Current Events in the Americas

Defendant testifies in Aegis secrets trial By Gillian Flaccus - The Associated Press Posted : Wednesday May 2, 2007 7:26:11 EDT SANTA ANA, Calif. — A Chinese-American engineer accused of conspiring to export defense technology materials to China took the witness stand in his federal trial Tuesday and denied he was trying to give information to the Chinese government. Defense attorney Ronald Kaye immediately asked defendant Chi Mak about three computer disks containing material presented at technical conferences, including a paper on a propulsion system called quiet electric drive that is intended to reduce the ability to detect submarines. “Did you give t…

Industry has big hopes for Fire Scout UAV By Zachary M. Peterson - Staff writer Posted : Thursday Aug 9, 2007 8:14:18 EDT The “flexibility” of the Northrop Grumman-built Fire Scout unmanned helicopter could see its mission sets expanded in the future from surface warfare, antisubmarine warfare and mine warfare to include special operations, humanitarian relief and other missions, an industry official said he hopes. The MQ-8B Fire Scout vertical-takeoff-and-landing unmanned aerial vehicle is being designed to perform intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance for the Navy’s new Littoral Combat Ships’ three mission modules, designed for surface warfare, anti…

Find NavyTime article here. No more enemy combatants, no more combat operations, what next...back to a kinder and gentler term forward deployed forces. It's ok though, we were in MEU's and on ARG's and were no less dangerous. Amphibs, warships split up by new plan By Philip Ewing - Staff writer Posted : Monday Apr 20, 2009 10:49:18 EDT The Navy is breaking up the deployments of amphibious ships and surface combatants formerly known as expeditionary strike groups, part of a top-down review that could have far-reaching consequences for how sailors and Marines spend time at sea. For the past six years, ESGs paired a big-deck amphib and two small-d…

From Ares No more sonobuoy launcher for MH-60R? Posted by Bettina Chavanne at 7/21/2010 7:37 AM CDT This morning at the Farnborough Air Show, U.S. Navy program manager for H-60, Capt. Dean Peters, talked about issues facing the MH-60R helicopter's sonobuoy launcher. Peters said the aircraft's Airborne Low Frequency Sonar (ALFS) worked so well during last year's deployment of the aircraft there "was not much need for the [sonobuoy] launcher." The potential exists, he says, to "take out the sonobuoy launcher," and launch fewer buoys using a different type of launch system. The goal is reduce the amount of cabin space taken up by the launcher. "We have to r…

From 4GWAR blog [excerpt]

X-47B UCAS-D conducts first land-based catapult shot (Flight Global)

From Defense Aerospace Pentagon Contract Announcement (Source: US Department of Defense; issued Oct. 14, 2005) General Dynamics Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine, is being awarded a $223,262,430 cost-plus-award-fee/incentive-fee modification to exercise an option under previously awarded contract (N00024-03-C-2310) for detail design and construction of one Flight 0 Littoral Combat Ship (LCS). The LCS will be a networked, agile, and high-speed surface combatant with versatile war-fighting capabilities, optimized for littoral missions. Work will be performed in Mobile, Ala. (50 percent), Pittsfield, Mass. (33 percent), Bath, Maine (15 percent), and Baltimore…

From Air Force Magazine, October 2007 issue October 2007 , Vol. 90, No. 10 The Navy plans to build many more flattops, and they won’t be “Gary Hart carriers.” Seven New Carriers (Maybe) By Otto Kreisher Today’s Navy leaders are in a bind. With the size of the fleet at 277 warships, and with a stated requirement for 313, the service faces a broad, long-term, and expensive shipbuilding task. Senior officers are struggling to find the money, with no assurance of success. In the midst of all this, however, there is at least one certainty. Navy leadership is staunchly committed to buying many more big-deck, nuclear-powered aircraft carriers—the most powerf…

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…

US Navy Launches UAV from a Submarine (USNI News)

http://www.dodbuzz.com/2014/01/29/navy-set-to-accept-first-virginia-class-block-iii-submarine/ (DOD Buzz)

This is a sad situation: http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/Endangered-w...90610ussolympia I certainly hope she can be saved.

Forbes Calls for Extending Super Hornet Production (USNI News)

From Aerospace Daily & Defense Report U.S. Navy To Upgrade Harpoon Missile 10/19/2005 09:01:48 AM By Marc Selinger The U.S. Navy plans to begin an upgrade program for the Harpoon missile in fiscal 2007 to increase its accuracy and allow operators to retarget it after it is launched, a government official said Oct. 18. "We're expecting it to be funded" in the Navy's upcoming FY '07 budget request, said Keith Sanders, deputy program executive officer for strike weapons at Naval Air Systems Command. The FY '07 request is due to be sent to Capitol Hill in early calendar 2006. The enhanced missile, known as Harpoon Block III, would receive Global Position…

Find it here. I have heard grumblings of this the past few weeks. October 06, 2006 Mine commands merge By Christopher P. Cavas Times staff The Navy’s new Naval Mine and Anti-Submarine Warfare Command (NMAWC) was created Oct. 1, merging the former Mine Warfare Command (MINEWARCOM) in Corpus Christi, Texas, with the San Diego-based Fleet Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) Command. The move — controversial among many mine warfare professionals — merges the mine community’s staff and research elements with similar work being done in the ASW area. Along with the staff, the ships at the Corpus Christi base — slated for closure in 2009 — will move to San Dieg…

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

A short but concise article in Mer et Marine (in French) about the US Navy, by Bernard Prézelin, editor of Combat Fleets of the World: http://www.meretmarine.com/fr/content/focus-lus-navy-toute-puissante-pour-de-nombreuses-annees-encore

US Navy's SM-6 and over-the-horizon fire control score intercepts at sea (Jane's)

Reactivation Creates Wing For Remotely Controlled Planes Ceremony at Creech Air Force Base signals step in spy warfare By Keith Rogers, Review-Journal INDIAN SPRINGS -- Air Force leaders set a new mark in military history Tuesday by creating the nation's first combat wing for remotely piloted spy planes at their base here, 45 miles northwest of Las Vegas. In a ceremony attended by hundreds of airmen at Creech Air Force Base, Lt. Gen. Norman R. Seip reactivated the 432nd Wing. The unit has roots dating back to World War II and now consists of six operations squadrons and a maintenance squadron for the Air Force fleet of 60 MQ-1 Predator and six MQ-9 Reaper …

I see LCS will employ probably Sonar 2087, as reflected here: - http://news.usni.org/2013/08/21/lcs-mission-packages-the-basics - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Littoral_combat_ship#Anti-submarine_module Also worring comments in the Wikipedia entry about the use of LCS to escort carrier groups! Link: http://www.dodbuzz.com/2014/04/02/lcs-wargame-reveals-new-tactics-amid-controversy/