Current Events in the Americas

ATK and Lockheed Martin to Develop Conventional Ballistic Missile for U.S. Navy Tuesday July 12, 8:30 am ET Global Strike Builds on ATK/Lockheed Martin Strategic Deterrence Partnership Yahoo.com MINNEAPOLIS, July 12 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Alliant Techsystems (NYSE: ATK - News) and Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT - News) have been awarded a $9.2 million contract by the U.S. Navy's Strategic Systems Program (SSP) office to demonstrate and validate solid rocket motor technologies suitable for a Submarine Launched Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile (SLIRBM). SLIRBM is a conventional missile concept that builds on the heritage the two companies share in U.S. Navy st…

Make the Zumwalt a Fighting Command Ship (Proceedings, May 2020) I like this idea.

From Aviation Week Bill Redirects ARH Funds Toward UH-60s Mar 23, 2007 The Senate Appropriations Committee (SAC) approved legislation March 22 that would transfer supplemental fiscal 2007 funds requested for two Armed Reconnaissance Helicopters (ARH) to replace two UH-60 Black Hawks lost in combat. The roughly $122 billion bill also would fully fund seven other requested UH-60s, according to a summary of the legislation provided by SAC staff. The Senate is expected to take up the bill March 26, SAC Chairman Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) said after a markup hearing. Bell Helicopter Textron's prototype ARH-70A crashed on a golf course in Mansfield, Texas, on Feb. 2…

About time ... From CBC News [excerpt]

From AOL Defense [excerpt]

Officials Discuss Executive Agency for UAVs (Source: US Air Force; issued April 14, 2007) WASHINGTON --- Air Force officials invited Defense representatives to the Pentagon April 13 to discuss the Air Force's proposal to assume executive agent responsibilities for medium- and high-altitude unmanned aerial vehicles. The proposal was put forward March 5 in a memorandum to senior Defense officials from Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley. The memorandum stated the Air Force's desire for executive agency of the UAVs, and also indicated its desire to discuss the proposal with other service and combatant command representatives, said Col. …

This is interesting: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_warship_record Buddha

From DefenseNews Posted 03/28/07 18:15 Lawmakers Offer Ships That U.S. Navy Is Reluctant To Accept By WILLIAM MATTHEWS Some in the U.S. House of Representatives want to buy the Navy 12 new ships next year, not just the seven the service requested in the 2008 budget proposal. But when asked by appropriators in the Senate “what number is prudent,” the Navy’s top officer suggested maybe eight. After complaining for years that its fleet is shrinking and that its shipbuilding budget isn’t big enough, the Navy finds itself in the awkward position of having to turn down an opportunity to dramatically increase shipbuilding. One problem is that U.S. shipyards would be…

From DefenseNews Posted 01/11/07 21:45 LCS hits ‘considerable cost overruns’ By CHRISTOPHER P. CAVAS The Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), advertised by the U.S. Navy as a $220 million bargain, is going to come in at considerably more than that, according to a senior Navy official. “It appears that we’re having considerable cost overruns on it,” Delores Etter, the Navy’s top acquisition official, told reporters Jan. 11. “We’ve been doing our cost-performance review on the Lockheed Martin ship,” Etter said, noting that as the first of a class, “you’ve got some surprises you didn’t expect. But we’re trying to understand the exact cost increases and we’re working with …

Could New SSBN Program Sink U.S. Navy? (The Diplomat, Flashpoints blog)

SECNAV Names Navy’s Future Class of Guided-Missile Frigates (Seapower)

Newsday.com Navy gets first "Growler" with Northrop Grumman radar jammer BY JAMES BERNSTEIN james.bernstein@newsday.com 3:09 PM EDT, June 2, 2008 The Growlers are coming. The EA-18G Growler, that is. The EA-18G is a new electronic attack airplane, and the first of them is to be delivered to the Navy Tuesday at the Whidbey Island Naval Air Station in Washington state. Northrop Grumman's facility in Bethpage is a major contributor to the Growler, whose airframe is made by Boeing Co. Northrop Grumman engineers and technicians in Bethpage designed an advanced system -- called ICAP III, for improved capability -- that will aid the EA-18G in jammi…

