The project is linked to the $9.6 billion jet procurement contract reached between Finland’s MOD and the American company Lockheed Martin in February 2022. The deal covers the delivery of 64 F-35s to the Finnish Air Force.

The building of the aircraft assembly facility forms part of the contract’s so-called stage one industrial component. The umbrella project required the signing of a lease for a suitable assembly plant development site. This was found near the town of Nokia. The site lease was signed in January between the Finnish Defence Forces and Defence Properties Finland, the state organization tasked with managing properties and assets owned by Finland’s defense administration.

Construction work on the engine assembly building is slated to commence during the second half of 2024. Under the terms of the industrial deal struck between Finland and Lockheed Martin, engine maintenance at the facility in Nokia will continue throughout the entire life cycle of the Air Force’s F-35 fleet.

“Industrial cooperation tied to the F-35 agreement will generate critical maintenance and repair expertise for Finland’s indigenous defense industry. This includes performance areas like reliability of maintenance. The agreement will also create significant know-how in Finland for F-35 engine assembly and testing,” Defence Minister Antti Häkkänen said.

The assembly plant will operate in close collaboration with the regional aircraft hub in Tampere run by Patria’s aviation division. An estimated 100 personnel will work in various assembly roles at the facility.

The government owns 50.1% of Patria, and the Norwegian company Kongsberg controls the remainder. Patria itself owns half of the Norwegian defense contractor Nammo.

The F-35s are set to replace the Air Force’s ageing McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet jets. These planes are scheduled to retire by 2030. The first batch of the F-35s on order are due for delivery and then deployment to Arctic air bases in Finland’s Lapland region by 2026.

The industrial cooperation component of the F-35 acquisition deal is expected to be scaled up in stages by 2030. The broadening of the industrial agreement may include the production or assembly in Finland of certain parts and systems used in the aircraft.

The Air Force has already tested the F-35′s suitability and adaptability to operate in extreme weather conditions, especially in Arctic areas of Finland during the country’s long winters that feature limited daylight.

In recent exercises, the service routinely used stretches of “closed highway” in Arctic and sub-Arctic regions as temporary airstrips. The Air Force is currently running such maneuvers as part of the weeklong Hanki drills in the north of the country, which are to continue until March 2.

The 74-page whitepaper, which the service unveiled during its annual symposium this week and which builds on a similar document published four years ago, details planned procurements out to 2037.

“The Air Force is aware of [the importance of] long-term development planning and spending of the national budget to achieve maximum value,” said the service’s commander, Air Chief Marshal Panpakdee Pattanakul.

Indeed, part of the whitepaper’s raison d’être is to stake claims for long-term funding as its aircraft inventories age. For instance, the 2020 version stated the fighter fleet had an average age of 26 years, a figure that continues to increase.

But the government’s procurement process is disjointed, according to Greg Raymond, an expert in Asia-Pacific affairs at the Australian National University. He cited factors like political instability, inadequate strategic planning, annual rather than multiyear budgeting measures, and weak civil oversight that allows each armed service to makes its own decisions.

In the latest whitepaper, the Air Force gives priority to a medium-range air defense system possessing a minimum 30-nautical-mile range from fiscal 2025 to fiscal 2028. Afterward, from FY33 to FY37, the service plans to carry out a second phase for a medium- or long-range air defense system.

From FY28 to FY32, the force plans to buy a short-range air defense system boasting gun-, missile and laser-based weapons. Credence is given to counter-drone systems, too, and a nine-year project to procure these is to commence in 2025.

The service is also eyeing 12-14 new fighters to replace the F-16 jets of 102 Squadron based at Korat. The procurement is scheduled to take place from FY25 to FY34, two years later than originally planned. The squadron’s F-16s from the late 1980s are to retire by 2028.

Two contenders have emerged for the aircraft requirement: Lockheed Martin’s F-16 Block 70/72 and Saab’s Gripen.

“We’re confident the F-16 Block 70/72 will complement the RTAF’s existing F-16 fleet and deliver the advanced 21st century security capabilities and performance needed to address Thailand’s most pressing defense requirements,” a Lockheed spokesperson told Defense News.

Thailand ordered its first Gripen C/D fighters in 2008. Following a January 2021 contract, the aircraft were upgraded to what the manufacturer calls the MS20 configuration.

Robert Björklund, who markets the Gripen to Thailand for Saab, told Defense News the existing fleet is integrated into the Saab-supplied Link T data system and that the aircraft provides its user with “a very wide range of weapon options, including its highly effective RBS15 anti-ship missile.”

A second fighter replacement project for 12-14 aircraft is slated for FY31 to FY35 to replace F-5E/F jets of 211 Squadron at Ubon that are to retire around the end of the decade. An identical number of fighters are needed to replace F-16A/Bs of 403 Squadron at Takhli from FY37 to FY46.

Thailand tries to maintain relations with several competing nations, including the United States, China, Russia and India, the whitepaper noted. Thailand previously purchase materiel from China, such as armored vehicles, air defense systems and a submarine.

Asked whether the Royal Thai Air Force would consider buying a Chinese fighter like the J-10CE, Raymond said the service values its relationship with the U.S. and likeminded allies too much to do so. He noted that Thai-U.S. relations have “largely stabilized,” despite the latter denying the former’s request to buy F-35A jets last year.

“They wouldn’t want to see themselves placed on the outer [circle] in terms of not getting invitations to things like [exercise] Pitch Black in Australia. I tend to think they’d be perhaps more careful about getting Chinese aircraft than the Thai Navy was about getting a submarine,” he said.

The whitepaper also detailed an effort starting this year to refurbish C-130H Hercules transport aircraft. The 2020 version recommended the service buy 12 replacements, but that idea was dropped.

As for pilot training, last year’s delivery of 12 T-6TH trainers allowed the Air Force to retire its Pilatus PC-9 fleet last month. New Zealand-built CT-4E trainers are to retire in 2031, so basic trainers will be needed from FY33. New lead-in fighter trainers are also sought from FY25, with Thailand already operating the South Korean T-50TH in this role.

The new whitepaper also emphasized unmanned technologies. One effort underway is the Thai-developed M Solar X solar-powered drone. Loitering munitions are also schedule for purchase by 2026, as are medium combat drones from FY26 to FY29 and high-altitude pseudo-satellites from FY24 to FY35.

The Air Force also mentioned procurement programs for micro- and nano-drone swarms from FY26, and a research and development effort for weaponized tactical drones from FY29.

And two Saab 340B Erieye airborne early warning aircraft are to receive enhanced command-and-control capabilities, with their dorsal-mounted radars to be replaced. This would take place from FY26 to FY29.

The government’s FY24 defense budget bill calls for a 198 billion baht (U.S. $5.5 billion) fund, of which $1 billion is for the Air Force. The service has already applied for an allocation of approximately $530 million for a first batch of four fighters.

The U.S. and Italian firms signed a memorandum of understanding to “evaluate cooperation opportunities in the tiltrotor technology domain,” they said in a statement Thursday.

That cooperation will get underway in earnest with a NATO Next Generation Rotorcraft Capability concept study, where Leonardo will take the lead on a tiltrotor architecture proposal with Textron’s Bell in support, the firms said.

The agreement follows a long partnership between the firms on the BA609 tiltrotor program, which ended in 2011 when Bell pulled out, leaving Leonardo — then known as Finmeccanica — to push on with the effort.

Bell went on to win the U.S. Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft program in 2022 with its V-280 tiltrotor, while Leonardo has kept faith with the BA609, now known as the AW609, albeit moving slowly with development. Officials have cited the lack of government development cash as a reason.

With a target of 2025 for certification for its tiltrotor, Leonardo officials were less than enthusiastic when the Italian Air Force encouraged them to team with Lockheed Martin and Boeing on their Defiant-X coaxial rotor helicopter.

When the Defiant was beaten out in the FLRAA competition by Bell’s tiltrotor, Leonardo officials felt vindicated in sticking with tiltrotor technology.

”Now we are the only European company with a tiltrotor close to certification, primarily for civil application but which can be converted to military applications,” said Leonardo CEO Roberto Cingolani on Thursday.

Cingolani was speaking during a presentation of Leonardo’s preliminary results for 2023, which showed it delivered 185 helicopters during the year, up from 149 in 2022. Electronics orders were up by 15.9%, buoyed by orders from the U.K. for new MK2 radars for its Eurofighters.

Leonardo’s U.S. unit DRS saw revenues rise 4.9% to $2.8 billion. Overall group revenue rose 3.9% to €15.3 billion (U.S. $16.5 billion).

At the presentation, Cingolani said talks were back on with German electronics firm Hensoldt about a joint venture. Leonardo purchased a 25.1% stake in the firm in 2021, but declined to participate in a capital increase in December and saw its stake in the firm drop to 22.8%, prompting suggestions its interest in the tie-up was fading.

