Quipper memberikan sosialisasi mengenai Implementasi Kurikulum Merdeka kepada kepala sekolah (Foto: Ist)
Ratusan kepala sekolah di Semarang, Jawa Tengah menjajal pemanfaatan teknologi pendidikan sekaligus mendapat sosialisasi Implementasi Kurikulum Merdeka (IKM) dari Kementerian Pendidikan, Kebudayaan, Riset, dan Teknologi (Kemendikbudristek).
Ketua Pokja Pembelajaran, Ketua Pokja Pembelajaran Ditjen Guru dan Tenaga Kependidikan (GTK) Kemdikbudristek, Medira Ferayanti mengatakan bahwa kecakapan memimpin (leadership) menjadi esensial bagi seorang kepala sekolah dalam membantu guru menghadapi setiap perubahan, contohnya dalam implementasi kurikulum merdeka.
"Sebagai pemimpin, kepala sekolah tidak bisa hanya menyuruh dan mengimbau, tapi harus memberi contoh menjadi role model yang baik. Apabila kepala sekolahnya semangat belajar, guru-guru yang lain pasti juga termotivasi untuk belajar dan mau mengikuti perubahan," kata Medira dalam keterangannya pada Rabu.
Medira juga menambahkan bahwa kepala sekolah memiliki tanggung jawab untuk memfasilitasi pengembangan kompetensi guru dengan memperkuat komunitas belajar, baik di dalam sekolah, antarsekolah, maupun di Platform Merdeka Mengajar (PMM), sebuah platform teknologi yang disediakan untuk guru dan kepala sekolah dalam mengajar, belajar, dan berkarya.
"Kepala sekolah bisa menjadwalkan kegiatan komunitas belajar yang di dalam sekolah dulu secara rutin. Untuk komunitas belajar antarsekolah dan PMM bisa menjadi dukungan tambahan," kata Medira.
Kondisi pandemi COVID-19 telah mendorong sejumlah inovasi dan transformasi pendidikan dilangsungkan dalam waktu yang relatif cepat, sebut saja penggunaan teknologi yang intens dalam Kegiatan Belajar Mengajar (KBM) dan kebijakan kurikulum merdeka.
Dalam situasi ini, guru, sebagai garda terdepan pendidikan dituntut adaptif dalam menyikapi setiap perubahan. Namun, tak jarang juga didapati sejumlah guru di Indonesia yang masih belum memiliki kecakapan ini.
Ketua Penilaian Kinerja Kepala Sekolah (PKSS) Semarang, Sunarno mengatakan pemanfaatan teknologi oleh guru di kotanya masih cukup terbatas.
"Di Semarang masih banyak sekolah yang melaksanakan KBM menggunakan teknologi digital secara terbatas dan belum mengeksplorasi aplikasi-aplikasi yang tersedia saat ini secara maksimal," kata dia.
"Sebagian besar guru menggunakan aplikasi offline misalnya PowerPoint dan hanya sebagian kecil guru memanfaatkan aplikasi online. Inilah yang sedang kita dorong terus," imbuh Kepala Sekolah SMA Kesatrian 2 Semarang tersebut.
Dengan adanya sosialisasi terkait pemanfaatan teknologi yang didukung pihak swasta yakni Quipper, Sunarno menyebut dirinya semakin paham keuntungan-keuntungan dari penggunaan teknologi pendidikan untuk mempermudah penyelenggaraan KBM dan mengelola sekolah.
"Menurut saya, aplikasi seperti Quipper School Premium ini sangat dapat membantu penyelenggaraan KBM lebih efektif, menarik, dan berkualitas. Lebih dari itu, kepala sekolah juga dapat mengontrol KBM secara real time," kata dia.
Quipper School Premium Manager, Riza Purnama mengatakan sosialisasi tersebut merupakan komitmen pihaknya memberikan dukungan kepada kepala sekolah, dalam menghadapi tantangan perubahan pendidikan saat ini.
"Melalui sosialisasi ini, Quipper ingin membekali kepala sekolah dengan pengetahuan praktik agar kepala sekolah dapat membangun kemandirian guru menghadapi perubahan," kata dia.
Platform pendidikan Quipper bekerja sama dengan Kementerian Pendidikan, Kebudayaan, Riset, dan Teknologi (Kemdikbudristek) memberikan sosialisasi Implementasi Kurikulum Merdeka dan pemanfaatan teknologi, yang menyasar ratusan kepala sekolah di Kota Semarang, Jawa Tengah.
