Current Events in the Americas

DefenseNews.com December 21, 2005 First U.S. Navy SSGN Sub Completes Trials By Christopher P. Cavas The first of the U.S. Navy’s ballistic missile submarines to be converted so it can launch cruise missiles and carry teams of special operations forces completed its sea trials Dec. 19, the Navy said in a statement released Dec. 21. The USS Ohio is one of four former SSBN submarines to undergo the SSGN conversion. The ships — the largest submarines ever built for the United States — have traded in their Trident ballistic missiles for Tomahawk cruise missiles. Twenty-two of the submarine’s 24 missile tubes have been converted to each carry seven Tomahaw…

U.S. sub may have toured Canadian Arctic zone 'We don't have any idea what's going on up there': expert Chris Wattie, National Post Published: Monday, December 19, 2005 A U.S. nuclear submarine cruised through the Arctic Ocean last month -- probably passing through Canadian territorial waters -- but the federal government is refusing to say whether it gave permission for the voyage. However, experts say it is highly unlikely Canada was even notified of the USS Charlotte's northern tour, which included a Nov. 10 stop at the North Pole, because it has no way of tracking what goes on beneath the Arctic ice. And that could threaten Canada's claim to hundr…

San Diego Union-Tribune December 15, 2005 Marines Focus On Replacing Amphibious Troop Carrier Technical glitches have led to delays By Otto Kreisher, Copley News Service WOODBRIDGE, VA. – With the MV-22 Osprey apparently past its long struggle to become operational, the Marine Corps' top priority has become a replacement for its 30-year-old amphibious troop carriers. The proposed replacement, the expeditionary fighting vehicle (EFV), is a technological marvel that is motorboat fast in the water and can keep up with the jet-powered M1 tank on land. It also gives Marine infantrymen better protection and tremendous fire support from a high-tech weapon s…

New York Times December 5, 2005 Navy To Expand Fleet With New Enemies In Mind By David S. Cloud WASHINGTON, Dec. 3 - The Navy wants to increase its fleet to 313 ships by 2020, reversing years of decline in naval shipbuilding and adding dozens of warships designed to defeat emerging adversaries, senior Defense Department officials say. The plan by Adm. Michael G. Mullen, who took over as chief of naval operations last summer, envisions a major shipbuilding program that would increase the 281-ship fleet by 32 vessels and cost more than $13 billion a year, $3 billion more than the current shipbuilding budget, the officials said Friday. While increasing …

Bloomberg.com December 14, 2005 Lockheed Martin F-22A Raptor Ready for Combat, Air Force Says By Tony Capaccio Lockheed Martin Corp's F-22A Raptor stealth fighter, the most expensive fighter plane ever built, is ready for wartime operations, the Air Force's top combat commander said today. “If we go to war tomorrow, the Raptor will be with us,” Air Combat Command General Ronald Keys wrote of a plane that's weathered congressional and public debate on its relevance post-Cold War. The Air Force says it needs at least 381 Raptors but the Pentagon plans to buy only about 180 though 2010. Lockheed already has delivered 56. Boeing Co. is the top subcontractor.…

Newport News Daily Press December 13, 2005 Pg. 1 Changing Course Navy's plans for fighting terror call for smaller ships By David Lerman WASHINGTON -- Newport News and other shipyards that build big ships, such as aircraft carriers and subs, could be hurt. A new Navy shipbuilding plan envisions a future fleet with one fewer aircraft carrier and six fewer attack submarines than exist today, posing a threat to jobs at Northrop Grumman Newport News in the next decade. The draft plan, which was obtained by the Daily Press but won't be released until February, calls for a total combat force of 313 ships, a significant increase from today's fleet of a…

DefenseNews.com December 12, 2005 USAF To Drop 'A' From F/A-22 Raptor By Gopal Ratnam and Michael Fabey Three years after the U.S. Air Force added an “A” to highlight the F/A-22 Raptor’s ability to drop bombs, the service is dropping the extra letter from the stealthy jet’s designator. The plane, which is expected to officially enter service in the coming weeks, will henceforth be called the F-22A — with the trailing letter indicating a first variant, not an extra role. Gen. Michael Moseley, Air Force chief of staff, who is said to have been unhappy with the F/A-22 moniker, announced the renaming in a Dec. 12 speech to a U.S. Air National Guard senio…

Los Angeles Times December 9, 2005 Lockheed In U.S. Airship Deal By Reuters Lockheed Martin Corp. won a $149-million contract Thursday to build a prototype unmanned airship about 17 times the size of a Goodyear blimp that would hover about 60,000 feet above the Earth. The Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency said the High-Altitude Airship would be untethered, be able to remain in place for one month over a designated place, and be able to carry as many as 500 pounds of sensors that could detect enemy ballistic missiles. Missile Defense Agency spokesman Rick Lehner said the program was aimed at exploring the possibility of using the airship to track and detect ballisti…

http://www.defense-aerospace.com AMARILLO, Texas --- Bell Boeing delivered the first Block B version of the V-22 Osprey today to the U.S. Marine Corps in ceremonies at Bell's manufacturing facility here. The Block B aircraft has software upgrades, reliability and maintainability improvements over existing V-22 aircraft. It was accepted by Col. Bill Taylor, PMA 275 Program Manager, Naval Air Systems Command, who has responsibility for the management of the V-22 Program for the Government, and LtGen Jim Amos, Commanding General, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force. The aircraft will enter service with Marine Corps squadron VMM 263 at Marine Corps Air Station new River,…

