Congressional dawdling reflected in the pedestrian passage of continuing resolutions (CR) and the lack of approval of regular fiscal 2024 appropriations and the proposed Emergency National Security Supplemental Act harms U.S. Army transformation, Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said on Feb. 27.
“Without a ’24 appropriation and continuing under a CR and not having the supplemental for Ukraine hurts our ability to transform,” she told a Defense Writers Group (DWG) breakfast. “Without the ability to do new starts and re-programmings, we can’t invest in development of UAS and counter UAS. We can’t train with those systems. We can’t produce those systems as rapidly as we want to. The mid-range capability–a long range fires system that has become a program of record–if we have another CR, we have a $500 million investment that we want to make in that program that we won’t be able to pursue.”
In December, the Army said that it had accepted delivery of the first Lockheed Martin [LMT]-built Precision Strike Missiles (PrSM), which are to replace the Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) and which are to have a range of 300 miles (Defense Daily, Dec. 8, 2023). HIMARS and Multiple Launch Rocket System launchers are to fire PrSM. The Army has said that PrSM upgrades could increase its range to 600 miles. The latest ATACMS have a range of 190 miles, while earlier versions have shorter ranges. Ukraine has requested the 190-mile range ATACMS and is waiting on their approval from the Biden administration.
The more than $95 billion fiscal 2024 supplemental also funds production in Texas, Camden, Ark., and Scranton, Pa., of 155 mm artillery shells for Ukraine–among other supplemental-funded domestic munitions tied to U.S. jobs and Ukrainian self-defense, Wormuth said.
Wormuth said that the supplemental has $560 million for counter UAS across DoD. “We could do a lot with that,” she said. “That [lack of supplemental approval] is hurting us.”
The Army looks to have a portion of that $560 million for RTX [RTX] Coyote interceptors. The service plans to buy at least 6,700 Coyote kinetic and non-kinetic interceptors between fiscal year 2025 and 2029 to counter enemy drones “operating at various speeds and altitudes which are targeting both U.S. and their allies’ interests at home and abroad” (Defense Daily, Dec. 21, 2023).
In response to a question at the Feb. 27 DWG on what the Army is learning from the use of drones in Ukraine, including the Russian jamming of Ukrainian drones, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George suggested that the recently cancelled Shadow and Raven drones will be unable to survive in advanced technology warfare.
“I was just down at (Ft.) Huachuca (Ariz.) where we have a very large range where we can do anything we want as far as as far as electronic warfare,” he said. “We are looking at how we are gonna test and operate drones in contested environments. Every drone is gonna have to be open architecture so we can adjust it with software on the road.”
As part of the Army’s “transforming in contact” initiative to develop and upgrade systems ad hoc in battlefield environments, service installations are to train soldiers in 3D printing to build drones on the spot, George said.
Wormuth said that Ukrainian forces have been able to impart to U.S. soldiers insights on the use of first person view (FPV) drones and how U.S. soldiers could change UAS-related tactics, techniques, and procedures.
Kamikaze drones have been a consistent presence in Ukraine.
“Drones are essentially, when it comes to our combat vehicles, ‘flying IEDs,’ and we’ve gotta think about protection for our tanks, Bradleys, Strykers, and so on,” Wormuth said. “That is gonna be a challenge. One of the things that we’ve been pursuing is directed energy/high-powered microwave. We’ve got some of our directed energy prototypes out now in the field being tested, having some successful engagements. One challenge there is, ‘How do we make those systems affordable?’ They’ve got unlimited magazines, but right now they’re still pretty pricey. I think all of those efforts–(with) everything that’s happening in Ukraine–foot stomps the importance of those.”
Small kamikaze drones have been a worry for U.S. commanders–most recently in a deadly attack on the U.S. Tower 22 base in northeast Jordan near Syria on Jan. 28.
This month, U.S. Air Force Gen. James “Scorch” Hecker, the commander of U.S. Air Forces in Europe, said that, due to cost, the U.S. should not focus on “exquisite systems” for counter UAS–such as $700,000 unit cost Standard Missiles–but instead pull a page from Ukraine’s playbook in the use of low-cost innovations that have proven effective, such as an acoustic sensor network of cell phones that feeds targeting information to anti-aircraft artillery (Defense Daily, Feb. 14).
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin “has made that very clear to us,” Wormuth said on Feb. 27 of his desire to use lower cost, counter UAS.
Of directed energy counter UAS, she said that “it’s really just figuring out how can we get proficient enough with the technology such that we can drive the cost down.”
“Right now, that’s a bit of an open question,” she said.
Last summer, the Army fielded the first several Stryker-mounted 50-kilowatt laser Directed Energy Maneuver Short-Range Air Defense (DE M-SHORAD) systems by RTX and Kord Technologies (Defense Daily, Aug. 10, 2023).
“To have (DE M-SHORAD) Strykers in all the places you need, that’s a lot of Strykers,” Wormuth said. “Right now, the laser is very, very expensive and pretty finicky. We need to understand how it’s gonna perform in austere environments, sandy environments, hot environments, and other places because that’s part of the cost as well.”