Raw Intel

Since 17 of our Sailors drowned in berthing after the collisions of the summer of 2017 to now - we have covered almost the time it took from the attack on Pearl Harbor to victory in Tokyo Bay ... and yet ... what have we really done? Look at the metrics. That's what I did over at USNIBlog. Come and see. 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=g3oFD2hsujQ:40ZR1PD4JA8:gIN9vFwOqvQ http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=g3oFD2hsujQ:40ZR1PD4JA8:-BTjWOF_DHI http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=g3oFD2hsujQ:40ZR1PD4JA8:V_sGLiPB…

Americas Lockheed Martin Space won a $128.7 million contract to support the integration of the Trident II (D5) Missile and Reentry Subsystems into the Common Missile Compartment (CMC) for the US/United Kingdom Columbia/Dreadnought Submarine construction programs. The Trident II D-5 is a three-stage, solid propellant, inertially guided FBM with a range of more than 4,000 nautical miles (4,600 statute miles or 7,360 km). Work will take place in Florida, Colorado, California, Utah and Tennessee. Estimated completion date is February 28, 2027. According to the US Navy, Sailors aboard the guided missile cruiser USS Gettysburg are among the first to test a stress-mitigation in…

For a whole host of reasons, Australia needs a potent and numerous submarine force. Geography and potential opponents make the case pretty straight forward. It looks like they are not on a smooth path; As this is written, the head of the French naval construction company Naval Group, Pierre Eric Pommellet, is in Australia meeting federal ministers in an attempt to rescue the contract. Tragically for Australia – and for Monsieur Pommellet – not one of those ministers has the experience or competence to wrangle a successful result. Many informed commentators in France, Australia and elsewhere now expect the much-celebrated deal to be abandoned. If that happens, replacing…

Americas CAE USA-Mission Solutions won a $10.8 million contract modification for the F-15E, F-16 and F-22A contract aircrew training and courseware development contract. The modification is for exercising Option Year Four. The Boeing F-15E dual-role fighter is an advanced long-range interdiction fighter and tactical aircraft. The F-15E is the latest version of the Eagle, a Mach 2.5-class twin-engine fighter. The F-16, the mainstay of the Air Force aerial combat fleet, has been adapted to complete a number of missions, including air-to-air fighting, ground attack and electronic warfare. The F-22A Raptor is an advanced tactical fighter aircraft. Work will be performed at Jo…

Javelin, firing (click to view full) The FGM-148 Javelin missile system aimed to solve 2 key problems experienced by American forces. One was a series of disastrous experiences in Vietnam, trying to use 66mm M72 LAW rockets against old Soviet tanks. A number of replacement options like the Mk 153 SMAW and the AT4/M136 spun out of that effort in the 1980s, but it wasn’t until electronics had miniaturized for several more cycles that it became possible to solve the next big problem: the need for soldiers to remain exposed to enemy fire while guiding anti-tank missiles to their targets. Javelin solves both of those problems at once, offering a heavy fire-and-forget missil…

What is the reality of 2021 for those concerned with the direction of our nation's defense? With no constituency of any significant power in the Executive or Legislative branches of government willing to expend political capital for a larger defense budget, much less a larger Navy, everyone should accept that through at least mid-decade there will be flat to decreasing DOD budges. If you want to know where the low hanging fruit is from the perspective of those in the Biden Administration given responsibility for making policy in DOD, keep an eye on Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks. She knows her business. This summary by Paul McCleary at Breaking Defense is so…

Americas Lockheed Martin won an $8.3 million deal to exercise an option for Aegis Combat System Engineering Agent efforts for the design, development, integration, test and delivery of Advanced Capability Build 20. Under this contract, the Aegis Combat System Engineering Agent (CSEA) develops, integrates, tests and delivers computer program baseline Advanced Capability Builds (ACBs) and supports Technology Insertions – a replacement and/or upgrade of combat system computing hardware and associated middleware/firmware. The Aegis CSEA also develops engineering products to support ship integration, supports developmental test/operational test events, develops training and l…

