Current Events in the Americas

Lockheed starts final assembly on last F-22A or Lockheed finds new structural weaknesses on two F-35 variants

From USNI Proceedings, September 2012 issue http://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2012-09-0/new-kind-carrier-air-wing

From http://www.defence-aerospace.com Predator Reaches Initial Operating Capacity Source: US Air Force; issued March 1, 2005 LANGLEY AIR FORCE BASE, Va. --- One of the most heavily used and valued weapons systems of operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom has reached initial operating capability, Air Combat Command officials here announced March 1. The MQ-1 Predator unmanned aerial vehicle was officially declared IOC March 1 by Lt. Gen. William Fraser III, ACC’s vice commander. The milestone was reached after the MQ-1 completed eleven requirements including supportability, maintainability and aircraft and parts availability. Initially fielded as…

Senate panel cuts 1 of 3 LCS ships, backs FCS By William Matthews - Staff writer Posted : Tuesday Sep 11, 2007 17:59:18 EDT The Senate subcommittee that oversees the U.S. military budget eliminated one of the U.S. Navy’s Littoral Combat Ships Sept. 11, leaving the program with just two ships. Each remaining vessel is a different design, and the subcommittee said it expects the Navy to pick one as the winner in a contest between Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics to build as many as 55 ships for the Navy. In documents prepared by the subcommittee, senators said the two ships should be delivered to the Navy by next summer and the Navy should evaluate them…

Mayport, JFK were terror targets, paper says By Zachary M. Peterson - Staff writer Posted : Thursday Jul 5, 2007 11:48:07 EDT A group of 45 Muslim doctors threatened terrorist attacks at Naval Base Mayport, Fla., the British newspaper the Telegraph reported Thursday. British authorities discovered details of the threats on a Web site run by a “cyber-terrorist” gang, the newspaper account said. The group of 45 doctors, which investigators believe have no link with the recently detained doctors and medics involved with car bomb attempts in London and Glasgow, planned to “undertake jihad and take the battle inside America,” according to the story. The fi…

From DefenseNews Containers, Motherships and Multimission Modules - Boxes as the U.S. Navy's New Vision? By CMDR. GREG PARKER Published: 8 March 2010 Last month, the Navy's first Littoral Combat Ship, USS Freedom, began its inaugural deployment to the Caribbean Sea and South America. Designed to address the Navy's capability gap in the "green water" near the world's land masses, or littorals, the LCS represents a change in naval design philosophy from mission-specific ships to a multi-function concept that has begun to pervade the service from top to bottom. With its interchangeable modules - large boxes resembling rail cars tailored for specialized missions…

CV32: "You must think in Russian ..." From Flight Global DATE: 20/09/10 SOURCE: Flight International Mind control on the UAV brain By John Croft Along with its biologically inspired unmanned systems research, engineers at the University of Maryland are delving into novel operator control concepts for unmanned air vehicles. On display at a 10 September open house of the new Maryland Robotics Center was a brain wave control technology developed by a contractor and former student, Paul Samuel, president of Daedalus Flight Systems. Using a headset controller made popular last year in Mindflex's mind control game, Samuel showed how a quadrotor helicopter …

Experts Question US Navy's Decision To Swap Out DDG 1000's Secondary Gun (DefenseNews)

The Age of the Strike Carrier is Over (CIMSEC) Some problems with this article, not the least of which is a misunderstanding of the actual history which reflects negatively on the overall argument being put forward. This comment, for example, talking about Desert Storm: The PGM capability of the A-6E TRAM Intruder was in place long before Desert Storm. And Navy A-6E jets dropped a significant proportion of the munitions delivered. (The proportion of PGMs was small overall, something like 5% of total munitions, but that was true across all services/platform and the bad weather/smoke/haze of the battlefield made it difficult for all EO/IR guided muni…

From Defense Aerospace First British Pilot to Finish Raptor Training (Source: US Air Force; issued July 18, 2006) TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. --- The first British pilot to complete F-22 Raptor training graduated this week at Tyndall Air Force Base. Flight Lt. Dan Robinson, from the Royal Air Force, is assigned to Langley Air Force Base, Va. He has completed two months of training with the 43rd Fighter Squadron as part of an exchange program. In return, an American fighter pilot will be trained and fly side-by-side with the Royal Air Force on the new EF-2000 Eurofighter Typhoon. For the coalition, the benefit of the exchange program is the implementa…

