While the statement praised the House Armed Services Committee for its “strong, bipartisan” work on the $884 billion bill, it raised objections to some of its provisions on shipbuilding, the creation of an Army drone corps, missile defense and pricing transparency for defense contractors.

The White House also said it “strongly urges” Congress to create an Indo-Pacific Security Assistance Initiative, which the bill does not include despite a Pentagon request. The Pentagon’s proposal would mirror a similar program used to arm Ukraine.

“The administration looks forward to continuing to work with Congress to set appropriate and responsible levels of defense and non-defense spending to support the security of the nation,” according to the statement from the White House’s Office of Management and Budget. “The administration looks forward to working with Congress to address our concerns.”

Despite its specific objections, the White House did not issue a veto threat on the bill. That could change if the House adopts some of the socially conservative policy riders introduced by the right-flank of the Republican caucus during amendment votes later this week.

Republicans opted for this approach last year with a bill that only narrowly passed the House after they voted to add amendments from the right-wing Freedom caucus that turned the usually bipartisan bill into a partisan endeavor. Lawmakers dropped those provisions during conference negotiations with the Senate before passing a bipartisan compromise bill for FY24 in December.

The Senate Armed Services Committee is set to mark up its version of the FY25 defense policy bill later this week.

House Armed Services Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Ala., and Rep. Adam Smith of Washington, the committee’s top Democrat, both asked the Rules Committee on Tuesday to focus on non-divisive provisions as they decide which of the 1,386 proposed amendments to put on the floor for votes.

“The bill we are presenting today is truly bipartisan,” said Rogers, noting his committee advanced it 57-1 last month. “As you consider which amendments to make in order, I would respectfully request that you focus on amendments that advance the security of our nation and the needs of our servicemembers.”

And Smith said that “any effort to go after reproductive healthcare, any effort to go after the rights of the LGBTQ community, are going be problems, as is any effort to block the efforts of DoD to have a truly inclusive military.”

Shipbuilding loggerheads

In addition to possible partisan divides over social issues, the Armed Services Committee has found itself at loggerheads with defense appropriators over their draft spending bill that overrides numerous provisions in the defense policy bill.

For instance, the draft FY25 defense spending bill – which the Appropriations Committee is set to mark up on Thursday – does not fund the policy bill’s $1 billion authorization in incremental funding for a second Virginia-class attack submarine.

In doing so, defense appropriators have sided with the White House and Navy in their decision to fund the procurement of just one Virginia-class submarine for FY25 due to production delays instead of the usual two vessels.

“The authorization of incremental funding for a second [Virginia-class submarine] would result in a significant unplanned bill in FY26, competing for funding with additional [submarine industrial base investments] and Columbia-class submarines,” noted the White House statement. “This will force the Navy to make reductions in other priorities to accommodate the balance of funds for the second FY25″ submarine.

Instead, the Biden administration “encourages Congress to fully support the near-term submarine industrial base investments proposed in the president’s FY25 budget request.”

Authorizers on the Armed Services Committee argue the decision to drop a second Virginia-class vessel in FY25 will set back companies further down the submarine supply chain. At the same time, the defense policy bill cuts $1.17 billion in procurement of a frigate for FY25 – drawing further objections from the White House.

Additionally, the White House took aim at a provision that would block the retirement of guided-missile cruisers.

“Divesting ships on a case-by-case basis allows the Navy to prioritize investments,” noted the statement. “The USS Shiloh and USS Lake Erie are currently in a condition that renders modernization and restoration to full operational capability cost-prohibitive.”

Army and missile defense

The White House also said it “strongly opposes” a provision in the defense policy bill creating a drone corps within the Army, arguing it “would create an unwarranted degree of specialization and limit flexibility to employ evolving capabilities.”

Additionally, it “strongly opposes” another provision requiring the establishment of a third continental missile interceptor site on the east coast by 2030.

“There is no operational need for such a site to protect the homeland against potential ballistic missiles originating from Iran or” North Korea, noted the statement.

Instead, the White House notes that the Defense Department will field 20 Next-Generation Interceptors in silos in Alaska by 2028 to defend all 50 states.

