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UPDATED: MAY 15, 2019 11:12 AM ET
(BAGHDAD) — The U.S. on Wednesday ordered all nonessential government staff to leave Iraq, and Germany and the Netherlands both suspended their military assistance programs in the country in the latest sign of tensions sweeping the Persian Gulf region over still-unspecified threats that the Trump administration says are linked to Iran.

Recent days have seen allegations of sabotage targeting oil tankers off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, a drone attack by Yemen’s Iranian-allied Houthi rebels, and the dispatch of U.S. warships and bombers to the region.

At the root of this appears to be President Donald Trump’s decision a year ago to pull the U.S. from Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers, embarking on a maximalist sanctions campaign against Tehran. In response, Iran’s supreme leader issued a veiled threat Tuesday, saying it wouldn’t be difficult for the Islamic Republic to enrich uranium to weapons-grade levels.

The movement of diplomatic personnel is often done in times of conflict, but what is driving the decisions from the White House remains unclear. A high-ranking British general said there was no new threat from Iran or its regional proxies, something immediately rebutted by the U.S. military’s Central Command, which said its troops were on high alert, without elaborating.

Last week, U.S. officials said they had detected signs of Iranian preparations for potential attacks on U.S. forces and interests in the Middle East, but Washington has not spelled out that threat, and an alert on the website of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad said that all nonessential, non-emergency U.S. government staff were ordered to leave Iraq right away under State Department orders.

The U.S. in recent days has ordered the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group to the Gulf region, plus four B-52 bombers.
 
noted
F-15EX could be delivered as early as 2020: Boeing
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Boeing is ready to deliver at least two engineering, manufacturing and development (EMD) F-15EX fighters to the US Air Force (USAF) as soon as 2020.

The company says the aircraft’s similarities to its Advanced F-15 – a fighter it is producing for Qatar and Saudi Arabia – means it can quickly be turned out from its active production line. The proclamation comes as the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee included $986 million in a draft FY2020 budget for eight F-15EX aircraft to replace aging F-15C/Ds.

The F-15EX is a slightly modified version of the Advanced F-15, which is not in the USAF inventory. The service is interested in the fighter because its $29,000 per flight hour cost is cheaper than the Lockheed Martin F-35. Also, about 70% of the existing spare F-15 inventory already works on the F-15EX and transitioning squadrons to the aircraft would be faster.

Boeing Defense, Space & Security is producing Advanced F-15 aircraft at a rate of 12 per year at its St. Louis, Missouri facility. The airframer says that it plans to wrap up production of Saudi Arabia’s jets in 2019 and then start on Qatar’s order. With its existing backlog of orders, the F-15 programme has three more years of production.

However, the St. Louis F-15 production line has capacity to build as many as 36 aircraft per year, says Boeing.

“We have other things in the pipeline which will keep the pipeline going. So, it’s not an eminent threat of being starved off of orders quite yet,” says Prat Kumar, Boeing’s vice president and programme manager for the F-15. “Many of the countries that have this platform have showed renewed interest.”

Qatar has been approved by the Pentagon for up to 72 aircraft, Israel is looking at buying up to 25 aircraft and the USAF’s total procurement plan over five years is up to 80 aircraft, among other interested parties, he says.
Mar 28, 2019
gee
USAF Plans To Fly New F-15 With Empty Back Seat
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isn't dated April 1
 
Nov 6, 2018
Apr 7, 2018
well recently I've read a real world article, plus a discussion below it, at defense24.pl (in Polish so I don't bother with the link),

related not just to the Polish acquisition of Patriots (off topic here anyway), and the point is (I won't push it, actually I'm not going respond if there're comments)

countries should be careful when spending billions on HYPED Patriots (with just 120 degrees of radar coverage etc.) IF not integrated in the air-defense system
now
Don’t dumb down this US Army radar
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and the story of, ehm, controversial coverage etc. goes on as
US Army’s missile defense radar program advances into prototyping competition
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The U.S. Army’s competition for
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has officially begun with the release of a request for proposals asking for prototypes.

The request, posted to the Federal Business Opportunities website May 14, is a step in the right direction as the Army has struggled to procure a new radar for its Integrated Air-and-Missile Defense System meant to
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for well over a decade.

The Lower Tier Air-and-Missile Defense Sensor (LTAMDS) program had a slow and indecisive start but since air-and-missile defense became a top six modernization priority for the Army under the new Army Futures Command, the service has finally moved forward to get a competition off the ground.

The Raytheon-made Patriot radar was first fielded in the 1980s, and the Army attempted to replace the system with Lockheed Martin’s Medium Extended Air Defense System, or MEADS, through an international co-development effort with Germany and Italy. But that program was canceled in the U.S. after closing out a proof-of-concept phase roughly six years ago.

Since then, the Army
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with one that has 360-degree detection capability, while Raytheon continues to upgrade its radar to keep pace with current threats. It is acknowledged that there will come a point where that radar will not be able to go up against future threats.

Taking years to decide, the service
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o replace the radar in 2017 and chose four companies to come up with design concepts for the capability — Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Technovative Applications.

Toward the end of 2018,
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under that program.

