Raw Intel

Americas The US Air Force’s secretive Next Generation Air Dominance future fighter program could be the most expensive aircraft program in history, with each piloted, sixth-generation aircraft expected to cost hundreds of millions of dollars. When asked about the price tag, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall did not specify exactly how much an individual aircraft could cost, but said the service was talking about “multiple” hundreds of millions. Huntington Ingalls won an $11 million contract modification to extend the delivery date for vessel storage and towing preparation services of the aircraft carrier ex-USS Enterprise (CVN-65). Work will take place in Virginia. Expec…

Americas Boeing won a $9 million deal, which provides correction of deficiency software builds for increment three acoustics integration and testing for the P-8A aircraft. The P-8A Poseidon, the US Navy’s maritime patrol aircraft, is capable of broad-area, maritime and littoral operations, and is also successful at search and rescue. Equipped with state of the art radars, sensors and a new air-to-air refuel capability, the P-8A is scheduled to receive periodic future enhancements to keep pace with the ASW threat. The P-8A Poseidon is responsive and interoperable with traditional manned forces and evolving unmanned sensors. Work under the new contract will take place in Ca…

It appears that the recruiting and retention challenges are breaking above the ambient noise at the start of 2QFY23. We go through these cycles, but if things seem a bit different to you this time, your instincts are right. The ebb and flow of manning the Navy is a regular story - but there is one major cause that is different this time around and is beyond the control of anyone - it is an almost geographic or structural in nature as will be outlined later in the post. Layered on top of this structural challenge to recruiting and retention are challenges of our own creation and are fully in our control - a headwind of our own creation via decisions and policies that even …

Assuming you know what kind of war you are in, (not always known at the time) at the Strategic Level victory is achieved when there is a cascading series of Operational Level victories that brings your enemy to the point of combat ineffectiveness or collapse. At the Operational Level, victories are had when a series of Tactical Level victories achieve Decisive Points along various lines of Operations in support of Objectives and End States and undermining the enemy's Center of Gravity. Some victories are more important than others ... and the smallest thing can make all the difference, even something as simple as listening through the fog for an outboard motor. One day t…

Americas The first low-rate initial production MQ-4C in the B8 configuration, with multi-intelligence capabilities, has been delivered to NAS Patuxent River on February 1. The B8 is the first production Triton to be upgraded to the multi-intelligence configuration to meet the Navy’s critical maritime intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and targeting needs. Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin company, said it is building nine additional CH-53K aircraft for the USMarine Corps. The CH-53K will support the military in its mission to conduct expeditionary heavy-lift assault transport of armored vehicles, equipment and personnel to support distributed operations deep inland fro…

Don't think this is just a problem with the US Air Force Academy. No, all our services academies are worm-ridden with the worst ideas infesting academia from the "diversity" cult. You need to read the full thing, but to give you a taste of what is going on, I do have three slides for you to review; So, in the USAF you are a bad person if you are "colorblind" or state "I don't see color." Even worse, you are not allowed to think that "we're all just people." To draw that out, it appears that the USAF wants everyone to judge people by the color of their skin first of all. If that isn't racist and retrograde, I'm not sure what is. Callsigns and nicknames are bad too, it ap…

I may have to add Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) to my list of navalist leaders of merit on The Hill. My first reaction was to be mad that I had not made this point first ... but I will gladly enjoy this exceptionally important point being made by a Senator to the CNO in such a public manner; Via Caitlin Kenney at Defense News; “I think this committee wants to make sure we're providing our warfighters with the necessary funding to ensure that the equipment they're using is adequately maintained. It's pretty basic,” Tester told Adm. Mike Gilday, chief of naval operations; and Gen. David Berger, Marine Corps commandant. “That means getting the necessary spare parts and safety equi…

The long post-Cold War period of low defense spending - for serious nations - is coming to an end ... at least those are the words and the vibe ... but what are the actions? It is one thing to say you want to do more, the United Kingdom is actually talking about putting its money where their theory is; The UK will spend an extra £5bn on its military and aim to lift defence spending to 2.5% of GDP as part of an updated strategy to counter intensifying threats from China and Russia.Aspirations are good ... and so are statements of reality. Did you note the "C" word? The revised defence, security and foreign policy review will describe the Chinese Communist Party as an "ep…

Americas Sikorsky Aircraft won a $19.4 million contract modification, which provides for non-recurring engineering, engineering change order, logistics and programmatic support of the Data Transfer Unit and Defensive Electronic Countermeasure System Replacement and ARC-210 program, to replace existing subsystems within the CH-53K production aircraft. The CH-54K is an all-new heavy-lift helicopter that will expand the fleet’s ability to move more material more rapidly. Work will take place in Iowa, Connecticut and Texas. Estimated completion will be in August 2021. The 103rd and 139th Airlift Wings of the US Air National Guard recently participated in an Agile Combat Empl…

Following is an address delivered by Claude Berube, PhD in which he was asked to address the issue of readiness for war at the Annual Congress of the Naval Order of the United States. I asked him to make it available here. Claude, over to you! Thank you, John, for your kind introduction and to my fellow companions of the Naval Order of the United States for having invited me to speak at this annual congress. The views I express today are my own and not those of the Navy or any other organization with which I am affiliated. When John Shanahan and others invited to address you, they asked me to talk about the navy of yesterday and of today with regard to readiness and discu…

