US Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

Jeff Head said:

Well, it is all in the wording.

For example, in May 2015 when she was testing the F-35Bs it is not considereded a "deployment." nonetheless, she was out at sea landing and launching and testing this aircraft.

INn 2013 she had a six month overhaul for specific items, and then a nine month one in 2014. After each of these there are extensive tests and trials where she goes to sea to test those things that have been worked on called Afloat Training, Combat System Ship's Qualification Trials, Aviaition Training, etc.

In 2012 she performed Trident Warrior aboard the Wasp, off the coast of Virginia, with the first in a series of numerous technological experiments. The annual fleet experiment, scheduled to run until August 1, is directed by U.S. Fleet Forces Command, sponsored by U.S. 2nd and 5th Fleets with a mission to improve and enhance the Navy's information dominance and policies, procedures and interoperability between U.S. forces and coalition partners during maritime war fighting.

So...going back what you find is the Wasp being used for all sorts of training and experiments that benefit ass LHDs and have the ship at sea operating her systems and improving them...but not what you would "officially" called being deployed.

But then the people on the left and those who want to see the US military drastically cut then take these things and their wording as use them as an excuse to say that the ships are not needed or under utilized.

Just be careful not to get sucked into that. One of the reasons the US Navy stays as effective as it is because we recognized and find all of these types of tings for continuous improvement for all of the fleet...which are then used by those who want to cut back (some of them knowing full well what they are doing, others being, in essence, "useful idiots" used by those people to try and get the force structure cut back.

And they have been successful in many places . I view the RN, the Italians, the Spanish and other navies that have been drastically cut as victims of this type of mischaracterization.

We have to always be vigilant of such things to ensure that the bastion of freedom that the US represents does not fall prey to the same tactics.

Hope you take no offensive...it's just that I have been fighting this type of thing all o my life and now as I get older I hope there are those who will take up and continue to educate others where necessary, and carry on the fight.

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based on

Jura said:

inside: "The deployment of Wasp to Japan will be the second for the big deck after failures in the ship’s combat system relegated the ship to test operations and did not deploy for more than a decade."
really?

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I did a google search with
uss+wasp+"combat+system"
and perhaps the most interesting was
Defence News 02/07/2012
Wasp To Get Combat System Upgrade, Return to Deployment Schedule

(it's no news so I'll leave it at that)

Why America's Enemies Fear the Army's AH-64E “Guardian” Helicopter


October 25, 2016

The U.S. Army will spend billions of dollars over the next decade to upgrade its iconic Apache helicopters to the latest—and most likely, last—variant, the AH-64E “Guardian.” Already battle-tested in Afghanistan, the Apache Guardian reflects the latest trends in U.S. military doctrine—namely improved response and loiter time, interoperability with drones, and the capability to engage maritime targets.

The Apache stands amongst a number of weapon systems such as the M1 Abrams tank and the F-15E Strike Eagle that entered service in the 1980s and proved their mettle in the 1991 Gulf War. Apaches fired the first shots of that conflict took out Iraqi low-band radars with Hellfire missiles, clearing the way for the initial strikes by F-117 stealth fighters. A total of 277 Apaches were deployed in the conflict, claiming the destruction of 278 Iraqi tanks as well as numerous so other targets—a high “rate of return” by the standards of most weapons systems. Only one Apache was lost in combat.


Attack helicopters are responsive and relatively precise means of unleashing heavy firepower where it’s needed most—but unlike main battle tanks or jet fighters, even an armored helicopter is vulnerable to low-tech machine guns, antiaircraft cannons and even rocket-propelled grenades, let alone surface-to-air missiles. In later conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, AH-64s continued to prove their deadly effectiveness, but couldn’t avoid losses from ground fire, including during an against the Iraqi Medina Division that a strike group of thirty-one Apaches badly shot up by heavy machine guns and anti-aircraft cannons.

