Lockheed Martin [LMT] this year has been conducting flight-tests of artificial intelligence-controlled aircraft in air-to-air engagements, including a more recent demonstration where a human “battle manager” aboard a fighter jet trainer commanded AI-controlled aircraft using a computer touchscreen.
The testing is being done by Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works unit in partnership with the company’s Demonstrations and Prototypes organization, and the University of Iowa’s Operator Performance Laboratory.
In the tests, the battle manager aboard an L-39 Albatros assigned targets to two AI-controlled L-29 Delfin military jet trainers that worked together to defeat two mock enemy jets using simulated weapons. The AI software was developed by Skunk Works.
The AI-controlled aircraft flew with human pilots for safety purposes. The adversarial aircraft were also L-29s.
Earlier flight tests demonstrated AI-controlled air-to-ground jamming and geolocation, Lockheed Martin said on Thursday.
“The work we’re doing with the University of Iowa’s OPL is foundational for the future of air combat, where a family of crewed and uncrewed systems will work together to execute complex missions,” John Clark, vice president and general manager of Skunk Works, said in a statement.
The Senate GOP’s incoming No. 2 leader said Thursday that Pete Hegseth “is a strong nominee” to lead the Pentagon, which arrives as more details have emerged on sexual assault allegations against President-elect Trump’s pick for defense secretary.
Hegseth visited Capitol Hill on Thursday for meetings with senators to help bolster his confirmation process, with several Republicans signaling support for his nomination.
Pete Hegseth, a Fox and Friends co-host, conducts a cake cutting ceremony celebrating the Marine Corps’ founding live during a morning broadcast in New York City, New York, November 10, 2023. (U.S. Marine Corps image by Staff Sgt. Theodore Bergan)
“We had an excellent discussion about the need for America’s military to remain the best in the world. That means taking care of our service members, equipping them with the latest technology and focusing on making our military the most lethal force on the planet. Pete pledged that the Pentagon will focus on strength and hard power – not the current administration’s woke political agenda,” Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), who will serve as the Senate Majority Whip in the next Congress, said in a statement.
Trump announced on Nov. 12 his decision to choose Fox News host and Army veteran Hegseth to serve as his defense secretary, which was considered an unexpected selection who lacks the policy, leadership or governing experience typically associated with such nominees (Defense Daily, Nov. 12).
Since the announcement, details have emerged regarding an October 2017 incident in Monterey, California where Hegseth is alleged to have sexually assaulted a woman, with the Fox News host having later paid the accuser as part of a nondisclosure agreement as reported by the Washington Post.
The Monterey Police Department has since released its record of the alleged incident, in which Hegseth was not charged, that notes it was first detailed to police by a nurse who saw the accuser as a patient.
“As far as the media is concerned, it’s very simple. The matter was fully investigated and I was completely cleared. And that’s where I’m going to leave it,” Hegseth told reporters at the Capitol on Thursday.
Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, echoed similar remarks to Barrasso on Wednesday and said Hegseth was “the right man for the job.”
“I think he’s perfect. He’s a decorated combat veteran. He’s got two Bronze Stars, 20 years in service…It’s not like he has no experience inside the military,” Mullin told reporters. “I don’t think he has a weakness. He is very talented and there is a reason why President Trump trusts him. I think as he goes through this [confirmation] process, you’re going to hear more and more about what actually took place and you guys will find out that the guy’s a solid individual.”
Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), who also sits on SASC which will oversee Hegseth’s confirmation hearing, offered his support for Trump’s defense secretary pick on Wednesday.
“[Hegseth’s] a veteran who served two tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, is Ivy League educated, [and has] a businessman background. That’s what we need in the Pentagon right now to restore order and our finances,” Tuberville said during remarks on the Senate floor.
Senate Democrats, however, are likely to present staunch opposition to Hegseth’s nomination, with SASC member Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) having called him “wholly unqualified” in a statement last week (Defense Daily, Nov. 15).
