Current Events in the Americas

Biggest pieces of ZUMWALT (DDG 1000) come together in the night (DefenseNews' Intercepts blog) Lots of pics.

Tight budget forces Navy to put squeeze on sub But analysts say subtracting Dolphin will only add to costs By Steve Liewer UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER August 28, 2006 Navy budget cutters are about to achieve what flood and fire could not: sink the Dolphin submarine. Less than a year after completing a $50 million project to repair and upgrade the San Diego-based research vessel, the Navy will decommission it Sept. 22. It is the country's last diesel-electric sub. Pentagon officials say the Dolphin's age and uniqueness caught up with it, making it expensive to operate and maintain. The research vessel is based at Point Loma. Axing the Dolphin will sav…

From Aviation Week JSF Juggling Engine, Cost, Schedule and Weight Issues Apr 1, 2007 By Amy Butler and Robert Wall The Joint Strike Fighter's price is expected to increase 4% due to Pentagon funding cuts. And if Congress reinstates development of a second engine for the stealthy aircraft, the cost could rise further. The increase could amount to more than $6 billion over the life of the massive, 3,000-aircraft program. But cost is only one of a flurry of issues ahead as development work moves into high gear. All three F-35 JSF versions will face key hurdles in the coming months, with program officials trying to keep the Lockheed Martin-led industrial team fr…

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 Navy Times Analyst: DDGs without CIWS vulnerable By Philip Ewing - Staff writer Posted : Tuesday Sep 16, 2008 5:55:34 EDT For all the modifications and improvements that have come with each new Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, the 20 most recent ships have arrived from the shipyard missing something — the distinctive white domes of the Phalanx Close In Weapons System. The first 34 Burkes carry two of the 20mm, six-barrel Gatling guns, known as CIWS, which can find and shoot down air targets that slip through the outer defenses of a ship or task group. But since 2002, destroyers have come from the builders without the guns, as plans called for a new mi…

US Air Force Tests StormBreaker ‘Smart’ Munition on F-35 (Defense Post) Recently discussed in the DB forum.

From DefenseNews Pentagon OKs Continued Design Work on U.S Navy Warship By REUTERS, WASHINGTON The Defense Department has authorized Northrop Grumman Corp. and General Dynamics Corp. to continue design work on the new U.S. Navy DD(X) destroyer while Congress and Defense Department officials decide the fate of the program, a spokeswoman said Aug. 8. Pentagon acquisitions chief Kenneth Krieg signed a memorandum late on Aug. 5 authorizing the Navy to continue giving the two companies contracts for preliminary design work on the ships, said spokeswoman Cheryl Irwin. She noted that detailed design work would begin after a so-called “Milestone B” decision that …

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 Air Force Times ‘The Airman’s Creed’ issued By Bruce Rolfsen - Staff writer Posted : Thursday Apr 19, 2007 9:10:30 EDT Through 60 years of flying and fighting, there has been something missing from Air Force tradition — an official creed for airmen. This week that changed. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley and Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force Rodney McKinley are issuing “The Airman’s Creed” as part of wider range of initiatives to encourage a “warrior ethos” in airmen. “When you look at our new Air Force creed and you say; ‘I am an American airman. I am a warrior. I have answered my nation’s call’ — imagine at basic military tra…

EU report warns of trouble in Arctic over resources Territorial claims and access to new trade routes must be addressed, briefing document notes; former U.S. Coast Guard official predicts armed conflict Randy Boswell, Canwest News Service Published: 1:32 am Edmonton Journal The coming "scramble for resources" in the melting Arctic poses a potential political crisis for northern countries -- including Canada -- says a new report by Europe's top two foreign policy officials. The warning is contained in a briefing document about the expected impacts of global climate change, prepared for a summit of 27 European heads of government in Brussels later this week. …

From Navy Times Navy budget includes 9 ships, kills CG(X) By Philip Ewing and Andrew Tilghman - Staff writers Posted : Tuesday Feb 2, 2010 16:02:41 EST The Department of the Navy would build nine ships, buy 206 aircraft, postpone construction of the Marine Corps’ Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle and kill the advanced cruiser known as CG(X), according to the $179.1 billion spending plan it submitted Monday to Congress. The budget proposal includes $160.6 billion in baseline funding — compared with the $156 billion the Navy requested last year — and $18.5 billion in funding for what the Pentagon calls “overseas contingency operations,” better known as the Iraq a…

Los Angeles Times February 28, 2006 Troubled Aircraft Nearly Battle-Ready By Associated Press RALEIGH, N.C. — The Marine Corps plans to send the troubled Osprey aircraft into combat within a year and is activating a squadron of the tilt-rotor planes this week. "Obviously, due to operational concerns we don't want to tell exactly when they will deploy," said spokesman Master Sgt. Phil Mehringer at Marine Corps Air Station New River in North Carolina, where the squadron will be based. "But it's certainly going to happen in the near future. Definitely, within a year." The Osprey, which takes off and lands like a helicopter and flies like an airplane, has had …

From DefenseNews Posted 04/02/07 10:41 Is New U.S. Destroyer Unstable? Experts Doubt Radical Hull; Navy Says All Is Well By CHRISTOPHER P. CAVAS As the U.S. Navy is poised to award the first construction contracts on its new multibillion-dollar DDG 1000 Zumwalt-class destroyer, experts in and outside the Navy say the radical new hull design might be unstable. Given just the right conditions, some say, it could even roll over. At least eight current and former officers, naval engineers and architects and naval analysts interviewed for this article expressed concerns about the ship’s stability. One former flag officer, asked about DDG 1000, responded by puttin…

From Air Force Times NORAD not moving — for now By Erik Holmes - Staff writer Posted : Wednesday Dec 12, 2007 12:41:59 EST Congress has put the brakes on a plan to relocate North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command from the secretive Cheyenne Mountain Air Station, Colo., to Peterson Air Force Base, Colo. The 2008 defense authorization bill approved Dec. 6 by the House and Senate armed services committees orders that the move not go ahead until the Office of the Secretary of Defense submits to Congress a cost-benefit analysis and final plans for the relocation. OSD must also include in its report a security and vulnerability asses…

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…

From Air Force Times Joint missile program called back on track By Erik Holmes - Staff writer Posted : Thursday Sep 18, 2008 8:09:09 EDT The future of the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile, or JASSM, seemed in doubt last year due to severe cost overruns and four failed flight tests in a span of a few days. But the Air Force and Lockheed Martin say the program is back on target, with a batch of the stealthy cruise missiles delivered in July and a contract for an additional 111 awarded in June. And the reliability issues have been solved, according to Air Force and Lockheed officials. The development team flew 16 flight tests in four days in February, …

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

Navy, General Dynamics to discuss LCS next week Staff writer - Staff writer Posted : Friday Sep 21, 2007 9:19:13 EDT The Navy and General Dynamics are expected to meet next week to discuss the Littoral Combat Ship program. GD spokesman Kendall Pease confirmed the Navy had asked for the meeting but provided no further details, other than to say a specific date had not been set. Other sources, however, said the meeting was to discuss slowing construction on LCS 4, the second ship GD is building at its Austal USA shipyard in Mobile, Ala. A construction contract for the yet-to-be named ship was awarded in December, before cost growth on the first ship being b…