Current Events in the Americas

From Navy Times ‘We still have a little fight left’ Carrier leaves Norfolk for the last time, heads to Boston By Mark D. Faram - Staff writer Posted : Tuesday Feb 27, 2007 12:18:24 EST Aboard the USS John F. Kennedy —The aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy didn’t look like a ship about to be decommissioned as it left Norfolk, Va., on Sunday. And that’s just the way the crew wanted it. Pulling away from the pier and heading out of Hampton Roads into open water, one “Big John” crew member was happy to have quieted the rumor mill. “We heard the waterfront rumors, and many here expected us to limp in, leaking fluids and looking like a garbage scow,” sai…

From Air Force Times Deputy SecDef: No more Raptors needed By John T. Bennett - Staff writer Posted : Tuesday Jan 29, 2008 11:35:26 EST PASCAGOULA, Miss. — Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England defended his position that the Air Force needs no more than 187 F-22 Raptors, saying Saturday that several Pentagon studies have concluded that number is sufficient to tackle future threats. In recent months, senior Air Force officials have intensified their public campaign for 381 of the Lockheed Martin-made fighters. Senior Pentagon officials recently approved an Air Force plan to purchase four more Raptors, a move that will bring the planned buy to 191 warplanes.…

From DefenseNews [excerpt] Link to the document Naval Aviation Vision, January 2012 (PDF) Update to the Carrier air wings thread in the FAQ subforum includes details of the future USN air wings and USMC aviation combat elements.

KC-46A Tanker Gets New Name: Pegasus (DefenseNews)

From DefenseNews Posted 09/04/07 21:22 Nuclear Warheads Mistakenly Flown on B-52 By MICHAEL HOFFMAN A U.S. Air Force B-52 bomber mistakenly loaded with five nuclear warheads flew from Minot Air Force Base, N.D, to Barksdale Air Force Base, La., on Aug. 30, resulting in an Air Force-wide investigation, according to three officers who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to discuss the incident. The B-52 was loaded with Advanced Cruise Missiles, part of a Defense Department effort to decommission 400 of the ACMs. But the nuclear warheads should have been removed at Minot before being transported to Barksdale, the officers said. The missiles…

CF-18 Modernization BG-05.003 - February 18, 2005 A total of 80 CF-18 Hornetaircraft are undergoing a thorough mid-life upgrade to ensure that the Canadian Forces have a modern and interoperable fighter fleet until 2017. Various modernization projects are combined in two distinct phases of the overall aircraft modernization program. Of the 138 CF-18s procured between 1982 and 1988, 121 aircraft remain: 15 were lost to accidents, one aircraft was rendered unflyable as part of testing procedures, and one aircraft (number 901) has been inducted into the Canada Aviation Museum. A total of 92 aircraft will be kept operational until the Phase I modernization of a total…

From Aviation Week Boeing Plans Sixth Generation Fighter With Block 3 Super Hornet Jan 30, 2008 David A. Fulghum/Aerospace Daily & Defense Report Boeing is touting an even newer version of its F/A-18E/F Super Hornet that, paired with an advanced sixth-generation fighter in the works at the company, would give customers what Boeing deems a better package of capabilities than Lockheed Martin's combination of the F-22 Raptor and F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. The idea is that customers could buy 4.5 generation Super Hornets (perhaps 4.75 generation with the planned extra forward stealth and extra range of Block 3 aircraft) and then switch to a new, sixth genera…

From AOL Defense [excerpt]

Defence Minister Kicks Off Phase II of CF-18 Upgrades NR-05.016 - February 18, 2005 OTTAWA — The second phase of the CF-18 Modernization Project kicked off today during a ceremony that saw the Boeing Company sign a contract with the Department of National Defence for $117 million. Defence Minister Bill Graham and Lieutenant-General Ken Pennie, Chief of the Air Staff, attended the ceremony held by Boeing in Mirabel, Québec. “The CF-18 is Canada’s primary aircraft for maintaining air defence and air superiority,” said Minister Graham. “The $2.1-billion CF-18 modernization program will ensure that the CF-18s continue to provide security to Canadians and defend …

