US Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

it's so so so so fancy Future Marine Mega-Drone May Carry Same Weapons as F-35
The
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
is in the hunt for a mega-drone that can take off and land vertically and deploy aboard ship — all while carrying a serious amount of firepower.

The service is asking a lot as it develops its MUX platform, short for Marine air-ground task force unmanned expeditionary capabilities, with plans to reach initial operational capability by 2026.

The Corps’ deputy commandant for aviation, Lt. Gen. Jon “Dog” Davis, said Wednesday at the Unmanned Systems Defense conference in Arlington, Virginia, that this future platform — a Group 5, the largest class of military drone — will be equipped to fight from sea as well as land.

“I would say we’re very aggressive with what we want that Group 5 to be,” Davis said. “I want my airplane to go off a seabase and, frankly, I think the Group 5 [unmanned aircraft system] for the Marine Corps will have [
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
] on there, will have
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
[Sidewinder missile], will have all the weapons that an F-35 will carry, maybe even the sensors the F-35 will carry.”

This future drone will not be a competitor with the Corps’ new
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
5th-generation fighter but a collaborator, able to team with the aircraft on missions, he said.

“It’s about … making sure that the Marines have the very best protection wherever they go, whatever they do, and manned-unmanned teaming is not just with attack helicopters — it’s with jets, it’s with grunts,” Davis said.

In the Corps’ 2016 aviation plan, the MUX is described as filling an extremely broad range of missions, including electronic warfare; reconnaissance and surveillance; command, control, communications and computers [C4]; aircraft escort; persistent fires; early warning; and tactical distribution.

“It will be a multi-sensor, electronic warfare, C4 bridge, [anti-air warfare] and strike capability at ranges complementary to
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
and F-35, giving MAGTF commanders flexible, persistent, and lethal reach,” the document states. “It will provide scalable MAGTF support deploying as detachments or squadrons supporting commanders at the tactical, operational, and strategic levels.”

Call it a mega-drone, if you will.

Prominent candidates for such a role include the Bell-Textron V-247, an unmanned, single-engine armed tiltrotor platform designed to operate from the sea; the Lockheed Martin K-Max built by Kaman, an optionally manned cargo chopper used to transport gear in Afghanistan and now being developed to accommodate sensors; and the Tactically Exploited Reconnaissance Node, or Tern, an aircraft developed by DARPA and the Office of Naval Research that sits on its tail so it can launch and recover on a ship’s deck.

Davis said he wants the Marines’ Group 5 UAS to be able to fly at 30,000 feet, the typical cruising altitude for an airliner, and to carry weapons internally to maximize efficiency and time on station. Ultimately, he said, he wants an unmanned aircraft that can do everything a manned aircraft can.

“Do I think it will replace manned platforms? No, but I think we have to integrate, look for capabilities, cover down our gaps, our seams, that are out there,” he said. “Frankly, no matter how many airplanes I have, I don’t get 24/7 coverage with my manned platforms, especially from my seabase. If we do distributed operations, we’re going to need all the game we can bring.”

Davis said he wants to see a tech demonstration flight of the MUX by 2018 and early operational capability for the system by 2024.

That timeline puts development of the mega-drone slightly ahead of the joint Future Vertical Lift program, which will select a next generation of helicopters for services including the
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
and Marine Corps.
source:
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
 

Bernard

Junior Member
Why doesn't the USN put together a "RIMPAC" style exercise with all our allies Submarines and anti sub ships! We can hone our allies and our own, submarine skills.

Kind of like when we rented the Swedes Gotland Class subs to hunt.

We could coordinate tactics with ours and our allies hunter killer subs, from hunting other subs/ships, stalking other subs/enemy war ships, communication in time of war, deploying spec ops, even redevelop SOSUS and make it more efficient!!!

