Current Events in the Americas

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…

USAF To Retire Newest Nuke Missile By GAYLE S. PUTRICH DefenseNews Beginning next year, the U.S. Air Force will retire the most modern missile in its nuclear arsenal as part of a 2002 disarmament treaty with Russia. The decision is expected to eliminate about 400 Advanced Cruise Missiles (ACMs) deployed with the B-52 fleet at Minot Air Force Base, N.D., and Barksdale Air Force Base, La. An Air Force spokesperson said the service does not yet know how much it will save by eliminating the missiles, nor is there an estimate of personnel reductions. “In the long term, there will be cost and manpower savings, and the Air Force will use any potential savings t…

From Air Force Times Air Force scraps nuclear stealth missiles The Associated Press Posted : Wednesday Mar 7, 2007 21:22:27 EST WASHINGTON — The Air Force said Wednesday it will retire the most modern cruise missile in the U.S. nuclear arsenal, a “stealth” weapon developed in the 1980s with the ability to evade detection by Soviet radars. Known as the Advanced Cruise Missile, the weapon is carried by the B-52 bomber and was designed to attack heavily defended sites. It is the most capable among a variety of air-launched nuclear weapons built during the Cold War that remain in the U.S. inventory even as the Pentagon is reducing its overall nuclear arms stockp…

From AOL Defense [excerpt]

From Defense Aerospace Coast Guard to Award of the Contract for Design and Construction of Fast Response Cutter/Sentinel Class Patrol Boat (Source: US Coast Guard; issued Sept. 26, 2008) WASHINGTON --- Coast Guard Commandant, Adm. Thad W. Allen, and other Coast Guard senior leaders will host a [sept. 29] media round table to announce the award of an $88 million contract to Bollinger Shipyards, Inc., for the design and construction of the Fast Response Cutter, Sentinel-Class patrol boat. The 153-foot cutter, which will be capable of speeds of more than 28 knots, will be built at Bollinger's shipyard in Lockport, La. This is a firm, fixed-price contract with an…

Jane's Defence Weekly April 12, 2006 USMC Looks To Revive OV-10s For Use In Iraq By Joshua Kucera, JDW Staff Reporter, Washington, DC The US Marine Corps is looking at the possibility of reviving the retired OV-10 Bronco observation aircraft for use in Iraq, according to a top service official. The aircraft, which was retired from US service in 1994, would be used to augment surveillance of roads in Iraq. Having additional aircraft there could increase the chances of US forces detecting the emplacement of roadside bombs or improvised explosive devices (IEDs), some service officials believe. "If this is a capability we think that will take out the…

From Navy Times Navy accepts first LCS, anti-sub module Staff report Posted : Thursday Sep 18, 2008 16:06:57 EDT The Navy took delivery Thursday of its first littoral combat ship, the Freedom, one of two late-week milestones in the Littoral Combat Ship program, along with the scheduled rollout Friday of the anti-submarine mission module in San Diego. “This is a truly exciting day for the Navy. Today marks a critical milestone in fulfilling the need and realizing the vision we began just a few years ago,” said LCS program manager Capt. James Murdoch in an announcement Thursday. “Despite our challenges, the Navy and industry have continued to press on to build…

From Jane's USN announces SIGINT aircraft replacement programme By Martin Streetly 11 December 2007 As part of its post-Aerial Common Sensor intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and targeting (ISRT) recapitalisation effort, the US Navy (USN) published a broad agency announcement (BAA) in November 2007, regarding an Electronics Patrol Experiment (EPX) programme intended to find a replacement for the service's existing EP-3E signals intelligence (SIGINT) aircraft after Fiscal Year 2017 (FY17). The BAA document states that the programme is intended to "recapitalise the EP-3 aircraft to provide tactical, theatre and national level ISRT support to carrier s…

From Navy Times Navy budget includes 9 ships, kills CG(X) By Philip Ewing and Andrew Tilghman - Staff writers Posted : Tuesday Feb 2, 2010 16:02:41 EST The Department of the Navy would build nine ships, buy 206 aircraft, postpone construction of the Marine Corps’ Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle and kill the advanced cruiser known as CG(X), according to the $179.1 billion spending plan it submitted Monday to Congress. The budget proposal includes $160.6 billion in baseline funding — compared with the $156 billion the Navy requested last year — and $18.5 billion in funding for what the Pentagon calls “overseas contingency operations,” better known as the Iraq a…

From http://www.janes.com...x?ID=1065971775 [excerpt]

From Navy Times [excerpt]

From Aviation Week USN Hornet Shortfall Poised To Triple Mar 18, 2008 By David A. Fulghum The U.S. Navy's most recent estimate of a 69 F/A-18 Hornet and Super Hornet shortage is getting ready to leap by about 300 percent. "The 69 minimum assumes that the Joint Strike Fighter F-35C is operational in 2015 as currently planned, that they buy them at 50 per year and that the [older] F/A-18A -Ds are going to last 10,000 hrs," says a senior aerospace industry official with insight into the program. "All those are very optimistic assumptions, and the Navy's characterization of the shortage [as 69 aircraft] is the most optimistic [extrapolation of that] scenario." …

From DefenseNews U.S. Navy Mulls New F/A-18E/F Buy By philip ewing Published: 5 Mar 16:48 EST (11:48 GMT) The U.S. Navy is considering buying 69 F/A-18E/F Super Hornet fighters to bridge a "strike-fighter gap" that commanders fear could imperil aviation readiness at a time when older jets are wearing out before new aircraft are ready to take their place, top service officials said March 5. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead, who appeared before a Senate panel with Navy Secretary Donald Winter and Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Conway, mentioned the "fighter gap" in written testimony submitted to the Senate Appropriations Committee defense subco…

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…

Navy Quietly Downscales Destroyer Upgrades (USNI News)

http://www.dodbuzz.com/2014/01/29/navy-set-to-accept-first-virginia-class-block-iii-submarine/ (DOD Buzz)

From http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/us-navy-to-add-sensor-fusion-to-super-hornet-fleet-376973/ [excerpt] CV32: Seems like with each passing day, the potential advantages offered by the F-35 are being eroded by features being added to the existing fleet of F-15, F-16, F/A-18, etc.

From Defence Aerospace South American Submarines Enhance U.S. Navy’s Fleet Readiness (Source: US Navy; issued April 14, 2005) NORFOLK, Va. (NNS) -- In a joint agreement with Colombia and Peru, one diesel-electric submarine from each of these two countries is deploying to the United States in April to enhance fleet readiness by participating in a number of naval exercises. BAP Antofagasta (SS 32) from Peru and ARC Pijao (SO 28) from Colombia have begun a deployment to participate in major Atlantic Fleet exercises, including Composite Training Unit Exercise (COMPTUEX) and Joint Task Force Exercise (JTFEX) for the USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) Carrier Strike…

From DefenseNews Commissioning Party to be on Unfinished Carrier By christopher p. cavas Published: 18 Dec 17:33 EST (22:33 GMT) Ready or not, U.S. Presidents Bush 41 and 43 will gather in Norfolk, Va., early in the new year to commission 41's namesake aircraft carrier, even though the ship won't be quite ready for delivery. Construction delays mean the future USS George H. W. Bush (CVN 77) won't be able to carry out sea trials and be accepted by the Navy before the Jan. 10 commissioning - the normal sequence of events for a new ship, the Navy and shipbuilder Northrop Grumman said Dec. 18 in separate statements. Legal custody of a new ship is transferred…

US Carrier Launch Pushed Back 4 Months (DefenseNews)