An Update from the August 2021 Navy League Exposition: Shaping a Way Ahead for Maritime Autonomous Systems

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08/25/2021

By Jack Rowley

At the highest levels of U.S. intelligence and military policy documents, there is universal agreement that the United States remains at war, even after the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have wound down.

As the cost of capital platforms—especially ships and aircraft—continues to rise, the Department of Defense is increasingly looking to procure comparatively inexpensive unmanned systems as important assets to supplement the Joint Force.

As the United States builds a force structure to contend with high-end threats, one of the key technologies embraced are unmanned systems.

Both the DoD and the DoN envision a future force with large numbers of unmanned systems complementing manned platforms.

The conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have spurred the development of unmanned air vehicles and unmanned ground vehicles to meet urgent operational needs. As a result, the lion’s share of previous years DoD funding for unmanned systems has gone to air and ground systems, while funding for unmanned maritime systems (unmanned surface vehicles and unmanned underwater vehicles) has lagged.

However, this balance is shifting, as increasingly, warfighters recognize the need for unmanned maritime systems in the fight against high-end adversaries, as well as against nations to whom these adversaries export their weapons systems.

Like their air and ground counterparts, these unmanned maritime systems are valued because of their ability to reduce the risk to human life in high threat areas, to deliver persistent surveillance over areas of interest, and to provide options to warfighters that derive from the inherent advantages of unmanned technologies.

The U.S. DoD Commitment to Unmanned Systems

The U.S. Department of Defense’s vision for unmanned systems is to integrate these assets into the Joint Force. Because unmanned systems are used by all the military services, the DoD publishes a roadmap to provide an overarching vision for the military’s use of unmanned systems.

An article published in Inside the Navy soon after the new roadmap’s release noted, “The Defense Department’s new 30-year unmanned systems plan—the first update of the roadmap in four years—aims to chart a three-decade guide for the rapidly developing field of unmanned systems technology.”

The most recent roadmap, the FY 2017-2042 Unmanned Systems Integrated Roadmap, singled out the need for enhanced UxS autonomy, noting:

“DoD maintains a vision for the continued expansion of unmanned systems into the Joint Force structure, and identifies areas of interest and investment that will further expand the potential integration of unmanned systems. The intent of this document is to provide overarching strategic guidance that will align the Services’ unmanned systems goals and efforts with the DoD strategic vision…

“As DoD has embraced the use of unmanned systems across nearly every operating environment, this strategy will allow DoD to capitalize on the technology advancements and paradigm shift that unmanned systems provide.”

As the Unmanned Systems Integrated Roadmap notes, unmanned systems are especially important assets in those areas where the U.S. military faces a peer competitor with robust defenses.

The Joint Operational Access Concept identifies, “Unmanned systems, which could loiter to provide intelligence collection or fires in the objective area,” as a key capability that is especially valuable in areas where an adversary has substantial defenses that can limit access of U.S. and coalition forces.

And unmanned systems are a key component in executing the United States AirSea Battle Concept (now re-branded as the Joint Concept for Access and Maneuver in the Global Commons, or JAM-GC) in high threat areas such as the Western Pacific, where adversary defensive systems pose an unacceptably high risk to manned aircraft and surface platforms.

The U.S. Navy Vision for Unmanned Systems

The U.S. Navy has a rich history of unmanned systems development. That history needs no retelling here. What is important is the fact that a series of recent studies have helped the Navy develop a vision for unmanned systems, as well establish goals for integrating these assets into the Fleet. The U.S. Navy’s commitment to—and dependence on—unmanned systems is also seen in the Navy’s official Force Structure Assessment, as well as in a series of “Future Fleet Architecture Studies.”

In each of these studies: one by the Chief of Naval Operations Staff, one by the MITRE Corporation, and one by the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, the proposed Navy future fleet architecture had large numbers of air, surface, and subsurface unmanned systems as part of the Navy force structure.

