Over 900 paratroopers and 110 civilian parachutists from seven different countries conducted a commemorative airborne operation in remembrance of the operations carried out by Allied forces on D-Day 75 years ago, outside Sainte-Mere-Eglise,
France, June 9, 2019.
06.09.2019
Video by Sgt. Edward Salcedo
Regional Media Center (RMC) Europe & AFN Europe
By Robbin Laird
With the central role which crisis management will play for the US and its allies, a key area of change is in the area of C2. Distributed operations which will be an essential part of the strategic shift will require distributed C2.
And C2 will have to operate in degraded operations environments.
A tested technology which can provided capabilities to support flexible insertion forces in the higher end and support for HADR operations on the lower end is the GATR system.
The GATR system provides a very flexible, mobile, deployable solution to ensure for reliable communications on the fly which can be used to support military insertion forces or to provide for connectivity when natural disasters have brought down normal operating systems.
I recently had a chance to talk with Cubic’s Victor Vega, Director of Emerging Solutions, about the GATR system.
I first became aware of both Mr. Vega and GATR from the role of the system in dealing with the HADR situation in Puerto Rico in 2017.
In an article by Debra Werner of Space News published on December 5, 2017, the role of GATR was highlighted.
Cubic Corporation’s GATR satellite antennas continue to provide communications links for residents and community leaders in Puerto Rico more than two months after Hurricane Maria devastated the U.S. territory and nearby Caribbean islands.
Employees of GATR Technologies, part of Cubic Corporation’s Mission Solutions Division, were in the U.S. Virgin Islands working to reestablish communications in the wake of Hurricane Irma, when Help.NGO’s Disaster Immediate Response Team and Cisco Systems’ Tactical Operations Team called for assistance in Puerto Rico.
Victor Vega, GATR Technologies director of emerging solutions, and his colleagues packed inflatable satellite antennas in suitcases and brought them to areas of Puerto Rico where hurricane-force winds and fallen trees had dismantled the terrestrial communications infrastructure. They installed inflatable GATR 2.4 meter antennas on rooftops, including two U.S. Army National Guard buildings that served as a distribution point for food and water.
Vega noted that he has been with the GATR program from the early days when it was produced by a small startup company (GATR Technologies) which was acquired by Cubic Corporation in 2015.
He argued that the acquisition has been good for the GATR effort as “We have been able to move from being an antenna provider to being part of a broader effort to become a satcom provider and to provide systems to DoD as a program of record.”
But he underscored that the core GATR capability is really about rapid response. He pointed out that when they began, the already contributed capability to the Hurricane Katrina disaster. The factory is located in Huntsville, Alabama and they put GATR into a truck and drove to the disaster area and provided sat com capabilities for the first responders.
“The prototype already allowed FEMA to get Internet access so people could come in and fill out the FEMA request forms and to communicate with their familes to let them know they were alright.”
He underscored that since that time, the GATR system has been a frequent contributor to HADR C2. The graphic below shows the HADR events at which GATR has provided C2 in a degraded operational environment.
Verga argued that given the centrality of communications to modern society, re-establishing C2 has become a central focus for relief agencies which providing HADR rebuild efforts. “The faster C2 can be restored, the more rapidly can order be re-established and chaos mitigated.”
GATR has virtually no logistics footprint so to speak. It can be packed along with suitcases for transport with other cargo; it does not need specialized vans or specialized lift helos or aircraft to bring to the area of interest. The small logistical footprint means it can be brought to the area of interest by a wide range of ground or air or sea transport systems.
This also means for insertion forces in higher end contingencies, a distributed C2 capability can be laid down rapidly and with minimal lift required. The system can be and has been carried with airborne troops and precision air dropped to the area of interest as well.
Because the focus is shifting from the big established bases of the Middle East land wars, to an ability to operate across the combat spectrum in a crisis situation with distributed forces, such a flexible coms capability is an essential part of the mobility and flexibility which the evolving force structure needs to prioritize.
With regard to HADR operations, FEMA has become a customer of GATR as well as several NGOs which operate in the HADR environment. For example, in HADR operations in 2017, the following partners worked with GATR in support of operations:
In other words, GATR can support a wide range of missions operating in a disrupted or degraded environment.
I noted that the US military is clearly reworking island hopping as part of the US-allied strategy in the Pacific.
Vega commented that GATR clearly has a role in such a strategy and provided this example.
A US Army Unit based in Hawaii has been using GATR for some time to support exercises across the Hawaiian Island chain.
One of the officers of this particular unit told Vega that “we can not do our mission operating out of ice cream truck satcom. We cannot move all that equipment and get our job done.”