Quipper School Premium Manager, Riza Purnama, mengatakan sosialisasi tersebut merupakan komitmen pihaknya memberikan dukungan kepada kepala sekolah, dalam menghadapi tantangan perubahan pendidikan saat ini.
Diketahui, hingga Februari 2023, Quipper telah memberikan sosialisasi ini di sembilan forum kepala sekolah yang tersebar di provinsi Jawa Tengah, D.I. Yogyakarta, Jawa Timur, dan DKI Jakarta dan telah menjangkau lebih dari 230 sekolah di wilayah tersebut.
The site of a crash, where two trains collided, is seen near the city of Larissa, Greece, March 1, 2023. REUTERS/Kostas Mantziaris
Sixteen people died and least 85 were injured after two trains collided in Greece late on Tuesday, the fire brigade said, while the circumstances of the crash remained unclear.
The two trains – a passenger train travelling from Athens to the northern city of Thessaloniki, and a cargo train from Thessaloniki to Larissa, collided head on outside the city of Larissa in central Greece, Konstantinos Agorastos, governor of the broader Thessaly region, told SKAI TV.
“The collision was very strong,” he said, adding that the first four carriages had derailed, while the first two were“almost completely destroyed.”
A man walks at the site of a crash, where two trains collided, near the city of Larissa, Greece, March 1, 2023. REUTERS/Kostas Mantziaris
MrAgorastos said about 250 passengers were evacuated safely to Thessaloniki on buses.
Broadcaster SKAI showed footage of derailed carriages, badly damaged with broken windows and thick plumes of smoke, as well as debris strewn across the road. Rescue workers were seen carrying torches in carriages looking for trapped passengers.
JUST IN: Cargo train and passenger train collide in Central Greece, several dead multiple injured.. pic.twitter.com/TG9nVmsSmE
“There was panic in the carriage, people were screaming,” a young man who was evacuated to a nearby bridge told SKAI TV. “It was like an earthquake,” Angelos Tsiamouras, another passenger, told ERT.
Multiple train cars derailed and at least three caught fire after the crash near Tempe, some 380 kilometres (235 miles) north of Athens. Hospital officials in the nearby city of Larissa said at least 60 people had been hurt, 25 of them seriously.
Rescuers wearing head lamps worked in thick smoke, pulling pieces of mangled sheet metal from the crashed rail cars to search for trapped people.
The site of a crash, where two trains collided, is seen near the city of Larissa, Greece, March 1, 2023. REUTERS/Yiannis Floulis/File Photo
Government officials said the army has been contacted to assist in the rescue and that two additional hospitals in Larissa had been placed in emergency duty.
Badan Meteorologi, Klimatologi, dan Geofisika (BMKG) menyebut cuaca ekstrem yang terjadi di wilayah Jabodetabek beberapa hari belakangan kebanyakan terjadi pada dini hari hingga pagi hari.
Bahkan, hujan juga disertai angin kencang yang datang sewaktu-waktu dan tak jarang membuat pohon yang ada di pinggir jalan tumbang.
"Hal tersebut dipicu oleh adanya pengaruh monsun Asia yang cukup konsisten dan kemudian diperkuat oleh aktifitas aliran lintas ekuatorial yang cukup signifikan dalam beberapa hari terakhir," kata Senior Forecaster BMKG, Muhammad Hakiki saat dikonfirmasi, pada hari Rabu, 01/03/2023.
Aktivitas tersebut memicu pertumbuhan awan-awan hujan jenis cumulonimbus (Cb) di sekitar wilayah Indonesia terutama di bagian barat di wilayah pulau Jawa, sebagian wilayah Kalimantan, dan Sumatera.
Awan Cb tersebut dapat menimbulkan terjadinya hujan lebat yang disertai kilat/petir dan hembusan angin yang cukup kencang.
Selain itu, Hakiki juga menyebut cuaca eksrem juga disebabkan karena adanya pola pertemuan dan belokan angin di sekitar wilayah Jawa sehingga meningkatkan potensi pertumbuhan awan hujan.
"Selain itu aktifnya gelombang atmosfer berupa Rossby Ekuatorial dan Gelombang Kelvin yang terpantau aktif di wilayah Indonesia," kata Hakiki.
BMKG pun memperkirakan potensi cuaca hujan sedang hingga lebat masih dapat terjadi dalam tiga hari ke depan, dengan kejadian hujan banyak pada dini hari hingga pagi hari.
Untuk itu, BMKG mengimbau masyarakat agar tetap hati-hati dalam beraktivitas dan mempersiapkan payung serta jas hujan bila berpergian rumah.
