MORNING NEWS OF NOTE
A s o f 0 4 3 0 H o u r s , A p r i l 2
Tweets of Note
President Trump tweeted: “Upon information and belief, Iran or its proxies are planning a sneak attack on U.S. troops and/or assets in Iraq. If this happens, Iran will pay a very heavy price, indeed!” In Washington, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo wrote: “We have to work together to defeat #COVID19. This is why the U.S. agreed to purchase urgently needed personal protective equipment from #Russia to help #FEMA respond in New York City. This is a time to work together to overcome a common enemy that threatens the lives of all.” And Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) said: “Today, my @SASCMAjority & @SASCDems colleagues and I talked to @DeptofDefense officials directly about the #COVID19 pandemic - including what they are doing to protect the force and maintain readiness, how DOD is supporting civil authorities & how they are mitigating its impact.” (CLICK HERE FOR ALL TWEETS OF NOTE)
Table of Contents TOP NEWS
1. Trump uses coronavirus briefing to unveil new military counternarcotics mission
CNN.com, Apr. 1 (2128) | Nicole Gaouette and Ryan Browne
On a day when more than 800 Americans died of the coronavirus, President Donald Trump used his
daily briefing on the pandemic to unveil seemingly unrelated counternarcotics operations that senior
officials said would hurt embattled Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro. “Today the United States is
launching enhanced counternarcotics operations in the Western Hemisphere to protect the American
people from the deadly scourge of illegal narcotics,” Trump said.
2. Navy to remove sailors from stricken carrier
Washington Post, Apr. 2 (0115), Pg. A3 | Dan Lamothe
The Navy plans to remove about 2,700 sailors from an aircraft carrier in Guam afflicted by the novel
coronavirus within days, senior Navy officials said Wednesday, as government officials on the island
worked to secure hotel rooms for many of them.
3. Esper: Military personnel could help treat coronavirus patients ‘if push comes to shove’
The Hill Online, Apr. 1 (2218) | Brett Samuels
Military personnel deployed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) are not planning
to assist with treatment of coronavirus patients barring a change in circumstances, Defense Secretary
Mark Esper said Wednesday.
4. Adversaries Exploit Pandemic Online – Goldfein
BreakingDefense.com, Apr. 1 (1429) | Theresa Hitchens
Senior defense leaders have seen evidence that US adversaries are using the COVID-19 coronavirus
outbreak to try and disrupt US society with disinformation campaigns, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen.
David Goldfein confirmed today.
5. With COVID-19 threat to increase, Air Force takes steps to protect its most important
missions
Defense News Online, Apr. 1 (1242) | Valerie Insinna
The Air Force is implementing a service-wide “reset” meant to insulate its most essential missions from
the COVID-19 pandemic, the Air Force’s top general said Wednesday.
6. How the Marine Corps Plans to Become Lighter, Nimbler, More Unmanned
DefenseOne.com, Apr. 1 (1758) | Patrick Tucker
The U.S. Marine Corps will shrink, get rid of its tanks, add unmanned vehicles, and focus more on Asia
under a force-structure plan released Wednesday.
ALLIANCES/PARTNERSHIPS
7. NATO warns virus must not hurt defence, with eye on Russia
Agence France-Presse, Apr. 1 (1032) | Damon Wake
NATO must not allow the coronavirus pandemic to become a security threat, the alliance’s chief said
Wednesday, warning that Russia or terror groups could take advantage of the crisis.
REFORM
8. Pentagon Seeking 100,000 Body Bags for Civilians in Virus Crisis
Bloomberg Government, Apr. 1 (1807) | Tony Capaccio
The Pentagon is seeking to provide as many as 100,000 military-style body bags for potential civilian
use as the U.S. warns that deaths could soar in the coming weeks from the coronavirus pandemic.
9. The U.S. Navy’s hospital ships in the COVID-19 fight badly need replacing
Defense News Online, Apr. 1 (1001) | David B. Larter
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The U.S. Navy generated glowing headlines and cheering crowds when deploying its hospital ships
Mercy and Comfort to Los Angeles and New York City respectively. But the ships are both pushing 50
years old and need replacing, and what those replacements will look like is anything but certain.
10. Navy Rushes Shipbuilding Deals To Keep Yards Going In Pandemic
BreakingDefense.com, Apr. 1 (1540) | Paul McLeary
The Navy is rushing to award several major shipbuilding contracts several months early to keep
shipbuilders on the job and save smaller suppliers in danger of going out of business amid the wider
manufacturing halt cause by the coronavirus crisis.
11. Air Force Weapon Programs on Track Despite Pandemic
National Defense Magazine Online, Apr. 1 (1112) | Yasmin Tadjdeh
While the world is gripped by the devastating economic and societal impacts of the novel coronavirus
pandemic, major Air Force weapon programs are still on track, said the service’s chief of staff April 1.
12. Top Marine ‘signaling’ to industry that F-35 cuts are on the table
Defense News Online, Apr. 1 (1713) | Aaron Mehta
The top officer in the U.S. Marine Corps is sticking to the planned procurement of the F-35 joint strike
fighter — but indicated a willingness to cut planes in the future if analysis says it makes sense.
PERSONNEL
13. Army Tests New Virus-Resistant Protocols for Shipping Recruits to Training
Military.com, Apr. 1 (1710) | Matthew Cox
U.S. Army officials tested procedures for sterilized trainee transport Tuesday by moving hundreds of
new soldiers in two caravans of disinfected buses to advanced individual training bases in an effort to
protect the service’s training installations from exposure to the novel coronavirus.
14. DoD’s coronavirus cases are rising on par with the rest of the U.S., death toll now at five
Military Times Online, Apr. 1 (1312) | Meghann Myers
As the U.S. has continued to see confirmed COVID-19 cases jump roughly 20,000 a day this week, the
Defense Department is seeing similar growth, between 10 and 15 percent daily, according to the
Pentagon’s Wednesday numbers update.
EXECUTIVE/LEGISLATIVE
15. Four candidates vie to be military’s next spy chief
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Politico Online, Apr. 1 (1817) | Martin Matishak
The Pentagon is in the final stages of selecting a new military intelligence chief, two people familiar with
the process told POLITICO. The military branches months ago submitted their candidates to replace
Defense Intelligence Agency chief Army Lt. Gen. Robert Ashley — who is expected to retire this fall
after a traditional three-year term as director — to Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence Joseph
Kernan.
16. China Concealed Extent of Virus Outbreak, U.S. Intelligence Says
Bloomberg News, Apr. 1 (2108) | Nick Wadhams and Jennifer Jacobs
China has concealed the extent of the coronavirus outbreak in its country, under-reporting both total
cases and deaths it’s suffered from the disease, the U.S. intelligence community concluded in a
classified report to the White House, according to three U.S. officials.
17. U.S. officials agree on new ways to control high tech exports to China – sources
Reuters (Exclusive), Apr. 2 (0410) | Karen Freifeld and Alexandra Alper;
The Trump administration is tightening rules to prevent China from obtaining advanced U.S. technology
for commercial purposes and then diverting it to military use, several sources told Reuters.
18. China Asserts Its Claim to Global Leadership, Mask by Mask
Wall Street Journal, Apr. 2 (0200), Pg. A1 | Philip Wen and Drew Hinshaw
New York City's Times Square stands empty, a testament to the threat the coronavirus poses to the
biggest U.S. city. Meanwhile, 7,500 miles to the east, young people celebrate the end of quarantine
over hotpot in a crowded restaurant in the Chinese city of Chengdu. And in Fujian province, a team of
Chinese virus experts heads to the airport for a chartered flight to help an overwhelmed Italy. The three
images, posted close to each other on the Twitter feed of China's official Xinhua News Agency one day
last week, encapsulate a sweeping effort by the Communist Party to craft the story of the pandemic
and cast China in the role of global savior.
19. Russian plane with coronavirus medical gear lands in U.S. after Trump-Putin call
Reuters, Apr. 1 (2015) | Andrew Osborn, Polina Devitt and Steve Holland
Russia sent the United States medical equipment on Wednesday to help fight the coronavirus
pandemic, a public relations coup for Russian President Vladimir Putin after he discussed the crisis
with U.S. President Donald Trump.
SECURITY ENVIRONMENT
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20. 540 additional troops to deploy to U.S.-Mexico border over COVID-19 concerns
Military Times Online, Apr. 1 (1619) | Shawn Snow
The U.S. military is deploying an additional 540 troops to the U.S.-Mexico border to assist Border Patrol
agents handling migrants who may be COVID-19 positive, U.S. Northern Command announced
Wednesday.