“This pick is dangerous, plain and simple. Being secretary of defense is a very serious job, and putting someone as dangerously unqualified as Pete Hegseth into that role is something that should scare all of us. By choosing to put a TV personality with little experience running much of anything in charge of the Defense Department’s almost 3 million troops and civilian employees, Donald Trump is once again proving he cares more about his MAGA base than keeping our nation safe—and our troops, our military families and our national security will pay the price.” Duckworth, a combat veteran who served in the Reserve Forces for 23 years, and lost both of her legs while serving in combat in Iraq in 2004, said in her statement.
Hegseth said in a recent interview he doesn’t believe women should serve in combat roles in the military, adding he believes “men in those positions are more capable.”
During that same interview, Hegseth called for firing Air Force Gen. Charles Q. Brown, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who has supported many of the Pentagon’s efforts to bolster diversity, equity and inclusion in the department.
Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), who Republicans elected as their majority leader in the next Congress, has signaled an openness to potentially allowing recess appointments to skirt around the traditional confirmation process and quickly install President-elect Trump’s cabinet picks, with analysts having predicted that Hegseth is likely to face a contentious pathway to confirmation (Defense Daily, Nov. 13).
“National security confirmations have a history of quick confirmations in the Senate. I look forward to Pete’s hearing and a vote on the floor in January,” Barrasso said on Thursday.
Transferring high end missiles and munitions to Israel and Ukraine amid their respective conflicts is depleting some of the weapons needed for potential hostilities with China, Adm. Samuel Paparo, commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM), said Tuesday.
Before 2024, most weapons the U.S. sent to partners in their recent conflicts, particularly Ukraine in its defense against Russia, were artillery pieces and short-range weapons that Paparo said would not have impacted preparedness in his theater.
Adm. Samuel Paparo, commander, U.S. Pacific Fleet, meets with local military leaders on Guam at Joint Region Marianas headquarters in Asan, Dec. 5. 2022. (U.S. Navy photo by Shaina O’Neal)
“But now with some of the Patriots that have been employed, some of the air-to-air missiles that have been employed. It’s now eating into stocks, and to say otherwise would be dishonest,” Paparo said during a Nov 19 event at the Brookings Institution.
He argued that the inventory of high-end capability for the U.S. is fungible across all theaters and can be applied equally across any contingence.
“None are reserved for any particular theater, but any can move with alacrity to any theater. Inherently, it imposes costs on the readiness of America to respond in the Indo-Pacific region, which is the most stressing theater for the quantity and quality of munitions, because the [People’s Republic of China] is the most capable potential adversary in the world,” Paparo said.
The commander of INDOPACOM said the U.S. should replenish those stocks “and then some,” since he thought the stock was too small to begin with.
“I was already dissatisfied with the magazine depth. I’m a little more dissatisfied with the magazine depth. You know, it’s a time for straight talk.”
Separately, when asked about his assessment of China’s capabilities to potentially invade Taiwan, Paparo said while he respects their capabilities to conduct air and maritime operations he is still confident in the U.S. and its allies’ abilities to counter that.
The Patriot air and missile defense system (Photo: Raytheon)
“I think the cross strait invasion would be exceedingly difficult, given some of our advantages. I think anything else is highly, highly predictable across unpredictable terrain, across mountain ranges, and stabilizing a population.”
Paparo added that international opinion on a potential Chinese blockade of Taiwan is “very unpredictable” given the high leverage impact on economies, but that he “would be confident of our ability to break a sea blockade and so we’re working on that a little bit. And so I’ll leave it at that.”
The commander also commented that while recent corruption scandals in the Chinese ministry of defense and People’s Liberation Army forces cannot help their confidence, he will not dismiss their capabilities because his job is to assume China can commit the best force that they can.
“So I will not whistle pass the graveyard on the PLA, on these corruption scandals. So it gives me no great comfort that there are these scandals in the PLA.”
Textron Systems [TXT] this week announced it recently won two contracts to deploy and provide services to operate its Aerosonde UAS to four more U.S. Navy ships.
On Nov. 18 the company said it won a $47 million task order from Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) to provide Contractor-Owned/Contractor-Operated (COCO) unmanned aerial system services to three unspecified
Independence-variant Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) deploying to the 5th Fleet.
