Raw Intel

China is interested in a lot more than just the first or second island chain. In the vast reaches of the Pacific Ocean, the islands of Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia are critical to the sea lines of communication for the economic powerhouses on both sides. From the Age of Discovery to today, their importance rises to the top of any power who wished to influence the area. To look at this area of returning importance with us for the full hour from 5-6pm Eastern this Sunday will be Alexander B. Gray. The starting point for our conversation will be the issues he raised in two recent articles; How the US Can Protect the Sovereignty of the Smallest Pacific Island i…

Our Navy needs a 4th USS Aaron Ward. Read all of this and tell me this isn't a name that needs to be active in our fleet. We also need a ship named after her CO, Adam Sanders. I'll just stick with the citations: The Presidential Unit Citation for Aaron Ward reads as follows: For extraordinary heroism in action as a Picket Ship on Radar Picket Station during a coordinated attack by approximately 25 Japanese aircraft near Okinawa on 3 May 1945. Shooting down two kamikazes which approached in determined suicide dives, the USS AARON WARD was struck by a bomb from a third plane as she fought to destroy this attacker before it crashed into the superstructure and spra…

Americas Raytheon won a $3 billion contract for F-15 Radar Eagle Vision. This contract provides for the production, modernization and support of the F-15 APG-82 radar system to rapidly deliver and stay aligned with the F-15 weapon system program. According To Raytheon, the APG-82(V)1 AESA radar is the latest radar advancement for the US Air Force F-15E fleet and optimizes the F-15E jets multirole mission capability. Additionally, with its extensive range and advanced multi-target track and precision engagement capabilities, the APG-82(V)1 offers enhancement in system reliability over the APG-70 radar. Work will take place in California. Expected completion date is June 8,…

Want to know an organization's priorities? Follow the money. The skunk at the navalist picnic last week, in an already tough year, was the unexpected - by almost everyone - rather clunky MEMORANDUM of June 4, 2021 put our by the Acting Secretary of the Navy. You can read it in full here or below, but it outlines some significant cuts in to the Navy's teeth, - The Navy cannot afford to simultaneously develop the next generation of air, surface and subsurface platforms...prioritize of of the following (sic) capabilities and re-phase the the other two after an assessment of operational, financial, and technical risk. ... - The Navy cannot afford to own, operate, and…

Americas Boeing won a $39.7 million contract modification for new-build AH-64E aircraft. The AH-64 Apache is a twin-engine, four bladed, multi-mission attack helicopter designed as a highly stable aerial weapons-delivery platform. The helicopter is designed as a weapons delivery platform and is equipped with: a M230E1, 30mm automatic gun, aerial rockets system, and point target weapons system. Work will take place in Mesa, Arizona. Estimated completion date is October 31, 2025. A US Air Force probe into its recent contract award to Boeing for Japan’s KC-46 tankers spare parts has raised concerns about unfair pricing. Service officials reportedly confirmed to Defense News…

What if at the same time Apollo 17 was taking off, the last manned landing on the moon, we had NASA appointing an administrator to see what could be done to improved the performance of the Mercury space capsule that put the first American in space a dozen of years later? Ponder your reaction, the press, and Congress. ...then click over to USNIBlog and behold the latest spasm involving LCS. 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=C9kf09LNVb4:wUYE0bl-9vk:gIN9vFwOqvQ http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=C9kf09LNVb4:wUYE0bl-9vk:-BTjWOF…

Americas Airbus US Space & Defense won a $119.8 million contract modification for an extension of contractor logistics support services for the UH-72 Lakota. The UH-72A Lakota is a light utility helicopter. UH-72A Lakota helicopters were acquired to replace the UH-1H Iroquois and OH-58 A/C Kiowa helicopters. Work will take place in Grand Prairie, Texas. Estimated completion date is June 30, 2022. The US Marine Corps (USMC) has flown the first AH-1Z flight that has Link-16 capability. Bell says a two-way connection was completed from the helicopter to a ground station. Bell added that the Link-16 package from Northrop Grumman adds a new digital moving map, a new secur…

UH-72As: MEDEVAC (click to view full) DID’s FOCUS articles offer in-depth, updated looks at significant military programs of record. This is DID’s FOCUS Article regarding the US Army’s Light Utility Helicopter program, covering the program and its objectives, the winning bid team and industrial arrangements, and contracts. The US Army’s LUH program will finish as a 325 helicopter acquisition program that will be worth about $2.3 billion when all is said and done. It aimed to replace existing UH-1 Hueys and OH-58 Kiowa utility variants in non-combat roles, freeing up larger and more expensive UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters for front-line duty. In June 2006, a variant of E…

As we first pointed out here last August, Mozambique needs to be in your scan. Though we may be pulling back from engaging with global Islamic extremism, it is not pulling back from the world. Especially on the African front of the bleeding edge of Dar al-Islam, they are pressing wherever opportunities reveal themselves. The problem in Mozambique is reaching the point that the regional power, South Africa, may get involved. South Africa will press for urgent military action by regional body SADC to quell an Islamist insurgency in Mozambique threatening to destabilize neighbouring countries, the foreign minister said on Friday. It will make this call at a summi…

Americas Lockheed Martin won a $172.4 million contract modification for procurement of spare hardware in association with Phased Array Tracking Radar to Intercept on Target (PATRIOT) Advanced Capability (PAC-3) FY21 missiles and command and launch system. The PAC-3 serves as an endoatmospheric point defense system with a capability to intercept short-range tactical ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and military aircraft. Unlike earlier Patriot missile defense systems, the PAC-3 interceptor relies on hit-to-kill technology whereby the interceptor uses kinetic energy to destroy its target on impact. Work will take place in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Texas and Massachuse…

