Current Events in the Americas

From DefenseNews U.S. Navy To Stand Up New 4th Fleet By mark d. faram Published: 24 Apr 13:33 EDT (09:33 GMT) The U.S. Navy will create a 4th Fleet headquartered at Naval Station Mayport, Fla., and will tap a two-star SEAL officer to lead it, according to a Pentagon announcement April 24. Rear Adm. Joseph Kernan, head of Naval Special Warfare Command in Coronado, Calif., has been chosen to command the new fleet. Kernan will take control of both 4th Fleet and the current Naval Forces Southern Command, the Navy component of U.S. Southern Command. The command will oversee maritime operations in Central and South American waters, and is similar to the comman…

From Northrop Grumman news release U.S. Navy Awards $1.16 Billion BAMS UAS Contract to Northrop Grumman LOS ANGELES - April 22, 2008 - The U.S. Navy has awarded Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) an 89-month, $1.16 billion contract for System Development and Demonstration (SDD) of the service's new Broad Area Maritime Surveillance Unmanned Aircraft System (BAMS UAS) program. The BAMS UAS will provide the U.S. Navy with a persistent maritime intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) system to protect the fleet and provide a capability to detect, track, classify, and identify maritime and littoral targets. "We are honored that the Navy selected ou…

From Aviation Week Flight-Test Program Accelerates for U.S. Navy''s E-2D Apr 20, 2008 By David A. Fulghum Within three years, the U.S. Navy's fleet will have fielded the technology for precisely locating small, flying targets. The target set embraces some of the Navy's latest nightmares, including the next-generation of stealthy - sometimes supersonic - cruise missiles. Moreover, with the introduction of space-time adaptive processing (STAP) software, the hybrid APY-9 electronically scanned array (ESA) radar on board the new E-2D Advanced Hawkeye will be able to pick those elusive flying targets out of a background of rough terrain and urban sprawl, a far di…

Navy asserts LCS set for summer delivery By Christopher P. Cavas - Staff writer Posted : Thursday Apr 17, 2008 9:01:01 EDT The Navy’s first Littoral Combat Ship remains on track for delivery this summer, service and shipbuilder officials said, belying a blogger’s claim that the ship will be a year late. “We’re on track for trials beginning in May. We’re on track for a summer 2008 delivery,” said Diana Massing, a spokeswoman for Lockheed Martin. “LCS 1 starts builder’s trials next month and is scheduled to deliver in August 2008,” declared Lt. Cmdr. John Schofield, a Navy spokesman. The statements contradict a claim by Internet blogger Tim Colton that …

From Air Force Link Langley officials fight to keep F-22s from being damaged by Tech. Sgt. Russell Wicke Air Combat Command Public Affairs 4/9/2008 - LANGLEY AIR FORCE BASE, Va. (AFPN) -- The Air Force's newest and most technologically advanced fighter, the F-22 Raptor, is under attack here. Free-falling clams dropped by in-flight birds are regular air threats to the F-22 as gulls drop fist-sized mollusks on the Langley Air Force Base runway to break open the shell-fish appetizer. The birds' shelling device just happens to be a convenient launch pad for the F-22. Although the gulls remove half their mess -- slurping up tender meat from the runway -- they…

From Defense Aerospace U.S. Government Report Shows Decreased Costs for F-35 Program (Source: Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company; issued April 8, 2008) FORT WORTH, Texas --- A newly released report from the U.S. Department of Defense shows that estimated acquisition costs dropped by nearly $1 billion from 2006 to 2007 for the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II program. The Selected Acquisition Reports estimate that F-35 program costs over the aircraft's three-decade production run decreased by $981 million (-0.3 percent), from $299.8 billion to $298.8 billion. The F-35 cost reduction was attributed in part to lower material costs related to agreements made …

From Air Force Times More Russian bombers flying off Alaska coast 16 intercepts by U.S., Canadian jets since July By Erik Holmes - Staff writer Posted : Monday Apr 7, 2008 7:29:40 EDT More and more American and Canadian fighter jets are scrambling and intercepting Russian bombers flying off the Alaskan coast, exacerbating tensions between the former Cold War foes. There have been 16 such intercepts since July, Pacific Air Forces Commander Gen. Howie Chandler told the Anchorage Daily News on March 27. That compares with just one in 2005, and none in the previous 10 years, Chandler said. The Air Force and North American Aerospace Defense Command would …

From Navy Times Chavez could take loan to buy Russian subs By Philip Ewing - Staff writer Posted : Monday Apr 7, 2008 6:24:20 EDT Russia and Venezuela are in talks over a deal in which a Russian bank would help finance the purchase of four new Russian diesel-electric attack submarines, an official Russian news agency reported Friday. Citing an article in the Russian business newspaper Kommersant, the RIA Novosti news service reported that Russia’s state Vneshekonombank could loan Venezuela about $800 million to help move forward the proposed $1 billion sale of four new Kilo-class subs. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a socialist strongman and an outspoken …

