Latest news with #CombinedJointAll-DomainCommandandControl
Otago Daily Times
3 days ago
- Politics
- Otago Daily Times
NZDF heading for joint military exercise
The army is heading for an international exercise where drones will be tested, taking a single drone of its own. Australia and the US are expected to test autonomous weapons as well as a vital new missile system - one that has already upset China - at the Talisman Sabre exercise, starting late next week. As the first 150 out of 680 New Zealand Defence Force personnel going to the exercise got on the Navy ship Canterbury in Wellington, on Thursday, its commanders reiterated their goal to provide the government with a more lethal combat force. "We are very mindful that the role of the Defence Force right now is more critical than it has been for several decades," Brigadier Jason Dyhrberg told reporters. "Therefore, it is important that we make sure we provide the government with a lethal, agile, effective combat force that can protect and preserve New Zealand interests, both domestically and abroad." Yet constraints were still obvious, with the government's $12 billion defence capability plan arriving too late to make a difference. "It's too early to put that into resource right now," Dyhrberg said. "Those capabilities will be in the pipeline in the coming years." That meant little on the drone front, with the motorised infantry combat team taking along just one drone. "This will be employed in a surveillance and target acquisition role by the Joint Fires Team," the NZDF said. Talisman was a proving ground for drones in 2023, which have been transforming warfare in Ukraine. Lieutenant Colonel Caleb Berry said drones would be introduced at all levels of the NZDF, but it would take time. "The Defence Force is on a capability journey with drones," Berry said. "We identify that there is a need, but we're still going through that journey at the moment." Asked if the NZDF was taking anything more lethal now, compared to Talisman 2023, Dyhrberg said, "they're largely the same capabilities". He added quickly: "But in the defence capability plan, the minister has made it quite clear about making the defence force more lethal. "That will include more lethal fires as well. What there will be is still to be determined." 'Joint fires' "Joint fires" refers to digital targeting for shooting at targets synchronised at lightning speed across multiple forces and "domains" (land, sea, air, space). The US and Australia have made strides towards this since 2021, when the Australian Defence Force said it was "now plug and play" and "fully integrated". It not only coordinates the target, but recommends what weapon to shoot at it and how. Joint fire networks are a central part of the Pentagon's priority ongoing project to build a mega-network of sensors and shooters called CJADC2 (Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control). Leading US contractor Lockheed Martin helped provide a joint fires network to exercises in Alaska and took part in Talisman Sabre in 2023. For Talisman 2025, the NZDF is taking more than twice as many people as in 2023, at a time when it had described itself as "hollowed out" and suffering high turnover. Also its stop-start Network Enabled Army project has so far put new digital communications systems into seven Bushmaster vehicles - out of 43 total - and those were driven on to the HMNZS Canterbury on Thursday. "We don't have drones as part of this combat team, but we do have the ability to communicate both digitally and via voice with the Australians at all levels," said Berry. Talisman would also give them the chance to see the missile capability of their partners, he added. 'Command and control' Talisman and other major military exercises, such as Rimpac that the navy went to last year, align with the US's CJADC2 goals to build what the Pentagon calls "kill chains" that are ever faster. At a California exercise NZDF went to in March, the chain was down to just seconds over long distances, US media reports have said. NZDF said a key goal over the three-week Talisman exercise was to integrate its capabilities with Australian and US "command relationships including command and control". Dyhrberg added, "we always maintain sovereignty over our own forces in terms of doing command and control". They had stepped up for 2025 by sending the motorised combat team of Light Armoured Vehicles (LAVs) and Bushmasters, and aimed to build up further to contributing a battalion-size group for Talisman 2027, he said. US pressure - Talisman comes at interesting time for allies' relationship Talisman, the largest bilateral Australia-US military exercise, comes at an interesting time for the allies' relationship. At the weekend, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth told Canberra it should lift its defence spending to 3.5% of GDP "as soon as possible", from 2% now. This is about the same proportion as America spends on defence. He conveyed this at the Shangri-La dialogue summit, where New Zealand Minister of Defence Judith Collins had spoken in defence of Donald Trump's proposed Golden Dome missile defence system. Hegseth and Australia's Defence Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, Richard Marles, "discussed aligning investment to the security environment in the Indo-Pacific", the Pentagon said. But Prime Minister Anthony Albanese later said Australia would decide what defence capability it needed, with spending to fit that. The Australian reported this as Albanese having "brushed off the request". "We'll determine our defence policy," Albanese said. His government's current goal is to hit 2.4% by 2033, which would take the total spend to over $100 billion a year. New Zealand in April announced its goal of doubling its defence spending to 2% by 2032, or over $10b a year. Japan's is only about 1.8%. However, some analysts predict US defence spending will actually go down in the coming decade, to under 3 percent, though Hegseth has made much about having the first US-trillion-dollar defence budget this year (which has not been agreed to yet). The share of the spend that US states get varies wildly, with Texas getting the biggest share, next Virginia and third California. More money has recently been going into Silicon Valley as the Pentagon signs contracts with various tech companies branching out into defence.