21. Iran Said To Plan an Attack on U.S. Forces In Iraq
Wall Street Journal, Apr. 2 (0200), Pg. A3 | Gordon Lubold and Nancy A. Youssef
U.S. intelligence out of the Middle East suggests that Iran or Iran-backed forces are planning a
potentially serious attack against U.S. military personnel in Iraq, said officials monitoring the
information.
22. Iran general visits Baghdad, tries to forge political unity
Associated Press, Apr. 1 (1349) | Qassim Abdul-Zahra and Samya Kullab
A top Iranian general arrived in Baghdad this week to try and unify Iraq's fractured political leaders,
Iraqi officials said Wednesday, as stiff opposition by one major bloc thwarts chances the country's latest
prime minister-designate can form a government.
23. Iran, With Over 47,000 Cases, Says U.S. Sanctions Are Taking Lives
New York Times, Apr. 2 (0300), Pg. A6 | Farnaz Fassihi
As Iran struggles with a devastating coronavirus outbreak, a broken economy and a severe shortage
of medical equipment, it says that American trade sanctions are taking Iranian lives and has called for
the United States to lift them on humanitarian grounds.
24. Afghan government holds talks with Taliban in Kabul on prisoner swap
Agence France-Presse, Apr. 1 (1344) | Usman Sharifi
Afghan government representatives have met with the Taliban in Kabul for the first time to discuss a
prisoner swap aimed at jump-starting a floundering peace process, officials said Wednesday.
NOTABLE COMMENTARY
25. We should prepare now to send U.S. armed forces to help police in hard-hit areas
Washington Post Online, Apr. 1 (1619) | John Allen, John Donohue, Rick Fuentes, Paul Goldenberg
and Michael O’Hanlon
Already, the U.S. armed forces are providing important help here at home in the struggle against the
novel coronavirus. Well over 10,000 members of the Army National Guard and Air Force National Guard
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have been mobilized to help with setting up more hospital capacity, transporting supplies and providing
other services. Other personnel who have “Individual Ready Reserve” status are being activated to
take advantage of their particular skills in medicine or other crucial fields. They are typically doing so
under Title 32 of the U.S. code, whereby they are paid by the federal government but controlled by the
governors of the states where they operate.
TWEETS OF NOTE
Twitter, Apr. 1-2
1. Trump uses coronavirus briefing to unveil new military counternarcotics mission
CNN.com, Apr. 1 (2128) | Nicole Gaouette and Ryan Browne
On a day when more than 800 Americans died of the coronavirus, President Donald Trump used his
daily briefing on the pandemic to unveil seemingly unrelated counternarcotics operations that senior
officials said would hurt embattled Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.
“Today the United States is launching enhanced counternarcotics operations in the Western
Hemisphere to protect the American people from the deadly scourge of illegal narcotics,” Trump said.
The announcement coincides with a renewed Trump administration push to oust Maduro, an effort that
began in January 2019 and has yet to yield results. It also came on a day when the US registered the
most deaths from the coronavirus in a single day, with at least 869 reported on Wednesday, bringing
the total to 4,703.
The day before, Trump had delivered the starkest estimate of the pandemic’s toll in the US, telling
Americans that even if recommended distancing measures are followed closely, up to 240,000
Americans could die. The next two weeks, he added, will likely be “painful” and “tough.”
‘A record pace’
Speaking at the White House podium flanked by security officials, the President said Wednesday that
“in cooperation with the 22 partner operations, the US Southern Command will increase surveillance,
seizures of drug shipments, and provide additional support for eradication efforts that are going on right
now at a record pace.”
Operations will take place in the eastern Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea.
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The military itself has been struggling to deal with the pandemic. The commander of the USS Theodore
Roosevelt, a US Navy aircraft carrier where an outbreak of the coronavirus has spread to at least 70
sailors, warned in a dramatic memo Tuesday that decisive action was required to save the lives of the
ship’s crew.
“We are not at war. Sailors do not need to die,” Capt. Brett Crozier wrote to the Navy’s Pacific Fleet,
three US defense officials have confirmed to CNN. “The spread of the disease is ongoing and
accelerating,” he added.
As of Wednesday morning, 814 US service members have tested positive for the virus, while the first
military death was announced Monday.
Secretary of Defense Mark Esper drew a link between the pandemic and the new military operation,
saying that criminal organizations are trying to capitalize on the fact that governments are distracted by
the outbreak. “Transnational criminal organizations continue to threaten our security” and “destroy
lives,” he said.
Esper went on to say that this operation would hurt Maduro’s grip on power in Venezuela.
“Furthermore, corrupt actors like the illegitimate Maduro regime in Venezuela rely on the profits derived
from the sale of narcotics to maintain their oppressive hold on power. The Venezuelan people continue
to suffer due to Maduro’s criminal control of the country,” Esper said.
US operations would focus on the “eastern Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea,” Esper said, and
would involve an array of military assets.
“Included in the force package are Navy destroyers and combat ships, Coast Guard cutters, P-8 patrol
aircraft and elements of an Army Security Force Assistance Brigade. These additional forces will nearly
double our capacity to conduct counternarcotics operations in the region,” Esper said.
Warships were focused on Beijing and Moscow
Despite Esper’s repeated insistence that the Pentagon is most focused on countering threats posed by
China and Russia, the additional warships will be drawn from Indo-Pacific Command and European
Command, the military commands focused on Beijing and Moscow.
“We came upon some intelligence some time ago that the drug cartels as a result of Covid-19 were
going to try and take advantage of the situation and try to infiltrate additional drugs into our country,”
the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, said Wednesday.
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“We’re at war with Covid-19, we’re at war with terrorists and we are at war with the drug cartels as well,”
Milley said, adding, “We will marshal whatever assets are required to prevent your entry into this country
to kill Americans.”
The Trump administration launched its latest effort to oust Maduro on Tuesday, leveraging the
coronavirus pandemic to apply additional pressure.
“The United States has long been committed to finding a solution to the man-made crisis in Venezuela,”
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement. “The urgency for this has become all the more
serious in light of the Maduro regime’s failure to adequately prepare for and address the global COVID-
19 pandemic.”
Speaking at the State Department, Pompeo outlined a plan to establish a transitional government and,
“if the conditions of the framework are met,” lift sanctions on Venezuela. The Maduro government
rejected it almost immediately.
The US hopes its newly proposed framework will facilitate a democratic transition in Venezuela, more
than a year after initial attempts to force Maduro from power. Those conditions include “the departure
of foreign security forces and elections deemed free and fair by international observers,” Pompeo said.
--CNN’s Jason Hoffman contributed to this report
RETURN TO TOP
Washington Post, Apr. 2 (0115), Pg. A3 | Dan Lamothe
The Navy plans to remove about 2,700 sailors from an aircraft carrier in Guam afflicted by the novel
coronavirus within days, senior Navy officials said Wednesday, as government officials on the island
worked to secure hotel rooms for many of them.
The move comes after a letter written by the captain of the USS Theodore Roosevelt, circulated in the
news media, drew attention to the service's response to the situation.
The commanding officer, Capt. Brett Crozier, wrote that "decisive action is required," "sailors do not
need to die" and that if the Navy didn't act, it was "failing to properly to take care of our most trusted
asset - our sailors."
Acting Navy secretary Thomas B. Modly told reporters that nearly 1,000 sailors have left the ship so far
for testing and quarantining.
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As of Wednesday, 93 sailors from the carrier had tested positive for the virus and 593 tested negative,
Modly said. Seventy-six percent of the crew of more than 4,800 still needed to be tested, he said.
Asked about Crozier's letter, Modly said senior Navy officials "understand this is a very unusual
circumstance." But he disagreed with any assessment that the Navy might not take care of its sailors.
"It's disappointing to have him say that," Modly said. "At the same time, I know that's not the truth. We
have been working very, very hard within the ship to ensure the command structure that's exactly what
we're doing."
Modly and the Navy's chief of naval operations, Adm. Michael Gilday, acknowledged that there was a
communications breakdown between Crozier, who reports directly to admirals in the Pacific, and senior
Navy officials at the Pentagon.
"The misunderstanding perhaps was the requirement of the speed to get people off the ship," Gilday
said. "In order to act on a requirement, we have to clearly understand the requirement."