Indeed, these reports highlight the fact that the attributes that unmanned systems can bring to the U.S. Navy fleet circa 2030 have the potential to be truly transformational.

In his FRAGO 01/2019 order, Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Michael Gilday, reemphasized the Navy’s commitment to a plan for a future fleet with substantial numbers of unmanned systems. The U.S. Navy is planning for a substantial investment in unmanned systems—especially unmanned surface systems. For example, the Navy established a “Surface Development Squadron,” to experiment with unmanned ships.

Future development ideas call for a “Ghost Fleet” of autonomous unmanned surface ships that could operate against an enemy force without putting Sailors in harm’s way.

And it should come as no surprise that Congress is increasingly interested in the Navy’s progress on unmanned surface vehicles, as witnessed by an increasing number of Congressional Research Service reports on USVs.

As another indication of the U.S. Navy’s commitment to an unmanned future, a panel of naval experts from various organizations emphasized this commitment and provided part of the “why” behind the Navy’s course change. Ronald O’Rourke, naval affairs specialist at the Congressional Research Service, noted that, “The Navy’s next force structure assessment likely will add significant numbers of large and medium-sized unmanned surface vessels to meet the challenges of a new era of Great Power competition. The emphasis on unmanned for the new shift in Fleet composition would show the urgency with which the Navy is attacking the situation, even without a concept of operations as to how these vessels would be used.”

Bryan Clark, senior fellow of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, noted that, “One reason for the move was the speed to which unmanned vessels can integrate into the Fleet. You are much more likely to find a way to use unmanned single-mission vessels in the Fleet than new multi-mission manned vessels.

More recently, the America’s new maritime strategy, Advantage at Sea, reconfirms the Navy’s commitment to unmanned systems as an important part of the Sea Service’s assets, noting, in part, “Cost-effective platforms and manned-unmanned teaming will increase the capacity of the Fleet and expand our ability to distribute our forces…Naval forces will mix larger platforms with standoff capabilities and smaller, more-affordable platforms—including optionally manned or unmanned assets—that increase our offensive lethality and speed of maneuver.”

The strategy operationalizes the Navy’s Unmanned Campaign Framework. Advantage at Sea goes on to note:

“Our unmanned campaign plan will synchronize our efforts to field a multi-domain portfolio of shore-launched and sea-launched unmanned platforms with urgency.

“Unmanned ISR platforms will add capability to monitor, record, and report instances of coercive behavior, providing evidence suitable for diplomatic engagement and public audiences.

“They will also add capability for scouting, targeting, communications, and battle damage assessment. Weapons platforms will add inventory depth while supporting platforms provide additional capacity and flexibility.”

As an adjunct to the Unmanned Campaign Framework, in July of this year, the Navy published a Science & Technology Strategy for Intelligent Autonomous Systems which reinforces the Navy’s commitment to equip its unmanned systems with the artificial intelligence required to make them more and more autonomous.

It is difficult to overstate the importance of these two reports in putting the Navy on a path for fully leveraging unmanned systems as warfighting partners.

Several Streams Came Together at the 2021 Navy League SeaAirSpace Exposition

It is one thing to issue documents providing a vision for unmanned systems, and quite another to bring together disparate groups—operational military, acquisition professionals and defense-focused industry firms—in one place.

This occurred earlier this month at the annual Navy League SeaAirSpace Exposition.

Whether it was senior officials reinforcing the need for unmanned systems, key acquisition leaders articulating the plan to rapidly integrate unmanned systems into the Fleet, or industry professionals demonstrating the attributes of their unmanned platforms, it is likely that this event has helped accelerate the U.S. Navy’s unmanned journey.

In his keynote address at NLUS SAS, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, said this about the DoD’s vision for unmanned systems as well as the technologies that make UxS more capable:

“The rapid development of a vast array of new technologies is changing the fundamental character of war, and if the U.S. military fails to adapt, it could mean future generations would suffer massive casualties in the next major power conflict.

