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00:00The U.S. Navy is sick of spending millions of dollars to take down drones that cost
00:09thousands. These cutting edge hypervelocity projectiles could help. And they're calling
00:15it Golf Force One. We take a look at what's likely the most heavily armored golf cart in
00:22history. Hey everyone and welcome to Weapons and Warfare, a show made for folks who want
00:27to know more about the U.S. National Defense. Our goal here is pretty simple. We want to help you
00:33have an informed conversation about what's happening with America's military. So for
00:38Straight Arrow News, I'm your host, Ryan Robertson, and we're starting this week with the U.S. Army
00:42and a mission you might not know that it has. Believe it or not, this is not a Navy vessel.
00:50It's an Army landing craft. You see it says it right there, U.S. Army. And as Army leadership
00:56continues to reshape their force with an eye on a potential conflict in the Pacific,
01:02the importance of the Army's fleet of watercraft just continues to grow.
01:10Think of the U.S. Army in action and it's likely tanks and helicopters are part of the picture.
01:16Identify! Fire!
01:18And while they're not as connected with the country's oldest branch of the military,
01:24watercraft play a crucial role in the Army's power projection, especially in places like the
01:30Indo-Pacific. It's responsible for moving supplies, equipment, and troops in deep ocean water,
01:38shallow coastal waters, inland waterways, even rivers.
01:41I liken it to having a bunch of different tools in the toolbox that we can employ in that dynamic
01:48distribution network that I just described. Sea lines of communication, airlines of communication,
01:54and ground lines of communication. And watercraft will be a connector of many of those different
01:59other modes and bringing that to bear.
02:02Colonel William Arnold is the Chief of Transportation for the U.S. Army's Transportation Corps.
02:06At this year's AUSA Global Force Symposium in Alabama, he led a session focused on the future
02:13of Army watercraft. Acknowledging while the Army's current fleet of vessels is aging,
02:19it's still capable of meeting mission demands. And at some point, integrating with emerging tech.
02:25We're looking for help to understand how can we do littoral mapping without having to put
02:30mariners in the water to go figure out what beach gradients are, for example, to see if we can
02:35beach one of our watercraft. We're looking for capabilities that are out there to do that
02:39rapidly, be able to use AI to feed decisions back into the mariner populations before we decide we're
02:46going to bring any vessel or any capabilities to a beach, for example.
02:51According to the Government Accountability Office, here's what the Army has at its disposal
02:56and what's on the horizon. Eight logistics support vessels that are capable of delivering
03:01vehicles and general cargo. 17 LCUs, that stands for Landing Craft Utility. Those are capable of
03:10delivering 350 short tons of cargo or 320 combat equipped personnel. Next up, nine LCMs, that's Landing
03:19Craft Mechanized. Those carry troops, cargo, and equipment. There are six small tugs for repositioning
03:27other watercraft and 30 modular causeway systems, for a total of 70 watercraft. Plus, the Army is
03:35expected to acquire 13 new maneuver support vessels by 2036.
03:40So that capability right there is really a new capability that we're bringing in that can maneuver
03:47in the tactical zone and maneuver forces very rapidly in and around the littoral areas.
03:52Brigadier General Shane Upton of the Army Futures Command tells us Army leadership is also looking
03:59to industry partners and embracing the opportunities autonomous vessels offer of force with a growing
04:06list of responsibilities while experiencing potentially tighter budgets.
04:11We're going to put autonomous boats in the water as the Army, and we're going to pair them with those
04:16mariners and have them learn the collaborative behaviors, how to command and control them,
04:20give us an assessment and feedback from a soldier that does this for the United States Army in a forward theater.
04:28Chief Warrant Officer Nicholas LaFerty with the Army's Combined Arms Support Command
04:32says it's about embracing the idea of doing a lot more with less.
04:38We're open to tiers of autonomy on our current craft, how we can just take one step up the ladder
04:44to potentially reduce that load and make those warfighters' lives a little bit more focused, right?
04:50Let their focused energy be on the threat at its hand.
04:53For all that's different between the Army and Navy's fleets, there are parallels, especially in terms of maintenance.
05:01According to that GAO report we talked about earlier, the Army's watercraft fleet experienced a significant drop
05:07in its fully mission-capable rate, falling from 75% in 2020 to less than 40% in 2024.