Defense contractor pricing data

Another provision the White House “strongly opposes” raises the cap at which prime defense contractors must obtain certified cost or pricing data from a subcontractor to $5 million, up from the current $2 million.

“This would reduce the incentive for sole-source prime contractors to negotiate contracts with their subcontractors, such as for spare parts, to keep costs under control, creating unnecessary risk for taxpayers,” notes the White House statement.

The Project on Government Oversight, a watchdog group, is also lobbying against this provision.

Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette, the group’s senior government affairs manager, said the provision would allow prime contractors to provide the Pentagon with “historical data, which is old data, and wouldn’t justify the current price hike.”

“That makes the contracting officers’ jobs even harder when they’re trying to figure out if the price is reasonable and fair – and they already have a hard time trying to figure that out under the current system,” Hedtler-Gaudette told Defense News.

“No U.S. boots will be on the ground,” Biden said. “A temporary pier will enable a massive increase in the amount of humanitarian assistance getting into Gaza every day. And Israel must also do its part. Israel must allow more aid into Gaza and ensure that humanitarian workers aren’t caught in the cross fire.

“To the leadership of Israel I say this: Humanitarian assistance cannot be a secondary consideration or a bargaining chip.”

Senior administration officials told reporters earlier Thursday the mission would route humanitarian aid through Cyprus to the temporary port in Gaza. The White House is also pushing Israel and Egypt to allow more aid through the land crossings at Rafah and Kerem Shalom.

The announcement, which drew bipartisan applause from lawmakers gathered, came amid calls from Biden for Congress to pass his long-stalled foreign aid bill to arm Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan.

The Senate passed the $95 billion foreign aid plan by a 70-29 vote in February. It includes $14 billion in Israel military aid, $48 billion in security assistance for Ukraine and $4 billion to arm Taiwan.

Israel receives an annual $3.8 billion in U.S. military aid, but the White House has said the Defense Department lacks the replenishment funds needed to continue arming Ukraine from U.S. stockpiles.

There’s also $2.4 billion in the bill for U.S. Central Command to respond to the uptick in attacks on American forces since the Israel-Hamas war began in October 2023; as well as $542 million for U.S. Indo-Pacific Command in response to its fiscal 2024 unfunded priorities list.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has so far refused to put the bill on the floor amid growing resistance to additional Ukraine aid from Republican lawmakers as well as opposition from former President Donald Trump, the frontrunner in the GOP presidential primary race.

“Now assistance to Ukraine is being blocked by those who want to walk away from our world leadership,” said Biden, invoking former Republican President Ronald Reagan. “Now my predecessor tells Putin ‘do whatever the hell you want.”

The reference to Trump’s remarks at a campaign rally last month in which the former president voiced frustration with some NATO allies underspending on defense drew “boos” from Republicans in the crowd.

“Send me the bipartisan National Security Bill. History is watching,” Biden said, staring down Republican members of Congress who have opposed the measure. “If the United States walks away now, it will put Ukraine at risk, Europe at risk, the free world at risk, emboldening others who wish to do us harm.”

Biden also promised a strong response to other national security threats, including strikes to degrade Houthi capabilities in the Red Sea. “As commander in chief, I will not hesitate to direct further measures to protect our people and military personnel.”

Despite limited details about the plan for a humanitarian port, the idea drew immediate praise from Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Jack Reed, D-R.I., and fellow panel member Angus King, I-Maine, who last week urged the administration to deploy a Navy hospital ship to the region.

“The civilian suffering in Gaza must be alleviated, and a maritime aid route will enable large quantities of food, shelter, and medical supplies to be delivered to those who need it most,” the pair said in a statement. “This temporary port, along with the ongoing airdrop campaign, will help ease the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.”

The U.S. State Department on Thursday approved a nearly $4 billion drone sale to India, a deal that emerged during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Washington last year.

Congress has received the notification for India’s pending purchase of 31 MQ-9B SkyGuardian aircraft made by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems. The notification triggers a 30-day congressional review period on Capitol Hill.

“The U.S.-India defense partnership has seen significant growth over the past decade,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said a press briefing on Wednesday, noting the sale “offers significant potential to further advance strategic technology cooperation with India and military cooperation in the region.”