Does your opponent respond the same - or to the same degree - to identical incentives and disincentives than you do? Are you mirroring? Do you want your opponent to think a certain way because it is convenient to you and your priors? Are you doing your best to structure your actions such that they are conveniently aligned with your peacetime path of least resistance, or are they mindfully structured with your opponent's view of warfighting? That kept coming to mind yesterday during our conversation with our guest Toshi Yoshihara on Midrats discussing his new book Mao's Army Goes to Sea: The Island Campaigns and the Founding of China's Navy, and for the second half of th…

The three day war Russia thought it started a year ago is still going strong. There are a lot of "One Year" think-pieces out there that are long and detailed. I want to keep things short. On the day the war started I made 7-points. Let's review them and see how I did back on 24 FEB 22. 1. The remaining delusions about the post-Cold War security arrangements in Europe should be firmly buried. History is back and she has her Festivus pole front and center. She has some issues with us, and we’re going to hear about it. This continues to get firmer and displayed in stark relief. All the "offsets" and "transformations" and "war is new" snake oil sold the last few decades rea…

Americas Hamilton won a $23.6 million deal with a firm-fixed-price pricing arrangement for C-130 repair. The total estimated value of all options is $116,760,189. The maximum ceiling value of the contract is $140,383,922. This contract provides repair in support of the NP2000 eight blade propeller and electronic propeller control system of the C-130 for the […]View the full article

Americas The Pentagon has assigned BAE Systems to produce and install a new airborne high frequency radio to replace the AN/ARC-190 on various types of aircraft. The press release says approximately 2,500 radios will be installed on Air Force’s HC-130J, KC-135, C-130H, C-130J, C-17, C-5, B-1, B-52, and E4-B, as well as the Navy’s E6-B, the Marine Corps’ KC-130J, and the Coast Guard’s C-130 and C-130J. BAE Systems will be tasked to install 2,000 radios. The US Army is moving a step towards developing a new wheeled 155 mm howitzer and is asking companies to participate in a multi-year assessment that could lead to the design of a new weapon system. The US Army Contracting …

What ever happened to Colonel Yuli Mamchor, Ukrainian Air Force? I've thought of him a few times since the war started and all my google fu tells me is that he dropped off after a short sting in politics. If you find anything, let us know in comments ... but until then, let's look back at a FbF from 2014. What does a leader do? When are you willing to put yourself and your troops on the line to make a point? How do you, unarmed, give the presence of leadership among your armed opponents? I give you a leader who simply, is. In another word; stud. I may quibble a bit about their historical regimental flag, but that would be a quibble. The point I was making about presence?…

Americas BAE Systems won a $13.5 million order, which provides for the ALR-56M radar warning receiver, C-130J Block Cycle F, operational flight program and mission data file generation updates and system services. Work will take place in Totowa, New Jersey. Expected completion date will be August 16, 2024. Raytheon won an $11.2 million contract modification for Total Ship Computing Environment Lab hardware for modernization/technical refresh and Conventional Prompt Strike to support DDG 1000 Class combat system activation, sustainment and modernization. Work will take place in New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. Expected completion will be by November 2023. …

Americas Bell Textron won a $228.2 million deal by the US Navy, which provides the H-1 Light/Attack helicopter with new and modified capabilities through System Configuration Sets, which is a combination of software and/or hardware configuration item changes integrated into a previously deployed baseline configuration. These efforts include work on the airframe, aircraft wiring interface terminals, flight controls, and weapon systems interfaces, as well as research alternatives, investigation, and documentation of new capabilities and anomalies related to flight controls, wiring harnesses, and weapons, and developing, integrating, verifying, validating, and testing these …

Americas Rolls Royce won a $20 million delivery order for the procurement of four spare AE 2100D3 engines used on the KC-130J aircraft. All work will be performed in Indianapolis, Indiana and work is expected to be completed by March 2024. The KC-130J is a multi-role tanker aircraft designed and developed by Lockheed Martin to replace the KC-130F/R/T aircraft. Work will take place in Indiana. Expected completion will be by March 2024. The Navy awarded Raytheon a $16 million contract modification for sustainment material and support for the AN/SPY-6(V) family of radars. The solid state, fixed-face and rotating SPY-6 variants provide integrated air and missile defense capa…

Americas The US House Foreign Affairs Committee passed a resolution Wednesday calling on the administration of President Joe Biden to immediately send long-range missiles to Ukraine. The resolution specifically mentioned Lockheed Martin’s Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS), which would allow Kyiv’s forces to strike Russian targets at distances up to 321 kilometers. Raytheon Technologies won a $293.7 […]View the full article

Before the Russo-Ukrainian War kicked off in February, on the Top-5 lists of any navalist worth their salt was the Arctic. If you are an Atlanticist/NATO type, it was in your Top-3. Sea lanes/SLOC, resource access, resource protection, environmental protection and monitoring, and just good old sound military planning kept the Arctic on everyone’s mind. The fact that especially in the USA there was no small bit of “out of sight out of mind” neglect, specifically with our icebreaking capabilities, brought as much concern. The non-Arctic nation of China deciding she wanted to be a player only made it even more important that policy makers wake up. When you look at the playin…