US Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

Air Force Brat

Brigadier
Super Moderator
It might not just be on one ship , but symtomatic through out the navy, even the whole armed services.

of course its systemic throughout the whole Military, its placing unqualified and incapable individuals in roles of leadership and responsibility they are un-prepared for, based on so called "political correctness" to be polite..... I believe the military should be colorblind, and allow women and men who are motivated and capable to be assigned commands based on their motivation and capability.....

as the Fitzgerald proved, this is a process that demands constant vigilance, as you rise through levels of responsibility and difficulty, you must be stressed to the point where you are allowed to fail, but that failure must be immediately rectified, then allow that candidate to resume in order to learn....

The absence of Senior Leadership on the Bridge, resulted in the loss of life, wounding of the vessel to the point of it being totaled, and loss of command structure... individuals are dead, future command personel have lost their careers, and a US Naval vessel will never sail again, and that's NOT the half of it...

You cannot run at "Flank" 24/7 for days, weeks, and months on end, we must "throttle back" and regain core competency, and fix all our "Blessed Broken JUNK!", good Lord!, whats wrong with people?

Get rid of the crap, and replace it with new when and where necessary, its going to take a hell of a bunch of "bilge pumping" and fixing the leaks to get this military "ship shape", and good luck with that with this new Democrat congress, really, they have very little real concern for our military, or for that matter the defense of this great nation.... Lord Help US!
 
Dec 31, 2018
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

7. Navy mulls frigate choices


sounds like I'll make it or break with the FFG(X) cancellation prediction Oct 30, 2018
LOL!
kinda update inside
Hit the Slides! The Latest from the Surface Navy: The Drift XIV
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

:

FFG(X)

The biggest thing that came out of the briefing is that follow-on ships are getting cheaper, with NAVSEA thinking it’s going to get close to $800 million per unit. There was some eye-brow raising at the cost estimate form last year, which was
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
. The cost of the first ship will be revealed in the budget when it rolls out (ideally) next month.

About 1/3 of the cost of FFG(X) will be government furnished equipment – the sensors, computer hardware, software and weapons systems that will go on it.

The program is on track, NAVSEA says.

Milestones:

  • Conceptual design phase ends in June followed by a draft RFI
  • A wide-open (
    Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
    ) competition for detailed design and construction kicks off in the fourth quarter in 2019
  • Awarded in the fourth quarter of 2020
 
Dec 20, 2018
some time ago Jul 26, 2016;
Start of US Air Force’s light-attack plane competition pushed back until next year
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
another story, which I had been following here, just ended:
US Air Force’s plan to launch light-attack aircraft competition is now deferred indefinitely
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!


LOL the other stories:

Jan 10, 2019
was now clicking through 'tanker news' back to Mar 26, 2017
as
USAF Finally Accepts Its First KC-46A Tanker, But The Design Still Needs Years Worth Of Fixes
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!


I'm not going to follow this 'low-cost, low-risk solution' any more LOL
the tanker accepted with "remaining deficiences", is over


the latest on the Warthog "retirement" is ... Nov 22, 2018
Mar 30, 2018
now
BRRRT with Surround Sound: A-10 May Get New 3D Audio System
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!


the latest on B-52 engines is ... Jun 25, 2018
Dec 23, 2017partly related:
USAF proposes MOAB-sized bomb carriage for B-52H wings

22 June, 2018
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!


the rest I follow concerns the USN (or I simply forgot something)
 
it's actually interesting (dated Jan 11, 2019)
Top U.S. Hypersonic Weapon Program Facing New Schedule Pressure
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

The cost, timing and critical risks of the U.S. military’s plans to counter Russia and China’s new hypersonic weapons are emerging from secrecy. As the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) begins prototyping components of a broad new hypersonic surveillance and defense architecture, the U.S. Air Force’s two hypersonic weapons programs launched last year are expected to achieve operational status within two years, despite technical problems slowing an associated program.

The Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW) is the U.S. military’s most advanced reply to Russia’s ground-launched Avangard in the near term. Building on DARPA’s Falcon and Tactical Boost Glide (TBG) programs, the ARRW is expected to become the world’s first air-launched, maneuvering hypersonic glide vehicle with a high lift-to-drag ratio. The Air Force says the ARRW “program is on track” with “no significant deviations from original acquisition strategy and baseline,” according to a mandatory report recently sent to Congress.

In August, the service awarded a $480 million contract to
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
Missiles and Fire Control to begin developing the ARRW, but the total cost is $859.1 million, the Air Force says.

The program may be on track, but it is facing schedule pressures. A predesign review and a flight test of the first instrumented measurement vehicle vehicle were supposed to be done already, but the delayed receipt of fiscal 2018 funding pushed the design review to late March and the flight test to late June. A subsystem critical design review also is delayed from late March to late September, the report states.

Moreover, DARPA’s TBG is supposed to “significantly reduce the design risk” for the ARRW, the Air Force says, but is also running behind. The ARRW’s high lift-to-drag design remains unproven. The Air Force is relying on the TBG to prove that a wedge-shaped glide vehicle can survive the extreme heat of a hypersonic cruise phase, which DARPA’s previous Falcon program failed to achieve in two flight tests. But the first flight tests for the TBG program also are running behind. Citing unspecified “technical challenges,” DARPA has pushed back the flight test from late June to late December this year, the Air Force says.

