Raw Intel

It is a beautiful place today when you drive by it, but then you notice a curious red dragon facing a wood. The Welsh soldiers were just seven months out of training when they entered into combat at Mametz Wood. Many had never fired a round in combat, and used broomsticks rather than rifles at drill practice. In sharp contrast they faced the elite Lehr Regiment of Prussian Guards - highly-trained professional soldiers who were deeply entrenched in the dense woods. Their trenches were dug into chalk and thick wire stretched through the battleground, while the wood was heavily fortified with machine guns.As part of the Battle of the Somme was the Battle of Mametz Wood; Ma…

Americas The Coast Guard received its newest Sentinel Class fast response cutter, the Coast Guard Cutter Frederick Hatch, from Bollinger Shipyards in Key West, Florida. The Frederick Hatch will be the third FRC stationed in Guam, and will arrive in Santa Rita during the summer. The Frederick Hatch, which will support a crew of 24, was placed in commission, special status, and will remain in Florida while the crew completes pre-commissioning trials and maintenance. Ultra has announced a contract award to commence work on the key Variable Depth Sonar (VDS) system for the Canadian Surface Combatant (CSC) programme, named the Towed Low Frequency Active Sonar (TLFAS). This su…

Americas Boeing won a $239.6 million deal for the Apache Improved Turbine Engine Integration Phase II. The US Army plans to use the next-generation engine in all Apache and UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter engines. The service is also planning on using it on Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft it plans to field in the 2030s. Work will take place in Arizona. Estimated completion date is December 31. Raytheon won a $250 million deal for a StormBreaker Small Diameter Bomb II (SDB II) integrated engineering change proposal. The StormBreaker bomb is an air-launched precision strike weapon manufactured by Raytheon Missile Systems for the US Air Force and the US Navy. Work will ta…

Americas Lockheed Martin won a $261.4 million contract modification, which increases scope for the procurement of long lead-time materials, parts, components, and efforts for the production of nine Lot 17 F-35C aircraft for the Navy, 13 Lot 17 F-35A aircraft and two Lot 17 F-35B aircraft for non-US Department of Defense participants. Work will take place in Texas, California, Maryland and Japan. Estimated completion is in May 2026. Boeing won a $55.5 million deal in support of the KC-46 program. This was a sole-source acquisition using justification 10 US Code 2304 (c)(1), as stated in Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-1. Boeing will deliver the entire KC-46 tanker fl…

After an absolutely dreadful decade long record failure of the most basic of all naval requirements - corrosion control - could our long navalist nightmare (at least this one) be coming to an end? As in most things, ignore the excuses and emotional responses (some of the worst, by serving naval officers of all things was, "It is just a sign of how hard we are working." - as if no navy ever worked harder than the <checks news feed> US Navy at peace) - watch what naval leadership is saying, and look with your own eyes at what you see. An interesting story from Mike Glenn over at The Washington Times this weekend is worth your time to read. It quotes some of our favori…

This is one of those DivThu that could be a, in a word, tome. As such, I am only going to pull a small portion of the things I normally would. You will have to do some reading yourself. Trust me on this, depending on your areas of concern, you will find many items worse than I will pull out on today's post. Poison wrapped in a few nice marshmallows...but poison nonetheless. The focus of this week's DivThu is what is going on at the US Naval Academy. I've had all sorts of people, from active duty to retired USNA alumni (and others...ahem) reach out to me - a NROTC guy - because they want to get the word out concerning what is going on. Not only do they love their school, t…

I thought that we would have plenty to white space to concentrate on the start of what will be an interesting start to the fighting season in Afghanistan as we try to unwind our intervention there, but alas ... the Russians seem to have other plans, as we noticed yesterday. ~70 miles east of the Ukrainian border. Engineers with their bridging kit. Hey @thinkdefence - how often does a western nation have that much river crossing equipment together in that volume? https://t.co/5fsbafGRNw — cdrsalamander (@cdrsalamander) March 31, 2021 We are in the golden age of OSNIT, but traditional news is reporting on this as well. Ukraine demanded on Thursday that Russia halt…

Americas Northrop Grumman Systems won a $195 million contract modification to a previously awarded fixed-price incentive (firm-target) contract (N0001918C1037). This modification exercises options to provide support services to include non-recurring engineering, software support activity and product support in support of E-2D Advanced Hawkeye (AHE) Lot 9 full rate production (FRP) aircraft. In addition, this modification adds scope to procure one E-2D AHE CV-22B variation in quantity aircraft Lot 10 FRP aircraft. The E-2D Advanced Hawkeye (AHE) is the newest variant of the E-2 aircraft platform. It features a state-of-the-art radar with a two-generation leap in capability…

Americas Boeing won a $1.7 billion contract modification for Lot Six production of KC-46 aircraft, subscriptions and licenses, and G081 flat file. The contract modification provides for the exercise of an option for an additional quantity of 12 KC-46 aircraft, data, subscriptions and licenses, and G081 flat file being produced under the basic contract. According to Boeing, this is the sixth production lot of the tankers and is designed to bring new capabilities and operational flexibility to the Air Force and other customers. The KC-46 is a multirole tanker, designed to refuel allied and coalition military aircraft compatible with international aerial refueling procedures…

