Raw Intel

Americas Marines assigned to Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force – Crisis Response – Central Command (SPMAGTF-CR-CC) practice using the Drone Buster at an undisclosed location. This hand-held jammer has the ability to force a drone to descend or return to its operator. The first Biden administration’s defense budget asks for $715 billion for fiscal 2022, including a $5.5 billion increase in research and development accounts and an $8 billion cut in procurement. This signals a new focus on new technologies at the expense of older programs. Middle East & Africa ULAQ Armed Unmanned Surface Vehicle (AUSV), developed by Turkish companies Meteksan Defense and ARE…

KAL A330-200 (click to view full) South Korea is moving to buy 4 long-range aerial refueling tankers with secondary transport capabilities, with a budget of WON 2 billion (about $1.8 billion). That capability isn’t a huge priority on the Korean peninsula itself, but it’s very useful for international operations. It’s useful as a way of projecting regional power, as territorial disputes flare with China. As Asian economies grow and militaries modernize, these factors have made long-range aerial refueling a growing regional priority. China, India, Pakistan and China deploy the Russian IL-78. Japan fields 4 Boeing KC-767As, and may raise that to 8 under recent plans. Simi…

Since I left active duty I really have not had all that much time to yell at DTS. I mostly just laugh at it from a distance as it was no longer my problem ... at least not directly. DTS has been horrible from day one. I know it. You know it. Worse, those who promoted and enforced it know as well. But, they didn't really care enough to do anything about it ... until it was a teenager. I am just old enough to remember how an efficient system worked. LT Salamander went to Admin and told a PN3/YNSN or whoever had the billet, “I need to travel to Norfolk with OPS for this conference (hands hard copy of message and travel request form). We need to leave next Monday AM. The c…

Americas The US Missile Defense Agency announced that the Flight Test Aegis Weapon System 31 Event 1 has failed. Two SM-6 missile interceptors were supposed to intercept a medium range ballistic missile target as the test object. The agency said “an intercept was not achieved.” It also failed to revealed the location of the test and the warship involved. A review to determine the cause of any problems has been initiated. Despite a 2017 order for managing fatigue after several ship collisions, few Navy officers get adequate sleep, a Government Accountability Office report says. The 81-page report on Navy readiness was released on Thursday, and notes that only 14 percent o…

Americas L3 Communications Integrated Mission Systems won an $18.9 million contract, which provides non-recurring engineering and material to develop and qualify the degraded visual environment helmet mounted display and processor capability for integration into the Marine Corps MV-22B Osprey aircraft. The MV-22 Osprey’s mission for the US Marine Corps is the transportation of troops, equipment, and supplies from ships and land bases for combat assault and assault support. Work will take place in Texas, Illinois, California and Alabama. Expected completion will be in December 2024. The Brazilian Air Force (FAB) has announced a decision to reduce the number of KC-390 tran…

Every few years I repost this little bit from 2005. It is time again. I'll add the commentary I put with it in 2013 and have slightly modified some personal items to keep it up to date. In a culture where more often than not, all your neighbors are really just transients - they move in an out every few years, chasing whatever they are chasing. Their families are scattered hither and yon; few really related to anyone. I've wondered for awhile what impact the reality of the rolling, self-imposed Internally Displaced Persons has had on our nation - perhaps causing us to miss something. Is it a net-gain, or a net-loss? Well, perhaps I am projecting; I have always thought…

Americas The US Air Force’s Golden Horde Vanguard program successfully completed the three objectives of the final flight test on May 25. Six Collaborative Small Diameter Bombs (CSDBs) were released during this test with four from one jet and the other two from another F-16. One objective of the test was to expand the coverage of the L3Harris Banshee 2 radio network to six weapons and to include a ground station into the testing. The ground station was able to send an In-Flight Target Update to the weapons while they were in flight, completing the second objective. The US Army has taken delivery of eight Robotic Combat Vehicle (RCV) prototypes that will be used in a seri…

As most of you have noticed, we could do a DivThu twice a day every day for the last nine months or so ... but this is supposed to be a side-show and not a primary subject of cdrsalamander. As the Front Porch knows, when we started this almost a decade and a half ago, we were pretty much it in going after the diversity bullies, their commissariat and constellation of grievance driven rent seekers. We are no longer alone. The issue broke out above the ambient noise a few years ago, and now has some top-shelf advocates such as Christopher Rufo going at it full time. It is great to have company, but we still need to keep the drum beat going. I've decided to do the …

Americas A US Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt II from the Idaho Air National Guard was given a heritage paint scheme to celebrate the unit’s 75th anniversary and to pay homage to its lineage from the 405th Fighter Squadron during the Second World War. The “8N” painted on the side of the aircraft indicates the aircraft code of the 405th Fighter Squadron. Boeing won a $101.7 million contract modification for KC-46 engineering, manufacturing, and development contract. This modification provides for the exercise of Option Five for interim contractor support and the exercise of the options for logistics service representatives/field service representatives support for Seymour John…

Are we giving China an opening in one of the last places we would want them to be? Maybe ... but if not, at least someone just decided to put down a marker on an important bit of forgotten real estate. 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/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=zbWS1ByajDQ:sTdiSLvjIIQ:gIN9vFwOqvQ http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=zbWS1ByajDQ:sTdiSLvjIIQ:-BTjWOF_DHI http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=zbWS1ByajDQ:sTdiSLvjIIQ:V_sGLiPBpWU http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=zbWS1ByajDQ:sTdiSLvjIIQ:F7z…

