, leading to the acquisition The purposes of the process are often forgotten and blindly change desired as individuals return to the broader defense applied rather than understanding the “why” and asking “does acquisition community. ND this apply to our scenario and, if so, how do we do it more efficiently?” Paving new ground is not for the faint of heart; Dr. Artie Mabbett is the vice president and deputy director of the these individuals need to be hard chargers that excel in uncer- Leidos Innovation Center, which has a mission to research and develop tain climates and, if incentivized correctly, will drive cultural innovative technologies and solutions for the Leidos enterprise. John photo-illustrationiStock change. Kovach is a consultant with 2 Circle Inc. and has provided program By aligning incentives across the program structure and management and policy support to several major defense acquisi- flexing as learning occurs, the organization is likely to evolve tion programs. The opinions expressed herein are solely those of the and establish a supporting culture. The program team must authors and do not represent the business judgments of either Leidos be encouraged and rewarded for implementing ideas and or 2 Circle Inc.

OCTOBER 2020 • NATIONAL DEFENSE 17 Industry Perspective BY STEVE CARLSON, JAMES S.B. CHEW AND FRANK SCHIRRMEISTER

magazines. At that time, the first articles predicting the end of Developing Military Moore’s Law and the crucial co-dependency between software and hardware were published, with Herb Sutter’s 2005 article Electronic Systems Calls in Dr. Dobbs Journal, “The Free Lunch Is Over” perhaps being the most prominent. For Holistic Strategy Sutter’s article stated that microprocessor serial-processing speed is reaching its physical limit, leading to two main conse- n One can view the Defense Department’s Digital Modern- quences. ization Strategy as a direct response to this 2018 National First, processor manufacturers would have to focus on prod- Defense Strategy goal: “Prototyping and experimentation ucts that better support multi-threading such as multi-core should be used prior to defining requirements and commercial processors. Second, software developers would be forced to off-the-shelf systems. Platform electronics and software must develop massively multi-threaded programs as a way to better be designed for routine replacement instead of static configura- use such processors. The “free lunch” — the constant improve- tions that last more than a decade.” ment of hardware performance that made a software devel- Within the strategy, one can argue that the Defense Depart- oper’s life easy — would come to an end. ment chief information officer’s priorities — cybersecurity, Experts then predicted a new golden age of domain-specific artificial intelligence, cloud, command, control and communi- architectures — custom hardware — and domain-specific lan- cations — were developed to help achieve the aforementioned guages: software optimized for the custom hardware. National Defense Strategy goal. The answer to ensure further gains was to optimize across And that goes for the digital modernization goals as well: the strata to support multi-core architectures. With this, the innovate for competitive advantage; optimize for efficiencies and improved capabilities; evolve cybersecurity for an agile and resilient defense posture; and cultivate talent for a ready digital workforce. In response, the services are executing initiatives to meet these priorities and achieve these goals. All these approaches are based on software development. Specifically, they are based on “DevSecOps,” as is now being used with the software development approach. These are a set of practices that combine software development (Dev) and information-technology operations (Ops) with the aim to shorten the systems development lifecycle and provide continuous delivery with high software quality. When referenced as DevSecOps, the (Sec) acknowledges that for the Defense Department, security issues are of a paramount concern and must be addressed. The use of DevOps has been a commercial best practice for years and it does address the department’s desire for agility. In truth, its adoption of DevOps is an excellent first step. But there is a reason why this is a popular joke about DevOps: Question: “How do DevOps engineers change a lightbulb?” Answer: “They don’t. It’s a hardware problem.” This joke highlights the wisdom of one of the popular problem of power became the key driver. quotes attributed to Alan Kay, the inventor of Smalltalk and In particular, the burgeoning smartphone market saw battery the Alto, and the driving force behind Xerox PARC in 1982: life as a key limitation to adding new capabilities and a major “People who are really serious about software should make source of customer dissatisfaction. Additionally, consumers their own hardware.” were showing an appetite for features such as web browsing Fifteen years ago, the commercial electronics ecosystem was that demanded more and more processing power. organized as it had been since the 1970s. There were “chip This all required specialized hardware support: networking, guys,” “software geeks” and “systems geniuses.” Each group video, multi-tasking, graphics, low power, audio, security and worked hard to optimize their craft and great gains were made, camera. and sins were masked thanks to the all-powerful Moore’s Law. All of these elements had been available in separate prod- The limits of optimization began appearing somewhere ucts, but never brought together in a phone. Each of them had between 2000 and 2005 with systems, software and single-core been highly optimized. However, to make a phone with all performance gains leveling off as predictions of power con- of these features, very different success optimization metrics sumption causing rocket engine-level heat made waves in trade needed to be applied. The metrics required a new methodol-

18 NATIONAL DEFENSE • OCTOBER 2020 ogy to optimize using a new cumulative objective function. To lems back to the hardware team. drive the cost function down, it became clear that the tradi- Furthermore, to really co-optimize hardware and software, tional serial strata of the system development process needed the industry is entering a phase of custom, configurable hard- to be shattered and that the design chain had to be restruc- ware with associated software. One clear example of this trend tured. is the emergence of programmable, extendable processor archi- For example, until the early 2000s, the design chain of tectures, as well as a resurgence of reconfigurable architecture embedded mobile systems was dominated by platform-based that can switch algorithms within very small timeframes. designs. The semiconductor vendors provided all drivers, and It is worth noting that while a first wave of reconfigurable then interacted with software OS vendors, like Palm OS, Sym- architectures was introduced in the early 2000s with long- bian, Microsoft Window CE and Pocket PC 2002 to port their forgotten startups like Adaptive Silicon, Elixent, Triscend, operating systems to their silicon. They would then provide it Morphics, Chameleon Systems, Quicksilver Technology and jointly to device and equipment manufacturers. This situation MathStar, they are finding a revival now with defense-specific has now been replaced by only two operating systems — iOS programs. and Android — integrating all the required services as middle- The key benefit in system optimization of the shift-left trend ware in exchange to enable a much bigger ecosystem of apps is the early visibility of system size, weight and power charac- that can be developed based on early representations of the teristics. As for functional bugs, shift-left enables a choice of hardware. where to draw boundaries, and subsequently move them. That For example, think of the iOS and Android software devel- is, hardware-software tradeoff optimization is enabled for per- opment kits that are provided as pure software representations. formance, power, thermal and reliability. Hardware emulation, By taking on more responsibility for the hardware/software a critical design automation technology required to make the stack, a much bigger ecosystem of application developers has shift-left a reality, can also often be combined with commercial been unleashed. In exchange, however, the hardware abstrac- virtual prototyping and “software-based emulation” based on tion layer, or HAL, of an Android device, for instance, must be open-source technologies like QEMU and VirtualBox. architected and verified in a way that software development All emulators are not equal. Accurate SWAP tradeoffs begin with accurate hardware representations. Register-transfer-level languages — such as VHDL, Verilog and SystemVerilog — can help with this. Hardware-software co-optimization methodologies require the accuracy of RTL hardware emulation. To allow app development in a decoupled fashion, software- based emulation using technologies like QEMU and Virtu- alBox are often employed or provided in Android and iOS software development kits. The techniques that design teams choose to adopt depend on accuracy/performance/availability tradeoffs. Typically, the higher in the software stack the software to be developed resides, the more abstract the representations for development are. The Defense Department’s adoption of DevOps is an excellent first step, but it can’t be the last. It’s very tempting for some within the department to consider the adaptation of DevOps to be the easy fix to address their electronic system development, sustainment and modernization issues. However, while we always hope for the easy fix — the one simple change that will erase a problem in a stroke — we all know that few things in life work this way. Instead, success requires making 100 small steps go right — one after the other, no slipups, no goofs, everyone pitching in. Furthermore, we know that to truly solve a problem, one can start in parallel. This is what the industry today refers to as must tackle the root cause, not the effect. Hence, the rationale the “shift left.” for the famous Alan Kay quote, “People who are really serious Demolishing the barriers between teams begins with elimi- about software should make their own hardware.” nating the serial hardware-then-software process. Instead, soft- To meet the intent of the 2018 National Defense Strategy ware development has, at least partially, “shifted left” to overlap goal for microelectronics, both hardware and software develop- with hardware design. This change often makes the software ment must be addressed. team a little uneasy at first, as working on a “squishy” hardware And the major lesson from the successful commercial elec- platform is new ground. tronics systems companies is this: If you really want good soft- But, as the software developers begin to recognize that they ware for your system, you’ve got to have really good hardware do not have to work around all of the hardware bugs anymore, that’s been developed right alongside your software. ND illustrationiStock they now have a choice as to whether to fix the problem at the hardware source or work around it in software. In fact, James S.B. Chew is group director, Frank Schirrmeister is senior group once this hardware/software design process is implemented, director of solutions marketing, and Steve Carlson is director of aero- many software developers relish the ability to push the prob- space and defense solutions at Cadence Design Systems.

OCTOBER 2020 • NATIONAL DEFENSE 19 Commentary BY TODD PROUTY

common operating picture, visualizing data and actionable Hyper-Connected intelligence, will be central to truly interoperable, joint C2. JADC2 will comprise several key systems and capabilities. Military Needs a Next-Gen The Air Force’s Advanced Battle Management System, or the “warfighter internet of things,” wrapped key testing last Common Operating Picture December and proved out the ability to rapidly share data across platforms and services. According to the Air Force, n “The last tactical mile” used to refer to where extensive ABMS will use AI and machine learning to connect the joint planning, training, manning and equipping gets put to the test: force by collecting, processing and computing huge amounts of the austere battlespace where strategies succeed or fail. data at machine speed. Armed with increasingly sophisticated technology and The Defense Innovation Unit has sights on a commercial, enhanced connectivity, the last tactical mile has become easier vehicle-mounted ground station to collect, semi-autonomously for U.S. forces to visualize, communicate through and under- process and correlate volumes of satellite and sensor data. The stand. Tactical Intelligence Targeting Access Node (TITAN) ground Today’s tactical edge is outfitted with data centers’ worth of station would reduce latency, accelerating the ability to lever- information and intelligence, and with computing performance age AI and machine learning to disseminate intelligence and that once required warehouses of info-tech machinery. The bolster JADC2. Most importantly, TITAN must provide these modern battlefield is digital and networked. Soon, it will be mission-critical capabilities through a modular, open archi- further advanced by artificial intelligence that enables capabili- tecture that’s easily interoperable and simple to upgrade and ties we are only just beginning to conceive. adjust on the fly, even in the most austere settings. One of the most integral capabilities for troops operating at Army Futures Command is aggressively targeting emerging the tactical edge is the common operating picture — a mecha- technologies that strengthen deployed networks, information- nism for shared, comprehensive situational awareness infused sharing and communications. The Navy, the Defense Advanced with multi-sourced intelligence, visualized data and stream- Research Projects Agency and other defense agencies are all lined communications. The common operating picture is the pursuing additional, equally ambitious capabilities to outfit a theater support that delivers and maintains the decisive advan- next-generation joint force. tage. Without the advanced computing capabilities to collect, Such futuristic capabilities are even getting test-driven today process and interpret data, the common operating picture that in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. wins multi-domain battles cannot come to fruition. These examples and countless others clearly signal sweeping The technologies that deliver that advanced computing modernization plans across the Defense Department, where capability will continue to transform over time. The hardware investments in space, navigation, electronic warfare — includ- will change shape, the software will evolve and update, and ing a new 5G/spectrum strategy — hypersonics, radars, auton- the sources that power their operation will continue to shrink, omous systems, cloud and AI foot stomp the military-wide quiet and refresh. push toward increased lethality and dominance. This unified, The government and industry alike are working overtime multi-domain force of the future will require state-of-the-art to resolve the modern-day challenges of the last tactical mile. technologies, including groundbreaking C2, unparalleled situational awareness and the much-anticipated, all-seeing com- “The common operating picture ... delivers mon operating picture. At the heart of this fundamental superiority is computing. and maintains the decisive advantage.” The ability to assemble, fuse and analyze data from limitless sources, transforming it into actionable intelligence delivered That means optimizing and expanding computing capac- to the tactical edge, requires unprecedented processing power ity, quelling the acoustic noise of generators and mechanical on the move. This will underpin the ubiquitous, joint common equipment, and amplifying the power needed to meet the operating picture and automated C2 that leaders across the growing thirst of advancing edge technologies. military are relentlessly pursuing. In other words, to achieve and maintain multi-domain tactical These capabilities will be how the U.S. military achieves and dominance, hardware and software alike need to scale — and maintains multi-domain dominance for generations to come. they need to be reliable in any environment, survivable across How leaders promote their joint development and implemen- any terrain, deployable in whatever form factor necessary. tation today lays the groundwork for tomorrow’s doctrine and Meanwhile, the technological building blocks to achieve this tactics. If it’s done right, the U.S. military will be ready for are already in play. tomorrow’s hyper-connected, hyper-informed tactical edge — We can already see efforts coming to life to sustain the shrinking that last tactical mile and ensuring every inch is vis- overarching goal of informed multi-domain dominance. Joint ible in high resolution. ND photo-illustration iStock all-domain command and control (JADC2) is taking shape as a guiding concept to link operations — and connect sensors to Todd Prouty is the business development manager at Crystal Group, shooters — across the services, with experimentation and con- a developer of rugged, high-performance computing hardware and tract awards underway. The ability to share a machine-speed technologies.

