U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Ryan Salvato, a section leader with the Ground Combat Element, Marine Rotational Force – Darwin, participates in an interview during Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training (CARAT) in Indonesia, July 31 to August 5, 2019. CARAT is designed to promote regional security, maintain and strengthen maritime partnerships, and enhance interoperability among participating forces.
INDONESIA
08.19.2019
Video by Cpl. Destiny Dempsey
Marine Rotational Force Darwin
A U.S. Air Force C-130 Hercules receives cargo on the ramp at Ali Al Salem Air Base, Kuwait, Aug 4, 2019. C-130s operate around the clock to transport equipment, supplies and passengers around the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility.
KUWAIT
08.04.2019
Video by Tech. Sgt. Michael Mason
386th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
By Lieutenant Ryan Zerbe
The Royal Australian Navy has begun its biggest deployment of the year, with more than a thousand sailors and officers bound for engagements across North- and South-East Asia.
Departing today from Sydney, the lead element of a nine-ship task group will participate in bilateral and multi-national activities over the next few months.
The deployment is focused on strengthening Australia’s regional defence engagement through practical cooperation activities with key partners.
It will include high-end warfare exercises, port visits, as well as cultural engagements that show Australia’s long-standing commitment to its partners and to regional security.
The Commander of the Task Group, Captain Andrew Quinn, said the deployment demonstrated Navy’s ability to send concurrent task groups across throughout the region.
“Practical training with regional partners not only up-skills our own officers and sailors but also builds our ability to work with other navies, underpinning stability in the region,” he said.
“We have been operating in task groups for some time, refining the concept towards being able to conduct sustained operations like this over next several years.”
It marks the first overseas deployment for the new Aegis Destroyer, HMAS Hobart, which will lead the first task group element to Japan for an international fleet review.
Hobart will be accompanied in Japan by Anzac frigates HMA Ships Parramatta and Stuart as well as a Navy submarine.
Stuart will later join the Armidale-class patrol boat HMAS Ararat, the replenishment ship HMAS Sirius, and the hydrographic survey ship HMAS Leeuwin during their deployment to South-East Asia.
The Anzac frigate HMAS Arunta will then join Sirius in exercises with a range of regional partners, including Malaysia and Indonesia.
Navy mine hunters HMA Ships Gascoyne and Diamantina will participate in international exercises for the final element of the Task Group.
Captain Quinn said the units involved were ready having been thoroughly tested.
“HMAS Hobart has proven her readiness as the first of her class and she is an outstanding platform to function as a centrepiece for this maritime task group,” Captain Quinn said.
“Meanwhile smaller ships like Leeuwin, Diamantina and Gascoyne have deployed further from the Australian station than ever before over the past year and we know they are up to the task ahead.”
Ships in the task group will return home in December.
According to a story published on the Finnish Ministry of Defence website on September 19, 2019. the Finns are to build a new class of surface warfare corvettes to replace their legacy vessels.
At its plenary session on 19 September 2019, the Government authorised the Defence Forces Logistics Command to make a contract on the procurement of Pohjanmaa-class vessels and a combat system for the Navy.
Rauma Marine Constructions (RMC Oy and RMC Defence Oy) based in Rauma will construct the vessels for the Squadron 2020 project. Following the invitation to tender, the Swedish Saab AB was selected as the supplier of the vessel’s combat system. In addition to concluding an industrial cooperation contract with Saab AB, Minister of Defence Antti Kaikkonen decided on the procurement of ship-class propellers and propeller shafts from the Finnish company Aker Arctic Technology Oy.
The agreements on the construction of vessels, the supply and integration of the combat system and the supply of propellers and propeller shafts will be signed in Turku on 26 September 2019.
The Navy will decommission seven vessels and these will be replaced by four multi-role corvettes, capable of engaging in warfare with surface combatants and submarines, taking anti-aircraft measures and commanding maritime operations. The Navy’s new vessels will play an important role in Finland’s defence system with core tasks until the end of the 2050s.