Penjelasan BMKG berbeda pada tahun 2020, bahwa cuuaca ekstrem yang melanda Jabodetabek, beberapa hari terakhir, menurut BMKG, dipicu karena faktor dinamika atmosfer skala lokal.
Demikian diungkapkan Kepala Badan Meteorologi, Klimatologi, dan Geofisika (BMKG) Dwikorita Karnawati di kantornya, Jakarta, hari Selasa, 25/02/2020. Kala itu akan diresmikannya Pandemi Virus Corona oleh WHO.
Pada bulan Desember 2022, terjadi perbedaan pendapat antara Brin dan BMKG. Dikatakan saat itu tersiar kabar akan terjadi badai dahsyat di Jabodetabek pada 28 Desember 2022.
Atas hal itu Badan Meteorologi, Klimatologi dan Geofisika (BMKG) menyebut merujuk dari berbagai parameter fenomena alam tersebut memiliki peluang yang cukup kecil untuk terjadi.
"Berdasarkan Prakiraan cuaca BMKG, pada 28 Desember 2022 pada umumnya adalah hujan dengan intensitas sedang hingga lebat namun bukan badai," kata Deputi Bidang Meteorologi BMKG Guswanto kepada wartawan di Jakarta, Selasa.
Atas prakiraan cuaca tersebut, ia mengimbau masyarakat untuk tetap tenang dan terus memperbaharui informasi melalui kanal-kanal resmi BMKG.
Kendati begitu, Guswanto tetap mengimbau kewaspadaan masyarakat dengan segala potensi bencana hidrometeorologi di penghujung tahun.
"BMKG mengimbau masyarakat agar mewaspadai dampak dari potensi cuaca ekstrem ini yaitu adanya potensi bencana hidrometeorologis," kata dia.
Sementara itu, Kepala Pusat Meteorologi Publik BMKG, Fachri Radjab, mengatakan hujan dengan intensitas sedang hingga lebat bahkan sangat lebat masih berpotensi terjadi hingga awal Januari 2023.
Dari penjelasan BMKG, disana tidak diikutsertakan data pantauan 10 terakhir ke belakang dan tidak melakukan riset lebih mendalam. Karena cuaca extrem masuk dalam katagore badai.
Sejumlah pelajar Sekolah Menengah Atas (SMA) mengikuti aktivitas belajar mengajar di SMA Negeri I Kupang di Kota Kupang, NTT, Rabu (1/3/2023). Pemerintah provinsi NTT menerapkan kebijakan aktivitas sekolah bagi SMA/SMK Negeri di NTT dimulai pukul 05.00 WITA dengan alasan untuk melatih karakter siswa SMA/SMK di NTT. ANTARA FOTO/Kornelis Kaha/nym.
Siswa-siswi SMA dan SMK di Kupang Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT) mulai Senin 27 Februari 2023 masuk sekolah jam 5 pagi.
Hal itu disampaikan Gubernur Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT) Viktor Bungtilu Laiskodat di sebuah video yang viral di media sosial.
Dilansir laman Pemprov NTT, melalui Dinas Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan menjelaskan sudah ada 10 SMA dan SMK yang menerapkan jam masuk sekolah jam 5 pagi.
"Sekolah yang lain masih dalam tahap sosialisasi kepada orang tua. Tapi sosialisasi bukan berarti tunda, tapi tetap laksanakan sambil kajian terus berjalan,” jelas Kepala Dinas Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan Pemprov NTT, Linus Lusi.
Sejumlah pelajar Sekolah Menengah Atas (SMA) mengikuti aktivitas belajar mengajar di SMA Negeri I Kupang di Kota Kupang, NTT, Rabu (1/3/2023). Pemerintah provinsi NTT menerapkan kebijakan aktivitas sekolah bagi SMA/SMK Negeri di NTT dimulai pukul 05.00 WITA dengan alasan untuk melatih karakter siswa SMA/SMK di NTT. ANTARA FOTO/Kornelis Kaha/nym.
Menurutnya alasan masuk sekolah jam 5 pagi adalah bagian dari strategi mendisiplinkan generasi bangsa melalui jalur pendidikan.
Sementara itu dilansir dari TikTok @NTTupdate seorang guru di SMA Negeri 6 Kupang KTT menyatakan siap meskipun ada pro dan kontra masuk sekolah jam 5 pagi.