20 NATIONAL DEFENSE • O C T O B E R 2 0 2 0 THE SHAPE OF FREEDOM

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Photo illustration of U.S. Navy photo. Pentagon Examining Lessons Learned from Pandemic

BY YASMIN TADJDEH are also more vulnerable to disruptions When the COVID-19 pandem- caused by unforeseen events such as ic struck in March, Pentagon pandemics, he said. officials scrambled to maintain readiness, “If one person in a 12-person company protect the troops and keep the indus- gets COVID, all of a sudden the entire trial base healthy. company is isolated and can’t come to While still continuing to mitigate work,” he said. “All of a sudden, they the effects of the virus, officials are tak- become non-suppliers for at least two ing stock of measures that worked and weeks; and depending on what they’re didn’t work in the early days of the doing, it can be longer than that because pandemic and looking to ensure that it you have shut down and start up times.” won’t be caught flat footed in a future The Army is now looking at ways it crisis. can ensure it has a more resilient supply For the Army, the pandemic has put a base, Jette said. One possible solution spotlight on troop health, and the service may be having alternative vendors. “This is helping us get sets and reps in has had to quickly put in place special “Normally it takes work, time, money on where … we need to be more adapt- testing protocols and methodologies, and effort to qualify a second vendor for able [and] what are the approaches we said Assistant Secretary for Acquisition, a given part,” he said. However, “that is a can use,” he said. “One of those is really Logistics and Technology Bruce Jette. challenging problem because you don’t looking at our infrastructure, and do we The service had to consider how to want to split the quantity between two have new opportunities now to adjust bring in and train new recruits all while vendors necessarily, because now all of that infrastructure to be more useful and being mindful that they could be infect- a sudden you make neither vendor very resilient and cost effective than where ed with the contagion, he told National economically stable. So you’ve got to we were previously?” Defense in an interview. find a good way to make these balances The Navy in the future may spread “What we’re learning from COVID is work.” out where work is performed. Before the applicable to other things from the cold Another solution may be advanced pandemic struck, the service in support to the flu, etc., and we want to keep a manufacturing. service contracts would often stipulate very healthy Army,” he said. “We’ve re- “Advanced manufacturing produces that a certain percentage of personnel looked at how we think about safety and parts normally in a slower fashion had to be locally based, he noted. health, which has operational implica- and usually each part is more expen- “That may not be the right model,” tions.” sive, but you don’t have the [higher] Geurts said. Changes spurred by the Lessons learned from the pandemic capital investment of a secondary supply pandemic “may enable us actually to can be applied to how the Army source,” he explained. access a greater level of ... talent in areas approaches biological threats on the For the Navy, the pandemic has shown where we haven’t before.” battlefield, he noted. the sea service that it must do things dif- Now is the time to experiment with “It’s a heinous thought, but it’s one we ferently in the future, said James Geurts, what a program office of the future can’t ignore,” he said. “If you go back and assistant secretary for research, develop- looks like, he said. Geurts has directed look at warfare, disease has caused more ment and acquisition. his team to begin experimenting with casualties than has any bullet out there. Like the rest of the Pentagon, the new concepts so the workforce will be ... If we can take this, leverage it from a Navy had relied on a workforce that more adaptable in the future. standpoint of being able to reduce our conducted business in offices across the The Navy has already changed the exposure to disease in general, whether country and had few opportunities to way it approaches technical support. natural or manmade, then we’ve made a work remotely. Before COVID, any time a ship needed significant advancement.” “Going from 95 percent-plus [of service completed the Navy flew in a The service is also considering how it workers] in the office to 95 percent-plus technician. That does not work well in a can better strengthen its supply chain out of the office, we had a lot of friction pandemic, he said. should another pandemic occur. In the in systems and processes and people and “My strategic goal is to ensure we early months of the crisis, the defense comfort,” he said during a briefing with come out of this in a better place,” he industrial base was rattled as new infec- reporters in August. “That was not work- said. “Reverting back to the way we were tions caused production lines across the ing well for the first couple of weeks.” pre-COVID in my mind would be fail- country to shutter, straining the service’s The service has alleviated some of ure.” supply chain. those initial issues and is now consider- Will Roper, the Air Force’s assistant In the past, the Army has leveraged ing what its future infrastructure may secretary for acquisition, technology and small suppliers because they’re often look like in a post-COVID world, Geurts logistics, said the pandemic has proven agile and innovative. However, they said. that the service can configure its work-

22 NATIONAL DEFENSE • OCTOBER 2020 It’s “a real success story that … the department and its contractors working together have been able to find ways to adjust workflow to continue operations during a pretty significant crisis,” he said. However, there were aspects of the pandemic that the Pentagon did not handle well, Cancian said. He pointed to the virus outbreak on board the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier earlier this year — which eventually saw more than 1,200 sailors contract COV- ID-19, the removal of the vessel’s com- manding officer and the resignation of the former acting secretary of the Navy. “The Roosevelt was a disaster,” he said. But “the Navy learned from that experi- USNS Comfort provides medical relief to New York City. ence.” Since then, carriers have been able to successfully deploy for extended periods force in a different way than it has tradi- gon in August. The task force “will facili- of time because of lessons learned from tionally done. tate current and future DoD acquisition that debacle, he added. “It has been amazing to see the level support to interagency partners.” While pandemics are primarily han- of proficiency that we’ve built with Mark Cancian, a senior adviser at the dled by civilians, there are places where 93 percent of our workforce telework- Center for Strategic and International the military can help and could do so ing, with very little loss in productivity Studies, a Washington, D.C.-based think more effectively in a future crisis, Can- because collaboration tools … we’re tank, said overall the Pentagon has han- cian said. using now lets you get the job done,” he dled the pandemic well and the military “I think that there will be a discussion told reporters. was able to continue to project power about what the military might be able Roper said he doubted the military around the world. to do more next time,” he said. “There is would go back to the way it operated “They instituted procedures to keep an opportunity for them to provide a … before the pandemic with personnel global engagement going,” he said. faster and better tailored response.” working in large conference rooms “There were no gaps or vulnerabilities For example, there has been some dis- together. in our international commitments. cussion within Congress about funding “I’m really excited about what the No adversary saw an opening to take new hospital ships, he noted. Addition- other side of this crisis could bring,” he advantage of U.S. weakness during the ally, reconfiguring existing vessels for said. pandemic. infectious diseases could also be helpful The office of the secretary of defense “We sometimes don’t appreciate that in a future crisis. is also thinking about future crises and nothing happens, but that was quite “They were designed for military casu- how it can better respond to them. important because this could have been alties … [who are brought] aboard the In March, Undersecretary of Defense a time of great vulnerability,” he added. ship and are operated on and they go for Acquisition and Sustainment Ellen Additionally, the deployment of the into recovery wards,” he said. However, Lord established the COVID-19 Joint USNS Mercy and USNS Comfort to those types of patients are generally not Acquisition Task Force which includes Los Angeles and New York City, respec- carrying infectious diseases. procurement and medical experts from tively, earlier in the year to support civil- “There isn’t good isolation for infec- across the military and Defense Depart- ian hospitals was important, Cancian tious patients,” he said. “You can improve ment agencies. The JATF has served as noted. that.” the single-entry point to the Pentagon’s Another positive aspect of the Penta- Procuring new, smaller hospital ships BigleyScott Class 1st Specialist Communication Mass Navybyphoto acquisition enterprise for interagency gon’s response was how it approached could also be a better choice, he said. requests for assistance, including from the defense industry, said Andrew Hunt- As the Pentagon begins to take stock the Federal Emergency Management er, director of the defense-industrial ini- of lessons learned, officials will need to Agency and the Department of Health tiatives group at CSIS. move fast to ensure change is imple- and Human Services. “They’ve been very open to under- mented, Cancian said. Lord now wants to make the task standing what’s happening in industry “If the military is going to ... stock- force a permanent organization within and adopting policy responses … and pile equipment, for example, or even the Defense Department. working with the primes to accelerate reconfigure a hospital ship, that needs Officials are “working to transition payments to subcontractors,” he said. to be done quite quickly because five current JATF operations into an endur- There hasn’t been a major outbreak years from now the military is going to ing policy and oversight office within of COVID-19 in the defense industrial be focusing on China and the pandemic the A&S Joint Rapid Acquisition Cell,” base on the scale seen in other U.S. will probably be a fading memory,” he she said during a briefing at the Penta- industries, he noted. said. ND

OCTOBER 2020 • NATIONAL DEFENSE 23 THE RISE OF SKYBORG Air Force Betting on New Robotic Wingman

BY JON HARPER of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technol- more like reusable weapons,” he added. “I The next year will be pivotal ogy and Logistics Will Roper said during think we’ll procure them like that ... and for the Air Force’s effort to an online event hosted by the Mitchell just buy them at kind of a steady rate.” acquire a new class of autonomous Institute for Aerospace Studies. The systems could not only fly along- drones, as industry teams compete for a The platforms might even be called side fighter jets, but also serve as robotic chance to build a fleet of robotic wing- upon to conduct kamikaze missions. wingmen for other types of aircraft such men that will soon undergo operational “I expect that the [human] pilots … as bombers and tankers. They would experimentation. will decide, does the Skyborg return and bring a variety of capabilities to the The “Skyborg” program is one of the land with them and go to fight another battlefield, serving as sensors, jammers or service’s top science-and-technology pri- day, or is it the end of its life and it’s shooters, he noted. orities under the “Vanguard” initiative to going to go on a one-way mission?” Brig. Gen. Dale White, program exec- deliver game-changing capabilities to its Roper said. utive officer for fighters and advanced warfighters. A suicide mission might be appropri- aircraft at the Air Force Life Cycle The aim is to acquire relatively inex- ate if there’s an opportunity to hit a Management Center, said the military pensive, attritable unmanned aircraft “lucrative target” that would justify the envisions about 15 different potential that can leverage artificial intelligence cost of losing the drone, he explained. mission sets for the drones. and accompany manned fighter jets into “That’s what I love about them — their Additionally, the platforms could serve battle. versatility and the fact that we can as a test bed for a future “R2D2” set of “I expect that we will do sorties where take risks with them” that the military advanced algorithms named after the a set number are expected to fly with wouldn’t be willing to take with human handy robot in the Star Wars film fran- illustration Boeing the manned systems, and we’ll have pilots. chise. The technology is expected to be crazy new [concepts of operation] for “Even though we call Skyborg ‘attrita- able to pilot aircraft autonomously. how they’ll be used,” Assistant Secretary ble aircraft,’ I think we’ll think of them “Skyborg is going to be one of the