Navy Wants More Complex Sub-on-Sub Warfare Training
By:
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

October 27, 2016 12:43 PM
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

Los Angeles-class fast-attack submarine USS Cheyenne (SSN-773), Republic of Korea Chang Bogo-class submarine ROKS Lee Eokgi (SS-071) and Los Angeles-class fast-attack submarine’s USS Tucson (SSN-770) and USS Santa Fe (SSN-763) transit in close formation on July 28, 2016, US Navy Photo

The Navy’s submarine force is looking to reinvigorate its high-end warfare training and plans to do so by finding efficiencies within the current testing and certification schedules, the commander of submarine forces said.

Vice Adm. Joseph Tofalo said at the Naval Submarine League’s annual symposium yesterday that he was taking a hard look at that predeployment schedule to find as much as 10 to 15 days that could instead be devoted to improving high-end skills that would be needed against a peer or near-peer adversary.

“The bottom line is, we’re trying to increase the amount of at-sea combat-type experience,” he said.
“Sub-on-sub interactions, more tactical development. We’re really working hard by taking a hard scrub of our assessment and certification process, trying to eliminate any redundancies, any overlaps.”

He told USNI News after his speech that “only a submarine can do sub-on-sub (anti-submarine warfare), so we’ve got to make sure we are making sure that we are the best in the world at doing that.”

“Theater undersea warfare, effects in the sea and from the sea. And the from-the-sea part has been a big focus of what we’ve been doing, Tomahawk strikes for examples,” over the last decade or two, he said
“But the piece of theater undersea warfare, effects in and from the sea – the in-the-sea part, that sub-on-sub piece, that’s something I want to make sure that we continue to be the best in the world at. The other stuff comes naturally – there’s a natural tendency to be drawn (to that mission), there are external customers that have a demand signal. But the main customer (for sub-on-sub interaction) is internal, because it’s the submarine force that’s going to have to do those kinds of missions, and that’s what I want to make sure that we’re properly focused on.”

Tofalo made clear that this training would not come at the expense of operational availability or time in the shipyard, nor would he allow it to lengthen deployment schedules. He said attack submarine crews are already “doing double-pumps” in their deployment schedule – they deploy for six months every 18 months, whereas the overall Navy Optimized Fleet Response Plan calls for one seven-month deployment every 36 months – and he said this extra training would not over-burden the sailors and create longer deployments.

“I’m not piling anything else on, that’s not the intention,” he said.
“But we do feel that because of the change in the world stage, we have got to make sure that, it’s not about lobbing Tomahawks at the desert that’s been going on for the last 10 or 15 years. There’s additional skills, we’ve got to make sure we get back to some of the basics and make sure we are very good at that high-end warfighting stuff that only the submarine force can do, because that’s what we’ll be called on to do. And so that’s why we’re trying to find those efficiencies and make sure that we’re maximizing those training opportunities.”

Rear Adm. Fritz Roegge, Commander of Submarine Force Pacific, said today at the symposium that inserting high-end warfare into predeployment training was important, but so is practicing these skills throughout deployments. He called for more in-theater events, “which has the extra benefit then of making sure those officers, those crews are practicing those skills in the environments in which they might be called upon to use them. It’s a big ocean, and from the surface the ocean looks like the ocean, but the thermocline, the bathymetry – even the Eastern Central Pacific around me where I’m doing my workups (in Hawaii) is very different than a lot of the places where (commanders are) deploying forces.”

Tofalo also told USNI News afterwards that submarine command courses are now including theater ASW segments, which hasn’t always been the case.

“Theater ASW is a team sport, and we need to learn how to plan that team when you’re in a command course,” he said, which allows commanders to learn to incorporate destroyers, P-3 and P-8 maritime reconnaissance aircraft and other fleet assets that contribute to ASW.
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
 

bd popeye

The Last Jedi
VIP Professional
Why doesn't the USN put together a "RIMPAC" style exercise with all our allies Submarines and anti sub ships! We can hone our allies and our own, submarine skills.

