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Bernard

Junior Member
Army Begins Training for Next War, Which May Be Much Different, Bigger
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m1a2-abrams-battle-tank-02.jpg

M1A2 Abrams Battle Tank
Kansas City Star | May 27, 2015 | by Rick Montgomery
FORT RILEY, KANSAS -- For more than a decade, troops here have been schooled in counterinsurgency.

"Mission-specific" training, they call it: going house to house, busting down doors, rooting out terror cells, recognizing crude explosives.

Now, after a pair of mission-specific wars, an
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in transition aims to get back to the future.

The training needed to fight full-scale, more conventional battles has suffered, Army leaders contend. So
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is putting soldiers such as Staff Sgt.Gilbert Monroe back into big tanks and simulating wars on a scale grander than Iraq or Afghanistan.

"This is what I signed up for," Monroe said.

He began his military career 14 years ago in an
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. But he spent tours in Iraq commanding more nimble
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, rolling on eight tires and lacking the heft to blast a target from 2 miles out.
With Americans on Memorial Day weekend still assessing what was gained from fighting two drawn-out conflicts at the same time, are they ready to start thinking about the next war -- maybe even The Big One?

"You hope it wouldn't be World War III, but you have to prepare for the worst," said Lt. Gen. Robert B. Brown, commanding general of the Army's Combined Arms Center at
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. "We need to be ready to play against the pro teams, not just the amateurs."

By that he means a nation such as North Korea, even Russia. A "pro team" could even be a band of radicals with the means to acquire nationlike resources in a hurry -- such as those fighters who call themselves the Islamic State, recruiting through the global reach of the Web.

In Army-speak, the training needed to fight that brand of enemy is shifting away from "mission-specific" toward "decisive action."

And that requires the reacquainting of soldiers with epic battle plans featuring tanks,
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,
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and military precision exercised over a broad and rugged terrain.

"That skill set has perished," said Timothy D. Livsey, Fort Riley's deputy garrison commander.

"It's a paradigm shift for the Army," Livsey said. "With Iraq and Afghanistan, it was all about COIN -- counterinsurgency. We still need to train for that. But we also have to get back to bread-and-butter skills such as precise artillery, precise gunnery."

Fort Riley officials say decisive-action training blends yesterday's emphasis on battlefield prowess with the people skills required of troops more recently focused on counterinsurgency.

At a time when U.S. military action has become defined by targeted airstrikes, ships jockeying in the South China Sea and a reluctance to place boots on the ground, the Army is seeking to reassert itself on the strategic stage, experts say.

Now facing steep troop reductions planned by the Pentagon, "the Army really is looking for a strategic framework in which to remain relevant," said Kelley Sayler of the Center for a New American Security, an independent research organization.

"And you do need to train for the prospect of an epic war, even if there's a low likelihood of it happening," Sayler said. "You don't want battlefield skills to atrophy."

Nora Bensahel, a defense policy expert at American University, agreed.

"You have to prepare for the full spectrum," she said.

Generations of U.S. military planners have gravely miscalculated that the next war would be like the last, Bensahel said.

"You just don't know what the next conflict will entail."

No comparison
Don't think of the activities at Fort Riley as training for a "conventional" war, said Brown of the Combined Arms Center.

"A nation-state fighting against another nation-state would be so complex these days, so unlike World War II, you could hardly make a comparison," he said.

Future wars wouldn't compare even with Operation Desert Storm, the 1991 land assault in which a multinational force drove Iraqi troops out of Kuwait. Brown said technological leaps since then, plus threats posed by cyberattackers, have transformed conventional battle plans.

"No enemy today would be stupid enough to allow us months and months to build up forces," as was the case in Desert Storm, he said.

Livsey said Fort Riley provides the perfect stage to replicate a complex battle across a vast landscape.

Home to the nation's 1st Infantry Division, known as "The Big Red One," the fort boasts more than 75,000 acres of deep-rooted grasslands that quickly rebound from the tank tracks, fires and other scars of mock battlefield maneuvers.

In combined-arms exercises slated for next month, "we'll have a synchronization of artillery, aviation, howitzers, tanks ... everything we've got," said Maj. Steve Veves. His tank group fired at long-distance targets last week.

The Army's National Training Center in the Mojave Desert has long been a site of intensive battlefield maneuvers for deploying troops. The military is shifting more of that training to home stations such as Fort Riley, and some of them have already been working on the new training.