While the starting point has been that Pohjanmaa-class vessels will be built in Finland for reasons of security of supply the contracts will, for their part, ensure the preservation of Finnish shipbuilding expertise, particularly in terms of surface combatants and state vessels. The domestic employment effect of the contract will be about 3600 person-years. The domestic employment effect of industrial cooperation is about 75 person-years.
Since 2016, the Defence Forces have negotiated with Rauma Marine Constructions Oy (RMC) on the construction of Pohjanmaa-class vessels at RMC shipyard in Rauma. Before the construction contract, a letter of intent and a design contract were concluded with RMC.
The contract to construct surface combatants will include the final design and construction of four seaworthy vessels. According to the contract, RMC and its subsidiary RMC Defence Oy will build hulls of four Pohjanmaa-class vessels and integrate systems in them in cooperation with the system suppliers.
The vessels will be designed and constructed in Rauma, and Finnish and foreign companies will be subsystem suppliers and subcontractors. While the actual construction phase will be staggered over 2022-2025 the class will be fully operational by 2028.
A prerequisite for concluding the construction contract was comprehensive risk mapping and risk management work as well as cooperation at the Government level when the contract package was prepared. The stability of the yard’s ownership base will be ensured and risk factors related to the ownership of the company will be managed through an agreement with the yard’s owners. The completion of the ship class will be closely followed from the perspective of military performance and the yard’s operational capacity.
Saab was selected as the supplier of the combat systems for Pohjanmaa-class vessels. The contract includes four integrated combat systems installed on board ships, consisting of sensors, weapons and command systems. The combat system supplier also undertakes to integrate the systems which will be supplied by the Defence Forces.
At the end of 2016, the Finnish Defence Forces’ Logistics Command sent requests to 12 companies to participate in the tender procedure to deliver a combat system for the Squadron 2020 vessels. Eight companies sent a request for participation; of these, Atlas Elektronik from Germany, Lockheed Martin Canada and the Swedish Saab were selected for the next stage. The Finnish Defence Forces’ Logistics Command sent to these three companies a preliminary invitation to tender in 2017. Saab performed best in the comparison of the tenders.
In addition to the package to be procured from Saab, Pohjanmaa-class vessels will be equipped with a surface-to-air missile system, surface-to-surface missile system and a torpedo weapon system. Naval guns and decoy launchers will be removed from Hamina-class fast attack missile crafts and installed on the new vessels.
Minister of Defence Kaikkonen authorised the Defence Forces Logistics Command to make a contract with the Finnish company Aker Arctic Technology Oy on the design, supply and integration of propellers and propeller shafts for Pohjanmaa-class vessels. Aker Arctic Technology Oy has been developing propellers under the Defence Forces’ leadership since 2015.
A total of EUR 1 232 million was allocated to the Squadron 2020 project in the 2018 budget. The share of the construction contract to be concluded with Rauma Marine Constructions Oy is EUR 647.6 million and the share of the propeller shaft contract with Aker Arctic Technology Oy is EUR 27 million. Price of the Saab combat system is EUR 412 million.
The total cost of the Squadron 2020 project is EUR 1 325.48 million, which includes the EUR 22 million risk reserve for joint acquisitions and the EUR 83 million for the ITO20 anti-aircraft missile system already purchased for the ship class. The total costs are influenced by the increased price of the construction contract, the additional costs caused by the preparation and prolongation of the contract, the narrowing content of the contract, and the price reduction already taken into account but not achieved in the budget. In order to provide sufficient resources for product support and spare parts necessary for implementing the project, alterations during construction, ammunition, and project costs, the procurement authorisation needs to be increased by EUR 93.48 million in the third supplementary budget for 2019 to ensure the implementation of the Squadron 2020 Project.
The life cycle costs of Pohjanmaa-class vessels are similar to those of the vessels scheduled for decommissioning. They will be covered by the annual operating cost funding of the Defence Forces.
Minister of Defence Kaikkonen has decided to conclude an industrial cooperation agreement with Saab. The obligation of industrial cooperation for the Squadron 2020 combat system was imposed in June 2017, corresponding to at least 30 per cent of the combat system’s procurement value. Establishing service and maintenance capabilities for vessels and their systems in Finland, industrial cooperation involves six domestic companies and the Defence Forces.