Kind of like when we rented the Swedes Gotland Class subs to hunt.

We could coordinate tactics with ours and our allies hunter killer subs, from hunting other subs/ships, stalking other subs/enemy war ships, communication in time of war, deploying spec ops, even redevelop SOSUS and make it more efficient!!!


Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

Might have to do with the fact that USN Seawolf, Virginia, Ohio and even Los Angeles class subs are at least one or two generations of our allies subs...and much of the operational capability of these subs requires a US citizenship to be aboard or train with.
 

Bernard

Junior Member

The U.S. Navy's Supersonic SeaRAM Missile System Could be a Game Changer
rtn_173608.jpg


The Guided Missile Weapons System, which consists of a launcher and missile rounds is a supersonic, lightweight, quick-reaction, fire-and-forget weapon designed to destroy anti-ship missiles. The emerging SeaRAM defensive weapon will destroy approaching enemy drones, aircraft, missiles and small boats.

The Navy is engineering a new, high-tech launcher system for ship-defending interceptor missiles able to protect surface vessels by detecting, tracking and destroying approaching enemy missile attacks.


The Guided Missile Weapons System, which consists of a launcher and missile rounds is a supersonic, lightweight, quick-reaction, fire-and-forget weapon designed to destroy anti-ship missiles, according to Raytheon developers.

A key advantage of the new system will be an increased ability to destroy several approaching enemy attacks at one time.

"Its autonomous dual-mode passive radio frequency and infrared guidance design provide high-firepower capability for engaging multiple threats simultaneously,” a Raytheon statement said.

Raytheon Missile Systems is being awarded a $28 million modification to a previously awarded firm-fixed-price contract to exercise an option for Navy Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) MK-49 guided missile launching system (GMLS) requirements. The earlier contract stipulates that Raytheon will procure material, fabricate parts, assemble, test, and deliver the GMLSs.

The MK-49 GMLS holds 21 MK-44 Guided Missile Round Packs. Together, the two parts form the MK-31 RAM Guided Missile Weapon System.

A product of a joint venture between the United States and Germany and installed on over 165 ships worldwide, Pentagon officials stated.

(This first appeared in Scout Warrior
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
.)


Work on the emerging GMLS is slated to be completed by 2018.

Arming the Surface Fleet With SeaRam:

The lauch-system technology development will improved and fortify a broader Navy effort to further arm its surface fleet with SeaRam missiles engineered to fire from the MK-49 Guided Missile Launching System, or GMLS. In recent months, the Navy has begun arming forward-deployed destroyers with the emerging SeaRam ship-defense weapon able to track and destroy attacking enemy missiles, drones, aircraft, small boats and other threats, officials said.

The SeaRAM weapons system, designed to fire Rolling Airframe Missiles out of a Close-in-Weapons System, will be installed on the USS Porter, USS Carney, USS Ross and USS Donald Cook, Navy spokesman Ensign Marc Rockwellpate told Scout Warrior in an interview several months ago.

“SeaRAM combines two highly successful U.S. Navy systems: the MK 15 Close-In Weapon System (CIWS) and the MK 31 Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) launching system,” Rockwellpate said.

The SeaRAM system builds upon the infrastructure and radar of the Close-in-Weapons-System, or CIWS. CIWS' Phalanx weapon fires a 20mm cannon at close-in threats such as small boats. The SeaRAM is part of a layered ship-defense system designed to identify and destroy longer-range approaching enemy threats, such as anti-ship missiles, drones, small boats and helicopters.

The idea is to supplement and build upon the defensive power of the CIWS, an area weapon which fires multiple projectiles from a Phalanx gun system to destroy approaching air and surface threats; SeaRAM increases the envelope of attacking threats a ship can defend against and hits targets at farther ranges than CIWS. Navy officials tell Scout Warrior they are very enthusiastic about SeaRAM, as it is the kind of weapon that enables ships to operate in a higher-threat environment.