From Marine Corps Times Tarawa to decommission Thursday By Gidget Fuentes - Staff writer Posted : Tuesday Dec 2, 2008 16:37:20 EST SAN DIEGO — After 32 years, Tarawa is going to bid farewell to its sailors. Navy officials on Thursday will retire the amphibious assault ship, which in June returned to its pier at San Diego Naval Base after wrapping up its final operational deployment to the Persian Gulf and Northern Arabian Sea. One of Tarawa’s former skippers, Rear Adm. Garry Hall, will speak during the formal decommissioning ceremony that afternoon. Hall commanded the ship during a 2000 deployment that included assisting with efforts to recover victims o…

From DefenseNews DoD: U.S. Needs Stealthy Airlifter By JOHN T. BENNETT Published: 8 March 2010 By the 2020s, U.S. special-forces troops will need a stealthy new airlifter to sneak past ever-improving radar and missile systems into "denied areas," says the Pentagon's top civilian special operations official. "At some point, serious consideration will need to be given to the development and fielding of a more survivable, long-range SOF [special operations forces] air mobility platform that exploits advances in signature reduction and electronic attack," Michael Vickers, assistant U.S. defense secretary for special operations, low-intensity conflict and interde…

How a $2.7 billion air-defense system became a 'zombie' program (LA Times)

Hard-kill anti-torpedo defensive system apparently full deployed in USS George H Bush (and apparently the sensors and warning elements lacking the hard-kill elements in other five carriers, not very clear the article on this point): http://www.scout.com/military/warrior/story/1711759-us-carriers-deploy-new-torpedo-defense-system

A floating junkyard’ Environmental risks keep mothball fleets at anchor By Marcus Wohlsen - The Associated Press Posted : Friday Jul 6, 2007 7:31:47 EDT BENICIA, Calif. — From afar, the ghostly warships recall a fierce phalanx ready for battle. A closer look, though, shows the rust and rot of ships unfit for duty or even dismantling, a quandary that is costing U.S. taxpayers millions of dollars and could cause environmental misery that will cost millions more. This is the Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet, a collection of once-valiant troop transports, tankers and other vessels dating back to World War II, Korea and Vietnam. Before they can be scrapped and sold, …

From Aviation Week ARES Blog Patrol Planes of the Caribbean Posted by Joris Janssen Lok at 2/18/2008 3:47 AM After more than three years of interim solutions, maritime air surveillance flights by the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba Coast Guard (NAACG) have reached a situation of stability with the arrival of a second Dash-8 patrol plane operated by Provincial Airlines of Canada. The long-range maritime patrols for the NAACG from Hato Airport, Curacao, Netherlands Antilles, were conducted by Lockheed Martin P-3C Orion aircraft of the Royal Netherlands Navy through 2005. But when the Netherlands Government decided to sell its P-3C fleet (to germany and Portu…

The New Strategic Realities of U.S. Carrier Operations (USNI News)

From Navy Times San Antonio shipping out After delays and nearly $1 billion in cost overruns, amphib’s maiden voyage nears By Andrew Scutro - Staff writer Posted : Monday Aug 25, 2008 11:22:04 EDT NORFOLK, Va. — The banner on the brow of the amphibious transport dock San Antonio reads, “Never Retreat. Never Surrender.” And for a while there, it also looked as if the ship would never deploy. But after years of design problems and delays, the San Antonio finally is ready to head overseas. The ship, the first of the LPD 17 class, is scheduled to depart Norfolk this week as part of the Iwo Jima Expeditionary Strike Group, Navy officials say. “She is ready f…

From ARES Deficit Reduction Plans: the President and the Raptor Posted by Michael Bruno at 2/23/2009 9:59 AM CST Bloomberg is reporting that President Barack Obama's budget cuts rely heavily on reductions in military spending, and several other news organization said the same over the weekend. Maybe you've heard already, but if not then it's worth noting that Obama this week will be talking about cutting the "exploding" U.S. deficit in half by the end of his in 2013 (his word). According to administration officials, who previewed info to many reporters on back-ground conditions last week, the plan will rely in part on the drawdown in combat forces in Iraq and…

From Ares KC-X Bids in: And the Race Begins, Again Posted by Amy Butler at 7/9/2010 12:45 PM CDT Another year is halfway through, and another round of tanker bids is in. A winner is expected Nov. 12, though Air Force officials simply say fall. Don't expect much out of the Pentagon. It appears to be in lock down mode. Air Force spokeswoman Col. Debra Millett says the service will not even disclose how many bidders offer proposals. Clearly, the name of the game is protest avoidance. Here's Millett's statement: "The KC-X program is presently in the source selection process, and in order to protect the integrity and independence of this process, we are pr…