Army, Marines Take

Drones to the Beach

PAGE 32

Lasers Beaming
Comms Through Space
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 CONTENTS
May 2024 | Volume CVIII, Number 845 | NationalDefenseMagazine.org
NDIA’S
BUSINESS &
TECHNOLOGY
MAGA ZINE

SPECIAL OPS
TECH REVIEW 18
• From the newest ammo
LASERS IN to the most sophisti-
SPACE 36 cated transport aircraft,
• Using lasers to National Defense in its
communicate is annual Special Opera-
making headway in tions issue looks at the
space where there is new technologies giving
little interference, but the U.S. military’s elite
ground stations aren’t forces the tactical edge.
quite as receptive.

LOOK FOR
AUGMENTED
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while under fire.

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)
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N AT I O N A L D E F E N S E | M AY 2 0 2 4 1
 CONTENTS

STAFF
4 6 12 13 14 26 EDITOR IN CHIEF
Stew Magnuson
(703) 247-2545
SMagnuson@NDIA.org
3 NDIA PERSPECTIVE 27 Special Ops Vehicle Numbers CREATIVE DIRECTOR
Views from the association’s leadership Go Down as Command Divests Brian Taylor
BY STEW MAGNUSON (703) 247-2546
4 EDITOR’S NOTES BTaylor@NDIA.org
From the desk of the editor in chief 28 6.5 Creedmoor Round Expands in
BY STEW MAGNUSON SOF Applications BY SCOTT R. GOURLEY MANAGING EDITOR
Sean Carberry
5 EMERGING TECHNOLOGY HORIZONS (703) 247-2542
Looking toward the tech of the future BUDGET SCarberry@NDIA.org
30 Commission Urges Pentagon, Congress
6 DISPATCHES To Improve Defense Budget Process
SENIOR EDITOR
Josh Luckenbaugh
News from the U.S. and around the world BY JOSH LUCKENBAUGH (703) 247-2585
COMPILED BY STEW MAGNUSON JLuckenbaugh@NDIA.org
EXPEDITIONARY WARFARE
12 ALGORITHMIC WARFARE 32 Army, Marines Hit the Beach at STAFF WRITER
What’s coming in artificial intelligence, big Project Convergence BY SEAN CARBERRY Laura Heckmann
data and cybersecurity BY JOSH LUCKENBAUGH (703) 247-2543
GROUND FORCES LHeckmann@NDIA.org
13 BUDGET MATTERS 34 Army Rethinks Survivability for Tactical
EDITORIAL ASSISTANT
Who’s funding what in Washington Wheeled Vehicles BY STEW MAGNUSON
Allyson Park
BY SEAN CARBERRY
(703) 247-9469
SPACE TECH APark@NDIA.org
VIEWPOINTS 36 Optical Comms Beaming Through
14 Navigating Security Clearance Technological Barriers BY LAURA HECKMANN
Processing Backlogs ADVERTISING
BY LACHLAN MCKINION AND DAN MEYER 38 Industry Using AI to Enhance
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BY GREGORY D. FOSTER Christine M. Klein
40 NDIA POLICY POINTS (703) 247-2593
Views from the association’s policy division CKlein@NDIA.org

41 GOVERNMENT CONTRACTING INSIGHTS SALES DIRECTOR

Kathleen Kenney
Analysis of the newest rules and regulations
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CONTRIBUTED BY COVINGTON & BURLING
KKenney@NDIA.org

42 NDIA NEWS National Defense

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22 Air Force Special Operators 44 NDIA CALENDAR

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 NDIA PERSPECTIVE BY MICHAEL BAYER
Special Ops a Steady Presence in Chaotic World
I
n the last several months, I
have written here about the
brutality of Russia’s ongoing
invasion of Ukraine and the attack
on innocent civilians in Israel.
In addition, I have highlighted the
ongoing efforts by the People’s Repub-
lic of China to militarize islands it has
illegally occupied in the South China
Sea and — around those islands — its
increasingly unsafe and unprofes-
sional maneuvers against the U.S.
military and our allies and partners.
The consequences of these break-
downs of global norms and security
across the globe are increasing human
tragedy and increasing the potential
for larger and more deadly conflicts.
In the middle of this chaos, the
United States and the world is for-
tunate to have the steadying will
and skill of the magnificent men
and women who comprise U.S.
Special Operations Forces.
In this era of strategic competition,
SOF’s activities and operations are a
key component of the nation’s inte-
grated deterrence by every day helping
potential adversaries conclude that
today is not the day to act. This in
turn improves the commander
in chief’s global leadership
and increases his diplomatic
maneuver space while improv-
ing the risk calculations for
U.S., allied and partner forces.
Special Operations Com-
mand delivers all of this as only
3 percent of the total Joint Force
and a mere 2 percent of the Defense
Department’s operating budget.
I am certain every reader of this col-
umn understood the command’s high
operational tempo in support of coun-
terterrorism and counterinsurgency
operations, but not everyone under-
stands that in this return to global
strategic rivalry, Special Operations
Forces are in more demand than ever.
Today, geographic combatant com-
manders are requesting more and
more special ops personnel and their
critical enablers in support of cam-
paigning activities against National
Defense Strategy priorities. In addi-
tion, over the past three years,
SOCOM has seen its crisis response
SOCOM graphic
responsibilities demand increase
more than 130 percent over the pre-
vious decade’s annual average.
This high demand signal
means special operators’
understanding of the rapidly
evolving character of war
is always fresh and experi-
ence-based, and that experi-
ence is driving the command’s
urgency to modernize capabilities by
incorporating emerging technologies
to sustain its decisive advantage.
In recent congressional writ-
ten testimony, command leaders
highlighted the compelling need
to modernize capabilities in five
key technical challenge areas: bat-
tlespace awareness; emplacement and
access; all-domain communications
and computing; scalable precision
effects; and warfighter performance.
In addition, the command is work-
ing closely with the Office of the Under-
secretary of Defense for Research and
Engineering on three of its technology
priorities: biotechnologies; electronic
warfare and electronic attack; and mili-
tary information support operations.
It is important for all of us to
understand how SOCOM is able to
integrate, field and scale new technol-
ogy more quickly than other parts
of the Defense Department.
The answer is that the
command has several dis-
tinct advantages. Beyond its
unique acquisition authori-
ties, it exploits the organiza-
tion’s agility and ability to
rapidly operationally test new
concepts and technologies.
In addition, it is able to successfully
leverage Other Transaction Authorities,
including Middle Tier of Acquisition
and commercial solutions openings.
This acquisition agility enables the
command to benefit from rapidly
changing technologies, many of which
are developed and produced in the
commercial sector by small companies.
It is noteworthy that its commander,
Army Gen. Bryan Fenton, told Con-
gress that SOCOM is currently seek-
ing to bridge gaps with industry and
the private investment community to
provide alternative funding streams
to maximize the disruptive technol-
ogy available to its warfighters.
The first enduring Special Opera-
tions Forces truth is its people are
more important than hardware. The
command is working with research
institutions and universities to
support the holistic health —
physical, psychological, cogni-
tive, social and spiritual — of
its warriors. Rapidly evolving
technology is profoundly impact-
ing the future character of war, and
the resilience of personnel’s cognitive
health will be a key element of the
command’s future decisive advan-
tage. (See Policy Points on page 40.)
To experience all this up close, mark
your calendars now to attend two high-
impact National Defense Industrial
Association conferences where the spe-
cial ops community is heavily engaged:
modeling and simulation, and coun-
tering weapons of mass destruction.
First, we would love to see you June
12-13 in Orlando for the 2024 Train-
ing and Simulation Industry Sympo-
sium, hosted by the National Training
and Simulation Association, an NDIA
affiliate. TSIS provides industry an
opportunity to network and inter-
act with Army, Navy, Marine Corps,
Air Force and Space Force procure-
ment officials regarding training and
simulation products and services. The
symposium will provide insights on
timing and funding levels of near-
term and long-term opportunities,
as well as acquisition strategies.
In addition, please plan on joining
the Chemical, Biological, Radiologi-
cal and Nuclear Division in Balti-
more June 24-26 for the 2024 CBRN
Defense Conference and Exhibition.
The conference will focus on the
theme: “CWMD and Pandemic Pre-
paredness Inflection Point -- We Must
ACT NOW or Risk/Gamble the Future!”
The conference includes senior
leaders from the White House and
Departments of Defense and Home-
land Security — along with acquisition
officials — to promote the exchange
of technical and operational infor-
mation related to defenses against
weapons of mass destruction. The
three-day agenda is packed with pan-
els covering relevant functional areas,
including defensive measures, chemi-
cal weapons demilitarization, treaty
compliance, industrial base issues
and domestic preparedness. ND
Michael Bayer is NDIA board
chair and president and CEO
of Dumbarton Strategies.
N AT I O N A L D E F E N S E | M AY 2 0 2 4 3
EDITOR'S NOTES BY STEW MAGNUSON
Navy’s Acquisition Reputation
Begins to Eclipse Army’s
N
ATIONAL HARBOR, Mary-
land — The first day of the
biggest trade show of the
year devoted to the Navy coincided
with the first solar eclipse seen in
the United States since 2017.
Since it was only a partial eclipse,
observers at the conference near
Washington, D.C., had to have spe-
cial protective eyewear to see the
moon take a bite out of the sun.
Fortunately, savvy contrac-
tors were handing out the protec-
tive shades as conference swag,
and attendees could go outside and
watch the sun, which — along with
the Navy’s reputation that week
— was starting to quickly dim.
Only days before the service’s big
show sponsored by the Navy League, a
devastating report was released spell-
ing out how the Navy had managed to
put each of its four major shipbuild-
ing programs years behind schedule.
The reveal came after a 45-day
shipbuilding review ordered by
Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro.
It showed that the Navy’s top acqui-
sition priority, the Columbia-class
submarine — considered a vital
part of the nation’s nuclear deter-
rence — is facing a 12-to-16-month
delay. Navy officials have warned
over the years that there was little
or no margin for error in deliver-
ing the first of the submarines as
the Ohio-class boats begin to age.
The updated Virginia-class subma-
rine with its Virginia Payload Module
is three years behind schedule. This
is the same class of sub the United
States has promised to lease to Aus-
tralia as part of the AUKUS agreement
to bring nuclear-powered submarines
down under to serve as a bulwark
4 N AT I O N A L D E F E N S E | M AY 2 0 2 4
against a rising China.
Meanwhile, the second
Ford-class aircraft car-
rier is facing a 16-to-18-month
delay, the report said.
But the real basket case appears
to be the new Constellation-class
guided missile frigate, now three
years past its expected delivery date.
Most of the stated reasons behind
these delays were not surpris-
ing: shortages of skilled white- and
blue-collar workers, supply chain
issues, lack of shipyard capac-
ity and of course, COVID-19,
although that excuse is wear-
ing thin as the years go by.
But the delay behind the new
frigates is a completely different
story and the cause of real embar-
rassment for the sea service.
As first reported by Politico, the
Constellation-class
frigates were sup-
posed to be a mostly
“off the shelf”
design based on
the Italian frigates
built by Fincantieri.
The shipbuilder
submitted a design
that was 80 per-
cent complete,
and that should
have sped up the
development and mitigated any
delays at its Wisconsin shipyard.
But the Navy, as the lead ship was
being built, started tinkering with
the requirements — a big patch of
quicksand known in the acquisition
business as “requirements creep.”
Requirements creep? In this
day and age? That is so 1990s.
Multiple acquisition reform reports
over the decades identified insert-
ing new requirements during the
development stage as a main rea-
son for cost overruns and delays.
It’s like hiring a contractor to
build an eight-foot brick wall. It
should take a week. “No, I think
seven-foot is better,” he’s told.
“And scrap the red bricks. Change
that to brown. And can you stick
some concertina wire on top?”
That brick wall is not going
to be built in a week, and
it’s going to cost more.
The Navy decided it didn’t want
to “reinvent the wheel” but then did
anyway. The Constellation-class
frigate’s design by now doesn’t
resemble the original Italian-
designed ship at all, sources
have told news outlets.
Back to the Sea-Air-Space
show, Politico reported that
Navy officials, rather than face the
music, canceled program brief-
ings and press availabilities.
Del Toro in his keynote speech
addressed the delays and vowed to get
to the bottom of it with another review.
But I take issue with the Politico
reporters. I don’t ever remember the
Navy holding a significant number
of press briefings at Sea-Air-Space.
The Navy — unlike its Army and
Air Force brethren at its two major
annual conferences held near or in
Washington, D.C. — does not go all
out to set up briefings with reporters
to help get their message out to them
— and by extension — the public.
The Air and Space Force Associa-
tion’s annual confab in September
has so many briefings with senior
leaders, combatant commanders and
program managers that National
Defense struggles to cover every-
thing even with a staff of five.
The Association of the United
States Army’s conference in October
doesn’t have as many briefings, but
there are at least four or five per day.
Sea-Air-Space? Usually nothing.
There might be a chance to fight
your way through the crowd of
contractors who want to introduce
themselves to the officials. If they
stick around, you might get a quote.
But at an AUKUS panel I attended
on day one, the panelists made
like the cartoon character Snaggle-
puss, whose famous line was “Exit
staaaage left!” Then poof! They
were gone behind a curtain.
The contrast between the services
and how they choose to engage with
the press at these opportunities is
both jarring and a head scratcher.
Meanwhile, the Army was the poster
child for “acquisition malpractice” for
years, but it appears that the Navy
is poised to eclipse it. I’m sure Army
leaders are tired of hearing about
the failed Comanche helicopter and
Future Combat Systems and the bil-
lions of taxpayer dollars wasted.
Navy illustration
The Navy and its troubled Con-
stellation-class frigate may make the
public forget about the Comanche. ND
 EMERGING TECHNOLOGY HORIZONS BY JACOB WINN
Defense Budget Request Shortchanges Emerging Tech
T
he Defense Department
released its share of the fiscal
year 2025 president’s budget
request March 11. But what does it
mean for emerging technologies?
Overall, the department’s request
for science and technology is $17.2 bil-
lion, which is about 3.5 percent lower
than the $17.82 billion request for
fiscal year 2024. However, the 2025
request is still substantially higher than
the $16.45 billion request for 2023.
If the 2025 budget is appropriated
as requested, the S&T enterprise will
effectively take its foot off the accelera-
tor in maintaining the Defense Depart-
ment’s current growth in long-term
scientific and technology investment.
While the broader research, devel-
opment, test and evaluation account
continues to grow — focusing on
near-term prototyping, system devel-
opment and demonstration and system
integration of new capabilities — cuts
to the science-and-technology portfolio
weaken the research-and-development
ecosystem at a time when long-term
investments will pay dividends for
capabilities in the 2030s and beyond.
That said, none of this is new for
the science-and-technology enterprise.
Such requests are usually much lower
than their final appropriation, which
is typically higher due to congres-
sional earmarking. The amount Con-
gress appropriates for S&T above the
request historically tracks with each
year’s appropriated defense spend-
ing topline. Because of the funding
deal struck by President Joe Biden
and then-Speaker Kevin McCar-
thy — the 2023 Fiscal Responsibility
Act — the budget request for fiscal
year 2025 was designed to comply
with the limits set on defense and
non-defense spending growth.
Drilling down into that budget shows
where the cuts occurred compared
to the prior year’s budget request.
With respect to basic research,
the Army fared best at 3 per-
cent growth of $16 million.
Navy basic research was cut by
approximately 10 percent, or $60 mil-
lion, concentrated entirely on defense
research sciences items rather than
university research initiatives.
iStock illustration
In the case of the Department of
the Air Force, basic research was cut
by roughly 14 percent, or $80 million,
split evenly between university
research and defense research
sciences. Notably, Space
Force-specific basic research
activities were formally moved
from the Air Force budget
line items to the Space Force.
Around $84 million was cut across
Army applied research and advanced
technology development activities,
with more than $50 million concen-
trated in program elements related to
the Next Generation Combat Vehicle.
The request reduces these activities
by $88 million, or 4.3 percent, within
the Navy and $153 million, or 6.5
percent, within the Air Force.
Funding increased for basic research
across the Office of the Secretary of
Defense, driven by growth in medi-
cal research. The limited decreases to
applied research and advanced technol-
ogy development accounts appeared to
be achieved by not replacing completed
programs with new starts, an issue
for continuous R&D momentum.
Outside science and technology, the
2025 budget holds other insights on
emerging technology progression.
For example, hypersonic pro-
grams increasingly look like a success
story after years of basic and applied
research and, more recently,
prototyping and initial testing.
First, the Army’s procurement
account requests $744 million
for the Long-Range Hypersonic
Weapon program as the service
prepares to field more batter-
ies over the next several fiscal
years. Conventional Prompt
Strike is said to be on track for
a Milestone C decision by fiscal
year 2026. And while the pro-
gram trajectory could change, the Air
Force is currently budgeting to begin
procurement of Hypersonic Attack
Cruise Missile assets in fiscal year 2027.
The Defense Innovation Unit’s fund-
ing is especially opaque. After the
Defense Department requested $105
million for the unit in 2024, the agency
received a much higher $946 million
appropriation. That included an addi-
tional $100 million for advanced tech-
nology development and unrequested
funds for prototyping, upgrading and
fielding in the amount of $621 million.
Congress intends these funds to
support the organization in building
out a more active role in sup-
porting more transitions into
programs of record across the
services. However, because
these earmarks were provided
late, the 2025 budget request
was built without accounting
for this funding, and the Pentagon
only requested $110 million for the
Defense Innovation Unit in 2025.
This means that, to continue many
of the new efforts in 2025 that DIU
will begin with its added funding
in fiscal year 2024, the department
will need to submit a budget request
amendment to Congress, hope for
more Congressional earmarks or
reprogram money toward DIU at the
expense of other programs in 2025.
All told, the president’s budget
request — constrained by fiscal caps
much like the 2024 appropriated bud-
get — represents a mixed picture
for defense emerging technologies.
While funds for near-term prototyp-
ing are growing, the request further
reduces science and technology’s share
of defense spending to 2 percent. That
is below the 2.6 percent measure allo-
cated by the 2024 appropriation, which
itself is well under the often-cited 3 per-
cent target. These developments raise
questions about commitments to sever-
al critical technology areas like directed
energy and advanced computing, which
are facing some funding declines.
Defense planners and congres-
sional stakeholders should ensure
that science-and-technology fund-
ing sustains its momentum to
continue to match threats and
stated operational needs. ND
Jacob Winn is an associ-
ate research fellow at the Emerg-
ing Technologies Institute. If you
are interested in working with us,
please reach out: ETI@NDIA.org.
N AT I O N A L D E F E N S E | M AY 2 0 2 4 5

