Raw Intel

A sad chapter in the loss over two years ago of the USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD 6) has finally come to a close. With the loss of an almost freshly modernized large amphib and $1.2 billion already being cut in to scrap - the whole story is yet to play out, but one of the saddest chapters is now closed. In a just world there would be scalding Congressional hearings, but alas we do not live in such a world. Megan Rose at ProPublica put out a superb review and report a couple of weeks ago you really need to read in full. Considering all the own-goals our Navy has executed the last few years, a navalist can be a little numb to the ineptitude ... but we need to look at. We need …

The last few weeks have been filled with discussions about possible Russian use of tactical nuclear weapons – probably in a demonstration first – because of their collapsing conventional war in Ukraine. There are lots of different scenarios/vignettes you can go through and could spend all day or more on each one, but I’d like to pull one out for you today that brings together a few threads we’ve seen the last nine months. Here are the threads we are going to pull in to the primary subject of this wargame: the Russian Federation decides to demonstrate their willingness to use tactical nuclear weapons. Threads common to this war so far: Russian “gun decking” of material r…

Americas General Dynamics won a $533 million deal for Lead Yard Support and Development Studies and Design efforts related to Virginia-class submarines. The deal includes options which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of the modification to $813,720,300. The Virginia-Class new attack submarine is an advanced stealth multimission nuclear-powered submarine for deep ocean anti-submarine warfare and littoral (shallow water) operations. Work will take place in Connecticut and Virginia. Expected completion will be by October 2023. Thomas Instrument won a $13.6 million deal for depot-level overhaul services of the C-5 dual-powered winch, National Stock Number 168…

Americas The US Navy awarded Raytheon Technologies a $232.8 million deal to procure material and support equipment for depot maintenance facilities and unit level support equipment, as well as to provide program administrative support for non-recurring sustainment activities and supplies, services, and planning for depot standup and expansion in support of the for the F-35 Lightning II Program. Work will take place in Connecticut, Florida, Oklahoma. Japan, Norway, Australia, Indiana, Netherlands, North Carolina and Arizona. Expected completion will be by September 2025. The Navy awarded Raytheon a $225.7 million deal for AIM-9X Block II and Block II+ System Improvement P…

On paper and in theory, one would think that a nation who love-hates NATO only slightly less than she love-hates the USA, and is always looking for an opportunity to - now that the UK yeet'd itself out of the EU - nudge Germany out of the way so she can be seen as THE leader of Europe, would take the lead in supporting Ukraine in the Russo-Ukrainian War. Of course, I'm talking about France; If France wants to lead Europe to a new era of military self-reliance, how come its contribution to the war effort in Ukraine is so small? That is the awkward question being posed by some of the country's top strategic thinkers, who are pushing President Emmanuel Macron to make an urg…

Americas Rolls Royce won a $20 million delivery order for the procurement of four spare AE 2100D3 engines used on the KC-130J aircraft. All work will be performed in Indianapolis, Indiana and work is expected to be completed by March 2024. The KC-130J is a multi-role tanker aircraft designed and developed by Lockheed Martin to replace the KC-130F/R/T aircraft. Work will take place in Indiana. Expected completion will be by March 2024. The Navy awarded Raytheon a $16 million contract modification for sustainment material and support for the AN/SPY-6(V) family of radars. The solid state, fixed-face and rotating SPY-6 variants provide integrated air and missile defense capa…

Lessons - yep there are lessons. When you go to war - you step in to a dark room. You hopefully have prepared yourself with the best equipment, training, operational concepts possible. The wise commander steps in to that dark room knowing that he will not know what will happen when he enters. At first, he won't see what works and does not - but he looks for it. He adjusts, he modifies - he tries to find advantage. Remember the FbF the other day about the Australian Light Horse and the assault on Beersheba? The Germans then did not think that mounted infantry would fight as cavalry - though the Commonwealth leadership saw the need to improvise, adapt, and overcome. Victo…

Americas Argon ST won a $21 million delivery order under a previously awarded basic ordering agreement for the procurement of nine amplifier chassis for the support of operations of the MQ-4C Triton with the first deployment of IFC 4-configured unmanned aircraft system. Work will take place in Virginia. Expected completion will be by March 2025. Sikorsky won a $17.2 million order, which provides non-recurring engineering in support of incorporating a one-second or less Engine Fuel Firewall Shutoff Valve into the CH-53K aircraft. The CH-53K is the United States Marine Corps’ (USMC) heavy lift replacement for the CH-53E. The most powerful helicopter in the Department of De…

With what looks like sabotage of the Nordstream 1 & 2 pipelines under the Baltic Sea bringing a momentary focus on critical infrastructure on the seabed, now is the perfect time point everyone to Pierre Morcos and Colin Wall's 2021 CSIS commentary, Invisible and Vital: Undersea Cables and Transatlantic Security. In the national security arena, when conflicts arise people will discuss Ground Lines of Communication (GLOC) and Sea Lines of Communication (SLOC) - concepts military professionals concerned with keeping beans, bullets, lawyers, guns, and money flowing have focused on for all of human written history. In our age, where so much of what goes over GLOC and SLOC…