An Aerosonde small unmanned aircraft system (UAS) operating off of a U.S. Navy vessel. (Photo: Naval Air Systems Command)
This follows a 2023 Navy contract to provide this kind of UAS support for LCSs and raised the total number of Navy ships loaded with an Aerosonde to 10.
The Aerosonde has a wingspan of 12 feet, weighs 80 pounds, has a range of 75 nautical miles, endurance of over 14 hours and can hold up to 20 pound payloads.
The company noted this award will have it deploy the UAS alongside trained personnel to provide “mission overwatch” and extended ranges for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance services.
Then, on Nov. 20, Textron announced another task order worth $17 million to provide Aerosonde services on an 11th unspecified ship, this time deploying to the 6th Fleet.
Textron previously deployed the Aerosonde in this configuration on Expeditionary Sea Base (ESB)-4, ESB-5, two Arleigh Burke-class destroyers and three other LCS.
“Textron Systems has delivered COCO services with our Aerosonde UAS for over a decade, demonstrating the flexibility and value a model like this brings to the services. Because we are managing the full life cycle of the system, including technology integration, human factors, spares and repairs, employing the Aerosonde UAS enables the Navy customer to focus solely on their mission. We extend the customer’s capabilities across the mission packages of each ship reliably and quickly,” said David Phillips, senior vice president of Textron Systems’ Air, Land and Sea Systems business unit.
The company said the Aerosonde’s family of systems have thus far flown for over 700,000 flight hours for more than 10 years. It is equipped with several payload configurations and comes in vertical takeoff and landing and fixed-wing options.
Back in January, the company announced it first flew an Aerosonde off an LCS, USS Savannah (LCS-28), under a June 2023 contract for UAS operations on one Freedom-variant and two Independence-variant LCSs (Defense Daily, Jan. 30).
The U.S. Space Force has launched six Lockheed Martin [LMT] GPS III satellites, and the company has been storing four GPS IIIs in Littleton, Colo.
The 31-satellite GPS constellation “is healthy, which helps from a launch perspective,” Lt. Gen. Philip Garrant, the commander of the Space Force Space Systems Command, told a Defense Writers Group breakfast on Thursday. “There are several GPS launches tied to a Vulcan manifest. Obviously, that will wait on certification. We will not launch a GPS on an uncertified rocket. Because the constellation is healthy, we do have the advantage of a little bit of time on those missions.”
“We are looking at some of the other GPS missions and the timing of those that have been manifested on SpaceX rockets,” he said. “We are certainly looking at options to go faster.”
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 is now the only allowed provider for Space Force’s National Security Space Launch (NSSL), as United Launch Alliance‘s (ULA) Vulcan rocket seeks final certification for its first NSSL mission–USSF-106 (Defense Daily, Nov. 14).
ULA is a partnership between Boeing [BA] and Lockheed Martin.
17 GPS satellites have the civilian L5 band, which is to have 30 times the anti-jamming of the weaker L1 signal. A fully operational constellation with L5 would have 24 GPS satellites, but that full up constellation may not come until 2027. The military has been using the L1 signal’s P/Y code and has long planned to move to M-code.
The four GPS III satellites that have been in storage “have cost you, the American taxpayer, about a half billion dollars each, plus billions more up in the sky, 17 satellites sitting up there some what useless,” Robert McDowell, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and a former FCC commissioner, said this month at an institute forum on how to fix GPS vulnerabilities (Defense Daily, Nov. 4).
Beside enhanced protection against jamming, the newer GPS III and IIIF satellites are to have better protection against cyber attacks.
Retired Rear Adm. Mark Montgomery, the senior director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation, has said that fixing M-code and providing it to friendly countries is a need, but launching the stored GPS III satellites should be first priority. M-code is now on some high-end munitions and aircraft, he said.
Anduril Industries on Thursday said that U.S. Space Force has awarded the company a potential $99.7 million contract to provide its Lattice operating system as a mesh networking capability for a ground-based network of sensors that track objects in space.
