HG S2 (Intel Bot)

The 2-503rd rocking in Afghanistan during OEF X (2009-2010): View the full article

Interesting. OPNAV NOTICE 5400 (PDF) from August 1st is worth a few comments. 1. Purpose. To approve the change in permanent duty station (PDS) for Carrier Strike Group (CSG) NINE per reference (a). 2. Background. Per POM-12 guidance, Navy will resource and align CSG staffs equal to the number of operational CVNs. CSG-9 will change PDS from Everett, WA to San Diego, CA and will change carrier assignment from USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN (CVN-72) to USS RONALD REAGAN (CVN-76). LINCOLN will shift homeport from Everett, WA to Newport News, VA for Refueling and Complex Overhaul in August 2012. CSG-9 will be reassigned to REAGAN, homeported in San Diego, replacing CSG-7 due to CSG-7 deactivation. The deactivation of CSG-7 brings the total number of carrier strike groups to nine, and there is no reason to believe the Navy will operate more than nine carrier strike groups for the next several years, despite the US Navy currently owning 11 carriers. This is one example of where budget cuts to the Navy are already having impacts. The key word in POM12 guidance is "operational CVNs." Neither USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) nor USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) are being considered operational right now because of Refueling and Complex Overhaul (RCOH). USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) will not complete her RCOH until around September of next year, and USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) won't begin her RCOH until sometime next year and will not be considered operational again until sometime in 2015. The key point is that the Navy appears to be skipping a deployment for USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72), probably to save more money. With the retirement of USS Enterprise (CVN-65) looming after one more deployment, the Navy will simply transfer the CSG-12 from Enterprise to Roosevelt after the deployment, allowing the number of CSGs to remain 9 until the USS Ford (CVN 78) is ready - which may not be until all the way out until 2017-2018 time frame as shake downs for the first in class tend to take awhile. That basically allows the Navy to buy time and keep only 9 Carrier Strike Groups all the way out until after the complex overhaul of USS George Washington (CVN-73) - in the 2018 time frame. Why is this important? Because the Navy will only maintain 9 CSGs for the next 7-8 years instead of 10 CSGs, even though throughout some portions of that time the Navy will have 10 or even 11 available (not operational) aircraft carriers. This simple organizational move means the Navy doesn't have to support an extra air wing for awhile, and limits the total F-18 fighter shortfall so the Navy doesn't have to buy that extra wing either. The Navy is also avoiding the costs of supporting the personnel of the extra air wing, and this move also buys extra time for working out problems with the F-35C. The law may say the Navy must operate 11 aircraft carriers, with an exception for the drop to 10 aircraft carriers after the retirement of USS Enterprise (CVN 65) and the completion of USS Ford (CVN 78), but as far as the Navy is concerned there will only be nine operational carriers for most of this decade. These are the efficiency moves the Navy is doing to shave costs during lean budgets, but note this move is in response to the cuts already made - not the future cuts coming. Operations and readiness are almost certainly going to take a hit with budget cuts, because they always do. Little moves like this - organizing below actual capacity - is a way to avoid hollowing the force in the short term, but it does result over time in contracting the force. View the full article

David Axe has done an excellent job retelling the history of the Littoral Combat Ship. The final program that the Navy has developed today has been around since 2003 - roughly eight years, although David Axe does go back further to tell some of the back story that began with DD-21. It's a really good article, and I think everyone should read it. I don’t know how it influenced you, but I thought it was good enough to inspire me to write - alot. Four posts with a new one every few hours. View the full article

My kind of girl. View the full article

Today was the official casing of the colors for the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. An awful lot of military folks have moved through there over the years and have received some of the best medical care in the world. There may have been some glitches, but all in all it was a safe haven for our wounded and sick. There was quite a going away party today and I attended w/ my girlfriend who is in the Wounded Warrior program there. The Golden Knights jumped in and started things off which is always fun. My girl went to introduce me to a double amputee skydiver who used to be a member of the Knights and actually returned to the team after losing both legs at the knee. Funny thing was I already knew him and had gone through the SF Weapons course with him back in the day. Dana Bowman was there to jump in later with the Ranger Group. One of the great parts of the Walter Reed family was the Mologne House, a hotel right on post where our wounded and their families could stay while rehabilitating. It opened in 1997 and was named for a former commander of Walter Reed, Gen. Lewis A. Mologne. His widow Rose has remained a major force in the lives of many of those who have spent time there and she and my girlfriend are good friends.We got a chance to say hi to her today. Most of the programs from Walter Reed have survived and will move to Bethesda, which is being renamed to include the Walter Reed legacy and to Ft. Belvoir. But a piece of our military history closed today and that is a bittersweet thing. Thanks to all the talented and dedicated medical personnel who have done so much for the patients who needed them. View the full article

