Weekly Recon – Multi-Domain Updates

Good Saturday morning and welcome to Weekly Recon. On this day in 1987, in a dramatic turnaround, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev indicates that he is willing to negotiate a ban on intermediate-range nuclear missiles without conditions. Gorbachev’s decision paved the way for the groundbreaking Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty with the United States. On July 22, 1987, Gorbachev dramatically announced that he was ready to discuss the elimination of intermediate-range missiles on a worldwide basis, with no conditions. In December 1987, during a summit in Washington, the two men signed off on the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which eliminated an entire class of nuclear weapons.

On the Ground

A new age of close-air-support is on the horizon, and it is taking shape in the New Mexico desert. This week Sierra Nevada’s A-29 Super Tucano and Textron Industries AT-6 Wolverine were in the air, being flown by U.S. Air Force pilots that will be putting the planes through a series of tests to evaluate their capabilities as close-air-support platforms as part of the OA-X experiment, which is set to begin next month. A later portion of the experiment will include Textron’s jet entry for the experiment, the Scorpion. The Super Tucano, Wolverine, Scorpion, and a fourth entrant, the Air Tractor AT-802U, will compete in a multitude of combat scenarios, such as: “such as close air support, air interdiction, combat search and rescue and strike coordination and reconnaissance.” Although this test shows promise for the future of lower-end close-air-support, the Air Force signaled this week that a replacement for the A-10 Warthog may no longer be in the works.

Maritime Matters

The first of class USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) will be commissioned today. Although the “goddam steam” won’t be on hand, President Trump will be in Norfolk to welcome the ship into the fleet. If you would like to tune into the festivities, DVIDS is hosting a live stream that begins at 0955 EST. However, even as the ship prepares to set sail, it still has many problems that the crew is still figuring out. Problems extend beyond CVN 78 to the other ships of the Ford-class. Next to commission will be the USS John F. Kennedy (CVN 79). Kris Osborn at Scout Warrior reported last month that the Kennedy is now 50 percent structurally completed. A recent Government Accountability Officer report claims, however, that the ship is likely to run over its $14.1 billion budget by the time the ship commissions. These are troubling signs for the program as planning for construction of the third Ford-class carrier, the USS Enterprise (CVN 80), was kicked off this week when Huntington Ingalls Industries was awarded a $148.7 million contract to begin work on the ship.

Space Wars

SpaceX is preparing to launch the first of its new class rockets later this year, which will be a ‘souped up’ version of the existing Falcon9 design. Dubbed the ‘Falcon Heavy,’ the craft will triple the number of engines and add two external boosters to an existing Falcon9 rocket. SpaceX’s founder and chief Elon Musk acknowledges that the first test runs a great risk of failure. This new rocket could be a potential contracting boon for SpaceX as it competes with United Launch Alliance for government dollars. That will all rely on how successful tests of the rocket are, of course.

The Fifth Domain

U.S. Cyber Command is ever closer to becoming an independent combatant command. Its material divorce from the National Security Agency is all but certain to happen, and an announcement of a decision on the matter is expected in the coming weeks. Separating CYBERCOM from NSA could present a series of challenges for the military, however. The NSA provides the bulk CYBERCOM’s support under the current structure, and separating the two entities could strain that relationship. If CYBERCOM is not as self-sufficient as policymakers believe it to be, it could experience some growing pains at the start. In the meantime, the military is stepping up recruiting of cyber talent as the fifth domain becomes increasingly important to the American way of war. RealClearDefense’s Sandra Erwin sat down this week with Lt. Gen. Paul M. Nakasone, commander of U.S. Army Cyber Command, to discuss his organization's efforts to recruit new talent. Nakasone notes that the military “find[s] a lot of interest in what the DoD is doing” because it does” some interesting things” and has “some unique authorities.” However, at the end of the day, the military is “looking for talent just like everyone else.” The competition for talent between the private sector, the military, and other government agencies will continue to be a challenge for the foreseeable future.

SEND RCD YOUR INPUT: Please send your tips, suggestions, and feedback to editors@realcleardefense.com. Make sure to follow us on Twitter at @RCDefenseand follow Blake Baiers @BlakeBaiers