Last fall, shortly after awarding technology development contracts to Raytheon and Lockheed, Defense News first broke the news that the Army was attempting to hit the reset button on the LTAMDS program,
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.

Radars were to demonstrate capabilities over this month and next month at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico.

Raytheon has
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and
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has partnered with Israeli radar company Elta Systems for the sense-off. Northrop Grumman is also believed to be a participant.

As the result of the sense-off, the Army plans to choose one vendor to build six prototypes by the end of fiscal year 2022 to prove the whether the radar can be manufactured.. A follow-on contract for 16 additional radars is expected, according to the request.

According to the cross-functional team in charge of AMD modernization, if there is more than one option that proves extremely promising during the sense-off, it’s possible a second vendor could be chosen to build prototypes.

The deadline for responding to the request is July 9 and, according to the solicitation, the Army will select who will move on to provide prototypes in September 2019.

The solicitation does not contain many public details regarding requirements aside from ensuring that capabilities can be spiraled in later through software upgrades.

One requirement
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. While it was once a top priority requirements for a new radar, the service seemed to walk back on the necessity of such detection capability.
 
Nov 23, 2018
tragicomic they don't ever mention actual combat value ("value") of some vessels being procured for example 35 LCSs Sep 18, 2018
, just aggregate number in ...
...
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The Navy is adding more ships as quickly as possible, even as it grapples with how it's going to pay the costs to keep them afloat once it gets them, a top officer said.
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interestingly,
Navy Must Retain 80 Percent of Sailors Annually to Grow Fleet
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The Navy needs to retain close to 80 percent of its force each year if it hopes to meet staffing requirements of its growing fleet, the service’s personnel chief told lawmakers on Thursday.

The Navy is on track grow by 7,500 active duty personnel this year and by 5,000 sailors each year through Fiscal Year 2024, Chief of Naval Personnel Vice Adm. Robert Burke told the House Armed Services subcommittee on military personnel. Burke was joined by his counterparts from the Marine Corps, Army and Air Force.

If the Navy meets its recruiting and retentions targets, Burke said the force would be able to adequately staff the 314-ship fleet the Navy anticipates sailing in 2024. The Navy’s FY 2020 budget request calls for a force of 354,000 by 2024.

Predicting the size of a force needed to staff the planned 355-ship Navy is difficult because technology and ship types will likely change during the decades it will take to build such a fleet. Based on Congressional Budget Office predictions and current staffing needs of ships in the fleet,
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the Navy ultimately needs to grow to nearly 375,000 active duty personnel. As of Thursday, the service had an end strength of 332,507 officers and enlisted sailors, according to
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.

Most sailors initially join on six-year contracts, Burke said. His staff is focused on getting the vast majority of those joining now to re-enlist in the future.

“When we’re at a stable size, we need a roughly around 55 percent retention to that second contract. Right now, we need much higher than that because we’re trying to balance accessions versus retentions because we don’t want a really junior force manning that 355-ship Navy, we want a mix of experienced people, so we need in the 70- to 80-percent region, and we’re in that ballpark now,” Burke said.

All branches of the military are facing the same challenges in recruiting and retaining personnel. A strong economy provides active duty personnel career options outside of uniform which can pay more. Another critical component of retention is considering the changing nature of the force, Burke said.

“67 percent of our officers and over half of our enlisted sailors are married, and many of them are dual-professional couples,” he said. “We have to address that reality if we’re going to retain the family.”

In contrast, the Marine Corps’ end strength needs are very modest – total growth of 400 Marines between now and FY 2024, Lt. Gen. Michael Rocco, the Marine Corps deputy commandant for manpower and reserve affairs, told lawmakers during the hearing. The Marine Corps currently has about 186,000 active duty personnel.

“100 this year and 300 through the rest of the FYDP (future years defense program) and it has to specifically do with providing special operations critical skill enablers,” Rocco said of the Marine Corps’ projected end strength growth.
 

Brumby

Major
EXCLUSIVE: U.S. Air Force has deployed 20 missiles that could zap the military electronics of North Korea or Iran with super powerful microwaves, rendering their military capabilities virtually useless with NO COLLATERAL DAMAGE
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This news piece has also been picked up by Military and Aerospace electronics.
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While the CHAMP program is no secret, tying its deployment to the ongoing Iran and NK situation may actually question the credibility of the news itself.
 
EXCLUSIVE: U.S. Air Force has deployed 20 missiles that could zap the military electronics of North Korea or Iran with super powerful microwaves, rendering their military capabilities virtually useless with NO COLLATERAL DAMAGE
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This news piece has also been picked up by Military and Aerospace electronics.
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While the CHAMP program is no secret, tying its deployment to the ongoing Iran and NK situation may actually question the credibility of the news itself.
here's the link to
Making sense of CHAMP, the silver bullet miracle missile that isn’t

December 13, 2017
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bd popeye

The Last Jedi
VIP Professional
Navy Must Retain 80 Percent of Sailors Annually to Grow Fleet

That ain't happening unless standards for re-enlistment are lowered..slightly. And re-enlistment bonuses are raised considerably...Long ago when I served the USN was looking for 30-40% retention rate. 80%?!! No way...period.
 
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