THE WATCH STAFF The United States Army plans to double the size of its cyber force — including beefing up its electronic warfare (EW) capability — to deter or defeat technologically skilled adversaries. The Army will grow its Cyber Mission Force teams and electronic warfare companies and platoons — boosting personnel from some 3,000 to “just over” 6,000 by 2030, an Army spokesperson said June 13, 2022, according to C4ISRNET, a military technology news website. Across active duty, reserves and the National Guard, the cyber branch will expand to more than 7,000. The boost in active-duty personnel comes as the Department…
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REUTERS The global nuclear arsenal is expected to grow in the coming years for the first time since the Cold War while the risk of such weapons being used is the greatest in decades, a leading conflict and armaments think tank said. Russia’s February 24, 2022, invasion of Ukraine and Western support for Kyiv has heightened tensions among the world’s nine nuclear-armed states, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) think tank said June 13 as part of new research. (Pictured: A mushroom cloud rises from a nuclear weapons test on the Marshall Islands in 1946.) While the number of…
REUTERS Diplomatic tensions between Canada and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) are rising again, with each country accusing the other of using their military aircraft flying near North Korea for provocation and harassment. The PRC’s foreign ministry on June 6 warned Canada of potential “severe consequences” of any “risky provocation,” after Canada’s military the previous week accused Chinese warplanes of harassing its patrol aircraft monitoring North Korea’s compliance with sanctions. “The U.N. Security Council has never authorized any country to carry out military surveillance in the seas and airspace of other countries in the name of enforcing sanctions,” PRC…
THE WATCH STAFF Those planning for the future of U.S. special operations forces are considering new roles for the aircraft first known as the C-130 Hercules, a venerable air truck that made its inaugural flight in 1954 and already is regarded as the military’s Swiss Army knife. The C-130 was discussed during the May 2021 Special Operations Forces Industry Conference as a candidate for a program to develop a plane that can take off and land on water. The idea was repeated a year later at this year’s SOFIC, held at the home of Special Operations Command in Tampa, Florida.…
THE WATCH STAFF The United States military is considering plans to bolster its involvement in military exercises with Finland and Sweden as NATO weighs the nations’ applications to join the alliance. Arriving in Helsinki on June 3 to meet with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto and top military commanders, Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the Nordic countries bring “significant military capacity to NATO.” “We, the military, have a variety of plans with NATO … to conduct exercises in all the domains ― air, sea, land, et cetera. So, we’ll do that,” Milley told Defense…
THE WATCH STAFF The Pentagon has taken another step toward integrating autonomous weapons into its fighting forces with the creation of a Navy division to help develop drone surface ships. At the center of the Unmanned Surface Vessel Division 1 (USV DIV 1) is a long, skinny trimaran developed by the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) that can lie in wait weeks at a time for an adversary’s stealthy diesel submarine to surface. This prototype, called Sea Hunter, and a second copy called Sea Hawk, join two other autonomous vessels — converted civilian offshore-supply ships — that now are assigned…
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS The USS Oregon officially joined the U.S. Navy fleet on May 28, 2022, marking the first submarine named after the Beaver State in more than a century. The newest Virginia-class fast attack submarine, which can dive to depths of greater than 249 meters, was originally christened in 2019. But the COVID-19 pandemic created some “slips in schedule” for the crew, said U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, a Connecticut Democrat whose district includes General Dynamics Corp.’s electric Boat Shipyard where the 377-foot (115-meter) submarine was constructed. “But I think the record should be clear that despite that unprecedented disruption,…
THE WATCH STAFF Royal Bahamas Defence Force (RBDF) leaders are taking part in an intensive four-week course with regional and United States partners that is designed to build defense capacity through strategic thinking. The Strategic Leaders International Course (SLIC) of the Naval Small Craft Instruction and Technical Training School (NAVSCIATTS) is a four-week, in-residence offering that provides senior military leaders and government officials with new perspectives, methodologies and opportunities for addressing complex challenges. It runs from June 2 through June 30 at the John C. Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. The SLIC participants are introduced to systemic strategy design through…
REUTERS Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi expressed hopes for deeper counterterrorism ties with the United States during talks with a top U.S. general in May 2022, following a deadly attack by militants in the Sinai peninsula, a U.S. military official said. The attack was claimed by Islamic State and killed 11 Egyptian troops. Militants descended on a checkpoint at a water pumping station, striking with an explosive-rigged vehicle and firing heavy weapons from pick-up trucks, Egyptian security sources said. It was one of the deadliest attacks in recent years in the northern Sinai. U.S. Army Gen. Michael “Erik” Kurilla, who…
THE WATCH STAFF The U.S. Department of Defense is making strides protecting sensitive computer networks against cyberattacks from foreign adversaries, a federal watchdog agency says. In a May 2022 report, the Government Accounting Office wrote that as of January, the DOD had achieved 70% compliance in implementing four key protections tied to controlled unclassified information (CUI), including data related to possible critical technologies and weapons and defense infrastructure. “Safeguarding federal computer systems has been a longstanding concern,” the GAO wrote in a May 19, 2022, memo to congressional committees. “Underscoring the importance of this issue, we have included cybersecurity on…