Below are key notes from yesterday’s Defense News Conference feauruting key speakers: Rep. Rob Wittman (VA), The Hon. Andrew Hunter, General James Slife, and Dr. Derek Tournear.
Key Takeaways:
Panel 1: View from the Hill (Rep. Rob Wittman):
Continuing Resolutions Harm Defense: Rep. Wittman stressed that continuing resolutions and budget delays significantly harm military readiness and the ability to respond to global threats. Modernization efforts must accelerate to stay ahead of adversaries like Russia and China. Wittman projected a defense budget of around $833 billion, which he believes should be sufficient for most defense needs, but must be used effectively.
Panel 2: A Future-Ready Air Force (Gen. Slife and Hon. Hunter):
Both emphasized the need for the Air Force to adapt to changing threats through strategic reorganization and integration of operational needs with acquisition processes, ensuring rapid development of future capabilities like disaggregated systems. No specific budget numbers were mentioned in this panel.
Panel 3: Building Space Infrastructure (Dr. Derek Tournear):
Proliferated Space Architecture for Defense: Dr. Tournear highlighted the importance of proliferated satellite constellations and the Space Development Agency’s work in developing space-based Link 16 communication, missile tracking, and warfighter capabilities to enhance national security, with a focus on operational success by 2025. The budget for this work includes $4 billion per year, with $2 billion allocated for tracking and $2 billion for transport satellites.
4 September 2024
Panel: View from the Hill:
Speaker: Rep. Rob Wittman (VA), Vice Chairman, House Armed Services Committee
Quotes:
On Continuing Resolutions (CR) and Budget Delays
“Congress has been mired in this whole kicking the can down the road process. This is the year 19 where we haven’t done all the appropriations bills prior to the end of the fiscal year.”
“The delay in appropriations, especially in the defense sector, impacts our ability to respond to threats from nations like Russia and China.”
“CRs are the worst way for us to be able to manage the defense enterprise.”
“CRs harm the military’s ability to function and operate effectively. National security must be prioritized, and Congress has to stop kicking the can down the road.”
“We need to hold members of Congress accountable for getting the job done. Get a budget done on time.”
On Defense Budget and Spending Priorities
“The challenge has always been the Pentagon wanting to divest to invest. That metric doesn’t work because if you want to divest from older platforms, those go away, and you never get to the new platforms.”
“833 billion is probably the number that we come to… And I think the Pentagon should be able to do most of what it needs with that.”
“Modernization comes at a price, but we cannot sacrifice readiness or national security by delaying these efforts. We need to ensure the resources are used effectively.”
On Military Modernization and Relevance
“Modernization has to happen at the pace of relevance, and modernization does have a price tag associated with it.”
“We have to operate at the pace of relevance, putting in place attritable systems and expendable systems… I just got back from Ukraine and it is unbelievable the role that expendable and attritable systems are playing there.”
“Next year, we have to really accelerate the pace of modernization, especially in areas like combat collaborative aircraft and expendable platforms.”
On Defense Industrial Base and Acquisition Challenges
“The acquisition process has to get much faster… We have to make the Pentagon move from a hardware-centric organization to a software-centric organization.”
“There are parts of acquisition that are working well, like the Defense Innovation Unit, but we need to operate at the speed of relevance across the board.”
“We need to change the way we do things in the Pentagon, particularly around attritable platforms and expendable systems.”
On Threats from Russia and National Security
“They [Ukraine] see the massive increase in the industrial base and military industrial base in Russia… They have to have something to counter that.”
“They [Ukraine] want to operationalize technology within their own country because they know in the long term they have to deal with an overly aggressive Russia.”
“They [Ukraine] are laser-focused on growing their own defense production industrial base… It makes sense for them to deter Russia, and we should be part of that partnership.”
On Space and Technology in Defense
“We have to make sure the Pentagon goes from a hardware-centric organization to a software-centric organization. Software is going to define what we can and cannot do on the battlefield.”
“There’s a lot of interesting technology out there… What we need is to change how acquisition is done and how we meet the future threats, especially in space and cyber warfare.”
“The Pentagon has to accelerate its pace of modernization. We need to push for attritable and expendable systems, and space capabilities are critical to ensuring battlefield dominance.”
[End]
Panel: A Future-Ready Air Force
Speakers:
-The Hon. Andrew Hunter, Assistant Secretary for Acquisition, Technology & Logistics, United States Department of the Air Force
-General James Slife, USAF, Vice Chief of Staff, United States Air Force
-Stephen Losey, Air Warfare Reporter, Defense News (Moderator)
Hon Hunter and Gen Slide place an emphasis on adapting to future challenges and the strategic alignment between operational needs and acquisition processes.
Quotes:
On Reoptimization and Adaptation to Strategic Changes
Quote from Gen. Slife:
“As the strategic environment changes, the threat changes, our national interests change, and as the environment changes, the attributes that we privilege in our structures have to change with them.”
Quote from Hon. Andrew Hunter:
“We were not organized, optimized to deliver those outcomes through our regular processes. They didn’t generate this level of analysis and integration across the force.”
On Operational Imperatives and Integration
Quote from Gen. Slife:
“When you start focusing on the mission and not the platform, that’s where that ops-acquisition requirements integration comes to the forefront.”
Quote from Hon. Andrew Hunter:
“One of the key insights from our operational imperatives work was how valuable it is when we get the operational insight and acquisition insight working in close coordination.”
