SDA Awards $1.8 Billion in Contracts for 126 Satellites

SDA Awards $1.8 Billion in Contracts for 126 Satellites

Feb. 28, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

The Space Development Agency has awarded contracts for the 126 satellites that will make up its Tranche 1 Transport Layer, splitting the deal between Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and York Space Systems, it announced Feb. 28.

All told, the three contracts for 42 satellites each have a combined value of approximately $1.8 billion—$700 million to Lockheed Martin, $692 million to Northrop Grumman Strategic Space Systems, and $382 million to York. The satellites are currently slated for launch in September 2024.

The contract awards come almost exactly six months after the SDA first issued its request for proposals for the tranche of satellites, intended to be the first warfighting capability tranche of the National Defense Space Architecture. NDSA is planned as a massive DOD constellation for missile warning, communications, data coverage and sharing, and other capabilities

“These awards will drive delivery of the NDSA’s data and communications Transport Layer through a proliferated constellation of relatively small, mass-producible space vehicles in low Earth orbit,” Derek Tournear, SDA director, said in a press release.

“This innovative mesh network of small satellites will link terrestrial warfighting domains to space sensors, allowing warfighters much faster access to data so they can stay ahead of emerging threats,” Erik Daehler, protected communications mission area leader at Lockheed Martin Space, said in a company release.

“Our T1TL solution combines decades of proven end-to-end satellite system integration and heritage communication mission expertise accumulated across multiple orbital regimes to rapidly field these critical capabilities to warfighters in the field,” Robert Fleming, vice president and general manager of strategic space systems at Northrop Grumman, said in a statement.

”We are honored to again have SDA’s confidence in executing the agency’s vision,” Dirk Wallinger, CEO of York, said in a statement. “Their competitive, fixed-price procurements leverage York’s private capital investments to deliver low-risk, industry-leading constellations today and well into the future.”

Maxar Technologies, which filed a protest against the request in October 2021, causing it to be rescinded and then relaunched, was not selected for a contract. Maxar did not immediately respond to an Air Force Magazine inquiry as to whether it will protest the contracts awarded.

The Tranche 1 Transport Layer is intended to give the Pentagon a range of options for sharing information if signals are jammed or systems destroyed and serve as the “backbone” for Joint all-domain command and control, connecting sensors and shooters across the globe with a mesh network of small satellites.

Tranche 0 of the NDSA, consisting of 28 satellites, is slated for launch no later than 2023. SDA awarded 10 satellites each to Lockheed and York in that tranche, with L3Harris and SpaceX receiving awards for four each.

Putin Puts Nuclear Forces on High Alert, Escalating Tensions

Putin Puts Nuclear Forces on High Alert, Escalating Tensions

Feb. 27, 2022 | By Abraham Mahshie

The Defense Department on Feb. 27 called Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to put his strategic forces on high combat alert “escalatory” but said the U.S. will defend its interests and allies against any threat.

“We remain confident in our ability to defend ourselves, and our allies, and our partners, and that includes in the strategic deterrent realm,” a senior defense official said at a morning telephone briefing with journalists.

In a televised statement early Feb. 27, Putin said that in response to “aggressive statements” by NATO, he was putting his nuclear forces on high combat alert.

Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III became aware of Putin’s announcement shortly before an 8:30 a.m. secure video teleconference with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Army Gen. Mark A. Milley and combatant commanders, including commander of U.S. European Command and NATO Supreme Allied Commander Gen. Tod D. Wolters.

“We believe that this is not only an unnecessary step for him to take but an escalatory one,” the defense official said of Putin’s announcement. “Unnecessary because Russia has never been under threat by the West or by NATO, and certainly wasn’t under any threat by Ukraine.”

The official declined as a matter of policy to discuss the specifics of the U.S. strategic deterrence posture or if it would change in response to the Russian announcement.

“We are in the very early phases here reviewing and trying to analyze what Mr. Putin’s directive on nuclear forces, what that means,” the official said.

The move will not deter the United States from continuing to provide defense assistance to Ukraine, however.

“We continue to provide assistance to Ukrainian armed forces,” the official said. “That support is going to go forward.”

