Current Events in the Americas

From DefenseNews Northrop Wins U.S. Navy Unmanned Strike Aircraft Competition By CHRISTOPHER P. CAVAS Northrop Grumman has beaten a Boeing team as the Navy’s choice to develop the Unmanned Combat Air System Carrier Demonstration (UCAS-D) — intended to prove the technology to provide the fleet’s aircraft carriers with a long-range pilotless jet strike aircraft. The award of a $636 million cost-plus-incentive-fee development contract was announced by the Navy late Aug. 1. The competition to develop the aircraft — also known as UCAS-N, for UCAS-Navy — was between Boeing’s X-45N and Northrop Grumman’s X-47B test aircraft. Northrop now will be the prime contractor t…

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

From http://www.military.com/daily-news/2012/09/12/nrc-dump-boost-phase-ballistic-missile-defense.html [excerpt] The report can be found at: http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=13189

http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Security-Industry/2016/05/06/New-US-Navy-testing-of-Norwegian-missile/6411462559383/

From DefenseNews Posted 09/04/07 21:22 Nuclear Warheads Mistakenly Flown on B-52 By MICHAEL HOFFMAN A U.S. Air Force B-52 bomber mistakenly loaded with five nuclear warheads flew from Minot Air Force Base, N.D, to Barksdale Air Force Base, La., on Aug. 30, resulting in an Air Force-wide investigation, according to three officers who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to discuss the incident. The B-52 was loaded with Advanced Cruise Missiles, part of a Defense Department effort to decommission 400 of the ACMs. But the nuclear warheads should have been removed at Minot before being transported to Barksdale, the officers said. The missiles…

From DefenseNews [excerpt]

From Navy Times May 09, 2005 Official report: Leadership, navigation errors led to San Francisco accident By William H. McMichael Times Staff Writer Failures of command leadership and the sub’s navigation team were the sole cause of the attack submarine San Francisco’s Jan. 8 collision with an undersea mountain, the Navy has concluded in its official investigative report. The sub struck the sea mount while traveling full speed near the Pacific Ocean’s Caroline Islands at a depth of 525 feet, killing one sailor, injuring dozens of others and crushing the sub’s bow, causing more than $88 million in damage and leaving the 24-year-old sub’s future in doubt. …

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…

From DEW Line [excerpt]

From Navy Times May 17, 2006 Oriskany is sunk By Larry Wheeler Pensacola (Fla.) News Journal Oriskany has sunk. The last tip of the vessel’s hurricane bow disappeared into the Gulf at approximately 11 a.m. Local officials in Pensacola are hopeful the Oriskany settled on the sea floor in an upright position. But no one would know for sure until Navy divers check the vessel later Wednesday. Navy engineers predicted the Oriskany would sink evenly in a process that would take up to five hours. Instead, the old aircraft carrier went down in approximately 35 minutes, sinking sharply by the fantail. “I thought it went down as planned, but it is hard to …

Only one scenario for the PlayersDB currently exists for the high Arctic, "The True North Strong and Free". Looks like here's an opportunity to explore the area, again. Ottawa to proceed with plan to acquire six Arctic patrol ships Murray Brewster, The Canadian Press Published: Sunday, May 13, 2007 Victoria Times Colonist OTTAWA -- A key federal cabinet committee has given the go-ahead for a plan to construct six corvette-sized Arctic patrol vessels, The Canadian Press has learned. The cabinet priorities and planning committee approved the program to build the 100-metre-long, 6,000-tonne warships within the last 10 days, according to defence and politica…

Ousted USAF chief continues controversial fight for F-22 production (Jane's)

Boeing Surveillance Plane Found Not Effective for Mission (Bloomberg)

From Defense Aerospace P-8A Multi-Mission Maritime Aircraft Homebasing Announced (Source: US Department of Defense; issued Jan. 02, 2009) The Department of the Navy announced today its decision to provide facilities and functions to base five fleet squadrons of the P-8A Multi-Mission Maritime Aircraft (MMA) with a fleet replacement squadron (FRS) at Naval Air Station (NAS) Jacksonville, Fla., four fleet squadrons at NAS Whidbey Island, Wash., and three fleet squadrons at Marine Corps Base Hawaii Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii, with periodic squadron detachment operations at NAS North Island. This decision implements the preferred homebasing alternative 5 identified in t…

From Aviation Week Pacific Will Drive Future Navy Investment Sep 4, 2008 Bettina H. Chavanne Pacific-realm activity, Iranian behavior, resurgent major powers like China and the prevalence of low-intensity conflict (LIC) will drive U.S. Navy investments in the region, according to Marshall Billingslea, deputy under secretary of the Navy. Maritime power is uniquely suited to safeguard the interests of the United States, Billingslea told a multinational crowd Sept. 3 at ComDef 2008 in Washington. In the Pacific, the United States claims to be upgrading its carrier presence in alliance with Japan and actively pursuing new relationships with countries like India …

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 DefenseNews U.S. Tries Putting Patriots on F-15s By KRIS OSBORN U.S. fighter jets laden with Patriot missiles may one day help shoot down incoming ballistic missiles, Lockheed Martin officials said. Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control is working with the U.S. Missile Defense Agency to put Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) missiles under the wing of an F-15 fighter, said Mike Trotsky, the division’s vice president. The firm is working under a contract from 2005 worth roughly $2 million. A new contract, expected to be worth about $3 million, will start work with other fighter planes. “We’re looking at the F-16. F-22, F-35, F-15,” said Trotsky. De…

From Aviation Week ARES Blog Patrol Planes of the Caribbean Posted by Joris Janssen Lok at 2/18/2008 3:47 AM After more than three years of interim solutions, maritime air surveillance flights by the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba Coast Guard (NAACG) have reached a situation of stability with the arrival of a second Dash-8 patrol plane operated by Provincial Airlines of Canada. The long-range maritime patrols for the NAACG from Hato Airport, Curacao, Netherlands Antilles, were conducted by Lockheed Martin P-3C Orion aircraft of the Royal Netherlands Navy through 2005. But when the Netherlands Government decided to sell its P-3C fleet (to germany and Portu…

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…

From Reuters [excerpt]