UAE Looking to Become a Regional C2 Leader

Saab S340-AEW

The 21st century has seen a quiet transformation of the UAE’s armed forces. Advanced AWACS airborne early warning planes and air and missile defense systems are just the outward signs of a push from a collection of purchased weapon systems, to an integrated defense force that can cope with the most modern threats.

Making that happen requires more than just planes, or missiles. It requires extensive back-end systems that help turn information from advanced radars and airborne surveillance into a coherent whole, and allow command staff to direct battles based on that information. DID explains the larger picture and where things stand now, as the UAE continues its strong Command, Control, Computing, & Communications (C4) push.

Johns Hopkins APL: Staff Hours on the Cutting Edge

Latest updates[?]: Pentagon-wide deal for up to 10 years, $4.9 billion.

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JHU/APL photo

The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory is a not-for-profit division that works closely with the US military on a range of research topics. As a Navy University Affiliated Research Center, these capabilities have been established and maintained at the JHU/APL since the 1940s, when the proximity-fused shell was developed for fleet defense. More recent examples of their involvement include the AEGIS system’s successful intercepts of ballistic missile targets using SM-3 missiles, successful OPEVAL and transition to industry of the APL-conceived Cooperative Engagement Capability (CEC), the Littoral Warfare Advanced Development project, artificial arm research, engineering issues around underwater launches from SSGN stealth strike submarines, the Precision Engagement Transformation Center, space-based laser communications, the Global Information Grid (GIG), and more.

JHU/APL has received several billion dollars in contracts since 2002, and a 2013 contract looks set to cement that relationship over the next 5-10 years.

Rapid Fire Feb. 26, 2013: US Dept of Bridge Selling Sees No Govt Waste

• Republicans plan to introduce legislation today that would give the Administration discretion in how to implement sequestration, whereas the original Budget Control Act cuts indiscriminately across budget accounts. The executive branch says they are already pretty efficient so cuts, no matter where they’re done, will affect muscle and bone, not just fat. Senator Coburn [R-OK], who is drafting the legislation, says there is plenty of waste and low-priority projects that can be cut without affecting core governmental functions.

• In the meantime Janet Napolitano at Homeland Security is promising delayed port entry for container ships and long lines at customs for foreign travelers, an impressive synergy with the Department of Transportation’s planned furloughing of air controllers.

• If you are somehow tuning in only now on the sequester: 15 things you need to know about it.

• The center-left Brookings Institute is lining up proposals to make the federal budget, including its military component, more efficient. Here is their paper [PDF], authored by Cindy Williams (not that Cindy Williams) on how to make defense affordable. In short: start from genuinely vital national security interests, which leads to more restricted defense policy goals (i.e. not “policing the world”), translating into a smaller force structure. See also a video of a panel last Friday where Williams and former defense and budget officials discussed the paper.