Relying also on simulated training, Fort Riley this year became the first in the Army to use gaming software developed at Fort Leavenworth's simulation laboratory. The software allows moving soldiers to become their own fighting avatars, surrounded by a virtual battleground they view through helmets.

"You become immersed," said Bill Raymann, chief of training at the fort's Close Combat and Tactical Training campus.

"If a simulation is done correctly, it'll take the brain about 15 seconds to adjust back. You walk out the door surprised: 'Oh, I'm really in Kansas.' "

Live action
Indoor simulators helped Pfc. Christian McClure get down the mechanics of loading an Abrams tank.

"They help, but nothing can simulate like this does," McClure said just before wedging into a real tank and practicing live action on the firing range.

Although many experts, including some top Pentagon brass, question the Army's need for heavy tanks and howitzers for future conflicts, McClure and tank commander Monroe would rather be nowhere else in battle.

"You can always use a tank," Monroe said. "And, unfortunately, there will always be wars to fight."

Miles away from the erupting battleground, Fort Riley commanders can monitor live maneuvers and coordinate them with drills around the globe.

A beach landing in California, infantry moving through a crowded Asian city and sea support from somewhere else, all linked together, make for what Army officials call "the ultimate scrimmage" for the ultimate war.

Military analyst John Pike said troops trained in counterinsurgency ought to prepare for that war too.

"The Army has kicked down a lot of doors in the last dozen years," said Pike of
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. "And North Korea could break out any minute.

"It's a big world out there. ... Best as I can tell, peace isn't breaking out all over."

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Bernard

Junior Member
Amazing photos of C-17s in action!

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1269926821433325927.jpg


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was put under pressure last week conducting an extraordinary exercise to evaluate their ability to deploy a large aircraft formation during a simulated crisis. And by large I mean very big airplanes in a very big formation.

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As part of Crescent Reach 2015, 15 aircraft departed the military base in Charleston from the 437th airlift wing for a multi-ship formation to Pope Air Force Base in North Carolina including 11 C-17 Globemaster IIIs. The 437th joined forces with the 628th Air Base Wing and reservists from the 315th Airlift wing to get things off the ground successfully. Along the way, the formation was met by four additional C-17s, six C-130s, E-8 JSTARS and two F-16s during the 82nd Airborne Division’s participation in All American Week.


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Testing the pilot’s abilities to fly in a large formation was only a portion of the goals for this exercise. Deploying members’ ability to survive and operate in dangerous environments was also exercised through Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear Explosives training and evaluation events. As another part of the mobility portion of the exercise, over 1,500 paratroopers and critical equipment were dropped to simulate a
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of the Global Response Force. Additionally 40 Container Delivery System (CDS) bundles, eight dual row platforms and one heavy platform were dropped from the airlift aircraft.


CDS bundles are roughly the size of a coffin and used to supplement equipment carried by the airborne paratroopers or resupply forces already on the ground. The CDS has its own self contained cargo parachute that deployed with a 20 foot static line attached to the C-17.

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The dual row platform is intended to drop much heavier equipment with weights upward of 14,000 lbs. Heavy drop is used by airborne forces most often to deliver vehicles, bulk cargo, and equipment.


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The value of a exercise of this magnitude allows the armed forces the opportunity to see training completed on a smaller scale now executed of a larger, more real world scenario. The annual mobility exercise allows the airlift wing the chance to perform almost every aspect of a combat mission including intelligence development, aircraft loading and launch, airdrops and special operations and landings on semi-prepared runways.
 
what a menace :)
Air Force Developing Swarms of Mini-Drones
The Air Force is in the early phases of developing swarms of mini-drones designed to overwhelm and confuse enemy radar systems or blanket an area with multiple sensors at the same time, service officials said.

While still primarily in the laboratory stage, the concept is gaining traction with Air Force scientists who are making progress developing algorithms for swarms of small unmanned aircraft vehicles, or UAVs, said Mica Endsley, Air Force Chief Scientist.

“It is built on the biological concept of say a swarm of bees, for example, where you can see a lot of them fly as a group but they do not run into each other. They manage some type of coordinated activity between them in order to be able to navigate successfully,” Endsley told Military.com. “In the laboratory – we have developed algorithms that allow small UAVs to be able to operate that way so that they can work in conjunction without running into each other.”

