Fort Jackson Supports Local Community With COVID-19 Testing

Aug. 6, 2020 | BY Alexandra Shea , Fort Jackson

Fort Jackson, South Carolina, supported the Midlands' pandemic efforts by hosting drive-thru COVID-19 testing just outside of the post's Palmetto Falls Water Park.

Historically, the installation provides millions of dollars to the local economy when thousands of family members flock to the post each week to witness Basic Combat Training graduations. Fort Jackson trains roughly 50% of all soldiers and more than 60% of all women entering the Army each year.

Army Training Center and Fort Jackson Commander Brig. Gen. Milford H. "Beags" Beagle Jr. recently spoke with Columbia Mayor Stephen K. Benjamin regarding COVID-19 mobile testing opportunities on Fort Jackson. They agreed that hosting a mobile testing site would help reduce stress for off-post testing sites and ensure accurate testing results to help battle and contain the spread of the virus.

"We are all-in to be good community partners," Beagle said.

The post coordinated with the Medical University of South Carolina, to offer those with access to the installation two days of testing free of charge. Roughly 800 total tests were administered at the event. MUSC supplied the medical providers and resources for its mobile testing site.

Fort Jackson currently allows retirees, veterans with Veteran Health identification cards and their beneficiaries to access installation only on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Friday and Saturday to help protect soldiers from virus exposure, as part of a "protective bubble," officials said.

Each day of testing was geared for specific groups. Testing was held for soldiers, their family members and the civilian workforce July 8, and testing was available for others with installation access July 10.

"It's extremely important for [retirees and beneficiaries] to come on and get tested," Beagle said. "It's not a 'me' thing, it's a 'we' thing. We need to do the right thing so that we can help protect others."

Trainees were not tested at the mobile sites. Each trainee is tested and quarantined for 14 days upon their arrival to Fort Jackson as they in-process at the installation.

The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control has reported a surge in positive test results in the state the past month. DHEC also recently stated that asymptomatic patients, or those who have the virus but show no or minimal virus signs and symptoms, are also on the rise.

"About 20% testing positive for coronavirus are symptomatic," said Dr. Curtis Franke, president of Doctors Care, the firm that performed the testing for MUSC. He added that about 7-10% of positive tests at similar events across the state are asymptomatic.

People tested at the mobile testing site were able to access their test results online in five to seven days through a link provided by email during the application process. All participants who tested positive were contacted directly by MUSC staff.

Aerial Refueling Crews Stay Safe Amid COVID-19

Aug. 6, 2020 | BY Air Force Senior Airman Mary Begy

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the 507th Operations Group at Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma, has ensured that aircrew members and maintainers stay safe by implementing new operating standards for daily missions refueling aircraft from Alaska to Texas.

Air Force Col. Kenneth Humphrey, 507th Operations Group commander, said the ability to conduct the refueling mission is integral to the nation's defense. However, the concerns over COVID-19 and its tendency to spread in close quarters prompted the 507th OG to adapt.

"Human nature and the closeness of our personnel make it difficult to ensure proper safeguard measures are adhered to in the aircraft, briefing rooms and crew transportation," Humphrey said. "The aircraft poses multiple challenges due to the close confines and required interaction of personnel."

With the help of the 507th Air Refueling Wing safety office, the Air Force Reserve Command logistics directorate, and mission partners at the 730th Air Mobility Training Squadron at Altus Air Force Base, Oklahoma, the operations group implemented new flight operating standards to ensure a clean and safe environment to meet mission requirements.

Rigorous sanitizing measures and the use of personal protective equipment were put in place. The new procedures include wearing masks, minimizing nonessential crew contact during preflight inspections and limiting the number of personnel on board the aircraft to reduce the chances of exposure. 

"Contamination across the flight line can easily be spread across the base and city," Humphrey said. "Our [U.S. Strategic Command] and conventional missions remain a top priority. Additional crews have been designated and assigned that could be used in the event primary aircrew come down with the virus."

Pilot and crew training and currency requirements are a priority. The ability to adapt and overcome has facilitated the ops group's ability to maintain readiness. "Our local flying schedule has been sufficient to meet these requirements ensuring we have safe, qualified aircrew to perform the mission and keep the jets flying," Humphrey added.

Air Force Col. Miles Heaslip, 507th ARW commander, said he thinks the members of the wing have done an outstanding job making sure all missions run safely and effectively. "The measures implemented by the ops group once again prove we can overcome anything," he said.

(Air Force Senior Airman Mary Begy is assigned to the 507th Air Refueling Wing.)

CIO Says Top-Level Leadership Helped DOD Navigate COVID Crisis

Aug. 6, 2020 | BY C. Todd Lopez , DOD News

Clear guidance early on from Defense Secretary Dr. Mark T. Esper ensured the Defense Department would be able to continue operating through the COVID-19 crisis, the department's chief information officer said.

