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Russian fighter jets overflew a U.S. Navy destroyer in the

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more than 30 times earlier this week, with one pass at 30 feet from the ship causing a wake in the waters nearby, a U.S. Defense Department official said today.

The fighters ignored repeated communications from the American ship, and the ship's captain has labeled the Russian overflights as "unsafe and unprofessional," the official said.

On Monday and Tuesday, pairs of Russian SU-24 fighters overflew the destroyer USS Donald Cook at close range while it was in international waters in the Baltic Sea, 70 nautical miles off of Kaliningrad, Russia, a U.S. Defense official confirmed.

On Monday, the destroyer was conducting flight operations with a Polish military helicopter that was conducting landing operations on the ship, the official said.

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bd popeye said:

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Raytheon Co., the world’s largest missile-maker, has received a $1 billion contract from the U.S. Navy to develop new jammers for

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aircraft.

The agreement calls for the Waltham, Massachusetts-based company to supply the sea service with 15 Next Generation Jammer, or NGJ, pods, according to

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released on Wednesday evening.

The new tactical jammer is designed to replace the decades-old ALQ-99 system that currently exists on the electronic attack aircraft made by Boeing Co. Raytheon was selected for the program in 2013.

On its website, Raytheon says the electronic attack and jamming technology can be used on both traditional manned aircraft as well as drones.

“Built with a combination of high-powered, agile beam-jamming techniques, and cutting-edge solid-state electronics, our NGJ systems will meet the U.S. Navy’s current mission needs while providing a cost-effective open systems architecture for future upgrades,” the site states. “The proven expertise we bring to the NGJ effort will yield a low-risk, highly reliable baseline solution with opportunities for growth on additional manned and unmanned platforms.”

Under the terms of the agreement, Raytheon will also build 14 so-called aero-mechnical test pods, “which will be used to verify aircraft flying qualities and pod safe separation from the host aircraft; provide equipment needed for system integration laboratories; and mature manufacturing processes,” the announcement states.

The work, almost half of which will take place at the company’s facilities in El Segundo, California, is expected to be complete in 2020.

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Jura said:

now I briefly looked at Russian sources, there're (American) pictures, videos at

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and opinions in the discussion there are let's say mixed, some people brought up

1968 incident (their point was how dangerous this activity is), many other presented nationalistic bragging (as you might imagine) and so on and so forth

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Brumby said:

I saw an interview in which an ex pilot commented that the distance involved would be considered dangerous. I think it was also stated that the plane flew a simulated attack profile and such a maneuver and intention could only be known after the fact.

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H&K confirms: This is the Army's new and improved sniper rifle

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, Army Times4:33 p.m. EDT April 8, 2016

Heckler & Koch has confirmed that a modified version of its G28 rifle has won the Army's Compact Semi-Automatic Sniper System contract.

The gun will replace the M110 made by Knight's Armament as a culmination of the Army's desire for a shorter, lighter rifle that didn't sacrifice accuracy or performance. A press release from Heckler & Koch said the G28 is a light-weight variant of the 7.62 mm gas-powered G28 in use by the German Army, adjusted to fit the U.S. Army's requirements.

“The HK CSASS rifle is a substantial upgrade over the Army’s current sniper rifles, enhancing accuracy and reliability while providing for a handier, more compact arm,” Heckler & Koch USA president Wayne Weber said.

The company did not immediately respond to requests for more details regarding the new rifle and it's specific variations from the G28. Specs on the company's website say the commercial version has a minimum length of 96.5 cm (about 38 inches) and weight of 5.8 kg (12.7 lbs). That makes it nearly 6 cm (2.5 inches) shorter and 1.3 kg (3 lbs) lighter than the

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(unloaded and without a suppressor).

The contract to produce up to 3,643 rifles will be worth up to $44.5 million, or a bit more than $12,000 per rifle. The company will also provide spare parts and support for the Army. The Army will make a minimum purchase of 30 rifles for quality assurance testing.

Heckler & Koch confirmed that this modified version of it's G28 rifle won the Army's new sniper rifle contract. (Photo: Heckler & Koch)


Army public affairs at the Pentagon and a spokesman for Program Executive Office Soldier - Soldier Weapons did not immediately provide comment.

Knight's Armament Company released a statement that congratulated the winner of the CSASS contract.