Americas Lockheed Martin Aeronautics won an $115.4 million deal, which provides diminishing manufacturing sources parts for F-35 Lightning II program for the Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, non-US Department of Defense participants, and Foreign Military Sales customers. Work will take place in Texas. Expected completion will be in September 2023. Just recently, the US Navy, in collaboration with Raytheon, carried out two StormBreaker smart weapon-guided test vehicle releases from an F-35B Lightning II at .9 Mach, bringing the F-35 one step closer to receiving a major weapons upgrade. Huntington-Ingalls Industries won a $23.6 million modification for the procurement of mat…

If there was any concern that Russia might turn Germany as winter sets in cold and expensive, you can put that concern to the side;European leaders said Tuesday they believed dual explosions that damaged pipelines built to carry Russian natural gas to Europe were deliberate, and some officials blamed the Kremlin, suggesting the blasts were intended as a threat to the continent. The damage did not have an immediate impact on Europe’s energy supplies. Russia cut off flows earlier this month, and European countries had scrambled to build up stockpiles and secure alternative energy sources before that.With both Nordstream 1 and 2 now offline due to - well - "things," Russian …

Americas Boeing won a $191.8 million delivery order for the repair of multiple flight control surfaces used on the F/A-18E/F and E/A-18G aircrafts. The delivery order does not include an option period. Work will be performed in Jacksonville, Florida; various other locations within the continental US that cannot be determined at this time and St. Louis, Missouri, and work is expected to be completed by July 2025. Mood Inc. won a $8.6 million deal for the spare of the Planetary Blade Fol used on the V-22 aircraft. The V-22 Osprey is a joint-service, medium-lift, multimission tilt-rotor aircraft developed by Boeing and Bell Helicopters. Boeing is responsible for the fuselag…

As winter arrives in Eastern Europe and the Russo-Ukrainian war approaches the end of its first year, a very serious war will become even more serious. Both nations are increasingly fully invested in to seeing this to the end. Though on paper stronger, cracks in national resolve in Russia are showing much more than in Ukraine. Wars of choice for conquest – which is what Russia is engaged in – has a much different impact on a nation’s people than an existential war for national survival, which is the war Ukraine is in. As Russia’s problems in trying to achieve something that looks like victory manifests itself in to the Russian people’s waning support for the war, the rule…

Americas Rockwell Collins won a $15.6 million modification, which adds additional in-scope work to provide a virtual reality trade study, aircraft common equipment replacement/virtualization, aircraft flight management computer functional equivalent unit card development, and Beyond Line Of Sight (BLOS) chat software enhancements in support of the E-2D Hawkeye Integrated Training System devices, as well as provides associated technical data, computer software, and computer software documentation for BLOS chat software enhancement efforts. Additionally this modification exercises an option to procure coupled mode capability in support of E-2D Aircrew Procedures Trainer Dev…

Before diving into today’s post, as we have reached a lot of new readers in the last year, I would beg the indulgence of long-term members of The Front Porch to allow me to review some long-standing positions of mine. On the foreign policy front, especially for the last decade, I have liked to consider myself a realist. I do not expect perfection in my personal friends, nor expect perfection in my nation’s friends. I am not an isolationist by any stretch, but I do find myself much closer to John Quincy Adams’s; …admonition that “Americans should not go abroad to slay dragons they do not understand in the name of democracy.” …than I am to that mindset that brought us to t…

In September of last year, the national security story was the announcement of AUKUS - trilateral security pact between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Though the Russo-Ukrainian War quickly took it from headlines, it is still moving forward - and in ways you may not expect. These three Anglosphere nations have a long cultural, diplomatic, economic, and military history together - so many of the building blocks are already there to make something impressive. Using his recent article in the Australian Strategic Policy Institute as a starting off point, our guest for the full hour returning to Midrats this Sunday from 5-6pm Eastern will be Dr. Alessio …

So, who is great in the pantheon of retired Navy Commanders? Well, we lost one, if not the, ranking member last month - Commander Dean S. “Diz” Laird, USN (Ret.). Another legend next door. Over the course of his 29-year legendary military career, he shot down the first German planes of World War II off the coast of Norway for the Navy and was the only Navy Flying Ace who scored victories against German and Japanese planes in both the European and Pacific Theatres. Diz flew 99 different military aircraft before retirement and then flew his 100th at the age of 95, flying a T-34C in Coronado in July 2016. He flew 175 combat missions and served on 12 aircraft carriers, was a…

Don't think this is just a problem with the US Air Force Academy. No, all our services academies are worm-ridden with the worst ideas infesting academia from the "diversity" cult. You need to read the full thing, but to give you a taste of what is going on, I do have three slides for you to review; So, in the USAF you are a bad person if you are "colorblind" or state "I don't see color." Even worse, you are not allowed to think that "we're all just people." To draw that out, it appears that the USAF wants everyone to judge people by the color of their skin first of all. If that isn't racist and retrograde, I'm not sure what is. Callsigns and nicknames are bad too, it ap…

Americas The US Navy awarded Raytheon a $160 million deal for Dual Band Radar (DBR) design agent and technical engineering efforts. Engineering efforts and supplies are required to support the DBR systems installed aboard CVN-78 and DDG-1000 class ships. Work will take place in Massachusetts, California, Rhode Island and Virginia. Estimated completion will be by September 2023. The US Army’s Program Executive Office Missiles and Space has issued a Request For Information (RFI) for the Close Combat Missile System-Heavy (CCMS-H). The CCMS-H is to replace the existing BGM-71 TOW anti-tank missile. The new missile must be able to destroy Tier 1 armored threats and field fort…

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