The Biden administration has sought to court India as part of its efforts to counter China in the Indo-Pacific region while prying it away from Russia, New Delhi’s leading arms supplier. India also seeks to develop its own indigenous defense-industrial base. A December Congressional Research Service report noted that India is the world’s largest arms importer by value.

In addition to the drone sale, Modi’s visit to Washington in June resulted in a spate of other agreements, such as a deal between General Electric and Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. to jointly produce fighter jet engines.

Micron Technology, an American semiconductor firm, also pledged to spend upward of $2.75 billion on construction of an assembly and test facility in India. In addition, the U.S. and India kick-started negotiations for a reciprocal defense procurement arrangement to coordinate the exchange and development of military technology.

In May 2022, the two countries launched the U.S.-India initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology to enhance cooperation in artificial intelligence, quantum computing and semiconductors.

Thursday’s 310-118 vote in the Republican-held House on the compromise National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal year 2024 came after the Democratic-held Senate did the same in an 87-13 vote on Wednesday.

“Enacting the NDAA has never been more vital than today,” House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Ala., said ahead of the vote. “America and our allies face unprecedented and rapidly evolving threats from China, Russia, Iran, North Korea and terrorist organizations throughout the world.”

The bill hews closely to Biden’s proposed budget request after Republican hawks agreed to cap defense spending as part of the May debt ceiling agreement. However, Congress must still pass full spending bills for FY24 to fund the Defense Department and other agencies. Funding for military construction ends on Jan. 19, and funds for the rest of the Defense Department expire on Feb. 2.

The Defense Department is currently operating under a stopgap funding bill, which means it can’t start most new initiatives or move forward with many acquisitions authorized in the NDAA absent a full spending bill. But the FY24 NDAA authorizes $100 million for the Air Force to begin a limited number of new programs until lawmakers pass a full defense spending bill.

The legislation also allows the Air Force to retire some F-15 Eagle fighters and A-10 Warthogs, but it blocks the retirement of 32 older F-22 Raptors.

Meanwhile, the bill expands the list of munitions eligible for emergency and multiyear procurement authorities. It adds Israel and Taiwan to the list in a program started last year to expedite the delivery and replenishment of munitions to Ukraine. This provision exempts munitions for the three countries from cost and pricing data as well as other contracting requirements.

The six new munitions eligible for multiyear buys – a procurement method more often reserved for big-ticket items like aircraft and ships – are Tomahawk Cruise Missiles, Precision Strike Missiles, Mark 48 Torpedoes, Evolved Sea Sparrow Missiles, Rolling Air Frame Missiles and Small Diameter Bombs. Still, these multiyear purchases are contingent on funding from congressional appropriators. Congress still hasn’t passed full appropriations legislation to fund multiyear purchase of munitions already authorized in last year’s NDAA.

The NDAA also authorizes $1 billion to finish buying a San Antonio-class amphibious ship per the Marines’ unfunded priorities list. The Navy’s plans to do a “strategic pause” with the program and reevaluate the ship’s design ran into fierce resistance from Congress.

Additionally, the bill institutionalizes the sea-launched nuclear cruise missile program over the objections of the Biden administration for Virginia-class attack submarines, allocating $196 million for the Pentagon to continue research on the endeavor and another $70 million for the National Nuclear Security Administration to modernize its warhead stockpile.

Pacific, Europe — and Space Command

The bill also contains four key authorizations needed to implement the trilateral AUKUS agreement with Australia and Britain, including a provision allowing the transfer of three Virginia-class submarines to Canberra.

As with AUKUS, the bill looks to counter China’s influence in the Indo-Pacific with a provision that would require the Defense Department to “establish a comprehensive training, advising and institutional capacity building program for the military forces of Taiwan.”

Taiwanese officials have said they plan to send up to two battalions of troops to the U.S. to train on new weapon systems and military tactics.

Another provision in the bill requires the Defense Department to help Taiwan enhance its cybersecurity.

For Europe, the final NDAA maintains a provision that would require the Senate to agree to any U.S. withdrawal from NATO. Former President Donald Trump, the frontrunner in the Republican presidential primary, has repeatedly threatened to withdraw from the transatlantic alliance.

