US Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

Mar 18, 2017
Oct 28, 2016
and now I read
What Will Replace the Third Offset? Lessons from Past Innovation Strategies
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kinda update:

"The shift away from a Third Offset strategy, according to Holmes’ mind, is not political, but instead is based on to need to respond to how fast adversaries – including near peers of China and Russia, and non-state actors such as terrorist organizations – can adapt to U.S. technology or tactics."

inside Air Force: Multi-Domain Battles Requires New Mindset to Coordinate Future Air, Land, Sea Forces
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Planning for a multi-domain battle is how the U.S. military will keep its superiority but doing so requires a new mindset in the Pentagon and out in the field, said the Air Force’s air combat commander.

Speaking Thursday at the Brookings Institute in Washington, Gen. James M. Holmes, commander of the Air Force’s Air Combat Command, based at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia, said while the U.S. military is still without peer, adversaries are becoming more adept at challenging U.S. operations and making combat scenarios uncomfortable,

What’s needed today is for all service branches to embrace the idea of the next battles fought will be multi-domain. In other words, land, air, sea, and cyber will all be part of the battle. Clear lines separating friend and foe will likely disappear as the enemy improves its ability to disrupt communications and use long-range weapons to hit U.S. staging grounds.

“Instead of having a finite victory at the end of a battle, it’s how do you stay in the game, how do you keep playing in the game, how do you keep from losing, and how do you go forward against peer adversaries,” Holmes said.

For many in the audience, Holmes’ comments harkened back to the Pentagon’s quest for a Third Offset strategy. When Michael O’Hanlon, a senior foreign policy fellow at Brookings, asked if multi-domain battle strategy superseded or was just the same philosophy rebranded to accommodate a new administration?

Holmes balked at the idea one replaced the other, but conceded, “I haven’t heard that term used a lot, but I think I still hear the ideas talked about in the halls of the Pentagon.”

The shift away from a Third Offset strategy, according to Holmes’ mind, is not political, but instead is based on to need to respond to how fast adversaries – including near peers of China and Russia, and non-state actors such as terrorist organizations – can adapt to U.S. technology or tactics.

When rolled out two years ago, the Third Offset was by design taking a long-term view of how the U.S. military could remain without peers, evaluating potential threats expected decades in the future.

“The idea of the Third Offset I think it’s is important to think about,” Holmes said. “It’s unlikely we’re going to have a Third Offset that’s going to last 25 years like the other ones did.”

The First Offset occurred during the early Cold War years of the 1950s and 1960, as the U.S. used technological advances in nuclear power and weaponry to create parity with the larger Soviet Union military, according to a
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released in March 2016. The Second Offset occurred in the 1970s and 1980s and was when the stealth and precision weapons used today were first developed.

“We can’t take 20 years to develop a class of weapons systems. We’re going to have to make evolutionary improvements to the things that we have,” Holmes said. “We won’t be able to take 20 years to fully develop and fully test an F-35 we’re going to have to do things faster”

The world in which the U.S. now prepares to deter near-peer adversaries, or fight and defeat if needed, is one that’s very different from a generation ago, Holmes said. To illustrate the difference between then and now, Holmes mentioned how 27 years ago Thursday, the first Gulf War was in its ninth day. Up to that point, U.S. forces had flown 2,000 sorties – a month’s worth according to Holmes.

The message to great powers and adversaries alike was clear, Holmes said. The Navy and Air Force can maintain absolute air superiority, allowing Army and Marine Corps forces to dominate the land.

“I would say now there are no boundaries on the battlefield or that they mean a lot less. There are no hiding places, there are no places you can hide from that unblinking eye of multi-domain awareness. And there are no sanctuaries where we can work through a port, unload our forces, get them ready for battle, and then move them into a battle area,” Holmes said.
“Our forces now know that from their garrisons before they start to move, they’re vulnerable to at least non-kinetic fires and maybe kinetic fires.”