By Flying Officer Clarice Hurren
A key Five Eyes group of air force advisers is testing interoperability across combat support, aeromedical evacuation and air mobility as part of Exercise Mobility Guardian 19 (MG19).
The Five Eyes Air Force Interoperability Council (AFIC) has existed for more than 70 years, under different names, with a representative from each coalition nation based at the Pentagon in Washington, DC.
The Council aims to share information, training, procedures and tactics to enhance the ability of Australian, Canadian, New Zealand, United Kingdom and United States air forces to work together.
Wing Commander Brady Cummins, the RAAF Lead Representative for AFIC, said the working group’s focus was on improving cooperation across agile combat support, air mobility and aeromedical evacuation (AME).
“MG19 is one opportunity to showcase the benefits of removing friction and standardising the way we complete tasks,” Wing Commander Cummins said.
“By creating mutually agreed air standards and loaning equipment for test and evaluation purposes between nations, we are confirming our compatibility to take on real-world threats and respond to crises.
“For example, at MG19, RAAF has loaned a recently acquired deployable airfield ground lighting system to the Royal Canadian Air Force and they are trialling it out in the field.”
Additionally, along with New Zealand allies, further AFIC objectives for MG19 focus on the carraige of AME equipment and air drop load rigging for both container delivery systems and heavy equipment.
Squadron Leader Brett Goodall, the Head of Delegation for the New Zealand Defence Force’s (NZDF) Air Mobility working group at AFIC, said issues arise when AME teams request to bring portable electronic devices on aircraft as they have a number of emitting functions.
“Specialist engineering approvals are required for some AME equipment when transporting via individual aircraft,” Squadron Leader Goodall said.
“This can delay or compromise AME missions when nurses, doctors and medics report to fly on foreign aircraft and items are unfamiliar to the crew or haven’t been approved.
“At the conclusion of this exercise, we are aiming to have each nation’s equipment pre-approved and detailed by all others so future missions can run seamlessly.”
MG19 is conducted by the United States Air Force (USAF) in the US from September 9-28. It provides realistic training for the United States Air Force (USAF), and other international air forces.
The RAAF will deploy a C-17A Globemaster III and KC-30A Multi-Role Tanker Transport, along with enabling elements from Combat Support Group and the Australian Army’s 176 Air Dispatch Squadron.
This article was published on the Australian Ministry of Defence website on 26 September 2019.
A U.S. Marine Corps CH-53E Super Stallion with Marine Heavy Helicopter Training Squadron (HMHT)-302, prepares for take-off at Marine Corps Air Station New River, North Carolina, August 1, 2019.
HMHT-302 provided aerial transport support to 2nd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment during a Regimental Field Exercise.
NC, UNITED STATES
08.01.2019
Video by Pfc. Gavin Umboh
2nd Marine Aircraft Wing
U.S. Marines with Combat Logistics Battalion 2 Combat Logistics Regiment 2, 2nd Marine Logistics Group attach and unhook a package to a MV-22 Osprey during a helicopter support team external lift as part of integrated training exercise 5-19 on Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms, California, July 28, 2019.
The purpose of ITX 5-19 is to create a challenging, realistic training environment that produces combat-ready forces capable of operating as an integrated Marine Air Ground Task Force.
TWENTYNINE PALMS, CA, UNITED STATES
07.28.2019
Video by Lance Cpl. Fatima Villatoro
2nd Marine Logistics Group
By Ed Timperlake and Robbin Laird
Our team tries its best to help those who are supporting our warfighters. Indeed, the entire mission of the Second Line of Defense team has been to highlight those who provide support for those in combat and those who have returned to civilian life.
When Ed Timperlake met Susan Ullman, it was a natural fit for us to sit down with her and to share her narrative with our readers and to solicit broader support for the foundation which she helped launch.
We had a chance to talk with Susan on August 23, 2019 and she provided us both with her personal narrative but how her personal experience drove her to seek new solutions so that spouses like her who confronted the tragic loss of a warrior spouse would not end up like she and her family did in times of crisis.
