Current Events in the Americas

Inside a B-2 in attack mission: http://www.popularmechanics.com/military/aviation/a25070/to-libya-and-back-inside-obamas-last-strike-against-isis/?src=nl&mag=pop&list=nl_pnl_news&date=020917

From Flight International DATE:14/06/07 SOURCE:Flightglobal.com Team of C-27J Spartan wins JCA contest By Craig Hoyle Alenia Aeronautica's C-27J Spartan tactical transport programme received a massive boost yesterday, with the type's selection to meet a combined US Air Force and US Army requirement for a new fleet of Joint Cargo Aircraft (JCA). Led by L-3 Integrated Systems and also comprising Alenia North America and Boeing Integrated Defense Systems, the C-27J team was announced as the winner of a deal to supply an initial 78 aircraft worth $2 billion under the JCA programme. The JCA programme currently envisages the production of 70 aircraft for …

From DefenseNews Periscope Pursuit New Breed of U.S. Navy Radars Would Reveal Stealthy Subs By Jon W. Glass Published: 17 November 2008 Trying to spot a submarine periscope lurking in cluttered coastal waters is akin to identifying a floating beer can from 60 miles away. That's the challenge the U.S. Navy faces as it tries to track a growing fleet of modern diesel-electric submarines. The Pentagon plans to do this by improving existing radars with new signal processing software and by rotating the radar antennas faster inside their radomes. The Navy is moving forward to develop Automatic Radar Periscope Detection and Discrimination (ARPDD) radars for Nimitz…

From RIA Novosti Venezuela mulls purchase of Russian submarines - source 13:14 | 14/ 06/ 2007 MOSCOW, June 14 (RIA Novosti) - Venezuela is close to striking a deal with Russia on the procurement of several diesel submarines for its Navy, a source in the Russian shipbuilding industry said Thursday. The South American country has been vigorously pursuing modernization of its naval fleet to counter a possible U.S. blockade of its oil fields and prepare for direct military confrontation with Washington. "At present, military experts from Venezuela are conducting active consultations with Russian colleagues on the purchase of a large number of submarines," t…

"The Navy must redesign a capable follow-on ballistic-missile submarine that it can afford." Makes a lot of sense but the choice to drop torpedoes would be a hard one to swallow...

From Flight International JSF team rejects dedicated EA-35 By Graham Warwick USMC looks at 'plug-and-play' electronic alternatives The US Marine Corps is looking to raise the electronic attack capability of its Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighters, but will not build a dedicated "EA-35" jamming version, says deputy commandant for aviation Lt Gen John Castellaw. Just last year, the JSF team was studying an EA-35 variant, but Castellaw now says: "We are moving away from dedicated platforms. We get a designed-in [electronic attack] capability with the AESA [active electronically scanned array radar], and there are other opportunities we will be pursuing."…

From Defense Aerospace Joint Common Missile: Why Argue With Success? (Source: The Lexington Institute; issued Feb. 21, 2007) By Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D. Here's a fantasy. Imagine three military services agreed on the need for a versatile air-to-ground missile that could precisely destroy a wide range of elusive targets -- everything from camouflaged armored vehicles to terrorist speedboats. Imagine they found a low-cost design that could do those things day or night, good weather or bad, even when enemies were trying to jam the missile. Imagine the services selected a company that developed the missile on time and on cost, meeting all of its performance object…

Arizona Daily Star (Tucson) June 12, 2007 Raytheon Tomahawk Might Replace Errant Lockheed Missile By Tony Capaccio, Bloomberg News Raytheon Co.'s Tomahawk cruise missile is being eyed as a possible replacement for a Lockheed Martin Corp. missile program that was given 30 days to demonstrate it has a plan to improve reliability, said Diane Wright, the Pentagon's deputy director for air warfare. The Lockheed missile costs about $649,000 and is launched from planes. The latest Tomahawk, made at Tucson-based Raytheon Missile Systems, costs $972,000 on average and can be launched only from ships and submarines. Wright said the Pentagon might explore wheth…

From Aviation Week's Ares Blog What Did The Air Force Really Want? Posted by Bill Sweetman at 4/10/2009 10:41 AM CDT Dr Rebecca Grant probably isn't going to get offered a job in the Gates team. In a strongly worded brief [CV32: Also appended below], the respected air power analyst argues that the USAF did have a cogent, established need for another 60 F-22s - but never had a chance to present it before Gates slammed a gag order on all senior officers involved in the budget process. "Gates kept Bush-Rumsfeld holdovers in crucial program analysis posts and formed a small team to cut the budget in secret, a technique he mastered as CIA director. Next, in F…

The fundamental controversy remains, of course, but some details in this article of design changes being made ... From DefenseNews [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 Aviation Week Dogfight Over F-22 Reveals DOD Schisms Nov 18, 2008 By David A. Fulghum The battle over how many F-22 Raptors the U.S. Air Force requires is revealing some nasty infighting as the White House administration change nears. The Defense Secretary staff has told Air Force planners not to talk to congressional staffers and to work only through the offices of Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England and acquisition chief John Young. Insiders on Capitol Hill contend that the Defense Department has been and is continuing to withhold F-22 funds — in defiance of the law and the intent of Congress — in an attempt to punish the Air Force. England…

From Navy Times [excerpt]

Collection of photos of US Navy radar ships over the years, including the newest, USNS Howard O. Lorenzen, here.

Okay, more accident than the dramatic title indicates. Trawler strikes navy ship sending 6 to B.C. hospital (CBC News) Winnipeg is in the middle of the FELEX upgrade.

Improved AIM-9X Achieves IOC (Seapower)

Conclude the Littoral Combat Ship Now (Real Clear Defense)

3D interactive tour of the destroyer USS Zumwalt here

Dust off your South Atlantic battleset! Argentina and China agree fighter aircraft working group (Jane's)

From Flight Global DATE: 12/05/09 SOURCE: Flightglobal.com Boeing: Airborne Laser test aims to defy 'stunt' and 'one-shot wonder' labels By Stephen Trimble A Boeing official says the YAL-1 Airborne Laser (ABL) will seek to pre-empt critics of the programme's first shootdown test scheduled later this year by choosing a deliberately difficult engagement scenario. Both the first shoot-down attempt and a follow-on test will engage targets simulating the design and trajectory of short range ballistic missile (SRBM), Boeing Michael Rinn told reporters attending a week-long media tour. To engage a relatively low-altitude SRBM, the 747-400F-based ABL's megaw…