Raw Intel

Americas The United States Air Force (USAF) tested a current inventory cruise missile armed with a live warhead as part of the Rapid Dragon program to demonstrate the ability to employ weapons using standard airdrop procedures from cargo aircraft. During the test on December 16, a MC-130J flown by an Air Force Special Operations Command operational flight crew, received new targeting data while in flight which was then routed to the cruise missile flight test vehicle (FTV). Defense and security company Saab inked a contract for multi-role Sea Giraffe AMB naval radar antenna kits, for the upgrade of the Royal Canadian Navy’s Halifax-class frigates. The upgrade is based on…

http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Sea-Giraffe-1X_slideshowpic1-300x169.jpg Sea Giraffe 1X 3D (click to view full) Swedish defense giant Saab is to offer its Sea Giraffe 1X 3D, active electronically scanned array (AESA) naval radar to the US market, showcasing it at the Maritime Security East Conference in Norfolk, Virginia this week. At 650 pounds, the radar is suitable for small patrol boats, giving them the ability to detect unmanned aerial vehicles for the first time. With no forced cooling requirements, and a minimal number of line-replaceable units (LRUs), it requires little power or upkeep. All maintenance, including LRU repair, can b…

Americas L3 Technologies won a $9.5 million deal to develop a Weapon Data Link prototype for the Joint Air Force to Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM). JASSM is a cruise missile built by Lockheed Martin and designed to counter both fixed and relocatable targets from long ranges. Work will take place in Utah. Estimate completion date is July 1, 2022. The Pentagon awarded AgustaWestland USA a $159,4 million deal for the production and delivery of 36 TH-73A helicopters Lot III and initial spares in support of the Advanced Helicopter Training System program. The TH-73A is the aircraft portion of the Advanced Helicopter Training System (AHTS). AHTS improves pilot training and s…

JASSM-ER from B-1B (click to view full) The 2,000 pound AGM-158 JASSM (Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile) is intended to be a stealthy, inexpensive GPS/IIR (Global Positioning system/ Imaging InfraRed) guided cruise missile. It’s designed to attack well-defended targets without putting its carrier aircraft in the crosshairs of new long-range surface to air missile systems. JASSM has experienced a rocky development history, due to long-standing reliability issues. In 2005 it was threatened with cancellation following a series of poor test results. The program went through 2007 on an ongoing roller coaster of ups and downs, and by May 2009 it appeared the program was …

More than a few times the last month I have found myself referring to the Sailors of the FITZGERALD and McCain. I've dug in to the archives from the summer of 2017 to look again at some of the things I wrote while things were fresh. This week, let's look back to AUG 2017 when I first wrote this. There can be only one FbF today, nothing else comes close. The supplemental preliminary inquiry into the collision involving the USS FITZGERALD (DDG 62) and the ACX CRYSTAL from 17 JUN of this year is out. The report is dated 11 AUG 17. You can get it from the SECNAV's site here, or read the whole thing posted below. I wanted to pull one extended quote from it for your review. I…

Americas Boeing won an $11.4 million contract modification for the repair of B-52 Control Assembly contract line item numbers 0003 and 0004.The B-52H is the US Air Force’s long-range, large-payload multirole bomber and is known as the Stratofortress or the Buff (short for big ugly fat fellow). Work will take place in Missouri. Estimated completion date is February 28, 2024. Raytheon won a $15.1 million delivery order for the repair of pod aircraft unit components of the advanced targeting forward-looking infrared radar system in support of the F/A-18 Hornet aircraft. The F/A-18 Hornet is an all-weather jet aircraft that is used by the US Navy and Marine Corps as both a f…

Before you watch the below clip, light a candle for poor Admiral Christopher Grady, USN. Here he is, a very serious man up for a very serious job, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff – and yet here is a Senator who decides to invest her time with the Admiral – headed to the #2 position in our military as we face the greatest military challenge since the fall of the Soviet Union three decades ago, and … well … BEHOLD! "The role of a gender adviser is a way to attack a very significant issue, and ... I look forward to leveraging those advisers who can make me think better and smarter about the issues," Grady said when asked how he intends to implement "women, peac…

Americas Lockheed Martin Aeronautics won a $9.3 million contract modification, which increases the ceiling to partially definitize fiscal 2021 air vehicle initial spares, to include global spares packages, base spares packages, deployment spares packages, and afloat spares packages in support F-35 Lightning II Air Vehicle deliveries for the Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, non-US Department of Defense participants, and Foreign Military Sales customers. Work will take place in Texas. Estimated completion is in December 2021. Raytheon won a $13.9 million deal to procure contractor logistics support maintainers and engineering reach back support of the AN/ALQ-249(V)1 Next Gen…

Bit by bit, you can start to see the role of lasers in naval warfare. While much of the conversation is about how we can use them, over at USNIBlog while pondering the latest tests, I'm starting to wonder ... how much thought are we putting in to how to counter and protect ourselves from incoming fire? Come by and ponder with me 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=4uL7FvJb2B4:YB2Hb5GsRKU:gIN9vFwOqvQ http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=4uL7FvJb2B4:YB2Hb5GsRKU:-BTjWOF_DHI http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=4uL…

A little over a decade ago, we coined "The Terrible 20s" to describe what we saw as the challenge we are experiencing now. A point I made then still applies; if you want a preview of the USN in a decade, look at the Royal Navy today; Look at what the Royal Navy is dealing with today, and it isn't a stretch to see similar challenges for ourselves. Look and learn - and perhaps we can mitigate the pain. Have you seen the absolute state of what the Royal Navy is looking at towards the end of this decade? From the summary report of the recent report out of the House of Commons, “We’re going to need a bigger Navy;” Towards the end of the decade in 2027–28 the Navy will begin …

