Marines with Marine Wing Support Squadron 373 walk us through the basics of how a permanent runway is built. (U.S. Marine Corps video by Cpl. Mark A. Lowe II
07.08.2019
Video by Cpl. Mark Lowe
Marine Corps Air Station Miramar / 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing
By George Galorisi
While logistics isn’t a topic that typically evokes deep passion, it should be.
Almost four decades ago, General Robert Barrow, USMC, Commandant of the United States Marine Corps, coined a phrase that is still a staple of U.S. War College curricula, “Amateurs talk about tactics, but professionals study logistics.”
More recently,at the 2019 USNI/AFCEA “West” symposium, Brigadier General Arthur Pasagian, USMC, Commander, Marine Corps Systems Command, noted, “Logistics is a key enabler for all we do.”
Second Line of Defense has featured a number of articles focused on logistics and the supply chain.
The majority of these have focused on “big picture” logistics issues, for example, Robbin Laird’s, “The US Logistics Systems: The Challenge of a Strategic Reset.”
SLD has also featured articles about expeditionary operations, especially those conducted by the U.S. Navy-Marine Corps team, such as, “Presence, Economy of Force and Scalability: The New Amphibious Task Force.”
The Navy-Marine Corps team has been proactive in pushing the edge of the envelope in leveraging new technologies to make the nation’s expeditionary assault force more distributed, lethal, survivable and sustainable.
Many of these technologies have aided high-end and highly visible missions, but others have looked at missions conducted by the Navy-Marine Corps team that are typically “below the radar.”
Given the importance of logistics to the success of any amphibious assault, the sustainability function is one that is ripe for new technology insertion.
To be clear, the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps don’t have a monopoly on leveraging new technology to support the logistics function.
Readers of Second Line of Defense are likely well-versed in terms such as “dumb, dirty and dangerous work” referring to military operations that put warfighters at risk and that are well suited to have unmanned vehicles perform.
The U.S. Army – having suffered significant human loses in fuel convoys in the Middle East conflicts – is leading the way in this area, experimenting with unmanned fuel trucks to perform this vital logistics task.
Navy-Marine Corps exercises such as a series of Advanced Naval Technology Exercise (ANTX) events and the annualBold Alligator series have looked at a wide-range of emerging technologies that can make expeditionary assault forces more lethal, agile and survivable. Other events have examined different missions conducted by the Navy-Marine Corps team, specifically the logistics and sustainment function.
One doesn’t need to be a Clausewitz or Sun Tzu to understand the importance of logistics to warfare over many millennia. For the Navy-Marine Corps team, this plays out most prominently during an amphibious assault. The INDOPACOM Joint Exercise Valiant Shield exercise, overseen by Commander Marine Forces Pacific (MARFORPAC) and conducted on the Marianas Island Range Complex, experimented with using emerging technology to provide sustainment to Marines on the beachhead during this critical juncture of an amphibious assault.
Marines in the fight use enormous quantities of fuel, food, ammunition and other material as they attempt to move off the beachhead. If my three tours in command positions with the amphibious assault Navy taught me anything, it is that while many functions are important in an amphibious operation, once the assault is underway and Marines are on the beach, sustainment is crucial in ensuring their success. The mission will ultimately fail if the Marines are not able to have reliable and continuous sustainment.
Using manned naval craft for this sustainment mission puts operators at unnecessary risk of enemy fire, as well from near-shore obstacles that were not cleared prior to the assault phase. Using scarce manned craft to perform this mission also takes them away from more necessary roles. That is why this major Navy-Marine Corps amphibious exercise evaluated the ability of unmanned surface vehicles to conduct this sustainment mission.
MARFORPAC used USVs during Valiant Shield 2018 to resupply the landing force. The exercise coordinator used a catamaran hull, 12-foot MANTAS USV to provide rapid ship-to-shore logistics sustainment. While this small, autonomously operated, USV carried only one hundred and twenty pounds of cargo, the proof-of-concept worked and demonstrated that unmanned surface vehicles could effectively resupply troops ashore.