DISPATCHES
NEWS FROM THE U.S. AND AROUND THE WORLD COMPILED BY STEW MAGNUSON
them together in a combat cloud.
Commercial space industry leaders
Amazon’s warned that government systems are
Project
Kuiper test lagging behind the private sector when
satellite it comes to interoperability, which
risks continuing with siloed systems
that don’t connect with each other.
Satellites in geostationary orbit,
or GEO, move in a fixed orbit about
35,785 km above the Earth’s equa-
tor, while low Earth orbit satellites,
or LEO, operate closer to the Earth
with an altitude of 2,000 km or less
and are constantly on the move.
LEO systems in the past have mostly
been associated with remote sensing
or spy satellites. With the rise of com-
mercial space companies launching
communications satellites into LEO,
like Amazon’s Project Kuiper and
SpaceX’s Starlink, what some have
called the “multi-orbit age” for satel-
lite communications has commenced.
However, Rick Lober, vice president
and general manager of the Defense
and Government Systems Division
at Hughes Network Systems, said
the government is not keeping pace
with the commercial space sector.
“I think that as we go to the multi-
orbit, multi-constellation type sys-
tems, there’s a growing demand for
SatCom Providers enterprise management control,
network management, orchestration,
Sound Off on Space software-defined networking,” he said
Force’s ‘Outernet’ during a panel at the recent Satel-
lite 2024 Conference and Exhibition.
Plans BY ALLYSON PARK “I feel that the DoD just continues to
lag in that area. Until we start mak-
W
ASHINGTON, D.C. – The ing improvements there, we’re going
Space Force wants to to have these two siloed systems.”
seamlessly connect mili- One of the challenges of building
tary and commercial communica- the outernet is creating interop-
tion satellites no matter who owns erability. Geostationary and low
them or what orbit they occupy — a Earth orbit satellites require dif-
concept it calls the “outernet.” ferent architectures and ground
The Space Warfighting Analysis systems. Connecting them automati-
Center completed its initial plan for cally will require orchestration.
the internet in space, or outernet, Lober used the example of
concept in April 2023, according phones connecting to Wi-Fi
to the Air Force’s space acquisition and cellular networks in differ-
office. It is intended to be the Space ent locations to demonstrate the
Force’s contribution to the Pentagon’s importance of interoperabil-
Combined Joint All-Domain Com- ity on the orchestration level.
mand and Control concept, which “If I take my phone, I can be on the
wants to seamlessly connect Earth- [Microsoft] Teams call in the building
bound sensors and shooters and tie on Wi-Fi. I can walk out to my car,
6 N AT I O N A L D E F E N S E | M AY 2 0 2 4
switch to cellular — [totally] different
frequency band, different modulation
— drive home and go back to a Wi-Fi
network and not … lose the connec-
tion,” he said. “That is what we call
interoperability at the higher layers,
and that is where industry is heading.”
Daniel Gizinski, chief strategy offi-
cer at Comtech, said that interoper-
ability and flexibility to move across
the best of many available networks
is “absolutely critical to provid-
ing that seamless, no-human-in-
the-loop layer of connectivity.”
Another significant requirement
for the outernet is hybrid termi-
nals — receivers users on Earth
need to transmit and receive data
from both government and com-
mercial satellites and spacecraft
operating in both GEO and LEO.
All the military services have hybrid
terminal programs in progress, and
they are all working together to “try
to improve those and learn from
each other,” said Lt. Col. Christo-
pher Cox, space data network branch
chief at the Office of the Assistant
Secretary of the Air Force for Space
Acquisition and Integration.
It isn’t just a matter of interoperabil-
ity, it’s a matter of real estate — hav-
ing a specific piece of user equipment
for each individual commercial and
military satellite system in an aircraft,
ship or ground vehicle simply takes
up too much physical space, Cox said.
“Wherever we can, we want to
integrate those to have multi-orbit,
multi-waveform terminals that can
reach multiple systems,” he said. “We
want to combine those and also be
able to reach across [military satel-
lite communication] and commercial
[satellite communication] capabili-
ties in one effort for the user.”
Achieving interoperability isn’t
just a concern for the Space Force.
It affects all the services as they will
be relying on the outernet going for-
ward, Barbara Baker, deputy program
executive officer for military commu-
nications and positioning, navigation
and timing at the Space Force, said.
“It’s not just about military, it’s
about the capability we are provid-
ing. And although I’m space-focused,
we’re providing that capability across
the services,” she said. “When we
look at it from the DoD side, we need
commercial to be there because they
are innovating faster than we are
Amazon photo
doing in the military. We need them
to help with capability, and we need
to be partnered with them.” ND
 IN BRIEF
MYLER
Diplomat Criticizes
Stashing IP Offshore
• Paul Myler, deputy head of mission
at the Embassy of Australia, at a Cen-
ter for Strategic and International
Studies talk lauded new laws passed
in the United States, the United
Kingdom and his own country that
will pave the way for the sharing of
technological know-how — particu-
larly for the AUKUS agreement —
which calls for the three nations to
build nuclear-powered submarines
for Australia and cooperate on a host
of other emerging technologies.
“We are working closely with the
United States and United King-
dom to implement these changes
into our respective regulatory sys-
tems. ... The defense industry will
be the key users of this new export
control environment. You will
determine its success,” he said.
However, he revealed a practice
among some companies similar to
wealthy individuals who hide cash
in offshore banks to avoid taxes.
“We need to end the practice of
defense companies — including sub-
sidiaries of U.S. companies — hold-
ing technology innovation offshore
U.S. Embassy photo, iStock photo, ULA photo
in Australia to avoid [International
Traffic in Arms Regulations] taint.
We know that happens,” he said.
“What could be more inefficient?
The business of being a defense
capability developer has to allow
seamless operation across our three
jurisdictions getting value from
where you as defense capability
innovators find it,” he added. ND
Reporting by Laura Heckmann, Josh Luckenbaugh and Stew Magnuson
Bulk Buys Are
Good Publicity
• Gen. Christopher Mahoney,
assistant commandant of the
Marine Corps, was grateful Con-
gress authorized multi-year buys
of the service’s new landing ships.
Putting four ships on contract
at once has one obvious benefit,
namely savings. It could slash 10
percent off program costs, he noted.
But a less obvious benefit is the
good publicity.
The shipbuilding industry has
acute labor shortages, and head-
lines proclaiming that the sea
services are committed to buy-
ing four ships instead of one at
a time in each budget cycle reso-
nates with potential workers.
“And not just pipefitters and weld-
ers, but managers, engineers and
architects that otherwise might not
see a future that far out,” he said.
“You follow those ships and show
them the future and you complete
that virtuous cycle with a work-
force, attracting new members and
attracting workers,” he said. ND
The Digital Natives
Aren’t Taking Over
• If you think the next generation will
save us from digital illiteracy, think
again, one cybersecurity expert said.
Holger Spohn, a communication
and information systems security
supervisor within the intelligence
division at NATO Supreme Head-
quarters Allied Powers Europe, said
he recently heard someone say: “We
have now a more digitally expert
generation coming up in our kids.”
“We do not,” he said.
Operating an iPhone and swip-
ing on Tinder is not an IT skill, he
said, speaking about cybersecurity at
NATO’s Military Strategic Partner-
ship Conference in Sarajevo. “They
have zero knowledge on how this
device works. As soon as something
goes wrong, where do they usually
go? To a friend or their parents.”
Spohn said his son took a com-
puter science class, and “I asked
him when my PC was open on the
architecture components … and
he had no idea. Which then raises
the question: ‘What the hell are
you learning in your computer
science class if not architecture
and the underlying basics?’”
“So don’t ever believe … that they
come up with the skills they need
if you don’t empower them with
programming skills,” he said. ND
No Black Cats on the
Launch Pads, Please
• A lot of things can cause a rocket
launch to be scrapped at the last sec-
ond, and the amount of uncertainty
can cause officials to delve into the
realm of superstition, said Troy
Meink, principal deputy director of
the National Reconnaissance Office.
NRO was set to launch a mission
a few hours after Meink delivered
his keynote remarks at the Space
Symposium in Colorado Springs.
“Fingers crossed,” he said.
“I’m not generally [superstitious]
unless it comes to rockets, then
everybody becomes very, very super-
stitious,” he said. Officials make sure
they are wearing the “right socks, the
right jacket, the right everything.”
“And it’s never over ’til it’s over,”
Meink said, channeling Hall of
Fame catcher Yogi Berra. “It’s
never over until it’s on orbit, power
and thermal stable, then every-
body can relax a little bit. So, that
will be a few hours for us here.”
The launch was in fact success-
ful, marking the final flight for
United Launch Alliance’s Delta
IV Heavy rocket. “This rocket
… has provided great service
to the NRO,” Meink said. ND
N AT I O N A L D E F E N S E | M AY 2 0 2 4 7
Lockheed Martin Launches CJADC2
Demo Satellites BY JOSH LUCKENBAUGH
C
OLORADO
SPRINGS —
Lockheed Mar-
tin recently launched a
pair of small satellites
the company hopes will
showcase how space can
enable the Defense Depart-
ment’s Combined Joint
All-Domain Command
and Control concept.
CJADC2, as it is called,
envisions sensors and
weapon systems across
every domain connected via
an artificial intelligence-
enabled network to ensure
the right data gets to the
right shooter or effector.
Launched March 4, Lock-
heed Martin’s self-funded
Pony Express 2 mission
is “really all about Com-
bined Joint All-Domain
Command and Control,”
said Jeff Schrader, vice
president for global situ-
ational awareness in the
company’s space division.
The two satellites are
FURTHER READING
More of the Same?
The Future of the
Russian Military and
Its Ability to Change.
By Katherine Kjellström Elgin,
Center for Strategic and
Budgetary Assessements
• While the Defense Depart-
ment is keeping a close eye on
the war in Ukraine for lessons
to learn as it modernizes its strategy
and weaponry for peer conflict, Rus-
sia is also taking notes on its failure
to achieve a swift victory in Ukraine.
But a new analysis postulates
the Russian military will struggle
to make substantive reforms.
In the report “More of the Same?
The Future of the Russian Military
and Its Ability to Change,” Katherine
Kjellström Elgin, fellow at the Center
for Strategic and Budgetary Assess-
ments, argues that “the Russian mili-
8 N AT I O N A L D E F E N S E | M AY 2 0 2 4
meant to demonstrate three
mission areas: autonomous,
collaborative data collection;
tactical, over-the-horizon
communications; and on- Rendering of Lockheed Martin’s
Pony Express 2 satellites
edge processing, Schrader
said during a Lockheed
Martin media briefing. connect, but we can con- might be closer to the col-
With these satellites, nect them with our Pony lection site, one of them
the company is looking to Express 2” satellites, he may be farther away,” he
perform demonstrations said. “That’s one of the said. With HiveStar, the
with the U.S. govern- demos we’re looking at” to satellite closer to the collec-
ment and international show how systems across tion site can autonomously
partners, he added. multiple domains — air, “say, ‘Hey, I can do this eas-
One possible demo — space and sea — can ier than you can,’” reducing
which Schrader said would work collaboratively. the need for operator input.
require governmental Along with demonstrating Using AI, “these two
approval — would involve CJADC2 capabilities, Pony satellites can fly within
a radio frequency collec- Express 2 is also meant to a couple of kilometers”
tor such as an F-35 fighter showcase the potential of of each other, he added.
aircraft pushing data up artificial intelligence and “Think of Pony Express and
to one of the Pony Express machine learning tools the horses riding together
satellites, the spacecraft in space, Schrader said. very quickly, these things
combining its collection The satellites feature a are flying in formation
with that of the F-35 and software program called with each other in orbit
then sending that informa- HiveStar, which Schrader right now. … This was done
tion to the Aegis Combat described as a “bid-auc- on our money, on a small
System on a Navy ship. tion” style technology. budget, but we believe
“Right now, we don’t “Think about two satel- is bringing a significant
know if all these [systems] lites flying — one of them amount of capability.” ND
tary may indeed attempt to rebuild makes proper investments in defense
and reform in the aftermath of war, budgets and modernization to main-
but the fighting force that emerges tain security in Europe without short-
from these efforts is likely to oper- changing investments needed for the
ate in ways similar to the force that Indo-Pacific, the report continues.
invaded Ukraine in February 2022.” Intelligence analysts need to moni-
The Russian military is capable tor a matrix of the level of resources,
of reform, the report states, but five the duration and intensity of politi-
key traits of the Russian military cal leadership focus on reform and
will make it difficult: “the special defense leadership to assess Russian
relationship the military holds military reforms, the report says.
with the political leadership; The United States and its allies
hierarchical and centralized deci- should seek to undermine Russian
sion-making; skewed and siloed reform efforts by continuing sanc-
information flows; an emphasis tions and other efforts to decrease
on theorization over implementa- resources Russia can devote to the
tion; and widespread corruption.” military, she says. In addition, the
Those characteristics are likely to West has some ability to shape Rus-
prevent an accurate diagnosis of Rus- sian leadership’s focus on reform.
sia’s military problems and make “For example, increased and diver-
leaders “more likely to focus on sified military exercises, signaling of
emerging strategic-level challenges new capabilities, public statements and
than on weaknesses at the tactical or other activities could serve to over-
Lockheed Martin image
operational level,” the report states. whelm or shape political leadership
The United States and NATO need focus,” the report states. “Such activi-
to keep a close eye on certain indica- ties should be carefully calibrated with
tors to assess the reforms Russia does considerations of escalation risk.” ND
or doesn’t make to ensure the West — Sean Carberry
 Army Counter-Drone System Gets DISPATCHES
Stryking Makeover BY LAURA HECKMANN
type of effector, “whether it’s a mis-

A
RLINGTON, Virginia — The “The program has evolved as the sile or a bullet … and then the vehicle
Army’s mobile counter- threat has evolved,” having moved commander gives the authorization
drone program is upgrading from electronic warfare only in to engage it with that effector.”
by downsizing with a new incre- previous increments to a full suite The system is part of a lay-
ment that will move the system of both electronic warfare and ered defense “out there protecting
from two vehicles into a single kinetic effectors, House said. Incre- our soldiers,” House said, bring-
Stryker armored fighting vehicle. ment 2.1 capabilities are “no differ- ing ground commanders “multiple
The mobile-low, slow, small- ent” from the two-vehicle M-ATVs opportunities to defeat that threat.
unmanned aircraft integrated defeat — just moved onto one vehicle. But it starts with detection.”
system, or M-LIDS, currently operates M-LIDS has an onboard radar that From a soldier’s perspective, the
using two mine-resistant ambush- detects threats at long ranges and Stryker is a “much better platform”
protected all-terrain vehicles, or targets them with both electronic than the M-ATV, House said. The
M-ATVs, which deploy as a pair. warfare and kinetic effectors, he said. M-ATV served its purpose, but Strykers
Increment 2.1, initiated in 2022 When the threat is identified and provide “the size, the power, the weight
and currently in development, within range, a gunner selects the capacity to support all of the technolo-
will bring the system onto a single gies,” and “it’s the right vehicle to take
Stryker vehicle, reducing cost, eas- M-LIDS 2.1 C-UAS Stryker M-LIDS to the next level,” he added.
ing sustainment and increasing reli- The move from two vehicles to
ability, a company official said. one will also bring an eight-soldier
Ed House, senior director of busi- crew down to four — possibly
ness development for land systems smaller — on the Stryker, reduc-
with Leonardo DRS — the lead ing costs associated with train-
company of an eight-team coali- ing and equipping, House said.
tion behind increment 2.1 — said He could not offer specifics on
the push for 2.1 came from the same the project’s timeline but said
impetus as previous versions of Leonardo is “on contract to deliver
M-LIDS — an evolving drone threat. two division sets of 2.1.” ND

BY THE NUMBERS
Aerospace Manufacturing Federal Contract Volume and Employment
Leonardo DRS photo

Source: Bloomberg Government, Lightcast

*Top 12 markets; total funding amounts based on aggregate of the top 50 cities to recieve funding; NAICS Code: 3364/33641 N AT I O N A L D E F E N S E | M AY 2 0 2 4 9
 DISPATCHES

Innovation Nation
Diver Assist Vessel
Can Pull Double Duty
As Underwater Drone
BY STEW MAGNUSON

N
ATIONAL HARBOR, Mary-
land — An underwater vehicle
designed to help maritime
special operators such as SEALs arrive
at their destinations quicker can also
double as an autonomous drone.
Patriot3 Inc. has sold its Ham-
merhead Subsurface Multi-Mission
Vehicle to one undisclosed foreign cus-
tomer and has seven nations in various
stages of testing the vessel, Charles
Fuqua, CEO of the company, said on
the sidelines of the Navy League’s
Sea-Air-Space conference recently.
“When the diver gets in, all he
has to do is punch in where he
wants to go, how deep he wants to
go and what his speed is,” he said.
However, if a commander needs
an uncrewed underwater drone to
deliver supplies or perform other
missions such as surveil-
lance, he can use the Ham-
merhead without a diver.
When the vessel arrives at
a destination — diver or not
— it can tilt its bow thrust-
ers to hover just like a V-22
Osprey aircraft, he added.
“When a diver gets to a
location, he can choose two
options — stay or go home.
If he stays, the thrusters let
him hover at that depth,” he said.
As a bonus, its compartment
has a warmer that can help div-
ers in cold waters, he added.
The diver can also switch off the
autonomy and take complete control
of the vessel if needed, he added.
The Hammerhead is a modular sys-
tem with sections that can be
SCAN added or subtracted depending
THIS
IMAGE
on the mission. It has optional
space for extra air tanks and
batteries to increase the mis-
sion’s length and a delivery sys-
tem to leave payloads behind.
The company is cur-
rently looking at adding
SEE THE
HAMMERHEAD hydrogen batteries or using
IN ACTION them in a combination
with lithium ion to extend
the vehicle’s range, he said.
Patriot3 developed the Ham-
merhead as the Indo-Pacific and its
vast expanses of water become an
increasing area of concern, he said.
“We wanted a system that
was a jack of all trades and mas-
ter of none,” he said. ND

Hello, Goodbye autonomous combat plat-

• Aprille Ericsson was
sworn in as the first
assistant secre-
tary of defense
for science
and technol-
ogy. Ericsson
will oversee
S&T portfolios
aimed at helping
the department ERICSSON
achieve leap-ahead
defense capabilities.
Ericsson had spent over
30 years at NASA.
Scientific Systems
announced retired Navy
Rear Adm. Andy “Bucket”
Loiselle as its newest stra-
forms. Loiselle previously
served 35 years in the Navy
across five different
command tours.
QinetiQ
announced
Charles
Fielden as its
executive vice
president and
general manager
of the intelligence,
cyber and information
advantage business unit.
Brian Weeden, longtime
leader of space advocacy
think tank Secure World
Foundation, is moving on
to join the Aerospace Corp.
Kymeta, a flat panel sat-
dent and CEO of Synaptics.
Bell Textron Inc.
announced the opening of
its Weapon Systems Inte-
gration Lab in Arlington,
Texas. The facility will aid
in the integration and test-
ing of a next-generation
fly-by-wire tiltrotor and
mission system using a
modular open systems
approach for the Army’s
Future Long-Range
Assault Aircraft program.
Paradigm Parachute and
Defense Inc. announced its
$2.25 million acquisition
of ASR-Pioneer assets. The
acquisition included all
assets from Airlift Technol-
ogies International, Strong
land, Texas, opened a
76,000-square-foot aquatic
training center honoring
fallen pararescueman Air
Force Master Sgt. Michael
Maltz. The $60 million
facility consists of two
enclosed Olympic-size,
climate-controlled swim-
ming pools with moveable
bulkheads and overhead
catwalks. The facility will
meet the training needs of
the Air Force’s offensive
ground force Air Force
Special Warfare Airmen.
And finally, goodbye to
the Deltas. United Launch
Alliance launched the
NROL-70 mission aboard
the last of the Delta IV
Patriot3 Inc. photo, Defense Dept. photo

tegic advisor. Loiselle’s
primary role will be to
offer critical guidance
on programs and the
acquisition cycle across
the Defense Department
while also developing a
foundation for new naval
ellite antenna company,
announced Rick Bergman
as its new president and
CEO. Bergman previously
served as executive vice
president of computing
and graphics at Advanced
Micro Devices and presi-
Enterprises and ASR-Pio-
neer’s Mississippi-based
operation. The acquisition
totaled three quarters of
all assets of ASR-Pioneer.
The Special Warfare
Training Wing at Joint
Base San Antonio-Lack-
Heavy rockets from Space
Launch Complex-37B at
Cape Canaveral Space
Force Station in Florida.
Its departure marked
the end of a 60-year era
for the Delta family of
launch vehicles. ND