''Our secretary of defense did a great job of making it perfectly clear what his expectations were,'' Dana Deasy said yesterday during a discussion with Martin Giles of the Forbes media company. ''Very early on, he said, 'Protect our employees.' I took that to mean from an IT standpoint that anybody and everybody who needed to work outside their normal environment could do that without any failure. Failure was never going to be an option for us.''

Esper also emphasized that the mission must be protected as well and that the department could not fail in its responsibility to protect the United States, Deasy said.

''That means Protect our country,''' Deasy said. ''That means anywhere around the world, any mission that needed to be done, there could be no interruption. From a technology standpoint, that simply meant [that] while we were driving a lot of people outside the Pentagon and to home, we need to somehow to make sure those same people that were now working from home were going to be able to support the mission.''

Protecting the workforce and keeping the mission on track involved significant involvement from the CIO workforce — in particular, with implementing telework capability to a large number of employees, Deasy said.

Before COVID-19, he said, about 80,000 to 90,000 people per day were teleworking across the department. The numbers of people who would need to be able to work from home once COVID restrictions were put in place weren't known at the time, the CIO noted. ''We now know it was a 10 times growth,'' he said. ''We are supporting somewhere between 1 and 1.2 million people concurrently, all working from home at the same time.''

A big part of making that happen, Deasy said, was the department's implementation of the  ''Commercial Virtual Remote'' tool, which allows teleworking employees to form teams and collaborate online. Within two weeks, he said, about a quarter million employees were connected with the CVR. Within 90 days, he said, that was up to a million. 

The defense secretary also emphasized the department's commitment to contribute to the whole-of-government effort to combat COVID-19, Deasy said.  From the CIO's perspective, that involved providing IT and networking support to a variety of missions, including the Army Corps of Engineers setting up field hospitals in convention centers, National Guard efforts in local communities, and Navy hospital ships in New York and Los Angeles.

Deasy also discussed efforts to evaluate how the department's digital modernization strategy might be accepted by the DOD workforce — in particular, the service members at the tactical edge who might be affected by changes.

The department's digital modernization strategy touches on cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and cloud computing. All are common factors in similar modernization plans for private-sector companies, but Deasy pointed out that a unique focus of DOD's strategy is command, control and communications, or C3.

''What I think was quite fascinating was how we went about actually testing whether that strategy was going to make sense to the warfighter,'' he said. 

In his first six months as the CIO, Deasy said, he traveled to Afghanistan to meet with warfighters and commanders who might be most affected by DOD's digital modernization strategy. 

''I [talked with] the warfighters that were going out every night on a mission — whether that was to a village, whether it was in caves, the side of the mountain — and actually have them show me how they were using the stuff we were putting into our digital modernization strategy,'' he said.

Service members are not shy about sharing their opinions, Deasy said, and they made it clear the strategy was good.

''They're very clear to tell you how they feel about your digital monetization,'' he said. ''They were in environments where they were constantly getting degraded, they were getting denied by the adversary. So the C3 strategy was actually validated by looking about what you could and could not do.''

Field Training

U.S. Military Academy cadets learn how to conduct fire missions during field training at West Point, N.Y., July 21, 2020.

Chopper Formation

A Marine Corps AH-1Z Viper, Navy MH-60R Seahawk and two MH-60S Seahawks conduct amphibious task force training during Exercise Trident Storm at San Clemente Island, Calif., July 30, 2020. During Trident Storm, Marines worked alongside their Navy counterparts focusing on long-range strikes and air-to-ground support.

Crew View

Marine Corps Sgt. Tanner Olsen, a helicopter crew chief, observes his surroundings during Exercise Trident Storm at Marine Corps Air Station Camp Pendleton, Calif., July 30, 2020. During Trident Storm, Marines worked alongside their Navy counterparts focusing on long-range strikes and air-to-ground support.

Live Fire

Soldiers fire at targets during a live-fire training at Grafenwoehr Training Area, Germany, July 31, 2020.

DOD Awards $104 Million for Procurement of Syringes in Support of U.S. COVID-19 Vaccination Campaign

Aug. 5, 2020

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On August 4, the Department of Defense’s (DOD) Joint Acquisition Task Force (JATF), in support of the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Strategic National Stockpile (SNS), awarded $104 million in contracts to procure syringes and safety needles, enabling the nationwide administration of a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved COVID-19 vaccine, once one is available. The syringes and safety needles are critical to the nation’s COVID-19 vaccination strategy, providing a total of 500 million safety syringes over a 12-month period, with more than 134 million of the total number delivered by the end of 2020.

