Current Events in the Americas

From Aviation Week U.S. Navy Plans EPX Intel-Gathering Aircraft Feb 22, 2008 By David A. Fulghum The U.S. Navy is asking three companies each to design an aircraft that can conduct simultaneous intelligence-gathering missions that were considered impractical, perhaps impossible, even a couple of years ago. In particular, the Navy wants a single, EPX aircraft that can use a powerful radar and at the same time operate an array of sensitive receivers that can collect faint electronic emissions or communications from hundreds of miles away. The multisource information would be fused to locate and identify objects of interest as fleeting and elusive as the low-po…

From Flight International DATE: 30/11/07 SOURCE: Flightglobal.com USAF: F-15s risk catastrophic design weakness By Stephen Trimble The US Air Force Boeing F15A-D Eagle fleet is grounded after preliminary findings of a crash investigation show signs of a design weakness. Air Combat Command (ACC) ordered the stand-down until the airframes can be inspected. An inspection checklist is being prepared by the Warner-Robins Air Logistics Center, an ACC spokesman says. An ongoing investigation of a 2 November crash is focusing on potential failure of the F-15’s upper longerons near the canopy seal. Recent inspections found cracks in this same area on two o…

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…

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 Air Force Times Deputy SecDef: No more Raptors needed By John T. Bennett - Staff writer Posted : Tuesday Jan 29, 2008 11:35:26 EST PASCAGOULA, Miss. — Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England defended his position that the Air Force needs no more than 187 F-22 Raptors, saying Saturday that several Pentagon studies have concluded that number is sufficient to tackle future threats. In recent months, senior Air Force officials have intensified their public campaign for 381 of the Lockheed Martin-made fighters. Senior Pentagon officials recently approved an Air Force plan to purchase four more Raptors, a move that will bring the planned buy to 191 warplanes.…

LCS delays could send UAVs to other ships By John T. Bennett - Staff writer Posted : Tuesday Feb 12, 2008 21:29:41 EST If the Navy’s Littoral Combat Ships are delayed, the service may debut the Northrop Grumman MQ-8B Fire Scout unmanned rotorcraft “on another air-capable ship,” said William Balderson, the service’s program executive officer for air programs. That “would allow us to not delay the Fire Scout even if LCS slips” and would also allow the service to begin integrating the vertical-takeoff UAV onto a working ship, driving down “integration risk” when it moves to the littoral ships, he said. That plan, however, is still “pre-decisional,” as PEO av…

New mission for Corps relies on amphibs New deployment strategy stresses Navy-Marine link By Andrew Scutro - Staff writer Posted : Friday Feb 8, 2008 18:24:45 EST The Marines want to get back to their expeditionary roots — and they’ll be taking amphib sailors with them. According to a recently approved operational concept, the Marine Corps plans to keep nine infantry battalions forward-deployed at all times, with the remaining 18 battalions in training. For the Marines, it means new advisory missions on top of existing requirements. And for sailors, it will mean a steady reliance on the amphibious fleet. In recent years, with Marines committed to lon…

From Flight International DATE: 11/12/07 SOURCE: Flightglobal.com Production of first Boeing P-8A begins at Spirit By Graham Warwick Spirit AeroSystems has begun production of the fuselage for the first Boeing P-8A Poseidon maritime-patrol aircraft, a derivative of the Next Generation 737 under development to replace the US Navy’s Lockheed P-3 Orion. Loading of the assembly jig began at Spirit’s Wichita, Kansas plant on 11 December, and the first fuselage is scheduled to be dispatched by rail car 100 days later to Boeing’s 737 final-assembly line in Renton, Washington on 19 March 2008. The first P-8 is one of five – three flight-test aircraft and two…

Cost of LCS rises again Staff writer - Staff writer Posted : Wednesday Feb 6, 2008 8:05:37 EST The price to buy each of the Navy’s first two Littoral Combat Ships has crashed through the $500 million barrier, and the final tab to deliver the ships is well over $600 million apiece, according to service budget documents released Feb. 4. Soaring cost growth has severely disrupted the program, which once envisioned the purchase of a series of relatively inexpensive, $220 million warships that would take about two years to build. Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics (GD) are building ships to very different designs in a competition to be decided in 2009. In Ja…

3 Programs, 3 Sets of Risks By CHRISTOPHER P. CAVAS Defense News Each of the U.S. Navy’s new ship designs brings its own set of potential problems: å The Carrier: The CVN 78 Gerald R. Ford design features a number of new elements over the previous Nimitz-class carriers, including a new hull, new reactor plant and redesigned flight deck. A new dual-band radar is being developed — the size of which is key to a much smaller island that enables new flight deck operation patterns — and the EMALS magnetic launch system represents a radical improvement. The Navy first planned to put off installation of the new launch system until later ships in the class, but it decided …