Our good friend TSO has a post up at The Burnpit regarding Seattle University's School of Law. Only, they seem to only be interested in their own law. Not the one of say, the Federal Gov't or the Constitution. “Passionate about issues facing veterans in our community? Interested in educating active service members about their rights? Looking for a concrete way to support the men and women who join the military? “The training covers rights and resources for active service members and their families such as types of discharges (Conscientious Objector, Hardship, etc), Family Plans (for caring for children while service members are deployed), and Court Martial and AWOL procedures.†Reading this passage, one would think this would be a veterans assistance group, although more in line with IAVA than say, VFW or Legion. But you'd be VERY wrong- they are more into finding ways to get you OUT of the military, and/or protest the military, than in helping veterans out of any particular situation. It's disgusting. TSO goes into lawyerly detail both at Burnpit, as well as over at our farm team site, ThisAintHell.us. Check it out, then lets chuck the SMDC out of Seattle Law School... Wolf View the full article

First, if you don't read Day By Day by the most excellent Chris Muir, you should. It is also that time of year when he raises the money that lets him keep going. Second, if you don't read Delta Bravo Sierra, by the most excellent Damon Shackelford, you should. For there is Strange, and then there's Army Strange. And, if you want to get a bit of the background, along with some outstanding art by some other military artists/cartoonists, you need to check out The Best of Military Cartoons, Volume 1. I've seen an advance copy, it is a great introduction to today's military cartoons, and it is now up for pre-order. LW View the full article

Want to see the next bubble? Over at FT, they have it for you - if you want to see it (click image for larger). According to the report , between 1990 and 2006 — the year in which issuance of Asset-Backed Securities (ABS) peaked — assets with the highest credit rating rose from a little over 20 per cent of total rated fixed-income issues to almost 55 per cent . Think about it. More than half of the world’s debt securities were, for all intents and purposes, considered risk-free . In 2006, that was nearly $5,000bn of assets. The financial crisis had a lot to do with triple-A ratings being slapped on to subprime securities which didn’t warrant them, we know that . The report says between 1990 and 2006 ABS accounted for 64 per cent of the total growth in the amount of AAA-rated fixed income, compared with 27 per cent attributable to the growth in public debt, 2 per cent to corporate and 8 per cent to other products. But watch what starts happening from 2008 and 2009. The AAA bubble re-inflates and suddenly sovereign debt becomes the major force driving the world’s triple-A supply. The turmoil of 2008 shunted some investors from ABS into safer sovereign debt, it’s true. But you also had a plethora of incoming bank regulation to purposefully herd investors towards holding more government bonds, plus a glut of central bank liquidity facilities accepting government IOUs as collateral. Where ABS dissipated, sovereign debt stood in to fill the gap. And more . It’s one reason why the sovereign crisis is well and truly painful. It’s a global repricing of risk, again , but one that has the potential for a much larger pop , so to speak. Once again - the issue isn't govt revenue - it is spending. Anyone who thinks we are going to have a steady state shipbuilding budget through 2030 is, in a word; high. View the full article

One of America’s oldest military organizations will celebrate its 204th birthday this month. The Washington Light Infantry (WLI), headquartered in Charleston, S.C., has participated in every conflict since its founding in 1807 and is still in service today. The unit is named in honor of Gen. and President George Washington. The unit’s flag was given to them by the widow of George Washington’s cousin, Col. William Washington. The “Eutaw†Flag is believed to be the last remaining battle flag from the American Revolution, and is still used today by WLI. The unit also participated in the founding of The Citadel, the Military College of South Carolina, in 1842. From Midlandsbiz.com: At least two WLI members – U.S. Marine Maj. Gen. James E. Livingston and U.S. Army Sgt. Francis S. Currey – are recipients of the Medal of Honor. And Maj. Gen. Robert Livingston, the adjutant general of S.C., is an honorary member of WLI. “The WLI and its members not only demonstrate, but set the example of what we know to be the finest qualities found within the American spirit,†says Maj. Gen. [Jim] Livingston. WLI has an interesting history, which you can read about here. View the full article

