Current Events in the Americas

Navy CG(X) Cruiser Program: Background, Oversight Issues, and Options for Congress Source: Congressional Research Service (No public website) Ref: Order Code RL34179 Released Sept. 20, 2007 27 pages in PDF format The US Navy is currently developing technologies and studying design options for a planned new cruiser called the CG(X). Navy plans call for procuring the first CG(X) in FY2011, at an estimated cost of about $3.2 billion, and 18 more CG(X)s in subsequent years. If the CG(X) is equipped with a nuclear power plant, which is an option currently being considered by the Navy, then advance procurement funding for the first CG(X) could appear in the FY2009 …

This story oughta be good for some more rants and opinions. From Navy Times Bath begins work on final Burke destroyer The Associated Press Posted : Wednesday Oct 3, 2007 11:31:39 EDT BATH, Maine — Bath Iron Works has quietly begun construction on what’ll be the last of the Arleigh Burke destroyers that went into service in the early 1990s. Shipbuilders began cutting steel last month at BIW’s Brunswick facility for DDG-112, the 62nd and final ship of the Arleigh Burke class. The Navy has yet to name the ship, which will take 4½ years to build. Vice Adm. John Morgan, the first commanding officer of the original USS Arleigh Burke, came to BIW for the …

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 Flight International DATE: 01/10/07 SOURCE: Flight International Bomb test flameout nearly crashes F-22 By Stephen Trimble A key new weapon for the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor has started a new series of tests despite a recent in-flight crash scare. The Boeing GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb (SDB) began separation tests on the F-22 in early September after more than a year of sometimes difficult work to integrate the weapon in the weapons bay and carry out airborne captive carry tests, Maj Jack Fischer, a USAF test pilot, told the Society of Experimental Test Pilots' annual convention. Flight tests so far have produced a few in-flight problems, inclu…

From Defense Aerospace Raytheon's Laser-Guided Maverick Missile Meets Urgent Air Force Need (Source: Raytheon Co.; issued Aug. 16, 2007) TUCSON, Ariz. --- Having published an urgent operational need for a close air support weapon to defeat high-speed moving targets with minimal collateral damage, the U.S. Air Force has expressed interest in re-establishing production of Raytheon Company's laser-guided Maverick. The laser-guided AGM-65E Maverick missile is an air-to-ground weapon that can meet the service's needs in the near-term. The Air Force currently operates with television- and infrared-guided versions of Maverick. Until now, only the Navy and Ma…

From Defense Aerospace Boeing Delivers First Production EA-18G Growler to U.S. Navy (Source: Boeing Co.; issued Sept. 25, 2007) ST. LOUIS --- The Boeing Company yesterday delivered the first production EA-18G Growler to the U.S. Navy ahead of schedule and within budget. "The Growler team put together a program plan that...has remained on cost and schedule, while meeting or exceeding all performance parameters. I don't get to say that very often about our programs," said The Hon. Delores Etter, assistant secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition, during the delivery ceremony at Boeing Integrated Defense Systems facilities in St. Louis. …

No Rest For A Cold Warrior The legendary U-2 spy planes are busier than ever as they head toward a phaseout By Kevin Whitelaw Flying at over 70,000 feet above sea level, a lone pilot of an American U-2 spy plane scoured the rugged Afghan mountains near the southern city of Kandahar during a classified mission in mid-September. While the plane's high-tech camera was sending back detailed photographs of the Taliban strongholds below, coalition soldiers operating in the area got embroiled in a firefight with insurgents. The U-2, which flies too high to be heard or seen on the ground, was dispatched to relay images of the battle, locate any targets, and identify p…

Price Tag For Navy's New Aircraft Carrier On The Rise, GAO Says By Jon W. Glass, The Virginian-Pilot The next-generation aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford, under design at shipbuilder Northrop Grumman Newport News, faces "substantial risk" of cost overruns that could complicate the Navy's plan to increase its fleet, a federal report scheduled for release Monday says. The Government Accountability Office, a watchdog for Congress, said that this "likely" cost growth "may force the Navy to sacrifice" other vessels in its 30-year plan to grow the fleet to 313 ships from the current 279, according to Bloomberg News. The business news service first reported the GAO's …

From DefenseNews Posted 09/24/07 14:53 U.S. Missile Defense Agency Budget Funds ABL By TURNER BRINTON The U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee fully funded the Missile Defense Agency’s Airborne Laser (ABL) for 2008, likely keeping the program on track for a critical test in 2009 in which the modified Boe¬ing 747 aircraft will attempt to shoot down a target missile. The House trimmed $50 million from the White House’s $548.8 mil¬lion request for the futuristic weapon system in its version of the 2008 defense appropriations bill. The Senate marked up its version of the bill Sept. 12. The House and Senate armed services committees had recom¬mended slashing $250 m…

