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Navy: Most Offensive, Defensive Upgrades Surface Force Will Be Fielded by 2023
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“If we have this missile out there and we can afford to do so, we will try to put it as many places as we can. Again, distributed lethality, the more shooters we have out there,” he said
he
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Rear Admiral Ronald A. Boxall
Director, Surface Warfare

hope you will have enough SPOTTERS, MID-COURSE CORRECTORS for your concept, then
 
Dec 8, 2016
Trump plans to renegotiate new Air Force One pricing
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"It’s also unclear what prompted Trump to single-out the Air Force One programme suddenly on 6 December."

...
anyway Boeing promises Trump simpler requirements for Air Force One
Boeing will apply commercial practices to the Air Force One recapitalisation in an effort to drive down costs, Boeing chief executive Dennis Muilenburg told president-elect Donald Trump during a meeting this morning in New York.

Muilenberg emerged from his meeting this afternoon at the president-elect’s transition headquarters at Trump Tower, telling reporters he and Trump discussed both the presidential aircraft recapitalisation programme and fighter jets. Though Muilenberg did not elaborate on the fighter jet discussion, it could be a reference to Trump's recent comments on Twitter that he would pit Boeing's F/A-18 against Lockheed Martin's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
"We made some great progress on simplifying requirements for Air Force One, streamlining the process, streamlining certification by using commercial practices," Muilenberg says. "All of that is going to provide a better airplane at a lower costs."

Boeing made a similar promise to use commercial certification for the US Air Force's KC-46 tanker programme, which increased the cost of KC-46 development.

Today's meeting marks the second rendezvous with Boeing, following Trump’s tweet in December alleging the two 747-200-derived VC-25As would cost more than $4 billion. Trump continued to rail against the recapitalisation programme in a 7 December interview on NBC, saying he would negotiate and drive down the price of the aircraft. But in that same interview, Trump struck a conciliatory tone toward Muilenburg, who had contacted Trump to discuss the programme.

“I spoke to a very good man yesterday — the head of Boeing. Terrific guy. We’re going to work out,” Trump told NBC.

The press scrums staked out in the lobby of Trump Tower have seen a steady steam of visits by cabinet nominees and executives, including some from the aviation community hoping to strike a deal with the incoming president. On Friday, Lockheed Martin chief executive Marillyn Hewson met with Trump to talk about the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. Once during his campaign and more recently over social media, the president-elect has targeted the programme as an example of wasteful spending.

But Hewson appeared optimistic following the meeting, telling reporters a deal on a new contract would create 1,800 jobs at the F-35 facility in Fort Worth, Texas and more across the US.

“I told him that we are close to a deal on a new contract that reduces the price for the next 90 aircraft significantly,” she said. “I also had the opportunity to share some of our ideas on how to continue to drive the cost down in the F-35.”

The aircraft are already expected to drop in price as Lockheed ramps up to full-rate production. The government has also instituted a blueprint for affordability programme, with the aim to drive down the price per aircraft to $85 million by 2019. In 2015, Lockheed had set an $80 million per jet goal by 2019, FlightGlobal previously reported.
source:
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TerraN_EmpirE

Tyrant King
Armata and what the US DOD are concepting are about as related as a Blackberry and a modern iPhone. The Armata will have a few common features but nothing like the abilities wanted by the TARDEC. Armata has a number of neat new features unmanned turret active protection system but unmanned turrets have been trialed before, active protection systems are already on a number of successful MBT. What TARDEC is looking for is a F22 of tanks a true world beater light weight, laser APS, sensors beyond beyond.
So I don't think we can even guess what it will have or be.
 

FORBIN

Lieutenant General
Registered Member
Armata and what the US DOD are concepting are about as related as a Blackberry and a modern iPhone. The Armata will have a few common features but nothing like the abilities wanted by the TARDEC. Armata has a number of neat new features unmanned turret active protection system but unmanned turrets have been trialed before, active protection systems are already on a number of successful MBT. What TARDEC is looking for is a F22 of tanks a true world beater light weight, laser APS, sensors beyond beyond.
So I don't think we can even guess what it will have or be.
Remains possible with Trump... a M1A3 envisaged recently ?
 

FORBIN

Lieutenant General
Registered Member
Micro-drones Perdix the more interesting :

According to the DoD of the United States, these Perdix micro-drones are capable of carrying out ISR missions (Intelligence, Reconnaissance, and Surveillance) at low altitude, thanks to their artificial intelligence.

They can also be used to launch saturation attacks against the defenses, particularly anti-aircraft, enemy forces, and to carry out jamming actions (communications, etc ...).

These micro-drones bear this name accordingly since a Perdix is 16.51cm long, has a wingspan of 30cm, and works thanks to a motor that drives propellers of 6.6cm.

With a weight of 290g, each Perdix has an autonomy in flight more than 20 minutes and can evolve between 75 and 110 km / h. The advantage of these micro-drones lies in the fact that some components can be manufactured from a 3D machine.

