Task Force Flexibility: The USS America Expeditionary Strike Group in the South China Sea

Posted on | by Robbin Laird | Leave a Comment on Task Force Flexibility: The USS America Expeditionary Strike Group in the South China Sea
04/27/2020

With the coming of the USS America amphibious assault ship, the USN/USMC team has significantly greater flexibility to shape a task force tailored to a wide range of missions and capable of working with a variety of diverse fleet assets.

A case in point is the operation of the Expeditionary Strike Group recently in the South China Sea.

According to MC3 Nicholas Huynh, USS Bunker Hill in an article published by the Commander of U.S. Pacific Fleet on April 21, 2020:

SOUTH CHINA SEA – The U.S. Navy and Royal Australian Navy came together for operations in the South China Sea starting April 13.

HMAS Parramatta (FFG 154) began sailing with Ticonderoga-class guided missile-cruiser USS Bunker Hill (CG 52) then rendezvoused with amphibious assault ship USS America (LHA 6) and Arleigh-Burke class guided missile destroyer USS Barry (DDG 52) April 18. Their combined operations started with force integration training and maneuvering exercises between Parramatta and Bunker Hill.

“It is great to be operating with the Australians again,” said Capt. Kurt Sellerberg, commanding officer of the USS Bunker Hill.

“Every time I have deployed to this region, and to the Middle East, I have had the good fortune to operate with the Royal Australian Navy.”

Operations with USS America started with a precision maneuvers that included Barry in the South China Sea.

“We look forward to every opportunity we get to work with our stalwart Australian allies at sea,” said Rear Adm. Fred Kacher, commander of the America Expeditionary Strike Group. “To bring this much combat capability together here in the South China Sea truly signals to our allies and partners in the region that we are deeply committed to a free and open Indo-Pacific.”

Operations with Parramatta have included integrated live fire exercises, coordinated helicopter operations, small boat force protection drills, command and control integration, and maneuvering interoperability.

“San Diego [HM-60] ‘Romeo’ pilots have a long flying history with Australian pilots,” said Lt. Cmdr Jacob “Shaky” Norgaard, “it’s a great opportunity to strengthen our relationship and practice joint tactics, techniques and procedures.”

The events gave both navies the opportunity to integrate all warfare areas, and further strengthen the bond between both countries.

“I was super pumped to participate in cross-deck operations with the Royal Australian Navy,” said Lt. Rachael “Janet” Davis.

“We are stronger together, and this type of integration promotes our commitment to maritime security as well as increases our presence here.”

The U.S. and Australia share a long history of integrated military exercises. Over 3,000 U.S. Sailors and Marines had the opportunity to observe or participate in the combined exercise.

“They have the same interest in ensuring freedom of navigation and observance of internationally accepted norms and customs pertaining to the law of the sea,” said Sellerberg.

“The Aussies are true professionals in every sense of the word, and our current combined deployment exemplifies a shared commitment to our historically strong and enduring relationship.”

