Raw Intel

Americas Lockheed Martin won a $35.6 million contract modification for the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) weapon system. Under this contract modification, Lockheed Martin will provide 36 Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Trucks (HEMTTs) A2 as a lifetime buy to support the THAAD weapon system. Work will take place in California, Texas and Wisconsin. Estimated completion date is August 4, 2021. Skydweller Aero has been given $5 million by the US Navy to demonstrate its unmanned air vehicle (UAV) that is based on the Solar Impulse 2. The US-Spanish startup has tested and flown autonomous flight software on the Solar Impulse 2. The company hopes to fly the plane …

We've been making the point here for years that of all the institutions and groups in the United States, the Navy is one of the least racist places a person could find themselves in. It was for me. Especially when people make the the charge of "systemic racism" against our Navy, any well meaning person of experience will know the charge is just baseless. What if I was wrong? Maybe I was. Maybe things have changed. There was an amazing admission earlier this week from the Chief of Naval Personnel, Vice Adm. John Nowell Jr., that I am still trying to get my head around; “I think we should consider reinstating photos in selection boards,” Nowell said Tuesday at The Navy Le…

You're a reader of CDRSalamander ... so I know that you not only find port clearing sexy ... but you know it's important. Do you know the story of Umm Qasr in 2003? Well, head on over to USNIBlog and ponder with me. 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=9b9wbfxCB0I:6VtvehTZbSA:gIN9vFwOqvQ http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=9b9wbfxCB0I:6VtvehTZbSA:-BTjWOF_DHI http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=9b9wbfxCB0I:6VtvehTZbSA:V_sGLiPBpWU http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=9b9wbfxCB0I:6VtvehTZbSA:F7zBnMyn0Lo htt…

Americas Lockheed Martin won a $51.8 million deal, which provides for program management support to include development of customer unique capabilities in support of the continued development of the air system for the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter program for a Foreign Military Sales customer. Work will take place in Texas, California and Florida. Estimated completion date will be in January 2024. The US Air Force has carried out wind tunnel testing of directed energy system turret earlier this year. “There is a growing interest for directed energy systems within the DOD for many purposes, especially defending our systems and personnel,” said Dr. Rich Roberts, c…

People are policy. That explains a lot. What an amazing bit of commentary that really reads like parody, but it isn’t. Given the history of the UN from Rwanda to Haiti, you would think there would be a bit more of a humble attitude from the UN, but amazingly, no. Some of these people seem like they never left the Model UN camp they went to while they waited to take their AP History exams. One guy, Eide, I remember from my time in Kabul, so let’s do things in reverse and show you the CV of the authors of this article; Kai Eide, a Norwegian diplomat, served as the United Nations secretary general’s special representative for Afghanistan from 2008 to 2010. Tadamichi Y…

Americas Lockheed Martin won a $108.8 million modification for AEGIS combat system engineering agent (CSEA) efforts for the design, development, integration, test and delivery of Advanced Capability Build 20. The Aegis combat system uses powerful computers and radar to track and guide weapons to destroy enemy targets. More than 100 Aegis-equipped ships have been deployed in five navies worldwide. Aegis, not an acronym, refers to the shield of the mythical Greek God Zeus. Work will take place in Moorestown, New Jersey. Expected completion date will be in December 2021. The US Air Force has successfully demonstrated that the F-16’s Electronic Warfare System can receive sof…

While the Royal Navy's new aircraft carrier and her battlegroup heading east of Suez for a bit of showing the flag, with her Dutch and American friends along for comic relief, the Arabian sea the last week seemed to wake up. The chief of Israel’s armed forces spoke with his British counterpart on Sunday, the Israeli military said, after London accused Iran of carrying out an attack on an Israeli-managed ship off Oman last week that killed a Briton and a Romanian. Lieutenant-General Aviv Kohavi and Britain’s Staff General Nick Carter “discussed recent events in the region and common challenges faced by both countries,” said an Israeli military statement... In case…

Americas General Atomics won a $33.7 million contract, which provides for logistic support, maintenance services, supply chain and spares management, and sustainment support in support of the MQ-9 Reaper aircraft and its dual control mobile ground control station. The MQ-9 Reaper is the primary offensive strike unmanned aerial vehicle for the US Air Force. It is part of a remotely piloted aircraft system. A fully operational system consists of several sensor/weapon-equipped aircraft, ground control station, Predator Primary Satellite Link, and spare equipment along with operations and maintenance crews for deployed 24-hour missions. Work will take place in Arizona, Bahrai…

For coming up on two decades, the United States military has been engaged - if you want to call it by the medal they give everyone for it - a Global War on Terrorism. As we have invested two decades, trillions of dollars, and thousands dead across the globe in response to the attacks of September, 2001 - our best friends have been with us. They do this of their own free will, and share the good fortune and bad with us in our contact of the war. Today’s Midrats is a wide ranging discussion on the history, theory, and application of American leadership with our guest, Gray Connolly. Gray Connolly (Graham Alfred Frederick Connolly) is an Honors graduate in Arts and Law f…

What can one small ship, well trained, well led, and well armed do when she finds herself in the right place at the right time? I give you the USS ENGLAND, (DE 635), via Michael Peck at TheNationalInterest; The saga of the England began on May 18, 1944, when the England and two other destroyer escorts received orders to find a Japanese submarine reported heading toward the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific. On the afternoon of May 19, the England's sonar detected the submarine I-16. What happened next is detailed in an account written by Captain John Williamson, who served as the England's executive officer during that time. In a March 1980 article in Proceedings Mag…