Endsley added that the precise roles and missions for this type of technology are still in the process of being determined; however experts and analyst are already discussing numerous potential applications for the technology.

Swarms of drones would be able to blanket an area with sensors even if one or two get shot down. The technology could be designed for high threat areas building in strategic redundancy, Air Force officials said.

“You might want to set the task for five or six UAVs to go and cover a particular area where they work in conjunction with each other. Maybe one has one type of sensor and the other has another type of sensor — so they could cue each other,” Endsley said.

“If one picked up an object of interest, it could cue another one to go examine it with maybe a different kind of sensor that might a higher resolution. They would be working together to accomplish a particular mission.”

Groups of coordinated small drones could also be used to confuse enemy radar systems and overwhelm advanced enemy air defenses, Endsley acknowledged.

“This has the ability to provide so many targets that they cannot be dealt with all at once,” said Phillip Finnegan, UAV expert at the Teal Group, a Virginia-based consultancy.

“This is an important area of research because it offers the potential to provide new ways of attacking an adversary at lower cost. It is also important to understand that an adversary might wish to use swarms against the United States — so this has an offensive and defensive character,” Finnegan added.

In addition, small groups of drones operating together could function as munitions or weapons delivery technology. A small class of mini-drone weapons already exist, such as AeroVironment’s Switchblade drone designed to deliver precision weapons effects. The weapon, which can reach distances up to 10 kilometers, is engineered as a low-cost expendable drone loaded with sensors and munitions.

Cost is an important element of the mini-drone swarming concept, Finnegan added.

“From a cost perspective, it is important to figure out how to do this in a low cost way. If you start using expensive munitions, it is prohibitively expensive,” he said.

Air Force plans for new drones are part of a new service strategy to be explained in an upcoming paper called “autonomous horizons.”
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, to be released next month, also calls for greater manned-unmanned teaming between drones and manned aircraft such as F-35s.

The Office of Naval Research is also working on drone-swarming technology through an ongoing effort called Low-Cost Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Swarming Technology, or LOCUST. This involves groups of small, tube-launched UAVs designed to swarm and overwhelm adversaries, Navy officials explained.

“Researchers continue to push the state-of-the-art in autonomy control and plan to launch 30 autonomous UAVs in 2016 in under a minute,” an ONR statement said.

The demonstration will take place from a ship called a Sea Fighter, a high-speed, shallow-water experimental ship developed by the ONR.
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Alvaritus

New Member
Registered Member
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Figure-7.jpg

CSBA graphic

WASHINGTON: The Senate Armed Services Committee has joined the push to
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. The hard part, ironically, may be getting the Army to go along.

Why should soldiers do more in the Pacific, a theater traditionally dominated by pilots, Marines, and, above all, sailors? The Pacific, obviously, is full of water. But it’s also full of islands — and some of the larger islands signed treaties with the US: Japan, the Philippines and Taiwan. The Army’s potential role there isn’t limited to defending against invasion. The Army already has
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radars in Japan (the Raytheon AN/TPY-2) and may deploy
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to South Korea.

But why stop at defensive systems, ask lawmakers like House seapower chairman
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. China’s
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already has
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that can attack US and allied ships far out at sea. What if the US and its allies fielded land-based anti-ship systems of their own? That might deter — or in the last resort, defeat —
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for disputed islands like the
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or the
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.

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, the House version of the
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requires a Pentagon report “as to the feasibility, utility, and options for mobile, land-based systems to provide anti-ship fires.” That’s an idea
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.

The Senate’s version of the bill goes much further.

It calls for “a comprehensive operational assessment of a potential future role for U.S. ground forces in the island chains of the western Pacific in creating
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(A2/AD) capabilities in cooperation with host nations to deter and defeat aggression in the region.” The capabilities specified for study include land-based anti-ship missiles and more. The full list, with our commentary in italics:

“(A)
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and mobile missiles as a means of neutralizing adversary naval forces, including amphibious forces, and inhibiting their movement, and protecting the shores of host nations and friendly naval forces and supply operations.” (
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, but the Navy has largely gotten out of the business since
).

“(B)
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surveillance and missile systems to protect host-nation territory and ground, naval, and air forces, and to deny access to defended airspace by adversaries.” (The Navy’s
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play an ever-larger role in missile defense, but the fleet is reluctant to tie up such assets protecting friendly territory when a land-based defensive battery could do the job more cheaply and as well
).

