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…

USA Today May 8, 2007 Pg. 1 General: Air Fleet Wearing Down Warplanes Have Cracked Wings By Tom Vanden Brook, USA Today LANGLEY AIR FORCE BASE, Va. — The Air Force's fleet of warplanes is older than ever and wearing out faster because of heavy use in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to the service's top combat commander. Gen. Ronald Keys, who leads the Air Combat Command, points to cracked wings on A-10 attack planes and frayed electrical cables on U-2 spy planes. Compared to 1996, the Air Force now spends 87% more on maintenance for a warplane fleet that is less ready to fly, Air Force records show. They also show that as the wars in Iraq an…

From DefenseNews Posted 05/07/07 12:36 U.S. House Panel Pushes Nuclear Surface Ships By CHRISTOPHER P. CAVAS The prospect of the U.S. Navy once again using nuclear energy to propel its larger surface warships edged a bit closer to reality May 3 with a push from a powerful congressional subcommittee. “We are requiring that new classes of major surface combatants are designed and constructed with integrated nuclear power systems,” Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Miss., chairman of the House Armed Services seapower subcommittee, said during the panel’s markup of the 2008 defense authorization bill. Taylor’s predecessor as chairman, Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, R-Md., echoed the cal…

Roughead Outlines Future For Pacific By William Cole, Advertiser Military Writer PEARL HARBOR — The new submarine USS Hawaii will be commissioned Saturday on the East Coast, and "the bias will continue to be toward the Pacific and Pearl Harbor" as decisions are made on where to base other subs, the outgoing commander of U.S. Pacific Fleet said. Adm. Gary Roughead said as the new Virginia-class attack submarines continue to come on line, "you are going to see the numbers in substantial amounts out here in Pearl Harbor." The USS Hawaii, the first of those, will arrive in 2009. After nearly two years in the same bunker office that was once occupied by Adm. Ch…

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 …

From Aviation Week Next decade's AF bomber to be subsonic, manned Michael Fabey/Aerospace Daily & Defense Report The U.S. Air Force's long-range strike aircraft set to be deployed by 2018 will be subsonic and manned, said Brig. Gen. Mark Matthews, director of plans and programs, headquarters, Air Combat Command, Langley Air Force Base, Va. But it would be wrong to characterize the aircraft as being entirely devoid of current technology, Matthews said May 1 during a panel discussion "Return of the Bomber: The Future of Long Range Strike," presented by the Eaker Institute, the research arm of the Air Force Association (AFA). "There is new technology ass…

Navy debates STOVL JSF future Marines, U.K. worry about F-35 variant By Christopher P. Cavas - Staff writer Posted : Monday Apr 30, 2007 10:49:54 EDT Despite public support by Pentagon and Navy leaders for the short-take-off/vertical-landing version of the Joint Strike Fighter, debates about the planned acquisition and operation of the F-35B continue behind the scenes — worrying Marine Corps officials and potential foreign customers who are counting on the versatile aircraft. Navy officials have set no public deadline to settle JSF procurement plans, but a current Navy briefing document provides a rare window on the debate. It argues that the STOVL version s…

The May 2007 issue of Air Force Magazine contains the annual USAF Almanac 2007, which is a collection of PDF documents detailing the US Air Force in facts and figures, its organizational structure (including reserve components), and USAF installations worldwide. Its a great source, especially for database work and PBEM/MBX wargaming. You can find it here.

From Flight International DATE:30/04/07 SOURCE:Flightglobal.com Northrop Grumman rolls out E2-D Advanced Hawkeye By Graham Warwick Northrop Grumman has rolled out the first E-2D Advanced Hawkeye, the latest version of the US Navy’s carrier-based airborne early warning aircraft. The first of two test aircraft was revealed at Northrop’s St Augustine, Florida plant. While externally similar to today’s E-2C, the E-2D has a new Lockheed Martin APY-9 radar with an L-3 Randtron rotodome antenna that combines mechanical rotation with electronic scanning. This provides 360º coverage while allowing operators to focus the radar on areas of interest. The E-2D also …

From Aviation Week Secret Surveillance Satellites To Launch In June Craig Covault/Aerospace Daily & Defense Report A secret National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) dual-satellite ocean surveillance mission to track potential terrorist movements at sea and monitor Chinese and Iranian ship tactics is being readied for liftoff June 14 from Cape Canaveral on an Atlas V, intelligence sources tell Aviation Week. The National Ocean Surveillance System (NOSS) flight is designated NRO L-30. The importance of NRO's space ocean surveillance role in connection with the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard has been elevated since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The nee…

Just when things couldn't get worse for the LCS program ... From DefenseNews Posted 04/25/07 22:34 Fire Strikes New U.S. Navy Ship By CHRISTOPHER P. CAVAS A fire broke out on board the U.S. Navy’s littoral combat ship (LCS) USS Freedom early April 25, damaging a ship that already has had more than its share of problems. The Freedom is under construction at Marinette Marine in Marinette, Wis., under a program managed by Lockheed Martin. The ship, launched in September, is about 80 percent complete, said Diana Massing, a spokesperson for Lockheed. The fire, which burned for nearly an hour, broke out about 5:30 a.m. in a starboard-side berthing compartment in…