As the unproven ARRW design moves forward, the Pentagon also is investing in a lower-risk alternative. The Air Force inherited the conical glide vehicle of the air-launched Hypersonic Conventional Strike Weapon (HCSW) from the Army’s ground-launched Advanced Hypersonic Weapon program, which spawned a common glide-vehicle design shared with the Army’s ground launchers and the Navy’s submarines.

The Air Force awarded Lockheed Martin Space a $928 million contract last April to integrate the HCSW on a B-52, but the service’s independent cost estimate is $1.4 billion, the report shows. The first all-up-round test for the HCSW is scheduled to be completed by late December 2020 and so far appears to be on track. A preliminary design review is set for late June, and a critical design review is planned by late March 2020.

As the Air Force focuses on the ARRW and HCSW near-term, development continues on a supersonic combustion ramjet engine and a waverider-shaped airframe under a long-term effort called the Advanced Full-Range Engine (AFRE) and the Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC).

Hypersonic technology has moved from a niche interest into the acquisition mainstream. As new offensive weapons emerge, the MDA is taking the lead on constructing a vast new architecture to detect, track and intercept hypersonic missiles. The ability of hypersonic glide vehicles to maneuver at the top of the atmosphere poses a difficult problem for current defenses designed for ballistic threats with predictable trajectories.

The MDA plans to kick off a prototyping stage for a new Space Sensor Layer (SSL) of surveillance satellites in low Earth orbit with an industry day Jan. 15. The SSL will explore the detection of hypersonic glide vehicles coasting at the top of the atmosphere.

The MDA is reviewing a vast range of hypersonic defense proposals. In September, the agency awarded contracts to eight companies to produce 21 white papers covering nearly every conceivable approach to defeating an attack by hypersonic missiles. The papers will inform the MDA’s development strategy, which is likely to promote development of several different approaches.

These include a new family of interceptor missiles called SkyFire proposed by
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
; hypervelocity projectiles designed by
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
,
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
and
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
; a laser gun offered by Boeing; and electronic attack systems conceptualized by
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
, L3 Technologies and Lockheed. Lockheed also has proposed a full range of new interceptors, including a space-based system, an air-launched missile and the “Valkyrie” for terminal hypersonic defense.
COUNTERHYPER_USairforcereporttocongress.jpg
 

AndrewS

Brigadier
Registered Member
It's not really about political correctness.

It's the lack of basic seamanship training and experience across the fleet

In 2003, the Navy ended the required months of navigation schooling and instead gave junior officers a packet of CDs containing self-paced lessons.
...
Stashwick is likewise critical of the Navy’s approach to make surface officers “generalists,” which sometimes results in captains possessing little more actual ship-driving experience than their junior officers.

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!



of course its systemic throughout the whole Military, its placing unqualified and incapable individuals in roles of leadership and responsibility they are un-prepared for, based on so called "political correctness" to be polite..... I believe the military should be colorblind, and allow women and men who are motivated and capable to be assigned commands based on their motivation and capability.....

as the Fitzgerald proved, this is a process that demands constant vigilance, as you rise through levels of responsibility and difficulty, you must be stressed to the point where you are allowed to fail, but that failure must be immediately rectified, then allow that candidate to resume in order to learn....

The absence of Senior Leadership on the Bridge, resulted in the loss of life, wounding of the vessel to the point of it being totaled, and loss of command structure... individuals are dead, future command personel have lost their careers, and a US Naval vessel will never sail again, and that's NOT the half of it...

You cannot run at "Flank" 24/7 for days, weeks, and months on end, we must "throttle back" and regain core competency, and fix all our "Blessed Broken JUNK!", good Lord!, whats wrong with people?

Get rid of the crap, and replace it with new when and where necessary, its going to take a hell of a bunch of "bilge pumping" and fixing the leaks to get this military "ship shape", and good luck with that with this new Democrat congress, really, they have very little real concern for our military, or for that matter the defense of this great nation.... Lord Help US!
 

Bhurki

Junior Member
Registered Member
Does anyone here know if the life extension of DDG to 45 years is actually instated into USN already or not?
 
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
Audit: Naval Academy is falling apart

gosh
An audit has found that the
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
has decaying walls, plumbing issues and condemned offices and balconies.

The
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
reported Friday that it obtained the 2018 audit through a Freedom of Information Act request.

The
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
’s report says the Annapolis, Maryland, college’s infrastructure has degraded to the point of threatening its ability to train midshipmen.

The report outlined 13 unfunded maintenance or renovation projects across 15 facilities between March 2017 and April 26.

It says there are failing classrooms and athletic facilities, and the stormwater system has dumped unfiltered water into the Severn River.

The Navy didn't release the costs of all unfunded projects.

Academy spokesman Cmdr. David McKinney says in a statement that the school agrees with the audit’s findings and looks forward to addressing them.
 
Top