From Defense Industry Daily F-22 Squadron Shot Down by the International Date Line Posted 01-Mar-2007 05:35 Aircraft software can be serious business. DID's F-22A Raptor FOCUS Article mentioned recent flight software problems that delayed the aircraft's first foreign deployment from Hickam AFB in Hawaii to Kadena AFB, Japan. What we didn't mention at the time is how serious the problem was, and how dependent on computers modern aircraft - including military aircraft - have become. What follows are relevant excerpts from a CNN transcript on February 24, 2007 that covered a number of unrelated issues. We've cut that out, and left only the F-22 related section..…

From Air Force Times Last F-16A retires from service Staff report Posted : Wednesday Jun 20, 2007 16:02:25 EDT The last operational U.S. F-16A Fighting Falcon completed its final mission June 15 when it flew from Tucson Air National Guard Base, Ariz., and touched down at the so-called bone yard — the Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz. The plane belonged to the 162nd Fighter Wing at Tucson, which has converted to the C and D models. “We constantly transition to newer, more advanced aircraft because that’s what pilots will fly when they graduate from our program,” said wing commander Brig. Gen. Rick Moisio. …

From Aviation Week [excerpt]

US Navy may add conformal fuel tanks to F/A-18E/F Super Hornet fleet (Flight Global)

Painting A Rosy Picture Of A Costly Fighter Jet By Leslie Wayne LE BOURGET, France, June 21 — With jets screaming overhead, macho often mixes with Mach 1 here at the Paris air show. But the Lockheed Martin Corporation chose a softer approach to show the might of its next-generation radar-evading, supersonic fighter jet. It commissioned nine international artists to portray the multibillion-dollar combat plane in a variety of imaginary scenes — sailing over the Canadian Northwest, hovering over a British naval carrier and gliding above Sydney Harbor in Australia. The unveiling of the paintings here was a case of making virtue out of necessity. Lockheed’s Joint Strik…

From Defense Aerospace Pentagon Contract Announcement (Source; US Department of Defense; issued Jan. 30, 2008) McDonnell Douglas Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of The Boeing Co., St. Louis, Mo., is being awarded a $73,707,908 cost-plus-incentive-fee contract (N00019-08-C-0021) for the system development and demonstration of the Harpoon Block III Missile Program. Work will be performed in St. Charles, Mo. (92.12 percent); Lititz, Penn. (1.93 percent); Cedar Rapids, Iowa (.84 percent); Chatsworth, Calif. (.76 percent); Galena, Kan. (.49 percent); Lowell, Mass. (.42 percent); and various locations across the United States (3.44 percent), and work is expected…

THAAD, Aegis cooperate in anti-missile test By Kris Osborn - Staff writer Posted : Wednesday Aug 13, 2008 7:26:27 EDT Traveling thousands of meters per second, a 20-foot Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptor missile destroyed an advanced, separating warhead dummy target just beneath the 60-mile envelope of the Earth’s atmosphere off the cost of Hawaii during a June test at the Pacific Missile Range Facility, Kauai. The test intercept marked the first time the THAAD and Aegis radar systems worked together in a tactical scenario against a separating warhead, Missile Defense Agency officials said. “A separating warhead is not like a Scud wh…

From Flight Global DATE: 05/03/10 SOURCE: Flight International USAF considers options to preserve F-22 production tooling By Stephen Trimble Five months after the US Congress approved the cancellation of the Lockheed Martin F-22, the air force is still deciding whether to preserve or scrap the production tooling. The options under discussion include preserving at least the core of Lockheed's ability to build F-22 components and systems, although restarting production is not the USAF leadership's intent, says acquisition chief Lt Gen Mark Shackelford. Rather, USAF officials are considering the cost of preserving tooling to sustain the F-22, which could i…

Great article with interesting links: http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/18318/shock-trials-or-no-the-navys-newest-supercarrier-is-still-an-unreliable-debacle

Pics of the F-22 Raptor and F-15 Eagle taken at the recent Skyfest 2008 air show at Fairchild AFB, near Spokane, WA. Check out the weapons bay shots.

From Defense-Aerospace Pentagon Contract Announcement (Source: US Department of Defense; issued June 27, 2006) Lockheed Martin Corp. Maritime Systems & Sensors, Moorestown, N.J., is being awarded a $197,644,515 cost-plus-incentive-fee/award-fee modification under a previously awarded contract to exercise an option for 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 Lockport, La. (63 percent); Moorestown, N.J. (36 percent); and Arlington, Va. (1 percent), and is expected to…