On Feb. 24, a B-52 Stratofortress interacted with Polish MiG-29 aircraft in the Baltic region during a “long-planned Bomber Task Force Europe mission,” a U.S. Air Forces in Europe spokesperson told Air Force Magazine. The four B-52s from the 5th Bomb Wing at Minot Air Force Base, N.D., arrived at RAF Fairford, U.K., on Feb. 10 for a notional three-week Bomber Task Force Europe mission. A U.S. Strategic Command spokesperson told Air Force Magazine at the time that the bomber’s deployment timeline “could move to the right or left” depending on the security situation. 

Ukrainian Resistance, Logistics Challenges Slow Russian Momentum

Ukrainian Resistance, Logistics Challenges Slow Russian Momentum

Feb. 27, 2022 | By Abraham Mahshie

Editor’s Note: This story was updated at 12:10 p.m. on Feb. 27 to include new information about the unfolding war in Ukraine and the announcement that the U.S. will send additional aid.

Russia’s advance in Ukraine had slowed to a stop outside Kyiv in the face of logistics and fuel shortages while Ukraine had used “creative” solutions to defend their country, a senior defense official told journalists early Feb. 27, including reportedly using a drone to destroy a Russian mechanized column. Still, heavy fighting continued in the second city of Kharkiv; Russian naval assets positioned near Odessa; and a “siege” approach had begun on the city of Chernihiv, northeast of Kyiv, raising the prospect of more civilian deaths, the Defense Department reported.

“The Ukrainians are putting up a very stiff, and brave, and heroic resistance,” the defense official said. “The Russians have been frustrated; they have been slowed; they have been stymied; and they have been resisted by the Ukrainians. And to some degree, they have done it to themselves in terms of their fuel and logistics and sustainment problems.”

Nonetheless, the official said DOD expects that Russia will adapt and overcome the setbacks.

“They have a significant amount of combined arms capability still at their beck and call,” the official added.

The developments come as Ukraine agreed to talks with Russia without conditions at the Belarus border. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reportedly spoke to Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, who guaranteed the security of a Ukrainian delegation.

The reports come as western partners continue to flow defense assistance to Ukraine.

President Joe Biden authorized another $350 million in defense assistance Feb. 25 with convoys of military assistance from the U.S. and other partners flowing uninhibited into Ukraine, DOD reported. The additional defense assistance authorization will include anti-armor, small arms, munitions, body armor, and related equipment. U.S. defense assistance to Ukraine in the last year now totals $1 billion.

DOD assessed that Russian forces remain 30 kilometers north of Kyiv.

The Ukrainian Armed Forces claimed as of Feb. 27 to have destroyed 146 Russian tanks, 27 airplanes, 26 helicopters, 706 armored combat vehicles, 49 artillery pieces, and an anti-missile aircraft system; and counted 4,300 Russian soldiers dead and nearly 200 taken as prisoner. The downed aircraft reportedly included in the prior day three Su-30 aircraft, two Su-25 aircraft, and two IL-76MD aircraft.

Ukraine reported 210 Ukrainian deaths and 1,100 wounded with no distinction between military and civilian, according to information provided by a Ukrainian defense official to Air Force Magazine.

DOD now reports the Russian siege on Chernihiv has included rocket fire into the city, increasing the likelihood of destroying civilian infrastructure and deaths of civilians.

The Ukrainian Defense Ministry reports that it is documenting Russian war crimes to include attacks on two civilian vessels in the Black Sea approaching Ukraine, shelling that hit kindergarten classrooms and orphanages, firing on ambulance crews in Zaporizhia and Kyiv, hospitals under fire, and heightened radiation levels from the Chernobyl exclusion zone after the Russian military took control of the nuclear power plant, holding 92 hostages.

“We are collecting these and other materials, which we will immediately transfer to The Hague,” read a statement from the Ukrainian Defense Ministry.

The Russian Ministry of Defense’s website has been down since at least the second day of the invasion.

Despite a stalled advance on the capital of Kyiv, the Defense Department said Feb. 27 Russia had committed inside Ukraine about two-thirds of the forces it had amassed. Initial estimates said Russia had prepared up to 190,000 troops for the invasion.

Russia also has made new amphibious landings potentially involving thousands of naval infantry from the Sea of Azov; and is now moving forces from Crimea northeast toward the city of Mariupol, near the disputed Donbas region, where Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded with a force that he called “peacekeepers” Feb. 21.