The syringes and safety needles will be placed into the SNS so they will be readily available to quickly and efficiently vaccinate the U.S. population once a safe and efficacious COVID-19 vaccine is developed. This procurement is the latest in a series of recent contracts highlighting a collaborative “whole-of-government” approach in response to the COVID-19 threat.

The Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Defense (JPEO-CBRND) partnered with HHS and the Army Contracting Command – Aberdeen Proving Ground (ACC-APG), to select and award contracts to six companies: Duopross Meditech Corporation ($48 million), Cardinal Health Inc. ($15 million), Gold Coast Medical Supply, LP ($14 million), HTL STREFA Inc. ($12 million), Quality Impact, Inc. ($9 million), and Medline Industries, Inc. ($6 million). The companies represent a mix of large and small medical product manufacturers and distributors.

“This effort demonstrates skillful collaboration between the interagency and our industry partners, and moves the nation farther forward in its fight against COVID-19,” said Joint Program Executive Officer for Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Defense, Douglas Bryce. “Immediate procurement and prepositioning of syringes will enable rapid vaccination of the U.S. population once an FDA-approved vaccine becomes available. We are pleased to be part of this unprecedented and critical undertaking.”

This CARES Act funded effort is part of the ongoing collaboration between DOD and HHS to support replenishment of the SNS with critical medical resources.

Esper Discusses COVID-19, Inclusion, National Defense Strategy

Aug. 5, 2020 | BY TERRI MOON CRONK , DOD News

Defense Secretary Dr. Mark T. Esper discussed the National Defense Strategy and U.S. great-power competition, the challenges COVID-19 brought to the Defense Department and his initiatives on diversity and inclusion in a virtual address to the Aspen Security Conference.

"When I was confirmed over a year ago, … one of the things I made clear is my top priority would be implementing the National Defense Strategy," the secretary said in today's remarks. "As you know, the NDS says we are now in an era of great power competition, [and] our chief competitors are China and Russia, in that order."

A second tier of countries must be addressed, he added, such as North Korea and Iran, and the enduring threat of violent extremist organizations also figures into the equation. 

Since Esper took office, DOD has been moving out for nearly 13 months in terms of implementing the NDS and its three lines of effort: 

1 To build a lethal and ready force;

2 To continue to strengthen U.S. alliances and to build partners; and

3 To reform the department and find greater efficiency.

"I translate that into freeing up time, money and manpower to put into other priorities," the secretary explained, noting that he and his leadership team came up with 10 goals to guide DOD over successive months:

1 To review, update and approve all of DOD's China and Russia plans;

2 To implement immediate response force contingency and dynamic force employment and enhanced readiness;

3 To reallocate, reassign and redeploy forces in accordance with the NDS;

4 To achieve a higher level of sustainable readiness;

5 To develop a coordinated plan to strengthen allies and build partners,

6 To reform and manage the Fourth Estate, those DOD agencies and organizations that are not part of the services;

7 To focus DOD on China;

8 To modernize the force with game-changing technologies;

9 To establish realistic war games and exercises in training; and

10 To develop a modern, joint warfighting concept and, ultimately, a doctrine.

"We've made considerable progress on those 10 objectives," Esper said. "Our goal was to complete many of them this year, and we're on  track."

One of the challenges DOD has faced over the previous seven months is the impact of COVID-19, which hit the department in January, the secretary said. 

"I've been tracking this since mid-January, and the department received its first U.S. citizens from China in late January," he said. DOD put its global defense plan into effect Feb. 1.

"We've been at this for seven months, and I'm really proud of the Department of Defense," Esper said. "I think at our high point, there were over 60,000 service members on the streets of America, in many of the hot spots — particularly the National Guard — whether it was medical professionals helping out in hospitals to [those] distributing supplies." 

"I'm very proud of what the United States military did — often putting themselves at risk," the secretary said.

And during that challenging time, the secretary outlined three priorities: to take care of DOD's people and their families, ensure the department could maintain our readiness to execute the national security mission and to support the whole-of-government effort. 

On top of that, he noted, DOD dealt with civil unrest in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. "Our service members again did extremely well in serving their state governors … making sure that Americans had the right to exercise their First Amendment right of freedom of speech and assembling to protest, and to do that peacefully, so I've been very proud of our Guard in that manner," Esper said.

The civil unrest led the secretary to pursue three initiatives to address racial discrimination, diversity and inclusion in the military ranks.

"Clearly, while the U.S. military has been a leader in dealing with discrimination in its ranks and making sure it is not part and parcel of our force, we are not immune to what's happening in broader society, so we're taking a number of actions to do that for two reasons," the secretary said.

