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- Today
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Issues loading DB 17909 into game
When I try to import the new date base, I get a Run-time error 3201`: You cannot add or change a record because a related record is required in table tPlatform. Then if I try play the game, I get the following error message: ADDID to list error: expected a dick ID, got 53369 (Oxd079) This message had been logged. The program will now terminate. Additionally, if I try to run the platform editor, Get Disk Annex Error: (-8175 [Exe011])=2 This message has been logged. The program will now terminate. I've been playing 20+ years and have uploaded many a new DB many times. However, I know little about DBs so any help would be appreciated. Thanks!!
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Defence Blog - USS Tucson fast-attack submarine relocates to Guam
The fast-attack submarine USS Tucson (SSN 770) slid into Apra Harbor on July 10, swapping its old home in Pearl Harbor for a new one at Naval Base Guam, in a routine-looking port call that carries real weight for how the U.S. Navy positions its undersea forces against a rapidly expanding Chinese fleet. Tucson, a […]View the full article
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Defence Blog - US and Iran are trading strikes over a key oil route
U.S. Central Command finished its third round of airstrikes against Iran in a single week on July 11, hitting roughly 140 military targets after Iranian forces attacked another commercial vessel transiting the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway that carries a fifth of the world’s oil out of the Persian Gulf every day. The strikes, […]View the full article
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Defence Blog - Russia moves to shield warships from Ukrainian drone strikes
Russia has begun arming its large surface warships with new electronic warfare systems in an apparent attempt to counter Ukrainian drone attacks, according to imagery circulating in recent days on Russian military-affiliated social media channels. The anti-drone complex, identified as “Pereyed-M,” has reportedly been spotted installed on four vessels of the Russian Navy: the Project […]View the full article
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Defence Blog - Germany’s engine giant bought an armored vehicle maker
Germany’s DEUTZ AG, a 160-year-old engine manufacturer better known for building diesel motors than battle tanks, agreed on July 9 to buy FFG Flensburger Fahrzeugbau, one of Europe’s leading makers of armored vehicles, for €1.6 billion (roughly $1.83 billion). The deal marks the largest acquisition in the Cologne company’s history and signals a decisive break […]View the full article
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Defence Blog - Ukraine ramps up robot use to keep soldiers off the front line
Ukrainian ground robots ran more than 16,600 supply and evacuation missions in June, the highest monthly total since the Defense Ministry began tracking the numbers in January, and the pace shows no sign of slowing as Kyiv pushes to get soldiers off the most exposed roads to the front. Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said the […]View the full article
- Yesterday
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Defence Blog - Germany’s tank gift helps Czech Army finish modernization
The Czech Army held a handover ceremony on July 10 at the 73rd Tank Battalion’s base in Přáslavice, a garrison town in the Olomouc region of eastern Czechia, marking the delivery of the final Leopard 2A4 in a fleet that now totals 42 tanks. The Leopard 2A4 is an earlier variant of Germany’s Leopard 2 […]View the full article
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Defence Blog - British Army hosts demo of new UK counter-drone targeting system
OpenWorks Engineering, a counter-drone specialist based in Northumberland, England, announced this week that it recently attended an industry-focused counter-unmanned aircraft systems, or C-UAS, event at the British Army’s Larkhill Garrison, where the company demonstrated its Vision Pace targeting system to defense and security partners. Larkhill sits on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire and has served as […]View the full article
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Defence Blog - French robotics firm passes key test for future combat unit
Vigilant Solution, the robotics division of the French small business MP-SEC, announced that its team took part in a new round of trials last week for Pendragon, a French military program working to build the country’s first Robotic Combat Unit, known in French as the Unité Robotique de Combat, or URC. The French Army launched […]View the full article
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Defence Blog - Batch of South Korean combat vehicles spotted in Peru
Observers at the Port of Callao got an unexpected surprise this week: a shipment of at least two K2 Black Panther main battle tanks, alongside six K808 8×8 armored personnel carriers, arriving from South Korea. The vessel, identified through tracking data as the GLOVIS SAFETY (IMO: 9798399), makes the shipment one of the clearest confirmed […]View the full article
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Defence Blog - Australia trials recon drone built on lessons from Ukraine
Australia’s Army flew its Vector AI fixed-wing drone during Exercise Southern Jackaroo at the Townsville Field Training Area in Queensland, using the aircraft to identify targets in depth and feed that information directly into drone and artillery strikes on simulated enemy positions. The drone is built by Quantum Systems, a German manufacturer whose reconnaissance aircraft […]View the full article
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Defence Blog - US Air Force built a cheap cruise missile in record time
A U.S. Air Force and industry tandem developed and tested a new cheap cruise missile, Rusty Dagger, in record time, and the pace of that work is now difficult to compare with any previous program the service has run. What has traditionally taken years came together here in months. Driven by urgent frontline need and […]View the full article
- Last week
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Defence Blog - Australia tests SM-2 in first ground-based test
