Raw Intel

PJ-10 BrahMos (click to view full) Back in November 2005, The Hindu newspaper reported that India’s government had given the go-ahead for exporting missiles, and that India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) was looking to market several of its products internationally. The missile systems in question included several products from the decades-long Integrated Guided Missile Program (IGMP) set of development programs, and one new success that used a very different approach. DRDO has led the long, turbulent development histories of the Trishul (“trident”) short-range surface-air missile (SAM), the Akash (“sky”) medium-range SAM, and the Nag (“cobra”) v…

Americas Boeing won a $10 million modification for F-15C and F-15E Mission Training Centers (MTC). The contract modification provides for updates to the F-15 MTC training systems in order to achieve training service objectives. Boeing is upgrading USAF F-15C and F-15E MTCs with the Suite 9.1 Eagle Passive Active Warning Survivability System. Work will take place in Idaho, North Carolina, Nevada, Japan and England. The US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) tested its three-setting 2,000-pound (nearly 910 kg) Dialable Effects Munition (DEM) recently. The Air Force says that this capability will give it the ability to prosecute targets more effectively in high-end fights,…

Americas Triumph Gear System won a $24.3 million contract action for the procurement of one item used on the V-22 aircraft. All work will be performed in Park City, Utah, and is expected to be completed by July 2024. Fiscal 2022 working capital (Navy) funds will be used and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The V-22 Osprey is a joint service multirole combat aircraft utilizing tiltrotor technology to combine the vertical performance of a helicopter with the speed and range of a fixed-wing aircraft. Boeing is responsible for the fuselage, landing gear, avionics, electrical and hydraulic systems, performance and flying qualities. Work will take place i…

HPT-32 (click to view full) India’s stalled defense procurements have become an international joke, but they’re not funny to front-line participants. The country’s attempts to buy simple artillery pieces have become infamous, but their current problem with trainer aircraft is arguably a more significant wound. You can’t produce pilots properly without appropriate training, but the IAF’s fleet of 114 locally-designed HPT-32 Deepak basic trainers has been grounded since August 2009, because they aren’t seen as reliable enough or safe enough to fly. Since then, equally aged HJT-16 Kiran jets are being used for both Stage-I and Stage-II fighter training. That yawning gap h…

For coming up on two decades, the United States military has been engaged - if you want to call it by the medal they give everyone for it - a Global War on Terrorism. As we have invested two decades, trillions of dollars, and thousands dead across the globe in response to the attacks of September, 2001 - our best friends have been with us. They do this of their own free will, and share the good fortune and bad with us in our contact of the war. Today’s Midrats is a wide ranging discussion on the history, theory, and application of American leadership with our guest, Gray Connolly. Gray Connolly (Graham Alfred Frederick Connolly) is an Honors graduate in Arts and Law f…

When you read military history, you read all the time about "fighting retreats" and "rear guard actions" and with few exceptions, that is about the only mention they get, maybe a paragraph or two. That rarely does justice to the incredible sacrifice a few knowingly make to help save the many. Those ordered to be the rear guard, or to execute a holding action, know exactly what they are being asked to do - and yet they do it willingly through good discipline or simply duty. Often they are not even ordered to do it, local commanders see the need, know commander's intent, and do it. There are some well known events, Napoleon's Dutch engineers at Berezina is one, and for the …

Want to get a more wholistic view of what is and what is not worth the investment of strategic effort, sacrifice, and investment? Follow the money. Pondering a great graphic over at USNIBlog. Come by and puzz'l your nogg'n 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=M3Aa8mHvcmI:w4kkIfL0PHE:gIN9vFwOqvQ http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=M3Aa8mHvcmI:w4kkIfL0PHE:-BTjWOF_DHI http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=M3Aa8mHvcmI:w4kkIfL0PHE:V_sGLiPBpWU http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=M3Aa8mHvcmI:w4kkI…

Americas Sikorsky won a $14.1 million contract modification to procure four retrofit kits and associated system engineering support for the incorporation of 34 deployable configuration changes into CH-53K System Demonstration Test Article 1-4 Aircraft. The CH-53K is the United States Marine Corps’ (USMC) heavy lift replacement for the CH-53E. Work will take place in Connecticut and Florida. Estimated completion is in November 2023. Lockheed Martin won a $206.9 million modification, which adds scope to provide non-recurring engineering, detailed aircraft modification execution planning and technical data packages in support of modifications to the F-35 developmental test …

Americas Sikorsky won a $53.9 million contract modification for production of UH-60M Black Hawks. UH-60 Black Hawk is a multi-mission helicopter. The UH-60M is the latest variant in the Black Hawk family of helicopters. More than 2,000 UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter variants are in service with the US, and more than 600 have been exported. Work will take place in Connecticut. Estimated completion date is June 30, 2022. The US Navy Strategic Systems Programs (SSP) successfully conducted a test of the second stage Solid Rocket Motor (SRM) for a newly developed missile booster. The missile booster will be combined with the Common Hypersonic Glide Body (CHGB) to form the Conven…

Some of my most memorable peacetime experiences in my naval career were SINKEX. I mean ... really people. There is the "fun" factor - but I also fully appreciated the good information we received from sending warshots downrange. Sure, the targets didn't shoot back or try to intercept our weapons ... but it did give you a good outline of the performance of those things in the kill chain you could control. That is why - while using the exceptional google translate function - this bit from Russian open source caught me off guard; ... testing modern means of destruction of the Navy on it. And as an example here, we, alas, the US Navy, which does not just use old ships…