“(C) Electronic warfare capabilities to support air and naval operations.” (
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is far ahead of
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, but the
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that land-based systems can be larger and more powerful than anything you can fit on a ship
).

“(D) Hardened ground-based communications capabilities for host-nation defense and for augmentation and extension of naval, air, and satellite communications.” (Jamming and hacking of wireless communications is a major worry in a
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, making old-fashioned, well-buried landlines an attractive backup
).

“(E) Maneuver forces to assist in host-nation defense, deny access to adversaries, and provide security for air and naval deployments.” (Only in this fifth and final item do we get to the classic Army role as “
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” securing territory
).

Unlike the House, the Senate also specifies who it wants conducting the study, with participants including the celebrated
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and the four services’ War Colleges.

“This is a concept that offers loads of opportunity for US strategy in Asia for a relatively small cost,” one Senate staffer told me. “We need low-cost ways to raise costs and create new dilemmas for China in the Pacific right now. A mobile, land-based sea-denial and anti-air warfare capability is a no-brainer.”

“There were actually staffers on both the R[epublican] and D[emocratic] side thinking about this and we found ourselves all on the same page,” the staffer went on. “There is a broad, bipartisan consensus on the Hill and in the think tank community that the Army should be moving in this direction, but a limited appetite in the Army to take on such a mission right now.”

“US ground forces should be giving these concepts and capabilities more attention than they have been,” a House staffer agreed. “This is a great opportunity for the Army, in particular, to leverage the unique capabilities and characteristics of land forces to play a new and important role in places like the Western Pacific. It is puzzling that the level of interest within big Army is so low.”

Anti-ship defenses — the Coastal Artillery — were a major and prestigious part of the Army until World War II. Shore-based anti-ship missiles would be the 21st century equivalent. The latest
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even
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that “Future Army forces will [conduct] the projection of power from land across the maritime, air, space, and cyberspace domains.”

But while “cross-domain synergy” and “
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” are the strategic rhetoric, the
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is the reality. Unless the Army gets more money to build shore-based missile batteries, it would have to cut something else. “Army coastal artillery is interesting,” a third Hill staffer said, “but tell me what you’ll trade off to create it? Infantry?
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? Short-range air defense?”

With the Army feeling even more under siege than the other services, building a whole new capability is daunting. But it could give the Army new missions and new sources of funding.
 

Miragedriver

Brigadier
This is from Spuknik News, so take it with a grain of salt

US, UK Assess Fifth Generation Fighter Jet’s Amphibious Capabilities

US and UK military personnel began testing the F-35B stealth fighter jet’s ability to conduct both land and sea operations from an aircraft carrier, US defense giant Lockheed Martin said in a press release on Tuesday.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The “B” version of the F-35 jet combines essential “lethal fighter characteristics,” according to Lockheed Martin.

Service members from the United Kingdom are working alongside their US Navy and Marine Corps counterparts to assess the integration of the F-35B into amphibious military operations,” the release stated.

The lethal fighter characteristics include supersonic speed, radar-evading stealth technology and short takeoff and vertical landing capabilities.

Sixteen Royal Navy and Royal Air Force operational assessors, ship integration team members, aircraft technicians and maintenance crews, will conduct tests of the F-35B from a US aircraft carrier over the next two weeks, the release explained.

The UK assessors will test F-35B night flight operations, weapons loading and interoperability of aircraft and ship systems, among other capabilities, the release added.

UK pilots will begin operating the F-35B from home bases in England starting in 2018, according to the release, and are on track to fly from Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers in 2020.

In February 2015, UK engineers and pilots stood up their first F-35 squadron at Edwards Air Force Base in California, where they fly and maintain two F-35B jets independently from their US colleagues, the release said.

The F-35’s development has been beset by delays, cost overruns and technical problems. Critics of the program in the US Congress have argued that the jets are unnecessary and a waste of money.

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Back to bottling my Grenache
 

Jeff Head

General
Registered Member
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Breaking defense News said:
ABOARD USS WASP: When you start getting bored during an operational test after watching the seventh or eighth F-35B float down the carrier deck and slip up into the air, you know the Marines and Navy are doing something right.

The six pilots have put their planes into the air close to 100 times since Operational Test 1 (OT-1) began May 18. I was out on the USS Wasp all day yesterday.