"The Compact Semi-Automatic Sniper System (CSASS) competition was driven by evolving requirements pioneered by KAC products in use by today’s warfighter. Government competition drives industry innovation. Industry’s common goal is getting the best product to the warfighter as quickly as possible," the release said.

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Humvee Replacement Delayed for Army and Marine Corps

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, Defense News10:23 p.m. EDT April 13, 2016

WASHINGTON — The Joint Light Tactical Vehicle won’t reach initial operational capability on time, officials from both the US Army and Marine Corps are saying.

The delays are due mainly to the disruption in executing the program when Lockheed Martin filed a protest of the Army’s decision to award Oshkosh Defense a contract to build the Humvee replacement. Oshkosh beat out Humvee-maker AM General and Lockheed for the $6.7 billion low-rate initial production contract award to build 16,901 vehicles.

The JLTV program was finally able to move ahead in December after work stopped on the program for 98 days during the protest period. Lockheed then filed a lawsuit in the US Court of Federal Claims because it claimed newly supplied Army information that emerged toward the end of the GAO’s protest process was enough to move the protest to court. Oshkosh did not have to stop work while the lawsuit played out in court. Lockheed dropped its lawsuit in February.

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The Army is anticipating a six-month delay in reaching initial operational capability. The service originally expected to reach IOC in mid 2019 but expects to now reach that milestone in late 2019, Army spokesman Michael Clow told Defense News.

The Marine Corps IOC will be delayed by a year, Thomas Dee, the deputy assistant secretary of Naval Expeditionary Programs and Logistics Management, said Wednesday at a Senate Armed Services Seapower Subcommittee hearing. The original Marine Corps IOC was expected in the fourth quarter for fiscal 2018 and is now expected in the first quarter of fiscal 2020.

Both delays are significantly longer than the length of a protest period, but the Marine Corps and the Army explained that due to those delays testing schedules also had to be shifted.

“A 90-day delay grew into about six- or an eight-month delay just because of the difficulty of rescheduling a test phase that we were going to do, which then impacts the decision date for the full-rate production decision; which, in turn, puts our funding out of phase for the JLTV program ... which then allowed us to take a look at the time difference between the completion of testing and that whole rate production decision, and it ended up stretching out IOC about a year,” Dee explained.

"The program's schedule is carefully sequenced to accomplish necessary testing and logistics development activities prior to conducting Multi-Service Operational Testing and Evaluation (MOT&E)," Clow said. The MOT&E itself was originally scheduled in July and was moved to February 2017 because Marines and ranges would not be available in the November timeframe due to holidays and leave periods.

The new schedule allows time for the Marine Corps to conduct its fielding decision review; allows for the retrofit of low-rate initial production vehicles to reflect changes resulting from operational test events; and allows for fielding activities that include “swap and installation” of government furnished equipment from fielded units, Manny Pacheco, service spokesman for the program executive office land systems, said.

Despite the delay in IOC, the Army "remains on a remarkable path to deliver all of its anticipated vehicles to Soldiers and Marines roughly five years earlier than previously anticipated and at a significantly reduced cost than previously planned," Clow noted.

Scott Davis, the program executive officer for CS&CSS, broke it down for reporters at the Association of the US Army’s Global Force Symposium last month.

Anticipated savings within the JLTV program could allow the Army to field it earlier and quicker, he explained. Those savings are a result of a savvy acquisition strategy.

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“We believe we are going to save between 10 and 15 percent from our budgeted amount on the acquisition of JLTV,” Davis said.

The Army then decided to take “any resources that were available from that and reapply it to the program to help move it forward,” he added. “So we expect if that happens that instead of finishing fielding in the early 2040 timeframe, will be in the mid-2030s because we will be able to apply those savings to the vehicle and build them that much faster and it ends up saving about a net of five years,” Davis explained.

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The acquisition cost estimate of the JLTVprogram has dropped by nearly $6 billion, according to a Pentagon Selected Acquisition Report (SAR) released last month.

The program cost is down by over 19 percent from $30.6 billion to $24.7 billion due to “revised estimates” of the unit cost of vehicles and kits, the SAR reads. Breaking that down, the lower cost estimate is based on $3.7 billion in realized savings, $1.3 billion in adjustments due to a stretched out procurement and $550 million due to a changed methodology in estimating technical data package costs, among a few other factors.

Jeff Schogol, Marine Corps Times staff writer, contributed to this report.

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FORBIN said:

Scandalous behavior !!! Black Sea is not theirs.
There are issues they seek incident.