The five-year indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract marks a transition of Anduril’s work in helping to modernize the U.S. Space Surveillance Network into a program of record, the company’s first in the space arena.
For the Space Domain Awareness Network (SDANet) program, the Lattice open architecture operating system will replace outdated systems with a modern architecture that will evolve to meet future needs, the company said.
“SDANet will replace legacy communications systems with a resilient mesh network capable of facilitating seamless sensor-to-shooter tasking, rapid data sharing with mission partners, and unparalleled flexibility to onboard new systems or partners swiftly,” Anduril said.
Anduril said it will meet U.S. Space Command’s mandate to have deployment of the SDANet solution completed by the end of 2026. SDANet is already being deployed to international locations and is contributing data to the Unified Data Library, the Space Force’s cloud-based repository of commercial and government space situational awareness data.
The company in 2023 demonstrated “operational success” of its Lattice-based networking solution at an SNN site in Maui, Hawaii after a storm degraded the communications capabilities of the space surveillance complex there. Anduril in late 2022 had demonstrated its solution for the Maui site and was asked to return and deploy its SDANet mesh network temporarily following the storm until legacy communications were restored.
Anduril said it is on track for full-time operational usage of SDANet “in the upcoming months.”
SDANet is “built for interoperability” and will integrate with other Space Force systems, Anduril said.
The U.S. has approved a new $275 million weapons aid package for Ukraine, which arrives as the White House aims to use all remaining authorized security assistance in the final two months of the Biden administration.
The weapons aid announced Wednesday is the 69th package of equipment to be pulled from existing Pentagon inventories using the Presidential Drawdown Authority in support of Ukraine’s fight against Russia’s ongoing invasion.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrive at the 24th meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, Sept. 9, 2024. (DoD photo by Chad J. McNeeley)
“As part of the surge in security assistance that President Biden announced on September 26 to put Ukraine in the strongest possible position, the Department of Defense today announced additional security assistance to meet Ukraine’s critical security and defense needs,” the Pentagon said in a statement.
Capabilities in the new $275 million package include additional ammunition for HIMARS launchers, 155mm and 105mm artillery ammunition, 60mm and 81mm mortar rounds, unspecified drones, TOW missiles, Javelin and AT-4 anti-armor systems, small arms and ammunition, demolitions equipment and munitions and Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear protective equipment, according to the Pentagon.
President Biden in late September announced plans to allocate nearly $8 billion in new weapons aid for Ukraine, split between $5.5 billion in equipment to be pulled from DoD inventories using PDA authority that was set to expire at the end of September and $2.4 billion in capabilities to be procured from industry using Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) funds (Defense Daily, Sept. 26).
Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh reiterated on Tuesday that the department remains committed to allocating the remaining billions of dollars in remaining PDA authority and USAI funds, as the department eyes the transition to the second Trump administration.
“You’ve heard it from here and from the White House that we are committed to using that full authority that Congress has allotted to us. The only way we can do that also is to make sure that our shelves are fully backfilled and stocked. So as our shelves continue to get stocked with equipment and capabilities that are needed, we draw down from those and send those to Ukraine. The president has committed to ensuring that every dollar that Congress has allocated will be spent,” Singh said during a press briefing.
President-elect Trump has selected Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.) has his national security adviser, with Waltz having written in a recent op-ed in The Economist that the next administration should “act urgently” to bring the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East to “a swift conclusion” (Defense Daily, Nov. 12).
While Waltz has been a staunch supporter of assisting Ukraine, he has more recently aligned with Trump’s view on questioning the level of continued weapons aid to Kyiv and voted against the Ukraine Security Supplemental Appropriations Act in April.
The State Department on Tuesday also notified Congress of a potential $100 million foreign military sale with Ukraine covering a blanket sustainment order for U.S. Army-supplied systems, to include equipment and services for refurbishment of vehicles, technical assistance, training and other related elements of logistics and program support.