Air Space Still Contested

Initial strikes targeted airfields where Ukrainian Air Force MiG-29s, Su-27s, and L-39s operated, and where S-300 long-range surface-to-air missile systems are based, reported Aviation Week, citing the Ukraine Ministry of Defense. DOD now counts more than 320 ballistic and cruise missile strikes on Ukrainian territory, but said that Ukrainian air defense systems remain operational.

“Air space is still contested,” the official said, noting Russia has not achieved air superiority. Ukrainian air missile defense systems are still working, and Ukraine has aircraft in the air, though they have been degraded by strikes.

Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III spoke to his Ukrainian counterpart, defense minister Oleksii Reznikov, on Feb. 24, promising continued U.S. support for Ukraine’s territorial integrity and defense assistance.

Zelensky in an early Feb. 25 statement praised sanctions imposed by the U.S. and European allies against Russia, but he said the sanctions were not stopping the Russian onslaught in his country, calling for more defense assistance and stiffer sanctions, to include removing Russia from the international banking system SWIFT. As of Feb. 26, reports indicated that President Biden was seriously weighing the measure.

Following a Feb. 25 call with Biden, Zelensky applauded U.S. support in a tweet. White House press secretary Jen Psaki then announced new sanctions on Putin and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Thompson to Cadets: The US Will Have Machines That Decide to Kill

Thompson to Cadets: The US Will Have Machines That Decide to Kill

Feb. 25, 2022 | By Amanda Miller

The Space Force’s second-in-command told Air Force Academy cadets attending a leadership conference that the U.S. will need machines to make decisions that kill—and that confronting the inherent ethical dilemmas “can’t wait.”

Vice Chief of Space Operations Gen. David D. Thompson brought up lethal autonomous weapons systems during a question-and-answer panel conversation that also featured three other senior leaders: Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. and the Chief Master Sergeants of the Air Force and Space Force, JoAnne S. Bass and Roger A. Towberman. 

The four senior leaders answered questions posed by cadets and local attendees of the Air Force Academy’s National Character and Leadership Symposium on Feb. 25. The two-day symposium’s 2022 theme was “Ethics and Respect for Human Dignity.”  

Admitting he’d gotten a “sneak peek” at a question about ethics in the context of hypersonic weapons, Thompson took the opportunity to talk about a type bristling with even more ethical dilemmas—lethal autonomous weapon systems, often referred to by critics of the concept as “killer robots.”

Those weren’t Thompson’s words. He did, however, convey a sense of urgency in terms of needing to have them while also predicting, on the hypersonics side, a period of strategic instability the likes of the early Cold War.

In terms of hypersonic weapons—those able to fly five times the speed of sound—Thompson said they’re ethically “not that much different than things that we’ve done in the past. It’s a tremendous operational and technical challenge. We need to make sure that they’re part of our arsenal. We need to develop defenses against them. And we will.”

He suspects the instability will come with adding a nuclear component.

“When you couple hypersonic weapons with nuclear weapons, it’s tremendously unstable in a strategic sense,” Thompson said. “And we have to understand [how] to deal, again, with a period of strategic instability they might produce—like we frankly saw in the nation back in the early days of the Cold War.”

Thompson then segued into the subject of lethal autonomous weapons—those expected to rely on artificial intelligence. His remark followed the United Nations’ failure in December 2021 to make headway toward a treaty that would ban them.

Their inevitability comes down to “the speed of war—how quickly things are going to have to happen in the future,” Thompson told the cadets. “We’re going to have to have machines that make decisions—like Chief Towberman talked about—that kill people.” (Towberman had talked about the ethics of killing more broadly.) 

“And we can’t wait,” Thompson continued. “We cannot let technology drive that, and we can’t wait until it’s thrust upon us to think through and understand how we have to deal with that ethically—when, how, and should we let machines make decisions to kill people. And we have to deal with it because that’s exactly where our adversaries are going.”

NATO Activates Response Force; Austin Calls on Allies to Increase Contributions

NATO Activates Response Force; Austin Calls on Allies to Increase Contributions

Feb. 25, 2022 | By Abraham Mahshie

NATO has for the first time activated about one-third of its response force, including some 7,000 U.S. troops, while Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III called on allies to further strengthen the alliance against potential Russian aggression following its invasion of Ukraine.

“President Putin’s decision to pursue his aggression against Ukraine is a terrible strategic mistake for which Russia will pay a severe price for years to come,” said NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg after a virtual meeting of NATO heads of state Feb. 25.

