Raw Intel

Top Gun, redux (click to view full) In the 1980s movie Top Gun, the revolutionary “MiG-28s” operated by the enemy air force were actually painted F-5E Tiger IIs, derived from a family of fighters whose design concept dates back to the mid 1950s. The F-5 family of aircraft were produced in large numbers, as they were an extremely popular export item. Many are still operated by countries around the world, and the US Air Force used them for many years as “aggressor” aircraft in Dissimilar Air Combat Training (DACT). They remain excellent for simulating similarly small, low profile adversaries like the MiG-21s and MiG-19s that gave American pilots such trouble over Vietnam.…

For those no longer on active duty or civilian employee of DOD, you haven’t had a chance yet to received your “extremism training.” Thanks to the Salamander underground, we now have a copy for everyone. On a scale of 1 to 10 where a “1” is a solid, well done presentation, and a “10” is an intellectually sloppy, ham-fisted, neo-zampolit led struggle session, I will give this a 6 … edging towards a 7. It was a huge lost opportunity. Officially, this was in response to the storming of the Capitol on 06 JAN. For those who did not catch my comments at the time, you can read them here and here. There would not have been a standdown without that event, but a broader net was th…

Americas The US Air Force has decided to add an active duty component to the 168th Air Refueling Squadron at Eielson Air Force Base. The move will add four additional KC-135s and up to 220 additional active duty personnel. This will make the squadron a total force unit as it increases the total KC-135 aircraft to 12. The personnel will be reassigned from within the Air Force. F-35A, AF-1, has successfully carried out the in-flight release of the Joint Strike Missile (JSM) over at Edwards Air Force Base last month. Forsvarsmateriell, the Norwegian Defense Material Agency, was responsible for conducting successful test drops of the JSM missile from the F-35A in the desert …

Latest updates: New 2011-2014 contract; Long-lead buy for AGM-114Rs under previous contract. Hellfire II cutaway (click to view full) Hellfire I/II missiles are the USA’s preferred aerial anti-armor missile, and are widely deployed with America’s allies. All use semi-active laser guidance as their base mode. They equip its helicopter fleets (AH-64, AH-1, OH-58D, MH-60S/R), AH-64 and S-70 helicopters flown by its allies, and even Australia and France’s Eurocopter Tiger attack helicopters. Range is officially listed as 9,000 meters, or about 5.6 miles. While Hellfires lack the fast-jet launch capabilities – and correspondingly extended maximum range – of the UK’s MBDA…

The Navy wants to talk some more about unmanned systems, the unknown war we have been fighting for years along the bleeding edge of Islam in Africa seems to be going nowhere we want it to go, China decides to let the mask slip at last, in the mandated extremism training The Pentagon realized the military reflects the nation it serves and not the readers of The Washington Post ... and we still don't have any Service Secretaries nominated. This week produced more news than can be covered in one Midrats, but we're going to try. This Sunday from 5-6pm Eastern come join us for a Midrats free for all. Open topic, open chat, open phones. If you use iTunes, you can add Midrat…

Zeebrugge. If you have been there or to its inner city Brugges you know what a beautiful and peaceful place it is - as most all of Belgium is today. In 1918 though, Belgium was a nightmarish slaughterhouse where the bodies of millions were blended into the beaten earth - where like Okinawa and Iwo Jima over a quarter century later - the living earth would move with a blanketed mass of maggots. In one of history's subtle hints she will give you early if you wish to listen, Britain found herself on the edge of starvation due to a threat few understood or even knew of at the beginning of the war - the submarine. Something new, unexpected and decisive needed to be done.…

Americas Northrop Grumman won an $11.4 million contract modification for the exercise of Options Two, Three and Four of the Minuteman III Launch Control Center Block Upgrade production program. The LGM-30G Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICBM, is an element of the nation’s strategic deterrent forces under the control of the Air Force Global Strike Command. Work will take place in Utah. Estimated completion date is July 17, 2023. The US Marine Corps is now able to download data from an airborne RQ-4 unmanned aerial vehicle after verifying the capability during a field exercise held at Bouge, North Carolina last month. The 2nd Intelligence Battalion of the…

As everyone here is probably aware ... the drivers of sectarianism, division, and strife think they have the wind at their back and are on the march. There were some minor victories here and there for those who desire unity, equality, and a just society based on individual character - but make no mistake, the forces of division are on the march again. Those who desire to move to a point of unity for the citizens in our little experiment is self governance have for too long given the benefit of the doubt to people we should not have. We have let people slowly back away from the vision of a unified nation as best outlined by MLK over half a century ago, and now we find ou…

Americas Sikorsky Aircraft won a $9.8 million order, which provides for modifications and updates to the CH-53K 2F243-1 Containerized Flight Training Device. Additionally, this order provides flight test data analysis required to update and validate the CH-53K flight model with available flight test data; produces materials focused on pilot and aircrew conversion courseware and maintainer conversion courseware; and trains the schoolhouse instructors at the Center for Naval Aviation Technical Training Marine Unit, New River, North Carolina; and Marine Heavy Helicopter Training Squadron 302, in order to support initial operational capability. Work will take place in North C…

It is time to see what a few years of pressure on NATO nations to do better has done. There is good news, but also some storms on the horizon. I have graphs and pretty pictures over at USNIBlog. Come on by and see where your favorite NATO nation lies on Salamander's Grid. 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=BiWnsToqOIQ:GaAiY97Q4AA:gIN9vFwOqvQ http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=BiWnsToqOIQ:GaAiY97Q4AA:-BTjWOF_DHI http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=BiWnsToqOIQ:GaAiY97Q4AA:V_sGLiPBpWU http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f…