“Ukraine has an urgent need to strengthen local sustainment capabilities to maintain high operational rates for U.S.-provided vehicles and weapon systems. This sustainment support will directly contribute to battlefield effectiveness, overall operational rates, logistics, and reduction of financial burdens as a result of a more resilient and rapid repair cycle,” the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in a statement.
The new security assistance also arrives following Ukraine’s firing of U.S.-made ATACMS long-range missiles into Russian territory for the first time on Tuesday (Defense Daily, Nov. 19).
The use of the Locked Martin [LMT]-built ATACMS on the 1,000th day of the conflict follows the Biden administration’s reported lifting of some restrictions on Kyiv’s use of long-range weapons to hit targets inside Russia, while the Pentagon declined to confirm details of the missile attack.
The Russian Ministry of Defense said in a statement that Ukraine shot six ATACMS into the Bryansk region, claiming to have intercepted several of them with air defense systems.
The Army has selected Red Cat Holdings [RCAT] subsidiary Teal Drones for its Short Range Reconnaissance (SRR) small drone program of record, which the firm said may cover procurement of nearly 6,000 systems.
After participating in the competitive SRR Tranche 2 prototyping effort, the Army selected Red Cat’s Black Widow small UAS (sUAS) for fielding over Skydio’s X10D small drone offering.
Red Cat’s Black Widow sUAS. Photo: Red Cat.
“This is a powerful moment in time, coming after five years of blood, sweat and tears put into SRR by our incredible team. The long-awaited production selection marks a new era for our company and the future of American drones,” George Matus, Red Cat’s chief technology officer, said in a statement on Wednesday. “Our top priority now is to start ramping production of the next generation system, recently announced as the Black Widow and WEB [command and control capability], and give warfighters the tools they need to be successful on the modern battlefield.”
The Army’s Program Executive Office for Aviation confirmed it had selected Red Cat’s Teal Drones for SRR production, while noting “exact funding, quantities and other details” for the program of record are still to be finalized.
Jeff Thompson, CEO of Red Cat, told Defense Daily a first low-rate initial production contract is expected in the first half of 2025 to be followed by a full-rate production deal in the second half of the year.
The Army’s SRR Tranche 2 prototyping phase evaluated offerings from Skydio and Red Cat’s Teal Drones to inform its search for a small drone designed to provide platoons with real-time reconnaissance, security, and target acquisition capabilities (Defense Daily, Jan. 10).
Red Cat has said the Black Widow sUAS’ capabilities include AI-aided target identification, tracking and classification software, forward-looking obstacle avoidance, a stealth mode to execute missions with radios off, a quiet acoustic signature and modularity to allow for “seamless” secondary payload integration.
Thompson said Red Cat had provided 50 prototypes to the Army so far for the SRR Tranche 2 prototyping effort.
Skydio had previously won a potential $99.8 million Army contract in November 2021 contract to provide its X2D small drone for the SRR tranche 1 program, which the company said includes multiple tranches to “equip soldiers with a rapidly deployable small UAS solution to conduct reconnaissance and surveillance activities” (Defense Daily, Feb. 8 2022).
Earlier this year, Skydio said its upgraded X10D sUAS for SRR Trance 2 featured “new, cutting-edge data capture cameras, unparalleled autonomy and versatile hardware.”
The Army said the selection for the SRR program of record was based “on a combination of criteria that included soldier feedback, performance and reliability during the SRR Tranche 2 prototyping effort.”
Red Cat added that the selection decision also factored in “volume manufacturability and system cost.”
“It is an honor to support the U.S. Army by delivering the Black Widow to our warfighters. We believe this advanced technology will enable the Army to shape the battlefield, save soldiers’ lives, and serve as a powerful tool in their arsenal,” Thompson said in a statement on Wednesday. “This long-term contract will give us the capability to continue to improve the Black Widow, scale production and improve margins.”
Teledyne FLIR [TDY] said on Wednesday that Red Cat has selected its Hadron 640R+ longwave infrared and mega-pixel visible camera module and its Prism AI-embedded perception software for integration into Black Widow sUAS in support of the SRR program.
