US Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

USAF to issue contract to Sikorsky for rescue helicopter
By: JON HEMMERDINGERWASHINGTON DC00:29 05 Mar 2014
The US Air Force's combat rescue helicopter programme is moving forward.

The service announces on 4 March that it intends to issue a contract by the end of June to Sikorsky for the 14-year, $7 billion programme, which calls for up to 112 aircraft.

Sikorsky, in partnership with Lockheed Martin, was the only company to bid on the project with its proposed CRH-60, a modified version of its UH-60M Black Hawk.

The USAF says it will move $430 million from other programmes to the CRH programme though fiscal year 2019 due to "the criticality" of the combat rescue mission.

The project also received an injection of more than $300 million in the fiscal year 2014 budget.

The service warns, however, that the programme may need to be "reevaluated" should additional defense budget cuts take effect in fiscal year 2016.

"The competitive price and the funding provided by Congress will allow us to award the CRH contract, but we could still face significant challenges to keeping this effort on track," says USAF secretary Deborah Lee James in a statement. "We will need to work with Congress throughout 2015 budget deliberations."

The CRH is intended to replace the USAF's aging HH-60G Pave Hawk rescue helicopters, which are also a Sikorsky product.

"Sikorsky and our teammate Lockheed Martin thank the USAF for enabling us to build a modern and affordable combat rescue helicopter that will replace the service’s rapidly aging HH-60G Pave Hawk fleet," says Sikorsky in a statement. "We look forward to working with the USAF to deliver CRH-60 aircraft in the prescribed timeframe."

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Pentagon Fiscal 2015 Budget Includes Small Topline Cut
By Michael Fabey [email protected]
Source: AWIN First

March 04, 2014
Credit: David B Gleason
The Pentagon’s fiscal 2015 base budget proposal unveiled Tuesday requests $495.5 billion, compared with the fiscal 2014 enacted budget of $496 billion.

The Pentagon’s proposed outyear base budget top lines by fiscal year are as follows: $535.1 billion for fiscal 2016 or a decrease of 16.2% from President Obama’s fiscal 2014 proposal; $543.7 billion for fiscal 2017 or a drop of 16.2% from the fiscal 2014 proposal; $551.4 billion for fiscal 2018, a drop of 17.2% from the previous plan; and $559 billion in fiscal 2019, or a drop of 18.1% from fiscal 2014’s proposal.

For fiscal 2015, the Pentagon’s budget proposal includes a separate, fully funded “opportunity, growth and security (OGS) initiative” of about $26.4 billion. The Obama administration is proposing a similar OGS amount for non-defense needs as well.

Some of the items funded by the Pentagon’s OGS plan include: $1.1 billion for the Navy to buy eight P-8A Poseidon aircraft; $600 million for the Army to buy 26 AH-64 Apache helicopters; $500 million for the Army to buy 28 UH-60 Black Hawks; $100 million for the Army to buy two CH-47 Chinooks; $1.1 billion for the Air Force to buy 10 C-130Js; $300 million for the Air Force to buy two F-35s; and $200 million for the Air Force to buy 12 MQ-9 Reaper UAV.

The Pentagon says the budget seeks to restore readiness levels affected by sequestration cuts in fiscal 2014 and continues initiatives started in the fiscal 2014 budget to transition from a force focused largely on current operations to one capable of meeting a broader mission portfolio.

“The Department has learned from prior drawdowns that it is impossible to generate all the needed savings just through efficiencies,” the Pentagon says in its accompanying budget materials. “The Department prioritizes by focusing on key missions relevant to the future security environment.”

Subscribers to the Aviation Week Intelligence Network (AWIN) should keep visiting AWIN’s 2015 budget page for news, data and analysis of programs and priorities throughout the business day and as the proposal makes its way through Congress. The page can be found at

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Pentagon proposes buying fewer fighters, unmanned aircraft in FY2015 budget
By: JON HEMMERDINGERWASHINGTON DC21 hours ago
The US Department of Defense unveiled a budget proposal on 4 March that would slash billions of dollars in aviation spending and make sweeping cuts to procurement of new fighter jets and unmanned aircraft.