”We didn’t participate in the capital increase because the German government and the previous top management of Hensoldt didn’t say clearly whether the possibility of a Leonardo-Hensoldt alliance or joint venture was still open,” said Cingolani.

“A few weeks ago the new CEO of Hensoldt came to Rome, and we had a long and constructive discussion and he told me they are reconsidering a joint venture,” Cingolani added. “Now we are studying what we can do together.”

A full-year continuing resolution that would keep fiscal 2023 spending levels through the rest of 2024 means the U.S. Army, for instance, would run out of operations and maintenance funding in the European theater as it trains Ukrainian soldiers to defend against Russia’s ongoing invasion of the country, which has entered its third year.

The financial strain is compounded by the lack of certainty over whether Congress will pass a supplemental funding package that would reimburse the Army for expenses incurred so far in bankrolling support to Ukraine.

The Army already spent $500 million in the European theater in operations and maintenance, and “we were counting on a supplemental to be able to sort of replenish us for that,” Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said at a Feb. 27 Defense Writers Group event. “What that means is probably by late spring, summer, we would have to make some difficult choices about other [NATO] exercises, for example, that our forces participate in.”

Additionally, the Army has been funding support to Israel to include deployments of units to the Middle East in the event they are needed, she added.

Army Under Secretary Gabe Camarillo told reporters Feb. 28 at the Pentagon that the service spent $100 million in U.S. Central Command’s area of operations as well as another $500 million to support the U.S. Southwest border security mission.

“I do worry. Our budget has been flat for the last couple years. We don’t have a lot of cash under the sofa cushions, and if we don’t get a budget and we don’t get a supplemental, we’re going to probably have to cancel some things,” Wormuth said.

The Army is prioritizing current operations, Camarillo said, which means it is “going to have to look to other areas of O&M spending where they “can potentially take some risk,” including “exercises and the degree to which we participate in some around the globe. We might have to scale some of that back in the absence of an appropriation this year.”

For the Air Force, Kristyn Jones, who is performing the duties of the service’s undersecretary, told reporters alongside Camarillo that in order to pay its personnel, training exercises would take the hit.

“Anything that’s already on a [Foreign Military Sales] case won’t have a dramatic impact, but all of the replenishment that we’re expecting in the supplemental is currently impacted. And even things like F-35 [fighter jet] training that we’re planning … with our allies and partners, that’s impacted by not having this appropriation as well.”

The Air Force is focused on trying to ensure flight hours are maintained, but it’s also important, Jones noted, that pilots receive training.

Despite the military’s experience in warfare, “we’re in a different strategic environment and we need to do the exercises, often joint and allied, to prepare for that environment. And the lack of our ability to do that doesn’t allow us to, again, to test the new techniques, the new military tactics that we’d like to have primarily for an Indo-Pacific fight,” Jones said. “That’s really where we need to stretch our muscles a little bit more.”

Learning from sequestration

With a possible extended or full-year continuing resolution, the service undersecretaries said the last time the military felt such a painful budget crunch was during the 2013 sequestration, where the services were required by law to make percentage cuts evenly across spending lines.

One of the fallouts of the 2013 sequestration was a rise in aviation mishaps because vital training flight hours were cut. Military Times and Defense News took a deep dive into aviation mishaps from FY11 through FY18 and uncovered the trend.

“Safety is always going to come first,” said Navy Under Secretary Erik Raven, “but we did look at the lessons of 2013 and sequestration, where we spread risk around the enterprise, and I think the concerns about maintaining ready and trained forces are part of the lessons that we’re using to inform if we get into this worst-case scenario where we don’t have our ’24 budget enacted and we are under a CR.”

“We’re not going to repeat that same peanut butter spread,” he added.

But trade-offs will be inevitable, he acknowledged, and “we’ll have to look across the board to see how to maintain the focus on current operations.”

CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand — The Indian government is closer to buying a multibillion-dollar package of cruise missiles, air defense weapons, surveillance radars and fighter jet engines following approval from the country’s highest decision-making body on security affairs.

At a Feb. 21 meeting, the Cabinet Committee on Security approved the four procurement projects cumulatively worth about 350 billion rupees (U.S. $4 billion).

According to local media reports quoting government sources, the approved items were BrahMos cruise missiles for the Navy, air defense guns for the Army, ground-based air surveillance radars and new engines for the Air Force’s MiG-29 fighters.

Approval by the committee, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi chairs, is a necessary step along the Defence Ministry’s contractual pathway.

Local media reported the BrahMos missile deal would be signed in March. The consolidated contract would include some 220 weapons to arm Indian frigates and destroyers — the largest-ever individual BrahMos order for India.

The contract will reportedly involve a mix of standard 290-kilometer-range (180-mile-range) and extended 450-kilometer-range (280-mile-range) BrahMos missiles, of which 75% is locally made.

“The BrahMos is expected to considerably enhance the potential for surface-to-surface attacks by Indian Navy ships, especially with extended-range missiles,” Rahul Bhonsle, a director of the New Delhi-based consultancy Security Risks Asia, told Defense News.

India is also exporting BrahMos missiles to the Philippines under a deal worth about $375 million signed in January 2022. Atul Rane, who leads the missile manufacturer BrahMos Aerospace, said last year the company has set a goal of exporting $5 billion worth of BrahMos weapons by 2025.

The committee also approved the purchase of Sudarshan air defense systems from private firm Larsen & Toubro — an acquisition worth approximately $844 million. The Army would use the systems, which feature radars and 40mm guns, to protect its installations and the country’s border areas.

The Sudarshan approval followed an October 2022 request for procurement seeking 141,576 ammunition rounds to accompany 220 guns, including pre-fragmented, programmable proximity fuses and smart rounds.

The Sudarshan is also competing in an Air Force competition for 244 close-in weapon systems.

“Air defense guns have assumed importance because of the overall weak air and missile defense profile with dated equipment, with the Indian Army in particular, and the add-on threat from drones,” Bhonsle explained.

The Indian Army relies on antiquated Bofors L/70 and ZU-23-2B towed guns, and their replacement has become urgent given the emerging threat of drones and loitering munitions.

Larsen & Toubro is also set to provide the air surveillance radars, worth about $723 million. India is prioritizing better radar coverage of its northern and western borders to guard against Chinese and Pakistani aircraft, respectively. Augmenting the existing radar network in phases, the Air Force will operate the new indigenous sensors.

And Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. is to manufacture new RD-33MK engines for MiG-29 fighters in collaboration with Russia, with the project worth about $639 million.

These projects underscore India’s attempts to maximize indigenous input. The Make in India economic policy seems to be gaining groud, Bhonsle said.

“However, it should be noted there is also considerable foreign collaboration involved in many of the projects, as up to 50% or more is permissible under existing rules for acquisition,” Bhonsle added.

Troops fired the XM7 rifle and XM250 automatic rifle, part of the Next Generation Squad Weapon program, at the Cold Regions Test Center at Fort Greeley, Alaska, according to an Army release.

That testing began in late January and ran through Feb. 9.

The XM7 rifle will replace the M4 carbine while the XM250 automatic rifle will replace the M249 Squad Automatic Weapon. Both are chambered in 6.8mm and slated for the close combat forces such as infantry, special operations, scouts, combat engineers, combat medics and forward observers.

The 6.8mm round intermediate caliber round is the first of its kind for U.S. forces and provides users a heavier round that can have lethal effects at greater distances and punch through barriers that stop the standard issue 5.56mm round, which is the caliber of the M4 and SAW.

Both weapons come with an advanced fire control, dubbed the XM157, that houses a ballistics computer to help shooters compensate for bullet drop and distance.

In 2022 the Army chose Sig Sauer to build the two weapons and produce the 6.8mm ammunition until the service upgrades the Lake City Army Ammunition Plant with a production line devoted exclusively to 6.8mm.

The same year the service chose Vortex Optics/Sheltered Wings to provide the XM157 fire control.

The 10-year weapons contract has a ceiling value of $4.5 billion, XM157 fire control cost ceiling is set at $2.7 billion, Army Times previously reported.

The M4 and SAW are expected to remain the primary small arms of non-close combat forces for the coming decades. Once fielded, the XM7 and XM250 will drop the “X” designator.

A platoon with the 101st Airborne Division conducted limited user tests of the rifle, carbine and optic in November. A not-yet-identified platoon with the 101st will officially field the weapon in September, Army Times previously reported.

Staff with the Army’s Cross Functional Team-Soldier Lethality, Program Executive Office-Soldier and the Joint Program Executive Office Armaments and Ammunitions worked with soldiers at the Alaska testing center to evaluate the weapon’s performance in extreme cold weather.

