The Army Brief: New Spy Plane / Training Ukraine / Toxic Base Water

Welcome to The Army Brief, a weekly look at the news and ideas shaping the service’s future. 

Spy plane. Defense One’s Marcus Weisgerber was invited to see the Leidos ARTEMIS before it was handed over to the U.S. Army for use as its newest spy plane. The plane, which uses antennas and computers to intercept and decipher enemy communications was built “to monitor the complex communications of an adversary nation-state from standoff distance,” Weisgerber writes. Read on, here.  

Training Ukraine. Soldiers from U.S. Army Europe and Africa Command’s Seventh Army Training Command will train about 500 Ukrainians a month at ranges in Germany as part of expanded training announced Thursday at the Pentagon. “It’s essentially focused at the battalion level. And so as we move forward, we will stay flexible and adaptable based on the needs of our Ukrainian partners and the evolving situation in Ukraine,” Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said in a press conference. Read more by Defense One’s Patrick Tucker, here. 

OCONUS cloud. The Pentagon wants to extend the cloud beyond the continental United States, and hopes to develop a prototype in the first half of next year, Defense One’s Lauren C. Williams reports. The move is necessary to keep up with China, according to Sharon Woods, the director for DISA’s Hosting and Compute Center.

Toxic water. Roughly 175,000 troops at 24 military bases each year are exposed to chemicals in drinking water, according to a Pentagon report made public by the Environmental Working Group. The bases with high levels of Per- and Polyfluorinated Substances, or PFAS, include Joint Base Lewis-McChord and Army installations in South Korea, Military Times reported Thursday. (PFAS are known as “forever chemicals,” because they never break down.) 

Sign up to get The Army Brief every Friday morning from Defense One. On Dec. 15, 2011, U.S. military operations in Iraq officially ended with the lowering of the American flag in Baghdad.

From Defense One

Inside the Army's Newest Spy Plane // Marcus Weisgerber

Already watching over Ukraine, Leidos' ARTEMIS is part of the service's growing fleet of contractor-owned intelligence aircraft.

US To Expand Ukraine Training Mission Early Next Year // Patrick Tucker

New program aims to train 500 Ukrainians a month in Germany.

Inside Google's Quest to Digitize Troops' Tissue Samples // James Bandler

The tech giant has long sought access to a priceless trove of veterans' skin samples, tumor biopsies and slices of organs. DOD staffers have pushed back, raising ethical and legal concerns, but Google might win anyway.

The Physical Obstacles to the Pentagon's Connect-Everything Vision // Patrick Tucker

Jets, destroyers, and soldiers are very different data customers, but the Pentagon wants to serve them all equally.

For DOD, 2023 Is All About Proving It Can Build A Tactical Cloud // Lauren C. Williams

The plan is to develop and deploy a prototype, possibly in the Pacific region, in the next six months. The newly awarded Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability will help.

Stop Building a Military to Attack China // Dan Grazier

Concentrate instead on deterring Beijing, and keeping a Chinese invasion force from going anywhere.

Inside Google's Quest to Digitize Troops' Tissue Samples // James Bandler

The tech giant has long sought access to a priceless trove of veterans' skin samples, tumor biopsies and slices of organs. DOD staffers have pushed back, raising ethical and legal concerns, but Google might win anyway.