Current Events in the Americas

From AOL Defense [excerpt]

From DefenseNews Admiral: Capability More Vital for U.S. Navy Than Numbers By ANDREW SCUTRO The U.S. Navy does not need to be larger, just more able, said Vice Adm. Joe Sestak, deputy chief of naval operations for warfare requirements, at the Navy League’s March 22-24 Sea Air Space expo in Washington. Sestak said the Navy plans to fight as a smaller, more concentrated joint network to meet the demands of carrying on the potentially endless global war on terror, fighting a large-scale conventional war and reacting to other contingencies. “Our Navy of the future is not measured in numbers of ships,” he told a seminar on force projection. “It’s measured in c…

From Marine Corps Times Corps weighs gunship firepower options By Trista Talton - Staff writer Posted : Thursday Apr 24, 2008 21:21:53 EDT JACKSONVILLE, N.C. — More brains. More brawn. Now, maybe, firepower. With their digitally upgraded cockpits and larger load capacity, the Marine Corps’ growing fleet of KC-130J Super Hercules refuelers has been hailed as a major step up from its predecessors. But the question of whether these aerial gas stations should be outfitted with weapons systems is a concept still on the drawing board. A brief obtained by Marine Corps Times highlights various ways the KC-130J can be outfitted with firepower. Written by a major …

From Flight International EXPORT READY? Once an endangered species, the US Air Force's Lockheed Martin F-22A Raptor stealth fighter is soaring on the success of its first operational deployments. A three-year contract for 60 aircraft is about to be signed, and the USAF is gearing up to seek funds to continue buying 20 Raptors a year for the foreseeable future. Now the USA must decide if it is ready to release the Raptor - winner of this year's Collier Trophy - for export. "The F-22 is healthier than at any other time. The plane is performing well and the programme is stable," says US defence analyst Loren Thompson. "There is some disagreement within th…

High-Flying, Secret Drone Unveiled DefenseTech Lockheed Martin has pulled the lid off of a secret, stealthy, high-flying drone. Built and flown by its famous "Skunk Works" division, the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) could serve as a model for a new generation of robotic aircraft that hits targets halfway around the world. With a 90-foot wingspan and a tailless design, the "Polecat" UAV looks like a smaller version of the B-2 stealth bomber. And like the B-2, the drone has been built to be stealthy and sneaky. But the twin-engine Polecat is "90 percent composite materials, rather than metal," the L.A. Daily News notes. "The vehicle is also made from less than 200 …

From Aviation Week's ARES Blog DARPA/ONR Launch Long-range Anti-ship Missile Demonstrator Posted by Graham Warwick at 6/17/2008 9:05 AM CDT After years of neglect, the US is looking to get back into the anti-ship missile business. DARPA and the Office of Naval Research have kicked off a joint effort "to rapidly demonstrate a ship-launched standoff anti-ship strike weapon". The Long Range Anti-Ship Missile Demonstration program aims to flight test a prototype within three years of contract award. The problem is the US doesn't have a long-range anti-ship missile - and the countries it considers potential enemies do. Boeing's Harpoon is subsonic and can fly abou…

JLENS loose and lose, how not?: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2015/10/28/the-army-lost-control-of-a-giant-unmanned-surveillance-blimp/

Navy furious over LPD 17 By Christopher P. Cavas - Staff writer Posted : Tuesday Jul 10, 2007 11:15:46 EDT Northrop Grumman has received a scathing rebuke from the secretary of the Navy for its performance on the LPD 17 amphibious ship program. The company was criticized for poor construction standards and an inability to meet cost and schedule targets — factors that are causing the Navy concerns about future ship construction at Northrop’s shipyards along the Gulf of Mexico. “I am deeply concerned about Northrop Grumman Ship Systems’ (NGSS) ability to recover in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, particularly in regard to construction of LPD 17 Class vessel…

From Navy Times Sonar gets green light for ASW training By Pauline Jelinek - The Associated Press Posted : Wednesday Jan 16, 2008 12:06:18 EST WASHINGTON — President Bush exempted the Navy from an environmental law so it can continue using sonar in its anti-submarine warfare training off the California coast — a practice critics say is harmful to whales and other marine mammals. The White House announced Wednesday that Bush had signed the exemption Tuesday while traveling in the Middle East. The Navy training exercises, including the use of sonar, “are in the paramount interest of the United States” and its national security, Bush said in a memorandum. …

From Defense Aerospace Pentagon Contract Announcement (Source: US Department of Defense; issued Oct. 14, 2005) General Dynamics Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine, is being awarded a $223,262,430 cost-plus-award-fee/incentive-fee modification to exercise an option under previously awarded contract (N00024-03-C-2310) for detail design and construction of one Flight 0 Littoral Combat Ship (LCS). The LCS will be a networked, agile, and high-speed surface combatant with versatile war-fighting capabilities, optimized for littoral missions. Work will be performed in Mobile, Ala. (50 percent), Pittsfield, Mass. (33 percent), Bath, Maine (15 percent), and Baltimore…