10 N AT I O N A L D E F E N S E | M AY 2 0 2 4
 Best of the Web Read NationalDefenseMagazine.org for daily updates and news
Navy Prepping for Surgery in the Indo-Pacific BY SEAN CARBERRY
N
ATIONAL HAR-
BOR, Maryland
— Thousands of
service members survived
combat injuries in Afghani-
stan and Iraq because
the theaters were small
enough and there was
enough casualty evacua-
tion and medical capacity
that they could receive care
within the critical “golden
hour.” But in a conflict in
the Indo-Pacific theater,
delivering life-saving care
will be far more compli-
cated, Navy officials said.
Projections show there
will be large numbers of
casualties if a war were to
break out in the region,
Capt. Lynelle Boamah,
director of maritime opera-
tions in the Navy’s Bureau
of Medicine and Surgery,
said at the Navy League’s
Sea-Air-Space conference at
National Harbor, Maryland.
“We want to be able to
support the golden hour,
but we know that is going
to be incredibly difficult,”
she said. The “golden
hour” is the time after a
traumatic injury where
medical treatment could
prevent a death, although
there are many variables
associated with the term.
“Providing care across
the domains of time [and]
space is really going to
be a challenging problem
set. Our pacing challenge
right now is patient move-
ment — how we’re going
to take casualties out of
theater and get them to
definitive care,” she said.
That challenge is at the
heart of Navy Medicine’s
“North Star,” which states:
“By 2027, Navy Medicine
will deliver agile, scal-
able, trained and certi-
fied medical units to
provide enduring support
Austal rendering
to the Fleet, Fleet Marine
Force and Joint Forces
in high-end competi-
tion, crisis and combat.”
Boamah said the Indo-
Pacific will make it difficult
to provide care “across the
continuum from Role 1,
which is care at the point
of injury — there may be
a need to have prolonged
holding at the Role 1 level
— to Role 2, which is pro-
viding damage control,
resuscitation and dam-
age control surgery under
the sea, at sea, even in
an aircraft potentially.”
The Navy is in the pro-
cess of designing and build-
ing six new ships intended
to provide advanced medi-
cal capabilities and address
the complex needs in the
Indo-Pacific, experts at a
panel said. In January, the
Navy took delivery of the
Austal USA-built USNS
Cody, the first Flight II
variant of the Spearhead-
class expeditionary fast
transport ship, which is
undergoing testing. The
shipbuilder is complet-
ing the next two Flight IIs,
which are scheduled for
delivery in 2025 and 2026.
The Cody can support
MH-60 and MV-22 take-
off and landing and has
Role 2 facilities including
two operating rooms, 10
intensive care unit beds
and additional acute care
beds, Boamah said.
“And we’ve got an expe-
ditionary medical team
that we’ve been resourced
to develop called an expe-
ditionary medical unit,
which has a team that’s
got two surgical compa-
nies, if you will, within
that team and can provide
care at sea,” she added.
In December, the Navy
awarded an $868 mil-
lion contract to Austal for
final design and construc-
tion of three expedition-
ary medical ships, which
will be purpose-built and
based on the multi-mission
expeditionary fast trans-
port ship. The first will be
the USNS Bethesda and
should be delivered in 2028,
Capt. Chris Kurtz, branch
head of expeditionary
health in the Office of the
Chief of Naval Operations,
told National Defense.
Eventually, the Navy
will replace the two large
hospital ships, which
provide Role 3 capabili-
ties, the USNS Mercy and
USNS Comfort, he said.
“The next-generation
hospital ship is in the
shipbuilding plan for the
early [2030s],” he said. The
Mercy and Comfort are
already “well past their
normal shelf-life exten-
sion. But we’ll keep them
alive, probably into the mid
’30s. And we won’t lose
them until we have like
replacement ready to roll.”
The Navy is working on
the analysis of alternatives
for the next-generation hos-
pital ship, and it should be
formalized in 2027 or 2028,
he said, with a target of
delivery in the mid 2030s.
“And it will most likely
be more than just two
giant ones,” he added.
“We probably need more;
we don’t need 1,000
beds on everything.”
One platform that will
be relied on for medical
transport in the Indo-
Pacific is the MV-22 Osprey,
which is just returning
to service after another
lengthy grounding follow-
ing another fatal accident.
Kurtz said the Osprey is
N AT I O N A L D E F E N S E | M AY 2 0 2 4
the only aircraft that can
travel the distances needed
and land vertically, but
the service is consider-
ing mitigation options if
MV-22s are not available.
“The mitigation is really
the ship itself,” he said.
“That’s sort of the con-
cept — that we will move
the patients by surface.
We just got to get them
on board however that
is. So, if the [MV-22] for
whatever reason is off the
table at any given moment,
then we just have to make
sure we’re within the
flight ring of whatever can
land and then the ship
does the movement.
“So, it’s not just a surgi-
cal platform, it’s a move-
ment platform because
there’s nothing that’s
rotary wing that can make
the jumps needed in the
Pacific Ocean,” he said.
(For more on the
Osprey’s return to ser-
vice, see page 18.)
In the meantime, the
service continues to
upgrade medical facilities
on its existing ships and
to ensure medical capa-
bilities are integrated into
new ships, Boamah said.
“I can say with confi-
dence that we are doing
everything we can at max
capacity that is within our
control,” Boamah said.
“We’ve already got medi-
cal capabilities on all of our
ships. On our large deck
amphibs, there’s already
surgical teams there, so
what we’re doing is prepar-
ing to augment those teams
with these expeditionary
surgical systems, en-route
care teams and the expedi-
tionary medical unit.” ND
Posted April 9 at Nation-
alDefenseMagazine.Org. To
read the completed story,
go to bit.ly/NavyPrep
11
ALGORITHMIC WARFARE BY JOSH LUCKENBAUGH
Data Normalization, Distribution Key to CJADC2
T
he Defense Depart-
ment’s Combined
Joint All-Domain
Command and Control
concept envisions a future
where data is pulled from
a multitude of sensors oper-
ated by different services and part-
ners across all domains and then
passed along to the correct “shooter”
to execute a particular mission.
But to make all that data usable,
the Pentagon will need a C-3PO-
esque translator that can speak the
language of each service’s or part-
ner’s systems, Army officials said.
Col. Matt Skaggs, director of tacti-
cal applications and architecture at
Army Futures Command, said each
service has its own system to ingest
data that has “its own data model —
its own language.” And when “we try
to make the boxes talk to each other,”
there is often a data normalization
problem where the data is not com-
patible with each system in the link.
The Defense Department is work-
ing to create a “single ingest point”
where “all of that data is normal-
ized so it can be read by all of our
applications,” Skaggs said during an
interview at the Army-led Project
Convergence Capstone 4, or PCC4,
in March. “If everybody’s looking at
that same layer of data, the different
applications can have equal access
to it for different functionalities.”
Skaggs compared it to how dif-
ferent cell phones, such as Android
smartphones or Apple iPhones,
“all talk a different language” but
can ingest the same data and com-
municate with one another.
Normalizing the data will also
allow the military to bring in artifi-
cial intelligence and machine learn-
ing tools to analyze the data faster
than is humanly possible, he said.
12 N AT I O N A L D E F E N S E | M AY 2 0 2 4
AI and machine learning will
“help us not leave 75 percent
of the data on the cutting
room floor,” he added. “If I
could get my soldiers to pro-
cess 25 percent of our sensor
[intake], we’re doing good. We’re
moving away from that place.”
Col. Mike Kaloostian, director of
transportation and network security
for Army Futures Command, said
that to avoid creating a single point of
failure through these data normaliza-
tion systems, “distributed networks
are going to be super important.”
“We should be thinking about het-
erogeneous networks that we are
going to be tying in through different
control planes of different echelons,”
Kaloostian said. “What we don’t want
is just one network for every echelon.”
Operators can’t always “reach back
to a data point — we need to figure
out how to also share data locally
in case we are cut off,” he contin-
ued. “Total distribution is the key
to the future of having the ability to
be able to push down to the lowest
level — truly the tactical edge — and
to share data at the tactical edge.”
Returning to the smartphone anal-
ogy, Skaggs compared the ability
to operate at the tactical edge with
an iPhone in airplane mode that
still works despite not being con-
nected to the cellular network.
Maj. Gen. Jeth Rey, director of the
Army’s Network Cross-Functional
Team, said the military recognizes
it has a “data management problem,
and we believe we’re at the cusp of
data convergence so that we can create
these regional nodes where our data
is stored so that they can get [the data]
normalized in a way that we can point
to that data and then use that data” to
construct a common operating picture.
The military must also ensure its
networks are robust enough to handle
the strain of a high-intensity conflict
against a peer adversary, Kaloostian
said. “What we really are striving to
do is to ensure that we have an intel-
ligent, fully autonomous network in
the future” that is “threat-informed,
it understands what the threats are,
it understands the entire [electro-
magnetic] spectrum, and we can
operate in that spectrum the way
that we are able to do so based on
an enemy’s capabilities,” he said.
During the recent capstone event,
the services proved “that we have
resilient [data] transport,” Rey said.
“So, we know that part is starting to
be proved out. The second part is we
have to be cloud-enabled” and under-
stand “where our data is going to be
stored so we can point to that data.”
The biggest challenge with stor-
ing data in a cloud environment is
doing so in a zero trust architec-
ture where all networks and traffic
are treated as potential threats, he
said. Zero trust will allow the ser-
vices to “secure the data layer with
attribute-based access control.”
While previous access manage-
ment modernization efforts within
the Defense Department have fallen
short, “the technology now exists
for us to think about [zero trust] in a
reliable manner,” Kaloostian said.
Rey said, “We now understand
how … zero trust operates: the
user authenticates with the device,
to the application, the application
to the actual network and then to
the actual data itself. We under-
stand that now, and we believe
that we have a path to get there.”
The Defense Department is current-
ly in the “experimentation phase” of
developing data normalization systems
and is working with companies to fig-
ure out the specifications and applica-
tion programming interface standards
“that industry can write to,” Skaggs
said. Kaloostian added that it is “not
just an Army thing to solve … because
we’re going to fight as a Joint Force.”
Rey said the military is getting close
to solving its data management prob-
lem — maybe by 2025 or 2026, he
said.
“We’re getting a lot closer to under-
standing that now we need these data
repositories [so] that we can actually
curate our data,” he said. The mili-
tary is learning through exercises like
PCC4 that “a lot of cloud-enabled
instances may not be the answer, but
having this data repository around
our regions may be an answer.
“We have to still kind of flush
that out right now,” he said. “So, I
think we’re getting a lot closer. We
iStock illustration
learned a lot here at [Project Con-
vergence], and I think it’s helping
us understand where we are.” ND
 BUDGET MATTERS BY SEAN CARBERRY
Representatives Float Virginia Supplemental
N
ATIONAL HARBOR, Mary-
land — While the Defense
Department dialed back
some procurement goals in fiscal
year 2025 to limbo under the $850
billion bar Congress set in the Fis-
cal Responsibility Act, department
officials said the request to procure
only one Virginia-class submarine
was a “management decision.”
Mike McCord, undersecretary
of defense (comptroller), said in
March that with production run-
ning 30 months late and a dozen
boats on order, trimming the 2025
buy was a way “to get to a better,
more healthy dynamic where we
can get to the two submarine a year
production rate. And we thought
that going a different direction
was our best move in that case.”
However, members of the House
Armed Services Committee from
both sides of the aisle recently threw
cold water on that different direc-
tion, saying it sends the wrong
message to adversaries, allies and
the submarine industrial base.
“As one supply chain vendor who I
was visiting during the Easter break
said to me, ‘You know, you don’t get to
two per year by funding only one per
year,’ particularly in the submarine
industrial base, which has been sort
of the poster child for procurement
instability going back 30 years,” Rep.
Joe Courtney, D-Conn.,
said during a panel discus-
sion at the Navy League’s
Sea-Air-Space conference.
He noted that the com-
mittee has been plussing-up
funding for the submarine
industrial base since 2018.
“But again, another one
of the supply chain guys
said, ‘The [submarine
industrial base] money
does not pay the bills. What
pays the bills is orders and
procurement,’” he said.
Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Va., piled on.
“You can’t have it both ways. You
can’t say, ‘Well, the reason we’re
reducing the submarine request is
Huntington Ingalls photo
because we don’t think the industrial
base can do it.’ That’s wrong,” he said.
“The industrial base can do it if
you send them the demand signal.
We’re at about 1.6, I think, subma-
rines today annually. We need
to be at 2.3. The way we get
there is to send the proper
demand signal,” he said.
Rep. Jen Kiggans, R-Va.,
said the industrial base will
make investments in work-
force and facilities to increase
production if it gets the signal.
“When we send them budgets that
are decommissioning more ships
than we’re building, and we are cut-
ting our Virginia-class sub build in
half, and we’re slowing that aircraft
carrier build when they’re expect-
ing to be able to do two at once,
I think that’s the wrong signal to
be sending to them,” she said.
Courtney said: “I still believe
that we need to fix this budget in
terms of the Virginia program for
the sake of our supply chain, allies,
a whole host of other reasons.
But I think we can handle it.”
The question is, how will the House
Armed Services Committee handle it?
Kiggans said in an interview
after the panel that the ideal would
be to add it into the 2025 National
Defense Authorization Act.
“If we have anything to do with
it, yeah. I would love to see three
honestly, or more,” she said.
“If there’s anything we can
do to get that Virginia class
built back up to two or more, I
would certainly support that.”
However, Wittman indicated the
Fiscal Responsibility Act means
the HASC could end up punting.
“It will be up to the appropriators
as to whether or not they see a gap
there that needs a supplemental,” he
said. “And we remember back through
the Budget Control Act of 2011, the
supplementals were the
way for us to close the gap.
I think the environment
though today to be able to
get a supplemental through
is more of a challenge unless
you can show a direct need today
and where the threat is and how you
need to invest. But I think that’s the
only mechanism going forward.”
Kiggans said it’s going to take
some creativity because of pres-
sure to rein in spending.
“What are we going to prioritize?
So, for me, and a lot of my colleagues,
national defense … should be every-
one’s top priority right now. And
especially when you take into account
what’s going on the world,” she said.
“And just being a person who has
been in those places — recently in
Israel and Southeast Asia this past
summer — I mean, that fight is
real … and it’s going to impact our
own country,” she continued.
“We need to absolutely be doing
what we can do. If it’s the form of a
supplemental, we need to be pass-
ing those things,” she continued.
“The challenge is in this divided
Congress that we work in — and
then the Republicans are down, I
think, after this week to a one-seat
majority,” she said. “So, it’s chal-
lenging, we will have a lot of dif-
ferent opinions in that room.”
It has been so challenging
that Congress has been unable
to pass a supplemental request
for military aid to Ukraine,
Israel and Taiwan since before
the end of the previous fis-
cal year. So, how realistic
is it to think Congress will
pass a supplemental now?
“I think that we’ll see some
movement on things like fund-
ing for Ukraine,” she said.
“But you know, it depends
on the vote count. So, I know
it’s slim margins, even the
defense appropriations bill we just
passed two weeks ago, that was slim.
… So, it’s tough to get things out.
“The onus is kind of on those of us
who understand that that fight is real
to be educating and enlightening some
other members of Congress,” she said.
Enlightenment in Congress in
an election year… We’ll see. ND
N AT I O N A L D E F E N S E | M AY 2 0 2 4 13
VIEWPOINT
Navigating Security
Clearance Processing
Backlogs BY LACHLAN MCKINION AND DAN MEYER
T
here is little instant grati-
fication within the secu-
rity clearance process.
The persistent ebb and
flow of security clear-
ance processing times is understood
first and foremost through a pretty
blunt fact: it is the applicant’s or
current holder’s own filing with
security that impacts with signifi-
cance how fast processing takes.
Remember, most security clearance
applicants are cleared and do clas-
sified work. The critical question is:
how fast? What role does the appli-
cant play in the speed of processing?
Let’s face it, another factor impact-
ing processing times is the appeal of
federal employment positions. Evi-
dence of this is more anecdotal than
empirical, but many in the millen-
nial and Gen Z cohorts value federal
employment more than candidates
30 years ago. Getting a federal job is a
competition; to get in, you have to win.
Within the security circle of trust,
backlogs rise and fall based on the
number of older, more complex cases
and the ability to close them. Some
of those — like “Guideline H, Drug
Involvement and Substance Misuse”
cases — will drag. Drug use is com-
plex. The facts take longer to resolve.
State THC decriminalization leads
to complicated fact patterns that
take time to parse. This is compared
to issues regarding, say, “Guideline
F, Financial Considerations.” With
continuous evaluations, more data is
available to pull from and collect in
real time, which can speed up the time
to resolve these cases tremendously.
The timing of a filing can also
impact processing. File just after one
or more public and painful security
violations — such as the Edward
Snowden case — and applicants will
likely end up stuck in the backlog.
These actions slowed security special-
ists down, and no one wants their
“yes” on the file of the next leaker.
Despite recent technology enhance-
ments in gathering information
about the applicant or holder’s life
14 N AT I O N A L D E F E N S E | M AY 2 0 2 4
— they are being watched — a set
of eyeballs and fingertips still must
review any derogatory information
after it is pulled. And those eyes and
ears do not move faster; there is no
software upgrade to speed up the
federal security specialist. Complex
cases and info-tech integration issues
will always be present, and so will a
backlog of some length. The question
really is: how to avoid the backlog,
shifting that delay to impair a com-
petitor for that federal job you want.
So, how to optimize?
Read the regulations Security Execu-
tive Agent Directives 3 and 4 before
applying, and every year thereafter.
Agency regulations can be poorly
written or hard to find; the director
of national intelligence, who is the
president’s point person on whether
one can work for or with the federal
government, has put it all in two con-
cise and well-written directives.
A federal worker may not be a
spy, but if they are in the execu-
tive branch, the DNI determines
the policy for their clearance.
Be careful about “wisdom” from
friends and the internet — every-
one’s advice is rooted in their own
security experience, and your experi-
ence may not be their experience.
Communicate with secu-
rity contacts by email and keep
a record of communications.
Be precise and on time in sub-
missions. Be ready to apply
before applying. Be deliberate fill-
ing out the forms. Get advice and
counsel from professionals.
Retain copies of all documenta-
tion received and sent to security.
If one decides to lie or omit on a
security form or in an interview, that
is a business — not a legal — deci-
sion, and one an applicant will have to
protect for life. No case is sadder than
the federal clearance holder — mid-
30s or early 40s with a spouse and
family — who has to take a polygraph
with an adjudicated lie still haunt-
ing a Standard Form 86 filed decades
before. That’s blood in the water for
sharky polygraphers.
Do not conduct a
whisper campaign in
the office or around
town attempting to
speed up process-
ing. Communicate
through security and do so with
counsel. Whisperers are gam-
ers, and gamers are not trusted.
First-time applicants ought to
be careful about applying to the
CIA, FBI or National Reconnais-
sance Office. Those security offices
have very long wait times for rea-
sons specific to each institution.
First-time applicants ought to be
very careful about applying for a clear-
ance that requires a polygraph. The
polygraph process is, in part, about
determining your response to ques-
tions through a machine; it is also
a review of how you interact with
security. It is better to already be
within the security system, listening
to mentors and watching the pro-
cess, and then sit for a polygraph.
Keep a roof over your head and
bowls full on the table while security
does what security will do. There
is always another applicant — few
are unique, for the most part.
Understand that parents, profes-
sors, teachers, coaches, co-workers
and friends have probably done great
harm by making applicants think
they are the center of the world.
Security does not think that way. The
security needs of the U.S. govern-
ment are at the center of the world
in which they work. To get a cubicle
or desk, security has to know that
applicants understand that truth.
The adjudicative guidelines enu-
merated in Security Executive
Agent Directive 4 are the federal
workforce’s bushido. Understand-
ing the code agreed to live by is an
important first step in identifying
liabilities and the concerns a profile
brings to the security file. Bringing in
wise women and men, mentors and
counsel who can fill in understand-
ing of the gaps is the next step. Do
that and leave the backlog to com-
petitors in the rearview mirror. ND
Lachlan McKinion is associ-
ate counsel in Tully Rinckey PLLC’s
Washington, D.C., office. Dan Meyer
is a national security partner in Tully
iStock illustration
Rinckey PLLC’s Washington, D.C.,
office and vice chair of the National
Security Lawyers Association. They can
be reached at: info@tullylegal.com.
 VIEWPOINT
The Eisenhower School at 100:
Extending a Distinguished Past to an Indistinguishable Future
BY GREGORY D. FOSTER
S
ome among us, baseball
aficionados all, are aware
that the Washington Nation-
als baseball team will soon
celebrate the 100th anniver-
sary of the 1924 Washington Senators
World Series championship. That was
a black swan event for baseball fans
everywhere, grown mind-numbingly
accustomed to Washington’s perennial
losing ways — in baseball anyway.
Few among us, on the other hand,
know that this year also signifies
the centennial of the founding of
what is now known as the Dwight D.
Eisenhower School for National Secu-
rity and Resource Strategy, located
at Fort Lesley J. McNair in D.C., two
blocks due west of the Nationals’ ball-
Eisenhower School photo
park. Founded in 1924 as the Army
Industrial College to compensate for
America’s many mobilization short-
comings in World War I, the school
would be renamed the Industrial Col-
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lege of the Armed Forces and
moved to Fort McNair in 1946,
alongside the newly estab-
lished National War College.
Signifying the heightened
importance of joint, interservice
thinking and operations growing out
of World War II, both would become
part of the National Defense Univer-
sity when it was established in 1976.
In 2013, reflecting the thinking of
some that “Industrial” and “Armed
Forces” conveyed imagery of a past
that had passed, the school was again
renamed, this time after one of its
two patron saints (the other being
Bernard Baruch, who had chaired the
World War I War Industries Board).
President Eisenhower was present in
1960 at the dedication of the building
that permanently houses the school at
Fort McNair: Eisenhower Hall. Looking
ahead, the question is how the Eisen-
hower School can project a storied, dis-
tinguished legacy into a future
of yet unforeseeable challeng-
es, domestic and international,
military and non-military.
In addition to being part of
the National Defense University, the
Eisenhower School and the National
War College are part of the senior
level of the U.S. military’s five-tiered
professional education system, along
with the Naval War College (1884),
the Army War College (1901), the Air
University (1946), the National Intel-
ligence University (1962), and the
Marine Corps University (1989). All are
charged with preparing their graduates
to be strategic leaders and thinkers
as they move on to higher-level posi-
tions of authority and responsibility.
Students at these senior schools are
U.S. and international military offi-
cers at the rank of lieutenant colonel
or colonel — or Navy commanders
and captains — federal civil servants,
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 VIEWPOINT
foreign service officers of comparable
rank and some number of private
sector executives authorized by law,
each with at least 15 years of profes-
sional experience. Resident courses,
typically 10 months in duration,
result in the award of fully accredited
master’s degrees covering subjects
ranging from national and global
security, domestic and international
affairs, bureaucratic politics, execu-
tive decision-making, military and
strategic doctrine, macro and micro-
economics, acquisition and logistics,
national resource management,
mobilization and industry analysis.
Over time, the Eisenhower School
and its predecessors have produced
scores of distinguished alumni who
have gone on to be chiefs of service
and defense staffs, cabinet ministers,
ambassadors and even heads of state.
Eisenhower graduated in 1933 and Gen.
J. Lawton Collins, Army chief of staff
during the Korean War, in 1937. Gen.
Jack Vessey, former chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff, graduated in 1966.
Adm. Linda Fagan, current comman-
dant of the Coast Guard; Gen. Laura
Richardson, commander of U.S. South-
ern Command; Gen. Timothy Haugh,
commander of U.S. Cyber Command
and director of the National Security
Agency; Gen. Ann Dunwoody, the first
woman to achieve four-star rank; Gen.
Larry Spencer, former Air Force vice
16 N AT I O N A L D E F E N S E | M AY 2 0 2 4
chief of staff; Gen. Janet Wolfenbarger
and Gen. Ellen Pawlikowski, both
former commanders of the Air Force
Materiel Command; and Paul Kamin-
ski, former undersecretary of defense.
The language of War Department
General Order 7, February 25, 1924,
establishing the Army Industrial Col-
lege, makes abundantly clear that
the original design was essentially
that of a trade school for logisti-
cians and mobilization specialists:
“A college, to be known as the Army
Industrial College, is hereby estab-
lished for the purpose of training
Army officers in the useful knowledge
pertaining to the supervision of pro-
curement of all military supplies in
time of war and to the assurance of
adequate provision for the mobiliza-
tion of material and industrial orga-
nization essential to wartime needs.”
That quotidian orientation would
suffice to lead the Army and the United
States into and through the massive
industrial and manpower mobilization
and demobilization of World War II.
But World War II signified the end of
declared wars, total wars, total mobili-
zation and clearcut victory. Korea and
Vietnam represented a transition to
limited war, while subsequent conflicts
and commitments of U.S. troops —
e.g., Bosnia, Haiti, Kosovo, Afghani-
stan, Iraq — signaled the passage into
an era of “violent peace,” all unde-
clared, asymmetrical “non-war wars”
largely devoid of widespread societal
involvement and reliance on partial
or selective mobilization measures.
Traversing the trajectory of his-
tory from the founding of the Army
Industrial College to the present
provides a telling picture of the bal-
ance the Eisenhower School and its
predecessors have had to strike over
time to ensure fidelity to the school’s
original mandate while providing stu-
dents with the more robust contextual
enrichment necessary for strategically
oriented and equipped graduates.
Looking to the future, this historical
record — along with other relevant
historical episodes far too numerous to
mention — foreshadows a number of
long-standing, enduring tensions the
Eisenhower School has
faced and will continue
to face in the years
ahead. For example:
Should the college
be considered at root a
military organization
— built on hierarchical,
authoritarian, top-down
direction and associated
expectations of dutiful
compliance — or an
academic institution
that values, nurtures
and practices collegial-
ity, consensus build-
ing and free thought
and expression?
Should the college be
in the business of train-
ing — emphasizing
near-term skill devel-
opment that prepares
graduates for their next
job — or education —
long-term intellectual
development that equips graduates
with the wherewithal to perform effec-
tively years hence as senior leaders
who are sources of visionary ideas?
Should it consign itself to embrac-
ing and propagating established
doctrine or to producing criti-
cal thinkers who openly question
established policy pronouncements
and practices without fear?
Should it exercise the autonomy of
a professional institution that knows
its business through practice or sub-
ject itself to command direction and
oversight by staff-officer amateurs
who lack such first-hand experience?
Should it focus on real-world,
Eisenhower School photo
current events and applications
or on foundational theory and
conceptualization that poten-
tially could apply to other similar
or unforeseen circumstances?
 Beyond such enduring, unresolved questions, there
are other more immediate, proximate issues the col-
lege arguably must prepare its graduates to deal with:
How should national security professionals in
general — those in uniform in particular — be pre-
pared to deal with a future autocratic commander
in chief who blatantly politicizes and misuses such
professionals in legally and ethically dubious ways?
How much, if any, deference should be given
to voguish and unverified doctrinal pronounce-
ments from on high such as those asserting
that the world we face is one of “great power
competition,” or that only the character — not
the nature — of war is subject to change?
How seriously or not should national security pro-
fessionals consider such unconventional challenges as
pandemics, climate change, artificial intelligence and
biotechnology to be legitimate — even existential —
national security threats worthy of priority attention
and resources?
How should national security professionals operate
and what roles should they play in the face of per-
petual congressional dysfunction, national disunity
and the continuing “gap” between the military and
society?
How might those inside and outside government
strike a more strategically viable balance between
exorbitant defense spending and key non-defense pri-
orities with demonstrable strategic impacts?
To what extent should the military give priority
attention to such social issues as diversity, equity,
inclusion and “wokeness” charges from politicians
and other external observers?
How can the government best deal with the emer-
gence and expansion of so-called fake news, misinfor-
mation and disinformation, especially when it comes
to defining national interests and threats and building
consensus for U.S. actions abroad?
How should government officials respond to con-
spiratorial accusations of a “deep state” while preserv-
ing the commitment of public service professionals?
In the age of social media, what should the proper
balance be between government transparency and
accountability on the one hand and secrecy and sur-
veillance on the other?
A centennial anniversary is a time to glory in one’s
prolonged survival, to take pride in one’s sustained
accomplishments and to look ahead to the prospects
of extending those accomplishments over perhaps
another century.
“If you think in terms of a year,” said classic Chi-
nese philosopher Confucius, “plant a seed; if in
terms of ten years, plant trees; if in terms of 100
years, teach the people.” Those are words the Eisen-
hower School — and the other schools that make
up the senior level of the U.S. military’s professional
education system — must take to heart if they are
to extend their reach and impact to new genera-
tions of military officers and government executives
whose futures are yet to reveal themselves. ND

Gregory D. Foster is a professor at the Eisen-

hower School, where he previously served as J.
Carlton Ward Distinguished Professor and direc-
tor of research and George C. Marshall Professor.