Stoltenberg said NATO activated its defense plans Feb. 24, deploying elements of the NATO response force (NRF) on land, sea, and in the air. President Joe Biden’s public statement announcing the deployment of an additional 7,000 U.S. troops to Germany supports the NATO NRF effort.

“We stand ready, if called upon by NATO, to support the NRF in the defense of the alliance,” Pentagon spokesman John F. Kirby said in a Feb. 25 briefing. “A good chunk of the 7,000…will be earmarked for NATO contributions. Again, if it’s deemed that they are needed.”

Kirby emphasized that the American troops are meant to defend the NATO alliance, not fight Russia.

“The President has been very clear that U.S. troops will not be fighting in Ukraine,” he said.

Austin’s Feb. 24 decision was accompanied by a series of calls with 15 NATO allies and European counterparts about the Russian war against Ukraine.

The conversations included individual calls with his counterparts in Canada and Turkey; a joint call with defense ministers from France, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom; and, for the first time, a secure teleconference with his counterparts from the Bucharest Nine (B-9) eastern flank countries, which include Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia.

In the calls, Austin noted the 15,000 additional U.S. troops sent to Europe in recent weeks and months, and called on his counterparts to consider additional contribution to strengthen NATO and bolster Ukraine’s defenses.

In addition to thousands of U.S., Canadian, and European troops on the eastern flank of the alliance, NATO maintains 100 jets on high alert at 30 operating locations and 120 ships at sea, including three carrier strike groups.

“We must stand ready to do more,” Stoltenberg said. “Even if it means we have to pay a price, because we are in this for the long haul.”

Stoltenberg said only one-third of the NRF, which totals some 40,000 troops, had been activated, adding the NRF has tripled since Russia’s invasion of Crimea in 2014.

Russia now poses a new threat to European security, he said.

“The Kremlin’s objectives are not limited to Ukraine,” Stoltenberg said, referring to two draft treaties presented by Putin in December calling for a withdrawal of all NATO forces from member states that joined after 1997 as well as blocking any future NATO membership, to include Ukraine and Georgia.

NATO and the United States have rejected Russia’s demands, which Putin said were based on Russian security concerns. In January, NATO met with Russia to discuss its concerns, and offered further negotiations on areas including arms control, missile-defense, and military exercises.

Given Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Stoltenberg said the alliance had to take Putin’s threat of non-compliance seriously and shore up the eastern flank of the alliance, which borders Russia and Belarus, where tens of thousands of Russian troops are operating.

“If we don’t meet the demands, there will be what they call ‘military technical consequences,’” Stoltenberg said. “So, we have to take this seriously. And that’s exactly why we are now deploying the NATO response force for the first time in a collective defense.”

Stoltenberg said some of the NRF air component was already active, while some land troops would be ready in “a few days.”

The Secretary-General said the alliance continued to show unity in its support for NATO partner Ukraine.

“NATO allies have and continue to provide support … [and] different types of equipment to Ukraine,” he said. “Allies announced, and also informed, other allies about the type of weapons, the type of support, and some of that also includes air defense systems.”

In a statement issued by NATO Feb. 25, the alliance condemned Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, enabled by Belarus, and called on Russia to “immediately cease its military assault, to withdraw all its forces from Ukraine, and to turn back from the path of aggression it has chosen.”

The statement called the NRF movements “preventive, proportionate, and non-escalatory.”

Responding to reports that Ukraine had agreed to begin peace talks with Russia in Minsk, Stoltenberg said Moscow had an easy path to peace:

“If they want peace, it’s just stop … attack[ing] Ukraine.”

Spark Tank Finalists: Video Games as the Future of Training?

Spark Tank Finalists: Video Games as the Future of Training?

Feb. 25, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

The Department of the Air Force’s annual Spark Tank competition takes place March 4, when six teams will take to the stage at the AFA Warfare Symposium in Orlando, Fla. Each team will pitch the most senior leaders in the Air and Space Forces on how their innovations can save money, improve the lives of Airmen and Guardians, and transform the department.

Air Force Magazine is highlighting one team each day from now through March 3. Today, we look at “DAGGER: Developing Airmen and Guardians with Games for Enhanced Readiness,” led by Matthew Correia of Air University’s Eaker Center at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala.