(L-R) Royal Australian Navy helicopter frigate HMAS Parramatta conducts officer of the watch manoeuvres with guided-missile cruiser USS Bunker Hill, amphibious assault ship USS America and guided-missile destroyer USS Barry in the South China Sea.
(L-R) Royal Australian Navy helicopter frigate HMAS Parramatta (top right) conducts officer of the watch manoeuvres with amphibious assault ship USS America (top middle), guided-missile destroyer USS Barry (top left) and guided-missile cruiser USS Bunker Hill (right) in the South China Sea
(L-R) Amphibious assault ship USS America, Royal Australian Navy helicopter frigate HMAS Parramatta, guided-missile destroyer USS Barry and guided-missile cruiser USS Bunker Hill conduct officer of the watch manoeuvres in the South China Sea.
(L-R) Royal Australian Navy helicopter frigate HMAS Parramatta conducts officer of the watch manoeuvres with amphibious assault ship USS America, guided-missile cruiser USS Bunker Hill and guided-missile destroyer USS Barry in the South China Sea.
Royal Australian Navy helicopter frigate HMAS Parramatta (top right) conducts officer of the watch manoeuvres in the South China Sea with amphibious assault ship USS America (top middle), guided-missile destroyer USS Barry (top left) and guided-missile cruiser USS Bunker Hill (rear).
A Royal Australian Navy MH-60R Seahawk helicopter takes off from HMAS Parramatta.
A Royal Australian Navy MH-60R Seahawk helicopter is refuelled during flying stations onboard HMAS Parramatta.
Royal Australian Navy Leading Seaman Aviation Technician Avionics Aaron Lever marshals an MH-60R Seahawk helicopter during flying stations onboard HMAS Parramatta.
Royal Australian Navy Petty Officer Aircrew Raymond Solomon dons his helmet for flying stations onboard HMAS Parramatta.
Royal Australian Navy Landing Safety Officer, Lieutenant Michael Skea, supervises flying stations onboard HMAS Parramatta.
A Royal Australian Navy MH-60R Seahawk helicopter prepares to conduct winching operations from the forecastle during flying stations onboard HMAS Parramatta.
Royal Australian Navy Leading Seaman Aviation Technician Avionics Michael Pearse marshals an MH-60R Seahawk helicopter during flying stations onboard HMAS Parramatta.
Royal Australian Navy Leading Seaman Aviation Technician Avionics Michael Pearse marshals an MH-60R Seahawk helicopter during flying stations onboard HMAS Parramatta.
A Royal Australian Navy MH-60R Seahawk helicopter takes off from HMAS Parramatta.
USNS Cesar Chavez provides fuel to HMAS Parramatta during a replenishment at sea.
A Royal Australian Navy MH-60R Seahawk helicopter flies past HMAS Parramatta during the ship's East Asia Deployment.
USS Bunker Hill fires her guns on a practise target during a South China Sea transit with HMAS Parramatta.
A Royal Australian Navy MH-60R Seahawk helicopter takes off from HMAS Parramatta during a South China Sea transit.
A United States Navy MH-60R Seahawk helicopter conducts a vertical replenishment at sea between USNS Pecos and USS Bunker Hill in the South China Sea.
A United States Navy MH-60R Seahawk helicopter conducts a vertical replenishment between USNS Pecos and USS Bunker Hill in the South China Sea.
USS Bunker Hill takes station as escort vessel for a replenishment at sea between USNS Pecos and HMAS Parramatta in the South China Sea.
USS America (left) and USS Barry (right) conduct officer of the watch manoeuvres with HMAS Parramatta in the South China Sea.
USS Bunker Hill flies the United States national flag during officer of the watch manoeuvres with HMAS Parramatta in the South China Sea.
Leading Seaman Naval Police Coxswain Zachary Dean at the helm of HMAS Parramatta during officer of the watch manoeuvres with USS America (front) and USS Barry (centre)
(L-R) HMAS Parramatta conducts officer of the watch manoeuvres with USS Barry and USS America in the South China Sea.
The Commanding Officer of HMAS Parramatta, Commander Anita Nemarich, waves at USS America during officer of the watch manoeuvres in the South China Sea.
HMAS Parramatta (centre) breaks away from USS America (right) and USS Bunker Hill (left) on completion of officer of the watch manoeuvres in the South China Sea.

Boeing Exits Embraer Joint Venture: And Embraer Counters

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The Embraer KC-390 is seen in the photo above (credited to Embraer) and is one of the reasons Boeing signed a joint venture with Embraer in the first place.

The joint venture embraced this airplane as a core part of the way ahead for the joint venture.

In an October 1, 2018 report by Reuters the way ahead for the joint venture was highlighted:

“U.S. planemaker Boeing and Brazil’s Embraer are in talks to set up an assembly line to build KC-390 military cargo jets in the United States, Brazilian newspaper Valor Economico reported on Monday.

“In July, the two planemakers announced a deal to give Boeing an 80 percent stake in Embraer’s commercial aircraft arm, marking the biggest realignment in the global aerospace market in decades.