"Ini adalah hari pertama SMA Negeri 6 Kupang menerapkan aturan serta arahan dari Bapak Gubernur dan Kepala Dinas Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan provinsi Nusa Tenggara Timur tentang pemberlakuan mengajar yang dimulai jam 5 pagi. Tentunya akan banyak pro dan kontra tentang ini. Namun kami sebagai guru yang profesional tetap menjalankan aturan tersebut terbukti dengan hal ini kami semua hadir jam 5 pagi di sekolah," katanya.
Aturan ini pun ditanggapi beragam oleh netizen di media sosial Twitter.
Sejumlah pelajar Sekolah Menengah Atas (SMA) mengikuti aktivitas belajar mengajar di SMA Negeri I Kupang di Kota Kupang, NTT, Rabu (1/3/2023). Pemerintah provinsi NTT menerapkan kebijakan aktivitas sekolah bagi SMA/SMK Negeri di NTT dimulai pukul 05.00 WITA dengan alasan untuk melatih karakter siswa SMA/SMK di NTT. ANTARA FOTO/Kornelis Kaha/nym.
"Pertimbangannya apa ya, masih gelap banget gitu jam 5. Ada-ada aja pak Gubernur," tulis netizen.
"Kalau di Nusa Tenggara Timur jam 5 sudah terang benderang," balas netizen.
"Jam 07:00 sudah ideal KBM jam 5 pagi maju 2 jam berarti berarti harus bangun jam 3 pagi persiapan sekolah jam 4 otw sekolah," tulis netizen lainnya.
"NTT viral deng aturan baru anak2 sekolah wajib masok sekolah jam 5 pagi. Pertanyaannya adalah masok jam 5 pagi tuh ada faedah ko snd utk buat anak2 tmbah smngt belajar?," tulis netizen.
The United States military, with its official budget larger than the next nine countries combined, is quickly running low on weapons after sending over $100 billion in military assistance to Ukraine over the past year.
The issue raises the question of whether the US military, ostensibly designed to be able to defeat two major powers at once, has weakened itself significantly in its quest to arm Ukrainians forces.
There is also the question of where those weapons will ultimately end up. Multiple media reports over the past year have raised the specter of the weapons entering the black market and potentially being used against America or its allies.
It has happened before. After the US armed and trained mujahideen fighters in their fight against the USSR in Afghanistan, some of those weapons and fighters were on the opposing side when the US invaded Afghanistan in 2001. And then it happened again when the Taliban retook the country in 2021, capturing significant caches of US military equipment originally supplied to the former Afghan government.
Pentagon: Ukraine Conflict Revealed Weakness of US Munitions Production Base
The United States’ involvement in the Ukraine conflict revealed the weaknesses of its defense industrial base’s ability to produce an adequate amount of munitions, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl said on Tuesday.
“I think what the Ukraine conflict showed is that, frankly, our defense industrial base was not at the level it needed to be to generate munitions,” Kahl said during a House Armed Services Committee hearing.
The US is investing in replenishing its own stocks, Kahl said. The Pentagon is confident that proper investments have been made for contingencies involving Russia, China, North Korea and Iran, Kahl said.
The US is also investing to make sure it can provide Ukraine with the munitions they need, Kahl added. Kahl went on to claim that the US was not aware of whether the Azov regiment* had access to US weapons sent to Ukraine.
Moreover, Kahl declined to discuss in an unclassified setting whether there is CIA personnel in Ukraine providing training to the Ukrainians.
"The Ukrainians have at times asked us for as many as 128 4th generation aircraft, a mix of F-15s, F-18s and F-16s," Kahl told the US House Armed Services Committee. "Our Air Force estimates that over the long term Ukraine would probably need 50 to 80 F-16s is to replace their existing air force."
Kahl explained that new production of F-16 jets for Ukraine would take three-to-six years to deliver, but the United States could deliver older model F-16 jets to Ukraine in about 18-to-24 months. However, he pointed out that providing Ukraine with F-16 jets would take out huge portions of remaining security assistance funding for Ukraine that should go toward more urgent priorities such as air defense, artillery and armored vehicles.
The United States has committed more than $32 billion in military assistance to Ukraine over the past year under the Biden administration, including 38 HIMARS rocket systems, a Patriot air defense battery, eight National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems, 31 Abrams tanks, 109 Bradley combat vehicles, 8,500 Javelin anti-armor systems, 232 howitzers and 1,600 Stinger anti-aircraft systems, the Defense Department said last week. US Congress has approved more than $100 billion in military and financial assistance to Ukraine in the past 12 months.
