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US Military News, Reports, Data, etc.
- Thread starter tphuang
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Jura The idiot
General
this is interesting:
Global demand spurs restart of Raytheon missile production line
Global demand spurs restart of Raytheon missile production line
source:Raytheon expects to grow Standard Missile-2 business well beyond the initial $650 million program that spurred a restart of the production line, said CEO Tom Kennedy.
Raytheon announced this week at the Paris Air Show the restart of its Standard Missile-2 production line, after the Netherlands, Japan, Australia and South Korea decided to purchase the SM-2 under a new bundled contract through the Department of Defense. The missile defends navies against anti-ship missiles and aircraft out to 90 nautical miles and an altitude of 65,000 feet.
Australia, Canada, Germany, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, Spain and Taiwan are customers. New orders will include 280 SM-2 and IIIB missiles.
But the restart, which follows a roughly four-year shutdown of the production line, might serve as the initial kickoff of more opportunities. Raytheon and the U.S. Navy are using the restart as an opportunity modernize production and testing processes within the factory, with new deliveries scheduled to begin in 2020, and Kennedy anticipates additional orders.
“We have many international customers using that weapon system [who] are looking to refresh existing inventories,” he said. “The initial contract is close to $700 million, and we are looking to grow that contract [more] over the next five years.”
The deal could keep the Arizona production line open through 2035.
Jura The idiot
General
USNI News House’s 2018 Defense Bill Would Increase DDG, SSN Production Rates; Buy Carriers Every 3 Years
which was
mentions also what I posted 24 minutes agoThe House Armed Services Committee’s defense bill for 2018 would allow the Navy to buy 15 Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers and 13 Virginia-class attack submarines over the next five years instead of the 10 each the Navy wanted, would urge the Navy to buy aircraft carriers every three years, and would force the destroyer shipbuilders to make quicker progress upgrading to the Flight III ship design that boasts a more impressive radar, HASC aides told reporters today.
The Fiscal Year 2018 National Defense Authorization Act will be debated in the HASC next week, but the subcommittee-specific sections were released today and explained to reporters by committee staff members.
This year’s bill would take several steps to pave the way to a larger fleet, staffers explained, to include making it national policy to get to a 355-ship Navy as soon as possible. It would also require the Navy to maintain a 12-aircraft carrier fleet beginning in 2023, when the future John F. Kennedy (CVN-79) is set to deliver, and it would lay the groundwork for the Navy to buy more ships and submarines through its two upcoming multiyear procurement contracts.
In an effort to increase attack submarine production, ahead of an upcoming dip in the size of the SSN fleet, the bill would have the Navy buy 13 submarines in the next five years – beyond the two a year the Navy wanted to buy, it would add a third submarine in 2020, 2022 and 2023. The first two Columbia-class ballistic-missile submarines (SSBN-826) will be bought in 2021 and 2024, and the HASC aides said the committee believes the industrial base has the capacity to build a third SSN in years the Navy is not procuring a SSBN.
That massive increase in work, though, does not take into account the added manpower and shipyard facilities it would take to build the Virginia Payload Module, an extra segment inserted into the body of the sub that adds 28 missile tubes. VPM was meant to be the heart of the Block V design, but the Navy has hesitated to say it could put VPM on all the boats in the Block V multiyear procurement contract.
The NDAA language does not weigh in on when the VPM would be introduced or how many a year the multiyear contract should include, but the HASC staffer told USNI News that, “if in fact we are going to add additional attack submarines in 2020 and 2022 and 2023, we think there may be merit with regards to delaying VPM introduction” due to industrial base capacity.
The other multiyear procurement contract in the shipbuilding budget is for destroyers, for which the Navy currently plans to buy two a year but the NDAA would have them buy three a year.
Upgrading from the Flight IIA configuration to the Flight III design with a AN/SPY-6(v) Air and Missile Defense Radar has tripped up the destroyer program in FY 2016 and 2017, though, and the NDAA seeks to force the builders’ hands a bit. The committee aide said the Navy has already purchased three AMDRs for three destroyers – one from FY 2016 and two from 2017. The bill would mandate that at least two of those three ships be built to the Flight III design with AMDR. Ingalls Shipbuilding has said it is ready to begin Flight III construction, while General Dynamics Bath Iron Works has not reached that same agreement with the Navy. Acting Navy acquisition chief Allison Stiller told HASC in a hearing last month that “we have a handshake agreement with Huntington Ingalls to introduce the Flight III capability on their FY ’17 ship,” “we’re also in negotiations with BIW to try and get a Flight III configuration on their FY 2017 ship, but we haven’t gotten to that point yet.” The NDAA would force BIW to reach this agreement.