Using unmanned vehicles for the sustainment mission can be a game-changer for expeditionary assault forces. Beyond taking operators out of harm’s way, using USVs in this role frees manned craft for other missions. Additionally, having a continuous, preprogrammed, logistics resupply process to perform one of the dull, dirty and dangerous functions important in an amphibious assault means that there is one less thing for the commander to have to manage during these operations.
This proof-of-concept with a 12-foot MANTAS USV achieved positive results. That said, resupply in 120-pound increments is far less than is required to provide what is needed by the Marines on the beach. The Valiant Shield exercise provided the impetus and inspiration to continue to explore the use of USVs for amphibious force sustainment. Now, the Navy and Marine Corps are looking to “scale-up” small USVs and continue to experiment with using larger USVs to provide larger sustainment quantities.
To undertake this scaling-up effort, the maker of the MANTAS family of USVs (Maritime Tactical Systems, Inc.) was asked by the Navy and Marine Corps to develop a larger proof-of-concept unmanned surface vehicle for this logistics sustainment mission using the same catamaran hull design as the smaller vessel used in Valiant Shield.
Plans for larger MANTAS unmanned surface vehicles ranging from 38-foot to 50-foot long are on the drawing board for further review by Navy and Marine Corps officials. While this may not be the ultimate size for the USV the expeditionary assault force needs as a long-term solution, it will go a long way to advancing the state of the art in unmanned semi-autonomous or autonomous logistics support.
While there are a range of larger USVs that can be evaluated by the Navy and Marine Corps, the basic specifications of the 38-foot MANTAS (T38) will provide an indication of the ability of USVs to provide a steady, continuous stream of logistics support to Marines on the beach. The T38 can carry a payload up to 4,500 pounds. The vessel travels at cruise speed of 25 knots and draws just 18 inches of draft. Additionally – and importantly for an amphibious assault – the T38 has a burst speed of 80 knots. Given the speed and carrying capacity of the T38-sized USV, it is readily apparent on how it can fulfill this, and other important logistics functions.
As any observer can see from a hilltop near one of several U.S. Marine Corps bases, an amphibious formation typically stands no more than 15-25 nautical miles off the beach being assaulted. Using a notional stand-off distance of 20 nautical miles, an amphibious formation equipped with four T38s traveling at their cruise speed of 25 knots could deliver 18,000 pounds of material from the amphibious ships to the beach per hour, allowing the short time needed for loading and unloading the craft. Multiply that by twenty-four hours and you get a buildup of well-over 400,000 pounds of vital material per day, enough to support a substantial force of troops ashore.
During the 2019 SNA Symposium, NAVSEA’s Program Manager for Unmanned Maritime Systems (PMS-406), Captain Peter Small, explained the attributes most desired in maritime unmanned systems: (1) endurance; (2) autonomy and precision navigation; (3) command, control and communications; (4) payloads and sensors; and (5) platform integration. As the Navy continues to explore new missions – to include this vital logistics sustainment function – for unmanned surface vehicles, these qualities will help the Navy choose the optimal USVs that will provide our warfighters with a decisive edge in combat.
The Navy is planning an ambitious array of exercises in the years ahead: several ANTXs, Sea Dragon, RIMPAC 2020, Bold Alligator, Valiant Shield, Valiant Blitz, Large Scale Exercise 2020, and others. Based on the promising performance of small unmanned surface vessels in support of expeditionaryassault forces, the Navy and Marine Corps would be well-served to experiment further with larger USVs to perform this vital logistics sustainment mission.
Over 2,500 years ago, Sun Tzu noted, “The line between disorder and order lies in logistics.” Those nations and navies with significant amphibious assault forces would be well served to leverage what the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps have already demonstrated in exercises such as Valiant Shield and explore the advantages of using unmanned surface vehicles to rapidly, reliably and continuously resupply troops ashore.
George Galdorisi is a career naval aviator whose thirty years of active duty culminated in fourteen years of consecutive service as executive officer, commanding officer, commodore, and chief of staff. His last operational assignment spanned five years as a carrier strike group chief of staff embarked in the USS Carl Vinson and USS Abraham Lincoln.
The photos are credited to Mr. Jack Rowley.