From Navy Times Navy requests more Littoral Combat Ships By David Sharp - The Associated Press Posted : Wednesday Apr 2, 2008 18:33:47 EDT PORTLAND, Maine — The Navy is moving forward with construction of a new type of smaller, speedy warships, putting the project back on track after the cancellation of two ships last year, officials said Wednesday. The Navy’s formal request for proposals issued on Tuesday to General Dynamics’ Bath Iron Works and Lockheed Martin calls for construction of three Littoral Combat Ships to be carried out over the next several years. The Navy envisions a competition in which the winning bidder is awarded contracts for two of t…

From Aviation Week's ARES Blog Space Radar Chopped Posted by Bill Sweetman at 4/2/2008 8:32 AM CDT News that the Space Radar program had been cancelled was not surprising. It had already been reported that the project was being reconsidered, after many restructuring attempts, and the fact that the budget and schedule suddenly went black in the FY2009 budget didn't inspire confidence. SR was eight years away from first launch, and as the GAO noted in its latest review of major programs, the technologies were far from mature. To a great extent it was a victim of requirements overload, with the intelligence community wanting high resolution (equals large antenna…

From DefenseNews U.S. Navy's ERGM May Face Cancellation By william matthews Published: 20 Mar 15:55 EDT (11:55 GMT) For more than a dozen years the U.S. Navy has waited as Raytheon struggled to build a reliable rocket-powered munition to be fired from 5-inch guns on ships. After repeated test failures, years of delays and rising costs, the Navy may be ready to cancel the program. A Raytheon official acknowledged March 20 there were "many rumors swirling around" the fate of its Extended Range Guided Munition (ERGM) program, including the possibility that it will be canceled. A Navy official would not comment on the program's fate. The end for ERGM, if…

From Aviation Week USN Hornet Shortfall Poised To Triple Mar 18, 2008 By David A. Fulghum The U.S. Navy's most recent estimate of a 69 F/A-18 Hornet and Super Hornet shortage is getting ready to leap by about 300 percent. "The 69 minimum assumes that the Joint Strike Fighter F-35C is operational in 2015 as currently planned, that they buy them at 50 per year and that the [older] F/A-18A -Ds are going to last 10,000 hrs," says a senior aerospace industry official with insight into the program. "All those are very optimistic assumptions, and the Navy's characterization of the shortage [as 69 aircraft] is the most optimistic [extrapolation of that] scenario." …

JSF program faces steep cost overruns [Me: eek! and even more delays] By Kimberly Johnson - Staff writer Posted : Saturday Mar 15, 2008 7:49:23 EDT The Joint Strike Fighter program is facing $38 billion in cost overruns and could be delayed by more than two years, according to a government report urging defense planners to re-evaluate the program. The delays could affect the Navy’s schedule for the carrier variant of the plane. The service is already facing a fighter-jet gap with F/A-18 Hornets projected to die out before they’re replaced by the JSF. Service officials say they plan on buying more F/A-18 E/F Super Hornets to bridge the gap. The almost $1 t…

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…

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…

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 DefenseNews U.S. Navy Mulls New F/A-18E/F Buy By philip ewing Published: 5 Mar 16:48 EST (11:48 GMT) The U.S. Navy is considering buying 69 F/A-18E/F Super Hornet fighters to bridge a "strike-fighter gap" that commanders fear could imperil aviation readiness at a time when older jets are wearing out before new aircraft are ready to take their place, top service officials said March 5. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead, who appeared before a Senate panel with Navy Secretary Donald Winter and Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Conway, mentioned the "fighter gap" in written testimony submitted to the Senate Appropriations Committee defense subco…

I believe it was Brains who mentioned the next gen bomber on IRC the other nite. From Air Force Times Wynne discusses next-gen bomber publicly By Erik Holmes - Staff writer Posted : Friday Mar 7, 2008 12:21:40 EST The Air Force is developing both manned and unmanned versions of its next-generation bomber, the service’s top civilian official said Wednesday. Air Force Secretary Michael W. Wynne’s testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee was one of the first public comments by a top official acknowledging that the new bomber, scheduled to debut in 2018, is well along in development. The program is currently classified, he said, but Air Force lea…

Ship named in honor of 9/11 to be christened By Alan Sayre - The Associated Press Posted : Friday Feb 29, 2008 16:21:38 EST AVONDALE, La. — Standing before the massive New York, Jennifer Adams seemed moved by the spirits of the 2,750 people killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks at the World Trade Center. “Our angels will watch over the men and women serving on this ship so the events of Sept. 11 will never happen again,” said Adams, who co-founded an association of family members and friends of 2,974 people who died when terrorist-hijacked airliners crashed into the twin towers in Lower Manhattan, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field, and of survivors, recov…

From Aviation Week U.S. Considering Shooting Down Satellite Feb 12, 2008 By David A. Fulghum U.S. officials are studying the possibility of shooting down the errant Lockheed Martin intelligence satellite that was launched into space for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). The concern is that the spacecraft carries a full tank of hydrazine - a toxic propellant - that would have been used to reposition the satellite in orbit. Government analysts say the odds are that the tank will crack open during re-entry or than it will land in the ocean, which makes up 70% of the area where the breaking up satellite might land. There also is concern in some quarters …