24 NATIONAL DEFENSE • O C T O B E R 2 0 2 0 MAIN IMAGE: Boeing’s Airpower Teaming System concept

LEFT: AFRL Skyborg concept

easiest systems to put R2D2 in capability, and we’re engaged first because it’s going to be a with the U.S. industrial base on low-cost system,” Roper said. “It’s opportunities to missionize the meant to take risks. It will be aircraft for U.S. needs.” OK if R2D2 has some trouble General Atomics Aeronautical learning to fly and crashes a few Systems, maker of the remotely times.” operated MQ-1 Predator and The Skyborg program, which is lay- each individual order. MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial ing the groundwork for a new family of Boeing is offering a variant of SCAN vehicles that gained fame during UAS that can make decisions at machine its Airpower Teaming System, a THIS the post-9/11 wars, declined to IMAGE speeds, is now moving into a new phase. robotic wingman that was devel- discuss specifics about its proto- The Air Force announced in late July oped in Australia. types. that it had awarded indefinite-delivery/ “This is another step in our “Our design will leverage open indefinite-quantity contracts to Boeing, effort to integrate and advance architecture, modularity and General Atomics, Northrop Grumman our autonomous technologies See interoperability to maximize the Skyborg and Kratos Defense, that will enable the and prototyping experience from concept integration of the Skyborg tech- four companies to compete for up to decades of successful research and animation nology and any associated pay- $400 million worth of delivery orders for development in this area,” a company loads,” a company spokesperson

Air Force illustration Force Air prototypes. spokesperson said in an email. “ATS is said in a statement. “To fast track this The contractors were downselected designed for operational requirements game-changing capability, GA-ASI will after a competition with 18 participants. that we see customers needing around leverage our proven combat operational However, no funds were obligated at the the world. We continue to see interest experience in UAS operations and digital time of the award; they will come with from the Department of Defense in this engineering techniques to deliver an

OCTOBER 2020 • NATIONAL DEFENSE 25 autonomous UAV prototype.” ing technologies, he noted. The contractor is viewed by some Development of unmanned aircraft Kratos Defense has already turned observers as the leader in this type of is benefiting increasingly from the heads with its XQ-58A “Valkyrie” technology, although it faces stiff com- enhancements being made in machine experimental drone developed for a petition. learning and artificial intelligence, the separate Air Force effort, the Low-Cost “Kratos has had the lead in this pro- spokesperson noted. Attritable Strike Demonstrator program, gram/concept but it now has three very “Their capacity to augment human in which it has conducted several suc- competent competitors that have strong operations and decision-making will cessful test flights. pedigrees in unmanned/autonomous only grow and become even more capa- “Kratos has been and remains systems, solid tech and deep pockets,” ble,” the spokesperson said. “As such, the committed to advancing affordable Roman Schweizer, managing director for interaction between commercial innova- unmanned technologies, and we are aerospace and defense with the Cowen tion and defense integration must get proud to be a Skyborg prime contrac- Washington Research Group, wrote in a closer to ensure autonomous unmanned aircraft can be operationally deployed XQ-58A Valkyrie with the right technologies to stay ahead of adversaries. This is why we believe in a continuous capability development and delivery concept aimed at rapid prototyping to get new capabilities out to operating forces sooner.” Rapidly transitioning prototypes for downrange operational evaluations with other manned and unmanned assets will help validate the Skyborg mission and provide valuable data toward the estab- lishment of future unmanned aircraft requirements, the spokesperson added. Northrop Grumman also was tight-lipped about its prototypes, but described its approach to the program. “Our expertise in advanced autonomous mission management and pay- loads, unmanned aerial system design and manufacturing, and alignment of operational analysis to experimentation will prove beneficial in the subsequent competitions to develop future attritable air vehicles that will help the U.S. Air Force connect the joint force,” Scott Winship, the company’s sector vice president for advanced programs, said in an email. “At this stage we cannot talk specifics about our prototypes,” he said. “How- ever, a key strength to our offering is tor, helping enable the DoD to newsletter. “We still believe Kratos adaptation of our service-based, autono- significantly increase mass and will win a contract to develop and SCAN mous mission management system, Dis- effect at dramatically reduced THIS deliver a capability for the USAF, tributed Autonomy/Responsive Control, cost compared to traditional IMAGE but we also think the Skyborg to the government’s open architecture aircraft programs,” Steve Fendley, idea will have a wider application System Design Agent, providing rapid president of Kratos’ unmanned and mission set.” technology insertion.” systems division, said in a press Schweizer said it was no shock The distributed autonomy/respon- release. that Kratos, Boeing, Northrop sive control capability will be critical to Through a public relations firm, See the Grumman and General Atom- multi-aircraft flight, payload and sensor the company declined to say wheth- XQ-58A ics survived the downselect, but in action management developed and integrated er it will offer the Valkyrie prototype it was surprising that military under the Skyborg program, he said. for Skyborg. aerospace giant Lockheed Martin didn’t Northrop Grumman has established “Kratos has a number of systems fly- make it to the next round. relationships with many defense and ing today and will put forth the best There has been speculation in inves- commercial companies to provide inno- system to meet the specs of the delivery tor circles that Lockheed might try to vation in key areas such as AI, mission orders, which we do not have yet,” the acquire Kratos to strengthen its hand in subsystems and innovative manufactur- company said. the unmanned systems market.

26 NATIONAL DEFENSE • O C T O B E R 2 0 2 0 “With Lockheed now on the outside getting to production and an operational THE RISE OF SKYBORG looking in, an acquisition or partnership vehicle,” he said during a teleconference with Kratos would make sense for more with reporters. reasons than just Skyborg,” Schweizer Brig. Gen. Heather Pringle, command- ing how to move forward with the said. er of the Air Force Research Laboratory, four drone makers that won the recent Lockheed declined to comment noted that the systems will have gov- downselect. about a potential acquisition, but said ernment-referenced open architectures “Basically we’ll look at the four its secretive Skunk Works division is that allow different organizations to add options, what the pricing is, and so forth. still interested in the Air Force’s UAS technology. The program will leverage There will be a lot that goes into decid- projects. work that AFRL has done on autonomy, ing … how many different vehicles we “Lockheed Martin Skunk Works and can also draw on the lab’s expertise choose, how many we buy from each is committed to providing future in other areas such as propulsion and vendor,” White said. “There are a lot of variables that are unknown in terms of what we get back from industry on that.” The service wants to buy as many different types of prototypes in the highest quantities it can afford with the pool of money that has been allotted, he added. Officials planned to place delivery orders for the initial tranche by the end of October and conduct operational experimentation with the prototypes in 2021 at sites across the United States. The results of next year’s operational experiments will help shape decisions about production and moving to a program of record. “We believe we’re going to be in a great position probably by the end of next year to be able to really decide which way we want to go with this,” White said. Service officials have previously said they hope to have systems in the fleet by 2023. Steven Zaloga, a global UAV market expert with the Teal Group, noted that the Air Force is “really hot” on the idea of loyal wingmen right now. These types of systems might be the wave of the future, not the remotely piloted drones that took center stage during the Global War on Terrorism. unmanned aerial system solutions that sensors. “The growth, as far as armed UAVs support a variety of missions required “As the warfighter develops new ideas go, may be more in that direction — not for the future battlespace,” a company that would make it more operation- these small, propeller-driven, relatively spokesperson said in an email. “We look ally relevant, we’ll be able to pull those slow, relatively vulnerable airframes, forward to continued discussions with pieces in,” she said. but rather airframes that are closer to the U.S. Air Force to determine how we In May, Leidos was tapped to be the manned aircraft like fighter aircraft and can best support the multi-phased Sky- system design agent and to integrate the strike aircraft,” he said. borg program.” various mission systems, landing a $29 A large number of vendors may line White, from the Air Force Life Cycle million Air Force contract. Schweizer up to sell these types of systems. While Management Center, noted that vendors called it a “key win” for the company. major Air Force programs often have who lost out in the recent downselect During an earnings call, Leidos Chair- only a few prime contractors vying for will still have opportunities to partici- man and CEO Roger Krone said of the awards, the Air Force received a whop- pate. contractor’s participation in the pro- ping 18 bids for Skyborg.

ForceAir photo “We are actively looking at how we gram: “It helps us in many areas with “One of our core expectations about use those vendors to increase the vendor autonomy, with systems engineering. It DoD’s new push into air … unmanned pool over time because there’s still a advances … our qualifications.” robotics is that it will be an extremely significant amount of work to be done Meanwhile, the Air Force is decid- competitive market,” Schweizer said. ND

OCTOBER 2020 • NATIONAL DEFENSE 27 Marines’ New Recon Vehicle Faces Uncertainty

BY CONNIE LEE gram manager for Marine Corps Sys- Ground combat vehicles are most useful A new strategic blueprint from tems Command’s light armored vehicle if you are conducting operations against the commandant of the Marine portfolio, said in the release. the conventional ground forces of Corps has thrown into question the However, these timelines are now another power. The Marine Corps looks future of the service’s effort to acquire a being questioned as the Marine Corps to be fighting at long range.” new scout vehicle. and Navy have gone silent on the ARV. Marine Corps Systems Command, The Advanced Reconnaissance Over the summer, the program was ONR and the Marine Corps’ Combat Vehicle, or ARV, was intended to replace transferred from Marine Corps Systems Development and Integration organi- the service’s legacy Light Armored Command to the service’s Program zation have been collaborating on the Vehicle-25, which is built by General Executive Office for Land Systems. development of the Advanced Recon- Dynamics Land Systems and has been Since then, public affairs officers have naissance Vehicle. The service held a in use since the 1980s. declined to answer follow-up ques- capability-based assessment on the During an industry day in 2018, tions about the program, with MCSC initiative and included the results in the Office of Naval Research outlined spokespersons referring questions to a 2019 initial capabilities document its intention to replace the platform. PEO Land Systems, and its spokesper- validated by the joint requirements According to the office’s presentation, son referring questions to the Office of oversight council, according to a news light armored reconnaissance battal- Naval Research, since it is classified as a release. ions needed to have better networked science-and-technology program, not a The assessment found that the ARV is command, control, communications, “program of record.” a “transformational required capability” computers, intelligence and fire control An ONR spokesperson declined to that will need to have a battle manage- capability; better shore-to-shore water answer questions about the program, ment system, enhanced vision technolo- mobility and improved force protection; citing “national security” reasons. gies, and target tracking and engagement and adopt counter-drone technologies. Coinciding with the sudden veil of capabilities. However, the service is still Light armored reconnaissance battal- secrecy surrounding the program, the working to define the new vehicle’s ions “require greater capacity to conduct vehicle is now being pursued at a time exact requirements. combined arms reconnaissance and when the service is making sweeping The “ARV must possess transfor- surveillance, raids and offensive actions, changes across its force to prepare itself mational capabilities to enable [light security and defensive operations in sup- for amphibious operations in the Indo- armored reconnaissance] battalions to port of maneuver,” the service said. Pacific region and a potential conflict gain contact with and collect on peer- In 2019, the Marine Corps put out with great power competitor China. threat forces,” the release stated. “It must a request for information to industry, Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David accomplish this goal without becoming which comprised a set of attributes for Berger outlined this new blueprint in his decisively engaged, while also success- a transformational vehicle. Officials “Force Design 2030” document released met with several vendors interested in in March. becoming a prime contractor for the The service hopes to concentrate on platform. Two contractors were later improving the lethality and versatility of tapped to build prototypes. its infantry battalions and mitigate capa- The Marine Corps was using a ground bility gaps such as long-range precision vehicle systems other transaction agree- fires and air-defense systems, the document with the National Advanced ment said. Mobility Consortium to develop the “With the shift in our primary focus vehicle, according to a May Marine to great power competition and a Corps Systems Command news release. renewed focus on the Indo-Pacific Other transaction authority agree- region, the current force has shortfalls in ments, or OTAs, are intended to cut capabilities needed to support emerging through the Pentagon’s bureaucratic red joint, naval and Marine Corps operating tape and facilitate rapid prototyping to concepts,” Berger said in the report. help the military on-board capabilities Mark Cancian, senior adviser at the faster. Center for Strategic and International A draft request for prototype pro- Studies, a Washington, D.C.-based think posals for the platform’s base variant tank, noted that the service is not only was slated to be released in the fourth divesting its tanks, but also scaling back quarter of fiscal year 2020 with the final on other ground platforms such as the RFPP scheduled for spring 2021, the Amphibious Combat Vehicle. press release said. “That vision is for small, highly agile “PM LAV will focus efforts targeted teams that will use long-range precision on industry RFIs and strategic small fires,” Cancian said. “Combat vehicles group engagements,” John Myers, pro- don’t fit very well into this concept. …