05:17Major General Michael Laylor of the Army's Tank Automotive and Armaments Command
05:22is backing a push for 3D printing in the field to turn things around.
05:27The idea is fix forward, deliver forward, and this particular level of maintenance in watercraft is ripe for it
05:37because no two watercraft, as all you know out there, many of you who are near and dear to your heart,
05:41none of them are the same. They're snowflakes.
05:44And so there's all sorts of non-standard parts that could be advanced manufactured,
05:47and honestly, it's a great ground for expansion of technology and solving problems.
05:53So what's next? How does the Army's fleet overcome its maintenance issues and stand ready for action in the Pacific
06:01should the call come?
06:03First, General Laylor says, like the Navy, the Army is actively looking for allied partners to help bridge the gap.
06:10We are, in next year, going to expand our ability to contract maintenance to other countries that we haven't used before,
06:18predominantly we've been west coast, east coast, Hawaii, Japan, Korea.
06:24Now we're going to see us expand to Guam, Singapore, Philippines, Australia, you name it.
06:30I've been to most of them in the last six months trying to drum up some business, and business will be good.
06:34As for adding watercraft, in March, then-Deputy Chief of Staff for the U.S. Army Pacific, Major General Jeffrey Vannantwerp,
06:43told Stars and Stripes in a conference call, quote, that leased vessels provide a pretty phenomenal capability
06:50and a pretty high level of readiness.
06:53No word yet on how many, if any, vessels have been leased.
06:58All right, joined now by super producer Brett Baker.
07:01Brett, when we were putting this story together, you know, we have talked about the Army using ships before,
07:08but really when we, you know, start doing the research on it, it's really surprising how many boats the Army has.
07:16I will say, you know, we've learned a lot, I think, in the course since, you know, we started producing this show.
07:21And, yeah, I didn't really know that the Army even had boats or vessels.
07:27And, yeah, so I think it's a really interesting part of the puzzle, especially with how they're building things for the Indo-Pacific
07:37and where they think things are going to go.
07:39These things are going to play a very important role in whatever that becomes.
07:44So it's obviously important for the Army to put a priority on that and kind of get where they need to be,
07:52which they're not right now.
07:53Right, right.
07:54And the idea of leasing some vessels, I mean, that could be a good move in a pinch,
08:01but when you lease a vessel, you don't own the vessel.
08:06And, I mean, we did a story on, you know, the right to repair, you know, last week.
08:10So it's like if I just have kind of some qualms about it, when you lease it and don't own it,
08:15can the owner refuse to let you use it for a time?
08:18I mean, it just kind of introduces a quagmire.
08:22So owning is usually better when it comes to military equipment, in my opinion.
08:28Definitely an interesting workaround.
08:29I will say, obviously, though, you know, if you lease it, then maybe you've got more readily access to it
08:35than what they've got right now.
08:36I mean, right now they're in a short fall from the vessels they need.
08:40One thing I was thinking is, you know, they're replacing the landing craft mechanized with the MSRV lights,
08:50the maneuver support vehicle light.
08:52I can see a scenario where they keep both of those for a time if they're in the need,
08:59because they've already got them.
09:00Yes, they're supposed to be replaced and cycled out.
09:01But if you need the vessels, you've got vessels.
09:05So I could see a place where those just kind of stay in.
09:10The other thing I kind of find interesting is they make it a real point.
09:14They're not sailors.
09:15They're mariners.
09:16And so, like, yeah, I would never thought an Army mariner is kind of an interesting thing.
09:20But, yeah, it's something the Army is going to have to work for, work hard for coming up in these next few years
09:26to try to get that fleet, you know, where they want it to be.
09:30Absolutely.
09:31And we have some more fleet news to talk about in our headline segment.
09:35So without further ado, Brett, let's get to it.
09:39Some interesting news coming out of a House Armed Services Committee hearing on U.S. Navy posture and capabilities this past June.
09:47In August of last year, the USS Jason Dunham tested BAE Systems hypervelocity projectiles
09:54during a composite training unit exercise as part of a Navy initiative to enhance low-cost air and missile defense against unmanned aerial systems.
10:04We've reported on this projectile before.
10:07I recently spoke with Tate Westbrook, the Senior Director for Naval Weapons at BAE Systems.
