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Bernard

Junior Member
Navy Begins Discussion for Future Air-Defense Ship
By RICHARD R. BURGESS, Managing Editor

ARLINGTON, Va. — Senior Navy leaders have begun to discuss the future requirements for an air-defense ship eventually to replace the service’s Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruisers, the commander of the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) said.

The Navy has 22 Ticonderoga-class cruisers in the fleet and is in the process of modernizing 11 of them to extend their service lives into the 2030s and to upgrade their combat systems.
“Ultimately, at some point down the road, probably in the mid-2030s timeframe, we’re going to have a requirement to have a new air-defense ship,” Vice Adm. Thomas J. Moore, commander, Naval Sea Systems Command, told Seapower Oct. 17. “Appropriately, [Commander, Naval Surface Forces] Vice Adm. [Thomas S.] Rowden’s drive in this discussion today is what does this look like and what goes on it.

“What does this thing look like, what kind of capability do you want to have on it, what does it have to look like from a naval architecture standpoint, what’s the art of the possible?” Moore asked rhetorically. “I like to say that NAVSEA is the force behind the fleet. There is a lot of value in us talking to the fleet on a day-to-day basis, in turning operational visions and operational concepts and taking those operational concepts and making sure, on the technical side of the house, that we’re delivering the ships and systems that will actually enable them to execute the operational concepts that they’re laying out.

“NAVSEA is right in the middle of that discussion, because ultimately we’re the people who are going to tell him what you can or can’t do not only from a naval architecture standpoint but from a combat systems standpoint as well,” he said.
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Sunday at 7:58 AM
...

and something happened again:
CNO Richardson: USS Mason ‘Appears to Have Come Under Attack’

source:
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my 'something happened' above was pretty accurate LOL as False Alarm May Have Triggered U.S. Navy Warship's Missile Defense System
After several days of investigation, the U.S. Navy believes an urgent warning about an incoming missile aboard a destroyer Saturday night may have been a false alarm, defense officials said Tuesday.

The guided-missile destroyer Mason, underway in the Red Sea off the coast of Yemen, detected a “possible inbound missile,” prompting the ship’s commander to activate the missile defense system and launch interceptor missiles, defense officials said.

Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said the commander’s decision to fire the missile defense system was “appropriate,” but there has been no confirmation of an inbound missile posing a threat to the U.S. ship.

“We have not actually confirmed that that happened,” Davis said Tuesday.

“We are not ready to call it an 'attack',” he said. “We are going back and reviewing the information to see what happened.”

The incident underscores the heightened tension in the Red Sea after two confirmed missile attacks on U.S. ships last week came from territory in Yemen that is controlled by the Iran-backed Houthis rebels.

Military officials use an array of sensors to investigate possible missile attacks, including radar systems from other U.S. ships in the area, U.S. aircraft overhead and satellite imagery.

“We look at a lot of different points of information. It’s not just one single ship and one single radar system," Davis said.

The two confirmed attacks, on Oct. 9 and Oct. 12, were the first known instances of a U.S. Navy ship engaging its Standard Missile-2 air defense system outside of training situations. The SM-2 system uses interceptor missiles to destroy incoming missiles at long-range by either striking them or detonating nearby and knocking them off course. The SM-2 is used before last-resort self-defense systems, like the shorter-range Sea Sparrow missiles.

On Thursday, the destroyer Nitze fired Tomahawk missiles into southern Yemen, where the cruise missile attacks originated. The U.S. rockets destroyed three radar sites in the area controlled by Houthis rebels, who receive support from Iran. The coastal radar systems provided key targeting data to the cruise missiles fired from Houthis-controlled area.


The U.S. ships were in international waters at least 11 miles from the coast.

Cruise missiles can travel at about 600 miles per hour, giving U.S. ships between one and two minutes between detection and possible impact.

Many experts believe the cruise missiles may have come from Iran.

The recent attacks from the Red Sea will likely make thousands of sailors eligible for Combat Action Ribbons, a citation the Navy has not bestowed on the crew of a ship in international waters since the Gulf War in 1991.
source is MilitaryTimes
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related to the post right above I also read Pentagon Still Unsure if USS Mason Was Attacked on Saturday
The U.S. military is still unsure if a guided missile destroyer was attacked Saturday by anti-ship cruise missiles, a Defense Department spokesman told reporters on Tuesday.

At around 10:19 p.m. local time ( 3:19 p.m. EST) Saturday, USS Mason (DDG-87) deployed counter measures against two targets that appeared to be cruise missiles headed toward the ship, USNI News understands. The ship’s sensors picked up two apparent threats about 30 minutes apart on Saturday and launched counter measures, a defense official told USNI News.