“At the time, the companies also announced a deeper sales and services partnership on the new KC-390 military cargo jet through a separate defense venture that they said was likely to eventually receive a joint investment.”

But on April 25, 2020, Boeing announced termination of it Master Transaction Agreement with Embraer although maintaining its Master Teaming Agreement with regard to the KC-390.

Boeing announced today that it has terminated its Master Transaction Agreement (MTA) with Embraer, under which the two companies sought to establish a new level of strategic partnership. The parties had planned to create a joint venture comprising Embraer’s commercial aviation business and a second joint venture to develop new markets for the C-390 Millennium medium airlift and air mobility aircraft.

Under the MTA, April 24, 2020, was the initial termination date, subject to extension by either party if certain conditions were met. Boeing exercised its rights to terminate after Embraer did not satisfy the necessary conditions.

“Boeing has worked diligently over more than two years to finalize its transaction with Embraer. Over the past several months, we had productive but ultimately unsuccessful negotiations about unsatisfied MTA conditions. We all aimed to resolve those by the initial termination date, but it didn’t happen,” said Marc Allen, president of Embraer Partnership & Group Operations. “It is deeply disappointing. But we have reached a point where continued negotiation within the framework of the MTA is not going to resolve the outstanding issues.” 

The planned partnership between Boeing and Embraer had received unconditional approval from all necessary regulatory authorities, with the exception of the European Commission. 

Boeing and Embraer will maintain their existing Master Teaming Agreement, originally signed in 2012 and expanded in 2016, to jointly market and support the C-390 Millennium military aircraft.

But we shall see.

Embraer has not reacted quietly.

In an article by Sandy Milne published today, the Brazilian company’s reaction was highlighted.

“Embraer maintains that Boeing is in breach of contract.

“In response to Boeing’s cancellation of the JV, Embraer quickly announced that it “will pursue all remedies against Boeing”.

“This is in addition to seeking payment of a $100 million breakup fee contained in the contract.”

Sound like a great basis for teaming on the KC-390.

 

Software, Operations, Training and Development: Working the New Combat Cycle for a Kill Web Force

Posted on | by Robbin Laird | Leave a Comment on Software, Operations, Training and Development: Working the New Combat Cycle for a Kill Web Force
04/26/2020

By Robbin Laird

One of the changes facing the emergence of the kill web force is recognizing that it is already here.

The current situation reminds one of Molière’s famous line spoken by his main character in his play on social relations in 18th Century France: “My faith! For more than forty years I have been speaking prose while knowing nothing of it, and I am the most obliged person in the world to you for telling me so.”

As we build out an integrated distributed force, terms which have been used in the previous legacy military operation environment, like C2, networks, ISR and software, take on very different meanings, and the legacy versus the kill web ways to talk about operations are also very different, but the terms look apparently the same, when they are not.

Software is a good case in point.

Our team has highlighted the importance of software upgradeability changing the nature of the modernization process of core platforms.

But seen within a platform disguises the true impact of being able to kill web wide innovations and modernizations which a new approach to code writing allows.

We have seen beginnings generated by new platforms like the Wedgetail, the F-35 and the P-8/Triton dyad, but these are just beginnings which lay down a way ahead.

Where we are headed is in a direction which could yield significant operational advantages whereby code re-writing is driven by operations and operations by training, and training driving development and looping back again into operations.

An aspect of this strategic shift is highlighted in the graphic at the beginning of this article which highlights the strategic opportunity to position one’s forces for transient software advantage.

Recently, Lt. Sean Lavelle, a part of the P-8 Navy team, discussed one aspect of change driven by the impact of software upgradeability as a strategic shift in a podcast with Eric Lofgren.

According to Lofgren:

I was pleased to speak with Navy Lieutenant Sean Lavelle on the Acquisition Talk podcast. He is the founder and lead of the iLoc development team, which rapidly deploys valuable software capabilities to the Navy’s P-8 fleet. During the episode, Sean describes how P-8 aviators took it upon themselves to code new applications that could solve hard problems with software rather than pencil and paper. One application reduced reporting errors by 90 percent.