N AT I O N A L D E F E N S E | M AY 2 0 2 4 17
 SPECIAL OPERATIONS

TILTROTOR
TROUBLES
Questions Linger as
Ospreys Take Flight Again
BY JAN TEGLER
 T
he resumption of V-22 flight
operations in March after a
three-month pause marked
the second time in two
years that the Osprey has
returned to flight without
its special operator, Marine
and Navy pilots under-
standing the failures that led to its grounding.
Navy and Air Force officials say the tri-service
V-22 fleet is safe to fly again with newly imple-
mented safety protocols that address the unprec-
edented failure of a single component that led to
the fatal Nov. 29 crash of an Air Force CV-22B
and the grounding of all V-22s in early December.
“There was not any sort of demand from
the services to get the aircraft back into flight,”
Col. Brian Taylor, program manager for the
V-22 Joint Program Office, said during a media
Defense Dept. photo
roundtable two days prior to the rescind-
ing of the grounding order on March 8.
He described the decision to return to
flight as the result of a “meticulous and
data-driven approach” to investigations con-
ducted over roughly two months following
the recovery of the CV-22 from the waters off
Yakushima Island, Japan, where it crashed.
But analysts contend that impacts from
grounding V-22s have been so significant that the
services were compelled to resume operations.
“There’s not a clear backup for the Marines,
there’s not a clear backup for the Air Force,
and soon there won’t be a backup for the
Navy’s [carrier onboard delivery] mis-
sion,” said Bryan Clark, senior fellow and
director of the Hudson Institute’s Center
for Defense Concepts and Technology.
Clark was referring to the range of niche mis-
sions Bell-Boeing’s tiltrotor Osprey carries out for
the military, missions that have become integral
to current operations and operational concepts.
In service since 2007 — 18 years after the
aircraft’s first flight — the V-22 has become an
essential tool for combat assault support, air
logistics and transport for the Marines, special
operations support and search-and-rescue mis-
N AT I O N A L D E F E N S E | M AY 2 0 2 4 19
sions for Air Force Special to any other platform is part
Operations Command and SCAN of the operational impact.”
delivery of items and equip- THIS “That’s range, speed and
ment crucial for deployed IMAGE maneuver. A [CH-53E] can-
Navy carrier air wings. not go 1,300 nautical miles
Able to takeoff or land on a refuel, conduct a mis-
vertically like a helicopter sion and come back,” he
then transition to forward explained, referring to the
flight like an airplane, the service’s heavy lift helicopter.
V-22 is the first and only SEE THE V-22 The Navy’s aged but still
operational tiltrotor glob- IN ACTION active CH-53E fleet was called
ally, also serving with upon extensively to substitute
Japan’s Ground Self-Defense Force. for Marine Ospreys deployed with
It’s a capability the military, par- the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit
ticularly the Marine Corps, has on the USS Bataan, MV-22s forward-
become dependent on, Todd Har- based with III Marine Expeditionary
rison, a senior fellow at the Ameri- Force in Okinawa, Japan, and to sup-
can Enterprise Institute, noted. port other units across the world.
“This is a consequence overall of our Joyce added that clearing indi-
military narrowing down to the point vidual MV-22s for flight while simul-
where we have dependencies on single taneously restoring the currency and
platform types for significant parts of proficiency of aircrews and surging
our force structure,” Harrison said. parts for squadrons scheduled to
“We’ve done that with the V-22. deploy could impact the availability of
We are critically dependent on Ospreys for upcoming deployments.
that single platform,” he said. The status of the Marine Medium
It’s a reality the Marine Corps’ Assis- Tilt Rotor Squadron VMM-165 —
tant Deputy Commandant for Aviation scheduled to deploy with the 15th
Brig. Gen. Richard Joyce alluded to in Marine Expeditionary Unit aboard the
remarks during the media roundtable. USS Boxer sometime this spring —
Asked about the impact the V-22 was unknown when Joyce spoke to the
grounding had on Marine operations media. But the command told National
between December and March and Defense the squadron will deploy
continuing impacts as aircrew and aboard Boxer. However, it declined to
aircraft return to flight in a three- say whether the unit will sail with Box-
phase process expected to extend er when the ship departs San Diego
well into the summer, Joyce said: or if it will deploy sometime later.
“The ability of the V-22s compared Air Force Special Operations Com-
20 N AT I O N A L D E F E N S E | M AY 2 0 2 4
mand and the Navy will follow
service-specific but similarly phased
paths back to flight operations follow-
ing the safety protocols the V-22 Joint
Program Office has implemented.
Taylor confirmed that the pro-
tocols include increased frequency
for safety/maintenance inspections
as well as changes to flight proce-
dures that he could not describe
due to operational security.
Additional inspections for the
already maintenance-intensive
Osprey fleet will likely impact
its operational availability, Clark
noted. Similarly, changes in flight
procedures may impose lim-
its on how V-22s can be flown.
“I think what they did was come
up with an operational work-around
to mitigate the impact of the design
shortfalls they must be finding and
get the aircraft back into operation.
But it probably constrains their flight
envelope, where they can operate and
how long they can operate,” he said.
That is an ongoing issue, he said,
explaining that the recent ground-
ing and prior Osprey ground-
ings in August 2022 and February
2023 have resulted in a growing
list of operational limitations that
affect the V-22’s ability to per-
form a wide range of missions.
Defense Dept. photo
“I think what you’re seeing is a
continued erosion of the flexibility
of the aircraft in the pursuit of sus-
tained operations,” Clark observed.
 Teal Group senior defense analyst in the organization’s fiscal year 2023 SPECIAL OPERATIONS
J.J. Gertler said he sees a desire that annual report released in February.
may be gaining momentum across the The Navy currently operates 29
military to replace the 1980s-designed CMV-22Bs with a further 19 on material failure, but the contractor
Osprey. Gertler recently interviewed contract while Air Force Special did not respond. The joint program
AFSOC Commander Lt. Gen. Tony Operations Command has 54 CV- office said it is “unknown if it was
Bauernfeind for the weekly Defense 22Bs. Combined that’s slightly less a manufacturing fault that led to
and Aerospace Report podcast. than a third of the MV-22Bs in the the failure of this component.”
“It’s clear that he wants to get Marine Corps inventory. But if, Fixes planned for the Osprey fleet
beyond it and move to the next like AFSOC, the Navy also begins prior to the most recent grounding
thing,” Gertler said. “Something to look beyond the CMV-22B, it including retrofitting the aircraft
with more legs and more speed might spur a wider effort to replace with a redesigned input quill assem-
and similar VTOL capability, but the V-22, according to Harrison. bly — a part of the V-22’s complex
he’s not in love with V-22.” “If the other services expend both gearbox drive system suspected to be
Bauernfeind made similar com- the political capital and the up-front the cause of the hard clutch engage-
ments at the Air and Space Forces cost of getting a suitable replace- ment that led to the crash of an
Association’s Warfare Symposium in ment aircraft on contract, that cer- MV-22B in June 2022 near Glamis,
February, outlining a trio of AFSOC tainly would make it a lot easier California — will be expensive.
investigations into the CV-22 crash for the Marine Corps to join that Other costly additions include the
and a larger review which he said process in the future once fund- new component vibration monitor-
revolves around the question: “Is the ing becomes available,” he said. ing system purchased last March by
CV-22 force appropriately organized, Taylor revealed that due to salt- Naval Air Systems Command for all
trained and equipped for safe, effec- water corrosion that occurred dur- Ospreys, as well as any component
tive and efficient special operations?” ing the month it took to recover replacements that may be necessary if
He also indicated that AFSOC the crashed CV-22, it may never investigations into the CV-22B crash
is closely monitoring the Defense be known why the component ultimately explain why the single
Advanced Research Project Agency’s that downed the aircraft failed. part that grounded the fleet failed.
Speed and Runway Independent Tech- During the media roundtable, Taylor stated why the V-22 fleet
nologies project aimed at developing AFSOC’s Bauernfeind said: “We’re is flying again in his roundtable
an X-plane that could hone the tech- looking at better understanding the remarks.
nology needed for a V-22 replacement material manufacturing of that part.” “Returning these vital assets to
and the U.S. Army’s ongoing Future Bell Flight was asked if a manu- flight is critical to supporting our
Long Range Assault Aircraft program facturing flaw could have caused a
Sealevel Systems - National Defense
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2/28/24
he said. ND
12:44 PM
featuring a second-generation tilt-
rotor aircraft, Bell Flight’s V-280 Valor.
Joyce said the Marine Corps is
focused on “mid-life moderniza-
tion” of the Osprey during the media
roundtable, adding, “We are not
having conversations right now
about anything that replaces V-22.”
That’s because the cost of replac-
ing the 348 MV-22Bs in the Marines’
inventory — with 12 more on contract
— is unaffordable, Clark observed.
“There’s no money to replace
all of those airplanes that are only
halfway through their service life,
much less do something new, so
the DoD’s in this corner,” he said.
“I think they’re kind of stuck with
what they’ve got, and the Marines
are going to have to figure out how
to mitigate their dependence on it.”
A June 2022 report from the Penta-
gon’s Director of Operational Test and
Evaluation declared the Navy’s CMV-
22B — slated to replace the C-2A
Greyhound for carrier onboard deliv-
ery entirely by 2026 — “not opera-
tionally suitable” due to its inability to
meet maintenance hour to flight hour
requirements and failures of its ice
protection system and other subsys-
tems. The declaration was confirmed

N AT I O N A L D E F E N S E | M AY 2 0 2 4 21
Mothership Air Force Special Operators
Developing Drone-Launched
Connection Swarms BY JOSH LUCKENBAUGH

A
ir Force Special Opera-
tions Command is
taking advantage of
“significant advance-
ments” in autonomous
aircraft technology to have their
drones do a lot more than the tradi-
tional counterterrorism missions.
One concept will transform its MQ-9
medium-altitude, long-endurance
unmanned systems from surveil-
lance aircraft to motherships that
can dispatch smaller drones to
perform a variety of missions.
The Adaptive Airborne Enter-
prise, or A2E, is a major part of
advantage of the “significant advance-
ments” in automation and unmanned
systems in recent years “to bring
some new opportunities and capa-
bilities to bear for AFSOC and for the
DoD,” Olman said in an interview.
“There are plenty of ways to inno-
vate manned platforms … but there
has been a lot of significant head-
way made in the technology space in
unmanned systems as of late, and
A2E represents our ability to capi-
talize on that headway,” he said.
The new missions line up with
the 2022 National Defense Strategy,
which calls for the command to shift
C. Mark Brinkley, General Atomics
Aeronautical Systems Inc. spokes-
man, said modern conflicts from
Ukraine to the Red Sea “are high-
lighting the value and utility of UAS
to large-scale combat operations.”
“Whether they are small or large,
UAS are providing valuable aware-
ness and strike options that otherwise
may not be possible with crewed
aircraft due to contested environ-
ments,” Brinkley said in an email.
With A2E, the command is look-
ing to move beyond using its General
Atomics-built fleet of MQ-9 drones
exclusively for intelligence, surveil-
Air Force photo

that transformation, said its pro- its focus from primarily counter- lance and reconnaissance and strike
gram director Col. Trey Olman. violent extremist organization opera- operations, a command release stated.
The goal of the program is to take tions to great power competition. Olman said while the MQ-9 will

22 N AT I O N A L D E F E N S E | M AY 2 0 2 4
An MQ-9A Reaper undergoes pre-flight checks dur-
ing an Adaptive Airborne Enterprise demonstration.
still “conduct its traditional role,” the
command wants the platform to also
“deliver mass in depth and at scale.”
“And what I mean is that the
MQ-9 will be able to bring air-
launched assets organically to the
fight — and then deploy them when
necessary — so that one platform
can almost instantaneously deliver
the effect of four to six platforms
… without having to fly in mul-
tiple different weapons systems
and park them overhead,” he said.
The MQ-9 would serve not only as
a “mothership” for smaller platforms
but also as a “communications relay
node for backhauling all of the rel-
evant sensing information and being
a conduit for command-and-control
information flowing both ways into
and out of the battlespace,” he said.
With A2E, the command will
have the ability to “operate mul-
tiple large and small UASs simul-
taneously, covering more terrain
and prosecuting more targets in
environments that are not cur-
rently accessible,” the release said.
AFSOC Commander Lt. Gen.
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Tony Bauernfeind said A2E is the
command’s top acquisition pri-
ority and is “vital to thickening
the Joint Force kill web through-
out the spectrum of conflict.”
The command has broken up A2E
development into five phases, the
first three of which are currently
underway, the release stated.
Phase one is transitioning from
fixed ground control stations to a
government-owned command-and-
control interface for drones called
the AFSOC Remotely Piloted Air-
craft Control Suite, or ARCS — a
joint venture between AFSOC and
the Army’s Joint Systems Integra-
tion Laboratory, Olman said.
It will “shrink a traditional
[remotely piloted aircraft] crew’s
deployed footprint and provide
operators with the flexibility and
mobility to fly various aircraft from
austere locations — whether oper-
ating from the back of an AC-130,
home station or even urban environ-
ments,” the press release stated.
It also enables phases two and
three of A2E: a single crew operat-
ing multiple MQ-9s at the same
time and controlling multiple types
of drones — ranging from small
®
SPECIAL OPERATIONS
Group 1 aircraft to larger Group
5 platforms like the MQ-9.
The system “allows our operators
to only have to learn one primary
vehicle interface, and then it allows
them to connect to different types of
air vehicles from different vendors.
So, we can truly have a heteroge-
neous formation being controlled
by one operator,” Olman said.
During a series of demonstra-
tions in December 2023, the com-
mand used the suite to exhibit two
“novel capabilities,” according to the
press release: control three MQ-9As
simultaneously and attach and air-
launch an Altius 600 — a Group 2
small drone — from an MQ-9A.
General Atomics “has been develop-
ing and testing the ability to launch
various effects to include small UAS
from … the MQ-9” for the last several
years, Brinkley said. “The MQ-9’s
flexible and agile systems archi-
tecture, coupled with its payload
capacity and long endurance, makes
it an ideal mothership for A2E.”
“The value that can be achieved
[by] combining large and small
3/27/24 2:12 PM
UAS working in tandem to deliver
stand-in capability at lower cost —
and more importantly lower risk
— is hard to ignore,” he added.
Along with Group 2 systems, special
operators are also looking into two
types of Group 3 systems that could
be air-launched from an MQ-9, Olman
said. One variant would primarily
perform communications relay and
sensing, and the other would be what
Olman called a “swarm carrier.”
The swarm carrier would “go
out at a distance and then deploy”
smaller Group 2 systems, “so the
[air-launched effects] could come
off of the MQ-9, or they could come
off of the swarm carrier going for-
ward in the future,” he said.
One potential problem is the impact
MQ-9B
that loading increasingly heavy pay-
loads would have on an MQ-9’s per-

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems photo

formance. The MQ-9A features seven
hardpoints and the MQ-9B — which
the command is also acquiring —
has nine, and while “it is feasible to
carry sUAS on all the hardpoints …
operational use will depend on many
factors, including range and endur-
ance considerations,” Brinkley said.
“The more weight on an aircraft
when it takes off, the less distance
it can cover or time it can remain in
the air,” he said. “But one of the key
benefits of MQ-9A and MQ-9B is the
ability to carry multiple payloads
and still have long on-station times.
That on-station time could increase
every time an MQ-9 releases a small
UAS during its mission because it
removes some of the weight, drag
and fuel use penalty, thus freeing up
additional endurance depending on
the various factors in the operation.”
Another challenge will be the
additional training required for
operators, as the command suite
and the A2E human-machine
interface — called Vigilant Spirit
— are very different from what
crews use today, Olman said.
A part of that challenge is “just