Americas The Department of Defense (DoD) has launched a multi-party project to ramp up its hypersonic weapons testing capacity. The Multi-Service Advanced Capability Hypersonics Test Bed (MACH-TB) project will develop an affordable ground and flight test bed that leverages “commercially-available launch vehicles for hypersonic payloads,” contractor Dynetics said. The US Air Force has completed a series of ground and flight acoustic tests for its F-15EX fighter aircraft at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida. The trial was the first for the air force’s F-15 with the GE-129 engine. Test administrators aimed to establish a baseline of sound data to update the information on noi…

Americas According to Jane’s, the US Navy is not keen to use the MQ-4C in an airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) role. The Hudson Institute’s senior fellow, Bryan Clark, had told Janes that the new sensors onboard IFC-4 variant of the MQ-4C have passive sensing capability to be used for AEW&C. Doug Shaffer, Northrop Grumman vice-president and program manager for Triton programs, also revealed that the company is thinking about having the E-2D and MQ-4C share each other’s pictures in demonstrations. But the mission set has been ruled out by Captain Dan Mackin, the maritime UAS manager. Mackin wants the unmanned air vehicle to focus on maritime surveillance. …

In Italy vs. USA ... the Italians will beat us to the punch. Curious what they plan on doing? Swallow your pride and head on over to USNIBlog for the details. Note: there will be guns. Lots of guns. 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=pDyEmQ5lUo0:nJNd84_fV2c:gIN9vFwOqvQ http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=pDyEmQ5lUo0:nJNd84_fV2c:-BTjWOF_DHI http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=pDyEmQ5lUo0:nJNd84_fV2c:V_sGLiPBpWU http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=pDyEmQ5lUo0:nJNd84_fV2c:F7zBnMyn0Lo http://feeds.feedbu…

Americas BAE Systems was awarded a $58 million contract from Boeing. The deal is to start low rate initial production of the F-15 Eagle Passive Active Warning and Survivability System for the US Air Force. “The start of EPAWSS production marks a critical milestone and is a testament to the dedication and commitment of our industry team,” said Jerry Wohletz, BAE’s VP/GM of Electronic Combat Solutions, in a press statement. “Our technology is cutting-edge, our factories are world-class, and our people are innovative and mission-focused.” The all-digital system EPAWSS enables pilots to monitor, jam and deceive threats in contested airspace and combines multispectral sensors …

Anyone who has studied the left's march through the institutions and the regular examples of the O'Sullivan's Law in action, knows the drill knows what happens to previously non-political or even conservative institutions. The signs of their socio-political presence shouldn't be a shock to anyone. They are just less bloody versions of what Orwell, Huxley, Dith Pran, and others warned us about. While you were paying attention to other things, their world view is already deep in our military institutions of higher learning, specifically today the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, PA. What already is well past the nose in the tent involves in not just narrowing the Overton …

What was Navy, was taken by the Army, loved by everyone ... and is hinting that we have some wonderful ideas about how to sustain operations in the Western Pacific against China, and it would be a shame if something happened to them. Thinking a bit over at USNIBlog on things that go "brrrrrrrr." Come ponder it out with me. 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=oHMvIwXEYaI:SeM6iUvjnFg:gIN9vFwOqvQ http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=oHMvIwXEYaI:SeM6iUvjnFg:-BTjWOF_DHI http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=oHMvIwXEYaI:SeM6iU…

Aborted landing (click to view full) In January 2005, the U.S. Navy selected the US101 as the new “Marine One” baseline helicopter, for use by the President of the United States. The US101 is an American variant of AgustaWestland’s successful AW101 multi-mission medium helicopter; it beat out Sikorsky’s S-92 Superhawk, which is already in use as a government VIP transport in countries like South Korea. That $1.7 billion victory was first endangered, and then destroyed, by ongoing changes from the White House staff. In 2008, the program’s ballooning costs and requirements got a temporary reprieve when US Navy agreed to proceed with the VH-71, despite a cost per aircraft…

Americas The F-15EX variant of the F-15 series of US Air Force fighter planes, was renamed the Eagle II in a ceremony on Wednesday at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. Lt. Gen. Duke Richardson announced the official designation in a rollout of the plane, which will replace the aging F-15C/D fleet. The US Air Force accepted its first F-15EX from manufacturer Boeing on March 11. The US Air Force (USAF)/Lockheed Martin AGM-183A Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW) conventional hypersonic glide weapon prototype failed its first booster vehicle flight test on April 5, according to a statement. The ARRW failed to complete its launch sequence and did not deploy from its Boein…

Americas General Electric won a $220 million contract modification, which exercises an option to procure 48 F414-GE-400 engines and engine devices in support of the F/A-18 Super Hornet production aircraft for the Navy. The General Electric F414 is an American afterburning turbofan engine in the 22,000-pound thrust class. Two F414 engines power the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet aircraft. The US Navy F/A-18 E and F Super Hornet maritime strike attack aircraft was manufactured by Boeing, and flew for the first time in 1995. The air inlets have been enlarged to provide increased airflow into the engines. The structural changes to the airframe on the F/E variant of the aircraft incre…

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