While President Joe Biden has repeatedly said the US will keep supplying Ukraine the weapons it needs for “as long as it takes," US media have published a number of damning reports over the past months on the impact the Ukraine conflict has had in straining the US and Europe’s defense capabilities. An unnamed NATO official was cited as saying that “everyone is now sufficiently worried” as the conflict continues and arms stockpiles threaten to plunge below levels required to meet NATO defense obligations.
Meanwhile, David T. Pyne, former US Army combat arms and headquarters staff officer, told Sputnik last month that the decision to export a huge number of weapons to Ukraine has left the US military "critically short of important weapon systems including missiles, rockets and ammunition which it would need to fight a great power war."
“Some of these deficiencies, particularly in artillery shells, will take nearly half a century to remedy even if the US ramps up ammunition production,” Pyne warned.
Russia’s War on Ukraine, China’s Rise Expose US Military Failings
It was envisioned as the centerpiece of a $200 billion program revolutionizing how the US Army would fight. Now it’s languishing in storage in Virginia, a 25-ton symbol of the malaise that lies at the nexus of the Pentagon and the defense industry.
The Non-Line-of-Sight Cannon (NLOS-C), a self-propelled 155mm howitzer on tank tracks, was integral to Army plans to develop the kind of high-tech system that would help offset the numerical advantages of a peer like China or Russia in a future conflict.
It was part of an ambitious concept to replace combat units with a family of ground and air vehicles, both manned and robotic, all networked wirelessly.
Only it was too ambitious: the so-called Future Combat Systems program was plagued by technology issues, slips in schedule and ballooning costs. By the time the NLOS-C was put on show on the National Mall in Washington in 2008 as part of the Army’s charm offensive on Capitol Hill, doubts were already beginning to form.
“We were under such pressure to finish the assembly and integration on time, we were putting parts together that had never been assembled before,” recalls Mark Signorelli, who worked for contractors United Defense and later BAE Systems, which developed the NLOS-C.
In 2009, after spending $20 billion in eight years with little to show for it, the Pentagon canceled Future Combat Systems — run by Boeing Co. and SAIC — to avert what then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates termed a “costly disaster.”
The collapse of what was the largest and most ambitious acquisition program in Army history illustrates how the defense industrial base that has underpinned US military primacy for decades is misfiring. Munitions shortages, failed audits and surveillance gaps exposed by the Chinese balloon ultimately shot down off South Carolina suggest that America’s military-industrial complex may no longer be fit for purpose.
As Russia’s special military operation of Ukraine enters a second year, and China relations plumb new depths over flashpoints from Taiwan to semiconductors, that reality raises serious questions about US readiness to fight a war.
“We have a defense industrial base that’s built to achieve first-level deterrence by virtue of the world class platforms we have deployed,” said Roy Kamphausen, a former China strategist for the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff and now president of the National Bureau of Asian Research. “But there are serious questions about how we would sustain ourselves in a high-intensity conventional conflict of more than a few weeks in duration.”
After decades of consolidation, the industry suffers from a paucity of competition and lacks the kind of “surge capacity” needed to wage major industrial wars. Cost overruns are routine. And a culture of risk aversion rules from the Pentagon to the boardrooms of defense industry giants.
One upshot: the scrapping of Future Combat Systems means that more than a decade later the US Army has yet to develop a replacement for its Cold War-era armored vehicles — the Abrams tank and the Bradley Fighting Vehicle.
Or take hypersonic missiles, a field in which the US once held a strong technological lead as far back as the 1960s. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) began a program to design hypersonic weapons in the early 2000s, only to halt it following a series of early failed tests.
Spin forward to summer 2021, when China conducted two hypersonic weapons tests, including the launch into space of an orbiting weapon capable of carrying a nuclear payload, alarming military planners in Washington. The fast, low-flying and highly maneuverable weapons represent a potential threat to the homeland, since they could be used to send nuclear warheads over the South Pole and around US anti-missile systems.
Yet the tests also spoke to a deeper concern that the US may have chronically underestimated China’s ability to deliver innovative technologies to its military.
The moment encapsulated a failure of the Defense Department to transition critical technologies in R&D to production, with the result that “in the interim, Russia and China caught up,” said Michèle Flournoy, a former Undersecretary of Defense for Policy. “Now we are playing catch up.”
Last summer brought another wake-up call. As Washington sent Ukraine Javelin anti-tank missiles and Stinger surface-to-air missiles, along with howitzers and ammunition, it began to deplete its own stockpiles, demonstrating its own lack of resilience.