For decades now, the Air Force has used simulators with varying levels of technology to train its pilots—the most modern systems cost millions of dollars and are considered crucial to training future pilots.

But at their core, pilots in simulators aren’t all that different from Airmen playing on an Xbox, contends Correia.

“Simulators are unique, one-of-a-kind products, but in a true sense, they’re actually games,” Correia told Air Force Magazine. “They’re specific, but they’re actually games, just like League of Legends.”

That belief is at the heart of Correia’s pitch for Spark Tank. The Air Force, he said, needs to embrace video games for more than just training pilots to fly, but instead for a range of skills across the entire force.

The thought of using something like League of Legends, a multiplayer online game where players battle using fantastical characters, or Minecraft, a game where characters can explore a seemingly endless blocky 3-D world to mine and build, to train Airmen and Guardians will strike many as strange, Correia acknowledged. 

But in recent months, Air Force leaders have introduced the new Airman Leadership Qualities, which will be integrated into feedback, and those qualities include skills like teamwork, communication, decision making, and innovation. And those skills are things video games can teach, Correia said.

“Let’s practice the competencies of the executive functions, such as critical thinking, resource management, creative thinking, those things,” Correia said. “And within a game, you have the opportunity to do that. The game can be created, or the games actually already exist, where the solution is not one answer, it can be a range of answers, which is what true life is.”

The Air Force already uses a similar concept at Air University, with the leadership reaction course, a series of obstacles used to test leadership and cooperation. 

“That particular course, … the physical course you have to run through, what is called the leadership reaction course, I cannot think of any officer that does not remember that event,” Correia said. “The goal is not whether you make it through. You’re given 20 minutes time to solve the puzzle. … Whether you make it through or not is irrelevant. What’s important is, did you apply good communication, did you apply good decision making, did you apply good teamwork competencies? That’s the most important piece.”

With DAGGER, Correia wants to take the fun aspects of the leadership reaction course and make them digital—and thus global. 

“I could go on to a cyber leadership reaction course here in the United States, with someone in Germany, someone in Korea, and quite literally, so long as the forward operating base has internet access, I could [work with] that person whatever continent they’re on,” Correia said. “And we could practice our competencies.”

But it’s not just for everyday training and fun—Correia’s vision for DAGGER is to completely change the structure of how the Air Force and Space Force approach everything from professional military education to professional continuing education courses, to annual assessments and feedback.

The services should “embrace this opportunity to shift from lectures or computer-based training to game-based training or game-based learning,” Correia said.

That shift would be welcomed by Airmen and Guardians, he argued. An Air Force survey found that tens of thousands of young Airmen identify as gamers, and Air Force Gaming, the department’s gaming organization, has more than 15,000 registered users.

And for those who dismiss games as distractions or something Airmen do just for fun?

“My response is, yes, it is fun. It’s fun to learn accountability, communication, decision-making, leadership. Games are serious. That’s why we call them simulators,” Correia said. “And you know, just because it’s a caricature that doesn’t exist in real life, like in League of Legends, … or it’s sort of a futuristic or maybe fictitious sort of activity, does not lessen it from being a powerful and effective learning instrument.”

Read about the other Spark Tank finalists:

Spark Tank Finalists: How a Dentist Came up With the Idea of Custom Oxygen Masks for Fighter Pilots

Spark Tank Finalists: How a Dentist Came up With the Idea of Custom Oxygen Masks for Fighter Pilots

Feb. 24, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

The Department of the Air Force’s annual Spark Tank competition takes place March 4, as six teams will take to the stage at the AFA Warfare Symposium in Orlando, Fla. Each team will pitch the most senior leaders in the Air and Space Forces on how their innovations can save money, improve the lives of Airmen or Guardians, and transform the department.

Air Force Magazine is highlighting one team each day from now through March 3. Today, we look at “Custom Facemasks for Fighter Pilots and Beyond,” led by Maj. Ryan Sheridan from the 10th Air Base Wing at the U.S. Air Force Academy.

Hypoxia, or a lack of oxygen to the brain and muscles, is a constant concern for the Air Force—issues with oxygen have caused crashes, grounded fleets, and led to programs studying the problem.

Now, a dentist stationed at the U.S. Air Force Academy believes he has an answer for at least one problem that can lead to hypoxia.