The Salamander underground comes through. The report to Congress on Fire Scout referenced earlier this week can be found here. You have to skip the first 11 pages of letters to Congressmen and Senators to get to the meat. Head to the link above, give it a read and then come back. Let's discuss. Here are my Top-3. 1. Since Milestone C, the program has conducted extensive flight testing collecting 1,500 MQ-8B flight hours between March 2007 and March 2011 . Contractor developmental test pilots executing developmental test plans flew 1,250 of those hours. These developmental tests were not operationally realistic, and yielded little insight into the operational effectiveness of the system . The tests were conducted in a controlled environment with no opposing forces and at whatever pace was needed to collect required engineering data. No tests were conducted in adverse weather or with any form of electronic combat . Navy operators flew the remaining 250 hours in a littoral environment, taking advantage of shipping that happened into the field of observation and with no ground truth (time, space, position information) available. 2. There are limited data from which to assess the reliability, maintainability, and availability of the system. The contractor does not use standard Navy maintenance procedures, tools, and tracking and reporting software while maintaining the systems used during developmental test. While the aviation detachment aboard the USS Halyburton does follow standard Navy maintenance practices, the detachment includes additional personnel and contractor technical representatives that will not be present once the Navy fields the system . 3. The ground control station user interface software generates actions unrelated to operator actions or intent. As an example, during flight, if an operator deletes a target from the target list, it results in a lost link that requires execution of the emergency procedure to regain control of the air vehicle. In one recently discovered anomaly, the space bar on the keyboard acts like an “Enter†key for the currently selected window. Inadvertently hitting the space bar activates the selection in that window. Operators aboard the USS Halyburton discovered this anomaly when the air vehicle operator’s headset cord inadvertently hit the space bar and activated the self destruct countdown timer . ... and we deployed it to Libya. What are your Top-3? View the full article

The Department of Defense (DoD) announces that Deputy Defense Secretary William J. Lynn will leave the post later this year. A replacement is expected to be found by the autumn. Two House Foreign Affairs sub-committees held a joint session to consider the extent of Somalia’s piracy and crime networks, the influence of the Islamist al Shabaab group and the growing humanitarian crisis affecting almost 3 million Somalis. More and more shipping companies are ignoring the UN’s IMO, and hiring armed guards to fight pirate attacks. The IMO is expected to cave soon, and introduce vetting procedures for guards. Following Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s demands for a report on the country’s defense order for 2011, Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov confirms that contracts for the 2012 state defense order will be signed by the end of the year. Serdyukov followed up by accusing the missile designer Yuri Solomonov of having a grudge against the Defense Ministry. The Director-General of the UK’s Military Aviation Authority (MAA) says the organization has made ‘great strides’ in its mission to provide independent and autonomous regulation of the Defence Air operating and technical domains. The MAA was formed in the aftermath of an RAF Nimrod MRA2 crashing near Kandahar, Afghanistan. Italy follows its decision to scale back its overseas operations by announcing the withdrawal of its aircraft carrier the Garibaldi from NATO’s Libyan operation. Airbus Military signs a strategic agreement with Indonesia’s PT Dirgantara (PTDI) with the aim of revitalizing the Indonesian aerospace sector. The agreement is expected to result in Airbus placing more manufacturing work with PTDI. The Indonesian company is a supplier for the C212 transport and CN-235 surveillance aircraft. Michael J Pelosi and Dr Carlo Kopp assess the Chinese J-20 stealth, using a Physical Optics Radar Cross Section simulation program, and a RAM literature review. Overall verdict: it could become a full stealth fighter like the F-22A Raptor with changes, but currently shares some stealth strengths and weaknesses with the F-35. View the full article

Kyle Mizokami has a fine piece up at the Diplomat about the prospects for a Japanese amphibious fleet: Humanitarian Assistance/Disaster Relief missions are typically supported by naval vessels. The March Tohoku emergency, as well as the January 2010 Haitian earthquake, saw multinational fleets sortieing to the assistance of island nations. In both instances, natural disasters disrupted local airports and port facilities, slowing the flow of relief into the disaster zone. The design of naval vessels, such as the USS Essex in Tohoku and the Italian aircraft carrier Cavour in Haiti, made them key to opening up affected areas. Self-sufficient in food and power, and designed to serve a large expeditionary force, such ships are designed to project large amounts of military force abroad into less than ideal conditions. If one substitutes aid and assistance for force, the usefulness of naval designs is readily apparent. It’s no wonder then that Humanitarian Assistance/Disaster Relief missions are typically carried out by naval vessels. A large ship of a naval design would be an ideal platform for responding to Japan’s natural disasters. Japan is an archipelago of 6,852 islands, and more than a third of Japan’s population lives within ten kilometers of the coast. Although most islands are connected in one way or another, earthquakes and tsunamis can incapacitate those connections, damaging bridges and ferry docks. A disaster relief vessel could simply sail from one island to the next to provide assistance. Furthermore, Japan's terrain is mostly mountainous, with communities often connected by roads and railroads cutting through rugged terrain. While a disaster might close such routes to emergency traffic, a HA/DR vessel could simply sail around them. The Patterson team in Thomas Barnett's Wikistrat competition played Japan, and advocated extending the Hyuga production line in order to further develop the JMSDF's relief assistance capabilities. Of course, larger purpose-built amphibious ships would work even better. View the full article