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USA drones Perdix .jpg
 

TerraN_EmpirE

Tyrant King
Joint Air-to-Ground Missile Destroys Small Boat in Test
By: Jen Judson, January 13, 2017
WASHINGTON — The missile that will ultimately replace the US Army’s Hellfire missile successfully destroyed a small remotely piloted boat from more than 4 kilometers away, according to the service.

In a Dec. 7 flight test at Eglin Air Force Base Maritime Range, Florida, the Joint Air-to-Ground Missile (JAGM) was launched by an AH-64D Apache pilot and was successfully guided to the target using both laser and radar sensors, Defense News has learned.

The Program Executive Office Missiles and Space and the Joint Attack Munition Systems Project Office along with the US Army Aviation and Missile Research Development and Engineering Center and Lockheed Martin — which is developing JAGM for the Army and makes Hellfire missiles — conducted the test.

The test, according to the Army, is the tenth successful JAGM flight test. The point of the test was to demonstrate JAGM’s maturity and capability against different kinds of targets in a variety of environments.

The Army has been relatively quiet about JAGM, last announcing a test — its seventh — in May 2016 when the Army fired JAGM from a Gray Eagle unmanned aircraft system and hit a truck target going roughly 20 mph at Dugway Proving Ground, Utah.

In that test, the missile flew slightly longer than 8 kilometers at an altitude similar to where a Predator unmanned aircraft might fly.

The missile has also been tested on Apache attack helicopters and Marine Corps Cobra helicopters.

The $66 million JAGM missile engineering and manufacturing development contract was awarded to Lockheed Martin in the summer of 2015. The contract could ultimately be worth up to $186 million, as it includes two additional options for low-rate initial production valued at about $60 million each, the Army has said.

JAGM is intended to reach initial operational fielding in 2018.

At the end of 2017, the Army will conduct a limited user test with pilots firing JAGM missiles from Apaches in what is believed to be typical operational scenarios.

The JAGM missile’s threshold requirements are to fly on the Apache and Cobra, Romero said, but the Army is considering what other platforms on which to test JAGM’s capability — defined as “objective” requirements. Gray Eagle is an obvious candidate considering it carries Hellfire and also will be teamed with Apaches in reconnaissance missions.
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TerraN_EmpirE

Tyrant King
Trump and Boeing CEO Look to Downscale Requirements on Air Force One Replacement
By: Valerie Insinna, January 17, 2017
WASHINGTON — Boeing will reduce the cost of the Air Force One replacement program by adhering to scaled-down requirements and using commercial practices, Boeing head Dennis Muilenburg said after a Tuesday meeting with President-elect Donald Trump.

The discussion, which ended around noon at Trump Tower in New York, was the second session between the two businessmen.


Muilenburg told the press that he and Trump made “some great progress on simplifying the requirements for Air Force One” and that costs could be further lowered by using commercial practices to streamline the aircraft certification process, according to a pool report.

"I think we're making great progress. ... Together we are working through streamlining the practices, simplifying the requirements, applying commercial best practices. That's going to lead to substantial cost reduction," Muilenburg said.

Boeing’s fighter programs also came up during the discussion, he said. Although Muilenburg did not elaborate, that likely refers to the Super Hornet, which Trump is eyeing as potential competition for the F-35. The president-elect has not discussed whether he plans to truncate the Lockheed F-35 joint strike fighter program, but in December he expressed interest in an upgraded version of the Super Hornet.

Trump first set his sights on the Air Force One program on Dec. 6, when he fired off a tweet stating that the $4 billion program was “out of control” and should be canceled. Later that month, he met with Muilenburg at the president-elect’s Mar-A-Lago estate in Florida, and the Boeing CEO promised that work on the program would not exceed $4 billion.

“We’re going to get it done for less than that, and we’re committed to working together to make sure that happens. And I was able to give the president-elect my personal commitment on behalf of The Boeing Company,” Muilenburg said then. "This is a business that’s important to us. We work on Air Force One because it’s important to our country and we’re going to make sure that he gets the best capability and that it’s done affordably.

“That’s what we’re going to work on together. We have an active 747 production line and we’re eager to get started on the program. We haven’t actually started the build of the airplane yet, but once we finalize the requirements and make sure that it’s affordable we’ll launch on building the aircraft. We’ve got a hot production line and we’re ready to go.”

The Air Force plans on buying two new Air Force One aircraft and in 2015 selected Boeing to build a militarized version of its 747-8 aircraft. Unlike the commercial jets that roll of Boeing’s production line, a presidential transport aircraft would incorporate numerous upgrades, including secure communications equipment and hardening against nuclear attacks and electromagnetic blasts.

While the service itself has not disclosed the total cost for the program, Trump’s numbers appear to be close to reality. The Air Force has budgeted $2.7 billion through fiscal 2021 for research, development, test and evaluation, and experts have estimated the procurement of two planes will cost another $1 billion.

Outgoing Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James has said that the service, which procures Air Force One on behalf of the administration, could do it cheaper if requirements are downsized. But service officials have argued that growing obsolescence and diminishing sources for current Air Force One replacement parts have significantly limited availability, and that procurement should happen sooner rather than later.
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Possible deck plan?af12020.jpg
 
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