“Extreme cold can affect the weapon’s functionality, of course, but it also hinders a Soldier’s movement and mobility,” said Maj. Brandon Davis, a member of the SL CFT operations team. “So which sling does he prefer in these conditions? Can he or she effectively manipulate the widgets on the weapon wearing gloves? We’re getting after every aspect of how the NGSW impacts lethality and mobility under extreme conditions.”

The service has scheduled testing for the NGSW in extreme heat and humidity later this year, according to the release.

Anduril, serving as the prime contractor, plans to deliver “a modified, autonomy-ready Uncrewed Ground Vehicle (UGV) based on Hanwha’s proven Arion-SMET platform, which has already demonstrated its performance in highly-relevant and varied environments in the Indo-Pacific, including the latest Foreign Comparative Testing with the U.S. Army and Marine Corps in Hawaii,” the companies said in a Feb. 29 statement.

The Army chose General Dynamics Land Systems’ Multi-Utility Tactical Transport, or MUTT, for its SMET unmanned ground system in a first increment of the program. The $162.4 million contract, awarded in October 2019, would wrap up at the end of October 2024. GDLS won another follow-on contract in 2020.

Now the service has opened bids for the second increment of the program intended to carry gear and light payloads to decrease the burden to soldiers in the field. The Army is pursuing two major robotic combat vehicle platforms simultaneously: the Robotic Combat Vehicle meant to fight alongside Stryker and Bradley vehicles, and the SMET, which is likely to accompany lighter formations.

Anduril and the U.S. arm of South Korean defense firm Hanwha will also be working with Forterra, formerly RRAI, to incorporate its AutoDrive vehicle autonomy solution “to enable complex on and off-road maneuvers,” the statement reads.

“By combining Anduril’s electronics and software, Hanwha Defense USA’s proven hardware, and Forterra’s proven off-road vehicle autonomy stack, the partnership will bring speed, flexibility, and advanced capabilities to dismounted infantry,” Zach Mears, head of strategy at Anduril, said in the statement. “With a simplified user interface powered by Lattice, users will be able to quickly and easily command and control the S-MET to support lethal effects at the tactical edge.”

Lattice is Anduril’s software originally designed to counter drones and other threats, but has wider applicability for sharing battlefield information and data at a tactical level. Anduril is also teamed with American Rheinmetall Vehicles in the XM30 Mechanized Infantry Combat Vehicle competition underway to eventually replace the Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicle, bringing its Lattice capability to that effort as well.

The capability, Anduril states, will allow soldiers to operate the vehicle, manage payloads and communicate simultaneously in “complex environments.”

The team is focused on load-carrying, power generation capacity, reduced sustainment, survivability and a modular architecture for a wide array of payloads, the release details.

The robotic vehicle will have a low acoustic signature, “ensuring that it serves as an asset, not liability on the modern battlefield,” the statement adds.

Other expected competitors are Teledyne FLIR, GDLS, Rheinmetall, with teammate ST Engineering, and HDT.

Teledyne FLIR announced its bid in October at the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual conference.

The Army has tightly held details on the competition such as the timeline for evaluating and choosing winners and what comes after and has not posted any solicitations on the public domain for federal contract opportunities, Sam.gov.

The service is focused on rigorous experimentation with robots and emerging technology to develop integrated fighting formations of both humans and robots. The Army calls it “human-machine integration” and is evaluating exactly how robotic technologies can be coupled with the best of what humans can bring to the table on the battlefield.

The document’s release on Tuesday comes as the Army continues transitioning from counterinsurgency missions to large-scale combat operations against technologically advanced adversaries, Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said at a Feb. 27 event in Washington hosted by the Defense Writers Group.

Force structure changes are also necessary, she said, because the Army is working through a massive modernization effort involving a wide variety of new capabilities coming online now and over the next two decades.

“What we’ve done through the force structure changes is make room for some of the new formations,” she said, adding this equates to 7,500 new spaces for soldiers to go.

At the same time, the service’s recruiting challenges have left it with a “hollow force structure,” Wormuth said, “so we needed to basically reduce 32,000 spaces to both shrink over-structure and make room for that 7,500 [spaces] of new structure.”

The Army’s current authorized force structure is 445,000 active duty soldiers, but the service was designed for 494,000. The new force structure is meant to bridge the gap, bringing troop levels to approximately 470,000 soldiers by fiscal 2029.

Wormuth told Defense News in an interview last fall that the Army was preparing to go to Capitol Hill to address some vital changes that would include both reductions from the counterinsurgency-related structure and high-tech additions to the force’s inventory. The planned force structure would focus more on operations at the corps and division levels, and less on brigade combat teams.

“By bringing force structure and end strength into closer alignment, the Army will ensure its formations are filled at the appropriate level to maintain a high state of readiness,” the Army’s whitepaper stated. “At the same time, the Army will continue to transform its recruiting efforts so that it can build back its end strength, which is needed to provide strategic flexibility, reduce strain on frequently deploying soldiers, and add new capabilities to the force.”

What’s in?

Some major elements of the new force structure will include building out the Army’s five theater-level multidomain task forces, or MDTF.

The Army has already established three MDTFs: two in the Indo-Pacific theater and one in the European theater. The service plans to set up another dedicated to the Pacific region, and yet another that is “service-retained” to likely focus on U.S. Central Command’s area of operation, Wormuth said at the Defense Writers Group event.

The MDTFs will consist of a headquarters and headquarters battalion, a multidomain effects battalion, a long-range fires battalion, an Indirect Fire Protection Capability battalion, and a brigade support battalion, the whitepaper noted.

“As discussions with allied countries progress over time, the Army will likely forward station elements of the MDTFs permanently, such as the multi domain effects and long range fires battalions, to strengthen deterrence,” the document stated.

The Army will also make “significant investments” in structure for integrated air and missile defense at both the corps and division levels to include four additional Indirect Fire Protection Capability battalions that offer defense against rockets, artillery, mortars, drones and cruise missiles at fixed and semi-fixed sites; and four additional Maneuver Short-Range Air Defense battalions.

The document noted that these new and additional formations are “only a representative sample of the Army’s full capability growth.”

What’s out?

Some of the structure that is coming out of the force are spaces authorized but not filled by soldiers. The Army won’t be asking current soldiers to leave, the paper explained.

“The Army looked carefully at each military occupational specialty, and examined each skill set and functional area for efficiencies,” the paper read. For instance, the Army will reallocate engineer assets at the brigade combat team level to the division echelon, “which allows the Army to reduce the overall number of engineer positions while giving division and corps commanders flexibility to concentrate assets as necessary during large scale combat operations.”

The Army reduced almost 10,000 spaces through efficiencies like reallocating engineer assets. The service also reduced 2,700 authorizations based on modeling, the paper stated, to include factors like “demand over time, capacity to meet National Defense Strategy requirements and past deployment stress.”

Some other Army-wide reductions will come from adjustments to close combat forces, according to the paper, to include inactivation of cavalry squadrons in continental U.S.-based Stryker brigade combat teams and infantry brigade combat teams, converting the latter’s weapons companies to platoons and eliminating some positions in the security force assistance brigades “representing a decrement to capacity at minimal risk.”

These reductions equate to another 10,000 spaces, the paper noted.

The Army also observed that its special operations forces had doubled in size over the past 20 years. “The Army conducted extensive analysis examining special operations requirements for large scale combat in multiple theaters and applied additional modeling to understand the requirements for special operators during the campaigning phase of great power competition,” the document stated.

The service concluded the structure there could be reduced by 3,000 spaces. “Specific reductions will be made based on an approach that ensures unique SOF capabilities are retained,” the paper added. “Positions and headquarters elements that are historically vacant or hard to fill will be prioritized for reduction.”

Maj. Gen. Brian Eifler, commander of the Alaska-based 11th Airborne Division, spoke with reporters Monday about the Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center training exercise that took place from Feb. 8 through Feb. 22 across the state.

It’s been three years since the Army started its Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center rotations in Alaska, and Eifler said this was the largest and most complex version of the training so far.

A Mongolian Armed Forces infantry company and 600 Canadian troops, 350 from the 3rd Battalion, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, 165 from the Royal Canadian Air Force and 100 from various support forces, participated alongside U.S. forces. Other partner nations such as Sweden, Finland and South Korea sent forces to work with staff sections of U.S. units.

Another 18 nations sent observers to the exercise, Eifler said of the growing exercise.

Army sketches out plan for an Arctic brigade combat team

The Army released its Arctic Strategy in 2021. In June 2022, the service reactivated the 11th Airborne Division in Alaska to oversee and grow Arctic-focused forces and training to counter increasing militarization of the region by Russian and Chinese military forces.

The 1st Brigade, 11th Airborne Division, served as the “blue force” fighting over the two weeks against two battalions of the 2nd Brigade, 11th Airborne Division, which served as the enemy force.