On Capability Development for Future Air Superiority
Quote from Gen. Slife:
“We’re moving into an era of disaggregation of systems-level integration, where capabilities don’t all have to be integrated on the same platform.”
Quote from Hon. Andrew Hunter:
“We know that we need to move fast because we have a pacing threat that is moving at a rapid pace, but moving fast in itself doesn’t necessarily help if we’re not moving fast with the right capabilities.”
On Threats and Pacing Challenges
Quote from Gen. Slife:
“You get to the post-9/11 era…now we’re at a fourth one of those. When you think about the attributes that we require in the present strategic environment, it’s things like agility, it’s things like mission or function.”
Quote from Hon. Andrew Hunter:
“We need to move fast because we have a pacing threat that is moving at a very rapid pace.”
On Reorganization of Air Force Capabilities
Quote from Gen. Slife:
“The Air Force has launched a major reorganization to prepare for an era of great power competition…as the environment changes, the attributes that we privilege in our structures have to change with them.”
Quote from Hon. Andrew Hunter:
“Our approach has to prioritize flexibility, ensuring we don’t create key vulnerabilities or dependencies that an adversary can exploit.”
On Space and Disaggregated Capabilities
Quote from Gen. Slife:
“There may be an airborne element to that; there may be a space-based element to that…we’re doing a lot of integration with our sister services on this.”
Quote from Hon. Andrew Hunter:
“When it comes to space and air superiority, we need to move fast in building foundations for mission systems, including in areas like ISR, to address moving target indications at scale.”
On Budgetary and Acquisition Challenges
Quote from Gen. Slife:
“The only thing more expensive than an effective deterrent is the lack of one…we’ve got to get the costs of the Sentinel program under control.”
Quote from Hon. Andrew Hunter:
“Moving fast is only effective when paired with the right capabilities…our collaborative combat aircraft program went from inception to vendors bending metal in two years, but we’re also focusing on long-term planning for capabilities.”
On National Security and Nuclear Deterrence
Quote from Gen. Slife:
“Sentinel is the current program of record. The ICBM is critical for our nuclear deterrent…we’re going line-by-line through the program to ensure cost control.”
Quote from Hon. Andrew Hunter:
“We underestimated the complexity of the ground infrastructure for the Sentinel program, and we’re now working to simplify it while maintaining the security and reliability needed for our national nuclear deterrence strategy.”
On Space Force Integration and Future Capabilities
Quote from Gen. Slife:
“Our operational imperatives are focused largely on mission outcomes, and part of that includes integrating capabilities like space-based ISR and air superiority in a contested environment.”
[End]
Panel: Building Space Infrastructure
Speaker:
Dr. Derek Tournear, Director, Space Development Agency
Quotes:
On Space Force & Satellites:
“We launched tranche zero, which is 28 satellites total. We launched 27 of them. We left one on the ground for a software test bed to help us debug and get through flight software updates quicker.”
“Link 16 from space is critical to getting tactical data directly to the warfighter without any impact to their user equipment.”
“The SDA’s proliferated warfighter space architecture is designed to ensure that Space Force can present operational capabilities to combatant commanders by the end of 2025.”
“The Space Force can say, ‘I’m presenting that it could be for military utility.’ That’s going to take longer if we’re not able to do those tests with the cadence we could do over national airspace.”
On Proliferated Space Architectures & Capabilities
“The big question was whether or not we could do proliferated constellations for this whole architecture. Number one, could we in fact do Link 16 from space? That’s the biggest question.”
“We demonstrated that with our Australian partners to show that we really collaborate with our allies.”
“Link 16 from space had never been done before… we were the first one.”
On Budget Numbers & Costs:
“Our budget is roughly $4 billion a year. We had $4.6 billion in FY24, but to first order, $4 billion a year. That’s $2 billion for tracking and $2 billion for transport.”
“The cost per transport satellite is roughly $14 million, and tracking satellites are higher at about $44 million.”
“Congress has been supportive of the $2 billion per layer per year model because it provides them with a predictable cost structure and avoids the big spending spikes.”
On National Security & Missile Tracking:
“Missile tracking from LEO is one of our key national security missions. We’ve been able to detect multiple missile launches and rocket launches in real time.”
“For tranche three, the new capabilities will include phased arrays to allow us to go down to more users at a time and advancements in Link 16 encryption.”
“Our tracking satellites are designed for missile warning, missile tracking, and eventually missile defense, providing global missile defense as we move towards tranche three.”
“Our goal for tranche three is to build up global missile defense capabilities, but we’re still working on determining how many satellites will be required for that mission.”
On Satellite Launch & Production Challenges:
“Tranche zero was delayed by about six months due to COVID and supply chain issues, particularly in obtaining resistors and other components.”
“We’re going to launch around the end of this calendar year, and then we’ll have a cadence of one launch per month for tranche one, aiming for 10 launches in total.”
On Space Development Agency (SDA):
“At the Space Development Agency (SDA), we have good days and great days. Today’s a great day because we had some real success on our tranche zero satellites.”
“SDA’s goal is to maintain the proliferated warfighter space architecture. Two things make it work: spiral development every two years and the proliferation of hundreds and hundreds of satellites.”
“We pulled the Warfighter Council process in by six months to give us more margin to make sure that we can hit the tranche three launch date.”
[End]