Americas Bell Boeing won a $18 million contract modification, which exercises an option to provide systems integration, technical analysis, and engineering support for the V-22 aircraft. The V-22 Osprey is a joint-service, medium-lift, multimission tilt-rotor aircraft, which operates as a helicopter when taking off and landing vertically. The nacelles rotate 90° forward once airborne, converting the aircraft into a turboprop aircraft. Work will take place in Texas and Pennsylvania. Estimated completion is in December 2022. The Pentagon has given Northrop Grumman Corporation a task order to start engineering and planning work to reconfigure four EQ-4 Block 20 aircraft for…

Lithuania has a tough history, but they are a resilient people. Only 2.8 million souls in a bit of cold, flat, damp land on the Baltic roughly the size of West Virginia, but they exist as other peoples have vanished. They know tyranny, and they know the importance of letting small nations know that they don't stand alone. How much support will brave little Lithuania get from her NATO allies? China has told multinationals to sever ties with Lithuania or face being shut out of the Chinese market, a senior government official and an industry body told Reuters, dragging companies into a dispute between the Baltic state and Beijing. China downgraded its diplomatic ties with …

Americas General Dynamics won a $93.5 million deal for M1A2 Abrams engineering, manufacturing, design and production. The M1A2 is an improvement of the Abrams M1A1 main battle tank. It includes a commander’s independent thermal viewer, weapon station, position navigation equipment, and a full set of controls and displays linked by digital data bus. Work will take place in Ohio. Estimated completion date is September 30, 2025. General Dynamics Bath Iron Works won a $12.9 million modification for the accomplishment of planning yard efforts such as engineering, technical, planning, ship configuration, data and logistics efforts for DDG-1000 class destroyers post-delivery an…

Just a cursory glance at any map will tell you the United States of America is a maritime nation whose economic power and national security is intimately linked to the sea. This simple reality is not as well understood as one would expect. Command of the sea and access to the world’s oceans has never been easy or an entitlement for any nation. It is something that each generation must understand, resource, and be a steward of for the next. With domestic distractions and competing priorities combined with the accelerating challenge by the People’s Republic of China, bringing the topic of maritime power above the natsec ambient noise has never been more important. This fall…

Americas Lockheed Martin won a $20.5 million contract modification, which adds scope to provide non-recurring engineering for the selected F-35 “Out the Window” replacement solution in support of full mission simulator production for the Air Force, Navy, and non-US Department of Defense participants. The F-35 Lightning II joint strike fighter (JSF) is a stealthy, supersonic multirole fighter. Its advanced sensor package is designed to gather, fuse and distribute more information than any fighter in history, giving operators a decisive advantage over all adversaries. The F-35’s engine produces 43,000 lbs of thrust and consists of a three-stage fan, a six-stage compressor, …

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-72_M51_zMsk/VodCoy1QaYI/AAAAAAAAKoo/9NX16NSlvdk/s320/migkill-014b.jpgI first ran this FbF right after a great man passed in 2016 and I feel bad it took so long for me to cover Mugs. Read the whole thing, but here is a lead in to the video below;Former Navy Capt. Ronald E. "Mugs" McKeown, a decorated fighter pilot who was the first commanding officer of the elite Top Gun academy, died Nov. 21 in a Hillcrest care facility. The cause was complications associated with Parkinson’s disease. He was 76. Mr. McKeown, whose boxing prowess earned him the nickname "Mugs," was chosen to command the newly commissioned Navy Fighter Weapons School, popularly k…

Americas Boeing won a $366 million contract modification, which increases the ceiling to extend the service life for up to 32 F/A-18 Super Hornet aircraft. Boeing delivered the first Super Hornet to the US Navy in February 2020 under the Service Life Modification (SLM) Block III conversion programme. The initial Super Hornets delivered under SLM extended the aircraft’s service life from 6,000 to 7,500 flight hours. Work under the modification will take place in Texas and Missouri. Estimated completion is in May 2024. The US Missile Defense Agency (MDA) has awarded a research contract to Stratolaunch for rapid-turnaround hypersonic flight testing. The company will use its…

For the last decade and a half or so of DivThu we've often discussed the "Diversity Industry" and tried to describe to those who have yet to encounter it, just how large of an industry it is. Instead of working towards a society that looks past the useless characteristics of race, creed, sex, color or national origin - they work towards division, promote segregation and unequal treatment ... on your dime. Sadly, the commissariat has only gotten larger as they have refined their business model of insertion and growth through threats, etho-masochism, well-meaning useful idiocy, leveraging institutional cowardice, and naked careerism to expand their empire. Few can or will s…

Americas L3Harris Technologies won a $45.8 million deal for development to integrate the AN/PRC-160 high frequency manpack radio in the MH-47 and MH-60 aircraft. The Boeing MH-47G is a special operations variant of the CH-47 Chinook multi-role, heavy-lift helicopter. It is in service with the US Army Special Operations Aviation Command (USASOC). The MH-60R Seahawk missions are Anti-Submarine Warfare, Anti-Surface Warfare, Surveillance, Communications Relay, Combat Search and Rescue, Naval Gunfire Support and logistics support. The MH-60S Seahawk missions are Anti-Surface Warfare, combat support, humanitarian disaster relief, Combat Search and Rescue, aero medical evacuati…

What is this jewel? The future is often just an updated past. Drop on by USNIBlog and see some of the smart things going on in WESTPAC. 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=L57jkdTmt18:yIIMLqwzEw0:gIN9vFwOqvQ http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=L57jkdTmt18:yIIMLqwzEw0:-BTjWOF_DHI http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=L57jkdTmt18:yIIMLqwzEw0:V_sGLiPBpWU http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=L57jkdTmt18:yIIMLqwzEw0:F7zBnMyn0Lo View the full article