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a change in mindset from … more
hands-on aircraft command style stick
and rudder flying to more of a mission
management style of flying” and “hav-
ing to concern themselves with even-
tually larger numbers of platforms
and assets and resources,” he said.
“There [is] a lot about it that is
different. Every time we do an
experimental event, we’re getting
good lessons learned and feedback,
and it’s going toward the changes
that we make as we continue to
develop these capabilities,” he said.
The final two phases of the program
will involve a single crew controlling
formations of drones from mobile and
austere locations and then finally cre-
ating new effects-based intelligence,
surveillance and reconnaissance units,
which could include drones, forward
deployed ground forces and cyber
and space operators “that can col-
laboratively employ UAS capabilities
in permissive, contested or denied
environments,” the release said.
Another demonstration is planned
for this summer, the focus of which
will be air-to-ground handover of
small UAS, Olman said. “A2E rep-
resents the ability for air assets
to be able to forward project air
power for our ground teams to be
able to take advantage of, and so
we’re going to be going through the
air-to-ground handover pieces.”
The command will also be testing
out a collaborative mission autonomy
software called Golden Horde, he
said. Developed by the Georgia Tech
Research Institute, Golden Horde
will be loaded onto Group 2 UAVs,
“which are then going to be col-
laborating with one another to go
autonomously search for a target that
will be located out on the range.”
Greater autonomy “allows us
to create even more separation
between either our humans and
our autonomous platforms or our
high-value assets and the autono-
mous platforms,” Olman said.
Currently, crews must “main-
tain some level of close proximity”
to the drones they’re operating, he
said. “We’re effectively tethered to
our uncrewed systems, and that
tether provides an operational risk
and it provides limitations.”
“What the autonomy is going to
do is allow us to put a lot more dis-
tance between those high-value assets
and the autonomous vehicles that
they’re releasing or communicat-
SPECIAL OPERATIONS
ing with, because now those smaller
platforms can just drive out on their
own with their own mission-type
orders … which they will execute
and then report back if and when
needed based off of the param-
eters that are preset,” he said.
A lot of small- and medium-sized
companies are breaking into the
autonomy space, and AFSOC is col-
laborating with Special Operations
Command to develop a government
reference architecture “that will then
allow vendors to build those instances
of autonomy with their platforms,
whether they just build software or
if they build hardware that comes
with autonomy on it,” Olman said.
“It will allow them to provide that
and plug it into our architecture.”
The demonstration this sum-
mer is the first time AFSOC is “dip-
ping our toe into those waters” with
autonomy, “and it’s really exciting
for the team because autonomy is
really one of those areas that is prob-
ably going to … change the nature of
what we do and how we do it mov-
ing into the future,” he said. ND
GOVERNMENT PERSPECTIVE
Pathfinding, Transforming to Deter,
Defeat Special Ops’ Evolving Enemies
BY MELISSA JOHNSON
A
s Special
Operations
Command’s acqui-
sition executive,
I honorably serve
and support the elite special
operations force warfighter.
Although we face more challenges
in today’s battlespace than ever before,
we stand ready to equip our team to
win. To deter near-peer adversaries,
defeat violent extremists and rap-
idly respond to crises worldwide, it
is imperative these warfighters are
equipped with war-winning, transfor-
mational capabilities and systems.
I am grateful for the opportunity to
serve for a third time in the command,
dual-hatted as its acquisition execu-
tive and the director of acquisition,
technology and logistics, or AT&L.
I stand on the shoulders of those
who have gone before me. And while
delivery speed to the warfighter has
been the foundation of the command’s
acquisition enterprise, we cannot
solely rest on the success of the past.
The challenges before us are more
complex, and to increase decision
speed, agility, precision and lethal-
ity, AT&L must connect as a Special
Operations Forces “family of sys-
tems” and do so with the greater Joint
Force. To rapidly develop, produce
and field leading edge capabilities
at scale, taking risks and pathfind-
ing are more important than ever.
Equipping the world’s premier
warfighter with war-winning capa-
bilities requires the best acquisition
talent, period. I go back to the idea of
what it means to be a SOF acquirer.
We recruit and retain a diverse,
highly trained and experienced multi-
functional team. But it doesn’t stop
there. It’s our responsibility to build
a bench with the next generation of
acquisition leaders motivated to trail-
blaze and pioneer ground-breaking
capabilities. Our acquisition leaders
must continue to be determined to
defeat a relentless enemy and con-
stantly focus on winning. We owe this
to the special operations warfighter.
The close relationships acquisition,
26 N AT I O N A L D E F E N S E | M AY 2 0 2 4
technology and logistics has
with the operational com-
munity is a key reason I have
always been drawn to Special
Operations Command. These
relationships are essential in
building trust between the acquirer
and operator, which demonstrates
development and operations at its best.
In addition, our partnerships with
the other services, the interagency
and international partners are critical
in sharing best-of-breed technology.
Technology is at the forefront of
AT&L’s daily business, and we need
the most advanced technology, but
it takes much more than that to win.
Technology enables capability, which
is ultimately part of a system that
integrates within a system of systems.
While it’s not feasible to connect
every system to each other, we must
drive the architecture to ultimately
increase effectiveness, efficiency and
lethality of special ops warfighters.
Providing transformational capa-
bilities requires advanced software
and artificial intelligence algorithms
to reduce unnecessary burdens on
the warfighter, enhance warfight-
er performance, increase battlespace
awareness and increase place-
ment and access for operators.
The acquisition, technology and
logistics enterprise is highly effec-
tive as a separate agency reporting
directly to the SOCOM commander,
co-located with headquarters. As a
separate and distinct agency, we foster
a culture of taking risks and empow-
ering at the lowest capable level.
The chain of command between
the program manager to the pro-
gram executive officer or acquisition
executive is very short, which enables
quick decisions. This culture drives
my passion. Our team is commit-
ted to leveraging all the tools in the
acquisition toolbox to rapidly deliver
at the speed of Special Operations
Forces. But we can’t do this alone.
We need the help of industry, aca-
demia and the other services to bring
their perspective and capabilities.
Developing, producing and sus-
taining special operations-unique
systems requires strong partner-
ships with industry, and AT&L has
a long history of working with both
large and small companies that
work together with program teams
to deliver rapidly to the warfight-
er. However, the ecosystem must be
expanded to the investment commu-
nity to meet the needs of an increas-
ingly complex threat environment.
Optimizing the use of SOFWERX,
our public-private partnership, as
a venue to reach small businesses,
entrepreneurs and academia, accel-
erates ideas into fieldable systems.
In addition, we are increasing col-
laboration with the private capital
investment ecosystem to share the
command’s areas of interest and
identify viable pathfinders. This is
a great opportunity to maximize
the power of the private capital
market against hard special opera-
tions problems and to accelerate
technology into their capabilities.
Like the command’s elite opera-
tors, its acquirers’ ability to go fast is
based on many factors. Key among
those factors is the excellence in their
craft, their dedication to the mission,
close partnership with the opera-
tional community and industry and
a willingness to take managed risks.
The combination of these factors is
what make the command’s acquisi-
tion, technology and logistics leaders
trusted experts. The credibility that
comes from delivering at the speed
of Special Operations Forces enables
freedom of action. This team is dedi-
cated to equipping our warfighters
to deter and if necessary defeat those
who threaten the country and its inter-
ests. I couldn’t be prouder to serve
with these amazing professionals. ND
Defense Dept. photo
Melissa Johnson is U.S. Special
Operations Command’s acquisition
executive.

Special Ops Vehicle Numbers
Go Down as Command Divests
C
HARLOTTE, North
Carolina — Special
Operations Forces are
transitioning from their
post-9/11 counterterror-
ism focus to support the principal
effort under the National Defense
Strategy: “integrated deterrence.”
And that has made an impact
on the command’s fleet of ground
mobility vehicles, Vincent Grizio,
program manager for the fam-
ily of special operations vehicles at
Special Operations Command, said
at a recent industry trade show.
There are currently about 3,200
ground vehicles in Special Operations
Command’s fleet, which is down from
some 3,400 the previous year. That
will probably be fewer than 3,000 by
early 2025, he said at the National
Defense Industrial Association’s
Tactical Wheeled Vehicles confer-
ence in Charlotte, North Carolina.
As the command makes the transi-
tion from the global war on terror
years to today’s great power com-
petition, the number reflects “an
expectation that the capacity that
we have is not right but that we’re
going to have to get the capac-
ity right in the future,” he said.
“The fleet I have today is not the
fleet I need tomorrow,” he added.
The Army develops and acquires
Air Force photo
most of the models that special opera-
tors use. The kits that are added on
give them the unique capabilities
BY STEW MAGNUSON
operators need when performing clan-
destine missions that may be behind
enemy lines, where stealth and extra
endurance might be required, he said.
The command, meanwhile, is wait-
ing for an upcoming Army study of
tactical wheeled vehicle requirements
to help it map out where it needs to go.
“We are in flux trying to under-
stand our own budget constraints
as well as trying to understand the
change in the operational environ-
ment that we’re in,” he said.
Some of the vehicles facing dives-
titure are not surprises such as the
up-armored Humvee, which is being
replaced by the Joint Light Tacti-
cal Vehicle, and older models of the
MRZR-D model, built by Polaris
Defense and provided to the command
by the Marine Corps. Improved Alpha
models are taking their place, he said.
Such small, light vehicles are essen-
tial for transportability on aircraft
such as tiltrotor CV-22 Ospreys,
rotary-wing MH-47G Chinooks or
C-17 fixed-wing transporters, he said.
“The requirement is to be internal
aircraft portable so that we can reach
out, do farther missions,” he said.
Most kits added on to vehicles
such as the JLTV are special com-
munications and weapon system
modifications. “The SOF modifica-
tions that we might be putting on the
SOF-unique vehicles are probably
more important than the number of
platforms that we have,” he said.
As far as two of the most
talked about fields — electrifi-
cation and autonomy — those
are advancements where Spe-
cial Operations Command
will be a follower rather than
a leader as far as developing
the technologies, he said.
However, Naval Surface War-
fare Center Crane Division did
provide two hybrid-electric
vehicles to Special Operations
Forces for experimentation.
“We’re just kind of working
out the performance param-
eters and getting the safety
release before we put that in
front of some of our operators
to start getting some feedback
and to really understand —
what does a hybrid-electric
vehicle requirement look like
in the future?” Grizio said.
Meanwhile, SOCOM has inte-
grated kits with level 5 autonomy
on the Army’s robotic mule, the
Small Multipurpose Equipment
Transport and its own Light Tactical
All-Terrain Vehicle for experiments.
One of the key criteria for adopt-
ing autonomy is that it doesn’t take
anything away from the squad, he
said. If it takes one team member to
teleoperate or pay attention to the
vehicle, then that takes someone away
from their main mission, he noted.
“It has got to earn its way onto
the team without taking away from
the team. That’s hard,” he added.
Five is the highest level for
autonomous ground vehicles and
generally means that the system
has “full automation,” rendering
the human driver unnecessary.
“We’re just trying to understand
what the performance of a level 5
autonomy kit can do,” he said.
Grizio had just returned from
observing cold weather experiments
in Montana. The idea was to see
how ground mobility played out in
not only snow but extreme cold.
“What does it look like for a mobil-
ity platform that’s 22,000 pounds
going through fresh snow or going
through something called sugar
snow?” he asked. That included
off-road because that’s where the
enemy would choose to fight.
“Sugar snow” is generally defined
as a heavy wet spring precipitation.
“I got a whole class on snow
and avalanches and everything
else like that. It was pretty freak-
ing amazing,” he said. ND
N AT I O N A L D E F E N S E | M AY 2 0 2 4 27
Ammo Increase
6.5 Creedmoor Round Expands in
SOF Applications BY SCOTT R. GOURLEY
I
n addition to U.S. Special
Operations Command’s
development efforts to opti-
mize the lethality of tradi-
tional sniper calibers like
the .300 Winchester Magnum or
newer .300 and .338 Norma Mag-
num designs, command developers
have exhibited a growing embrace
of the 6.5 mm Creedmoor round.
Introduced to the sport and target
shooting market by Hornady around
2007, it wasn’t too long before the 6.5
CM began to draw attention from the
military community. While the “big
Army” has been refining its 6.8 mm
Next Generation Squad Weapons, Spe-
cial Operations Forces appear to be
increasing their focus on the 6.5 CM
as the best way to take advantage of
advances in ammunition and weapons
technology to improve intermediate
range sniper lethality, reliability and
performance — when suppressed —
at distances from 50 to 1,500 meters.
References to the 6.5 CM started
to appear in public briefings in the
2015 to 2017 timeframe. During
the 2017 Special Operations Forces
Industry Conference, the Special
Operations Command program man-
ager for ammunition and weapons
highlighted the continuation of “6.5
mm ammo development” to sup-
port a subsequent intermediate cali-
ber sniper rifle/carbine fielding.
Another line in the program man-
ager’s portfolio overview reflected a
6.5 mm assault machine gun devel-
opment leading to an intermediate
caliber assault machine gun fielding.
Finally, a list of weapon busi-
ness opportunities in the same
briefing identified interest in both
a 6.5 mm sniper support rifle and
a 6.5 mm assault machine gun.
Just over a year later, the command’s
June 2018 request for information
for International Special Operations
Forces Range Day to be held the fol-
lowing January identified the 6.5 CM
as a continuing technology area of
interest, with identified topics includ-
ing: a 6.5 CM lightweight assault
machine gun — belt-fed and less
28 N AT I O N A L D E F E N S E | M AY 2 0 2 4
than 14 pounds; suppressor options
for 6.5 CM; precision ammunition for
6.5 CM; and a 6.5 CM mid-range gas
gun, described as a semi-automatic,
magazine-fed, sniper support rifle
with a length of 20 to 22 inches.
Those investigations contributed to
some early program applications of
the 6.5 CM.
One of the first applications
appeared in October 2019, with Naval
Surface Warfare Center Crane Division
announcing a technology improve-
ment award for the M110 series Semi-
Automatic Sniper System, or SASS,
from Knight’s Armament Co. Under
the modification of an existing con-
tract, the company upgraded the upper
receiver for the SASS, converting it
from the original 7.62 mm design to
6.5 CM and designating it as M110A2.
Additionally, Special Operations
Command’s briefings during this
period began to highlight expanded
6.5 CM weapon and ammunition
programs. As examples, the briefing
by the program manager for Special
Operations Forces lethality at the May
2019 Special Operations Forces Indus-
try Conference included fiscal year
2019 technical evaluation and planned
fiscal year 2020 combat evaluation of
a new 6.5 CM mid-range gas gun.
With weapon platform programs
taking shape, the command also
seemed to expand its focus on ammu-
nition.
Evidence of this could be found in
the publicly announced focus themes
for the 2022 range day in April. A
request for information highlighted
interest in alternate material cartridge
cases for small arms — primarily in
6.5 mm Creedmoor and .338 Norma
Magnum, signature on target projec-
tiles and high velocity cartridges.
Additionally, event planners
expressed interest in 6.5 CM high
velocity assault cartridges “with pro-
jectiles that will defeat current barriers
at designated ranges,” adding car-
tridges shall have angular dispersion
of less than 1.0 minute of angle at 100
meters — a spread of just over 1 inch
at 100 meters — with a muzzle veloc-
ity of more than 2,850 feet per second
when fired from a 14.5 inch barrel
and a muzzle velocity standard devia-
tion of less than 13 feet per second.
One year later, in its request for
information prior to the 2023 range
day, planners highlighted continuing
interest in both 6.5 CM ammunition
and weapon developments. Identi-
fied performance standards remained
consistent from the previous year.
In terms of weapons, the request
for information identified interest in
rifle and machine gun suppressors
in several calibers, including 6.5 CM,
with prioritized emphasis on reducing
ground disturbance, flash and sound.
September 2023 also marked anoth-
er program milestone for the 6.5 CM
in special operations applications with
the award of the “Mid-Range Gas Gun
– Sniper” program to Geissele Auto-
matics, which displayed the MRGG-S,
designated Mk1 Mod0, at the SHOT
Show in Las Vegas, Nevada, in January.
“It’s a 6.5 Creedmoor with a bar-
rel swap to caliber .308 [7.62 mm],”
Mk1 Mod0 6.5
CM MRGG-S
explained Benjamin Gould, a com-
pany program representative. “It
shoots a 140 grain bullet. We’re get-
ting ready to go into production,
although fielding is up to the military.”
He described the design as featur-
ing “a 20-inch cold hammer forged
chrome-lined barrel with our propri-
etary phased array gas system that
features multiple gas ports fired in
sequence, making it a much softer
shooting rifle so operators can watch
bullet impacts instead of having
to get kicked off target by recoil.
“It’s fully ambidextrous so they can
control the entire gun one-handed,” he
continued. “They can press the dust
cover to lock the bolt open and then
use the bolt release behind it. It also
has an ambidextrous mag release.”
It has a reinforced upper receiver
and a delayed bolt carrier system that
also helps with the recoil manage-
ment, he said.
 “We’re seeing half to quarter min-
ute of angle accuracy. And with the
very long-life, chrome-lined barrel
we’re seeing excess of 6,000 rounds
plus in 6.5 Creedmoor,” he said.
“Our suppressor was adopted with
the gun,” he continued. “It’s a remov-
able flow-through suppressor design.
It’s our own design with some mirage
dampening capabilities with insulated
double-wall. So, you can fire an entire
magazine through it, and it’s still cold
to the touch. That really helps with
the mirage in precision shooting.”
The Mk1 Mod0 design also incor-
porates an integrated “Arca Rail” for
stabilized mounts, with Gould observ-
ing, “a lot of the military have gone
to that for accessories because you
can basically put the bipod wher-
ever you want. You can put shoot-
ing bags on it, or you can clamp it
to a tripod for a fixed position.”
The command’s increasing
embrace of the 6.5 CM also comes
with ammunition implications.
In selecting or refining a caliber
from the sport shooting community,
Special Operations Forces would
traditionally have to go back to that
community for supporting ammu-
nition. Since the Lake City Army
Ammunition Plant doesn’t make the
6.5 mm Creedmoor, the command
Scott Gourley photos
went out to private vendors. Black
Hills Ammunition in Rapid City,
South Dakota, is now manufactur-
ing cartridges to meet the needs of
programs like the M110A2 SASS
conversion or Mk1 Mod0 MRGG-S.
For example, a slightly redacted Spe-
cial Operations Command justification
and approval announcement, dated
October 2022, identified the need to
purchase additional “6.5 mm Match”
ammunition with the 140 grain open
tip bullet from Black Hills Ammuni-
tion to complete qualification testing
and operational testing of the MRGG-S
as well as fielding and new equip-
ment training for the M110A2 “with-
out changing the ammunition source
and inducing additional variables.”
But what about the needs for larger
numbers of unique ammunition types
required by various special operations
programs? One answer involves the
SOCOM Unique Munitions Require-
ments program, which is an acquisi-
tion vehicle designed to streamline
the command’s procurement of spe-
cialized or unique items. The process
started just over two years ago with
interested companies invited to pro-
vide information on things like capa-
bilities and production capacity, said
Emil Praslick, business development
director for Capstone Precision Group,
which is part of the Nammo group.
“From those responses, they picked
approximately one dozen compa-
nies — with Capstone being one
of those entities — to whom they
provided a list of all possible muni-
tion types that they might ask for,” he
said. The first request for proposals
that they put out under the program
Close-up of the Mk1
Mod0 suppressor
was for the newly designated M1200
6.5 mm Special Ball Long Range,
which was awarded to Capstone.
Capstone officials said the
award covers approximately three
million rounds of M1200.
Walking through the Capstone
production facility in Mesa, Arizona,
Dan Thelen, president of Capstone
Precision Group, pointed to bullet
manufacturing machinery, in which
SPECIAL OPERATIONS
seven stations slowly draw out the
copper that will jacket the lead to cre-
ate the requisite 140 grain Berger
bullet. Berger is part of Capstone.
“There are two parts to every bullet,
the copper jacket and the lead core,”
Thelen explained. “That’s pretty basic
on most bullet manufacturing. What
we do is hold our tolerances tighter
than we think anyone else does.”
The bullets coming off the machine
represent the first of four elements in
a loaded round of M1200 ammunition.
Additional elements are the cartridge
cases, which are made at Lapua —
another Capstone company — in
Finland and were “on the boat over” in
late January, Thelen said. Then there
is the powder, from ADI Australia
and the primer, which was changed
by the customer in January 2024
from the planned Federal Number 34
military primer to the Federal 210M
commercial primer. Thelen added
that a final step in cartridge produc-
tion involves “just a small amount
of waterproofing” on the primer.
Looking toward the future of the
M1200, Praslick speculated, “I see a
time in the near future where there
are going to be alternate specifica-
tions written for Vihtavuori propel-
lents. That’s the powder company that
Nammo has over in Finland. They
make a lot of powder there, and it’s
some of the best powder in the world.
[Sport shooting enthusiasts] use it.
It’s in wide use at the Lapua factory
over in Finland and we are using it
in our Berger match ammunition.”
Praslick’s belief regarding a pos-
sible propellant change is supported
by a market survey announcement
released in early November, seeking to
identify “potential competitive sources
of supply for propellants used in pre-
cision small caliber ammunition.”
The announcement cited interest
from the Army Contracting Com-
mand – New Jersey, on behalf of the
Office of the Project Manager for
Maneuver Ammunition Systems,
in “industry commercial product
information regarding the U.S. gov-
ernment need for 300,000 pounds
of propellant per year” to “be used
in calibers 6.5 mm Creedmoor up to
and inclusive of .338 Norma Mag-
num” identifying specific interest in
“temperature-stable propellants with
low muzzle velocity variation and
low ammunition dispersion.” ND
N AT I O N A L D E F E N S E | M AY 2 0 2 4 29
Making Change
Commission Urges Pentagon, Congress
To Improve Defense Budget Process
BY JOSH LUCKENBAUGH
A
n independent com-
mission tasked with
identifying ways the
Defense Department can
reform its resourcing
practices recently released its final
report. Commission officials and
experts agreed that implementing
its 28 recommendations will require
the department and Congress to do
something that has become increas-
ingly difficult: work together.
Originally called the Planning, Pro-
gramming and Budgeting System
when introduced in 1961, the Defense
Department’s Planning, Program-
ming, Budgeting and Execution, or
PPBE, process has not changed much
in its 60-plus years of existence,
Lara Sayer, executive director of the
Commission on PPBE Reform, said
during a panel hosted by the Center
for Strategic and International Stud-
ies in March following the release
of the commission’s final report.
The process involves the four
aforementioned phases, according
to slides Sayer presented: “plan-
ning,” to establish the department’s
military policy and strategy; “pro-
gramming,” to identify and assess
alternative approaches for meeting
national security needs and con-
duct cost analysis and assessment;
“budgeting,” to ensure correct phas-
ing and pricing of programs, make
late-breaking budget adjustments for
critical missions and prepare budget
documentation and associated rollout
material; and, once Congress autho-
rizes and appropriates funds, “execu-
tion,” to distribute the funds across the
department to meet national security
requirements, as well as conduct
reprogramming actions if necessary.
While the phases “work in paral-
lel, they don’t always work in a col-
laborative fashion,” Sayer said.
“The programmers don’t often have
access to the same data or documents
that the budgeteers have — and vice
versa — and so there’s a lot of inef-
ficiency in these very lengthy pro-
cesses,” she said. “If you’re trying to
30 N AT I O N A L D E F E N S E | M AY 2 0 2 4
get something into the budgets, it’s
often you need to work two to three
years in advance before Congress
may appropriate the funds for it.”
This has resulted in a system that
lacks the speed and agility to address
current threats and “the way technol-
ogy is evolving today,” she said. To
better meet today’s challenges, the
commission issued 28 recommenda-
tions across five focus areas: improve
the alignment of budgets to strategy;
foster innovation and adaptability;
strengthen relationships between the
Defense Department and Congress;
modernize business systems and data
analytics; and strengthen the capa-
bility of the resourcing workforce.
The most significant of the 28
recommendations is replacing the
PPBE process altogether with what
the commission called the Defense
Resourcing System, or DRS, which
consists of three processes: strategy,
resource allocation and execution.
Commission Chair Bob Hale said
the two main changes the new system
makes are combining the program-
ming and budgeting phases within
the new resource allocation process
to avoid duplication that can occur in
the current system and strengthening
the guidance the services receive from
the Office of the Secretary of Defense
through the use of analytics and senior
decision-maker meetings “to build
budgets that are aligned to strategy.”
The Defense Resourcing System
will “help DoD react to rapidly chang-
ing threats and technology, and so
help us stay ahead of strategic com-
petitors like China,” Hale said.
David Norquist, president and
CEO of the National Defense Indus-
trial Association and one of the
commissioners, said improving flex-
ibility within the Pentagon “so that
the department when it sees a good
idea can begin to fund it” is essen-
tial for the defense industrial base.
“Often in industry, they’re com-
ing forward with a good idea, and
the department can’t figure out how
to do anything with it for two years,”
Norquist said in an interview. A
number of the commission’s recom-
mendations are designed to “help
industry see what the department’s
strategy is, recognize where it’s going,
provide solutions to those challenges
and then know that the department
is able to respond in a timely and an
efficient manner to those challenges.”
To implement the shift to DRS,
as well as the rest of its recom-
mendations, the commission pro-
posed the Defense Department
create an implementation team that
would operate for the next three
to five years and report directly to
the deputy secretary of defense.
Norquist said reforming the
department’s planning, program-
ming and budgeting processes could
be done internally in about a year.
Other recommendations — such as
increasing the availability of oper-
ating funds and transforming the
budget structure — will require the
department to work with Congress
to ensure the necessary oversight
and thus will take more time.
Hale said collaboration between the
Defense Department and Congress
is “critical if we are going to actually
see some of these important changes
put in place.” But pushing the Pen-
tagon and the Hill to work together
might be easier said than done.
John Ferrari, a nonresident senior
fellow at the American Enterprise
Institute, commended the commis-
sion’s efforts on the final report but
said, “We can’t undersell the diffi-
culty it’s going to be to implement the
change — and one could say … the
easy work has actually been done,”
and now the hard work begins.
“One thing that can’t be underes-
timated is the need for everybody
involved to rebuild trust,” Ferrari said.
“The current system operates in a low-
iStock illustrations
trust environment, and so that’s why
all of these processes and systems and
controls and all of it is in there. … In
order to loosen the controls, there’s
going to have to be a resetting of trust.”
In particular, the commission’s
recommendations will need the
“explicit — not just the tacit —
approval of the defense subcommit-
tees for appropriations in both the
House and the Senate,” said Thomas
Spoehr, a senior advisor at CSIS.
The appropriators’ resistance
to change “can be fairly signifi-
cant,” and without their support
“a lot of these recommendations
will not come to pass,” Spoehr said.
“It’s going to take the appropria-
tors to kind of play and work with
DoD to make these things happen,
otherwise it’s not going to happen.
And that would be a tragic thing.”
A key recommendation in the report
is improved in-person communica-
tion between the Defense Depart-
ment and Congress, which Ferrari
said “hit the nail on the head.”
“Trust is not earned by sending
reports back and forth or through
phone calls or Zoom,” he said. “It’s
that human dimension of the pro-
cess that we have to keep in mind.”
Another potential barrier to reform
that the implementation team would
need to clear quickly is the Defense
Department’s “antiquated” informa-
tion technology systems, Ferrari said.
The commission in its final report
called for the department to modern-
ize and consolidate its IT systems.
One of its key recommendations was
to create a common analytics plat-
form that would “provide streamlined
access to best-of-breed analytic capa-
bilities and authoritative data across
functional sectors, ensuring that all
DoD organizations are leveraging the
same authoritative, transaction-level
business and warfighting data.”
However, the government and
the military do not have a great
track record of IT system reform,
Ferrari said. “So, I think on the
implementation team … that’s got
to be one of the first things they go
after. Because if you try to change
everything, and the IT system can’t
handle it, we could be sitting here 10
years from now talking about why”
the PPBE reforms didn’t work.
Sayer said the commission “looked
at a lot of different IT systems” and
found “pockets of excellence” in
the Defense Department — “but
what the Air Force is doing, which
might be a great analytical tool
for their wargaming and analysis,
should the Navy be using it?”
The services “have their own cul-
tures and bespoke systems, [and]
they don’t like to share. So, we’re
trying to encourage that open dia-
logue and use of common tools
across the Department of Defense,”
Sayer said. Using common tools will
also require better training, which
would be a “huge turning point
for the department,” she added.
Hale noted the Office of the Sec-
retary of Defense has introduced
a new integrated programming
and budgeting tool called the Next
Generation Resource Manage-
ment System, or NGRMS, which
achieved initial capability in 2022.
“I think it’s doing well, at least
from what we’ve heard,” he said. At
least one service has expressed inter-
BUDGET
est in NGRMS, “and hopefully … if it
succeeds, the services will move in
that direction because … it [would]
be great to have one system so we
[aren’t] constantly having to send
data between different systems.”
Hale said the commission views its
recommendations as “urgent — if
we’re going to stay ahead of near-peer
competitions, we need more flex-
ibility” — and while “there’s a lot of
work to do … I’m hopeful that we’re
going to see many, or even most, of
these recommendations put in place.”
Norquist said he’s optimistic there
will be reform to the PPBE process,
even if it doesn’t exactly match what
the commission recommended.
“I think a number of these [rec-
ommendations] will be picked up
— some of them probably exactly
as they’re written, other ones they’ll
test them out a little bit and decide
they want to do it slightly differ-
ently,” Norquist said. “I think this is
an area that’s ripe for improvement.”
The question now is, “Can everyone
agree on … those end states that we
are recommending? And I think that’s
a matter of people working together,”
he said. “But I think the most opti-
mistic sign is the message has gener-
ally been supportive. There’s been
some caution over the consequences
of where the Hill and the department
have to work together, and … they
[have] got to figure out how to do it in
a way that reflects both of their priori-
ties and interests and equities.” ND
N AT I O N A L D E F E N S E | M AY 2 0 2 4 31
Getting Ashore
Army, Marines Hit the Beach at
Project Convergence BY SEAN CARBERRY
C
AMP PENDLETON,
California — During
operations in Afghani-
stan and Iraq, the U.S.
military had the luxury
of large bases near and in theater to
fly in troops and supplies and could
drive large convoys across land routes
through relatively friendly countries.
However, a conflict in the Indo-Pacific
against a peer adversary will require
a different approach to logistics.
That’s why the recent Army Futures
Command-led Project Convergence
Capstone 4 included experiments with
platforms and technologies designed
to move and resupply troops in a con-
tested maritime environment. The
Army and Marine Corps tested drones
and autonomous watercraft designed
to land critical supplies ashore
quickly and quietly in the acoustic,
visual and electromagnetic senses.
Army Col. Shane Upton, director of
the Contested Logistics Cross-Func-
tional Team, which the Army stood up
in 2023, said logistics in a first island
chain scenario will rely on using inte-
grated fires on enemy air defenses
and anti-access/area denial targets
“to open a corridor up” for resupply.
“That creates kind of a window of
movement, but then you’ve got to
move fast,” he said in an interview
during Project Convergence Capstone
4, or PCC4. Traditional over-the-shore
logistics of laying down piers, run-
ning forklifts and other traditional
logistics can take hours and days,
which doesn’t cut it anymore.
“When you’re fighting in that dis-
persed environment — to resupply in
that dispersed environment — then
you need other options,” he said. “In
the experimentation we’ve seen out
here, you may have to do it from
offshore and use an autonomous
platform in a contested environ-
ment to put it into [a] point of need.”
One such platform designed to
move supplies and ammo in a con-
tested environment is the Autono-
mous Low-Profile Vessel, a prototype
Marine Corps platform that the
Army has invested in as well.
32 N AT I O N A L D E F E N S E | M AY 2 0 2 4
Lt. Col. Timothy Smith, logistics
combat element lead in the Marine
Corps Warfighting Laboratory, said
the small boat was modeled on the
submarines used by narco-traffickers
— it sits mostly below the water
line and is large enough to carry two
Naval Strike Missiles or two High
Mobility Artillery Rocket System
rockets up to 1,000 nautical miles.
“We can go full autonomy via
waypoint,” he said during an inter-
view at PCC4. “The autonomy is
not mature enough to do like inner
harbor when you get more con-
tested, so we’re putting a Marine
on it and driving it with a joystick
with a control module console.
“But when we drove it up from
San Diego to here, it was a Marine
in a room ... on a computer tell-
ing it what to do,” he contin-
ued. “They mission planned it,
and then they monitored it.”
During the capstone event, Marines
operating one of the service’s two pro-
totypes were sitting in an Army port
operations container, “so at least swiv-
el chair wise, there was a picture of
what was going on in the water space.”
One experiment involved mov-
ing ammo pods from ship to shore
using the boat and then using autono-
mous trucks to offload and trans-
port the pods to a HIMARS system
at Camp Pendleton, Upton said.
“We had autonomous truck plat-
forms that were fully autonomous
— non-driver, not even leader-
follower,” he said. “The next gen is
pulling ammunition, pallets and
items — actually rocket pods — off
of a vessel that hit out here on Red
Beach here on Camp Pendleton.
“The autonomous trucks lined
up and basically did autonomous
convoy to [a Multiple Launch
Rocket System] out here just to
simulate that resupply,” he said.
“That’s autonomous off of a ves-
sel,” he said. That takes away
risk, as “there’s not a soldier
there, an airman or Marine.”
Smith said the experimentation
with the autonomous vessel was a
continuation of work his team was
doing with the Naval Surface Warfare
Center Carderock Division, and it will
feed into requirements development.
“We learned that HIMARS fits,
which is good. We learned that
Marines really had a relatively easy
time operating [it]. And that’s the
best success — that it was mature
enough and that way you have
the end user using it,” he said.
“We’re learning that the technology
and the computer vision and every-
thing else is working out great that you
can go over to a requirements writer to
be like, ‘Finalize that,’” he continued.
In terms of sustainment, the craft
has been low maintenance, he said.
“We haven’t painted it. We’ve probably
maybe oil changed that once. The sys-
tem is pretty easy to get in and out of.”
However, there are some improve-
ments needed, he added. “We need
better bilge pumps. Our fuel tank solu-
tion may or may not have been the
best. But that’s learning. [We’re] not
even close to a program of record yet.”
The Marines also brought the stern
landing vessel HOS Resolution to the
event. The Marine Corps Warfight-
ing Lab is experimenting with the
254-foot, repurposed offshore sup-
port ship under a one-year lease.
The intention is to have the SLV,
equipped with a folding landing
ramp, inform the Landing Ship
Medium program. The Marine
Corps wants to procure 35 LSMs
to transport small Marine units
and equipment shore to shore.
 “We got to put 26 Marines on it
and go out and make sure that all of
this works,” Smith said. “Like, does
all the plumbing work? What hap-
pens when we actually have these
people on there? How much water
are they using? Can the ship keep up
with making that amount of water?
Those kinds of life support stuff.”
The biggest thing the Marines
learned was that the ship’s ramp could
go up in elevation to a pier, which
is something that ramps on exist-
ing landing vessels can’t do, he said.
The ramps on Landing Craft Utility
ships and everything else the Army
uses only lower for beach landings.
“So, that’s pretty significant — some-
thing that we didn’t appreciate until
we started playing with it,” he said.
Lt. Gen. Karsten Heckl, head of
Marine Corps Combat Development
Command and deputy commandant
for combat development and integra-
tion, told reporters that the service
has three more SLVs on contract.
“We’re using these vessels as part
of our littoral maneuver bridging
solution so that we have the capac-
ity for littoral maneuver and mobil-
ity for all things — sustainment
[and] everything else,” he said.
The Resolution SLV was sched-
uled to carry out additional surf
zone beaching tests at PCC4, and
“then that vessel will get underway
Marine Corps photo
to the first island chain to actually
go into Hawaii with 3rd Marine Lit-
toral Regiment and be campaign-
ing with our stand-in forces for
the first island chain,” he said.
The boat also served as a platform
to test another autonomous system
during the event: the Tactical Resup-
ply Unmanned Aircraft System.
The Malloy Aeronautics-manu-
factured TRV-150 quadcopter drone
is roughly the size of a coffee table
and can travel about 40 miles at
speeds approaching 70 miles per hour
and carry 150 pounds of payload,
according to manufacturer data.
The Marine Corps began test-
ing it for land operations last year
and through PCC4 was doing the
science-and-technology work to
determine the cameras, sensors,
algorithms and environmental pro-
tection the drone needs for mari-
time operations, Smith said.
The Army and Marines used the
drone at the event to transport small
cargo ship to ship and ship to shore,
taking off and landing from station-
ary and moving vessels, he said.
“We were really happy that it was
able to both static and at about three
knots take off, go in, drop the pay-
load, take off again, go out, find the
vessel, and then find the spot on the
vessel we wanted it to land [on] and
then come in and land,” he said.
While the TRV-150 did pick
up and move small payloads, the
focus was more on the connec-
tivity and autonomy, he said.
It’s suited to carry “small repair
parts, MREs … those kinds of things
right now,” he said. “Originally …
this was really developed to help
MILITARY EXERCISE
a company [to] resupply squads
— so short distance type stuff.”
So, if a critical small part needs to
get somewhere quickly, the drone is
“an option, not the option. So, that’s
how we’re looking at it,” he said.
“As a logistician, just give me an
arrow, quiver — let me pull out and
shoot different things the way you
need to shoot them that cover down
on mission requirements,” he said.
Upton said: “The drones work,
but they’re not big enough. So, they
need higher cargo capacity. And in
the UAS tech sector right now, there
are a lot of small drones” designed
for things like Amazon delivery.
“We need them to be bigger drones
that can move larger supplies because
of the weight of some of the ammu-
nition — our exquisite, precision
Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory’s Autonomous
Low-Profile Vessel at Project Convergence Capstone 4
munitions,” he said. “That was an
absolute lesson [from] a lot of itera-
tions, probably 20 to 50 iterations of
drone movements throughout the
week off those vessels, onto the beach,
back onto a vessel. We even did ves-
sel to vessel carrying cargo repair
parts, small amounts of ammo.
“We’ve got to get bigger ones,” he
continued. “The tech is out there, but
we’ve got to get it towards bigger.”
Another major takeaway from the
experiments was that current logistics
platforms don’t move at the speed that
will be needed for resupply in a con-
tested Indo-Pacific theater, he said. ND
N AT I O N A L D E F E N S E | M AY 2 0 2 4 33
Not Just Armor
program executive office is experi-
menting with the Family of Medium
Tactical Vehicles and a vehicle integra-
tion power kit that can draw about
120 kilowatts off the vehicles. One use
Army Rethinks Survivability for Tactical case showed that the trucks’ engines
could help power a microgrid and
Wheeled Vehicles BY STEW MAGNUSON reduce generator usage, he said.
“There is real operational savings by