In a series of efforts to boost the aircraft carrier fleet, the bill would require the Navy to maintain a dozen carriers, would note a “sense of Congress” that building carriers every three years is preferable, and allow the Navy to follow its original plans to put first-in-class Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) out for training and deployments and wait until the second ship in the class to conduct shock trials.
The Navy had intended on sending Ford on its maiden deployment as soon as it completed post-delivery testing and maintenance, but then-Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Frank Kendall . Navy officials told USNI News that, due to how the Navy plans its deployment cycles, the six-month shock trials and subsequent ship repair work could actually . The Navy would still have to work out the shock trial timing with Pentagon leadership, but this legislative language would remove any potential legislative issues and allow shock trials on Kennedy if the Pentagon agrees to it.
Regarding the three-year carrier centers, the aides were restricted in what they could say due to the full NDAA language and its funding tables not being released yet. But the aide said that the committee could show support for more rapid carrier construction through allowing economic order quantity authority for CVNs 80 and 81, and it could begin advance procurement funds a year early for CVN-81, which would put it into this FY 2018 NDAA. The bill does, in fact, include economic order quantity authority, and the funding tables will be made available closer to next week’s full committee markup.
The bill also advocates buying material for the remaining Refueling and Complex Overhauls, for CVNs 74 through 77, in a long-term block buy strategy as a cost-saving measure.
HASC could not comment yet on the quantity of Littoral Combat Ships it hopes to buy in 2018. , but the day after the budget request went to the Hill the Trump . The administration has still not told lawmakers how it would pay for the second one, and HASC still does not have clarity on its topline for the 2018 NDAA, all of which means the NDAA bill rolled out next week could potentially include one, two or three LCSs, the aide said.
which was
some time ago Aug 12, 2015
and now Navy might get to skip Ford shock trials ahead of first deployment
Jura The idiot
General
this is interesting:
source:Congress wants the Army to get its tanks in gear. Today, the House Armed Services Committee released its of the 2018 defense policy bill, which all but begged the Army to accelerate its air-deployable vehicle. MPF would fill a void in that’s existed since the M551 Sheridan was retired in 1996. A separate provision would order the Army to report on its plans for modernizing its heavy armored forces across the board, including “the development of a next generation infantry fighting vehicle and main battle tank” to replace the and M1 Abrams respectively.
By contrast, the Army’s current focus is . Incrementalism has been the Army’s strategy for at least four years, since it had to cancel the program and replace it with a initiative that deliver a new design . That’s too slow for HASC, which wants the Army report to include “an accelerated long-term strategy for acquiring next generation combat vehicle capabilities” (emphasis ours).
HASC’s call for a review echoes a released by Senate Armed Services chairman John McCain in January. McCain urged the service invest in for its Armored Brigade Combat Teams. The Senate hasn’t released its draft bill yet, but we imagine the two chambers will easily come to agreement on this provision.
McCain’s white paper did not address the Mobile Protected Firepower vehicle, however. That’s in part a matter of focus: , rather than serving with the , which McCain — and for that matter HASC — see as critical to deterring .
HASC, however, is clearly enthusiastic about the light tank, too. “The committee recognizes that the Army Chief of Staff has made MPF a high priority modernization program (and) believes the Army is developing strategies to potentially accelerate the MPF schedule given that the current projected schedule has MPF fielding beginning in 2024,” the states. “Therefore, the committee directs the Secretary of the Army to provide a briefing… by October 5, 2017, that outlines potential opportunities for MPF program acceleration. The briefing should include a review of testing requirements and potential areas for consolidation; funding required in fiscal year 2018 and beyond to accelerate the program; and any areas of legislative relief that would be required in order to accelerate the program.” In congressional terms, that’s a wide-open invitation to ask for more money and legal leeway.
The language directing the report on heavy armor is not quite so warm. It begins by discussing how budget cuts — particularly the — have slashed Army R&D and procurement, leaving the service with an aging and potentially outgunned armored force. “The committee is concerned that the tactical overmatch that U.S. ground forces have enjoyed for decades is being diminished, or in some cases, no longer exists,” the draft language states, before lamenting the lack of a ground combat vehicle modernization strategy next to the Army’s much more clearly articulated — and funded — approach to helicopters.
“The committee believes there is an immediate need for a more accelerated ground combat vehicle modernization strategy that should include the development of a next generation infantry fighting vehicle and main battle tank, while also looking for ways to accelerate needed upgrades for legacy combat vehicles in the near term to address immediate threats,” the draft language says. While the draft doesn’t specify, one key upgrade would be (APS) to jam or shoot down advanced anti-tank missiles.
