US Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

Jeff Head said:

Let's get some pics of each:

USS Tripoloi, LHA-7
View attachment 42140
The 2nd america class LHA...and we saw how they can carry 12 F-35Bs and helos and Ospreys...if needed, they can carry up to 20-25 F-35Bs as a small carrier in its own right.

USS Portland, LPD-27

View attachment 42141

The USS Portland is te 11th San Antonio Class LPD. One more to go...then it is on to the new LSD(x) vessels, that will use the same hull. We will build 10-12 of those too!

USNS City of Bismark, T-EFP-09

View attachment 42142
This is the 9th of these transports. These fast transports can carry up to 350 troops and quite a bit of cargo, or a combination of the two at sustained speeds of 35 knots. That's a GOOD thing!

USS Omaha, LCS-12

View attachment 42143

The sixth Independence class LCS. Two others are launched and outfitting, and two others are building. That will make ten of the 13.

That's a petty nice haul for a day...four such vessels.

The US shipbuilding industry is in full swing and looking to keep pace with China.

Click to expand...

Jura said:

Today at 8:12 AM

related:
Lockheed, Raytheon to Develop New Nuclear Cruise Missile

source:

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

Click to expand...

The U.S. Air Force’s next-generation nuclear cruise missile appears to be safely ensconced in the Pentagon’s plans, according to a top general.

Gen. Robin Rand, the head of U.S. Air Force Global Strike Command, told reporters Sept. 19 that he is “very confident” the long-range standoff weapon, or LRSO, will be supported when the department’s Nuclear Posture Review is completed, adding that he sees widespread support in Congress for the weapon.

“I’m not going to pen in our senior leadership. Obviously, the decision will be made higher than me,” Rand said at the Air Force Association’s annual conference. “But right now, all the indicators are that we’re on the right track.”

The Nuclear Posture Review is a government-wide look at America’s nuclear capabilities, which will

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

for the Trump administration’s decisions for investments.

The review is on schedule and should be completed before Christmas, Rand said, although comments from Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

indicated that White House review process may push the final readout on the report to early 2018.

As the U.S. weighs recapitalizing its nuclear triad, including its fleet of submarines, B-21 bombers, updated warheads and new ICBMs, nonproliferation experts have zeroed in on the LRSO as the most vulnerable program. While the LRSO has proved popular on the Hill, a group of Democrats have

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

on the program over the last 18 months.

Advocates of canceling the LRSO say it is destabilizing, as it would be impossible for a nation to tell if the U.S. has launched a conventional cruise missile or one that is nuclear-armed in the case of conflict. Proponents, including Rand, argue it is vital for U.S. power projection abroad.

While Rand and others in the U.S. Air Force have been consistent in saying the LRSO is a needed capability, Mattis has been more tempered with his comments, referring to his

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

in January.

Asked last week about an Air Force decision to

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

on contract to compete for the LRSO contract, Mattis said, “That is to maintain it as an option. Okay? That’s to maintain that — that weapon as an option. It is not a decision yet. That will come out of a nuclear posture review.”

Another topic expected to be in the NPR is developing lower-yield nuclear warheads, a controversial move that the U.S. has eschewed for years.

Asked about his opinions on the matter, Rand said, “I’m not really familiar, because I’m not privy with what they’re looking at. So probably best to keep those questions to OSD. I’ll find out some of these things when they put the report out.”

Click to expand...

Jura said:

I've been following so called removal of the Warthog (LOL) for like two years now ...
May 24, 2017

and the story goes on:
Fate of A-10, F-15 to be decided this fall
15 hours ago

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

Click to expand...

The Air Force may be forced to ground a portion of its A-10 Warthog squadrons, perhaps as early as 2019, as their wings age out before replacements can be provided, the head of Air Force Materiel Command said Wednesday.

Although the service plans to keep the majority of its A-10 fleet into the forseeable future, leaders have acknowledged that it will be forced to retire about 110 of its 283 Warthogs — about three squadrons worth — unless it is given money for new wings.

But even if Congress funds the additional wingsets, the Air Force will not be able to hold a competition, award a contract and modify its A-10s with new wings before the service life of at least some of the the old wings runs out, said Gen. Ellen Pawlikowski, commander of Air Force Materiel Command.