It also authorizes $300 million for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative in both FY24 and FY25. But that’s a small fraction of the aid the Biden administration assessed Ukraine will need to continue fighting Russia next year, with its $61 billion Ukraine assistance request stalled amid Republican demands for immigration policy changes in the supplemental spending legislation.

The bill also makes Pentagon Inspector General Robert Storch, currently the lead watchdog for Ukraine aid, a special inspector general to oversee assistance to the country.

Finally, the NDAA delays construction of the Space Command headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colorado, until July so that two watchdog agencies can complete reports evaluating the decision. Rogers is from Alabama and strongly opposed Biden’s decision to reverse course and place the headquarters in Colorado instead of Huntsville, Alabama, after years of delay.

It’s the second short-term funding bill, or continuing resolution, Congress passed in two months, freezing budgets at the last fiscal year’s level. If lawmakers fail to pass a full defense spending bill, the Pentagon could face a year-long continuing resolution for FY24.

The lack of a full defense spending bill for the first four months of the fiscal year will hamper Pentagon contracting as the Defense Department seeks to accelerate it. Defense officials spent the week warning publicly that programs from shipbuilding to Air Force procurement to the wilted munitions industrial base will be harmed.

“It’s the additive domino effect of delays, and the particularly hard hit on the sub-tier supplier base that really on the acquisition side compounds the problem,” Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Radha Plumb told Defense News.

She pointed to counter-Unmanned Aircraft Systems slated for delivery in 2024 and 2025 and that could be delayed by the continuing resolution. Plumb also noted that the short-term spending bills threaten Pentagon subcontractors, who depend on stable revenue.

Plumb’s boss, Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Bill LaPlante, told the Politico Defense Summit on Tuesday that continuing resolutions have a “devastating effect” and can lead to layoffs within the defense industry.

“If the [continuing resolution] ends in January…the money that goes will not flow out to the commands that do the contracting probably until about May because of all the processes,” said LaPlante. “Nothing happens without contracting.”

The short-term funding bills cascade delays in Pentagon contracting and can punt scheduled training to later dates. But they at least avoid some of the most disastrous impacts caused by government shutdowns, which threaten troop pay and furlough most civilian workers.

The Senate on Wednesday passed 87-11 the bifurcated continuing resolution to fund military construction through January 19 and the Defense Department through February 2. The House voted 336-95 to pass it on Tuesday. President Joe Biden is expected to sign the measure into law.

More House Democrats voted to pass the bill than Republicans. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., had to use the same procedural mechanism to move it to the floor that his predecessor, Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., resorted to for passage of the first short-term funding bill in September.

This tactic led to McCarthy’s ouster as speaker in a vote instigated by a handful of right-wing Republicans. But that same group of lawmakers has not sought to oust Johnson despite their opposition to the second continuing resolution.

Shortly after voting on the continuing resolution on Wednesday, the Senate also voted to begin conference negotiations with the House on the FY24 defense authorization bill. Still, Congress must also agree on final spending levels and legislation for the full FY24 military construction and defense appropriations bills to fund that authorization bill.

‘A screeching halt’

Inside the continuing resolution is a rare exemption that allows the Navy to begin building the second Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine before Congress passes a full FY24 defense budget. The Navy requested this carveout to keep the program from falling behind an already tight schedule, which could potentially create a nuclear deterrence gap.

“This is a critical exception for the Navy’s number one acquisition priority that will ensure construction remains on schedule as our shipyards and suppliers dramatically ramp up capacity,” said Rep. Joe Courtney, the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee’s sea power panel, whose district includes the Electric Boat shipyard that builds the submarines.

Still, the Navy can’t proceed with three of its six shipbuilding programs until Congress passes a full FY24 defense spending bill: the Virginia-class attack submarine, the Constellation-class frigate and a submarine tender replacement.

Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said at the Center for a New American Security on Monday that the continuing resolutions bring new initiatives “to a screeching halt.” About a dozen of the service’s new starts would remain in limbo without Congressional approval.

Among the programs affected, Kendall said, would be the Air Force’s C3 battle management system, part of the Pentagon’s larger goal to form a unified network powered by artificial intelligence. Spending on the system, he said, was scheduled to double next year but can’t without a full spending bill.