The outbreak on the Roosevelt is the Defense Department's single largest, crippling one of the
Pentagon's most significant strategic weapons. The "Big Stick," as the ship is affectionately nicknamed,
effectively is a 20-story floating city that is home to about 4,800 people and scores of fighter jets and
other weapons. Two other aircraft carriers are still at sea.
Family members of deployed sailors have also voiced frustrations about the Navy's handling of the
outbreak.
One person close to a sailor aboard the ship, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of
concerns it would lead to retaliation, said the crew has been asking "higher ups" in the Navy for help
disembarking for more than a week.
"In turn, they received half-baked plans that never materialized, and were in essence told to stick out
as the virus spread rapidly aboard," the person said. "Since the media found out, the Navy leaders have
seemingly been more responsive, but that remains to be seen."
The person and the parents of another sailor, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for similar
reasons, said that at one point, Navy officials discussed sending some patients from the ship to Japan.
That plan was scuttled, but it wasn't clear on Wednesday why.
Crozier asked the Navy to allow him to clear 90 percent of the ship to allow for deep cleaning and
assurances that his entire crew was free of the virus, but Modly said he did not think it is possible to go
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that far. More sailors will be needed to man weapons, oversee nuclear reactors and watch for fires,
among other tasks.
Gilday did not rule out that more service members eventually could be removed from the ship as it is
cleaned and sailors are tested. About 1,000 sailors at a time must remain on the ship, he said.
The admiral said it is unclear how the captain's letter, first published by the San Francisco Chronicle,
reached the news media. Writing the letter and submitting it to higher-ranking commanders is
acceptable, Gilday said, but leaking it "would be something that would violate the principles of good
order and discipline."
"How it got out into the media I don't know," Gilday said. "I don't think anyone would ever know."
The ship deployed from San Diego in January along with other vessels in its strike group. As the
coronavirus spread globally, the carrier visited Danang, Vietnam, on March 5 while the United States
and Vietnam celebrated 25 years of normalized relations.
Gilday said the stop in Vietnam was a "risk-informed decision" because the country had about 15 or 16
reported cases at the time. The virus began emerging in Hanoi while the Theodore Roosevelt was
docked there and on the ship about two weeks later while it was at sea. The first few patients were
flown off the ship for treatment.
RETURN TO TOP
3. Esper: Military personnel could help treat coronavirus patients ‘if push comes to shove’
The Hill Online, Apr. 1 (2218) | Brett Samuels
Military personnel deployed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) are not planning
to assist with treatment of coronavirus patients barring a change in circumstances, Defense Secretary
Mark Esper said Wednesday.
Thousands of members of the armed forces, including the National Guard and Army Corps of
Engineers, have scattered across the country to provide assistance in the country’s response to the
virus. But Esper said the military will not be treating coronavirus patients unless “push comes to shove,”
asserting the Pentagon’s resources are better used building hospitals and treating trauma patients to
lighten the load on hospitals.
“We can take the load off of hospitals with regards to their trauma patients, thereby freeing up rooms
and other doctors ... who deal with infectious disease, to treat those type of patients,” Esper said at a
White House coronavirus press briefing in response to a question from The Hill.
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“I think it’s the best use of our resources,” he added. “But again, if push comes to shove, we’re prepared
to do what we have to to assist the American people.”
The Army Corps of Engineers has assisted with construction of additional hospital beds and treatment
space in New York City, Seattle and California, which are dealing with sizable outbreaks of coronavirus
patients. The Pentagon has also deployed Naval hospital ships to New York City and Los Angeles to
provide additional hospital bed capacity for non-coronavirus patients.
President Trump said Wednesday that he is considering building two new Naval hospital ships or
renovating another ship for the same purpose, citing the positive impact of the USNS Comfort and
USNS Mercy.
“We’re looking at doing two additional brand new hospital ships,” he said. “Because these ships have
really struck a blow, a very positive blow.”
Constructing new ships would likely take a significant period of time, making it unlikely it would be ready
to assist when the country hits its peak number of coronavirus cases in the coming weeks.
The U.S. has more than 213,000 confirmed coronavirus cases, and more than 4,700 Americans have
died from the virus. Hundreds of military members have been confirmed to have the virus.
RETURN TO TOP
4. Adversaries Exploit Pandemic Online – Goldfein
BreakingDefense.com, Apr. 1 (1429) | Theresa Hitchens
WASHINGTON -- Senior defense leaders have seen evidence that US adversaries are using the
COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak to try and disrupt US society with disinformation campaigns, Air Force
Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein confirmed today.
Goldfein wouldn’t provide specifics or name names, citing classification concerns. But he spoke in
response to a reporter’s question about malicious activity by China, Russia and ISIS/Al Qaeda to exploit
the pandemic as a means to harm military operations and/or society.
“We have seen those, but I’ll be a little careful on how I describe any details with you in terms of
breaching the classified versus the unclassified,” he said. “But we are seeing in the information spaces
especially … we are seeing those that are trying to take advantage of this situation,” Goldfein said in a
wide-ranging discussion this morning sponsored by the Mitchell Institute.
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“If there was ever one time where … the nations, the international community, were to come together
and perhaps put aside our differences to be able to attack this global threat, it’s right now,” he added.
“And every day that goes by where we are not combining our talent to be able to produce a vaccine,
and produce a global solution to this global challenge, is a shame.”
There have been widespread public reports about official Chinese efforts to paint the coronavirus
outbreak as the fault of the US Army and then suggesting that the outbreak originated in Italy rather
than in China’s Wuhan province. Indeed, as CNN first reported on March 13, the State Department
summoned the Chinese Cui Tiankai to tell Beijing to knock it off. For his part, President Trump has very
publicly called the COVD-19 the Chinese virus and made clear his irritation with Chinese claims the US
Army was somehow involved with the viral outbreak.
Foreign hackers have tried to breach US Health and Human Services networks, and use fears about
the virus to infiltrate computers for financial gain. The cybersecurity firm FireEye reported on March 25
that Chinese hacker group APT41, a group affiliated with the Chinese government that also seems to
work for its own members financial gain, began waging a cyber intrusion campaign across multiple
countries and multiple economic and government sectors in January as the Wuhan outbreak emerged.
FireEye called it “one of the broadest campaigns by a Chinese cyber espionage actor we have observed
in recent years.”
Further, multiple disinformation campaigns to sow disorder among US citizens have erupted across
social media platforms, including, as ABC reported March 17, the spread via text of a false warning that
Washington intended to shut down all public services and impose a harsh quarantine.
Defense Secretary Mark Esper warned staff that increased telework comes with increased
cybersecurity risks in a town hall meeting on March 24, although he did not go into detail about specific
attacks.
On the flip side, Goldfein said that he and his counterparts in allied countries have been conferring
“every day” to work out how they can coordinate their efforts to support national and regional responses
to the pandemic.
“I’m in an ongoing dialogue with my international air chiefs, that was initiated by the chief of staff of the
Italian Air Force when he shared what the Italian Air Force is looking at as they approach this pandemic.
And we’re in a daily conversation now about how do we approach this as international air chiefs
together.”
For example, Goldfein said, one of the issues being discussed is how the allied air forces might utilize
or modify air mobility platforms based on air flow inside the aircraft. Whether the air flow inside is from
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back to front as it is within a C-17 or front to back as it is in KC-46 and KC-10 tanker-transports, he
said, obviously matters for the health of the crew if the aircraft are to carry coronavirus patients.
As for effects on the Air Force itself from the growing crisis, Goldfein said that “it’s not business as
usual, but business as required.” While he admitted that the situation is affecting readiness, he said he
has launched an effort with MAJCOM commanders to “identify mission essential tasks,” put resources
to those tasks first and adjust operations as necessary.
“And those things that don’t fall into the essential task list, we either have to stop doing or significantly
curtail,” he said. “We’re going to be going through that review today … and we’re going to continue to
look at this everyday.”
Asked specifically about Pacific Air Force (PACAF) operations that have recently included a continuous
bomber presence to send a signal to Beijing about its aggressive activities in the region, Goldfein
suggested — but didn’t say outright — that the service is moving to reduce that ops tempo. Of course,
we may be increasing the tempo, but we just don’t know… Rejiggering Air Force operations in the
Pacific comes as the Navy is struggling to maintain its presence in the volatile region. Coronavirus
aboard ship has forced the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier to dock in Guam and. The only
other carrier in the Pacific, the USS Ronald Reagan, is currently undergoing refit and repair in Japan
there could be a good argument for regularly deploying more bombers more often.
“We are absolutely adjusting our presence when it comes to bombers,” he said, “but I can’t tell you
what that looks like because that would make me operationally predictable.”
