Raw Intel

BZ to VFA-154, the Black Knights, on their Cruise 2021 video. Everyone else is going to have to up their game. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?d=yIl2AUoC8zA http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?d=qj6IDK7rITs http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=ixh5f2XItWY:z-gZNVyqt8A:gIN9vFwOqvQ http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=ixh5f2XItWY:z-gZNVyqt8A:-BTjWOF_DHI http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=ixh5f2XItWY:z-gZNVyqt8A:V_sGLiPBpWU http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=ixh5f2XItWY:z-gZNVyqt8A:F7zBnMyn0Lo http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/FAFV/~4/ixh5f2XItWYView the full article

So, you think you've had some memorable cruises, eh? What do you think about this record?DATEVESSEL SUNKAPR 26, 1944T29 Torpedo BoatAPR 29, 1944T27 Torpedo BoatJUN 9, 1944ZH1 DestroyerJUN 9, 1944Z32 DestroyerJUN 24, 1944U971 U-BoatJUN 15, 1944UJ1420/UJ1421 TrawlerJUN 6, 1944M486 MinesweeperAUG 6, 1944SG-3CSEPT 6, 1944VEDETTE Patrol BoatI give to you MHCS Haida, a Tribal Class destroyer who sank all those ships within 13-months of her commissioning. As Jerry Proc so simply put;HAIDA distinguished herself as Canada's most active warship by sinking no less than nine German ships in the period from April to September 1944. She was also involved in numerous other actions resul…

I joke now and then about “Make Auxiliary Cruisers Great Again” – but I am only partially joking. What were Auxiliary Cruisers? On the surface, they were somewhere between pirates and commerce raiders, but they were also a way to get more armed ships with your flag on them in the mind of your enemy's planners, disrupting their Sea Lines of Communication (SLOC) (aka supply chains), and complicating their attempts to secure their seas. Turning merchant ships in to warships is an imperfect act, but until your enemy achieves complete sea control, they have a good to acceptable track record of bringing more capability to the fight from the South Pacific to the Indian Ocean and…

Americas Oshkosh Defense won a $10 million contract modification for the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle Family of Vehicles. The JLTV Family of Vehicles (FoV) is the Marine Corps and Army partial replacement for the High Mobility Multi-purpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV) fleet. Work will take place in Wisconsin. Estimated completion date is November 30, 2022. Raytheon Intelligence & Space has introduced a lightweight, affordable AESA radar in its lightest form factor ever. In addition to being a third of the weight of most modern AESA radars, the new compact radar also costs about half as much as typical fire control radars. Gallium Nitride technology is combined with an in…

Americas Vertex Aerospace won a $96.5 million contract modification, which increases the contract ceiling to extend organizational, intermediate, and depot level maintenance, logistics, and engineering support, to include support of equipment, tools, direct and indirect material for the T-45 aircraft, associated systems, and related support equipment to maintain all flight and test and evaluation operations for the Navy. Work will take place in Texas, Mississippi, Florida and Maryland. Estimated completion will be in December 2021. Northrop Grumman won a $30.9 million deal to procure 25 Link 16 B kits; three Link 16 B kit spares; and two Link 16 flight training device B …

If you think there is a good news story around the Navy's portion of the defense budget over the next few years, you haven't been paying attention. Pondering over at USNIBlog. Grab a drink and give it a read. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?d=yIl2AUoC8zA http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?d=qj6IDK7rITs http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=PQiHzpMMBx4:4cceqdxyaV0:gIN9vFwOqvQ http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=PQiHzpMMBx4:4cceqdxyaV0:-BTjWOF_DHI http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=PQiHzpMMBx4:4cceqdxyaV0:V_sGLiPBpWU http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=PQiHzpMMBx4:4cceqdxyaV0:F7zBnMyn0Lo http://feeds.f…