The strategies and equipment used by adversaries today are much faster than what had been the case during the 1990s and early 2000s. The U.S. military has to change the way it plans for the future, Holmes said. “For the services, it’ll be as we contemplate going from research and development in programs, will we go ahead with programs we have planned for many years or will we reevaluate those programs we haven’t started, and try to decide how they fit into the world we envision fighting in.”
 
interesting Hornet part inside
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Marine Corps aviation is recovering from “a horrible year” of “horrific” accidents that
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, the
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said
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yesterday. But,
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said, that progress is at risk unless Congress — which
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a
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to end the government shutdown — can actually enact a full-year budget to fund repairs, spare parts, new planes, and training.

Things are getting better, Neller said. Yes, there was a recent spate of “precautionary landings” in Okinawa, where, in three separate incidents, Marine helicopters set down urgently — one on
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, one
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— after malfunction lights went off. There was also a case when a window fell off a helicopter and
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, slightly injuring a child. The incidents
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and prompted an
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from
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. But Neller looked on the bright side this morning: “I’m glad there were precautionary landings because nobody got hurt and we didn’t lose any airplanes” — in stark contrast to 2017.

“We had a horrible year last year,” Neller said bluntly. “We had twelve Class As” — aviation accidents involving
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and/or $2 million in damage — “and some of them were horrific. The majority of them they were not a result of the materiel condition of the airplane — and I’m just going to leave them at that. Flying is a high risk thing, but that doesn’t meant the people that were involved in this, that they were where we needed them to be as far as (flying) hours and (training) time.”

That’s getting better, Neller said. The Marine Corps-wide average has risen from a bit over 11 flying hours per pilot per month to “just under 16,” he said, but “we know we’ve got to get more hours…..We know we’ve got to fly more.”

What the Commandant is hinting at here: At least some of the Marine Corps pilots who went down last year just hadn’t gotten enough training, raising the risk of costly or even fatal mistakes.

Why were the pilots undertrained? Three mutually reinforcing factors, all of which Neller is trying to address but needs Congress’s help with:

  1. Mostly immediately, training has been disrupted or cut back as a direct result of budget dysfunction: Congress has consistently failed to pass proper spending bills on time, leading to short-term Continuing Resolutions that limit spending for the first weeks or months of the fiscal year.
  2. Maintenance and spare parts to keep aircraft flight-worthy have also been disrupted and cut back. The
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    , the fewer are available to train, and the fewer hours pilots get. Last year,
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    of Marine Corps strike fighters were out of service for one reason or another at any given time (and 64 percent of the Navy’s).
  3. The most fundamental problem is a lot of the Marine Corps’ aircraft are just old, which make it harder to keep them in working order. F-18 Hornet fighters in particular average
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    . That
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    is in part the result of Marine Corps leaders deciding in the 1990s to wait to replace planes until the
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    was available — but now the F-35B is here, the Marines need a budget
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Budget Troubles

“We need a budget to buy new airplanes. We need new iron,” Gen. Neller said. With the Joint Strike Fighters they already have, the Marines have converted three fighter squadrons from Hornets to F-35Bs, Neller said. The F-18s from those squadrons are now excess: The older ones can be stripped for parts to repair other aircraft, the newer ones can go to other F-18 squadrons to replace their oldest planes.

“In fact right now, we’ve got too many Hornets,” Neller said. “We’ve got to get rid of them.” The details of their disposition are still being worked out, he said.

But it’s hard to do this kind of long-term planning under short-term spending bills. A Continuing Resolution like the one passed last week basically says “keep doing what you were doing last year until (this date) while we figure this out.” Existing programs can’t ramp up, new programs can’t start, and for that matter wasteful programs can’t be cut. There’s also the very real possibility of a government shutdown when a CR runs out, if Congress can’t agree to extend it or to pass a proper spending bill.