A third shock as regards US ability to counter China is only now dawning, according to Flournoy, a potential future contender for Secretary of Defense: the presence of Chinese-made components throughout defense supply chains that create “unacceptable dependencies if not vulnerabilities.”
“Most prime contractors can’t even tell you how much Chinese content is in their systems, ranging from semiconductors to displays to nuts and bolts,” she said.
The Defense Department acknowledged that the defense industrial base faces many of the same supply-chain challenges as other sectors.
“Lead times from ordering a component to delivery drive production timelines,” said spokesman Jeff Jurgensen. “To offset long lead times, the Department is making sustained investments to expand production capacity and stockpile critical weapons and materials.”
The defense industry’s problems have crystallized into a matter of urgency over the last 18 months, but they date back decades.
In the wake of the Soviet Union’s fall, US politicians hoped to cash in on the “peace dividend,” the promise of economic benefits from reduced defense spending.
Then-Deputy Secretary of Defense William Perry laid out what this would mean for the industry at a dinner now known as the “last supper,” in which he told executives to consolidate or face extinction.
Consolidate they did. The defense sector has moved from more than 70 aerospace and defense “prime contractors” that worked directly with the government in 1980 to just 5 by the early 2000s, the same number as today: Lockheed Martin Corp., Raytheon Technologies Corp., General Dynamics Corp., Northrop Grumman Corp., and Boeing.
“Not too many years ago, we had five times as many contractors and there was more competition and there was more creativity,” said Representative Ken Calvert, the California Republican at the helm of the House’s defense spending panel. “As these larger guys kept buying the smaller guys coming up with the ideas, and then encapsulate them and restructure, it’s taken a lot of the innovation out.”
Even some major projects end up with just one bidder. In 2019, Boeing declined to compete for a Pentagon program to develop and procure a next-generation intercontinental ballistic missile because it viewed the tender as heavily skewed in Northrop Grumman’s favor, leaving Northrop as the sole bidder for the nearly $85 billion project.
The dearth of contractors and rigid requirements from their single customer, the Pentagon, helps contribute to the cost overruns that have become synonymous with the industry. One prominent example is the Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship. What Navy leaders had touted as a 55-vessel fleet costing $220 million per ship has dwindled to 35 costing on average $478 million apiece.
That’s nothing compared with the F-35. The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter — the world’s most expensive weapons program — is projected to cost $1.7 trillion over its 66-year lifetime, roughly equivalent to the nominal GDP of Russia. Despite its eyewatering price tag, the jet is still plagued by deficient software.
These overruns are baked into the system. Like many defense projects, the F-35 is intricately bound up with US domestic politics. Nearly every state has economic ties to the project, with 29 states counting on it for $100 million or more in economic activity. The F-35 directly and indirectly creates about 250,000 jobs in 45 states and Puerto Rico, according to Lockheed Martin.
The tortured process of defense acquisition has squeezed creativity from the system and made it difficult to deliver innovation. A 2021 Hudson Institute study argued that the time it takes for the Defense Department to go from identifying a need to awarding a contract has increased from about one year in 1950 to seven years today. For innovative systems, such as the F-35, it can take another 21 years to become operational.
China, by contrast, is able to deliver capabilities far more quickly. In a July 2021 address, Maj. Gen. Cameron Holt, then deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, estimated that China is procuring munitions and other high-end weapons systems “five-to-six-times” faster than the US.
At the nub of the problem is the Pentagon’s planning, programming, budgeting and execution process, known as PPBE. It controls the resources that make weapons programs happen, but such is its reputation that Congress created a commission to overhaul the process. It’s due to report this year.
“The Pentagon is such a huge bureaucracy and the budgeting process and acquisition processes are really long, very slow, very cumbersome and very linear,” said Stacie Pettyjohn with the Center for a New American Security. “You’re not really rewarded for taking risks.”
The Pentagon’s largess is so sprawling that, through military bases and contracts, it touches all 535 members of US Congress — money that translates into jobs and revenue for companies that are major campaign donors.
Then there are Pentagon regulations, which over time have helped shape the way defense companies work. The result is traditional defense contractors are adept at maneuvering the onerous regulations process required to do business with the Pentagon, whereas startup firms are not.
Elon Musk had to sue the government to allow SpaceX to compete for the Pentagon’s national security space launches. The US government at the time was pouring money into United Launch Alliance — a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin — that had to use Russian-made rocket engines to propel Pentagon satellites into space after the government decided neither Lockheed nor Boeing were up to the task of being a launch provider.
Musk won. By the time he sued, SpaceX had flown its Falcon 9 rocket and was already entrenched with NASA. And United Launch Alliance is now partnered with Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin to develop a fully reusable, American-made engine.