Pentagon spokesman, Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, told reporters, “we actually have not confirmed that happened and we’re going back and looking at all the information to see what might or might not have happened and that’s where we are.”

While the military was quickly able to determine two previous attacks on Mason
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and
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— were in fact cruise missile originating in Yemen and launched by Houthi rebels, Davis said there were fewer sensors in the area to make that call.

“I will tell you that we look at a lot of different points of information and it’s not just one single ship or one single radar system,” he said.
“When we make assessments what we did last week on what happened with the Mason then that was based on multiple sources of information.”

In response to a question in what additional sources of information the U.S. could use, Davis said, “I can’t get into it, but there are other sources of information.“

One defense official told USNI News that the military believes at least the first contact Mason tracked and launched countermeasures against was a cruise missile.

While Davis did not specify what counter measures were used in the most recent incident, Mason fired its own missiles to intercept the threats during both encounters.

“On Wednesday, during the second attack on the Mason, the Aegis system detected and tracked the missile and the ship’s crew responded and destroyed it,”
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.
The guided missile destroyer was operating with USS Nitze (DDG-94) and the USS Ponce (AFSB(I)-15). The trio
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after the Oct. 1 attack on HSV Swift operated by the UAE.

Following the second attack on Mason last week,
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controlled territory in Yemen to take out radar installations.

It’s unclear if the U.S. will retaliate if they find Saturday’s the alleged attack wasn’t just a false reading on Mason’s sensors.
source is USNI News
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Air Force Acquires Spy Scope to Protect Satellites
oh really?
The
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has acquired a high-tech Space Surveillance Telescope, or SST, capable of speedily discovering and tracking previously unseen or hard-to-find small objects that could threaten satellites.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, on Tuesday transferred ownership of the telescope to Air Force Space Command during a ceremony at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.

The Space Surveillance Telescope, currently located in White Sands, will be moved to Australia and jointly operated by the Air Force and the Australian government, with the U.S. as its primary owner, according to an announcement from DARPA.

In 2013, then-U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Australian Defence Minister David Johnston signed a Memorandum of Understanding agreeing to move the telescope to the Harold E. Holt Naval Communication Station in Western Australia. At the time, Johnston had to rebut speculation
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.

“Australia offers a uniquely beneficial vantage point for operational testing and demonstration of SST’s enhanced algorithms and camera,”
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.

After the move, the telescope will be a dedicated sensor in the U.S. Space Surveillance Network.

“This optical telescope is poised to revolutionize space situational awareness and help prevent potential collisions with satellites or the Earth itself,” said Lindsay Millard, DARPA program manager for the telescope.

On a call with reporters Tuesday, Millard said telescope will reach initial operating capability in Australia in 2020, once it has been shipped and reassembled, and numerous demonstration tests are run.

The Space Surveillance Telescope will enhance space situational awareness. For example, it “can search an area larger than the continental United States in seconds and survey the entire geosynchronous belt within its field of view — one quarter of the sky — multiple times in one night,” DARPA said. Millard said the telescope will track objects nearly 25 miles above the Earth.

The Space Surveillance Telescope has many technological firsts, the agency said. It uses the most steeply curved primary telescope mirror ever made, enabling it to collect more light to see images across a wider field of view than any other space surveillance telescope. The mirror was made by L-3 Communications; Harris Corporation also partnered on the project to provide logistics, Millard said.

“To hold this mirror, SST uses an innovative Mersenne-Schmidt design, which enables much more compact construction than traditional telescopes,” the DARPA release states. A Mersenne-Schmidt design uses powered primary, secondary and tertiary mirrors, according to
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.

The telescope’s camera includes its own noteworthy inventions, including the first-ever curved charge coupled device, or CCD, to provide clear imagery across its wide field of view. Current digital cameras with flat CCDs are unable to record images from such highly curved mirrors without distortion, DARPA said.

And, because it has the fastest shutter speed in the world, the telescope’s camera “is able to take thousands of pictures a night.”

“With 2.2 million asteroid observations in 2014, 7.2 million in 2015, and hopes for 10 million in 2016, SST has become the most prolific tool for asteroid observation in the world. SST has also discovered 3,600 new asteroids and 69 near-Earth objects, including four that carry a risk of possibly hitting the Earth,” the release said.

Millard could not say how much earlier the telescope will be able to track objects before they enter Earth’s geostationary orbit, or the orbit following the planet’s rotation.

