Current Events in the Americas

From Navy Times January 11, 2007 Boone lost rudder at sea By William H. McMichael The rudder fell off a Mayport, Fla.-based frigate while it was on deployment in the western Mediterranean Sea in late November, the Atlantic Fleet Naval Surface Force confirmed Thursday. The Nov. 30 mishap forced the ship to send out a call for help, said Paul Taylor, a SurfLant spokesman. The Canadian destroyer HMCS Iroquois responded, providing divers who inspected the ship’s underside. Within 24 hours, the Boone was being towed to Rota, Spain, for repairs by a German replenishment oiler, FGS Spessart, Taylor said. The ship was not adrift or totally dead in the water beca…

The May 2008 ieee Spectrum magazine had an engaging article describing some attempts to prevent sabotage of military electronic components as more and more of those components originate outside of government production facilities and outside of US facilities. I've finally gotten around to tracking down the online version. You can find it at: http://spectrum.ieee.org/may08/6171 The topic really crosses a number of my interests, electronic design, weapons systems, Harpoon... So far I can't imagine how one goes about modelling cyber attacks in our games, let alone faulty chips. Is there a 1 in 1000 chance that all of your F-22 are going to become unuseable in a scena…

From Defense Aerospace Navy Names Littoral Combat Ship USS Fort Worth (Source: US Navy; issued March 6, 2009) WASHINGTON --- Secretary of the Navy Donald Winter announced March 6 that the newest littoral combat ship (LCS) will be named USS Fort Worth. The announcement continues the practice of naming the agile LCS vessels after American midsized cities, small towns and communities. For more than 150 years, the patriotic citizens of Fort Worth have supported the Navy and all of our men and women in uniform. Home to ranger outposts, training facilities, aviation depots, and defense manufacturing, Fort Worth has answered the call whenever our nation needed it. …

South American future for HMS Norfolk EDP 20 July 2005 20:04 HMS Norfolk, the county's adopted warship, has been sold to the Chilean Navy as part of a three-ship package deal worth just under £200m. It means the sixth ship to bear the county name has followed its predecessor for a new life south of the equator. The Type 23 frigate, which ended its Royal Navy service at the end of March, will head to the southern hemisphere with sister ships HMS Grafton and HMS Marlborough over the next three years. Training and spare parts are also included in the $350m (£192m) deal. A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: “That represents extremely good value for …

Command readies assault on terror Web sites By Jim Michaels - USA Today Posted : Wednesday Mar 28, 2007 6:34:42 EDT The U.S. military has been quietly developing capabilities to attack enemy computer networks, including hacking into terrorist Web sites, military officials and experts say. The move comes as al-Qaida and other groups fighting in Iraq and elsewhere have expanded their activities on the Internet and increased the sophistication and volume of their videos and messages. Much of the material is designed to raise money and recruit fighters for Iraq. “You should not let them operate uncontested” on the Internet and elsewhere in cyberspace, said Ma…

From ARES Blog JSF News You Might Have Missed Posted by Bill Sweetman at 9/8/2008 8:15 AM CDT The Joint Strike Fighter program is so vast that a week can hardly go by without some JSF-related news. Air Force Magazine secured an interview with ousted Air Force secretary Michael Wynne, including this comment about the JSF: He argues that it is too early to halt F-22 production and rely on the F-35 as the sole fifth-generation fighter in production, mainly because "I’m afraid the F-35 will fail a test." [CV32: Emphasis mine.] If that line doesn't appear in every third Gripen PowerPoint for the next several months - if the USAF doesn't want to bet its fu…

Army Expected to Sell Off Thousands of Surplus 1911 Pistols (Kit Up!) A great opportunity for some of you to grab a piece of history.

From Defence Aerospace Legendary Fighter Pilot and Designer Says the F-22 Raptor is the Wrong Weapon at the Wrong Time Source: Project On Government Oversight (POGO); issued March 11, 2005 In concert with the Project On Government Oversight (POGO), Col. Everest Riccioni (USAF ret.), a pioneer in combat fighter design, has published his critical analysis of the Air Force's F/A-22 Raptor fighter jet program. Riccioni, who pioneered supersonic cruise technology and the F-16 Lightweight Fighter Program, says the decades-old F/A-22 Raptor program is broken and too expensive to fix. From his unique vantage point, Riccioni traces the history of the escalating cost…

From Flight International DATE: 08/09/08 SOURCE: Flight International Boeing nears first light test for Airborne Laser By Stephen Trimble Boeing is nearing the first light of the 1MW-class energy beam on board a parked YAL-1 Airborne Laser (ABL). The key milestone for the missile defence programme was originally scheduled for late August. Powering-on the laser on board the aircraft is one of the last major critical steps before the first airborne shootdown test of a ballistic missile target, scheduled during August 2009. As of 29 August, Boeing was in the process of activating each of the subsystems for the six-module laser, says the company's ABL pr…

Concept and practical testing before build the ships: https://www.defenseone.com/policy/2023/02/marines-begin-testing-leased-vessel-pier-less-operations/383234/

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…

From Defense Aerospace Submarine Force Announces Operational Stand Down (Source: US Navy; issued Jan. 11, 2007) NORFOLK, Va. --- The U.S. Submarine Force announced Jan. 11, that it will conduct an Operational Stand Down in the wake of recent submarine incidents. In a message to the submarine force, Vice Adm. Chuck Munns, U.S. Submarine Force commander, directed the immediate “stand down” to focus energy and intellect on the basics of submarine operations. Submarines provide continued excellence in the accomplishment of national and theater tasking, but recent problems in routine operations need attention. “It is clear that a common thread through rece…

Heron, Reaper and Hermes 900 Compete for Canadas Arctic mission (Defense Update)

CV32: For anyone not already aware, this was the tragic crash that claimed the life of mil blogger Carroll LeFon (aka Neptunus Lex): From Flight Global [excerpt]

The Next Act for Aegis (USNI News)

From Jane's Information Group USN considers army missile for Littoral Combat Ship By Scott R Gourley Last year's restructuring of the US Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS) has brought one FCS element, the Non Line of Sight - Launch System (NLOS-LS), into contention for integration on the initial versions of the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS). Originally developed under the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's 'NetFires' concept, NLOS-LS emerged as a family of artillery missiles fired from a vertical launcher that could be deployed by ground or air assets throughout a theatre and networked to quickly engage an enemy. System components originally included a …

Pearl Harbor may get amphib group By William Cole - Gannett News Service Posted : Tuesday Apr 17, 2007 16:29:19 EDT Hawaii didn’t get the Carl Vinson aircraft carrier strike group, but planning is underway that could bring a smaller cousin — an amphibious assault ship and its escort ships — to Pearl Harbor, officials said. An amphibious ready group “is almost as good as getting an aircraft carrier,” said Loren Thompson, a defense expert with the Lexington Institute in Virginia. “It’s fewer personnel, but it’s an entire war-fighting package of ships and aircraft.” Such a ship grouping typically has at its core a carrierlike assault ship with helicopters an…

Coast Guard to decommission troubled 123s By Patricia Kime - Staff Writer Posted : Wednesday Apr 18, 2007 7:33:57 EDT The Coast Guard will decommission eight recently built patrol boats because the ships suffer from hull deformations and other problems that would be cost-prohibitive to fix, officials said Tuesday. The decision to scrap the ships — eight 123-foot Island Class patrol boats that were refurbished between 2003 and 2005 — is the final nail in the coffin for the long-beleaguered program. The vessels were never fully operational and their troubles became central in a debate over the Coast Guard’s handling of its Deepwater modernization program. C…

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