Raw Intel

Americas Raytheon won a $14.9 million contract modification, which increases the scope and provides updates to the CV-22 mission planning system to support the suite of integrated radio frequency countermeasures. Additionally, this modification provides capability defect package problem reports in support of the V-22 software support activity. The V-22 Osprey is a joint-service, medium-lift, multimission tilt-rotor aircraft developed by Boeing and Bell Helicopters. The US Air Force and US Navy variants are equipped with a Raytheon AN/APQ-186 terrain-following, multimode radar. Work will take place in Indiana and estimated completion will be in September 2022. The aircraf…

As we discussed on Sunday's Midrats, if we can maintain it - energy independence has changed our strategic requirements even if our ossified and inertia bound DC establishments won't realize and act on it. We need to focus where the greatest threat is, and it isn't the Arab and Persian interface - it is west of Wake. Our friend James Holmes at Real Clear Defense is tapping everyone on the shoulder to remind them of the clear truth that is there for all to see. You can't and should not do everything: Sometimes, though, stability is an unlovely force. Bad ideas, as well as good, can command overwhelming support. In such cases, stability cements policies or strategie…

Americas The US Navy seeks to upgrade its fleet of autonomous underwater sensor gliders, devices used to provide data to attack submarines. The system would improve the current Littoral Battlespace Sensing Glider, which generally deploy from oceanographic survey ships and would measure water conditions in areas to help fleet operational planning or hunt enemy submarines. The request of proposals was announced this week. The new LBS-G drone will be expected to operate for 90 days at a time, dive to 657 feet, spend much of its time at the bottom of the sea, surface when it needs to transmit data to a satellite and take water samples every two seconds. The first of 17 B-1B …

We’ve been doing the Long Game series on China here since 2004. The “why” then is the same as the “why” now; the Chinese Communist Party has a plan, has the economy to feed this plan, and is building a military to execute this plan. It was clear well before 2004. Any student of history could see it. I was firmly in, and remain, of the school that it is only a matter of “when” and not “if” the Chinese will decide to challenge the United States on the battlefield again. They did once after WWII and fought us to a tie. They are preparing to do it again, somewhere. The key, if you desire peace, is to not give them a window – to provide them no easy opportunity to challenge …

After a week moving from the warm embrace of Valentines Day to the cold jolt of a nation wide arctic freeze, come join us this Sunday at 5pm Eastern for a live Midrats Free For All! Open chat room, open phone, and open topic on the - mostly - maritime national security front. From the new Biden DOD and State Department's first moves, to the ongoing efforts of the USA and our allies as we try to figure out what we need to do to ensure the global system that serves us all. Come join us and if you don't like these topics, join in the live chat or even give us a call. We’ll be live and hope you’ll join us this Sunday from 5-6pm Eastern. DON’T MISS IT! If you use iTunes,…

Americas General Atomics won an $11.2 million contract modification, which exercises options to procure Group 5 Unmanned Air System (UAS) Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance support for outside the continental US (OCONUS) Task Force Southwest and Marine Corps operations using contractor-owned/contractor-operated MQ-9 Reaper UAS. The MQ-9 Reaper has an operational ceiling of 50,000ft, a maximum internal payload of 800lb and external payload exceeding 3,000lb. It can carry up to four Hellfire II anti-armor missiles and two laser-guided bombs (GBU-12 or EGBU-12) and 500lb GBU-38 JDAM (joint direct attack munition). Work will take place in Arizona and California. Es…

First published in AUG09.Just another old man walking around in his garage, eh? These days he’s long retired, living with his wife, Shirley, in a trim split-level below a wall of rimrocks near the college where he used to teach. Every day he tramps out to the studio behind his house to paint and draw. You ever wonder what they have seen? Maybe, just maybe --- you don't want to know. He is 91 years old now, among the handful of last men surviving from America’s worst military defeat, the fall of the Bataan Peninsula in the Philippines during that desperate winter and early spring of 1942. American Heritage magazine has a must read article that personalizes what is often f…

Americas The US Air Force has awarded a contract to Silver Arrow to scale down its GD-2000 cargo delivery unmanned air system (UAS). This Small Business Innovation Research contract is to meet specific Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) operational requirements. The glider will deploy from the cargo ramp of the CV-22 and side-door of small fixed-wing aircraft. Silver Arrow says the final product will a eventually be procure on a sole-source basis by the United States government for special operations and tactical resupply as well as humanitarian aid and disaster relief. BAE Systems announced a $247 million contract with the US Space Force to manufacture an adva…

I've decided to change the topic of this week's DivThu. If you're here for the farcical Navy's "Task Force One Navy", well, come back next week. This is worse and more important. For how many years of doing DivThu, through all the name calling, attempts to doxx or cancel me and my sources, have we been told - in spite of the experiences of many here - that in no case will our Navy set up quota systems ... and then in hushed tones perhaps whisper, "Well, they'd never be stupid enough to make it official. We have goals and desires." OK, here is it, red in tooth in claw. At least it is out in the open - and perhaps has been for quite a while. Is to exclude someone by ra…

Americas Northrop Grumman announced on February 16 that it has carried out the first major design review event for the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD). The GBSD is being develop to replace the Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile. The review took place in November, 2020 over a period of three-days by a team from Northrop Grumman and the US Air Force. The US Marine Corps 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit declared that the air wing on board amphibious assault ship USS Makin Island (LHD 8) has air operations in support of Operation Inherent Resolve from February 13. VMM-164 (Reinforced) is providing close air support operations and defensive counter air sup…