10:13He's a retired Navy captain and a Commodore with nearly three decades of service.
10:18And I talked to him about what this capability brings to the force.
10:23Despite Navy's efforts to date, we still cannot reload missiles at sea underway.
10:29They're working on it, but we're not there yet.
10:31So when you're out of missiles, you're out of missiles and you're out of the fight.
10:35The great news is with five-inch projectiles, we can reload on a regular basis anywhere around the world.
10:41U.S. Navy and allies can replenish their five-inch weapon, five-inch bullets at sea anywhere in the world.
10:48The trials involved the Dunham testing HVP, while the USS The Sullivans tested Lockheed Martin's Longbow Hellfire,
10:56Andrel's Roadrunner, and Raytheon's Coyote.
10:59Those tests are part of a military effort to rapidly integrate new technologies for counter-UAS operations.
11:06Some systems are already deployed on ships, including the Longbow Hellfire on the USS Indianapolis, which is in the Red Sea.
11:14And, you know, Brett, really this hypervelocity projectile, while the Navy was doing the testing on it,
11:22Tate Westbrook said that there's also a version where they can put it in a 155-millimeter party round,
11:28because it's an undersized caliber round, so they just put some Sabos on it.
11:36It'll fit on a Mark 45 deck gun, which is what the Navy's using it with.
11:41And, you know, you can throw it in a Paladin or any NATO standard 155 artillery launcher,
11:48and suddenly you have a hypervelocity projectile that can correct its path in the air.
11:55A pretty cheap answer for a lot of these drones, cheap cruise missiles that are filling the airs right on the battlefields.
12:05Absolutely.
12:06And it's something that has been a big priority for the Pentagon, is to get these more replicable, cheaper, faster kind of products out to the folks who are having to do the job.
12:22And it's an interesting development.
12:25Obviously, there's, you know, obviously still work to be done.
12:29But putting these in the hands of the operators is going to be a big deal when they can finally get that done.
12:34Yeah, and last final thing I want to say about this is just the speed of which this was developed.
12:41I remember when you and I first heard about it early last year at a Navy League expo in National Harbor,
12:50and then fast forward, you know, eight months, and they're testing it at sea.
12:55So just the rapid development of this new type of weapon was really kind of phenomenal in my mind.
13:01All right, let's get to the next one.
13:04Sticking with the Navy, the newly confirmed Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Daryl Cottle,
13:10has expressed openness to early retirement of the USS Boise due to prolonged maintenance delays.
13:18It's a big admission considering the Navy is short 17 attack submarines from their formal requirement of 66.
13:25The sub was originally launched in 1991.
13:28It conducted a few operations, more than a few.
13:31So it was conducting operations for 25 years.
13:34But it has been unable to dive since 2017 due to a maintenance of, or excuse me,
13:41a series of maintenance delays that denied it a timely availability at one of the nation's four public shipyards,
13:48which are primarily responsible for the maintenance of nuclear-powered subs and aircraft carriers.
13:54Brett, USS Boise, it's a Los Angeles-class submarine.
13:58These were slated to be replaced by Virginia-class submarines, but still not great if you're down one for over a decade.
14:12You know what I mean?
14:13Yeah, and for Cottle being, you know, a submarine guy himself, it is a big admission that maybe it's time to just kind of cut bait.
14:22One of the things that we learned in writing this story up was that not only is it docked and they're working on it,
14:29but they've had to keep it staffed for all of these years because it's still a nuclear-powered submarine.
14:34So you still have to have folks there manning that.
14:37You've got to have security around it.
14:39So it's kind of like a manpower energy, you know, drain that's not really going anywhere right now.
14:46So that's a big admission to say maybe it's time to write it off.
14:51And you wonder how much money has been spent over the years doing security,
14:57keeping the nuclear material in a stable condition, like all of the things that you have to do.
15:01You can't just kind of park it out back and say, all right, it's good, or sink it in a SYNC-X exercise and, you know, make a coral reef out of it.
15:10Like a lot of maintenance and upkeep is required on these nuclear-powered vessels.
15:18So, yeah, it's interesting.
15:20We'll see how it goes.
15:21And speaking of interesting, this next story, definitely some interest.
15:26So during his recent trip to Scotland, President Donald Trump hit the links for a round of golf, a few rounds of golf.
