Raw Intel

AN/APG-79 AESA Radar (click to view full) The AN/APG-79 Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar began life as a replacement. Initial F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet production batches installed Raytheon’s all-weather, multimode AN/APG-73, but the APG-79 has intrinsic technical features that offered revolutionary increases in capability, reliability, image resolution, and range. Unlike the APG-73 that equipped the first Super Hornets, the APG-79’s AESA array is composed of numerous solid-state transmit and receive modules that are fixed in place, eliminating a common cause of breakdowns. To move their beams, they rely on electronic changes in each module’s transmission…

Americas Sikorsky won a $116.5 million deal for maintenance and overhaul of the Black Hawk main rotor blade. Bids were solicited via the internet with one received. The UH-60 Black Hawk, developed by Sikorsky, has been operational in the US Army since 1978. In April 2001, the US Army approved an upgrade programme for more than 1,500 Black Hawks to UH-60M. The UH-60M features new wide chord composite spar main rotor blades, strengthened fuselage and advanced infrared suppression. Estimated completion date for this contract is August 15, 2026. Integral Aerospace won a $10 million contract for the repair of two parts associated with the 650 gallon fuel tanks in support of t…

The Afghan army and government the Soviet Union left behind lasted over 3-yrs. The Afghan army and government the USA left behind lasted barely 1 month. This is a nugget everyone needs to hoist onboard. It is bolded and underlined for a reason. For those in the elder GenX cohort and older, we remember vividly all the comments made, especially after its fall, of the failures of the Soviet Union. We liked to talk about its stifling bureaucracy, oppressive government nomenklatura, busy body rules, crumbling infrastructure, military infested with political officers pushing ideology, corruption, and almost comical government officials - all so assured of their power, such bel…

Americas The Defense Department’s Space Development Agency (SDA) plans to launch an experimental payload, developed together with the Missile Defense Agency (MDA), to study the infrared background created by the Earth. The experiment is called Prototype Infrared Payload or PIRPL and is foundational for developing DoD capabilities to detect and track dim, fast-flying hypersonic missiles, SDA officials said in a briefing last week. The US Army says it’s developed a combat-capable prototype of a high-energy laser weapon. According to an army press release, the laser can be mounted on a Stryker military vehicle and used to defend troops against drones as well as rockets, art…

After the events of this weekend, I'm not really up to writing something to kick Monday off. It isn't that I did not have time, it is just that I wanted to invest it in something else. While there are a lot of entities who need some self-reflection, I think for today we need to look back at the senior in-theater leadership of the military effort in Afghanistan. We'll talk in more detail later. This works best on full screen, and you only have 10 seconds a slide, so don't dilly-dally. Ponder. 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=WkAN3tHqTP4:K…

Americas Northrop Grumman won a $8.4 million delivery order for support of the E2-D Advanced Hawkeye aircraft program avionics flight management computers. The E-2D provides broad area coverage resulting in broader range capabilities. With the E-2D’s enhanced ability to work in the littoral and over land, the platform provides a critical capability to protect our nation’s interests. Work will take place in California. Estimated completion date is February 5, 2025. Great Eastern won a $9.1 modification to exercise and fund the second 12-month option on a firm-fixed-price contract with reimbursable elements for the offshore support vessel Hercules. This vessel will be util…

SBX-1, Pearl Harbor (click to view full) As rogue state proliferation by the likes of North Korea made missile defense a growing priority for nations including the USA, Japan, and Israel, the USA began to look at the linchpin of any defense: powerful radars that could both track ballistic missiles, and guide interceptors. The USA has its BMEWS tracking system, but that would not serve. America’s Safeguard ABM system was dismantled long ago – though Russia still maintains its counterpart System A-135 network around Moscow. Something new would be needed. Enter Raytheon’s new XBR radar, based on an SBX-1 platform that looks a lot like a mobile oil drilling rig. Basing the…

There is no FbF today. This is no time for such things. This is a weekend to think of other things. 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=0okd9FN63u8:dNaj1DChDSM:gIN9vFwOqvQ http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=0okd9FN63u8:dNaj1DChDSM:-BTjWOF_DHI http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=0okd9FN63u8:dNaj1DChDSM:V_sGLiPBpWU http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=0okd9FN63u8:dNaj1DChDSM:F7zBnMyn0Lo http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/FAFV/~4/0okd9FN63u8View the full article

Americas Textron Systems won an $11.3 million deal for the logistics and repair support of MV-22B, CMV-22 (Navy) and CV-22 (Air Force) Osprey components in support of the Joint Service Electronic Combat Systems Tester system. The V-22 Osprey is a joint-service, medium-lift, multimission tilt-rotor aircraft developed by Boeing and Bell Helicopters. Work will take place in Maryland. Estimated completion will be by August 2026. An unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile equipped with a test re-entry vehicle was launched by Airmen from the Global Strike Command on August 11. During this launch, a Hi Fidelity Joint Test Assembly re-entry vehicle that detonate…

So, PERS-41, the Director of Surface Officer Assignments, is coming to give everyone a brief. Great! For you career minded folks who want to see what is expected of you, there is no better source. So, what's on the agenda? Of course, you can almost feel the oxygen leave the room. Of course. This is 2021, and as you have not had the Diversity Industry talking points thrown at you every 15-seconds, after the, "Why I am Interesting" introduction, PERS-41 will lead with that. Of course. Before we get to those slides, I want you to remember something for me. As this is 2021, at the very highest levels the mask has slipped - like we saw last week. Welcome this fact. It makes i…