"First, it's the right thing to do. But secondly, it's important to our readiness," he said. "We need to be able to recruit the best and the brightest and to make sure they all feel respected, regarded and have all the opportunities that everybody else does in our force. And that applies not just to persons of color, but to ethnic differences, gender, sexual orientation, you name it. We want to represent the American people that we've sworn an oath to protect and defend."

DOD is focused inward and is helping inward and at the same time, maintaining its national security capabilities and defending the country, Esper said. "And we see that as our top priority," he added, "and [we] are committed to continue to do so as we move forward."

Okinawa Reception Center Welcomes Marines, Sailors Despite Pandemic

Aug. 5, 2020 | BY MARINE CORPS LANCE CPL. KARIS MATTINGLY

Although many of the usual services across Marine Corps camps on Okinawa, Japan, have stopped and resumed based on the COVID-19 climate, the Joint Reception Center has continued to be a 365 day, 24/7 operation.

''It's a challenge,'' said Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Preston Batson, the assistant barracks manager for the Joint Reception Center Marines. New Marines are required to fulfill a 14-day restriction-of-movement order when they arrive on Okinawa. ''The JRC staff and I are always on the go,'' Batson said. ''While we wear masks and stay 6 feet apart, there's always a chance to be exposed to COVID-19. We are surrounded by Marines new to the island who have executed the 14-day restriction of movement and Marines whose flight has just landed to Okinawa.''

Despite COVID-19 restrictions, JRC Marines have continued to assist hundreds of accompanied and unaccompanied service members with their overseas transition.

New, unaccompanied Marines who are E-5 and below and ''greenside'' sailors — Navy personnel attached to a Marine Corps unit — step off the Patriot Express into the Kadena Air Base terminal to be greeted by the JRC staff. Batson, eager to welcome the Marines and sailors, helps facilitate the process of checking in the Marines and ensuring their well-being.

''Our job is continuous,'' said Batson, also a driver for JRC. ''We live with the JRC Marines, so when we go home we are still with them — always on call.''

Though all inbound personnel to Okinawa must comply with the 14-day restriction of movement, the JRC staff helps ensure their safety by conducting wellness checks three times a day, bringing meals to them and ensuring cleanliness.

''On average, we have 60 or more Marines and sailors in both barracks,'' said Batson. ''COVID-19 has not stopped JRC; we have only adjusted what we do.''

After the 14-day ROM cycle, the Marines execute their week-long orientation to the island. Before the pandemic, the JRC Marines had classes every day, and, toward the end of the week, they would visit Hacksaw Ridge. Health protection condition restrictions limit the staff to teaching only the most vital classes. Under current conditions, the battle site tours have been suspended.

''COVID-19 has put a hold on some of the things we do, but we always adapt and overcome,'' said Marine Corps Cpl. Daniel Chavez, a troop handler with JRC. ''It's kept us on our toes, and we adjusted, as needed, to continue helping the Marines in JRC.''

With COVID-19 still prevalent, it has caused an adjustment to the organization and procedures of JRC; however, the staff has worked hard to overcome and push forward.

''There is a lounge for the JRC Marines to interact with one another — of course, staying 6 feet apart and wearing a mask,'' Batson said. ''There is a TV, video games, board games and books for them to use. The biggest thing is to make sure they are OK. I don't like to see a Marine sad. I want to do everything I can to make them smile and know we are here for them.''

The JRC staff helps establish principles for other noncommissioned officers to uphold when placed in a leadership position with Marines under their command.

''In a way, we are a mentor to these Marines,'' said Chavez. ''NCOs should be watching out for their Marines, making sure they get chow, and be somebody who helps with anything they need.''

The main effort of the JRC staff is to take care of every Marine and sailor who comes through the program.

''At the end of the day, it's our job as the JRC staff to make sure the new Marines and sailors are safe,'' said Batson. ''A part of keeping them safe is checking on them multiple times a day and ensuring they are healthy, physically and mentally. They are important.''

(Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Karis Mattingly is assigned to Marine Corps Installations Pacific.)

Navy Reservists Aid Front-Line Medical Staff

Aug. 5, 2020 | BY Navy Seaman Recruit Minh-Thy Chu

Navy medical reservists are helping out the medical staff at Recruit Training Command's Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center at Naval Station Great Lakes in North Chicago, Illinois, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"I'm just grateful to help during this time," said Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Jon Doliana, a hospital corpsman. Doliana was deployed to the COVID-19 respiratory clinic activated at Great Lakes.

"I love being here doing whatever the Navy needs me to do," the Nashville, Tennessee, native said.

As COVID-19 became a global concern, the Lovell Health Care Center altered many of its practices to safeguard patients and staff, but the mission didn't change. Since it was established in 2010 as the nation's first fully integrated federal health care center in support of both the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments, one of the center's main missions is medically preparing Navy recruits for military service. The pandemic has not diminished the need for military readiness and it has greatly increased the amount of medical resources needed to accomplish that goal.