 Sean provides a compelling vision of the future where operators also take on duties as software developers or product managers.

This doesn’t require everyone to have coding skills. The P-8A’s organic software team only has six rotating developers. Sean argues it is better to have many users involved in defining the business logic with a small team of software developers rather than a large software team with little access to user input.

The result is a continuous process where knowledge from the military operators can quickly get embodied in software and deployed to the entire fleet. Sean calls this “software-defined tactics,” and it’s a compelling concept indeed.

One of the many benefits is that it decreases the burden of training as operators are constantly involved in small changes. This is in contrast to the large and infrequent software drops from contractors, where increased capability often comes at the expense of increased complexity. It usually takes 3 or 4 years, for example, to train a P-8 tactical coordinator.

However, with the iLoc tools, a trainee of 6 months can reach a level of proficiency that used to take two or more years. Agile in-house software development vastly decreases complexity at the same time in generates new capabilities, allowing the U.S. military to scale much more rapidly in the event of conflict with a great power.

Drone Delivery Company Works to Deliver COVID-19 Supplies In Remote Areas of Ghana

Posted on | by Robbin Laird | Leave a Comment on Drone Delivery Company Works to Deliver COVID-19 Supplies In Remote Areas of Ghana

On-demand drone delivery specialist Zipline has been contracted by Ghana’s Ministry of Health to return COVID-19 test samples from health centers in the most remote areas of the country.

According to an official statement published on April 20, the U.S.-based company has already started to fly missions from four launch sites across the West African country to laboratory sites in Ghana’s Capital, Accra and second city Kumasi.

The “contactless” service will allow Ghana’s government to respond to the pandemic and help save lives “more quickly,” according to a statement released by Zipline CEO Keller Rinaudo.

Zipline’s solution, developed in tandem with the U.S. Defense Innovation Unit and Naval Medical Research Center’s Naval Advanced Medical Development (NMRC-NAMD), includes an autonomous launch and recovery system as well as Zipline drone.

The UAVS, which has a 3.3-meter (10.8 foot) wingspan, has been designed to carry payloads up to 4 pounds as far as 100 miles, company officials confirmed to Unmanned Systems. Operating at a top speed of 90 mph, the UAS is designed to parachute payloads onto a predesignated drop zone before returning to its launch location.

Each UAS includes redundant flight computers, motors, communications systems, flight controls, navigation and power systems. The drone, which can be controlled via GSM Cellular or Iridium Satellite communications signals, also features AES-128 encryption.

Speaking to Unmanned Systems, company spokesperson Justin Hamilton said Zipline is operating a total of four launch and recovery sites across Ghana, although additional expansion sites are planned.

Operations began on April 17with COVID-19 test samples transported from rural health facilities to a distribution center in Omenako. Four sorties, each comprising 70-mile round trips, allowed Zipline to deliver 51 samples to the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research in Accra for testing and analysis.

Similarly, COVID-19 test samples are being flown 30 miles from the Mapong distribution center to the Kumasi Center for Collaborative Research.

Descended and disinfected

Deliveries of test sample bundles are made from the sky, with each drone descending to a predetermined and safe altitude above ground level before dropping the load (packaged in a reinforced container) by parachute onto a designated drop zone.

Before retrieval by medical staff, boxes are disinfected using a spray device. Each delivery includes approximately 30 test samples or more, according to Zipline.

Claiming this to be the first time UAS have been used to facilitate the delivery of COVID-19 test samples, Hamilton suggested the concept of operation would allow the Ghanaian government to “more closely monitor and respond to the spread of the disease in some of the country’s most remote and challenging to reach areas.

“Before Zipline, COVID-19 test sample delivery could take many hours or many days for a delivery truck to collect a sufficient number of samples from rural hospitals and return them to the city.

“The time delay not only jeopardizes the government’s ability to respond swiftly but also increases the risk that samples can be damaged in transit due to broken cold-chain storage. Now, a single test from a rural area can be transported for analysis in under an hour,” he said.

Payloads are packaged in accordance with the World Health Organization’s Interim Laboratory Biosafety Guidelines for Handling and Processing Specimens Associated with Coronavirus Disease 2019. Zipline’s contract is expected to last “several years” with Ghana’s government, the company spokesperson added.

Furthermore, Zipline is ready to begin deliveries of personal protective equipment including face masks and gloves should it be deemed necessary by Ghana’s Ministry of Health.

U.S. support

As operations remain ongoing in Africa, Zipline is also in discussions to begin supporting COVID-19 operations in the United States.

“We plan to launch commercial operations in the fall, and we are in conversations to begin emergency operations within weeks of receiving the green light,” Hamilton said.

Initial support is likely to include deliveries to hospitals as well as patients’ homes around the country.

“The company believes that COVID-19 presents such an imminent threat to the country that it is prepared to begin emergency humanitarian operations right away,” says the company statement.

“Zipline’s emergency efforts in the U.S. would focus on distributing scarce resources like test samples and personal protective equipment across health systems more efficiently and effectively. The company can also help keep vulnerable non-COVID-19 patients with chronic and underlying conditions away from hospitals- both to prevent exposure and to keep them from overwhelming the system by delivering care to where they live,” the statement says.

Zipline UAS could also be used to distribute COVID-19 vaccines as and when they become available, Hamilton added.

Zipline continues to cooperate with the Federal Aviation Administration to facilitate such a concept of operation in the United States.

Zipline’s support of medical operations in Africa follows its deployment with U.S. and Australian armed forces on multiple exercises between July 30 and Sept. 5, 2019. UAS were deployed to deliver medical supplies, including fresh whole blood and water resupply across the battlefield in support of the U.S. Marine Corps and Australian Defence Force.

According to Hamilton, the exercise demonstrated the ability of the network to support a “logistics network of autonomous delivery drones to help transform emergency medicine and critical care in conflict, as well as in humanitarian and disaster relief scenarios.”

Published by AUVSI News on April 20, 2020.

Denmark Chairs NORDEFCO for 2020

Posted on | by Robbin Laird | Leave a Comment on Denmark Chairs NORDEFCO for 2020
04/24/2020

The NORDEFCO framework encompasses Finland and Sweden who are not members of NATO along with three members of NATO, namely Norway, Denmark and Iceland.

Their cooperation is an example of clusterization whereby like-minded states are finding ways to enhance their capabilities to work together in ways that a broader alliance, whether the European Union or NATO are simply unable to do given the multiple memberships.

As we argued in a 2017 article: “From the Cold War, to the Post-Cold War World to the post-9/11 World, to the post-shared sovereignty globalization world, we have entered  a new phase of global development whereby states are operating along the lines of working with aggregated interest “clusterizations “and promoting national interests.

“It is clear is that security threats have unleashed national reactions with various nations seeking to rebalance their position in the global order, and seeking to work with clusters of either like minded states, or with states capable of providing key need.”

NORDEFCO is a clearly a case in point. Recently, Denmark chaired the first NORDEFCO meeting of the year held under the conditions of COVID-19, which meant by teleconference.

According to a story on the Danish Ministry of Defence website published on March 30, 2020:

The defence ministers of the Nordic countries met today via teleconference during the first of their two annual meetings in the Nordic Defence Cooperation (NORDEFCO) under Danish chairmanship. A clear focus of the ministers’ discussions was on the current COVID-19 epidemic which is affecting all the Nordic societies. 

“The NORDEFCO cooperation is an important contribution to the Nordic countries defence and the regional security and stability in the Nordic area – not least in the current troubling situation that the COVID-19 out-break causes. In situations such as these our close cooperation shows its clear value” stated the Danish Minister of Defence, Trine Bramsen 

During today’s teleconference, the ministers discussed their respective efforts to overcome the epidemic and its consequences for the national defence forces. The countries agreed on the importance of a continued close cooperation. 

Furthermore, the ministers discussed the implementation of the common Nordic Vision 2025 including on enhancing cyber security ,the Nordic-Transatlantic relations and a strengthened Nordic cooperation in crisis or conflict. The ministers also discussed Nordic contributions to international operations. 

The story added further details on the NORDEFCO efforts and progress over the past few years.

Nordic Defence Cooperation (NORDEFCO)

The Nordic countries have a long tradition for working closely together. This includes within the area of defence and security policy.

The Nordic defence cooperation (NORDEFCO) encompasses all of the Nordic countries, i.e. Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.

2019 marks the tenth anniversary for the foundation of NORDEFCO, which was established in 2009, with the aim of bringing together a range of separated collaborative forums (NORDAC, NORDCAPS and NORDSUP).

Within these 10 years, the Nordic defence cooperation has intensified significantly, including within operations, training and exercises, as well as within capability development.

Substantial results and progress have been made within a wide range of areas, which all together strengthen the defence capabilities of the Nordic countries as well as the regional security and stability in the region.

The Nordic defence cooperation is an important priority for Denmark, and it adds on essential value to the broader international defence cooperation within e.g. the UN, NATO, and the EU.

In 2020, Denmark will take over the chairmanship of NORDEFCO from Sweden.

Significant results and areas of cooperation

Easy Access

Among the most significant results in recent times is the agreement on ”Easy Access”, which was ratified in 2016, when Denmark took over the rotating chairmanship of NORDEFCO. The aim of the Easy Access-agreement is to secure easy military access to sea, air, and land territories between the Nordic countries, e.g. through simplifying and streamlining the administrative processes in the countries. This creates an opportunity for closer and more operationally effective Nordic defence cooperation in peacetimes. The Nordic agreement on Easy Access has also given inspiration to other regional security forums that have as well begun the work to promote military mobility between member countries.

Increased Radar Sharing

Another significant result from 2017 is the agreement on increased radar data sharing, which aims to create an overview of activities in the Nordic and Baltic region.

Given the increasing unpredictability and complexity of the regional security situation in recent years, an enhanced and combined picture of the security situation in the region is of great importance.

Secure Shared Communications

In addition to this agreement, there have been established secure and direct communication channels between the Nordic countries, which means that classified conversations and videoconferences can be held in a closed communication system.

This is a unique feature within international defence cooperation.

Enhanced Operational Cooperation

Lastly, a lot has happened within defence capability cooperation, where the Nordic countries a looking to acquire a common Nordic combat uniform by 2022.

In the area of operations, Denmark cooperates with Norway and a range of other countries on the deployment of transport aircrafts to the UN peacekeeping mission MINUSMA in Mali.

The deployment is part of a Nordic-initiated rotation scheme, in which the participating countries on a rotational basis are responsible for deploying aircrafts to the UN mission.

The rotation scheme runs until November 2020. Sweden has previously contributed to the rotation scheme. In October 2019, the Danish Parliament gave the mandate for a second deployment of a Danish transport aircraft to MINUSMA, which will be deployed from mid-November 2019 and six months ahead.

VISION 2025

In November 2018, the Nordic defence ministers signed ”Vision 2025”, which sets out the political framework and ambitions for the defence cooperation in the Nordic region towards 2025 through some general guidelines along with 16 specific goals.

Vision 2025 raises the ambition of the Nordic defence cooperation by stating that it should apply not only in peacetimes but also in the event of a crisis or conflict.

The aim is, among other things, to make NORDEFCO a platform for close political dialogue, information sharing, and, if possible, the coordination of common Nordic positions on possible crisis situations.

In the face of a growing threat from terror, cyber, and hybrid challenges, Vision 2025 assesses that there is a need for a closer cooperation within all of these areas. Moreover, the aim is to strengthen the inter-operability, deterrence, and cooperation on total defence in the Nordic region.

The ambition with the strengthening of the Nordic defence cooperation extends beyond the Nordic region.

Thus, it is a stated ambition in the vision to strengthen the Nordic-Transatlantic partnership, and to further develop cooperation and dialogue with the Baltic countries.

This includes within capacity-building, where the Nordic and Baltic countries together have developed a program with a special focus on Georgia, which provides a framework for increasing the cooperation and dialogue.

Danish chairmanship in 2020

The chairmanship of NORDEFCO rotates between the four Nordic countries Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden (Iceland participates, but does not hold the chairmanship).

In 2020, Denmark will take over the chairmanship from Sweden. The implementation of Vision 2025 will be one of the most important priorities of the Danish chairmanship.

The Danish chairmanship priorities include:

  • Enhance Nordic-Transatlantic relations further as well as the cooperation and dialogue with Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
  • Develop knowledge and explore possibilities for cooperation within the area of cyber security with the aim to improve our resilience against dangers from growing cyber threats.
  • Share information and discuss approaches to promote green defence. A particular focus area will be to explore reduction of the carbon footprint in deployments.
  • Continue to strengthen NORDEFCO as a forum for political and military dialogue on security and defence with enhanced focus on the Arctic.
  • Continue to improve our ability to act together in peace, crisis and conflict.
  • Consolidate the newly established mechanism for crisis consultations.
  • Explore possibilities for Nordic armaments and defence industry cooperation inherent in the European Defence fund as well as other relevant forums and instruments. The Nordic Defence Industry Seminar 2020 will serve as a platform to promote dialogue.

Accompanying the chairmanship is the responsibility for hosting the biannual ministerial meetings, the annual meeting of the permanent secretaries, as well as other regular meetings in both the political and military pillars of NORDEFCO, cf. the organisational chart below.

The ministerial meeting in the autumn of 2020 will besides the Nordic defence ministers also gather the Baltic defence ministers for a separate Nordic-Baltic ministerial meeting as well as the defence ministers from the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, and Poland for meetings within the framework of ‘Northern Group’.

‘Northern Group’ is a North-European security and defence policy forum, which Denmark chairs in the second half of 2020. Conducting the meetings in tandem provides excellent opportunities for synergies between the different forums. It also provides the opportunity for more expanded perspectives on regional security policy developments and challenges.

HAGA: Nordic civil Emergency Management cooperation

In 2020, Denmark will also take over the chairmanship of the ‘Haga cooperation’.

The Haga cooperation stems from the Haga Declaration, which was adopted at Haga Castle just outside Stockholm, Sweden in April 2009. The purpose of Haga is to promote Nordic cooperation on social security and civil emergency management.

The aim is to reduce the overall vulnerability of the Nordic countries, strengthen the joint responsiveness, increase efficiency, as well as achieve a greater joint influence in Europe and international forums.

On October 15, 2019, the Danish Minister of Defence Trine Bramsen attended a ministerial meeting in Oslo, where the minister – along with her Nordic colleagues, reached an agreement to further strengthen the Nordic civil emergency management cooperation.

The adopted ‘Oslo conclusion’ defines a range of cooperation areas that will be further pursued from 2019-2021. The Nordic countries have also agreed to further investigated the possibilities of expanded cooperation within forest and natural fires, CBRN-emergency management (i.e. accidents involving hazardous substances), as well as joint Nordic radio communication.

ITAR Compliance: How Software Can Help

Posted on | by Robbin Laird | Leave a Comment on ITAR Compliance: How Software Can Help

By Kevin Deal

Although the regulations have been around for decades, the latest rules from the U.S. Departments of State and Commerce required companies around the world that manufacture, export or re-export ITAR (International Traffic in Arms Regulations)-controlled items to evaluate and amend their current authorizations and restructure compliance activities.

Compliance failures can be extremely costly—in January 2020, Airbus agreed to pay more than $3.9 billion to resolve an ITAR and bribery case.