“The biggest problem is the uncertainty that hangs over you like a cloud,” Neller said. “It changes behavior.” Uncertainty about the budget leads program managers, unit commanders, and other officials to hold back on spending money or signing contracts early in the year, while they’re still under CRs. Then, when a proper appropriations bill is finally passed, everyone rushes to spend their money and pack a year’s worth of projects into the remaining months. Last year, Neller said, once the appropriations passed, the Marines had to scramble to spend an extra $30 million a day — hardly the efficient stewardship of taxpayer money that Congress claims to want.

This annual “Slow down! Hurry up!” makes it hard to plan training, do maintenance, or build new airplanes. It’s especially hard on small businesses that make rare, specialized spare parts, Neller said, because without predictable cash flow, they can’t invest and, often, can’t even make payroll.

By contrast, Neller said, the ideal is to do Multi-Year Procurement (MYP) contracts, in which the government commits to two or more years of purchases in return for a reduced price. But making MYPs requires Congressional permission in the best of times — since Congress budgets year by year — and budgetary chaos can force the military to break the MYPs it already has.

“We need to have a budget. I’m hopeful and it would be great (if) they could do one for ’18 and ’19 together,” Neller said. It wasn’t clear if he was referring to a budget deal like 2016’s, which set new
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, or to Congress actually passing a budget that covered two years of spending, which has been proposed but never done.

What about the budget plan for
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, which will be rolled out in February? “FY19?” Neller laughed. “It’s January 2018 and
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. I just want the
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.”
source is BreakingDefense
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TerraN_EmpirE

Tyrant King
New Army missile defense strategy due out this summer
31 minutes ago
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, the service’s Space and Missile Defense Command commander, said Jan. 25 at a missile defense event at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington that the strategy has been in the works since March 2017. The final product incorporates priorities noted in the recent National Defense Strategy and the Army Operating Concept, as well as the changing operational environment, evolving threats and emerging technologies.

The new strategy will focus on the 2018 to 2028 time frame and will “nest” with the National Defense Strategy, the Army’s operating concept and the service’s new doctrinal concept of multidomain battle.



The strategy will include a comprehensive review — from doctrine to organization to training to equipment to policy and everything in between, according to Dickinson.

And as the strategy is developed, he added, the Army continues to refine its vision for the future AMD force, which is consistent with the Vision of 2020 Joint Integrated Air-and-Missile Defense strategy: where all AMD capabilities from “defensive, passive, offensive, kinetic and non-kinetic are integrated into a comprehensive joint and combined force capable of preventing an adversary from effectively employing any of its offensive air-and-missile weapons.”

The new Army AMD strategy will come on the heels of a
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that is expected to be released soon.
 
inside
US Navy performs another Harpoon Block II+ missile test
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The US Navy has carried out another Harpoon Block II+ missile test at the Point Mugu Sea Test Range on January 22.

The latest test demonstrated the missile’s ability to talk with the newest F/A-18’s software upgrade as the interface becomes operational on the F/A-18 Super Hornet system.

The upgrade, known as System Configuration Set H12E, and its installation culminates years of planning, designing, engineering and testing by a team comprised of several entities across the U.S. Navy enterprise, said Harpoon Deputy Program Manager Cmdr. Jon Schiffelbein.

“We are extremely proud to deliver precision targeting to the warfighter with a flexibility to stay ahead of threats,” he said.

The Harpoon Block II+ provides a rapid-capability enhancement for the navy that includes a new GPS guidance kit, reliability and survivability of the weapon, a new data link interface that enables in-flight updates, improved target selectivity, an abort option and enhanced resistance to electronic countermeasures. It can be launched from multiple air and surface platforms.

“The Harpoon Block II+ expands on a legacy of over 40 years of service,” said Capt. John Dougherty, Precision Strike Weapons program manager. “Using a proven product and expanding its capability ensures the Navy has a viable weapon that is lethal, flexible and accessible at a low cost to address the growing maritime threat.”

