Marc Selinger
Defense Daily
The Department of Defense plans to send a reprogramming request to Congress to ensure the Defense Innovation Unit Experimental (DIUx) does not run out of money for the rest of the current fiscal year, a top military officer said July 18.
DOD, which has placed “tremendous demands” on DIUx, began developing the reprogramming proposal after it was notified of a funding shortfall early last week by Raj Shah, the unit’s managing partner, said Air Force Gen. Paul Selva, who testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee on his reappointment as vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The Department of Defense launched DIUx in 2015 to strengthen its ties to Silicon Valley and other high-tech corridors to increase its access to commercial technology. The agency recently revealed that its first space project involves funding small imaging satellites.
Also during the hearing, Selva told Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) that he expects a decision to be made “within the coming months” on the kinds and quantities of lethal defensive weapons that the United States will send to Ukraine to defend against Russian-backed separatists. The Joint Staff and U.S. European Command are overseeing that review.
“How advanced would the anti-tank weapons be and in what quantities would they be delivered is an example of that conversation,” Selva told Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.). “Some of the weapons that we have technology controls on them. We do not transfer them to other countries unless we can have assurances that the technology won’t be exploited.”
Blumenthal said he and his colleagues are increasingly impatient with what they see as delays in approving the lethal aid. “We’re at a loss to understand what the barriers or obstacles are,” he told the general.
Under questioning by Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), Selva said it will take DOD “several more months” to finish its Nuclear Posture Review, which will be followed by the completion of a ballistic missile defense review.
The review report will set U.S. nuclear arms policy for up to a decade. It will include U.S. response options to Russia’s violation of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, Selva said, noting that Russian officials “have been moot on how they intend to respond.”
Washington says Moscow has developed and now deployed a ground-based missile system within the flight range prohibited by the 1987 accord: 500 to 5,500 kilometers. Russian officials have denied this, claiming instead the United States has violated the treaty.
If the Russians were to begin a dialogue on returning to compliance, “it would likely change those [NPR] options,” Selva said, provided the United States could verify compliance by inspecting the weapon systems Moscow deployed in violation of the agreement.
Asked by Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) why the military has been slow to field directed energy weapons, Selva responded that such technology has made significant progress, especially at countering unmanned aircraft, but needs to achieve higher power and energy-concentration levels to become useful on the battlefield against such targets as artillery shells and ballistic missiles.
“I think the promise is there for directed energy,” he said. “It’s going to be a matter of the concentration of that energy to have lethal effect.”