Maj. Ryan Sheridan isn’t a pilot, but he stumbled on a problem one day while deployed and speaking with one of his medical colleagues—the flight surgeon responsible for fighter pilots.

“He was just kind of expressing to me that they were having significant pain, mainly among the bridge of the nose,” Sheridan told Air Force Magazine. Some pilots were even removing their oxygen masks during flight, which can lead to hypoxia.

It’s not the first time that medical professionals have expressed concern about oxygen masks. A 2013 academic study found that half of F-16 pilots surveyed in the Royal Netherlands Air Force had discomfort or pain around the nose as a result of their masks.

Most of the pilots in that study wore MBU-20/P oxygen masks, the same mask that most Air Force pilots use. Studying the issue further, Sheridan was surprised by what he found out about 20/P masks.

“The 20/P oxygen mask has five stock sizes, right? And those five stock sizes are designed to fit … the majority of our pilots,” Sheridan said. “But it’s not designed to fit any one pilot. It’s supposed to fit most pilots.”

Given his professional background, Sheridan was confused.

“For me, making a crown for a patient or making a tooth for a patient, the notion of taking like 10 different stock sizes of crowns and trying to make them fit every single tooth that I have to fix, the notion is just absurd,” he said. “I understand that in the manufacturing world that’s completely different. But for me, you know, my life is made around making customized objects for individuals.”

Sheridan had previously worked on an idea early during the COVID-19 pandemic to build customized N95 masks, taking advantage of the computer-aided design and manufacturing technology already widely used in dentistry, facial scanning technology available on smartphones, and 3-D printers. 

After hearing about the pilots’ discomfort, he shifted the idea slightly to creating custom silicone inserts for oxygen masks. Not only will it be better for pilots, the technology needed is widely available and relatively inexpensive, especially compared to other Air Force efforts.

“To me, this just seems like a logical progression of some of the efforts that we’ve done as the United States Air Force to customize what we’re doing for fighter pilots,” Sheridan said. “Like if you look at the F-35, they have a helmet that requires a full head scan, right? That helmet cost $400,000.”

But Sheridan’s idea almost didn’t make it into Spark Tank. After a PCS move in the summer of 2021, the custom facemask idea fell by the wayside, and he wasn’t planning on submitting it.

Then, around August, an email from Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. went out to the force—“basically, it was just a call to action,” Sheridan recalls. It stuck with him.

“I just decided, you know what, what the hell, I’ll throw it in there,” Sheridan said. “That kind of just lit the fire under me, and I started putting stuff together, and then I submitted it and then when I talked to somebody here at USAFA … she started getting really excited about the idea and, so I just kind of kept rolling with it.”

While Sheridan isn’t a pilot himself, he’s talked to plenty of aviators about the idea, and “there’s some excitement about it,” he said. But as of yet, he hasn’t been able to test out the idea on actual fighter pilots. Small group testing is something he hopes to pursue in the near future, but for the time being, he said, he just wants more information.

“I think the biggest thing that you really need to do is just collect the data. … Do we need to make these for every single pilot? I don’t know. I don’t know if that’s the case,” Sheridan said. “But I think that the biggest thing that we can do is just kind of collect data and allow our senior executive officers to … interpret that data and help them figure out where we need to go with the next steps.”

Read about the other Spark Tank finalists:

Biden Orders 7,000 Troops to Europe, Sanctions Russia but Holds Back SWIFT

Biden Orders 7,000 Troops to Europe, Sanctions Russia but Holds Back SWIFT

Feb. 24, 2022 | By Abraham Mahshie

President Joe Biden announced new sanctions against Russia and ordered the deployment of 7,000 additional service members to Germany to reassure NATO allies after Russia invaded Ukraine, but the President withheld the most serious punishment, citing disagreement among European partners.

“This is a dangerous moment for all of Europe, for the freedom around the world,” Biden said from the East room of the White House after a day that included a meeting with his National Security Council and G-7 world leaders.

“It’s a large conflict already,” Biden said. “The way we’re going to assure it’s not going to spiral to a larger conflict is by providing all the forces needed in the Eastern European nations that are members of NATO.”

In response to the President’s directive, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III has ordered an armored brigade combat team to Germany, a senior defense official said in a statement.

