Raw Intel

This week's Midrats is going to be the ever-popular everything goes melee format. You never know where in the natsec world the conversation will take us, but from Snake Island to the San Diego waterfront, from DC to the Baltic Sea - if there's a maritime issue worth considering, we'll try to pack it in for the hour this Sunday from 5-6pm Eastern. As with the normal melee format, we have open topic, open chat, and open phones - so if there is an issue you'd like covered, now's your time. Join us live if you can, but it not, you can get the show later by subscribing to the podcast. If you use iTunes, you can add Midrats to your podcast list simply by clicking the iTunes bu…

Why must we continue to remind everyone who will listen of the failures of the Age of Transformationalism™? Simple; we cannot afford another generation of programs lost to arrogance, ignorance, and toxic command climates that leave bad ideas and ahistorical program assumptions go unchallenged. Futurism, offset promises, overmatch assumptions, risk devaluation, divest-to-invest – these are all attractive ideas that brief well. They seem to promise to solve so many hard problems. They offer more for less. They seem to allow an easy path; a way to avoid hard work and compromise … and to accrue to their advocates accolades as the “it guy/gal” who has all the vision and provid…

Americas The Saab Gripen E was inducted into operational service at Anápolis Air Base, Brazil on December 19. Brazil marked the milestone during a 19 December ceremony at Anapolis air base, the home to its First Air Defense Group. During the event, two of its locally designated F-39Es (registrations 4103 and 4104) were displayed before being parked alongside a Dassault Mirage 2000C – the already retired type that they are replacing. Northrop demonstrated the inflight integration of two of its most advanced sensor and communication systems, enhancing the survivability and lethality of the US Army’s Future Vertical Lift (FVL) platforms. The demonstration saw a UH-60 Black …

Afghanistan is a land locked nation, but in the USA’s two-decade presence in that country, her Navy was there from the beginning to end serving along with her sister services. Many are familiar with the untold number of Individual Augmentation (IA) assignments Navy active duty and reserve component personnel filled, Navy Corpsmen serving with USMC units, and even SeaBee deployments to Afghanistan, but there were other units with a large US Navy presence, a few of the Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRT). This Sunday from 5-6pm Eastern we’re going to take a snapshot of this part of the Afghanistan conflict from its high-water mark - 2010 and 2011 - with our guests Captain…

Sunday evening, the first pics came out of the Russian Black Sea Fleet flagship, the Slava Class cruiser Moskva. As we know this Monday AM ... this is her. No photoshop or spoof. If you need to brush up on your RECCE: Good news here is that as you can see in the green rectangle above, the life rafts have been deployed. As there were almost 500 Sailors assigned to her, that may be a secondary indication, along with the good weather, that those not killed on impact or in the following fire and secondaries were most likely able to get off the ship and as such, loss of life less. More to follow on that I hope. I'm sorry, I don't care what nation's flag they fly under; once…

Barak-8 concept (click to view full) Over a development timeline measured in decades, India’s indigenous “Akash” and “Trishul” programs for surface to air missiles have failed to inspire full confidence. Trishul was eventually canceled entirely. Akash had a a long, difficult development period, but seems to have found customer acceptance and a solid niche in the rugged terrain of the northeast. India still needed longer-range advanced SAMs to equip its navy and army, however, and decided to try to duplicate the success of the partnership model that had fielded the excellent Indo-Russian PJ-10 BrahMos supersonic cruise missile. In February 2006, therefore, Israel and In…

I think this is going to be tender week ... as my post tomorrow will be on the same topic. I want you to think about 2012. Yes, it was nine years ago. Obama was running for re-election against Mitt Romney. The #1 song of that year was "Somebody That I Used to Know" by Gotye featuring Kimbra. ISIS, in its present name, did not yet exist for another year. It also was the last time... The submarine tender USS Frank Cable (AS 40) completed a weapons handling exercise involving the transfer of a MK-48 inert training shape to a submarine, Oct. 22. This was the first expeditionary reload Frank Cable has conducted outside of Guam since 2012. OK. Here is a question I hope some…

Americas A former US Marine Corps (USMC) V-22 test pilot has urged the US Army to select the Defiant-X as its next helicopter instead of the V-280. Scott Trail says based on the Army’s mission objectives, the compound helicopter is the better choice and cheaper solution. Lockheed Martin won a $663.7 million contract modification for Hellfire II missile production. The Hellfire II air-to-ground missile system (AGMS) provides heavy anti-armor capability for attack helicopters. It is a 100lb class air-to-ground precision weapon delivering multi-target capability and precision strike lethality. The Hellfire II missile is in service with the armed forces of the US and 16 othe…

Just as on the naval side of things, the Communist Chinese may call something a destroyer that is clearly a cruiser, the Europeans call something a frigate that is clearly a destroyer, and the Americans call a Littoral Combat Ship what is really a national disgrace, etc ... there are even more challenges figuring out capabilities on the land side. A classic example, "How many divisions do they have?" You might get a simple answer, but that may not be the answer you need in order to really understand what you are looking at. Via IISS; When asked if, in 2025, a British war-fighting division will be capable of ‘overmatching the forces of a peer opponent such as Russia…

I put this FbF up every few years, last time was 2016, because it simply is a great story that makes you think anew every time you read it. Enjoy...and ponder Training. Drills. PMS. PQS. Attention to detail. Do you do just the minimum, or do you ask for extra time to get it better and better? Do you train and inspect hard? How many times have you gone through different scenarios with your crew? Do all your watch standers know how critical their position and responsibility is? From the OOD to the YN3 on the 50cal.; do they appreciate that they are as important as the Commanding Officer? Discipline. Discipline and obedience in the time of stress, strain, and unimagina…

