Raw Intel

As we go through today's post, I'd like everyone to keep in mind an intangible that impacts not just our Navy in the eyes of the people we serve, but our government as a whole that our Navy is part of: most of our major naval bases are located in the heart of heavily populated urban areas. The Tidewater Area around Norfolk, VA; And on the West Coast, San Diego; For good and bad, what our Navy does impacts the millions of people who are our neighbors, family, and friends who live cheek-to-jowl with the fleet. When things go wrong, they are downwind. There is the former USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD 6) burning two years ago and drenching the San Diego with at least two decade…

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…

China's military posturing is in the air this Monday, so we'll look west of Wake to start the week out. Though rough translations can be a challenge to read, if you get a chance to read your main opponent's intellectual work that references how they think - you should make the effort. Though it would be great to have a more recent copy, thanks to the USAF's Air University you can read the People's Republic of China Science of Military Strategy (2013). They use a slightly different approach to think about the same issue all militaries do - how to look at the different areas of power and control. In the West, most of us think in "domains." The PRC's 2013 work uses the term …

Americas Boeing won a $57.7 million order, which provides for the procurement of various initial spares and repair equipment in support of the MQ-25A Stingray air vehicle for the Navy. Work will take place in Missouri and Indiana. Expected completion is in July 2025. Four Royal Netherlands Air Force (RNLAF) F-16s have flown for the last time in the United States on July 29. The flights took place at Morris Air National Guard (ANG) Base and it also marks the end of Dutch F-16 training in the United States. Middle East & Africa Dyncorp International LLC won a $56 million contract modification for maintenance support services for the Royal Saudi Land Forces Aviation Co…

The Russian Navy HQ in Crimea had a Sunday visitor, China continues to be prickly about its neighbor's guest list, the Navy gets a new oiler (yes, that is sexy), Sal wrote a couple of things that got people's attention, and we are just a couple of months away until winter hits the slogfest in Ukraine. Of course, that is just for starters because in a Midrats Free-For-All, you never know where the conversation will take us - and if you don't like where we're going, you can nudge us your way because the chat room and phones will be open when we are LIVE Sunday from 5-6pm Eastern. Join us live if you can, but it not, you can get the show later by subscribing to the podcast. …

Warfare History Network has a great article outlining allied merchant marine sacrifice in WWII to support the Soviet Red Army. The whole thing is worth a read, but let me just pull the story of convoy PQ-17; In late June 1942, the 37-ship convoy PQ-17, the largest and most valuable convoy to date, formed at Hvalfjord, Iceland, and began to make its run to Murmansk and Archangel. Crammed into the holds of the cargomen were tanks, trucks, aircraft, boxes of ammunition, and other vital supplies destined for the hard-pressed Red Army. The Germans were determined that PQ-17 would not pass and instituted Operation Rösselsprung that would add surface ships—the Tirpitz, Scheer, …

Americas Westinghouse Government Services LLC won a $56 million hybrid deal for decommissioning and dismantlement of the SM-1A deactivated nuclear power plant. Bids were solicited via the internet with three received.The nuclear power plant at Fort Greely in Alaska last provided power in 1972. Work will take place in Alaska. Estimated completion date is July 27, 2028. Lockheed Martin won a 23.2 million deal for engineering services in support of Sentinel A4 Radar and other air and missile defense programs. Bids were solicited via the internet with one received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of July 23, 20…

The Chief of Naval Operation's 2022 Navigation Plan is out ... and besides a couple of expected errata points I'll cover at the end ... I like it. It answers the bell. I'm not going to go paragraph by paragraph as I want you to read the whole thing. The document is important because the CNO is the boss, and this is the Ref. A everyone needs to align with. It will drive discussions, efforts, focus, and defines the four corners for any argument the Navy will make. As such, read it if you want to understand what everything for the next year or more is going to be built around. It is just a couple of dozen and change pages. Lots of pictures and side-bars, so it is a quick rea…

Americas Raytheon Technologies won a $14.9 million contract modification, which adds scope to provide for the planning, implementation, management, and reporting of sustainment affordability in support of initiatives that reduce future F-35 propulsion sustainment cost for the F-35 Joint Program Office. Work will take place in Connecticut and Oklahoma. Expected completion will be in September 2024. Boeing won an $8.5 million modification for Option 3 of the Hunter Phase 2 program. Work will take place in Huntington Beach, California. Estimated completion date will be in March 2023. Middle East & Africa Israel Aerospace Industries subsidiary ELTA Systems will receive …

Americas Rockwell Collins won a $16.3 million contract modification, which adds scope to provide for the adoption and application of updated security classification requirements, as well as to provide a preliminary design analysis and solution trade studies for an updated Very Low Frequency receiver solution in support of the developmental design and obsolescence mitigation engineering efforts for the airborne VLF system modernization in order to meet program capability requirements. The modernization effort is required to provide a compatible and producible VLF system to be integrated into a C-130 aircraft. Work will take place in Texas and Iowa. Estimated completion dat…

If you believe the threat from China is overblown, our Navy is well led, and that our fleet is big enough, then this is not the post for you. If you are concerned for all of it, grab a fresh drink and dive right in. We are facing of something our nation has not had to seriously consider in well over three decades; we do not have free and unfettered access to the sea. Even when Soviet submarines roamed the world’s oceans at will – though closely watched – and the Red Banner Fleet could send battle groups on cruises through the Gulf of Mexico, we had fair confidence in one thing – the Pacific was an American lake. No more. Even when the Soviet Union’s navy gave the US Navy …