Americas Lockheed Martin won a $49.3 million deal. The contract provides for overhaul of the B-52 Counter Measure Receiver. The B-52H is the US Air Force’s long-range, large-payload multirole bomber. The B-52H Stratofortress is equipped with a range of electronic warfare equipment. The ITT AN/ALQ-172(V)2 electronic countermeasures system features multi-band threat recognition and multiple threat jamming. Work will take place ein New York. Estimated completion date is September 19, 2026. The US Air Force has started flying operational missions with the Collins Aerospace’s MS-177 multi-spectral imaging (MSI) sensor on the RQ-4B Block 30 aircraft. The MS-177 is derived from…

Ah, yes, The Terrible 20s. What if you had the leadership and malaise of the Carter Administration mixed in with the budgetary pressures of the Clinton Administration ... with a little bit of Biden Administration special sauce mixed in? We're not even a year in to the Biden Admin still at the start of the 20s...so you know this was coming. Via Joe Gould at DefenseNews; House progressives will have a few chances to hold down the defense budget this week, but it’s going to be an uphill fight. The House is set to vote this week on two Democratic amendments to cut the fiscal 2022 National Defense Authorization Act’s $740 billion top line. One would reduce it by roughly 10 …

Most readers here are aware of the fleets parked off major ports on both coasts; The number of container ships at anchor or drifting in San Pedro Bay off the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach has now blown through all previous records and is rising by the day. There were an all-time-high 65 container ships in the queue in San Pedro Bay on Thursday, according to the Marine Exchange of Southern California. Of those, a record 23 were forced to drift because anchorages were full. Theoretically, the numbers — already surreally high — could go a lot higher than this. While designated anchorages are limited, the space for ships to safely drift offshore is not. “There’s lots of…

Americas Ball Aerospace won a $9.7 million contract of the B-2 Antenna Electronics Unit. The B-2 is a low-observable, strategic, long-range, heavy bomber capable of penetrating sophisticated and dense air-defense shields. Work will take place in Colorado. Expected completion date September 16, 2026. Lockheed Martin has announced that the LMXT is being built in response to the US Air Force’s KC-Y Program. The new tanker builds on the design of the Airbus A330 Multi Role Tanker Transport (MRTT). Lockheed Martin is the prime contractor and works directly to implement US Air Force-specific requirements within the LMXT. The plane will be equipped with a fully automatic boom a…

Americas J.I. Gascia Construction won a $7.6 million task order under a multiple award construction contract for a design-build KC-46A mission planning center at Travis Air Force Base, California.The work to be performed will provide a facility to support KC-46A mission planning. The contract contains four options, which requires the contractor to repair sewer line, construct the window infill, perform hazardous material remediation, and construct physical security upgrades at the mechanical yard. The KC-46A is a wide-body, multi-mission aircraft capable of transporting fuel, cargo, passengers, and patients. Work will take place in California. Expected completion will be …

Sal and EagleOne are tanned, rested, and ready to dive in a … well … where does one start for the last couple of weeks. Australia pivots strong to China with here plans to move to SSN, France gets grumpy with the Anglosphere as a result but still kills a baddie for us, fleets of container ships are haunting out ports, and we’re all digesting what happened in Afghanistan. That’s just a start. Join us for the full hour LIVE Sunday from 5-6pm Eastern. The chat room will be open and the studio line too. Join us live if you can and roll in with your preferred topic in the chat room or call the switchboard number right here on the showpage. If you use iTunes, you can add Midra…

Even though I posted this FbF again 6-months ago I wanted to bring it back just to add something quite special via twitter-friend Simon. From WWI we don't have must contemporary video of the people we read about, but in this case we do. Just 36. Men his age saw the height of Edwardian Empire as young adults leading in to the extinction of their world in WWI, the nightmare of the depression and WWII in their middle-age and then - for those who survived - the poverty and decline of the post-WWII era for Britain. 36 year old Captain Alfred Carpenter, R.N., after being invested with the Victoria Cross by King George V on 31 July 1918. #history pic.twitter.com/3JaPwn8mnG — …