Kendall also noted that the Air Force has multiyear procurement requests for three munitions pending before Congress: the Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile, the Long Range Anti-Ship Missile and the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile-Extended Range.

The Pentagon hopes using multiyear buys for munitions, a mechanism usually reserved for larger items like ships and aircraft, will help ramp up that sector of the industrial base, which is lagging as the U.S. rushes massive amounts of weaponry to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.

Plumb, the Pentagon acquisition official, noted that continuing resolutions also hamper Defense Department efforts to ramp up munitions production for items such as 155mm artillery shells.

“We’re looking to get 100,000 rounds per month, and we need the workforce and the machines and the factories to be able to do that,” said Plumb. “All of that gets delayed, and that’s on a more traditional munition.”

“You can look at the other timelines in terms of new starts and new technologies that need to get integrated in,” she added. “That looks even worse.”

If Congress ultimately fails to pass a full FY24 defense budget, the May debt ceiling agreement mandates that a full-year continuing resolution with a 1% cut from FY23 spending levels goes into effect.

“We’ve sadly learned to adapt our business practices to manage through these more short term [continuing resolutions],” Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said at the Politico Defense summit. “Heaven forbid if we went closer to a year continuing resolution, then yes, some of our new modernization programs would be significantly disrupted.”

The transfer will aid Israel’s air defense after Hamas on Oct. 7 launched a massive, coordinated attack — making it the deadliest day for Israel in 50 years. Some 1,400 Israelis have since been killed, and Hamas continues to fire rockets from the Gaza strip.

“As we’ve said previously, the U.S. will be flowing additional Iron Dome support to Israel,” the official said. “As a result, the Department of Defense is currently engaged in planning to support the provision of U.S. Iron Dome batteries to Israel.”

The U.S. Army bought the two Iron Dome systems — manufactured by Israeli defense company Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and co-developed by RTX — at the request of Congress several years ago. The purchase was meant to fill a gap in cruise missile defense while the Army developed a longer-term countermeasure for various air and missile threats. But the service doesn’t plan to purchase more Iron Domes or to integrate the system into its air defense architecture, Army officials have told Defense News.

It has scarcely used the two batteries it has. Army personnel trained with the Iron Dome systems at Fort Bliss, Texas, before one system deployed to Guam at the end of 2021 for a two-week exercise. Otherwise, the systems have sat with a unit at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state.

The official, speaking on background to discuss the transfer, did not specify under what arrangement the batteries will be provided, nor did the official say whether the batteries will be returned to the U.S. should they survive combat.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin recently announced the Defense Department is also deploying a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense battery and Patriot air defense battalions to the region.

By providing Iron Domes, the U.S. continues to widen the spigot of security aid entering Israel. In the week after Hamas’ attack, Pentagon and Israeli officials announced the arrival of American aircraft stocked with air defense supplies and munitions. It has since expanded this aid to include artillery rounds, armored vehicles and precision-guided munitions, according to Israeli and American officials.

The supply effort is just one stream in a larger outpouring of American support.

One carrier strike group — led by the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford — has already deployed to the Eastern Mediterranean. Another is on its way to the Persian Gulf. Meanwhile, a Marine expeditionary unit and 2,000 troops are readying themselves to deploy within a day if given orders by the White House, said Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh.

Austin, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and President Joe Biden have all visited the country, pledging continued U.S. support. In a nighttime address from the Oval Office, the president asked Congress for more than $100 billion in supplemental security aid, including $14.3 billion for Israel. The aid so far has not come with conditions that Israel limit civilian casualties.

Still, U.S. officials in the last week have publicly called on its closest Middle Eastern ally to obey the laws of war. As Israel retaliates, some 5,000 people in Gaza have been killed so far, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which is run by Hamas.

With more than 2,000 rockets intercepted, Iron Dome is among the most statistically successful air defense system in the world, said Tom Karako, director of the missile defense project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank.

“This is a system that was built to defend [against] certain kinds of threats, especially the kinds of threats that Israel is facing,” Karako said.