Both units ran their field operations but were joined by simulated brigades. Eifler and his team were able to fight an entire division in the exercise using simulated forces alongside real soldiers, he said.

The 2nd Brigade was given about five times the number of rockets, artillery and ammunition to battle 1st Brigade. The “enemy” brigade also had air defense, communication jamming and electronic warfare tools.

That extra firepower meant that blue force fire units had to pick their targets wisely, shoot quickly and move rapidly to avoid enemy counterfires, Eifler said.

The enemy air defense challenged the blue force to create attack windows and push realistic approaches to a near-peer adversary that controlled the sky.

A standard airborne or air assault mission would easily be detected in that scenario, he said. Which meant division aviators had to strike first.

“We did a 150-mile deep attach with our Apache division while avoiding air defense emitters that we put out,” Eifler said. “They had to duck and weave over those 150 miles close to the terrain to get to the target and destroy it and get back safely.”

Deep strike

That was the first and longest such deep strike of that distance since the rotations began, Eifler said.

Once the strike had its effect, the blue force brigade flew a more than 80-mile air assault using 15 aircraft, including Chinooks and Black Hawks, he said.

On the ground, soldiers used the five new cold-weather, all-terrain vehicles, or CATV, during the exercise, which Eifler said performed well and allowed soldiers to maneuver over various snow, mud and water-logged terrain. Temperatures fluctuated from -40 degrees Fahrenheit to 40 F

BAE Systems won the $278 million contract to produce the cold-weather, all-terrain vehicle for the Army in 2022. At the time the service planned to purchase 163 of them to replace its decades-old small unit support vehicle.

The cold-weather, all-terrain vehicle is a tracked vehicle that can carry nine soldiers and equipment.

At the same time, 1st Brigade dispatched soldier teams on snowmobiles armed with Javelin missile launchers to navigate off-road and knock out enemy tanks and vehicles.

“One of our standing orders is to stay off the road when you’re fighting in harsh weather because the roads and trails are like the enemy’s engagement areas,” Eifler said. “We’re always saying ‘if your traveling is easy, you’re running into danger. And if it’s very hard and difficult to move you’re winning.’”

In the airwaves, the enemy force jammed digital communications that, at times, forced commanders to dispatch those same CATVs and snowmobiles to hand-deliver orders to battalions and other units.

The unforgiving cold

Eifler stressed that soldiers operating in the Arctic need to simultaneously keep their high-tech gear running but be ready to go “manual or mechanical” to get the job done.

The unforgiving cold can paralyze some systems and drain batteries in minutes, not hours.

As part of the exercise, soldiers used a C-130 cargo plane to fly a high mobility artillery rocket system more than 500 miles to Utqiagvik, Alaska ― a city on the northernmost reaches of the state and above the Arctic Circle.

Eifler’s blue force also had to contend with smaller, but still challenging threats.

The enemy force used small drone swarms of a dozen or fewer drones used to detect unit positions. They even “armed” some of the small drones with tennis balls and Nerf footballs to drop onto locations, showing soldiers they could be hit by ordnance they weren’t tracking.

During the two-week exercise, Eifler said soldiers tested 40 different types of equipment, from communications gear and vehicles to tents, skis and boots.

The two-star said that in the future the force likely will need more snowmobiles for the types of missions used in this exercise as well as casualty evacuation and basic mobility.

Early observations include a need for a better tent system that can fit into a rucksack and improved ski bindings to withstand the extreme cold temperatures, he said.

The milestone — something the Defense Department and the other armed services still have not achieved — comes after almost two decades of trying to prepare the Corps’ records and several failed audits along the way.

During this two-year audit, the Marine Corps had independent third-party auditors from Ernst and Young vet the value of all its assets listed on financial statements. The Corps also had to prove that every single item existed and was where the service said it was.

Gregory Koval, the assistant deputy commandant for resources, told reporters the audit team made more than 70 site visits in the U.S. and around the world. In these visits, they checked more than 7,800 real property assets such as land and buildings; 5,900 pieces of military equipment; 1.9 million pieces of non-ammunition supplies, such as spare parts; and 24 million items of ammunition, some of which are stored at Army and Navy facilities.

If a vehicle wasn’t where it was listed as being because it was out conducting operations, or a piece of ammunition wasn’t there because it had already been shot in a recent exercise, the Corps had to show documentation or photos of that, too, in order to explain discrepancies.

Koval said the final financial report states the Marine Corps passed its audit but still has some areas where it can improve.

Lt. Gen. James Adams, the deputy commandant for programs and resources, said one area of focus is automating processes. Today, there are disparate systems where data must be manually moved from one system to another, introducing the opportunity for error. The service is moving toward integrated, automated systems that would avoid human error in sharing information between human resources and financial data systems, for example.

Adams said that passing the audit now will make all future ones more manageable. This last audit asked a third party to validate the existence and the value of every single thing the Marines own, which required significant historical research, he explained.

Subsequent audits, on the other hand, will be able to assume the past information is correct and therefore only cover “from this point forward,” instead asking Marines to prove information related to that fiscal year’s financial transactions.

Adams said the Corps got close to completing past audits in a single fiscal year, but because of the immense historical research, they couldn’t get the audit completed and over the finish line in a single year. For the fiscal year 2023 audit, the service requested an extension, which could prove to be a model for the other services.

“It was a goal of the commandant of the Marine Corps to pass the audit because he wants to show the credibility of the Marine Corps back to the Congress and the taxpayer,” Ed Gardiner, the assistant deputy commandant for programs and resources, told reporters.

In addition to having more time, this audit also used the military’s new general ledger software, Defense Agencies Initiative, in which auditors had confidence, according to Gardiner.

Gardiner explained the services were, by law, supposed to start financial audits in the 1990s, but the Marine Corps didn’t begin producing statements in preparation for an audit until 2006. The first audit in 2010 showed plenty of room for improvement, he said. In late 2013, the Marines announced they had passed a limited-scope audit for fiscal year 2012 — but in March 2015, a number of financial and oversight leaders reported the results were unreliable and the clean pass would be rescinded.

In 2017, the Marine Corps began conducting full financial statement audits.

The 2023 full financial statement audit was conducted to the highest standards, Gardiner said, with the Ernst and Young team not only being audited themselves by a peer-review team but also by the Pentagon’s inspector general team.

“We’ve been all the way to the end of the process, and we have lessons learned that we can share with the rest of the department,” he said, adding the Marine Corps hopes these lessons “can be an accelerant for the rest of the department.”

Pentagon Comptroller Michael McCord made similar remarks in November 2023, when the Pentagon failed its sixth audit since 2018.

Noting the Marines’ extension, McCord said that “we are very focused on it as a test case for the department and the larger services.”

“Whatever results of that may be when we get the auditor’s final opinion, I want to commend the USMC and, in particular, (Marine Corps Commandant Gen.) Eric Smith for their leadership and effort,” McCord added.

Indeed, both countries have experienced heavy losses in life and materiel during the war, which began when Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. There’s now a growing sense this conflict has reached a stalemate, and that it will likely continue through the year, according to a report released this month by the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

The London-based think tank also recently updated its Military Balance+ database, which assesses the defense capabilities of militaries around the world. The following compares select system types and data points between Russia and Ukraine, based on data from IISS, with footnotes at the bottom of this article. The data is current as of November, meaning it accounts for nearly two years of war.

• Data as of November 2023.
• Armored Fighting Vehicles are armored combat vehicles with a combat weight of at least 6 metric tons.
• Artillery includes guns, howitzers, rocket launchers and mortars with a caliber greater than 100mm for artillery pieces and 80mm and above for mortars, capable of engaging ground targets with indirect fire.
• Surface-to-Surface Missile Launchers are launch vehicles for transporting and firing surface-to-surface ballistic and cruise missiles.
• Air Defense includes guns, directed-energy weapons and surface-to-air missile launchers designed to engage fixed-wing, rotary-wing and unmanned aircraft.

The board brings recommendations to the Joint Requirements Oversight Council, which supervises the development of new capabilities and acquisition efforts, for final approval of program requirements.

The M-SHORAD system’s development took place in record time as the result of an urgent operational need identified in 2016 for the European theater. The Army received the requirement to build the system in February 2018. It took 19 months from the time the service generated the requirement to the delivery of prototypes for testing in the first quarter of 2020.

The first platoon to receive the M-SHORAD, a Stryker combat vehicle-based platform that includes a mission equipment package designed by Leonardo DRS and RTX’s Stinger vehicle missile launcher, deployed to Europe in 2021.

The Army is now fielding its third M-SHORAD battalion at Fort Cavazos, Texas. The first M-SHORAD battalion remains in Germany, and the second is based at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.

