Raw Intel

To build the Navy we need, the one thing we have to get right is - and this seems obvious - to successfully build ships. A lot of them. Easy to type, hard to do. While we have had many well-documented troubles this century, we also have some notable successes that give hope we can do it right when we want to. Returning today with another top-shelf guest post, Bryan McGrath picks up the conversation with a reminder of what we did get right, and what we need to do with that institutional capital. Bryan, over to you. When a “Murderers Row” of Navalists (Hendrix, Salamander, Work) all take to the interwebs within the same week to opine on the recent pathologies of American n…

Americas Bath Iron Works won a $35.4 million contract modification for lead yard support effort for the DDG-51 Class Guided Missile Destroyer program. Work will take place in Maine. Estimated completion will be in June 2023. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, DC, is the contracting activity. General Dynamics won a $59.8 million modification for multiple items used in the Abrams Main Battle Tank, Stryker Family of Vehicles, Light Armored Vehicle Family of Vehicles, Cougar, Buffalo and RG-31. The M1 Abrams is a third-generation American main battle tank designed by Chrysler Defense and named for General Creighton Abrams. Work will take place in Florida. Estimated c…

All it takes is a quick look at a map or a quick read of history to understand that any conflict in the Western Pacific will be dominated by naval forces, logistics, control of the air, and the ability to sustain all three. Extending our conversation on Midrats this summer about the challenge from China, this Sunday from 5-6pm Eastern returning to Midrats will be our guest Bryan Clark, a senior fellow and director of the Center for Defense Concepts and Technology at Hudson Institute. The starting point for our discussion will be the report he co-authored with Timothy Walton, Regaining the High Ground Against China: A Plan to Achieve US Naval Aviation Superiority This Deca…

At the end of the day, when we are all called home, how would you want to be remembered? As a naval officer, what legacy do you wish to leave? Few mortals know the day and time, but if you are looking for a benchmark, you would be hard pressed not to look to Captain Paul Rinn, USN and say, "That. Him. There." As skipper of the frigate Samuel B. Roberts, Capt. Rinn took his crew into the war-torn Persian Gulf where they joined other U.S. warships protecting Kuwaiti tankers that had been reflagged as American vessels during the Iran-Iraq War. Returning from a convoy on April 14, the frigate struck an Iranian contact mine, which blew a massive hole in the hull. The explosi…

The legal system works at the speed of smell, but we are getting closer to what may be one of the most important civil rights cases to come in front of the Supreme Court in the last half century. There are new readers coming to CDRSalamander every day, so once again let me set the foundation. The cornerstones are rather simple but essential for our wondrously polyglot experimental republic to survive; persons deserve to be judged as individuals; individuals deserve equal opportunity; people deserve to be judged by the content of their character, not the color of their skin; no favor should be given to nor ill-favor placed on any person based on something they can do nothi…

Americas Lockheed Martin won a $12.9 million deal for AEGIS design agent field engineering services. Aegis is an integrated missile guidance system used on US Navy and allied ships to protect the battle group. Work will take place in Virginia, California, Hawaii, Japan, Washington and California. Estimated completion date is in September 2023. The US Army is integrating a 20 kW-class laser weapon system into its new Infantry Squad Vehicle (ISV) to help soldiers down smaller unmanned aerial systems (UASs), according to the director of the service’s Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office Lieutenant General Neil Thurgood. The three-star general spoke at the Spa…

Americas BAE Systems Information and Electronic Systems won a $13.5 million order, which provides for the ALR-56M radar warning receiver, C-130J Block Cycle F, Operational Flight Program and Mission Data File Generation updates and system services. Work will be performed in Totowa, New Jersey, and is expected to be completed August 9, 2024. Boeing won a $278 million ordering agreement for the procurement of F/A-18 aircraft consumable parts. This is a five-year base contract with one five-year option period. The performance completion date is August 8, 2027. Using military service is the Navy. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2022 through 2027 defense working capital funds…

Was it Ukrainian Special Operations forces? Did the Ukrainians operationalize their Grom SRBM? Did the USA sneak in some ATACMS along with HARM missiles to strike Saki Airbase in Russian occupied Crimea? My bet is in that order, and in time we will find out … but there is one thing I do know for sure; this is just another reminder that this regional conflict is telling us a lot about what we need to understand about the future of war that will manifest itself in the likely big war to come in the Western Pacific. Multiple explosions on Tuesday rocked a Russian air base in occupied Crimea — killing at least one and wounding several others, Russian authorities said. Videos…

Americas General Dynamics Land Systems won a $99.8 million deal for M1 Abrams tank sight units with containers. This was a competitive acquisition with one response received. The M1A1/2 Abrams main battle tank is manufactured by General Dynamics Land Systems. Work will take place in Alabama. Estimated completion date is December 31, 2029. The US Navy has carried out a demonstration of the MQ-8C Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations (EABO) concept during Exercise Resolute Hunter. The exercise took place at San Clemente Island from June 21 to July 1. HSC-23 flew the unmanned rotorcraft for 23 hours during this period. It had taken off from Point Mugu and flown to San Clem…

Last Wednesday I had a few observations on Jerry Hendrix's latest article over at National Review, “The Navy’s Littoral Hubris.” Yesterday in comments, a man familiar to readers here, former Deputy Secretary of Defense Bob Work, weighed in with some counterpoints that I feel need to be brought above the fold for your consideration. With his permission, I've copied his comments in full. There are the bones of one hell of a book here in six short paragraphs. Bob, over to you; As he always does, my good friend Jerry writes a compelling, well written post. However, I think he misses an important point. The problems the Navy has faced has less to do about technological hubri…