From here, EMALS and other Ford-class problems, "Naval Air: 2USS Truman Gets Dent": https://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htnavai/articles/2025041502847.aspx#gsc.tab=0 Quote: "...EMALS less reliable than the older steam catapult. EMALS was also more labor intensive to operate and put more stress on launched aircraft than expected. Worse, due to a basic design flaw, if one EMALS catapult becomes inoperable, the other three catapults could not be used in the meantime as was the case with steam catapults. This meant that the older practice of taking one or more steam catapults offline for maintenance or repairs while at sea was not practical. The navy admitted that in …

Nobody has keep an eye in the Venezuelan flag in the Argentine ship embargoed in Ghana ?

Cruiser, amphib test Aegis today in shootdown By Audrey McAvoy - The Associated Press Posted : Thursday Jun 5, 2008 8:01:30 EDT HONOLULU — The U.S. military plans to intercept a ballistic missile in its first sea-based missile defense test since the cruiser Lake Erie shot down an errant satellite in a real-world mission earlier this year. The test, off Kauai, is the latest test of the Aegis ballistic missile defense program. The military will fire a Scud-like missile, which has a range of a few hundred miles, from the decommissioned amphibious assault ship Tripoli. The Lake Erie will fire two interceptor missiles at the target with the intention of shooti…

From Flight International DATE: 11/12/07 SOURCE: Flightglobal.com Production of first Boeing P-8A begins at Spirit By Graham Warwick Spirit AeroSystems has begun production of the fuselage for the first Boeing P-8A Poseidon maritime-patrol aircraft, a derivative of the Next Generation 737 under development to replace the US Navy’s Lockheed P-3 Orion. Loading of the assembly jig began at Spirit’s Wichita, Kansas plant on 11 December, and the first fuselage is scheduled to be dispatched by rail car 100 days later to Boeing’s 737 final-assembly line in Renton, Washington on 19 March 2008. The first P-8 is one of five – three flight-test aircraft and two…

From DefenseNews Venezuela's Chavez Offers Russia Use of Airbase By AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Published: 15 Mar 16:25 EDT (20:25 GMT) CARACAS - Venezuela has offered Russia unlimited use of an air base off its Caribbean coast for Moscow's strategic bombers, President Hugo Chavez said in a television address March 15. "I told [Russian] President [Dmitry] Medvedev that any time Russia's strategic aircraft need to land in Venezuela to meet their strategic aims, Venezuela will be at their service," Chavez said. Chavez's comments - made during his weekly television program "Hello Mr. President" - follow Russian media reports one day prior that Moscow had been offe…

From Marine Corps Times Audit: Buying, flying JSF to cost $1 trillion By Richard Lardner - The Associated Press Posted : Wednesday Mar 12, 2008 14:55:31 EDT WASHINGTON — The cost of buying and operating a new fleet of jet fighters for the U.S. military is nearing $1 trillion, according to a congressional audit that found the program dogged by delays, manufacturing inefficiencies and price increases. Released Tuesday, the report from the Government Accountability Office offers a sobering assessment of the ambitious effort to deliver a modern series of aircraft known as the F-35 Lightning II to the Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps. Tasked by Congress to co…

25,000-ton cruiser under consideration Analysis of alternatives sees nuclear BMD vessel By Christopher P. Cavas - Staff writer Posted : Monday Jul 23, 2007 19:01:31 EDT Under pressure from the Navy to develop a new cruiser based on the DDG 1000 Zumwalt-class hull form, and from Congress to incorporate nuclear power, a group of analysts working on the next big surface combatant may recommend two different ships to form the CG(X) program. One ship would be a 14,000-ton derivative of the DDG 1000, an “escort cruiser,” to protect aircraft carrier strike groups. The vessel would keep the tumblehome hull of the DDG 1000 and its gas turbine power plant. The oth…

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