This test marks a series of Harpoon advancements in the last few years as part of a rapid weapon integration effort supporting the US Navy’s strategy of distributed lethality. The Navy plans to deploy this capability in late FY18.
distributed lethality again ... time to repeat Jan 17, 2018
exactly one year ago (LOL)
Jan 17, 2017
did their in the meantime realize their 'distributed lethality' is a targeting problem, huh?
Surface Navy Working to Bring Firepower Over the Horizon Through Networking, F-35 Integration
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...
and wait
 

TerraN_EmpirE

Tyrant King
for got to add source
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General Dynamics to pump nearly $2 billion into its shipyards
By:
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  31 minutes ago
15
B4A64BDWOBBM5P4DS54S7OUA7E.jpg

Shipyard workers at General Dynamics Electric Boat prepare the submarine Illinois for float-off in Groton, Conn., on July 30, 2015. (Jessica Hill/AP)

WASHINGTON ― General Dynamics is investing about $2 billion into its shipyards to meet the demands of a growing U.S. fleet, the company’s top executive said Wednesday during an earnings call.

“In response to the significant increased demand from our Navy customer across all three of our shipyards, we’re investing in each of our yards,” said Phebe Novakovic, GD’s chief executive officer.

The company is planning to spend about $1.7 billion at its Electric Boat yard in Connecticut as it ramps up for the next iteration of the Virginia-class attack submarines, the Block V, as well as the Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine.

The Block V includes the Virginia Payload Module, a new section inserted into the ship that gives the Virginia-class sub the capacity for up to 40 vertically launched Tomahawk missiles.

“Block V is a significant upgrade in size and performance requiring additional manufacturing capacity,” she said.



General Dynamics is currently working on the detailed designs for the Columbia-class sub, the first of which the Navy is planning to buy in 2021, with advanced procurement beginning in 2019. Columbia is the replacement for the aging Ohio-class submarines.

The company is also investing $200 million between Bath Iron Works in Maine, which builds destroyers, and NASSCO in San Diego, California, which builds auxiliary ships, Novakovic said.

“So suffice it to say, we are poised to support our Navy customers as they increase the size of the fleet,” she said.



The Navy is weighing options to keep producing
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, even during years that the Navy purchases a Columbia. The previous shipbuilding plan called for just one during Columbia years.
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Yesterday at 8:34 PM
...

sorry
USAF Is Jamming GPS In The Western U.S. For Largest Ever Red Flag Air War Exercise
January 25, 2018
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The year's first iteration of the USAF's premier set of aerial war games, known commonly as
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, is kicking off today at Nellis Air Force Base just outside of Las Vegas, but this exercise will be different than any in the past. Not only is it the largest of its kind in the exercise's 42 year history, but the USAF is going to blackout GPS over the sprawling
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to challenge aircrews and their weaponry under realistic fighting conditions. The tactic will spill over throughout the region, with warnings being posted stating inconsistent GPS service could be experienced by aircrews flying throughout the western United States.

The disruptions will begin on January 26th and will run through February 16th.
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:

"The NBAA Command Center reports the U.S. military will begin training exercises on the Nevada Test and Training Range between 0400Z until 0700Z daily. Training maneuvers will impact vast portions of the Western U.S. including California, Nevada, Oregon, Wyoming, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Montana and New Mexico. FAA enroute ATC centers affected include Albuquerque (ZAB), Denver (ZDV), Los Angeles (ZLA), Salt Lake (ZLC), Oakland (ZOA) and Seattle (ZSE). Operations in R-2508 and R-2501 may also be impacted.

Arrivals and departures from airports within the Las Vegas area may be issued non-Rnav re-routes with the possibility of increased traffic disruption near LAS requiring airborne re-routes to the south and east of the affected area. Aircraft operating in Los Angeles (ZLA) center airspace may experience navigational disruption, including suspension of Descend-via and Climb-via procedures. Non-Rnav SIDs and STARs may be issued within ZLA airspace in the event of increased navigational disruption. Crews should expect the possibility of airborne mile-in-trail and departure mile-in-trail traffic management initiatives."