If you think I am being unkind to the Greek military - well, I'm not. From AFG to HOA to Libya - pound for pound few NATO nations have contributed less to the war effort than Greece. Heck - even Bulgaria contributes trigger pullers in a fashion. I'm not being unkind, I'm being honest. What we do know is that the Greeks have a spending problem that even the present American administration would have trouble understanding. Their military doesn't help much with the problem, it seems. When a military officer dies, his pension continues for his unwed daughter as long as she remains unwed. Considering the Greek marriage stats - that is just pathetic. Don't just smile - with our contributions to the Greek economic bailout - you're children are borrowing money from the Chinese to pay for it. As for some of our military retiree welfare mentality - that is a subject for a different day and a different post. Hat tip CATO. View the full article

What are the odds of this actually happening. Russian officials on Thursday said that the country will be completing the construction of a new class nuclear-powered destroyer by 2016. Russian Navy Admiral Vladimir Vysotsky told RIA Novosti that the prototype of the new class destroyer, which is designed to be used at sea, would be finished in around five years, adding that the warship had a 90 percent chance of being powered by nuclear energy. Vysotsky spoke at the 5th International Maritime Defense Show, IMDS-2011, in St. Petersburg, Russia, after Roman Trotsenko, President of United Shipbuilding Corporation, had previously stated that the company was beginning the design for a new nuclear-powered destroyer. Trotesenko said the design phase alone, which is expected to begin this fall, would last around two years, and that it would be constructed for the Russian Navy. I expect to see nuclear powered destroyers being built in Russia right after those aircraft carriers expected to start construction in 2015 get going. Unlikely. Russia does have the infrastructure to build nuclear powered ships, but those ships are icebreakers, not destroyers. I guess I am just very skeptical. I don't see this as mission impossible for Russia, rather mission "highly unlikely." View the full article

From the June 2011 issue of FORCE magazine, an Indian National Security and Defense magazine, comes this remarkable article. Pakistan’s efforts to have a sea-based minimum credible nuclear deterrent vis-a-vis India took a significant step forward last month when the state-owned, Wuhan-based China State Shipbuilding Industrial Corp (CSIC) ferried the first Qing-class conventional attack submarine (SSK) to Shanghai to begin a year-long series of sea trials, which is likely to include the test-firing of three CJ-10K submarine-launched, 1,500km-range land attack cruise missiles (LACM) capable of being armed with unitary tactical nuclear warheads. Called the Qing-class SSK, it is a variant of the Type 041A Improved Yuan-class SSK, which is also due to begin its sea trials later this month. It is now believed that the contract inked between CSIC and Pakistan early last April (see FORCE April 2011, pages 16-17) calls for the CSIC’s Wuhan-based Wuchang Shipyard to supply six Qing-class SSKs, all of which will be equipped with a Stirling-cycle AIP system and will be able to carry up to three nuclear warhead-carrying CJ-10K LACMs each. The double-hulled Qing-class SSK, with a submerged displacement close to 3,600 tonnes, bears a close resemblance to the Russian Type 636M SSK, and features hull-retractable foreplanes and hydrodynamically streamlined sail. The first such SSK was launched in Wuhan on September 9 last year, and a total of three such SSKs are on order from China’s PLA Navy as well. The AIP system for the Qing-class SSK was developed by the 711th Research Institute of CSIC. R&D work began in June 1996, with a 100-strong team of scientists and engineers led by Dr Jin Donghan being involved in developing the Stirling-cycle engine, while another team led Professor Ma Weiming of China’s Naval Engineering University began developing the all-electric AIP system. The two projects entered the production engineering stage in 2007, with the Shanghai Qiyao Propulsion Technology Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of the 711th Institute, becoming the principal industrial entity charged with producing the AIP system. Incidentally, the Qing-class SSK’s all-electric propulsion system is a derivative of a similar system that was developed about a decade ago for the PLA Navy’s six Type 093 Shang-class SSGNs and three Type 094 Jin-class SSBNs. For those who got lost in the trade speak, basically China is exporting submarines specifically designed to deliver nuclear weapons. The submarines will be armed with cruise missiles designed, built, and delivered by China to Pakistan intended to launch Pakistan nuclear warheads. The most troubling part of this article is that it is very probably accurate. The article is worth reading in full, as it also claims China is giving the Pakistan Navy two Jiangkai I-class Type 054 frigates. View the full article

