Current Events in the Americas

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…

US Army Weapon Systems Handbook 2011 (PDF): download here

From Navy Times Big E preps for final combat deployment By Philip Ewing - Staff writer Posted : Tuesday Sep 21, 2010 10:56:09 EDT ABOARD THE AIRCRAFT CARRIER ENTERPRISE — Sept. 24 marks 50 years since this ship’s launch and champagne christening ...

From Military.com: http://www.military.com/news/article/secon...ml?ESRC=navy.nl Buddha

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 …

This is a sad situation: http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/Endangered-w...90610ussolympia I certainly hope she can be saved.

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…

More scenario fodder for the new battlesets! Get cracking! From Ares Iranian Shock Troops in Venezuela? Posted by John M. Doyle at 7/29/2010 12:27 PM CDT It was a little surprising near the end of the (July 27) Senate confirmation hearing for Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis to be the new head of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) when Sen. George LeMieux (R-Fla.) brought up Venezuela. LeMieux said he was very concerned about the connection between Iran and Venezuela including secret flights between the two countries and the presence of “Iranian shock troops in Venezuela.” LeMieux, who was appointed last year to serve out the remaining term of Mel Martine…

Word is that he was doing a tail stand, at low altitude, low speed, and had a flameout ... Pretty amazing photos ...

From Ares No more sonobuoy launcher for MH-60R? Posted by Bettina Chavanne at 7/21/2010 7:37 AM CDT This morning at the Farnborough Air Show, U.S. Navy program manager for H-60, Capt. Dean Peters, talked about issues facing the MH-60R helicopter's sonobuoy launcher. Peters said the aircraft's Airborne Low Frequency Sonar (ALFS) worked so well during last year's deployment of the aircraft there "was not much need for the [sonobuoy] launcher." The potential exists, he says, to "take out the sonobuoy launcher," and launch fewer buoys using a different type of launch system. The goal is reduce the amount of cabin space taken up by the launcher. "We have to r…

From Defense Aerospace Army Cancels Non-Line-of-Sight Launch System (Source: US Department of Defense; issued May 13, 2010) The Department of Defense announced today that it authorized the Army to cancel the Non-Line-of-Sight Launch System and transition management responsibilities for system development and acquisition from the old Future Combat System (FCS) program - currently aligned under Program Executive Office Integration (PEO I) - to the PEOs that already manage similar systems. Both decisions are a result of the Capability Portfolio Reviews, a new process the Army implemented in February. The Army’s vision is to have an effective, affordable and mode…

From Flight Global USAF sets 2013 entry for extended-range JASSM By John Croft The US Air Force says it will be ready to deploy the extended-range version of its Lockheed Martin-built AGM-158 joint air-to-surface stand-off missile (JASSM) in the second half of 2013. Using larger fuel tanks and a more efficient Williams International F107-WR-105 turbofan engine, rather than the Teledyne CAE J402-CA-100 turbojet, the JASSM ER (AGM-158B) will have a range of more than 926km (500nm), up from 370km for the original missile. The AGM-158 entered service in 1999 and has not been used in combat to date. Lockheed in April rolled out the 1,000th JASSM round from its…

From Flight Global DATE: 19/05/10 SOURCE: Flight International Boeing B-52 set to receive major radar upgrade By Stephen Trimble The US Air Force is moving forward with a major new upgrade for the half-century-old Boeing B-52H fleet, focused on replacing the bomber's radar, which is roughly 30 years old. The Northrop Grumman APQ-166 strategic radar is nearing the end of its useful life and will be replaced on 76 B-52Hs, the USAF says in a request for information issued to industry. The new system will perform all of the mission functions now performed by the APQ-166 mechanically scanned array, but provide "new and enhanced capabilities", the air force sa…

From Jane's Briefing: Russia deepens relationship with Brazil By Guy Anderson 17 May 2010 Russia and Brazil are reported to be discussing the sale of an unspecified number of air defence systems to the Latin American state: a deal that says much about Moscow's current strategy in international defence markets and the potential for Western firms to find themselves competing head to head with Russia to a greater degree than in previous years. Russian state information service RIA Novosti reported on 14 May that the sale of systems – potentially Tor platforms although this has yet to be agreed – was under discussion, together with a series of other accords rela…

Looks like the JSF has taken some measure of revenge against one of its greatest critics ... Danger Room: Aviation Week grounds top critic of gajillion dollar jet DEW Line: Aviation Week suspends Bill Sweetman from F-35 story

From Flight Global DATE: 12/04/10 SOURCE: Flight International USAF may convert some F-15Cs to radar jammers By Stephen Trimble The US Air National Guard may convert some Boeing F-15C Eagles into electronic warfare platforms, possibly adding an entirely new role for the classic air superiority fighter. Adding a jamming pod on the F-15C's currently empty centreline weapon station becomes possible after a subset of the fleet is upgraded with the Raytheon APG-63(V)3 active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar, says Maj Todd Giggy, chief of weapons and tactics for the 159th Fighter Sqd. "We're actively looking right now at an electronic warfare capa…

A couple of interesting articles about CBO reported lifecycle/fuel costs for the LCS ... First, from DefenseNews Report: Fuel Factors Less Than Price For LCS By CHRISTOPHER P. CAVAS Published: 28 Apr 2010 18:45 Fuel costs for the U.S. Navy's new Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) are calculated by a new Congressional report to be about 11 percent of total life-cycle costs - far less than the 64 percent figure represented by the price to buy the ship. The relative insignificance of the fuel figure to the purchase price is at odds with claims by Alabama's Senate delegation that the Navy should give more weight to fuel efficiency in its pending choice of which LCS …

AvWeek has provided a PDF of a PowerPoint presentation for the final request for proposals: Tanker final RFP

More bad news on JSF, as far as the GAO is concerned ... JSF: Additional Costs and Delays Risk Not Meeting Warfighter Requirements on Time

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…