Much of what the Marines are doing is focused on operations, in keeping with their plan to declare the F-35B ready for
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) in July. Today, the F-35Bs are flying simulated operations to protect the Wasp from incoming enemy aircraft played by other F-35s. They’re trying to begin the process of generating sorties at the same pace they might have to during a war. (We heard from one pilot that the F-35Bs had already met and beaten the ship boarding rate of the Harrier fleet.) The Marines also
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to ensure it would fit on the Osprey and to begin planning how to store the gear.

The biggest engine module of five that make up the F135 engine for the F-35B. It’s stored on the USS Wasp.

The 91 maintainers aboard the Wasp jacked up an F-35B and found they needed to come up with some new gear to do it easily and safely to manage the 32,300 pound aircraft.

But there is one aspect of the plane’s operation that raised concerns. “I’m most worried about noise” the aircraft generates, the head of NavSea (Naval Sea Systems Command),
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, told me just before we left the Wasp. Earlier, a small group of reporters were interviewing F-35 maintainers in the hangar deck where the massive elevator raises and lower planes to and from the flight deck. An F-35B hovered and then landed, almost overhead. Everyone covered their ears. All conversation stopped. My head was ringing from the noise by the time the plane landed. The USS Wasp has placed microphones all around the flight deck, in the hangar deck and anywhere else that might be affected to monitor noise levels. Of course, noise is something the military is pretty effective at dealing with.

A gaggle of pilots spoke to us about the Marine’s version of the Joint Strike Fighter. There were two British officers on the panel as well, demonstrating the incredibly close working relationship between the US and British forces. After all, the biggest ship ever built for the Royal Navy, the
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, will routinely carry a dozen F-35Bs. We didn’t hear much news from the pilots, but the enthusiasm for the F-35 from former F-18 and Harrier pilots was impressive.

F-35B-taxiing-during-night-ops-aboard-USS-Wasp-1024x683.jpg
An F-35B taxis on the USS Wasp at night on May 22, 2015.
Perhaps the most interesting tidbit we heard came from a maintainer on the ship, Staff Sgt. William Sullivan. He’s responsible for ensuring the aircraft maintain their stealth signature.
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, of course, depends on coatings as well as engineering. Nicks, scratches or unexpected reactions with sea water and all the chemicals aboard ship could degrade the F-35’s stealth. So I asked Sullivan how the marine environment was affecting this: “Up to now the coatings have held up extremely well.”

Perhaps the most surprising thing we heard was that
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“is performing extremely well.” Lt. Commander Beth Kitchen of the Royal Navy should know: She’s stationed in Beaufort, S.C. with the Marines training to fly the F-35B and she is responsible for the UK’s efforts to build a maintenance force for their F-35Bs. Breaking D readers will remember that the head of the Joint Program Office,
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, has criticized the performance of ALIS and it remains one of his main areas of focus as the Marines approach IOC in July, to be followed by
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.
 

Bernard

Junior Member
Modernized Cruiser Chancellorsville Leaving for New Homeport in Japan
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May 28, 2015 3:40 PM
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The Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Chancellorsville (CG 62) pulls out of San Diego Harbor for a training exercise in March 2013. US Navy photo.

The guided missile cruiser USS Chancellorsville (CG-62) departed San Diego today for its new homeport of Yokosuka, Japan, rejoining the Forward Deployed Naval Forces and bringing an improved anti-air warfare capability to the Asia-Pacific region.

Chancellorsville was the first cruiser to receive its Aegis Baseline 9 upgrade, undergoing the modernization work in 2012 and extensive testing in 2013 and 2014. The upgrade allows better command and control through the Navy Integrated Fire Control-Counter Air (NIFC-CA) system and better fire power through the Standard Missile-6 surface to air missile.

Another upgraded cruiser, USS Normandy (CG-60), deployed in March, but Chancellorsville will be the first upgraded cruiser to join the Forward Deployed Naval Forces (FDNF).

The Navy and the Defense Department have said they would not only push more assets into the Pacific as part of the Asia rebalance but also put the most modern and sophisticated platforms there. The Navy has already deployed its new P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol planes and Littoral Combat Ships to the Asia-Pacific region, and
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it would send three modernized ballistic missile defense-capable destroyers to the FDNF in Japan to replace one non-upgraded destroyer.

Chancellorsville served in the FDNF in Japan from 1998 to 2006.

