Panel addresses Anti-Access/Area Denial at AUSA | Article | The United States Army
Anti-Access/Area Denial, or A2AD, sounds like it could be a new football zone defense. But, in fact, A2AD was fleshed out by a five-member panel, including Maj. Gen. Lynn Collyar, U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command Commander, Feb. 27, 2014, at the AUSA Winter Symposium and Exposition, in Huntsville's Von Braun Center.
From the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command, or AMCOM perspective, logisticians are heavily dependent on networks and mission-command information systems to perform the "science of control" for providing sustainment to deployed forces. That is, logisticians rely on space-based communications to facilitate the transmittal of all kinds of logistical data and actions.
In terms of Anti-Access/Area Denial, enemies can be expected to use strategies and tactics - Air Defense Systems, Cruise Missiles, anti-ship missiles, anti-satellite missiles/lasers, minefields, submarines, suicide boats, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles - to keep friendlies away from areas where they wish to go.
"We at AMCOM permit the operational commands to be successful," Collyar said. "As the Life Cycle Management Command, we are part of the weapon systems that will, ultimately, transfer to the Army. So, we work together with the program executive officers and their project managers through the design, fielding and sustainment phases. What's really important here is that the reliability and capability of those systems relies on logisticians."
Foreign Military Sales, or FMS, aspects are also a key focus area.
"FMS keeps our costs downs and prepares us to be able to upgrade systems," Collyar said. "The Army is the biggest user of space-based assets; about 60 percent is the actual measure for Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance and other mission command functions."
Being prepared is crucial.
Key readiness drivers for supported systems need to be in place when needed.
"Put simply, we have to be able to push supplies forward through an Anti-Access/Area Denial system," Collyar said. "Therefore, we continue to pre-position supplies and stocks around the world, so that we can continue to have valid, prioritized requirements in place."
Even in peacetime, AMCOM requires all of its customers to have access to the systems the command manages.
"We rely on our shared networks for a product to be purchased and a service to be provided," Collyar said. "We have to be able to work through - and in - an Anti-Access/Area Denial area."
Friday, February 28, 2014
Tuesday, February 25, 2014
Syria War Stirs New U.S. Debate on Cyberattacks - NYTimes.com
Syria War Stirs New U.S. Debate on Cyberattacks - NYTimes.com: The Obama administration has been engaged in a largely secret debate about whether cyberarms should be used like ordinary weapons, whether they should be rarely used covert tools or whether they ought to be reserved for extraordinarily rare use against the most sophisticated, hard-to-reach targets. And looming over the issue is the question of retaliation: whether such an attack on Syria’s air power, its electric grid or its leadership would prompt Syrian, Iranian or Russian retaliation in the United States.
It is a question Mr. Obama has never spoken about publicly. Because he has put the use of such weapons largely into the hands of the N.S.A., which operates under the laws guiding covert action, there is little of the public discussion that accompanied the arguments over nuclear weapons in the 1950s and ’60s or the kind of roiling argument over the use of drones, another classified program that Mr. Obama has begun to discuss publicly only in the past 18 months.
But to many inside the administration, who insisted on anonymity when speaking about discussions over one of America’s most highly classified abilities, Syria puts the issue back on the table. Mr. Obama’s National Security Council met Thursday to explore what one official called “old and new options.”
It is a question Mr. Obama has never spoken about publicly. Because he has put the use of such weapons largely into the hands of the N.S.A., which operates under the laws guiding covert action, there is little of the public discussion that accompanied the arguments over nuclear weapons in the 1950s and ’60s or the kind of roiling argument over the use of drones, another classified program that Mr. Obama has begun to discuss publicly only in the past 18 months.
But to many inside the administration, who insisted on anonymity when speaking about discussions over one of America’s most highly classified abilities, Syria puts the issue back on the table. Mr. Obama’s National Security Council met Thursday to explore what one official called “old and new options.”
Wary Stance From Obama on Ukraine - NYTimes.com
Wary Stance From Obama on Ukraine - NYTimes.com
Rather than an opportunity to spread freedom in a part of the world long plagued by corruption and oppression, Mr. Obama sees Ukraine’s crisis as a problem to be managed, ideally with a minimum of violence or geopolitical upheaval. While certainly sympathetic to the pro-Western protesters who pushed out President Viktor F. Yanukovych and hopeful that they can establish a representatively elected government, Mr. Obama has not made global aspirations of democracy the animating force of his presidency.