Sigh. Her sporty older sister is in the background too. I still think we made a huge mistake not going with the F-14D new production. Range, range, range; payload, payload, payload. H/T B. View the full article

This is HMAS Sydney (FFG 03) firing a SM2 on June 18th test off Hawaii. This weapon system appears to be perfectly capable today. The United States Navy still operates many frigates that could, yet cannot, use this weapon system. I believe we may have been right to retire the missile when we did, but we have also been lucky we have not needed it. USS Halyburton (FFG 40) and now USS Carr (FFG 52) have been operating in the Mediterranean Sea near Libya, and Libya may indeed one day find a way to shoot ASMs at ships offshore if this war continues much longer. If they do, having a functional SM2 sure would be handy for protecting the ship... Just saying. View the full article

... I might have to shift my support from T-Paw to him. Why? Simple - we have similar tastes in toys. Perry ... carr(ies) his .380 Ruger - loaded with hollow-point bullets - when jogging on trails because he is afraid of snakes. He'd also seen coyotes in the undeveloped area. ... "I'm enjoying the run when something catches my eye and it's this coyote. I know he knows I'm there. He never looks at me, he is laser-locked on that dog," Perry said. "I holler and the coyote stopped. I holler again. By this time I had taken my weapon out and charged it. It is now staring dead at me. Either me or the dog are in imminent danger. I did the appropriate thing and sent it to where coyotes go," he said. Perry said the laser-pointer helped make a quick, clean kill. "It was not in a lot of pain," he said. "It pretty much went down at that particular juncture." ... The governor left the coyote where it fell. "He became mulch," Perry said. I'm sorry - how can I not vote for him? View the full article

The Royal Navy speaks so it can sleep at night. Adml Sir Mark Stanhope said the campaign would have been more effective without the Government's defence cuts. The aircraft carrier and the Harrier jump-jets scrapped under last year's strategic defence review would have made the mission more effective, faster and cheaper, he said. Sir Mark warned that the Navy would not be able to sustain its operations in Libya for another three months without making cuts elsewhere. ... "The pros would have been a much more reactive force," he said. "Rather than deploying from Gioia del Colle, we would deploy within 20 minutes as opposed to an hour and a half, so obviously there are some advantages. It's cheaper to fly an aircraft from an aircraft carrier than from the shore." Scrapping Ark Royal and its Harriers was perhaps the most controversial decision made in last year's Strategic Defence and Security Review. The Coalition has said it could not afford to maintain the ship or the planes. Military analysts and retired defence chiefs have said the cuts have limited Britain's military capabilities. The later exactly spells out what I discussed over at USNIBlog back in March and how this operation has played out. That is a very substantial argument - but it looks like the politicians over in the UK are a bit more interested in saving face than facing their error. Dr Liam Fox, the Defence Secretary, defended the defence review last night. He said: "We continue to have the resources necessary to carry out the operations we are undertaking." An MoD source said: "Unfortunately Harriers wouldn't have been able to carry the precision weapons needed for these operations." Did that get your targeteering senses a'ting'n? It did mine. Shall we fact check the Honorable Gentelman? Yes - let's. The Harrier GR9 is an avionics and weapons upgrade of the standard GR7. The £500m Joint Update and Maintenance Programme (JUMP) upgraded the Harrier fleet during normal maintenance periods, in a series of incremental capabilities.