The $495.6 billion proposal, which still must be approved by Congress, also would delay entry-into-service of Sikorsky's CH-53K heavy-lift helicopter by one year and reduce the US Air Force's fleet of Boeing F-15C fighters by 51 aircraft.

That is in addition to retiring entire fleets of ageing aircraft, such as Lockheed's U-2, Bell Helicopter OH-58D Kiowa Warriors and Fairchild Republic A-10 close air support aircraft.

The US Department of Defense's FY15 budget request calls for cuts to fighter and unmammned aircraft procurement.

Type
Fighters FY14-FY15-FY16-FY17-FY18
F-35 ------35 -- 31 -- 29 -- 29 -- 34
F/A-18E/F 31 -- 28 -- 37 --- 0 --- 0
EA-18G 12 -- 12 -- 12 -- 21 --- 0
Subtotals 78 71 78 50 34

Rotorcraft
V-22 ------36 -- 35 -- 22 -- 22 -- 19
AH-64 ----16 -- 27 -- 32 -- 42 -- 25 (Remanufacture)
AH-64 ---- 0 --- 0 --- 12 --- 4 --- 0 New BUilds)
CH-47F -- 49 -- 45 -- 44 -- 38 -- 32
UH-72A -- 50 -- 39 -- 35 -- 20 -- 55
H-60 ---- 157 - 135 - 137 - 107 - 116
H-1 ------ 31 -- 25 -- 30 -- 21 -- 26 (Upgrades)
Subtotals -- 339 - 306 - 312 - 254 - 273

Manned ISR
E-2D ------ -5 --- 5 ---- 5 --- 5 --- 4
P-8A ------- 7 --- 11 -- 13 -- 16 --- 8
Subtotals - 12 -- 16 -- 18 -- 21 -- 12

Unmanned ISR
MQ-1C --- 39 -- 43 15 15 19
MQ-9 ----- 48 -- 48 -- 36 20 12
RQ-4 ------ 4 ---- 3 --- 0 --- 0 --- 0
MQ-8 ----- 3 --- 10 --- 5 --- 2 --- 0
Subtotals- 94 - 104 -- 56 -- 37 -- 31

Airlift
C-17 --------- 0 --- 1 --- 0 --- 0 --- 0
C-130J ----- 17 -- 10 -- 10 -- 17 -- 14
KC-46 ------- 0 --- 0 --- 0 --- 0 --- 7
C-27 -------- 8 --- 9 --- 0 --- 0 --- 0
C-40 -------- 1 --- 0 --- 1 --- 0 --- 0
C-37A --- 2 --- 3 --- 0 --- 0 --- 0
Subtotals - 38 -- 23 -- 11 -- 16 -- 21

Trainers
T-6B ------- 0 -- 36 -- 33 -- 29 -- 0​

Officials at the Pentagon say budget cuts required by the 2011 Budget Control Act leave them no choice but to slash funding to major programmes.

The cuts are in addition to a broader strategy to modernize the US military, making it better prepared to counter high-tech threats from emerging adversaries in places like the Asia-Pacific and Middle East regions, say officials.

Although deeper budget cuts known as the sequester are scheduled to take hold in fiscal year 2016, the Pentagon's proposed budget calls for spending above sequester levels.

"We believe if we return to sequester-level cuts in [fiscal year] 2016, we will be facing significantly higher level of risk," says the Department of Defense.

The proposal calls for the Pentagon to spend $40 billion on aircraft and related systems in fiscal year 2015, down roughly 6% from last year.

Notably, the proposal includes funding for only 34 fighter aircraft, down from 50 in fiscal year 2014 and nearly 80 in fiscal year 2013.

The reduction comes from a lack of funding for additional orders of Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornets or E/A-18G Growler electronic attack aircraft.

Boeing has been hoping to secure additional orders it needs to keep the Super Hornet production line in St. Louis active beyond the beginning of 2016, when all current orders will be fulfilled.