“I just think this president is not going to lean forward on his skis with regard to democracy promotion,” said John Lewis Gaddis, a Yale University historian who advised the Bush White House as speechwriters worked on the former president’s January 2005 inaugural address promising to combat tyranny abroad. “If anything, he’s going to lean back and let natural forces take us there, if they do.”
Mr. Obama’s handling of Ukraine reflects a broader “policy of restraint,” as Mr. Gaddis termed it, keeping the United States out of crises like Syria, minimizing its involvement in places like Libya, and getting out of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It reflects, he said, not only fundamental differences between the presidents but an underlying weariness on the part of the American public after more than a dozen years of war.
Turned off by what he saw as Mr. Bush’s crusading streak and seared by the dashed hopes of the Arab Spring, Mr. Obama, aides said, was wary of being proactive in trying to change other societies, convinced that being too public would make the United States the issue and risk provoking a backlash. The difference, aides said, was not the goal but the methods of achieving it.
“These democratic movements will be more sustainable if they are seen as not an extension of America or any other country, but coming from within these societies,” said Benjamin J. Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser. “For the longer term, it is better to let the people within the country be the strongest voice while also ensuring that at the appropriate times you are weighing in publicly and privately.”
To some critics, though, that justifies a policy of passivity that undercuts core American values.
Monday, February 24, 2014
Shyu outlines strategy for modernization at AUSA | Article | The United States Army
Shyu outlines strategy for modernization at AUSA | Article | The United States Army
To prepare the Army for tomorrow, the seeds must be planted today, according to Heidi Shyu, assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology.
"We're navigating a very challenging period for our Army - the drawdown forces are occurring during a period of dramatic fiscal constraint and budget pressure," Shyu said. "We're leveraging this period to make the best investments possible, planting the seeds that will secure the Army of the future. Our predecessors faced similar challenges following previous conflicts. It's now our time. Our goal is to provide our Soldiers the best capability possible. They deserve nothing less."
Shyu addressed attendees of the Association of the United States Army's Winter Symposium and Exposition in Huntsville, Feb. 19, on the topic of Army modernization in a constrained fiscal environment, which included the "strategy on leveraging the current drawdown to plant the seeds for the Army of the future."
Shyu likened the Army's strategy to a five-layer pyramid, starting with divestment as the base, followed by reset and sustainment, modernization of existing platforms, development of new capabilities and science and technology, a "focus on the development of next generation breakthrough technologies that define the Army of the future."
Finding the right way to allocate dollars to that strategy will be a challenge for Army leaders. Historically, defense spending increases during wartime, as evidenced by the Vietnam era when it peaked at 49 percent of the federal budget, and 30 percent during the Cold War. In correlation, as wartime draws down, so does the defense budget. Falling 51 percent following the Korean War, according to Shyu, and 25 percent after the Vietnam War, by 1999, after the collapse of the Soviet Union and successful completion of Desert Storm, defense spending accounted for only 17 percent of the federal budget.
"As we drawdown in Afghanistan, we can expect our budget to continue to decline," Shyu said.
Within Research, Development and Acquisition, that decline translates to a budget loss of $10 billion for this fiscal year, Shyu said. Of all the portfolios that comprise RDA, three account for more than half of the budget -- aviation, mission command and ground systems.
"Budget pressures mean that the squeeze will be felt harder in these larger portfolios. We have had to make difficult decisions about our priorities," Shyu said.
But while the budget declines -- since the height of fiscal year 2010 it has already seen a 21 percent drop -- Army readiness must not, Shyu said.
Pointing to the end of the Vietnam era as an example, Shyu referenced the Abrams tank, Bradley fighting vehicle, Black Hawk utility helicopter and Apache attack helicopter, which all saw an initial investment following the Vietnam War during a similar time of budget decline. All became key to the Army's victory during Operation Desert Storm years later.
"There's a saying that the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago," Shyu said. "The second best time is today. Come to the next contingency, we realized that the best time for us to have planted our seed was at the end of the last conflict, and that's exactly where we are today, at the tail end of conflict. We're in a period of planting seeds that will sprout for the next contingency, wherever it may be."
