PENTAGON ACQUISITION REFORM - CounterStrikeMedia

THE RUSSIAN S500 TESTED & RUSSIAN ROBOT TANK FAILURE IN SYRIA

5/29/2018

RUSSIA: U.S. Intelligence Reports Russia Recently Test Fired S-500 System
From Military Watch: “Just days after Russian President Putin called for the country's next generation air defence system, the Almaz Antey S-500, to enter mass production quickly, U.S. intelligence reports have indicated that the Russian military has conducted a test firing of the new weapons system.”

Russia's Uran-9 robot tank reportedly performed horribly in Syria
(Business Insider) Russia's new Uran-9 robot tank apparently had a terrible debut in Syria.

MEGA-CITIES & WAR: THE PROBLEM

5/24/2018

The Army released a new vision statement — here are 3 things soldiers need to know
(Army Times) You’ve probably heard some of this before. In the coming decades, the Army will have to prepare for high intensity conflict against enemies with similar weapons, in urban environments, facing the possibility of long periods without communication or helicopter support.

Problems megacities will pose for the military
(C4ISRNET) The military is increasingly turning its attention to war in megacities and the issues that will bring.

Stalingrad Was Small: Multi-Domain Ops In Megacities

Crowd-Sourcing the Character of Urban Warfare, V2.0
By John Amble, Modern War Institute: “The world is urbanizing, and doing so quickly. By 2030, 60 percent of the global population will live in cities. At the same time, the U.S. military remains committed to maintaining the capability to conduct an immensely wide range of operations—from humanitarian assistance and noncombatant evacuation to security force assistance and high-intensity conflict.

LASTING SHIFTS IN DEFENSE SPENDING POST 2008 CRISIS

5/24/2018

IISS data reveals lasting shifts in global defence-spending

The big shift and American foreign policy
Eminent scholar Walter Russell Mead compares the dysfunction and failures of American politics today with those of the generation after the Civil War. Then as now, he says, American society did not have the policy ideas or the institutions needed to meet a wave of new challenges, and the result was a generation of turmoil and discontent.

The Army needs to get better at great power competition
(C4ISRNET) The Army has been undergoing an iterative process to update its doctrine and operating concept as it adapts to a 21st world and the need to more seamlessly employ effects across the five domains of warfare.

CHANGES IN MARINE CORPS STRUCTURE & HOW TO DO MORE WITH LESS

5/22/2018

Why the Corps Wants to Fight With Fewer Marines
By Shawn Snow, Marine Corps Times: “The Marine Corps is setting in motion plans to shrink the size of the traditional rifle squad, cutting manpower for the Corps’ most basic building block of combat power from 13 Marines down to 12 — a risky move that the Corps admits could fail.”

Doing more with less: How to optimize US counterterrorism
(War On The Rocks) During a stint in government as a senior advisor at the Defense Department, I frequently heard about the need to “do more with less.”

SOCOM’s next five-year plan will transform the force
(Defense News) The next upcoming five-year development and acquisition plan for U.S. Special Operations Command will be transformative, its commander said at the Special Operations Forces Industry Conference (SOFIC) May 22.

HOW U.S. DEFEATS RUSSIAN HYPERSONIC MISSILES & U.S. UPGRADES STINGER

5/21/2018

‘Hyper-Enabled Operator’ Technologies
By Yasmin Tadjdeh, National Defense Magazine: “The concept includes four technology pillars: communications, computing, data/sensors and human-machine interfaces.

Missile-Tracking Satellites to Foil Russia’s Hypersonic Weapons
By Sandra Erwin, SpaceNews: “"With both Russia and China said to be close to deploying hypersonic glide vehicles — conceivably with nuclear warheads — the Pentagon does not have a lot of time to study how to build a defense architecture."”

This Stinger Missile Is Back
By Charlie Gao, The National Interest: “The U.S. Military is now upgrading their Stinger to the new FIM-92J and FIM-92K models to effectively counter all aerial threats in the near future. ”

How Russia’s military moves around the world
(War Is Boring) When it comes to being air-mobile, the Russian military is second only to the U.S. military.

F35 VS. F22 RAPTOR: GUESS WHO WINS

5/18/2018

Why an F-22 Raptor Would Crush an F-35 in a 'Dogfight'
From The National Interest: “The U.S. Air Force’s original plan was for the F-22 to be its high-end air superiority fighter while the F-35 was designed to be primarily an air-to-ground strike aircraft, but one which could defend itself.

The F-35 Could Become a 'Navy' Killer
By Charlie Gao, The National Interest: “The requirements were: to meet the challenges of a future (up to 2040) ship-to-ship combat environment; to have a high probability of penetrating enemy air defense and countermeasures; to be effective in confined and open waters; and to be easily adaptable to different platforms.”

DEFENSE BUDGET CUTS NATIONAL DEFENSE STRATEGY: GO FIGURE

5/17/2018

Defense budget peaks in 2019, underfunding the National Defense Strategy
May 2018 Mackenzie Eaglen
Read Online Printable Copy

KEY POINTS

The $700 billion in enacted defense spending for 2018 is a substantive increase over 2017 enacted and 2018 requested spending. However, the $716 billion topline for 2019 just keeps pace with inflation.
The administration’s first five-year budget, the Future Years Defense Program, suggests the overall fiscal outlook for defense spending will flatline in 2020 and beyond.
The president’s 2019 budget allocates 87 percent of new funding above last year’s appropriations to military personnel and operations and maintenance, with most of the remainder going toward research and development.
For the second year in a row, the Trump administration’s budget request underfunds procurement in favor of pursuing a capability-centric modernization program, imperiling the future health of the force by underresourcing capacity and the recapitalization of legacy systems.
The three-year streak of defense increases was driven largely by Congress. Policymakers should work to ensure a balanced portfolio of investment to match the defense strategy.

Read this publication online.

View a printable copy.

Download the printable one-pager.

ALSO OF INTEREST
Recommendations for a future National Defense Strategy
Mackenzie Eaglen | Senate Committee on Armed Services | November 30, 2017

Repair and rebuild: Balancing new military spending for a three-theater strategy
Mackenzie Eaglen | AEI | October 2017

To rebuild America’s military
Thomas Donnelly, Mackenzie Eaglen, and Gary J. Schmitt | AEI | October 2015

Why Chairman Thornberry Failed To Tame DoD’s Fourth Estate

A PRIMER ON MAC THORNBERRY & PENTAGON REFORMS

5/10/2018

A primer on Mac Thornberry’s fourth estate reforms
Mackenzie Eaglen | War on the Rocks

U.S. Army Could Build an Integrated Air and Missile Defense Now
By Daniel Gouré, RealClearDefense: “IBCS is overly ambitious and too expensive. It was conceived during the period of Army acquisition hubris that produced such debacles as the Future Combat System.”

Assessing the Health of the Defense Industrial Base
By John Adams, RealClearDefense: “As we eagerly await the release of the DoD report, let us not lose sight of the fact that our work to secure our defense supply chains is just the beginning.”

Evolutionary Revolution: Esper’s Army Modernization Philosophy

Calm Down, Folks: Enemies Still Fear US Military Tech Innovation
// Harvey M. Sapolsky and Eugene Gholz
Where most countries focus on one or two areas, America has a huge, well-funded R&D infrastructure that pushes the envelope everywhere.

SOCOM's Top 10 Tech Needs
From National Defense Magazine: “As the Pentagon puts renewed focus on preparing for great power competition, U.S. Special Operations Command is looking for new capabilities to support its warfighters.”

HOW TO REFORM CENTCOM & SPECIAL OPERATORS; LOOKING AT THE ARMY'S MODERNIZATION IN CHARTS

5/8/2018

New Reconnaissance Tools Needed to Assist Special Operators
By Vivienne Machi, National Defense Magazine: ““We are getting so much information that we can’t go through it all,” said Glen Cullen, program manager for sensitive site exploitation within the program executive office for special reconnaissance, surveillance and exploitation.”

3 ways US and Mideast special ops could better counter regional threats
(Defense News) The U.S. and its Middle East special operations partners must continue to improve relations if they are to counter growing complexities in the region, the head of U.S. Special Operations Command said May 7 at the Middle East Special Operations Commanders Conference.

The U.S. Special Operations Command has about 67,000 troops and an annual budget of around 14 billion dollars. That may not seem to be a huge dent in the overall DoD budget (about 2%), but it greatly outnumbers the special operations budgets of other U.S. allies around the world. With deployments operating at high frequencies today and with operations increasing in places like Syria, what should we be thinking about in terms of the impact on U.S. Special Operations in the coming decade?

The Cipher Brief’s Brad Christian talked with Former Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence (and Cipher Brief Expert) Dr. Michael Vickers recently about this increasingly important instrument of American power:

From the conversation:

"The new big warfighting challenge for SOF is Russian hybrid warfare, particularly along the periphery of the Russian Federation. SOF can play a pretty big role because it may be hard to trigger NATO’s collective defense article early in a conflict when the Russians are engaged in subversion and covert proxy warfare."
"More potential adversaries are acquiring advanced air defenses, so clandestine air infiltration may be a lot harder in the future. When I grew up as a young pup in the Special Forces, there was 50/50 chance that Air Force special operators could insert us into Eastern Europe...down the road, SOF will need very low observable aircraft, or it won’t be able to accomplish some important missions that we need them to conduct."
"For some of the demanding SOF missions, you need to develop not only new technologies, but also the tactics, techniques and procedures and area knowledge you’ll need to be effective. With prolonged, intensive deployment cycles, we really haven’t had the time we need to do this. Most of what we’ve developed since 9-11 has been for the current wars."

Read the full conversation with Vickers on the future challenges facing U.S. special operations forces.

Army Says It Needs $2B More Per Year For Big Six: Over Half For Air & Missile Defense
Looking to spend billions more on its top modernization programs, the Army is changing things up by spending those dollars in places that might come as a bit of a surprise.

CHINA'S NEW HUB FOR R&D PHYSICS & CHINA'S STEALTH BOMBER FLEET

5/8/2018

Big toys of Beijing’s dream of prestige in frontier physics
BY ASIA TIME STAFF
Tens of billions of yuan are being splurged on signature facilities and hardware for breakthroughs in frontier sciences and R&D

Xi Jinping and the 'Chinese Dream'
(Deutsche Welle) This DW series explores China's rise as a global superpower. In this article we examine the "Chinese Dream," which shapes the present and reaches far into the future, encapsulating President Xi's vision for the country.

CHINA: China's Future Stealth Bomber Fleet
By Rick Joe, The Diplomat: “In the last few weeks, a magazine cover for prominent Chinese aerospace magazine Aviation Knowledge featured a pair of stealthy bomber aircraft concepts.”

The United States spends half a trillion dollars a year on scientific research — more than any other nation on Earth — but China has pulled into second place, with the European Union third and Japan a distant fourth. China is on track to surpass the United States by the end of this year, according to the National Science Board. In 2016, annual scientific publications from China outnumbered those from the United States for the first time. - Washington Post

PAKISTAN SNUBS U.S. VOWS TO DEVELOP OWN SATELLITES

5/5/2018

Pakistan pushes for homegrown satellite development
(Defense News) Pakistan has launched an ambitious satellite program as part of ongoing efforts to wean itself off dependence on foreign-owned assets for civil and military applications.

CHINA'S THREE WARFARE STRATEGIES & HOW THE PLA GETS BLOCKCHAIN

5/3/2018

China's Three Warfares Strategy and Blockchain
By Wilson VornDick, RealClearDefense: “With the lockdown in the commercial sector, has Chinese interest in blockchain shifted to other industries or sectors, such as the military (People’s Liberation Army (PLA))?”

Blockchain Can Protect the Supply Chain
By Henry Bond, Proceedings Magazine: “The question of supply chain trust received attention last fall when Kobe Steel revealed it had lied about the quality of the steel it was manufacturing. ”

ARMY IS LOSING OUT ON FORCE MODERNIZATION: MOVE PAST CURRENT RESTRAINTS NOW; A LOOK AT ARMY URBAN WAR & HOW THE MARINES RE-ORGANIZE

5/3/2018

Is the Army Missing Its Chance at Modernization?
By Loren Thompson, Forbes: “The U.S. Army's opportunity to carry out the first comprehensive modernization of its combat equipment since the Cold War ended may be slipping away.”

Prepare the Army for Future Urban Battlefield
By John Amble & John Spencer, Army Magazine: “Adequately preparing the Army to operate effectively in cities will require a range of changes, but three initiatives would combine to lay a much-needed foundation.”

Innovation Determinants of the World’s First Integrated Air Defense System
By Austin M. Duncan, Strategy Bridge: “The prospect of air power dominated the outlook of future war at the dawn of the interwar period. Many theorized offensive air power would soon prove the decisive force of war, and the battlefield would never be the same thanks to the unprecedented destructiveness of aerial bombing attacks.”

Marines Reorganize Infantry For High-Tech War: Fewer Riflemen, More Drones

HOW TO FIX THE U.S. NAVY, NOW

5/2/2018

Rough seas: An AEI study in crisis response for tomorrow’s Navy and an improved Navy for the future
John W. Miller, Thomas Donnelly, and Gary J. Schmitt | American Enterprise Institute
Renewed calls in Congress and the Pentagon for a more ambitious shipbuilding program reflect a consensus that the current configuration of the Navy is insufficient to meet the peacetime demands of national security, let alone those of a major contingency.

How We Lost the Great Pacific War
By Dale Rielage, Proceedings Magazine: “Once the dust clears from the congressional inquiries and the various special commissions, it will be a challenge to sort the wheat from the chaff to discover and implement the real lessons for our Navy.”

What’s Next for Third Fleet Forward?
By Benjamin B. Foster, Proceedings Magazine: “The U.S. Third Fleet was born out of necessity, forged during the peak of the war in the Pacific.

Sizing up the U.S. Navy’s Future Guided Missile Frigate Designs
By Claire Apthorp, Naval-Technology: “FFG(X) will be an “agile, multi-mission platform designed for operation in littoral and blue water environments”. It should be able to operate independently or integrate with a task force to conduct offensive and defensive surface, anti-submarine, and air warfare roles.”

Navy's Next Generation Network Will Not Meet Warfighters’ Needs
By Daniel Gouré: “The Navy’s new concept for Distributed Maritime Operations (DMO) will take the idea of creatively, adaptively networking its platforms and systems to the next level.?”

An AEI study in crisis response for tomorrow’s Navy and an improved Navy for the future

FIXING DEFENSE BUDGET
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TRANSPARENCY & COST CAPABILITY
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MACKENZIE EAGLEN
AEI

DEFENSE STRATEGY-PRIORITIES
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DEFENSE INNOVATION PROBLEMS
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REBUTAL TO EAGLEN
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DOD ACQUISITION REFORM

twelve problems_negatively_impacting_defense_innovation___american_enterprise_institute_-_aei.pdf
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the_1960s_had_their_day__changing_dod’s_acquisition_processes_and_structures___realcleardefense.pdf
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Dr. Kathleen Hicks

getting_to_less.pdf
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THUCYDIDES & THE LONG WAR PROBLEM

FORCE PLANNING IN AGE OF GREAT POWER COMPETITION

AGAINST ALL ODDS: CHANGING ACQUISITION CULTURE

THE CRISIS OF AMERICAN MILITARY PRIMACY

NATIONAL MILITARY STRATEGY: REVOLUTIONARY APPROACH

UNDERSTANDING MILITARY MODERNIZATION

5 STRATEGIES FOR SEC. OF DEFENSE

WHY THE 3RD OFFSET FAILS

INADEQUATE DOCTRINES FOR IRREGULAR WAR

ALTERNATIVE WAR STRATEGIES & FORCE POSTURE

REVERSING DECLINE: ELIZABETHIAN ENGLAND

U.S. GRAND STRATEGY FOR WINNING WORLD WAR IV

MULTI-DOMAIN BATTLE REPLACES R.M.A.

GLOBAL DEFENSE SPENDING.pdf
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REBUILDING AMERICAN MILITARY.pdf
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Tweets by WilliamHolland

Principles Guiding Pentagon Acquisition Reform
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