“When we look at Increment 1 of M-SHORAD, that initially came out as part of a directed requirement, so we’re following up right now through the requirements process,” Parker told Defense News in a recent interview.

Parker’s team briefed protection capability to the Functional Capabilities Board in December. That organization falls under the purview of the Joint Capabilities Board. Now the JCB will consider the Increment 1 capabilities development document in April, Parker said.

“As we continue to codify those requirements,” he explained, the service is looking closely at sustainment of the capability. Upon completion, “that’s going to really put us in a good place for being able to get this thing fully transitioned and get that capability out to the warfighter.”

Two more variants of M-SHORAD are coming. The Army has concurrently been working on a 50-kilowatt laser weapon version, known as Directed Energy M-SHORAD, and is in the process of holding a competition to bring a new and improved interceptor replacement for the current Stinger missile. DE M-SHORAD is considered the second increment of the program.

The directed-energy variant was originally to become a program of record in 2023, with the possibility of a new competition opening up for vendors to supply alternatives to the current prototype solution from Kord Technologies using a laser developed by Raytheon, an RTX company.

But the Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office, which is spearheading the effort, determined the system would need more time in development. The new plan is to transfer the program to the Program Executive Office Missiles and Space in fiscal 2025.

Parker said the rapid capabilities office continues to work on the technology and wants to keep DE M-SHORAD’s move to a program of record on the same timeline.

The third increment of the program is primarily focused on providing a next-generation Stinger missile and 30mm proximity fuse ammunition, which will help “gain capability within that maneuver SHORAD and over in the counter-[unmanned aircraft systems] space,” Parker said.

The service wants the Stinger missile replacement for SHORAD to be faster, survive jamming and more easily hit tougher targets like drones, the service’s program executive officer for missiles and space, Brig. Gen. Frank Lozano, told Defense News last fall.

In September 2023, the Army awarded RTX and Lockheed Martin with contracts to competitively develop the Stinger replacement. RTX is the provider of the legacy Stinger missile currently used in the Army’s SHORAD capability and also in a man-portable configuration. The Army no longer produces Stinger missiles, so the service is pulling from current inventory to meet the mission.

While the Army has sent some of its refurbished Stingers to Ukraine in response to Russia’s invasion of the country, and no longer builds new Stinger missiles, it still plans to take five years to develop and qualify the new interceptor and move into low-rate production.

The Army originally developed the Integrated Battle Command System as the brains of a future air and missile defense system, intending to link it with a new 360-degree radar and potentially new launchers in order to replace the aging Patriot air- defense system component by component.

“When we look at our prioritization of capabilities that we want to integrate on the IBCS, THAAD is right there currently listed as a priority. I won’t get into where in the priority list, but it is absolutely there,” Col. William Parker told Defense News in a recent interview.

As part of the Army’s effort to connect a web of sensors and shooters on the battlefield, it spent more than a decade developing IBCS to work with radars like the Sentinel A4, Patriot, Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensor and the Indirect Fires Protection Capability. The latter, which is still under development, is expected to be capable of defeating rockets, artillery, mortars, cruise missiles and drones.

IBCS experienced years of delays related to its increasing mission sets and technical problems in an initial 2016 limited-user test. The Army spent years ironing out software issues through follow-on user tests. The service held an initial operational test and evaluation in 2022 and declared it fully operationally capable in the spring of 2023.

The Army will hold a full operational test and evaluation for IBCS in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2024 and plans to field the capability to the first unit around the middle of fiscal 2025, Parker said.

Now that IBCS has cleared a variety of hurdles, Parker’s outfit — the Air and Missile Defense Cross-Functional Team, which is part of Army Futures Command — is working to integrate the command-and-control technology with a number of other systems, including THAAD.

The cross-functional team is scheduled to experiment with that integration at Project Convergence, which kicks off Feb. 23 and will run through mid-March. Project Convergence is a campaign of learning where the joint force experiments with capabilities it envisions needing against high-end threats and advanced adversaries.

The key effort is centered around joint integration of sensors and shooters, and the Army will push data through IBCS over to THAAD’s command and control in order to see how much bandwidth it can handle, Parker said.

“You have a whole lot of sensors on the battlefield, and the more ability that we have to take advantage of those for providing data, for providing situational awareness, whatever the case may be, is just going to help our commanders on the ground,” Parker said.

While IBCS is now a program of record and will mostly live under the purview of Program Executive Office Missiles and Space, the cross-functional team is continuing to work on “agile development” of the technology. The team is continuously looking at what software upgrades to the system are possible to incorporate in order to expand capabilities and then pushing those upgrades into IBCS.

The push to ensure independent production of weapons comes as the Biden administration says the U.S. is working on a deal aimed at securing at least a six-week halt to hostilities and releasing all hostages.

A spokesman for the ministry said the call for local weapons does not represent a policy change. The ministry noted “the procurement of American weapons will also continue.”

But retired Brig. Gen. Amir Avivi, chairman and founder of the Israel Defense And Security Forum, which works to promote Israel’s weapons production, has a different view.

“The defense leadership already understands that the State of Israel cannot afford to depend on others in terms of armaments,” Avivi said. “Besides what Israel has experienced since Oct. 7, the Russia-Ukraine war also strengthens this thesis.”

He noted Ukraine, which has relied on foreign aid, has been in a challenging position.

“Israel is paying the price for neglecting its own production capacity,” Avivi explained. “Now it has a desire to bridge over the gaps.”

“It starts with a tender for assault rifles, and will continue to shells and missiles,” he added.

Two domestic companies — Israel Weapon Industries in central Israel and Emtan from the northern part — manufacture assault rifles from the AR-15 family and may compete. Neither could immediately be reached for comment.

The new procurement is intended to replace rifles worn out in the war against Hamas. The chosen would join the current inventory, which includes, among others, the M16 and Tavor rifles.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Generally, these types of platforms carry gear for troops much like pack animals used to.

The Army’s current program for the vehicle is called the squad multipurpose equipment transport, or SMET. The Marines’ program is called multi-utility tactical transport, or MUTT.

The 3rd Littoral Logistics Battalion Marines at Marine Corps Training Area Bellows, Hawaii, conducted a foreign comparative test over two weeks in December 2023, alongside U.S. Army researchers, of the Hanwha Arion-SMET vehicle, according to a Marine press release.

David Keeler, Marine Corps Systems Command project lead, said, “UGVs can supplement tactical vehicle operations since they are highly transportable, can be moved to points of need quickly and don’t require licensed operators.”

Marines ran the vehicle on terrains such as a turf-covered sand beach course, soft sand, sand clay and bumpy, rutted roads, according to a press release from Hanwha, a South-Korean aerospace and green technology company. As part of the testing, Marines used the vehicle for heavy equipment transport, remote-controlled driving, waypoint navigation, physical tether following, soldier following and exploratory maneuvering.

The Arion-SMET is a six-wheeled electric vehicle that can carry 1,200 pounds, travel up to 62 miles and reach a top speed of 27 miles per hour on paved roads and 14 miles per hour on unpaved roads, according to the company.

General Dynamics builds the squad multipurpose equipment transport for the Army and was on track to deliver 675 platforms by October 2024 since winning the initial $249 million production contract in 2020, Breaking Defense reported.

The Marine Corps has not yet fielded an unmanned ground vehicle, said Morgan Blackstock, spokeswoman at Marine Corps Systems Command.

“Requirements are being reviewed for applications of (Unmanned Ground Vehicles), but have not been established at this time,” Blackstock wrote in an email response. “The data generated by the (Foreign Comparative Test) will assist the Marine Corps in defining requirements for (Unmanned Ground Vehicles).

The assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology, told the outlet in October 2023 that increment II for the squad multipurpose equipment transport could include adding weapons or sensor packages.

The squad multipurpose equipment transport can cover 60 miles in a 72-hour period while carrying up to 1,000 pounds, according to Army specifications.

Hanwha’s recent comparative testing is part of a second wave of unmanned ground vehicle development for both services. While the original effort sought to carry unit equipment and provide mobile charging, the next steps could include weapons platforms.

The need for mobile transport and weapons platforms has been highlighted by recent conflicts.

Steve Duong, Systems Command’s international affairs specialist, said, “If you look at the war between Russia and Ukraine, you see each side is going after each other’s logistics support. That’s contested logistics.”

“What you don’t want is a big platform with a big signature transporting something like a tire or ammo back and forth because it can easily be identified by enemy sensors.”

Soldiers with the Airborne and Special Operations Test Directorate conducted simulated airdrop impact tests on the current squad multipurpose equipment transports in December 2023, according to an Army press release.

In 2016, Marines tested a tracked version of the multi-utility tactical transport that carried 600 pounds on land and 300 pounds while running amphibious for about 15 miles before power ran down, Marine Corps Times previously reported.

CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand — The Indian Army has launched a tender for 155mm towed howitzers, with suppliers able to register to compete for a contract by March 8.

The move follows an acceptance of necessity, approved by the Defence Acquisition Council on Nov. 30, for the towed gun systems.

The Defence Ministry last year stated the weapon would “become a mainstay of artillery forces of the Indian Army.”

According to the tender document, the Army plans to buy 52-caliber, 155mm artillery weapons under the Buy Indian-IDDM acquisition category. That process requires the participation of an Indian vendor that indigenously designed, developed and manufactured its product with at least half of its content, in terms of cost, domestically sourced.

The towed gun systems are to be no heavier than 15 tons, and they must be able to fire existing 155mm rounds to a distance of 40-plus kilometers (25-plus miles). Its minimum service life must be 20 years, including a minimum barrel life of 1,500 equivalent full charges.

The Army’s quest to field several thousand new artillery systems under its 1999 Field Artillery Rationalisation Plan has taken a long time to gain momentum. But retired Lt. Gen. J.P Singh, a former deputy chief of the Army Staff for planning and systems, and an adviser for the government’s Defence Research and Development Organisation, told Defense News the modernization program is “picking up speed.”

Local media reports estimate the Army could buy approximately 1,200 towed gun systems, but that an initial order would likely involve 400 howitzers worth about 65 billion rupee (U.S. $783 million).

Potential competitors

Kalyani Strategic Systems Ltd., a subsidiary of private business Bharat Forge Ltd., could offer the 13-ton Bharat-52 as well as the 8-ton Mountain Artillery Gun-Extended Range weapon. The latter is considered an ultralight howitzer that can provide maneuverability in mountainous areas.

State-owned Advanced Weapons and Equipment India Ltd. could pitch its 14-ton Dhanush howitzer. The organization modified the 45-caliber system to meet 52-caliber specifications with a 42-kilometer range.

It’s also possible industrial conglomerate Tata could strip down the 18-ton Advanced Towed Artillery Gun System to create a lighter variant for the competition. Incidentally, Tata and Kalyani are each competing for a contract award to provide the military with 307 ATAGS weapons.

Foreign collaboration is permitted under the Buy Indian-IDDM category, which could open the door for partners Adani Defence and Aerospace and Israeli firm Elbit Systems to offer the Autonomous Towed Howitzer Ordnance System, or ATHOS.

Singh said there had been “a positive response from numerous companies” in recent competitions for light towed guns and truck-mounted howitzers. As for India’s ability to produce artillery at home, he said industry gained experience “during the successful design and development of the state-of-the-art ATAGS.”

“The manufacturing skills are very much prevalent in the public and private sectors. Metallurgy requirements for indigenous manufacturing are available, [though] software requirements for subsystems are not available indigenously,” he added.

India is also looking for vehicles to tow the artillery system, with local manufacturer Ashok Leyland likely to supply them.

1 The Indian Army needs to modernize its fleet of existing Bofors FH-77B 155mm towed artillery pieces, such as the example pictured here. (Gordon Arthur)

2 This photo shows a Dhanush 155mm L/39 towed howitzer, which AWEIL has since developed into a 52-caliber gun as a contender for the TGS requirement. (Gordon Arthur)

Last year, Russia reactivated from storage at least 1,180-1,280 main battle tanks and about 2,470 infantry fighting vehicles and armored personnel carriers, according to “The Military Balance 2024″ report unveiled Tuesday by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies think tank.

The report estimates that since February 2022, when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Moscow’s combat vehicle losses have neared 8,800, of which more than 3,000 were tanks.

“To put that into perspective, Russia’s tank battlefield losses are greater than the number it had when it launched its offensive against Ukraine in 2022,” Bastian Giegerich, the director of IISS, said during an online event held Feb. 13.

In an article published by the think tank on Feb. 12, defense research analysts Yohann Michel and Michael Gjerstad found commercially available imagery shows Russia possesses a variety of refurbishment facilities. These include 10 central tank reserve bases, at least 37 mixed equipment and armaments storage bases, and a minimum of 12 artillery storage centers.

“It is our assessment, therefore, that Russia will be able to sustain its assault on Ukraine at current attrition rates for another 2-3 years, and maybe even longer,” they wrote.

However, Giegerich noted the Kremlin’s strategy of relying on refurbished and stored legacy equipment — which is often quite old — comes at a cost.

“The vehicles that emerge from Russian production facilities are in most cases not new. In doing so, the country has to sacrifice quality for quantity,” Giegerich said.

The Russian military has also struggled in recruitment efforts.

“Persistently high casualty rates have kept most units below establishment strength. Shortages of replacement officers and the limited training time allotted to newly mobilised personnel significantly hampered the combat effectiveness of many units,” the new report found. “Bullish statements by government and industry officials about recruitment and equipment production to support forces deployed in Ukraine in 2023 appeared to belie reality.”

“Nonetheless, personnel numbers of existing formations and units were partially replenished, and a number of new wartime regiments were established through limited mobilisation efforts conducted in late 2022, coupled with a variety of ongoing recruitment efforts,” the think tank added.

Indeed, Ukrainian intercepts published last fall by Reuters show Russian conscripts complaining about poor training, heavy losses and mediocre equipment.

Indeed, concerns about the program came before the war in Ukraine and as drones became commonplace on battlefields throughout the world.

And so when the service announced last week it would cancel its multibillion-dollar scout helicopter program, just weeks before the release of the fiscal 2025 budget, the news came as a surprise for its timing, but not for its content.

Instead, what is less clear is what the cancellation means for Army Futures Command, the organization tasked with reimagining the department’s modernization efforts. When leaders created Futures Command five years ago, Army leaders described FARA as a top priority.

Given that its job is “to understand the future and shape Army requirements accordingly, you can’t help looking at this cancellation as a blow for that organization,” said Thomas Spoehr, a retired Army three-star general and defense expert.

House Armed Services Committee Vice chairman Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Va., announced he would call for a hearing on the cancellation.

Bradley Bowman of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies think tank told Defense News it was the right decision to cancel the program in favor of spending on unmanned systems.

“Given what we and our adversaries have seen and learned in Ukraine, as well as the Army’s insufficient budget, it seems to me the burden [of] proof is on anyone who argues that the Army should be spending billions of dollars on a manned rotary-wing armed reconnaissance program instead of unmanned systems,” he said.

Bowman noted the cancellation is an acquisition failure, but said it comes amid several key successes for Army Futures Command, which nearly reached its goal of putting 24 new systems into soldiers’ hands by the end of 2023.

“Anyone suggesting it is all sunshine or all failure is not seeing the full picture,” he said.

Byron Callan too said some bumpiness is expected.

“It’s unrealistic for industry to expect complete stability and predictability in acquisitions,” said Callan of Capital Alpha Partners. “That doesn’t exist in the commercial sector. Technology and changing consumer demands, taste, drives change. Defense, to a degree, is no different.”

Lawmakers are already expressing concerns about the decision. In a statement late last week, the congressional delegation from Connecticut, where Sikorsky is headquartered, demanded more explanation from the service.

They wrote they want more details from the Army on “how they plan to achieve crucial aviation capabilities, thoughtfully prepare our national defense for the future, and utilize the exceptional and seasoned workforce at Sikorsky for generations to come.”

Congress, according to Roman Schweizer, a defense analyst at TD Cowen, “could reverse some changes.”

The service had spent roughly $2 billion on the program, and Lockheed Martin’s Sikorsky and Bell Textron also invested internally to compete for the chance to provide the Army’s next armed scout helicopter. Both were building aircraft and expected to fly later this year.

Loren Thompson, a defense industry consultant, said the cancellation isn’t likely to damage the Army’s relationship with industry because it came relatively early.

“Keep in mind this program had not been awarded, nobody’s actually losing anything that they were certain to get,” Thompson said.

Pointing to the service pairing the cancellation of FARA with plans to upgrade its unmanned aircraft and buying more modernized UH-60 Black Hawks and the Boeing-manufactured CH-47F Block II Chinook cargo helicopters, Thompson said the “Army has made the change, of course, more palatable for industry because it has thought through the impacts for each of the major players.”

“Boeing no longer needs to be worried and Textron’s biggest program win in a generation remains intact,” Thompson added, referring to Bell Textron’s win against a Boeing-Sikorsky team to build the Army’s Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft at the end of 2022.

Bryant Harris contributed to this report.

The service agreed to pay $75 million for 600 of the ground-launched, radar-guided Coyote 2C devices, it said Feb. 9.

The effort was led by its Program Executive Office for Missiles and Space, tasked with developing overhead defenses, long-range rocket systems, directed-energy lasers and more. Using a method known as rapid acquisition authority, the Army is expected to secure the counter-drone munitions in less than 30 days. Other, more traditional means can take months or years.