“SeaRAM combines the RAM's accuracy, range and high maneuverability with the Phalanx Block 1B's high-resolution search-and-track sensor systems and rapid-response capability to give our ships enhanced defense-in-depth vs. a variety of potential threats,” Rockwellpate added.

The CIWS ship self-defense weapon can fire 4,500 rounds per minute; the SeaRAM weapons replaces the gun with larger, longer-range Rolling Airframe Missiles.

“SeaRAM takes the defense envelope on a ship and expands it further out away from the ship. The rolling airframe missiles has a longer range than a gun and has the capability to engage multiple targets simultaneously,” Rick McDonnell, Program Director of Close-In Defense Solutions at Raytheon Missile Systems, told Scout Warrior in an interview several months ago.

Installation in USS PORTER is complete and USS CARNEY's is in progress, Navy officials said. Installations in ROSS and DONALD COOK will follow soon thereafter.

Unlike the CIWS weapons which, as an area-defense weapon, uses a 20mm cannon to shoot down threats close to a ship, SeaRAM fires a Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) from an 11-missile battery, Raytheon officials explained.

“The RAM Block 2 missile completed a series of successful tests against subsonic and supersonic targets during its development, culminating in the program achieving Initial Operational Capability (IOC) in May 2015. Testing has utilized both the MK-49 launcher and the SeaRAM launcher during test scenarios emulating real-world threats,” Rockwellpate explained.

The SeaRAM system is being installed on ships of the LCS class and can be incorporated into amphibs, carriers and other ships. It is one of a menu of options being considered to increase surface ships' self-defense capabilities.

SeaRAM on the Littoral Combat Ship:

In addition to its integration onto four destroyers, the Navy is also engineering SeaRAM onto its Littoral Combat Ship, or LCS.

READ MORE SECOND PAGE HERE

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
 
Mar 20, 2016
I think it's still worth posting despite I noticed rather late (dated February 10, 2016; apologize if it's a repost):
New US Defense Budget: $18 Billion for Third Offset Strategy
The Pentagon wants to spend more money to offset Anti-Area/Access-Denial (A2/AD) technologies.

source:
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
kinda update:
Officials: Third Offset Strategy Key to Maintaining U.S. Military Technology Dominance
The driving concept behind the Pentagon’s Third Offset Strategy comes down to : If we’re not changing, we’re losing to “pacing competitors” like Russia and China in conventional warfare.

Bob Work, deputy secretary of defense, said the two near-peer adversaries have reached parity in areas from sensor nets to logistics and support grids and both have put a lot of money in U.S. systems and networks.

Speaking Friday as part of a panel at a daylong forum at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington, D.C., think tank, he described two schools of thought to counter these advances.

“You have to fight to keep your networks together” when under attack or “train your force to operate with thin lines of communication.” He said in the latest offset strategy “we expect the network to dissemble” and it is necessary to train the force to be resilient and adapt to the new circumstances.

“We believe our people [including allies and partners] provide us a competitive advantage,” he said.

Air Force Gen. Paul Selva, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said his way of looking at the strategy “isn’t an answer; it’s a question,” comparable to a journey rather than a destination. “But we have to ask the right questions” through experimentation to determine success or failure, then develop doctrine and distribute that doctrine across the joint force and share with allies, and keep refreshing it over time.

An example of that would be long-range precision strike at volume across every domain from cyber to undersea, he added.

Work said it wasn’t about technology per se but achieving an increase coupled with a willingness to keep innovating. It’s a realization that “we may only have an advantage of five years,” in part because of the proliferation of technology. He used the example of how the rifle and railroad changed warfare in the mid-19th century of technological advances that were quickly adapted by many nations.

Stephanie O’Sullivan, Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence, added, “We’re right at the beginning” of integrating advances in autonomy and artificial intelligence.

Work, Selva and O’Sullivan head the Defense Department’s advanced capabilities and deterrence panel.