In response to my questions about the potential impacts of the latest serious problem — leaking fuel
lines — to afflict the long-troubled KC-46 tanker, Goldfein said he is not expecting it to affect delivery
and waxed hopeful that fixes to all the current deficiencies bedeviling the Boeing aircraft would be fixed
soon.
“I don’t get concerned immediately when they tell me that our testers have found a deficiency. The
question is how quickly, then, we can determine what the fix is and get after it,” he said. “On this one,
as it has been explained to me, it’s not a safety issue at all. It’s a deficiency in terms of some leakage
in the system during refueling operations.”
The Air Force announced on Monday that it had deemed the fuel line problem a Category 1 deficiency,
which indicates a serious problem. This is the fifth Category 1 deficiency finding the supposedly low-
risk KC-46 program has racked up. And it comes as Boeing and the Air Force are in final negotiations
about a fix to another long-standing problem: the Remote Visual System (RVS) that allows operators
to safely position the boom during re-fueling operations.
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“I’m not hearing anything right now that indicates to me it’s going to cause a delay,” Goldfein said. “But
it’s probably a little bit early for me to forecast that based on the fact that the engineers are right now
swarming on that to take a look.”
Goldfein said that while he has not personally briefed Congress — which has expressed concerns
about the potential gap between the KC-46 becoming operational and Air Force plans to retire older
tankers — but that the service is keeping Congress abreast of the program.
“As you might imagine as we go forward we’ve been having a dialogue with the key stakeholders in
Congress that are deeply concerned about this weapon system. And hey, let’s also acknowledge, this
has a long, sort of tortured history,” he said. “The good news for me is that I don’t see anything right
now that’s by any means unsolvable.”
RETURN TO TOP
5. With COVID-19 threat to increase, Air Force takes steps to protect its most important
missions
Defense News Online, Apr. 1 (1242) | Valerie Insinna
WASHINGTON -- The Air Force is implementing a service-wide “reset” meant to insulate its most
essential missions from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Air Force’s top general said Wednesday.
Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Dave Goldfein ordered the leaders of each Air Force major command on
April 1 to pivot toward essential tasks that may require additional manpower or other resources.
“I’ve got to re-purpose some people from mission areas that are not essential to mission areas that are
essential, and that’s not just something you do with a flip of a switch,” Goldfein said. “There are all kinds
of individual decisions that are associated with that bigger decision. So the reset I’m talking about is a
broader reset across the Air Force to make sure that we keep our mission up and operating.”
The Air Force has already begun to make some shifts to its posture to help protect airmen from
contracting the novel coronavirus, such as cancelling some training exercises, easing grooming
standards and ordering the early graduation of the Air Force Academy’s 2020 class, Goldfein told
reporters during a teleconference held by the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.
But as medical experts project an increase in the number of COVID-19 positive cases throughout April
and May, the Air Force has come to believe that it must make long-term preparations to sustain critical
tasks like combat and intelligence gathering operations, even in “level 3” countries like Italy and
Germany with widespread cases of coronavirus.
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“We have to keep aircraft flying, which means we’ve got to keep crews safe. Aviano Air Force Base [in]
Italy has not stopped flying airplanes. They have not been given relief,” he said. “They are going to fly
airplanes they need parts, they need fuel, they need things to keep those airplanes going. It’s a level 3
country — how do you do that? We need to have a way to get those aircraft in and out of Italy.”
Goldfein characterized the changes brought by the reset as the “new normal,” but said that the Air
Force would continue to adjust its operations as the threat of COVID-19 fluctuates.
As of March 30, 182 airmen have tested positive for COVID-19, an increase of 18 people compared to
the previous day. Twelve airmen have been hospitalized for the illness and 11 have recovered,
according to data released by the Air Force on Tuesday.
The number of Air Force dependents, contractors and civilians with coronavirus is also rising, with
positive cases logged for 60 civilians, 51 dependents and 16 contractors.
Despite the rise in cases, Goldfein said he remains confident that wing commanders at Air Force
installations are best equipped to make decisions on what social distancing parameters to implement,
which training to cancel and which risks to endure.
“Tinker [Air Force Base, Okla.] doesn’t look like Goodfellow [AFB, Texas], which doesn’t look like
Kunsan [Air Base in South Korea] which doesn’t look like Ramstein [Air Base in Germany],” he said,
pointing to differences in geographic area, proximity to cities and number of COVID-19 cases. “Every
base has got a unique dynamic. … A one size fits all approach for every installation is doomed to fail.”
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6. How the Marine Corps Plans to Become Lighter, Nimbler, More Unmanned
The Force Design 2030 report discards tanks and doubles UAV squadrons
DefenseOne.com, Apr. 1 (1758) | Patrick Tucker
The U.S. Marine Corps will shrink, get rid of its tanks, add unmanned vehicles, and focus more on Asia
under a force-structure plan released Wednesday.
The Force Design 2030 report calls for a Corps that has:
• 174,000 Marines, about 12,000 fewer than today.
• 18 active component fighter attack squadrons, with just 10 aircraft per squadron instead of
today’s up-to-16.
• 21 active component infantry battalions, down three.
• Zero tanks.
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The remaining infantry battalions are to be redesigned for “greater lethality and flexibility, with reduced
structure (a proposed reduction per infantry battalion of approximately 200 Marines),” the report says.
But the report also calls for more long-range fires more intelligence-surveillance- reconnaissance
capability, especially from drones; a new Marine Corps-specific communication network; and plenty of
robots and unmanned gear. The number of UAV squadrons would double to six.
“The Marine Corps requires a family of [unmanned aerial vehicle or UAS] capabilities. We need to
transition from our current UAS platforms to capabilities that can operate from ship, from shore, and
able to employ both collection and lethal payloads. These future capabilities must be expeditionary and
fully compatible with Navy platforms and command and control networks,” it reads.
The report mentions gaps in surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities, electronic warfare and
“disruptive and less-lethal capabilities appropriate for countering malign activity by actors pursuing
maritime ‘gray zone’ strategies.”
In a call with reporters, Marine Corps Commandant General David H. Berger said that his vision for the
future force hinges on making the Marines more flexible, with much more versatile Marine Corps
expeditionary units. These units will look less and like one another than they do today and will be more
tailored for a specific operating environment.
“Some of it could be an expeditionary advanced element operating out of a base that has a function
of…re-arming and refueling F-35s. It could be a function of intelligence collection, logistics, command
and control. We have to experiment with all of that.. All in the mindset of, [expeditionary units] have to
be capable but they also have to be able to displace, to move. We can’t make them so big and heavy
that they can’t get out of their own way.”
Future gray-zone situations— in which it’s hard to tell the difference between the enemy and the general
population and where the enemy is using attacks that are difficult to attribute or that fall beneath the
sort of violence threshold that would call for a big response—Berger said that Marines will have to
remain a force that is highly forward deployed to keep advancing adversaries from “occupying every
part of the house we vacate.” The Marines, he said, have to be an obstacle “denying the adversary the
ability to move us out of the neighborhood. We’re reassuring the partners.”
The report also calls for a big investment in an “organic [command and control, communications and
intelligence network or C4ISR] maneuver, and fires capabilities ...network.. at all echelons.”
It’s an open question as to how the Marines will integrate into the giant network that is intended to link
the Air Force, Army, Navy, across the air, land, and sea.
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“We have a lot to learn about what joint all-domain command and control turns out to be… it’s a concept,
a construct,” Berger said. “We assume, because we’re a stand-in force, we assume that we’ll always
be operating within the adversaries weapons ranges. That’s where you want us…They’re going to try
and degrade our networks. Those networks have to be resilient enough…Our network must be able to
support us even if it’s broken down into smaller elements.”
That goes beyond hardware, he said. “We develop Marine leaders with the notion that they will make
decisions; they will execute in lieu of any other detailed guidance.”
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ALLIANCES/PARTNERSHIPS
7. NATO warns virus must not hurt defence, with eye on Russia
Agence France-Presse, Apr. 1 (1032) | Damon Wake
NATO must not allow the coronavirus pandemic to become a security threat, the alliance’s chief said
Wednesday, warning that Russia or terror groups could take advantage of the crisis.
Foreign ministers from the 30-strong North Atlantic Alliance will hold video talks on Thursday to discuss
their response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has killed 30,000 people in Europe alone.
They are expected to issue a joint statement as a show of unity and to send a signal to potential
adversaries such as Russia that NATO is still capable and willing to respond to threats.