“About 40 to 50 new technologies will evolve very rapidly in the next 15 to 20 years and will fundamentally change the character of war. Unmanned systems, artificial intelligence, 5G technology and other concepts that will be available to all major powers. The nation that masters those technologies is likely to have a distinct advantage.”

In a U.S. Navy-focused briefing, the Naval Sea Systems Command program manager for unmanned maritime systems (PMS-406), Captain Peter Small, presented a program overview detailing the breadth and depth of the Navy’s plans for unmanned maritime systems describing the Navy’s commitment to unmanned surface warfare as well as unmanned undersea warfare, describing some of the platforms the that the Navy is testing and evaluating to fulfill a number of warfighting missions.

In other venues, Captain Small has explained how the U.S. Navy has been testing and evaluating a wide range of unmanned maritime systems prototypes. While some of the vehicles being tested, such as ONR’s CARACaS, are funded via various U.S. Navy means, many others are prototypes that industry brings to various events at their own expense in order for Navy officials to see their product in the operational environment.

Two of these unmanned maritime systems on display at NLUS SAS were the Devil Ray and MANTAS USVs, both manufactured by Florida-based Maritime Tactical Systems, Inc. (MARTAC).

The reason why Navy League officials invited MARTAC to bring these two platforms (the 12-foot MANTAS and 38-foot Devil Ray), to NLUS SAS was that they are leading candidates to fulfill the Navy’s desire to integrate unmanned maritime systems into the Fleet as rapidly as possible.

Both USVs are commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) products that have been put in the hands of U.S. Sailors and Marines in the past several years in a series of U.S. Navy and Marine Corps exercises, experiments and demonstrations.

These events were as diverse as the Ship-to-Shore Maneuver Exploration and Experimentation and Advanced Naval Technology Exercise, the Battlespace Preparation in a Contested Environment, the Surface Warfare Distributed Lethality in the Littoral demonstration,  the Bold Alligator exercise series, and Valiant Shield, Trident Warrior, Integrated Battle Problem UxS 2021, Coastal Trident, and others.

The reason that these USVs are at Technology Readiness Level Nine (TRL-9—the actual system has been proven through successful mission operations) is that, since 2016, these platforms have been placed in the hands of Sailors and Marines who have provided invaluable feedback that enabled MARTAC engineers to upgrade and make serial improvements to both the X-Class MANTAS and the Expeditionary-Class Devil Ray.

Hundreds of NLUS SAS attendees saw the MANTAS  T12 and Expeditionary-Class Devil Ray T38E “up close and personal” and received an operational and technical briefing on the craft from MARTAC CEO, Bruce Hanson.

He explained the performance of these craft in the multiple missions they performed in the Navy, Marine Corps and Army events listed above.

While prose descriptions of these MANTAS and Expeditionary-Class Devil Ray attributes – as well as the still pictures accompanying this article – are useful in understanding just what these COTS USVs can bring to the fight, sometimes a video conveys so much more.

The short video clip on the authoritative Naval News website below puts you in the Devil Ray as it goes through its paces at NLUS SAS.

A Way Ahead for Unmanned Maritime Systems to Support the U.S. Navy

As the U.S. Navy is challenged by Congress regarding its ambitious plans to develop families of large, medium and smaller unmanned systems in all domains, one way to alleviate these concerns is to move forward with the fielding of proven commercial-off-the-shelf systems that have been thoroughly tested in a wide range of Navy and Marine Corps exercises, experiments and demonstrations.

While evolutionary in nature, this disruptive capability delivered using COTS technologies such as the Devil Ray and MANTAS USVs as can provide the U.S. Navy with near-term solutions to vexing operational challenges, while demonstrating to a skeptical Congress that the Navy does have a concept-of-operations to employ the unmanned systems it wishes to procure.

NLUS SAS was a big stage for all stakeholders to see these USVs “up close and personal.”

This approach can deliver needed capabilities to the Fleet and Fleet Marine Forces today, rather than on some distant, future horizon.