To prepare the Army for tomorrow, the seeds must be planted today, according to Heidi Shyu, assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology.
"We're navigating a very challenging period for our Army - the drawdown forces are occurring during a period of dramatic fiscal constraint and budget pressure," Shyu said. "We're leveraging this period to make the best investments possible, planting the seeds that will secure the Army of the future. Our predecessors faced similar challenges following previous conflicts. It's now our time. Our goal is to provide our Soldiers the best capability possible. They deserve nothing less."
Shyu addressed attendees of the Association of the United States Army's Winter Symposium and Exposition in Huntsville, Feb. 19, on the topic of Army modernization in a constrained fiscal environment, which included the "strategy on leveraging the current drawdown to plant the seeds for the Army of the future."
Shyu likened the Army's strategy to a five-layer pyramid, starting with divestment as the base, followed by reset and sustainment, modernization of existing platforms, development of new capabilities and science and technology, a "focus on the development of next generation breakthrough technologies that define the Army of the future."
Finding the right way to allocate dollars to that strategy will be a challenge for Army leaders. Historically, defense spending increases during wartime, as evidenced by the Vietnam era when it peaked at 49 percent of the federal budget, and 30 percent during the Cold War. In correlation, as wartime draws down, so does the defense budget. Falling 51 percent following the Korean War, according to Shyu, and 25 percent after the Vietnam War, by 1999, after the collapse of the Soviet Union and successful completion of Desert Storm, defense spending accounted for only 17 percent of the federal budget.
"As we drawdown in Afghanistan, we can expect our budget to continue to decline," Shyu said.
Within Research, Development and Acquisition, that decline translates to a budget loss of $10 billion for this fiscal year, Shyu said. Of all the portfolios that comprise RDA, three account for more than half of the budget -- aviation, mission command and ground systems.
"Budget pressures mean that the squeeze will be felt harder in these larger portfolios. We have had to make difficult decisions about our priorities," Shyu said.
But while the budget declines -- since the height of fiscal year 2010 it has already seen a 21 percent drop -- Army readiness must not, Shyu said.
Pointing to the end of the Vietnam era as an example, Shyu referenced the Abrams tank, Bradley fighting vehicle, Black Hawk utility helicopter and Apache attack helicopter, which all saw an initial investment following the Vietnam War during a similar time of budget decline. All became key to the Army's victory during Operation Desert Storm years later.
"There's a saying that the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago," Shyu said. "The second best time is today. Come to the next contingency, we realized that the best time for us to have planted our seed was at the end of the last conflict, and that's exactly where we are today, at the tail end of conflict. We're in a period of planting seeds that will sprout for the next contingency, wherever it may be."
Saturday, February 22, 2014
Test Flight of the Modernized Day Sensor Assembly on the AH-64E Apache Attack Helicopter
Test Flight of the Modernized Day Sensor Assembly on the AH-64E Apache Attack Helicopter: Team Apache Sensors, including the U.S. Army Apache Attack Helicopter Project Management Office, the U.S. Army Aviation Flight Test Directorate and Lockheed Martin, conducted a test flight of the Apache AH-64E Modernized Day Sensor Assembly (M-DSA) during an event at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Ala., yesterday.
The test flight demonstrated the maturity of M-DSA and the enhanced capabilities it brings to the Modernized Target Acquisition Designation Sight/Pilot Night Vision Sensor (M-TADS/PNVS), the precision targeting and pilotage system for the AH-64D/E Apache helicopter.
"We are looking forward to the reliability and maintainability improvements that this laser will bring to the M-TADS system," said Lt. Col. Steven Van Riper, U.S. Army Apache Sensors Product Manager. "This system will help to further reduce the burden on our aircrews, and they will be able to reap the benefits of the performance improvements."
M-DSA increases M-TADS/PNVS designation and ranging capabilities to fully accommodate current weapons and those planned for the future. The upgraded sensor enables Apache pilots to see high-resolution, high-definition near infrared and color imagery on cockpit displays.
An additional field of view allows image blending with the M-TADS forward-looking infrared, and enables pilots to see civilian and military lighting on a single display more clearly.
