Current Events in the Americas

From DefenseNews [excerpt] Link to the document Naval Aviation Vision, January 2012 (PDF) Update to the Carrier air wings thread in the FAQ subforum includes details of the future USN air wings and USMC aviation combat elements.

Experts Question US Navy's Decision To Swap Out DDG 1000's Secondary Gun (DefenseNews)

From Aviation Week's ARES Blog Good Night Nighthawk Posted by Bill Sweetman at 3/11/2008 8:29 AM Today, March 11, the USAF is holding an official retirement ceremony at Holloman AFB, New Mexico, for the Lockheed Martin F-117A Nighthawk stealth fighter. By the end of next month, all the remaining F-117s will have been retired into secure storage at the Tonopah Test Range base in Nevada, which was the type's first operational base. The F-117 has been on its way to retirement since the early 1990s, when plans for a modernized version were passed over in favor of the Joint Strike Fighter. A Serbian missile battery shot down a Nighthawk in March 1999, raising que…

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 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…

From Flight Global's DEW Line blog [excerpt]

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…

From Reuters, printed in today's San Diego Union Tribune: LA ORCHILA, Venezuela - Venezuela test-fired missiles in the Caribbean Sea yesterday in a display of military strength at a time of tense realations between Washington and leftist President Hugo Chavez. Five Russian Sukhoi fighter jets swooped over the military base on the island of La Orchila, dropping a half-ton bomb and firing a KH-59 missile at a seaborne target. A patrol boat fired an Otomat surface-to-surface missile at the same target. Buddha

BBC News Story That's a Type 45, which is a lot more powerful than the T23 currently there...

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

From NavyTimes The first of two new prototype railguns is now firing bullets, moving the Navy’s long-held dream of fielding an electromagnetic weapon a step closer to reality.

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…

Somebody doesn't like the DDG-1000.

From Aviation Week Fire On Takeoff Downed B-2 Feb 26, 2008 David A. Fulghum/Aerospace Daily & Defense Report One of the pilots of the B-2 stealth bomber that crashed Feb. 23 reported a fire at takeoff from Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, which was followed quickly by loss of control of the bomber, according to a senior Air Combat Command (ACC) official. The stealth bomber rolled uncontrollably to the right and fell between the taxiway and the ramp at 10:45 a.m. Guam time just after passing the control tower. It was attempting a takeoff toward the seaward end of the runway. The two pilots ejected with one being hospitalized. A dark plume of smoke arose fro…

From Defense Aerospace [excerpt]

From Time Magazine's Battleland blog [excerpt]

Randomly happened upon this when looking through the Navy Laser Testing blog post. http://www.dote.osd.mil/pub/reports/FY2008...vy/2008arci.pdf Is that not a frank and earnest evaluation or what! Insufficient testing before sending submarines to sea. How does it feel when you are tailing an Akula II and the sonar computers crash? Even more telling may be some of the conclusions reached about the program not improving performance even beyond the goals established in 1998.

From Defense Aerospace [excerpt]

From Navy Times October 04, 2006 Carrier George H.W. Bush to be christened Saturday By William H. McMichael Staff writer NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — President George W. Bush will deliver the principal address at the christening of the aircraft carrier bearing the name of his father, President George H.W. Bush, during a Saturday ceremony at the Northrop Grumman Newport News shipyard. The former president, his wife Barbara and their daughter, Doro Bush Koch, will attend the event. Koch, who serves as the ship’s sponsor, will perform the time-honored tradition of breaking a bottle of wine across the bow to formally christen the ship. George H.W. Bush, the nation’s…

From Aviation Week GAO Sustains Boeing Tanker Protest Jun 18, 2008 By Michael Bruno Congressional auditors today handed Boeing some salvation and sided with the U.S. behemoth's protest against a U.S. Air Force award over an aerial refueling tanker to an international team led by Northrop Grumman and EADS. The Government Accountability Office, in citing several problems with the USAF's decision-making process, called for the embattled armed service to re-open talks with the competing industry teams and then make a new source selection. "Our review of the record led us to conclude that the Air Force had made a number of significant errors that could have a…