US Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

"Using this size, the CBO estimates building the new Seawolf-class type of submarine will cost about $5.5 billion per sub. In contrast, the Navy’s shipbuilding plan estimates SSN(X) production will run about $3.1 billion per sub."

inside
Navy’s New SSN(X) Attack Sub To Be Faster, More Lethal – And More Expensive
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!
 
Thursday at 8:10 AM
since I've now read it, I post
Marine Corps Shedding Old Equipment to Pay for New Technology
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interesting were the third and second sentences from the end
related:
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As old programs go, the Corps is looking at new cyber capabilities and getting back into the air defense game.
The Marine Corps think they’ve found a path forward for pushing more money to areas Defense Secretary James Mattis wants them to spend. And that involves kicking a growing list of old programs to the curb.

The two-year budget boost negotiated by Congress will come to a crashing halt with the 2020 defense budget with sequestration budget caps returning, So, to modernize “we have to divest,” Brig. Gen. James Acton, director of the Capabilities Development Directorate said.

The 2019 budget “was designed to plug holes. Honestly that was when we first started looking at divestment issues,” he told the Expeditionary Warfare Conference in Annapolis Md. on Wednesday The 2020 and 2021 budgets “are all about modernization, and modernization requires us to adapt and innovate to make us more lethal.”

But the cuts all come with a cost, Adams warned, and every decision is difficult. “It’s easy to say I need this new thing or that new thing, but no one ever comes to the table with an offset,” Adams said. “But we have to figure out where the trades are, if we’re going to modernize and accelerate.”

Mattis has made sure that the armed services are focused on his favorite concept — “lethality” — and the Pentagon rank and file have taken that message to heart. It’s rare that a civilian or military official talks these days without underscoring their sole focus is on making the force more lethal.

That might be harder than the past two years of budget stability have made it appear. President Trump this week demanded his cabinet officials cut 5 percent from their 2020 budget requests, a call that appears, in some fashion, to include the Pentagon.

“We know what the new budget is for the Defense Department. It will probably be $700 billion,” Trump said of the fiscal year 2020 request.

A budget of $700 billion is a 2.3 percent reduction from the previous year’s request of $716 billion. But, Trump added, “we’re doing things that we have never done on this scale. So, that included a lot of rebuilding of our military. Despite that, I am going to keep that at $700 billion, defense.” (Caution: we’re not sure if Trump was speaking about the DoD budget or the broader national security budget.)

Adams, speaking around the same time as the president on Wednesday, observed that budgets are “only going to get the same or less, in my opinion, down the road. So, in order to modernize, we have to divest.”

The Corps has already cancelled the planned survivability upgrade for its AAV-7 amphibious landing craft in order to focus on the new Amphibious Combat Vehicle.

Adams also includes the Marine Corps’ replacement of its EA-6B Prowlers and F-18 Hornets with the F-35B as an example of scrapping legacy systems. While the loss of the Prowlers means the Corps loses some of its electronic jamming capability, service leaders say the Navy’s EA-18G Growlers could take up some of the slack there. And, of course, the F-35 brings electronic warfare capabilities to the fight.

In addition, the Corps is prioritizing air defense against a range of threats from cruise missiles to short and medium-range missiles. Since the end of the Cold War, “across the joint force, we’ve allowed the air defense capability to languish,” he said.

The Marine Corps Requirements Oversight Council played a major role in identifying more than $567 million in savings over the course of 2019, either by getting rid of small programs or cutting back on refurbishment of older programs on their way to the scrap heap.

Those savings are being earmarked for a long list of new programs. “Now we’re focusing more heavily on the cyber and space domains,” Adams said. “That feeds into our divestment discussions all the time.”
it's
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Today at 7:58 AM
sorta:

"Saudi Arabia has confirmed the death of missing Saudi journalist and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, claiming he died in a fist fight involving more than a dozen Saudi officials at the country's consulate in Istanbul.

...

When asked if he found the Saudi explanation credible, US President Donald Trump said he did.

..."
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kinda related (but posted before that, two pair of quotes, credible, two pair of unquotes, Saudi explanation) is
Defense Industry Safe From Saudi Issues, Say Analysts
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Fear of lost arms sales to Saudi Arabia may have become another new headache for Western defense contractors to manage, but so far, business analysts think companies are relatively safe.

“We continue to believe that the death of Jamal Khashoggi will not lead to a major break in U.S. or European defense sales to Saudi Arabia, but the issue could linger in 2019-2020 and the war in Yemen remains an issue,” said Byron Callan of Capital Alpha Partners.

While commenting on British-based
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, Vertical Research Partners echoed the sentiment. “While Brexit is set to be an issue for the next approximately six months, we think the Saudi issue will blow over—but a follow-on order for the
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should not be expected any time soon,” said analysts Rob Stallard, Krishna Sinha and Karl Oehlschlaeger.

The analysts referred to a March agreement for the kingdom to buy 48
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from the Eurofighter consortium, in which BAE serves as a key partner. Over the last month, BAE stock prices suffered a roughly 9% drop, with losses accelerating after Khashoggi’s alleged murder grabbed headlines.

But analysts cited President Donald Trump’s repeated affirmations that U.S. arms sales to Saudi Arabia were safe. The president has said they provide U.S. jobs and keep the Saudis from buying weapons from Russia or China. Last year, his administration and several U.S. primes trumpeted a package of sales that could be worth as much as $110 billion over several years if fully carried out.

Analysts see BAE as most pressured by the possibility of a reduction in Western arms sales to Saudi Arabia, as 16% of the U.K.-U.S. company’s sales in the first half of 2018 were to the kingdom. Other primes, such as
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,
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and
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, could record 5% or less in sales to the Saudis.