Are you numb when it comes to news of the maritime power growing on the other side of the Pacific? I hope not, but if you are the numbers are such that it should burn through to what few nerves you have left. We have been at this here for what; Long Game is this ... #90 (and that isn't even the number of China posts we've done over the years) a decade and a half or so? Well, no rest folks. We are well inside the quickening. Don't avert your eyes from the numbers. Let them soak in. Hoist them aboard. Ponder. Plan. Prepare. I'll let our friend The Other Sal warm things up for you; China’s new shipbuilding orders up 182.1% in first four months "China’s newly r…

Americas Boeing won a $24.1 million contract modification, which exercises an option to procure additional software builds to provide correction of deficiencies, to include software enhancements or improvements, engineering analyses and evaluations, and integration and test activity in support of the P-8A Increment 3 Acoustics Multi-static Active Coherent Enhancements program. The Poseidon’s increment 3 focuses on a network-ready open-systems electronics architecture and network-enabled weapons for existing P-8A aircraft. The Poseidon is a militarized version of the Boeing 737 single-aisle jetliner, while the much-older P-3 is a militarized version of the Lockheed Martin …

Before: M109 & M992 (click to view full) The USA’s 155mm M109 self-propelled howitzers (SPH) were first introduced in 1962, as a form of armored mobile artillery that could stand up to the massed fire tactics of Soviet heavy artillery and rockets. They and their companion M992 Armored Ammunition Resupply Vehicles (AARV) have been rebuilt and upgraded several times, most recently via the M109A6 Paladin upgrade. In the meantime, the Army has re-learned a few home truths. Artillery arrives in seconds rather than minutes or hours, is never unavailable due to bad weather, and cheaply delivers a volume of explosive destruction that would otherwise require hundreds of mil…

Americas With a backorder for 128 jets, the Lockheed Martin F-16 could be flying in 2070s, Air Force Magazine reports. The last aircraft in this order is not expected to be delivered until 2026, with a service of more than 40 years, this last aircraft could be flying well into 2070. To be manufactured at Greenville, South Carolina, these aircraft are destined for Bahrain, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Taiwan and an unnamed customer. These customers have indicated they are keen to follow on with new orders. The 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit is the first to deploy the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System from the East Coast, a Marines statement said. The amphibious attack unit, re…

WaPo is using the exactly correct phrase, "State Sponsored Hijacking;" Earlier Sunday, Ryanair Flight 4978 from Greece to Lithuania was over Belarusian airspace, when it was contacted by local air traffic control. The controllers claimed that there might be a bomb on board and ordered the plane to land in Minsk, Belarus’s capital city. The evidence suggests they were concerned with a very different threat — to the regime of Belarus’s longtime autocratic ruler, Alexander Lukashenko. One of the passengers on the plane was an opposition journalist, Roman Protasevich, whom Belarusian authorities wanted to take into custody. According to reported eyewitnesses: “One guy…

Americas Boeing won an $18.9 million order, which provides for the production and delivery of 48 automatic backup oxygen system retrofit kits for the T-45 aircraft, to include installation tooling, engineering reach back, spares and support equipment. The T-45A Goshawk is a tandem-seat, carrier capable, jet trainer whose mission is to train Navy and Marine Corps pilots. Work will take place in Texas and Missouri. Expected completion is in September 2022. Sikorsky won a $25.8 million deal for the repair/overhaul of the refueling probes on the HH-60G helicopter. The HH-60G Pave Hawk is the US Air Force’s primary combat search and rescue helicopter used by Air Force special…

After two decades of a low boil, but highly demanding series of conflicts in Asia required an extensive focus on the now - in both funding and leadership time. America finds herself facing the 2020s with a rested, increasingly well equipped and confident People's Republic of China on the other side of the Pacific stretching herself on a global scale. Advances of the last few decades that were made were focused on the fight at hand, but they may not be the right equipment for the expected fight to come. What does the USA need to start investing in now to ensure we are better positioned at the end of this decade than we were entering it? This Sunday from 5-6pm Eastern, …

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bofj1zka7Tc/T4CfKmxTi9I/AAAAAAAABrg/ovZNCx9QrWY/s320/Thatcher_Pinochet.jpgPeople think they know the story of General Pinochet. 95% don't. In many respects, all you have to do is look at the political and economic stability he left Chile and compare it to the leftist dictators' legacy in Latin America. It speaks for itself. My long time readers know my views; no reason to go over them again. There is a lesser known story that all should know, and fleshed out the debt Britain owes the General. The following is from a man I wish we could have as our Secretary of the Treasury or Federal reserve; the great man José Piñera.General Pinochet and the F…

Americas Boeing won a $7.6 million contract modification for integration of the legacy strap pack assembly for remanufactured 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 AH-64E features improved digital connectivity, the Joint Tactical Information Distribution System, more powerful T700-GE-701D engines with upgraded face gear transmission to accommodate more power, capability to control UAVs, full IFR capability, and improved landing gear. Work will take place in Mesa, Arizona. Estimated completion date is January 31, 2024. An exoskeleton, worn by US Air…

I know that seems like a rather high bar to meet, but after a quarter century, TQL may have met its match. Details, if you can believe them, are over at USNIBlog. Come by and behold the madness. 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=Ehtqiu1HydE:TRdoLYDABgk:gIN9vFwOqvQ http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=Ehtqiu1HydE:TRdoLYDABgk:-BTjWOF_DHI http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=Ehtqiu1HydE:TRdoLYDABgk:V_sGLiPBpWU http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=Ehtqiu1HydE:TRdoLYDABgk:F7zBnMyn0Lo http://feeds.feedburner…