28 NATIONAL DEFENSE • OCTOBER 2020 fully waging the counter-reconnaissance The service is still continuing to conduct LAV-25 replacement could be a “fam- fight.” experiments and wargames, but has ily of systems” and it might have a mix According to Berger’s Force Design yet to make a definite decision about of manned and unmanned vehicles. He 2030 report, the service intends to rede- moving forward with many acquisition spoke prior to the decision to transfer sign its infantry battalions and increase programs, including the advanced recon- the vehicle’s development to his office. the number of light armored reconnais- naissance vehicle, Cancian noted. Cancian said he has reservations about sance vehicle companies to 12, which “The concept is for small enclaves on the service’s vision for its vehicles, not- would be three more than the current Pacific islands that will launch precision ing that the Force 2030 document is total. The service has already taken steps strikes against a Chinese adversary, par- heavily focused on island warfare in to reduce its ground combat vehicles ticularly its naval forces,” Cancian said. the Western Pacific. However, adopting by shutting down tank units such as the “If that’s your concept, you don’t need a new reconnaissance vehicle would Marines’ 1st Tank Battalion in Twenty- ground combat vehicles.” help ensure that the service is able to nine Palms, California, and the 4th Tank Should the Marine Corps continue conduct operations in a variety of envi- Battalion at Camp Pendleton, California. to move forward with the program, ronments, he said. The Marine Corps However, Berger said in his 2030 one key capability to include would be should remain versatile in its warfighting vision document that first the service manned-unmanned teaming, Cancian abilities, he added. needs to invest more time into studying said. In recent years, all of the services “A reconnaissance vehicle would be the effectiveness of advanced recon- have been looking for ways to incorpo- extremely useful if you have a conflict naissance vehicles prior to investing rate this type of teaming into its systems in Korea, if you have a conflict in the “billions” of procurement dollars into its to integrate more autonomous capabili- Middle East, if you had a conflict in acquisition. ties. For instance, the Army envisions Europe,” he said. “My personal belief is “While I have repeatedly stated that pairing its new Optionally Manned the Marine Corps should hedge more all-domain reconnaissance and counter- Fighting Vehicle with an unmanned against an uncertain future instead reconnaissance will be a critical element platform. of building its forces and its concepts of any future contingency, I remain “I don’t think that unmanned exclusively for a single kind of conflict.” unconvinced that additional wheeled, [vehicles] are at the point where they Meanwhile, complications caused by

MathewsCorey A. Cpl. byphoto Corps Marine manned armored ground reconnaissance would replace a manned reconnaissance the COVID-19 pandemic delayed the units are the best and only answer — vehicle, but teaming is clearly going to service’s advanced reconnaissance vehi- especially in the Indo-Pacific region,” be an aspect of future reconnaissance,” cle industry day — originally scheduled Berger said in the Force 2030 report. Cancian noted. for April, according to a notice from the “We need to see more evidence during Rob Cross, deputy program execu- General Services Administration. The Phase III to support this conclusion.” tive officer for land systems, said at Marine Corps plans on rescheduling the Cancian said Berger’s comments are the National Defense Industrial Asso- event after the service makes a decision indicative of the commandant’s skepti- ciation’s Tactical Wheeled Vehicles on how it wants to carry out the initia- cism toward adopting the new vehicle. conference in early March that the tive, the notice stated. “Given the uncertain impacts of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Light Armored and as a way of providing the Marine Vehicle-25 Corps more decision space while plan- ners execute Phase III of Commandant Marine Corps’ Force Development, the PM will focus efforts on targeted industry requests for information and strategic small group engagements,” the GSA notice stated. Meanwhile, two companies are already working on developing prototypes for the service. In 2018, the Office of Naval Research awarded multiple contracts to companies to conduct full- system concept studies. In 2019, Sci- ence Applications International Corp. and General Dynamics Land Systems received contracts to build prototypes. The vehicles were scheduled for government evaluation at the end of this year. Both contractors — along with ONR — declined requests for comments on the status of the prototype program. ND — Additional reporting by Stew Magnuson

OCTOBER 2020 • NATIONAL DEFENSE 29

FIREPOWER ARMY UPGRADING MEDIUM CALIBER CANNONS, AMMO

BY SCOTT GOURLEY DVHA1 Infantry Carrier Vehicle. While many U.S. combat vehicles are still Along with new cannons like the XM813, a number armed with the 25mm Bushmaster, it’s of companies are providing new supporting ammuni- estimated that more than 100 countries — including tion designs. Several representative examples can be peer- and near-peer competitors — currently integrate found at General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical cannons from 30mm-57mm that could potentially be Systems. used against U.S. armored and Stryker brigade combat In terms of 30x173mm ammunition for the teams. upgunned Strykers, Moises Gutier-

Recognition of this evolving XM913 rez, business development direc- reality has been one contrib- tor at GD-OTS, said the current uting factor to several recent ammunition inventory for the developments involving U.S. Stryker Dragoons reflects deriva- “medium caliber” cannon and tions of Navy legacy ammunition, ammunition systems. like the Mk258 Armor Piercing, One example can be seen in Fin Stabilized Discarding Sabot- the Stryker “Dragoon” upgrade Tracer, or APFSDS-T, “that have applied to 83 Infantry Car- been optimized for fielding” to the rier Vehicles in the Army’s 2nd Cavalry Regiment. 2nd Cavalry Regiment Stryker In addition to that optimized Brigade Combat Team. Based on a March 2015 opera- ammo, he pointed to three new 30x173mm ammuni- tional need statement, the modification features the tion developmental programs currently underway. introduction of a turreted 30x173mm XM813 cannon, The replacement for the Mk258 APFSDS-T is des- a derivative of the Mk44 30mm cannon, to approxi- ignated as the XM1170, explained Alan Perkins, chief mately half of the vehicles in the regiment’s rifle and technology officer for munition systems at General scout platoons. The entire upgrade provides the ability Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems. to detect, identify and defeat a broader target set at The training round to go with it is the XM1172, greater ranges. which will replace the current Mk317 Target Prac- Lessons learned following the Dragoon fielding tice, Discarding Sabot–Tracer and the Multi-Function caused the Army to move forward with efforts to Munition round, which is an “airburst” 30x173, Perkins enhance lethality for a greater portion of the Stryker said. fleet. Those efforts led to the May 2019 award of Initially the Army had planned on an XM1171 as Army photo, Scott Gourley photo Gourley Scott photo, Army multiple contracts for the Stryker Medium Caliber a High Explosive (HE) version and XM1173 and a Weapons System lethality program, under which teams Target Practice-Tracer to go with it, along with the integrate a weapon station using a government-fur- airburst rounds. But rather than have all three, the nished XM813 gun on a government-furnished Stryker service has decided to table the XM1171 conventional

30 NATIONAL DEFENSE • O C T O B E R 2 0 2 0 Expeditionary Modular Autonomous Vehicle (EMAV) platform with a 30mm cannon and evolved it for application to medium cal,” echoed Mike Hafften, director of business development for ammunition at Northrop Grumman Armament Systems. “Through internal investment we are able to scale and adapt that technology to rounds anywhere from 20mm to 57mm.” One cannon application that has led to confusion in some circles is the recent integration of small numbers of the 30x113mm “Lightweight 30mm” cannon with a number of ground systems. Derived from the M230 cannon on the Apache helicopter, the lightweight design allows possible application on The first public firing demonstration of the U.S. Army’s new XM913 50mm cannon. a wide range of both manned and unmanned ground platforms. Regarding 30x113mm ammunition HE and just have the HE Airburst, he grammable ammunition; proximity activities, Perkins pointed to an ongoing added. sensing ammunition; and guided ammu- effort to turn the current M789 High Ultimately, once those requirements nition. Explosive Dual-Purpose round “into a are nailed down for the Multi-Function As an example of programmable more effective proximity-type munition Munition High Explosive Airburst the ammunition, he pointed to the com- rather than the conventional point deto- Army will put together the require- pany’s 30mm programmable airburst nation that you get today,” Hafften said. ments for the corresponding training design, which stems from the Mk310 “The gun would provide a signal for round to go with it, Perkins said. airburst round, which was initially the round to either detonate in a point Another example of weapons developed under the Marine Corps detonation mode or in a proximity upgrades comes from Nammo AS, Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle program, mode,” he explained. “It’s a user-driven which has highlighted U.S. adoption of he said. That vehicle carried the Mk44 requirement where you would basically its Mk258 Mod 1 APFSDS-T “Swim- 30mm cannon. “We have kept up the get lethal effects 2 to 4 meters above mer” round, featuring “super cavitation” ammunition technology and are now the target rather than right on the tar- that combines armor piercing with the working with the Army to keep that get.” ability to shoot through water. technology qualified and scalable to He added that current intent is to “We can confirm that together with other calibers,” he said. have a demonstration of the new capa- our partners in General Dynamics, we Describing how the round provides bility by the end of this year. have already shipped tens of thousands the ability to engage targets in defilade, Some of the most recent activities in of rounds for use not only by the Stryk- he added that the company is currently medium caliber cannons relate to the er Dragoons of the U.S. Army, but also working with the Army to field the introduction of the Army’s new XM915 the U.S. Navy’s San Antonio-class, and round on 2nd Cavalry Regiment Stryker 50x228mm, which has been developed the littoral combat ships, all of which Dragoons in 2021. with an eye toward the Army’s future are fitted with these [30x173mm] Harris said the initial fielding will Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle weapons,” said a Nammo company rep- retain the Mk310 designation, but that program, also known as OMFV. resentative. Northrop Grumman “is also in develop- According to John McCollum, “The fact that the ‘Swimmer’ has ment/qualification with the Army for director of business development at been adopted by both the Army and the their own variant, that will carry an Northrop Grumman Defense Systems’ Navy, and for such a wide range of plat- Army ‘XM1182 HEAB-P’ [program- guns operating unit, the Army’s Combat forms, really speaks to the performance mable] designation.” Capabilities Development Command of the ammunition. Through years of While the Mk310 programmable Armaments Center is continuing to testing we have demonstrated that the design requires the round to be preset fund the company’s efforts to mature ‘Swimmer’ is effective both against fast before firing, Harris observed that the and qualify the cannon to have it ready moving surface and sub-surface targets, proximity technologies require no pre- for insertion on the OMFV platform. as well as modern armored vehicles,” the set, using a sensor package on the round As of press time, four XM913 can- representative added. instead, while the company’s guided nons have been delivered to the govern- Rylan Harris, program director for ammunition development efforts apply ment with an additional seven projected advanced ammunition at Northrop some of the proximity technologies for delivery in November. Current Grumman Armament Systems, high- coupled with a spinning aft end-design industry expectations include a follow- photoGourleyScott lighted his company’s cutting edge to create drag and guide the bullet. on contract that will cover support of 10 advanced ammunition technologies “Essentially we have taken the tech- XM913 cannons in 2021, two XM913 being applied in multiple calibers across nology we developed for our large cali- feeders, developing the XM913 Gun what he described as three lanes: pro- ber [artillery] Precision Guidance Kit Control Unit and Airburst Munition

