Putin Orders Russians Out of Kabul

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Four Russian military planes evacuated Russian and other nationals from Kabul on Wednesday on the orders of President Vladimir Putin, marking a shift in Russia’s stance on Afghanistan, reports Reuters. The Kremlin described the situation as very tense and, citing the presence of Islamic State in Afghanistan as well as the Taliban, said that the terrorist threat was “very high.”

Democrats and Republicans called on President Joe Biden to push back his Aug. 31 deadline to withdraw American forces helping to evacuate thousands of US citizens and Afghan allies, reports The Hill. The lawmakers said sticking to the deadline, as Biden officials indicated Tuesday the president plans to do, risked leaving US allies behind.

Two members of Congress flew unannounced on charter aircraft into Kabul airport in the middle of the ongoing chaotic evacuation Tuesday, angering DoD and White House officials, reports Military Times. Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) and Rep. Peter Meijer (R-MI) were on the ground at the Kabul airport for several hours. The two lawmakers are both military veterans with backgrounds in the region.

China has kept its embassy in the city open and says it has no plans for a wholesale evacuation of its citizens in Afghanistan. The Chinese Foreign Ministry says China has established an “open and effective communication and consultation with the Afghan Taliban,” reports Military Times. China hosted a delegation led by senior Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar for talks last month, prior to Taliban’s lightning sweep to power in Kabul.

During a regional visit, Vice President Kamala Harris continued to charge China with bullying its Southeast Asian neighbors and the Chinese foreign ministry shot back on Wednesday, accusing the US of meddling in regional affairs and disrupting peace, reports Reuters.

Food inflation is affecting prices at grocery stores everywhere, but commissary officials can offset some of the price hikes since the 236 commissaries around the world are subsidized by about $1.1 billion annually, reports Military Times. Commissaries are mandated to  sustain an overall patron savings of 23.7 percent against local market basket averages.

The top general overseeing the Pentagon’s push to connect sensors and shooters said the department is lacking key components for survivable Joint All-Domain Command and Control in contested environments, reports C4ISRnet. Among capacities still needed is handling interference by adversaries.

 

 

Marine Times takes you along with US joint forces on coordinated multi-domain, multi-platform, long-range maritime strikes on the decommissioned guided-missile frigate Ingraham near Hawaii.

The Navy is reconsidering its 2019 plan to reduce medical staff, part of a military-wide review of 18,000 proposed job cuts in health fields, in response to lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic, reports Military.com. The reduction was to come mainly by attrition, by not filling jobs after a service member departs, but also through reductions of billets.

The US Space Force’s next generation of missile warning satellites has passed a major design milestone, clearing the way for fabrication and integration to begin, reports Defense News. The Air Force awarded Lockheed Martin $2.9 billion in 2018 for design work, while the Space Force issued another $4.9 billion to begin manufacturing. The first satellite is set to launch in 2025.

A lack of accurate maps threatens to delay the $42 billion earmarked in the federal infrastructure bill for states to expand broadband internet projects in unserved or underserved areas. But maps needed to identify these areas could be one or two years away from being drawn, reports Roll Call.

Meredith Berger has been named as the undersecretary of the Navy by new NavSec Carlos Del Toro, reports Defense News. Berger replaces James “Hondo” Geurts.

President Joe Biden announced a list of 10 nominees for the Federal Services Impasses Panel, which resolves disputes that arise during negotiations between unions and agencies, reports FCW. It has been without members since Biden pushed out former President Donald Trump’s FSIP appointees in February 2020. Biden tapped Martin Malin, a longtime professor at Chicago-Kent College of Law at the Illinois Institute of Technology, to serve as FSIP chair. Malin also served on FSIP from 2009 to 2017 after being appointed twice by former President Barack Obama. For members, Biden has chosen Wynter Allen, Jeanne Charles, Howard Friedman, Edward Hartfield, Marvin Johnson, Mark Pearce, Pamela Schwartz, Joseph Slater and Tamiko Watkins. Allen, Charles and Slater come with labor and employment law backgrounds.

Operational testing and evaluation of the US Navy’s Unmanned Influence Sweep System program has been completed, reports Defense News. The UISS system is a Textron-made mine countermeasures unmanned surface vessel towing a minesweeper.

Contracts:

Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine Inc., Bethesda, Maryland, was awarded a $48,060,258 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for overseas support activities for US Army Medical Research Directorate-Africa. Bids were solicited via the internet with two received. Work will be performed in Nairobi, Kenya; Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; and Kampala, Uganda, with an estimated completion date of Aug. 26, 2021. Fiscal 2021 operation and maintenance, Army funds in the amount of $5,425,775 were obligated at the time of the award. US Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity, Fort Detrick, Maryland, is the contracting activity (W81XWH-21-C-0097).

CORRECTION: The $965,030,816 multiple award contract (MAC II) announced on Aug. 13, 2021, to Austal USA LLC, Mobile, Alabama (N00024-21-D-4459); Colonna’s Shipyard Inc., Norfolk, Virginia (N00024-21-D-4460); East Coast Repair & Fabrication LLC, Portsmouth, Virginia (N00024-21-D-4461); Epsilon Systems Solutions Inc., Portsmouth, Virginia (N00024-21-D-4462); General Dynamics NASSCO-Mayport, Jacksonville, Florida (N00024-21-D-4463); North Florida Shipyards Inc., Jacksonville, Florida (N00024-21-D-4464); and Tecnico Corp., Chesapeake, Virginia (N00024-21-D-4465), does not include docking selected restricted availabilities.