C
HARLOTTE, North
Carolina — Brig. Gen.
Beth Behn, the Army’s
chief of transportation,
spent a large chunk of
2023 in eastern Ukraine observ-
ing the ongoing war there before
taking over her current role.
What she saw changed her
thinking about the some 200,000
tactical wheeled vehicles her com-
mand employs to move soldiers
and supplies on battlefields.
“I came back from Ukraine with
my hair on fire to modernize our doc-
trine, our training and, of course, our
equipment,” she said at the National
Defense Industrial Association’s
annual Tactical Wheeled Vehicles
be used to create parts to sustain
tactical wheeled vehicles during
widely distributed operations.
They must be more mobile, and
they have got to be able to integrate
advanced communications equip-
ment and maintain the ability to
mount weapon systems or other
kits and then traverse rough ter-
rain off or on improved roads.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do,”
she concluded with perhaps one
of the more notable understate-
ments of the conference.
Brig. Gen. Samuel Peterson, pro-
gram executive officer for combat
support and combat service sup-
port, is the Army’s point person in
charge of modernizing the service’s
going to these electrified vehicles,” he
said.
As far as all-electric, the ability at
the tactical edge to recharge vehicles
with large battery packs — needed
even for light vehicles — is not fea-
sible at this time, Roberts said.
“Each one of these steps — the
crawl, walk, run — builds on the next,
and we learn from them,” he said.
As far as robotic systems, the
Army has kicked off the Autono-
mous Transport Vehicle System
program — a follow-on to the Leader-
Follower program, which has one
truck in a convoy with a driver and
the rest operating autonomously.
The Army issued three contracts for
companies that are currently doing
preliminary design review ahead of

Marine Corps photo

Conference held recently on the out-
skirts of Charlotte, North Carolina.
Her main takeaway: what the Army
has been predicting as the battlefield
of 2030 is here and now in Ukraine.
The words “future operating envi-
ronment” are already moot, she said.
“This is an expanded battlefield in
terms of time, geography, domains
and actors. So, we’ve got to think
about minimizing the size and the
visibility of our support areas. We’ve
got to mask our sustainment efforts.
We’ve got to frequently relocate stocks
or support capabilities. If you can be
seen, you can be targeted. And if you
can be targeted, you had better be
able to hide or move fast,” she said.
As one of the leaders who shapes
requirements for the Army’s
small, medium and heavy tacti-
cal wheeled vehicles, she had a long
to-do list to modernize the fleets
and make them more survivable.
New armor was absent from the list.
First, they must operate over extend-
ed or exposed lines of communication.
They must be able to extend their
range without increasing fuel demand.
“We’ve got to get beyond reactive
maintenance and get to a proactive
decision-based approach,” she said.
Artificial intelligence can be used
for that and to chart ideal routes to
minimize exposure and save fuel.
Advanced manufacturing should
tactical wheeled vehicle fleets. building prototypes, said Kyle Bruner,
The office has four moderniza- project manager for force projection.
tion priorities: autonomy, electri- Carnegie Robotics, Neya Systems
fication, fuel demand reduction and Robotic Research have been
and predictive logistics, he said.
“These are the capabilities that
are going to enable us to succeed
in a multi-domain environment.
And we need industry’s partnership
on all of these fronts,” he added.
As far as autonomy and electri-
fication, the Army has put out a
lot of requests for information to
contractors, but some testing activi-
ties were delayed until Congress
finally passed a fiscal year 2024
defense appropriation in March.
Steve Roberts, project lead for inte-
gration in Program Executive Office
Combat Support and Combat Service
Support, said for now the Army is
going after “low-hanging fruit” when
it comes to saving fuel. One example
is anti-idling systems. Like what’s
available in the consumer market,
these systems turn the engine off
but can keep things on like heaters,
air conditioners and other vital sys-
tems using lithium-ion batteries.
“That way you can sit on station
for three, four hours without run-
ning that engine” while keeping
sensors, radios and climate con-
trol systems running, he said.
The next step is hybridization, which
can give a truck extra power. The