32 NATIONAL DEFENSE • OCTOBER 2020 contact set as well as upgrading the can- ability of the Bushmaster cannon design, ARMY non fleet to one common configuration. I still think makes it a strong choice.” Early government testing led to rec- As with the 30x173mm, General ognition of areas where the company Dynamics’ Perkins outlined similar they can, in turn, feed them to the plat- could evolve the cannon design to make activities surrounding the ammunition form developers,” Perkins said. it more robust, McCollum noted. suite for the new XM913 50x228mm Reviewing the three 50mm round “One of the areas they have asked cannon. designs, Northrop Grumman’s McCol- us to look at is a slight modification to There are three variants: a 50mm lum added that his company was recent- the barrel, as far as the center of grav- APFSDS; a 50mm High Explosive ly awarded a three-year development ity,” he said. “Another is to also look at Airburst similar to the Multi-Function contract for the airburst round, with an improved muzzle brake design that Munition; and a standard Target Prac- a Milestone C decision currently pro- would reduce wear and extend its life.” tice-Tracer training round, he explained. jected for the fourth quarter of calendar He continued: “But the gun is func- The TP-T and the APFSDS are govern- year 2023. tioning and firing lots of rounds. So the ment-owned technical data packages “A key thing about our 50mm offer- way I would characterize all of those that have been in development for a few ing is that it does leverage the same fuze slight design changes is that the gun years as is the case for the High Explo- and a lot of the same capabilities that is already [Technical Readiness Level] sive Airburst warhead. we are integrating into the 30mm Stryk- ‘6-plus,’ so we’re down to the real Perkins noted that development of the er, so we see commonality from the refinements of portions of the design.” three rounds is taking place in parallel 30mm implementation to the 50mm Acknowledging that OMFV require- but that the TP-T, by nature of being a implementation,” McCollum added. ments might be opening up to other training round, is slightly ahead of the Asked about primary advantages potential cannon solutions, McCollum tactical munitions, which he described of moving future platforms up to the said, “I think the community, includ- as “more in the development phase, 50mm XM913, he was quick to credit ing the next-generation combat vehicle working out the particulars on the the larger caliber system with “hands- cross-functional team, still has a very design to optimize reliability and pro- down lethal overmatch,” observing, “If high level of interest in the XM913 as ducibility. you physically look at the 30mm round the primary solution for the platform. “There is also a need to use some of next to the 50mm round it’s a phenom- And the reason for that is the range those TP-T for the platform develop- enal difference just in terms of size. And and the standoff that it will give the ment, so we are producing some of the benefits that larger projectile can combat formation compared to [other those right now at a fairly high volume bring in an airburst configuration with solutions]. That, combined with the reli- and feeding them to the Army so that that larger warhead are significant.” ND

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Sponsored by Army Invests in New Training Tools Amidst Pandemic

BY CONNIE LEE has increased its use of virtual training limited in its ability to train soldiers for The COVID-19 pandemic has technology to account for social distanc- combined arms operations, she noted. raised questions about how ing procedures, she noted. The development of a synthetic training soldiers will be able to prepare for war “They have turned to actual gam- environment can help the service better while implementing safety procedures. ing technology,” Gervais said. “They are prepare for these tasks. This has prompted the Army to revamp playing games to get through some of “We can’t effectively replicate the its training and further invest in new vir- their training capability to synchronize operational environment for the future” tual reality technology. some of their efforts. We’ve also seen without new tools, she said. “Creat- Maj. Gen. Maria Gervais, synthetic more use of the virtual capability to ing a synthetic training environment in training environment cross-functional help units train, to help them continue which a unit may train will give back to team director at Army Futures Com- preparations.” the leaders some of the time they have mand, said the pandemic has highlighted The Army is still solidifying its spent in planning, preparing, executing the importance of virtual training tech- requirements for the synthetic train- and assessing training.” nology. The synthetic training environ- ing environment. The Combined Arms The STE will have three baseline ment, or STE, is a 3D soldier training Center-Training is working on a live applications, which include the training tool that converges live, virtual, construc- training environment modernization simulation software, the training man- tive training and gaming environments to study to inform the effort, she noted. agement tools and One World Terrain. help troops better prepare for high-end The study is slated to conclude this year One World Terrain is the service’s digital warfare against advanced adversaries and will be used to inform the program 3D representation of the operating envi- such as China and Russia or other poten- objective memorandum for fiscal years ronment, which can be used to replicate tial foes. LVC leverages virtual reality 2023 to 2027. real-world locations around the globe and other computer-generated entities. The service is trying to bring its anti- where soldiers might have to fight. “Because of COVID-19 and what quated training capabilities into the 21st “We need our partners to help con- we’ve had to experience over the past century. tinue to develop the STE at large and three to four months, we have under- “We definitely need help from our the content that we will need to train,” stood now the power of distributed industry partners in this area because it Gervais said. learning, training and connection; and is time to change a 1970s technology One advantage of the technology also the power of what the synthetic that has evolved over time,” she said. “It touted by senior officials is its ability to training environment can deliver to our will no longer meet our needs and we’re facilitate a large number of repetitions, Army,” Gervais said at the National looking for a revolutionized training which might not be feasible in large Training and Simulation Association’s capability for our live training environ- live-training exercises. Training and Simulation Industry Sym- ment.” “It is paramount that we develop a posium, which was held online due to Over the last decade, the service has multi-domain operations training envi- the ongoing public health crisis. NTSA been making incremental changes to ronment in which soldiers and leaders illustration iStock is an affiliate of the National Defense its training regime by adopting systems may attain the sets and the reps neces- Industrial Association. that address specific needs, Gervais sary to ensure success of their mission,” Because of the pandemic, the service noted. However, the Army is currently Gervais said.

34 NATIONAL DEFENSE • O C T O B E R 2 0 2 0 ARMY

a product line approach to existing and future gunnery training systems, Pul- ford said. It will include procuring new training devices, performing technology refresh and implementing a common hardware and software baseline for existing training devices. Meanwhile, Col. Corey Hemingway, project manager for cyber, test and training, said the service is embarking on a program called cyber training, readiness, integration, delivery and enterprise technology, or cyber TRIDENT. It will be available to all the military services. “Cyber TRIDENT is a flexible and rapid contract vehicle designed to serve the cyber training community with a Army trainees are broad overarching scope of cyber train- screened upon arrival to Fort Lee, Virginia. ing, product development, integration, operations [and] training as a service, sustainment, and associated capabilities,” To bring academia and industry tract award is scheduled for the second Hemingway said. together to work on the STE, the Army quarter of fiscal year 2022. Plans call for awarding a $957 million has opened a technology integration Meanwhile, the service is also imple- contract in the third quarter of fiscal facility. The technologies are brought to menting other training modernization year 2021, according to his presentation. the facility and assessed using the syn- efforts. Scott Pulford, deputy project A request for proposals was released in thetic training environment architecture, manager for soldier training, said the June. she said. The service has been holding Army is working on a combat training A large part of the effort includes the web meetings to discuss potential new center tower program for facilities at persistent cyber training environment, systems for the effort. Fort Polk, Louisiana, and the Joint Mul- according to the RFP. The training plat- “It will be focused on examining capa- tinational Readiness Center in Hohen- form will allow users to participate in bility gaps, innovating and integrating fels, Germany. various exercises such as team certifica- solutions from across DoD and industry The effort is a push to replace four tions and mission rehearsals, according and demonstrating those solutions for out of five of the Joint Readiness Train- to the Army. exploitation by our material developer,” ing Center’s towers and install a new Another program in the works she said. network infrastructure. A fifth tower includes the intelligence electronic Col. Marcus Varnadore, project man- will also require a rework of the foun- warfare tactical proficiency trainer incre- ager for the synthetic training environ- dation prior to adding new antenna ment II, Hemingway noted. The system ment, said the service is also developing systems. is designed to allow military intelligence a live, virtual and constructive-integrat- “Recent survey findings by the U.S. analysts to practice working with data in ing architecture that will help centralize Army Corps of Engineers has concluded a simulated environment. the service’s technologies. that the current tactical communication “This contract opportunity provides The architecture will incorporate mis- towers fail to meet current telecommu- high-fidelity crew, individual and collec- sion command information systems as nication standards,” Pulford said. tive multi-intelligence discipline train- well as analysis, design development, Additionally, the program manage- ing across the intelligence enterprise,” integration, test and fielding, post- ment office for soldier training is Hemingway said. “It supports the military deployment software support and help- working on new gunnery systems that intelligence training strategy with live, vir- desk activities, he said. provide simulation training for operating tual and constructive simulations across The Army plans on awarding an Abrams tanks, Bradley Fighting Vehicles the broad span of the environments.”

Photo by Army Master Sgt. Crista Mary Mack Mary Crista Sgt. Master Army by Photo indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity and the Stryker mobile gun system. The The estimated contract value for contract to industry for the effort, he service planned on releasing a request the competition is about $200 million, noted. A request for information was for proposals in the fourth quarter of according to his presentation. A request released in February. According to fiscal year 2020 and awarding a $340 for proposals is scheduled to be released Varnadore’s presentation slides, a draft million indefinite-delivery/indefinite- in the second quarter of fiscal year 2021 request for proposals will be released in quantity contract in the fourth quarter and the contract award is planned for the second quarter of fiscal year 2021. of fiscal year 2021. the first quarter of fiscal year 2022. A final RFP will be released in the third The gunnery training systems effort The current contract is held by General quarter of fiscal year 2021, and a con- will implement a new requirement for Dynamics Mission Systems. ND

OCTOBER 2020 • NATIONAL DEFENSE 35 Throughout the exercise, soldiers tested Army Puts Robotic Combat the performance of the platforms in a number of different categories for viabil- ity on the battlefield. During the evalu- Vehicles Through Paces ation it was determined that the service should increase the distance between BY MANDY MAYFIELD a success, said Brig. Gen. Richard “Ross” the vehicles and the soldiers to better The Army deemed its first Coffman, director of Army Futures keep warfighters out of harm’s way. experiment incorporating Command’s next-generation combat The current operating range for the heavy robotic combat vehicles into its vehicle cross-functional team, which is tele-operated systems is between 1,500 units a success despite not all of the spearheading the modernization effort. and 2,000 meters away from the sol- technology functioning as planned. “The whole purpose was to learn diers. However, dense forested terrain, The five-week training event, which where the technology is now and how buildings and other obstacles can disrupt began in July and wrapped up in we think we want to fight with it in the the transmissions between the operator August, was part of the Army’s multi- future,” he said. and the robots. year plan to experiment with unmanned Coffman noted that although he The U.S. Army isn’t the only organiza- combat vehicles as it moves toward viewed the experiment as a success, not tion that has to deal with that challenge, establishing a program of record. The all of the technology tested performed Coffman noted. service views robotic systems as tools to perfectly. “That’s not an American problem, keep soldiers out of harm’s way and free “It’s a sliding scale,” he told report- that’s a physics problem,” he said. “Each up manpower for other tasks. Next-gen- ers after the event wrapped up. “Some of our potential adversaries has the same eration combat vehicles are the Army’s knocked our socks off, and some we’ve deal.” No. 2 modernization priority, second got a little bit of work to do. But that’s The service is currently working only to long-range precision fires. why we do these things — we do it at a with multiple companies that have It is planning to create a family of small scale so we can learn, save money created waveforms that can transmit robotic vehicles that will include heavy, and then make decisions on how we the required megabytes per second to medium and light variants. Prototypes want to fight in the future.” extend that range. The soldiers tested are already being developed for the During the experiment, small units these new waveforms during the experi- medium and light versions, and the scouted ahead of other soldiers using ment in which they also demonstrated Army’s experiment with heavy plat- both modified M113 armored person- resilience to electronic warfare attacks, forms will inform its decision on how to nel carriers as surrogate robotic combat he added. move forward with that type of system. vehicles and modified Bradley Fighting “We went after them with EW. We The recent experiment — which took Vehicles known as Mission Enabling saw they were self-correcting,” he said. place in Fort Carson, Colorado — was Technologies Demonstrators, or MET-Ds. “We have a really good idea of what is in the realm of the possible today and we’ve got a couple companies that are really pushing it out past two kilometers.” Meanwhile, Coffman was also pleased with the short amount of time it took troops to become adept at using the new technology during the exercise. “The soldiers said they needed about ... 30 minutes to learn how to operate the robots,” Coffman said. “I thought it was going to take them days, but our soldiers were so amazing. … They grew up in this environment of gaming.” Coffman said users were satis- fied with the robot’s software and map interfaces.