The F-22 Raptor Demonstration Team flies alongside the Air Force Heritage Flight Foundation P-51 Mustang over the skies of Battle Creek, Mich., July 7, 2019.
BATTLE CREEK, MI, UNITED STATES
07.07.2019
Video by 2nd Lt. Samuel Eckholm
633rd Air Base Wing Public Affairs
By Pierre Tran
Paris – Serco is seeking to break into the French defense market with offers of support services to military commanders, part of the British company’s bid to triple sales in Continental Europe in the next four years, two directors said.
That drive to win French outsourcing deals follows a win in September of a Belgian 10-year contract worth €40 million ($44.4 million) for facilities management of Heverlee and Meerdaal army bases, at Leuven near Brussels. There are 31 more bases, seen as scope for further contracts.
The concept of support service starts with awarding a contract for a company to maintain buildings, taking care of mundane tasks such as catering, supplying bed linen, and mowing the lawn, allowing commanders to release personnel for military duties.
“They can focus on soldiers being soldiers,” said Mark Varney, Serco defense business development director for Europe.
A pursuit of outsourcing deals comes as president Emmanuel Macron, leading a center-right administration, seeks to privatize state-owned companies and liberalize the market. That includes a plan to sell all or part of the government’s 50.6 percent stake in ADP, an airport operator. That prospective deal has sparked strong political protest and call for a referendum.
“France is one of the most unprivatized markets, along with Germany,” said Sash Tusa, analyst at with equity research firm Agency Partners. “The UK has outsourced more than any other country, except for the US, and that cuts the cost base.”
Varney is looking to pitch the offer of facilities management (FM) and other support services to French commanders and procurement officials.
Beyond managing military bases, Serco’s core offers are maintenance repairs for naval fleets and running training academies, he said. In the former, the company runs dockyards at Portsmouth, southern England, and Clydebank in Scotland. The company manages Australian, British and Qatari training academies.
Varney, who relies on introductions through the British embassy, attended a thoughtful presentation of paintings and sketches by Arabella Dorman, a war artist, at the ambassador’s official residence on July 9.
The British executive is also working through the UK department of international trade, as he seeks high level access to propose service support from the private sector.
That is a “mature approach” in the UK, US and Australia, he said. Belgium’s opting for an outsourcing deal could serve as a model for presentations in France. The company could tailor its support to the some 44 bases in France, including the Ecole Militaire, which houses the war college, and has stables and swimming pool to maintain, he said.
Serco competes with Babcock, a British rival, which won in 2016 a contract to support a French air force program, dubbed FOMEDEC, to train fighter pilots. Babcock supplied 17 PC-21 single-engine trainers and teamed up with Dassault Aviation on that landmark deal.
“Flying training is not about the platform, but the complete training system,} Tusa said. “Babcock and the French air force, to their credit, confirmed that.”
Serco’s plan to triple sales on the Continent is based on growth and acquisition, with an option of buying a small or medium company to boost local contact with defense ministries, said Gaetan Desclée, managing director for Europe.
“Do we need to make an acquisition?” he said. “With our knowledge, practices, resource, we can help them develop much faster and access to bigger market. We act as a global company and we are convinced that we need to have local roots in every country, developing our services.”
Serco sees itself as a global company, listed on the London stock exchange with international shareholders, while acting locally, he said.
The company has been on an acquisitive streak, having bought a US company specializing in naval systems and made an unsolicited offer for Babcock, which was rejected.
“They were trying it on,” Tusa said, referring to the Babcock bid.
That pursuit of acquisition may reflect the company’s efforts to counter a slowdown in the core British market, which accounted in 2018 for some 40 percent of Serco’s sales.
The defense sector accounts for €1.1 billion, some 30 percent of of annual sales.
The company strikes local partnerships with companies including Lockheed Martin, Airbus, Thales, Dassault, Engie, and Air Liquid to ” customize solutions,” Desclée said. Serco teamed with Airbus in the space sector and works with Lockheed in the UK.
Space is seen as a growth prospect as Macron has said he wants the CNES French national space agency to work more closely with defense, he said.
Serco works with Sodexo, a French catering company, to provide meals in 16 British hospitals, Varney said.