From our perspective, we clearly admire those who deal with life’s adversaries but not giving up but shaping new solutions. And in that way, the creation of the Warrior2Warrior foundation has been an expression of shaping a way ahead for Susan Ullman and those who find themselves in a similar situation.
Susan Ullman: “I was married to a special operator, who was a Sergeant First Class in the Green Berets. After his retirement, he was showing signs of fraying. He was struggling but I am not suggesting that he had post-traumatic stress disorder. He was starting to have some issues that were affecting him at work, such as showing up late and drinking more and becoming more difficult at home.
“He knew that something was wrong and that he was making poor decisions. He didn’t really understand why but was adamant that we not go through traditional channels to try to get him some help. Because he was so concerned about being viewed as the weak link or feeling marginalized. Even if it’s self-imposed, he didn’t want to be viewed in that manner.
“We went outside the system, we paid in cash as opposed to using our medical insurance to see a therapist. The therapist experience was short lived unfortunately. She felt she could help him and in fact her words were, “I know I can help you, but I’m going to have to break you down a little bit and then rebuild you back up.” His response to that was, “But then I won’t be a good Green Beret.” That was the last time he visited with the therapist because he felt that getting help for himself would in some way make him less of a fighter, less of a threat on the battlefield, less of a man.”
“It was just a very unfortunate choice because things truly went downhill from that point and within a year, he had taken his life. It was just a shocking trajectory down, then it happened, once it started, it happened very quickly and I didn’t really know who to go to. I felt like we’d exhausted whatever resources were available to us in a safe way, meaning a way that my husband was willing to make use of them. He just, he didn’t want me talking to anyone in his chain of command, understandably, he didn’t want me talking to his teammates. We were very limited in what was available to us, so we believed.”
Susan then that following her husband’s death so reached out to the Special Operations Command to discuss her experience in part to sort out in her mind whether they were other options available which they might have taken. She called the head of the Special Operations Command, Admiral McRaven and when she reached his office spoke with the Admiral’s Executive Officer. The XO spent some time with her on the call, who then asked her what she thought might have helped her husband.
Susan Ullman: “I’m not here to malign the military, my husband loved being a special operator, and my goal in calling is to find out what I missed. Because surely if I missed some program that would have provided help for both of us, then other people are missing it as well. I’m not a rocket scientist, but I’m halfway intelligent and if it’s there, I should have seen it. What did I miss so that I can go spread the words to other spouses that I know?”
The XO, Captain Chebby, asked “What did you have in mind about a program?” And Susan responded: “I think, some very elemental things, some kind of mentorship program, from a peer. Just something outside the box.”
The XO then told her that he would call her back the next day after he would make some further calls.
Notably, he actually did what he said, namely, called Susan back the next day.
The XO told her: “I spoke with Admiral McRaven, would you like to head up a suicide prevention working group?”
She was more than a bit surprised but agreed to do so. This meant that she would have to sort through a path to do so and to sort out means and approaches to do so. It is from this beginning that the Foundation was born.
Susan Ullman: Our goal was to try to incubate deinstitutionalized approaches to the very normal stressors associated with a lifetime of service. Whether that included combat or not, just a lifetime of service.
“We were made up of surviving spouses and other special operators who had come forward and self-reported as having either post-traumatic stress disorder or perhaps a drug issue, and then they ended up being able to overcome those issues.
“We wanted them on the working group to find out, how did they go about doing that? Did they find support within command?
“I think we had a fantastic group and we really did put forward a couple of very interesting ideas that I believe, and I still believe now, six and a half years later, would have rung true with special operators for sure.
“Unfortunately, we were shot down a lot by the system.
“ Pretty much every main program that we kind of got to the developmental stage, ultimately the JAG or someone in behavioral health who was kind of monitoring our working group would say, “We can’t do that because it’s a violation of privacy,” or, “We can’t do this one that you guys suggested because JAG feels that, here’s why JAG’s against it.”