The Pentagon also proposes to cut procurement of Boeing's new Poseidon P-8A anti-submarine aircraft to eight aircraft from 16 in the 2014 budget.

That move follows a 2013 programme report noting initial examples of the P-8A have limited capability because they lack broad-area search systems found on the navy's ageing fleet of upgraded Lockheed P-3C Orions.

The budget would also trim procurement of unmanned reconnaissance aircraft to 31 in fiscal year 2015 from 37 this fiscal year. That's due largely to a reduction in procurement of General Atomics MQ-9 Reapers to 12 from 20 this year.

Despite the cuts, the proposal calls for funding for 273 rotorcraft in fiscal year 2015, up from 254 in the prior period. That includes funding for 116 Sikorsky H-60 helicopters, up from 107 last year, and 55 Airbus Helicopters UH-72A Lakotas.

The budget also includes funding for new projects, including $600 million over five years for the US Air Force's T-X fighter trainer programme, which the service says will likely begin in fiscal year 2017.

The T-X is being developed to replace the service's fleet of Northrop T-38C Talon trainers.

The proposal also includes $2.4 billion over five years to recapitalise the USAF's joint surveillance target attack radar system (JSTARS) aircraft, and $337 million in fiscal year 2015 for the joint air-to-surface standoff missile (JASSM).

The Pentagon's budget will likely face scrutiny as it moves to Congress as part of President Obama's budget proposal, say analysts.

"A lot of these proposals are going to generate a lot of controversy on the Hill," says Todd Harrison from the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. "Congress is already pushing back on a number of things DOD is proposing."

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DOD Official Discusses Nuclear Deterrence in Congress

By Amaani Lyle
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Mar. 7, 2014 – The Defense Department’s nuclear deterrent is the ultimate protection for the United States while also assuring distant allies of their security against regional aggression, a senior Pentagon official told Congress yesterday.
Elaine Bunn, deputy assistant secretary of defense for nuclear and missile defense policy told the Senate Armed Services Committee’s strategic forces subcommittee that while Defense Department modernization goals largely have not changed since 2010, some adjustments are on the horizon.
One such change, she reported, involves the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty force structure. “The administration is considering how to reduce nondeployed strategic delivery vehicles to comply with the limits of the new START treaty by February 2018,” she said, “and we will make a final force structure decision and inform Congress prior to the start of fiscal year 2015.”
Bunn expressed concern about Russian activity that appears to be inconsistent with the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. “We've raised the issue with Russia,” she told the senators. They provided an answer that was not satisfactory to us, and we told them that the issue is not closed.”
With regard to recent ethical issues involving Air Force and Navy nuclear personnel, Bunn noted that Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has created both internal and external special review panels. “Those reviews are not about assigning blame,” she said. “They're about identifying, assessing, and correcting any systemic deficiencies that we may uncover and in applying the best practices for carrying out our nuclear mission across the nuclear force.”
Bunn also said the recently released 2014 Quadrennial Defense Review makes clear the key role of nuclear forces in the DOD strategy.
“It … supports our ability to project power by communicating to potential nuclear-armed adversaries that they cannot escalate their way out of failed conventional aggression,” Bunn said. The department's budget request for fiscal year 2015 supports DOD’s nuclear policy goals as laid out in the 2010 nuclear posture review, in President Barack Obama’s June 2013 nuclear employment strategy, and in the 2014 QDR, she added. As a result, Bunn reported, Pentagon officials will continue to ensure that the current and future administrations have suitable options for deterring, responding to, and managing a diverse range of situations, including regional deterrence challenges.
“We continue to work closely with our allies, some of whom live in very dangerous neighborhoods, to ensure continuing confidence in our shared national security goals, including assurance of our extended nuclear deterrence commitments,” she told the Senate panel.
Critical to maintaining a safe, secure and effective force is the preservation of the nuclear triad: strategic bombers, intercontinental ballistic missiles and submarine-launched ballistic missiles, Bunn said.
(Follow Amaani Lyle on Twitter: @LyleAFPS)