M1126, post-IED (click to view full) Under current plans, the 8×8 wheeled Stryker armored vehicle will be the future backbone of 8 US Army and 1 National Guard medium armored brigades. The 5th Stryker Brigade from Fort Lewis, WA was the first Stryker unit sent to Afghanistan, deployed in the summer of 2009 as part of a troop level increase. The brigade was equipped with 350 Stryker vehicles. In the first few months of deployment, they lost 21 soldiers, with 40 more wounded, to IED land mines. The losses prompted the Army to examine modifications to their Stryker vehicles, in order to make them more resistant to land mines. One result is the Stryker hull redesign, creat…

When something you know is mundane, ordinary, and clearly unclassified is all of a sudden stamped with a classification, your first reaction should be, “What are they hiding?”, not, "What neat things are they doing!" Know your history. I have spent a week waiting for someone to tell me the latest on NGAD isn’t exactly what I think it is, and no one even tries to explain it away. They know. Via Mallory Shelbourne at USNINews; The Navy is keeping classified the amount of Fiscal Year 2022 money it wants to develop the next-generation fighter aircraft set to replace the fleet of F/A-18E/F Super Hornets, according to service budget documents. The Navy’s FY 2022 bud…

Americas BAE Systems won an $18.7 million delivery order for Virginia Class submarine propulsors. This delivery order does not include options. The Virginia Class new attack submarine is an advanced stealth multimission nuclear-powered submarine for deep ocean anti-submarine warfare and littoral operations. Work will take place in Kentucky. Expected completion date is in April 2025. Northrop Grumman won a $12 million contract modification, which increases the ceiling to extend services and adds hours increasing the full-scale fatigue repair time to achieve the required simulated flight hours in support of E-2D Advanced Hawkeye aircraft development. The Advanced Hawkeye f…

In a sharp departure from the ideas that brought them to the fleet, the Navy, "...appears poised to sunset the MK VI and Cyclone-class patrol craft programs in rapid succession, with no replacements on the horizon." Why are these small craft in our Navy today, what missions are they doing, and what risk are we accepting if we let this capability go? What follow on craft could even do the job better? To discuss these and related issues this Sunday from 5-6pm Eastern will be LCDR Jordan Bradford, USN. The starting point for our conversation will be his article from the May 2021 Proceedings, "The MK-VI id Dead - Long Live the MK VII." Lieutenant Commander Bradford is…

This FbF I'd like to take a moment to recognize someone who is, in my mind at least, fullbore. He did not do anything exceptional in war or other usual benchmarks to make FbF ... but he did something more. He brought to life to a huge audience the great deeds of others in the naval service. He did it in a way that made people think about the example set and the lessons that could be useful for today and the future. Brain cancer took him this week, too soon, but he left behind a legacy generations will benefit from. Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors, Neptune's Inferno, Ship of Ghosts, A Fleet at Flood Tide and more. Regulars here know these books and their author, Ja…

Americas Lockheed Martin won a $49.5 million deal for the AH-64 Apache Modernized Target Acquisition Designation Sight/Pilot Night Vision Sensor performance-based logistics program. Bids were solicited via the internet with one received. The Apache is a twin-engined army attack helicopter. The US Army has more than 800 Apaches in service, and more than 1,000 have been exported. Work will take place in Florida. Estimated completion date is December 31, 2025. In a report, the Defense Department cites 23 civilians killed, and 10 injured, during US military action in 2020. The unclassified, 21-page “Annual Report on Civilian Casualties in Connection with United States Milita…

Boxer MRAV (click to view full) Wheeled armored vehicles have become much more common, but the Dutch-German Boxer stands out from the crowd. Its English acronym is “Multi Role Armoured Vehicle” (MRAV), but rather than being a family of different vehicles, the Boxer will use a single chassis, with snap-in modules for different purposes from infantry carrier to command, cargo, ambulance, etc. The base vehicle has a maximum road speed of 100 km/h (60 mp/h) and an operational range of 1,000 km (600 miles). In its troop carrying configuration, it has a crew of 2 and can carry 10 fully equipped troops. The MRAV is fighting for space in a crowded market, but its principal cou…

So, as Russian hackers go after our supply chains, the Chinese fleet expands across the globe, hard drugs flood our cities via the sea, as piracy and Islamic inspired terrorism expands around the African littorals, what do you want the Office of Naval Intelligence to focus their finite attention on? The Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) has established an “Artwork Working Group” to develop more inclusive artwork for Naval offices. Internal communications obtained by The Daily Wire show that ONI created a “diversity and inclusion artwork working group” to “address the issue” of inclusion in artwork within the naval offices. According to emails, the group began after…

Americas The USS Paul Ignatius fired two Standard Missile-3 interceptors at the end of May in order to engage ballistic missile targets launched from the Hebrides Guided Weapon Range off the west coast of Scotland, the Navy announced. The test was carried out as part of a cooperative engagement with the Royal Netherlands Navy, which used its advanced combat system suite to warn the maritime task group of a threat, allowing the Ignatius to fire missiles and negate it, officials said. US B-52H Stratofortress aircraft flew over all 30 NATO allied nations in North America and Europe Monday. B-52s currently deployed to Morón Air Base, Spain, and US-based aircraft planned to f…

...we have better start planning to fight the marathon. Now that we are contested at sea, we are setting ourselves up to be unable to return ships to the fight. Details from the GAO's latest over at USNIBlog. Give it a read and wake up. 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=ljcXeWKB1UY:EKgL8FL2X5o:gIN9vFwOqvQ http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=ljcXeWKB1UY:EKgL8FL2X5o:-BTjWOF_DHI http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=ljcXeWKB1UY:EKgL8FL2X5o:V_sGLiPBpWU http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=ljcXeWKB1UY:EKg…