On June 3, a select team of 81 Navy Reserve medical personnel mobilized to Great Lakes as part of the DOD's response to the pandemic. Reservists were deployed from their hometowns and from multiple units — including the Expeditionary Medical Facility Bethesda, Maryland, and the Naval Reserve Center Nashville, Tennessee — to augment the fleet's active-component staff. The team is led by Navy Capt. Rebecca Zornado from Oceanside, California. Teams include hospital corpsmen and members of the Medical Service Corps, Medical Corps, Nurse Corps, and other enlisted support staff, including personnel support and yeomen.

As part of the strategy to prevent the spread of COVID-19 throughout the boot camp population, the Navy restricted the off-base movement of  all Navy recruits at a nearby lodge and hotels before they began their boot camp, and the nursing staff checks the "pre-recruits" daily for COVID-19 symptoms. The screening includes an evaluation for both typical and atypical symptoms.

"It's been a huge benefit having the reservists onboard," said Navy Cmdr. (Dr.) Robert Senko, who usually is the director of primary care medicine at Lovell FHCC but has been overseeing the recruit restriction-of-movement process since it was implemented. Senko said the reservists have stepped up and taken charge of the respiratory clinics and sick call, as well as restriction-of-movement medical procedures.

The nurses assigned to the staff teams supervise the delivery of care and nasopharyngeal swabbing procedures to ensure optimal screening standards and appropriate use of personal protective equipment, which all medical staff in direct contact with recruits use. The nurse practitioners also are responsible for screening, diagnosing and treating recruits.

The extra manpower is necessary as Lovell FHCC allows more face-to-face appointments with veterans and more recruits enter the restricted-movement period.

In addition to the extra effort needed to control the spread of COVID-19, Lovell FHCC's usual recruit health and dental care mission continues. Annually, it involves about 40,000 recruits. The facility operates three RTC branch medical clinics. At USS Red Rover, recruits receive immunizations and other medical procedures before being declared fit for full duty; the USS Osborne provides a full spectrum of dental services for recruits. But the USS Tranquility is the busiest, providing services from that range from sick call to mental health care and special physicals. The reservists have lightened the load.

Each reserve team implemented standard operating procedures for health protection in their work environment, including the use of personal protective equipment.

When asked what the biggest challenge of being deployed to Great Lakes during the COVID-19 pandemic is, Navy Chief Petty Officer Lisa Tran, a hospitalman from Houston, is unequivocal.

"Keeping up with the current research, which may change the next day, and keeping our corpsmen trained on the best medicine, the best practice at the time is somewhat of a challenge," she said. "But it's nothing we can't handle."

(Navy Seaman Recruit Minh-Thy Chu is assigned to the Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center.)

Bougainville Blast

Marine Corps Pfc. Bart Bryant fires a tube-launched, optically-tracked, wireless-guided missile during at Pohakuloa Training Area, Hawaii, July 18, 2020, during Bougainville II, the second phase of a predeployment exercise designed to increase combat readiness through complex and realistic live-fire training.

HHS, DOD Collaborate With Johnson & Johnson to Produce Millions of COVID-19 Investigational Vaccine Doses

Aug. 5, 2020

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The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Department of Defense (DoD) announced an agreement with the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson, to demonstrate large-scale manufacturing and delivery of the company’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate. Under the terms of the agreement, the federal government will own the resulting 100 million doses of vaccine. 

The vaccine doses could be used in clinical trials or, if the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorizes use as outlined in agency guidance, the doses would be distributed as part of a COVID-19 vaccination campaign.

“With the portfolio of vaccines being assembled for Operation Warp Speed, the Trump Administration is increasing the likelihood that the United States will have at least one safe, effective vaccine by 2021,” said HHS Secretary Alex Azar. “Today’s investment represents the next step in supporting Janssen’s vaccine candidate all the way through manufacturing, with the potential to bring hundreds of millions of safe and effective doses to the American people.”

This manufacturing demonstration project will take place while clinical trials are underway. Working in parallel this way expedites the traditional vaccine development timeline. This step builds toward the U.S. government’s Operation Warp Speed goal to begin delivering millions of doses of safe and effective vaccines to the American people by the end of the year.

The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), part of the HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, collaborated with the DoD Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Defense and Army Contracting Command, to provide approximately $1 billion to support the manufacturing demonstration project including the ability to deliver vaccine doses to government-designated locations across the country. The government also can acquire additional doses up to a quantity sufficient to vaccinate 300 million people.

The project announced today includes fill-finish manufacturing in U.S.-based facilities. This fill-finish manufacturing step ensures vaccine doses are packaged and ready to ship immediately, subject to successful clinical trials and FDA authorization. 