A Complex State of Affairs

Despite some recent streamlining, the ITAR complexity facing aerospace and defense manufacturers is significant, starting with the multiple regulatory documents with which manufacturers must meet, including the Commerce Control List (CCL), and the United States Munitions List (USML)—which both cover a variety of different items.

To confuse matters more, different agencies are responsible for different types of application procedures—the Department of Commerce for the CCL items and the Department of State controlling the USML items. Each agency has different ways of wording things, and different meanings for the same words. Manufacturers need to keep abreast of multiple Denied Party Lists, or Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons Lists, and these are issued by various departments of government including the Department of the Treasury.

The ideal end goal would be a single point of control, with a primary enforcement and coordination agency, a single IT system and a single licensing agency. But for now, A&D manufacturers must live with the fact that a lot of items are under ITAR control, other items are covered by the Export Administration Regulations (EAR), all while Department of the Treasury keeps track of sanctions that are in force against foreign nations.

The Compliance Challenge

One option to stay compliant is to put manual controls in place, by hiring export control compliance officers that try to keep tabs on orders and deliveries you are making to ensure you are not sharing forbidden materials with anyone on the control lists. This, of course, can be an extremely time-consuming and therefore a costly activity. A second option is to employ a service agency to provide analysis of the denied party listings and consolidate that information into a database which can be accessed for a fee.

Regardless of which compliance model you select, export control regulations will also have implications for your underlying enterprise systems, including enterprise resource planning (ERP). It will become more and more important to ensure any ERP solution used for defense manufacturing has functionality specifically designed for export control.

A business dealing in regulated materials must be able to quickly and efficiently marshal this information from within their ERP system and combine it with external regulatory data to ensure compliance as they process orders and other transactions. They also must be able to share it with overseas partner companies in a frictionless environment.

Key Components

Without a fully integrated application suite allowing data to flow seamlessly between different functions such as supply chain management, manufacturing, engineering and customer relationship management (CRM), it is difficult to know which products, parts or transactions may put an A&D manufacturer in jeopardy.

Rather than complex third-party solutions integrated between export control functions and ERP, a streamlined approach can be obtained with ERP that is already enabled to do the checks against third-party lists and manage orders, transactions and other activities accordingly.

There are a number of key factors which should form a checklist of functionality when an A&D manufacturer is considering an ERP solution to aid with ITAR compliance.

Denied party checks – When committing to a sales order, the ERP software needs to check to ensure the order isn’t going to a denied party. This can be done through a link to a database of denied parties that is compiled and updated regularly by an agency or third-party. But you need to have confidence that you have checked the denied parties list before processing the order.

Management of part-specific regulatory schema – For items that might be export controlled, the parts catalog needs to hold that information and the ERP system needs to indicate which regulation and regulatory body covers the part or material and the classification or rating within that schema which applies to it.

Management on the assembly level – If a manufacturer is handling an order for an assembly, an ERP application needs to record the parts within that assembly and the extent to which they are covered by different export regulations and commodity jurisdictions.

License application & usage reporting – ERP must help enable you to identify, escalate and resolve licensing issues. The software must report on and monitor the consumption of licenses by orders and manage license consumption.

Secure document management – Some documents for control items have licenses that can only be viewed by certain authorized people. ERP with embedded, native document management functionality will be best suited to export control. Ideally, the same user permissions used in the ERP software to control access of sensitive data within the enterprise can be applied to the document management solution.

Control of the export of data and intangibles – The ERP system must offer at least some support in controlling processes such as shipment of a controlled product for display at an exposition, or exchange of data with overseas vendors.

International requirements – Regardless of where they are based, exporters often have operations in other countries, each with their own set of export controls regulations.

ITAR Compliance as a Must

Manufacturers and contractors in the aerospace and defense sector can ill afford expensive and jeopardizing litigation due to poor materials and equipment export control. Rather than opening up room for human error or paying for a third-party agency, ERP has come to the fore as a strategic enabler to unequivocally help A&D manufacturers prepare for, and meet, the legal requirements of ITAR.

Kevin Deal is Vice President, Americas, Aerospace and Defense, IFS