Raw Intel

Navalists should be forgiven if they have, on occasion, the mindset and habits of an abused partner. Slightly flenching with memory, but always hoping that this time - this time - things will be different. There is good reason for scepticism and concern. Firstly, we know the mindset and process that begat LCS and DDG-1000. We know that there wasn't really any accountability to "the system" for this. A system that has remained unchanged. The only thing that was considered satisfactory from that era was LPD-17 - a program that had enough money thrown at it so this Tiffany amphib could be a functional class of warships. FORD is, well, you know that drill. So, we lost a gen…

Americas The US Naval Research Laboratory has demonstrated that its electric unmanned aerial vehicle dubbed Hybrid Tiger can stay airborne for 24 hours using multiple power sources. “The flight was effectively a performance test in worst-case conditions: temperatures falling below zero degrees Celsius, winds gusting to 20 knots, and relatively little solar energy as we approached the solar solstice Dec. 21,” Richard Stroman, one of engineers involved in the testing, said. Daytime power come from solar panels integrated onto the wings and high-pressure hydrogen fuel tank and fuel cell system provides nighttime power. The drone also had algorithms in its flight control soft…

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…

Gina Harkins over at Military Times yesterday has some great quotes from CNO Gilday. He is saying things most readers here will be happy with. It would have been ideal for a CNO 10-12 years ago to have said most of the following – because it was as true then as it is now – but we’ll take today over another decade’s wait. We need to look for action and follow through, but this is all very sound stuff; "I don't mean to be dramatic, but I feel like, if the Navy loses its head, if we go off course and we take our eyes off those things we need to focus on ... I think we may not be able to recover in this century," Gilday told reporters Friday, ahead of the document's rele…

Americas Lockheed Martin Space won a $128.7 million contract to support the integration of the Trident II (D5) Missile and Reentry Subsystems into the Common Missile Compartment (CMC) for the US/United Kingdom Columbia/Dreadnought Submarine construction programs. The Trident II D-5 is a three-stage, solid propellant, inertially guided FBM with a range of more than 4,000 nautical miles (4,600 statute miles or 7,360 km). Work will take place in Florida, Colorado, California, Utah and Tennessee. Estimated completion date is February 28, 2027. According to the US Navy, Sailors aboard the guided missile cruiser USS Gettysburg are among the first to test a stress-mitigation in…

Americas L3 Technologies won a contract modification, which exercises an option to procure 12 AN/SRQ-4 kits and associated components for the MH-60 Common Data Link system. Sikorsky Aircraft developed the MH-60R Seahawk multi-mission naval helicopter, also called ‘Romeo’, in order to replace the US Navy’s legacy SH-60B and SH-60F helicopter fleet. The MH-60 R integrates advanced mission systems and sensors developed by Lockheed Martin Mission Systems and Training (MST). The helicopter is integrated with a data link for data transmission, an ARC210 Gen 5 multi-function radio for flexible and secure communication, and chaff and flare decoys dispenser. It also features an in…

We started the "Keeping and Eye on the Long Game" over a decade and a half ago. Many of you have been loyal members of the Front Porch since that time, so I know you are not surprised where 2021 finds us. Look at it. Don't avert your eyes. You ... yes you ... allowed this to happen because you elected the people you elected and promoted those you promoted. You allowed other priorities to creep in where maintaining the world's dominate navy should have been #1. Sadly, many are either refusing to accept this fact or are acting as if it all of a sudden snuck up on them. Fire them all. China was already in the midst of a shipbuilding spree like few the world has ever…

COVID-19 gifted the USA a window that, if we are smart, we will take advantage of. I think this may even understate the advantage we have and need to leverage. As I will cover tomorrow at my post at USNIBlog, China is making inroads in our traditional areas of influence at weak points, we need to work just as hard. h/t ISEAS. 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=PMdf6sbEJL8:3AZx5H0MNQk:gIN9vFwOqvQ http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=PMdf6sbEJL8:3AZx5H0MNQk:-BTjWOF_DHI http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=PMdf6sbEJ…

Americas Saguaro Business Solutions won a $67.3 million contract for aircrew training and courseware development. This contract provides all personnel, equipment, tools, materials, supervision, and all other items and services that are required to perform 552 Air Control Wing E-3 Aircrew Training and 752nd Operations Support Squadron and Reporting Center support at Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma. Estimated completion date is April 30, 2026. Bell Textron won a $8 million deal, which provides engineering and technical field services for the H-1 aircraft to include airframes, avionics, electrical power plant systems and associated equipment, on and off-site proficiency tra…

Over the weekend I saw a few people commenting on Max Hastings's latest over at Bloomberg, American Universities Declare War on Military History. I couldn't help but laugh at times the shock - SHOCK - some showed when reading it. My take is, "Where have you been?" Yet in centers of learning across North America, the study of the past in general, and of wars in particular, is in spectacular eclipse. History now accounts for a smaller share of undergraduate degrees than at any time since 1950. Whereas in 1970, 6% of American male and 5% of female students were history majors, the respective percentages are now less than 2% and less than 1%, respectively. Fredrik Lo…