“Every idea that we came up with was basically just dismissed, summarily dismissed, which was heartbreaking. After about a year, I finally, even though I was, directed to group, I ended up stepping away and said, “I’m not interested in participating anymore because I really feel like this is not going to work.”
To this stage, Ullman was working a suicide prevention task force within the system. But then as they generated new approaches and sorted through options, the system was not exactly sympathetic to institutionalizing new approaches.
She then took the intellectual capital generated through the working group and suggested setting up a non-profit group that could pursue a new peer-to-peer approach to working dysfunctionality generated by life experiences of the combat warriors.
This was the launch point for Warrior2Warrior. The focus of the foundation is upon peer-to-peer support in setting in motion a healing process. The peer-to-peer aspect is crucial for through shared experiences, the warriors can share their experiences and to sort through a more effective way ahead for the rest of their lives.
According to the Warrior2Warrior website:
We strive to honor the sacrifices our veterans have made by easing the burdens they carry.
FOR THOSE WHOSE LIVES HAVE BECOME HOLLOW IN THE WAKE OF WAR, WE WILL REBUILD; WE WILL REINFORCE; WE WILL BRING A ROBUST, HEALTHY, AND VIBRANT FUTURE WITHIN THE REALM OF POSSIBILITY.
The path to wellness is multi-faceted. The first step towards scalable resilience efforts is consolidation of services at a physical location — a Resilience Ranch — that will serve as a bastion of healing and a beacon for teammates in dire need.
The Resilience Ranch will resemble a forward operating base: simple dirt roads, trailers, fire pits, tents. This rustic austerity will evoke the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan, and prime warriors to engage with the past in a safe environment.
At the Resilience Ranch, warriors will be fortified and lives restored. It will be forever a home to all teammates, and it is our hope that their feelings as they return will mirror those of alumni coming home to an alma mater.
The Resilience Ranch is the first phase of a plan for a larger, self-sustaining, veteran-centric community. Together with our fundraising partner, Vintage4Vets, we aim to create an economy around veteran support that will allow future generations of teammates to flourish.i
We asked how outsiders might help the Foundation and she noted that they were seeking to establish a permanent location so that they could hold what they refer to as the Resilience Ranch at a common location without having to pay fees on a per meeting experience basis.
By having a base location, they could hold their seminars and meetings and to shape a solid basis for shaping the way ahead as well.
One issue we discussed with her as well is the challenge for the warriors to get support for what is essential a malfunction generated by normal service, but is often looked at askance or as an aberration which leads to suspension of security clearances or as in her case, an unwillingness to get support from the TriCare system.
Susan Ullman: Some of the fear of marginalization is self-imposed, some of it is not though. It’s still human nature on a team, if you got a guy that your teammates, they know that someone’s not deployable right now because they’re working through some issues, by default they’re going to be viewed differently, they just are.
“Or, it’s, so coming forward still has implications. It’s a misnomer to say, “You’re not going to lose your clearance,” because you very well might temporarily lose your clearance if you come forward and say, “Hey, I’ve got a drug issue,” or, “I’ve been having really bad dreams and I’m afraid that I’m going to hurt somebody.” Or, when you say words like that, the system has to react as it’s set up right now, it has to react a certain way. Part of the end result of that is you very well may get sidelined.
“What the military’s been trying to say is, “But it’s not for forever, because you can go get help and then you’ll be welcomed back.” The problem is, guys don’t want to lose that period of. Maybe some of them need to frankly, I do believe some of them need to, are unwell enough that they would benefit from losing their clearance for a while and doing a deep dive into their mental health at a facility.
“There is certainly a slice of the population that needs that. A lot of guys don’t need that, they don’t need to go that far, but they’re concerned that if they come forward, of course they’re going to be put into that trajectory. They’re going to end up losing their clearance or losing the respect of their teammates. Again, that part of it is somewhat self-imposed, but some of it’s real. We are seeing more people. Trying to reach out for help, which is good, through the system. But there’s still a huge segment of that population that will never reach out for help. And that needs to change.”
Please see the following:
https://www.warrior2warrior.org/about-1