The test flight demonstrated the maturity of M-DSA and the enhanced capabilities it brings to the Modernized Target Acquisition Designation Sight/Pilot Night Vision Sensor (M-TADS/PNVS), the precision targeting and pilotage system for the AH-64D/E Apache helicopter.
"We are looking forward to the reliability and maintainability improvements that this laser will bring to the M-TADS system," said Lt. Col. Steven Van Riper, U.S. Army Apache Sensors Product Manager. "This system will help to further reduce the burden on our aircrews, and they will be able to reap the benefits of the performance improvements."
M-DSA increases M-TADS/PNVS designation and ranging capabilities to fully accommodate current weapons and those planned for the future. The upgraded sensor enables Apache pilots to see high-resolution, high-definition near infrared and color imagery on cockpit displays.
An additional field of view allows image blending with the M-TADS forward-looking infrared, and enables pilots to see civilian and military lighting on a single display more clearly.
US Navy Tests Infrared Search and Track on Boeing Super Hornet
US Navy Tests Infrared Search and Track on Boeing Super Hornet: The U.S. Navy recently tested, for the first time on a Boeing [NYSE: BA] F/A-18 Super Hornet aircraft, the Infrared Search and Track (IRST) sensor that will find hard-to-detect targets over long distances.
Boeing and Lockheed Martin are developing and integrating IRST, an essential upgrade to the combat capability of the Navy's Super Hornets.
"Adding an advanced infrared sensor to the Super Hornet broadens the Navy's warfighting ability," Navy F/A-18 Program Manager Capt. Frank Morley said.
"Combined with the Super Hornet's advanced radar and the Growler's electronic attack radar jamming ability, IRST will allow the fleet to dominate the skies in all threat environments."
"We continually evolve the aircraft to outpace future adversaries," says Tim Adrian, IRST F/A-18 program manager.
"When radar isn't an option, this upgrade allows operators to locate targets and deploy the best weapon for the mission."
Boeing and Lockheed Martin are developing and integrating IRST, an essential upgrade to the combat capability of the Navy's Super Hornets.
"Adding an advanced infrared sensor to the Super Hornet broadens the Navy's warfighting ability," Navy F/A-18 Program Manager Capt. Frank Morley said.
"Combined with the Super Hornet's advanced radar and the Growler's electronic attack radar jamming ability, IRST will allow the fleet to dominate the skies in all threat environments."
"We continually evolve the aircraft to outpace future adversaries," says Tim Adrian, IRST F/A-18 program manager.
"When radar isn't an option, this upgrade allows operators to locate targets and deploy the best weapon for the mission."
Raytheon demonstrates Griffin Block III missile
Raytheon demonstrates Griffin Block III missile: Raytheon demonstrated its latest variant of the combat-proven Griffin missile, the Griffin Block III, throughout a series of test shots culminating in several direct hits against a variety of static and moving targets.
"The Griffin is already well known for its ability to destroy targets with pin-point accuracy using an advanced GPS and semi-active laser guidance. The Griffin Block III introduces an improved semi-active laser seeker and a new Multi-Effects Warhead System that maximizes the weapon's lethality against a variety of targets," said Mike Jarrett, vice president of Air Warfare Systems with Raytheon Missile Systems.
"Block III's enhancements will improve the warfighter's ability to engage a broad set of static and fast-moving targets with assured confidence and greater performance."
The Griffin missile's new seeker adds enhanced electronics and signal processing to improve performance in the most challenging scenarios and expands the employment footprint. Production of the Griffin Block III missile is currently underway and the company expects it to serve as the core weapon for current and future Griffin users.
"The Griffin is already well known for its ability to destroy targets with pin-point accuracy using an advanced GPS and semi-active laser guidance. The Griffin Block III introduces an improved semi-active laser seeker and a new Multi-Effects Warhead System that maximizes the weapon's lethality against a variety of targets," said Mike Jarrett, vice president of Air Warfare Systems with Raytheon Missile Systems.
"Block III's enhancements will improve the warfighter's ability to engage a broad set of static and fast-moving targets with assured confidence and greater performance."
The Griffin missile's new seeker adds enhanced electronics and signal processing to improve performance in the most challenging scenarios and expands the employment footprint. Production of the Griffin Block III missile is currently underway and the company expects it to serve as the core weapon for current and future Griffin users.
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