US Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

now I read
Lockheed Martin Advocates Accelerating Aegis, SPY-1 Upgrades
Lockheed Martin would like to accelerate both its Aegis cruiser and destroyer modernization efforts and its AN/SPY-1 radar refurbishment program, in the hope of closing a “capability capacity gap” the surface navy faces, the company’s director of Aegis U.S. Navy Programs said Monday.

Jim Sheridan told reporters that “the Navy faces a significant integrated air and missile defense capability capacity gap” – and solving that gap doesn’t just mean more ships, but more ships with the right combat capabilities onboard. He said he believes a solution to this problem is to accelerate modernization efforts on cruisers and various flights of the Arleigh Burke-class destroyers.

“There’s talk about increasing the size of the fleet, and that’s great, we’ll see where that actually goes,” he said.
“But it’s not just numbers, it’s the numbers of ships with the right capability. So I believe we’re really facing a capability capacity gap. How is it that we can transition more of these integrated air and missile defense-capable ships, be it destroyers or cruisers, be it through modernization or new construction; how can we get more of those ships out there?”

Aegis Combat System modernizations began in 2009 for guided-missile cruisers and in 2010 for guided-missile destroyer, he said, and “I’d like to see the pace of the modernizations pick up a little bit.” The Navy had planned to modernize all 62 in-service Flight I, II and IIA destroyers but
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and canceled five Flight IIA upgrades altogether due to budget constraints. Cruiser modernization efforts were also disrupted due to spending caps; the Navy wanted to save money by laying up 11 of its 22 cruisers and modernizing them down the road, whereas Congress has pushed a plan that would force two ship modernizations a year.

Sheridan said Lockheed Martin, its vendors and the repair shipyards have the capacity to increase modernization rates for the two ship classes.

“I think if you were to ask just about anybody, if the resources were there could you increase production rate? Yeah, absolutely,” he said.
“I think if you went to the modernization shipyards, could you deal with more ships? Absolutely. Could (Lockheed Martin’s facility in) Moorestown deal with increased production to support more ships? Yeah, absolutely. Our head of production in Moorestown always reminds me that back in the day he was building for two cruisers per year and three destroyers per year, so that’s five sets (of Aegis Combat System equipment), so there’s no reason to believe that given the right resources” those parties couldn’t increase their production rates again.

In another effort to bring more capability to 21 large surface combatants, Lockheed Martin is upgrading the SPY-1 air search radar on the Navy’s Flight I and II Arleigh Burke-class destroyers. That refurbishment effort involves adding a low-noise amplifier to the existing antenna, and marrying that equipment to the Aegis Baseline 5.4 Integrated Air and Missile Defense combat system software.

The refurbishment effort adds a “significant integrated air and missile defense improvement in an affordable near-term path to improve the reliability, maintainability as well as the capability of those platforms,” Sheridan said.
“I believe we should accelerate the combined [U.S. Navy]/Missile Defense Agency SPY refurbishment program of record to upgrade the sensor and combat system performance of several of our Flight I and Flight II destroyers through the installation of SPY-1 low-noise amplifiers and … Baseline 5.4. This combination would yield integrated air and missile defense capability and dramatic improvements to every applicable performance metric.”

“I’m suggesting it should be accelerated,” he made clear.

Additionally, Sheridan said he hoped the Navy would consider an additional upgrade to its Flight IIA DDGs, swapping the current radars to a solid state SPY-1 radar that was developed for the MDA’s Long Range Discrimination Radar.

“We should establish the Navy requirement or program of record to install solid state SPY-1 radars to select Flight IIA destroyers,” he said, noting as many as 36 could be upgraded.
“These ships comprise the core of the surface fleet deep into the 2040s, and this material radar upgrade is essential to the current and future relevance versus complex and developing threats.”

