The D Brief: Army’s new acquisition approach; US warns Israel on Gaza; Ukraine’s Victory Plan; Milley’s blastproof curtains; And a bit more.

All things Army: The U.S. Army will expand its new-tech effort, cut some arms programs, and overhaul its acquisition approach, Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George said Tuesday at the AUSA convention in Washington, D.C. Known as “Transformation in Contact 2.0,” the effort will send new tech to two armored brigade combat teams, two Stryker brigade combat teams, and other units in the Guard and Reserves, plus some “protection and sustainment” units by the end of fiscal year 2025.

That expands the TiC effort from the three brigades that since February have been experimenting with drones, electronic warfare equipment, communications tech, and other items, many influenced by lessons from the war on Ukraine.

Going stealthy: The TiC effort is running in tandem with Army efforts to hide in plain sight on the battlefield, which George said has resulted in the brigades reducing their electromagnetic and physical presence by nearly 90 percent.

New acquisition approach: “We cannot buy programs for ten years at a time anymore, technology changes too fast,” George said. Instead, he wants to buy more things in tranches that permit more frequent changes. He also said some programs will be cut: “old, stand-alone tech that doesn’t connect to our network, equipment that can’t operate in our [transforming-in-contact] formations.” Defense One’s Sam Skove has more, here.

TiC Pacific sitrep. The commander of one of the original TiC units, the 2nd Brigade of the 25th Infantry Division, has been wringing out their new gear in Hawaii, the division commander told an AUSA audience. Among their findings: tropical heat drains drone batteries, fast. Read on for more, here. 

Related reading:

• “US Army rushes to boost defenses as Russia ups strike-drone autonomy,” reports Defense One’s Patrick Tucker: “Russia is giving its armed drones more autonomy as Ukraine’s defenses tighten, a dynamic that has the U.S. Army working harder to bulk up its own anti-drone and -missile systems, service and industry officials said.”
• “Protest puts Army’s HADES spy plane on hold,” from Defense One’s Audrey Decker.
• And check out our AUSA page for more throughout the day. 

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Welcome to this Wednesday edition of The D Brief, brought to you by Ben Watson with Bradley Peniston. Share your newsletter tips, reading recommendations, or feedback here. And if you’re not already subscribed, you can do that here. On this day in 1964, China detonated its first nuclear weapon.

New: U.S. weapons shipments to Israel could be in jeopardy if humanitarian conditions for besieged residents of Gaza don’t improve in 30 days, Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin and State Secretary Antony Blinken warned Israeli military and diplomatic officials in a letter dated Sunday. Israeli News 12 first reported the letter’s existence, copies of which were later obtained by stateside outlets like Axios and CNN. 

For the record: “Israel has received more U.S. military aid than any other country since World War II,” the Washington Post reported Monday in a U.S. arms export explainer. 

Israel may be making things worse in Gaza, Austin and Blinken worry. “We are particularly concerned that recent actions by the Israeli government — including halting commercial imports, denying or impeding nearly 90 percent of humanitarian movements between northern and southern Gaza in September, continuing burdensome and excessive dual-use restrictions, and instituting new vetting and onerous liability and customs requirements for humanitarian staff and shipments — together with increased lawlessness and looting — are contributing to an accelerated deterioration in the conditions in Gaza,” the two U.S. secretaries wrote. 

U.S. requirements include “allowing at least 350 trucks a day to enter Gaza through the territory’s four major crossings ahead of winter,” and the creation of a “new communication channel to discuss incidents surrounding civilians that would begin to be used by the end of this month,” Politico reports.

Official Pentagon reax: “This was personal private correspondence, so I’m not going to get into more specifics of it other than, you know, it was expressing concern about the humanitarian conditions in Gaza,” Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said Tuesday.

According to CNN, “Israel appears to already be responding to the letter, at least indirectly. Just one day after the letter was sent, COGAT, the Israeli agency that manages policy for the Palestinian territories and the flow of aid into the strip, tweeted photos of aid going into Gaza.” That tweet “ended a two-week period during which the UN said no food aid was delivered to the north, and supplies essential for survival were running out for the 400,000 Palestinians there,” according to the BBC. 

Official White House reax: The message “was not meant as a threat,” but “It appears to us that [the Israelis] are taking this seriously,” White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said Tuesday.

Additional reading: 

Russia launched one of its largest drone attacks on Ukraine in months on Wednesday, sending at least 136 drones at the capital city and several other locations across the country, Kyiv’s General Staff announced on social media. Ukraine says it shot down 68 of the drones; though some appear to have triggered a fire at an industrial facility in the western region of Ternopil, Reuters reports. 