From Defense Aerospace Want Real Missile Defense Soon? Put KEI to Sea (Source: The Lexington Institute; issued April 23, 2007) By Daniel Goure, Ph.D. More than six years into the Bush Administration and what do we have to show for its investment of billions of dollars in missile defense? Precious little is the answer. To defend the nation we are relying on a waterlogged Ground-Based Missile Defense (GMD) site at Fort Greeley, Alaska with about a dozen interceptors. A few more missiles have been deployed at Vandenburg AFB in California. There are a small number of Navy cruisers equipped with the Aegis ballistic missile defense system and a number of Army PAC-3 …

From Defense Aerospace Another Significant Milestone For Joint Strike Fighter Program (Source: Australian Department of Defence; issued April 23, 2007) The Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) Program has achieved another significant milestone with the approval of funding for Low Rate Initial Production (LRIP). As of 23 April 2007, the first JSF test aircraft has completed 14 test flights. Test pilots have been impressed by the aircraft’s maturity so early in the test program and its excellent handling qualities. The aircraft has already been flown to 30,000 feet, 0.8 Mach, and 16 degrees Angle of Attack with all systems working as designed, including: - the Pr…

From Defense Aerospace Growler Zaps Through Initial Testing (Source: US Naval Air Systems Command; issued April 20, 2007) The Navy’s next-generation electronic warfare aircraft has completed the first phase of test and evaluation, and is set to receive hardware and a final build of software that will make it the world’s most capable aircraft of its kind. The EA-18G Growler has finished an ambitious regimen of flight tests since the arrival of Growler test prototype aircraft EA-2 at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md. in late November. The team has implemented a new concept of Integrated Test and Evaluation, concurrently completing both system developmenta…

Navy christens newest attack sub By Andrew Scutro - Staff writer Posted : Monday Apr 23, 2007 15:24:07 EDT The fourth Virginia-class submarine, the $2.3 billion North Carolina, was christened Saturday in Newport News, Va., in front of a crowd of thousands. Vice Adm. Jay Donnelly, commander of the submarine force, told the pre-commissioning crew, “Never fear, your turn to deploy will come soon enough,” according to a Navy announcement. The North Carolina joins the Virginia, Texas and Hawaii as the first ships of the post-Cold War submarine class. The North Carolina is scheduled to be commissioned in 2008. The Navy expects to buy 30 Virginia-class subs. …

Report: Navy can’t afford proposed fleet By Andrew Scutro - Staff writer Posted : Sunday Apr 22, 2007 12:46:10 EDT An April 10 research report to Congress on assembling the modern fleet says the Navy’s latest shipbuilding plan cannot achieve its intent of a 313-ship future fleet, up from today’s 275-ship force. “The Navy’s 30-year shipbuilding plan does not include enough ships to fully support all the elements of the 313-ship fleet consistently over the long run,” according to the report entitled “Navy Force Structure and Shipbuilding Plans: Background and Issues for Congress,” produced by the Congressional Research Service. The Navy has estimated that i…

Thousands of problems found on amphib ship InSurv notes 5,564 ‘cards’ aboard San Antonio. Crew contends with ‘incomplete’ ship By Christopher P. Cavas - Staff writer Posted : Saturday Apr 21, 2007 7:55:28 EDT The amphibious transport dock San Antonio has been at sea more than half of the past year — more than 200 days — performing a long series of trials to certify that the Navy’s newest amphibious ships can perform their missions as designed. Now the Navy is getting down to some details left aside when the “gator” Borei class was delivered from its builder in July 2005 — which involve actually finishing the ship. But it’s a long list of details: 5,564 “…

1st Osprey squadron to deploy By Trista Talton - Staff writer Posted : Thursday Apr 12, 2007 11:13:40 EDT JACKSONVILLE, N.C. — Commandant Gen. James Conway is expected to announce Friday the first deployment of an MV-22 Osprey squadron, according to a Pentagon release. Until then, officials are remaining mum on where Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 263, based at Marine Corps Air Station New River, N.C., will deploy. The squadron is expected to deploy late summer or early fall this year. In early March, the squadron wrapped up several weeks of integration training with Camp Lejeune-based Marines. Part of the training was to get the Osprey more exposure to…

From Defense Aerospace Coast Guard Plunges Into Deepwater (Source: Project On Government Oversight; issued April 18, 2007) This just in -- Dow Jones/Wall Street Journal is reporting: Under mounting pressure from Congress, the Coast Guard has decided to remove Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT) and Northrop Grumman Corp. (NOC) from overseeing the service's troubled modernization program, and assume the role itself, according to people familiar with the matter. The Coast Guard is expected to announce the restructuring of its 25-year, $24-billion Deepwater program on Tuesday, a day before the next in a series of Capitol Hill hearings into the delays program to …

Officials Discuss Executive Agency for UAVs (Source: US Air Force; issued April 14, 2007) WASHINGTON --- Air Force officials invited Defense representatives to the Pentagon April 13 to discuss the Air Force's proposal to assume executive agent responsibilities for medium- and high-altitude unmanned aerial vehicles. The proposal was put forward March 5 in a memorandum to senior Defense officials from Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley. The memorandum stated the Air Force's desire for executive agency of the UAVs, and also indicated its desire to discuss the proposal with other service and combatant command representatives, said Col. …