The Navy already plans to put a solid state radar, the Raytheon-built SPY-6 Air and Missile Defense Radar, on its Flight III DDGs, and Sheridan said the solid state SPY-1 addition would have the potential to touch the largest number of ships and would bring “pretty significant” capability increases to each hull that received the new radar. He added that the solid state SPY-1 radar upgrade – which would require replacing the antenna and installing a multi-mission signal processor on the back end – would use the same subassembly and therefore leverage the same logistics as the MDA’s LRDR.
source is USNI News
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the first time I've seen this type of stuff;
launching (if this is the word here LOL!):
9Dmze.jpg

these things like running around:
EjhDV.jpg
etc.:
captioned "Published on Jan 9, 2017
In one of the most significant tests of autonomous systems under development by the Department of Defense, the Strategic Capabilities Office, partnering with Naval Air Systems Command, successfully demonstrated one of the world’s largest micro-drone swarms at China Lake, California. The test, conducted in October 2016 ..." etc.
 
the first time I've seen this type of stuff;
launching (if this is the word here LOL!):
9Dmze.jpg

these things like running around:
EjhDV.jpg
etc.:
captioned "Published on Jan 9, 2017
In one of the most significant tests of autonomous systems under development by the Department of Defense, the Strategic Capabilities Office, partnering with Naval Air Systems Command, successfully demonstrated one of the world’s largest micro-drone swarms at China Lake, California. The test, conducted in October 2016 ..." etc.
related:
Pentagon Launches 103 Unit Drone Swarm
The Pentagon has successfully launched a swarm of over 100 drones operating together through artificial intelligence, the largest such effort in DoD history and a major step forward for the department’s capabilities.

The test, completed in October but only revealed by the Pentagon this week, involved 103 of the small Perdix drones, created by the Strategic Capability Office (SCO), which made autonomous decisions on how best to execute a series of objectives.

During an October 27 speech, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter hinted at “a large step forward” in autonomous swarming capabilities. At the time, Carter and SCO head William Roper declined to go into further detail, but this appears this test is what they were discussing.

The Perdix is an unmanned system, roughly the length of a large hand, which comes with two sets of wings, a small battery pack, and a built-in camera. It’s a simple design that originated in 2011 with MIT’s Lincoln Lab and was later picked up by the SCO for experimentation. The drone is packed into a small box which can be ejected from the flare dispenser on a fighter jet, an important solution because it means the systems can be mounted on existing planes with ease.

Upon launch, the box protects the Perdix from the first brush with the elements and gives it time to get far enough away from the jet to safely deploy. The drone then launches from the protective casing, fully boots up, and begins searching for and connecting to other Perdix systems – creating a swarm of small unmanned systems which can feed information back to the user.

In this test, the drones were launched mid-air by a trio of F/A-18 Super Hornet aircraft, then formed up and autonomously executed a series of maneuvers required by the operators. The Perdix systems connected with each other and formed the swarm on its own, without need of micromanagement from operators. The swarm could also react to reform a pattern or complete a mission even if some of the systems died, meaning that one Perdix drone failing would not cause the others to abort mission.

The test was captured by CBS’ 60 Minutes program, and the Pentagon also released its own video of the event, showing the swarming patterns and the disturbing buzzing noise that comes from being the target of the ISR systems.

The idea of swarming, autonomous systems is not a new one, and the DoD has a number of prototyping programs looking into both aerial and naval swarming options. But this test seems to be the most far-reaching example of how the technology can actually work today – and there are hints the Pentagon will look to fast-track moving the technology from demonstration to field use.

Notably, a DoD factsheet about the test notes that SCO is working with the Defense Industrial Unit‐Experimental (DIUx), the Pentagon office charged with outreach to the commercial tech community, to find companies that can produce 1,000 Perdix units before the end of the year.
source is DefenseNews
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LRASM manufacturer :) Lockheed Martin Wants to Put Missile Launchers on Amphibious Ships
As the Navy beats the drum on its concept of distributed lethality on the seas, contractor Lockheed Martin Corp. has a plan to put elements of its missile defense system on a new class of ship. Talking to reporters Monday ahead of the start of the Surface Navy Association annual symposium, Jim Sheridan, director of Aegis programs at Lockheed, said the company was exploring ways to put a missile launch system and elements of its Aegis missile defense software on the Navy’s San Antonio-class amphibious transport docks.

“The LPD-17, or the San Antonio class, was designed with space and weight for the Mark 41 vertical launching system,” Sheridan said. “So you think of taking a Mark 41 vertical launching system, along with some of the capabilities that are inherent in the [Aegis] common-source library and transitioning that to that class, that’s where you can really exploit [distributed lethality].”