The draft goes on to prescribe that “Elements of the report should include: the Army’s combat vehicle modernization priorities over the next 5 and 10 years; the extent to which those priorities can be supported at current funding levels within a relevant 15 time period; the extent to which additional funds are required to support such priorities; detail how the Army is balancing and resourcing these priorities with efforts to rebuild and sustain readiness and increase force structure capacity over this same time period; and explain how the Army is balancing its near-term modernization efforts with an accelerated long-term strategy for acquiring next generation combat vehicle capabilities.” Besides the M1 Abrams and M2 Bradley, the report would also encompass other elements of the Armored Brigade Combat Team such as
A separate provision in the bill calls for upgrading the Army’s Heavy Equipment Transport (HET) trailers to handle the latest uparmored Abrams, the M1A2 SEPv3, which weighs in excess of 80 tons. That’s the kind of attention to detail that modern mechanized warfare requires. As wrote, “everything in war is very simple, but the simplest thing is difficult.”
- the new (AMPV), essentially a turretless utility variant of the Bradley;
- the geriatric M113s the AMPV is replacing;
- the , which puts an old cannon on a new automotive system;
- (JLTV) to replace the Humvee;
- and the M88 Hercules Improved Recovery Vehicles, a hybrid between tank and tow truck that can pull a broken-down M1 Abrams.
Jura The idiot
General
May 10, 2017
PARIS: NAVAIR exploring shorter test schedule for CH-53K
but
PARIS: NAVAIR exploring shorter test schedule for CH-53K
US Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) is mulling a shorter test schedule for its Sikorsky CH-53K King Stallion helicopter programme in an effort to save money, Sikorsky’s president said this week.
With the CH-53K now in production, Sikorsky believes it could save time going forward by skipping some test points, Dan Schulz tells reporters this week at the Paris air show. Sikorsky will not know how much time skipping test points will save until after testing finishes.
The USMC is set to replace its ageing fleet of CH-53E heavy lift helicopters with 200 King Stallions, with four early production aircraft scheduled for delivery this year and initial operational capability slated for 2019. The US Navy estimates the cost at about $87 million per example.
The navy laid out the scope of flight tests at the very beginning of the programme and built in areas where testing could be eliminated, says US Marine Corps Lt Col Jonathan Morel, the government's chief test pilot for the CH-53K. The USMC looks for clues in performance, structures, propulsion and avionics to assess whether the service could skip some test points.
The navy is working closely with the Pentagon’s top weapons tester will work closely on analysing the shorter schedule.
“If certain testing was performing as expected over a certain period of time then there would be a chunk of test points that would be considered contingent testing,” he says. “If test points one through seven trend as expected, then we can skip eight, nine and 10."
However, Sikorsky is aware that Lockheed’s decisions to accelerate testing timelines have not always yielded positive results. The F-35’s former programme executive officer Lt Gen Chris Bogdan once called Lockheed’s decision to conduct concurrent production and development “acquisition malpractice".
Schulz emphasises that the CH-53K achieved its milestone C full production approval in April by combining some testing, not by conducting concurrent testing. During normal testing, a service and contractor pilot will conduct flight tests. Combined testing allows one pilot to conduct flight tests where common test points exist, he says. Schulz also used combined testing during his time on the V-22 Osprey programme, which he says worked well.
“In order to be more efficient, we’ve been integrating operational test, along with developmental test and contractor testing from the beginning,” Morel says. “In many cases one checkpoint will check three different boxes, so that was the original going in concept of the integrated test.”
Raytheon to restart SM-2 missile line after $650 million sale: executive
U.S. missile maker Raytheon () plans to announce it will restart its Standard Missile 2 (SM-2) production line after a $650 million dollar order from four U.S. allies, the president of Raytheon's Missile Systems, Taylor Lawrence, said on Sunday.
Raytheon is attending the June 19-25 Paris Airshow where it plans to make the announcement that it will restart the line that has been shut for about two years.
On Friday, the U.S. Department of Defense awarded Raytheon four contracts to sell a total of 280 SM-2 Block IIIA and IIIB missiles to the Netherlands, South Korea, Japan and Australia.
The deal could keep the Arizona production line open through 2035 because Raytheon anticipates more orders as the United States and its allies rebuild their inventories using the modernized production line, Lawrence told Reuters.
SM-2 missiles are often used to defend ships against anti-ship missiles and aircraft. They have a range of about 90 nautical miles.
The U.S. Congress would be notified shortly of the proposed Foreign Military Sales, Lawrence said. Congress must approve most major foreign weapons sales.
