US Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

Brumby

Major
any opinions?
Extracted%20Still%201-cropped.jpg

Army Ground-Launched Hellfire Missiles Attacks Drone Target

source:
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
There is a already some form of co production arrangement with Israel of the Iron Dome. The US should not spend development funds and time to work on this program and just get the Iron Dome. My 2 cents.
 

FORBIN

Lieutenant General
Registered Member
On the pic it is i think a Sidewinder not a Helfire and the truck look like HIMARS what you think Mr TE o_O
 

SamuraiBlue

Captain
On the pic it is i think a Sidewinder not a Helfire and the truck look like HIMARS what you think Mr TE o_O
It's probably a hellfire missile with a large booster rocket.
8/10 of the missile is probably a booster.

JGSDF has a similar system called the type 11 short range surface to air missile system.
1920px-JGSDF_Type_11_SAM_20140429-01.JPG



  • Overall length:Approx.2,850mm(active radar homing)
  • Diameter:approx.0.16m
  • Weight:approx.105kg
  • warhead weight :approx. 9kg
  • Top speed:Mach 2.4
  • Range:approx. 10,000m
  • Ceiling :approx.3,000m
 

Jeff Head

General
Registered Member
DARPA's Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel (ACTUV) recently began undergoing at se maneuvers and trials.

The 40-meter vessel is scheduled to be christened on April 7, 2016, with open-water testing planned to begin in summer 2016 off the California coast.

It is designed to spend months at sea with no personnel aboard, but to ultimately be able ti hunt submarines and carry the necessary sensors and weapons to do so, and the necessary comm links to allow it to to be overseen by sailors either ashore, on aircraft, or aboard other vessels.

Revolutionary technology...really neat stuff coming.

 

strehl

Junior Member
Registered Member
I suppose the sailors overseeing the sensor data must be close enough that they can intercede if the submarine being tracked decides to attack or if hostile air/surface forces spot it. In peacetime, I wonder what stops someone from boarding and helping themselves to free stuff.
 

Brumby

Major
I suppose the sailors overseeing the sensor data must be close enough that they can intercede if the submarine being tracked decides to attack or if hostile air/surface forces spot it. In peacetime, I wonder what stops someone from boarding and helping themselves to free stuff.

Currently I struggle to understand how this ACTUV is meant to work and its utility in the scheme of things outside of a non permissive environment.

Its role is probably a potential replacement of the Frigate in ASW as part of the outer ring defence where there is some form of sea control in the immediate periphery.
 

TerraN_EmpirE

Tyrant King
any opinions?
Extracted%20Still%201-cropped.jpg

Army Ground-Launched Hellfire Missiles Attacks Drone Target

source:
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
On the pic it is i think a Sidewinder not a Helfire and the truck look like HIMARS what you think Mr TE o_O
Correct Mr. Forbin. Who ever wrote the article messed up on there missiles. On the subject.
Now before another jumps in first the missile fired in the first story was a AIM 9X
The Fins tell the Tale.
wxjc5tqszf3uxhqa492h.jpg Aim 9X
fim-92-1.jpg FIM 92 Stinger MANPADS
Hellfire_Missiles_Mounted_on_Apache_(flash)_3897_(2076796896).jpgA Pair of AGM 113 series HELLFIRE Antitank missile.
Now Why the confusion? well The system they were testing was not the missiles per say but rather the launcher. The Multi Mission Launcher or MML. It's a bit like VLS on on the back of a truck. It fires all of the above missiles.
US Army Fires Stinger From Multi-Mission Launcher in Test
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
, Defense News2:11 p.m. EDT March 24, 2016
635944246214153415-Stingerlaunchmml.jpg


(Photo: Samuel King Jr./US Air Force)

WASHINGTON — The US Army announced that it fired a Stinger missile from its self-built Multi-Mission Launcher on Wednesday at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida.

The missile test was part of a demonstration of the service’s new ground-based Indirect Fire Protection Capability Increment 2-Intercept (IFPC Inc 2-I) system to defeat unmanned aircraft systems, cruise missiles, rockets, artillery and mortars.

IFPC Inc 2-I will also use the Sentinel radar and the Integrated Air and Missile Defense Battle Command System (IBCS) for its command and control which will reach initial operational capability in fiscal 2019.

Stingers were developed as a man-portable air defense infrared homing surface-to-air missile, but has been “adapted to fire from a wide variety of ground vehicles,” the Army said in a statement released Thursday.

The MML is also able to fire Raytheon's AIM-9X Sidewinder missiles and Lockheed Martin's Longbow Hellfire missiles.

Other types of missiles will be tested at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, as part of an IFPC Inc 2-I engineering demonstration “in the coming weeks,” the Army said.

There are two prototypes of the MML which represent the first development of a major program by the government industrial base in more than 30 years, according to the statement.

The Army spent $119 million to build the prototypes, which includes owning the technical data rights. The cost of developing the system outside of the Army would have been about three times as much, according to information obtained during a tour with the acting Army secretary last week of the Aviation & Missile Research and Engineering Development Command (AMRDEC) at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, where one of the MMLs was on display.

The IFPC Inc 2-I is a joint effort between AMRDEC and the Army’s Program Executive Office for Missiles and Space’s Cruise Missile Defense Systems (CMDS) project office.