Americas Northrop Grumman Systems won an $82 million contract, which provides for sustainment, engineering, logistics, test, mission control, and operator training systems support for MQ-4C Triton unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). This effort also includes procurement of field service representatives and technical support to ensure that the MQ-4C Triton UAS aircraft are mission-capable for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions supporting Triton’s early operational capability and initial operating capability. Work will take place in Maryland and California and Florida. Estimated completion will be in March 2022. General Electric won a $23.8 million contra…

BAMS Operation Concept (click to view full) The world’s P-3 Orion fleets have served for a long time, and many are reaching the end of their lifespans. In the USA, and possibly beyond, the new P-8 Poseidon Multi-mission Maritime Aircraft will take up the P-3’s role. While the P-8’s base 737-based airframe offers strong service & maintenance arguments in its favor, the airframe is expensive enough that the P-3s cannot be replaced on a 1:1 basis. In order to extend the P-8 fleet’s reach, and provide additional capabilities, the Poseidon was expected to work with at least one companion UAV platform. This DID FOCUS Article explains the winning BAMS (Broad Area Maritime…

Let's hit a first principal out of the gate here: if you are serving in the military for the money - get out. Your nation does not need or want you here. Thank you for your service and enjoy your civilian career. Now that this is out of the way, let's hit a topic in the Salamander Top-10: we have a glut of General Officers and Flag Officers in the US military. We have more than we know what to do with, so we keep making up jobs for them - bloating the tail while starving the teeth. That bloat means that we have a lot of very talented people who are underemployed. Trust me on this, with one or two exceptions, take any 4-star right now, and there are a few dozen 3 or 4 …

Americas Lockheed Martin Space won a $558.8 million contract modification for Trident II (D5) missile production and deployed systems support. The UGM-133A Trident II, or Trident D5 is a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM), built by Lockheed Martin Space in Sunnyvale, California, and deployed with the American and British navies. Work is expected to be completed September 30, 2026. Fiscal 2021 weapons procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $477,091,291; United Kingdom funds in the amount of $73,747,000; and fiscal 2020 weapons procurement (Navy) in the amount of $8,003,070 are being obligated on this award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fi…

From our point of view from the other side of the Pacific, Americans tend to focus on the points of first resistance from the People's Republic of China - Taiwan, South China Sea, etc. Is that really what China is worried about? Is she really building her huge Navy to challenge us somewhere west of Wake, or is she thinking of something else we are just too parochial to see? Did you notice that France, UK, and even Germany have decided they need to head east of Suez to spend some time in the Indo-Pacific theater? Connected? As with most things, it is helpful to take a deep breath and ask yourself - what does the map say? h/t The Other Sal. http://…

Americas Raytheon demonstrated to the US Army that it can fire the Stinger missile from a Javelin Lightweight Command Launch Unit. The missile successfully took down an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) during the demonstration at Eglin Air Force Base. The LWCLU’s primary mission is as the launcher for the Javelin missile, however its superior optics also allow for stand-alone Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance missions. A category 2 deficiency for the KC-46A aerial refueling tanker is prevent pilots from taking off in the tanker until the On-Board Inert Gas Generation System (OBIGGS) countdown timer reaches zero. OBIGGS will fill the fuel tanks with nitrogen to p…

While the rest of the world paused to focus on COVID-19 the last year, even though the pandemic started there, the People's Republic of China did not stop her long, steady push out to the world to take the place she feels she in entitled to. From the border of India to South America and back to the Western Pacific, China feels the wind at her back. Where is China signaling she will be be the greatest challenge to her neighbors and the global community? Returning to Midrats this Sunday from 5-6pm Eastern for the full hour will be our guest Dean Cheng. Dean is the Senior Research Fellow for Chinese political and security affairs at the Asia Studies Center of The Her…

What are you willing to do to get your squadron mates home ... or at least a chance? How far are you willing to push yourself and your equipment? How well do you know the capabilities - written and unwritten - of your equipment? Ponder Pardo's Push via Air and Space; The air strike that March day in 1967 was on the ferociously well-defended Thai Nguyen steel mill, north of Hanoi, North Vietnam. One of the attacking U.S. Air Force McDonnell F-4C Phantoms was hit twice by anti-aircraft fire, and gas was streaming from the fuselage. Pilot Earl Aman and weapons systems officer Bob Houghton no longer had enough fuel to return to safe territory. The airplane Bob Pardo an…

Americas US Air Force “Orange Flag” and “Black Flag” exercises this week tested mission planning with cross-domain data gathering, the Air Force said. The exercises involved the Air Force Test Center’s 412nd Test Wing, headquartered at Edwards Air Force Base, California, and the 53rd Wing of Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, in achieving what the Air Force terms All-Domain Command and Control. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin approved a request to extend the deployment of National Guard members in the Capitol through late May, the Department of Defense announced. Per a statement from Pentagon spokesman John Kirby, about 2,300 National Guard personnel will continue to suppo…

Take a moment and think about all that is going on in the world from the South China Sea, to Afghanistan, to the Sahel, to the Russian near abroad. Think about the challenges military members and their families face on a daily basis with record deployments, caring for kids in a COVID environment, take your pick. I now want you to think about what you want the scarce time available in each mortal's 24-hr day invested in by the following people: Deputy Secretary of Defense; Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; The Secretaries of the Military Departments, Military Service Chiefs, and the OSD Principal Staff Assistants. What if we had it a weekly meeting called the …