Current Events in the Americas

From Jane's USN announces SIGINT aircraft replacement programme By Martin Streetly 11 December 2007 As part of its post-Aerial Common Sensor intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and targeting (ISRT) recapitalisation effort, the US Navy (USN) published a broad agency announcement (BAA) in November 2007, regarding an Electronics Patrol Experiment (EPX) programme intended to find a replacement for the service's existing EP-3E signals intelligence (SIGINT) aircraft after Fiscal Year 2017 (FY17). The BAA document states that the programme is intended to "recapitalise the EP-3 aircraft to provide tactical, theatre and national level ISRT support to carrier s…

From Aviation Week Dual Sourcing Tanker Unfeasible, Wynne Says Sep 20, 2007 By Michael Bruno/Aerospace Daily & Defense Report Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne said Sept. 19 that the service cannot afford to split the acquisition of its next fleet of aerial refueling tankers between Boeing and Northrop Grumman bids because of expected annual orders. "We still think we can't afford it," Wynne told a briefing organized by the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments on Capitol Hill. "If we have to buy seven-and-a-half [annually] from each company, we're in trouble." The Air Force plans to spend about $3 billion per year on recapitalizing the agin…

Evaluating Novel Threats to the Homeland: UAVs and Cruise Missiles A report from the RAND Corp found in PDF format here.

Canada Revisiting Ballistic Missile Defense (DefenseNews)

From Defense Aerospace The Pentagon, JSF and the Sacrificial Goat (Source: defense-aerospace.com; published June 5, 2008) By Giovanni de Briganti PARIS –-- The Senate Armed Services Committee’s June 3 hearing on the cost of Pentagon weapon programs has thrown up a couple of nuggets that demonstrate just how politically vulnerable the Joint Strike Fighter program has become. In his opening statement , SASC Chairman Carl Levin quoted a recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report which estimated that recent cost overruns on the Pentagon’s 95 major weapons programs amount to $295 billion. To put that figure into perspective, Levin said, “For $295 bi…

From Flight Global [excerpt]

Tight budget forces Navy to put squeeze on sub But analysts say subtracting Dolphin will only add to costs By Steve Liewer UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER August 28, 2006 Navy budget cutters are about to achieve what flood and fire could not: sink the Dolphin submarine. Less than a year after completing a $50 million project to repair and upgrade the San Diego-based research vessel, the Navy will decommission it Sept. 22. It is the country's last diesel-electric sub. Pentagon officials say the Dolphin's age and uniqueness caught up with it, making it expensive to operate and maintain. The research vessel is based at Point Loma. Axing the Dolphin will sav…

From Aviation Week JSF Juggling Engine, Cost, Schedule and Weight Issues Apr 1, 2007 By Amy Butler and Robert Wall The Joint Strike Fighter's price is expected to increase 4% due to Pentagon funding cuts. And if Congress reinstates development of a second engine for the stealthy aircraft, the cost could rise further. The increase could amount to more than $6 billion over the life of the massive, 3,000-aircraft program. But cost is only one of a flurry of issues ahead as development work moves into high gear. All three F-35 JSF versions will face key hurdles in the coming months, with program officials trying to keep the Lockheed Martin-led industrial team fr…

US Air Force Tests StormBreaker ‘Smart’ Munition on F-35 (Defense Post) Recently discussed in the DB forum.

From DefenseNews Pentagon OKs Continued Design Work on U.S Navy Warship By REUTERS, WASHINGTON The Defense Department has authorized Northrop Grumman Corp. and General Dynamics Corp. to continue design work on the new U.S. Navy DD(X) destroyer while Congress and Defense Department officials decide the fate of the program, a spokeswoman said Aug. 8. Pentagon acquisitions chief Kenneth Krieg signed a memorandum late on Aug. 5 authorizing the Navy to continue giving the two companies contracts for preliminary design work on the ships, said spokeswoman Cheryl Irwin. She noted that detailed design work would begin after a so-called “Milestone B” decision that …

From Air Force Times ‘The Airman’s Creed’ issued By Bruce Rolfsen - Staff writer Posted : Thursday Apr 19, 2007 9:10:30 EDT Through 60 years of flying and fighting, there has been something missing from Air Force tradition — an official creed for airmen. This week that changed. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley and Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force Rodney McKinley are issuing “The Airman’s Creed” as part of wider range of initiatives to encourage a “warrior ethos” in airmen. “When you look at our new Air Force creed and you say; ‘I am an American airman. I am a warrior. I have answered my nation’s call’ — imagine at basic military tra…

