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Much of the discussion these days about the proper size of the

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centers on numbers and types of vessels within a 300-ship fleet: Should the sea service have 38 or 50 amphibious ships? Should it have 40 or 52

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?

But a former secretary of the Navy says the focus on a 300-ship fleet only obscures more accurate measures of capability and presence.

Speaking at the AFCEA West Conference in San Diego last week, Sean O'Keefe, who served in the office under President George H.W. Bush from 1992-1993, said Congress and Navy brass were becoming too focused on the total number of ships in the fleet when they should be taking other factors into account. The service's current strategy will build to more than 300 ships by the end of the decade, up from 272 today.

"The resignation of one of my predecessors, Jim Webb, was prompted at what he thought was the outrage of falling below the 600-ship Navy," O'Keefe said. "You look back on it as if it was the seminal moment of some strategic shift and it wasn't. It was less a statement of capability and more of just a marker on the wall of what's a measure of merit."

Webb wasn't immediately available for comment.

O'Keefe, who later served as the administrator of NASA from 2000-2004 and as CEO of EADS North America / Airbus Group North American Unit from 2009-2014, said capability and capacity is more than a number of deployable ships.

The ongoing war over numbers only fed a "tyranny of incrementalism" that had little benefit to the Navy, he told Military.com at the conference.

"It assumes that there is a constancy in which that is the measure of merit and it isn't. That was a very different period of time," he said. "How do you go about the process of measuring capability and the capacity to project force ... And we haven't come up with a metric yet of how you actually measure [those things.] That's the challenge."

While a metric that would accurately predict capability is more complex and harder to determine, O'Keefe said, he suggested development of such a tool was not far off.

"I think it's starting to gel, trying to figure out exactly what you do to figure out what is the exponential capacity or capability you get out of certain enhancements," he said. "And the more we get into that, the more we're going to get the answer to that question with greater precision. That can be then communicated in an elevator speech in the same way as whole numbers."

O'Keefe said it was "hard to be optimistic about transcendence" given the nature of today's political debate with the candidates' dogmatic rhetoric and talking points. But, he said, in the near future there would be opportunities to change the conversation.

A year from now, someone's going to be there [in the White House]," he said. "And some administration is going to have the opportunity to be thinking differently about these problems."

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Naval Today said:

The U.S. Navy will sail, fly and operate wherever international law allows, Admiral Harry B. Harris, Commander of the United States Pacific Command, said at an Armed Services House committee hearing yesterday, February 24.

The U.S. Navy Admiral, in confirmation of U.S. fears, said that China was “clearly militarising” the region by setting up missile launchers on the disputed islands.

Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi, when asked about the missile launchers and radars, did not deny anything and reasoned that the “limited and necessary” defence facilities on the islands were within international law regulations.

Asked about what could be done to stop China in its intentions and deter militarization, Harris said he believes a stronger naval presence might do the job. He added that the U.S. Navy could consider putting another attack submarine in the region, among other options which would not entail a full-blown carrier group.

The Admiral, however, did note that an enhanced engagement could face certain “fiscal and political hurdles”.

As the tensions in the region are constantly on the rise, U.S. officials are continuing to endorse the freedom of navigation policy in the South China Sea, most of which China claims for itself.

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Northrop RQ-4B trials Dragon Lady’s SYERS-2 sensor

The US Air Force's Northrop Grumman RQ-4B Global Hawk unmanned air vehicle has successfully flown one of the Lockheed Martin U-2 Dragon Lady’s most prized sensors in an aerial demonstration from Northrop’s Palmdale, California site.

The Senior Year Electro-optical Reconnaissance System-2 (SYERS-2) demonstration comes after the company reached a co-operative research agreement with the USAF in 2015, and demonstrations with the U-2’s Optical Bar Camera and UTC Aerospace Systems' latest multispectral sensor – that will replace SYERS-2, the MS-177 – will follow.

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USAF reveals slimmed-down SACM air-to-air missile concept

The US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) says it has begun early research into a miniature air-to-air missile that would be carried on the next-generation of advanced fighter jets.

Known as the Small Advanced Capabilities Missile (SACM), AFRL officials say the conceptual missile would be far smaller and cheaper than today’s advanced air-to-air missiles like the Raytheon AIM-9X and AIM-120D, and therefore might be purchased and fielded in greater quantities.
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Hyperwarp said:

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Jura said:

a moment ago I noticed
Air Force’s KC-46A Tanker Refuels F/A-18 Hornet

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The narrow window for Boeing to deliver 18 operational KC-46A Pegasus tankers to the US Air Force by August 2017 includes little to no room for error and a series of tests and events must go right to achieve that significant contractual milestone.

The $5 billion development programme is about eight months behind its original schedule after facing a number of setbacks, but company officials have committed to achieving the “required assets available” milestone, meaning 18 jets delivered to two air force bases between March and August next year.

But while USAF officials applaud that ambitions goal, they say in an interview with Flightglobal that schedule – not cost or technical difficulties – is the next-generation tanker project’s main challenge. Even if those tankers are in place by August, Air Mobility Command (AMC) won’t have had enough time with the 767-2C-based tankers to declare initial operational capability on time.

USAF programme executive officer for tankers Gen Duke Richardson says Boeing had planned to begin delivering aircraft over 12 months starting this August but to account for delays in passing the milestone C review means 18 deliveries will be phased over six months.

“[AMC commander Gen Carlton Everhart] is not going to declare it until they’re ready to take the KC-46 to war,” says Richardson. “It’s going to take them a little while to ramp up. IOC is not a contractual requirement, it’s really a warfighter requirement.”

Only two aircraft currently flying in support of FAA type certification and aerial refuelling demonstration and the first KC-46A recently passed fuel to an F-16 and F/A-18 and then received fuel from a KC-10. The developmental tanker must now refuel an AV-8B, A-10 and C-17 to satisfy a “milestone C” decision review board that had planned to convene in April, but is now tracking toward early May.

Until then, the air force cannot award the first two low-rate production contracts for 7 and 12 aircraft to satisfy the required assets milestone. Boeing must also delivery enough spare parts and engines and correct any technical deficiencies revealed in ground and flight testing.

“Those must all happen by August of 2017, so there’s certainly a lot of pressure there,” says Richardson. “EMD-2 and EMD-4, by the way, are needed to get through the system verification review quickly. If we have four aircraft flying, we can burn through those reviews faster than with just two aircraft.”

The programme’s favourable contract terms mean the air force is doing everything in its power to uphold its end of the bargain by programming enough funds across its latest five-year spending plan to purchase 15 aircraft per year, with annual lots expected to be awarded each January.

“Through the contract that was competed, we the government get rewarded for stability,” says Richardson. “Our best price point is actually 15 aircraft per year. Our plan is to awarded Lot 3 in January of next year.”

Col John Newberry, who took over as the air force KC-46A programme manager on 8 February, says his team is “laser-focused” on achieving milestone C and graduating from development to production. “I’m confident the programme is on the right track and we’re pressing to milestone C,” he says.

Richardson says schedule issues aside, the KC-46A programme is healthy and Boeing is transparent and hasn’t “cut corners”. “That stuff looks easy, but it’s the culmination of five years-worth of effort,” he says. “It’s pretty darn challenging to have a controlled mid-air collision in flight.”

The air force will buy 94 KC-46s through fiscal year 2021 with 81 of the remaining 175-aircraft order to be furnished through the 2020s. The service will buy 42 wing-mounted aerial refuelling pod sets.

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US Air Force Unveils New B-21 Bomber​

The US Air Force secretary unveiled the first official rendering of the new Long Range Strike Bomber and revealed its official designation: the B-21.

In a speech at the Air Force Association's Air Warfare Symposium on Feb. 26, Secretary Deborah Lee James shared an artist's concept design of the next-generation bomber, which will be built by Northrop Grumman. She also announced the plane's long-awaited designation, calling it the B-21.

However, the Air Force still has not decided on a name for the new B-21, James said. She called on airmen to send in suggestions.

"So we have an image, we have a designation, but what we don't yet have, we don't yet have a name," James said, "and this is where I'm challenging and I'm calling on every airman today ... to give us your best suggestions for a name for the B-21, America's newest bomber."

While there are no existing prototypes of the aircraft, the artist rendering unveiled Feb. 26 is based on the initial design concept, according to an Air Force statement. The Air Force settled on the B-21 designation as recognition that LRS-B is the first bomber of the 21st century, the statement noted.

James also explained in the statement why the B-21 shares a resemblance to the B-2, also built by Northrop.

“The B-21 has been designed from the beginning based on a set of requirements that allows the use of existing and mature technology,” James said, according to the statement.

Northrop Grumman spokesman Tim Paynter stressed the B-21 bomber's importance to the nation's future in a statement emailed to reporters following James' remarks.

“Northrop Grumman is proud to serve as the prime contractor for the B-21 Bomber, in partnership with the U.S. Air Force, to deliver a capability that is vital to our national security," Paynter said. “Any further questions should be directed to the Air Force.”

The Air Force awarded the contract for B-21 engineering, manufacturing and development to Northrop on Oct. 27. The service plans to field the new bomber in the mid-2020s.

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