15:34Nothing unusual about that.
15:36But this time he was followed by an armored Polaris Ranger X utility vehicle designed to provide ballistic protection.
15:44The war zone is reporting the vehicle, now dubbed Gulf Force One by the press, is part of the presidential fleet of specialty vehicles, according to a White House spokesperson.
15:58Brett, I was kind of looking into it like, hey, if I wanted one of these things, how do I get it?
16:03So Polaris makes the base unit, but the ballistic kit, those are third party.
16:10Like Polaris doesn't necessarily make that, but they could cost upwards of $200,000, which maybe makes it the most expensive golf cart of all time.
16:21I'm not sure about a golf cart aficionado.
16:24But, I mean, it came out eight months after some guy tried to take a shot at President Trump at a golf course.
16:29So kind of a good idea.
16:32I think my first thought was, like, move over Popemobile, we've got a new radical vehicle in the protection market for, you know, world leaders.
16:42Right.
16:43But, yeah, if the man's going to be out golfing and folks are going to have bad intentions, it's probably a good idea to have something like this, even as funny as it is saying Gulf Force One.
16:55Gulf Force One.
16:55But it is a pretty serious little piece of equipment.
16:59I have to imagine they did some suspension modifications once they got it all armored up.
17:06Yeah, yeah, standard kitted out, Polaris is not going to be able to carry that much.
17:11But like we did on our recent story, Polaris makes one that can carry 3,600 pounds with an axle on there.
17:20So, you know, I don't think all that ballistic armor is going to weigh that much, but it's going to be able to carry it.
17:30Now, is this going to travel with – I mean, obviously, it was in Scotland with them.
17:33So my mind goes to, okay, so the logistics of packing Gulf Force One, or do they have multiple Gulf Force Ones?
17:42Well, you know what, they call his car the beast, and I know that they take the beast with them wherever they go.
17:50I have a feeling it's probably not that big a deal if they've got room in the 747 to slide in Gulf Force One as well.
17:59We'll see.
17:59Well, I guess when they come out with the new Air Force One, if there's like a toy hatch on the back of it that we can see this thing rolling out of, that would be pretty cool.
18:08That would be awesome.
18:09All right. Hey, Brent, thanks for joining us again.
18:13You got it.
18:16If there's a word that best describes what American military leadership is looking for in today's weapon systems, it's versatility.
18:23They want systems that can serve multiple purposes across multiple platforms.
18:28It's a description that certainly fits the joint air-to-ground missile, the JAGAM, and that's why it's our Weapon of the Week.
18:35Officially known as the AGM-179 and built by Lockheed Martin, the JAGAM was designed to replace the aging Hellfire and TOW missiles on rotary wing and unmanned aircraft.
18:51In use since 2022, the JAGAM represents a progression in air-to-ground missile technology, offering a more versatile, precise, lethal, and adaptable weapon system that can take on a wide array of battlefield challenges.
19:07So the missile is effective against air threats, ground threats, and maritime threats.
19:13And regardless of what platform I operate the missile from, whether from aircraft, from ships, or from ground systems, the missile is capable against those threats.
19:23The JAGAM comes in two variants, the MR for medium range targets, and the F for the fighter, fixed wing, fast mover crowd.
19:33You can increase the range of mission sets for the JAGAM by throwing it in a quad launcher too, which can then be mounted on a vehicle or a vessel at sea, making it a very capable piece of any unit's arsenal.
19:46With our concept, the ship can maintain on station and provide a reload by drawing missiles out of the magazine, sourcing the launcher, and then as you draw missiles from the magazine, should you need more, I can bring missiles out to the ship, refill the magazine so the ship can stay on station for much longer periods of time.
20:06One of the biggest problems the JAGAM addresses that previous systems, like the Hellfire, had issues with, is its ability to see the target no matter what's clouding the picture on the battlefield.
20:18Mark Mahaffey, a retired marine helicopter pilot and now a senior business development manager for Lockheed Martin, says the guidance capability of the JAGAM makes it a difference maker.
20:28It's got a dual-mode seeker, it's got both a semi-active laser seeker and an active millimeter wave sensor, which gives the missile a true fire and forget capability.
20:38Because of that capability, other services, other platforms are looking at it as an affordable option to address the emergent threats on the battlefield today.