34 N AT I O N A L D E F E N S E | M AY 2 0 2 4
tapped by the Defense Innovation
Unit and the PEO in a joint effort
to develop autonomy kits called the
Ground Expeditionary Autonomous
Retrofit System, or GEARS, for the
Palletized Load System. The kits could
later be adapted for other types of
vehicles, a DIU press release stated.
The goal is to have the first unit
equipped by fiscal year 2026, Bruner
said.
Not on the priorities list, but
still vitally important, is to harden
the cybersecurity requirements as
potential opponents launch ever
more sophisticated electronic war-
fare attacks, Peterson said.
Adversaries are growing increas-
ingly more sophisticated, he said.
“If you look at some of the current
capabilities and newer aspects of
our fleet, they have to be cyber hard-
ened to be able to withstand those
threats on the battlefield,” he added.
As far as individual programs,
the most high-profile program
is the competition to replace
the Common Tactical Truck.
The program has pitted some of
the biggest names in military vehicles
against each other. Navistar Defense,
Oshkosh Defense, Mack Defense and
a partnership of American Rhein-
metall Vehicles and GM Defense have
delivered their trucks to Aberdeen
Proving Ground in Maryland under
a middle-tier acquisition framework
that allows the Army to issue contracts
for rapid prototypes, said Alvin Bing
III, product lead for the program.
“We’re in the phase of assessing and
testing these assets. We really want to
see what is in the realm of possible to
explore potential solutions,” he said.
The Army is looking to hand
the prototypes over to soldiers
this summer so they can pro-
vide feedback, he said.
Afterwards, the Army will sort
through all the data and what it
learned to come up with requirements
and a path forward for the acquisition.
The service took a similar approach
when it developed with the Marine
Corps its Humvee replacement, the
Joint Light Tactical Vehicle, or JLTV.
“That will allow us to take advan-
tage of what’s available commer-
cially and stay invested in continuous
improvement to get advanced tech-
nologies more rapidly into our fleet
as we move forward,” Bing said.
Meanwhile, the JLTV is currently in
a transition phase. The Joint Program
Office recompeted the contract and
AM General — the Humvee’s maker
TACTICAL VEHICLES
— beat out Oshkosh in 2023 to build
an upgraded version known as the A2.
The Joint Program Office, Oshkosh
and AM General are currently in
the throes of transitioning from one
manufacturer to another, a process
that has suffered some “headwinds,”
said Marine Corps Lt. Col. Christo-
pher Stephenson, the JPO’s prod-
uct manager for vehicle systems.
The two services purchased the
JLTV’s technical data rights from
Oshkosh to recompete the pro-
gram every six years to get the
best possible deal for the services
and, by extension, the taxpayers.
AM General won the recompete in
February 2023 with a contract val-
ued at $8.6 billion for up to 20,682
JLTVs and 9,883 trailers. The com-
pany is now in a two-year transition
period to prepare for production.
“As far as the actual day-to-day
challenges of this two-year transi-
tion, I think each manufacturer
is having unique headwinds that
I think [are] appropriate for the
phases,” Stephenson said, declin-
ing to spell out the speed bumps the
two manufacturers are hitting.
But he said there are no showstop-
pers or any problems that can’t be
solved by the time Oshkosh must end
its JLTV production in September 2025.
“The good news is we have forc-
ing functions to keep the momentum
going,” he said.
The A2 version will have some
improvements over the first iteration
including: an L5P Duramax engine
to provide better fuel economy with-
out losing performance; a simplified
electric architecture; noise reduc-
tion inside and outside the vehicle;
and improved corrosion protection.
Meanwhile, the Marine Corps is
pursuing a Medium Tactical Truck,
similar in size and weight to the
Army’s Common Tactical Truck.
Peterson was asked if the Marines
and the Army might come together and
duplicate the success of the JLTV and
form a joint program. He suggested
that it was up to the Marines, although
he did not want to speak for them.
“I’ve got Marines embedded in my
formations. … We’re closely partnered
with them, and we’re going to con-
tinue to inform each other through
our prototyping phase and allow the
Marine Corps to come to that decision
in their own time,” Peterson said. ND
N AT I O N A L D E F E N S E | M AY 2 0 2 4 35
Laser
Focus
Optical Comms
Beaming Through
Technological
Barriers
BY LAURA HECKMANN
L
asers have long been zap-
ping ones and zeros at high
speeds between devices
like DVD players and home
theater systems. Mean-
while, engineers have been working
for decades to employ lasers to trans-
mit gigabits of data through space.
Temperamental links between Earth
and satellites have stymied progress,
but advancements in optical technol-
ogy may finally be breaking through.
Laser communications — also
known as optical communica-
tions — use infrared light to pack
data into narrow waves and send
them down to Earth between satel-
lites and ground stations. The waves
are significantly tighter than radio
waves, enabling data rates a thou-
sand times greater than traditional
radio frequency transmission.
David Greninger, lead account
manager at L3Harris, likened the data
capabilities of laser communications
to a “fire hydrant,” compared to the
“old fashioned, skinny garden hose” of
radio frequency. Increased data con-
sumption and more satellites in the
sky are congesting radio waves, and
“you want the fire hydrant,” he said
on the sidelines of the Satellite 2024
Conference and Exhibition in March.
Laser communications are also
more secure. The narrow beams
reduce the geographic area in which
links can be intercepted, making them
harder to find, harder to jam and an
attractive capability for defense.
Fabien Ghez, chief sales officer at
French aerospace company Cailabs,
said the infrared signal cannot be
seen by the eye, and “it’s really
focused on a very small area. It’s
secure,” unlike radio frequency that
“will shoot down to Earth [at] a very
36 N AT I O N A L D E F E N S E | M AY 2 0 2 4
Cailabs’ TILBA-OGS optical ground station
large angle, and more or less a whole
city could get this information.”
So why haven’t lasers shot past
radio frequency? Historically,
the technology has suffered from
unique vulnerabilities associated
with space-to-ground links, par-
ticularly line-of-sight requirements
and atmospheric interference.
A narrow beam may be more secure,
but it also requires a clear path and
extreme accuracy, experts said.
Brian Lucas, business develop-
ment principal at L3Harris, said laser
waves are typically “very collimated.
It doesn’t spread out. So, you need to
be dead center” when aiming a laser.
“If you ever see a laser, it’s a straight
beam,” Greninger said. “If you can
see it, you can talk to it.” But if there
is a curvature of the Earth over a
long distance, “you’re going to have
to go up to a satellite now,” he said.
Ewa Kadziolka, business developer
for space and scientific instrumenta-
tion at the Netherlands Organiza-
tion for Applied Scientific Research,
said the lasers are typically aimed
at satellites in orbit at a distance
of 500 kilometers from Earth.
“It is like having to aim a laser
pointer at a postcard over a dis-
tance from Amsterdam to the Eiffel
Tower,” she said, “and then realizing
that the target is moving at a speed
of 28,000 kilometers per hour.”
The site beaming the laser is
called an optical ground station
— a system designed to transmit
data between ground and space.
Optical ground stations are selected
and scheduled by a mission opera-
tor based on weather models and
availability of the stations, Kadziolka
said. The ground station beams a
laser toward the satellite, while at the
same time the satellite is pointing
its telescope toward the ground sta-
tion. Once it receives light from the
ground station, it sends down a laser
link and the data can then be for-
warded from one location to another.
Currently, there is no worldwide
network of optical ground sta-
tions, creating a delay in offloading
data from satellites to ground sta-
tions of “several hours,” she said,
but the advent of relaying systems
and satellite constellations like Star-
link have allowed small satellites to
have continuous laser connection
with the satellite constellation.
The success of optical ground sta-
tions depends on their link avail-
ability and reliability, which can be
impacted by atmospheric turbulence
conditions such as fog, dust and rain.
“When you have interference, like
a cloud or whatnot, then you can’t
get the signal through,” Lucas said.
As the laser beam propagates across
the atmosphere, different light rays
travel along different paths, Kadziolka
explained. “This causes construc-
tive and destructive interference.”
There is a way to bypass this
problem, Ghez said. “You get mul-
tiple ground stations [in] different
locations around the world. And as
Cailabs photo
the information is transferring in
the sky — in space between dif-
ferent satellites — you can always
 optimize which ground station you
can use to get the data back.”
In addition to site diversity, tech-
nology within the ground stations is
also targeting the problem. Cailabs’
optical ground station, called TILBA-
OGS, uses the company’s multi-plane
light convergence technology to
break down and rebuild signals dis-
torted by atmospheric turbulence.
Jeff Huggins, president of Cailabs’
U.S. arm, said the technology
breaks the light into 45 pieces as
it comes through the atmosphere,
“and then by using the [multi-plane
light convergence] technology, we
recombine it back together and
reconstruct the signal exactly as
it was when it left the satellite.”
Technological advancement
is also allowing experimenta-
tion to happen on a larger scale.
The Netherlands Organization for
NASA’s Laser Communications
Relay Demonstration system
Applied Scientific Research recently
accomplished a successful in-orbit
demonstration and set up a gigabit-
per-second connection from a sat-
ellite to an optical ground station,
Kadziolka said, which she called “a
record speed for such a small ter-
minal demonstrated in space.”
NASA completed a year of experi-
mentation in June of its first two-way
laser relay system called the Laser
Communications Relay Demon-
stration. The system successfully
completed its first end-to-end data
exchange with the Integrated Laser
Communications Relay Demonstra-
tion Low Earth Orbit User Modem and
Amplifier Terminal aboard the Inter-
national Space Station in December.
NASA image
Part of NASA’s experimentation
included studying atmospheric impact
on laser systems and improving
another technology targeting atmo-
spheric disturbance: adaptive optics.
The technique takes a signal
distorted by atmospheric interfer-
ence and cleans it up by sending
it through a deformable mirror
that changes the light’s reflec-
tion to cancel out the distortions.
As enabling technology makes opti-
cal ground stations more viable, anoth-
er consideration is where to put them.
Jean-Francois Morizur, co-founder
and chief executive officer at Cailabs,
said during a panel discussion that
“we were surprised with … the long
discussions about, ‘Where do you
put these ground stations and the
architecture and the site diversity
and the meteorological models?’”
Morizur called this “really interest-
ing,” having assumed most operators
would already have their own models.
“But turns out they don’t, which is
good — then you can support and
have this discussion and many con-
versations you need for what kind
of service level you want to do and
how much connectivity you want.”
Tim Deaver, vice president of stra-
tegic solutions at Mynaric, said he was
asked why ground stations weren’t
placed “in the middle of an arid desert
where you get blue skies all the time.”
“The challenge with that is there’s
not a whole lot of fiber cable that goes
out there,” Deaver said. “So, orches-
trating the terrestrial lane is just
as important as having the ground
entry points. So, the more ground
entry points you have, the more
chances you have for doing that.”
Site diversity on the ground com-
pliments a mesh network in space,
which allows multiple satellites to
work as a network in the sky.
COMMUNICATIONS
Huggins said figuring out mesh
networks in space has been one of
two catalysts that are finally “opening
the door for [laser communications]
to be used effectively with satellites.”
“There are people that are building
the optical communications termi-
nals that can do it,” he said. “It was a
big issue — well, first, having a lot of
satellites up there, and second, being
able to have the pointing accuracy
and tracking ability so that one satel-
lite could track the other and keep
those two things locked together.”
The other catalyst is data trends, he
added.
“There’s more and more data up in
space, both for the defense as well as
commercially. And right now there’s
a bottleneck to get it down to the
ground,” he said. Radio frequency is
limited by physics to megabit capabil-
ity, he said, “and gigabits is what’s
moving around up in space, and
greater, and optical provides gigabit
capabilities down to the ground.”
Optical communication has been
around “a long time,” he said. “Every-
body we talk to has optical ground sta-
tions on their roadmap. We’re trying
to convince them that now’s the time.”
Morizur said an ally in the cause
has been the U.S. Space Force’s Space
Development Agency with the release
last year of the Optical Communica-
tions Terminal Standard Version
3.1.0, which are a set of technical
specifications that optical terminal
manufacturers have to comply with in
order to compete for SDA contracts.
“That’s amazing for the industry,”
he said, because it creates a play-
ing field where providers can either
choose to design terminals according
to SDA standards and “you’re compet-
ing and getting better and better, or
you choose not to go there because
you’ve got a different solution.”
Brian Barritt, chief technology
officer at Aalyria — a data connectiv-
ity company offering an atmosphere
optimized optical communication
solution — said “if we all pull this off,”
the future of optical communications
could mean 100 gigabits a second,
symmetric links between space and
ground and “potentially up to a terabit
a second for satellite backhaul. That
unlocks different ways of thinking
about what you do in space and what
you do on the ground,” he said. “And I
think that’s particularly exciting.” ND
N AT I O N A L D E F E N S E | M AY 2 0 2 4 37
Smart-Sats
Industry Using AI to Enhance
Space-Based Communications,
Sensing BY ALLYSON PARK
W
ith an increasing
number of commer-
cial satellites, military
constellations and
all their data flowing
through space, government and indus-
try operators said they are looking to
artificial intelligence to help them to
handle ever-more complex missions.
AI software is enabling users to
change a spacecraft’s capabilities
while in orbit, making the satel-
lites less reliant on hardware.
“AI doesn’t exist without software,”
Aslan Tricha, vice president of automa-
tion and orchestration at ALL.SPACE,
a maker of satellite terminals for the
military, said during a panel at the
recent Satellite 2024 Conference and
Exhibition in Washington, D.C. But the
satellite industry has traditionally cen-
tered on hardware. “We build every-
thing. It’s fixed. It’s kind of deployed as
is, and it has to last 20 years,” he said.
Tricha said going forward,
“we need to think about soft-
ware and how those changes need
to happen on the satellite.”
Since satellites are static and hard-
ware-reliant, once they are launched
into orbit, changes can generally not
be made. That could change with
AI-enabled spacecraft, he said.
“Learning patterns means learn-
ing a pattern of behavior. So, for
example, if the requirement is
changing because we have a higher
demand — peak demand or differ-
ent requirement — then AI is able
to change the hardware architecture
to fit the requirement,” he said.
The European Space Agency and
Intel were the first to publicly acknowl-
edge sending an AI-enabled satel-
lite to space in September 2020. The
PhiSat-1 — with an Earth-observation
payload designed to monitor polar
ice and soil moisture — had Intel’s
Movidius Myriad 2 vision processing
unit chip aboard, which was not origi-
nally designed for the rigors of space,
according to an Intel press release.
Computer chips must be hard-
38 N AT I O N A L D E F E N S E | M AY 2 0 2 4
ened for the extreme radiation
found in space, and the ones used
on orbit can be technologically as
much as 20 years behind chips used
on Earth, the statement said.
Adapting the state-of-the-art
Movidius Myriad 2 chip for the rigors
of space was what made the mis-
sion a breakthrough, a European
Space Agency statement said.
The chip was able to use AI to sort
out the unclear imagery from the use-
ful ones on board the spacecraft and
send only the good data back to Earth.
“By only sending useful pixels, the
satellite will now improve bandwidth
utilization and significantly reduce
aggregated downlink costs — not to
mention saving scientists’ time on the
ground,” the agency statement said.
Carlos Pedalino, vice president of
product and head of Latin America
business at ReOrbit, a manufacturer
of small communications and Earth-
observation satellites, said using AI to
make satellites software-centric will
also eliminate reliance on ground sta-
tions and reduce mission costs overall.
“What we are trying to do is reduce
the human dependence on ground
stations. The cost of the mission
is not just the cost of the satellite,”
he said. “You need to operate [it],
and you need a 24/7 team control-
ling the satellite, so we are trying
to reduce that in order to reduce
the cost of the complete mission.”
AI is also helping commercial satel-
lites interpret signals, sort through
massive amounts of data, speed up
analysis and weed out useless or
unhelpful information, he said.
When you don’t have full visibility
of a satellite that is capable of various
maneuvers, the satellite itself needs
to learn what is going on and “make
the right decision” based on that exist-
ing understanding, Pedalino said.
For example, for remote sensing,
optical cameras need to select the right
target, then send all the relevant data
the most efficient way possible, a pro-
cess that is only made better with AI.
“This data flow management
between satellites is managed by AI.
All the traffic data between satellites
is driven by this software,” Pedalino
said. “We have a layer in the satellite,
and then we have a second layer in the
ground to continue working on the
image to get all the input, the addi-
tional data on the images and on the
image processing software as well.”
Satellite operators can use AI to
their advantage to help manage
operators’ cognitive overload. With
the vast amount of data gathered by
both commercial and military satel-
lites, AI is helping sort through and
analyze the information in real time
through on-board processing.
Satellites “need to be able to dis-
seminate what is true and what is
false. What is the right informa-
tion to act on versus what is not. AI
can help with this,” Tricha said.
Two years after the ESA/Intel
PhiSat-1 mission, Palantir and
Satellogic launched an AI-enabled
satellite. It incorporated Palantir’s
Edge AI technology onboard Satel-
logic’s NewSat to process imagery
data on orbit, “separating signal
from noise in high-scale data to
make the best use of limited band-
width,” a Palantir statement said.
“Edge AI starts processing data
upon capture, delivering action-
able insights faster than traditional
ground processing. For example, we
can inform future data collection
onboard … or selectively downlink
pre-processed images based on their
analytical value,” the statement added.
Tricha said: “We need to be able to
look at how much of this processing
we do at the edge versus how much
of this processing we do in the com-
mand center or other places. If a drone
is sending terabytes of image data
that has to go over a very tiny satel-
lite pipe into some data center … to be
ReOrbit illustration
processed to then go all the way back,
I think the advantage of time is lost.”
Industry is also looking to use AI
to develop smart terminals on the
 ground that receive satellite transmis-
sions and data, as well as come up
with a “smart routing system” to man-
age and visualize commercial and mil-
itary satellite movements, Tricha said.
He defined smart ground terminals
as receivers that are “semi-aware of
their environment,” house the appro-
priate data and can transmit and
receive the information to and from
multiple satellites from both com-
mercial companies and the military.
These smart terminals must under-
stand the signals coming from the
data so “knowns” and “unknowns”
can be differentiated, as well as
communicate with multiple satel-
lites and execute multiple mis-
sions at the same time, receive that
data, then act on it, Tricha said.
If these terminals can communicate
with low-Earth orbit, medium-Earth
orbit and geostationary satellites
at the same time as they link with
allied satellites, then you “can kind
of inform the other terminals in
the constellation, and you can do
all of this in a very, very confined
and mobile environment,” he said.
With the number of satellites
increasing, an AI-enhanced smart
routing system is needed to keep
track of orbits and movement, said
Karen Florschütz, executive vice
president of connected intelligence
CubeSats
PLS photo
at Airbus Defence and Space.
“It’s getting a little bit more
crowded, and we need a smart rout-
ing system. Who is on which path up
there, and which one is a communica-
tion one, which one is an optical one,
which one is a radar one?” she said.
“To actually be able to process
all the information on the ground,
it needs to all come together. And
maybe we don’t need, in the future,
like 10 different ground stations, but
maybe we need one or two smart
[terminals] that all the different
frequencies can actually go there
and can be processed,” she said.
While AI is a powerful tool that can
make different aspects of satellites
more efficient, industry still has chal-
lenges to overcome and lessons to
learn.
Tricha said developing satellite-
specific open AI models is easier said
than done.
“People think AI is kind of like elec-
tricity. I’m just going to plug it in, and
AI is just going to ooze out the other
side. But it’s not, it’s really not,” he
said. “It’s a model that requires really
understanding your information,
understanding your data, cleansing
your data, because data is garbage
for the most part. What you get is
not really what you can use to train,
and there’s a lack of talent” as well.
COMMUNICATIONS
Industry also has to take into con-
sideration the number of older sat-
ellites in space and figure out how
those fit into the larger picture of
AI-enhanced systems, he added.
“We have to intersect this future,”
Tricha said. “Just like we talked
about multi-orbit strategies and high
throughput satellites for a very long
time, we are talking about AI-defined
or AI-driven satellite communication,
but it’s a little bit further out,” he said.
However, “you will start to see
early deployments very [soon,] espe-
cially around intelligent routing.”
While incorporating AI into space
operations comes with its chal-
lenges, industry wants the defense
sector to know that it is nothing
to be afraid of. On the contrary,
it is a tool that should be used to
enhance existing capabilities.
“AI is not going to take your job, but
a person who knows AI is going to
take your job, that’s for sure,” Tricha
said. “These are learning systems.
And by definition, as [we] invest
more into learning, the [models]
will just become better and better.
… It’s still early stage, so this is an
evolving technology. It evolves every
week. It’s not going to go away.” ND
N AT I O N A L D E F E N S E | M AY 2 0 2 4 39
NDIA POLICY POINTS BY JENNIFER STEWART
Special Operators Take Holistic Health into Account
I
n 2015, the top four bipar-
tisan Senate and House
congressional lead-
ers gathered in Emancipa-
tion Hall in the U.S. Capitol
Visitor Center to present the
Congressional Gold Medal, the
highest civilian honor awarded by
Congress, to roughly 40 surviving
First Special Service Force veterans.
As the only unit formed dur-
ing World War II that consisted of
troops from both the United States
and Canada, the force’s origins were
forged from allied leaders’ focus
on sabotaging key industrial nodes
that supported the Axis powers’
energy lines of communication.
The First Special Service Force was
a highly trained joint combat group
designed to fight at high altitudes, in
rugged terrain and in severe weather.
Its first major battle — the Battle of
Monte la Difensa in 1943 — required
a nighttime climb in full combat loads
up 200-foot cliffs in inclement weather
to surprise enemy forces. Monte la
Difensa’s importance as a strong
defensive position against enemy inva-
sion dates back to the Roman Empire,
and the much higher casualty rate
suffered by the defenders testifies to
the skill and ferocity of the assault.
In the aftermath of the battle, when
Gen. Dwight Eisenhower conducted
a brief tour, he reportedly marveled
at how the force — encumbered with
equipment — was able to accom-
plish a feat that any alpine climber
would have thought twice about.
In the modern era of video games
and the glamorization of violence, his-
torical accounts of the Battle of Monte
la Difensa are hard to read. The brutal-
ity of that battle — and the subsequent
ones — resulted in high casualty rates
for the First Special Service Force.
In addition, when they returned
home, family members of these
highly trained warriors recounted
the complexity of their reintegra-
tion, not always successfully, back
into civilian life. In hindsight, many
family members concluded their
service member was likely deal-
ing with post-traumatic stress.
A little more than 80 years later,
today’s U.S. and Canadian special
forces trace their origins to the First
Special Service Force. The Battle of
40 N AT I O N A L D E F E N S E | M AY 2 0 2 4
Monte la Difensa informs
the key truths and endur-
ing values of today’s U.S.
Special Operations Forces.
As the global strategic
environment returns to great
power competition, special opera-
tors in some ways are simply return-
ing to their origins. This is why
Special Operations Command’s focus
is to recruit men and women who
are capable of operating in remote
and austere environments, have the
professional discipline and acumen
to conduct tactical actions that carry
strategic and political consequences
and can handle the endurance and
the operational tempo required for
the nation’s most sensitive missions.
It is also why the command pri-
oritizes generational relationships
with international special operations
forces, and why the first enduring SOF
truth — people are more important
than hardware — is both strategic and
values-based.
At the same time, the ongoing
emphasis to optimize the holistic
health of special operators is informed
by their expected future operating
environment.
As technological advances inform
the rapidly evolving character of future
battles, personnel expect to be attacked
from every operational domain and to
receive no respite from enemy obser-
vation. Special operators therefore
expect they will be required to success-
fully accomplish their assigned mis-
sions in denied, disrupted, intermittent
and limited impact environments, in
which the resilience of their cogni-
tive health will be a decisive factor.
In this year’s congressional over-
sight season, SOCOM highlighted
the work to enhance the readiness,
resilience and well-being of its service
members and their families, with its
written and oral testimony covering
the ongoing importance of the com-
mand’s Preservation of the Force and
Family program. As the program has
evolved over time, the physical domain
— with an emphasis on
human performance —
has expanded to include
other domains, including
psychological, cognitive,
social/family and spiritual.
By design, the command
is focused on ensuring key stakehold-
ers understand that the program has
expanded to focus on holistic engage-
ment to identify and address chronic
issues before they impact performance.
In prepared testimony, lead-
ers highlighted work done with
healthcare professionals to publish
a comprehensive study to focus on
monitoring brain health and cogni-
tive performance, optimizing cogni-
tive capacity, advancing brain health
science and connecting wounded, ill
and injured service members seek-
ing treatment with resources.
In addition, during oral testi-
mony, it was noted the command
is actively seeking partnership with
organizations that work with profes-
sional athletes that could have similar
human performance experiences.
This is a serious field of study that
includes leading-edge research and
data on the holistic welfare of service
members and athletes that goes beyond
physical conditioning to include
psychological, nutritional and sleep
hygiene support. SOCOM is actively
supporting cooperative research-and-
development agreements with univer-
sities and research institutions that can
legally and ethically share informa-
tion from diverse sets of data pools.
This research is important and
requires ongoing strategic discipline by
both SOCOM and Congress to main-
tain a consistent level of funding to
ensure universities and research insti-
tutions successfully protect their own
budgets to support the ongoing work.
This deeper and longer-term work
is essential to validate requirements to
inform better human-centric perfor-
mance technologies, such as wearables.
The partnership the Defense
Department — including Special
Operations Command — has with
industry, academia and research
institutions is at its best when it
leads to break-out advancements in
providing the technology and sup-
port U.S. service members deserve.
Supporting the holistic and opti-
mized health of special
operators is one of those
virtuous undertakings. ND
iStock illustration
Jennifer Stewart is
NDIA’s executive vice presi-
dent for strategy and policy.
 GOVERNMENT CONTRACTING INSIGHTS
BY RYAN BURNETTE, SUSAN B. CASSIDY AND DARBY ROURICK
Pentagon Expands Contractor
Cybersecurity Information Sharing
F
acing increasingly sophisti-
cated cybersecurity threats,
the Defense Department has
recognized that collaboration and
coordination across the defense
industrial base is critical to pro-
tecting the U.S. government and
defense industrial capability.
The department on March 12 took
another step to enhance collaboration
across the defense base by revising
the eligibility criteria for the voluntary
Defense Industrial Base Cybersecurity
Program, which aims to support
contractor safeguarding of defense
information by promoting the shar-
ing of threat and mitigation strate-
gies across program participants.
The program is intended to encour-
age the sharing of threat informa-
tion to complement the mandatory
obligations imposed on contractors
through the cyber incident report-
ing regulation set forth in Defense
Federal Acquisition Regulation
Supplement 252.204-7012.
Specific goals include establishing
a broader voluntary framework for
protecting confidential information
and collectively working to maximize
cybersecurity through cyber threat
information sharing, expanded
incident reporting and mitigation
strategy and malware analysis dis-
semination. Contractors can benefit
from the program by receiving train-
ing, best practices and government
furnished information. Participants
can also access the online platform,
DIBNet, and the Defense Department
Cyber Crime Center, which provide
resources and enable threat informa-
tion sharing across participants.
The industrial base cybersecu-
rity program began as an interim
2012 rule that initially applied only
to contractors who had the ability to
safeguard classified information and
were cleared with a facility security
clearance to at least the secret level.
In 2015, the program expanded to
include all cleared contractors — not
just those with the ability to safeguard
classified information. The final rule
iStock illustration
notes that the Defense Department
has seen a steady increase in the
percentage of defense contractors
that are interested in participating
but could not because they do not
meet the eligibility requirements.
The 2024 update reaches more
broadly, effectively expanding eligibil-
ity to all contractors covered under
the department’s mandatory report-
ing requirements. This expansion also
recognizes the department’s increased
reliance on commercial products in
its supply chain and the need to pro-
vide those commercial contractors
with the information they need to
protect their systems and the prod-
ucts they provide to the government.
Similarly, the expansion recog-
nizes that smaller defense contrac-
tors — which were less likely to
meet eligibility requirements — have
fewer resources overall to devote
to cybersecurity and therefore
may benefit from the information
that is shared in the program.
Given the increased focus on
cybersecurity, the Pentagon recog-
nized that an increasing number
of previously ineligible contractors
were applying for the cybersecurity
program. In 2022, approximately
45 percent of applications
were deemed ineligible.
In discussions with
industry, the department
received “overwhelm-
ing” feedback request-
ing engagement with
a broader community
of defense companies —
beyond those companies with
security clearances. This feedback
noted that smaller defense com-
panies without security clearances
tend to have fewer cybersecurity
resources and may most benefit from
engagement with the department.
Due to the increased interest in
the program, industry feedback to
engage a broader cross-section of the
community and the department’s
desire to deliver increasingly tailored
threat information, this updated
regulation expands program eligi-
bility and seeks to reduce the bur-
den on contractors to participate.
First, the Defense Department
eliminated the prior requirement
that participants maintain an exist-
ing active facility clearance to at
least the secret level. The updated
rule applies to any contractor that
owns or operates a covered contrac-
tor information system — including
those who handle unclassified infor-
mation. However, contractors must
still be able to safeguard classified
information to receive any classified
threat information electronically.
Second, contractors no longer must
obtain a medium assurance certificate
and pay an associated fee to qualify
for the program. Instead, to reduce
the burden on contractors, the rule
allows contractors to register with the
Procurement Integrated Enterprise
Environment to meet identity proofing
requirements for both the voluntary
and mandatory reporting programs.
Allowing the use of the Procurement
Integrated Enterprise Environment
to meet identity proofing require-
ments is helpful because all Defense
Department contracts already
include a requirement to register
with the enterprise environment
to receive electronic payments.
Third, the department also
clarified that a contractor may
authorize a third-party service pro-
vider to report incidents on behalf
of the contractor through a Defense
Industrial Base Cybersecurity
Program framework agreement.
These updates to the program took
effect April 11, and the department
anticipates a significant increase
in contractor participation. The
department anticipates that
these updates to the program
will extend eligibility to an
estimated 68,000 additional
defense contractors, and
approximately 8,000 more con-
tractors will apply for the program
based on past participation statistics.
Contractors should benefit from
this updated, final rule if they choose
to participate through easier entry
into the program and through more
participants sharing information on
cyber threats and mitigation strate-
gies. Faced with evolving and more
sophisticated threat actors, the
Defense Department hopes to ben-
efit from increased awareness and
improved assessments of cyber inci-
dents with data from a broader set
of contractors and industries. ND
The authors are attorneys in the
Washington, D.C., office of Covington
& Burling LLP. Law clerk Krissy
Chapman also contributed.
N AT I O N A L D E F E N S E | M AY 2 0 2 4 41
NDIA NEWS COMPILED BY ALLYSON PARK
Brown Accepts
Eisenhower Award
C
hairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff Air Force Gen. Charles
Brown Jr. accepted the Dwight
D. Eisenhower Award from the Nation-
al Defense Industrial Association on
behalf of the Defense Department’s
2.1 million service members at a din-
ner held near the Pentagon April 3.
In a speech, he called for increased
togetherness and collaboration
between the Defense Department and
the defense industrial base, according
Undersea Warfare Division Bestows Awards at Spring Conference
N
DIA’s Undersea Warfare Divi-
sion gave awards to four
individuals for their contribu-
tions to the community at its recent
spring conference, the first since
the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
The 2024 Vice Adm. Charles B.
Martell – David Bushnell Award was
given to Jason Gomez, chief technol-
ogy officer of the Naval Undersea
Warfare Center at Newport.
The 2024 Vice Adm. Charles
For information on advertising in National Defense or one of NDIA’s electronic offerings contact:
ADVERTISING
SVP, MEETINGS, DIVISIONS
NDIA’S & PARTNERSHIPS
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42 N AT I O N A L D E F E N S E | M AY 2 0 2 4
to a Defense Department news story.
“When it comes to the DoD and
our defense industry partners, the
only way to ensure our national secu-
rity is to work together,” said Brown,
who added that he sees collabora-
tion as the “pathway to success.”
“As I like to say, success takes help;
failure you can do alone,” he said.
In discussing the keys to achieve
collaboration among defense
stakeholders, Brown stressed it’s
Left to right: Presenter Alan Lytle, chair of
the Undersea Warfare Division, and award
recipient Jason Gomez.
SALES DIRECTOR
Kathleen Kenney
(703) 247-2576
KKenney@NDIA.org
Gen. Charles Brown Jr. gives remarks at the
Dwight D. Eisenhower Award dinner.
important to “communicate our
priorities and align our equities.”
“Together, we need to be will-
ing to put all the cards on the
table — the good, the bad, the
ugly — so we can work together
on solutions,” Brown said.
“We need to discuss not what’s best
for one service [or] what’s best for
one company, but what’s best for the
Joint Force, what is best for multiple
companies, [and], most importantly,
what’s best for our national security,”
he said, according to the news story.
Brown emphasized that despite
industry and the military having
slightly different needs — with the
former being focused on build-
ing quality products and turning
a profit and the latter focused on
modernizing and remaining the
most respected combat-capable
force in the world — both entities
need to be focused on contribut-
ing to national security together.
The Dwight D. Eisenhower Award
is bestowed annually on an indi-
vidual who best reflects President
Eisenhower’s beliefs and sup-
port for a strong national secu-
rity and industrial base. ND
E. Weakley Award was presented to
Martin Irvine Jr., executive director of
the Naval Surface Warfare Center and
Naval Undersea Warfare Center.
The 2024 Capt. George W. Ringenberg
Award was given to Glen Sharpe, senior direc-
tor of undersea warfare and business devel-
opment at Advanced Acoustics Concepts.
The 2024 Rear Adm. Jack Jarabak
NDIA photos
Bronze Medal Award was presented to Lt.
Cdr. Erika Fee, meteorology and ocean-
ography officer with the Navy. ND
NDIA MEMBERSHIP:
The National Defense
Industrial Association
(NDIA) is the premier
association represent-
ing all facets of the
defense and technology
industrial base and
serving all military
services. For more
information please
call our membership
department at 703-
522-1820 or visit us on
the web at NDIA.org/
Membership
NDIA BOARD OF DIRECTORS As of 04/10/24

