Raw Intel

People who have both friends and enemies on the political left and the political right are, for me at least, some of the most interesting in the public arena. They are either doing something very right, or doing a lot very wrong - maybe both. What they usually are not are hyper-political random partisan talking point generators. One of those people is LTG H.R. McMaster, USA (Ret.). At the end of September, he showed up at a conference with a blow torch in one hand and a pair of pliers in the other. I have a few pull quotes and links to the full video from the 4th Great Power Competition Conference over at USNIBlog. Come by and give it a read and listen. http://feeds.fee…

Americas Bell Boeing won a $72 million contract modification, which exercises options to procure 15 Nacelle improvements kits, rotatable pool components and interim spares. The modification also provides for the installation of eight kits in conjunction with conversion area harness, electrical wiring interconnect system assessments, sustaining engineering, and over and above requirements for the CV-22 fleet aircraft. Work will take place in Texas and Pennsylvania. Estimated completion is in June 2025. A successful Rapid Dragon test flight was concluded on November 6, according the US Air Force Research Laboratory. Conducted at White Sands Missile Range, a MC-130J airdrop…

Americas Sikorsky won an $8 million deal, which exercises an option to provide for the production and delivery of CH-53K tooling and supplier rate tooling, as well as management through final acceptance, ensuring the program can meet aircraft production rate, based on lead-time and production ramp rates. The CH-53K Super Stallion is a heavy-lift helicopter that can be fielded from amphibious assault ships for the transportation of personnel and equipment. It will also be used to carry external cargo loads. The aircraft can be operated from austere and remote forward operating bases. The PAC-3 Missile Segment Enhancement (MSE) units worked with the US Army’s Integrated Ai…

Americas According to Breaking Defense, General Atomics flew a new drone that is heavily based on the MQ-1C this summer. The new unmanned air vehicle or UAV can carry up to 16 Hellfire missiles and requires less than 800 ft of runway to operate. An anonymous source told Breaking Defense that the company is eyeing the Army’s Future Command and Special Operations Command as potential customers. However, General Atomics spokesman C. Mark Brinkley declined to comment on this story to Breaking Defense. Huntington Ingalls won a $20 million cost modification for shipbuilding supplier industrial base efforts in support of the DDG 51 class destroyer program. The multimission wars…

The historical reckoning of the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) that members of the Front Porch knew was coming since we started ringing the bell in 2004 is finally being written. New scholarship continues to come forward with a fresh look in investigating the causes of and lessons from the LCS program. There are firm lessons not just on how to run or not run a program, but also how perverse incentives hard wired in to our politics, acquisitions programs, and … yes … culture enabled abuse and wholesale institutional failure. Over at War on the Rocks, Emma Salisbury is doing exactly that. For those new to the LCS story – and there are many – Emma’s article is a great startin…

Americas The Brazilian Air Force wants to move forward with its plan to cut its order for the Embraer KC-390 tactical transport from 28 to 15 airframes. According to Embraer, the move was done unilaterally and the aerospace firm is considering taking legal actions. The company’s shares fell by more than 8 percent on November 12. Raytheon won an $8.8 million delivery order for the repair of the turret and sensor-sight in support of the H-60 aircraft. Just recently the H-60 Multi-Mission Helicopters Program Office met its mission capable goal entirely within its own organic lifelines. The H-60 Black Hawk is a light transport helicopter used for air assault, air cavalry, an…

All you need to do is look at a map to tell that we are a maritime nation. A strong Navy is only part of being a maritime power. As everyone is starting to appreciate as they look at empty shelves, rising prices, and fleets of merchant ships waiting for their turn off overburdened ports - the other side of a maritime power can impact everyone's quality of life overnight. If most Americans knew the relative weakness - and in areas complete absence - of America in the maritime trade that keeps up employed, fed, and secure, they would probably have a mild panic attack. Is part of the problem simply that we lack a national focus? Could a solution be to establish a cabinet-lev…

Allow me a little self indulgence (again) this Friday. USNI triggered me this AM: #OTD in 1918, British Grand Fleet flagship HMS Queen Elizabeth celebrated Armistice Day by signaling to "Splice the mainbrace. Negative 6th B.S." The order meant that all sailors could have a drink except the Americans of the 6th Battle Squadron because U.S Navy ships were dry. pic.twitter.com/CglUoGvD6Y — U.S. Naval Institute (@NavalInstitute) November 11, 2021It made me grin a bit because my paternal grandfather was a Sailor on the USS ARKANSAS (BB-33) with the 6th Battle Squadron that day. The Germans never made their last thunder run in 1918 as that horrible and useless war ground to a h…

I've always wished we stayed aligned with our Commonwealth allies and stuck with 11 November as Remembrance Day. Yes, we have Memorial Day, but I always thought the vibe - which if you have served with our Anglosphere friends you can feel - of Remembrance Day was more powerful and useful. I didn't really know what to put up today until I ran across a picture of one of our greatest Americans, President Eisenhower, in a speech he gave to veterans the year he was elected to the Presidency. After the events around the national humiliation at the end of August that closed the door for us on the Afghanistan conflict - regulars here know we've invested time here and over on Midr…

Americas Kampi Components won a maximum $9.7 million deal for hose assemblies supporting the Army AH-64 D & E Longbow helicopter. The AH-64 Apache is a twin-engined army attack helicopter. The AH-64D Longbow is fitted with the Longbow millimetre wave fire control radar and the Longbow Hellfire missile. Work will take place in Pennsylvania. Estimated completion date is November 9, 2024. Lockheed Martin and Keysight Technologies announced a collaboration to advance 5G in support of mission-critical communications for aerospace and defense applications. The companies are actively collaborating on a 5G.MIL testbed that Lockheed Martin teams will use to advance 5G capabi…