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 Navy Times Navy budget includes 9 ships, kills CG(X) By Philip Ewing and Andrew Tilghman - Staff writers Posted : Tuesday Feb 2, 2010 16:02:41 EST The Department of the Navy would build nine ships, buy 206 aircraft, postpone construction of the Marine Corps’ Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle and kill the advanced cruiser known as CG(X), according to the $179.1 billion spending plan it submitted Monday to Congress. The budget proposal includes $160.6 billion in baseline funding — compared with the $156 billion the Navy requested last year — and $18.5 billion in funding for what the Pentagon calls “overseas contingency operations,” better known as the Iraq a…

Los Angeles Times February 28, 2006 Troubled Aircraft Nearly Battle-Ready By Associated Press RALEIGH, N.C. — The Marine Corps plans to send the troubled Osprey aircraft into combat within a year and is activating a squadron of the tilt-rotor planes this week. "Obviously, due to operational concerns we don't want to tell exactly when they will deploy," said spokesman Master Sgt. Phil Mehringer at Marine Corps Air Station New River in North Carolina, where the squadron will be based. "But it's certainly going to happen in the near future. Definitely, within a year." The Osprey, which takes off and lands like a helicopter and flies like an airplane, has had …

From DefenseNews Posted 04/02/07 10:41 Is New U.S. Destroyer Unstable? Experts Doubt Radical Hull; Navy Says All Is Well By CHRISTOPHER P. CAVAS As the U.S. Navy is poised to award the first construction contracts on its new multibillion-dollar DDG 1000 Zumwalt-class destroyer, experts in and outside the Navy say the radical new hull design might be unstable. Given just the right conditions, some say, it could even roll over. At least eight current and former officers, naval engineers and architects and naval analysts interviewed for this article expressed concerns about the ship’s stability. One former flag officer, asked about DDG 1000, responded by puttin…

From Air Force Times NORAD not moving — for now By Erik Holmes - Staff writer Posted : Wednesday Dec 12, 2007 12:41:59 EST Congress has put the brakes on a plan to relocate North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command from the secretive Cheyenne Mountain Air Station, Colo., to Peterson Air Force Base, Colo. The 2008 defense authorization bill approved Dec. 6 by the House and Senate armed services committees orders that the move not go ahead until the Office of the Secretary of Defense submits to Congress a cost-benefit analysis and final plans for the relocation. OSD must also include in its report a security and vulnerability asses…

From Air Force Times Joint missile program called back on track By Erik Holmes - Staff writer Posted : Thursday Sep 18, 2008 8:09:09 EDT The future of the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile, or JASSM, seemed in doubt last year due to severe cost overruns and four failed flight tests in a span of a few days. But the Air Force and Lockheed Martin say the program is back on target, with a batch of the stealthy cruise missiles delivered in July and a contract for an additional 111 awarded in June. And the reliability issues have been solved, according to Air Force and Lockheed officials. The development team flew 16 flight tests in four days in February, …

Navy, General Dynamics to discuss LCS next week Staff writer - Staff writer Posted : Friday Sep 21, 2007 9:19:13 EDT The Navy and General Dynamics are expected to meet next week to discuss the Littoral Combat Ship program. GD spokesman Kendall Pease confirmed the Navy had asked for the meeting but provided no further details, other than to say a specific date had not been set. Other sources, however, said the meeting was to discuss slowing construction on LCS 4, the second ship GD is building at its Austal USA shipyard in Mobile, Ala. A construction contract for the yet-to-be named ship was awarded in December, before cost growth on the first ship being b…

From Navy Times Navy accepts first LCS, anti-sub module Staff report Posted : Thursday Sep 18, 2008 16:06:57 EDT The Navy took delivery Thursday of its first littoral combat ship, the Freedom, one of two late-week milestones in the Littoral Combat Ship program, along with the scheduled rollout Friday of the anti-submarine mission module in San Diego. “This is a truly exciting day for the Navy. Today marks a critical milestone in fulfilling the need and realizing the vision we began just a few years ago,” said LCS program manager Capt. James Murdoch in an announcement Thursday. “Despite our challenges, the Navy and industry have continued to press on to build…