Current Events in the Americas

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…

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/

Electronic warfare role eyed for B-52 By Glenn W. Goodman Jr. October 11, 2005 ISRJournal The Air Force plans a return to the radar-jamming business, which it ceded to Navy and Marine Corps EA-6B Prowlers in 1998, when it retired its EF-111 Raven aircraft. This month, the service will select an industry lead systems integrator for its B-52 Stand-Off Jammer program, which will assign the venerable B-52H long-range bomber a new role. The aircraft, the last of which was delivered in 1962, will be fitted with two long outboard wing pods packed with powerful radar-jamming gear designed to disrupt enemy air defenses from beyond their lethal range. The…

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…

From Navy Times National security cutter fires up engines By Patricia Kime - Staff writer Posted : Friday Aug 10, 2007 5:31:15 EDT The Coast Guard fired up the engines of the national security cutter Bertholf for the first time Wednesday. Coast Guard Chief Warrant Officer 3 Walt Probst pressed the switch to start the ship’s gas turbine engines, the power source for high speed operations. The ship is under construction at Northrop Grumman Ship System’s Ingalls shipyard in Pascagoula, Miss. The engine light-off marks another step in the vessel’s march toward sea trials, expected this fall. A Coast Guard spokesman said Wednesday the ship’s diesel engine…

After Deadly Collisions Navy will Broadcast Warship Locations in High Traffic Areas (USNI News)

Seagoing Radar Rig Placed atop XBR Platform By GLENN W. GOODMAN Jr. April 14, 2005 From DefenceNews. A 2,000-ton phased-array X-Band Radar (XBR) designed for ballistic missile defense was placed atop the Sea-Based XBR platform, a nine-story converted oil-drilling rig, at a shipyard in Corpus Christi, Texas, on April 3. The oceangoing, football-field-sized platform was set to relocate to the Gulf of Mexico for verification testing. This summer, it begins a five-to-seven-month voyage around Cape Horn to its primary base at Adak in Alaska’s Aleutian Islands. The Sea-Based XBR will gather data in Missile Defense Agency Ballistic Missile Defense System tests across …

A possible future hypersonic strike weapon: http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/sto...10/02/04/02.xml

From Bangor Daily News [excerpt]

While started of as a means of getting Nuke powered subs to Aus, AUKUS has been mentioned as broadening its range of co operation. https://www.defenseadvancement.com/news/ai-enabled-autonomous-uas-swarms-showcased-in-aukus-trials/

From Defense Talk Stennis First with New ESSM US Navy | Oct 10, 2008 USS JOHN C. STENNIS, At Sea: USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74) claimed the first successful hit and kill with the Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile (ESSM) during a Combat System Ship's Qualification Trials (CSSQT) off the coast of Southern California Oct. 7. Stennis' Tactical Action Officer Ens. Clay Cunningham said, "This is the first successful ESSM kill from an aircraft carrier." Combat systems department launched the new missiles, the RIM-162 D-1, during a live-fire exercise by engaging drones inbound to Stennis. "The evaluation team from Port Hueneme [California] said Stennis' combat syste…

From Enterprise to Enterprise (USNI Proceedings, February 2013)

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…

More than Submarine versus Submarine (USNI Proceedings, February 2013)

Yes, America Has Another Secret Spy DroneWe Pretty Much Already Knew That (War is Boring blog)

US Army retires final Kiowa Warrior (Jane's)

Interesting and long article on the inmediate future Carrier Air Wing and the Fighter Gap (to be closed in 2025). Some highlights: EA-18G number currently increased to 7x, current Air Wing only 12xFA-18E+10xFA-18E+12xFA-18E+10xFA-18E(Or F-35C), pretended for the inmediate future this year 12xFA-18E+10xFA-18E+12xFA-18E+14xF-35C, and from 2025 added 5xMQ-25A. https://news.usni.org/2022/03/24/a-generational-change-in-naval-aviation-has-begun-amidst-tight-budgets-fighter-gaps