Americas Lockheed Martin won a $10.4 million contract modification to convert six AGM-158B missiles to test assets and nine weapon systems simulators. Work will be performed in Orlando and is expected to be completed October 31, 2024. The AGM-158 JASSM (Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile) is an autonomous, long-range missile developed and produced by the Lockheed Martin. Raytheon Missiles & Defense won a $57 million modification to exercise options for the Over-the-Horizon Weapon System (OTH-WS) Encanistered Missiles. OTH-WS was announced in May 2018 with a total value of $847.61 million. It is intended to provide a long range anti-ship, over-the-horizon offensive…

The US military and her Commonwealth allies lost over 10,000 men killed in the Solomon Islands Campaign in WWII. Over 40 USN ships were sunk, 800 aircraft shot down. We killed almost 90,000 Japanese, sunk over 50 of her ships, and destroyed over 1,500 of her aircraft to kick her out. You should know the map and the names. How many warships do we have named after this campaign from battles to those who fought in it? How have we honored this legacy? How have we maintained this legacy? We've been reporting on our lack of stewardship in the islands of the Western Pacific for years now, and things are getting more attention, but still do not seem to be getting much better …

Speaker Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan managed to bring the national security eyeballs back to the Western Pacific after half a year in Eastern Europe. The People’s Republic of China has not been distracted by the Russo-Ukrainian War any more than she was with our two decades distraction in Central and Southwest Asia. She remains focused on two things: - Pushing America to her side of the Pacific. - Establish herself as the primary regional and then global power. Where does China stand today, and where is she heading for the rest of the decade? We have a great guest this Sunday at 3pm Eastern to dive in to these and related topics, James E. Fanell, Captain, USN (Ret.) Jim concl…

Americas Triumph Gear System won a $24.3 million contract action for the repair of the pylon conversion actuator 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 fuselage, landing gear, avionics, electrical and hydraulic systems, performance and flying qualities. All work will be performed in Park City, Utah, and is expected to be completed by August 2023. Naval Supply Systems Command Weapon Systems Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is the contracting activity. Data from the F-15 Eagle Passive Active Warning Survivability System was analy…

Listen to this story and think ... today's challenges are not really that great ... are they? We posted this shortly after Jim's death nine years ago. I think he deserves a replay. You can get some nice visuals to the above interview at the 7:34 point in the video below. First posed Feb 2013.View the full article

Americas Raytheon won a $96.2 million contract modification for maintenance & recertifications in support of the Evolved SeaSparrow Missile and NATO SeaSparrow Missile Systems programs. The SEASPARROW Missile is a radar-guided, surface-to-air missile based on the Navy and Marine Corps AIM-7 Sparrow air-to-air missile. The SEASPARROW has a cylindrical body with four mid-body wings and four tail fins. Work will take place in Arizona, Canada and Germany. Estimated completion will be by December 2022. Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, DC, is the contracting activity. Unionized workers at three Boeing military aircraft factories in and near St Louis, Missouri, have a…

Most who have had their kids enter college in the last couple of decades - especially the last decade - have seen the sociopolitical indoctrination of our kids in the world view of the diversity industry. They don't just get informed about how racist their nation is, they are told that their college, their classes, even they themselves are "problematic." For many who have not been in the military recently, you might think that this issue is mostly a problem at civilian liberal arts colleges and maybe it creeps in to STEM programs at public universities, but surely our nation's service academies are not wasting time injecting disunity and division in to our military's next…

Americas Working together with the US Marine Corps, the 163rd Attack Wing has proven that the MQ-9 can be refueled on the ground while connected to an MV-22. The ground-breaking test was carried out in partnership with VMM-764 during Integrated Training Exercise 4-22 at Marine Corps Air-Ground Combat Center, Twenty-nine Palms last month. The refueling exercise was to help the Marines acquire tactics, techniques, and procedures to operate the MQ-9 in the future. The USMC has placed orders for the MQ-9. The US Navy contracted Schuyler Line Navigation with a $10.5 million deal with reimbursable elements to support Military Sealift Command’s Sealift Program for operation and…

Why must we continue to remind everyone who will listen of the failures of the Age of Transformationalism™? Simple; we cannot afford another generation of programs lost to arrogance, ignorance, and toxic command climates that leave bad ideas and ahistorical program assumptions go unchallenged. Futurism, offset promises, overmatch assumptions, risk devaluation, divest-to-invest – these are all attractive ideas that brief well. They seem to promise to solve so many hard problems. They offer more for less. They seem to allow an easy path; a way to avoid hard work and compromise … and to accrue to their advocates accolades as the “it guy/gal” who has all the vision and provid…

Americas Lockheed Martin Space won a $25.7 million contract modification for Trident II (D5) missile production and deployed systems support. Work will be performed in Utah,Colorado, California, Florida and various places below one percent (0.2%). Work is expected to be completed July 1, 2025. The Trident II Strategic Weapon System (SWS) is deployed aboard Ohio-class (Trident) submarines and consists of: the Trident II (D5) Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile (SLBM); Reentry System; and supporting Shipboard Systems. The Pentagon announced on August 1 that the L3Harris and Air Tractor team has won the Armed Overwatch program. Armed Overwatch will provide Special Operatio…