“We’re barely scratching the surface” of artificial intelligence and autonomy in conventional warfare, Selva said. He said he regularly asks industry “will your widget [really be] open architecture,” so that it can be adapted to new realities rather than tied to proprietary technology that counters a threat that has been successfully countered.

“We’re making modest investments” to discover what is achievable now and what isn’t to achieve that advantage, Work said. “We’re thinking more like a competitive business.”

The success of the new strategy “is really about the force taking ownership of it,” rather than passing it off as “a bright idea” that has no immediate effect on deck-plate operations, Selva added.

Work said an earlier example of that acceptance came when the Army and Air Force developed Air Land Battle that forced the Soviet Union to re-think how it would have to operate under these changed circumstances.
source is USNI News
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
 
Aug 28, 2016
according to Aug 28, 2016 Military.com Navy Gets $2.7B Attack Submarine Sponsored by Michelle Obama
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
and tomorrow US Navy to commission Virginia-class submarine USS Illinois
The U.S. Navy is set to christen its thirteenth Virginia-class submarine USS Illinois on October 29.

The christening ceremony will take in Groton, Connecticut, where the boat was built by General Dynamics Electric Boat.

What makes USS Illinois stand out is that it is a Block III Virginia ship incorporating two tubes with twelve missiles instead of twelve separate missile tubes – a feature borrowed from the Ohio-class SSGNs. Block III submarines from boat eleven onward also feature a revised bow and a number of other changes.

Construction on USS Illinois started in June 2014 with U.S. first lady Michelle Obama as the ship’s sponsor. The first lady christened the boat on October 10, 2015.

Adm. John Richardson, chief of naval operations, will deliver the ceremony’s principal address. First Lady Michelle Obama will serve as the ship’s sponsor and give the order to “man our ship and bring her to life!”

“USS Illinois is one of the most technologically advanced platforms in the world,” said the Ray Mabus, secretary of the Navy. “This submarine represents not only the Navy’s lasting connection to the state of Illinois but also the American innovation and manufacturing skill that have given us such a powerful advantage, making us the most powerful expeditionary fighting force the world has ever known.”
source:
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
 
Oct 13, 2016
so here is The inside story of how the Navy's top brass eliminated ratings
... goes on in the subsequent post due to size limit; source is NavyTimes
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
now I read Petition to Reverse Navy's Ratings Decision Reaches 100K Goal
A WhiteHouse.gov petition asking the
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
to reverse the decision to get rid of its time-honored job ratings system has reached 100,000 signatures, guaranteering it will receive a direct response from the White House.

The Navy's announcement in late September that it was
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
caused consternation among many sailors, who argued that the traditional job titles and fields were part of their identity in the fleet.

Still others are worried about decisions the service has yet to make, such as how to redesign traditional uniform ratings badges, and what to call the sailors formerly known as corpsmen, yeomen and firemen, to name three titles.

The move, Navy officials said, is designed to create more opportunities for professional advancement and allow sailors to hold multiple specialties, while doing away with gender-specific titles. But some allege the service went too far in trying to accomplish these objectives.

The
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
was created by Robert D. Weeks, a retired Navy operations specialist who said the decision to overhaul the ratings system had caused dismay within a Facebook group he maintains for other former operations specialists.

"A lot of people like myself really loved their job, and the title that went along with it was part of your Navy identity," he told Military.com in early October. "And besides that, when people start off in the Navy and strike into a rating, it is a huge sense of pride for them to be able to put on a rank badge that has a rating symbol on it."

The petition made it almost halfway to its goal in just four days, accruing 46,000 signatures with viral speed.

The news that the petition had reached the 100,000-signature goal, two days ahead of the Oct. 30 deadline to do so, was first reported Friday by
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
.