Attendees at NLUS SAS are likely to not only be more knowledgeable regarding the promise and prospect for unmanned maritime systems, but having seen TRL-9 COTS systems ready to deploy, they are additionally more confident that the U.S. Navy can actually execute its ambitious plans to integrate unmanned systems into the Fleet today and tomorrow.

Jack Rowley is the Chief Technology Officer and Senior Naval Architect and Ocean Engineer with Maritime Tactical Systems (MARTAC).

Guided Missile Training

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U.S. Marines assigned to 3d Battalion, 12th Marine Regiment, 3d Marine Division, fire Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems during Exercise Talisman Sabre 21 on Shoalwater Bay Training Area, Queensland, Australia, July 19, 2021.

TS21, the ninth iteration and conducted since 2005, occurs biennially across Northern Australia. Australian, U.S. and other multinational partner forces use Talisman Sabre to enhance interoperability by training in complex, multi-domain operations scenarios that address the full range of Indo-Pacific security concerns.

CAMP GROWL, AUSTRALIA

07.19.2021

Video by Sgt. Tyvel Clement U.S. Army Pacific Public Affairs Office

The Taliban Shaping the Afghan Narrative: Afghanistan Goes Dark

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08/24/2021

By Pierre Tran

Paris – The prospect of the Taliban exercising a severe grip on Afghan society fuels fears for the rights of Afghan women, lives of journalists, and freedom of the press in a stricken nation.

That grim outlook for independent reporting has led to calls for governments around the world to rally round and help Afghan media workers who seek to leave Afghanistan.

Media groups called Aug. 23 on governments to take “immediate action” to support media workers, said the International Federation of Journalists, a Brussels-based independent organization.

“A group of media support organisations, including the IFJ, has called on the Media Freedom Coalition (MFC) of governments to commit and take immediate action to support Afghan media workers,” the IFJ said.

Deadly proof of hostile intent came with Taliban insurgents killing Aug. 19 a relative of a journalist of Deutsche Welle, the German public sector broadcaster, as they went in pursuit  of the DW editor.

A door-to-door search for the DW journalist led to the killing of the member of the family, severely injuring another, and forcing flight of other relatives, DW reported. Those family members were now on the run.

Toofan Omar, head of Paktia Ghag Radio, a private broadcaster, had been targeted and killed  by Taliban fighters, while Nematullah Hemat of Gharghasht TV, a private television station, had been kidnapped, DW reported.

Afghan memories of an older generation are marked by public stoning and whipping under the Taliban interpretation of the Sharia law, when the radical Islamist movement ruled in the 1990s. Since the ouster of the Taliban in 2001, a younger generation of Afghans grew up with women working in a large media community.

All that is about to change.

Women journalists come under great threat, as the Taliban see their gender putting them in a subordinate role. There are reports of the insurgents seizing women and girls for wives, and accounts of rape, British daily The Guardian reported Aug. 16.

“In the last 24 hours, our lives have changed and we have been confined to our homes, and death threatens us at every moment,” said Aaisha, a woman journalist, the daily reported.

“We see silence filled with fear of the Taliban around us,” she said. The name of the journalist was changed.

In the UK, the government led by Boris Johnson, a former journalist, agreed to waive lengthy visa requirements to bring Afghan media workers into Britain, in response to a call from the National Union of Journalists, broadcasters and newspapers.

More than 200 Afghan journalists and their close family will receive speeded up evacuation, but there is grave concern on getting them to the airport, The Observer reported Aug. 22. There is also need to get more than 80 Afghan nationals who had worked for the British Council out of the country.

The International Federation of Journalists, backed by the NUJ, is calling for nation states to help journalists and their families to get out of the country by granting visas, safe passage to the airport, and to keep the airport secure for evacuation flights.

The IFJ, working in the Media Freedom Coalition Consultative Network, calls for an easing of funding transfer to Afghanistan, and insisting on Afghanistan to uphold human rights principles in the Aug. 24  special session on Afghanistan of the UN human rights council.