Axios
07-05-2025
- Axios
At the Army Research Lab, an augmented-reality peek at future war
In a curtained-off alcove of a U.S. Army lab just minutes off Washington's Beltway, reporters glimpsed the near future of war. It was robotic, electronically saturated and inclusive of all domains, including air littorals dominated by drones. The big picture: The U.S. Army has for years organized Project Convergence, a weapons-and-networking crucible that welcomes Air Force, Navy and foreign participation in pursuit of the Pentagon's connectivity nirvana, Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control. The experiment, typically spanning weeks across far-flung locations, was on May 2 brought to the Army Research Laboratory using Anduril Industries-branded augmented reality headsets and a physics-based simulation dubbed "sandtable." The company speaks little of this tailorable, digital world. But it allowed a dozen or so people to observe and interact with the same unfolding battle. What they're saying: "You'll see the interrelationship of all the entities: the maritime component, the special operations forces component, the air component, the Army component," Army Lt. Gen. David Hodne, the Futures and Concepts Center director, told Axios and other event attendees. "It's overwhelming when you see all this come together. And that's what warfighting is." Here's what it looked like through my goggles: Naval clashes off San Diego involving unmanned vessels, high-altitude balloons, sonobuoys and strikes from the Navy-Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System. An air campaign near Las Vegas and the seizure of hostile territory at the National Training Center in California. Satellite skirmishes and communications breakdowns; jamming, spoofing and spying; large-language models aiding threat recognition; and Chinooks unloading smart machinery to lead the charge on the ground. A "machine-gun burst" of drones clearing a path through a minefield — a very 2025 mine-clearing line charge — and a robotic bulldozer pushing through. Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft zipping overhead. And massive exchanges of missiles, artillery and mortars. Threat level: These drills and press conferences are not done in a vacuum. Top of mind for Washington are China and Russia, plus their increasing intimacy. The former menaces Taiwan and the Philippines; the latter wages bloody war on Ukraine. "We war-game, we rehearse, we exercise all the time against our pacing threat" China, which has "tremendous" stockpiles, "exquisite capabilities" and anti-access, area-denial networks to keep firepower at bay, Lt. Gen. Joel Vowell, the U.S. Army Pacific deputy, said at the event. The intrigue: The general sees a need to combine weapons with countermeasures to save precious resources, like munitions and manpower. "Think the offensive missile systems that we have, HIMARS, versus the defensive missile systems we have, Patriot. They're built for different things," Vowell told reporters. "Wouldn't it be great if we could combine one platform that could do both?" Inside the room: Also in attendance Friday were Army Maj. Gen. Patrick Ellis, Air Force Maj. Gen. Luke Cropsey and the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office's Lindsey Sheppard.
Axios
26-03-2025
- Business
- Axios
Exclusive: The Pentagon's software-hardware tug of war
There's a balance to be struck between defense software and hardware; without one, your targeting's bricked, and without the other, you're not seizing airfields. The problem is the Pentagon has yet to find the sweet spot. Why it matters: In a world of robots, autonomous weapons and global supply chains, conflicts will be swayed by the team that refreshes its code quicker and shares its information more accurately. A hypothetical war with China in 2027 will be fought with what the U.S. military hasin hand right now. Driving the news: An Atlantic Council report — the product of more than a year of work and 60-plus interviews, first shared with Axios — sheds light on this era of " software-defined warfare." Such a dynamic "is about ensuring we have sufficient numbers of systems, as technologically advanced as possible, at the moment of need," Stephen Rodriguez, the commission director, told me. What's inside: Here are some of the commission's conclusions: The U.S. military is still moored to an acquisition system "ill-suited to the rapid tempo of modern technological innovation." This status quo puts the country "at significant risk." The Defense Department lacks "sufficient software expertise," hamstringing capabilities that harness "critical technology areas including AI, autonomy, and cyber." Training is needed all the way up the chain. Academia can help. While long-term reform is necessary, what's needed today is "near-term, high-impact initiatives to bridge" the gap and "reestablish an advantage." Beijing, meanwhile, is aligning industrial policies and resources to the digital domain. Stateside service chiefs should identify a program executive office to oversee how — and ensure that — disparate tech can communicate. This is Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control in action. The Defense Department should, by default, purchase software, not build it. When the department "decides to develop custom software, this often results in higher costs, longer schedules, and increased risks." It also needs a software cadre, and that requires recruiting dozens of specialists to be spread far and wide, including at operational commands and in budget offices. What they're saying: "DoD has made some decent progress on software adoption, but we're still doing it in siloed fiefdoms and not always with broader, more strategic outcomes in mind," Whitney McNamara, one of the report's authors, told Axios. "Our software-enabled capabilities won't move the mark on the battlefield if they can't talk to one another." Inside the room: The commissioners, contributors and staff are a who's who of industry, government and financiers. The roster includes: Lockheed Martin CEO Jim Taiclet Helsing cofounder Gundbert Scherf Trae Stephens of Founders Fund and Anduril Industries fame Saab executive and former Task Force 59 commodore Michael Brasseur Adam Hammer at Roadrunner Venture Studios Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper Former Pentagon weapons buyer Ellen Lord Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Jack Shanahan Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Clinton Hinote The bottom line: The Pentagon "buys metal well, because buying metal is an Industrial Age process. They perfectly define a requirement, then they spend years building the thing," Second Front CEO Tyler Sweatt, also a study commissioner, said in an interview.