Australia has fired a live missile from a prototype ground-based air defense system for the first time, hitting a cruise missile target at the remote Woomera Test Range in South Australia and marking the debut pairing of an Australian-made radar with the U.S. Navy’s Aegis Combat System. The Department of Defence in Canberra announced the […]View the full article
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Defence Blog - Lockheed Martin wins deal for powerful laser weapon
Lockheed Martin has been tapped by the U.S. Department of War to build the most powerful laser weapon ever packed into a shipping container, a 500-kilowatt system designed to knock cruise missiles and drone swarms out of the sky before they reach American forces or the homeland. The Bethesda, Maryland-based defense giant announced the award […]View the full article
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LFDLM joined the community
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Defence Blog - U.S. Marines test-fire their new air defense system
U.S. Marines on a remote Pacific island just proved they can shoot down cruise missiles using a weapon system built around the same technology that has protected Israeli cities from rocket attacks for over a decade. Marines from III Marine Expeditionary Force successfully fired the Medium-Range Intercept Capability, or MRIC, system on June 30 during […]View the full article
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Defence Blog - U.S. Navy wants fast fix for the F-35B’s sludge problem
The U.S. Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division posted a sources sought notice on July 9 seeking companies capable of building a deployable cleaning system to remove what officials call “clutch sludge” from the F-35B’s short takeoff and vertical landing lift fan clutch cooling system, with responses due within just seven business days, by July […]View the full article
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Defence Blog - U.S. Navy’s “doomsday plane” isn’t retiring anytime soon
If nuclear war ever broke out and every ground-based command center went dark, a fleet of aging jets built on a 1960s airliner design would still be able to relay the launch order, and the U.S. Navy just opened bidding on a decade-long contract to keep those planes flying. The Naval Air Systems Command posted […]View the full article
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Defence Blog - Pentagon opens a new round in its hypersonic weapons race
The Pentagon just opened the door for private companies to pitch prototype hypersonic weapons capable of flying more than five times the speed of sound, releasing a formal Request for Solutions on July 9 that gives industry until August 10 to respond. The opportunity, titled Next Generation Hypersonics for the Department of War, runs through […]View the full article
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Defence Blog - Neros develops a low-cost interceptor drone
The company that helped supply Ukraine’s front lines with cheap, mass-produced attack drones just announced it is racing to build the exact opposite: a drone built specifically to hunt and kill other drones. Neros Technologies posted a video on July 10 showing early testing of what the company calls Bandit, a counter-unmanned aircraft system, or […]View the full article
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Defence Blog - U.S. Air Force to upgrade plane missile defense system
A shoulder-fired missile streaking toward a military cargo plane has mere seconds to find its target, and the U.S. Air Force has paid $60.4 million to make sure the aircraft sees it coming even faster. Northrop Grumman won a $60,438,241 contract to develop an enhanced sensor called the Optical Detection and Identification Node, or ODIN, […]View the full article
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Defence Blog - Türkiye reportedly sold its Russian S-400 system to the Gulf
Türkiye has reportedly sold its Russian-made S-400 air defense system to a Gulf state, according to Hürriyet columnist Abdülkadir Selvi, whose report ties the transaction directly to Türkiye’s yearslong effort to escape American sanctions and potentially reopen the door to purchasing F-35 fighter jets. Selvi wrote that the sale had been finalized after last-minute details […]View the full article
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Defence Blog - X-Bow lands $11M to build Pentagon’s next rocket motor
For decades, only two American companies could build the powerful solid rocket motors that launch the Pentagon’s biggest missiles into the sky, and the Missile Defense Agency just handed nearly $11 million to a New Mexico firm trying to break that monopoly wide open. X-Bow Launch Systems, based in Albuquerque, won a competitive $10,981,581 contract […]View the full article
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Defence Blog - Kongsberg secures $50M for U.S. Marine Corps’ ship-killing missile program
The U.S. Navy awarded Norwegian defense manufacturer Kongsberg Defence and Aerospace a contract modification worth roughly $50.3 million on July 2 to buy more launcher missile modules for what the Pentagon calls its “over-the-horizon weapons system,” the hardware behind a Marine Corps program that lets troops sink enemy warships from land without ever putting a […]View the full article
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CDR Salamander - The Ghost of the LCS Maintenance CONOPS Still Haunts the Fleet
Once a bad theory is adopted because it makes sense to one cohort (GOFOs who went to a two-week MBA camp) and is encouraged by others (influential civilian companies looking for another income stream), at the expense of what the first cohort should have been focused on but is an unpopular topic (winning wars), it spreads and develops its inertia. Even when one area discovers the theory does not survive contact with reality, other areas carry on because, well, going along is easier than admitting error and changing. When the maintenance CONOPS for the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) came out in the mid-00s with its reliance on civilian contractors and OEMs being responsible for maintenance that, on a normal ship, is done by the ship's company—many of us warned that it would not work. The miasma of arrogance that characterized the Age of Transformation™ would not hear of it, as you would not be able to make the manning CONOPS slide work if the maintenance CONOPS didn’t paper over the gaping holes. The Cult of Efficiency™ was in its ascendancy, while the Church of the Combat Effective™ were driven into basements, meeting in hushed