“Our primary objective is to ensure that this health crisis does not become a security crisis,” NATO
Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said at a news conference.
Measures to try to slow the spread of the highly contagious virus have forced NATO allies to trim military
exercises, including the huge US-led “Defender 2020”.
But Stoltenberg insisted this did not mean NATO’s ability to defend itself was weakened.
“Our operational readiness is maintained, it is not undermined,” he said.
“We continue to patrol the skies and to defend our borders and we continue our missions and operations
not least in the fight against terrorism, because these threats continue to exist.”
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Stoltenberg pointed to what he warned was increased Russian military activity as proof that NATO
needs to be on its guard more than ever during the coronavirus crisis.
Jets from NATO air forces have intercepted Russian warplanes several times in recent weeks and
alliance naval vessels shadowed seven Russian warships loitering unusually in the North Sea for
several days.
“We see significant military activities close to NATO borders with a new exercise in the western military
districts of Russia... and we have seen significant Russian presence in the North Sea,” he said.
“Therefore NATO has to continue to patrol our skies with air policing, we need to be present on land,
but also in the air and at sea.”
The Russian defence ministry said their exercises were aimed at practising their emergency response
to the spread of viral infections.
They were to include drills of quarantine, treatment and disinfection measures, the ministry said in a
statement.
involvement of Russia’s strategic missile forces in the exercises.
Because of coronavirus restrictions on travel and gatherings, Thursday’s ministerial meeting will take
place by video link -- a first in NATO’s 70-year history.
Diplomats say it was vital the meeting went ahead to show that NATO is still working and to send a
message to potential hostile actors that they would not be allowed to exploit the coronavirus crisis.
Stoltenberg also highlighted NATO efforts to help with the virus response.
While the alliance does not have medical equipment of its own to deploy, it is acting as a forum for
allies to exchange requests for help, as well as aiding in the transport of supplies.
On Wednesday, a military cargo plane took off from Turkey with masks, protective equipment and other
medical materials for Italy and Spain, Europe’s two worst-affected countries.
And a team from the NATO Support and Procurement Agency has joined forces with a start-up in Italy
to convert snorkelling masks into emergency ventilator masks.
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REFORM
8. Pentagon Seeking 100,000 Body Bags for Civilians in Virus Crisis
Bloomberg Government, Apr. 1 (1807) | Tony Capaccio
The Pentagon is seeking to provide as many as 100,000 military-style body bags for potential civilian
use as the U.S. warns that deaths could soar in the coming weeks from the coronavirus pandemic.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has requested 100,000 body bags, known as Human
Remains Pouches, through an interagency group that directed it to the Defense Department. The
Pentagon is looking into buying more bags and will draw some initially from a stockpile of 50,000 it
maintains, according to two people familiar with the request.
The move is a somber counterpoint to the Pentagon’s highly-praised deployment of two hospital ships
to New York and Los Angeles to help alleviate pressure on regional hospitals overburdened by the
pandemic.
The Defense Logistics Agency’s Troop Support unit manages the Pentagon’s stockpile of the green
nylon, 94-inch by 38-inch body bags that are typically distributed to war zones. The unit has been in
contact with the current contractor to assess its manufacturing capabilities but hasn’t yet placed a formal
order, according to one of the people.
As many as 200,000 Americans are projected to die in the U.S. coronavirus outbreak, a top White
House official said Tuesday, even with another 30 days of the most stringent public health restrictions
in place. Reviewing the projections, President Donald Trump warned Americans of a difficult period
ahead.
“This is going to be a painful two weeks,” Trump said at the White House on Tuesday. “Our strength
will be tested, our endurance will be tried.”
The government had not previously shared details on its projections for the spread of the virus, which
has so far killed more than 4,400 people in the U.S. and infected more than 200,000.
The Defense Logistics Agency doesn’t yet have a specific delivery date request from FEMA but the
agency wants them as soon as they are ready, and the Pentagon is close to agreement with its current
contractor on the numbers and time lines, one of the people said.
A FEMA spokesman said the agency is making “prudent planning” for potential future needs, and that
includes preparing for “mortuary contingencies” from U.S. states.
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Refrigerated Trucks
The pouches may be necessary for some state and local governments but FEMA hasn’t received a
shipment yet, the spokesman said. The agency is working with regional and state health and
emergency managers to ramp up available assets, the official said, adding that pouches will be
distributed to states requesting them.
On Monday, the vice director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff outlined the general Pentagon-
FEMA process that’s in place.
The Joint Staff is “in close partnership with them to identify what their needs are,” including “mission
assignments” that came in Monday for prepackaged Meals Ready to Eat, and “other supplies,” Major
General Jeff Taliaferro said.
The Joint Staff also received “a mission assignment from FEMA for a mortuary affairs support team for
New York and we’re in the process of identifying” personnel, he added.
Hospitals in places including New York and New Jersey have been securing refrigerated trucks to help
hold bodies in areas where capacity for storing them has run out.
--With assistance from Elise Young
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9. The U.S. Navy’s hospital ships in the COVID-19 fight badly need replacing
Defense News Online, Apr. 1 (1001) | David B. Larter
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Navy generated glowing headlines and cheering crowds when deploying
its hospital ships Mercy and Comfort to Los Angeles and New York City respectively. But the ships are
both pushing 50 years old and need replacing, and what those replacements will look like is anything
but certain.
Both ships were converted super-tankers designed for providing care for combat casualties. And while
both ships have combat deployments under their belts during Operation Desert Storm and Operation
Iraqi Freedom, they are far more frequently used for disaster relief and medical outreach missions
across the globe.
During nearly 35 years of service, the distinctive white hulls and red crosses have become symbols of
American soft power abroad and, occasionally, the symbol of the Defense Department pitching in at
home. The Comfort was deployed during Hurricane Katrina to New Orleans and in 2017 to Puerto Rico
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after Hurricane Maria. Both Mercy and Comfort today are providing emergency care in Los Angeles
and New York to free up civilian hospitals to focus on COVID-19 patients.
But much like the bulk of the surge sealift fleet, the ships run on outdated steam plants that fewer and
fewer mariners know how to operate and maintain. And, like classic cars, they need constant care and
attention to keep in working order. In 2018, the Navy proposed decommissioning one of the ships in
2021, but was blocked by Congress.
According to the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act, the Navy can only decommission the
hospital ships once they field a replacement.
The Navy’s plan to recapitalize them relies on their Common-Hull Auxiliary Multi-Mission Platform
(CHAMP) concept, which proposes a new-build common hull that can be altered to meet a number of
different mission. According to the 2020 long-range shipbuilding plan, the hospital ship CHAMPs would
be acquired in 2033 and 2034 for delivery in 2036 and 2037.
The Navy has been planning to develop and field two variants of the CHAMP, one for sealift purposes
and one for other auxiliary ship missions such as the submarine tending, hospital ships, and command-
and-control platforms.
But a White House Office of Management and Budget memo obtained by Defense News in December
showed OMB blanching at a cost estimate of upward of $1.3 billion for the submarine tender variant of
the CHAMP platform, planned for acquisition in 2024.
“The CHAMP submarine tender and CHAMP sealift vessels are not cost-effective solutions. The
revised estimate for the sub tender ($1.3 billion) is even more than the $1 billion in the FYDP [Future
Years Defense Program] and more cost-effective alternatives should be explored, including procuring
and converting a used vessel,” the memo read.
With the future of CHAMP up in the air, it’s not clear what will become of the Navy’s hospital ships, and
what seems clear is that large 1,000-bed floating hospitals are probably not what the service needs in
the future, said Sal Mercogliano, an associate professor of History at Campbell University and former
civilian mariner who studies maritime issues.
“The hospital ships are really designed for receiving mass casualties from a battlefield,” Mercogliano
said. “And the problem the Navy has is that the mission – they don’t really see the requirement anymore
to maintain two vessels with 2,000 beds, because they are really expensive to operate.
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“It drains the medical facilities ashore of doctors and nurses that then need to be back-filled with
reservists, creates huge problems for [the Navy’s Bureau of Medicine and Surgery] to be able to staff
them up.”
On many of the missions the Comfort and Mercy are assigned, the ships are staffed up to 250 bed or
maybe 500 beds and then bring on civilian agencies. A further complicating factor is, as they age, they
get more expensive to maintain, he said.
“Look, they’re steam powered, which means it’s getting harder and harder to find civilian mariners who
are boiler engineers – there are just not a lot of them out there.”