Those dates and the location perfectly correspond with Red Flag 18-1. The timeframe for the daily disruptions is also the same as the night launch and recovery period for Red Flag this time of year. Two major large force employment missions take place every day during the exercise, one during the light and one during the night, with each last roughly two to three hours.

This particular Red Flag includes players from the USAF, USMC, Australia and UK. The very limited guest list of only America's most trusted allies is indicative of a Red Flag exercise where high-end and sensitive capabilities will be put to the test. According to a press release from the USAF that was posted just hours ago, this seems to be an accurate assumption, with Colonel Michael Mathes, 414th Combat Training Squadron commander,
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:

“We’re trying a few new and different things with Red Flag 18-1... It’s the largest Red Flag ever with the largest number of participants, highlighting the balance of training efficiency with mission effectiveness... Red Flag 18-1 primarily is a strike package focused training venue that we integrate at a command and control level in support of joint task force operations... It’s a lot of words to say that we integrate every capability we can into strike operations that are flown out of Nellis Air Force Base.”

GPS denial is a becoming a huge issue for American military planners. Peer states,
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, are already putting
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and jamming tactics to work during various training events near their own borders. We have discussed this situation in great depth before, and I would
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to understand just how deeply the loss of reliable global positioning system data can mean for the U.S. and its allies during a time of war, as well as what is being done to overcome such a monumental hurdle.

The Pentagon has mysteriously tested technology that can jam GPS over a wide area before, and it is likely that this same capability will be put to use in the Nellis Test and Training Range for this Red Flag 18-1. Line-of-sight and distance impact the way in which GPS users, especially other airplanes, operating far outside the training area will be affected. Here is
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, which emanated from Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, which is located on the western edge of the Mojave Desert in California, in June of 2016. Below is a released image showing how line-of-sight impacts the jammer's abilities:

image

FAA
Map showing how the DoD's GPS jamming would impact airspace over America's southwest during a test in June, 2016.

The fact that the Department of Defense is going to execute wide-spread GPS jamming operations during such a high-end exercise is more proof of just how big of a threat these emerging electronic warfare tactics pose. It will be interesting to see if the USAF admits that the technology was indeed used for Red Flag after the exercise concludes, but considering that there are a whole number of position, navigation, and timing (PNT) technologies being developed in hopes to help overcome the loss of GPS during combat, advisories like this one that occur during major military exercises will likely become increasingly normal in the years to come.
 
found using google that four years ago (dated Feb 14, 2014)
Chief Pentagon Tester Cites Need For Aegis-Equipped Test Ship
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"The U.S. Navy needs to better equip a self-defense test ship (SDTS) to more accurately gauge Aegis combat system abilities for its proposed Flight III DDG-51 destroyers, the recent report from the Pentagon’s Director of Operational Tests and Evaluation (DOT&E) says." etc.

after I had noticed (through a blogger) at p. 139 of
Pentagon’s Director, Operational Test & Evaluation 2017 Annual Report
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:

"The SECDEF directed in FY16 and reiterated in FY17 that the
Navy fund long-lead items for an Aegis SDTS to be used for
testing Aegis ACB-20, DDG 51 Flight III, the Air and Missile
Defense Radar (AMDR, a.k.a. AN/SPY-6), and Evolved
Seasparrow Missile (ESSM) Block II; the Navy initially
complied with the direction but subsequently removed all
funding for the Aegis SDTS and the required aerial targets."

(SDTS is of course an acronym for self-defense test ship)

what gives?
 
interesting
USAF Spending Big On Technology Transition Projects
Jan 25, 2018
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U.S. Air Force science and technology projects heading toward the “valley of death” should fear no evil in fiscal 2019, particularly if they relate to autonomy, directed energy, hypersonics, or low-cost and long-endurance aircraft.

The technology transition program, an Air Force budget line that funds advanced component development and prototyping, has grown exponentially since being established in fiscal 2014 and that trend is set to continue.

Funding for these projects has risen from $48 million in fiscal 2014 to almost $937 million this 2018 fiscal year, with Congress adding another $95 million to the president’s request for additional hypersonics, directed energy and long-endurance aerial platform experiments.