Americas $1 million in funding from the US Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Aviation & Missile Center (AvMC) has been awarded to RE2 Robotics to develop a robotic system that can autonomously refuel AH-64 Apache helicopters in the field. Naval Facilities Engineering and Expeditionary Warfare Center in Port Hueneme, California, is managing the project entitled Remote Robotic Refueling for Extended Missions (R3EM), which is part of the Autonomous and Robotic Remote Refueling Point (AR3P) program. Lockheed Martin won a $11 million unpriced letter contract for long-lead material and the labor, planning, and scheduling necessary to support the fiscal 2022 Trid…

For this decade, the US Navy has to be ready to match any military challenge by the People’s Republic of China with the fleet we roughly have now. Any clear-eyed look at budgets, priorities, or plans makes that clear. If so, how do we best keep an aggressive China at risk with the forces we realistically have? What can we do to best deter war, and if that fails, transition to war best positioned to win? Today we turn over the conversation to Bryan Clark and Bryan McGrath. Gentlemen, over to you.Naval leaders, civilian and military, face difficult choices when confronting the threat posed by China. The fleet must be kept in readiness for combat, it must be modernized an…

Do you get a little worried when people seem to be a bit overexcited at the prospects of such a large percentage of our fleet being unmanned in the near future? Are you worried that too few hard questions are being asked and answered? Me too. Head on over to USNIBlog and help ask more hard questions. 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=OZhvXGLvdIc:OGIWOlg6xDM:gIN9vFwOqvQ http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=OZhvXGLvdIc:OGIWOlg6xDM:-BTjWOF_DHI http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=OZhvXGLvdIc:OGIWOlg6xDM:V_sGLiPBpWU http:…

Americas The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford has successfully completed its third and final round of Full Ship Shock Trials. According to the Naval Sea Systems Command statement. The third explosive event was conducted Sunday off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida. A research paper by a team from the US Air Force Institute of Technology describes how a tanker-centric stereo vision system can be used for automated aerial refueling (AAR). Currently, differential GPS is used so that the tanker and receiver are on a stable flight path for the transfer of fuel. The authors argued that by having a vision-based system can improve the integrity of the process…

Yesterday, SECDEF Austin put out the memo we all knew was coming. General Mark A. Milley, USA, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, followed up with his own memo that had a handwritten note at the bottom. (NB: old trick knowing that most military eyes will glaze over the typed world, but if in a hurry, will read what is written by hand by the author). His note is, really, all you need to know. “Getting vaccinated against COVID-19 is a key force protection and readiness issue.” The military has a long history of over compensating when it comes to vaccinations. I have been vaccinated against everything from chicken pox to small pox and everything in between. Whe…

Americas Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division’s (NAWCAD) UX-24 Unmanned Test Squadron, teamed up with Military Sealift Command and the crew of MSC’s fleet replenishment oiler USNS Joshua Humphreys (T-AO 188) to test a new concept in material transportation, while the ship was underway in the Atlantic Ocean, July 15-16. The Blue Water logistics Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) carried out three test flights by transporting an internal cargo consisting of simulated repair parts. AeroVironment, Inc. introduced standardized modular payload interface kits for RQ-20B Puma tactical unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) recently. The Modular Payload Standard was established by US Sp…

What the Spanish Civil War was to WWII armor and air tactics, the extended conflict in Ukraine and to a lesser extent Syria is to electronic warfare. There isn't so much "new" that is being developed, but hard lessons forgotten since the fall of the Soviet Union. The closer you get to Ukraine, the more clear it becomes. Poland gets it.Polish firm WB Group harnesses low-power radios and quasi-satellites in a scalable and adaptive communication system.A Polish company has developed a tactical communication system called Cicha Sieć (Silent Network) with a low electromagnetic signature that leverages lessons learned from the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. WB Group launched Sile…

Americas According to Jane’s, the US Navy is not keen to use the MQ-4C in an airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) role. The Hudson Institute’s senior fellow, Bryan Clark, had told Janes that the new sensors onboard IFC-4 variant of the MQ-4C have passive sensing capability to be used for AEW&C. Doug Shaffer, Northrop Grumman vice-president and program manager for Triton programs, also revealed that the company is thinking about having the E-2D and MQ-4C share each other’s pictures in demonstrations. But the mission set has been ruled out by Captain Dan Mackin, the maritime UAS manager. Mackin wants the unmanned air vehicle to focus on maritime surveillance. …

Shipping rates, supply bottlenecks, and some nightmare abandonment stories for some mariners, like everything else on our water plant, COVID-19 impacted our shipping industry hard at sea and ashore. The impacts of which rippled in to everything. As economies, nations, and corporations adjust to the new reality, what trends can the consumer and maritime professional expect? It’s time to catch up with returning guest, Salvatore Mercogliano this Sunday from 5-6pm Eastern. Sal sailed with MSC from 1989 to 1992, and worked MSC HQ as Operations Officer for the Afloat Prepositioning Force 1992-1996. He has a BS Marine Transportation from SUNY Maritime College, a MA Maritime Hist…

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4014/4367154917_8641d731c4.jpg Via Sid's suggestion and tin-can.org, the fuzzy-face Navy at its best. Rowan was a Gearing class destroyer commissioned too late in World War II to see any combat. That changed just a few years later when she was bloodied for the first time during the "Forgotten War" when she took a medium caliber shell hit in her starboard quarter, damaging the after steering compartment and causing a number of casualties. She had been providing counter-battery fire against North Korean shore batteries when she was hit. And counter-battery would prove to be her specialty in another twenty year. ... 27 August 1972 ... the …