“There were some challenges Derryberry Kimberly byphoto Army

Modified Bradley Fighting Vehicles and modified M113 tracked armored personnel carriers participate in a soldier operation experimentation at Fort Carson, Colorado.

36 NATIONAL DEFENSE • OCTOBER 2020 that we had like getting exact granular- cles, they have a long way to go before ARMY ity at distance, but the ability that we they’re able to determine depth of “nega- could identify hot spots and enemy positive obstacles,” such as pools of water and tions, I thought was absolutely excep- ditches, said Jeffrey Langhout, director and Pratt & Miller team to build four tional because that reduces the risk on for Army Combat Capabilities Develop- RCV-light prototypes. our soldiers and allows us just to remain ment Command’s Ground Vehicle Sys- The next experiment, also known as in a covered and concealed position and tems Center. phase 2, will operate at a company level make decisions,” he said. While the commercial vehicle indus- and is slated to take place in fiscal year The map interface allowed users try has been making headway in devel- 2022 at Fort Hood, Texas. Phase 2 will to locate platforms and communicate oping autonomous cars, it’s much more include four medium- and light-variant effectively while delivering graphics that complicated for the military, he noted. RCVs which are currently being built, “absolutely blew us away,” Coffman said. “We see so much positive press about Coffman said. Overall, the software perfor- The recently completed mance exceeded expectations. Ripsaw M5 experiment focused on the “I thought it would be good, RCV-medium potential reconnaissance and but ... we are far ahead of route security roles the plat- where I thought we would be,” forms could play on the bat- he said. tlefield. However, the service However, one issue the is now aiming to have robots service discovered involved move forward in “attack and the platforms’ software that defend” roles in future experi- controlled targeting. While ments. that element worked when the During the phase 2 experi- vehicles were stationary, sol- ment vehicles will be enabled diers struggled to use it while with new radios to increase the platforms were in motion causing the auto industry and what they’re the range between the operators and the the weapons’ sights to bounce as they doing,” he said. “All of those cars that we robots, a new aided target recognition encountered rough terrain. Accord- see up and down the road are operating software that is currently being devel- ing to Coffman, the stability problems in generous GPS environments [with] oped to increase soldiers’ line of sight, were caused by the repurposed robotic big white lines on the roads and every- and an unmanned aerial vehicle that will combat vehicle-heavy surrogates and thing is really good. We’re [operating] be tethered to the platform, Coffman are already being addressed as the RCV- off the road and things get dramatically said. light and RCV-medium variants are difficult quite quickly.” The Marine Corps is also working being purpose built. Although the technology has chal- with the QinetiQ North America and While one of the hallmarks of the lenges to overcome, robots will even- Pratt & Miller team to develop its own RCV-heavy will be its artificial intel- tually have a strong presence on the iteration of the RCV-light. ligence capabilities, the service doesn’t battlefield, Coffman predicted. “The Marines and the Army are shar- expect the platform will have full auton- “In the future, I guarantee you that ing resources, sharing technology and omy, Coffman noted. we’re going to have robots sensing, developing this robotic combat vehicle “We don’t want the machine decid- we’re going to have robots shooting,” he together,” Coffman noted. ing” everything, he said. “We want very said. The platforms will eventually be Although the Marine Corps was pres- specific rules of what that machine will able to perform other functions such as ent during the recent exercise, the ser- and will not do.” chemical detection, smoke cover, obsta- vice did not take part in it. To reduce the cognitive burden on cle breaching and route reconnaissance, Coffman said at the conclusion soldiers, the service is looking for a level he added. of each experiment, the Army will of autonomy that gives the vehicles the These new technologies will also give determine if the technology properly ability to perform routine tasks. soldiers and commanders on the battle- addressed the service’s needs and evalu- However, the current limitations of field more decision space and reduce the ate whether or not to move forward. AI have presented a new set of hurdles risk to warfighters, Coffman noted. Coffman said that although a firm deci- to overcome, such as their inability to “If you could extend the battlefield sion on the RCV-heavy variant had yet recognize depth, said Army Maj. Cory up to two kilometers with a robot, then to be made, all indications were that the Wallace, robotic combat vehicle lead that means that you can make decisions technology was “in most cases’’ where for the next-generation combat vehicle before your enemy comes,” he said. officials thought it would be. cross-functional team. Meanwhile, the Army is making prog- “We have enough information, tac- When a robot “looks at a puddle, it ress with the light and medium robotic tically and technically, that I believe

Howe & Howe, Textron photo Textron Howe, & Howe doesn’t know if it’s the Mariana Trench combat vehicle variants. In January, it we can move forward to the second or if it’s two inches deep,” Wallace said. announced its intention to award other experiment,” Coffman said. The Army “It’s something that we as human beings transaction authority agreements to a will decide in fiscal year 2023 after the can contextualize but a robot has a hard Textron Systems and Howe & Howe phase 2 experiment whether to move time doing it.” team to build four RCV-medium pro- forward with the robotic combat vehicle While sensors can detect solid obsta- totypes, and a QinetiQ North America effort as an official program of record. ND

OCTOBER 2020 • NATIONAL DEFENSE 37 ity upgrade activities as potentially pro- Army Begins Fielding Upgraded viding “overlapping capabilities against the original set of requirements for” the Mobile Gun Systems, adding, “So it’s Third-Generation Strykers possible that in that re-examination, the Army could select another type of BY SCOTT GOURLEY fielding of the initial DVHA1 vehicles capability besides the direct fire 105mm Once identified by Army plan- to 2nd Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, he cannon.” ners as an “interim armored continued, “I have to say that the [office One of the initial lethality upgrade vehicle” and later a “medium armored of the assistant secretary of the Army activities that has taken place within vehicle” capability, the transformative for acquisition, logistics and technology] the Stryker Family of Vehicles focused vision behind the Stryker Family of Vehi- chain of command, our industry part- on the Army’s 2nd Cavalry Regiment, cles has proven itself in global operations ners, General Dynamics Land Systems, which submitted an operational need over nearly three decades. and others, as well as our team, did an statement in March 2015 calling for the The latest milestone occurred in June incredible job starting off that fielding modification of 83 Infantry Carrier Vehi- when the Army began fielding the third with 2-4 Infantry at Fort Carson, right cles into a “Dragoon” configuration that generation of Stryker vehicle platforms on time. And that was in the middle included the installation of a 30x173mm at Fort Carson, Colorado. of the pandemic. But they deployed a XM813 cannon in a Kongsberg MCT-30 “The Stryker program is healthy,” workforce there, kept them safe, and got turret. (See story on page 30) offers Col. William Venable, Army proj- all the vehicles delivered.” After studying initial lessons learned ect manager for the Stryker Brigade As of early September, he estimated with the Dragoons, the Army sought to Combat Team. “It’s a good time to be in that approximately half of the brigade’s expand Stryker lethality across a greater the Stryker business. Stryker is one of the new DVHA1 platforms had been fielded percentage of the fleet. One result was key platforms that are part of the Army’s to the unit. the February 2019 release of a request overall modernization strategy and, as A typical combat team architecture for information to determine the indus- such, we’ve had several key decisions in includes 10 different Stryker variants: try capabilities to produce and integrate the past that are modernizing our vari- 130 Infantry Carrier Vehicles; 9 Anti- a medium caliber weapon system, using ous platform capabilities and examining Tank Guided Missile Vehicles; 27 Medi- an XM813, onto a Stryker DVHA1. modernizing future capabilities.” cal Evacuation Vehicles; 12 Engineer Subsequent industry responses and Today the Army has nine Stryker bri- Squad Vehicles; 32 Commander’s Vehi- early programmatic milestones led to the gade combat teams: seven in the active cles; 36 120mm Mounted Mortar Carri- May 2019 award of multiple design inte- component and two in the National ers; 56 Reconnaissance Vehicles; 13 Fire gration study contracts for the Stryker Guard. Battle-proven performance met- Support Vehicles; three NBC [Nuclear, Medium Caliber Weapon System lethal- rics include 20 deployments, 30 million Biological and Chemical] Reconnais- ity program, with the Army currently combat miles and 57.1 million total fleet sance Vehicles (flat bottom variants authorized to procure the upgrade for miles. only); and 12 105mm Mobile Gun Sys- three of its combat teams. The first generation of Strykers fielded tems (flat bottom variants only). Six teams initially were awarded to the U.S. Army were a “flat bottom” In addition to fielding within the development contracts under phase 1, design. Based on combat experiences and teams, Venable noted that the Army cur- with reports that some of the competi- other lessons learned, the hull was modi- rently has several hundred Stryker-based tors subsequently decided to leave the fied to a “Double-V Hull” configuration NBC Reconnaissance Vehicles fielded to program effort. with the second generation DVH Stryk- non-Stryker brigades. Venable said that while he was pro- ers beginning to enter Army inventories One element within the teams that hibited from disclosing the number of around 2009. could soon change involves the Mobile competitors that actually entered the The third-generation systems reflected Gun System. source selection phase of the effort, “It in the Fort Carson milestone fielding “That particular system is a story unto is a healthy competition and I’m very event noted above are designated as its own in terms of its development and happy with it.” DVHA1. fielding history,” Venable asserted. “And Current schedules reflect contin- “The DVHA1 offers substantial there is an upcoming decision in Novem- ued testing to inform source selection improvements in mobility, power and ber to determine the future of that par- through the end of 2020, followed by a network interoperability,” Venable ticular MGS on flat bottom vehicles.” few months of evaluation prior to con- explained. “It has got a larger horsepower While one decision option could inte- tract award in late March or early April engine and improvements in suspension grate the gun onto a DVHA1 chassis, 2021. and larger tires, giving it greater ground Venable acknowledged that “the greater Acknowledging that the original mobility. It has got a much larger alter- community of purpose is re-examining Dragoon program upgrades were nator for power generation. And it’s the the requirement to try to better under- accomplished at Anniston Army Depot, first vehicle that has a built-in and inte- stand what we were trying to solve with Alabama, Venable said that the specific grated vehicle network that will make us that particular vehicle. … There’s quite a location for this next effort remains to fully compatible with the Army’s future lot of conversation with various courses be determined. Integrated Tactical Network.” of action going around.” However, the program represents Asked about the status of the ongoing He pointed to ongoing Stryker lethal- just one element of a broader set of