The Army plans to build six more MMLs in the engineering and manufacturing development phase at Letterkenny Army Depot.
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
 

TerraN_EmpirE

Tyrant King
There is a already some form of co production arrangement with Israel of the Iron Dome. The US should not spend development funds and time to work on this program and just get the Iron Dome. My 2 cents.
Iron Dome has been offered for Forward bases. However every Iron Dome system I have seen is more or less fixed, which makes sense as the Israelis have a good idea where they are getting there incoming fire from by Contrast the US Army wants to be mobile, and this system is intended to replace the Avenger missile system which are built on the back of Humvees. The MML would be scaled for future L-ATV chassis and the FMTV series ( on Which HIMARS is built) as seen in the first story. Additionally Lockheed is working on a new missile for it.
Lockheed Martin Mini-Missile Takes Flight in New Demonstration
Lockheed Martin10 hours ago


WHITE SANDS MISSILE RANGE, N.M., April 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- A Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT]-built Miniature Hit-to-Kill (MHTK) interceptor was successfully launched from a Multi-Mission Launcher (MML) in an engineering demonstration on April 4 at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico.

The launch demonstrated the agility and aerodynamic capability of the MHTK missile, which is designed to defeat rocket, artillery and mortar (RAM) targets at ranges greatly exceeding those of current and interim systems. Today's launch advances the program, increasing the level of MHTK integration maturity with the MML.

"Today's global security environment demands agile, close-range solutions that protect soldiers and citizens from enemy rockets, artillery and mortars," said Hal Stuart, Lockheed Martin's MHTK Program Manager. "This test is a critical milestone demonstrating the interceptor's maturity, and we look forward to continuing to build on this success using key data gathered from today's launch."

The MHTK interceptor was designed to be small in size while retaining the range, lethality and reliability of other Hit-to-Kill interceptors. MHTK is just over two feet (61 cm) in length and weighs five pounds (2.2 kg) at launch. The compact footprint of the MHTK allows multiple rounds to be packaged in a single MML tube.

The MML is a key component of the Army's Indirect Fire Protection Capability Increment 2 – Intercept program. The program is designed to provide Army forces protection from cruise missiles, unmanned aircraft systems and RAM threats. The MML is designed to carry and launch a variety of missiles from a single launcher.

The MHTK uses
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
, which destroys threats through kinetic energy in body-to-body contact. Hit-to-Kill technology removes the risk of collateral damage seen in traditional blast-fragmentation interceptors. The MHTK interceptor complements other Lockheed Martin Hit-to-Kill missile interceptors by delivering close range lethality with proven success for a true layered defense.
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
 
is it that bad, or just an attempt to get more money?
Budget cuts are forcing the Army to lose its competitive edge
The Army is being forced to sacrifice modernization in favor of readiness even as America’s enemies become increasingly capable, senior leaders testified Tuesday on Capitol Hill.

“Our competitive advantage we’ve continually banked on is decreasing, [and] the Army risks losing its qualitative overmatch in future conflicts,” said Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, director of the Army Capabilities Integration Center. “With the 74 percent decrease in Army modernization total obligation authority since 2008, the risk to mission and soldiers is increasing.”

This risk is compounded by the growing demand for land forces around the world, McMaster told the Senate Armed Services Committee’s
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
.

“We’re having a harder and harder time for the small force to keep pace with the demand,” he said.

He added that the Army is “behind in modernization against current and future threats,” and “we have no current major ground combat vehicle in development,” which is why the Army’s Abrams tanks and Bradley Fighting Vehicles likely will remain in the Army’s inventory for the next 50 to 70 years, even after they’re obsolete.

Another critical area where the Army is lagging is cyber and electronic warfare, McMaster said, citing the ongoing conflict in Ukraine as a “real wake up call.”

The Army’s fiscal 2017 budget request prioritizes readiness and assumes risks in modernization, said Lt. Gen. Michael Williamson, the military deputy in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology.

“Due to resource constraints, we simply cannot modernize the entire force with the most modern equipment,” he said. “Therefore, we must do so selectively.”

The service also is “continually modifying equipment to extend its service life,” including with the UH-60 Black Hawk, AH-64 Apache and CH-47 helicopters, and the M109 Paladin, Williamson said.

“We cannot put our soldiers at risk without the right equipment at the right time in the right place to accomplish their mission,” he said.

To mitigate many of these challenges, the Army needs “long-term, sustained and predictable funding,” said Lt. Gen. Joseph Anderson, the deputy chief of staff for operations (G-3).

“We assume risk by reducing end-strength, delaying modernization,” he said. “These tradeoffs mortgage our future readiness.”

Balancing end-strength, readiness and modernization is a “fundamental issue” for the Army, said Lt. Gen. John Murray, deputy chief of staff for Army programs (G-8).

“It’s a balancing act, and I’m more concerned about the cumulative risk than I am with one budget,” he said.

When asked about the size of the Army — the active Army is slated in 2018 to reach an end-strength of 450,000, down from a wartime high of 570,000; and the overall total Army is supposed to number 980,000 — the generals all agreed that any move by Congress to stop the drawdown must be accompanied by the appropriate funding.

Without the right funding, “it could be disastrous,” McMaster said, adding that it typically costs about $1 billion for every 10,000 soldiers.

Such a move would force the Army to choose between properly training and equipping its soldiers with slowing down modernization even further, Murray said.

“If you increase the number of soldiers without an increase in the top line, we will ensure the readiness of our soldiers, so modernization will take another hit,” he said. “It would slow down production to the minimum sustainment rate and further decrement [military construction]. It makes the problem we have right now even worse.”

It also is much easier to retain a capability than have to rebuild it, McMaster said.

When the Army grew its brigade combat teams during the height of the war, it was “a 31-month ordeal” to build an armored brigade combat team from scratch, Murray said.

The Army must be able to maintain ready land forces that can deploy rapidly and transition quickly into conducting operations, McMaster said.

“These land forces have to have mobility, they have to have protection, they have to have lethality,” he said. “A lot of times you’ll hear the term ‘light and nimble.’ Well,
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
is light and nimble, and we don’t send him to go do harm to somebody.”
source:
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
 
Top