The MK 41 VLS is an eight-cell module designed to accommodate a wide variety of missiles. It’s currently in use by the Navy’s fleet of cruisers and destroyers, which are equipped with the Aegis system.

San Antonio-class amphibs are primarily used as platforms to transport Marines, sailors and equipment. This year, Marine leaders have begun to speak publicly about their interest in using the available space aboard the ships to house a vertical launch system.

At a U.S. Naval Institute conference in December, Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Robert
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.

“There’s a VLS cell on every LPD; we just don’t put any missiles on there,” he said. “Those forces are not just out there doing amphib stuff, but they’re a part of doing maritime domain operations, shaping the environment, fighting the naval campaign, along with the carriers, service action groups, submarines, maritime aircraft.”

With the 12th of the San Antonio-class ships, the Fort Lauderdale, to be under construction soon, and contract competition coming up this year on the non-Aegis ship self defense system currently in use on amphibious ships, Sheridan said the idea was ripe for exploration.

“One great tagline I saw in the back of the document here is if it floats, it fights,” Sheridan said, referring to Navy Surface Force Commander Vice Adm. Thomas Rowden’s new Surface Force Strategy document, published this week. “That’s an opportunity we can do.”
source:
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FORBIN

Lieutenant General
Registered Member
He left with 10, 6 others joins after a Sqn of 16 as for AV-8B after some others F-35B Sqns with 10.
From long time always one F-18 Sqn to Iwakuni with EA-6Bs in general.

VMFA-121 departs for relocation to Japan

Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 121, an F-35B squadron with 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, departed Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Arizona, transferring to Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan, Jan. 9, 2017.


The first location to receive the Marine Corps' F-35B, as part of its worldwide deployment capability, is Iwakuni, Japan.

In November 2012, the Marine Corps announced that after a century of Marine Corps aviation, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing would introduce its first F-35B Lightning II squadron. The F-35B was developed to replace the Marine Corps’ F/A-18 Hornet, AV-8B Harrier and EA- 6B Prowler. The Short Take-off Vertical Landing aircraft is a true force multiplier. The unique combination of stealth, cutting-edge radar and sensor technology, and electronic warfare systems bring all of the access and lethality capabilities of a fifth-generation fighter, a modern bomber, and an adverse-weather, all-threat environment air support platform.

Nov. 20, 2012 VMFA-121, formerly a 3rd MAW F/A-18 Hornet squadron, was re-designated as the Corps’ first operational F-35 squadron, VMFA-121. The Commandant of the Marine Corps publicly declared VMFA-121 initial operating capability on July 31, 2015, following a five-day operational readiness inspection. Since IOC, the squadron has continued to fly sorties and employ ordnance as part of their normal training cycle.

In December 2015, VMFA-121 employed its F-35Bs in support of Exercise Steel Knight. The exercise is a combined-arms live-fire exercise which integrates capabilities of air and ground combat elements to complete a wide range of military operations in an austere environment to prepare the 1st Marine Division for deployment as the ground combat element of a Marine Air-Ground Task Force. The F-35B preformed exceedingly well during the exercise.

In October 2016, a contingent of Marine Corps F-35B’s, pilots and maintainers participated in Developmental Test III and the Lightning Carrier Proof of Concept Demonstration aboard the USS America. The final test period ensured the plane could operate in the most extreme at-sea conditions, with a range of weapons loadouts and with the newest software variant. Data and lessons learned laid the groundwork for developing the concepts of operations for F-35B deployments aboard U.S. Navy amphibious carriers, the first two of which will take place in 2018.

The transition of VMFA-121 from MCAS Yuma to MCAS Iwakuni marks a significant milestone in the F-35B program as the Marine Corps continues to lead the way in the advancement of stealth fighter attack aircraft.

B-roll and a photo gallery of VMFA-121 departing MCAS Yuma and en route to Japan can be downloaded at the links below.

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FORBIN

Lieutenant General
Registered Member
Yet recently arrived in Europe first vehicles from 3rd Armored Brigade, 4th Infantry Division especialy M-109
https://www.sinodefenceforum.com/us-military-pictures-videos.t1975/page-173#post-433309

Now all OH-58D Sqns have do transition on AH-64, end 2016 again 50 OH-58A/C/D in inventory but soon all retired.