“They have a motto: Fail To Succeed,” said Calvert, who’s known Musk for 20 years. “In other words, they’re not afraid of failure, because they learn from those failures and then they move on to the next thing.”
The system even struggles to make enough of platforms and technologies the US already has, as illustrated by the lack of capacity to make enough munitions to replace those sent to aid Kyiv. The number of Javelins transferred between February and August last year represented seven years of production at 2022 rates, a study by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington found. The number of Stingers equaled the total built for all foreign customers over the last two decades.
The shortfalls stem from reforms introduced in the 1990s, when the Pentagon encouraged defense contractors to embrace the “just-in-time” revolution in manufacturing. The new system was imperfect, but it wasn’t necessarily inefficient for the challenges of the day. It is now, though.
“The application prioritized the reduction of slack over the maintenance of surge flexibility, a shortcoming that is becoming glaringly evident now in the brittleness of the manufacturing ecosystem,” said Cynthia Cook, director of the Defense-Industrial Initiatives Group at CSIS.
The Pentagon treats the defense industrial base like “a hardware store that has many other customers,” said Eric Fanning, a former Army Secretary who now is the president of the Aerospace Industries Association. Whereas in fact there is just one, meaning that there is no sense for munitions companies to maintain capacity that exceeds demand.
These same constraints on US industrial production exposed by supplying Ukraine would apply in any potential war against China — whose economy is some 10 times larger than Russia’s. Recent war games conducted by CSIS found that the US could run out of long-range, precision-guided munitions in less than a week in a conflict over Taiwan.
At the same time as it pursued a manufacturing revolution, the industry embraced globalized supply chains in search of low costs and high efficiency with little regard to geopolitical risk.
A February 2022 Pentagon report highlighted supply-chain vulnerabilities in areas including hypersonics, directed energy weapons, and microelectronics. The Titanium Metals Corporation (TIMET), for example, is the last remaining US producer of titanium sponge, necessary for the manufacture of military engines and airframes to armor for America’s main battle tank.
In September 2022, the Pentagon halted deliveries of the F-35 after finding an alloy used in magnets for pumps made by Honeywell International Inc. was made in China. Deliveries resumed after the company found an “alternative US source” for the alloy.
All of these factors have implications for America’s ability to deter China.
The US government is reevaluating its processes for designing, manufacturing, delivering and sustaining equipment, said the Defense Department’s Jurgensen. “These actions will allow us to deliver modernized capabilities to the warfighter at the speed and scale required for the high-end fight – providing a deterrent value all their own.”
There are reasons to avoid panic. The US still spends more on its military than anyone else and possesses technology that China and others are clamoring to copy. China also has its own problems, with chronic corruption and an inability to catch up on foundational technologies like semiconductors and jet engines.
There’s a new sense of urgency in the Pentagon after recent shocks. Even the canceled Future Combat Systems program had its merits, argues Signorelli, formerly of BAE Systems.
“I can point to vehicles today that are using technology that we developed on FCS,” he said.
For John Ferrari, a retired Army major general who served as director of program analysis and evaluation, the issue is that the relationship between industry and its Pentagon patron is so complex and multifaceted that it’s difficult to know where reforms should begin.
“Every single person knows that what we’re doing is crazy,” said Ferrari. “But everybody is helpless to change it.”
The remaining Ukrainian battlegroup entrenched in Artyomovsk (called Bakhmut in Ukraine) numbers at least 3,000-strong personnel, Yan Gagin, military-political expert and adviser to the acting head of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), told TASS on Tuesday.
"The Ukrainian force grouping of the Artyomovsk garrison numbers at least 3,000 personnel. The rotation is impeded along with the supplies. Now there are actually no attempts to send supplies to the garrison because all of them are being thwarted," Gagin said.
The military-political expert did not rule out breakthrough attempts by enemy convoys to deliver supplies to the entrenched garrison in Artyomovsk. Also, the Ukrainian military is probably trying to withdraw some of its troops from the city, he said.
Artyomovsk is located on the Kiev-controlled part of the Donetsk People’s Republic and is a major transport hub for the Ukrainian army’s supplies in Donbass. Fierce fighting for the city is underway. Acting DPR Head Denis Pushilin said on February 16 that Russian troops had seized all major heights near Artyomovsk.
Situation in Artyomovsk is much worse than Kiev admits, CNN reports
The situation near Artyomovsk, known in Ukraine as Bakhmut, is much worse for Ukrainian forces than Kiev officially admits, CNN reported on Tuesday, citing Ukrainian troops fighting for the town.