To do their mission, this US Army unit transitioned from the legacy system of trucks and antennas to GATR, a clear harbinger for a more flexible approach, one needed for HADR or other mission sets.
The featured photo shows Cubic’ Corporations’s Victor Vega installing GATR Technologies’ inflatable antenna on rooftop on City Hall in Vieques, Puerto Rico.
Photo taken from the Space News story cited above.
The video highlights the ceremony which marked the 75th anniversary of D-Day at the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial, June 6, 2019.
The ceremony was the apex of more than 80 events commemorating the 75th anniversary of D-Day, the largest multi-national amphibious landing and operational military airdrop in history and highlighted the U.S. steadfast commitment to European allies and partners.
More than 1,300 U.S. service members, partnered with 950 troops from across Europe and Canada, to converge in northwestern France to take part in the events that began June 1 and will continue until June 9.
06.06.2019
Video by Sgt. Edward Salcedo
Regional Media Center (RMC) Europe & AFN Europe
By Brendan Nicholson
Australia’s new chief defence scientist says she has taken on the role at a time when the Australian Defence Force is becoming increasingly receptive to game-changing capabilities.
‘That, to me, is really critical’, Professor Tanya Monro says.
A physicist, Monro was working in Britain 15 years ago when she was asked by what is now Defence Science and Technology (DST) to return to Australia to set up a photonics research facility in Adelaide. Photonics is the science of light—how it can be generated, detected and made use of—and it’s a key research area for Defence in the development of sensors, lasers and new optical materials.
Now she is in charge of DST, having taken over from Alex Zelinsky, who has become vice-chancellor of Newcastle University.
Monro will oversee the investment in key projects of the $730 million Next Generation Technologies Fund. ‘The whole intent of Next Gen is to put the focus on things that will disrupt and support and create capability edge for the ADF. That includes identifying things that adversaries would potentially put into the mix that could disrupt our current approach to safeguarding Australia’, she says.
So are there more ideas out there as good as the Australian-designed CEAFAR phased-array radar and the Nulka ship defence system?
‘I absolutely think there are, but we can’t do all of them. We’ve got to have the conversation to decide on the really big things we can do on a national scale. Ideally they’ll be in areas where we’ve already got an edge’, Monro says.
One such area is in space technologies, in using and harnessing small satellites and constellations of small satellites. Others are in quantum computing and hypersonics. ‘It’s everything from new materials that will change how we protect our serving personnel, right through to new ways of integrating information that comes from multiple elements of a conflict in a way that can allow you to make better decisions.’
Autonomy is a big area of focus for DST, along with machine learning and artificial intelligence.
‘There’s no question we’re moving into a world where data is becoming more complex, rich and ubiquitous. And where understanding, processing and turning data into information to support decision-making is becoming more and more critical. This is absolutely key for us. One thing that strikes me in this place is you lift the lid and you look, and just the range and number of things being worked on is mind-blowing. And in most of those, we’re closely partnered with the ADF’, Monro says.
‘The game is to try to think big and work on some of these really challenging longer-term areas because there’s no point having the best solution to today’s problems if something new comes and knocks that over.’
No other such institution is so deeply enmeshed with its partners than DST is with the ADF’s combat personnel, Monro says. ‘That means our people, whether they’re an early career researcher coming straight from the university system or someone who’s been here for decades, get that intimate understanding of the problems the fighters face.
‘The Next Gen program will allow DST and the ADF to harness the amazing capacity in the Australian research system across the 40-odd universities and other publicly funded agencies and see where we can align and shape the direction of some of the work that’s happening out there.
‘Together we can have bigger teams of really strong researchers tackling a smaller number of bigger problems. It’s more in the concept of expanding some national missions that are inspiring, exciting’, she says.
That will shape what’s happening not only within DST but more broadly across the universities and other institutions to build Australia’s future capability and mould some of the industry development that’s got to happen for the nation’s economic growth.
DST can’t do that by itself, Monro says, because it’s an organisation of just over 2,000 people and by itself it couldn’t provide the scale of effort and investment needed to develop some of these really big ideas.
‘You then need to have the mechanisms, the funding support to bring the best people together’, she says. ‘We’ve started to do that, and we’ll continue to develop that.’
The next step, she says, is to create an environment in which broad priority areas are narrowed down into specific big challenges, missions or questions that begin to shape what people do.
‘DST has a special role in that because we’re so meshed with the ADF we have an understanding of what might be some of the threats into the future, what we should worry about, not just today but in 10 years-plus’, says Munro.
‘And then we can help shape that conversation and narrow down to the problems we want to work on. Sometimes I think in Australia we lack that willingness to make a call, set priorities and tie them to funding.’