Taliban to control news flow

“For the Afghan journalists who stay on in the country, the outlook is for the media to be dominated by the Taliban,” said Gilles Dorronsoro, professor of political science at Paris Panthéon-Sorbonne university.

“There will not be a multiparty system, Sharia religious rules will apply, and there will be public censorship,” he said.

The attempt to evacuate media workers is “chaotic,” which was initially due to lack of organization among western nations, he said.

“The CIA held up the allies’ evacuation effort by controlling those who sought to enter the Kabul airport by the northern entrance,” he said. “The CIA sought to conduct a security check to prevent terrorists taking the evacuation flights. That security check was done extremely slowly and without consultation with western partner nations.

“The evacuation is highly fluid and it is hard to tell how many journalists have been flown out,” he said.

The US supported Afghan media, particularly local radio, before the Nato withdrawal in 2014, he said. After 2014, the local media lacked protection from western nations.

There were physical threats from the bodyguards of the then president Ashraf Ghani and the Taliban, he said. “Male journalists dominated the Afghan media, with the notable exception of television, in which there were women presenters.”

For Rony Brauman, former head of Médecins Sans Frontières, a non governmental aid agency, the evacuation is the culmination of a 20-year “bubble of isolation” pursued by western nations.

That extended occupation by the west fostered a structural problem of social, political, and military isolation, and the present crisis was the “hubris of nation building,” he said.

However, there were perhaps grounds for hope, he said, as the Taliban needed to adopt a “collegial” approach to form a new administration. That would require the Taliban leaders accepting that much has changed in Afghan society over the last 20 years.

The Taliban will also need to foster relations with international organizations and their neighbours, including Iran, led by Shi’ite muslims, he said. That could lead the Taliban to a softer approach to the Shi’ite community in Afghanistan.

Back in 2001, Laura Bush, the then first lady, said in the weekly radio address to the nation there was need for support to women and children in Afghanistan.

“Fighting brutality against women and children is not the expression of a specific culture; it’s the acceptance of our common humanity, a commitment shared by people of good will on every continent,” she said Nov. 17 2001.

Featured Graphic: Map of Central Asia with Afghanistan captured by the Taliban. Instead of the flag of Afghanistan, there is a Taliban sign on the contour of the country. Northern neighbors of Afghanistan after Taliban seized the country. Credit: Bigstock

 

The Next Phase of the Germany-Norwegian Submarine Program

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According to a July 7, 2021 story published by the Norwegian Ministry of Defence, the German-Norwegian submarine program has moved to its next phase of development.

Today, the procurement agencies, Norwegian Defence Materiel Agency (NDMA) in Norway and Bundesamt für Ausrüstnung, Informationstechnik und Nutzung der Bundeswehr (BAAINBw) in Germany, signed the contract for new submarines together with thyssekrupp Marine Systems. In addition, the contract with Kongsberg Defence and Aerospace for new naval strike missiles was signed. The Royal Norwegian Ministry of Defence signed the agreement for industrial cooperation.

– An important milestone has been met in the strategic cooperation with Germany on new submarines. I want to give credit to those who have worked hard to keep the schedule and land the contracts and the agreement on industrial cooperation, Minister of Defence Frank Bakke-Jensen states.

The new submarines will be delivered from 2029 and will be in operational service into the 2060’s. The agreement on industrial cooperation signed will contribute to open up the German market for Norwegian defence industry. An event celebrating the cooperation between Germany and Norway will take place in Kiel after summer, and will include the unveiling of a model of the new, common submarines of the 212CD class.

Featured Photo: Director General Mette Sørfonden in Norwegian Defence Materiel Agency signing the contract July 8th 2021. Credit: Endre Lunde.

We discuss the evolution of Norwegian defense and key collaborative programs in their defense modernization in our book on the way ahead for European defense:

 

G/ATOR Training

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08/23/2021

U.S. Marines with 3d Battalion, 12th Marine Regiment, 3d Marine Division, conduct a functions test for a Ground Air Task Oriented Radar in preparation for Talisman Saber 2021 at Shoalwater Bay Training Area, Queensland, Australia, July 14, 2021.