Delivery of the weapons could begin in 2020 Lawrence added
The order will add to Raytheon's $36 billion order backlog. More than 41 percent of Raytheon's backlog was international customers at the end of the quarter reported in April.
Raytheon is based in Waltham, Massachusetts-based and had 2016 sales of $24 billion. It has 63,000 employees
Jura The idiot
General
now I read Senator Cautions Navy on Maturity of DDG Flight III Before Multiyear Procurement
A senator from a state that is home to a destroyer shipbuilder has urged the Navy to ensure the maturity of an upgraded destroyer’s design before proceeding with a multiyear contract for the ship.
The Navy has requested for its 2018 budget funds to begin multiyear procurement of the Flight III of the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer (DDG 51 class) for a quantity of 10 ships. Multiyear procurements typically yield a savings of 10 percent over the time span of the procurement.
“From a ship-design perspective, we’re at 86 percent complete with the design, to introduce Flight III to the DDG 51,” Allison F. Stiller, an official performing the duties of assistant secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition, said June 21 in testimony before the Senate Armed Services seapower subcommittee. “We have a handshake agreement with [Huntington Ingalls Industries] Ingalls [Shipbuilding] to introduce that engineering change proposal [ECP] on their [fiscal] ‘17 ship.
“We recently received a proposal from [General Dynamics] Bath Iron Works for their ECP and we’re in negotiations with them. We’ve also received a bid from them on their ‘16 ship, a Flight IIA, and we’re also asking them to give us an ECP to look at that as a Flight III,” she said. “At start of construction with the ‘18 multiyear [the Flight III design] will be 100 percent complete.”
The Flight III includes the new Raytheon-built SPY-6 Air and Missile Defense Radar.
“The radar is doing quite well in testing,” Stiller said. “We’ve gotten permission to buy the radars for those ships. We are also testing our Aegis Combat System that will marry up with that radar, and testing is going well.”
“I’m very much in favor of multiyear contracts,” said Sen. Angus King, an Independent from Maine, where Bath Iron Works is located. “Taxpayer savings, better for the industrial base. I’m am worried, however, about the Flight III being ready for multiyear [procurement].”
King noted that generally typically multiyear contracts are approved for systems where the design is complete and after “having built one or two and having seen how it actually works, whether the cost estimates are realistic.”
“My only request is to consider slowing the multiyear down — maybe six months — in order to start construction on the first Flight III before we buy 10 ships and ask our industrial base to make commitments based upon not an unproven design but a new design, a substantially changed design,” King said. “These aren’t minor changes, [they’re] much more than the Flight IIA changes.”
“We feel like the design is mature, that we understand it,” Stiller said. “We will have a competition for the multiyear. I have high confidence that we have the design well in hand. Both yards have been on schedule on the design.”
“You’re asking our yards to take a big risk on 10 ships,” King said. “None of that design have ever been built before.”
“We view the amount of change in this particular Flight III design touched about 45 to 50 percent of the drawings,” Stiller said. “In fact, we touched more drawings on the Flight IIA than we are on Flight III. Also, we were not nearly as complete with design when we introduced Flight IIA.”
“I’m a big supporter of multiyear and a big supporter of Flight III,” King said. “I think’s its going to bring a major advantage to the fleet and we want to get it as soon as possible. But I’d rather get it right than get it fast.”
Jura The idiot
General
Saturday at 8:13 PM
Newest SM-6 Interceptor Moves to At-Sea Test Phase
June 21, 2017
and... I now read
SM-6 Testing Displays Missile’s Improved Capability
Newest SM-6 Interceptor Moves to At-Sea Test Phase
June 21, 2017
During its final land-based test, Raytheon’s advanced Standard Missile-6 (SM-6) Block IA engaged and destroyed a subsonic target from the USS Desert Ship, a test site in southern New Mexico, the company said in a June 20 release. The SM-6 Block IA now will enter the at-sea testing phase, bringing it closer to low-rate initial production later this year.
The SM-6 Block IA is an emerging change to SM-6 Block 1, with improvements to the guidance section. These enhancements allow the missile to seek out and destroy a wide variety of advanced threats with precision.
“The Block IA brings a new level of sophistication to the SM-6 and increases the precision of the missile even more,” said Mike Campisi, Raytheon’s SM-6 senior program director. “Relying less on a ship combat system means the missile can continue to engage targets further and further away with extreme accuracy.”
SM-6 is the only missile in the world that can perform anti-air warfare, anti-surface warfare and terminal ballistic-missile defense.
Final assembly of SM-6 takes place at Raytheon’s state-of-the-art production facility at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Ala. Raytheon has delivered approximately 340 SM-6 missiles with continuing production.