“They will deploy to Germany to reassure NATO allies, deter Russian aggression, and be prepared to support a range of requirements in the region. We expect them to depart in the coming days,” the statement read.

In recent days, Biden has ordered the repositioning of six F-35s and a total of 24 F-16s and F-15s to the NATO eastern flank to take part in joint training and enhanced air policing missions. He also repositioned an infantry battalion, attack aviation battalion, and attack aviation task force totaling 32 Apache helicopters, multiple Stryker units, and 4,700 troops from the 82nd Airborne Division. NATO is set to meet Feb. 25 to discuss further measures, including the possible deployment of 8,500 U.S. troops currently in the U.S. on high alert as part of a NATO Reaction Force. Some of the 7,000 troops set to deploy will come from those already standing on alert, with the bulk of those forces coming from Fort Carson, Colo., and Fort Bragg, N.C., the Pentagon confirmed.

Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine John E. Herbst told Air Force Magazine additional forces were needed on the eastern flank as a show of force to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“Now’s the time to truly increase NATO forces in the East,” he said. “And let it be known to Moscow that this is not on a temporary basis, so that they see their geopolitical position deteriorating, and we make sure we continue the weapons flowing to Ukraine.”

Biden did not say how long the additional forces would remain in Europe, though eastern flank allies have long called for increasing the permanent U.S. troop and capabilities presence.

Punishing Sanctions

Biden also announced punishing new sanctions designed to cripple the Russian economy, military, technology, and aerospace industries.

“Putin’s aggression against Ukraine will end up costing Russia dearly, economically and strategically,” Biden said before outlining a series of coordinated sanctions to target more than $1 trillion of Russian assets, impose new export controls, sanctions on oligarchs close to Putin, and restrictions on Russia’s ability to raise money from investors.

Criticized for not imposing the sanctions before Russia began its attack on Ukraine early Feb. 24, Biden said it could take a month or longer before sanctions begin to impact the Russian economy.

“No one expected the sanctions to prevent anything from happening,” Biden said. “This is going to take time … He’s gonna test the resolve of the West to see if we stay together. And we will—we will—and we’ll impose significant costs on him.”

Biden said he spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky late Feb. 23, promising humanitarian assistance, and expressed confidence in the Ukrainian people to resist a much more powerful Russian military.

The U.S. has provided more than $650 million in defense assistance to Ukraine in the past year, but the President did not comment on continued defense support to the Ukrainian military. A day earlier the Department of Defense said it was exploring alternative means of transferring defense assistance once airspace is closed.

Biden also said Putin had left diplomatic options on the table before launching an avoidable war.

“Putin is the aggressor. Putin chose this war, and now he and his country will bear the consequences,” Biden said. “It was always about naked aggression, about Putin’s desire for Empire, by any means necessary, by bullying Russia’s neighbors through coercion and corruption, by changing borders by force. And ultimately, by choosing a war without a cause.”

The U.S. President did not escape criticism from the White House Press Corps, who demanded why he would not sanction Putin himself or block Russia from the international banking system known as SWIFT.

Biden did not respond to questions about sanctioning Putin, but he indicated he did not have consensus for the action to remove Russia from SWIFT.

“Right now, that’s not the position that the rest of Europe wishes to take,” Biden said. “. .. The sanctions we’ve imposed exceed SWIFT; the sanctions we impose exceed anything that’s ever been done.”

Biden said the sanctions regiment outlined reached a consensus of “two-thirds of the world joining us” totaling more than half the world economy.

Biden declined to comment when questioned as to whether he was pressuring China to isolate Russia.

Herbst said that not including SWIFT was “a mistake, but predictable.”

Still, Herbst said Ukraine has a plan for continuity of government during the war and the Ukrainian people will resist a Russian occupation.

“Any government they install will be installed by Russian bayonets,” Herbst said. “Napoleon said, famously, ‘You can do anything with bayonets except sit on them.’”

Sanctions, Aid, Cyber Concerns Dominate Congressional Response to Ukraine Invasion

Sanctions, Aid, Cyber Concerns Dominate Congressional Response to Ukraine Invasion

Feb. 24, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began in the early hours of Feb. 24, members of Congress issued a deluge of statements condemning the attack and calling on Russian President Vladimir Putin to cease hostilities.