If these doses are used in a COVID-19 vaccination campaign, the vaccine would be available to the American people at no cost. As is customary with government-purchased vaccines, healthcare professionals could charge for the cost of administering the vaccine.

To date, BARDA has provided approximately $456 million for clinical trials and other vaccine development activities under an existing, long-term partnership with Janssen. The company’s investigational vaccine relies on Janssen’s recombinant adenovirus technology, AdVac, a technology used to develop and manufacture Janssen’s Ebola vaccine with BARDA support; that vaccine received European Commission approval and was used in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Rwanda during the 2018-2020 Ebola outbreak that began in the DRC.

About Operation Warp Speed

OWS is a partnership among components of the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Defense, engaging with private firms and other federal agencies, and coordinating among existing HHS-wide efforts to accelerate the development, manufacturing, and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics. 

About HHS, ASPR, and BARDA: 

HHS works to enhance and protect the health and well-being of all Americans, providing for effective health and human services and fostering advances in medicine, public health, and social services. The mission of ASPR is to save lives and protect Americans from 21st century health security threats. Within ASPR, BARDA invests in the innovation, advanced research and development, acquisition, and manufacturing of medical countermeasures – vaccines, drugs, therapeutics, diagnostic tools, and non-pharmaceutical products needed to combat health security threats. To date, BARDA-supported products have achieved 55 FDA approvals, licensures or clearances. To learn more about federal support for the nationwide COVID-19 response, visit coronavirus.gov. 

About the JPEO-CBRND:

The Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Defense (JPEO-CBRND) protects the Joint Force by providing medical countermeasures and defense equipment against chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) threats. JPEO-CBRND’s goal is to enable the Joint Force to fight and win unencumbered by a CBRN environment. JPEO-CBRND facilitates the rapid response, advanced development, manufacturing and acquisition of medical solutions, such as vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics, to combat CBRN and emerging threats such as COVID-19. To learn more about JPEO-CBRND’s COVID-19 response, visit https://www.jpeocbrnd.osd.mil/coronavirus or follow JPEO-CBRND on social media at @JPEOCBRND.

Nuke Sea-Launched Cruise Missile Would Bolster Deterrence, Officials Say

Aug. 4, 2020 | BY Jim Garamone , DOD News

Developing and deploying a sea-launched nuclear cruise missile is essential to deter Russia, U.S. officials have said.

A recent State Department paper says the new weapon would help fill a gap identified in the 2018 Nuclear Posture Review.

The United States retired its last nuclear sea-launched cruise missile in 2010 — one of only two remaining U.S. theater or tactical ("non-strategic") nuclear weapons. In contrast, Russia continued a comprehensive program to modernize and expand its low-yield theater and tactical nuclear weapons. What is more disturbing, officials said, is that Russian strategy actually contemplates the use of these nuclear capabilities in conflict. 

Russian strategic thought mistakenly believes that limited nuclear first use with low-yield weapons could provide Russia with a "coercive advantage" in a conflict, the State Department paper says. 

Russia may have pursued this strategy because the United States, unlike Russia, retired most of its non-strategic nuclear systems. Russia may believe it can use theater or tactical weapons, the paper says, because the United States could not effectively respond and might be reluctant to escalate further by responding with strategic nuclear weapons.. 

The 2018 Nuclear Posture Review calls for adjustments to U.S. nuclear forces to close this perceived gap on the escalation ladder and reinforce deterrence against low-yield nuclear use, DOD officials said. 

A nuclear-armed sea-launched cruise missile would address alarming developments in the forces and doctrine of nuclear competitors, the posture review says, adding that Russia and China both are investing significant sums to improve and expand their nuclear forces with no clear indication as to where that expansion will stop. 

Russia's "adventurism" is the most immediate concern, officials said. The nation invaded Georgia in 2008 and still occupies two provinces. Russia illegally occupied Crimea in 2014 and sponsors a shooting war in the eastern part of Ukraine today. Russia has propped up the Assad regime in Syria and has prolonged the civil war in that nation. Russia has also sent forces to Libya, and Kremlin-associated contractors have seized two of its largest oil facilities. Finally, Russia has done its best to divide the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, seeking more leeway to intimidate the frontline states of Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, Bulgaria and Romania.

There are credible concerns that theater and tactical nuclear capabilities are central to a Russian approach to regional conflict that envisions the early, limited use of non-strategic nuclear weapons to end a war on terms favorable to Russia. 

"This approach may be premised on Russia's belief that its expanding anti-access/area denial networks will be able to neutralize the airborne nuclear deterrent forces of the United States and NATO," the 2018 U.S. Nuclear Posture Review concluded. "In the future, it is possible that China could adopt a similar doctrine. Developing and fielding (sea-launched cruise missile-nuclear) signal the leaders of nuclear competitors in a concrete way that the United States has the capability and will to maintain operationally effective nuclear options to deter regional aggression."

