TAKING STEPS TO ‘FUTURE-PROOF’ NATO: The NATO alliance, first conceived as a counterweight to the Soviet Union, is refocusing on deterring Russia by integrating artificial intelligence and other technologies into its war plans to adapt to the changing nature of warfare.
“We are taking further steps to future-proof our alliance,” said NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg ahead of today’s meeting of NATO defense ministers. “We must keep our technological edge.”
Stoltenberg announced the launch of the NATO Innovation Fund, a $1.16 billion investment in developing emerging and disruptive technologies. “Future conflicts will be fought not just with bullets and bombs, but also with bytes and big data,” Stoltenberg said at a pre-ministerial press conference. “We see authoritarian regimes racing to develop new technologies, from artificial intelligence to autonomous systems.”
NATO ministers will also approve the alliance’s first-ever strategy on artificial intelligence. The strategy will outline how AI and machine learning will be integrated into areas such as data analysis, imagery, and cyber defense, and will also lay out principles for safe and responsible use in accordance with international law.
EYE ON RUSSIA: Since the demise of the INF treaty, which limited land-based, intermediate-range missiles, Russia has been accelerating its development of new nuclear-capable missiles.
The U.S. withdrew from the Cold War-era treaty in 2018 because Russia was routinely violating it, and it did not apply to China, which was rapidly building up its own missile arsenal.
“Since then, Russia has further increased its arsenal of missiles and is developing hypersonic systems. These missiles pose a real threat to security in the Euro-Atlantic area,” Stoltenberg said. “We will not mirror Russia’s actions, but we will maintain strong deterrence and defense.”
RELATIONS WITH MOSCOW AT NEW LOW: Earlier this week, Russia announced the closure of its mission to NATO and of NATO’s offices in Moscow in retaliation for NATO’s expulsion of eight Russian diplomats from its Brussels headquarters who were suspected of spying.
“We regret this decision which does not promote dialogue and mutual understanding,” said Stoltenberg. “We do get the fact that the relationship between NATO and Russia is now at the lowest point since the end of the Cold War. For us, that’s actually not an argument against dialogue, that’s an argument in favor of dialogue, because it is exactly when times are difficult, we have challenges and problems as we have now, that we need to sit down and talk.”
In announcing the closure of the NATO mission Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov denied the spying accusations and said the expulsion of diplomats showed that “NATO is not interested in an equal dialogue with us or any joint work … we do not see much reason in continuing to pretend that things may change in the foreseeable future.”
“Should NATO members have any urgent needs, they can contact our ambassador in Brussels,” Lavrov said, according to a Russian Foreign Ministry transcript.
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HAPPENING TONIGHT: President Joe Biden is scheduled to take questions from audience members at a broadcast town hall event at 8 p.m. hosted by CNN. The event is being held at the Center Stage Pearlstone Theater in Baltimore, Maryland, and is being moderated by CNN’s Anderson Cooper.
A BUTTON NOT PUSHED DOOMED $2 BILLION SHIP: The Navy has released a pair of reports on the devastating fire that destroyed the USS Bonhomme Richard last summer as it sat pierside in San Diego.
The $2 billion warship burned for four days, as the poorly trained crew made mistake after mistake in battling the blaze that began as a suspected arson. “The loss of this ship was completely preventable,” said Adm. Bill Lescher, the vice chief of naval operations, in a statement.
Among the shocking findings in the 434-page report was the determination that sailors failed to push a button that would have activated the ship’s sprinkler system to release fire suppressant foam, known as AFFF or aqueous film forming foam.
“There was almost no discussion about using the system until more than two hours after the fire started,” the report said. “AFFF on the day of the fire could have most easily and effectively been employed … the button was never pushed and no member of the crew interviewed considered this action or had specific knowledge as to the location of the button or its function.”
“The Navy is executing a deliberative process that includes taking appropriate accountability actions with respect to personnel assigned to Bonhomme Richard and the shore commands designed to support the ship while moored at Naval Base San Diego,” Lescher said.
INVESTIGATION FINDS LOSS OF USS BONHOMME RICHARD WAS ‘COMPLETELY PREVENTABLE’
‘A MASSIVE FAILURE’: “Suffice it to say, Navy officials had a lot to review because this was a massive failure,” said Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe, ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, in reaction to the findings.
