Current Events in the Americas

From Defence Talk AESA Radar Enters Full-Rate Production US Navy | Jul 4, 2007 The U.S. Navy’s next-generation aircraft radar system was approved for full-rate production June 25. Following extensive review by the office of the Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Research, Development and Acquisition), PMA-265 was granted authorization to enter into Full Rate Production for 437 next-generation APG-79 Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radars. “Super Hornet Block II and EA-18G aircraft equipped with AESA’s revolutionary war fighting capability makes Naval Aviation more relevant than ever in our history to the joint combatant commander. Our Super Hor…

From Globe and Mail Navy's support ship replacement program scuttled The Canadian Press August 22, 2008 at 11:53 PM EDT OTTAWA — The Conservative government has quietly scuttled the navy's $2.9-billion project to replace its aging supply ships, saying bids from the shipbuilding industry were “significantly” higher than the money set aside for the program. It has also cancelled a tender call for the purchase of 12 mid-shore patrol ships for the Coast Guard. The decisions were announced in a statement issued at 8:30 Friday night by Public Works Minister Christian Paradis. “These vessels are a key priority of the Government of Canada,” Mr. Paradis said …

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 Defense Aerospace Link to the full report here (PDF document) Highlights here ... The US Navy: Charting a Course for Tomorrow’s Fleet (Executive summary) (Source: The Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments; issued Feb. 17, 2009) This paper assesses the adequacy and affordability of current US Navy plans in light of current trends in naval warfare, expected future budget environments, and, most importantly, the likely operational demands associated with three enduring, long-term strategic challenges. These challenges are: defeating both the Sunni Salifi-Takfiri and Shia Khomeinist brands of violent Islamist radicalism; hedging against pote…

CNO: Next-Generation Navy Fighter Might Not Need Stealth (DefenseTech) ACC Chief: Stealth ‘Incredibly Important’ For Next USAF Fighter (Aviation Week)

Navy Emphasizes Anti-Submarine Training By AUDREY McAVOY , 01.26.2006, 02:52 PM Associated Press Forbes Two Navy destroyers and a cruiser dangle sonar devices into the ocean to listen for enemy submarines lurking 50 miles from Honolulu. Naval aviators in P-3 surveillance planes and helicopters drop sonar buoys into the sea to give the sailors more ears below the surface. The submarines are not really enemy vessels at all, but U.S. subs participating in anti-submarine warfare training. The exercises, held Jan. 9-12, are something Navy sailors will be doing more of in coming years. The Pacific Fleet has made training to track and destroy submarines its to…

From DefenseNews U.S. Navy Orders New Destroyers By CHRISTOPHER P. CAVAS Construction of the first two DDG 1000 Zumwalt-class advanced destroyers is set to begin after the U.S. Navy awarded its two primary shipbuilders $2.8 billion in contracts Feb. 14. General Dynamics will build the Zumwalt — DDG 1000 — at Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine, while Northrop Grumman will build the yet-to-be-named DDG 1001 at its Ingalls shipyard in Pascagoula, Miss. The Zumwalt is set to be delivered by Bath in June 2013, while Northrop’s DDG 1001 is to follow in July 2014. Northrop and General Dynamics are cooperating in completing the final, detailed design of the destroyers. Nor…

From Flight Global's DEW Line blog [excerpt]

From USNI Proceedings: http://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2012-09-0/leap-ahead-21st-century-navy

From Navy Times Navy celebrates 1,000th Trident sub patrol The Associated Press Posted : Thursday Feb 19, 2009 7:55:47 EST KINGS BAY NAVAL SUBMARINE BASE, Ga. — A coastal Georgia military base is celebrating a milestone for the Navy’s fleet of nuclear-armed submarines — the 1,000th patrol since the first Trident missile sub launched in 1981. Navy Secretary Donald Winter is scheduled to mark the occasion Thursday with other dignitaries at Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base near St. Marys. Kings Bay is the East Coast port for the Navy’s Trident submarines. The fleet of 14 Ohio-class submarines was launched during the Cold War as a deterrent to nuclear war. The…

Will succeed ADM Mullen on 30 September

Lockheed starts final assembly on last F-22A or Lockheed finds new structural weaknesses on two F-35 variants

From USNI Proceedings, September 2012 issue http://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2012-09-0/new-kind-carrier-air-wing

From http://www.defence-aerospace.com Predator Reaches Initial Operating Capacity Source: US Air Force; issued March 1, 2005 LANGLEY AIR FORCE BASE, Va. --- One of the most heavily used and valued weapons systems of operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom has reached initial operating capability, Air Combat Command officials here announced March 1. The MQ-1 Predator unmanned aerial vehicle was officially declared IOC March 1 by Lt. Gen. William Fraser III, ACC’s vice commander. The milestone was reached after the MQ-1 completed eleven requirements including supportability, maintainability and aircraft and parts availability. Initially fielded as…

Mayport, JFK were terror targets, paper says By Zachary M. Peterson - Staff writer Posted : Thursday Jul 5, 2007 11:48:07 EDT A group of 45 Muslim doctors threatened terrorist attacks at Naval Base Mayport, Fla., the British newspaper the Telegraph reported Thursday. British authorities discovered details of the threats on a Web site run by a “cyber-terrorist” gang, the newspaper account said. The group of 45 doctors, which investigators believe have no link with the recently detained doctors and medics involved with car bomb attempts in London and Glasgow, planned to “undertake jihad and take the battle inside America,” according to the story. The fi…

From DefenseNews Containers, Motherships and Multimission Modules - Boxes as the U.S. Navy's New Vision? By CMDR. GREG PARKER Published: 8 March 2010 Last month, the Navy's first Littoral Combat Ship, USS Freedom, began its inaugural deployment to the Caribbean Sea and South America. Designed to address the Navy's capability gap in the "green water" near the world's land masses, or littorals, the LCS represents a change in naval design philosophy from mission-specific ships to a multi-function concept that has begun to pervade the service from top to bottom. With its interchangeable modules - large boxes resembling rail cars tailored for specialized missions…

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 …

From Defense Aerospace First British Pilot to Finish Raptor Training (Source: US Air Force; issued July 18, 2006) TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. --- The first British pilot to complete F-22 Raptor training graduated this week at Tyndall Air Force Base. Flight Lt. Dan Robinson, from the Royal Air Force, is assigned to Langley Air Force Base, Va. He has completed two months of training with the 43rd Fighter Squadron as part of an exchange program. In return, an American fighter pilot will be trained and fly side-by-side with the Royal Air Force on the new EF-2000 Eurofighter Typhoon. For the coalition, the benefit of the exchange program is the implementa…

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…

How a $2.7 billion air-defense system became a 'zombie' program (LA Times)