When the Air Force releases its budget program for fiscal 2019 in February, sources say to expect more strong support for the technology transition budget element (0604858). The funding is meant to shepherd promising technologies through the so-called valley of death, where laboratory experiments typically die if they are not immediately paired with an acquisition program for full-scale development and fielding. It achieves this by funding live component and platform tests to mature designs.

One source named several areas likely to receive strong support in fiscal 2019: air-breathing hypersonic propulsion, hypersonic strike weapons, and low-cost attritable (or limited life) aircraft technology.

Another source added directed energy and autonomous computing, particularly for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance applications.

Many of these prototyping efforts will be a continuation of programs already underway at the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), many of which are beyond being considered laboratory experiments, but still aren’t quite ready for prime time.

Projects already underway in these key investment areas include the AFRL/
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Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept (
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and
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) and Tactical Boost Glide (Lockheed) programs; the XQ-58A Valkyrie (Kratos); High-Energy Liquid Laser Area Defense System, or Hellads (
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); and Self-protect High Energy Laser Demonstrator, or SHiELD (
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, Lockheed, and Northrop). Another key project now getting underway in partnership with the Navy is a secretive program called High-power Joint Electromagnetic Non-Kinetic Strike (HiJENKS), a microwave energy weapon.

Past benefactors of this technology transition funding include the Hellads ground-based laser weapon, which demonstrated the ability to “cue, track, and destroy airborne targets in defense of the national capital region,” according to budget documents. Another is the OA-X light attack experiment, and the Auto Ground Collision Avoidance System (Auto GCAS), which is being adopted by Air National Guard
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and is already credited with saving lives.

Speaking at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington Jan. 18, Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson lauded another benefactor of the tech transition program, the three-stream adaptive cycle engine, which now has transitioned into full-scale demonstration under the Adaptive Engine Transition Program.
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and Pratt & Whitney have both developed alternative designs, with the aim of producing a fighter-class engine that is 25% more efficient with 10% better thrust.

Speaking on the sidelines of the Air Force-sponsored Science and Technology 2030 event, AFRL Commander Maj. Gen. William Cooley said key hypersonic propulsion, hypersonic weapon, and low-cost attritable aircraft programs “are not losing support, they’re moving forward.

“I expect them to deliver, and to meet the objectives we’ve assigned them to,” he says.

Cooley explains that transitioning technology from the laboratory to the battlefield is always challenging, but the Air Force is committed to fielding these types of hypersonic, directed energy, and low-cost aircraft systems.

“It’s never a clear path through the valley of death,” he explains. “Is there a potential opportunity to transition? Of course! We’re going to do everything we can to make that happen.”

As these “today” technologies attempt the leap from laboratory experiment to combat utility, the Air Force is scouting for the next big thing in science and technology.

AFRL Chief Technology Officer Morley Stone says the service’s
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will highlight emerging areas of basic research that can be applied to the Air Force mission. He noted the list probably won’t include nanorobotics or quantum computing because AFRL wants to look further ahead than those.

The information-gathering phase will wrap up in late July and the results will be analyzed and “red-teamed” in August and September prior to rollout.

“We need to keep the pipeline full of key technologies we should be paying attention to,” Stone says. He notes that the results of the S&T 2030 study will be kept unclassified to generate interest.
 

Equation

Lieutenant General
The Army's New Self-Propelled Howitzer Is Aimed at China and Russia


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A new 'big gun is coming.
The Army's New Self-Propelled Howitzer Is Aimed at China and Russia
In a modern threat environment, wherein near-peer and smaller-level rivals increasingly possess precision-guided land weapons, longer-range C4ISR technology and drone weapons, increasing range is a ubiquitous emphasis across the Army and other services. Russia’s violations of the INF treaty, new S-500 air defenses, new Armata tanks and fast growing attack drone fleet - all point to a growing need for the US to outrange and outgun potential adversaries.