The SLCM capability could also help allay the concerns of regional allies shielded by the U.S. nuclear umbrella, officials said. 

The United States having such a capability would make any adversary think twice about using nuclear weapons. Without requiring nuclear testing or violating any treaty, the SLCM "will lower the risks of nuclear conflict, bolster the confidence of allies and restore a degree of balance in non-strategic nuclear weapons that could create conditions more conducive to addressing this category of forces through arms control," the posture review says.

Marine March

Members of "The Commandant’s Own," the U.S. Marine Drum and Bugle Corps, perform during an evening parade at Marine Barracks Washington, D.C. July 31, 2020.

Unheralded DOD Agency is Key to Building International Partners

Aug. 4, 2020 | BY JIM GARAMONE , DOD News

One crucial aspect of the National Defense Strategy is tending to and encouraging allies and partners, and the Defense Security Cooperation Agency is at the heart of that process, said Army Lt. Gen. Charles Hooper, the agency's outgoing director. 

Hooper spoke to retired Army Gen. Carter Ham recently as part of the Association of the U.S. Army's podcast series.

The agency is little known outside Washington, but its effect on allies, partners and friends around the world is profound. The agency is the Defense Department entity responsible for all security cooperation, ranging  from training to equipment to professional military education. Last year, the agency was responsible for more than $55 billion in sales under a myriad of programs, Hooper said. 

Allies and partners using U.S. military equipment makes good sense from strategic and economic viewpoints, he noted. Common equipment leads to greater interoperability. The training foreign service members receive on American equipment also builds close personnel ties. Finally, the U.S. military sales mean jobs in the United States and keeps the defense industrial base healthy.

Hooper said that over the past three years, military sales have grown 16 percent. It has accelerated because the U.S. produces the best military capabilities in the world, he added, and because of streamlining efforts by the administration and Congress.

The agency reorganized as part of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2017. Congress wanted to make the agency more efficient and effective. That legislation also created a civilian career field for security cooperation and a schoolhouse to train them. 

The administration streamlined authorities for conventional arms transfers. This served to ''compress those timelines between the identification of a capability necessary for our partners and its delivery,'' he said. 

''The third thing that really helped was the National Defense Strategy,'' he said, adding that the strategy provided ''clear guidance to me as to what my mission is, and that is to strengthen alliances and attract new partners.''

The change in strategy for the United States military to operate ''by, with and through'' local military forces also gave impetus to the agency. ''I've seen security cooperation become a policy tool of first resort,'' Hooper said. ''Often in the past, it was kind of an afterthought — we'd come up with a security policy, … we'd implement that policy towards a country or an alliance, and then as an afterthought, we consider military capabilities. But with the second line of effort in the National Defense Strategy, security cooperation has become a tool of first resort.'' 

Another change tied to the National Defense Strategy is great power competition. China and Russia are U.S. near-peer competitors, and this forced a different approach at the agency. Hooper had to judge U.S. strengths and weaknesses against those of China and Russia. 

''I came to the conclusion that there is a uniquely American approach to security cooperation, and that distinguishes us from our strategic competitors,'' he said. ''Instead of trying to mimic their procedures, we should leverage our strengths.''

U.S. competitors benefit from an autocratic streamlined arm sales processes and government-subsidized defense industries, he said. ''I have to determine how we maintain our competitive edge and continue to expand our market share when they have systems that allow them to react quickly, and are reflective, frankly, of their governmental systems,'' the general said. 

''We have a democracy. And as we all know, democracy was designed for effectiveness, and not efficiency,'' he said. And that carries its own benefits. 

U.S. high-quality, high-technology systems are in demand, and make American systems competitive. Hooper said he wants the idea of export for these systems built in from the beginning of research and development for the systems.

''We have to improve our ability to engineer exportability into the beginning of our research and development process and not at the end,'' he said. ''Right now, what we do is design a system for our own forces, and then we go back and re-engineered for export, we don't have the time to do that any more.''

Hooper said he also wants to compress decision timelines without sacrificing due diligence. ''Our system is set up to vet whether or not we want to share a capability or a system with our partners over a long period of time, then we finally make a decision and then we export it,'' he explained. ''We must compress those timelines if we're to remain competitive, but we understand there's always a cost-benefit analysis — the benefit of sharing these technologies and systems with our allies or partners against a potential cost of losing our technological edge.''

The American way of sharing is also much different from those of the Russians or Chinese. ''Our approach has always been not only to provide our partners with the systems themselves, but training, education, institutional capacity building, helping them to build the institutions that will help them to maximize the performance envelope with the equipment,'' Hooper said. ''This commitment is to a long-term relationship.''