This is the ninth iteration of Talisman Sabre, a large-scale, bilateral military exercise between Australia and the U.S. involving more than 17,000 participants from seven nations.

SHOALWATER BAY, QLD, AUSTRALIA

07.14.2021

Video by Cpl. Levi Guerra

3rd Marine Division

France, Afghanistan, and Evacuation Dynamics

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08/20/2021

By Pierre Tran

Paris – A third French military flight was due to arrive in the evening of Aug. 19 at Paris Charles De Gaulle airport, bringing in more than 200 evacuees from Afghanistan, the armed forces ministry said.

“The evacuation operations launched on Sunday evening are continuing,” the ministry said in a statement. “A third flight transporting more than 200 people, among them French and a large majority of Afghan nationals will arrive at Roissy-Charle De Gaulle airport in the evening, today.”

A speeded up process of granting visas to foreign nationals had been set up, after the necessary checks and with the aim of ensuring national security, the ministry said. The ministries for defense, foreign affairs, interior, and health aimed to receive the evacuees in the best conditions.

The air force flew the evacuees on a A330 multirole transport tanker (MRTT) to France, after flying them out of Kabul on an A400M transport plane, with a stop over at the Abu Dhabi Al Dhafra airbase.

Flights since Aug. 16 have allowed evacuation of almost 500 French and Afghan nationals, as well as those of partner nations, the foreign ministry said.

The French services launched Aug. 15 the joint operation Apagan to fly evacuees in an emergency air bridge from Kabul to the Abu Dhabi and then on to the French capital.

The Taliban took control of the Afghan capital that Sunday, sparking a rush of Afghans and foreign nationals to the airport urgently seeking flight from the Islamist insurgents.

Special forces flew out on the military flight of a C-130 and an A400M in the evacuation mission, president Emmanuel Macron said Aug. 16 in a televised address to the nation.

The French had to “negotiate” with the Taliban to allow the passage of French and Afghan nationals from the French embassy to the airport – a distance of just a few kilometers, the head of the French RAID special weapons and tactics police unit, Jean-Baptiste Dulion, said on RTL radio on Wednesday night.

A video on social media shows a stream of vehicles leaving the embassy to take the evacuees to be flown out on Tuesday night. France closed down the embassy and the diplomatic staff were working at the airport to get the clearances for evacuees to be flown out.

The second French evacuation flight on an A330 MRTT landed at Charle De Gaulle airport Aug. 18, bringing more than 200 evacuees, including 25 French nationals, the foreign ministry said in a statement. There were nationals of other countries, with a large majority of Afghan nationals, and a “significant number of women and children.”

“Afghans who would like to remain in France in the long term will be supported in practical and administrative ways with their asylum applications,” the ministry said. “They will benefit from specialist support with their residence permit applications and integration processes. They will receive France’s full help.”

The first evacuation flight on an A310 jet on Aug. 17 carried out 41 evacuees, comprising French and foreign nationals. An elite Gurkha unit, which acted as guards to the French embassy, was on that flight, returning home after completing their mission, said David Martinon, the French ambassador, Agence France-Presse reported.

Western retreat opens doors

The collapse of Western power — led by the U.S .— in Afghanistan has sparked grave debate over the future politics of the region, with reports of the Taliban reaching out to China, Russia and Iran while they were holding talks in Qatar with the Americans over the US withdrawal.

The Chinese, Russian and Iranian embassies remained open in Kabul and those three nations were in constant contact with the Taliban, Indian website First Post reported. China and Iran have common borders with Afghanistan, and the Taliban have assured the Russian embassy would be respected, Russian ambassador Dmitry Zhirnov said.

