Current Events in the Americas

From DefenseNews' Intercepts blog [excerpt]

From Air and Space Power Journal, November-December 2012 issue (pdf)

From AOL Defense [excerpt]

From How the North-South divide plays out in three key swing states (Lexington Institute's Early Warning blog) [excerpt] Harpoon is no stranger to North vs South scenarios, however unpleasant such a prospect might be ...

This thread idea is initially to compare the both controversial LCS designs with other alternative designs, in service, future or projected. Basically the parameters of comparation are those of cost, size, weapons (also in relation to size), crew size (and consequent fatigue levels), speeds and ranges, but extensive to all the other parameters, as sensors. The thread is also extensive to other conceptual alternatives, as replacement for another type of conventional warships, as FFG or FFL, or ever the replacement by another tactical or strategical concept, as UAV, manned air power, swarms of low technollogy boats or hired pirates.

From Defense Aerospace [excerpt] CV32: Flight III will start with John Finn (DDG 113).

I've been doing a little thinking about the LCS, both in terms of the politics and the possibilities for scenario design. My limited understanding of the controversy surrounding the LCS is that a) people are annoyed that the ship has cost so much to develop and build and people are disappointed that some of the promises associated with the design (all those modules, etc.) have not been delivered. I don't know how justified these complaints are, but it sounds like there have been a lot of problems with the development of the LCS, and these are certainly legitimate reasons for people to be upset. Question...from what I can tell, there are currently contracts to bu…

US Navy report to Congress outlining the policies and practices for naming Navy vessels (July 13, 2012) Final Ship Naming Report to Congress

From Time Magazine's Battleland blog [excerpt]

From AOL Defense [excerpt]

From http://www.defensenews.com/article/20120926/DEFREG02/309260005/U-S-Navy-4-Missile-Cruisers-Remain-Service?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE [excerpt]

From http://defense.aol.com/2012/09/26/eye-on-speed-navy-minesweepers-take-cues-from-nascar/ [excerpt]

From http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/us-navy-to-add-sensor-fusion-to-super-hornet-fleet-376973/ [excerpt] CV32: Seems like with each passing day, the potential advantages offered by the F-35 are being eroded by features being added to the existing fleet of F-15, F-16, F/A-18, etc.

From http://www.janes.com...x?ID=1065971775 [excerpt]

From http://www.heraldonline.com/2012/09/21/4281857/us-army-navy-demonstrate-jlens.html [excerpt] Hat tip to Brains.

http://www.navy.mil/submit/display.asp?story_id=69657 (h/t Alert 5)

From http://defense.aol.com/2012/09/18/boeing-plows-through-kc-46-reserves-funding-sequestration-would/ [excerpt]

From http://www.military.com/daily-news/2012/09/12/nrc-dump-boost-phase-ballistic-missile-defense.html [excerpt] The report can be found at: http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=13189

Thought this was a story from the Onion when I first heard it ... http://www.globalnews.ca/arrow%2Bcould%2Bfly%2Bagain/6442711404/story.html

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