Here's an interesting overview of some of the sonobuoys used by the US Navy. Listening Sticks: US Navy Sonobuoy Contracts Posted 25-Jan-2007 05:04 defenseindustrydaily.com Sonobuoys are used to detect and identify moving underwater objects by either listening for the sounds produced by propellers and machinery (passive detection), or by bouncing a sonar "ping" off the surface of a submarine (active detection). They usually float, or have at least some part of them that does. Specialized sonobuoys can also detect electric fields, magnetic anomalies, and bioluminescence (light emitted by microscopic organisms disturbed by a passing submarine); as well as measuring…

From Defense Aerospace [excerpt]

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 Defense Aerospace Coast Guard Plunges Into Deepwater (Source: Project On Government Oversight; issued April 18, 2007) This just in -- Dow Jones/Wall Street Journal is reporting: Under mounting pressure from Congress, the Coast Guard has decided to remove Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT) and Northrop Grumman Corp. (NOC) from overseeing the service's troubled modernization program, and assume the role itself, according to people familiar with the matter. The Coast Guard is expected to announce the restructuring of its 25-year, $24-billion Deepwater program on Tuesday, a day before the next in a series of Capitol Hill hearings into the delays program to …

From Flight International DATE: 01/10/07 SOURCE: Flight International Bomb test flameout nearly crashes F-22 By Stephen Trimble A key new weapon for the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor has started a new series of tests despite a recent in-flight crash scare. The Boeing GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb (SDB) began separation tests on the F-22 in early September after more than a year of sometimes difficult work to integrate the weapon in the weapons bay and carry out airborne captive carry tests, Maj Jack Fischer, a USAF test pilot, told the Society of Experimental Test Pilots' annual convention. Flight tests so far have produced a few in-flight problems, inclu…

From Aviation Week Next decade's AF bomber to be subsonic, manned Michael Fabey/Aerospace Daily & Defense Report The U.S. Air Force's long-range strike aircraft set to be deployed by 2018 will be subsonic and manned, said Brig. Gen. Mark Matthews, director of plans and programs, headquarters, Air Combat Command, Langley Air Force Base, Va. But it would be wrong to characterize the aircraft as being entirely devoid of current technology, Matthews said May 1 during a panel discussion "Return of the Bomber: The Future of Long Range Strike," presented by the Eaker Institute, the research arm of the Air Force Association (AFA). "There is new technology ass…

Painting A Rosy Picture Of A Costly Fighter Jet By Leslie Wayne LE BOURGET, France, June 21 — With jets screaming overhead, macho often mixes with Mach 1 here at the Paris air show. But the Lockheed Martin Corporation chose a softer approach to show the might of its next-generation radar-evading, supersonic fighter jet. It commissioned nine international artists to portray the multibillion-dollar combat plane in a variety of imaginary scenes — sailing over the Canadian Northwest, hovering over a British naval carrier and gliding above Sydney Harbor in Australia. The unveiling of the paintings here was a case of making virtue out of necessity. Lockheed’s Joint Strik…

From Aviation Week F-35 To Become Electronic Attack Aircraft Nov 30, 2008 By David A. Fulghum After years of debate about the future of tactical, airborne electronic attack for the U.S. Air Force and Marine Corps, it appears the F-35 will become the next-generation, digital warfare aircraft for both services. The platform most in demand in combat today is some kind of electronic attack (EA) aircraft, say military operational experts. So the pressure for more aircraft and advanced capabilities is already an operational reality. But the basic question of who does what for whom and to whom remains unanswered. "Who will provide electronic fires to ground tro…

From Aviation Week Fire Scout Test Aimed At Coast Guard Sep 25, 2008 By Graham Warwick/Aerospace Daily & Defense Report The first flight of an MQ-8B Fire Scout with multimode maritime radar has removed a major obstacle to U.S. Coast Guard interest in the shipborne vertical-takeoff-and-landing unmanned air vehicle (VUAV), manufacturer Northrop Grumman believes. The off-the-shelf Telephonics RDR-1700B imaging surveillance radar completed a functional check flight on Northrop’s company-owned Fire Scout, aircraft P6, on Sept. 19 at Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona (Aerospace DAILY, Sept. 23). The radar has since been removed to allow testing of another payload…

From DefenseNews Posted 07/10/07 20:58 Brazil To Invest $500 Million in Nuclear-Powered Sub By REUTERS, BRASILIA Brazil will invest $500 million to revive a long-stalled navy project to build a nuclear-propelled submarine, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said July 10. “We are going to apply the necessary resources to conclude this project,” Lula said at a nuclear research facility in Sao Paulo state. The project requires 1 billion reais ($500 million) invested over eight years, he said. A nuclear-powered submarine could patrol the vast waters off Brazil’s coastline more effectively, Navy Commander Adm. Julio Soares de Moura has said. Brazil has five conve…