Atlantic Resolve: 84 US helicopters reinforce in Eastern Europe

In an article of December 19 (read here), I reported that an aviation brigade would reinforce the 3rd ABCT of the 4th American DI in deployment in Eastern Europe, with its 87 Abrams, 144 Bradley , 18 Paladin and 419 HMMWV.
This aviation brigade, the 10th Combat Aviation Brigade, comes from the 10th Mountain Division. This Fort Drum-based unit has 12 CH-47 (Chinook), 24 AH-64 (Apache), 30 OH-58 (Kiowa) and 50 UH-60 (Blackhawk).
In Europe, it will deploy 10 Chinook and 50 Blackhawk, as well as 1800 soldiers. The unit's headquarters will be located in Illesheim, Germany, with detachments in Latvia, Romania and Poland.
An aviation battalion from Fort Bliss, Texas, will be attached to the 10th Combat Aviation Brigade. In Europe, this battalion from the 1st Armored Division will deploy 24 Apache, with 400 soldiers. They will relieve their comrades of the 3rd Battalion, the 501st Aviation Regiment deployed with 36 Blackhawk (read here).

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FORBIN

Lieutenant General
Registered Member
Navy Builds New Ship-to-Shore Amphibious
The Navy has built its first new, high-tech ship-to-shore connectors for amphibious operations designed to transport large numbers of Marines, equipment and weapons to shore from beyond-the-horizon, senior Navy officials said.
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sounds like real life:
Navy to Trump: We Need Maintenance Funded Before New Ships
The message Navy leaders are sending to President-elect Donald Trump’s team is: We need money to keep the current 274 ships in the fleet maintained and modernized first and then give us the money to buy more ships.

Speaking to the press at the Surface Navy Association meeting Tuesday in Crystal City, Va., Vice Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Bill Moran said the transition team “has really been open-minded” and asked probing questions about the service’s plans for the coming budget deliberations understanding the department is currently operating now under a continuing resolution.

Moran said he and CNO Adm. John Richardson, have met with the team twice, but the team meets with different departments in all the services more often to gain an understanding of how the Pentagon operates.

He added Undersecretary of Defense Bob Work stressed to all the services that he wanted the transition to be as smooth as possible so the incoming administration can “decide how much they want to do” with existing budgets and projected spending.

That also means almost certainly revising projections and re-doing the budget.

Moran said the Navy is “lucky to get 90 percent” of what it needs in its readiness accounts.

In talking with the press and in his address, he said, “It is really hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel” if maintenance is continuously deferred, causing ships to be in the yards far longer in the yards than expected with costs rising commensurately.

“Deferred maintenance is insidiously taking its toll.”

Not only does this add greater risk and a growing gap between the combatant commanders’ requirements and what the service can deliver, “you can’t buy back that experience” and proficiency sailors lose when they can’t use their skills at sea.

“At some point, we have to dig ourselves out of the hole,” Moran said in his address,

One announced goal of candidate Trump was to increase the size of the Navy to 350 ships. Last month,
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.

During his address, Moran mentioned several independent studies the Navy started before the presidential campaign began and the conclusions of all were to have a fleet of that size. “We stand by that work.”

Citing the nine continuing resolutions the Pentagon has operated with at the beginning of the fiscal year, the threat of across-the-board cuts of sequestration and agreed upon budget caps, he said there is no guarantee that there will be more money to buy more ships.

If there is more money, Moran said the Navy has a plan which kinds of ships would be first to build.

As for tough questioning on Capitol Hill on acquisition or “cultural issues,” Moran said in answer to an audience question, “Politics are what they are.” It was important to recognize “there are two parties there” and “you can’t go in with an absolute position” when testifying or meeting with congressional leaders.

“Size does indeed matter. Size doesn’t really matter if it’s not whole,” he said on expanding fleet size and keeping ships and crews ready. The former chief of naval personnel stressed people matter most. “When I say people I mean sailors, Navy civilians, engineers, yard workers, academia and industry.”
source is USNI News
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Dec 16, 2016
... searching Internet, reading sales-talk
" A new missile co-developed by the United States and Japan is expected to participate in two intercepts tests later this year, Raytheon executives said Jan. 13.

The Standard Missile (SM)-3 Block 2A interceptor ..."
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... checking
SM-3 Block IIA Testing Chronology (July 7, 2016)
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"SFTM-01 (4Q, FY 2016): SCD Flight Test Standard Missile (FTM)-01. First intercept test of SM-3 Block IIA interceptor. This test was earlier scheduled for 3Q, FY 2016. Target will be a medium-range ballistic missile (MRBM – range between 1,000 and 3,000 km). The test will use Aegis BMD version 5.1 (the European Phased Adaptive Approach (EPAA) phase 3 version) with the baseline 9.C2 combat system (the “C” indicates an existing Aegis destroyer that has been upgraded to baseline 9, which enables it to conduct anti-air and anti-ballistic missile operations simultaneously). This test will also be the first flight test for MDA’s new MRBM T1/T2 target missile.
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Cancelled Test (FY 2016)?? ..."

... wondering what I missed ... OK it's still two weeks of 2016 ahead of us :)
LOL it's 2017 now so:
"In the coming months, the Navy is also planning to test the SM-3 Missile Block IIA, the service’s exo-atmospheric intercepting ballistic missile, Rear Adm. Ronald Boxall, director of Surface Warfare Division, N96, OPNAV, told an audience Tuesday at the Surface Navy Association’s 29th National Symposium."
inside US Navy Wants Multi-Use Missiles for Surface Warfare
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US Navy Surface Forces Urged To Become More Aggressive
LCSs, huh?
Monday at 9:06 PM
Q: What’s in the near future for LCS? Is that the only deployment scheduled for 2017?

A: That is correct.

Q: You don’t have another LCS deployment scheduled for 2017?

A: No, I don’t think so.

says who?! Vice Admiral Thomas S. Rowden
Commander Naval Surface Force
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in January 8, 2017 Interview: Vice Adm. Tom Rowden, Commander, US Naval Forces
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anyway
“The time is now. The future of war fighting is up to us.” With those declarations, Vice Adm. Thomas Rowden, commander of US Naval Surface Forces, on Tuesday opened the 29th annual national symposium of the Surface Navy Association, a gathering of officers and sailors from around the fleet who man cruisers, destroyers, littoral combat ships, mine ships and amphibious ships.

Rowden’s hallmark after two and half years as the Navy’s “SWO Boss” — Surface Warfare Officer Boss — is distributed lethality, an effort to install more powerful weapons on ships while expanding command and control of those weapons, and reinstate a sense of war fighting in the surface Navy. He’s directed, for example, that each ship fire at least one weapon each day at sea.

He debuted a stirring video depicting the striking power of the US Navy’s surface forces and appeared on camera at the end, declaring: “We, the US Navy, are back in the sea control game, in a big way.”

A return to the themes of sea control, once a mantra of the Cold War-era US Navy, is a major facet of Rowden’s new Surface Force Strategy. As defined in the strategy, sea control “is the capability and capacity to impose localized control of the sea when and where it is required.”

Rowden noted that sea control was a major element of the US military buildup in the 1980s that eventually wore down the Soviet Union’s resources. The concept fell out of vogue after the fall of the Soviets and the decline of their seagoing forces. But the resurgent Russian Navy, he noted, required a renewal of the previous strategy.

“The world has changed and so must we,” he told the SNA audience.

“The degree that the distributed lethality concept has found its way into every day Navy conversation is gratifying,” he said. “But everything leads to sea control.”

Among his goals for the surface force, Rowden noted the need to continue to modify over-the-horizon weapons and expand the procurement of weapons.

“We need to get back in the business of killing ships and submarines, and we need to do it at extended range,” he declared.

Not surprisingly, Rowden voiced his support for new plans to grow the Navy to 355 ships, but he cautioned that maintaining existing ships was also important. “We need to take good care of the ships we have,” he said.

Rowden set a tone not to expect open-ended funding and urged the surface warfare community to explain the value of warships. A buildup, he said, must be done in a cost-effective manner.

“We need a solid narrative to let the American people know what we intend to do with these ships,” Rowden said. “The ships need to deter aggression. They need to deny an aggressor the prospect of achieving their objectives. And we need to establish and maintain sea control.

“Everything good we do as a Navy flows from this one pursuit, and the surface forces need to pull more weight in doing it.”
source is DefenseNews
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