From Aerospace Daily & Defense Report U.S. Navy's Super Hornet Program Proposes Buying More Jets By Marc Selinger 11/17/2005 08:13:45 PM The U.S. Navy's F/A-18E/F Super Hornet program is proposing to buy up to two dozen more fighters than currently planned, according to a program official. While the Navy now is slated to buy 550 Boeing-built Super Hornets, Capt. James Wallace, the service's F/A-18 international programs manager, said the program believes the Navy could use another 20 to 24 of the high-demand aircraft, or enough to equip two squadrons. Wallace, who spoke Nov. 17 at the Institute for Defense and Government Advancement's fighter jet confere…

From DefenseNews Canadian Government Hears Airlift Procurement Plan By DAVID PUGLIESE, VICTORIA, British Columbia Canada’s Defence Staff chief is hoping to convince the government to approve an airlift procurement plan that would see the purchase of new helicopters, tactical transport aircraft and search-and-rescue planes in one overall package. Gen. Rick Hillier briefed senior government ministers on the plan Nov. 14. The proposal would see the purchase of at least 50 fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters. Defence Minister Bill Graham has confirmed he supports the plan. Graham hopes that getting government approval for three different aircraft programs all…

From Navy Times Converted Ohio ready for sea trials By Christopher Munsey Times staff writer The guided-missile submarine Ohio, the first of four former Trident ballistic missile boats undergoing conversion to the new SSGN mission, is scheduled to start sea trials soon. Ohio recently finished a nuclear reactor refueling and conversion process at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Washington, said Kevin Sykes, a Naval Sea Systems Command spokesman. Four former Trident submarines, including Ohio, Georgia, Florida and Michigan, are being converted to SSGNs, at a total cost of approximately $4 billion. Instead of Trident nuclear-warhead tipped missiles, the n…

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…

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…

From Defense Aerospace Pentagon Contract Announcement (Source: US Department of Defense; issued Oct. 14, 2005) General Dynamics Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine, is being awarded a $223,262,430 cost-plus-award-fee/incentive-fee modification to exercise an option under previously awarded contract (N00024-03-C-2310) for detail design and 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 Mobile, Ala. (50 percent), Pittsfield, Mass. (33 percent), Bath, Maine (15 percent), and Baltimore…

Shock tactics to destroy torpedoes 06 October 2005 NewScientist.com news service Paul Marks THE US navy wants to protect its warships with a system that will destroy incoming torpedoes by firing massive underwater shock waves at them. The ships would be equipped with arrays of 360 transducers each 1 metre square - effectively big flat-panel loudspeakers - running along either side of the hull below the waterline. When the ship's sonar detects an incoming torpedo, the transducers simultaneously fire an acoustic shock wave of such intensity that the torpedo either detonates early or is disabled by the pulse's crushing force, according to the Defence Advanced R…

From Defense Aerospace Textron's Bell Helicopter Granted Approval for Full Rate Production of V-22 Osprey Tiltrotor (Source: Bell Helicopter; issued Sept. 28, 2005) PROVIDENCE, RI & FORT WORTH, TX --- Marking a major milestone in aviation, Textron Inc. today announced that its Bell Helicopter unit has been granted approval by the United States Defense Department for Full Rate Production (FRP) of the Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft. Current plans include the delivery of 360 aircraft to the U.S. Marine Corps (USMC), 50 for the U.S. Air Force and 48 for the U.S. Navy. The total program is worth in excess of $19 billion to Bell and Textron thr…

Revolutionizing Electronic Warfare JSF Will Combine Strike, Jamming, Intelligence ISRJournal By MICHAEL FABEY August 23, 2005 The U.S. Marine Corps wants its F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) to be more than an affordable replacement for the Harrier close-air-support plane; it wants the next-generation aircraft to jam the cell phones that trigger roadside bombs. “For about the past six months, the Marines have been coming to us and asking if there was anything the JSF could do to support the guys on the ground, to shut down a communications system,” said David Jeffreys, a program manager with F-35 maker Lockheed Martin. And in February, the Marines…

U.S. Army To Lockheed: Stop Working On ACS By GOPAL RATNAM defensenews The U.S. Army asked Lockheed Martin to stop work on the $879 million Aerial Common Sensor program contract for a new spy plane after a review found that continuing the current effort would delay the program by two years and lead to additional costs. In a Sept. 14 statement, the Army’s Communications-Electronics Command (CECOM), Fort Monmouth, N.J., said Lockheed had 60 days to resolve problems that company officials found in June. “Although we're issuing a stop work order, it is important to note that we’re not terminating the contract at this time,” said Edward Bair, the Army’s progra…

US Navy Sizes Up Future Does the Navy have the right strategy and resources to meet future threats? by Ted McKenna Aug. 19, 2005 eDefense The US Navy still wants to fight the Battle of Midway, some critics say. Does it have the money to field a fleet that can, though, as well as fight the "global war on terror"? A growing percentage of the world's population lives in littoral areas, near the water, often in poverty and amid ethnic strife. The Navy must prepare to fight conflicts in such areas and wants to be fast and flexible in deploying forces, vehicles, and other assets on shore. As senior officers in the service point out, the Navy must prepare i…