Autonomous Tanker Crosses Pacific

Photo courtesy www.VesselFinder.com

Morning Coffee is a robust blend of links to news around the internet concerning the Naval Air Station Patuxent River economic community. The opinions expressed here do not reflect opinions of the Leader’s owners or staff.

A 134,000-ton Hyundai tanker just became the first boat to cross the Pacific Ocean autonomously, although half of the trip required human navigation. The liquefied natural gas carrier sailed itself for roughly 12,427 miles, reports The Robb Report. The Prism Courage left the Gulf of Mexico on May 1 and arrived at South Korea’s western Chungcheong Province 33 days later.

House lawmakers want a 4.6% pay raise for troops to begin January 1, 2023, reports Military Times, as well as studies to ensure military pay keeps pace with civilian wages and families’ financial needs.

The Biden administration last week announced it was forgiving all $5.8 billion remaining in federal loan debt for 560,000 borrowers who attended the now-shuttered Corinthian Colleges, reports Military.com. It is unclear exactly how many veterans are among the 560,000 covered in Thursday’s announcement, with an Education Department official saying the agency did not track borrowers’ veteran status.

The world economy looks much worse than it did just months ago, reports Business Insider, and most countries will have a hard time avoiding downturns in the near future, according to a new report from the World Bank. The organization now sees the world economy expanding 2.9% through the year, down from the 4.1% forecast in January and the 5.7% gain seen through last year.

A new policy keeps some HIV-positive troops deployable and bars involuntary separation, reports Military Times. HIV-positive service members with an undetectable viral load can not only stay in uniform but remain deployable. New guidance laid out in a memo released Tuesday reverses a previous policy that allowed commanders to involuntarily separate troops with HIV, prevent them from deploying ― which can result in a discharge on its own ― and prevent enlisted troops from attending officer candidate school and earning a commission.

Russia’s use of electronic warfare in eastern Ukraine provides a preview to US troops about what it will be like to fight an adversary that can intercept and jam their communications, sever all links to their drones flying overhead, and blind their radars and other sensors, reports Task & Purpose.

From 1955 to 1975, the Army conducted chemical weapons testing on volunteer soldiers at the Edgewood Arsenal facility in Maryland in pursuit of an agent that could disable enemy troops on the field of battle without killing them. “Dr. Delirium & the Edgewood Experiments,” is a new Discovery+ documentary (available on June 9, 2022) that chronicles the program and its long-term effects on the soldiers who participated in the testing. Dr. James Ketchum led the experiments. Military.com has a clip of Ketchum defending his methods.

House lawmakers want an independent review of DoD’s test and evaluation strategy in light of a growing infrastructure and equipment shortfall, reports C4ISRNET. The House Armed Services cyber, innovative technologies, and information systems subcommittee released its version of the fiscal 2023 defense policy bill June 7. Pentagon officials have highlighted major gaps in testing and lab infrastructure in recent months.

Toxic exposure legislation to benefit millions of veterans appears poised to become law later this month with broad bipartisan support despite continued concerns from some conservative critics about the price tag for the sweeping measure, reports Military Times. On Tuesday, the Senate voted 86-12 in a procedural move to advance the legislation, setting up full chamber passage of the measure in coming days.

Four out of five members of the Proud Boys extremist group indicted for seditious conspiracy related to the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol are veterans, according to court documents and the military services, reports Military.com.

 

 

USNI News Fleet and Marine Tracker: June 6, 2022.

Human error figures prominently in cyber leaks and stolen passwords a significant entry point. Manufacturing.net offers five things to consider for creating a solid, unbreakable password in a straightforward manner.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement sent new directive on Tuesday to Homeland Security dictating that service records are considered when deciding whether to force deportation of a non-citizen veterans detained by ICE, reports Military Times. This is not a new policy, but the new directive formalizes it to assure better compliance.

FBI seizes former Marine GEN John R. Allen’s data related to Qatar lobbying, reports Marine Corps Times. Authorities say the retired four-star general made false statements and withheld “incriminating” documents about his role in an illegal foreign lobbying campaign on behalf of the wealthy Persian Gulf nation of Qatar. New federal court filings obtained Tuesday outlined a potential criminal case against Allen, who led US and NATO forces in Afghanistan before being tapped in 2017 to lead the influential Brookings Institution.

The Ukraine invasion prompts a congressional push for a new look at Patriot missile defense needs, reports Defense News. The Army is closing in on a decade preparing to slowly replace Patriot with a future Integrated Air-and-Missile Defense System. Patriot will continue to serve during years of transition. Patriot missiles also remain in the inventory of 17 partnered and allied countries, many in Europe.

A House Armed Service Committee panel wants the DoD to submit a new assessment detailing the Pentagon’s ability to defend against incoming missile threats, according to Breaking Defense, and also wants details of plans to modernize missile defense systems and identify current gaps.

House Armed Services Committee will prevent the Navy from retiring five ships and backs the Marine’s call for 31 amphibs, reports USNI.

US lacks a clear picture of Ukraine’s war strategy, reports The New York Times, even as the United States ships billions of dollars in weapons to the Ukrainians and there are near-daily social media updates, American intelligence agencies possess a far better picture of Russia’s military operations than Ukraine’s.

Applicants are sitting for the Foreign Service’s notoriously difficult multiple choice entrance exam this week. They are the first cadre of future diplomats to be selected through the service’s updated hiring process, reports Federal Times, which gives the test more weight than it had in the past. Some are questioning what prompted the sudden and unexplained change.

A Naval Academy midshipman died early Tuesday while on leave, reports Navy Times. The student’s identity is being withheld pending next-of-kin notification, academy officials said in a brief statement.

A Kansas woman who joined ISIS pleaded guilty to terrorism charges, reports The Washington Post. Allison Fluke-Ekren, 42, admitted in federal district court in Alexandria that she was the leader of the Khatiba Nusaybah, a female battalion that prepared to defend Islamic State-controlled Raqqa, Syria, in 2017. She faces up to 20 years in prison. Researchers who study extremism say that hundreds of Western women have joined or given support to the Islamic State, but that Fluke-Ekren is the first US woman to be prosecuted for a leadership role in the Islamist militant group.

Northrop Grumman received a $254.4 million order from the Navy to build surface warship electronic warfare systems to jam or spoof enemy radar targeting, reports Military Aerospace. The systems are for guided missile destroyers, aircraft carriers, and amphibious assault ships.