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What the hell are americans doing in the baltic sea near Russia in the first place? How would americans react if russians put their ships near california, just on the border between us water and international waters? Wouldn't be so happy even though russians wouldn't be breaking any law, huh? Fucking hypocrites. Stop provoking Russia and then when they react in a peaceful way, you try to accuse them of being the aggressors. YOU'RE the ones who are half way around the world poking around someone elses backyard, it's not the other way around. You're the ones who killed 20 MILLION people in over 37 countries from 1950. until today, and all those deaths were a result of your direct aggression and terrorism, not a single case in which USA acted in a defensive manner. Simply put, USA is the no.1 terrorist in the world, that is clear to everyone who is not an imbecile or isn't completely brainwashed by the media. We've had enough of your shit. Pack up and go home.

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Jura said:

are you sure? now I noticed
Lockheed Martin Mini-Missile Takes Flight in New Demonstration

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plans to flight test an improved version of its Miniature Hit-To-Kill (MHTK) missile in July as it readies the weapon for an expected U.S. Army competition for a counter rocket, artillery and mortar (C-RAM) interceptor.

The MHTK is one of several different missiles fired from the Army-developed Multi-Mission Launcher (MML) during tests at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, in March-April. The MML is being developed for the Army’s Indirect Fire Protection Capability Increment 2 – Intercept (IFPC2-I) program.

The MHTK has been developed under the Army’s Extended Area Protection and Survivability (EAPS) science and technology program. The EAPS effort will end with the July test flight of an MHTK redesigned to increase agility, says Chris Murphy, business development lead for air and missile defense.

MHTK is just 40mm in diameter, less than 3 ft. long and weighs about 5 lb. The improved missile is about 1 in. longer and has eight tail fins – an extra set of four mounted slightly forward of, and clocked through 45 deg. relative to, the original set of four. This increases agility by 20-30% to meet anticipated threats, Murphy says.

The Army is system integrator for IFPC2-I and is developing the MML to work with existing missiles, sensors and command-and-control systems within its Integrated Air and Missile Defense architecture. The Block 1 system will use the existing Sentinel radar, and

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Block 2 as the baseline interceptor, to provide a point defense capability against cruise missiles and unmanned aircraft.

The engineering demonstration at White Sands sets the stage to begin engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) of the Block 1 system, including the MML. EMD is scheduled to begin in third quarter fiscal 2016, with production and deployment planned to begin in fourth quarter fiscal 2018, Army documents say.

Mounted on a tactical truck, the MML is designed to provide a 360-deg. capability using any of a range of missiles, and tests at White Sands have included launches of the AIM-9X, FIM-92 Stinger, AGM-114 Hellfire and the MHTK. On March 29, an AIM-9X engaged and destroyed an unmanned aircraft, followed on April 1 with the shootdown of a fast-moving cruise missile target, the Army says.

The MHTK was fired on April 4. Funded by Lockheed, this was the third launch from the MML, Murphy says, and was a risk-reduction shot for the controlled test vehicle flight of the updated missile in July. The MML will not be used for this flight, which is planned to demonstrate the increased agility and close out the work under the EAPS program, he says.

The July test will take the technology readiness level (TRL) of all the components of the MHTK to a “very, very mature TRL or a mature TRL 6,” Murphy says. TRL 6 is the usual requirement for entry into EMD. But Lockheed plans additional tests on company funding to prepare for the expected competition to develop a C-RAM interceptor in the 2019-20 time frame.

A flight planned for November at White Sands will attempt an intercept against a RAM target and will be a repeat of a test in 2015 “that met most of the criteria for success, but did not have an intercept,” he says. This will be followed by a seeker characterization flight in 2017 and another intercept test in 2018.

Murphy says a number of seekers can be used with the MHTK, depending on the environment and including semi-active laser or an imaging sensor. EAPS focused on using a target illuminator and semi-active radar guidance. But in the final part of the program, Lockheed has worked on an active radar seeker, which Murphy expects to fly on the 2017 test unless Army thinking changes.

Because of the MHTK’s small size, Lockheed sees it as having the flexibility for application to a wide range of platforms. “We are talking to Army aviation about air launch. As we do that, we are broadening our customer engagement. We’ve talked a little bit to the Navy, in concept terms,” Murphy says. “Some targets need a bigger bang, but we have options for that too.”

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