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson downplayed the backlash to the job title changes, telling
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
that the negative response was not as strong as some alleged. Traditional monikers, such as 'Doc' for corpsman and 'captain' for the commanding officer of a ship, would persist, he said.

While Navy brass have given no indication they intend to reverse the ratings overhaul, Chief of Naval Personnel Vice Adm. Robert Burke did
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
as the service redesigns career fields and training paths in a series of phases over the next three years.

"As we go forward, your feedback matters and we want to hear from you during each phase of the transformation," he said in an open letter to sailors. "You can expect lots of discussion on this as we learn and adapt the plan to make it deliver on the objectives."
source:
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
 
Friday at 7:37 PM
Aug 28, 2016
and tomorrow US Navy to commission Virginia-class submarine USS Illinois

source:
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
yesterday (dated Oct. 29, 2016 at 1:28 PM)
First lady Michelle Obama welcomes U.S. Navy's most advance submarine USS Illinois
First lady
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
was on hand Saturday during the commissioning of the U.S. Navy's newest fast-attack submarine USS Illinois, lauding the submarine "as complicated to operate as a space shuttle."

Obama, sponsor of the high-tech submarine, gave the order to "man our ship and bring her to life," the Navy said. As sponsor,
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
"a special link to Illinois, her sailors, and their families that extends throughout the life of the submarine," the White House said. During the ceremony at the Naval Submarine Base New London, Obama said she was impress with the "Star Trek"-like ship, which is the most advanced ship in the Navy.

"This whole ship is just amazingly complicated to me. It's just incredible what this crew can do. You all are the definition of excellence," she said.

"I have to say this moment is a little bitter sweet for me because today marks our last event together, at least while I am first lady, the end of a journey that started more than two years ago," she added.

The Illinois is the
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
submarine and the third of eight Virginia-class Block III submarines. It has the capability to attack on-shore targets with Tomahawk cruise missiles and conduct covert long-term surveillance of land and sea forces.
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
and support.

"This next-generation attack submarine provides the Navy with the capabilities required to maintain the nation's undersea supremacy well into the 21st century," the Defense Department said.
source:
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
 

FORBIN

Lieutenant General
Registered Member
US Army's new 'upgunned' Stryker unveiled

The US Army and contractor General Dynamics Land Systems (GDLS) on 27 October unveiled the first prototype of an 'upgunned' Stryker Infantry Carrier Vehicle (ICV).

This is the first of eight prototype vehicles upgraded with a 30 mm weapon to address a perceived 'capability gap' in Europe. Prototypes are to next undergo "a series of industry 'shakedown' testing prior to industry contractually delivering the vehicles to the army in December", the service said, adding that government testing would start in January 2017.

GDLS was awarded a USD329 million contract modification in May to provide a 30 mm weapon for the Stryker lethality upgrade. The army has said the 'undefinitised contract action' covers "production of 83" lethality-upgraded Stryker ICVs as well as "contractor technical support to [US government] testing, and associated logistics products".

The company selected Kongsberg's MCT-30 medium-calibre remote weapon station that is operated from the vehicle's commander station. Orbital ATK's XM813 Bushmaster 30 mm cannon (originally developed for the former Future Combat Systems programme) was integrated onto the turret. The dual-fed, semi-automatic weapon can fire up to 200 rounds per minute, and can be used with the entire family of 30 mm x 173 mm ammunition, according to briefing slides viewed by IHS Jane's .
Army leaders are calling the upgraded vehicle the 'Dragoon' and assigned it as the XM1296 Infantry Carrier Vehicle - Dragoon.

This added weapon was driven through an operational need statement from the 2nd Cavalry Regiment (known as the Dragoons) based at Vilseck in Germany. Service leaders approved that plan in 2015. Mike Peck, GDLS' head of business development, told IHS Jane's in early October that the first upgraded vehicle could be fielded to the 2nd Cavalry Regiment in April 2017. In its 27 October statement, the army said fielding the capability "is required by 2018".

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
 
Top