By Blake Baiers
Good Saturday morning and welcome to Weekly Recon. On this day in 1961, in an effort to stem the tide of refugees attempting to leave East Berlin, the communist government of East Germany begins building the Berlin Wall to divide East and West Berlin. Construction of the wall caused a short-term crisis in U.S.-Soviet bloc relations, and the wall itself came to symbolize the Cold War. In the days and weeks to come, construction of a concrete block wall began, complete with sentry towers and minefields around it. The Berlin Wall succeeded in completely sealing off the two sections of Berlin.
On the Ground
The U.S. military is exploring the future of infantry operations, and it recently tasked Lockheed Martin with the job of developing concepts of future technologies for infantry squads. Under a program dubbed Squad X Core Technologies, Lockheed was awarded $12.8 million to design and test prototype equipment for dismounted infantry units. The undertaking could prove difficult however, as the Army has long aimed at fielding new high-tech equipment for its grunts through sweeping technological advancement programs, but often come up short. As Stephen Carlson at UPI notes, “High costs and the difficulties of using sophisticated equipment while moving on foot in complicated environments has delayed deployment.” Beyond Squad X, the U.S. Army is also looking to replace its M249 Squad Automatic Weapon (SAW) under a program called the Next Generation Squad Automatic Rifle (NGSAR). But, the Army wants to explore the possibility of the NGSAR filling a number of different roles, including: carbine, medium machine gun, and designated marksman rifle. But as Joseph Trevithick points out at The War Zone, the Army has a long track record of failing in such endeavors, from the M-60’s development to the failed XM-8 family of rifles. The Army has yet to decide just how wide of a scope the NGSAR will have.
Air Superiority
The U.S. Air Force trained recently to refuel and rearm its strike fighters from small, remote bases operating in austere conditions. During an exercise named “Rapid Eagle,” U.S. Air Force commandos flew into an airfield on two MC-130Js that carried the necessary fuel, gear, and weapons to refuel and rearm F-15Cs. This concept was based on the “Rapid Raptor” concept, which was first tested in 2013 and utilizes a single C-17 to ferry the troops and supplies necessary to refuel and rearm F-22s at remote airfields. These concepts are aimed at spreading out the Air Force’s aircraft during wartime, as they are generally clustered together at large air bases that are vulnerable to attack.
Following a recent crash of an MV-22B that claimed the lives of three U.S. Marinesoff the coast of Australia, the U.S. Marine Corps decided this week that it would not ground its fleets of Osprey aircraft. This drew a harsh response from the Japanese government, which has been troubled by the aircraft’s checkered safety history, including a crash off Okinawa last December. Tokyo requested last Sunday that the Marines halt all MV-22 operations in Japan, but the Marines denied this request and have continued flight operations. Then, on Friday, Japan pivoted 180 degrees on the issue, saying it would allow the U.S. to continue to fly its Ospreys in Japanese airspace. The U.S. denied this request. Instead, U.S. Marine Corps Commandant General Robert Neller has ordered all Marine Corps aviation units to take a 24-hour operational pause at sometime during the next two weeks to focus on safety fundamentals.
Maritime Matters
On Thursday the USS John S. McCain (DDG 56), an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, sailed within twelve nautical miles of Mischief Reef, a man-made island in the South China Sea occupied by China, but also claimed by the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam. This marked the third Freedom of Navigation Operation (FONOP) to take place under the Trump Administration. It also showed the military’s dedication to a recent policy change stipulating that no official confirmation of FONOPs will be given in an effort to play up their normality, versus Obama-era policies that more heavily publicized FONOPs. Pentagon official Marine Lt. Col. Christopher Logan told USNI News, “We are continuing regular FONOps, as we have routinely done in the past and will continue to do in the future. Summaries of these operations will be released publicly in the annual FONOPs report, and not sooner.”
The U.S. Navy is working to move the gravely damaged USS Fitzgerald back stateside from Japan for repairs, and has solicited industry for bids on a “Float On/Float Off (FLO/FLO) vessel capable of transporting an ARLEIGH BURKE class destroyer from Far East to U.S. Gulf Coast or U.S. East Coast.” Moving the Fitzgerald to the East Coast makes sense, as this class of ship is produced in facilities along the Eastern Seaboard and the Gulf of Mexico. The terse request does, however, raise strategic concerns over the capabilities of West Coast naval yards and their ability to service damaged ships during wartime. Nevertheless, it has yet to be determined if the necessary repairs to Fitzgerald will be cost-effective, or if the ship will forgo repairs and head to the salvage yard.
Space Wars
The U.S. military is closer to defining how it will fight wars in space. The Air Force Space Command has been busy putting pen to paper, and now has a developed concept of operations (CONOPS) for space warfare. As adversaries begin to expand their capabilities and threaten vital space-based military assets, like GPS and communications satellites, the Air Force will need to take a more aggressive posture in Space. Part of the plan may include putting more satellites into spacemore rapidly. As the Air Force figures out how it will fight in space, the international community is hashing out the legal frameworks for space warfare in an effort called Manual on International Law Applicable to Military Uses of Outer Space (MILAMOS) Project. The end goal of the project? “The results will be published as a book and then presented to states internationally, with the hope that it will be used to support the fashioning of rules of engagement for space operations and determining codes of conduct.”
The Fifth Domain
Brooklynite hipsters are (surprisingly) not the drivers of the latest retro throwback trend to hit the scene. The threat of a cyberattack disabling the Global Positioning System (GPS) is driving a return to radio frequency technologies for navigation purposes. Before GPS, low-frequency radio navigation was the standard form of geo-location for ships and aircraft. An international network of radio beacons broadcasted signals continuously, allowing navigators to tune in and figure out their location based on the difference in timing between multiple signal beacons. The U.S. shut down the last of its beacons in 2010, putting its full faith behind GPS. That may have been a mistake, however, as GPS has seen an increasing rate of jamming and hacking attacks. Now, companies are researching more effective means of radio frequency based navigation as a safe back up to GPS. South Korea is currently developing an upgraded land based navigation system called eLoran. In July, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a measure to create a system like eLoran. In era of anti-satellite missiles and increasingly sophisticated cyber attacks, this old school technology could be what keeps the U.S. Navy in the fight after GPS satellites are targeted. Going even more old school, the U.S. Naval Academy has reinstated celestial navigation training for its Midshipmen in recent years, following a generation-long hiatius in such instruction.
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