Each battery consists of three main parts: a radar, a command-and-control system, and the launchers that fire interceptors. Each of these, Karako argued, will be useful for Israel, as extra radars will increase their ability to detect threats, while more launchers and command-and-control technology will help defend more Israeli territory from rocket fire.

Should the war widen beyond the Gaza strip, the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has tens of thousands of rockets it could fire, said Karako.

This week, Israel’s military said its aircraft had struck two Hezbollah cells, which the country said were preparing to launch rockets across the border.

At the same time, the commission found the Pentagon and Energy Department are lagging behind their modernization goals, raising questions about the ability to develop additional nuclear assets.

Republicans seized on the report to call for more aggressive nuclear modernization, including additional investments in an industrial base that’s struggling to keep pace with the tight timelines needed to implement current strategic objectives.

House Armed Services Committee Mike Rogers, R-Ala., endorsed the report’s findings in a statement calling it “a wakeup call for our strategic posture.”

“For the first time in history, the United States must deter two near-peer nuclear adversaries at the same time,” said Rogers. “The results of their report detailed the gravity of the situation we face and emphasized that the current trajectory of the U.S. nuclear deterrent is insufficient to deter the looming Chinese and Russian threat.”

Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, the top Republican on the Armed Services Committee, called the report “a stark reminder of the significant work needed to expand our nuclear submarine industrial base to increase production and reduce repair time.”

He reiterated his calls for a defense supplemental spending package to bypass the $886 billion security funding caps laid out in the May debt ceiling agreement while growing the military budget annually beyond inflation.

“It is essential that Congress move forward quickly with a plan to provide our military with the resources necessary to restore our nuclear deterrent,” said Wicker, in a statement.

Congress established the Congressional Commission on the Strategic Posture of the United States to examine the U.S. nuclear capability as part of the fiscal 2022 defense policy bill. The commission’s report identified capabilities beyond existing programs needed to accelerate and enhance nuclear modernization efforts.

“The current modernization program should be supplemented to ensure U.S. nuclear strategy remains effective in a two-nuclear-peer environment,” it said.

The report states that current modernization programs were developed under the 2010 security environment mainly with Russia on mind and China as a “lesser-included case.”

“The aggressive foreign policies of China and Russia, the extent of their nuclear modernization, and the possibility of conflict with China and Russia were not foreseen,” said the report. It assessed that “the risk of a major nuclear conflict remains low,” but the risk of a conventional military conflict with both countries has grown, thereby raising the possibility of a nuclear strike on the homeland.

The commission notes in its report that while it “did not conduct a cost analysis of our recommendations, it is obvious they will cost money.”

A July Congressional Budget Office report projects that nuclear modernization efforts will cost $756 billion over the next decade, and that excludes costs for the additional nuclear initiatives the commission would like the U.S. to pursue.

Specifically, the commission calls for “additional U.S. theater nuclear capabilities” in Europe and the Indo-Pacific, modernizing nuclear command and control capabilities and effectively employing emerging technology including hypersonics, quantum computing, generative AI and autonomous vehicles.

It also calls for plans to “re-convert” submarine-launched ballistic missile launchers and B-52 bombers that were rendered unable to deliver nuclear payloads under the New START treaty. Russia suspended its participation in that treaty, its last remaining nuclear arms control accord with Washington, last year. Moscow has also threatened to pull out of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, though it says it will only resume testing if the U.S. does. The U.S. Senate has never ratified the test ban treaty.

Additionally, the commission calls for uploading “some or all of the” unemployed warheads in U.S. inventory, deploying additional Sentinel Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles and long-range standoff weapons, increasing the planned number of B-21 bombers and upping the planned production of the Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines.

Industrial base failing to keep pace

The report also sounds the alarm about the industrial base’s failure to keep pace with nuclear modernization requirements.

For instance, the Navy is behind in its goal of constructing one Columbia-class submarine per year while maintaining the older Ohio-class vessels on top of trying to produce two Virginia-class conventional attack submarines per year, which use overlapping nuclear supply chains.

“The [White House’s Office of Management and Budget] as well as the commission are skeptical that the current infrastructure can simultaneously support conventional and nuclear sustainment, modernization, and construction as scheduled,” states the report. “The AUKUS agreement may place further stress on this capacity,” referring to the trilateral pact in which the U.S. and Britain will help transfer Virginia-class submarines to Australia.