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 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…

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Senate panel cuts 1 of 3 LCS ships, backs FCS By William Matthews - Staff writer Posted : Tuesday Sep 11, 2007 17:59:18 EDT The Senate subcommittee that oversees the U.S. military budget eliminated one of the U.S. Navy’s Littoral Combat Ships Sept. 11, leaving the program with just two ships. Each remaining vessel is a different design, and the subcommittee said it expects the Navy to pick one as the winner in a contest between Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics to build as many as 55 ships for the Navy. In documents prepared by the subcommittee, senators said the two ships should be delivered to the Navy by next summer and the Navy should evaluate them…

From DefenseNews Posted 09/10/07 21:39 Third Time Could Be the Charm for LPD Program By CHRISTOPHER P. CAVAS PASCAGOULA, Miss. — With the U.S. Navy still smarting from the unsatisfactory delivery of two amphibious ships, Northrop Grumman has put a special emphasis on making sure the third ship avoids the pitfalls of its predecessors. If early returns are any indication, the shipbuilder and the Navy might be third time lucky. The USS Mesa Verde (LPD 19) carried out its initial builder’s trials in mid-August in the Gulf of Mexico. The ship returned Aug. 16 to Northrop’s Ingalls shipyard in Pascagoula flying two brooms — a traditional “clean sweep” symbol represe…

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Navy can use sonar despite environmental fight By Paul Elias - The Associated Press Posted : Friday Aug 31, 2007 18:04:17 EDT SAN FRANCISCO — The Navy can use high-power sonar during exercises off the Southern California coast, despite the technology’s threat to whales and other marine mammals, a federal appeals court ruled Friday. National security interests outweigh the possible harm to marine life, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals determined in overturning a judge’s order banning the practice. “The public does indeed have a very considerable interest in preserving our natural environment and especially relatively scarce whal…

From DefenseNews Posted 08/29/07 19:54 First LCS Mission Package Ready For Delivery By CHRISTOPHER P. CAVAS A significant milestone in the U.S. Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) program is set to take place in mid-September with delivery of the first mission module package. Although the module — configured for mine warfare — still lacks a ship to go aboard, Navy officials noted the various systems that make up the module are useable even without the LCS. “We do not necessarily need an LCS to deploy these systems,” Jim Thomsen, Program Executive Officer for Mine and Littoral Warfare at Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA), said Aug. 29 at a press briefing at the …

From DefenseNews Posted 08/29/07 16:17 Lockheed Martin Delivers 100th F-22 to U.S. Air Force STAFF REPORT Lockheed Martin delivered the 100th F-22 Raptor to the U.S. Air Force on August 29 in a ceremony at the company’s factory in Marietta, Ga. The aircraft — Air Force serial number 05-0100 — will be assigned to the 90th Fighter Squadron at Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska, according to a Lockheed media release. During the ceremony, Air Force Secretary Michael W. Wynne signed the DD-250 form accepting the aircraft on behalf of the U.S. government. The 90th Fighter Squadron is expected to receive its full complement of 20 F-22s by fall 2008, according to the r…

From Air Force Times Barksdale bombers expand B-52 capabilities Recreation of historic 1938 mission points to future By John Andrew Prime - The Shreveport Times Posted : Sunday Aug 26, 2007 13:57:20 EDT Three Barksdale Air Force Base B-52s used a modern twist to a historic mission almost 70 years old to add a dramatic new capability to the bomber’s long list of tricks. Flying almost 10 hours and putting about 3,500 miles under their wings Friday, the trio of veteran bombers pinpointed a specific ship several hundred miles east of Bermuda then spent two hours gathering images and information about it. In May 1938, three B-17 bombers from what was then th…

A United State Navy Captain and former Astronaut - How PATHETIC. Please delete if you feel it has no place here at HG. Former astronaut aims for insanity defense By Travis Reed - The Associated Press Posted : Tuesday Aug 28, 2007 16:06:14 EDT ORLANDO, Fla. — Former astronaut Navy Capt. Lisa Nowak is pursuing a temporary insanity defense on charges that she assaulted and tried to kidnap a romantic rival, according to a court document released Tuesday. Nowak suffered from major depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, insomnia and “brief psychotic disorder with marked stressors,” defense attorney Donald Lykkebak wrote. He said the already-petite woman…