While the Army already deploys some Coyote systems in mobile and stationary setups — in what’s known as the Low, slow, small, unmanned aircraft Integrated Defeat System, or LIDS — this latest purchase marks growth in demand and production. It comes on the heels of a contracting notice describing the military’s intent to obtain and deploy thousands of Coyote interceptors and hundreds of their associated launchers and radars in the next five fiscal years.

Houthis, Russians wield same Iranian-supplied drones, DIA studies show

“The U.S. Army has a need to develop, produce and maintain countermeasures against enemy armed and intelligence-gathering UASs operating at various speeds and altitudes, which are targeting both U.S. and their allies’ interests at home and abroad,” the government notice stated.

The deal with RTX was inked days before Iran-backed militants killed three soldiers and injured dozens more with a one-way attack drone at the Tower 22 installation in Jordan, near the Syrian border. The strike underscored the pressing need to bat down drones, which can be assembled with off-the-shelf parts and can be relatively cheap.

RTX, formerly Raytheon Technologies, is the second largest defense contractor in the world when ranked by defense-related revenue. The Virginia-based company made $39 billion in 2022 and $41.8 billion in 2021, according to Defense News Top 100 analysis.

The second-generation Dismounted Assured Positioning, Navigation and Timing System, or DAPS GEN II, is more effective than the legacy Defense Advanced GPS Receiver, or DAGR, amid jamming and spoofing, the Office of the Director of Operational Test and Evaluation said in a report published last month.

The Army in April tapped TRX Systems to produce DAPS GEN II in a deal worth as much as $402 million. An initial order — more than 700 units and related services — was valued at $14.6 million. The gear succeeds two previous versions quickly made and provided to troops: GEN I and GEN 1.2. Hundreds of each had been distributed by the end of fiscal 2023.

DAPS GEN II, with its rechargeable battery and reworked screen, is designed to ensure troops understand where they are and where they are headed, even in situations where signal is impeded by terrain or rubble or when digital systems are under siege.

Such resilience is needed, defense officials say, as the U.S. prepares for potential fights against tech-savvy adversaries capable of waging effective electronic warfare.

During testing, DAPS GEN II improved soldier situational awareness, supported successful navigation and allowed soldiers to be “operationally effective,” according to the annual audit. Soldiers, though, requested additional options for training.

A spokesperson for TRX, based in Maryland, declined to comment on the report. The company is a subsidiary of ACR Group.

The announcement comes as Saudi Arabia hosts the World Defense Show, running Feb. 4-8, during which the two countries inked a memorandum of understanding to bolster defense cooperation.

The ministry noted the sale of 10 KM-SAM Block II medium-range surface-to-air missile systems represents another major export deal. Korea sold the weapon to the United Arab Emirates in a $3.5 billion deal signed in January 2022.

Defense News has learned that, as of late 2023, KM-SAM deliveries to the UAE had not begun because Hanwha Systems was still developing the more capable Block III active electronically scanned array radar.

LIG Nex1 produces KM-SAM Block II batteries, while Hanwha Systems provides the radar and Hanwha Aerospace supplies launcher vehicles. The weapon can intercept both aircraft and missiles, the latter being particularly important as Saudi Arabia routinely shoots down ballistic missiles fired by Houthi rebels in Yemen.

“By a series of foreign arms sales, including this recent export of KM-SAMs to the Saudis, Korea’s defense industry has won international attention in the global arms market for two points: the level of technical qualification and industrial capacity,” Kim Jae Yeop, a senior researcher at the Sungkyun Institute for Global Strategy in Seoul, told Defense News.

“Defense cooperation between Seoul and Arab states is likely to accelerate in the arms trade agenda. As a number of countries in the region, including Saudi Arabia, face growing military threats from the Iranian-backed Houthi militant group in Yemen, Korea can take on a role of reliable supplier of weapon systems to deal with the challenge,” Kim added.

In 2017, Saudi Arabia bought Korean-made Raybolt man-portable, anti-tank missiles. And in March 2022, the kingdom reportedly purchased Korean-made K239 Chunmoo multiple rocket launcher, electro-optical systems and ammunition. When visiting Hanwha vehicle production facilities last October, Defense News observed numerous sand-colored Chunmoo systems.

The new memorandum of understanding is expected to strengthen bilateral defense cooperation. Witnessed by their respective defense ministers, the document called for a joint committee “to further develop the defense industry and defense technology cooperation between the two countries in the mid to long term, and ... conduct research and development in necessary areas such as joint research and development and production of weapon systems,” according to a news release from South Korea’s Defense Acquisition Program Administration.

Eom Dong-hwan, the head of DAPA, said Russia’s war in Ukraine has exposed limitations to Western defense-industrial capacity, whereas South Korea has proved “its own capacity to provide major weapon systems in a timely manner.”

“This is expected to strengthen Korea’s status as an emerging arms supplier in the global arms industry,” the director added, referring to the recent agreement.

“You have to produce enough explosives – either IMX-104 or TNT – to fill that many shells that fast and that production capacity does not exist in the United States by itself,” Doug Bush said during a Feb. 5 Center for Strategic and International Studies event in Washington. “We’re having to go overseas to allies. Luckily, we have many, [that are] highly capable.”

Prior to the war in Ukraine, the U.S. could build about 14,400 of the artillery shells per month. But as Ukrainian forces burn through the ammunition for howitzers sent to the country, the U.S. has taken a wide variety of steps to increase the speed and capacity of 155mm munitions production.

Bush said at CSIS that each 155mm shell contains 22 pounds of explosives. If the U.S. ramps up to 100,000 munitions a month, it would need to produce 26.4 million pounds of explosives, also known as “energetics,” per year to keep up.

The Army awarded $1.5 billion in contracts to nine companies in the fall of 2023 to companies in the U.S., Canada, India and Poland to boost global production of 155mm artillery rounds. The contracts included procuring 14.2 million pounds of bulk energetics, consisting of TNT and IMX-104 explosive.

Increasing production is also riding on Congress approving a pending supplemental budget request which aims to support Ukraine and Israel. The supplemental includes $600 million that would triple the amount of IMX-104 explosive that is made at Holsten Army Ammunition Plant in Tennessee. The plant produces roughly five million pounds a year with a plan to increase to 13 million pounds.

Another $93 million would upgrade facilities to reestablish M6 propellant production at Radford Army Ammunition Plant in southwest Virginia. That propellant is used to shoot the shells, but is no longer in production in the U.S.

An additional $14 million would cover the construction and recommissioning of a black powder – an explosive combination of sulphur, carbon and potassium nitrate – production line with a company called Goex in Minden, Louisiana.

Taking on TNT

The Army would also use $650 million to design and construct a domestic TNT production facility, which will likely be at Radford Army Ammunition Plant, Bush has said previously.

Currently there is no TNT production in the U.S. and the supplies come from allies such as Australia and India.

Poland is a major supplier, but with every country ramping up production to support Ukraine and meet their own demands, Bush noted late last year, the U.S. will need to onshore TNT production.

The Army issued a request for information in the fall of 2023 on Sam.gov for the design, construction and commissioning of a facility capable of producing five million pounds of TNT per year. Responses from industry are due Feb. 17.

The service is aiming to complete construction and open the facility no later than 48 months after awarding a contract. The RFI notes that the government is assessing multiple sites for the facility.

The current defense budget doesn’t cover the costs of setting up a tank battalion, and such a decision would require additional money and would be up to the next government, Dutch Defence Minister Kajsa Ollongren and State Secretary of Defence Christophe van der Maat wrote in a Feb. 5 response to parliamentary questions.

The Netherlands, which had close to 1,000 tanks at the height of the Cold War, got rid of its last two tank battalions in 2011 after budget cuts. Since 2015, the country has leased 18 Leopard 2 A6 tanks from Germany that form one of five companies within the German-Dutch 414 Tank Battalion.

“Given the deteriorating security situation since 2022, it’s essential that our armed forces be strengthened further,” Ollongren and Van der Maat wrote. “If there is additional budget for the Armed Forces, we will look at capabilities across the board. A decision on a tank battalion is therefore up to a next Cabinet.”

NATO’s defense-planning capability review released in 2022 noted shortcomings for the Dutch military in land-based power and combat support. Adding a new tank battalion would strengthen the alliance and support the Netherland’s priority objective to create a heavy infantry brigade, the defense officials added.

The government of Prime Minister Mark Rutte took on a caretaker role after elections in November while a new Cabinet is negotiated. A caretaker government in the Netherlands traditionally limits itself to business at hand, while avoiding controversial decisions, such as allocating the billions of euros required to set up and operate a tank battalion.

A tank battalion costs between €260 million and €315 million (U.S. $280 millions and U.S. $339 million) a year, based on a 15-year planning period that includes buying the tanks as well as maintenance, spare parts, operating and personnel costs, the officials said. The battalion’s structure might mirror that of the 414 Tank Battalion, with the tanks owned by the Dutch and 20% of personnel being German.