Americas The Israeli-made Iron Dome missile interception system has been deployed in Guam. The equipment first arrived on the island by ship on October 19. The deployment has been dubbed Operation Iron Island. Atlantic Diving Supply won a $25 million contract modification for temporary aircraft maintenance structures (TAMS). The modification provides for the purchase of Phase II of the TAMS project which was separately priced and competed under the basic deal. Work will take place at Hill Air Force Base in Utah. Estimated completion date is November 24, 2023. Middle East & Africa Turkey is preparing to start the mass production of lightweight, medium class and heavy…

I'm not sure what percentage you can assign to greed, what to wishful thinking, and what to outright corruption, but the last four decades the West has not just sold companies, manufacturing, and economic leverage to the Chinese Communist Authorities - but at critical nodes through the world's critical choke points we've sold and leased to them unique land and resources they now control. How can smart nations try to recover from such a strategic mistake? Well, Australia is trying to figure that out. Details over at USNIBlog. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?d=yIl2AUoC8zA http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?d=qj6IDK7rITs http://feeds.feedburner.com/…

Americas The first two of eight C-130Js for the Kentucky Air National Guard arrived at Louisville on November 6. The 123rd Airlift Wing will phase out the C-130H in September to make way for the latest variant of the Hercules. The C-130J Super Hercules is the latest version in the Air Force arsenal. It comes with modern instrumentation, more efficient engines and a stretched fuselage for additional payload capacity. The Pentagon is in a rush to buy GPS chips from GlobalFoundries. The reason for this is, that the plant that fabricates them will soon stop producing those components, Bloomberg reports. An initial $885 million in orders would be placed by December 15 and the…

Americas Lockheed Martin won a $10.9 million contract for Advanced Raptor Enhancement & Sustainment (ARES) for the F-22 Program Office. This contract vehicle provides support for the necessary supplies and services to sustain and modernize the F-22 Raptor, including modernization hardware kit procurement and services such as upgrades, enhancements and fixes, as well as performance-based logistics services. The F-22A Raptor is an advanced tactical fighter aircraft. Lockheed Martin received a $7 billion five-year contract to maintain the USAF fleet of F-22 Raptor stealth fighters, in December 2019. Work under the new deal will take place in Texas. Estimated completion d…

The only logical question for us is, "What are we going to do about it?" On Sunday, H.I. Sutton and Sam LaGrone over at USNINews brought a few visuals that should grab your attention; The Chinese military has built targets in the shape of an American aircraft carrier and other U.S. warships in the Taklamakan desert as part of a new target range complex, according to photos provided to USNI News by satellite imagery company Maxar. The full-scale outline of a U.S. carrier and at least two Arleigh Burke-class destroyers are part of the target range that has been built in the Ruoqiang region in central China. The site is near a former target range China used to test early v…

Americas Llamas Plastics won a $14.2 million deal for V-22 windscreens. The V-22 Osprey is a joint-service, medium-lift, multimission tilt-rotor aircraft. The aircraft operates as a helicopter when taking off and landing vertically. The nacelles rotate 90° forward once airborne, converting the aircraft into a turboprop aircraft. Work will take place in California. Estimated completion date is October 28, 2026. Raytheon won a $48.2 million contract modification to exercise options for DDG 1000 class engineering support, material and other direct costs in support of the engineering efforts. Developed under the DD(X) destroyer program, the Zumwalt class destroyer (DDG 1000)…

In what history will show was a failed effort, for almost two decades, the most advanced military and police forces in the West tried to build a security force for the people of Afghanistan, an effort that took off with great urgency towards the end of the first decade of the conflict. A cornerstone of that effort was NATO Training Mission–Afghanistan (NTM-A). Our guests Sunday from 5-6pm Eastern to discuss this effort and what lessons it holds for the future will be Dr. Martin Loicano and Dr. Craig C. “C. C.” Felker. Using extensive research and two combined years in Afghanistan, they've documented the 2009-2010 effort in their book, No Moment of Victory: the NATO Train…

There is no such thing as a "normal watch," especially on Nov. 22, 1975 onboard the USS BELKNAP (CG-26); We were on plane guard. They put us on a plane guard because their TACAN was down. We had been making this same maneuver to port eight or nine times a day – from the start of the turn to completion was 3600 yards. This time we made a turn to starboard. I’ve read the investigation report, so even though I was down in the fire room, I’ve since come to know what happened up on the bridge. With the lights of the carrier looking the same, there was confusion, and miscommunication, and we made a right-hand turn this time, and the arc was half of what it had been for the last…

Americas Mint Turbines won an $11.4 million deal for the T-53 depot-level engine maintenance, which provides for maintenance, repair and overhaul repairs of the T-53 engine. The T53 powered the Bell UH-1 Iroquois (Huey) and AH-1 HueyCobra helicoptersWork will take place in Oklahoma. Expected completion date is November 30, 2031. The US Air Force’s 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron Hurricane Hunters are testing WC-130J aircraft – designed to provide data vital to tropical cyclone forecasting – equipped with new satellite communications capabilities. Hurricane Hunters are stationed at Keesler Air Force Base. As one of their WC-130J Super Hercules powers through a hurric…

Americas The USAF Research Laboratory (AFRL) awarded General Atomics $18 million to design and develop an unmanned Off-Board Sensing Station (OBSS) aircraft. AFRL is developing an open architecture concept Autonomous Collaborative Platform (ACP) to achieve its goals of rapid time-to-market and low acquisition cost, while extending and enhancing the sensing volume of manned platforms. Sentry View Systems won a $63 million deal for the Minuteman III Remote Visual Assessment Contractor Logistical Support 2.0. The LGM-30 Minuteman III, built by Boeing, is an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). It is a long-range, solid-fuel, three-stage ICBM with the capability to car…