Millard said NASA and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are developing a system to apply the telescope’s data to track and map how much debris exists in space.
source:
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FORBIN

Lieutenant General
Registered Member
Seahawks’ back home for the last time

Marine Tactical Electronic Warfare Squadron 4 (VMAQ-4) ‘Seahawks’ returned home to MCAS Cherry Point, North Carolina, on October 10 following the unit’s last operational deployment with the EA-6B Prowler. The unit has completed a six-month deployment with United States Central Command (CENTCOM) at Incirlik Air Base in Turkey.

According to Lt Col Paul K. Johnson III, commanding officer of VMAQ-4, the Marines conducted electronic warfare and disrupted so-called Islamic State (IS) communications in Iraq and Syria in support of Operation ‘Inherent Resolve’. VMAQ-4 is to be deactivated in the summer of 2017.

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USN EA-6.jpg
 

FORBIN

Lieutenant General
Registered Member
Scorpion jet successfully completes first weapons capability exercise

WICHITA, Kan. (Oct. 19, 2016) – Textron AirLand, LLC, a Textron Inc. (NYSE:TXT) company, today announced that the Scorpion jet has successfully completed its first weapons exercise at White Sands Missile Range, while operating from Holloman Air Force Base (HAFB) in New Mexico. This exercise effectively demonstrated the Scorpion’s close air support mission capability through the successful deployment of three widely used weapon systems.

The weapons system design, integration and flight test coordination for all three weapon types were achieved in an impressive time span of less than three months. The weapons testing program occurred Oct. 10-14 in coordination with the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) organization and the 586th Flight Test Squadron from HAFB. All weapon types performed flawlessly and included Hydra-70 unguided 2.75-inch rockets, BAE Systems’ Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System (APKWS) and AGM-114F Hellfire Missiles. The weapons were guided to their targets using first a ground-based laser designator system and then an airborne laser on the Scorpion‘s L-3 WESCAM’s MX-15Di sensor suite.

“The success of the first weapons capability exercise is a major milestone for the Scorpion program as we continue to demonstrate its mission flexibility and multi-role capabilities,” said Tom Hammoor, senior vice president of Defense at Textron Aviation. “We could not be more pleased with the results of this exercise, thanks to the collaboration between our Scorpion team, the NAVSEA organization and the Holloman Air Force Base.”

The first Scorpion prototype continues its robust flight test program, while the first flight of the first production conforming Scorpion is expected soon.
...

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Scorpion.jpg
 
I traced it back to the think-tank (of a similar quality as is the pub where I go)
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coming up with
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... have fun:
Report proposes canceling U.S. aircraft carriers, investing in lasers to combat Russia and China
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cutting carriers to develop lasers LOLOL I think even in the pub where I go this wouldn't be taken seriously
 

FORBIN

Lieutenant General
Registered Member
I traced it back to the think-tank (of a similar quality as is the pub where I go)
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coming up with
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... have fun:
Report proposes canceling U.S. aircraft carriers, investing in lasers to combat Russia and China
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cutting carriers to develop lasers LOLOL I think even in the pub where I go this wouldn't be taken seriously
A joke :D

Lockheed is pushing for funding for the development of an ER version of the THAAD to counter maturing threats posed by hypersonic glide vehicles adversaries may employ, namely the Chinese WU-14, to penetrate the gap between low and high-altitude missile defenses. The company performed static fire trials of a prototype modified THAAD second booster in 2006 and continued to self-fund the project until 2008. The current 14.5 in (37 cm)-diameter single-stage booster design would be expanded to a 21 in (53 cm) first stage for greater range with a second "kick stage" to close the distance to the target and provide improved velocity at burnout and more lateral movement during an engagement. Although the kill vehicle would not need a redesign, the ground-based launcher would have to be modified with a decreased interceptor capacity from eight to five. Currently, THAAD-ER is an industry concept and not a program of record, but Lockheed believes the Missile Defense Agency will show interest because of the threats under development by potential adversaries. If funding for the THAAD-ER began in 2018, a fielded product could be produced in 2022. Although the system could provide some capability against a rudimentary hypersonic threat, the Pentagon is researching other technologies like directed energy weapons and railguns to be optimal solutions. Therefore, the THAAD-ER would be an interim measure to counter the emerging threat until laser and railgun systems capable of performing missile defense come online, expected in the mid to late-2020s
 

already at this point:
WH4jM.jpg

one might wonder why it wasn't deployed yet! (and instead it's just 'an industry concept' = nothing)
 
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