Activities on the Continent generate more than €100 million in annual sales, and the aim is to rise above €300 million in less than four years, Desclée said. The Belgian contract generates annual sales of some €4 million and the company seeks to lift annual sales in that country to €12 million.
“I would be very happy if I got half of that in France,” said Varney, adding that he hoped to secure a “decent sized portfolio” of two or three contracts generating estimated annual sales of €2 million.
Asked about the impact of Brexit, Desclée said, “There is a bemused curiosity about what is going on in the UK.” The European unit of Serco “stands on its own” and is relatively autonomous. On the programs, there is a local manager, with the skills from Continental Europe, not the UK.
Serco announced May 23 acquisition of the naval systems business unit of Alion Science & Technology for $225 million. The unit reported 2018 sales of $336 million and orders worth some $600 million. Serco’s business in North America generated sales of $453 million.
That business unit specializes in design of ships and submarines, engineering, and support services for the US Army and Navy, and Canadian Navy.
Rupert Soames, a grandson of Winston Churchill, is chief executive of Serco. His brother is Nicholas Soames, a parliamentarian of the Conservative Party, which picked Boris Johnson as prime minister.
Serco reported July 31 reported first-half operating profit fell to £17.2 million from £31.9 million. That fall in operating profit stemmed from a charge for exceptional items, which included £22.9 million tied to the UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO) closing an inquiry, the company said.
Serco had accepted a £19.2 million fine for three charges of fraud and two of false accounting when the company had provided electronic tagging to the UK Ministry of Justice between 2010 and 2013, Reuters reported. That fine was halved as the company had reported the offences and cooperated with the inquiry. An agreement had been reached with the SFO.
First-half underling trade profit rose to £50.2 million from £37.6 million a year ago.
Serco’s flagship FM deal in the UK is to maintain Fylingdales, the RAF base plugged into the US ballistic missile early warning system. That contract dates back to 1964.
The company also services aircraft in the UK, including BAE 146 jets, which fly the royal family, prime minister and senior officials.
New Delhi. In continuation of the Indian Navy’s overseas deployment to Europe and Africa, Indian Naval Ship Tarkash arrived at Helsinki, Finland, today, on 31 Jul 19 for a three day visit.
The ship is part of the Indian Navy’s Western Fleet and is under the operational Command of Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Western Naval Command, based at Mumbai. Vice Admiral Ajit Kumar P, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Western Naval Command also arrived in Helsinki on 30 Jul 19 and will lead the Indian delegation during the visit.
INS Tarkash, one of the most potent frontline frigates of the Indian Navy equipped with a versatile range of weapons and sensors, is commanded by Captain Sathish Vasudev, who leads a highly motivated crew of over 250 personnel including 30 Officers.
During the port call, various dignitaries and government officials of Finland are scheduled to visit the ship. Professional interactions are planned with the Finland Navy and Coast Guard towards further enhancing co-operation between the two countries.
In addition to social engagements and sports event, best practices will be shared between the Indian Navy and Coast Guard of Finland.
Finland and India have traditionally enjoyed warm and friendly relations. A number of bilateral arrangements for co-operation and cultural exchange exist between the two countries.
The two sides have also had high level bilateral visits and interactions resulting in a rapid growth in relations across a broad spectrum.
Indian Navy ships are regularly deployed as part of Indian Navy’s mission of building ‘bridges of friendship’ and strengthening international cooperation with friendly countries.
The ship visit to Finland comes amidst growing importance and convergence of national goals towards shared maritime interest and deepening of ties between both the countries.
This article was published by our partner India Strategic in August 2019.
By Robbin Laird and Ed Timperlake
The United States and a number of key allies have begun to focus significant attention on reworking the supply chain in key industries associated with imports from China.
As Dr. Harald Malmgren recently noted: “Much new industrial thinking is under way how the next phase of manufacturing should be structured.
“In this process of reconfiguration US officials are advising companies to seek complex products with high information technology components that have no Chinese content…the economic cold war with China is sparking an entirely new kind of surge in demand for “zero Chinese content.”