"The situation in Bakhmut is very difficult now. It is much worse than officially reported," a soldier who wished to remain anonymous told CNN on Tuesday. "We should add another 100% difficulty to the official reports. In all directions. Especially in the northern direction."
Another soldier said in a video that "the situation around the defense of Bakhmut is quite difficult". A third soldier described the fighting as "hellish."
Artyomovsk is located in the Kiev-controlled part of the DPR and is an important transportation hub for supplying Ukrainian troops in Donbass. Fierce fighting has been raging for the town. Denis Pushilin, the interim head of the Donetsk People’s Republic said on February 16 that Russian forces had seized control of all key heights near Artyomovsk.
Belarusian Armed Forces, joint contingent with Russia a deterrence for Kiev — diplomat
The combat potential of Belarusian Armed Forces, augmented by the joint (with Russia) group of forces on Belarusian territory is a serious deterrence factor for the Kiev Regime, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin said in an interview for Lenta.ru.
"The Belarusian Armed Forces are not directly involved in the special military operation, but their combat potential, augmented by the contingent of the joint Russian-Belarusian group of forces in the republic, is a serious deterrence factor for the Ukrainian Regime," the Deputy Foreign Minister said.
"Belarusian authorities treated the goals of the special military operation with understanding, and it has been consecutively and fully fulfilling their allied obligations before our country. During the initial stage of the special operation, when additional casualties were still avoidable, our Belarusian friends have exerted significant efforts to provide for negotiations with the Kiev authorities on Belarusian territory," he Galuzin said.
The combat potential of Belarusian Armed Forces, augmented by the joint (with Russia) group of forces on Belarusian territory is a serious deterrence factor for the Kiev Regime, Galuzin added.
"The Belarusian Armed Forces are not directly involved in the special military operation, but their combat potential, augmented by the contingent of the joint Russian-Belarusian group of forces in the republic, is a serious deterrence factor for the Ukrainian Regime," the Deputy Foreign Minister said.
Special operation, 28 February. Main :
▪️The Kiev regime uses terrorist methods, Putin said at the FSB board;
▪️Putin instructed the FSB to put a barrier to Ukrainian sabotage groups, the Russian-Ukrainian section of the state border of the Russian Federation should be under the special control of border guards;
▪️The United States is planning a provocation using toxic substances in Ukraine, they will blame Russia for this, the Russian Defense Ministry said. A train with a cargo of chemical substances arrived in Kramatorsk, later they were delivered to the line of contact;
▪️Russian electronic warfare systems suppressed Ukrainian drones that tried to attack civilian targets in the Krasnodar Territory and Adygea, the Russian Defense Ministry said;
▪️The drone crashed near Kolomna in the Moscow region, the target could be a civilian infrastructure object, the governor of the Moscow region said;
▪️Leopard tanks were seen in the Artemovsk area, this is the same target for the Russian military as other enemy equipment, said the adviser to the acting head of the DPR;
▪️The US is receiving and assessing reports of misuse of US “military aid” to Ukraine;
▪️Western media compared the volume of tanks promised to Ukraine by the EU countries with a "stream", which reflects the decline of the European military-industrial complex;
▪️Stoltenberg called Ukraine's membership in the alliance a "distant prospect"
▪️China's plan to resolve the Ukrainian conflict in terms of ensuring security is consistent with the approach of the Russian Federation, Peskov said.
Russian MoD briefing on the progress of the special military operation in Ukraine:
▪️The Russian Army eliminated up to 25 Ukrainian soldiers and 2 vehicles close to Kupyansk;
▪️Russian troops eliminated more than 120 Ukrainian troops, 4 armored fighting vehicles and a self-propelled Akatsiya howitzer in the Krasny Liman direction;
▪️Ukrainian losses in Donetsk amounted to 350 troops; 2 armored combat vehicles, four vehicles, D-20 howitzers and 2 D-30 howitzers;
▪️Russian artillery destroyed up to 45 Ukrainian soldiers, two infantry fighting vehicles and three pickup trucks in the South Donetsk direction and in the Zaporozhye region. Russian forces destroyed ammunition depot of the Ukrainian Army in the Zaporozhye region;
▪️Russian forces performed a high-precision strike on the ammunition depot of the Ukrainian Army close to Kherson;
▪️Russian air defense systems shot down eight Ukrainian UAVs and six HIMARS rockets in LPR, DPR and in the Zaporozhye region.