I wish I made the observation first, but last week I noted another's spot on commentary on LCS that was simply damning in its simplicity; LCS-1 will be decommissioned before any of the mission modules it were to carry are FMC. All that being said, LCS will be with us for awhile, and good people in hard jobs are doing their best to squeeze some utility out of them. That is great ... but we have so little actual experience with LCS besides a few bespoke deployments that we need to be very careful thinking we can transfer "lessons" to new classes, like FFG-62, that will be used in very different ways ... like useful ways ... but I digress. That won't stop some people, it…

Americas Northrop Grumman announced on February 16 that it has carried out the first major design review event for the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD). The GBSD is being develop to replace the Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile. The review took place in November, 2020 over a period of three-days by a team from Northrop Grumman and the US Air Force. The US Marine Corps 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit declared that the air wing on board amphibious assault ship USS Makin Island (LHD 8) has air operations in support of Operation Inherent Resolve from February 13. VMM-164 (Reinforced) is providing close air support operations and defensive counter air sup…

Americas The US Air Force (USAF) has told Congress it could use additional dollars for more F-35 Lightning II fighters, hypersonic weapons testing, and munitions if the funds are available in fiscal year (FY) 2023, according to the service’s unfunded priority list. The service said it could use an additional $921 million to buy seven more Lockheed Martin F-35A conventional variant fighters to add to its official request for 33 fighters. Balfour Beatty Construction LLC won a $697.8 million deal or design and construction of East Campus Building #4 and a 1,186,000 square-foot parking structure at Fort Meade. Bids were solicited via the internet with three received. Work wi…

Americas Lockheed Martin won a $10.4 million contract modification to convert six AGM-158B missiles to test assets and nine weapon systems simulators. Work will be performed in Orlando and is expected to be completed October 31, 2024. The AGM-158 JASSM (Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile) is an autonomous, long-range missile developed and produced by the Lockheed Martin. Raytheon Missiles & Defense won a $57 million modification to exercise options for the Over-the-Horizon Weapon System (OTH-WS) Encanistered Missiles. OTH-WS was announced in May 2018 with a total value of $847.61 million. It is intended to provide a long range anti-ship, over-the-horizon offensive…

Over the July 4th weekend, we slipped out of the American fortress in Bagram. The way we left tells you all you need to know about Afghanistan – the conflict we lost in December 2009 when the Taliban were given the last indication they needed that we were not going to press the issue on our time and change Afghanistan our way, but we would let them win on their time and return Afghanistan their way. It is all as clear now as it was when I wrote about our culmination at Obama’s West Point speech linked above. Regulars here know the story; the rest can follow the link above. Good ideas are timeless, so I want to return to a topic that predates CDRSalamander and this is a …

Most everyone knows that the Korean War, though mostly a South Korean and American affair, was a UN action. Students of the war know that many nations contributed forces to the fight, with the United Kingdom and Turkey known by most. Just a bit more than half a decade after liberation from a crushing Imperial Japanese occupation, the Philippines joined the fight as well. They didn't hide in the rear either. The below won't be a surprise to people who served in the US Navy. We, more than most, know the quality per pound of the people we served with of Philippine extraction. Take a moment to acknowledge an underknown battle and the heroism of an unappreciated fighting nat…

Whenever I see something about South Korea, their economy or their military, I think of my dad's generation who were of draft age during the Korean War. I've read a bit about the war and the condition of the country and its people when we fought to keep the communist yoke of their neck, and when you look at the South Korea of 2023, it is simply an amazing testimony what free enterprise and education can do to a people held back by autocracy and illiteracy ... with a good bit of rule of law and a benign quasi-imperial military power willing to give them the security to grow. Worth the war? I think so. In the last year, South Korea has impressed many who were not paying att…

Americas Raytheon/Lockheed Martin Javelin JV won a $10 million contract modification to support the Javelin Engineering Services contract. Javelin is a versatile one-man-portable anti-tank weapon, manufactured by the Raytheon/ Lockheed Martin Javelin joint venture. Work will take place in Arizona. Estimated completion date is November 30, 2023. Sierra Nevada won a $34 million contract modification for the MC-130J Airborne Mission Networking program low rate initial production. This order provides for the procurement of production kits, spares, interim contractor support and weapon system trainer support. Work will take place in Colorado. Expected completion date is Janua…

Americas The US Navy awarded Raytheon a $160 million deal for Dual Band Radar (DBR) design agent and technical engineering efforts. Engineering efforts and supplies are required to support the DBR systems installed aboard CVN-78 and DDG-1000 class ships. Work will take place in Massachusetts, California, Rhode Island and Virginia. Estimated completion will be by September 2023. The US Army’s Program Executive Office Missiles and Space has issued a Request For Information (RFI) for the Close Combat Missile System-Heavy (CCMS-H). The CCMS-H is to replace the existing BGM-71 TOW anti-tank missile. The new missile must be able to destroy Tier 1 armored threats and field fort…

The last few Thursdays we've pushed back rather hard on the Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Gilday, USN. To be frank, he's earned it not just from me, but from Congressmen, Senators and commentators all over. If you recall, we tried to warn him back in February that his addition of the book "How to be Anti-Racist" by the highly problematic Ibram X. Kendi was a mistake. In the end, his defense of his choice and the excuses he gave - and those of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Milley, USA - have been hollow mostly because their is nothing on the list that promotes the "critical thinking" they say they want, or attempts to get a full view of the…