In her recent book, China Rx: Exposing the Risks of America’s Dependence on China for Medicine, and recent testimony before the U.S. China Commission presented on July 31, 2019, Rosemary Gibson focused on one such industry, which needs a serious rethink in terms of supply, namely, the pharmaceutical industry.
This is especially true with regard to generic drugs which are 90 percent of the medicines Americans take.
Her testimony has focused largely on the United States but much of what she has documented in her recent book with Janardan Prasad Singh also applies to our allies as well.
We had a chance to discuss the subject with Ms. Gibson prior to her testimony on the Hill.
In our discussion with her, she clearly focused on China’s strategy that she documented for this sector, which follows the playbook of predatory trade practices common in other strategic industries.
China undercuts Western producers on price as a deliberate strategy for global domination.
China RX Rosemary Gibson Testimony from SldInfo.com on Vimeo.
But she clearly underscored that China could not do it by itself.
“It’s not just China, though.
“We have to look in the mirror and understand how is it that we’ve lost our industrial base.
“Companies here in the US, Fortune 100 companies, have been sourcing medicines from Chinese manufacturers to increase their margins and profitability.”
“We have considered aircraft carriers and nuclear submarines as off limits to outsourcing.
“And we pay more for that because we can understand that that’s essential to our security.
“The same thinking needs to be applied to generic antibiotics and other medicines essential for life.”
She underscored that even though the issue of drug manufacturing and supplies is obviously a critical national security issue, it is not dealt with as such. She recommends a whole of government review to assess vulnerabilities in the industrial based and recommend options to strengthen it, broadly similar to what the DOD is doing with regard to the defense industrial base.
She noted, “It’s no one’s job in the U.S. federal government to know who controls the supply of our medicines.”
That needs to change.
“We need to consider our medicines as a strategic asset, as we do for oil and other energy supplies and food commodities.”
In effect, what the U.S. and the allies have experienced is what one might called distorted globalization driven by the Chinese and supported by industrial strategies which assume that lower price global sourcing is the goal, rather than taking into account that the world is not just one big happy marketplace, but is an arena where great powers compete with economic as well as military instruments.
Much like Dr. Malmgren underscored a shift in thinking with regard to new manufacturing approaches associated with rethinking the over engagement in China Inc., Gibson highlighted new approaches which can be tapped in the United States and in the liberal democracies to do so with regard to pharmaceutical manufacturing.
She argued that new approaches are at hand to be able to generate significant stockpiles of the core ingredients regarded for core generic drugs.
And as Dr. Malmgren has highlighted in his recent work on advanced manufacturing, the new technologies allow for much shorter supply chains to generate core capabilities, rather than having to have very long global supply chains.
Clearly, pharmaceutical manufacturing is such an industry.
We finally discussed how the African swine fever epidemic is devastating China’s pig population.
And it turns out that pig intestines are the source of a raw material for a medicine, heparin, a blood thinner, that is used ubiquitously in hospitals—and China is the source of 80 percent of the global supply.
Without this medicine, hospitals would cease to function.
Thus, pig intestines can be considered the “rare earths” of medical care.
See also the following:
The New Warfare: Rethinking the Industrial Base for National Defense and Security
The 1918 Spanish Influenza killed 21-50 million people worldwide, and there’s a surprising connection to military medicine.
FALLS CHURCH, VA, UNITED STATES
10.15.2018
Military Health System
Defence personnel from Australia, the United States, Japan and the United Kingdom have conducted a training activity in the Bowen and Proserpine areas on 22 July, as part of Exercise Talisman Sabre 19 (TS19). The primary activity centred around an amphibious landing of troops on King’s Beach and Flagstaff Hill in Bowen, Queensland.
The forces were then able to move through to fixed locations throughout the Bowen township to conduct further, controlled training. TS19 is a bilateral combined Australian and United States (US) training activity.
TS19 is designed to practice our respective military services and associated agencies in planning and conducting Combined and Joint Task Force operations, and improve the combat readiness and interoperability between Australian and US forces.
TS19 will be the eighth iteration of the exercise and consists of a Field Training Exercise incorporating force preparation (logistic) activities, amphibious landings, land force manoeuvre, urban operations, air operations, maritime operations and Special Forces activities.
Australian Department of Defence
July 24, 2019.