But that they should be recapitalized in some way isn’t much in question. The return on investment the
Navy gets for its hospital ships is enormous, said Jerry Hendrix, a retired Navy captain and analyst with
the Telemus Group.
“There has been a consistent demand for hospital ships as part of presence and influence operations
ever since those ships joined the fleet,” Hendrix said. “But there probably is not a requirement for a
1,000-bed hospital ship. What we’re seeing now is something of an anomaly in that it’s doing something
it wasn’t built to do: Humanitarian assistance and disaster relief at home.
“But there is definitely a demand for recapitalizing those ships with something in the 200-to-500-bed
range that would have more access to ports that aren’t deep-water ports.”
The sheer size of Mercy and Comfort – both displacing more than 65,500 tons – have limited the kinds
of missions the ships can perform, Hendrix said.
“I think we need to look at smaller variants that are more accessible to a broader variety of ports and
conditions,” he said.
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10. Navy Rushes Shipbuilding Deals To Keep Yards Going In Pandemic
BreakingDefense.com, Apr. 1 (1540) | Paul McLeary
WASHINGTON -- The Navy is rushing to award several major shipbuilding contracts several months
early to keep shipbuilders on the job and save smaller suppliers in danger of going out of business
amid the wider manufacturing halt cause by the coronavirus crisis.
The biggest is a contract to build the next San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ship, (LPD 31)
which serves as a jumping-off point for Marines heading ashore.
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The push to accelerate work is part of a wide-ranging effort to buttress the shipbuilding industry and
the thousands of small suppliers that make parts for the Navy. The Navy’s top acquisition official, James
Geurts, told reporters Wednesday morning the Navy is worried about the effect the state and local
shutdowns could have on its shipbuilding and repair efforts. “It’s a national emergency and this is critical
national infrastructure,” so the issue is, “how do we orient quickly to get at this aggressively and try not
to be reactive in nature.”
Ingalls Shipbuilding in Mississippi is currently building the USS Richard M. McCool (LPD 29) and
Harrisburg (LPD 30), and would be in line to start work on the next ship in the class. The Navy is also
pushing to move forward the award for a landing craft program that was slated to kick off later this year.
Funding for the new LPD was approved in the 2020 NDAA defense policy bill which authorized $525
million for the LPD Flight II program.
Any breaks in the build and repair schedule would throw the Navy’s planned deployments out of whack
but also could be devastating to the thousands of small businesses across the country that literally
provide the nuts and bolts that make the complex machinery that powers the fleet.
“Nobody right now is in the position to float gaps,” Geurts said. His staff has done a detailed analysis
of the Navy’s industrial base. They are looking for ways to help the smaller companies not only through
moving forward orders, but also finding money for research and development that would help small,
innovative companies.
“I hear stories of second-, third- and fourth-tier suppliers that were worried about going out of business,
worried about how they would keep paying their salaries, and our ability to move and accelerate work
into the defense base and then have that be pushed out to the suppliers is absolutely critical, because
if they’re not there it won’t matter when we’re ready to recover,” Geurts said.
Geurts is gathering all of the large shipbuilders and shipyard owners several times a week to check on
the status of the workforce and what problems they see coming if the current crisis continues.
At the center of these worries is the nation’s largest shipbuilder, Huntington Ingalls, which is the only
company that builds both Nimitz and Ford-class aircraft carriers, in addition to sharing work on Virginia-
class submarines with Electric Boat.
The company has taken steps to attempt to apply social distancing at its shipyards, and has staggered
shifts to accommodate workers who might now need to work different hours, company officials say.
In an interview earlier this week, several Huntington executives told me they’ve reached out to over
2,000 suppliers in 48 of the 50 US states, and are working to speed up and push contracts as far down
the supply chain as possible to keep these small businesses running.
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“We’re gonna have to brave the storm together and especially some of the smaller suppliers,” said
Lucas Hicks, vice president of new construction aircraft carrier programs.
“We need their products today, but we also need them in 90 days, so we want to help them brave the
storm,” he added. “We’ve actually changed some payment terms on some of our supplier contracts to
try to make sure that we can front them what they need to stay afloat. We’re doing some creative stuff
to try and help them be able to weather the storm.”
The company hasn’t seen any reduction in parts received yet, but acknowledges that the situation
changes on a daily basis, as different parts of the country feel the pain of local shutdowns in different
ways.
Lucas said Huntington does not anticipate it will stop work, but is allowing employees the option of
working from home and providing liberal leave to others.
Eventually all of this “will have an impact,” especially if the shutdowns are prolonged. “At some point, if
it extends for months and months at the rate we’re on, it would have an impact but it’s too early to tell.”
Geurts appears to see things the same way. The crisis and its downstream effects is “going to have
both a time dimension and geography dimension, and so it will remain a fluid situation,” when it comes
to how much the defense industry, and the navy, are affected, Geurts said.
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11. Air Force Weapon Programs on Track Despite Pandemic
National Defense Magazine Online, Apr. 1 (1112) | Yasmin Tadjdeh
While the world is gripped by the devastating economic and societal impacts of the novel coronavirus
pandemic, major Air Force weapon programs are still on track, said the service’s chief of staff April 1.
“As we review every one of the programs, every one of them is [in] a little bit different state in terms of
tension going forward,” said Gen. David Goldfein. However, “I have not had anyone yet come to me
and say, ‘Hey, this one is on the edge.’”
Officials, such as Will Roper, the Air Force’s assistant secretary for acquisition, technology and logistics,
and his military deputy Lt. Gen. Duke Z. Richardson, have been working with industry to gauge the
effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the defense industrial base and supply chains, Goldfein said.
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“What they’ve come to me and reported to me and the secretary [of defense] is, ‘Hey, here’s where
they’re struggling and where we can help. Here’s where they’re doing really well and we can leverage,’”
Goldfein said. “We’re trying to just balance and manage this together as we go forward.”
Across the country, state and local governments have implemented various orders that have shuttered
non-essential businesses and required citizens to socially distance themselves from others to mitigate
the growth of the coronavirus pandemic. That has created issues for the defense industrial base, even
though it is considered a critical infrastructure sector.
Goldfein said he has been in touch with a number of defense industry CEOs and there are ongoing
conversations with key partners to determine how the Air Force can help keep production lines moving,
he said during an online event series hosted by the Air Force Association’s Mitchell Institute called
“Aerospace Nation.”
“In this world now of social distancing and COVID, how do we ensure that we emerge at the back end
with a defense industrial base that is healthy and able to keep the parts coming, keep the supplies
going and keep the new modernization [programs] on track that we need?” he said. “We’re working
fairly aggressively with them.”
The Air Force is taking those conversations and relaying industry’s concerns to the Pentagon’s chief
weapons buyer, Ellen Lord, and others at the office of the secretary of defense, Goldfein said.
Each company is having to make adjustments, just as the Air Force is doing internally, he said.
For firms that are able to implement social distancing on their production lines “those seem to be doing
well enough and operating where they can get the workforce in to be able to continue the work,”
Goldfein said. However, “others that require more closer proximity are struggling.”
Companies that are based in hotspot areas such as New York — which is now the epicenter of the
virus in the United States — are going to be struggling much more than a company in Kansas or in the
heartland, he added.
“What we’re trying to do is to make sure that we can keep as many of these companies up and operating
with income flow that we can,” Goldfein said.
Led by Roper, the Air Force has for some time been embracing pitch days where the service can put
small businesses on contract for new and innovative technology. That effort is continuing despite the
virus, Goldfein said.
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“We’ve shifted from in place pitch days to online, but it hasn’t slowed us down,” he said. It “is pretty
amazing how many contracts we’re writing on the spot based on what we hear and then keeping these
companies going to produce the kinds of parts that we need.”
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12. Top Marine ‘signaling’ to industry that F-35 cuts are on the table
Defense News Online, Apr. 1 (1713) | Aaron Mehta
WASHINGTON -- The top officer in the U.S. Marine Corps is sticking to the planned procurement of
the F-35 joint strike fighter — but indicated a willingness to cut planes in the future if analysis says it
makes sense.
Marine Commandant Gen. David Berger told reporters Wednesday that he is a firm believer in the
capabilities the F-35 is bringing, in particular the jump-jet B model favored by the service. However,
Berger made it clear he’s not wedded to long-term procurement plans, at a time the corps is shedding
legacy missions as it pivots to focus to a primarily naval-focused service.
“Right now, the program of record plows ahead as it is,” he said. “But I’m signaling to the industry, we
have to be prepared to adjust as the operating environment adjusts. Right now, the program of record
stays the same, but we will — we must — adapt to the adversary and we must adapt to the operating
environment that we’re challenged with being in.”