“We are proud to be selected by Red Cat to support the Black Widow with unparalleled tactical capabilities for the U.S. Army’s SSR Program,” Paul Clayton, Teledyne FLIR’s vice president, said in a statement. “This collaboration provides the Black Widow with superior yet compact dual thermal-visible imaging along with AI software libraries that enable classification, object detection, and object tracking to complete the mission day or night.”
Maj. Gen. Marcus Evans, commander of the 25th Infantry Division, told reporters in October that his 2nd Brigade operated SRR drones during a Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center (JPMRC) rotation, which was part of the Army’s “Transformation in Contact” initiative to inform the service’s rapid fielding decisions (Defense Daily, Oct. 21).
“That provides the ability to see further than an organic rifle platoon or rifle company has been able to see in the past with assets that they control,” Evans said at the time.
As the Navy ramps up the Nuclear-Armed Sea-Launched Cruise Missile (SLCM-N) All Up Round (AUR) development program, it has started to conduct market research for sources to support this congressionally-mandated program.
The Navy is seeking market research via an RFI published Nov. 15 that said it is aimed at identifying interest and resources to support the SLCM-N program. The notice said the service hopes to leverage mature technology, existing capabilities and new techniques and approaches to reduce development time and ensure cost effectiveness in this new program.
The crew of the Los Angeles-class fast-attack submarine USS Annapolis (SSN-760) successfully launches Tomahawk cruise missiles off the coast of Southern California as part of a Tomahawk Flight Test (TFT) on June 26, 2018. (Photo: U.S. Navy by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Ronald Gutridge)
The final FY 2024 defense authorization act required the Defense Department and National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) develop the SLCM-N missile and W80-4 alternate warhead, respectively (Defense Daily, Dec. 7, 2023).
The notice described the Navy as specifically asking for “industry perspective on either weapon system integration, cruise missile prototype development, or cruise missile subsystems.”
The RFI added it is trying to understand industry capability to “expediently develop a prototype” and integrate it onto an AUR while keeping the door open for future improvements. The AUR consists of the booster, separating cruise missile from the booster, the nuclear warhead and all assembled on a canister that allows for underwater launch.
It named five specific objectives for the RFI: identifying potential material solutions with a technical achievable timeline to accelerate prototype efforts; opportunities to keep development, production and sustainment costs affordable; material solution methods that deliver high reliability and open design for future adaptation and technical insertions; possible weapon system specifications to meet capability gaps and means to minimize changes to platform or Strategic Weapons Facility operations.
The Navy also outlined several constraints and tenants of the program, including:
The technology proposed for the SLCM-N flight systems must be able to be fielded by FY 2034 for initial operational capability (IOC) and prototypes are required within three years.
The SLCM-N will be deployed on Virginia-class attack submarines (SSNs) and nuclear operations will occur at U.S. Navy Strategic Weapons Facilities in Kings Bay, Ga., and Bangor, Wash.;
The RFI is focused on “rapid development, integration and demonstration of a SLCM AUR prototype” to be launched from either the 87-inch Virginia Payload Module or regular Virginia Payload Tubes.
The Navy wants information on how to make the AUR and missile “as modular as possible.” This covers hardware and software modularity so changes to the missile body or tactical systems do not necessarily force changes to the payload interface or avionics.
The Navy is interested in technology insertions the past 10 years “to proactively manage size, weight, and power (SWaP) margins. The Navy requests information to understand margins available in the technology developer’s current design.”
It seeks “novel” subsystems, software, materials, assemblies and subassemblies to be included in development of a novel design concept.
The RFI underscored the importance of the open system approach is “to allow for future technical insertion or technology upgrades as required through the life of the SLCM-N program. It is anticipated that the flight system integration contractor will be responsible to integrate all portions of the AUR while working with the National Nuclear Security Administration team that is designing and integrating the nuclear warhead.”
Respondents are directed to provide information on why they meet several capabilities listed in the RFI, including company size and capabilities; level of experience in cruise missile development, system integration, weapon subsystem experience; experience integrating an AUR for underwater launch; experience or knowledge of requirements on system design due to nuclear surety and submarine issues; anticipated development timelines for a flight demonstration; test capabilities; descriptions of how designs consider modular open systems architecture and rough order of magnitude cost for designing and building a prototype AUR.