Monro says the goal is to harness the nation’s intellectual capital. ‘If you bring together the best people in the nation in a field, and you resource that conversation, you can create a roadmap for ideas on what might be possible.’
This article was published by ASPI on May 31, 2019.
Brendan Nicholson is defence editor of The Strategist.
A version of this article was originally published in the Australian.
https://www.dst.defence.gov.au
By Eamon Hamilton
The Secretary-General of the United Nations, and other dignitaries, toured the South-West Pacific with the assistance of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF).
António Guterres visited Fiji, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu from May 14-18. His visited included attendance at the Pacific Islands Forum and bilateral talks with regional leaders.
Flown between the islands by No. 35 Squadron’s ‘Wallaby Airlines’ C-27J Spartan, he saw firsthand the impacts of climate change on the region.
The squadron’s support also allowed the Secretary-General to speak directly with senior government leaders from across the South-West Pacific.
It was a high-profile ‘no fail’ task and Flight Lieutenant Luke Georgeson said everything went as planned for the VIP party of 21 passengers.
“We moved the Secretary General through Fiji, including Nadi and Suva, and then Tuvalu and finally Vanuatu,” Flight Lieutenant Georgeson said.
“They passengers included the UN Secretary General, the New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister, Fiji and New Zealand High Commissioners for the region, along with media and other staff.”
The Spartan proved well suited for supporting the task, especially as it toured through Tuvalu.
“The airport at Tuvalu had a low pavement strength, a small apron, and we needed to deliver a relatively large group,” Flight Lieutenant Georgeson said.
“This meant the C-27J was the only RAAF aircraft able to adequately service this task.”
Whilst in Tuvalu, the crew was able to open the aircraft’s ramp in-flight.
With the UN Secretary General safely attached by a harness, he received a breathtaking view of the Pacific islands.
“His feedback was that it was the ‘best experience of my life’,” Flight Lieutenant Georgeson said.
His Excellency António Guterres said the picturesque view of the South-West Pacific contrasted with the sobering reality faced by many due to rising waters, natural disaster, and even climate-related disease.
Speaking after his visit to Tuvalu, Mr Guterres described it as “an entire country fighting to preserve its very existence”, and called climate change an “an existential threat”.
“Climate change cannot be stopped by the small island countries alone, it has to be stopped by the rest of the world,” Mr Guterres said.
“(This requires) transformational policies in energy, mobility, industry and agriculture.”
“To save the Pacific is to save the whole planet.”
This article was published by the Australian Department of Defence on May 30, 2019.
In a recent article published on May 24, 2019, the UK Ministry of Defence highlighted the UK role within the Baltic Protector exercise, notably by focusing on Joint Expeditionary Force.
A total of 3,000 military personnel and 17 vessels from nine nations will contribute to the first major maritime training deployment of the UK-led Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) in the coming weeks.
Minister for the Armed Forces Mark Lancaster said:
“From Denmark to Lithuania, from Sweden to Estonia, Baltic Protector will leave potential adversaries in no doubt of our collective resolve and ability to defend ourselves.
“This force is a key component of European security, a force of friends that complements existing structures and demonstrates that we are stronger together.”
Baltic Protector marks the first deployment of the UK-led JEF Maritime Task Group, with command of the group conducted by the Royal Navy’s HMS Albion.
Today she joins forces with vessels and personnel from Denmark, Estonia, Sweden, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and the Netherlands for the start of integration training in the western Baltic and eastern North Sea – the first of three phases making up the deployment.
In June, the JEF will then demonstrate its ability to not only operate independently but also support existing multinational organisations when the task group will join NATO Allies on the US-led Exercise Baltops, taking part off Germany and Sweden.
The third and final phase of the deployment will see the task group link up with land forces in the eastern Baltic – including the UK-led battlegroup in Estonia which makes up part of NATO’s enhanced Forward Presence– by conducting a series of shore landings and raids.
Established at the 2014 NATO Summit and launched a year later, the JEF became fully operational with the signing of a comprehensive Memorandum of Understanding last year in London.
As an adaptable high-readiness force that can be stood up anywhere, at any time and in any environment, the JEF can cover a range of tasks, including combat operations, deterrence, or humanitarian support.
The joint force is a clear example of collective strength. This joint working has been seen previously such as during the Ebola outbreak – as part of the response, the UK, the Netherlands and Norway combined resources on land, at sea and in the air.
This demonstrates the type of integrated mission the JEF could be mobilised to support.
Command of the JEF Maritime Task Group is being conducted from HMS Albion shown in the featured photo.
According to a story published by the UK MoD website on May 31, 2019, the latest intercept was highlighted.
The RAF jets scrambled yesterday (Thursday 30 May) to intercept two Russian SU-30 Flanker fighters, two SU-24 Fencer attack aircraft and an AN-12 transport aircraft flying off the north coast of Estonia.