Some warning will only be given so many times. We were warned a few months in to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. We were warned again five years later when we were trying to source what was needed to support the uplift in forces in Afghanistan while Iraq still had high demands. Our allies pretty much went Winchester in the 2011 operations against Libya. We can barely partially source small and medium sized conflicts ... we are not ready for a larger one. That is a simple fact that seems too painful for people to clearly look at. Like the US Navy excels in damage control by design and training, in theory the US military writ large excels in logistics. What good is the culture…

A call for grace and spine. We need both if we are going to get through this latest cultural crisis. I was going to post a good news DivThu, but that may have to wait for next week as this article by Rod Dreher requires your attention today. The Diversity Commissariat is still strong, and I think is about to ride a new wave of strength depending on the upcoming election. If you don't see that, then you were not paying attention as, in real time, a Senator declared "Sexual Preference" to be a hate-term, and shortly thereafter the woke brigades at Merriam-Webster Dictionary changed the meaning of the world. They are a nasty and autocratic bunch. They are not playing ga…

Americas The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has awarded $3 million in contracts to two non-profits to hire and educate new digital security personnel from underserved communities. The agency signed agreements with Tennessee-based apprenticeship organization South Memphis Renewal Community Development Corporation (SMRCDC) and New York tech skills instructor Per Scholas. BAE Systems has […]View the full article

Last Wednesday I had a few observations on Jerry Hendrix's latest article over at National Review, “The Navy’s Littoral Hubris.” Yesterday in comments, a man familiar to readers here, former Deputy Secretary of Defense Bob Work, weighed in with some counterpoints that I feel need to be brought above the fold for your consideration. With his permission, I've copied his comments in full. There are the bones of one hell of a book here in six short paragraphs. Bob, over to you; As he always does, my good friend Jerry writes a compelling, well written post. However, I think he misses an important point. The problems the Navy has faced has less to do about technological hubri…

Americas Lockheed Martin won a $67.5 million contract modification to exercise an option for the Advanced Electronic Guidance and Instrumentation System (AEGIS) — Combat System Engineering agent efforts for the design, development, integration, test, and delivery of the Advanced Capability Build 20. The Aegis Combat System is an American integrated naval weapons system developed by the Missile and Surface Radar Division of RCA, and now produced by Lockheed Martin. Work will take place in New Jersey. Estimated completion date is December 31, 2021. Rolls-Royce won a $26.5 million modification, which exercises an option that provides for the production and delivery of eight…

Americas The US Navy will establish its second CMV-22B unit and the first squadron for the East Coast, at NAS North Island this fall. The squadron will eventually relocate Naval Station Norfolk in 2023. So far, 18 C-2A pilots have completed their transition to the CMV-22B. The goal is to have 115 C-2A pilots eventually. A new effort at synchronizing US Air Force maintenance and fighter squadrons is paying dividends, according to the branch’s Air Combat Command. The Combat Oriented Maintenance Organization, attempted first at Shaw Air Force Base, S.C., in 2020, reduces the maintenance organizational structure, among other benefits, it said in a press release. Middle East…

M1A2 SEP (click to view full) America’s M1 Abrams tanks come in a number of versions. In addition to the M1A1 that is now standard, the US Army is beginning to field its M1 TUSK for urban warfare. It also operates the M1A2 System Enhancement Program (SEP), currently the most advanced standard variant. This Spotlight […]View the full article

Swedish defense startup Nordic Air Defence and military vehicle manufacturer Volvo Defense have announced a joint effort to develop a new mobile counter-unmanned aircraft system (CUAS), aimed at protecting military vehicles against the growing threat of cheap, weaponized drones. According to the two companies, the system—called VIPRO—will integrate Nordic’s Kreuger 100XR drone interceptor into Volvo’s […] The post Volvo, Nordic Air Defence team up on new anti-drone pod first appeared on Defence Blog.View the full article

Just a little note that at least for the first half of this week, I will have limited access to internet to properly blog on what I’d like to, so things will be thin for a bit ... all is well ... thanks for you patience. 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=6aAsZbf8uYk:cbrvbY2VASg:gIN9vFwOqvQ http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=6aAsZbf8uYk:cbrvbY2VASg:-BTjWOF_DHI http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=6aAsZbf8uYk:cbrvbY2VASg:V_sGLiPBpWU http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=6aAsZbf8uYk:cbrvbY2VASg:F7zBnMyn0Lo …

Americas General Dynamics won a $533 million deal for Lead Yard Support and Development Studies and Design efforts related to Virginia-class submarines. The deal includes options which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of the modification to $813,720,300. The Virginia-Class new attack submarine is an advanced stealth multimission nuclear-powered submarine for deep ocean anti-submarine warfare and littoral (shallow water) operations. Work will take place in Connecticut and Virginia. Expected completion will be by October 2023. Thomas Instrument won a $13.6 million deal for depot-level overhaul services of the C-5 dual-powered winch, National Stock Number 168…

How many ships can a US Army division afford to lose when crossing the Pacific? You know, the ships that will carry their equipment and munitions? Have we thought this through? I'm pondering over at USNIBlog. Come on over and give it a read. 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=QDpqhuD2OL0:cOjkkhf0Eiw:gIN9vFwOqvQ http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=QDpqhuD2OL0:cOjkkhf0Eiw:-BTjWOF_DHI http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=QDpqhuD2OL0:cOjkkhf0Eiw:V_sGLiPBpWU http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=QDpqhuD2OL0…