Russia has a troubled past with Afghanistan, having been forced out of military occupation in the 1980s. Moscow held military exercises with Uzbekistan and Tajikistan on the Afghan border as a show of force this summer, while the Taliban swept through Afghanistan, First Post reported.

India was keeping a close eye on fast changing events in Afghanistan, which threatened an Indian project with Afghanistan and Iran to build a port in Chabahar, eastern Iran. There were concerns that “changing circumstances” in Afghanistan would derail the port project, leaving the field open to a rival port project backed by China in Gwadar, Pakistan.

Pakistan, a neighbor to Afghanistan, has been seen as the rear base for the Taliban, and has long been a hardened rival to India.

A lack of U.S. consultation with its allies has been reported as a failure to honor president Joe Biden’s message, “America is back.”

In the UK, daily papers reported sharp criticism of the US in an Aug. 18 parliamentary debate on Afghanistan, with the conservative Daily Telegraph daily splashing a hostile headline, “Parliament holds the president in contempt.”

UK foreign minister Dominic Raab refused to resign following press reports he had declined to call his Afghan counterpart to arrange visas for Afghan nationals who had worked as interpreters for the British army. Raab was on holiday at a luxury hotel in Crete at the time, and declined civil servants’ advice to make that call rather than assign it to a junior minister.

A German air force A400M flew on Monday from Kabul with just seven evacuees, which the foreign ministry explained was due to “chaotic circumstances” and “regular exchanges of fire” at the airport. An A400M can seat 114 passengers.

That German flight stood in contrast to pictures of a U.S. air force C-17 carrying some 640 evacuees on a rescue flight.

For France, which seeks to unwind a longstanding military mission in the Sahel sub-Saharan Africa, there was debate whether the U.S. retreat from Afghanistan might provide lessons. France is reducing its deployment in Mali this year.

Iyad Ag Ghali, a Malian jihadist leader of a branch of the al Qaida movement in the Sahel, welcomed the events in Afghanistan and the attack on the credibility of American power.

In an unusual Aug. 10 message to the public, Ag Ghali welcomed the creation of the Islamic emirate of Afghanistan and the withdrawal of the “American forces of invasion and their allies,” afternoon daily Le Monde reported Aug. 18. That reversal was “the result of twenty years of patience.”

Ag Hali has not made public statements since November 2019. Ag Ghali is leader of the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims, and has long been on the wanted list of the French for deadly attacks on French, Malian and UN forces in Mali.

Islamist insurgents of the al Qaeda and Islamic State have fought for a decade for control of Mali, which France has struggled to contain – first with the Serval operation in January 2013, then the Barkhane mission, which broadened the anti-insurgency campaign with partner nations Burkino Faso, Chad, Mauritania and Niger.

Macron said June 10 the Barkhane military mission will be wound down but France will remain in the region, with between 2,500-3,000 troops deployed in an “anti-terrorist intervention,” Le Monde reported. That would be a cut from the 5,100 French troops committed to Barkhane.

An orderly French withdrawal might differ radically from the collapse of Kabul, but there was concern the closing of military bases in Timbuktu, Kidal and Tissalit, in the north of Mali, might lead to the fall of those cities to Islamist insurgents, the daily reported. Those bases were due to close by the end of this year.

Eighty nine French soldiers died in Afghanistan since the international intervention began in 2001, with the last falling on Aug. 5 2013, a non-commissioned officer who had 22 years of service with the air force, the defense ministry website shows.

Featured Photo: French army members board a French Air Force Airbus A400M ATLAS ahead of an operation to evacuate several dozen French citizens from Afghanistan, as Western nations scramble to repatriate their citizens after the Taliban took control of Kabul, at Bricy Air Base, Orleans, France, August 16, 2021. Etat-major des Armees/Handout via REUTERS

HIMARS Training

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U.S. Marines assigned to 3d Battalion, 12th Marine Regiment, 3d Marine Division, fire Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems during Exercise Talisman Sabre 21 at Shoalwater Bay Training Area, Queensland, Australia, July 19, 2021.