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Pentagon Official Expresses Concerns Over Budget Instability

By Army Sgt. 1st Class Tyrone C. Marshall Jr.
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Mar. 7, 2014 – The use of overseas contingency operations funding has relieved some pressure on the Defense Department’s base budget, but as the war in Afghanistan winds down, those base budget requirements are at risk as future contingency funding faces uncertainty, a senior Pentagon official said yesterday.
John B. Johns, deputy assistant secretary of defense for maintenance policy and programs, discussed budget concerns and stability as they relate to national security at Aviation Week’s Defense Technologies and Requirements Conference.
“In many ways, what we have done to try to get away from the pressure on the base budget is we have invented a term called OCO,” Johns said. “Overseas contingency operations [are] relatively immune to the pressures of the base budget. If you look in the past and how budgets have been executed, the basic idea of doing this is really not that novel.” But the amount of money that is going into OCO, compared to the overall defensive budget, is relatively large, he added.
The problem, Johns said, is OCO funding eventually will go away.
“We have shifted, with as legitimate an argument as we could possibly make, base budget requirements into OCO,” he said.
“We’ve done it legally, because we can make an argument that it can fit. But they have never been there before.” Johns explained this was done because the department has “taken a hit in the base,” but knows those requirements still need to be satisfied.
“So we have moved them into the OCO budget, which puts them at risk when OCO goes away,” he said. Since the peak period of 2009 to 2011, he added, OCO funds have seen a 25-percent reduction. “And while the out-year budgets, as reflected in the 2015 budget submission, appear to be relatively stable, OCO is highly uncertain,” Johns said.
Pressure on the base budget will continue, he said, and DOD cannot rely on stabilization at that level. “At minimum,” he said, “sometime in the relatively near future, especially if we pull out of Afghanistan, … that OCO budget is going to be under pressure.”
Johns said that around this time last year, Pentagon officials “were predicting the sky was falling.”
“The entire sustainment community rallied behind this message that if we get the full effect of continuing resolutions, sequestration and OCO shortfalls,” he said, “we will have major impacts on readiness driven by huge deferrals across the board in every service.” This message was so coherent, impactful and effective, Johns said, that it never happened because the Defense Department got additional funding and reprogramming authority to protect areas believed to be at the greatest risk.
“I consider that to be a huge success of a unified community,” he said. “If we could just duplicate that in the future, we could be very successful in fighting some of the challenges that we’re going to face, I think, in the very near future.” However, said he added, he doesn’t believe that argument can be sustained.
“I’m not sure it’s going to work again,” he said. “We need to be collectively prepared for that situation where that does not work.”
Johns cautioned that when OCO funding does go away, he doesn’t believe the money will be rolled into the base budget. “We need to move and transition the critical enduring requirements that are currently being resourced in OCO into the base program,” he said. “Without that, some really bad decisions are going to be made.”
(Follow Army Sgt. 1st Class Tyrone Marshall on Twitter: @MarshallAFPS)

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Pentagon seeks to invest billions in next-generation programmes
By: JON HEMMERDINGERWASHINGTON DC Source: Flightglobal.com in 4 hours
The US military's recent budget proposal would invest billions of dollars in next-generation projects despite slashing funding for tankers, fighter jets and other existing aircraft.

Projects that would benefit from the proposal, which still needs Congressional approval, include the US Navy’s unmanned carrier-launched airborne surveillance and strike (UCLASS) system.

The proposal would inject $403 million in fiscal year 2015 for UCLASS, more than three times the $122 million allotted for the project in the current fiscal year.

The Navy plans to invest $3.7 through 2020 million on UCLASS and seeks to eventually field six to 24 of the stealthy UAVs, according to a Government Accountability Office report.

Though UCLASS requirements have recently been in flux, a demonstrator built by Northrop Grumman called the X-47B has conducted landings and takeoffs from US aircraft carriers..

