Raw Intel

The People's Liberation Army Navy has her capital ships underway and under construction. The Japanese Navy continues her plans to grow in a way not seen in a century, and the lessons on the other side of the Eurasian landmass in Ukraine are shuffling long held assumptions concerning food, fuel, demographics, and economics. We're going to cover this and more Sunday from noon to 1pm Eastern with returning guest Dean Cheng. Dean is the Senior Research Fellow for Chinese political and security affairs at the Asia Studies Center of The Heritage Foundation. He specializes in Chinese military and foreign policy, and has written extensively on Chinese military doctrine, technolog…

At age 25 you have two young children and are vacationing with your husband when you find out your father dies. You now find yourself at the head of a devolving empire, in dire economic straits from two world wars and a building new cold war, facing domestic strife and more. For generations, even outside the Anglosphere, when people heard “The Queen,” only one person came to mind: Queen Elizabeth II the Second, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of Her other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith. She did, and will, define an era. Her duty and composure – and her ability to hold the …

Why do I do this to myself and you almost every Thursday for the better part of two decades? Well, mostly because I was grounded since a small child that you have to judge people by the content of their character; that everyone - regardless of who they are, what they look like, or what they do for a living - is worthy of respect as an individual. When that is not happening, speak up. Silence is approval. What today's diversity industry is all about runs completely contrary to what I believe. So, I speak up. With each year more are seeing that it is being used as a socio-political weapon against people, intentionally dividing groups in to sectarian parties defined by char…

Americas Boeing won an $8 million modification, which exercises an option to provide cyber security services to support the physical security of the P-8 aircrew trainers and facilities, including cyber scanning and remediation, cyber security updates, and scheduled and unscheduled maintenance for the Navy. Work will take place in Missouri and California. Estimated completion will be in September 2023. Lockheed Martin is working with the US Department of Defense (DoD) to lift a delivery pause of F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) combat aircraft following the recent discovery of material from China. The F-35 program office has assessed that the Chinese alloy doe…

Americas Stellant Systems won a $36.9 million contract for the F-16 Traveling Wave Tube repair services. Work will be performed in Torrance, California, and is expected to be completed by January 30, 2029. The Air Sustainment Center Supply Chain Management Division, Hill Air Force Base, Utah, is the contracting activity. The US Army has nominated a new leader for Futures Command. Lt. Gen. James Rainey, nine months after its first commander Gen. Mike Murray retired, the service’s undersecretary said September 7 at the Defense News Conference. The Army command, which oversees the requirements process for modernization had been without a confirmed four-star leader for more …

How long do you wait to see what you purchased with the lives of 17 Sailors? Back in 2015 I decided we needed a measure of time for things in the Navy, and settled on a measure of time called a WorldWar; I think "years" does not really tell the best story about how long it takes to get even the most simple ship to displace water after the "go" is given. Perhaps we need a new measurement - one that provides context. We need one defined in American terms, natch, and I have an idea. I've used it before; the time from the attack on Pearl Harbor to the signing ceremony on the Mighty Mo. That is 07DEC41 to 02SEP45. 3-years, 8-months, 26 days. Including the end date, that is 1,…

Americas According to Jane’s, the Pentagon’s intelligence directorate is investing heavily in systems and programmes specifically designed to knock down barriers to collaboration between US armed forces, allies, and partner countries across all strata of command. Increasing capabilities to foster increased collaboration between the Pentagon and its allies, from an information-sharing and technology perspective, has emerged as a priority for the department’s intelligence directorate. The Brazilian Navy commissioned its first-of-class Riachuelo Class diesel-electric attack submarine, S Riachuelo (S-40), on September 1. The general director of the Directorate-General for Nu…

At a time when nations at the front line facing a rising People's Republic of China such as Japan and India (and the PRC herself) are expanding their aircraft carrier fleets as fasts as budgets and politicians will allow, in the United States the carrier debate continues in to another decade. It is natural; aircraft carriers are very expensive - and they bring a lot of capability with that cost. They are vulnerable because they are a high-priority target specifically because of the threat they pose to any opponent. Both sides have a point, but the question is who has the better point given our place in time. In another chapter in the carrier debate, we're honored to have …

Americas Lockheed Martin won a $17.6 million modification, which will exercise options for ship integration and test of the Aegis Weapon System (AWS) for AWS baselines through Advanced Capability Build (ACB) 16. Work will take place in New Jersey, Virginia, California, Washington DC, Mississippi, Florida and Maine. Estimated completion will be by May 2023. Austal USA won a $11.4 million contract modification to exercise an option for littoral combat ship (LCS) industrial post-delivery availability support for USS Augusta (LCS 34). The LCS main purpose is to take up operations such as patrolling, port visits, anti-piracy, and partnership-building exercises to free up high…

Americas Sikorsky won a $40 million modification, which adds scope to provide production and installation of a VH-92A Flight Training Device (FTD) and updates to a previously delivered VH-92A FTD for the Marine Corps. The new Marine One, also referred to as VH-92A, is the next-generation presidential transport helicopter being developed for the US Marine Corps (USMC). Work will take place in New York, Florida, Connecticut, Virginia, Utah and various locations within the continental US. Expected completion will be in March 2024. The US Air Force Research Laboratory recently carried out an in-flight vapor purge test in a F-15E last month. The objective of the test by the 7…