From Defense Aerospace Pentagon Contract Announcement (Source; US Department of Defense; issued Jan. 30, 2008) McDonnell Douglas Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of The Boeing Co., St. Louis, Mo., is being awarded a $73,707,908 cost-plus-incentive-fee contract (N00019-08-C-0021) for the system development and demonstration of the Harpoon Block III Missile Program. Work will be performed in St. Charles, Mo. (92.12 percent); Lititz, Penn. (1.93 percent); Cedar Rapids, Iowa (.84 percent); Chatsworth, Calif. (.76 percent); Galena, Kan. (.49 percent); Lowell, Mass. (.42 percent); and various locations across the United States (3.44 percent), and work is expected…

From Aviation Week Boeing Plans Sixth Generation Fighter With Block 3 Super Hornet Jan 30, 2008 David A. Fulghum/Aerospace Daily & Defense Report Boeing is touting an even newer version of its F/A-18E/F Super Hornet that, paired with an advanced sixth-generation fighter in the works at the company, would give customers what Boeing deems a better package of capabilities than Lockheed Martin's combination of the F-22 Raptor and F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. The idea is that customers could buy 4.5 generation Super Hornets (perhaps 4.75 generation with the planned extra forward stealth and extra range of Block 3 aircraft) and then switch to a new, sixth genera…

From Aviation Week ARES Blog F-22 intercepting Tu-95 Bear near the Aleutians in November 2007 F-22 dropping external fuel tanks (pylons and all)

From Defense Aerospace CNO: 'LCS Will be the Workhorse of the Navy' (Source: US Navy; issued Jan. 16, 2008) MARINETTE, Wis. --- Marinette Marine Corporation, which is building the Navy's first littoral combat ship, USS Freedom (LCS 1), was the final stop, Jan. 14, for Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Adm. Gary Roughead on his eight-day tour of private and public shipyards throughout the U.S. Roughead received a progress report on the ship, designed to provide the U.S. Navy with greater flexibility and capability in operating in the littoral or "green water" coastal areas. "The Navy has a gap we need to fill in the littoral and that is what LCS is going…

From Defense Aerospace Government of Canada Awards Tactical Airlift Contract (Source: Public Works and Government Services Canada; issued Jan. 16, 2008) GATINEAU --- The Honourable Michael M Fortier, Minister of Public Works and Government Services Canada, along with the Honourable Peter Gordon MacKay, Minister of National Defence, today announced that the government has awarded a contract to Lockheed Martin Corporation for the acquisition of the Canadian Forces new tactical lift aircraft. "Canada has long been in dire need of renewed tactical airlift capabilities," said Minister Fortier. "The government is now delivering on commitments it has made to ensur…

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 Air Force Times Where might next-gen aircraft be headed? Staff report Posted : Wednesday Jan 16, 2008 10:46:47 EST The Air Force chief of staff has released the “roadmap” for the Air Force’s future, detailing which bases are in the running to house the service’s next-generation aircraft. Gen. T. Michael Moseley’s outline of future forces is the result of meetings with top leaders from the regular Air Force, the Air National Guard and the Air Force Reserve in December, according to an Air Force press release. The preliminary lists generally follow present assignments: Bases hosting F-16s are in the running for the F-35, and the potential bed-down sit…

Analysts: Air power crucial upon new threat By William H. McMichael - Staff writer Posted : Tuesday Jan 15, 2008 6:19:03 EST If the U.S. were to face a new conventional threat, its military could not respond effectively without turning to air power, officials and analysts say. That is the ultimate upshot of the war in Iraq: a response elsewhere would consist largely of U.S. fighters and bombers — even, perhaps, some degree of nuclear strike — because so many ground troops are tied up in Operation Iraqi Freedom. And that leaves at least some senior U.S. leaders and analysts crossing their fingers. “I believe that we, as a nation, are at risk of mission…

Navy awaits laser minesweeping By William Matthews - Staff writer Posted : Monday Apr 2, 2007 21:16:54 EDT Sweeping along at 60 knots, a Navy helicopter equipped with a blue-green laser will soon be able to detect mines in water deeper than 40 feet. Using data collected during the sweep, the helicopter will return to the area and use a second, more focused laser to zero in on the mines, then destroy them with specially designed 30-millimeter supercavitating bullets. The new Airborne Laser Mine Detection System (ALMDS) and its companion Rapid Airborne Mine Clearance System (RAMICS) promise to dramatically speed up mine detection and clearing of floating an…

From Air Force Times Raptor has first encounter with Russians By Erik Holmes - Staff writer Posted : Thursday Dec 27, 2007 20:46:10 EST The F-22 Raptor, the Air Force’s newest operational fighter jet, had its first encounter with Russian bombers off the coast of Alaska on Thanksgiving Day. Two Raptors from the 90th Fighter Squadron at Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska, scrambled to identify and escort two Russian Bear-H bombers as they approached Alaskan airspace Nov. 22, said Maj. Allen Herritage, a spokesman for the Alaska region of the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD. It marked the first time a Raptor has intercepted unknown aircraft…