Now, as the invasion continues to unfold, lawmakers are set to consider massive economic sanctions against Russia, as well as military and humanitarian aid for Ukraine in the coming days, all while watching carefully to see the ripple effects the conflict may have for Europe, NATO, and across the globe.

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) and Sen. James E. Risch (R-Idaho), the chair and ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, respectively, had previously worked on bipartisan legislation to impose economic sanctions on Russia for its aggression toward Ukraine.

That legislation wasn’t passed before the invasion started, but in a statement early Feb. 24, Menedez pledged that he was “committed to ensuring that the United States upholds our responsibility to exact maximum costs on Putin, the Russian economy, and those who enabled and facilitated this trampling of Ukraine’s sovereignty.”

Menendez’s House Foreign Affairs counterpart, Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), issued his own statement saying the U.S. and its allies “will impose severe & swift consequences for this needless loss of life.”

The call for sanctions has been bipartisan. A trio of top Republicans in the House—Foreign Affairs Committee ranking member Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), Armed Services Committee ranking member Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), and Intelligence Committee ranking member Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio)—issued their own statement saying they are committed “to enacting the strongest possible sanctions and export controls to cripple Russia’s ability to make war, punish its barbarity, and relegate the Putin regime to the status of an international pariah.”

Meanwhile, in a Twitter thread, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said that Congress should “unite to punish and crush Putin and his cronies,” adding that he had spoken with Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman and told her “there is broad bipartisan support for an emergency supplemental to include aid to the Ukrainian people and Ukrainian military.”

The need for both military and humanitarian aid is especially crucial now, Rep. August Pfluger (R-Texas), a former Air Force pilot, told Air Force Magazine in an interview. 

“They need military aid, they need aid with Stingers, with lethal aid like Javelin missile systems. … The full range of military aid needs to be delivered to them,” Pfluger said. “But in the case of humanitarian aid, I mean, where are the refugees going to go? There’s estimates of up to 5 million Ukrainian refugees, and where are they going to be headed to? How are we going to help them get out of there?”

Pfluger also expressed concern about the need to evacuate American citizens still in Ukraine—the State Department has been urging Americans to leave the country for a month now, and it is unclear how many are still left.

“On my [January] trip to Ukraine, we got estimates [that] there are thousands, but how many still remain? And how is the U.S. government going to help get them out?” Pfluger said. “That’s where air power comes in. I know that the Supreme Allied Commander and the commander of U.S. Air Forces in Europe … are very worried about this. We want to make sure that the administration has the tools that they need to safely help Americans get out. So far, they said that they do not plan on some sort of noncombatant evacuation order, so I want to know what the administration’s plan is to help get those Americans to safety.”

Beyond these immediate concerns, there are other issues garnering the attention of lawmakers. Speaking on CBS on Feb. 24, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) expressed concern that Russian cyberattacks on Ukraine could spill over into bordering countries like Poland and trigger NATO’s Article V, which states that an attack on one NATO ally is an attack on all.

“One of the things that I’m gravely concerned about is if Russia unleashes its full cyber power against Ukraine, once you put malware into the wild in a sense, it knows no geographic boundaries,” Warner said. “So if the Russians decide they’re going to try to turn off the power, turn off all the electricity all across Ukraine, very likely that might turn off the power in eastern Poland and eastern Romania, that could affect our troops.”

Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.) expressed similar concerns for the implications for NATO in an interview on Fox.

“A Ukrainian city on Poland’s border … also receiving targeted strikes in Lviv, that’s incredibly concerning,” Rogers said. “And that’s why we have to have our forces on the highest alert, not just in Poland, Romania, and Hungary, but also in the Baltics: Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia. Those are the final pieces for Putin to put the old Soviet Union back together again. Those countries are NATO’s allies and we are obligated to defend them. And that’s why this is so dangerous.”

More broadly, Russia’s invasion “sends the message globally to powerful nations that they can reshape their borders through military might, and that is something that the international order has been fighting against for 80 years,” Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), chair of the House Armed Services Committee, told CNN. “We can’t let this stand.”

It’s a concern shared by Pfluger, who specifically pointed to China as an adversary watching current events unfold closely.

“What is China calculating? And with regards to Taiwan, how does this impact their calculus? For a similar situation in Taiwan, you know that the economic impact of the Ukraine is one thing, but the economic impact of an invasion of Taiwan could be catastrophic to the entire world,” Pfluger said. “And so we’re obviously very worried about that.”