The rest of your fleet has left you behind. The enemy is everywhere. You have little defensive or offensive weapons - and you are painfully slow - but you have your ship and your Sailors and your mission, which at this point, is simply to survive. What do you do? Well ... never underestimate a Dutchman; The ship was based at Surabaya in the Netherlands East Indies when Japan invaded in 1941. Following the Allied defeats at the Battles of the Java Sea and Sunda Strait in late March 1942, all Allied ships were ordered to withdraw to Australia. Abraham Crijnssen was meant to sail with three other warships, but found herself proceeding alone. To escape detection by Japan…

B-52H: flyin’ low, dyin’ slow… (click to view full) Officially, it’s the B-52H Stratofortress. Unofficially, it’s the BUFF (Big Ugly Fat F–cker). Either way, this subsonic heavy bomber remains the mainstay of the U.S. strategic fleet after more than 50 years of service. A total of 102 B-52H bombers were delivered from FY 1961-1963, and 94 were still on the books as of May 2009, flying mostly from Barksdale AFB, LA and Minot AFB, ND. Of these, 18 are slated for retirement, leaving a planned fleet of 76. By the time that fleet retires in the 2030s, many will be around 70 years old. The B-52H can’t be flown against heavy enemy air defenses, but a steady array of upgrades…

Americas General Electric Aviation won a $131.6 million deal for the repair, upgrade or replacement; inventory management; and required supply response times of two T-700 engine components in support of the Navy’s H-60 Seahawk and the Marine Corp’s AH-1 Cobra helicopters. The Navy sought the services from a single vendor in accordance with defense acquisition regulations and will use its annual working capital funds when issuing delivery orders. Work will take place in Massachusetts and Kansas. Estimated completion will be by September 2026. The US Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory recently purchased several SMASH 2000 fire control systems , through its Rapid Capabilit…

Americas Sikorsky won a $735.9 million modification, which increases the scope for nine Lot Five low rate initial production CH-53K heavy-lift aircraft and associated aircraft, programmatic and logistical support. The Lot 5 contract contains an option for Lot 6 award for another nine helicopters. While each helicopter cost $97.6 million under the Lot 5 contract, the price will decrease to $94.7 under Lot 6. Work will take place in Connecticut, Kansas, Utah, Missouri, West Virginia, Washington, Canada, the UK, Wisconsin and Florida. Estimated completion date will be in December 2024. A Canadian board of inquiry has released its report into the crash of a CH-148 off Greece…

Americas Universal Propulsion Company won a $10.9 million contract for the manufacture of up to 5,000 cartridge initiators and thrusters used in V-22 and CV-22 aircraft. This contract includes a five-year base period with no options. The V-22 Osprey is a joint-service, medium-lift, multimission tilt-rotor aircraft developed by Boeing and Bell Helicopters. Boeing is responsible for the fuselage, landing gear, avionics, electrical and hydraulic systems, performance and flying qualities. Work will take place in California. Estimated completion will be by March 2026. The XQ-58A flew its sixth flight on March 26 and this time the drone opened its weapons bay door in-flight fo…

Americas Boeing won a $41.7 million delivery order for consumable and depot-level repairable parts for the KC-46 military unique program. The Boeing KC-46 Pegasus is a military aerial refueling and strategic military transport aircraft. In 2011, the DOD announced the Boeing Company as the winner of a competition to build 179 new KC-46 Aerial refueling tankers for the Air Force, a contract valued at roughly $35 billion. Boeing designed the KC-46 to carry passengers, cargo and patients. The aircraft can detect, avoid, defeat and survive threats using multiple layers of protection, which will enable it to operate safely in medium-threat environments. Work will take place in …

Before diving into today’s post, as we have reached a lot of new readers in the last year, I would beg the indulgence of long-term members of The Front Porch to allow me to review some long-standing positions of mine. On the foreign policy front, especially for the last decade, I have liked to consider myself a realist. I do not expect perfection in my personal friends, nor expect perfection in my nation’s friends. I am not an isolationist by any stretch, but I do find myself much closer to John Quincy Adams’s; …admonition that “Americans should not go abroad to slay dragons they do not understand in the name of democracy.” …than I am to that mindset that brought us to t…

This really is an amazing video if you have a historically focused mind. Fresh from her modifications to fly F-35B, the Izumo is bringing the Japanese Navy back in the carrier business again … with some friends via United States Marine Corps F-35B. The Japanese will be buying 42 F-35B and maybe more, so soon we will see the Izumo and her sister ships with the first Japanese fixed wing airwing at sea since the end of the Second World War. I’d like more, faster – along with the South Koreans … and if we could get the Australians to play at some point that would be nice too … but this is all good news for navalists in the West. Though not a “Western” nation, Japan is part o…

South Korea’s Army has conducted a live demonstration of an airborne FPV kamikaze drone launch from a KUH-1 Surion helicopter, testing its ability to intercept aerial targets in flight. The drill involved ejecting an FPV (First-Person View) drone, equipped with a live explosive charge, from a Surion utility helicopter. Once airborne, the drone was remotely […] The post South Korea tests kamikaze drone launch from helicopter first appeared on Defence Blog.View the full article

They've found her; USS Johnson (DD-557); A team of ocean explorers has found the wreck of World War II Fletcher-class destroyer USS Johnston (DD-557) which played a critical role at the Battle off Samar, Navy History and Heritage Command said on Thursday. Victor Vescovo, explorer and retired Navy officer, in the manned submersible Limiting Factor located Johnston‘s bow further down a cliff face at 21,180 feet. He said he is committed to respecting the final resting place for many of its crew, but will provide the Navy with all sonar data, imagery and field notes from his expedition. Caladan Oceana's Battle of Samar Expedition has a superb website I highly encourage…