38 NATIONAL DEFENSE • OCTOBER 2020 enhanced lethality capabilities. the right time to the right leader on the ARMY “We also are upgrading the anti-tank ground at the very tactical edge.” guided missile system, the TOW missile In parallel with their own future inte- system, and we’re putting the Javelin gration planning, the Stryker platform a live fire with a Stryker 30mm Dragoon missile ‘under armor’ with our ‘CROWS- has appeared in several developments controlled from a Stryker vehicle. So J’ update,” Venable explained. Under and testing by other Army organizations. the software and the hardware can be the Common Remote Weapons Station- One of these developments was the applied to anything. It doesn’t matter.” Javelin, or CROWS-J, effort the Army is creation of six Interim Maneuver Short- Asked for clarification on the robotic updating the Remote Weapon Station Range Air Defense system platforms Dragoon, Keith Briggs, branch chief of to a CROWS system, he said. Some of now entering soldier evaluations. robotic combat platform integration for those will be able to fire the Javelin. Noting that the IM-SHORAD plat- the cross-functional team, offered that Reiterating that it was the combina- forms were created under the Army’s the Stryker’s XM813 cannon fired “stan- tion of ongoing lethality upgrades that Program Executive Office for Missiles dard training rounds” from the Kongs- could significantly impact the future and Space and not PM Stryker, Venable berg MCT-30 turret during the demo. 105mm MGS decision noted above, he added, “The Maneuver Short-Range Air QinetiQ North America served as the observed that both the anti-tank guided Defense program will be on a Stryker prime, utilizing hardware from previous missile system and CROWS-J recently DVHA1 that will be fielding at echelons robotic programs including the route entered important test phases. above brigade and task organized to bri- clearance interrogation system. Kongs- The anti-tank guided missile system gade combat teams as required.” berg was a subcontractor on the contract has entered ongoing preparations, train- He continued: “There are other capa- and provided the wireless fire control, ing and fielding for its operational test bilities, such as command post, that will he said. and evaluation out at Yakima Train- come online in the future. That’s another While PM Stryker provided the vehi- ing Center in Washington state. And that will use the DVHA1 platform as a cle, they were not in charge of testing. CROWS-J has reentered developmental basis for providing those capabilities to “We have a number of developmental testing for a follow-on operational test, brigade, division and corps command programs for things like high-energy probably sometime early next year. The elements, some of which will be outside lasers and robotics that are not part of service anticipates that the first unit of” a combat team. our base program,” Venable acknowl- equipped for all the Stryker lethality edged. Other organizations, such upgrades will be 1-2 Infantry in fis- as the Army Rapid Capabilities cal year 2022, he said. and Critical Technologies Office While the chem-bio platforms are and some of the laboratories are the only Stryker-based systems cur- working on those projects, he rently fielded outside of the combat added. teams, Venable acknowledged that In his own future vision, Ven- one future vision could expand the able offered his view that the platform in non-Stryker units. DVHA1 platform “forms the “The Army is looking across basis of next generation combat the variants in a similar fashion capability for Stryker formations to the way we are actioning the for the next 30 years.” three weapon systems,” he said. At that point, what was once “For example, in partnership with our In addition to uses like IM- called an “interim armored vehicle” network modernization [program man- SHORAD, Stryker platforms will be finishing its sixth decade of SCAN agers] and our nuclear, biological and have also been tied to a num- THIS service. chemical PMs, we are taking mission ber of recent experiments, IMAGE “Stryker is going to be a key com- equipment packages, and we can inte- such as the range of potential bat force in the U.S. Army for quite grate those onto future updates to the enhancements for Stryker some time to come,” Venable sum- base platform. So the DVHA1 forms the Reconnaissance Vehicles marized. “It’s the ‘Swiss Army Knife’ basis for a number of both current and explored during the Army’s of combat vehicles, with a number future capabilities.” Joint Warfighting Assessment See the of current and future mission equip- Stryker Venable was also anxious to discuss 2019 at Yakima Training Center. in action ment packages that enable expanded the Stryker program for network mod- A more recent example emerged capabilities on an austere battlefield.” ernization. during an early August briefing by Brig. Asked about a message to warfight- “It works in much the same way as Gen. Ross Coffman, director of the ers, he concluded, “PM Stryker is very aligning the lethal capabilities, command Army’s next-generation combat vehicle supportive of the warfighter in the Army photo by Patrick A. Albright A. Patrick by photo Army capabilities, sensor capabilities and so cross-functional team. field. We have a direct interface with all forth that we’re already working on,” While highlighting the completion the brigade combat teams and a very he offered. “This is an effort that we of the milestone manned-unmanned strong relationship with the commands anticipate we’ll get started in FY ’21 to teaming soldier operational experiment in which those brigade combat teams integrate the Army’s future tactical data phase 1 at Fort Carson, Coffman offered, reside. We’re only a phone call away for networks into the program. And it will “As a side experiment we ‘roboticized’ a any type of support that the field needs.” result in tactical data at the right place at Stryker 30mm Dragoon and conducted ND

OCTOBER 2020 • NATIONAL DEFENSE 39 coronavirus exposures and cases. Do EXCLUSIVE: Q&A with Army you need to build more resiliency into the supply chain or perhaps have more Acquisition Chief Bruce Jette duplicative efforts to ensure that you wouldn’t be cut off from a particular component? BY YASMIN TADJDEH lions of dollars of their own cash on the Bruce Jette leads the Army’s table to fill those gaps in payments. ... Yes. We’re taking a look at multiple office for acquisition, logistics They did everything they could to make methodologies by which we can ensure and technology, where he oversees a sure that the subs got those forward pay- a better, more resilient supply base. One sprawling portfolio of programs and equip- ments. So we’ve made quite a few efforts methodology, of course, is to determine ment that includes everything from rifles to try and put those pieces together. Keep whether or not there’s a way to recon- to combat vehicles. On Aug. 24, Jette visibility, get the payments out there to figure the small suppliers such that they spoke with National Defense magazine the subs, and then facilitate any of the can get through a COVID exposure. So Senior Editor Yasmin Tadjdeh about how things that the subs had problems with at if one person in the company gets an the COVID-19 pandemic is impacting the individual level. exposure, the other 12 don’t have to stay the Army. The following Q&A has been out because of how they’ve reorganized lightly edited for length and clarity. What are some of the more enduring their work environment. issues that continue? A second thing is, do we have alterna- The Army has been working hard to tive suppliers? And normally it takes help the defense industrial base weather [The pandemic] has shown us some work, time, money and effort to qualify a the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. of our prior efforts and the potential side second vendor for a given part. So we’re What are some of the steps the service effects of them that we didn’t see com- looking carefully at those components has taken so far to ensure the industry is ing. So for example, … we tried to lever- which are provided by small suppliers, healthy? age small suppliers because they’re often but because of the timing overall would very agile and innovative. The thing we be a problem if they couldn’t produce It’s been an evolutionary effort. In the found also is that ... small suppliers are the item. … We want them to be able to very beginning we spent a great deal of more vulnerable to things like COVID. have a secondary supplier and go ahead time trying to understand the supply So if one person in a 12-person company and have qualified secondary vendors. chain — supply chain issues and the gets COVID, all of a sudden the entire That is a challenging problem because contractual implications of COVID on company is isolated and can’t come you don’t want to split the quantity them. ... to work. All of a sudden, they become between two vendors necessarily because Let me give industry … some real non-suppliers for at least two weeks; and now all of a sudden you make neither praise. I’ve been involved with acquisi- depending on what they’re doing, it can vendor very economically stable. So tion since the ‘80s and I’ve never seen be longer than that because you have you’ve got to find a good way to make such a transparent working relationship shut down and start up times. So that these balances work. as I’ve seen during this COVID event. was one vulnerability we’ve had to try A third one is we’re looking at some We normally don’t get to see, particu- and look at and make sure that we have of the parts which could be provided larly from the primes, the supply base an ability to compensate for it as we use through advanced manufacturing as a that they use and their sub-suppliers, and these small innovative companies. possible alternative. ... I think eventually they were totally transparent in provid- The second piece of it is we will try to we’ll have a fairly robust secondary sup- ing us direct access to those suppliers work very hard at leveraging the comply source in the advanced manufactur- and their status. mercial aspects of a company. If a coming, which is where we want to go for We then began working on any of the pany is a commercial entity and most of the possibility of parts replacement as far issues that those suppliers had. Under- their business is in the commercial side forward on the battlefield as possible. secretary of Defense for Acquisition and inherently, it would be a better price Sustainment [Ellen] Lord worked with for the government to use the com- Are there any companies within the local governors and legislation to support mercial spinoff. The difficulty we’ve had Army’s industrial base that are currently people who were being blocked from is, because we tend in those cases to be closed because of the pandemic? going to work because of local rules that the smaller user, when the commercial had been put in place at the very begin- sector dried up because of the COVID There have been 150 closures in the ning and get the industrial base moving. effects on the economy we suddenly had defense industrial base since March 13. Then we put in place payment method- trouble with the supplier staying at the Of these, 126 have reopened. The vast ologies, so we could get quick payments rate of production that was necessary to majority of impacts have been resolved. to people so that we kept our cashflow make sure we got what we needed. So ... We used to do … a 60-page record going. Cashflow is critical to small busi- we’ve had to go back and take a look at [daily] of where the status of the sub- nesses and ... sustaining good cash flows those contracts as well, and see what we contractors are, but now we update is critically important to them and that’s can do to support future efforts. about weekly. So as of Aug. 6, 81 out what we wanted to make sure happened. of 548 Army programs currently have Another recognition of what the large You mentioned that some small sup- COVID-related impacts to their manu- primes have done is put hundreds of mil- pliers can be particularly affected by facturing and engineering support. Twen-