While drones are ideal in enclosed spaces, American forces still need to use their high end and traditional manned forces to maintain air and maritime superiority in a potential conflict with China, the command of Indo-Pacific Command said Tuesday.
Speaking at the Brookings Institution on Nov. 19, Adm. Samuel Paparo endorsed using more unmanned systems as the capabilities improve, but argued that “we should also respect the laws of physics. And that is, the Pacific is contested space over about 8,000 miles of ocean by about 8,000 miles of ocean, and so a pocket drone that can stay airborne for an hour ain’t gonna do it. So understanding what’s timeless, understanding what’s time-full and and knowing the difference among all those systems is the coin of the realm.”
Adm. Samuel Paparo, commander, U.S. Pacific Fleet, meets with local military leaders on Guam at Joint Region Marianas headquarters in Asan, Dec. 5. 2022. (U.S. Navy photo by Shaina O’Neal)
He said there is a war of attrition in between NATO and Russian air and communications controls in Ukraine, which is teaching the U.S. a lot about electronic warfare (EW) and use of drones, but “everybody is stuck in this paradigm of either or” that does not strictly apply to a potential conflict in the Western Pacific.
“We’re learning a lot about EW, and we’re changing the game, and there’s a lot to be learned in there. But if you think that’s all of it, and we can quit on everything else in the Pacific, you know, how are we going to sustain everything else if we completely give up on air and maritime superiority in the Pacific. Oh, let’s just quit on everything. We got some drones. Alright, well, the PRC has got 2,100 fighters. They’ve got three aircraft carriers. They have a battle force of 200 destroyers. Oh, well, roger, we got a couple drones, No problem. Yeah, we got that Ukraine thing licked.”
Paparo said drones can be a “very key capability” in executing missions like sea denial in a potential Taiwan-China conflict, but air and maritime superiority will still be important over the wide spaces of the Pacific Ocean.
He noted that translates to needing energy and energy density for a conflict to dazzle, deceive, destroy an enemy’s capability, see and sense the battle space, maneuver where an enemy can’t see, bring long range fires on an enemy and gain the capability to maneuver and sustain across seven joint functions.
Paparo underscored one of those important joint functions is sustainment, because even if part of conflict involves drones deployed from Okinawa, “you’re going to have to sustain those forces in Okinawa, over wide-ranging space. To do so, you’re going to need air and maritime superiority,” via more traditional means.
He also argued that attritable systems should cost hundreds or thousands of dollars each, while reusable systems can justify being more expensive.
Earlier this year, Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks said the Pentagon planned to spend $1 billion on the first two years of the Replicator initiative. Hicks launched Replicator with the goal of fielding thousands of attritable autonomous systems by August 2025 (Defense Daily, March 12).
When asked specifically about Replicator, Paparo was explicitly unwilling to comment on pre-positioning them in allied regional countries, saying “my caveats are I’m not saying a word about that. Not a word.”
He only admitted that they would “probably” base large numbers of Replicator drones on U.S. ships and aircraft, which would avoid political implications of basing them on allied territory.
Last month, Bob Stephenson, director for capabilities and resource integration at INDOPACOM said early next year they will start testing Replicator products against the command’s concepts of employment (Defense Daily, Oct. 29).
The only Replicator system DoD has confirmed in the initial tranche so far is the AeroVironment [AVAV] Switchblade-600 loitering munition. Other systems include various sizes and payloads of unspecified uncrewed surface vehicles, uncrewed aerial systems and counter-uncrewed aerial systems.
Paparo also underscored that if unmanned systems can do dangerous work of targeting enemy systems, they should, but humans will make the decisions in conflict.
“In today’s world with greater AI tools, with greater autonomy, with the proliferation of unmanned capabilities, the more unmanned capabilities you can use, the better. But because we seek political behavior from our adversaries, because of the morality of that, you can never abdicate these decisions to a machine.”