[14] These started with software upgrades to the communications, ground proximity warning and navigation systems, followed by the integration of the AGM-65 Maverick air-to-ground missile.[14] Capability C added the RAF's Rangeless Airborne Instrumentation Debriefing System (RAIDS), Raytheon's Successor Identification Friend or Foe (SIFF) system and the Paveway guided bombs . The Digital Joint Reconnaissance Pod (DJRP) was added as part of Capability D and handling trials of the MBDA Brimstone missile started on 14 February 2007. However the Brimstone was still not cleared for the GR9 as of November 2010. Sharkey Ward says it better. ... it was disgraceful for the MoD to contradict Sir Mark Stanhope in a most blatant manner by saying, “Unfortunately Harriers wouldn’t have been able to carry the precision weapons needed for these operations.†“Disgracefulâ€, because the MoD source responsible for this statement was not telling the truth (there appears to be a pattern here, does there not?). The Tornado is now delivering the Paveway Mk III 2000 lb bunker-busting bomb instead of the unreliable Storm Shadow missile. Harrier delivers Paveway Mk III and Paveway Mk IV with the same or better accuracy as Tornado. Harrier also delivers the Maverick anti-tank missile and the CRV7 rocket – neither of which is carried by Tornado. It is true that Harrier does not carry Brimstone – it was to be fitted with the same prior to SDSR 2010. But the Apache helicopter deploys Hellfire, the equivalent of Brimstone, as well as 30 mm cannon fire. Harrier and Apache are both maritime capable aircraft that have been designed specifically for the Close Air Support task. Both have supported our ground forces in Afghanistan extremely well – unlike the Tornado which is not fully suited to the Close Air Support task. Official MoD sources (RAF?) should be taken to task on the lies and obfuscation that they present to the press. What does Italy have to do with this? As the Harrier II Plus fighter rips down the runway and launches into the skies on a mission to Libya, chaplain Vincenzo Caiazzo is on deck in his dog collar to see it safely off. The amiable chaplain has been with the ITS Garibaldi — the flagship for NATO's embargo mission — since October, when he signed up to provide troops on the light aircraft carrier with psychological support. "It's a whole other world. There are exciting moments and others when some of the guys feel frustrated or homesick," said Don Vincenzo, who swapped his parish in southern Italy for masses held amidst acrid oil fumes in the bowels of the flattop. "He brings us a welcome oasis of calm," said one young officer as another fighter shot off down the 174 metre long runway with a shuddering roar, sending shock waves through the Garibaldi. Normality, for those manning the enormous carrier, is blaring sirens, blinking warning lights and sailors sprinting up ladders, down warren-like corridors and into crowded control rooms. Political spats about the cost and wisdom of taking on Libya are not an issue on board ship, where radars scan the sea for suspect vessels and helicopters and fighters engaged in civilian protection touch base. "I've just got back off a mission, we're going to have a quick debrief and then a much-needed wind down," said a tired-looking pilot after clambering out of his tiny cockpit and collapsing in a chair in the mess room. Though the details of his sortie were confidential, an official in the command centre who asked to remain anonymous said it had been "successful", though he would not confirm reports the jet had deployed one of its missiles. There should be a Royal Navy Carrier there right now. Instead - we have the Italians and the French using what little they have. Carriers cannot deploy forever. When they leave? One final note - listen to Admiral Lord West. View the full article