“We’re trying to work through to see if we can get to the point where we will not have to ground airplanes waiting to get wings, but as it stands right now, we will have to ground airplanes while we work through getting additional wings,” she said during an exclusive interview with Defense News at the Air Force Association’s annual conference.

As a stopgap measure, AFMC is considering harvesting wings from A-10s mothballed in the boneyards of Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona, refurbishing them and fitting them on Warthogs as their wings age out. But that “gives us a few more hours, not as many as new wings do,” Pawlikowski said, acknowledging that the situation was far from optimal.

Even some of the A-10s slated to get new wings could get grounded, as Boeing struggles to deliver wingsets on time due to an issue with a part needing to be reworked, she said.

“What we will do, is we will have to manage the fleet in order to provide sufficient jets, particularly for the squadrons that are deploying in support to operations. But aircraft availability will be impacted due to the fact that we will not have sufficient wings to maintain the current aircraft availability,” she said.

“So we’ll just have to be sharper with where jets go and how we manage the mission in terms of the deployments to keep the squadrons whole.”

Boeing did not respond to a request for comment by press time.

Defense News broke the news in June that the Air Force could cut as many as three A-10 squadrons unless funding emerged for new wings. Gen. Mike Holmes, head of Air Combat Command, said then that the first A-10s could be retired within five years if new wingsets were not procured.

The congressional armed services committees have included a $103 million authorization in their policy bills that would allow the service to restart production of A-10 wings and manufacture four wing sets, and that measure was then approved by the House and Senate. However, that legislation does not actually allocate funding, and Congress will have to pass a spending bill before the Air Force can move forward with buying new wingsets.

Lawmakers have blocked the service’s attempts to retire the A-10 in the past, including plans in the Air Force’s fiscal year 2017 budget that would incrementally phase out the aircraft starting in FY2018 and a FY2016 proposal to mothball all of its A-10s that year.

But Pawlikowski pointed the finger at Congress as one of the key reasons why A-10s may be stuck on the flight line in a matter of years, saying this was the natural consequence of a decade of continuing resolutions and budget instability that left the Air Force unable to make longterm plans.

“Our opportunity to go get moving on that competition to award a new contract to get those additional wings is delayed until we can get an actual appropriation,” she said. “I can’t do that work under a continuing resolution.”

Click to expand...

Jura said:

Jun 8, 2017

while KC-46A testing glitches could delay USAF tanker milestone

source is FlightGlobal

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

Click to expand...

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

is looking at upgrading the camera systems used for aerial refueling on its new

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

tanker after the U.S. Air Force discovered the refueling boom can scrape and potentially damage receiver aircraft.

The remote air refueling observatory cameras in the new Pegasus tanker were the best the market offered in 2012 when the aircraft was being contracted, but is not the latest technology, Air Force spokesman Col. Christopher Karns told Aviation Week Sept. 20.

Boeing would assume the cost of upgrading the camera system, Karns said. A Boeing spokeswoman declined to comment.

The problem involves the KC-46’s rigid refueling boom, one of two systems it has to refuel aircraft in flight. As the tanker’s boom goes into the receiver aircraft, the device has a tendency to scrape the surface of the receiving aircraft, explained Gen. Carlton Everhart, commander of Air Mobility Command, on Sept. 20 during the Air Force Association’s annual Air, Space and Cyber conference here.

This could pose a particular problem for stealth aircraft such as the B-2 bomber,

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

or

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

fighters, if the boom causes damage to low-observable stealth coating, officials acknowledge. The KC-46 has not yet refueled stealth aircraft during flight testing, Boeing spokeswoman Caroline Hutcheson said.

The KC-46’s other refueling system, the Centerline Drogue System (CDS), also has a tendency to leave scuff marks on the tanker itself. The CDS consists of a flexible hose that trails from the tanker aircraft and a “drogue” fitted to the end of the hose that acts as a funnel to aid insertion of the receiver aircraft “probe” into the hose. This refueling method is also called “probe-and-drogue” or “hose-and-drogue.”

The drogue flies well, but contacts the airframe when being reeled in, leaving “witness marks” on the aircraft’s body, Air Force KC-46 System Program Manager Col. John Newberry says.

“When you retract it and bring it in, it comes up and rubs across the bottom of the aircraft,” Newberry told Aviation Week in a Sept. 19 interview.

Everhart said this is a more minor issue compared with the boom scraping problem. Newberry said the solution could be as simple as requiring closer inspections of that section of the airframe and applying touch-up paint because the Air Force does not want to redesign the drogue system over a few scuff marks.

The boom scraping issue is one of three significant—or “category one”—deficiencies the Air Force-Boeing team is trying to fix on Boeing’s new tanker, Lt. Gen. Arnold Bunch, the service’s top uniformed acquisition official, said Sept. 20 during the conference.

The KC-46 is also having problems with high frequency (HF) transmission, during which the HF “turns off” when the aircraft goes into aerial refueling mode, Bunch said.

The third issue is “uncommanded boom extension,” he said, which seems to mean the boom unexpectedly extends when it is not supposed to do so. The Air Force did not provide a more detailed explanation by press time.

Boeing’s engineering team and the program office are working hard to fix all three problems, Bunch said.

Click to expand...

Textron unit acquires 63 Mirage F1s

As Textron Airborne Solutions pursues the US Air Force’s lucrative adversary air (ADAIR) contract, the company earlier this month acquired 63 Dassault Mirage F1s, ATAC chief executive Jeffrey Parker tells FlightGlobal.

ATAC, which Textron acquired last year, took ownership of the legacy fleet, plus support equipment and 150 engines, on 5 September. Textron plans to use the Mirages towards the USAF’s upcoming award, which requires almost 150 aircraft to fulfil the service’s "red air" training needs.

"Textron is planning to retrofit the F1s with modern avionics systems such as digital radio frequency memory jamming capabilities and upgraded radars, Parker says. “The requirements we're seeing the air force describe clearly include a modern radar such as AESA or a highly capable mechanically scanned array radar."

While the 63-aircraft fleet marks a significant acquisition for a private company, Textron is still searching for additional aircraft to satisfy the USAF’s requirements. However, the company’s options have started waning as it looks for aircraft that can operate for more than a decade or have parts that can be supported at the manufacturing level, Parker says. The field is also narrowing in Europe, and Textron has effectively stopped buying from former Eastern Bloc countries for the time being.

“There are aircraft from eastern Europe that our warfighters would train against, but they do not have a good track record for supportability, documentation and airworthiness certification, which has become important for industry now,” he says. “When you start checking off the things that make aircraft attractive, they start falling away, for those reasons, for politics, and for State Department issues where you cannot buy aircraft from different countries.”

The ADAIR award, estimated at $7.5 billion over ten years, would contract out nearly 37,000 flight hours to provide adversary air services, filling the gaps at the USAF’s 57th Wing weapons school and Red Flag training events, as well as operational test and evaluation missions at Nellis AFB, Nevada. The USAF expects to release a final solicitation in January 2018, with a contract award due the following year.

The air force issued a short-term contract to Draken International in 2015, following the closure of the 65th Aggressor Squadron at Nellis AFB and deactivation of the base’s 19 Boeing F-15s, which had performed red air missions. The one-year, $4.5 million contract signalled a broader shift from organic adversary air provision by USAF pilots to a contracted capability.

“In a perfect world we would have the resources to maintain the aggressor squadrons that we used to have, and we’d do our best to work in house,” Air Combat Command chief Gen Mike Holmes said during the annual Air, Space and Cyber conference near Washington DC. However, he notes: “In the world we’re living in now, I don’t want to have to trade an actual fighter squadron for an aggressor squadron because of limits on my budget. The next best thing is to see if we can contract some of that red air out.”

However contracting out adversary air missions is a temporary measure, and Holmes says the USAF has plans in its budget to return to an organic capability. The contract is still likely to last more than a year, he adds. One possibility to extend the air force’s resources is to create a derivative of its future T-X trainer, after its Air Education and Training Command gets that programme off the ground.

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

Click to expand...

USAF keeps B-21 costs in check as development ramps up

• 
  

• 18 SEPTEMBER, 2017
  
• SOURCE: FLIGHTGLOBAL.COM
  
• BY: STEPHEN TRIMBLE
  
• WASHINGTON DC

A secretive new stealth bomber in development by Northrop Grumman could fall in price if long-term trends hold, says the head of the US Air Force’s Rapid Capabilities Office (RCO) on 18 September.

The USAF still refuses to reveal the value of the contract awarded to Northrop in February 2016 to develop the B-21 Raider, but committed to produce at least 100 bombers for $550 million each at 2010 currency values.

“I think we can achieve less than that based on what we’re executing today,” says Randall Walden, director and programme executive for the RCO, a small acquisition cell charged with managing the B-21 development programme.

Then-Secretary of Defense Robert Gates controversially removed the B-21 programme from the normal air force acquisition pipeline and put it in the hands of Walden’s organization, which traditionally managed much smaller efforts, such as the development and fielding of the Lockheed Martin RQ-170 stealth reconnaissance mode.

So far, the move to bypass the normal acquisition system appears to be paying off. In an appearance on an “affordability” panel at the Air Force Association’s annual convention, Walden explained several reasons why he thinks the B-21 has avoided the cycle of cost increases and production cutbacks that devastated previous programmes, such as the Northrop B-2 and Lockheed F-22.

“The magic is the culture. It’s all about the mindset. Not only in the programme office but at the senior leadership level,” Walden says.

The RCO resides outside the USAF’s normal acquisition organization, but still complies with the same “5000-series” regulations that other programmes follow, Walden says. The difference is a cultural mindset that incentivizes quick decision-making and discourages cumbersome bureaucratic processes.

For models, the RCO used the 14 Rules developed by Clarence “Kelly” Johnson, who founded the Lockheed Skunk Works in 1943, which created a cell of engineers and machinists that worked closely together usually in secret to develop advanced new technologies, including the U-2 and SR-71 spy planes. The small group of USAF officers that founded the National Reconnaissance Office to develop a series of successful spy satellites also served as a model, Walden says.

The B-21 still has a long development process ahead. The programme recently completed a preliminary design review, and now the emphasis is on completing engineering drawings and building the first parts, Walden says. Between now and a scheduled entry into service in the mid-2020s, the B-21 faces several development challenges, Walden says.

“Like anything, integration of mature technologies on a stealth platform could have some risk. And that’s where I think we’re going to see most of the risk associated with that programme. So we’re watching that closely,” Walden says.

Click to expand...

Sniper pushes its way onto Hornet fleets

• 
  

• 22 SEPTEMBER, 2017
  
• SOURCE: FLIGHTGLOBAL.COM
  
• BY: LEIGH GIANGRECO
  
• WASHINGTON DC

Canada's plans to buy the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet may be off the table, but details of the originally requested configuration show a Raytheon-made targeting pod's grip on the Boeing fighter is under pressure from a Lockheed Martin alternative that was long considered incompatible.

Though a dispute between Boeing and Bombardier has thrown cold water on the Canadian deal, the potential sale would have put Lockheed Martin’s AN/AAQ-33 Sniper Advanced Targeting Pods onto the F/A-18s. The shift from ATFLIR toward Sniper began more than a decade ago, with a Lockheed Martin flight test aboard a Super Hornet that stoked a US Navy review of its targeting pods. Due to budget constraints, the study never materialized into a request for proposals, and the navy continues to fly Raytheon’s Advanced Targeting Forward Looking Infrared (ATFLIR) on its Super Hornet fleet.

Though sequestration has stalled the new pod effort, Sniper remains high on the US Navy’s desired capabilities list, says Don Bolling, director of business development at Lockheed missiles and fire control. Lockheed already fields Sniper on Canada’s current fleet of CF-18s, following a 2007 upgrade that involved no aircraft modifications. Last May, Lockheed announced a Sniper delivery to the Kuwait Air Force’s F/A-18C/D Hornet fleet.

In 2015, Sniper flew its first successful flight aboard a US Navy F/A-18F at Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, California. Lockheed flew the pod on the Super Hornet’s centerline, whereas ATFLIR rides on the aircraft’s cheek station.

Under an internal research and development programme, Lockheed designed a prototype adapter unit that allowed Sniper to mount to the F/A-18E/F. Following several foreign military sales, Lockheed is refining the adapter design, in conjunction with Boeing and the navy, a navy spokesman tells FlightGlobal. The Sniper pod’s internal environmental control system, which regulates cooling, is independent from the aircraft’s environmental control system. A two-way data link module, located inside the adapter, relies on the aircraft ECS for cooling air, the navy spokesman says.

The CF-18 adapter is a different design which fits the outer mold-line on the legacy F/A-18A-D Hornets. The US Navy’s Super Hornet has a square inlet while the older F/A-18C/D model has a rounded inlet, which requires a different mounting structure, Bolling says.

Click to expand...

AC-130J poised to hit initial operational capability target

• 
  

• 21 SEPTEMBER, 2017
  
• SOURCE: FLIGHTGLOBAL.COM
  
• BY: LEIGH GIANGRECO
  
• WASHINGTON DC

The US Air Force’s Lockheed Martin AC-130J gunship is set to reach initial operational capability this month, Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) chief Lt Gen Brad Webb confirms.

The AC-130J Ghostrider is still two years shy of combat, Webb said during the Air Force Association's annual Air, Space and Cyber conference outside Washington DC. AFSOC is developing the gunship by removing refuelling pods on the existing MC-130J and replacing them with weapons racks outfitted with precision strike packages. The Block 10 AC-130J configuration includes an internal 30mm gun, GPS-guided small diameter bombs and laser-guided missiles that will launch from the rear cargo door.

US Air Force

Last July, the USAF received the first Block 20 configuration aircraft, which adds a 105mm cannon and large aircraft infrared countermeasures equipment. AFSOC is also planning to add wing-mounted Lockheed AGM-114 Hellfire air-to-surface missiles and radio-frequency countermeasures for its next round of updates.

A select number of AC-130Js will be outfitted with a high-energy laser, which the USAF could mount on the side in place of the 30mm gun. The laser gunship became the crown jewel of former AFSOC chief Lt Gen Bradley Heithold’s directed energy plan, with the commander once describing the concept as his “moon shot” ambition. Heithold’s successor has been less vocal on the programme, attributing his perceived apathy to an uncertain budget. Webb says he remains an enthusiastic supporter of the laser gunship demonstration, which is slated for 2020.

“It’s a little bit of a challenge from a priorities standpoint, which is why you hear me talk about it a little bit less, because I need to secure funding both from the air force and SOCOM [US Special Operations Command] to do it,” he says. “But right now we’re on the path to have this window – that is very necessary to be able to have the beam shoot out of – that will be installed on the plane and that happens in the next year. Then we go airborne with shooting the laser a couple years after that.”

Click to expand...

Army rifle replacement program canceled before it takes off
By: Todd South   11 hours ago
Just one month into its official existence, a program to replace the Army’s M4 carbine with a 7.62 mm rifle has been canceled, Army Times has confirmed.

First reported Thursday by The Firearm Blog, the Interim Combat Service Rifle had been in development since at least this spring and was officially announced in August when the Army sought industry samples to produce up to 50,000 rifles.

The rifle would have replaced the M4, a variant of the M16, which has been in service for half a century and fires the 5.56 mm round.

Critics claim the round does not have the distance or lethality needed for modern small unit tactics, especially after upgraded body armor has been shown to be able to defeat the 5.56 mm round.

Most soldiers and Marines carry 5.56 mm M4s, M16s or M27s. Marksmen, snipers and machine gunners fire the 7.62 mm round or a round of similar size.

The Army is working on an intermediate caliber round and rifle combination that would fall between 5.56 mm and 7.62 mm, giving soldiers greater range than their current weapon and greater power and penetration.

Army officials have noted that the rifle-in-progress will replace the M4 and M16 family of weapons. But the Interim Combat Service Rifle was expected to fill that firepower gap while the more long-term program progressed.

Army officials did not provide an official statement on short notice when contacted late Thursday afternoon for comment.

This story will be updated as more information becomes available.

Click to expand...