Armed Forces Minister Mark Lancaster said:
Our commitment to NATO and European security is unwavering and our brave RAF pilots have shown once again that we are ready to respond to any threat to the UK and its allies. Alongside our NATO allies, we must remain vigilant and aware of Russian military activity.
This was a routine NATO mission for the Typhoons which took over the NATO Baltic Air Policing mission from the German Air Force last month. The presence in the Baltics provides reassurance that the UK is here to work in partnership with Estonia.
A Typhoon pilot from XI(Fighter) Squadron, attached to 121 Expeditionary Air Wing (EAW), was conducting Quick Reaction Alert duty when the scramble was called. He said:
We were scrambled to intercept a group of four Russian fighters. The intercept was routine and we stayed with them for around 25 minutes during their transit from mainland Russia to the Kaliningrad oblast.
Once complete with this task we hauled off and conducted a further intercept of a Russian AN-12 aircraft travelling much lower and slower along the same route. The intercept of all five aircraft was uneventful and conducted in a professional manner throughout.
This is the fourth Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) scramble since the RAF deployed in April 2019 as part of Baltic Air Policing. The RAF operates alongside its NATO allies to deter Russian aggression and assure NATO allies of the UK’s commitment to collective defence.
RAF Typhoon and a Russian SU-24 Fencer attack aircraft. Crown copyright.
For our look at Quick Reaction Alerts, see the following:
In an article published on May 30, 2109, the Italian Ministry of Defence highlighted the importance of the Joint Stars 2019 exercise.
Defence Minister Elisabetta Trenta today visited Decimomannu (Sardinia) on the occasion of Joint Stars 2019, the Defence most important exercise
“Over the last few years Joint Stars exercises have been a fundamental tool to assess the response capability – in full compliance with NATO training criteria- of our Armed Forces in the face of new crisis scenarios. Joint Stars 2019 pronounced joint, combined and interagency approach has given the exercise a much broader dimension as compared to the previous editions, confirming its very high value within the broader context of major Armed Forces exercises”.
This statement is an excerpt from Defence Minister Elisabetta Trenta’s speech, held on the occasion of Joint Stars 2019 (JS19) exercise, presently being conducted in Sardinia. Accompanied by Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Enzo Vecciarelli and by the Armed Forces and Customs Police top officers, the Minister attended the demonstration of a tactical event in the training area of Decimomannu base.
This year, for the first time, Comando Operativo di Vertice Interforze (COI) (Joint Command Operations), took part in the exercise –the most important one at the national level- as a Joint Command able to plan and conduct specific operational activities such as Small Joint Operations-SJOs/High Intensity, in environments characterized by cyber threats and Chemical, Biologic, Radioactive and Nuclear threats (CBRN), and witnessed the participation of personnel and assets from the Carabinieri Corps, Customs Police Corps, ENAV (Ente Nazionale per l’Assistenza al Volo), Fire Brigade and the Red Cross.
“In this way we have given Joint Stars a pronounced interagency approach, intended to test and develop an effective intervention capability, also within the context of a synergic cooperation with other State agencies”, Minister Trenta said.
“This kind of activities fully respond to the need to strengthen our Armed Forces’ capacities in a joint international perspective”, the Minister underscored. In her speech she also highlighted the value of the exercise as an “indispensable moment in terms of ensuring the effectiveness of our Armed Forces and, as a consequence, of our partners and allies, when faced with a, increasingly broad and insidious threat range“.
“Over the last few years Joint Stars has been an excellent opportunity in terms of interoperability, integration and participation, as well as for optimizing our resources in view of a future engagement in national, multinational and coalition operations”, Elisabetta Trenta added, recalling that the Armed Forces must be able to serve the State and support the Country and its citizens in all crisis and emergency situations.
In the future, in fact, Defence will increasingly be an integrated instrument within a broad “collective security” context, i.e. an integral part of a truly “national security general strategy”.
“Today, we live in a world characterized by increasing geopolitical instability, raising sensitive defence and security problems in terms of domestic and international security and defence. For certain, one such problems is preventing cyber threats“, the Minister explained, underscoring the need to have lines of intervention aimed at improving the management and control capabilities in tended to tackle this kind of threats, both within a military and civilian context. “This is an indispensable capability for all the countries who want to ensure the highest level of security for their citizens”.
Joint Stars 2019 is divided into 2 phases and is conducted at various locations in the national territory: the Tyrrhenian Sea, Rome, Taranto, Brindisi, Poggio Renatico, Trapani, Decimomannu, Pisa, Pratica di Mare, Amendola, Sigonella, Grosseto, Licola and Sardinia military ranges.