Berger noted that an upcoming independent review of his force posture plans, expected to be
completed in the next few months, could be a forcing function for more changes. Already, his planning
guidance to the corps changed how many planes are featured in each F-35 squad, from 16 to 10.
Longstanding plans call for the Marines to procure 353 of the F-35B and 67 of the F-35C carrier variants.
“There’s nothing like it,” Berger said of the jet. “The F-35B, the ability to operate from austere airfields
and ships both, [is] incredible. In wargames, it’s one of the handful of capabilities that really caused an
adversary problems, because it is so flexible, it’s deployable ashore or from ship. Gamechanger is sort
of an overused phrase, but I’m a huge advocate of the F-35 and its capabilities.”
Broadly speaking, Berger said, what will drive how many F-35s are in a squadron going forward, or
how many the Corps eventually buys, comes down to maintenance — a longstanding issue for the
stealthy jet.
“If the maintenance readiness of the F-35 proves to be very, very strong, then of course, like any other
system you need less of them because more of them are up all the time. On the other hand, if it turns
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out not to be so, then you’re going to need more of them, to account for the ones that are in repair, that
are down right now,” he said.
Complicating that issue is what he called the “unique” supply chain for the jet, which in theory lets parts
flow in from all over the world, as opposed to the traditional U.S. based supply.
“In all aspects, we absolutely know we will learn along the way, and if its appropriate we will make
adjustments” to either the squad level or the overall buy, Berger said. “But it’s not a lack of confidence
in the airframe at all.”
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PERSONNEL
13. Army Tests New Virus-Resistant Protocols for Shipping Recruits to Training
Military.com, Apr. 1 (1710) | Matthew Cox
U.S. Army officials tested procedures for sterilized trainee transport Tuesday by moving hundreds of
new soldiers in two caravans of disinfected buses to advanced individual training bases in an effort to
protect the service’s training installations from exposure to the novel coronavirus.
About 800 soldiers traveled in 32 clean buses from Basic Combat Training (BCT) at Fort Jackson,
South Carolina, to Fort Lee, Virginia, while another group of sterile buses transported new soldiers from
Fort Sill, Oklahoma, to Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas.
Transporting hundreds of new soldiers each week between training bases was routine until the COVID-
19 pandemic exploded across the country.
Now, the Army’s Center for Initial Military Training (CIMT) has had to charter special buses, wipe down
every surface that people come in contact with, and travel without stopping to keep trainees in a
protective bubble, Maj. Gen. Lonnie Hibbard, commander of CIMT, told Military.com on Wednesday.
“We did two tests yesterday, so we not only did Fort Jackson to Fort Lee with my logisticians, we also
went from Fort Sill to San Antonio,” Hibbard said, adding that the buses that travel to Fort Sam Houston
carried Army medics.
“It was our test-run of it all just to make sure we could do it ... and we are making sure all the procedures
were correct,” he said.
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CIMT officials could not provide details on how many trainees traveled from Sill to Sam Houston by
press time.
The effort called for contracting buses with restrooms on board to avoid stops along the way, Hibbard
said.
To practice social distancing, the Army put only 25 soldiers on each of the 50-passenger buses from
Jackson, so it required twice as many vehicles for each transport, Hibbard said.
“Even though they came from a protected bubble, they were still abiding by the same social-distancing
rules,” he said. “We screened the drivers, we disinfected the buses ... we screened all the trainees
before they got on the bus. In addition to the questions about, ‘how are you feeling,’ we took their
temperatures, and we recorded it on a form that every trainee had. They signed it, and their drill
sergeant signed it. We put them on the bus with their kit and then moved them out without stopping.”
The test runs were the latest measures the Army has launched to keep from shutting down its initial-
entry training operation as COVID-19 threatens to paralyze the United States for at least several more
months.
“The generation of soldiers for our Army is critical because the challenge is we don’t know how long
this is going to take,” Hibbard said.
He said he has confidence in the extensive amount of safeguards already in place but conceded that
“it’s a matter of time. COVID will get into the training base.”
An Army spokeswoman declined to say whether there had been any positive cases of COVID-19 at
initial military training, citing DoD guidance prohibiting units of commands from releasing aggregate
case numbers.
To control the possible spread of the highly contagious virus, CIMT has completely revamped its
procedures for processing, housing and training new soldiers.
Trainees are screened 14 days out and then 96 hours, 72 hours and 24 hours from shipping to BCT.
They then have their temperatures taken and are screened by medical personnel at military entrance
processing stations, or MEPS.
“They climb on disinfected buses that the MEPS contracted, using social distancing rules by using twice
the number of buses than normal, and they move from the MEPS to the reception battalions,” Hibbard
said, describing how they are screened again upon arrival at the Army’s initial training bases.
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The service has also cut the number of trainees it is shipping each week from about 1,200 to about 600
per week to allow trainees to be spaced farther apart in the barracks.
“At Fort Jackson, our barracks are 60-man, open-bay barracks ... and like this week, we only put 22
per barracks room, so that we can now go every other bunk top to bottom to ensure we are maximizing
social distancing in the barracks,” Hibbard said. “In the event we were to get a positive COVID-19 case
now in a platoon, we are only isolating with the minimum number of people.”
Army initial training centers have also started a 14-day “controlled monitoring” phase of BCT, where
groups of up to 30 new trainees are kept separate from other trainees in case any of them develop
COVID-19 symptoms in that time period, Hibbard said.
“So, if somebody does happen to become symptomatic ... we immediately move them to quarantine,”
he said. “The goal is, once that 14-day controlled monitoring is complete, they enter now into the bubble
of basic training, where we are pretty well assured that they are COVID-19 free.”
During the 14-day period, trainees stay with the same three drill sergeants and focus on fitness training
and classroom-style training that is traditionally spread throughout BCT, Hibbard said.
“So that way, we are keeping them mentally and physically engaged. They still have leadership, but we
are minimizing risk to the lowest possible level,” he added.
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14. DoD’s coronavirus cases are rising on par with the rest of the U.S., death toll now at five
Military Times Online, Apr. 1 (1312) | Meghann Myers
As the U.S. has continued to see confirmed COVID-19 cases jump roughly 20,000 a day this week, the
Defense Department is seeing similar growth, between 10 and 15 percent daily, according to the
Pentagon’s Wednesday numbers update.
While the military’s overall infection rate is substantially lower than the general population, according
to Pentagon data that includes active duty, Reserve and National Guard cases, troops continue to
contract coronavirus.
“During these times, it is important that we minimize person-to-person interaction and practice social
distancing, whenever possible,” Defense Secretary Mark Esper wrote in a memo to the force signed
Friday. “I know this can be challenging in certain situations, as every unit, installation, and mission is
unique.”
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The rate of service member infection stands at 367-per-million, versus the overall U.S. rate of 500-per-
million, per the latest Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.
While U.S. hot spots include New York City, the Bay Area, Los Angeles and New Orleans, due to
operational security concerns, the Pentagon has tamped down on mapping out COVID-19 clusters.
“Unit-level readiness data for key military forces is information that is classified as a risk to operational
security and could jeopardize operations and/or deterrence,” Farah told Military Times on Thursday,
several days before the department ordered that only the services publicly release data on coronavirus
cases, cutting off individual installations and combatant commands from sharing their numbers.
Though numbers showing where the infection rate is growing or where it might be tapering off
aren’t releasable, cases have been reported above two aircraft carriers, the Army’s most populated
post Fort Bragg, North Carolina as well as three basic training posts and other far-flung
installations from South Korea to Germany.
DoD’s death rate also continues to be lower, at 0.2 percent, compared with the U.S.’s 1.7 percent. Five
percent of infected DoD personnel are hospitalized, while 4 percent have made a full recovery 57
cases so far.
The death toll as of Wednesday increased by one, to five, according to a Pentagon media release, the
latest being an unnamed civilian. A National Guardsman, one German Army civilian, one Army
dependent and one Pentagon contractor have also died.
“Do not crowd large groups of people into confined spaces for meetings or briefings; conduct tasks
such as physical training and maintenance in small groups; and use teleworking and other virtual tools
to enable staff work, when possible,” Esper wrote in his guidance. “I trust our commanders around the
world to make the best decisions for their troops as they balance mission requirements with force health
protection.”