The Army is starting formal production of a new Self-Propelled Howitzer variant engineered for faster movement, better structural protection, improved drive-train ability, new suspension and advanced networking tech, service and industry developers said.

The new vehicle is built with a more capable, larger chassis, designed as an initial step toward building a next-generation cannon able to outgun existing Russian weapons..

As part of a longer-term plan to leverage the new larger chassis built into the Army’s new M109A7 variant, the Army’s Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center is beginning work on a new cannon able to hit enemies out to 70 kilometers, senior Army developers said.

“Right now we have the 39 calibre cannon we have had since the 80s. We are range limited and the Russians can outgun us and shoot farther,” Maj. Gen. David Bassett, former Program Executive Officer, Ground Combat Systems, said last Fall at the service’s AUSA annual symposium. “If you had not replaced the chassis first, you would never be able to put that larger cannon on there.”

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A 70-kilometer target range is, by any estimation, a substantial leap forward for artillery; when GPS guided precision 155mm artillery rounds, such as Excalibur, burst into land combat about ten years ago - its strike range was reported at roughly 30 kilometers. A self-propelled Howitzer able to hit 70-kilometers puts the weapon on par with some of the Army’s advanced land-based rockets - such as its precision-enabled Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System which also reaches 70-kilometers.

In a modern threat environment, wherein near-peer and smaller-level rivals increasingly possess precision-guided land weapons, longer-range C4ISR technology and drone weapons, increasing range is a ubiquitous emphasis across the Army and other services. Russia’s violations of the INF treaty, new S-500 air defenses, new Armata tanks and fast growing attack drone fleet - all point to a growing need for the US to outrange and outgun potential adversaries.

Furthermore, given the Pentagon’s emphasis upon cross-domain warfare, land weapons are increasingly being developed to attack things like enemy ships, aircraft and ground-based air defenses; naturally, the idea is to pinpoint and destroy enemy targets while remaining at a safer, more protected distance. Deputy Program Executive Officer for Missiles & Space, Brig. Gen. Robert Rasch told Warrior the service is making a decided push to upgrade and develop longer-range weapons as a way to address current threats - and re-adjust following more than 15 years of counterinsurgency.

For example, senior Pentagon leaders have told Warrior Maven that there is some ongoing deliberation about placing mobile land-based artillery - such as a Paladin - in areas of the South China Sea as a credible deterrent against Chinese ships and aircraft.
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TerraN_EmpirE

Tyrant King
The Army's New Self-Propelled Howitzer Is Aimed at China and Russia
Frankly I find that a great deal of hype. Really It's designed to do something the US Army has not really done since the end of the gulf war. Break a actual army. That could mean the Russians or Chinese but just as much would fit Iran and North Korea.
The M109A7 as is still packs the 39 Calibre gun, The South Korean K9 Thunder is 52 Calibres long The German PzH is 52 Calibres The Chinese offer a 54 calibre 155, in Artillery Calibres = Km. the 39 calibre gun is ranging maybe 20KM with bleed base. back in the 1970's Gerard Bull, created the GC45 which started the trend and longer barrel 155mm we see across the world, He was however selling to South Africa when Carter joined the Arms Embargo, Bull was burned. Having been burned Bull left Canada and severed all contacts with the US moved to Europe, Improved the CG 45 and sold them to the PRC and more. This is How there was worry that the Iraqi's could out Range the US Artillery in the first Gulf war. Fortunately Iraqi Artillery lacked the ability to spot in a way to take advantage of that.
The Us did try and get a longer range SPH system back in the late 90's the XM2001 Crusader ( perhaps the best name EVER) it packed a 56 calibre gun the XM297E2. The US had been offered the Pzh 2000 but felt the Crusader was better being lighter in weight which should tell you something considering the XM2001 was 40 tons (Pzh 2000 is 61 tons. ) using long range rounds it dropped shells out to 40km. had it entered production it could have been partnered with ultra long range round that when tested in the Pzh2000 already range out to 60km.
The US of course has the ability to spot that far.
 
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