The “Guardian” Apache was approved in 2012, fifteen years after the preceding AH-64D “Longbow” upgrade, which mounted an APG-78 radar above the rotor that allowed the Apache to detect and fire at ground targets outside of the line of sight. However, this increased the Apache’s unloaded weight by 15 percent, to 11,800 pounds, without increasing the engine power to compensate.

The new AH-64E addresses this by installing a trifecta of new systems: more powerful T700-GE-701D turboshaft engines, a modern face gear transmission system, and new composite rotor blades—increasing the AH-64E’s speed from 140 to 180 miles per hour. The Guardian Apache can thus arrive on the battlefield faster and loiter overhead for longer—57 percent longer,. New hydraulic “shock strut” landing gear also improve the Guardian’s crash resistance.


Another upgrade is a Manned-Unmanned Team (MUM-T) drone controller datalink enabling the Guardian’s copilot to remotely control and receive data from an orbiting Army MQ-1C Grey Eagle drone. This allows the Apache crew to observe the battlefield before they’ve arrived—and even to hover behind cover, waiting for a target to be identified by drone so it can make a devastating pop-up attack. The Apache crew can to paint targets with a laser or launch the drone’s Hellfire missiles.

The latest Lot 6 batch of Guardians includes updated fire-control systems that can identify and target shipsat sea, presumably to rain Hellfire missiles upon them. Clearly, this is aimed at making the Apache more relevant to any possible conflict in the Pacific—as well as possible skirmishes in the Persian Gulf. Although plans to make a naval version of the Apache died off long ago, U.S. Army Apache units anyway. British Apaches have already operated successfully from theHMS Ocean amphibious assault ship during the 2011 intervention in Libya.

In addition to upgrades to computer processors and software, there are also a number of useful new gizmos. A new Ground-Fire Acquisition System, installed on the tip of the wing stub, scans the battlefield with cameras for muzzle flashes from small arms, cannons and rocket-propelled grenades, and automatically slews the Apache around to deliver return fire with its thirty-millimeter cannon. Link-16 datalinks in later Guardian production lots will allow improved data sharing and networking with friendly forces. The computer software has also been upgraded with a Cognitive Decision Aiding System intended to ease the workload posed by routine piloting tasks.
The Apache Guardians when the First Battalion of the 229th Aviation Regiment deployed to southern Afghanistan for seven months. They reported an 87 percent readiness rate—above the expected 80 percent average. The unit’s commander noted that the Guardian’s ability to arrive on the battlefield faster and loiter longer disrupted Taliban tactics, pinning them down for longer periods while the Guardian orbited overhead. The Apaches networked with friendly drones on 60 percent of their sorties—not just with Grey Eagles, but also smaller RQ-7 Shadows and Air Force Reaper and Predator drones. This enabled the Apaches to identify and destroy targets faster, and thus achieve more with each sortie. However, training and doctrine on how to use the drones, and the Guardian’s datalinks aren’t fully functional yet with drone models other than the Grey Eagle.

Apaches also were deployed to Iraq in 2014 to provide air support to American troops in country, and several are reportedly launching.


The Apache is expected to remain in service until 2040. The latest contract, awarded in April, is to upgrade 117 Apaches for $922 million by 2018. Ultimately, 634 Apaches will be upgraded to Guardians, and once those are done, fifty-six brand-new AH-64Es will be produced. Many of the Apaches will serve in new active-duty Attack-Reconnaissance battalions, composed of Apaches taken away from the National Guard units to replace the retired OH-58 scout helicopter.

Fifty of the new Guardians will also enter service with the British Army, and another fifty of its Apache Longbows will be upgraded. Other countries slated to receive AH-64Es include India (twenty-two), Indonesia (eight), South Korea (thirty-six), Saudi Arabia and Taiwan.

Will there be future upgrades to the Apache after the Guardian? Boeing definitely thought so, and sketched up a proposed AH-64F with a variety of flight-performance enhancements, including more powerful engines, new stub wings to provide better lift while cruising and an articulating tail rotor.

However, the Army has recently in pursuing another major Apache upgrade—because it needs the funding to introduce its next generation Future Vertical Lift chopper, by 2030. New armaments, however, are possible: Boeing has suggested for destroying drones, while an AH-64 recently the Brimstone antitank missile.

The Guardian may be the last of the Apaches—but it looks likely to see a lot more action in the decades to come.

Sébastien Roblin holds a Master’s Degree in Conflict Resolution from Georgetown University and served as a university instructor for the Peace Corps in China. He has also worked in education, editing, and refugee resettlement in France and the United States. He currently writes on security and military history for War Is Boring.

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: U.S. Army Flickr.

All Cyber Mission Force Teams Achieve Initial Operating Capability

All 133 of U.S. Cyber Command’s Cyber Mission Force teams achieved initial operating capability as of Oct. 21, Cybercom officials announced today.

Reaching the IOC milestone is a testament to the Defense Department’s focus on developing cyber capability and capacity, as outlined in DoD’s Cyber Strategy, officials said.

“One of the reasons DoD has done exceptionally well to rapidly train and build this force is that each branch of the military services has come to the conclusion that cyber is a mission set that requires dedicated expertise over time,” said Navy Adm. Michael S. Rogers, Cybercom commander, director of the National Security Agency and chief of the Central Security Service. “That wasn’t always the case, and I have to compliment the services, the services’ cyber component leadership and the entire team for all of the extremely hard work to achieve this goal.”

Initial operating capability means that all Cyber Mission Force units have reached a threshold level of initial operating capacity and can execute their fundamental mission.

Assessment of Capability
IOC is an assessment of capability, officials explained, and is not designed to represent the overall combat readiness for the Cyber Mission Forces teams. Rather, they said, it reflects a team’s overall progress toward achieving full operational capability and serves as standard baseline in building the 133 teams.

The Cyber Mission Force currently comprises about 5,000 individuals across the 133 teams. By the end of fiscal year 2018, the goal is for the force to grow to nearly 6,200 and for all 133 teams to be fully operational, officials said, adding that full operational capability is tied to a validation that all Cyber Mission Force teams are capable of operating at full mission capacity.

The next major milestone is for all teams to be at full operational capability by Sept. 30, 2018, Rogers said, “because our experience is that it takes about two years to get a team from the time we stand it up to fully mission-capable.”

As of mid-October, nearly half of the Cyber Mission Force teams had already achieved full operational capability Cybercom officials said. Still, they added, given the rapidly developing and dynamic nature of the cyber domain, Cyber Mission Force teams in development — “build-status” — have played a vital role in supporting missions to safeguard the nation against cyberattacks since their inception in 2013.

“The reality is, because of the dynamics of cyber, we have needed to apply capacity as soon as we’re generating it,” Rogers said. “And so we find ourselves in a situation – a little unusual in the military arena – wherein as soon as we get a basic framework, we have been deploying the teams and putting them against challenges.”

Focus Aligns with DoD Cyber Strategy

The focus of Cybercom’s Cyber Mission Force teams aligns with the DoD Cyber Strategy’s three primary missions: Defend DoD networks and ensure their data is held secure; support joint military commander objectives; and, when directed, defend U.S. critical infrastructure.

Specifically, Cyber Mission Force teams support these mission sets though their respective assignments:

• Cyber National Mission Force teams defend the nation by seeing adversary activity, blocking attacks, and maneuvering to defeat them.
• Cyber Combat Mission Force teams conduct military cyber operations in support of combatant commands.
• Cyber Protection Force teams defend the DoD information networks, protect priority missions and prepare cyber forces for combat.
• Cyber Support teams provide analytic and planning support to National Mission and Combat Mission teams.

In support of joint military commander objectives, the services’ Combat Mission Force teams support combatant commands under the Joint Force Headquarters Cyber construct:

• JFHQ-C MARFORCYBER supports U.S. Special Operations Command;
• JFHQ-C ARCYBER supports U.S. Central Command, U.S. Africa Command and U.S. Northern Command;
• JFHQ-C FLTCYBER supports U.S. Pacific Command and U.S. Southern Command; and
• JFHQ-C AFCYBER supports U.S. European Command, U.S. Strategic Command, and U.S. Transportation Command.

Cyber Mission Teams are also assigned to both the Cyber National Mission Force and Joint Force Headquarters DoD Information Networks, Cybercom component headquarters.

The Cyber National Mission Force plans, directs, and synchronizes full-spectrum cyberspace operations to deter, disrupt, and if necessary, defeat adversary cyber actors to defend the nation. Its “defend the nation” missions include:

• When directed by the president or secretary of defense, defending the U.S. and its interests against cyberattacks of significant consequence and defense of the nation’s critical infrastructure when significant consequences may include loss of life, significant damage to property, serious adverse U.S. foreign policy consequences or serious economic impact on the United States.
• Alignment to the most sophisticated cyber adversaries: nation-state cyber adversaries and non-nation-state or emerging threats.

Joint Force Headquarters DoD Information Networks provides command and control of DoD Information Network operations and defensive cyber operations internal defensive measures globally to coordinate the protection of DoD component capabilities enabling power projection and freedom of action across all warfighting domains. Its cyber protection teams actively work to harden DoD network boundary defenses.



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FORBIN said:

4 layers of successive défenses SM-2/6, ESSM, ECM and in last Phalanx, very capable !

One of the U.S. Navy's Most Powerful Warships Just Came Under Missile Attack (Again)

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... but Admiral: Attacks Like Those on USS Mason Will Become More Common

The Navy should prepare for a future operating environment where anti-ship weapons propagate globally and attacks such as the recent ones

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are more commonplace, one the service’s top budget officials said.

Vice Adm. Joseph Mulloy, deputy chief of naval operations for integration of capabilities and resources, said at the Naval Submarine League’s annual conference Wednesday that the service is not only focused on the current threats posed by potential adversaries such as Russia, Iran and North Korea, but also potential threats down the road if these countries sell their weapons to third-world countries and non-state actors.

“USS Mason down there off the coast of Yemen – we can’t prove anything right now, but I guarantee that Yemen by itself is not going to produce a Silkworm missile, a bunch of different radars – it just isn’t going to happen in a third-world country,” Mulloy said.
“It’s coming from somewhere, and the propagation of the selling of this stuff – I mean Iran is trying to get more advanced stuff from Russia and they’re selling it on the secondary market. So what is amazing is, in the next few years, everywhere the Navy goes, if you’re not in a submarine, you better watch out because every crappy country will be able to launch high-speed missiles at you and the propagation of that is going to be amazing.

“What it indicates is, if you want to be there initially to check what’s going on, you better either have a fabulous set of radar and missiles, or you better be a submarine and be able to watch what’s going on,” he said.

Over the course of a week this month, Mason operating near the Bab el-Mandeb strait came under attack at least on two separate occasions from guided anti-ship cruise missiles that were widely believed to be provided to Houthi rebels by Iranian forces.

Specifically, naval analysts have told USNI News the missiles are likely Chinese-built C-802 (NATO reporting name CSS-N-8 Saccade) missiles based on the widely exported French Exocet missile.The attacks are the first time a U.S. warship has fired SM-2 missiles to ward off the attack from an anti-ship cruise missile threat. Following a

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, Houthi forces are also suspected

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. The Navy is still studying radar tracks to determine if the radar tracks to which the crew reacted were actually missile threats.

Destroyers Mason, Nitze and the afloat forward staging base USS Ponce (AFSB(I)-15) have been operating off the coast of Yemen in the vicinity of Bab el-Mandeb and the Red Sea following an attack on the UAE operated HSV Swift in which Houthi rebels claimed responsibility.

Mulloy’s comments came as he was setting the scene for Navy budget decisions, particularly the need to fully fund the Columbia-class (Ohio Replacement) ballistic missile submarine so the first boat is ready for its scheduled 2031 patrol, as well as the need to continue driving cost out of the already ahead-of-schedule and below-cost Virginia-class attack submarine program. The service is looking for ways to insert an additional attack sub into the Fiscal Year 2021 budget to help blunt the impact of an SSN shortfall throughout the 2020s and 2030s.

Combatant commanders already request more attack boats than are available, and the upcoming dip below the required 48 SSNs will only make it harder to meet these operational needs. Additional requirements for submarines if surface ships face a greater cruise missile threat – as Mulloy suggested – would only further complicate the ability for the Navy to provide enough submarine presence around the globe.

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source is USNI News

Jura said:

... but Admiral: Attacks Like Those on USS Mason Will Become More Common

source is USNI News

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Sweet, merci

FORBIN said:

Sweet ...

Click to expand...

... exactly: "what is amazing is, in the next few years, everywhere the Navy goes, if you’re not in a submarine, you better watch out because every crappy country will be able to launch high-speed missiles at you and the propagation of that is going to be amazing" (some Vice Admiral inside https://www.sinodefenceforum.com/us-military-news-reports-data-etc.t1547/page-629#post-421623)

Jura said:

... but Admiral: Attacks Like Those on USS Mason Will Become More Common

source is USNI News

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Click to expand...

You preach to a convinced many times as Jeff i have talking about especialy for Virginia and their capabilities not only it also tactics, Strategic employment also.

From several years a more important number of countries have supersonic anti-ships missiles and in Asia some combattants classes have 16 missiles, a power x 2.

And very possible later others countries get supersonic anti-ships missiles and as i have say for defense against it with eventualy severals attacks eventualy saturating...a true combattant of first rank need 16+SAM in fact and 24 - 32 + ( French Navy tactic is launch 2 SAM vs a missile, eventualy possible 1.5 /1 it is more safe to 1/1 more dangerous... remains after Ciws and ECM...) and Bergamini, new FTI etc...are 1st rank but 2nd class and don' t forget VLS problem or reloading...

Back to USN for an ex we can envisaged with the very goog charts fom Brumby ( and confirm my feeling i have before see it ) for % of missiles,
A Burke have 10 cell's x 4 ESSM : 40 + 45 SM-2/6 : 90 very capable for defense
ESSM have a big advantage 4 in acell so power x 4 but SM-2/6 can eventualy fired aircraf before he lauch in praactice SM-2MR used 118 km a bit short vs much new AShM supersonic/subsonic i precise, SM-6 excellent ! 250 - 400+ km but more rare, expensive.

For SM-3 10 % do about 10 but very expensive stock limited used first in fact after cell's free for ESSM/SM-2/6 in general

FORBIN said:

Back to USN for an ex we can envisaged with the very goog charts fom Brumby ( and confirm my feeling i have before see it ) for % of missiles,
A Burke have 10 cell's x 4 ESSM : 40 + 45 SM-2/6 : 90 very capable for defense
ESSM have a big advantage 4 in acell so power x 4 but SM-2/6 can eventualy fired aircraf before he lauch in praactice SM-2MR used 118 km a bit short vs much new AShM supersonic/subsonic i precise, SM-6 excellent ! 250 - 400+ km but more rare, expensive.
View attachment 33495

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It is a matter of range between attacker missiles and defender missiles Standoff missile, in more conditioned by the size of the salvo and ofc quality of missiles the two last things doing the power of the salvo or for only a missile.

And USA are going with their new/futur SM-6, AGM-158C up to 400 and 1000 km gain in fact re gain this battle for 2020's, to consider AGM-158C is subsonic so despite stealth less capable vs defense than a supersonic.

now I read

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If Congress doesn’t pass the annual defense spending bill — already 26 days overdue — by January 1st,

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may miss its sailing date 14 years from now.

The Ohio Replacement SSBN submarine, which will carry 70 percent of

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, “will come to almost a screeching halt” without a proper spending bill, warned Vice Admiral

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, the

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.

Previous delays already “took all of the margin out of the program,” said the Navy’s

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, Rear Adm.

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. (Both admirals spoke Wednesday to the

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‘s annual conference). So there’s no margin left for error, whether it’s technical or congressional. If the Navy can’t fund steady, uninterrupted work today, each day you lose now will compound to cost multiple days by 2030 — or 2031, or 2032, or whenever the first sub is delayed to.

The awkwardly named ORP is weeks away from its Milestone B review, said Jabaley. That’s when the Office of the Secretary of Defense officially declares (or doesn’t) that the program is ready to move from research and development into production. In the near term, that means a new, more detailed, more intensive stage of design and prototyping. The Pentagon’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2017, which began October 1st, includes $773 million in the SCN account (

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) for this effort — but Congress hasn’t passed it.

Instead, the government is limping along under what’s called a Continuing Resolution, which allows agencies to spend whatever was appropriated for them last year. That works for programs moving at a steady pace, but it prevents starting new programs, terminating old ones, or — as in ORP’s case — doing more than last year.

Worse yet, ORP’s old funding is R&D money, not SCN. That may seem like a matter of labels. Jabaley himself admits he could keep try to keep work going by relabeling some SCN activities as R&D, but he doubts his superiors would approve. Jabaley can keep design work moving for a while using R&D funds, he says, but he’ll run out of room around January 1st.

The current Continuing Resolution expires December 9th. The hope is that the lame-duck Congress and the lame-duck President will

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; the fear is they’ll

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.

“There’s not a lot of days” between the time Congress comes back and the time the CR expires, warned Mulloy. That said, committee staff has worked out most of a compromise, he said. In fact, “they actually thought they had a conference position going,” Mulloy said ruefully, until it ran aground on the annual partisan debate about protecting

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habitat near military bases.

The Ohio Replacement is the most important program, but it’s hardly the only one hamstrung by the CR, said Mulloy. Across the $15 billion shipbuilding budget, he said, “I’ve got the right amount of money, but I’ve got $5 billion in the wrong place” — which means the Navy’s not allowed to spend it, on ORP or anything else.

With the oldest Ohio reaching a staggering 42 years of service and retiring just as the first Ohio Replacement sub joins the fleet, there’s no margin of error left. “My job is to buy margin back into that schedule,” said Jabaley.

The Navy and its contractors — Electric Boat and Newport News — are doing everything they can to

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and buy back time. “We are already building pieces of the ship,” said Jabaley: Some prototype components being bought with R&D funds will be used — assuming they work right — in the first ORP sub. The program is looking at buying other components of the first submarines before their construction is legally authorized, but that will require Congress to vote Advanced Procurement (AP) funds or other special authorities. They’re also seeking economies of scale with the

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and even the

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.

Instead of all this agony, outside analysts sometimes suggest the Navy could simply buy fewer Ohio Replacement submarines. After all, we’ve got from a fleet of 41 first-generation nuclear missile subs — the “41 for Freedom” — to 18 and then 14 Ohios, with a plan for only 12 Ohio Replacements — and the strategic requirement is for only 10 SSBNs in service at any given time. Why not go a little lower yet?

We’ve used up all our margin for the number of submarines, too, said Jabaley. The 10-SSBN minimum is derived from highly classified calculations of how widely the missile subs need to disperse to

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while

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, and of how long each submarine spends in maintenance rather than at sea. We actually will go down to just 10 subs at one point, he noted, but that’s only possible at a particular, peculiar point in time, when all the Ohios are old enough to have finished their lengthy mid-life overhauls and none of the Ohio Replacements is old enough to need one yet.

“Normally, it takes 12 to make 10,” Jabaley said: That is, 12 submarines in the fleet to have 10 available for operations at any given time. That sets an absolute minimum for the size of the Ohio Replacement class, he said, channeling

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: “12 is the number and the number shall be 12.”

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source:

Jura said:

now I read

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source:

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LOL almost each year spending bill no worry Mr Jura