Update: Zelenskyy outlines his new “Victory Plan.” Ukraine’s president explained his plans to turn the tide in the nearly three-year Russian invasion in remarks before parliament Wednesday in Kyiv. The plan has five “main points,” and three “secret annexes,” President Zelenskyy said.

He kicked things off with an abundance of ambition, announcing, “The first point is an invitation to NATO. Right now,” Zelenskyy said. Few, if any, NATO allies are pressing for such a rapid accession process; so this, perhaps more than any other aspect of his plan, falls almost entirely in the “wishful thinking” category. 

His next three points have a military focus, including more air defense systems from allies, expanding missile and drone production, and lifting restrictions on striking military targets inside Russia, among others. Read a summary, via Zelenskyy’s office, here. 

By the way: SecDef Austin is traveling to Belgium today for a meeting of NATO defense chiefs, followed by a separate meeting of the U.S.-led counter-ISIS coalition. He then plans to fly to Italy for the first-ever G7 defense ministers meeting in Naples. “The discussions at the G7 will center on ensuring continued security assistance for Ukraine, addressing the need to de-escalate tensions in the Middle East, exchanging views on the importance of a free and open Indo-Pacific, discussing support for partners in Africa, and fostering additional cooperation on the defense industrial base and issues among world’s leading democratic economies,” Sabrina Singh said Tuesday in a short preview. 

Related reading: 

More than 11,000 soldiers and airmen have helped with hurricane recovery efforts across the American south after Milton and Helene tore across Florida, North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, and Virginia, National Guard officials said this week. 

Update: That overall number has dropped somewhat in the last few days, with 4,500 National Guard soldiers from seven states still working the Hurricane Milton response after that storm made landfall on October 9. An estimated 4,500 others, including 3,000 Guardsmen from 13 states along with 1,500 active duty soldiers, are still helping with Helene recovery, the Pentagon said Tuesday. 

Among their tasks: “Rescu[ing] hundreds of people threatened by flooding, clear[ing] roads, distribut[ing] food, water and other vital supplies, provid[ing] security, direct[ing] traffic — even provid[ing] much-needed hugs to residents reeling from the damage caused by the storms,” the Army said Sunday. 

Said one Florida Guard director, Col. Blake Heidelberg: “We’re tired. I’m not going to lie.”

Follow-up: The U.S. military just revised the discharge status for hundreds of service members who had been administratively separated under the policy known as Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, which prohibited gay and lesbian people from serving openly from 1993 until 2010. 

“What this means is that of the nearly 13,500 individuals who were administratively separated under Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, and served long enough to receive a merit-based characterization of service, 96% now have an honorable discharge,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Tuesday, more than a year after the review was announced. 

“We will continue to honor the service and the sacrifice of all our troops—including the brave Americans who raised their hands to serve but were turned away because of whom they love,” Austin said, and vowed the military will “strive to do right by every American patriot who has honorably served their country.”

Lastly today: Milley needs blastproof curtains. America’s last Joint Chiefs Chairman Army Gen. Mark Milley told author Bob Woodward for this latest book “that [Milley] feared being recalled to uniform to be court-martialed ‘for disloyalty’ should Mr. Trump win re-election,” the New York Times reported in an election analysis published Wednesday. But that’s not all. “After criticizing Mr. Trump in a pointed retirement speech, General Milley told Mr. Woodward that he installed bulletproof glass and blastproof curtains at his home.”

Why bring it up? The U.S. election is just three weeks away. But in just the last few days, Trump has described his political opponents as “evil” and an “enemy from within” that could cause chaos and disruptions on Election Day—carrying forward his 2016 conception of the United States as a place of “carnage,” as he proclaimed in his inauguration speech, with Trump as the only solution. Such a chaotic Election Day scenario, he said in an interview with Fox on Sunday, “should be very easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military, because they can’t let that happen.”

“They are so bad and frankly, they’re evil,” Trump said at a rally on Monday. “They’re evil. What they’ve done, they’ve weaponized, they’ve weaponized our elections. They’ve done things that nobody thought was even possible.”

Worth noting: “Never before has a presidential nominee — let alone a former president — openly suggested turning the military on American citizens simply because they oppose his candidacy,” the Times reported Wednesday. In so doing, “Trump is offering voters the choice of a very different, and far less democratic, form of American government.”

Related reading: 

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