Americas Three US Air Force B-2 Spirit stealth bombers returned to Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri after a deployment to Keflavik Air Base, Iceland, that included a dozen multinational missions over the past month. The bombers, from the 509th Bomb Wing, left Iceland on Saturday, the Air Force announced. The Marines are moving forward with developing a ship-killing missile that’s central to a long-range restructuring of the military, the Marine Corps said. The Marine Corps Systems Command’s Long Range Fires program has acquired Navy Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System, or NMESIS, an anti-ship missile that meets military requirements and is being tested. Mid…

I guess this is submarine week at CDR Salamander, because right after the Wednesday post, the Anglosphere decided to wake everyone up; Joint Leaders Statement on AUKUS SEPTEMBER 15, 2021 STATEMENTS AND RELEASES As leaders of Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, guided by our enduring ideals and shared commitment to the international rules-based order, we resolve to deepen diplomatic, security, and defense cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region, including by working with partners, to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century. As part of this effort, we are announcing the creation of an enhanced trilateral security partnership called “AUKUS” — Austra…

Americas Alliant Techsystems won a $41.2 million deal, which procures low rate initial production Lot One of the AGM-88G Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile – Extended Range (AARGM-ER). This contract provides for the production and delivery of 16 AGM-88G AARGM-ER All Up Rounds, six AGM-88G AARGM-ER Captive Air Training Missiles, four Common Munitions BIT Reprogramming Equipment Plus interface devices, initial spares, and required supplies and support. Work will take place in California and West Virginia. Estimated completion will be in March 2024. Northrop Grumman won a $12.9 million contract modification, which provides for the retrofit of Airborne Electronic Attack …

Conventional submarine launched ballistic missiles. If you aren't mad that the South Koreans have them before we do, I don't know if we can be friends. I'm discussing over at USNIBlog. Come by and ponder a bit more. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?d=yIl2AUoC8zA http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?d=qj6IDK7rITs http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=VcUgSJWwBlY:Shp3qhh4r-w:gIN9vFwOqvQ http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=VcUgSJWwBlY:Shp3qhh4r-w:-BTjWOF_DHI http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=VcUgSJWwBlY:Shp3qhh4r-w:V_sGLiPBpWU http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=VcUgSJWwBlY:Shp3qhh4r-w:F7zBnMyn0Lo http://…

Americas Lockheed Martin won a $2 billion contract, which provides logistics support, to include ground maintenance activities, action request resolution, depot activities, automatic logistics information system operations and maintenance, reliability and maintainability, supply chain management, pilot training, maintainer training, and training system sustainment in support of delivered F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter air systems for the Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, Foreign Military Sales customers and non-US Department of Defense participants. Work will take place in Texas, Florida, South Carolina and the UK. Estimated completion will be in December 2021. Crow…

Americas The US Marine Corps has acquired its first MQ-9 unmanned air vehicle (UAV) and assigned it to VMU-1. The transfer took place at MCAS Yuma, Arizona on August 30 and the aircraft is currently operated by the contractor. The US Navy has awarded BAE Systems a $26 million contract for Identification Friend-or-Foe (IFF) spares for the E-2D Advanced Hawkeye aircraft. Under the contract, BAE Systems will provide Beamforming Networks (BFNs), an integral part of antenna control for the AN/APX-122A IFF Interrogator system, onboard the carrier-capable tactical aircraft. Middle East & Africa During the last few weeks, the US has removed its most advanced air defense sys…

CNN’s summary of Sunday’s 2-hr documentary on Afghanistan has some interesting quotes from the commanders – and a few errors – I thought we should start the week out with. What is most interesting here are three individuals speaking out who have mostly stayed in the background: Barno, McNeill, and McKiernan. You’ll come away wanting to hear more from them. No longer in uniform, Gens. Stanley McChrystal, David Petraeus, Joseph Dunford, John Allen, David McKiernan, Dan McNeill, and Lt. Gens. Eikenberry and David Barno, speak frankly. First, as always – let’s pull out the appropriate graphic. Time and context matters. In the article, they don’t do like they should and go ch…