TS21, the ninth iteration and conducted since 2005, occurs biennially across Northern Australia.

SHOALWATER BAY, QLD, AUSTRALIA

07.19.2021

Video by Staff Sgt. Laiqa Hitt 3rd Marine Division

The Launch of Australia’s Defence Data Strategy

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08/19/2021

According to an article published by the Australian Department of Defence on August 4, 2021, the government has launched a new defence data strategy.

The world is experiencing rapid digitisation and growth in the creation of data.

The increasing connection of services to the internet is exposing vulnerabilities in global supply chains, a potential precursor to conventional conflict. Emerging technologies, highly dependent on data, are being rapidly translated into weapons systems. Technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning and autonomous unmanned weaponry, are shrinking decision time and improving weapon precision and lethality.

Data underpins the ability to make rapid and informed decisions. Lead the Way: Defence Transformation Strategy recognises that the effective use and management of data is critical to everything Defence does.

Unlocking the power of Defence data will help automate processes and reporting, increasing the ability to make informed decisions regarding strategy, capability, and resources.

On 4 August, the Assistant Minister for Defence, The Honourable Andrew Hastie MP launched the Defence Data Strategy 2021-2023.

The Strategy outlines the pillars, practical initiatives and priority data areas that will guide Defence in uplifting data management and analytics across the organisation.

The five pillars in the Strategy – govern, trust, discover, use and share – will help guide data management across the organisation and will enable Defence to use data more effectively as circumstances change.

The Defence Data Strategy demonstrates the investment in data capability within the Defence workforce. Implementing the Strategy will fundamentally changing the way Defence manages and works with data, building strong data literacy and analytic skillsets.

The Strategy will uplift Defence enterprise data management and analytics practices in order to deliver on the Defence vision and mission.

The 2020 Defence Strategic Update identified that Australia’s security environment has deteriorated. Major power competition, military modernisation, disruptive technological change and new threats are all making our region less safe. As the strategic environment changes around us, we have to change with it.

Defence, as a matter of necessity, must continue to improve its ability to deliver on its current commitments while retaining the organisational capacity to anticipate and respond effectively to strategic challenges.

We recognise that the Defence enterprise is a strategic national asset, and we are responsible for it.

Just as we raise, train and sustain our military capabilities and our uniformed people, we must also ensure our enterprise can always adapt to our changing strategic environment.

This requires a high-performing One Defence enterprise with a culture that embraces continuous improvement.

Defence must lead the way in clearly demonstrating our ability to deliver our enterprise outcomes, and to provide maximum value to the people of Australia.

This means that we must have the ability to:

  • Learn about our environment, our risks, our opportunities, and our own performance
  • Evolve how we operate our enterprise, support and develop our people, and deepen our partnerships
  • Align our priorities, our processes, our systems, and how we engage and communicate inside and outside Defence, and
  • Deliver the Defence Mission and strategic effects, through our capabilities, our services, and by clearly demonstrating Defence’s value to the nation.

To achieve this ability, we require:

  • A continuous improvement culture, based on our Values and Behaviours, clear accountabilities and trusted information.
  • An enduring system for transforming the Defence enterprise – this will be a continuous process to align resources to priorities, reform activities, opportunities and risks in accordance with our evolving strategy.
  • Priority reform areas of focus, which includes:
    • Driving Improved Capability Delivery.
    • Strengthening Defence’s approach to Australian Industry capability, including innovation, export and harnessing opportunities from Australian science and technology.
    • Adopting a strategic approach to Defence enterprise resilience and supply chain assurance.
    • Improving Defence’s Strategic Workforce Planning, Learning and Management.
    • Instituting an improved enterprise performance measurement and reporting framework.
    • Improving Defence engagement and communications.

The initiatives in this Strategy will help us to work together as One Defence to continuously improve and adapt to face our challenges.

The strategy can be found here:

https://www1.defence.gov.au/about/publications/defence-data-strategy-2021-2023

Or read as an e-book below: