Robbin Laird, Author at Second Line of Defense

A Small Ship with a Big Impact: The Aussies Work the Integrated Distributed Force

Posted on April 23, 2020 | by Robbin Laird | Leave a Comment

04/23/2020

The Arafura Class Offshore Patrol Vessel is the first of the new build platforms.

It provides the template with regard to the entire reset of how the Australians are seeking to build out their integrated distributed force.

The contours of the new template are in place and can be identified and this report provides an initial identification and assessment of the new approach.

The new build OPV is not just a new platform; it is the spearhead of a new approach. And that approach as well as the OPV template is the focus of this report.

Laying a Foundation for the Shift from Building Interoperability Platform by Platform to Integratability Via Wave Form Management

Posted on April 23, 2020 | by Robbin Laird | Leave a Comment

By Robbin Laird

In a continuing discussion with the digital interoperability team in USMC Aviation’s Headquarters, we focused on the challenge of building beyond specific platform upgradeability to make these platforms selectively interoperable with similarly configured platforms.

What the team highlighted was that with a platform by platform approach, one was faced with a multiple-year upgrade process that required process whereby the platform’s avionics systems had to be rebuilt to add “after build” new systems for connectivity.

“In the legacy approach, when we want to put a new waveform onto a platform, we have to buy a dedicated radio for that waveform functionality.

“To do tight integration, we will need to open up the operational flight program and have to go through a significant testing program before it can be fielded. The typical timeline for this process is four years from start to finish.”

In effect, in my view, the legacy approach is to build out interoperability through such a process. One decides which core platforms need to have the same equipment to be able to interoperate with one another.

As the team put it: “Interoperability often is perceived as: “This aircraft, or this ship, or this tank needs to look like this other aircraft, or ship, or tank.” And that becomes translated into: “We all have to have the same radio or a radio capable of supporting that waveform.”

The distributed interoperability template seeks to shift toward force integrability as the focal point for network connectivity.

As the team highlighted: “When you talk Integratability, you don’t necessarily need that same hardware. You just need to be able to speak to one of those waveforms.”

They underscored how the shift to software re-programmable payloads enables integratability.

“With, a software re-programmable payload, one now has the ability within a transceiver to port the waveform capabilities into that transceiver. And one can run, in the MANGL case, seven different waveforms operating simultaneously, or one could run different instantiations of a single waveform if the mission calls for it.”

They provided an example of the modernization of Link-16, a process which could leave the US forces out of sync with specific allies. With the software re-programmable payload approach, one can run both the latest US version of Link 16 and whatever a specific ally is using with its variant of Link 16, which provides for Integratability.

With the legacy approach, the service is forced to tier its platforms and cue them up for modernization of its network engagement capabilities.

This not only creates under use of platforms for an integrated operation, but also ensures that the time lag to bring various platforms on line with other platforms will always be significant and never ending.

The team highlighted this challenge as follows:

“With the legacy approach. the service can’t afford to do everything all at once. For example, we will spend four years to modify an AV-8 and that will overlap with modifications V-22, or the 53, or the H-1. But aligning all of those could take 12 years, to get to the point where they’re all in the picture.

“Even today, we’ve been capable of doing some variation of digital close air support for 15 years or so.

“The H-1 still is not included that digital picture, because we don’t have enough money to do everything and it doesn’t rate high enough on the rack and stack approach for network investments on that platform. In effect, the service has to decide who is going to be the digital orphan.”

Such an approach also reduces the value of what the USMC can get from its flying sensor rack, the F-35.

The CNI system in the F-35 uses a modern approach to network operations through its CNI system, and can generate data across a wide range of networks, notably when not operating deep within contested air space.

To get the full benefit of what a four-ship integrated formation of F-35s can deliver, and then with the Block 4 software, what an 8-ship formation can deliver, the MAGTF needs concurrent modernization of its network operating capacities.

Unlike an interoperability effort where the focus can be seen the endless search for every platform to be able to work in every network, an integratability approach focuses on assessing which platforms do which tasks and what are the essential networks which need to be on those specific platforms allow for tailored integratability.

Such an approach is crucial to unearth the latent capability within the already extent force.

For example, onboard amphibious ships, the Seahawk helicopters play a key role in providing targeted situational awareness to the ship.

But onboard are a number of key Marine Corps aviation assets that it cannot tap into their capabilities to deliver enhanced combat capability.

Because today’s amphibious ship is not simply transiting the Marines from port to embarkation onload but are part of sea control and conflict at sea, clearly those Seahawks need to tap directly into the combat capability which say a Viper could provide for ship defense and sea control.

But this will not happen without network enablement of the assets onboard the amphibious ship.

The MANGL approach seeks to provide for such enablement.

At the heart of the change is understanding that will shaping a new payload approach, in this case cards enabling different wave forms, which can operate within a software re-programmable networking system, then the focus shifts from single platform connectivity management, to wave form distribution management.

Who needs what to do their core functions?

And what networks do they need access to and how will that enable what kind of task force Integratability?

This means as well that when one looks at the MANGL chart and sees a specific wave form associated with a set of platforms, which is more of placeholder than an end state.

The team underscored the importance of wave form flexibility in the evolution of the C2 enablement process.

“Our experience is that a lot of people see a particular wave form which we are adding and they argued that at that point we are done when we install that wave form.

“That is legacy thinking.

“We could completely gut a wave form from that architecture and replace it with waveform X.

“Or if the service has to take this force and operate in a high threat environment where the communications would need to be very hard to detect, with this approach, the service could instantiate a waveform within this structure that’s capable of doing that, thereby enabling effective operations within a relatively short-term effort.

“That’s not the case today.

“Today it’s going to be four years, and the service is not going to get all of those platforms aligned in that four-year timeframe.”

In a 2017 Williams Foundation Seminar on designing the integrated force, Air Commodore Chipman, formerly a Plan Jericho co-lead, and now in Brussels as the Australian Military Representative to NATO and the EU and is now Air Vice Marshal Chipman, the Australian military leader underscored the kind of outcome which the USMC is targeting as well.

“I don’t believe that we share a common understanding about integration across the ADF or with our international partners.

“We place too much emphasis on whole of system design, rather than prioritizing integration efforts.”

He argued that integration would progress with clear focus on clear and realistic priorities. And working organizationally to achieve core priorities would then open the pathway for accelerating real achievements with regard to decisive integration efforts.

Leveraging networks, leveraging sensors, and off boarding strike are key aspects of integrative behavior but sharing is not in and of itself integration. In many cases, collaboration is sufficient as the means to achieve the joint effect, rather than a whole of system design.

“We need to integrate sufficiently to take advantage of networked capability.”

The Marines through their digital interoperability initiative and working this problem.

The featured photo shows an MQ-8B Fire Scout unmanned aerial vehicle, top, conducting laser designation of an AGM-114 Hellfire missile for an MH-60S Sea Hawk helicopter attached to the amphibious assault ship USS America (LHA 6) off the coast of San Clemente Island. Both Aircraft are operated by HSC-23, demonstrating the tactical application of integrated manned and unmanned platforms. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Third Class Trenton J. Kotlarz). The DI side of this can provide tailored force packing inclusive of this capability but also for such a pairing to tap into the capabilities of USMC aviation platforms onboard the amphibious ship as well.

Also, see the following:

USMC’s Digital Interoperability Initiative and Effort

Commercial Aviation in a Post-COVID-19 Future: The Case of Washington DC’s Dulles Airport

Posted on April 23, 2020 | by Robbin Laird | Leave a Comment

by James Durso

Washington Dulles International Airport is for many people in the Washington, D.C. area the “hometown” airport, though it is also a major airport for international business travelers and has welcomed innumerable immigrants who chose to make their life in America.

The airport opened in 1962 and showcases a visually impressive terminal designed by renowned architect Eero Saarinen.

Approaching 60 years of age, Dulles is still a very efficient airport for aircraft operations, but much less so for passengers at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic will likely impose an entirely different set of requirements.

The recovery of air travel may take to 2025 and the airport may be a different place with fewer flights using newer aircraft, served by airlines offering fewer amenities but a focus on safe, expeditious travel with minimal frills. The terminal itself may be less about amenities and an “experience” than about helping passengers get quickly from point A to point B.

How will this happen?

The first priority in aviation is safety and, in a financial downturn, the airport will want to ensure safety is not compromised.

Operating funds will likely be prioritized for upkeep of the runways and taxiways, communications and navigation systems, and the fuel farm that stores over 8 million gallons.

In 2019, over 12 million passengers departed Dulles. If the airport is required to medically screen departing travelers, over 12 million exams must be done quickly and accurately while maintaining social distancing, which is not what an airport terminal is about.

For example, Emirates Airline has started thermal screening of all passengers traveling from Dubai to the U.S.

If something similar becomes standard practice, the travel industry will have to work with Dulles and the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority to devise best practices to keep unhealthy people off commercial aircraft.

Unfortunately, the terminal layout at Dulles does not easily lend itself to that effort.

A slow recovery of the aviation sector will be bad for the airlines but may allow Dulles time to find a solution that won’t add that increment of time that discourages potential travelers.

The Dulles departure gates are empty, but the airlines haven’t parked the aircraft in the desert. The airlines have a full schedule of cleaning and maintaining the systems such as the engines and landing gear to ensure they don’t deteriorate.

It’s a substantial cost when there’s not much revenue in sight, so given the collapse in jet fuel prices, the airlines may delay the retirement of some older, less fuel-efficient aircraft to save cash.

And whatever the age of the aircraft that future Dulles traveler alights, he or she may find the airlines made some changes, some for financial reasons, some for health reasons, and some of them stuff they always wanted to do but can now blame on COVID-19.

The traveler will note there are no installed entertainment devices, but free Wi-Fi is available. Masks are mandatory, which isn’t an issue if there’s no meal or beverage service.

No food service will reduce costs and flight attendant contact with passengers – now a good thing – and will reduce weight, giving the airlines a fuel saving.

There’ll be fewer frequent flyer awards, as well as fewer award travel seats.

The airlines will strictly limit carry-on baggage to minimize loading times and complexity, and may rigorously enforce the overweight passenger policy, though they may stop reducing “seat pitch” to squeeze in any more passengers.

The airlines may find “cleanest aircraft” is as big a selling point as on-time performance.

Fewer flights will mean less operating revenue for the airport from landing fees, and concession fees from the hotel, rental car agencies, gas station, parking garage and parking lot operator, and food service outlets in the terminal.

If people employed by businesses located at the airport elect to work from home there will be a consolidation of space in the airport office buildings, reducing rental income.

The airport should work with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to refine security protocols so medical screening plus security screening doesn’t drive away business.

Without much ado, TSA changed the 3-1-1 liquids rule to allow 12-ounce bottles of hand sanitizer, so the airport should insist on a re-examination of other passenger screening rules.

And there’s always the possibility of hiring a private firm to do security screening.

There are significant operational and financial challenges facing both the airport and the airlines.

Flexibility, innovative thinking, and a “must do” attitude will hopefully prevail.

James Durso (@james_durso) is the Managing Director of Corsair LLC. He was a professional staff member at the 2005 Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission and the Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan. Mr. Durso served as a U.S. Navy officer for 20 years and specialized in logistics and security assistance. His overseas military postings were in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, and he served in Iraq as a civilian transport advisor with the Coalition Provisional Authority. He served afloat as Supply Officer of the submarine USS SKATE (SSN 578

The featured photo: Officers with U.S. Customs and Border Protection Office of Field Operations screen international passengers arriving at Dulles International Airport in Dulles, Virginia, March 13, 2020. In response to the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) CBP officers have begun wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) as they interact with passengers arriving from foreign countries. Many passengers have also donned PPE to safeguard themselves and others on their travels. (Courtesy CBP/Glenn Fawcett)

An Update on the Impact of the Coronavirus Crisis on French Defense Industry: April 23, 2020

Posted on April 23, 2020 | by Robbin Laird | Leave a Comment

By Pierre Tran

Paris – Naval Group seeks to cut costs in a “savings plan” and conserve cash in response to a slowdown in shipbuilding due to the Codevi 19 crisis, the company said.

“While the productive activity of all Naval Group’s shipyards has been reduced, Naval Group is launching a savings plan to prepare for the future and to preserve the group’s investment capacity,” the company said in an April 16 statement.

That savings plan relies on cutting the cost base in view of a “foreseeable reduction of the revenues,” said the company, which is keeping its workforce on full pay while on furlough.

To sail through an economic storm, Naval Group has adopted “cost saving and cash management measures,” including cancellation of seminars and conventions, cutting back on travel, and less use of temporary staff and subcontractors.

Training and recruitment will focus on production and skills deemed to be critical, while reliance on external services will be cut to the “strictly necessary,” the company said.

Non-priority projects will be postponed.

Keeping Staff

Naval Group, along with other French arms companies, is keeping on its workforce, relying on the 70 percent government-backed pay for temporary leave due to the national lock down. That lock down, now in its sixth week, started midday March 17 and runs to May 11.

The French government offers to pay 70 percent of salary to workers on furlough. The UK government offers 80 percent financial support to British companies.

Due to the slowdown of its activities, Naval Group has filed applications for partial activity and is committed to maintain employees’ revenue for the second half of March, as well as their base salary and variable pay elements,” the company said.

That full payment to staff includes April, a spokesman said.

The company and three labor unions agreed April 2 a new work schedule and to set up a “solidarity fund,” with the company contributing half and the rest based on staff contributing their paid holiday. The executive committee is contributing five days of leave.

In April, staff who are not required to work full time must take days off, the company said.

Under a statutory regime of the 35-hour work week, employees are entitled to a set number of days off on top of the five weeks’ annual leave required by law.

“The ramp up in activity will be gradual,” Naval Group said.

Most of Salary Paid

Arquus, which builds light and medium armored vehicles, is paying 92 percent of salary to workers on furlough, based on a “solidarity agreement,” a company spokesman said.

The company has gradually restarted production at four factories, with some 300 workers returning to work since April 6, the spokesman said. Some 100 workers had stayed on during the shut down, bringing the total to around 400 at the work place, with some 10 workers returning each day. There have been no permanent lay-offs in the 1,300 strong work force.

It was too early to estimate the cost of the shut down, the spokesman said. The company saved money in the cancellation of the Eurosatory trade show, which had been due to run June 8-12.

Dassault Aviation is also paying 92 pct of salary to workers and office staff on furlough, the company said in an April 15 note to staff on its website.

That level of payment was agreed following April 2 and April 9 meetings with three labor unions, and reflected a differential between workers who were entitled to 84 percent and executives entitled to 100 percent of salary.

“These new measures should help us get through this worldwide crisis which is hitting dramatically our country and our industry,” executive chairman Eric Trappier said.

Airbus Restarts Work

For Airbus, work on the A400M airlifter and other military aircraft has restarted in Spain since the government eased a lock down on non-essential work, a company spokesman said. Work is organized into two shifts – red and blue – to cut the number of workers on site.

A shift is to avoid contact with the other shift, with the work place disinfected between shifts.

In the close lock down, which included industry, Airbus continued work deemed to be essential, providing service for C212, CN235, C295 and A400M aircraft for the Spanish air force, as well as Super Puma and H145 military helicopters.

There was also support for the French and German air forces.

Spain, one of the countries worst hit by the virus, ordered March 14 a strict lock down. The prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, is seeking a third 15-day extension of the lock down to May 9. Spain has seen more than 20,000 people die due to the pandemic.

For MBDA, in France, almost 20 percent of the workforce had gone back to the factory, 70 percent were remote working, and 10 percent on furlough, a company spokesman said.

Rise in Cyberattack

The increase in working from home has seen a rise in cyberattacks by hackers seeking to benefit from the Covid 19 crisis, Sophie Le Pennec, Thales vice president for occupational health, safety and environment, said on the company website.

The Defense Innovation Agency has called for projects to fight the pandemic, with Thales submitting some 12 projects including crisis management tools, patient admission in hospitals, rapid diagnosis, and teleworking.

Across France, 10.2 million workers are on furlough, with nine out of 10 staff at restaurants and hotels laid off, afternoon daily Le Monde reported April 22. Some 93 percent of the building trade have registered as unemployed.

Some 20,796 fatalities due to coronavirus have been registered, with 531 deaths over the last 24 hours, Le Monde reported.

The admissions to hospital and those in intensive care are falling, but the spread of the virus remains at a high level, said Jerome Salomon, number two at the health ministry.

President Emmanuel Macron went to Brittany April 22, to show support to farmers in the western region.

The agricultural sector is effectively the second line of defense in the “war” against the virus, protecting France from want, the head of state has said, Le Monde reported.

Featured Photo: First of class submarine Suffren”, at the Naval Group site in Cherbourg, France, July 5, 2019. Picture taken July 5, 2019. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier

Working the Rugged Internet of Things at the Tactical Edge

Posted on April 22, 2020 | by Robbin Laird | Leave a Comment

04/22/2020

By Robbin Laird

In a famous line from Molière’s play Le Bourgeois gentilhomme, the aspiring social climber in the play discovers that: “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.”

Much like the man who discovered he is speaking prose, the strategic shift which the US and core allied forces are undergoing is learning to speak “kill web.”

And in learning to speak “kill web,” we are refocusing on core issues and redefining them. A key case in point is the thrust and focus of C2.

From hierarchical C2, we are learning what is required to make decisions at the tactical edge.

How can forces can operate effectively at the tactical edge but ensure they are integratable to provide scalability to fit a crisis?

Recently, I had a chance to discuss what a shift from networking to the tactical edge to operating at the tactical edge meant in terms of a focus of activity within a company focused on communications and networking as a core competence.

Mike Barthlow, a former Marine C2 officer, is now working at Cubic Mission Solutions in shaping what they call the rugged internet of things.

We started by discussing what the Rugged Internet of Things meant within the company and why this name for his group was chosen in the first place.

“Our original focus was upon pursuing a tactical networking business, where the emphasis is upon pushing networking to the edge, and connectivity across the kill web.”

“We realized that what is crucial is what happens at the edge of the network.

“You have pushed networking to the tactical edge; but what operational behavior happens in that context with networking capability?

“We are focused on the operator or warfighter or responder at the tactical edge and their view of the operational world.

“80% of my customer facing team are former warfighters; and I was a former chief of joint networking for central command. With the new networking capabilities, decision making at the edge is operarating in ways that in the past only happened at the command post or back in the Pentagon.”

“We refer to this as the edge eating the cloud.

“The speed of decision-making means that the commander at the tactical edge will be making decisions without going back to leverage the cloud computing environment or to tap into its resources in order to make a decision.

“The edge decision makers do not have the time, but increasingly has resources at the tactical edge which are robust and survivable enough to make those decisions as well.”

Question: What you are talking about distributed operations where decisions will be made at the tactical edge with the information available to the operators at the tactical edge.

What this means is that in effect you will operate with the resources most present in your combat cluster.

Is that a way to put it?

Barthlow: It is.

“And what we are seeing is a reflection of the evolution of warfighting which I saw at CENTCOM. The traffic patterns were primarily unit-to-unit, not up and down in a hierarchical chain.

“The preponderance of the traffic flow is to adjacent units who are in the engagement zone operating together. There is a sparse support team which needs to get information from the maneuver unit. It’s about being able rapidly to share an evolving collective knowledge base in real time.

“And then the challenge is to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the decision at that point of engagement.”

“We’re all collectively operating as one big cybernetic organism.

“And what already see with the F-35 formations is a capability to operate as one mind with precision and effectiveness.

“Our objective is to enable the ability of units at the tactical edge to operate as a collective mindset that’s precise and effective to the lowest unit possible.”

Question: If you are focused on how units and leaders operate at the edge, then you are focused on how they make decisions and how to build tools that allow them to make more accurate decisions more rapidly and more effectively.

What is your approach to this challenge?

Barthlow: Part of the challenge is managing a speed to thought transition, allowing the operators at the tactical edge to have a decision-making cycle advantage.

“How can I speed up the interfaces among the war fighters at the edge and make sure there’s enough computation capability and bandwidth among them and we can find ways to grow that capability by orders of magnitude?

Question: In other words, your focus is upon the decision-making environment at the tactical edge and working to understand how you can improve that operating environment?

Barthlow: It is.

“We are focused upon product resiliency, flexibility, and capability, anticipating that not only the current but the future decision environment as well.

“We’re focused in part on generating the kind of computing power we need in the smallest form factor possible for today’s environment.

“We’re pushing beyond what we think we need today.

“We’re pushing over the horizon because we anticipate as more information is available more computational capability will be needed, and we need to work the kind of tools for aiding decisions, such as artificial intelligence, and/or augmented reality glasses, which are being developed and deployed.”

Question: Your focus on the ruggedized internet of things is highlighting the mix and match capabilities which you want to make available at the warfighter at the tactical edge in the smallest form factor possible concomitant with the capabilities which are required.

Your literature mentions that the evolution of your approach as being customer driven.

Who is the core customer driving your focus on the internet of things at the tactical edge?

Barthlow: Our latest product in this area is the M3X product family.

“And we developed it with the Special Operations Community in mind to be able to provide them high performance and flexible small form factor capability at the edge of their SATCOM network.

“We focused on mission flexibility considering the needs of a small insertion force that can seamlessly scale up capability as the force size increases. Using our modular stack, they can have significant computational and networking power in a small logistical footprint.

“And as our conventional force customers have begun to focus more seriously on distributed operations, the work we have done for SOF becomes very relevant for distributed forces working at the tactical edge.

“As the multidomain needs of the force grows, we’re layering in cross domain capabilities. For example, with regard to open source intelligence, it can get processed very rapidly and included in the edge common operating picture. What used to take them two weeks, they can now do in minutes.

“The decision-making which can happen at the edge is now much more rapid and more informed. And we can connect the distributed radio networks and push the data into a stack the size of a couple lunchboxes rather than the legacy big transit cases and data center rack.

“We are enabling data management at the tactical edge that used to take an entire data center capability. It needs to happen in a way that allows for the formation of a cohesive cybernetic organism that is a true rugged Internet of battlefield things. That allows them to operate as a fully synchronized and collectively informed force to execute the mission.”

Mike Barthlow

Mike Barthlow is Senior Vice President and General Manager for Rugged Internet of Things (IoT), part of the Cubic Mission Solutions business division. Barthlow brings over 20 years of progressive experience in communications solutions to Cubic’s defense, intelligence and commercial markets. In his role, he is responsible for the growth and management of Cubic’s Rugged IoT business.

Prior to joining Cubic in 2015, Barthlow held several executive leadership positions including vice president of U.S. DoD Sales for Harris Corporation’s RF Communications Division; director of U.S. Air Force Sales for Harris Corporation; and director of business development and sales for Northrop Grumman.

Barthlow is a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who served as chief of joint data networks, U.S. Central Command during Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom.

He received an MBA from California State University, a Master of Science in Information Systems from the University of Colorado, a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Pennsylvania and is a graduate of the Wharton School of Business, General Management Program.

For the latest product portfolio in the M3 product family, see the following:

M3X Tactical Edge Solution

The featured photo shows an M3X stack.

According to Cubic:

The M3X product family is an environmentally hardened suite of networking and compute equipment for today’s demanding users.

A patent-pending Raised Angle Connector (RAC) on the top and bottom allow interconnection between modules for both power and data without the need for external cables that often fail when needed.

The modular rail system allows for both vertical and horizontal physical connection amongst stacks of modules.

Ohio Class Submarine Overview

Posted on April 22, 2020 | by Robbin Laird | Leave a Comment

Compilation video featuring statistics and capabilities of the Ohio-class ballistic-missile submarines (SSBN).

Video edited with footage provided by Defense Media Activity.

KINGS BAY, GA, UNITED STATES

07.16.2019

Video by Petty Officer 1st Class Ashley Berumen

Commander, Submarine Group Ten

USS America at Sea

Posted on April 22, 2020 | by Robbin Laird | Leave a Comment

Marines with the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit’s (MEU) Maritime Raid Force take part in a deck shoot aboard amphibious assault ship USS America (LHA 6).

America, flagship of the America Expeditionary Strike Group, 31st MEU team, is operating in the U.S. 7th Fleet area of operations

(Official U.S. Marine Corps photos by Cpl. Isaac Cantrell)

PHILIPPINE SEA (March 26, 2020) A Marine with the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit’s (MEU) Maritime Raid Force fires his M45A1 service pistol during a deck shoot aboard amphibious assault ship USS America (LHA 6). America, flagship of the America Expeditionary Strike Group, 31st MEU team, is operating in the U.S. 7th Fleet area of operations to enhance interoperability with allies and partners and serve as a ready response force to defend peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region. (Official U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Isaac Cantrell)

PHILIPPINE SEA (March 26, 2020) A Marine with the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit’s (MEU) Maritime Raid Force fires his M4A1 service rifle during a deck shoot aboard amphibious assault ship USS America (LHA 6). America, flagship of the America Expeditionary Strike Group, 31st MEU team, is operating in the U.S. 7th Fleet area of operations to enhance interoperability with allies and partners and serve as a ready response force to defend peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region. (Official U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Isaac Cantrell)

PHILIPPINE SEA (March 26, 2020) Marines with the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit’s (MEU) Maritime Raid Force take part in a deck shoot aboard amphibious assault ship USS America (LHA 6). America, flagship of the America Expeditionary Strike Group, 31st MEU team, is operating in the U.S. 7th Fleet area of operations to enhance interoperability with allies and partners and serve as a ready response force to defend peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region. (Official U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Isaac Cantrell)

PHILIPPINE SEA (March 26, 2020) A Marine with the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit’s (MEU) Maritime Raid Force draws his M45A1 service pistol during a deck shoot aboard amphibious assault ship USS America (LHA 6). America, flagship of the America Expeditionary Strike Group, 31st MEU team, is operating in the U.S. 7th Fleet area of operations to enhance interoperability with allies and partners and serve as a ready response force to defend peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region. (Official U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Isaac Cantrell)

PHILIPPINE SEA (March 26, 2020) A Marine with the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit’s (MEU) Maritime Raid Force reloads his M45A1 service pistol during a deck shoot aboard amphibious assault ship USS America (LHA 6). America, flagship of the America Expeditionary Strike Group, 31st MEU team, is operating in the U.S. 7th Fleet area of operations to enhance interoperability with allies and partners and serve as a ready response force to defend peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region. (Official U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Isaac Cantrell)

PHILIPPINE SEA (March 26, 2020) Sgt. Maj. Douglas Gerhardt, sergeant major of the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), fires an M4A1 service rifle during a deck shoot aboard amphibious assault ship USS America (LHA 6). America, flagship of the America Expeditionary Strike Group, 31st MEU team, is operating in the U.S. 7th Fleet area of operations to enhance interoperability with allies and partners and serve as a ready response force to defend peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region. (Official U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Isaac Cantrell)

Operation Barkhane Update, April 2020

Posted on April 21, 2020 | by Robbin Laird | Leave a Comment

04/21/2020

On 8 April a French Air Force Mirage 2000D intervened in support of a company of the G5 Sahel joint force (FC-G5S) in Burkina Faso, helping repel an armed terrorist group being targeted by a Barkhane force patrol.

During a reconnaissance mission in the north of Burkina Faso, a company of the G5 Sahel force was in contact with an armed terrorist group. From the start of the confrontation, the unit made an air support request to the Joint Command Post (CCP) of the joint force of the G5 Sahel. At the operations centre in Niamey, the CCP took this request into account and coordinated with the Barkhane Force Joint Theatre Command Post (PCIAT), the French Ministry of Defence said.

In coordination with the Joint Force Air Command (JFAC) of Lyon, which provides operational command of the aircraft, a patrol of two Mirage 2000Ds was quickly redirected for a close air support mission for the benefit of the joint force company.

The first contact between the fighter pilot and the Advanced Tactical Air Lookout (GATA) made it possible to transmit the company’s position so that the patrol could better identify it from the air. “The GATA is generally doing the preparatory work for the French joint terminal attack controller (JTAC), qualified for guiding aircraft. It allows us to understand what is happening on the ground before we are even in the area. And if necessary, it designates the threat so that we intervene, in compliance with the rules of engagement of the force,” said Commander Pierre, pilot of one of the two Mirage 2000Ds.

Flying over the area, Pierre’s patrol then noted that the ground action by the company of the G5 Sahel force, combined with the presence of the aircraft, had enabled them to repel the armed terrorist groups. In liaison with the GATA, the patrol then carried out a securing of the zone to ensure the protection of the troops on the ground until their disengagement from the action zone, the French Ministry of Defence said.

Led by the French military in partnership with the G5 Sahel countries (Burkina-Faso, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, and Chad), Operation Barkhane was launched on 1 August 2014. It brings together around 5 100 soldiers whose mission is to fight against terrorist groups and to support the armed forces of partner countries.

Published by defenceWeb on April 17, 2020 and credited to the French Ministry of Defence.