There is value in this approach. He told about visiting Kenya last year, and seeing the Kenyan air force flying 40 year-old F-5 Tiger jets built by Northrup. The older jets were landing next to 3-year old Chinese grounded helicopters. ''Why are our 40-year-old aircraft still flying, and the 3-year-old Chinese aircraft not? The difference was we made a commitment to the Kenyan air force to help them to develop a culture of maintenance excellence that allows them to continue to repair and maintain their 40-year-old U.S. aircraft,'' he said. ''That's the distinction that separates us from our strategic competitors.''

Hooper is the most senior foreign-area officer in the U.S. Army, and he says that ''dollar for dollar, our international military student programs are the best investment we can make in security cooperation.''

Whether it is foreign students coming to the United States to learn to use U.S. military equipment or senior foreign military officers attending the war college classes, it is a way to build personal relationships. Hooper spoke of being the defense attache in Cairo during a difficult time in U.S.-Egyptian relations. Those relations were smoothed by the fact that many in the Egyptian government had studied at U.S. military war colleges, and there was a baseline of understanding among all. 

''I was in China for seven years,'' he said. ''Very rarely did they answer my phone calls, but there was never a time where the Egyptian senior official did not answer my phone calls.''

U.S. students have an opportunity to forge relationships with the cream of the international military officers because only the best come to the United States. ''Those relationships that are forged here, the way we welcome international students, pays enormous dividends,'' Hooper said.

Helping Hand

Soldiers participate in a joint security forces assistance brigade assessment and selection leadership reaction course at Camp Blanding, Fla., Aug. 3, 2020.

Missile Agency Director Describes Threat, Countermeasures

Aug. 4, 2020 | BY David Vergun , DOD News

In recent years, threats from new missile systems against the homeland, deployed forces and friends and allies have arisen from Russia, China, North Korea and Iran, the director of the Missile Defense Agency said.

Navy Vice Adm. Jon A. Hill spoke today at the Space and Missile Defense Symposium in Washington.

At one time, the MDA focused on the ballistic missile threat. However, adversaries have designed extremely fast and maneuverable advanced cruise missiles and hypersonic weapons that make for "a very tough environment for defense," Hill said. The Missile Defense Review addressed these new threats, laying out a path to follow in developing new offensive and defensive measures, he added.

Though defense is a key part of deterrence, Hill said, "you can't shoot what you don't see." Providing that sight are sensors and radars aboard ships, on the ground and in space.

Space-based sensors are the ultimate, Hill said, because they can provide global coverage. Space tracking and surveillance systems collect data, intelligence and real-world missile testing, he said, but that capability is nowhere near where it needs to be.

Sensors start the kill chain by sending out a warning, the admiral explained. Then, radars track the missile, and fire control launches a defensive projectile.

This projectile can come from a Patriot system or Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, all operated by the Army, or the Standard Missile 3 Block IIA or the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System, both operated by the Navy. Besides those defenses, ground-based interceptors, operated by the Army, are deployed at Fort Greely, Alaska, and at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.

The command and control and battle management system, fully protected with cybersecurity measures, ties these systems together with the operators.

Many missile defense components are in the research, science and technology and demonstration phase, Hill said. For example, work is being done on the next-generation interceptor and long-range discrimination radar, as well as space-based sensors.

"Where we live today is we don't have everything we want deployed in space, nor do we have the terrestrial or mobile sea-based sensors where we want, where we need them at the right time," the missile agency director said.

Besides new, cutting-edge systems, Hill noted that current systems such as Aegis and command and control are receiving important upgrades as they become available.

MDA is working with the Army to integrate the THAAD and Patriot systems so operators can communicate with both and shoot with either, depending on the scenario, the admiral said.

Allies and partners are developing their own missile defense systems or buying them from the United States through the foreign military sales system, Hill said. These systems used by friends and partners furthers global security, he pointed out, and the Defense Department is working to better integrate those systems so they're even more effective.

Though the COVID-19 pandemic has presented challenges, Hill said, that hasn't affected MDA's ability to perform its mission: "If you ask me where we took risk during the global pandemic, we never took any risk in supporting the warfighter," he said. "We continue to deliver capability, we continue to support major movements around the globe." Delivery of systems caused some delay, he acknowledged, because assembly lines require people in confined and enclosed places.

Hill termed his MDA team and those in the services as stellar, and he said there's no nobler calling than defending America.

Related Video: Stratcom Commander Speaks at Space and Missile Defense Symposium

Sunset Flight

An Army CH-47 Chinook helicopter flies near Fort Hood, Texas, Aug. 2, 2020

Hornet Launch

An F/A-18F Super Hornet prepares to launch from the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford during operations in the Atlantic Ocean, Aug 1, 2020.