Wait .... let me put that in better context. From our buddy over at ELP. On another note, this from insidedefense.com (subscription). LCS - the gift that keeps giving. Roll in the fail. I guess putting Sailors in combat not knowing the ability of their "warship" to actually do that "overseas contingency operation" thingy is asking too much. Making sure you can explain to the family members of those killed in combat why their sons and daughters are at the bottom of the sea is "unreasonably expensive" and "impractical." I'll let you answer that question in front of a Senate investigation committee sometime later this decade or next. View the full article

I thought this was just a rumor, but maybe there is more to it? Saudi Arabia, which has long considered the purchase of American littoral combat ships (LCS) with a lightweight Aegis combat system, is contemplating the acquisition of new DDG 51 Arleigh Burke-class Aegis destroyers that could be fitted with ballistic missile defense (BMD) capability. The U.S. Navy briefed Saudi officials in late May on the capabilities of the destroyers, which would be far more powerful than any ship currently in the kingdom's service. The U.S. Navy would not confirm whether the brief included BMD options, but sources did not deny that it was part of the presentation. Saudi Arabia has been looking at Aegis-equipped LCS designs from both Lockheed Martin and Austal USA since mid-2008. Those designs, which range in size from 3,000 to about 4,000 tons, would be equipped with SPY-1F lightweight Aegis radars similar to those fitted on Norwegian frigates. But the SPY-1F lacks the fidelity and software to perform the BMD mission, and the ships probably wouldn't have the electrical capacity to power a BMD radar. The U.S. Navy's 9,100-ton DDG 51s are the heart of the fleet's BMD force. About 20 U.S. cruisers and destroyers have had their SPY-1D Aegis systems upgraded to perform the BMD mission, and more are being backfitted. Future DDG 51s will be built with the BMD capability. Read the rest at Defense News. Both versions of the Littoral Combat Ship version of the AEGIS surface combatant have been thoroughly criticized. I find that interesting, because I hear from both Austal and Lockheed Martin that the hull design for both variants of the AEGIS version is heavily modified, although no details are ever offered to explain exactly what about the hulls are heavily modified. The choice of DDG-51s instead of LCS would be a significant change, because it implies a much smaller purchase of naval vessels from the US than the 8-12 often cited for the AEGIS version of the LCS. The Defense News article mentions a potential mix that includes 2 DDG-51 Flight IIAs w/ BMD. From an industrial perspective, this would allow the US Navy to build 2 destroyers per year - one at each yard over the next several years - as the Navy moves toward the DDG-51 Flight III, which is having other issues we'll discuss later. The trade-offs here would apparently be quantity vs quality, as crew sizes and cost would ultimately run about the same. There will be other issues though, political concerns like selling top tier military equipment to Saudi Arabia. The sale would also ignore how survivability isn't so much a technical issue - rather a crewing issue in most cases - meaning the big Burkes are not likely to be more survivable with Saudi crews than the LCS AEGIS ships would be, not unless Saudi Navy crews have become a lot better in the last few years. The Saudi Navy surface warship deal is reportedly worth between $20-$25 billion, depending upon your source. Keep in mind a lot of that money is for infrastructure. Also worth noting a high-low BMD mix that uses the new DDG-51 Flight IIAs and smaller AEGIS LCS 'shooters' fits a distributed CEC model for BMD often discussed for the way the Navy should do BMD in the future. Under that model, there are radars of various types, both on ships and on shore, for tracking/targeting data that gets fed forward in the network of smaller vessel "shooters" which in this scenario would be the little LCS AEGIS ships. While those smaller AEGIS LCS with the SPY-F radar could not independently track and kill ballistic missiles, leveraging the data from the network and with the AEGIS combat system, those ships act as forward missile launchers with VLS. A similar model was once promoted as a way to field a high end AMDR from a modern ship hull like DDG-1000, before it was decided a smaller AMDR would be fielded on every DDG-51 Flight III destroyer. There is another possibility... some of the Flight I Burkes are in very poor condition, and it could be the US sells those to Saudi Arabia for much less and the money is used to repair/refit those ships. Most, if not all, of those older Flight I Burkes are BMD capable. Interesting stuff, but the Saudi's do not appear to be in a hurry to buy their new warships, so it is unclear if any of this will ever happen. View the full article

Shashank Joshi has a good rundown of the strategic implications of the Taliban attack on PNS Mehran. The only part I'm uncertain about is this: Thirdly, the attack's terrible human toll was accompanied by the highly visible, and militarily significant, destruction of at least one, perhaps two, P-3C Orion anti-submarine and maritime surveillance aircraft (one has been destroyed; two others appear damaged). These $35m US-supplied aircraft - advanced variants of the older P-3 aircraft - were inducted last summer, with the expectation that six more would follow by 2012. Their loss compounds an already lopsided naval balance with respect to India, which now possesses twice as many submarines, and five antisubmarine warfare squadrons. In the first place, this prompted some to ask, in conspiratorial tones, why the Pakistani Taliban would attack such a site, and whether 'foreign agents' might be the more likely perpetrators of an attack whose beneficiary would be India. Although increasing numbers of Pakistanis recognise internal militancy as a serious threat to the country, the peculiar nature of the target may reinforce the self-destructive narrative that violence in Pakistan is the product of external meddling rather than internal rot. But the longer-term military implications are also important. These may seem of little relevance in an age in which nuclear deterrence has tightly constrained the scope and intensity of Indo-Pakistani wars (see, for example, the enormous limits on escalation during the 1999 Kargil War). Does anyone really envisage a naval war, except as part of an all-out war in which third parties and their navies would be anyway engaged? But this perspective ignores that India might, in the aftermath of a future crisis, view a naval blockade as a suitably calibrated response that applies pressure on Pakistan without crossing nuclear thresholds. [3] Pakistan's now degraded anti-submarine warfare capabilities may prove to be of more than symbolic value. If I recall correctly, the P-3Cs were being used by Pakistan as COIN patrol craft, rather than in their ASW role. Thus, the destruction of the P-3s might have less to do with a symbolic attack on Pakistan's naval capability and more with a direct attack on Pakistan's COIN capability. View the full article