Americas Raytheon won a $482.8 million contract modification, which provides for the exercise of the pre-priced options for Lot 35 production of AMRAAM missiles, AMRAAM Telemetry System, initial and field spares, and other production engineering support hardware and activities. The AIM-120 advanced medium-range air-to-air missile (AMRAAM) is a new generation all-weather, missile. Work will take place in Arizona. Estimated completion date is May 31, 2024. Sikorsky won a $26.9 million contract modification for UH-60M green aircraft. The UH-60 Black Hawk has been operational in the US Army since 1978. More than 2,000 aircraft of different variants are in service with the U.…

It’s July, so I guess it is time for another overwrought ethno-masochistic virtue signaling article by CDR Wolf Melbourne, USN. You can read last year’s here where he strangely implies guilt on everyone, and this year’s here where he's making another run, both in Proceedings … if you are so inclined. A few of you asked my thoughts and being that I’m not one to ignore the audience, here you go. In its reaction to the death of George Floyd, the Navy has had to face the deficit between its own ideals and its reality. Despite many pioneering and rightfully laudable advances in racial equality and a genuine desire to be meritocratic, it remains clear the Navy continues t…

Americas Five defense contractors have been awarded contracts for the second phase of development of the Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle, which is planned to replace the M2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicle. Point Blank Enterprises, Oshkosh Defense, BAE Systems and Land Armaments, General Dynamics Land Systems and American Rheinmetall Industries will share a $299.4 million deal to develop digital designs of the new IFV. President Joe Biden told US intelligence officials that he thinks a cyber breach could lead to a “shooting war” with a major global power. “I think it’s more likely we’re going to end up—if we end up in a war, a real shooting war, with a major power—it…

Are you comfortable with that phrase? You should be. If not, head on over to my extended commentary at USNIBlog and get religion. 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=vKWi0m6i3CE:a7JNG-rUGgQ:gIN9vFwOqvQ http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=vKWi0m6i3CE:a7JNG-rUGgQ:-BTjWOF_DHI http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=vKWi0m6i3CE:a7JNG-rUGgQ:V_sGLiPBpWU http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=vKWi0m6i3CE:a7JNG-rUGgQ:F7zBnMyn0Lo http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/FAFV/~4/vKWi0m6i3CEView the full article

Americas Lockheed Martin won a $37 million contract modification, which adds scope to procure special tooling and test equipment for the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter production line in support of second source canopy tooling and other known capacity gaps for the Navy, Marines, Air Force and non-Department of Defense (DOD) participants. Work will take place in California, Texas, Australia and New Jersey. Estimated completion will be in August 2023. BAE Systems won a $117 million contract from Lockheed Martin to produce next-generation missile seekers for the Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM). The seeker technology enables LRASM to detect and engage specific m…

Americas Boeing won a $12 million order, which provides production engineering support in support of the integration and installation of weapon systems on the F/A-18 E/F and EA-18G aircraft for the Navy. The US Navy F/A-18 E and F Super Hornet are maritime strike attack aircraft. The Growler is a derivative of the combat-proven two-seat F/A-18 Hornet, the US Navy’s maritime strike aircraft. The primary missions of the aircraft are electronic attack (EA) and suppression of enemy air defences (SEAD), particularly at the start and ongoing early stages of hostilities. Work will take place in Maryland and Missouri. Estimated completion will be in July 2022. The US Missile Def…

Of course we lost you nitwits. We've designed a palace of glass as our our fortress; In a fake battle for Taiwan, U.S. forces lost network access almost immediately. Hyten has issued four directives to help change that. An aggressive red team that had been studying the United States for the last 20 years just ran rings around us. They knew exactly what we're going to do before we did it,” Hyten told an audience Monday at the launch of the Emerging Technologies Institute, an effort by the National Defense Industrial Association industry group to speed military modernization. The Pentagon would not provide the name of the wargame, which was classified, but a defens…

Americas American firm AeroVironment received two firm-fixed-price orders totaling nearly $16 million from the United States Air Force to deliver Puma 3 AE unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and spares packages and Raven UAS spares packages. The hand-launched Puma 3 AE has a wingspan of 9.2 feet, weighs 15 pounds and can operate for up to 2.5 hours. The aircraft also has a range of 12.4 miles (20 kilometers) with a standard antenna, and up to 37.2 miles (60 kilometers) with AeroVironment’s Long-Range Tracking Antenna (LRTA). It also features reduced system packaging with a flyable configuration and GCS in one case. A US Air Force plan to transfer all A-10 Thunderbolt planes…

Tired of hearing "DELTA" related to COVID, when in a good and just world when you heard that word it would be used to talk about old Russian Soviet Era SSBN or 2-seater all weather F-18s? Well, we're not sure we'll cover either of those topics on today's episode or that we'll totally ignore COVID's impact in the natsec arena, but it's a melee - so you never know what will come up in the maritime national security conversation. We do have a few topics to get the conversation started; giving Deming a second look, the CNO admits what everyone knew about FORD for over a decade, China rattles the nuclear saber at Japan, and our friends return to the Pacific. Remember, with …

If not you, who? Duty. Duty to your crew. The nature of a man is often revealed in crisis when he has to run on instinct. Meet then Staff Sergeant Henry R. Erwin, USAAC, just a good 'ole boy from Alabama. On April 12, 1945, Erwin's B-29, called the "City of Los Angeles," was the lead bomber in a group attack on a chemical plant in Koriyama, about 125 miles north of Tokyo. Aside from operating the radio, Erwin was also in charge of launching phosphorescent smoke bombs to help assemble the bombers before they proceeded to their target. Erwin was positioned behind the forward gun turret toward the front of the plane. Once he got the order to light the bombs, he dro…