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EXECUTIVE/LEGISLATIVE
15. Four candidates vie to be military’s next spy chief
The Pentagon is in the final stages of selecting a new military intelligence chief, two people
familiar with the process told POLITICO
Politico Online, Apr. 1 (1817) | Martin Matishak
The Pentagon is in the final stages of selecting a new military intelligence chief, two people familiar with
the process told POLITICO.
The military branches months ago submitted their candidates to replace Defense Intelligence Agency
chief Army Lt. Gen. Robert Ashley — who is expected to retire this fall after a traditional three-year term
as director — to Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence Joseph Kernan.
The four candidates are: Air Force Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse, Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Michael Groen,
Army Lt. Gen. Scott Berrier, and Navy Rear Adm. Trey Whitworth.
The officers have since been vetted by Kernan’s shop and forwarded to Defense Secretary Mark Esper
and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley, according to one of the people, who spoke on the
condition of anonymity.
Esper, after receiving input from the U.S. intelligence community, will then make his choice and share
the recommendation with the White House — although the exact timeline remains fluid as the Defense
Department reels from the coronavirus pandemic.
A DoD spokesperson referred comment about the process and the candidates to DIA, which declined
to comment.
The selection will be made as President Donald Trump takes aggressive steps to reshape an
intelligence community that he has often openly mocked and warred with, replacing veteran operatives
with people considered to be loyalists.
In February, the president replaced acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire with U.S.
Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell, who previously had not served in any U.S. intelligence
agency. The abrupt change set off more personnel moves that have prompted fears among career
clandestine officials of a broader loyalty purge.
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The Pentagon hasn’t been immune. Last month, POLITICO reported that the White House is holding
up Kathryn Wheelbarger’s nomination to become Kernan’s No. 2 because administration officials
believe she hasn’t been sufficiently loyal to Trump.
The moves are concerning to current and former defense officials, who believe the selection of a new
military spy chief will now have to undergo a political test.
“The fact is, ultimately, it's a presidential decision and a presidential appointment,” a former senior
defense official told POLITICO. “I would hope that those advising him, and then the senior officials in
DoD and in the intelligence community, focus on ‘best athlete.’”
“You need a professional. You need somebody that understands intelligence, that is experienced in it,
and who will speak truth to power.”
The next director will be responsible for overseeing an agency with about 17,000 employees spread
across 140 countries, and which has been examined by both Pentagon brass and lawmakers over
concerns that an accumulated glut of responsibilities has distracted from DIA’s mission of providing
military intelligence.
Here is more information on the candidates:
Air Force Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse is the director for Defense Intelligence Warfighter Support, an
organization under Kernan’s office. He served as head of intelligence at U.S. Indo-Pacific Command,
a role that could help his chances as the Pentagon carries out the administration’s strategy against
China and Russia.
Another factor that could boost Kruse’s candidacy is the concept of “service equity” — namely that the
armed branches get turns filling significant general officer assignments. DIA hasn’t had an Air Force
chief since James Clapper from 1992 to 1995.
Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Michael Groen is the deputy chief of Computer Network Operations at the
National Security Agency. Prior to joining NSA, he served in two high-profile posts: head of intelligence
for the Joint Staff and for the Marine Corps.
Army Lt. Gen. Scott Berrier is the deputy chief of staff for Army intelligence. He has held a variety of
intelligence roles during his military career, including multiple stints in Afghanistan.
Navy Rear Adm. Trey Whitworth is the Joint Staff’s director of intelligence. His official biography shows
a lengthy list of tours at multiple organizations, including U.S. Africa and Central commands, as well as
NSA.
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Yet while Whitworth’s assignments are impressive, they don’t align well with the administration’s great
power competition strategy, one person familiar with the process warned.
“If I were betting, I would say it would be Kruse,” the person told POLITICO, citing his recent regional
expertise and his familiarity with the defense intelligence enterprise. The two-star is “politically savvy”
and “knows what’s needed to modernize.”
The former senior defense official declined to guess who might get the nod, calling all four “stellar
candidates.”
“They have all led large organizations. They all have a war zone experience. They've all served in
combatant commands,” the former official said. “The intelligence community and DoD are pretty
fortunate to be able to have that stiff of competition for a director.”
The two people familiar with the process and the former defense official all said they expect Esper to
make an announcement later this spring or over the summer — though the coronavirus pandemic might
end up delaying things, including Ashley’s retirement and congressional consideration of his successor.
“You want to give enough time for the Senate to do its due diligence and execute its process before
the August recess,” the former official told POLITICO. “If you don't get it by then, you hope when they
come back in September that they're able to take up the military nominations. But it being an election
year, the Hill turns into a ghost town come early October.”
The former official expressed confidence Esper can keep the White House from exerting political
influence over the military appointment.
“I hope so," this person said.
RETURN TO TOP
GREAT POWER COMPETITION
16. China Concealed Extent of Virus Outbreak, U.S. Intelligence Says
Bloomberg News, Apr. 1 (2108) | Nick Wadhams and Jennifer Jacobs
China has concealed the extent of the coronavirus outbreak in its country, under-reporting both total
cases and deaths it’s suffered from the disease, the U.S. intelligence community concluded in a
classified report to the White House, according to three U.S. officials.
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The officials asked not to be identified because the report is secret, and they declined to detail its
contents. But the thrust, they said, is that China’s public reporting on cases and deaths is intentionally
incomplete. Two of the officials said the report concludes that China’s numbers are fake.
The report was received by the White House last week, one of the officials said.
The outbreak began in China’s Hubei province in late 2019, but the country has publicly reported only
about 82,000 cases and 3,300 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. That
compares to more than 189,000 cases and more than 4,000 deaths in the U.S., which has the largest
publicly reported outbreak in the world.
Trump said Wednesday that China’s reported virus data appear to be on the “light side” but that he
hadn’t received an intelligence report saying the country had concealed the extent of its outbreak.
“Their numbers seem to be a little bit on the light side, and I’m being nice when I say that,” he said at a
daily coronavirus briefing at the White House.
Trump added that the U.S. and China were in constant communication and that Beijing would spend
$250 billion to purchase American products. “We’d like to keep it, they’d like to keep it” he said of the
U.S.-China trade deal.
Communications staff at the White House and the Chinese embassy in Washington didn’t immediately
respond to requests for comment.
‘More Forthcoming’
“The reality is that we could have been better off if China had been more forthcoming,” Vice President
Mike Pence said Wednesday on CNN. “What appears evident now is that long before the world learned
in December that China was dealing with this, and maybe as much as a month earlier than that, that
the outbreak was real in China.
While China eventually imposed a strict lockdown beyond those of less autocratic nations, there has
been considerable skepticism toward China’s reported numbers, both outside and within the country.
The Chinese government has repeatedly revised its methodology for counting cases, for weeks
excluding people without symptoms entirely, and only on Tuesday added more than 1,500
asymptomatic cases to its total.
Stacks of thousands of urns outside funeral homes in Hubei province have driven public doubt in
Beijing’s reporting.
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Republican lawmakers in the U.S. have been particularly harsh about China’s role in the outbreak.
Enhancing Beijing’s role in the pandemic could be politically helpful to President Donald Trump, who
has sought to shift blame for the U.S. outbreak away from his administration’s delays in achieving
widespread testing for the virus and mobilizing greater production of supplies such as face masks and
hospital ventilators.
“The claim that the United States has more coronavirus deaths than China is false,” Senator Ben Sasse,
a Nebraska Republican, said in a statement after Bloomberg News published its report. “Without
commenting on any classified information, this much is painfully obvious: The Chinese Communist
Party has lied, is lying, and will continue to lie about coronavirus to protect the regime.”
Deborah Birx, the State Department immunologist advising the White House on its response to the
outbreak, said Tuesday that China’s public reporting influenced assumptions elsewhere in the world
about the nature of the virus.
“The medical community made -- interpreted the Chinese data as: This was serious, but smaller than
anyone expected,” she said at a news conference on Tuesday. “Because I think probably we were
missing a significant amount of the data, now that what we see happened to Italy and see what
happened to Spain.”
Suspect Reporting
The U.S. intelligence community’s conclusion is an attempt to divert attention from surging deaths in
the U.S. and other Western countries, Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief of China’s state-run Global Times, said
on his account on Chinese social media platform Weibo.
There was no way for serious data faking to occur in today’s China, especially for an incident that has
drawn such widespread attention, Hu said. He said China managed to curtail the death toll in Hubei,
the province where the virus first emerged late last year, by sending medical workers and equipment
there from other parts of the country.
“To fake the casualty data, which departments will be deployed? Who will implement