The Dutch 2024 defense budget increased to €21.4 billion from about €15 billion in defense spending last year. The amount doesn’t include funding for tanks.

Amid Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine, NATO members in July last year pledged to spend at least 2% of their respective gross domestic product annually on defense, with 20% of defense funding allocated for major equipment. The Dutch 2024 budget amounts to 1.95% of GDP, according to the Dutch government.

The German government last summer invited the Dutch to a joint purchasing initiative for the Leopard 2 A8 main battle tank, according to the letter to parliament. The Netherlands asked to defer a decision given the government’s caretaker status.

The Czech Republic said in December it was in advanced negotiations with Germany for the A8 variant, developed by Krauss-Maffei Wegmann, a member of the KNDS joint venture. The tank would come with a 120mm canon by Rheinmetall. KNDS and Leonardo have also signed an agreement to provide Italy with a main battle tank based on the Leopard 2 A8.

The Netherlands is seeking to join the Franco-German Main Ground Combat System project. Paris and Berlin plan to invite other interested European Union members to join the project once their governments have defined the future tank’s specifications, French Armed Forces Minister Sébastien Lecornu said in September.

The Netherlands and Denmark last year agreed to buy 14 Leopard 2 A4 tanks for Ukraine for about €165 million, after previously joining with Denmark and Germany to supply at least 100 Leopard 1 A5 tanks to the embattled country.

Signed in 2014, the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement allows the U.S. to allocate funding to improve and construct facilities within existing Philippine military bases as well as to deploy American troops on a rotational basis.

For example, the Philippine government has proposed airstrip repairs for this year at Naval Base Camilo Osias, on the northern tip of the country’s island of Luzon, as part of the upgrade plans financed by the United States.

And some 42 miles southwest of the base, at Lal-Lo Airport, also in Cagayan province, the government is considering construction of a fuel storage facility and a command center.

The two countries identified five bases for the EDCA initiative in 2014, then added another four bases, including the two in Cagayan, in 2023. Notably, several of the newly accessible bases abut the South China Sea to the north.

China has decried some of the EDCA’s base locations due to their proximity to Taiwan, which Beijing considers a rogue province and has threatened to take back by force. Although the U.S. officially does not support Taiwan’s independence, Washington does provide it with weaponry, and U.S. President Joe Biden has promised to defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion.

“Whereas the U.S. claims that such cooperation is intended to help the disaster relief efforts of the Philippines and some Americans even tout the EDCA sites as [a] driver of [the] local economy, it is plain and simple that those moves are part of the U.S. efforts to [encircle] and contain China through its military alliance,” the Chinese government said in March. “To bundle the Philippines into the chariots of geopolitical strife will seriously harm Philippine national interests and endanger regional peace and stability.”

There’s also been local opposition. In 2022, provincial Gov. Manuel Mamba openly opposed the live-fire Balikatan exercise in the area, warning it could “anger” China and “bring war closer to the Philippines.”

The governor did not respond to Defense News’ request for comment.

Projects and price tags

Plans are already underway to fortify the newly accessible bases. This year will likely see Washington and Manila expand their cooperation and ready their respective navies to counter China’s assertions of ownership over parts of the South China Sea.

China and the Philippines, along with Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan, have been locked in increasingly tense territorial disputes over the busy and resource-rich South China Sea. Washington lays no territorial claims to the strategically important waters but has deployed ships and aircraft for patrols that it says promote freedom of navigation and the rule of law. In turn, that military presence has infuriated Beijing.

At the announcement of the new basing deal in February, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin thanked Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. for allowing the U.S. military to broaden its presence in the Philippines — Washington’s oldest treaty ally in Asia.

In a recent statement to Defense News, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command spokesperson Cmdr. Matthew Comer said the American government spent $56.8 million on the initial five EDCA sites from 2014 to 2023, during which it completed 14 projects.

But according Col. Medel Aguilar, who spoke to Defense News when he was the Philippine military’s spokesperson, the U.S. government provided nearly $82 million for 21 projects on those five bases from 2014 to 2022. Aguilar is now head of the armed forces’ civil relations office.

Indo-Pacific Command estimates 34 construction projects will begin this fiscal year, while the Philippine military has identified 14, including the construction or rehabilitation of multiuse facilities, piers, airports, warehouses, vertical landing pads, barracks and riprap.

“Our focus is on the 9 existing sites and the continued deliberative process with the Philippines to determine future requirements,” Comer wrote in an email to Defense News. “EDCA is about Philippine military modernization, not about the positioning of U.S. military assets.”

Aguilar declined to discuss specific monetary figures for the projects, instead saying the budget is different for each base and depends on the proposed activity.

In August, the U.S. reportedly proposed building a port in Batanes province facing the Bashi Channel, located about 125 miles from Taiwan. In October, the Philippine Navy inaugurated a naval detachment on Mavulis Island, also in Batanes, “to uphold maritime law and order while safeguarding our maritime territories,” the service said in a statement.

But local foreign affairs expert Julio Amador III said the EDCA initiative should also involve preparations for an influx of refugees if a war breaks out in the region.

Amador was director general of the Philippine government’s Foreign Service Institute and has been involved in defense talks since 2012. He is now the founder and chief executive of the consultancy Amador Research Services.

The EDCA projects should not just focus on military needs, he told Defense News, but also “other areas like [whether] we have the capacity to house the refugees.”

Furthermore, he thinks the American side should reassess its focus.

“Sometimes when we meet the American interlocutors, they tell us Taiwan is the priority, [and we say] if that’s the case, then prepare to not have us,” Amador said.

Still, he explained, “nobody wants the Americans to leave because they know once the Americans leave, China will be more aggressive.”

Geoff Ziezulewicz with Navy Times and staff from The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The company partnered with Divergent Technologies, Inc. to design and build the Advanced Air-Launched Effects vehicle, or A2LE, using Divergent’s Adaptive Production System (DAPS) “to support rapid, low-cost manufacturing of the demonstration vehicle,” it said in a statement.

The Nov. 28 demonstration at Dugway Proving Ground, Utah, showed additive manufacturing, also known as 3-D printing, early in the design process can create efficiencies, the company said. It’s a key step in validating AM process and material properties for incorporation in future systems to be employed by both manned and unmanned platforms.

The flight was “a crucial first step in demonstrating GA-ASI’s ability to rapidly develop, manufacture, and test a Small Unmanned Aircraft System (SUAS) in a controlled, low-risk approach,” Mike Atwood, company vice president of advanced programs, said in the statement. “A2LE demonstrates the coupling of GA-ASI’s pedigreed aircraft design capabilities with Divergent’s DAPS, paving the way for continued maturation of affordable, modular SUAS platforms that can be tailored to meet warfighter needs at a fraction of the cost and lead time of currently fielded systems.”

The company is planning a network of A2LEs providing a “persistent, expansive grid” for surveillance, attack, enemy air defense suppression or communication pathways, according to the statement, while enhancing current and future manned and unmanned platforms with increased capability.

The U.S. Army has been extensively evaluating launched effects for roughly five years and is considering several size classes of launched effects. It’s evaluating an initial small, launched-effects prototype – a collaboration between Anduril Industries, RTX’s Collins Aerospace and Aurora Flight Sciences – as it experiment swith requirements and capabilities for a future program.

The service plans to launch these small, uncrewed aircraft not only from air platforms, but from launchers on the ground or off vehicles. It has demonstrated the capabilities several times, including at the service’s first Edge exercise in 2021, which experiments with technology to enhance operations in the aerial tier.

General Atomics demonstrated another ALE — the Eaglet — that the company deployed from a Gray Eagle UAS a year ago.

The Eaglet would fit in the large class, the company said, which translates to having the ability to carry a wide variety of more powerful sensors and payloads. The Gray Eagle would still be able to carry it for thousands of kilometers before launching it. A2LE is considered to fit in the small category.

“General Atomics has been approaching the future of uninhabited aerial vehicles and systems from a ‘family of systems’ approach,” said C. Mark Brinkley, a spokesman. “Whether air launched or ground launched, recoverable or expendable, we see these aircraft as offering different options configured for different missions.”

The company is working on several launched effects offerings in addition to Eaglet and A2LE like Sparrowhawk and LongShot, Brinkley added.

“All of these are similar and all of them are different, but the main theme here is affordable mass at scale, attacking a variety of problems in a variety of ways,” he said.

“It wouldn’t be fair to compare these aircraft head-to-head at this point, because they’re all being driven by different requirements and intended uses,” Brinkley noted, “but each of these programs are absolutely leveraging best practices and lessons learned from one program to the next to help us iterate and innovate very quickly.”