tones. After over a decade and a half of everyone suffering through a series of senior leaders making farcical excuses, a half decade ago, Big Navy started to (officially) accept the reality that it was all vanity. Eventually the truth came out, as in the below from 2021, and a slightly better solution was found—though more work needs to be done. The Navy is beginning to implement contracting approaches for LCS maintenance in order to help mitigate schedule risk, while taking steps to avoid it in the future. GAO found in the 18 LCS maintenance delivery orders it reviewed that the Navy had to contract for more repair work than originally planned, increasing the risk to completing LCS maintenance on schedule. A majority of this unplanned work occurred because the Navy did not fully understand the ship's condition before starting maintenance. The Navy has begun taking steps to systematically collect and analyze maintenance data to determine the causes of unplanned work, which could help it more accurately plan for maintenance. The Navy has also recently begun applying some contracting approaches to more quickly incorporate unplanned work and mitigate the schedule risk, such as (1) setting a price for low-dollar value unplanned work to save negotiation time and (2) procuring some materials directly instead of waiting for contractors to do so. Such measures will be important to control cost and schedule risks as additional LCS enter the fleet in the coming years. Other similar vanities of that era are being corrected. The rebirth of SIMA is another example of positive change, but as mentioned earlier, more work needs to be done. This 'outsource it to the civilian sector—it briefs really well' mentality wasn’t just limited to the LCS program. Make no mistake, this was never about making a more combat effective Navy, no, this was always about feeding the Potomac Flotilla's warped priorities and industry's grasping business models. The Marines are suffering under the same mindlessness: The Marine Corps is facing “significant” challenges keeping some of its most important weapons in working order, because Marines too often must rely on contractors for equipment upkeep, the service’s second-ranking general recently wrote to a Senate panel. Gen. Bradford Gering, the Marine Corps assistant commandant, described for the Armed Services Committee cases involving several high-profile military systems — including parts for communications terminals and for armored vehicles — that Marines sometimes wait months for contractors to fix, when Marines could complete the repair in days or even hours for a fraction of the price if they controlled the data. … Warren and Sen. Tim Sheehy, R-Mont., have championed a so-called right-to-repair provision in the fiscal 2027 NDAA that would give the military services more control over the data they need to maintain their systems more rapidly than they do today and at lower cost. Their provision would expand the military’s access to repair materials, hold accountable companies that falsely assert restrictions and permit the military to contract with companies other than the original system manufacturers to perform repairs in wartime and contingency operations. If “right to repair” rings a bell, it is because a parallel fight is taking place against John Deere—one of the agriculture industry’s “Primes.” This is a bipartisan effort, as it should be. Civilian and uniformed leaders from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on down have supported shifting control over data rights from industry to the government to increase competition, reduce prices and ensure troops can fix their equipment on the battlefield. The department has begun to make some changes along those lines but many lawmakers believe a statutory change is required. Warren and Sheehy wrote Armed Services leaders in May to summarize the armed forces’ support for their measure. However, it has its opponents. Rep. Mike D. Rogers, R-Ala., the House Armed Services Committee chairman, has been sympathetic to the industry’s concerns. Late last year, the defense contractors successfully killed a right-to-repair proposal in the final negotiations over the fiscal 2026 NDAA. The issue is shaping up to be one of the big defense fights looming in the coming months, as lawmakers hope the NDAA can be enacted for the 66th consecutive year. It needs to be fixed, as we cannot fight wars like this. Because the Marine Corps is reliant on contractors to fix certain systems as a result of data restrictions, Marines have to wait too long and pay too much to fix several of their most important pieces of equipment, Gering said. One such system, he said, is the Amphibious Combat Vehicle program, which fields armored vehicles that can operate on both the water and land. Gering cited a panel in the driver’s compartment of the amphibious vehicle where key system controls are located. The panel “costs $3,040.88 to replace and takes approximately eight months for the repair via support from a secondary repairables exchange contract,” he said. “With access to an original part, however, the repair cycle could be reduced to less than one month — a trained Marine could repair this component in approximately four hours.” … Another key system affected are the masts that hold antennas for Mobile User Objective System terminals. These terminals link Marines who are on foot or in vehicles to communications satellites, providing the troops with smartphone-like voice and data connections to command posts that are beyond the line of sight. Marines were able to develop their own replacement mast that can be built for $10 in 10 hours, whereas a replacement mast from the original manufacturer “could cost up to $5,644.37 and take more than seven months to deliver,” Gering said — adding that the Marine Corps’ mast is “more durable than the original version.” This is a good fight…one that we never should have to fight…but a good one. BZ to all making this push. Leave a comment Share This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. View the full article
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Defence Blog - Greek Air Force F-16 makes emergency belly landing
A Greek Air Force fighter pilot pulled off a landing gear failure Thursday afternoon that could have ended very differently, bringing an F-16 down on its belly at Zakynthos airport after the jet’s wheels refused to extend during a routine training flight. The Hellenic Air Force confirmed the emergency landing occurred around 1:45 p.m. local […]View the full article