Americas AV Inc. won an $11.3 million contract modification for RQ-20B Puma 3 AE systems. Work will be performed in Simi Valley, California, with an estimated completion date of July 31, 2023. Puma is a third-generation tactical UAS that provides precise intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance utilizing an enhanced digital data link to transmit real-time imagery. Raytheon won a $17 million contract modification, which adds scope to procure 40 learn to build AIM-9X Systems Improvement Program (SIP) III configured guidance units (GUs), and associated nonrecurring tooling and test equipment to support build and checkout of the SIP III GUs in a pro…

Yesterday’s article by Seligman, Hudson, & McLeary over at Politico created a nice buzz in the navalist chatterati over the weekend and for good reason – it is a solid summary of a core dysfunction in our nation’s inability to properly provide and maintain a navy. When you see such dysfunction, it is easy to blame individuals or this political party or that, but this dog’s breakfast stewardship of our nation’s maritime legacy is a symptom, not a cause of failures such as this; The Navy of the future needs 316 ships. Actually, make that 327. No, more like 367. You know what? Let’s make it 373, or maybe even 500. At different points this year, the Pentagon and Navy lea…

Americas The integration of the Eagle Passive Active Warning and Survivability System for the first two F-15Es has begun at Boeing’s San Antonio facility, according to a Boeing press release. A total of 43 F-15Es are slated to receive the EPAWSS enhancement, which is developed by a joint team of Boeing and BAE Systems. EPAWSS is also being developed for F-15EXs, the new generation of F-15 aircraft built by Boeing. The system was initially tested with the delivery of the first two F-15EXs that participated in Northern Edge exercises in 2021, the release says. The US Air Force has established the P6 combat training system (P6 CTS) as its next-generation air combat training…

The Royal Navy and the United States Navy share a common heritage, and in the last century built one of the greatest maritime security partnerships over a longer period than any other pair of nations. In more recent years, they also shared common challenges in keeping their once unchallenged sea power relevant, capable, and funded. What are the lessons from both nations' recent stumbles in naval planning, program management, and managing the military industrial base that enables both? What have we done right that should be replicated, and where should we take the hard won lessons of failure to heart and move on? We have a great guest for the full hour this Sunday from 5-…

If you look around in certain corners of the world, you can find little things that make you give a double-take. For instance, why is there a statue of an American General in a WWI uniform in the same park as a monument to the Soviet Red Army? Have you ever heard of Major General Harry Hill Bandholtz, USA? Probably not. What did he do that would warrant such a statue in such a location? On August 11, 1919, General Bandholtz arrived in Budapest as one of four generals (English, French, Italian, American) to become the Inter-Allied Control Commission for Hungary, primarily to supervise the disengagement of Romanian troops from Hungary. He became famous when, on the night…

Americas Lockheed Martin won a $32 million for Joint Air to Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) M-Code test and integration. Contractor will provide support for JASSM, Long Range Anti-Ship Missile, JASSM?ER, and any JASSM variant in the areas of M-Code test and integration. Contractor will provide support for JASSM, Long Range Anti-Ship Missile, JASSM?ER, and any JASSM variant in the areas of M-Code test and integration. Work will take place in Florida. Estimated completion date is July 21, 2025. Schutt Industries won a $49.8 million deal to procure M870A4 semitrailers, spare parts, and a government-formatted technical data package. Bids were solicited via the internet with…

We've been doing "Diversity Thursday" on a regular basis since 2008 or so. Not my favorite topic, not a popular topic among some segments ... but we persist. We covered the military's drift towards racial essentialism earlier, but the "Diversity Thursday" segment really only became a regular thing about 15-yrs ago. We tried to warn everyone ... and here we find ourselves in the thick of it ... but now we are getting real and substantial advocates kicking back against the diversity cadre including out in the open in the Senate and House of Representatives and in the larger culture. You love to see it. One thing the left has always been better at than most is organizing. T…

Americas The US Marine Corps will acquire eight MQ-9A Extended Range (ER) unmanned air vehicles (UAV) for VMU-3 as part of the ARES Indefinite-Delivery/Indefinite-Quantity (ID/IQ) contract. The fleet is expected to standup in late summer 2023 at MCAS Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii. VMU-3 will operate these MQ-9A ERs to support training for the Marine Littoral Regiment. Insitu won a $160 million deal, which provides training, test and engineering, development of engineering change proposals, operations support, organizational level maintenance, field service representatives, land and ship surveys, hardware site activations, hardware installs, repairs, and development of noncommercia…

Americas KC-46A, #17-46034, was recently painted with a tail flash to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the founding of the city of Portsmouth and the 75th anniversary of the United States Air Force. It was flown to Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson to be painted at the 36,000-square-foot paint facility there in June. An AIM-120D3 air-to-air missile with production hardware was test-fired for the first time on June 30 from a F-15E. It was the first of five combined Air Force and Navy live-fires scheduled for the AMRAAM F3R program, which replaces 15 Circuit Card Assemblies on the missile. Raytheon says in a press release that an additional live fire for the Foreign Mili…