Citing U.S. government data, Callan noted total U.S. defense exports to Saudi Arabia were around $3 billion in 2017, up 21% from 2016. The largest increase was in a category covering tanks, artillery, rockets and missiles, which jumped from $581 million in 2016 to $1.4 billion in 2017.

The export data does not capture work done by U.S. contractors in the kingdom to support its military, Callan stressed. But Western contractor-led indigenous work appears to be growing, according to announcements this year.

In a May ceremony witnessed by Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and President Trump, Raytheon and the Saudi Arabia Military Industries Co. signed a memorandum of understanding to cooperate on defense-related projects and technology development. Raytheon also announced plans to establish Raytheon Arabia, a Saudi legal entity wholly owned by Raytheon that will focus on implementing programs to create indigenous defense, aerospace and security capabilities in the kingdom. In March,
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announced a joint venture with Saudi Arabian Military Industries to direct spending and work on more than 55% of related MRO services for fixed and rotary-wing military aircraft to occur in the kingdom.

In 2016, Saudi officials unveiled their Vision 2030 plan with the goal of dedicating half of the kingdom’s defense spending to local enterprises. As offshoots of domestic industrial growth, Saudi Arabia foresees greater security, self-sufficiency and defense exports.
so let's wait and see
 
it's the SDF here so China related part of
Trump says US is ending decades-old nuclear arms treaty with Russia
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:

"Administration officials believe the treaty has put the US at a disadvantage because China does not face any constraints on developing intermediate-range nuclear missiles in the Pacific and it does not allow the US to develop new weapons.
Trump, speaking with reporters on Saturday, referenced China when explaining his reasoning for pulling out of the agreement.
"Unless Russia comes to us and China comes to us and they all come to us and say, 'Let's really get smart and let's none of us develop those weapons.' But if Russia's doing it and if China's doing it and we're adhering to the agreement, that's unacceptable," Trump said.
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, the head of US Pacific Command, Adm. Harry Harris, told Congress that approximately 95% of China's missile force would violate the INF Treaty if they were part of the agreement.
 

TerraN_EmpirE

Tyrant King
"Using this size, the CBO estimates building the new Seawolf-class type of submarine will cost about $5.5 billion per sub. In contrast, the Navy’s shipbuilding plan estimates SSN(X) production will run about $3.1 billion per sub."

inside
Navy’s New SSN(X) Attack Sub To Be Faster, More Lethal – And More Expensive
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!
So back to the future.
The Virginia class was the result of the cold war end and the political machine believing that the Navy was going to be peace keepers of the sea. They designed Virginia as a latoral boat. Now the Navy feels the potential of peer on peer. So its back to the sea wolf style hunter killer.
That said it's still 16 years before the SSN (X) and there are a lot of Virginia class on order. It's likely that features from the Virginia will also carry over.
Just as some features from Sea wolf carried to the Virginia class.
 

TerraN_EmpirE

Tyrant King
Thursday at 8:10 AM
related:
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As old programs go, the Corps is looking at new cyber capabilities and getting back into the air defense game.
it's
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"Adams also includes the Marine Corps’ replacement of its EA-6B Prowlers and F-18 Hornets with the F-35B as an example of scrapping legacy systems. While the loss of the Prowlers means the Corps loses some of its electronic jamming capability, service leaders say the Navy’s EA-18G Growlers could take up some of the slack there. And, of course, the F-35 brings electronic warfare capabilities to the fight."

The Marines are also supposed to get F35Cs down the line for there portion of CVN Air wings.
I really feel the USMC and USAF should have invested in a SEAD kit for the F35.
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.

"In addition, the Corps is prioritizing air defense against a range of threats from cruise missiles to short and medium-range missiles. Since the end of the Cold War, “across the joint force, we’ve allowed the air defense capability to languish,” he said."

This is one of those across the board "why do we need this LoL the cold war is over" things. Fine not to have if fighting insurgents armed AKs. But valuable if the other guy has fast movers.
 
after I had seen:
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.
I recalled this cool picture (presumably recent):
42940029_2505600239479997_315461302996432212_n.jpg


I guess TE knows the source LOL
 
Yesterday at 7:58 AM
sorta:

"Saudi Arabia has confirmed the death of missing Saudi journalist and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, claiming he died in a fist fight involving more than a dozen Saudi officials at the country's consulate in Istanbul.

...

When asked if he found the Saudi explanation credible, US President Donald Trump said he did.

..."
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and now Rogoway's blog post
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slightly elevated my blood pressure:

I'm asking (and Rogoway doesn't) WHERE'S THE BODY?!

"a struggle at the consulate" ... happens, so why not to call an independent examiner from for example Switzerland ... oh wait it wouldn't take an examiner to tell the body was chopped
 
Today at 2:22 PM
Yesterday at 7:58 AM
and now Rogoway's blog post
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slightly elevated my blood pressure:

I'm asking (and Rogoway doesn't) WHERE'S THE BODY?!

"a struggle at the consulate" ... happens, so why not to call an independent examiner from for example Switzerland ... oh wait it wouldn't take an examiner to tell the body was chopped
"Trump initially said he believed the Saudi account, but on Saturday he said he still does not know where Khashoggi's body is."
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gelgoog

Brigadier
Registered Member
Replacing Virginia-class orders for something larger is, to put it simply, bonkers. I think some US admiral looked at the Russian Yasen-class Severodvinsk and got some kind of size envy. But the Russians have like a single one of those boats and the modernized class that is supposed to replace it in further construction is reported to be smaller in size and closer to the size of the Virginia-class. The USA, unlike Russia, also has no diesel-submarine fleet at all. So the Virginia-class has to be a one size fits all kind of boat. It makes sense for it to be smaller and to build it in large quantities to decrease the per unit costs.
 
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