To that end, the commission says the Defense Department should “establish or renovate a third shipyard dedicated to production of nuclear-powered vessels, with particular emphasis on nuclear-powered submarines.”

Wicker has held up key authorizations needed to implement AUKUS, demanding the Biden administration and Congress put more money into the submarine industrial base. The two authorizations Wicker is holding up would permit the transfer of two Virginia-class submarines to Australia and allow the Defense Department to accept Canberra’s $3 billion contribution in the submarine industrial base.

The Army’s equities in the Foreign Military Sales process ballooned from $13 billion in fiscal 2022 to $35 billion in fiscal 2023 amid increased demand following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Army Under Secretary Gabe Camarillo said Tuesday at the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual conference.

More than 30 organizations throughout the Army help coordinate that process.

“[T]he Army has pretty good stuff,” Camarillo said. “The industrial base produces the best capabilities, and Army soldiers have systems and tools and platforms that are essentially the envy of many other countries around the world.”

However, he added, “over the last couple of years our processes have become a little bit too complex, too burdensome. They have delayed the transfer of critical capabilities to our partners and allies.”

Camarillo said the Army is “piggybacking” on the Pentagon’s six FMS reform proposals released in June. The State Department, tasked with reviewing and approving arms sales, has also launched a similar effort.

Taiwan in particular has frequently complained of a roughly $19 billion FMS backlog in U.S. equipment it wishes to purchase, partially because of the inherent bureaucracies in the process and because of production lags in the defense-industrial base.

James Hursch, director of the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, said some of the central issues the Pentagon identified include the need for better coordination with foreign partners to identify their needs; a broader education for the security cooperation workforce; and revisions to the technology security and foreign disclosure processes.

Hursch also noted foreign partners buying equipment the U.S. military no longer procures for itself poses challenges.

Camarillo said the Army’s efforts “are entirely consummate with the findings and direction” of the broader Pentagon reform effort.

The Army’s initiatives include developing “more clear standards and metrics” for tracking arms sales; speeding up the contracting of items that foreign partners seek to buy; improving workforce development; and figuring out how the service can help improve the tech transfer review process, Camarillo added.

“Because the Army’s materiel is often siloed into a variety of different stovepipes, it is very difficult for us to make a common sight picture, a repository of prior decisions,” Camarillo explained. “The ability to be able to provide technical information to greatly streamline these issues as they come up to the tech transfer process — I think we can internally organize in a way that would streamline that in a fundamental way.”

He said the Army is also revising its polices to provide “more transparency with industry.”

And he noted that emergency contracting authorities Congress provided the Pentagon last year have allowed the Army to move much more quickly on critical munitions procurement, increasing production capacity and backfilling U.S. stockpiles sent to Ukraine.

Canadian Brig. Gen. Mason Stalker, the deputy training commander for Security Assistance Group-Ukraine, stressed Tuesday at the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual conference that dozens of NATO members are contributing to these efforts, even though the future of the United States’ role in the conflict remains unclear.

“We’re not going to comment on bilateral or individual nations’ policy decisions and how they will potentially affect the future,” Mason told Defense News. “But what I can say is that SAG-U has got over 25 nations in it right now. And we are continuing to coordinate the delivery of equipment that’s been donated.”

Speaking alongside Mason, U.S. Army officials described training Ukrainian troops to use armored fighting vehicles, tanks and Patriot missiles as one of the highlights of their careers during a panel titled “As Long as it Takes ― International Efforts to Train Ukraine’s Military.”

There are currently 25 countries training Ukrainian forces amid an influx of NATO equipment Ukraine has received since Russia invaded the country. The equipment is delivered as part of the Security Assistance Group-Ukraine, an initiative U.S. European Command set up in November 2022.

Mason noted that 7,254 Ukrainians are receiving training through Security Assistance Group-Ukraine and that NATO members have trained about 90,000 troops overall at 88 training sites.

The coalition has trained 17 brigades and is currently focused on reconstituting several of them as winter approaches.