Land-based SM-3 concept (click to view full) SM-3 Standard missiles have been the backbone of the US Navy’s ballistic missile defense plans for many years now, and are beginning to see service in the navies of allies like Japan. Their test successes and long range against aerial threats have spawned a land-based version, which end up being even more important to the USA’s allies. In July 2008 the US Missile Defense Agency began considering a land-based variant of the SM-3, largely due to specific requests from Israel. Israel currently fields the medium range Arrow-2 land-based ABM (Anti-Ballistic Missile) system, and eventually elected to pursue the Arrow-3 instead of …

I am happy we are talking more about wargames, but I am losing confidence in our ability to understand what they are and how to properly use them. The fact they are being used to justify further divestment from our hard won - yet still rump - fleet of smaller warships only adds to my concerns that we are making a huge mistake. Quotes and more thoughts over at USNIBlog. Come by and wonder what in the wide world of sports is going on over there. 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=ok0wOryRI68:sp61AB0UM0g:gIN9vFwOqvQ http://feeds.feedburner…

Americas F-35 fighter plane engines are in short supply, with the solution months away, causing the Defense Department to reduce its schedule of exhibition flights and to start planning for a shortage as soon as 2022. The Defense Department’s F-35 office has advised that about five to six percent of the US. F-35 fleet could be without useable engines by 2022, and up to 20 percent of the plane’s fleet could be sidelined by 2025. According to Defense News, the F-135 Heavy Maintenance Center, located at Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma, has been unable to process engines for repairs and maintenance, and catching up will take months. According to Lockheed Martin, the company …

As we briefly reviewed last summer, Turkey's bullying action from the Aegean to Cyprus to Libya was having the effect of pushing surrounding nations closer together - and getting the attention of larger powers on the other side of the Mediterranean as well. After a series of provocations by Turkey, it was only natural that the nations of the Eastern Mediterranean would either have to fold or stand up. They've taken the later option; Egypt, Cyprus and Greece have demanded respect for the sovereignty and sovereign rights of states in their maritime areas in the eastern Mediterranean. The demand came in a joint statement from the three countries’ foreign ministers du…

Americas The Coast Guard received its newest Sentinel Class fast response cutter, the Coast Guard Cutter Frederick Hatch, from Bollinger Shipyards in Key West, Florida. The Frederick Hatch will be the third FRC stationed in Guam, and will arrive in Santa Rita during the summer. The Frederick Hatch, which will support a crew of 24, was placed in commission, special status, and will remain in Florida while the crew completes pre-commissioning trials and maintenance. Ultra has announced a contract award to commence work on the key Variable Depth Sonar (VDS) system for the Canadian Surface Combatant (CSC) programme, named the Towed Low Frequency Active Sonar (TLFAS). This su…

R.K. Lembke has an article over at Small Wars Journal that had me nodding my head in agreement on the subject more than any I have read in a long time. Regular readers of CDR Salamander will see many of the issues we've raised here over they years, but Lembke's presentation, tying them in together while providing sound and well documented quotes from the start, is simply a powerhouse. I spent half a decade of my active duty life on, and for a few months, in Afghanistan. A wee bit early on at the Tactical, but most as a staff weenie on the in-theater Operational and Strategic levels at USA and NATO commands from Bush43 through to the first year of the Obama administratio…

Americas The US Air Force is to contract Sikorsky to upgrade its HH-60W Jolly Green II combat search and rescue (CSAR) helicopter to improve on the 2012 requirements baseline. According to the service, the manufacturer is to bring the capabilities of the Combat Rescue Helicopter (CRH) up to today’s specifications, ahead of the commencement of full rate production in fiscal year 2022. Under the potential five-year deal for rolling capability upgrades to both the helicopter’s hardware and software systems, Sikorsky stands to receive up to $980 million. Work to integrate the AN/SPY-6 radar on the new Aegis Flight III guided-missile destroyer, the future USS Jack H. Lucas (D…

AMDR testbed (click to view full) The US Navy’s Dual-Band Radar that equips its forthcoming Gerald R. Ford class super-carriers replaces several different radars with a single back-end. Merging Raytheon’s X-band SPY-3 with Lockheed Martin’s S-band VSR allows fewer radar antennas, faster response time, faster adaptation to new situations, one-step upgrades to the radar suite as a whole, and better utilization of the ship’s power, electronics, and bandwidth. Rather than using that existing Dual-Band Radar design in new surface combatant ships, however, the “Air and Missile Defense Radar” (AMDR) aims to fulfill DG-51 Flight III destroyer needs through a new competition fo…

One year and a week ago - 05 Feb 2020 - I wrote the below and posted it at USNIBlog as it became clear to me that we may have a pandemic on the way. It stands up well. As I read it again, it wasn't as much of about the coming pandemic, but in a way - a love letter to my Navy. It also is a story Fullbore worthy. I'm going to repost it in full as I wrote it at the time. Of course our Navy has a distinct culture. Unless you were born in to it – in which case you get a head start on everyone else – you walk in to it as a young man or woman to be shaped by it. The Navy’s culture slowly changes over time, shaped by its national culture and and trends, but there is…

Americas Northrop Grumman has revealed its concept for the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) LongShot program to develop an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) capable of employing multiple air-to-air weapons. The company released a conceptual rendering of its proposed design on 10 February, two days after it was awarded a contract alongside General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc (GA-ASI) and Lockheed Martin for the first phase of its LongShot program. “The LongShot program enables us to combine our digital engineering skillset with our extensive knowledge in advanced technology weapons, autonomous systems, and strike platforms to increase weapon range and …