In 2013, during the Aegis Baseline 9 testing, Chancellorsville was
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. The Navy spent
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repairing the damage.

Some modern/ modernized high tech weaponry moving to the pacific.
 

Bernard

Junior Member
Navy Preps to Build Next Generation LXR Amphibious Assault Ship
by
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on May 26, 2015

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The Navy is preparing to build its new
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in order to meet the fast-rising need for amphibs across the globe, Congressional sources said.

Efforts to begin the process of production and delivery of the new ship come as the service is finalizing its plans to start a competition to build the vessel — a new platform designed to replace the services’ existing fleet of LSD 41/49 dock landing ships.

The existing Navy plan calls for the service to award the detail design and construction contract for the lead ship by 2020 with delivery planned for 2026, Maj. Gen. Robert Walsh, director of Navy Expeditionary Warfare, told Military.com.

However, during its mark-up of the 2016 defense bill, House Armed Services Committee lawmakers added $279 million for advanced procurement of materials for the LXR.

The Navy is now finishing up what’s called a capabilities development document in preparation to release a formal proposal to industry groups interested in competing to build the new ship.

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, the Navy has decided to base the LXR design upon the hull of an LPD 17 Amphibious Transport Dock, Walsh added.

This decision means the new ship will have more command and control technologies and aviation capability than the LSD ships they are replacing in order to allow for more independent operations.

This is because the LSD, which is key to bringing a lot of equipment from ship to shore in
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, does not have the same ability to operate independently of an Amphibious Ready Group compared to the LPD 17.

“An Amphibious Ready Group has traditionally been together in three ships. Now, in today’s environment, the new normal for operations means that we are splitting those ships out in three different directions in many cases. Having an LPD 17-type ship for the LXR is going to allow us to do even more,” Walsh explained.

The 1980’s era LSD dock landing ships consist of eight Whidbey Island-class 609-foot long ships. The 15,000-ton ships, configured largely to house and transport four LCACs, are nearing the end of their service life.

Both the LSD and the San Antonio-class LPD 17 amphibious transport docks are integral to what’s called an Amphibious Ready Group, or ARG, which typically draws upon a handful of platforms to ensure expeditionary warfighting technology. The ARG is tasked with transporting up to 2,200 Marines and their equipment, including what’s called a Marine Expeditionary Unit, or MEU.

The current configuration of the LPD transport dock is slightly different than the LSD dock landing ship in that it has more aviation capability, more command and control equipment, a crane for use on small boats and a different well deck configuration, Navy officials said.

The LPD is designed to operate with greater autonomy from an ARG and potentially conduct independent operations as needed. A LSD is able to operate four LCACs and the more autonomous LPD 17 can launch two LCACs.

Having more amphibs engineered and constructed for independent operations is seen as a strategic advantage in light of the Pacific rebalance and the geographical expanse of the region. The widely dispersed territories in the region may require a greater degree of independent amphibious operations where single amphibs operate separately from a larger ARG.

Walsh explained that the greater use of amphibious assault ships is likely as the Marine Corps continues to shift toward more sea-based operations from its land-based focus during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Also, the LPD is able to transport up to four CH-46 Sea Knight helicopters or two MV-22 Ospreys. The Navy had been planning on maintaining only 11 LPDs in the fleet, however additional funding has allowed the service to procure a long-desired 12th LPD, Navy officials said.

Overall, the Navy’s need for amphib continues to outpace the amount of ships available for missions, many Navy and Marine Corps leaders have said.

Navy and Marine Corps leaders have said the service needs as many as 50 amphibious assault ships to meet the needs of combatant commanders worldwide. Recognizing that reaching that number is not possible in today’s fiscal environment, Navy leaders have taken a number of steps to ensure more of the needed missions can be accomplished.

As part of this effort, the Navy has stood up an auxiliary platforms council designed to help develop other ships able to pick up a portion of the missions typically performed by amphibs.

This includes greater use of Mobile Landing Platforms, or MLPs, Afloat Forward Staging Bases, or AFSBs and Joint High Speed Vessels, or JHSVs, to perform the missions, Walsh said.

“We’re looking at all the different ways to repurpose them and use them in different ways to augment the current fleet. If you take these ships for some operations you can allow an amphibious ready group to focus on other missions,” he said.

Some of these missions might include anti-piracy, humanitarian assistance, disaster relief or the delivery of medical supplies, Walsh added.



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