I think that pic captures the soul of a battleship well, don't you think? 108 years after her commissioning, she got underway again for a well needed dry docking. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ObWh_P2FodI/T77zjjqRXyI/AAAAAAAAB94/kz9TLghqooo/s320/uss-texas-bb35.jpgI had a lot of people reach out to me about seeing her underway again, so for this week's FbF I'll reach back 8-yrs ago when we last mentioned the USS TEXAS (BB-35).We could spend hours on the ship that my paternal Grandfather (GM3 Salamander) saw from his ship, the USS ARKANSAS (BB-33), with the Brits in WWI - but let's just say "Happy Birthday" to the grand lady who completed 34 years of commissioned service an…

Americas Boeing won a $2 billion contract modification for KC-46A Air Force Production Lot 8 aircraft, subscriptions and licenses. The contract modification provides for the exercise of an option for an additional quantity of 15 KC-46A aircraft, data, subscriptions and licenses being produced under the basic contract. Work will take place in Washington. Expected completion date is November 30, 2025. Lockheed Martin Missiles & Fire Control deal for the purchase of Modernized Target Acquisition Designation Sight/Pilot Night Vision Systems components and hardware for the Apache attack helicopter. Bids were solicited via the internet with one received. Estimated completi…

This is one of those DivThu that could be a, in a word, tome. As such, I am only going to pull a small portion of the things I normally would. You will have to do some reading yourself. Trust me on this, depending on your areas of concern, you will find many items worse than I will pull out on today's post. Poison wrapped in a few nice marshmallows...but poison nonetheless. The focus of this week's DivThu is what is going on at the US Naval Academy. I've had all sorts of people, from active duty to retired USNA alumni (and others...ahem) reach out to me - a NROTC guy - because they want to get the word out concerning what is going on. Not only do they love their school, t…

Americas Sikorsky won a $36.4 million order, which procures spare parts and provides repair and maintenance support for the Lot 6 CH-53K low rate initial production configuration aircraft. Work will take place in Connecticut, Canada, Washington, Iowa, Illinois, North Carolina, Florida, Arizona, Missouri, New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey, West Virginia and California. Expected completion will be in December 2025. Boeing won a $12.4 million deal to procure upgraded flight control computer operational flight program with automatic ground collision avoidance system capable software for the F/A-18C/D aircraft. The F/A-18 Hornet is an all-weather jet aircraft that is used b…

All month I tried to ... no ... I asked myself to come up with something good at the 1-yr anniversary of the national humiliation that was our negotiated retreat/surrender of Kabul a year ago, but here I am the night of the 30th and the morning of the 31st ... and I have pretty much nothing. "Good?" No. I failed you and myself. I'm not all that happy about it either - but that kind of fits the moment. I looked at the subtitles of the posts I did a year ago on the 31st of August, 5th of September, and 7th of September of 2021; - the fault, shame and humiliation is all ours; all red, white, and blue; - the good in the shadows; - the people, promises, and reputation we le…

Americas The US Air Force has returned to Komatsu airbase, Japan for training for the first time in 3 years. According to the NHK, 6 US F-16s are in Komatsu till September 2 for joint exercise with Japan Air Self-Defense Force. Communications and Power Industries LLC won a $36.5 million deal for the F-16 Traveling Wave Tube repair services. Work will be performed in Palo Alto, California, and is expected to be completed by January 30, 2029. This award is the result of a competitive acquisition. The F-16 Fighting Falcon is an advanced aerial combat aircraft, which provides 4th generation fighter aircraft capabilities. Work will take place in California. Expected completio…

Now that everyone has spent the last three weeks of the Russo-Ukrainian war watching what modern, precision guided, long-range fires can do to large, static supply bases - specifically "ammo dumps" - I'd like you to take a moment and read this in a new light; The Army in the Pacific had its first crack at testing out its APS-Afloat capability in March in the Philippines during exercises Salaknib 22 and Balikatan 22. part of Operation Pathways, a larger exercise in the theater. The 3rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division used it coming from ships designed to harbor complete equipment sets and spares the Army anticipates needing should a crisis unfold. ..…

To paraphrase Papa Salamander's favorite saying, "No one owes you a Navy." It has been eight decades since there was such a great gulf between the Navy our republic needs to meet a growing threat and the Navy its leadership was planning to have. As we discussed a month ago, the institutions everyone is relying on to make the future fleet have failed their moment in time. Another reminder broke above the ambient noise last week, and it wasn't an easy read for navalists looking for firm leadership who - at least in words - give the impression that they have not given up the fight for what we know we need should conflict come in the next decade west of Wake. Good thing I l…

Americas Raytheon won a $8.8 million deal for Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile Production Lot 35 Rectifier Filter Assembly Captive Air Training Missile Retrofit effort. Work will take place in Arizona. Expected completion date is May 30, 2026. The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Air Dominance Division Contracting Office, Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, is the contracting activity. Sikorsky Aircraft won an $8 million deal for procurement of services and data for the integration and qualification of the Improved Turbine Engine onto the UH/HH-60M Black Hawk aircraft. Bids were solicited via the internet with one received. UH-60 Black Hawk is a multi-mission h…

Networks, local knowledge, human terrain, and even gossip. It does not matter if you are a tourist, a diplomat, or an invading army – if you come into a foreign nation you need local knowledge, a guide – someone who can not just tell you where the head is, but the important parts of the intangible nature of any culture that simply does not come from a briefing book. And it needs to be someone you trust. Likewise, as social animals, from the middle school lunchroom to the United Nations, we have our “in-group” and the “out-group.” Friendly, hostile, or aggressively neutral, out-group people are racked-n-stacked based upon their perceived threat or value. Do they have powe…