20:48The U.S. Army, Navy, and Marine Corps are the primary users of the JAGAM, but Uncle Sam said it's okay to sell them to the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.
20:57And the Texas of Europe, Poland, is also planning to acquire the missile.
21:03I'm allowed to make that joke, Texas. I was born there, and I remember a world with fur's cafeteria.
21:11Alright folks, for this week's Comps Check, we have an update on a staff favorite here at Weapons in Warfare, the Boeing MQ-25 Stingray.
21:20For those of you new to the program, first, thank you for joining.
21:24But you should also know the MQ-25 is a carrier-based unmanned aircraft system, aka a drone.
21:32Stingrays will refuel and extend the range of the carrier air wing, as well as relieve manned aircraft like the F-A-18 from having to carry out tanker duties.
21:42The nearly decade-old project has had some mixed news of late, some good, some not so good.
21:50On the bright side, during a recent quarterly earnings call, Boeing's president and CEO, Kelly Ortberg, had an update on the Stingray.
21:58On MQ-25, the team began ground testing and successfully worked through the production move to our new facility, bringing the program closer to first flight for the U.S. Navy.
22:08Unfortunately, the news isn't all sunshine.
22:12A new budget document from the Secretary of the Navy's office reveals the expected operational date for the project was pushed to the third quarter of 2027.
22:23That's after already being pushed to 2024 and then 2026.
22:28The Navy plans to eventually acquire about 76 Stingrays and wants enough funding in its 2026 budget for three production units.
22:38Each unit carries a current cost of around $161 million.
22:46All opinions expressed in this segment are solely the opinions of the contributors.
22:50All right, folks, that's going to just about do it for this week's episode.
22:54Like we said at the top of the show, our mission at Weapons and Warfare is to help regular people understand more about the U.S. military
23:01and why taxpayers are being asked to spend a trillion dollars a year on it.
23:07If you want to help us in that mission, you can.
23:08Download the Straight Arrow News app and start sharing our content on your social feeds.
23:13For my wrap this week, I'm going to share some of my thoughts on a story I saw on my social feeds.
23:20This one right here.
23:21It's about a city councilman in Danville, Virginia.
23:24It's a small town, so he still needs a day job to support his wife and kids.
23:29That's where he was when another man, Shotzi Michael Buck Hayes, came into his office and dumped gasoline on Vogler.
23:37The two went outside and Buckley Hayes lit Vogler on fire.
23:41Buck Hayes later told police he wanted Vogler to die.
23:46He didn't.
23:47He just received severe burns to 60% of his body and will likely require years of treatment to recover.
23:55Instead of expressing concern for their fellow humans, though, or dismay that we're now at a point in society
24:02where we're lighting each other on fire in frickin' parking lots,
24:06comment section was full of people wondering what sort of city councilman Vogler was.
24:12Was he a Republican or a Democrat?
24:15Because the answer to that question somehow determines the level of compassion
24:19that we will show someone who was the obvious victim of a horrible crime.
24:25A crime which stemmed from a personal argument
24:28and had nothing to do with the fact Vogler was on the city council.
24:33In moments like this, I often think back to the words of Congresswoman Barbara Lee.
24:38She was a Democrat from California, and after the 9-11 attacks in 2001,
24:43she was the only person to speak out against the authorization to use military force,
24:49which gave President Bush and all successive presidents
24:52the ability to use the military without congressional approval.
24:57It was a time of raw emotion in our country.
25:00We were hurt, and we wanted someone to pay for it.
25:04So, when she said,
25:06As we act, let us not become the evil that we deplore,
25:11for some of us, myself included, that was hard to hear.
25:15We wanted retribution, and she was telling us to use our heads.
25:2024 years later, tens of thousands of lives and trillions of dollars,
25:25turns out Barbara Lee was probably right.
25:29So, in our current climate of political division and economic hardships,
25:34when many of us are feeling hurt, betrayed, and abandoned,
25:39remember, as we act, let us not become the evil that we deplore.
25:46For senior producer Brett Baker, video editor Brian Spencer,
25:49and motion designer Dakota Patio,
25:51I'm Ryan Robertson from Straight Arrow News, signing off.
25:55I'm Ryan Robertson from Straight Arrow News, signing off.
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