Other UCLASS competitors include Boeing, Lockheed Martin and General Atomics Aeronautical Systems.
Programme FY14 funding FY15 proposed
funding
Joint surveillance target attack radar system (JSTARS) replacement 0 73.1
Long-range strike bomber (LRS-B) 359 914
Presidential aircraft replacement (PAR) 0 11.0
T-X fighter trainer 0 8.20
Unmanned carrier-launched airborne surveillance and strike (UCLASS) system 122 403
Funding in USD, thousands.

The US Air Force would receive $914 million next fiscal year for its long-range strike bomber (LRS-B) programme, up from $359 million this fiscal year.

That classified project calls for 80 to 100 aircraft with a target operational date in the mid-2020s.

Companies to express interest in the project include Northrop Grumman and Boeing, which has said it will team with Lockheed Martin.

The proposal also earmarks $73.1 million for the USAF to develop a replacement for its Northrop Grumman E-8C joint surveillance target attack radar system (JSTARS).

Those aircraft, modified Boeing 707s, detect ground targets at long range at night and in poor weather.

The service has said it seeks to replace JSTARS with business jet-sized aircraft, and it seeks initial operational capability in 2022.

The budget would also provide $8.2 million in fiscal year 2015 for the USAF’s T-X fighter trainer programme, which would replace the service’s 430 Northrop T-38 Talons.

Those aircraft have been in service for about 51 years.

Candidates include the T-50 Golden Eagle, made by Korea Aerospace Industries and Lockheed, Alenia Aermacchi’s T-100, and the Hawk, an aircraft proposed by BAE Systems and Northrop Grumman.

Boeing, teamed with Saab, has promoted a clean-sheet aircraft to fill the role.

The Pentagon also wants to spend $11 million in fiscal year 2015 for a presidential aircraft replacement.

The funding follows a 2009 request for information in which the Air Force announced its intention to acquire three widebody aircraft to replace the current nearly 25-year old Boeing VC-25s, which are converted 747-200s.

The Pentagon’s $495.6 million proposal would invest in those programmes while cutting funding for Lockheed’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and KC-130J transport and Boeing’s F/A-18E/G Super Hornet and P-8A Poseidon.

The proposal also retires Fairchild Republic’s A-10, Bell’s OH58-D Kiowa Warrior and Lockheed’s U-2

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asif iqbal said:

USS Truxtun DDG has entered into the Black Sea for excercises with Romania and a few others

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asif iqbal said:

Arleigh Burke passing through the Bosphorous straits

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bd popeye said:

IMO Truxtun is going in harms way at this time. There's no telling what may occur in the in that region. I'd like to know if the HST Carrier Strike Group is still in the eastern Mediterranean. I'll see what I can find out.

And yes I know a warship that large is not permitted to transit the Bosporus Straight.

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asif iqbal said:

As long as non Black Sea country's notify Turkey 15 days prior to sailing and have a tonnage less than 45,000 tons stay less than 21 days in the Black Sea and have less than 9 warships at anyone time they are allowed to Pass the Bosporus

On that basis Arleigh Burke is fine as it also does not carry fixed wing aircraft

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By Mike Hixenbaugh
The Virginian-Pilot
© March 6, 2014

Three weeks after leaving Norfolk, the guided missile destroyer Truxtun is heading to the Black Sea for what the Navy is calling a routine training mission, unrelated to the turmoil in Ukraine.

The Norfolk-based destroyer and its crew of 300 deployed last month with the George H.W. Bush carrier strike group. The ship departed Souda Bay, Greece, on Thursday for the Black Sea, where the ship is scheduled to participate in a joint training mission with Romanian and Bulgarian ships, according to a Navy news release.

The training was planned before the ship departed Norfolk, the release stated. The Navy says the joint operation is not related to Russia's recent incursion into Ukraine.

The aircraft carrier Bush, due eventually for the Persian Gulf, remained in the Mediterranean Sea as of Wednesday.

The destroyer joins the guided missile frigate Taylor as the only U.S. ships in the Black Sea during a period of heightened tension. The Taylor remains moored in Turkey after running aground last month.

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