40 NATIONAL DEFENSE • OCTOBER 2020 ty-one of the programs are currently can get back to the testing. And in fact, ARMY reporting COVID impacts from other we’ve now had a great deal of success testing, fielding and that type of thing. with IBCS in its test. So we’ve been So we do still have effects, but they’re executing the test. It’s coming along these claims. We then are following the not insurmountable. And in fact, I really well, and we believe that we’ll be guidance that we’re getting from OSD, believe we’ve only got one program that done with the testing on schedule and, which is based on guidance provided I’m looking at seriously thinking about so far, with very good results. And it will by Congress and submitting the claims moving a milestone decision on. Other put us on schedule to be able to deliver back up the line. Do I think that there’ll ones we’ve been able to compensate for in the timeframe we thought we were need to be adjustment ... for that period? the impacts. … It’s an ACAT-3 program, going to do. I think not. Could there be additional so it’s not a really big program. claims? That’s possible. In either case any of those claims will The Army’s top six modernization be treated in accordance with what law priorities are long-range precision fires, said we’re allowed to do. If a claim is next-generation combat vehicles, future submitted and it’s a valid claim, just like vertical lift, the network, air-and-missile any other one, and we don’t have fund- defense, and soldier lethality. How are ing for it specifically set aside, then we those progressing? have to adjust it based on our budget and we can submit unfunded require- I’ll give you two quick, good examples. ments to Congress and make requests. ... BAE produces the PIM (Paladin Inte- But if they don’t fund it, it impacts grated Management) chassis. Up at York, the program. If they do fund it, then it [Pennsylvania], they had exposure on doesn’t. And so we have to work with the assembly line. ... And so they closed our legislative committees on the other it down for a week to clean it up and side of the river. get things straight. The result of that was that they missed two vehicles and one How is the Army preparing for a of the deliveries. ... They closed down to future pandemic? Where are areas that clean the line, reconfigure the line and In a recent Pentagon memo, the need to be fortified to mitigate potential go back to production. It only cost them Defense Department estimated that future issues so you don’t run into some a week of work, but it had an impact on contractors will experience $11 billion of the same challenges you had earlier the production for one month and their in cost increases due to supply chain on? production is supposed to be eight. They issues related to the pandemic. The produced six. They turned around and Army is asking for about $1.1 billion. Is There are a couple of ways to answer have used the same new configuration. ... that the right number or do you think this. One way is that we’ve learned Last month they delivered nine. ... that needs to be adjusted? Additionally, about our testing protocols and meth- We’re encouraging industry, if you what would happen if Congress does odologies within the Army in general. missed a delivery sequence, then what not fund that? ... What we’re learning from COVID is you need to do is not just say, “Oh, well.” applicable to other things from the cold What you need to do is look at how The $1.1 billion in claims basically to the flu, etc., and we want to keep a you can recover your delivery sequence. that were filed with the Army over very healthy Army. So [we’re looking They will, by the end of September, get COVID ... were [from] 15 March to at] the testing protocols and the testing the other vehicle in we believe, that’s 15 June. ... We put what was sent to us regimens that we are putting in place the current plan. And so we will be back by the vendors together, forwarded that for arrival in the Army through basic fully on schedule by 1 October. ... up to OSD [the office of the secretary training, transfers out to the force struc- Another one is IBCS (Integrated Air- of defense]. OSD then put it together ture, transfers within the force structure, and-Missile Defense Battle Command and sent it over to the Hill. … Of the movements to the force structure from System). ... IBCS was just about ready $1.1 billion, there were a set of rules one place to another, and force struc- to go into testing and we hit COVID. So as to how we were supposed to accept tures moving into environments where the problem we ran into wasn’t with the or not accept any submissions. A com- you can’t keep social distancing. … actual product, it was with the test envi- pany can always file an adjustment or We’ve re-looked at how we think ronments because it’s in ... tactical opera- claim against the government for vari- about safety and health, which has tion centers and they’re pretty packed in. ous effects that occur based upon the operational implications. We have to be So now all of a sudden you can’t get 6 contract. If those claims, whether during prepared for biological threats on the

Army photo by John G. Martinez G. John by photo Army feet apart. ... that period or any other period are valid, battlefield, natural ones as well as non- So the difficulty we had was in com- then we have to deal with those claims. natural ones. So all of these things are plying with the COVID rules in a test COVID is something that is generally lessons that we’re gaining. ND environment. AFC (Army Futures Com- outside of a normal set of claims that mand) manages that portion of things go into a contract. So, Congress did put A more expansive version of this Q&A and there was a lot of work done to some relief in place for making it more can be found on the National Defense try and reconfigure testing so that we reasonable that we could accept some of website at https://bit.ly/3bI9aeX.

OCTOBER 2020 • NATIONAL DEFENSE 41 iStock photo

or a More-

that might and made United States, either express- a statute, Boeing could

Cir- the Federal and the plain- and those made

provisions Thus, because such protests Norman v.

statutes. Circuit clarified the Federal that the remedy for its violation illegal exaction, of reasons: for a variety violated the Constitution, however,

circuit court explained that the con- The which require the existence of either a court also held that it lacked jurisdic- The ripe for been and any claim would not have contractual, statute that the a claimant must demonstrate Adminis- an filed could not have the contractor

not Circuit held that Boeing had the Federal return of exacted funds These types of claims for ND

decision of the Court of the now eagerly await We bid protest or other judicial proceeding a pre-award careful to disclaim Circuit was It is notable that the Federal Circuit decision, A previous Federal In the Boeing case, there are three types Circuit also explained that The Federal In short, Claims reversed both Court of Federal Circuit The Federal regulation. are different from claims that seek damages as a result of a government action, or a money-mandating statute. contract exaction claim cuit made clear that jurisdiction over Boeing’s “money- statute was did not depend on whether the CAS mandating.” challenge to FAR any opinion as to the merits of Boeing’s 30.606. illegal exaction claim on Claims on the contractor’s Federal remand. obtaining the money, “money-mandating” pursuant to the plaintiff paid money to the government; tiff makes a non-frivolous allegation that the government, has jurisdiction: Act over an illegal jurisdiction Tucker “[t]o invoke stated that exaction claim, or provision causing the exaction itself provides, ly or by necessary implication, Claims has jurisdiction so long as: that the Court of Federal potentially affect them in the future. Claims Act which the Court of Federal claims over Tucker of exacted.” entails a return of money unlawfully FAR 30.606, its challenge to the legality of waived in order to challenge the legality of FAR holdings on appeal. through received relief prior to award have could not tractor such as administration cannot challenge matters of contract protests to file pre-award will not need clear that contractors award. to contract not statute is claim because the CAS tion over the exaction “money-mandating.” FAR 30.606 is a mandatory provision negotiations because parties. by the been bargained away that could not have over, futile, been would have bid protest, filed a pre-award not have FAR 30.606; pro- statute Act challenge because the CAS Procedures trative procedures do not apply judicial review vides that that law’s to the standard; in 2008 because the company award review prior to contract changes until 2011. did not make the disputed cost accounting 30.606 prior to challenge FAR its arguments by failing waived Hutt Peter II an is associate a at partner and Terenzio Peter Covington & Burling LLP.

fol- The

however, TERENZIO II AND PETER HUTT PETER BY case is notable The and required Boeing changes increased held that Boeing and then filed suit and the government’s to This is in contrast

but other changes to offset any which was

simultaneous changes to its

however, that it position was Boeing’s changes of multiple unilateral “unilateral” The Court The of Federal did not owe the government any money. ernment, officer, The contracting lowed FAR 30.606, to pay $940,007 plus interest. “ Claims will now address substantive Boeing’s ” ... challenge 30.606 to FAR

ignore officers to which directs contracting

Boeing made multiple, a useful primer on the three dif- the court provided remand means the Court of Circuit’s the Federal circumstances in which a con- the court clarified the

to the gov- Because the changes resulted in a net savings 2020 DEFENSE • OCTOBER NATIONAL

The F

“shall officer FAR 30.606 provides that that a contracting In 2011, Finally, decision to fol- The company argued that the government’s Second, First, The company began paying this sum, Claims, The Court of Federal

42 not combine the cost impacts” cost accounting practices. substantive challenge Claims will now address Boeing’s Federal increased costs to [the] Government.” increase in costs with any savings. costs by $940,007, the government’s Act. Tucker under the available ferent kinds of jurisdiction provision a breach of the contractual low FAR 30.606 was substan- for resolution of Boeing’s way United States clears the Regulation Acquisition Federal tive challenge to a controversial in the government windfall recoveries provision that can give reasons. for several object to a its rights to waived to have will be found tractor FAR provision. to FAR 30.606, cost accounting practices. impact of changes to a contractor’s “unless all of the cost impacts are to a cost accounting system previous practice, the government’s an additional $2.3 mil- costs by decreased the government’s lion. Government “Federal part provides that the which in relevant may not recover costs greater than the aggregate increased cost that requires the parties to follow CAS, n v. decision in The Boeing Company Circuit’s ederal matters. Standards (CAS) Accounting Cost when calculating the the government money offsets that save Claims to get the money back. in the Court of Federal unlawful that regulation was core argument was contractor’s Standards statute, Accounting because it violated the Cost to the government.” requiring Boeing to pay $940,007 plus interest amounted to an illegal exaction. Looms on Showdown Cost Accounting Standards Government Contracting Insights News

Rocky Mountain Chapter Bestows Hartinger Award

n The National Defense Industrial Association’s Rocky Mountain Chapter has bestowed Lt. Gen. John Thomp- son, the commander of the Space and Missile Systems Center at Los Angeles Air Force Base, California, with its prestigious Gen. James V. Hartinger Award. “Gen. Thompson is leading historic changes in national security space as one of the most vocal advo- cates for military space,” said Philip Kwong, executive vice president of the chapter. “Gen. Thompson’s inspi- rational and innovative leadership has delivered superior space capabilities to the warfighter.” Thompson received the award in August during the chapter’s Space Warfighting Industry Forum, which was held virtually due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. Thompson thanked the men and women of the Space and Missile Systems Center as he accepted the Thompson award. “It’s everybody at the center that shares in this award,” Thompson said. “Everybody’s efforts have been abso- United States during the preceding calendar year, and/or long- lutely instrumental in being able for us to tackle this new era term contributions to the field. The Hartinger Award Selection of peer-to-peer space competition.” Committee each year reaches out to all of the members of the Each year the Rocky Mountain Chapter of NDIA selects Rocky Mountain Chapter to nominate qualified candidates. an individual to receive the Hartinger Award, which is named Previous Hartinger Award winners include former Air Force after the first commander of U.S. Air Force Space Command. Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein, Chief of Space Operations Since 1984, the chapter has recognized individuals for out- Gen. John “Jay” Raymond and Gen. Ellen M. Pawlikowski, for- standing achievement in the military space mission of the mer commander of Air Force Materiel Command. ND

Magazine Staff Recognized for Achievements in Defense Journalism

n Four National Defense readiness submission; Manag- Mayfield for best young defense jour- staff members are among ing Editor Jon Harper for nalist. the finalists for the 2020 best military aviation, naval Winners will be announced in Octo- Defence Media Awards. systems, and in-depth report- ber during an online ceremony. Honored for their ing submissions; Senior Edi- National Defense staff have been work are Editor-in-Chief tor Yasmin Tadjdeh for best recipients of Defense Media Awards in Stew Magnuson for best military rotorcraft submission; several categories since the inaugural training, simulation and and Editorial Assistant Mandy event in 2018. ND Space Force photo, iStock illustration iStock photo, Force Space

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44 NATIONAL DEFENSE • O C T O B E R 2 0 2 0 2020 JOINT ARM DIGITAL EXPERIENCE Save the Date

Join hundreds of key industry and government stakeholders from the Armaments, Robotics, and Munitions communities at this newly combined event where attendees will explore topics, products, and processes of common interest and importance. Whether you are interested in investigating the full spectrum of capabilities within armament and robotics systems, or want to discover the key to an agile and responsive munitions enterprise, attending this conference and exhibition will enable you to do so. You’ll have the chance to dive deep into what interests you during briefings, speeches, breakout sessions, virtual exhibits, and networking breaks. You won’t want to miss this opportunity to explore innovative technologies.

November 5 – 6 | NDIA.org/ARMDigital

OCTOBER 2020 • NATIONAL DEFENSE 45 NDIA NATIONAL SECURITY AI CONFERENCE & EXHIBITION

SAVE THE DATE 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.

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NDIA Connect is 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.

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OCTOBER 2020 • NATIONAL DEFENSE 47 Next Month

Armaments ■ The National Armaments Consortium, which is facilitat- ing rapid prototyping for the Defense Department with other transaction authority agreements, is shaking up its processes. What does this mean for industry? China and AI ■ The People’s Republic of China is making deep investments Undersea Warfare in artificial intelligence as it works to become a global leader ■ The Navy is working to incorporate new technologies into in the technology by 2030. In our next issue, we examine the its submarine fleets. Some of these include mine warfare sys- state of China’s AI and how Beijing plans to use it on future tems, undersea sensors and underwater vehicles. battlefields. JAIC Update AI in the Maritime Domain

■ The Pentagon’s Joint Artificial Intelligence Center was stood ■ Artificial intelligence technologies are rising in the maritime illustrationiStock up in 2018 to coalesce the Defense Department’s various domain. National Defense examines how the Navy and Coast AI programs. Two years down the line and with its inaugural Guard may use these for issues such as ship maintenance and director having recently retired, what is ahead for the center? surveillance.

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