Congress passed $113 billion in economic and military support to Ukraine, but failed to pass a fifth aid package earlier this month despite the White House’s request. The Pentagon says it can use roughly $5.5 billion remaining from prior fiscal years to continue transferring weapons to Ukraine, but that’s not expected to last for much more than a couple of months.

Col. Bryan Harris, the commander of the U.S. Army’s 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, recently returned home after deploying to NATO’s eastern front to train Ukrainians on combat maneuvers.

During that time, his unit trained 9,000 Ukrainians to use Bradley fighting vehicles, M1A1 Abrams tanks and M109 Paladin howitzers.

“Up to that point in December 2022, it was all platform training — how to operate this platform, how to operate this weapons system,” Harris said at the panel. “But in January, we started combined arms maneuver training.”

“There were Ukrainian crew members on Paladins supporting Bradley maneuver manned by Ukrainian crew members, and it was a sight to see,” Harris said. “It was a highlight of my 25-year career.”

Lt. Col. Seth Barrett, commander of the U.S. Army’s 3rd Battalion, 6th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, also described his unit’s efforts to train Ukrainians to use the Patriot missile defense system at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.

Barrett noted this took “a herculean effort” by the linguist community, noting that U.S. soldiers with Ukrainian backgrounds reenlisted to help with translation.

Ukrainian trainees were versed in the Soviet-era S-300 missile system, giving them a sense of the fundamentals, but still needed Patriot-specific training.

“Soviet systems tend to be a lot more user-involved,” Barrett said. “An S-300 has 84 different cables that you have to plug in. We have five.”

WASHINGTON ― A West African union is considering diplomatic options in response to the July coup in Niger that ousted democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum, the head of Ghana’s Army Staff told Defense News on Monday.

But Maj. Gen. Thomas Oppong-Peprah also noted a “military assessment” is underway to examine a possible armed intervention in Niger, a prospect the Economic Community of West African States, or ECOWAS, first floated in August after the bloc’s defense chiefs met in Ghana.

“What the regional body is doing is to explore diplomatic avenues to solve the problem,” Oppong-Peprah said at the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual conference. “Concurrently, the military is also doing some military assessment. And I believe that the regional body will succeed in the diplomatic effort so we don’t go to war.”

ECOWAS expelled Niger from the bloc shortly after Bazoum’s ouster and threatened military intervention unless the military junta released the deposed president. The ECOWAS threats failed to sway the junta in Niger, which instead said it would prosecute Bazoum on charges of “high treason.”

Niger is the latest country in West Africa to succumb to a spate of military coups in recent years, a trend that has posed questions about the future of U.S. military cooperation and counterterrorism objectives in the area.

The problem poses a particular challenge for U.S. counterterrorism operations in Niger.

U.S. Africa Command in September repositioned assets and personnel away from the capital Niamey to Agadez, which is roughly 570 miles away.

“We’ve been activated twice this year already as a joint task force,” Maj. Gen. Todd Wasmund, the commander of U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, Africa said at the AUSA conference. “The first time was in April in response to the instability in Sudan, and we are currently activated as a joint task force in response to the coup that occurred in Niger.”

Wasmund told Defense News the joint task force was created to protect U.S. citizens and interests in Niger following Bazoum’s ouster, noting that “we worked with the junta in order to facilitate conditions that lead to stability.”

“And we hope that it leads to us being able to continue or to resume our activities together in order to achieve stability, security and our shared interests,” he said.

Wasmund said U.S. security cooperation “will always be reevaluated when we have an extra-constitutional change of government” but added the Army “remains committed to conducting counterterrorism activities because it’s in the interest of the United States.”

In the meantime, the Army continues collaborating with its democratic African partners as well. Brig. Gen. Jackie Huber, the assistant adjutant general for the North Dakota National Guard, noted that the state has had a military partnership exchange program with Ghana for nearly 20 years.

For instance, the North Dakota National Guard simulated an earthquake response with Ghanian forces last year, and it helps develop Ghana’s noncommissioned officer corps.

“Presently we are engaged in six peacekeeping operations,” Oppong-Peprah said. “So the help that we get from North Dakota is really immense and beneficial to us.”