“A lack of oversight, leadership, training and procedural compliance left sailors unprepared and unable to fight not just this fire, but, as an additional Navy review disclosed, previous fires on other ships,” Inhofe said.
“This situation also highlights the need to expand and revitalize our naval shipbuilding facilities. We don’t have the industrial base to even keep up with the existing shipbuilding plan, let alone account for unforeseen losses like the USS Bonhomme Richard,” he said. “As China increasingly threatens the Indo-Pacific, we certainly can’t afford to lose a large warship from our fleet.”
VACCINE DEADLINES LOOM: With the Air Force’s Nov. 2 deadline for active-duty personnel to get the coronavirus vaccine less than two weeks away, the Washington Examiner’s Mike Brest reports fewer than 4% of active-duty airmen remain unvaccinated.
According to Air Force data, that amounts to just shy of 12,000 personnel out of the total force of roughly 312,000. In total, 92% of airmen are already vaccinated and 4.2% are partially vaccinated, according to the same data.
In a Sept. 3 announcement, the Air Force warned airmen that “any refusal to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, absent an approved exemption or accommodation, may be punishable under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.”
Up next is the Navy’s deadline of Nov. 28. As of yesterday, 93% of active-duty sailors are fully immunized, and 98% received at least one dose of the vaccine. In the reserves, 78% of sailors are fully immunized and 83% have received at least one dose of the vaccine. So for the active and reserves combined, 90% are fully immunized and 95% have received at least one vaccine dose.
SAILOR DIES OF COVID: Meanwhile, the Navy identified its latest COVID death as Master-at-Arms Senior Chief Michael Haberstumpf, assigned to Joint Special Operations Intelligence Brigade, Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
Haberstumpf, 42, tested positive for COVID-19 on Sept. 2, and he was hospitalized on Sept. 9. He died on Oct. 10.
His was the second COVID death this month. As of yesterday, one Marine and 15 sailors have died from COVID-19 related complications.
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The Rundown
Washington Examiner: Investigation finds loss of USS Bonhomme Richard was ‘completely preventable’
Washington Examiner: Taliban acting interior minister and US-designated terrorist praises suicide bombers and rewards families
Washington Examiner: More than 10,000 active-duty airmen will not be vaccinated by deadline
Washington Examiner: No US injuries in drone attack on base in Syria: Reports
Washington Examiner: Army reservist first to be thrown out of military following charges related to Jan. 6
Washington Examiner: NASA: China and Russia leading the race to Mars
Washington Examiner: Antony Blinken condemns ‘packing courts’ as ‘one of the ways that democracies can come undone’
Washington Post: U.S. and Iran enter ‘decisive’ period to revive nuclear accord or risk failure, U.N. watchdog chief says
Reuters: Biden Concerned Over Chinese Hypersonic Missiles
19fortyfive.com: China’s Test of An Orbital Hypersonic Missile Is A Big Deal
19fortyfive.com: DF-41 ICBM: The Chinese Nuclear Missile That Can Hit America Right Now
Reuters: The Skies Over The South China Sea
Defense One: The Military is Preparing for a ‘Space Superhighway,’ Complete with Pit Stops
Washington Post: FBI still can’t find accused Maryland spy couple’s payments or secret documents
Air Force Magazine: B-1s Operate From Diego Garcia for First Time in 15 Years
Air Force Magazine: In AI Experiment, UK and US Simulate Adjacent Operations
Washington Post: Chinese city hunts for North Korean defector facing deportation who escaped from prison
19fortyfive.com: The Navy Used This Damaged Assault Ship to ‘Simulate’ A War At Sea
Washington Examiner: Opinion: Russia deconstructs Biden’s ransomware deception
The Cipher Brief: Opinion: The Weakness in the U.S.’ Understanding of Taiwan
Calendar
THURSDAY | OCTOBER 21
8 a.m. — International Institute for Strategic Studies virtual discussion: “Future U.S. Defense Strategy in East Asia,” with former Deputy Assistant Defense Secretary for Strategy and Force Development Elbridge Colby, co-founder and principal of the Marathon Initiative and author of The Strategy of Denial: American Defense in an Age of Great Power Conflict; and Meia Nouwens, senior fellow for Chinese defense policy and military modernization at IISS. https://www.iiss.org/events/2021/10/future-us-defense-strategy-in-east-asia
9 a.m. — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin attends the in-person meeting of NATO Ministers of Defense in Brussels, Belgium. https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/news