When Dr. Ashton Carter testifies in front of the Senate that your program is unaffordable in this fiscal climate, the only hope left is to find enough politicians that will sell out. Something drastically changes, or the Joint Strike Fighter is done. "Over the lifetime of this program, the decade or so, the per-aircraft cost of the 2,443 aircraft we want has doubled in real terms," said Ashton Carter, the under secretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics. "That's our forecast for how much the aircraft's going to cost. "Said differently, that's what it's going to cost if we keep doing what we're doing. And that's unacceptable. It's unaffordable at that rate." The cost of the plane has jumped to $385 billion, about $103 million per plane in constant dollars or $113 million in fiscal year 2011 dollars, said Christine Fox, the Defense Department's director of cost assessment and program evaluation. Republican Senator John McCain called the figure "truly troubling," considering the original price was $69 million per airplane. "The facts regarding this program are truly troubling," said McCain. "No program should expect to be continued with that kind of track record, especially in our current fiscal climate," said McCain. "It seems to me we have to start at least considering alternatives" CNA almost had it right. The tipping point wasn't the point at which the Navy fleet was unaffordable, it was the point where naval aviation became unaffordable. Most folks don't realize that the Navy consistently spends more budget money on aviation than the Air Force does, but they in fact have for many, many years. Here is the biggest problem facing the Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps not to mention all the other nations invested in the Joint Strike Fighter program. The cost per aircraft is now so high that it doesn't justify the expenditure, meaning the combat capability of the less capable F-15, F-16, and F-18 alternatives exceeds the combat capability investment one gets with plowing ahead with the Joint Strike Fighter. Quite frankly, there simply isn't enough difference in the payload, range, speed, electronics, or stealth that separates the 5th generation JSF from it's 4th generation alternatives to move ahead. The UCAS, on the other hand, has game changing range and endurance, not to mention lower manpower costs so even if it runs at a higher cost that estimated per platform, the capability opportunity in the investment is so much more than lesser alternatives that the cost justification is there. The only thing left is for reality to set in among elected officials, not to mention entrenched interests in defense. The Joint Strike Fighter is the modern A-12, and only the F-35B VSTOL version (which is also the most expensive variant) is the capability that is unique and lacks a legitimate replacement. It is also the most likely version of the JSF to find international interest in continuing the program at very high cost even if the F-35A and F-35C is canceled. Perhaps there is another way ahead, but right about now the Air Force would be wise to propose a F-22 high and F-15/F-16 low mix of fighters just to streamline maintenance to three specific platforms. View the full article

AN/TPS-77 Radar May 9/11: Lockheed Martin Corp., Lockheed Martin MS2 Tactical Systems in Eagan, MN receives $26 million firm-fixed-price/cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to provide a turn-key “Long Range Radar 2” site for the Iraqi Air Force, as a Foreign Military Sales contract. At this point, $13 million has been committed by the Electronic Systems Center/HSGK at Hanscom AFB, MA (FA8707-11-C-0007). See also: FedBizOpps. The question is, what radar are they referring to? After some back-and-forth, Lockheed Martin consulted the USAF and replied that “We can’t provide any more details about this in theater project. Sorry.” Having said that, the likely options fall within a specific family of Lockheed Martin radars… (more…) View the full article

When I first saw these pictures of the new PLA Navy SSK, my first thoughts were of the old Golf class conventional ballistic submarines like the K-129 discussed in Norman Polmar's latest book Project Azorian. But as I look closer and think about it, I think what I am seeing is something of an evolution leveraging a similar design concept. You may have to open the third picture up and look closely to see what I'm talking about, but there appears to be some sort of large hatch built into the sail. If I was to guess based on what I am seeing, I think China has developed a special operations SSK to augment their Yuan class SSKs. I haven't seen this idea floated around anywhere except on an old Russian navy forum back in the late 90s, but the concept is very similar to what the US Ohio SSGNs do today with special operations, but instead of using a large SSBN type hull, one would accomplish the same thing on the cheap using a SSB type design similar to the old Golf class. Just as the old Golf class used to launch ballistic missiles out of the sail, the special operations SSK would require a larger sail to act as stores for a special operations capability. Another thought... look at the size of that submarine. For a SSK, it is flat out huge, and likely runs somewhere between 3000 - 3500 tons displacement when fully loaded (if not more). Is it even possible the Chinese are fielding SSBs for the purpose of taking their anti-ship ballistic missile like the DF-21 to sea as a way to make that capability mobile, or as a way to extend the range from the Chinese coast even further? From a naval tactical theory perspective, it would be very similar to old Soviet tactics where SSNs and SSKs functioned as US fleet hunters for Soviet SSGN shooters, and it might actually work if indeed the anti-ship ballistic missile homing system was effective enough to organically detect and strike at the largest target in a general area as is claimed. Like I said, I am guessing. It looks like a big ole fleet SSK with some extra features, but that is the analysis from my untrained eye. I'd appreciate the opinions of more experienced observers. PS: In the second photo, the submarine in the water is a new Yuan class. According to some sources, both submarines in the top two pictures (photos that are now several days old) are claimed to have recently moved to a naval base near Shanghai for sea trials, which may explain why we now see this latest photo of this new SSK in the water. HT Kursed View the full article