Hon. Michael J. Bayer - Board Chair Lt. Gen. Thomas A. Horlander, USA (Ret) Brian E. Perry
Hon. Lisa S. Disbrow - Board Vice Chair Raanan I. Horowitz Hon. Stephen W. Preston
Maj. Gen. Arnold L. Punaro, USMC Vice Adm. Richard W. Hunt, USN (Ret) Marisa Rhode
(Ret) - Immediate Past Board Chair Gretchen Larsen Idsinga Lt. Gen. Darryl Roberson, USAF (Ret)
Hon. David L. Norquist, President & CEO Tamara Jack Col. Reginald O. Robinson, USAF (Ret)
Angela M. Ambrose Logan Jones Betsy Schmid
Paul Arcangeli John M. Kelly Dan Sennott
Col. John Armellino, USMC (Ret) Dr. Richard “Doc” H. Klodnicki Raj Shah
Jeffrey W. Bohling Matthew J. Kuta Edward J. Sheehan, Jr.
John A. Bonsell Brett B. Lambert Lt. Gen. Jay B. Silveria, USAF (Ret)
Vice Adm. Sean Buck, USN (Ret) Louis Lauter Robert Simmons
Rodney D. Bullard Col. Anthony “Lazer” Lazarski, USAF (Ret) Kraig M. Siracuse
Maj. Gen. Timothy Byers, USAF (Ret) Daniel A. Lerner Mary N. Springer
Dr. David Caswell Maj. Gen. Lee K. Levy II, USAF (Ret) Dr. J. Mitch Stevison
John Chadbourne Meagan S. Linn Robert Stewart
Mark Cherry Col. Armando “Mandy” Lopez, Jr., Dr. Robert H. Sues
Lt. Gen. John B. Cooper, USAF (Ret) USA (Ret) Col. Pete Trainer, USAF (Ret)
Col. Kenny Cushing, USAFR ML Mackey Tricia Ward
Paul DellaNeve Leigh Madden John Wason
Joe DeVooght Dr. Theresa Mayer Maj. Gen. Martin Whelan, USAF (Ret)
Dr. Tomás Díaz de la Rubia Laura McAleer Brent Wildasin
Michael P. Dietz Elaine McCusker
Tara Murphy Dougherty Kris McGuire Dr. Joseph Bravman - Emeritus
Jaymie A. Durnan Andrew McKenna Dale W. Church - Emeritus
Paula Edwards Megan Milam Edward M. Fortunato - Emeritus
Lt. Gen. Richard P. Formica, USA (Ret) Jamie Jones Miller John D. Illgen - Emeritus
Ken Garber Kevin “Morty” Mortensen Joanna T. Lau - Emeritus
Robert A. Geckle, Jr. Mara Motherway James McAleese, Jr. - Emeritus
Pete Giambastiani Amy Motko Terrance J. McKearney - Emeritus
Bruce Gjovig Jana Weir Murphy Hon. Michael Wynne - Emeritus
Will Goodman Michael Niggel Col. William Glenn Yarborough, Jr., USA
Lt. Gen. David D. Halverson, USA (Ret) Fola Ojumu (Ret) - Emeritus
Tania Hanna Gen. Terrence “Shags” O’Shaughnessy, Harold L. Yoh III - Emeritus
David Hathaway USAF (Ret)
Hon. Stephen C. Hedger Michele Pearce

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N AT I O N A L D E F E N S E | M AY 2 0 2 4 43
NDIA CALENDAR August
7-9 Emerging
Technologies for Defense
Washington, DC
May 21-23 Mastering the NDIATechExpo.org
6-8 NDIA/AIA Industrial Art of Business Devel- 14-16 Space Warfighting
Security Conference opment Workshop Forum (SWF)
Arlington, VA Colorado Springs, CO
Jacksonville, FL
NDIA.org NDIA.org/Events
NDIA.org/SpringISC

7-9 Department of the June

Air Force Modeling and 12-13 Training & September
Simulation Summit Simulation Industry 16-18 2024 Undersea
San Antonio, TX Symposium (TSIS) Warfare Fall Conference
DAFMSS.org Orlando, FL (Classified)
NTSA.org/TSIS Groton, CT
20-22 MODSIM World Arlington, VA
Norfolk, VA 24-26 CBRN Defense NDIA.org/Events
MODSIMWorld.org Conference & Exhibition
Baltimore, MD 24 Women In Defense
21-22 Integrated NDIA.org/CBRN National Conference
Precision Warfare Arlington, VA
WomenInDefense.net
Review (IPWR-24)
Arlington, VA FOR THE LATEST
NDIA.org/IPWR24 NDIA CALENDAR:
NDIA.ORG/EVENTS

2024 Department of the Air Force

Modeling and
Simulation Summit
TRAINING IN A DIGITAL WORLD
This year’s theme, Training in a Digital World, highlights the Department of the Air Force’s drive to upskill personnel through digital
training. The goal of the M&S Summit is to gather Air Force and Space Force M&S experts to learn about new M&S initiatives and
techniques, network across military services and with industry experts, and to hear our technological leaders’ perspectives on how
M&S can transition more training from the real world to digital.

The 2024 DAF M&S Summit will provide a forum for shared information, ideas, and connection of M&S professionals across the DoD, industry,
academia, and international partners. The three-day summit agenda includes: Eminent Keynote Speakers from Military, Government,
and Industry Leaders | Distinguished Panel Discussions and Q&A sessions | Track Session Presentation Focus Areas | VIP Tour for
Distinguished Visitors | M&S Industry Exhibition Hall | Classified M&S Briefing Sessions | M&S Tool Overview.

Register Today! 7 – 9 May 2024 | San Antonio, TX | DAFMSS.org

44 N AT I O N A L D E F E N S E | M AY 2 0 2 4
2024
CBRN DEFENSE
CONFERENCE & EXHIBITION
CWMD and Pandemic Preparedness Inflection Point –
We Must ACT NOW or Risk/Gamble the Future!
The NDIA CBRN Defense Division promotes education, awareness, and collaboration across the CBRN
community to foster innovation and rapid development of CBRN capabilities. It provides insight and
information concerning national strategies, program priorities, and execution plans across policy and
RDTE. Come with your questions, suggestions, and innovative ideas, and make time to check out the
exhibition hall and poster sessions.

Register Today! June 24 – 26, 2024 | Baltimore, MD | NDIA.org/CBRN

 2024 EMERGING
TECHNOLOGIES
FOR DEFENSE
CONFERENCE & EXHIBITION

Save The Date!

NDIA’s Emerging Technologies Conference provides opportunities
for attendees to interact with technology leaders from government,
academia, and the defense and commercial industries. This conference
is the premier venue for government and industry to share technology
roadmaps, new programs, future challenges, and business and transition
opportunities, featuring high-level keynote speakers, interactive panels and
presentations, and exhibits and demonstrations of advanced technologies.

August 7 – 9, 2024 | Washington, DC | Walter E. Washington Convention Center | NDIATechExpo.org

SPACE
2024
WARFIGHTING
FORUM ( S W F )
Save the Date!
The NDIA Space Division proudly presents the 5th Annual
Space Warfighting Forum (SWF). Assembling experts from
industry, government, and academia, SWF 2024 continues the
critical dialogue on space warfighting strategies, demands, and
evolving capabilities. Participants can anticipate insights from key
figures within USSPACECOM and USSF, spanning unclassified and
classified sessions. Join us for another illuminating exchange to
shape the future of space warfare.

August 14 – 16, 2024 | Colorado Springs, CO | NDIA.org/Events

46 N AT I O N A L D E F E N S E | M AY 2 0 2 4
FUTURE FORCE
CAPABILITIES
CO N FEREN CE & EXH I B ITI O N
Armaments | Fuze | Integrated Precision Warfare | Munitions | Robotics

Save the Date!

Join us at this year’s Future Force Capabilities Conference
and Exhibition, brought to you by NDIA’s Armaments, Integrated
Precision Warfare, Munitions Technology, Robotics, and Fuze
communities. Connect with more than 800 thought leaders and
explore offerings from 50+ exhibitors across eight diverse tracks
of content. Help shape the future by participating in capabilities briefings,
absorb keynote insights, participate in engaging panels, and more.

September 24 – 27, 2024 | Virginia Beach, VA | Virginia Beach Convention Center | NDIA.org/Events

Register Today!
The 2024 Women In Defense (WID) National conference will bring together more than
500 women from across the nation to network and learn from government and industry
experts. WID’s National Conference seeks to strengthen the defense industrial base
by educating, empowering, and supporting a diverse and inclusive workforce. The
2024 conference theme, Foundations for the Future, emphasizes the goal of our
National Conference: to build relationships and skills to help our nation and our
friends, allies and partners thrive during a period of strategic competition.

September 24, 2024 | Arlington, VA | WomenInDefense.net

N AT I O N A L D E F E N S E | M AY 2 0 2 4 47
NEXT
MONTH
Rad-Nuke Protection
• Russian President Vladimir Putin
threatening to use nuclear weapons
has put military radiological and
nuclear protective gear and medicine
back in the spotlight after decades
of little to no modernization for the
highly specialized technology.
Chem-Bio Protection
• Experts say the threat of chemi-
cal and biological weapons in the
Indo-Pacific is growing, and new
technology — both current and
emerging — is needed to address it.
Army Helicopters
• Industry and defense leaders weigh in
on the future of the helicopter industri-
Navy Info-Warfare
• To address China’s and Russia’s pac-
ing threats, the Navy is focused on
information warfare, using live, virtual
and constructive training, strategic
data and assured command and con-
trol to drive the decision advantage.
Spare Parts
• The failure of a part the size of a
quarter can take a ship out of ser-
vice, which is why the Navy is rush-
ing to deploy additive manufacturing
technology on more of its vessels.
Evacuations
• The U.S. military has been called
the call again. The Marine Corps is
exploring how to improve the pro-
cess of getting civilians to safety.
Space Architecture
• The U.S. military is shifting its space
architectures from small groups of
large systems to proliferated constel-
lations of small satellites. Defense
officials share their progress on this
transition and the technical chal-
lenges that still must be overcome.
Space Congestion
• With space becoming more crowded
— and increasingly important to mili-

al base following the recent cancellation
of the Army’s troubled Future Attack
Reconnaissance Aircraft program.
on multiple times in recent years to
evacuate U.S. civilians from hostile
environments and could likely get
iStock illustration
tary operations — Defense Department
officials and industry leaders gathered
at a recent conference to discuss how
to ensure security in the final frontier.

INDEX OF ADVERTISERS Interact with the companies whose products and services are advertised in National Defense
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Interstate .................................................moveinterstate.com ........................................................................... 25
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Streamlight..............................................streamlight.com/TLR-7X .................................................................. 23
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NDIA’S & PARTNERSHIPS Kathleen Kenney industrial base and
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BUSINESS & Christine M. Klein (703) 247-2576 services. For more
TECHNOLOGY (703) 247-2593 KKenney@NDIA.org information please
MAGA ZINE CKlein@NDIA.org call our membership
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48 N AT I O N A L D E F E N S E | M AY 2 0 2 4
 Coalfire
CMMC
Coalfire Federal
Federal CMMC
CMMC Assessment
Assessment CMMC Services
Readiness
Services
Readiness
GET
GET CERTIFICATION
CERTIFICATION READY
SUCCESS ON READY
THE
SUCCESS THE FIRST
GET CERTIFICATION
SUCCESS ON THE
ON FIRST ATTEMPT
READY
FIRST ATTEMPT
ATTEMPT

CMMC
CMMC Advisory Services
CMMC Advisory
Advisory Services
Services
INCLUDING:
INCLUDING:
INCLUDING:
CUI Boundary Analysis
CUI Boundary Analysis
CUI Boundary
CMMC Analysis
Gap Analysis
CMMC Gap Analysis
CMMC Gap Analysis
Experienced.
Experienced. Accurate.
Accurate.
Remediation Support
Remediation Support
Experienced. Accurate. Remediation Support
LEARN MORE
LEARN MORE
As
As an
an authorized
authorized C3PAO
C3PAO andand a a Department
Department LEARN MORE
As an authorized C3PAO and a Department coalfirefederal.com/cmmc/advisory
coalfirefederal.com/cmmc/advisory
of
of Defense
Defense contractor
contractor also
also subject
subject to
to CMMC
CMMC coalfirefederal.com/cmmc/advisory
of Defense contractor also subject to CMMC
requirements,
requirements, Coalfire
Coalfire Federal
Federal isis uniquely
uniquely
requirements, Coalfire Federal is uniquely
qualified,
qualified, and
and armed
armed with
with first-hand
first-hand experience,
experience,
qualified, and armed with first-hand experience,
to
to help
help you
you ensure
ensure CMMC
CMMC certification
certification success
success
to help you ensure CMMC certification success
on
on the
the first
first attempt.
attempt.
on the first attempt.

Protect
Protect the
the mission.
mission.
Protect the mission.

CoalfireFederal.com
CoalfireFederal.com
info@coalfirefederal.com
CoalfireFederal.com
info@coalfirefederal.com
info@coalfirefederal.com