9:45 a.m. — C4ISRNET webcast: “JADC2’s Data Dilemma,” with Army Chief Information Officer Raj Iyer. https://events.c4isrnet.com/office-hours-jadc2-data-dilemma/
10:30 a.m. — Center for a New American Security virtual event on “Executing a National Technology Strategy,” with Defense Innovation Unit Director Michael Brown. https://www.cnas.org/events/virtual-event-executing-a-national-technology-strategy
11 a.m. — Ploughshares Fund virtual discussion: “Press the Button LIVE: Nuclear Policy in the Biden Administration and Beyond,” with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.; House Armed Services Chairman Adam Smith, D-Wash.; Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif.; former Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes, member of the Ploughshares Fund Board of Directors; Lilly Adams, independent consultant; Jane Vaynman, assistant professor at Temple University; and Jon Wolfsthal, senior adviser at Global Zero. https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register
12:30 p.m. — Johns Hopkins University Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies virtual discussion: “Are We Living through Another Cold War?” with Sergey Radchenko, professor at SAIS Europe; and Francis Gavin, director of the SAIS Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs. https://sais.jhu.edu/campus-events
3 p.m. — Center for Strategic and International Studies virtual discussion: “Schieffer Series: AUKUS and its Impacts,” with former U.S. Ambassador to Australia John Thomas Schieffer; Michael Green, senior vice President for Asia and Japan Chair, CSIS; Heather Conley, senior vice president for Europe, Eurasia, and the Arctic; and director, Europe, Russia, and Eurasia Program, CSIS; H. Andrew Schwartz, chief communications officer, CSIS; moderated by Bob Schieffer, CSIS trustee. https://www.csis.org/events/schieffer-series-aukus-and-its-impacts
8 p.m. Center Stage Pearlstone Theater, Baltimore, Md. — CNN Town Hall with President Joe Biden moderated by CNN’s Anderson Cooper. On cable and streaming at CNN.com.
FRIDAY | OCTOBER 22
9 a.m. — Center for Strategic and International Studies virtual discussion: “U.S.-China Economic Competition,” with Deputy National Security Adviser Daleep Singh; Anne Stevenson-Yang, co-founder and research director at J Capital Research; David Bank, senior adviser at the Cohen Group; Alexander Titus, head of healthcare and life sciences strategy for the global public sector at Google Cloud; and Remco Zwetsloot, research fellow at the Center for Security and Emerging Technology. https://www.csis.org/events/discussion-us-china-economic-competition
10 a.m. — Atlantic Council virtual discussion: “Women, Peace, and Security 2030: Integrating lessons learned from Afghanistan, with former NATO Special Representative for Women, Peace, and Security Clare Hutchinson. https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/event/women-peace-and-security
3 p.m. — Heritage Foundation virtual discussion: “Japan’s Growing Role in Indo-Pacific Security,” with former national security adviser retired Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, Japan chair at the Hudson Institute; Jeffrey Hornung, political scientist at the RAND Corporation; and Bruce Klingner, senior research fellow for Northeast Asia at Heritage. https://www.heritage.org/asia/event/japans-growing-role-indo-pacific-security
MONDAY | OCTOBER 25
10 a.m. 300 First St. S.E. — Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies in-person Aerospace Nation breakfast event with Gen. Mark Kelly, commander, Air Combat Command; and retired Lt. Gen. David Deptula, dean, Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. RSVP: [email protected]
WEDNESDAY | NOVEMBER 3
9 a.m. The InterContinental – Wharf, Washington, D.C. — Aspen Security Forum Day 1, with Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley; Gen. Paul Nakasone, commander, U.S. Cyber Command and director, National Security Agency; Condoleezza Rice, former Secretary of State; Kathleen Sebelius, former Secretary of Health and Human Services; Ng Eng Hen, Minister of Defense of Singapore; Philippe Etienne, Ambassador of France to the U.S.; Emily Haber, Ambassador of Germany to the U.S.; and others. https://www.aspensecurityforum.org/
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Suffice it to say, Navy officials had a lot to review because this was a massive failure.”
Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe, ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, in reaction to the Navy’s investigation of the fire that destroyed the USS Bonhomme Richard.