Where is European naval power in 2021, what is shaping it, and where is it going? This week returning guest Jeremy Stöhs is with us to review the above issues as outlined in an exceptional report he produced for the Centre for Military Studies at the University of Copenhagen., "How High? The Future of European Naval Power and the High-End Challenge." Jeremy is the Deputy Director of the Austrian Center for Intelligence, Propaganda and Security Studies and the editor for their journal, JIPSS. After service in the Austrian Federal Police in 2005-2010, he studied History and English/American Studies at the Universities of Graz, St. Petersburg (USA) and Marburg (GER) …

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2394/2283121435_9a6ede08e9_o.jpg25 FEB 1852. Discipline. Honor. Sacrifice - and steadfast leadership. Do you really know what they mean? How do you know you, as well as the men and women under your command, can do what is needed - and do it with cold firmness? Are you ready for the Birkenhead Drill?To take your chance in the thick of a rush, with firing all about, Is nothing so bad when you’ve cover to ’and, an’ leave an’ likin’ to shout; But to stand an’ be still to the Birken’ead drill is a damn tough bullet to chew, An’ they done it, the Jollies—’Er Majesty’s Jollies—soldier an’ sailor too! Their work was done when it ’adn’t be…

Americas Boeing won an $11.6 million contract modification, which adds scope for engineering services in support of Next Generation Jammer software development. Next Generation Jammer, an external jamming pod, will address advanced and emerging threats alike, as well as the growing numbers of threats. NGJ uses the latest digital, software-based and Active Electronically Scanned Array technologies and will provide enhanced airborne electronic attack capabilities to disrupt and degrade enemy air defense and ground communication systems. Work will take place in St. Louis, Missouri. Expected completion will be in December 2021. The first Self-Protect High Energy Laser Demons…

EA-18G Growler (click to view full) The US Navy owns the only operational tactical jamming fighters in the world, but the AN/ALQ-99 pods they depend on use analog technologies, are hard to maintain, and have reliability issues. All-digital technologies and modern transmit/receive electronics offer huge leaps ahead in capability and availability, which is why the US military is working on a Next-Generation Jammer (NGJ) replacement for the pods on its tactical strike aircraft. The EA-18G Growler will be the NGJ’s first platform, but the flexibility of modern technologies mean that it may not be the last. Next-Gen Jammer: The Program EA-18G systems (click to view fu…

This is the 4th and a half draft of this week's DivThu ... a much more simplified version. I did have a very long post, but decided that was unnecessary. It was better, especially with Part 2 - the Navy's Reading List - added below, to keep this rather simple as I think it speaks for itself. Let's go. Part 1: Navy Task Force One. If you were going to try to get the temperature of race relations in our nation, probably the worst time to do it in the last 35 years would have been over the summer and fall of 2020. As our Navy reflects the society it comes from, it would be only natural that the high emotions, cultural climate, and all that happened in that time period w…

Americas Naval Air Force Atlantic tested a long-range aerial drone last weekend, the Navy announced. The long-range cargo transport, dubbed Blue Water UAS, is designed to operate with Naval Forces that typically operate in heavy winds over open water and require aircraft to land on vessels that are moving rapidly at sea. The proof-of-concept test was conducted last Sunday by transporting lightweight logistical equipment from the mid-Atlantic Regional Maintenance Center at Naval Station Norfolk on board USS Gerald R. Ford while the carrier was in-port. Boeing announced that its T-7A Red Hawk advanced trainer has entered production at its plant in St. Louis. Chuck Dabundo,…

They are ugly, boring, quiet, sedentary, misunderstood, ignored, disrespected ... yet in crisis - surprises & terrifies everyone. They are also something we need to be ready to use immediately if we are serious about confronting China. I'm pondering things that go bump in the night over at USNIBlog. Come by and ponder with me for a bit. 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=Qs8UOVkwgLs:tEqoTjxpyvk:gIN9vFwOqvQ http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=Qs8UOVkwgLs:tEqoTjxpyvk:-BTjWOF_DHI http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAF…

If you're on active duty or a civilian employee, you're going to have to go through a struggle session. The best thing you can do to prepare for it is to know what you are going to be subjected to ahead of time. That way you can better get through it. This training isn't as great as supporters say it is, nor is it as bad as it could have been. There is still a lot of problematic items in here - mostly because of who wrote it and the climate to anyone doing anything but saying, "Looks great!" Because it wasn't properly edited, yes, it is political. Anyone who watched the events of the summer of 2020 and have made an objective review of what happened in January (NB: …

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,…